DJ Bob

Good to hear that Bob’s Radio Show will arrive in the UK.

Listening whenever I can get Wednesday afternoon off, and having to offer a new email address every time for an XM Radio 3-Day Trial has exhausted me. I don’t intend to act like a cheapskate, but I can’t receive satellite transmissions this side of the Atlantic (so I don’t buy their hardware) and can’t buy an online subscription. I did ask them about my options, but got no reply. I used all my email addresses up, ended up making a quick Yahoo one today, just to get in (sorry, ‘bout that).

So anyway – Radio 2 goes out over the Internet, so you can all hear it in December, and 2007, I reckon. You don’t even have to play at timezones, as the BBC follows a live show with 7-day-anytime access to their programmes.

Slightly more informative writing (grabbed from web):

Called Theme Time Radio Hour each programme has a different focus, such as the weather. The track list for that theme, selected by Dylan, features A Place In The Sun by Stevie Wonder, The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix and Keep On The Sunny Side by The Carter Family.

Other themes include cars, dance, police and whisky.

Dylan first tried his hand at being a DJ earlier this year with a show on XM Satellite Radio in the United States. He said: "A lot of my own songs have been played on the radio, but this is the first time I've ever been on the other side of the mic."

6 Music and Radio 2 [BBC Press Release with details of broadcasts]will air the shows in 2007 - with a sneak preview of six shows on Radio 2 over the Christmas period, starting on Saturday, 23 December at 7pm running through to Thursday, 28 December (all at 7pm except 5pm on 24 December).


Dylan's show will then launch at 9pm on 31 December on 6 Music and will be on every Friday night from 12 January at 9pm

By Grabthar's Hammer...

"Take Two! and....ACTION!"



I went to Germany on the weekend, for a sci-fi convention, the Dark Side Con, being run in a school. I wish my school had been as creative as that! I got collected in a Star Wars/Star Trek vehicle. We saw music and dance shows put on by the kids (which I really enjoyed), and they had done drawings of us all.

The truly fabulous Barrie Holland (Barrie Hollywood) kept us amused throughout, and joined me in working on some fan films. One with Volker, set in a bar (ideal for me) in which Barrie played the Landlord serving an alien with too much alcohol, and I got the job of Drunk at the Bar (type-casting!) You can see the clip online, if you go to the Dark Sun website [After clicking on the DarkSun logo you can see "Kleinere Projekte im Downloadbereich" at the top of the right side. There you can find the film to download.]

Another film, set on the Star Trek bridge, reduced Barrie to tears of laughter, as we all acted very unprofessionally when we found we had no idea of the story, and no clear direction, and were going to make a ten minute film in ten minutes, so began to improvise, and make each other laugh. Wicked fun, but in such long days we sometimes get a little hysterical. Who knows how it may cut together!

I met some wonderful people who kept me amused, interested and happy.

I had several wonderful conversations with Satalya, a wise woman, story-teller, masseur, and many other lives of which I know nothing (apart from what I can find on her website). Thanks for the Refuge!

I talked quite a bit with Christine Wagner, who has worked on a film project of her own for the last six years, and she showed me a high-production value trailer of Kurzzeithelden [click to see trailer], and told me about the ups and downs and adventures of making your own film with your own money.

Among the graphic artists I found a real friend in Philip Cassirer from the Alligator Farm in Hamburg, and his attractive companions Simone and Fabia (it never hurts your reputation to be seen with beautiful women). I should really introduce them to the Madison Underground Press, who appear in transition from Buddhafart.

I also loved the work of Jörg Schröder. I have always loved books, and particularly hand-crafted books. He and his company make hand-made limited editions based on some of the big films (I believe they also make unique copies if you ask them). His company - Crafted Collectibles - make exclusive collector's edition volumes which contain not just words and pictures, but DVDs, etc. He had samples on display for Spider Man, Lord of the Rings, Batman and (of course) Star Wars.

Nice times for me as he appreciates my work on The Dark Crystal, which I secretly love, as I had never worked on a film before that and got to see the whole process, from pre-production to production, from Day One to the The Wrap.

After that training and experience, getting the chance to do Jabba didn't scare me too much. Well, not much-ish...

I had a great time!

Thanks everyone! (and especially Mario & Markus)

Bis wieder!

Mr Jules - the Last Leopard in Wales

Great to see my mate Jules (that's Mr. Jules to you, mate!) and have a laugh.
He normally spends rather a lot of time travelling around Europe, so to have him back in Cardiff for a while is a treat.

As his website is down temporarily, I can't point you there. One of his old agencies described him this way:

Mr Jules
Presenter, compere, street artist. Mr Jules roams the continent with his own distinctive variety of wit and humour. Slack rope shows, falling over, getting up again, Improvisation and participation. Mr Jules won first prize at the acclaimed Rotterdam Street Theatre festival 1998.
"Quick wit, excellent improvising skills and anything goes attitude... suave, sophisticated." The Catch UK

Contact: mrjules@bigfoot.com

Your compere for the evening is the inimitable Mr Jules, stupid or just plain dumb in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Desperanto.

As well as performing, he remains a critical link in setting up and running juggling conventions (I went to Ptuj in Slovenia last year, where 3,500 jugglers turned up!

Here's a glimpse of him in 1999 from someone's travel diary online

Mr. Jules from Wales juggling three, four and even five clubs on a slackrope. The first four were thrown to him by members of the public. One end of the slackrope was attached to a streetlamp, the other end was held tight by six members of the public. He used a thin yellow sling instead of rope. It was very elastic. It was attached at head-height but hung only 50cm above the ground when Mr. Jules stood on it.

At the end of the show he pretended to fall off and of course the rope ended up between his legs, leading to a nice pantomime.

Because I try to learn the slackrope myself I found his show most inspiring. The mock-accident, with the rope between the legs, happened to me several times during my first practice sessions!

Grown up Jokes

For Ali’s birthday last night a bunch of us from NoFit State went to see Free Jimmy. Really excellent! Apologies to the director that we didn’t stay for the Q&A but we all had a party to go to…
Very, very funny – the first cgi for adults movie – 4 stoners, 3 gangsters, 5 vegans and 4 hunters all in pursuit of a junkie elephant, escaped from the circus. I don’t want to offer plot spoilers, but you can get a bit more detail on their website…

Ali has started working part-time for the Circus Arts Forum, too -

Happy Christmaas!

I have had a minor reprimand for neglecting this blog - I didn't think anyone read anything much of mine online (and no-one adds Comments) so I just thought of it as another of my 'experiments'.

I started a webpage because I had stopped travelling with my freelance circus work, and had settled into one city and one proper job (!) at the age of 51 (for the first time ever) - so wanted to collect my thoughts, find my children, publish what traces I had left of my parents (at least the children might find it interesting) and so on.

Well, my kids got in touch, (and a few of my parents' students, too) and I got a couple of gigs out of it all, but eventually the website (made with FrontPage 2000 templates) just ground to a halt. I occasionally proofread a page, and get rid of dead links (or update them) but already it feels like a major project to overhaul it.

A couple of years ago I heard that my favourite author (OK, one of my favourite authors) had decided to do tutorials online. I knew he had done talks and lectures and classes but I dived in (one of the first 15 I believe) and for the last couple of years did workshop/tutorials with him, supported and encouraged the online Academy, etc.

I call myself Bogus Magus (apologies to the games player in Japan who chose the same name). I have written for the online magazine, Maybe Quarterly, and maintain the online blog, Only Maybe.

I have indexed (rather imperfectly) the content we have provided for this insatiable internet environment)...lost interest in my own projects, slightly.

Perhaps things moved again. RAW(Robert Anton Wilson for the uninitiated) became too ill this year to run his course 'Tale of the Tribe' (the great summing up of 20th Century human intelligence) and we students floundered for a bit. Fortunately the Academy has attracted an extraordinary group of tutors, so it may well roll on, but I can't replace my first year of trying to complete 3-4 RAW courses simultaneously. I thought I had taken on too much, but I had dropped one (crucial) course. If I thought I put a lot of work in, Bob said he felt like a one-armed wallpaper hanger. I still thought of him as the man of infinite energy, so to realise just how hard he worked to make all that happen astounds me even now.

Last year (still teaching) he fell down in his house and no-one found him for 24 hours. I don't say that to dramatise the situation beyond saying that none of this leaked out to us at the time - it came out as rueful comedy!

So anyway. This year it became clear that Post-Polio Syndrome, his age, the loss of his wife, who knows - circumstances had got the better of him - the course got cancelled and they gave us our cash back. I didn't want it, but got it any way.

From then on we either wanted him to get back up, and run the course we all so eagerly anticipated, or we knew we had to let him go in peace. When we heard he couldn't afford his rent and medical bills a whole bunch of people around the planet made sure he didn't die penniless and homeless and destitute (like too many of my heroes) and a wonderful Internet event sorted the situation in an astounding 3 days (I reckon Douglas Rushkoff deserves most thanks for the coverage he gave to the situation - but everyone who sent $5 - or $500 - became my friend at least). I went from helplessness and despair to belief in my fellow humans again. That doesn't seem like a trivial matter.

Oh. Why did I say Happy Christmas so early? Most people have me down as this atheist/humanist/anarchist. At Christmas they call me a curmudgeon, and mumble "Bah Humbug" at me, as they spend more than they (or the planet) can afford, complain about visiting their relatives, etc. You can check it out in The Archives if you really care (does anyone read this stuff?)

If you want to buy crazy presents go here, to Grand Illusions.

This year I decided not to buy goats for people, or sulk, or anything. I have decided to act unnaturally cheerful (whatever happens) and transmit "Goodwill to all men/people/humans/entities/sentient beings" IF IT KILLS ME.

Happy Christmas everyone!