Russell Davies

No coffee morning on Wednesday

...in case you were wondering...

The One With Kate

I forgot to post this!

Next next next

This slide show is a brilliant way to present this information. And also interesting.

Some art, a studio, some miniliths

I've been renting a studio for about a year now from a lovely organisation called Bow Arts. It's a tremendous indulgence, I'm very lucky. It's mostly for doing music. And I've made some stuff in there.

But because Bow Arts have shows (and expect you to participate) I've also made occasional non-music things.

I built a sculpture. 

There were various different versions.

I enjoyed filling the nooks and crannies.

I made various bits and bobs to go along with it.

And a sort of conceptual framing for how you 'played' it.

I now regret the final line 'please take your shoes off'. That really irritated me when I saw it at The Listening Room. It's not a church.

But, the open studio that I built it for didn't happen and it took up a lot of space, so I had to dismantle it. I broke some of it up into various miniliths. I think I prefer them, actually.

And I made some more signs to go with them. ('made')

The most recent show had a theme of 'connections' and I briefly thought about trying to do something about infrastructure based on a plumbing leaflet we got from the council.

(I love the phrase 'actual point of clog'.)

But, I'm not enough of an artist to execute what I wanted so I started thinking about the various diagrams and maps I've collected over the years and thought I could do something with them. 

I ended up making three things.

They're quite big. A1. But they're hard to photograph. Here are some details:

Excitingly one of them was selected. So then I had to worry about things like framing and pricing. What do you do?

I wasn't really sure. I bought a frame and took it along that way  but the gallery manager preferred the way I'd photographed it, just clipped to the wall. So that's how it's displayed.

It's for sale via the gallery but I seem to have forgotten to submit a price. I'm trying to correct that as we speak. It's a prime number. I also have another version which I think might be better - I'm adding various hand-drawn embellishments. (Of course I could be making it worse.) You can buy that direct, it's a different prime. And/or you can get the other two.

I've really enjoyed making these, I'm going to do more. And bring in more PowerPointyness.

But, I'm going to have to move out of the studio. It's expensive and I can't really afford it / justify it. So, let me know if you'd like a minilith.

Shake to decline, like a fool

Apple Airpods will read out incoming messages to you - whatsapps, slack. I like it. I like the way every message is flattened into the same tone and voice. It's like the Radio 4 news reporting on the activities of your colleagues. 

It also lets you shake or nod your head to accept or reject messages or interrupt and silence a long one. I like that too. You have to shake quite vigorously. It makes popping and ringing sounds as you shake so you feel a bit like a jester.

I realised, the other day, how habituated I've become to that.

Someone was talking to me in a shop, too much, and my body was trying to get me to shake to decline. Fortunately my conscious mind intervened and I avoided looking like a rude fool.

Not the Russell Davies you're looking for

I get three or four emails a week intended for one of the other more famous Russells Davies, specifically Russell T.

I get four types of email

1. People who just want to say thanks and offer praise. These are normally very sweet. Especially the ones writing about Queer As Folk. It was obviously important to a lot of people.
2. Famous and important people (actors, producers, writers). They're following up on a conversation or angling for work or arranging lunch.
3. People with IDEAS. They send scripts and thoughts and suggestions. These are often barmy.
4. Haters. Writing to complain about some way Russell T has ruined Doctor Who.

I presume I get these because if you google 'russell davies email' I am high on the list. I've written something enormously prominent on my site making it clear I'm not the Russell Davies anyone wants, but I imagine that also makes the google situation worse. Sometimes, when I get these things, I despair at people's naiveté, sometimes I marvel at their optimism.

I'm never sure whether to respond . I worry about the tiny moment of elation when people think that Russell T has written back - and then the disappointment when they find out he hasn't. But mostly, I don't want them thinking he's ignored them even if he probably should.

So for the first and second lots of people (the fans and the friends) I reply saying, basically, 'sorry, you've reached the wrong Russell Davies - here are the contact details for Russell T's agent.'

For the third lot - the people with IDEAs - I also include these links "there's useful advice about writing/submitting scripts for the BBC and other places here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/writers/opportunities/ and here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/writers/blog/writing-for-doctor-who"

(What I really want to say is - are you crazy? There's no way anyone with any power or influence is going to read your unsolicited scripts and ideas. They just can't.  But that seems too brutal. The links above make it clear that the answer to the question - how do I submit ideas to Doctor Who is - become a professional writer, get invited to submit ideas to Doctor Who. Hopefully that lets people down gently.)

I just ignore the fourth lot. I'm a sponge soaking up a tiny amount of the hate that gets directed to public figures. The temptation to reply is obviously considerable but I resist.

 

 

 

 

No coffee morning tomorrow

Message ends

Popes, Peru, Chicago, Tennis

This right here justifies the existence of podcasts. Colm Tobin talking about Pope's Francis and Leo with enormous enthusiasm, skepticism, knowledge, incredulity and joy.

It's massively informed and hugely gossipy. And there's more tennis than you'd imagine.

A use for crypto

This is a good watch/listen. In that it's both depressing and funny. And they realise it as they talk. Even as they explain the extraordinary corruption they're flabbergasted, tickled and reluctantly impressed by its audacity and enormous stupidity.

The marketing starts here

'Baked' Jack Fenton endorsing How to grow potatoes by Giles Turnbull. Get yourself a copy.