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Monday October 24, 05
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09:13 AM - Busy....
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I'm so busy! Help!
One of the speakers on my stereo isn't working properly. There's this Francoise Hardy song I've got called "Parlami di te", and the side her vocal is on is the side with the broken speaker, so for ages, I wondered why there was an instrumental in the middle of the album.
Fascinating.
Anyway, I haven't updated this thing in aeons. What's happened? Erm... my band are on a record label and our album is released next month, I've started my library course (it's so boring. Seriously. But in other ways it's quite fun as I get to be a student for a day, plus I go to Manchester for the day - a change of scenery's always nice. I still find it funny how there's buses on Oxford Road that to go to Stretford and Southern Cemetery!), erm... I think that's about it, really, apart from the websites. Oooh, I'm such a nerd with HTML. It really is a terrible shame.
Oh, and my dad's moved to Spain, but that's hardly interesting as I hardly saw him all that much anyway. Speaking of parents, I haven't seen my mum since Christmas, and she doesn't ring me. Then again, I don't ring her. It's not that I don't love my mum, it's just that I find her emotionally sapping with all her complaints and neuroses and paranoia.
If you've read this far, then you must've consumed a lot of caffeine.
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Monday July 11, 05
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03:04 AM - Sing your life
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HURRAH!
All three new tracks by my band (also called Helvissa, oddly enough) are now up on myspace for your listening pleasure. Please go here to hear, hear-hear!
http://www.myspace.com/helvissa
Oh yeah, please do comment and tell me what you think. :D
PLUS
Last Saturday, my new band had its first rehearsal - THE RITAS! It's safeto say we have more ideas and enthusiasm than ability, but... well... Write it on your pencil case and scrawl it on the walls of toilet cubicles.
Sophia the pumpkin plant nearly died when I transfered her from a pot to a grow bag! But she's ok now. *a nation breaths a sigh of relief*
Did I tell you about Lumpy McLump? It's the subcutaneous lipoma that has taken up residency on my back. Once I have been a statistic on an NHS waiting list for long enough, Lumpy McLump and I will go our separate ways.
20,000 people were evacuated from Birmingham city centre on Saturday evening, from all the clubs and bars, because of a bomb threat. I was at home: having no social life can be lucky sometimes.
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Thursday June 30, 05
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06:59 AM - Everybody's doing it, doing it, picking their nose and....
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Thought I'd have a go, but I've got to nip off in a minute, so only managed... erm... 2. As you can see... my idea of a compliment perhaps isn't the same as most other people's.
Last given ~ Last received
Compliment:
You look like Dennis the Menace in that Tshirt.
I love the way you write filth.
Handwritten letter or card:
A postcard to my stepsister.
A note with a cd.
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05:00 AM - Unamusement arcade
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Hahaha, I haven't updated this for... erm... a month.
But it's been a busy month, which I won't bore you with. Highlights were:
* Brett Anderson wanting to know if the poem I wrote about him and Morrissey was about them 'in a gay way'
* The record label chap seems to want to release Helvissa-the-band stuff again, even though we now sound more like New Order than the Jesus & Mary Chain.
* I've formed another band, called The Ritas! A 60s girl garage punk outfit, consisting of me, my friend, and... erm... a drum machine I am yet to buy.
* I have become addicted to Sudoku puzzles.
* Erm... I said eventful. This isn't eventful, is it?
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Monday May 30, 05
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08:08 AM - Unearthed for your enjoyment
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I found it!!!
My Lovely Shirt
oh, h'well, you're grey, my lovely shirt,
like the pebbledash in the suburbs,
my lovely shirt, like a dove,
my lovely shirt, you need a wash
my lovely shirt, oh god, it hurts,
when i take you off,
to give you a scrub -
come back to me,
my lovely shirt,
oh, h'well, am i a berk?
cos i'm in love with my shirt,
my lovely grey shirt,
like concrete,
i can hide in front of towerblocks
and i seem to disappear.
And there's a photo of Brett looking fetching in said grey shirt here: http://www.suedefanzine.com/issue1/fun_stuff/poetry.htm
http://www.suedefanzine.com/issue1/fun_stuff/school_reports.htm
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02:45 AM - Living in the hinterland
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It's really not good. They've closed down my local supermarket, and the minimart at the top of my road HAS STOPPED SELLING EARL GREY TEA BAGS!
I am shocked at how uncivilised it has all become. There is now nowhere within walking distance that sells decent tea. It means special trips into the city centre, and... oh, it's just so annoying. The mini-mart has expanded its tea bag selection but has stopped selling Twinings. So you can get twenty different types of bog-standard tea, but no nice tea. No Lapsang Souchong, no Assam. Just PG Tips and Tetley and Barry's Tea and Yorkshire Tea (yeah, you know Yorkshire, famous for its tea plantations...)
We live in a world where choice is merely an illusion. Everything is the bloody same and it does my nut!
The Illusion of Choice
All the streets have the same shops
All the tv shows are the same flops
All the music has the same bars
All your lovers drive the same cars
It’s the illusion of choice,
Kill the individual voice.
You won’t find what you need,
But they’ll tell you what to want.
All the shoes have the same heel
All the clothes have the same feel
All the books have the same plots
All the coffee has the same froth.
You’ve got a loyalty card
So saying no is too hard.
There’s so much of everything,
Can’t tell it’s really nothing.
All the kitchens have the same sink
All the perfumes have the same stink
All the films have the same faces
All the kids wear the same braces
From Peterhead to Petersfield,
It’s all the same, we cannot feel.
Starter homes crouch by the motorway –
Don’t you know you can walk away?
(What bollocks. Why did I write 'you can walk away'? You can't! Because sameness is embracing the globe in a death-grip! We can't escape it! It's coming to smother us!)
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Sunday May 29, 05
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11:50 AM - Yawn
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I have become boring.
Last year, I bought some net curtains.
Today I bought myself one of those tin dustbins, for incinerating things. No, I'm not a pyromaniac, but there's no other way of getting rid of the pile of hedge on my lawn.
I'm sure you wanted to know that.
Echo & The Bunnymen are quite good, aren't they?
Oh, and I'm calling my poem booklet "Always
Picked Last For The Team".
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Friday May 27, 05
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08:29 AM - Unusual sunshine
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My god, what's going on? It's actually SUNNY! I feel quite faint.
Erm... yes. So I went to Manchester yesterday to have a look at the university I'm studying at from September. Part-time, commuting from Birmingham. I am quite possibly insane for concocting such an amount of commuting hell for myself, but what the heck. The Sir Kenneth Green library was very nice and quiet (this is because they throw you out if you're noisy!). I was also very excited to find Gwendoline Riley's thesis in the short loan collection. Oh, Gwendoline! She's so grumpy and pouty, I adore her.
I got a splendid new shirt in Pop Boutique, and some patches for my bag. My new shirt is thoroughly exciting and I'm wearing it at this very moment. It's red, with black and white squiggles, and has mother-of-pearl popper buttons. And now, an Elvis button badge that I've put on the breast pocket.
It was very warm in Manchester yesterday, and it was quite nice sitting in Piccadilly Gardens watching pigeons paddle in the fountains. I swear I've never seen pigeons paddle before - that's how warm it was.
The Bravery gig was quite good. Well, The Bravery were good, but Manpanzi (or was it Chimpmanzi?) and Mando Diao were a bit pants. Though MD's singer looked like a cross between Alex James and Alex Kapranos. In fact, if it turns out his names isn't Alex, I'll have to kidnap him and force him at gunpoint to change it to Alex.
I am now officially madly in love with Dirt, The Bravery's bassist. It's the combination of over-the-top eyeliner, a quiff (faint, swoon, die, etc) and the sheer phwoarness when he took off his shirt and rocked about the stage bare-chested. Oh, and Sam looked pretty gorgeous too, except his quiff fell apart too quickly, and he didn't have any eyeliner on. *feels cheated* However, he did manage to do some pretty stomach-spinning evil looks. OOOOOoooooH!
Oh, and their music was good. Not that I'm shallow or anything.........
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Friday May 20, 05
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06:55 AM - I had a strange experience in Specsavers
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I was in Specsavers on Saturday and was looking at... suprisingly enough... the specs. There were so many racks of glasses, and they began to take on the slightly sinister aspect of an invalid boot. You know, those medical shoes they make for people with club foots, which for me have the same fascinating aura as random bits of mannequins and the freakish alure of 'Rescuci Annie'.
I've only recently found out I need glasses, and I can't quite get used to the fact that for several years I've been going about squinting like a mole.
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04:53 AM - 15 minutes
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Today has been rather exciting, at least for someone like me who has a vertiginous ego.
I was fiddling about with the British Library catalogue, and found myself on it! I wrote a kitchen sink spy novella when I was 19, and as I did fanzines at the time, I published it myself as a fanzine-type item. And there it is - somehow in the British Library, at the St Pancras Reading Rooms. I even have a Dewey shelfmark!
Some strange technical support type bloke just collared me and was excited - "You're the girl who's photo is always in our publications!" Yes, that's what happens when you let the editor of in-house staff newsletters near you with a camera.
Tomorrow I'm going to a literary bash. It will probably be very boring, consisting mainly of yawnsome types from the university English Department. But a party's a party.
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