This says it all.....

My New Running Shoe

I've decided I can't afford the gym every month but I really do need to get fit. I luckily have Regents Park just 5 minutes up the road from me and the gloriously piss/vomit covered streets of Camden town at my disposal so I've decided to start running. I thought about running a while ago but it was cold then and I don't like the cold (I carry a hotwater bottle around work the way others carry notepads) but now the sun has come out I think I can handle being out in the open for more than 5 minutes without crying. Also, according to George Craig, it improves your skin, I have terrible skin so this is a huge bonus. Plus if he can run 30 miles in a week then I bloody well can, my thighs surely hold more power in them than his little sticks.

I'm not a jogging bottom and trainer kind of girl and never have been. Personally I think if you wear jogging bottoms in public you are officially classed as a chav. I don't want to be classed as a chav so I've been and bought some leggings. Leggings are surely the sports equivalent of the skinny jean. Right? I also asked Adam if I could run in Converse, he said no. Also I think running in my usual footwear would just look like me running around Regents Park randomly rather than me trying to get fit and I might look a bit mental (I run a bit weird) so I had to start the search for a trainer. What a nightmare. I don't wear leather and I only wanted black so my options were limited. I asked my Twitter followers for suggestions and received the grand total of zero replies. Bastards. Adidas, my sports brand of choice, was a dead end and so I moved on to Nike. Oh how I now love Nike. Not only did I find a trainer made of synthetic material but I also found out I could personalise them! I chose to make the whole trainer black apart from, and this is the best bit (or the most pathetic bit, you choose), I have a pink 'ONO' on the top of one tongue and a pink 'MCR' on the other tongue. I have to wait 28 days, which really does halt my fitness regime, but it's going to be so worth it. So very worth it. I'm sure I'll be able to run faster, get fitter and lose more weight just through having my favourite bands names embroidered on to my running shoe.

Here's a picture of what they should look like. I'm sure this image does them no justice as I can assure you they really will be the best trainers EVER!

Now where do I put my house keys and iPhone?

Bands and Social Media....and my Youtube videos

I'm not one of these people that searches through Youtube for funny videos to send to my friends, although I do enjoy receiving them from time to time, but I do use it to keep up to date with my favourite bands. One Night Only have just introduced ONO Wednesdays where they post a new video every week to keep their fans happy now that they're off tour. They film and edit the videos themselves which adds that extra personal touch. I think they're a band that uses (or who's label uses) social media really well, giving the fans plenty of stuff to look at, enter, take part in every month be it through Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, e-newsletters or Youtube.

My Chemical Romance have also just started to really use social media. They've always had a Myspace and a website but they've just launched their new site which is basically an aggregated blog and Twitter stream (along with Twitpics). As I write this lead singer Gerard Way has over 9,000 followers and I can tell you with a fair amount of certainty that at least 80% of those had never even heard of Twitter before the band joined. Some of the guys are responding to fan Tweets but mostly they just post funny little random comments and messages to each other. The blog isn't really giving the fans any update right now but the guys are writing really humorous, geeky posts about reality tv, Star Wars and video games that say far more about them as people than any interview I think I've ever seen or read with them has ever done.

Band communities are often very strong online and they love to share videos, music, pictures etc. I have come to realise that I was born without a shame gene, that's right, I have no shame whatsoever and it is because of this that I feel I can share the fact that I like to make fan videos. Nothing too weird, just some pictures of MCR edited together to their music. I mainly do it to rare songs or b-sides, things that some fans might not have. Really it's just a bit of fun for me when I'm bored but I was surprised to see that one of the videos I made to one of their songs has nearly 65,000 views and another one, to a song from their album, has nearly 43,000 views. My videos are not great (see for yourself below) but fans will cling to any bit of band related content they can get. If that content is actually supplied by the band, or at least fuelled by the band themselves then even better!