Rush Glasgow SECC October 2007

my brothers and i saw the best band in the world a couple of days ago. Rush were playing at the Glasgow SECC, we saw them not so long ago on september 14th 2004, but my first Rush experience was april 15th 1992 on the roll the bones tour (also at the SECC).

here is master drummer Neil Peart doing his thing. his drum solo has been evolving over the years, and this time seems to have been changed quite a lot. it has almost ambient elements but towards the end has more industrial sounding elements. in this yt vid, you can't really make anything out but you can hear the gist. there is also a little solo by Alex Lifeson straight after giving Geddy and Neil a rest.

the intro and outro (after song YYZ) features Geddy Lee as a kind of Mike Myers 'Fat B***ard' character in a kilt talking to himself (Geddy).

he must like Scotland, so hopefully it won't be long before they come back.

Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Recovered in Glasgow

an artist friend of my told me her exciting news a little while ago. yesterday morning she happened to see a chap with a case that seemed one of those heavy duty bombproof types for storing important documents. she had seen lecturers and people holding talks using them before. the chap seemed to be struggling with getting it out of a car, but then went into a building in west regent street, Glasgow.

a little while later undercover police seemed to be all over the place, went into the building and fished out the man, his case and a few other people, one with his head covered with a coat or blanket.

what was in the case? drugs?bombs? firearms? no, apparently some artwork that was made by Leondardo da Vinci. the Madonna of the Yarnwinder turned up in the city centre where it's believed it was going to be sold. this painting was nicked from Drumlanrig castle in Dumfries & Galloway, the thieves pretended to be tourists before stealing the valuable painting. it's not the only Madonna of the Yarnwinder though. there are 2 other versions of this painting in private collections but i'm sure it's still worth a bob or two. well, enough to warrant police from 4 anti-crime agencies working at retreiving the painting for 4 years. it even made it onto the FBI's 10 most wanted art crimes list.


other important art news: wasps studios is opening it's doors this weekend. visit our studios in dennistoun and get artwork that is a little bit more affordable than £37 million.
:)

My Gargoyle Wings

here is a pic of my gargoyle wings. they protrude more than your average human's. imagine a cat walking along, how it's shoulder bladers slink in an out. mine can do that.


everyone's shoulder area moves to some extent, but these scapula of mine just go a little further than most. now only if they were useful and could grow a little more then i could glide on a windy day, an inbuilt gliding system if you will.

unfortunately the downside to having joint hypermobility, what the rheumatologist thinks i have, is the pain. lately everything seems to hurt, not enough to stop me getting about, but just enough to stop me enjoy getting about. an area of my left ribs has been threatening to pop or move out of place but hopefully it won't as it did before.

having always been a flexible kid i didn't think too much of the little niggling pains that plagued me day to day, but getting older (31 now) everything is getting a bit more pronounced. even if the wrists do get too sore to hold things in the future i'm sure the last thing that will be prised from my grip will be a flashlight. :)

Raku is No More

sad news. Raku is dead. Raku was bulbcat #2, my flashllight protector, and one of the nicest, coolest cats you could meet. so otherwordly in fact sometimes i'd think of him as a little man in a cat costume. he really was that different. he had such a sweet nature and never clawed at anyone that i know of.

he displayed some breathing problems at the end of August standing with his elbows out. his lungs weren't filling to capacity and not enough air was getting in to his body. the vet determined that an X-ray was needed but to put him under when he was only getting about 10% of the oxygen he should have been breathing was too dangerous. they put him in an oxygen tent overnight before performing the X-ray the next morning and unfortunately found "something" in his chest area that could possibly have been a tumor.

Raku and i

100ml of chyle (a milky fluid) was removed from his lungs and he seemed to perk up, although he'd initially alternate one bad day then one good day. Raku then appeared to be on the mend and the family started to get their hopes up. even last Saturday i was thinking that maybe we should let him out again (he was kept inside since the trip to the vet). he was jumping on to the front window ledge and even playing games with our other cat Pushkin.

sadly my beautiful boy was unable to roam free again, he developed major breathing difficulties on monday morning and was rushed to the vet by my father and younger brother to be put down. we had the option of trying to drain his lungs again, but that would have been just a selfish motive. of course we wanted to keep him but we knew his days were numbered two weeks ago. we were just fortunate to have had a little more time with him and thankfully his suffering was mercifully short.

Raku with shaved patch behind right elbow.

x