A Maja MeMe

Three Things That Scare Me:
1. Play Doh
2. Lonliness
3. Spiders

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. Kylie. Constantly, which is part of her endless charm.
2. H. He's one of the funniest people I know. He's a genius.
3.

Three Things I Love:
1. Having adventures with Kylie
2. Writing
3. Gigs

Three Things I Hate:
1. Living with my stupid house mate and his horrible girlfriend.
2. Saying goodbye.
3. Being stuck at Westfield Road until September.

Three Things I Don’t Understand:
1. Homophobia, racism, sexism...all that rot.
2. Pettiness.
3. Football.

Three Things On My Desk:
1. Notebooks
2. CD's
3. A computer and a laptop.


Three Things I’m Doing Right Now:
1. Thinking about things, mulling them right over whilst drinking tea.
2. Listening to music (Ryan Adam's new stuff to be precise)
3. Getting ready for work.

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. Travel. Really travel.
2. Write a few small films.
3. Be in a band.

Three Things I Can Do:
1. Cheer people up.
2. Be counted on.
3. Write odd things.

Three Things I Can’t Do:
1. Break dance.
2. Physically fight.
3. Take it on the chin with gentle good grace.

Three things you should listen to:
1. Ryan Adams, Sigur Ros, Okkervil River (My main three musican obsessions. Three within three..what a rebel I am!)
2. Your inner child.
3. The advice of your nearest and dearest.

Three Things You Should Never Listen To:
1. Tabloids.
2. Prime Ministers, Presidents and People who don't understand you (That's another three. I'm outta control!)
3. Your boss.

Three Things I’d Like To Learn:
1. To play guitar properly.
2. Master 'Reason'
3. More, more, more.

Three Favorite Foods:
1. Cheese
2. Noodles (The ones I had in Camden with Maja, Geezer and Stephanie were the best ever)
3. Lasagne.

Three Shows I Watched As A Kid:
1. Thundercats
2. The Gummi Bears
3. Garfield and Friends

Three Things I Regret:
1. Wasting a year on someone who didn't deserve the previous three.
2. Signing a 12 month contract at Westfield because I can't get that cute little place with Kylie until September.
3. Moving out of the house I shared with Aaron. (See 1). It was stupid because it was crazy fun and I made the wrong choice.

Three People I Tag:
Everyone who comes here often (That's three, right? )

J. Buckley

Wow. Ten years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Buckley

Jeff Buckley was my Kurt Cobain.

Grace is one of the greatest albums ever made. If you love it, give it a listen. You shouldn't celebrate death but you should celebrate genius.

Mini-Fame

Modest Mouse was good. Not great, just okay. I thought they'd be a lot more RAAAAGH than *meh*. It got a little droney after a while and the bands lateness and seemingly endless solos made us miss our bus back.
A girl came up to Kylie and I at the bar and said that she'd seen DRtN at The Silke Exhibition and really liked it. That was really nice. It gave me a real charge and it's these things that make it all worth it. That and the smiles.
Bank Holiday Monday was spent watching stand up videos, writing bits and bobs and lazing like two old people in love. I don't want to go back to work.

Death, Spiderman, Shopping and Other Stories

So DRtN played at the Mr Silke thing today and it was a nice, if odd affair. We had a decent crowd and got some nice reactions. Kylie was impressed and that what it's all about.
Something new and visual would be nice in the near future. I'm working on it. I'm just kind of hanging around, waiting for news and the next step.

DRtN was followed by , to quote Morrissey, some 'bloody awful poetry'. It was street poetry without a hint of irony. It had rhyme though of the cat, hat, bat variety. Still, it kept some of these ladies off the street which, as it happens, they were talking about.

The day was pretty cool. We watched the film, endured some poetry readings, saw some cool art, brought some cool art badges, scored some tickets to see a guy we know's band, I brought a Judge Dredd Vs Judge Fear t-shirt, had a nice meal, I picked up the Clerks 2 script for £2 and listen to the sheer comedy that is my house mate and his girlfriend randomly arguing. Love IS a battle field, folks!

We didn't get to the theme park yesterday because of shitty road directions from shitty travel sites. We should sue, they're so out of whack. We missed out on some roller coasters because some idiot in the RAC doesn't know his left from his right and such like..
We decided to catch a movie. We chose Spiderman 3 and , let me be completely honest with you, SPIDERMAN 3 IS A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE MOVIE! It's Batman Forever (And Robin) bad. All those crappy reviews you've read are spot on. Spidey 3 is complete tosh and it's stunk up the trilogy. Only Bruce Campbell as a french waiter gave it a little goodness.

Here's hoping that Transformers doesn't suck.

Featuring yours truly and that film I wrote.

Join me?

Bits

* Six Nation State are a good band and deserve to be checked out and enjoyed at the comfort of your home or in the discomfort of somebody elses. We saw them last night and we had a damn good time. We got some free stuff too.

* I've written a few of short films (Groom, A Moment Of Your Time, Zombies (I'm Afraid) and Me Too) for peoples perusal and, if you have enough bored, restless minutes to spare, then I'd be happy to send them to you or post them up on this here blog thing. Chances are, they'll be going on Simply Scripts so they can be viewed and downloaded from there. I aim to really push a couple of these as there seems to be opportunity at the moment. As always, I appreciate your thoughts and they have helped in the past. If anyone knows of good places to send scripts off to then let me know by shouting, emailing, message in a bottle or commenting.

* I may or may not (no one has confirmed) be part of the Mr Silke Exhibition @ The Little Civic, Wolverhampton. I won't be posing or anything. My contribution will be a certain film. This could change and my face could stick like this (as my Nan used to say)

* I'm off until Tuesday for a long weekend away from the 9 to 5 grind. Joy!

Random Facticle

Chocolate makes my cheeks sweat.

(The cheeks on my face)

Manic!

The Manic Street Preachers were incredible last night and a good, sweaty, sing-alongy time was had by all. While we were rocking, Kylie and the girls were at The Varsity trying to win a quiz.
victory eluded them this time but next time they'll come up roses.

We're off to another gig tonight, this time to see a band we first saw in Lennons, Southampton in 2005. We thought we'd give them another whirl and to fill up the weeks activities.
There's the return of 'Orange Wednesday' tomorrow which has NOTHING to do with the cinema promotion and more to do with drinking at semi-trendy bars and playing Connect 4 whilst talking rubbish. Great stuff.

Add the fact that I'm off work Thursday and Friday to go to theme parks and this is a rather spiffing week.
Lindsay uploaded some pictures on her Flickr thing. Some of them are from a couple of months ago. Like these:

I'd recently had my hair cut at Bollywood hair

Saturday Cave Man Action!!!!

As fun as Saturday was, it stopped being a fun fest when we went to the place I try to avoid most weeks. Blast Off. The worst indie club in the world.
It gets worse everytime I go and the people seem to get more backwards. I mean, how rude do you have to be to TRY AND PICK UP SOMEONE'S GIRLFRIEND RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR PARTNER?
No, dude. As self-consious as I am, I'm certain that I'm a better pick than Grabby Jim, Random Drunk and Frisky Pete.
Seriously, how CAVE MAN are most chaps?What's up with just GRABBING girls like you're shopping at TOPMAN?
Girls, you have my sympathy. Needless to say, K.P didn't run off and marry one of those pesky fucks. It was a reminder of what's out there. Chaps like the infected beasts from 28 Days/Weeks Later.
Thanks to the person who threw a drink up my back.
Nice touch. I have a feeling it was my old Blast off stalker. They're all ill-mannered and pissy at that place. Feed them Oasis and the usual 'Brit Pop' balls and let them dance like Bez or Ian Brown. DON'T take musical risks because the natives will get restless.
Still, beforehand it was golden. We hung out with Aaron and Anna which was nice as I think they're both, to quote Corinna AWESOMERAD. I got heart burn in The Little Civic.
Good times.

We did look the balls though. Kylie looked killer pretty in her electro-fairy get up. I would be a prime example of what not to wear (in a good way) and rocked the nail varnish once again, this time going for a yellow/black mix-up. I had 'finger bees'. A joke I ran into the ground.
We came back to my place after haggling with a tax driver to watch those old G.I Joe dubbed cartoons and drink tea. I watched some high lights of WWE because I'm a kid like that.
Still, it's a living..

Sing Song Saturday Return-eds!*

*As in: "He hath return-ed"

THE RUBBISH MUSIC TASTE OF A-LISTERS

Today Keira Knightly and her equally overrated and wooden co-star Orlando Bloom were on local commercial station BRMB today, promoting the upcoming movie 'Pop Up Pirates in the Caribbean 3'.
They were asked the usual imaginative questions "What was it like to hold a sword? What do you do when you're not acting?' and asked to pick some songs. I thought it was funny that these stars, who wouldn't be seen anywhere near this shitty station had they nothing to pimp, picked THE EXACT SAME SELECTION OF SONGS BRMB ALWAYS PLAY! Orlando or Knightly didn't buck the trend with Scissor Sisters, Lily Allen and The Commercial Radio Friendly Pop Band etc.
If it was me, I would have asked them to play the entire score of War of the Worlds, Godspeed you Black Emperor or some DJ Format. I'd use my star power for good, not evil.
What station is going to argue with them? These supposed A-Listers? Unless, and this is a stretch, the whole thing was scripted.

I'd hate to see their ipods, I really would. I'd throw them at Johnny Depp and tell him to knock off this Keith Richards crap.

Pre-Freakend Mind Waffle...

So, last night we went 'up town' for a few drinks. I had a mission to do and I wrapped it around pre-freakend celebrations. It was fun to catch up with people and sit in the newly redecorated Royal London. They have Judge Dredd comics on the mens cubicle walls. Sometimes this causes you to pee on your shoes.

Jest.

K.P had an extra drink in the Gifford which is RAWK bar where we saw an old work buddy (Hello, Mr Hill) and nodded our heads to some rockular music. I think you need that when you go out. Indie music, as much as I love it, has a very plastic scene.
Sadly, my work decided to screw up my pay so I'll get paid late. Excellent. Thanks for that. Thankfully, my finances are in better shape but it feels like I've been working for free. I would strike but I like this job and the people are nice. The pay-roll dept at the agency are idiots.
I've got this feeling today that something is amiss. Do you ever get that? I'm worried about something and I keep running down the list of possibilities:

Kylie? All good there. We don't argue. She's too sweet and I'm too sensitive.

Work? I actually like my current job; close to home, decent pay, I can meet K.P for lunch and I can write as well as work.

Friends? Maybe. One of them has kind of drifted. I stuck up for a pal, doing what I thought was the decent thing and I've ended up feeling like the Green Goblin. Maybe that's it.

House? Most likely. It sucks. I hate it. I want to leave BUT it's a roof over my head and it's not the end of the world. Maybe when Steve comes back things will be fun again. At the moment it's like an old peoples home. With added cats.

Hmmm...

Good Stuff: Might be going to V this year after all, I'm re-dyeing my hair tonight and there is a promise of shennanigans this weekend. There also maybe good stuff in other areas but I don't want to jinx those.

I wonder what Tony Blair's last day will be like? I wonder if he will write a global office email slating half of his co-workers whilst breaking all the office rules he can. You know, like everyday you-and-me's do when we are on our final day.

Will his buds get him a stripper? What will they sign in the card?

It boggles the mind.

Personally, I think he should get a boot up the arse on the way out.

Hard. A real cheek bruiser.

I'll do it for the sane people of Britain. I'll say: "It's the very least I could do now fuck off with The Joker and don't come back!" (Then I'd offer to slap the shit shades off Bono)

I'll also throw my beanie into the political arena and go for his job. Vote for me?
I know next to nothing about politics but that's not exactly nessicary in this modern age, is it? Most Sun readers would vote for a floating cube with a mouth if the propaganda was good enough.

Hey freakenders.

How are you all? I hope you're not sore, sick or sedated for any reason. There's a lot of 'it' going round.

I went to the BAFTA pitching thing the other night and it was very interesting. I learned how to survive and bullshit my way through Cannes. Although, the chance of me ever going to Cannes is beyond remote. Still, it was useful because I managed to 'network' and mingle with other writer types and make some contacts. Creatively, I pulled.
I offered some advice to a younger guy and that helped me to feel useful because, before he came over, I was sat at the back, drinking Pepsi and avoiding pretentious types with beards who were 'knee-deep in a project about current affairs and issues'. It's the stiffness of writers that I don't like. I do it for fun, for some kind of release. Anything to do with pleasing markets and demographics freaks me out. I went through all that with 'Bent Soul' and it left a bitter taste in my mouth (Along with a 'Grrr' face towards Hollywood types)
In other news, I joined The Sock Monkey Army, aquired some new rad t-shirts, watched the new Rush video, settled into my new job incredibly quickly and made some songs. I say songs, they're more like little noise cookies.

This song is for Nick and Adam P:

Manic Street Preachers 'Underdogs'

Freakend/Geekend in Leicester

This weekend was both freaky and geeky. It was very, very good indeed. We took in the Star Wars Special at Leicester's Space Centre where we saw lots of cool things that made me go 'wow' lots, maybe more so than the hordes of kids that were there. We saw lots of space-based stuff but Star Wars dominated the centre and we just soaked it all up. You're never too old for Star Wars. I aced a themed quiz, got some cool photos of props and stuff and offered a Pepsi to a Storm Trooper so I was happy as Salacious Crumb .
We also went to some very cool bars (The Dry Dock, Stoney Cove) and took in some cool sights (Abbey Park, Engelbert Humperdinck's house). We headed out last night to a few other bars and clubs and Adam, Kylie's brother, took us to some of his usual haunts. One place, The Village had changed a little since he last visited as it was now a gay bar complete with a wise-cracking drag queen that we bantered with for a bit. I was actually relieved because it looked like a louts bar from the outside. It was a decent place and we stayed for a few drinks and a game of pool.
We went off to a indie club called Fan Club after politely declining the invitation to go the drag queen's birthday party at a nearby club. It's not that we didn't want to go, in fact, we were set to change our plans. it's only when we saw that the place was rammed that we opted for Fan Club.
We drinked and danced at Fan Club and walked over to the haunted Guildhall and ran around there for a bit. That place is very spooky and has a scary history so decided to make a 'Most Haunted' parody that was mostly a collection of nonsensical sentences and rude jokes. We didn't see the mad monk which is probably for the best (You're supposed to die if you do and that would have put a blight on the weekend).
It was a lot of fun and my thanks goes to Kylie's amazing family for the kind of weekend that makes you realise what life is all about. My head is a hell of a lot clearer that it was before the weekend. Not even starting a new job can tarnish my good, relaxed and extremely chilled out mood.
Kylie is having a nap, so tired is she from all the activities. She's probably got the right idea.

FUTURES?

So, I've decided to switch occupations after being offered a job that pays a little better and is closer to home. It's actually quite sad to leave my current job, despite only being here for a little over two months. The people are decent enough and the role is pretty good. it's just too far and too little money. I can't wait for a permanent contract because I need more money now.
This isn't just for me. For the first time in my relatively young life, I have someone who cares about me in the same way I care about them. I have a bright future with an amazing person. I'm with someone that makes me want to do better, everyday and in everything; work, play and the creative. She doesn't hold me back, put me down or tell me what to do.
She doesn't need to because I want to do it, for myself and for her.
Most likely, I'll hate my next job but at least it will pay more and fund the things I really want in life; the nice apartment in Wolverhampton and the crazy, crazy times. This is something I never thought I'd want or get. Previously, it's been crazy in the worst way.
At the moment we need all the money we can get to make this happen. I'm going to work my ass off to ensure that it does. She's totally worth it.
It's not all 9 to 5, I've been asked to join an evening of pitching ideas to BAFTA people which is being held at the venue that played DRTN last year. I have no idea how it will go. I'll probably run out of ideas and throw a bunch of puzzling piffle at them. Either way, it'll be a good opportunity to network. I need to rub elbows with these people, physically and mentally.
If all is good and golden, two little films with have my name slapped onto them in a 'Written By' capacity. These are films that you MAY EVEN BE ABLE TO SEE! This starts in a couple of weeks.
I'm also doing stand-up on the 29th which could possibly be a very, very bad idea.

Chris

WHEN IN ROME...

Grr.
I've been given a 'polite' word by my boss (Well, given by a co-worker but scripted by my boss) that I shouldn't be writing in my note book. I'm not sure why this is a problem because everybody doodles in their pads whilst waiting for things to do and systems to kick in.
I just 'doodle' more than some of the people here because I don't talk to anyone, read gossip magazines or join in with the masses amounts of bitching that goes on.
To me, I'm just trading vices, so to speak. I can work AND jot down the odd idea BECAUSE I don't talk, bitch or leave my desk to do a combination of both. I'm sorry that I can't completely lock myself into the work. I do a decent job, I just like to keep my creative clocks ticking. It's not like I'm in emergency services or anything. Making script notes might be a tad bad then.
I was also given some advice by a co-worker that a "messy desk gives the impression that you're busy". I always thought boss-types hated messy desks but I decided to oblige this unwritten rule in order to keep the gnats away from my little picnic.
I've messed up my desk. There is paper everywhere.
What a cunning deception.
I look busy now. Perhaps I should really go to town and use my desk as a toilet.

Whoooooo Arrrre You?

I started air-drumming with my pens at work. It started out pretty casual and then ended up all Keith Moon. People eye me strangely in the office and I can't say I blame them.