Bookcrossing

Science-y

2012-02-01T18:56:00.001Z

I have another interview tomorrow. Might have another part time library job cataloguing art work, translating their titles from Latin and Catalan. I don't know Latin or Catalan - this is but a minor detail. Very excited about this. It is in a very cool place, a famous science research organisation with museum/gallery/library attached.Why is the world full of interesting stuff which is unpaid? I

Criminal

2012-01-27T17:15:00.003Z

I ended up watching Above Suspicion and getting hooked. I don't generally like crime on TV because they always seem to be about somebody gruesomely murdering women - somehow this story has become mainstream and accessible, also a little bit sexy; just to compare, imagine if every time you turned the telly on it was a drama about some OAP or a kid being brutally killed, you'd find it a bit twisted

New blogs

2012-01-22T22:27:00.002Z

Two new blogs you should really add to your links. Or your reader. Or follow them, or whatever it is you do.Who's Your Daddy (quick, before he disappears again.)Some Miscommunication

Penguin crime

2012-01-22T21:18:00.003Z

Feeling pleased with myself for finally tracking down some Alan Aldridge Penguin covers (Alan Aldridge, famous for graphic design in the 60s and especially for the cover of the Beatles songbook and trippy 70s kids books like the Butterfly Ball.) Aren't they great?

Larkin

2012-01-20T09:51:00.002Z

Someone on Twitter mentioned Larkin and sent me on a search, which revealed this poem I didn't know before. I like it because... well I'll let it speak for itself. It's not cynical, it's just insightful.Breadfruit Boys dream of native girls who bring breadfruit,Whatever they are,As bribes to teach them how to executeSixteen sexual positions on the sand;This makes them join (the boys) the tennis

Hockney, again

2012-01-18T09:57:00.000Z

"Art history feels as if it has stopped because it doesn't know how to deal with photography and therefore how to sort out today. But if you just look at the history of images then it becomes much easier. For 500 years the church had social control because it was the main supplier of images. You can point to Darwin, but social control moved with the control of images in the early 19th

Graphic

2012-01-15T12:34:00.019Z

Inspired by Miscommunicant's post on books, I thought I should get back to books. Trouble is, my current book is a bit like a Christmas pudding - rich, dense, with every ingredient, & a little of it goes a long way.I'm wishing for the easy pleasures of comics. I never was a huge comic reader, when I was young, comic shops were the preserve of boys and not especially friendly to girls. But was

Referrers

2012-01-10T19:10:00.003Z

Give us a job?*waves at bunnies* I will book at plane ticket out of here, pronto.

Ladykillers

2012-01-07T13:43:00.000Z

A while back I stopped paying attention to planet Celeb in any way. Bread and Circuses, innit.But was genuinely quite saddened by Russell Brand and Katy Perry getting divorced. Not that it was unexpected, it was inevitable and that's what makes it depressing. Men like him are depressing. I mean, she is gorgeous, talented, successful, young. Fancied by many other people. Famous. She has that

ONWARDS

2012-01-04T16:38:00.007Z

It feels very peculiar not to be back at work. It's not the triumph that people imagine. It would be if this was a hiatus before I started something new.Every night before I drop off to sleep I get a moment of PANIC - my conscience gives me a nudge (it's more like an electric cattle prod) saying "You've got no job! You've got no money! You've got a mortgage! You've got rent! What are you doing

More lists

2012-01-02T23:02:00.000Z

Here.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T10:25:00.002Z

Thanks to Sarah for showing me Maru and the mask. Just look at this ridiculous animal.Cats are just funny because unlike dogs, they have no sense of humour, so there's something Buster Keaton-like about them.

On Hockney

2011-12-27T17:55:00.002Z

I've posted on my neglected Cinderella blog, over here. (Warning - it's a long one.)

Animals and Children

2011-12-24T09:59:00.007Z

Because that was an odd post to end the year on, I leave you with this as a Merry Christmas instead, The Animals and Children Took To The Streets.The Animals and the Children took the Streets, Trailer from Paul Barritt` on Vimeo.It is a magical, breathtaking show that I've been trying to score tickets for since last year when it sold out at the Battersea Arts Centre. Now it's on at the National

New Year's Resolutions

2011-12-18T21:09:00.002Z

Oh I know it's early to be thinking about this, I'm just trying to ignore the whole next few festive days with dignity and look ahead, because they're really just an irrelevance to me - you hear that, rest of the world? You are IRRELEVANT TO ME.What are New Year's Resolutions meant to be for? Are they meant to be improving, or for pleasure? I don't know. Let's see.1. Get a job. This is a bit

Two block linocut

2011-12-17T17:55:00.001Z

in which I struggle with Colour

the end of books

2011-12-11T12:09:00.006Z

Yesterday I met someone at a party that worked in the same bookshop in Holborn that I worked in 14 years ago - was a Books Etc, now a Waterstones. Apparently one of the guys I worked with is still there. It's quite amazing to think of it. I left for a job in the head office, trained as a TEFL teacher, moved to Spain, came back, did a PGCE, bought a flat, rented it out, left teaching...... all the

Baaaaaaaaaaah, humbug

2011-12-09T18:14:00.003Z

Everyone is talking about the Christmas dinner, what food they're going to make, what booze they're going to buy, what music they're going to rig up in the hall... But me, I've got to the point where I hate everyone and everything, and only great force of will is getting me up out of bed to work in the mornings.I'm also avoiding the calls of the agency I signed up with. Jack keeps leaving

Speaking truth to power

2011-12-06T19:43:00.006Z

When I was little I have a distinct memory of arguing about something with my dad. I think I was about 7. He was being an insufferable know-it-all about something and I wasn't having it. He said something like"I'm right because I know.""You don't know!" I said furiously. "You're not right! You're not God, you know."He roared with laughter. This phrase entered the family lexicon.I don't know where

In scents

2011-12-03T21:01:00.010Z

In scents, get it? In sense... Incensed... incense... oh, please yourselves.This is a niche post, of interest only to fellow 'fume addicts. It is a meme I found on one of the gazillion perfume blogs out there. I tag Basic Beauty though because she needs to post more often.What are some of your strongest scent memories? Leather seats in my dad’s car and Aramis aftershave. He used to pick us up at

Bears

2011-11-30T23:16:00.000Z

Dancing ones.

Intern

2011-11-28T22:53:00.003Z

I have had about 10 emails from people offering work in my chosen new field. They've all been lovely, enthusiastic, friendly, helpful. And I want to agree to them all, it's right up my alley. One of them was in New York. Another was a scheme at the BBC. And I would a million times rather do them than supply teaching.Unfortunately it was all unpaid.If I didn't have to earn any money, I'd be

The most wonderful time of the year

2011-11-27T12:25:00.000Z

and other big fat lies.I would like to start an alternative campaign for an anti-Christmas day. All singles, Jews & atheists welcome to join me. We will have a pagan day of festivities and the transport and everything else will stay open. I will also get the gays and the Muslims to join in with me, they don't seem to bother with it much. They deal with it by ignoring it with dignity. **I will

Daemon

2011-11-26T10:12:00.002Z

Despite my pile of lovely new books, I'm working my way through Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (again). They're just good yarns.My favourite idea is that people have daemons, animals spirits which express a part of their nature. One of the baddies has a snake, for example, another has an evil golden monkey. It would make it very easy to suss out what a person is like right away, if we all

rich not like us

2011-11-23T09:01:00.008Z

I idly signed up for a rich people's tutor agency, and they regularly send through jobs like this. I wouldn't go for it but it gives you an insight into a very different world.Live in nanny/tutor/study buddy for a lovely family in Moscow, starting as soon as possible:Looking after 6 year old boy, teaching him English and offering intellectual stimulationFamily looking for bright tutor, preferably

Charity shop haul

2011-11-19T10:00:00.006Z

Must. stop. buying. books.I was pleased to find the Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone) autobiography but I'm a bit trepidatious to read it.Was burned by Bob Dylan's biography, and finding out your idol is just a flawed human being, capable of being a total shit, just like the rest of us.Here's one example of why I love Sly. Thankful N' Thoughtful, about still being glad to be alive when you've nearly

On not being scared of the dark

2011-11-15T21:35:00.005Z