Moments and Musings

Lord, has it really been that long since I last blogged? I know I haven’t had much going on, but this is ridiculous. Anyway, since I last talked to you, Great Britain showed that it really is great and hosted the best Olympic and Paralymic games ever (no of course I’m not biased); J K Rowling has released a new and completely brilliant book; The Hobbit trailer was finally released to a lot of excitement; I Am Kloot at last (thank heavens) announced some concerts ‘down south’; my computer and my washing machine both gave up the ghost (sadly in the same week) and Mrs H3 and I once again committed ourselves to attempting to attend this year’s Snow Ball in Edinburgh.

And now it’s that time of year again – I mean, of course, NaNoWriMo. Now normally at this time of the month I’m waxing lyrical about how I’m ready to tackle the 1,667 words that I need to write every day to meet the 30 November deadline of 50,000 words and as we all know from previous years I either start out well, then tail off or get sidetracked before I even really get going and then have a mad spurt at the end of the month. So I was all ready to go and actually even had a plot idea for once – something that doesn’t usually happen properly at this stage of the game, but sad to say I’m really not feeling in the mood for writing this year. I’m not entirely sure why, but at the moment I’m just not feeling the NaNoWriMo love and am thinking of skipping it for the first time since 2008. It may be that as the month goes on my need to write will return and I’ll make a late attempt but at the moment it just isn’t happening. However, if you want to have a go, please check out their website at the link.  

Although I’m not writing at the moment books have once again become a large part of my life. For some reason I went through a period of about six months when I didn’t pick up a single book, not even Harry Potter – and I’m sure anyone who knows me knows what a strange and shocking thing that is (and not just the not reading Harry Potter). I’m not sure why this was, but now I’m back with a vengeance and am voraciously reading anything I can lay my hands on. Terry Pratchett, Lauren Kate, Cassandra Clare, John Connolly, the lovely James Herbert, Dean Koontz and of course the wonderful J K Rowling have all featured in my reading list over the last few months – and all have been brilliantly entertaining and well worth checking out.

As the weather gets colder and the nights draw in, Mrs H3 and I are finally getting some evenings out. Firstly was a small and intimate, but completely wonderful evening with the fantastic Chris Singleton and the Distractions a couple of weeks ago, check out the link for a free download of Chris’ first album ‘Twisted City’. Although there weren’t anywhere near enough people there considering the quality of the band, those of us that were had a truly excellent night. The picture isn’t great quality as it was very dark in there, but not bad considering.

Chris Singleton and the Distractions

Next was our usual annual jaunt to the Halloween Night of Fear with Alice Cooper, which of course saw us dressing up in our scary best. Note the fantastic face paint that Mrs H3 put on me – she’s a true artist that one! Alice was good, but I don’t think he was a patch on previous years. I wasn’t keen on the Wembley venue (especially when it was scheduled at the same time as the NFL American football – trying to get to the venue through the thousands of leaving football fans was a complete nightmare and we only just made it in time) and the sound quality wasn’t very good. Initially I thought it was because I’d been struck down with the lurgy the week before and my ears were still playing up, but Mrs H3 and plenty of others confirmed that wasn’t the case. The stage show was scaled back too, which was interesting, but not as entertaining as the usual beheadings etc., although the snake and the strait jacket did make an appearance. Strangely he chose to do a tribute to Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Moon which took four songs – a little surprising when he has such an extensive back catalogue of his own that he could draw upon instead, and when he didn’t play ‘Only Women Bleed’ which I thought was mandatory. It was still a good evening though, although very wet, which is unusual for Halloween and I’m sure was because I went for the full face paint.    

Do you think I've overdone the make-up?

And so onto the future when on 20^th November we finally get to see I Am Kloot for the first time in what seems like forever (definitely well over a year), playing a preview of their forthcoming album ‘Let It All In’. Obviously I’m extremely excited by this, although somewhat nervous as I am desperately hoping this latest Elbow-produced offering doesn’t have the lush orchestrations of the last one and makes a return to the raw, lyric-driven sound of their previous albums. Having heard the first single from it I’m not entirely hopeful, but trying to reserve judgement until I’ve heard the whole thing. The album is released in time for my birthday (hurrah) and is followed by a couple of concerts in London and Brighton in February, which we will, of course, be at. Actually, trying to get tickets was mental, something that has never been a problem before and there was a scary moment where it actually looked like we weren’t going to get them – which would have caused a strop of massive proportions from me. It’s already bad enough having to pay double what it used to cost to see them (since their Mercury music award nomination) without not being able to get a ticket!

Of course Gary Numan makes an appearance before Christmas too on the 7^th December, where hopefully he’ll be recovered from his recent move to Los Angeles. And then, just after my birthday on 31 January we’ll finally be seeing Passenger, a band that I’ve loved for years but have never yet quite managed to get round to seeing live.

And so once again Mrs H3 and I are heading to Edinburgh in an attempt to go to the Snow Ball  I’m fairly confident that this year we’ll actually make it as it’s being held at the beginning of December, so hopefully less chance of snow (and us getting stuck at both ends as we did last time) and we’re travelling the day before rather than on the day of the Ball itself just to make doubly sure. This year’s star attraction from the USA is the original wizard rockers Harry and the Potters, who we haven’t seen since Leakycon last year. With RiddleTM, Siriusly Hazza P and Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldronsproviding first class support it’s going to be a great evening and is the first Harry Potter event we’ve attended in ages and will help to soothe our bitter hearts for not managing to get tickets for Leakycon London next year (still not ready to blog about that). Expect lots of photos of all the lovely witches and wizards in their finest robes ready to Wrock the night away in the magical city that Jo Rowling calls home at Europe’s premiere wizard rock event.