Articles

Open Plan Films
It is wonderful to know that it is possible to truly enjoy your job and all the challenges and difficulties it involves. It reminds you that anything is possible if you want it and are willing to work hard enough.

The Rough Guide to the G8 Summit and the MakePovertyHistory Campaign
There will also be a giant march in the afternoon, which will encircle Edinburgh with a human white band, and it is hoped, send a message to the G8 countries that they cannot ignore.

The Pool
Today is a beautiful day - perfect blue skies and bright sunshine - and I am looking at it all from my office desk. The sunlight hitting the old bricks outside my window and is actually quite pretty

Book Review: Planet Simpson
Another example of these digressions are the foot-notes at the end of each chapter. It feels like Turner just liked the little facts and stories too much to leave them out, even if they didn't have a solid place in the book.

Film Review: Memoirs of a Geisha
The Geisha house owners had more control over their destinies than the Geisha did as they were owned by the house that they were sold to and all the money they made went to the house.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - A Journey To Another World
The four musicians barely looked out to the audience, instead making eye connect and smiling at each other, clearly taking pleasure in what the other musicians were doing.

Why Weblogs Are Cool
What's to be gained by moving it to a public forum? It can be argued that there is something vain and egotistical in putting these rants and ramblings on-line and assuming that people will want to read them.

Witnness Weekend - July 12th and 13th
I wandered into the Rising tent to get out of the bright sun. The band was just starting.

A Pirates Life For Me
When you have been lazing in the sun all day you want to settle down with your bucket of popcorn and enjoy a movie that doesn’t make you think too hard.

A disease of the blood
I’ll tell you a secret. I used to eat ice. Not just crunching the bits left at the bottom of my glass, I used to go to the freezer and take out the ice-tray to eat the ice.

Something to look forward to
Now, Friends of the Heroes has become a little like a job - but a job that I love, with fun co-workers, a sense of responsibility and a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the week.

Welcome to 2004!
We are all broke and / or over-weight, the days are short and dark and after the long months of Christmas hype, it feels like there is nothing to look forward to now. But it’s not true!

My First Favourite Author
That story stayed with me as an early example of how it is possible to change the world even when you are young and still in school.

Stalking Scottish Popsters (on a Saturday)
It was worth getting up at 5.30 to get on a plane to Glasgow and it was worth the sunburnt shoulders!

Be Your Own Boss
When I get paid for a job that I've worked on from start to finish, that money feels like it's worth more than money I've earned from temping jobs where I've felt bored and utterly replaceable.

NaNoWriMo
They are encouraged to be long-winded and write detailed descriptions of everything from the meaning of each characters names to the history of every place they live in, as well as long dream-sequences or stream-of-conscience prose.

NaNoWriMo: Part 2 (The Interview)
I work really well under deadline, in the sense that I hone my procrastination to a T. To avoid sitting down and writing 50,000 words, I find the time to do laundry, work out, rearrange library, return old emails...

Reviews

Divine Comedy: Absent Friends
The new single Come Home Billy Bird is pretty good too. There is nothing to rival the catchiness of National Express, but there was always more to The Divine Comedy than catchy tunes, and all that is apparent here.

Speaking in capitals: Demo cd
I like the weird idea behind the song, of a man being attached to a plastic brink, I think because it would make life easier, but I’m not sure. It is a great happy song.

Hundred Handed: On parade
Virginia Wolfe said, "When a book lacks suggestive power, however hard it hits the surface of the mind it cannot penetrate within."

The Chalets: Nightrock
The EP ends with the slow and sexy David Boring with lots of plinkedy-plonkedy xylophone.

Young Tradition: Northern Drive
With a name like Northern Drive I was expecting a cold, Nordic sort of an album with lots of sharp, glittery songs, pared down to the bare necessities. What I got was much sunnier, with lots of laid back, happy-sounding tunes.

Belle and Sebastian: Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister, Live at The Barbican
Sunday night’s concert was an almost formal affair and a far-cry from the last time I saw Belle and Sebastian, a year and a half ago in a tent at the Oxygen festival in County Kildare. They were one of the last acts of the night, so the tent was full of t