(Long absence = long entry, sorry)
When you think youre treading water, but youre only learning how to drown
And a song comes on the radio telling you the only way is down
- Pulp, Bob Lind
This is the craziest, busiest December Ive had since 2001, or since 1999.
Tuesday, its raining and Im pulling on my shoes
I guess I quit believing in the early morning news
- The Blue Nile, Because of Toledo
Paris, 1-3 December: visit from mum and dad: digital camera from Darty; Galeries Lafayettes giant balloons; Italian restaurant with K, Alicia and Oliver (EVK is in her pyjamas); Christmas market at Saint-Lazare; Barbarpapa at BnF; eschatology at Notre-Dame de la Gare; urban renewal at Olympiades; birthday cake; Tarkovsky, Ginsberg and Cocorosie in a bookshop in Montmartre; the kind of restaurant that gives vegetarians a bad name; the tip of the Eiffel Tower shimmering above the rooftops; Jewish bakers and kitsch toy stores in the Marais; romantic partings by Notre-Dame
I can deal with some psychic pain
If it will slow down my heart or brain
- Elliott Smith, A Fond Farewell
Cork, 3-5 December: Bataille, Caillois and the Philosophy of Science: Paul, Gary, Douglas, Andrew, Guillaume, Danny, Sergei I make some wisecracks about the absence of women. The best vegetarian restaurant I have ever been to, unfeasibly good wine, smoking only permitted outside, but this just helps to make friends (with Gary, with the locals). Push on into the small hours with the alarmingly serious Guillaume and the alarmingly young Danny in a crowded alt.pub. Get lost with Guillaume in the labyrinthine corridors of Charles de Gaulle airport on the way back.
Just cos you feel it, doesnt mean its there
- Radiohead, There There
Bath, 10-12 December: Anchor House reunion: Rob, Ganesh, Stu, Jon, Vicky, Jacqui, Rich. Guinness and cosmopolitans. Roast chestnuts, full English breakfast, orange and cranberry cheesecake. Seven hours of afternoon drinking in a wood-panelled English pub with the windows steaming up against the cold outside. Written on the toilet wall at Bath train station: Die you wurzel cuntz.
Iambic splendour
Of her surrender
- De-Phazz, Jazz Music (I may have imagined this lyric)
Paris, 17-20 December: my thirtieth birthday with PCH, HDD, EVK, K, Ru & Ro and the other Ru. Friday: drink until 5 am; Saturday: drink until 7:30 am. Meanwhile, ChingnLings noodle bar, SOMOs slow-coming salmon, lemon cheesecake complete with birthday candle (for hes a jolly good fellow), salade folle with gsiers, confit de canard and foie gras (yes, I eat gizzards on my salad, you got a problem with that?). Bitterness, 4 am, I tell K: I just want to touch men. PCH and I smoke in a rainy doorway like a couple of tramps.
Birthday presents:
1 digital camera
1 Moleskin address book
1 bottle Bombay Sapphire gin
1 copy A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
1 bowling ball
1 copy Mammifres by Pierre Mrot
1 copy Madame Rumilly by Jean Cocteau
1 waterproof clock
1 bottle opener
1 desk fan
0 sex
Theres a face in the mirror that I havent seen yet
- Willard Grant Conspiracy, Closing Time
I have been alive for thirty years, and what have I got to show for it?
- a working knowledge of two languages and their literatures
- an encyclopaedic knowledge of cinema (actually, not at all, although this is what people tell me)
- a collection of around 1000 records and CDs
- a handful of good friends
- a job in a university
- a paranoid fear of sexual reality
- a body that Im only just getting to know
- a lot of wasted years
- a sense of having barely begun
Georges Courteline: Il vaut mieux gcher sa jeunesse que de nen faire rien du tout.
When you think youre treading water, but youre only learning how to drown
And a song comes on the radio telling you the only way is down
- Pulp, Bob Lind
This is the craziest, busiest December Ive had since 2001, or since 1999.
Tuesday, its raining and Im pulling on my shoes
I guess I quit believing in the early morning news
- The Blue Nile, Because of Toledo
Paris, 1-3 December: visit from mum and dad: digital camera from Darty; Galeries Lafayettes giant balloons; Italian restaurant with K, Alicia and Oliver (EVK is in her pyjamas); Christmas market at Saint-Lazare; Barbarpapa at BnF; eschatology at Notre-Dame de la Gare; urban renewal at Olympiades; birthday cake; Tarkovsky, Ginsberg and Cocorosie in a bookshop in Montmartre; the kind of restaurant that gives vegetarians a bad name; the tip of the Eiffel Tower shimmering above the rooftops; Jewish bakers and kitsch toy stores in the Marais; romantic partings by Notre-Dame
I can deal with some psychic pain
If it will slow down my heart or brain
- Elliott Smith, A Fond Farewell
Cork, 3-5 December: Bataille, Caillois and the Philosophy of Science: Paul, Gary, Douglas, Andrew, Guillaume, Danny, Sergei I make some wisecracks about the absence of women. The best vegetarian restaurant I have ever been to, unfeasibly good wine, smoking only permitted outside, but this just helps to make friends (with Gary, with the locals). Push on into the small hours with the alarmingly serious Guillaume and the alarmingly young Danny in a crowded alt.pub. Get lost with Guillaume in the labyrinthine corridors of Charles de Gaulle airport on the way back.
Just cos you feel it, doesnt mean its there
- Radiohead, There There
Bath, 10-12 December: Anchor House reunion: Rob, Ganesh, Stu, Jon, Vicky, Jacqui, Rich. Guinness and cosmopolitans. Roast chestnuts, full English breakfast, orange and cranberry cheesecake. Seven hours of afternoon drinking in a wood-panelled English pub with the windows steaming up against the cold outside. Written on the toilet wall at Bath train station: Die you wurzel cuntz.
Iambic splendour
Of her surrender
- De-Phazz, Jazz Music (I may have imagined this lyric)
Paris, 17-20 December: my thirtieth birthday with PCH, HDD, EVK, K, Ru & Ro and the other Ru. Friday: drink until 5 am; Saturday: drink until 7:30 am. Meanwhile, ChingnLings noodle bar, SOMOs slow-coming salmon, lemon cheesecake complete with birthday candle (for hes a jolly good fellow), salade folle with gsiers, confit de canard and foie gras (yes, I eat gizzards on my salad, you got a problem with that?). Bitterness, 4 am, I tell K: I just want to touch men. PCH and I smoke in a rainy doorway like a couple of tramps.
Birthday presents:
1 digital camera
1 Moleskin address book
1 bottle Bombay Sapphire gin
1 copy A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
1 bowling ball
1 copy Mammifres by Pierre Mrot
1 copy Madame Rumilly by Jean Cocteau
1 waterproof clock
1 bottle opener
1 desk fan
0 sex
Theres a face in the mirror that I havent seen yet
- Willard Grant Conspiracy, Closing Time
I have been alive for thirty years, and what have I got to show for it?
- a working knowledge of two languages and their literatures
- an encyclopaedic knowledge of cinema (actually, not at all, although this is what people tell me)
- a collection of around 1000 records and CDs
- a handful of good friends
- a job in a university
- a paranoid fear of sexual reality
- a body that Im only just getting to know
- a lot of wasted years
- a sense of having barely begun
Georges Courteline: Il vaut mieux gcher sa jeunesse que de nen faire rien du tout.
VIEW 16 of 16 COMMENTS
whiskeyfightpit:
Cheesecake and drinking...sounds mighty top drawer to me...I have to say that yourself, 730A_trixel_fem, Lemonkid, and Arachne are the most articulate, interesting, funny, and down to earth people I've had the pleasure to talk to. Thank you for being a good sport on the ol' SG
arachnequarius:
wheeeeeeeeee - i cannot wait!! i have class until 5 on wed, but after that i am yours. monday i have no class 
and will pine to see you. omg, i cannot wait. ok, i am selfishly planning both days, but understand that you have limited time and will not be a cutriver hog. just let me know what yr availability is. oh, and yay. 
and will pine to see you. omg, i cannot wait. ok, i am selfishly planning both days, but understand that you have limited time and will not be a cutriver hog. just let me know what yr availability is. oh, and yay.