Sunday Slackers

January 18, 2015January 18, 2015Leave a comment

The internet of fascinating things to while away your Sunday …

Beginning with Sassy Women Alert, as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do a Ricky Gervais on an unsuspecting Hollywood (and it’s fab to see George has a sense of humour. No wonder we love him so.)

Literature/Film: With the hype surrounding a certain film due out next month, it seemed a good time to share one of the funniest and wittiest Twitter feeds around – Fifty Sheds of Grey.

Space: The cultural significance of space exploration

Tech?: 21 times people used the internet before it was invented.

Animals: Cats and Dogs trying to decide who’s boss.

Freelancing: Dispelling a few myths about self employed people (such as writers!)

Photography: The simple beauty of children and animals

Music: John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ made into a comic strip

Miscellaneous: Mr Men’s and Little Misses for modern day Britain

Music 2: 7 Elvis tunes borrowed from classical music

For writers: Honesty in Writing and a toolbox of practicality

Fun: 7 people who totally nailed it!

Thoughts for the week – The Final Frontier!

Happy Tunesday: Whiplash

January 13, 2015Leave a comment

If ever there was a must – see music film, this is it. Powerful stuff (that’s just the trailer!)

Sunday Slackers

January 11, 2015January 12, 2015Leave a comment

The Internet of Fascinating Things …

Being active online means coming across far too much good stuff than I can personally read during the week or can be shared on my Twitter and Facebook timelines without annoying the hell out of friends and followers. So I’ve decided to collect them all together in one handy blog post that I can enjoy at my leisure, along with the hope that you do too 🙂

Miscellaneous: Bikeshedding and Parkinson’s Law – In thirty odd years of employment, I’ve come across this a lot! I’ve been to meetings where the only decision made was – the date of the next meeting! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law

For writers: Two heads are better than one http://www.bang2write.com/2013/06/4-reasons-2-heads-are-better-than-1-by-gareth-meredith.html

Nature: An excerpt from Chasing Ice – the largest ice glacier calving filmed. Awe inspiring and yes, scary. http://uk.businessinsider.com/largest-ice-glacier-calving-filmed-2015-1 and some ice pictures to show up close how beautiful it cab be http://www.boredpanda.com/natural-winter-snow-ice-art/

Music: You know that joke about someone’s singing sounding like cats? http://www.reshareworthy.com/boys-choir-sing-funny-song/#xqUKpalS67mwzoZ5.01

Creativity: Cassy’s 100 ways to get creative. What are you waiting for? http://www.cassyfry.com/2015/01/100-ways-to-get-creative.html/

Humanity: Restore your faith in 4 minutes flat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btiDHCuWyBA

Animals: Literally shaking a tail feather https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bt9xBuGWgw

Festival: The first South Coast Jazz Festival, 23-25^th January, support it if you can. http://www.southcoastjazzfestival.com/

Practical joking: I started laughing at the description, then got mildly hysterical as it went on, which became maniacal cackling. http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2015/01/09/limbo-stick-prank/

Quote of the Week:

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain

Image: Pixabay

Happy Tunesday: Greatest TV Theme Tunes

October 28, 20145 Comments

These are in no particular order – how can one possibly choose? That most of them are old is less a reflection on the quality of today’s TV themes, and more to do with me not able to watch as much telly as I used to! You won’t agree with all the choice – but they’re mine – make your own list ;p

Barry Gray compositions – he was to Gerry Anderson what John Williams is to Steven Spielberg!

Thunderbirds My first crush was Scott Tracy.

Captain Scarlet Actually, I think it might have been Mr. Indestructible …

Stingray then again it could have been Troy Tempest.

Joe 90 It wasn’t Joe. He was just a kid.

Children’s classics

Black Beauty Sunday afternoon adventures, curled up in an armchair.

The White Horses I’ve hummed this pretty regularly for many years – but for the life of me cannot remember watching it! I’m guessing it had horses. Which were white ..

Double Deckers Before Buffy became the go-to feisty, strong female lead, we had Billy.

Casey Jones

Watching the detectives …

Sci-fi/Fantasy

Lost in Space – Theme 1 and Theme 2 – both written by … John Williams! Gets everywhere, doesn’t he?

Dr. Who – all of them! (warning: Video may hypnotize …)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

As seen on TV recently …

The Big Bang Theory You’ve no idea how taxing it is trying to find videos whose comments haven’t been taken over by science vs religion arguments …

The Musketeers My present day superhero crushes. And it’s a perfect Paso Doble in the making … which brings me nicely onto:

Strictly Come Dancing The single most recognised theme tune in the WORLD! See, you’re humming it already and you hate it. Da da da da da da dah – da da da da da … da da da.

Rochester Literature Festival 2014: Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

September 22, 20142 Comments

We’re delighted to be opening this year with an hilarious and heart-warming one woman show with actress Sunny Ormonde – the outrageous Lilian Bellamy from BBC Radio 4’s The Archers, the world’s longest running soap.

Over the course of the next ten days, we’ll be joined by as-seen-on-tv-off-his-trolley comic genius Phil Kay, master of freeform performance and storytelling, and notorious Australian, Trenton Oldfield – who served six months at her Majesty’s Pleasure for disrupting the 2012 Boat Race in a protest against elitism.

We will be hosting two wonderful authors who’ll fascinate you with insights and anecdotes from their latest books: Angela Buckley introduces us to The Real Sherlock Holmes – Detective Jerome Caminada, whose methodologies mimicked Conan Doyle’s genius, and Debz Hobbs-Wyatt, who will discuss the impact of reality on fiction. While No One Was Watching is set against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination and the abduction of a young girl from the grassy knoll on that fateful day.

Sadly, we have to announce the postponement of one of our family events,Assassin, due to technical issues. Featuring the fantastic Joe Craig reading extracts from his Jimmy Coates series – part boy, part weapon, totally deadly – and music from Jacob Bride, Graham Sykes and Jamie Godfrey, this will hopefully take place early in the new year. However, we do still have the awesome Keeper of the Realms author, Marcus Alexander, who is Charlie’s Keeper, who will entertain and inspire you with his delightfully wicked fantasy adventure series – get your read on! Waterstones in Chatham have kindly agreed to sell books in the venue on the day, if you need to complete your collection.

Our interactive story game this year is Murder in the Crypt, in which you’ll be invited to solve mysteries and puzzles with Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes and Auguste Dupin. In addition, we’re holding a Cafe Crawl, where you can sample poetry and storytelling, while Bookmark’d is a chance to buy books, swap books or just listen to books, read aloud by their authors.

Our Night at the Theatre will this year be held in conjunction with Chatham Grammar School for Boys and be presented by award winning 17% playwrights,Sam Fentiman-Hall, Sarah Hehir and Maggie Drury. The Spirit of My Dream is inspired by Byron’s poem The Dream and features new plays with a fantastical theme.

An exhibition curated by ME4Writers especially for the festival, An Assemblance of Judicious Heretics, has channelled Byron to produce work inspiring madness, badness and dangerousness in the hearts of artists. A live reading will bring the visual carnage to life!

Byron’s Teapot will be our finale – a mad mix of unusual and quirky music, poetry and theatre, featuring The James Worse Public Address Method, JP Lovecraft,Dylan Oscar Rowe and Brides of Rain.

We look forward to welcoming you to our exciting – and only slightly scary – second full length festival!

To read full details, download a copy the 2014 programme and buy tickets, please visit rochesterlitfest.com.

If you have any enquiries regarding any of the events or festival in general, please email rochesterlitfest@gmail.com or telephone 07904 643770.

We look forward to seeing you 🙂

Happy Tunesday!

August 19, 2014August 19, 2014Leave a comment

I defy you to keep still in your seat to this! For lovers of all things folky and dancey, I give you Ranzo (The Wild Goose Shanty) by The Demon Barbers, a taster from their new album Disco At The Tavern, due in early summer 2015.

It will accompany a festival tour of their new live show The Demon Brothers XL, featuring dancers from The Lock In and special guests Matt Crum (keyboards/sax) and scratch DJ ‘Wax On’.

The album is set to capture all the energy and excitement of the live shows, as they took the decision to cut back on touring to work on new material. A goodly part of that excitement is down to the announcement that the production team will be Emmy & Grammy Award winning producers Donal Hodgson and Kipper, best known for their work with Sting!

“We’re really excited to be working with such experienced producers and the demo track sounds fantastic, it’s just like being on stage! It’s been 4 years since our last album and we’re keen to show the world how much our music has developed; we’re hoping for a busy festival season!”

Find The Demon Barbers here.

He was singing in the street when two random guys walked up and created something utterly epic

May 17, 2014January 20, 2019Leave a comment

This … all kinds of creative going on

Spiritbath

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The Word Play Wagon lights the Fuse in Walderslade

May 5, 2014May 5, 2014Leave a comment

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been selected by the Kent Baton to open their Sparks Fuse Festival project, One Day Works.

My short term residence in the Baton – a vintage silver airstream caravan converted to a mobile art centre – is on Wednesday, June 4^th from 11am – 6pm. It will be located outside Permark Post Office in Walderslade Village and its activities will be suitable for all ages and all abilities. No previous experience is needed, just turn up and play around with some words.

The overall title, The Word Play Wagon, reflects the diverse creative writing activities planned, including:

Turn over a new leaf: Add a poem, wish or favourite saying to a luggage label leaf you create and hang it on a Poetree.
A Novel Experience: Bring your favourite book and write an original short piece based on its premise (see example ‘Triffidus Corpus’ here).
Hint: Writing micro fiction from as little as 10 words. (Examples)
Spoofing Medway: Write the local news as it didn’t happen! (Example)
Mystery Collective Poems: Add a line to the one before – it’ll be the only one you can see! (See examples here.)
If and Then: A question and answer session with a difference. (Examples – scroll down to ‘Potlatch’)

I’m really looking forward to engaging lots of people in writing activities – who knows, I might find the next generation of Medway poets!

One Day Works will host a series of one day experiments throughout Medway during the Fuse Festival and its build up. From urban high streets to country villages, the project will showcase ten of Medway’s finest creative talents across a range of art forms. Along with the The Word Play Wagon, the works include an epic poem, sculptures made from found objects, archival collections, insect inspired costumes, drawings made from thread, an acoustic live music gig and a magic lantern performance. Click here for the full list of artists and their projects.

The Fuse Festival runs from Friday, June 13^th – Sunday, June 15^th, find out more at their website here.

It’s arts. It’s yours. It’s free.

Triffidus Corpus

May 5, 20143 Comments

The day outside was sounding wrong. Feeling wrong. Even for a Sunday, the silence was disturbingly, mysteriously different. No rumbling wheels, no roaring buses, no tramping feet. Shuffling, hesitant feet, yes. But none with purpose. No birdsong, just unintelligible wailing and sobbing close by.

He wasn’t able to see the light show played out in the skies last night. Bright green flashes; shooting stars; showering comets. A magnificent spectacle, they said. A unique phenomenon, they said. You should have seen it, they said. Rather insensitively.

The feeling of the bogey man under the bed began to creep upon him. A lifetime of being deprived of his eyes did nothing to alleviate this. Was it that famed sixth sense, becoming more heightened?

Was it his imagination? That fluttery feeling in his stomach, a prelude to something he dreaded. But what? Reaching out to touch … what? There was nothing there, nothing to feel and yet… still that persistent nagging.

What was that? A waft of air passed by his face, light as a feather. He was reminded of a fly, caught in a spider’s web. Trapped by uncertainty; perplexed by inactivity. Stilled by fear. He became aware that something was waiting …

Lurching towards him, leathery leaves rustling.

A stem whipped back and forth.

A swish and a slap.

The sting whistle slashed.

“A Triffid is in a damn sight better position to survive than a blind man. Take away our sight and our superiority to them is gone.” – John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids

I wrote this piece for The Skywatcher Investigation, our interactive alien game during the Rochester LitFest 2013 Other Worlds, Other Voices Festival. Using Wyndham’s descriptive language to capture the feel but creating a character of my own, it was performed by the multi talented Lance Philips of Physical Folk, playing a blind gardener, who succumbs to attack by a Triffid, played by the wonderful Sophie Williams. I read the piece aloud to the sound of Mozart’s requiem, Ave Verum Corpus, adjusting the text to fit the rhythm of the music.

It was a new experience for me but one I thoroughly enjoyed working on, and hope to do similar again in future.

Photo credit: Nikki Price Photography