Murky Depths

By the title of this blog you'd assume I'm going to trawl through the darker recesses of my mind. I'm not, fortunately for you. Instead I have exciting news. I have a comic strip appearing in Issue 15 of Murky Depths. I'm not going to say too much just yet because it's not out until Feb 2011, so between then and now I'll drip feed you some info.

Here's the Murky Depths website if you want to have a look

www.murkydepths.com

All the writing, so much bloody writing

It's about time we had a catch up isn't it? Not posted on here about my writing exploits for a long while, and as I'm off this week I have a little bit of time.
So here goes:

Even though it's my week off it's been pretty busy, the weekedn saw me write a 10 minute scene for the BBC Writersroom opportunity 'Five Days In May' which required you to write a short 5-10 script concerning the election.
Once that was done, another opportunity popped up
http://www.4talent.channel4.com/extra/coming-2011
Follow that link there to see it. This meant developing an existing idea, which I'm still working on but am moments from finishing.
Add to this a Funny Bones article i need to finish off for Splice, which my article on Cache by Michael Haneke will be appearing in very soon.
Also my upcoming articles for Vworp Vworp.
Still writing my radio play.
Two comic book ideas that I'm trying to write.
Writing a dark film script with my writing partner.
And finally, finishing off and preparing my childrens novel to send off to literary agents.

Hopefully have all this cleared out of the way for the summer where i intend to focus on a film idea circulating around my head.

I hope you consider yourself fully caught up.

Book Recommendation: On The Road by Frank Skinner

In lieu of any writing news, I am working on lots of things just don't want to curse them just yet by writing about them in here, I'm going to post up a weekly recommendation. Be it book, film, TV series or some music. It probably won't end up being weekly, instead occuring on an ad hoc basis.

I'm currently reading, and loving, On The road by Frank Skinner. It's his tour diary/journal of his 2007 tour, beginning with his Edinburgh show right through to the end of the tour following how he chooses material and refines his act through all the ups and downs and insecurities of the stand up comic.
As with his previous book, Frank Skinner which was a straight forward autobiography, On The Road is painfully honest, even more so this time as Frank explores his deeper thoughts and worries incessantly about his age and his act.

The real reason for starting this recommendation feature and for choosing to write about this book are two passages from the book that really stood out. I'll quote them here and hope that it is ok to do that.

The first quote is when Frank is discussing his love of art galleries, and also shows his fascination for another topic, an area where comedians can mine so much material, journalism and its constant blurring of reality to its own ends.

"In twenty first century Britain, where, according to the papers, everybody's drunk, illiterate and carrying a knife, people still queue up to look at beautiful things."

The second quote blew my mind, summing up everything I've always wanted to say about Middle England, this is one hell of a rant, I think i actually punched the air when reading.

"Middle England is a vague concept, but to me it refers to that great mass of people who never question or even consider anything outside of the mainstream view; people who worship at the altar of the great god normal. They tut and wince their way through my set, hate The Fall, dismiss modern art as rubbish, wear a tie with Homer Simpson on it, think comic books are just for children, like a 'few jars' at the weekend, say 'anything really' when asked what kind of music they like, don't swear in front of women, wear baseball caps, go on and on about their kids, sneer at Goths, think Shakespeare is boring and never miss Top Gear. I wish they'd fuck off and stop dumbing down the world and STOP getting worked up about things that DON't matter and START getting worked up about things that DO."

Couldn't have put it better Frank.

Blur- Fool's Day

How excited was I when i realised Blur were releasing new material. VERY. You can download it from www.blur.co.uk I'm sure you'll want to after watching this video below. I already have about twenty gazillion times.

Friends

Hi,

A few friends have decided to join me in the blogosphere. Firstly, Richard www.richardholland-spuriosity.blogspot.com He hosts a Daily Quote, has tuneful tuesday a stunning saturday matinee movie poster and more.
Then Jim joined http://thereisspaceshipsoverdeeside.blogspot.com/ Find him there, he's currently listing the top 10 opening riffs.

Meanwhile I've been sending stuff off, I have a pitch and a short story entered into Big Finish competitions. My TV drama script submitted to BBC Writersroom. A short story submitted to a upcoming collection. Still looking for a home for a short story entitled Witch Ball. My favourite which is a bit worrying considering its lack of a taker so far.
Also joined a writers group, Northwest Playwrights. See how that goes. Got a 4 minute scene to submit for next month, will fill you in on how that went.
Pressure's on to keep this entertaining with all the new competition from friends. so remember check their blogs out, and go and re watch my short film The Quarry. You know you want to.

THE QUARRY

I've made a short film. It's only a little experimental thing. When walking on the weekend, we were lucky enough to stumble on this weird abandoned quarry. I took a few photos and filmed a few bits.

WAIT! I should be saying this is disturbing found footage, that's what sells films nowadays. Anyways, I edited bits together and put some music over the top and, hey presto, a film. Sorry to deconstruct the magic.

Hope you enjoy, THE QUARRY.

Good Friday Catch Up

Been a weird few weeks, or is it just a week since I last blogged. My mind is all over the place. Maybe it's being distrupted by the time vortex as a certain Doctor returns to our screens tomorrow night 6:25pm.


So, within the last week have been to Amsterdam for a few days, where I went to Anne Frank's House, which was utterly heartbreaking and then to the Rijks Museum where I got to see the Night Watch.

It looked more impressive, and bloody huge, up close. Heidi couldn't stop thinking the guy at the front was Bill Bailey. Also just heard Peter Greenaway's new film is based on this painting, so may have to check that out. I'm a glutton for punishment.

My next blog for In/Out magazine, link is on the sidebar, confronts this gluttony in looking at extreme films, name checking Gummo, Irreversible, Visitor Q and more along the way. But the focus is an extreme film which defeated me, Kirby Dick's Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist.

You're lucky that I chose that picture, the alternative was him nailing his cock to a stool with a hammer. Do a quick Google search you'll find it. I won't harp on too much about it my thoughts can be found in my In/Out blog, hopefully be up next Tuesday.

Finally, I've decided to give Script Frenzy a miss this year. Main reason is I've got too many other scripts vying for attention. Need to get a few things finished before i can move on. Saying this I'm considering writing a radio drama during this month. Idea has been in my head for ages and is called The Trees.

Have a good Easter weekend and enjoy Doctor Who saturday night. You may be able to tell I'm a little excited.