[Matchless Gig]

With Jemma’s friends Dan and Andy visiting I played host and tourguide last night in the East Village. Deciding that Max Fish was too empty we went into Luna Lounge where we came across Matchless (not ‘Mattress’ as I originally thought, perhaps a better name?). This is a Seattle based four piece with an amazing lead singer/bass player and drummer (both female). Kind of cross between Janes Addiction, New Order and general Seattle grunginess. Dan reckoned they were like a heavier version of the Delgados. Anyhoo – check them out.

[Running Habit]

This running thing’s getting to be a habit! Decided to run into work this morning. Great idea since the clothes I needed were already in there – still ended up with a rugsac full of bits though. Need to find a way to stop it bouncing around so much! This activity was all in aid of burning off a team Thai meal at Jai-Ya last night. Now I feel a little shakey and in need of carbohydrate…

[There’s Money In Porn]

I’ve decided that I should quit consultancy and go into porn sites. The money’s better and I think the ethical level is higher (they admit what they are doing as opposed to consultants who are often required to lie for the company good rather than have an ‘honest, open relationship’ with the customer).

Achey. Went for a run across the bridge this morning. This was the result of severe food overindulgence yesterday at brunch with Kirsteen and then at a superb toga party in honor of Barbara’s 31st birthday at Herta’s house. Good fun and thanks to John for the loan of a sheet! Greg, Nicole’s brother, was there as well and I completely didn’t recognise him due to lack of beard. Oops. I’m also aching from Saturday when we had a Q picnic in Prospect Park – good fun. Lots of ice fights, throwing balls around and food in the sun. April’s dogs were great entertainment as was the impromptu duet between Nathan and Sam Loy’s daughter.

[Random Domain Names]

I was thinking again about registering a domain to myself… The obvious ones, ultrahi.com and matthewhobbs.com have already gone (strangely ‘matthewhobbs.com’ is not registered to a Matthew Hobbs) although their net equivalents still seem to be around.

Current random URLs that might be cool:

  • sushification.com – a site describing the continuing gentrification of Manhatten via Sushi restaurants, the spore of the rich, trendy and white
  • diaretic.com – my diary
  • unilover.com – a site dedicated to all those people who’ve worked at Unilever that I’ve known and loved (sometimes more carnally than others)
  • unileaver.com – a site dedicated to all those who have left Unilever and want to form an ad-hoc community as they go through film school or eat too many pies or make bad relationship choices
  • quidpunks.com – the Quidnunc community as suggested by J Pegues, a mastermind

[Rules Make You Lazy]

In one of my drunken moments I was struck with a realization. Frantically I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it down. So, in the cold light of day, here is that ‘insight’: rules make you lazy. Not very exciting really as it stands – I think I was trying to capture some deeper thought but didn’t use the right words. The basic concept stands well though and I think it was more that ‘other people’s rules make you lazy’ than rules in general – good rules help you make quicker decisions from a priori knowledge as long as they are used with the correct context.

Today my brother in law Simon got ordained at Guildford Cathedral so he’s now a deacon. Strange to be back in a church after so long and, of course, nothing had really changed with the good old C of E. Stranger still was seeing Simon with his dad, Lesley, and brother, Matt, all standing together with their dog collars on. An entire family in service to God. Simon’s dad looked so happy though. Bless.

Meanwhile I’m packing to go back to New York taking my usual excessive luggage (two bags) back having been on shopping sprees to CyberDog, Grade A and Muji. The last two weeks have been fun but I’m really looking forward to getting back to doing something rather than just sitting about! Some of the last week has also been quite stressful for reasons involving glasses of coke and a Camden nightclub. Seems to have turned out OK now but it is still in the back of my mind. Strangeness. Watch out New York – here I come…

[Biting the Hand that Feeds You]

Sometimes it’s not worth being nice to people. They want you to be nasty to them, so being nice confuses them. It’s like a dog with an injury biting the vets hand. They strike out at the immediate pain, not seeing the long term benefits of seeing it through. I don’t like to think like this but it is true. So that leaves you, the vet, with a bloody hand, wondering if the pain is worth it to help…

[Brian’s New Site]

Just checked out Brian’s new version of Ironed Fishes. Wow! Looking good. Makes me realize that I need to redo my site again, perhaps spending more than an hour on it. Or at the very least widen the blogging area… What do you think? On the one hand, people are only supposed to be able to take in 7 or so words on a line before it becomes confusing – on the other hand I tend to ramble which leads to a lot of scrolling.

[Back from Glasto 2000]

Well – got back late last night from Glastonbury having spent the day sitting around on the site rather than in a traffic jam. Apparently it took some people around 7 hours to get out of the car park! Not fun. As I drove back the four days of sleep depravation kicked in as I dozed fitfully at the wheel, my only savior being a late night garage selling full-caffeine pepsi and pickled onion monster munch.

Glastonbury was much fun though. Caught up with lots of friends, drank way too much and did everything except shower way too much. Weather was pretty good, with Thursday being slightly damp but the other days a good mix of sunny and overcast. I now have a fine farmer’s tan for my sins. Oo ar. Best band was probably Yo La Tengo – a New York band playing in the new bands stage. Elastica were good as well though. I didn’t seem to spend as much time in the dance tent as I normally do (getting old maybe?) but managed to catch a set by David Holmes in the Rizla Lounge – a small venue. So that was frikkin’ cool – he was about 2 metres from me. Star struck or wot.

So now I’m back home in Camberley. I was going to Newquay but lack of forward planning and it being 9pm when I left Glasto put me off!

[London JAM]

Bizarre but cool day spent in London shopping, eating and drinking. Most bizarro thing was bumping into Jodi Ann Mullen who I used to fancy like crazy at PGL in summer 1992 but nothing ever happened with. Bob and I were looking at her thinking she was very cute and then I realized she seemed awfully familiar. I told Bob and he didn’t believe me but the more I looked the more she had the correct mannerisms – a cutely askew smile and expression that was ultimately familiar. I went over and asked – she looked surprised then remembered who I was. She also remembered she still had some of my letters to her which is more scary! I can’t even remember what I wrote but I’m sure they’re embaressing now – in a sweet, luvy duvy kinda way. Bless. That’s why our memories are so bad – to prevent overload of embaressment!