I stopped opening up my RSS reader a while ago.  I don't know how long ago, but I'm pretty sure it was last year sometime.  It was just too much on top of everything I saw in Twitter and Facebook.  Most blog posts I wanted to read were being lost in the noisy flood of people saying very little, badly.  I tried unsubscribing, cutting down my list but it was a bit like cutting down my twitter following – what if? what if? what if? What if, what? What if a miracle happened and one of these wankers actually said something interesting?  Well yes.  It could happen. Couldn't it?

Originally posted on Lloyd’s posterous

Some random notes on what to do with the stuff that I want to keep but don’t want to take with me.  The biggest single item is my bed frame (and mattress) and then I’ve kitchen stuff, some clothes, books, records and a computer or two.  I’ve slimmed down a lot.

I’d like to keep it all in one place I think – having stuff spread over several attics, box rooms and garages is probably more cost-effective and doubtless more interesting artistically, but a pain in the bum that I don’t really need.

So I think the questions are:

To store in Central London or not? and whereabouts anyway?

What “visiting rights” do I need?

How much does it cost roughly? 

Any recommendations for good service?

Those big storage places are weird aren’t they? The other day, talking to Nick, we came up with the idea of a documentary just asking people as they went in what they were storing and why, so many interesting stories, I’m sure.

btw that photo is from when I moved into Dolphin Square nearly 5 years ago…

Originally posted on Lloyd’s posterous

I’ve moved out and moved on many times but some things seem to stick around in boxes no matter what.  One of those things is my notebook from Drama School.  Yes I had just one – I don’t seem to remember there being a lot to write down…

This though is the first page of several directions for the basic stage fighting exam that we did.  I think it was the only subject I did an external exam for while there (although I also did the advanced one).  It was great fun – if you want to try it out you’ll need to know that the V column is the Villain and H is for Hero.  Then T=Thrust, Py=Parry, S=Sword and D=Dagger and you’ll need to dig out a couple of rapiers and daggers.

Oh, and take extreme caution “I’ve seen an eyeball on the end of one of these” 

Here’s me practicing at home…

Originally posted on Lloyd’s posterous

People arguing with me over whether Hobo 2.0 was or wasn’t a good description for what I’m doing led me to the wikipedia page for Hobo which provides some useful distinctions in terminology.

So it turns out there’s a difference between a “bum”, a homeless person who doesn’t work and doesn’t go anywhere unless moved on by the police; a “tramp” who avoids work but keeps moving and a “hobo” who is simply an itinerant, nomadic or migratory worker.

That fits much better than I thought with what I want to do.  This trip is not about sponging and living on the minimum amount of money.  It’s not about using social capital as a replacement for money although as with the American trip, most of the time I won’t be paying for things that one might ordinarily expect to.  It’s not about doing the minimum possible to get by.

It is about seeing what the experience can be of being a migratory performer, artist, knowledge worker when enhanced by an online presence and access to more social capital than many.  If it works, I will get to do bolder, more exciting work than ever.   

Of course I’ve got a number of things that I want to do while I’m out and about: talks, tuttles, busking, house gigs, people I want to interview and make stuff with.

But the exciting thing it opens up for me is the possibility of working with lots of people that I know around the country whom I rarely get to see face to face.  If you’re in the middle of North Yorkshire and I’m in London we might know that there’s something really valuable we could do if only we could spend a few days at the kitchen table together, but it’s unlikely to happen ordinarily.  

So let’s do it – let me know if there’s a project you’ve been itching to do that you want some Lloyd-shaped help on – if you’ve got a comfy sofa or spare bed then all the better 🙂

Originally posted on Lloyd’s posterous

So the plan as of today is to set off at the end of this month without any fixed abode for the following three months at least and to review what I do next after 2 months.  That means July, August and September definitely on the road and to make a decision at the beginning of September about what to do next.  

Immediately I’m reminded that that time of year is not a good one for finding rental property as you’re up against hordes of students starting college, so that’s something to bear in mind.

Thinking then about what I need to do this month:

• Throw away a lot of stuff
• Decide what to keep in storage and how to store
• Work out what clothes I’m going to take with me
• Find a good backpack/rucksack
• Get a light but tough ukulele gig bag (preferably with built-in live-streaming!)
• Sort out a mailing address
• Close down all utility & household accounts
• Work out some rules/guidelines for making choices
• Set up some online system for people offering accommodation/work/things to do

What else?

Well some nice-to-have’s would be a new phone and lightweight laptop but I can manage for the time being.

There’s more, but this will do for now…

Originally posted on Lloyd’s posterous

This week I did a couple of nights of talking, playing and singing to sum up The American Trip.  It was great fun – very different audience reactions each night, the first was chatty all the way through, the second lot sat quietly while I spoke and then wanted to talk all night afterwards…

It reminded me above all that I really enjoy interacting with a small group of people in this way, the form, of me talking, with comments from the floor, punctuated by bits of ukulele or other stuff is something that I’d like to do much more of.

Now then.  The lease on my flat ends at the end of June.  I’ve been here nearly two years.  I’ve been thinking over the possible next moves.  

Continuing to live on my own in a 1-bed flat in Central London doesn’t feel like the way forward.  I simply can’t afford to live in areas I’d like to live in and don’t want to live in the areas that I could afford.  So I started looking around for flat- and house-shares, perhaps it’s time to live with a bunch of people again, but then as I look it becomes clearer to me that city life, at least, this city, all the time, seems to have run it’s course with me for now.  Perhaps I’m tired of life, but I feel in need of a break from full-time London.

So I looked at alternatives, where would I like to live, outside London but within easy enough reach so that I can keep doing cool stuff at #C4CC and see my kids regularly.  Hmmm… lots of places appeal and are full of lovely folk that I know, but paying rent, even outside-London rent *and* commuting into town regularly makes things almost as tight as living in zones 1-2.  Perhaps I’d have to just go and not come back very often.

Then something else occurred to me.  What about the way of living and travelling I’ve just been waxing lyrical about this week?  I’d talked about a possible UK-wide wander as a preparation for the American journey, but there’d never really been time to do it.  There are certainly plenty of interesting questions about social capital still to answer.  What if, rather than the UK being a warm-up for the USA, perhaps it was the other way round.  Perhaps it’s time to go on a study of this stuff right here at home?  So how about I don’t take on another place straight away, but get on the road again.

Hmmm…

It would have to not just be about saving money, it’s not about becoming a hobo 2.0 rather it’s about seeing what happens when you give up the need to have a “permanent” base and use the value of your network to give you that support.  However, the net effect would be that I would be spending money on things other than ongoing accommodation.

It would need some other, light, structure than for the US.  It wouldn’t be about getting from one side to the other, it would be just about moseying along, meeting up and staying briefly with folk, doing some house gigs, some village hall versions of the #plate11 show, doing some work with people I don’t usually get to work with because we’re too far apart.  I’d love to do some busking outside of London and perhaps stream it live… See what happens!

I like the idea of doing an evening at #C4CC perhaps every fortnight to report on what things I’ve been up to.  Of course there’ll be lots of blogging and content creation.  There are quite a few interesting projects that I’ve been itching to work on but which require me to travel outside London and I haven’t found time or funds for them because I’ve been working hard to find ways to pay the bills.

Or something…

Originally posted on Lloyd’s posterous

In the middle, stripes and red wellies.

I don’t look like that on the outside much anymore.

But on the inside… yes.. pretty much all the time.

Originally posted on Lloyd’s posterous

“I met him on the internet…” That was the innnuendo-laden way that I was introduced to many people in the US by my hosts – it usually got raised eyebrows and giggles…

It’s the alternative title to my Please Look After This Englishman show at C4CC on 24th and 25th May.

The evening will consist of a series of stories and songs (with ukulele!) retelling the journey and pulling out some general themes but also shining a light on what I learned about America, Americans and social capital.

Do come along, it’ll be fun! I’ll be selling tickets for cash (£10) at #tuttle (or anytime you bump into me actually…) which saves you the whopping online booking charges 🙂

Originally posted on Please Look After This Englishman

I want to clear something up from this post that I wrote a few weeks ago about how things are going.

This is my blog, it’s my way of talking to the world.  It has been since 2004.  A lot of the value of it is that I’m myself here, I talk about what I really think – many people contacted me privately to say they were going through or had been through similar experiences.  That’s why I write about such things, it helps me understand what I’m thinking better and it helps other people through identification.

Some people consider blogs to be just another media outlet or a marketing tool.  This blog is those things but not in a traditional way.  To me, the marketing function it serves is about building relationships and key elements in that are honesty, authenticity and a willingness to show vulnerability.  

When I write about having very little money and the difficulties that causes me and then I write about the ways that you can support me, it can become a bit confusing. I realise that to some people it can look like I’m begging and using emotional pulls to get you to bung me a few quid.  

That’s not my intention.  When I suggest you might like to be a micropatron, I’m still suggesting that you do so for the reasons I outlined when I started it.  I’m not asking you to pay me because you feel sorry for me or because you’re worried about me (though I know that that’s an effect for people who care), but because you value the work that I do and you want to support it above and beyond paying for stuff directly like my music or coming to see my show.   

Today is just as good a day as any to sign up or make a one-off donation 🙂

Originally posted on Lloyd’s posterous

Twitter is functionally dead to me at times like this – and “times like this” seem to be happening more and more frequently.

Another day of dstraction and misdirection takes over the space that I’d mistakenly hoped was democratic.  On Friday two members of a privileged elite got married and broke twitter for me.  This morning a member of one privileged elite claimed responsibility for the death of a member of another privileged elite.  And the crowd goes wild.

I want to be clear – I am as much a sucker for boy meets girl and good guy kills bad guy as anyone else.  I’m glad to see two young people celebrating their love.  I can’t celebrate anyone’s death, but I also know and love people whose lives were directly, painfully and irreparably damaged and disrupted by 9/11.  I understand the need for romance and the need for revenge.

The wedding is irrelevant to the day-to-day living of my life.  The death of bin Laden is not.  It is not closure, it’s the completion of one cycle of violence that will begin another.  I don’t believe that the death of the “head” of al Quaeda will mean a reduction in the risk of individual terrorism from that group, any more than I imagine that after the death of [insert your least favourite tech pundit here] gadget fanboys will stop having a fit of the vapours over the release of shiny, shiny preciouses.

I’ve seen lots of tweets crowing over the ability of twitter and other social media to spread the news, but if it just spreads the mainstream news agenda and whips up hysteria then it’s failing for me and I don’t want any part in it.  I want something else.  I want connection with others through something other than what I can find on the BBC or Fox News. 

 

And I just can’t help wondering what “bad news” is getting ready to be “buried” today.

Originally posted on Lloyd’s posterous