Hash Panda

I'm a panda and I write what I see and feel. I use my blogs to talk shit about music and life... and using it as part of writing therapy. In my blogs, I tend to use the word 'fuck' a lot... make of this what you will. Fuckers. I write all the quotes in the postcards unless otherwise stated. Double fuckers.

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Dimps. Holy Moly. I mean... the moly is HOLY.

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Well.. as 2012 draws to a close... the first band I saw this year was @VNV_Nation - one of the best (and most underrated) bands around - electronic, EBM, industrial... whatever you wanna call it, Ronan and the boys get you to "dance motherfuckers!" - and that ain't no bad thing.

After a cathartic twelve months, all is well... all is well.  I know what I want / don't want in life.  I know what I like / don't like in life.

And, after ambling and shambling and four months in Cairo, I met someone who gave me the time and space to work it all out... no drama, no fuss.  A right old Dreamscape moment.

The writing therapy sure did help, the Dreamscape therapy sure (sure sure sure) did help.  I remember NYE 2011 wondering / worrying about 2012.  A year on... can't fucking wait to get into 2013 and be a super-dazzling panda.  

Maybe with my own little uniform.  A cape, maybe.  

Hmmmm... would a super-dazzling panda in a cape need little bootees?  Maybe furry ones?

Anyway, back to the point... VNV.  Top band.  Glowsticks.  Jumping about.  But sometimes, they fire out such tracks as Beloved and Illusion... and Nova.

Shine, shine your light on me Illuminate me, make me complete Lay me down, and wash this world from me Open the skies, and burn it all away 'Cause I've been waiting, all my life just waiting for you to shine, shine your light on me

Rest assured, when I see these next... I will be the one up the front with glowsticks, cape and my little furry bootees, Dreamscape by my side (probably shaking her head and wondering what the fuck she got herself into).

Laters, dudes!

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Well... The Big Man came... he emptied his sack... and off he went again.

An awesome day, all in... me, Dreamscape and the little one, nibbling chocolate, checking out Shrek, getting weepy over some program about midwives... pretty great.

No... VERY great.

Today is a day with more kids, more wrapping paper lobbed all over the place... tomorrow is a day with the cubs here too

Seriously... I had some top presents - and one of them never to be guessed in one million years (we worked it out) - but having Dreamscape, Da Boss, Evil, Cubs and the tot... is pretty fucking fine indeed.

And for those of you out there too fucking miserable for their own good... pogue mahone!

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Oh yeah... @mileshuntTWS, @thewonder_stuff, @pweiofficial and @jesusjonesband basically battered the fuck out of the night... the UK was well and truly sleighed.

New album in hand, beer in other hand.  Away we go.

JJ fired in such stuff as International Bright Young Thing, Never Enough, Real Real Real, Right Here Right Now, Zeroes and Ones, Who Where Why and Info Freaky... you get the frickin' idea.  And this is the first band of the night when you're just settling into that first pint.  Holy crip.  The only downside was that the keyboard player seemed, basically, fucking mental and you couldn't hear some of the samples playing on the tracks.

At the bar for another beer and PWEI amble into the evening with Ich Bin Ein Auslander and Wise Up Sucker... and let's not forget Def Con One (gimme big mac, gimme fries to go!) - it was very much like a rocked-out Prodigy set.  And fucking brilliant.

Then after a real short roadie-break... the lights drop... and on they stroll.  Miles SMILED.  Yeah, I know.  Smiled.  Erica looked mighty damned fine as per usual - all in red with a funky top hat.  We all kind of agreed that Stevie Wyatt was probably the singer with Erasmus at some point... Fuzz was there to bash drums... and Mark McCarthy spent the evening avoiding smiling (obviously Miles was smiling enough for everyone).

Two tracks from the new album (sounding promising... the big fear was, after a seven-year break... the new stuff would be cack) and one track from the Midlands with Love (cover version of Duran Duran's Planet Earth)

We were spared any Beverley Knight cover versions.

But we kinda know the drill by now... lots of songs with Erica fiddling (Red Berry Joy Town, Here Comes Everyone, Golden Green, Size Of A fucking Cow, Caught In My Shadow, Mission Drive, Circle Square, Play, Welcome To The Cheap Seats,  Don't Let Me Down Gently).

Then Erica dawdles off to 'let the boys play' and... ooooh yeah.  Unbearable, Give Give Give, Ten Trenches, It's Yer Money, Poison... 

By the end of 4 hours... sweaty panda, happy panda.  Dreamscape shook her ass... most definitely two legs of the groove machine.

The only criticism... the fucking venue runs out of beer.

I. Kid. You. Not.

A Saturday night, before Christmas.  The venue is RAMMED.  And, by 8pm... run out of Guinness.

O2 Academy... tossers.

JJ, PWEI, TWS... gods.

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Holy Hell... tomorrow is #SleighTheUK - here already!  Waited for months (and months) and months.  And now it's here.  Finally.  I may pee some glitter before the weekend is over.

I was kinda tempted to post Mission Drive cos it's Malc's favorite Stuffies tune (or so Miles tells us at most gigs) but, the thing is... it's an OK tune and gets you bouncing but I love the stuffies more for the moshing.

And, to mosh... you need Unbearable, Poison, Give Give Give Me More More (fucking) More... and Ten Trenches Deep.

To think... to have this or Good Night Though as the last track... after a night of Jesus Jones and Pop Will Eat Itself... calf length shorts, new rock boots, sweaty panda

GNT is a pretty awesome track, complete with loudhailer for Milo to shout 'good night, so long' - but, to be fair, whatever the track... bro, sis and dreamscape - the eight legged groove machine will be in full effect... yes sir we're REALLY keen!

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Well.. it's almost here... the big man is filling his sack... a Dreamscape Christmas beckons.

In retrospect, a cack year turned brilliant on August 25 - a lucky panda, I suppose!

Since that fateful day, a book written and selling well and now speaking to be done in UK, India, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Qatar... offices to open in USA, India, Middle East.

Add to that, trips to Cairo and to see my friends in Lebanon.

A busy 2013 is on the cards but, before all that, we have the great Christmas Pudding cook-off (oh yeah) as well as Christmas Eve par-tay, Da Boss' birthday par-tay, the great Christmas Curry cook-off...

Oh, and The Stuffies, Poppies and Jesus Jones... oh and VNV Nation.  All before end of 2012.

Next year... well Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is a frickin' GIVEN but we are also waiting on Glasto too.

Dreamscape Times sure do rock.

True story!

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Sometimes, being out of the country means that I miss critical items like this - good job that Dreamscape is keeping me up to date with it all!

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I always forget how much I love Vines singing Homesick - it's a cool kinda tune.  I saw them live in the UK and they rocked the shit outta the room... yeah... a good band.

Well... today... broke a tooth during running a workshop in Qatar... but back in the UK in a few days so will see if I can tough the fecker out.  Ice cream being avoided.  The Oumali is as tempting as ever... and probably as fattening as ever.

Mmmmmm.... oumali..... nom

Apart from the broken tooth and the oumali fixation... I am up at 7am local time and on the balcony, working working working - and it feels fucking good (as Muse would sing).

And after today... well I am not only a writer for a Bahrain magazine but I am also now managing director of the middle east company... and am meeting ministers to talk about shit 'n shizzle in three countries.

Holy... as they say... moly.

It's like being a grown-up and everything.

And while sunshine is lush, the business is genuinely 'booming' and my head is completely chilled and happy... I miss my dreamscape.  Counting down the days like some kind of panda advent calendar till I see her again and we move into a pretty damned fine farmhouse cottage doo-hickey.

As my bluenose wideboy mate would say.... BOOSH

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Ah I do love Depeche Mode - even now... after a quarter of a frickin feckin century - and I remember watching the video for this in about 1986 just after leaving school... shit A' Level results... off to Cornwall with Mymatedave

Something to do with DM being in a cornfield and they had camcorders on rope, swinging them round so the recorded footage was all Blair Witch (before BW, of course).

Anyway, anyhoo... I am now a columnist with a Bahrain business magazine, a published author, a speaker as well as an international speaker.

I kinda TGROW'd the ass out of my life and here I am...

Correction.  Dreamscape gave me the chance to not only TGROW it... but do it.

There's something beating here inside my body and it's called a heart... If I lend it to you, would you keep it safe for me?  I'll lend it to you, will you treat it tenderly?

Well... I have given it to her and she is looking after it mighty fine.

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Sunday

With Dreamscape, the cubs, Da Boss and Evil

Tomorrow... big meetings to sort the business... new people joining... Qatar on Friday for a week of sun, sand and some enchanted evening

A day of work, thinking about work, planning work... Ol' Jebus would consider it to be heresy

But he's fictional.  so sod him.

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It's a good day when you're too fucking busy to blog shit, cos you're busy livin' good shit instead.

Two weeks time... Qatar.  Three weeks time... Dreamscape Bubbles.  January... Bahrain.  February... India.

Add to that, director of a business incubator and lots of other shizz. 

Some of the shizz... massive July floating into view.

Boosh.

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What I want is to be departing the Starship Enterprise in a one man shuttlecraft, headed to the planetoid I rule known as Sheldon Alpha Five.

Sheldon Cooper

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Pirate skulls and bones... sticks and stones and weed and bombs

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Ah a bit of Covenant on a Saturday... fresh back from thrashing people at 10 pin bowling... it's all in the wrist, my friends.

And now, thinking about what needs to go into a suitcase for a week in India.

With a fair wind, straight from there to Qatar and then back to UK for the next chapter of the Dreamscape Adventure... the farmhouse!

Will be odd to be heading off again - I was glad-as-fuck to be leaving the UK in May but, this time... already thinking about being back, building the business, smiling a shitload in 2013.

Wonder what the Indian for 'boom' is!

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Ah Neil Young... my new fave... well, until we crank up to Sleigh The UK.

The farmhouse is looking lush... thinking of clear winter nights, no clouds, full moon and looking across frosted fields and hills.

No streetlights, so no light pollution... clear views of the stars.

A hush all around... the silence and the big sky hanging overhead...

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Farm.  Happy happy people.  Yazoo.

Speaking events being arranged... lots of travel and lots of stuff to sort - lots of smiles.

And a place to come back to - to feel grounded and wanted and all that very good stuff... a 17th century farmhouse with it's own ghosts and lots of fields to yomp about in.

We TGROW'd the ass off it... and looks like we come in under budget, and before Christmas.  

Dreamscape Adventures are proving to be the very best.

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Alright!