24.04.18 - Engolir sapo

Halloooo,

Lovely to speak to you yesterday, but for the benefit of everyone who wasn't on the call - this week's top headline is Sunday night's triumphant Radiohead gig, my first since 2012.    We went to the fancy new Allianz Parque stadium in the middle of town (home to Palmeiras, so enemy territory...) and ended up in the cheap seats but with a fairly decent view.  I had a fantastic time, especially during Let Down and a rousing, set-closing run of No Surprises, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, 2+2=5 and Idioteque, not to mention Paranoid Android AND Fake Plastic Trees at the end of the second encore.  

Gaby was less impressed, which is understandable given she couldn't see much, the sound wasn't great until about halfway through, the setlist was heavy on weird techno stuff and Thom was in a particularly odd mood, cackling manically in between songs (still warbled up an absolute storm on Pyramid Song and Nude, mind you) - not ideal conditions for a newbie.  I spent all week trying to convince her Radiohead don't deserve their sad-sack reputation, only for them to open the main set with Daydreaming and the first encore with Exit Music (for a Film), for example.  But I agreed to grout the balcony with her over the weekend so she wasn't allowed to complain.

Otherwise went to footy and band practice (going to start going to rehearsals in a fur coat), did a lot of housework, and braced myself against a tropical storm of work a-brewin' on the horizon.  Gaby's been doing so much sanding of walls that she ended up in A&E with mild carpal tunnel syndrome - at least the end is in sight... And this weekend it's ma birthday and I've booked a table at Dalva e Dito, by all accounts one of the best restaurants in town, which I'm quite looking forward to. 

I've made another two compilations, and my phrase of the day means "to swallow the frog", or grin and bear it - not unlike Egyptians during the great frog plague of Exodus, or Gaby at the concert...

Speak soon,

Radiofred