OK OK, I’ve been quiet and I don’t want to be accused of running an abandoned blog so here’s a haphazard update on what’s going on in JoelWorld!
First off, let’s get the band stuff out of the way. Obvious Pseudonym been practicing since our appearance at Open Mic a few weeks ago – given we’ve got some new songs (woo!) we will (provisionally) be performing again on Monday 20th July at 9pm. Should be great fun, tell all your mates, it’ll be at The Hop again but we’re aiming to be on a little earlier this time round.
It’s calmed down a bit on the gig photography front (principally because I’m physically exhausted owing to overwork) but I did show up at Clarence Park for Wakefield Music Collective’s Young Bands Showcase with Subliminals, Talk With Lies, David Tattersall and Off-License. That’s led to a few other bands hoping I’ll photograph them and consequently I’ve done a few nights in Leeds for local bands also. Incidentally if you’re interested I’m still maintaining an unofficial Hop gig guide which will tell you in a text-only format who’s on – it’s so web0.1, darling.
Work-wise, I’m still up in Saltaire where my head is swimming with broadcast engineering terms such as QAM, FEC, DVBS, roll off, polarisation and bouquet. I’m not sure how long I’ll be here but it’s certainly been a refreshing change learning about a different sector. Ideally I’d like to stop here a bit longer since it’s a good education but as always it depends on whether the budgets allow for it (and the all-omnipotent HR department of course).
In the meantime I’m doing quite a bit of research work for the chaps in Hendon: that’s all about e-learning and pushing streaming video out for leadership training purposes, less video-on-demand and more video-forced-upon-you 
It’s keeping my hand in using Adobe Flash and given me a bit of an impetus to refresh my Actionscript knowledge, as well as much-needed experience working with a PSO.
(Sidenote: you can definitely tell companies are being more cautious – decisions take longer to percolate through and paperwork is slower to get signed, a frustrating situation for someone like myself who wants everything signed, sealed and sorted before I show up on-site. Don’t get me wrong, eventually it all goes through the system but it’s just a lot slower right now!)
All that plus existing care-and-maintenance work has left precious little time to relax, but we did manage to head up to Newcastle Theatre Royal to see the recording of the forthcoming Radio 4 series of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. The BBC are using three different chairmen since the sad death of Humphrey Lyttelton: ours was Rob Brydon (the others being Jack Dee and Stephen Fry). A very very amusing night – two programmes were recorded with about 1h20m of material each, which will be boiled down to 30 minutes broadcast on 13th and 20th July. The only sad point: I’d expected Samantha to retire when Humph died but she’s still knocking around. It’ll be interesting to see how the new series is received.
Coming up we’re off to see Blur in Hyde Park, photographing at London Pride for Paleday, off to see Pet Shop Boys in Manchester and sometime in August we’re off to see U2 in Sheffield.
Holiday-wise, in a couple of weeks I’m off to Palmanova with a few friends (it’s a stag do but I suspect trains will be involved) and then later in the Summer we’ll be in Cap d’Agde; it’s all booked and paid for so I just need to work my arse off and look forward to recharging the batteries when the day comes. But honestly it can’t come a moment too soon – phew.
Finally, we’re selling our old car. It’s a Citroen Picasso 2001, listed on eBay. It’s done about 107000 miles, MOT/tax/test all due, bit noisy at times but is in reasonable nick – drop us a line if you want it.