Time has gone in to accelerated mode since work began last week Tuesday. So far it’s been cramming new information in to my head and battles with the tube in the mornings (I was used to busses or walking) but the guys are interesting (great characters!) so no doubt everything will fall in to stride soon.
The hour tube ride in the morning and evening are giving me a chance to read and I’ve barely noticed the time passing (I get a seat for the majority of the journey).
Formula 1 again this up coming weekend.. Brazil.. still no idea of who to back this year.
A surprise on Monday morning when I checked a message board to be told that april skies has been reviewed in the April issue of Q magazine. It’s only a little mention following on from a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club site review, and for it to make sense, here they both are:
BlackRebelMotorcycleClub
www.blackrebelmotorcycleclub.com/brmcframeset.html
As Marlon Brando said in the movie from which they took their name, “what are you rebelling against… what have you got?” What they have is a rather plain and downbeat site with many an expired link, although that may all be part of the uncompromisingly stark, back-to-basics image. And yes, it certainly could be mistaken for a Jesus And Mary Chain site, so with that in mind, let’s surf over to…
AprilSkiesAJesusAndMaryChainSite
www.amniisia.com/aprilskies/index.html
…Which of course looks completely different being styled in pale gold and replete with far more bells and whistles. Sharp and well organised, sites such as April Skies prove how good the net is at providing resources for devotees of bands who may have otherwise slipped off the cultural radar.
So that puts a smile on my face.
On the topic of things which put smiles on my face…
In 1997 I compiled about 50 poems, printed them out, photocopied (if memory serves) 50 copies, and bound them in to A5 booklets with string (some plain, some gold). My aim was initially to stand on a street corner in Sydney and sell them for $1 each but after a very brief attempt I felt silly and gave up.
Walking about wondering what to do with 50 copies of a booklet of poems, I went to a record shop to browse. In Sydney, as most places around the world, the average music shop has a small bit of floor space for dumping flyers and other promotional material, so that’s where about half of my poem booklets ended up (I still had faith that I could recover the costs of the photocopying somehow).
I placed a small stack at Waterfront, and another in Red Eye where I then went to look at some CDs. Their racks had an upper and lower deck through which you could see people milling about on the other side and I felt shivers go up my spine as I looked up and saw a person picking up my little booklet and put it in his bag.
Jump over to 2002, and the other week I received an email from a guy who had picked up my booklet 5 years ago. He still has it, and he still reads it. His email was so wonderfully positive that I’ve been breaking in to smile when the sentiments of his email pop in to my head.
Was he the same guy? I’ll never know. I’m just thrilled that a copy of that booklet is still out there.
(the undistributed half of the print run are boxed up in Sydney .. I never did figure out how to make money out of them, but after seeing that one guy pick a copy up, I didn’t want to anymore)