Levellers/Citizen Fish

Went to see the Levellers last night.  They were supported by a band I'd heard of, but never heard, who came highly recommended by one of my friends, Citizen Fish.  In case you don't know, they're an anarcho-punk ska band, featuring some members of Subhumans.  This was the first time I'd seen or even heard them, and I really hope it's not the last, as they're really fun live.

On to the Levellers, and what can I say other than superb.  What a gig. I don't think there was anything I'd have liked to have heard that they didn't play, and during the last encore - The Recruiting Segeant - they got 5 local musicians up on stage to play with them.  I'd seen them asking for people who wanted to play to get in touch, on the website, so I knew it was coming.  Must have been a brilliant experience.

Citizen Fish 

Levellers

Levellers

Bit of a theme

Yesterday, K was pretty sick, so the plans to go out were scrapped in favour of lounging about in front of the tv watching movies.

At one point, she fell asleep, and I stuck on Ip Man, but she woke up part way through it, and asked if we could watch it later, as she liked the look of it, but couldn't concentrate on the subtitles.  That's a result, as I've been raving about this movie, but she never fancied it, so hasn't seen it yet.

So what did we watch?  Well, before she woke up, I watched Avengers Assemble, which is just awesome.  I even liked Thor in it, which surprised me, as I wasn't too taken with the Thor movie.  Loved Downey as Iron Man again.  He's just brilliant in that role.

After Avengers, and the Ip Man false start, it was Kill Bill Vol 2, followed by Killing Zoe, and to top it all off, I recorded Kill List on the pvr.  If you've never seen Kill List, it's a rather brilliant and rather brutal movie, starring Michael Smiley who played tyres in Spaced.  Let me say, this ain't no comedy people, so if you're going to watch it, buckle up, as there may be some turbulence.

Synchronicity

After last weekend's karate course taught by Kato Sensei from Japan, the Japanese theme continued back in the real world, when I went into one of the Wetherspoons pubs last week.  They've got a beer festival on at the moment, with a rather fine rotating selection of real ales, and on this visit, there was a pale ale from Japan - Minagof.  Obviously, the universe had meant for this beer to be in the this pub just after I'd been to a karate weekend, so, it would have been (a) rude, and (b) tempting fate if I didn't try a pint.  So, try a pint is just what I did, and you know, it was damn good.

I've been back in and sampled another couple of ales, but the Minagof hasn't been on since that first time I went in.

It was fate I tell you, fate!

(*update 06/11/12 - I was in another Wetherspoons last night, and noticed that although the beer is brewed by a Japanese company, it is in fact brewed in Guam and not Japan.  Regardless, it's a nice pint)

Thoughts on last weekend's karate course

The karate course last weekend in Largs went really well.  It was taught by 77 year old aikido master, Kato Sensei, so it was a bit different to what we usually practice.  We started on the Friday at lunchtime, and finished Sunday lunchtime, with 5 practices spread over the three days.

Prior to the course, I'd seen a clip on youtube of him doing a demonstration in a park in Paris, and to be honest, it looked.....rehearsed.  Boy was I in for a shock!  After starting out with being shown how to fall safely, we were into the first lesson.  It very quickly became obvious that the only reason the video looked staged, was because the people he was doing the techniques on knew how to fall/roll to avoid injury, and if you didn't, well you would soon know about it.  Basically, falling/rolling was the only way to make the pain stop!  It's incredible.  There's minimal movement from the person being attacked, but it can cause an incredible amount of pain.  We realised in a matter of minutes, that this stuff not only works, but is really effective.

There were some techniques, where we practiced with weapons (jo and bokken), then, without the weapons, but keeping the movements the same as we had when holding the weapons.  It was a really effective way of learning where to position hands, and what steps and body movements we were to do.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend in the company of a great bunch of people from all over the country, and an opportunity to learn from a master.