Hard to believe, but today is not only Vincent Price’s 105th birthday and Christopher Lee’s 94th birthday—it’s ten years since Alex Toth passed away. (Peter Cushing’s 103rd was yesterday.)
Most importantly, to me, today is ten years since my mother died. (Yes, she and Alex died on the same day.)
Mom on her 21st birthday, August 13th 1964.
Read More »Ten Years
I am aghast to realise it was ten years ago (almost) that I tried to make a Bowie Top Ten list.
Thought I’d try similar, with the same reckless abandon, and see what comes out.
Oh, okay. A pic of Bowie first (a la last time).
Nice scarf, Dave. And you do rock the odd gray streak in that awesomely luscious hair. 😉
Here goes the new Top Ten…
Read More »Best of Bowie (Ten Years On)
Or so it says on an old badge I still have. Which I used to wear a lot. Being absent from the blog so much this year means no Bowie Talk about the new album, The Next Day. (Buy it from Amazon.) Yeah, I liked it; yeah, I’ve had my ups-and-downs with it. In the end I made peace with it fully—I actually love some of it intensely.
See, I thought he was gone for good. And I was more or less okay with that. It might seem odd but the whole thing was very emotional for me. I had to go through a wide spectrum of feelings. On the other side, I’m really happy the new album exists. The world is a better place with DB in it.
And hey, he’s still a fine-looking man at 66, ain’t he?
I’m backdating this post. I was preoccupied on the day and later went out with Steve to see a movie and have a quick drink.
But I had to mark the fact that August 13th 2013 would’ve been mom’s 70th birthday. Here’s she aged 21 in 1964…
Read More »Mom’s 70th
As I type this specific sentence we’re at roughly 1:10am on the 27th. Of May. Not the friendliest of dates for me. Today, four years ago, my mother passed away. I’d be lying if I said it had been the greatest four years ever. It’s had its good points. Just not enough of them. And since moving back here in Dec ’07, I’d say the good points have receded quite dramatically.
Read More »Renewal
I’m not posting this from my blog interface, but rather, hand-coding it. Blog software’s been a bit knackered for the last month (it’ll hopefully be fixed soon), so I’ve been unable to post. [Note: Of course, this has since been reposted using the new blog interface!]
Well, you know, weird turn of events. After the last move, to Ilford… I found myself without an Internet connection for two months, almost. And the new home had cockroaches. This was an unbeatable combination, quite honestly. I finally decided I had to give up on the Down South Experiment, so, would you believe… I write this five weeks after my fifth move in a 14-month period, back where I began, my old home-town (actually, the same street as before to boot!).
I don’t see this as permanent, but for now, just a bit of stability seems like a good idea. Apart from the trauma of moving five times, anyhoo. My sleeping patterns are shot to hell, worse than they’ve ever been and very nearly upside-down. But, the upsides: I have Wifi, there are no cockroaches, a large living-room into which all my junk fits nicely… and today, a new washing machine arrived, which was nice. (No, really. I am allergic to hand-washing.)
Read More »Sort-Of Update
Or another moving day, even, as it’s later today that I move… for the fecking fourth time in the space of a year…
But, yeah, I did find somewhere dog-friendly, and my escape from Ye Landlord from Hell is finally happening. I’ll get this moving thing right one of these days.
I’m off to Ilford, which is in Essex, in case you wondered.
Read More »Another Day
So I am looking around for a new place. Went to see my friend Michael in Camden today and browse what was on offer there. No much of any use, as it happens, but we had a nice meal anyway!
I am (fingers crossed) viewing a place on Wednesday night in the Brockley/Lewisham area. Prolly not as funky as Fulham, but close to the city (only about 20 mins from Charing Cross), and it’s obviously the living situation itself that is most important. This one sounds a lot better, but I don’t wanna say too much for now.
I’ve been in a sort-of relationship for some months with someone now, and last night he suggested making it official. He was a little drunk so I said, ‘Hey, maybe tomorrow you’ll not say this.’ But no change so far! I guess that means it is official. It’s a nice feeling. The situation started to develop just before leaving London for my disastrous spell in Brighton, which did compound the error big-time. As much as it turns out that the current living situation sucks, I’m glad to be back in London.
Read More »Developments
Hmmm. I’m almost too embarrassed to say this. I believe I will be moving AGAIN shortly.
I’m not gonna gripe excessively. Actually, it’s good to be back in London. Pretty fucking great, mostly. Social life’s not doing too bad; I think, in 25+ days here, I’ve only spent about four or five days/nights in with no socialising. Even the sex life’s got some moderate activity. So that’s all A-OK.
But my seemingly reasonable landlord misled me a bit, about how often he’d be here, and as this is only a one-bedroom flat and the kitchen adjoins the living room (which he uses as a bedroom), a full-time share just doesn’t work. It’s untenable. I took it on the basis that he was only here occasionally. For the first three weeks he was here practically all the damn time, shutting the living room door at 11pm most nights, spending numerous afternoons watching TV very LOUDLY with his mates while spliffing up, etc. Regular Boys’ Club shit. All the stuff his fiancee in North London won’t let him do, presumably…
Read More »Funny Thing Happened…
