I failed to go to a party at Lo Recordings, which Leo invited me to, which was annoying. As it happened I made it to Old Street, and was waiting for a bus there, when my mobile phone died. It took with it the address I was going to, the contact numbers of the people there and any chance of finding the place. So I took the tube back to Fulham where I was staying. Effectively making a 2 hour round trip to nowhere. Making matters worse the travelling between Fulham (West) and Central & East made it impossible for me to go and see the first ever Starting Teeth gig – which was another annoyance.

On the plus side, I briefly met both members of Starting Teeth and Nathan Fake in some bar on Brick Lane. And indeed, it was the first time I’d ever been to Brick Lane so that was cool too….

Back to the point – when I was in London I also went to the Tate Modern and had a good look round. It was really good. I’m normally not the most attentive person, when looking round an art gallery, I have a relatively low boredom threshold – whether the art is good or bad – but here I was interested for the whole 2 hours or so I spent there.

However the best part was the bookshop. Now I’m not a big reader at all. In fact in the last 5 years I’ve probably read about 3 books. I used to read more, commuting almost makes reading a must. Due to having recently finished my University dissertation (or ‘extended essay’) I’ve had my head in a few books and a lot of websites, and have kind of got the bug a little bit again. So I found this book “Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow” (Victoria Vesna) – which I’m still reading – but I came across an interesting piece by Nancy Paterson, the stock market skirt (live webcam animation shown below).

In really simple terms, it works by tracking the stock market. The higher the market goes, the higher and tighter the hem line of the skirt gets. I think what began with Net artists in the 90s has brought about a boom in networked installations, like Paterson’s skirt. I guess the boom in networking and computing in general probably goes hand in hand with that though.

I’m interested in using Twitter – a kind of micro-blogging website – as the data source for a similar piece. The idea of using real world data, especially things that are easily accessible, and creating something more physically tangible out of it is a really interesting concept and a good area for artistic exploration.

It’s done. I’m going to finally admit that its done. It’s like coming out of a tunnel, but the tunnel was always in my mind, and has been about 2 years long. I’m talking about the recording of my album, which is going to be titled For Triangles. The whole thing has been a massive learning experience, ranging from developing my song writing, music production skills & muscianship right through to just being able to comprehend when something is ‘finished’.

The recording has been quite a journey, taking me through 4 different houses, 5 guitars, 3 keyboards, 25 ups, 72 downs, 1052 words, 3 sound cards, 2 computers, 2 microphones, approximately 312 eggs and about 752 days off.

But I’m nearly there now and with it comes a certain apprehension. It is the knowing that I’ll have to free my songs and let them live their own existences. No longer can I be the over-protective father that I have been up until now.

In July I wrote this on my music website, with the firm intention that it would be finished by August. Even having realised how over protective I was being, I couldn’t stop, so it’s taken until now to actually approach finishing.

Anyhow. It’s great. I’m proud, satisfied, excited and looking forward to sharing the songs with anyone and everyone. It also means that I can re-open my mind for other creative business, which is no bad thing. Since my final University year started I’ve spent virtually all my time finishing the record and writing my dissertation. Next to no time has been spent actually working on my artistic practise, and I’ve missed it.

I massively relish the abysmal acting, scripting writing and production. Without the poor elements it would be much more unpleasant to watch these programmes.

I’ve spotted various members of the Hollyoaks cast in my lifetime. The first was a sighting of “Sol” (Paul Danan, star of Celebrity Love Island) in Liverpool Airport. I also saw a bloke who played a rapist at the weekly comedy showcase, Mirth on Monday, at Iguana Bar in Chorlton. After some thought I figured that I actually know a lot of people at at some point or other have seen a member of the Hollyoaks cast in-the-flesh.

For sometime I’ve actively been asking people if they’ve had any encounters with the sub-celebrities that make up the Hollyoaks cast, and sure enough, loads of people have seen them. Each report usually comes with some kind of amusing story as an accompaniment.

I’d like to make a movie using Hollyoaks as a starting point. My plan is to interview people (friends and strangers) asking them if they’ve ever seen a Hollyoaker. I’ve never tried anything like that before, but I reckon it could work out great. It also fits within my self-set remit of working with (to use the technology phrase) “user generated content”.

Whilst writing I’m listening to Happy Snail by an artist called Cosy Cosili, also on Creaked Records (my record label). Its really quite funny, the album is about a snail, also called Cosy Cosilli. Although word-less, the music certainly makes me think of snail-based things. Its great! You can listen to it on last.fm.

I’ve started by transferring my Journal from September 2006 to the present on to the website, so I will now be writing here rather than through Blogger.com so that is why there are posts going back to September on here.

Incidentally – is Flickr called that as if people are looking at a real photo album and going “Ahhhhh” after each page is turned (hence the “flick” bit)?

Emotionally I’m quite tense at the moment. Since beginning University last September I’ve been gearing myself up for this summer, in which I intend to record my debut album. I’ve been wanting to do this for a good long time now, and I’ve had an agreement with Creaked Records for over a year that I will make an album with them. Having got underway (at least a little bit) I’m finding it quite stressful, which is the opposite of what I want – I started making and recording music because I loved doing it – if I can’t enjoy it whats the point. So I need to figure out a way of having great fun again.

Actually, writing about it now, it hasn’t been bad at all. Maybe I’m just taking everything too seriously.

The overall effect of the angst though, is me feeling like I’m now in the creative doldrums. Maybe I should get a pack of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, that might help.

Nice Swiss Writing. Note from Leo, the guy who runs the record label who are going to put out my album. He’s a lovely guy, and I think his handwriting is cool. Also I like the style of putting “Best, Leo” at the end of an email or letter.

I’m going to try and get a Variax guitar, which is a clever “modelling” guitar, hopefully giving me an expensive sound for not very much money. We’ll see…

Listened to Hot Chip’s second album, The Warning, for the first time properly. Its cool. Not quite as much character in parts, as with the first album, but it makes up for it with ingenuity in other ways. Really cool!

Hi-Fi. Play Station 2 based karaoke. Really good fun. This photo probably needs some audio accompaniment.