Monthly Archives: September 2005

The club night stops and I took off

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Went out on a society-organised tour of the ‘Leeds Scene’ last night. It’s a quick tour: there’s not much scene to see. It was fun all the same because there was a huge group of people in attendance and some people I’d never seen before despite their claims not to be freshers. I don’t believe a word of it.
The end of the tour was a club called Mission, a venue that spreads under five or six railway arches to create separate rooms and moods. It was, of course, completely packed and though I’d been freezing earlier on in the evening, after a couple of minutes in their I was thoroughly warmed up. Dancing in a railway arch, without much air conditioning (considering the number of people packed in) creates quite some heat. There were sweat issues, and serious potential for dehydration. When I asked for a glass of water at the bar the barman indicated that they only served them in little 75 cl (or so) glasses. I was going to get a glass, down it, and then return to the floor. Apparently not. So I asked for four, waited while he messed around and then downed those and left. Stupid policy of serving water in such a pathetic way.
I was honestly surprised by how quickly people paired off after only meeting a couple hours previously. I wouldn’t have thought myself a prude but, huh, I wasn’t getting any action from there. Happily, just as I was getting pissed off with some freak who was kind of stalking me around the dancefloor, meaning I had to move between rooms far more frequently than I’d have preferred, my favorite song of the moment came on. There was, of course, noone to dance with because they’d all paired off or were scared that I was going to jump them if they just danced, but by that point I didn’t care. You know when you get a song stuck in your head and it just won’t go away? Well this was that and this was the perfect conclusion to the night. I lost myself in the moment and then danced away as though there was someone there to dance with, and then when it stopped, made a dash for it.
Making a run wouldn’t have been such a bad idea had it not been raining down like never before. That always seems to happen when I’m clubbing. My problem is that, being a student, I hate taxis and under normal conditions never take them. It took me about thirty five minutes to get home and by then I was soaked. But it’s great time for evaluating the night. And when you get home you really appreciate the warmth.
But you miss not having anyone next to you at the end of the night. That bit, it’s kind of sad.

I’ve been waiting patiently for him to come and get it
I wonder if he knows that he can say it and I’m with it
I knew I had my mind made up from the very beginning
Catch this opportunity so you and me could feel it ‘cos

If you’re ready for me boy
You’d better push the button and let me know
Before I get the wrong idea and go
You’re gonna miss the freak that I control

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Back online and back in touch

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I’ve been rather out of the loop of updating and keeping this place alive because I haven’t been online as such. I’ve had access to the internet but by not having access via my normal computer I haven’t been able to do my normal stuff. I could usually upload photos onto Flickr or check emails via my email client and then, gasp, keep them with me. Because we haven’t had the internet connected all of this kind of thing has been shoved back. I’ve been doing a lot of reading of newspapers.
I came back to Leeds just two weeks ago and it’s funny but you don’t notice how much media hopping one does until you lose it. We have a TV but we don’t have digital, so we don’t get the 24 hour news channels I’ve grown accustomed to, nor the ‘real’ cultural programs as broadcast on BBC 4, nor the flesh-fest that is music television at the moment.
I brought my hi-fi system but neglected a tiny little cable that plugs in the back of it: the aerial. I had an AM cable which is great because it means I can get the nightly 1AM-onwards news magazine that I listen to on the BBC, but couldn’t get music or the fantastic speech station that is BBC Radio 4. We don’t have a radio in our kitchen yet so despite doing a lot of cooking, I’m still not feeling fully up to date. The newspapers I’m reading are always telling me of yesterday’s news.
I could normally supplement my media hopping by going online. When our TV at home goes haywire, you can be sure of getting most of the news that you’d see there online via the BBC’s Broadband News service, as well as news that you don’t normally get in the same way on the NYTimes website, like the story of the first ever entirely computer designed aircraft.
Without the internet, which is supposed to be installed this afternoon, I’ve been lost. I’ve been reading several newspapers each day because I don’t trust getting my news from one source, even reading papers that I’d have never touched before because I thought them boring or just too trivial (buying the Times, and reading the Leeds Student…). I’ve been doing a lot more work on/for my course, and getting involved in other things like the refugee action group meeting I was at last night. It beats a booze-up with the LGBT society. Perhaps it’s a good thing to be cut off every so often as it really focuses you on what you need. I find that I can easily get by without the internet, but I’d hate to attempt to write a term paper, research an article or share photos with friends without my regular access. Apple Powerbooks are light and nifty little things but they’re still a drag when carrying in a satchel for half an hour each way to and from work. I envisage most people carting them around in the back of the car or in a briefcase, rather than in competition with the daily haul of books I get from the library.

Anyway, the general message is this: I’ll be back online soon.

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Who will they use for publicity now? Naomi Campbell?

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After much hoo-ha and debate over the future of the new H&M advertising campaign, the company have pulled their spots. The problem comes after the Daily Mirror published photographs of Moss apparently taking cocaine with her boyfriend Pete Doherty.
Having earlier altercations with the Daily Mirror over drug use, the paper had been said to be on a mission to prove Moss’s guilt. The publication of the photos has drawn worldwide derision from radio phone-in programs as well as newspaper letters from the public.

At the same time as many of feigning shock and awe, I don’t really care. Kate Moss takes drugs… so what?! She’s a mother… so what?! When so much of the world is exposed in one way or another to the world of drugs, should we really be all that appalled when one of our highest profile faces slips up and shows her humanity. No longer a department store mannequin, Moss is a human being with flaws. Does that mean that she’s any less appealing to look at? I’m never going to look like her and the vast majority of girls will never come near her beauty because it’s a freakish kind. All models look just a little bit weird and that isn’t quite so palatable on the high street in middle England or middle America or middle Anywhere. Models occupy their own private space in the world, drinking champagne, walking up and down a brightly lit pathway and then doing drugs and sleeping for 12 hours at a time, all the while doing as little exercise as possible to ensure they don’t develop any ‘chunky’ muscles. Except the boys that is, they have to do ab-crunches until midnight every day. A male model without a six-pack stomach: unheard of!

Kate Moss is flawed. We know. Move on.

H&M drops Moss over drug claims

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