Diary update at Garbage.com

Shirley Manson has added a new diary to to her ongoing journal at Garbage.com she talks about what the members of Garbage have been up to including Butch becomin a father in the next few weeks, Steve working on new material for a film score and Duke continuing to work on an “American folk anthology” hes been putting together for a few years. You can read more below or on the official site itself.

01.17.06 DIARY UPDATE JANUARY 17, 2005
Happy New Year dearest darklings. May you all enjoy sparkling good health and joyousness every step you take in 2006.Of course the likelihood of this great joy being experienced on a daily basis is not very probable but think big and you never know your luck.

Anyways……time is roaring on and we’re already 6 years on from the beginning of the new millenium. New songs are sung,new stars have appeared. Lindsey Lohan is 19 years old and poor old Jessica is practically a divorcee. I keep waking up in the middle of the night with pangs of deep rooted,existential anxiety about the meaning of life and whether I remembered to put out the rubbish for the bin men and whether my recyclables will truly be recycled or whether the government are just pretending that they will to make neurotic people like me not take to the streets over that big gaping hole in the ozone.

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and I thought to myself ” I need to find a way to make my life exciting again” and I really meant it but when I woke up this morning I wasn’t quite so sure I was certain of my own meaning and how I was going to attend to it.How do you make your life exciting? And what exactly IS exciting anyway?!?!?!

I saw Steveo yesterday at his New Years party.I said “How are you feeling Steve” He said “I’m great.How about yourself?” I aid “I’m feeling old and ugly and anxious and I keep waking up in the middle of the night with a racing pulse and dry mouth” Steve looked at me for just a split second longer than necessary before handing me an exceedingly large and strong vodka cocktail. ” I find these can help with all of that” said he. And we clinked glasses and grinned at one another. Having band brothers means you don’t ever need to explain yourself.

So what else? Well we’re still on our “hiatus” and it’s beginning to feel really bizarre.It’s a little like deciding to refrain from having sex with your wife. Butch is about to become a father which is a very wonderful,exciting thing indeed and then he is set to begin producing other bands again. Steve is working on a film score,Duke is busy putting the finishing touches to an incredible american folk anthology he’s been working on for years and I am wondering about making music again and with whom!?! I feel like I’m on the dating scene again after being married for ten years.Very VERY fucking strange.

I suppose you will have read all the controversy about JT in the press. Suffice to say that the books remain a marvel and whoever wrote them is still a genius whether they are a man,woman or wilderbeast. It’s perfectly fair that people are confused and up in arms about it but if you have read the books and understand them,why on earth would you ever assume that the person who wrote them was your regular, 9-5,cookie -cutter joe?

Saw Brokeback Mountain yesterday and broke down in tears at the very end. Not so much at the film itself per se but what it is taking a stand against. I hope Ang Lee is rewarded for his bravura film making within such mainstream parameters.It’s arguably safer and definitely easier to be prococative whilst skirting around the edges of popular conciousness but taking boldness right into the very core of mainstream culture takes courage and great skill.

I also finally got around to watching “DIG” the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jones Town Massacre dvd which was mesmerizing and really rather funny if also a trifle sad. I also got caught up in rapt wonderment over ” Fearless Freaks” centering around the mighty Flaming Lips and finally I watched Scorcese’s Bob Dylan documentary which is astounding. All three of the aformentioned are unmissable and unbearably great for different reasons if you are at all interested in music,musicians or the human spirit.

Finally…….please keep your fingers crossed for me next tuesday as I’m going to be taking my driving test and then immediately going out and buying myself a car.I know it’s a tad overdue (bearing in mind how old I am and whatnot) but evertheless……..there’s a lesson in all of this and it is this: Don’t count a bitch down and out until she’s well and truly dead.