h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

well, hope the filming is still going swimmingly. i assume it is.
nothing out of the ordinary going on here. pretty much just doing what i need to be doing with my weekend. namely, lots of TV and just enough work so that i feel on top of things. last night saw Kung Fu Hustle which was fun. reminded me pleasantly of a kind of dream i might have... and this week is going to be good. i will get everything finished and be done with college. will celebrate with drinking on thurs, then a poetry reading followed by immediate rushing out to see Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy which is premiering here on fri. simple pleasures.

Yeah, Hitchhiker's is getting quite a lot of hype over here, too. I'll get round to seeing it myself at some point.

Meanwhile, a decent enough weekend of trading, with the usual Hawley boozery. Pip has had a spot of bother, and now has thirty stitches in his face as a result. I suspect we'll never get to the bottom of exactly what it was all about.

Also this weekend, I got talking to a clothing agent of some kind who specialises in placing garments with retailers in the UAS. He's pretty enthusiastic about the company, and has been trying to find me for a while, apparently. Meeting him next week. I'm always suspicious of these things, but I'll certainly listen to what he has to say. Meanwhile, filming continues, they are filming/interviewing me in the flat on Wednesday, and filming a discussion about a new female range I am proposing on Thursday evening, with Anne and Simon.

Went to see the new flat today, it is quite nice, certainly pretty spacious, I just hope I can talk the letting agent into letting us move in.

So that's all that's new from here.

yeah, corrie and i have our hitchhiker's guide tickets already. we're going full-on nerd for this. because she loves the book and she loves martin freeman...and i love the BBC miniseries and martin freeman, and pretty much every other person in the movie. apparently stephen fry is the voice of the guide.
we're going to have 6 pints beforehand and everything.
so... yeah, that's the excitement, well, that and the end of school. i've also signed on to go canoeing w/ my aunt and some of her students saturday, weather permitting-- not because i want to but because it's the right thing to do. i haven't been up for anything but passive entertainment all semester, and canoeing is just too valid a way to spend one's evening. i can't pass it up. i will still be praying for prohibitive thunderstorm conditions, however, because i don't want to get wet, damn it. i'm a total housecat... i like sleeping, and eating, and that is all i like. having adventures, being uncomfortable, no, none of that for me, thanks.

Yup, me and Anne are going to Camden Odeon to see it on Friday. Anne's never read Hitchhiker's. I read the whole series again a couple of years back, I think I remember posting as much here. It is good and I do love it on the whole. I find it very '80s to read now, which is unsurprising I suppose. I saw a trailer for it, and everyone seems quite well cast. Martin Freeman is doing well since the Office, doing his repressed 30-something routine. He's in some other widely hyped thing coming up here, as well.

Today, quite a bit of filming in the flat, while I sewed labels into t shirts. Tomorrow, we are getting filmed up the Hawley, where we can't smoke, as it is essentially a programme for kids. With that in mind, I must not under any circumstances get fcked up on booze. I repeat, I must *not*.

well...hopefully they'll know when to turn the cameras off in that situation... though yeah, one must respect the tender sensibilities of children. anyway. that'll be interesting. sounds like a concluding shot, small business owner unwinding at the pub in an artificially civilized manner.
so, as for me, following screenwriting class a few of us went over to the campus bar and had 8 pitchers of crappy cheap beer...whatever it was it seems to taste better when it's not in a can...or when one is celebrating the fact that one has not a clue what to do next except get another pitcher. well, all in all it was a highly pleasant afternoon. i broke away and staggered home before dark, then sat down in front of the tv to sober up. because my nightly dinner with cartoon network always requires my full attention. i fcking love tv. anyway. so, the plans for tonight stand. it'll be great. at the moment all i need to do is get up and head to campus whenever i feel like it. i guess i'll have coffee before the old poetry reading. mohammad and corrie are both coming to support me, which is sweet of them. and after that...i've got about a month of absolutely nothing to do. except hopefully drink a lot and say goodbye to this hideous old city... at least corrie is an RA so she'll be stuck here til the last minute too.

And here I am, very infrequently at the moment.

Good weekend, I traded on Monday (it was a Bank Holiday) and everything turned out fine. Still didn't get to Spitalfields on Friday, this week for *definite*.

Filming continues: have quite a rapport with the film crew now. All of to Cavaliers on Thursday to film Damien and I discussing things. Very little artificiality going on at all, surprisingly, I am totally used to it now and am, apparantly, a natural.

Yesterday evening I met up with an American bloke with contacts in the retail distribution network over there: he is making big noises about getting the stuff into New York, but we'll see. Meanwhile, plans for the female stall hot up, as Anne seems to have found a suitable member of staff: she kind of took on recruitment for this, being as she works at a university.

I take it the poetry reading went fine? Pretty nerve racking thing to do. And yeah, draft booze is always nicer than out of a can, if only for the social aspect.

yeah, the poetry reading went fine. i've gotten pretty used to it, so it's not all that scary. i mean, all semester i had to read aloud to my workshop knowing that as soon as i finished they would proceed to criticize it mercilessly. at least at a reading all you have to do is read it and then they clap and move on to the next person. anyway. yeah, it was all good, that was a great day. one of the rare occasions when pretty much everything goes as planned and is nice.
canoeing the next day also was nice, as you probably know by now from LJ. aside from being around a group of students i don't know or have any interest in, who all know each other and not me and have to stop for fast food on the way home when i can't wait to get away from them. but the actual canoeing wasn't annoying at all.
today, i have no idea what to do with myself, i'll probably just go to PJ's, have coffee and be useless, and mail the electricity payment while i'm out.
anyway, good to hear things are looking well for PGJ at the moment.

Today I did nothing, really. I fancied a day of just doing nothing, and that's pretty much what happened.

Ha. Canoeing. That's something I can't remember ever having done. I have a dim, dim recollection of being in a canoe at some point when I was very small, but for what overall reason was being explored I cannot remember. I did go camping a couple of times, and really liked it as I recall. We had school trips and such to show us what fields looked like, and it was great. I remember cooking bacon and sausages and eggs and such on a fire, it was mental wicked. Although, being the city boy that I am, I find it hard to deal with silence and darkness. Anne's old dears' house is like that, this old gamekeepers' cottage in the middle of absolutely nowhere at all. Just nothing, for miles. No cars, aircraft, or anything.

Anyway. Few bits to do tomorrow, then Spitalfields on Friday. No guarantee I'll get in, although I am going with another East Yard urchin, Jerry, who sells anti-war, anti-capitalism t shirts. So that's a natural partnership. Actually, he is a sound bloke. They are 15th foot pitches (compared to 6ft at Camden) and between the pair of us we will be able to fill it, and split the rent. I am sooo desperate to open a second front, and even though I would imagine that sales at Spitalfields will be negligible, at least initially, I will feel that I am back on the front foot. This has been such a defensive year. Necessarily, what with so much strategic stuff going on, but frustrating nonetheless.

yes..so, after 6 fcking years followed by 2 days of UPS wasting my money, i finally got to hear the new NIN album today. have listened to it a couple times so far, am happy with it, really really want to make it to a show if he swoops near lincoln over the summer. la la la. anyway. i won't be able to make sense if i try to say anything more about it. but you know trent reznor's music looms large in my life.
anyway. all i did today was sit through a final ceramics critique. some people get intimidated by critiques, maybe i just don't care enough about my work. the only time i'm stressed about it is when i'm having to actually make it, and once it's done it's done. plus in art classes at least we always have a potluck snack buffet, so it's all just a lark for me. though it did take the full 4 hours.
and tonight, dane's having a party at his new place, a place which (at least in my mind from what i have seen in pictures posted in his LJ) is ridiculously nice and nicer than anywhere i am going to live probably ever, including my parents' house. anyway, not going to the party since, you know, i really don't go to parties, unless they're at my house or in my honor. also i have a final tomorrow morning, which provides a good excuse.
i never did like camping, or any of that stuff, at all. not the idea of it, anyway. and i was quite hoping not to have to go canoeing either. but as i said, it turned out to be fun. as a rule, i prefer to stay home, or near restaurants. i've come to terms with the fact that i will be one of the first to drop dead when the grid goes down...
well, good luck with spitalfields tomorrow. how is that pronounced, anyway?

It's pronounced Spittlefields. Originally, it was 'Hospital Fields', as there was a huge monastry/hospital there in the 12th Century. A market sprung up with people selling medicinal herbs, potions and such, which then stayed and prospered as the hospital declined, to become the biggest single market in London. It's become most closely associated with clothing and fashion for the last couple of hundred years or so, due to proximity with Petticoat Lane market and the textile warehouses along Commercial Road. Camden is the biggest geographically, but it actually encompasses many smaller markets: the Lock Market, the Stables Market, the Cages, Inverness Street, the Canal Market, etc.

Anyway, armed with that information, you will be pleased to learn that the day was certainly worthwhile. You only really have about three hours' usuable trading time, which is when the office staff come out for lunch. But they are all English, and you don't have to fcking beg a tenner out of them for a t shirt. So, an encouraging start. The trick is to get a Sunday pitch, which is the fashion market or something, and I'm working on it.

Other than that, a decent enough weekend at Camden, although to a background of great stress about getting a guarantor for the new flat. Kate has stepped into the breech; I actually came into this net cafe to print out the forms for her to sign, but I can't for some reason, and the staff can't help because NOT A SINGLE FCKER AMONG THEM SPEAKS FCKING ENGLISH.

so you've got Petticoat Lane, Commercial Road and Spittle Fields. well, that's ok. glad you got in there and taht it went so well, does sound like the place you want to be. though at least the tourists have the added benefit of spreading the word far and wide when they leave your country. good luck with Getting A Sunday. conquest is assured.
i wish i had some victory stories to share, but i don't really. things are just winding down here and i alternate between being excited and depressed about my prospects. which is, i suppose, the most normal and obvious way it is possible to feel. i did make an inquiry at the local public radio station in lincoln, they may or may not be able to use me. it would pay very little, but something, and i would like working in radio. unfortunately i have a degree in english, not communications. but who knows or cares, all i really need is experience.

Yeah, hopefully Spitalfields won't just be a one-off. It was just nice to be away from the useless fcks who go through Camden every weekend. Children, dealers, and Spanish.

Simon and I fired the vinyl cutter up last night. It's the thing that cuts the designs prior to pressing them onto the shirts. So, all I need to do now is buy the heat press, but that is easy enough, once the flat is secured. There is a tiny hitch with that, actually, as for some reason Kate's income can't be confirmed at the moment. Anne is confident that everything will be fine, but I am right back into the nerves again. Neck aching, as it is prone to do when I am tense for any length of time. The consequences of not getting the flat are horrendous. I was reflecting with Anne today how odd it is that, at this point, my whole life and business hangs by the thread of someone in an admin department somewhere filling in a form. Mad really, some bird somewhere will (hopefully) tick a box, and without ever realising, change everything forever. Like, I know that everything one does does that, but it's odd that so very much hangs on such a tiny thing. Like, me being homeless on June 4th otherwise, for a start. Well, that won't happen, but it's horrible when everything is so precarious and out of your control.

Yeah, what degree you have means nothing really. Not here anyway, unless it's something that requires a large amount of non-bluffable skill sets.

Got some samples for the female range today. Cute camisole top, although it feels a bit papery. The skinny t's are good, though.

well, with the advent of my final radio show, my last job here is done, so my life in new orleans is kind of over. it is, if anything at all, a slightly melancholy feeling, but not much else. am currently listening to the tape i made of my show today, my voice sounds higher and girlier than i usually think it is. ah well!
as i also said in LJ, spent pretty much the whole afternoon talking to lenna on the phone. like, i have nothing to read and nothing to write and nothing to do and it all just feels kind of weird.

ech, all the nauseous crossroads of life.

i should be watching Get Carter right now. but i seem to have no attention span for anything but cartoons and CSI anymore... it has to be huge and fast and colorful at all times or i drift off.
listening to this tape is making me all depressed with premature nostalgia, i'd better shut it off and get back to TV..

God, sorry for being so lax. Just kinda busy and hyper stressed about the flat.

Anyway. The good news is that we finally got a festival. Guilfest, in fact. I won't trouble you with the cultural reasons why that is so funny, but it is.

Umm, blah blah Camden, blah blah Spitalfields, blah blah film crew.

Are you talking about the original Get Carter, with Micheal Caine? Ultra cool British cult film. Never seen the remake, not sure I really want to.

Read about your makeover in your JL, sounds like quite a larf, I can see how it was enjoyable.

yeah, Get Carter, mike hodges, michael caine. i got a bunch of mike hodges films sent, they're sort of noir, you know. watched Croupier tonight, which i really liked, presumably because clive owen is hot. i dunno. yes, Get Carter is supposed to be cool but it kind of lost me, i'll admit. every couple minutes i went away and did something else, then had to come back and rewind it... took two nights.
is the flat thing not finalized yet? that sucks. i know i was stressed just trying to get through the process with this place, and i wasn't doing any of the work, nor was i paying for it.
congratulations on getting guilfest. ha ha ha!
so, no big news here. corrie's bf is in town, we went out to a cigar bar last night, smoked, made awkward conversation, then went to wal mart to collect used boxes and buy a watermelon. it was nice, actually. every time i see aaron i am impressed all over again by what a great guy he is, just, so noticeably pleasant to be around.
other than that, mom dad & lenna coming to town wednesday, graduating saturday, then going home. and i have a nice outfit to wear so it's all good.

It's weird, you know, that we should be talking about Get Carter, as I was going to send it to you once but there was the usual regions issue and I thought you would have a nightmare with the accents. Cockney and Geordie, not easy for the uninitiated. Cockneys and Geordies have trouble understanding each other even here, when the accents are very thick.

Yeah, the flat is still in the balance. Tension city. We should know today or tomorrow. Anne gets kicked out of her place on Friday, just to up the ante a bit.

Wow, fck, finally leaving college. It really is the end of an era. How we have changed since this started. Or rather, our circumstances have. Well, actually, yours haven't. But you get my drift.

with Get Carter i had the subtitles on a lot of the time. the sound was kind of bad, mostly due to my dvd player. but i did need a few lines run by me a couple times. it's a fairly well known movie here, though obviously they did remake it so that americans could understand it. i think the remake starred Sylvester Stallone. yeah, though michael caine is in it too. never seen it, and i find it highly unlikely that i ever will. Demolition Man aside, stallone has no charm for me.
yeah... my circumstances haven't changed a lot in the past 4 years, once i was over the massive change of leaving home and moving to new orleans to live on a college campus. but i feel like i've changed a lot. i didn't do a hell of a lot other than go to class, sulk, and pine for brett, but, dammit, how could all that *not* help me to grow as a person? anyway. it's over now.
planning on going for a walk on magazine st. this afternoon with corrie, stopping in for a few beers along the way if it's hot.
now that i think about it again, i'm actually kind of curious about the Get Carter remake. it'd be kind of like reading Cliff's Notes. (do you have Cliff's Notes there? apparently they're books you can buy that summarize books you're likely to have to read for a class, you know, instead of buying and reading the actual book.)

We don't have Cliff's notes, but we have York notes, pretty much the equivalent I should think.

Am listening to an interview with the people who invented Homestarrunner, it is quite interesting. They ship three hundred t shirts a day! I would be so rich if that happened. Still, twenty eight a week is a start.

Fran is moving to Grimsby, which is a large town in Lincolnshire. Not quite proper north, but north. So everyone's on the move, hopefully. Still in limbo with the flat, but I am quietly confident. Anne's going to pieces, but that's her role really. As I explained to Fran, I am not a million per cent sure that moving in with Anne is the best thing, but, you know, the project seemed to take on a life of its own kind of while I was looking the other way. Having to scrub Spitalfields on Friday as there is too much general craziness going on.

Yes, from my point of view, the duration of this posting has seen me sell the house in Reading, move here, move again to London, start a business, feature in a tv show, cycle down through Alabama and back up again, lose Buster, have a few flings and waste a lot of time arseing about. Still, here we both are, about to face the most frightening time of our lives. Who knows where we will be, four years from now. Probably still posting on here, I should think.

hear, hear. well, i can only hope that by age 33 i will finally be doing something. despite my notorious distaste for adventure / inconvenience / discomfort / risk-taking. makes it easy to always know what i should do, though, just figure out what i least feel like doing.
is spitalfields a week-by-week thing, so you can take a couple weeks off and come back, or are you done with fridays for good?

Nah, still doing Fridays at Spits, just not this one as there is a lot of moving into flats going on, as we FINALLY SECURED IT TODAY. So that's a relief.

A lot of labelling of t shirts going on today, and a three hour IM conversation with some friend of Jon's. She lives on a farm in Dorset and is 18. I have no real idea who she is, she just popped up and was very pleasent company.

Still a lot to do on the shirt front, so off I go. Will maybe snatch two hours' sleep tonight.