Birthdays, Comedy Clubs and gigs

Feels like I've not written anything on my blog for ages and for once that's not because I've got nothing to say but because I've got loads to say and no time, up til now, to write about it.

A couple of weeks ago I ended up going to 3 birthday parties. The first was for Denise, my friend from the bar who was turning 22, which was an interesting night. Mainly because I got there late because I was working. My friends from the bar felt that I had missed out on a few drinks and to make up for that brought me a quadruple tequila that they told me to down in one which, since they challenged both my manliness and my country (they were all South African or Australian), I was forced to drink. The second was Jake's surprise/fancy dress party. I ended up going as the edge, which mainly meant wearing what I usually wear and growing a goatee and putting on a wooly hat. I'm not usually into fancy dress, but this was a great party, if only because it was with all my new(ish) Roehampton friends and it's always good to spend time with them. Plus it was wonderful to see Jake's face as they took off the blindfold, he looked completely shocked and touched by it all. The final birthday party was James Underwood's 30th which was a great evening spoilt only by a guy who apparently was a professional musician playing guitar and singing all night. He wasn't good. In fact that's probably putting it mildly, there were various conversations based around the best way to get him to shut up, destroy the guitar, the PA or, in extreme though possibly valid cases, kill him.

Last week was also a pretty busy week. Besides the fact that work is starting to get busier, I spent every evening out at some place or another. Monday night I went to see one of my housemates debut performance at the comedy store. There were just three of us there with him and he did really well. It was a gong show, so the aim was for him to keep the audience entertained for 5 minutes. If they started booing, the compare would hit the gong and the act would have to leave the stage. Nev managed 2 minutes and 44 seconds before getting sent off, but his act was so different and he'd done it so well that he was referred to throughout the rest of the night and got to go back on stage a couple of times. They asked him back for the next gong show too, so he's obviously doing something very right.

On Wednesday night I went to see Paul Frith play a gig. Paul plays acoustic guitar and with him was a string quartet (which included James Underwood) and a trumpet player. I don't want to say it was the best gig I've ever been to, cos once you've seen the likes of U2, Paul McCartney, Radiohead a gig at a little club is never going to have the same feeling. Having said that though, although you can't compare it to those gigs, it was something very special. Paul is an amazing songwriter with an amazing voice and he created an atmosphere of true intimacy. No one spoke during his songs and there was a depth to the music that you found yourself getting completely lost in as the music seemed to inspire you on to do something yourself. It felt like he was only playing to you and the songs seems to speak directly to your soul. Sorry for the cheesiness there, but it was that sort of night.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll try to be a bit more regular with my postings for the next couple of weeks. My main plan for this week is to see Elizabeth town, which is not only directed by Cameron Crowe (who also did Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky and Jerry Maguire) but also stars the wonderful, talented, amazing, beautiful Kirsten Dunst.