Record Store Day and Visual Diabetes

Let's just stop pretending there's anything good about tumblr. As far as these things go, it sucks. It's not easy to use in the slightest, it's just like mega twitter, and I haven't quite worked out the appeal of twitter, either. So screw you, tumblr, i'm posting all of my ramblings on blogspot.



Have had an amazing weekend. Went to Spillers for Record Store Day and had a nice chat with Nick here. For those of you not familiar with it, Spillers is the oldest record shop in the world and is currently under threat by the rising rent prices resulting from the new St Davids 2 shopping mall that's opened up across the way. We here at the Headquarters are big fans of Spillers, and they even stock your favourite magazine. What's not to like? Support independence! Visit Spillers in Cardiff or online here.



Oh, and we met this lovely little rat. Isn't he cute?

We ditched Bullet For My Valentine's record signing for a £10 of jelly beans before heading to the Castle Arcade for Part I of Kylie's epic 2-Day photoshoot of awesomeness. I could say that we actually shrunk Kylie and stuck her in a dollhouse (because we have been watching Harvey Birdman ALL weekend), but that would take away from the awesomeness that this place actually exists. And you can buy cheese in it.



Today we walked down to the Bay and took a boat out to Penarth where we wandered around aimlessly for an hour, passing a surprising number of derlict apartment buildings on our quest for soda pop. Eventually we ended up back at the Bay and grabbed some ice cream before getting on the carousel. I wanted to ride backwards with my camera, but settled for side sadle and we ended up with my favourite picture from the weekend. We call this one "Visual Diabetes."



Mmm mmm good.

In other news, The Antagonist will be appearing at the London Zine Symposium at the Rag Factory on Saturday, 29th May, so come out and see us! We'll have plenty of back issues on sale and we might even bring a few more t-shirts. Good stuff!

Disappointing Lack of Spindles

Have office almost properly set up now. Huzzah! Am surrounded by post-its of things to do, red pens, and extension cords. Weirdly enjoying myself. It's nice to have a proper Headquarters. Still, I figured there would be more gig posters on the walls. Will have to dig them out of the moving-related wreckage later.

Loving life in Grangetown. It's really friendly around here, and the house is awesome. Went to a wedding yesterday and wound up finding a medieval fire escape/modern secret passage. I went upstairs in the castle (where the bathrooms are), and this fire door was magically open. I looked around the corner to see a long, empty corridor full of arrow loops. Was immediately torn between wanting to explore it and thinking "Hey man, I SAW Sleeping Beauty. I'm not going down there!!" Ended up kicking off high heels and running up and down it once I was convinced no one would shut the door on me. It went from one end of the castle to the other -- not only could I see the whole wedding from a window, but I could see into other halls from other windows, and out over the moat from arrow loops and other (now barred) windows. There was even a spiral staircase that lad to other parts of the castle, but taking into consideration it was about 11 pm and the rest of the castle was pitch black, I decided thought I would venture no further. Besides, I've already seen those parts. It was the passage that was exciting!

Here's a picture of the wedding from the passage:



It looks like a ghost, but it's probably just Disco.

Have spent the morning(ish) working on Death of Chapman Baxter interview. They came up to Cardiff last week for an interview in person which was entertaining as much as it was educational. Wound up being a personal shopper for Shaolin Wolf -- he was looking for a pair of white-rimmed Blues Brother sunglasses and we found him some at Rebel Rebel. From there we took a detour to Spillers, where Shaolin Wolf and Honky McCracker browsed albums while I sorted the "sell my magazine" paper work and chatted to a lovely girl there about the recent NOFX show. Spillers, by the way, now stocks The Antagonist, so if you're in Cardiff, you should go and get your copy there.

Here's a picture from my Cardiff adventures with the DOCB:



Have many exciting submissions to go through tonight. Have just recieved the second installment of Amphetamine Logic and I can't wait to read it. Was hoping to bring out hte next issue in about two weeks, but have hit yet another snag with funding. Although the bank people are very nice, they are also apparently very busy, as no one has gotten back to me in more than a week. Will have to call them again later.

Kitty Moran and Jen Sheehan have just gotten back from Comic Con, and it looks like they had a great time! Jen's actually moving to Cardiff in October now, and I'm really excited! She should be here for the next DEAD OF NIGHT, too, so we'll have to set up a photo shoot for her cover soon...!

Speaking of which, the photo shoot with Elizabeth went very well. We have an exciting assortment of saucy pictures to choose from. Here's a preview: