The Times BFI London Film Festival runs from the 17th of October until the 1st of November, but it started for me yesterday morning. By the end of this week alone I’ll have been to 16 press screenings with maybe another 40 or so to follow.

My review to watching ratio usually falls apart after the first week as the films pile up, but this year I’m determined not to fall behind. If you see me slacking punch me on the arm.

I saw three movies yesterday and one this morning with two more to follow today including an evening screening of Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited. Doesn’t leave much time for writing in between.

Thankfully I’m back on coffee. It’s going to be a long (but fun) month.

I’ve always had a soft spot for cosplayers. Growing up as a metal head when everyone else was into The *spit* Smiths meant putting up with a lot of crap. Although I never felt ridiculous backpatched and longhaired when every other silly fucker was wearing dungarees and had dead flowers hanging out their backside.

I have no idea how much grief these kids got today for living the dream:

More pics here. They were on Oxford Street for an Anime Day @ HMV. Sadly I had no idea that Electric Eel Shock were playing instore or I would have got there earlier myself.

Bank Holiday Monday sees another kind of costumed fan take to the streets as the dead walk. I’ll be checking that out too.

A much more orderly event was Shiny Media’s Brands & Blogs conference the following day. Just having coffee ready for me was enough to make the event a million times more successful than the Chinwag fiasco. We were running late so managed to avoid the roving camera, but found the speakers to be on the whole an interesting bunch. Yet again there was a blogger shaped hole up on the stage, but it was interesting to hear the American/Canadian perspective from Jeremy Wright and Richard Rocca (B5 Media and Glam). Shiny revealed some interesting facts too:

 There’s a Flickr set of the day here including the view from atop Centre Point:

Not a bad place for a conference…

The problem with work is that it keeps getting in the way of everything else. I shouldn’t complain as it’s nice to be in demand, but I’ve thoroughly neglected all my blogging duties. Back to it with a little roundup.

On Thursday night I went to the Chinwag ‘Big Summer 07′ event. Quite simply the worst event experience I’ve had in London. Jess and I were in the queue for 45 minutes. A team of volunteers for The Big Chill managed to work the line and hand out crap very quickly, but no one from Chinwag could do the same to get us through the door faster?

Once we neared the front of the line we then saw signs informing us to get into two separate queues marked A-N and M-Z depending on the first letter of our email addresses. Madness. No one was in the mood to split up from their friends at this point despite the sudden barking orders of Chinwag militia. As it turned out it didn’t matter as both lines bottlenecked at a single table anyway. The stressed staff where by this point having as much fun as we were as they dealt with pissed off people and multiple printed lists of registrants that weren’t in alphabetical order. Shambles.

By this point we had been joined by Rob and the Twitter drums were informing us that once inside things weren’t much better. We sound found ourselves pushing through yet another incredibly long queue for food to join an even longer queue for the bar.

Rumours about the money running out in the next half hour or so where all that people were talking about. It was a little like being in a badly run student union bar, but as one fellow Twitterer put it, “Everybody is scum”.

The wanker ratio was high.

Leaving poor Annie Mole behind we left and bumped straight into Ian Forrester with his ever handy videocamera and felt much better after slagging the event off on ‘tape’. In fact we did meet some interesting people there, but they were all in the queue or fuming and already on their way back to the nearest station.

We went for a nice meal (and a large quantity of wine) at Dino’s before rounding up more Chinwag survivors via Twitter and retiring to the nearest pub for some more venting…

This is from the final reminder email they sent out to those of us ‘lucky’ enough to have registered in time:

Save time & hassle – print your badge in advance! Simply print it out, cut it out, write your name & company on it, bring it along, and hey presto you’re in faster than those who don’t!

Everyone I saw had done this and it did nothing to help speed things up.

Doors open at 6pm and the bars open at 6.30pm, when entertainments also begin. We anticipate sizeable queues, so best to get there early

I have friends who got their way earlier than me (they queued for just as long) and friends who got there after I left (they also queued for just as long).

Bottom line: I’d rather chew through my own lower intestine than go to anything branded Chinwag again.

I’d forgotten all about this interview, but it looks like it was just published (or not – I’m useless at keeping track of these things).

Ironically that main photo was taken on my way back from the airport when I was less than overjoyed to be back in London. I should go hang out with the tank more as I’m never happier than when Hulk posing (I heard there’s a Banksy there now too).

And it was a nice touch to trawl my Flickr stream for anything tagged ‘moleskine’. Almost makes me look creative

Thanks Claudia!

Friday I was invited over for a chat with the nice folks at Shiny Media. I’ve been jumping between a few unique and very hip offices of late, but Shiny have the best set up so far. For one thing they’re atop an interesting building complete with a kooky elevator that allows you a nice overview of all the other creative types tucked away in open plan spaces below.

The first thing that strikes you when walking into the Shiny office proper is the male/female ratio.

There isn’t one.

I’m so used to walking into buildings filled with guys and a couple of women that it was momentarily disorientating to see so many geek girls all working in the same place. Not that Shiny is an all-female endeavor, but they certainly have the cream of the crop when it comes to the xx chromosome.

I hooked up with Katie and Ashley, both whom I’ve met before at various events, but this was the first chance we’ve had for a proper natter. Shiny are (correct me if I’m wrong) the UK’s first and largest commercial blog publishing company so it was interesting to bounce ideas around with them.

I’ve been popping into a few of the bigger and more established web companies this year and although they all strive for the non-corporate feel Shiny are the first ones to pull it off convincingly. It just felt like a great place to work – which is a big deal coming from an anti-office freelancer like myself.

A good day then despite initial bursts of terrorism, rain and men falling from the sky. Thanks to Darika for setting it up.

If you haven’t delved into the ever growing Shiny empire then a nice in is the ever growing number of videos they throw into their YouTube channel (here’s Ashley and Katie playing with a USB guitar!). I wish more companies did this.