Enter The Wizard

Good afternoon all,

I thought it about time that I graced this budding blog with my presence. I am 'The Wizard', the reasoning behind my nickname I will leave up to your imagination, all you need to know is that I know a little about a lot and on occasions I will wish to share this wisdom with you.

On the horizon for myself is a weekend packed full of music. Friday sees the return of Radio1 DJ Kissy Sell Out to the south coast. With the release of his eagerly anticipated album 'Youth' Kissy will be entertaining the elektronic youth of the south with a live set, before moving onto an up and coming club night for a DJ set full of his self proclaimed 'rock and rave mash up'. Past experiences of a night full of Kissy leaves me to believe Friday will be full of great beats and even busier bass lines.

Check out kissysellout.podomatic.com for free tracks and DJ set downloads.

Saturday night takes me to darker pastures at a venue renowned for its rock and for its rum. Them:Youth, a West London five-piece, are set to entertain the Indie masses with their stirring stage presence and effortless anthems. These boys are well worth a listen, and if you happen to notice them playing at a venue near you, then I highly recommend taking the time to enjoy this little known gem.

Check out www.myspace.com/themyouth for everything them:youth related.

Well I guess you've had your fill of me for the time being so I'm going to have some dinner, I'll let you know how my weekend went soon (ish).

The Wizard

Countdown to Madness

Went to see my friend Gemma today, who's 8 1/2 months pregnant.

She's my ex-housemate from uni, only 21, and she's calmed down a hell of a lot since those days. There was a time, in halls, when she'd be asleep all day and down the casino all night! Always bouncing around like a crazy thing, taking the p*ss, being mouthy, but always loveable and always a right laugh.

She still is, of course, but there's a certain serenity to her now, a certain nurturing instinct maybe - making sure you put a jumper on if you're going out, drooling over cute puppies (ok, any ugly old dog we see), and trying to feed us up! She's going to be an awesome mum.

I took some other uni mates, who happened to be back down this way. Lorna is repeating her final year so sadly won't be graduating with us next month, but then I have her back for a year! And Elizabeth was visiting Nat, now that they finally got it together after 3 years!! (Such a huge love story, although neither of them will admit it.)

The baby's due in 2 weeks, Gemma's birthday is 5 days later... I think it's a girl and she's going to arrive on Gem's birthday - watch this space!

Blown into Orbital

Oh. My. God. Went to see Orbital last night. They were AMAZING. Even the Wizard was raving like a loony - and he's an indie kid!

A friend of mine has had the tickets for ages and I was ever so slightly envious; then at the last minute she decided she couldn't afford it, so Pinchy and the Wizard stepped in to help out! What a result!

On arrival at (the fabulous) Brixton Academy we were directed upstairs to the circle, as this was printed on our tickets - quite disappointing, but a good view of the supporting band Delphic, who were also top-notch. We were told to remain seated (?!) and if we wanted to dance to go to the back of the circle, but I was mostly just glad to be there so couldn't really protest about this! Anyway, the Wiz went off to get drinks, came back empty handed and said, "You want to be downstairs really, don't you?"

"Hell yeah," I said.

"Well there's a German couple by the bar [there were quite a few Germanic-looking folk there, crazy tech-heads!] who want to be up here, so I said we'd swap tickets."

Result number two! And the rest is history - raving away down the front for a good couple of hours, every other tune a hands-in-the-air moment, making friends with randoms... 'Chime' went down an absolute storm, and those truly blessed brothers looked like they were enjoying every moment too. Just like back in the day. I'm still floating.

Here's a couple of epic photos:

The Laws of Nature

Typical isn't it? I resign myself to signing on for Jobseeker's Allowance, and I get an offer for an interview! Not that I'm complaining, especially as it's a job I was really hoping to hear back from - selling advertising space for the local paper.

From what I remember of the advertisement for the job, it's quite well paid, not too far away, has a gym and staff canteen, and is 'a gateway to you media career' (or words to that effect). Perfect! I have masses of telephone sales experience - I used to sell mortgages over the phone - a good phone manner, I'm definitely enthusiastic... and it'll be so good to get to know the inner workings of the paper. Everything is crossed for next Tuesday...

Sign of the times

I've admitted defeat. I've just signed on. £64.50 per week in Job Seeker's Allowance could be mine pretty soon, providing I pass the interview. Not bad money at all, and just in time for Christmas... and it's not like I haven't been searching relentlessly for work - so I might as well get paid for it!

In the meantime, I'm being kept busy with my voluntary work for the local Action on Climate Change group. Went to an intense website meeting last week, where I learned some interesting background on the Internet. I was told to think of a job title to put on my CV, so I'm thinking.... Web Coordinator? Media Developer? Image Consultant???

No, I'll probably go with Media Developer, a good all-rounder without being too pretentious (I hope).

So now I'm off to write a privacy policy for their photos, sell some odds and ends on Ebay, and trawl the job sites again... after Malcolm In The Middle.

Mud Pie

I have been doing ad hoc work experience this year for a fashion forecasting company called Mudpie, based in the middle of the countryside not too far away from me. Basically they have a consultancy and a subscription-based website, with up-to-the-minute coverage of runway shows, retail displays, news and trade fairs. This is used as an important, forward-thinking tool by industry professionals. Good experience for Pinchy!

A couple of months ago I was offered to apply for a six-month temporary position with them, got excited, interviewed... and didn't get it. Sore subject. Anyway, with that little fiasco behind me, and not wanting to lose face, I have been back again this week.

Mostly I upload images, tag them and write short overviews on the apparent trends, but today I went into town to take photos of current graphics - found in-store on t-shirts, hoodies etc.

I used my mobile phone as it has an 8.1 megapixel camera, and for this assignment you have to be discreet! Stores generally won't let you take photos of the merchandise, even though it would be acknowledged on the website. I was lucky enough not to get caught by shop assistants, although I attracted a few strange looks! Another good reason to use a phone: I could always have pretended that my brother's/boyfriend's/mate's birthday was coming up and was texting them a photo of the item to see if they'd like it, before apologising profusely.

Want to know the trends out there this week? Skulls/skeletons, floral patterns, illustration sketches, Ghostbusters and comedic cartoons.

It was great to have this opportunity for such an exciting, unique company. Earlier this year I went to Graduate Fashion Week and took photos of the show from the 'press pit' at the end of the runway. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, not to mention jostling with the big shot photographers for the best spot! Let's just hope all this worldly experience leads somewhere soon... I'm getting bored, and poorer by the second. Can't even think about Christmas...

Adventure Unplanned

You know when things unexpectedly turn out really well? Good isn't it?

I had my heart set on a cinema trip Saturday night, to see the new Tarantino film, Inglorious Basterds. All dressed and ready to go, I decide to check cinema times (probably should have done it earlier, Pinchy) ... we'd missed the only showing at my favourite cinema. And at my second choice venue. There was no listing for it at all at the most local cinema, so we decided to chance it anyway - nowt better to do after all, and all geared up for the action.
But no, they had stopped screening Tarantino's 'masterpiece' on Saturdays too. It's only been out a couple of weeks! Either it got a really poor reception, or the cinema got it horribly wrong. Either way, we had just paid £3 parking so asked what else was on offer. Apart from some kid's CGI films was one we had briefly seen advertised - Adventureland.

                                                      

Directed by the same guy who did Superbad - Greg Mottola - we were expecting a typical American high-school comedy, but in fact were treated to a couple of hours of real feel-good, moving stuff. One boy's struggle towards Grad School sees him getting a summer job at a local theme park, where he makes good friends and inevitably falls in love with a tough cookie. Although it's much better than it sounds. Seeing is believing.

Subtle, effective and quietly funny, this left an impression on the two of us, who floated happily home... aaaah...

Wasted Trip?

An eventful night in London Town last night!

We had our first tickets come through from ApplauseStore.com, to be in the studio audience of The Big Food Fight Quiz, with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (who is a personal favourite of Pinchy's... more on that in later posts I'm sure...). For anyone unfamiliar with this website, tickets are free but you're not guaranteed to get in unless you get there early, which we didn't.

We made it to the London Studios, on the South Bank, just in time to have missed the reserve queue by about three people, who had probably been queuing half the afternoon anyway. These poor souls only had a 50/50 chance of getting in, according to the very stressed, and very camp, 'studio assistant' who turned us away. Gutted, but we were half-expecting this result so had devised a brilliant back-up plan - dinner.

No more than 200 yards from the studios is Gabriel's Wharf, and The Gourmet Pizza Co. It was buzzing with city-types, and smelled too good to pass up. We sat outside on this unbelievably warm evening, with a perfect view of the river, and leisurely made our way through a couple of fresh stone-baked pizzas. Cheap too -highly recommended.

After a couple more 'after dinner' drinks in a traditional boozer on the Strand, we slowly ambled back to the station. We were casually perusing the window of a small art gallery, when a voice behind me - definitely not the Wizard's - proclaimed: "Grim, isn't it?". A small, middle-aged man, in a woolly hat, clutching a stack of unidentifiable brochures, had stopped close behind us. Startled, I replied - therefore giving him license to strike up a deep, meaningful, and extremely one-sided conversation.

What a nutter! He started off by moaning about the grimness of the pictures, and went on to cover: war (past and present), the oil crisis, godlessness, Mrs Thatcher's regime, the miners, the lap of luxury we live in today, poverty, the gay community, and AIDS - in a preaching and intensely condescending manner. He also mentioned that he is banned from the local theatre (no surprise there, mate). All this while following us to the station, where we left him still talking at us as we walked through the barrier.

And we were having such a relaxing evening.

Beware of nutters.

Reading Festival 2009

Last weekend we went to Reading Festival with several friends, after luckily acquiring some last minute tickets (and dipping into my savings...)

The Wiz has been a few years running, but it was the first time for me. I'm more of a dance music fan myself, but it was good to see such a lot of live music.

Thought we would share a couple of photos with you:

The NME tent

Deadmau5 was awesome - much more up Pinchy's street!

It was really hot and sunny the first day!

Where we're at so far

So, tomorrow The Wizard starts another week of marketing CCTV systems, a graduate position that is relatively new. Roll on payday!

I, Pinchy, am embarking on another unpaid work-experience placement, that promises to enhance my (rather scarce) CV. Actually, it could be really interesting - helping an organisation promote action against climate change in the city, a cause that is particularly close to my heart.

Tomorrow I'll be stuffing envelopes while having a more 'in-depth chat' about the position, but I'm expecting to help out with the Web side of things, plus PR.

Here goes nothing...