I'm back too! Apr 5, 05, 6 a.m.

didja miss me?

vietnam was ace! and i've got the sunburn to prove it!

some tuesday tunes for y'all:
http://homepage.mac.com/kinquila…

elections Apr 26, 05, 1:12 a.m.

isn't it funny how little mention of the UK elections there is in here? compared to the US ones, that is.

i know tony will get in again but i hope the lib dems can get as many seats away from labour as possible.

655 000 killed Oct 11, 06, 1:51 p.m.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/S…

London drinks Jul 26, 04, 8:28 a.m.

We haven't had any for ages.

Seeing as it's "summer" and all - anyone fancy a few beverages soon?

Americans and Brits: The Little Differences Mar 20, 06, 5:30 a.m.

So i just got back from SXSW in Texas and my head is full of interactive learnings and musical goodness.

All the Americans I met were sooooo cleva compared to me, my brain doesn't cover much ground unless you count when I'm drunk and floored in the gutter with my mind leaking out my ears.

I sure had a lot of fun in Texas. Austin is pretty cool, i highly recommend a visit. Music capital of the world they say and at the Ponderosa stomp I got to see Barbara Lynn and a world of other old soulsters, R&B in the true sense, 70 year old rockers with Archie Bell setting a 15 minute groove on Tighten Up, Roy Head slapping the microphone about whilst grabbing his crotch before doing the caterpillar on the floor, Classie Ballou and Eddie Bo sporting the smiles of those who know the unsung heroes of the blues matter most.

I met Joey Santiago at the Pixies documentary screening and saw The Gossip do the most INCREDIBLE live performance and i can now die happy.

But Americans are weird in many ways too. Brits can be irritatingly self-depreciating and I too have fallen into the habit but it makes you professionally invisible to people over the pond if you can't shout your own achievements from the rooftops.

It took me a few days to work out that in the US you don't insult people as a gateway to friendly banter the way you do in London. In fact anything negative is the conversational equivalent of farting in a lift and I endured many awkward silences before cottoning onto the source of the stink.

Also the US is the land of many rules. I couldn't decipher them and got "random" searched in 4 airports. I forgot to take off a metal bracelet. Full search. I didn't take my laptop out of my bag. Special search involving swabs and gloves haha. Left diary in bag with a certain UK broadcaster logo on it. X-ray security man saw it during a forgotten-lighter-induced special search and asked who i worked for, then started grilling me belligerently on anti-war protests and my stance on the war. It really upset me cos i didn't particularly want to discuss terrorism with a security guard in a US airport but he didn't care, i tried not to get drawn in but he was relentless and i nearly missed my plane.

I saw a man getting Tazered in Texas! Well there were blue sparks coming our way and so was the intended Tazeree, the cop shouted "git him!" but the crowd parted, chanting "go! go!" - they ran down the street and the cop was too fat to catch him haha!

But Americans ARE so friendly and welcoming. Brits kinda suck in that way, I too get so consumed with the weight of my own insecurities and the culture of celebrating self-loathing that I find it difficult to talk to strangers.

There are more similarities than differences between peoples but sometimes it's the little things that seem enormous.

Americans taught me how to be more positive. I taught them how to have fun and misbehave in public. Fair trade!

Pakistan Oct 10, 05, 1:41 a.m.

20 000 dead?! god how awful.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world…

anyone got relatives out there? does anyone know if kuz's fam is ok?

"Mash-up" - Americans and Brits: The Little Differences Pt 2 Mar 24, 06, 5:52 a.m.

So when i was in Texas I remember ranting at some students from new york about the use of the word "mash-up", which 3 or 4 years ago USED to be a sarf-london black/asian word that meant taking lots of drukqs and listening to mad dance music in a skanky way ("gonna get mash-up" meant gonna get fucked up in a dingy sweaty basement to pounding pounding dance music), nothing to aspire to but now it's one of those nu music/nu media buzz words that means *yawn* putting two unrelated bits of content together.

Corporate vampires of enthusiasm acquiring a watered down version of cool and selling it back to the new generation of "cultural communicators" (apparently that's the graphic designer demographic) who then sell it back to the kids.

So I was bitching about the blandness of this and one of the friendly students i was hanging out with was all "ohhh cos you're SO COOL in london and in the US we're SO BORING and GLOBAL and CORPORATE" and I was saying well actually the word has been blandified in australia and europe too but you can take it personally if you'd prefer! he said "I take everything personally" and I didn't realise at the time that he was just taking himself and myself too seriously or else I would have been happy to point it out.

It's the same with French people, or maybe just parisians. Try and take the piss out of a parisian and watch your relationship deteriorate!

Is it just aussies and brits and danes and buddhist monks who find freedom in being nothing?

Self Importance. Popular Culture Soiling Itself With Impunity.

Happy Valentines Day! Feb 14, 05, 1:42 a.m.

mwah, mwah

http://homepage.mac.com/kinquila…

irrational annoyances Oct 15, 03, 8:21 a.m.

Last night I was out with some good friends and I found out 2 bizarre things that really do their heads in.

One of them can't have wool near him after a certain time of night cos it sets his teeth on edge... and the other can't stand the sound of someone crunching into an apple.

Anyone else got idiosyncratic vexations?

Grits Jul 20, 05, 2:47 a.m.

arrived in the post yesterday, it's truly fucking funny so far, thanks for bringing it to my attention skt!

"The thing is, a mean wharrah alweys wonder about things like this right, is, a mean, ow would yer feel after doin summin like tha? Therd be two choices, it seems, two reactions, either summun like:

I am the pits, the fuckin dregs uv humanity, the lowest ov the fuckin low cos I av let meself be filmed avin sex wither sheep; or summun like:

I av done the werst thing I can possibly think ov, I av let meself be filmed shaggin a sheep, I cannot sink any ferther, therefore I am freed now from all moral conventions an I am liberated. I can now do wharrever the fuck a want. Yah see? A mean, wouldjer be eaten up with self-loathing or wouldjer feel set free?"

Britney baby boy Sep 15, 05, 3:10 a.m.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOW…

i know the UN is in crisis, northern ireland is burning and there was another car-bomb in baghdad this morning, but

OMG! Britney just had a baby!!

By caesarean like posh spice! Mend It Like Beckham?

whimper Dec 16, 04, 4:02 a.m.

god i've really done it this time. christ i'm brain dead. i drank so much last night i'm sweating alcohol out of my eyeballs this morning. i can't lift my feet up to walk so i'm shuffling everywhere like one of those sad shuffling creatures you imagine live under sewers living off rat leftovers to survive, entire generations of sad shuffling creature children growing up never seeing light and never knowing what music sounds like, driven finally to infiltrate human societies by posing as tax-collectors just so they can experience the depth and warmth of human fiscal despair.

can someone tell me a story please? i think i'm going mentalist again

Plastic People Jan 9, 07, 7:55 a.m.

so my band has been busy recording with personal hero Andy Gill (guitarist from Gang of Four)

sorry about the download time and lack of loading bar. it's 3.4 MB so may take a few minutes.

http://www.thementalists.co.uk/t…

right i'm off to meet me dad at the pub - bump this for moth when he gets back - he always said we should record it

Cup of Tea Anyone? Jul 22, 05, 2:10 a.m.

I dunno about you lot but i feel less than enthusiastic today. it feels like a monday and i can't even get excited that it's friday.

i've lost me mojo kids and wots worse is i don't know i'd recognise it even if it did a silly dance in front of me. so if any of you have got a load of surplus silly banter or even need a place to whinge about this shitty shitty situation we're in then this is the thread to put it in.

and can someone make me a cup of tea pleeeeeeease?

Will Design Ever Be Better Understood? Sep 27, 05, 2:44 a.m.

so i went to this debate at Pentagram last night centred around the question: "Will Design Ever Be Better Understood?"

There were many points made and i couldn't begin to paraphrase the discussions that came out of it but the main debate seemed to be between the director of the serpentine gallery and one of the partners at pentagram, the former saying that design is going through a golden age of understanding, and the latter saying that there is no discipline within the design industry and no understanding going on whatsoever.

at one point one of the panelists made some comment dispairing about getting "chavdom" to understand design better and everyone did a smug little snigger and it REALLY got my blood boiling!

so i put my hand up and said that i think there's a bit of a design class divide where at the "top end" of the industry in architecture and the cultural sector, design may well be going through a lovely renaissance but on the corporate frontline designers are in danger of becoming mere marketeers.

i mean how on earth can "design" connect with the general public when we seem to oscillate between lack of confidence overcompensated for by arrogance, and smug self-important assuredness that the minions will never really understand what we do?

i didn't say this but i think that until there is more honesty within the industry i think the general public will just see us as smoke and mirrors, nothing more.

i did tell them that i quite like not knowing what i'm doing because that's when i do my best work, to general nodding and assent.

what do you think?

cockney nutjob Nov 30, 06, 2:58 a.m.

this morning on the bus i swear i was sat next to the cockney slasher. he had a mysterious suitcase and everything.

http://homepage.mac.com/kinquila…

the himalayas Aug 31, 04, 4:20 a.m.

anyone climbed? i'm going in 3 weeks. advice appreciated!

ugly words Apr 8, 03, 4:16 a.m.

some words are uglier or more annoying than others, regardless of meaning.

some that I hate are:

slimline
spam
pavlova

what words do you secretly hate?

london bombers Jul 12, 05, 9:10 a.m.

so were they suicide bombers then?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/46…

The End of The World will smell like... Dec 13, 04, 4:04 a.m.

i just walked past somebody photocopying a ream of tedious office documentation and i realised that that particular sweet burnt sterilised carbon smell is what i secretly imagine the end of the world will smell like.

what do you think it will smell like? (what's the future tense of a smell? like vision but olfactory)