random acts of senseless beauty

Drip drip drip little April showers…  The gorgeousness of 1950s orchestral/choral music from Disney’s Bambi has been echoing round and round in my head for the last couple of days.
Down in Tennessee it’s closer to March’s ‘coming in like a lion’ analogy with tornado warnings, but I’m up in Michigan for the weekend where the [...]

I hadn’t cried at all at work, then the a friend made me laugh so loudly that the tears came unbidden. 
The email read “a parting gift.  It’s not much but…” and then it was simply a link to this:

Jim. The pleasure has been all mine. Never change.

Possibly the best thing ever.

Tonight, Cath and I made our debut trip to the new Wembley Stadium to see Foo Fighters.
I had a long, frustrating and complicated work-day at the end of a long, frustrating and complicated week.  I’d got to the point where going felt like a hassle… but oh!  I knew it would be good – they’re [...]

These days may feel like in-between-days, but they’re passing with flair.  Situation:  Good.
Life: Good

Han & Tom got married
Work: Good

Cute Clare
Captain played in The Hub for Steve Merchant’s show
Levels of Siliness: Good

Self Portrait (with moustache)
Coming Week-Day-Weekend: Looking Good.

Lizzie and Claudia
These girls are the reason I happily give up my Friday evenings to hang out with 11 – 15 year olds. The eldest pair in my youth group, Lizzie and Claudia are best friends, or sisters from another mister as they say. The best thing is that they include me in [...]

Treasu(red)
Wonderful H in Los Angeles has sent all five of our fabulous group of girls matching shirts. They speak assurance to ourselves and also mean that, when needed, we can show solidarity in our uniforms, however great the physical distance between us.
I’m at the end of a few days at home, using up leave [...]

MGMT@ICA
After a significant dry spell this week brought a hatrick of live music.
Tuesday night was Mr Lawson’s Solo Bass Night at Darbuka. Yolanda Charles and Steve were both brilliant, and wonderfully different from each other. Yolanda is the most amazingly funky woman, and was beautifully nervous considering the kind of gigs she’s done [...]

Floating Up
These lanterns-of-lights have hung above Oxford Circus since the run up to Chinese New Year. There’s something about the quality of light at the moment that makes them clear and oh so beautiful.
As I walk beneath them every night to get onto the tube home, I give them my day. Release it [...]

We’ve got the utterly lovely Alan Carr depping for Adam and Joe in the morning, and while he was in yesterday we made a silly video around the office.  Everyone had to try VERY hard not to laugh.
**edit**  For some reason the video won’t play anymore from here… but it’s still up so you can go and watch it here.  **edit**
Listen tomorrow (Saturday [...]

I’ve been here for 7 days then. Confusions with the new camera and the new laptop has slowed down my ability to upload photos and I wanted to wait till I had something to show yous I guess…
So much has been packed into a week. More than ever on this trip I [...]

This time is best described as dizzy-ing; being taken gently by the shoulder then spun around and about, around and about, around and about…  It’s not my lovely carousel with its bells and golden light, it is just hard work.
Moments of joy and comfort get turned around to moments of reality and, as it turns out, pain. I’m so tired of the spin; of the up and down, [...]

At around 2pm the postman approached my desk to get me to sign for a package.  I ghasped and clapped… signed my name… ripped open the packaging… to find thre copies of the complete first series of Heroes on DVD.  
Exciting.  But not what I was hoping for.
At 3.50 my phone rang. “Hi Jude, it’s Judy in reception. There’s a [...]

One of my glorious presenters, Mr Adam Buxton, did the most amazing webcast with Radiohead the other week and there are a handful of staggering videos on YouTube, but also on the 6 Music site.
Here’s one of them… Faust Arp… I suggest you click through and watch some more…

Here I am spending time with my lovely Cary in Belfast. I was delayed over four hours coming in, but a chilled afternoon at her castle apartment led perfectly to a night in town.
We had an amazing dinner at a Tapas bar, with true conversation that rocked the soul. Looking around our bubble [...]

Rufus Wainwright
Originally uploaded by preamble.

I took Rufus to see Rufus on Tuesday evening. That is, I took lovely R from the Sunday show to see Mr Wainwright at the Apollo/Odeon in Hammersmith.
My wee phone let me down this time, but the amazing photo here is one of a brilliant set by [...]

Here’s a snap from the Kaisers on Friday, and there a couple more on Flickr.
They ended their set with ‘Oh My God’, which morphed into Land Of Hope And Glory – complete with visuals of the Albert Hall on the screens behind. Loads of balloons fell, and their popping sounded like fireworks.  Nice touch.
It’s been [...]

Too late to add pics tonight, but after a very busy week nothing beats stitting in a great seat in an amazing venue to watch a couple of world-class bands.
I was lucky enough to get a sneaky last-minute pass to see Kaiser Chiefs and Cold War Kids at the Roundhouse. As part of the [...]