my boss: fine, leave. leave me here by myself.
me: now you know how i feel every night when you leave before me.
my boss: what? do you cry?
me: uh huh, that's why i keep a good stock of tissues at my desk.
my boss: that's a bit sad that that's all it takes to make you cry.
me: i think it's sad that your self esteem is so low that you don't think that your absence would make someone sad.
my boss: snap.

 lately the things that have been making me happy have been very usa and/or photography-centric.

bne and i have been making a concerted effort to be more positive, and one surprising side-effect of this is that both of us, independently, started listening to a lot of hip hop. it's just really hard to feel down when you're listening to hip hop! some of our favourites [and the traditional definition of hip hop gets stretched a little here] include:

+ atmosphere
+ doseone
+ p.o.s
+ why?
+ themselves
+ cLOUDEAD
+ subtle

at the moment i am especially digging atmosphere, p.o.s and doseone. atmosphere are a little more old school, both musically and lyrically, and over the course of the last six months or so, i've bought nearly every single one of their albums, which says a lot about how good they are. this clip is from their most recent album, when life gives you lemons, you paint that shit gold, and it's my favourite track, 'you':


p.o.s used to be in a punk band called om, the influence of which is really evident in his hip hop, especially this track, 'drumroll' which has amazing percussion:


doseone is absolutely amazing. both a hip hop artist and a poet, he's been in experimental hip hop bands like cLOUDEAD, themselves and subtle. he was also on peeping tom's self titled album. lately we've been listening to a lot of his stuff on a sampler from the record lable anticon. i wish i could find a decent clip of the subtle song 'midas gutz' because it's really odd and wonderful, but there appears to only be one on-line and it's not great quality. but if you can hunt down the song, do! 

but music alone can not sustain you, so what else has kept me going this week?

first up, the most mind-blowing wrigley's product ever, orbit balance blueberry gum, which misstocsin brought back for us from her recent european sojourn. it is both delicious and the taste is super long-lasting!



...fühl ich mich vital indeed!

also, i have some new bling, a little something i found on etsy, then got in contact with the sellers, who happened to be from sydney [etsy really hasn't taken off here yet, i don't know why, it's amazing!] and they re-sized it for me and then i went and met them and picked it up a few weeks ago. i love it. the lock swings which is distracting in an awesome way:



and finally, photography. recently, one of my absolute favourite photographers, the amazing ryan russell, from alabama, started an etsy shop, selling his polaroids. i nearly died when i discovered this, and the fact that the first bunch had sold out, but through the power of twitter, i got to hear from the man himself when the next batch went up and i scored four. yesterday he mentioned that there were a few still for sale and one was one i had previously not been able to afford, so i messaged him and asked if he'd posted my others and if not, could he sell me the other one and ship it all together. not only had he posted my stuff already [which is so exciting, i can't wait to see them and have them framed], but he said that seeing as though i'd been 'reppin'' him, i could have the latest one without paying for postage. they're amazing, they make me feel like american beauty did. 

the ryan russells will hang near my michelle ho, who, speaking of, introduced me the the wonders of steve gullick yesterday, who is also fantastic. 

missneurofern tweeted recently about this incredible set of photos from this year's glastonbury festival. they are just so alive and warm. a really amazing set. if i ever took one photo as good as some of these i'd die happy.  

lastly, living near the airport has its advantages sometimes, including seeing tiny specks of planes against sleepy skies:

in order to understand this story, you need to know several things:

one - every day tv channels send us files with their updated schedules. we, imaginatively, call these "dailies"
two - i am working from home today.

i completed something for my boss, and sent him an IM to tell him, and then promptly closed the conversation and forgot about it. about 15 minutes later, a box pops up, from him, that says 'oi oi oi!'

he can be a little spontaneous and odd, but i also thought it sounded urgent, so i said 'is this a random oi, or in response to my last message?'

he responded: 'oh it was a song. a song for when you completed what you just did. you know, like when the dailies come in and we all sing 'when the dailies come in, you must rip it!' to the tune of 'whip it' by devo?'

no, no i wasn't aware that we did that, but i'm kinda all for it, you know?