a big guy in a big city

Posted by Claire at September 17th, 2005

Bone beat me to it god damn him! (But I think we had better seats… Block 109, 12)

I’m still buzzin’ man… Last night was the most amazing night of my life (well, one of them!) Stereophonics rocked Manchester!

It’s true, the Dead 60s were a big bag of horse shit as a suport band, I didn’t mind “Riot on the Radio”, but I think they are trying too hard to be like Hard-Fi, and frankly there’s no comparison to the “Hard To Beat” Stars of CCTV! I had heard rumours that the Bravery were supporting, but NME earlier on in the week had confirmed that the Dead 60s were to “Have a Nice Day”‘ (their joke, not mine!)

Sarah (the trusty driver… and gig virgin) got very impatient waiting for the arrival of Kelly Jones etc, but boy when they arrived! Priestley won the bet, by suggesting that they’d open with Superman… there I was sitting down, huge grin on my face, but after the opening chords of “A Thousand Trees”, screw the seats, I was up and dancing… and carried on dancing. All night. I was in a daze by the end of the set and could hardly speak. Can’t possibly choose my favourite, but I loved Pedalpusher, Mr Writer, More Life In A Tramp’s Vest (especially Kelly’s story behind it!) Bartender & The Thief, and who didn’t love their final offering, Dakota!

Fucking immense!

I’ll be following you to Germany boys! (2 weeks!)

Posted by Bone at September 17th, 2005

Hello Manchester!

After a couple of months of not seeing any live music my drought came to an end yesterday when me and the boys (Greeno, Cartlidge, Steve and Green’s uni mate Simon) went to see Stereophonics (never The Stereophonics) at the M.E.N arena in Manchester.

Support came from ‘The Dead 60s’ who were frankly a bit disappointing, it all just sounded the same to me. They just seemed to be a bit of a trend band, and whilst I do like their current single “Riot on the Radio” they just didn’t meet up to expectations. Especially since for some reason I thought that The Subways were going to be supporting.

‘Phonics don’t ever disappoint (this was the 3rd time I’d seen them) and I think that they sounded better this time than ever before. It was refreshing to see a band play so much from their back-catalogue, which was good for me since I don’t own any of their new stuff. Song highlights for me have to be Mr. Writer and Maybe Tomorrow, which were just outstanding. I’d been slightly disappointed when I saw them at Earl’s Court in 2003 (Wednesday 17th of December fact fans!) and Mr. Writer was played acoustically so it was nice to see this played as it should be.

Odd fact, we were sat in block 212 which was the same block as I was in for my very first experience of live music. And the performer then was……. Britney Spears (don’t judge me, I was 16, it was a birthday present, and it was awesome!).

Thanks again to Tyson for giving me a night off from driving.

Posted by Bone at September 15th, 2005

I had a dramatic couple of hours yesterday involving a river, a tractor and some clay.

They more imaginative of you may have worked it all out by now, and you may have also been worrying over your hero’s health and safety. Have no fear, I was largely a bystander and everyone is ok.

A rather dramaticised account can be found after the jump (yes, I’m using ‘jumps’ now)

(more…)

Posted by Bone at September 13th, 2005

As if one permanent page wasn’t enough for you, I’ve only gone and added another post filled with picture good-ness.

This time I’ve dug up some old photos and scanned them. Specifically my developed roll of film from our school Leaver’s Ball.

Bigguybigcity.com isn’t turning into a photo archive, have no fear, but everyone loves looking at pictures, especially when we were all dressed up so nice. Also, this is a blog about my life (and the others) and this was an episode of my life that deserves chronicling.

(Petr) Cech it out here.

*Other idea for a post title, “Stalkers! See me in a tux and drool.”

Posted by Bone at September 12th, 2005

I uploaded my cameraphone pictures from the Amsterdam trip to Imagevenue and have added thumbnails for them to the Amsterdam megapost.

For those of you who are too lazy to click over there —->

You can click here.

I’m too good to you people.

Posted by Claire at September 11th, 2005

It’s so strange to think I’ve only got 3 weeks left in the country. The reality bolt strikes. Hard. I have to be a fresher all over again, talk about crap to my new housemates. But this time it’s in a different language. And I can’t boast that I’m that confident I’m even going to understand what the dudes are on about. I flunked German this year (though I do have valid reasons if you were prepared to listen to them god damn German tutors!), so in order to come out with a half decent degree I need to absorb as much of the language as possible. Shit.

Recent events in the life of Claire have made me realise that you really cannot predict what might happen in the future. Things you have so strongly believed in for so long often change without warning. But in the same breath, I feel like I’ve changed recently too, unlike in York, where I was fighting change and not coping when it happens, having some me-time back at home has made me a stronger person. I have learned to accept what happens in my life & my friend’s lives and deal with it in the best possible way.

Sorry for being so philosophical, I climbed Scarfell Pike today on about 3 hours sleep the night before so you could say I’m a little sleepy!

Positive Ending Note: Stereophonics on Friday!

Bis Spater (I’m practising!)

Posted by Bone at September 10th, 2005

You know it’s been a quiet day when the only conversation you’ve had is with a checkout girl over the merits of a Homebase card. Yes friends, my housemates have all left me, which as I suspected has helped me to work, but it has also been mighty boring, going to bed early, flicking through the same 5 channels (I haven’t got the digital working… yet), I even turned to drink at one point, which certainly helped last night fly by.

It’s also a bit worrying when you’re living on your own in a relatively new place, since with every noise you expect that you’re about to be robbed, and we had a bit of thunder and lightning last night which made things slightly more dramatic.

Oh, and I set off the fire alarm whilst stir-frying some steak. That bad boy is L-O-U-D.

I work terms I found 1 excellent book, 2 not so helpful, and 1 that I haven’t read yet. I am currently back in the library so another audacious raid on the library’s resources will soon be mounted.

Oh, I noticed that my room has a fireplace (previously hidden by my artwork, well, not my artwork, but I do certainly own it) and since I obviously can’t start a fire in my room I’ve put some orange pebble lights (available from Habitat, maybe) under it creating the illusion of fire and warmth. I’d be a hopeless romantic if only I had a girlfriend.

Posted by Bone at September 8th, 2005

So, I’m back at uni for a couple of days, doing yet-more dissertation research. In fact, I’m even in the uni library now, since we don’t have internet in our new house yet, which is another strike against Bulldog’s already poor customer service record.

I’m still enjoying 8 mega-pixel camera bliss, I wouldn’t post some samples but I can’t find any image hosts that allow 5MB files(!) to be uploaded, so you’ll just have to check my dA page (here) for any future updates of arty magnitude.

It would seem that I’ve been left on my own for a couple of days in our big new house, though Christina, Robin and Louise have offered to keep me company, god bless ‘em. Atleast it’ll be quiet and without digital TV surely I’ll be able to get a decent amount of work done.

Right, better be off to do some real work…

Posted by Bone at September 6th, 2005

So I was awoken this morning by Neil saying that a package had arrived for me, I shouted back “You’re a liar and I don’t believe you.” Since I hadn’t even received an e-mailed saying that the beast had been shipped yet. Turns out they don’t send e-mails, but they do send cameras!

That’s right, rather obviously (after all that build up), my new camera has arrived. I was a bit worried that the most expensive single item I’ve ever bought might end up as a let down, but it really, really wasn’t. I knew from all of the reviews that it was good, but I was amazed at just how much of a departure from my trusty Sony camera. With the Sony I kind of had to learn how it shot, then fool it into shooting the way I wanted it too, but with the A200 I tell it what I want to happen, and it does, every time. I’ve already been down to our local tarn taking pictures of Swans, but I wasn’t enough to get some shots of the deer that I saw bounding away.

Das Bone is a very happy boy.

Posted by Richard at September 3rd, 2005

I think that Andy loves technology far too much - all this fiddling around with blogs, and trying to outclass me camera wise. He’s just bringing forward the day when I buy a digital SLR to blow everyone else away..

University begins again in only a month’s time: back to the tough life of a student, trying to have fun, whilst still doing all those pesky essays and going to those annoying lectures. I manage, but some people have difficulties: these people often do ’subjects’ like economics, law, or medicine, and are detained by their studies for an unreasonable amount of their day. It’s almost like their lecturers don’t know what university is for.

I wouldn’t like to question McBone’s taste in women, but I think that neither Charlotte Hatherley nor that O.C. girl are that great. The bassist from The Subways is pretty hot, as is the singer from Be Your Own Pet (bit young perhaps), and Scarlett Johansson is perhaps the greatest example of anything ever.

Scarlett, if you’re reading this, I’m available.