What a Show!

I had a ball at the Rammstein concert last Thursday. Wembley Arena shook to the German sextet’s dark, thumping industrial rock riffs amid smoke bombs, fireballs, flamethrowers and other pyrotechnics.

I’d bought four standing tickets and took Elliot and two of his mates with me. I love the recording of the Nimes concert from 2005 on the Volkerball DVD and wanted to be a part of the seething crowd in front of the stage. Somehow see Rammstein from the safe detachment of the seating area seemed, well, just wrong. The actual experience in that throng was not what I’d hoped for however. From as soon as the support act Comichrist (give an infinite number of Mad Max extras and infinite number of oildrums and eventually Combichrist would be formed) finished the standing crowd started to get ugly. People were barging to the front, spilling gassy £4 per pint beer on you if you failed to allow them past, and once Rammstein started playing it all got a bit unpleasant, with people — most of whom were quite a bit taller than I — jumping around and bashing into each other.

After the first three songs I withdrew and went a bit further back where it was less crowded, and found myself standing with all the other middle-aged fans whose days in the Mosh Pit had been over for many years: if indeed, there had even been any.

Daft crowd aside the concert was just brilliant. Rather than try to describe it I will leverage the power of the social web and point you at some videos taken by my fellow moshers — turn yer sound up!

R A M M S T E I N

Yes yes I know, having made a New Year’s resolution to keep you entertained more regularly I have been spectactularly successful at not blogging for the last few days, and my hit counter has taken a … well… hit. I feel suitably reprimanded.

Anyway enough of that nonsense. Nothing, NOTHING is getting me more excited this week than the prospect of tomorrow night’s outing:

Ah, Rammstein! I discovered this band at the beginning of our two year stint in Riyadh (more on which at nealofarabia.blogspot.com), and in the four years that have elapsed they have become one of my favourite bands, got all the albums etc. etc. I missed their last tour (in 2005!), not having heard of them at the time, but now it’s different. A long-awaited new album is out and they’re finally on tour again. The album — Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da (yes, they’re German) is totally brilliant, if you like dark, pounding, heavy industrial rock that is.

Elliot and buddies are coming down from Uni tomorrow to come with me, and I’ll be the ageing rocker at the back with me earplugs in while they’re swirling around in the mosh pit.

Full report on Friday, or whenever after that I can be bothered. Meanwhile this little video of their latest single will tell you instantly whether Rammstein are your cup of tea or not!

Rammstein: Ich Tu Dir Weh

The video presentation above is best enjoyed at MAXIMUM VOLUME

Man Flu

Here I am, dying of Man Flu and yet you still expect me to update the blog. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

I feel worse than he looks.

Chesty cough, sore throat, runny nose and shivers. Just what I needed to make this Monday complete. Karen was working from home today — I think she ended up regretting that decision but she’s done a good job of nursing me so she can stay home until I get better as far as I’m concerned.

Right, going to crawl back to my deathbed now *sniff*.

Sunday Goodness

How’s your weekend going? Mine comes in pictures.

Karen always does a great Sunday roast, but today — well, today was Special with a capital S.

Succulent roast pork with apple sauce, crispy roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and green beans.

Look at that crackling! Mmmm…

Ahhh, lovely. I could go on writing about how wonderful it was but, well, I think it’s time for  a little snooze…………….

Brain in Tailspin

Some of you might be checking this blog and saying, “Blimey, Chris doesn’t update it very often! Who does he think he is setting it up and writing such golden prose, only to get us hooked then leave us hanging for days on end?” You might be saying that but let’s face it, you’re almost certainly not. Anyway, if you had as much going on as I do you wouldn’t update your blog neither.

Here’s what I’ve got on my plate right now:

• Work — Novell’s annual BrainShare conference is looming (March) and we’re building the keynote demos.
• Angola — moving to Africa in July and you can imagine how that impacts my to-do list
• Flat hunting — we need to buy a flat and move into it before we go to Angola, so that we have a London base to use when we come back for visits, for the children to use etc.
• Learning Portuguese (Angola). Rosetta Stone courses are very good. As mulheres estao comendo arroz (the women are eating rice).
• Half way through an Open University Course in Mathematics. Yes, I know, why would I start all these projects at the same time? Well, when I signed up for the OU Maths course we didn’t know that we’d be moving to Angola and would therefore have to buy a flat and learn Portuguese at the same time. Oh well, that’s life. I like a challenge. I know Standard Deviation!
• Learning to play the harmonica. I got a ten-hole diatonic Blues harmonica for my birthday, complete with how-to book and instructional DVD. Less than a week in I can play When The Saints Come Marching In and Oh Susanna, though when I play either it sounds like I’m playing both together.
• Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks — the latest outing for the Zelda franchise on Nintendo DS is as absorbing as ever, particularly if you’re a big kid like I am.
• Super Mario Bros Wii — Get four remotes and four people — I don’t care if they’re friends or tramps you pulled in off the street, and neither will you — SMB-Wii is the funnest multiplayer game ever.
• Oh, and weekly visits to Aged Pater, doing his shopping etc.

I actually feel a bit better now I’ve got all that off my chest. Oh — got to go, the footy’s just started.

Celebs Out, ‘Reals’ In: The Result

Self-criticism prompted me to clean my Twitter house earlier today. I was beating myself up for following celebrities for no good reason other than the brush with fame they (sort of) promise. Ricky Gervais was quoted today as saying he has snubbed Twitter because other celebs just use it to show off by talking to each other in public. That’s true in part I guess, and that story, coupled with my own existing doubts, prompted me to have a bit of a cull.

So, I decided to immediately and without appeal delete all famous people from my “Following” list, and as a result the following (sic) celebs got their marching orders (trust me, they won’t have noticed):

“Ooo Are Ya?”

Chris Evans Robin Ince Chris Addison Robert Webb Matt Lucas Jimmy Carr David Lynch Simon Pegg Ross Noble Charlie Brooker Rufus Hound Jonathan Ross Phil Jupitus Robert Popper Dara O’Briain David Mitchell Alfie Hitchcock Marcus Brigstocke Derren Brown Graham Linehan Sarah Silverman Dave Gorman Tim Minchin Mitch Benn Alan Davies Armando Iannucci Bill Bailey Danny Wallace Russell Brand Richard Bacon Peter Serafinowicz Stephen Fry

Ahh, that feels better. I can see the floor in a couple of places now. Now to execute Part 2 of my master plan and replace them with real people recommended to me by people I like and respect, courtesy of Twitter’s #Follow Friday.

Ordinary-but-more-interesting-for-it Peeps: welcome to my Twitterverse:

@Satans_Thong @SnoozeinBrief @rumandcokefloat @SoulisTheGoal @eight8all @mr_hopkinson @dailymacstuff @FosforoMusic @timcaynes @rogerpovey @dutyofpoets @gshizzy @traceylambo @zaius13 @djhanks @soniadiamond @thinkingchimp @chimp80 @maxxmonkey @angryplumber @funktakula @kursaal69 @raubrey @andy_lamb  @CMoz @NaomiNay @wowser @mistertombola @neillockwood @fi69 @raubrey @gillian_b

The sadder ones amongst you will have had a count up and found that my Following list has remained the same, with 32 celebs booted out and 32 new people coming in. Spooky that. Actually the additions came to 31 and I had to tweet a special request for one last one to balance things out. That’s you @gillian_b !

My Tweeps may not be TV personalities but they’re all little stars in my Twitter galaxy.

Celebs Out, ‘Reals’ In!

Today I decided to do some Twitter spring cleaning, in part prompted by a piece I heard on the radio in which Ricky Gervais explained why he doesn’t tweet. He says celebrities only go on Twitter to show off by speaking to other celebs in public and he’s right. It never really bothered me before but now I think about it I’m questioning my own motives in following people like Jonathan Ross and Simon Pegg. Why? What am I hoping to get out of it? Do I seriously think that they will suddenly want to be my friend on the back of a couple of witty tweets sent their way? Following celebs is a shallow, empty, rather desperate thing to do. When I look at my Twitter friends’ timeline it becomes clear that those followers and followees I value most are the regular Joe’s (and Joanna’s) like me.
So, the path forward is clear. Why clutter my timeline with self-obsessed narcissistic celebs who don’t care about me when I can have more witty, cutting, sardonic normal friends, for free?

Today is Friday and Twitter has a tradition (bit odd ascribing ‘traditions’ to something so new and fangled but there it is) called #followfriday or #ff for short, in which people recommend Tweeters to others. So if, for example, one of my followers really liked my tweets and wanted to promote me they would send a tweet that said, “#ff @nealofarabia”. The #ff hashtag denotes that what follows is a Follow Friday recommendation and @nealofarabia is my Twitter username. Geddit?

I receive many #ff recommendations each week from people I like and respect on Twitter, but I seldom act on them. Well today will be different. Today there is Twitter Change in the air. Today I shall deliver the ultimate insult to all my celebs by Unfollowing them! Then I shall replenish my now thinner friend list by accepting every single #ff I receive from friends.

I’m quite excited. Are you?

Birthday: The Last Word

What with the Arctic weather conditions in Southern England at the moment our postal deliveries are running slow, which explains why I got a late Birthday present today.

No sooner had I unwrapped it and put the batteries in than Elliot grabbed it and combined it with another of my presents (the Bose SoundDock in the background) to create an impromptu recital.

I think I can confidently say this is the first time you’ll have heard Metal band Avenged Sevenfold with Stylophone accompaniment.

Thanks Kev for the gift. Wait til Karen gets home she’s gonna love it! (NOT)

The Blog Name Says It All

If this birthday card I got from my Sister-In-Law ain’t Bloody Marvellous, I don’t know what is!

Wow I’ve got worshippers.

Thanks Laura!

Birthday

It’s my birthday today and I’ve been having too good a time to blog. I’m delighted with the Bose SoundDock Portable that Karen got me, and the children got me Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS — they know me too well.

The SoundDock is simply superb, and being rechargeable I can have that great sound anywhere. And Zelda is… well, Zelda. If you do Zelda you’ll know what I mean.

Just got in from dinner and a show in Islington, and a thoroughly pleasant evening was had by all. With the day almost over I’m now going to sit back, drink my tea and watch a movie. Bet you can’t guess which one.