Join me on the South Bank, won’t you?

9 March 2016, 6:50 pm (UK time): My first thirty-six hours in London have included mild jet jag, milder nachos (“spicy” is not in a British chef’s vocabulary), and quite a few “testing, testing” videos. May I now please present the first video from Strangling London 2016 to make it to the airwaves.

Please be generous with your judgment; none of these “live as it happens” videos will be edited or touched up. After I’m home (and have caught up on all the sleep that I can already assure you I won’t be getting) I reserve the right to yank many of these videos offline and trim ’em, modify ’em, and in some cases trash ’em. For now, I just want to share my adventure with all of you as expeditiously as possible.

Come with me now, won’t you, to the south bank of the Thames.

Matt March 9, 2016 London No Comments

Matt, Take Me to YouTube

I’m accustomed to the spending of weeks worth of free time prior to a Europe trip on researching, poring over old notes, and revising itineraries. The unusual new investment of this next trip is in video equipment and the knowledge of how to use it.

With no more fanfare than that, let me throw up my first attempt at a Matt, Take Me to Europe video. I hope “throw up” will not be an applicable expression during your viewing of this somewhat shaky inaugural clip.

Matt February 24, 2016 England, London, The Netherlands No Comments

First things first.

Stranglers ticket_Brixton_1.22.16Last Friday night, 22 January, I bought a ticket to the first Stranglers concert I’ll be attending in March. In the instant my American Express Midnight Black corporate credit card (you know, the one only carried by us super-elite, the top one percent of the top one percent) was charged, my attendance was merely theoretical. I hadn’t bought my airline tickets yet.

See, that’s how we real fans roll. We commit to being in the audience, screaming our heads off and air guitaring furiously till the breeze in the mosh pit rivals the strongest AC, before we’re even sure how we’re going to get there.

The 02 Academy Brixton is the rock venue in London. No band has cred in the UK till they’ve played the hallowed hall. How many nights you’re able to pack it is a measure of your worth in the business. You do a Brixton, you’re in. You do two or three Brixtons, you might earn a pleasant nod from Damon Albarn. You do five or six Brixtons, you might get an enthusiastic growl from Iggy Pop. (Oh, wait, maybe that wasn’t a growl… he just talks that way.) Veterans and newbies alike stain the floor with their sweat; February sees The Cult and Twenty One Pilots there.

I’m excited to experience the Stranglers live again, especially because it’ll be within a legendary British fortress of rock n’ roll.

Matt January 31, 2016 London, Upcoming Trips No Comments