A Spaceman's Blog - Philippe Rose

Thursday, 30 March 2006

Copymonkey

Copymonkey In English, we say copycat, when someone copies someone. There's this awful movie with Sigourney Weaver called Copycat about a killer who imitates a famous serial killer. But why on Earth is it a cat? Do cats have a reputation for copying people? Is it because kittens tend to copy their mothers? You know what? I discovered that in Russian, it's copymonkey. Like in the expression, Monkey see, monkey do. How cool is that?!

I spent the evening tonight with a group of Chinese students. It was really good, because they started explaining to me how the languages works. You start drawing symbols that mean basic things, and add to them, draw some more, and it means something else. I even recognised the symbol of Bank of China, which I visited back in Shanghai. The symbol is part of the overall sign representing China (the country). Seems like a really fascinating language! I showed off some of my Russian, but not nearly as cool as Chinese!

[30 March]

Sunday, 26 March 2006

Let God sort it out

Barfly 25 March

Kill them all, let God sort it out, was the name of name of the night at the Barfly on Saturday. Hard to imagine any of these fresh-faced kids thinking of violent acts, short of dropping the mike, which they did a few times. But I was surprised by the sustained quality of the acts and had a really good time.

Anybody heard of A Second To Last? Their song Dying Against Your Will (about a guy's nightmare) is pretty good. Discovered it thanks to Radio Wazee.

[26 March]

Saturday, 25 March 2006

Dude

Transamerica Hey, dude..., but I can't say it. I say "dyude", and not "dood", like you should. So I guess I should stick to "Hey, mate", but I can't say that either. Not because I can't actually say it. I now even manage to make the "t" sound like how English people say it (they trip over it). I can't say mate because it sounds stupid. Like this guy whose face is all shot up and who rants on the tube once told a guy who had called him "mate": Don't call me mate, we're not on fucking terms.

Borough Market is nice. First visit. I bought a chicken burger, but the inside was still raw. I ate it anyway. I tasted the best coffee I had tried in a while. Full fat organic milk, and special harvest Colombian beans, served by Juan who seemed to have flown over just for the occasion. Funny how the whole point seemed to be about people tasting stuff. Nobody actually bought anything really. Where's the real market?

Can I recommend Transamerica to those who wish to have a first indie movie experience without the pain and with the popcorn? It's real good, feel good and all, but the story has some depth. Both the actress playing the man turning into a woman and the actor playing her/his son (Kevin Zeggers) are a pleasure to watch.

[25 March]

Thursday, 23 March 2006

Navruz

Bakhtiyar Amanzhol plays the dombra with such emotion that I forget the slightly comic scene of his large hands handling such a fragile-looking instrument (see him in action: mp4).

Navruz - it's spring.

[23 March]

Tuesday, 21 March 2006

One last time

At 4.45pm, J calls me saying M wants to quit. She wants me to come over to finish off her stash. So 30min later, I leave my desk and head for Kings Cross to leave London on the 5.45pm rush hour train.

The train is packed so I have to stand in the middle of the carriage. Next to me, there is an old man dozing off on his seat. I notice him because of his smell. He smells of an old man. I try to read my newspaper. The articles are interesting, and time goes past quickly. I forget about the old man. I forget I'm standing.

Arrived, I walk from the station into town. I walk past Oddbins. I quickly call J and ask him if I need to buy anything there. He says I should. I walk into the shop and the lady asks me if I need help. She guides me towards nice-looking bottles. I think they're nice, because they have award stickers on them. I quickly settle for two. At the till, I want to make sure I've made the right choice. So I ask the lady which wine she would recommend for with smoking. The lady asks if I mean like cigars. But her colleague glances at her. She whispers quickly to her. She's guessed my true intentions to be. The lady suggests that my choice is appropriate for my purpose. I pay with my white Amex card and leave the shop.

With J and M, the evening unfolds really well. I'm happy to see them. M looks beautiful and very sexy, sitting on her desk. She's like commanding attention, I like it. J uncorks the bottles and we get going. Later, a friend drops by. We watch a stupid comedy thing, which gets funnier and funnier. There's quite a lot of smoke by now. Finally, it's time for me to go. I need to catch the next train. I wonder how I managed to keep track of time. I'm slighly sad I had to. But I'm happy. It was a good one last time.

The journey back is difficult. I have to pinch myself regularly. When I doze off, I feel my stomach churn and my mouth water. I don't want to be sick on the train. Finally, I reach Kings Cross. I have to find my way back. I can't find Tube entrance. Chasing the colours on the underground is difficult. Northbound and southbound mean nothing to me. I make a few mistakes. But I end up at the right station. I hop on to a bus. I struggle to squeeze my face against the window. I really want my brain to register when the bus reaches my bus stop. Luckily, my brain does. I get out and rush home. I remember the code to the door. It's my last hurdle tonight.

[21 March]

Saturday, 18 March 2006

Twentieth

Happy Birthday to Rita, the most important news on planet Earth today!

Though it didn't feel like planet Earth I was living on this week.

(A quick tip of the hat to Catc0nfiG, who "owned me" today, the term for replacing this website's main page by a comment of his/her own. Cleaned up - for now.)

Last night, I watched a play with a bunch of actors pretending to be staging a crucifixion for a commercial, one of which, Max Schell, had a strangely appropriate last name. I was with an old friend I had ran into earlier in the week - and helped untangle a rather complicated mess that suddenly had hit the fan earlier in the day involving him and a number of people you normally don't want to be involved with in such a context.

The rest of the week, I cannot blog about, as I would probably end up dead in a gutter if I did (hint to those who're checking what I blog about!)

Which leaves me with nothing else to say, apart from the fact I've bought tickets to Glade and intend to join the whole Abscond.org crew for the best festival on planet Earth!

[18 March]

March 2006
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Copymonkey

Let God sort it out

Dude

Navruz

One last time

Twentieth

♫ Breed 77 ~ The Game

♫ Bullet For My Valentine ~ All These Things

♫ Creed ~ What If

♫ Matchbook Romance ~ Portrait

♫ Rise Against ~ Prayer Of The Refugee

♫ Silverstein ~ Giving Up

♫ William Shatner ~ Common People

♫ Wonderland Dementia ~ Hypnosis

♫ Radio Wazee (128k)