The Homophobic Train Man (And Other Tales) - JJ#5
- Ricky Jamaraz
- Oct 25
- 7 min read
Hello everyone! My apologies for the late arrival of issue #5 of the Jamaraz Journal... Last week I was so busy that I completely forgot to write anything, so here I am writing a week late :-)
It has been a VERY busy 3 weeks for me, so sit tight and allow me to recall my adventures...
My Birthday
Right, so probably the most significant thing that's happened since I last posted was that I turned 18. Pretty crazy right!!
On the 4th October (the day before my actual birthday) I had a little gathering with my friends at my house, and we all had a really great time. We took plenty of pictures, so I'll share some a bit later on here.
That day was really weird, because it was the last day of my childhood. Everything I did, I couldn't stop thinking "that's the last time I'll do that as a child." And I wasn't really sad about it at all. I had gotten over my little age crisis a few weeks before when I bought some Lego for the first time in 8 years. Instead of being intimidated or sad or anything, I was just genuinely excited!
On my actual birthday the day after, I went with my family (mum, dad, brother and my sister-in-law) to a nice restaurant for dinner. Afterwards, we went to a pub and I was able to buy my first legal pint. I had my ID all prepared and ready to show... but they only ID'd my brother?Who is like over 30?? So that was funny. After that we all just played some pool.
RTZ's Birthday
It's also worth mentioning (although most of you will know) that my birthday just passed was also the 1st anniversary of my album Return To Zero, and so in preparation for that I had filmed a little behind-the-scenes video, and also livestreamed full acoustic set of the album, which you can watch on my YouTube here.
I've already said it loads, but I can never say it enough; thank you guys so much for being fans and listening to my stuff and supporting it!!! Getting all the lovely comments I did about the album a year on from the release and seeing how much it had become a part of people's lives gives me such a great feeling and I wouldn't change it for the world :-)
Birmingham I love you but you're bringing me down
First of all, if you get that reference then you're a legend.
But yeah, a week and a half ago, I went to visit my friend Caleb in Birmingham. For those who haven't read my previous posts here, Caleb is a mate of mine who's recently begun studying music for uni in Birmingham. He's a bassist and he's all into his jazz, so classical musicians will be breaking out in a cold sweat right about now.
Anyway, I'll just quickly say that the day went well, I had a great time hanging with him and Sammy (his roommate) and meeting a few of his other roommates, whose names have escaped my memory. We hung out, played some pool, and Sammy and Caleb cooked some lovely spaghetti for us all. At this point, I feel like an honorary member of the dorm!
But, my beloved readers, none of this is really worth talking about when compared to my experience on the train there...
What will forever be known as: The Train Incident
There I was, minding my own business on a train to Birmingham from Derby. I was sat there on my laptop writing a script for my KiNG HERTZiE video (watch that here!), when all of a sudden, two men came on. It was a pretty empty carriage and they were quite loud, but they didn't seem drunk, it was only like 1pm at this point.
I eavesdropped in their conversation (naturally) and they were on about some friend of theirs who isn't a good parent or something. I tuned out of their conversation for a couple seconds, but then was brought back in when I could hear one of the guys talking about how much he hates f*ggots. His words, not mine. I instinctively looked upwards, only to find his bloated face staring directly at me.
"Oh, he didn't like that!" he reported to his friend, sitting in the aisle next to him. Frankly I wasn't that bothered, since I'm not actually gay, but I was just a bit confused as to why he'd felt the need to call out some random person on a train like that.
I kept my head down, I didn't interact or encourage him at all. I know that these sorts of people aren't worth interacting with. As our train journey continued, so did he. Every now and then I would receive some blown kisses from him (who's gay now??) or him just talking at me trying to get my attention.
At one point, as we were entering the city, I got my camcorder out to film some of the buildings. As you know, I love filming scenery with my camcorder, so I just didn't think about it. As soon as I pulled it out, the guys had a field day. Unfortunately, I only captured a small about of what they said on camera, but they (mainly the one guy) kept going on about how I must be on my way to film a gay porno, and he kept asking if he could be in it. Realistically, you'd have to speak to someone higher up than the cameraman about that sort of thing, but whatever.
I kept ignoring him until he asked for me to film him, and I thought about this blog and I thought how great it'd be to share a picture of this homophobic glob, so here:
Now, to top it all off, as we arrived to the station in Birmingham, he stood up early, and walked up to my seat. I thought he might try and steal something of mine, so I quickly put all my belongings into my bag and my bag in between my feet.
I looked up, and he was bent over, his backside toward me, and he farted. He pushed out the most fowl-smelling fart I've ever had the displeasure of smelling, right into my face. Maybe it was the chemicals or maybe just the shock, but I couldn't say anything. He turned around, laughed at me, and walked off the train.
Since then, I've been recovering, and I'm doing better now. Just kidding, I really found the whole thing pretty funny once it ended, but that's just me. I imagine some people would be pretty shaken after all that, so just do yourself a favour: if you see that guy, RUN!
Gigz
Went to a couple gigs since the last issue, so here's the lowdown.
I saw Charlie Bennett live at The Grove in Notts, it was a really nice gig. Rainbow Frog Biscuits and this other girl were supporting him, and they were both good too!
Charlie and I have known of each other for about 3 years now, and we'd had a few conversations here and there on messages, but it was great to finally get a chance to see him in person! After the show I said hi and bought a CD of his EP 'Posterboy'. I am happy to report that he is just as wholesome and nice in real life as he is online!
5 days later, I returned to The Grove (genuinely a great venue!) to see two bands; The Rosettis and Super Mega Death Robot.
The Rosettis actually supported me at The Grove when me and my live band did our first gig back in March. I'm friends with two of the members as they go to my college.
Super Mega Death Robot are a band fronted by this guy called Felix, who I became friends with after seeing him at like 4 separate gigs. At the last one I saw him at (Michael Cera Palin, mentioned in my last post), he mentioned he's in a band and that he'd be playing a show on the 20th, so I said I'd come down.
I spoke to Freddy (the singer of The Rosettis) in college a couple weeks ago and asked if he's got any shows coming up, and he said the band had one on the 20th as well, so I told him I couldn't make it because I'm already going to see another band.
Turns out both bands were playing together on the same night. Two birds, one stone! They were both supporting this band called Nature Trip, whom I'd never heard of, and to be honest I left just as they started, because I was only interested in the supports.
But yeah go check out both of those bands! The Rosettis are more indie rock and Super Mega Death Robot are midwest emo-y.
YouTube
As you'll have probably seen, I've began (finally) taking YouTube a bit more seriously, and it's something I'm focusing on for the time being.
Last week and this week I've been hard at work making videos, so expect to see much more from my YouTube channel in the coming weeks and months!
If you're not yet, I'd appreciate you subscribing, but I'm sure more people watch my videos than read my blog hahaha.
That's kind of all I have to say for that topic. I'm making more videos and that's it.
Earlier this week I asked everyone for some questions, and I made a video answering some of them, and that video is coming out later today!
The Reign of KiNG HERTZiE
Okay as you can tell I'm kind of rushing the end of this because I want to go make some more videos, but I'd also like to take this small opportunity promote my latest single:
(Should've Said Hi) by KiNG HERTZiE
The full EP is coming out on November 7th.
Okay bye thanks for reading.
Issue #6 is coming on November 7th or 8th. Probably 8th.
RJ
