Anyone else think this cover makes it look like Alex Cross is having trouble lighting a fag?
Author: John Page 18 of 121
When I moved to Yorkshire at the age of ten (well, not on my own, it was a family thing), I heard a lot of comments about what life was like ‘in the South’, and about the people who lived there.
Which was interesting, because I’d never thought of myself as living in any place with a particular allegiance or whatever, it was just, as a child might think, where I lived, and the people who lived there, just, er, lived there. Living there didn’t seem like some kind of allegiance to a patricular way of life, it was, at that age, just what my life was like.
So I was often kind of nonplussed at remarks people made about ‘southerners’ (though I’d be lying if I pretended that every single remark didn’t in some way, inform my growing body of opinions about ‘northerners’), particularly the comment that the father of a girl I was seeing in my teen years made about my family having moved to the North so we could have a bigger house. Yes, that’ll have been the rationale for the move – embarrassingly, my parents didn’t go the whole hog and move to Scotland, where we could presumably have had an estate like something out of Monarch Of The Glen, but hey you can’t have it all, I guess.
A lot of these comments were, it has to be said, pretty ill-informed, and I know people who’ve moved from the city to a more bucolic life only to be on the receiving end of comments about ‘townies not knowing the ways of the country’ (though apparently people who’ve grown up on a farm and rarely left the village have some kind of innate understanding of the ways of the urban metropolis and its dwellers).
The point I’m trying – and probably failing – to make is that all too often our opinions of other people and their lives are based more on guesswork and suspicion (and in some cases fear) than actual, material facts. I’m almost certainly as guilty of this as everyone else… actually, I take that back, and point you towards a rather fascinating collation of information:
Depiction of BNP membership overlap with non-white populations in the UK
… now, I’d prefer to think I’m less prone to the ‘making up reasons to dislike people without actually knowing if the reasons are true’ tendency that this image suggests your average BNP member is guilty of, but I think you can see my underlying point: the vast majority of BNP members, it would seem, hold their opinions about non-white people with only very limited knowledge about what they’re actually like. I suspect it’s that fear of ‘other’ that somehow gives rise to the dislike, and creates what is, in the strict sense of the word, pre-judice.
Anyway, the site I swiped that link from is run by a chap called David McCandless. There are many similarly interesting conglomerations of information on the rest of his site, it’s worth your time.
But to end this post on a note which is probably less contentious than issues of race or north versus south, and which I found unintentionally very amusing, I’d like to illustrate my general point with a comment made by a friend of mine when were chatting about at school, and which harks back to yesterday’s post in a way; he said, and these were his exact words,
“I’ve never read any books by Stephen King, because they’re all shit.”
(Simon – or, indeed, Mr K: if you’re reading this, I disagreed then, and I still disagree now, okay?)
As part of their promotional push for the new Stephen King novel Under The Dome, Hodder and Stoughton are holding a writing competition.
The idea is that you ‘take your inspiration from the new novel’ (in whatever way you interpret that), and send your creative writing in, and if you win Stephen King will read your writing and you get a signed copy of the book. Not a bad prize, all things considered, and you have until 15 December to send in your piece of 2,000 words or less (they’re also running some non-writing competitions, but they close tomorrow).
Details of all the competitions are here, but the writing one in particular can be found by clickety-clicking here.
I have a vague notion of an idea for it, and it’s not an onerous wordcount to do in a month or so, so I might have a go… if you enter, let me know how you get on.
Spotted in the gutter yesterday, and I was slightly freaked out by it, I have to admit.
But then again, perhaps my career as a war photographer starts here.
If you’re of a writerly mind, you may remember the stuff I posted in September about the open call for submissions to the BBC radio sketch show, Recorded For Training Purposes.
Well, just to prove that I don’t idly post these things – and that I wasn’t kidding when I said I didn’t need the competition – I sent a couple of sketches in, and crikey o’riley if I didn’t get an e-mail today saying that I’d made it past the initial sift.
Which made me grin like an idiot, though the e-mail also cautions that there are something like 250 people in my situation, plus all the actual commissioned writers like Senor Arnopp, and they’ll probably be wanting about 100 sketches in total. So I shouldn’t get too excited quite yet, though it’s stoked the fires of my ego to get this far.
Did any of you folks send anything in, and if so, any response? Are you – cripes – one of my rivals for airtime? Do let me know.
You may, of course, rest assured that I’ll let you know when I hear more, be it aye or nay (though the e-mail suggests I shouldn’t necessarily expect to hear before Christmas). I may not know much, but I understand enough about narrative to know that people usually like some kind of closure on things.
But anyway: colour me pleased.
So, it’s November and those of us who live near the Greenwich Meridian Line are all rejoicing in the benefits of an extra hour on our hands. So, if you’re struggling to find ways to fill your time, and are looking for something to do this month, the following November-based projects may be of interest…
National Novel Writing Month
Slightly misnamed, as it’s now very much an interNational thing, but the idea of ‘NaNoWriMo’, as we hipsters call it, remains the same: to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.
Obviously, that’s a fair amount of writing (over 1000 words a day), and it takes a bit of dedication, but hey, it’s getting cold outside, so staying in with a cup of tea and writing is far from the worst way you could spend your time… on second thought, I might well say that at any time of year, but on this occasion there’s a whole community of people (both online and in the real world) who’ll support you as you aim for 50,000 words. Go to the NaNoWriMo site and see what I mean.
I’ve had a go at this a couple of times, and whilst it’s to my considerable shame that I’ve never made it over the finishing line (and for the record, you don’t have to stop then, you can carry on writing until you feel the story’s finished), I liked the feeling that there were other people who were doing the same crazy thing.
The other suggestion I have is slightly more gender-specific, for it is…
Movember
Yes, that’s November with an M, for this challenge involves growing a mo…ustache.
Okay, so the name’s arguably a bit of a stretch (what were they gonna call it, Philtrum-foliage-February?), but the aim is simple, and the motivation good ‘n philanthropic: participants should try to grow a moustache over the course of the month – no sideburns or beard, just the ‘tache – and get friends to sponsor you, with the proceeds going to prostate cancer charities. Full details can be found here.
Actually, given that I’ve met some of you folks face-to-face, perhaps I shouldn’t be so quick to suggest that it’s only the gents who could grow a moustache… oh dear, I’ve gone too far, haven’t I ? Don’t dwell on it, though, check out this link to the manliest moustaches of all time! Grrr, how macho are they? The pictures positively seethe with manly hormones.
In fact, I think – at long last – I can feel puberty coming on.
I’ve mentioned the Adam and Joe 6 Music podcast a number of times before, for they are funny and clever men whose praises should be sung.
But they’re not just audio sillymen, no, as the following video featuring Adam demonstrates:
Listen to it twice, and it will play in a loop in your mind forever. For Ever.
Well, all right, until another tune takes over your mental jukebox, but it’s a deuced catchy little ditty, wouldn’t you say?
If you’re not familiar with the webcomic XKCD, I heartily recommend it.
Or, as it’s Sunday afternoon, you might prefer to walk around the world instead.
You may already have seen it, but I’ve recently been playing around with Blinkbox, a site where you can watch a variety of TV shows online, for free.
There seems to be a good mix of shows to see for nowt, including some Troughton Doctor Whos, pretty much all of Big Train and The Young Ones, and a goodly chunk of The League Of Gentlemen and Hustle.
You can see details of the free TV shows here, and they also have free films here.
You have to watch short adverts before the things start, but I guess that’s how they fund the site, and I have to say they play much more smoothly than, say, the itvplayer thing, which I always find very bumpy and user-hostile.
Anyway, thought it was worth pointing you towards it – if you’re looking for some spooky stuff to watch for Hallowe’en, they have a couple of older scary films and TV shows, which might be of interest.
No connection whatsoever, I just liked the fact they have free streaming of TV shows which I enjoy.