Lines written: #1

we drank so much the stars
crossed before our eyes
whispered sweet-nothings
and disappeared

we woke to traffic
criss-crossing the sky
blaring monotones
and insisted

we rise and face
the crusted mid-day
nagging sensibility
and waited

we hid so the dusk
kissed our conscience
soothing sins
and repeated.

Paddy.

Dear Ether,

I don’t know whether you’ve ever heard of Roland Barthe’s semiotic readings, but here is a short article / analysis of an iPad advertisement in a similar style to his. Enjoy!

The Must-Have Facebook Update:

Apple seems to think they’ve found it. The new iPad is featured in advertisement boasting of its ‘groundbreaking’ Facebook application. In this advertisement the user is reclined on a luxurious looking sofa casually updating, ‘Grab a coffee with me after you’ve finished unpacking?’ This seems an inane enough statement at first glance, so why on Earth have Apple chosen it to guide the hordes to their doors?

Of its significance I’d first seize upon the idea of ‘grabbing a coffee’. Coffee is synonymous with both luxury and convenience, the ultimate statement of metropolitan life, perhaps a reflection of the nature of the iPad; itself heralded to be the ultimate combination of quality and ease of usage. The act of ‘grabbing a coffee’ is also attractive to a large section of potential ‘iPadders’: lovers grab coffees on sunny days, work associates reluctantly huddle over over-sized mugs on rainy days, teenagers with birthdays grab coffees to establish their newly found middle-class identities.
So why choose to specify the task of unpacking? Here unpacking is not simply menial activity resigned to the end of holidays but an implication of travelling; the exotic and horizon broadening nature of globe-trotting. Once again, comparison must be made back to the iPad, not only is the iPad for travellers say Apple, but it is as worthy and multi-faceted as travel itself.

That our user knows this friend has recently been travelling also implies a past dialogue, which when advertising social media is crucial. In fact, not only does this ‘iPadder’ know what his friend has been doing (travelling) and what she is doing (unpacking) but he can also make future plans (coffee)! It’s almost as if they’d held a conversation– which sadly they cannot have done, because the iPad does not function as a telephone.

Also notable is the very deliberate move away from the ‘dialect’ of the internet. There is a marked difference between the rather civilised request to go for coffee (written in standard English) and text-talk’s melange of acronyms and phonic spellings often found on social media: ‘LOL @ mi kat, it iz asleep’.

Whether the advertisement’s update is truly must-have is perhaps questionable. I can’t help thinking more scintillating requests must have been made over Facebook than Apple’s example. What is undeniable however is that Apple’s version is as carefully crafted to its clientele as its product is.

I got love.

So let’s party in the supermarkets,
Move to the rhythm of my heartbeat,
I’ll take my tie right off my neck,
and wear it tied up round my head.

I’ll laugh right in the face of death,
I’ll fight this fight until my last breath,
For the frightened fall as often yet
far closer than the brave,
We’ve only got one life, let’s use it,
You can’t stop the movement,
So choke on that, you can quote that
You can write it on my grave,

"I got love", I’ve got so much love
Love in my heart and this feeling I can’t let it go.

False Idle.

Dear Ether,

I am very much in love with Oscar Wilde’s writing. So I am awfully sorry if I imitate any of his mannerisms. But the only original writing is stolen, as Wilde might have said.

However, no matter how much I admire Wilde, I don’t think I’d call him an idol of mine. I think idol implies that you admire their lives as well as their work, and although I hold Wilde’s work in high-esteem, I don’t think I fancy being locked up for buggery. I’m not sure you can be locked up for buggery anymore, but the point is I don’t think I’d cope well in a prison environment.

I did once argue that my favourite band were my idols. The voice of Patrick, the body and the lyrical verve of Pete – why not? Well, because they’re just kids with guitars who got lucky. I don’t think luck is a particularly desirable trait in an idol.

One of my friends objects to idols in principle. Arguing that to idolise someone, especially someone you’ve never met, is senseless because they are human and therefore are as flawed as you. I however think that’s like objecting to having dreams on the grounds they might not come true.

So in my post-exam idleness I’m on the hunt for new idols, a team of superheroes to silver-line my clouds and reinforce my inner monologue with the desire to do better.

Any suggestions?

A la P. x

Sleep Talker.

This curtained corner of the world is asleep. Yet still she implores me with scratched-face, rubbed-eyes, arms held out and laughter bursting forth. Neither a dream nor memory, a mockery of each which haunts me every night.

Perhaps too tired, too stressed, too deep in sleep to contain her dreams, instead they spill out and confront me in pleading voice:

‘I don’t understand, I don’t understand. I don’t understand.’

After-maths.

Dear Ether,

To get it out the way; the exam was ok. I read like hell before the exam and wrote like hell in the exam and that’s a combination that’s yet to fail me. So in the absence of superstition all I can do is not cross my fingers and wait.

The immediate aftermath was deliciously blurry and late night-ed, which picked me up and threw me back into the social whirlwind which I love so dearly. That weekend was also charged with the anticipation of the LUDAAS which I was gut-wrenchingly excited for.

And oh how they delivered. It was an incredibly night and exactly what it should have been: a celebration of a great year of great drama. Everyone was dressed to the nines and beyond in dresses and suits, smiles and nerves.Because of course the night included AWARDS. I think everyone who won an award had earned it, and even those winners were merely la crème of a very high quality crème.

I concede I was amongst the serendipitous few to be blessed with an award, and I honestly could not stop smiling. All night. Not a photograph smile, not a happy smile, but a full on crack-your-face-in-two beam.

I was that happy because it recognised not just my own effort (and I do admit I spent a lot of nights shouting at my wall in a cockney accent for that award) but the efforts of everyone involved. When I went up I thanked my casts and my directors, and I genuinely think that’s where the magic lies. I couldn’t have been Les without Barry/Jerry/Steve and I couldn’t have been that actor without all the others who were with me on stage and at the bar.

The night began in a full suit in a posh joint in the docks and ended at dawn under a tree with a friend, and the time between was spent throwing myself onto the dance floor, into a thousand photographs, and into the arms of my so very very inebriated friends. I couldn’t have been happier.

The next day promised a new chapter, in the form of an unanticipated trip to Wales. To be honest, it should have been anticipated, apparently I had been informed of the dates several times. However, in a bar the night before when I had been reminded that we were leaving for Wales tomorrow I simply insisted that it wasn’t until NEXT Tuesday. Oh dear.

In the end all that confusion paled to the greatness that was the Wales adventure. It seemed the perfect opportunity to rest our fatigued minds and bodies in the peaceful surrounds of the Welsh countryside.

Picnicking beside a slow-moving river, skipping stones and taking in the beautiful landscape, that’s exactly what it was. I don’t think city-soiled students ever thought they would appreciate the serenity of the setting so. Except of course for Morris, who I assume missed this moment as he was trying to work where EXACTLY we were on google latitude, despite having no idea where we were in Wales.

The rest element of this trip was however side-lined slightly by our insistence on taking the night as well. We talked, a lot. An incessant stream of in-jokes, impersonations and teasing which has left me with aching ribs even now. We also found time for debate and conversation which made me fall in love with these fascinating creatures I call friends all over again.

We also found time for an awful, awful film, which left us in tears and laughter for such wrong reasons. For reference, one scene included a small Japanese boy throwing condoms filled with holy water at his newly zombified foster-father. You can only imagine.

This blog-post is rapidly spiralling out of control. The more that happens, the less time I have to write about it. I wouldn’t have it any other way though. Above all however, these times are all the more special because they celebrate the end of; second year, East, life at Liverpool and for some the end of their degrees.

For those of you who haven’t been dedicated enough to translate ‘a la prochaine’, it is French for ‘until the next time’. And so to all those who I might not see for a while, or who feel it’s the end of something, I say, determinedly:

a la prochaine.

Because there will be a next time.

snap-shot-struck.

Dear Ether,

It was admittedly a bad time to buy a camera, I have managed to more or less control my creative urges and keep my head down, but here's a couple of shots which should interest both the photography lover and the pet lover:

Blades of grass. And sun. See?

AND A REALLY REALLY BIG DOG. AWHLOOKATHIM.

...a la proch. x

Bringing sexy Barack.

Apparently this is a young Barack Obama. I may be being deceived by that sly mistress the internet.

If it is Mr President, it gives me faith I can still achieve my two single life goals; to be really, really cool, and to be a world leader.

A la proch. x