I'd love to go to sleep

Morrissey, thank you for giving me this nasty cold! Hope you're happy now. ;-) No, really, it wasn't his fault, was it? But I have never ever experienced a torrential rainfall like this for as long as I live here. Queuing in the rain = not good for your health. I know. But what else can you do? It was MORRISSEY after all. :-D And he was great!! Plus I had very lovely company on that day, so it was worth losing my voice over. But could I please have it back any time soon? Thanks. Did any of you see Morrissey on his current tour? Does he always do the fan Q&A session in the middle of the gig? I know I certainly expect him to shred at least two shirts every night, hehe. :-P

It's fic survey time! Since the last part of The Escalator hasn't exactly received lots of rapturous reviews and I got a few puzzling, mildly discouraging emails on it, I have grown really curious as to why this part obvioulsy didn't fulfill (many?) people's expectations and might even have annoyed some of you. Don't get me wrong, I'm not fishing for compliments here, I want honest criticism! Admittedly, I don't think I would have been that puzzled or bothered to not know, if this had happened with any other part of my story, but this one is so close to my heart, took me literally ages to write and sort of starts to wrap things up as we're nearing the end here, which is why I'd really like a few constructive answers. Haha, I also tentatively try to ascertain, how likely it is you'll cry with dismay at the ending. :-P You can comment anonymously if you want to, since I know some of you don't have an LJ account - or might think I'll bite (which I usually only do when asked to ;-)). Thanks a lot, if you take the time to answer! Oh, and if you have no opinion on that and would instead rather tell me your favorite part/chapter of the story, that would be interesting as well.

Right, here is a random list of things that have made me happy in the last few weeks. Recently I haven't been in a happy state of mind at all, so I deliberately try to focus on the good things for now:
- Listening to the new Patrick Wolf album; yay, I've finally got it!
- Going to gigs
- My friends (you know who you are)
- Re-reading The Bloody Chamber
- Seeing my dog happy and healthy again
- My new, tiny cactuses (I love growing all sorts of plants, but looking for a catcus has become quite the quest nowadays - apparently they are not in fashion anymore. Huh? They are older than mankind and fucking amazing, how can they be "out of fashion"?!)
- Finishing another part of my thesis outline
- Listening to Glasvegas, AFI and Peter
- enharmonies stunning Gatsby-inspired fic - If you haven't read it yet, go over to A_F right this second and do so!!!
- Writing.

Okay, I guess that will do for now. xxx

Sorry for neglecting you, dear f-list! But the last two weeks have been... eventful. Let's put it that way: If you ever consider starting a new job in the same week as traveling to another country not once, but TWICE, you might want to think again. As convenient as cheap-as-dirt, crack-of-dawn flights are, there comes a time when your body begins to insist that sleeping is not as overrated as your mind wants to make it believe. Worrisome things may result from lack of sleep: Like greeting your boss in the wrong language or almost fainting in pubs before Carl is even on stage. Hehe. Having said that, I'd still do it all over again (and knowing me, I probably will), so don't let sensible advice stop you. :-P

List of memorable gigs I managed to squeeze into the whole London adventure:
1) Manics (twice) @ Roundhouse
2) Patrick Wolf @ Electric Ballroom
3) Peter (sort of ;-)) @ The Den
4) The Horrors @ Electric Ballroom
5) Carl (and lots of good bands like the Paddingtons et al.) @ Camden Crawl
6) Kieran Leonard (twice) and Drew (once) @ Gaslight.

Not bad, eh? :-D There's video footage and pics of most of the gigs, so if anyone's interested in anything in particular (apart from the Carlos stuff, which I'll dutifully post anyway), I can upload/link it. Personal highlights and unexpected treats included seeing JDB dance again, Patrick's in-between song banter and the fact he does indeed sound a lot like Alec Empire when he puts his mind to it (I just say: "Battle!" :-D), the incredible sing-along at Peter's short but sweet gig, which was so loud that I didn't realize for the better part of two songs that his mic was broken and you couldn't hear Peter singing at all, getting squished during Count in Fives, finally hearing The Ballad of Grimaldi live, the intimacy and relaxed atmosphere at Kieran's gigs and Drew forgetting the words to The Man who came to stay, bless him. :-D Lowlights included sacriligous queue-jumping at the Manics, hysterically squeeing teenage girls at The Horrors (wtf???), terrible organization/security at all Carl and Peter related events on the list (surprise, surprise! *g*) and of course the pain of being forced to choose between seeing Peter or Carl at Camden Rocks. In general though, there certainly wasn't a lot to complain about gig-wise! :-)

Other things I realized while I was in London this time:

1) Recently I haven't been to any gig in London without meeting at least one or two people I know. I hardly ever (unexpectedly) meet anyone I know at gigs at home. Hmmmm...

2) Gin and cranberry is quite addictive.

3) My oyster card tells me more about where I went in the last couple of months and at what time than I feel comfortable knowing.

4) It's lovely to always see so many kind, familiar faces in a city I don't even live in.

5) London starts to feel like home.

In other news, my thesis supervisor told me I should stop mixing American and British English. You lot are obviously corrupting me! :-P

I know. I know. But honestly, I can't help it! The gig's on a Wednesday... Hmmm... 22/04... Is anyone going? I so shouldn't even consider doing this. It would be possible for me though. Definitely not sensible. But possible. Theoretically. *sigh* Any advice? Wonder cures? More or less legal ways of obtaining time and/or money? Or just some pretty pictures to feed my obsession? It's all greatly appreciated.

In a moment of reckless joy and enthusiasm I just booked my flight for Peter's show at the Troxy. 0_0 I can't believe it, this is insanity!!!

It's NOT my fault though! At least not entirely. Why do they always have to do stuff like this:

whenever I try my best to be reasonable??? WHY WHY WHY???

Now all I need is a ticket. And a place to stay for two nights. And a place to store my bag during the gig. And lots of coffee. *slaps forehead* I feel like this is becoming something of a recurrent theme in my life, lol!

But first things first. Can any one of you darlings buy a ticket for me, if I send/paypal you the money? I'm sick and tired of the box office collection business, it's always so nerve-wracking if you haven't been to a venue before and don't know whether they'll actually open the box office before doors or not. I'd love you forever, if you could help me out! :-D

YAY! Happiness overload! Now all Carl needs to do is come to either London or Berlin or Ghent or some cool place like that and my gig life would be perfect. :-D

AWWW! I just realize coming to the Troxy also means I'll be seeing beesandbarley again before she leaves for Australia, wohoo! :-D Lots of you lovely people will come to the Troxy gig, right? Heee, this is making it even better!! SO MUCH JOY!! YAY YAY YAY! HELP, I CAN'T STOP USING CAPS, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME? :-D

Anyway, this is going down as one of the greatest days/nights I ever spent grinning/laughing/cringing/shouting/dancing/punching the air like Carl/gaping at my laptop screen! :-D I'll go to bed now (for exactly 5 hours). Hopefully all of us will have sweet dreams tonight. :-)

Well, yes. *points at title* This is the reward for the lovely beesandbarley cos she has found one of the hidden The Smiths quotes in my story. :-) Well done, you! Now, let's all have some Drew:



( something borrowed, something new )

I am so sad about the videos I filmed at DPT's amazing Amsterdam gig, so if anybody can help me with fixing them, I'd be forever grateful! The vids feature quite a lot of purdy close-ups of half-naked Carlos (and his feet :-P), a very cute Didz moment and Stan fighting with his t-shirt, but unfortunately the audio track is fucked up because the stage was high and I was standing directly in front of Didz' monitor, so basically all I recorded is bass only versions (that's an exaggeration, but you get the picture) of The Enemy, BURMA, Hippy's Son and I get along. Grand, eh? :-(

Does anyone know if there's a (free or cheap) video editing software that allows me to make adjustments on the audio track? I have also considered to simply exchange the audio... So if anyone has any decent video/audio recordings of those songs (preferably from that night, but I'd be grateful for any good quality sound track really), it would be lovely if you let me know!

To give you a glimpse of what the videos are like, here's Chinese Dogs from Berlin. I have got a couple of more videos, but I want to post them all together on dpt_band as soon as I know if the Amsterdam vids can be fixed. If not, I am not going to post them and inflict them on the world. I just can't bring myself to delete them either!

Yay! My hands are still a bit shaky because I managed to write far too many pages in far too few hours, but the exam is done and over with. :-D And I don't even feel I've royally messed it up, there are just some minor things I forgot to include, but then again, it's impossible to write a real in-depth analysis in just three hours, I guess. At least I gave it my best shot.

I'll go home now to calm down a little before I head over to the office to torture my beloved colleagues with unasked for philosophical quotes. :-D It's gonna be a fun day! So in order to celebrate, let's have some fluffy haired Peter and Shambles from January. :-) Happy, happy times.



Catch you all later in LJ land, lovelies; I might even be bringing some C&P with me, if I'm not too exhausted. :-)

Okay, I got this from madam_ray and didzease.

Leave a comment and I will:

a) Tell you why I friended you.
b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
f) Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
g) In return, you must post this on your own lj.

Go ahead, you know you want to... ;-)

Right... This is for madam_ray (and anyone else who is interested in pictures of lovely people with the ability to write amazing songs.) Hope the general prettiness will cheer you up a little, darling! *hugs*


( still beautiful )

Okay, here's a very, very small selection of my Frequency pics. At some point my camera must have gone slightly mad, cos there are so many pictures of DPT I don't even remember taking, that I suspect the camera took those of its own accord. I ♥ my camera!



( more pictures )

Alright, I think this is a good opportunity to officially open my journal and finally make a first post. So without further ado: Hello and welcome everyone! :-)

As most of you know, I've just recently returned from Austria's Frequency Festival (aka the festival with this year's most amazing line-up and temperamental weather) and I am now recovering back in the dry, clean (erm... well, compared to the festival site it is) and busy place that's my office. There's quite a few of my pictures and videos that await posting, so I will spread them out over several posts on here, let me know what you think and which bands you'd like to see more of.

And what better way to start off this Frequency series than to share my Dirty Pretty Things video? So, here's Plastik Hearts and I dedicate this to all the lovely people, who made my festival such a great experience and especially to yfli, who is a sweetheart. One day I'll give you something better in return for the beautiful Manics postcards than a shaky video, lol!

Apologies for the rather appalling quality of this vid, but I hope you can still see what an amazing show the boys put on. The original picture and frame quality is quite good, but youtube has almost completely ruined it, and I can't find a way to at least link from the high quality version you can watch on youtube instead of the normal one... eep. But there's four gorgeous boys, who will hopefully make up for it. :-)


( dirty very pretty things this way )