Babbling

Ad to pad out the graphic novel. I guess now that it's actually coming out on DVD it's not as much of a bare-faced lie...

My apartment is a post-birthday mess of empty cans and bottles. This year will be the year that I finally face up to my environmental responsibility and actually recycle. It will take an absolute minimum of effort and I'll feel good about myself contributing to the planet's well-being.
Or, more likely, I'll yet again decide to temporarily believe that the Mayans are correct in predicting we'll all be dead by 2012 anyway, and consequently just lump everything into one big refuse sack that I'll then toss off my fourth storey balcony. Cleanup done.
Detritus notwithstanding, it was a very nice evening and a grand excuse to steal Tom Bower (voice of the Duck in 'House Guest') away from his political duties. In putting together the 'House Guest' DVD I want to justify its release by cramming it with as much unnecessary shit as I can. In a bit of a mad pre-party rush I recorded the second of two commentaries with Tom and Jo Hepworth, who put a lot of her own time into making sure the film got done last year, all the while listening to my three anecdotes repeated ad nauseum for six months and never once stabbing me in the throat.The first commentary I recorded last weekend on my own, and it took a few attempts to actually come up with anything of value to say that wasn't self-important and twatty. Doing the second commentary was a lot easier as we were able to knock it out in one go and I was less prone to prattle on. It was also a nice excuse to be with the two people that did the most in terms of guaranteeing the film's completion and, doubtless in my mind, its warm reception.
Am presently fine-tuning the mix of both commentaries, here's a little preview:

Another Year Balder

It's my birthday today (well, for a few more minutes) and in a nice little cosmic coincidence I received news that a potentially large-scale post-production job I'd been keeping my fingers crossed about has been given the go-ahead, which will help make this xmas substantially more merry. Also there are two new festival appearances for 'House Guest' that I got wind of this morning.In November it's included in the international short film competition as part of the Jordan Short Film Festival. Exact dates and other info haven't been provided yet but it'll be somewhere between the 11th and the 14th.Then in December it will be screened during Kosovo's Skena Up 7. The festival runs from the 4th to the 11th, again will post more specifics when I hear about them.
All in all, I'm feeling a lot more upbeat than I was a few days ago.

Well, aren't we a little sourpuss today?

I am having a spectacularly bad day. Floating in a limbo waiting for two possible jobs to manifest themselves, I find myself canvassing current day-rates within Bristol and contemplating seppuku when I see just how shitty the situation is.
At this point I've finally reconciled myself with the truth that I've been putting off admitting for the last year. Unless things pick up soon I may need to leave this town.
But I really, really like my apartment here.
Bridges when you get to 'em, I guess. I'd use the Saturday evening to go out and take my mind off things, but I'm holed up in the Cotswold countryside recording DVD commentaries and an ill-advised trip to Flavourz yesterday appears to have rendered my colon spasmodic and unresponsive to pleas of mercy.
Well, rant over. I feel mellow now.On an up-note, 'House Guest' is blessing the shores of Estonia next month when it joins the line-up of Animated Dreams, an offshoot of the 13th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Or, at least I hope it will - the postal strike began at pretty much the exact moment I posted the screening copy.
No exact time/date details yet, but as well as the official site there's also a Facebook page to look through.

New-welpeter!

Check out this week's preview song from the forthcoming Struwwelpeter album 'The Book Of Women'. The new track is called 'Cut & Run', and it's quite peppy. Bung it on if you need some aural caffeine.
Listen already!

Gost!

Quick festival update, the Banjaluka International Animated Film Festival 2009 will begin a week from today (the 22nd) and 'House Guest' will be included as part of their Competitive Program. These are divided into different blocks, and in all candor I'm not entirely sure which one my film's in. I'm guessing from their film list that it's the last film to be included in the Competitive Program 3 segment, which will be at 9pm on Sunday 25th, then replayed at 3pm the next day. Both screenings will be at the Palas Cinema.

Remember MySpace? Anybody?

It's been over three years since 'Agnosticaust', the closest I've ever had to a 'hit' record, was released. In the interim I've been focusing my energies on animation, post-production and all the other crap I rant about it in this blog.
The music side of things hasn't been entirely abandoned, however. In the last few years I produced albums by two very sexy and alluring bands, 'Silverfish' and 'The Labrys Quartet', as well as composing the scores for a handful of independent films. More pertinently, I've been incrementally chiseling away at around thirty songs composed post-'Agnosticaust', and now have nearly two albums' worth of material in the final stages of production.
The first of said albums, tentatively titled 'The Book Of Women', will hopefully be released late 2009/early 2010, depending on the availability of session musicians. In truth, I'm in no big rush and I'd rather take the extra time to make sure each track comes out all lovely and polished. But I'm returning to my near-dormant MySpace account to host exclusive tracks as they become listenable.
The first two are live today, a piano-heavy ballad 'Hello Kitty' and my own cheesy contribution to the synth-pop revival called 'The Other Man'. Please listen, leave feedback and spread the word, because I've been away for a long-ass time as far as this MySpace pimping malarkey is concerned.
Listen to Struwwelpeter on MySpace!