lustre

Last Tuesday went to Croydon; the Green Dragon, Ship and Spread Eagle. There's a nice boardroom upstairs at the latter; staff friendly.

On Thurs went to a filming job in Wimbledon Common but didn't see any Wombles.' You're having a Giraffe ' they were giving free coffee in the village in the morning. Good old Tesco; if you're overcharged they double the difference, so if you're charged £1.60 too much you get £3.20 back.

Fri we were making York quick time on the train when someone jumped in front of the train near Retford. Had hopes of a day trip and coming back in the evening to see Jerry Dammers play in Tooting Tram Social; gutted that i couldn't. We decided to stay over. Sat morning had a local favourite chips with mushy peas, and some haggis as we were near Scotland. People are friendly, smiley unlike London. Saw the minster and went on the wall; it was like the Great Wall in Beijing. Went back to the fest to say hi to Karen; also we had ale tokens remaining so it would be rude not to. Topped up the tokens and were getting loungy in the sun. But we got the 3.00 train; Massive Attack gig awaited.
Horace Andy was a guest vocalist for them. Atmospheric gig. The venue is called the o2 Academy, Brixton; bloody commercialisation, o2 is a generic term eh? 'going to the o2 Arena or o2 Academy?'
Didn't go to their afterparty in Jamm but Dogstar. I saw a flyer lying around in there and had to do a doubletake; it said Jerry Dammers was playing. I asked someone if he was going to be there and he said 'yeah he's right behind you'. I couldn't believe it; sometimes i feel that i'm linked to the centre of the universe. Thought i'd miss the founder of the Specials and here he was the next night and i happened to be there. I shook his hand. We stayed till 4.30am.
Sun Zeitgeist, the pirate ship Tamesis Dock plus one another in Vauxhall. Some people take fun to a trashy, vulgar, disrespecting level..then it ceases to be fun. They get excitable and all consumed in the moment. Am also happy to be a hermit and cook for the missus. You need new directions and challenges; like the celebs on Strictly. You can be a star, an entity in your own right.

Weekend catchup

We've nicknamed the neighbourhood cats Smeghead and Wanksy; they like the Go Cat.
Playing the old vinyl again; 70's jazz, Michael Bolton, my first single Invisible Sun- the Police. The turntable system has cd, radio, USB, mp3 slots. Heard Underworld from 1989.

Fri went to Woolwich and Charlton for Grimmer's birthday. Gay Mitch knew one of the pub landladies because she's an ex's mum 'i'm not serving that cxxt' she apparently said to her colleague. In the Hope and Anchor we annoyed the locals by jukeboxing One True Voice and both versions of Mandy by Barry Manilow and Westlife.

Sat night Potters Fields as part of the Thames Festival. Sun lunchtime St Pauli scored after 53 seconds against the bottom team who equalised after 3 mins and were ahead 2-1 at half time. I called it; 3-2 to St Pauli which they did through fine finishing. Had one Sunday evening at the Artillery Arms, Barbican. Disappointed to miss Fedde le Grand Fri night but still a pleasant weekend.

Thurs blog

We did some filming near an underpass; woo it was like the old rave days. Anyways there was a gang in the scene which lacked any menace whatsoever; the public were laughing, one chap said 'gangsters? more like wanksters'. I would've done a better casting; i'll go into the Pawlene Arms, Penge and come out with 11 guys..job done. They'd do it for a lager top and the exercise; job would've been done by 11pm na 10pm instead of 12.45am. There was no intent, anger, movement.

Saw the acclaimed Babylon which only came out on dvd last year; made in 1980 a portent to the following year's Brixton riots and the later Tottenham ones when PC Keith Blakelock had his head hacked off. The way the smiling police in the film went after Lion was like Klan in the Deep South. 'I haven't done anything' 'It's 5am, you must've nicked something'.
The outmoded racist terms made for uncomfortable viewing. Nothing is clear cut in the film; depicted negative sides of both blacks and whites.

On a different note i have a Pingu text alert :)