No trickery, no alarm clocks, I'm up and showered before 8am on a Sunday, feeling pretty somewhere between good and weird, and so I thought I'd take some time to appreciate the good and have a ramble.
I didn't sleep well at all last night; I spent a little too much time studying the trailer for Insidious.. mainly this image (warning: unpleasantly creepy). I'm umming and erring about going to see it. Peripheral vision shock images are a bit of a weakness of mine, eg Ju-on (The Grudge) et al.. little, ghostly children, silently stalking people just out of the characters' view before trespassing on safe places. That said, being a fan of slasher films, I quite like The Grudge (2004), the american remake if only because Sarah Michelle Gellar gets her lower jaw ripped off... Yea, have that, Buffy! If anyone was at least party responsible for the Twilight series (et al), you were! We just need to see Joss Whedon (which technically isn't a name), David Boreanaz and James Marsters in at least some kind of horrible pain and the balance will be somewhere near restored. It is platitudinous to say that the american remakes of The Grudge, The Ring etc lack the subtleties of Asian cinema, but it's a statement that should always be present in these discussions.
But oddly I had very good dreams last night; lots of dreams about going to see people I haven't seen for a long time and having skills that can help them; like my old music teachers. And a lot of the dreams involved being offered new jobs :) which was quite pleasing. Where normally a very positive dream would only end in disappointment where I wake up and realise what my life is really like, I have actually been offered a new job; full time work as a technician in the skills lab at Canterbury Christ Church University. This is a job I current do part time, and I love it; setting up experiments for training nurses, midwives, occupational therapists, etc... So life seems pretty good.
I have several gigs coming up.
23rd April: I'm playing with Know Your Enemy at Club Q in Ashford, Kent. It's a charity event to raise money for Help For Heroes, being headlined by Coronal.
24th April: On Easter Sunday I'm playing a solo performance at the Hoodeners Horse in Great Chart, Ashford, Kent. A mixture of middle of the road rock, folk and comedy.
1st May: I'm playing with Know Your Enemy up at the Homelands Stadium, Ashford, Kent for a KMFM bank holiday weekend event.
More details and more shows on www.danblood.co.uk.
Also, this morning, I thought I'd have a crack at answering the most commonly asked question about my music... "what is it you play?" A question for which I've never had a clear answer! The closest I've got so far is "a mixture of middle of the road rock, folk and comedy".. which does it for some people, but still confuses most.
What I play is a rag tag mixture of songs. Some of them are just nice songs that I've picked up over time, both covers and originals, uncommitted to any higher purpose. I play some songs that recall parts of my past and poke fun at them, like my angsty goth years at school where I wore nothing but black clothes and spikey dog collars, had blue hair and looked at everything like a cartoon vampire. And other stuff I play explores an eternally youthful fun side of life, where I distort nursery rhymes for fun and get grown men and women doing-the-actions to wheels on the bus, because they know deep down that it's better to let go and have fun than to be embarrassed. Most of all, I like to maintain that I'm performing without pretense; I'm not trying to be a big, famous rock star; I'm not trying to get girls to swoon with lovey-dovey romantic numbers; I'm not a revolutionary trying to spark a riot; I'm not trying to bring down the man, I'm just a bloke in a pub playing some songs, who's not scared to laugh at himself.
I imagine that by the time I'm done explaining this to someone, the proprietor of the shop, bar or cafe I'm in at the time will probably be asking me to get down from the table I'm standing on or light fitting I'm hanging from. I'll probably continue to say "a mixture of middle of the road rock, folk and comedy" followed up with "if you don't know what that means you'll have to come along and find out... I try to be fun and not-too-offensive".
For anyone who's curious.. there is some music of mine on www.danblood.co.uk.
Yes, this crap took me almost an hour to write; give me a break, I'm a lack luster, vikingesque musician having a ramble, not Mark fucking Twain.
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