6 for 6/6: Rufus Wainwright

I was lucky enough to get return tickets, along with three friends, to the final night of Rufus Wainwright's five night run at the Old Vic in London. As far as I am aware, these were the only dates on the tour billed as "An Evening With" and had no opening act. I have to say I am a little huffy when it comes to Rufus. I only discovered him thanks to Lottie and when I first saw him live it was in a tiny tiny location that was fairly easy to get tickets to. Since then, he has slowly become more and more popular to the point where he now sells out gigs in seconds and charges a lot of money for them. And his newer fans are all "OMG I luv u Rufus. I have seen him five times, he's da bomb". Fuck off.

Anyway, my audience quibbles aside (I wanted to knife several people in my immediate vicinity), it was an amazing concert. The set list:

Release The Stars
Going To A Town
Sans Souci
Rules & Regulations
Tulsa
Art Teacher
Tiergarten
Leaving For Paris
Between My Legs

Harvester Of Hearts
Do I Disappoint You
Foggy Day in London
If Love Were All
Nobody's Off The Hook
Beautiful Child
Not Ready To Love
Slide Show
Macushlah
14th Street

I Don't Know What It Is
Pretty Things
Complainte De La Butte
Get Happy
Gay Messiah

Cunningly it's the same set list for the whole tour. He has really made this into a show, a piece of theatre. He's a true performer. It's been fascinating to watch that develop over the few years I've been a fan and seeing him live. The whole of the new album was played which I love plus some Judy Garland numbers and a traditional folk song that was performed without microphones and was AMAZING. Of course, the highlight was the encores. Returning to the stage in a bath robe to perform the "I Don't Know What It Is" with the band, they left and he performed the next two songs solo at the piano, still in the bath robe. He then walked to the front of the stage, donned some blinging jewellery and some lipstick. The band returned, the bath robe removed and all he was wearing was a suit jacket, a pair of tights and a fedora. This was what he wore to perform the last two numbers. He then came back on and performed another solo folk song, without a mic. People were yelling out Rufus songs (ugh) for him to sing and he looked at the crowd and said "I am Judy Garland right now".

Sian Phillips popped up to perform the dialogue at the end of "Between My Legs" which was most interesting. In the interval, Rufus changed out of the tightest pair of striped pants I've ever seen into the lederhosen get up which was most amusing. Vocally he was a little strained in places and he totally fucked up "Tulsa" but that song is all over the place anyway. All in all, it was a quality evening and I am glad I went. I forgot my camera though so I stole the pics from another website.

5 for 5/5: Pretty Things

It's been a non update week here at PCB Central. Things have taken a turn for the majorly sucky and I have not really been in a happy place and felt like updating. Hopefully that will all turn around soon. To try and bring myself out of the deep blue funk though, I have spent some money on stuff to cheer me up. To wit:



A big widescreen TV. Look how simultaneously big and thin it is:



I've added some extra space to the lounge AND seriously enhanced my viewing pleasure. That's what I call a win/win.



I also bought a new phone. I've been using my old old old phone on a pay as you go SIM card for a year now and it has slowly driven me up the wall. This isn't the best picture, but goddamn the new phone I got is so sexy. And speaking of thin:



It clocks in at a mere 9mm in width. I love it. It's only a matter of time until I lose it or snap it in two by sitting on it of course. And finally:



A new watch. It's gorgeous. I'm having to learn to tell the time all over again due to the fact the dials on this baby go anti clockwise, but it's worth it.

4 for 4/4: Patisserie PCB

I realise this flies in the face of last month's weight loss edition, but there you are. Anyway, I bake a fine cake, or so I am told. The company I work for have a tradition of if it's your birthday then you bring in goodies to share with your team members. A little bit backwards if you ask me but there you have it. Anyway, I baked a cake once for someone and it went down such a storm that it started becoming something of a tradition. The biggest irony is the cake I baked for my birthday was a disaster and went in the bin. Ha!






The top picture is my colleague Hiroko. It wasn't her birthday, she was celebrating (if that's the right word) ten years of being with the company. I had baked the Nigella Lawson Nutella Cake for her. It was phenomenal. The next picture is the cake she baked me for my birthday. It's a red velvet cake but she was wary of the red food dye so it's really just a velvet cake. To the right of it you can see the cookies I baked in place of my cake disaster that was thrown away. Next pic down is the cake I baked for a German colleague who loves kirsch and cherries. It's a rich chocolate cake, but instead of using plain chocolate for it, I used Green & Blacks luxury dark chocolate with dried cherries and the topped it off with some kirsch soaked chocolate covered cherries (they were from a posh organic chocolate shop so they weren't covered, they were enrobed. Whatever). The final pic is a close up of my birthday cake because it's my blog and it's all about me.

Sorry I've been a bit impersonal of late. There's something huge going down right now and until everything is settled I am not breathing a word of it on here. So keep your eyes peeled for a big update later in the week. Hopefully.

3 for 3/3: The PCB Weight Loss Edition

Check it:



Jan 2004, I am an absolutely whopping 300lbs. Don't focus on the headband and the sword, look at my insanely enormous thighs! And my pudgy hands. I never thought I was that big, until I saw this picture.

One Year Ago:



This is my work ID. I'm less hefty, no? Now let's discuss that this is without doubt the worst photo of me ever taken. When it was being done, the guy was all "do you want to approve it?" and I said I didn't care. Then I saw it. And boy did I regret being so devil may care. I think as a birthday treat I'm going to get my picture redone, so I look less like a serial killer who escaped from a mental asylum without brushing his hair. Anyway....

Today:



Five minutes ago, in fact. I am really quite proud of myself for losing as much weight as I have. I'm not done yet, I'd like to lose another 30lbs or so. But from January of 2004 up to today has been a long and difficult journey so I think I'm allowed to be pleased with the results.

2 for 2/2 (a little late)

Late because I totally forgot in all the NY madness. So here are two pics of my friend Erik's cute bulldog who took quite a shine to me.

New year, new blogging idea

This idea is stolen from Yoda Jeff. When the month and the day are the same, I am going to post the corresponding number of pictures on my blog. There don't seem to be any rules regarding that they have to be taken on the day in question so I'm sure I can have some fun with some old pics on here at some point. But for now, here is my one pic for 1/1. It's the view from my lounge window....