under another sun

Up having been dehydrated overnight. Lorraine and I zoomed off and caught the train to Brighton in time to go to Komedia for before 12 where, sipping judicious teas and coffees, we met Innis and Rosie in Screen one. A gorgeous film, called Blind Willow Sleeping Woman , which was based on several stories by Murakami. Gorgeous animation. Found myself lapping up colours, a particular green tie worn by a downtrodden character fed my soul. Quite surreal moments and lots of enigmatic stuff -- but I loved it. After we sloped off to The Eagle, now refurbished, and serving Thai food. We had lunch there, Lorraine and I had a vegetarian massaman curry with peanuts and chickpeas. Pretty tasty, and washed down with a  hair of the dog cold beer. Rosie and Innis on fine form. Innis has begun to enjoy printmaking, and some of his prints will be in one of the open houses, and he has been doing more coastguard work too, which he is enjoying.  Home on the train which stopped at Falmer, by Bright...

To bed feeling shattered, and then was woken shortly before 1.00am by a party in the garden next door. Then someone knocking drunkenly on the door next door, and the thunder and lightning. Missed hours of the night, and got up and drank some chamomile tea and so on. Eventually back to sleep and woke up at nine. Got up and brought Lorraine some tea.  Off to see Jewell today, to do a deep tissue massage on my back at 11am. Both painful and blissful, and we had a really good chat. Lovely to catch up with her for the first time in almost two years. Like seeing an old friend.  Felt lots more upright afterwards, and headed home. An afternoon of work for the team in Germany, and bloody pleased to be done with it. Also a smidge of work for the mes amis in Paris too, when I followed up with them. Done by 5:30 today, which was excellent. Then Lorraine, Jade Sam and I mooched into town for fun. Walking with Jade and she was so excited about going to see a Marvel movie, it really made me ...

Nightmares again. Then up for two hours of drains based fun and two men running in and out of the house in the pouring rain with high pressure water cables, TV scanners  and so on. A very thorough job was done, and the drain working again finally.  All this, while essential, I'm finding mopping floors, and handing cups of tea to drain specialists is beginning to do my head in as I'd set aside this time to do some work. The afternoon better, and apart from a trip to the bank, I managed to do a small amount at last. Betty's birthday today, and her pals took her to tour the Harry Potter Studios at Warner Brothers. Lorraine home on time for once, and we zoomed off to the cinema in the Komedia to watch the three D movie Gravity with Rosie and Dawn. A fabulous visual feast, and a bit of a triumph. A stripped down, though dramatic, narrative that lets the visuals do the talking. Sandra Bullock who carries the film and George Clooney do fine, and The best use of 3D I've ev...

Able to write again on the train this morning, which was something of a boon. A pleasant, if unremarkable, day in Tavistock Square mainly doing conceptual work.  Felt less exhausted too. Homeward and I soon began to loathe all my poems and other stuff I have on my computer. Having the ability to loathe your own work is important. However these moods are not to be taken too seriously. As are the moments when I am convinced of my own brilliance. In my experience, self doubt is had in abundance by all the wrong people I think. Straight from the train down to the Komedia where I met Lorraine and Dawn. We went to see The Staves . Lorraine has their album and has been playing it lots, alongside her Mumford & Sons albums. These are three singing sisters, plus two guys on bass and drums. I have to say I really enjoyed their folk-inflected songs, and their harmonies were syrupy and delicious. They were supported by a young singer guitarist called Luke Sital-Singh. He had a truly lo...

Protesting in the sun Had a cull of old clothes and rancid shoes this morning under Lorraine's supervision. Throwing old ratty stuff out is ace. The Labour Party conference having a big effect on the town today. The Twitten very quiet last night. This morning, however, constant helicopter noise. There are parts of town blocked by big concrete blocks, and homeless people moved on from around the station. Machine gun sporting police lurking around. Lorraine and I walked to the seafront which was unusually quiet for such a beautiful summer's day. Watched a noisy but mild mannered protest from the newly rebuilt bandstand. Police everywhere including two filming the protest. They were approached by someone remonstrating with them and telling them it was like the Soviet Union. They looked sheepish. Despite this everything passed off in a mild mannered way. Hard to get worked up about things in the sunshine by the sea. We walked along to Hove and to drop a package in at Lorriane's...

Chap Hop, Poets, and MCs A brisk walk back from Lorraine's first thing. And in between dealing with my exceptionally fighty kitten, I finished the play. You have to fill in forms afterwards too, to send off with your submission. Form filling, as any fule no is not my strong point. But have done my best, and managed to complete it by 6:00pm. In the evening off to see Poets vs MCs, a yearly "battle" at the Komedia. Was amazed to see a big queue stretching out into the street for the event.Great to see, and inside there was a wonderful buzzy atmosphere. I loved the warm-up act. Someone called Mr B playing Chap Hop in which his Edwardian posh voice, accompanying himself with banjo and hip hop tapes. Particularly enjoyed Timmy a song about being in prep school with Tim Westwood (a white Vicar's son turned leading hip hop DJ, who hosts the laughable UK version of the Pimp my Ride show). According to his My Space page he is "on a one-man mission to introduce Hip-Hop t...

Alice Russell Slipped free of my website shackles this evening to go out with Anton and Lorraine to see lovely Alice Russell at Brighton Komedia. It was the first night of her new tour, to promote her new album Pot of Gold and she and her great band, featuring writing partner TM Juke, put on a splendid show as usual. Acoustics very different there to when Anton and I last saw her last at the Concorde 2. But an excellent show with several promising new tracks, as well as my favourite Hurry On Home, which always reminds me of moving to Brighton. She also did the best version of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy I've ever heard. Very mixed crowd of old geezers like myself while Lorraine bumped into some of Beth's schoolfriends there. Alice is not really a diva, in the sense that she seems really approachable and likable. Someone shouted out ironically that she should be on X Factor. Which although quite funny, must also have been galling to someone of Alice Russell's ability. We all...

Short fuse Another day in my old agency - speeding about working on scraps of urgent stuff, with two art directors I'd never been partnered with before: Bee and Lana. Feeling slightly out of control with lots to do. Lots of stress about the place - but I managed to maintain a reasonably good equilibrium. Train draggy and late getting home. Home to rejections for my pamphlet project: one company has restricted its list to books of quotations, and the other already has a publication lined up specifically for Valentine's day. Good to get fast feedback though, and can send them off again as soon as I get a minute. The evening, however, much better. I met up with new literary pal Alison and went to a short story event in the Komedia appropriately called (considering the day I'd had) Short Fuse. Six stories, and all but one read by the writer. A high standard and a wide variety of material. Enjoying the unusual ideas that popped up, such as reading Homer to your cat. And a brilli...