EVERY DOOR LEADS SOMEWHERE

Being a big David Lynch fan, I'm pleased I finally got round to watching INLAND EMPIRE tonight. Now I've managed all 3 hours of it, I can succinctly review it in one word:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

True to form, it's a real brain-melter. And is, I would say, his most fractured film to date. Prologue aside, it's pretty straightforward for a while, then just goes completely bananas. Lynch alumni Laura Dern plays Nikki, an actress hired to play the female lead in a film that is revealed to be a remake of an unfinished Polish film. It wasn't finished because the two leads were murdered, and the film itself was believed to be cursed. A nice set-up that adds to the strong horror element running throughout the movie like mould in blue cheese. The first properly weird thing that happens is Nikki starts to think she's her character, Susan...after that, things rapidly spiral out of control. Sort of. It's a little bit more 'circling the drain' cinema than 'headlong plummet into fear' filmmaking.

Several realities play out side-by-side and intertwine...or do they? Rabbit-headed people appear in a dingy sitcom, waiting for someone to show up. Polish actors/characters echo scenes from elsewhere in the film itself. Other people reference events yet to happen. People from one reality appear in another, but are contained in the same story. There's the story of Nikki filming the remake; of her character Sue's life outside the remake; the story of the original production; and the characters from that as they were/would be if they were also real. Those are the clearest arcs evident in INLAND EMPIRE, though they are by now means the only ones.

The main feeling I got from INLAND EMPIRE is one of hearing someone tell the punchline to someone else's joke. Part of the fun with David Lynch (who often employs dream logic in his work) is figuring out not what something means, but rather if it does actually mean anything. Maybe the rabbit people are linked to the recurring statement about a person who "looks after animals", or they're a reference to Alice in Wonderland (not my opinion, that). Or quite possibly they don't mean anything, and he just put them in to screw with the audience.

What is fairly obvious though, is his recurring theme of dual-identity and, as with Mulholland Drive, a treatise on the price of fame. And not since Eraserhead has Lynch created something that more closely resembles a work of art than a film, nor anything with quite so much horror in it, and I guess that's saying something. In much the same way as SOUTHLAND TALES appears to be Richard Kelly sticking his fingers up at the mainstream and what people expected from him, INLAND EMPIRE could well be Lynch pulling his pants down and pissing all over any pretenders to his throne. The languid pace and the fact it's shot on digital video (which looks bloody awful/naff/cheap/like a student film most of the time) are really the only faults with it.

Thankfully once again the score/soundtrack is absolutely spot-on, with ominous drones, midnight jazz, blasts of discordant orchestral noise and creepy ambient effects. I was actually reminded of Chris Morris' work, particularly JAM, and also Michael Haneke's HIDDEN - this latter comparison sprang to mind when I realised that I didn't realise if what I was watching was the film or not, but actually a film within a film.

Despite these comparisons, INLAND EMPIRE is definitely a David Lynch film, and it's hard to imagine who else could or would make anything quite like it. Likewise, it's hard to imagine anyone who isn't already a fan or at least familiar with his work enjoying INLAND EMPIRE, although a friend of mine tonight fitted exactly into this pigeon-hole and experienced the film as a trial by fire. Whether or not they've been mentally scarred by the ordeal remains to be seen, but it's certainly given them something to think about ;) Honestly, if this film can convert someone to liking Lynch, then it's pretty much a given they'll enjoy his other films - "If you can hack THAT then THIS will be a piece of cake to watch and understand". A piece of delicious dream cake filled with jazz.

LAUGH, YOU BASTARDS!

Under advisement from a chum I recently watched SOUTHLAND TALES. He said "I believe in a few years people will start to see the film for the genius it is". I'm not so sure about that. SOUTHLAND TALES is a mess, but WHAT a mess!

With his début film DONNIE DARKO, director Richard Kelly bent space and time to create an interesting and unusual sci-fi horror (that's what I'm calling it) that bordered on the surreal and turned Patrick Swayze into a deviant. With SOUTHLAND TALES, he crams so many genres into one film it tends up being none of them in particular. I do admire the fact he evidently cut loose and went "Nuts to this, I want to write an apocalyptic sci-fi drama with elements of romance, time/space travel and comedy in it. What's that you say? It'll never work? Bushwa! Let's see you say that once I get Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sean William Scott in it! Oh that's still not enough? Well howsabout I make JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE the narrator AND give him a central role? Yeah, NOW you're confused ya filthy mook."

The Rock appears to sporadically channel William Shatner, SMG swears like a trooper and has some of the smuttiest dialogue in the film, and Sean William Scott plays a welcome and restrained character from his usual loud/goofy/obnoxious schtick. I don't mind saying that Justin Timberlake is probably the best actor in the film, as you can tell he's clearly having fun and enjoying doing a few things his pop star image might not otherwise allow (the highlight of his performance is in a musical interlude in which he mimes along to The Killers 'All The Things I've Done', although this section itself is pretty rubbish).

There are certain points in SOUTHLAND TALES (the title refers to Texas, where a nuclear bomb explodes at the start of the film) where Kelly appears to be trying to out-Lynch David Lynch, but replacing the noir aspect with a sci-fi one. There's even a bit where Rebekah Del Rio sings an odd version of a famous song (as she did in Mullholland Drive). Suffice to say, it doesn't work - but not for want of trying.

If you're going to populate your film with weird characters, you need someone normal to anchor events, and although Kelly does this with government man Vaughn Smallhouse he's not a major role, is instead on the very fringe of events. He is also my favourite character in the film, purely because he's the only one asking the sensible questions and who actually seems to be aware that weird things are going on. Add to this list Will Sasso as Fortuni Balducci, who spends almost the entirety of the film with a bemused "Can you believe this shit?" expression on his face and it only adds to the confusion.

The actual story goes something like this:

An actor goes missing, then wakes up in the desert with amnesia. He ends up hooking up with a former porn star and they write a script. A man poses as his identical twin in order to frame the police/government for a (faked) double murder. This man has also amnesia. A group of scientists have created a new form of energy that could well be linked to an actual perpetual motion machine. Somehow the actor and other man are linked together. The new form of energy has some sort of link to an experiment involving time and space. The script starts to come true. Everyone gets really confused.

As the making-of on the DVD reveals, practically everyone involved with the film had no idea exactly what it was, with Sasso calling it a comedy, and Kelly himself constantly referring to it as a comedy. You don't have to laugh at comedy to find it funny but it certainly helps, and SOUTHLAND TALES isn't really an acquired taste in this respect - it just doesn't work. Maybe it is a satire on politics, and on how life imitates art imitates life (characters quote each other/say each others lines, not to mention the [stunt] casting) and that'd be fine, but chucking in an alternate future (well past now - the film's set in 2008) as a backdrop, and then some final act reveal about rifts in time and space, is like getting Heston Blumenthal to make you fish n chips. It might sound impressive, all the stuff he chucks in, but it probably won't taste quite as pleasant or satisfying as a £2 special from your local chippy.

Considering the film's ultimately supposed to be about the apocalypse, it's a bit of a damp squib as you get the distinct impression the most interesting stuff is happening the instant the film ends. The start of the film is also guilty of this to a degree as we're TOLD about World War 3, when you kinda feel like that would make a pretty interesting film. Maybe the three comics that came out before the film answer some of these questions, but I honestly can't be bothered to get them to find out. Leaving some important questions for another medium to answer leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Just like Heston's fish n chips.

TALL THIN MALE SEEKS GULLIBLE IDIOT TO FREAK OUT. MUST HAVE WEAK HEART AND TERRIBLE NERVES.

In a rather disconcerting case of serendipity a friend of mine posted on Facebook something about his friend introducing him to the Slender Man mythos, and then tonight another friend mentioned it in a completely unrelated manner. We (there were a few of us gathered round for drinks) then proceeded to watch a series of youtube videos about a filmmaker who'd started to shoot a film called Marble Hornets, only to inexplicably pack it all in then promptly disappear. His friend decided to finish it and here're the results. You may wish to watch it first before I talk about it for a bit, but you don't have to (a lot of the 'episodes' are very short, when they could easily bleed into following parts, so it gets a bit annoying sifting through them)...

Right. Some of it's painfully obvious and naff, and completely ignores common sense (considering it's supposed to be 'real', characters act in service to the plot rather than realistically). For instance: J, the protagonist, goes to a guys house AT NIGHT, finds the place unlocked and abandoned and utterly creepy, but decides to keep exploring. As you would. He finds some odd stuff, and ends up going back on ANOTHER NIGHT, where he finds things have been altered. Then, a guy in a slightly daft mask appears from nowhere and apparently beats him up. J then goes back YET AGAIN and once again ON HIS OWN, where he finds more weird things. I'm sorry, but what? A weirdo jumped out the shadows and beat you up! No one in their right mind would ever go back there! Certainly not on their own! And after viewing footage depicting creepy stuff, like the masked guy appearing in his room and a Slender Man standing outside his house at night, he continues to go places on his own and at night, like some sort of maniac. Honestly.

However, all that aside, it IS creepy, and despite watching it after a few beers and in a room full of friends, certain aspects worked to create tension and we were all eager to keep watching (despite protestations from certain folks that the whole thing was "balls"). That's nothing to be sniffed at. What works for it isn't the filmmaking technique itself (comparisons with Blair Witch are both blindingly obvious and disgustingly apt) but the central/core myth of the Slender Man - a tall, thin guy in a black suit with no discernible facial features, and tentacle-like spindly limbs. That's a freaky image right there but put him on a lonely country road at night as you drive past and I for one am ready to shit my pants.

So I started looking into his origins and found stuff more disturbing than the Marble Hornets videos. Here're some creepy pictures:

[hmm these pics might not show up, but no matter - you can still see them on the forum linked to below]

Seriously, this stuff gives me the willies. Maybe it's the fear of opening your curtains at night to see a face waiting for you, or walking down a street on your own in the dark and passing an alleyway with something in it, but the Slender Man idea has got MAJOR creep factor. It's also got legs, in that since its inception a little over a year ago, it's spread as a "real" myth (well, more accurately a "real" urban legend) and has evidently struck a chord with most people who find out about it (many, no doubt, firmly believing it's real, or at least based on a real thing).

It all started on this forum HERE. And here's a pretty good infodump on the 'phenomenon'. Interestingly - for me, anyways - the forum that it all kicked off on also mentions Dionaea House, something I literally stumbled upon back in 2004 when it first appeared. Basically, the house in question has A LOT of seriously fkkked-up stuff happening in it, that affects everyone involved with the place. In a masterful stroke that put it in the realm of 'is it real or not?' the main site [http://www.dionaea-house.com/] documents weird things but MORE IMPORTANTLY links to associated stuff, such as a brilliant LIVEJOURNAL of a babysitter who worked in the place (which then in turn links to another associated site, and so on). Very, very clever and creepy. I'd also pay attention to the mentions of The Rake on the aforementioned forum, because that sounds equally scary. Which then in turn lead me HERE. A veritable goldmine of creepy ideas, I'm providing you with! Oy vey!

DER DER DERERER DER DUN DAN DUURNN

Step right up ladies and gentlemen! Another book's come out, this one ended by one of my stories. That's nice, isn't it? Yes it is, you don't have to answer that one - I just did it for you. What's it about? Here, I'll think about it and you can read my mind....did you ignore that memory of your mum in sexy lingerie? Because you should. Pick on the thought next to it. Yeah that's the one. No, don't be scared, it's only BLOODY CARNIVAL, from PILL HILL PRESS. YYYEEAAAHHHH CIRCUS HORROROROROROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is now available to purchase for your loved one as a distinctly unexpected gift. I don't even mind if you fib and say you know me, make yourself look cool because you're my pretend friend. BEST pretend friend. 4 eva lolololzzzzzzzzz

My story's called THIS CIRCUS, THESE ROOTS and has it all: a sweary clown, a scared child, an angry dad, a creepy ringmaster...plus some sexy surprises.

HERE'S THE BOOK!!!

IRON MAN, IRON MAN, DOES WHATEVER AN IRON CAN

The best cartoons don't treat children like idiots, and THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN is definitely one of the very best. An episode in Season 2 has a fight scene juxtaposed with opera, for crying out loud! You don't see that in Scooby-Doo!

Spider-Man is probably the most adapted superhero, cartoon-wise, seeing as there's been absolutely tons, from the old 'motion comic' style one to Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, to the (also brilliant) 90's animated series. MTV made a short-lived cartoon, too, and there was even a bizarre 'Unlimited' version in which Spidey travels to an alternate Earth...so what is it that makes THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN quite possibly the very best? I've already told you - it doesn't treat the audience like idiots. Seesh, pay attention sometime, okay?

Superhero cartoons came of age to some degree with the 90's Batman animated series - here was a cartoon that actually showed BLOOD for one thing, and occasionally had PG rated episodes. You never saw anyone die onscreen (one of the director commentaries in the Season One box set tells how they could show people falling from great heights...as long as they landed in water) but the shadow of fear hung over many of the episodes, thanks in part to the wonderful design of Gotham, and the spot-on portrayal of big hitters like The Joker and Clayface (incidentally, his origin/initial defeat story is definitely in my top 5 list of 'best cartoon episodes ever')...and of course Batman. The show's writers never let you forget that Batman was driven by vengeance and an insatiable need for justice the same way most cars HAVE to run on petrol. The mythos took an interesting - and thoroughly worthwhile - detour into the future when Batman: Beyond appeared on the scene/small screen.

But SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN doesn't have blood, or a gothic backdrop, or PG rated episodes (I don't think) so how can it compare to the 90's BATMAN? Simple answer: it gets the character (and perhaps even more importantly, the supporting cast) absolutely spot-on. It follows the comics faithfully (in a sort of 3 parts original Spider-Man to 1 parts Ultimate Spidey) whilst putting neat (and sensible) spins on existing/known characters.

When Season One starts, Peter Parker is already Spider-Man has been for a little while. He's doing well at school and even lands an internship at a lab run by Dr Curt Connors. He's best mates with son-of-a-millionaire Harry Osborn and 'geekette' Gwen Stacy. Everything's going pretty well. Except his Aunt May is really struggling to pay bills now her husband Ben - Peter's uncle - is dead. So, Peter attempts to win a photography competition at the Daily Bugle in order to get some cash. This forms a nice progression to the early episodes as Peter works at being a better photographer whilst simultaneously trying to beat up bad guys and get home before his 10pm curfew (there's a smart running gag in which Peter, as Spidey, gets interrupted mid-fight by Aunt May calling to find out why he's running late).

Ah yes, the bad guys. The thing is, with someone like Spider-Man easily taking out all the usual thugs, crooks and robbers, New York's crime boss (known only as "Big Man") realises that he's going to need a better class of criminal. Superpowered ones. Cue a steady stream of new villains, including old favourites like Sandman, Rhino and Doctor Octopus. And less interesting ones like Vulture. Oh well, you can't have everything. Sandman's origin experiment is particularly cool as his skin ruptures and then dissolves. Normon Osborn looks on and basically says "Never mind. Plenty more test subjects where he came from" only for the pile of sand that used to be Flint Marko to steadily reform itself into a human form. Cue the first proper supervillain of the season!

There is actually a strong undercurrent of realism throughout the show, which helps give certain moments that extra emotional heft, whether it be to illicit sympathy for a character or raise a few wry chuckles (Spidey's quips are brilliant, although he doesn't get ALL the best lines). Apart from the "real men take care of their responsibilities" theme (given to Spidey by a villain, interestingly) there's the good old teenage love drama going on, as Peter realises he fancies Gwen, but gets introduced to Mary Jane Watson (another brilliant lead-up/pay-off bit), and then ends up with a cheerleader for a girlfriend. Add to the mix the fact that his duties as Spider-Man are helping give Peter Parker a reputation as an unreliable jerk and the ingredients are there for disaster and tragedy.

The first, or rather main, casualty of this unwelcome downside comes in the form of Eddie Brock. Oh yes. Working as a lab assistant in Dr Connor's lab, he's a surrogate big brother to Peter (they grew up together and their parents both died in the same plane crash) who starts to resent him after seeing the way he (unwittingly) treats those around him, seemingly abandoning those who depend on him most. Of course the irony isn't lost on Peter but when he tries to explain himself his pleas fall on deaf ears. And when a mysterious black substance hitches a ride on a space shuttle and then ends up in the lab...if you're a fan you know where this is going, don't you? Yep, VENOM is due an appearance!

The "Anti-Spider-Man" is more powerful and dangerous than any other foe our friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler's come up against, and what makes it worse is that it's one of his best friends behind the slavering jaws of the monster. The resolution (and later reappearance/repercussions) of dealing with Venom/Eddie is neat and well-managed, and not without a few surprises.

There really is much more to adore about the show: J. Jonah Jamesons's fantastic personality (everything he says has a time limit and is generally shouted), the character progression of school football star Flash Thompson (he starts off as a jerk but we soon come to realise he's a deeply honest young man who always stands up for what's right), the integration of Mary Jane Watson, the background details (the same mother and daughter are shown as recurring extras throughout both seasons, and a young couple who Spidey saves and inadvertently brings together in season one end up getting married in the second season). The list is as long as my arm, and right now my arm's very long indeed.

So the bottom line is, if you're like me (in your early thirties) and don't think cartoons are just for kids, and/or you like superheroes, then do yourself a favour and watch THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN. It's a prime example of how, not only a superhero cartoon, but an animation, can stand head and shoulders above its peers (and many similar live action superhero shows *cough smallville cough*). And then subsequently get axed by a network who have no idea what they've got on their hands. It came out in 2008, and a third season has so far not appeared. Will it? That's anyone's guess, as suggested by THIS INTERVIEW with one of the show's creators. Maybe if enough people buy copies of the DVDs that'll change, but for now you can watch every single episode HERE. And if you like it, track it down on DVD. I know I'm going to, because I want to marry the bloody show and have its babies.

METAL ON METAL

ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL was called the "real-life Spinal Tap" when it was released a couple of years ago. That's a little unfair because this fly-on-the-wall documentary shows us, not a bunch of bumbling metallers with daft pretensions, but real people who had a taste of fame and recognition and have spent the last 20-odd years trying to taste it again.

The film focuses on Steve "Lips" Kudlow (the vocalist) and Robb Reiner (the drummer), who're the very definition of blood brothers. They grew up in Canada together and, after Lips walked past Robb's house and heard him drumming like a maniac to hard rock, became friends with him and started a band: ANVIL. Seeing these two bounce off each other, with Robb's laidback attitude and Lip's polite, but deeply frustrated, veneer, forms the heart of the film and provides countless (and deeply) emotional moments.

ANVIL played a huge rock festival in Japan in 1984, and were lauded by their peers (the film features musicians from Metallica (Lars Ulrich), Anthrax (Scott Ian) and Guns n Roses (Slash) giving their opinion on the band) yet they never took off in the way their contemporariness, like Bon Jovi, did. Why is that? It certainly wasn't because they were crap - in fact, hearing the music from then played now they sound weirdly current, like a new band who play straight-forward balls-out heavy metal, with no pretensions or gimmicks. Was it just bad luck? Seems that way. Filmmaker Sacha Gervasi is a childhood friend of the band, and, apparently sensing the frustration of his friends and wanting to do something about it, shows us a few months (?) in the life of Anvil, their respective families, and the steps they take to 'put things right'.

ANVIL isn't exactly an up-lifting film, though it's also not downbeat. Melancholic would probably be the best description. The band tour Europe, sometimes playing to a hundred or so people, sometimes to two or three. If this wasn't bad enough they don't even get paid a penny. Yet through it all Lips (a genuinely sweet family man) keeps bouncing back, because he knows everyone depends on him to "make it happen". Seeing him take humiliation piled upon humiliation is practically heart-breaking. But when he contacts an old producer friend about recording with him again, things start to look up...

There are a few obvious questions I wanted answering, especially given that Lips and Robb know how the industry is...for instance, Lips talks about how the Anvil demo (that's depressing - a band with as much history as them forced to hand a demo CD into record label offices) will end up sat on a desk with a hundred other demos, and the label boss would look at theirs and go "they're 50 years old" and another one and go "these guys sound like them but they're in their 20's", and the choice is an easy one for him. Surely, a band like Anvil with so much history (or "currency" as one label chap calls it) would do better to make a point about how the demo is recorded by the guy who's produced Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, etc? Write it in big letters on the envelope. And why not take a cheeky chance and send the demo to the bands they like/grew up with, asking if they could get a support slot on whatever tour? Maybe they did do these things but all (!) the film shows you is them trying very, very hard to self-promote and distribute their demo/latest album by visiting record label offices and speaking to radio shows.

ANVIL is a potentially bleak look at four grown men struggling with the desire to do what they're best at but consistently failing to get a proper foothold. Thankfully, recent history suggest they're now starting to get somewhere (and the all-important validation they crave) as they've been playing some proper big rock festivals. You can keep tabs on them yourself by checking out their website: http://www.anvilmetal.com/

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...ALL THE HEROES?

They exploded, that's what.

THE NO MORE HEROES COVER IS DONE! Here it is:

Front art by JASON STRUTZ

Back art by ME!

Go HERE to see a bigger version of the back if you'd like to read it.

I'm chuffed to bits with this. Hopefully it sells enough to warrant a sequel! Just polishing off the formatting of the actual book itself, and waiting for one more contract to come back and then it's all done.

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I'm not quite sure what's up with me at the moment because I'm struggling to stay focused on writing. I know what I want to do with the story I'm working on, and I've come out with some nice phrases, but it's just not grabbing me. I think it might be because it's not a conventional story, and I've got a load of it to do all at once, so it feels like a bit of a slog. Never a good sign. I also haven't worked on anything else for a while, so I'm starting to feel a bit like opportunities are slipping from my grasp...

Mind you, my next Jonny Cave story appears online next month, so that's pretty cool, and Pill Hill's BLOODY CARNIVAL is due out any time now, so that's also a bonus!

ALL ABOARD! FUN SPEED AHEAD! POOP POOP!

The artwork for NO MORE HEROES is (99%) FINISHED!

The formatting is well on its way!

I'm going to start reading subs for the Glitch antho later! Hopefully!

I'm involved with two collaborative zombie stories that I seem to have completely forgotten to plug, so I'll do that now!

One is called, funnily enough, COLLABORATION OF THE DEAD. Something like 19 authors taking it in turns to write a chapter, until we have 38ish, and a full book! Here's a forum about it: A forum about that thing I've just mentioned.

The other one is called DEAD ON EARTH. 15 authors for this one, and it takes the form of diary/journal entries told from the point of view of the character created by whichever author. Mine's a preacher who enjoys doing God's work a little bit too much...Admittedly I've fallen behind on this one a bit so I'm using today as my catch-up time. Here's a Facebook page about it: A Facebook page about it.

And last but by no means least, here's the cover to a book I've definitely mentioned before:



My story's called 'S is for Stymphalian Birds'. And in the spirit of friendship, networking and all-round schmoozing, here're some websites for fellow writers who're in the book! -->

BEC ZUGOR
JONATHAN PINNOCK
GEOFF NELDER

The book itself is being sorted by JOHN PRESCOTT.

And as always, you can check out some of my devoted followers over there somewhere --> since they're pretty much all writers, too! And because I'm a nice guy, despite what my neighbour claims, hit me up with a link to your site and I'll post it. Easy peasy. All in the spirit of friendship and love and mutual dry-humping.

Now get outta here ya damn punk kids! And don't say I never give you anything!

WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP!

And here is the aforementioned Zoidberg song:

AOT7FB - The Doctor is IN by attackofthe70ftbitch

Have a listen, if you like destructive industrial rock!

BUSY BUSY BUSY!

Yes, I am very busy at the moment. I haven't even had time to play Guild Wars! hahahah

Went to the cinema to watch Scott Pilgrim recently - enjoyed it immensely - I haven't seen anything in a while that managed to put a great big grin on my face for the majority of it's running time. It was a little too long though, and everyone seems surprised to discover that Scott's really hard yet they never comment on it, which is a little weird (I know that's the "world" they live in but I'm sure if your mate suddenly kicked the crap out of someone you'd go "I had no idea you were such a tough bastard, even though our reality allows sound effects to appear as physical manifestations and for people to explode into coins when they die"). Minor niggles though. And surely ********* would have the REVERSE likes/dislikes to *****, meaning they would be enemies, not sharing ******. But anyway.

I'm hungry and hungover. The artwork for No More Heroes is pretty much done, just need Bill to give it the thumbs-up. This week I'm also going to start (properly) reading submissions for A Glitch in the Continuum. Also haven't done any proper writing, myself, for almost two weeks, for one reason or another, so I think I'll crack back on with some of THAT. Got my zombie/mutant novel still bubbling away in the background, so I think I'll continue work on that later today, if I have time. I'm supposed to be making a song out of a Zoidberg quote too, so I'll knock something up for that this afternoon, if I have time. I should also give my SOUNDCLOUD account a spring clean.

If I have time.

WHO WANTS TO MEET AN ENGLISH PUNK IN AMERICA?

I've just posted this on the Library's forum so I'll share it here too! If you live in or near Austin, Texas, pay attention :D

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I'm making this shout-out because a very good chum of mine has recently moved there and he wants Library books! ParticularlyLetters and Through since I'm in 'em haha but he's a cool guy and will probably buy others!
He doesn't have the means to get them online so I thought it might be cool if any Librarians happen to be in the neighbourhood fancy meeting a proper rock n roller from the East Midlands and shift a few Library books in the process?
He's helping out in a bar in Austin called The Tigress cos he's really good friends with Pam, who owns/runs it. Apparently it's the smallest bar there :D and you can find it "West North Loop and Lamar" if that makes any sense.

This is him:

He almost always has a hat on, otherwise he has a black quiff. He answers to "JOE ATOM" and is a MASSIVE fan of zombies and horror films. I seriously doubt you'll find many people with as much love for the horror genre as our Joe although I should warn women to be wary of his deadly charisma hahahahaha