It's been interesting lately. Obviously, Chris' going away has been a big disruption to the grand Betika plan (one of which there isn't), and I'm giving a lot of thought to what, if anything, should take his place. The 7-piece Greater Betika was just about at gigging standard the last time we rehearsed, and it would be fantastic to get out in public with that band, but doing so would mean having to find another guitarist as good as Chris prepared to slum it musically with the likes of me, if only on a temporary basis, and that could take months, if not forever. So we've been considering various alternatives, from laptops to orchestras and most things in between. Whatever happens, I'd really like to have something ready to go by the new year, I've got new songs that are just gathering dust at the moment, and a renewed interest in the cello, John Fahey and Davy Graham.
In other developments, my own wanderlust got the better of me and I went to Japan for 10 days at the start of the month. The whole trip was something of a life's ambition for me, and I wasn't disappointed. I got to experience some incredible stuff; I travelled on a Tokyo commuter train packed with an impossible number of people (apparently approximately 3 million go through Shinjuku station every single day!), a 12-hour Karaoke marathon, all kinds of food and drink, anime, manga, J-Pop. I sang a Smokey Robinson song with a barman who couldn't speak any english in one place, and I sang something else by the Backstreet Boys with a computer engineer in the smallest bar I have ever been in. Where beers were £12.50. I bought loads of CD's, largely on the strength of the artwork, or the band's name, and I had more fun than I've had on any other holiday ever. If you ever get the opportunity to go, I can't recommend it highly enough.
Cultural artefacts I've absorbed include "McCarthy's Bar" by Pete McCarthy, which was duller than I'd been led to believe, "Great Apes" by Will Self, which I've been meaning to read for years and finally had twelve hours on an aeroplane free from distractions to do it in. I'm currently halfway through Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", which bears uncanny similarities to "Great Apes", especially in the way that both use the greek alphabet and feature sexual promiscuity as a cure for social ills. Things I've heard included "The begining stages of The Polyphonic Spree", John Adams' "Nixon in China" (Adams, Philip Glass and Steve Reich all seem to be very popular in Japan), Al Stewart, Numbergirl, Acidman, Beat Crusaders, "The Steve Christy e.p." by Olo, and a CD single I bought because I liked the cover, the title of which is "� 9", but, like the name of the band I have no idea how to translate it. It's on Tinstar records, Tokyo, if that helps. I also got a sneak preview of the True Swamp Neglect LP that they've been making with Hubcap. I think it's called "Sleep Function Lost", and sounds fantastic, especially "Year of the Chimp" and "Heavy Music". The only films I've seen are "Laundry" on the plane, in Japanese with French subtitles, and "Battle Royale". Both good.
