Month: April 2006

Last night I ended up going out for the gig with F. which was good fun. They’re called Los Fancy Free and involved new wavey dance punk songs. They sound better live than the tracks they stream from their site, but all in all it was a laugh. I’ve not seen that level of showmanship in a frontman in a while…

Today I started off watching ‘The Saint and Blue Demon Vs. The Monsters’ (mini-review to the right) which was my first Santo film. I’m going to have to watch more and there’s over 40 of them. What else? Well we drove over to Chapalita’s art market where people come to sell their paintings on Sundays, which was pleasant after that Home Depot to pick up a grill and some plants. then home. Ooh, and I defrosted the freezer so the front lawn was covered with snow for a while which looked a tad incongruous.

Feliz cumpleaños Dad! Skype us when you get back from walking Jed,

Cheers

Quite a late one last night and hence a late morning too. After watching streaming episodes of News Radio (90s Phil Harman US Sitcom) on WinAmp for a bit and copying my favourite tracks from DJ Randall’s 80s mp3 CD I headed off to downtown to pick up some DVDs, I got Crash (The oscar one, not the JG Ballard adaptation), Bandidas (Salma Hayek and P. Cruz are cowgirls), Firewall (Harrison Ford pushing his acting skills to the limit again) and Final Destination 3 (which I watched this afternoon (3 Lulus)). I ambled over to the park had a banana milkshake in the shade, then got the wrong bus, then got the right bus.

I didn’t see Sita till late in the afternoon cos she’d been off on a tequila tasting (called a Cata) followed by jewellry shopping (the cheap stuff). She swears she didn’t swallow a drop though, and spat it all out in an expert stylee. And who am I to question her? By all accounts it’s a fascinating process, shame she’ll not guest write for this blog. You’ll just have to wait for the dissertation in X years time… This evening we had a head-to-head sudoku contest. Sita won all three (the first on a technicality mind). Did I mention I won the Scrabble yesterday, though, in Chop?

Right now it’s 10:25pm and Fernando just rang to see if I’m coming to this gig or not. I’m tempted but still a little groggy. I’m going to toss a coin in a minute and see where that takes me. Sita’s already decided she’s not going anywhere… But I’m buggered if this saturday evening is going on the record as sudoko, watering the lawn, and cauliflower soup…

Ed’s got some envy-inducing shots up of his travels round the bottomest parts of Latin America on his latest entries. I recommend you head over there. Although the tag line “This week I lost my towel” needs work…

Things going well as per usual as we cruise on into the weekend. Jose & Fernando are coming over for a few chelas before heading off to the pub. Possibility of a gig tomorrow evening.

Have I mentioned it’s getting hot round here… gotta go sita’s just arrived.

Today’s mission, should you choose to accept it, etc…. Lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles with it. Then with your right hand draw a figure 6 in the air. Like it or not, your foot will change direction.

Had an early start today getting the materials together to extend the visa a bit. They only gave us 30 days, not the usual 180 so we have to apply for more. Shouldn’t be a problem and I’m fairly used to forms after all last week’s fun and games. When we tried to start the car afterwards, though, it wouldn’t do anything at all. The lights worked, the radio worked, and we’d only been gone 30 mins. We got a push start from the peeps who’d just washed our car (maybe water got into the battery???) and we took it home. When I turned the engine off something (possibly the fan) kept going for 40 secs or so. Anyone any good with car problems? and while we’re at it, the water’s on the blink again. Occasionally the street’s water pressure is too low to get it to the tank in the roof, and the pump has never worked. We had a couple of water free days, this weekend I might replace the pump and see where that gets us.

I’ve been configuring zencart today to work in Spanish. I’m not linking to it cos it’s just for testing, but agaveweb.com/zencart is where it’s at. Also on the geekery front, the google pagerank for this page just hit 4/10 which is where I was before switching blogs. This makes me happy… Thanks to all of you who’ve linked here/ blogrolled me, much obliged.

Translated version of https://agaveweb.com/
Shoved my site into google translate, and apparently, Estamos en contacto! means “We are in contact with the enemy!” (see blue text halfway down the page)

Books that come with endorsements from Oprah’s book club tend to receive very little of my attention, rightly or wrongly. Luckily I saw a clip of the author being harassed by Oprah for passing fiction off as fact and then striking him off her ‘approved list‘ so I mentally peeled the sticker off and dived right in.

23-year-old James is admitted to a drug rehab centre in pretty poor shape, covered with a colourful selection of his own bodily fluids, missing his front teeth and with a hole through his cheek. He’s been at the chemicals for a good few years and has hit rock bottom. The book takes you through his six weeks at the centre at breakneck pace in first person, present tense and it’s hard to put down from the very start. I have to admit there is one section I didn’t read though; When he’s having root canal work done with no anaesthetic I had to skip a few pages there. Rest assured what I pictured in my head had to be worse than whatever he actually wrote there. Jesus…

You find yourself admiring him for his rebelliousness and steadfast refusal to follow the 12 steps and the self-delusion necessary to follow them. For someone who’s at his lowest ebb, he presents a heroic character. He is resolute and uncompromising, obviously quite a contrast to his former self. Despite not following all the rules in the center, he makes progress and even offers others a chance for the same salvation.

This story is about personal choice, responsibility and offers a logical, braver and God-free alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether it’s all true or not only matters if you’re reading it as a self-help guide. As a literary work, it’s deserves to be up there and above with Dave Egger’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius another first person memoir with interludes of fantasy.

There’s a site that’s looking to find the most beautiful word in Spanish. I’ve got several for the list, which, while maybe not beautiful, are lyrical and pleasing in other ways. Here are a few of my faves. Spanish is such a great language, especially the Mexican variety.

Huitlacoche — it’s a black fungus that grows in maize that is specially harvested for pricey tacos/ quesadillas

Esperpéntico- An adjective that roughly equates to grotesque in English. It’s all about holding up a deformed mirror to society and describing the distorted view in order to better criticise it I came across it in my undergrad degree course in 20th century Spanish theatre.

Pendejadas- Acts performed by a pendejo (idiot/wanker/fool). Stupidities.

Olvidarse- In Spanish you can absolve yourself completely of guilt when you forget things. ‘Se me olvidaron mis llaves” is a common way of saying ‘I forgot my keys’, and literally translated means ‘My keys forgot themselves at me’. Brilliant!

Antojitos- Mexican (bar) snacks. Antojo is a wish, antojitos, little wishes, or things you just fancy nibbling. I’m fond of pretty much any word with the diminutive ‘ito” ending. Guerita, guapita, casita, abuelita, chiquitito, cosquillita.

To turn a noun into an assault/ explosion/ crash you tend to shove —azo on the end. So you get: bancazo- bank robbery, avionazo- a plane crash, and tequilazo- a night of binge drinking that did you no good at all, or the economic crisis when agave prices went through the floor. Fun for all the family.

Ajijic, Jocotepec, Zapopan, Tlaquepaque, – local places with names more colourful than Taunton, or Downey for example…

In French my favourite’s pamplemousse (grapefruit) and in English, it’s a toss-up between ‘arse’ and serendipitous. If you fancy sharing yours comment away 🙂

And broadband. Even if you don’t know “Omi” check out all the other videos to see her and her little brother dance to hipster indie beats.
Fair play- It’s a little dodgy posting pix & videos of kids on the interweb and our mates have taken down the video. Which is a shame, but completely understandable. If you’re ever in Central/North California, look out for toddlers dancing to the likes of Spoon and Art Brut, you won’t regret it…

And she’s just found a black and white glossy picture of 80s/90s hair metal band Winger, signed by all four members! Yes. That includes Kip. We’re accepting bids privately now and shall move on to Ebay later…

Media yet to review this week: Capote (fell asleep, but it looked alright), Memoirs of a Geisha (aren’t foreigners strange?) and Million Little Pieces (Excellent read a la Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius without the desire to repeatedly punch the protagonist).

Clicking on the Atticus pic will take you to a series of B&W pictures of him and the bunnies from this morning. No autographs though as of yet…

I believed this story for all of 5 minutes… Beached Whale in Taunton. Taunton, Somerset, UK is my home town for the record… and my sister and Ali often walk their dog in French Weir… I nearly rang them to warn them about the potential dangers.