Sunday Round-Up #3
Third time’s a charm.
My abstract distraction this week is :
My acoustic bass guitar. I have an electric bass and electric guitar, both of which I mess around on quite often. Then the other day my dad went up to the attic for something (I can’t remember what, it was the early afternoon on a Summer’s day so I was probably blind drunk). I decide to stroll up the ladder and have a look around. Stepping over a number of trinkets and corpses, there is it. The acoustic bass I bought about a year ago and had to put up there because it was massive and took up too much room. I brought it down for sheer novelty, and my fingers are now suitably wrecked. This is a picture of her anyway :
Something that made me laugh this week :
This guy on eBay. He leaves some of the funniest feedback I’ve ever read.
He’s really hilarious, here’s some sample of feedback he’s left for random items. We don’t know what he actually bought, which makes it all even funnier.
“the leg braces work GREAT—I wear then to work so no one has the guts to fire me”
“NICE tombstone—will kill myself after work so I can start using it immediatey.A+”
“LOVE the bar of soap—being from France, I may need to buy another in a year or 2″
“Dispite the seller’s blatant violation of child exploitaion & labor laws—A+++”
“as promised—my stools are large, firm, and have no more odor that a warm biscuit”
“this thing is GREAT—whoever knew they even made such a thing as a fart amplifier”
I’m surprised he hasn’t been banned or warned by eBay for such hilarities, but fair play to him anyway.
Curses on :
Kings Of Leon tickets selling out ridiculously early. Even more frustrating for me was that I knew the presale password, meaning I could have gotten tickets on the Thursday, a day before they went on public sale. I procrastinated and left it too late, and by the time I went to buy them, they only has seated tickets left. Fuck that I says. I decided to get up the following morning and buy ‘em online, shouldn’t be hassle, I’ve done it many times for gigs that have then sold out quickly. The next day I’m ready and waiting at 8.59. The time turns to 9.00, I refresh ticketmaster and go to buy tickets.
“We could not process your request”.
Eh? Better try again.
“We could not process your request”
Another fifteen minutes of this followed, with me entering all kinds of quantities and variations of seating/standing tickets. Nothing! The gig isn’t until December so I’m confident enough that I’ll find a ticket somehow before then, but it’s very irritating.
I blame those o2 shower of bastards. This has only increased my rage about o2 customers getting priority for tickets (all o2 customers were texted about them being able to get tickets on the Wednesday - two days before public sale). Does everything really have to be about marketing and sales? I’m shocked that thing went through in the first place to be honest. Is there anything that could be done about it? I imagine a petition or something would probably just be laughed at?
I heard about people queuing up overnight for those Kings Of Leon tickets, only for the outlets to have ten in stock. Ten! Absolutely ridiculous. With a max limit of four tickets per person, that probably means 3 people that were in line actually got tickets. Imagine being that fourth guy.
I hate things like music, art, and cultural things being made into a money making racket, and while I can accept that it’s necessary to an extent (charging for CDs, concerts etc - though they’re greatly overpriced, but that’s a different story), I just think this is too far. Even if I’m willing to pay your extortionate ticket prices, and get up early to get a ticket for one of my favourite bands, I now have to change phone network to guarantee seeing them? What the fuck does my phone network have to do with the band? Or music? Or fucking anything aside from my mobile phone? Bollocks.
I’m pleased with :
It’s gotta be the Leaving Cert results, hasn’t it? Months of stress, worry, pressure and guilty procrastination came to an end on Wednesday. The relief of having it all over with is orgasmic. Offers for college come tomorrow, so not long for me to wait to see if I got my top choice.
A lot of people I was talking to did very well, I’ve spoken to a good few 600 points people, which is an incredible achievement. About 5,000 people failed maths apparently, which is pretty harsh, as passing maths is required for most college courses.
You can apply to view your exam scripts, which is free, so I’ve applied to view them all, purely out of curiosity. I’ll never get the chance again, so why not? I doubt I’ll have anything rechecked (regraded at a cost of €37) but it’ll be interesting to see what mistakes I made on the day. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing my English essay, which wasn’t just some learned off tripe, but something I came up with on the day (okay I pulled a few quotes from previous essays, but only the really hilarious ones!), and considering that was my only A1 subject I’m dying to read it, as I had thought it may have been a bit shit.
A pointless anecdote from this week :
Thursday evening, around 7pm, and I’m getting a bus home from being out on Wednesday night. It was one of those hungover public appearances as mentioned here. I smelled of a strange mix of aftershave and beer, I was tired, my voice was gone, my throat was killing me, and I couldn’t even cough properly, it was more of a pathetic little wheeze that slipped out every so often. Typically, the bus was packed. I’m left standing, right at the front. So I’m the last guy people have to push past on their way out.
Now I’m no bus expert (gasp!) but from what I know, the little red stop buttons on Dublin Bus are to be pressed when you want the driver to stop at the next bus stop. So I was standing there trying to look alert, and as the bus approached a bus stop, it pulls in and one man starts gathering his things. The bus had come to a halt, and he then looks at the door, which is about to open, and presses and holds the button until the doors open. I think I was the only one who saw this strange behaviour. Did this man think the doors would stay closed unless he pressed that button? Or perhaps he was right and I’ve been an awfully ignorant commuter my whole life.
He then got off the bus, and as it drove by him I saw him trying to light up a cigarette the wrong way - as in, he had the end of it in his mouth, and the orange tip thing on the other end held at the lighter. Again, I don’t think anyone else saw this (Why would they bother looking sure?) which made it funnier for me. Oh I had a wry little smile on my face right then I tell you.
Great guy/gal of this week :
Whoever corrected my History Leaving Cert exam. Seriously man/bitch, were you on drugs?
Product/Service I like this week :
Podcasting. What did I do before I downloaded podcasts? I particularly enjoy the Russell Brand one, the boards.ie one, and a bit of Ricky Gervais. They’re a great way to pass some time, and when they’re completely free, why the hell not?
A quote :
“The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success“
-Bruce Feirstein.
Dunno who the chap is, but a nice quote there.
And finally,
Favourite song this week :
Lost Someone - by Cat Power.
Cat Power (real name Chan Marshall) is my favourite female in the history of the world. She started off in music singing and playing guitar herself but now has a big band behind her more often. She has a good few albums out, and I’ve managed to see her live before. I find her particularly gorgeous, though this may be influenced by the fact that her voice is pure unadulterated sex. Seriously, I would marry her for that voice. The way she acts on stage is brilliant too. She does this weird dancing, nothing mental, just not something I’ve seen anyone else do, eccentric. The song I’ve picked her probably isn’t my favourite by her, but it’s a good quality live video, and there weren’t any better ones I could find. She’s very easy on the ear anyway. Enjoy.
Go listen, but beware of severe arousal.
It’s worth noting that Cat Power is the only artist I’ve blared in my room that my mother has said was “lovely”. This happened on two occasions, both when I was playing Cat Power. Quite an achievement, no?
That’s it for this week anyway, sorry the post came a bit late, I forgot about it until really late last night, and was late getting up today of course.
Popularity: 7% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
August 17th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Just listened to that song, she has a really good voice, very unusual
Good post
August 17th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Are you cheating on me with this Cat Power? If so, I’m filing for divorce.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:28 am
[...] if you didn’t read the Sunday post yesterday, go read it now, I didn’t write all that crap for [...]
August 18th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Ciara : Glad you like her
Helena : Of course not. I just really really want to.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
“I blame those o2 shower of bastards.”
I blame them for everything now, they’ve pissed me off so much. >.<
I really really hate this new marketing ploy - not only is it completely and utterly unfair, it’s just down right devious.
As you said yourself, mobile phone networks and concert tickets should have NO connection whatsoever! This whole thing has just made me more determined than ever to boycott the O2 network and to encourage as many people as possible to do the same.
Meteor all the way!
August 20th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Sinead : I’m glad you seem to feel as strongly about this as I do. Is there anything that could be done I wonder?
August 21st, 2008 at 1:58 am
Saw this earlier Mark and had to post it for you. Not sure if it’s the same guy, but he left a comment on another ebay item saying “If we where in prison together, I would protect you in the showers!!” HA HA HA
This guy is good!
Mike