Didn't get the Boston job. Coming second appears to be my specialist subject.
5:01 PM
I'm really upset about what happened to Luke , and now I find out that other loosely-related things are not uncommon. Although I know he didn't do anything wrong. And I'm partly upset because I've been through that kinda shit. But, whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Not that aphorisms help.
Bob linked his Guardian piece . It's true that there's so much technology around that anything and everything you do in the workplace can be looked at over your shoulder. But what does that mean about workplaces; surely a degree of trust is implicit in the employment relationship? When I was headhunter, their door-opening-technology even kept a record of which fucking doors you walked through. I wonder how useful that is? "Well, Sasha, we're concerned that you're through-doorput statistics are in the lower quartile, and we're concerned you might not be having as many ad-hoc mini-meetings as our current vision allows for. Do you have anything to say about that?"
I'm not sure the Big Brother world (and I mean that in an Orwellian rather than Channel 4 way) makes for good business. Or good human relationships. And also, I hate my friends getting treated like shit.
1:53 PM
Dan showed me this ages ago and I just refound it. Feeds the inner child, for sure.
1:32 PM
Here's the kind of pointless crap I can't believe gets published. James Citrin's article Six Principles for Leading During Uncertain Times can be summarised like this:
1 be honest
2 have a good business idea
3 hire good people
4 motivate the good people you hired
5 insert current management fad here: "organise for flexibility" (quite a lot better than the previously fashionable "exhibit thought leadership". Excuse me, is the Thought Leader home today? 6 be consisent
Er, right. So that definitely gets the so-what-? prize, then. And anyway, I don't think there just has to be a recession to exhibit integrity.
10:32 AM
Last night I did a gigette at the Hampstead Comedy Club, and I'm halfway through my act when I see T standing by the bar. My fans, they're everywhere.
The great thing about last night was that it was filmed (I was doing a favour for a mate who needed 40 seconds of a female stand-up for some film); when it's edited, and they've taken out all the crap gags, it'll be better than the real me.
And my googling has reminded me that this is the best UK comedy portal.
10:21 AM
I've never really considered making money from blogging (it reminds me of those oh-so-1998 conversations about monetizing the business plan yabba yabba bullshit) but this is an interesting piece, nonetheless.
10:18 AM
Glad that my licence fee goes towards something useful, then.
The only time I ever voluntary look at a BBC website is when I read someone else's link or the nice people from Blue Yonder ask me to put it in as a test page if my connection is broken.
10:11 AM
And this bit is great: the producer and director just list their favourite places in New York. On an uptown/downtown basis.
10:05 PM
From blogs to klogs. You're probably wondering what a klog is, right? It's all about "knowledge weblogs. Knowledge management, learning organizations, and other practices to reduce collective idiocy." Whatever.
I think knowledge management databases are the way of the future. But that's not how blogs work. You ever thought to yourself, as a minion of a large international organisation: "I wonder what questions people were thinking about last Wednesday at around 11am?" Exactly. Sure there's search technology for blogs, but it's an add-on, not the raison-d'etre.
Know what this is? Blogunacy meets the blog bandwaggon.
3:35 PM
BasicCat is a First Tuesday-alike, founded by some First Tuesday movers and shakers. It's a little bit The Chemistry, and not unlike some other people with an Orange logo.
But what it mostly reminds me of is this CAT: the coital alignment technique. Basic CAT sounds like you're in a beginners class. Or reading Cosmo. But, er, it's the business model that counts, right?
11:17 AM
Shameless plug for a friend, but MBites is a great, free, daily tech/business newsletter. Why read all the papers when Mike can do it for you?
10:57 AM
Am I a libertarian? Er, not sure. Whatever you say is OK with me, really.
12:01 AM
Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Seen this? I'd like to make one for London but don't know the first thing about anything.
11:59 PM
Just called A to see if he wants to come to my gig tomorrow, but turns out he's in France playing with Pierre BenSusan. Yay.
11:34 PM
Can you believe that there's someone who's job-title is Cyber Sociology Expert? Anyway, Keith says that:
"the social impact of new communications technologies is a greater number of social ties, more diverse social ties, more support."
Thank God, I say. Nay, thank God a thousand times.
More blogging for the blogerati in the blogosphere.
4:44 PM
Just had lunch with D and A for tomorrow's gig, and D told me this story:
This is a "true story" in (Letters) Daily Mail.Going to bed the other night I noticed people in my shed stealing things. I phoned the police but was told no one was in the area to help. They said they would send someone over as soon as possible. I hung up. A minute later I rang again. "Hello", I said "I called you a minute ago because there were people in my shed. You don't have to hurry now because I've shot them". Within minutes there were half a dozen police cars in the area, plus helicopters and an armed response unit. They caught the burglars red handed. One of the officers said "I thought you said you'd shot them", to which I replied "I thought you said there was no one available."
Could be an urban myth, urban miss, but it's damned good.
4:42 PM
And today's word is (trumpet roll) news-grazing.
4:29 PM
David isn't very sure he knows where he lives. But I know. I live there. It's Cricklehamsptead.
1:31 PM
Great evening with P (although he did say if I wrote up our conversation he'd have to get it peer reviewed). We had drinks at Bam Bou (which I know used to be the No 1 Cigar Club - it's strange how restaurants are currently relaunching/rebranding like pop groups: remember that 80s (?) sketch about bands breaking up and reforming?).
I was drinking Mojitos, because they reminded me of Cuba, for some reason, and P was sensibly drinking Chardonnay. Drinking on an empty stomach is never good. Unfortunately I had too much to drink to remember the name of the cute Thai place on Charlotte Street, but they made a mean thai green curry (but then so do I).
P was tall, fabulous, funny, charming and surreally witty. As ever. Sample conversational soundbite: "Watson and Crick were the baal-shem tov of the DNA world." I'm too pissed/woozy too write anything else right now.
11:50 PM
The Jubilee Line train driver at Finchley Road this morning started doing his stand-up comedy routine on us, and it was bad. The only good gag was "why do they call them semi-detached houses? they should be semi-attached." Reminded me of this.
2:21 PM
Probably everyone in the wired world already knows about 37 signals.
12:46 PM
Vaughn's got a whole Friends Reunited thang going on, but since I read this in yesterday's Guardian, I'm a little more wary.
Of course it may be more legal scaremongering/ambulance chasing, and that guy did use his real name.
12:19 PM
I really want to see Free by Simon Bowen at the National. Not least because Andrew Lincoln is in it. But also, because I - apparently - have that late-twenty-something twenty-first-century ennui.
11:41 AM
My Mum called during the week and said would I like to see the Vagina Monologues? Now I would, but not with my parents, ferchrissakes. I countered with Gwynnie in Proof at the Donmar. My Mum said (after I'd read her a synopsis) "it's not clever, seeing something about mental illness when there's so much of it in the family." (I've actually rewritten that line, for comedy value). We finally settled on Lady Windemere's Fan.
Joely Richardson was truly mediocre, even though her fictional mother was played by her real mother, Vanessa Redgrave. The star of the show was undoubtedly Googie Withers, who I googled on when I got home to discover that she is 85, and still evidently has both all her marbles and more dramatic presence than the whole cast put together. My Mother reminded me that her Mother was a big fan, and if my grandma Hilda was here she'd be 99.
C-list celebrity trivia: The second male lead is played by Jack Davenport, who was (better as) Miles in This Life. Oh, and my Mum used to go out with someone who was best friends with Peter Hall thirty years ago.
12:26 AM
Monday, May 27, 2002
There's a lot to say. First, the whole uptalk/HRT thing had me thinking about a couple of people I talked to recently, who I like to call Too Much Information People. So Sunday, I saw my father's cousin Janice (not, of course, her real name), and I aksed her how she was and she replied:
"Fine. Well, not so fine, really. I've had a banging headache all weekend." I nodded symapthetically. "Just won't go away. My doctor suggested I revise the HRT treatment, but I'm not so sure. Would you like to see pictures of my daughter and her non-Jewish partner? We're so disappointed, but what can you do?" She then went into what I call The No Neck Position; shrug your shoulders as if you have no neck and are in need of immediate osteopathic treatment, to indicate disapproval.
The previous weekend, I ran into a scary woman, X, at a party. She always answers six questions instead of one when you talk to her, and she scares me shitless. And, frankly, I'm quite hard to scare. She's generally fairly unhip, and looked uber-trendy in an of-the-moment peasant ensemble that both our ancestors would not have paid two roubels for in the Old Country. I said she looked nice. She replied:
"Thanks. My friend Sarah lent me her clothes, you see I'm losing weight and she's gaining weight, so I think I'll have them for a while. She's dieting, and plans to be in them again by September, but I had to trendy up becuase I've been asked to be [something identifying] on [major TV programme] and they said I couldn't wear a suit. I tried to get out of it, but [her professional body] put me up for it and I got the short straw. Another drink?"
I so want to tell you who she is, but in recognition of everything I said a couple of weeks back about anonymity, I won't. Shame though. For you, anyway.
FYI: this thought-link-journey went: HRT-my Dad's cousin - other annoying TMI people-great gossip. 11:55 PM
Just for completeness sake, I feel I should file a what-I-did-at-the-weekend post. Let's just say it wasn't so much Four Weddings and A Funeral, as Two Barmitzvah's and A Stonesetting.
3:10 PM
I know I'm getting way too excited, but I lurve the web. This morning I had no idea that there was such a thing as HRT - High Rising Terminals - thanks for the lead, Peter.
Matt Seaton wrote about it last year. James Gorman, a teacher at NYU coined the phraseuptalk in 1993. Apparently Douglas Coupland (his site's been under renovation for ever) and most Canadians are key culprits.Cynthia Lemore did her PhD in "recurrent intonational rises". And I'm going to do my PhD on Chick Lit. Like, really.
Apparently it's a kiwi meets Clueless thing, with some social anthropology thrown in for good measure. I didn't even know my friend D might be a member of a "linguistic micro community". And I certainly don't think he's a valley girl.
Diane DiResta, author of Knockout Presentations: How to Deliver Your Message with Power, Punch and Pizzazz, is quoted as saying: "I believe it is also an outgrowth of our politically correct society where people tiptoe around their beliefs by monitoring their language. It's as if a person's tentative tone allows them to retract the statement if it is met with criticism or disapproval. People are afraid to take a stand." And she agrees that it's a menace to women trying to clamber the corporate ladder: "Uptalk robs them of credibility and authority. It is especially disempowering for women."
Sure, but where did Matt Seaton get Diana from? The golden rolodex under rentaquote?
And if "uptalk is close to the spirit of postmodernism, concerned with advancing relativistic, provisional statements - in contrast with the classic discourse of modernism, pronouncing absolute truths" then where do I stand? I think there are some absolute truths. And I'm certainly not a moral relativist.
Peter thinks it's even more annoying to use "like" to mean "said". And he was like, go on. And I was like, no way. But, like, I do that all the time. Whatever.
2:51 PM
When I was a print buyer (I've had a lot of jobs), this was just the kind of thing I needed.
11:40 AM
Just discovered this lawmeme site; the top ten copyright crimes is a laff-a-minute.
11:19 AM
An amusing proto-rebublican article in this morning's Guardian. There are passing references to "sundry Romanians"; do you think it's possible that I'm 315th in line to the throne? If I am, I must get a manicure.
10:54 AM
Showing my age, I guess, but Brian Eno and Talking Heads were the backdrop to my early childhood. I just loved that early techno-ish stuff. Then I got into Tom Tom Club.
In fact, somewhere around Swiss Cottage is my framed hard-to-find promotional True Stories poster, languishing in a flat I used to live in, where my former flat mate persuaded me it went so well in the bathroom. Hi, Mike.
But for some reason, I never came across the Oblique Strategies project till today. A collabaration between Brian Eno and the now-deceased Peter Schmidt, they've just released a fifth edition, and I want one.
10:29 AM
Sunday, May 26, 2002
One thing about this weekend... I ended up hanging out with a lot of teenagery-types - don't ask why - and there's whole generation of people out there who talk like they're in an Aussie soap.
It must be a syndrome, then. Sorry, Syndrome. Terminal Sentence Questioning Syndrome. Or something. I know that someone, somewhere, out there, must have written about this. The whole thing implies a sense of constant questioning and no fixed facts that scares me.
10:56 PM
's been a non-stop crazy weekend that I will write up one day in the future.
For now, here's another crazy story about impending fat litigation. Like, watch this space (or a bigger one).
10:52 PM
Friday, May 24, 2002
More stuff I hate: - people who say "what am I like?", "what are you like" or any variation on that theme. Especially in a whiney voice
- white people who braid their hair
- doing phone technical support to my brother for an hour at a time. Sample problem: Q "it won't read the software on the CD". A is the CD pressed into place?
- lack of world peace
- people who double park in Golders Green (it's OK for me to say that. if you say it, it might be racist).
- middle aged women with the sparkly clothes gene, uber-manicured looks and a gun in their - metaphorical - handbag
- people who say "we must do lunch" unironically
4:33 PM
ABBA, so retro, I know. And now, the guys get an award. I (just) remember the first time around: my best friend Louise Hart was utterly obsessed with the sultry Swedes. So much so, that in an entrance exam for senior school, she answered the entire multiple choice section ABBA. What's amazing is, she got a place.
3:54 PM
That American litigation thing is just going too far. Meredith Berkman, a US columnist, is suing a food manufacturer for emotional distress due to mis-labeling that fat content on her kid's food. Like, really. I don't buy that whole vicitim culture thing. It's a fear culture gone crazy. Sometimes you have to take responsibility for yourself, and not look for other people to blame. So you're fat. Get over it.
3:50 PM
Heard Claire Calman interviewed on Radio 4 about her new book, I Like it Like That. Apparently it's all about Unsuitable Partner Syndrome. That's a real thing?
I think We Are Being Lied To. There can't really be a syndrome for everything. If there is then I have Too Lazy To Get Out of Bed Syndrome, coupled with Proto Diet Syndrome (I think I have lost my total body weight two or three times during my life, just not all at the same time). Or Not as Funny As I Think Syndrome. You do it. Anything's a syndrome in these post-modern times.
3:43 PM
Just saw a guy sitting on the bench outside Starbucks in Hampstead, with 333 tattooed on the inside of his wrist. What is that? Half the number of the beast?
1:59 PM
Last night I saw The Clearing at The Tricycle. Helen Edmunson's play does an incredible job of contemporising (if that's a word) the issues of seventeenth century Ireland. There's a real timelessness to the debate about land and ethnicity, and who feels passionately about something and who just wants to save their skin. It's the first time I've been to the theatre and cried: Aislín McGuckin is a powerful Maddie, and her performance resonates with the anguish of historical displacement of any era. When "they" knocked on the door, I was transported to turn of the century Romania, where my great grandparents were ethnically cleansed in a pogrom.
It is a little bit The Crucible, but it's powerful acting, a contemporary script, and a timeless tale. I know the Guardian reviewed it well (but luckily can't google it, which is good, as they likened it to the "current Palestinian crisis" and I could feel S bristling for the whole of the second half).
Aside from loving the whole space, yeah, man, I ran into an actress friend who's there in August, and my (famous) neighbour who was very friendly. Unfortunately, I still can't remember his name.
9:54 AM
STILL in a bad mood. You don't have to read this. Think of it as blogtherapy. Here's why:
1 My water went off twice yesterday. Twice. For several hours at a time. I've lived in my apartment for eight years (and I'm only 12) , and this has never happened before. The friendly call centre operative I spoke to at 1am this morning said it was a coincidence. Yeah; it's a coincidence and they're all out to get me.
2 Everything I write is shit. Not here... this is just a brain dump requiring no critical evaluation. But my real writing is crap.
3 Two friends have lost their jobs in as many days. I know that feelings. That's shit too.
4 My mother has phoned four times in the last twelve hours. Sometimes, if I strip out all the messages from my family, actually, I only get called like once a fortnight.
5 Consequently, it must follow, that I have no friends. Just a lot of messages.
I know if I was on some kind of sharing thing, I'd have to say some good stuff too:
1 I have more friends to play with during the day now.
2 I really value my time and what I do with it, now. I have acheived an increased humility around work.
3 I started serious job-hunting yesterday and made two meetings already. It can't be that hard. I was once good at something.
4 when I started writing this it was good weather.
5 Two men have fancied me (who I've reciprocally fancied) in the last fortnight.
6 My nephew just left me a cute message saying he loves me
Look! There are more good things than bad. There is hope for me/the world/er, yeah.
9:33 AM
Thursday, May 23, 2002
Don't bother reading this. It's just a bookmark for next time I get into an argument with someone.
5:23 PM
I'm kinda half-reading Crypto by Steven Levy, which is a fascinating history of the development of public key cryptpography. I know, I should get out more. He's the guy who wrote Hackers. And the Guardian loves him.
Then I came across this, on crypto history. Is it a meme? I should stop saying that, I know.
5:21 PM
"On the web, everyone is famous to fifteen people." -- David Weinberger
Was just talking to someone on the phone, and he was blah blah blahing on about their business model withstanding the vagaries of the market and such like.
"And then, seven eleven happened."
What is that? Attack of the killer convenience stores?
2:37 PM
I know it's the ultimate English thing to talk about the weather, but five minutes ago the sun was shining and I was thinking of taking my laptop into the garden, and now it's hailstoning. If there's someone up there, they sure have a sense of humour. Or they work for the Water Board.
11:15 AM
Yay. I'm so happy. Apparently there was a four inch crack in the water mains up the street from me and we've had no water since 6am. Just came back on now. Strange how I felt reassured by the details I got from John in the call centre.
I'm off to get a shower. J had to go to work without one. mmm
11:09 AM
I like this. A weblog. Kinda. But multimedia.
9:37 AM
Had a mellow evening with Z, with curry in (one of my many) local curry houses. Can you believe that the Crescent Tandoori doesn't have a dedicated website? Maybe because a meal for two came to £11.50. And it's truly great food.
This is my theory: there are about six curry houses on Cricklewood Broadway, and none of them are ever really busy. And they're open till like 2am. Most of them have a 25% off if you eat in deal; I think that if they all closed down and opened up as two curry houses they could make a good living.
They are so friendly in there. Whenever I go in, they welcome me like a long lost friend (which I might be; A couple of years back - when I had a job - my team wanted to do a really cheap Christmas outing, and I said this was the cheapest place I knew. The bill came to £75 for twelve of us. Including beers. Think they thought it was Christmas). It's ironic that I'm on their Christmas card list - a group of Asian men sending someone Jewish a Christmas card, but hey, that's the multicultural society for you.
So, if you live locally (you know who you are), then please keep them in business. Can't recommend them enough.
9:32 AM
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Bad mood. Things I hate:
1 Dogs... both allegedly friendly four-legged fiends and the on-screen kind
2 People who say "enjoy!" with an implied exclamation mark, especially if they have given you something
3 Not getting even interviewed for a job I thought I was perfect for
4 the transformative power of violence. Been giving this a lot of thought today 5 People who have had too much therapy and say things like "yeah, the cinema. I think I'd like that. But, yeah, like, I think what I might be needing right now is some quiet time, y'know? So, maybe, y'know, a movie's just not right for me right now." I think these people overlap (in the venn diagram of life) with those creatures who speak the management-therapy dialect of modern-mumbo-jumbo. I hate them too.
4:41 PM
Just giggling over Molly's Ally McBeal piece. Molly acknowledges the show's imperfections - and there are many - but conculdes that:
"i think the show was actually a great influence in our culture. it brought feminism, however gently, however watered-down, into the living rooms of millions of people every week."
I just don't buy that. If anyone's still interested in feminism, then I think AMcB is a kind of fictional anti-feminism; where women are only motivated by getting their man, and where they get really really good jobs without doing any work. Possibly entirely based on how they look.
I wrote a piece about this when the show started. All I have to do now is get some webspace, and load my columns, and send you there. Mmm. Sure I can do it...
2:43 PM
White Noise got into my head. I just want to say that Don Delillo's novel is in my all-time favourite top ten.
Wish I had a job. This is exactly the kind of conversation people have around the watercooler. I'd feel a fool talking to my tap, ferchrissakes.
12:18 PM
Little known fact: Today is Noise Action Day. That's right, May 22nd, you've been hiding from the extensive press coverage, but I tell the truth. I found this out by seeing a Brent Council poster near Kilburn tube station.
Initially, I figured the implication of NOISE ACTION day was that we all had to try our hardest to make a lot of noise. On reflection (hard in Kilburn, you can't hear yourself think; there's always a lot of police cars going by any time of the day or night), I realised that it was an environmental health/noise programme. Noise is blighting our lives.
I've made a choice to live in an urban, noisy area, and the background buzz of sirens, drunks, cars getting smashed, articulated lorries rumbling by is the soundscape to my life. I feel surprised by true silence; last summer, up a mountain in Phongsali, the northernmost province of Laos (don't go there, believe me), I realised that for probably the first time in my life it was utterly silent. The sound of one hand clapping and all that.
There's internal silence and external silence. So I feel reassured by the sounds of my old fashioned technology; I hate how digital stuff doesn't make a noise. My wind-up alarm clock ticks, loudly. I like that. My new bakelite clock makes a reassuring low-key whirring sound. It comforts me. When my boiler comes on in the morning, it makes waking-up sounds that remind me it works and that I don't have to get British Gas men round in abundance to fix it, and I say I silent prayer of thanks. When I was a headhunter and we moved offices, we had lengthy conversations about spending £20,000 on buying some white noise, becuase we were all too English to make genuine office sounds.
And internal noise; I joke with T about meditation (he's heavily into yoga), and how I have 450 conversations going on in my head at any one time (random sample: "she's thin","did I pay the gas bill","does he like me","will I ever get a job","she shouldn't be wearing those trousers"). He says he's got his down to 175. But it's still noisy in there.
So. Enjoy Noise Action day. But be quiet out there.
11:57 AM
Love this town building thing from ThinkBlank. Hours and hours of fun and you don't have to work in a local authority planning department.
Strange how nearly everything I look at on the web links back to Tom.
11:37 AM
Tuesday, May 21, 2002
I have no idea what this is about, but I like the pictures.
When I was a headhunter, I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for a CFO (Finance Director to you and me) for Eyestorm, the online art gallery with first mover advantage and serious funding to boot. For some reason, I couldn't find a qualified chartered accountant who would touch them with a barge pole, call them a risk-averse profession.
And now, as the internet bubble comes full circle - or something - they've gone bust.
12:15 PM
I knew there was a job out there somewhere, for me. Just didn't know it was so close.
11:15 AM
Gotta meeting? Call Dave I don't even know Dave Carter at 192.com, but he's written to me three times now, headed Your Meeting Next Week:
Dear sasha,
Regarding your meeting next week, and indeed any meeting you have in the future, wouldn't it be worthwhile knowing as much as you can about the people and companies you do business with?
Well now you can with UK-Info Business. Providing the low down on companies and directors, you can be forewarned and therefore forearmed - and in business that is invaluable.
If I'm going to get spam, I want it to look like spam. OK, so I signed up, it's not spam. Technically. But I object to Dave emailing me like he knows I have a meeting. And I'd definitely get a new copywriter. Sure, most people will have a meeting next week, even if it's with their manicurist (I realised this was fake becuase my freelance, er, unemployed status means I have no meetings next week): I think this comes from the Dying Soon (targted at old people for life insurance), school of copywriting and it makes me feel unwell.
9:16 AM
Monday, May 20, 2002
Now you too can watch my local TrafficCam. Yay.
8:04 PM
Interested in the contemporary obsession with branding? Check this.
And if anyone remembers a quiz that was doing the rounds a couple of months back that assesses your brand literacy (you had to tick boxes for all the logos that you recognised), I'd love it.
3:30 PM
More blogging on bloggingBen Hammersley has a Time to Blog On piece today, where I can't tell if he was at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference or not.
But the mot du jour there are Journalism 3.0 (which sounds a whole lot better than Tiscali 10.0 - that's version control inflation for you), and the Old Media-New Media-We Media continuum. Gilmour should definitely have googled on WeMedia before he said it, because aside from the buzzword bingo aspect of it, it's also "the leading media company covering issues important to the millions of people with disabilities interested in a quality life without compromise." You heard it here first.
Seems like the Guardian's got the whole blog thing in the golden rolodex; they even have OnLineBlog from the guys who do Thursday's online section. "It's a blog, Jim, but not as we know it." It's just a front for a newspaper, innit?
3:19 PM
Toby Young has written a typical (aka lazy) piece on what he doesn't like about Star Wars. That writing in lists thing, it's soo last year.
I used to work with Toby on the Modern Review, and I know him to be a gifted and talented writer; his piece on his father's death in January moved me both to tears and to call him up and tell him. His review of Elizabeth Wurtzel's new book was completely on the money, and had me laughing out loud.
Maybe all the fame's gone to his head?
3:09 PM
Afterwards, I hooked up with K, and we sat in Pavillion Gardens talking, catching up. I'd noticed a mobile phone on the grass next to us, but I'm never sure what to do in such situations. It rang, so I picked it up. And I said "have you lost your mobile phone?" And a perplexed dutch man said "how do you know?" It was very waiting-for-godot. I told him it was in the Gardens, and he said he'd come and get it.
It's funny how if you look at people's faces properly, nearly everyone looks like they've lost something. Two typically-Dutch-but-short guys turned up, kissed us on both cheeks, and thanked us profusely. Marcel and Lex were from Rotterdam, worked in private banking and were I guess late twenties. They wanted to take us out to "thank us" for finding their phone, but when we got chatting to them (Rotterdam - immigrants - Pim Fortuyn) we discovered that we had met the only two extremely-right wing, racist dutch people I've ever encountered. We beat a hasty retreat to Moshi Moshi Sushi where we watched two guys at the next table practically have sex. Didn't know where to look; I'm not a great believer in PDA (that's public displays of affection rather than personal digital assistants), at least not when you can hear little yelps and the exchange of bodily fluids.
Great sashimi, though.
2:39 PM
Braindump. Blogdump. Got back from Brighton this morning (which took nearly three hours due to the information wilderness that is everyone who works for Railtrack/Thameslink/insert here name of the rail provider of your choice).
Couldn't get out of bed yesterday, late night on Saturday, so made it to the beach for twoish, just missed K's friend's samba band, but got there in time for a wonderful barbeque with D, C, P, J and D (for anyone who knows anything about the Wellhausen Hypothesis, these are real people, not biblical literary strands). Despite the impromptu-ness, D was a great cook, and there's nothing like sitting on the beach with the wind in your hair eating freshly bbq'd just-caught fish and listening to live music.
Saw Catherine M interviewed by Edmund White. (Incidentally, he spoke great French, but with a so-American accent I was embarassed for him). She presents interesting ideas about a bohemian/libertine/liberal world that I've never encountered, and in a very down-to-earth way. It was billed as "art and pornography", but it's not. It's just the life mirroring art/mirroring life debate, with intimate details.
She said something that made me wonder: "Historically, the aim of sexuality was procreation. Today, we think it's orgasm. But I think it hasn't got any precise aim." So what is she on about, then? She's not militant about sexual liberty (I think she may not be militant about anything - she really, really looks like someone's mother), but the ability to talk about it. But it's not a confession. It's a recis. Whatever that is. The best laugh came from Edmund White, vying with her in the who's-slept-with-more-men-stakes, in describing 1962 to 1982 as the "golden years of promiscuity."
I think she just wants her fifteen minutes of better-educated-than-Jerry-Springer fame.
2:06 PM
Sunday, May 19, 2002
Turned out it was zone four. I mean, practically the country. Home briefly to pick up my vaio before I hop on a train to the coast. I finished Killing Time; truly twist-in-the-tale edge-of-the-seat fabulous. I can't recommend it enough; dense, perfect writing that had me begging for more.
More about my weekend later; I'm off to Brighton and the sun's shining and I hope I get a chance to play basketball on the beach in between hanging out in coffee shops and going to artist's open houses. Times like this, I have no desire to get a job at all.
11:11 AM
Thursday, May 16, 2002
GONE TO THE COUNTRY OK, zone three. It's the Jewish cheesecake eating festival. Back in a couple of days. Don't think I won't have withdrawl symptoms whilst I'm gone.
6:09 PM
Wish I'd come across this frankly ridiculous game when I was writing about the BurnRate diet last week. I mean, who wants to play a game that reflects real life so accurately that it hurts. And you can only buy it in the non-virtual world in four fabulous Seattle establishments.
OK: it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind: I just took the tour. It's the kind of joke gift I might send to one of my many former CEO/VP Biz Dev friends.
No sooner do the lyrics from Grease randomly pop into my brain than I find it's happened to Stuart too. Is it a meme?
3:02 PM
Had lunch with E yesterday (she works in TV) and she actually used the phrase "the project's been green lit for development". And not ironically. Maybe it's OK if it's reported speech.
1:32 PM
Sorry about my pics at the top, btw. The designer hosting them has exceeded their monthly traffic. Will get it fixed, promise.
11:55 AM
Been on a mental hyperlink frenzy, which went something like this. Ruby Wax. Alexei Sayle. The Fish People Tapes. Jon X (my best friend at school - he got me into Attila The Stockbroker). Here's another, maybe better, link.
I remember the eighties; ranting poets and crappy poppy music (which is truly the backdrop to my life). My Mum used to say (about Duran Duran) "music by drug addicts, for drug addicts." I remember seeing John Cooper Clark in some seedy Manchester pub.
So I did something just now I've not done for ten years. I found my compilation audio tape collection. Remember tapes? Now there's a legacy technology to die for. And dug out a cassette player - how retro - and I'm listening to an Alexei Sayle live gig as I write. "The Russians are running the DHSS". "Reagan's Really Lenny Bruce"
Here's what I remember about tapes: my best friend at school, Louise Hart (not seen her for years, anyone know her?) taping over all her tapes one night to "make them blank". We were eleven. I think she later became a high-flying lawyer. The compilation tape exchange that went on, variously, between Louise, and two other friends J and M. Listening to Stockport's pirate radio station. Getting tapes from people that had loads of background noise.
A wave of nostalgia has just drowned me.
11:36 AM
The hundred greatest (UK) TV ads. Well, are they?
11:05 AM
I have strong views about Ruby Wax. I hardly ever watch daytime TV (because it addles your brain and no-one ever finishes a sentence. In fact, my attention span is so short that I can't finish this se-). But a friend told me that Catherine M was on this week.
Here's a few things I hate: almost without exception, eponymous daytime TV "talk" shows - Vanessa, Ruby, Oprah, Trisha, Esther. They chew people up and spit them out, they have an agenda generally so transparent that debate is meaningless, and an evidently self-selecting audience. Of people who watch daytime TV. Otherwise, how would they know about it. So I heard that Catherine M gave Ruby a hard time, which I'd like to see, given that she usually interviews people with a dominatrix soundbite journalism that churns my stomach.
Seemingly no Catherine M today, but Alexei Sayle, a child psychotherapist (who appeared to be in fancy dress) and child education hothouser... Mike Ryde, I think. From the Ryde College. Sounds like it's in his front room, doesn't it. (Alexei Sayle was one of my early childhood heros, schooling me in the art of the ridiculous. Obviously so ridiculous that there's not a decent web reference to be found on the Fish People Tapes.)
After an utterly facile conversation about child abuse, Ruby just went up to children
