Archive for August, 2008

‘ere, Charliemingles

August 30, 2008

Look at that, your own entry!

Out of gratitude for you commenting on this here blog, have this one on me. I commented on your blog twice now, but I don’t know if you’ve seen or not. ANYWAY, I’ve linked you to more dog-related shenanigans on there.
But for now…

Tell me what it’s worth

August 29, 2008

“Is it really bad that whenever I go into public toilets and they’ve got those horrible UV lights, I check my arms to see if I can find veins? They really work, I never can!”
Words from non-junkie Jill McG there! The same person who has just made my day by texting simply “I like Pulp :) x”
Once, this girl could not be converted to anything I liked music-wise, yet she recently got an 80GB iPod and told me to give her “shitloads of cds to fill it up with”. I did so, including Pulp’s Different Class and apparently, she’s loving it. That text was only bettered just one moment ago when she sent, “I like new order. Not as much as pulp. But still like :) x”
I’m so proud of her! (*sniff*)

Again, not much has happened since yesterday, I just thought I’d do some typey typey. It’s 4pm and I’m drinking gin and pepsi. An odd combination, but we have no tonic water OR diet coke. I’ve never tried gin and irn-bru, but I feel I should the next time we have some Bru in stock. By that, I mean… in the cupboard.

I ended up watching episode two and three of How Not To Live Your Life last night. Again, I’m reserving judgement until the entire series is out, but so far, I still think it’s lacking something. It has the potential to be reasonably fantastic if there weren’t so many references to balls and if that woman who plays Abi (I think she was in Hollyoaks or something, she looks shamefully familiar) loosened up a bit. She still seems a bit wooden, yet robotic. And wooden robots are a bit shit, aren’t they?

Anyway, also last night/this morning as I said goodnight to lovely Gracie after much fangirlish-squeeing about the possibility of LDN, I again chatted to the lovely Mr. Black for about an hour or so. He introduced me to a pilot he made a few years ago which is basically one of those concepts I’m very fond of: parodying dvd commentaries.
Apparently he made it about four years ago, then got told that some guy in Britain was doing a similar thing at the time. This automatically set off the “Ooh, Coincidence!” buzzer in my head and I presumed this would be Rob Brydon’s Director’s Commentary. Now don’t get me wrong, I adore Rob Brydon, in fact, I’m going to book tickets tomorrow to see him doing some stand-up in Aberdeen in March next year, but I remember Director’s Commentary. It was good, but didn’t really meet expectations. I expected it to be every bit as fantastic as Marion and Geoff had been, but was a little let down after it had been getting quite a big build-up. Hey ho, this happens with a lot of comedy shows. It didn’t make me think of Rob badly because I did enjoy it, but as I say, it paled next to his earlier programmes. I think I only saw three episodes of it, which might not entitle me to criticise fully, but I can only remember laughing out loud a couple of times. It is, however, available on dvd from play.com for £3.90, so for that price, I may very well invest in it.  
Compared to the Hayden’s pilot, I think I’ve found an easy favourite. And I’m not just saying that because Hayden Black is lovely (hello, Hayden Black’s ego, how wonderful to see you again! If you just want to lie down on this couch, we’ll begin the massage…) but it genuinely made me laugh like a nutter on numerous occasions. It’s also very silly. Silliness is something to be applauded. See: Big Train. Silliness, however, should never be confused with “wackiness” as “wacky” is possibly one of the most satanic things on this earth. If someone openly describes themself as wacky or ‘mad’, step away, they will be the most boring person you ever meet. (Or they will be trying to invite you to a hen night. “Aye, you know Sharon? She’s mad! She’s getting married next weekend…”) We don’t have time for boring people. We being me and you, we’re friends now, right? Hold me, I’m terribly lonely!

Ahem… moving on! I think I get too easily attached to people. (Maybe I should be moving on from this subject too, actually…) I saw a Russell Howard clip on youtube a while ago, where he was going on about something similar. I’ll try find it… [Lots of searching, to no avail] Basically, he was banging on about how he falls in love at least five times per train journey. I think I’m the same as soon as anyone is nice to me. It’s becoming silly. I will mention no names in case they stumble upon this site, but someone I see, almost on a daily basis, has unfortunately (for them) recently found themself on my swoon-able list. I seriously think it’s a disease, all you’d have to do is be polite to me and I’ll want to marry you! Alright, maybe not, but it’s a foolish way to live. Maybe I should just never leave the house!

Goddamn, nothing is happening today. I’m bored to hell. I’ve spent most of the day simply… existing and although that’s very jovial, it can get awfully tedious. I started this blog at about 4pm, it’s now 7pm, I’ve just kind of been putting off writing despite actually wanting to write. I’ve no idea what’s up with me today. I should just go out for a walk or something. I also keep meaning to write that thing for chortle, but I don’t really know where to start. If I’m only complaining about comedy, I feel it should at least be beautifully written so that they don’t dismiss it right away for being overly negative.

Right, I’ve had this window open for ages (Over 4 hours) and I’ve just been ignoring it for most of that time by wandering around the house and trying not to die. I hate days like today. I’ve done a few things, but nothing can be classed as productive. Tomorrow, I will do some writing. In fact, I will write both the chortle article and some musings that I can try and make into something mildly amusing. [Using 'musings' and 'amusing' in the same sentence is a bad idea.] I’m imagining an epic fail on both, but it’s nice to pretend I’m doing something worthwhile. We were gonna see Somer’s Town tomorrow, but it’s only showing at the Belmont at 9.10pm, so we’re going to see the Dark Knight again round about lunchtime. I never really enjoy Saturdays any more. I think it’s the knowledge of having work on Sunday, which is rubbish ‘cos I only work Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, so it’s hardly like I’ve got no time for anything else… What kind of fuckery is this? Mind-fuckery.

It’s now 8.30, I’m putting off posting this blog until the last possible minute. Also, in case I think of something worthwhile to say. I think this is unlikely, however. We’re trying to teach Nik how to use Facebook. How hideously modern. You know how I feel about topical issues! (I wouldn’t regard Facebook as topical actually, it’s pretty 2006…) It’s actually grown on me though. I’ve abandoned myspace pretty much, I just get bored of that social networking thing, but then I’ve discovered the delights of its spacebookier cousin. I think it’s because all profiles are private, you don’t have to put up with the degenerates or the scenesters, but also, I’ve enjoyed keeping in touch with people through it. I’ll be damned the day I start to take Bebo seriously! Sorry, Beebzbbz2kaii8.

I have no idea what’s on tv, but I can hear Vic Reeves’ voice coming from the next room. I heard there was going to be a Shooting Stars Christmas Special this year and it filled my heart with joy. Yes, it may not be like the old days when Mark Lamarr was forced into rosey-cheekness or when the crow from below/dove from above ruled supreme, but Donald Cox the Sweaty Fox and Will Self are excellent too.

This entry looks dull. I think I should throw a video or a picture in but can’t think of what. Maybe a trip through youtube favourites would help. Aww…

Good old Dev and his getting-attacked-by-monsters tendencies.

Good old Plastic and his sexual-perfomance-boasting-in-another-language tendencies.

Good old Harry Enfield, Alan Rickman, Eddie Izzard and Vic Reeves and their reworking-of-my-favourite-ever-sketch tendencies. I love Alan Rickman. I need a Rickman night. Maybe tonight. Short sentences. Or maybe I’ll just watch Die Hard and then go to bed. Sounds like a plan!

This post has absolutely no structure to it, I quite like it being mildly anarchic in comparison to other entries. Anyway, me and Gracie were on the phone for ages the other night and I read her what I’ve written so far on my life list. The first three things are all about idols I’d like to meet. Charlie Brooker, Graham Linehan and Chris Morris. So, Grace reckons Chris would be really lovely if you were to meet him, but I’ve always stood by my idea of “he’d fucking hate me!” and that I’d be really intimidated to be in the presence of such genius. Now, returning back to the whole Facebook thing, there’s a fan-page for Richard Ayoade and someone on it posted that they saw Richard and Chris in Nandos (that bit made me chuckle a bit) and spoke to them and they were absolutely lovely to him. I’ve never wanted to meet Mr Morris more!

Speaking of Gracie, we’re currently trying to figure out what font I should get my tattoo done in… It’s a tough choice! I want the word “TRASH” on the inside of my wrist. I think the font is vital, it marks the difference between a tattoo that says “TRASH” on the wrist of some wannabe socialite who uses phrases like “I’m such a slut! White trash!” like it’s a good thing and a tattoo on someone like me who just likes the word and thinks it is the best New York Dolls song. So far this is the closest to what I think I might end up getting…

But that sort of looks a bit shit. Good god, I wish I knew how to make my mind up… Suggestions welcome.

10.59pm. Sorry for forgetting to post you for so long, blog-entry. 

I’ve just read this entry back and it’s brought on a panic attack. I apologise if you’ve read all 1763 of the words that had (before I typed ‘1763′) been posted, I salute you. I also apologise an urge you to seek compensation.

An interesting proposition…

August 28, 2008

Firstly, I am royally…sad that I won’t be at Connect this year. I thought I could maybe book a bus from Aberdeen to the castle, go see Manic Street Preachers and Sparks, then leave on Friday night when all is done and dusted. Apparently, ‘cos Aberdeen’s so far away, there’s no buses back until Monday and I’ve got work on Sunday. This is an outrage.*

It wouldn’t be so bad, but Baz, Aneeka, John and Rory are all going for the weekend, so I’ll actually feel like I’m missing out more.

Ah well, I cannot change things and at least this way I’ll be saving money, which could be saved in order to go to London. Yes. That leads me neatly onto my interesting proposition.
My three lovely friends (not that only three of my friends are lovely, but these three are too) Gracie, Sarah and Jubey met Richard Ayoade last night and think the IT Crowd studio filming might take place in late September. Anyway, by the end of September I’ll have my pay from that month (plus the £100 or so I’ve not been paid yet and my overtime money), any money I get for my birthday and the money I already have. Surely, this would be enough for a wee megabus to London and back and a Travelodge. BUT I also found out that on the 24th September, David O’Doherty’s recording a stand-up show for Radio 4 in London, so a couple of days away could be… interesting.
This is a short post… Alarmingly so. I’ve not been up to much. Went out for lunch with Baz, Jill, Nadine, Ashleigh and Katie yesterday which was nice. There was much laughter at the routine that needs to be carried out at Laura’s work in the case of fire, “If there’s a fire, we’ve to set the animals free…” Aaaah, good times. I also got a new phone, which is already pissing me off no ends. It’s a nice little thing, but the buttons are annoying and it doesn’t want to let me put any of my old photos, videos or music on it. Grr… Other than that, can’t complain about much, I’ve got lots of reading material and some ranting about the state of tv comedy these days to write for chortle.co.uk. I don’t think they’ll like it though, it’s basically saying what’s been said by many in the past, that channels like BBC3 are becoming derivitive and generally terrible and I long for the days of it debuting the Boosh, Snuff Box, Nighty Night, Ideal, etc.

Over and out.

*

Think Tank

August 27, 2008

Another list post. I do apologise. I keep thinking of loads of things to say, then when it comes to actually writing it, I don’t know where to start. So, I’ll just do this…

-I’ve decided I officially hate it when people find out I’m not going to uni after all and ask that fatal question, “So what are you going to do?”
I did, for a while, say “Oh, I’m thinking of just taking a year out and just re-applying next year…” but then I’d get odd looks. Upon reflection, it’s probably as most of the people I’d say this to knew what a cop-out my last year has been, it was almost a gap year in itself… except without the sense of achievement at the end of it.
I also hate people making me feel like a tool when I open up about wanting to go to London and perhaps get into comedy writing. I’ve discussed this many a time, mainly with Gracie, about how I should ignore the negativity and focus on the whole “If you want something badly enough, you’ll get it” mantra, but I can’t help but slink into this loathesome little weed of a person when looks down their nose at my idea of a fantastic career. Especially when these people are my friends. Fortunately, these days, the past few times I’ve bravely brought up the issue with my closest friends, they’ve been very supportive. Admittedly, when me and Baz spoke about the future, it was after a few glasses of whisky and so we felt all full of love and “you go, girl!”ish, but still, it’s nice to know when your friends are on side.

-I miss Jez.

-I’ve been obsessing over Stephen Fry and Will Self again. The latter, mainly because Kerry’s reading the Book Of Dave. I started reading We Need To Talk About Kevin, but I may put it on hold and get back into TBOD while someone else is. Encouraging!

-Another mention of Goodnight Burbank and Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diary for ma brother from another mother (please god, kill me now…) Sir Hayden Black, who is excellent.

-I saw a mum swearing like a moron at her son who must have been about 5 years old today. He was just being a five year old boy and she started going on about how he’d end up getting “a fucking skelp” and how he was “irritating the fuck” out of her. Fair enough, I’d never want kids, the little odd things, and if I did, I’d remain fairly liberal and relaxed with them, I wouldn’t tell them off for swearing, but I’d be cautious, y’know? I’d tone down my language, so that they wouldn’t have an excuse to resort to it and would maybe think of better words to use to express themselves. Language is a good thing, isn’t it? It always warms my cockles (I have no idea what the fuck that means) when you see someone who really appreciates language. I think that’s why I like Stephen Fry so much. He said something at the end of QI last night along the lines of, “Yes, language is a strange one, but she is my mistress.” and I just wanted to give him a gigantic hug.

-I’ve finally made it. Someone got to my blog by searching “megabus”. I am truly the queen of them. I think roughly half of my year so far has been spent onboard megabuses.

-I’ve got a lunch and a phone-delivery tomorrow. If it wasn’t for these two very trivial things, I’d be in London for the day. I’ve got the moolah these days, I just need the time, please. Nevertheless, I’m not disappointed, tomorrow will be nice, catching up with friends I’ve not seen in ages shall be a treat.

Love to you and yours.

A Quick One While He’s Away

August 24, 2008

Just a short update, it’ll be in list form..:
-Last night we went for a meal, then decided to go crazy golfing. I got pissed off by trying to use my free voucher, only for it to be rejected. I presumed for some reason you weren’t allowed to use it on a Saturday or Sunday because these would be logical days when people would visit and companies like this hate logic. After paying, I inspected the voucher.
“Not valid Saturdays and Sundays between noon and 6pm.
Not valid on school or public holidays.”
After our game, I complained that it was neither between noon and 6pm or a school holiday. I got fobbed off with some bullshit about English holidays. My disbelieving exhalation of “But… we’re in Scotland..?” got no reply and I got told I could use it on Monday, “Yeah, but that’s not today… Ah, fuck it, forget it.” and I left. I want to write a formal complaint just to be an irritating twat. And because I was LITERALLY robbed (of£5.99coughcough) I’m enjoying writing letters and emails this week. I’ve emailed lots of places. Letters are good. Can someone write me a letter? I never get mail…

-At Keri’s at midnight I asked to steal her internet briefly. I did so to find out who won the PERRIERPERRIERif.comedyPERRIERPERRIER award. To my absolute joy, it was David O’Doherty. Huzzah!  

-I woke up early for work today where we found out there were just three of us in the whole day. STRESS! (It actually turned out alright, not too stressful.) I also got told I’d been underpaid for the last two months, so next month’s pay should be a delight!

-Trigger Happy TV is on. It’s actually the first time I’ve watched it in years and I’d forgotten how good it was. Well done, Dom Joly.

-In the past week I’ve read ‘Moab Is My Washpot’ by Stephen Fry; ‘One Red Paperclip’ by Kyle Macdonald; ‘Join Me’ by Danny Wallace and ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ by Danny Wallace. I’ve started ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’ by Lionel Shriver.

I love you, goodnight.

The Pretty Prince of Parties

August 22, 2008

I’ve had two of the most odd days in a long time. Well… yesterday wasn’t really odd, just pretty decent, but today was… stressful, but in a really hilarious way. Right, let’s go back to the start, back to the start…

I awoke at about 10am yesterday and packed a change of clothes, three books, two notebooks and my diary (note: diary, planner type diary) for Edinburgh. The Megabus was at 12.35 and I ready to pay the extortionate rate for a bus into town when the father offered me a lift. Delightful! The actual journey to Edinburgh was fine, well the hour and a half it took to get to Dundee was. The bus smelled nice. I’ve never been on a more fragrant bus… The one we changed onto was disappointing. It smelled of sandwiches. Poor show. On the plus side, I finished One Red Paperclip. It was nice. And only took about 6 hours to read.

I met up with the sister in town, we bought food and walked along the Royal Mile, playing The how-many-flyers-to-crappy-English-drama-group-productions-can-we-get-handed-to-us? Game. The conclusion; lots. I can understand why residents get so pissed off at festival time as you can barely move for bodies, but on the other hand, when else do you get to see a man leaping about with a radio attached to his head?
We then went to the Fruitmarket Gallery, the gallery/bookshop that Matthew is manager of and checked out the exhibition there. It was very interesting indeed. Various works of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, one of which was erected especially for the Fruitmarket Exhibition. I won’t go into detail, but yes, good art. I’ve not seen good art in ages, but it certainly was.

We got a bus back to their flat (they being the sister and her boyfriend’s, not Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s, although that would be awesome). While we were on it, some fat balding non-educated… I can’t say delinquent, because that implies youth, but this, fuck it, NED outside was shouting to his friend “Aye, women, they’re all the same, moan, moan, moan.” Me, the sister, a woman sitting opposite us AND the bloody bus driver each guessed that he was suppressing homosexuality badly. The bus driver honked the horn at him while mouthing “asshole” at the guy. It made us laugh. Good bus driver. You wouldn’t get that on First Bus…

So, we got to the flat, chuckled at holiday photos, then bought some tea and had a mad dash to get to the Stand. Or the Stand 3. Which, as it turned out, was similar to a function room you’d hold a child’s party in. I liked it though, a good size for a nice enough atmosphere. Now, if you’ve read my past few entries (or you’re Gracie or Selly, the only people who are brave enough to admit they read this… bilge) you’ll know that I was off to see fantastic comedian and all round lovely man, David O’Doherty do some funny-talking. We ran walked there speedily in the pissing rain and picked up tickets to the show. We got into the function room and chose some seats in the third row, enjoying listening to Jonathan Richman as we waited for the man to hit the stage. We saw the DO’D a few times over at the side and were soon listening to the longest introduction to a comedy gig I’ve ever heard. It was hilarious though. The show started with some very low energy musical whimsy and continued with… well, greatness, really. I don’t want to give too much of it away, but it was really very very funny. We all left in good moods, saying “He deserves that bloody Perrier Award!” Yes, we’re aware it’s no longer called the Perrier Award, but adapting to change can be hard sometimes. Plus, if.comedy award sounds pish.
All in all, most laughs I’ve had in a long time. There’s not much else to say. I’ll let the chortle review do it better… Go see him if you get the chance. He’ll rock your world in quite a gentle way… like a delicious cake as opposed to a bag of drugs.

We were going to walk back to the flat as we were in such a shared good mood after our hour of entertainment, but it was still pissing down and we got even more soaked by some wanker with, judging by the hugeness of his car, a very small penis splashing us with an insanely large puddle. So, we caught a cab. Arriving home, we caught the end of Nevermind the Buzzcocks with Kristen Schaal. The episode I’d been telling the sister all about earlier on in the day. Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler were on my to-see list, but alas, there was only time for the DO’D. I must message Steve Hall and apologise for not making it to see him. Hopefully he’ll come back up here soon. Maybe supporting Russell Howard again…

Anyway, I can tell this is going to be a giant entry as the wordpress wordcount is telling me that I’m already at 854 words. Go make yourself a cup of tea or something, kids, for this is the interval…

…Right, are you back? I am. Perhaps you had a nice warm drink, a nice cold drink, a nice toilet visit, a nice stretch or a nice biscuit but not a Nice biscuit. Let us never speak of them again.

Today.
Started with an early morning, but spent watching tv until about 10am, when me and Matthew headed to the book festival. Nothing really to say on that. The last time I went was 2003 and I was young and impressionable then. Now, I just criticised the lack of True Crime and Music section.

God knows how I spent the day, just walking really. I bumped into a fella on Chambers Street who was just plain lovely and in the two minutes we spoke he complimented Aberdeen, shook my hand, asked what I’d been to see and asked if I wanted any recommendations of shows to go to. He did tell me one, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called… it was at the Bedlam Theatre I think though. I’ll go research… [Gawd bless the internet, I've found out, it's called Before We Remember: http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=652]
I feel a bit bad for not going now, I probably could have too. Had I not met up with Ryan, who was actually on a Megabus to Edinburgh from Aberdeen when he phoned me at 1pm. At about 3pm, he arrived and we went for food, then I took him to the Fruitmarket and he took me to the Underbelly, where he’s been working and where I bumped into Pete Firman. The first and only comedian I saw when I was just out and about.

I left Ryan there and continued wandering. Soon, it was 4.40pm, the time I’d planned on going to Café Piccante to grab some chips to have on my way to the bus. Incidentally, it’s also the greatest chipshop in Edinburgh. On Christmas eve last year, they gave me and the sister lollipops, Piccante pens and diaries. Lovely people. (Am I overusing the word ”lovely”? Is everyone lovely? No. But these beings do exist.) I bought some chips, almost got hit by a bus, met Morven and Matthew and caught my bus. [I've all of a sudden gone very tired, so apologies if the next lot of this blog isn't legible]

This is where things get odd. Again, everything was fine until we reached Dundee. I started reading Danny Wallace’s ‘Join Me’ as I’d picked it (and his ‘Random Acts of Kindness’) for a fiver in Fopp. Then I got out at Dundee station and found that my phone was effed again. In the morning, it had been pressing the ‘1′ key of its own volition and dialing Voicemail by itself. This amused me and Matthew, but it had stopped during the day. It was all fine and well until I realised that I needed to get in touch with people and this was now impossible. I found some payphones and spent £1 on about 10 seconds of talking to my mother. I now officially hate payphones. What use are they when they cut out before you can say, “Hello mother? Yes, I’m being raped.” ?
Also at the bus stop, I witnessed a man sitting next to me’s love for his son. Some dreadful man outside, in full view of me and the man and the man’s son lit up a cigarette whilst with his little toddler. The man turned to his son and said “It’s been great spending time with you, pal. I’d rather have two seconds with you than ever smoke another fag…” It’s a bit shit in writing, but his voice sort of cracked as he said it and it was one of those sweet things in life that you rarely hear. I’m quite glad I got to eavesdrop on a poignant moment… Like that time I saw a little kid put a plastic bag over his head only for his mum to pull it off quick as a flash and say, “Now you never put plastic bags over your head…” I like hearing life lessons being taught. I was there, maaaan.

We arrived in Aberdeen earlier than I’d told mother, so I spent another 40p on a 10 second conversation with her at the payphones at the station. On the way home, I attempted to send a reply to Kerry, but failed miserably as my phone insisted on putting in full stops and worse “:)” into texts. I’ve never had a phone with tourette’s before, I quite like it being a bit mental… I’ve left it on “new message” for a while now and it has come up with this, “?!!!1!1!?. 11@!1@-.11111!.,’1(‘,@1?? 1111., 1111?../)../?@/@,(-(!?,,//.,@:,-)….,.@@-/(@.’,,-..:.-,,?1–,.’1?.
I’m trying to figure out if it’s a secret message for me, like the phone is communicating with me, but really, I think it might just be numbers and symbols…
Ridiculous state of affairs, but alas I am home. Writing very dull blogs.

Comment is free. Do it.

1697.

Insert motivational message here…

August 21, 2008

It’s not often I begin to read a book in bed, stop, try to sleep for two minutes, only to switch my light back on with the idea to continue reading instead, then come online to write about the book…

After my third and final overtime shift today, I took advantage of our 3 for 2 offer and decided to go for Danny Wallace’s Friends Like These (sadly, Join Me wasn’t available in the offer) and Kyle MacDonald’s One Red Paperclip. I picked Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin as it was the only 3 for 2 book I saw that I knew was on my book-list (with the exception of Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader, which I’ll buy somewhere else as it’s super-thin, yet costs £6.99 and I preferred something a bit heftier for my free book!)

So I got home, did my usual pissing around and finished off the last few pages of Moab Is My Washpot, Stephen Fry’s wonderful autobiography detailing the first twenty years of his life. It was really odd how recently, myself and some lovely friends off the interwebs all, without planning it like an eBook-Group, ended up reading it or re-reading it in some cases at the same time. I must go track down my copy of The Liar. I read it years ago but I might have sold it or something hideous.

Anyway, back to this book I started after finishing Moab…
I wasn’t sure what one to go for, but settled for One Red Paperclip. In all honesty, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by it, but I thought it’d be mildly interesting anyway. At the end of each chapter, the author gives little motivational messages which, for the first couple made me roll my eyes and sigh at how lame it was. As for the actual story, I didn’t take notice of the fact that I genuinely wanted to know what was going to happen next, so kept reading. I even stopped skipping the motivational phrases. I’m glad I did so as a phrase caught my eye. A phrase I’ve been living by for the past… few months at least.

If you really want to, you will.

Yes. Simple, I know, but this is my main mentality these days. I’m sure Gracie’ll back me up as it has cropped up in our endless discussions about moving to London. I know I’ve definitely mentioned it in the ‘About the “Author”‘ section over there >
So, yes, live that way. I told it to my dad and he said “How about you lick your elbow then.”
“Subtle difference, father; I don’t especially want to lick my elbow…”

It’s weird that I’ve gone drastically from being an absolutely negative… wang to being overly-positive, but I’m certain that this one little theory is absolutely true. If you want something enough, you can get it; if you want to do something enough, you’ll manage to.

I do hate leaving on a pretentious note, though, so I’ll throw this unrelated item in for good measure. Words cannot describe how hard I love this clip, there were rumours it was deleted off youtube, but it’s still in my favourites, so here we go. If you don’t watch the whole thing, make sure you at least watch the titles, then from about 1.02-1.11, then 3.35 until the end.

Today is not Wednesday. Today is not Wednesday…

August 19, 2008

O Woe! I wish I could remember that today is Tuesday. I just got all excited only to be let down again.
I’m off to see David O’Doherty in Edinburgh on Thursday. I am rather excited. I vowed this year that I’d go see loads of comedy at this year’s fringe, but finding time has been hard. So, my hefty original wish-list of DO’D, Steve Hall, Jon Richardson, Robin Ince, Ed Byrne, Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler and Mark Watson has been abandoned. I’m saddened by this, especially by Steve Hall as I told him I’d try get along to a show. I remember when compiling my list that I was confused that chortle.co.uk said Paul Foot was due to be performing, but his myspace made no mention of this. So, imagine my delight when I read this article on chortle…
“Stand-up Paul Foot is to attempt to set a new record for performing the most gigs in a single day.

The comic is aiming to play up to 25 shows at the Edinburgh Fringe tomorrow. There must be a different audience each time, and each performance must be no shorter than five minutes.

Guinness World Records have confirmed no such record is currently held. However they will not be sending a representative to verify Foot’s attempt, so it is likely to remain an unofficial achievement.

The record bid will start at 12.15pm tomorrow at the Laughing Horse venue at The Argyle pub and should end around 2.30am at the Meadow Bar.

It will also include his own 50-minute show Off The Top Of/With His Head, Mervyn Stutter’s Pick Of The Fringe, Old Rope, The Cheese and Pineapple Show, Comedy Club 4 Kids and Best of The Fest.Click here for the full schedule.”

 

I eagerly rushed to check out the full schedule thinking “Hurrah! I’ll get into Edinburgh and I’ll be there in time to see him play at the Underbelly… OH! And Ryan’ll be working there, double trouble!”, only to remember that today is in fact Tuesday and these gigs are occuring tomorrow and not Thursday. I will be working tomorrow. In Aberdeen. Fuckery.

In other news, I am enjoying the google searches that lead to people finding this blog. A lot of them have been from my shameless name-dropping of David O’Doherty, Danny Wallace, Dylan Moran… all the ‘D’s, but I’ve also had “eeey fonzie” which made me feel warm, then “i’ve got a stuffed owl and some whisky. take your hat off.” which made me feel even warmer (SnuffBox reference, ahoy!) and rather worryingly, “kristen my private sex photos” .

Now that I’ve written “sex” I’m bound to get several hits. Shudder. For now, I direct you here, to what Sir Charlie of Brooker has to say on the matter. 
I’m off for a bath with a book, followed by a shower with some music, followed by an early night.

Oh! Oh… oh?

August 17, 2008

I woke up after 4 hours sleep at 8.15am. But in all fairness, I fell asleep whilst watching Big Train, which is the best way to fall asleep. Anyway, the day got off to a bad start when I couldn’t find my iPod and knew that I’d be music-less for my lunch and on the way home. Balls. I got a lift to work and was greeted by the beardy ones.
It was a pretty nice day. I like it when it’s all good people in the shop. We all sat round at our break and pissed ourselves laughing and told stories. It was just generally nice. Like a pub. That probably makes more sense in my head. I’ve always preferred pubs to clubs. I like to sit down and tell stories and listen to stories and laugh. Good. All good stuff.

Anyway, 5.30pm came around and I left. I forgot to get a lift of Baz, so waited ages for a bus. At the bus stop is where I discovered a plus to not having headphones in. I was just sitting, eating some hideous chips from a fast food emporium when a women next to me said, “Hungry?” and started talking to me. She really opened up for a stranger, which was odd. She sounded lonely, so I hope everything turns out dandy for her, she was a nice sort. She’s from Ireland and wants to move back, but her job as a nurse, her daughter and her ex-husband (who she might be getting back with, mmhmm) are all here. She said someone she sort of helped look after at the hospital died today and was talking about how she had a cup of tea with the bereaved. Odd. The things she was saying reminded a bit of when my granny was dying, about how she could hear us and stuff. I told her this, so I suppose I opened up to her a bit… I always rely on the kindness of strangers? Anyway, some drunk came up to us, asked for a chip, I gave him all the ones I had left and felt my karma points go up. (I would have rather they went to some homeless fella though…)
The friendly woman got on her bus and told me to take care. Maybe I’ll leave my iPod at home more often. I love it when strangers initiate conversation with you. I like the idea of it even more since reading Yes Man, I think. It was all due to that one guy on Danny Wallace’s bus saying “Say yes more.” that his entire life changed, so maybe a part of me hopes this will happen. Although what they could say to change my life is beyond me…

Speaking of Danny Wallace, I was reading Join Me at the till today. I really must buy it and Friends Like These. My book list grows forever longer and I keep starting books, then buying new ones and neglecting the previous, so I’ve got about twenty on the go so far. It’s a hard-knock life.

In other news, I feel like a right royal sex criminal. Whilst browsing flickr for a picture of Rich Fulcher as Eleanor, I came across a video of him posted by Steve Agee. This prompted me to see several videos he’d taken of him and lovely Matt Berry just hanging out. THIS prompted me to see several photos he’d taken of Matt. Shamefully, I think I managed to sneak a look at all of them. I felt a bit weird doing so. It was like perving on someone’s private photo albums. However, I did enjoy the one of Matt and the Dalek. He looks so happy. It’s sweet, but why does he never look that happy with we, his nerdy fans?

I am tired as funk and it’s not even 11pm. I’m doing overtime tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m not in until 11.30am tomorrow though, so that’s not too bad. I’m on ’til 8pm though, that is so bad… Ah well, it’s all about the company you keep, isn’t it?

The Fonz just jumped the shark

August 15, 2008

Happy Days is on Five US and the episode where Fonzie jumps over the shark when waterskiing was just on.

I like that this one, stupid storyline managed to be lead to the coining of a colloquialism. It’s sort of how my brain works. I can only really think quickly in terms of comedy and music, so it’s pleasing to see that a tv show can have a sort of cultural influence.
I’m not going to get into it though, or else I’ll get incomprehensible.

I’ve not been up to much today. I woke up relatively late and went with the father to meet the mother at the re-opened Lemon Tree for lunch. Jim Murray sang the blues onstage while we ate. I picked up a brochure and it turns out Rob Brydon’s gonna be at the Music Hall on March 10th, with Ross Noble making his triumphant return on the 17th. I’m excited. Also quite annoyed to find that Dylan Moran’s here on the 26th October, not the 25th, like I first thought. So, I can go, but it’s sold out. Ruzzlefruzzlefriggen…

Things I have been watching on the intywebs this week include..:

Robin Ince posted this on his blog. He said it was from a few years ago so it needed a bit of work, but I enjoyed!

Berry’s been on the voiceovers again…


How the hell is it possible for little jelly sweets to make me laugh so hard?

Various Butterfield sketches, especially…


The former has got me saying “Bonbonbonbons” and “Potato grids”.

Four Go Shopping

Me and John spent from 2-5am doing Fulcheristic “‘Eeey, Christy!” speeches. No Jews were offended in the making of this video. Except John.

I’ve totally forgotten what else I was going to write about. Lovely Gracie just asked if I was okay which made me realise I’m feeling a bit fucked, but don’t really know why. I hadn’t even really noticed. Maybe it’s because I had such a nice week last week, but this one I’ve done eff-all. I’m also a bit frustrated because these blogs are getting terrible.

I nearly wrote out a list of life ambitions. Oi, Graceface, I may nick your idea of a 21 Things To Do Before I’m 21 list. It will require some thought, though… Alas; a mission.