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satyricaI stopped off in Southampton on my way back from birthday lunch with my parents (which had also involved the obligatory stroll by the sea) three Saturdays ago as C was conveniently having his own (30th) birthday celebration in the Standing Order there, so I dropped in for a couple of drinks and it turned out that most of the friends there also did Empire. I headed back to London as on the Sunday I was heading out on a walk with the Book Group crew around the Lea Valley: we did a loop from Harpenden, taking in Wheathampstead, which had an interesting church and old mill, and Devil's Dyke, a pre-Roman fortification, although as a walk it was fairly gentle and we finished with the obligatory roast.
We managed to all get together for Aberrant in Lewisham on the Monday and on Tuesday I went to see The Grinning Man with Cousin A and Claire. It's a musical based on a Victor Hugo story and has a fairground grotesque aesthetic that appealed to me (N's housemate L had worked on the costumes during its original run in Bristol), it was pretty fun, even if they had made the ending significantly happier, although none of the music really stuck with me. On Wednesday firm-favourites Shame were playing at the Electric Ballroom, although the punky female duo Gurr who supported were rather too perky for my tastes.Then on Thursday I went to see Idles down at Heaven with my gig-buddy J and some of his mates that I'd met at Glastonbury. I'd got there pretty late as work was very full-on for a few weeks, with the shelters closing and lots of staff absence, so we missed the support and Idles were good but we got stuck a bit too far back to feel really into it: we went on for some drinks afterwards though and it was a fun night with some really friendly guys.
On Friday I went out to Egham where R very kindly took me out for a curry as he hadn't been able to make my birthday and it was nice to just spend some time together: I can't remember the last time we did something that wasn't as part of a larger group and we went back and hung out with P for a bit afterwards. I had a weekend of domesticity spending pretty much the whole of both Saturday and Sunday daytimes at home trying to get on top of life-admin and the garden, which has been much neglected. I did head out in the evenings: quite late to the Hootenanny in Brixton on Saturday for some bands (bluesy swing from Big Mamma's Door, who had a great singer and one of Ketch's friends on sax, The Blasting Caps, who played old-fashioned rock'n'roll, and Balkansy Rumpus-favourites Buffo's Wake) which were all very danceable, then just over to N's in the evening on Sunday to catch him in a show-free moment.
We managed to all get together for Aberrant in Lewisham on the Monday and on Tuesday I went to see The Grinning Man with Cousin A and Claire. It's a musical based on a Victor Hugo story and has a fairground grotesque aesthetic that appealed to me (N's housemate L had worked on the costumes during its original run in Bristol), it was pretty fun, even if they had made the ending significantly happier, although none of the music really stuck with me. On Wednesday firm-favourites Shame were playing at the Electric Ballroom, although the punky female duo Gurr who supported were rather too perky for my tastes.Then on Thursday I went to see Idles down at Heaven with my gig-buddy J and some of his mates that I'd met at Glastonbury. I'd got there pretty late as work was very full-on for a few weeks, with the shelters closing and lots of staff absence, so we missed the support and Idles were good but we got stuck a bit too far back to feel really into it: we went on for some drinks afterwards though and it was a fun night with some really friendly guys.
On Friday I went out to Egham where R very kindly took me out for a curry as he hadn't been able to make my birthday and it was nice to just spend some time together: I can't remember the last time we did something that wasn't as part of a larger group and we went back and hung out with P for a bit afterwards. I had a weekend of domesticity spending pretty much the whole of both Saturday and Sunday daytimes at home trying to get on top of life-admin and the garden, which has been much neglected. I did head out in the evenings: quite late to the Hootenanny in Brixton on Saturday for some bands (bluesy swing from Big Mamma's Door, who had a great singer and one of Ketch's friends on sax, The Blasting Caps, who played old-fashioned rock'n'roll, and Balkansy Rumpus-favourites Buffo's Wake) which were all very danceable, then just over to N's in the evening on Sunday to catch him in a show-free moment.
