prolific.org

My Amy Winehouse pictures get favourited a lot on Flickr. Mostly by women. Does Amy, like Sinead, scare the hell out of most boys?

A friend invited me to facebook. I had previously decided not to join, but what the hell, I click on the link and fill in the registration form…

… and I’m informed my name ‘contains too many words’.

It seems I’m only happy when I work two jobs. Any other time is ordinary, nine to five just isn’t good enough. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been wearing several hats at the same time and I feel better than I have in months. When I stood outside the Paradiso last night soaked through to my undies, only to find out ‘The Streets’ were actually on today, I laughed. Got back on my bike and cycled back home in the rain with a smile on my face, like I’m all doped up. And when earlier today PR people made demands on my Sunday, my time off, I wondered what the hell they were apologising for. Work = good. I put on my ‘research’ hat and got cracking. I hate being secretive (I always think ’shut up if you can’t tell the full story’), but unfortunately for now I’m bound to silence as to the nature of my moonlighting. Suffice to say some of my other hats are labelled ‘translater’, ‘vibe-meister’ and ‘cheerleader’. All will be revealed. Jawohl, sir.

Eleven years ago, I saw British comedian Eddie Izzard perform a show in Amsterdam. Not long after, I set up a website about him, which ran in various incarnations from ‘95 to ‘2000. It was my most succesful website, at least until we set up Whedonesque.com.

I hooked up an old HD to my computer yesterday, and found the most recent backup of the site, made just before I took the site off line in 2000. Among the files were two original pieces I wrote. They are a review and an interview, both of which I’d like to share with you again, starting with the review.

I’ve also put part of the site back online, not originally created by me, but given to me to host. It gives me great pleasure to present: Pantscat!, an early Izzard creation.

The review follows after the break. I haven’t followed Izzard’s career the past five years. I stopped ‘believing’ and thought he was a bit too calculating, too eager in the quest for fame. Not a lot of soul. Then I just lost interest. But this was written at the height of my comparatively brief obsession with the man who said ‘Jam!’

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Last night I lost my wallet with my bank card, my Mastercard, my Visa, my Amex, my work I.D., tons of other cards and, thankfully, only 30 Euro in cash. I haven’t lost a wallet in 30 years, because I’m practically OCD about knowing where it is. But I bought a new wallet recently that turned out to be just a little too large to stick in my jeans pockets and felt slippery – I didn’t feel good about it. It probably fell from my jacket pocket on the train or on the metro. Note to self: trust your instincts.

Did I mention I got caught without a ticket on the Metro the night before? 37 euro fine.

I’m stuck at home with no food and no money and a hell of a temper.

It’s a wonderful world.

Well, in any case, not when Joss Whedon decides it isn’t, dammit.

Whedonesque.com was named ‘Blog of the week’ at The Times today and in the comments on the post announcing it, a number of our users ask why Whedonesque is a blog. Before I can answer, Joss Whedon himself pipes in and declares Whedonesque not a blog.

I try to explain that perhaps people’s interpretation of the world blog has changed somewhat over the last five years and that Whedonesque has all the characteristics of a weblog. Joss seems to call me pedantic, dismissing my reasoning and telling me language evolves, ergo, my blog no longer a blog. He seems to think I’m ‘nerd girl’ who needs to be taught a lesson in language.

Welcome to bizarro world.

He’d already left when I finally came up with the ‘let’s say in 10 years time, a tv series is something that has a jury and televoting, so sorry, your work is now called ‘fanfic” analogy. I am a crappy debater.

It seems most of our users have no idea the site is a weblog. I guess they’ve never gone near our About page.

I’m quite baffled.

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There should be something more here than just a post about sushi.

But I have no words for what’s going down in New Orleans.

Bush smiling, playing guitar when seven kinds of hell descend on the gulf coast. Ms Rice shopping for shoes in NYC. Refusing foreign aid. Sending in troops with orders to shoot to kill.

Young in New Orleans – Bukowski

Scoundrel cum poet Robert Blake after his ‘not guilty‘ verdict:

After the verdict, he said he needed to find a job but would first go “cowboying.”

“Cowboying is when you get in a motor home or a van and you just let the air blow in your hair,” he said. “And you wind up in some little bar in Arizona someplace, and you shoot a game of one-hand nine-ball with some 90-year-old Portuguese woman that beats the hell out of you.

“And the next day you wind up in a park someplace playing chess with somebody, and you go see a high school play where they’re doing ‘West Side Story.’

“And you just roam around and get some revitalization, that there are human beings in the world, that there are people living their lives that have no agenda.”

Maybe he could write a book about it all.

(Nobody knows who Robert Blake is anymore. I’m the oldest at work and in my circle of friends. It means that nobody remembers the stuff I grew up with. In fact, they don’t know or remember stuff they should have grown up with. Lately that’s making me a little sad.)

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Some of you may have wondered ‘Who the hell is Declan O’Rourke’ since he was featured so prominently in my Best of list. Or perhaps you skipped the post, I wouldn’t blame you.

I’ve now written a little more about this album and the song that first woke me up and then took my breath away on a bus journey from Dingle to Dublin:

U2log.com editors recommend // Declan O’Rourke – Since Kyabram

This album’s seriously making me consider buying an (any) MP3 player because I don’t want to be without it while I commute.