THE PEN IS MORE PORTABLE THAN THE SWORD
Dog Day Afternoon
The Case of the Dancing Man
I have been humbled into working much, much harder. If you didn't watch Sherlock last night (iPlayer link here) - then you missed what is possibly the best piece of television written in the last 20 years. Yeah, even better than any of the Doctor Who episodes since relaunch too. That was one seriously well thought out, fun hour and a half. I won't drag it out. In fact I won't say another word but if you have any interest in Sherlock Holmes or writing for TV - or even if you're just a waste of space on the planet looking for something to do - spend the time. Which is all very nice as my Sherlock story, The Dead Messenger is gathering momentum for its launch in five days.
Charlotte and I (how's that for good English) have also finished up our latest graphic short. I'll be loading that up to the digital store in a couple of days or so once I've put the finishing touches to the production end of things. It's very different to The Fire Sermon but whether we've made a good old Celtic story better than it was before, only time will tell.
Meanwhile, back in the jungle, Dennis has been out with his camera taking pictures in Wolverhampton for Broken. I'm officially done with the script for this first issue and have moved on to the second issue. (Dennis, if you're reading, this will be the first you've heard of it but I'll have it over to you this evening).
That's almost too much positivity to handle, but on yet another positive note, I've posted more than Neil Gaiman this month. I rock.
Things accomplished in fiction: more than in recent weeks shall we say.
Things accomplished in real life: Ah - now that would be telling a little too much at this point in time but there is a smile on my face.
Other: Found a brand spanking new box set of all five Planet of the Apes movies today for £1! Good work Mr Smith. Have been told I can watch them by myself, very late at night.
Hymn of A Speed King
Phew - it's a hot one again. 'They' promised rain but no rain came which kind of makes the ark I've been building in the garden somewhat redundant.
With Broken and other manageable items under control, the remainder of the week will be taken up with finishing the script for Fox On The Run. How good is it? It's really good if I say so myself. I'm hoping for great things, but then isn't that what I always do? Also making some smart headway with Sherlock Holmes: The Dead Messenger but I haven't done any PR for that at all yet. I'm hoping the new Sherlock series about to start this coming Sunday will give it a jolt in the arm. It looks fantastic - Moffatt and Gatiss, I hate you, you pair of bastards...
I really like the way that Cherie Priest finishes up her blog posts with these three headers below to wind everything up, so I figured I would give it shot:
Things accomplished in fiction: I killed a dog, but it's OK really because he's been dead for a long time anyway and the story wouldn't really work if he wasn't. Also created a demon - who may be an angel - or may not exist at all. Either way, that's issue zero of Broken 99% in the can for a first draft and I'm uber-pleased.
Things accomplished in real life: Wrote a scathing blog post for Ida at ISLPR about what a heap of junk that Empire State Of Mind song is. Read it here.
Other: As a Kiss-head, I'm fired up to have discovered Strutter Radio via iTunes. There's songs on here that I haven't played in an eternity. I thought it would be dull after a day or so but I'm on day three and I ain't fallen off the wagon yet. When was the last time you heard Radioactive - demonic intro and all? Enjoying immensely The Passage, a real monster summer read. Checked Premier Inn website for a room over the BICS period in Birmingham - and then decided maybe it would be easier simply to do a single day and then go home.
Bleeding, Broken and a Black Feather Boa
Buckle up Mr Smith. Things have gone from 0 to 60 in mere seconds - and it feels great!
A word on the event known as 'the funeral' first: Sad though they may be - this one particularly so for me - it's always fantastic to catch-up with all the family members that I haven't seen since the last funeral we all attended. Please try to stay in touch. I miss you guys!
Anyway, apart from talking myself into promising I would perform three T.Rex songs dressed in full on Bolan regalia at somebody's birthday party next June, things are going pretty well. Hot Love? Telegram Sam? Ride A White Swan? I seem to recall that they're all more or less the same song aren't they?
Over in the world of words and pictures, Dennis and I have begun the uber-cool project now known as BROKEN. Watch out for its own page tab at the top of the blog here which will reveal some back-story and also some of the preliminary sketches. I'm really stoked about this - if we can pull it off, it could open some big bad-ass doors... and if I can talk Dennis into illustrating The Goat-Faced Boy, I'll be rolling around like a pig in sticky mud all weekend.
For those in the vicinity, we're hoping to launch BROKEN at the Wrexham Comic Con in September. Come along.
That's enough from me for now. I'm on a mission to get all of these things I've been working on released before the end of the year. Tall order but definitely possible. Good thing there's nothing good on TV for a couple of months.
Currently listening to: Cracker - Low
Currently reading: Justin Cronin - The Passage
Currently watching: Blood pressure.
Dark Knight of the Soul...
Where was I... oh yeah... climbing a mountain to steal a crown.
First, thanks to everybody who sent mucho kind words about recent loss of my grandmother. I thought I would have a lot to say about it - I normally do - but I guess some things are still sacred...
Excellent news this week as I hook up with a massively talented artist called Dennis Bevan. You can find examples of his work here. We're going to be working on some new projects together and although we've yet to iron out exactly what they are, I'm just about as excited as I get about it. Dare I write a Batman story?
Other excellent news this week sees The Fire Sermon tipping over 20,000 readers and all other stories at the digital bookstore climb, climb, climbing. Would it be over-optimistic of me to think 40,000 on The Fire Sermon would be possible by Christmas? I don't think so. With more graphic shorts on the horizon, I'm really pleased (and bloody thankful to everybody that likes it) that it's a successful as it is.
In other scraps, the TV screenplay Fox On The Run is approaching the end of its first draft, my second Inspector Kang short - The Moon Upstairs - is also muscling onwards, although Kang himself seems to be going through some serious changes in his character and personality. There's a whole bunch of other stuff in the wing mirrors as well but some objects may appear closer than others and all that...
As a parting shot, if anybody is looking for a summer read that will really will last all summer, try Justin Cronin's The Passage. For once, everything 'they' are saying about it is true. That is one seriously well written novel.
The Case of the Dead Messenger
After the relative success of I, Wendigo as the first ever horror "novel" to be published via twitter, I'm going for it again, this time with the altogether more commercially viable - and handily out of copyright - Sherlock Holmes.
As before, The Case of the Dead Messenger will be published at the rate of a "chapter" a day throughout August 2010. If I double the head count on what was achieved with I, Wendigo then I'll be more than happy.
I'm about half way through writing it and as is only fitting for the 21st century, I'll be bringing in some characters that have previously only sat in the background. Anyway, order of the day now is to get the PR machine rolling. If anybody can help out and/or wants to host the banner - feel free to download it from here and link it to www.twitter.com/zodiaclung
That ought to keep me out of trouble for a few weeks at least...
God's Top Ten
Ah crap. The blog police have caught me napping. Only I wasn't napping really. Was dealing with something truly horrible. My grandmother died yesterday morning and even though we all saw it coming for weeks on end (and God love my mother... months), it still sucks.
There will probably be plenty on human morailty here in the next few days but I feel I must clear the decks as well.
I'm waiting on a reply from a rather talented somebody that may change all of the rules of the game today. Sorry - make that The Game. While I wait, I have surrounded myself with more notebooks than Paperchase in a truly valiant attempt to get three projects finished in the next 12 days. One of them actually has a deadline of tomorrow and even though I'm an eternal optimist at heart, I have to admit I'm struggling a little to meet that one in the face of recent events. I think I will finish it in my own time and take the lid off the pressure cooker for a little while.
So - all is well even though all is unwell. Normal service will resume shortly.
Hair, deadlines and the other Mister Smith...
Spent yesterday in The Smoke doing "some stuff" which was the culmination of "stuff I was doing before", so today, as I gather my senses to press on with "real stuff", I find I have about ten days before a whole bunch of deadlines kick in. Before I start though, some nice bloke with a camera to hand took a decent picture of me whilst in The Smoke - so for everybody that wanted to see the shorn version of hair, this is as good as it gets. Suit. Tie. Slight air of prefessionalism... and said hair straightened to within an inch of its life just in case it decided to misbehaveduring the day. Curly unruliness has already resumed.
Anyway, first out of the deadline trap would be the childrens book I've been working on with my friend Emma. This one is a self imposed deadline and therefore moveable in theory but I don't want to. I think if I start moving stuff about, it will lead to all sorts of implications later on. Meet the new me. Same as the old me... but different. I'm actually pretty close to the end of that anyway - a few tweaks and then back to the start for some heavy editing and it will be away.
There's a couple of competition entries kicking around with brick walls at the end of the month too. One is for the Bridport Prize which I'd really like to smack on the head this year. Last year, I mailed in an entry in the poetry category. I'm absolutely convinced it was the darkest poem ever written by a human being but maybe too dark for that sort of audience, so this year, I've taken the opportunity to use it as a deadline to finish up the next Inspector Kang story, The Moon Upstairs. This is number two in the series - anybody interested in previously mentioned dark poem can find it in the forthcoming "Palm Trees..." release.
Also on the cards is a comp that Waterstones are running - rather than have two Kang shorts running at the same time, I thought I would throw The Run-Along Man Sells Spoons into the mixer.
Quite possibly the weirdest story I've written so far - but you wouldn't know that would you because I've never put any of the others out have I? All will change over the next couple of months - more on this in a few weeks.
Finally, there's a TV screenplay going out to play somewhere nice in the next couple of weeks. It's working title is Fox On The Run and that's all I can say at the moment. I hope it keeps that title for its entire lifespan. I can't imagine it ever being called anything else but I guess its not very professional to become too attached to nuances like that. There's a whole bunch of other stuff as well but I'm feeling a bit under pressure now, so over the next couple of weeks expect rather a lot of head-emptying nonsense instead of real stuff.
Yeah, I know... that's how everyone prefers it.
In closing, been reading and chatting to some people about the forthcoming Doctor Who series finale. Word on the street is that the next two episodes are Moffat at his very best and when it's over, you'll want to watch the whole series again from the beginning and you won't believe that you could have been so stupid as to no notive all of its nuances... that's what I hear anyway. I wonder if it has anything to do with the repeated references in EVERY EPISODE to nursey rhymes - or is it just me that's noticed that?
The Doctor
Say what you like about the new series of Doctor Who - this is a great magazine cover. It might even be worth buying - apparently, there's a mini interview with Christopher Eccleston on why he jumped after the first series.
All creatures great...
We all have them. Those days when you think nothing happens - but this is not true. Something of value happens every single day. More than likely, you're just looking at the world wrong if you don't know this.
Stand-up comics are probably the masters of surveying the minutae and making something from it, but it's something that everybody should at least try and do - even if you're shit at it. If you sitting there thinking, hey it's alright for you - you don't have this or that shit to deal with, fuck you. We all have a cross to bear. Life sucks. Deal with it. I can look at the first six numbers in my phone and show you more shit than you could ever want on your plate.
Anyway, this morning - pretty much while I was asleep at the wheel - a creature ran across the road in front of car, prompting me to get very excited and shout, "look at the size of that bloody rabbit!". The rabbits in the fields around the house are tiny, but that's only because I'm so used to the size of Willow and Barley now. The wild rabbits are probably quite normally sized really.
It took me more than a few moments to realise that it was actually a hare than ran out. I've never seen one before - not in the flesh. I knew they were big but this old bugger was impressive! This was closely followed seconds later by a near collision with a beautiful woodpecker - the spotted variety. Brilliant.
These two little things put me in a great mood considering it was eight in the morning and topped up on yesterday's event when we saw Rhiannon's friend with her dog Izzy - a freaking huge Briard. That also put me in a great mood. She's a lovely dog and I want one.
The fact that Doctor Who finally came up with an episode worth staying in for was an addded bonus this weekend - I had very nearly lost all faith. It's been like watching a pretend Doctor for weeks on end. They really needed to have cracked that Pandorica open right at the beginning... and football? Screw the football. I watched it and it was dull as hell. About as inspiring as... well, the last time I watched them play. Animals: 1 - Sport: 0.
I felt the need to go out and hire The Wolfman yesterday afternoon - and now I wish I hadn't bothered. Blah, blah, wolf, blah, blah, silver bullets, blah blah, special fx... almost as dull as the football. I backed this up witha second rental which I haven't watched yet - Solomon Kane. The tagline is "fight evil... with evil" - I'm looking forward to this. You just know it's going to be great for all the right reasons...
Will add some pictures later if one wishes to come back...
Pop is eating itself
I tried to order a copy of Chuck Klosterman's Eating The Dinosaur yesterday from Waterstones. Everybody who reads stuff here at ZL needs to read Fargo Rock City by the man. It is, beyond any shadow of doubt, the best book about growing up a metal-head in the 80's ever written - or at least until Almost Human is finished. Bit of wishful thinking on my behalf there...
Anyway, he's written a fair few books now - all worthy of actually paying for and Dinosaur is his latest, but it's incredibly odd (or maybe I mean shit) that it will take three weeks for Waterstones to get this book in for me.
Let's square this up, Chuck Klosterman is the premier pop-culture writer on the face of the planet right now and that's not only my opinion. I can't buy his book anywhere off the shelf and I care about this stuff - so how is anybody supposed to get involved as a casual buyer? The answer is, you can't. In hardback, paperback or as an ebook that I can read RIGHT NOW that I would PAY FOR - I can't get it and therefore, I don't get it. I can actually get it on amazon, but I was in the mood to buy it there and then - and what casual browser has ever really discovered a chance purchase by scrolling through pages and pages at amazon?
Maybe it says more about the Waterstones system than Klosterman's publisher - but there are still lessons to be had here.
Seems to me that Klosterman would actually be more successful by self publishing and taking care of the distribution himself via some third-party web application - except I rather suspect he's too stoned to care, hence general lack of website or blog.
Note to self: don't get caught in the trap of ever thinking you - or any company that works with/for you - can coast it. You can't. Somebody will come up behind you steal your crown and beat your face into the dirt. I suppose this largely depends on whether you take the Keith Richards mentality of "fuck it, I'll just show up and do what I do best" or the Gene Simmons route, which is "let's do this bigger and better than the next guy - and then set fire to it - and then tell the world and his sister." Me? I think we know which camp I'm in.
Talking of which, my buddy Ray Van Horn out in Baltimore is going through the same shit-kicking bleakness that is hanging up your gloves in the music business that I went through. It's hard trying to do the right thing by bands you love simply because it doesn't pay - and like he said to me yesterday, all the great writers are getting canned/caned in favour of writers who will play "the game". It sucks but it's the way it is and it takes a wise man to know when he gets to that point. One of the prices you pay for having other "responsibilities" I guess. Heads up bro! For what it's worth, his recent blogpost on Destroyer is a classic.
I had an idea...
..and this morning I have had to bin the idea. It's almost (but not quite) the equivalent of Kiss sitting around for the weekend thinking up their plans for world domination only to wake up on Monday morning to find that the New York Dolls have done it.
Actually, it's nothing like that at all, but if I may explain: first, you need to know that I chew up crime novels at a frightening speed. There's not many authors that I haven't read and formed an opinion on. One of the biggest holes in my crime author knowledge has always been Peter James, which this weekend I decided to put right. I went out and bought his first Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novel - Dead Simple. It's good. Real good.
And then I discovered the ten ton heavy thing hiding behind the door.
See, I always knew that for D.I. Kang to work as a fantastically rounded character, he had to be damaged in some way, so I damaged him in the most severe way I could think of.
I took away his beloved. Just made her disappear and left him not knowing if she was alive or dead. She was just gone. I've sat on this for a good couple of years now while I've built my backstory and (as you'll have noticed) finally gotten around to pushing out some short stories to bring him to life in the world.
So you can probably imagine the crushing pain I felt last night when I got to the bit (quite early on in the book) where I learn that this is how Grace is damaged. His wife is just gone - and long enough to have her declared legally dead too. That was something I was saving up!
So:
a) I'm really glad the concept works! James has written a stack of Grace novels and he's a damn fine writer as well (I had read some of his other books, just not these D.S. Grace novels).
b) I'm really fucking glad I found out now! Imagine going to an agent/publisher with that one. Pride comes before a fall and all that.
c) It crossed my mind to get in touch with James to see if she had ever been found (I'll obviously get around to this as I go through the novels so no spoilers please) - and if she hadn't, maybe I could twist my Kang story and he could be married to her as well!
d) Better still, maybe she ran away from Grace, then ran away with Kang and is now shacked up with Billingham's Tom Thorne. The ultimate bigamy trail. As a reader and a big fan of crime fiction, I'd think that would be brilliant fun.
Anyway, now I'm left with a hole in my detective's life. Last night I was cross, but hey, these thing happen however unlikely it may seem. I had to read it twice to make sure I hadn't got hold of the wrong end of the stick.
Today, I have found bigger and better ways in which to damage D.I. Kang. He won't thank me for any of it, but readers might.
Mr James, it's been a pleasure working with you - albeit anonymously.
Storm in a Headcup
I'm having a quiet day today. Delivering a small child safely to Brownie camp and carrying heavy boxes around for Eleanor is about my limit. Today, will be a thinking day. Put things in order. Figure out what projects to do next and what needs doing urgently.
Not waiting for an Alibi any longer...
The results of the Alibi/Theakstons crime story were (eventually) announced this morning. Was I one of the chosen ones? No. Will I get more people to read my story than any of these people? Yes. Apply some pressure to the graphic on the left there and it's all yours. I'd give up on entering any of these comps but the deadlines are really useful for getting me to finish things.
Taking a superficial glance over the three shortlisted tales, one of them looks pretty good and two of them look... well, just OK. That's not rotten apples at all, just the truth. One of them seems to have taken half of the entire allowed word count and used 'fuck' like it's going out of fashion. Do you know how hard it was not to use it at all! No - you have no fucking idea at all...
Anyway, congratulations to whoever the winner will be at the end - I've lost interest now and am only concerned with getting Shouting and Pointing in front of as many people as I can. See you on the other side guys...
This week has also seen some in-roads into a couple of new projects. The first is a "proper" children's book (as opposed to a book that I would normally write to scare them), that I'll hopefully be working on with Emma. It's an absolute mess of ideas at the moment, so the rest of the week will be spent tidying the damn thing up until it finally looks like something workable. I'm toying with the idea that I might have to work under a pseudonym for this one... and no, before anybody pitches in, I don't need any help on that front. I'm talking to you Johnson!
The Green Children is also powering away at being very cool. I'm probably miles away from finishing it though. The deeper I get into its forest, the more I have to go back and rewrite. Such is the nature of screenwriting I guess.
I've also remembered that I said I'd publish I,Wendigo in its entirety today, so you can now grab that as well over at the digital store - or just click on the graphic 'over there'.
What else have I found? Well, there's these two great Doctor Who posters. I have no idea where they came from but if the owner happens to pass by, let me know. Be only to happy to give you a big smile and buy you a chocolate bar.
Currently listening to: Crash Karma
Currenly reading: Pretty Monsters - Kelly Link
Currently watching: Time slip away
Wendy... I'm home!
As I, Wendigo reaches its final stages, this morning it stands at 140 readers. If I reasonably expect nothing at all to happen to change that between now and the last chapter tomorrow morning, I'm quite happy to judge this as a success. Before I started, I thought 200 followers/readers would be reasonable - if not a little ambitious but I'm quite happy with this. It's a good springboard to jump off for the next one - and there will be one. It will be very different - a lot has been learned from this. Anyway, that's pretty much that. The whole story will be put up at the Zodiac Lung digital bookstore as a good looking pdf file that you can download for free - judging by the close on 15,000 readers of The Fire Sermon, this is a great place for it to be archived.
Mega thanks must go out to Mr Downes whose timely reminders at 5pm on some days not to forget to publish, saved the project and me from having to out in public with a red face...
Also of much importance - to me anyway - on June 14th, I'll be publishing a poetry collection. Not everybody's cup of tea but better to be published and damned than have hundreds of scraps of paper lying around in a box. It's called Palm Trees and Other Worldly Suns and will be available in a limited edition run of 100 copies in hardback at £14.00, paperback at £5.40 and as an ebook for £1.00. All of which I think is reasonable for 100 pages of darkness.
The hardback edition will only ever be available from the Zodiac Lung Wheel of Fortune store but a few weeks after launch, I'm hoping that the general release paperback edition will also be up at amazon. If I can find some holes in the atmosphere, I might even get out and do some live promotion for it. I'll post any of that here and archive it in the events section.
Currently listening to, watching and very much enjoying: my own private Kiss tour made from official and fan footage of the tour. I'll archive it all properly later this week over at Zodiac TV on YouTube if you couldn't make it either...
A book cover of worth, some writing news and a fox.
I've not read this yet, but I do like the cover. It makes it look like somebody cares as opposed to churning out the generic. Good work people! I may even go and find this tomorrow. It will only get added to a very tall pile but then, that's what the pile is for...
Of watching LOST until the early hours of the morning, of ploughing through The Whisperers until a little bit later still and of munching too many packets of cheese and onion crisps, I plead guilty as charged.
A quick word on LOST. Am I happy with the ending? I think I am. They've given me six years of superb television and redefined all of our watching habits. Would it have been nice to have something terrifically complex to bow out on? Maybe, but given the scope of the show and how much I have genuinely loved (mostly) every moment, they delivered just fine.
Good job I was in a good mood. That's all I can say...
Anyway, this week, I also find myself guilty of writing a brilliantly wicked script called The Green Children as a pitch for something happening next year. I'm equally guilty of writing something called Mister Noon for the very same thing. I'd love to tell you what for but I'm not sure it matters either way. I'm sure you can guess if you tried hard enough...
Want to know something else? Both of them are really fucking good. Yeah... they really are.
Over at I, Wendigo, there seemed to be a sudden rush of 100 or so extra people signing up at the beginning of this week. This made me very happy - even if there is little more than a week left to go. I think it's been successful enough to warrant doing another... but not straight away. What I need is for somebody to develop a twitter application where I can load up the whole story in advance and have it post for me at the same time everyday. So far, I haven't missed a day but it's been close to the bone a few times.
Finally - somebody find me the email of this man and force him - by the lead of a very sharp pencil if necessary - to work with me:
Currently listening to: KISS - Love Gun & Daughtry - Leave This Town
Currently watching: A fox in the garden
A birth, a Jabberwocky and people killed by volcanic ash...
Despite its public humiliations this week (and next and the one after), Facebook finds itself ranking highly here by doing what it does best and allowing my best friend of 30 odd years ago to get back in touch with me.
I haven't seen her since we were six (hi Em), so there's some hefty catching up to do. I'll spare you the idle chatter and simply deliver the news that she is now all grown up and an illustrator of some worth.
Can we work together without imploding? Of course we can. Anybody who I've shared lunch with resisdes in the inner sanctum by default. All will be revealed when there's something to reveal - but it will more than likely heavily feature goats.
Peculiarly/ironically, she's chosen to have a baby with a rather big Kiss fan. I'm sure that's not the actual reason she delivered Tiger-Lily to the world, but hey - there are a million worse reasons in my book. I'll stop now before I get into trouble...
This week, I've been sidelined from my posting by a) much contact with agents, b) self-imposed deadlines over a couple of stories that needed birthing c) writing enough content (to last at least three months) for the previously mentioned Rock n Roll Hell column somewhere that I'm not allowed to talk about yet and d) John Connolly's The Whisperers. So tonight I'm downing tools and firing up the barbie for a slug fest with the kids. This will feature cloudy lemonade and meat. Lots of meat.
Last night on the way back from the pool, (swimming, not liver or black) we hit the country lanes and saw - and I became very excited about this - a monstrous bird of prey attempting to make off with half a pheasant. Pheasant and grouse are running wild at the moment. They hide at the side of the road, wait for you to drive up and then run out in front of you. It's not good for the nerves.
Anyway, my gut reaction was that it was so big it was an eagle. Eleanor thought the same, so I wasn't talking complete garbage, but I don't think we have eagles down here. On consulting the bird encyclopedia, I guess it could have been a buzzard. About a foot and a half high, huge wing span of about three feet - brown feathers, (not spotted). Big old sod. Rowan - where are you when I need you!
What I do know is that it wasn't a jabberwocky.
In a little aside from the usual blabbing here, my Ma came back from Italy yesterday after taking a return trip to Pompeii and Vesuvius - a trip that we originally took as a family about 30 years ago.
That would make it something like 1980 I guess and Vesuvius was a steaming monster. We drove most of the way up, dumped the car in the dirt and walked to the rim where you could peer into its heart at your own peril. It was very exciting. She now tells me there are barriers everywhere stopping you from getting anywhere near the action. This is very sad. What I was always liked about Europe - particularly Spain and Italy, was that if there was a hole and you fell in it, it was basically your own stupid fault for not being careful. Barriers at the rim of Vesuvius so that overweight tourists don't fall in? This is a step in wrong direction.
But possibly not as wrong as her finding they have opened a Burger King inside Pompeii. This must surely be logged in the annals of history as Violation Number 1. I mean, really... what are they thinking?
Wrapping up the week: Mr Downes told me to get some new pictures taken as I was looking far too haggard for my own good. I have taken this in the spirit it was intended and will administer that this very weekend.
Bastard.
Currently listening to: Billy Idol's back catalogue.
Currently reading: What do you think.
Currently watching: My weight.
Wisdom of the day: A field full of donkeys often evokes the same emotional response as seeing otters playing.
House Calls
I was going to come here today and give Doctor Who a good going over using a stick with nails pounded through the end of it - and then, quite inadvertently, I learned something that changed my mind.
Now, this learned fact should not have changed my mind because, truth be told, I am not enjoying Doctor Who as much as I should be. Neither are rather a lot of other people who would normally be seated next to me during the show. Rhiannon decided that this week she would rather watch Twilight New Moon and Ellie decided she would rather be at her friends house. That's not a good sign - see previous post from sometime in the last two weeks or so as to why...
Then today, I learned something about this series that I would have spotted at any point in the last four years but my anticipation of such treats, presented in a format I could spot, has been blinded by a new team.
Switch off NOW if you don't want to be a part of my spoiler. It may not be a spoiler though, so equally, don't quote me:
This series, there appears to be two Doctors. Yeah - I had to go back to the beginning and check for myself and all the clues seem to be present and correct. One seems to be pretty consistent but the other seems to drop in when he needs to as well. I need to go back to the start and watch it totally from the beginning again.
I should have had more faith in Moffat.
Either I'm right in the most part or the BBC have got the worst continuity editor in existence. Anyway - all the cleverness in the world isn't glueing a nine year old to the seat, so it's still wrong.
Torn, torn, torn...
Another seat at the Table of the Gods...
Intended blog post slightly sidelined for a moment of silence for Ronnie James Dio who died yesterday. As time moves on, more and more people who play a small part in making us all what we are get taken from us. Sad.
I interviewed Ronnie once - I'd just come off a run of interviews all over the country and this was the last one of the week. Even though I was less than keen at first - RJD not being one of my personal all time greats - he soon had me wrapped around his finger and we talked until he absolutely could talk no longer because he was due on stage. Only half of it was usable as interview material as the other half was taken up devouring his other love in life - boxing! He was funny, patient, honest and dedicated to his family and profession. That's a good impression to leave a stranger with.
A true legend. Not a pretend legend... a real one. The world will be a different place without you.
Taking Out The Trash
