Back in the Saddle

Apologies for not posting here for so long. I’ve either been busy, or sleeping, or busy sleeping. But I couldn’t let the last few weeks go unrecorded, so in lieu of a proper, detailed report of my recent activities, I’ve thrown together this list instead — a little something you might call Stuff What I’ve Been Doing:

• Saw Sleater-Kinney at the TBMC at the end of August. I can’t say I’ve loved their last few albums, but in the live setting they blew me away. Really glad I skipped Dinosaur Jr for this one.

• Finally finished my thesis. Lordy! It’s being assessed as I write this, and hopefully the official results will be available in a couple of weeks. I’ll get around to posting it in full in the Thesis section one of these days (and there’ll be a proper entry here to go with it).

• Witnessed Pere Ubu on their 30th anniversary tour, in the strangely fancy environs of The Village. They didn’t play anything from Dub Housing (I’m sure my friend Eoin was immensely disappointed) but they were great all the same. Great, and evil. David Thomas is the most evil looking man in rock, I swear.

• Booked my flights for my return to South Africa, and to the arms of the wonderful Benitha. You can imagine, then, that my 2006 will be getting off to a great start. And what’s more, while you’re all stuck here freezing your arses off during January and February, I’ll be living it up in Pretoria at the height of summer! Which is nice.

• In other news, I have a new job. Sort of. It’s actually something related to my degree, and something I really want to do. It hasn’t really started yet, as such. But if it works out, the experience will be invaluable, and it will make my CV look a teensy bit more impressive.

• Also, thanks to Markham (and Furnace, of course) I’ve gotten my first design commission. It’s something creative to get my teeth into, and prevent by brain from atrophying.

As for what’s still to come? Well, I’m still working on various pieces for this site, even though they’ll be horribly out of date by the time I’m finished with them. And my social life? It gets another boost tomorrow night, when I’ll be seeing the Melvins play their classic album Houdini in its entirety. Can you believe it?

I’m already giddy with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. It’ll be the greatest gig ever! Either that, or a load of shite. Whatever happens, it will be an experience to relate to my grandchildren when I’m old and stiff and can’t rock no more.

Fri 30 Sep 2005 at 17:31   ·