dotantimega

Doing my chores...

Four Jobs I've Had in My Life:
I haven't had that many jobs. And I haven't really had the shit jobs a lot do when they're young -

Helpdesk support, Ford Credit. A summer job when I was 16. Scrabbling under people's desks, in a suit. Half fixing PC problems, and half doing grunt jobs like backing up a few hundred floppy disks. I had 20 PCs on my desk, running, at one point. The secretaries loved me, because I would patiently explain how everything worked. Or it could be something to do with scrabbling under their desks.
On my last day, they took me to the pub for lunch, then let me loose on their System/36 mainframe. I didn't delete anything too important.

Production assistant, BBC Essex. Myself and a few friends volunteered to work at the local radio station - on, of all things, the sunday religious programme. The bloke who ran it was extremely cool, and one of the nicest people I think I've met. We got to do pretty much everything - answering phones for the competitions and phone-in (we used networked BBC Bs to communicate with the studio), picked the records from the library, even going out interviewing and making packages. At one point they brought in a BBC radio trainer, and we all learnt a lot. I can edit reel-to-reel tape, and drive a radio desk, but most of the fun technology (carts) have disappeared these days. On the back of this, I got work experience in Radio 3, and some of the things I edited went out on Night Waves.

Summer student, GCHQ. I won't say what I did, but I by luck or magic didn't do anything that offended my morals. We did, however, have to be interviewed every year to check we were still kosher, which was moderately soul destroying. At one point, after I'd come out, I had an ex-chief constable asking me if I took the masculine role or feminine role. After stifling my laughter for a few hours, I'd pretty much decided this wasn't the place for me.

Programmer, Syzygy. After I took the money and ran from the above, I ended up at Syzygy for a summer, and freelanced during term time. I went through the recently launched Wired UK, and wrote to all the companies I thought were interesting. 2 replied; and I turned up to Berners Street for my interview. The floors were purple vinyl, all the computer workstations were hand made, and I worked on selling sweets to kids. The interview was hilarious - I don't think John asked me a single question. He was terribly enthusiastic, though. Weirdly several people that worked there still loom large in my life, 10 years later, such as Phil.

Four TV shows I DVR:
Harry Hill's TV Burp. Mainstream ITV Saturday night comedy, but it's incredibly funny nonetheless.
Skins. I still like to pretend I'm a teenager. From the evidence of this though, I'm so glad I'm not 16. The pressure to be seemingly having this much fun/craziness/sex must be immense.
The Wire. Working my way through s3 on DVD. I don't think it's the best TV show of the decade, but it's very nicely done, and managing to sustain over 50 hours of viewing.
Spongebob Squarepants. It's not quite S1 of Ren & Stimpy, but there are so many jewels in there there. It's hilarious, it's surreal, it's self-effacing, it even withstood being made into a film. What I really want, though, is Rocko's Modern Life to be released on DVD.

Four places I've been:
Kennicott. My aunt and uncle had a summer house up there, in an old mining town. I got very close to a bear, run up and down the glacier, and didn't play with the asbestos too much.
Manila. I went there with work, to do some user research. I must admit it was eye-opening, if only for wealth living so close to the slums. If MTV seems crass in the UK, imagine it being seen where there really is no money. I was genuinely touched by the sheer optimism and enthusiasm of the people in the Philippines. And the Singing Waiters.
Nordkapp. I went round the very North of Norway by bus, reading His Dark Materials. Want to go to Svalbard now.
The Isle of Mull. Spent a week in a house that my other aunt had rented. Very pleasant. One of my minor superpowers is spotting sea eagles.

Four music artists I'm listening to right now:
Spooky. Not the new album, which is pretty terrible, but hints at what they used to be, but either Gargantuan or Found Sound, both very different but legendary albums. I notice The Grid and System 7 both have new albums out soon - seems like there a bit of a revival going on.
Underworld. Last year's album was awesome, but I still return to the the Riverrun project.
Caetano Veloso. A cracking album last year, but it's the eponymous albums, plus Transa and Araca Azul that I'm playing a lot.
Wire. Of course.
(eagerly awaiting the new albums from Jamie Lidell, Portishead)

I'm no good at tagging people. I certainly don't expect them to do it. Or even to see this. Maybe, keeping it Voxtular, http://blech.vox.com/, http://danhon.vox.com/, http://thegareth.vox.com/, and http://deflatermouse.vox.com/.

AIH played a blinding set at the Flow Festival in Helsinki last weekend... considering going and seeing them at Koko later in the year.