About time too...

Well, once again it has been a very long time since my last post. To make things worse, my last post wasn't even really a post. (I wonder what it says about the usual content of this blog that a short, meaningless joke of a post recieved more comments than most of my genuine posts.) Hmmm, I seem to be using the word 'post' more often than I would like.

So, there have been a number of developments since I last blogged. Two days after that, I went to the hospital to meet with my consultant. He asked me a bunch of questions, and he told me that the waiting list for my surgery was between 6 and 9 months. That kind of sucked. Never mind, thought I, at least I have some sort of time scale put on it now.

Things started to fall into place. Bethany would come to visit on March 4, and leave on March 14. I would go over there for Freshwind on March 20, and return on April 2, ready for work. It looked like the operation would fall in the summer, or possibly at the start of the new academic year. Then I heard this week that I was no longer going to be able to spin at Freshwind. It was bad news at the time, because I was really looking forward to the visit, and I wouldn't be able to afford to pay for it myself. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt at peace, and that the Jesus knew what he was doing. (Man, if only I could always remember that, life would be a lot easier...) I got another phone call today, this time from the hospital. Don't ask me how, but the 6 month waiting list appears to have turned into a five week waiting list, because I'm now due to go in for surgery on February 22.

This couldn't work out better. Not only does it get the operation out of the way, and puts me on the road to recovery, it also seems to fit perfectly with the things that I have organised: I come out of hospital about 5 days before Bethany arrives. Instead of being at work every day that she's here, I'll be off work recovering. I'm praying, and assuming, that I'll at least be able to have some fun that week. Bethany, it seems, is praying and assuming that I will still be sick enough for her to have to look after me... Hmmm, I could milk this one a bit, methinks... Then, I won't be able to go to Canada for Freshwind, but I'd already resigned myself to that one. Because God had told me that there was a reason that I couldn't go.

It's funny how I was so sure of the fact that my surgery would fall over Easter. I'm normally pretty skeptical about things like that, no matter how hard I try to be otherwise. The Mark that's living in the world would usually think something like 'aw crap. I really wanted to go to Canada. Now I can't go at Easter, and I'll probably end up having surgery in the summer, and I won't be able to go then either. Sucks to be me.' But this time I was surprised to find the Mark that's living in the Kingdom taking the front seat, and announcing to a number of people that I wasn't going to Canada at Easter, because my operation would be then.

The moral? Praise the Lord through the good times and the bad, because however bad things might seem to be at the time, the chances are, in God's eyes, they're almost certainly good. He knows what he's doing. Ladies and Gentlemen, will you please give all praise and glory to the Son of God Himself...

hmph...

I was going to blog, then I got distracted, and now I don't really feel in the mood for it. I hate when that happens. I had a bit of time set aside for doing it, and now I don't really have anything else to do with that time...

I've also just realised how much of a Bethany thing to do it was to write hmph in a blog. Expressions of frustration.

New year, new me...

This year started off with a bang. I was spinning at the Zeo in the firehall at TACF, and as the clock struck twelve, I was with my beautiful girlfriend who I was spending the week with. Canada was great. Really great. It snowed while I was there (it rained too, but let's forget about that...), there was plenty of opportunity for skating, and I played some hockey too. I hung out with old friends and I made some new ones. It was fantastic to get a real holiday for once.

Then I came back, and went back to work. The new year has brought new responsibilities, and that's a good thing. I'm really feeling like this is the line of work that I want to pursue, and that's a really good feeling. That, along with some other things which I'm sure will get discussed on here in due course, has started me thinking that God really does have my life planned out, and I'm starting to understand some of what he has for me. All this is good.

New year means new year resolutions, and I have a couple. Firstly, I want to be better with my money. This has already been working itself out in a variety of ways, not least of which is an answer to my prayer about getting a better car. With prayer and careful planning, I'm getting a truely awesome deal on both the car and the insurance. Sweet. Then there's the other resolution - to improve my piano skills. Still working on that one.

Finally, a new year means a new me, and that includes a new look. Despite the fact that Bethany loved the sideburns and lengthy hair, and ignoring the fact that in one of The Salvator Darlings' songs, I proclaim 'My beard is full, my hair's quite long', I took a pair of clippers to my face and head, and now look far more presentable, much to the pleasure of my mom. And much to the amusement of my work collegues, most of whom didn't recognise me when I walked in yesterday morning!

One more thing - Although I'm broken by the events in Asia over the holiday period, I don't intend to blog about it, because I'm fairly convinced that most of the blogging community has made some sort of comment, and I'm not one to join the masses in something like that. So that's my statement on the matter, and it's the last you'll hear of it here. Love.

canada, eh!

So, here I am. In Canada. Today I went skating in Nathan Philips square, yesterday I went skating in Nathan Philips Square and at the Harborfront (which was amazing). Tomorrow I get to play hockey. Sweet. There are many reasons that I want to move to Canada, but one of the most superficial is that I have the chance to skate outside, for free, on a decent sized rink, everyday if I want to. I know that I wouldn't skate so much if I lived here, but even so, I'd take good advantage of it. Trust me, I don't miss a thing about the English winter...

I got here to discover that the banks don't open till tomorrow, and I need to change currency, because all I have is English money. The problem is that the currency exchange places rip you off big time - they were offering me 1.02 dollars for my pound. The usual is 2.24 dollars for the pound. Sucks, eh? So the banks don't rip you off like that, but they're closed. Good job that I have a loving girlfriend to help out...

In other news, on my first morning here, I got woken up by a phone call from a friend that I went to university with, telling me that another friend of ours that had been on our course, died of lukaemia last tuesday. I think I'm still in a bit of shock about it, because I prayed for her last time she had it, and it went into remission, then it came back. I meant to call a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot, and then I found out that she had died. It's hard to make sense of things like this, but it certainly puts my illness into perspective...

I don't intend to leave things on such a depressing note, so I will just tell you that I am drinking more root beer than is good for any one person to drink, and this evening Bethany and myself intend to eat our own bodyweight in krispy kreme donuts. More body fat will keep out the cold...

Not again...

Well people, once again, it has taken me an inordinately long period of time to blog. At least I have some sort of excuse this time. I've been back at work, and I've been doing all sorts of other things too:

During the time since my last blog, I have formed the LJSC - the Leeds Jedi Supporters' Club. Leeds Jedi are an ultimate frisbee team, and I am now the president of their supporters' club. This means that I have spent quite a good portion of my time setting up a website for them - check it out here. I've also been compiling the first issue of a monthly newsletter, and getting a bunch of people to go to one of their tournaments.

The Salvator Darlings played a couple of gigs too - both of which went reasonably well. However, for various reasons, we are taking a break for a while, during which we intend to write some new material, and record some stuff. We'll hopefully be playing live again around March.

Finally, it's been really good to get back to work. Thanks to everyone that's been praying for me. I've been devastatingly bored some of my time off, and things looked a little hairy for Christmas with finances, but the Provider came through for me... there's plenty harder times to come, with another good chunk of time off for my next operation in the new year, but I'm trusting God to help out again. I finished work today for the Christmas holidays - it feels wierd because I've only been back two weeks, but this time it's much more fun being off. I have a work party tonight, the deputy head has left after 25 years, and it's Christmas, so we're having a do in Headingly. Then there's a week of parties before it's off to Canada.. I can't wait. I can't tell you how much I miss Bethany. And everyone else too. Canada's felt like my home for some time now. When I arrive there I settle straight in, but when I get back here it usually takes me a couple of weeks before I feel comfortable again. It's going to be fantastic to bring in the new year with all my friends over there, and while I'm worshipping on the decks...

Blog standings...

My housemate noted this morning that it's been eleven days since I last blogged. He has a point. When I started this blog, I fully intended to blog most days, and now that I'm off work, I should really be blogging everyday, since I don't have much else to do. Of course, the lack of things to do means that I have nothing to blog about. Man, this is some sort of vicious circle. Right, so the way I see it, I'm a bit crap about blogging at the moment. Certainly compared to some people I know... Check out my good friend Jeremy Wright. He blogged FOUR TIMES yesterday. Pudd blogs most days, sometimes more than once. A fairly regular blogger, Linda the Cho last posted on Wednesday, but she often posts daily, sometimes leaving up to two weeks between blogs. Beth and Maija don't count, cause there's two of them. Normally, I'd make some comment about how only Maija ever blogs, but Bethany got the last two posts, and since the last one was entirely for my benefit, I can't really argue that right now. Nobody that I know is a lazier blogger than one Mr. Ben Poulsen. He hasn't updated his fantastic blog since September 27!

I guess my point is this: I am mediocre. Thank you for listening.

Nevertheless...

Well, my birthday came a week early. I got my new cartridges for my turntables yesterday - Numark CS1s. Thanks to Pudd for the reccomendation on these babies, they're amazing! Good old Carl Cox, eh? Not only that, but today, as I was testing them out for the first time, I got a phone call from the greatest guitar shop in the world, Rockshack, telling me that they had fitted the Artec pickup to my acoustic, and it was ready to, erm, pick up. Both of these things are presents from my wonderful parents, and I am extremely fortunate to have such lovely gifts, especially a week before I should have them! If you're in Leeds, or in reach of it, and you want to hear the pickup in action (and trust me, you'll want to...), then head over to the Salvator Darlings' gig at the Packhorse on Woodhouse Lane on Monday night. Doors open at seven thirty, and entry is free!

Tonight I went to see NeverTheLess in Harrogate. This was their last ever gig, as drummer, David Dickinson, is off to London to drum school. Not that he needs to go, he's already amazing, as anyone who's heard him will testify, but he's off anyway. So they played a stonking set. Every time that I've heard them before, they've been very much about the music, but this gig was a bit different. I think probably because the seriousness has gone out of it, because of the split, there was an air of the silly about tonight. Whereas before the band played, and occasionally introduced a particular song, tonight it was like a Salvator Darlings gig, but with the music being played well... Matt took photographs of the crowd 'for himself', they covered MC Hammer, and Postman Pat... Lots of fun.

The highlight for me, though, was the encore. Having played an incredible set of AC/DC influenced rock, with Danny freestyling his way through both old and new songs (my favourite line: 'Freestylin' for the Daddy'), they left the stage, and were hollered at until they returned, despite the fact that they were already about 15 minutes over their alloted time slot. They came back and played 'Today', which is a real worship song. The atmosphere was electric, and Matt ended with an altar call and a prayer, in which he basically just gave praise to the Almighty God. It was so intense, and so right - in the past, they've not shyed away from the Christian message, but they've certainly never done that before. The Holy Spirit was so thick in that room, and the band rocked, and to be honest, it wouldn't have mattered if they'd have sucked, because people were touched tonight. I love The Jesus, and I love the NeverTheLess because they love him too...

I love work...

It's true. I hate being at home, I miss the kids and the staff at work. I miss doing stuff. I just end up sitting around the house doing nothing of use at all, and it's boring. As such, I don't have an awful lot to blog about, because not much happens when all you do is sit around the house all day.

Yeah, and I miss my wonderful girlfriend a lot. She keeps calling me, and that's fantastic, but I wish she was here. I guess I want her here more than ever because I'm stuck doing nothing at home, and I know she'd keep me company.

Enough moaning about how bored I am, there are some good things about being at home. Yesterday we made up for the fact that I was in hospital for bonfire night, and my amazing housemate sorted out a bonfire party for us. We built a bonfire all of our own on the local park, and we spent a load of cash on really good fireworks. I spent the day making traditional bonfire night treats - bonfire toffee and toffee apples, which we all munched on while we watched the fire and the fireworks. It was great, and it really made my week. Thanks Rob...

Four. Stinking. Years.

Right. Let me start by pointing out how much I love November 5th. Now, I know that a lot of you won't understand the significance of this date, but here's a quick history lesson to help you out:

In November 1605, because of the persicution of Catholics by the Protestant king of England, James I, A number of plotters attempted to blow up the houses of Parliament at the official opening. Every year, at the opening of parliament in England, the monarch attends. The intention of the plotters was to blow up the houses of Parliament, taking the king that was persicuting them with it. From there, they intended to stage a revolution, and have a Catholic monarch take over the throne. However, just hours before the plan was fully put into action, a man named Guido Fawkes, one of the plotters, was discovered under the houses of parliament, with all the gunpowder. He was arrested, tortured, and eventually executed along with his fellow plotters. Ever since, every november 5th in England, all over the country, Bonfires are lit and fireworks set off to remind people of what happened. We even still burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes on the bonfire, although the whole thing has become simply tradition as opposed to an event of political significance. The whole affair can be summed up with the following rhyme:

Remember, Remember,
The fifth of November -
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I see no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

All this is by the by. What is important is that, for me, Novemeber the fifth is the first night of the year that I wear gloves, scarf and hat. You have to wrap up. There is bonfire toffee, toffee apples, baked potatoes and many other tasty treats. It reminds me of being a kid. It also reminds me that my birthday is coming up.

I have lived in Leeds for four years now. The first year, I intended to go to the local big bonfire with some of my new friends from university. I went back to my parents' house, and had my dad bring me back in time for the big display. However, he set off really late, and by the time that I got back to leeds, the fireworks had finished! Not to worry, I thought, there's always next year...

The next year, I organised for my cell group to go to the even bigger display at Roundhay park. About 100,000 people turn up to this one, and it's supposed to be spectacular. But someone forgot their car, so I sat around waiting with two others while we waited for our ride, and we arrived in time to see the last firework explode in the air about half a mile away.

Last year, I had to work.

This year, I was determined to make it. We started planning the event about three weeks ago. It went like this: Everyone in my house, and in the two houses next to me, was going to walk down to Hyde Park, enjoy the bonfire, then return to have baked potatoes with chilli and cheese and watch the simpsons. It was so well planned, just like the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, but unfortunately, just like the Gunpowder plot, it was foiled at the last minute. I'm going to hospital for surgery today, and I won't be out until (at the earliest) Sometime on Friday. And if I come out then, I won't be well enough to go to the fireworks. Rubbish.

7/8 . 3/8

I have no choice.
I am Yours.
I have
Joy deep inside,
Here I hide -
Under the
Shadow of
Your wing.
I AM.

Doulos
(My name)
All gain -
Slave/servant.
I AM
(Your name)
My gain.
I am
Doulos
(My name)
All gain -
Bondservant.
I AM
(Your name)
My gain -
You are I AM.

Pause it and turn it up...

Evening all.

I went to see a number of bands last night, for my good friend Matt's birthday. The show was kicked off by Claire Buswell and her friends, with Speakeasy (Matt's own band) following, and everything was rounded up by the fantastic Dive Dive. Now, even before I'd heard them, this band had become one of my new favourite groups. That might sound a bit wierd, but let me explain:

You see, Matt had heard this band somewhere else at some point, and had been checking their website for news of gigs etc. He discovered that they were embarking on a low key tour of the country, but that they wouldn't be calling at leeds. This didn't please Matt an awful lot, but then he had an idea. 'What if,' he thought to himself, 'I emailed them, and asked them to come?' So that's what he did. It occurred to him that his birthday fell in the middle of the tour, so he suggested to them that they could come to the Brudenell Social Club, be supported by Speakeasy, and get paid nothing for it. In return, they would have an audience of a large group of Matt's friends, who wouldn't leave, because it's his birthday. They agreed. They drove all the way from London to play a gig in Leeds that they didn't get paid for, just cause some kid emailed them and asked them to play at his party. They're a signed band too...

Incidentally, they turned out to be really good, and you can check out their website here.

sucks

This has been an interesting week. I haven't stopped, and that's all been kind of fun, but it ended in a sucky way for two reasons; one of which I will account for here, the other will, I'm afraid, remain a mystery except for those involved...

Last Monday, Bethany and Mel arrived from Canada. This was a great thing to happen, because I love those guys, and I had been looking forward to their visit for a while. That night, we didn't really do much, but the rest of the week was intense:

Tuesday - we went to cell group, which was great but finished late
Wednesday - Mel went to Stevenage to see a friend, so Bethany and I travelled to Worksop to see my parents, my sister and her boyfriend, and my dad's best friend. It was a superb evening, and my parents were very pleased to see Bethany again.
Thursday - My band, the Salvator Darlings, headed to Sheffield to play an acoustic set at the Coffee Revolution in the university union. It was deemed a success by all except possibly the guy that organsised it, who seemed to think that we were a little too silly for his altogether serious evening. The night was also made fun by the fact that my car overheated on the way down, and we had to stop by the side of the road twice.. Amongst the 150 or so people in attendance that night, travelling from various places to specifically see The Salvator Darlings were: My sister Laura, her boyfriend Brett, her housemate Lucy, My friends Alice and Max, Biffy Clyro fan Barney, Bethany and Mel, Little Rob's girlfriend Lisa, and my next door neighbours Eleanor and Rhiannon, both wearing Salvator Darlings t-shirts. Photos of the night will soon be visible on the media page of the band's website.
Friday - Sharon arrived from Scotland. Sharon lived in Canada for some time, and has since moved back to her native country. Both myself and the girls were very pleased to see her, so that was sweet. Mel and Sharon went out for the night to the cinema and for a meal to catch up, and left me to take Bethany out on a date! I took her for a meal at a mexican restaurant, to a couple of bars, and then to the late showing at the cinema. It was such a perfect night, and we made the decision to start a relationship. More on that shortly...
Saturday - very busy day. We all headed off to York, where we met up with Kelly (well known groupie and merchandise seller of NeverTheLess), annoyed Elena at work, visited some shops and the minster, walked down the shambles, and went for a stroll on the walls (where Bethany and myself went in one direction, and the girls went the other). We nipped to Asda on the way back to pick up some groceries for sunday, and then went to Sheffield for the ice hockey, which the Steelers won 5-1.
Sunday - Church was superb, and it was all rounded off rather nicely with a Thanksgiving dinner. It was so sweet to have some of my Canadian friends here for thanksgiving, and it was made all the sweeter by the fantastic meal that we cooked for 15 people. Good times. Bethany and myeself ended the evening with a short walk, and I went to bed early because of work the next day.

Last night was really sad. Bethany and Mel left, and I had to take them to the train station. I didn't want to say goodbye, knowing that we won't see each other again until at least New Year, if not Easter. That's really hard, but I know that we really want to make this work. Pray for us guys, cause it's not going to be easy.

Ok, enough talking about stuff that you probably don't want to hear about. Go and do something more useful with your time...

Or lack, thereof...

Don't you think that it's about time I blogged? I mean, I haven't done it for two weeks now. Surely I have some interesting things to tell you after that long... Well, I do. But I have to go to work now. Speak later...

Bands, bands, bands, choke, bands, bands

This week, I have seen the following acts:

Some guys in the freshers tent at leeds uni, claiming to be on the 'drink milk' tour, and who recognised me as 'the singer from that funny band'.

Brigade, who were good.

This GIRL who were amazing, and you must check them out now. They're four young lads (18-19 years old) from Rotherham, and if you're in leeds on wednesday night, get yourself down to Joseph's Well to watch them in action and have your mind blown by their awesomeness.

Biffy Clyro, who, as usual, were superb, and rocked my world.

Cirrus Fingers, who turned out to be a couple of guys I know rocking the Packhorse in an unexpected trip hop/drum 'n' bass intense live set. Not the greatest band I've ever heard, but they brought a lot of friends in with them, and it's early days yet. They were pretty original, and I think that they will find a certain target audience. It just might not be a pub full of freshers on a saturday night.

Speakeasy. What can I say? Every time I see them, they get better. They're supporting us at the october first gig, they're supporting Dive Dive on their national tour date at the brudenell social club, and tonight they were headlining at the packhorse. More like the packedroom. It was rammed. They were superb. Highlights included the opening track, 'You and Your' which they are currently recording in the studio, and 'Just a Man' which is an older track. You can download the old version from their website, or you can get along to one of their upcoming gigs to see them perform a much more intense, emo driven version, climaxing with Matt playing his guitar with a violin bow. This band rock.

Also this week, I had the pleasure of practising with my band, The Salvator Darlings. We're about to start our slow-moving 'Third Party, Fire and Theft Tour', so we've been rehearsing with new members, Rosie and Simon. It's coming along beautifully, and I'll keep you up to date with where you can catch up with us. You can also get hold of a tour tshirt by getting in touch with me and asking for one. They have a picture of a scally on the front, and they say 'The Salvator Darlings stole my car'. The back says 'Third Party, Fire and Theft Tour 2004'. They're brilliant...

pencil sketches...

Ladies and Gentlemen, if I can please draw your attention to the list of links to other blogs that can be found towards the bottom of my sidebar. There you will find blogs of all sorts; the latest addition to which is this one. I won't give away the blogger's highly secret identity (for americans, this is sarcasm), but I will suggest that you read his site on a regular basis. Highly entertaining...

a difficult one...

I read J Puddy's blog the other day, and tried to follow a link that he published in his post, 'Division' there, but it didn't work. It's up and running now though, so I just had the chance to see what he was on about. For your information, here is his blog article:

Link. "An interesting talk on gays and lesbians and how the church should relate to them, by Tony and Peggy Campolo. Pretty well known dude (Tony) in Christian circles."

And here's the comment that I posted in response:

"I just went to the site, and I checked out an essay written by a guy named Justin, who supports same sex marriages for christians. The main points of interest for me were how we explain away some laws as cultural difference, and others not; and that the greatest commandment of all is to love. Like Andrew, I think that there's no easy answer to this one. One thing that I can easily stand firm on, however, is his conclusion:

"Most of all, pray. Pray every day for God's guidance in your life and for the wisdom and humility to admit when you're wrong. If you find that you disagree with fellow Christians, remember that they are still your brothers and sisters in Christ. And they may yet have something to teach you.

Follow Christ at all costs. Nothing matters more than that."

I highly recommend that you check out the site and read the essays/listen to the presentation. It raises a number of issues that certainly I have never thought about...

highs and lows..

This weekend was fun. I drove to Chelmsford, went to a wedding, played records at the reception, drove through central london (over Tower Bridge and everything!), got interviewed on a radio station about my DJ ministry, and broke down in my car on the M1 three times on the way back up. I went to the hockey (with a lift from my dad), and took a taxi to work yesterday, because my car was at my dad's being mended.

My dad is a star. He fixed my car yesterday, and brought it back up to Leeds for me. My mom is a star. She drove the other car up at the same time, so that they could just drive back to Worksop together. Today, because of them, I went to work in my car today, and saved myself a tenner.

Oh, we won the hockey, by the way...

Last night Jackie Chan came round..

I played pool with him, and we hung out. Mr Miagi and the X-Men called in for a while as well.

Ah, my life may not be quite like that, but it's pretty good fun at the moment. I just finished my first week at work in a school for children who have Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD). In my first week, I have: been swimming; been to Bolton Abbey, taken two pupils to the supermarket; nearly won a quiz in the staffroom; baked a cake; been bitten by a pupil; fortunately had a hepatitis b innoculation; discovered there are at least 4 other Christians on the staff; cleaned up the result of what appeared to be synchronised vomiting in the little kids' class; learned some Makaton; and been trampolining. Amongst other things. It's all in a week's work. This is probably the greatest job in the world. I love it. It's exciting, it's fun, it's rewarding, the hours and the holidays are superb...

In other news, I'm spinning at a friend's wedding reception tomorrow night. Then I'm being interviewed on Premier Radio on Sunday morning about my dj ministry. All this before I head to my parents' house for a late sunday roast, then to the ice hockey match with my dad and my good friend Alice (who I wrote a song about). Just in case you haven't had enough of the links, you can read the lyrics to the song here, on The Salvator Darlings Website. (That's my band, by the way.)

Does anyone find that for ages they don't put any links anywhere on their site, then all of a sudden they get link fever, and have to put about a thousand in one article? No? Just me then...

Old Abe

The thought has recently occurred to me that blogs are incredibly selfish things. I mean, you sit down, and write all about the things that have happened to you, that you want to happen, and that you're thinking about. You express your point of view, and publish songs and poems that you wrote. And you do all of this because you think that people are going to read it and be interested. The funny thing is, they often are. People share our interests, and that's why they read our blogs. Other people sometimes have the same sense of humor as us, so they find the things that we write funny. Sometimes they find the things that we write funny because we are so geeky that we don't realise that we've written something that makes us sound like complete losers, so people read our blogs to laugh at us behind our backs. That's all fine. But wouldn't it be nice if some blogs were a bit less self-oriented?

So, I have come up with the first of many plans to revive and inspire excitement on this blog in particular. Every so often (I'd say every week, but you know how things go...) I will publish a blog about the life of someone else. Perhaps someone I know, perhaps I won't know them at all, but the idea is that instead of you always reading about what I've been getting up to, you can find out about what someone else has been doing. If they have their own blog, I'll include a link to it, so that if you like what you've read, and find that you have similar interests, or find them funny (for whatever reason...), you can read more. If they don't have a blog of their own, and you like it, we can try to get them to start one, and if they won't, then just enjoy the post on this site. Sound good?

Right, so I guess, as Abraham Lincoln said, no act is truly selfless, so I'm hoping that I'll get some more correspondence from this. If you want other people to read your blog, or you have a life, aspect of your life, or story that you think would be well recieved, email me...

That's all for now.

Where we're going, we don't need roads...

Having failed so far to come up with something worthwhile putting on the site, I'll resort to more song lyrics. Matt from Speakeasy came round last night to watch a movie. Since I have recently purchased the Back to the Future boxset, we decided that it would be criminal not to enjoy episode one of this fine trilogy. Oh how we laughed. To be fair, I can probably get most of the way through the script of that movie without having to watch it, so doing something like, for example, writing a song about the movie, wouldn't be a major problem. So that's what we did. The story of Marty Mcfly is retold in glorious musicolor, appearing at a Salvator Darlings gig near you soon. And, if you're interested, here's the lyrics:

My calculations were correct
On that night in 1985
And did I detect
A flux capacitor in overdrive?

I was doing 88
Powered by plutonium.
The doc had just turned late
Terrorists in pandemonium.

(Bridge 1)
With your best friend's life going down the sink
You'd better think, Mcfly, think
Cause you're going

(Chorus)
Back to the future
Back to the future
1.21 gigawatts -
Yes my friend, that's lots of watts.

Arrived in 55
In a barn on the Twin Pines Ranch.
Glad to find that I'm alive,
I see a man clinging to a branch.

(He's a peeping tom!)

Spying on a girl.
Dressed in 1950s lingerie,
She looked kind of like my mom
But in a creepy kind of teenage way.

(Bridge 2)
She was looking kind of hot and tried to ask me out,
then she tried to kiss me - I was freaking out
I had to get

(Chorus)
Yes my friend, your mom was looking hot.

(Middle)
This is where my tale takes its turn,
My father he had to learn
How to fight the local jerk
If my plan was going to work...
I got attacked by a gang of punks
Who locked me up in Marvin's trunk
And I was stuck with no way out
My mom began to scream and shout
As Biff was getting far too fresh
My dad began to clench his fist
Then choking back his greatest fears
Said 'get your damn hands off of her'.

(Chorus)
Yes my friend, Biff deserved exactly what he got.

Back at the tower clock
The time I had was running out.
With cables set up by the doc
We had planned the perfect route.

Four minutes past ten
Lightning struck Hill Valley hall.
To 85 again -
You'll never have a closer call.

(Bridge 3)
Just in time doc Brown was able
To connect the final cable.

(Chorus)
Yes my friend, Emmett's death I had to stop.

(Final Chorus)
Back to the future
Back to the future
He'd taken several bullets to the chest,
But my friend, on my advice, he was wearing a bulletproof vest.


Very, very silly.

If you live in Leeds, I recommend that you make it down to The Vine on the Headrow on Tuesday September 7, where you can see Speakeasy supporting The Bilderberg Group, Farming Incident and Dolores. Check out the link to their website above for more details. Let's support local music...