I drove out to Dartford to look at this warehouse full of wood. There are some planks in there that are basically trees. Thirty foot or more? But I’ve tried so many windows to Lewes bonfire etc and none have opened. I tried this wood reclaiming company in Croydon and they were largely dismissive and rude. It blows my mind. I’m offering to bring people vans full of clean stripped good wood for free. They are all cagey like I’ve stolen it or it’ll all be rotten.
Still, I checked the situation with the metal and that’s always better. There’s a place out of space and time in the Erith Marshes. You drive through the apocalypse to get there and suddenly there’s someone in a hi-vis surrounded by wrecked cars. “If you can get it on a van we can get it off”. That’s all I needed to hear. Option A: Waste loads of man hours cutting girders. Option B: Erith, and the vanishing place. Right by the Thames on an isthmus. I’m gonna send both vans in convoy so the one behind protects traffic from the one in front that has girders sticking out the back. It’ll be fine. And it’ll switch tip weight from bad bad thing to good good thing.
I could fuck this up and end up paying to work. I have to work smart. I know I need to be stripping this wood this time if at all possible. If I don’t I’m gonna regret every tonne of it. Every fucking mixed load bites my ass for double and my staff costs will be the same for a smaller job. Steel steel steel. Can’t fuck around paying to dump metal this time.
All the space we cleared has been filled with stuff we can’t throw around. My forks are gonna be constricted again which will slow things down especially as I’m expecting I’ll have to cause some forklift avalanches to do this tidily. At the warehouse today : “You’re gonna get this all out in two days? … Yeah well, I suppose technically it’s possible.” This guy didn’t see us last time when we absolutely ate through that shit. But yes I want to be more elegant this time and A there’s no time for that shit and B I have to be performance ready on south bank at 6pm on Tuesday, without dirty fingernails or bleeding knees through my white tights.
Let’s watch it happen, I think. Erith and the metal gives me hope. It’s only 12 minutes from site.
Tonight I’m just gonna relax. And maybe stream the movie the event I’m doing tomorrow night is imitating.
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My 500 greatest albums listen is going as slowly as ever. It’s gonna take me years but I love it. Abbey Road a couple of times driving and then this evening finally the first one I experienced live. #6. Nevermind. I’ve been watching what videos exist for it streamed on Spotify, as it is an album from the golden age of the pop video.
Nevermind was the one of the first albums I stole from HMV Cornmarket. It sat at £15.99 so the only options were to borrow it, tape it badly, or run your fingernail down the radar strip and pull it out. Obviously I never actually did that. That would be illegal. I’m an honest citizen with a z applying for my US working visa.
The videos aren’t that great but it’s emotional to see Kurt and the passion thing. He’d be nearly sixty now! People really committed back then, it felt sweatier and more human. I guess there was money for the musicians, not just for the snake in the office. Say what you like about U2 you can’t even watch the much out of fashion Bono play live back then and not see a man who gives a fuck. Kurt and the boys the same, whatever you think of that sound it defined my generation and these guys are working for it, living a life of passion and humanity. I think my love of a good pop video is gonna slow this 500 album thing down even more than my thing of listening to all of them multiple times.
AlBarclay 