3 posts tagged “new job”
It's amazing how chaotic I can get when travelling places and still have everything work out alright. I ended up booking a place to stay at the very last minute in Bristol and was still packing my junk a 1 am the day before I was due to leave. Through a slight miscoordination, I managed to drop my favourite 50mm lens to the floor, which mercilessly broke to bits. That's only the second time I did that :( So no pictures whatsoever, and there won't be any for a while, because I don't really have the money to replace it and for some reason I didn't get the end pay out money from my previous job yet (a pay out of remaining vacation days). I'll probably be getting a 50/1.4 and a 85/1.8 when I do.
The place in Bristol was very basic, but the people were kind. I looked around for a camera shop to replace my lens, but they were so overpriced that I just didn't bother and decided against taking any pictures whatsoever. I did some shopping and ended up buying far more stuff than I needed, including a Paul Smith sweater. What the fuck did I need that for? Whatevah. It's actually kind of simple but nice and washes well and I ended up wearing it a lot over the weekend. Caught up with a friend for dinner, which was cheap and cheerful and went to bed early.
The next morning we got up early to go to the busstation to head over to Butlins, Minehead for the festival. Strangely enough, I ran into someone I know at the busstation. I met this guy about 4 years ago, when I was travelling around the UK to see a couple of Dirty Three gigs. I ended up in the pub with them and they gave me a ride from Leicester to Leeds, along with some musical tips. I think Nina Nastasia was one of the artists they recommended me. An alright guy, but also one that seems to be on an eternal monologue for some reason. He's now a writer for a UK mag and a couple of online mags, and is actually quite knowledgable about music, aside from being a real character.
Anyway, after a rather uneventful busride in a bus full of gothy trippy looking people, we arrived at Butlins, which was something that would feature a prime spot in my worst nightmare. It's something like a run down seashore resort, aimed at families with small kids. Insert Pizza Hut, Burgers Kings, mini golf, 3 different slides in the swimming pool and a huge music stage set up between something called The Puppet Palace, Burger King and a sweet shop, intermixed with slotmachines and fun fair rides, and you get the picture. Very surreal.
The lineup was amazing though. The Dirty Three were curating this version of All Tomorrow's Parties and they did a real good job at making it very diverse. There were really some very highly skilled musicians there, including the usual suspects, eg, all things Nick Cave related (Neubauten, Mick Harvey, Conway Savage, etc). The good thing about an All Tomorrow's Parties festival is that you get to stay in your own little chalet, which means you don't have to mess around with tents and bad hygeine and all that. Very convenient...
The downside is that the smallest chalet I could book was a 2 person's one, and I was only on my own. Through the Nick Cave site, I had found someone who needed a place for a friend, but in the end his friend didn't show up, and I was out of 120 quid, with the guy taking no responsibility whatsoever. I was quite pissed off about that and it ruined some of my Saturday.
Somewhere along the way I ran into my mate Gary with his wife Fiona. I met Gary at a Dirty Three gig at the huge town of Dundalk once, where it basically was just Gary, Christian and me, a little pub, and not much else. Since then, I keep bumping into him at Nick Cave, Dirty Three and somewhat related gigs.
The gigs themselves were amazing though. It was so great to see the Dirty Three again! It's been a while and even though they are touring later this month, chances of me actually getting to see them are really slim. There was also the live premiere of Grinderman, the new Nick Cave band and a really strange Neubauten set, which started at 1:30 am and lasted until 3:30 at which point most of the audience were sprawled around the floor sleeping. Very strange indeed. The schedule was slightly mad and there were some real nasty overlaps, which meant sometimes it was a tossup between two bands I /really/ wanted to see. In those cases, I opted for the bands I had never seen, rather than the bands I have seen plenty of times before. I kicked off with the Only Ones, followed by a Dirty Three set, then Psarandonis (amazing musicians), Devastations and last but not least Josh Pearson.
Saturday I started off slow, seated on a bench with a coffee and paper, enjoying the sun and the horrendous surroundings. Strangely enough, I was interrupted by Mick Harvey and his kids going nuts at the tin can alley stall. I went on to see some of Joel Silbersher (small guy, huge voice!), then Felix Lajko, who I've been dying to see for a long time. He's a genius on the violin, but doesn't seem to play in this neck of the woods much. Alan Vega was up next, whose genre has really changed over the years. I rather enjoyed his set. I caught a little bit of Mick Harvey then set off to the Nick Cave/Grinderman stage. The Nick Cave set was alright, then they went off the stage and came back as Grinderman, which possible confused a few people. Frankly, the set seemed a little shaky, and it was clear they weren't used to the new songs as much yet. A nice little bonus was Bobbie Gillespie on backing vocals though. I've never seen him so together before... the last time I saw him with Primal Scream, he was clinging onto the mic stand for life. After that I went on to see Youpi Youpi Yeah, The Drones, Nina Nastasia and the Neubauten as aforementioned. I more or less collapsed after that and fell sound asleep.
Sunday started off much the same way as Saturday with a paper and some sun. A little Roscoe Mitchell (experimental jazz), some more Dirty Three, Mary Margaret, a little Joanne Newsom, then onto Cat Power another Nick/Grinderman set, Tara Jane O'Neill and topped and finished by the Tren Brothers. Mary Margaret's set was interesting. They started off without a bass player and kept asking for someone to join them, if they wanted. Then at the last song, the bass player finally showed up, after having been stuck in traffic. Mary was vaguely disorganised, but it's part of her charm and reminded me of Cat Power in a way. Cat Power, however, has changed. Where she was totally untogether, chaotic and self conscious before, she now takes the stage with a completely different attitude. The new band (including Jim White) works much better I think. The Nick/Grinderman set was amazing. For some reason they got into it much more, and connected with the audience much better who went completely nuts. It absolutely rocked... Finally the audience got moving, and frankly, I got a little hyper myself, which resulted in me playing footie with a beercan and a couple of guys I had never met just before Tara Jane O'Neill was to start.
All in all, I had such a great time, much better than I expected from the first time I saw Butlins. All the musicians and their families were staying at the chalets too, so it just happened that you'd be sitting in the grass outside your little chalet, and have Blixa Bargeld walk by. Or you'd spot Nick sunbathing (I kid you not) outside his (not so little chalet) on your way to the pool, where Josh Pearson would be whooping and hollering down the slides. Just imagine what the filters on that pool must have looked like after all the bearded gentlemen had been through it!
Much time to bask into it's fully glory I didn't really have though, as I started my new job the very next day. Time just flies when you're having fun huh?
The new job is amazing. I spend most of the past two weeks getting up to speed with architectural drawings and getting to know the systems. The atmosphere is much better than in my old job though. The people are younger, for starters, and mostly come from a creative and/or technical background. Of course the company is much smaller which means you just get to know everyone much more quickly. Also their lunch setup is quite cosy with two big tables just dressed up as brekafast tables, with everyone gathering around it. It's quite good as you get to mingle quite a bit. It's also much better foodwise than the last place I worked at, with salads and all kinds of different breads and stuff to put in. There also seems to be a stash of candy just about everywhere and a weekly drinking session on Friday afternoon. Aside from that they're heavily into making their employees happy, which is such a different approach than what I am used to. I'd never have considered having drinks with colleagues before and actually found the colleagues I had quite dull. So upto now, all is good... Hopefully it'll stay that way.
In the meantime I also saw a lot more gigs... Some more Cat Power, The Drones and Moke. Strangely enough, a lot of the ATP bands added another few dates elsewhere after the festival. I meant to go to Low and the Handsome Family too, but just couldn't find the energy to do so. Tonight it's dinner & Interpol, courtesy of Jeroen.
If it hadn't been for the new job, I would now have been at Bowie's Highline Festival, but I pulled out of that, because he said he wouldn't play it anywhere. Some of my Bowienet friends are there though, and their reports are fun to read. I wouldn't mind seeing a lot of them again, but c'est ca. Fun though, is that Bowie is really excited about it and is posting all over the Bowienet forums again. I rather like his enthusiasm about things, even when I don't always share it (Polyphonic Spree?). I really do hope we'll see a bit more of him this year, but that's fairly unlikely, unfortunately.
That's that for catching up. If you made it all the way here... wow, you have stamina!
I have so had it here. I don't want to be at work anymore. Everybody just makes me want to scream at these twats everywhere. Bah.
Arcade Fire cancelled their remaining Euro dates so I wont be going to Cologne this weekend. Maybe I'll be able to compete the horse instead. Speaking of, I did just that last weekend and Solon and me did quite well. Not well enough to score 60%, but not bad either. He was quite sweet as well, though the canter and gallop is still a problem. I'm not sure how to solve that, other than by sheer mileage. We had a saddlefitter out last Friday and I bought a KN Tango, which hopefully will fit better than his current saddle. It's a little ironic to think the saddle now almost cost me more than the horse did when I bought him 5 years ago.
In the meantime a few more gigs got added to my schedule. Scissor Sisters on my birthday this year, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Cat Power and now the Stones are playing Holland too in June. The old geezers list is growing! I did manage to sell off most of my The Police tickets, which is a relief, since I'm really strapped for cash at the moment (what's new?). For some reason most of them are in June, which is a bummer, since I'll just have started my new job and it will be difficult to take some time off.
I'm very glad to have the last two weeks of April off. I'm planning on maybe taking the horse away for a few days to a place with as few people as possible. That just sounds so tempting right now.
The last thing I expected when I made my last post is for a bidding war to errupt, but that's exactly what happened. Something alike an eBay auction with as grand prize... me. I kid you not. After the initial offer by Company 1, I sent an email to Company 2 declining their offer, explaining the situation I was in and how Company 1 just made me an offer I couldn't refuse, even when I preferred Company 2 as a whole. The reaction to this email was an urgent phone call and hard core negotiation. In the end I ended up with a pay increase of 10% on the initial offer... This morning I went to Company 2 and signed on the dotted line. So coming May I will start my new job at a brand new company and I'm dead excited about it!
The new company deals in internet creations/solutions, have a very clean and bright look and feel and seem very welcoming. Also, they have some brilliant projects coming up that sound really interesting. My official title here will be Senior Application Administrator, or something. Whatever...
I'm really, really excited about it! Now I just have to tell my current boss (or his boss, or the ad-interim guy, who happen to all be on a holiday at the same time... go figure. So I'll be talking to the guy who's replacing all 3 of them).
Did I mention Kasabian were fan-freaking-tastic?
