I got the night off from band rehearsal 'cause the singer has managed to lose his voice, and needs rest. By which I presume he means "not smoking or drinking, and actually getting some sleep - and also not shouting like a loon all the time".

So, finally some time to start work on my book!

Whilst I'm keeping myself busy, have a blurry shot of my Buffy tattoo:

Last night managed went off pretty much hitchless...Brucie (the new bass player) managed to play the entire set without panicking, I didn't get drunk enough to be shit, Nathan in his nouveaux role as frontman managed to fight through voice-loss and nerves to actually sing and Stevie was ever-reliable on the guitar.

Seeing as we're still a bit short on noise, we're trying to rope in another guitarist to balance things out. Otherwise Nathan has to go on guitar, and once he picks one up he hates letting go of it. *smack*

Oh, and we bought Nathan a vibrator from the toilets. He's disturbingly delighted with it. Funnier still, one of our friends has "accidentally" taken it home with her. Hmn...

Now is the time to write new songs and wait impatiently for my photos to get developed. I needs me a digital camera.

My job is slowly being transformed from customer service into call centre, and I don't like it one bit.

Because we're not an out-and-out call centre (yet), we have to do our regular job, and down tools as soon as a call comes in. Take the call, deal with the call, go back to what you were doing,

This is akin to swatting flies away from your face when trying to urinate. You really want to tinkle in peace, but you don't want a fly landing on your nose and making you piss on your feet.

Nevermind, I have my evenings and weekends to plot my eventual escape from the rat race - and play Zelda.

Drinking / dancing tonight at the local rock club (Retribution) and then onto Coalville to play a show at The Vic Biker's Bar. More drinking. Last time we played there I 'lost' my cymbals (they turned out to be in the car) and had to go a-hunting for them. Meanwhile the band started without me and all looked round to see why no drum noises were coming from behind them.

Then, into the mic: "WHERE'S THE DRUMMER?@!#"

So, how about you - doing anything good this weekend?

Let's enjoy one of my old toons from my still-not-updated website, why not?



EDIT: How could I forget? It snowed today - for about 5 minutes. Snow in April. Mrs SqueakyShoes is convinced that this means the global warming theories are kicking in. Me? I always think of the myriad "freak weather" stories I have read over the years and drink some orange juice.

What do you do in the face of inevitability?

I had a bit of a Henry Hill moment today - walking back to work from the camera shop after buying a cheap disposable camera, I noticed a helicopter abvove a traffic junction.

Not being something I see very often in my neck of the woods I kept looking up at it as I walked. The whirlybird was quite nicely framed above a building, so I took the camera out of the wrapper to take a shot and THE FUCKING COPTER STARTED MOVING AWAY.

As I put the camera back and kept walking, the sound of the rotors seemed to get louder. Turning around, I saw that the copter was more or less overhead.

I could sit here talking about the rest of that walk, but "Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story" is on telly.

I got a news article published. I feel so...published.

I had no idea you guys liked ancient boobies so much!

Oh, and my band got a new bass player. He is very tall.

Listening to: A Perfect Circle

I like to let hype die down before I buy video games (except GTA) , so I'm currently slogging my way through Zelda: Wind Waker - according to Mrs Ben_SLH it "destroys lives" and "distracts boyfriends from properly acknowledging their girlfriends". But...I'm just about to get the Master Sword! Gah!

On the lookout for a different soul-sucking desk job than the one I'm doing at the moment - it'll mean me having to wear a shirt & Tie again but at least it'll stop me dealing with fuckwits who treat me like a child if I do anything remotely different from what they find acceptable.

For 6 months.

My band just shot their first video and we're putting together a DVD/single thingummy from it. Should be quite funny to watch back, our set-ups included:

- A tragically bad "Darkness" style hilltop solo from the guitarist
- Us standnig on a Land Rovers' roof and getting driven around
- Me wearing a Mexican wrestling mask and a police shirt, whilst smearing peanut butter onto the lead singer's chest. Using an egg whisk.

We've also just done a run of 4 shows - and we're experiencing the odd phenomenum of playing REALLY WELL when nobody is around, and not so great when there's a crowd.

Something must be done. Perhaps less pre-show Sambuca shots.

So, yesterday wen by in kind of a humdrum blur. Woke up way too early for a Sunday, spent the rest of the day with the guys in the band and drinking/using our residential room.

5 hours in there and we learned 2 new songs...and one is a cover. At least we got to bond. If by bond you mean one guitarist berating the other for his lack of sexual prowess. Such things happen when men gather. Sigh.

I lost all my photos from the day, so please enjoy this old shot of our singer trapped in a cage...