The third review. I would have had both completed, if I hadn't been preoccupied with Smidgen. Of the three I've written so far, I think I'm proudest of this one, although I may have outdone myself on my yappiness in that this review may be longer than the actual film itself. Ha.

Le Cirque du Destin

It has been said that one of the most honest faces on Earth is that of a clown’s. It has also been said that the face of madness can most often be found behind a mask of laughter. In The Circus of Destiny, the viewer is introduced to this myriad of emotions via Scott McClure’s subtle understanding of the medium of silent film.

Le Cirque du Destin tells the story of a young Parisian mime whose talent at knife-throwing is legendary, in that he never misses his mark. But his is a tragic tale which is told in a series of retrospectives as seen through the mime’s blade-sharp memory. As the ringmaster introduces the mime to the audience, the mime introduces his backstory to the viewer. We see him transform from a foolish youth to a young fool in a mere handful of minutes, and at the hands of his devious and selfish childhood friend Etiénne. As the story and backstory merge, the viewer is left with one little question: who gets the last laugh?

Written and directed by Scott McClure the plot is told almost exclusively in the players’ faces. McClure’s mime in particular carries the viewer through every emotion the character feels, every slight he suffers and, inevitably, every nuance of anger and madness to which he succumbs. The story is told in just over ten minutes and is certain to haunt even the most jaded viewer as one wonders where exactly that last blade lands and what happens to our tragic mime once it does? Repeated viewings will only serve to do two things: provide the viewer with even more questions as layers of the story one may have missed on initial viewing are imparted, and reveal the complex beauty that’s often overlooked, yet can only be found in silent film.

Between what?

Between web work and fretting, that's what.

Wellll, technically, it's not web work. Phade's doing that, just like the web developer did for the original Shriekback.com, but I'm doing a good bit of the writing. The Joker Blogs bio I'd already pieced together, so that's already good to go. No, it's not a bio of the actor, it's a bio of how the Blogs got started. Now, I'm onto writing the intros for each episode's script, which are going to be made available on the site. I was actually asked if that would be something of interest to put up on the site. ::boggle:: With all the clamouring I've heard about those scripts, I figured that'd be the first thing that should go up on a Joker Blogs website! I just never thought I'd be the one helping get them up and available to everyone. While Phade and I do that, chatting as needed to help synchronise our efforts, the new moderators of the Joker Blogs forums have been left to be eaten by the angry mob that is Blog Boy's fan base. Little did they know I was choosing them for a certain death. No, seriously (yeah!), they're doing a great job, and allowing me to do another job which I hope will measure up. Many props to them.

Now, for the fretting. As 12 July draws ever closer, I'm starting to cry in my beer a little bit about the invitation from Johnette out to the LA gig. Not that I have any beer but, I swear, I may buy a shit load on 12 July and just get smashed as hell. No, I'm gonna buy liquor and cry in that. I'm gonna drown my sorrows starting about the time the music begins to play out west. It sucks to have no money, kids. I don't recommend it. Not..One..Bit.. So, all that said, have some lyrics. This is the first Concrete Blonde song I ever heard and it's still a special favourite. Ironically, Johnette sings about Los Angeles. Who'da thought?

Roses Grow by Concrete Blonde
L.A
Who'da thought
Right smack dab in the middle of what
With the belching buses
And broken bones
DEVIL POUR ME ANOTHER SHOT
Hey, hey
L.A.
Who'da thought

L.A.
After closing when it's down to me
And the same old souls
Well Johnny's all right if you buy him a gin
He'll tell you his stories about Errol Flynn
He even danced with Marilyn!
No way!
Thats what they say
DEVIL POUR ME ANOTHER SHOT!
Hey, hey
L.A.
Who'da thought

Up through the cracks
Up through the broken glass
In the hot red light of a black and white
Roses grow

Roxy is in tonight
She's styling around in her fishnet tights
And she's got more life at 65
Than the teenage boys she keeps up all night
Heavy metal
Young hard cock
What, can't you handle that kind of talk?
The strippers here they really rock
DEVIL POUR ME ANOTHER SHOT
Hey, hey
L.A.
Who'da thought

Up through the cracks
Up through the broken glass
In the hot red light of a black and white
Roses grow
Up through the glass (Up through the glass)
Up through the broken glass (Up through the broken glass)
In the hot red light of a black and white (In the hot red of a black and white)
Roses grow
Roses grow
Roses grow
Roses grow....

Okay, now that I'm done sniveling, it's back to work for me!

I just finished the final uploads of all the 40 second song samples for Barry Andrews. All I need to do now is wait for his approval before creating the music page. The song index on the insert for "And If I Refuse?" didn't match with what is on the CD, so I had some difficulties there and need B to make certain everything is A-OK before proceeding further.

Also, my "Sui Generis" block is gone and I've finally got that bastard Nissius killed. It's now time for Cadmus to reveal what he knows about the chalice and give Kelat the shocking news that she's a mum. HA! I still don't know how she'll react to this revelation. Will she weep? Will she be horrified? Will she accept it with calm resignation? I guess I'll find out when I get her there. I'm considering not including "Sui Generis" as a chapter in The Chalice; instead, I was thinking of making it an appendix at the end of the book, behind the Vampire Lexicon. It's awfully long for a chapter in the book, compared to the other chapters, that is. I don't want to give any readers (if there are any) a sense of stagnation when they fall into the abyss of Cadmus' biography. I don't know. I just don't know. Maybe once the second draft is complete and I see it all as a full organism, my decision will be an easy one.

I was hoping to finish the second draft of The Chalice before school begins, but that's not gonna happen. But I've written my own stuff while doing school work before.....when I was 20 years younger than I am now. BAH! I can do it. ::firm nods:: I see no reason why I can't juggle website maintenance, writing a book, doing school work, and noting my progress with all of it in my journal. It might drive me crazy, but at least the trip will be a short one and I hear the sights are to die for.

Ah, and for anyone interested, you can access the song samples here: Barry Andrews' music. There are three folders in this directory. One for "Haunted Box of Switches," his piano and vocal work, one for "Stic Basin," his techno work, and one for his early solo work. A person can get a pretty good idea of how versatile and talented this scary fellow is. Shriekback fans may be interested in the "Haunted Box" files, because he does acoustic piano versions of "Faded Flowers" and "This Big Hush." It's sure to make the hairs on the tops of your toe knuckles stand on end.

I can't seem to access my FTP page, so I'll just do the update for Barry's site here for now.

You may download the free
Shriekback Song of the Month by clicking here.

24 April, 2006

April:: a Cruel but Fair Month

Bazzer in the Belfry

In another one of those 'isn't-life-strange?' moments I find myself recently ensconced in
a recording studio underneath the clocktower of Swindon Town Hall trading as a 'Musician
in Residence'. My function is as yet fairly nebulous but it seems will orbit around the
twin poles of inspirational instruction and developing the place as a bona fide recording
studio. Sweet.



I'm using my own justly famous 'On-the-Hoof' mobile studio and the Boro' of Swindon's
studio space. All this takes place under the umbrella of an august body known as 'cre8'
and its bossman Stuart Webb whose mission it is to bring the digital black arts to the
good folks of Swinnners.



So far we recorded King Strut (Paul and Tash Griffith's band) and Martyn came up to put
some drums on new material for the next Shriekback album -yes, that's right, you
encouraged us now we're going to follow you home..



So anyway: I'm looking for interesting projects to do -recording, writing, people who'd
like to learn about making music with machines, what have you. My personal idea is to get
a bit of a Civic Cultural Renaissance going: a bubbling cauldron of creativity seething up
under these ancient rafters.



If anyone wants to propose something or wants a bit of moral/musical guidance please get
in touch on (44) 01793 463228.





UT No More

UT the freeform project with Andy Partridge and Martyn Barker is being mixed as we speak
and the idea is mooted to do an accompanying album of savagely recycled treatments from
the source material by Swindon producer/musicians Stuart Rowe and Merv Carswell.



But -bummer- Andy found out that the name had already been nabbed by a bunch of American
girls in the 80's. So we're nameless again. Ideas?



Song of the Month is a bit late, but it will be worth the wait by God
-mystery guest vocalist.



Contain yourselves, dammit.. all in good time..

Although I feel a wee teeny-tiny bit better, it's only because I passed the Garmonbozia to Aunt Tudi. If I looked half as bad when I was at my worst as she does now, I'm surprised she didn't try to euthanise me. I'm still considering the pillow-over-the-face technique. (for any "lawmakers" reading this, I'm KIDDING! Do not send the Law & Order: WTF unit to my door!)

I'm trying the new Yahoo! beta e-mail and it's so far slower than my dead great-granny. But I do rather like the preview frame and the ability to do mass commands with little effort. The speed issues are probably mine, since I'm still on crap dial-up.

Speaking of passing things on, I passed on my password for barryandrews.net to Barry Andrews and he had a look 'round at the guts and innards of the site. He mentioned getting some help to sort it all out so he could contribute directly. I imagine it did look a bit daunting. Hell, I remember seeing the directory for a site for the first time and thinking to myself that I would never EVER be able to do anything like that. But I do now, albeit badly. I still have way too much to learn and lack the brain power to do so. Once B sorts it out, he'll probably excel in all of it and then will no longer need me at all. And what do you do with things you no longer need? Why, you dispose of them of course!

In the meantime, I'm going to be working on the song-by-song for a while now. I'd say it's about bloody time.

I've got big honkin' buttloads of stuff for B's site. And I'm running behind because I've been on the road for most of the day.

BUT! We have Motley home. She still has some medicine to finish up, but she's no longer contagious and that's all that matters since my abode is a zoo already.

Aunt Tudi is putting up groceries and I'm catching up on e-mail and LJ before I immerse myself in Barryland. It's like Disneyland, but scarier.