Lords Of Salem: A Review

The killing joke about a Rob Zombie film is the unpredictability of what's about to happen. Thus far, his movies have been increasingly confident - a term I wholly dislike because it sounds like I know what I'm talking about as a film-maker but in this case, I mean nothing other than how obvious it is that Rob is getting pretty damn good at this sideline of his. Is it a sideline? Perhaps not. In Lords of Salem, Rob has created a rare beast. It's a movie that embraces everything that was great about seventies horror - it pulls and tears at Don't Look Now, Rosemary's Baby, Altered States, The Devil Rides Out, acts like it was made for $8000, looks like it cost more than it probably did and will either leave you with a bad taste in your mouth or feeling like you got clipped by the wing mirror of a passing car.

More arthouse than multiplex, its success lies in how unsettling it is. The plot is solid (if not well trodden) and simple enough to allow RZ to do what he's done to it. If it were any more complex, it would have lost an awful lot of its visual appeal that's for sure. It's certainly not a movie to rip to shreds in the search for a reason why either - more something to live through and experience - and that's what makes it far superior to the dirge normally dished out in the name of shock and awe.

Worthy and of note here - which makes a change as this usually comes as an afterthought - is the casting and the soundtrack. Both are pretty damn flawless. Sheri Moon puts in the best performance of her career but she is far from the only one - both Bruce Davison and Judy Geeson form solid lynchpins within the movie, Geeson particularly so with her superb performance as a landlady.

The soundtrack on the other hand, is absolutely not something you'd listen to at home - spellbindingly crafted by John 5 (no surprises there), it sits in the movie like a member of the cast. It must have been thirty years since that much thought was put into a soundtrack. So strong is it that the aural experience of the movie is just as important as what's going on visually. I swear, if the man could have found a way to drop taste and smell into the movie, he would have - it's that kind of sensory overload.

When they come to write the history books, Roman Polanski and Ken Russell are unlikely to be alone when mentioned. There will be somebody else lurking in the darkness. He probably doesn't believe he belongs there, but that would be a lie.

I have nothing bad to say about Lords of Salem. I loved it from one side of hell to the other. If you get a chance, you should do this. here's the trailer if you have absolutely no idea what I've been talking about:

Vdio Killed The Rdio Star

Something like six months ago, I subscribed to rdio - if you don't know what it is, you should check it out. It's by far the best music subscription service out there - there's very little that they haven't got. Honestly speaking though, it might not be the best - I don't know because I've never looked at the others. I have plenty of friends who moan a lot about their services but with rdio, I haven't had much cause for complaint at all. There's a few things I'd like to see done differently in the interface but it's early days and they'll figure it out. If you're already a member, you can find me here - for £10 a month, I seriously hammer it but it's without doubt the best £10 a month I have ever spent on music since the digital revolution. A few weeks back as a bi-product of this, I found myself with a free trial subscription to their new movie streaming service called vdio (natch) - along with a £20 sweetener so that I could test the beta out. Again, I have to tell you - it's pretty freaking solid. Absolutely zero glitches in the streaming. Excellent quality. There's an awful lot of material there that netflix don't have (I watched Marathon Man a couple of days ago - superb as ever) and even though I think it's a little on the expensive side, it's certainly a far superior experience to going to a rental store. All they need to figure out is how to let me buy the damn film on my iPad (as opposed to buying it on the Big Machine and then it appearing on my iPad) and we just might be in long term business.

Tonight though, all is forgiven because I've just seen that they have Rob Zombie's new movie Lords of Salem available for advanced viewing. So for the next couple of hours - that's me all figured out...

Salem and Other Stories

There's nothing quite so satisfying as the following things in life: 1. Knowing you were right about who the killer was.

2. Seeing the girl who owns the dragons outwit the 'big man' using her brain and not the dragons - well, for a couple of minutes at least.

Beginning to clear my machine down of the shrapnel that has been the horror book today. So much unused material (mostly because it was slightly off subject) deserves a much wider audience for all kinds of reasons. Like this from Chris Kutcha who I never even got around to emailing about anything, but it's still a great piece of pop art:

Moving nicely onto the desk next, I had better wrap up Raised On Radio which is sitting on the corner here looking at me with sad eyes because in little less than two months I also need to deliver the next book in the series of pop-culture tattoo books. I have a choice (I think). I can either go for sci-fi & fantasy or comic books & animation. I'm not sure it matters which, they're both as vast as each other. There's a little voice inside telling me to do both together and see what builds momentum the fastest - which is kind of sensible.

•••

So, my head is still full of monster 'stuff' right now, and I have learned things from putting it together. Some of it is pretty intriguing if you look at it from a - how can I put this? A spiritual perspective perhaps? 

Let's assume (correctly) that here we all are sitting on planet earth and from this moment forward, none of us has a clue as to what the future will bring. Not really. We have dreams, goals and things we think we should be doing if we could be bothered but I think we can all agree that life has other plans for us much of the time. Those other plans probably consist of a reasonably even 50/50 split of good/bad events. The pessimistic will focus on one side, the optimistic on the other.

Here's what I found - Bela Lugosi turned down the part of Frankenstein's creature because he thought he would be unrecognisable beneath the make-up. Thus the part was offered to Boris Karloff - who chewed it up and spat it out the other side. The key thing here is that nobody actually gives a damn about what happened behind the scenes - even though I find it a neat curio now - only what actually happened.

So it occurs to me that really, if you're looking to get on in the world, it doesn't matter what your plans are, what your intentions were or even if you're talented (and 'everybody says so', not just your mum) but can't seem to get a break with whatever it is you're doing. All that counts is what you did. And I think that's as it should be because every single one of us probably had a million good ideas today that we did nothing with.

So how do you crack the code? How do you break through to the other side?

I may have figured it out after all these years. You're not the one who gets to decide - I have a feeling I read this phrase somewhere recently, but I'll claim it as my own for the next thirty seconds. You can want and want all you like, but you don't get to decide. Not even if you own your own business. Everybody else gets to decide - and that's not something you can control. You simply have to be there doing your thing when the opportunity to advance yourself arises. If you're good at what you do, you stand a chance of moving your chess piece in the right direction... or perhaps not. But what is absolutely certain is that if you're not doing your thing, you don't stand any chance at all.

Here's my new friend Boris on the subject:

"You could heave a brick out of the window and hit ten actors who could play my parts. I just happened to be on the right corner at the right time."

And that my friends, is quite likely to be the wisest thing anybody has ever said...

I Can See My House From Here...

The horror book is on my desk for another 24 hours. This is the scary part. Did I catch all the erros? Did I make any huge mistakes? I don't think so but you never know. The Gods of Print like to shield things from even the keenest of eyes as they like to reveal them only when the book comes back in its finished format. There's a great blog post about this over at Adam Rex's place - he's the guy that illustrated Gaiman's Chu's Day story. This is what he says and he took the words right out of my mouth: "When I turn in the art I'm worried that it's totally inadequate.  When the book arrives in stores a year later I only see mistakes.  A few months later I love it."

It's something I've talked to a lot of people about lately, big and small people too - which means it's simply 'there'. It doesn't go away with perceived success or talent. It's just one of those things you have to live with but knowing that everybody experiences it is comforting to say the least.

I did however find an ever more frightening prospect on the horizon and that would be how close the deadline for the next book in the sequence is.

Bring it...

•••

During a particularly late night session, Mr Gamble (book designer) and I got a little stir crazy and he sent me this pic with the story that some guy leaned his bike against a tree, got called away to war and never came back. Whether it's a true story or not, it's still a great picture:

I think I prefer this though which makes me laugh every time I see it. I have officially been in the house too long..

Welcome To The Creepshow III

Jeez - from nothing to much to talk about to way too much to talk about. Where to start? Well, we updated the back cover of the horror book this afternoon to this, which sits much better:

On which note, I also need to catch up with myself by pointing you to Mark's Deviant Art page. He'd be more than happy to hear from people - so long as it's not a big pile of junk-ass nonsense and especially if you want him to do something for you and you're going to pay him! There are other people to thank (massively) and point things at with the production of this project too, but right now I think he's gone away to build himself an online presence! We'll come back to that later...

•••

Over the last few months (quite a lot of months now I look closely) I've been working on writing something for Doctor Who and it's almost finished. For 'finished' read: at the end of a first draft from which I'm likely to have to do twice as much work as I have already, but at least it's not super-rock-hard plotting and stuff. I mentioned this to Mark a couple of months ago and he surprised me today by presenting me with a draft of the front cover of a comic book - and it's seriously excellent. I'm not going to post it here because it 'was what it was' and needs some fixing here and there from a character point of view. I mention it now only to reference back to it later - but not too much later I hope. I'll keep updating about it - and if anything cool happens with it, I'll probably go silent as the grave...

•••

Finally, on what's been a highly graphic couple of days, I've been talking with the artist Jason Edmiston lately - on my travels of his work, I found this, which I really don't have to say anything about other than you can buy a print of it at his Etsy store:

While you're there, you might want to check out his Monsters of Rock series - one of which looks like this:

These walls might be getting a bit busy soon...

Welcome To The Creepshow II

Hot off the er... screen, I just got a rough proof of the back cover from the book project posted yesterday. I think it needs a few tweaks here and there - mostly in the 'Welcome' header but for all intents and purposes, this is pretty damn close to done. This has made me smile this morning because with a front and  a back cover, it's starting to very much become a reality:

Welcome To The Creepshow

I'm in my last ten days with the book I've been writing on horror tattoos for the last couple of months - then we move into a very short production period (because we've been designing as we've been writing) before it goes on sale in the big world. I think the official date is 23rd May but you can pre-order it here and as soon as they come in, they'll be shipped out pronto believe me. I thought we were keeping this cover under wraps for a little while but somebody told me the guys back at the ranch had posted it on facebook earlier this week - which is about as 'not undercover' as you can possibly get. I think some of the others posted online are a version behind but this is definitely what the final version looks like:

The book is most definitely more than how it first appears. I would say it's 100% exactly what it looks like it is and then another 100% of extra stuff that you won't be expecting to find. To say I'm really pleased with it would be a massive understatement - even if there are still a few sections left to pull together. Just as soon as I'm done with it and I've seen some proofs, I'll dissect it some more and maybe post some previews of the internals. So far, it's been a great journey - I've made some friends, learned new things and seen some of the most mind-blowing art on the streets today. If those aren't good enough reasons to be a writer and work on fully sanctioned pet projects, I don't know what are.

One final thing I need to mention about the book - after much to-ing and fro-ing, debate, false starts and other things so not worth mentioning here - the cover was digitally hand drawn by Mr. Mark McCarthy. Mark sells adverts in the mag - I knew he was a "bit of an artist" on the side but had never really seen much of his work. The concept was dropped on his desk as something of an afterthought if I'm honest but there's nothing better than seeing someone pick up a baton that's been dropped on the floor and run like hell with it over nothing more than a couple of weekends. I'm sure he has an online presence somewhere - I'll find out what it is and add it to the next 'reveal' of the book. Fine work Sir. I feel some merch coming on...

Anyway, once that's out on the street, I think I'll kick back for five minutes or so before starting on the next one in the series - which will either be Sci-Fi & Fantasy or Comic Books. I haven't decided yet - I'm not even sure if it's up to me. Probably best if it's not because I'll only waste time trying to figure it out.

That will do for today - things to do. Nobody to see - not at close to midnight - but definitely things to do.

The End - Of Two Things

Finally finished what's probably the best crime novel that I've read in at least a year. Actually, read is a lie - I downloaded the audiobook for cruising around in the car but got so hooked, the book found its way onto the phone, some USB sticks stuck into the radio... all kinds of places. If you're big on crime - and especially Victorian crime - The Yard (Alex Grecian) is a total no-brainer. I saw that it just came out in paperback, so you can pick it up pretty cheap if you shop around but the audiobook is really well read which makes a change - some of the books available at audible are so amateur it makes me want to sit down and podcast it myself. That's one down in the sweeping of the table to make room to get on. Next? I think I'll finish off Hawthorn & Child this weekend and see how the mood takes me. I did go into the bookshop today but only out of habit and because I totally forgot that I said I wouldn't. I got all the way to the back of the store too before I remembered then kept my eyes front, said hi to the guys that work there and left.

•••

This is a good way to wrap up the week:

High Noon on the Crow Road

I don't normally post about 'the day job'. Truth be told, it's not really a day job at all, it's a 'whole life' that has no boundaries when it comes to personal space, which is why I don't give it much time here. That said, let me show you some work form my friend Noon:

While I get that a lot of people don't understand tattoo art or see it as something it's not, Noon ticks every single box for me. In fact, all of his work is simply beautiful. I'm not going to get into some huge discourse here about how people only see what they want to see, but the fact of the matter is they do. Most people only ever see average work done by average guys. Nobody ever really stops to study what's going on out there - if they did, they would see things like this and if they were smart, the big picture would snap into very sharp focus for them.

There are maybe five tattoo artists whose work I consider to be genuinely unique that I would happily let loose on me. Noon is one of them - he gets around the world too. You should check him out. Not least because he's one of the good guys!

•••

I raised my head for long enough today to hear about Iain Banks. Genuinely - the guy is a class act and how sad. One of the greatest living writers on the planet, I was so influenced by The Crow Road and Espedair Street back in the early nineties that even now, I'm still struggling to raise the bar to that standard. I never got on well with his sci-fi alter ego (Iain M. Banks for those who have always struggled with the difference in his work) but I know it's good even though I don't like it. Assuming that the media reports are true - as they seem to have come from the horses mouth - I sincerely hope whenever the inevitable happens that it's kind to him.

Strange days.

It's hard to remember most of the time that from the moment you're born, your body is busy dying of something. Our time here is so short. Don't waste it on things that don't matter.

Doctor Who Monsters! Book Covers! Words On Paper!

You know what, I love tumblr, I really do. It's a great blogging device but in spite of everything, I just can't bring myself to post there. I need to shut it down once and for all no matter how much the fashionable authors of the day like to play there. Besides, regular passers-by here would miss things like this:

As they tend to say in the cool and hip places around the universe, FUCK YEAH, ZYGONS!

That's pretty exciting, it's not even recent news (it's a couple of days old now), no idea how I missed it because that's a big deal. Certainly more so that Number Nine and Rose returning - that was pretty much expected, but Zygons? Nope - I never saw that coming. Being as it's been announced this far ahead of time, I can only assume that it's probably some kind of minor part because you sure wouldn't fire your biggest guns this far away from the big event.

Well, I was excited anyway... roll with it.

•••

I've decided to stop buying books - this is a promise that will last a whole six weeks. I need to get some writing done and also finish the stack that's threatening to topple over if I don't do something about it. This week - and these are my last two purchases - I picked these up. The first for obvious reasons and the second because after I'd read the first five pages in the bookstore, the deal was already sealed with wax:

...and then, nothing. No books for me. The day I come back to reading will be the day Dan Brown releases a new book. Luckily, I know exactly when that is. With the wind behind me, there'll be a tasty new graphic on the blog letting y'all know about my new thing.

Also on my travels this week, I found this painting of Alice Cooper:

 If you're a big Alice fan, this KickStarter might be of interest to you (though this painting has sadly gone - not that I had $7.5k to hand over no matter how much I like it). An interesting project that's for sure and one I'll be following a lot more earnestly than the Kiss Kids comic. Yeah - read it and weep. I did.

So - quite a profitable day all in all. Doctor Who monsters, Alice Cooper, cool books with great covers. Even the sun came out for a couple of hours this afternoon. Sometimes, that's all you get - and sometimes, that's just enough.

The Rubber Doll Of The Literary World

I wrote an editorial for the mag recently that was based around how people believe what they want to believe and that alone is enough to make something true. It was a little more complicated than that, but I've come to the realisation that people also simply believe whatever is put in front of their faces. For my own part, this last year I've spent a lot of time looking at whether people are reading real books or really are shifting to ebooks. I think a better question would be "are people even reading anymore?" I'm starting to doubt it but am also starting to realise that my original vision may be flawed in the first place. See, when I was in school, my over-riding memory when it came to books is of people getting into James Herbert and his Rats series. It was very popular. Some were hitting Stephen King (which was my preference when it came to horror) but we were also reading books that I'd fall of my chair if I saw my kids with. We were also reading books by Woody Allen, Clive James and David Niven. It wasn't unusual to take a book to school and when things got dull, you could slope off to a corner and lose yourself and nobody would think anything of it.

These habits were fuelled by very cheap second hand bookstores. Occasionally, something would be bought new but as I got older, books had to fight for their share of whatever money was around with albums.

All of that aside, I hardly ever see people reading anymore. Not even kindles. Not really. I see a lot of people with kindles sitting around looking smugly at me when I am reading and I know exactly what they're thinking. They're thinking "I've got a kindle" and they sit stroking their device like it's the holy grail of reading but there's no enjoyment of the book itself. I find it hard to believe that I once thought this was a great idea but I did - and I was wrong.

When is e-reading going to get sexy?

The Art Exhibition: Redux

Yesterday, I had cause to pay a visit to a publishing company I used to work for something like twelve years ago. A while back, they moved into new premises and have recently decided to decorate it by asking local artists to bring their stuff in to display. It's a great idea because, living with Eleanor, that's something I would know about - the house is full of canvases leaning up against walls and hanging around, or at least it was until yesterday when I took a car full of her paintings over there. Now the house is strangely void of any paintings at all which gives me an opportunity to sneak up some of the art I've collected over the last few years. Anyway, when I got there, I found that aside from the boss and the receptionist, I don't know anybody that works there anymore - but here's a good story all the same.

Many years ago, maybe in something like 2002, I bought a tin of soup for lunch. Why I would buy soup I have no idea, but there followed a conversation in the design studio about how the soup could be used for emergencies and thus, it sat on a shelf just above my head until the day I left because the apocalypse never came (though sometimes in there, it was pretty close). Despite the move and the lack of anybody I know who works there anymore, the soup became part of the company and still lives in a corner of the new studio being looked after by strangers.

I'd forgotten all about it but here's a picture of that very soup:

I love the fact that they've kept my soup. I don't know why but it seems to give some importance to life in a way that I can't explain. Mind you, it says Best Before 2005 on the bottom of it so it would have to be a very serious emergency to crack it open now. I think I would rather starve.

Point Omega & Other Stories

Picked up a book today by a writer I should have read long ago. His name is Don DeLillo - and as happens sometimes, I found that he's been writing forever, so now I feel cheap that I didn't know this - but it happens. I assume his catalogue has just been given a re-release because there's a whole set of brand new Picador's on the shelf of the local store that certainly weren't there last week. They're damn good covers though (yeah - I judged the books by them. Wanna make something of it?). Even though they all sound like I should buy every single one them and bed down for the next month or so, I settled on a copy of Point Omega that looks like this:

It's not very long at all, but one of his other books - Underworld - is possibly one of the thickest books I've ever seen, and I've seen a few in my time. That looks like this:

Getting the picture now? They're all produced in a matt finish too which makes them even better - for design nerds like me, these have been designed by Noma Bar at the London agency Dutch Uncle. Gonna have to get the whole collection  - I can feel it in my bones.

Anyway, while I was eyeballing his collection, I found some quotes from DeLillo who apparently doesn't do interviews too often. This one made me nod wisely to myself:

"I was called a cult writer in the 70s, when that meant that very few people were reading me." 

I think that's still true now though isn't it? I really hope that being a cult writer doesn't horrifically mean that you're simply marketed as a cult writer to make sure people who like 'cult writers' will pick you up.

I like that he doesn't do interviews too much. That way, when he does speak, he says incredibly wise things like:

"I quit my job just to quit. I didn't quit my job to write fiction. I just didn't want to work anymore."

and;

"I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version."

and, from Point Omega;

“If you reveal everything, bare every feeling, ask for understanding, you lose something crucial to your sense of yourself. You need to know things that others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.”

Beautiful. So beautiful that I might have to make myself a peanut butter sandwich...

Point Omega & Other Stories

Picked up a book today by a writer I should have read long ago. His name is Don DeLillo - and as happens sometimes, I found that he's been writing forever, so now I feel cheap that I didn't know this - but it happens. I assume his catalogue has just been given a re-release because there's a whole set of brand new Picador's on the shelf of the local store that certainly weren't there last week. They're damn good covers though (yeah - I judged the books by them. Wanna make something of it?). Even though they all sound like I should buy every single one them and bed down for the next month or so, I settled on a copy of Point Omega that looks like this:

 

It's not very long at all, but one of his other books - Underworld - is possibly one of the thickest books I've ever seen, and I've seen a few in my time. That looks like this:

Getting the picture now? They're all produced in a matt finish too which makes them even better - for design nerds like me, these have been designed by Noma Bar at the London agency Dutch Uncle. Gonna have to get the whole collection  - I can feel it in my bones.

Anyway, while I was eyeballing his collection, I found some quotes from DeLillo who apparently doesn't do interviews too often. This one made me nod wisely to myself:

"I was called a cult writer in the 70s, when that meant that very few people were reading me." 

I think that's still true now though isn't it? I really hope that being a cult writer doesn't horrifically mean that you're simply marketed as a cult writer to make sure people who like 'cult writers' will pick you up.

I like that he doesn't do interviews too much. That way, when he does speak, he says incredibly wise things like:

"I quit my job just to quit. I didn't quit my job to write fiction. I just didn't want to work anymore." and;

"I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version." and, from Point Omega;

“If you reveal everything, bare every feeling, ask for understanding, you lose something crucial to your sense of yourself. You need to know things that others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.”

Beautiful. So beautiful that I might have to make myself a peanut butter sandwich...

Black Dye White Noise: The Audio Adventure

I had forgotten all about this. Some time after Black Dye White Noise hit the 'shelves', I went into the studio with my producer buddy JJ and we recorded this hour long show featuring music from some of the bands in the book - and then we talked about it too. It was a little opportunistic as we grabbed the studio time off the cuff and I think we were a little unprepared for it. Well I was - it was more of an "I wonder if we can make this work" kind of thing.

Anyway, we both got busy and I forgot all about it even though the intention has always been there to go back in and do it again - particularly now that he's moved himself into a killer new studio.

Yesterday, JJ also remembered about the session and loaded it up for me. This version has all of the interview section stripped out - not because it was bad but because of how long it was. What it has done though is kicked my ass to plan it properly and do it again...

In the spirit of a mix tape, I'm not going to catalogue what we played, you'll just have to listen to all of it from start to finish - and that's the way it should be because listening to Warrior Soul at their peak for even just a few seconds makes me want to form a band again.

James Herbert: Thanks Man...

I just this very minute learned that James Herbert died a couple of days ago. That's pretty sad. Although his best days as one of the premier horror authors in the world are best viewed in the rear view mirror, me and his work had some good times together. Sigh.

James Herbert: Thanks Man...

I just this very minute learned that James Herbert died a couple of days ago. That's pretty sad. Although his best days as one of the premier horror authors in the world are best viewed in the rear view mirror, me and his work had some good times together. Sigh.

The Digital Dilemma

I reposted a quote from Jack White today on my tumblr - you can read it here - it's about having a soul and why some things should matter. I've read it maybe a dozen times now and aside from making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, I've been sitting here this evening thinking about just how right he is. It's one thing to think about how right somebody is but it's another thing entirely to do something about it. Lots of people love music but it become no more than a soundtrack to life rather than the movie itself. So I've decided to put some money to one side this month. Not much, just a couple of ten pound notes. Next time there's a record fair in town, I'm going to give my kids £10 each and take them with me. The rules will be simple:

1. No rush. Chill. Look at some sleeves. See what section the things you might like are in. Ask the dude behind the desk about it but you must find something that you want to take home and listen to.

2. When we get home, you get to drive. You get to learn how to drop the stylus on and what speed things play at. Not quite sure how this will go down - I ma probably more interested than they are...

3. We listen to whatever it is together and talk about it. Why we chose what we did, why it was good, why it was bad. Sometimes, it's OK that the sleeve looked better than the music actually was. That's life in a nutshell.

Maybe we'll even turn our phones off while we do this. The plan might need thinking out a little more but I think it has mileage.

A few years ago, I turned into the amazing digital man... I was full on with the programme. All the way. I've got a hard drive here with over 100gb of music on it. That's a lot of songs. It's my entire CD collection ripped, stashed and sorted - this includes rather a long time when I was publishing Burn and editing Zero - sometimes 20 to 30 CDs a day could turn up. It's about ten years worth. Pardon my language but I've always fucking detested compact discs. That was the first step on the slippery slope as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, when the collection got too big for my actual laptop, I made the hard drive into a jukebox and pointed my iTunes memory at it. Very nice. Hit play and let it roll - and as the months turned into years, I realised what an unholy mistake I had made.

Which is when I rediscovered how much I loved vinyl and had only moved away from it because the industry made me.

That's not music. That's data.

I hardly know any of the album artworks from this collection - and I certainly don't know most of the producers. Perhaps most importantly for me, I don't know any of the songwriters and that can't be right.

This ethos is also present in my book collection. There was a time that I thought it would be a great idea to simply exist as 'me' in the world with everything digitised. I still like the idea of that but as fast as I was upgrading/downgrading (delete as you see fit) my book collection digitally, the new books I was buying were made of paper.

I've been writing a lot recently and if ever I need to reference something, I'm certainly not reaching for my iPad to flip through books. I go straight to my shelves, pull things out, it's a bit of an adventure to be honest. (You can't throw that bullshit around about how you can make notes in ebooks either - that's just a pretentious lie).

Movies, I don't much care about. I have a couple of complete box sets (Life on Mars and  Starsky & Hutch) but if they weren't around, no big deal. I could always find them again - probably. I don't define my existence by movies and television, but I do define it by books and music.

But - I am also enthralled with the idea of owning a minimum amount of 'stuff' and being a free spirit in the world. Maybe I should just let my heart do the talking and free my brain up for nothing more than getting work done.

The Hair Bear Bunch

How does that Queensryche song start? "It suddenly hit me like a... like a two ton heavy thing." Yeah - that would be the flu-type bitch that put me down like a dog yesterday afternoon. I haven't been ill for so long, I thought I might actually pass away in my sleep. That's how you know when it's not a dose of man-flu but the real deal. Good thing I didn't die though - that wouldn't have gone down very well on small person's birthday. Note to everybody: if you think you might die, avoid shrugging off this mortal coil on the birthday of people you care about. Nobody wants a spoiler hanging around on their birthday for the rest of their life.

I reviewed the new Bon Jovi album for Mike at The Void this week - it didn't go so well. Mostly because it's not very good. How sad - but it did make me go digging and remember just how great an  album New Jersey was, but I don't think that was the band's intention. Should have made a proper record then - and then people (it wasn't only me) would say nice things. Having a solid record deal is not a free pass anymore. Shit, for most people it's a bloody luxury.

I saw a glimpse of the future yesterday. Over at io9, they posted a story about Rutger Hauer's new role in True Blood. Here's what I saw:

Oh yeah. That's not so far away believe me, but I can't leave it at that - I thought I might combine it with Don Johnson's facial hair from Django, which looks like this:

Too extreme perhaps? I think it's quite becoming. I think I like Don's suit better than Rutger's though... file under pending. Will look like a fool in either though...

Plug A Hole In The Blog Type Post

Trying to get your act together to present yourself to the world is a tricky business. I took a few days off from blogging to write and found that when I looked at this blog having spent some time away from it, there was far too much material from other people here. Not that this was a bad thing but - despite what I might have said in the past about only having one home on the web - I see now why people like Gaiman, Joe Hill and Warren Ellis are running tumblr blogs - it allows you to expand on what you do at 'home' without diluting it. People who are into what you do aren't necessarily into the same things as you are - so I've relaunched my tumblr blog here and it will probably grow pretty fast. This last week has been fuelled by a wasps nest in my head over geting things finished. The first is my deadline for Raised on Radio is looming - I'm nearly at a point that I could call a first draft. After that, it should all move pretty swiftly as Eleanor moves in with the red pen and I start to type it up and screw it down tighter. By the end of the week, I'm also looking at launching a new series. I'm pretty excited about it as I think it's got really long legs but that's making me be a little too precious too but I shall try and stick to my Friday deadline. What I'd really like to do with it is launch it in a magazine... file under pending.

Talking of deadlines, I'm almost finished with the new bookazine for Jazz - it's easily the best work I've done on that front and (even if I say so myself) it shows. That's goes into production/design April 1st and is head for a mid-May publishing date. Somewhere in there, I also have another book that I've fallen behind with but all will be well. Honest. I just need to regroup a little but regrouping is hard when you've got two birthdays in the house in the same week and the unexpected snow that's falling appears to be accumulating fast enough to foil any plans to conquer the world.

Onwards... there are many words to put after one another. Preferably in different orders...