Holy Hell! Two Weeks Batman!

Okay, I lied. I didn't get a blog up anytime after the last one. I've been bad. You all think I've died, or turned into a hermit I'm sure. Or at least the two or three people who read this blog probably think so. What have you missed?

First of all, I'm almost done with work. I have four more days of actual work, and 12 days left on my contract. I'm leaving my apartment in twelve days as well, as I have my Etat de lieu (state of the apartment-they need to see just how much I've damaged the place...). I'll get money back the next day. You may remember that I paid a 700 euro deposit, so I'm aiming to get as much of it back as I can. I leave Privas on July 3rd, with my hectic and crazy travel schedule taking me Privas>Valence>Lyon>London Stansted>London>London Stansted>Belfast> for my next stop. The three London stops are if I decided to head on into London from Stansted, as I'll have to spend the night in the airport. I'll probably just crash there until my flight the next morning. The next day I'l fly to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where I'll be met by my friend Amy. From there I'll spend a week in Ireland hanging out with her and hiking. About halfway through I'm off to Dublin to see my friend Jen. Get this: I'll be spending my 27th birthday in DUBLIN. Hoohyeah-I'm off to the Guinness Factory. The next day my flight leaves for Chicago.

For you Portlanders, I'll be back in town on July 20th, or a month from Friday. It seems so close and yet so far away. Hah!

So what the hell have I been up to that's kept me so preoccupied?

The last time I checked in here I had just returned from my trip to Montpellier. I was bored and on Spring Break. I did do some hiking here and there, including a long-awaited bushwhack down to the bottom of the Mezayon. I went back to work at the end of April and had a good time working one and two day weeks, thanks to a series of holidays and strikes. I've only worked one full work week (three days!) since then.

I've been at work on my photo album, putting up all my best photos for the world to see. It's better than what you'd find here.

I made an ill-fated trip to Vallon Pont d'Arc discussed in this trip report, which also details some of my hiking adventures in and around the Ardeche.

Kyle Coleman came to visit! We did a bunch of hiking, and then we went to Barcelona where we met up with Marie and Andy. It was a slam-banging good time. We stayed with my friend Annie from Portland. I tried absinthe for the first time. We stayed out late, and yet it was surprisingly earlier than I thought we'd stay out. We saw a girl get robbed on the train on our way into town. I wound up washing dishes at Annie's bar when they got slammed and I offered. I stole a few Radiohead posters that were put up all over the place. They have original recipe Mountain Dew. And so on. It was a great time!









Last weekend I went to Nimes, in Provence, to see Radiohead. It was an amazing show in an amazing venue-an arena built by the Romans in the 1st Century AD. Setlist:

01. Reckoner
02. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
03. Myxomatosis
04. All I Need
05. Pyramid Song
06. Nude
07. There There
08. The National Anthem
09. Faust Arp
10. Videotape
11. No Surprises
12. 15 Step
13. Where I End and You Begin
14. Idioteque
15. Everything in its Right Place
16. Street Spirit
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore1:
18. House of Cards
19. Talk Show Host
20. Exit Music
21. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
22. Karma Police

Encore2:
23. Bangers & Mash
24. Planet Telex

I'm guessing they had to leave the stage due to a curfew, because it didn't look like they were done after "Planet Telex" and then poof! They were off stage without even saying goodnight. I posted some observations of the show over on the Green Plastic Board:

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For the record, I was at last night's show. Work and money meant I could only make one show, but it looks like I'm the first one to comment here that was actually at one of the two Nimes shows. Last night's setlist was better but tonight was longer. Some observations and notes:

*** For those who aren't aware of it, the venue is an arena built during the 1st Century AD by the Romans and is astonishingly well-preserved. It isn't as large as it looks on the outside, and I was shocked that it could hold as many as 20,000 people-the floor area isn't that large and there literally isn't a bad seat in the entire venue.
*** Radiohead's t-shirts are freaking ugly. Ethically made or no, somebody goofed on the taste end.
*** Bat For Lashes are pretty good but I couldn't help but wish it could have been Animal Collective, who would be an absolutely perfect opening act for more reasons than I can count. I would have settled for Liars.
*** The 8:30 show time was bogus, especially with the curfew. I'm guessing they were trying to avoid the sun shining in their eyes.
*** The moon was nearly full and shining down on the arena.
*** I'm pretty sure their second encore was cut short by curfew. As they ended "Planet Telex" they looked like they were going to do another song but then proceeded to leave the stage without saying much of anything. Strange. I'll be very, very sad if I find out "The Tourist" was the intended set closer...

Highlights:

*** Getting one hour of soundcheck. It was particularly sweet since I couldn't make tonight's show to get an extra hour of Radiohead. Hopefully somebody was taping, since you could make out everything they were doing on the inside.
*** The best, coolest venue I've ever seen, even better than the Gorge in Washington state. See notes above.
*** The light show was amazing. It also helped me get some awesome pictures.
*** As much as I love the song, I was still shocked to see how huge a crowd favorite "Myxamitosis" is.
*** "Pyramid Song" was mesmerizing, absolutely note perfect.
*** Effin' "Where I End And You Begin". Enough said.
*** Turning around at the beginning of "Idiotheque" to see the ENTIRE FLOOR erupt into a spontaneous pogo. I couldn't help but join in and was amazed by everyone's ability to jump and sing at the same time.
*** "Street Spirit" was totally unexpected and absolutely gorgeous. The song was a bigger single over here than it was in the US and everyone sang along beautifully.
*** Thom royally screwing up "Talk Show Host". They had to start the song over. It's nice to know he's human after all.
*** "Exit Music" was spectacular, and the crowd stayed perfectly silent (with a couple exceptions, which were greeted by a lot of "shhhhhs") for the quiet parts. Amazing!
*** Seeing Thom play drums on "Bangers & Mash"!
*** M-effin "Planet Telex"!!!! I've been waiting for this one again since my first show in 1997.

It was a fantastic show. I took 100 or so pictures and five videos: 40 seconds of "Where I End And You Begin" from soundcheck, snippets of "There There" and "The National Anthem", most of "Exit Music" (which I wasn't planning on filming, but I was so moved that I had to...) and the full video of "Planet Telex". I'll put them up on Google Video this week when I have a chance. Ditto the best pictures.
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I managed to catch the hour-long soundcheck, which was also cool since it was bonus music and I couldn't make Sunday night's show.

Pictures:















I also managed to record some videos, which I'll put up here when I have the chance.

Hmmm...what else?

I've been recording music over the past two months. I resurrected a couple of my old songs but have written about seven new songs in an alternate tuning. The new songs are easily the best thing I've ever done. Some of you have heard a few of the rough demos; if anybody wants to hear the most recent incarnations, be my guest. I'm really proud of the songs!

This weekend I'm headed to the Cascade du Ray-Pic, the Ardeche's most famous landmark after the Gorges of the Ardeche River. Here's a pic:



I'm also making a return trip to Jaujac this weekend.

Next week is my last week of work. Over the weekend I'm heading over to Grenoble to meet up with one Kirsten Rasmussen. The plan is to do some real Alpine hiking, with a trip planned for here:





I thank Google Image for the help. I'm also going here:



I'm totally stoked.

So many things have happened since I last wrote and there are so many things I haven't written about. One of these days I'll get around to actually writing about some of it.