Barry's Journal

Original image taken with iPhone 3G and processed with Polarize app

My friend Yuko is selling postcards, bags, t-shirts, postcards and etchings with her beautiful illustrations on over on Etsy.

It’s almost 4am and I’m drinking coffee and eating Pro Plus pills in an effort to prevent vital biological functions from shutting down. I’m not even half way through my week of night shifts and my body’s already telling me it wants to be back on days.

I spotted a poster on the way into work this evening for the Solar Season exhibition at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich which looks interesting. I fucking love that place anyway, so that’s where I’m planning on going when I eventually get a day off sometime in the middle next week. of course, it depends on my readjusting sleeping patterns and reprogramming my internal clock.

I’ve started painting again. I realised the other day that it’s been over a year since I last put up my easel but I felt pretty inspired coming out of the Damien Hirst exhibition last month. I just need to find time between downpours to go out and take photos and do some sketching.

The builders next door are still busy building the fuck out of the house next door. Admittedly the noise levels seem to have decreased quite substatially, but I’m still not getting what I consider to be a full days sleep even if I am getting more than I did last time round.

Oh, and you can all stop appearing naked in my dreams now.

• Desire to go home, difficult to get a ticket
  According to the information disclosed by the Ministry of Railways 2010 Spring Festival travel season is from January 30 to March 10, about 40 days, 15 days before the New Year, and 25 days after the New Year. According to an authoritative forecast, Spring Festival travel season this year expects 2.5 billion passengers

If you look up, you’ll notice I’ve put added a ‘Contact’ button on the left side of my blog’s header, which, if you click on it, will take you to a form which you can use to send me a message if you so wish.

Of course, there are other ways of getting my attention – email, Facebook, Myspace or Mixi, or alternatively you could try appearing in my dreams. Naked.

Nagai Yume (Long Dream) by YUKI because I like it, and because it keeps on being removed from YouTube.

Girl of a Skin Coloured Blanket No.2 by my favourite ever MySpace musical discovery – Smile Down Upon Us.

Order the CD from here for just seven UK quids.

Quite unusually for me I’ve had a reasonably busy and full long weekend off, and that’s my excuse for the lack of recent updates here.

On Friday I went to Tate Britain in Pimlico, specifically to look at Turner’s paintings of Richmond Bridge, on Saturday I went out and got drunk, and on Sunday I just stayed home and watched the final of the Welsh Open snooker on TV.

Monday I woke up to the sound of the builders next door hammering and fucking drilling again.

Today I start a week of night shifts. It’ll probably be a week filled with the sound of no phones ringing, but that’s fine with me.

Introducing burlesque dancer and my Twitter friend The Luvely Rae performing ‘Pink Slip’. Enjoy.

Mixi Song by Spuntniko. Goodnight

I’m so tired I’m currently slumped over my keyboard listening to The Saddest Song whilst deciding which side of 9pm I should go to bed.

I’m working ‘earlies’ this week which means having to get up at 5am every morning, but no-matter what time I go to bed or however many hours I sleep during the night, I always end up feeling physically tired and mentally exhausted the following day. I think it’s my body’s way of reminding me that I should even think about getting out of bed until midday.

I received this lovely Chinese New Year card in the post from Vivian when I got home from work. Thanks a lot, spaz!

• Tokyo Day in London 2010
  Experience the eclectic cultures of Tokyo, from traditional music to recently produced Anime
  (Saturday 30th/Sunday 31st January at The Queen Elizebeth II Conference Centre, Westminster)

When I first heard this played on the radio (on the John Peel show, I think) I made a special trip to Chester the following day, and paid a whole £3.99 for what I thought was a three-track CD single but actually turned out to be a six-song EP.

Ladies and gentlemen, Swim by Madder Rose:

I’ve been looking for a yellow ‘Hotel Chevalier’ bathrobe just like the one Jason Schwartzman wears in The Darjeeling Limited for ages without any success, but then I got all excited when Haruka retweeted this.

At £89 each they’re a bit expensive but look perfect for these cold winter nights, and I’ve decided to get the yellow one, just like the one that Sam Bell wears in the film ‘Moon’.

• The Physcedelic Experience
  A manual based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead By Timothy Leary, Ph.D., Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., & Richard Alpert, Ph.D

((filed under researchmaterial))