trixel

This is the last night of the fair
And the grease in the hair
Of a speedway operator
Is all a tremulous heart requires
A schoolgirl is denied
She said : "How quickly would I die
If I jumped from the top of the parachutes ?"
La ...
So ... scratch my name on your arm with a fountain pen
(This means you really love me)
Scratch my name on your arm with a fountain pen
(This means you really love me)

-Rusholme Ruffians by The Smiths

I had a rather irresponsible weekend of spending money that's not really available to spend. I did manage to get a new pair of shoes (merrell day hikers), a crazy pair of sunglasses, 4 cds (bad girl!) and a lovely hat. See pics for pictures of hat and sunglasses. The CDs which enticed me are Red Snapper It's All Good, Red Snapper Making Bones, Knifehandchop Rockstopper and of course the new Mono cd the insanely titled Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined

I spent much of the weekend with S and T. We walked all over the place, lounged on a patio and leered, and went to the Fly Pan Am -- Mono show at the Royal Albert Arms last night. A local band -- Absent Sound -- opened with commedia del arte figures and a modern dancer. Mono followed. They were alternately melancholy, haunting melodic and earsplittingly, chaotically LOUD.

May I say, the bassplayer, Tamaki, is beautiful: willowy and dynamic. She caused a minor incident with S. S was trying to see the stage as we were lolling about at the bar in two of the remaining seats. This scruffy bearded man and his cuteish nerdy scrawny compadre came and stood RIGHT in front of us. He was idly flirting with this retro chick decked out like Joanne Catherall of the Human League. He kept eyeballing S and casting stray glances my way. Effectively, he was blocking S's view of Mono. S's view of Tamaki, essentially.

S can be testy at the best of times; she is not one to be toyed with. Now coming between S and an object of lust is something that I would never want to be responsible for: I've seen her resort to physical means of retaliation. This time she went easy on the offender. She made her displeasure known by exaggeratedly craning her neck back and forth. Finally he got the picture, but not before S goes: "that is the most irritating boy I've ever seen" loudly. Fly Pan Am come on after a short break. I laughed. Turns out Irritating Boy is the lead vocalist/guitarist.

Fly Pan Am were intriguing. Complex percussive structures, wailing vocals, unexpected samples. T said it all reminded him of early Psychic TV. All I know is it was quite unlike anything I've ever heard before.

It was strange being in the venue. The Royal Albert Arms is a Winnipeg institution. It's been called a cowboy bar by day and a punk bar at night. It was my haunt for many years. The last time I was there, it was smoky and I was pissed/stoned out of my skull. Nowadays smoking is banned in my province. It was strange to be able to see things clearly, and see things I did. Lovely things. Yummy, yummy niblets, including a gender-playful raffish boyish creature who made eyecontact with me a few times. I'm not sure he knew I was a girl, but I certainly didn't mind: he was a treat to look at, although likely 13 years younger than me.

All in all, it was a grand night. I'm looking forward to seeing Kinnie Starr later this month, and the Sadies early next.