Reunited and it feels so good

Over the past couple of days, I've been reunited with couple of old friends. Firstly, my long-lost diary. Well, when I say long-lost, we're talking about 5 months. Had no idea what happened to it, but I was pretty sure it wasn't in my flat. Then yesterday, I get a note through my door saying that someone had sent me a package with insufficient postage. I trundle down to the depot to pick it up, grumbling about having to pay the excess and wondering who and what the hell it could be. I get the envelope (return address of my bank, but this is no circular) and can feel a spiral binding through the paper. I think "No, it can't be", tear open the envelope and lo and behold, it is my diary. Found in the "banking hall". Now, I am not sure where it was been for the last 5 months, but no matter - I finally got it back! At last I might have a chance at remembering where I am meant to be, having steadfastly refused to buy a new diary (I somehow knew that we were going to find each other again). And it kind of restored my faith in humanity, so I called in at the bank today to say thanks.

The other? Frasier. I've been watching some Frasier episodes and I have forgotten just how funny this programme is. The pomposity and farce just brightens up my day (and the constant Seattle rain complements the weather here to perfection).

Sometimes it's the little things.

In penguins and pearls, we'll drink and we'll dance

It's a bit early to say whether this would make it on to my Best Songs Ever Written list, but it's definitely one of the best songs I have heard this year. It's got clever lyrics, it tells a story and Guy Garvey and Richard Hawley's voices complement each other to perfection. Take note you Moulin Rouge girls who sang on Lady Marmalade - it's not about trying to out sing the next person.

A girl can do what she wants to do and that's what I'm gonna do

I am loving Freaks and Geeks, in spite of having to watch it on a small YouTube screen (I'm about half-way through the series). It is utterly wonderful. Produced by Judd Apatow of Knocked Up and Forty Year Old Virgin fame, it stars many of the actors who subsequently appeared in his films and various affiliations (including the divine Mr Segel).

It's about life in a Michigan high school in the early 1980s and centres around the Freaks - a bunch of cool stoner/slackers - and the Geeks - nerdy yet endearing younger kids. To me, it's like a cross between Degrassi Junior High and the Outsiders (James Franco really reminds me of a young Matt Dillon). It's laugh out loud funny in places and heart-rendingly touching in others, especially with the main female character trying to find her place in the world. I can't wait to see next episode, yet at the same time I don't want them to end (there is only 1 series). Yes, you can watch again, but there is nothing quite like the first time.

Everyone should see this series.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ai1FHufz_HY

I'll sing in your ear again

Number Two of An Occasional Series

The Drugs Don't Work by the Verve. I don't really like the Verve that much. I don't think Bittersweet Symphony is all that. But this song just blows me away. I remember where I was when I first heard it - asleep on a sofa in south London.

Picture the scene. It's a Saturday night and I'd fallen asleep while waiting to watch the late night/ early morning repeat of Top of the Pops (oh, those were the days, eh?). I remember being in that delicious state of semi-conscious slumber and hearing this song drifting in and out of my head. I sat up, and demanded "what the hell is this", listened to the song in amazement, said "wow" when it was finished and then went back to sleep. I believe I may even have had to ask what the song was again the next day.

But suffice to say it was enough to wake me from my slumber and I've loved the song ever since. It's immensely poignant - yes, it can actually make me cry - but can make your heart soar at the same time with its beauty. And when I hear the song, it literally gives me goosebumps. I bought the album on the strength of it, but nothing on there comes close to the sheer brilliance of this.

As if to underline what a special song it is, it was the soundtrack to one of the defining moments (at least in my eyes) of a particularly enjoyable weekend in Newquay earlier this year when it was played in a pub and me and two friends sang along rather beautifully (OK, it was after a few beers).

That just makes it even better.

It's back to front and I'm all uptight.

Transgressive Hot Summer Tour -Zodiac 4th July 2008

One night, seven pounds, four bands. Or if might have been five. I saw four, but was expecting to see five, so I'm not really all that sure. We saw So So Modern, Absentee, Esser and Jeremy Warmsley, but were also expecting to see Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man (ironically the only ones I had actually heard of before), but they were either on uber early, or not at all. And maybe that is kind of indicative of the night. As my friend put it, it was like an inverse gig. The first 2 on - So So Modern and Absentee - were much better than the last two, so it all seemed a bit back to front.

Not much else to say about it really.

Just one psychological drama after another

It was my friend's birthday last weekend, and as he is over here for 2 months before returning to Crete to live, I wanted to give him a present that he wouldn't have to lug back out there. So, since we are both huge Agatha Christie fans and the play And Then There Were None was fortuitously playing at a theatre near us, I thought "A-theatring we will go".

This isn't really a review - well, OK, a little bit. After a slightly ropey start with a bit of overacting, it was well done and entertaining, with a deliciously 1930s set.

But, that's not really the point of this. As I was watching, it got me thinking "why are we all here". Not in an existential sense, but rather what possesses people to pay out money to sit and watch other people pretending to be yet other people; and in my case, I've read the book and seen the play, so it is not as if I was going to be wondering whodunit. It seems to me to be a singularly strange thing to do, yet it is something that I enjoy and when I do go I wish I did more often. Is it just simply that we want to be entertained? Maybe. I'm not really sure what the answer is.

Galileo Figaro Magnifico

I went to the opera on last Friday. Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House to be exact. I'm pretty much an indie rock chick at heart, so this was quite a departure for me (it's not quite Queens of the Stone Age or Glasvegas, is it?).

So how was it? Well, I actually rather enjoyed it. I can't pretend to know whether or not the singing was any good. OK, I will qualify that. It all sounded the same to me, so whether one person was better than another, I really couldn't say. But it sounded good (thank goodness for surtitles tho - my Italian is non-existent, but even with them I had to check on Wikipedia when I got back to make sure I had worked out what was going on - I was pleased that indeed I had!). The set was sumptuous, even with the restricted view, so lord only knows what it must have been like in the £600 seats (ours were a lot cheaper!)

The people were a lot less dressed up than I might have expected, although it was amusing to see lots of them eating in the interval (and lots of them leaving what looked like unfinished champagne and canapes). We did sample the bar and although I didn't think it would be cheap, £11.50 for an orange juice, a small glass of wine and 2 glasses of tap water did seems a tad on the expensive side.

Would I go again? Probably, although I did choose Mozart for a reason. He was the punk of his day, after all. Falco said it, so it must be true.