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Time for an update on my current projects-
Venn I should have episode 1 of Venn edited and ready for release by the middle of next week. It will premiere on August 1st, because the first of the month is a good day for releases. If I can get organised we should be filming the last bits of footage for episodes 2 and 3 around then as well. Which should give us a buffer to film the next two or three episodes and look around for sponsorship and other funding. Episodes, and a couple of trailers if I can get them done, will be posted here and on venn.tv.
Incidentally, I’d really like to find a camera operator and maybe someone to help me with editing and colour correction, because I’m not as good as I’d like at either. If you’re interested, get in touch.
Shall We Take A Trip? For a long time I’ve wanted to do an erotic comic, if only because I’ve found so few that are any good. (For the record, I recommend Undertow and Retreat by Kiki Kjaer, or any of the works of Reed Waller .) Shall We Take A Trip? is sort of Nick Hornby meets Waller’s Omaha the Cat Dancer, only without the football or tails, respectively. Mark has written a film script set in Manchester in the early nineties and now it’s gone into production he’s on set to handle rewrites. And reminisce about his sex life. I’ve scripted 56 pages, but that’s likely to expand, and the ending is open to rewriting. We’ll see.
Post Another comic project, which I’m thinking of doing as a combined web and phone comic. I’m writing backstory for it at the moment. It’s a virus apocalypse story with a difference. What if the virus wasn’t designed to kill, but rather to modify the victims’ DNA, sometimes for the better. As some of the plague victims go beyond human, what effect does it have?
Spinneyworld More transfers and one or two downloadable items for modellers. I’m also thinking about a few white metal parts, such as modern image street furniture- parking meters, bins etc. These will allow me to hone my sculpting skills and then I’ll start making figures. I have a few planned- hoodies, women in hijabs, graffiti artists etc.
Etsy I’m going to get an Etsy selling account soon (I need a credit card first) and I have a few products lined up and even some built.
Strange little world- more pieces like Mending Time, putting model soldiers and vehicles into odd contexts.
Not quite the end of the world- a series of vignettes/mini dioramas depicting very silly apocalypses. I’ve just done one with SAS soldiers versus a giant teddy bear.
Mini art car parade- yes, there shall be more of these.
Eee/One wallets- I will be taking delivery of an Elonex Onet+, a mini laptop in the Eee mould. It comes with a cool neoprene case, but I think it would be nice to have a bag to slip that one in. I’ll do a few, denim and leather seem obvious materials, and see if they sell.
Ruby Red is still available at Lulu, but you can now buy it as a download direct from Spinneyworld.
Available for download for £1.50- print your own stone setts. This file will allow you to make as many back alleys and yards as you need to fill in the space behind your terraced houses. there are two sheets- one large block of setts to be cut up for yards and open spaces, with rusty manhole covers to be cut out and placed where appropriate, and one page of alleys with edging and a drain.
Technorati tag: Scale Models
I’m sketching a bunch of ideas for stencil graffiti, to become transfers for modern image railway modellers who want to add a little grit. So I thought I’d see what resources there are for stencillers online. (Update The stencil graffiti transfers can now be ordered from Spinneyworld.)
Stencil Revolution is an Australian collective. The tutorials and gallery sections are down at the moment because they were having security issues, but there are a few good examples still dotted around.
Stencil Art video.
Banksy, of course.
Stencil graffiti galleries.
Wikipedia on stencil graffiti.
You may have guessed by all the preceding republished posts that something is going on. It hasn’t been taken down yet, but the old Spinneyworld blog is about to die. The domain will, hopefully, become the Spinneyhead store.
The international blogging thing is fun, I just want to bring it into Spinneyhead itself. I shall be inviting all the former members of Spinneyworld to become Spinneyhead bloggers as soon as I can. The terms will be the same, post about what you like, as often as you like, but a bias towards what’s going on in your area would be most appreciated. The invitation goes out to others as well. If you’d be interested in taking part in an international blog please drop me a line and I’ll add you to the Spinneyhead roster.
Oldham Festival,
originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
It’s not every Sunday you can go to an old mill town and watch one of the coolest bands in the world do a live set outside Woolworths.
I’ve lived in Manchester for a long time but this was the first time I’d been out to Oldham. Various of the landmarks (well, businesses who advertise, anyway) were familiar from Revolution 96.2. We arrived a few hours before the gig, to check out the events of the Festival. The (nearly) naked Australian chef was amusing, briefly, and the Village Disco a bit worrying, but I got the sense everything was winding down before the show.
Huey claimed to have been at his sister’s wedding on Saturday, hence the slightly late start, and paused two thirds of the way through the set to say his hangover had finally gone. Despite self censoring at the end of the first song he didn’t hold back as they worked through the Criminals’ expletive filled back catalogue. An excellent show, made a little weird by ending at half past six. I got some shots on the SLR during “Scooby Snacks” which will look good if they come out. I need to finish the roll of film ASAP to find out.
After some great luck just catching the train back to Manchester we headed to the Eurocultured Festival off Oxford Road. Here we listened to a bit of Czech hip-hop and watched graffiti artists at work.
You learn something new every day. Yesterday I discovered that the chip was invented in Oldham. There’s a local pie called a Rag pudding, which consists of suet wrapped around mince, a bit stodgy and definitely in need of gravy to moisten it. Winston Churchill was MP for Oldham from 1900 to 1904.
I’d like to quickly mention Jazz Jamaica, who played a supporting set of Junior Walker covers and had people dancing in the square.
All Flickr photos tagged Oldham Festival
All Flickr photos tagged Eurocultured
Jazz Jamaica’s latest album- Motor City Roots
Music by the Fun Lovin’ Criminals.
Oldham in Wikipedia.
Originally posted to Spinneyworld 29/05/06 by Ian
Technorati tag: Oldham Festival, Eurocultured, Oldham, Manchester, Fun Lovin Criminals
manchester passion,
originally uploaded by spinneyhead.More pictures to follow.
Update Ickle has some pictures. He was standing a few feet away from me and some of the shots have got my video camera in them. I’ll try to edit together something tomorrow.
Originally posted to Spinneyworld 14/04/06 by Ian
Technorati tag: Manchester, Passion play, Music, moblog, Nokia 3230
 Steph aka Matt Tones, m(atw) bassist
I’ve been wanting to go and see a gig for months now and, after weeks of checking ticketmaster for bands coming to Cambridge with no joy, I decided to be original and go check out a local band last night at the Portland Arms. The crowd were small but the venue was smaller- possibly a double garage sized room- so the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed.
First up was The Hope- a fast, slick and entertaining punk band straight from the Green Day/Sex Pistols mould. The lead singer has a voice that works well with the material and an accent when announcing songs that can only be described as classic punk. While I would go and see this band again if they were performing nearby, I’m not sure if I’ll buy the album as they have a style that needs to be played live and it’s hard to capture this in the studio.
Next came Papa Shango and their dancing gorilla. The band started well and put on a good stage show, but a lack of variety in the music (sex, sex, sex) left me wondering what time it was and they didn’t have the slick performance of The Hope. The highlight of the band was the young guitarist who pulled of some great riffs and gave the music a bit more depth. It might be good to see them again sometime as their stage show would probably do better with a bigger crowd- worth a listen if you see them performing nearby.
The headline act was Me Against The World and the reason for coming along following downloads from their website. The band are influenced by a wide range of great performers (The Wildhearts, Nirvana, Billy Bragg, Pearl Jam & The Police) and the result is a style of their own that I really enjoyed. The performance was slick with all of the members fully involved and even the Muesli joke during a tuning break got a good reception. I’m going to be buying this CD as soon as it comes out- all good music shops from April(ish)- and may try and see them again before they make it into the mainstream as £4 was a bargain.
Originally posted to Spinneyworld 16/02/06 by Duncan
Collectormania Manchester,
originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
We know some total Collectormania maniacs and, with this first visit to Manchester, we thought we should check it out.
I couldn’t bring myself to pay for any autographs, though we did strain for a glimpse of Michael Shanks and Chris Judge (should have whipped the camera out and tested the zoom capacity). If I were feeling richer, and there was any space whatsoever in the flat, I could have gone completely mad in the aisles of figures, comics and dvds. In the end all I bought was the graphic novel of Brodie’s Law, just because the artist was on the stall being all enthusiastic.
Originally posted to Spinneyworld 12/02/06 by Ian
Technorati tag: Manchester, Collectormania, moblog, Nokia 3230
manchester’s european markets,
originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
Now for more than just christmas. I love these markets, but then, unlike some, i think we should be more european.
Yesterday i spent ten pounds on salami and today we sampled such joys as the quark ball, a chunk of gingerbread with a jam centre, coated in sugar to give it a crispy shell.
The market is on until some time in december and we’ll be sampling foods from it all that time.
Originally posted to Spinneyworld 19/11/05 by Ian
Technorati tag: moblog, Nokia 3230
Anyone for Czech food?
I went out yesterday to a Czech restaurant in Neos Kosmos. Outside, you think you are entering some sort of warehouse. On the inside it looks a bit like a British pub, with wooden panelling and dim lighting. However, the comparison ends there. O Kalos Stratiotis Svejk (Good Soldier Svejk) turned out to be a superb restaurant, with excellent food, a range of choices on the menu and a nice selection of wines.
We tried a traditional salad and main course – fantastic! A king couldn’t have eaten better. The portions were enormous – so much so that I couldn’t finish the main course, unusually for me. The meat was tender and perfectly cooked. Plus, there were these unusual pieces of a kind of thick, almost suety bread to dip in the sauce. Very filling. One thing I noticed was that a lot of the salads seemed to contain nuts – maybe that’s a feature of Czech life? Perhaps there are lots of nut trees there.
It makes a nice change from all the typical Greek tavernas around here. Nice though they are, it’s good to have a bit of variety, and Svejk was just the ticket!
Originally posted to Spinneyworld 04/11/05 by Millie
Today is “Ochi” (no) Day in Greece
This is the day when the Greeks celebrate their resistance against fascism during the Second World War. It’s a bank holiday (Greece seems to have far more of these than other countries!) and anyone interested can go and watch the parade.
There is a parade in each town, or in the case of Athens, a major parade in the centre in Syntagma Square, and lots of other, smaller parades in local areas. It consists of schoolchildren dressed either in school uniform or traditional costumes marching down the street to the applause of the crowd. I went to the main parade at Syntagma Square, and although the school uniforms were rather boring, I must admit that the traditional costumes were interesting to see. There was quite a variety, with different regions of Greece represented. Another highlight of the parade was the young children, members of local cub and brownie groups. They didn’t march so much as amble along, waving Greek flags and smiling brightly at the crowd.
After the parade, we went for a walk through Plaka – more on Plaka to come another time – which was quite crowded, as people were enjoying the hot weather (it’s still like summer here) and taking advantage of the day off to go out for lunch.
An interesting experience. I don’t know any other countries where they dress children up in school uniforms and just watch them march down the street in order to celebrate a national holiday. And this happens twice a year in Greece!
Originally posted to Spinneyworld 28/10/05 by Millie
Rotterdam is an unusual City as almost everything is new. I mentioned this to someone later in the day and they explained that the Germans bombed it heavily so few old buildings survived. There are a few remaining but they are squeezed in between modern high rise offices and flats creating an interesting mix of old and new.
My first stop of the day was the tourist information for a map then on to see the church on Binnenrotte. I took several photos here showing the church, some very Dutch buildings and a view looking back over the city. The thing that really struck me was the the amount of building work going on across the skyline as every road seemed to have a crane or 2 working away.
No time to stop so I headed on towards the Maritime museum. This looked interesting and had boats behind that could be visited, but no time for that today. While there I stumbled across a small but very attractive museum building hidden in the shadow of 3 skyscrapers. Photos were taken and I moved on again.
I headed west from here via the back roads. Wish I had more time as there were some interesting non-chain shops to browse. I then reached the park near “Club Vibes” (76 on my map) and took photos of the park and, yet again, the skyscrapers were in the background. Time was fast running out by now, so I dashed off and headed to my meeting.
Overall, it was an interesting tour and I would like to come back. There seems to be enough here for a long weekend though the lack of history caused by WWII might mean a week is too long. The night life looks good (the Wok restaurant on Coolsingel is worth a visit) and interesting shops are waiting to be discovered.
Originally posted to Spinneyworld 20/10/05 by Duncan
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