I don’t want to be a manager forever – artists are more hassle than they’re worth. Perhaps I could stick with it for longer if I made more money and the F&R gang had an office and a dogsbody, but it is not the thing for me, not really. I’m not brash enough and I probably think too much. And my blogjob is great, but not overly brain exercising at the moment – and though we’re expanding our service, I’m not sure it will become more absorbing. At the moment, it seems like to be progressive in the music industry you either need to have a killer idea and execute it brilliantly, or be ridiculously successful. Knowing that things need to be different…well, it’s a bit like banging your head against a brick wall. The music industry will not be for me forever.
What do I enjoy?
I like books, the feel of them, and reading them as well. I was about to type that I have a concentration problem, but actually that’s not overly true – I merely have an actually-starting-to-read problem, and I’m not particularly good at working out which book I want to start reading once I’ve finished the last. I like fiction but I’m still figuring out which style – I’m growing out of the Beats who I used to adore. Recently I’ve enjoyed Saturday, Atonement and Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, but – other than covering the rest of the McEwan bibliography – I’m not entirely sure where to go next. I like graphics books because of how they look, but I don’t really know what to do with them – so I get on far better with marketing books designed like graphics books like Life’s A Pitch. I’m just a romantic about print media – I’m a sucker for a well produced magazine, a matt cover on a book, a well laid out blurb. I like poetry, and keep on resolving to learn a poem a week off by heart – partly because I’d quite like to be one of those people who can quote a bit of poetry ad lib. I’m already “that person” for songs amongst my friends, but pop songs don’t feel quite so worthwhile. Perhaps because they’re taken far less seriously than poetry as an art form. But I’m not a poet, and I’m not a fiction writer either.
I like going to restaurants. I’m not entirely sure why, other than the fact that I’m fond of food (I quite like cooking as well). Probably partly because I’m interested in people, the way they interact and the way they present themselves – you get a lot of that in restaurants. And I like restaurant reviews an awful lot, partly because most restaurant reviewers seem to be wonderfully grumpy. I couldn’t work in a restaurant and be happy, but I could write about them.
I keep up to date with politics. I was going to say that I like it, but that’s not really true. It’s simply one of the things that is so ingrained into me that I don’t think the Four Hour Work Week’s “don’t read the newspapers” point would work very well for me (though I kind of see the point). I care about transport, about social welfare, and about the environment and the world’s population’s effect on it.
Those last three things all add up to my penchant for cycling, too, though I enjoy it more for the speed and feeling of freedom than the environmental upper hand. I don’t much like the maintenance side of things – I’m not a bike nut, I just like getting from A-B quickly. I do enjoy Time Out’s cycling column though.
I like music, though I’m not always sure how I feel about working in the music industry. I had a chat very early on with an A&R guy at one of the Universal labels, discussing how different records sound when you’ve been there while they’re being made, and wondering if those involved in making Dark Side Of The Moon were really able to listen to it and hear what everyone else hears. The conversation stuck with me because with music coming out now I find myself thinking about the marketing campaign surrounding the band rather than anything else.
I think things should be straightforward. I like simple design, and I don’t like corporate spin – whether in words (blue sky thinking!) or in actions (sorry guys, but we all know this is bullshit). I like companies who explain their actions, and I like companies who try to affect the rest of the world in some kind of good way – you know, like Innocent, except less smug about it. Partake in the government bike scheme, and recycle, and use eco light bulbs, all that stuff.
I’m not much cop at coming up with product ideas, but I’m pretty sure I know what’s good and what works against what’s bad and doesn’t – and once the idea is there I’m good at improving it. I’m good, I think, at communicating, though I’m a little unsure of myself from time to time – that needs to change, and will do. That’s maybe the problem with my writing – it’s slightly uncertain, and why I’m far better at writing reviews of things which have happened than of abstract concepts like features or writing about music.
Oh, and I’m alright with numbers. Don’t enjoy them, but I’m alright. I’d be good at languages if I kept it up, and I like them. I can understand and edit CSS and HTML, but not write it from scratch.
No idea where this points. Probably like…marketing nicely laid out books full of cycling poetry written in French.
Bet there’s a HUGE market for that.
