![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Same Old, Same Old
It seems like the only time I post now is to say how busy I am, and how I've been travelling too much.
So why mess with a winning formula?
Since the start of the month, I've upped my days in the Inverness office from 2-3 days a week to 4-5. I'm amazed how quickly I've morphed into Bill Murray in Lost In Translation - poor, poor, pitiful me, spending lonely nights in a luxury hotel, on expenses.
On the bright side, I'm catching up on a lot of TV... I'm mid way through Season 4 of Breaking Bad, I started Utopia, I'm approaching the end of House (and it's pretty remarkable that Season 8 has brought my biggest laugh, when House's possible biological father made his appearance) and I've cracked and bought Season 2 of SHIELD. What can I tell you?
I've also been out to a lot of movies (for me) - the usual suspects, I guess, in that I've seen Birdman, Foxcatcher and the Imitation Game. I've deliberately avoided Theory of Everything, for what are probably silly reasons (I used to know Robert Hawking quite well, and I don't want to see his parents smooching on-screen). Oh, and if you're trawling through Netfix, look out for Stuart Murdoch's "God Save The Girl". Yes, it has the highest tweeness quotient I've ever come across, but it's set very much in my Glasgow, to the extent that I bumped into them filming it twice within fifty yards of my flat.
I'm also getting through a lot of reading (and re-reading) and seem to be back at my old reading speed. I went through Chris Brookmyre's "Dead Girl Walking" in a few hours, and it's highly recommended. I liked the alternating viewpoints of his beaten-down protagonist Jack Parlabane, and a young and energetic musician on her first rock tour. He's spent the last couple of years putting Parlabane through the wringer, so I was rooting for him to get his mojo back.
I also liked William Gibson's new novel, The Peripheral, and went through it in a couple of days. The short chapters make for a quick read, and so does the structure - again, alternating viewpoints, and this one is also written as a "run", in the same way as Neuromancer, all those years ago. It has a neat approach to time travel, and an underlying optimism that always appeals to me.
Gigging has had to take a back seat this month, which meant I missed out on almost all of Celtic Connections. I broke my duck on Sunday, with an excellent gig at Oran Mor. ALDOC are a folky, rootsy bunch, a bit like the Afro-Celt Sound System without the synths. Mostly. Songhoy Blues were a four piece from Mali, kind of acid-rock funk with lots of smiles. I liked them both.
In other news, I was in the Alps for a long weekend a couple of weeks ago, which has finally removed my long-held classist bias against skiing. I suspect that will lead to lessons some time this year. The fact that there's an Easy Jet service from Glasgow to Geneva makes popping over to the Alps for a weekend quite feasible, so, erm, I'm doing it again this weekend. Friends are out there skiing, and I'm going to have dinner with them on Saturday night. It's a bit mad, but it's a good madness, I think.
I didn't do any end-of-year memes this year, because I honestly couldn't say if I'm happier this year than last. Well, actually, that's not true. It would have been very hard for 2014 to suck more than 2013, and it didn't. A lot of what happened last year, though, felt transitional, like getting my house in order so that good things can happen. And while good things MIGHT happen this year, I'm still in that liminal space.
I've always like liminal spaces, though, so let's see where this doorway takes me...
So why mess with a winning formula?
Since the start of the month, I've upped my days in the Inverness office from 2-3 days a week to 4-5. I'm amazed how quickly I've morphed into Bill Murray in Lost In Translation - poor, poor, pitiful me, spending lonely nights in a luxury hotel, on expenses.
On the bright side, I'm catching up on a lot of TV... I'm mid way through Season 4 of Breaking Bad, I started Utopia, I'm approaching the end of House (and it's pretty remarkable that Season 8 has brought my biggest laugh, when House's possible biological father made his appearance) and I've cracked and bought Season 2 of SHIELD. What can I tell you?
I've also been out to a lot of movies (for me) - the usual suspects, I guess, in that I've seen Birdman, Foxcatcher and the Imitation Game. I've deliberately avoided Theory of Everything, for what are probably silly reasons (I used to know Robert Hawking quite well, and I don't want to see his parents smooching on-screen). Oh, and if you're trawling through Netfix, look out for Stuart Murdoch's "God Save The Girl". Yes, it has the highest tweeness quotient I've ever come across, but it's set very much in my Glasgow, to the extent that I bumped into them filming it twice within fifty yards of my flat.
I'm also getting through a lot of reading (and re-reading) and seem to be back at my old reading speed. I went through Chris Brookmyre's "Dead Girl Walking" in a few hours, and it's highly recommended. I liked the alternating viewpoints of his beaten-down protagonist Jack Parlabane, and a young and energetic musician on her first rock tour. He's spent the last couple of years putting Parlabane through the wringer, so I was rooting for him to get his mojo back.
I also liked William Gibson's new novel, The Peripheral, and went through it in a couple of days. The short chapters make for a quick read, and so does the structure - again, alternating viewpoints, and this one is also written as a "run", in the same way as Neuromancer, all those years ago. It has a neat approach to time travel, and an underlying optimism that always appeals to me.
Gigging has had to take a back seat this month, which meant I missed out on almost all of Celtic Connections. I broke my duck on Sunday, with an excellent gig at Oran Mor. ALDOC are a folky, rootsy bunch, a bit like the Afro-Celt Sound System without the synths. Mostly. Songhoy Blues were a four piece from Mali, kind of acid-rock funk with lots of smiles. I liked them both.
In other news, I was in the Alps for a long weekend a couple of weeks ago, which has finally removed my long-held classist bias against skiing. I suspect that will lead to lessons some time this year. The fact that there's an Easy Jet service from Glasgow to Geneva makes popping over to the Alps for a weekend quite feasible, so, erm, I'm doing it again this weekend. Friends are out there skiing, and I'm going to have dinner with them on Saturday night. It's a bit mad, but it's a good madness, I think.
I didn't do any end-of-year memes this year, because I honestly couldn't say if I'm happier this year than last. Well, actually, that's not true. It would have been very hard for 2014 to suck more than 2013, and it didn't. A lot of what happened last year, though, felt transitional, like getting my house in order so that good things can happen. And while good things MIGHT happen this year, I'm still in that liminal space.
I've always like liminal spaces, though, so let's see where this doorway takes me...
wow, look at you jetting off to the slopes for a weekend!
2014 was much better for you than 2013 as you saw more of me.
Re: wow, look at you jetting off to the slopes for a weekend!
Let me know when you're making it North (any North will do).