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July 31st 2002

Visisted http://www.OddTodd.com and watched a couple of animations.

July 30th 2002

Finally saw Mike In Mono, performing music for animated shorts by Norman Mc Laren. Mc Laren made a number of films by drawing directly onto film, those shown tonight include "dots","loops","stars and stripes". MIM's music was excellent, varied and sensitive to the films.

The first film I found a bit too manic(!), so I mainly listened to the music, featuring a live ZX-Spectrum - yep, ole' rubber keys is back!

I also saw "Neighbours", a stop-animation film (of real actors), about 2 neighbours who fall in love with the same flower, and then fall out - very nicely done. The music for this was quite different, reminiscent of traditional "silent film music" sound effects and really made the film - particularly in the humourous sections.

July 19th 2002

Saw Robyn Hitchcock at the Glee Club. Excellent gig - Robyn told some great stories, and played quite a range of songs. I'd been expecting him to be doing Dylan covers - which was how it was billed, but pleasently suprised when his stuck to his own work. Also saw Mundy a great Irish singer/songwriter, and a great choice to support RH.

July 14th 2002

Saw The Bakelite Boys perform Pop Goes The Century - 100 songs, one from every year of the last century, in 100 minutes. The performance was upstairs at the Bulls Head, Inkberrow. This is not to be confused with The Old Bull, Inkberrow which is a C16th pub often cited as the inspiration for "The Bull" in the Radio Four serial The Archers. I did pop into The Old Bull for a swift 1/2. Sid and Joleen (the radio Landlord and Landlady) are currently on holiday, so the fact they they weren't behind the bar virtually proves this is the real Bull. Maybe I just made a mistake in my Syllogistic Logic?

July 11th 2002

Did brief late-night radio spot (via phone) on Radio WM, re: leaked proposals for charging for disposal of household mixed waste (with accompanying free recycling). (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,753153,00.html )

Also read bits of Diary Of A Nobody - http://www.kokonino.com/DiaryOfANobody/ - pretty good, published in 1892. I'd heard of "Diary of a Nobody" before, but didn't really know what it was - a friend of mine suggested the phrase "Blog of a Nobody" - which currently turns up nix on a google search.

July 10th 2002

Saw Django's Castle as part of the Birmingham Jazz Festival - they weren't really as good as I was expecting - infact, we left and went to the quieter Ikon Gallery bar just as they started their second set.

July 5th 2002

Saw Phil Nichol do his pre-Edinburgh show at the MAC. Unfortunately, I jokingly suggested to the people I was with that we sit in the front row, and when I joined them, that was exactly where we were sat Which was good, as I got to interact much more closely with the comedian! Along from a few requests which are unrepeatable on a family website like this, I also got a newspaper hat, and a fair amount of banter. And, he finished off with his song "The Only Gay Eskimo" - which is a song you should never listen to, as it it very catchy, but with bizare lyrics, and you're likely to find yourself wandering down the street singing "I'm the only gay eskimo, I'm the only one I know-o-o". He also did it in the style of Billy Brag, Elvis, and a couple of other people, which was cool.

July 2nd 2002

Saw To Rococco Rot at the firkin in town, but missed seeing Mike In Mono as I got there too late!

July 1st 2002

Arrived back from Glastonbury.