It has some Lovecraft on. So I've been sitting in the pub reading some of the works of the master on my iPaq. Cool as Fuck.

I amShub-Niggurath! Shub-Niggurath is often called the "Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young", and is the force of creation, life, evolution/mutation. She represent the force of the one universal constant (ie change) on the biological. She is often envisioned as a dark, low lying cloud, with goat's hooves with numerous tenticals writhing from within. Her rites are best performed during a New Moon, or on Mid-Summer's Eve.

Which Great Old One are you?

I still have the bulk of my Christmas shopping to do. AAARRGGGHHHH. Tomorrow is going to be horrible & I don't feel very Christmassy. I suppose that'll change when I get to my pals. She's picking me up in the Afternoon & I'm off to the countryside for a few days to eat sprouts & drink excessively whilst blobbed infront of a T.V. I'll probably make it out the door with the dogs a couple of times.

So it's a Merry Christmas to everyone at livelog & 20six & hopefully the New Year will bring good things for you all.

An Easter Egg isn't always made of chocolate. Maybe I should have saved this for the appropriate time of year. Ah well the factories are churning out chocolate eggs as we sit here.

Coughing felt like my brain was trying to burst out the top of my head & eye sockets, the short trip to the loo & slight drop in temperature brought on shivering fits for twenty minutes. I managed 3 slices of pizza in the evening, again a bad sign, as I can normally polish of a whole family size one to myself. But when food tastes like cardboard (more like cardboard, than pizza in a box normally does) then it kind of losses it's appeal. Though I managed to stay concious long enough to watch "Slaughter House 5" on DVD. One of Mr Vonneguts greatest works & a very good adaptation.

Sunday I just felt like shit, which was a 100% improvement on Saturday. Wrapped up again & got the tube from North Holt & dived off at Tottenham Court road for a quick neb at some expensive consumer items, but wasn't really feeling up to it. Then to Euston to jump on the train back to Wolves, thankfully the train was overheated as usual, something that normally bugs me, but was needed. Bloody bus replacement service from New Street to Wolves, then a cab back to mine, via the corner shop to pickup some ginger, honey & lemon to make the cold cure. I was in bed by 21:30, which again is unusual for me. I'm having today off work as I'm still not 100% (about 50%) No matter what I've got to be in tomorrow :(

Anyway. Friday night was great. We managed to swap the seated tickets for standing with the touts, at only £5 a ticket, rather than the £20 he wanted for the swap for each ticket. We missed the Support band. I mean who watches the support band? Bugger. I do when there's a mate in the band, but I only found out after the show when we saw them loading out & I spotted my mate. We lost Mr B after the show & I still have to see if Mish has any news as to what happened to him after the show. 'The Stranglers' were class as usual & kept pulling rabbits out of the hat. "I think they've played everything I want to hear now... OH 'No more Heroes'... That must be it... Oh... 'Duchess'.." I assume the tracks I didn't recognise are new ones, but they still have that 'Stranglers' sound, so it looks like I'll be searching out the later albums. Besides the Lurgy, a good weekend. I was just dissapointed I went all that way & didn't get chance to bimble around London. Looks like I'll have to try again at a later date. Any suggestions of things to see & do on a visit, would be greatfully recieved.

On the plus side 'Zero 7' were very good. Very mellow, a bit like 'Air' to my mind. I will be obtaining some of their music. 'The Damned' were rubbish

Tomorrow 'The Lost Prophets' & a letter fromn Lil' sis' to look forward to, as she bumped into the Production Manager in Leeds today & has passed on a letter for me. Yayness I believe the phrase is.

The show tomorrow has cancelled, but we've got to pop in & take the club night gear out at 14:00 tomorrow. So I think a quick trip to Maplins or Dixons is in order to grab a webcam. after the load out I'll proably hang around work so I can check out some WebCam software. Then waiting till one of the pretty barmaids gets into work & hang out with her whilst she works, as I should be able to get online in the bar from the office wireless. I might see if I can sort the cam out, but don't hold your breath.

The lamps seemed to take forever to get off the deck, but once they were out of the way, the backline, which had mostly been set up on rolling risers just.. er rolled on. PA wasn't a problem at all, as the modern flying systems are less labour intensive & only take a few blokes to help the PA riggers set up.

I went up into the roof to colour the spots with Bella, who'd had a heavy day off drinking & wasn't feeling to clever. When we got up onto the cat walk I jokingly suggested that she shouldn't be sick up here as it would just fall through the grating 60' to the floor below. On the way down one of the ladders I heard the retching & splattering sound of someone being sick through a cat walk & the puke falling 20' to the landing below:)

What can I say about the show? The first band, were totally forgetable, I can't even remember their name. 'Thunder' did what they did with great proffessionalism, but as it wasn't their show the vibe didn't get going as it does at their own shows. I'm not a fan of 'Thunder' I wouldn't buy an album & if I was round someones house & they said "should I put a 'Thunder' Album on?" I wouldn't say no, but I wouldn't be whooping for joy. Their live show is something else though. I've seen them live quite a few times & each time they've been great.

Peter Frampton. ZZzzzzzzz How dull was he? Just nothing with some appaling guitar wank thrown in.

Deep Purple pure class, with probably one of the greatest songs of all time 'Smoke on the Water' How bored must they be playing that after all those years :)

Finally a good load out, with all departments of the production happy, even the slightly miserable production manager. What more could I wish for personally & professionally?

Plus a big thanks to Jakie for sorting lil' sis' to see Motorhead & Sepultura tonight.

It was kind of bad of me, but I'm weak, I've had some tax back & I recon the card can cope... I'll be eating a lot of stew for a while, but... I now own a dinky new (to me) Toshiba laptop, at nowhere near the list price.

OK. I'm not going to be playing Doom 3, but it'll run Civilisation. It has got built in wireless, so I can blag online time at work, or anywhere else with a hotspot. It'll run the Avolites Pearl Simulator & Visualiser, so I can do a bit of programming for the club nights, without having to have everything set up. There's a video out, so I could do some imagery type stuff for the projections at the club nights, maybe get the club to pay for the work. Once they see how neat they are. I'll be able to blog from bed. OK. I'm trying to justify it, I know. but... but... It's too late. I've gone & done it.

Please don't rain on my parade & tell me I could have got a... ".?." for less & it would have been better.

It was suggested by one of the techs that he would have probably been OK if he'd stayed at home in front of 'East Enders', but as the local paper had run an article bemoaning the lack of attendance at the festival he'd probably thought he should struggle out & remember his fallen comarades. There was an announcement later in the festival that he was 'stable & comfortable' in hospital. The moral dilemma I had, was should I have taken a picture of him being worked on to sell to the local paper. (I didn't)

Quite a good load out on the night. One of the youths on the crew came in for the load out with a neck covered in Hickies. He had the piss taken out of him mercilessly. "You should have bought her some chips if she was hungry." "Have you been playing with the Dyson again?" "I didn't know we had Vampires in town" etc. etc. etc. hehehehe. I hope he realises that if they join up all around his neck he'll die. Well that's what we were told in school, so it must be true.

The music wasn't even that interesting, a lot of classical noodling that didn't really convey much. I did recognise one tune though. I mentioned it to the other spot op & he said it sounded familar to him as well. It was. Disney used it in their animated version :)

I know this makes me sound like some sort of ignorant philistine, but I'm afraid ballet must be one of those things that's just not for me. A bit like football I suppose. I can't get excited about that either

Best bit of the day was working with the Russian Stage Manager & L.D. Who both had a bit of English. It was a universal professionalism thing, we both did the same job, so could communicate, what we needed because we knew our jobs. Worst bit of the day was having one of the Costume women having a dickie-fit at me, in Russian, because I didn't understand what she was asking me to do in Russian, when I was doing my damndest to be helpful. I did ring SIL (who speaks Russian) to see if she could write out the Russian for "Don't have a strop at me you stupid witch, just because I don't understand Russian" I suppose it was lucky for international relations that SIL was off work ill & couldn't drop the bit of paper round to me :)

Character1:"Just give me the main frame"
Character2:"No, ..You have 48 hours"
Getting paranoid now. I better start stocking up with dried food... & thermal underwear.
The film fucks with the dark widescreen bands at the top & bottom of the screen. Nice touch. Or maybe it's an artifact of chapter change on the PS
Handy hint, wether it be horror, disaster, or war. Never ever show someone your family pictures or discuss your children.
How far do you have to be from a cell phone mast?
Ahh the British stiff upper lip & bottle of 12 year old Malt
Awww New York gets hurt again

U.S. Refugees into Mexico LOL
The worst scene so far. Book burning! Outrageous! Disgusting! Just leave the bald kid behind :)
Fever. cut leg, rats. I guess Weils disease. OK Scepticaema. Close but no cigar
DUH! Why not use the axe to hack through the door
lol Wolves. You've got an axe numpty... & knife. It's not as though they can attack with ripping claws like a big cat. OK maybe I'm being too positive. But I'd give it a go

WHAT A PILE OF TWADDLE.

That's your revue for "The Day After Tomorrow".

Film night (II)
LOL he's given her a pearl necklace :)
The ancient Greeks were just a bunch of fucking gangsters
Check out who Nestor was + Myrmidon, Lysander, Ajax, Persayus (SP?), Oh Stop making a list & just read the book yourself:)
Yup. They were just a bunch of fucking gangsters
Hmm check out who plays Achilles Mum

Is there a list of Achilles Myrmidons? Did they get their imortality?
Too early in the day for killing princes (cut to beheaded statue of appollo) Implied. ...But not Gods. :)
Mrs Hectors rather nice as well.

I'm curious as to Helens behaviour. I have a feeling she was a gold digger, a trophy wife
Where are the Gods in all this. Why aren't they looking down on a big map with tiny figures on?
Money. Strange I seem to get them in pairs LOL Terry Pratchett has a lot to answer for :)
We lose all credibility... ahhh a Spin Doctor
Rubbish Sentries.
Excellent. big burning balls of Hay. I've seen Spartacus, the Trojans must have as well :) Why are the boats still burning? they've got the whole of the Aegean see to put them out with.
Oh OH Achilles is going to be pissed off!
That boy's just saved this war for us. Ah Agammenon, such a cynical politician.
I'm not sure 5 blokes would be able to carry a piece of wood that big
Achilles is like Kurtz.
I'm not getting the sense that the war went on for 10 years. There is a sort of Samurai thing going on
You're their prince now. Make your brother proud. Yup I was right Gold Digger.
TOP MOVIE. Except the Theme tune is a bit dodgy.

I wonder what happened to the fugatives from Troy? Where there fugatives from Troy? Looks like I better read the book. Off to Blackmask to see if they've got the (e) book.

As I'd travelled all the way over to The Drama Queens town it would have been churlish not to have given her a call. Early evening we met up at the stage door & headed off to 'Georges', the bar that Mish has written about in her blog. What a superb Bar. Mish, as a regular was greeted with gusto by the eponymous George. I as a stranger there, was greeted with no less enthusiasm.

We sat down with Mish's friend, 'Mr Butterfly' for a pleasant evening of drinking & chatting (I wasn't drinking as much as normally would, as I had to return for the load out.) I was able to clear up the mystery of 'Mummification' for them both though (see this entry). I also heard some Juicy news about Mish & her fantasy. Indeed. Do be careful what you wish for.

Finally it got to my witching hour & I had to return to work leaving Mish & Mr Butterfly to wait & see if someone would turn up after his display on a dating site.

When you see George next Mish. Tell her I'll do the hoovering another time.

Got the load in over, then headed back to Wolves to do a bit of office work then a visit to the pictures with a pal to watch Predator Vs Aliens. What a cool film. Does exactly what it says on the tin, with just enough plot to get the Predators & the Aliens in the same place so they can fight it out.

After the pictures off for a curry. The curry house I normally go to was closed for refurbishment, so we had to try one further down the street. It was good, so now I've got a choice of curry houses to visit when I'm in town. Back to Brum for the load out, whihc went quicker than I thought, Then back to Wolves & my mates 40th Birthday party in a great Bar/Restraunt. This was just a quick visit to say hi & grab a quick drink, as 3 of us were loadcing out the club night at 02:00hrs. that took till about 02:45 & it was back to the party, for dancing, drinking & cavorting. The picture below was taken at around 06:00, but doesn't have seemed to have gone through till later. All back to the Birthday boys house for more drinking, everyone retiring about 10. Back to mine & spent the day in bed, rising in the afternoon to do the washing up, grab a bite to eat then mooch around some blogs whilst listening to the radio.

Highlights for Wednesday were getting back to mine for an afternoon nap before going back for the load out (Very Rock 'n' Roll, I know) & the load out only taking a couple of hours.

Highlights from yesterday were having time to meet up with Bro' & SIL for a pint & quick chat before they went in to see the show & Getting a freind of theirs in on the guest list as she hadn't managed to get a ticket.

Today is supposedly a day off. HA! I've been sorting crew for those shows & trying to get some order to the flat. Plus it's Birthday drinks for another mate tonight.

I've still not rewired the PS at the flat & it doesn't look like I'm going to get time to. I might get chance to see Bro' & SIL on Thursday night, to find out how their Holiday was, when they go to see the 'Scissor sisters'

It is the busy time of year.

The 'puter here is in the spare room which is kind of un-civilised by my reconning. It should be at the centre of the house, like the hearth was in olden times. Having the 'puter located out of the way in a tiny room makes it so utilitarian, rather than a member of the household, as it should be. Hopefully I've got my T.V. jag out of the way & I can get back to being online more. I have fired up the PS2 through the T.V. so I can now pop back to the worlds of Vice City, Hitman, Wipeout & Metal Gear. Maybe some thoughts on T.V. during the next few days.

Commander in chief! Kerry admits intelligence was faulty. Invading iraq in response to 9 11 is like FDR invading mexico in response to pearl harbour.

Contributions of these brave soldiers. Why the hell was there a need for there to be brave soldiers?

I wish I could see their faces on this debate.

"It's hard work to go froma country where people get their hands cut off or executed" Er.... Electric chair? that's a really nice thing for a government to support..

90% of the casualties & 90% of the costs. Kerry mentions N Korea & say's he''l change that. How?

There is no war on terror. The war should be on why someone thinks they need to commit terrorist acts.

Every life is precious. That's what distinguises us from the enemy. HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Better training faster? You What Kerry?

Bush boasts about being commander in chief again

Wow. Kerry called Colin Powell, Colin rather than Coe-lyn

Wow. Maybe they're interested in our oil.... Maybe.

A determined enemy trying to defeat us. Er... why have they decided they need to defeat you? Why does someone decide they want to fight?

One mans Terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.

A solemn duty to protect the American people. Protect them from Global warming then. Protect them from ecological disaster then.

Why are they the enemy? Why do they feel the need to fight?

Me sitting in my flat by myself has more chance of making weapons of mass destruction. I'd be caught. But not before I'd killed a load of people & got some press.

Pre-emtive action. I'll take some pre-emptive action then.

Are they wearing earpieces? So advisors can prompt them?

Double the numbers of special forces. How special are they going to be then?

Character issues for job as commander in chief? Fucking hell?!MIxed messages send the wrong message. Er.... get the details right then. What was the bit about Bushes daughters about? The issue of certainty. Nice.

Core values. You can't wilt under the pressure. Yeah whatever. Can't you change your mind? Iraq seems to be really important.

Nuclear proliferation. Are you sure they're not wearing ear pieces?

Kerry. Treblinka. What like the reams of files that the U.S. is starting to keep?

Summing up. You love the country. How much do you love the world? Talk of winning is bad. Talk of making things right is better. Can you still say God bless America? Is that what the founding fathers wanted?Scary sacary sacary.

Your man is asking some pundits who won. My answer is neither. They both came over as assholes. Oh of course. they're politcian. goes without saying relly.

OK I'm going to post this. I ain't no politician, or political expert. but lets see what anyoine thinks. Lets see what I think when I read it again in the morning. Stream of consioness, whatever. Excuse the typos I blurbed this out as i listened.

Plus I've just picked up the post. The Inland Revenue have sent me my tax back. Over a grand! Yippee! Off to the bank to pay it in then. Big Smiley.

Woke up late on Saturday & bimbled into town to work the clubnight. Had a couple of pints before hand & chatted with the pretty barmaids, before the bar got busy.

A friend of mine was playing a party that night in a local bar. Just before finishing work I texted to see if the party was still going on. 02:30 Sunday morning saw me being let in the fire door of the closed bar, much fun was had drinking, dancing & cavorting aided by E. Mercks finest invention. Leaving the bar at some time & on to a pals house for vodka a smokes a lovely way to finish the evening off... & start the next day with Mr Hoffmans finest invention. As they were crashing out it was time to move on to another pals house via the now open corner shop for some eggs & a loaf of bread for me to make fried egg butties & Mushroom tea, for the other mental travellers. They were greatful for my ability to hold it together to make them breakfast. As they started to crash out I bimbled out with a big grin on my face, managing to avoid having the only other remaining person who had talked non-stop & was doing my head in following me. Stepping out of the house a pal who lives opposite invited me in for a cup of tea. So an hour or so chatting & drinking tea.

By this time the pub was open & as I turned the corner blue sky & sunshine made me pause on the corner of the street to enjoy the view. What better place to watch the sky than from my local pubs beer garden? So four hours later I was still sitting in the garden with the same drink, but hadn't been bored once. The way the clouds were forming & changing & the light changed on the foliage in the garden was better than T.V.

Finally home to a Chinese & a quiet evening playing PS & reading blogs.

I feel fine today & I'm looking forward to work tonight when the ace Band 'The Datsuns' will be rocking out.

I took the PS2 over & showed him some of the games I'd got. *ahem* (Read making sure there was a spare input on his T.V for the PS, for when I'm over there ;) I've decided that I don't need to upgrade the 'puter for games. That's what the PS is for, plus I can still play Civilisation on the 'puter.

We finished off the evening watching 'Spy Games' (It's late, so I'm too lazy to do a link, you'll have to check the IMDB yourself) A top film with a really clever plot & brilliant way of telling a story happening in the present & in the past at the same time.

How did the gig go then? I didn't get chance to check out Joss Stone, nor Goldie Looking Chains. Ah well another time then. On our stage 'Kasabian' & one of the early bands (I forget their name) made an impression. Whilst 'The Music' were OK. The best thing about the day was that it finished at 18:00hrs. So I was back in time for last orders. Which is definitely a result. :)

Sunday night I tried phoning lil' sis' no answer. Then I get a call back around 02:30 when she got back from a club. First day at Uni & she's already out clubbing. Looks like she's got the right idea :) hehehe.

Monday I bought a PS2. That explains what I've been up to. It was playing GTA:Vice City at my friends the other weekend that did it. I'd enjoyed the game so much I wanted to play it for myself. So I've been riding shotgun on drug deals, racing through the city on a trials bike, shooting gang members with a machine gun from a helicopter. Good wholesome fun :) A lot of the time I've been parked up just listening to the tunes on the radio. Wow. I remember rhat one. Bloody hell they were so shit. That sort of thing. I still haven't managed to batter the bloke to death on the golf course yet.

So why am I blogging now? What dragged me away from the Electronic Smack? I popped to the Local, where I'm drinking Kelham Island Pale Rider & tapping this entry out on my Ipaq. So as it's closing time. I'm off home to sync this entry up, add some links & post it. Then on with the mayhem. Stealing the fastest boat is the next mission. Should be a piece of piss after stealing that tank :)

P.S. Well what a bugger I had syncing this. The sync software has been playing up ever since I installed it. It probably didn't help that I was trying to play Vice City at the same time. I have stolen the fastest boat though Hehehehe.

Tomorrow there are more full bands. But the show in our tent finishes at 18:00hrs. Yay an early night then. We like those.

When I got home this evening there was a letter from the Doctors. I'm like most blokes, I only go to the doctors if some part of me is nearly detached. The last time I went to the doctors, 2 years ago, was to make sure my tetanus was up to date because of all the little scrapes & scratches we get at work & to have a Hepatitus jab as it had been suggested as a good idea because people will insist on puking, pissing & shitting on stuff that I have to handle later, espescially on festival sites. When I turned up the receptionist asked which doctor I was under & I told them who I thought was my doctor & she said that she'd retired years ago.

Today, when I saw the return adress on the outside of the envelope I had one of thsoe mild twinges of terror. Why are the docs contacting me? Opening the letter I find that they've identified me '..as being "at risk" and therefore... would benefit from recieving a free flu immunisation.' Why am I "at risk"? that's what I want to know. I'm not ancient. I thought this sort of thing was for old folks. Maybe I'm now classed as an old folk? I'll give them a bell on Monday & see what the deal is.

... and finally. What will everyone be speaking like tomorrow me hearties? :) We've had a bit of a practice yesterday & today. I think the stage manager is quite looking forward to being referred to as captain. hehehe.

P.S. Lil' sis' is off to Uni tomorrow. Maybe pop by her blog & leave her some surprise good luck wishes. I dunno how long it will be before she gets her interweb access though.

P.P.S. If you're at the Radio 1 thing in Brum tomorrow & happen to see a handsome mustachioed gentlemen moving gear about on Stage 2. That'll be me. why not say hello. Bed time for me after my tiring day.