Day Two Hundred and Forty Three: Make Do With Hot Water

Yes, it’s another link through and in case you missed it I’ve already explained why I can’t just post the original content here.

One of my favourite bands of late (and all round nice guys) Make Do and Mend played in Glasgow last Saturday with the legendary Hot Water Music. It was brilliant. Not Glassjaw great, but brilliant nevertheless. Click the image to read the review.

If you subscribe to this blog and are utterly bamboozled by the constant posting of links of late then I apologise. More poetry very soon.

Day Two Hundred and Forty Two: Gray’s Day

Ok, so I was going to post another review today but I’m not going to do that. Instead, I seen this rather cool video of Alastair Gray talking about the mural he’s going to be doing in Hillhead Subway Station in Glasgow. It was a total literary fanboi moment, and I felt that I absolutely had to share it.

So I’m absolutely sharing it.

Gray is, of course, responsible for Lanark. One of the best novels I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. It was a course text for Scottish Literature last year and I fell in love with it instantly. I need to read it again sometime some. A tremendus post-modern, existentialist journey into the mind of a man (or men) who is plunged into a really dark, cruel world. There’s way more to it than that, though. Indeed, so much so that I have a rather great essay on it.

Enough.

Check the book out. Check the video out. Check the man out. Maybe I’ll bump into him in the pub up near the uni one day…

Day Two Hundred and Forty One: Good Drugs, Bad Streets

As part of Glasgow’s Rock n Roll Damnation series of gigs (which, by the way, had some extortionate ticket prices), after seeing Glassjaw last Thursday I followed it up by attending The Bronx/Mariachi El Bronx the following day.

You can read the review of what turned out to be a pretty special gig by clicking on the image above. So intense. So passionate. So brilliant.

Oh, I only just realised something and I should probably explain why I post a link to my work when it’s on other sites instead of just posting it on here.

I do a lot of writing every day. I’m pretty happy with a lot of it, but Google wouldn’t be particularly happy if I posted the same content in two places. This is recognised by Google search bots as “content scraping” and as such lowers the importance of the content in a search engine, as well as potentially damaging the ranking of your website.

In fact, by cross posting all of my posts to the One a Day Project blog I’m probably doing myself no favours, but as long as it doesn’t impact on Daily Dischord I’m happy with that.

Just in case you thought these link and run things were a cop out, like.

Day Two Hundred and Forty: Hanging Over

A fifteen minute power shuffle
with ears ringing
and tinnitus tattooed on my drums
by the bass from the night before.
Covering up noise with noise
faded punk rock shapes
from last night
are relived in blaring stereo
on this aching journey
a minute at a time.

These harsh sounds
disturb the world
and shallow senses
with ten minutes left to go.
Beneath the bleary eyes
lies the sum of last night’s transgressions
which technically only ceased
four hours ago.

Sluggish.
Chased by a raincloud.
Fuzzy head.
Only five minutes really
before I get there.
(chords upon chords upon chords)
Every muscle aches
under the stinging gray shingles;
The sun is up there somewhere
but it simply hurts to look it in the eye.
(A drum beat which dances away
the alcohol before I get there).

Greetings belie a craggily voice;
too much singing, smoking and drinking
with not enough throat to go around.

Arrived to work under caffeine power.
I shiver with a taurine quiver
while my heart tries to punch out
the face of the night before,
delivering the knockout blow
to dehydrated senses
under the fluorescent white
referee in the ceiling.

Day Two Hundred and Thirty Nine: ~

Drinking and gigging has taken it’s toll on my ears, stomach, liver and, well, everything. Sanity too, probably.

I’ve got two reviews in the cannon that I need to fire out at some stage over the next 24 hours or so. An article. A poem or two and some other stuff I gotta do. The fun just never stops around here.

Bed for me. No content for you. Apologies all around etc (I know, they’re getting dull, right?) but the weight on my eyelids is becoming intolerable. Sleep forever.

Day Two Hundred and Thirty Eight: Straight to the Jaw

This is a little late, I admit, but here is the content for today.

It’s a review of the Glassjaw gig at the Glasgow Garage on Thursday 25th of August, obviously! I went to see The Bronx tonight too, hence the lateness, and tomorrow it’s Hot Water Music and Make Do and Mend.

If you subscribe to this blog, thank you so very much for doing so. And thank you to those who drop by, have a read and even leave a comment. You guys rule.