Bollocks!

Well, I'm awful at updating this. Luckily I'm able to cobble together a decent account of what I've been up to from Twitter and Livejournal (yup, still have one! Mad old school). I believe I left off on Monday? Tuesday and Wednesday can't have been that eventful; I do remember going out to the Intrepid Fox an 12 Bar with Jess, Kevin, Rock, Jo and Anastasiya, after which I had to deal with Jess being the WORST DRUNK IN THE WORLD and met a nice Aussie boy in the process. Thursday we all went and saw a play, "Entertaining Mr. Sloane," for our theatre class. One of the most awkward things I've ever witnessed - the Brits are really, really good at making their audiences feel uncomfortable. It was quite cool actually. Friday ruled because I went over to the Terrorizer offices to hang out with Louise and see what the deal is with the internship I'm supposed to be doing there this summer. All the dudes that work there are rad, especially James and the intern whose name I forget already, and Louise sent off a bunch of emails to some of her mates in Norway telling them to look out for me. As a result, I've been invited to four listening parties - Borknagar, Skitliv, Code and Madder Mortem - and offered a place to stay during Inferno weekend, so clearly she did me a big favor. Sweetest most badass lady ever - i can't wait to work with her this summer. Well, intern. That's going to be my co-op, I've decided. I also believe I'm going to be writing for them now? Blogging for sure, and possibly doing a bit of print stuff somewhere down the line. I'll be representing Terrorizer at Inferno, which is ridiculously rad in and of itself. I can't wait for this weekend!!!!!

It took forever and a half, but I've finally got everything sorted for my travels this month. I've got the flights booked, at least. I've got someone to crash with in Norway, am crashing with a lovely German couple in Nuremburg then with Manegarm at Ragnarok fest in Germany, will probably be with the Terrorizer crew in Holland, and Portugal...well, Portugal's like three weeks away. I may just buy a little tent and camp out if the weather's nice. I'm also going to Wales sometime soon to hang out with Aled; we're going to go hiking and visit some castles and trade music. It's a 3hr trip each way, but he offered to pick me up in his car from a halfway point; suuuper nice chap.

As far as metal/work things go...Metalsucks went for my heavy metal pilgrimage idea, which should be pretty cool. To explain that - I'm going to make a trip to Birmingham, the REAL birthplace of heavy metal (i.e. BLACK SABBATH, and fuck you if you say otherwise) and wander around, take some photos of Sab's old stomping grounds, maybe even get some quotes from the locals about the band. I think it'll be a good story. I still need to write some things for Metal Injection, and I think I have to interview Moss, Alestorm, and Pestilence for Hails & Horns (which should be interesting since i haven't even heard the new records yet). I'm supposed to do something on the latter for Noisecreep, too, now that I think of it, and will be taking mad notes on the fest so's I can blog about 'em for Terrorizer/write it up for whomever.

On Friday after I left the office, I met up with Evan and we went to Brick Lane for Indian food (SO GOOD) then to Rough Trade Records, where I narrowly avoided buying a 'Scum' picture disc, and took down the email address of some girl that put up a flyer looking for people to start a black metal/sludge/post rock/noise mashup band with. You never know, right? Maybe she needs a throat. After that, came home, went on the fifty billion cheapo airfare sites I've got stashed away, and got things settled for this month. My next big trips will be to Czechoslovakia and France for Obscene Extreme and Hellfest, respectively, then hopefully Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain thrown in for non-metal fun. I want to go to Russia too, but we'll see - it's a helluva long road to those onion domes.

Saturday was the best. Went to the Victoria & Albert Museum with Rock and Kevin and got more Indian food, then headed up to Camden for the British Steel fest. I need to get used to this 'shows starting on time' thing they do here, 'cause I apparently got there quite late and ended up missing all the bands but Pagan Altar and Cloven Hoof (which were the only bands I cared about anyway). Met some cool people from Birmingham, rocked out to some ridiculous old-school NWOBHM, then headed over to the Hobgoblin, this killer metal bar. I met loads of awesome dudes there from all over the place, and made some legitimate friends, half of which are apparently in bands (Savage Messiah, who're on Candlelight, and Necrosadistic Goat Torture, who are my new favorite dudes ever). Turns out half of Destroyer 666 were hanging out there that night too! Be still my heart. I ended up staying there 'til 3am or so, then, when confronted with the nightmarish prospect of finding my way home via night bus at that hour, gratefully took up one of the NGT dudes' offer to crash on his couch. His name's Duncan, and we stayed up chatting and talking music 'til 5-6am, then woke up mad late, went grocery shopping, then had a lovely picnic in the graveyard (yes, you read that right) the next day. I think he fancies me, and he i quite cute, but I'm not looking for anything like that right now. I'm just happy to have made a good friend. He told me all sorts of things about London, and about growing up in Germany, which if you take his word for it is the best place in the world. I also found out why Londn doesn't have any goddamn trash cans - the IRA used to put bombs in them and cause a ruckus, s they got rid of 'em. Pretty wild, right? Duncan's taking Jess and I around to some vinyl stores tomorrow, too, which should be cool.

After I got home from Duncan's on Sunday, I realized how shitty I felt (sick - congested, headache, sore throat) and went to bed early after talking to Grzesiek on Skype for two or so hours. i miss him SO much. Woke up hella late today, went for a walk around the neighborhood and got some medicine from Boots, then went to on a tour of the National Theatre and saw a play, 'Death and the King's Horseman,' which was brilliantly done but very depressing. Got home quite late from that, did some metal work stuff, and am off to bed soon. I've been missing Kelly and Matt really badly, and am compensating for their absence by sending them ridiculous random texts as often as I can. I'm also trying to find a good piercing studio in this city - one of my micros has been acting up again, and it always makes me feel better to have a professional look at it and tell me to stop being so paranoid.

Cheers!