Friday: Took in a gig at Henry’s Cellar Bar. The opening set from Carla Bozulich and avant-garde drummer Chris Corsano was my favourite. Got to sit at a table and still see the band- perfect, I hate standing unless I’m dancing. The second set by Rashomon, just a guy and his guitar and pedals, made both Paul and I think of Stu.
On Saturday I went to stuff my gob full of yummy, spicy, cheesy Mexican food at Coconut Grove with not one but four Mozellis in honour of our Paolo’s birthday. Was not nearly as frightening as I expected as all Mozellis are lovely.
Sunday: Back home to screen my own double bill of O Lucky Man! (1973) and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962). The first one, a sort-of sequel to If (1968) was 3 hours of disappointment. Michael Travis (Malcolm McDowell), the school boy revolutionary in If, is a few years older, working as a salesman for Imperial Coffee, and is a little cynical about it all (“Do you realise that this Nigerian coffee is being packed straight back to Nigeria?”). Promising, eh? It soon becomes apparent that Travis has lost his youthful idealism and decides to set off on a mission to make as much money as he possibly can (“Poor people are poor people and they don’t understand. A man’s got to make whatever he can and take it with his own hands,” sings the accompanying band.) Along the way he narrowly misses getting turned into a pig at some top secret government plant where he hands over his body to experiment for £150. He gets embroiled with the government of an African nation where he helps to ship off some poisonous substance to be blanket sprayed over the country as a cheap and clean way of killing off insurgents. Eventually he ends up volunteering at a soup kitchen in the East End of London. Lost? So was I.
Sunday night: Back to P’s to meet Disco D; the chat started off with British cinema and ended up with the impossiblity of paying a gas bill, the ridiculous cost of trains, and the general state of the nation. This was a good point to shift to Opium where we could not really hear each other talk.
12-Jun-07 at 12:54 pm | Permalink
> made both Paul and I think of Stu
I’m touched. But how many pedals did he have and was his amp as big and loud as mine? I hope not.
12-Jun-07 at 2:03 pm | Permalink
He only had about 6 or 7 pedals. Amp- undoubtedly smaller and quieter than yours.
Just kidding- I don’t tend to examine the size of amps when I go to a gig.
18-Jun-07 at 6:33 am | Permalink
Did you leave after Rashomon then or did you stay for Carla’s set? What did you make of it? Just curious…
18-Jun-07 at 9:20 am | Permalink
Yes we stayed for Carla’s set and enjoyed that as well.
18-Jun-07 at 9:27 am | Permalink
I also stayed for Britannia Hospital which was much better and more focused than O Lucky Man!
The catering staff at a huge hospital decide to go on strike rather than serve special meals to the private patients. This happens on the same day that HRH is visiting to open a new shiny science wing where they are developing giant brains.