While you guys were asleep I wrote a Suburban Glamour #1 review. Go read it! I promise I’ll have something more interesting to say later.
(Went to see Simon Amstell again tonight. Fucking hilarious, even though we were viewing him from a 60-degree downward angle. Next time, will shell out for slightly better tickets.)
Continuing the trend of Author-events, Josh and I went to see Douglas Coupland last Tuesday (the 9th) - it was again at the Bloomsbury theatre, where we’ve seen him once, maybe twice before. It all blurs together, to be honest. We got there early and sat in the familiar, shitty canteen attached to the side admiring the rubbish architecture of the buildings opposite (mmm…50s utilitarian) before buying copies of the Special Edition of The Gum Thief, which comes with probably the most excellent gimmick I’ve seen for a while - a second book, written by one of the characters in the first book. Coupland’s experiments with metafiction continue unabated.
We then netted ourselves premium seats right at the front of the hall. Naturally we hung on Coupland’s every word. There was no Q&A this time, and eventually he announced that he wouldn’t be doing any more of these kind of readings, saying “that part of my life is over.” - which, while fairly upsetting, means at least I got to see him as much as I possibly could over the last few book releases. When I got my book signed, I asked him what he thought of the Simpsons movie (It was like 4 episodes, but only when it was doing comedy, he didn’t like the bits where it tried to be a movie, referring specifically to Marge’s plea to Homer.) He also signed the copy of the book-within-a-book with the name of the fictional author, and explained how one day a few weeks ago he’d gone to a cafe and practised the signature over and over again so that it looked better than his own. Josh then spoke to him, partly about cross-media translation of his work, partly about how the 90s were becoming cool again, and we went back home. On the way back I couldn’t help but note the similarity to the situation, wandering around Bloomsbury in the drizzle in the dark, to when we left Tedstock in February. It doesn’t seem so long ago.
Another totally insane few days, leading onto a completely insaner month, so packed with events that I’m somehow going to have to get to a Go! Team gig and a Douglas Coupland reading on the SAME EVENING and indeed, I had to set up a google Calendar to try and organise the insanity that is my life, where previously my memory would’ve been enough.
Yesterday, Josh, Nikki, Seb and I went to see Neil Gaiman do a talk, reading, and all that it implies at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. I have to say, it was fairly shambolic, with the man himself being the only real high point. He was “in conversation” with the literary editor of the Guardian, who insisted on interrupting his anecdotes and cracking her own unfunny jokes. The criterion could also do with the installation of new seats, because they all creaked and moaned with even the slightest movement, and all the springs had gone and stuff. Also it was draughty. Still, what do I expect for a fiver?
All those complaints aside, it was really good to see Gaiman doing one of his many things, and of particular interest was his epilogue to the Steve Ditko documentary, where he told us pretty much what happened. Nothing too out of the ordinary, obviously (short version: they had a conversation) but it was nice to be let in on some of the details. After that, Seb went home and Josh, Nikki and I went to TGIs where instead of having a steak as usual, I had the chicken strips, and they were damn good. Then we had Oreo milkshakes for dessert. They’re very tasty, but the dark biscuit makes the milk a sort of grey sludge of unwelcoming consistency.
Josh and I have, in fact, been using his drinks maker to try and create our own shakeaway-style milkshakes. The first attempt at a chocolate orange one helped us understand some of the basics. Firstly, the milk needs to be extra-chilled. Secondly, we need to obliterate the chocolate bits in a far more convincing manner. Thirdly, we need some of those straws with spoons on the end. Not bad for a first, try though.
Moving backwards through the week, we find Graham staying over briefly after a work drinks evening up the road on Saturday night - I think the last time we saw him was Reading 2005, so that was quite cool, if brief.
On Friday, Josh, Sam, Nikki and I went to see Bill Bailey at the riverside studios in Hammersmith. Former location of TFI Fridays, I am reliably informed! How exciting. Bill Bailey was warming up his arena tour and while I wasn’t that keen on the idea of seeing him at a venue that size (I like my comedy to be slightly more personal) the much smaller setting of the studios worked very well. He did a surprisingly political set, with talk of the recent wars, swiss neutrality in World War 2, attacking the Wal-Mart group and satire on current political figures, though that involved big images of politicians up on screen, where he was making their mouths move in a kind of South-Parkian fashion while delivering monologues in-character. Very strange to see that much political stuff from him, but I guess it’s always been there in some form. Depressingly, the jokes from these things drop away fairly fast but I did really enjoy his AA sketch about being asked to renew your membership, which involved some hilarious lighting effects.
Prior to that, it was business as usual besides a Phonogram/Suburban Glamour signing thingy that we went to on the 20th to celebrate the soon-to-be released sequel series from McKelvie. Turned out it was delayed by a printing error, but hopefully it’ll be available soon.
I should remember to update more often.
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