Kicking it in Kamden

Spent yesterday afternoon kruising around Kamden with Kapital K, who was day-tripping up from Brigh-town.

I was dismayed to find that some of my favourite clothing shops in the Stables Markets had already been turfed to to make way for redevelopment. Great, where am I going to get a Russian flight-suit now?

Anyways, I showed K a bunch of kool record shops, T-shirt stands and other market malarkey.

Late in the afternoon we headed over to Oxford St to go looking for specific DVDs, then I saw K off at Victoria Station.

Not feeling like going home just yet, I doubled back to Kamden, where I caught Firebird and Alabama Thunderpussy play at the Underworld. A brilliant show all round.

After that I made a spot decision to sit out the Slimelight Hallowe'en special and head home, where I caught a relatively early night.

On the tube home I finishe the Princess Bride, all the way to the back cover (William Goldman added some stuff in 1998).

Today: errands and stuff. Have to hit a laundromat, because a week and a half ago the washing machine stopped working, and the landlady is not having a new one delivered until Thursday.

Maybe going to see The Birthday Massacre in Islington later. See how I feel.

Over and out.

- J

Hey All

The seminar thing last night was fascinating, as was the mixer/drinks thing afterwards.

Hence I got home much later than I meant to, but happy that I had taken the time to go.

It definitely gave me lots to think about.

Tonight I'm going to go out and see if I can catch Stardust.

Tomorrow I have to head to the Laundromat before my sister Kapital K arrives back.

I'm pretty much finished The Princess Bride, I'm just reading the appendix that William Goldman attached after the fact.

Over and out.

-J

Hey All

I just booked my flights to and from Amsterdam next weekend.

It came in at a little more than I expected it to, and I haven't factored in trains yet, but that probably won't come to much.

I guess between now and then I need to build up a decent set of Dutch phrases to help me get around. I should be able to find some Dutch language resources on the internet.

Other news: the editor told me that a couple of copies of the magazine are going to make it to Australia. Sweet.

Also: All this week it's been the London Games Festival, and tonight I'm going to a seminar thing relating to writers in the games industry. Should be interesting.

Also:

The Ed has told me that new distributors will be flinging Alt Mag far and wide. Sounds good to me.

Over and out.

-J

Interesting

According to Wikipedia, David Fincher (Fight Club and Seven) directed those anti-smoking ads from 1984.

The one where the foetus is smoking a cigarette in the womb.

Over and out.

-J

Fuck Yeah!

I just got my letter from the Council recruitment department:

I'm through to the Interviews Round.

That's right, Boss Level, Bitches!

Interview is next Friday, which doesn't clash with any 'Seeing The Hick in Holland' aspirations either.

Have you ever had a mad urge to High Five someone, but there's been no-one available?

Nevermind.

While I'm here, this is fucking brilliant.

Seriously, all Federal Election Debates should be conducted like this:



Over and out.

-J

Hey All

Kapital K spent most of yesterday Komatose, which gave me time to run some errands before returning home. After a late afternoon tour of Leytonstone she managed to eat some sandwiches in front of Street Doctors before she started to Krash again.

English TV does the same to me, to be honest.

Having got up extra early to meet her at the station, I was feeling pretty tired myself, so I turned in too.

Today:

Woke up early and decided to give K the tour of interesting bits of the West End, since that would also give me a chance to drop a resume into a cafe that was advertising for a barista.

Got the resume in shape, printed it a the net cafe, headed into Central London and dropped it in. I got a pretty positive response from one of the counter staff, so let's see if anything happens with that.

Headed up to Forbidden Planet, wandered through Covent Garden, looking in Kitsch little shops and retro clothing stores.

Wandered down to the strand and back to Leicester Square, then back along Regent Street.

Tube from Oxford Circus to Leytonstone to pick up her stuff before heading to Brighton to catch up with our cousin.

All good.

I'm here in London because I have to take care of some stuff.

Over and out.

-J

Hey All,

News,

My sister Kapital K has landed and is crashing out here in Leytonstone.

I'm checking some stuff online before I get to running around on general errands and stuff.

Making the to-do list now.

Over and out.

-J

Cheese Grommit

As a result of some kind of weird cheese craving I had a few weeks ago, I have gotten into the habit of buy Tesco Sliced Cheddar.

Since then I've been snacking on cheese slices like candy. I can't help it, the craving persists.

Today I looked at the nutritional information, and discovered that each slice contains 35% of my guideline amount of saturated fats.

Oh.

I can just see it now. When they carve open my corspe at autopsy, they'll be baffled by my combination of iron bones and clogged arteries.

*sigh*

Over and out.

-J

Hey All

I just woke up after catching a (comparatively) early night last night (out cold by Midnight).

A few days ago a mutual friend that I had gotten back into contact with on facebook let me know that another highschool friend had just moved to London and was looking to catch up.

He's moved over here to work as a solicitor, along with his girlfriend.

Yesterday me, him and his girl caught up for a few drinks at a west end pub. I have to say that it was really good to see him again.

Other news: after the marathon that was Zen etc, I decided something a little lighter was in order, so I picked up the copy of The Princess Bride by William Goldman that I had lying around. I've been meaning to read it ever since I saw stacks of the book lying around in bookshops when I first arrived in London, but somehow I never got around to it.

I'm about 150 pages in (of 400) and so far I'm really enjoying it.

Sister K arrives tomorrow morning. It'll be good to see her again.

Enough for now. I think I'll have some breakfast.

Over and out.

-J

Finally!

I just finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

I wasn't sure how long it had taken me to read, so I ran a quick search through this blog, and discovered an entry where I had just started reading it.

Dated 11th of June.

Fuck. 18 weeks.

I think that book certainly threw a spanner into my plan to read 50 books this year.

To be fair, just before reading Zen (atAoMM) I had read Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly in less than 48 hours.

What took so long wasn't so much the fact that it is a long book (though at 370 odd pages it's not an afternoon stroll), it's that the concepts underpinning the narrative are so dense and involved.

Of course, it didn't help that 'round about the time that I bought the book, one of my uncles taught me how to do sudoku puzzles, meaning that I had something to do on the tube after I had read the wafer thin freesheets.

Still, in the time it takes to get from Leytonstone to Tottenham Court Road, in any other novel I can usually knock down 10 pages, give or take. In Zen, I'd be lucky to be able to parse 3 or 4.

That said, I do believe it was worth reading.

All the same, I am happy to have a new beginning.

Which book shall I read next?

Over and out.

-J

Hey All

I recently signed on to Facebook (let's face it, pretty much everyone else in the world has now), and as an unexpected side effect I've discovered that at least two old friends are now here in London.

Groovy. Catching up with one on the weekend, and probably going to catch up with others next week.

Also coming:

My sister is arriving from Australia first thing Monday (guess I better set the alarm for that).

And I had better start booking tickets etc to go to Utrecht to see SixFtHick play on November 3.

Yay.

Over and out.

-J

Hey All

Still tired from getting all the stuff in.

I was just dismayed to discover that I slept through a Kevin Smith signing.

Bugger.

Nevermind. I'm going to the Underworld to see Unsane.

Over and out.

-J

Yay

Yay,

Reviews and features are in.

Now just waiting while magazine goes to print.

Should be out by the end of the month.

Tired now.

Over and out.

-J

Yay

...And I just finished transcribing my Sepultura interview.

2150 words, give or take.

Now I just have to carve it down to an 1100 word feature.

Over and out.

-J

Of Prog and Progress

Getting to Wembley Arena last night was a nightmare, and when I got there it took even longer than usual to convince the receptionist that I was on the list (I strongly suspect she forgot her Omega 3 that morning). But Dream Theater (damn American spelling!) more than made up for it with an incredible performance.

Their technical ability was jaw-dropping, and the compositions flowed so smoothly it's really hard to describe. Can you explain a Prog-Metal band without it sounding rubbish? I'm not sure, but watching them play pulled me right out of a dark and angry mood so fast and so well I couldn't believe it. All concerts should be this good.

Today it is pretty much the hard deadline for the magazine, so I have to finish off a couple of short pieces (and one longer piece) and send it all off. Strangely, I'm pretty sure that I have written about writing and sending pieces a bit lately, probably because I have had to do it a lot lately.

In which case I should really get back to work.

Over and out,

-J

Hey All

The Application and the supporting statement is in.

I know that ideally I should have had it in on Monday (and I'm sure that if I was channelling Gus I would have had it in within half an hour), but I didn't like the supporting statement I had written, so I rewrote it.

To further delay rewriting it, last night the editor sent me to cover a canadian band playing in Camden. If he hadn't just agreed to be a referee for me, I probably would have declined.

No matter. I've filled the forms, written the supporting statement explaining, point by point, why I best fit their criteria for a library assistant, and I've handed it in (note that there has been postal strikes all this week, and today being Eid, both the internet cafes where I usually get printing done were closed).

In other news: Sunday is deadline for the magazine, so I have to send all copy in. Including a review of Dream Theatre, who are playing Wembley Arena on Saturday night. So yeah, a review to turn in overnight. As well as other tasks.

*sigh*

No matter.

Nevermind. It'll get done.

The next issue of the magazine will come out at the end of this month.

In the meantime, I'd better get back to work.

Over and out.

-J

Update:

Hey All,

I've been working through the forms, figuring out what I'm going to write for the personal statement etc. I've also been working on being on top of all the other writing stuff I've got to do (reviews etc).

Last night I was sent to Kentish Town to see a band called Madina Lake, that I fully expected to be nothing special. And I was shocked to discover that they actually put on a really good show.

Bizarre.

In any case, I'd better get back to work.

Over and out.

-J

Hey All

Hey,

I did the Information Workshop whatever thing today.

Getting there wasn't hard: it was just a matter of jumping on the first train east fromt he station that I can see from the landing outside my flat (the only other useful place the train goes is Walthamstow Central). I did try to get a ticket, but a) some prankster had poured orange juice in the return tray and b) the machine decided that it wouldn't take my change. I swear to God, there would be a hell of a lot less fare evasion on the overland if their machines actually worked.

Once at Wanstead I just had to walk down to the library, which, since I was half an hour early, was a nice relaxed stroll.

Basically, they got a group of the applicants and put us in a room in the Library at Forest Gate and gave us the presentation about the position, the selection process and how to continue on the way. Plus they gave us envelopes with the application forms etc.

Here's the interesting stuff: apparently over 200 people called to apply for the position, of whom 110 made it to the written test (that I did last week). The written test was passed by 41 people, who were split into two groups to get the presentation today.

The 41 that remain will be vying for one of 11 positions available. Application forms are due next Friday (along with Supporting Statements or Personal Statements), and interviews will begin just shy of the end of this month.

Onto the next round.

In the meantime: tonight I'm going to see Neil Gaiman doing a speaking thing in Picadilly. Should be sweet, because Neil Gaiman is both a) a brilliant writer and b) a face-meltingly intelligent person with a stupidly charismatic public demeanor.

Should be fun.

Over and Out.

-J

Hey All,

Hey Everyone,

Tomorrow I go one stop on the overland East to sit for the face-to-face interview that may just determine whether I get the job.

To clear up any confusion from the post last Friday, they will be giving a presentation to the candidates, not the other way around : )

Before I go to bed I'm going to look over the notes I took while quizzing other people for tips. Then I'm going to scribble down some stuff, then I'm going to get some sleep.

It's not the end of the world if I don't get this job, but it will make my life a hell of a lot better if I do.

As for the last few days: went to see Fall of Troy and Daughters on Friday. It was okay but not really mind blowing. Daughters lurched between being utterly shambolic one minute and a Neubauten-esque meltdown of noise the next, but the performance wasn't really helped by a singer determined to present an impression of Earl Hickey on heroin. Fall of Troy explode with energy and talent but somehow lack gravity. Or maybe I was just tired. I don't know.

Saturday night I went out and saw three laptop acts and a couple of friends that I haven't seen for a while. With at least one or two people, it seems that we have been clubbing on alternate weeks.

Found out that at the Dimmu Borgir show on Friday there were still a couple of tickets on the door, so I could have gone to that instead (though I was also told that the show was much as you would expect, and the keyboards were too low in the mix... black metal is most fun at small show levels, anyway).

Angelspit (Sydney industrial band now based in Berlin) are playing in London next Saturday. I've been corresponding on and off with them pretty much since I arrived in London and discovered that there were still cool bands back in Australia, so it will be great to meet them IRL (in real life).

Anyways, sleepy time now.

Over and out.

-J