so, last night i went out for a drink with my cousin, paul. as is the way with our 'going for a drink' it turned into four or five, and i currently have a horrible hangover. however, this is beside the point.

mum had warned me that paul and his partner tony were currently not speaking to one another, and he related the whole sorry saga of how this happened (drunkenness, accidental switching off of paul's mobile, not finding one another in a club but paul staying out for hours while tony went home). it transpires that, despite his drunken and sober apologies, they haven't been speaking for 3 weeks. they live together and the atmosphere in the house stinks, as you can well imagine. it strikes me as a rather over the top punishment for some drunken idiocy.

but, more worryingly, this is transpires to be just the latest in a series of worrying behaviour from tony - he gets outrageously jealous of paul when he goes to edinburgh for the day on work conferences or out with other friends, he belittles paul in front of other people, he bullies him.

and, to crown it all, he's physically violent.

now, this makes me want to SPIT. and paul is still at the stage of saying 'oh, he doesn't leave bruises so he's not hitting me that hard; it's what he does when he's drunk and i probably deserve it'. he also tried to convince me that the physical violence is somehow different or to be expected because they're a gay couple.

i'm furious and worried, and i don't know what to say or do. and i'm aware i probably can't do much more than i did last night, which is listen and love him. currently, i want to inflict some physical violence on tony (ha. yes, i do appreciate the irony), i want paul to get out, but tony has brilliantly manipulated him into thinking it's normal, acceptable, deserved treatment. paul has a ton of insecurities and they've been together 8 years.

but just, arrrrrgh.

Current Mood: rageous

on leaving last night, i pootled off to the bus station, had a quick chat with the boy and dozed for the rest of the journey. and i know i was sleeping with my mouth open. i'm guessing there was snoring. how embarrassing.

got home and roger had cooked tea, which also involved the garlickiest garlic bread ever. smelt gorgeous and tasted as good. watched rick stein be bad tempered and drunken, and then giggled at 3 men and a boat on bbc2. and went to bed early, because i had an early morning to get the train.

and yes, of course, i slept in. i was being so good. why the hell does it happen when you try and be sensible? if i'd stayed up till nearly 1 and had a couple of beers, i'd have made it up more successfully. bah. i wasn't hugely late, but still.

so, today, i have been proofreading and correcting articles for our website, which is dull but fairly mindless. and i need dull, yet fairly mindless today.

tonight, who knows what i shall get up to? i certainly have no plans so far. but i will be driving home, so i'm guessing they'll involve plonking myself on the sofa for several hours.

Current Mood: annoyed. with myself.

i like dark stormy grey sky behind city hall. it looks extremely dramatic.

i dislike the fact that msn will NOT sign me in on this computer anymore. i don't know why, but it won't.

has anyone heard from cappuccino_kid? just realised he's the only one of my london lot of friends i haven't heard of....

SLEATER-KINNEY ARE PLAYING THE SPRING AND AIRBRAKE ON THE 31ST AUGUST!!!!!!!!
OH.MY.GOODNESS.ME.
WHERE THE HELL IS AILEEN WHEN I NEED TO SQUEE VIA MSN?
jinxremoving, YOU BETTER BE COMING OVER!
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Current Mood: sleater-kinney
Current Music: sleater-kinney in my head

Poll #493067 what else, on friday 13th?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

do you consider yourself superstitious?

which of these superstitions are things you do? (what an appallingly worded question. still, hopefully you get the point)

go on, 'fess up....

are you a little embarrassed about your superstitious habits?

any further thoughts?

Current Mood: curious

Poll #430437 allieviate my boredom
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 8

is there anything you would like to ask me, or is there anything you'd like to tell me?

firefish: tescos i think, in the freezer section. but if not try the eatwell on the lisburn road, or open sesame on botanic. it was very good, wasn't it?

sarasnarfler: mango to the first question. pineapple flavoured things are vaguely reminiscent of bacardi breezers, which is not good. certainly not a 3 way mix. were you offering?!

byrnsey_b: lady, have an enormous online hug. we'll get there x you're in my thoughts.

captainlucy: only ciaran and gareth have had that pleasure so far!

lostpositive: fastfude is a website dedicated to promoting music in northern ireland, and providing a forum for those involved in the music scene. my housemate roger runs the site, and it's an interesting community!

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: yeah, as before. sampler stuff

valid.pop #13

saturday 29th january (that's tomorrow, folks)

the errigle inn, ormeau road

guest dj: art groupie

visuals: sweet charity and cabaret

£4

9pm - 1am

Current Mood: valid

so, firstly, despite him no longer having a journal, happy birthday roger!

and in honour of his birthday - it's the cat naming poll, part 1. i will update this if there are further suggestions for names, and also possibly once we have the cat in question. it will, after all, depend on whether the cat suits proposed names. and finally, it should be said that i relayed the suggestions so far to roger (bar foot-foot, i'm afraid lostpositive - that's a possible name for any cat i own in the future, rather than roger's!), and there is one already in the lead. only i'm not saying which, cause that would spoil the fun. so vote away....

Poll #413186 the roger's cat poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

so, what should roger's cat be called?

any other name suggestions? i will re-do the poll later if there are some....

any further thoughts?

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: cats

there will be a further, fuller, filtered update of the last few days, including the trivial pursuit and valid.pop, but this is the quick public set list post! thanks to everyone who came down - there were about 100 people there, and it was a fantastic night. i played:

nas and olu - bridging the gap
the staple singers - who took the merry out of christmas?
the models (i think! will check this) - bend me, shape me
shonen knife - twist barbie
zombina and the skeletones - braindead
billy bragg - fourteenth of february
fun lovin' criminals - i'm not in love
the concretes - seems fine
the stone roses - standing here
nellie mckay - sari
fiona apple - fast as you can
the fiery furnaces - south is only a home
martha and the muffins - echo beach
le tigre - i'm so excited
cibo matto - know your chicken
the shangri-la's - leader of the pack
dusty springfield - little by little
the polyphonic spree - soldier girl
the divine comedy - the happy goth
the monochrome set - eine symphonie des grauens
the leningrad cowboys feat. the red army ensemble - happy together

Current Mood: groggy
Current Music: valid.pop set list

Come one, come all, come party.

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: valid.pop setlists past

this all got very jumbled up, so i think these are the right songs, and the right order.

billy bragg - cindy of a thousand lives
marine research - hopefulness to hopelessness
susheela raman - love trap
nellie mckay - won't u please b nice
marianne faithful - the ballad of lucy jordan
the blue aeroplanes - yr own world
the boo radleys - lazarus

the moldy peaches - lucky number nine
the fiery furnaces - asthma attack
flamingo 50 - told you so
zombina and the skeletones - braindead
holly golightly - without you here
the polyphonic spree - hold me now
le tigre - i'm so excited
sleater kinney - oh!
belly - slow dog
pulp - party hard
nas and olu - bridging the gap

think that's it all. already had to edit it once cause i forgot belly, and i'm not sure i played everything in exactly that order, but hey. close enough.

Current Mood: nerdy

john peel is dead. i'm sort of bewildered by this, it's all wrong. very, very sad.

*Edited to swipe from statto's journal:

Current Mood: sad

valid.pop #10 was, as ever, lots of fun. however we did contrive to pull even less people than last month, owing to rigsy's new weekly night in the spring and airbrake. i'm somewhere between disappointed and annoyed, but resigned to the fact that the general populus is going to think a)"aha! restart for sketchy" and b)"ooooh. a chance to see inside the new spring and airbrake" rather than trot to the errigle. i suspect, since rigsy's thing is weekly rather than monthly, if he'd launched it two weeks ago we wouldn't have been hit so hard. so we had an attendance of 16. as ever though, everyone who came loved the music, which is the only thing making me think it's worthwhile keeping going. but here, for posterity, is my setlist:

shonen knife - e.s.p.
the shangri-las - the dum dum ditty
voodoo queen's - i'm not bitter - i just want to kill you
huggy bear - herjazz
holly golightly - time will tell
petula clark - don't sleep in the subway
dusty springfield - little by little
the moldy peaches - lucky number nine
the breeders - too alive
bikini kill - rebel girl
zombina and the skeletones - nobody likes you (when you're dead)
the house of love - you don't understand
dionne warwick - do you know the way to san jose?
sleater kinney - ballad of a ladyman
pj harvey - who the fvck?
le tigre - deceptacon
pulp - party hard
jaqueline taib - 7 heures du matin
dubstar - anywhere
chicks on speed - we don't play guitars
the flamingo 50 - philippa
marlowe - feeding time
billy bragg - st monday
the divine comedy - i've been to a marvellous party

* EDIT: after lunch, i discovered that rigsy had about the same turnout that we had. i wasn't actually claiming that it was entirely rigsy's fault that no one showed up for our night, i just kinda assumed that everyone would automatically go to the s&a. clearly wednesday night just isn't a good night for a club!

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: some weird but relaxing bleepy stuff

Poll #365803 the valid.pop tension tamer
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

will you be attending valid pop this evening?

if you are otherwise engaged, are you....

if valid.pop is on a thursday, it clashes with lots of things. seemingly, this is also true if it's on a wednesday. do you have a preference for a particular day?

any reason for this?

any further valid.pop type comments?

Current Mood: contemplative

do come, y'all....

Current Mood: hopeful

and i am resolved to go see the film 'five children and it' when it is released. the jim henson people are doing it, eddie izzard voices 'it', and i heard some of it on radio 4 on saturday. the story is that five children find a 2000 year old sand fairy ('it'), who grants them wishes that last for 24 hours. a sample quote:

"we can call you sandy."
"why?"
"because we found you in the sand."

[PAUSE]

"have your parents considered boiling you?"

Current Mood: amused

set 1:
zombina and the skeletones - christina
elvis costello - i can't stand up
top cats - calling your name
pj harvey - good fortune
bernadette la hengst - die da oben machen ja doch was wir wollen
mis-teeq - scandalous
sleater kinney - little babies
the cordettes - black mascara
the divine comedy - in pursuit of happiness
herb alpert and the tijuana brass - a taste of honey
the polyphonic spree - hold me now

set 2:
susheela raman - trust in me
the zutons - dirty dancehall
elliot smith - junk bond trader
the jackson 5 - i want you back
le tigre - hot topic (can anyone remember if i actually did play this? i was going to, but i might have cut it out)
billy bragg - sexuality
pulp - do you remember the first time?
marlena shaw - california soul
marlowe - popularity gel

thanks once again to the lovely friends of jesus sound system, who were aceness. and of course, also to gareth!

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: earworm: emma's house, the field mice

Current Mood: optimistic