Whether the weather

I don’t normally complain about the weather. Living in Glasgow there’s no point, it’s one of the givens of life. Every day you get weather. Sometimes three or four sorts. And I don’t normally get the November blues either, when the nights fair draw in and you go to work in the dark and you […]

Remix

It seems the video mash-up (cf the marvelous ThriftShop XL) has evolved a level of sophistication. Re-cut movie trailers that completely change the meaning of the film. I was much taken by the recent BoingBoing entry on Mary Poppins as a horror movie, but my favourite is probably this one. If anyone knows of any […]

Rarities

There’s something that happens so occasionally in my world that you almost forget about it entirely. Almost. Not quite. Because, like a cosmological event, when it does come round it leaves a long blazing mark in the memory, and a hook of hope that you’ll see it, one day, again. What am I talking about? […]

Pirate Memory Games

Warning: this post contains half-baked and undigested ideas. Feel free to argue with or ignore as you will. So, it seems the whole world is writing Pirate stories. I know of at least five GSFWC members who claim to have signed up for passage (Mr Duncan has of course already completed his, plus landed a […]

Like I’ve Never Been Away

But I have been, see? It’s just that between the close of the working day one Tuesday evening and rolling back into the office another Wednesday morning, the last week at World Fantasy seems like such a seamless splice into my life that already I’m wondering if it happened or if it was just some […]

Munchies

This week I allowed myself to read fiction. Just a little bit, cos even though I’m on the wagon for the duration of the nov, the urge is sometimes too much. Just a short story, maybe a magazine, but nothing stronger. Nae books or nuthin‘, gov. You know what’s the ideal size for the fiction […]

Sparks of Genius

Last week was a bit of a gig fest. Wednesday saw us tripping along to Juliette and The Licks And Friday saw me hanging around in Edinburgh after the last day of a training course to catch our friend Cornelius and his new band, The Rohypsters, who turned out, as stated in their manifesto, to […]

Tribalism

Sometimes the best of things give you cause to examine your attitudes to certain aspects of life. I love being Scottish, but I’ve never been the sort who gets misty-eyed when I hear bagpipes or see a bloke in a kilt or receive postcards from the Highlands. I like a dram, sure, and love to […]

A Very Happy Convention

Just returned in more or less one piece from an exceptionally good FantasyCon in Nottingham. And – with the exception of the tense, slow, torrential drive down – it was a spankingly good weekend. Mr Duncan, Mr Cobley and myself motored south during an increasingly wild Friday, the end result of which, when we finally […]

This Is Music

In a musical frame this week. Not only did the band play last night (for the first time in months!), but the new issue of is this music? is out this week too. For those of you who don’t know it, itm? is a magazine that focuses on Scotland’s multifarious local music output. And to […]