The Voice of London Episode XI
When I got to the convention centre at 4:30 there were already people lined up for the show. My plan had been to pick up my tickets then wander around for an hour or two before coming back to get in line. Then I figured if I waited that long I'd probably end up stuck at the back. If I had an assigned seat I wouldn't have to worry about it, but my ticket is for the standing section, so the longer I wait the better my position will be. For Tool I'm willing to hang out for two hours till the doors open. Even their sound check sounds cooler than any other band. When they test the bass it rattles the building. Fuck this is going to be awesome.
I hope I can find a restaurant that's open after the show. I'm probably going to be hungry. So Glasgow seems like a cool place so far. I may even hop over to Edinburgh, time and money permitting. I've given myself £30 a day as a kind of budget, which should be more than enough. If it's not I may have to scale back my activities on the last day. I only have twelve pages (single sided, six double) left in this notebook so I've taken to printing three lines of text on each ruled line. It's probably going to be a pain to read when I go to type this out. *Actually, it's not so much a pain to read as to find my place again after I look away from the page* But I still wish I had started doing this earlier so I'd be able o fit more in. I'm going to have to get a new notebook eventually. I guess I could do it sooner rather than later and write for comfort now. Or I should write everything as small as I am now and all my notebooks would last years and years. Then again this notebook has lasted a couple years and I used it to take my university notes the last time I went. I wrote those in a 2:1 line ratio. And yet most of the pages have been filled since I came to the UK and started writing Voice of London in cursive before typing it out. I'm still sitting in the queue and I can hear them playing Stinkfist inside the auditorium. Warm-up I guess. A nice gift to the waiting fans. Of course, if that song ends up as part of their set it'll be a little bit disappointing now. It'll still be awesome just, you know, diminished novelty and all that.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the concert that was Tool. Fortunately they opened with Stinkfist so any sense of diminished novelty came early and was quickly forgotten. I would have been fine with them only playing songs from their last three albums and ignoring Undertow completely, but I'm glad the one song they did play from that album was Swamp Song as it's one of my favourites. The problem with seeing bands with such an extensive collection of great songs as Tool has is that it's impossible for them to play all of them. The focus of their set was, understandably, Lateralus and 10,000 Days and they did play the best songs from each album, including the title tracks. In fact, those two songs were probably the best parts of the night. The Wings for Marie suite (of which 10,000 Days is part two) came first and when they reached the crescendo a huge, previously unseen Alex Grey backdrop was illuminated and a series of green lasers, directed at mirrors placed on the stage floor, erupted and sent their beams cascading through the hall. Wings for Marie itself is a beautifully affecting eulogy to Maynard's mother Judith Marie Keenan who passed away last year after living with paralysis for 27 years following a stroke. After this they went into Lateralus, possibly my favourite Tool song and one of their more transcendentally themed songs lyrically. They ended the night with Aenema, a song inspired by Bill Hicks, who tended to find greater success in the UK than the US. One guy I was talking to after the show said he had been a fan of Bill Hicks before getting into Tool. It was the opposite for me. There are a few more things I want to say about the show but I don't want to bother working them into any kind of cohesive flow so I'm just going to throw them in non-sequiturially. I don't think I've ever been crushed to tightly in a crowd before. By the end of the night I was soaked with sweat. It might now all have been mine. The opening band was Mastodon. I'd heard good things about them before, and they were good, but as I've said it's hard to judge a metal band when the first time you hear them is live. The sheer volume can often drown out the melody and precision that makes the music appealing. I guess the last thing I have to mention is that at the show I witnessed with my own eyes a mythical creature: an attractive female Tool fan. And not just attractive girlfriends of male Tool fans. They were legitimate, band shirt wearing, sing alonging, hot girls. One of them looked kind of like Rosamund Pike (she was in Doom and The Libertine and Die Another Day). I should have moved here instead of London.
I'm not sure I'm just being funny when I say that either. I'm quite liking Glasgow. After last night the hills aren't being too kind on my knees, but neither is walking in general. In the city centre there are a lot of good opportunities for shopping, including a comics shop that I spent some time browsing in. Pardon me, in which I spent some time browsing. I wasn't aware there was an Absolute Edition of Watchmen. Now that I do, I want it. They also had Absolute Editions of The Dark Knight Returns, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Kingdom Come, and The Sandman Volume One, all of which further fueled my samsaric attachment. There was another shop I stopped in that was selling gadgety, toyish, ephemera type stuff, including a life size metal sculpture of Giger's Alien. It was only £5000. For those who didn't feel like spending the cost of a small car on oversized conversation pieces, they had two and three foot sculptures for a few hundred pounds, with the option of Predators in addition to Aliens. If sculpture just isn't your thing you could get something more practical, like a kitchen knife set with a storage block in the shape of a person. They called it a "Voodoo Knife Set." Um... Hmm. I guess that's all I have to say right now. I didn't really do much today beyond exploring the city centre. As I mentioned, my knees have been a little fucked up. Another night's sleep should have them back in shape so I can check out the art galleries tomorrow.
Boy do I have a story to tell now. When I was writing the last section I was in a pub called the Arlington Bar where I had stopped to grab a bite to eat and have a couple drinks. As it turned out, being a Sunday, they were holding a pub quiz. Trivia buff that I am, I decided to stick around for it. Plus, there was a cash prize offered and no entry fee so I had nothing to lose. There were a number of people taking part, spread across five teams (including myself, competing alone). The largest team, comprised of about half a dozen people, was sitting at a table across from me. We exchanged a few genial words throughout the game and in fact, they held the lead for the first several rounds. After a geography round that turned out particularly well for me, I managed to gain a one point lead. This was short lived however, as the other team was able to reclaim a five point lead in the next round. It all came down to the last question, worth up to ten points. The question involved guessing a person based on one to five clues. Guessing correctly on the first clue would be worth ten points, eight points for guessing on the second, six on the third, and so forth, but only one guess was allowed. The team in the lead took a gamble and submitted their answer (rather foolishly, actually) on the first clue. I held out for the second clue (she was offered the role of a prostitute named Iris in a 70s cult film) and submitted an answer of Jodie Foster. I was awarded eight points, victory, and the cash prize of £100. I was all smiles for the rest of the night. I offered to buy the other team, who in all likelihood would have won if they had played a bit more strategically, a round of drinks. They said they would only accept if I joined them, which I did gladly. We all sat and chatted until closing. I spoke mostly with John and Caroline, a young married couple who were very friendly. John gave me their telephone numbers and email addresses and recommended I get in touch with them sometime: they'd be coming down to London at Christmas to visit Caroline's sister. I told them (honestly) that I would. Zaps was right. Scotland is better than London. The people are really friendly, Glasgow is a beautiful city, and the cost of living is much cheaper. I'm seriously thinking about moving up here instead. I guess I'll just have to see how things pan out.
Oh yeah, and one of the guys, named Malcolm, had lived in Canada for a time and was a fan of Trailer Park Boys so we talked about that for a while. Anyway, it's my last day in Glasgow now. I'm having lunch in a place called Bier Halle. They have a bunch of different beers from around the world. The only Canadian beer on their menu, though, is Moosehead. I considered getting one but it turns out they don't have any at the moment anyway. Instead I got a Fürstenberg from Germany. It's quite nice. Last night I went to see Casino Royale. A lot of people seem to be saying it's the best Bond movie in years. I guess technically that's true. It's better than the last couple of Bond movies in a lot of ways. I do like the direction they're taking of a grittier, down and dirty kind of style, but I felt there was something missing in this entry. I realize that this movie is kind of a reset for the franchise in a similar way to how Batman Begins reset that series, and I'm sure this complaint will be addressed and corrected in the next film, but I was disappointed by the lack of gadgets and (relatedly) the absence of Q. Yes, 007 drove a nice car and used the newest cell phones and such, but those are just examples of technology, not gadgets. They're things that would be available to anybody with enough money. Bond gadgets should be newer than new or specifically spy-related devices. You know, stuff like jet packs and laser watches, not just the latest model Song Ericsson. I guess the goal now is not for a spy to use cool things to complete a mission, but for a spy to use cool things to showcase new products. Really, though, some of the product placements are getting to the point of being just club-you-over-the-head blatant. As for Daniel Craig as Bond, I didn't really find anything wrong with his performance. He did feel a bit less Bond-y than previous incarnations, but I think that was owing to the story's chronological earliness and, again, to the lack of gadgets. In my final analysis I'd say it shows promise for entries to come but has unfortunately left that promise to be fulfilled by those future entries.
Now I'm waiting for the showtime to go to The Prestige (here in Glasgow I can afford to go to two movies in a weekend [especially after the other day's winnings]). I love that they have a bar right in the cinema. I came too early to go right in, but I can sit back and enjoy a pint while I read my new Y: the Last Man book to kill time. It's great. If only they would import this idea to Canada. The only downside is that after a couple pints you're likely to need a piss in the middle of the movie. I'll be sure to go before I get settled into my seat.
Ok, I was able to see the ending from quite a ways off. This didn't really disrupt my enjoyment of the movie, but the end was put together in such a way that the filmmakers obviously figured I wouldn't so I feel like my intelligence was being insulted a little bit. Maybe Christopher Nolan was giving too much consideration to people's complaints about Memento. It seems a shame for him to have to pander like that, but oh well. I can overlook it given the rest of the movie's strengths. However, there is one detail that bothered me. If the water tank had a slot that opened for the person in the trick to put their hand through and open the trick lock, why couldn't they open the slot and put their mouth up to it to breathe? Am I just missing something? Seems like drowning would be a high price to pay not to reveal the magician's secret. I know Harfield's seen the movie. If anyone else has and can explain this to me I'd be grateful. Well, here ends another one.
Endemically yours,
Matthew Hawkins
I hope I can find a restaurant that's open after the show. I'm probably going to be hungry. So Glasgow seems like a cool place so far. I may even hop over to Edinburgh, time and money permitting. I've given myself £30 a day as a kind of budget, which should be more than enough. If it's not I may have to scale back my activities on the last day. I only have twelve pages (single sided, six double) left in this notebook so I've taken to printing three lines of text on each ruled line. It's probably going to be a pain to read when I go to type this out. *Actually, it's not so much a pain to read as to find my place again after I look away from the page* But I still wish I had started doing this earlier so I'd be able o fit more in. I'm going to have to get a new notebook eventually. I guess I could do it sooner rather than later and write for comfort now. Or I should write everything as small as I am now and all my notebooks would last years and years. Then again this notebook has lasted a couple years and I used it to take my university notes the last time I went. I wrote those in a 2:1 line ratio. And yet most of the pages have been filled since I came to the UK and started writing Voice of London in cursive before typing it out. I'm still sitting in the queue and I can hear them playing Stinkfist inside the auditorium. Warm-up I guess. A nice gift to the waiting fans. Of course, if that song ends up as part of their set it'll be a little bit disappointing now. It'll still be awesome just, you know, diminished novelty and all that.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the concert that was Tool. Fortunately they opened with Stinkfist so any sense of diminished novelty came early and was quickly forgotten. I would have been fine with them only playing songs from their last three albums and ignoring Undertow completely, but I'm glad the one song they did play from that album was Swamp Song as it's one of my favourites. The problem with seeing bands with such an extensive collection of great songs as Tool has is that it's impossible for them to play all of them. The focus of their set was, understandably, Lateralus and 10,000 Days and they did play the best songs from each album, including the title tracks. In fact, those two songs were probably the best parts of the night. The Wings for Marie suite (of which 10,000 Days is part two) came first and when they reached the crescendo a huge, previously unseen Alex Grey backdrop was illuminated and a series of green lasers, directed at mirrors placed on the stage floor, erupted and sent their beams cascading through the hall. Wings for Marie itself is a beautifully affecting eulogy to Maynard's mother Judith Marie Keenan who passed away last year after living with paralysis for 27 years following a stroke. After this they went into Lateralus, possibly my favourite Tool song and one of their more transcendentally themed songs lyrically. They ended the night with Aenema, a song inspired by Bill Hicks, who tended to find greater success in the UK than the US. One guy I was talking to after the show said he had been a fan of Bill Hicks before getting into Tool. It was the opposite for me. There are a few more things I want to say about the show but I don't want to bother working them into any kind of cohesive flow so I'm just going to throw them in non-sequiturially. I don't think I've ever been crushed to tightly in a crowd before. By the end of the night I was soaked with sweat. It might now all have been mine. The opening band was Mastodon. I'd heard good things about them before, and they were good, but as I've said it's hard to judge a metal band when the first time you hear them is live. The sheer volume can often drown out the melody and precision that makes the music appealing. I guess the last thing I have to mention is that at the show I witnessed with my own eyes a mythical creature: an attractive female Tool fan. And not just attractive girlfriends of male Tool fans. They were legitimate, band shirt wearing, sing alonging, hot girls. One of them looked kind of like Rosamund Pike (she was in Doom and The Libertine and Die Another Day). I should have moved here instead of London.
I'm not sure I'm just being funny when I say that either. I'm quite liking Glasgow. After last night the hills aren't being too kind on my knees, but neither is walking in general. In the city centre there are a lot of good opportunities for shopping, including a comics shop that I spent some time browsing in. Pardon me, in which I spent some time browsing. I wasn't aware there was an Absolute Edition of Watchmen. Now that I do, I want it. They also had Absolute Editions of The Dark Knight Returns, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Kingdom Come, and The Sandman Volume One, all of which further fueled my samsaric attachment. There was another shop I stopped in that was selling gadgety, toyish, ephemera type stuff, including a life size metal sculpture of Giger's Alien. It was only £5000. For those who didn't feel like spending the cost of a small car on oversized conversation pieces, they had two and three foot sculptures for a few hundred pounds, with the option of Predators in addition to Aliens. If sculpture just isn't your thing you could get something more practical, like a kitchen knife set with a storage block in the shape of a person. They called it a "Voodoo Knife Set." Um... Hmm. I guess that's all I have to say right now. I didn't really do much today beyond exploring the city centre. As I mentioned, my knees have been a little fucked up. Another night's sleep should have them back in shape so I can check out the art galleries tomorrow.
Boy do I have a story to tell now. When I was writing the last section I was in a pub called the Arlington Bar where I had stopped to grab a bite to eat and have a couple drinks. As it turned out, being a Sunday, they were holding a pub quiz. Trivia buff that I am, I decided to stick around for it. Plus, there was a cash prize offered and no entry fee so I had nothing to lose. There were a number of people taking part, spread across five teams (including myself, competing alone). The largest team, comprised of about half a dozen people, was sitting at a table across from me. We exchanged a few genial words throughout the game and in fact, they held the lead for the first several rounds. After a geography round that turned out particularly well for me, I managed to gain a one point lead. This was short lived however, as the other team was able to reclaim a five point lead in the next round. It all came down to the last question, worth up to ten points. The question involved guessing a person based on one to five clues. Guessing correctly on the first clue would be worth ten points, eight points for guessing on the second, six on the third, and so forth, but only one guess was allowed. The team in the lead took a gamble and submitted their answer (rather foolishly, actually) on the first clue. I held out for the second clue (she was offered the role of a prostitute named Iris in a 70s cult film) and submitted an answer of Jodie Foster. I was awarded eight points, victory, and the cash prize of £100. I was all smiles for the rest of the night. I offered to buy the other team, who in all likelihood would have won if they had played a bit more strategically, a round of drinks. They said they would only accept if I joined them, which I did gladly. We all sat and chatted until closing. I spoke mostly with John and Caroline, a young married couple who were very friendly. John gave me their telephone numbers and email addresses and recommended I get in touch with them sometime: they'd be coming down to London at Christmas to visit Caroline's sister. I told them (honestly) that I would. Zaps was right. Scotland is better than London. The people are really friendly, Glasgow is a beautiful city, and the cost of living is much cheaper. I'm seriously thinking about moving up here instead. I guess I'll just have to see how things pan out.
Oh yeah, and one of the guys, named Malcolm, had lived in Canada for a time and was a fan of Trailer Park Boys so we talked about that for a while. Anyway, it's my last day in Glasgow now. I'm having lunch in a place called Bier Halle. They have a bunch of different beers from around the world. The only Canadian beer on their menu, though, is Moosehead. I considered getting one but it turns out they don't have any at the moment anyway. Instead I got a Fürstenberg from Germany. It's quite nice. Last night I went to see Casino Royale. A lot of people seem to be saying it's the best Bond movie in years. I guess technically that's true. It's better than the last couple of Bond movies in a lot of ways. I do like the direction they're taking of a grittier, down and dirty kind of style, but I felt there was something missing in this entry. I realize that this movie is kind of a reset for the franchise in a similar way to how Batman Begins reset that series, and I'm sure this complaint will be addressed and corrected in the next film, but I was disappointed by the lack of gadgets and (relatedly) the absence of Q. Yes, 007 drove a nice car and used the newest cell phones and such, but those are just examples of technology, not gadgets. They're things that would be available to anybody with enough money. Bond gadgets should be newer than new or specifically spy-related devices. You know, stuff like jet packs and laser watches, not just the latest model Song Ericsson. I guess the goal now is not for a spy to use cool things to complete a mission, but for a spy to use cool things to showcase new products. Really, though, some of the product placements are getting to the point of being just club-you-over-the-head blatant. As for Daniel Craig as Bond, I didn't really find anything wrong with his performance. He did feel a bit less Bond-y than previous incarnations, but I think that was owing to the story's chronological earliness and, again, to the lack of gadgets. In my final analysis I'd say it shows promise for entries to come but has unfortunately left that promise to be fulfilled by those future entries.
Now I'm waiting for the showtime to go to The Prestige (here in Glasgow I can afford to go to two movies in a weekend [especially after the other day's winnings]). I love that they have a bar right in the cinema. I came too early to go right in, but I can sit back and enjoy a pint while I read my new Y: the Last Man book to kill time. It's great. If only they would import this idea to Canada. The only downside is that after a couple pints you're likely to need a piss in the middle of the movie. I'll be sure to go before I get settled into my seat.
Ok, I was able to see the ending from quite a ways off. This didn't really disrupt my enjoyment of the movie, but the end was put together in such a way that the filmmakers obviously figured I wouldn't so I feel like my intelligence was being insulted a little bit. Maybe Christopher Nolan was giving too much consideration to people's complaints about Memento. It seems a shame for him to have to pander like that, but oh well. I can overlook it given the rest of the movie's strengths. However, there is one detail that bothered me. If the water tank had a slot that opened for the person in the trick to put their hand through and open the trick lock, why couldn't they open the slot and put their mouth up to it to breathe? Am I just missing something? Seems like drowning would be a high price to pay not to reveal the magician's secret. I know Harfield's seen the movie. If anyone else has and can explain this to me I'd be grateful. Well, here ends another one.
Endemically yours,
Matthew Hawkins
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12:25 PM
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