Just plain lazy...

Hello dear readers - yes I know, where have I been, what on Earth have I been up to? How could I possibly ignore my audience for all this time? All good questions...that need answers...or we can all save ourselves some time up by saying, I'm lazy, and forgetful.

Anyway, I'm back, at least for the time being... I just a story on the BBC website about a 400 odd year old map, created by Martin Waldseemuller in 1507, which was the first to name America, though after the map mapping business really got into the swing of things, it was largely dismissed as old news and put away in a box. Later discovered by a bored librarian, he sold it to the Library of Congress for a cool $10 million dollars, advertising it as 'America's birth certificate'. Not bad for a bored librarian...

King of the Blues

Hello dear reader! I know, I've been missing in action and not informing cyberspace of my pointless rambling. But my tiny use of bandwidth isn't a complete waste of space, though offering the inside gossip on Brad and Angelina would probably draw a larger readership...

Anyway, the writing course is on hiatus, since the first course wasn't the greatest experience, as you may have noticed in previous messages. Still, I have the option to continue and hopefully I will.

The current 'project' is guitar amp construction, which carries with it warnings in big bold letters about lethal voltages. Yes, yes, but as long as you follow some basic rules and understand what you're doing before you do it, sparks shouldn't fly - if all cars started up with a friendly but authoritative voice gravely announcing the dangers of driving and likelihood of a fatality on the open road there may be less accidents and less people on the road. A bonus for drivers and tree huggers alike...!

So, just to document the moment I should say after much thought and research that I decided to build a Deluxe type amp. A classic Fender amp, which offers a little sonic interest and build interest than is little brother, the Champ, whilst still being a simple circuit and an ideal first amp build experience. Decided to go with Trinity, a Canadian amp company who produce hand made amps and kits to DIY builders and have had much praise from the likes of ZZ Tops', Billy Gibbons. They use quality components and have a very good online forum community for any help with the build. And being Canadian, I think they're a trustworthy bunch. I shall keep you posted on the progress. Considerations to the amp cabinet and speaker are still being weighed. I know which speaker I would like, the Tone Tubby Alnico, but it also appears to be the most expensive speaker on the planet!

Also of note to mention is that I had the pleasure of seeing the 'King of the Blues', BB King this weekend. At 83, its amazing that he still has the energy, though as the years have gone by I believe the stories in between songs have become longer so he doesn't have to play so much! Lucille, his beautiful Gibson 335 guitar still sings sweetly under his fingers and what amazed me more was BB's voice, which has lost none of the power and tone and in the slower blues tunes was truly wonderful to hear.

And on that minor note dear reader, I will sign off...

Open book

At the London book fair and within 20 mintues had a sneaking feeling it wasn't for me... Deal makers and breakers abound, half of whom are Indian suppliers promising the same job in half the time at half the price - I know from experience that's only half true.

Still, it's nice being out of the office...as they say.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Masters Playoff

Just an amendment to the previous post...a known golfer, Angel Cabrara won a three way masters playoff, in great style - though for some reason lineker and co presenter are presenting the woes of the other guy, rather than congratulating Angel. Typical. Anyway, well done the Argentian!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Who dares wins

Watching The Master's golf final round...tiger and mickelson were the stars of the show for the first 9 holes but then progressively ran out of steam. The guy leading from the start of the day will probably win, though nobody knows his name, but the masters is often like that. Good stuff anyway.

Just read David Mitchells guardian column rant via his tweet about some politician jumping on a tabloid bandwagon to get Jonathan Ross and Russell brand to pay a BBC fine. An intelligent peice that rather cleverly points out four issues with this idea and rants beautifully about the usual political BS that they spout to claim a few easy points in the so-called balanced media. Does anyone beleive them apart from the awful people who frequent the daily mail? Probably not.

And speaking of rants...my own rant on the Gibson Dark Fire guitar was published in May's edition of Guitarist magazine. It's firm, but fair I think - I posted it on a previous blog just in case the fine editors of Guitarist didn't see fit to publish my viterol. Thankfully it fit right into their Readers Rant section! Enjoy. The rant I mean, not the guitar...the guitar is plain awful.

Good night and good luck.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Ain't nobody home...

Just catching up on some fellow students' posting on the UCLA blackboard. I've had some comments from someone regarding my treatment, quizzing that it showed lots of action, of what was happening on screen, but she didn't get the characterization. I wanted to reply, well, thanks, that's the point of a treatment! Cinema is action, not people looking in the mirror at their tattoo's and thinking maybe they won't kill themselves today. I tried to be more constructive than that...

And our great leader was AWOL again for a while, and he's since come back and still not commented on my posts or even replied to a direct email. His biggest contribution thus far has been to continually apologize for his absence..but he's a working writer, director...blah, blah - Alan, I don't give a fuck - the first time you apologized, you said you didn't want to short change anyone. Well, you have. The frustration is more that I'm not sure if all unit courses are like this, or just this one? Should I continue or not? That, dear reader is the question.

I've just read that brain function decreases after you're 27! And memory is shot after 37, but at least you won't remember how clever you used to be. Though, your ability to collect general information increases until you're about 60, which is probably why pensioners wander about B&Q spouting nonsense to anyone is earshot. At 37, I just can't remember why I'm in B&Q to begin with...

4.48 to sleepville

I made a cardinal mistake of eating a couple of biscuits to mark a small acheivement of the day late in the evening, and now they're killing me via acid reflux. It's 4.51 and the birds are enjoying an early morning chorus and I've just heard what sounded like two gun shots - let's hope it isn't a farmer on a killing spree, emulating yet more shootings in the news - within hours very similar events taking place in Germany and the US.

Anyway, I earlier posted my Act 1 scene-by-scene overview. I had a little moment of revelation at the end of the act, which made me feel I acheived something. Not on any grand scale of course...no cancer's cured, no peace for mankind but a little personal writing moment, and that's enough for a Wednesday evening.

I also emailed our illustrious professor with a complaint of why my week 4 masterwork had not been commented on, when others have had their revisions commented on...we await his answer dear reader.

Time to try more sleep - the birds may fancy singing but I need some sleep. Let's hope there's been an amnesty on acid reflux and gunplay!

Goodnight and good luck.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]