Ali's pantry

Check out this blog http://alispantry.blogspot.com/

xxx

Big day in the North

Since I last blogged about Sucioperro live action, I have been fortunate enough to watch them twice more. Once at Manchester Academy and once at The Leadmill in Sheffield. On both occasions they provided outstanding support to Nine Black Alps. Now I'm going to be honest, although Nine Black Alps were the headlining acts at these venues, my reasons for going were Sucio shaped. I enjoyed Nine Black Alps but for me, Sucio were the kings of the stage. They were the headlining act from my perspective and I'm sure my friend Sam would agree with me on this. Sam and I crashed at my house for the Manchester gig and hers for the Sheffield one. I’m pleased to report that Sam's house provided the most comfortable sofa in Yorkshire - and I've a tried a few, actually I haven't but anyway.

Lovely Sucio played for around half an hour at both venues. I believe that it should have been much longer. For the first attendance at Manchester, they played songs from their current album, Pain Agency. At the second attendance in Sheffield, we were pleased to hear something of a different set - songs from Random Acts of Intimacy, Pain Agency and three songs from Sucio's new EP. I was happy to hear Dirty Dirty, Sick Sick and I’m always excited by The Dissident Code. Blonde Parade would have been fab and not because of my hair colour but because it’s my favourite song on the new EP but you cant have everything. That bass - yay for Spider (Sucio's fantastic bass player)!

Manchester Academy is a good venue. Academy 3, the location for Sucio fun, is small enough yet big enough to feel like a venue whilst still retaining a sense of intimacy. We stood at the front for Sucioperro, we nodded, moved and sang to all the songs. We stood at the back for Nine Black Alps but watched their set with interest. Post-gig action consisted of meeting my b/f Mark and his mates at a bar. His mates were rather drunk, so that was interesting to watch. I don’t how he copes with drunken friends whilst retaining perpetual sobriety. They went to see The Bad Lieutenant, which, I’m told was very good. The quote of the evening was “it’s a good day in the North”, allegedly a line from a Black Grape track. Upon checking trusty Google, the quote should be “it's your big day in the north” but hey-ho. It was both a good and big day in the North – Sucioperro played and they played beautifully.

Moving further North to the second instalment on the Nine Black Alps / Sucioperro tour we arrive at The Leadmill. I've enjoyed many an indie / rock / alternative disco within its walls but amazingly Sucio / Nine Black Alps were my first gig experience there. It wasn’t a full as it should have been and the post-gig fun that was promised on the tickets didn’t take place. In truth I would have been too tired to do much dancing anyway. Old age must be taking hold of me! Of the two gigs, I feel Sucioperro were moderately better at The Leadmill, percentage-wise, we are talking small figures though. They were fab at both venues. Nine Black Alps, on the other hand, were better at The Academy. It was nice to meet Sam’s friend Darren of Kill Chaos fame. We stood at the front for our second instalment and we positioned ourselves nicely in front of Fergus (Sucio’s marvellous drummer). We noticed a couple of female Dragon fans just in front of us – they started sort of centre-front of stage and gradually moved nearer and nearer to JP Reid on stage right (audience perspective). They took a video of the entire gig with brief movement over Spider and Fergus, arriving at JP Reid aka Dragon and staying there for remainder of the gig. Whenever Sam and I glanced at the girls in question, they were resolutely videoing him. The camera holder must have acquired major hand-ache during the process and it must have been like watching an audience with a Dragon rather than enjoying a Sucioperro gig but as long as they enjoyed themselves, it’s all good I guess. After some coat locating drama, we left The Leadmill, secure in knowledge that we’d had fun.

So that’s it for live Sucio interaction this year. I’ve been to five Sucio gigs since April and sadly my limited funds won’t stretch to any more unless my b/f and I get an invite from friends in Glasgow and we decide to take in King Tuts. Hmm, food for thought…...

Love to all,

xxx

Books for sale

My boyfriend Mark has lots of books for sale, some are as new and all are in good condition. He is selling them to help towards the costs of his contact hearing to see his son. As I've commented previously on this blog, it is costing lots of money and every penny helps. There about about 58 books listed - crime, romance, text books, drama, craft books, biographies, music related books. At this time of year (yes Xmas is coming and will soon arrive) it could be a quick, cheap and most of all helpful way to get some Xmas gifts sorted out. Help Mark and help yourself at the same time.

Please visit his blog for more on this. You might want to listen to his music whilst there. http://shotokandisco.blogspot.com/2009/10/books-for-sale.html

Love to all,

xxx

Glam Wrexham

Do you live in Wrexham or somewhere near there? Do you plan on passing through soon? If not, you should and whilst there check out Glam, an exciting new funky and electro house night.

Go to the website: www.glam-wrexham.co.uk to find out more.

Good vibes.

xxx

Mistakes, mistakes

I do dislike spotting mistakes on my blog - be they grammar, spelling or other inaccuracies. I just casually stopped by to read my last blog post and spotted quite a few errors. That proof-reading course I went on was clearly totally useless.

Ah well.

xx

Job and careers

I'm in the process of job searching at the moment, a time-consuming and stressful activity but necessary evil. I've been at my current place of employ for somewhere around 8 years. I planned to leave after 2 but somehow didn't follow that plan through to fruition. Not sure how that happened. I like many aspects of my work, not least because I only work for 2 days a week. The majority of my working life has been as a full-time cog in the machine of society so 2 days a week has been a joy. It has made life as a part-time student much easier and enabled me to maintain something of social-life! Marvelous! Sadly all good things must end and now it's to time find more hours. I also want to find work in Bolton or Manchester because my romantic life brings me here (by that I mean my b/f lives in Bolton because I have just realised that I have made it sound like I go on the pull up North)!!

I would love to find a job that pays well, gives me plenty of time for work to live activities, and gets my creative juices flowing. Any offers gratefully received?

xx

Never ending overture and the Mozart effect

Have you ever noticed that much classical music struggles to end? Those final notes stretch onwards until you wonder whether you are caught in a never ending overture. I don't claim to be a classical connoisseur but I do enjoy Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and others. Yet I find that as the music draws to a close, notes are played that have an air of ending about them but the end does not occur then, it occurs later, sometimes quite a bit later. It's like an early warning system - this piece is ending, it's ending soon, no really it is, it's nearly ended, it's ended. Strange but true.

Anyway, onto an interesting piece of information, brought to my attention by my boyfriend Mark. Amongst the trials and tribulations of essays and end of course, examiner marked essays, Mark alerted me to something called the Mozart effect. The theory that his music enables students revising for exams and similar to achieve improved results. (Google the Mozart effect for more on this). We decided that it may help me to focus and improve my essay scores. So, I have listened to Mozart and other classical composers during the production of three end of course essays. The most recent of which was a 3000 word reflective account, sounds easy, it wasn't. I must admit that classical music, somehow, enables improved focus. Not opera though, that just distracts and annoys me (not a fan). Beautiful music without words like Walz of the flowers, Beethoven's 5th, Fur elise, Piano Concerto No. 21, Air from Suite No.3 (Air on a G String) and so on. Indeed, following a decision to stop essaying for the night, I stayed at my laptop to type more words, actual words that directly answered the essay question because Mozart's Piano Concerto 21 came on Accu Classical Radio! Moving on, I have to say that focus, when it comes to essays, is far from my strong suit. I suffer from a disease called procrastination. So profound is this disease, that Mark has named me Distracto girl! Sadly, life as Distracto girl, doesn't mean that I get to change into a lycra suit with cape, disguise myself wearing glasses or use my spidey sense. Yet, classical music appears to be an effective treatment for procrastination and enables me to become Focus girl! The last two classical music inspired essays have achieved fairy high marks. Not the highest ever but that's because I haven't put the work in rather than any fault of Mozart, Bach etc. It remains to be seen whether the most recent academic endeavour will prove successful.

Big thanks to Mark and Mozart.

xxx

Sarben

I've just left message for my friend Sarben (Sarah) on her voicemail. It was the kind of message that proves that interaction is not needed in order for me to ramble on for an age. My voicemail messages are like my conversation: confusing, full of self interruption and lengthy.

So anyway, Sarben has been away for almost 2 years and 2 years ago was the last time I saw her. Prior to her travels, Sarben, Liz and my sister Hayley spent a lot of great times together. I was sad to see her leave but happy for her (such contradictions of emotions). She always wanted to travel, indeed you might say that was born to it. She has laid down some roots in NZ and met a man over there. Since she left both Liz and Hayley have had children, Toby (son of Liz and Ben), Aiden (son of Hayley and Gav, and my beautiful nephew). Life can change so much in 2 years. Although I'll cling onto my non-parent status for some time yet, my life has changed somewhat in the last 2. We all have lots of catching up to do. So roll on Saturday, when we will be heading off for lunch then continuing the festivities into the evening.

Miss you Sar,

xxx

Help needed!

Mark aka Shotokan Disco is trying to gain access to his son through the courts. Sadly this is proving extremely costly for him. Furthermore, his ex partner is putting much effort into preventing him from seeing his child. If you have ever found yourself in a similar situation, you will know that sometimes people will put barriers between the male parent and child without just cause. The more barriers are created, the longer the court proceedings last, the more solicitors make (great for the solicitors) but not so great for the parent who wants to spend unsupervised time with his child. Children need to spend time with both parents where that is possible.

So here is the helped needed part……alongside his musical abilities, Mark is skilled in the ways of IT and Web Technology. If you need a website please visit Mark’s blog. He is also skilled in the ways of PC build, upgrade etc. If nothing else, visit his blog and it will give you the opportunity to hear his tracks. You may want to buy some at the tiny cost of 60+ MP3s for £5 only or 50 pence each.

http://shotokandisco.blogspot.com/

Love and peace,

xxx