Gotye Hammersmith Apollo (by sarah)

So we finally went to see Wally perform - we ended up being scooped in with the VIPs and what have you mainly due to my stick and the fact that I'd over done it at the Tate Modern so could hardly move and was shaking! I took loads of photos and video of the gig most of which is no good as the light levels were so low and we were so far away - I am placing my blurry gig photos on the blog anyway as it is mine and Al's external memory 🙂 Considering my little happy snappy camera and the fact I was sat in the circle I am actually really happy at the photos I got.

String bean physic and a penchant for electronics - it really was like watching some relative of Alaric's on stage.

We found Gotye because people said he was like Alaric to look at 🙂

Alaric I think has kept his hair short after having been repeatedly mistaken at festivals this summer as The Gotye Impersonator 😉

Alaric was excited to discover Jonti at the concert and happy to hear Gotye who it had turned out we did own music off but had him squirreled away in Al's electronica stuff.

I did alot of experimenting with the light settings and stuff on the camera and think considering how far away I was and the light levels some of these really aren't that bad.

It is beyond me why people feel they have to spend the whole concert getting up and down from their seats - I started to get murderous over it! Especially if it was when I was trying to video or take a photo.

I loved the visuals and am constructing some short stories based on their inspiration!

They confiscated my bottle of drink at the beginning when we went in but Alaric bought me a glass of diet coke.

Alaric commented that he thought Gotye looked more like our friend Richard than himself. I just smiled and said that the official vid of Easy Way Out is like a merger of him and Richard.

There was a plinky plonky instrument that I itched to have a go on and part of me was thinking - you know I have my laptop but no microphone on me damn!

We tried taking pics putting the monocular on the camera but we just could not reduce the shake enough.

Alaric's comment about one of the songs was 'that reminds me of our hammond organ' to which I responded 'I think he sampled some of it from one'. We almost bought a T-shirt but were running low on budget.

Have I mentions the weird blowy instrument he appeared to be using? Not sure what it was or even if it was a wind instrument and I didn't get to see it properlly as it was gone by the time I wrestled the monocular off of Al.

The voice synth was halarious he really played it up!

This was mine and Alaric's first concert - I've stewarded events and works at events and performed at events but that whole audience thingy? Never really done it. Mainly due to the crowd and sitting down issue. I got these tickets as there were seated ones.

I do like my pics of pretty lights 🙂

Eyes Wide Open is my favorite song and one that I think the Green Unconference should have as a theme tune 🙂

The live visuals did differ alot in some cases and only a bit in others from the official musical vids.

This one I've kept just because I think it looks arty - it's called Ghost of Gotye.

I wonder if a better camera would have gotten me better pictures or if it is just my lack of skill!?

I loved the way all the musicians lined up and sort of bobbed their way through this one 🙂

There was only one song that I would have liked to have heard missed - everything else was covered.

This song Don't Worry We'll Be Watching You freaks me out slightly!

Some of the tunes are so haunting.

I was wondering about the sort of procussion rings that he was using - what are they?

It was quiet cool the way he would announce so and so on the synthasised/sampled sax and things like that. The thing is it does take skill to put this type of stuff together for a live show.

He is an amazing drummer - I would have loved to get hold of one of his drum sticks.

The band were so slick that it was only when a bit of sound engineering went wrong that it differed from the recordings really - this was amazingly good to the point I started to suspect mimining until he accidently mucked up the acoustic as the Apollos more of a theatre.

The moods of the different songs were caught via the lighting - the crew should be very proud of themselves.

One of the songs Gotye had the responsibility of a little tiny cymbal - it was so funny the way he emphasised this 🙂

Wally's little whitasisms thought out made us smile.

I took quiet a bit of video of the gig but it is for a holiday vid of mine and Alaric's break rather than concert specific.

Bronte is Jean's favorite Gotye track though she finds it too sad as the girl doesn't get to say goodbye to her friends - I personally wonder if there is a more sinister ending.

Lots of people left as soon as the band walked off - this was in my opinion a rookie error - and I was right.

We thought for a bit there that Ozzy's might not do oncors but they came back out and I have to find the name of the guitarist (I know he said it but I forgot it!)

The energy of the concert was fantastic mainly due to the musicians habit of noodling around on stage from one instrument to another. Wally/Gotye being the most noodly.

It was an amazing evening were I ruined Alaric's Christmas surprise by getting myself a signed copy of Making Mirrors!

Alaric thanked me for organising it at the end and agreed we should catch concerts in the future - we would love to go to Australia to visit my family at some point - it would be brilliant if we could see him on his home turf at the same time but that sort of trip is way out of budget at the moment.

Jonti and The Chap – Gotye Hammersmith (by sarah)

Gotye has quiet a diverse taste in music so we were intrigued as to what type of music would be the support bands. So we got to the Apollo early thinking we could go in and sit at the bar (this is what happens when you live outside of London for anytime you forget about all the people!). There was already a huge crowd and we couldn't find the end of the queue. A nice doorman person at the end came up to us and directed us to another door - were we were scooped in with the VIPs and what have you. I think this was because I was on my stick and to be honest I had completely over done it and was shaking with fatigue just standing was painful so I am extremely grateful though was a bit grumpy that the seated tickets were upstairs and there was no lift so me and the people on crutches made a slow rise to the circle which fortunately did have loos and drinks (they'd confiscated my inch of severn up!). I took pictures of pretty lights whilst we waited for the first act 🙂

The first act was Jonti for Alaric this slightly topped Gotye as it was interesting and new were as the Gotye tracks were familiar and comftable and fun due to the little quirks put in.

Jonti

I attempted to take some of the photos through the monocular - it did work brilliantly but I quiet like this pic of Jonti.

This guy wizzed about doing funky electric synth mix stuff with like little dance movements inbetween - I think the universe might implode from music awesome if he ever met Brown Torpedo. He had a guitar made out of an old oil can and a funky looking uke (I think). Alaric was entranced and enthused 🙂 To me he was bordering on a Dr Who-esk style performance.

The Chap

• I swear that I already knew these guys I had a vague impression of having danced to some of the songs with my friend Aiofe and they were very much her type of music! I also almost said hello to the drummer before the show (before I knew he was one of the bands - it was surreal I thought I recognised him and then realised I didn't). I enjoyed them though the people behind me didn't to the point were I was ready to throttle them for making comments all the way through :/ Yes it wasn't the same type of music as Gotye and yes everyone was waiting for the big act but you know some of us were trying to listen and cough dance in their seats.

At the end we went and talked to Jonti and The Chap and got them to sign the ticket though we were missing the girl from The Chap - I was in a lot of pain so didn't want to hang around and was perhaps a bit snappy when it was pointed out that a band member was missing 'Yes well!' which was a bit rude but there you go. We were going to by music by them but somehow failed to do so though we did end up with a signed copy of Making Mirrors by Gotye.

Us with The Chap

Me with Jonti

Due to both being shy we had to work as a team to actually go up and chat to them - so glad we did 🙂

2012 Summary :) (by sarah)

January

At the beginning of 2012 we were moving into our new house, so January was a mix of boxes, crates and buying things.

The cats liked it

January also saw my birthday and friends helping us move.

And Mary's which saw me hosting the first party in the new house!

February

February saw my cousins coming to visit 🙂 And we dressed Alaric up as Gotye and created a spoof video.

It also saw valentines day when Alaric bought me a microphone which has lead to me producing recordings of my works 🙂

and pancake day

March

March saw World Book Day were Jeany dressed up as a dinosaur for the book Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs!

And Mothers Day when we all went off to Gloucester Cathedral to look at some art!

Alaric also upgraded the hardware running our Internet stuff (such as this web site) to a more powerful single box, rather than the previous two-box setup, which has simplified administration. It was a lot of work merging the two configurations, but this means that future upgrades will be a lot easier!

April

April was an excessively busy month and set the pace for the Summer!

There was me reading at Not The Oxford Lit Fest

Jean was in the Stroud Dance festival

April is of course the month of birthdays so we had a BBQ for Alaric, my Brother and some friends who all have April birthdays 🙂

Alaric took a day off work for his birthday, and spent it sorting out his workshop.

Then there was the Cheltenham Poetry Festival!

And as if that were not enough for one month I also won a bronze medal in the Gloucester Creative Olympics for my song Windy Gloucestershire 🙂

Alaric wrote a toolkit for building 9P servers in Chicken Scheme.

Easter

Visit to Petersfield

May

Cake pops! As a moving in present to ourselves we got a cake pop machine which we have had lots of fun with 🙂

We enjoyed our garden 🙂

I read at a National Flash Fiction day event in Oxford

I read at the Stroud Site Festival

We went to the Olympic Torch Relay in Painswick.

Mary's Christening

and House Warming

June

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee - we made cake

And went to Party in the Park in Gloucester

One festival I was performing at was canceled due to the site flooding but a last minute booking was made for me to read at the Stroud Water Festival. It was very wet!

My textural science art was in an exhibition at Centre Arts in Cheltenham.

Fathers Day:

We attended the Cheltenham Science Festival

Our garden started to seriously feed us 🙂

I drew a picture for Mid Summer and we made solar cakes.

We made a Turing Machine cake for the centenary of Alan Turing, the father of modern computing.

Wychwood festival were I was running a workshop making pompoms 🙂 We hung out with same of our friends and had a great time 🙂

Alaric finally caught up on all the overdue financial returns and dissolved our company, Warhead.org.uk Ltd, a lump of work which had been hanging over us ever since life became crazy after The Flood.

Wedding Anniversary we went to Bristol and found a hill to slide down and went on a bridge tour and lots more.

We went to our friends Zaphire's House warming and we made cake pops 🙂

July

I became a poetry installation in a manor house in Oxford for the On Form Sculpture Garden

We all went off to Cornbury Festival as I was running a craft workshop - this time sock puppets and monsters 🙂 Jean beat the IQ elves and as did I so we got a signed photograph 🙂

I drew a picture to mark the 'discovery' of the Higgs Boson

I learnt to solder 🙂 So did Jeany at Bristol Hack Space

I drew postcards for a charity auction

I went to Bristol to perform during Science Show-Off, I knitted a buckminsterfullerene which was nicked by an audience geek!

It was my Dad's 65th Birthday so we organised a Discworld themed party, including a cakes of course and films and books and of course a BBQ.

Alaric took up Krav Maga.

I made bread puppies for my friend Ella's birthday in Bristol 🙂

Alaric wrote a turtle graphics system to help children learn programming in Scheme.

August

I ran Centre Arts an art gallery for 2 weeks - it was lots of fun.

We went to my friend Claire's Birthday and we made English Rose cakes for her 🙂

Olympics

I took part in a wonderful city centre festival called Art Tournament - part of this included the fact that I had been short listed for Gloucestershire Poet Laureate.

Cranham Feast

My friend Buko and her family visited from Australia!

Off we went to the Hullabaloo Festival which had been rained off earlier in the year - it was very wet but again but there was one fantastically sunny day and the ran was fun in the Centre Arts Markee anyway 🙂 We did face painting and a junk music workshop.

We went to the @ Bristol Center to see Robot Football and meet up with my friend Ella - we managed to miss the actual event as we picked the only half day to arrive on but it was ok as we found them testing and repairing the robots outside the centre and the students who had made them showed us how they worked 🙂

At the end of the summer I was too too tired and went for a short break in Essex where we chased ducks round a trout pond and everyone bar me went swimming and we camped and had BBQ's and it was lovely.

September

Jean moved up a grade in Ju Jitsu - she is now a Yellow Belt White Stripe, she also attended the National Seminar.

Jean started Junior School!

Jean's Dr Who Birthday

We went to the 1000 Kites festival.

Alaric's Dad visited from South Africa

Hosted Chicken UK

My cousin Sheila visited from Australia 🙂

October

I released The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry

Took the girls to the farm shop for half term fun 🙂

I performed in my second ever slam which was part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival!

Took part in the first Green Unconference in the UK, I talked about Upcycling and Junk Art and ran a workshop.

We took Alaric's cousins to Legoland as a thankyou for help with the deposit for the house - it was amazing!

Halloween

November

The end of October is a cluster of anniversaries of various types which we celebrated with my Brother and his Wife having just celebrated their first wedding anniversary and it being mum and dads and mine and Al's first going out anniversary. Michelle and David got cake, mum and dad the picture I had returned from the Cricket Club.

Released the audio book of The Little Book of Festive Poetry 🙂

Bonfire Night

The whole family took part in NaNoWriMo and writing fever took over the house; even Alaric did some work on his existing fiction project 🙂

We celebrated 10 yrs of being together by going for a four day holiday in London which was amazing, we saw Gotye at Hammersmith Apollo 🙂

We had a house full of Pudseys for Children In Need 🙂

I went to an improvisation workshop which was lots of fun and helped me with my stage skills 🙂

I went on a one day writing retreat which did result in 10, 000 words of my novel being writing in one day 🙂

Millie came to stay bringing my friend Becca and her sister along 🙂

We went to the NaNo Finishing Party 🙂

December

I performed at the first ever Cirencester Poetry Slam

Mark and Lucy's Wedding

Wrote, recorded and illustrated Percival's Christmas Wish in an attempt to raise money for Shelter and homeless kids.

Tish and Clare's Wedding

Released the e-book of The DoomsDay Collection and celebrated the Winter Solstice marking the dawn of a new age.

Visited all my Essex cousins.

Went to the Island for the Snell Family Christmas Meal

Friends Christmas Party (I forgot the camera)

Had friends over for Mulled Wine and Minced Pies

Celebrated Christmas

Had a belated Pym Christmas

In little dribs and drabs throughout the whole year, Alaric's managed to tidy up his home directory, which had become terribly fragmented after several hurried fresh starts with new computers due to previous ones being stolen over the past few years, with restoring stuff from backups not being an immediate option but happening later. This had led to different projects being in all sorts of different places, so it was good to bring them all together and organise them. As part of this, he rebuilt the Kitten Technologies site, and reorganised and rewrote the ARGON Project web site. And, finally, he continued his part in the standardisation of the next version of the Scheme programming language.

New Year!

Santa’s Little Helper (by sarah)

Last year our friend bought Mary a lovely little outfit which too our surprise fits again this year! It has a little hood as well but she wouldn't have it pulled up over her head (at least not whilst I was trying to photograph her!).

She is really excited about Christmas and it is making us all grin!

Mary is developing in leaps and bounds at the moment - she is trying to potty train herself which is being interesting. This has resulted in frustration for her as she forgets to pull down her trousers or lift the lid on the potty or both!

She likes to have snugs whilst drinking milk still and we have to watch Gotye first thing - she points to the music video and says 'Daddy toot!' meaning Daddy's foot - I have actually tried showing her both the music video and then our spoof to show her it's not actually Daddy but I think this has confused things more :/

Our spoof

The first video is Daddy Toot the second is Daddy Bubba (baby). She is very waily as babies go but also very easy to entertain and make giggle. She tries to do a magic trick of making her arm disappear up her sleeve which is really really cute! And she is too rough with the cats and sulks when they get put out at night or when we are about to go out.

She can ask for 'Roe Roe!' Row Row Row Your Boat. And she has problem solving skills that are doing my head in as it means I take something off of her and she works out how to get it back no matter where I have put it!

She loves play dough and music and drawing with Jean. She bites Jean and Jean is too soft on her. We are looking forward to Christmas Day and her and her sisters interactions 🙂

Fandom (by sarah)

I have a couple of hundred fans, this is odd, it's weird in some cases and has already led a few years ago to issues that was quiet scary. I refused to meet up with someone as I felt they were being too fanatical and this resulted in a hate campaign against me. This was resolved mainly due to the behaviour being against the law.

This has not put me off of having fans as most of them are lovely and more so a lot of them have become friends in one form or another and with some of them the fandom is mutual. Add in social media and the fact I take part in various author/writers chats and I end up talking to C J Cherryh and Anne Rice and the like in recipricol conversations. The same goes for the science writers and artists and in some cases bands.

Now I have a mix on my various feds of people I know and people I don't but who's work I like - people I suppose I am a fan of. Mainly it is people I find inspiring or interesting. But I don't tend to follow the fashions as it were so I don't really know who is famous and who is not. I have countless stories of me turning down going for noodles with someone who was going of to have lunch with Nick Cave and of informing Cory Doctorow that his coat was really zippy and that I liked it. Al has tried to tell writers that I am a writer too and I have just shrugged and said things like, 'yeah but its only scifi and horror and a bit of poetry', and this years piece de la resistance turning down the chance to read my poetry out to a room full of important and famous people as I had Jean with me and she needed to be in bed early as she had a jujistu tournament the next day - with hind sight this are miss chances but I just don't really segment people in my head.

I am my own worst enermy and have even suffered the 'oh my god I have fans and they expect the same stuff from me all the time... I can't do that!' when I first found out people were reading this blog I struggled to continue and by people I don't mean our friends we'd told about it but all the others who had found us and found what we had to say interesting. And then I found the oppersite, the feeling that I was only writing to audience and that I could not be true to self as it might offend or bore or worse upset my mother. These were the demons of fandom as I saw it.

After the stalker incident I did worry and I stepped back a bit from public stuff both real life and electronic as I was realised that I feared becoming too famous (I know it's unlikely that that would happen and that it is probably arrogent to think that way but I am giving you my thought process here). How much did I want to be in the public eye etc... but I couldn't not write so I tried a psydonyme and that worked and got me back on track.

Part of me is always nervous of being 'fan-like' about people who's work I admire, having had the stalker, and others who hate my stuff and yet others who think everything I do is amazing and just stare at me waiting for me to say something. And then I realised that I am in this sort of bizar state of mind where the whole world is a sort of extended village for me. Social media has shrunk things but so has the activities I take part in in the physical world. I go and see my friends play and I tweet them to say I enjoyed it as I had to leave before the end of the concert to catch the train and then I go and see Gotye and do pretty much exactly the same thing.

I just find the concept of fans and fandom and fanfic and everything a bit strange even though I am part of it from two different sides.

Of course being shy means that I get as nervous over saying hello to the girl who had organised the charity performance I did Thursday night as I did when meeting members of the Royal Family.

This is something I puzzled over after the weekend as well, I get prizes for my art, I get them shown at International Conferences and so on and yet in a village that I lived in for 6 years... meh. It's like the issue of me being invited to read in Oxford and Bristol and so on and yet the towns near me.... I get completely over looked. Part of it is going to be that I am not main stream so I suppose that I am not in an area with enough population density to have people who appreciate my work.