unpopular

So the sun came out, and I’m back on the sofa, having braved the Geek Lair for an hour there to get at least some of the new things on the Unpopular Records site done. By which I mean I added the Clientele and Playwrights singles and the June photozine, which I realised a week or so ago that I had already done. Duh. The July one should be available sooner. Maybe. I think….

The singles arrived yesterday morning when it was already too warm to be lugging boxes up to the top of the house, but that didn’t curb my excitement. I was really nervous opening up the cartons, wondering if the printed sleeves would look as I had envisaged. I mean, you can never be totally sure when working from a computer screen, can you? Not unless you are one of those fancy graphics places where they have screen calibrations and what not. Still, I was thankful for my Pantone swatches, and thankfully all came out pretty much as I had imagined and hoped it would. Hurrah! Only problem was that the factory had out the inserts in the wrong records, so I’m going to have to go through them all and transfer them by hand. Grrr. I mean, I have to take the records out of the sleeve to stamp the labels and number the Playwrights ones (no space on the sleeve for the numbering – I sacrificed that for the aesthetic) but still and all… It is nevertheless much less of a time consuming process that the Lovejoy sleeves, which are effectively all hand assembled here. But hey ho, you got to try things to learn, right? Right.

Also, I left a space on the back of the Clientele sleeve to hand stamp Emily’s drawing, but have discovered that the card is too shiny to take the ink properly, so I have to leave each sleeve out to dry for at least A DAY! And even then it smudges if you aren’t careful. So it’ll be into to plastic bags with those puppies, and if you got sense you’ll leave it in there. Another thing learnt…

Despite those grumbles though, I am most happy, and it’s great to have them out there. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to devote the morning to getting the rest of the site up to date and all uploaded before it all gets too hot again and I am forced to the front yard to read Batman comics in the sun.

So, what with the records arriving yesterday, it was a busy old day… topped off by a lovely 100km bike ride up (and down) the Exe valley to Dulverton and back. It’s a fantastic route, and I should ride it more often. I noticed that the Carnarvon Arms Hotel by the old Dulverton railway station is being converted into ‘concierge serviced apartments’. I guess most, if not all, will be destined to become holiday homes for London stock brokers and the like. Sigh.

And as if that weren’t enough for the day, C drove me up to Bristol and back to see the Playwrights play at the Louisiana. Scarily, I recalled that the last time I was in the Louisiana would have been maybe 12 years ago or so, when Dan, Christian and Hoops (I think) took me to a Northern Soul night after some indiepop night out. How time flies.

The Playwrights, of course, were superb; a wild and dynamic treat of stunning Pop Noise, as expected. It amazes me why this group are not huge, but then it amazed me why The Wolfhounds, Hellfire Sermons and The Claim (all of whom the Playwrights remind me of in a variety of different ways) were never huge. I guess I just don’t have the same tastes as the teaming masses… which is good of course in its way, but a bit of a bugger for the Playwrights’ hopes of global domination. Oh well, such is life.

My ThinkGeek order came through today, just a few days after I placed my order. This is impressive stuff… same as the Top Shelf delivery time – just awesome. Anyway, so now I am wearing my ‘I’m blogging this’ t-shirt and I figure I ought to do as it says.

So yesterday ET asked me if I might be interested in filling one of the section editors roles at Plan B. I was incredibly honoured to have been asked, and I so wanted to say yes, but really, I do not have the time to do it properly. At least, I don’t have the time to do that to the level it deserves and still do all my own stuff like Tangents and Unpopular, oh and teaching of course, so I sadly had to decline the opportunity. Would have been nice, but hey ho. Later, C said why don’t I try and go part time in school, but that’s not the answer. From what I’ve seen in school going part-time is the kiss of death, and anyway, in spite of the fact that I still feel knackered after the last term/year, I do LIKE the job, so heh.

Today then I just kind of had a lazy day: into town this morning, a bit of shopping, then coffee and a book for an hour in the Boston Tea Party, then lunch with C and her mom, then a spot more shopping (a frame for the painting that Rupert gave me yesterday – it looks lovely now above the stairs) and then home to gently sort the geek Lair into something approaching order. I got these bulldog clips in WH Smiths and tied them to the remains of the curtain rail that once separated the attic in two, then clipped postcards into them. They look really neat… lots of Audrey Hepburn ones that I couldn’t resist last time I was up in Bristol, plus some Cindy Sherman, one of Dylan, Patrick Heron paintings…). I was chatting with G earlier and she was like ‘oh, THAT’S not being lazy’, but well, it kind of is for me really.

Chatted with Puffy earlier too, which was good because we haven’t ‘talked’ in ages, and it turns out we have mutual friends which in the realms of the indiepop world maybe isn’t so surprising, and she reminded me she has lots of my old fanzines, and hopefully is going to spare me the time and effort by scanning some of the pages before sending them back. I remember Julian and I discussing that years ago – making a kind of online depository of old fanzines. It never happened, sadly, but I still think it would be a good idea. And speaking of fanzines, I am planning another ‘i wish i was unpopular’ fanzine for later in the summer, although whether it actually happens or not is anyone’s guess!

Then D popped up and we talked about the beach, and I was recalling that legendary Troon Indiepop Beach Party in the summer of, uh, was that ’87 or ’88? I don’t remember. A long time ago anyway… How it was rained off and all, and how I still come across people who remember it. Weird.

Anyway, I need to go and do some stuff for the Unpop site, seeing as how we’ll hopefully have two new singles available from Friday. Yay!

Well, I guess I’m starting to feel somewhat better now, beginning to rise from the fug of the end of term blues. Into town yesterday morning to post a bundle of recent eBay sales, and stopped off in Waterstones to browse some books. I’m determined to start reading books with words again instead of just picture books… Anyway, I was delighted to find a new Pelecanos hard back, and even more delighted when I got 3 quid off the price. Result. I’m looking forward to getting into it, although there are a couple others in the pile before it, notably David Peace’s GB 84 which has been on the shelf since Easter, and that David Nichols Go-Betweens biography. But I have five weeks, so what am I worrying about, right?

Then dropped into Bostons for a decaff and a read, but bumped into Josh instead, so we had a good chat about school, which was good, kind of finally getting some things out of my head. Realised I had barely spoken to him for the last year, which is nuts, but then we neither of us are much ones for dropping by the staffroom, so heh…

Uh, I also finally bought frames for the three posters I got from Top Shelf some months ago: two Craig Thompson posters and one with three kind of gorilla / spaceman type things, um, its hard to describe, but it’s really cool anyway. Now I need to figure out where to hang them. I suspect the stairway to the Geek Lair might be the most popular option, but we shall see.

All of which helped raise me from the fug a little, but what really did the trick was getting myself sat down in the afternoon and writing… I have had this big pile of books I wanted to write about for ages but kept putting it off and putting it off, so it was getting to be like this big cloud hanging over me. So in the end I just took a deep breath and started in on them. And you know what? The cloud wasn’t half as dark and big as I thought it was. But it’s strange because it made me think about the whole situation, about having these books (not review freebies, but the result of much spending on my behalf) and not feeling quite right about my relationship to them until I had written about them. It’s like things aren’t real if I haven’t disseminated my thoughts about them in some way. And having done that, now I can move on and do something else. Of course it also made me think about what I was looking at, and that’s always a positive aspect of feeling that need to write about what you consume, even if it’s not in any great depth and if no-one particularly either cares or agrees.

So now I need to write about some comics, and of course there’s a pile of CDs to get to grips with, but at least now I feel a bit more upbeat, a bit more ready to face the day.

So today feels much more like the first day of the holidays. Maybe its because I’ve managed to visit the barbers and had a decent haircut, and maybe it’s because I’m sitting in the Boston Tea Party with my large decaf house, pondering all kinds of maybes and what ifs… or maybe it’s just the sun is shining. Yesterday was frankly strange, a kind of false start or a false ending, I’m not sure which. I lay on the sofa once more and read comics and Mac magazines and watched Le Tour and again felt guilty for not riding but really I was just so drained from the past few weeks that I couldn’t face doing anything more strenuous than climb the stairs to the Geek Lair.

Speaking of comics, I’ve been reading The Nocturnals recently. I mean I just love Dan Brereton’s paintings, they are so great with their Pulp influences and all, so I’m kind of willing to forgive the slightly shaky writing. But whatever, what I really wanted to say was how I laughed aloud yesterday when I saw he had two cop characters called Goodis and Willeford. Those kinds of little details really matter. Similarly, I laughed the other day when walking to town, past the Bowling Green (scene of epic summer holiday pool tournaments with Marino in years gone by), and there on the window was a poster for a gig by a group called Abdoujaparov. Cycling fans will of course spot the reference. I was almost tempted to go along until I spotted they are the new band of one of the old Carter USM bods (and hence Jamie Wednesday, which I am more inclined to forgive). So I wont bother after all.

I need to write something about my recent comics consumption. David’s Tangents article made me want to talk about it, and really there are a lot of things to share there. Ditto my on-going obsession with photography books, a bundle of which arrived this morning. I flicked through Burhan Dogancay's Walls of The World before heading out the door: it looks awesome and I am very jealous because it’s exactly the kind of book I want to do. Oh well. Also got A J Wilkinson's English Candies with texts by Jon Savage and John Robb, and I’m keen to investigate that in detail. Also I really need to think about my own photographs, and to consider just what the hell I’m doing with them. I seem to have lost my way somewhat, am missing the discipline of the daily diary project, or indeed any project to guide me. This is what I need to consider: what do these photographs MEAN? Or what do I mean by taking them? And do I mean anything at all? And if not why not and does it really matter?

At least yesterday I managed to finish off that Animals That Swim review for Plan B and Tangents. In the end I was quite pleased with it and I’m glad I ditched all that stupid Art School Wank. Which reminds me, did I ever tell you about the great Art School Wank badges I got at 50p Badges? I didn’t? Well they are great. I wanted to put one on my schoolbag but C said not to. She also said I should take off the ‘twee fucker’ one. Sigh. I DID keep on the one of Johnny Cash giving the finger, though. I’m a rebel, me.

So yeah, I really like the idea of boxes, and a boxed 7” set would be so cool. I need to give this some thought. Also needing thought would be another (i wish i was) Unpopular fanzine. I should get some photocopy prices when I’m in town, because I cant afford to do it all on my laser printer… the price of new toner cartridges is insane! It’s almost as cheap to buy a whole new printer as it is to replace all the carts. Crazy. It would be good if there was another ‘zine fair type thing at the Cavern sometime, even though I know I would sell hardly anything again. Dunno if Izzy is around at the moment to ask though, as her blog has not been updated for a while. And in fact I kind of feel like visiting the Cavern again anyway, to see what’s going on… to feel old and lost again. Ha ha ha.

I think we are going to see The Playwrights in Bristol next Friday (July 30th). This is the day the singles are meant to arrive, so the plan is to go up with a bunch to sell at the show. Hope it all goes according to plan. I also thought maybe I would take a couple of cameras along and film them, then do something with that… we shall see. I have these drawings I did from the train on the way to London earlier in the year, I was thinking of doing some kind of animation with them… maybe I could combine the live footage with that idea. It’s a thought. But do I have the time? Sigh, it’s always that same question.

Okay, so I wonder what’s on at the museum? And I should go and buy some frames for those lovely Craig Thompson posters I got from Top Shelf some months ago…

Found this whilst stumbling around the web. It’s great. Wonder where they got the boxes from. I like boxes… Wonder if they will trade for some Unpopulars?

Stupid Art School Ideas

A day into the holidays, my head is already starting to meander into different avenues, many of them daft. Like the following paragraphs, brought about by a chat with J last night about relationships with objects and the ‘meaning’ of what we do as artists… Oh, that and thinking about the Animals That Swim album that I was writing a review for. This train of thought came off of that, and was going to be the review but I figured, uh, no, really I want to say something ELSE about Animals That Swim, like how they are one the greatest groups of all time and how Faded Glamour is like one of THE re-issue/retrospectives of the year. But yeah… pretentiousness follows. Feel free to stop reading now.

But I think my existence is given meaning through the things I create and consume, is given form through the blending of those moments. As such it’s all about fleeting thoughts and visions, is about words and scents and sounds and thoughts that have burrowed deep and which then seep out through the cracks of consciousness over time. This is why it seems to loop, seems to come back around to familiar points with strange regularity before embarking on a new route. And on that route I know I will pick up more parts of the puzzle, will soak up more music, images and touches that will themselves add to the spectacle and will in turn fade to the mist that clings to my face bringing tears of confused melancholia.

And will the puzzle ever be resolved? Will I ever see the whole picture? IS there a whole picture other than one that is a naturally strange collage, a multi-layered image like one of those ripped and torn Mimmo Rotella advertising hoardings?

I wonder sometimes though if this kind of looping of life is natural or if it is merely a media construct. And then I wonder if that’s not being altogether too black and white, if it isn’t more a case of our lives and our media being symbiotically linked, each affecting the other in a strange dance of meaning and counter meaning, of movement and reaction flowing in a state of constant flux. In other words, do I feel these moments of a return to some kind of beginning because the media has a well honed faculty for repackaging the past, or has that entire industry developed out of a kind of subconscious understanding of our need for nostalgia?

I mean, I guess what I’m really wondering is, did the notion of nostalgia exist before there was the media to distribute it and encourage it?

I was, ah, attempting to rationalise my record collection the other day and came across a bunch of flexi discs that have sat unplayed for many a year. ‘Aha’, I though to myself, ‘I should stick these on eBay. There are bound to be a few indiepop fans who would be interested in these…’ And since I had a selection of duplicate Sha La La flexis, I figured those would be the ones that would draw the most interest, but no! according to the ‘watchers’ statistics, by FAR the most interesting item is that James Dean Driving Experience flexi with the Audrey Hepburn sleeve. Weird. Especially as the description clearly states that it has some dents in and most likely doesn’t even play all the way through. Oh well. Having said that of course, there’s still just the one bid, so all the interest might lead to nothing. We shall see in 4 days and 18 hours time…

Today’s Achewood is good. I like those episodes that have ‘Roomba! The Robotic Floor Vac’ . Today’s is about establishing prohibition in 1918, which seems kind of apt given the news item we just watched on the ITN News. They were doing a big feature on binge drinking in the UK and it was just awful, one of the most depressing things I have seen on the telly in a long while and that’s saying something, because the telly depresses me almost every time I turn it on. They were fishing about for answers, and C suggested prohibition, which I would be all for of course, given that I no longer drink. Ha ha. But seriously, what is the answer? I dunno. It’s so complex. Much of it stems I think from low self-esteem. As C said, we see a lot of that in school, behaviour issues caused by low self-esteem… And what better for making you feel better about yourself than getting bladdered, right? Well, in the short term, anyway.

Tony Blair’s little speech was funny, effectively laying the blame on the ‘me’ culture of Thatcher’s ‘80s. I mean, I think he has a point, but it doesn’t really help us to find the solution, does it? Blunkett’s solution for fixed penalty fines for underage drinkers and establishments serving underage drinkers meanwhile is hilarious. Like fixed penalties ever solved ANYthing, right?

Anyway, personally I think society is fucked all to hell and I’m past caring anymore. Let the fuckers get smashed and fight themselves of a Saturday night. See if I care. I’ll be stuck up in my Geek Lair safe and sound, so what the hell.

Except it was a rest day today so I’m not going to bother watching the Tour show on the TV. Instead I shall attempt to answer some emails and continue to be ignored.

Today spent more or less gutting my art room ready for the removal people to shift our stuff over to the new rooms tomorrow. My classes were thankfully re-roomed and covered so I didn’t have to worry about the misery of the last week of term when everyone just wants to be entertained. And hell, I aint no damn entertainer. The amount of crap in the room was pretty amazing and we filled a large wheelie bin in no time at all. Twelve years of accumulated stuff, loads of which has never been touched in most of that time. We found old disks and manuals for things like Prime Art and a word processor for the old Acorns. It was like from a different world… very odd. It went in the trash of course although part of me wondered if I shouldn’t have taken it home and stuck it on eBay.

So 12 years of my life in that room. It was kind of scary thinking about it. I took down the drawings of the two tutor groups I saw through the entire five years and thought about how old the first bunch would be now. 23 I guess… How time flies.

I took down all the stuff from my part of the wall, and had to use a scalpel to slice off some of the older things that had been stuck to the paper that covered the pin board. So down came Daisy’s drawing of me as ‘a very tall man’ (it was drawn on a length of masking tape…) and the Power Rangers pogs that were glued to the paper, and the strip of Appliance stickers that had assorted other things stuck on top, like the Daphne and Celeste ‘U.G.L.Y.’ post-it note that I snagged from Erica all those years ago at a party in Haringey. As I recall that was also the night that Erland Oye shouted us a taxi back into the city centre. Lovely chap.

So yes, the wall came down. It’s always a sad moment, but even sadder this year because EVERYthing came down. Even Lily’s lovehearts and Claire’s refreshers. And the ‘pope’ card. And the big Belle and Sebastian in Manchester poster… And Pam’s valentines card. And the photos of me by the Fire Raisers shelter and in my dress.

I don’t have a section of wall to call my own in the new room yet (not until they get their shit together and properly fit display board to the walls, anyway) so I will be unable to move any of those things into a new position for some time, and maybe this well give me the strength to have a totally new beginning. We shall see.

And as one wall comes down, another goes up… Mark is still building our garden wall. He hopes to be finished tonight! Or this week at least. Yay!

I was thinking earlier this morning how at the moment I feel like one of the riders going up the Tour climbs, suffering like hell and being kind of blinkered on the summit and reaching it ahead of the cut-off time. I’m just looking at Wednesday, 3.30pm. That’s my summit of L’Alpe D’Huez. Speaking of which they do that on Wednesday themselves, so that’s kind of fitting.

I’m sure there were other things I was going to write but they seem to have escaped me. Oh yeah, I know, I remembered a bit of a dream I had last night. For some reason me and Em were walking through a field and the soil was kind of patterned with the image of a face, kind of like walking on a Warhol multiple painging, only in a field. And in soil. It was very strange. Then we were walking through the streets of Troon and it was kind of creepy. Then the alarm went off and I woke up.

No-one is updating their blogs much. Grrr. Except Sethe did a super job the other day and posted a whole load of things rescued from old journal entries and such like and that was cool. Made me almost want to look back at my own. But then I figured that might be depressing.

Almost as depressing as someone ignoring your IM’s. Sigh. Oh well, I’m off to watch Le Tour anyway.