Category: Random

Christ. Plasticbag.org is mentioned twice on beebo.org’s metalog in two days. I think that’s pretty cool. Whether that means I should be out buying a pocket protector is debatable.

I had a long conversation with Mark the other day about beebo’s related Weblog Rating page. When I started weblogging, I got really involved in the fight for supremacy on this chart for a while – not in any aggressive way, but for some reason it really mattered to me. Then my interest gradually cooled off. Whether that’s because I got bored of the whole idea, gave up on it, or found something better to do with my time is another matter completely.

Mark’s still going through the competitive stage and I spent our conversation trying to persuade him to think of it as a bit of a game, and nothing more. But then I go and move domain. I’m a bit unsure as to the quality of the design, so I’m really sensitive to people’s opinions of the site. And of course all beebo’s ratings page consists of is a guide to how interesting people think your site is. Suddenly, quite out of the blue, I can feel all those weird reptile brain impulses creeping into gear again. It’s debatable whether or not this is a good thing. Part of me thinks that adrenalin never did anyone any harm. But then again, it’s only a web site…

I was at work and I was talking to my boss and he revealed that they’d put the date of the launch of the new Time Out site back again, much to my surprise. So I threw a little strop, because I had promised them that I wouldn’t take a holiday until the week after the site launched (I promised them this a while back). After a little while of this ranting in an uncontrolled fashion, I now appear to have today off work, which is why I am awake at 1am mucking around with my stuff on the web, rather than lying in bed trying to get to sleep and thinking about work.

A certain friend of mine has pictures of me that he isn’t really supposed to have. His boyfriend has been enjoying these photos which he isn’t really supposed to have been doing. These photos have been sent to someone else on the web. I fear I may be a porn star.

If Ivan Massow is 32, I’m a hatstand – but other than that, I found this interview with my favourite ex-Conservative, “Gay who lost heart for the Tory fight” to be entirely absorbing. It’s interesting watching the press try and get a handle on him – is he a (i) big girly poof or is he (ii) a pseudo-aristo or is he (iii) pretty down-to-earth. As far as I could tell when I met him, he was a pretty foxy playful bloke with too much money (I suspect he’d agree), a reasonable dose of liberal guilt, and a little too much time on his hands. Doesn’t seem that complicated to me.

A quick appeal: I’m looking for UK (ideally London) based people who are involved or interested in the film industry for a new collaborative project that I am about to start working on. I need people who are intelligent, film literate, have some idea of what’s going on in the industry and who can write well. If you think that’s you – e-mail me on tom[AT]plasticbag.org.

I’m off to the world premiÀre of Guy Ritchie’s Snatch this evening. I have such a glamourous life sometimes. It’s a strange one this one, because about half of all the people I know in the world seem to be going to it, because they all know my flatmate who worked on the film, and she seems to have invited about fifty of them. I hope it’s good – I wasn’t that keen on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

I still can’t get over the name of the film. I still remember the day that Kate and I met in a bar and she said, “You’ll never guess what they’re going to call it…”

I can state quite clearly what my reasons were for getting heavily involved in web design. They were Derek Powazek and Jason Kottke. I’d been building sites here and there for a while before that, but I’d never really approached them as anything more than a basic idle hobby. Sites like fray and particularly 0sil8 made me see that there was scope for create work on the net that wasn’t just about fan sites (although I love them) and personal homepages (although I love them too).

Weirdly enough after creating a number of other creative sites (which lasted different amounts of time), I find myself back where I began, with a personal site (this one) and a fan site (this one). But that’s more coincidence than anything else. And it’s all about to change…

In the meantime, after a considerable lull, one of the sites that inspired me originally has finally come back from the dead, which is a tremendous delight to me. Welcome back, 0sil8, and here’s to the Minneapolis Sign Project!

Welcome to plasticbag.org – the new home of what was barbelith.com, and what is soon to be the hub of a re-energised and fully functioning system of sites that I have had at the back of my mind for a few months now. By Christmas, I can guarantee you’ll have a new film site, a webzine and a re-energised and redesigned discussion forum, with plasticbag.org forming the hub to it all.

All of the archives from barbelith.com have been moved over to the new domain, but there are bound to be a few dodgy links here and there for a few days while I go through the process of weeding them all out. I’ve been putting off this move for so long now that I don’t think that some of my confidantes thought I’d ever get around to it. In the end it came down to brute determination to put it out there and damn the consequences. In the short term, please ignore any rough edges, and prepare for the inevitable refinements that will occur when I get used to writing for a new space. In the meantime, don’t hesistate to send me your opinions.

BANG

Barbelith is dead – but death is not the end. Introducing: plasticbag.org – the site that will be taking over all weblogging duties from now on. Please adjust your bookmarks and any links you may have on your website, and I’ll see you over at the new place. It’s been a blast. And no doubt it will be again…

1 On the End of Things:

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”