time is a matter of fact

Last weekend...

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:02:24 GMT

12-09-2009 - Sunset over Bestival

Went to Bestival last weekend, much fun apart from wildcat-themed first day. Sunburn-tastic, not a drop of rain all weekend. Didn't take many photos due to camera-rubbishness + preoccupation with dancing like an idiot. Saw plenty of ace stuff though :)

Note to self: slow ISO and shoddy lens does not a good mainstage / bigtop / tent interior / nighttime / crowd photo make.

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:53:14 GMT

04-02-2007 - Oh shit, not daylight

Let there be cake...

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:27:43 GMT

03-02-2007 - CAKE

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:56:22 GMT

03-02-2007 - What the inside of my brain looks like from time to time

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:39:19 GMT

03-02-2007 - John holding up the weight of the world

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:33:46 GMT

03-02-2007 - Me, wasted much? Sneinton

Last night, at the Social

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:03:31 GMT

02-09-2009 - Jeffrey Lewis, gangsta rap about killing mosquitos

Bit of a break from posting old photos, last night I saw Jeff Lewis (again) at the Social in Notts - him and the band were much tighter than I've ever seen them, place was muuuuuch more packed than I've ever seen it with him as well, possibly due to his appearance on the Culture Show a couple of months back. Tis always a pleasure watching someone like Jeff doing what he does, he even played Heavy Heart on request which left me grinning like a fool for most of the way home :)

Seems like my shite summer of failed holidays and general ballache might be coming to an end too, next weekend I'm off to Bestival (got a phonecall a couple of days ago from a friend who had been let down last minute and had a free ticket going spare) and december sees ATP and a rescheduled Greece trip, woop! I AM SO EXCITED

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:44:59 GMT

03-02-2007 - Zahra + John at Jenny's birthday party, Sneinton

Now: off to see Jeff Lewis in Notts. For the fifth time.

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:56:24 GMT

04-01-2007 - People who got lost along the way, Kate, Jay, Dave, Ruth and Shazia

Tonight:

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:44:29 GMT

+ Just got back from the Running Horse
+ Ben's last gig with captain dangerous (non-capitalised because of my level of respect for them)
+ Fun dancing round a completely non-plussed Kenny
+ Lock in! With just me, Ben, Kenny and Stevie
+ Landlords Steve + Fi are safest people EVAR
+ Remembered us from the gig we did late last year, nice things to say
+ Ska night up+coming
+ Far too fucking drunk
+ Work yesterday from 5am, finished at 2pm, straight to the pub, abusing the optics in my room right after
+ Need sleep, passout time, oh yes, sweet sweet chestnuts
+ Ben's snoring on my floor with lovely boxers on RIGHT AT THIS MINUTE

Nanight work at 3 tomorrow, going to be hanging like fuck.

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:26:40 GMT

23-01-2007 - Midnight in the snow at the Equine Unit

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:28:11 GMT

06-12-06 - Christmas Party

Now it has to be said that I'm not a massively social animal. Given a choice between sitting in the corner of a dingy pub sipping whiskey + reading a paper or being bang in the middle of things in a student bar, surrounded by lairy students, many of whom were were getting their collective first sniffs of the barmaid's apron, I know where the hell I'd rather be, every time. That being said though, I did have some fucking awesome times at the Brack bar.

During my time at the place NTU were undertaking a big expansion project, building new accommodations and cramming more people per square foot of the place than should be feasably possible. In my first year, there were about 60 of us who lived on campus. At the start of my second year (when the rest of the new buildings were up) there were about 160odd (give or take the odd person dropping out here and there). Event nights at the bar suddenly became busy to the point that bouncers had to be hired, and before the smoking ban came into effect there were times when the only way to cross the room was via the tables.
Under any normal circumstance I wouldn't be seen anywhere near the place with that many people around, being part of the Student Union's Camera Crew forced me to suck it up and get stuck in. I'm glad that I did, when people started seeing their faces in the student magazine (published fortnightly, potential readership of 12,000) they all suddenly became very eager to say hello when they saw me wandering drunk through the crowds. The camera was a perfect way of disguising my misanthropy and gave me an excuse to wallflower between the different cliques that had sprung up following the influx of new people. I didn't have to talk to many people if I didn't want to and could happily spend my evenings observing rather than actively participating. Suited me to a T.

Possibly the favourite photo I've got of myself, union ID round my neck, on the job. The lass on the right is my old housemate Amilia.

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:55:12 GMT

11-11-06 -Chilling out with Gordon the Caretaker in the cellars underneath Brackenhurst Hall

One of the benefits of becoming good friends with the caretaker of a place like Brackenhurst was the regularity with which I'd find myself off on some late night journey to the out of bounds areas of the Estate, be it the generator room, turbine room, cellars underneath the hall (complete with alcoves containing original 19th Century meathooks caked in rust hanging from the ceiling), even the top of the tower on the Hall itself. Together with the grounds of the place, Gordon and his wife Tanya (and their dog Darwin) are the only things I miss about life at Brackenhurst. Awesome awesome people, really talented folk musicians too.

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:52:08 GMT

09-11-06 -Teaching Rie how to play Redemption Song

It has been occurring to me...

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:23:39 GMT

04-11-06 - Sunset

+ Looking through old photos is leaving me strangely remaniscent. I'd not looked through the bulk of these in a couple of years, and tis a little wierd looking at how things were.
+ I have a LOT of photos, and therein lies a bit of a dilemma. With the amount of photos I've got I realise there's a fairly sizable opportunity to gloss over certain things, erase certain events / people from my past in order to put across a version of myself that I think would reflect better upon hindsight than perhaps the reality would show.
+ However, doing that would nix the majority of 2007, as well as a good few parties / gatherings / 'social' events from this self-absorbed little photo retrospective I've got going on.
+ So, do I show things warts and all in the interest of keeping things transparent for myself when i come to look back on this in a few years time, or do I just put a nice picture up each day until I'm up to date with the present (whenever the hell that may be)?
+ After all, I've not deleted any of these photos from my HDs because I didn't want to wind up gradually misinforming me of what's gone on in the past (as is usually the case when time passes and you've only got memory to go by)

Ach, decisions decisions. In the meanwhile, heres a sunset (I = last bastion of originality)

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:53:04 GMT

04-11-06 - Dozing Dragonfly

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:26:33 GMT

Sometime around 2am in December 2006 - Brackenhurst Hall

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:05:24 GMT

04-11-06 - Field Mushroom

2nd November 2006, Bye bye Arab Strap

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:00:39 GMT

02-11- 06 - Arab Strap farewell gig at the Rescuerooms

Aah Arab Strap, how I miss you... I remember feeling genuinely damp of eye by the end of this one, and even now there's been little in the way to fill the misanthropic hole in my music collection. The Kinfe / Fever Ray go some way towards capturing the sense of claustrophobic isolation that Strap did so well but they're nowhere near grimy enough. Ah well, Malcolm Middleton gets better with each successive album, and he usually plays the Social a couple of times a year, woop!

I'm going to update this thing with daily pictures of what I've been doing with myself since I stopped posting in here way back when. Its been a while since I had a dig through the archives, and catharsis is always, well, cathartic. Nice to be able to fill another unit of time in my day too, I'm in need of stuff to keep myself occupied. Being a shift manager at One Stop is monotonous as hell - my OAP regulars are a nice enough bunch (the old ladies fucking love me) but quarter to five wakeup times leave me feeling like a zombie for the majority of the daylight hours :/

Things:

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:31:22 GMT

It's been nearly three years since I posted anything substantial in here. In those three years I have:

+ Moved into a house in Southwell
+ Got a job as a shift manager at the local One Stop
+ Dropped out of Uni
+ Joined a couple of bands
+ Played gigs at the venues I've been hero-worshipping bands at for the best part of six years
+ Gained a celebrity endorsement (of sorts)
+ Taken about 60,000 photos

Seeing as I find myself at a near-permanent loose end of late, I thought It might be an idea to resurrect this thing with a view to filling in the blanks between what was then and what is now. So, without further ado:

So...

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:59:28 GMT

It's been a while...

Here's to rusting

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:46:33 GMT

My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It's better to burn out
Than to fade away
My my, hey hey.

Out of the blue
and into the black
They give you this,
but you pay for that
And once you're gone,
you can never come back
When you're out of the blue
and into the black.

The king is gone
but he's not forgotten
This is the story
of a Johnny Rotten
It's better to burn out
than it is to rust
The king is gone
but he's not forgotten.

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There's more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my.

i'm still alive

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:04:55 GMT

I'll update proper like in a few days when boredom really takes hold

Otter Porn

that is all

End of an era...

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 11:51:38 GMT

I'm trying to come to grips with the fact that I'm never going to see Arab Strap play live again. Last night was it - their last gig in Nottingham. T'was fucking excellent - they played bits of everything; stuff from all three albums including The First Big Weekend and Gilded, and my favourite two songs - Piglet and New Birds. By the time they played Shy Retirer acoustic at the end I was a little damp of eye, that I have absolutely no problem admitting. I met Malcom and Aiden - wished them all the best, got a photo of Malc after the show finished (that he made me promise not to put on myspace) and the setlist! After I've finished this pissing Habitat Creation essay I'll sift through the gig and a half of photos I took and put the best up.

Back at uni!

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 23:42:31 GMT

21-10-06 - Rich Titley spinning fire poi