| >>djpaulette [back to postcard archive menu] Postcards about summer and the cities. I'd never thought of Nelly as a lyrical prophet but I have to admit that his exclamation 'It's getting hot in herre, so take off all your clothes' has never been more apt. For a change (touch wood)! the British weather has taken a turn for the best and for the past few weeks we've been averaging temperatures hotter than Rio De Janeiro, Lisbon and Athens which is lovely. Of course it was going to rain. We knew that. And rain it did. Today. In buckets. But it stayed hot and dried up and rained again and dried up again and it felt just like, well, Spain. Consequently, I haven't been able to resist wearing an assortment of A&F hot pants, home-customised Diesel cut-offs and everything of a length dubious enough to make you think I've confused my dressmaker with my gynaecologist. I love that about Summer - it's all about renewed confidence and the will to dare to be just a little bit different. Work-wise,
life has been a whirl of deck-twirling, skirt-swirling antics. Easter and the
crowd at Wild Fruit (Paradox, Brighton) was
as wild and fruity as ever. And whilst I'm all for presents, the grinning
person who threw a crème egg across the decks to me should know
that a) Contrary to urban myth, eggs do not have wings
(KFC chickens also have legs and crème eggs aren't creamy, they're sugary),
so they need HUGE amounts of encouragement to fly and b)
(s)he's a dreadful shot: thanks to them, my copy of 'E-Samba' will never be the
same (thank God Defected have licensed it, at least I'll get an upfront, pristine
copy when the new mixes are finished). Vespas
in Madeira was wilder still: people danced on the podiums, on the bar
and even on the ledge of the DJ booth whilst the strawberry
vodka shots flowed like ambrosia. The only thing that spoiled it was
the travelling: a Lisbon stop-over is never an exciting
prospect (the duty free is rrrrubbish plus there's flap all else to
do) but flying back from Funchal when the sky threatens
a storm that would sink an ark is damn near impossible. Needless to
say, all flights were cancelled until further notice. Now this is something that
ordinarily wouldn't have bothered me too much but since I was trying to co-ordinate
with the love of my life, as hour ran into hour it became vexatious to the spirit.
And don't mention the marble floors - after three attempts at buying wine (and
trying to keep it in one piece) and five (or was it six?) hours later, the flight
departed. In May, Hot and Dry
at Metropolis was packed to the rafters and working the tops off, tits
out attitude that makes Montreal so special. In a game
of two halves and one costume change (for me), this was a party that
took it out of me (and my dog-ball throwing left arm) to a point where my left
shoulder had to be immediately packed in ice at the end of the gig.
Thankfully, my suffering did not go unattended; Annik
Charbonneau and Serge Duchesne took charge of my massage, whilst Claudia did her
best Nurse Ratchett impression and supplied the prescription painkillers.
Take it from me, two days later when the pain became unbearable, there was no
place like masseuse with the mostest, Sylvie Duchesne's. Thank God for Sylvie
and a very sarcastic 'Thank God for Queenie'. The Queenie story is a long one
that merits its own psychiatric session, since I am in 'jealous dog denial'. What's the longest time you've ever
kept a secret? My longest is 21 years, which Idefinitely qualified
me to handle knowing the result three months in advance of the Ivor
Novello Awards. However, it was so much
harder not telling X-Press 2 (Rocky, Diesel and Ashley Beedle)
that their song 'Lazy' had scooped the well-deserved
prize directly before the event at the sit-down meal. I managed it though, I figured
that since I'd been to their parties, bumped into them in shops - and everywhere
I went they'd seemed to be, I could keep schtum for long enough to enjoy their
reactions. Let's just say that Ashley needed a handkerchief. Ah! As
winners of an 'Ivor' they were in the same company as Coldplay, David Gray, U2,
Brian Wilson and UB40 and I hope that this award brings them more of the
same success in the future. Now that was an afternoon that
led to an evening DJ'ing at Discotec at The End, which led to a really major hangover
and a Friday evening on the sofa!
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