January

Man alive this month has been bleak, it has constantly been snowing and that has made the briefest of journeys difficult. The newspapers have been speculating that this is the onset of the apocalypse! I was even snowed in at some point for three days and that resulted in having to work from home – which is not easy when you have lectures scheduled. I tried to set off for a 9.00am lecture - an hour later having trundled less than a mile, I turned and headed for home. So the best plan for this month was stay indoors and enjoy the warmth of a glowing fire and some cultural treats.

Of the highlights of the month, the main highlight was something that began in the last days of 2009 and went through until 2nd January. It was a different start to a new year for me. Normally I like to spend that unnamed period between Boxing Day doing as little as possible. This year that changed as I spent the period in Slovakia. I stayed in a place called Kosice in the east of the country with my gf and her sister and was made to feel thoroughly welcome.

Having flown in on Monday evening the week was something of a whirlwind but I have to say enjoyable. I only arrived in Kosice after – two flights from Manchester to Bratislava, then Bratislava to Kosice. The next two days were spent exploring the city and even included my first ever game of squash…which I managed to survive. New Year’s Eve was spent in a club called Wig Wam – which was interesting to see how a different culture celebrated New Year - no different as it turned out.

The final day was spent in Bratislava (where we were due to fly home from), this required an early start to catch the 5.30am train. Bratislava is very nice and is obviously geared towards the tourist trade with the number of quirky and different statues it has littered around the streets - which I took the opportunity to snap and pose in front of. The flight home was my first encounter with Ryanair and everything that I had heard about them is true - cheap without ever troubling the cheerful side of that cliché.

Added to the fun of the flight was the rapid decent due to turbulence…twice. This was conveniently ignored by the pilot, given it happened more than once was a little disconcerting to say the least. When we eventually landed the relief turned to hilarity when the announcement congratulated everyone for being of ‘90% of the flights that landed’…thankfully this was not an admittance of their poor flying abilities mainly the announcement had cut out before it could add the ‘on time’ which was of importance to that mention. A day of rest was called for after all that, alas that was not the case as it was my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary celebrations the next day. This was good and it was good to catch up with family so soon after Christmas.

So the cultural highlights of the month, given that I was a little skint after Christmas it was mainly catching up with the stuff that had been piling up. The pick of the albums that I have been listening to was the Eels, who are now in the veteran stage of their career and now have enough tunes to release a greatest hits collection (not that not having enough hits usually deters other bands). The collection is not the cheeriest but seemed to be fitting giving the weather so far this year.

The other albums listened to this month was the Leisure Society’s, The Sleeper an album I had been meaning to listen to for a few years after hearing their excellent single Last of the Melting Snow on the Mark Radcliffe show. The album was quite cheap on Amazon and contained a bonus disc of equally interesting material. Apart from the afore mentioned song A Matter of Time was my favourite other track.

Another album that I had on constantly this month was the Swell Season’s new album – another bargain considering the package contained an a disc of new tracks, a live cd and DVD. The Swell Season is Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, stars of the 2007 film Once, a favourite of mine, who their song Falling Slowly won an Oscar in 2008 for the Best Original Song…something of a left field success. The album is a follow on from the soundtrack and continues the line of upbeat melancholia.

My only venture to the cinema this month was when I was in Slovakia at the start of the year, thankfully I dodged a Jennifer Anniston movie (my gf and her sister decided to watch that) instead I watched Sherlock Holmes. I liked the look of the trailers but on the whole I think the movie came across as smug and feeling too wrapped up in itself - the film also ends quite abruptly with a sequel obviously in the offing.

The pile of dvds is finally dwindling, I finally got around to watching the Inbetweeners DVD that my brother bought me for Christmas, I had already seen both series but it was well worth watching again. I also watched American Splendor and Finding Eric which I had purchased before Christmas.

Not much new on the old gogglebox apart from the new series of Curb your Enthusiasm which is showing on More4, and was especially entertaining as it reunited the cast of Seinfeld and thankfully did not trash the memory of the series. I also made a start on wading through the earlier series, which are still good after all these years.

That’s it for now; hopefully I can keep this going next month. Here’s to spring which can’t come soon enough.

Bob Dylan

Friday 1st May 2009 (Liverpool Echo Arena)

Set List: Watching The River Flow, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, Things Have Changed, Boots Of Spanish Leather, The Levee's Gonna Break, Sugar Baby, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, Po' Boy, It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), Just Like A Woman, Highway 61 Revisited, Something, Thunder On The Mountain, Like A Rolling Stone, All Along The Watchtower, Spirit On The Water and Blowin' In The Wind.

Liverpool’s impressive new waterside arena has seen numerous big names come through its doors in the last year. It would take a convincing argument to say that there has been anyone more stellar than Bob Dylan taking to its stage.

As a veteran attendee of numerous gigs down the years, the folk troubadour’s name was the one that had escaped the list of bands and musicians that I had seen; this gig gladly rectified that glaring omission.

Despite this being my maiden Dylan gig, I was well versed in what to expect from his set list; as a prelude to the gig I spent the afternoon listening to a few of his older hits. The expectation that I would hear these songs in the form that I was familiar never crossed my mind.

In some instances you were unsure of a particular song until you heard snippets of familiar lyrical couplets, It’s Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) again was one song that differed to the original version so much, that I only realised what song it was when he sang, ‘He not busy being born, Is busy dying’; Even that was difficult to discern beneath Dylan’s rasping vocals.

When arguing with those who don’t appreciate the nature of his vocal abilities would probably have had a field day tonight. In truth the voice has never been a thing of greatness and given its limitations, it has mainly been a vehicle for his poetry and lyricism. Though that said there is something heartening in hearing the lived-in croak of his voice.

The song arrangements of today have no doubt been changed to enable the songs to work with aging Dylan vocal range, like a Rolling Stone is another example of song that on records lifts from the opening bars and swirls away into the stratosphere; today’s version is a lot more restrained but it still gets the crowd going.

Probably the only arrangement that sounded familiar all night was All Along the Watchtower and that was only because the impressively assembled band had opted to perform Jimi Hendrix’s version of the Dylan penned song.

Dylan barely spoke throughout the evening but this wasn’t to be construed as a display of surliness or contempt on his part. It was merely the consummate professionalism of the artists that got on with the job in hand as he rattled through 17 songs in just under two hours.

Any perceived aloofness could be countered with his gesture of playing to the crowd with a cover of the Beatles’ Something - no doubt in tribute to his friend George Harrison. As you can imagine that was well received by the Liverpool audience.

Unconventionally the gig stated early and saw the crowd depart into the balmy Liverpool night at a time when most gigs would usually be starting. Though most would have enjoyed what had gone before, hopefully I can make it to a second Dylan gig sometime soon.

Fade out

Previous blog posts this month have mentioned the Scriptwriting challenge that I had somehow found myself signed up to. Having toyed with similar challenges in the past, I have always managed to talk myself out of taking part in them at the last moment. So I set myself the task of 100 pages in 30 days - not really expecting to succeed.

God knows how I got here but I crossed the finish line with 10 days to spare. How did I do it? Well there was certainly no daily work ethic it was mainly a case of 10 page splurges here and there. The last few days probably saw me write 30 pages just so I could complete and put the thing to bed. Not that I was getting fed up with, just that I needed to concentrate on other more prosaic things…such as work!

I have not really had time to stop and think what I have taken part in, as back in March with only a weekend to gather my thoughts I set out on this journey. It has been an interesting and rewarding period that has know seen the completion of my first full-length script; which I plan to edit and redraft. I will do this along with the script from the scriptwriting course that I have recently completed. When I’m happy with both, I will look towards sending them off to see if they can be performed.

Another good aspect of the month was meeting a vibrant community of writers in the Liverpool area. We have met at various points in the month to encourage and support each other. The plans are to continue meeting up and getting involved in other projects. One is the Nanowrimo In Novemeber which I’m seriously contemplating taking part in. For or now it’s a period of non-scriptwriting….though I’m sure I said that at the end of the last one.

Get in!!!!

After 14 years in the cup wilderness Everton are in the FA Cup Final, following their win over Manchester United today.

Woo and indeed hoo!

Record Store Day

When it comes to shopping the tactic is usually in and out with a minimum of fuss; this is different when it comes to book stores and in particular record shops. The tendency usually is to linger as long as I possibly can, until I have parted with some cash.

This thrill is something of a dying art as local record stores disappear from our high streets - as the Internet and in particular stores like Amazon take away the serendipitous thrill of browsing through racks of compact discs and vinyl. There has been many a time where I have browsed the stock and muttered to myself ‘I can get that cheaper online’. The quick dispatch and relative cheapness has changed browsing habits with wish lists and suggestions based on previous purchases. Which is never good after you have bought your mum something at Christmas – ‘you’ve bought Mama Mia, you will probably like Michael Ball‘. I don’t think so!

There has many a documentary recently lamenting the loss of the humble record store, there has even been a book written by Graham Jones called Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened to Record Shops? – Which details the decline of the humble record store (Incidentally it is on my Amazon wish list waiting to be purchased). There is awareness that these are the last days of the record store – something that has been taken for granted for many a year.

There are many a store like this that I have visited down the years sadly too numerous to list here particular favourites such as Penny Lane Records Bold Street and one downstairs by Waterloo station, Crosby – whose name escapes me, that are no more. It says it all when even big firms such as Our Price, Musiczone and Zavvi can’t continue to trade.

That is why today has been designated as International Record Store Day, with countless numbers of stores around the world lining up events to entice those who had not frequented their local record store in a while. Rarely a week goes by without me visiting a record store, in fact I’m still wading through some of the treats picked up having visited my favourite haunts in Manchester of Vinyl Exchange, Piccadilly & Fopp in Manchester last week. My own personal contribution to the day was a visit and the purchase of a couple of cds at St Helens' only remaining independent record store Kaleidoscope Records. Sadly it never appears to be busy whenever I go there but it does have a good reputation as it is often featured in MOJO magazine. It has a good selection of vinyl and compact discs, as well as a selection of releases by local bands.

As I contemplate the replacement of my HIFI (as it increasingly shows wear and tear), the one thing that stops me in my tracks is the fact that new players seldom come with turntables. This is not a Luddite complaining about the changing world, I have embraced the download culture, but I still long to hold music in physical format, with its lyric sheet and cover art. Days like this highlight that these types of store are still there and serving the public.

Happy Record Store Day.

Scriptfrenzy

Thirteen days in and I'm still on course to complete the 100 pages target by the end of the month. I must admit I have had a few slack days when the Scriptfrenzy has seemed more of a whimper, but when I have manged to get on with the job in hand I have made some good progress.

Today I have reached something of milestone in that I'm half way there, tonight I passed the 50 page barrier. Only 50 pages and 17 days to go.

Fade in slowly

And we're off. Just as I'm about to wind down in work for a well deserved Easter break, I have taken on the task of writing 100 pages of script in the next 30 days. Tonight sees the first meeting (write/fade in) of the writers I met on Friday, it should be good. The ideas are flowing and hopefully I will be able to get them on page later today.

The 30 days start now.