Thursday 25 October 2007

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...

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"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. "

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

Sunday 21 October 2007

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!)

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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.

Wednesday 17 October 2007

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!

Tuesday 16 October 2007

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.

Sunday 14 October 2007

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.

Wednesday 3 October 2007

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.

Monday 1 October 2007

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...

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