Sorry for the lack of real title. This is going to be a two-parter.

Part 1

I still can’t quite get used to the size of Margaret the Powerbook. I guess I did stare at Diane the iBook all day everyday for almost two years. I booted Diane up to copy some stuff today and felt slightly more at home, though not as cool. The screen on the Powerbook is fantastic. It’s brighter and the colours are more vibrant. It’s also noticeably clearer. It’s is a lovely piece of engineering. Each curve and corner perfect. I’m enjoying the keyboard as well, it’s slightly sturdier than the iBook one.

Part 2

I went to Hoxton yesterday. Hoxton is part of the Old Street/Shoreditch/Hackney area that just oozes cool. Old Street itself is a bit nasty, but dip off the main road and suddenly every other building is a gallery or a media company or something cool. It’s run down, there’s a lot of graffiti, but the graffiti is really cool and the run downness just gives it a lived in feel rather than a broken one. I did go to that area for two interviews, Lateral and Lshift, and I would still happily work there.

I went there to meet the people of furtherfield.org. They’re holding a party on Saturday at the Deluxe Arts gallery on Hoxton Square. It’s a networking thing for anyone vaguely creative. That makes it sound a bit marketing-horror, but the furtherfield people are cool and it’s just a little get together really. It’s nice and low tech, with a table for exhibiting stuff if you want to. I’m going to be in charge of the music, because I asked to be :-). I’m going to play some MP3s, mess around with Live and then smack some decks up with some bleeping electro for a bit. All in I’ll be making nasty sounds for about eight hours. I’ll also be curating the PA. If other people want to make sounds, I’ll hook them up. It should be fun, but I’m a bit nervous. I’m slightly worried about looking like a bit of an amateur next to some really hardcore sound artist dudes. I’ll maybe learn a thing or two. Mainly I’m feeling really good about the fact that my first gig in London and for ages is such a cool one. It’s miles cooler than anything else I’ve done.

I’m also looking forward to the networking part of it. The guys at furtherfield mentioned funding for projects and I said I would definitely be interested in providing know how to projects if there was money to be had. They mentioned phones, which is something that I’d like to explore, particularly network apps and stuff making use of photo messaging.