Yes Virginia ~ The Dresden Dolls

I interrupt this holiday blog to express my concerns about the absence of tickets in my hot sweaty hands to see the Dresden Dolls at the Astoria next Friday. I got the new album today (and an excellently crafted piece of punk cabaret it is too) and that reminded me that my tickets haven't arrived yet.

I need to see my good chum Amanda (of stripey stockings fame) and this delay in sending out the tickets just isn't on.

I now return you, dear reader, to the holiday blog continuum...

... and more Creatures...

We all know, of course, that ants are colony creatures, the whole more powerful than the sum of its parts and all that stuff. Well, ants may be small but collectively they can use a mobile phone to text their chums and keep the news flowing across jungles and entire continents. I'm something of a star meal with the ant population of the world's more tropical areas and I can just imagine the crazy little things texting each colony to say 'Grab yer napkins, lads, Owen's back!' as they descend on wherever I happen to be. Yum yum, you can hear them sharpening knives, forks and teeth as soon as I get off the plane. I don't have a photo of the bites in all their glory but this should give you an idea...

My ankles, legs and arms were a veritable feast for the first week in Mexico and I even attracted my very own vampire mozzies. Yes, I know they all drink blood, but they drank from my neck and I have the marks to prove it! [As an aside, one also dive bombed my bum which must have been sticking out from under the sheets on one of the more stiffling nights, but the less said about that the better.]

There are, of course, nicer creatures as well, partricularly my great friend, the mythical Hola parrot. He's a gorgeous green parrot who shrilly shouts 'Hola' followed by the cheekiest giggle you ever did hear. Here he is in all his glory. Unfortunately, I didn't think to video him with my phone so I have no proof he ever existed and he wasn't there when we back to XCaret a few days later... Personally, I think he was hiding his superhero identity by playing dumb and just chirping rather than saving the world with a mighty 'Hola [giggle]'.

And there were lots more parrots too, all colours and sizes. And a tapir called Tollok. And horses.


And there were cats too. Pumas and jaguars but most especially the little Tigrillo kittens - tiger cats! They were in a cage being 'environmentally conditioned' into their new surroundings since they're an endangered species. Cute doesn't come close to describing them - a ball of three sleepy kittens in the afternoon heat, too lazy to even growl at gawping tourists.

Fish? Have I mentioned fish yet? The lovely turquoise sea is clear and it's easy to look down into the waves and see fish swimming. There's also an excellent aquarium at XCaret with a whole host of different fish swimming round and showing off, all colours you can imagine and all sizes. Separately, there are also sharks and turtles and even a few aligators. I'm not a big fan of zoos, but these were very well laid out with, in general, lots of space and clean environments. The exception was the manatee family (parents and two babies) that seemed a bit cramped, but it was nice to see them being fed lettuces and the babies resting their flippers on the feet of the feeders to help them keep their mouths above water for a good chomp.

I didn't swim with the dolphins, however, since I don't like the idea of them performing tricks for us to gawp at and all the swimming-with-dolphins opportunities all seemed to be based around doing tricks with them. No thank you.

All in all, more creatures than you could shake a stick at. And, of course, there be dragons too!

There Be Dragons!

All good things come to an end and our fabulous sojourn to the Yucatan is now over and all is back to normal ... or will be soon.

Spent this morning (ie Sunday) on the beach and played in the surf one last time, drove to Cancun airport, a flight that seemed to last for weeks and landed in Manchester before heading down to Gatwick (why? search me!) and a taxi home. After being up and about for about 27 hours straight a few hours sleep was called for. Now, of course, I'm feeling wide awake.

You can read all about Mexico and the Yucatan over the coming week or so but to start it off you need to know about my new obsession.

My new favorite creatures are dragons. Very small dragons, granted, but dragons nonetheless. They can jump. They can run like the clappers if need be. They are also poseurs. I took photos of grandaddy dragons and teeny tiny little baby ones an inch long. Colourful ones, gray ones, striped ones. One lived behind our air-conditioning unit for a couple of days. One shagged a stone. One sunned himself on the wall in the morning on our way down the path to the breakfast room through a tropical garden. Another sat beside me to watch the waves crash against the shore. Yet another one wanted his photo taken with us so what could we do but oblige?

Ahoy there! Is that a holiday I see?

Oh yes it is! Holiday, here I come!

I've just done some final bits of work and emailed them into the office so now my time is all my own to swing in hammocks and plodge in the sea and drink tequila and turn red in the sun! Mine all mine. I am *so* looking forward to this holiday - I haven't had a two-week holiday since autumn 2004 and a week just isn't long enough. Two weeks under a plam tree is what I need.

Chris is, of course, all packed and organised and I've yet to start (well, there's a pile of freshly washed summer shirts on the chair and I'm charging batteries for the camera but that's about it). I'm a bit of a last minute packer really. I know where the passport is, the credit cards and money and the tickets. The rest is window dressing.

It sounds like a nice relaxing sort of hotel too. No telly, set in tropical gardens on the outskirts of a small town, rooms in little cottages around the grounds, a real get-away-from-it-all place but within walking distance of town (Playa del Carmen) with shopping, restaurants, bars and night life. I was in Playa in the '90s so it'll be nice to return and see what's happened to the place.

A couple of pre-booked day trips to swim with dolphins and visit Mayan ruins. Other trips easy to arrange when we get bored with the beach (although at the moment I'm wondering if that's possible).

I want to go now! A 6am taxi to the airport isn't that inviting. And I can't tell Chris the time - we have a deal in that so long as he doesn't know the time he's happy to get up, but one hint at the real time and a bucket of cold water is needed!

Look for me under a palm tree...

Top Ten iPod

My current top ten is:

Back To The Drive - Suzi Quatro
Darling Don't Cry - Buffy Sainte-Marie
Panic In Detroit - David Bowie
Mama Weer All Crazee Now - SLADE
He's An Indian Cowboy In The Rodeo - Buffy Sainte-Marie
You Can Do Magic - Limmie and The Family Cooking
The Coast Is Always Changing - Maximo Park
A19 - Maximo Park
Glitter In Their Eyes - Patti Smith
Public Image - Public Image Limited

Not very different to my last top ten but I suspect great changes ahead - two weeks in the land of the Mayans will make a difference. Watch this space!

Upgrade

There are many things in life that upgrade or you would want to upgrade. I've just been upgrading virus definitions on my computer. I've upgraded my mobile phone several times. When I worked in benefits we used to talk about uprating - the same thing, really, in a different context.

What has never happened to me is a flight upgrade - until now.

I had a phone call yesterday about the tickets for the flight to Cancun on Sunday and, since there's been a cancelation on the flight, we're being upgraded to Premium seats for the outward flight. Bearing in mind this is Monarch we're flying with then I can't really imagine in my minds eye what 'Premium' really means - it sounds like it might roughly equate to business class on a scheduled airline. I won't get too excited about it until my bum is placed on the seat but a bit extra space, wider seat, better service... that's good enough for me!

Two Films

I've seen two special films this week: a Spanish film called 'Reinas' ('Queens') and 'New York Doll'.

'Reinas' is a wonderful laugh-out-loud comedy based around the first mass gay wedding in Spain. The course of true love doesn't, of course, run smoothly, and the mothers - the Queens of the title - both cause havoc with their respective offspring and are the ultimate solution to a successful wedding day. I'm not a great fan of foreign language films - I prefer to watch films rather than read them - but this is the exception, full of funny one-liners and excellently staged scenes.

And, of course, there's a gorgeous big shaggy dog that I've decided is a metaphor for the gradual increasing acceptance of gay rights in Spain (deep, I know).

'New York Doll' is a biopic of Arthur 'Killer' Kane that I first saw in New York last November. It's a well constructed film about Arthur, who almost made it with the New York Dolls but lost it all in a haze of alcoholism, reaches rock bottom and both discovers and is 'saved' by the Mormons. Then, suddenly, he has the chance to make a reality of his dream and play again with his surviving band members at the Meltdown festival in 2004. A month later he dies.

This is a very touching film - uplifting in places, sad and funny at the same time. It took Arthur 30 years to realise his dream and play as the Dolls again, but he did it. Dreams can come true.

SLADEFEST 2006

April 2006 sees the 40th anniversary of the Lords of Noize - Noddy, Jimmy, Dave and Don first played together in 1966. To celebrate this momentous event, SLADEFEST is taking place over Easter weekend!
I'll miss this since I'll be in a (probably cramped) plane jetting off to Mexico but what a great thing to organise! It doesn't look like any of the band will be there (but you never know).

Have fun to everyone who's going!

Madonna - August is the disco month

Phew! I have redeemed myself by securing tickets to see Madonna on her Confessions tour. I can now sleep the sleep of the righteous...

I missed the chance for tickets in A block yesterday afternoon by inconsiderately being in a work meeting (of little real import) and by the time I was out (only a few minutes) the tickets had gone. Drat. Seriously considered getting tickets further back and thought 'no'. I won't be able to see anything on stage and I don't want to just watch the video screens. No, I thought, I'll take my chances that an 8th date will be announced. Risky, I know...

Then this morning, waiting in vain for a new date, I got tickets in B3 on 13 August and the weight left my shoulders - phew! Not as good as Chris's tickets in B4 on 1 August, but not too further back and with a different view of the stage.


Then, um, just cos I'm nosey, I went back onto Ticketmaster later this morning and noticed that all the 'sold out' notes beside the dates were missing... ever the curious small blue thing (in the words of Suzanne Vega) I went >click< and I now have tickets in A2 row 12 for 3 August as well... I can't believe it... my credit card believes it, of course (o dear).

Retro Record Bag - 1973

My set tonight consisted of songs from 1973:

David Bowie ~ 'Panic in Detroit'
Jackson 5 ~ 'Doctor My Eyes'
Mott The Hoople ~ 'All The Way From Memphis'
Free ~ 'Wishing Well'
Sweet ~ 'Ballroom Blitz'

Free was a last minute switch from Stealers Wheel - I felt the set needed a lift at that point and the pounding bass of 'Wishing Well' works for me. Starting off with the pounding drumming and wailing vocals of 'Panic in Detroit' and closing with 'Ballroom Blitz', one of the best records of all time and in my personal top ten alongside 'Anarchy in the UK' - who could lose?

I was quite nervous in a kind of silly way - what's there really to be nervous about? But I was. Even when Rob showed me the controls and which buttons to press I still had to double and triple check the track number ... just in case. Afterwards, of course, it was a piece of cake. Hindsight is wonderful.

Luckily I followed a none-too exciting set so my short, sharp, loud selection seemed to go down well. Followed by Don's mariarchi tribute to the trip to Mexico in a week's time and Christopher's wrapper-ish selection. Gerald played an interesting selection but unfortunately Dawn and Stephen chickened out (I was sort-of looking forward to listening to some Cure again!).

My set was, of course, the best and received the best applause (modesty? what's that?). I need to resign my job and become an international superstar DJ. How difficult can it be?

Now, I just need to spend another month or so working on my 5-track 1974 set list ...