i-MONKEY

As I pack the bits and bobs, Lester P. Mason listens to The Shins.

These days are strange. Christmas limbo. It's still festive time but it's not festive enough. People are back and work and weary. We're moving in a couple of days. It's a odd feeling.
I always get reflective during the last days of the year and I start to remember the things I didn't do. I just ran out of time. We plotted to go to Canada but that didn't happen. Going away is a must. Still, it has been a wild ride in 2008 and, it seems, that 2009 will kick off in an interesting way. Life is like the adventure game book Kylie put in my stocking this Christmas.

2008 IN RANDOM LIST FORM..

I'd like to thank the following people for their input on my 2008:

(Think of this as record sleeve notes)

Kylie, The Posnetts, Paul 'Truman' Truman (For all of those geek Wednesdays and shopping), Nick (For the dancing and being, well, a good brother), Matt and Kat, Tom and Lucy (For Nieghbourly kindness), Allan and Daisy (For chinwags at The Gifford), Dan H (For meet ups, mixes and all sorts), Super L (For making Summer Sundae great and for her impressive rock star stalking), David J, The MIGHTY, MIGHTY Heffman (For the XBOX and Tea sessions), The Steve (For coming back to rock), Gaz 'The Viking' Moran (For The Invitational and other great goings on. Always marvellous hanging with the Moran Man. Even when we're listening to Girls Aloud..loudly), Rich Rowbottom (The former Grimleys man is endlessly amusing and has the best drunken bathroom story ever) Vij (For being a fine co-worker and collaborator), Chris F and all at Bent Soul Productions (Whatever happens, I've had a blast writing for the show. Fingers crossed), Ryan and Kyle (For being my fictional friends and venting outlets), Joe Johnson (For making The Lonely Heart and for future, artistic outlets), Ben Baker (For the comedy and 'pick me up' websites), Adam and Corinna (The King and Queen of Canada), Jon Sheridan (For Liverpool based frolicals) and everyone else, online or otherwise, who has brought some joy to the walking cartoon that is my life.

MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS:::::

Bowerbirds - Hymns From a Dark Horse

Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kind

Maurie Stern - This is…

The Grates - Teeth Lost, Hearts Won

Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight

Foals - Antidotes

Shearwater- Rook

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Okkervil River - The Stand Ins

M83 - Saturdays=Youth (This record is so good it makes me feel glad to be alive)

Department Of Eagles - In Ear Park

Dr Dog - Fate

This game is just greatness. Kylie brought it for me this Christmas and I've been slowly...sloooooowly...going through it. The thing is, I need her there when I play it otherwise I will probably shit myself. It's one of those games that manages to recreate a scary film perfectly and, because I'm something of a wuss, I can't really play it alone. It's twisted body-horror stuff like The Thing. This and Soul Calibur 4 make me glad I purchased an XBOX 360.

***

It's back to the writing this week. I've not had much time to do much of the creative thanks largely to various upheavals. I'm going to write some more episodes for the TV show, do the needed biogs and try to write some new stuff. 2008 was a crazy, creative year that didn't give me much time to write about. Shame really as it was bloody good. Hopefully, 2009 will be just as hectic and I'll be more on the ball to jot it down.

***

Here are two memories from my recent birthday weekend:


The time we enjoyed a few drinks in Amy Winehouses local and saw Patrick Wolf looking stressed. I look quite old in this picture. It's most likely due to the fact that I was very tired and worn out. I'm also 29.
And that time that I got attacked by a T-Rex. I managed to take a picture before hand which is a typically modern thing to do.

Hello. Happy New Year.

Does anyone know how I 'follow' people on Blogger? Anyone?

I want to follow people just as Maja has followed me but I can't for the life of me find out how to do it.
Lately, I've been coming back to this cold, almost dead house of words and taking a walk around, sighing at the state of it all. There are many, many memories here. This was a place that helped friendships to blossom, rubbish to be spouted and annoy the easily annoyable. Sigh.

I've not been blogging for a while because I felt that my life just wasn't interesting. Then, it got REALLY interesting and I didn't have time to write about it. Now, at the end of a packed 2008, I find myself wishing I'd kept a better record of it all; the ups, downs, overs and outs.

Maybe that's a resolution right there.