Hello. I'm back. It's over. I passed. What now? More soon.

Yep, still here, just about. Rough weekend. The title of this post refers to how much longer I've got to go of my degree, i.e. how much longer I've got until I resume life in the real world, which I can't wait for (as much as I like the course, it's a lot of work, and I want real work, not work for work's sake alone).

I'll try to post up here what I'm up to, but there's not much time. 70 days sounds like a lot of time, but I'm moving slowly right now. Over and out.

Sample my flickr account with gusto.

Just to let you know I still have a pulse. But I will post in just links today, as the pulse is very week. Did this as my final year project. Been working on this website although, it might not be up yet. The band went on tour here with these ridiculously loud people. We went around in this.

I won one of these beauties on ebay, in tribute to an ex-girlfriend. Then I came across this website and wasted a good hour on it. Mostly listening to these people, these other people and this funny little man. Is that 5-0 to myspace? I'm sorry, I'll write something with Proper nouns next time. And piccos.

I am still alive, I just haven't been showing it a lot lately. College has stepped up yet another notch, we've got our interim show in two weeks with an exam in the middle, so that means not doing anything else until then. The day after, Down I Go are going to Scotland for another mini-tour, which should be relatively painless.

Went to Poland for New Year to my parents' flat. It's like a mini version of the family home here in London, except things actually work. I got the flu a few days before nye, and spent most of it in bed woohoo! We saw fireworks from the balcony. It was weird... Like a communist version. Instead of one big centralized firework display, it looked like everyone was letting off their own fireworks in their gardens, off tower blocks, up into the air, into other buildings, at our flat. I felt like we were being carpet bombed. It was beautiful though.

See you soon! Ah, yes the picture it Father Troymas taking a whizz.

Quick post... Broke my camera magnificently half way through possibly the worst night of my life (retrospectively speaking). Actually, just before the party I managed to destroy the back wheel of my bicycle too. It must be bad karma. The following week brought about another one of those existential crises, I should keep a tally.

Our big group project has evolved into designing a vertical garden system. If you can be bothered, fill out the questionnaire at verticulture.net, and if you remember to put your email address, you'll have a chance to win a £20 amazon voucher. We're really pushing the boat out on this one. Go on. It'll only take a couple of minutes to do!

Yet another posting lapse, I apologise. So, New york. I'll just type up the better parts of my notes, and update it with some piccos when I get my laptop back.

10.09.07

The guy opposite me has a dog in his bag (I'm on the subway).

Got to the hostel, it's a bit ghetto, just off Malcom X Avenue. Good place to get E's and Bud though, whatever they might be. I set off, if anything, just to occupy myself whilst trying to get over the jetlag. I went down to Lower East Side, had some Ramen, then a Mountain Dew, which was so syruppy I had to throw it away. On the way home I found a sign that said "No bike riding pidgeon feeding dogs allowed(!). I took that as a subtle hint that I was not wanted.

New York is far sparser and dirtier than I first thought (so far). Lots of homeless people, lots of bad smells, graffiti and dripping aircon. Sort of reminds me of Beijing or Osaka. Nevertheless, I trundle on. This tube is never going to leave, thanks for letting me sit on it though, I guess. No! Sleep! Till Harlem!

11.09.07
To the MoMA! But it was shut! So I went to the Museum of Arts and Design instead. It had an exhibition of Chinese Inspired Furniture. Most of the stuff was artpieces rather than reproducible products. They had tangram furniture which was cool. I went to this restaurant for lunch, where they had instructions on the wall for how to do the Heimlich Maneuver. They don't do things by halves here. It's probably the Imperial system of measurement [at this point I remarked "Mineral Air: Settle for Nothing Less", referring to the fact that it's quite hard to breathe in NY without a gas mask].

New York, even though they speak some kind of English, seems as alien as a non-english speaking country. It's got that grime that London doesn't really have too. The difficult thing with it is, that when you're in a foreign country with a different language, it acts as a kind of barrier that makes you feel safer in your interactions, but when everyone speaks English, it makes me feel more vulnerable.

Then I went to Soho for a wander, met a weird old woman who wrote a book but wouldn't tell me what it was about. Then to chinatown. Just like China. Great. Then went to the WTC site, seeming as it was 9/11. Not much to see. Everything was fenced up and cordoned off. Then trekked around Greenwich Village found a record stor Ben told me about and bought the Brown Album by Primus.

Then I went to see the Skatalites. I got in for half price because this old Jamaican dude called Alphonso got stood up by his girlfriend so he sold me his spare ticket. I said thanks, I'll buy you a beer then he bought me one and then he bought me a skatalites CD. Nice guy. He'd make a great grandad. Before they came on, I saw some poetry reading by this American/Jamaican, who did one about the political situation of jamaica, then one about his friend who went to Eye-Raq, and then one about wanting a baby. Not just any old baby: A gucci baby, one with breast implants, one that hangs out with Jay-Z etc etc, Have a baby so he doesn't have to face up to reality. Anyway... Skatalites... They were pretty damned good. Slow to start though. I left before they finished because I was tired, had an almond snickers, then went to bed.

...Then I went to Coney Island... I checked out the crapped out old funfairs, 2 of them, rivals; Deno's Vs. Astroland. Then onto the beach. It was wholesome to see the sea, I symbolically waded into my ankles, to we my feet. Back onto the train, and to FAO Schwartz, the Hamleys of NY. It was nowhere near as good as Hamleys, so I slipped out and checked Times Square at night.

This got me a little depressed and critical of NY. In NY, you can have anythign, any time of day, at a low price. People have a much freer attitude towards life in general. If you want a hotdog, it's right there, in front of you, maybe that's one of the keys to the obesity here. A McD's on every corner. There's also variety. You go into a deli, and you can get a sandwich with a million different kinds of cheese or meat or whatever. They're on every corner too. Land of the free. For overindulgent types like me, this can be bad, because I'll just keep going till I'm saturated.

15/09/07

[I don't know why I didn't write about the previous days, and the following looks like I wrote it when I was drunk, and at a hardcore show]. The first band, the guy fucking spat on himself. The second band looked like they were about to crumble into prehistory dust. You can't have an old growly voice for hardcore, you need to scream about how much you don't want to get up for school, and how you hate your mums record collection.

Met some kids outisde who didn't get let in because they were underage and drinking 40's at the end of the street. They said there's a 0 tolerance to drinking in the street, you have to go to court. They said the moved from pennsilvania because there was a lot of drugs there and their parents did a lot of drugs, but now it's cool but they hate NY. But their parents are working (these two guys they are brothers).

16/09/07

This morning, I wandered into Chelsea, [a posh part of town] and bought my first ever starbucks. It tasted completely not like coffee.

Then I found this block party, where I met this guy Terence, who was a traveller from Austin Texas, looking for someone to hang out with, so I agreed. We decided to have a wander, and we passed this supercar dealership: ferarris, lamboghinis etc. And my new friend wanted to go in, so we pretended he was looking to buy this million dollar car as a present for his dad. And the moron totally believed us. We had to go in some private life, and got to sit in it and everything. So we said goodbye to "fetch the deposit". The dealer was saying "oh I'm the biggest car dewaler in the world. The Prince of Brunei was in this morning looking at this car too" blah blah.

Terence had no money so I bought him some nachos. Then he wanted to play video games, so we went to this place and he sat there for about an hour, just staring ad the screen, tapping away, so I thought, fuck it, and sneaked off.

I felt pretty guilty. I had to shake him off though because he was a slow walker, and I still wanted to explore. I probably should have told him I was going but he just looked so happy there.

I set off into the depths of Central Park, again bessotted by its beauty, relishing the peace and quiet. I stumbled on this place where old people were playing chess like in the films, and there was this old guy who was partnerless, so I decided to challenge him. Needless to say... Um I mean, obviously he destroyed me. And he said he was crap. He was cool though. Like a Jedi Master, but taller and from Haiti and called Roger.

And: I invented a word today!: Frohawk. A portmanteu of afro and mohawk. Back at the hostel there was this party. There was this swedish metal journalist called simon who's having a midlife crisis and motorcycling across the states. He writes for "Sweden Rock".

17.09.07
I woke up this morning automatically pissed off. Then the hostel people started dicking me around trying to make me move rooms. That really fucking pissed me off.

So after loads of shopping, I went to whole foods again fora feast and headed to Central Park, and I could hear bongos or a rhythm in the distance. It was like an instinctual thing that drove me to track it down. It was actually a few things: A sort of lame roller disco thing, then a Haitian ensemble: djembe, snare cowbells and these weird horn trumpet things that only played one note (6 or 7 of them). they looked like a metal traffic cone sort of. There was all this weird dancing like voodoo or something. I was thinking the dancer imagined himself as a hunter in a forest, then a farmer sowing seeds, then a tiger, prowling.

I returned once again to ole blighty, then straight into Dissertation Hell, for two weeks. For a break, I spent a day helping one of my course tutors, set up his exhibition stand at Tent London, for his company Diplomat, showing this crazy sci-fi swamp monster chair thing.

Back to college, and up the tempo to Dissertation Inferno, resulting in 7337 words on "Rise of the Replicator: The Evolution of Media into the Tangible". Read at your Peril! I accept no responsibility fo any of the nonsense contained within.

This (final) year consists of one group project, from now to February, and one solo project after that till the end. So the group project is wha we've been doing since the start of term. After much pondering we decided to do something to encourage symbiosis between humans and nature in the city (London, specifically). There. I said it. It felt kind of embarrassing. How many times have I said on wikid, that I'm not a hippy? Maybe I'm just in denial. Yeah.

Other news we done some Down I Go shows, one in Brighton last night. Ohhhh. And last weekend it was my birthday, so I cooked up some food and we had a barbecue and some sangria. It was great, and easy, for a change. No trouble, nothing broken, no hot-rock craters on the floor, no wine stains on the carpet, and enough people stayed the night to help me tidy up in exchange for breakfast. Everyone came except the one I wanted to come the most. 25. I think that's the line between you ng and old. When I saw it written in candles on the cake, that's when I realized, I'm now officially old, contrary to what most off licence counter staff think. At least when I get ID'd I can start taking it as a compliment rather than an insult. It's still fucking annoying though!