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satyricaI carried on my domesticity from the weekend the week before last with a few nights-in in a row, which was probably for the best as work was continuing to be pretty exhausting and I also got to try out the spice-box recipes (where they send you packets of all the spice mixes you need and step-by-step idiot-guides through the post) that R had got me for my birthday. On the Thursday I had lured J&E down to the Sebright Arms as I finally had a chance to see Queen Zee for the first time since they supported Cabbage 6 months ago. We lasted about two minutes of the first support, who were an ambient electronic dirge we were not in the space for, although Youth Sector were more up our street and Queen Zee's sassy queer punk was every bit as fun as I had remembered.
I had only remembered to book Friday off for Empire at the last minute and I had slightly mixed feelings about going with lots to do at work and a miserable forecast, but I had missed most of last year and didn't want to lose all connection to the game. It certainly didn't turn out to be the best of events: our new awning and fire pit were excellent achievements and the rain wasn't relentless but it had left lots of surface water prior to the event and everything (except our pristine awning somehow!) soon got soaked and muddy, vehicles struggled to get on and off the field, the nights were cold and one of our group injured her ankle, meaning we didn't stray far from our camp again on the Saturday night. It was a shame as I felt like I got a bit more involved in the nation and trading during the times where I was able to be a bit more active: on the Sunday we nearly all decided not to go in-character and just started packing everything up, possibly for the best as it turned out that the battle went pretty disastrously for everyone who did take the field. We all came away from the event a lot more experienced in pushing cars that were stuck in mud and our van needed to be towed off the field, the kindness of strangers being a consistently life-affirming hallmark of these LARPs.
N came over on Monday night and then on Tuesday we had our end-of-season thank you event for all our volunteers and supporters at work. Via a last-minute crisis, we had ended up in the much swankier surrounds of the Jumeirah Hotel ballroom which was soon abuzz with nearly 400 people: it was a bit of a whirl but everyone seemed very happy. I spent the next two nights going to gigs at venues I'd not been to before, which is unusual these days: both in the Shoreditch/Hoxton area.
Wednesday's was at Roadtrip & The Workshop, downstairs from a busy bar showing the football: I stayed for all four bands in the end, my longtime favourites Lighthouse, Couples, who had a good sound and energy but specific songs didn't really stand out, Concrete Caverns, who I'd wanted to catch again for a while and play melodic and political rock, and finally The Youts, indie punk youngsters with an irrepressible energy and charm. Meanwhile Thursday's was at the much more sparsely populated 177 Bar and Kitchen, which had a space that felt very much like someone's garage out the back. Euro-punkers Loud Mute Range nearly outnumbered their audience, however I couldn't help but be drawn to their unself-conscious bondage-trousered, chest-tattoed spirit; the bassist was friendly and chatted to me between bands too. Cascade were the best supported but fairly standard guitary stuff, although a couple of songs did stand out. I was there for The Lodgers who were cool but didn't play my favourite of their songs.
As before Empire, as soon as I want to spend a weekend hermiting at home, the sun has come out. I met N for a drink with some of his work friends on Friday but crashed really early when I went home afterwards (having foolishly stayed up to watch election results the night before, which had been pretty unsatisfying although our ward did change hands from Tory/Lib Dem to Labour). I spent all of Saturday Doing Stuff but without ever seeming able to cross anything off my list but I actually made a rare spontaneous social plan, J&E coming over in the evening to chill out and listen to music.
I had only remembered to book Friday off for Empire at the last minute and I had slightly mixed feelings about going with lots to do at work and a miserable forecast, but I had missed most of last year and didn't want to lose all connection to the game. It certainly didn't turn out to be the best of events: our new awning and fire pit were excellent achievements and the rain wasn't relentless but it had left lots of surface water prior to the event and everything (except our pristine awning somehow!) soon got soaked and muddy, vehicles struggled to get on and off the field, the nights were cold and one of our group injured her ankle, meaning we didn't stray far from our camp again on the Saturday night. It was a shame as I felt like I got a bit more involved in the nation and trading during the times where I was able to be a bit more active: on the Sunday we nearly all decided not to go in-character and just started packing everything up, possibly for the best as it turned out that the battle went pretty disastrously for everyone who did take the field. We all came away from the event a lot more experienced in pushing cars that were stuck in mud and our van needed to be towed off the field, the kindness of strangers being a consistently life-affirming hallmark of these LARPs.
N came over on Monday night and then on Tuesday we had our end-of-season thank you event for all our volunteers and supporters at work. Via a last-minute crisis, we had ended up in the much swankier surrounds of the Jumeirah Hotel ballroom which was soon abuzz with nearly 400 people: it was a bit of a whirl but everyone seemed very happy. I spent the next two nights going to gigs at venues I'd not been to before, which is unusual these days: both in the Shoreditch/Hoxton area.
Wednesday's was at Roadtrip & The Workshop, downstairs from a busy bar showing the football: I stayed for all four bands in the end, my longtime favourites Lighthouse, Couples, who had a good sound and energy but specific songs didn't really stand out, Concrete Caverns, who I'd wanted to catch again for a while and play melodic and political rock, and finally The Youts, indie punk youngsters with an irrepressible energy and charm. Meanwhile Thursday's was at the much more sparsely populated 177 Bar and Kitchen, which had a space that felt very much like someone's garage out the back. Euro-punkers Loud Mute Range nearly outnumbered their audience, however I couldn't help but be drawn to their unself-conscious bondage-trousered, chest-tattoed spirit; the bassist was friendly and chatted to me between bands too. Cascade were the best supported but fairly standard guitary stuff, although a couple of songs did stand out. I was there for The Lodgers who were cool but didn't play my favourite of their songs.
As before Empire, as soon as I want to spend a weekend hermiting at home, the sun has come out. I met N for a drink with some of his work friends on Friday but crashed really early when I went home afterwards (having foolishly stayed up to watch election results the night before, which had been pretty unsatisfying although our ward did change hands from Tory/Lib Dem to Labour). I spent all of Saturday Doing Stuff but without ever seeming able to cross anything off my list but I actually made a rare spontaneous social plan, J&E coming over in the evening to chill out and listen to music.
