HOW DID IT GET TO BE FRIDAY ALREADY?

My lovely small person went to see Ariana Grande on Monday night - it's OK, I had never heard of her either. It was a little odd hearing about her going to a show and then transposing my own experience of being 14 on top of it though.

At a rough estimate, I worked out that the whole trip - including tickets, travel and essential tour tshirt - probably came in at something like £120 and that's probably being generous. I was going  to tell her about my first show alone (which was UFO back in '82/'83) and then thought better of it but in my silence, figured out the sum total of that trip (ticket, travel, essential tour shirt and oddly a copy of the MAD magazine summer special found at a newsstand outside the venue) came in at less than £15. Is that comparable? The ticket was something like £4 (if I ask my friend John, he probably still has his stub and could tell me for sure) which really enabled a kid of 14 to go out and see a lot of bands. 

Seeing a band sure is steep these days.

On the plus side, she had a great time and some dude from One Direction showed up in the area she was in "without a body guard!" 

Is that on a par with Dee Snider being found playing the slot machines in a local bingo hall after their first UK show? I guess somehow in a skewed universe of strange reality, it just might be. (Quickly references interested parties on such matters to own book titled Black Dye White Noise which contains such stories).

(On which note - if you're a fan of Dee Snider, his new podcast, Snider Comments, is everything you'd expect it to be - in the latest episode he has Wayne Kramer of MC5 in the studio. People forget just how cool MC5 were. Check this out this 45 year old clip from 1969. They don't make 'em like they used to and they really fucking should:

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In the interview I linked to yesterday over at Infected, I mention a Bukowski book cover I put together. A couple of people have asked if the could see it, so here it is. It's not a commercial venture or anything of the kind... just a guy messing about with something he loves. Anyway... 

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I got all fired up when I heard Clive Barker was finally unleashing The Scarlet Gospels but now it's been out two or three weeks, I'm not so sure I should have been. The reviews from long time fans are not good. Not good at all. I shouldn't have looked but the cat's out of the bag now and I can't get back in. Maybe I'll just leave it unread on the shelf for a little while and see how I feel some day in the future. Still, Clive is Clive and if you're of the same mindset, there's a neat interview with him up at Wired in which he talks about some important stuff - particularly his comments on Anne Rice and the way some her 'fans' treated her recently.

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Finally, Matt Haig followed me on Twitter yesterday. Not sure what I did to deserve that but it's kinda cool for a great writer to click a button your name is attached to. His book The Humans is a fine, fine read. He has a new book out called Reasons To Stay Alive that I haven't got around to yet but regardless of that... Matt: I'll buy you a really big latte if you can be bothered driving to Ramsgate next Wednesday and I'll shoplift your book into the bargain.

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Oh - really finally - if you're at a loss for something to watch on TV now silly season is over, Duchovny's Aquarius is out there. Just saying. 

The World All At Once (3)

I read Dee Snider's Shut Up And GIve Me The Mic this week - in a single sitting to be exact. Everybody interested in the man and the band should read it, that much is obvious, but what makes it go above and beyond that is anybody interested in being a great positive thinker, a great father and a great human being should read it too. Not that Dee was always those things, but that's kind of the point of the book. If you're smart, you can probably lay your own life right on top of it and see exactly the same patterns, even if you don't front one of the greatest bands of all time. I digress. It might only be May (OK, let's call it June because that's half way through the year), but without question, the best autobiography to come out this year... and maybe last year too. Saturday night, we went to check out Men In Black 3. I can't believe my kids haven't seen the first two movies. What was I thinking! It's pretty good. It's not quite Men in Black by numbers - which is what I was expecting - but what I got was just as good in a different kind of way. It's more self contained than previously and so loses some of the great set pieces that made the others work so well, but it's still a treat of a movie for all the right reasons. I don't think there will be any disappointment. Four thumbs in the air from four people here... it doesn't get much better than that.

On the music front, I picked up a couple of new slabs that are worth talking about too (as opposed to not worth talking about which makes a change). The Slash album - Apocalyptic Love and The Cult's Choice of Weapon. The Slash album is still settling in with me. It's a very moody piece and very, very good but much like the two Tommy Bolin albums that I love so dearly (Teaser and Private Eyes), I have to be in a certain frame of mind to appreciate them properly. If you're expecting anything like GnR or Velvet Revolver, you'll be shit out of luck. If however, you like great rock and particularly Myles Kennedy, you've come to the right place - and this is the problem I have with the concept. I really like Slash's material, but I'm not particularly overboard on Myles. He's a fantastic vocalist but I can't take him out of Alter Bridge. I much preferred the guest appearances on previous albums that worked so well but hey... it will be what it will be to  you. Maybe I'm too entrenched in the past for this sort of thing.

Choice of Weapon on the other hand. How can I best describe it to you? It's like they went into the studio and decided to make every album they've made before, all at once. Including every spin-off project Billy and Ian have ever been involved in. Is this good or bad? I think the best way to view it is if you're a Cult fan - and by that I mean you're well aware the band can take you anywhere they feel like going - there will be no losers. If however,  you liked a certain album by them, it will largely depend on which album that was. For me, I think it's very clever, very smart and I can take as much of this as you would care to throw at me.

Meantime, to wrap up almost whole year of imported TV from my good friends in the States - and I probably should have done this last week - nearly everything has come to an end. Supernatural was quite possibly the best season we've had in five years. Somebody needs to get their shit together and organise a simultaneous release schedule for that. Grimm had a great first season - providing much dinner time entertainment for all of us and I have high hopes for it as it continues. I've not read anywhere that it's been renewed yet but I don't see how it can fail to be. Meanwhile, on a similar subject, Once Upon A Time was a big family favourite too - after a slow start, it soon ramped itself up to be quite essential viewing throughout the weeks. Aside from Doctor Who, what the hell is the UK playing at? Don't tell me we can't do these sorts of things because we can. I'd really like to see a new golden age of TV coming out of this place but thus far, only the Who material is making any waves. As good as stand-alone shows like The Syndicate are, where are shows like Marchlands on prime-time?

Small gripe really. It's been a good week on the coal face 0f 'stuff'. I even bought myself a Frankenstein model kit so that I could do something that didn't chain me to the laptop. It looks simple enough but the last time I made anything out of bits of plastic and glue, I was about eight.

Building it seems like a piece of cake to be honest - the painting on the other hand looks like it might require no small amount of concentration. I'm half tempted to hit his face with some Kiss make-up and see just how bad I can make it look. The other half of me wants to do it properly though. Maybe I'll do it properly and then get imaginative on its ass in a few months when it's been sitting in the kitchen doing nothing for a few months.