Staines Part ??? (Blog 445)

As the title suggests, I’ve been to Staines again. I know I’ve been there more than Simon’s Number times, but my brain just doesn’t have the ability to compute the exact amount right now, explaining my use of three question marks. Long story short, I’ve been there a lot, maybe well over a hundred trillion times. On the drive there, there were roadworks which was really annoying, as for a while they went away and I assumed for good. I thought it was funny how the workers left the road in a clearly unfinished state, but I respected their opinion and was glad the workings were gone. When they came back I was really annoyed. I was brought high up and sent crashing down. :( When I finally got to the town about 3 minutes later than I would have without such maintenance, there was a fair bit of drama with the ticket machine as my credit card kept getting declined. Oh no. I tried another ticket machine and as I looked at it more carefully that the first one, I came to the conclusion my card wasn’t declined because something dodgy that was going on with my bank account, but because I was pressing the wrong buttons. I’m just saying muscle memory is a real thing, real people have heard about. Well turns out, my muscle memory was wrong. But I got there in the end and got my ticket.

Next, I bought myself a mini diary for jotting down notes! There’s nothing TOO wrong with my old one, but I don’t like how the pages are ripped away from the booklet so easily. That may have been the intention, but I just like my notepads to be more sturdy. That may sound ridiculous to you when I explain my handwriting is barely readable, I scribble things out when I’ve typed them on my computer, and many of my hand written notes are in a random and nonsensical order. But still, now my pages won’t fall off! Very sturdy, apparent gibberish. In the CD shop I noticed how Deftones had more of their debut album on display than anything else. Yes, I heard it’s one of their best selling albums, yet it is said to be one of their weaker ones. There’s proof for you. Of course I own all of them, I was just looking out of curiosity and I’m glad I did. In the shop, I noticed a man wearing an Extreme band T-shirt, and he asked a member of staff for an Extreme album. I just thought that was funny - straight to the point.

Not ever hearing of the band, I took a chance and bought an album by Green Lung. When I got home and looked on the internet, I would find they are a stoner band. Ohhhhh, that’s where the word ‘green’ comes from. Green means cannabis. Very creative. Well it would be if Green Day and Green Leaf didn’t use the same idea first. Not only that, they’re just two bands I know of with such a name and I know next to nothing about stoner music. Pick another colour, it’s getting boring! However, as GL are on a respected label, I will be crossing my fingers and MAYBE my purchasing was a smart move. I’ll come back to you. I also got an album by The Pixies, in particular, their ‘Doolittle’. I’m not massively keen on the other two albums I own by the band, but my thinking was I’d buy an LP I like by them eventually. I heard the group are really good. Sadly as I’m typing, I’m listening to them and to be honest I’m baffled by all of the five star reviews it’s received. They’re ALRIGHT, I guess. Maybe they’ll grow on me.

Surprise, surprise, I then got a milkshake in the town and surprise, surprise, it was flippin’ brilliant! Well actually, I got a stoner CD, then a shake and then a pixie CD. Me and my gambling addiction, I couldn’t just gamble the once, I needed another release to get my fix. NOW I’m listening to the GL album. I am so sorry for suggesting the band should have picked another colour (I guess a green lung is a different colour for the organ at least) their music isn’t that bad at all. You get some pretty neat guitar solos, more thoughtful singing than you may expect(!), and I’m sure it will grow on me even more. I don’t have quite as high hopes for The Pixies, but if the internet says it’s one of the best alternative rock albums of the 80s, who am I to argue? Maybe I just don’t like alternative rock? Nope, I do. R.E.M. are alt rock and they have some fantastic music. It’s not just better music I want from The Pixies, their singer sounds genuinely hyperactive at times and if he keeps continuing, he’s going to have to deal with some rather unpleasant burnout. Get some lithium! And on that kind note… bye!