If only I could revert to just having a reptilian brain, everything would be so much simpler. It's not like we can claim authorship over neocortical eloquence; most of our greatest and most executive functions happen without our initiative. Maybe that's why people wear out their lives in pursuit of so-called higher education, so that they can feel some kind of control over a part of their mental environment. But the reptilian brain. Its only concerns are food, sex, and defense. Really, all the world's struggles can be distilled down to these. That'd be nice. No cortex; no existential angst. No more sleepless nights slinging my wants and needs between rock and stone, no more what ifs, as ifs, or if onlys.If only. There's so much regret in those two little words. And so much else besides.If only it hadn't rained so consistently, so apocalyptically, in Bristow, Virginia, my friends and I wouldn't be as close as we are now, after having morphed into a massive blue ameboid for the duration of the show, the 4 of us huddled under a blue tarp that very well should have been targeted for destruction, if the rain gods had any sense of humour. Which they don't of course.Rain is a serious business. It dilutes everyone's personal grandiosity down to simple truths. We clutched each other under our tarp to keep the rain off our heads. We got so comfortable under our blue tarp, that as the concert wore on and the water filled our shoes, we felt the rest of them far away from us, like we were waiting for the bus in the rain all by ourselves, watching the street pleadingly for it to arrive, and had fought the indignity of waiting under the shelter, and lost. Sometime during Paranoid Android the irony was too much to bear, and there must have been some sort of speciation event that made us brave enough to step out from our blue womb, out into the rain, to see what the rest of humanity had lost while we still hung on to our gangly, vestigial appendages -Radiohead fans are so dedicated. Either that or their essential machinery has already sustained multiple compounding injuries such that this sad lot, stood fast on the lawn, couldn't find it in their hearts to be anywhere else at the moment. It took me a few days to feel warm again, but listen. Listen:All I NeedJigsaw Falling Into PlaceLucky15 StepNudePyramid SongWeird Fishes/ArpeggiMyxomatosisIdiotequeFaust ArpVideotapeParanoid AndroidJustReckonerEverything In Its Right PlaceBangers + MashBodysnatchersEncore 1:Like Spinning PlatesOptimisticKarma PoliceGo SlowlyPlanet TelexEncore 2:Fake Plastic TreesThe National AnthemHouse of Cards
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Yes, it's close , fast and cheap. And it's all rail so you don't have to deal with traffic.go to New Jersey transit --> trip planner --> itinerary planning1. Starting point: NYC landmark: New York Penn Station or Port Authority or else...2. Destination: Liberty State Park3. select date/time to get the exact train schedule.EXAMPLE:Depart: 33rd st PATH (on Path Journal Sq-33rd st)Arrive: PAVONIA PATH (takes 15 min)transfer to LIGHT RAILDepart: Newport stop (on Hudson-Bergen light rail Bayonne)Arrive: Liberty State Park stop (takes 14 min)Walk 0.06 mile SE to Liberty State Park.Total fare: $3.65 one-way
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A well deserved bit of recognition for Radiohead's In Rainbows. I know that awards are not on the bands mind in general and I don't want to dwell on how great it is, but... wayhey!
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5.After it was over I felt sort of sick. But not like I thought I would. I guess I felt, well, like I did everyday.It just wasn't anydifferent.And that made me throw up.
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ahoy-hoy, my w-a-st-e-rels!this blog posting finds me just out of my sick-bed. no work for me!sadly, this is no mental-health day, this is real illness.went to glasgow to see the mighty charlatans play a blinding show. utterly, utterly fucking brilliant; seen them four times now and this was probably the best show. i still have tinnitus, two days later.glasgow gigs are usually pretty good, given the up=for-it nature of the crowd. the down side being the high number of neds, off their faces, generally getting on one's nipples.definition of a nedurban dictionary is a great site, here are some of my contributions;sackagebawbaggeryquinnbathgood stuff. if these appear to be sad in-jokes that you have no frame of reference for; sorry, you're probably right about that.here's the definition of "jakey", from previous posts.anyway, they do get around, these neds (chavs, to my english cousins) and, frankly, the body odour (usually a combination of amphetamines and not washing) is upsetting to a gentle soul such as myself.this is often compounded by the ned's preference for removing his top and showing off his malnourished torso, in the hope that some poor woman will mistake it for a toned physique.the junkie frame, odour,inevitable tattoos and (in the case of tuesday's gig) horrendous bacne can really take the gloss of a good night out. the gig was amazing, though.i was just glad to have made it though, narrowly avoiding a turf war between turkish fast-food operators. knives were, quite literally, out and i was keen to avoid being chibbed.knowing the band would be back for the encore, i decided to get myself a glass of cola (no alcohol on weeknights for me). as the band ended with a mighty, ten minute version of sproston green (ahhh, nostalgia), i started to feel funny. one of the neds had spiked my drink! what is normally a ninety minute drive home turned into a three hour nightmare of me vomiting out of the passenger seat window, laughing, crying and telling people that i didn't want to be a horse, any more.ladies and gentlemen, it's safe to assume some lovable rascal had put ketamine in my drink. as a result, i've spent the last two days detoxing and evacuating and, for some reason, my nose has gone bright red and broken out in blackheads. i look like a teenager, or at least one with a strawberry for a nose. all i've been able to eat is dry toast (though i'm working up to the aforementioned salad roll) good times!i realise this is the second blog in a row about my bodily functions. i do apologise, and thank you for hanging in there.i'll wrap this up, seeing as i'm supposed to be studying.anything beats work right now. to give you an idea of the death star, the young lovers mentioned in previous posts are not even the biggest freaks on my team. they've hired this weirdo on the weekend shift who mutters to himself about how he should be prime minister and "usher in golden age". pretty impressive, until you realise he probably gets his mum to tie his shoelaces in the morning.he sits next to this old bloke who looks like mr magoo and speaks like rigsby from rising damp (go on, google it if you have to). even the old bloke has realised he no longer holds the title of biggest chube on the team and has, thankfully, toned down his act.i don't mind eccentricity (read my blogs, for god's sake), but mad people who are also boring seem to seek me out. the weekend weirdo was telling me he was going inter-railing around europe in the summer (ok, fair enough) a couple of weeks ago. i was in last sunday (the "hannah incident") when i heard the weirdo puffing and panting behind me (worried? you bet!). maybe he was blowing up a balloon, or a new girlfriend?to once again quote my dear old grandfather - "that laddie's next ride will be his first."incidentally, my granddad is pissed off at me at the moment. i bought him brokeback mountain for his birthday;"oh, is this a western, son? nice one."anyway, i turn round to see the weirdo is blowing up what looks like an inflatable globe, like you'd find in mothercare, or the early learning centre. so i asked him what he was doing.apparently he bought it (he's an only child) so he could bring it in and show me where he was going inter-railing. when i asked him why he didn't just show me a map, or go on the internet, he said;"neither of those options were as good an ice-breaker!"if you don't find this creepy, or are laughing at me right now, i don't want to know.how come all the stalkers in movies are sexy women? i think i'll hide under my bed until the summer.anyway, i love you all. feel that love.your pal,steve x.ps- the charlatans actually played their song weirdo on tuesday. how ironic.
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... well there we are: got the tickets AND found an hotel in Leuven (which was tough!)3 gigs so far from home, it's a bit crazy, but I decided that it's perfectly my right! it's my 30th birthday present for myself (6 months too early, oh well)next step: go buy rubber boots, just in case, and there we go!
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The first leg of the Radiohead North american tour is completed! I tried to catch some great photoshots and vids from all shows of the tour till now.. hope you will enjoy them :)Photos:
Las palabras son vanas en estas instancias.Camino por la ciudad entre abrigos y recuerdosMe cubro en un gran vacio de desconcierto ynadie se esfuerza por retornarpor escapar del suicida deseo de resucitar que nos persigue..._______________________________________________[tan remoto que ya no se como diferenciarlo del árido,a veces malgastado silencio.]Tan mío...Veo que un árbol se derrite cuando lo respirollego tocarlo con la punta de los dedos...pero se escurre rápidamente hacia los costados.Se desvanecen los finales de una brisa azul ...pero igual la siento ahí...como si nada hubiera cambiado...como si nunca se hubiera ido.
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I just made a new livejournal account.If anyone wants to add me, I'd gladly appreciate it since I have zero friends!http://infinils.livejournal.com/
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I've added Werchter to my tour dates... and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go there too!it's a little crazy idea - 2 days of travelling by train for one day of festival, but I think it's worth it! well, even "only" with Radiohead it would've been worth, but I aso really feel like seeing SIgur Ros, have been listening to their music for a while but never saw them live.
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I hope that you will find it interesting.The first 8 shows are completed. So I visited the Radiohead Tour Database and choose the most interesting stats (according to my opinion) and wrote a blog with the "summary of the first leg of North American Tour with numbers"Here are some of them:All I Need opened the shows 7 times while 15 Step opened only one show! House of Cards was preferred as a show closer (3 times), while Paranoid Android came second:* House of Cards: 3 times* Paranoid Android: 2 times* Reckoner: 2 times* Street Spirit: Once* Idioteque: OnceRadiohead played all songs from In Rainbows, 7/10 songs from Kid A, 7/12 songs from Ok Computer:* In Rainbows: 10/10 tracks played* Kid A: 7/10 tracks played* Ok Computer: 7/12 tracks played* The Bends: 7/12 tracks played* Hail to the Thief: 6/14 tracks played* Amnesiac: 4/10 tracks played* Pablo Honey: 0/12 tracks playedFor more Radiohead north american tour stats click here
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i know it is a week or so late but here are my thoughts on those 2 shows....i remember we drove in the night from atlanta to greenville, south carolina and stayed at an amazing red roof inn. They are redesigning all red roof inns and let me tell ya, as some one who travels a lot I was pretty impressed with the design. Only problem is that they use t mobile for their wireless. I digress...We left greenville pretty early but decided we wouldn't get to charlotte early in the morning since neither of us had a pit ticket. We got to the venue maybe around noon and there were 3 people there. We spent the day there waiting at the box office and my friend prescot met up with us to listen to soundcheck. The soundchecked started around 4 and they must have done like 11 songs, especially Jigsaw, which they had yet to debut for the tour. The box office ended up having nothing but seats in the back, so i bought one of those.I had remembered that a girl in atlanta had got herself into the pit by using someone elses already used pit ticket. The tickets in atlanta had a big 'p' written on them in marker by the venue security when they gave us wristbands. So that girl was able to take as much of the marker off for them not to tell and they wrote on it again and gave her a wristband. SO I decided to use the method to get into the pit in charlotte. Matt was lucky, he got a pit ticket just from a fan that was waiting at the gate. When the gates opened I ran in using my shitty row U ticket to be scanned and then when it came time to get into the pit, I put my finger over the date and where the washed off 'p' was and just was very talkative with the security. He did not notice at all and just gave me a wristband and let me in. So easy. I got in just in time to get rain right between thom and jonny! The pit was also fairly small and no one really showed up to be there until the lairs went on, so we had room to move around and everyone was really respectful. The show in charlotte was my favorite of the first 5, the band was full of great energy and even thom said something along the lines of 'we're gonna need a rest after this one'.After the show we started our drive to maryland and stayed just north of charlotte in concord. The next morning we drove to maryland where we were staying with my friend John's parents. We made it in about 7 hours, but got stuck in horrific traffic in DC. That night we just hung with my friend's parents and rested. Little did we know what we would encounter at bristow.It wasn't really raining when we left maryland that morning. We got to bristow pretty fast and met 3 people who got there right after us. The venue told us we could not be in the property until 4pm, but that we could go in to check the box office at noon. When noon came we all went in and just stayed by the gates. We met a kid who has been there since 7am! Then as soon as we got there, it started to rain. I broke out my poncho and put on another set of layers. It wasn't terrible, but then around 3pm they let the cars in so people just started flooding in. The pit would be massive at this show, holding something like 1800 people. The rain just kept coming and we camped out at one gate hoping that we could out run kids to the front. The front being about 1/4 of a mile from the gate, all the way around to the other side of the venue. When they opened the gates it was raining so hard that huge puddles of muddy water were what we had to run through to get to the front. Once i finally made it there, i had to ask people to let me through since I had been there all day. Most people were fine with that, except for a few young girls that gave me some attitude. They made us wait at the entrance to the pit for about 30 min as it continued to rain really hard. Soaking wet at this point, I am trying to remember how much I love this band. Once they let us in, I got right between thom and jonny, second row behind the kid that had been there since 7am. The show was good, but there was a lot of negative energy around me. Between the girls who gave me tude, and this guy who had been reportedly touching girls innapropriatly, to just people who were bitching nonstop. I tried to ignore it all and get into the show, but I think being wet and cold made it even harder. The show was good, but not a favorite of mine.After the show we were completely and totally exhausted. We tried to drive back to maryland but it was pouring rain out so bad that it was hard to see. We were so afraid that the bad weather plus being tired would get us in an accident, so we just pulled over and stayed at a hotel. It was still raining the next morning but the drive back to marlyand and then onward to connecticut was not so bad.It was a great week filled with lotts of adventures. We met so many great people along the way. Thanks to everyone who helped us out.
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Herewith a spreadsheet full of goodies and silliness:http://download.yousendit.com/E1C5DB75320205AB(and yes, there probably is a more efficient way to collate most of the information in that spreadsheet)And some charts for your pleasure:
