It's Friday. For those of you who like to drown your life in sound, here's the link to this weeks playlist: Burn Baby, Burn - how did it get to week eight already!

I saw on Mr Gaiman's blog today that he had big plans to visit a hairdresser for a tidy up but due to a rather large storm in those parts (that I thoughtfully sidestepped on my return trip) the only place left open was A Barber Shop. You can read the whole story here. Being a barber is a cool job but let's face facts here... you only walk through that door if you don't want any hair when you come back out. I know this to be true because Once Upon A Time back when I was about ten years old, this very same thing happened to me after I had spent months trying to cultivate a good David Starsky kinda thing:

I have never since stepped through one of those doors again.

Scarily, looking at this pic here, I see that I have just bought a pair of trainers rather like these. Maybe some things are written in stone.

I've been looking into doing some more book cover design lately - mostly because I like it, it's fun and erm... therefore I need no other reason. Anyway, the last few things I've worked on that weren't my own (which I should probably post here somewhere because that's whats blogs are for) have mostly been 'literary' affairs, like this:

But I saw this today and thought it was as good as an adventure book could get...

...so I went out and did the unthinkable. I bought a ton of art materials to sketch some ideas out. Me and art materials don't usually mix so well but a plan is a plan is a plan and I'm going work on some alternate covers for H.G. Wells' The Time Machine which has a big anniversary in 2020. Not that it will take me three years (or at least I hope it won't) but it does mean I can play with some big ideas without any pressure.

Not that there's anybody breathing down my neck but you get the picture.

Three years. Wow. Sounds like a lifetime away. What great things can a man achieve in three years? He could watch a lot of TV that's for sure but I'll try and make sure that's not the only thing I can manage.

Meanwhile, on my travels of working up my next column of Beautiful Creatures, I came across this neat looking movie poster for The Monster. Based on Bertino's previous movies, it might just be something out of the ordinary. It had better be anyway:

Here's the trailer:

That's it for the week. I got some writing to do...

Be cool to each other.

My lovely small person went to see Ariana Grande on Monday night - it's OK, I had never heard of her either. It was a little odd hearing about her going to a show and then transposing my own experience of being 14 on top of it though.

At a rough estimate, I worked out that the whole trip - including tickets, travel and essential tour tshirt - probably came in at something like £120 and that's probably being generous. I was going to tell her about my first show alone (which was UFO back in '82/'83) and then thought better of it but in my silence, figured out the sum total of that trip (ticket, travel, essential tour shirt and oddly a copy of the MAD magazine summer special found at a newsstand outside the venue) came in at less than £15. Is that comparable? The ticket was something like £4 (if I ask my friend John, he probably still has his stub and could tell me for sure) which really enabled a kid of 14 to go out and see a lot of bands.

Seeing a band sure is steep these days.

On the plus side, she had a great time and some dude from One Direction showed up in the area she was in "without a body guard!"

Is that on a par with Dee Snider being found playing the slot machines in a local bingo hall after their first UK show? I guess somehow in a skewed universe of strange reality, it just might be. (Quickly references interested parties on such matters to own book titled Black Dye White Noise which contains such stories).

(On which note - if you're a fan of Dee Snider, his new podcast, Snider Comments, is everything you'd expect it to be - in the latest episode he has Wayne Kramer of MC5 in the studio. People forget just how cool MC5 were. Check this out this 45 year old clip from 1969. They don't make 'em like they used to and they really fucking should:

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In the interview I linked to yesterday over at Infected, I mention a Bukowski book cover I put together. A couple of people have asked if the could see it, so here it is. It's not a commercial venture or anything of the kind... just a guy messing about with something he loves. Anyway...

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I got all fired up when I heard Clive Barker was finally unleashing The Scarlet Gospels but now it's been out two or three weeks, I'm not so sure I should have been. The reviews from long time fans are not good. Not good at all. I shouldn't have looked but the cat's out of the bag now and I can't get back in. Maybe I'll just leave it unread on the shelf for a little while and see how I feel some day in the future. Still, Clive is Clive and if you're of the same mindset, there's a neat interview with him up at Wired in which he talks about some important stuff - particularly his comments on Anne Rice and the way some her 'fans' treated her recently.

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Finally, M att Haig followed me on Twitter yesterday. Not sure what I did to deserve that but it's kinda cool for a great writer to click a button your name is attached to. His book The Humans is a fine, fine read. He has a new book out called Reasons To Stay Alive that I haven't got around to yet but regardless of that... Matt: I'll buy you a really big latte if you can be bothered driving to Ramsgate next Wednesday and I'll shoplift your book into the bargain.

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Oh - really finally - if you're at a loss for something to watch on TV now silly season is over, Duchovny's Aquarius is out there. Just saying.