Two lessons...

...from this evening;

(a) Do not ask drunken people for keys to your flat when you are quite drunk yourself

(c) Do not expect to be able to properly look after keys when you have met exciting new people

(z) Do not eat cheese sandwiches in bed when they are made out of wholegrain bread

Lessons.

Y'all~

Compact Failure

Much, much more productive day in the office. Got on with a fair amount of admin, and then X and I went to Tesco at 5ish to do a big shop. £100 on groceries. Ouch. £20 of that was beer, most of which I suspect he will drink. Ah well.

Got back, and cooked a big Chilli con carne, which was very tasty, and then rushed up to see Christabel's play at the Traverse. Arrived in the nick of time, and got grinned at in a very nice way by the boy doing the box office when I asked if I had time for a quick cigarette. Sometimes I am completely oblivious to flirting, so I have no idea why I noticed. Went down to the bar where - amazingly - I met Rachael Wagstaff who is up for the weekend. Talked very very quickly at her, and scribbled down her number with the plan of meeting up for a quick coffee before she goes back. She's studying writing at the Royal Court, which is quite exciting.

Went in to the play, which was excellent - dark without ever going too far into moralising state of society rubbish. The three actors were very versatile, and managed to slip between quite contrasty parts very effectively, and the script was perfectly crafted. A couple of bits near the start that could have done with being a bit tighter, but overall very good. Particularly liked the metaphor articulated by the set, which was a bank of lockers, into and out of which various props and plot developments would emerge - all sorts of stuff in there about people compartmentalising their lives, and, of course, the very obvious prison cell parrallel. Sort of thing that if actually actively articulated at all, would be very heavy handed indeed, but left as an unspoken mesh around which the writing could hang, worked brilliantly. Sat with Will, Chris and Rachel, C's fiancée (X-tian, apparently...) Trav 2 really does have the silliest most uncomfortable seats. Pins and needles were properly setting in by the time we staggered back out to the bar. Was accosted by two Dutch people who wanted to clear up a few things about the play that they hadn't understood (quite why they thought I would be able to say anything sensible I do not know, but it was nice to be asked). They offered me a drink, too, which was lovely, but Will was already getting me one, and since I had driven up, I didn't want to have anything else. Recommended a couple of places they could eat, including Metro, Howies, Thai Orchid and Thaisan. Thinking, though, I shouldn't have sent them to Thaisan because I've fallen out with them after their pathetic efforts at takeaway the other night. Have also fallen out with Café Rapido who gave me pasta with meatballs with a paltry two meatballs in it. I may have moaned about this before.

Sat in one of the booths with Christabel, Chris, Rachel, Al, Al's girlfriend whose name I can never recall, and Will. Rachel had ordered huge plates of Veggie Nachos which went down very well. Huge quantities, though - even between the initial 5 of us, we were struggling.

I went home at about midnight, because my cold - self inflicted from Birthday From Hell, no doubt - was catching up with me, plus I really needed to sleep, and was aware of mounting piles of work that I must get through.

Had a text from Matt during the late afternoon, which I didn't manage to respond to until about 1am, asking about plans for the weekend. Hopefully I haven't given an impression of disinterest by taking so long to respond, but had a very busy afternoon. Hey ho.

Fat Tuesday. On thursday.

SK came round at some ridiculously early hour. Buzzer was ringing, so I hid and let X deal with him. Finally surfaced around 11am, and prepared for my meeting with one of the drinks co brand manager. Had the meeting, which was relatively encouraging - he essentially said that as far as he is concerned, he wants to do business with us, but obviously is not solely responsible for the decision. He gave me the sort of slant that he felt would put our proposal in the best light for his boss, and said that when he receives it, he'll do his best to sell it to her.

Afterwards, R & I popped into his bar for a coffee, and talked over the meeting, and various other bits and pieces. Headed back to the office at about 2pm, where X had some old girlfriend round, who wanted to print out her CV. Printing it out turned into a rather epic re-working of the whole thing, and then, because there was absolutely no black ink left in the printer, it would not print anyway. Ah well.

I was in an astonishingly bad mood, but couldn't place why; partly hangover, partly the irritation of having someone who shouldn't really have been there fucking up the afternoon, partly the fact that I felt very bad about not really being able to give SK the attention he needed. Managed to get rid of both the girl and S by about 4pm - had a sandwich and went for a nap, so that I could try and feel at least a little human by the time I had to go out to the Southern Comfort shindig at the Caves.

Surfaced about 8pm feeling much refreshed, and walked up with R and Eva. Very very quiet for the first hour or so, but had plenty of tokens for free cocktails. Cath was there to review, with a friend, so we actually had quite a large table to ourselves, and must have looked OK, because the SC PR company's photographer kept snapping away at us. We were wearing our masks, which helped. Made the error of having a 'Louisiana Hot Bramble" at one point, which was essentially mulled wine with Southern Comfort in it. Truly, truly disgusting. Talked to Julie who manages the venue, and a couple of PR people. Tom was floating around looking stressed in a very chilled way. I think everyone was a little surprised at a lowish turn out. It got going as the evening went on, and, in fact, was pleasantly un-rammed. There was enough space for everyone to talk, or dance, or just sit watching, which is unusual at that sort of thing. Cocktails were nice. Amelia and Maria turned up while I was wearing one of the fabulously feathery masks that were scattered around the place. Chatted briefly, and told Amelia about my Birthday From Hell. No Matt - suspect he was essaying, which was fortunate, given my catatonic state. Cocktail people were really quite woefully bad; not a patch on the LAB boys. Wonder what the old Fire Station's new incarnation as a cocktail bar will be like...

Off at about midnight to the Basement's tenth birthday party at The Venue. Wandered down with R & E - X and Hilly wanted to stay at the Caves for a while longer. Very different vibe to things down there. Band upstairs playing covers with a skinny indie boy singer with his shirt off, which was a bonus. Tam was dancing around looking contented and possible chemically influenced, and Haftor was knocking around downstairs, with his saxophonist Suze who kept telling me what a tragedy it was that I was gay because "all the best ones are". She was lovely, but I felt a vague uneasiness about the attention. X & H arrived, and I went home to bed, to sleep the sleep of the dead.

Only made the Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras connection as I was walking back. Duh.

Happy Birthday

My birthday never works properly. I had deliberately set up a whole day of meetings in Glasgow so that I could sort of forget about birthday things, and just get on with some productive work; at the last minute, I decided to drive rather than get the train (I have no idea why, I had intended even the night before to get the train, and do some work while I was travelling) - someone had some sort of accident on the M8 which made the traffic grind to a halt, and it took me from about half eight till 11am to get into the city. Xavier had vanished from the office - turned out he had bunked off for the morning to go to the gym - and I couldn't get hold of any numbers for any of the people I was meant to be seeing. Argh.

Finally rolled up to Alec @ NEMIS about an hour late - was sitting on the sofa outside his office while he finished a phone call. He was looking at me in a slightly baffled way, mouthed "Sam?" at me, and when I nodded, beckoned me in. Phone call finished, he said to me "Are you Sam? Are you sure you are Sam? Your image completely does not match with your voice... I was expecting some wanker in a suit. You're cool man - you fuck with people's expectations. I respect that." So that was nice. We pretty much clicked from then on, and sat for an hour talking bands and the music industry and so on - I'm going to give him some advertising, and perhaps help him out with something else in the spring, and he's going to help me out with any contacts for promoters or labels or artists.

Then off to Radio Magnetic; irritatingly, the guy at the station told me that the station I thought I could use to get to it was no good. Of course, having walked the two miles along Argyle Street - literally one end to the other - what did I discover right behind their offices but the Exhibition Centre low level station. Grrr. I really ought to remember that when I trust my instincts, things work. Went across the road for a coffee with Tom and Molly; Tom explained how he saw us working together, which was exactly along the same lines that I had envisaged, talking about us possibly producing a fortnightly programme that would tie in with the paper, and being able to link to content directly from our site. More detail to be discussed as yet, obvsiouly, but a very positive meeting.

Caught the train back into town - no more walking for my poor feet, thank goodness - and went straight to the Arches for a much needed lunch and cigarette. Got out the computer and did some emailing; amazingly, for once, the 3G card was behaving. Finished lunch and went up to let reception know I was there; Nicola came down - completely different to how I expected her. Again, very positive conversation. She brought Niall in on things for a couple of minutes, who is going to knock out an ad for the preview and January issues, and see how that works for them.

Went to the Starbucks in Borders for a coffee where some pikey little shit stole my wallet, and I bumped into David who had just left the cash desk having bought my birthday card. Went back to the car, which wouldn't start, so called the AA (and explained that I had no ID because I had no wallet...) who sent out a local recovery company rather than a proper AA man. He was fairly useless, fiddled around for a while, and reckoned he had fixed everything. 100 yards down the road, of course, when I stopped at some traffic lights, it all stopped working again - in the middle of a busy road, in the middle of rush hour. 3 boys in a van took pity and pushed me across the road to somewhere safer to park, where I called the AA again. This time I specified a proper patrol man, who arrived remarkably quickly, replaced two tiny somethings, and asked me for £2.37. Which, of course, I didn't have, having no wallet. Explained this to him, and he thought for a while, and looked at his paperwork a bit. He looked up and said "It's your birthday today, isn't it? You sound like you've had a crap day - consider the £2.37 a birthday present."

I could have hugged him. (But didn't, and just shook his hand instead.)

Finally got home; Flip called just as I was getting in, so drank a couple of glasses of red while I caught up with her on the phone - she's feeling a bit bored at the BBC, and is having various house-related crises just now, but seems fairly positive nonetheless. There's an amazing sounding opportunity coming up where she could go off to Turkey and essentially be assistant director/producer on a documentary, on which she would have a certain amount of creative input. I said she should go for it - the only problem is it would only be three months, and she would need to rent out her room in her house to give her some money to live off while there, because, like all exciting and fun things, it is unpaid. She's going to look into it all a bit more and see what she can do.

Then off to Cabaret Voltaire, where X had got us guest-listed for some band. Chatted to Mike who runs the place; rather think that he thought that I thought that he wanted to sleep with me, or something. Possibly just his general attitude, but I really didn't; very nice guy, and very charming, but not my type at all. Band finished and we went over to City Café for a few pints, then returned to CV for the live funk thing that was going on. Didn't really listen to much, but instead stood up a the back chatting to X and various people who were passing through. Talked to a few people who were interested in contributing, including a photographer.

Crawled home to bed at about 4am, ready to face the hangover from hell.

Samuel was ill.

And home to bed...

Fairly busy day - lots of email to respond to, and people to call in the morning. Quite a few people seem to be having trouble opening the review lists, because for some weird reason when I copied and pasted from text edit into mail, it dropped it in as a tiff, rather than text. Irritating, but not a tragedy. Talked to Hazel Sheppard at Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust, who was guarded but enthuisatic about what we are doing; she organised a press ticket for the Cage performance at the Caves tonight for me, and said that she would like to be sent a copy of the paper when it is printed.

Set up a day of meetings in Glasgow for Wednesday, and called a few other people up to try and sort something out for next week. Spoke to the outgoing press officer at the Usher Hall who, disappointingly, was unable to organise a press ticket for the Murnau/Lambchop thing, because she said that they would need to have seen an issue of the paper first. Not entirely unexpected, and, indeed, that is the whole point of a preview issue at this time of year, but vexing partly because we are doing a feature about it and it would be good exposure for them, but also because there is an existing history with the venue through 3W.

Cooked lunch - which was rather later than I had expected, due to the oven not doing as it was told - for X, S and R who was in the office - roast chicken, steamed vegetables, and roast parsnips and squash with a wine and cream sauce. It went down very well, and despite the cock up with the oven was very easy - the sort of thing you can put in and forget about, so not a huge effort. Finished eating at about 4pm, and got on with mainly email related stuff - I had something ridiculous like 57 emails sitting in my inbox, most of which needed some sort of response, even if only very brief.

Stuart came round at about 5pm for a meeting about his involvement in things; he seems very willing to commit a couple of days a week to the project to liase with venues and help compile listings and suchlike - he is coming back in tomorrow to discuss things in a little more detail.

Then off to the caves to meet Matt for the John Cage concert. Very atmospheric venue and an interesting crowd of people. I think we, and his friends, were the youngest there by a good 20 years or so, but it wasn't full of people who nodded knowingly and laughed at 'little jokes' in the music in that nauseating way that some have. Hard to write about, I think, and I'll probably leave it a couple of days to mull it over, but I made a few notes which should be helpful. Went out afterwards for a drink at City Café. Met his friend and flatmate Amelia, who has had a fascinating career - she works in project management doing creative construction projects, building, for example a 50 high cactus with a lift in it. Matt is great, and seems very grounded. Hopefully we will do something else in the not too distant future.

Walked back down South Bridge with Andy, another one of the sound design contingent, who has worked variously as a musician and sound engineer for years, including a 12 year stint in Spain at some point. Very interesting, and seems very passionate about his work, and committed to the course. Popped down Broughton Street to say hello to R in his bar, which was just closing. Had a quick pint, and met Tam, who R had been talking about - he seems very well connected in the club scene, and I'm not entirely certain that I don't know him from somewhere previously. I can't quite think where, though. From Yorkshire, but has a slightly Scotticised accent. Left there at about half one, and went to Rapido to get some sort of food - they were just about to lock up, but recognised me, and gave me a penne piccante with meat balls to take away - felt slightly cheated because there were only TWO meatballs in the whole thing!

Rang Adam on the walk home and had a long chat about things London - and the fact that there is probably no way I'm going to have time to be down there before the end of the year again - and other general gossip, continued conversation when I got into the flat, and then off to bed, ready for a painfully early start to run Sofia to the airport.

Zzzzzz

Ow

Got a splinter earlier, from a piece of wood in R's old flat, as I was moving the filing cabinets. It didn't hurt at first, but now it has gone quite pink, and feels sore. I hope it's not going to cause trouble and go septic or something horrible.

Empress Reversed, Mid Heaven

Productive afternoon. Hefted filing cabinets around with the help of Jamie, and found a very good phone, a BT Converse 225, no less - oh yes, indeed - in the drawer of one of them. Now have the main line coming in at my side of the office, and then another handset plugged directly into that; have also led an extension from X's line over to my side; really need some sort of a switchboard, but that will happen next week, perhaps. It even takes a headset, so I can spend all day plugged into my communication devices. How nice that will be.

Writers meeting at 3, lots of people turned up, including a fair few new ones. Met Jayson, who I had been slightly dubious about at first, but he is a very genuine and personable guy - I think he will be very good for the project. Stuart brought along Andy, who is very enthusiastic, and someone who I feel I connect fairly well with - he understands entirely what motivates me, and respects what I am trying to achieve. Linds brought along Will who is very charming, and sharp; he wants to write a brief history of the American election, which is something - not specifically, but that sort of social/political writing - that I had been thinking about. Very pleased about Juliet and her safari diary. That should be interesting.

Popped back to the flat, pottered around, and then called a taxi to go up to see Will. Grabbed sunday papers on the way back - which still sit, unread; will go through them tomorrow, and collect clippings. Must remember to try and get hold of the Herald and SoS from the weekend I was away in London for Shelagh so that she can get the Tiger Lillies clippings.

X & S came in at about 7pm; was in the middle of trying to work, and chatting to M on MSN. He told me about a very interesting sounding thing at the Caves tomorrow called Certain Circuits - all John Cage and experimental music. X is going to dredge up a venue contact tomorrow and get me on the list.

Ordered food from Thaisanuk (or Thaisan UK - I can never make up my mind which it is...) which was very disappointing - tiny portions; Sofia's red curry only had 5 tiny slivers of chicken in it. Nipped up to Margiotta while I was waiting for it to be delivered, to buy cigarettes and wine - picked up a couple of lovely bottles, for £6, and an Oz Clarke recommended one - apparently - for £4 or something. Boy at checkout seems to know me now, and *asked* if I wanted cigarettes - obviously I said yes, and he had a packet of Gauloise waiting for me. Also told me off for losing the lighter I bought yesterday.

X did Sofia's cards - past, present and future - Gemini reversed, Cancer, and New Moon reveresd. All seemed to make sense.

Then he did mine, for emotion, intellect and career for the next week specifically - as I shuffled, a card leapt out. High Priestess Reversed - Emotion, Empress Reversed - Intellect, and Mid-Heaven Divinatory, Career. The card which had leapt out was Sagittarius reversed, which I turned over at two minutes past midnight, on the absolute cusp of Sagittarius. Very bizarre. The most telling card - apart from Mid-Heaven, which is almost ridiculously symbolic - was the Empress, talking about frustration with current surroundings; the hassle I'm having with BT, with the gas-board (who *still* won't believe that I really live here, despite me telling them 7 times, now), with the managing agents - five weeks on, no new cooker, the windows welded shut, the boiler on its last legs, the washing machine - all of this, had a lot of resonance.

Mozart's Requiem playing in the background, as X was doing the cards - it was very beautiful listening to him engaging fully, with Sofia, almost as if I wasn't in the room.

It all made a disturbing amount of sense, but it looks like I'm having a tought, but ultimately successful week. I need - and I aware of it always - to not let my optimism run away with me.

Just had the most amazingly spiritual experience - after all our conversations this evening, we stepped outside to finish the wine and have a last cigarette; suddenly, looking up, we noticed the most perfectly defined ring round the moon that I have ever seen. I have truly never seen anything like it in my life; the waning moon was shining down, almost harshly, right onto the doorsetp. Rushed in for cameras - irritatingly, because I'd left it plugged in to one of the Macs, the D70's battery was flat, but both X & S managed to capture it - perfectly, and beautifully - on their cameras. We stood outside for 20 minutes, watching it slowly fade and disperse as the scattered clouds moved back in. They say, when there is a full moon, that hares come out into the fields and stare up, hypnotised, until they feel the cold and move away. I felt disturbingly similar, and the phenomomen lent a truly mystical enchanted overtone to the whole of the evening, like something pulled out especially for us. 10 minutes more, and we would not have noticed it.

What a lovely, lovely day.

After we had eaten, Sofia wanted to tidy - within an hour, the chaos of papers piled all over the desk, scattered on the floor, piles of review CDs and Vinyl and fliers and press releases was turned into some sort of order. I have two piles of papers to go through tomorrow, but Stuart is coming down, so we can start to create some sort of order out of our administrative chaos...

Urgh

Chilly bedroom. Stupidly left the window gaping all day after opening it this morning to let out the bacon smoke. It would never have happened had the idiot painters not painted all the other windows shut. Radiator off too, but I can only really blame myself for that.

Marlboros really are disgusting things. I have acrid heartburn, which I always get after smoking them. Never happens with Gauloises.

Dave Clarke/Messenger Sound System

Booked X and Sofia a table at Metro on the Grassmarket for dinner so that they could eat before we went to Colours. They left at about half eight and I got on with some admin-y things, had a shower and cooked myself scrambled eggs on toast, with broccoli for added vitamin-ness. Chucking down with rain, so got a taxi up to George IV Bridge and went down to the Bow Bar to meet up with them. Passed the queue for the Liquid rooms, which was huge. Someone - I have no idea who - famous seemed to be hovering around the Bow, because he was signing CDs and tickets for people. Longish hair, mid forties looking. Overheard someone saying 'and I said to him "without you, Queen would never have happened"'. Who would Queen have never happened without?

Anyway, left after last orders and went up to the Liquid Rooms. Bouncer was having some grief from a rough looking group who reckoned they had tickets, but who wouldn't show them to him. Got in pretty quickly. Tickets were £20 apparently. Ouch. Suddenly I remember why I never used to go to clubs that much...

Support set was good, and DC kicked off at about half twelve. Amazing set, very hard, deep house, and brilliant mixing. Got about 5 excellent shots of him when he wasn't moving. Very hard to shoot in that sort of light, and most of them were blurred. Irritating poles and wires and theatre blacks dangling all over the place, so it was pretty hard to get a clear line of sight; managed about 20 good ones in total though, a mixture of him, the support, and the crowd - I'm hoping that R will be able to take out a couple of the thinner wires that were in shot.

Left there at 2am, X and S headed back home, and I went down to Messenger Sound System at the Bongo Club, which I could hear from about 200 yards away. Heaving bass which was shaking the steel plates over the windows. As I went in, there was a line of people all pressing their hands against the plates, feeling the vibrations. Very very dark, so couldn't get any pictures at all, which is a shame; also, so warm that the lens constantly misted up, and I didn't have a lens cloth with me. Some minor screw up with the guest list, because they didn't have my name, but the guy doing tickets was vaguely familiar and he let me in anyway. Bumped into Leonard, who is going to see if he can knock out 100 words about it to go with the listings.

Walked home down St Mary's Street and Waverly Bridge; very beautiful at night with the City Art Centre pulsing away, and the Christmas tree lit up on the Mound.

Lazy lazy saturday

Lovely lazy morning. Flopped around all morning in bed semi-working with my laptop, then surfaced at about midday, and pottered around a bit. Phone had been ringing at about 11, and X had surfaced, stomped through to the office and answered it. Apparently it was R ringing to say he was exhausted and wouldn't be in today. X stamped back to his room muttering "Fuckin' phone, fuckin' ringing" but apparently has absolutely no memory of answering it...

Cooked bacon, avacado and tomato sandwiches, and then zoomed off to the airport to pick up Sofia, who is over from Sweden for the weekend. Got a coffee from Hilary at Zonker on the way, and smoked my last cigarette from last night in the car. Very posh lady in the deli who was telling me that I should go to the fundraiser at St George's girls school and check out teenie fashion - apparently, it's all Moschino trainers, furry moon boots and sheep skin coats. On 7 year olds.

Some people really, really do have too much money. There's something really quite distasteful about little girls dressed up to the nines. They should be scruffy and dirty and dressed in hand me downs from their brothers. Or perhaps that's just my latent misogyny, or something.

She is as lovely as X had promised, and truly breathtakingly beautiful - she speaks perfect English, and is very sharp. Had a lovely chat about why we hate sailing in the car, and I told her about Edinburgh, Jekyll and Hyde and the psyche of Edinburgh. I thought I was being very boring, but she was enchanted - or supremely polite. Drove in via Anne Street, which she thought was very beautiful.

Got in, did a frantic tidy of the kitchen, and made tea and coffee. She's had something done to her teeth, so can't drink coffee for 36 hours, but is quite happy to eat spinach and smoke cigarettes.

Went up to Tesco and the bank, got X's wages from the machine, and did a bit of a shop - I'm going to do a proper sunday evening meal, complete with parsnips and all the rest. Need to get some tarragon from somewhere for the sauce. As I was leaving for Tesco, X got very twitchy and asked me to 'come and look at this in my room' and sheepishly asked if could pick up some 'uh, y'know, uh, things...' - or condoms, in plain English. Sofia wanted chocolate and Marlboro Lights. Got to Tesco, got everything, including a bumper box of 'uh, things' which were, bizarrely, just to make the process more humiliating for shy people. The poor boy at the checkout couldn't get them out of the security box, and was blushing as red as beetroot. He scurried off to get a supervisor, who said that was the last box of those, so I brought him back extra safe, which amused him no end. I think the two guys in Tesco were far more embarrassed by the whole thing than I was.

Got flashed by five people on the way back to tell me that my rear lights were out. Can't really understand it, because the brakes, indicators and reverse lights are all working, it's just the actual lights that weren't working. I think it's possibly from driving over cobbles at high speed. I'll have a poke around tomorrow, and see if something has come loose. It needs a service anyway, and I really need to take it and get it checked, because I am not entirely sure that when I whacked the underside of the stupid speed bump off South Bridge didn't do something to the shock absorbers.

Sofia is fab. We're talking brands and consumer culture just now. She's very astute, and really gets it. Ex-model, marketing whizz, PhD student, beautiful, fun, and so relaxed and charming. Where are the *men* like this?

Hmm

Up late-ish. Horrible cigarette hangover muzzy feeling. Am never smoking R's fakes again. Euch.

Stop it! It's nearly 5am...

Some knob is trying to break into the building site next door.

And blogging seems to be becoming a bit of an addiction. I wonder how long it will last?

Oh really

If I say 'really' once more in a post, I'm going to shoot myself. I just went through and edited out the horrific overuse I made of it, removing at least 10 of them in the process. It really is a word I really use far to much. Really it is.

Oh Mother. Zigazig ahhh.

Off to Oran Mor in Glasgow in the evening for the Mother and the Addicts gig, who were playing support to Sons & Daughters. Couldn't stay for the headline (and Jasper is doing a feature and interview with them anyway, so not really necessary, plus they are playing Subway on the 13th) but MatA were fab, very tight and professional set - longer than expected at 7 songs, but good stuff. The crowd weren't really up for it, but it was very early in the evening. Best thing about it was they looked like they were having a complete blast on stage, particularly the guy playing a dinky little wooden cased synth was letting rip with his dancing. They have a single on pink vinyl. I *must* own that. I must. It would be good to have a few to give away, too, via an SMS comp or something. Truly great venue, too; first time I'd been in, bizarrely, and I was very impressed. It's the sort of thing Edinburgh so desperately needs. The Roxy is half way there, but the idiots at the council won't let them do live music, so they are very limited in what they can do. The Bongo Club is the nearest thing, but the space at Oran Mor is superb. Slightly odd acoustic, I though, but hard to tell where I was standing.

Prior to that, zoomed into CCA for a super-fast meeting with Graham, who is keenish to take on the Glasgow side of things. Very up about film and books and so on, but not so enthused about music and clubs. I said we should be able to get someone to work with him on that.

After that, on to the Brunswick Hotel for ZigZag, as recommended to us late this afternoon by Fiona at Assembly Direct - who, it turns out, after X had been speaking to her this morning - I have been dealing with in the past for the 3W preview of the Jazz Festival. Lovely, and very helpful.

ZigZag was just what I needed after a hectic week; really intimate space, and the music was perfect for it - slow burning, relaxed jazz, with a very mellow kick to it. Met Pete Kelly, the promoter, and Thomas who does the decks. Both very interested in what we're doing, and gave email addresses. Guestlisted for their next night, so I'll try to shunt that off to one of the Glasgow crowd. R got some good shots of the gig, plus of the bar, which will be handy for online stuff. Told Pete that I'd give them a little box in the next listings section, and use one of the images alongside that. He's also very keen to have a copy of them, to use on his website.

Most interesting event of the day without a doubt was meeting Stephen and Michael who own the Brunswick. Very fun, very charming, and absolutely understand Glasgow as a city. Stephen was very taken by my Muji pad, which reminded me I need more. Ordered 20 online, so they should be here mid-week. I go through the things like water, but they are the perfect size to slip into a back pocket without looking like you have a dictionary stuffed down your pants. Plus, people like them and ask about them, which is a great way to get them talking. He offered to give me lunch in the upstairs Café-bar next time I'm in town, which was lovely of him. Had a mutual moan about the shortsightedness of Glasgow City Council.

Tom, who works behind the bar at the Brunswick, plays in ParkAttack, who are signed to Oscarr and Tiger Sushi - he played support for Sons and Daughters last night, and is going to keep me posted with any gigs they've got coming up. It's very weird when that whole synchronicity thing happens, because we're trying to get Twitch and Wilkes from Optimo - who are behind Oscarr - to interview for the preview issue. X was meant to be getting me guest-listed for the Optimo birthday party at the venue tomorrow, but couldn't see anything about it on my desk anywhere. We will see.

Again on the synchronicity note, Graham gave me a CD as I was leaving the CCA which, it turns out, is on Thomas's label, and which they were selling on the door at ZigZag. Clearly this evening was just one of those ones that was meant to be...

Talked to Fraser from Beat106 - we're going to try and grab a coffee on Wednesday, and he can give me some tips and generally catch up.

Having been drinking Diet Pepsi all evening, and coffee most of the day, ended up thoroughly over-caffeinated and unable to sleep. Smoked a truly horrible number of cigarettes, including at least 2 or R's lethal knocked-off Marlboro counterfeits. I can still feel the formaldehyde coursing through my veins.

Whole stack of email waiting for me when I finally got back at half one. Beta Band interview looks like it is going ahead.

Go team noise

Not a hugely productive morning - slept through first alarm, so wasn't properly up and at it until about half nine. Xavier surfaced at about half ten, and Richard turned up - having said he would be in the office by 9am - at nearly eleven. He looked fairly ill, and said his glands were playing up, so I can't really complain too much. Hilly made a brief appearance, but shot off fairly quickly.

Admin stuff all morning - including a fair chunk of time trying to track down someone from the Goat Club, which seems to be the only in I can find with The Ocean Floor people. Completely failed to do most of the things on my to-do list, and then went out to meet Liam from St C at lunchtime. He's committed to taking a quarter page in every mid-month issue, which is worth about £2k over a year - I gave him a good deal, and, since he was prepared to commit to 12 months, a discount which seemed to work for him. He seemed very enthusiastic about the whole thing. Not so much as Ally @ Bongo yesterday, who actually broke into a big grin when I was telling him what we are doing, but much keener than I had thought he might be. He needs to get it signed off with the London office, but that it a formality - R had talked to Eddy, the MD last Wednesday at the great fun album launch thing, and he seemed all for it.

Spent the afternoon in a blind panicky rush trying to get the features list off and out to the writers before half four, when we had a meeting with Cath at the Liquid Rooms, after which I was straight off to Glasgow. Left at twenty past, and traffic was truly hellish. Some twat tried to hurl himself under my wheels at the Dublin/Queen Street lights, by shooting out just as the lights turned green for me and I put my foot down - missed him by literally inches. Abandoned the car on the mound, having sat for five minutes in the same queue without moving, and legged it up to the venue, only to find X coming out as I arrived. Thought Cath might have been pissed off that he was so late, but he said she was just very busy. Got the face to face thing, though, however brief, so no more problems there. We're going to see her late next week instead.

Laura from Highway Diner dropped round to go through some stuff from a shoot R did for her. Had a chat with her about what she was doing at the moment, and she's agreed to write a 400 word piece for the 'How I Got Here' series of articles. New hairdo, which looked great.

Had (what seems to be becoming a daily) morning chat with Caro; Marquee gig went off really well, even if she did have to spend two hours freezing on the door. Elefant went down well, and she chatted up/was chatted up by the lead singer who is apparently heart-breakingly pretty. AD was there, without velvet shirt, with the long suffering Jen. Neither of them were impressed by the band, though, and AD spent most of his time being his usual self and hassling Chris and Caro for booze.

Bongo Club

Meeting with Ally at the Bongo club at 11am - he wasn't there when we arrived, and the foriegn girl whose name I can never remember was very fierce until she remembered that she'd met me before. He turned up at about half past, looking very stressed and tired, and slightly sweaty, having slept in and hared it over on his bike. He'd been woken up in the middle of the night by the security company reporting the alarm going off, and had then slept in. Didn't mind in the slightest, as it gave X a little while to recover from his hangover and look a little more human.

We told him about the project, and he was very - incredibly - enthusiastic. Normally he is so laid back, but he broke into a big grin when I was explaining what we were going to be doing, and what sort of things we would be covering. He's completely behind us now, and has said anything we need ticketswise, or supportwise, he's more than happy to help, which is fab.

Talked a bit about the Fringe, too - he'd been to a venue managers' meeting at the beginning of the week, and 3W apparently scored very highly with the venues and performers in feedback terms - plus we were right up at the top of quantity covered. We just need to crack the EIF coverage next year, and not have a repeat of that rather difficult meeting again...

Chatted a bit about Sheridan and the C nonsense, which he hadn't heard about. He agreed that she had perhaps not dealt with things in the very best way possible. He's such a diplomat.

Writers

Writers meeting went very well - great turnout of somewhere around 30 people, and plenty of new faces. I was 5 minutes late, because I had to try and find somewhere to park, so when I walked in they were all sitting in neatly serried rows, placid and obedient. Which is nice - but rather surprising, because the ThreeWeeks writers are *always* late for that sort of thing.

Rattled through the training pack - which looked great, even if it was just knocked out at CopyCat and collated at the last minute - and spent the best part of two hours talking at them, which I felt slightly silly doing, but it apparently went down fairly well, going by the feedback I had afterwards. SK thought it could have done with a bit more focus on the way they should be structuring reviews and features, a la 3W full-on training thing, but there just wasn't enough time. I would have liked to have covered that, but in a way we don't have to be quite so rigid as 3W about it, and we can let writers evolve in their own way by giving them plenty of feedback for the stuff they've written.

Left on a high feeling that everything is suddenly coming together - the writers are all very keen, and were happily surprised that we would be sending them out to stuff almost immediately, which felt great.

Got an email afterwards from Jayson who is still very keen to write, so I can stop worrying on that account.