: 26 March 2002 :

Yeah yeah yeah yeah! Very happy because I just got an email from my Uncle Steve, my mum's youngest brother. He's only 14 or 15 years older than me, and he's been a formative influence in a lot of ways. He wasn't around when I was younger because he was wandering abroad, in Australia (where he met a girl and married her, I seem to remember, though they're not together now) and in Canada. Vancouver, to be exact. I'll have to get tips off him for good places to go when I'm there in June.

Steve sent me a tape from Vancouver. This would have been about six years ago now. It had Odelay on one side, and an album by Zumpano on the other. Both albums were great, and pretty exciting for someone who'd been listening almost exclusively to Britpop. A while later, when Steve came back, we were going somewhere in his car and he played me an album that had just come out. I liked it, so he gave it to me. It was Brighten the Corners.

Yeah, it was Steve that got me into Pavement. I listened to that tape over and over. I couldn't get enough of it. I got Terror Twilight when it came out, and listened to that loads too. I keep meaning to get the other albums, though there are a lot of CDs on my wishlist and I've not got round to it yet. One thing I have got is a tape that a mate gave me for Christmas a few years back, on which the last track is the gorgeous "Father to a Sister of Thought." A couple of weeks ago I listened to it on the way to hand in the extended essay I'd just finished. I'd been working towards it all term, including a hellish last few days before the deadline, and what with having finished it and with that great tune with the beautiful slide guitar on my headphones, I was so happy I was crying as I walked.

Man, I cry far too much when I'm listening to music. It's exceedingly soft.

Oh, and Bobby N is a major horse-racing fan, which reminds me - someone told me that the dog track in Blackbird Leys is free to get in on Fridays. I think I might have to go, depending on how busy I am... but the temptation is strong.

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(28th March - edited this entry when I realised that 1996 was six years ago, not eight. Fool that I am.)