Kill Your Friends and Killing Yourself To Live

You might just have read the title of this post and think: what's wrong with him? I don't have any morbid obsessions, these are titles of books I bought last Friday while I was in London.

Kill Your Friends, by John Niven, is a great book. It tells the story of a year in the life of an A&R guy. The time is 1997, Britpop's height, and Steven Stelfox is an A&R guy at London Records. Half of this book is based on reality as John Niven was an A&R guy, and the other half is fiction - although there is probably less fiction and more truth in the book than Niven would admit. He mentions some acts that did exists at the time but seems to have been forgotten by now, he mentions the great Radiohead concert at Glastonbury 1997, and all the sex, drugs and rock & roll you can think of.

I started reading this book in TopShop while waiting for my girlfriend to shop and two days later I finished it. After reading it, I wished I spent my twenties as an A&R guy...

Killing Yourself To Live: 85% of a True Story, by Chuck Klosterman, is a funny story of Chuck crossing the USA from NY to Seattle to look for places where artists have died. It is a bid morbid, but his fascination comes from the fact that some of the dead artists still live on after they died (Elvis, 2Pac, Cobain, Morisson, Lennon, Hendrix, Joplin, Duane Allman, Buddy Holly, the list goes on). Intertwined with his dope-high ramblings, it makes for a funny reading.

Just the fact that he can relate all his relationships to a KISS member is pretty absurd but worth reading for. Again I finished this book in two days as well.

Now I need to get more books.

Poker

Last night I played poker at a friends' place with friends. It is actually the first time I played proper poker. I did play once, with money - but it was more fooling around (even though I won). This time it was a proper poker night.

Entry was CHF 20 and I got 1,000 chips. I managed to lose it all twice and had to re-buy myself in twice. In the end I came second and therefore broke even as I got my money back.

It's quite fun playing poker with friends. Definitely better than playing poker on an iPod. Although the amount of beers I drank must have clouded my judgement once in a while (hence why I bluffed a couple of times).

Next time I'm going for the big pot!

Burger King

Today at lunch time I though of going to Burger King. I'm more of a McDonald's person but once in a while I like to indulge in a Whopper with Onion Rings on the side. The burger actually tastes better than McDonald's but the fries sucks.

Anyway, it came as a suprise to me to see that the only Burger King in town has shut down and in its place is a new fast food restaurant selling burgers called Swissmeal. So Burger King has left the city. What a shame. I heard something about Burger King before but didn't realise it was shutting down.

I didn't go into Swissmeal, although I suspect they do sell burgers that are similar to the Whopper (based on some blogs it's actually true). Same thing happened with Wendy's ages ago. They shut down and in its place came a new restaurant with a different name but a similar logo selling similar stuff. And where Kentucky Fried Chicken used to be, now there is a fast food joint selling - guess what? - chicken.

I guess I have to try Swissmeal one of these days.

Happy Valentine's Day

Amy Winehouse

So Amy Winehouse bagged 5 Grammies last night. Not surprising, giving how good her album Back to Black is.

I've heard almost all of its songs on the radio, but I decided to buy the album anyway and I have got to say that the album is amazing. First of all, Amy wrote almost all tracks on it. And Mark Ronson - the shit-hot producer du jour - made it into a funky album with lots of horns and all. Amy's voice is just amazing.

Then you see her pictures in the papers. In the tabloids. About how fucked up she is. About how fucked up her husband is. About her drug problems, her tattoos, her partying, her marriage, etc etc etc. And not to mention her hair.

Is she fucked up because her music is putting her to fame? Or is her music so good because she is fucked up?

Time will tell. In the meantime, keep enjoying Back to Black. Yes, you can listen to AC/DCs as well.

Ronaldo's free kick

Last Wednesday I was in Luxembourg, working on the year-end numbers and being harrased by auditors. In the evening I went for a quick dinner by myself and decided to walk past by the Tube - a sort of English speaking bar/pub. It's a small one and they have one screen to show any matches.

Fortunately for me, the minute I walked in Man Utd vs Portsmouth was just kicking off. I got my pint and took a seat by the bar and watched the game. The good thing about watching a football game is that you don't really need anyone to talk to.

However, when Cristiano Ronaldo scored from the free-kick I really needed to talk about it and couldn't. What an amazing free kick.



Now, personally I don't like Cristiano Ronaldo and I have seen lots of free kicks but I do have to say that this one was very special indeed. The way he kicked it, the way the ball flew in, the whole sequence.

Normally, footballers take free kicks by spinning the ball (a la Beckham) or kicking it as hard as possible (a la Roberto Carlos) but Ronaldo kicked it differently. He sort of toe-poked the ball and gave it and outside curve effect and the way the ball dipped was just amazing.

I'm just glad I got to see it live.