Shades of Britpop, shades of Spaced
QuestCon 05. This meant up at 5:20am on a Saturday and a 6:22am train into London. I am hard pressed to think of another person I’d do this for other than Andy. Then again, I’m hard pressed to think of anyone else who would want me to grapple with setting up a giant projector screen and fiddling with a mixing deck at something after 8am on a Saturday morning.
Amongst the compensations for the painful early start to the day were Richard’s company, catching up with one or two old faces, discovering a good curry house in Camden and the fact that my fliers seemed to go down well. Of course, with the fliers, I can only judge success by the number of orders they bring in. Something that both Richard and I agreed on was that it was good that Andy had positive new people on the ‘staff’ such as Matt and Rene and Dave and Michelle.
If you look hard enough on the Web I’m sure you can find a blog that gives you a blow-by-blow account of QuestCon, what the speakers were like and how the event compared to those held during the previous 18 years. However, it won’t be this blog as I spent an inordinate amount of time down the Spread Eagle drinking Belle-Vue.
Somehow, getting mildly drunk in Camden always has vaguely distasteful shades of Britpop, shades of Spaced. It’s not something I’ve done properly for nearly a decade, but in the company of Richard, it was an entirely reasonable way to spend the afternoon. Later, I half-dozed through a psychedelia 101 lecture and was sober enough to report that many rated Jeremy Narby the Questcon highlight.
Ian Lawton had the toughest gig of the day. Despite having to face a post-8pm crowd and enough firework noise to make it sound like Cecil Sharpe House was experiencing some American shock and awe, his lecture really hit the spot. It not only reinforced my sense that the next book I should try and do is Iboga – The Story of the Wonder Drug*, but showed why he is the only author working in his field whose approach to research is worth a damn.
I made may way back through the Saturday night wildlife of Camden at a reasonable hour and was home without incident in plenty of time to be passing blood and paying for a day in town.
*A rough and I recognise, naff, working title.
Amongst the compensations for the painful early start to the day were Richard’s company, catching up with one or two old faces, discovering a good curry house in Camden and the fact that my fliers seemed to go down well. Of course, with the fliers, I can only judge success by the number of orders they bring in. Something that both Richard and I agreed on was that it was good that Andy had positive new people on the ‘staff’ such as Matt and Rene and Dave and Michelle.
If you look hard enough on the Web I’m sure you can find a blog that gives you a blow-by-blow account of QuestCon, what the speakers were like and how the event compared to those held during the previous 18 years. However, it won’t be this blog as I spent an inordinate amount of time down the Spread Eagle drinking Belle-Vue.
Somehow, getting mildly drunk in Camden always has vaguely distasteful shades of Britpop, shades of Spaced. It’s not something I’ve done properly for nearly a decade, but in the company of Richard, it was an entirely reasonable way to spend the afternoon. Later, I half-dozed through a psychedelia 101 lecture and was sober enough to report that many rated Jeremy Narby the Questcon highlight.
Ian Lawton had the toughest gig of the day. Despite having to face a post-8pm crowd and enough firework noise to make it sound like Cecil Sharpe House was experiencing some American shock and awe, his lecture really hit the spot. It not only reinforced my sense that the next book I should try and do is Iboga – The Story of the Wonder Drug*, but showed why he is the only author working in his field whose approach to research is worth a damn.
I made may way back through the Saturday night wildlife of Camden at a reasonable hour and was home without incident in plenty of time to be passing blood and paying for a day in town.
*A rough and I recognise, naff, working title.
posted by David at 1:35 AM
1 Comments:
Camden- is the same as Camdentown? I may be mixed up, but is that club still there that had the huge puppetts that flew above your head over the dance floor that did a variety of sex positions for all to see?
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