Who left this cheese here?
Writing is a funny old business right? Most people can do it in one fashion or another. Some are good at it, some are lazy with it and some get paid for it. (Often the wrong people). It’s easier to pick apart other people’s lives than your own. Perhaps that’s why so many of us write about others but speak less about ourselves? Or do we?
I’ve gone on record a number of times with my broad claim that ‘Writers Block’ isn’t a real thing. And my theory that it’s actually just a mix of mixture of laziness and fear or both the page and failure. So, unless you lost your fingers and voice in a bizarre accident there’s nothing stopping you. Literally nothing, other than your own brain. Sure there are conditions, anxiety, depression or PTSD – but sure as shit a good momentary cure for those things is getting something down on paper. It’ll give you a sense of achievement – and a little kick of dopamine.
Once you’ve climbed that country stile on life’s ramble the writing itself can come easily or sometimes with a higher degree of difficulty. The sky can weigh heavily on your shoulders or sometimes you can dance through the breeze. We are victims of the blood coursing through us. The water and oxygen and seasons in our senses. We aren’t really, that just sounded cool.
Comparisons can be made to getting your trainers on and getting outside your front door for a run. Write a sentence. Then write another. They might not be good but it’s another step forward. You’re passing lamp post after lamp post on an uphill jog.
You can even just ask questions about cheese to get you going.
“The days are bright and filled with pain” ( ‘The Crystal Ship’ The Doors).
I’ve been home alone for a few days and making the most of the silence and a new BluRay player. I’ve been dragging boxes out of the loft and going through the contents. Here’s just a taster of my nostalgic 72 hours.
For those who are interested here is the list of movies I’ve watched.
Driller Killer.
Fear City.
New York Ninja.
Altered States.
Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead.
Martian Chronicles (Parts 1-3)
Nightmare Beach.
Running on Empty.
The Final Programme.
Tip Toes.
Walker.
Death Line.
Death Run.
Until the End of the Word (Director’s Cut).
Let’s get back to irregular programming.
Over at the Awesome Comics Podcast this week we welcomed back Tom Curry. Breaking out the couch we examined our choices of comics archetypes. Stopping to judge and assess why we chose them. Tommy boy then dragged us into the thorny semi-quavers of how music can be depicted on a comics page. Comparisons are made and banjo strings fixed. Lots of laughs in this one so get on board right here.
Small Press Comic of the Week.
‘The Mice’ Volume 2: ‘Culture Shock’ by Roger Mason. I’d enjoyed Volume 1 but this really is a next level issue. 95 pages of pure British Comics styled action. To talk about a lot of it is to spoil it but I’d recommend visiting Markosia and grabbing whatever you can. An alien invasion series that could have been serialised in Deadline or Crisis. You can listen to me talk about it on the new episode on Monday.
Tops.
This was a lot of fun and a nice return to a series that I got a kick out of a few years ago.
The use of colour as a narrative trick was a nice touch too.
Bottoms.
This cost me £7.90. I was sucked in by the outward appearance of it being similar to an old favourite of mine – Marvel Two-In-One. It’s not. Not even close. It’s a series of single and double page splashes. Some deserving of that treatment structurally and many undeserving.
This is one of the double pagers… Yeah, I should have looked inside before buying it. But, how the fuck can you do that these days other than in a shop? This is a grift, plain and simple.
“Can’t you see the Carnival, the boats, the lights, the women?” – Ray Bradbury
Thanks for reading. See you soon.
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