Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

That was a good week-end, but increasingly I notice that I cannot do all-nighters and go to several clubs on the same night as I ... oh, ok, it always took me several days to recover from that sort of thing, but it doesn't get better as you get older. Still, it was all good.

On Friday I went to an exhibition of art of a Venezuelan friend -'Clay. Wallpaper. Venezuelan Scenarios' by Andrea Moreno at Craving Coffee in Tottenham Hale. The pieces had a lot of subtext related to the current Venezuelan political situation and to V'zlan popular culture. I enjoyed that. It was strange to be in a place where about 30% of the people present spoke in Spanish with Venezuelan accents -and addressed me in sort of cautious English. Surely I look and sound Venezuelan? My ex-girlfriend used to say I wrote with a Venezuelan accent....



Mondlicht was a blast, it is more or less the new incarnation of Invocation in a smaller, more central venue (the basement of the Albany in Gt Portland St). As I traditionally had a little birthday celebration at Reptile, I left at midnight and headed for Archway. Now, I like Reptile even though the choice of music is not always my cup; had a good bit of a dance, chatted with friends, but by 3:00 am I'd decided I'd had enough so headed home. Could have walked but didn't; the 134 takes me right to my doorstep from there. Had some good conversations but also discovered that somebody I quite like (beautiful, interesting woman in many respects and from every other interaction I'd had with her, intelligent and mature) turns out to be a climate change denier. As I backed off slowly, the other friend who was present was asking her about some other conspiracy theory trope 'sure you also believe then that...' and she replies 'actually, since you mention...' at which point I disappeared back into the dance floor. 

On Sunday I met with friends at the Abbey Tavern in Kentish Town for Sunday Roast -which was very good, as was the gathering. At the bar I ran into a former guitar pupil who was on his first shift as a bartender at the place. That was a little bit strange. 

* the links are to Facebook events. One or several of them may not be public.

I seem to have survived another Valentine's Day, one with the potential to be a particularly painful one. Managed instead to have a good time with friends at a double birthday party (there are pictures) and later at the Slimelight. I've never really really had a very bad night at the Slime but this was a good candidate, although not for lack of good company, having arrived with the birthday boy and girl and their entourage that included londonjon and rougeno1 and running into djpsyche and a few other peeps. The one dancing room I found painfully loud (it did feel like much louder than usual, it may have been me) and didn't have ear-plugs with me so I stayed in the courtyard talking to people. Lasted about an hour and a half and left for home. Better than other possibilities for the night. Next month I'll be at Reptile. This last one.. no, I couldn't do that to myself. Funny how it works. All these things (Christmas, birthdays, etc) are arbitrary markers, this day is significative because we decide it is. And many of those days are just vehicles for the commercial juggernaut to make us buy things. And yet we need them and they often work. Except when they work in a way that makes us feel worse not better.

Sunday brought the monthly bibliogoth meeting, this time discussing 'Libra' by Don Delillo, a sort of history-fiction account of Lee Harvey Oswald's life leading to John F Kennedy's assassination. The person in the group that was the most familiar with the book hated it. I, the only person in the group that was alive at the time of the events, quite liked it although I did find the first few chapters difficult to get on with, particularly with the swarm of Federal agents that all 'looked' identical and in my mind were all like copies of the Matrix's Agent Smith. A very interesting discussion that centred more on the events that the book explores rather than the book itself.

In case anyone still reads this: A New Dusk tonight at Aces & Eights in
Tufnell Park.
"Spinning contemporary post-punk, minimal, and cold wave"

Djs Dave Exile, Robert Cowlin and Matthew Coulam.

Facebook event here:

<https://www.facebook.com/events/936927466385578/>

As I sat to write this, it was a dark and stormy night. Now, it was only 4:20 pm. I could live in this island a hundred years and not get used to the short days of winter, it suddenly being pitch black night in the middle of the afternoon.

The week end was good. Some bits of it were rather very good, in fact.

On Friday some of my pupils met, as they do once a month, at the Café Rustique in Tufnell Park to play together. From there I rushed to The Forum to see New Model Army do their by now traditional Christmas concert at the forum. This was... excellent, Mr Sullivan still is full of anger in all the good ways.I'd lost my friend Lara in the crowd (which was full of familiar faces) but eventually found her and we withdrew after the concert to have a coffee and catch up.

Saturday was Reptile. This was very good -dance and catch up with lots of lovely folk. One of the highlights may have been a particular absurd conversation with friends on the outside terrace under the rain. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun but it was.

On Sunday, after my nightmare lesson, met with a few lovely people at the Landseeer for Sunday roast and conversation. This was just what I needed after a difficult, demanding lesson the morning after a very good night out.

On Monday there was the by now traditional Bleak Xmas dinner and carol sing-along at the Rochester Castle (the Roch, for the regulars) in Stoke Newington. This was a lovely meeting of peeps, some of whom I hadn't seen for years and some who I only see, these days, on that one occasion once a year. Thanks again chris_damage, andyknifton and suicideally for organising this.

And for something truly terrifying, the rendition (I use the word advisedly) that night of 'Silent Night': https://youtu.be/6f_yUg99z9o

... and a good week-end it was.

On Thursday there was Tufguitar: (some of) my pupils met to play at the Rustique café, as they do once a month. A very good one, had five pupils present which is good going for something like this, including a new face.

On Friday there was A New Dusk at Aces and Eights; this was a lovely night of dancing to post-punk music and catching up with friends and making a few new ones. A small basement in a bar in Tufnell Park, a lovely atmosphere, a very good night.

Saturday promised to be a bit hectic: I had lessons to do and other things, then there was the Renaissance Festival at Electrowerkz and the Gothic Valley WI's Hallowe'en party. I managed to attend both, or at least the first four or five bands at the festival, a few hours at the party and then the last couple of bands at the festival again and, again, a little bit of dancing and, again again, catching up with people. Both good, in very different ways. I still missed a couple of things that were going on, mainly Shenanigans which -oops, I forgot it was that evening. Sorry Sal and Zeke... I don't think they missed me, though; all reports were of a very good night there.

This is half term week so no school. Today, a couple of lessons and meeting a friend for coffee (me, she doesn't do coffee much) and book exchange. On which topic, just finished Charlie Stross's 'Merchant Princes' trilogy -very very good, gripping story that I read almost in one sitting but with a rather rushed ending with some loose ends left. He must have had a lot of fun writing this -it takes place (and was written) in the mid 2000's in the aftermath of 9/11 and he gets to have G W Bush die in a nuclear attack, replaced by Dick Cheney who, in the story, is in league with a cartel of drug smugglers from a parallel Earth. Ok, that's kind of a spoiler but you weren't going to read it anyway, were you. And the story is much more complex than that. I don't think he can write a follow up book to the series, given all the things in it that have become anachronic. More's the pity.

A week end of many parts, most of them good.

Friday was a strange day. I was feeling down and lonely, for various reasons but especially one which will not go in this story. Had nothing planned for that evening and wandered around for hours, walking seemingly having some sort of calming or restoring effect when I feel like that -walked past the Unicorn on Camden Road where there was a punk gig but didn't much like the environment so walked on to Big Red, which was empty -it was too early. Walked yet further down to check out the new location of the 12 Bar Club but didn't go in. Back at the Big Red, a friend turned up and chatted with her about entropy and the pointlessness of existence (maybe I'm hanging out with goths a bit too much) until at some point some other friends and people I know turned up -and it turned out an excellent evening. Made it back around 2:30 or so.

The following day brought about, apart from a couple of lessons, a visit to the Bart's Bazaar Macabre Market at St Bart's Hospital. Didn't buy anything and didn't take pictures but it was a very good outing. I do have to say that seeing all those pathology exhibits just makes me think of how much suffering they brought to their bearers, but it was very interesting -the market itself was small but interesting, full of lovely trinkets although none that really really caught me enough to buy. In the evening, it was Dylan's birthday at Garlic & Shots. There'll be pictures of that but for now, just a very short video of him extolling the virtues of a German Curry Energy Drink..

From there they went on to Decadence but I went to see the Terminal Gods at the Slimelight. Wasn't taken by the two opening bands I saw but the T Gods were very good. I heard some people criticising their music as derivative and.. well, I suppose it is, a little bit, and their influences are very very clear, but there is nothing really wrong with that when they do their stuff so well and I enjoyed it a lot. Took many pictures, I may put up some somewhere.

On Sunday met with Jennie at the Satanic Flea Market, had a browse and generally a good time (good to see mister_ed and Natasha) but again I felt that although there were lovely and interesting things none caught me enough to actually buy. We went next door to Raizes, the Brazilian restaurant next door. Had a good feijoada and arroz carreteiro and we shared a Caipirinha -it was a bit early for that sort of thing but it was nice. Later, we went for a walk down the South Bank. I always enjoy just that feeling of soaking London in, walking past the Globe or the Royal Festival Hall. We stopped at the Real Food Market for a cider and then each went home. Turned out to be a rather good week-end in the end.

Last week end was rather long. It could have started on Tuesday, Bastille Day which also happens to be my birthday. After last year's fiasco (when I found myself alone in the company of kruku in the middle of a sea of tables reserved for us in a pub in Holborn) I didn't feel like putting myself through a birthday celebration this year. So I didn't. I'd said to people that I'd share a birthday drink with whoever came to the garden concert I was playing on Thursday. In the event, I had less than half the numbers of people I was anticipating (and that still counting on about half the people who tell you they're going to come actually will -with a lower proportion on Facebook). The concert went well, people liked what I played and I found myself later at Aces & Eights in the good company of ravenstoker, augeas, kekhmet and one or two other people. A couple of pints, a pizza and some good conversation.

On Friday I went to a football pub ... no, wait, went there to see djpsyche's band the Memepunks doing their usual fun covers and mash-ups, with deathboy doing an excellent opening set (we'll have to talk about his remarkable guitar technique:) and aliasrob doing a short but sweet stand-up comedy set. After this I went to Aces and Eights.. again, to join the goths at the New Dusk and dance a little bit. On Saturday, finally, I had some birthday cake at Reptile, as well as perhaps one or two pints more and a little bit of dancing and talking rubbish catching up with peeps. So it would seem like I did get a little bit of birthday celebration after all.

We'll see whether next year my birthday-twin lovelybug and I can get it together to make a joint celebration. We'll see.

It was a week-end of quite a few things happening. On Friday I went to both Inferno and Dead & Buried * ; danced a lot at both (almost non-stop at Inferno for perhaps two hours). Also ran into a few peeps there, notably morbidfrog and Nadia (who used to be on LJ and is probably in my list but whose LJ handle I cannot remember). Then I went to Dead and Buried, mainly to say happy birthday to djpsyche (which I probably forgot to do...oops) and stayed there until some time between 2:30 and 3:00. Saturday brought the Hampstead Alternative Picnic * and then a bout of Big Red. People wanted to drag me to Slimelight but I resisted, as I had a couple of lessons early on Sunday (and also I felt I kind of had done my allocation of clubbing for the week-end, all in one go the previous day). Sunday brought those lessons and the Alternative Bring and Buy Sale at the Dome, courtesy of the indefatigable xsjdx. All this was good and there could have been more as they were decamping to Aces and Eights after -but I had to get ready for first day of school today. Yes, at this age. A good week-end, all in all, catching up with some lovely people, a few of which I hardly ever see.

* ) These two links are for 'closed' Facebook groups, meaning you have to request membership in order to see the contents. Sorry about this. As most of you are on FB and some might be interested in these I thought I'd put in the links anyway.

Reptile 08-06-2013 and alixandrea and sinbad's birthday celebrations (facebook album).