EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Hey, this is a good idea. Michael at Cruftbox gives clear, straightforward instructions on how to build your own smoker for $50 – by the looks of it probably about 30 of the Queen’s quids. I’ve been wanting to try this for a while, and a bit of drilling is completely within my limited skillset. If we get a warm April, it could be the time to try this in earnest…

(via BoingBoing)

With reference to what I was discussing in my last post, here’s some interesting reading from futurist author Adam Greenfield on the model he’ll be using for his next book. Very very useful stuff.

(yes, I will be pre-ordering, and if you have any interest in the way cities will work in the future, you should too.)

via Warren Ellis

Observant readers to the blog may have noticed the absence of the usual Top Ten Retrospective List of 2007 Countdown List. Frankly, what’s the point? I’ve listed all the stuff I liked in my “This Years Loves” sidebar (updated and being closed out for springcleaning in a week or so, so if you are interested in my tastes, check the sidebar) and I don’t think the world needs yet another blog whittering pointlessly about old headlines. I am a futurist. Thusly, I will whitter pointlessly about stuff that hasn’t happened yet.

I are therefore looking forward to:

FINISHING THE NOVEL: I’ve sidelined the writing a little bit over the last month, as the old social life has got in the way. I’ll be back next week, hammering away at least a grand a day until first draft is done. Then polishing. Which should see me through until April. Just in time for:

SCRIPT FRENZY: NaNoWriMo’s scriptwriting challenge is simple enough, in the same way that the guillotine is a simple yet efficient machine. A feature-length script of at least 90 pages in a month. I have at least five ideas that would benefit from the cleansing wash of a first draft. The RSI should be in remission by then, and will need refreshing.

STRAIGHT 8: Yep, doing it again this spring. For those new to the concept, it’s a challenge whereby a short film is made in camera, in sequence, on a single roll of Super 8 without a sync soundtrack. It’s absurdly exhilarating. Raw creativity with all the mistakes and fumbles there in the final piece. When Straight 8 works, when talented film-makers get together and start sparking off each other, the end result can be a thing of beauty. Again, I have a couple of ideas, but I’m thinking on a new direction for this one – not fiction, in other words.

DANCE, DECKS & VIDEOTAPE: the work on Dom Wade’s dance music documentary continues apace, with an exciting interviewee ready to go in front of the cameras in the next week or so. Then we move on to the cutting of a promo, with the express intention of getting some funding for the bugger. Three years in the making so far, and we’re pushing to get something more solid out to people in 2008. And on the subject of promotional activities…

ROB’S WRITING WEBSITE: I used to have a showcase on Tripod for some of my short writing, and I’m planning on expanding that concept to include a more focussed picture of my capabilities as a writer and film-maker. By the looks of what I have planned in the spring, expect this for the second quarter of 2008. It will include downloadable PDF’s of the best of my short fiction, and the chance to buy proper copies of the novels. This has been banging around in my head for a while now, and the examples of writers like Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross and the whole Radiohead thing make me think that this is an increasingly viable option. Up with the Creative Commons licensing!

AND IN THE GAPS: the blasted wasteland of the veg patch needs a fairly drastic rethink, and to be frank a lot more attention than it got in 07. I’m sick of writing the phrase “little and often” in the blog at this time of year, but a couple of hours a week is really all it needs, and if I can light the fuse of the rocket up my arse, I see no reason why this should not happen.

There will also be more focus on guitar playing this year. Ruby remains one of the joys of my life, and a thrashed A minor chord is a pretty good cure for mopage.

Oh, and I need to catch up on things like The Wire (squee! season 5! boo! season last!) Galactica (squee! season 4! boo! season last!) Lost (ho hum. however, Kate, therefore muted squee) and Heroes. Thank fck for the Writer’s Strike. I don’t think I can cope with any new product. Except Doctor Who. There’s always room for Doctor Who. And Torchwood, I s’pose, although there had better be some game raising, and any attempt to get fish-faced Owen off with the fragrant Martha Jones will be met with retching noises and large heavy objects being flung. There’s no need for it, really there’s not.

And this is before the bumper year in films and music coming up, the work on the front room we’re starting in the next couple of weeks, the ongoing project to get all the CDs onto hard drive for wireless music through the house, Clare’s BIG birthday, a trip to Finland, the godfathering ritual with my new nephew Connor in the middle of this month and all the stuff I haven’t even thought of yet!

And somewhere in the middle of all that, I still have to fit in the odd post to the blog.

Just as well I hate being bored, isn’t it?

I love pancakes. I’m well-known in my family for making them, and making them well. OK, they take a little time, and there’s that faffing around with eggs, flour and milk, but that’s part of the fun of it. I enjoy cooking partly because I can make a joyous mess. The delicious end result is simply a side benefit.

But no, apparently I am a time-wasting fool. Why on earth should I make pancakes the old-fashioned way when I can squirt batter out of a can and into the pan?

And it’s organic, too! Why, I’d be an idiot not to try the stuff! Maybe I can mix it with some spray cheese for an added taste treat!

*bork*

(via HolyMoly)

…or not, depending on your point of view.

Ok, I’ll stop now. Not quite sure what came over me there…

Ho ho, hos.

Who knows? Might be worth a look.

Because tis the season, a link to George Harvey Bone’s Cooking With Booze. A fine work, and deeply appropriate for the festive season.

Tell you what, try a couple of recipes then splash out on the real thing. Cookbooks are much more worthwhile with a patina of use.

(and on a slightly sadder note, a diatribe on the sad state of Oddbins, once my boozeshop of choice. Sounds like they’re going down the tubes rapidly. What a shame. They sorted me out with emergency birthday and Xmas pressies on numerous occasions.)

Just cos it’s Christmas, and everybody likes a taste of greasepaint…

To St. Luke’s Church in Chelsea last night, for the Coro Christmas Concert. This is starting to become a seasonal ritual for us, and as it usually comes around the end of Birthday Week puts us in the mood to put up the tree and decorations, mull some wine and slap “I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Winter Solstice Vol. XVIII” on the CD player.

I’ve called it a carol concert in the past, and this is a disservice. There are carols in the setlist, giving us mere mortals a chance to bellow along with the exquisite tones of the choir (and believe me, they will leave you standing when it comes to the last verse of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” and they pull into fifth gear. It’s like being in an Austin Seven pottering along quite happily thank you, and all of a sudden a E-Type Jag smoothes past you and disappears into the distance. No effort. Just sheer bloody class and power) but the emphasis is more on music for the season, and they take on a broad remit. This year’s programme took on everything from a Vaughn Williams piece, to a 13th century hymn, In Dulci Jubilo, to my personal favourite, Riu, Riu, Chiu, a 16th century Spanish peasent song whose call and response structure put me in mind of Gaudete. Sterling work from the debonair, handsome soloist on this one too. (Will this do, Simon?)

Readings this year were by Harriet Jones MP herself, Penelope Wilton, who did a fantastic job with poems and short prose pieces that ranged from the humorous to the quietly melancholic.

This is one reason I always enjoy Coro’s Christmas do. They’re never afraid to include reflective, and sometimes downright sad pieces in the evening. Take their reading of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”

“One day soon, we all will be together
If the Fates allow,
Until then we’ll have to muddle through
Somehow.”

It’s hardly Rudolf The Red-Nosed Ruminant, is it?

In short, great fun, and it’s always good to try something to add a little sharpness to the sugary glop that Christmas music can so often be.

Talking of sharpness – next year, guys, either get the heating fixed in St. Lukes or lay on some mulled wine. it was frickin’ freezing in there!