MISSION STATEMENT

How serious and official does that sound eh?
Well well well, this blog is set up with the remit of being a central point where I can gather together my various ramblings. The name of the blog isn't just a throwaway - I am tentative about the whole project, unsure about what I can achieve with it and how much energy is worth dedicating to it. Don't expect it to be anything regular and organised, because it won't. The most likely mode of operation will be spasmodic periods of energy split up by random lapses into silence.
I'm a 20something dude from Glasgow, former literature student and general layabout, chancer and dreamer.
I write, or attempt to. Done a good few stories and working, slowly but surely-ish, towards a novel. So I expect to be posting rough bits of new text from time to time, please have a read of them and if you're so inclined then you can tell me what you think. Hopefully having a regular outlet here will help me get off my arse and be more motivated with this.
Always been big into music, and had a recent resurgence of faith in how important it can all be, in large part through coming into the contact with the nexus of Simon Reynolds, dissensus.com and the whole mighty UK hardcore continuum - for those of you wondering what this is all about, they're all respresented in my links. Planning to write little snapshots about music I love as the mood takes me, old and new, various genres: expect the tone to be geeky but amateurish.
Trying to teach myself to DJ at the moment and all, so if it ever gets to the stage of promoting events, shows, mixes etc., that will be a part of the page too. But I expect this will end up as another aspect of my pipe-dream side. We'll see.
I also have a passing interest in politics - who doesn't? - and a slightly smaller one still in philosophy and critical theory, so I reckon a blog is about the right format for any non-expert opinions I might want to spout on these subjects.
Definetly a huge part of what I want to do here is big up all the blogs, forums and websites that inspire me, to shine attention on musicians, music writers and thinkers that I love, and especially to sing the praises of and communicate back and forth with other writers in my peer group (though some of them are a little slow with joining the whole on-line thing....). So that's the thinking behind my 'Things I Like' list. I know that initially many of you who will be visiting here will likely be familiar with most of the material, but please if there's anything new to you that catches your eye, at least give it a look. NB - just because I like all these sites, doesn't mean I agree with everything that's written on them. But even when I disagree quite strongly with them, I find myself coming back to them, they're stimulating, sometimes even inspiring.
That'll do for now I think. Expect it random, choppy and hopefully fun. That line from 24 Hour Party People is coming into my head - 'Factory isn't a record label, it's an experiment in human nature'. I'm like the Factory of blogs.