Thanks so much everyone for all the birthday wishes. It’s really been a magical few days and I am already feeling settled into my 30s. I’ve been busy enjoying my birthday gifts since yesterday and today I made a cyber-zombie from a book called Creepy Cute Crochet which I was given by the rest of the team on the radio show I work on —The Hub, BBC Oxford. I believe the book was written by NeedleNoodles and this particular pattern appealed to me because I feel quite like the zombie looks after three months of pretty much solid editing for the cut and splice podcast series.

I expect the rest of the Sound and Music team can relate to this after all the work they put into the festival. I only got to one evening of the festival but I thoroughly enjoyed many of the performances there and the hard work that went into organising it was obvious. I especially enjoyed Tape That and all the ideas and sounds they explored in their set. They created many little vignettes of sound/performance that reflected a great degree of both humour and observation. I was struck by the details of sounds while watching their performance; the different sonic qualities of masking tape vs. packing tape, the click of an A4 folder spring opening and closing (it’s loud!) and all the other things they had obviously collected for their performance. And I loved The Domestic Appliance Audio Research Society… how could I not? The whole premise for their work is very close to some of my own creative aims.

The podcast series was a very large project for me to take on; the first really academic bit of radio/podcasting I’ve done, and the first attempt to bring feminism/fluxus/experimental sound art etc. together cohesively. The best part of the whole thing has been meeting with or talking to so many fantastic creative people — Mark Vernon, Bob Levene, Karen of Karen Magazine, Jennifer Walshe, Hilary Kneale, Lloyd Dunn, Lise Lefebvre and Bobby Baker’s wonderful people at Artsadmin, who were very supportive of what I was trying to do and gave me the go ahead to include some good Bobby Baker clips in the podcasts. I had a lot of emails with other people and have really enjoyed discovering the works of DAARS, Aki Onda, Erik Belgum and to have discovered the talents of Jason Lescallet and Graham Lambkin through their amazing release, The Breadwinner. I have deeply enjoyed having the opportunity to gain further insights into the creative activities of these practitioners, to consider how it all fits together and to explore the connections between so many disparate ideas.

And now I’m taking a break from my computer to let it all settle in, to let it all percolate, to think about what the final year of my studies will be about, and to get down to some serious handmaking. I am all computered-out.

The first stop for me on my handmake-break is going to be Woolfest. I can’t wait to meet a lot of sheep, load up on fibre and get some knitting on my needles. I find my brain comes up with the very best ideas when I’m going around and around on a sweater. And it’s a good for listening, too. Indeed I took my sock to the Cut and Splice festival and it definitely enhanced the listening experience…

I may post again before the end of June as I am not *yet* offline. I realise that since I worked in an Internet Cafe from 2000 onwards, I’ve barely gone a day without The Internet. The idea is strange, liberating, and a bit scary. I love The Internet. But I am turning into a Cyber Zombie and it’s time to unplug.