Another rough draft completed!

When I used to write articles I didn't even do a 'first' draft, but would start with a 'zero draft' which had no pressure on it at all, just a brainstorm of ideas poured out onto the page.

I guess that's what NaNoWriMo novels feel like - no hesitating, no re-reading, just get it down.

Somerset Maugham, the renowned novelist, once joked that, “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.”

So now I have done that, I may take the raw material and try to make a 'first draft' at some point. Perhaps I should put it away, to cool down, for a bit.

But I have 50,000 words to play with, cut-up and mess around with.

I know many people have little curiosity about the game (or not enough time) but if you do want to know more, go to my NaNoWriMo account, where you can see an excerpt under the Novel Info tab, etc.

And please don't, as most people do when I say I have written a book, ask "What's it about?" because I can only at the moment offer a slightly sarcastic, "It's about fifty thousand words long."

[I stole that from Marilyn Monroe, who, when asked about her nude calendar by a prurient reporter, "Do you mean you had nothing on?" replied, "Oh, no. I had the radio on."]

Future Wave?

Just received my invite to beta test Google Wave, which is fun!

Of course, like the first person with a telephone, you lack someone to call!

Fortunately, at least a couple of friends have already found their way in, so we can start testing, probing and playing to see the benefits.

I won't do the rant here, yet - as I have only seen the video! Inevitably, such an interactive piece of future software remains blocked at the library where I work, but here in Starbucks (hiding from the rain) it works fine on their BT FreeZone, although a netbook screen is possibly not ideal for such a complex front end.

Like I say, I don't like to judge until I have played with the settings, got used to the navigation, etc.

Anyone else out there on Wave, who reads this thing?

So far, so good...

Having passed 32K, slightly ahead of schedule for us 50K folks (I know others do even more!) I took a moment to make a word cloud of 'Handwaving' so far, I don't know if I have the balance right at all yet, but I have enjoyed a fair percent of the writing - sombunall (some but not all).

Playing with Clouds

I just went off to Wordle, to try making clouds...

Serendipity and The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke

I do love browsing libraries (and secondhand bookshops) because of the accidental finds.

The other day I saw Michael Chabon's The Wonder Boys, and having enjoyed the movie decided to read the book. It turned out excellent, so I checked him out (Wikipedia, etc) and then went back to our shelves to see what else we had by him.

I now have a copy of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (if I can find time to 650pp, however readable!)

More interestingly, nestled next to it I found a slim novella called The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke by Mark Chadbourn. I have been to see Dadd's extraordinary painting live (no reproductions do it justice - it's 3-D in oils) and it remains one of my favourite ever pictures. This novella comes with an Intro by Neil Gaiman, too. Looking forward to reading this one fast, and first.

If you don't know about Dadd, his madness, and his masterpiece, Bohemia Place has a good reproduction, some commentary, links to Queen's tribute, Dadd's complete poem, etc.

This biography page has some interesting stuff, including blaming his madness on smoking in Egypt. Some of the links are broken, but I didn't check them all, yet.

Then back to Chabon.

Ah me, I feel like a Dadaist...

...it reminds me that I shouldn't trust what I get through da medja.

Fair enough, they spelt my name right (possibly a first in newspapers and tv) and called me a 'circus historian' (which I find hilarious, even if I do actually find that stuff fascinating - I even help run a website about modern circus since I retired from perfoming.)

They put incorrect name checks on Kevin (aerialist) and Marco (riding the Penny Farthing bicycle) - then cut to Le Grand Cirque (much cuter) and some funny stuff with orange balloons that humans can get inside (something I witnessed back at a juggling convention in the early 80s - still funny and novel to the public, of course) - and finished with 'the show will run until 27th September" - without pointing out that NoFit State and their show Tabú (about human fears) does not include comedy balloons (or even the fear of asphyxiation).

That funny, cute bit (for your kids) - they should have said - comes from a show you have missed this time around.

hey ho.

I don't even know why I feel even slightly surprised.

Don't get me wrong, if you want another Cirque du Soleil clone, then Le Grand Cirque probably will suit your family perfectly.

It just misses what NoFit State Circus attempts to offer people (participation)... (I feel tired now, perhaps I'll go lie down).

They've only been working at this for 25 years, perhaps da medja will get it, one day. As well as the main show, Nofit State do community outreach stuff - check out the Parklife blog. Real people, remember them? Parklife - Nofit State's outreach programme..

But anyway - NoFit State's Taboo show runs until September 27th in Cardiff.

You don't get to sit down, but walk around in a club atmosphere with stuff happening all around you. Really, this stuff is aimed at young adults (who probably don't think 'circus' has much to offer them). It works (and wins awards) all over mainland Europe.

In the UK new circus still hasn't trained (or attracted) a suitable audience of grown-ups. One of the reasons for the group dropping the word 'circus' and going for NoFit State©.

You have been warned (surely) that 'the bar is open'.

G'night. (I'm sure the current troupe don't need me as an advocate of 'shows I recommend'.)

Watch us all on tv tonight!

For those of you in the area (or who can receive ITV Wales) an arts programme called The Wales Show will do a feature on NoFit State this evening at 22:35.

Your humble reporter may even show up, in the guise of a 'circus historian', to put the New Circus concept into context compared and contrasted with the traditional images of circus.

Or hit the cutting room floor, for waffling. :-)

NoFit State in Cardiff Bay

NoFit State will feature in ITV Wales' "The Wales Show" at 10.35 on Thursday, September 17th 09.

I know this because I went down to see the NoFit State crew today, already set up outside Cardiff's Millennium Centre. I even ended up being interviewed myself - to describe 'New Circus' in the context of the traditional image of the circus - by the charming Frances Donovan.

You can check out a Timeline I made on the Circus Arts Development Agency website (which I work on) - to see that circus has always been an early uptaker (they used gas lighting, then electric lighting), has always incorporated new tricks, stunts and toys (the unicycle developed from the Penny-Farthing bicycle, but BMX stunts began to appear in Archaos back in the 80s), and originally appeared in outdoor ampitheatres and temporary wooden structures before tents became used for touring.

Circus history remains predominantly oral, and some of it should be taken with a pinch of salt (as hype became part of the circus style in the days of Barnum). Daredevil stunts, exotic people and animals, extraordinary visions, exciting live music - these have formed part of what the circus had to offer as it travelled around the globe, but fashions keep changing in what people want to see and experience.

We mostly agree that animals (apart from those great apes, 'the humans', of course!) should no longer feature in shows, and NoFit State doesn't aim so much at 'the family audience' as at young adults (although everyone is still welcome, of course). It offers a 3-dimensional sensurround immersive experience -something you can't entirely appreciate through television - you have to be there!

Don't miss the unique opportunity to see this award winning show!

See previous posts for further details, links and video clips.

Tabú

Cardiff's own homegrown 'new circus' - now an international touring company - soon appearing at the Millennium Centre for a short run (11 September 2009 - 27 September 2009) - a brief glimpse of the award-winning show

“This is the future of British circus” The Guardian

Tabù
Uploaded by nofitstate. - Arts and animation videos.

NoFit State return in triumph to the Millennium Centre

You can see what a hive of busy folks can do, to keep you entertained.

NoFit State tent getting erected last year at the Millenium Centre.


The WMC promo for the international touring show

The NoFit State promo

A glimpse of the current show on DailyMotion - not the Hot Chip clip on YouTube...

And yeah, the NoFit State community work carries on as the main show tours...see the link to Parklife in Stockton and the Parklife blog.

Getting silly now

After enjoying John Sinclair (up in Stourbridge live, but listen to Radio Free Amsterdam) touching on the Beats and Jazz, and Bob D still turning out Theme Time Radio - drawing on all the roots music of the last (say) 8o years - although the 100th edition entitled Goodbye might prove the end of a cycle - I have run out of sensible drug connections and ended up with 'what's legal', a very limited (and limiting) choice of alcohol and nicotine.

Hey ho, walk the dog, and regret nothing.

XM Radio have now (it seems) more or less stopped their free trials (which let me, with random Yahoo addresses, listen to Bob every Wednesday in the UK) and BBC Radio plays Bob repeats (only within the UK) but the run has reached an end point.

Fair enough. Get a life (and start torrenting). The artists have to get paid, I know, but they also need 'airing'.

(blush) OK, XM let me again (7-day free trial), check out Deep Tracks, so superb, as a mix....
Taking the dog out now, to wander the mean streets, and just hum the stuff I'd like to hear for real...

What a Long Strange Trip it's been

I had real fun leaving work early on a Friday, to make my way (via 4 trains) to Stourbridge to see a genuine 60s hero working with a friend of mine. A showing of the movie TWENTY TO LIFE: THE LIFE & TIMES OF JOHN SINCLAIR (87-minute documentary film by Steve Gbehardt, 2007) then John Sinclair doing his poetry, and DJ Fly mixing musical accompaniment (although I bet that ain't the word for it these days).

Not only did I enjoy the gig itself, but had one of those smooth journeys, as though the universe wanted me to get there, nice and easy-like. The trains went on time, I met Nick outside the gig, we walked into town and bumped into Fly and Janne. After the gig I met up with Jack and Tony, and got whisked away to take tea and talk all night. A little sleep, more tea, then a ride into town on the extraordinary Hankmobile (thanks Hank!) a really fun way to travel, where I immediately met up with Fly and Janne again, then sat with Mr Sinclair for a short while, before strolling to pick up train connections (complete with a guard who advised me of a better route, saving me a couple of hours!) All very smooth. More on this later, gotta go back to work!

Check out John's new book, "It's All Good: a John Sinclair Reader".

His touring website - On The Road.

John's Wiki entry.

DJ Fly Agaric 23 on MySpace


Listen to John’s shows on
Radio Free Amsterdam


Episode #276 of the Radio Show (with DJ Fly Agaric) uploaded at SoundCloud

Fly on MySpace

Berlin and back

The online study group I belong to meet up once a year, in different places.








Last year in Paris.

This year Tons invited us to meet in Berlin, and we had a fine old time...

My internet connection seems slow to useless at the moment, so I don't intend to upload anything much right now. If you care, you can see some pictures of the Maybe crew in Berlin on Only Maybe.

Jabba the Hutt recommends the Rock 'n Roll Herbege in Berlin!

Fly Fuzz and I stayed at the Rock 'n Roll herbege, which proved an excellent choice for those of us who stay up late, and like to mess around. Highly recommended!

@Gnosis

I do hope some of you follow @gnosis - one of Bobby Campbell's masterpieces of collaborative work. It gets better all the time...


Bobby scripts this stuff and also does illustrations of his own, of all kinds, for all sorts of output - including covers for my first attempts at making a book.

See post for 7th July

Bard in the Bardo

I am still experimenting with the webcam on this netbook, and as I have had to do 'serious' voice-over (PA announcements) for the library, recently, I (as ever) gave myself a real project to do - rather than just mess about.

So here's a poem by Louis MacNeice, written in the UK during The Blitz (1944). I found myself born shortly after that, so it always seemed somehow personal (at least to my generation of heavy-metal babies - Hiroshima contaminated the planet while I was still in the womb).


Here's Louis reading his own poem (if you have Real Player).

Poems for Paranoids

Quentin's message of hope

If you’re on a tightrope when you first set off you don’t know how much play there is in the rope, but when you get into the middle between the ages of 20 and 40 the thing rocks like mad and it’s too late to go back even to look back.

But if you go on as carefully as you can, you see the other platform and then you just make a dash for it not bothering with what the audience thinks, or waving your arms or looking dangerous, and difficult and prodigious.

What you grab hold of when you get to the other side in fact the edge of your coffin. And you get into it and you lie down and you think, ‘my cuffs are frayed’, ‘I haven’t written to my mother’. And then you think ‘it doesn’t matter because I’m dead’.

And this is a message of hope. It will come to an end. It will come, we cannot be blamed for it and we shall be free.

Quentin Crisp

Infinitely Monkeying

Have a Little Fun
Make a Little Money
Do a Little Good Christopher Hyatt

I just received a draft of the cover for my recent NaNoWriMo novel, so now I have no excuse to not complete my proof-reading and tweaking and get the finished thing up in my Lulu storefront.
Actually, you could have got the work-in-progress already, warts and all, but now I will try to tidy the whole thing up.

I have spent a little time making small corrections, but have failed to savage it, rip it up and re-write - as all the advice suggest a writer does to a first draft, hey ho. I still quite like the simplicity of the story and style.

I'd rather do another one, and keep going until I get the hang of it.

Even more fun, I don't have to write juvenile novels and shove them in the bottom drawer, as people used to. I can publish it for my own amusement, to learn all the different processes of layout, commissioning covers, and all that.

I have never waited for approval first.

I started juggling to pass the time, rather than go look for a job. Then people stopped to watch me practising, and eventually passed a hat around for me, so then I had a job for a decade.

I'll just keep writing, although I can hear Lou Reed's devastating put-down of an incoherent heckler "If you're a writer, nobody reads you!" But in the modern world of blogs and tweets I don't feel alone in this. Just reminds me of the days of juggling on street corners with busy commuters avoiding my eye, and scurrying past... I still enjoyed myself juggling, even when I didn't get a crowd.

So do if you do it for the fun, even if you don't make any money, you do at least have some fun to show for all the work... Fortunately (or 'like magic') I have found a very creative collaborator, who can do this stuff for me - he's cheap (or rather, I'm poor - I'd pay him more if I could), he's fast, he has fun.

Strange Brew

You may wonder how an ageing library worker spends his time. Well, one way involves learning how online education works. Of course, as part of the job, he has to roll out staff training, etc – but the best way always seems (to me) to experience the role of student – so currently I find myself doing this course on Chapel Perilous.

Week 4 involves (among other mixed media) the ‘Ode to Joy’ from Beethoven (the first piece of recommended Beethoven I recognised). Of course, with no decorum, I aimed other students at the Beaker version from the Muppets.

Extraordinary to think I got to work with these comedy geniuses just as they decided to work on a ‘serious movie’ like The Dark Crystal – but I actually had Beaker on my hand for a brief sequence in Muppets Take Manhattan (part of my training period) leaning out of a bus going around Trafalgar Square.

That’s when you find out the power of the movies (filming late at night when there is little traffic, they had to negotiate to keep the fountains lit).

Following the link out on YouTube I then remembered us doing a memorial for Robert Anton Wilson at a Maybe Logic get-together in Amsterdam, when we ‘kept the lasagne flying” over the lake in Vondel Park.



And watching that took me to another YouTube upload – a film clip of some of us Star Wars buddies in a bar in Japan – the staff heard we were Star Wars ‘stars’ and that I worked as a puppeteer (on Jabba) so they brought me a rat puppet from behind the bar, to challenge me to bring it to life...


PS: no I didn't write my own Wikipedia entry (or the Wookiepedia entry, where it came from) .

Out and About with Star Wars

Although still connected to NoFit State (the circus) and working in the library and supporting the circus info website and helping Julie get the holiday cottage project going and writing for my own amusement and figuring out how to publish on Lulu and studying online and learning e-tutoring and web content design and walking the dog and so on - I still (very occasionally) go out to meet some of the Star Wars fans.

At the end of May I will be off to Swansea for the day...

to a Private Universe event.

I am only sorry that I can't take the dog, he does a good Chewbacca...