On the camino by Jason

Jason is a Norwegian comic book artist who lives in France.  I can't remember if I've read any of his books before.  I picked up On the Camino as my partners uncle and aunt have done the walk on a few occasions. Another friend from work did the walk with his brother a few years ago.

I'm not a religious person and I was under the impression that the Camino was a Catholic pilgrimage. Interestingly Jason is not religious and undertakes the Camino for self discovery and personal spiritual reasons.  He details his 800 kilometre walk and the encounters he has over the way.  He identifies himself as a solitary person and he had hoped he would would perhaps open up and talk to others more.  He has been triggered to do the walk by his 50th birthday.

He portrays himself as a talking dog.  He describes the shared dormitories, the discussions about feet and the bedbugs.  He describes the people he met and his day dreams and fantasies along the way.

Jason has a nice clear line art style and this is a good book.  It's a clear read on an interesting topic.

writing

I don't write enough.  I should write more.

Writing, at times, can be like throwing words, bouncing words, off the walls of my world.  It can help get it out. It can help work it out.

This evening I watched a DVD.  Man on fire, the 2004 Denzil Washington film (not the 1987 version that nobody has seen).  I found it amongst my fathers stuff yesterday.  My partners younger brother had recommended it to me ages ago and I've been looking for it for a while but I only just noticed it amongst my dads stuff last night.  It's exactly the sort of film my dad liked. Rough justice, guns and a bit of Spanish.  He loved that sort of stuff.

It's been about a year since my dad died.  I do miss him.  My mum misses him a lot.  Life continues but we'd rather he was about.  His illness was difficult and he was fed up with it. He didn't like being dependent and he didn't like the care he received in the hospital.  I understand why.  It was not very good a lot of the time.  Stuff was often done in a half-arsed manner.

Easter approaches but sadly we won't see any resurrections.  We will have our memories which aren't quite as good. Memories are still valuable.

This blog is now 12 years old

I started writing this blog in Coventry in 2005.  I am now writing it in Glasgow in 2017.  I am older and the world has changed in some ways.  It's always difficult to say if things are better or worse.  Back then we had terrorism in London and a government that was doing things I don't like.  Right now we still have a government doing things I don't like.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In 12 years I have managed to do a lot of stuff.  In 1999 or 2000 I decided that I wanted to do some stuff and now I have almost done everything on that list.  I do not see myself as career orientated but I have managed to get myself where I want to be.  Beyond that, I have found a great partner and I've been with her for a couple of years now.  I hope that we will achieve a lot of other stuff together in the future.

I was talking with my partner last night.  We both wish we were 25 physically but we both enjoy the stuff that maturity brings you.  Experience helps you deal with life.  Life does get better in a lot of ways when you get older, if you are lucky.  As always I see myself as lucky.

Sometimes one contemplates the future.  We look at our parents and we see what has happened to our parents and we are scared.  We don't want the same stuff to happen to us but we know it might.  It is important to remember that our parents are a lot older than us and that our futures, if we are lucky, may not be written in our genes.  I don't think I would ever want to know my future.  If a blood test could predict my future I would not want that blood test.  There can be a freedom in not knowing the future.

Now that I'm older I like the sun more.  I crave daylight and sun.  I crave green places and the outdoors.  I like watching the sea.  Sometimes I even like rain.  In Scotland we never get much sun.  I am lucky that I have been able to see so much of the world.  I hope that stupid politicians do not stop the younger generations from seeing as much of the world as I have.

Next week I'm going to see some sun.  If I'm lucky I might even see some whales.

Primavera Day 3

Day 3 of Primavera started in the Parc Joan Miro in the centre of town. I went there mainly to see Circulatory System who I had missed on Thursday but I also caught A sunny day in Glasgow and Thee Ooh Sees again.



I bought the Olivia Tremor Control album Black Foilage when it came out in 1999 but I only became aware of Circulatory System in 2007. I was very keen to see them and the Parc Joan Miro is a beautiful setting. Again, photos will follow if I can work out how to do it. The Parc stages are surrounded by palm trees. Circulatory System had interesting instrumentation including a flugel horn (I think) and a stringed instrument of some form.



They were plagued by poor sound initially. After a bit of tinkering about they sorted this out and the rest of the set was great. I was amazingly chuffed to be sitting in a park in the centre of Barcelona watching some good music in the shade. Perfect moment time.



I made my way to the main festival site for about six and hooked up with the Greenock blokes. They went to see Real Estate first. I hadn't heard them before but the sound was fairly good. Nice, summery indie rock. A bit teenage fanclub.



I then caught a bit of Nana Grizol, another elephant 6 band. I liked their stuff but I need to hear more of it. Sadly they had sold out of CDs before I could pick one up. They sounded a bit like neutral milk hotel although that shouldn't really be a shock to anyone.



My next band to see was the slits. I love their first album, cut, and I still listen to it regularly. After being impressed by public image limited on their recent tour I had high hopes for the slits and while they were competent they were not amazing. They did play a lot of material from cut but the reggae quotient had been jacked up significantly. I like a lot of reggae but the Slits material that I really love is the early unique sounding mess of songs like typical girls and shoplifting. They were OK but I wasn't blown away.



I went to see Grizzly bear next. Some of my friends have been raving about Grizzly bear for some time but I had not previously 'clicked' with them. The Greenock contingent were

firm fans and had developed some sort of relationship with the band based on an obscene drawing. To further this relationship they had drawn the obscene picture on three frisbees which they then threw at the band. The singer picked up the frisbee, said 'I know that picture' and proceeded to piss himself laughing. The set was good and I plan to give Grizzly bear another chance in the future.

I haven't written about the gastronomic genius of the pizza cone yet. A pizza cone is an ice cream cone type made out of pizza crust and filled with pizza topping. It's easy to eat and very tasty. As an added bonus you don't get pizza all over your fingers. I can see these things having a great future in Scotland.

I went to see No Age on the Pitchfork stage after that. We were standing fairly far back so the sound wasn't great. I've listened to No Age a lot and I've seen them before but I stuggled to recognise some of their songs.

During the No Age set I met a really cool girl called Lorraine from Glasgow but in a massive FAIL I didn't manage to get her number. This girl had seen the Fall 8 times and she likes Flipper. She seemed to be perfect. She had good chat, a sensible job and a sense of humor. I talked to her though the Sunny Day real estate set but I lost her on the way to see Lee 'scratch' perry. I made a heroic attempt to get in touch with her via record shop employees and her best friend on my return to Glasgow but it was a futile effort. Major loss.

Lee 'scratch' Perry was amazing. I love superape and arkology but I never expected Perry to be any good live. I've missed him at several festivals before. That was a massive mistake on my part. He was fucking amazing live. I danced like a fanny for a full hour.

Finally it was 3AM and orbital took the stage with satan

daddy

yes son

what does regret mean?

well son, the funny thing about regret is, it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done and if you see your mother be sure and tell her SATAN, SATAN, SATAN

I would have regretted not going to Primavera when I was in Barcelona. I'm really glad I went. I had a great time even though I didn't know anyone there. It's always better to regret something you have done....

I'll go again if I can

Primavera Day 2

My conference finished at 1pm on the Friday of the festival so I was making my way to the Primavera site by 4pm. I heard some Glasweigan accents on the underground and started talking to 3 blokes from Greenock. They were all fairly cool and essentially adopted me for the rest of the festival.

I had one major disappointment on Friday. Low were playing 'the great destroyer' in the indoor rock auditori and I didn't manage to get in to see them. This fucked me off bigstyle especially after I stood in line for nearly an hour in an attempt to get a ticket. It also pissed me off that I had to pay an extra 2 Euros to get into the auditori after I'd already spent 130 quid on a primavera ticket.

After the Low failure I contined to hang out with the Greenock guys. They were making a film about the festival and interviewing random people. They tried to get me to explain how to perform a lobotomy on camera. I politely declined to provide that footage. They were also trying to film a few bands where possible.

The bands on Friday were fairly good. I saw cocorosie perform a couple of stripped down numbers on a small stage although I couldn't really focus on their main set on a larger stage. They were just a bit too out-there. I barely recognised some songs that I really like from their CDs.

I watched a bit of Thee Ooh Sees on the vice stage. They were OK but they didn't blow me away initially. They were much better the following day when they played at the Parc de Joan Miro in town. I also watched a sunny day in glasgow who are not from Glasgow but were agreeable enough. I enjoyed them more in the Parc de Joan Miro the following day.

I watched Wire later on and I liked them. I've got several of their early albums but I didn't recognise much of what was played on stage. I guess that doesn't really matter cos they were great.

One of the best sets came from Michael Rother and friends (including steve shelley of sonic youth) performing the music of neu! I had a great seat in the ATP arena on the stone seats to the right of the stage. I had an unobstructed view of the stage beautifully framed by the sea. I own a couple of neu CDs and this set reminded me to listen to them more. The sound was great and the crowd loved it.

Later on I watched Les Savy Fav. I'm a big fan of them, I own about 5 of their CDs but for various boring reasons I've never managed to see them. They delivered in a spectacular way with singer Tim Harrington taking the stage dressed as a dog. He then spent a lot of the time running around the crowd promoting chaos. Entropy in action. The band was tight and the sound was shit hot.

Shellac came on after Les Savy Fav. This was my third opportunity to see Shellac and they were great as usual. I took some good photos and enjoyed the show. If I get my shit together I'll put up some photos here.

Finally I caught the end of the pixies set. Shellac were obviously my priority so I missed the first 20 minutes but I enjoyed what I saw. The Spanish crowd were loving it. A couple of drunken English girls approached me and tried to make me drink rum. One of them tried to snog me but I resisted.

Generally it was a good day.

Primavera Day one

I'm not normally the sort of person who would go to a music festival alone but the line-up for Primavera was so good I just had to go. I couldn't live with myself if I was in a city where Shellac was playing and I didn't make an effort to see them.

I headed to the festival site on the Thursday after giving my talk at the European Stroke Conference. The Primavera site is the Parc Del Forum on the coast. It was built for a large festival about 6 or 7 years back and it's basically a brilliant music festival venue. There are several amphitheatres that are perfect for open air shows and tarmacked ground that does not turn into a swamp at the first sniff of rain.

I decided to be almost psychotically sociable and tried to talk to anyone who spoke English. My friendly advances were knocked back a few times until I bumped into a bloke wearing a Hearts shirt who was recording the Fall. I hung out with him and his friends for the rest of the evening.

I last saw the Fall in 1994 at the Phoenix festival. They were playing from the infotainment scam back then and I loved it. 'paranoid man masturbates while listening to pearl jam in cheap shit apartment room'. Poetry. This time I didn't recognise much of the material but I enjoyed it just as much. I was pleased when they played their cover of Strychnine by the sonics. Proper garage rock. I look forward to hearing the tape.

Superchunk were OK in a sort of bouncey grunge pop way. I like them but I don't love them. Geraldo, a mexican bloke who knew the hearts fan, was more into them and said it was a good set (PS - Geraldo, if you read this message me in the comments section)

I watched broken social scene next. I own two of their albums but I had never really listened to them. It's a side effect of being a doctor. You have money that you spend on shit that you never manage to enjoy. Their set was OK but the feeling wasn't really there when I listened to the CDs at home in Glasgow. I should probably give them another spin.

Finally I watched pavement. I last saw pavement in 1998 at the Barrowlands in Glasgow just before they split up. They weren't very good back then possibly because of intraband bad vibes. This time they were much better. They seemed to be positively cheery and they bounced about the stage in a good way broadcasting their sunkissed fall-inspired tunes. I sung my heart out and tried to ignore the obese Spainiard who was attempting to initiate violent sexual congress with the rest of the crowd. He was either pogoing or moshing, I couldn't tell. I resisted the urge to twat him.

Day one was great and it got better

Barcelona

I'd been to Barcelona once or twice in the past, maybe 17 years ago. I have vague memories of the visit although I remember visiting the Salvador Dali museum. The Dali stuff blew me away back then.



I was in town this time for a mix of work and pleasure. I was giving a brief academic talk at a medical conference in town during the first half of the week and sneakily attending the Primavera music festival at the end of the week.



I arrived in Barcelona at 8:30am. I couldn't check into my hotel on the Passeig De Gracia straight away so I went for a walk around the centre of town. Most of the shops were shut as it was a public holiday. I walked down to the Modern Art Museum and hung out there for an hour or two.



The heat was fairly intense. I've spent a lot of time in Spain in the past but the heat always gets me. I just don't like the dry heat. I find myself eating less solid food and drinking a lot more water in that sort of weather. I guess I'm just more physically adapted to life in a cold, wet country.

There was a lot of anti-capitalist/anarchist graffiti on the shop windows in the streets near Placa de Catalunya. The current financial turmoil affecting Spain probably had something to do with that. The shops that I found in Barcelona were all fairly nice if both upmarket and expensive. I bought myself a new pair of trainers and a cap to protect my balding head from the sun. I also found a copy of a pixies CD 'the purple tape' which is out of print in the UK. It was only 5 euros so I was chuffed with that.

I also picked up a copy of an art book by Raymond Pettibon (of black flag/sonic youth goo fame). It was published to comemorate a Spanish exhibition from a few years back. I paid 50 Euros and it was selling for £120 when I checked the price in Amazon.

The underground system in Barcelona is pretty good. I had my eyes open for pickpockets but I only had one weirdo try it on. I was clearly a bit paler than everyone else on the street which clearly singled me out as a mark. Some bloke came up to me and started to engage me in disjointed conversation. He spun a bit of a sob story and managed to convince me to give him 2 Euros. He then started to ask me weird shit about how old I was so I told him to fuck off. I was slightly more polite in my lexical choice but i used my 'fuck off' Glasweigan tone of voice.

The Gaudi buildings are interesting to look at. My hotel was just a couple of blocks away from Casa Mila which just looks like it's melting. It reminds me of comic book art from the Nemesis the warlock series in 2000ad. I guess Kevin O'Neill was influenced by Gaudi and not vice versa.

Anyhow, enough rambling pish. Liked the city. Will go back. By train if I can.