Writer's Block

I headed to the Brixton Windmill for the first time in a decade for Alcopopalooza, an all dayer organised by Alcopop! Records on the basis that January is shit and we need something to cheer us up. I applaud the rationale but suspect a rather more spacious venue might have been suitable than the Windmill, a 100 capacity sweatbox with space very much at a premium. I showed up in time for the second half of proceedings which kicked off with Ducking Punches. The Norwich folk punkers reminded me somewhat of a more phrenetic Frank Turner And The Sleeping Souls which is no bad thing. I will be checking out more of their stuff. Next up were John, so called because the duo of guitarist and drummer both share that name. They conceded this made them difficult to look up on Spotify, or indeed in general. I find two piece rock acts lack the sort of nuance (or indeed bass) that I like from my favourite acts. John fell into a similar trap although their loud garage rock sound is not entirely una...

I wasn't kidding when I said I need to force myself to write. It would also be true to say that little of particular note has happened in my life over the past couple of weeks. The exception might be an unusually profitable weekend where betting success and a deeply implausible bingo win saw me wrack up a small three figure sum. Anyway, last night I returned to the stand-up arena for the first time in five months at The Happy Hour Comedy Club in Camberwell last night. I had some sleepless nights of anxiety in advance which were unjustified. Most of the acts kindly stuck around for my closing set but genuine audience members could be counted on one hand. It was basically a low pressure environment to feel my way back into live performing. I was obviously somewhat rusty and felt my tone was a little more monotonous than usual. But in the circumstances I think it was a respectable showing and some new material looks like it might have potential. My engagement with stand-up will ha...

I got my existential crisis out of the way early this morning before heading out to work. My 10-7  shift today almost felt like something a real person would do. My work anxieties have abated a little too, although won't be completely eliminated until I've been signed off. But in the meantime, I've been getting back into a spot of Netflix viewing. I've been watching F Is For Family, which has a British style six episode opening season. I've written before on this blog that Bill Burr's stand-up doesn't do anything for me, but his acerbic tendencies are channelled to better effect here as he voices a grouchy 1970s patriarch. It's not laugh out loud hilarious but it has a solid thematic arc that has led me to stick with it. Also on the Netflix front, the word of mouth hype surrounding "Making A Murderer" is getting too loud to ignore and I'll be watching that next. This time last year I mainly recall writing about the third round of FA Cup w...

The problem with starting the year with a blog every other day is that I now feel compelled to keep that pattern up instead, even if I still don't have a a great deal to write about. I went to the gym yesterday and it was completely packed. I don't mind the gym in January. In going, I seem more like an obese person who has bravely tried to address their weight issues as a new year's resolution, rather than an abject failure who attends all year round to little real effect. Also, a sizable amount of work related pressure was dropped on my head today and is causing me a great deal of anxiety. But this isn't really the forum for that, so I'm going to talk about Kunt and the Gang. Kunt put out a new live CD before Christmas, Kunt'll Fix It: Live In London. The conceit is that Kunt is attempting to rehabilitate the "'ll Fix It" brand following the actions of its previous owner.   It's a good representation of the experience of a KATG live show, ...

My run of consecutive blogs comes to an end at 367. We shall not see its like again. Thank goodness for that. This weekend has also seen victories for both Manchester United and Sunderland and I doubt I'll be seeing that again for a while either. I watched Inside Out again. I found more in it that I did in my first viewing, the finale is undoubtedly moving and I ended up reappraising the involvement of Riley's imaginary friend Bing Bong too. I'm still more emotionally invested in the earlier films in Pixar's catalogue though. I suspect a generation of young people will consider this their Pixar film in the same way that I feel Toy Story is mine. And that's certainly no bad thing. I've also just realised that Finding Dory comes out this year and hopefully it'll stay true to the spirit of the original. I then moved on to the darts. Last year's PDC World Championships final was one of the best darts matches I've ever seen. This one has been riddled w...

You know what would be better than a year of daily blogs? Two years of daily blogs. Nah, that's not going to happen. I'm going to continue to post when I feel like I've got something to talk about, which should bring an end to the stupidly short entries. I've been reviewing the end of year bargains available on Google Play. "Back On Top" by The Front Bottom is available for £2.99 and is well worth picking up if you're into indie/punk/pop-punk. I toyed with the idea of doing a "Best Of 2015" list in music and film, but found the whittling down process a bit too difficult. Well, that and the fact I'd just end up talking about Tellison again. But "Back On Top" would probably have ended up just behind "Hope Fading Nightly". Death Cab For Cutie's "Kintsugi" is also available for £2.99. It's not their best work but it's a fine collection of tracks nonetheless. Had I done the same with films, "Whipl...