Admittedly, Linda Barnes’ 1989 224 page novella The Snake Tattoo doesn’t look too crap, although it doesn’t look that great either. A “Carlotta Carlyle Mystery”, it certainly is a title, series, and writer I’ve never come across or heard about. The title screams cheesy generic mystery with a central iconic image or theme, while the photo-art on the cover
Read moreLatest Posts
Accepting Expectations of Exceptions
So recently I found myself in the cinema, enjoying a film without pre-existing fandom, or a belief in the idea of “good-bad” films. Somebody deigned to tell me that my enjoyment was only because I had no expectations of the film at hand. I find myself wholly resenting this assumption that it is only possible to enjoy something if you already expect it to
Read more
When tradition becomes Tradition
Traditional Lemonade is supposed to taste like hand crushed lemonade sold at the side of streets by sweaty urchins in deep summer. It costs more than conventional clear lemonade and is available in a variety of bottle sizes and brands. This isn’t news. It’s seems that for a long time that anything can be made “Traditional” by slapping a pricetag on it
Read more
Looking back at yourself looking forward to yourself Genuinely expect the genuinely unexpected
Eight years ago a skinny short-haired guy who had the same face and DNA as me bundled most if not all of his worldly possessions and hopes into a van and moved it up to Manchester. It was a largely impulsive decision based on lingering background expectations of what a new life there might comprise. If you asked that guy a year before if he expected to be
Read more
3D Cinema It looks even worse when you wink..
3D cinema looks shit because life looks shit. Hmm, perhaps this argument requires a few more words. Three dimensional cinema takes the content from the far wall and places it in the space between you and that wall. That may sound pretty simple and obvious, but it’s key to the fact that 3D adds depth. There are close objects and far objects, and there
Read moreWriting Writing On Writing
The easiest and most unique thing to write is a writing guide. No other How-To guide can be so full of regrets and failed expectations, and still be taken seriously. An unpublished writer can tell you what you should do, tell you the best way to get something published, how difficult that is, and the common traps to avoid. An unemployed bricklayer will
Read more
Their names are Bonnie & Clyde, and they Bonnie & Clyde When does a crime become an institution?
Often when stood at a cashpoints/ATMs in the dark with a sufficient number of people around me whom the media has at some point told me to fear, I find myself overly concerned with the possibility of a cashpoint mugging. It dawns on me with odd clarity that it is just that- “A Cashpoint Mugging” of which I’m afraid, not someone opportunistically taking
Read more
His name is Jon and he collects thimbles.
What follows is a fictionalized short of a man I met during a hospital stay in late 2010. His name is Jon and he collects thimbles, not that anyone asked him that. Only he’s never paid for, stolen, or exchanged something for a thimble in his life. For some reason he can’t remember he found himself with some thimbles, and bought a display stand for
Read more
On Cliche, and Builders
There are builders in my flat. Despite their apologies for waking me up, and the way they cautiously introduced themselves, I was completely expecting them. Frankly it would be just rude of them not to come and replace my door when they’ve been replacing all the doors in the building for a week now. I don’t mind the drilling. I don’t mind the hammering.
Read more