Record Store Day 2010

So this weekend my sister was supposed to come over to experience some bits of what London has to offer. As you might guess at this point, that didn't happen due to 'The Cloud'. She's now supposed to come over in two weeks, so that'll give The Cloud some time to move somewhere else, like Asia, or Greenland. Or for airlines to realise that it's probably perfectly fine to fly just a bit lower, beneath The Cloud. But as she booked the flight with Ryanair, they haven't been the most hospitable airline you can imagine. They did offer her to change her flight once it was cancelled, but as her return flight wasn't cancelled at the time, and she couldn't book a flight to London after her return flight, that wasn't really helpful. Also, if you want to point this fact out to them, you'll have to call them at €0.45/minute, and with literally thousands of persons with the same problem, I think Ryanair are making more money being grounded than when flying.

The weekend was still pretty good though. On Saturday, it was Record Store Day, which I imagine isn't a very well phenomenon in the Netherlands. Basically, it's a day that celebrates the mere existence of independent record stores (as in, decent record stores that are not HMV - and I'm not implying there that HMV is in any way decent) with lots of limited edition releases that are only available at said records stores. Moreover, there are lots of free performances at the participating record stores as well. Best thing this year was probably the release of a new single by Blur, that was UK only, and limited to a 1,000 copies. I actually dreamt that I got my hands on one of these, only to wake up and find out it was 9.30 and Rough Trade had already opened half an hour before. So no Blur, but I did get these:

I'm loving the blue Beach House 12". If only I had a record player here to actually listen to any of these (or the other LPs I bought).
I caught some live performances as well, after standing in a ginormous, but surprisingly fast-moving queue for about fifteen minutes (who said independent record stores and vinyl were dead?). First were Pulled Apart By Horses, who didn't manage to impress me much in Kingston, but this time round they were actually pretty good. Maybe it was the presence of their own drummer, or the absence of shirts, but they really delivered. Second act were Caribou, whom I've seen at the Affaire in Nijmegen last year, but again, wasn't really impressed with. They just released a new album, and I love the track 'Odessa', which is even more of a favourite after hearing it live.

Afterwards, I went to the Queensday celebration at Trafalgar Square. Yes, a Dutch festival in London, and not even on the proper date! But anyway, as suspected the music was horrible (Di-rect was the only name I recognised on the bill, fortunately missed them), but they had poffertjes. And sunshine! I was suprised nobody was drunk enough to dive into on of the fountains. I spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in Regent's Park, which is what all Londoners do, so it isn't actually that relaxing. But still: sunshine! (and sunburn afterwards)

Today, I went to Cambridge to have a BBQ with some of the people I work with. Again: sunshine! (and more sunburn! yay!). I really like Cambridge: the city centre (as it is a city, as opposed to a town as I've learned today) is a combination of colleges of Cambridge University that look medieval in a good way and little boutiques. As more than half of the city is owned by the colleges, they can determine what kind of shops are allowed entry into their regions, which has mainly led to a complete absence of fish and chip shops. Maybe that's why I felt it was a bit posh, but posh in the nicest possible way. And can I say that I am baffled at how tiresome sitting in the sun whilst sipping wine for an entire afternoon can be?