Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in neil's LiveJournal:

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Friday, May 18th, 2012
3:42 pm	last night I heard you making love to him Gosh, May, where are you disappearing to so quickly? Had an extra-long BH weekend at the start of the month: hung out with K and her kids for the day down in Sussex on the Friday before coming back to go out to Stripped in Camden with the Nunhead boys: it was one of those nights that wasn't massively populated but managed to maintain its quorum all the way to the end. There was a band in the form of electro-duo Method Cell, who were good but the set over-long for a clubnight, then plenty of dancing. I had a domestic day on Saturday- it looks like i'll be moving again so M and I toured the estate agents of Balham, as that's one of the areas we're considering, then spent the evening with N. On Sunday I headed down to Portsmouth for anonymous_james's wedding aboard HMS Warrior- an amazing setting and plenty of people had made fantastic efforts to dress-up in keeping with the C18/C19 naval theme, although nothing could compare with the bride's dress and the size of the groom's hat! I had it easy, as an usher I'd had my costume hired for me, although the lack of pockets and being surrounded by water was slightly unsettling when carrying around large wads of cash (to pay the excellent band.) It was a really fun day, great to see some people I haven't seen for a while and even the sun peeked out long enough for us to swan around on deck! I headed back up to Uxbridge (via coffee with someone in Feltham) the next day for bank holiday Unknown Armies, then had a nice week involving FNB, a fundraising quiz at work (I actually knew the questions on homelessness this year and we managed to finish second!) and Book Group, discussing The Ballad of Peckham Rye, which I think I enjoyed more from a social history than a literary perspective, followed by unexpectedly seeing The Subways in Shepherd's Busy with jamese. Last Friday saw me queuing under the dank railway arches of Southwark for an event called the Yellow Lounge at the Bankside vaults, which was trying to present classical music in a gig format: DJs spinning classical tunes as people milled in a bar, a ballet dancer twirling in an over-sized music box, then two 'acts' on stage- we just stayed for the first, the Eric Whitacre Singers (and their eponymous white-teethed leader) who were good, although the choice of soft pieces in a context which gave people the license to chat through the music (as they would at a gig) not so smart. Then at 2am I was loitering around Victoria station, waiting for R to arrive from Germany, which he eventually did: he was transiting to Newcastle (to study Geordie, I kid you not) so just stayed for a day, which i spent trying to win him over to the idea that London does actually have green spaces: we chilled out in Greenwich Park before wandering up to Mudchute City Farm and in the evening went to see Dark Shadows, which Did What Tim Burton Does satisfyingly, if not particularly innovatively. There was more lazing in parks, Clapham Common this time, on Sunday, before hanging out with N in the highest reaches of the Royal Festival Hall and being introduced to the joy that is the singing lift. I am now in Istanbul! M and I got here yesterday and so far our spontaneous-holiday-booking planning-on-the-plane approach has not led to any disasters (the nearest we came was almost failing to get off the train at Gatwick)- having stayed at N's Tuesday night and gone to Spanish on Wednesday, I ended up having about two hours at home to pack/plan/work-out-what-the-hell-we-were-doing but i don't think we've forgotten anything vital . . . (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
11:29 pm	if only one of us had the guts tonight After a pleasant evening haunting Old Compton Street with hysteria74 last Thursday, I was in Vauxhall on Friday night, introducing N to the joys of the Griffin before heading along to eat pizza and finally dare the murky depths of South Pacific (Kennington's rather improbably located tiki bar) in celebration of barty's birthday. I had a pretty lazy Saturday before heading up to Ally Pally to see Bombay Bicycle Club with cousin Andy. It was the first time I'd been there, although given the perpetual downpour, a full appreication of the views across London may have to wait until another time . . . Support came in the form of Rae Morris and Leanne La Havas, both with great voices, although very different demeanours: I was pretty relieved when the latter took it up a notch towards the end, otherwise the crowd were in danger of being not so much warmed-up as given a nice cup of coccoa with some valium slipped in it. BBC were great though and lifted the atmosphere fairly effortlessly. On Sunday I wandered around the Courtauld Gallery with M, which I'd never been to before, and had some great stuff in it: it was interesting cross-referencing some of the older art with the illuminated manuscripts we'd seen a little while ago: the portrait of Castiglione somehow looked much more advanced than the illustrations of his Book of the Courtier had. In the evening I slipped back out and watched some open mic action (including Pete) at the Walpole in New Cross, which was really rather pleasant. I had the day off yesterday for M's birthday and we journeyed down into Kent to poke castles: Upnor Castle turned out to be a Tudor river fort, down-river protection for the Chatham Docks, which had very clearly only had one incident in its entire life (a 17th Century incursion of Dutch fire-ships) but Rochester Castle was the shell of a proper full-on Norman castle, although it somehow seemed to make less of its more eventful history. We wandered around the cathedral too (awesome vaulted crypt)and sat outside a cafe in the unexpected sun, doing the crossword and watching the world go by, before heading back to London and dinner with ex-housemate D. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 16th, 2012
7:10 pm	One of the nicest things about having a pre-emptive party at ours a couple of weekends ago was getting to spend the day chilling at home with M, preparing. It seemed to go pretty well though, despite my usual hostly anxieties about not getting to talk to anyone properly- different strands of my friends are starting to recognise each other from similar events in the past and they all seemed to be able to unite around burning artworks in the garden, at least. The next day was heading up to mooch around Spitalfields with N again, revisiting the scene of the crime, and the week held a couple of post-work social things to mark the end of the shelters: it's been an odd couple of weeks since with the drop-in also closed and most of the seasonal staff leaving; having been doing this a few years now, I feel as though I've adopted the MO of a grizzled vet, not letting myself get too close to new blood that I know isn't going to be with us for long. . . I's doing well for birthday celebrations, DT taking me out for dinner one evening and then N coming over on the eve of the day itself- but, as it fell on Good Friday, I spent most of it trekking up to Maelstrom, the evening huddling around a fire, drinking with strangers, but that conviviality was everything I love about the event and, although it has diminished for player-led plot reasons in recent times, I still had a fun event: some cold and wet moments but never too miserable. I got back on Easter Monday, headed along to FNB Tuesday night, accidentally booked a holiday with M Wednesday night (proving that it's clearly cheaper to carry on going out every night than spend evenings in) and on Thursday went to see something at the Arcola Theatre with housemate R. It was called Kitchen To Measure and was a dramatisation of some Icelandic horror stories by a Turkish theatre company (with surtitles)- although I would say veered nearer the absurd than the horrific. I enjoyed it more and more as it warmed to its theme, laying bare the banality and hollowness of domestic aspirationalism, in particular the cruel way women are treated. Another weekend came and on Friday I headed out to Staines to see some music in the North Star pub: a chap called Shaun Ryan and Tooze Company, a duo a friend plays in; both were mostly performing covers with a few originals slipped in, but with some nice fresh takes and cheeky tweaking, and I had a really good night. Saturday I headed out to Essex for anonymous_james's Stag-Do which was also fun: I may not have distinguished myself Go-Karting but my Crazy Golf skills are not to be trifled with and the Maldon Beer Festival thankfully had enough different ciders to keep me interested. I got a lift back to Uxbridge for Unknown Armies on Sunday and we spent the entire session trying to codify everything we knew to see if that helped us work out what was going on; fortunately it seems to have thrown up a few leads! I met up with N in Covent Garden afterwards for food and chilling out in the Retro Bar. FNB cancelled tonight, which I'm kinda grateful for: now I just need to practise staying home without spending any money :-) (Comment on this)
Monday, March 12th, 2012
11:53 pm	I had a gloriously short working week last week: after a pleasant evening chilling out and playing scrabble round hysteria74's on the Friday night and going back to the Royal Library Manuscripts exhibition at the British Library with M Saturday to see the other half, I headed out on Sunday to Down Hall to celebrate K's birthday with (inevitably) a Murder Mystery Dinner. Rather than a intimate dinner party, this was a room full of punters, three actors and some dodgy wigs; the whole thing was pretty ropey but a nice excuse to spend the evening in an old-school country house hotel and we're pretty adept at making our own fun. I'd taken Monday off to wend my way home but didn't achieve anything more productive than that all day until heading out to the Almeida in the evening to watch The House of Bernada Alba. The production shifted the setting to an Islamic society which gave the action's strict gender-based seclusion more of a veneer of contemporary relevance and the performances were good, the lead herself mesmerising although in a way that made her slightly non-coherent with the rest of the production. However I didn't leave feeling totally satisfied; a fault of the play, rather than the production, we decided, in which none of the characters appear to experience anything much in the way of progression or insight en route to the inevitable tragedy. I also had Friday off so had no compunction about staying out late in the pubs of Clapham with S after we had gone along to the private view at The Construction Gallery, a three month art space in an empty civic building in Tooting which my friend F has been helping to run. There was a great performance piece in honour of International Women's Day mixing suffragette and iconic Soviet worker-lionising propaganda imagery, which proved that being fun is a pretty easy route in to engaging an audience. The next day I headed down to Southampton: I'd taken the day off as I thought I'd need it to catch up with everyone down there although in the event some people weren't around (including my parents, although I hadn't actually given them much warning;) that made the whole thing pretty relaxed though. I spent the Friday cooking and playing boardgames with Rachel, then we barely did anything Saturday until I headed into town to meet up with Jonny for a curry and the obligatory drink in The Hobbit. I crept out while he was still abed Sunday morning to head down to visit Lee for a game with my old D&D crowd, which terrifyingly now also includes his 15 year old son, who I remember being born. Ended up getting back to London much later than hoped but I'd had plenty of sleep over the weekend so happily don't seem any the worse for it. (Comment on this)
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
11:35 am	Been to a couple of great gigs over the last couple of weeks, The Wombats were playing last Wednesday at the Brixton Academy: I got there just in time for the tail-end of the first support band, The Static Jacks, who seemed a promising bunch of New Jerseyites playing punchy, energetic songs, much more my thing than the next up, fellow-North Americans Hooray for Earth, whose layered electronic sounds produced a dirgey effect every bit as dire as their name. Happily The Wombats themselves were full of their unpretentious energy and delivered a great set. Even that, however, was eclipsed by Grouplove, who I saw at The hot and sweaty Garage on Tuesday. Their support were fairly barn-storming themselves: Fast Lane Roogalator (proving that bad names don't always indicate bad music) were refreshingly grown-up for a support band, comprising three 40-something brothers, allegedly performing songs written by their dead father, and a few other musicians of various ages thrown in. They were endearingly scraggly and giving it their all, which energised the crowd without overshadowing the main act. I've seen Grouplove a bunch of times now and they seem to be getting better and better, they're not quite in my usual catgory of punchy, laddish indie, but all the better for it and still a real live experience. In between the two we had our second bookgroup meeting (to discuss Empire of the Sun) which was very pleasant and the group seems to be expanding. At the weekend I had headed up to Oxford on the Saturday to help iruineverything with some Iris Project stuff, although there was happily as much socialising as work, and headed back to Uxbridge first thing on Sunday for more Unknown Armies. Last night M & I went round to ketchgirl's flat for a lovely dinner and much discussion of her exciting forthcoming production! (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
4:18 pm	I dragged a disparate but enthusiastic posse to Inferno last friday, it was pretty busy, I guess a benefit of being once a month, and much dancing ensued; Saturday I met up with hysteria74 to introduce her cousin to the delights of the Natural History Museum (and my first trip there for many years)- once i'd recovered from 20 minutes queuing in the cold to get through the bag search, I loved seeing it; we focussed on the evolution of man (with its hilariously 80s display boards) the sea mammals and the dinosaurs, of course, so plenty left for more trips in the future! I's working that evening, which was pretty convivial, huddling inside as the snow came down, then Sunday I went to see Coriolanus at the cinema with M: it was pretty good, there was a bit too much in the way of wazzy camera-work for my liking and Ralph Fiennes (I thought) was bravely unsympathetic in the lead, although Vanessa Redgrave was pretty fabulous. We had pleasant and unexpected dinner plans with friends in Brockley in the evening. Our Unknown Armies game had been snowed off at the weekend but we miraculously all managed to be free on the Monday night so didn't have long to wait; Tuesday I had my friend Chris over for dinner and a DVD (Attack the Block, enjoyable for its setting and unconventional heroes, but not quite as good as I'd hoped) then Wed I bunked off the second half of my Spanish class to go see Shallow Slumber at the Soho Theatre: a one-act two-hander about a social worker overstepping the boundaries; the performances were good but, as its onion layer structure peeled back from the present to the past, the denouement oddly failed to depict the relationship as the earlier scenes had led us to expect it, I think deliberately, because it was just showing us the very start, but it left me feeling a little unsatisfied. I headed along to a Bent Bars meeting on Thursday night, not a lot really happened but it was good to touch base, then yesterday I went out to Planet Angel (now moved not far up the street to good old Fire) with jamese, despina and G, which was exceedingly pleasant. The baby-sitting duties I'd agreed to today were cancelled, perhaps for the best, so I've pretty much spent the whole day on the sofa so far . . . (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
11:02 pm	My year's been getting busier: on finding ourselves simultaenously in last Thursday, M & I put into spontaneous effect our long-held Sherlock Holmes 2 plan: it was a bit of a diminishing return, more linear, more preposterous, but had a suitably creepy Moriarty and was generally still pretty good fun (very different to my prior plan of going to watch Shame, I suspect!) Friday was pretty spontaneous too: D and I met up for a couple of drinks in Kentish Town then headed up to wilds of Willesden for a not-quite-a-warehouse party; there were satisfying levels of dancing (to drum & bass, diviners of dance music have diagnosed from my descriptions) and half-remembered epic trips home that I somehow managed with all of my possessions intact. Saturday involved sleep and sofas, then feeling just about human enough to head out again to Scumbag at the gloriously local Bird's Nest in Deptford [must check out what they have on there in the future!] to see Faggot and Covergirl give contrasting sets, the former much more lyric- and the latter rhythm-driven, then more dancing to DJs. I'm not really involved with much queer-scene stuff these days but it was packed out and full of familiar faces from adventures-past; we definitely had a 2002-corner at one point. A supplementary plan to head on into Soho for a friend of Lovely Joe's birthday proved less alluring then heading back to bed, however. Sunday I'd been guilt-tripped into trekking over to Hammersmith for an exhibition our nightshelter guests had arranged at one of the churches that acts as one of our venues, it had a good stream of people coming through and was all very plesant. Back home we had Tom & Helen over for Sunday dinner- much-treasured local friends making their plans to join the exodus from London . . . Finally made it back to FNB on Monday for the first time in over a month and there was plenty of hilarity to make it worthwhile (have also discovered New Housemate was involved ina group in Jerusalem!) Then last night I met up with ronia for the first time in ages up in Camden: we hung out in Inspiral, which is pretty much the epitome of everything you think a hippy cafe should be & I've been wanting an excuse to go into for a while. I think I had something like the sixth longest dredlocks in the place. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
12:07 am	I kinda eased myself into the year, M got called straight back up north for work, FNB got cancelled the week I was planning to go, so I ended up making my own entertainment at home quite a bit; Spanish got back underway with a new teacher, she's much more intense than last semester's, correcting us a lot more which is good, but so far very systematic in just going through the exercises in the book rather than giving us freedom to talk, which is what we need. The best news was that we managed to sort out a new housemate without too much extra drama: it was a girl who'd looked round back in November or sometime then decided not to move yet as she was going to Dublin for a few weeks; she came for another look, moved in two days later and has now been here for more than a week and seems really nice! Been doing some fairly wearing and long days at work at the mo, although the expansion of the project to two nightshelter circuits seems to have gone fairly smoothly; we're constantly busy as the caseworkers (and now have twice as many shelter guests to try to keep abreast of) but I have moments where it feels like no-one's any further on as a result of it all. More positively I've just had a thoroughly satisfying weekend: Friday meant venturing up to Manor House for a FNB dude's birthday houseparty- more people I knew there than I was expecting and it was appropriately lively for a mostly early-20s crew; Saturday I headed out to Chertsey for Yet Another Murder Mystery Diner with K and friends. It's become a rule that we have to go to the pub in costume beforehand, something that the good folk of Ottershaw greeted with perplexed indulgence, and it was a bit of a struggle getting through the whole thing as participants fluctuated wildly between histrionic and comatose, but we managed it in the end, although we almost had a nicer time all waking up at 6am the next morning and chilling out chatting under our duvets on the living room floor. From there nuuki whisked me away to Unknown Armies in its new slot, which was a very civilised way to spend a Sunday- particularly in terms of getting home at a sensible time afterwards. Then Monday night I'd won tickets to see Tribes, on the day they were launching their album, at the Barfly, which jamese kept me company for- there was no support but it was an enjoyable set, although the hangover the next morning reminded me that my Out Late On A Monday Night days should probably remain in the fuzzy glow of nostalgia . . . (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 29th, 2011
5:22 pm	I had a pretty chilled out last weekend before Xmas, the highlight was heading out to the Medieval Manuscript exhibition at the British Library: there was some awesome stuff there and we only really got half the way round before the place closed. Whilst it was mostly late medieval/early Tudor (including Henry VIII's adolescent signature)- probably the most impressive part from my point of view was the Anglo-Saxon section, 1250 year old books with elaborate decorations and royal annotations in scrawled old English. After that I had time some kill before heading to the shelter so I ended up walking across from Kings Cross to Knightsbridge, through the wintry streets, the kind of sojourn I used to do the whole time when I first came to London and it was enjoyable to pass through all the seasonal bustle without being in a rush to get anywhere myself. I was at the shelters again on Tuesday evening and unfortunately we had a rough couple of days just before the drop-in closed up for Christmas; I'm slightly concerned how things will be when we open up again next week but hopefully it was just the stress of the season being played out. I did have some very pleasant times catching up with people at the same time though- dinner in with ketchgirl, whose impeccable manners meant she was extremely gracious about being served what ended up being basically cabbage mixed with lentils, and out with ex-housemate D, who we haven't seen enough of since she left. Then after a short day's work on Friday I took my leave of London and headed down to Winchester for the (15th?) annual December 23rd party. Posted via m.livejournal.com. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 18th, 2011
12:53 pm	A few things ended up being cancelled so it's been a quieter week than I was expecting, possibly no bad thing as I think I've more or less managed to do all that distracting preparing for Christmas nonsense instead. I have had my fair share of festive gatherings though: we went to La Tasca for our last Spanish lesson of the semester, on the theory that the more relaxed surroundings (and the sangria) may help us speak- it worked a little but kinda devolved into one very enthusiastic guy chatting to the teacher the whole time and some of the others, unwatched, devolving into English, which kinda defeated the point. I headed on from there to Food Not Bombs Xmas Drinks, which I felt a little guilty about as we'd had to cancel the session on Monday; it was a smallish turnout but very pleasant. On Thursday we went out for a pub lunch locally as our work celebration- I'd kinda instigated it (having done nothing last year) because I didn't feel we'd got past the polite, professional stage with the seasonal staff who came onboard for the shelters and I hoped it would be a bit of a bonding experience, but one of them didn't show up so it didn't really have the desired effect. I headed out with S to the Joiners Arms in the evening- I's a little disappointed that the scruffy staff and artfully shabby decor of the bar gave way to something fairly standard and uninspiring as the DJs started and it filled up later on, and the night inevitably ended with S getting rather too wasted, but it was otherwise pretty fun. Since I was in the area on Friday, I finally popped by the Occupy camp at St. Paul's and poked around a bit: looked at their library and meeting space, overheard the vituperation of disapproving passers-by, watched some protestor dude perform poi-stick tricks for small change. I feel a little regretful that I've not really involved myself in any of the anti-cuts/anti-inequality protests since the Coalition came in, but my decision to withdraw from a shallow involvement in a broad range of groups to focus on FNB and Bent Bars has been leaving me a lot less dissatisfied in general so I guess I should stick with it. From there I headed out to Essex to spend a lovely evening chez anonymous_james. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 11th, 2011
10:54 pm	me and the stars stay up for you I'm sure December was a quiet month for me last year, as everyone else busied themselves with Christmas things and I took a break, but it seems that this year won't be the same. I had a really good week though- on Wednesday I went to see The Book of Job: The Musical with venta & co. upstairs at The Camden Head, which was hugely entertaining- probably much more so than if the sumptious sets and extravagant theatrical effects, narrated by the sextet of performers reading scripts while stood at microphones, were ever actually realised. On Thursday I went to see The Vaccines- it was arranged by cousin Andy but Mags and jamese were there too; we managed to circumvent the disaster of turning out to have seated tickets with a little ingenuity, although A & I had watched the end of the impressive first support, Summer Camp, from up in the gods. (The second support were both forgettable and incapable of enunciating their name.) The Vaccines themselves were a lot of fun, it wasn't any more physical or aggressive than many other gigs I've been to but I came away more battered and bruised than usual for some reason; much more close to turning ugly was the half-hour queue for the cloakroom at the end of it all. I went out to Sin City on Friday night with midnightschilde, themadone and C.: we'd had a not-untypical 50% drop-out rate on the day but luckily had enough people coming that there was still a good posse of us. Alarmingly, I think it's about a year since I've been to the Ballroom but it didn't disappoint- although never rammed, the crowd was large enough and didn't really dwindle much before the end of the night. On Saturday I fought my way through the hordes of rampaging Santas in the West End to catch up with R for the first time in ages and we went to see Weekend at the cinema, which I was really impressed by: it had an incredible level of authenticity to it and managed to address issues affecting the gay experience, that are rarely tackled so intelligently and even-handedly, via the prism of some pretty well-drawn characters. Afterwards I hot-footed it over to Bermondsey for pizza and conviviality to celebrate muldr4scly's birthday. Today we managed to get out of London and headed down to tromp around the Kent countryside (Snodland to Sole Street) with a group of regular walkers we've always been meaning, but never previously quite managed, to tag along with. We probably didn't make the best first impression by getting the train times wrong (my fault) but we caught up fairly easily and it was all very pleasant: I guess nowhere within a 90 minute train ride of London is every going to be too remote and dramatic but there were some nice bits of wood and pleasingly rolling downs and it felt good. I did have to make a dash into work when we got back to sort something out: on the plus side I haven't fucked up in a way that it looked like I might have, on the minus I still need to go in early tomorrow to assure the relevant parties of this. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 26th, 2011
12:52 pm	Centreparcs & back to earth I bailed down to K's in Sussex last Thursday and the group of us headed on to Centreparcs up in Suffolk the next morning where we spent a few days in a chilled out bubble in the middle of some woods. Once again we didn't really take advantage of the activities on offer there (just some crazy golf and the pool) but just hanging out and making our own fun was pretty much all we wanted to do. It contained all the usual hallmarks of our holidays: a Murder Mystery Dinner, drinks, games and obsessive list-making, although remained relatively well-behaved and drama-free; we did hit the disco in our Murder Mystery costumes, which i enjoyed with all the dignity that a 33 year old man dancing to Chesney Hawkes in a pink apron and a dog collar can muster, although there was less fraternising with the natives than usual, possibly because we were the wierdos everyone was avoiding. The week back here's been a bit glum: mainly I think because M's been on holiday herself and so I've been completely alone in the house (something that, about a month ago, I was frustrated by never being.) I've not even been stuck at home every night (FNB a couple of times, Spanish and an oddly subdued Pete & the Pirates gig at the Buffalo Bar) but, while sociable, none of my activites were with friends and then coming back to the empty house each evening reinforced that: remind me of this if i ever say i'm thinking about living by myself. It kinda feeds into all the usual things i've been whingeing about recently (changing social, and geographical, patterns among my friends, current cash-flow constraints,) and heightens my awareness that how I've spent the last 10 years is likely to change irrevocably in the near future: what I should do is start building towards a sustainable new life, although there's a large part of me that just wants to throw myself into enjoying a lot of the old before it's completely gone. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
5:48 pm	crawling the walls under electric lights Although the weekend (before last) was fairly pleasantly domestic: having friends back after the Blackheath fireworks Saturday, my cousin and some locals round for Sunday lunch, it started getting to me as the spending-time-at-home dragged on through the week. Even Food Not Bombs ended up being cancelled & Mags and I seem to have perfected the art of never being in at the same time, so by the time, on Friday, that I was facing my third night of the week sitting at home by myself, I called S up in desperation and managed to coax him round; we cheerfully entertained ourselves with a terrible 80s movie and constructing a bed. This weekend just gone was a bit more back-to-normal: I allowed myself a day of spending money on Saturday, meeting some friends down from Birmingham for Chinese, going to The Ides of March at the cinema (which was decent, although Ryan Gosling's single fixed expression for the latter part of the film was somewhat risible) and then on to Feeling Gloomy; it was not quite the group I was expecting to go with, but a group nonetheless and there was plenty of dancing and fun. Meanwhile Sunday I headed over for a lovely dinner with hysteria74. This week should have more going on though, then I'm off for the joy/horror of Centreparcs at the weekend, although (as M's away too) it means that the housemate hunt is likely to drag on at least another couple of weeks. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
11:14 pm	Squatting So, I appreciate that this may be a bit of a hard sell, but I'm pretty angry about the legislation currently being enacted to criminalise squatting. The first thing to say is that this doesn't really relate to the fact that I've enjoyed the odd squat party in my time, it's only squatting in residential properties that is currently being affected, so raves in abandoned warehouses are so far not the issue. I guess there are several issues that make me angry about it: one is the way in which it's come about, legislation suddenly being produced and voted on within days of the 'consultation process' ending doesn't exactly inspire confidence in those of us that contributed to it that all the submissions were carefully considered. I'm also pretty galled at the influence the Evening Standard has had on public perception of the issue with its drip-feed of misleading articles giving an over-inflated impression of the scale of the problem as well as distorted understandings of the legalities of the issue (numerous articles of the 'sqauatters moved in when I popped down the shops and there was nothing I could do' variety, whilst in fact legal powers have existed for police to arrest people in that situation since the 70s)- a campaign masked as news, so reminiscent of their even more vicious smears against Ken before the last Mayoral election; I know several of you loathe the man, but the constant articles making accusations of corruption and alcoholism in the weeks leading up to the vote, all of which were quietly dropped as soon as it was all over, were a disgrace of voter-deception, whatever his political strengths and weaknesses. But of course its mostly through the lens of my work that I'm most angered by this move. The Evening Standard may make a meal of idiot art collectives taking over mansions in Mayfair, and yes there are lifestyle squatters who fill empty property as a political act, but the majority of squatters I've known have been the ones who drift in and out of our services, who are one step away from sleeping on the street, who want to find a way to get away from the danger, the chaos and the cold of rough sleeping and give themselves enough stability to sort out their lives. On top of the Housing Benefit cuts, the attack on the security of social housing tenancies, the cuts to Local Authorities leading to hostel after hostel closing (granted, Mr. Shapps has recently announced money for hostels to ameliorate this but it's been to late to save many)- another measure likely to turf dozens, maybe hundreds, no-one seems to know, more people out onto the streets is the last thing we need. What concerns me most of all, however, is the trend we're seeing towards criminalising the most vulnerable people in society: first the (thankfully now defunct) ASBOs leading to criminal records for begging or violating Controlled Drinking Zones, recent abortive attempts to make rough sleeping in certain areas illegal and now this measure which will retrospectively criminalise people for actions that were legal at the time that they performed them are all repuganantly regressive moves that will only serve to further stigmatise those on the margins of society and inhibit them from ever being rehabilitated back into its embrace; all for little gain beyond increasing the conveneince of a handful of negligent property-owners. As we move further and further towards a full-blown housing crisis (by which I mean the decimation of affordable housing and increasing ghettoisation of London, in particular, not finding it hard to get your foot on the property ladder) it's not a move that augurs well for the Government attempting to close the chasm between the haves and have-nots, rather than pulling up the drawbridge. (One of the interesting things about reading the Commons debate on the issue, linked from the article I've linked to above, was how well-known to me the handful of MPs who opposed the change were: John McDonnell, Caroline Lucas, Bonkers Kate, hearteningly, my local MP Joan Ruddock; glad though I am to see politicians I (mostly) respect speaking out how I would want them to, the fact that it was the Usual Suspects drives home how few MPs stray out of the political mainstream and raises concerns about who will challenge such moves once these dissenting voices are gone.) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 5th, 2011
9:45 am	the NME meant nothing to you, and the Maker, well the maker of who? I seem to have joined the posting-less-frequently brigade: you may not be surprised to learn this is because I seem to have even less time rather than because I'm doing less. The second caseworker has started this week so I'm cramming in inducting her on top of all the usual work but in the long term things should ease up a bit: although I'll be back working one evening a week when the shelters open on Monday, this year I should actually be able to take the time off during the day to compensate, so I can use that to try to keep on top of everything . . . Notable events of the last couple of weeks have been another night out with K, hiring an apartment near London Bridge and not straying too far for once, catching up with a friend at a leaving do for one of K&C's Outreach Workers (I think my first night out in Earls Court in the 4 years I've worked in the area) and making it to the Egham Halloween Party for the first time in a few years. Food Not Bombs has been going strong since the students returned; they've moved the second evening to a Thursday, which means I can be more flexible about when I go, and we had a meeting last night about broadening our activities, which happily devolved into drinks at The Amersham; they're the kinda folk I'd like to turn from colleagues into friends. Meanwhile culture I have consumed includes: catching The Lagan play at Waxy O'Connell's again (with ketchgirl) in typically energetic style; watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy after a wander to Greenwich with Mags, which may have been all very authentic in its buttoned up stuffiness but I felt suffered from a lack of any real drama; seeing a short play up at The Pleasance Theatre (a beacon amidst the wasteland of the Caledonian Road) as an excuse to see Tom, it was a South American-style Magic Realist fable called The Tragic and Regrettable Life of Teofila Teadora de la Lima, it was an intimate production using puppetry and a folk band to tell the story, all very North London but beautifully affective and entertaining; going to see The King Blues at The Hated Roundhouse with jamese, Cerebral Balzy were in suport, the punk outfit I caught at Reading (although less slurringly chaotic than last time, which was probably their most entertaining feature,) and the headliners themselves delivered their usual dose of sweat-soaked rabble-rousing joy; finally, I went to see Jerusalem in the West End, with is original cast of Mark Rylance, Mackenzie Crook et al., which was hugely entertaining, it felt like it could have had a bit more to it beyond that, in terms of plot and theme, but I loved it nonetheless. I'm having a weekend at home however, not planning to venture any further than Blackheath for some fireworks; mostly for financial and relaxation reasons, but also to facilitate more viewings as our housemate-hunt is limping on. A is still here (finally going on Monday) so I'm not too stressed about it yet but it will be nice to get it sorted. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
1:09 pm	Firstly, thanks to everyone for their art selling advice! People seem generally in accordance, which is promising. I'm getting pretty behind with my updates but have had two lovely London weekends: the first involved heading down to Kingston on the Friday night at the previously undiscovered Fighting Cocks: a good old-fashioned rock pub/gig venue that I wish wasn't the other side of London, I was there to see a double-header of the The Lagan and Danny Fontaine and the Horns of Fury who were bidding farewell to their shared drummer. It was great fun with a friendly and energetic crowd as well as plenty of dancing: hopefully they'll find a replacement and be back with us soon! I had been enjoying myself in moderation as I knew that on Saturday I was getting up for a day out with K. and friends, we convened for lunch near Covent Garden, then headed down for several convivial hours at Gordon's Wine Bar before moving on to a place called Jerusalem in the Bloomsburyish area, which involved a thankfully fairly painless drag act, cocktails and increasingly improbable lies about what the relationship between us all was. Jerusalem was sadly fairly underpopulated and flat but we were jolly enough that it didn't seem to matter and afterwards we trekked out to the apartment we had rented somewhere in the Docklands. It was fairly tame by our standards, with less terrorising of strangers than usual but good fun nonetheless. When we surfaced and went our separate ways on Sunday I meandered up to Kensal Rise for lunch with ronia, her friends and associated babies: maybe it was just the sun making everything seem more pleasant but there was something very enviable about their little supportive community and gave me hope for long-term London living. With my Spanish classes starting again, my weekdays in-between have become more a matter of routine with those, Unknown Armies and Food Not Bombs all continuing to keep me entertained, I also headed up to Oxford one evening last week for another Iris Project trustee meeting, which we've arranged to make more frequent. I've got a different teacher for the Spanish this year, who is actually Spanish rather than South American, so there's a whole new world of pronunciation to get used to, and speaks much faster but that, as well as the class being much smaller, should hopefully benefit me in the long run. This most recent weekend was, astonishingly, a complete blank in my diary up until the day or two before, so I expected it to be fairly domestic but, after calls to a few friends I hadn't seen for ages, I ended up barely at home. On Friday night I headed out to Brixton (something else I should do more of) and had a couple of drinks with Robert before meeting up with jamese and friends to move on to a massive Drum & Bass event called Hospitality at the Brixton Academy, it was a lot of fun and we danced through until the lights came up when we stumbled out in the early morning light and the first buses home. Despite the glorious sunshine, it was well into the afternoon by the time I struggled out of bed on Saturday and headed over for what I guess counts as a date, but mostly involved just relaxing on Clapham Common and enjoying the unseasonable warmth. I headed down to Sutton for the evening and spent the night chilling out at D's, then just about made it home on Sunday before heading out again to Nunhead, my anime-loving friends from Olympia having helpfully moved there; they carried on exposing me to X and fed me delicious foods. I carried a real buzz from the weekend right through to Monday and spent the whole of the morning improbably chipper, but then a couple of e-mails arrived which killed that stone dead, but that (as they say) is another story . . . (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 29th, 2011
3:46 pm	How to Sell Drawings? Does anyone have any advice on how to sell original art (A4 sized drawings) on the internet? (Or anywhere else for that matter!) Don't worry, it's not mine, I have just agreed to do it for someone who isn't able to arrange it themselves but don't really have much of an idea where to start . . . (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 15th, 2011
6:07 pm	it's not me, it's not my family I had a pretty quiet time last week before heading off to Maelstrom on the Friday, it was a pretty mixed event with some disappointing character deaths (the manner rather than the fact themselves) and the heightened state of threat and tension meaning a diminishing of a lot of the singing and storytelling and socialising around camp fires which are what I've enjoyed most about the game, although a burst of activity towards the end did actually make me feel quite energised about next year's finale. It was my seventh weekend of the year in a tent and actually probably the best weather of all of them: it barely rained, was warm enough not to need a blanket and not so hot that I couldn't sleep past six in the morning or spend the day stomping around in armour. Much as I love camping, definitely not planning to do quite so much next year . . . I came back to more roleplaying fun in the form of Unknown Armies and then nipping out in my lunchbreak on Tuesday to mark the beginning of this year's DSEi arms fair to protest outside the Head Office of its owners, Clarion Events, at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre with the Food Not Bombs crew. We weren't doing anything more fancy than handing out some leaflets, a little bit of street theatre and awareness-raising but it felt good. I'd helped to plan the protest and made the flyers and, after years of feeling on the periphery of a lot of lefty groups I've been involved in, I seem to have both reached a point where I finally have confidence in my ability to make a contribution and have found a bunch of people I feel comfortable with. The drop-in is open again so, from eerily quiet, work is straight back to manic: looking forward to having the second caseworker come the winter although managing someone will be weird, we're sorting out the applications at the moment. At home we've had an electrician and a plumber out in the space of a couple of days, both problems almost embarrassingly easy to fix, although I guess the kinda thing you wouldn't know unless you were told. Anyway, I'm prepared to look stupid for the sake of hot showers again! (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
4:38 pm	Reading II We got there pretty late on the Thursday (the joys of a festival only an hour and a half's coach journey away!) and, once we'd set up and everything, mooched over to the site to check out what was going on outside the arena, which basically pretty much consisted of food stalls and the Action Aid tent, which was to become our spiritual home for the rest of the festival; there DJs (mostly those from the Propaganda night at the Islington Academy that some of you have been dragged along to) were churning out indie classics. With the Arena closed and a dearth of other activities there was quite a crush trying to get in but two of us made it and started our festival amongst the crushed but exuberant dancing. We had the latest possible shift on the Friday so had most of the day to enjoy the music: the same two of us headed in early and we started out with a few bands which were new to me. D/R/U/G/S was a one-man dance music act, despite the fact that it was 12 o'clock on the opening day the crowd were already fairly up for it but, despite starting promisingly, he didn't really manage to hold people's attention and they soon started making their own fun instead. Local boys Does It Offend You, Yeah?, however, had no such trouble and blasted through a set that had the whole tent jumping about, a high point in terms of crowd-energy that the rest of the festival never quite lived up to; although, ironically, the young crowd adopted a more subdued bafflement at the cover of Aneurysm that most excited me. We headed out to the Main Stage to see New Found Glory who encapsulated the sound of late-90s early-00s pop-punk almost perfectly, then over to see Dry the River who, after being unconvinced at Glastonbury, I've been liking more and more each time I see them. They were followed up by the thrashy, rebellious punk of Cerebral Ballsy: their songs all sounded the same but they entertained, their glazed-eyed singer pretty much summing it up when he drawled: "This song's about not going to school." Then came Foster the People with a predictable crush of teenage girls, they were decent but nothing more this time. We headed back out (and met up with the others) for The Deftones followed by The Offspring, who put in solid performances but suffered a bit from the lack of atmosphere that plagues main stage gigs during daylight hours, with fairly subdued crowds. Then it was off to work: we were on the latest but shortest shift, between 8 and 12, and our bar was opposite the NME/Radio 1 Tent: we were able to hear plenty of The White Lies loud and clear while we were serving (although Beadyeye afterwards made less of an impression) and, in honour of ditzy_pole, during my break I popped round and caught a few songs of My Chemical Romance headlining, who didn't seem to be struggling to fill the arena with their presence and sound. After our shift we headed back to the Action Aid tent for a while but not everyone was feeling the love so, after a bit of a dance, we slogged our way back through the mud to the Workers Beer campsite and hung out for a while in the bar there. Saturday was our early shift, from 11 until 5: the only bands that caught my attention from our nearby stage were the boisterous Funeral Party and the horrendous racket that were OFWGKTA (some kind of hip hop) although I used my break to nip out to catch a few songs from the much more pleasing Tribes. After work we caught a bit of the Jimmy Eat World set before heading to see Glassjaw: it soon became clear that the resonant and doom-laden sounds of their new work weren't the hardcore explosion that their fans were hoping for and again the crowd started making their own fun. I stuck around for Bombay Bicycle Club who were top notch then headed back out to see Pulp: it was pretty much the same set as at Isle of Wight but no less pleasurable for it, there was plenty of it too, although that meant that I only caught the last song and half of The King Blues after they finished. Topping the bill were The Strokes who were fine but didn't set my world on fire. I reunited with my companions in the Action Aid Tent where there were a couple of random DJ sets from Bombay Bicycle Club and The Pigeon Detectives thrown into the mix and a couple of us stayed until the end. On the Sunday, we headed in to see Taking Back Sunday: more American rock I'd not heard of, I thought they were alright but those that knew them were again a bit disappointed. We stuck around at the Main Stage for Frank Turner and then The View, both of whom were good, then on the grounds that it was the one stage we hadn't been to yet made our last act a trip to the BBC Introducing Stage to see Courage Have Courage, some competent indie from young Channel Islanders. We were on shift from 5 until 11 and I ended up listening to the same stage from the back: it was quite weird trying to get an impression of live performances you couldn't see but Ham Sandwich seemed to generate a lot of buzz, Murkage weren't really my thing and The Winchell Riots sounded pleasant enough. Back on the main bar I went to watch a bit of Muse on my break, they were playing Origin of Symmetry all the way through, a good mixing-it-up tactic for a band most regular festival-goers have probably seen play somewhere over the last few years, and I happened to time it perfectly for Plug-In Baby. We got off shift and cashed in our last drinks-tokens to the explosive finale of 2 Many DJs before heading back (compete with fembot) for a final night of dancing amidst the friendly buzz of the Action Aid Tent (DJing from Enter Shikari before the Propaganda DJs rounded things off.) Things were still in full flow when we got back to our compound but I was too sober to press on until dawn. An early coach and the proximity to London meant I was home before midday on Monday and my Bank Holiday consisted of some hardcore napping to get me ready for a return to normality the next day. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
12:00 am	Reading I had a really good time at Reading: with the exception of maybe Isle of Wight I've mostly had experiences that suited the festivals I've been at this summer- Great Escape had lots of hanging out in Brighton cafes, Glastonbury a reasonable amount of messed up craziness and random small-stage wonder, Latitude plenty of chilled out culture and Reading some straight-forward up-for-it fun. The crowd lived up to its reputation by having lots of the 16-21 year old crowd (although not overwhelmingly so) but that worked pretty well for a festival that didn't have much to offer other than the bands and the burger vans as they had plenty of energy to make their own fun (without causing any of the carnage, as far as I saw, that sometimes occurs) which gave the place much more of a buzz than Isle of Wight had had in similar circumstances. I also lucked out in three ways: my barwork team (for Lewisham & Greenwich CND this time) who I'd not met before, were really friendly and sociable, meaning that, despite not knowing anyone else who was going (although I did run into Long-Haired Rob of Red Eye fame) I spent nearly the whole time in company; the shifts we got, although there was always going to be stuff I wanted to see and nothing I would be devastated to miss, were pretty much as good as I could have hoped for in terms of seeing as many of the bands I wanted to as possible; finally the rain, which did make its presence felt at fairly regular intervals across the weekend, seemed to time itself perfectly to whenever we were inside, either in bed or working our shifts or seeing bands in tents, and stayed away whenever we wanted to see a band on the main stage. There was a lot of trudging through mud but I don't think I spent more than about ten minutes being actually rained on throughout the whole weekend. The Workers Beer experience was all pretty good: we were camped around the pitch at Reading Town football club (a different place to the Madejski Stadium!) which was walkable but there was also a shuttle bus taking us in to site and handily through a staff entrance where bags weren't searched, meaning that between cans smuggled in and drinks tokens from work, I never actually bought a drink there the whole weekend, although there were no pack lunches here so I did end up buying more food rather than going back to camp just to get a free meal. Mostly we were on a mainish bar which kept busy without ever being horrendous (although IDing was a bit of a minefield with such a young crowd- 18 is such a distant concept that my ability to differentiate between that and, say, 24 is pretty minimal) but I was plucked off to do half a shift backstage at the BBC Introducing Stage, which was kinda dull in terms of work to do but worth it for the nosiness factor: watching producers schmoozing bands, techies rushing out en masse between sets to devour their dinner and radio presenters editing a show together on the comfy sofas. I probably spent the least I ever have at a festival depsite having a series of lateish (3/4am) fun nights- although never quite managing to get particularly wrecked or to push on until dawn, mainly because the two DJ areas that took over when the bands had finished both packed up at about 3am. Hmmm, I think that's all to be said for now: tomorrow, bands! (Comment on this)