mike profile picture

mike

sometimes i think 'what if i never was born at all?'

About Me

i'm trying to be less misanthropic. i like repeated patterns which are never exactly the same twice. i can sometimes be really funny, but i get nervous quite easily so i can only be funny when people aren't expecting me to be. when people whose names i don't know know my name, it kind of freaks me out. i have very high standards and as such am a constant disappointment to myself. if i told you about my life in much detail you'd probably think i was making a lot of things up. one day you'll be proud you ever knew me. i used to play in four planes in four days, and then i played in pirouettes ( http://www.chinchillaweb.co.uk/pirouettes/ ), and then in jupiter lander: http://www.myspace.com/jupiterlander. i don't have a gigging band right now, but i'm working on a few things so watch this space! i like to draw, mostly with black pens on white paper, and sometimes people like my drawings and use them for things like flyers and record covers and t-shirts. if you would like to commission me to draw something, feel free to ask. my prices range from cheap to free, but i won't draw things for just anyone. my friends ben and ros combine with me and others to create the party collective 'worth the wax'. we plan on bringing the party to manchester, and then hopefully spreading the party out to leeds and liverpool, until all who want party can have it in plentiful supply without being reduced to begging or drinking white ace on park benches. hopefully other people will come and party with us. on top of the gigs and parties and djing at things, we'll soon be branching out into a website, too, where we write about bands we like and we don't give anything marks out of ten. at the end of it all all i want is to be able to say that i had my moments and i knew when they were, and i made sure they looked tight.

My Interests

making music, listening to music...sometimes i also watch films. i like a drink and a smoke. there is nothing i like more than to combine both the aforementioned things with marathon vinyl-listening sessions with people whose company i can not only tolerate but actively enjoy. i'm fixated with ancient central american civilisations, the maya in particular. i also like camping, ray mears style. i'm not really 100. i think eloquence is an underrated virtue.

I'd like to meet:

someone who'll inspire me. someone impassioned and excitable and proactive. a fellow bystander with whom i can laugh at the world. good people i don't already know. adventurers. companions. collaborators.

Music:

check it out, i actually bothered making a list! i probably forgot loads, but the fact it's in alphabetical order kind of makes up for that in dorkiness: aesop rock, a.p.a.t.t., the apples in stereo, arab strap, archers of loaf, miranda arieh, at the drive-in, the avengers, battles, the beatles, bilge pump, billy mahonie, blackalicious, bluetip, boilermaker, bouncing souls, brainiac, david thomas broughton, derrick brown, johnny cash, nick cave (and the bad seeds), circus lupus, city of caterpillar, the clash, elvis costello, cowtown, the cure, the dancing hoods, deathprod, death hand approaching, the detachment kit, dinosaur jr, discount, the dismemberment plan, the dirty three, do make say think, don caballero, the dragon rapide, the driven, eels, eiger, faith no more, the fall, jason forrest, the frames, fuckuismyname, fu manchu, gay beast, girls against boys, godspeed you black emperor!, grails, a hawk and a hacksaw, imogen heap, jimi hendrix, herman dune, heroin, the hold steady, the jesus lizard, johnny foreigner, daniel johnston, joy division, juno, the knife, kyuss, la quiete, the first avril lavigne album but nothing she's done since, led zeppelin, les savy fav, lifter puller, lift to experience, p.w. long, love as laughter, low, lucero, lungfish, the mae shi, the make-up, malady, the mars volta, malcolm middleton, mano negra, manu chao, j mascis and the fog, mates of state, mel gibson and the pants, meneguar, modest mouse, mogwai, moondog, motorpsycho, mountain goats, mule, murder city devils, nirvana, the octopus project, of montreal, the oranges band, the paper chase, party of helicopters, pavement, josh t. pearson, pet shop boys, pg.99, the song "funky squaredance" by phoenix, but only that song, and only from 2:40 onwards, pinback, pixies, the psychedelic furs, pygmy lush, raccoo-oo-oon, rapeman, rapider than horsepower, lou reed, rolo tomassi, scratch acid, shellac, sheryl's magnetic aura, shotmaker, sleater kinney, slint, smashing pumpkins, songs: ohia, sonic youth, spacehorse, sparklehorse, spy versus spy, the stooges, sunburned hand of the man, superchunk, therapy?, the thermals, this ain't vegas, upsilon acrux, urusei yatsura, the vida blue/ten grand, volcano, i'm still excited!!, tom waits, the weakerthans, weird war, weezer, wheat, jim white, wilco, woods, the world/inferno friendship society, wow, owls!, wrangler brutes, yo la tengo.

Movies:

anything to do with wes anderson, hayao miyazaki or satoshi kon. i enjoy a lot of quirky, gently-paced american films; little miss sunshine, i heart huckabees, thumbsucker, brick, nacho libre. i like more childrens' films than you might expect.

Television:

can get in the way of living if you let it.

Books:

"...he must have taken stock of what he wanted, and been capable of...no, that's not the difference: rather, how convinced he was he should be added to! why did he think adding meant increase? to me it was dilution. where do these innate assumptions come from? not from what we think truest, or most want to do: those warp tight-shut, like doors...life is first boredom, then fear. whether or not we use it, it goes."

My Blog

i have lost faith in the "great" british public.

so big brother finished last friday.  it's been a thoroughly entertaining series and the final five contestants were pretty closely matched, and i was looking forward to an exciting final night o...
Posted by mike on Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:43:00 PST

next week is decorating week!

as you may already be aware, i need to get my house looking nice so somebody will buy it and then i'll never have to worry about it ever again.  to help me reach this goal, i've booked next week ...
Posted by mike on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:22:00 PST

as i walked to work this morning...

...i passed a busker, just some old dude, you know, and he bust out playing 'romeo and juliet' by dire straits just as i was walking past him and at the same moment the sun came out from behind a clou...
Posted by mike on Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:57:00 PST

oh dear!

i went to see the hold steady in manchester last tuesday and not only do i have no clear recollection of the band playing at all, but i popped my knee out again so i'm back on crutches! :(  it's ...
Posted by mike on Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:43:00 PST

about time the sun came out.

i'm really looking forward to the summer now.  every winter just turns into the same cycle of not wanting to leave the house except to go to the office, eating badly, not getting enough exercise ...
Posted by mike on Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:45:00 PST

i saw pinback on saturday...

OH MY GOD.  i cannot believe how good they are!  i had very, very high expectations and i was still blown away.  i don't think i stopped grinning the whole time they played.  i've ...
Posted by mike on Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:51:00 PST

i bought a cowbell yesterday.

i'd never bought a cowbell before, so it was an exciting new experience for me.  my new band is going to make you dance by going 'dink duh-dink dink'. lately i've been developing a bit of an obse...
Posted by mike on Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:02:00 PST

i just spent ten minutes talking to richard madeley on the phone

he's really nice!  i'm all excited now.
Posted by mike on Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:24:00 PST

i got my drawing mojo back! :)

for a few months everything i've tried to draw has looked pretty awful and uninspired, but i stopped for a while and didn't start again until yesterday and i am ON right now. whoo yeah. ...
Posted by mike on Sun, 14 Oct 2007 05:21:00 PST

i’ve been unhappy for so long...

...that now i'm actually happy it feels like the best thing that's ever happened to me.  i feel like i'm buzzing with positive energy; like the blood rushing through me is somehow resonating with...
Posted by mike on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:59:00 PST