this is james

Library Weirdos

Lately I've been going to our local library a lot, which is a comforting and frustrating experience. It's comforting because it's in Keats' house and near the Heath and just a warm and cozy place to be. But it's small, so they hardly ever have the books that I want. I do request books through their book requesting service (sometimes they have them at other libraries), but it costs 40p a book--cheaper than buying books, of course, but still....

Anyway, another thing that is always interesting (if not comforting) about the library are all the weirdo library people who hang out there. Today I innocently sat down at a computer to see what books were in house and the guy next to me acted like it was a personal affront and that by my sitting there I was attempting to snoop into his personal computer business. I made a point of totally ignoring him, but he kept sighing and shifting around and giving me furtive and suspicious looks from his computer. He must have been working on something TOP SECRET!

James...the band (and the man, better known as Jim)

Last night we went to the James concert. This was a great accomplishment as we have attempted to see them several times in the past but our efforts were thwarted by sold out tickets and then accidentally scheduling a trip to Spain at the same time as the concert in April (not that I'm complaining about that). The last time Jim saw them was fifteen years ago, in 1993, when he somehow got involved in catering and served them all vegetarian food before the concert. I took TWO naps in preparation for the evening because I didn't want to let Jim down by being a pregnant lame ass.

I am not a big writer of concert details and we didn't take our camera, so we don't have any shaky, motion sickness inducing footage for you to watch (the concert was really good, they played all the songs we love, Jim was in heaven, etc.) BUT the highlight of the evening for ME was definitely the fact that we got to sit in the disabled area because of my being pregnant. So we had an awesome view of the stage AND I got to have a chair and burly escorts to and from the bathroom. To top it off, all the people we met who worked at Brixton Academy (where the concert was)were just really, really nice, which is not something that you expect or take for granted in London.

It was a good evening and Jim would say that the best part was that they played TWO encores and that Tim Booth danced a lot and that they played some obscure James songs from the early 80's. (I feel obligated to say these things in honor of Jim and his reverence for this band. They are one of my favorite bands, too, but I lack Jim's passion for music and live shows so I won't claim to be able to really portray HOW good of a concert this was.)

This is the last concert for a while for me. So, I'm glad that I ended on a good one!