“Elizabethan England On Crack.”

I came up with this the other night as a tagline for a pitch I’m working on. If it ever sees the light of day, you’ll know which one it is…

I’m kind of big on responsibility. Taking responsibility for yourself and for the world around you is an important thing to do. It’s the mark of an adult. Normally, I find the thought that I’m responsible for myself and to the world around me a very liberating thought.

Tonight, I want nothing more than to be told that no, I can be let off for a bit. That I can crawl into a corner, pull a duvet over my head and pretend I’m three years old again and someone else can make all the big and scary decisions.

Tomorrow, I shall feel better, but for tonight, I’m just fed up of being a grown up.

Does anyone out there know anything about the sorts of things one might have expected to see at a feast in sixteenth century Ireland? Does anyone even know where I might look to find out about this sort of thing? Help!

I have got through the last fortnight by the judicious use of coffee and whiskey. Before anyone makes any smart remarks about that being how I get thought life all the time, I’ve been drinking more of both than I normally do, which in the case of the coffee, is a little frightening, even to me. And between that starting to catch up with me, and the stress of jury service (which is much, much, more tiring and stressful than I’d expected), I am utterly exhausted. So I’m going to meditate for a while, and then collapse into bed very early, in a effort to make my brain work again.

I’m doing my jury service at the moment. After several days, we’ve just finished the case for the prosecution of my first case. And frankly, bits of it have been crushingly dull. To the point where I was having trouble concentrating on what the witnesses were saying, despite the fact that I know just how important it is that I not miss anything.

The last witness was for the prosecution was the officer in charge of the investigation, who really didn’t have much to do but participate in a reading of the interview she had conducted with the defendant. I wasn’t complaining. I mean, normally any sort of Scottish accent will make me sit up and beg, but dear god, this was possibly the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard.

This is sort of amusing to me on several levels but mostly because I have a mental picture of trying to chat her up afterward, were such a thing possible: “Excuse me, you don’t know me, but I was a juror at the trial you just gave evidence at, and frankly, the sound of your voice damn near melted my brain. Would you fancy a drink, or possibly just reading to me at random from whatever book we can find?”

Rocket Whores. The Tagline reads “Pop Culture Assault Site”. I will be producing words for them, periodically.

Yes. It’s true. I am a rocket whore. My mother will be mortified.

More news soon.

It’s 2 am. I’m drinking hot coffee and cold whiskey at more or less equal pace. Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker and Nick Cave are randomly shuffling on the stereo. I’ve just finished the script to SIX STRINGS THAT DREW BLOOD. I’m more or less banging this out to give my fingers something to do while I wait for my brain to settle into a new gear, so I can get on and write some thing else. I’ve got the pitches for 2 BEATS SIDEWAYS and MARLOWE to write up, but i’m in the wrong headspace for them. I think I’ll probably wind up generating something new. I’ve got weird Buddha images sitting here in my head screaming to be let out, but I have no fucking clue where they’re leading me.

[addendum: I think I’ve just inadvertantly started a weird martial arts story. Yet another on the list for later…]

Strange Attractor, Tuesday Night, London. A Lovecraftian ritual and a talk on Chaos Magick by Steve Wilson. Strange Attractor put on monthly events dedicated to The Weird. I’ve been meaning to get along to one of them for a few months now. And there’s no way I’m going to miss Tuesday’s.

V/Vm Hate You. And John Peel. And a long list of other people, according to the liner notes. Just bought this album (Hate You) having had V/Vm recommended to me for a while by friends. It is currently levering off the top of my head, and pouring bad static in. In a very good way. If you like experimental music, you need to get this.