I emerge from my coccoon...

...to find that the AFI interview I was supposed to be doing in a few weeks has fallen through.

I still have the plus one on the door for their show later this month, though. (the Universal Music rep has asked that I write a review of the show, but I don't think that it's covered by my agreement with Monika... although Monika's agreement might have ended when she left... In any case, I'll write the review, and if FL don't want it, I'll shop it to another website/magazine.)

And I've made it clear that I call shotgun on the Phone Interview. Whether the new editor of Fasterlouder gives it to me remains to be seen.

I also finished the Robin Hobb novel I had from the Library. That brings the Liveship Trilogy to a close.

This means three things: first of all, I now have to go back to chugging through Iain M Banks brutally postmodern Feersum Endjinn. It's taken me over a month to get to halfway through.

Secondly, I need to return the third Liveship Trilogy book to the Library. And

Thirdly, once I've finished Feersum Endjinn, maybe I might start the Tawny Man series.

Anyways, I've got things to do.

Not to imply that I'm not Frying Bigger Fish, but if anyone feels like cheering me up over my recent dissapointment, be my guest.

Over and out.

J

A few hours later, just after 9 PM:

I'm feeling a bit better. Not just about the interview, but about pretty much everything.

I took the tube into London and got off at Old Street, trying to remember where my Landlady's office was, since I had an envelope for her, which had come by the flat. I couldn't find it, and none of the newsagents nearby carried Dazed and Confused magazine... I was going to check that to see if I could find the street address for Dazed and Confused, because their offices are up the street from my Landlady's offices.

I wound up looking around Moorgate for a little bit, and I bought a Roland Barthes book for two pounds. Look about, I noticed that the Londoners were claiming the public space again, breaking out books while sitting at the feet of statues, gathering on green squares drinking beer and generally looking uncharacteristically cheerful.

I took a bus to Londonbridge and looked in a discount CD shop. I found a CD by a Texan band called The Sword that I had read about. In addition to an Art Nouveau cover, they featured a song called Lament for the Aurochs. It seemed bizarre that a bunch of Texans would know what an Auroch was (it's a giant woolly bovine mammal, from the pre-christian Celtic past of Britain), and the incongruity impressed me enough that I bought the CD.

Next I took the tube to Oxford Circus where I found a Dazed and Confused in Borders. And all the addresses were for E-mail. I guess those arty hipsters refuse to contemplate the idea of Snail Mail. I did wind up buying A Rough Guide of London, since my wandering in Hamstead last weekend reminded me of how blind I am to so much of London. I should learn more about the place that I am in. (I did resist the temptaion to buy another fat fantasy novel, given that I have more than enough reading to satisfy me for quite a while).

Back in the street the paths were thronging with folk. Maybe it's just because it's Friday Afternoon, maybe it's because it's the end of the first week of May, maybe it is because the long delayed Spring is finally here properly, but the streets did seem livelier. Furthermore, the girls I saw looked healthier than the ones I usually see in London. Maybe the nice weather had drawn a whole lot of folk into London from some mysterious place where people actually get exercise and aren't just sustained by pints of lager and chips.

Ducking off Oxford Street I found Soho Square to be near carpeted with kids sprawled on the lawn.

I looked through Foyles (noting a Bookseller Wanted notice in the window) and crossed the street to Borders, where I ran into a retro dandy that I had seen at Electrowerkz last Friday (he was part of the crew attached to a beautiful blonde girl, whose attentions I had last to a Rasputin lookalike, of all people). He told me about a venue in Kilburn where experimental music shows are held.

I walked to Leicester Square, thinking I might see a movie, but none of the movies I wanted to see were playing for at least an hour, so I chilled in the Park under the fountain. The Square was also filled with pretty folk.

This seems to be that period of the year where people start to shake off the winter greyness and actually start having fun again, in places other than dim smokey corners.

I'm back in Leytonstone again, thinking I'll have a quiet night in. An early night sleep might even out some of this fatigue.

Anyways, over and out.

J