it's the most wonderful time of the year

how polite, apt and indeed neccesary of my brother to point out the fact that 'newspapers are losing there power to bloggers, Twitterers and social networkers' in the same week that i wrote my very first article for The Enfield Advertiser

yeah, thanks for that.

and his response to this sign of the times is to produce his own online non-press release... hang on, it was only afew months ago i was knocking up a press release for him that got him exposure in The Enfield Gazzette!

anyways, while my little brother continues to undermine everything i'm doing i shall be supportive of my family unit and reprint his non-press release for you right here


young talented sexy artist Ian Byford (well someone must think I'm talented and sexy) is embarking on an advent blog fest he calls blogmass from december 1st -25th

Ian Byford will be blogging daily (unless my computer throws a wobbly) at www.ianbyfordart.blogspot.com

in this period Ian Byford will be
- opening a new web shop at www.zazzle.co.uk/ianbyfordart*
- launch new products (well you can't have a shop without stuff in it)
- posting new festive stories from his distopeian scrapbook
- making mp3s by Hunchbakk, from their sound art project available for free download

Ian Byford's Blogmass will show you why this super duper artist with overwhelming talent and charisma (maybe I went over the top there) is making a name for himself with his art work taking to the street in the form of wearable products and taking to the air in the form of music crafted by the talented and innovative Hunchbakk based on original art work by Ian Byford, in there collaborative soundArt project.

aaah, there's a little praise, that was nice of him!

so keep an eye out for blogmass starting this tuesday, along with the return of my christmas single

and if anyone wants to repost or share the non-press release in an online viral fashion, please go ahead, aah, go on...

where the stray sofas are

this blog is facing a bit of a backlog, there are still afew more videos i want to toss your way, a handful of poems that are waiting for their time and any other number of random bits and bobs that i think 'aaah, i might blog about that!'

which also means it has been a while since the stray sofas turned up on here

and they are back with a vengeance

seemingly taking refuge together, a small tribe of stray sofas, chairs and general bric-a-brac have gathered not far from Brick Lane

and it may look like a dump, and street life can be tough, but for now the leadership of this tribe doesn't seem to be in question

heroes in a half shell

blogs bore me when the only updates are full of videos, but as i said, i found some stuff i thought would be great blog fodder that would appeal to your inner geek, and i thought that if i mix it with a little chit-chat at the same time you may overlook what could be seen as lazy blogging

sometimes there is so much buzzing around my brain that i think may be worthy of blogging, but i don't think i reach enough people to update more than a few times a week, so only the most deserving, the most relevant, the most important... actually probably the most geeky stuff makes it onto this blog

now i can't remember the last time i was excited about the Turtles, i'd definetely lost interest by the time they were releasing the transforming wave of figures, those samurai figures were cool, but i digress...

everything revolves in cycles and ideas get regurgitated for new audiences and i don't know what kinda crap kids have had to put up with maquerading as the Turtles these days, but what they watch certainly isn't what i watched... but in some super geeky mega-cross-over style thingy the turles i remember are teaming up with the latest incarnation, and by the looks of things also run into the old-skool black n white original Turtles from their gritty comics debut....




ooooh.

little bit excited
(in a nostalgic kinda way)

sick mind

sunday night i found myself in a delirious state as i groaned to myself and contemplated reaching for the whiskey again (purely medicinal of course), revelling in a fully functioning external hard drive and the return of my i-tunes library, suffering from a barely functioning immune system and sat in front of a computer screen scrolling through the new look topless robot

a strange side effect of the lemsip seemed to convince me that i was infact Tim Curry as i laid round reading geeky articles and watching random youtube videos, i did decide tho that a couple of these finds may make great blog fodder

and guess what... i was right

(about the great blog fodder, not about being Tim Curry)

solder

another poem? why yes, cos i was feelin a lil inspired last night and didn't want to sleep...

fueled by a couple of JD and cokes that i had slowly been sinking in an attempt to ease the fluey symptoms that had been crawling up my chest and scratching at my throat and pinching at my nose

and when there was no whisky i moved on to medicinal raki to clear my sinuses while those around me rotted their brains with a late night run through of x-factor



3 o'clock
and i'm willing the clock to stop
a lungful of liqueur
i shudder and shiver
i already dread what the morning will bring
an aniseed yawn and the alarm bells will ring
but write now i'm wired
and the alcohol solders
and i regret that my generation ever got older
while i try my hardest to claw at my youth
while you're sewn into sofas
your tubes watching proof
of a degrading of spirit
of body and mind
and i'll watch you
and ignore you
and be glad it's not mine



.

Insulated

i'm insulated.
neither loved nor hated.
up through the hatch, i am in the aloof.
you won't find me when you're looking for proof.
i've been rolled out and i've been laid.
the less that you hear is the most that i've said.
between the gaps i've been the filler.
first word spoken, conversation killer.
save the planet, lower your bills, keep the warmth inside.
out of sight, out of mind, is where i reside.





.

monster mash

so is there anything worth reporting in the world of Hunchbakk this week?

absolutely

i have been faced with frustration everytime i try and get any ideas moving, but i'll keep coming back to the music i'm making and with any luck i'll have something to share with you guys...

anyone paying any attention will have noticed the fact that the SoundArt series seems to have ground to an abysmal halt but it is something i am still toiling on, and is fast proving to be a real sore point. SoundArt 7 is next in line and particular care is being paid to it in order to get it just right, but getting it just right only seems to be the start of my problems with it...

not being able to do things the easy way means i try it the hard way and still get it wrong, or maybe both are the wrong way, or maybe i haven't actually figured the right way just yet, but either way, whenever i set aside time to knuckle down it only results in two hours staring at the computer screen and achieving nothing. and yet other times i have a little mess around and seem to have progressed before it falls apart again

but it is heading in the right direction, it is just taking longer than expected

another idea likely to cause me grief is another christmas single, i'll make no promises that this shall ever be completed in time or even see the light of day but the intention is there

and there is another side-project that is nearing completion that may very well be worth unveiling in the near future... we'll see...




but also of relevance is the triumphant return of Bubblegum Stomp last weekend, embracing the chance to dress up and get drunk and play loud music to a receptive crowd

we've DJed at parties that have sometimes been a bit hit and miss but this time we were realy able to get stuck in to the night and it makes it all worth it to have people dancing and appreciating the effort being made... and it goes both ways, the more up for it a crowd is, the more you feel that you need to give them as DJs

and considering out of the three DJs sharing the decks, one tired and jetlagged DJ brought no CDs at all, another brought just one CD and the other (me!) brought plenty it could have all gone horribly wrong but instead it couldn't have possibly gone better, resulting in a messy night of face paints, too much alcohol, pitched up tracks and a drunken attempt by a hall full of people to do the Thriller dance

and after all that excitement we're planning our costumes for the New Year's Eve party!