The Good, The Bad, and The Cover Music.
Three things have happened today, which have resulted in this posting. In no particular order: re-discovering music from the mid-nineties, remembering I had the blog, writing my bio for an upcoming theatre production.
Okay, there was a particular order. I’ve got some form of literary OCD – litigate me.
The music thing was a sheer accident, but a happy one. I remember a lifetime ago, tooling around at my Dad’s place wanting to put on a CD. I like quiet, but I don’t like the complete absence of sound – makes me feel like a horror film is about to break out. So I found a CD of tracks from ‘Wilson” and “Diesel” – I knew the second name, and I’ve always been partial to his brand of rock. Anyway, this album seemed to be full of song names I recognised, but not as Diesel-penned songs, so that piqued my interest further. WHY DO I KNOW ALL THESE NAMES!?
As it turns out this was predominantly a covers album, which explains the familiarity. And it’s cool as hell – literally. The first track was the most spirited rendition I’ve ever heard of this particular song, and given that most of it’s fame was garnered through Tina Turner’s version, this was a breath of fresh air. Well, as it turns out I stumbled across that same song again this week. Enjoy it.
The blog memory was a happy one, but I felt bad for neglecting it so long. I do have a fairly convincing reason, but the details are boring, so I’ll limit it thusly – these days I only have a single arm, typing is a painful and protracted process. Yes, I cut the offending limb off. It was a freeing, if not messy, experience.
All right, I kid – I still have it, but it’s like a hand-me-down, in that it’s seen a lot better days, and these days is only seen as fit for purpose until a better one is available. This is a bit of a problem, given the biological and “well-attached” nature of the item in question. So yeah, no good news since I reported the injury itself. I’ve seen medical experts, I’ve seen medical amateurs – I’ve talked to a lot people who were in a hospital. I’m not sure of what capacity they were there, but we talked, and they may have given advice that I may have taken. More on that as it progresses… BUT THE BLOG IS BACK IN BUSINESS!
I’ve torn the dust covers off everything, polished up the windows, and with a rag tied around my head, I’m now standing back in my dirty overalls, congratulating myself on getting this place back in order. It’s amazing the difference a few badly formed sentences can make to a place. I may also spruce it up with a coat of paint, or install some shiny new, metal-plated-with-down-lights cases to store all my wonderous trophies and…stuff in. But hey, that’s getting a bit Tony Stark ahead of myself. Still, this place could do with some suits of powered-armour…
left to right: Alfred The Next Generation and The Nick.
The last thing was the now-annual (sometimes six-monthly) requirement that I find to be both a source of amusement, and a challenge of my skills. With every theatre production comes the accompanying programme, that serves to highlight the previous accomplishments of the cast, the notes from the Director on what they wanted to express with this production, and at least in the shows I’ve participated in, 100-15o words of lies from myself.
It’s not that I’m going out of my way to try and convince anyone of any falsehoods – I have 100% confidence that no one will believe a word of them. Rather, I have an almost pathological aversion to saying anything complimentary about my own achievements. I firmly believe they should speak for themselves, and if there’s nothing to be said of them, then that’s how it should be. So I take a different path, I will often write a selection of bios and leave it to the Committee member producing the programme to decide which is included, but here’s a few past submissions…
Nicholas Durbridge – Vice-Principal Richard Vernon
The youngest in a family of acrobats known as the “Flying Graysons,” he watched a mafia boss kill his parents in order to extort money from the circus that employed them. Bruce Wayne, secretly the superhero Batman, took him in as his legal ward, later his adopted son, and eventually as his crime-fighting partner, Robin. Throughout his adolescence, Batman and Robin were inseparable. However, as he grew older and spent more time as the leader of the Teen Titans, he retired as Robin and took on his own superhero identity as Nightwing to assert his independence (others would fill in as Robin).
Oh….NICK. Sorry, I got confused.
Nicholas Durbridge – Herb
Nick views musical theatre as one of the more esoteric extreme sports. There’s not nearly enough wearing of sunglasses and riding bikes off large objects, but he’s sure that the same adrenaline buzz can be found by forgetting your lines. His career to date has included a spinal injury whilst portraying the bumbling, prat-falling Sergeant in “Pirates of Penzance” damaging his ankle as a bumbling, prat-falling Will Parker in “Oklahoma” and being given concussion as a bumbling, prat-falling Sky Masterson in “Guys & Dolls”. His personal goal is to survive Godspell in one piece.
So as you might’ve guessed, I’m a bit stuck as to what to write for my bio. I was hoping inspiration would strike by this point in the post, but…um…I know, I know. Today’s post sucked. Look at it as a warm-up for incoming inanities.
Thoughts In The Key Of N 
Write it as Diesel!