are the stars out tonight?

we've gone dry at home in an attempt to lower the ps' cholesterol. this is gererally a good idea, since, y'know, anything that causes them to live longer is prolly for the best.

i'd been considering abstinence for a while - since reading a double header of books about alcoholism (augusten burroughs' dry and koren zailckas' smashed). and now seemed like a good time to start, since there's quite a long gap without any major drink-based celebrations. i'm hoping to make it to christmas. we'll see.

what's struck me already is how much longer the evenings seem to be and the number of things i can actually get done. at this rate, i might actually finish one of my (off-line) writing projects! indolence has been fun for the last few months, but it palls pretty quickly.

feather boa 8:33 pm

last night, walking east up the main road to the tube, two flocks of geese flew overhead, migrating for the winter. it's the autumn equinox today, so i don't know why i'm surprised, but i was.

time passes strangely. every year seems to go faster and faster. when i was a child, an eight week summer holiday seemed like a lifetime, now it's gone in an afternoon. a year ago feels like both yesterday and a hundred years ago.

i've changed, but i also still feel like everyone i've ever been. i feel like a tralfamadorian from slaughterhouse five, that i exist at all times simultanously.

went to see dig last night with stu and louise. we saw it at the prince charles cinema - 90% of the audience was either in a band, or had been in a band at some point - including the three of us, of course. it was an interesting film - someone really should sit pete down and make him watch it. seeing how drugs and sheer solipsism can wreck a band is pretty enlightening.

that said, anton from the bjm issued a statement distancing himself from the movie,

"Several years of our hard work was reduced at best to a series of punch-ups and mishaps taken out of context,"

feather boa 5:35 pm

hooray! i'm totally back in the smoke, there's a new version of itunes, and all's right with the world.

i did a little shopping over in americky, somehow restricting myself to just two cds (death cab's plans and halloween, alaska's first record. i've not managed to listen to the death cab yet, but i'm listening to halloween, alaska at the moment, and liking it muchly.

i first heard of the band when the song "all the arms around you" appeared on the first episode of the second series of the oc. i liked it so much that i googled the lyrics, but discovered you couldn't really get the record in the uk. i managed to get a copy in nyc, but luckily for you it's being released at the end of october, along with their new album. oh and the strangely quiet 50 quid bloke was enthusing about them back in june. you can hear some of their new stuff on their myspace page.

i'm not going to do a full on holiday rundown, because that would be boring for everyone. suffice to say that i had a brilliant time (favourite moments: cycling round central park on sunday, and drinking an old fashioned at the algonquin. yes it should have been a martini, but i prefer whisky. i also met the hotel cat.)

you can see a small selection of my photographs here, not including the cat unfortunately.

feather boa 5:04 pm

there is just under an hour left of my 24th birthday. i shall use this time to explain my five most favouritest tracks at the moment, in the hopes of creating a record of my listening habits on this day.

(actually, today i have mostly been listening to the signal a serenity/firefly podcast. and if you don't know what that means, then shame on you. take a look at these explanations from my new addiction wikipedia: podcasting and firefly/serenity. both concepts are well worth investigating.)

but he wanted to know what 5 songs i was listening to at the moment. ummm.

our rather selective survey says:

• pretty things - rufus wainwright. a lot of people have said they find his music too arch, too mannered. but that's precisely what i like about him. that and the compulsive w.
• long division - the aislers set. i fell in love with amy linton last december. she held my hands and thanked me for being there for her. i'd only got her a beer. why we aren't married yet is beyond me.
• rebellion (lies) - the arcade fire. why didn't i get into this band sooner? i totally heart them.
• jason lee - all girl summer fun band. it's really a song about jason lee the actor/skateboarder whose son is called Pilot Inspektor Reisgard Lee. which beats those britpop baby names into a cocked hat.
• a movie script ending - death cab for cutie/ clark gable - postal service. i've been listening to a lot of ben gibbard stuff of late (in particular his hilarious cover of la lavigne's complicated). these are prolly my two favourites and i refuse to chose between them.

feather boa 11:03 pm