memememememememememe

[leedy]

Ten things I've done that you may not have, as pilfered from nhw (whose answers are much more exciting than mine) and various other worthies:

1. Been hit by a beam of light in the burial chamber of a Neolithic passage grave at dawn on the Equinox.
2. Hand-typeset a page in a book.
3. Been mentioned on a soap opera.
4. Lived for a couple of weeks on an overcrowded and ill-ventilated tour bus (do I get bonus bravery points for this one?).
5. Been asked to move at a function because I was blocking Phil Lynott's mother's view of the Cranberries.
6. Held a party on the feast day of the (possibly non-existent) patron saint of unwanted men, at which several couples split up.
7. Been on a bus while the driver nearly backed it off a cliff.
8. Had an endoscopy with no anaesthetic/sedation whatsoever (urghh).
9. Been made redundant twice in the space of three months (another urgghh).
10. Flown from Dublin to Kerry to play a gig (and back the next day!).

Comments

[sammywol.livejournal.com]

I am so jealous of 1 - I always wanted to do that. Which tomb was it?

I hope that 4 and 7 were not the same bus.

[leedy.livejournal.com]

Which tomb was it?

Loughcrew. It was a really amazing experience, even if it did involve getting up Very Early Indeed and then climbing up a hill in the freezing cold before dawn. Also very, well, unmediated, because it's not a "big draw" like Newgrange on the Solstice - there was just a bunch of people there with flasks of tea and one person from the OPW who opened the gate they've put over the entrance and answered any questions people had about the tomb. It was a cloudy morning, but luckily the clouds parted just when we were in the chamber, and we could suddenly see a really vivid red light on the back wall and, indeed, my ear (BOW DOWN BEFORE THE CHOSEN EAR OF THE SUN GOD). Very nice communal spirit afterwards, too, as we all trooped off to a local cafe for a big fry for before I had to (sob) head back to Dublin to go to work.

And no, 4 and 7 were not the same bus, mercifully! The latter incident happened at my friends' wedding in California last year - the reception was in a state park in Berkeley, and there was a bus laid on to bring us all down the hill through the woods to the hotel where most of us were staying afterwards. We realized we were in for something special when the driver announced that he "didn't like driving in the dark". Said genius driver took a wrong turn, ended up at a dead end, and tried to back the coach down the road. A strange crashing noise announced that he had, in fact, backed us off the road and nearly over a cliff. Eek. We than all had to wait amidst the misty darkened trees until the hotel and coach company sent some taxis up to rescue us. Fortunately, we had liberated the remaining booze from the reception, so it was rather convivial, if cold. I had wonderful visions of us appearing on NBC news a few days later, emerging from the woods having survived for two days solely on champagne and cocktail nibbles.

[jeejeen.livejournal.com]

You've been mentioned on a soap opera? You're famous!

I think I"ll do this meme too, though I don't know if I'll be able to come up with a full ten. I have only one or two good ones.

[leedy.livejournal.com]

You've been mentioned on a soap opera?

That one was kind of cheating, I'm afraid - my band were mentioned on a soap opera, rather than just me (one of the characters on Fair City wanted to get time off work to go and see us, and there was some discussion of our name, whether we were good, etc.). Ah, the pinnacle of my musical career!

I found it quite hard to come up with a full ten as well, I fear some of them are a bit feeble.

[pinguin.livejournal.com]

Not feeble at all. Go look at mine. They're feeble. One of them isn't even true.

[leedy.livejournal.com]

They're not feeble! Well, I haven't done any of them, anyway.

[tres-faux.livejournal.com]

"4. Lived for a couple of weeks on an overcrowded and ill-ventilated tour bus (do I get bonus bravery points for this one?)."

Do tell!

[ladyxoc.livejournal.com]

Details, PLEASE on #4 and 7!

[leedy.livejournal.com]

See above for #7 (not as perilous as it sounds, I'm afraid) - #4 will have to wait until tomorrow if you want much detail, as I still haven't got my home interweb access sorted out. Suffice it to say, it is a terrifying tale involving a great deal of vodka, the stench of death (or possibly just unwashed socks), unprecedented hangovers, and getting lost in Turkish baths in Budapest. And all funded by the EU, no less!

You can read my bandmate Dip's take on (most of) the experience here (http://www.thejimmycake.net/cake/diary/archives/2004_03.html).

[leedy.livejournal.com]

For those who require further details on #4, it was an EU-funded trip to bring the wonders of Irish culture (hem hem) to the new accession states last year - a ten-date tour around Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. On a bus. A very crowded bus. There was most of the Jimmy Cake (minus our then imminently new dad Diarmuid), all of The Walls (http://www.thewalls.ie/walls_new/) (another Irish group), our tour manager (aka Executive Tour Dad) who organized the entire shindig and had the thankless task of making sure that we all were where we were supposed to be at any given time, our sound man, the dour German drivers, plus - variously and not all at the same time - a man making a documentary (which must Never See The Light Of Day), our tour manager's sister, journalists, Czech friends, DJs, and a random Polish woman. Did I mention that the windows didn't open?

It was, I think, the most exhausting and just generally FULL OF EXPERIENCES trip of my life. I was pushed into a Polish snowdrift, got lost in a Turkish bath in Budapest, played in a Palace of Culture, was propositioned (unsuccessfully) by a strange Hungarian woman, spent St. Patrick's Day boozing with Slovak folk singers, slept in the dodgiest hotel in Bratislava, had numerous moments of extreme hilarity (Steve Wall, looking drunkenly at Paul's "PAUL" t-shirt: "Who the fuck is Raul?"), consumed far too much booze and cigarettes, had some of the worst hangovers ever, played some amazing gigs (and some awful ones), managed not to kill anyone (though came close on occasion), and generally had more bonkers experiences in just over a week than I'd normally have all year.

The downside was definitely the level of claustrophobia/paranoia you get from living in a confined space with too many people, especially when nobody has ever had quite enough sleep. I had at least one conversation of the "Are you really pissed off with me?" "No, I thought you were really pissed off with me?" variety, and my actual diary from the trip is pretty heavy on the Overanalysis And Ranting And AAAARRRGGGHHH KILL SMASH ARRRGHHH. Highlights were probably the gig we did with Iva Bittova in Brno, who improvised a vocal line over one of our pieces that nearly had people in tears, finally making it into the bath in Budapest (and hoorah! Gender-segregated! Soaking in a big pool of hot water with NONE OF MY BUSMATES!), seeing numerous places I'd love to revisit with more time, and realizing that everyone on the trip, including the folks I'd never met before, was, essentially, really nice.

Heh. I've just realized that it's long enough ago that I'm thinking "Jasus, that wasn't so bad, maybe we should do it again...".

[nwhyte]

Never mind all those other queries. I want more details on 6. Held a party on the feast day of the (possibly non-existent) patron saint of unwanted men, at which several couples split up!

[ladyxoc.livejournal.com]

I'll throw in another vote for #6 as well!

[leedy.livejournal.com]

Right so! The patron saint of unwanted men is St. Wilgefortis (also known as St. Uncumber), the Christian daughter of a pagan king of Portugal. She wished to devote her life to God, he wanted her to get married to a pagan prince. On the eve of her wedding, she prayed to God to deliver her from this unwanted man, and lo, she awoke on her wedding morning to discover that God had granted her an enormous beard. The prince took one look at her and said "I'm not marrying THAT", and her enraged father crucified her.

Needless to say, she is generally held to never have existed, and the legend to have stemmed from a rather odd interpretation of a particularly girly-looking crucifix ("Is it Our Lord looking a bit feminine? No, it must be a bearded lady being crucified!"). Regardless, she was very popular in the late Middle Ages, and people used to offer pecks of oats to her to make unwanted suitors and other annoying men go away.

Anyhow, I was very tickled with this particular legend, and decided one summer to have a party on her feast day. And, overall, a fine party it was - cocktails were consumed, music was played, attempts were made to play the piano in a state so drunk that I kept missing the keyboard, etc. However, there was a disturbingly high level of Romantic Disaster at the party amongst the couples present, and even amongst those that had been invited but couldn't make it - one couple went out for a romantic dinner instead, and promptly split up. I believe the lesson is: don't mess with possibly non-existent medieval saints.

I actually visited a little shrine to her in the Loreto in Prague on the trip described above - it features an amazing crucified lady statue dressed in beautiful silk robes, with a big bushy beard. I was having Issues with one of my bandmates at the time, and fully expected to get back to the hotel and find that he had been struck by lightning.

[ladyxoc.livejournal.com]

That is a WONDERFUL story. I have a vision of me opening the door to that stalker delivery man I used to have and flinging a peck of oats in his face. "In the name of St. Wilgefortis, you shall not pass!"

The beard thing, though. Very odd. Maybe she prayed to Loki by mistake?

[leedy.livejournal.com]

I have a vision of me opening the door to that stalker delivery man I used to have and flinging a peck of oats in his face. "In the name of St. Wilgefortis, you shall not pass!"

Hee!

[cuntula.livejournal.com]

Yo. Hows it going?

[leedy.livejournal.com]

Hullo - I see you are a fellow fan of the lovely Jamie Lidell. Who is playing here in April, hoorah, hoorah.

[cuntula.livejournal.com]

YEAAAH I AM LOEV JAMIE LIDELL. where;s he playing? wow.that'll be alike a 3 hour long masturbation session.

[leedy.livejournal.com]

Temple Bar Music Centre, here in Dublin. It will be good.

[cuntula.livejournal.com]

He has a new album out in May dosen't he? Is there just a date for Dublin, anywhere else? <333333333 You'll have to take some pictures. <3333333333 Hint hint hint hint hint hint hint hint hint.

[leedy.livejournal.com]

Hmm, dunno where else he's playing, I'm afraid, though if there's a new album out I'm sure he'll be touring. I could try and take pictures but I don't think I'd do him justice. :)

[cuntula.livejournal.com]

He is one sexy motherfucker. Fuck that, Mother. Take pictures anyway. If you can restrain yourself to only taking pictures. *humps leg* oh man you've made me excited and I live so far away from Dublin.

[leedy.livejournal.com]

Alas, I can never introduce myself to him, given that a friend once drunkenly informed him that I fancied him (I believe her actual phrase was "D'you know you live in my flatmate's man cupboard?").

Sigh.

[cuntula.livejournal.com]

aahaha. you rock. add?

[leedy.livejournal.com]

Sure!