For the last few years I have been mostly working at.....

This is my place of semi-employment. I say semi because I'm really supposed to be part-time but appear to spend more time here than is strictly necessary or healthy.

When I'm not off on one of my arty endeavors they are kind enough to let me hang around here. It's a great little shop, one of a dying breed I fear. It isn't a pure independent as it is run by a small company run out of Guildford. Does owning 5 shops count as a chain? Anyway... we do our best to be a little more eclectic than your average shop and pride ourselves on our customer service and lack of that "Waterstones" feel.

Ok... Advert over.

I love working here, it's a relaxed place where you get to know the locals and people often just drop in for a chat. All was well here until about a year or so ago when this happened.....



Literally opposite us!

Bastards.

Best Headline Ever!

I apologise to anyone out there who is of a religious frame of mind, but this was too good to pass up.

Catholic fury at chocolate Jesus

Staff and agencies
Friday March 30, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The unveiling of an anatomically detailed sculpture of Christ made entirely out of milk chocolate has infuriated Catholic groups in New York.

"This is one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever," said Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League. "It's not just the ugliness of the portrayal, but the timing - to choose Holy Week is astounding."

The 1.8-metre-high sculpture, which depicts Jesus suspended as if from the cross, has been dubbed "My Sweet Lord" by its creator, Cosimo Cavallaro.

It is scheduled to open at the midtown Manhattan Lab gallery on Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Good Friday, with closing planned for Easter Sunday.

"The fact that they chose Holy Week shows this is calculated, and the timing is deliberate," said Donohue, whose group represents 350,000 Catholics countrywide.

He called for an economic boycott of the hotel, which he described as "already morally bankrupt".

The gallery's creative director, Matt Semler, said the Lab had been overrun with angry telephone calls and emails about the exhibit.

Although he described Donohue's response as "a Catholic fatwa", Semler said the gallery was considering its options.

"We're obviously surprised by the overwhelming response and offence people have taken," said Semler, adding that the Holy Week timing was an unfortunate coincidence.

"We are certainly in the process of trying to figure out what we're going to do next."

I hope this is a spoof. . .

Wha?

I hope this is a spoof.

Twin Peaks Season 2!!

Stumbled upon this a moment ago! AT LAST! It's been six years since the season 1 boxset came out, and most of that time was taken up with all sorts of legal wrangling over distribution rights, but it's here.

Sort of....

It seems to be available in the U.S, but not the U.K as yet. Come on guys! Time to make it available to those of us in England who like a good cup of coffee and a slice of cherry pie.

This was such a HUGE show when I was at college, and I have fond memories of my friends and I trying to work out what the significance was when a unicorn appeared in Laura Palmer's living room. Truly original telly. The Show took a slide halfway through season 2, but it's good to be able to see it from start to finish.

Shows like "The X Files" & "Lost" wouldn't be around today if it hadn't blazed the trail it did.

Ideas..

After mentioning "Big Trouble In Little China" the other day, it occurred to me that a blog is as good a place as any to push some of my favourite films, music, books and oddities. I'm going to try and stay away from the more mainstream stuff and concentrate on the more esoteric items in my collection.

That said, my next post will be a short story about what happened to me today (April 3rd, 2007) while sitting in a coffee shop in my home town reading a copy of "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.

It's a true story.

I am aware that posting it on the Internet will mean that it will have it's truthfulness questioned right off the bat. But there you go.

405

Just one more. This little film has been around for yonks. It really showed (me anyway) what you could do with off the shelf PC software. Ok.. so the guys that made it were pros, but the equipment was all stuff that was readily available in stores. This is a good few years old, I can only imagine what they could come up with now.

Neat...

This is a great little spoof of an irritating advert that's been on TV for a while now. I also updated the links to the Scotney episodes as the original host was a bit pants. Gradually I'm adding more of my books to the LibraryThing list as well. Have a browse!

Parodie Pub Citroen
Uploaded by Kamechi

These pics have been popping up all over the internet for a while, but they never cease to amaze me. Street art has never been so cool. I'll put a link up at some point.

One more post before bed! I was looking through some of my dvd's tonight and came across the above. I can't make the point strongly enough about how great this movie is. It has a very strong cult following but I always felt that it deserved more recognition. It's easily the best thing Kurt Russell has ever done (faint praise I know) and has some of the most quotable lines ever committed to film.

Kung-fu, romance, monsters & magic! What more does a film need?

New Who!

Just finished watching the first episode of series 3. I have been watching this show since I was a kid and have always loved it no matter how "uncool" it became in the 80's.

Well that's not really true, during the Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy years my patience was severely tested. I stuck with it though.

The new episode was fun, but I'm beginning to tire of the histrionics of some of the new shows. Screaming, shouting, fast editing and all manner of noise. I know I sound like a grumpy parent but it seems to me that the show often hits 100mph from the first frame and then never lets up. This leaves little room for light and shade, with intimate character moments squeezed into the smallest possible spaces between shouting aliens and whizz-bang special effects.

That said, it's still the best bit of family entertainment on telly at the moment. Lets face it, what other family show on TV this Saturday night had vanishing hospitals, alien rhino police and blood sucking old ladies!

Go Frank!

It Came From Outer Scotney!

Far back in the mists of ancient time in the great and glorious days of my late teens, I had an idea.

Not a very good one. But an idea nonetheless.

I sat down and started writing a script. This is no mean feat for a guy that can't plot, has no idea how to imbue his characters with anything even remotely close to personality and...

well.... can't write.

But too hell with it I thought! I would try to write one episode of this opus a week, I would then meet up with some mates of mine, Richard, Peter, Adrian and once or twice Emma, and head for our massively hi-tech recording studio.

Ok... that was a lie. The Studio was half a porta cabin located in a car park at Pembury Hospital. It was mostly a hotch-potch of whatever equipment they could lay their hands on, so the show was recorded, in mono, on a Revox reel to reel machine. The recordings tended to take place between midnight and the early hours because that was the only way we could make sure the studio wasn't occupied.

So over a period of about 2 months we managed to cobble together six episodes of this Sci-Fi comedy.

Supposed comedy anyway.

Bear in mind that we were all in our teens, it was early in the morning and we were all high on caffeine. I think I also got a bout of food poisoning from a sandwich that I bought from a vending machine that we nicknamed "Robbie."

The version that I have set the links up too are not the originals however. After George Lucas released the "Star Wars Special Editions" I thought that I too should revisit my masterpiece. I copied the original reel to reel tapes onto CD and then ripped the CD onto my PC.

I removed pauses, fluffed lines (though not all because some were funny), added new sound effects and music cues and generally tightened the whole thing up.

And in true George Lucas style I refuse to acknowledge the existence of the "Classic" versions, until there is a massive public outcry and I am forced to release them!!

SBJ

Just a quickie today. I'm adding a link to "SBJ's pantechnicon extravaganza" the blog of my good friend Simon Bucher-Jones. Not only is he a "top bloke" he is also a brilliant writer. Lookout for his Doctor Who Novel "Grimm Reality" which he co-wrote with Kelly Hale.

Great stuff!

Getting the hang of it.

I think I'm getting the hang of this now.

I honestly don't know why most people have a blog, for every thought provoking page there are millions of.....

well.....

pages like this!

I'm sure there will be gaps of weeks between my posts, so don't hold your breath!
I also suspect I may end up using it to rant, I seem to be doing that more these days anyway.

I took the picture above at Chanonry Point in Scotland in 2005. It's a wonderful spot to go Dolphin watching in the summer. At high tide fish get caught in currents and the Dolphin's swoop in to feed. A few will swim around the fish and herd them into groups while others dash in and out of the shoals feeding.

A remarkable and uplifting sight.

A Small Start....

Well....
I had to start somewhere. I love this picture of me when I was a nipper, mostly because it is an almost complete misrepresentation of what my childhood was like. It makes me look like I was the son of the Third Earl of Kent.

I was not.

Still, I cherish this photo. The dog was called Prince and was a complete "mutt."
Honestly... He was the stupidest animal imaginable.