How Sez Sees It

Nearly a year ago I had food poisoning and learned some lessons. Mum is always right! When Mum tells you not to eat seafood soup DO NOT EAT SEAFOOD SOUP! Take 2 or more pakets of 'anti-diarrhoea' tablets. You and your partner will both need them and six tablets will not be enough. Rich tea biscuits will become your friend. They keep your energy up and you can keep them down. Just leave the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door and stay asleep. Sip water. You're ill because you're purging. Water keeps you hydrated and helps flush it out. The whole thing is less painful when you have tennis to watch You will still feel queezy and be unable to eat full meals or certain things for about six months. When you remember the food poisoning your body's muscle memory and brain memory automatically makes you feel ill. So yeah, basically food poisoning is awful!

A few years ago I used to write reviews of my favourite films and albums. I don't know why I stopped because I really enjoyed it. I found an old memory stick the other day and this is a review I wrote back in 2008 about William Control's first album, Hate Culture: William Control – Hate Culture This is a concept album from the front man of Aiden.  The idea being that William Control is in London and is spending the last night on earth before he commits suicide. He is going to spend it fucking and killing in London before ending his own life. The CD case has a brooding image of William Control (aka. wiL Francis from Aiden).  Dressed in 18 th century style on the cover art, you would take him for a Jack the Ripper type. Inside the cover contains so many thanks it takes a while to read them all and proves that this artist needs people and places in his life.  The pictures in the booklet set the scene that will carry on in the music, one of sex and violence.  A...

You hear about it all the time, someone says that a song/album/band changed or saved their life. Can it though? From personal experience I would say yes, although other factors come into play, such as the influence of my aunty. I believe I have written about her before. My aunty is 10 years older than me, so when I was 5/6 years old she was in her mid-teens. Her taste in music was Nirvana and it was her that introduced me to the band via their epic album ‘Nevermind’ by making a tape recording of it for me. Influenced by me ‘cool’ aunty, I began a life long love affair with all things rock. This was cemented in 1995 by my parents buying me a Smash Hits tape containing Green Day’s ‘Basket Case’. From then on the band soundtracked my life and I love them to this day. I feel I have ‘grown up’ with the band (which actually formed the year I was born!). That is the early influence where someone else changed, or rather set the course, of my musical love. From then on certain song...

This is an interesting thought and I guess you could break it down by a number of categories. Where does this thought come from though? Well, last night (Tuesday 27 May 2014) I was at a gig in a small local venue. The genre of music I like is rock/metal/metalcore and last night was the last of the three. I am aware that people like to go a bit crazy at these shows and that is part of the amusement for me, watching other people going at it in the circle pit and wondering how no one ends up being carted off to hospital. Last night was no exception and there were some big lads there who were throwing themselves around, windmilling and kicking in all directions. Then I looked at the rest of the crowd and there were a fair number of women there (it was an 18 plus show, so only us grown ups allowed). The women were not involved and not getting in the pit and then I looked at their faces. One might argue that there was a mixture of bemusement and fear. The fear element was around whethe...

There are times when I have to remind myself that everything gets better. I have a new job to start and before that I am going to Dublin and to see a friend of mine play with his band as support for another band and that should all make me happy and give me something to look forward to right? Wrong. I can't seem to focus on the positive things that are coming up in my life because I am not quite there yet. Those in my immediate are determined to make things as hard as possible. I am not talking my family or friends here either, just the other people you meet every day. Some of them are strangers to me and they fleetingly enter my world, cock something up and go again before they are even registered as existing by me. This leaves me with a strong sense that the whole effort is not worth it. I know I have to hang on to see if things will improve when I have a job and house and whatever. That is sort of keeping me going, but it is tough when you want an easier way out. On to...

I can't quite remember the first time I saw Wil Francis and Aiden in Kerrang Magazine. It was a few years back. I know it was round about the time I first started buying it regularly. It was actually Green Day that hooked me in to reading the mag regularly when they graced the cover in January 2005. I had recently re-discovered my love of that band and wanted to reconnect with that world I guess. Still, I was reading regularly and this moody, grainy, black and white image of Wil Francis appeared in the pages. I don't even know who the photographer was, but the moodiness of the shot was amazing. Everything, from the cigarette to his clothes, his hair and his tattoos just drew my eye. I had already got into Aiden for their music, but for some reason this shot just drew me in even further. I can't really explain the way I felt looking at that picture. Well a couple of years down the line and we get to the way Kerrang ruined my life. Already an avid reader I turned the page...

I am one of life's worriers. I am terrible like that, but it is true. I have a situation tomorrow and it has been driving me insane. I couldn't sleep properly or concentrate or anything. I have never believed in herbal remedies, but a friend suggested I try one. I bought one. I still don't believe the flower content does anything, but the grape brandy...yup. Brandy has traditionally been a thing that people take to calm nerves. Even the taste can help. Guess what? The taste of it on my tongue had an instant effect. No I don't believe all that herbal clap trap, but this product is helping. It may be a psychological placebo or real or the brandy, but it is helping. Isn't that he point?