Good. It is actually working. (see previous entry).

I’ve gotten rather badly out of the blogging habit, and as a result there’s a gigantic collection of stuff that I feel I should be telling you about, but I can’t think of it. I was listening back to the tape diary I made when I was travelling across America- and all the bizarre, stupid little details that made the trip (like the size of supermarket shelves, or the bizarre things written on the front page of American tabloids) are preserved for posterity. (Not prosperity, as I just wrote- sometimes, I have a very Freudian mind).

I’m currently at work subbing- and all there is to do is wait for schedule changes to come in. So, I’m left, sitting at a keyboard in an over-air-conditioned office, trying to keep myself sane. Wanting to be writing some wonderful piece of reportage journalism, but probably writing the blog equivalent of “Uhhhhhhhhhhh…..”

Too Cynical. More soon.

One entry I wrote has already vanished. So, here we go with another one:

2006. What the hecky-thump is going on?

2005 felt like the kind of year where you just put your head down and race for the exit. A ‘getting used to being married’ year. A ‘let’s get over the stresses and strains of 2004’ year. Which is all very well, but it doesn’t get you terribly far in the end.

So, 2006 is going to have to be a transforming year. A year ripe with possibilities. A year when, to be honest, I finally get my first novel com plete, and more besides.

Sleepy. Sleepy. Sleepy. Two hours sleep last night, for a wide variety of reasons. Now I’m in an office with the kind of Air Conditioning that keeps you warm without making you comfortable, and makes you want to close your eyes and drift off up the stairs to Bedfordshire. Or something. At least, everything relating to Christmas is done, and I’ll be heading down to Hampshire quite soon.

There’s stuff happening- and I can’t talk about it. I guess this is where a blog that you know is being read by people you know falls down, as you don’t get the useful “this is under lock and key” feeling that you get with a diary. It doesn’t help that I’m seriously sleep deprived- but I do have a problem, and I need to sort it out. However uncomfortable or difficult it may make life, I need to sort it out.

One thing about this problem (which I can’t talk about) is that it’s made me realise exactly how fantastic my Dad is. I called him to talk about it last night, and then he called me this morning just to check how I was, and to talk things through. It’s easy to take things on trust, but when you realise how much someone cares for you, and the fact that you care for them right back, it’s rather a surprise sometimes.

Trouble is, this is probably making you think I’ve either (a) got a terminal illness or (b) about to be killed by a loan shark. Or any other options that you can think of.

Thankfully, neither of these are the case. It’s nothing that can’t be solved with the ancient Samurai art of conversation…

Once again, I’ve fallen prey to radio silence and left the blog unattended. The thing is, it’s normally proof that life has decided to flatten me with activity- and that’s definitely been the case recently. The preperations for Christmas are almost complete- in short, it’s got to the point where I can stop working, and start actually enjoying it and relaxing. I’m not quite there yet- I’ve still got a day or so of work to go, and George has already headed down to Hampshire, so I’ve got an evening on my lonesome. Sniff.

Very tired at the moment- and feeling very incapable of writing anything witty, urbane- or, in fact, anything at all.

More details soon. Just not right now…

It’s here. I’m listening to it right now. And it’s great. Go get it. It won’t be around for long.

Follow the trail to the ‘American Edit’ mash-up album. Now!!!

For all those who love mash-ups… Dean Gray day starts in just under eight hours.

For full details of how to get the ‘American Edit’ Mash-up album (for a limited time only), go here.

Enjoy…

Some additional stuff- the trailer for Mission Impossible III is up at Yahoo movies, and looks potentially good. It’s directed by J.J. Abrams, it’s got the scrummy Michelle Monaghan (who described my name as “beautiful” thus earning me a moment of pure English ‘did she just say that?’ embarrasment), and the trailer has a nice dark opening with Phillip Seymor Hoffman in scary mode. Certainly better than Tom and his cruciform climbing pose from M.I.2- and no sign of any slow-motion beautiful hair.

Also, is you rummage at BacardiLive.Com you’ll find the trailer for the Miami Vice. It looks… well, it looks very Michael Mann. Boo hiss for not using the theme, and instead going for somewhat anonymous (and not very contemporaneous, considering it’s set in the Eighties) gangsta rap.

Plus- to tie in with my rant about self-referential fairy tale cartoons a little while ago, here’s the trailer for a diabolical piece of swamp-bilge called Hoodwinked that looks to be darkening cinema screens fairly soon. It doesn’t even look like it’s well animated…

And- just while I’m at it- some reviews have turned up on Aint It Cool News here, here and here of V For Vendetta (you’ll have to search for them in the BNAT7 run down)- and they’re gigantically positive. Being a huge fan of the original comic, and having seen the complete fuck-up made of From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I was more than willing to believe this was going to be a disaster, but I may be wrong. I’m withholding judgement until actually seeing it, but even if it’s a halfway decent version, I’ll be happy.

Just realised, I didn’t say a word about interviewing Guillermo Del Toro last week. It was another interview for Hotdog where they want specific things- in this case, his golden rules for making a horror movie. I’d already done something like this with Ray Harryhausen a couple of weeks previously, and it hadn’t gone smoothly- but the guy was an absolute pro from start to finish. I explained the set-up- and basically just sat back and let him talk for about twenty minutes. Intelligent, funny, and one of the easiest and most enjoyable interviews I’d done for ages. The man’s a star.

More soon. I’m currently tinkering with a review, and I’ve got to get it finished before I can think straight.

So, this is Christmas. And what have we done?

I think I’ve realised that I’m terribly cyclical in the way I do things. I go through intense bursts of activity, and then I’ll leave whatever it is happily alone for the next three months before having another intense, mad burst of activity. It can’t be good for me, whatever it is.

I’m getting to the end of a major burst of writing- one of the main reasons for my blog silence. Any time away from typing is often a blessing. I’ve got two more reviews to write (one of which is a very long review on a decidedly uninteresting book), but almost everything else is wrapped up. I’ve also got to nag Highbury (the owners of Hotdog magazine) about the fact that it might be nice if somebody paid me some money for the insane amount of work I’ve done for them over the past few months. I’m such a card for actually expecting to get paid, but hey…

George went out for a wild night on the tiles last night at her work Christmas Party. Said before going, “I’ll definitely be back on the last tube.” Actually arrived back by Taxi at 3AM. I didn’t sit dramatically in the dark, waiting for her to turn the light on so I could exclaim “What time do you call this?” because, frankly, I was asleep. It can be a little disconcerting when she doesn’t call to tell me she’s going to be late, but it’s usually just a sign that she’s having a wonderful time.

I’m looking forward to Christmas, and the chance to actually sort some stuff out in my life.

There’ll be some more fun stuff here soon. Promise.

(If you believe that, you’ll believe anything.)

Late at night on a strange, work-heavy day. Spent most of today staring at the article I’m working on at the moment, but I’m also quite proud that I managed to do an hour of writing this morning, which was quite the most rewarding thing I did all day. On top of that, I managed to finish off a review and do a rough version of another one, so, all things said and done, I’ve actually gotten a ridiculous amount done. I had dinner at 7ish, kept going until nine-ish, and then my brain officially shut down.

I’ve now got two days of subbing at IPC- which will either be utterly boring, or a nice change from spending 90% of my time in my flat. I’ve also realised that I need to be a hell of a lot more regimented with my time. And that completing the book I’m working on is something that I genuinely, genuinely want to do. It’s a strange realisation, but a very nice one.

I’m reading a fantasy/historical epic all about Dragons in the Napoleonic War at the moment- the frustrating thing is that I really want to read The Seven Basic Plots, but it’s one of those heavy-duty books that’s going to take me a long, long time. And I’ve got the new Neal Asher to write. (And I’ve got Guillermo Del Toro to interview about his first film next week. The phrase “Gulp” comes to mind). I need a 27 hour day just to be able to fit everything in.

Also saw a Hong Kong romantic comedy called Drink Drank Drunk last night, which was frothy, nutty and wonderfully sweet in a way that Hollywood romcoms never seem to be able to manage. There’s an energy to Asian romcoms that occasionally is terribly disarming, and their ability to demolish traditional gender roles is quite nice. It was also an extreme surprise to see the woman I’d previously seen in the amazingly icky horror movie Dumplings playing the lead role- another thing about Asian stars, is that they’re often prepared to do stuff that’s totally different from their usual image in a way that just doesn’t happen in Hollywood. More please!