Tag: Drive

The Slip – 20th December 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Between one form of consciousness
And another
Hold no fear for this deathlike sensation
Meditate on it, let it inspire
See it for what it is
Explore it with your full imagination

*inspired by Robert Greene’s Daily Laws

The whole world is a series of miracles, but we’re so used to them we call them ordinary things.

Hans Christian Andersen

Today I’m feeling:
Happy and relaxed
Today I’m grateful for:
Working at a stall where Christmas party gifts were available to students and I could swipe extra swag and be a little Santa myself and deliver candy to students of mine that I came across.
The best thing about today was:
A pleasant relaxing drive up to Doi Mae Salong, this time, finally, with Amy. It’s a good time of year temperature wise but with rainy season a memory, the views were quite obscured with smoke. Still, we got some nice pictures of the temple up around the back of the town, which our little car struggled to get to but I had faith.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
With the Christmas party at school today I was suddenly asked yesterday to help at one of the stalls. I was hoping to be able to quickly leave and go and chill with coffee before heading home early but that became unlikely. So, I kept a good attitude and had a lot of fun with all the kids. Time went quickly and I enjoyed it so much that it was easy to transition into driving up into the mountains rather than complaining to stay home and relax.
Something I learned today?
Today feels like only a minor software update. I’ve been trying to think for the last 15 minutes but struggling to find anything new that I learned, just additional pieces of information to add to existing knowledge. I guess through listening to the Oh Brother podcast I did learn some early 80s Manchester punk scene trivia. It’s probably not life-changing at my age.
Who are your favourite artists?
Musicians and comic book artists are numerous. When it comes to traditional painting art though I really don’t know anything. I do recognise paintings that attract me but never enough to identify with a specific artist. I think I don’t hold painting in the same regard as music and comics. It doesn’t take me on a journey and my thinking is not skilled or deep enough to contemplate.

I took this picture because I didn’t recognise my student Noah, on the left, with this wig and dress. I also haven’t seen her face for a long time as she usually wears a mask. At the school today was a Christmas Party in the morning with performances and stalls and many of the kids, even those not performing, decided to dress up. The girls particularly look different and try to show themselves off. I’m happy their school uniforms are frumpy and unsexy!

This world’s so mixed up everywhere you go – 26th May 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

We’re ten rounds in to the Australia Rules Football season and as my team, Sydney Swans, is doing better this year than the last couple, I look forward to the weekends when I can catch up with the game. I can’t afford to watch the games live anymore and have to wait the following day to watch the (free) replay, meanwhile doing whatever I can to avoid seeing the result anywhere, which is not always easy.

One player in the team is Nick Blakey and he cuts an unusual figure, tall, skinny and shoulders that seem to fall away from his neck down to his elbows. His odd gait when he is running has earned him the, hopefully lighthearted, nickname of the Lizard. Once hearing this, it is impossible not to see a Jesus lizard scampering across water when he goes tearing off down field.

Nick Blakey, trying to shrug his shoulders.

So, anyway, the word Lizard has been on my mind and I will probably listen to the Jesus Lizard when I get home tonight. And, yesterday, the blue headed beauty in the main picture above blocked my exit from the car park, and luckily didn’t run away until I’d gotten out and taken a photo.

The little lizard below often greets me on the stone pillar of our gate when I get home. He’s got some cute symmetrical markings. His many, many brothers and sisters leave piles of black turds around the floor and counter edges throughout our house. And sometimes our cats deliver us some mid sized lizards that manage to escape their jaws and scitter off under the fridge or washing machine, only to appear later, high up on the screen doors frustrated that they can’t get out.

Nothing beats that time Amy, barefoot, trod on a huge dead gecko that, presumably, Tigger had left as a present in the dining room. I say presumably Tigger as this lizard was as big as Kim Chi and Cappuccino is too dumb to catch anything that size. Amy hates geckos with a passion but I think they’re beautiful – not that I want to touch it. Her scream range out across the valley and I’m surprised the police didn’t come.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to go on a long drive today and get out of home. It was a struggle.

Victims Family, Drive, Yardstick – The Den, Wigan, Lancashire, UK – 21st March 1992

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

VICTIMS FAMILY/DRIVE/YARDSTICK
The Den, Wigan

Totally refreshed and revived this morning. and hit the road pretty soon. My car seemed to be ok again, to,o which was quite pleasing. Unfortunately, as I pulled into a service station just above Birmingham, the gearbox decided to go! After an hour or so of waiting for the RAC, they turned up to say “Nothing I can do, mate!” In fact, all he could do was take it to the nearest garage, which was 200 yards away in the services! Wow, that’s cool, I thought, but aha! The bloke down in the garage was a real ignorant, arrogant fuck, and said the best he could do was about 3 days time! Oh well, without much option, I left the car there to be repaired in the hope of returning sometime on Tuesday.

There was nothing for it except to stick the old thumb out in the wet and cold, and hope! Ok, it wasn’t raining but it sure was cold. After about half an hour, a car pulled up – to let someone out! About twenty minutes later, a van pulled up and offered me and this other guy a lift.

People always say to watch out for weirdos when hitching, and this couple were weird but, luckily, in a nice sort of way. They asked where we were going – about twenty times! They also didn’t know where they were. They said they’d left Birmingham to go to Weston Supermare, but took the wrong motorway and thought they’d go to Manchester.

Anyway, they decided to go to Blackpool instead (I’m not sure they knew where it was, though)! I got off at an exit for Wigan and walked into town to the venue, where there was no one waiting.

I walked around to Alan’s record shop, where I met Alan, who looked totally different to how I imagined. As I was walking into Wigan earlier, I was trying to picture Alan and put him down as having black hair and a tache. Of course, no tache and blond hair! The shop was packed with people and I saw a whole slew of records and stuff that I couldn’t afford. I did purchase a copy of the Touch & Go fanzine and headed back to the venue, which should have been open by now.

Unfortunately, the keyholder hadn’t turned up yet but I did meet Mel and Sean (Tabby Cat Village), who were also waiting outside. The Victims Family van turned up a few minutes later and I managed to blag a lift off them to Birmingham tomorrow. I went off to seek food and drink in the meantime. On my return, there were loads of people waiting to get in (a few already inside too!). I was really surprised by the amount of people here, but as Alan explained, Wigan is an easy place to get to from Liverpool and Manchester. More of a surprise was the amount of young people here and the amount of girls. One person quipped about being back in the youth club.

As the people piled in, I met a guy who had been to the Newport and Stoke shows, who, it turns out, plays in Kismet-HC. I also met my old bandmate Paul Simmons (currently in Manchester), whom I hadn’t seen for about a year and a half. We chewed the fat as the first band, Yardstick, played. They were unimpressive from where I was standing, but I do admit to not paying much attention.

Drive were on next and plenty of people went down the front. I was surprised to see they have a new bass player and drummer, but they seemed to handle everything well. I’m not a big fan of Drive but they sounded ok tonight.

Victims Family hit the stage at about 10.15 and most of the 200 people there packed the dance floor and the band turned on an even better set than in London. The couple of mistakes they made (yeah, they made a couple!) were compensated for by the sound, which was great down the front. The crowd went apeshit for a while with plenty of friendly stagediving (which annoyed me, I’m afraid and things were going well til a bit of over excitement by the crowd landed the microphone full on Ralph’s nose (Ouch!). After a brief rest break, it was full steam ahead. The band played a couple of numbers as an encore but were cheered back for one more, to which the crowd went totally ape, and a piece of wood across the ceiling didn’t survive the stage diving. Phew! A good night all round.

After packing up and food nourishment, we returned to Mel’s place, where Tim quickly found the porn channel on satellite, but we watched MTV for about an hour, which, naturally, featured Nirvana (who MTV seemed to idolise) amongst the totally wishy washy shit of Bryan Adams and 2 Unlimited. Pretty soon, everyone fell asleep (funnily enough).

Before I forget, Ralph was tickled at the graffiti in the toilets at the Den, which read “I’m the devil, me!”

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE FOODS & WHAT PIZZA TOPPINGS DO YOU HAVE?

Ralph: Mexican, Indian, Chinese hot & sour soup. Any meatless pizza is cool with me. I’m sort of into rocheese  (rotis?) as well.
Tim: Mexican food, pasta and pizza. Cheese, mushroom and olives.
Larry: Indian, Mexican and Italian. There’s a place in Vancouver that makes a veggie pizza with spinach and feta, that rules!

WHAT DOES THE HC SCENE HAVE TO OFFER THE “NAIVE CHILDREN” OF THE WORLD?

Ralph: Well, that song was written for this insufferably snobby booking agent we had one tour, and it’s basically about how sick the whole music biz bullshit makes me. HC offers an alternative to that, but I see the same kind of crap in the indie scene as well. HC (or DIY) offers people a chance to really be creative if they just use it.