The Day Jenzo Rolled Into Town

It has been a blinding weekend. Jenzo came to visit Lestaaa and we have had many, many fun times going into town and buying lampshades (I know how to show a girl a good time), playing DVD Catchphrase and drinking. Very big drinking. Loved being her tour guide, she saw all the best places.

We went to the Hub for a couple of shots of very strong Christmas on Friday night before heading off to see Cyantific at Superfly with Tanda and Ema. Bloody amazing set, but the crowd was a bit odd. We soon forgot about that after yet more tequila. Oh tequila.

Saturday was spent being a bit spaced out and wandering the streets of Lesta looking at all the sights, sounds and charity shops before being ripped off by Sainsburys (checkout girl stole our pineapple juice!), making coffee and falling asleep in front of Dogma (£4 down the charity shop get in!). Then it was an evening of cooking pizza, drinking gin and getting down to 9 Bar for their 12th Birthday. Amazing ice sculpture shot slide, phat beats and many, many drinks. We danced like the crazies before walking to Esko afterwards and dancing like more crazies. It was much fun. I am very tired. We ate pizza at 5am. Ohh yeahh. My brain has ceased to function.

Ace weekend, loveth thou Jenzo.

Making links

Credit Crunch = Biscuits.

That is all.

Sad Times

After learning the sad news that Betty Page passed on in December, Tony Hart’s gone now too. Hard times for influential people.

Getting Closer

Starting to get more worried about things. One of my friends has just lost his job through the credit crunch, although we’ve all known it is a real dangerous thing it has just really hit home how dangerous it actually is. Luckily for him it’s prompted the decision to go back to college and finish studying for his personal trainer qualifications but you can’t help thinking about all the people for whom that is just not an option. Scary. That’s probably why there’s so much competition for projects at the moment, people are frightened and grabbing at all the pitches they can. But it’s alright, it just makes me work harder to get them. Am a bit nervous about what this will mean on the funding front but let’s just see how it goes. The big funders seem unconcerned but it’s difficult not to worry about the cut in local funding, which can be make or break for a lot of projects. Still, we’re doing alright at the moment due to all the hard work everyone’s putting in to make 2009 the year of Pedestrian Arts.

Monday Blues

Apparently I’m very pouty today. I feel a bit sad. It would be nice to go to dancing then curl up on the sofa afterwards watching Desperate Housewives while drawing in my Yellow Book of Thoughts and Studies. But as much as I feel like doing that I’m going to stop moping and get down the Lansdowne for Christmas dinner with the housemates.

I hate moping.

Oooo working week

This week has been a bit manic. Here is a very quick run down of what has been happening in Ramskir World:

• Monday: Working for Pedestrian, bidding for wonderful projects. Ohhh yeahhhhinterpretativedance
• Tuesday: Filming for Bulb Studios down in Poole, then off to a Premier Inn where we found an Iraqi restaurant that did the most amazing homemade baklava. Ohhh yeaaah fattyfatfat.
• Wednesday: Filming for Bulb Studios in Wembley, intense stuff. Then met the girls down Braunstone Gate for a bit of Little Tokyo fun. Sam made inappropriate hand gestures describing how things were going between two of our other friends (cue finger circles and pointing fingers meeting in midair to the soundtrack of “UHHH! UHHHH!”) and won the waiter’s heart.
• Thursday: Working for Pedestrian putting together more bids. Ice skating and sushi made the evening lots of fun.
• Friday: Tying things up with Pedestrian so we could jet off to Manchester to see Squarepusher do his amazing furious fingers thing. We threw some fantastic surreal shapes. I loved the fact that just as you get into a beat it changed and morphed into something else, totally throwing off your rhythm. Brilliant. I love things that mess up my head. There was a moment of strangeness when there were lots of drug boys in front of us and then all of a sudden they were surrounding us and grabbing us but it took a well placed elbow and a dash into the crowd to sort it and we were fine. We’re nails. Oh yeah.
• Saturday: Travelling back from Manchester was hard, poor Gemski was constantly sick in the car. I don’t feel like tearing it up at Scratch Perverts tonight, instead I’m staying in and eating carob raisins. Got to feed my chaps so they grow up big and strong like.
• Sunday: will be spent making Christmas cards for Pedestrian! Hurrah! And going to the gym. And practising dancing in preparation for Bristolia next weekend. Chekkit chekkit.

It’s a White December already

Walking to work was particularly special today, through the big white flakes of snow. It wasn’t settling but it still makes me feel all happy inside. Couldn’t take any photos as Leicester is a bit scummy in the grey light but will when it settles and the white covers up all the grey parts.

Donna bought suspended silks for the instructors as a Christmas present! We got to try them out yesterday and it was ace. Burns horribly if you try and come down too fast but they look so lovely and feel so solid! I’ve never felt more secure upside down than when suspended by pieces of material wrapped around my feet. Best present ever!

It’s been a mad one lately, feel a bit all over the place. Went back to my parents house for the weekend but only saw them on the Sunday night. Christine’s birthday celebrations were brilliant, Bournemouth is a fun but strange place and we danced the night away to lots of cheesy music then ate chips afterwards. Brilliant.

Did a good 6 hours on the pole with Gemma as well, gearing up for this free party club night in Bristol that we’ll be pole dancing at. Ace. We’ll be taking Ols’f as well so there’ll be two poles for three of us, well three if the wife can get back to me about whether she’s actually free or not! Really looking forward to it, haven’t danced for an hour and a half before. It will be an endurance challenge, a bit like the marathon but around big metal poles. So excited, hopefully some of our Leicester people will come with us too for moral support. But then again, if we fall on our faces they’ll be the first ones to point and laugh!

BPM and Birthday Madness

After the madness of the Pedestrian Party all the equipment had to be broken down on the night in order for me to run it across the county to Castle Donnington, in time for BPM: The biggest DJ convention in Europe.

Audio Innovate, Skratchworx and Pedestrian all linked up to promote the Innofader all weekend. The Innofader is a revolutionary new non contact fader, based on the concept that unlike other faders based on friction the Innofader should never wear out. With a response time of a couple of miliseconds and tension adjust so precise it slides like butter, there were quite a few DJs eager to give it a try. We even had Switch, the current world DMC champion having a go for hours!

The Scratch battle held in the afternoon went amazingly, with the audience deciding the winner of the day. Unfortunately I didn’t watch it because I was walking around telling people about it but the videos I’ve got of it are amazing. All the participants are so skilled, and it’s fascinating watching them scratch because it is like handwriting. Every one is completely different and unique to the person, from their technique to their chosen rhythm. Fascinating.

Even though sleep deprivation is at an all time high, we still managed to get the crowd going and demo our faces off. I even had a go at scratching for the second time ever! Wax was teaching me, and although I got the basics I have still got a thousand miles to go before I can do anything even semi resembling something decent! But then again, maybe I’m better out of that world at the moment as I would just be tempted to blow everything on decks to practise on or I could just borrow Pedestrian’s for a while!

So after the Pedestrian Party, an hours sleep and a DJ convention it was time to stay awake more and celebrate Samantha Jayne’s wonderful birthday. All of her and Al’s friends came to visit from all over the country, and it was brilliant to actually meet the people that they had talked about so much! Lovely chaps, all of them. I just wish I had had more sleep in order to enjoy it properly, but there’s always next year

BPM Photos

The Setup…..

Pedestrian and Skratchworx at BPM

Setting up the cut

DMC world champion Switch demos the Innofader

DJ Angelo has a cut on the Innofader

The Saturday scratch battle contestants

Pedestrian 10th Birthday Flyers!

Change is Good

…. and it is still happening. Alliance and Leicester has finished and it turned out to be an eleven week contract rather than ten but they liked me so have offered me two days of call centre work to fill up my five days. However, I don’t know if I’ll actually take it as I’m exploring other possibilities before I commit myself to something so soul destroying.

The last two weeks were spent in Spain, on the South coast and we went absolutely everywhere. Cartagena, Torrevieja, Guadamar, Murcia etc etc. It was brilliant to really chill out and spend a lot of time with family, and Dan came up for the first week too. It was his first real holiday out of the UK, and he really enjoyed it. Neither of us got tanned but then what do you expect from a redhead and someone who’s skin has never seen the sun!

This was the first week at Pedestrian, and it went well but I’m still settling in so still afraid of messing things up! It’s just lovely to be considered for the role and I do appreciate it so much. Brilliant organisation.