playrights revisited

Back at Hallowe'en I wrote about being involved with TwentyFiveBelfast's Playrights project. I stumbled over our finished product on YouTube earlier on... it aired on stage before the show began, so in a twisted way it's one of the most publicly viewed projects I've ever worked on (behind Noir, the Camp promos and of course, the hooooockey... but that one wasn't really work anyway.

a christmassy 'tree

Christmas is coming, and the geese are getting fat. Actually, ours has just been plucked... having goose this year as a turkey alternative, which should be fun.

Teaching Practice 1 is officially over. Which is sad but nice. In some respects hitting the halfway mark in the year is encouraging, but in others... I can't believe there's another six months of this (hey, I can't believe I'm considering a LIFE of this... it can't be true.)

We're at home for Christmas this year, which has novelty value in itself. For the last three years the family have decamped to my aunt's in Kent, which, though thoroughly lovely, is not home. (It has proper heating and little mould.) Now that we are home for one though, I don't think people really know what to do with themselves. (We're a family of sheep!)

It'll all be over before we know it anyway. To celebrate the inevitability of this, enjoy our man Gary (veteran star of the long-remembered Dumbass films (click here for a little info - the main website is gone (for photo hosting!) but the synopsis lives on... must get some on youtube sometime) bringing back the good times by pranking his Dad - on national TV.

Merry Christmas to all...

here's lookin' at you, kid...

Was back up for a review day at UUC yesterday, and took full advantage of the non-restricted broadband to access lots of things I've been meaning to look at for a while. Top of the list were Blitzen Trapper, whose combination of country music and electronica is currently fascinating me greatly. (Cheers to Jonny B for that one... oh no, public exposure! What if your pupils find you...)

Speaking of pupils, a lot of people may now be living in fear after the realisation that more than a few of the people on our course all already popping up on the wonderfully uncomfortable Rate My Teacher website. Oh dear.

Was shopping for a new DVI to VGA adaptor earlier this week, and decided to also avail myself of some new clothing for my MacBook Pro. I remain quite fond of my eco-friendly cardboard protective casing, but society deemed it time to move on. So I bought a memory-foam-tastic LArobe case instead. [Making me, obviously, the envy of all my friends.]

Also, on Dave's recommendation, I've been Flocking around... it's not quite as exciting as anticipated, but again, the dial-up warlock may be responsible for that too.


Of course, the most exciting news there is is that tomorrow, the short epic that is Noir goes up against four other films in the final shortlist of Cinemagic's Young Filmmaker of the Year Award. We're probably more confident than we should be, but initial feelings are good. If you're free tomorrow (Sunday) at 4.30, all five films will be screened and then the award awarded in the QFT. There's very few tickets left but if you give me a shout there are some spaces left on our guestlist! (There's a lot of unsupportive girlfriends out there...)

half-term hangover

The last fortnight or so has been nothing short of mental. But, rather than try and simplify things and give a brief overview, I think I'm going to give a full blown commentary. [That, and I'm tired of marking discursive essays...]

Playrights went really well (the weekend before last - see below for more.) Spent all of the Sunday holed up in a trashed dressing room in the freezing cold QFT, staring at my MacBook and willing the footage to make sense. Eventually it did, and the finally four minutes went down a storm as it opened the show. Sadly, I don't think it'll get on YouTube (soundtrack copyright) but cheers to everyone who came up to the 'Film Crew' after and said it was awesome I guess. More work with Drama types is lined up as a result - the Film Studies experience lives on! (But with funding... gasp.)

Recovered nicely to go and witness the glory of The Frames at the Grand Opera House on Monday night. Though they played a mixed bag of really old and new (no Fake, hardly anything from For The Birds or Dance the Devil, for Frames fans...) it was an awesome gig. They've really come into their own when it comes to just getting up and playing whatever the hell they feel like, and the organic feel really shone through whenever they just started dragging on random collaborators and jamming away (including an inspired rendition of support act Mark Geary's It Beats Me which is a brilliant song. Apparently they do cover it quite a bit but Marketa Irglova was joining in which made the harmonies all a bit crazy...) But that's enough ranting about that.

Caught another great act on Tuesday, when we popped down to Common Grounds to see old favourite Mr Andrew Good introduce us to his new brand of muzak.
Andy's songs have always been quite good, but needed something to take them out from the realms of being 'just another singery-songwritery type.' And it has very much happened with the music now channelled through an absolutely brilliant five-piece, as yet unnamed band. (I'm going to keep calling them the Andy Good Experience until I hear anything better!) The songs have filled out magnificently, and as most of South Belfast is probably aware of by now, I think they're the best thing in a long line of good things.

Got to hear them again Monday night just past, as they were on the same bill as us down at Stranmillis' Student's Union, in what turned out to be a very homely, and pretty busy night of live music. Me and old PJ attempted to bring the sexy back somewhat with the first outing of a load of newish material we've been putting together. Though we felt it was a bit ropey, to be honest, a lot of it went down a bit of a storm which is really encouraging. Of course The Andy Good Experience then stole the show a bit (I thought) but then that was only to be expected.

In between all the pretending to be an undergrad again and whatnot, we did of course start back to school on Monday. Up to my eyeballs in marking, but starting to get the hang (or just getting less concerned!) of lesson planning and time management. Even managed to fit in some time for a bit of quality Need For Speed: Carbon action. [Ok, not really quality, more numbing escapism. Hey, there's not enough light for kicking a football off the wall anymore.] Between one thing and another, I'm actually physically wrecked. What's hilarious is that I lived the kind of life last week that I never bothered to do when I was actually living in Belfast, on account of being so lazy. I reckon Joni and her Big Yellow Taxi might have been onto something.

And one other thought... was gearing up to finally buy a proper domain and start getting a legitimate website for mediatree, but there are no decent domains left. Time for a rebranding? Possibly. Probably. Annoying so.

Back to work!

interview

Back at the start of term, we did a bit of media workshopping. One of the products was that lots of PGCE English students were sitting around, with ten minutes to interview someone and another ten to write it up. I only got around to seeing mine today...

----------------------------

"A pen clutched tight to his chest, Peter Huey has the look of a serious-yet-friendly pseudo-intellectual. We meet in the cold and unorthodox setting of a dated lecture theatre in the University of Ulster. He is relaxed, his eyes closed in thought, when asked about his daily newspaper habits. “The danger,” he says, is when we “digest one point of view.” It is obvious Peter has thought about this a lot. He is one of those younger-generation Times readers that dare ask: “Who owns this newspaper?” – going on to talk about the control media has on perspective.

“We hope what they’re saying is true,” he says, with a slightly dubious raised eyebrow. For a more reliable publication – or rather, to avoid thinking, Peter continues talking about the magazines that regularly gather dust on his coffee table. It seems Total Film and Empire magazine are “easier to digest” and National Geographic captures his love of photography – “I’m at that point now where I just try and get through it,” he says with a laugh.

Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders and Raging Bulls is “what I’m really interested in.” Was it the “shock culture, or culture shock” of these films that changed society, he asks.

On his television tastes, he feels guilty – “You can spend twenty four weeks watching a drama series, or watch it in one.” Is this related to the kind of lazy, instant-gratification-loving culture we’re now in, I ask. “I could talk forever about this,” he says before leaning back mysteriously, and saying nothing. "

--------------------------

Not really sure what that says about me, to be honest!

playrights

Reasonably excited to be involved with TwentyFiveBelfast's PlayRights event this weekend coming, as part of the Belfast Festival and in conjunction with Amnesty International. The basic gist is that 25 dramatic types will write and rehearse seven plays in 24 hours, and then put them on for the paying public in the Lyric Theatre. Hopefully, I'm part of a crew who will be filming the whole thing... I foresee a sleepless 24 hours in a makeshift editing suite.

Anyway, the show is at 10pm on Sunday night (the 28th) and is only £4 - a bargain for how much entertainment it is guaranteed to be. Having only just written and acted in a 20-minute play last week (as anyone in vague shouting distance will be aware, as the wrath exploded on the horizon) I can guarantee the guys are putting themselves through mental hell (and we had a fortnight to do it!)

------------

Also worth putting up on the map is a gig in Stranmillis Student's Union on November 5th - which is FREE!!! First 'solo' gig in a while, so should be manic. [Not really that solo, insisted on being allowed to bring some back-up players - who no doubt will be enraged at being referred to as such!] It's going to be an awesome night of awesome people... you'd be mad to miss it.

soft in the head

Was up at the Nerve Centre in Derry today - an amazing base for creative arts, and one that everyone should visit. Between studios, film gear, a music venue with a middle-sized but awesome sound setup (I suppose if a load of technicians are building somewhere to train other folks, they're going to make it as they'd like it!) and more resources than you can shake a stick at, they've pretty much got it cornered. It's one of those places you could go back to many times before you'd do the same thing twice, and it's all in the name of good old Culture.
Of course, we spent the day playing with plasticine... claymation is a whole lot of fun!

procrastination via production

If you're anything like me (and begin praying that you're not,) you often find yourself having to make a choice: you can procrastinate and avoid doing what really needs to be done, by finding something monotonous which has all of a sudden become terribly interesting.

Being a charitable soul, I had volunteered to take a teaching resource and make life slightly easier: take one copy each of six different DVDs, and turn it into 17-odd copies in as few discs as possible. It became pretty evident pretty quick that there was no point in trying to create (via several different Mac-cy adventures) some slimlined but still altogether similar DVDs, as I was still going to end up with four discs per volume. So I strawpolled the recipients and we were just about able to settle on a load of .mp4's and .mov's on a single DVD-ROM each... but it still required c.25 mins per DVD, plus two minutes of printing and another three cutting the glorious slip-covers (another couple of hours in designing due to my impeccably high standards, shut UP, Dave...)

Anyway, it appears it's now time to get back to those damn lesson plans... or lack thereof.

all you can eat?

Was eating out last Thursday to mark the occasion of my new-found eligibility for election - maybe more on that later. We were sampling the new all-you-can-eat buffet menu at the Golden Gate, the oldest standing decent eatery in the area, and the latest to adopt this form of dining (I reckon the manic success of the Foo Kin (just off Shaftsbury Sq. in Belfast) is probably responsible for the local spread of the format.) The food is always cracking there anyway, but the night was made for me by the sign on the table... initially because of the humour, but also because of its unashamedly bold point.

in his trunkety trunk

Oh my word... I'm not ashamed to say that this represents the pinnacle of a childhood I'll never get back. He may not be quite as elegant, but to see Bump the Elephant makes me so happy I'm almost moved to (extremely manly) tears. And that's just Steve Augarde's legendary theme tune...

It's one of those things I had forgotten existed until I stumbled across him in conversation yesterday (teachers, eh?) If you too are suddenly whacked with recollection by this, then may it also cause you to have one of those wonderful reminiscence-sessions for your doomed youth! If you are too cynical to appreciate his wonderment, then I pity your twisted soul.

scratching

There's a very definite scratching noise coming from our kitchen ceiling. It probably bears some relation to the five mice I have "escorted off the premises" in the past week - two today. Mice are funny. I don't really have too much of an issue removing their dead carcasses, partially entombed in those really nasty traps with the jagged teeth. I don't even mind the idea of being out in the hayshed or wherever and knowing the place is full of them. But when the noise is overhead it's extremely uncomfortable.

Mum of course, is completely on edge, and my sister (who's bedroom is the most popular haunt, it would seem) has fled the household altogether. I'm just happy they haven't turned up in the back room office or my own boudoir - yet.

Humourously, one was captured (live) last week in what is now going down in history as the great Cadbury's MiniRoll wrapper snare...

dramatic cheer

This just cheered me up no end - stolen unashamedly from Dave McC's blog, Wisdom In Books...



Brilliant.

hitting home

So... it's saturday afternoon, and I'm doing what I do on most Saturday afternoons - sitting on my backside, staring at a screen. But it all seems a bit depressing. As previously alluded to, I've been struggling with our English assignment for about a week now:

"Outline the emergence of English as a subject on the curriculum, the different ways of thinking about its role and purpose, and the five major models of English identified by Brian Cox. Which of these five models appears to be emphasised in the Revised Curriculum for English at Key Stage 3 and 4? Which of these five models matches most closely with your own thinking about English?
Draw on your reading, class discussion and your teaching/ learning experience."

You can probably see why.

More depressing is that, if I'd bothered to answer the phone at 8:41 this morning, rather than roll over and go back to sleep, I could've been working. For money. (Yes Dave, it's true.)

Still more depressing is that it has finally hit home that it is October, and I am living at Home - capital H. And will be for the forseeable future. Yes, it means certain domestic chores aren't really a factor: but my growing grudge against the bumbling undergraduates at UUC is growing by the day. Lucky prats. (And when you're jealous of someone who's university experience is going to be in COLERAINE, you know you've got seriously deep-seeded issues.)

But hey, the Swiss hits inexplicably continue, and have extended to the other end of the country... people of Lusanne, you also rock.

product of an idle soul

So, was in school today playing with crayons... fear not. I'd finished reading up some stuff so was idly loitering around the SEN unit with not much else to do. After apparently picking up my first parking ticket (though, as the exceptionally tired looking traffic warden explained, I won't actually know if they're charging me or not until I get something in the post. Or don't - random) I was being similarly idle at home. I really should be working on my first major assignment this year, but good grief could I not be arsed.

Anyway, I ended up making a crayon-inspired pact with the devil and photoshopping up a bebo skin (with some destinctly old-school graphics - Paint on Windows '95, no less... 'dem wuz the days!)




In other news, Google Analytics tells me we're now big in Switzerland. Good people of Liebefeld, this one's for you...

for one night only

Should probably have put this up a while ago... the second-greatest-band that never was (no, not that one, the other one) are getting back together in various forms for a seriously good time tomorrow night (Wednesday). Be there, or have an inferior Wednesday...

i would if i could but i can't so i won't...

...be bothered, that is. With teaching. I've just spent the best part of an hour attempting to be interested in the bedtime classic that is Cox on Cox: An English Curriculum for the 1990s. Early in the 1990s (funnily enough), Professor Brian Cox came up with five models for teaching English yada yada yada... and, along with a concise history of English as a subject, I now have to write about it. Relevant? Probably. Necessary? I'm doubtful...

In other news: the original Silent Bob, Marcel Marceau passed away last weekend. If you think this isn't that important, you should - if only because he inspired Michael Jackson's moonwalking, and at least two or three great jokes in every episode of Animaniacs...



...it's amazing what one guy and an invisible wall can accomplish.

getting the buggers to write...

...actually seems to be more manageable than originally thought. It's interesting: today was my first day of five spent "observing" in the secondary school where I'll be on teaching practice for eight weeks. My timetable for the day was great up to a point: I found myself sitting around a table with a small sixth form class, probably learning more about (the drivel that is) Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter than they were. And then, just when I thought I was getting away with an easy day and a lunchtime departure, I was redirected upstairs to the SEN unit. Oh crap, I thought. Don't get me wrong: six years of youth schemes has given me enough chances to deal with behavioural and educational difficulties to last a lifetime. But in a formal setting... I felt like you could write all I know about how to teach to SEN at a secondary level - primary maybe, but Key Stage 3! A class of 20! - on the back of a rather late edition to the very-small-stamp section of a tiny stamp library. In a 1:20 scale doll's house with stamp library room.

Turns out they were pretty wonderful kids altogether. I don't know, maybe it's more obvious with behavioural, but I personally can't look at a child and automatically tell you that, for instance they're a particular form of ADHD (which is a myth anyway...). I just think they're the type of kid that gives you a pain where you never had a window, as my mother dear would say. If someone is acting up, it's usually got something to do with the eight bottles of lucozade they drink a day - one of the more talkative girls in the sixth form English Lit. class was telling me about this...

Now there's a rant. The primary school I was placed in a couple of weeks ago have comprehensively banned fizzy drinks on the premises. The number of kids newly statemented for behavioural difficulties in the last 12 months has dropped by more than half or something like that. Do the maths.

Coincidentally, Getting The Buggers To Write is actually an English teacher's handbook. It's pretty bloomin' good too.

Now, having just witnessed the decimation of a tragically crap Ireland team by Les Coqs, I'm going to get back to getting friendly with Mr Jamison...

how (not) to save a life

Was just doing my "hero-of-the-hour" impersonation: removing a mouse (and his trap) from my sister's room upstairs. Was a bit weird though because this one was still very much alive (they're normally pretty stiff by the time I get to them). Was quite sad watching the little guy struggling. He was pretty prone until I poked the trap, and then he began a feeble attempt to leg it - pretty hard when said back legs are trapped in the jaws of a big plastic monster. Don't get me wrong: mouse in house is not good Ever (capital E). But I was a bit sad all the same - couldn't bring myself to put him out of his misery, so just picked him up gingerly, placed him on a plank and transported him to the bin outside. I sure there's a deep metaphor for something here, but I just found it all a bit melancholy.

mmmm... toasty

I'm on Primary school placement this week, but I'll talk about that later as the legal wrangling gives me a headache when you try to talk about that kind of thing. enjoy this instead.



NB:Lack of scanner or even digital camera means that this is actually a still from a moving capture - photoshop can only do so much!

so this is this, and that is that...

This week at school we mostly been working our way through ICT competency tests... yes, just like when you were 12 and doing your Key Stage 3's. A lot of the content is the same as well: PowerPoint, Excel, all the greatest hits are there. At least it's a bit warmer than LT1 (which isn't. At all. Ever.) Oh what fun we are having... it's all based around Intel Teach To The Future which I suppose is actually a great intiative. But it's mindnumbing if you've a shred of understanding already. I think it's mindnumbing for most others too... except that one poor girl who just does not get it...


The cornerstone of the Department of Education's tech rollout for schools is LearningNI, a ridculously secure online portal designed to link every single teacher in the country across a central network: resources, discussions, shared objectives, planning, networking, whatever you want. Brilliant concept. But like C2k in schools (which was so secure that it took at least 5 minutes to convince the system you actually wanted to install Super Mario on it rather than trawl it's approved content) in practice, it's a bit of a nightmare. In a couple of years, they tell us, it will rock. I'm pretty sure they told my old mum that when she did the PGCE course too - though to be fair, that was only a couple of years ago...

Otherwise, the only other task this week has been working on a subject-specific presentation, in our case a 20th-21st Century poet of choice. That's it. No outline or anything, just 'tell us about...'. Anyway, plumped for TS Eliot because as someone who didn't do A Level or degree English, and therefore is still scarred by ****ing Wilfred Owen (just wrote my first worksheet about him, the irony). You know, TS Eliot who wrote about the Cats, and then that bloke Andrew Lloyd Webber bastardised it all and let Elaine Paige wail it out in the West End... he actually did a lot of other rather wonderful things too, but it's poetry he got the Nobel Prize for (in 1948... see, I know stuff already!)

Very very cool bits of TS Eliot include Willem Dafoe reading a bit from Four Quartets or Eliot himself doing his groundbreaking Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock (often found online mashed up over a Portishead track, google that one.)


Eliot also accounts for 5 out of the 100 of the BBC's Nation's Favourite Poems...

...now here's a book you should look through. Don't buy it - thanks to copyright expiration you can get most of them online anyway - but browse it if you see it. (Help! I'm turning into an enthusiastic English student!) And pause a moment to think about this...

Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
If quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

Anon.

I almost don't hate poetry. Just teaching it.

along came a spider

good grief, i'm somewhere between strangely proud and stupdefied...

sticking together

This one's really just for Dave because he's the only one who'll truly understand... proof, if proof were needed (and we know it's not!) that PVC tape is, in fact, capable of solving all problems...





...at least, until I get some solder. All hail to the tape!

----
[edit: PS - For Dave's benefit (see comment) I'll add that I was using tape to hold the wires in place because I had no solder to properly connect them. Kinda thought that was obvious, but maybe not.]

here we go then

Today was Day Zero: the first day of my life as a teacher, a road map to personal development for the next 40 years of my life. According to the Assistant Head of Education at the University of Ulster, anyway. My personal feelings were a bit less polite. Mind you, a hour and a half queuing for student finance processing aside, the dreaded First Day was relatively painless. Can't say I'm too keen of the idea of working 9 to 5 for the next year and beyond, mind you.

Someday [when I'm Graemebo's campaign manager or something] I'll live in a wonderfully excessive mid-town penthouse, and walk to work in the morning... commuting is out. Mind you, I shouldn't complain: I got up to Coleraine in 40 minutes this morning, compared to one guy who got the bus from Belfast in just under 3 hours... think he's going for the train tomorrow.

UU is a funny joint: it seems to me like a high school or something, all the corridors have that feel. It doesn't help when you're doing ice-breakers in the gym which looks just like a school gym, and they're being led by a teacher who manages to take all the fun out and replace it with health and safety regulations... youth work come back, all is forgiven.

in the interim

Currently in a weird limbo. With uni registration on Tuesday, I've still got my pre-coursework ('a polished piece of work entitled, "A Day That Stays With Me"' - oh my glory) to do, all sorts of bits of paperwork to hoke out (including stuff that hasn't even arrived yet from flaming StudentFinanceNI, everyone's favourite lenders...) and generally life to set in order before it all disappears.

But there is much light in the darkness. Brian the Blue Ford Escort returns to the fold singing like a shiny new kettle, all weird noises gone, and clutch, handbrake and back left wheel bearing all nicely worked over. The scheme in Rathfriland went very well (don't ask me about my feelings towards vestry members and their opinions though, grrrr...) and I even managed to work in some... work, I guess - bit of Powerpoint tutition and a whole lot of free advice about PA systems... I like to talk.

A lot of comment has been passed about this photo which I grabbed whilst taking promotional shots at Camp last week... the product of a lot of patience and tolerance of ants got me within 6 foot of this boyo.

clutching at straws

I'm sitting back in my old home, the COISC staring out at the rain outside. I didn't really expect to be here, but half an hour ago my clutch pedal gave way a couple of miles down the road at Forestside shopping centre. So, we pushed the car into a spot, and left it for a few hours. This is annoying for several reasons: (1) my car is buggered; (2) I'm supposed to drive to Rathfriland (near Newry) tomorrow for a summer scheme; (3) my divorced parents are fighting over who gets to come up and tow me home; (4) my car's buggered.

Such is life.

...those who can't, teach

Right now, I don't think there's anything I want to do less than teach. Which is a problem, as two weeks from today, I start my postgrad teacher training [which, among other things, I slid past 400+ candidates for one of 7 places]. And I'm really not sure today. It's mostly because, having spent the afternoon reading up on some stuff, and preparing for some work I have to do in lieu, I've once again reminded how teacher training and professionals (that aren't actually teachers) seem to have reduced the profession itself to more mind-numbingly boring guidelines and stupendously redonkulous, PC-hugging twaddle. What's worse, the paradoxes are rampant. Every child matters, and I must always be aware of their own personal standing, but this is within a national curriculum ruled by statistics - this year we need more mathematicians, so we're going to push maths in school. We need more kids to stay in school, so we're introducing Lego Studies.

Sometimes I wonder if Steiner might not be a complete nutcase. No scratch that, he was a nutcase. But he had one very good thread of thought in the midst of the madness: maybe a child should be first allowed to find what area they are best in, and then encouraged and trained with particular emphasis on that idea. I'm bastardising a bit for my own usage, but this sounds a much sounder proposal than just pushing kids in the directions we need to fill on the employment maps. Five years ago, everyone needed workers for the tech industry and all our careers talks were from engineers and IT firms. I wonder what it is now. Other western European nations, with their "happier" workforces and lower unemployment, often demonstrate a much freer interpretation of their curriculae.

Times like this I want to get a soap-box and re-enter politics (SRC member definitely counts as a political post). And then we get all the way back around to the first argument from last episode... looks like a revival for the Coalition of Independents, boys...

strimming, strimming, in the strimming pool...

strimming is the bane of my existance. every year for the past few summers, i've spent as much of my time as possible avoiding our "spacious" garden. every now and again, I'll give in to the griping and venture out to mow the lawn, maybe edge something vaguely bed-like. but strimming... oh my word. I hate it. I hate it like I hate trying to find a local political group I can actually agree with.

There are two edges to the sword. The first is the hay-fever: mowing's bad enough, but start throwing bits of everything six feet into the air, and my lungs (and eyes and nose) will hate you. And then there's the vibrations: imagine holding a hundred bees or something to understand the buzz.

Now, our garden is relatively tidy, but there are two vast and (recently) unconquered area: the old vegetable patch, and the Lower Orchard. Tackled half the vegetable patch to relative success tonight. But the Orchard's not even worth it. It's so overgrown now that the pond, which is at least 14 ft deep and 40ft across in a rough circle, hacked out of the natural clay, is just about full of the evil gunnera. We have loads of brilliant plum and eating apple trees, all starting to bow under the weight of their crops, but can't get anywhere near them. And I'm supposed to tackle them with a lightweight, plastic-bladed strimmer? No hope. I got about three feet in tonight and fell back in dispair.

Still, it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

video killed the radio star

'Nuff said.

coming and going

i like my bed. don't get me wrong, it's not much of a bed. i mean, the mattress is a few years old, and the frame was inherited from my sister's room a while back. it's a bit hard in places, and the room is as damp and mouldy as a blue cheese sandwich. But compared to the various other forms of bed I've been sleeping on in the last few weeks, and that which I'm heading off to again tonight, it's pretty glorious.

I'm back yesterday from a summer scheme in Portstewart (somewhere near the top of "places you would expect to be least in need of evangelism"...) and head off in a couple of hours to Camp Alliance down at Kilbroney. The last couple of years I've been tutoring an activity called Camp Radio, which does what it says on the tin really. Was down in Costa del Rosta (Rostrevor to the rest of us) as the way the sessions are planned out means I have to record a couple myself before I start. Methods have changed a bit since last year. I have to admit, it's a bit of a jump from Cool Edit Pro on a struggling PC to Garageband on the MacBook. I was skeptical of using Garageband at first: I would have preferred something slightly more professional in appearance. But I have to admit, it's pretty genius as is. Though severely limiting in what you can achieve with the waveforms themselves, beyond basic volume and tonal adjustments (stuff like cleanup and noise removal just isn't happening) the interface is still pretty brilliant and so far the stuff sounds light years ahead of last season's whizz, crackle and boom...

Two weeks ago I was up at New Horizon and finally got to plow into Rob Bell's 'Velvet Elvis'. Having never finished anything even vaguely theological before, I read it in a day and half during a hectic week. You must read it. You must. You have to. And so on.

The other key resource I've picked up, or logged on to, is the *Essential website which is also worth trawling through for answers to, literally, most of the big BIG questions...

...that should keep us ticking over for a week!

water

Did Dublin Airport and back for the second time in five days last night, and it's safe to say that thanks to Twelfth-related diversions, it was an experience. I do like getting to drive at 120km/h though... my R's come down in less than a fortnight so it's not all bad anyway.

Spent some of today arguing with the only audio cassette deck I could find with a line in, as it wasn't co-operating so well with the Mac. Have resolved to circumvent the high level of skipping on my car's CD adaptor by just putting all the best ones on some good old hi-quality ferric tape... it's not the only tech problem at the moment either. Someone gave me their Samsung VP-U10 to fix [constantly ejecting as soon as it's turned on] and a google-trip later reveals that this is a perversely common issue with the model. Anyone who's got an 8mm camcorder and wants to donate it so i can upload some stuff...

My second cousin (tenuous link) is involved with an absolutely incredible charity called, simply charity:. Founded just last year by a New York media-guru (but don't hold that against him) their first project, 'charity: water' has been so successful that in one year they've dug 158 new wells across five african nations. Each well services on average 500-1000 people, so do the math and that's a lot of lives changed, at just $2000 a time. The website is glorious too, but that's hardly even an aside - definitely a case for why content is king. I can't recommend it enough. If you have a moment on it, click on the link to Zurich School - Flavia's the sullen-looking one in the middle...

Made the mistake yesterday of cracking out Season 5 of The West Wing yesterday to fill a couple of hours. Eight episodes in now - and this is the weakest series, I remind myself... I've missed you, Jed.

showtime

Have spend the last couple of days gathering up stuff to attempt to hack together my first proper showreel, to highlight what i'm (theoretically!) capable of with film-making. It's a daunting task:

(a) because I've (theoretically) made a huge amount, and
(b) because so much of it is unusable.

Completely unusable. Years ago, when I got the bug and was shown how to hack stuff together by my crazy-ass cousin, we didn't have anything digital - it was done with an uncle's '80s cassette video camera and two VCR's - and lots of mistakes. So that stuff's all out. Later stuff shot on digital but that I only have on VHS - out. Pretty much anything produced using the world's WORST edit software (not including anything that ever came bundled with Windows) Pinnacle Studio (more glitches than... something with a hell of a lot of glitches) - rendered usually in a horrendous low-res. Plus the titles etc. are so bad i can hardly bear to look at most of it myself.

Which has left me with a few things to throw in: all the uni stuff (thankfully backed up as very high-res mpgs and movs over the years - now that's foresight), a couple of shorts from the last year or so (humour level: high. film quality: hmmm...) and I guess I'll bite the bullet and try and use some of the other stuff sparingly. I guess the result will never look like anything beyond a laptop screen or a VHS, but considering my target market, that's probably not the worst evil.

To work!

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I finally got my dirty paws on the glorious Parallels Desktop 3.0 for the MacBook; but I can't yet use it because those expletives at Dell don't see fit to include the Windows XP installation disc (which I believe you've probably paid for, yes?) with the PC when you buy it. So I'm currently trying this procedure... the evil's of dial-up mean it's going to take a couple of days to download XP Service Pack 2 off the Microsoft website though; but I'll write up how this adventure turns out in the end.

[This note's really just for you, Dave, to keep your currently tech-deprived brain ticking over...]

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Finally got a year's worth of analogue film photographs developed this week. Loads of horrendous shots, but got very nostalgic with a few from the COISC's Weekend Retreat from last October.

it's raining

...just for a change. Really big powerful rain: I was in barcalona whenever the mass flooding happened last month so I missed out on that experience. On the way back from leaving d'mother down to Aerfort Bhaile Atha Cliath [Dublin Airport for the heathens] the heavens really opened a couple of times. It got a bit hairy outside Dungannon and the traffic piled up; bit shocking for a Sunday lunchtime.

Anyway, home appears to have escaped so the raft stays in the nissen hut for a wee bit longer.

Did a design job during the week, was a bit thrown together (actually it was a lot thrown together) but apparently it was exactly as desired so it's all good...



preview's obviously a bit smaller res - like 100th-size - cause of the evil dial-up warlock that lives in my connection...

whatever you do, do it well

Graduated today. Whole lots of fun: up at 8.15, in gown by 8.50. One lengthly Harry Potter joke later (about an hour or so) and I found myself sitting in the Whitla Hall at QUB (named for Sir William Whitla, though I still can't remember who he was or what he did. Unlike Sir Hamilton Harty, prominent Queen's music lecturer about a century ago and who you should definitely find out more about.) I can't say I was enthusiastic, but still nervous. Then it became apparent that our Honorary Graduate was Desmond Tutu and it all became much more interesting. Being a globally recognised voice of peace and reconciliation, I could've probably told you exactly how his speech would go beforehand. But it was all in the delivery, and I definitely feel that much wiser for having heard the great man. It doesn't do any damage that he was so funny, even my sister laughed either. It's worth checking out his short bit from tonight's BBC Newsline.

first things first

I can't explain it, but I've had a lot of trouble thinking of what to post first on this, the new blog page. Which is very silly, as no-one will read it anyway [other than those who see it in their facebook notifications and click on it out of boredom.] As a new project, it doesn't feel like you can just continue on with previous strings and waves of thought, but like you have to start again.

So I thought I'd go for an explanation. Someone working beside me just leant over and asked, "Why are you giving the impression that you're speaking on behalf of an organisation or something, when it's your own personal blog?" That sounds like as good a place to start as any.

I've been a volunteer youth worker for nearly six years. It sounds very long, but I spent the first four of those usually getting it drastically wrong. No court cases though, so it's all good. [Dangerous jokes, last of those I'll make...] I've spent the last three 'reading' Film Studies at Queen's University, Belfast - for many, an enormous waste of time, but there was something useful imparted every now and again. Through a long-time interest in film - completely extra-curricular - I've been making films for, interestingly, about as long as I've been with the youth work, and luckily, in the last couple of years the two have intersected every now and again; even expanding to photography and radio on occasion.

Mediatree is really an umbrella to combine all these things. Right now, I'm about to begin a year of teacher training. It'll be a tough old year, but if I still like working with teenagers by the end of it, it's a very good sign. By working together all the different elements of media stuff and the youth work, I hope to someday fulfill the Mediatree ideal, working resourcing, corporate media work, and youth work as facets of a single setup. It's a big ask, but it does have a bit of a calling/obsession element to it.

Make sense? Probably not.

I'd really like to be able to earn some kudos back at this point, and stick a couple of film clips up to win your undying approval; I'm kinda worried though that if I put up any of our final uni project, it'll get me in trouble with Film Festival people who are funny about that kind of thing the world over. And I can't put up any of the youth work stuff because of Child Protection legislation.

So instead, here's one from a couple of years ago with some chop socky.



[If you can't see the video, click here instead.]

prior offences

Over here is where I used to blog. It was ok, but this will hopefully be better.