Dan Makovec’s blog

Madge

I went to my first decent-sized single-artist concert last night. Yep, Madonna hit town and writhed her way all over the stage while giant screens in the background blasted out everything from Matrix graphics to starving Africans to Kaballah scripts in Arabic.

We got in at about 6.00, and with delays and whatever, things got underway at 9. The concert was great, and she did her best to make sure everybody could see her, even from the back, using moving platforms, conveyer belts and stairs.

I was surprised that I knew every song she sang, and I was also surprised at the quality of her voice - there’s definitely very little editing in her recordings. For a 46 year old who’s had 2 kids she nips around on stage like someone half her age. I hope I’m that fit in 20 years!

My main gripes were with the venue itself. Even for a small (10,000 person) arena, Brian and I both agreed the sound system was a little underpowered. And the viewing area in the centre (where we were) wasn’t the best as it stretched back a long way on a flat floor, without the stage being elevated high enough to be able to easily see all the crawling over the top of the tall people’s heads. Being the most expensive tickets, I would have expected them to be a bit better catered for. Then again the folks on the side would have got worse sound than us as the speakers were focused quite narrowly straight ahead.

There was a funny moment when she was trying to blend a few songs together (I think it was Crazy for You and American Life) where she screwed up a lyric, and collapsed on the floor laughing while the crowd cheered, before trying again. Overall she involved the audience in the music rather well and gave a well rounded performance.

Boredom, and Norwegian music

I had to laugh. My boss is Norwegian, so I tried to take an interest in his cultural background. We had a look at some famous Norwegian rock musicians: firstly there’s Mortiis, who apparently is into cosmetic surgery in a big way. Another favorite is Mayhem - check their tracklisting, and the fun and games they get up to.

Last night

After coffee in Covent Garden, I took Brian to the Adelphi on Strand to watch Chicago. It was actually pretty enjoyable - even though it went for 2 and a half hours! I thought it was great, and Brian loved it.

Get this though, the role of Billy Flynn, the high-flying lawyer with an ego the size of the city in which he practiced, was played by David Hasselhoff! Yes, Mr, Knight Rider himself.

Hasselhoff always struck me as one of those “right guy in the right place at the right time who just ran with it” sorta guys. He was lucky enough to get a role in a show that could have starred Peewee Herman and still been a hit. The talking car was the star of the show (predominantly watched by kids and tech geeks), and he was a sidekick who took as much glory as he could from it. To his credit he figured out the sort of cheese that the public went for, and followed up with Baywatch. The rest is history, he’s big in Germany, and all that. I’ve seen him do interviews and he does come across as having a big ego, so I guess the role suited him.

So, having gone into the show grimacing at the thought of a B grade actor struggling to compete with as yet unknown yet superiorly talented co-performers, I was pleasantly surprised: the guy can actually sing! He pulled off the role very well with a mixture of charisma and sleeze, and managed to hold a Pavarotti-style note that attracted a huge round of applause from the audience. Oh yeah, he’s a lot taller in real life than he looks on TV too.

So anyway, the show was great, and we wandered around the west end for a bit before heading off to a restaurant in Leicester Square for a very late night dinner and drinks, then caught the night bus home. Not a bad way to spend a Monday night

1 year on!

Today’s Brian and my first anniversary!

We’re hitting the west end for dinner and to hopefully catch Chicago or Les Miserables tonight.

We’ve also had good news on the moving front - the landlords have agreed to buy our furniture off of us and give us the last week’s rent free! Probably in consolation for the rat adventures.

Things are falling into place. The past year with Brian has been brilliant, and I can’t wait to start the next year with him in a new town!

Airport for anything

I just discovered that the guy who cracked DVD encryption and Itunes Music Store encryption has just cracked Airport Express encryption. That’s way cool.

I downloaded his source code and it’s very simple. It wouldn’t take too long to rewrite it in Java. I’m thinking about the possibilities - say hooking my new Java-enabled phone up to it via TCP over bluetooth so that the stereo blasts out my ringtone when I get a call while I’m in the kitchen and can’t hear the phone in the bedroom
Yeah, I’m bored…

Brighton Pride and a lost phone

Brian and I went down to the coast with Guy this weekend. We stayed down at Eastbourne - a sleepy little coastal town full of blue-rinse hair do’s, zimmer frames and wheelchairs. We spent half a day looking around the town, munching on fish and chips (can you believe I’ve been in England for over 18 months and never tried fish and chips?) by the seaside, before working on our tans on the endless stretch of pebble beach.

I actually managed to get a tan without burning - the first time I’ve achieved this remarkable feat in years! I think I look pretty damn good with a bit of color in me. We had a huge dinner at a local Turkish establishment that we couldn’t completely eat between the three of us, then retired to our individually styled bedrooms at the BnB (Brian’s and mine was a Chinese style, while Guy’s was Moroccan).

The next morning we hopped on a train to Brighton, arriving in the blistering (for England anyway) 32 degree sunshine about half an hour before the Pride parade began. We managed to get a great spot along the main road, where we bumped into Christine and Verena. We watched the entire parade which, with its many stops and starts, took just over an hour to completely pass our location. I bought a couple of £2 water pistols from a street vendor, which the three of us took turns in using against each other, the spectators and the paraders. We had a great time hitting a BBC broadcaster who was doing a live crossing from the top of an open-top double-decker bus, and the leather queens who were hanging their bare butts off the side of the floats.

Once it was over, we followed it up to Preston Park - which took another good 30 minutes (it’s a long hike), walking faster than the parade in places and catching up with the floats pumping out the best music. A lot of other people had brought about water pistols and canons, and we soon discovered too that the gay fire brigade had taken the time to fill up their engine’s water tanks as they used them on the crowds.

The atmosphere at the park was really laid back and family-friendly. There were all sorts of stalls selling everything from food to dildos (at a special 25% off for Pride! No, we didn’t buy one). There were lots of drinks, both alcoholic and non, and a special arena set up for events ranging from gay jujitsu to handbag tossing.

After the five of us sunned ourselves for a good hour on the grass, loaded up with Pims and beer, we headed off to the various venues, with the boys settling on the Fruit Bowl - a giant big top with a mid-day rave going on inside. We danced for a few hours then came out and met the girls again and walked back into town for dinner at Pizza Express. We made it back to Eastbourne on the last train of the night and made it to bed just before 1am.

The next day we were out of things to do and so decided to go home, although being such great weather I felt like stopping off outside of London. We discovered the town of Lewes in some brochures, where they had a thousand year old castle built by William the Conqueror.

So, after a stop off in an Eastbourne cafe for morning milk shakes we hopped on a slam-door train bound for Lewes. For those of you not living in the UK - it takes a *long* time to upgrade transport infrastructure over here. While we’d had ultra-modern, Star Trek TNG Enterprise-style train (with air conditioning) coming out of London and between Brighton and Eastbourne, we weren’t so lucky for the trip to Lewes. When you get on one of these things you feel like you’re in an Agatha Christie book. Apparently they’re phasing these out over the next 2 years, but until then it’s pot luck whether you get a uber-modern silent stealth model or a rickety old carriage that predates world war II.

It was only just before heading to Lewes that I noticed I didn’t have my mobile on me. We tried ringing it and it rang out. I must have lost it during the festivities in Brighton the day before. Not to worry, I’m due for a replacement anyway.

Anyway, we hit Lewes and made our way up to the castle, which was beautiful. We spent a good couple of hours up there and in the neighbouring museum where we learned about the history of the area and battles of Hastings and Lewes during the 11th century. Once we’d finished up there we strolled down to the local park and caught the end of a free guitar festival, before laying back on the grass and reading. I managed to finish Catch 22, and Brian’s nearly done with How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which he constantly raves about.

The ride back to London was torturous. Another slam-door train all the way to Victoria. The ride took over an hour, the train was packed and the humidity was immense. Then another half hour on the Victoria tube up to home (the Victoria line tube trains are only 40 years old, but again no air conditioning) before we got in the door and collapsed.

Overall, a great weekend! We’ve got photos of Eastbourne and Lewes, although didn’t take a camera to Brighton just in case. In light of what happened to my phone, that was probably a wise decision!