« May 2007 | Main | July 2007 »
I'm going here for a week.
To do things like this.
And this.
I realise these photos make my holidays look like some strange Bergman film. They're not really like that. I had to take photos of photos to get them up here, so that's partly why. But I still like them.
Anyway, keep the home fires burning etc.
Usually I hate waking up. Not so much that actually, but I do love dreaming. When Deborah made us draw what got us out of bed in the morning on Saturday, I had to be honest and put Marmite.
But the other morning, this got me out of bed. Well, Matt-creeping-in-to-tell-me-I-had-to-come-and-see-this got me out of bed. And it's the best way I can think of waking up. Full of wonder, quiet, marvelling. It would make getting up easier if he took up permanent residence in the garden. (The dragonfly, not Matt.)
A little gem (one of many) from Matt Jones at Interesting. At Fix My Street you type in your postcode, and then get to see and report all the goings on that need fixing. If you enter something pressing, your local council is obliged to sort it out pronto.
Genius. And also a nice smidgen of intelligence into areas you don't know about. Presumably pressing local concerns could range from knifings in some areas, to street's overcrowded with those posh buggies that run you off the pavement in others. A little window into the local.
Courtesy of Roo.
A very, very special day. I've been a bit blown away by it. I can't tell the story better than the Flickr pool does, but I did want to say thanks to everyone involved, including the organiser. Lots of people there were marvelling at the feat of bringing so many great and diverse individuals together. I think it's partly a talent for appreciating good things. I only know a very few people who are really good at this (you know, properly), and they bring out the very best in everyone they meet. So Saturday felt like the best of some lovely, fascinating folk.
Now. I was going to pick out highlights before I realised there were too many. All of it really. But I do have two special mentions to people I don't even know how to link to (so I hope they see this somehow): the technical team. Now they were ace - a big part of me not feeling nervous like I thought I would. And the Other Russell (the backstage photographer). He was tremendous too.
Here's where to catch up with the podcasts as they start coming in.
IMMEDIATE UPDATE
So I just saw this.
On here. (Roo I hope you don't mind me nicking all your stuff.) And it kind of sums it up for me. So I had to have it here.
Looks like I can't get into Glastonbury this year. So instead of being bitter I've decided to shun big festivals in favour of the little local ones. (Even if Glastonbury always felt local, as Bristolian. Since when did jumping the fence become a criminal offence? Not bitter. Not bitter at all.)
Anyway. Under the small local rules there are plenty of lovely ones to choose from. I'm plumping for a couple in Bristol in July. The venerable Ashton Court Festival.
And then there's the wonderful St Paul's Carnival.
And to round it all off there's Innocent's fete. I suspect a few of you might be going to this one too.
I think this should be more than enough to make up for Glastonbury. And I'm not even going to link to Glastonbury as frankly, it doesn't need the publicity.
We are doing are best to lead something approaching The Good Life in Holloway. There's no Margot next door sadly. Nearly. But we do have this little yellow courgette. Which I'm insanely proud of (if not a little scared.) Even though I had nothing practical to do with it. I like to think the good vibes I send while Matt does the ploughing makes all the diff.
Every time I check it I do it to the tune of Little Red Corvette in my head.
I realise this is an oddly random topic (although god knows what this blog's about these days), but I really am very pleased with it.
We went to see Amy Winehouse the other day at Shepherd's Bush, and I've just got round to sorting the photos out. She'd postponed a couple of times before (because of drinking, if you believe free papers). Then the night before, she'd finally turned up and charmed the pants off everyone.
When we went on the second night, she had two excellent support acts, and just when the crowd was feeling lovely...she was late. Really late. We all turned into grumpy sardines, and after an hour or so some people started booing. And I couldn't help thinking how hard she was making it for herself. The longer she left it, the more she'd have to work.
But then she came. She was odd. Not quite right. Distracted, spending most of her time trying to see people she knew in the crowd.
She'd sing a song and then slag it off. It was all a bit disconcerting, and slightly stressful.
And I thought she was absolutely brilliant. I couldn't help myself. She was brilliantly flawed, and flaw-edly brilliant. And brave. I felt worried for her. Matt disagreed.
We did agree on her backing singers, however. They were genius. Check out these moves.
Probably the true stars of the night though, were Mr Hudon + the Library. We've been big fans for a while, and would have closed the night extremely happy people on the closing song of their support set. It was funny to see them play a crowd who didn't know them. Wasn't exactly bouncing. But they were brilliant. I think they'll be huge.
We're redesigning our website at the moment. Which is very exciting, being the first website thing I've done, workwise. And it's kind of nice being your own client. Nice but weird. It makes you really sure about some things, less so about others.
Been doing some more digging around for Interesting 2007 materials when I found this clock based on the one in the Sesame Street pinball sequence. I want one a lot.
Feeling much less nervous about the talk since my two favourite speakers at PSFK (Niku and Iain) both used lists for theirs. Which is what I'd been planning on. I think lists are good. Especially with not loads of time. Yikes. Who am I kidding? It's quite scary.
Jason sends me this bit of genius from Silver Snail. Here I am. Up to the neck by the looks of it.
Recent Comments