My December

I've always, always loved the cold months of the year. Surely, having a slightly higher body temperature than other people is a factor leading to this preference of mine. The greek winter does nothing for me. I sincerely don't remember a single time when I really felt cold in a really unpleasant way. And of course, this whole moody setting that comes along is just too beautiful to ignore.

Unfortunately, this is a brutally hot country in the summer, at least by european standards and some years it's summertime all year long. And I absolutely detest summer and everything that comes along with it. The literal sinking of the greek islands by thousands of tourists means the news will have material of drunken brits doing what drunken people on vacations do. The bikinis, the sandals, the stupid hats, the sweating, the sunburns, people having to work in ridiculously hot environments. I hate it with a passion. In fact I hate it so much I can't really remember a single summer I didn't get into stupid fight with just about anyone around me. Girlfriends, old pals, parents, grandparents, colleagues, bosses, total strangers, you name it and you can bet I've cursed at it.

If I had to name one good thing about the summer, I'd have to admit swimming is an excellent way to just relax and release some of the stress you've accumulated throughout the year. But even that is spoiled by the hordes of people coming to the beach to do anything BUT swim. There's people out there that actually go to the beach to get skin cancer apparently. I seemed to have missed a meeting on the benefits of having your skin rot away but apparently they get so tanned you can hardly call them white anymore and then they spend the rest of the 11 months of the year being afraid of black people and pakistanis, get this, because of their skin color. And it's getting harder and harder to find a beach where no beach bar can take your ears off by playing really annoying music.

So this year, I'm going to wait till December to have all that fun other people have in the summer. I'm going to England to correct a mistake I made 9 years ago. I'm going to make up for missing Portishead playing in Greece. This has been a major point in my do-before-you-die list and I really can't remember the last time I was so emotionally involved into anything as much as I am with the potential of seeing this band live. Hell, they haven't put out anything in, well, 9 years, so I really can't afford to wait for another 10-15 years to see them again. I've got a stress related heart attack planned in two or three years so I'm on a tight schedule.

So why Portishead? Well, here's how it all happened with me and those guys. After having spent my early teenhood being initiated into rock music by Nirvana and the whole grunge thing, I found myself cut off from music. At around 96 the mainstream rock music was pretty much a dead end and everyone was jumping into the electronic music bandwagon, mostly with the Prodigy etc. I was around 15 at the time and the world wide web was a relatively new experience. Napster wasn't around yet and all my friends were either converted into dance music, hip hop or had totally given up on contemporary rock music and ventured to the past exploring the Floyd era, the Doors etc. I went that way too for a bit by I was more of a Beatles nut so we didn't exactly meet eye to eye on that one.

So, one day I was just snoozing in front of my TV when I caught a Portishead video (this is exactly how I had discovered there was music beyond Michael Jackson when I was 10 as well). I was immediately converted and in fact the next day got up and spent what money I had stashed to buy their first album.

Bemused is the definite word to describe my mental state after the first track, Mysterons was done. Up until that moment, if it was not a rock band, I wasn't interested. In less than an hour a revelation had taken place. There's more out there than rock music. Most children have that revelation at some point in their life and this was how mine happened. If I have come to appreciate diversity today, I think this was the moment that brought the change. In the next few years I would come to know hip hop, dig further into punk rock, hardcore and metal, appreciate jazz and even some aspects of dance music (ok, so I hate dance music, there). And of course, having realised there's so many ways to be creative and express yourself, you get to learn that most things in life are really not that black or white.

Of course, typical for a band I really really like, Portishead went into a hiatus after 98 after having released only two studio albums, one live recording and a remix EP. And, equally typical of a great band, their music never got old and boring at any time during those 9 years of absence. And I don't really recall a single month of those 9 years when their music was not played in my room, my walkman or my mp3 player.

So why England. Well, there's the All Tomorrow's Parties festival happening in December. The concept is that a band hosts the festival, inviting other bands to perform. This year the host is Portishead, reappearing after a really really long time for such a festival. I think it's a three day festival too. For 150 pounds you get accomodation for those days too, a small room with a shower and a TV playing material the host band has selected and nothing else. Sounds really nice. Even Steve Albini has admitted it's the only festival he's felt comfortable playing because he thinks the public gets treated well and is not simply exploited by paying ridiculous amounts of money to wallow in mud.

By the way, I seem to be the only Athenian with a Portishead t-shirt, so if you catch one in the subway, that's probably me observing your shoes. I wear it a lot and have never seen anyone else with one in the subway (and I take the subway a lot), so if you're wearing silly shoes punch me in the nose cause it's a safe bet I'm thinking of ugly things happening to you.