Have you seen Tim Cockburn? This is a work of his, titled ‘Home’. There is not much I want to say about ‘Home’. One picture, two scenes. Or one scene, two pictures. Joining and adjoining anyway. Both together reveal the story. Without the other, ‘anyone’s guess’? Will he get to sleep with her or … Continue reading
I recently submitted a piece of flash fiction to a journal contest. It did not win. I don’t allow such rejected stories to languish, rather I will seek to resubmit them to another journal or contest. This story though was part of a theme – the editors know the theme, the readers know the theme, … Continue reading
This is a tale about Ann. Ann made a lasting impression upon me. Though she might have been Ann with an e. This is a tale too about being in love. Or believing that you are anyway. I felt awkward in her presence so I reasoned that this might be because I was (falling) in … Continue reading
I was recently updating my About Page. It starts by detailing my first ever published piece of writing, a letter to a Sunday Newspaper when I was a boy. But reading it back again I began to reflect on what my first ever piece of writing was. Or rather my first ever piece of fiction, … Continue reading
Oh My God. Oh. My. God. God! Would you believe that? Would you? Would you Adam and Eve it? I do not believe that. I don’t believe my ears! No Way! I don’t care what you say. I don’t care. What you say? What the Fuck? Really? You’re kidding me? No way. Yes way? No … Continue reading
Kalinda liked to ride Dan hard. Much of the time Dan felt like business that needed taking care of. Kalinda was a moonlighting night-owl and she did not know when this would end and it was taking its toll on her. On even her. Having taken her pleasure of Dan she immediately fell off of … Continue reading
Lena Dunham is all about these days. There is Girls which she writes, directs and acts in. She likely does other things in it too. By way of familiarising myself with her and some back-story I watched a 2010 film she also wrote, directed and acted in, Tiny Furniture. Like Girls it is documenting her … Continue reading
I recently completed a piece of non-flashy flash-fiction with journal publication in mind. But when I came to consider which journals (I use Duotrope to manage this process, how about you?) I became lost. I could not get a grasp on what genre it might fit in. We must fit into a genre mustn’t we? … Continue reading
A tributary post and poem of mine in June 2012 to Mancunian Punk-Poet John Cooper-Clarke, The Jaundiced Junket, led several commenters (Anna from The Girl in the Hat and Daniel from Being Sixteen) to suggest that they would like to have heard me read the poem part of it. I responded that I would give … Continue reading
They might be giants. Yes they might. This is a relatively obscure way to start a post – and am I quoting the US band They Might Be Giants who began life in 1982 and are still extant and still, beyond rock-music aficionados, obscure. Though in the Top Trumps of obscure bands with giants in … Continue reading
And? Won? Lost? Read on! On December 17 I posted that a short-story I had published in August of last year on this blog titled ‘Coming Up’ was ineligible for entry in a writing competition because of its publication on this blog. I then tried to make it disappear by making it private and hoping … Continue reading
Well I never. Upon a walk in January I looked over by a loch, and saw peeking from a rock, these titled verses do not mock, my weary eyes did flock. Preserved a million or more tick-tock, in an oak box upon them I knock-knock. Its wood gave up the ghost and its contents I … Continue reading
On New Years Day one of my Aunts died. Or passed away as it is more usually softly called. My relationship with this Aunt was not close. In latter years I would never visit, at most send her and her husband (my mother’s brother) a Christmas Card. We did live hundreds of miles apart but … Continue reading
Baby. It’s. You. Baby. It’s You. Baby it’s. You. Baby It’s You – however you want to punctuate this line this is a song of the purest of pure romantic love songs Pure romance. Pure reasonable obsession. Much of pop music is about ‘you’, the otherwise lesser referred second-person of the made up fiction world. … Continue reading
I have planned to blog about Show Me The Monet for a while. Show Me The Monet is an arts program from the BBC where artists submit their works to a panel of critics with the potential to have their work exhibited and sold at an Art Gallery. You may not have heard of it … Continue reading
This above sculpture may or may not be particularly noteworthy to you. But the location may be. It is for me. For it is situated on a traffic roundabout, and not even a particularly busy traffic roundabout rather one that is mostly passed by shoppers on their way to and from a grocery supermarket, or … Continue reading
Warning: Not for those of a sensitive disposition. This post contains many images of Donald Trump. Each year Single Malt Whiskey distillers Glenfiddich host a Spirit of Scotland Awards. It has a number of categories including for music, screen, art and writing. For the 2012 awards there were some controversy. Not for the music award … Continue reading
In London (and I presume in other populous cities) before you can become a licensed taxi driver you have to be tested comprehensively to demonstrate you extensively know your city – or at least its streets that most quickly (if not most cheaply!) take you from the proverbial A to proverbial B. It is known … Continue reading
Bevan tried to change the nation Sonny wants to turn the world, well he can tell you that he tried I could make a transformation as a rock & roll star written by David Bowie Having featured three illustrators recently from Europe (Italy, France and Spain) today I feature one from another continent, America, more … Continue reading
I seem to be blogging about illustrators of late and this post is about another one, Cristian Grossi. His works came to my attention back in June via another WordPress blog Chicquero and a post titled Insect mood. Some of the images were mildly animated (as it were) and I was not sure what I made … Continue reading
WARNING: FOR ADULT VIEWING ONLY AND THEN NOT FOR THOSE OF A SENSITIVE DISPOSITION. ONE SCENE IN PARTICULAR MAY GIVE YOU LIFELONG NIGHTMARES. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. ************************** Welcome to October’s edition of Stop Making Sense your regular Sunday fill for all that’s new in the world of music-cinema. My name is Chris Stevens, and … Continue reading
Tom Cruise, American Dream. Tom Cruise, American Dreamer. His, Scientology. Fantastical Hollywood B-movie script. Save, its pretensions of credibility. But at least a Scientologist is not running for president A Mormon is. Shhh! Keep Mum, ask no questions, he’s one of us. Ish. … Continue reading
Blogging allows us play at writer, editor and publisher. We can be as creative or as self-indulgent as we see fit. Yes a piece published after a copy-editor has run their jaded if watchful eye over it may still be death by a thousand cuts, death by a thousand buts. But there is at least … Continue reading
My name? My name is Michael, Michael Harrington, you can call me Micky, that’s what most people call me. Who am I? I am a professional lottery player, the world’s best many reckon, I’m far too modest a guy to say that but I probably am. I am a member of the World Professional Lottery … Continue reading
Cry, born never asked Self forgotten, mortgaged, worked Is that all there is? Big Bang, party time Self-occupied, holy days Is that all there is! Alarmed out of bed Busyness, mind yours, times up Is that all there is? Reverie revered Dancing breathless out of time Is that all there … Continue reading
Why did you do it Why did I do what You know what I am talking about I know what you are talking about You know what I am talking about You think I am a mind-reader You like to play games Do you Would you like to answer my original question Which was Why … Continue reading
I reasonably recently watched a documentary on John Cooper Clarke titled Evidently…John Cooper Clarke on BBC 4. This is not a review of it though but a poem if poem be the word inspired by his work, and one poem in particular Pest from his 1979 live album Walking Back to Happiness (which asides was in translucent … Continue reading
The town had forsaken him, branded him a delinquent baker. He still believed in his custard tarts and no council edict was going to make him think any the less of them. He was not just a baker after all, he was an artist and being an artist meant being misunderstood, most of the time. … Continue reading
Four Rooms the new Channel 4 show in which members of the British public chance their valued – and they hope valuable – goods with four professional dealers. A sexed up Antiques Roadshow (unless you had a soft spot for Michael Aspel and now Fiona Bruce!) – where there is no pretense here that the … Continue reading
Scott and Bailey is a new Manchester based detective drama from Manchester based Red Production Company whose first episode (of six) broadcast on ITV Sunday May 29th. A new detective drama or yet another detective drama or just how many detective dramas do we need? Like hospital dramas and cooking shows there is an endless … Continue reading
Reblogged from Blog Rest and Play: This Channel 4 program based on fifteen hitherto unrevealed letters between Wallis Simpson and her second husband Ernest Simpson overturns what we the British public have come to understand about the whole WE (Wallis, Edward) affair. Wallis Simpson: The Secret Letters narrated by Samuel West and written and produced … Continue reading
