Today

A little over £113 got me my €150 for Athens. Lucky me, a Canadian who works for Network rail dropped by the office yesterday. She was from Calgary but more importantly, she had been to Athens recently. To my relief, she told me that €150 would be plenty for three and a half days there. "Could you manage Ottawa on about $215 spending money for three and a half days?" she wisely put it to me.

Talking with her, I won't deny a little homesickness crept in. Actually, I've been wrestling with it on and off for the past two weeks. Partially because summer is coming and so my mind drifts back to last summer, one of the best in my memory to be sure. Then there's some recent family events which have brought thoughts of mortality to the forefront and made me have a few lingering thoughts about being so far away from my parents. Not to mention the little things, like Toronto's secret swing, concerts in Montreal or the Manx pub in Ottawa. Oh and maybe my friends, I guess.

But I'm still only nine months into this two year experiment of mine. Progress from the second to the third draft of Momentum is much greater than from the first to the second - I hope to have a draft worth shopping around before I leave for Athens. Though I've signed up for a little more time at Network Rail, job offers are coming in and eventually the right one will come. Though I don't like to prattle on about, what with my desire not to make the people I meet feel like their every move is being reported on the Internet, I have managed to get the seed of a social life to bear a little fruit. Being a writing hermit stopped being romantic after awhile!

The jury is still out on whether or not I'll stay in England for the extra-long haul. I have to say that on the negative side of things, I find it difficult to cope with how crushingly backward this country is when it comes to the general populations attitude towards the importance of the environment. More than once now I have hear a good deal of resentment directed towards the issue at large and I've even heard more than one person say "I fucking hate the environment".

What?

Is this not like a fish saying it "fucking hates water"? Perhaps while chewing a sausage roll and reading The Guardian?

Plus the culture of fear in England is much closer to America's hysteria than the general attitude of Canada. I know I was poking a bit of fun with it, when I made my posts about Brasseye, but pedophilia nonce-sense is still pretty bad. Though the Labour party has done a lot to block a lot of the proposed anti-terror measures which would bring England in sync with America's draconian, crippled joke of a legal system...it is still a contentious issue. Running parallel to both topics, the newspapers are just as shameless in exploiting these fears to sell paper as they were (and often still are, somehow) in exploiting the Princess Diana escapade of the late 90's. These are all things which can wear me down on a tired or otherwise down day, to be sure.

I'd like to have a clear conclusion to this train of thought, but I guess the point is that I don't!

Apparently you can set off an atom bomb in the sky without the general public knowing?

Tom just, quite fairly, asked me how on Earth he could miss this?

I'd like to ask, how did I? How could anyone? Was this ever given proper news coverage?

Great Gumblin' Gumbles

Huzzah, first world (computer) problems have been surmounted!

So I mailed back the overpay....and I guess it was the right thing to do. Heck, apparently I made "Temp of the Month". If only I could articulate how that makes me feel.

Tomorrow I'm going to nab some Euro's. They aren't as wonderfully cheap as ye olde Canadian Dollar but the pound still trumps it by a reasonably consistant margin. When I checked this afternoon I saw that 100 pounds would net me 147 Euro's which is roughly what I've been recommended to acquire for the trip. Red swimshorts have already been selected.

Job hunting is proceeding apace, but I may have to work at Network Rail another couple of weeks. I think I could survive this, now that I know that since my initial contract has been filled I can just give two weeks notice like a normal human being. There is one production house which offers one year, paid contracts for runners which would be a good way of getting my foot in the door. The contracts become avaliable in July so it's just as well that I can get a few weeks more out of NR. Plus I still get my vacation, so that should at least recharge me.

Nowt much else today, but lasers saving the earth and talking paper!

Addendum: www.firstworldproblems.com is mine! Nothing up yet, but it's on the way...

A £1,700 Kick in the Crotch

So! I have recieved a kick square to each testicle.

Kick #1) I checked my bank balance and I seemed to have been paid about £1,700 more than I usually am in a given week. I know in my tiny, robotic heart that I will have to call my recruitment agency on Monday and tell them - but god damn if it isn't a hell of a tease to think for even a moment that you, all of a sudden, have enough money to guarantee visiting Canada in December, move house to somewhere closer to the centre of London and take almost all the stress off of your current hunt for employment.

Kick#2) My damn computer has a corrupt system config file which means it can't start up. I don't have a Windows XP backup disc because of a shared stupidity between the retards who packaged my computer and the retard currently typing this message. So I guess my "e-presence" will be "e-much less" until I get this sorted, which will be tricky if only because there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a proper comptuer store in London - only retail outlets where the employees only know how to sell, not how to fix or help, and computer pawn shops which I wouldn't let my laptop near in a hundred years.

Ro-bits

Trying to get a better idea of robot's imitating human movement vs actual human movement, I've been watching assorted clips of the Honda ASMIO and the Sony QRIO. While doing so I came across this suprisingly "Aww..." inducing clip.


Meanwhile, I also discoverd that a cluster of QRIO's performed in Beck's video for "Hell Yes". This gave me untold joy and perhaps it will do the same for you?

Macbeth at Regents Park Open Air Theatre

The temperature was perfect and a cool breeze played through the trees the whole time. I'd have taken picures of the show in progress but it was so good that I completely forgot to! What I saw of Regents park while we found our way to the theater was also rather impressive, I'll have to return with my camera during a sunny day and give it a do over.

Oh! The reason the set may look a bit odd is because they chose to make the play anachronistic, with the usual period dress during court scenes but a mixture of Scottish military get-ups from the 17th through 20th century during most every other scene. It was a bit of a surprise when, in the opening battle scene, the King came swinging in on a jeep!

This country is also doing bad things

America deserves a whole hell of a lot of critical attention but, as this article from the Ottawa Citizen which not all of you may have read points out, it realllly is far from the only country that does.

Shibbidy shabbita don't let the monsters grab at ya

Two weeks 'til Athens, two weeks 'til Athens!

Ahem.

Sorry it's been a bit quiet lately, mostly I'm finding myself consumed with job hunting this past little while. But tonight I'm going with someone to see an open air production of Macbeth, in Regents Park, and I'll be sure to bring my camera.

Meanwhile, I found a very good and easily digestible article put out by a UK based group of scientists with a long, distinguished history, The Royal Society - A Guide to Facts and Fictions about Climate Change. Give it a peek, I dares ya.

Misanthropists unite!

Although, by definition, I'm not sure if they could!

The new season of Big Brother is on the way and from the depth in which it has permeated all forms of media in London, you'd think God had announced A)That he actually exists and B)He's swinging by for the taping of the first episode, where he'll finally clear up which religion is right about him.

Naturally, I tripped over some of this while perusing the BBC this morning and the entry for the first two contestants was just too vomitous NOT to share.
****
NAME: Sam and Amanda
AGE: 18
OCCUPATION: Students
Sam and Amanda are the first set of twins to enter the house. They have their own "Twin Song" which they use to introduce themselves to boys.
-As well as studying social work in Manchester the twins also work as promotions girls in a nightclub.
-They "find politics confusing" and until recently had never been abroad.
-They both believe that "men should always buy women drinks".
****
I was once highly amused at the idea of someone singing a song which would end the Earth - but now I find it hard to laugh, having discovered what that song will be.

It will be: The "Twin Song".

Bonus Points: THIS
*ALSO*: A somewhat relevant Cat and Girl strip!

Bits and Bobs and Bikes

One thing to know if you ever plan to live in or do a bike tour through London is that regular sized bikes are not allowed on the tube - the just take up too much space. This, amongst other factors I'm sure, has helped fuel the rise of folding bikes. They are pretty fun little guys, mostly resembling BMX's, and generally cost as much as a new bike of comparable quality. On Sunday I was riding the escalator in Liverpool station when I saw someone standing in front of me with a folded up example. It stood on the step in front of him and was about the size of a modest trash bin - the like you'd find by a desk in someones study. I guess you could say that I stalked him in that I kept track of him from the station doors to the street so I could watch him unfold it. No special key seemed to be needed and it took him only about 30 seconds. Depending on where the winds of employment take me, I might look into one for myself.

Though I can't help being a little hesitant, foolishly, because of something else I've been seeing in regards to bikes and London. I'd say about every third bicyclist that I've seen on the street has been wearing a face mask air filter thing (rebreather?). When I see someone sitting directly behind an eighteen-wheeler I guess I can understand, but the implications - as well as the imagery - just creeps me out. It really reminds me of one of the old clean air advertisements from the early 1990's where a bunch of lawyers with personal air masks are strolling through a street where everything is a shade of brown or grey while a homeless begs for change so he can suck a few precious gasps of clean air from a kind of vending machine (Ten points if anyone can find a clip of it). At least there are plans for this, such as the Low Emissions Zone (which is the vast majority of London, but for a few communities which lay outside of the M25 highway that encircles the city), the Emissions Influenced Charges Proposal and the steady increase of congestion charges.

It's all well and good that we've made fun of them alot

As much as they may amuse us, popular humor shows making fun of Scientologists do not - at least directly - impede those lunatics.

Luckily, Tom has put something under my nose that can. All British citizens and expatriates are being called upon to sign this petition pleading that Scientology does not gain official status as a religion in the UK.

To those of you who read this and would be able to sign it, or could pass it along to someone who could, please do. If this seems like I am being unfair by singling them out, well, let's just say that they really have established themselves as fair game and leave it at that.

Rain, rain go away...

Though I shouldn't complain as A)I'm staying inside to write, anyways, and B)apparently I'm in England?

In other news, Giles Peterson's excellent weekly show has alerted me to the existence of a really enjoyable electronic soul group called The Elektrons (the Myspace tracks are decent but their segment on Giles' show was really something). They have a show on the 6th at a different Brick Lane venue which I will check out, provided the steaming entrails of my weekly sacrifice to the disembodied ghost of Carl Sagan tells me that it shall be so.

If this were a Mad Magazine article it would be called "The Assault On Raisins"

Those witty, witty guys..."M.A.S.H." becomes "M.U.S.H." in their crazy, mirror universe!

Ahem.

No outrageous adventures to report at the moment, though I suppose I can provide a small amount of local colour by letting you all know that Charing Cross is the place to go in central London for an incredibly dense grouping of book stores (both chain and independent). I went there today to hunt for Al Gore's new book, "The Assault On Reason". At the third store I found it and have devoured half the introduction on the way home.
It's so strange to see a man we used to know mostly as "Bill Clinton's VP" and "The exceptionally boring man" turn into a savvy, entertaining and intriguing speaker who more than stands out from his old bosses shadow - which is more than Mrs. Clinton can say. The article I linked to in the last paragraph gives a nice sample, but I think his interview on The Daily Show (Parts one and two) is quite useful as well. My apologies for not embedding it, but the code which Comedy Central provides is, basically, poop. To sum up what the book is about in a sentence: Al Gore finally applies the analytical and problem solving skills he demonstrated an abundance of with An Inconvenient Truth to the troubles with political and public discourse as it relates to democracy in America.

Though it is written with Americans in mind, even in just what I've read so far, you can easily apply it to Canada and Britain as well. My admiration for Mr. Gore is growing steadily - but of course I still had to find and use a picture of him where he looks like an absolute tit. Such are my fickle ways!

Addendum: BEARD. At the risk of getting stupid in that most internet of styles, may I suggest a Gore/Frakes 2008 ticket?

It is too hot in herre

So I have removed some or all of my clothes. Holy crap it's only about +22c or something and I feel like my head is wrapped in twelve towels soaked in boiling water. I....I hear Greece is hot? Particularly in the summer? Man I hope my body adapts soon!

Meanwhile, the neighborhood in which I work (Barking) is generally littered with litter and the chav's who like to loiter while they litter. But there is one park/bird reserve which serves as a refreshing island of green and blue amongst all the grey and porno-neon advertising. Today I had my camera on me and so this is what you get (to see today).

New Layout - ha cha cha cha

Ta-da!

Working with paw on the website for the webcomic, I've been thinking more about proper site presentation and how it relates to being easy on the eye. The old template I used was snazzy and stylish, but cramped and somewhat counter-intuitive. Let me know if you like this profile better, if you don't, if you don't give hoot or a holler...or if you think that maybe I should have , instead of Athens, booked a trip to the secret city of Laos.

As for the webcomic site, my two favorite designs have always been Chris Onstad's and Ryan's. The use of whitespace, centering and minmalism all come together for something visually pleasing. Neither site ever feels cluttered - which is impressive on the latter given how many features Ryan has packed in - and my eyes are automatically on the comic as soon as the page loads. I find with some of my other regular reads that if I'm a little tired or distracted, I have to re-center my vision slightly and this can be a little annoying (FIRST WORLD PROB-). Sounds like nitpicking in the extreme, I know, but I strongly believe that even the tinest annoyance - repeated consistantly over a long period of time - has the power to make people less inclined to come back. Plus, let's face it, Internet usage seems to drive a lot of people to Olympic levels of laziness.

It's the first proper sunny, summer day in London today. Looking out of the kitchen window I saw a long string of roses reaching from the neighbors lawn and stretching out along the clothes line. It's invigorating as all get out, which is grand as that's just what I need to help me finish pinning the second draft of Momentum to the mat.
Addendum: Speaking of content and opinions and all that...feel free to make suggestions requests or coments regarding what you liked seeing here and what you might like to see. Now that I've been in London almost six consecutive months and England for almost ten I find that some of the touristy-ness is wearing off, perhaps leading me to leaving out interesting details which I'm glossing over as I become more assimilated.

Someone who really is on the front lines of womens rights

I admit that over the past year or so I've gotten in the habit of burying my head in the sand as regards what goes on in Afghanistan and Iraq - particularly since Saddam's disgusting treatment.

But thanks to my growing addiction to the BBC, I found out about something - someone - in Afghanistan that just blew my mind. I knew that there had been improvements since the Taliban had been ousted from power, but had heard of several backslides which eventually lead to the "hear no evil" approach I'd been taking.

I had no idea there was a woman MP in the country - named Malalai_Joya - who, despite numerous death threats and the bombing of her home, says all the things that need to be said there. Like the surprisingly obvious yet not universally regarded "We probably shouldn't allow former Taliban leaders to take positions in the new government" (I'm paraphrasing). Here is the article which drew my attention and here you can see her personal website. What she faces and what she is trying to do just impresses the hell out of me, while putting the pundits who ponder the ways in which warrior womyn can further engorge their sense of entitlement into proper perspective.

ATHENS AHOY

I booked it!

I'll be leaving late June 16th and arriving back late June 20th.

This is berserk, after years of grouping anywhere but England, Canada and the U.S. in roughly the same sphere as Narnia and Atlantis (for all the odds of my ever going there).

I also splurged on a day tour for the middle of my trip. Originally I was going to shun tours since I figured I could get around the city on my own power just fine and that I'd have a more "natural" experience that way. But then I noticed a tour which would take me sailing around three surrounding islands (Hydra, Poros and Aegina). I do not have a yacht, so I thought this would be worth it!

I have also hear that Greece is "cheap" for British tourists so I won't have to get a pile of spending money (thank you, all-mighty pound sterling). It's not a shopping trip, so really I'll just need enough for food and perhaps the odd trinket (hopefully I'll be suave enough to weed out the ultra-touristy crap from genuinly interesting artifacts).

I'm not sure what else to say at this point, other than just A-WHEEEE!

A blobbidty bibbida

As someone who is sometimes cheeky enough to call himself "a writer", I feel I have to try and avoid cheap literary analysis or expression of my own experiences...lest I get caught in the fallacy of trying to fit everything I do into a grand structure.

But it's a very tricky thing to resist the implied parallel when, upon waking up this morning, not only was my head physically unblocked (hurrah, illness has at least receded) but I woke up to find myself already deeply into a writing fugue after three days of barely being able to review my script notes. A trance, a fugue, a vomiting out of ideas, call it what you will but in five minutes I'd filled several pages in my trusty green, hardback notebook with a detailed outline for an entirely new script and in the frenzied rush I'd also filled a page of my yellow "Momentum" notebook with frantic shorthand resolutions to problems I'd been trying to solve. This state continued through breakfast and the ride to work - though I'm normally up in a blink, today I still feel the sleep falling from my brain almost three hours since I awoke.

This is, I think, the kind of inspiration and rush that so many before and after me have clawed at madly, with excessive drink or drugs. I can't say either has ever brought it on for me, but if it works for others then I can certainly understand.

When I say that I woke up halfway in, this is because for the first time in a long while I vividly dreamed a story I could actually relate to people who do not have my exact memories. Usually my dreams are so tactile and rooted in memory that it would be a tremendous pain in the arse to convey them. This dream had those two qualities but had a third facet in that multiple threads and themes of childhood were present. A strange thing for me as I've been looking forward to and considering what is to come with such intensity for the past few years. I don't know yet, of course, if this story will develop into something that could be made - but I do know that I shall have to explore it further when I visit Uffington to retreat from London/Las Internet for a few days.

After Greece, that is! Yes, Old Man Money bounced me on his knee and said that I could get away with both a four day venture into Athens and a four day retreat in Uffington/Oxford. Exciting times! During my weekend stupor I was able to investigate a decent flight and hotel package that will put me along a main road which seems roughly equidistant from the Aegean sea and the core of Athens where such wonders as the Parthenon and the temple of Zeus can be found. The only decision left to make is if I should include one of the little tours in the package and how obnoxious a pair of swim shorts I should purchase.

Addendum: I was warned London would be dirty compared to Ottawa, and parts of it certainly are, but it could be worse.

And how are we today, Mr. Brackenbury?

I want to live...

....and yet, even more, I want to die! While what I have simply dubbed "Generic Illness" ravages me, body and mind, let me direct you all to the kind of website which could eventually lead to the death of television. It has dozens of handily organized shows, including my beloved Brass Eye (which I'll now shut up about), Harvey Birdman, Look Around You and other magnificence. Not that searching YouTube is SO hard, but this is much better.

Enjoy!

Another post pertaining to the general area of below the waist

But not poop! No, no no, this shall not become a PoopJournal. This I promise.

I've recently been asked in an email, "Why don't you talk much in your site about British accents or slang?". This is a fair question since British accents and slang are two of the most defining national qualities - particularly as seen by foreigners, but for Britons as well. It's not something everyone does, but there are native Britons who still take pride in being able to tell where someone is from (be it as vague as "up north" or as specific as what city) simply by hearing them talk. Meanwhile, I'd say that slang is certainly a more slippery beast here than I ever recall it being in the parts of Canada which I've experienced. Terms I heard in Reading had no bearing in London as terms I heard in Broadstairs had none in Reading. Not that England has a monopoly on this phenomena, but there is a notable volume of slang and accents for a country of such modest size.

The reason I've strayed from getting deeply into the subject - and my experiences with it - is twofold. 1) I don't want the Britons I speak with to feel that anything they say to me is up for linguistic study and dissection in front of an online audience. 2)That good old fashioned desire not to feel too much like a tourist, pointing and marvelling at "the funny way these people are".

But for the sake of anyone who plans to visit here, I shall warn you of something which I tripped up over the other day. Yes, "trousers" is still the word for what North Americans would call "pants" - but what is less widely known is that "pants" has, in somewhat recent years, become the term for "underwear".

This would explain the raised eyebrow I got when I was explaining to a co-worker that I didn't have my tube pass on me, thanks to having put on the wrong pants. "Which is a real pain in the arse, because that means I don't have a host of other things on me as well. I keep everything in my pants, pens, pencils, a small exacto knife..." I went on to explain "It's a bad habit I've inheirited from my father, he practically has half of Office Depot in his pants".

Well!

Meanwhile, did the "No gurlz a-loud" sign (written in messy crayon, of course) we posted over the internet fail us? Apparently! Also a baby, named Bubba no less, has proven that America's gun laws continue to be a shining example to us all. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to cough my way through being sick for the first time in England. Wheeeee! Literally the day after I signed up with the National Health Service, no less.

Newz you cannot possibly Uze(z)

I just tried a new, more arduous form of sit-up and it made me have to poop. I like that I felt more of that marvelous "burn", I wasn't so keen on being made to feel like a human roll of toothpaste.

Just sayin'!

Travels and travails and PAEDOPHILLIA?

Well, I've had a long conference with Old Man Money and it looks like visiting Canada will have to be a December/Christmas thing. Though recent events have upgraded a June trip from implausible to plausible, it has not yet graduated to wise. In short, I'd be cleaning out my savings account and leaving myself in a precarious position for when I returned to London. Plus I've lately been having crazy thoughts about "planning for retirement" and "not living hand-to-mouth". Sorry, to those who were hoping to see me sooner rather than later. If I had the ability, I'd visit in both June and December - with smaller trips all over Europe as well.

So now I am presented with the truly First World Problem of deciding what I want to do for a little vacation to celebrate my birthday and cap off what I sincerely hope to be the end of my "career" in data entry (it almost goes without saying that even though it's a month until this Network Rail contract finally ends, I've started hunting for a new and more stimulating job). On the one hand it's tempting to spend a modest wad of cash visiting Rome (before it crumbles) or somewhere in Greece for four or five days - seeking thrills and sights then coming back to London to decompress and recover from making the most of a few days somewhere exotic.

Or do I retreat to stay with my friends in Uffington/Oxford, take a few days off from hustle and/or bustle as well as the Internet (gasp) in order to seriously relax while focusing on writing and drawing in-between long country walks? Cheaper and more productive by far, but not as exciting or exotic - I certainly would miss seeing the Coliseum or the Aegean sea.

Perhaps I could be cheeky enough to do both, back-to-back?

In other news, here's an interesting artifact from recent British history which could be filed under the What's Got Us Whipped Up Into Hysterics Now? column. In the late '90's and very early 2000s's, up until terrorism stole our hearts and minds, paedophiles where the boogey-men supreme in England. Chris Morris, a father of two children and the man behind Brass Eye, got fed up with how the British people were being whipped up into absolute brainless terror so as to further the agenda of several newspapers, TV stations and politicians. Thus, though Brass Eye had been off the air for a few years, he resurrected his old show to produce a special entitled "Paedogeddon". You can find it on Youtube, split into three parts (1 - 2 - 3).

This article, What happens when you satirize hysteria?, does a good job of chronicling that brief period and the various reactions to the show. Here is a rather telling quote from the three page article, the italics added by yours truly:

"...a moral panic of gargantuan proportions has swept the land. Last summer in the English coastal town of Portsmouth, egged on by English tabloids running a "name and shame" campaign, mobs of vigilantes roamed the streets like medieval peasants. But instead of pitchforks they carried knuckle dusters and baseball bats, and rather than hunchbacks they were seeking "kiddie fiddlers," who existed only in the minds of the mob.

Dozens of people were wrongly accused, and one man, a pediatrician, had to leave the area after some of the protesters were confused by the term and torched his house. The pediatrician managed to keep his name out of the press, for fear that more crime might follow him. Another pediatrician, 30-year-old Yvette Cloete, had to leave her home in Gwent, South Wales after it was vandalized: Cloete arrived home from work to see the word "paedo" daubed all over her walls. Police say "the astonishing ignorance" of local anti-pedophile protestors forced her out. "

Bahahahahwhahahawhahwwhaa......oh lord I've wet myself

I've had this marvelous, marvelous show put under my nose - Brass Eye, a fine satire of alarmist news programs if there ever was one! The second clip has Simon Pegg as a militant pedophile - a Milipede.

The Gay fellow looks a bit like the Joker

This picture, originally from a 1936 British Publication Men Only, gave me a good laugh and hopefully it'll do the same for you. I nabbed it from the most recent issue of Time Out, which has the highly useful theme of "FREE" (things to do in London).

Meanwhile, while working on the second draft of "Momentum", I keep privately wishing that I'd invented the phrase "Fuck along, now" and that I could reasonably include it in the script.

Scroobius Pics

Scroobius to the left, Dan Le Sac to the right.

"Mic? Check. iMac Laptop? Check. Laminated copy of the periodic table? CHECK"

One song was an enjoyable mish-mash of a half dozen characters Scoobius played, with slight costume changes for each.
When he busted out "Thou Shalt Always Kill", everyone had a great time chanting along.
Around the Camden Locks at night.

No seriously, the new Bjork album is realllly good - pass it on

I was thinking about leaving the site alone today, knowing that tomorrow will almost inevitably yield some blather (maybe even pictures!) regarding the Scroobius Pip show I'm going to tonight.

BUT

then I read this interview with Bjork. One aspect of her new album (Volta) which I can mention without this degenerating into a wank about how much pleasure her music gives me...is how it reflects something I've never seen in any of her previous work.

Politics.

Now you could muddy the waters by getting into the sexual "politics" of a lot of her work, particularly if you are one of those people who see no distinguishing difference between belief's, opinions and politics. So to clarify, I am talking about Politics with a capital P. One song addresses a suicide bomber while another is a rallying cry against colonialism and there are subtler undercurrents in a couple of other songs as well. It isn't so present as to make it a Political Album but it's rather noticeable when all that's come before has been more to do with nature, love, raw emotions and a host of other things from which you'd have to get rather metaphorical to draw any connecting lines to the news of the day.

It's nice to have been a fan of someone for ten years and still feel that new facets and sides are being revealed to you, that there are are still more to come. Coming back to the article that sparked this post, the specific portion which made me appreciate her even more is thus:

----------------

Interviewer:There’s a lot of personal sentiment on Volta—I’m thinking of “Dull Flame of Desire” or “Wanderlust”—but there’s also a lot of politically oriented stuff, like “Declare Independence” (personal/political) and “Earth Intruders,” where you try to assert a kind of pre-civilized state. I’m curious what—besides the tsunami in Southeast Asia, which you mentioned in another interview—helped you return to this sentiment, which reminds me more of something like “Human Behavior” than anything else.

Bjork:Perhaps I am one of incredibly many that became a little pissed off with the Iraq war. And, especially since I am only spending half of my time in this country, it was pretty mind-blowing when Bush got reelected. On another note, I think that it is important to feel positive about globalism—it isn’t necessarily only an evil thing. I remember reading as a child, in music school, a quote from Stockhausen that in the next century (now) we will have killed all the animals and become only one nation, but it is going to be amazing, everybody communicating telepathically and floating into space between the stars. I don’t agree with him completely but I feel it is important to move on and stop clinging to old stuff. By moving forward and letting go, so much other stuff is going to come back to us like unite as one tribe and hopefully we’ll manage to get rid of organized religion.

----------------

It's an easy guess which specific sentence amused me the most.

The new Bjork album is really good, pass it on.

Man, if there is one thing I'll need to learn for the webcomic (as well as some more HTML and drawing ability) it's patience. About ten seconds after I uploaded that sketch yesterday, I only then noticed a couple of things I really should have fixed (what is up with Ben's lopsided chin?) before inking. I'll leave it up since, in general, I'm taking a "Warts and all" approach to this site...I just hope it will serve as an appropriate lesson to myself to help me avoid repeating the series of events which lead to it.

1)I draw something
2)Not having done much drawing in the past, my threshold for becoming very pleased with myself is low. Thus, with a minimum of error checking, I decide that what I've done is pretty okay when in fact it contains a certain amount of crap - not unlike processed meat.

This may sound like I'm being a bit harsh on myself, but I'll want to be this watchful when I'm doing the comic since once it is up there it is up there. People won't feel inclined to come back later for a re-drawn version of a shoddy strip anymore than I'm going to want to go back and redraw it instead of doing a new one and progressing the story.

Meanwhile, I gather that there has been a bit of nonsense in Ontario regarding Facebook? Do any of you guys have anything to add?

I guess there are others than me who are less than fussed with this Hyper-Connected Generation bullshit. Reading that article, I actually found myself becoming a bit anxious before I reminded myself that I don't actually have to participate in the trend - well, any more than I currently am. Now I'm going to throw my non-existant hat into the jargon ring and coin a neo-hyper-dynamo-term(-o-fuck).

E-Hermit
Some desolate, wary soul who refuses to have a blog or a presence on MySpace, Facebook, Meebo, Bebo, Instant Messaging, Twitter, Technorati etc. Nor do they podcast or "Lifecast", publish wikipedia articles or have a Flickr or Photobucket account.

A month and change from my twenty-fifth birthday, when I generally stop being considered a "Youth" by numerous facets of British society, and I already am starting to feel an urge to sit on my lawn with a shotgun in my hands and a corncob pipe.

Addendum: Holy Crap Banksy Revealed!
Nabbing this from Roberto, I hearby present a link to another article where you can see the face of Banksy!

From the train this morning...

A BLOG POST IS BEING MADE*YOU ARE USING THE INTERNET*YOUR WIFE IS LEAVING YOU...

You know, when I used to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine I often wondered why having so many basic things being announced by the computer didn’t piss people off more. “Well, I’m just glad I don’t live there!” I’d think.

See where this is going?

I could list the full litany but instead I’ll just mention the straw that broke the camel’s back. What woke me up half an hour early today? Why it was a megaphone loud, repeated announcement of “STAND OUT OF THE WAY, THIS VEHICLE IS BACKING UP. STAND OUT OF THE WAY, THIS VEHICLE IS BACKING UP” blasting from the garbage truck outside my house. From transit, to cameras, to trash to appliances….everything in England WILL TELL YOU WHAT IS UP AT THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT AND ALSO MAYBE WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IN CASE SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS.

THEN IT WILL TELL YOU AGAIN.

'Zis is, perhaps, most basic comic you are havink

The character is the fourth and final member of the Main Cast, a fellow named Ben who hasn't featured yet in the Bronze Age stories or in the little preview sketches. While I work on getting more strips done, I'll use this one as a template for experimentation and displaying the results.
Word bubbles and using layers to slide in photographes for the train windows will be the first things I screw around with, most likely. Anywho...still need to work on this and that, but I feel like progress is being made and this definitely topped up my interest/excitement for the project. I guess I could have taken more time on this but I was just so excited to be doing a proper strip instead of doodles and such.
Meanwhile I'm meeting MySpace Man to talk over the changes for the second draft of "Momentum" (AKA the scifi short with Parkour in it). I'm looking forward to it, partially because my collaborator claims he knows a Thai food place in Picadilly which sells all you can eat for three quid...but also because I'm really curious to see what our combined notes and ideas will gel into.

This little piggy went to market...

Though where I am now was a pretty good place for a first landing, I'm often thinking about moving somewhere better suited to me and my tastes. Southern Islington, the Angel area, is one place I'm keeping an eye on. Camden is another.
Fun Fact: Though there is a High Street and a High Road in London, there are several roads referred to as "The High Street". This is roughly analgous to the American use of "Main Street", in that it denotes the most popular and densely commerical road in a neighborhood. Holloway Road, near my place, is the high street of northern Islington. Conveniently, where I was today is simply called "Camden High Street".The Camden locks are a defining feature of the area, with plenty of nice places along it where you can grab a drink and a bite. I haven't seen any birds though.
Up a ways, near Chalk Farm station, I was pleased to find another Banksy piece. It's been a bit roughed up but there's still no mistaking what it is. This makes two sightings and I hope to find more...it's fun having this little Easter egg hunt. You can go here on his website to see a clipping about the piece - just click on the image to make it readable.
The Stables Market is one of several dense groupings of permenant and semi-transient shops in the area. I was pleased to find that I felt rather at home here, after years growing up and coming to such as the Landsdown Christmas Craft Show with my parents.
I was most pleased to find a plethora of affordable, interesting clothing here. I just grabbed a polo shirt today, but I'm bound to be finding my way back one of the brown velvet suit jackets I saw going for only fifteen quid.
I've read, heard and seen that Camden is a steadily gentrifying den of youth and artistry. This strikes me as a good place for me to be, compared to North Islington which isn't horrible but isn't particularly outstanding in any regard outside of it being not too far from areas that are. I'd have to get a slightly thicker skin when it comes to some of the more obnoxious expressions of trendiness that you find in a place like Camden (such as "Theme Couples" who wear matching outfits as if to suggest they are part of a band), but I think I could easily cope in favor of the positive ones (like a really interesting rooftop bar/photography gallery I wandered through today). As with so many things, it comes down to the price and the proximity to wherever I'd be working when I moved.

Bits and pieces to be followed by a good steak

I'm sure a lot of you inter-naut's have already at least heard of this, but I thought I'd post Jon Stewart's recent interview with Sen. John McCain if only because of how refreshing it is to see someone that high up the U.S. chain of command be called on the kind of bullshit which they've been spouting in regards to everyone's favorite conflict.



Meanwhile, I found this picture of the senator taken on April 24th, 1974 - shortly after his return from having been a Vietnamese POW for five years. Frankly, I just think he looks kind of impressive - in a similar vein to the news reporter in my last Scriptin' Fancy-Like post. I haven't given it any serious thought yet, but there is something I find very striking about these well shot, B&W pictures of men in dress shirts and pre-contemporary settings. I hope it isn't that nauseating nostaliga for a time before one's own, which has seized so many by the teets.
Anyways, I'm off to Camden market now. One thing I'm trying to do with my exploration of London is to make a point of not getting stuck in a rut of always hitting the big tourist points and the same twenty square miles in the heart of the city. This is not only for variety but because I don't want to crush the exhiliration that the Enbankment, Soho, Picadilly, Oxford Circus and St. James park area gives me! To reduce them to flavorless, well-chewed gum would be great shame.

Solar power gets interesting again

Tell me this isn't fascinating

I dares ya

Wat-ah

I'm usually the last person to be impressed by CGI, especially with people - where I just don't think they've escaped the Uncanny Valley yet. But this new method of CGI water just blew my socks off.

RIGHT OFF.

It is a god damn beautiful day today

Or perhaps "got damn" as Mr. Samuel L. Jackson might put it.

Some very un-English weather is about, with golden sunrays, birds a twittering and all the rest. Here's hoping I can get away with leaving work early today.

In other positive news, those of you who feel disenfranchised with democracy re: Voter Turn-Out may get a real kick out of a recent development in France. Also, I know I am extremely happy to see that India is taking a proactive stance on solar power in the home, as well.

In personal news, my contract with Network Rail has been extended to one day after my birthday (June 15th). I was wary about accepting this, at first, but a few things helped convince me that it wouldn't be the worst thing to do another six weeks or so of data entry.

1) I can honestly say without hyperbole that the job gives me no stress and, thanks to my usually being able to bang out the days work before the day is done, I often have spare time to work on my writing etc. before leaving early for home. One of the biggest impediments to my writing while I worked at The Comic Book Shoppe was how I'd often come home snarling and snapping about one stupid thing or another - usually customer/employer aggro, not about how strongly I may have disagreed with the new Spider-Man costume or whatever.

2) The money is decent and with a guaranteed six more weeks of it, I might be able to swing a visit to Canada sooner rather than later. At a bare minimum I will definitely be able to visit the continent and so I've started doing research to figure out where I'd go. Amsterdam is tempting for all the usual reasons, but I' m told - by British people - that it is "flooded with too many bloody British yobbo's". Paris and Venice are two other places I'm keen to see, though I hear a lot of positive things about Barcelona as well. Wherever I go, I'm going to resist the temptation of absurdly cheap flights (seriosuly, I've seen London to Prague for £12 - which is about $28 CDN). This is not only for environmental reasons but because, frankly, I'd like to either go throught the Chunnel or take a lovely boat ride. Both would result in more interesting visual fare and neither would lead to my ears screaming in agony during the descent.

3) After hunting for some kind of work with a production company, I've determined that at the very least....it may be a while before I can pull that off. Without any connections to help me leap past the bottom rung, I'd be stuck doing unpaid internships or working below minimum wage as a runner*. I've been told by more than one person that this has led to the film and televison world of England being rife with snotty, privilged individuals of the upper-middle class and I can see the logic, since not many can afford to work unpaid in this city.

I'm sure there could be something I' m missing and I don't plan on giving up on this angle, but it certainly didn't look like I was going to be able to find reasonably paying employment in the industry before my current contract ran out.

*The classic go-fer, the job descriptions often stated that I'd be required to own a car and pay for the gas out of my wages.

I just found this picture of me...

...that I took at Gatwick, when I arrived back on October 1st. Jetlag does a body good......though I think my mood may have also been affected by the horrible, horrible man I saw about ten feet ahead of where I am sitting there. He was about 5'3, fat, had a cane....probably in his mid-forties and he had a massive pompadour with Elvis sideburns. Also, glasses like Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys. Dude was arguing with his equally diminutive and miserable looking wife, waving the cane about for emphasis. He struck a blow for gender relations everywhere when he proclaimed "Woman, you keep arguing with me and I'll smack your teeth out".

WELCOME TO ENGLAND, MR. BRACKENBURY.

This one feels oddly incomplete...

...but it does feel like it's said what it was supposed to say.

Ladies and gentlemen, please to be enjoying a new tale from the Clive universe over in Bronze Age Sky God.

Meanwhile, we take one step closer to more accurately simulated mice.

Addendum: I've gone back and given the story a good scrubbing for typos. I noticed some hum-dingers and for that I apologize! Such is the end result of my writing on four hours sleep, having been kept up way too late the previous evening by digital homunculi.

I'm sure that a large percentage of Ecuadorians don't know something simple, either

But America gets our attention and SO I dare you to read this distressing article.

Don't you want to be distressed?

The days really are not long enough

Huzzah - the first draft of the script for MySpace Man is complete. This is the end of filler posts.

BUT FOR HOW LONG?

As far as length, the goal was fifteen to twenty minutes. A very convenient coincidence is that, as a rule, you can expect one page of script to equal one minute of film. By the time I felt I'd covered everything of value in the treatment, the draft was twenty-nine pages long.

This is great because now I can trim and tighten it, rather then rack my brains for additional content to jam into what is already there. This isn't to say that no new content will go into the next draft, but it's nice to know there isn't a metaphorical gun to my head. Though some people fall so in love with their words that they have trouble removing anything, I guess I've reached that point of humility where - if it improves the story - I can quite happily cut out anything. Besides, truly good lines can always be chucked into a bucket for some other, future project.

Another nice thing about working on later drafts is that now I have all the different scenes and sequences fleshed out in greater detail than a scribbling in my notebook, wedged in-between "Find a dentist" and "Find precious context for Metro Gnomes", I can play with the order of events a lot easier. "Logically" it should be the opposite, since now the scenes are seemingly entangled with one another by various transitions and various devices that rely on a certain scene or shot following another. But I just find it too abstract to label a bunch of index cards and then swirl them around on my desk, as Syd Field strongly suggests in his book.

That was a segway, people. I'm a WRITER, DAMMIT.

SFL: Oliver Finally Gets to Yelling About the Syd Field Book
Finishing this book became a bit difficult near the last third or so. Frankly, I just feel that if I'm having to draw upon pure willpower to propel me along the pages then maybe I should be reading something else? But ah, I had spent money for these words.

Upon finishing it I still felt a tad ambivalent, but I made a point of pausing to really think about why. I'm generally a very pragmatic person who prefers to have a clear structure to work through any given process - even if I'd just strung the structure together but a minute prior. Yet when it comes to that which I proclaim to be my main talent, writing, I really object to their being anything resembling a ten step IKEA assembly guide for people to follow. If everyone could write then what in the bejesus am I worth? What could I possibly do to save myself from a never ending, sisyphean series of jobs performing rote office work with no reward other than cash?

It's classic insecurity, as alarming as it is implausible.

So okay, maybe there is that part of me that wants the writing process to be special, unique and to generally be fuelled by a mysterious alchemy of pixie dust and unicorn farts. But I think there is a legitimate critique or two, as well as some praise to be lavished.

The entire book is written as if you are being privately tutored by Syd, sitting in comfortable chairs and having no great rush to go anywhere else. It's a relaxing tone, but it can sometimes make it hard to take him seriously. This is particularly because he often flips between saying "There is no one way to do X" and "This is the right way to do X" but "You gotta work out your own way to write" yet "This is how you write if you want your script to get made".

I guess those who want to simply write scripts and then put them on the shelf, would be okay with that last one. I have, of course, yet to meet anyone of that nature.

He also has some turns of phrase, the implications of which I find perturbing. The one I'll use for an example is when he cites a scene in Magnolia where Tom Cruise's character has a heartfelt, cathartic moment with his father - who lay dying of cancer. He says that in that scene Tom Cruise completes the relationship (between him and his father). I realize that I have a knack for semantics at times, but how do you complete your relationship with anyone? Is that the goal, then?

Yes, you could very well say that Cruise's character does finally address numerous issues of trust and frustration with his father in reaction to the events of their lives which preceded that moment. But after his father is in the ground, is his relationship to his father over? Would he not still think of him, allow his interactions with him to influence his own behavior from time to time? You could also choose to say that this scene brings a conclusion to the story being told within the film (Cruise barely shows up after this scene, as I recall). But that's now how Field chooses to put it and he repeats the phrase too many times for it to have been a fluke choice of words. Thus we come to my other irritation that I could feel at the back of my neck while reading this guide, Syd's frequent mixture of script and life knowledge can often come across as his preaching not only how to write but how to interpret life itself.

Maybe if I had a religious bone in my body, I'd not be so bothered by that. Ah well! Enough with the moaning, already. The book had some good parts too!

One is that instead of referring to dozens and dozens of films, Syd sticks to roughly the same eight pictures which anyone has a decent chance of having watched. This provides an enjoyable sense of continuity between the different chapters and lessons, making it easier to see how one technique leads into the next. He also makes use of just the right amount of specific film terminology to instruct while not obscuring the lesson with incomprehensible jargon. Thus the book is what it should be, something that anyone can read and understand.

One thing I personally found useful was how he stressed the differences between writing a novel and writing a script. One thing that amateur script writers, including myself, often do is write very dense and colorful scene descriptions which help create a mood but are not strictly necessary. Writing a script, it is tempting to flesh out every detail because in your mind you see a complete movie - not just words on a page. But, unless you actually are taking on multiple job titles, it's vital to remember that Set Designers design the settings, Directors will dictate what facial expressions the Actors should aim for and even then it is often left to the Actors to decide how to express an emotion. Similarly, Syd Field points out a lesson that I learned a couple of years ago but which I still did need to learn - use camera directions sparingly.

As a director it can be really annoying to read through a script and feel that the writer is telling you precisely how to shoot everything. It is, basically, telling the director that he doesn't know how to do his job or that his interpretation of the work is not wanted. True, while writing you will sometimes feel that there has to be some direction for the director in order to get the feeling you want. This is why Syd Field gives a very handy bit of advice in that you should be a bit vague and at least avoid specific shot terminology.

An example from the draft which I just finished is where I have a bead of sweat roll off the main character's chin and then land along the dotted line of a contract which is being offered to him. This is the absolute last image of the script and so I wanted to make sure that MySpace Man at least had a higher probability of interpreting it precisely as I had written it. Yet it would have been obnoxious to write something like....
--------------
HIGH ANGLE, MEDIUM SHOT

A bead of sweat begins to roll off Eric's chin.

CLOSE UP

The bead of sweat falls through the air...

EXT. CLOSE UP

...and stains the contract, right on the dotted line.
---------------

It's backseat driving, is what it is. So instead I just put in one shot direction and put it this way.

---------------

Eyes wide, Eric looks back at the contract. A single drop of sweat rolls off his chin and

falls

ANGLE ON CONTRACT

onto the contract, right on the dotted line.

---------------

By putting the word "falls" as I did, I'd like to think it leads the reader to a similar focus on the bead of sweat passing through the air as if I had put a specific shot direction. The one shot direction I did give still allows a lot of leeway. WHAT angle on the contract? How tight is the focus? These are questions I've left for MySpace Man to answer as he sees fit.

So in the end, I'd say that the Syd Field book is worth reading but perhaps not worth buying. I also would heavily suggest that if you want to take a stab at scriptwriting, then try writing a short script or two BEFORE you pick up any guide whatsoever. This will help you to get an idea of how you want to envisage stories, thus when you pick up this guide or any other then you will be able to pick and choose what advice you feel helps develop your own style - instead of just taking their template and using it as your own.

Meanwhile!
*Check out Scroobius Pip's MySpace page, where you can hear four other tracks by him. The man is basically a beat poet with an appreciation for both freestyle jazz and hip-hop. You can download the MP3 from the video I posted here. If nothing else, I recommend hitting the first link and listening to "1000 Words", which I myself have just finished looping for the eighth time.

*This all reminds me of a thought I had while out at a "rock show" in south Islington, Friday night. As the young band finished their set and said their goodbyes to the crowd, they plugged their MySpace page. I thought to myself "There will come a time when kids at shows will wonder what it was like before bands plugged their web pages". At the tender age of twenty-four I seem determined to feel out of sync with youth culture before I get my first wrinkle or grey hair.

*Oh and I didn't end up doing that Zombie walk thing. Why? Because when I got the route map emailed to me, I realized the whole thing would consist of maybe twenty minutes walking....followed by sitting in a chain pub, drinking the day away. Call me crazy, but it struck me as a tad lame. I was hoping for at least an hour and a real trek across the City, not a short walk across the Thames into a Soho pub. Sorry to disappoint!