Or wet, at the very least. We're in Leeds, Yorkshire today. I haven't been here in maybe a decade so I'm enjoying the visit. I'm much more of a tourist than I'd like to admit; while everything feels English and familiar I'm also thinking that everyone's accents sound quaint - someone called me "me flower" in a shop today - and isn't it funny that people go out of an evening in the freezing rain without coats? Then again, I used to do the same thing 20 years ago ( mainly because I was skint and didn't want to waste a quid on the cloakroom in a club - not when I could be spending it on lager or cider & black instead). I've got all fancy pants now and I'd get too cold waiting in line for a club even if I were wearing my Brooks Bros. overcoat. Actaully, I'd never wait in line for a club. Not even if the baby jesus was onstage and there was a drink special on snakebite and black.
These are the Christmas lights in Leeds. I like Xmas lights, they make me hopeful that I'll have an xmas worthy of a Wham! video--although I should have learnt by now. There's something primitive about having light fesitvals in the winter, I think. I heard So Here It Is Merry Xmas by Slade today in Leeds Market for the first time this season. I miss hearing that in the USA. It made me feel festive.
On to something grumbly: What's happened to the telly in the UK? When I moved to the USA I remember thinking that British telly was so much better than US telly. I don't know that it's true anymore. With the exception of the occasional show like Vincent, Wire In The Blood and the like, most of the shows are wank over here now. There's even a naff thing late at night on ITV that's like a call in quiz show and that looks like a cheap commercial all the way through. Absolute bollocks. What happened? Was it always so crap and I just didn't notice or has it changed now that there's 24 hour broadcasting as standard everywhere and they have to fill up the time with some guff or other? It's hard to find something to watch. (Unlesss one's bought $200 of DVDs, that is....)
One thing I had forgotten was the level of public drunkeness in provincial England of a night. The streets are busy with drunks coming home & shouting on the way. You don't hear this so much in New York (at least not where I live, I suppose) nor in London (except in Leicester Square at 11PM). Going out to get wankered with the getting wankered as important a part of the evening as maybe enjoying a gig, show, dance or whatever. I think it's a very English attitude to having fun - like we have to gorge ourselves on it when its available for some reason; there's less urbane sipping of red wine at dinner than there is guzzling lager until one's swearing at roadsigns and throwing up in a taxi. It's in me too, to this day, although I don't drink anymore--partly for that reason. I think some Europeans are similar, but the British are world-leaders. It's a strange way of going about things - trying to numb oneself whenever possible. I wonder if its a throwback to feeling a kind of institutuionalised powerlessness from the good old days (Before the 1970's recession) when the poor and working class laboured in factories and mills and when vacations were the whitsun bankholiday weekend charabang to North Wales or Skegness? (I can't speak to posho' drunkeness as I work for a living, just like me mum and dad). Or maybe it's just a symptom of a buried rage that the British carry around inside after centuries of emotional stoicism.
I went to the hardware store in Leeds to buy some tools to use to hang our new backdrop. The hardware store was in a deserted old market in Leeds. Inside the market there is a Stamp Collectors store. It was empty too, apart from the proprieter. But there was something great about the empty market with its anachronistic stores; I like that about places in the provinces (anywhere). And of course I'm being condescending as I don't live in a small provincial town anymore and can enjoy the (apparent) lack of facilities. When I did live in a small town my skin itched in frustration thinking that life was going on elsewhere. I was sure that all the good things in life, all the golden opportunities, all the fun bypassed my home town on the M1 and the M5. Anyway, I hope Mr. Studley has a good weekend selling all the stamps he needs to and gets to have all the fun he can eat.
On a chipper note I've been feasting on the following - all are worthy of your attention.
Joan Didion - Play It As It Lays - genius writing - perfect style. LA in a book. What I'd give to do one thing half as good as this ever.
Jarvis - Fat Children. Jarv', innit? It's Hugo Boss.
David Essex - Rock On
Reeves and Mortimer - DVD Complete Series. Classic English Comedy and probably an aquired taste...
The Mighty Boosh - I've just got the Live version of the show which is like the TV show but as Panto. Again, classic English comedy. Probably best to start off with the TV series. I want to hang out with Vince and Howard.
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want / Vicar In A Tutu / Frankly Mr Shankly - The Smiths
When The Sun Goes Down - Artic Monkeys
Vetiver - I Know No Pardon / Leonard Cohen - Famous Blue Raincoat
David Bowie - Stay
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