ass-lazy tropicana of the mind
new / old / about / reading / rings / guestbook
2002-05-20
You're a slave to the rhythm, do your part...
"So what do I have to do?"
"Dance," said the Sheep Man. "Yougottadance. Aslongasthemusicplays. Yougottadance. Don'teventhinkwhy. Starttothink, yourfeetstop. Yourfeetstop, wegetstuck. Wegetstuck, you'restuck. Sodon'tpayanymind, nomatterhowdumb. Yougottakeepthestep. Yougottalimberup. Yougottaloosenwhatyoubottleddown. Yougottauseallyougot. Weknowyou'retired, tiredandscared. Happenstoeveryone, okay? Justdon'tletyourfeetstop."
I looked up and gazed again at the shaodw on the wall.
"Dancing iseverything," continued the Sheep Man. "Danceintip-topform. Dance soitallkeepsspinning. Ifyoudothat, wemightbeabletodosomethingforyou. Yougotta dance. Aslongasthemusicplays."
--Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
�
I think that's probably one of the best intros for my weekend -- read it while on the train between Nottingham and Manchester, wrote it down while waiting in the Preston train station, and remembered it when Kylie was playing "Light Years" mashed with Donna Summers' "I Need Love".
In other words, I had a positively bloody good time.
I got to Glasgow a little late, due to train problems, but there was more than enough time to meet up with Dolores and Faithtastic to have dinner and get tipsy off of pitchers of a mixed drink called Dune Bug and containing Malibu, Pineapple Juice, Sweet & Sour, Midori, and Creme de Banana. From there, we went to The Lab, a new-ish pub with a "science lab" theme. Lots of scientists on the walls, the TV tuned to BBC4 (I think it was BBC4 -- there was a docu about a painter on), and, even better than that...
You could buy drinks served in test tubes. 5 test tubes for a fiver.
Dol, Ft, and I split three different flavors (pineapple, midori, and bacardi for one, vodka, raspberry liqueur, and something else for the second, and vodka, cassis, and apple juice for the third), and by the way we headed to the underground for the concert, we were well on our way to buzzed.
And then there was the concert.
Twelve rows from the main stage, one aisle and five rows from the part that stuck out. We could see her and it was fabulous -- all of it. Every part.
From the silver glitter miniskirt and silver lame wearing androgynous alien dancers during "Come Into My World" as she came out of a total sci-fi bodysuit, to the long and luxurious blakc evening gown and rose petals falling on her as she sang "The Crying Game," to the pink corset and genderbending stockings and high heels on her male dancers as they did a slow and sweet version of "Locomotion", to...god, it's all blending together and it was just generally fabulous. Dancers in African-themed flesh-coloured bodystockings covered in paint for "Burning Up". Kylie in a twenty-foot long skirt decorated like a volcano. Her face on a video screen bouncing around like Pong while dancers moved to "GBI". Neon clothes under black lights. Shouting at the top of our lungs during "Kids" and "Can't Get You Out Of My Head".
Fabulous. Totally and utterly fabulous. Not as camp and as amazing as the "Live In Sydney" DVD show must have been, but, man...
Fabulous.
�
I got a t-shirt that amused me. It's designed like the Velvet Underground's "The Velvet Underground & Nico" album -- the one that Andy Warhol designed with the bright yellow banana, but instead of a banana, it's a bright yellow microphone. It makes me giggle. I also got a pin for my jacket, and, after the concert, Evian gave out free bottles of "Kylie" water, which, as you can imagine, amuses me to no end.
Afterwards, we went to the Polo Lounge and danced with all the other camp-as-Christmas Kylie fans. I wore out pretty quickly, so Dol, Ft, and I ended up sitting and talking about the schoolgirl Buffy" AU we're working on.
But I did get to dance to the Sugababes "Freak Like Me," which is the song that samples from Gary Numan's "Are Friends Electric" -- which is one of my most favorite songs ever. I don't know why, but dancing to that just makes me lose it completely -- lost in the keyboards and the dancing dancing dancing...
I didn't get back to my hotel until 4 am and then I woke up around 8:45 in order to have breakfast for free. Hence, Sunday was a nice haze of exhaustion and comedy.
Went shopping with Dol & Ft and discovered Mecca. There was a Sally's Beauty Supply in Glasgow. The Sally's. With the white on red logo and Queen Helene products inside. I went a little mad. I might have gotten madder, but they had freaky bleach that I wasn't used to, so I held off on purchasing that.
But hair dye, hair conditioner, nail polish, and Queen Helene Mint Julep facial scrub and masque. Like I could resist!
Then went to Borders for coffee and picked up a few books due to their 3 for 2 offer. Snagged Murakami's Norwegian Wood, which I really liked and wanted to own my own copy, Isabel Allende's The House Of The Spirits, which I just needed to own, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitude, which I haven't read yet and I suppose I'll find out what it's like. Also picked up Murakami's Underground, his nonfiction book about the Toyko Underground sarin gas attack, which was a really good read -- he interviewed survivors and people in the Aum cult and got all these different opinions and just laid them out as they were. Just a really good read.
I also read the detective novel with Bela Lugosi and William Faulkner hiring this detective that I mentioned earlier -- I don't remember the title (I think it's Never Trust A Vamp or something equally hackneyed), and it wasn't particularly good. Lots of overwrought "Look at me -- I'm noir!" clich�s and the like. Nice portrayal of Lugosi, though. Obviously a Mary Sue inserted into WWII-era L.A. and dealing with Hollywood types. *yawn*.
And I read Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance, which were marginally different from what I expected from him (having read his more memoir-style books first -- South Of The Border, East Of The Sun and Norwegian Wood), but I really enjoyed both of them. Still haven't quite figured out exactly what happens in them, but I don't think you're supposed to...
Also picked up a hardcover book entitled Spooky Stories on the train, that this very nice older gentlemen left behind. Which amuses me to no end. I might have to scan in the cover, because it's actually rather freaky.
�
Dol, Ft, and I also went to a photobooth at Glasgow Central, picked out the Crossroads "fun pic" we wanted, and, lo and behold, we are famous.
And fabulous. Which had to happen.
After that, I stepped tiredly onto the train, got home around 9:30 pm, and watched 24 with the husband before, eventually, getting to bed. And this was completely and utterly the most fantastic weekend I've had in awhile.
Just glorious.
visit other places: dymphna.net / livejournal / wish list
joined: diary reg / diary crit / diary review / tiki reviews / gblog / little queer / hit or miss / mac-made / btjs:cordy
designed february 2002 by kate bolin, dymphna.net design. space provided by diaryland. looks best in ie5+ on a macintosh, but that's unsurprising, isn't it?
