Hi! I'm Philip. I have a lot going on, but in a good way (read on...) I'm enthusiastic/sarcastic/deadpan depending on the moment, organized yet messy, and a ready source of random trivia.

I really enjoy galleries, museums and movies, listening to all sorts of music, entertaining my niece and nephew, doing triathlon-y things, hanging out (and sometimes playing card/board games) with my friends. I'm also involved with the campaign to reopen Croydon's tiny arthouse cinema. Hmm, and I follow Crystal Palace FC and the New York Mets, but that's not necessarily a burden which needs to be shared...

Work is for the Ministry of Justice, in crime research. It's numbercrunching, stats stuff, but I get to tell people about it in plain English, and it makes a difference in the right way sometimes. I've almost completed a Forensic Psychology PhD, based on this research.

Remembering facts - trivia stuff and how to spell words, but also artists, songs, where I saw a film, that kind of thing. Being loyal to friends - turning up when I said I would, not taking offence easily or making a mountain out of a molehill, saying hi if we've not been in touch for a while. Remembering lines from sitcoms and movies, forgetting where I put my specs. Spelling, sums, pub philosophy. (Some raw talent, but not much knowledge, when it comes to real philosophy.) Running around tirelessly if incompetently on a six-a-side pitch. Following a train of thought and seeing where it goes.

Most likely it's the ginger hair. I say it's copper - just a shade darker and less vivid - but same difference! Also, folks say that I look a few years younger than I am.

Books - most Neal Stephenson, Decameron, Catullus, Travels With Herodotus, The Sword In The Stone, Viz, many art books (my all time favourite being the catalogue of the Tate's American Sublime (landscape) exhibition). Also, I get stuck into The Independent most days, subscribe to Wire, Private Eye, Empire and triathlon and art magazines, and like reading anything about philosophy and history.

Films, in the last year or so: most of what I watched at the London Film Festival (if you were there, let's compare notes), Melancholia, Ruby Sparks, Midnight In Paris, Las Acacias, Rust And Bone, The Angels Share, Beasts Of The Southern Wild. I try to put on more of these films and not so many of the Marigolds and Quartets for the cinema campaign screenings, but it's a balancing act... All-time favourites: A Matter Of Life and Death, American Beauty, A Canterbury Tale, Clerks, Diary Of A Lost Girl (almost typed 'Dairy' - that would have been a different plot), Drive, Into Great Silence, Marie Antoinette (many people say it's nonsense, I say it's pure cinema), Old Joy, Our Hospitality (and many others by Buster Keaton), Princess Mononoke, Singing In The Rain, Eternal Sunshine, Little Miss Sunshine, the one where Oliver Hardy says "Excuse me, but I have milk in my ear", lots of Woody Allen, North By Northwest, Safety Last!, and The Muppet Christmas Carol.

TV: Mad Men (though not enough to pay Murdoch for it), Homeland. And some comedies too... and, to be totally frank, My Little Princess and Foyle's War.

Music - recently-ish, Robyn, The Very Best, The Unthanks, Land Conversations, Laura Marling, Matthew Dear, Moritz Van Oswald Trio, Rustie, Kasai Allstars, Amusement Parks On Fire, Toumani Diabate, High Wolf, Sleepingdog, Unicorn Kid, Matteo Uggeri.
All-time, Slowdive, Sonic Youth, Million Dead, Django Reinhardt, My Bloody Valentine, Neil Young, Pet Shop Boys, Public Enemy, Oval, Diblo Dibala, Alan Lomax field recordings, Atari Teenage Riot.
On the whole I like almost everything, from pure pop to black metal to Charles Ives, with the exception of classic rock.

Food - jam/honey on toast, flapjacks and cookies (the extent of my baking talents), wild mushrooms, cheese, ice cream, beer (real ale and great stuff from around the world, whether at my local or trying different pubs in London or wherever I'm visiting), pizza, my little sister's chocolate honeycomb. Inconveniently, as it's in New York, my favourite restaurant is Dirt Candy. I'm vegetarian, and stay as organic as possible with the dairy and eggs, while trying not to sound sanctimonious about it... oh, but I have no sympathy for bivalves, so I do eat them...

Music, art, friends, doing something worthwhile, London and the North Downs, the dusk chorus in the park on a spring/summer evening.

Whatever art or film I've seen or music I've heard, especially if something's got a hold of me. Old and new adventures, politics, religion and ethics, figuring out how to fit things into my diary, cryptic crosswords, what might be a good run or ride to do next, or maybe looking around, being chilled and a little hippyish in a "nice birds/trees/flowers" way. And I try to stay calm and not fume about the selfish dingbats who've cut me up in the swimming pool or on the bike, but some "grrr" on that score may occur from time to time...

Late night at an art gallery, then maybe a beer or two. In the summer, I might end up chilled out on the South Bank or in the gardens at home watching the sunset and vapour trails. A few Fridays a year I'm on a city break or visiting friends around the country. More gigs would be good.

I'm very absent minded: I can spend several minutes searching for something I was holding all along. Okay, that's more dumb than private, but it's a fair warning!

If you like what you just read and think we'd get on. Maybe a gig, a gallery, bike ride or figuring out the meaning of life over beer and/or cocktails would be a good place to start?