Mowing

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Yesterday I didn’t blog and don’t feel bad. After all, I get obsessive about work and I miss the point. Today, I went gardening. It needed done. And it reminded me of other yesterdays. 1998-2000 when I was working for New Horizons, a a job scheme were those with mental ill health were asked to perform some useful service in lieu of being framed for some crime by the tabloids. Government scheme, £4.15 for four days work. It was a good job. The physical relief of exercise and sweat while pushing a mower around elderly folk’s homes. We were gardeners, or horticultural engineers, but mostly we just mowed the lawn. It was a good crew of lads. Some of them were dicks, some oddballs, but most or all were great. Those times were good. So as I turned the mower around this evening,  I enjoyed a sense of those glory days.

Irish Comics For Sale Now

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Today I’ve been re-building a website for The Black Panel, the Irish comics distribution service Paddy B. and I ran. For a few years we lugged boxes down to The Black Box Club once a month, and sat behind a table, dreaming of selling enough of our own books for pizza and coffee. Oh, those were the days. Well, I intended to re-create those days – first through tempting speciality retailers with local product, and when they didn’t move, I thought maybe readers would.

So, now YOU can see and buy most of our stock at http://theblackpanel.blogspot.com.

Some links require de-kinking and I’ll update later in the week.

BLACK PANEL 2 black panel

Consuming

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This week, I’m enjoying consuming.
running nose
The opening chapters of Wayne Simmon’s Flu, which seems to be about an undead outbreak around the scabby spides of Belfast and Finaghy. Already Wayne has managed to mortify me with his placement of Disney Princess product.

Idris Elba in Luther Season 1, in which the composed and mighty Stringer Bell is top cop, a ball of loose expression and acting like Plastic Man taking up the mantle of Bat-Man. There’s also a murdery girl who would make for an excellent femme Joker or The Sandman’s Delirium. It’s very over the top and I’d have been sworn off it but for Writer Neil Cross producing my favourite Doctor Who episodes from the last series.

I’ve also just finished reading Freakonomics by by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner and oh oh, there’s a sequel and I quite enjoyed the combination of heavy numbers and novelty or offbeat study areas. Yes. Had a whole pot luck scope: pro-choice legislations’s relation to crime figures, drug dealers living with their parents, the currency and devaluation of baby’s names. Good social science there. I recommend it.

Girl With Bangs

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Ducky writes something alike,

‘Draw me a girl, she’s really thin,with short shorn hair so she looks like a boy and she’s square, and she has square eyes and she bangs.
Clarfied: Yes she is square as opposed to a square, she also has a Motorhead T-Shirt.’

Bang GirlFeeling on the edge of very neglected today, something that has been building for a while. It’s not simple neglect, it’s complicated. I have specific needs not being met! Ask me if you’re following through! Or maybe its only because I slept all day.  I might want to talk to the doctor. I definitely have an odd fatigue problem connected to epilepsy and to other stuff, and I need help managing it.

Very keen about meeting up with Neill Stringer later in the week for a creatives-fun meet.

159: Blog / Short story: No Evidence

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I didn’t blog here yesterday, first no-show in over three weeks. Of course, if the dole found out I had taken a day off advertising my creative talents, well now, unemployed people are not legally allowed holidays. Still, as long as I’m showing records of three applications a week I’m justifying my subsistence.

I was out tonight to hear comrade Patrick Brown perform musical voicery. I’ve known Paddy on and off for quite a while but hearing him rip out ‘My Girl’ was a bit Who, WTF, Another Person! Sadly, I’ve no tech captures, but it was a pleasure hearing Paddy get the guitar out for ‘My Lagan Love’ and his Rat Pack duet with matching hat wearer Gary in ‘Me and My Shadow’ was immense fun. Actually, the whole programme was distinctive and muscular, less associated with people graduating a singing class (that it was), than some stunning top-league singers. There was a lot of theatrical acting too, expressionism, performance: a very shapely singer named Geraldine even sat her bum on Paddy’s back while he was bent over on all fours on the stage.

Hey, you gotta have a hobby.

At the urging of Tim Pilcher, I’m coming off Facebook and Twitter for a week in protest at the NSA’s Operation Prism. (Clue: You can read about it in the news and millions of people are talking about it) Of course, my abstinence won’t make a jot in the same way yoga isn’t really exercise, but it is good for you.  It’s the practice and the principle. You’re here reading this, so you know exactly what I mean.  My contact details are here.

Okay, short story time.

No Evidence

It was the first snowfall of the year. Eliza watched from the bay window as her bikini she held tight in a ball. You can’t see this, shedding fir, sent from a whiter place. The snow gave no evidence but the sound, it was far away at first: crispier as it would have got closer but behind the double-glazing and reptilian central heating, Eliza heard nothng. There would be no lazy day applying creams in the elements, no commune with the space around her small but rich haven. It was not until, while focussing on the white-lands of the space were her drive-way lay that she saw Bob. Screaming, she dropped the dress, but remained rooted to the spot. China’s most expensive A.I. would be destroyed in that weather.
“My tin man, My tin man, My beloved tin man my tin man!”

162: GoT, Titanic, Murals (Photo-blog)

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The other week SophMoto came to visit Belfast, as she does.

01 Soph in Belfast

I do like having visitors. Those are Lannister threads, with extra designs by Moto herself. Early, we pottered, looked at turls and a ship in the drydock. If you click on the photo above you can view the slideshow on Flickr, a lesser quality website. Watch out for the chess set! It doubles for the Houses of Cthulu, Super Barrio, Lego, X-Men, Chocolate Rose, Fenric and a nother one.

From there, we moved to The Titanic exhibition. Moto knew very little about it, so I warmed her up with my Underwater Billiards story (koff koff, plugs anthology) She already knew it had sunk so I wasn’t spoiling the details.

The first level was a bit classic museum claustrophobic, so her outfit got a lot of stares, and requests for photos.

I thought I didn’t want to know anymore about The Titanic. In the past I’d used the concept of the exhibition to have a go at the celebration of tragedy culture using the power of comixing. As parodied, there was a kid’s amusement ride, however most of the centre is, well, an academic resource, the big price should have been a clue. I’d love to return there and spend the day sketching, taking notes. Now, some photos from the re-created cabins. Mind, some of these look a bit eldritch.

02 Phantasmacabins

After we got back, I was treated to a shared platter at the Belfast Barge…

Aboard The Barge

And then we went to look at some murals, like this one by a too zealous Nick Cave or Wes Craven fan…

Red Right Hand

On the other side of the peace-line, quite a few, but this was my favourite. I’m a fledgling Spanish Civil War nerd.

Spanish Civil War

Although, as Stephen McGarry reminds me, maybe it should be this one of Nelson Mandela. (LINK)

You can read Moto’s rich account of the trips at Livejournal, were we sit on one of the game of thrones thrones OR were we go to the causeway coastline and perform ninja duties.

But not both. Not today. That would make you a stalker.

163: Causeway Coast Tour (Photoset)

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SophMoto came to visit and we took the Allen’s Coach Tour. At £16.50 we figured the tour, which takes in Carrickfergus Castle, scenic route through Glenarm, Canlough, Cushendall, Cushendun, Ballycastle, Carrick-a-rede (GoT), Ballintoy (GoT), Bushmills Distillery, Causeway , Dunluce Castle (GoT), might have been rough, and the extra £4 might have been a good investment. Instead, we’d a great coach driver, a stand-up comedy class with a passion for history and anecdote. We’d a great time, and here are some of the things we saw.

01 let us not talk falsely now