Sleep is for wimps

Hey hey! Yesterday I went to London. Look - here is proof!


Assuming you know what seats on the district line look like or can somehow work your way through the double glazed reflection and make out the four tired faces that belong to Becky, myself, Jazza and Alex - that's Becky's boyfriend.

So that was last night, and we were tired then, so it was an interesting choice to decide to forgo sleep and just play wii and watch flight of the conchords all night. There were two reasons for this: firstly we had to get up at 6am and personally I much prefer seeing 6am after many hours of being awake as opposed to a few hours of being asleep, and secondly I hadn't seen Alex in ages and wouldn't see much of him the following day (that'd be today if you're counting) so I wanted to spend some time with him, and remind him how funny I am.

Forgive me for using flashbacks but prior to the droopy eyed tube photo, we went into the 'Rainforest Cafe', which resulted in this rather wonderful portrait...



Johnny text us later on saying, 'What was that Rainforest place called?' If only he'd added, 'The place with the cafe' it would have been perfect, but it still had us laughing very loud on public transport.

I suppose I should get on to the reason we were in London and had to be up so early... The RNLI (formally known as the mystery package people) had set up a silent disco in Waterloo station as a part of their annual fundraising day, and they invited us. They started it at 8am to catch the commuters. I'd probably have preferred they catch them on their way home: yes 5pm would have just about allowed time for sleep, but nevermind. We went and we danced to songs Scott Mills played to us through headphones so nobody else could hear them and we even managed to enjoy it!


Afterwards Mhazz and I got our picture taken with Scott for one reason and one reason only - to annoy Doug. He loves Scott Mills... A lot.

Then we got some brunch and had a chat about the RNLI's plans for 2009 that may involve us in some way and we all went off our separate ways. Johnny and Ian came back to mine for dinner, Johnny's gone now but Ian is sitting next to me wishing Phil a happy birthday. We should probably go to bed, but once you've been awake for 39 hours, what's another one?!

So that brings us to now. I will leave you with one final photo. In Alex's house there are several interesting pieces of art. This is a picture of me with one of them. It's also wearing his hat.
I'm fairly certain Alex doesn't know I took this.


Sleep tight!

xxx

27/1/09

Don't pay attention to the date, today was the 27th, it's just gone midnight.


Today's picture is intended to show you everything I got in town this afternoon, which consists of some headphones, a haircut and a shit load of plectrums because I lose them so fast I imagine I've set some sort of record. In fact the more observant of you will have noticed there are nine plectrums in the picture, which would be a strange number to buy - why not round it up to ten? Well I did. Apparently one has already bitten the dust.

The past couple of days I've been working on the second episode of YouToon with Dom and PJ and it's going really well. I think this is the first time I've thought of myself as a writer. An element of writing goes into most of my non-music videos but I never set aside time for it like we have to for this. The main difference I think is in my approach, in the past when I've written for my videos there has been very little actual writing involved. It's mainly just thinking about what I want say, just like I would in a conversation with someone, only for longer and maybe bullet pointing so I don't forget things.

With YouToon however I'm not thinking about me saying it, this episode for example I have hardly any good lines to say but that doesn't matter because the show on the whole is hilarious, and being a part of the reason for that is enough. Another reason I feel like a writer is I'm worried that people will mess up the lines I wrote!

So I must convey my thanks and admiration to Dom and PJ for making this happen and including me in it. Dom came up with an idea that pretty much gave us limitless writing possibilities, and without PJ we'd have been sat around for the last six months looking for an animator!

So anyway, tomorrow Johnny is driving here then we're getting a coach down to London and staying at Alex's for a night. I make this promise to you, my blog, that I will take some photos for you (because I know I usually forget). I'll also try to get some video footage because the reason we're going down is for an RNLI thing that we've been invited to. They requested we didn't mention any specifics but if you're near London and up (very) early on Thursday, pay attention to twitter, I'll tweet about it if I'm allowed.

After that I am DEFINITELY staying here for a while.

I'm sure I had more to say but alas, it has deserted my mind. I think it's time for bed anyway.

xxx

Podcast

Hmm, what's happened since my last post? It was a very long time ago (for me)...

There was the gathering in Sheffield which I went to and enjoyed. Also had a few people back to mine and we made the greatest video of all time.

I recorded a podcast for Youtoon with Dom and PJ, it went pretty well for our first one I think. We were basically answering peoples questions about the show that were left in comments. We recorded for over an hour so we split it in half, the first half is up now - you can find that here - and the second one will be posted in about a week.

I've been working on some songs that I intend to get on itunes fairly soon because... Well I want a new mac. One in particular took me a REALLY long time to finish, but it's pretty much done now and I'm loving it! If all goes to plan you will be able to hear that on the second half of the podcast (It's going on there because it's the song that the Youtoon intro music is taken from) and I'll put it on myspace some time after that. Just today I've been talking to PJ about doing a video for it, but that can wait until it's available for download. I've also told him I will work on some music for a video he's making for his channel, I was gonna start that this weekend but had a few friends over so tomorrow I will get moving on it. I'm looking forward to it, what's in my head is quite different to my usual stuff... I'm a little nervous though because I sent PJ some tracks from a friend (Tom) that were really good! I like picking music for things, that would be a great job.

At this point in the blog Johnny Durham would like to say, and I quote, "hi".

...

Ok I just spent some time talking to Johnny and you should all know this: HE IS MADE OF EVIL AND CAN TALK YOU INTO GOING TO LONDON EVEN IF YOU'D PREVIOUSLY DECIDED AGAINST IT!

So I'm going to London on Thursday. I think it's Thursday...

FLOOR!

Look at my tidy room... You can see the floor!

See I was working on a song today, and I kept treading on things so I stopped for a room cleaning break.

Right the download situation. A few people have said they were having problems and I couldn't get some of them to work before, but I've just tried one that wasn't working yesterday and it does now, though I am on a mac this time. Also the numbers show it's working fine for plenty of people, so I don't think there's anything wrong with the site. Anyway, there's nothing more I can do right now, but if they weren't working give it another go, maybe try a different browser or machine because it's definitely possible!

Also think I should mention I put a video up yesterday. I was a little concerned that it wasn't doing nearly as well as they usually do, then I got a comment saying it didn't appear in their subscription box. I thought they fixed that! Apparently they did maintenance last night which, as usual, fucked things up. Also, I thought Wednesday was maintenance day? Apparently not.

Well if anyone that reads this missed it, here it is.

I also added the song to the download folder, and thanks to Bruno's comment (thank you!) I've made a custom url for that folder, it's now called, http://www.mediafire.com/blueskies

Ian, Sophie and Ivens should be here tonight to head up to Sheffield tomorrow... However Ian isn't even at Sophie's yet! Gonna be a late one. (If they get here at all!) At least I can do some work on that song.

p.s. lulz

p.p.s. Tom made me a new background!

xxx

Moab

I like it when there are photos in blogs so I may try to continue with that. Slightly concerned that I'm being incredibly pretentious. But I was just trying to capture how I'm feeling in a picture rather than (or as well as) in writing, and fuck - if you can't be pretentious in your blog where can you be?

In a bit of a shit mood and I don't really know why. Maybe it's being alone after having people around so much lately... But that's not me, I know some people can't hack it but I'm great at being alone. I always think if you can't be happy with yourself then who can you be happy with?

I tried to write a song but only ended up with a few lines I like...

I wanna write a song that people hate
But if they did it would destroy me.

And the slightly less subtle;

I'm tired of smiling when I'm pissed off.

So basically I'm just lying around listening to Conor Oberst. I know you can't miss what you've never had, but if I can't imagine not having Conor Oberst. When I feel down I know exactly what I'm going to do, put a bunch of his albums in a playlist, hit shuffle and lie down. It makes me want to write songs, which is good, but sometimes I get annoyed because I wish I was that good at writing. If anyone is considering telling me I'm as good at songwriting as Conor to cheer me up, thank you but don't... You're either lying or just plain wrong.

I am at least feeling motivated. I want to write and record. I need to stop going away for a while, give myself some time. After this weekend.

Fuck it, I'm just gonna go to bed. Ian is meant to be coming round tomorrow, if a simple nine hour sleep doesn't make me feel better then he will. Plus Sheffield should be fun.
There's nothing that the road cannot heal.

Let me know if you like the pictures or if they make me look like a pretentious prick. But be nicer than that cos I'm already feeling low.

FREE DOWNLOADS!

Oh yes, it's a Blue Skies t-shirt.

Ok, before you wet yourselves with excitement, I've not got t-shirts. I've got t-shirt, singular. Dom got it for me for Christmas because he's lovely.

So no t-shirts for you yet, sorry. However I do have good news. I've spent tonight uploading a bunch of mp3s from old videos that you can download for free, and also finding a way to link you to a folder of them rather than one at a time. I'm adding individual links to all the video descriptions and most importantly the link at the end of this blog will take you to the whole folder so you can have a look and see which ones you have, which you want and download whatever.

This doesn't include anything I'm going to sell obviously as these are all free, so it's mostly cover songs. There are a couple of originals like the Stickaid song, that one minute youtoon promo and an instrumental called messabout that was on the Making the Band video we did at PJ's.

If any video makers are reading, which I expect they are, you have permission to use any of them in your videos if you just give me a little link in the description. (Though of course for covers you would TECHNICALLY need permission from the writer, but, well... Yeah.)

So here we are... Click this here link to be taken to the magic folder of downloadage!


p.s. notice there are two pages of songs, wouldn't want you to miss out!

xxx

Ireland

So the last time I wrote here I was quite unwell and was about to go to London. I went, saw Julia Nunes and Greg Holden, both of whom were wonderful. I stayed at Paul's house and came back a little too early the next day, which I believe was Friday. I spent the rest of Friday learning a Julia Nunes song and recording a video for it and a little vlog after mentioning the gig and that I was going to the Dublin gathering on Sunday. I finished editing on Saturday morning, clicked upload and went to catch a plane to Ireland.

The flight was crazy in that pretty much as soon as we took off we were preparing to land. All sorts happened in Ireland, I will give you one paragraph of highlights.

I got a €5 = £5 pint with Johnny Durham at the airport, we assumed we'd been ripped off because it was an airport... Apparently not, the whole of Ireland is crazy expensive. We got told to go to the basement of our hostel for the best wi-fi reception then after an hour or two down there were politely asked by the man who told us that, 'What the FUCK are you doing down here?!' We found Ian, rather Ian found us after we had almost given up hope of ever seeing him again as he had no credit, which abroad means you can't receive calls either. Stephen got incredibly drunk. The hostel stole Ian's money. We got up far too early and went to a gathering. I met Sean! We (the whole gathering) got kicked out of A LOT of places, including a park (what the fuck?) We went back to Stephen's house and had lasagna. Todd fell down the stairs and got concussion. We got up RIDICULOUSLY early, went to a fancy studio and filmed some videos. Then we got the bus back to the airport, had a pint of Guinness as we hadn't thus far, and got on a plane back to my house. Well... to East Midlands Airport, then drove to my house.

Oh and somewhere in there I discovered the video I tried to upload before I left failed, so now I'm going to have to re-edit and lose the part where I say 'come to the Dublin gathering on Sunday' or I might be blamed for a very poor gathering next Sunday.

Now I'm in my house with Johnny Durham and The Toddly, who will both be heading back to Sheffield later so I guess I'll do that video tonight.

There, consider yourself blogged.

xxx

Fuck the Atkins

I don't even know where to start.

New years was crazy cool. Basically I had a three day party incorporating Sophie's birthday, New Years Eve and New Years Day - not a traditional party day but I still had a whole load of people in my house!

Somehow only one glass got smashed (by some lunatic dinosaur apparently) no carpets were permanently damaged and there's only one MASSIVE HOLE IN MY FLOOR! We were raving with a strobe light in my bedroom. Eight people is a squeeze, there must have been at least 20 in there, many of whom (including myself to be fair) were on the bed, the bed only has six fairly small pressure points where it meets the floor. Where one of those was placed there is now a hole in both the carpet and the big thick wooden floorboard! I did laugh when I saw it and remembered how it must have happened. Still it was worth it for the rave, seriously good times.

One downside was driving to the station and back about 79 times a day, but it was great to not have to go home at the end of the night, and more importantly nobody else did either! The best part of gatherings always tends to be the hostel, it's more relaxed - there are less people so you can talk properly to those who are left. Plus you can have a drink.

Ok so missing out many stories, everyone went home. Dale was the last to go and as soon as I shut the door I went upstairs and went to bed. Not because I was tired, though I was - being kept up talking until around 7:30am then woken up by Mhazz to drive them to the station at around 10am, no I went to bed because I had caught what's become known as 'that bastard Ginger Chris's disease' which a large proportion of people who were there seem to have picked up. I stayed in bed until I had to let my parents in when they got home from skiing, two and a half days later. I'm over the main symptoms now but I have lost a stone in weight over three days so I can't walk up the stairs without needing to lie down for 20 minutes afterwards. Which brings me to the title of this entry. If you're looking for a diet, find a that-bastard-ginger-Chris's-disease sufferer and give them a kiss. Then wait. Forget Atkins he doesn't know what he's talking about. A stone in three days!

My aim now is to be able to stand up long enough to watch The Nunes on Thursday. A wonderful incentive I must say.

After that I'm heading over to Ireland for the weekend. Something I've been meaning to do for... Well, my whole life. My Mum's Irish you see, but her whole family moved over here when she was young, so my grandparents are the only ones with the accent. Still they are pretty much the central point of a very extended family because they have five kids and all of the people who are mad enough to marry into that, such as my Dad, are only-children or have just one sibling. So the Irish thing has always been quite prominent in my family life. I can't wait.

Oh hey did anyone see my first blogtv show? I don't imagine it was very good because I wasn't paying attention but my computer didn't crash as I imagined it would, so I might do another. I'd like them to pay me money, that'd be good.

xxx

2009

Hey look, it's the first of January!

Also there's a lot of people in my house which currently has a striking resemblance to a rubbish tip. The year has been pretty good so far, for example Amazing Phil ust sat next to me! Good times.

Also Ian has made slippers out of kitchen roll. Hey look it's John Cox!

We had a fucking rave to the blues brothers last night. It was mint.

Ok bye then!

xxx