Friday Has Overslept
I love videos like these. Some Australian chappie made loads, and I stumbled across them a few months ago and just couldn’t stop watching them.
You know, the funny thing about quitting my job is how incredibly easy I have found it to be disciplined about my new job. I don’t sleep in, I still work late, although not as crazily late as I used to have to, and I don’t even skive and piss about on the internet during the day.
This morning, however, I slept in. Shit. Until eleven, which is quite bad, and even then I had to drag myself out of bed like a member of the living dead. I’ve always been a sleeper, however. I can miss out on all the sleep in the world by staying up late, but for some reason getting up early is absolutely beyond me. To tackle this, Mrs. Toad makes me get up and drive her to work in the morning these days, which ensure I am out and about by nine every morning.
This makes plenty of sense, because once you’re up, you’re up, really, aren’t you, and it seems to work… until a band buggers off in the van meaning that whatever my good intentions, I can’t drive her to work, which is what happened this morning. And there’s something deeply unsatisfying about sleeping in when you are your own boss and the only person getting cheated is YOU! Dammit, world, what have you done to one of my great pleasures in life?
So yes, wake up, rub your eyes and de-lurk, for ’tis Friday, the day for drinking, fornicating and snoozing at your desk in the mid-afternoon!
1. Do you have a really bad sleeping in story?
2. Would you rather work late or get up early if you have a lot of shit to do.
3. Favourite sleeping place.
4. Which dead music publication do you miss the most?
5. If you were starting a music magazine, name one thing you definitely would or would not do.
This Friday’s five tunes are all from the covermount CD of an old Comes With a Smile issue. The late, very much lamented Comes With a Smile.
Low – Walk into the Sea (Acoustic Version)
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Jens Lekman – No Time for Breaking Up
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Brendan Benson – Between Us (Uncensored Version)
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The Eighteenth Day of May – Sir Casey Jones
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1. So, so many. I slept through a meeting I was supposed to be having in Inverness in my first few months at my former Proper Job. I’d worked late into the night for two weeks running, slept through my alarm and numerous phonecalls, only to finally wake up when they called me from Inverness at around nine to ask, “What, where are you? What time is it where you are?”
2. I can work overnight two nights running if I don’t go to sleep, without much difficulty. But ask me to get out of bed a couple of hours early and there’s nae chance.
3. Anywhere Mrs. Toad is. Awwww. Actually, I was going to say the couch in the middle of the afternoon, but when you’re 6’2″ the couch always seems like a better idea than it ends up being.
4. Comes With a Smile, obviously!
5. I would definitely pay huge attention to the graphics, fill it with visual art as well, and print it on lovely paper. Which means I would be bankrupt within a year, I would imagine. Or less.
1. Last week I was supposed to work at the King’s Wark at 12. Shonagh called me at 12:01 and woke me up. That wasn’t the best day, I had to forego showering.
2. Work late. Hands down. Mornings should only be seen from the tailend of a day.
3. My mom’s couch while she watches awful made for television movies. Nothing puts me to sleep faster.
4. Don’t have one. The only magazines/blogs I’ve ever liked still exist.
5. Start a music magazine.
That last one should read: I WOULD NOT start a music magazine. I don’t have enough followthrough for a project of that scale.
1 – It’s not particularly bad, but I did sleep in on my second day of a new job whilst I was living in Glasgow and only a tender age of 18. Unbelievably embarrassing at the time, even if my boss was a decent guy and just let me make the time up over the rest of the week.
2 – I’m very happy working late, but sometime I need a fresh(ish) pair of eyes to look at something so might get up early as well. Some of my most productive hours are actually between about 8pm and 2am.
3 – My bed. Always. It’s massive and wonderful.
4 – I don’t think I’m old enough to really miss one that has gone the way of the dodo, but I do miss having NME as my 15 year old bible. My source of all cool new bands. It isn’t that easy any more (not that it probably was then, but it was for me).
5 – I wouldn’t use print as the main part. The website would be first, but highlights printed. A few friends and myself flirted with doing a new free paper in Edinburgh whilst we were there actually – called The Supplement, which did this type of thing across the sections…it all died when we left though. Sigh.
1. Not really. I’m one of those really annoying early rising pesky perky morning types.
2. Get up early. It’s the best part of the day, you know!
3. Nothing beats your own bed. Especially if it’s for a cheeky afternoon nap. Although, despite usually being totally uncomfortable, I have a knack of dropping off in the cinema at vital plot moments..
4. Smash Hits
5. Um, I don’t think I would start one either..
I just heard the Roxy is closing forgoodforever – real shame, enjoyed the Hidden Door thingy at the weekend..
1. Almost missed an exam last year because I was convinced that it was at 12 when in fact it was at 8am. I woke up at 7:30, had a shower, decided to check my exam timetable at about 8:15 to find the venue, panicked, ran up the hill in about 10 minutes (a trip that usually takes me about 30) and started the exam half an hour late, shaking from the unaccustomed exertion.
2. I’ve suddenly become utterly unable to maintain coherent thought after about 11 at night, which means I’ve had to start doing things during the day.
3. Bed.
4. Necromusicology Today. First ten issues came with the pieces of a collapsible shovel/cassette player kit.
5. I’d probably lose interest half way through the second issue.
1. Do you have a really bad sleeping in story?
Nope. I’m an annoying early bird kind of person, which really annoys the wife, who most certainly is not.
2. Would you rather work late or get up early if you have a lot of shit to do.
Always early – see above.
3. Favourite sleeping place.
Bed. I’m rubbish at sleeping elsewhere. Must be dark. Merest chink of light will wake me up. I’m hopeless at sleeping in during the summer. In high summer I’m up at 5am as a result.
4. Which dead music publication do you miss the most?
Select or Muzik (some great CD giveaways)
5. If you were starting a music magazine, name one thing you definitely would or would not do.
Feature Nick Cave or Mark E Smith.
The Roxy? I knew all the Edinburgh University Settlement buildings were for sale – Roxy/Forest/GRV/Bristo Hall – but I had no idea any had been sold yet.
Fucking hell.
1. Not that bed. Was getting a lift to orienteering the night the clocks changed, and was still in bed for a good 20 minutes while they sat outside waiting for me. I have more stories about getting up for school, putting on my uniform, eatying breakfast and only then realising that there was a) no one else around and b) it was 3am.
2. Early every time. Don’t sleep well if I’m thinking about stuff anyways.
3. I love those days when you’re so tired that the ground anywhere is just the comfiest place you can imagine. But generally, bed.
4. Melody Maker filled my teenage years. It was probably rubbish, but I was sat to see it go.
5. If I didn’t really like a band anymore that I used to really like, I would just stop writing about them.
1. Only when I was supposed to drive Meursault to Stirling the other week, but that story involves drinking with Honeytrap, so all bets are off.
2. I’d just rather not have a lot of shit to do.
3. The beach at Anstruther.
4. The old witty, imaginative Q magazine, rather than the slimy industry whore we have now.
5. I would include witty photo captions like they used to in the old days of Q.
Yeah, what is going on with the Roxy? Looks like you can still buy tickets for forthcoming events..
http://uk.brownpapertickets.com/event/136326
I have the Roxy Theatre booked for Yusuf’s album launch in November, so I sincerely hope it’s still going to be open at that point.
1. Oh loads. I’ve missed buses, trains, meetings, slept in for work of course, all sorts. Most epic would be waking up around 5pm on a Sunday and realising that I’d pretty much been in bed since Friday night. Which would have been ok if I hadn’t meant to be at work on Saturday and Sunday. That took a lot of explaining.
2. Stay up late by far. I can pull an all nighter with ease, but I’m crap at getting up early. So much so that if I have to be up really early chances are I won’t go to sleep and will spend a day in caffine/zombie overload.
3. Your own bed is always a winner. On of my exes did have a fantastic couch that was great for naps though.
4. Select got a bit ropey at times, but was the best of the bunch when I was younger. Always liked Jockey Slut too.
5. Give away free sweets with each issue. People love sweets.
Becky: I’ve done that loads of times. Woke up in the middle of the night convinced I’ve slept in and been fully ready before discovering my error.
“Most epic would be waking up around 5pm on a Sunday and realising that I’d pretty much been in bed since Friday night. Which would have been ok if I hadn’t meant to be at work on Saturday and Sunday.”
That wins. How the fuck did you manage that?
I honestly have no idea. I’d worked a load of double shifts, and a night shift during the week, so by Friday I was basically fucked, but I still don’t know how I managed to lose an entire day and a half.
Would it be rude to ask if there was drinking involved?
You’d expect there to have been drinking involved, but there wasn’t. I did get hammered on the Sunday though to stop me thinking about the shit I’d be in when I wandered back into work on Monday. In hindsight wandering back in hungover wasn’t a great idea either.
1) I once gloated to my boss at the Edinburgh Festival that I was the the only member of the crew who hadn’t overslept and missed a call. Lo and behold, next morning I woke up five minutes after I was meant to be at work having turned my alarm off in my sleep. In retrospect the come-uppance was inevitable…
2) Work late. You can always find more time at night. If you wake up early and don’t allow enough time the day won’t expand.
3) Cars and trains. I love falling asleep with the sound of travel going on around me.
4) Mix magazine has lost a little of it’s luster since it went subscription only.
5) Review music without links to said music! Sorry but the internet won music reviews for that reason.
Ben, that isn’t just tempting fate, that’s donning a tiny skirt, adopting a provocative wiggle, then taking it out to the pub and getting it plastered!
Incidentally, all I can find out about the Roxy is that they closed the doors last night, permanently, apparently.
1) I’m great at this. I woke up on a Monday afternoon once to the doorbell. My boss and a colleague outside with the police. I’d say they overreacted slightly. It’s a really frantic feeling waking up with a hangover and realising that your really fucking late eh? Much swearing and self chastising.
2) Work late.
3) I used to lock myself in the disbled toilets at work and have power naps. Not the most considerate person….
4) I’ve never really been into one that’s died.
5) Pretty obvious answer but curated covermount CDs are amazing.
Roxy’s dead? That’s shite.
Maybe you should bring the Roxy into your empire as Toad Hall?
1) 16 hours straight sleep without a flinch one day last month, mainly due to jet lag and tequila. plucky effort though
2)Always work late, you don’t feel bad drinking at night
3) Anyway comfortable, silent and pitch black. Although a coffin may fit that description so perhaps not
4) Home made fanzines, particularly the punk ones
5) I’d get some decent writers involved, something which is sadly lacking in most current publications.
oh and Meersalt were excellent last night. Great sound for such an odd and small venue. Two lead guitars and drums is an odd combination but it worked.
1. Er, no. I have a real problem in that I find it impossible to stay asleep past about 7.30, no matter what time I went to bed.
2. It would depend on how available food was- I can’t stay in the office really late because I get way too hungry to concentrate
3. Generally, anywhere warm and comfortable but within earshot of the howling wind/rain/snow. there’s something about knowing that it’s cold outside that makes being in bed even better. Unless you have to get up, course…
4. My musical research (such as it is) tends to be in the form of listening rather than reading- I never even bought shit like NME when I was a teenager
5. I’d probably do something to promote emerging or unsigned bands- despite having no idea how these things work, perhaps either stick a CD of their stuff on the cover or give away mp3s on our website (which, yeah, we’d have to create)…
I’ve just read back over my own answers and have realised how bloody dull they are….
Sponsorship for music magazines is so tricky. I love Sound on Sound magazine but became really suspicious when Focusrite came out with a totally revamped line of audio interfaces all of which were heavily promoted in the magazines advertising and all of which received, by a strange coincidence, stellar reviews. It just leaves a sour taste in your mouth, especially given that I really like both companies as individuals.
I’ll bet in music review land for magazines like ‘Q’ you can do the same. A simple graph of stars awarded to albums by record label. It think it would be an amusing idea if I had any motivation to actually get off my arse and do it.
Tim – Bristo Hall is available… if only we had just shy of a million quid tucked away somewhere to buy the bugger. Amaaaazing space though.
Adamski – you could always make up something more glamorous-sounding. It’s the internet, no-one would know.
Ben – professional writers for major glossies I know tell me that that is exactly how it works. I mean, I find it hard enough to criticise my close friends and collaborators’ music already – imagine how tough it would be if there were money involved.
I am prepared to accept a spot of three-post mentalism for this rather sad bit of news:
Sad times.
Does anyone know if the Forest Cafe has suffered the same fate? Is that uni settlement owned as well?
Yes, the Forest, The Roxy, The GRV, Bristo Hall – it’s the lot, I think. But not The Lot. That’s someone else.
Crazy.
Lets hope there are some interested parties out there looking to buck the recession and start a new happening venue!!
Well it’s not the easiest place in the world to start one. Edinburgh’ so touristy that the centre is massively over-priced, I think. And it was never industrial so there are very few good, affordable spaces like you might find in Manchester or Glasgow or Leeds. Maybe Leith is the way forward.
But then you will have everyone going past with their plastic bag of touts and beer aggressively shouting at you “IS THIS A FUCKING HIPPY CONVENTION?”
FUCK IT im moving to leeds.
Come on Madcow, it will bring an air of excitement to the show – even the quietest of folk music!
Yes I am wondering too if the Forest etc will be closed down immediately as well – bit confused as the email I had about an event there tomorrow says it is now relocating to the Forest, but if settlement has gone bankrupt then surely it’ll affect that place too?
Didn’t realise this also affected GRV – never seem to go there much but it’s a nice wee venue.
Potentially rather sad times for Edinburgh I feel – I’d say we all need a pint to cheer ourselves up but unfortunately the place which sells all my favourite beers has just, um, closed..
Fear and excitement are quite similar I guess….
Roseleaf in Leith this evening, Scientist. There’s a few of us meeting up if you fancy. Even Madcow can come.
I am pretty sure the GRV falls under the arm of the Settlement, but I am not entirely certain. I know the building has been up for sale for a while too, so I assume it is.
Apologies to everyone else for this thread becoming somewhat hijacked.
1. Do you have a really bad sleeping in story?
I used to have to work every 2nd saturday morning. This one weekend I was supposed to work and then pick up a van to drive a friend down to Norwich with all her belongings. Needless to say I got v pissed on friday night and woke up at 12 with the phone ringing. Missed work and the van hire place. My friend was not best chuffed.
2. Would you rather work late or get up early if you have a lot of shit to do.
Early every time. In fact I usually have to up at 6.30 to drive to the arse end of nowhere for 8am just so I can sit in my van for 2 hours waiting for the workmen to arrive/start work.
3. Favourite sleeping place.
My own bed. I work away from home quite a lot and its always really nice to get back to my own bed. I did once sleep in a carpark lift in the middle of Birmingham with 2 other people after a gig,
4. Which dead music publication do you miss the most?
None, although I do have a sneeky peek at the NME in the shop occasionally
5. If you were starting a music magazine, name one thing you definitely would or would not do.
II’d start by reviewing the new I LIKE TRAINS album as its very good.
(no apologies for the plug)
Ooh v kind invitation but we have to be up bright and early in the morning, thereby also saving the thread! Hurrah!
The Roxy by the way – what the fuck?
Yeah I know. We had Yusuf Azak’s album launch booked in there too. We really are running chronically short of decent venues here at the moment – and promoters too, really.
But the Settlement, who owned the building, went bust. According to Rupert the Roxy itself was functioning well as a business, but if your building goes there’s not much you can do.
Although why the fuck a charity was taking out mortgages on such extravagant property I have no idea.