Not dissertationing.

Ahhhhh. 5pm and it's thunderstorm time in Brighton. L [the guy] just text me to make sure I saw the lightning. Which was nice. Hopefully storm time will last long enough for me to get a buzz out of it and not so long it's still happening when I go for my American diner dinner on the seafront with Maggie of Coachwerks fame. Her and G are going away for a bit so it's a goodbye dinner, and also one to discuss the small amount of Coachwerking I'm still able to do at the moment [uni mentalness being what it is, and all]. Mags runs an open Community Caff every Saturday where anyone can come for mega-cheap tea and coffee and home-made treats, take a look at the space and talk to any of the artists/performers/randomers about the place about what's going on and how they can get involved. So I'm going to take care of this while she's gone. Which will maybe give me time to expand a little on the project we're co-curating at the moment: The Secret Drawings 'exhibition'.

We have a weird, wonderful library at Coachwerks, which started out as a Bookcycle project and turned into something a bit more uniquely 'us'. The idea of Secret Drawings is for people to draw out their secrets, or whatever they feel like at the time, on the paper we've provided. They then choose a book to slip the picture into. It's really taken off since we launched it at the February Stray Signals [a monthly art, poetry and music night that I also help out with]. People can go on a treasure hunt to find others' drawings and the plan is to extend it, doing guerrilla drops in bookshops and city libraries, then setting up a blog where people can send photos of the drawings they find, comment or give hints about new Secret locations. It's doing well quite organically at the moment but me and Mags are well up for expanding when we both have more time.










February also saw our Anti-Valentine's fundraiser for the roof, which was massively successful- much more so than we expected given we knocked it together in about two weeks as an example of independent fundraising for an Arts Council grant we're applying for. We had an ugly fortune teller, a Lonely Arts Service, anti-Valentine card-making [example 'I don't love you any more. Get the hell away from me' in spangly pink and red glitter] and a whole host of other joys. I worked a 13 hour day setting up and manning the bar, which was intense but totally worthwhile.

Obviously I haven't blogged for some time but I'm going to try to put more effort in, as per the request of my dear friend Bitsy and her fabulous cupcakery. So there's much much more to catch up on, but for now I'd better clean myself up [I worked today and smell most strongly of coffee and despair, given that my colleague was 2 hours late and left me to deal with some of the most miserable, difficult customers I've ever had the displeasure of encountering]. And get me to the diner! I'm under firm instructions to report back on the quality of milkshake. Adieu!

Dirty Thirty

Annnnd so I find it approaching 2am. Standard for me lately. I'm trying to listen to Spotify [the new Hot Chip album specifically] as quietly as possible so as not to wake the two next door [i.e. my best/housemate & her boyfriend]. I always think I can hear them talking & that I've woken them up.

A more tedious thing to comment on I'm not sure exists but I'm amazed at how relatively tidy I'm keeping my room in this house. OK the drawers might be stuffed with whatever I can cram in, and right now there's an empty wine bottle on the bedside table and a sailor's hat on the floor but still.

ANYWAY. It's my friend G's 30th birthday tomorrow. At the community artspace where I volunteer and he lives. The theme is dirty thirty [dirty in the broadest sense of the word, we were told]. It's tricky spending lots of time with arty folks because there is a sense that your endeavours in these areas should be witty and visually satisfying- that you should avoid the obvious.

After variously trying to work out how to dress as Dirty Money, a Dirty Cop and a Dirty Martini, I settled on something which, though arguably a little obvious, I'm satisfied with. I'm going as a sailor... i.e. a seaman. I've made a badge with Seaman [My Surname] on. Additionally there will be a sailor hat, a variety of white clothing, a pearl necklace [geddit] and, as the filthy icing on the cake, I will smear some toothpaste round the corner of my mouth. Granted this may sound bizarre to the outside observer but it's humour this crowd will appreciate methinks.

Well well. As this is my first post I suppose I should curtail it and set about some of my other insomniac activities, which have thus far included your classic Facebook stalk, over-moisturising my face and looking at a list of classic Sue Sylvester quotes. Riveting stuff!