(Written yesterday)
Today, the Sons Of Admirals are jetting off to America.
Well, some of us are. And some of us are flying tomorrow. And some of us are going to LA, but some of us are going to Virginia. And we’re all flying back at different times.
Yeah, as much as I’d like to tell you we’re all outbound for some big record label meeting overseas, the purpose of our trip is not business, but pleasure. John and Hank Green are hosting VidCon on July 9th in Los Angeles, and Tom, Charlie and myself will be playing there. We’ve been allocated about fifteen minutes play time each, so I’ve been rehearsing a really tight set of six songs. And maybe a seventh. And maybe a duet. It’s gonna be fun, whatever happens :)
My experience flying today has been the most pleasant of my life, entirely because Eddplant is flying first class to Virginia (he’s staying with his girlfriend for a few weeks), and that meant I got to share in his first class perks. Flying first class has always been a dream of mine, and today I got to check in through the first class section and sit in the first class lounge as Ed’s guest – helping ourselves to complimentary croissants and the free bar while we reminisced about our lives. It was wonderful, and made me realise that the extra money doesn’t just go into a seat at the front with more legroom, it goes into the experience – the lounge, the quicker check-in, the tranquility of it all.
(The first class lounge, by the way, was called the Admirals Club Lounge.)
I’m hoping I’ll never fly economy again, but realistically, I can’t afford anything else xD Well, I could afford it, if I wanted to let my savings trickle away, which isn’t something I want.
All the Admirals were scatty about our plans, so we all have different schedules; Tom’s flying out tomorrow, Charlie’s flying out a week from now, and we’ll all be uniting to hit up Disneyland and see Toy Story 3 before partying hard for the three days of the conference. (I say ‘partying hard’, but that mainly applies to me and Tom. Charlie told me he’s participating in a Super Scrabble tournament during VidCon :D)
Then we’ll be off to Vegas for a few days – I’ll be playing poker, and treating myself to seeing the Beatles LOVE show, cos hey, how often do you find yourself in Vegas? – and then, finally, we’ll return home. While I’m out here I’ll still be doing everything I can to break Here Comes My Baby, including mobilising the request show on Radio 1 through Twitter each weekday at 4PM (which will be 8AM my time – just as I’m waking up).
Fun story – I found these new Durex condoms in Boots that I’d never seen before; a pack called ‘RealFeel’ that apparently feels like you’re not wearing one (which they’ve promised before with FeatherLites and it didn’t deliver) and another called ‘Crystal Clear Diamond standard condoms’ (I don’t really know what that means). Anyway, I bought those, and then Ed got a pack, and when we got to the counter the woman at the checkout said, “you know these are on offer, two for £10?” and Ed replied “I didn’t want to be too presumptuous”.
Thank you for all your kind words on the new album :) One thing I was pleasantly surprised by is how many people don’t really like it, which I think is great; pulling people out of their comfort zone. Good music should force an extreme opinion. I’d worry if everyone just said it was awesome. All my favourite albums left me unimpressed when I first heard them. I shrugged at American Idiot. Lady Gaga was just an annoying person on the radio that my mum sang along to. The albums I instantly love are usually the ones I get bored of just as quickly.
On that note; a number of people seemed to be surprised by how different it is from Parrot Stories, even though I released 117% and The Time Of Your Life and Georgia and You And Me early and have repeatedly said that the new album is a dance record. I’ve tried to ease you into it as much as I could :p I don’t ever want to stay in the same place, which is good; because if you don’t like Nickelback, you don’t like Nickelback. You can’t listen to Nickelback’s newest album, dislike it, and say “well maybe they’ll do something different next time that I’ll enjoy”. They won’t. Nickelback are what they are. But if you liked Parrot Stories, and didn’t like The World Is Mine, the next album will be different and new all over again and you’ll have fresh opinions for that, which is what I think music should do. (Having said that, I think you’ll be able to find at least a couple songs on all my releases to enjoy, as Tom strives in production to do justice to the individual track and give it a unique feel.)
Okay, enough of this. I have Chapter 17 of Twilight to edit, and I want to enjoy the in-flight entertainment. Date Night! Valentine’s Day! The Time Traveller’s Wife! It’s all here!
Ooh, chicken or beef? I’m going for beef. Yesterday all I ate was chicken drumsticks. I’m sick of chicken. What happened to fish?
x
EDIT: Wow, nothing like drinking a complimentary bottle of wine at 30,000 feet to knock you out for a few hours. I very nearly slept through the end of Date Night. Good film by the way, even though the premise is ludicrous – much better than the equally ludicrous Hangover, which was rubbish. I’m now watching an advert for a vodka called Gray Goose, the tagline of which is “World’s Best Tasting Vodka”. Surely that’s misleading? Then again, maybe it objectively is the best, in the same way the Beatles made objectively great music, and Twilight is an objectively bad book.
