Well… soonish… from Aloha ‘Ino Press.
blather
What Is This Thing You Humans Call…
love /lʌv/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [luhv]
–noun
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
3. invented in 1968 by the writers of Star Trek in order to give William Shatner a new emotion to play, as he was getting bored of the other two. It has grown in popularity since then, and now even non-actors like to pretend to be “in love”.
Guess Who?
Do you ever find yourself meeting somebody, and they totally remind you of somebody else, but you can’t quite work out who? You’ll be chatting all casual but in the background your brain is whirring away, going through hundreds of faces and trying to match them with the one in front of you, like one of those unrealistic police computers you see on the telly, or a really long and irritating game of Guess Who.
It happened to me the other day. Everything about this person’s face was annoying me just because it really reminded me of somebody else and I couldn’t for the life of me work out who. I felt such a surge of joy and relief when, an hour in, I finally twigged who it was. In fact I was so happy it was all I could do to stop myself from clapping, pointing and shouting “TIM ROTH!”. I’m glad I didn’t. I mean, it was a triumph for me personally but I don’t think she would have appreciated it. She really bloody looked like him, though.
Mind, she probably had to stop herself from pointing and shouting “ELVIS COSTELLO!” halfway through the afternoon so it all evens out.
Sketchy Future
I had a nice day in Leeds yesterday, meeting up with a few comedy writers and performers, and in a room above a pub we took the first baby steps towards starting a working sketch group with the aim of performing stuff live, maybe doing an Edinburgh show in 2010 and then… well, taking over the world with our amusing skits and vignettes, obviously.
There seems to be a diverse mix of styles in the bunch, both in writing and performing, so hopefully something interesting will come of it. At the very least it’ll be good to be take control of the process again, and do stuff for ourselves, as those of us who’ve written (or tried writing) for telly have got a bit sick of the ball ache (or the lady equivalent) of trying to please people who don’t appear to know what they want. We know exactly what we want: to be funny.
Anyway, it’s early days yet, but it’s quite exciting nonetheless.
Spam Spam Spam Spam
Tonight, and the next three nights, I am being a viking, for this. Rar! So manly! I’m not all moisturiser and sensitivity you know.
Tomorrow night I will be broadcasting live from the Glow for Bob Fischer on Radio Tees. Rar! I hope I don’t get a Thor throat.
(…tumbleweed…)
The Cosmos is Also Within Us
Not quiiiite sick of autotune yet. What’s that you say, Carl? We are made of star stuff? Carl, that’s all I needed to hear today. Thank you.
Kids Say The Cutest Things!
Children from my drama class this afternoon, quoted verbatim (they were inventing tribal rituals):
“So then we pour oil on him?”
“No. Acid.”
“When I stab him, I can say ‘I see your guts!'”
“What do we do after we nail him to the floor?”
Kids, eh? They’re eight. And I’m the one who has to be police checked to keep the kiddies safe. Who’s monitoring these bloodthirsty little varmints to make sure I’m safe? Forget the nit nurse, somebody should be checking their heads for three digit numbers.
Monday Morning, 6am
…can get bent. Here’s The Album Leaf. This is what happens when a normally instrumental post-rock band decides to have a sing. What happens? A really nice song. Who would have thought?
I hope your day is full of wonder, or a really nice sandwich. Whichever brings you more joy. x
Carl Sagan Sings
Today at 6.30pm on BBC2 you can watch Strictly Come Dancing. In the 80s you could take a trip through Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, a mind-expanding journey into the heart of the universe, with Mr Sagan and his comforting baritone drawl as your guide. It instilled in me a sense of wonderment and awe at the sheer overwhelming bloody beauty of… everything.
We are all made of starstuff, that’s what Carl Sagan told a 12-year-old me. That’s a nice thing to be told, isn’t it?
This autotune remix is silly and poignant, and features a guest vocal from MC Stephen Hawking.
I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.
Len Goodman ain’t going to tell you that.
Smile!
Did you know your face can fool your brain into feeling happier? Just smile. Your brain will be so surprised that it will release serotonin, endorphins, and natural painkillers before it has a chance to think “Wait a minute, what does this chump have to smile about?”.
Ha. Take that, brain. You’re not the boss of me. Not so clever now, eh? And anyway, a really nice smile will make the world a slightly better place for everyone else, even if it’s just for a moment. Ah, I can fall in love with a smile…
So yes, even if you don’t feel like it, smile. Make a fool of your brain today. That’s what I’ve been doing. 🙂
“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion… I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
– Kurt Vonnegut Jr
Yeah, Kurt, we were talking about smiling, not laughter, but thanks for your input…
Ramshackle Charm 