October:
* I turned 26, and to celebrate we went to see Back to the Future at the cinema. It was incredible.
*I got a Diana Mini camera for my birthday, which makes it surprisingly easy for me to take good photos
*The week after my birthday I made an effort to start following a vegan diet, and the rules I am playing by are: no dairy or eggs, no meat, but I'm still eating honey and wearing some leather.
*I went to see an indiepop band called "The Whatevers", and liked them a lot. The second time I went to see them, they said they needed a drummer. I'd been wanting to drum for a while so I said I would try out at their rehearsal the next week. Despite my very basic skills, and minimal time to actually practice my drumming in between drunkenly putting myself forward and trying out, they said I could stay in the band. We've now been recording and planning gigs, and you can hear us here: www.myspace.com/samepowerchords. I absolutely love playing the drums.
November:
*I planned to write a novel for NaNoWriMo but only got about 4000 words in. It started off being a fictionalised account of my October, with the plan to divert into fantasy once I had written up to speed, but I ended up writing myself into a corner and my characters (being closely modelled on those I had met the month before) seemed incapable of doing things differently to their real-life counterparts. I decided it would be unfair to write them like-for-like so gave in and focussed on the drumming and planning vegan meals.
*I got a junior drumkit from ebay, which is red, shiny, adorable and very useful. It was also only £13.
*It was really icy and cold, and one week I got a snowball thrown in my face whilst cycling, and in an unrelated incident fell off my bike on Meanwood Road. I then gave in and walked everywhere until the thaw, and ended up getting a really persistent cough and cold, and having to take time off work.
*I applied to be a volunteer at Leeds rape crisis centre SARSVL
*I carried on having driving lessons, and passed my theory and hazard perception test third time round.
December:
*I gave myself licence to be less strict with my veganism this month what with Christmas and still being ill and worn out. That sounds like a cop-out as I type, and to be honest I would probably have gotten better more quickly if I had focussed on eating well and not falling back on dairy and snacking on festive food.
*I started going to Leeds Roller Dolls Training, and am making *very* slow progress.
*I went to the Belle and Sebastian ATP and had a glorious, drama-free time. I especially enjoyed the fun-pool with rapids, the grabber machines and also the bands. The Vaselines and Edwyn Collins were my favourites.
*Set up a tumblr for my diana mini photographs: http://oh-diana.tumblr.com/
*Booked a trip to Paris in the New Year to go see the elles@centrepompidou exhibition
*I got through the selection process for SARSVL so will be starting training in the new year. To make time for this, I decided to stop volunteering at Brownies, which was surprisingly emotional, but the definitely the right decision.
*On new years eve I went out to the commonplace, twisted my ankle on the way there and then danced on it all night and walked home to Meanwood. Ended up talking more freely, and kissing more people than usual, but I suppose it was new year's eve after all.
January:
*Woke up on the 1st with a really swollen ankle, which is only just starting to feel better. Read back issues of the fantastic magazine make/shift, drank a lot of tea, watched a lot of Little House on the Prairie.
*Did all this again in the 2nd January, then went round to see friends in the evening for a vegan potluck and films with "Paris" in the title.
*Today I made some great peanut chilli, and am just waiting for the bread to rise before I bake it. I've already mended my first puncture of the year, and cheated by just putting in a new inner tube as I suspected it was a slow puncture as the bike was fine last time I rode it.
*And tomorrow I have to go back to work.
So that's an overview of what I've been doing instead of blogging. I've started keeping a paper journal again for 2011 to give me some perspective and hopefully spot patterns in my behaviour, but hopefully that's something I will do alongside maintaining this blog!
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Monday, 3 January 2011
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Adventures in Meanwood
I went to Meanwood Community Shop again today to drop off a couple of bags of clothes, and I got an armful of books and a cd for £1.25. It's pretty refreshing to find a charity shop that still prices goods affordably to make it accessible to the local community, unlike some of the larger ones that over-price. The charity the shop supports is "Leeds Community Trust", and you can read about them in the Yorkshire Evening Post here.
I then went to the Nettos and then the new Waitrose (more later) for groceries and on the way home managed to coat all my purchases in soya yoghurt after taking a detour home via Woodhouse ridge and slinging my shoulder bag over my shoulder a little too enthusiastically.
So, the items I bought today and then had to wash yoghurt off:
(My typical reading order for the guardian is as follows: Work, Money, Family, Travel, Weekend, Main Section. I then sometimes read the guide but I never read the sport, that's for the cat tray.)
So, let me tell you about the new Waitrose:
It replaced the Co-op supermarket, and they didn't just take over the existing building, they knocked it down and built a new one with multi-level access, with a conveyor belt/escalator taking you from the car park level up to the store, with an autumated voice telling you when you are about to reach the top.
It was very busy, which is probably because it's the first Saturday since it opened on Thursday. They had an impressive range of flours in the baking section, and a good range of soya milks and yoghurts. This all seems to come at a slight premium; whilst 1000 prices have been price-matched to Tesco, the rest are probably higher, and Tesco isn't always that cheap anyway. But I was able to get organic cocoa powder, which I can't usually find in Morrisons.
I have been tipped off that the end of Thursday is the best time to go to Waitrose for bargains, so I might call again then and see if there are any affordable treats to be had. That might also be a good time to check round the back as well...
I then went to the Nettos and then the new Waitrose (more later) for groceries and on the way home managed to coat all my purchases in soya yoghurt after taking a detour home via Woodhouse ridge and slinging my shoulder bag over my shoulder a little too enthusiastically.
So, the items I bought today and then had to wash yoghurt off:
- CD Album "Hook Up" by The Veronicas (which I'm really enjoying, it reminds me of the sort of pop music my ex-housemates Bob and David might have listened to in the past, slightly rocky pop music with synthesised strings, drum machines and harmonies. Good in the same way Kelly Clarkson - who has a song called "I do not hook up" - is good) and 3 nicely illustrated children's books (from the community shop)
- Box of crunchy nut cornflakes & bag of demerara sugar (from netto)
- Various baking ingredients including buckwheat flour (for waffles) and cocoa and a pot of yoghurt (from Waitrose).
- The guardian (from booze bargains, as Waitrose was over-run with guardian-buying liberals, so there were no copies left).
(My typical reading order for the guardian is as follows: Work, Money, Family, Travel, Weekend, Main Section. I then sometimes read the guide but I never read the sport, that's for the cat tray.)
So, let me tell you about the new Waitrose:
It replaced the Co-op supermarket, and they didn't just take over the existing building, they knocked it down and built a new one with multi-level access, with a conveyor belt/escalator taking you from the car park level up to the store, with an autumated voice telling you when you are about to reach the top.
It was very busy, which is probably because it's the first Saturday since it opened on Thursday. They had an impressive range of flours in the baking section, and a good range of soya milks and yoghurts. This all seems to come at a slight premium; whilst 1000 prices have been price-matched to Tesco, the rest are probably higher, and Tesco isn't always that cheap anyway. But I was able to get organic cocoa powder, which I can't usually find in Morrisons.
I have been tipped off that the end of Thursday is the best time to go to Waitrose for bargains, so I might call again then and see if there are any affordable treats to be had. That might also be a good time to check round the back as well...
Saturday, 7 August 2010
"When it gets to the part where he's breaking her heart, it can really make me cry"
I have spent the week listening to this album: Various Artists – If I Were A Carpenter, frequently moved to tears by how AMAZING it is. I stood in the sorting office this morning, with "Yesterday Once More" through my headphones and warm tears running down my cheeks. I don't think it's a case of me being weepier than usual, but more that I am feeling everything a lot more - the good and the bad, as I'm consciously trying not to bottle things up so much. Everything is now so close to the surface that it's accessible by something as simple as a really good key change in a cover of a Carpenters song.
I came across this tribute album when I was searching for Shonen Knife on spotify, as they do a cover version of "On Top of the World". I then found out that my housemate has a homemade cd-r version of the "If I were a Carpenter" tribute album, with each song preceeded by the original version, so that has been on my mp3 player pretty much on repeat for the last week (interupted only by the All Girl Summer Fun Band)
When I get into a band I like to listen to them a lot. The same songs or album again and again and again. I sometimes try and disguise it by doing so on my headphones, or waiting until I am in the house by myself, because I know that not everyone appreciates the repetition. Which was why it was so lovely to have my housemate suggest she put the Carpenters on for me last night before we went out. To live with someone who not only tolerates my listening habits, but actively encourages them, oh!
I came late to the Carpenters. I knew some of their songs from childhood, but didn't really join up the dots and realise that they were all Carpenter songs, and until now I didn't own any of their records. But then last weekend I picked up their '69-'73 singles collections on vinyl from the Meanwood Community Shop for 25p, in one of those acts of synchronicity that made me wonder, 'would the record still have been there if I hadn't suddenly developed an obsession with the Carpenters?'
Of course it would have been there. They were a massively popular band in their day, and you could probably find one of their records in most charity shops that stock vinyl if you looked. I guess I just never noticed them until now.
I came across this tribute album when I was searching for Shonen Knife on spotify, as they do a cover version of "On Top of the World". I then found out that my housemate has a homemade cd-r version of the "If I were a Carpenter" tribute album, with each song preceeded by the original version, so that has been on my mp3 player pretty much on repeat for the last week (interupted only by the All Girl Summer Fun Band)
When I get into a band I like to listen to them a lot. The same songs or album again and again and again. I sometimes try and disguise it by doing so on my headphones, or waiting until I am in the house by myself, because I know that not everyone appreciates the repetition. Which was why it was so lovely to have my housemate suggest she put the Carpenters on for me last night before we went out. To live with someone who not only tolerates my listening habits, but actively encourages them, oh!
I came late to the Carpenters. I knew some of their songs from childhood, but didn't really join up the dots and realise that they were all Carpenter songs, and until now I didn't own any of their records. But then last weekend I picked up their '69-'73 singles collections on vinyl from the Meanwood Community Shop for 25p, in one of those acts of synchronicity that made me wonder, 'would the record still have been there if I hadn't suddenly developed an obsession with the Carpenters?'
Of course it would have been there. They were a massively popular band in their day, and you could probably find one of their records in most charity shops that stock vinyl if you looked. I guess I just never noticed them until now.
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Have a cup of coffee, put a cd on...
It had to happen eventually; I am sorting through my cd collection.
I'm currently listening to a Pulp bootleg cd from a Shepherds Bush concert in 1995 to decide if it stays or goes, and the riff at the beginning of Disco 2000 is *still* one of my favourites. But do I really need bootlegs of live Pulp shows? I'm listening to this one through to see if Jarvis says anything incredibly adorable, but so far he's just been dissing horoscopes ("fucking bollocks", apparently) and talking about home furnishings. Not a patch on the banter you get on his Sunday Service on BBC radio 6. I also have a lot of Pulp CD singles, the earlier ones deserve to stay in my collection, but I don't really need the single version, plus two remixes, of Party Hard. Does anyone?!
My cd collection is very late-90's focused, as this was what I was (retroactively) into in my late teens and early twenties. Think Shine compilations cds, the Slingbacks, Pulp, Placebo, My Life Story, Lush... so it's really not representative of "the sort of music I like nowadays". I remember going mad (a slight over-reaction) when a new significant other started looking through my cd collection and making assumptions about me and my tastes accordingly. Because whilst my tastes have moved on, I've not really been buying the cds to reflect it. (I will leave you to make your own assumptions about how I have been acquiring music if not by buying it on cd. Clue: I haven't just been buying it on vinyl instead. And I keep it mostly on my computer.)
A lot of my cd collection was amassed during my university years, when I worked at a secondhand record shop and volunteered at a books & music focused charity shop. Secondhand cds were therefore cheaper than cheap for me, and so I ended up with the entire Super Furry Animals collection without really noticing (a collection which has now been whittled down to "Rings Around the World" when I realised I didn't really like them that much, if at all. I also discovered last year that I owned almost all the White Stripes cds, including a bizarre release called "Electrostripes", comprising entirely of electro covers of the White Stripes. Not that remarkable until you realise I have little more than a passing fondness for either the band or the covering genre.)
There is also a small selection of cds in my collection (misleadingly filed amongst all my others) that are not cds to be listened to, but artifacts from past relationships disguised as cds to be listened to. I'm talking about mix cds that exes made me, that I didn't really like but as I liked them at the time I can't really bring myself to throw away. I'm not going to get rid of these, but they have no place in my cd collection.
Then, even more toxic, are cds that exes copied for me which contain music I would quite like to listen to but everytime I pick them up the cute messages written on them spiral me into a mood completely different to the one I was in when I first thought "you know what, I'm in a good mood. I'd like to listen to some Tilly and the Wall". I have finally hit upon the solution of ripping all these cds to my computer and filing away the cds themselves into suitcases with other relationship detritus, as mp3s via itunes or ipod pack (slightly) less of a punch than her handwriting. Hopefully as I listen to the music in this new digital no-mans-land I can make new, happier associations than the ones I currently have.
The cds I *have* been buying since my record shop assistant days tend to be small bands, either unsigned or signed to DIY labels, like Ste McCabe, Hotpants Romance, The Lovely Eggs, Das Wanderlust that I have seen live and want to support, enthusiastically. Which seems like a reasonable compromise - if they are the only cds I buy they are probably the most deserving of my money.
My cd collection is never going to be accurate way to read my personality (and whoever came up with that suggestion probably read High Fidelity too many times) but at least after today it will only contain things I actively want to keep.
I'm currently listening to a Pulp bootleg cd from a Shepherds Bush concert in 1995 to decide if it stays or goes, and the riff at the beginning of Disco 2000 is *still* one of my favourites. But do I really need bootlegs of live Pulp shows? I'm listening to this one through to see if Jarvis says anything incredibly adorable, but so far he's just been dissing horoscopes ("fucking bollocks", apparently) and talking about home furnishings. Not a patch on the banter you get on his Sunday Service on BBC radio 6. I also have a lot of Pulp CD singles, the earlier ones deserve to stay in my collection, but I don't really need the single version, plus two remixes, of Party Hard. Does anyone?!
My cd collection is very late-90's focused, as this was what I was (retroactively) into in my late teens and early twenties. Think Shine compilations cds, the Slingbacks, Pulp, Placebo, My Life Story, Lush... so it's really not representative of "the sort of music I like nowadays". I remember going mad (a slight over-reaction) when a new significant other started looking through my cd collection and making assumptions about me and my tastes accordingly. Because whilst my tastes have moved on, I've not really been buying the cds to reflect it. (I will leave you to make your own assumptions about how I have been acquiring music if not by buying it on cd. Clue: I haven't just been buying it on vinyl instead. And I keep it mostly on my computer.)
A lot of my cd collection was amassed during my university years, when I worked at a secondhand record shop and volunteered at a books & music focused charity shop. Secondhand cds were therefore cheaper than cheap for me, and so I ended up with the entire Super Furry Animals collection without really noticing (a collection which has now been whittled down to "Rings Around the World" when I realised I didn't really like them that much, if at all. I also discovered last year that I owned almost all the White Stripes cds, including a bizarre release called "Electrostripes", comprising entirely of electro covers of the White Stripes. Not that remarkable until you realise I have little more than a passing fondness for either the band or the covering genre.)
There is also a small selection of cds in my collection (misleadingly filed amongst all my others) that are not cds to be listened to, but artifacts from past relationships disguised as cds to be listened to. I'm talking about mix cds that exes made me, that I didn't really like but as I liked them at the time I can't really bring myself to throw away. I'm not going to get rid of these, but they have no place in my cd collection.
Then, even more toxic, are cds that exes copied for me which contain music I would quite like to listen to but everytime I pick them up the cute messages written on them spiral me into a mood completely different to the one I was in when I first thought "you know what, I'm in a good mood. I'd like to listen to some Tilly and the Wall". I have finally hit upon the solution of ripping all these cds to my computer and filing away the cds themselves into suitcases with other relationship detritus, as mp3s via itunes or ipod pack (slightly) less of a punch than her handwriting. Hopefully as I listen to the music in this new digital no-mans-land I can make new, happier associations than the ones I currently have.
The cds I *have* been buying since my record shop assistant days tend to be small bands, either unsigned or signed to DIY labels, like Ste McCabe, Hotpants Romance, The Lovely Eggs, Das Wanderlust that I have seen live and want to support, enthusiastically. Which seems like a reasonable compromise - if they are the only cds I buy they are probably the most deserving of my money.
My cd collection is never going to be accurate way to read my personality (and whoever came up with that suggestion probably read High Fidelity too many times) but at least after today it will only contain things I actively want to keep.
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