Public Transport Heroes

I'm not usually one to call people heroes, but I'm not usually one to write about heroes either. Let's begin!

Guy 1

Chain smoking man who looks like the bum from The Simpsons who actually created Itchy and Scratchy, though he doesn't actually look like he's homeless. Once came up to me and said "Everyone's dead, aren't they?" and I replied with "I guess so", to which he thanked me and put his hand on my shoulder before walking off. He pretty much walks in circles while waiting for the bus, and everyone ignores him, so I think he appreciates it when people don't. He's usually complaining about something no one really understands, as in literally it'd be like "the bus doesn't care about us" and things like that.

Guy 2

Probably my favourite one of all. He's deaf, looks about 50, and always pulls this face:

He usually greets me by poking his head in front of my face, then backing off and out stretching a hand, which I shake. He also usually tells me to take off my headphones by signalling him pulling something out of his ear, which I used to then follow, but now I just keep them on because he's deaf so he never talks or anything anyway. But yeah, the first time meeting him, he sat next to me on the bus, did the usual stuff except that when he got off, he rubbed my neck to say goodbye. So far all these bus people seem to like rubbing necks and shoulders and things.

Guy 3

This guy isn't actually a bus person, therefore there's no rubbing involved (that's my conclusion anyway). I met him on the train, and he said in a very loud and slightly slurred voice (maybe drunk) "Alright man? Nice hair cut" and I replied with "thanks". He then said to me "heading Victoria?", to which I replied "Yeah uh, this train's going to Caterham". This is funny cos it's like...complete opposite directions. It's like getting north and south mixed up. When I'd revealed that to him, he said "I hate Caterham.", but stayed where he was.

He then kept talking to me, and I had to keep taking my headphones off etc. He asked me if there was a Sainsburys near where I was going, and I said "I'm not sure, but there's a Tesco", and that seemed to anger him for some reason. He got off without saying bye.

:'(

On a final note I get frustrated seeing really beautiful girls on public transport on the way home or whatever. I dunno, there's something about the fact that I probably won't ever see them again that saddens me, which is very weird. Must be some weird instinct, I'm not really sure. Oops.

Other News

My first gig, a Beatles cover gig on a barge, is finally underway. Whoa, a Facebook event page. It's gonna be pretty cool and stuff, and everyone should come. Well, not everyone...that'd suck. We'd probably all die.

It's just a part of me, I guess

Note: this blog was originally written on the 11th of October 2009, but I just found it recently and it's quite coherent, so here you go:

So I've been listening to and watching some great stand up routines recently. A lot of George Carlin, and Bill Hicks's stand up album "Rant in E minor" (courtesy of Bown). Extremely funny and clever stuff, even if I don't agree with everything said, it's just so well delivered and makes me think. It's weird, because "comedy" and "making me think" aren't usually things that I associate with each other; I usually watch comedy with intentions opposite to this (just to relax myself and laugh a lot, etc).

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but the thing is that I realised (note: I have known this for a long time) that both Bill Hicks and George Carlin are dead.

What the hell is it with me and dead people?

I sometimes wonder if I'm just naturally attracted to dead entertainers, but this isn't the case because half of the dead entertainers of all kinds that I love, I didn't know were dead when I got into them. This includes Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Mute, Michael Jackson (because I liked him before he died). So I've concluded that: people that are destined to die just have better things to say. Actually, that's a shit conclusion, because everyone is destined to die (George Carlin wasn't exactly young when he died).

I guess it's just a coincidence, or it's just an unexplained part of me...


...

Or maybe, I'm a fan of many more living entertainers than dead ones, so fuck everything I've ever said.

This isn't a very good blog.

What Would I Want? Sky

1.

I got into Animal Collective incredibly slowly, taking me about half a year to get around to having the opinion of them being a very good band that deserve their acclaim. But I've just had something that could be equated to some weird kind of epiphany, a realisation of "this is one of the best things I've ever heard in my life" from my first listen of the song "What Would I Want? Sky". There's something about this that captures something, and I'm not sure what. Almost a sonic representation of imagination being restrained by reality, or something. It's just fucking great, so:

Listen Here

I want to make music like these guys now, but I don't know the first thing about going about doing so. It seems like a pretty production heavy job.

2.

I've come to the realization that video games, as a medium, get me more involved then pretty much any other artistic medium. This isn't on average, I should make clear. Most video games are a "past time to blow a few hours" type of thing, or having fun with friends. However, there are few, extremely few, games that actually get very deep responses from me. Off the top of my head: Zelda: Majora's Mask, Final Fantasy 7 and 10...and I can't think of any others that have got me quite as involved. But when they manage to create an entirely believable world around you that you're interacting with...it can't really be matched, in a way. A very primitive version of a medium that, when mastered, will transcend being a game, and an entirely interactive experience built around a person's choices.

But that won't be for a while.

3.

I've got loads and loads of blog drafts stored up. Expect another blog soon akin to this one, which in case you can't tell, is lots of blog snippets that I never got round to finishing/publishing. I'd add dates to the next ones I do, though.

Make or Break

It's only just struck me that this decade is the one where I'll completely become an adult. I realised this when my friend Zak asked me what my plans were for the decade, and I started to think of recent things before realising I have 10 years left, not 10 months. My immediate thoughts were what I want to achieve by the end of the year, but by the time this decade ends, I'll be 27 years old. Some people I know at school will be months away from 30. It's actually shocking what 10 years actually is. I remember the person I was at the beginning of 2000, and to think that he's the same distance away from me as the 27 year old version of me is down right weird. By the end of this decade I could have children, or have gotten married, or be famous. This is the decade where everything is technically meant to happen.

But I hope writing that paragraph hasn't set me up for some horrible failure that results from making goals out of everything. Wouldn't be a problem at all if I achieved them.