the sanctuary:

I just saw a taxi painted like a Tunnock's wafer. Swear to god!
posted at 4:09 PM

Apparently, Supermouse and Pol are married. Married!

I don't care if you don't know who they are, why didn't anyone tell me before?
posted at 8:56 PM

So. I got a phone call on Friday.

"Hi, it's Simon," - Simon's Australian, and he wants to make films of my scripts, so we like Simon - "Listen, I'm meeting this guy, a director, his name's Chris Noonan. You remember Babe?"

"Yuh-huh," because I did. Talking pigs, all that stuff. I have to say I thought it was George 'Mad Max' Miller, but that was just the screenplay it turns out.

"Anyway, I'd like to pitch him Maskerade," Maskerade being the script I've already done, not the script I'm working on a treatment for. "Do you have a treatment for Maskerade?"

"Ooh, er.." No. "I don't think so." No. "No."

"Do you think you can get one together for my meeting with him on Monday?"

Stop. You're all aware of the time difference, yes? This is Friday. Monday is not far away. And Simon's not going to want it for Monday morning. Sunday would be nice. That, to me, is Saturday night.

"I'll try."

I needed to write a treatment from scratch in just over a day. Aha. Ahahaa.

Well, I did it. Without the need to blackout the windows and consume a ton of mescalin, I sat in a bedroom and did it all. 5 pages, okay, you're thinking not a lot, but trust me, that's not easy stuff. I've been working on the other treatment for months, and I still can't get it. Luckily, I know this script backwards and, well... Look, I did it, okay? And I got Sunday off, to take advantage of London Open House and we went for a trip round the Hoover Building which is simply gorgeous. I've been an admirer of that building for years, and the chance to see round... Woo, cool.
posted at 12:44 PM

Arr! Me hearties! Ye Landlubbers should know it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Me timbers are shiverin' at the thought o' it!
posted at 10:52 AM

Just seen Alien the director's cut on the big screen. Wow. So timeless, so terrifying, so beautiful. Like the alien of the title. I admire its purity.

On the subject of terrifying movies, Ring. Or Ringu, if you want to make it sound like a play-doh penguin. First time through, you want to see what the victims see when they die.. And yet, when you see that, you really wish you hadn't. Cool as. I don't know why I thought of that, but I figured I'd share.
posted at 8:44 PM

Well, I added a (hopefully functional) link to the Sanctuary blog archive at the bottom, so if you get down to the last post and are still itching for more, you're frankly amazingly thick-skinned. Just don't expect anything good, or even coherent, okay?

I will, I promise, get round to making this a full site. The index page will be more than a goddamn picture of Link in his boat - cute and awesome though this image may be. The full works, when I get to it. You know. Blog, writing, reviews, links, a picture here and there. Maybe.

So, anyway, I'm losing another collaborator, and, dammit, a friend, one of the few I still have any contact with these days. I dunno, I think I repel people I can work with. There is a small - vanishingly small - number of human persons I can comfortably bounce ideas off, and I've lost touch with all except one, and he's now off to the US. Well, good luck to you, old boy. I hope, I really do, that it goes well, because, let's face it, cool.
posted at 6:39 PM

Two years since even the usually callous and flippant Sanctuary was blackened as a mark of shocked respect. Seems longer, funnily enough. Think I have to observe the minute's silence, since, well, it would seem a bit odd not to. You know? The essentials of the event which so affected me are unchanged, regardless of the actions of the US since. It was a horrible thing, and remains so. How long this reverence will remain is an open question...

In a totally different vein of nostalgia, Radio 1 just played Theme From S'Express. Jesus. I almost expoded, inner child outwards.
posted at 8:57 AM

I miss the internet. Oh, cruel IT department, barring my Guardian access... just because people can get a bit sweary sometimes. Is that a crime? People of the world! Is that a crime? I miss afp, I miss Guardian Film, I miss Penny Arcade, I miss having a functioning website. Well, no more! This has to end! Either I get on, or I quit.
posted at 4:28 PM

You know, I really can't think of a single thing to say. Sorry. I'll try again later.
posted at 12:55 PM

I'm soon going to have finished The Two Towers, and I haven't yet bought Return of the Jedi. King. Sorry. King. The Two Towers is great for poncey high fantasy talk. The Riders of Rohan all declaim rather than speak, it's wonder they ever get through a conversation with normal people. Not that there are normal people in Middle Earth. They'd feel a bit lost, I suspect. You ask Eomer for directions to the toilet and see how far that gets you.
In other news, I heard Danger! High voltage! and Cannonball in quick succession on Xfm today, meaning it officially rocked this afternoon. This was after retuning from Magic FM's Corrs marathon, so double rock. I felt as Lauren Laverne said she did - 14 years old again, wearing DMs with Tipp-ex on...
posted at 5:08 PM

So, they're just about to execute this guy in Florida for shooting dead an abortion doctor. And I'm torn, because on the one hand I absolutely oppose the death penalty, you can't help but think "Yes, that's about right, you sick little puppy". Of course, then you have the martyrdom aspect which, naturally, he's playing up. And that's the last thing we want. Gah.

I don't want him to be killed. I don't actually want anyone to be killed. Die, yeah, sure, I want everyone to die, otherwise we'll have a housing crisis the like of which we'll never have seen bef.. Oh, never mind. I'd prefer a long, long life sentence and perhaps education. But you feel like it wouldn't help this guy. He genuinely believes it's worth taking a human life in order to prevent the destruction of non-sentient cell bundles. It's difficult to talk about crime and punishment these days without sounding like a Daily Mail editorial, but, really, you have to throw away the key for these people. Or perhaps we could invent a time machine and send them back to the goddamn Dark Ages where they'd feel right at home.


{{{by the way. this week i didn't mention the anniversary. you'll need to guess exactly when it was, but it's now been just over a year since her and me got together. i've had to separate this off so it don't connect to the above rant. because that would be weird.}}}
posted at 12:58 PM