Saturday, March 08, 2003 The 9.15pm Puzzle, in
honour of Diamond
Geezer's Birthday
How many years of its sentence did this Salvador Dali painting serve in high-security Riker's Island jail, New York, before making a break for freedom last weekend?
Radio Waves Saturday afternoon. Nice lie-in after a knackering but nice week. Just chilling out with a coffee, a keyboard and the sound of the washing machine behind me. Also got the radio turned on and am starting to learn the beauty of radio plays. There's a Radio4/American version of On the Waterfront and I'm gripped ... slow to get going because you have to turn your imagination switch on and you need a different concentration from seeing it through your eyes, and it feels more low-key from the Brando/Steiger "I could have been a contender" histrionics of the Elia Kazan film, but just heard the priest's "crucifixion" speech (Bruce Davison from Longtime Companioninstead of Karl Malden) and it made my afternoon.
My Way-ish Got a bet with some mates in Dukes that I will one day do karoke ... My Way - but in French (You had to be there!). I've heard the original Comme d'Habitude by Claude Francois a coupla times, but heard the music rather than the words so I downloaded them last night. Wow!
The Sinatra words fit the melancholy tune and the upbeat defiant ending more neatly, but the French lyrics are bizarre, about longing, a dead relationship and the dead hand of routine. Where Frank's "I took the blows" climax is like a shout against the world of "I will go on", Francois's "We will pretend, We will make love, We will pretend" is more like an explosion of frustration and anger against the singer himself and another person shouting "I can't go on".
Comme d'Habitude Je m' lève et je te bouscule, tu ne te réveilles pas comme d'habitude sur toi je remonte le drap
J'ai peur que tu aies froid comme d'habitude ma main caresse tes cheveux
Presque malgré moi comme d'habitude mais toi tu me tournes le dos comme d'habitude.
Alors je m'habille très vite, je sors de la chambre comme d'habitude tout seul je bois mon café
Je suis en retard comme d'habitude sans bruit je quitte la maison
Tout est gris dehors comme d'habitude j'ai froid, je relève mon col comme d'habitude.
Comme d'habitude, toute la journée je vais jouer à faire semblant
Comme d'habitude je vais sourire, comme d'habitude je vais même rire
Comme d'habitude, enfin je vais vivre, comme d'habitude.
Et puis le jour s'en ira moi je reviendrai comme d'habitude, toi, tu seras sortie
Pas encore rentrée comme d'habitude tout seul j'irai me coucher
Dans ce grand lit froid comme d'habitude mes larmes, je les cacherai comme d'habitude.
Comme d'habitude, même la nuit je vais jouer à faire semblant
Comme d'habitude tu rentreras, comme d'habitude je t'attendrai
Comme d'habitude tu me souriras, comme d'habitude.
Comme d'habitude tu te déshabilleras, comme d'habitude tu te coucheras
Comme d'habitude on s'embrassera, comme d'habitude.
Comme d'habitude on fera semblant, comme d'habitude on fera l'amour…
Thursday, March 06, 2003 Long-distance emails Just got an email from Stephane, the first since he arrived in Brazil over a month ago, but then if you're south of the equator for Carnival I suppose an internet cafe is a way down your list priorities. Gone all gooey inside. Ex's!! What can you do with them!
He's in a place called Salvador de Bahia north of Rio, the place that invented the samba, the lambada (god punish them) and just about every musical style that came out of Brazil. Loadsa colonial architecture, narrow almost mediaeval streets and some grinding poverty. He's smitten by the place, I think. Well it's 30 degrees every day, you can dive into the sea to keep cool, and him and his amiga are sleeping in hammocks presumably strung between palm trees ... hey, what do I care, I've got Kennington!!
Rapid Ageing I've got a lot of time for my immediate boss: pushing 50 but doesn't act it, he used to run a pirate radio station from above his student flat in Liverpool, total Capt Beefheart fan, rides a 600cc motorbike, got married last year to his long-term partner on a Caribbean beach with sand between their toes and their teenage sons as best men. He's kinda cool.
But today he spent a chunk of the day turning rapidly into a curmudgeon.
Took him nearly an hour to send an SMS: "I cant' find the "u" ... how do I send/save/delete it?" And as if the impression of my own dad wasn't bad enough he then starts on about the youth of today not knowing they're born and don't know the value of work.
Is there some "Victor Meldrew" gene in the human body that lies dormant for years then sneaks out and turns us into grown-ups!!! I feel very scared suddenly.
A Little Bit of Blasphemy for Lent Check this out, please check this out. I want the soccer one SO badly.
10:50 PM
Wednesday, March 05, 2003 Damn Saddam Aint it always the way ... you meet someone cool and then they bugger off to Kuwait for some lousy war!
Dinner Update What a coupla whimps! Had a major inspiration for what to cook tonight. Two lecky rings, Stephane's old restaurant-sized cooking pot sitting on both elements, and a big bag of mussels ... just add shallots, garlic and a bottle of wine and steam away. Double-checked with Graeme and Darryl if that was ok with them and they went "Urgh we might get food poisoning!" Cheek ... I haven't given anyone food poisoning in ages.
So they're getting pasta!!
Another Brick in the Wall thebrick ... now with added comments. Come and get your two penn'th in, lads
2:38 PM
Tuesday, March 04, 2003
Dear Delia ... Having my first dinner party in my new flat tomorrow night, so got a safe guest list of my ex-almost-boyfriend Graeme and his current Darryl. Only prob is due to the squat-like nature of the place at the moment I only have a Baby Belling-type two-ring electric cooker to whip up something simple but stunning for three people. Rejected salad as a cop out. Take away would kinda defeat the object. Could get them so pissed before the starter that they dont mind beans on toast.
And Today is ... the day the Australians do things like this
Monday, March 03, 2003 The Brick Builds Up Ta David for showing me how to stick a list of links on the side panel. I managed to work out how to put a hit counter on by meself just about. Unfortunately Haloscan has stopped taking new sign-ups, so comments will have to wait a bit. Patience.
Lumpen Lent Neal writes: "Unfortunately, this weekend I was being really boring and so I didn't go to the Vauxhall. I was curled up on the sofa with my cats and cocoa, listening to Mahler. Why is it that as a metropolitan, gay man, I feel guilt at having an
enjoyable evening at home, rather than being in a club downing pints?
"Fortunately Lent starts on Wednesday, so as an act of penance, I'm going to give up such domestic pleasures and spend forty nights out on the town. Gym, cinema, opera, theatre, clubbing. Anything really as long as it's not staying in. It's how Our Lord would have wanted it.
"As a good Christian boy, experience has taught me that the commonplace abstinence of drink, drugs or television invariably fails by the first weekend. Instead, my most successful year was when I gave up celibacy. I set myself the challenge of doing forty men by Easter Sunday."
Had been having the same conversation about quiet-night-in-phobia with Sef on Sunday night after a quiet drink in Dukes ended with us staggering out of Marvellous after some serious pogo-ing. Decided that gay men are just scared of missing something: the next man who walks in the bar, the next round, the newest club, the latest item of gossip. More. More More.
Horst Buchholz Oooops, metioned the Magnificent Seven a few days ago, then this happens.
8:15 PM
Sunday, March 02, 2003 Bridget Brick's Diary Cigarettes: 20 Marlboro Lite
Alcohol units: ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm let me get back to you on that one, still counting
Calorific intake: one MSG-laden sweet and sour chicken with noodles eaten on the run so prob about 2,500cals
The GayPlan diet
I Do Exist .... and what's more I'm not alone!
Typed my name into here and found there are five other people with my name in the UK somewhere, making my name "rarer than a wombat's wing nut".
11:15 AM
