This Devil's Workday

I am having a strange day, compacted with a clash of emotions and ideas. So I can't think of a better day to contribute to a dusty blog account that has been waiting patiently for some proper attention since 2009.

My job has never felt like work. I want that to always be the case. So much time is spent earning money, trying to progress in life and to carve out a 'career' being a 'success', that I strongly believe you need to be doing something you love. As Confucius said, 'choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life'. I have that one boxed off nicely. I have worked on some amazing projects, with some amazing people in all corners of a beautiful world. I got asked recently what the best thing is about my job - I think it's that one moment i get to take a breath during an event, and in that moment I stand back and look at thousands of people smiling and dancing and caked in mud and joy.....and that is the best thing about my job. I love being able to create and drive something that people regard as being so special to them. Hundreds of people could have worked 20 hour days in torrential rain for weeks on end to create that one moment when your favourite band play your favourite song, and you are stood with the people closest to you in the world. 

The problem that I now suffer is that I am no longer the person that is smiling and dancing and caked in mud and joy. From the word go, I was always dedicated to my job. I work meticulously and solidly, uncompromising to the outcome. However, recently I have taken a look at how that has impacted upon my own life. Suddenly I felt a little alone. When I wasn't doing my emails, or creating my spreadsheets, or juggling my jobs, I was lost for something to do. I had literally become unaware of what else people do outside of working. I had become disconnected from living a life. Time had jogged on, and I had forgotten to balance it out with the stuff that really mattered. When I look back at the past ten years, I don't remember the amazing spreadsheet I once created, I remember venturing to Spain with Jenni, playing suicide jukebox with Hunter, driving the campervan to Glasto with Adam, walking in Central Park with my family.....I remember the stuff that makes someone complete.

So now is the time that I will readdress the balance. Over the next few months I will try and change the impact of the past few years. I will call friends, visit people, sit out in the sun, go to the library, cook for my dad, actually see the things that are happening in front of me. My work will always get done, but now I will also be working on my life.

I guess i will be using this blog to record my progress in some way or another....it will stand as a constant reminder that it is not length of life, but depth of life that matters.

cx

Photoshop Handsome

I have some Austin photos. I think. Somewhere.

I will upload them post haste.

Boys and Girls in America

Oooooooo TEXAS. Spent the week in Austin, Texas at SxSW. Second year running and much more of an eye opener. I am still officially teetotal, which is one mean feat after attending a festival that revolves around the free beer and BBQs…..did I also mention I am vegetarian?!?! However, rather than involving myself in a raucous and unruly mass band-off, I carefully planned, vigilantly selected, and most importantly, ate very well. You gotta have priorities.

So first off, I guess I should cover the festival. I felt the standard of bands and the number of truly worthy hyped bands was low this year. I got more pleasure from seeing bands that people recommended than from the “hot” A&R lists that quite frankly proved to be dry. Bear Hands, Bear in Heaven and Minus the Bear were particular favourites. I am at a loss to explain the coincidence of them all containing the word “bear”. I was a little naughty and saw some people I have seen in the past, including the ever-astounding Temper Trap who played the same bill as Boxer Rebellion who I actually quite enjoyed. Cripes. Just to recharge my cool-card, DD/MM/YY can only be described as leaving me in shock – in a good way. It was probably the craziest 20 minutes anyone could spend standing by a PA. I can only imagine what capers evolve on their tourbus. Whilst I would like to document every band I saw over the week, I think only a specific mention of the key events is required at this point; next point being that Local Natives sang so badly out of key that I was forced to leave, Gin Wigmore is possibly the most awful act I have ever seen ever, and I accidentally saw Chiddy Bang play to a roof garden of uninterested Americans who had no clue that he is UK Top 10. It’s funny the way the world works.

Venue wise, there seemed to bit a lot more on offer this year. Music was blasted out every hour of every day at every possible place that a speaker stack would fit. And sponsored by every possible sugary drink and toilet cleaner that had a dollar spare. I know this has been the case for many years now, but the prominence was definitely greater than in the past. I felt assaulted by the need for people to sell to me. Fucked Up covered it better than I can in their blog. Worth a read.

The main highlight of the week for me was definitely to be found in the provocative, informative, and well-constructed panels. SXSW overshadows all other conferences I have attended when it comes to the standard of the industry events. I came out of many a talk with my head buzzing, and regularly vomited a sprawl of ideas onto an email to my shell-shocked UK colleagues. If there is one thing that I take from the event this year, it will be what I learnt in the panels.

And so I conclude my sporadic and brief roundup of the world’s biggest live music event by pointing all visitors in the direction of good food; Moonshine for Sunday Brunch, and Buenos Aires for every other meal. Essential dining moments.

Buttons and Zips

I am very dosile at the moment. Too much activity of a weekend can leave you a bit sleepy.

On Saturday, my brain was entertained by altering clothing. I sewed vintage buttons onto some trousers, decorated a liveless stripey tee, and decided that lace laces are the way to lace lovely brogues. Photos are below. The cauliflower is an addition - the first shot I have taken at college.





Today I finally completed the last coat on my vinatage bedroom furniture! Wowzers what a mission that became. It is now glowing in a cute 50s pink, looking fresh and playful. I honestly can't wait to get to the new house and give all my new additions a home. Two weeks and counting....tick tock tick tock.....

For now, steamed lemon pudding and the top 40. Best way to watch a Sunday dusk go by.

When I Was a Painter

This weekend I began my mission to lovingly restore some 1950s bedroom furniture acquired from eBay. I imagine the dresser and the bedside table were once beautiful; effortlessly creating adoration and joy in a handsome ladies bedroom. But as days turned into years, and the sun shone through the grimy windows the furniture lost its glamour and became discoloured, old, and eventually unloved. It may have been left in the spare room where the grandkids once slept. Or buried under some records in the garage, where only the spare tires and the sparrows could hear its tales of the past.

So I went on a little trip to my Dad's house, where we sanded away the nasty old paint and the sad tales of desertion. Now it is sat in my living room, dominating my entire living space and polluting my flat with the smell of gloss and brush cleaner. I can only paint in the daylight, as unfortunately it isn't bright enough in my building. And due to the light restrictions that winter enforces on us, this means that I am confined to painting in the morning before work. I quite like it. It means I head to work each day feeling like I have achieved something creative, even if only for half an hour. I will post photos of the transformation when we are closer to its completion. It will be the first piece of furniture I have restored in my 28 years. And has also meant I can now distinguish between various paint types. Not quite enough for a change of career, but a little closer to feeling like I know something useful.

Aside from my adventures with pink gloss, I built this lovely Lego helicopter. It made me smile. A present from Matthew, who always buys me the best things.

Who, being loved, is poor?

Today I decided to revisit my blog, and try to commit a little more time and effort to recording what is essentially a load of drivel. A lot has happened in the past nine months. More than can be sensibly recorded on a blogging site during work time. To summerise, my life has changed and I have changed. Hopefully this is for the better. I remember one dark evening from my childhood when my mother told me that you become more content as you get older. When you are child, being 28 years old is difficult to imagine. I presumed I would be married, with a house. Maybe a garden and vehicle that allows me to transport children and a Tesco big shop on a Saturday afternoon. I guess we are generally limited by what we see from our parents when we are young. Well, my life isn't like that. But true to the tale, I am considerably more content. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I am happy. I find it difficult to write those words. Mostly because I expect a giraffe to fall from the ceiling and crush my Macbook, ruin my work, get me the sack, lose me my lovely flat, resulting in me living outside the cash machine in studentsville, asking people to buy me a soya latte. In order to not tempt fate, lets just stick to the idea that I am content. Content is acceptable.

Content. A word that makes me think maybe I am getting old. I can almost guarantee it is not an entry on UrbanDictionary.com

Anyway, for the first time in many years I have begun to revisit the creative side of my brain. It appears that it has not been drowned in cider as I was originally led to believe. Since the last time I blogged, I have made a concerted effort to read more. I am also doing a photography course. I have rediscovered my love of cooking, and moreover I have discovered that people actually enjoy eating my cakes, cookies and various concoctions. I have discovered furniture and architecture, and sustained my unrelenting love for fashion and design. I have started to teach myself politics - a journey with commenced with the classic "Teach Yourself" series of books, and has been supported by an ongoing dedication to newspapers, the Economist and every politics show I can get my hands on. Considering I don't have a TV, this is invariably a pain in the arse. But I am committed to the cause (a generic politician sentence for you right there). I think each one of these new interests requires it's own time and space.....hence the resumption of my blog.

My life doesn't solely revolve around the music industry/drinking anymore. Time to celebrate. Pint down at that gig anyone??? Damn.

Sick, Sick, Sick

So much for me keeping tabs on my life....I like to think it's coz I am too busy living it to write about it. In reality it's because I am too busy organising the lives of other people to pay attention to my own. Or I'm lazy. Yeah, lazy sounds right.

So I finished Canada. Highlights must include being stopped and questioned at Canadian border control, the amaaaaazing Montreal show, the uber amaaaaaazing Montreal party, the mini plane to Detroit, Toronto (minus the shouting), the Schwier waffle fest (well just the Schwier's in general really *love*), the bumble bee in my 99cent flowers (!) and overall just the love and joy I get from working with the boys in the States. Talented, grounded folks with warm hearts and wide minds. Hopefully I will see them sooner than I anticipate I will.

On a more dismal note, I did eleven flights in as many days and I am now destroyed with an old man cough and jet lag that means I'm awake at 3am every morning. Hell yeah. Might give up smoking........

Nah

Belgium tomorrow. Chocolate, beer, Mogwai and festival vibes (by that I mean early planes, emails, arsey promoters and off to bed).....I'm allowed to moan, I'm ill!!!!!!!!