The life of a mime school trainee

I feel as if my life has been rather surreal these last few days. For example, on Tuesday i think i witnessed Arsenal not only play well but win against Real Madrid. Then the following night i went to a strange building in town which i'd never been to before and within it's rather 70's interior (in a good way) two men entertained me for 2 hours under the guise of the Mighty Boosh. Added to this have been my days spent in parts of Sheffield i didn't know existed such as Southey where people have talked at me for an hour whilst i record what they say and then thank me for the experience. Then there are the magical snake like carriages that have transported me to a far away city called Birmingham. Most bizarre.

My album choices for next month:
Low-The Great Destroyer (impulse buy)
Annie- DJ Kicks

officious observations

The Baftas which were as enjoyable as ever last night with Mr Fry perhaps the greatest introducer of people ever. Also, pretty happy about who won too (although for me Michelle Williams should have won best supporting actress) and the Life Time Achievement award guy's speech was amazing, so good it even made William H Macy cry! A minor quibble though, a lot of the nominated films are barely out here- Good Night and Good Luck which is fantastic only came out last week and Capote which i'm very much looking forward to isn't out until this weekend either. It kind of felt that nominations are based on the USA criteria for the Oscars and that seems harsh for the Britsih film loving public. Thus endeth my rant.

talking is fun

I like interviewing people. It makes me feel like i work for a living an they're always nice and interesting. It is a bit nerve wracking though as you never know quite how it'll go and often i'll look down and realise i'm out of questions within 20 minutes. Other times you can't get a word in so they generally end up being more a rambling chat. I think this may come back to haunt me when it comes to actually using the information but at the moment, it's just interesting. I do feel conversation starved though at the end as i've had to sit and listen to someone talk at me for an hour with me saying little but to be honest, day time interaction for a PhD student is rare since my office is my 3 feet from my bed for the week.

like a valentine from your mother

• I have completed the first part of my PhD geekery for the week but i'm not overly happy with it. My part of an article had to be 800 words and i could only manage 930 and even then it feels like it doesn't say anything. But concision never was my strong point. However, in celebration i plan to make Borscht and watch some of series 3 of Scrubs which came through my door today. Then i need to panic a bit about the interview i'm doing tommorrow.
• I also had a revelation of how set in my ways i am. Last night i was settling in to watch Prison Break when one of my housemates asked if it was alright if he could bring back some people to watch a dvd. Of course i said and then realised i had no idea of what to do. The only options i came up with were to read a book, or read a magazine. That was quite a depressing choice to make and made me pine for an obscure hobby. Either that or a better imagination.
• BBC 6 had Calexico on this morning. New stuff from them is always a delight.
• The memory i associate with Valentines is of walking back from football practice a few years ago, sweaty and muddy with bloody knees and going past loads of resturants with couples in and them glancing up at me. I don't know what that says about me but there you go.

we're all lost out in the desert and we're going to die, so wipe that salt and sand from your blistering eyes

After a thoroughly manic week at work it was great relief to have a nice weekend. Started by playing football during which i was a bit rubbish but it was good to be outside then got back to an empty house (two of my housemates are away and the other is never in) so i could sit, read the paper and watch some the first series of Arrested Development which had greeted my return. The series is described by the lead guy as Royal Tennenbaums filmed like Cops (or the Office if i were to offer a British equivalent) and the few episodes i watched had me laughing to painful levels. Then me and Pete went to Manchester in the afternoon to watch Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins which was amazing. They started at the back of the venue and sung themselves to the stage and then launched into their set. Each member was so engaging to watch perform and they sounded amazing (it made me want to be in a band and tour). Each person was given a song sheet kind of like the ones you get for Christmas Carols (but full of songs i'd actually like to sing). Unfortunately we had to stay over night as the last train was only at 10.20 so after a night on the floor we had to get a train to Stockport (man, that place is depressing) and get a replacement coach service through snake pass as they were fixing the line. It wasn't so bad though- read some of Middlesex which i'm loving and looked at the rather foggy hills. Got home, read the paper and more Arrested Development then onto squash, which i, of course lost but was good fun as ever. A bit of a sit down then some poker. So all in all a gtood weekend. Now the cold harsh reality of Monday has struck in which i have to write my part of a journal article, interview three people and teach. I'm gonna be tired but i should probably finish there and actually try and write this bloody article!

skewwiff stage show

Welcome to February; truly the most pointless, useless month of the year begging the dual question of why is it still cold and why isn't it Spring yet? To compensate I've thrown myself into work and organising interviews which is an up and down affiar. I'm so happy when someone agrees to be interviewed but then spend the rest of the time worrying about how it'll go and how many more interviews i need to do, impossing on hard working people's days. I've also got to write my part of a journal article in a week- i'm very nervous, lets hope i don't get writer's block. This hard work also makes me neither use nor ornament in the evenings which are now based around the tv delights of the OC, Prison Break and the odd film (yesterday i was so wasted i sat and watched In Good Company with some treacle sponge and custard). Thankfully Scrubs series 3 is out next week so that should provide some enteratinment.
Other:

- Bad excuse for missing a session- having a cold. Good excuse- being in court after a drunken fight.
- Concretes are playing the Leadmill the day after my Birthday-hooray! Some of their new stuff is available on nme.com's media player.
- The Mighty Boosh is rapidly approaching, although i did see a sketchy review in the Times the other day.

Barry the observer

Given the sketchy nature of my internet connection at the moment my posts are less frequent leading to this list of observations and occurances:

1. Amelie Mauresmo won! Hurrah! Give that lady a prize.
2. I had a very disturbing dream about Maroon 5 (triggered by a comment that Arsenal's Flamini looks like the lead singer).
3. Have been thinking about contentment recently. To illustrate this is what i thought of some films i've seen:
- Hidden: Fantastic French thriller, very well shot and reminding me of two of my favourite films- Rear Window and The Conversation. Also contained a scene where the cinema collectively gasped.
- New World: More of a visual poem than a film but beautiful none the less.
- Jarhead: Has grown on me in that i can still recall shots of it vividly.
- Munich: Amazing but made me depressed for the next couple of days.
Now the leitmotif here is that i liked all of these films which made me realise i rarely dislike a film. Even rubbish ones have redeeming features. So do i have low expectations or am i set to think that films are just good? I guess anything which distracts me from life is good. I wish i could apply this contentment wider or maybe it exists because it's a break.
4. I can tell i'm a bit stressed at the moment because i'm hating having stuff to do, even when i know it's fun and i'll enjoy them. It's times like this i remember i'm an introvert and i shouldn't overload myself.