The Housebound Writer

13/04/2010 - ??????

2011-12-05T16:20:00.000Z

I'm not dead honest!!!!!!

2011-09-22T16:57:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since I wrote anything on the blog and some of you out there actually thought I was dead well I aint I have just been busy for the last month. Busy???? You may ask or may not haha well yeah I know I am a guy that doesn't usually have much going on but I have recently met a girl, fell in love and moved in all in the space of some, some months.

I have also been attempting to piece together a possible podcast I am interested in producing on a bi-monthly basis which would feature regular interviews with people working or attempting to find work in the entertainment industry. I have put feelers out to possible interviewees and have had good feed back I just have to find the time to sit down and actually talk for 40 minutes about whatever springs to mind each fortnight.

I am also prepping a return to writing about the inhabitants of my fictional town Orchid Grove as I feel burned out as of late writing in the screenplay format so I'm taking a step sideways and writing a collection of short stories for the time being to get my creative juices flowing once again and the return to a favourite universe for me is the best way I could think to do so.

I'm also open to Ideas about what content should be included in the podcast so feel free to contribute with any ideas people I like to get feedback and opinions from you guys and gals out there so either by comment on here or by email you can reach me. Well that's enough for this post I'll be back sooner next time I hope (fingers crossed) until then...

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Movie Trailers: Or What A Lazy Guy Puts On His Blog!!!

2011-08-05T14:04:00.000+01:00

With this likely to be the last Batman film with both Christopher Nolan & Christian Bale it looks like they are ending the trilogy with a bang. Hopefully they can build on the Dark Knight and create another exciting and dark tale to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

This is one of those films that will either be a great thrill ride or a major flop only time will tell, I am hopeful with the cast involved, Statham, De Niro and Owen should spark off each other so could be a good flick.

I saw a trailer for this at the cinema recently and thought it looked.... well it looked like a good date movie not sure it would be a good film to just see with some buddies but as a date flick it looks not bad.

Another flick that would fall into the date flick category and another one that looks not to bad but there is always that feeling that all the best bits are in the trailer just like with Hangover 2 earlier in the year.

I'm going to be honest I thought this was a rib when I heard about a film based on the game Battleships but nope it got made and answers that question I've had for the longest time which was is there anything Hollywood won't make into a movie? Seemingly no there isn't.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Challenge

2011-07-28T16:05:00.000+01:00

I was challenged by Tim from http://thetimebi.blogspot.com/ to list 10 things I love and here is my belated list sorry it took so long for me to make it I was busy recently with a bunch of stuff going on both personally and with my writing and got behind with my other commitments.

10 Screenwriting- Be it sitting down with a well-tailored outline or just winging it and hoping for the best the craft of screenwriting is something that fascinates me still and with each new script I learn something new about the process and about myself.

9 Film making- I haven’t done this for a long time but desperately wish to again very soon, I miss the search for answers to unpredictable problems that go with shooting guerrilla style.

8 Movies- From the moment I watched E.T. for the first time I’ve been hooked on watching movies of all kinds no matter if they are good, bad or indifferent I always get something from them.

7 Music- I listen to music all the time as a way to cope with my health issues and if you ask anyone close to me they will tell you I listen to some terrible music but it helps with the pain and the depression.

6 MMA- Probably not what most people would associate me with enjoying but I have been fascinated by martial arts since I was a kid and find the sport very enjoyable.

5 Philosophy- I have read philosophy books for a long time and find comfort and at times annoyance in them but mainly comfort.

4 My Country- Yep I may take the mick from time to time about my Country but deep down I’m a patriotic kind of guy.

3 Comedy- everybody loves a good laugh and if it’s Billy Connolly, Dara O’Briain or Jim Carrey I love both stand-up comedy and film comedy I have found them both a great way to kick back and relax and forget about anything crap going on in my life.

2 Family- Probably a popular pick for most people or maybe not haha just depends I guess if you had a good upbringing or not.

1 My Girlfriend Emma- I’ll get pelters from people, definitely from my brothers for this one but hey I don’t care it’s the truth.

So there is my list of 10 random things I love, I hope to have some updates about some possible ventures I have lined up in the not too distant future in my next post but untill then.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Get Well Soon Script

2011-07-21T21:04:00.001+01:00

Just a short post today as I'm posting the link to my screenplay so here it is;

http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=2998942&da=y

This link should take you to my short script entitled "Get Well Soon" hope you guys like it.

*edit* 22/07/2011 00:30am
When i checked this link earlier it worked then when I checked it again now it wasn't so I am not sure if you can only view the script if you are also a member of the file share site which is annoying if true.
*edit*
Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Lazy Housebound Writer Part ??????

2011-07-18T17:00:00.000+01:00

Yep I've had reasons to be behind on my writing recently some bad some very, very good we'll take a look at the bad here it's less complicated, haha. As I stated in my previous post my email and facebook profile were hacked and I went through a lengthy time consuming and in the end rather pointless procedure to attempt to regain control of them as the hacker lost interest fairly sharpish, thankfully (fingers crossed) and hasn't attempted anything untoward as it pertains to me or a certain other person that was getting a lot of unneeded unfair treatment flung her way for a good 4 or 5 days now. If anyone else is still being inundated with messages or emails from the hacker please let me know so I can try to help anyway I can.

I have recently finished a short 10 minute film script entitled "Get Well Soon" which I had in my head for a couple of weeks and the first draft took me maybe an hour or so to write which just goes to prove procrastination can actually speed things along from time to time. I'll post up a PDF of the script as soon as possible as I'm currently waiting on for a host site to get back to me about hosting it. I'll also be taking up the challenge from my friend Tim from over at http://thetimbi.blogspot.com/ which if you've never paid that blog a visit you really should it is a truly great blog, well, well worth a visit and a follow.

For those who put your names on that sponsor form for the charity donation if I can go till the 8th of August without cutting my hair well it's 2 months in folks and I am still looking like a very bad reject from the 80s and I'm not really intending to cut my hair before I cross the finish line in August no matter how much I want to cos the cause itself that the money is being raised for means more to me that me looking like a complete idiot for a few months so get your wallets and purses ready for that day in a few weeks time haha. I also want an opinion here is this not the most random picture to send someone?

just what am I supposed to be looking at here? You know who you are that sent it what gives, you nut? A back garden in Plains, Scotland mmhh interesting, haha, this is up there with that picture of a tiny dent in your tinier car you sent like three weeks ago what is with the random nature of the pictures? Hahaha. Anyhoo I'll leave it there for now.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Hacked!!!

2011-07-06T15:18:00.000+01:00

My email account and facebook account were both hacked yesterday at 2pm UK time and although I later regained control of both accounts they have again been hacked and now with Facebook I have to wait 24 hours to retry to gain back access. Was this just a case of random hacking? Was I just an unlucky victim of the current Internet craze of identity theft? The answer to both those questions is no it was in fact the case of a seriously disturbed person seeking revenge on me and a new special friend of mine for being well simply special friends as bizarre as that sounds so I would recommend anyone receiving messages on Facebook or emails from me in the last 24 hours to delete them as they were as I said sent by someone else.

I hope to have this all cleared up in the next day or two and put the madness once and for all behind me but I don't quite know how long this game of hacking is going to persist. Anyone wanting to contact me can do so here in my comments for this blog entry in the meantime and I'll send my new interim email address info to you and I'll go into more details in a private email rather in such a public forum as this although trust in the fact I'd quite happily say what I thought of this person here but for the sake of all else involved I'll bite my tongue for now.

I guess at least one good thing has come from all this I have broken through my persistent writer's block I have had for the last month and now only have to find the time between trying to salvage my facebook profile and email contact lists to actually sit down and start to write again. I hope to start updating my blog more often again in the near future as apart from this nuisance I've been for the last few weeks really enjoying life for the first time in a long time all thanks to one person that I'll mention in the next blog post I would imagine. I would like to take this time to personally appologise to anyone who may have been sent disgustingly offensive emails from my email they were not written by me but as this is a person hellbent on messing with my life by taking it out on my friends I feel very responsible for any distraught caused to you or anybody else who read the email.

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

RIP Peter Falk

2011-06-24T19:05:00.000+01:00

Legendary star of the hit television show Columbo Peter Falk has died at the age of 83 at his home in Beverly Hills on Thursday 23rd or June. he leaves behind a legacy on both the small and big screen with notable roles in such films as Husbands, The In-Laws and A Woman Under The Influence and in such television shows as Naked City, The Trials Of O'Brien and of course the title role that defined his career in Columbo.

PETER FALK 16.09.1927 - 23.06.2001

Doodles and Time Loss

2011-05-31T18:13:00.000+01:00

I haven't been keeping to well the last couple of weeks hence the gap between blog posts and as I haven't been well I have fell behind on writing assignments and pet projects of mine which is really annoying me so all I have to show for the last two weeks are a couple of doodles I did for a laugh one night when I couldn't sleep. So here they are hope you enjoy them.

First up is my attempt to draw Sir Sean Connery which I think bares a slight resemblance to the great man at best.

Next up is my poor attempt at drawing the King of rock 'n' roll Elvis Presley which didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped for if I'm honest with you, haha.

Anyhoo I hope you guys get at least a laugh out of how bad they are haha and hopefully I'll be back with some more updates on my writing projects on the next blog post.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Wasteland

2011-05-16T17:14:00.000+01:00

Wasteland is a television pilot script I have recently been researching and trying to write. It is about a psychic named Connor Song who is implicated in a young woman's murder so he not only has to solve the case to prove his innocence he must also prove his abilities to the sceptical Detective Inspector Bonnie Morran who is leading the case. I hope it will lead to a full series where Song helps the begrudging police force to solve their more complex crimes and also allow me to delve deeper into his murky past as well as his troubled relationship with his 12 year old daughter who feels detached from her father due to his unending search to discover what truly happened to his wife 6 years before when she mysteriously vanished.

It is some ways the hardest script I have ever written and in other the easiest I'll try to explain this the best I can. What is easy about writing this script is at its core it is a drama about a single parent who is trying to raise his daughter the best he can while trying to balance his work which takes him away from her all the time. He is a somewhat famous tv/ theatre psychic and bestselling author of books on the occult so his work takes him all over the UK leaving his young daughter behind in the care of her aunt and when he is home he spends most of his time trying to investigate his wife's disappearance this schedule does little to diminish his daughter's belief that he cares more about what happened to her mother than he does about her.

The hard part of writing this script is the more I research the more questions I end up with instead of answers. I have finally put in stone what psychic abilities he possesses which took many many hours of consideration and a lot of great help from a good friend of mine who has helped me immeasurably in this area. The problem is I don't as of yet fully understand the complex nature of one of these abilities completely or honestly at all. He has the ability to read tarot cards which many of you may think is relatively easy to write about but in practise it is very complex. Each set of cards has a significance and each card in that set has a significance that I just can't quite get to grips with as yet which is probably to do with the fact that I can't really seem to learn many new things these days probably to do with the brain damage I have suffered over the years which makes this aspect of the character alien to me which is devastating for a writer.

The investigation and crime within the pilot episode is not that difficult to write as I can hear the police officers voices clearly in my head and we all have the basic knowledge of how a murder is investigated. I have recently been in email correspondence with an ex CID detective from London and he has filled in many of the blanks for me without going into to much detail for obvious reasons after all I could have been a nut trying to get tips on how to get away with murder, haha. For the show to be successful in my opinion the character of Detective Inspector Bonnie Morran has to be as strong a character as Connor Song otherwise it becomes less dramatic when they have confrontations and there is less of a chance for there to be any chemistry between the characters in later episodes. I think all too often with television shows they concentrate on creating one memorable character at the expense of all the others which to me is frankly stupid and boring to watch as a viewer.

I'll keep you guys up to date on my progress with the script and with trying to get it into production. It will be a long process as I plan on writing and rewriting this till I get it as close to perfect as possible. Anyhoo that is enough for now I got to get back to writing this script and thinking of a way to make tomorrow not happen ha ha I hit the 29 mark tomorrow which many may be shocked by as they seem to think I'm 35 years old for some reason ha ha.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

What? Where? When? Who? Trailers!!!!

2011-05-08T09:37:00.000+01:00

Yep another collection of trailers graces the blog as I am currently neck deep in the writing process on my latest script which has my muse working me overtime. So as I have done nothing of real note this week other than write but not write anything I feel I can quite show here yet I decided to go trailers this time, big shock right???

First up a documentary called How To Live Forever a flick I'm very interested in seeing as everyone I know that has seen advanced screening say it is very intriguing and well put together.

Everything Must Go is a film that has sneaked past my radar so that alone intrigues me that and it stars Will Ferrell.

Next is a Bollywood horror film named Haunted 3D yes even Bollywood films are getting the 3D treatment, anyone else think this whole 3D thing is getting stale again?

I don't really need to say anything for this film it's Kung Fu Panda 2 we all know what we are getting from this one not that it is necessarily a bad thing folks.

I hope to be able to post some stuff from my latest script up very soon and possibly some other content also that I am currently considering doing for which I'll keep you guys posted.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Writing by the Housebound Writer

2011-04-28T08:28:00.027+01:00

It struck me the other day that I haven't placed much in the way of writing samples on the blog for a while so I decided to place this opening paragraph from a story I'm working on up here. It's probably a strange sample to post but I am working on it right now so I felt it was somewhat relevant. I'm currently researching and developing the idea for television and am just exploring the character and concept a little by writing it in this form before I get down to the nitty gritty of writing the pilot episode. I have become extremely interested of late in the possibilities that the small screen opens up to a writer. You get to really delve into characters in more exciting ways and in much more depth than a 2 hour movie could ever allow. Anyhoo if you are new to this blog don't expect greatness off the bat I am a mediocre writer at best this is just a small snippet of what is to come as I am still researching all the ins and outs and haven't settled on certain aspects yet.

Burden- The Princess and The Frog

Is a cup ever truly half empty or half full or is it just a fine line between happiness and desolation? Is the future written in stone or is it just written on the sand with the tide rushing in? At first the darkness would only occupy Connor Song’s soul for the briefest of time after he entered its world to find the truth but of late the darkness had eclipsed the light and his escape window had been trickier to locate once on the inside but alas his burden wouldn’t allow him to hide from destiny and destiny was calling him ever so loud and ever so very clear. It had been four days since little Rosie Miller vanished while walking home from primary school. She had made that very trip home many times before always accompanied by her best friend Talia Walker and Talia’s sweet natured and soft spoken grandmother but on that fated day Rosie made the short trip home alone and home escaped her but she didn’t escape her captor for that Connor was sure and now her pink princess bedroom is haunted by the vulgar silence where once child’s laughter danced merrily. Connor watched as the sun danced through the tree branches overhead as the taxi he occupied travelled along the picturesque suburban street on that early autumn day. A leaf flirted with the wind and finally made its descent to the pavement below to rest alongside its family. Connor lost in thought seemed lost in another world entirely to the bemused taxi driver as he turned to gather his well-deserved fare from the C list celebrity seated behind him. Connor without being prompted or told of the price for his journey handed a bundle of folded notes over to his bewildered driver and gave him that nod that all taxi drivers hope for the nod that says keep the change.

Anyhoo

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Me an award? You're joking right???

2011-04-21T22:26:00.000+01:00

I was given this award by Johnny Madrid aka Tim E. who writes an awe inspiring blog that you can find by following this link: Just Johnny... http://thetimebi.blogspot.com/ and I can't thank him enough for it. I don't exactly win a lot of awards for anything let alone this oddball collection of ramblings and scribbles I call a blog so I am very thankful indeed. Now there are some rules to receiving this award you give a thanks and a link back to the person who gave it too you (which goes without saying) you also have to share 7 things about yourself (I'll get to that in a bit), award 5-15 other bloggers yourself and of course contact them and tell them of their award.

I didn't have to give to much thought to who I would in turn give this award too so here are the people receiving this award from me in no particular order...

Linda Martin             http://www.needleinanewgroove.com/
Aheila the Writeaholic http://thewriteaholicblog.wordpress.com/
Jeremy Janson http://hailingfromgeorgia.blogspot.com/
Ursa Hawthorne   http://www.dyerintherough.com/
Sam Bowron        http://anightmareonsamityvillestreet.blogspot.com/

OK so 7 random facts about me this will be hard to think of stuff I haven't already written on one of these 70+ blog posts so far but here goes nothing...

1. I have lived in the UK all my life (best part of 30 years) and I have only visited London once and it was for a football game this year strangely it was a Scotland game why it wasn't played in Scotland I have no idea.
2. Ironically as a guy who stands anywhere between 6'6" and 6'8" depending on how bad my back is hurting me I have a problem with heights I don't like them be it on a ladder or high building I don't like it at all haha.
3. I am a diehard Airdrie United Football fan but have been to so few games over the last five seasons I feel like a fraud for saying so.
4. As a writer I find writing about dark subject matter much easier than anything else so either I'm nuts or I just have a good imagination........ I think I may be nuts haha.
5. For my work experience placement at high school I spent a week working at my local newspaper learning everything from reporting to printing and loved every minute of it.
6. In the last 6 months I was assigned to write a web series but after seeing the poorly executed 8 minute pilot episode I had my writing credit changed from Andrew Carson to Randal Fleming Jr. to try and distance myself from it but saying that if a second series goes into pre pro Randal will be happy to return to writing duties for a rewarding fee.
7. I am planning to either make it or break from it this year when it comes to my writing. If I don't sell something before the end of the year I will find some other kind of profession and just write as a hobby. No pressure then on me to succeed huh? haha.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

So Many Trailers So Little Time

2011-04-15T17:37:00.037+01:00

Hopefully this will work and post on the 15th I say hopefully coz I haven't ever done this before I always just post when I've written it so there is a good chance I'll come back to no update on the blog haha. I have put together a slightly weird concoction of trailers here but they all seem to be very interesting film projects and I'm interested to see how they pan out as movies. Water For Elephants is based on a best selling novel so the filmmakers were handed the task of having to keep an entire audience of book lovers happy while cutting enough out so they weren't left with a 12 hour film. Legend of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen is a film I have been waiting for since I heard it was going into production. Donnie Yen is either incredibly brave or incredibly crazy to try and fill the shoes of Bruce Lee but I believe if we all put the Lee film to the back of our minds we will be amazed with the martial arts skills of Yen and the awesome stunt work showcased in this film. There Be Dragons is a film I had heard nothing about until I saw this trailer and to be honest I watched the trailer expecting there to be some freaking dragons in it but this title refers to something else and going by the trailer this looks quite a polished piece of film making that will be well worth a look. Lastly we have The Troll Hunter I had seen this trailer a while back so I don't know if it has already been released in the US or in the UK for that matter I just really liked the documentary style it is shot in which is old hat for horror films now Blair Witch springs to mind but I really like the way this looks.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Holiday Countdown

2011-04-07T04:34:00.000+01:00

I'm heading for sunnier climes on Monday as I'm heading to Majorca for 10 days with my Brother and my Dad for some relaxation and drinking and sightseeing and drinking and well you get the picture. So If you don't hear from me for a while don't worry I aint dead more likely slightly drunk and/or sightseeing. My family have had a holiday apartment on the island for 26 years maybe more so we’ve been a lot but we like the culture the people are friendly and the food is great and the weather is definitely an improvement on the weather back home here in rain soaked Scotland but saying that I wouldn’t live anywhere else I love my Country to much to leave it I wouldn’t leave even for a Hollywood career and that is the God’s honest truth.

In other news my sitcom pilot script has entered the usual re-write phase which means I’m both excited and incredibly irritated by it at the same time. Annoyingly this should be the fun part of writing as the shape is there and it’s just about trimming the fat off but by the re-write stage my brain has always already moved on to getting excited about some other project it wants me to undertake and it always tricks me by making it seem so much more appealing haha well this time I am not going to let myself get distracted I owe it to myself to stay focused as I think this may be my best script in years at least the most commercially friendly script i.e. the one most likely to sell as I don’t think my dream A and D trilogy will ever make it to the silver screen and for the people in the know who have read any of those scripts they will know why haha very, very curse heavy and very, very Scottish in humour.

Some people would argue my best script ever may have been my take on the video game Resident Evil a lot of people I showed that script to really seemed to flip out over it and stated it would have made for a better film than what was made but maybe my best script is my other TV venture called Bureau that is truly all kidding aside my dream project and the one thing I have written I would do almost anything to get put on screen. I had logos, mouse mats, cups, posters and all sorts of merchandise made up for this project as I was writing it I even considered having some models made for it as I truly believe this is a project with “hit” written all over it that is of course my opinion but I have so much passion for this project it is evident on each and every page there are so many subtle nuances and character traits sprinkled throughout even characters that appear for a brief scene have extensive backstories written for them even the characters that would be played by extras I really went that anal about the whole thing haha.

Anyhoo as I was saying before I began to ramble on about whatever I was rambling about I will be away for a week and a bit so there won’t be any posts unless I manage to put together some trailer posts to be posted up on certain days when I’m away which is something I would like to do but I don’t know if I will have the time to do so.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Some More Movie Trailers

2011-04-02T01:23:00.000+01:00

Hopefully the blog won't jump the shark with me posting more movie trailers up so soon after the last lot but I have been having a break from writing to pursue an other more personal "venture" shall we say instead. Anyhoo I think these trailers look very interesting and there should be something to suit everybody's taste in film.

Ceremony

I have it on pretty good authority that this picture sees Uma Thurman's return to form as an actress after some not so good film roles as of late.

Fast 5

I can't believe this franchise got to a fourth sequel when the first film had no plot whatsoever but if Adrenalin fueled action flicks is your cup of tea (it is mine from time to time) then this looks promising especially with the added casting of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Larry Crowne

This sees Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts reunite on screen in what is rumoured to be an excellent piece of movie making. Hanks is always watchable I find even in his less that great films so this has great potential for making the top 10 of 2011 list.

The Smurfs

Usually I wouldn't bother with a film like this but as I'm in a very good mood I thought it would be funny to put it up here, haha, I'm sure if you have kids of a certain age they will want to see this film and they will probably love it.

The Conspirator

This has Oscar buzz written all over it so it surprises me that it is being released this early in the year. James McAvoy's stock in Hollywood is really on the rise these days with X-Men First Class coming out soon also which is funny if you think it was only a few years ago he was in Channel 4 show Shameless as one of the secondary characters.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Be late to post

2011-03-29T16:24:00.000+01:00

I meant to post this up yesterday but got caught up with talking to friends I hadn't talked to for a few days. I was at the Scotland Brazil footie game in London and have to say it was a great atmosphere at Arsenal's park. Everywhere you went Scotland fans and Brazil fans were co-mingling taking pictures with each other and having a laugh and a sing song as well as a lot of beer, haha. The game itself didn't disappoint either Brazil showed their class from whistle to whistle but the Scots boys did their country proud hanging in there right up till the end and only conceding 2 goals. Here is a couple of pictures I took at the game.

Great view from the stand where we were seated.

Jimmy hats are being worn by my two brothers, haha, only us Scottish would find this a cool look.

I'll post other pictures up later when I recharge my phone. I never saw the incident that made the headlines and going by reports that are emerging the police have stated that the Tartan Army were superb in their behaviour with only a few arrests outside the ground for drunken disorderly, I know not how you tell who is too drunk to go to a footie game as everyone was wasted. I hope we get a chance to play Brazil again real soon and hopefully at Hampden Park it was great to see such illustrious players playing the beautiful game especially as I'm an Airdrie United fan we don't see household names at our games like that.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Movie trailer

2011-03-24T23:40:00.000Z

Another round of movie trailers for you to hopefully enjoy.

Here's the movie trailer for upcoming Marvel superhero flick Captain America: The First Avenger.

Here's the trailer for Faster starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson.

Here is the trailer for American: The Bill Hicks Story

This is a trailer I stumbled across and am glad I did it looks like it will be very interesting indeed. It is called Hobo With A Shotgun.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

So Far So????

2011-03-21T16:20:00.000Z

I have managed to complete the first draft of the sitcom pilot script I was working on and it's running long (49 pages) so a lot of editing and reworking scenes lies ahead of me. Here is one of the scenes that may be heading for the circular file, it won't be in proper format here but I think it's still readable.

Scene from “Never Meet Your Friends”

Int. Kitchen- day

Lauren is making some kind of health drink concoction in the blender as Drew enters and takes a beer from the fridge.

                                        LAUREN

                      Wait before you get your midday buzz on I want you to try this.

                                     DREW

                     What is it?

                                  LAUREN

                   Something a lot better for you than that.

Lauren points towards the beer bottle in Drew’s Hand, Drew places the beer down on the kitchen worktop. When the blender stops droning Lauren pours the hideous looking lumpy concoction into a tall glass and hands it Drew. Drew takes a look at his fate awaiting him and takes a gulp of air into his throat.

                                 DREW

                 Bottoms up, as the priest said to the quire boy.

Drew takes a large sip and as the liquid touches the back of his throat he spits it back out all over the kitchen work top.

                             DREW
               Whoa college flashback.

                             LAUREN
            You telling me you were on a health kick in college?

                           DREW
              No I just remembered the day I woke up and found a dog peeing in my mouth, what the hell is      in this?

Lauren begins to wipe the worktop clean.

                          LAUREN
             Just the usual stuff, wheatgrass, honey, beetroot and apparently dog pee.

Drew takes a long swig of his beer to clean out his mouth.

                        DREW
            Ahhh, that’s better so you and this Charlie guy?

                        LAUREN
          What about me and Charlie?

                        DREW
          Nothing, nothing it just seems to be progressing a bit quickly is all.

                      LAUREN
          And you are the expert on dating all of a sudden?

                       DREW
         Look I know when it comes to being smooth and slick Charlie is the king of romance and I’m the court jester.

                   LAUREN
        Well you have had a lot of experience juggling your balls.

                   DREW
        Very funny, don’t you think he’s a little too smooth?

               LAUREN
        Nope.

                 DREW
       Look I know how men think I am a man…

               LAUREN
      The jury is out on that one.

                 DREW
      Any guy that smooth is only telling you what you want to hear to get what he wants, know where I’m going with this?

               LAUREN
     Oh I don’t know it’s ever so cryptic.

               DREW
   He wants you to give his dog a bone and by dog I mean him and by bone I mean..

             LAUREN
   I know what you mean.

              DREW
   Penis.

Lauren places her hand to her shaking head.

              DREW(CONT'D)
   You need someone who will tell it to you straight no smooth bs crap.

             LAUREN
   What someone like you?

They share an awkward moment of silence.

                 DREW
   What about Rory?

            LAUREN
What about Rory?

               DREW
Is this the kind of male role model you want in his life?

             LAUREN
    At least it would be a male role model in his life his own father doesn’t care about him and you

             DREW
    What about me?

            LAUREN
    In the 2 weeks we’ve lived here he’s learnt more curse words than in the rest of his life so far and the jokes!
               DREW
         (Defensive)
   What Jokes?

           LAUREN
     The squirrel joke?

            DREW
    Squirrel joke? Don’t know it.

              LAUREN
     Why do squirrels swim on their backs? So they don’t get their nuts wet.

Drew tries to hide a proud smile.

            LAUREN (CONT'D)
      That isn’t funny.

         DREW
       It is a little.

        LAUREN
     Not when he tells his teacher it in class. Drew, he’s only 9 years old you can’t get drunk and hang out with him playing xbox all day.

           DREW
       Look I never said I was perfect, I am who I am and if you don’t like that then

          LAUREN
We should leave, that’s what we’ll do.

Lauren storms out.

        DREW
Lauren wait, ah fu..ddlesticks.

End scene.

The fu..ddlesticks bit at the end is in reference to an earlier moment where Drew is attempting to not swear in front of Rory (Lauren's 9 year old son). Anyhoo this is a scene I'm not to happy with as I feel it's too long even though it does set up a later scene which I really like so it's hard to know what to do I may end up just reworking it down in length or coming into the scene from a different angle.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Week of Weak writing

2011-03-14T14:50:00.000Z

It's been a week of procrastination for me as I seem to have found any and everything to distract me from finishing my latest script. It's not so much writer's block as writer can't be bothered to write. I have got all these ideas swimming around and around in my head that I just need to put down on paper but for some reason I just can't find the energy, the will or the time to do so. Maybe a small part of me doesn't want to finishthe script at all as I know I haven't got anything lined up after it to fill my day. How much of a one man pity party was that, haha, I seriously need to find stuff to do other than sleep all day and moan about everything that annoys me I don't want to become one of those old geezers you see on the tv moaning about things they don't actually comprehend I aint far off this right now I just don't venture out enough to be asked my opinion by the media, haha. Maybe I should try and start something maybe a short story or something like that to get my creative mind back active long enough for me to finish.

Anyhoo as I am not in the usual writing spirit these days I thought I'd post this funny Billy Connolly clip from Youtube I hope you guys find it as funny as I did.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Self Doodle

2011-03-07T02:09:00.000Z

I started doodling recently on my computer and thought I would show one of my recent efforts on the blog. I know it isn't my usual kind of blog post but as my blog is a personal blog I thought as this is what has been going on in my life this week I thought it would make sense to share. Now first thing I'll say is I am no ARTIST I repeat I am no ARTIST I'm an amateur so go easy on me guys I'm only a few weeks into doing these kind of images, haha.

I tend to use weird colours for skin tone as I'm not going for a photo real look (which is a good job as I can't draw to save myself) more an expression of my emotions when illustrating it, to sound artsy fartsy for a moment. In a side note the reason the doodle is beardless is because I shaved my beard off last week but by the time you read this it may be back, haha, not sure about the look at all, anyhoo....

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Oscar Backlash

2011-03-01T16:45:00.000Z

Actor Corey Feldman has lashed out at the Oscar organisers for leaving Corey Haim's name out of the In Memoriam tribute at the Academy Awards on Sunday night.

Feldman told TMZ.com "Corey's films have earned the industry over a half a billion dollars and his work remains an inspiration to young artists worldwide. Corey dedicated his life to the film industry. The same industry that failed to dedicate even 30 seconds to his memory."

A statement was released by the Oscars producers which reads, "There will always be fans and family members of those not included who will be disappointed by their omission. The Academy extends its understanding and its apologies to those who missed seeing a favourite face in this year’s feature."

Now I may not have been a fan of Corey Haim's entire body of work but I think he and his family deserved for him to be mentioned at the Awards. There have been people mentioned that may have only made 1 film in their lives during the In Memoriam at the Oscars show surely someone who made over 30 movies deserves the same respect paid to him? So as the Academy Awards didn't bother to do so I will do so here, it may not be as glitzy as the Academy Awards or even a fraction of what he deserves but if the mainstream won't acknowledge him then a little blogger like myself might as well.

Corey Haim
1971- 2010

Corey's career started in 1984 with his first role in the hit movie First Born but it was his role as Sam Emerson in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys that gained him international fame. He appeared in 40 movies and numerous television series in his career most notably Licence to Drive, Lucas, Silver Bullet, Dream Machine, Prayer for the Rollerboys and cameos in Crank: High Voltage and the Lost boys sequel Lost Boys: The Tribe which was to lead to a further sequel starring himself alongside his good friend Corey Feldman. Corey Haim passed away on the 10th March 2010 in Burbank, California.

Quick Note

2011-02-23T14:45:00.000Z

My computer is having problems connecting to the Internet at the moment so blog posts may be few in number over the coming days till the problem can be resolved.

In other news, I finally bit the bullet and joined Facebook a week or two ago after a year of saying I wouldn't do it but you can't avoid one of the two juggernauts forever. So far so good I've found the site to be a lot better than I had imagined and a lot more user friendly than I had been told sure their is some issues but that's to be expected. If you want to talk to me on there, there is a thingy on my sidebar that shows my profile pic and details to help you find me.

In even more news, I have finally gotten past the pre-writing stage for the sitcom pilot I am writing, it's amazing how much work you can actually achieve without the distraction of the Internet. I've started my first draft and am above averagely happy with the progression so far. It's my first ever script in this format I'm more used to writing feature length or 1 hour drama scripts so the 30 minute 5 jokes a page style of writing is very new and very exciting to me. Anyhoo that'll do for now as I only meant to update you all on the Internet problem, haha, I hope to have that fixed by the weekend at the latest.

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

Sit Down Comedy

2011-02-18T16:25:00.000Z

As I'm in a good mood today for some reason or other I thought I'd do a post filled with some of the really bad jokes I know. They're a bit Jimmy Riddle but bear with me it aint often I'm in a good mood these days. I'm also putting up my latest doodle a self portrait which I'm kinda pleased with as I'm no artist by any stretch of the imagination.

self portrait I doodled on my computer.

-Jokes-

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman were standing looking at a prize cow in a field.

The Englishman says “Look at that marvellous English cow.”

Shaking his head the Irishman responded with “No, that’s an Irish cow if ever I saw one.”
The Scotsman thought for a moment took a swally of his lager and then settled the squabble. “Nah yer both wrong, it’s a Scottish coo- it’s got bagpipes underneath!”

Did you hear about the man who lost his left side?

It was touch and go fir awhile but he’s al right now.

How dae you get a Scotsman onto the roof?

Tell ‘im the drinks are on the house.

Did ye hear about the Scotsman who married a girl born on February the 29^th?

It was so he'd only have to buy her a birthday present every four years?

Did you here the Energizer Bunny got arrested?
He wiz charged with assualt 'n' battery.

Glasgow Joe finds himself in dire trouble. His business has gone down the lavvy and he’s in serious financial problems. He’s so desperate that he decides to ask God for help.

“God, please help me. Ah’ve lost ma wee store and if ah didnae get some money, ah’m going to lose my hoose too. Please let me win the lottery!”

come the night of the lottery someone else wins. Joe prays again.

“God please let me win the lottery ah’m going to loose ma car as weel!” come lottery night still no luck. Joe prays again. Ah’ve lost ma business, ma hoose and ma car. Ma bairns are starving. Ah didnae often ask ye for help and ah have always been a good Christian boy for ye. Please, please let me win the lottery just one time so ah can get back on ma feet!”

Suddenly there is a blinding flash as the heavens open and the voice of God himself thunders:
“Joe at least meet me half way and buy a ticket!”

I'll no burden you way any more.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Quick cane update

2011-02-16T22:39:00.000Z

Just a quick update from my last post, I received my new cane today so here's a couple of photos to show you what it's like.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

What? Where? Who? Oh I forgot....

2011-02-14T19:39:00.000Z

Spent the last ten days outlining a spec sitcom script I'm considering writing with annoying results. Firstly, I have a lot of ideas for plots, character traits, dialogue and so on but the closer it comes to sitting down to actually write the script itself the less I can muster the damn energy to be bothered to actually write it. Secondly, my brain seems determined to start spit balling ideas for another project that is completely different to anything I've ever written before but at the same time interesting enough to keep my wandering attention focused on it instead of on the sitcom script. I'm starting to think I'm loosing my interest in the writing process entirely at this point as I've not really written anything I'd consider of any worth for many a month with the exception of maybe a script I co authored in January.

In other news I have had to buy myself a cane from an online store recently as I can now not move around the house without hugging the walls or gripping the furniture so leaving the house has been not possible and will remain that way till the cane is delivered by the royal mail service and we all know how reliable they are. Why buy a cane you live in the UK can't you get one on the NHS? You may be asking well as I'm tall those extending walking sticks the NHS hands out are actually to small so I would end up getting a crutch or something like that. Getting measured for a cane definitely feels about two steps away from getting measured for a coffin especially when you factor in I'm only 28 years old (29 in May) and already walking like a pensioner with a bad hip and to think people wonder why I have such a pessimistic outlook on life, I wonder why?

Movie Trailer
Here's the trailer for Paul a film that is definitely on my must watch list for 2011, I'm a big fan of both Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and going by the trailers it appears to be another hugely funny collaboration between the pair.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

A Writer's Point Of View

2011-02-05T20:02:00.000Z

I thought it would be interesting to get different screenwriters' perspectives on the art and craft of screenwriting and when I found these clips online I thought it would be a good idea to share them here with all (few) of you. I hope you find them as enlightening as I did.

First up Christopher Vogler the author of the international best selling book The Writer's Journey.

Next is Joe Eszterhas the screenwriter of Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge and Flashdance and the author of the acclaimed book The Devil's Guide To Hollywood. He talks about his extensive research for various writing assignments.

And finally Randall Jahnson who has been writing for over 25 years in Hollywood and written screenplay drafts for The Mask Of Zorro (credited as story by) The Doors, Gun (video game) and Sunset Strip.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Superman: The Man Of Steel Casting News

2011-01-31T19:24:00.000Z

So it's now official Henry Cavill will don the infamous red cape for the Zack Snyder helmed Superman reboot. Cavill, 27, is best known for playing the role of Charles Brandon on the TV series The Tudors. Cavill's latest film the very aptly entitled Immortals for the future Man Of Steel is slated for a US release this fall.

Znyder said in a statement: "In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time, and I am honoured to be a part of his return to the big screen. I also join Warner Bros., Legendary and the producers in saying how excited we are about the casting of Henry. He is the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield."

There have been many rumours circulating the net as to who would be cast in this movie with everyone from the unlikely Leo Dicaprio to the likes of Mad Men's John Hamm and True Blood's Joe Manganiello but I think the casting of Cavill is a great indicator to the direction the franchise reboot is heading in. In my opinion it suggests that both Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are intending to take the subject matter more seriously and move away from the campiness of the unpopular last incarnation of the character.

In other Superman casting news Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre 2 in Watchmen) seems to be the favourite to land the much coveted role of Lois Lane but will need to beat off stiff competition from actresses such as Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, Prince of Persia) and Kate Hudson (Nine, Raising Helen) who have both been considered for the role.

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

Another Day Another Sequel

2011-01-24T17:47:00.000Z

A week has past again since my last blog post and for once I have a valid reason instead of the usual ‘couldn’t be bothered’ excuse, this time the lapse is due to the fact my Gran suffered a bad fall last weekend and had to be taken to the hospital. She has broken her right foot, bruised her hip and is understandably shaken up about it. The kind of cast she has on her foot does not allow her to walk on it so she has had to be kept in so between visiting her, worrying about her and my own health not being to great as of late I didn't have the time to post this past week.

So I missed out on talking about the casting for the new Batman flick and the online backlash that followed and various other movie related news that broke last week but family comes first you understand right? All five of you, I think it's five maybe more maybe less. I’d like to take this time to wish my Gran a speedy recovery and hopefully she will be back home soon.

Movie News

So let’s get down to movie news and first off Keanu Reeves recently revealed there is two more Matrix movies going into production and yes you guessed it they will be shot in 3D. Is it just me that didnae really think we needed a matrix 2 and 3 let alone 4 and 5? Sequels and remakes/re imaginings are all that seem to get made right now is Hollywood really out of new ideas or is this a case of the money men not wanting to finance an unknown commodity?

In happier news Ernest Borgnine, the star of such classic films as From Here To Eternity, McHale’s Navy, The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch and a whole host of great films spanning the last 50+ years turns 94 years old today and is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon as he is attached to numerous projects in development around Hollywood. So Happy Birthday Ernest and I hope to see you at the movies very soon.

Here's a movie trailer for a movie due for release on the 11 February this year and yes it's in 3D. (isn't everything these days?)

Drive Angry 3D

I'm actually interested in seeing this movie as I'm a fan of Nic Cage but the whole 3D thing really bugs me because most films aren't shot in 3D just converted so it never quite works right. 3D is just a gimmick not a technological step forward like CGI (when used right) or the THX "baffle wall" (speaker system enclosure behind cinema screen), anyhoo enough of this ramble.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Mixed Bag part 4

2011-01-16T17:15:00.000Z

So time for another mixed bag addition of the blog this time featuring the latest news from the UK Box office and movie news on three low budget films coming out this year. (one direct to DVD)

UK BOX OFFICE

1. The King's Speech £3.52m

2. 127 Hours £2.17m

3. Little Fockers £1.8m

(Isn't it about time this franchise focked off?)

4. Gulliver's Travels £1.55m

5. The Next Three Days £1.05m

Girl On A Bicycle

I came across this film by way of a referral by an acquaintance of mine who thought it was an interesting project. Here's the synopsis from the production company's website.

Synopsis
Paolo, an Italian Tour Bus driver, living in Paris and very much in love with his German girl-friend Greta, proposes marriage to her, only to encounter, the very next day, a Girl On A Bicycle, Cécile. She is a gorgeous young French woman with a glorious smile.
An Italian to his very core, Paolo finds that he is unable to get the image of this beauty out of his head. Following an almost unending series of bad advice given to him by his best friend, Jean-Michel, Paolo attempts to meet Cécile to put an end to his obsession and ends up hitting her with his tour bus. Since Cécile has two fatherless children aged four and six and now a broken arm and a broken leg, Paolo, who was reluctant to have children of his own, finds himself, not only having to care for Cécile, but to become a “father” to her children.
As Paolo races back and forth between his two lives day and night, trying to hide his misadventures with the beautiful Cécile from Greta, one lie builds upon another, until his life is totally upside-down. Will Love conquer all?

Doesn't really sound like my cup of tea but a little more digging around and I discovered more about the project. It's the directorial debut of screenwriter Jeremy Leven who wrote The Legend Of Bagger Vance, My Sister's Keeper and The Notebook and features in some way or other Paddy Considine star of Dead Man's Shoe's, In America and of course Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee although this is only confirmed on IMDB not the production company's own website. In the lead role is Vincenzo Amato the star of Soundtrack, Golden Door and Respiro as well as appearing in the dreadful Did You Hear About The Morgans? We did hear about it and it was crap, lol. I still don't get what I was supposed to like about the flick other than the puzzle of what role Paddy Considine play?

River Of Darkness
(Direct to DVD)

River Of Darkness is a horror film made by North Shore Productions on a budget of $3.26m and stars 3 professional wrestlers which doesn't make for the recipe of a great film on paper or on screen for that matter. It's directed by Bruce Koehler who's previous film End Game also starred River Of Darkness leading man Kurt Angle.

Plot, eh..... em...-coughs- I think basically three giant hillbilly brothers kill a lot of people and Sheriff Will Logan (Kurt Angle) has to track them down and beat them down or something like that. Anyway it stars as I said Kurt angle the Olympic gold medalist, pro wrestler and star of End Game and also features Kevin Nash the 7 foot ex pro wrestler who appeared in The Punisher and The Longest Yard remake. It also feature Sid Eudy the near 7 foot ex pro wrestler better known as Psycho Sid and Bill Laing actor/stuntman who appeared in The Mothman Prophecies and Unstoppable.

So why do you mention this film? I hear you ask well I'm a big fan of low budget horror movies yep that's right the guy that wrote the blog post on French Cinema also loves cheap n cheerful horror who'd of thunk it? I'm also a fan of the lead in this movie and believe given the right project he could create a good acting career for himself as he has great integrity.

Bruce Vs Frankenstein

The sequel to My Name Is Bruce sees the greatest B-Movie Icon ever Bruce Campbell match wits(?) with Mary Shelley's legendary monster and I for one can't wait. As a fan of low budget horror (as stated above) I am of course an even bigger fan of it's top star Bruce Campbell who in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times had this to say about the project.

Yeah, it’s “The Expendables, or more like the It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of horror. I want to get so many horror movie stars that people can’t possibly not see the movie. I want to give them other stuff to do. I want to have Kane Hodder be very particular about what he eats. I want Robert Englund to be a tough guy, like he knows tae kwon do or something. I want to find out the hidden sides of all these people. Some will play themselves, some will play alternate characters as well. I may approach Kane Hodder to play Frankenstein. He could be Kane Hodder himself fighting himself as Frankenstein. It could be crazy. It’s a silly concocted story that we hope to do maybe in a year or so. My breaks between Burn Notice have been getting tighter because they’ve been adding episodes. They’re trying to trap me like a rat in the TV world, and I might just let them. There’s a script, it just kind of blows right now, so no one’s really seeing it. We gotta work on it. Definitely shoot it in Oregon all on a stage. It’s like the 300 of horror comedies. We want to make it a whole world. Someone’s gotta take Frank down for good.”

Rumours are rife on the web that Sid Haig, Robert Englund, Kane Hodder and Tony Todd will all appear alongside Bruce as well as a proposed cameo from Sam Raimi to round of the cast but nothing is signed yet. Burn Notice keeps Campbell busy these days so it all depends who is available when he gets the time to shoot it but when anyone signs on to this project I'll post the news here for the 1 or 2 people who are probably interested anyhoo..

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

Latest Movie Trailers

2011-01-10T23:28:00.000Z

Ip Man 2
Starring Action superstar Donnie Yen and is the sequel to the legendary Ip Man considered by many to be Yen's finest work and is my most eagerly awaited film of the year.

Thor
Latest from the Marvel universe of comic to screen adaptations and looks like it should be another blockbuster.

Red State

The latest from writer/director/actor Kevin Smith and sees him exploring the horror genre.

Anyhoo posting the latest movie trailers will become a regular feature on the blog as I now know how to do it, hey it only took me the best part of a year to work it out but hey ho I now know.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Kick-Ass for real!!!

2011-01-07T07:00:00.002Z

Saw this video and thought it was worth sharing on here as it isn't everyday you see a guy dressed in a superhero costume fighting crime for real well unless you live in Seattle that is. Phoenix Jones says "when he walks into an area, criminals leave because they see the suit and do not want to take him on." And to be honest I can see why someone dressed like that is either bats**t crazy or a legit tough guy.

He has already managed to prevent one crim from jacking a car, the would-be victim, known only as Dan (don't know why), was walking back towards his car in the car park when he witnessed the thieving wee numpty with a metal strip trying to open his car door.

Dan commented: "He started sticking it down between the window and the rubber strip."

Dan realising what was going down began to call 911, but said help arrived before he even finished dialling. He continued: "From the right, this guy comes dashing in, wearing this skin-tight rubber, black and gold suit, and starts chasing him away."

And the story gets weirder as this guy ain't the only costumed vigilante roaming the streets of Seattle there are 8 other members of his crime fighting team who collectively are known as the 'Rain City Superhero Group'.

Phoenix when being interviewed by the CBS crew said "I symbolise that the average person doesn't have to walk around and see bad things and do nothing."

Even though he has been stabbed and threatened with a gun many times while out patrolling he seems unwavering in his commitment to battling crime which makes him pretty cool in my book if a little nuts but hey who isn't nuts these days?

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

New Year Same Rambling

2011-01-04T23:40:00.000Z

Well a belated welcome to 2011 from me and I hope you all had a great festive season I myself just about survived it without incident just a few days without the use of my left arm and frequent headaches that were annoyingly not caused by to much alcohol but I digress. For the last month and change I haven't really been posting as often as usual the reason being I was writing a short film script I was hoping to produce at some point this year well the you know what hit the fan when that short script ended up running at a rather lengthy 145 pages. It also flat out sucked, it's weird how in the moment when your writing something you think it's great but if you take a break from it for a couple of days you realise it just isn't at all, not even close. I think the main mistake with the script other than the length of it and it being well.... crap was that I took a strange dislike to my main character and just didn't want him to succeed or to be perfectly frank about it I didn't even want to write about him by the end of it which you'll agree isn't the best situation when writing any kind of fiction.

So as this project finds itself being shelved or saved to my project folder for laughing at at a later date I have started outlining it's replacement along with some other projects I'm considering undertaking. I realised while writing the script that I'm still not in any position physically and probably mentally to take on a filming project as of yet so my best bet at this point is to work on something that I can sell to a production house of network here in the UK that being said with very limited credits to my (no)name this will be easier said than done but it will give me something to keep my mind occupied with for the next few months at least.

My new project is a return to a familiar and personal favourite genre for me (thriller) and a welcomed break from the 'inserting my own health issues or traits onto the characters' style I have been utilizing recently. As usual this story will be set in Scotland, Glasgow to be exact and will be a larger canvas (multiply episodes) than usual for me. I won't be thinking how will I film that or how will I afford this? I will give myself the freedom to just write and see what happens. I already have a fairly solid idea of my lead character's mindset as well as a lot of the back story and twists I want to incorporate over the first series but outside of that I will just write and see where the story takes me. Anyhoo that's enough of this ramble.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Season's Greetings

2010-12-25T06:00:00.003Z

Random Movie Trivia

2010-12-11T23:17:00.000Z

Some random movie trivia for you.

The longest feature film ever produced was entitled 'The Cure For Insomnia' (1987) with a total running time of 85 hours (5,220 mins) It premiered in its entirety at The School Of The Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois from January 31 to February 3, 1987, in one continuous showing.

The cost of obtaining the rights to the soundtrack of Kevin Smith's Clerks (approx. US$27,000) far outweighed the entire production costs for his outstanding debut film (approx. US$26,800) -- a first in motion picture history.

Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee shared a movie fight scene albeit a rather short fight scene when Jackie Chan made a brief (uncredited) cameo appearance towards the end of Enter the Dragon in the big fight scene in the cave. Bruce Lee grabs his hair for a moment before snapping his neck. If this could have been filmed ten years later what a great fight scene it would have been between two of Hong Kong's all time cinema icons.

Harrison Ford was hired to play the principal in the Steven Spielberg classic E.T. in fact his scene was filmed but it was later cut from the finished film because Spielberg decided his presence would be too distracting. Ford's then-wife Melissa Mathison wrote the screenplay.

For the movie the Wizard of Oz (1939), Judy Garland was paid $35 a week while Terry aka Toto the dog received $125 a week!

In Carrie, the slow motion scene at the end of the movie was filmed in reverse and if you watch it closely cars can be seen hilariously driving backwards in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

TV trivia-
The Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were named after the cop and the taxi driver from the movie "It's a Wonderful Life".

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Snow day

2010-11-30T15:06:00.000Z

Well it's definitely winter now in Scotland we've had two days of constant snow and for once I'm quite happy to be staying indoors because that trip to the doctors this morning was a complete nightmare I even had to dig out the wheels of my Dad's car so he could get it up the drive. Anyhoo I thought I would share some pictures taken by moi from the safety of my upstairs landing and bedroom hope you enjoy.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

More Movie news

2010-11-26T21:33:00.000Z

More movie news in this blog post, first up is...

THE GREAT GATSBY
Columbia Pictures are looking for a 2012 release for this adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic novel. Although the novel is set in Midwest America it appears this film will be shot on location in Australia by Aussie native filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and will star Leo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan who has beat out Anne Hathaway, Keira Knightley, Natalie Portman and Amanda Syfried to the role of Daisy Buchanan.

INTERSTELLAR
This is the long touted science fiction film from film making legend Steven Spielberg and based on the gravity fields theories of Kip Thorne and several hypotheses of Albert Einstein. Not to much is known about this project except the script is being penned by Jonathan Nolan brother and writing partner of Chris and is expected to be shot in 3d. Whatever else I hear about I'll post on the blog as this is definitely writing partner got the potential to be a classic.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E
Steven Soderberg and Warner Brothers are set to bring the classic television series to the big screen with George Clooney reportedly set to star. The script has been penned by Scott Z. Burns and should hit screens sometime in 2012 my bet would be a Christmas release date as summer 2012 is being flooded with other big budget action films.

UNTITLED ALIEN PREQUEL
Even though this is due for a summer 2011 release not much is known about this film besides Ridley Scott is directing from a script by Damon Lindelof. Rumours are endless but the most believable of them being that Ridley Scott wants Noomi Rapace (Girl with the dragon tattoo) for the lead role along with Sharlto Copley (District 9) although with little known about the plot other than it's about terraforming, it's hard to be 100%sure on what casting rumours to trust.

THE EXPENDABLES 2
Following the success of the first Expendables movie and fan pressure for a sequel it looks like Sylvester Stallone and crew will be back for another round of 80s inspired action. Stallone will once again direct and star alongside Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Jet Li. Also rumoured to be returning is Bruce Willis this time though as the possible head bad guy along with the rumoured Jean Claude Van Damme, Ray Park and Kurt Russell although these are just rumours at this point.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Hometown News

2010-11-15T19:31:00.001Z

My hometown football team has made the front pages of many newspapers today but not for the best of reasons. Did they win a cup final? Did they win the league? These are questions that you may have asked but the answer to both is no (this is Airdrie United we are talking about after all, lol) what they did was screw up something incredibly simple causing great anger and for once even a life long fan such as I can't ignore their error.

To mark remembrance day, on Saturday Airdrie United used a World War 2 picture of soldiers leaving on a train as the cover of their official programme along with the logo for the services charity PoppyScotland and the words "Lest We Forget". What's wrong with that? You may ponder well the image they used just happened to be of Nazi soldiers.

Club secretary Ann Marie Ballantyne said "A few people have picked up on this. It certainly wasn't deliberate." she also added "We were told the soldiers were Australian." This is obviously a huge mistake on the part of the club but unfortunately when a small element of your fan base utilise the Nazi salute when singing football songs this isn't going over well with most people around the country and this topic has lit up a lot of Scottish football forums. Spokesman Leigh James of PoppyScotland said "Obviously the club meant well."

My guess is not many football fans will be forgetting this blunder and will be reminding the club from the Away stand at many Airdrie home games to come. Here's a link to the full story: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/11/15/football-club-s-poppy-tribute-backfires-after-using-picture-of-nazi-soldiers-on-match-programme-86908-22718341/

When I told my Gran about this story she had the opposite reaction to it than I expected she actually laughed and said "bunch of numpties." So maybe others will take that approach and acknowledge it for what it truly was a huge error and not a deliberate joke anyhoo...

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Movie News

2010-11-14T21:10:00.002Z

There is a lot of movie gossip floating about at the moment some of which seems very unlikely but with Hollywood you can never really rule any of it out but for now I've decided to stick to the more concrete movie news and first up is the first of two Arnold Schwarzenegger films to be getting the remake treatment.

COMMANDO
Sam Worthington will step into Arnie's shoes for this one with David Ayer (writer of Fast and the Furious, Harsh Times and S.W.A.T) handling the directing and writing honours. Strange film to remake in my humble opinion as it seems very of it's time but maybe they are planning to put a new spin on it, see what I did there trying to be positive? Let's see how long that lasts, lol.

TOTAL RECALL
This has been long rumoured to get the remake treatment and actors from Denzel Washington to Russel Crowe have been linked to it but it appears to be Colin Farrell who has landed the lead role. Len Wiseman (Die Hard 4.0) will be directing from a script by Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen and The Recruit). Could be a great flick and Farrell is an interesting choice for the lead role.

HIGHLANDER
yep another remake of another 80's classic this time with Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow and Fast and Furious) directing a script by Matt Holloway and Art Macum the writers behind Iron Man & Punisher: WarZone. Casting wise there is only rumour at this point but a strong contender seems to be James McAvoy which would make the Highlander actually played by a Scotsman for a change, oops positivity sliding.

MASS EFFECT
The popular video game title looks set to come to the big screen with a big budget to boot. A script penned by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, Thor and The Cell) is in development with Avi Arad (pretty much all Marvel films) producing. Casting wise Matthew Fox is one rumour another is Channing Tatum but as this film is at the very early stages of development I'd take both with a pinch of salt. With the right director and cast this could be a great franchise for the studio and with this large a fan base amassed over the two games in this series it will have to be. Well almost kept the positivity up over the blog post, almost anyhoo....

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010)

2010-11-11T21:02:00.004Z

Legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis has died today (11th of November) at the age of 91 in Los Angeles according to several Italian media sources. He has produced more than 500 films including Serpico, Death Wish, Flash Gordon, Tai-Pan, Three Days Of The Condor, the Hannibal Lecter franchise and the 1976 remake of King Kong.

Di Laurentiis has won two Oscars, one in 1956 for Federico Fellini's masterpiece "La Strada" and again in 1957 for the Fellini directed "Nights of Cabiria" which starred Giulietta Masina. He has undoubtedly made a huge contribution to both the European film industry as well as in Hollywood and will be greatly missed.

The Writeaholic's Drabble Challenge

2010-11-07T17:31:00.005Z

Yep another seven days between blog posts and you guessed it for health reasons again this time I had a mixed bag of symptoms including my stomach ulcers playing up leaving me spending the last week vomiting up my stomach acid which is as gross as it sounds folks, lol and some kind of virus or what not leaving me with the headache to end all headaches and feeling lethargic. It's not improved as the week has progressed so I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go to my GP even though I hate giving in to things like this and taking meds for it as God knows I take enough pills as it is but to get past it I'll probably need antibiotics.

Anyway that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it for why this blog post wasn't done and dusted by Wednesday at the latest and I can only humbly apologise for the lateness of this drabble challenge post as I realised earlier today the next drabble challenge has already been posted up at http://writeaholicblog.wordpress.com/ and to top that I'm not just late with the post I'm also five words over the limit for the hundred word challenge, yeah been one of those weeks. Here it is anyway hope it's OK as I really struggled to write something this short, attempt one was 305 words and I was beginning a new paragraph when I realised I may have overshot the limit a smidge.

CAREER
The big bang echoes in my ears as my 6:45am wake-up call buzzed progressively louder. I reached over and as my hand kissed the timepiece my eyes gained that much needed confidence to welcome in the early Monday morning sun. My mouth still harbouring unwanted, unfading memories of the days before as I rise from my safety net and seek the sanctuary of the toothbrush to exorcise my weekend demons. My coffee stained tie hangs crooked as I await the cattle call of the underground what wondrous forfeits we so welcome for the burden of a paycheck and the love of a career.

If you love great writing (what the hell you reading this for then?) you should definitely pay a visit to http://thewritaholicblog.wordpress.com/ you won't be disappointed and trust me the stories on there are a lot happier than mine have been of late I'm working through some stuff and this is my outlet for it so bear with me it will get more upbeat eventually, I think anyway.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

EDIT: The link appears not to be working for some reason but you can find a functional link in the smart links section of the sidebar.

Short Fiction 3: Ballad Of A Dead Heart

2010-10-31T20:10:00.009Z

This short is actually a story within a story as it is a tale told to one of the characters in a novel I am trying and failing to write entitled Orchid Grove. I thought I'd post it here today with it being Halloween after all. I got cold feet with this particular part of the novel for awhile due to the ending and changed it considerably recently but I thought I'd put it here in it's original form so I hope you like it.

Ballad Of A Dead Heart
By Andrew G. Carson

The reason behind the loss of light had run it's assault course through his already paranoia- overloaded brain his nervous attempts to force his eyes to become accustomed to the now pitch darkness he found himself blanketed within were evidence of that. So were the cold beads of sweat that dripped slowly, teasingly down the back of his now goose bump riddled neck sending a quiet scream to the very core of his soul. Day turns to night that was a certainty but here and now night was not the certainty he feared it was what night brought along with it, what it brought was the darkness and those who creep within.

His breath heavy and shallow his heart pounding in his chest and pounded in his ears as he tried to collect what was left of his once strong resolve, a resolve that had once helped him defeat his inner demons twelve years prior. A resolve that had help him stare the reaper in the eye and kept his nerves intact as the reaper blinked first. A resolve that was now abandoning him for the threat that lay ahead was far to terrifying and far to intense for it to remain, a threat from within the darkness. He knew his own mind couldn't be trusted the years of alcohol abuse had put end to that but he had nothing left to rely upon in his moment of truth a moment when a drink was the last thing he wanted and the last thing he was thinking about but again maybe that's what his mind wanted for him to put down his guard long enough for it to take advantage. No he would have to rely solely on instinct solely on his gut if he was to survive through the night and survive long enough to see his wife's face one last time.

He hugged the floor beneath him with all the strength he had and contemplated the path ahead, did he have the strength to push on till morning? Can he find the strength within his broken body to scrape and fight his way through hell to hold his wife's hand again? He knew deep down what the answer to those questions truly was but maybe that's why he can manage to try. Maybe after all the years of pain, distrust and heartbreak his final attempt to make peace with her to risk his life and/or his sanity would be what finally could lead her to forgive him or at least not hate him, he'd settle for her not hating him anymore. It was her hate for him that he couldn't take anymore and what had led him to this dark damp place and only her forgiveness could save his soul before he met his maker.

His hands shook as he slowly raised his blood covered body to a vertical stance, his jaw quivered with the memory of defeat and he struggled to fight off his knees from buckling as he took his first step in what seemed like a lifetime. CREEK, CREEK each step was accompanied by an echoing reminder of the extra thirty pounds he was now carrying around with him. CREEK, CREEK he almost found himself begging his feet to stay quiet but the absurdity of it made him laugh, "my God" he thought, "is that my voice do I really sound that old?" How drink has aged his thirty something body he now sounding something akin to his father a man of seventy three and a man he despised for being such a hard act to follow after all when your father has accomplished more in a lifetime than most could in ten how the hell do you follow it? No matter what you do or what you become you are destined to always be a disappointment and that's how he felt every time he looked into his father's eyes rightly or wrongly a painful disappointment.

As he reached the door he outstretched his hand slowly and carefully in search of the elusive handle and hoping to find nothing else. A sigh of relief thundered from within him as his hand touched the cold metal. He slowly drew in a large gulp of tainted air before methodically pushing down on the handle and freeing the door from it's frame and sending it wide open. He was greeted by a wave of emotion as his eyes became accustomed to the candlelit room laid bare in front of him. Wall to wall decorated in blood and it was at this moment he remembered what had led him to the hallway outside in the first place. 'No, NO what have I done? NO.' His pleads faded to a silent wail as the image of his wife flashed before his eyes. He remembered that he had tried to make amends with her but she pushed him away she had pushed him down and poured the devil's blood over him sending him into an unholy rage and leaving him hours later kneeling before her now cold, wet, patchwork corpse with nothing but hate and an empty bottle for company and all he can think about is "Where can I get my next drink?" His soul unsaved, his heart broken his mind lost in the darkness with those who creep within.

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

The Gamble

2010-10-26T15:31:00.008+01:00

A wiser man than me once said "Life's a gamble and you haven't experienced it till you take a deep breath and roll those dice", for me life has been somewhat of a long wait on my turn to roll those dice and knowing my luck I'll crap out first go, lol. The gamble I've been considering taking is to step behind a film camera for the first time in close to a decade and to film my first short film since college. Not really a gamble many would say but for me it conceivably is as a mixture of health concerns and the fact I've practically been living like a recluse all this time is playing heavily on my mind.

My back and nerve problems (loss of feeling in hands and feet) are the least of my worries it's more to do with my memory not being what it once was hell I blanked on my dog's name the other day when I was trying to get him to stop barking and the fact the trigger for my seizures is anxiety and low budget film shoots tend to be very anxious places at the best of times is but if I don't take the chance what's the alternative? I'm to out of the way of studying to go back to college and I've taken far to many knocks to the head to be a competent student. In the current financial climate nobody is hiring a 28 year old with the kind of health problems and work or lack of work history like I have. The way I see it is it's up to me to forge my future career as a screenwriter and or film maker and the best way I can see to do it is to get one of my scripts on screen and the quickest way to do so is to film it myself.

I'll have to be very creative as my budget will make most low budget shorts look like Hollywood blockbusters in comparison as I'll be financing the project myself to hopefully showcase online as the festival route is always a costly one for new film makers. It will be a real guerrilla shoot and like Robert Rodriquez did with his script for El Mariachi I'll incorporate into my script props and locations I know I can get access to. Saying that for the first time in a long time I'm actually quite excited about something and hopefully it will lead to other things down the road. Anyhoo I'll finish this blog post there on a some what upbeat note.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Philosophy of writing

2010-10-18T21:46:00.011+01:00

Recently I have gotten back in touch with a online friend of mine (Milo) from Germany that due to his college commitments had fallen off the radar over the last four months but hey I was off the radar for just short of two with a rather less creative reason. As per our usual the topic changed swiftly from the- how have you been my friend?/ What are you working on? Kind of questions to more philosophical ones about the craft of writing such as: Do you have to have first hand experiences of the subjects you write about to truly get to the emotional core of your characters and understand their situation? Does writing only about what you know expand the characters and create an authentic feel to your subject or just limit you as a writer and storyteller?

These are the kinds of things we will converse about for hours yet as a person I tend not to think about when writing. My stories all have some personal element even if my story was set on another planet I'd put something in their of myself, I guess I use it as my way of creating a bond with my characters and I've never really considered it to be a particularly bad thing but I guess it could be conceived that my writing has always got a slightly dark undercurrent running through it some may consider that to be my "voice" as a writer or others may realize it to be my glass is half empty outlook on life either way I'm probably stuck with it for the immediate future at least. In my opinion the old adage write what you know is good in principle if you know a lot more than me, lol, I write characters based in part on people I've met on/offline and tend to impart some of my life's tortures onto at least one of them in each story other than that I tend to let my imagination run free.

I don't think writing about your own life experiences is limiting for a writer's longevity as you will continue to experience them up until you breathe your last breath but I think taking creative risks and stepping out of your comfort zone regularly is vitally important to hone your craft as a writer even for a run of the mill hack like myself. Another question he brought up was has the loss of a definitive white hat and black hat divide within modern television and film creating the anti hero led to in part the influx of morally ambiguous youths? I know what your thinking what a time to give up drinking, lol, I was thinking the same thing. He likes to ask me questions that leave me scratching my head and thinking what are you smoking kid?

So for anyone in the dark on the white hat/ black hat reference it refers to the old myth that in the early western movies the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys always wore black. Personally again this is only my opinion not the gospel truth just one slightly daft Scottish guy's opinion here but I'd say the antihero isn't a new concept remotely and I think the same argument was raised in the late 70s early 80s during the boom of the video nasties (banned horror movies) that those horror films would lead kids to loose their morals and although undoubtedly some people can be effected by any violent content be it in film or a TV show for the most part I think it's not a valid argument. TV and Cinema shouldn't be responsible for teaching children morals that is the job of their legal guardian and their teachers at school unless of course we're talking about Sesame Street or any other show like that.

The anti hero is a character type that is popular because she/he is usually anti authority and who wouldn't want to talk trash to their boss and get away with it? I don't even work and I'd love to do that, lol. I think in general it's the fact that most people have a strong moral compass that leads to these characters being so widely appreciated as they get to do the stuff we would like to do but know to be wrong that is what makes them so darn interesting. Anyhoo I've babbled on long enough and can't actually remember what I was originally going to write in this post as all this was going to be paragraph one only, lol, oops.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

51 without a bullet

2010-10-13T14:56:00.010+01:00

This would have been blog post number 52 rather than 51 but as usual I was distracted over the weekend by other things and never seemed to have the time to sit down and put fingers to keys. I'm sitting here with the live coverage of the Chilean Miner's rescue attempt running on the television beside me which is 12 hours in and 13 miners have been successfully rescued and reunited with their families so far. It is events like this that really puts the minor league crap in our lives into perspective it truly is amazing the things we will let get to us and determine our moods for the day.

I recently got new glasses for the first time in 6 years and although I thought my eyesight hadn't really changed over that time I quickly discovered at my eye test that I couldn't even read the second line with my old glasses on. So a weekend of headaches and feeling cross-eyed for some bizarre reason later I'm finally getting used to the new stronger lenses but it hasn't stopped me moaning about them. As I was saying it's amazing what we complain about in life here is me complaining about having better eyesight and these 33 men have been stuck in a mine for over 60 days and they are coming out with big smiles on their faces, they have stayed so positive throughout their struggle it really makes me feel like a complete muppet for complaining at all, lol, but I'm only human after all.

I was checking out the stats page for my blog which I will admit I hadn't actually done before shockingly and was surprised and delighted to see that the joint second most popular place for my blog was Saudi Arabia. I knew the majority of my blogs' following would come from across the pond in America as I'm only really listed on American blog directories as I didn't find any UK ones that interested me but to find this blog has a following in Saudi Arabia is really cool so "shokran jazeelan" to you all, I think that was right you can never really 100% trust translation websites they rarely have Scottish slang translations right so what chance do they have of getting it right with Arabic?

In movie related news Hollywood legend Morgan Freeman is about to join an exclusive club joining fellow members Steven Spielberg, Orson Welles, Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock, Al Pacino and Meryl Streep as the Oscar-winning actor has been selected by the American Film Institute to receive the 39th Life Achievement Award, the organisation's highest honour for a career in film. A well deserved honour for a great actor in my opinion anyhoo that's enough rambling from me.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Hangover Blues

2010-10-07T14:37:00.008+01:00

It's feels kind of strange sitting down to write this after such a long break from blogging, a break that was not planned but was probably much needed. I've been doing a lot of soul searching as of late and contemplating the future and for the first time in a long time not in a pessimistic fashion. It's been a long road to travel down over the last decade and for a brief moment there I was considering heading up the next off ramp but I guess the journey isn't over quite yet. I've dusted off an old script of mine recently and have begun the long rewrite process on it to get my eye back in as any writer will know all to well the worst thing you can do is take to long a break away from honing your craft.

A mind is a terrible think to waste they say and being someone who has had little outlet for creativity over the years mine is all but dust and faded words that no longer rhyme. I even stopped writing recently and am finding even that brief break from it has effected my writing style greatly. The last few short stories I've written have all headed in one direction head first straight through an unhappy ending. My attempted scripts of late have lacked my usual jokes in the 'action' for the reader's benefit but luckily for me I am slowly starting to change this unfortunate and unwanted trend. Don't get me wrong not every story should have a happy ending and depending on tone and subject matter not every screenplay should have in jokes for the reader but the subjects I tend to write about do, my work has been effected by my mental state at the time of writing I guess. I had even started to feel that writing was becoming like a chore for me to do and I've never felt that way before and hope I never will again.

A fellow writer friend of mine named John Cooper Smith, who I met online at a screenwriting forum, sold his first spec script to a small production house who specialise in making straight to DVD horror films and my first reaction instead of being happy for him was flat out jealousy, how wrong is that? His script is about a girl who finds out she was adopted as a baby and begins to search for her parents. Describing the rest would give the ending away so I'll just say it'll be gory for sure. The working title is "Family Dies" and should be released late next year, I'll try to get a link to the website for the film when it's up and running.

Anyway I can hear my wee niece getting in from school so no doubt she'll want her daft uncle to give her a hand with her homework. Thankfully she's only 5 so it's writing words like 'do', 'as' or 'cat' three or four times so nothing to difficult I dread the first time she gets the times tables to learn, lol, I know them all except for the 7 and 11 off by heart I guess I've had to many head knocks to remember them all.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Leave of absence

2010-08-24T15:49:00.004+01:00

The Housebound Writer will return in 6-8 weeks.

And The Winner Is????

2010-08-21T15:50:00.008+01:00

Well first off I'd like to thank all you guys for entering into this competition I really enjoyed reading all your entries some of which were great some of which were just well pornographic to be honest yeah I mean you CherryBiscuit, lol, referencing Bad Lieutenant very funny but give a guy some warning before hand. Some came close to winning in fact one in particular was the leading candidate for along time but then I read this one and it blew all the competition away it was that well crafted and the blend of this writer's style and my own worked perfectly which was my main concern with the comp.

My original idea for the prize was to simply post the story here and then a link to the winner's blog but the quality of this writer's work deserves better than that so I will only post a link to her blog where she has posted the story this way you guys will get to experience her work in it's own surroundings and give you the chance to enjoy her other posts while you are there.

So without further adieu the winner of the first Housebound Writer Short Fiction Award is (drum roll) the lovely Ms. Lovy Boheme (standing ovation) here's the link http://lovyboheme.blogspot.com/2010/08/carson-challenge.html and remember to read her other posts as well you will not be disappointed she is an amazingly talented writer, enjoy.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Stressed outside in

2010-08-17T15:42:00.007+01:00

I'll post the winner of the short story competition this weekend so Friday will be the deadline and trust me some of the entries so far have been everything from hilarious to downright creepy, lol, good work guys. Just a short post today to talk about a seminar thing I was at last night I'll post again tomorrow or Thursday with some movie news I have received but can't release the info till Thursday at the earliest.

Last night I was at the first of the series of six of the stress control seminar things I have to attend as part of my psychotherapy treatment. They each last 90 minutes with a ten minute break and how those 90 minutes drag, I'm sure I'll get something out of it but sitting in a room full of stressed out women and being sober is unnerving to say the least, lol. There was literally only my brother, two older guys and me and the rest of the 12 or 14 people there were women I guess not a lot of guys want to admit to being stressed.

Night one is all about stress and what stress actually is apparently it's a mix of anxiety and depression and it can come with sleep problems, panic feelings and anger, sounds about right.

Here's some test questions:

Do you find it hard to relax?

Do you find it hard to stop worrying?

Do you worry about worrying?

Do you brood about the past?

Do you find it harder to get through the day?

Do you find it hard to be cheerful most days?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions then you are suffering from stress, the more yeses the more stress you are under. I could answer yes to them all so I'm way stressed going by this seminar.

Here is what I basically learned:

Stress is not a mental illness.

You won't become mentally ill because of stress even if the stress is severe.

You can't die from stress- no one ever has.

Once stress gets a grip of you, it feeds itself.

You can't cure stress only manage it better.

-Once stress gets a grip:

- Self-confidence drops

- Self-esteem drops

- You feel threat from all sides

- You doubt your ability to cope

- You can't stop your mind racing

- You start to avoid facing up to stress

- Your body reacts easily to stress

- You may feel your back is up against the wall

- You may feel that stress brings out the worst in you

- You feel you can't control you life

So with that said I'll find out ways to cope with these stresses over the next five seminars at least I think that's how it works, lol, the whole thing was quite stressful.

Here's a link to the folk that organise it http://www.glasgowsteps.com/

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Lazy Housebound Writer

2010-08-11T15:57:00.005+01:00

I've been incredibly lazy when it comes to my blog as of late there again four days between posts and this time it wasn't because of writer's block just a mixture of laziness and the thought that my last post was on Monday rather than Saturday.

I meant my next blog post to be the second of my French cinema reviews I had picked two films to watch "A Prophet" & "Mesrine part 1" to recap on them for the post but I never got around to actually watching them. I've posted movie news a lot more than normal recently which I never actually intended for my blog to be quite this movie heavy but a mixture of breaking news that interested me, some of which I have gotten praise online from other sites for being one of the first to break, and the fact that my health issues are seemingly improving (touch wood) I haven't really had much else to blog about.

I also considered posting a short story I had been working on entitled "False Shadow" but it ran to about 15,000 words and I have a 1, 000/1,500 word limit for my shorts that I post on here as most people wouldn't read a blog post any freaking longer than that, lol, and I couldn't bring myself to make 15 blog posts out of it as it isn't that kind of story. So what to post about, do I give in to the inevitable and write another movie news blog post and give my spin on it or something else?

Competition Time!!!!!!!!

I thought what I'd do was write the first couple of paragraphs of a short story and you guys write the conclusion and I'll pick the best one and post it on this blog along with a link to your blog if you have one, yeah you win nothing other than your story getting posted, lol, woohoo right?

Story:

It lacked that new car smell but even at the age of 25 this Mercedes Benz was a new car to Travis. It was the first car he had ever bought and although it may be showing it's age he felt like a million dollars sitting behind the wheel as he watched the coast zip past him as he got lead footed with the accelerator. "Damn it" he thought as he spotted the blue whirl in his rear view, he pulled his car into the nearest lay by and awaited his fated ticket for speeding.

He fished out his documents and awaited the inevitable rap of knuckles against glass and wasn't waiting long. Travis wound down his window and handed his driver's licence over to the awaiting outstreched hand of the officer. 'I know, I know I was speeding I just got a Little bit carried away with my new car.' Travis said in the faint hope that what his Mother always told him to be true, "Honesty is the best policy", but as the officer doesn't respond Travis questioned his own logic maybe keeping stum will serve him better this time.

The officer without warning leans into the Mercedes and retrieves the car keys before strolling back to his car it was at this moment that a sudden shiver stooped through Travis' body as he realised the car parked behind his own wasn't a police car. It was a dark coloured sedan with tinted windows, "Must be an unmarked but aren't there always two cops, where's his partner?" Travis felt a second shiver descend through his body as he realised this guy who now had his ID and car keys was not a cop so what was he?

So in conclusion you write as long or as short a conclusion to this setup as you like and create your own title. I'm interested to see how you guys run with it, will Travis peg it or survive? It's completely up to you guys. Here's the Email address to post your stories to: thehouseboundwriter@hotmail.co.uk good luck.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Mixed bag part 3

2010-08-07T21:31:00.007+01:00

Well it's time for another mixed bag collection of random not linked at all stories from Hollywood and elsewhere.

Movie News

Kane & Lynch has now gone into production after several false starts and a couple of Actor changes. The computer game adaptation is likely to be a Summer 2011 smash hit which may surprise those not aware of the game. Most Video game adaptations well they suck to be perfectly blunt but this one is different for two reason, reason 1= The perfect casting of Bruce Willis to play Kane and reason 2= The weird left field casting of Jamie Foxx to play Lynch a part many considered destined for Steve Buscemi or Billy Bob Thornton as the character is completely nuts.

Here's the little plot the game has, two death row inmates, one a mercenary named Kane the other a schizophrenic named Lynch, escape during a prison transport and team up to steal a fortune, I said it was a little plot, lol. The film will be Directed by F. Gary Gray who previously Directed Law Abiding Citizen, The Italian Job (crap remake) A Man Apart, The Negotiator and Be Cool and is written by relative newcomer Kyle Ward who's other credits include the yet to be filmed Hitman 2 and the Lionsgate project Deal With The Devil.

In other Movie news Brian J. Conroy's directorial debut "Darkened Bloom" is finally ready to go into production after 7 months of stalled starts after his original financial backer and distributor disowned the project after he rejected to recast the lead actor after they demanded it. Now what could this actor of done that's so bad that a financier would back out I hear you not say well I'll tell you anyway, after all look at actors like Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Eddie Murphy, Kiether Sutherland have all done things that would jeopardise them if they worked in any other profession well Conroy's lead actor's brother was suspected of terrorism.

He was found innocent but apparently as this guy is his brother the financiers wanted him replaced but Brian being Brian held his ground and now after finding new financiers he is ready to start shooting in Austin Texas so if your from those parts feel free to find the set and tell him AC sent you, lol, he's a cool guy and all you Texans should be proud of him.

Football (soccer) News

East Fife 3-3 Airdrie United

Well the Scottish Football Second Division got officially underway today and the recently relegated beloved club of yours truly faced the stern test of playing East Fife not stern because they are a good team no stern because they are a dirty team and the Airdrie United squad featured players as young as 16 years old as the club is so financially strapped they are relying on former Airdrie under 19 youth players and players they have taken on loan from larger clubs who are also under 19. It wasn't the prettiest of games at times and the inexperience of the young players was evident at all of the East Fife goals although ironically it was Airdrie's most senior player Paul Lovering, 34, who sold the 3rd.

But alas with youth comes greater resolve and greater fan support and they battled back from 3-1 down to level the game and come close to winning in the dying minutes. The team left the pitch to uproarious applause from the Airdrie fans something I haven't heard for a long time. So all in all a good game and a great result for the team to build upon.

The Wager

2010-08-05T19:20:00.007+01:00

So recently I was played into making a wager with Emma that if anyone asked for it I would write a poem on this very blog and dedicate it to her and low and behold someone asked. Now that someone just happens to be a close friend of Emma's you could even say they are like sisters, lol, so now I'm stuck having to write a poem something I have done very few times in my life and place it on here and be treated to the inevitable slagging off from friends and family alike.

I thought as my poem will undoubtedly suck big time I would post a rather famous poem by the great Robert Louis Stevenson also so at least some of this blog post won't be a bad read so here goes.

Romance

Robert Louis Stevenson

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight

Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.

I will make a palace fit for you and me,

Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.

I will make my kitchen,and you shall keep your room,

Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,

And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white

In rainfall at morning and Dewfall at night.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near,

The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!

That only I remember, that only you admire,

Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

And unfortunately it's now my turn so here goes nothing.

Winchin

By Andrew G. Carson

She is truly as bonnie as can be

Wi' the opposite can be said fur me

But she calms mi nerves wi' her smile

So full of love and a hint of guile.

Her banter at times is pure bewildering

I havenae a scooby whit she's uttering

She uses text speak tae confuse her man

I have tae Google tae answer back as quick as I can.

She through me a chance when she came a winchin

Cannae for the life a me see whit she was thinking

Aye she never tells me tae haud ma wheesht

For her lugs carry favour and keep the peace.

She thinks she got one over me with this dare

She doesnae know how much I truly care

If she had asked fur a poem fae mi h'art

I would have gladly recited mi love fae the start.

Barf bags at hand for all who managed to get to the end, lol, and the usual service will be resumed from my next blog post honest.

Index of Scottish Words/slang

fur= for

banter= chat

Scooby= (Scooby doo) no clue

whit= what

tae= to

winchin= courting/ dating

cannae= can't
Aye= yes

hauld ma wheescht= shoosh/ shut up

lugs= ears

doesnae= does not

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

2 times a Baby

2010-08-02T09:45:00.009+01:00

9:54-9:55am(24 rip off alert, lol)

Today's post will be written at two different times today to cover my two hospital visits, yep that's right two hospital visits in one day. The first was a morning appointment for 9am a time I haven't seen on the clock from anything other than a horizontal position in a long time. It was an appointment with the cardiology department to have a mobile ECG fitted for 24 hours so the usual mad panic to get to the hospital on time ensued and as always I was left waiting past my appointment time to be taken, ever noticed if you turn up slightly past your time they don't like it, they make a big song and dance about it and make you feel 2 foot tall but they expect you to be courteous to them when they run late? Double standards or what?

Anyhoo I digress once taken into a tiny side room to get the electrodes attached via a lot, LOT of tape and a quick check to see the machine is working right and off on my way I was, you wonder with turn around like this how they can ever run late. The one piece of advice they gave me 'Go about your normal daily routine', sure as my daily routine always consists of trying not to accidentally rip electrodes of my chest along with hair and a nipple. At least I can see the funny side in it but I just know my weekly trip to the Physchologist later on today at 3pm is not going to be comfortable sitting in that narrow low backed chair I'm going to find it incredibly hard to stay focused on the subject at hand with this gizmo sticking to me.

16:42-16:43pm (still going with the 24 rip off)

Just back from the psychologist office with more homework, I swear it's like being back in high school except maybe it's more believable if you say your dog ate it or you ate it now, lol. This week's assignment is to fill in a form about "Situations which make me feel anxious", is it only me that thinks it would be funny to write filling in this damn form made me feel anxious? LOL just me then, here is a rundown of the various parts of the form.

box1 Situation

Where was I?

What was I doing?

Who was I with?

When was it?

box 2 Anxiety/ subjective Units Of Distress Scale (SUDS) 0-100

basically you fill in on a scale of 0-100 how stressed the previous made you.

box 3 Thoughts (or images)

What was going through my mind?

What am I afraid of?

What does this mean about me?

What does this mean about what the other person thinks about me?

What is the worst thing that could happen if this is true?

Page 2 Putting my anxious thoughts on trial in court

Box 1 Thoughts (or images)

What was going through my mind?

What am I afraid might happen?

Basically a condensed version of page 1

box 2 Evidence for thought

what evidence do I have if any that supports this thought.

box 3 Evidence against this thought

What evidence do I have to prove this thought wrong.

box 4 Summary & Conclusion

What conclusions can I make given all the evidence in box 2 and 3.

This is actually a really great way to work out a lot of issues as much as I loathe filling in forms due to my incredibly poor penmanship (I should have been a doctor) this is a task I look forward to undertaking to discover if I can actually realise when a thought is fuelled by anxiety or not when I'm right there in the moment and if it effects the number of seizures I endure.

Anyhoo I've rattled on enough.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Block Off

2010-07-29T18:05:00.005+01:00

I just realised I haven't posted since Sunday, I actually though it was more recent than that. I've been distracted this week by a mixture of personal distractions and creative ones as well as the Mother of all Writer's block which has moved over from one particular troubled writing project to encompass all of them. Annoyingly this seems to include my blog also but I'm going to work through it by posting today on the subject of writer's block itself and hopefully by doing so it will free up my creative flow.

In 2004 writer and Neurologist Alice W Flaherty argued in her book The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block And The Creative Brain, that literary creativity is a function of specific areas of the brain, and that block may be the result of brain activity being disrupted in those areas. Sounds believable to me as someone who has suffered brain damage it would make sense that it would corrupt my creative process from time to time I just wish it wouldn't do it when I'm on a role with my latest story.

Reason For Writer's Block

1. Lack of Inspiration
2. Distracted by other tasks that need doing first
3. Poor planning
4. Depression
5. Physical Illness
6. Sense of failure both personally and professionally
7. Intimidated by a previous success
8. Stress
9. Boredom
10. Lack of energy

Cures For Writer's Block

1. Outline your story fully
it's amazing how many people don't outline I for one never outline unless I'm writing a script but it can be a valuable resource to come back to later in times of writer's block.

2. Remind yourself that the first draft doesn't need to be a work of art it is just a blueprint for the many that follow.

3. Switch off the phone put on some music to chill out to and relax your breathing take long deep breathes and close your eyes.

4. Stretch as many muscle groups as possible as a way to relieve your body of stress, sounds stupid but is recommended by a very reputable writer and psychologist.

5. Force yourself to write down your thoughts no matter how poorly worded, this is helpful to distinguish between a creative block and a block for another reason such as depression or self doubt.

6. Talk over your project with someone whose opinion you respect not a family member or someone who can't give you creative feedback someone who will tell you straight. This is often said to be the worse thing you can do but I have found this helpful in the past.

7. Break the writing into smaller steps
If it's a novel don't think of writing the whole 90,000+ words think of the first 500 it's a less scary proposition and we all know we got 500 words in us.

8. If it's boredom you are suffering from take time to do something else you enjoy and always remember to break your writing time down into manageable chunks of time to stop boredom creeping in.

9. Lack of energy is usually down to lack of sleep take a break relax and come back to your writing later when you feel refreshed as there is nothing worse than sitting staring at a blank screen and you can barely keep your eyes open.

10. Sometimes if you're working on an assignment and the subject is just not talking to you maybe what you need to do is look at it from a different angle and find something in the genre or subject matter that you can relate to and if the assignment allows go with that.

Anyhoo I'm back writing again so I guess this post has helped me and I hope something in here will help you guys.

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

Mixed bag part 2 more mix less filler

2010-07-25T18:47:00.009+01:00

Just a short post today guys as I have been busy trying to write an E-Book which I'll get back to talking about later but first here is some Movie News I meant to post last night.

Movie News

As I stated a few posts back the role of Bruce Banner will be recast for the upcoming Avengers movie and recast it has been step forward Mark Ruffalo. This to me is a great piece of casting and will certainly relieve a lot of fans awaiting this movie as there had been fears that Ed Norton would be replaced by an unknown for financial reasons but alas it's just as I speculated previously it's due to Mr. Norton's poor communication skills with directors shall we say to not get sued, lol.

I heard the news yesterday evening that a friend of mine named James L. Aaronson has been hired to script a new film for a major studio which is loosely based on the 1970's Italian horror film "Till The Blood Drips No More" which was about a vampire who due to hate of what he had become tries to kill himself only to be saved by a beautiful medical student who he falls in love with. The rest of the film is basically him trying not to give in to his animalistic urge to feed by draining her of her blood. The movie had a great central theme for the time but was poorly executed as it developed into gore for gore sake and that late 70's horror tradition of excessive nudity but I think the new version will be more akin to the modern Vampire tale like in "Let The Right One In" so one to look out for next year, and of course congratulations James you deserve it buddy.

Me News

It's been relatively quite of recent for me not much to report, (hehe) I have been experiencing some major back and neck pain as of late that I'm looking to get checked out more extensively very soon and I had a scary moment the other night when I lost the feeling in my legs for about 45 minutes which caused me to have a panic attack but luckily I remembered the breathing exercises my psychologist has been teaching me and that calmed me down. On the seizure front I've been having less of late (knock wood) and my memory has improved slightly so all these mind numbingly boring memory tests must actually be working for me.

On the productive front I've been suffering from terrible writer's block as of late when it comes to the E-Book I have been writing so I thought I'd tell you guys about the plot to get your feedback and to see if you think it sounds OK or not, I know this is the exact opposite thing every book about the writing process tells you to do. The story is about an ex SAS officer (a UK military special forces unit) who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and frequent seizures due to a bullet lodged in his skull, I know I'm projecting some of my problems onto him but they say write what you know. Anyhoo he is pretty down on his luck when his old commanding officer pays him a visit to hire him to help find a missing teenage girl who happens to be his ex commanding officer's Goddaughter.

He accepts out of loyalty only as he no longer has faith in his previous talents but as the plot unfolds he has to rely more and more upon the things he did for his Country that his Country wouldn't like to know occurred, to find the girl. I weaved in possible culprits along the way I've implicated her father a powerful business tycoon, her step mother a slush and a gold digger and I've implicated various police and members of our hero's own team the problem lies with this, how do I get over the problem of him thinking like me instead of me thinking like him? What I mean is he has started to sound like me I've lost the character's voice along the way and am interested to hear if this has ever happened to any other writer's out there. I think it may have happened when I took my eye off the ball and changed the story from character driven to plot driven around the middle of the story.

Anyhoo I look forward to your comments guys.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Guest Post

2010-07-22T22:19:00.019+01:00

Well today's post will be a little break from the norm as it will be written by Ms. Emma Murty, I met Emma online at a discussion board about independent cinema where we discovered our mutual dislike for Paul WS Anderson films and his crazy fans, now Emma's never blogged before so go easy on her guys and all I can say is thank God for spell checker, lol.

Hello to you all,

With an introduction like that the only way for this to go is downhill fast ,lol, well some people who read this blog will know my name from the comments pages on here, discussion threads and an Interview on BlogCatalog but others won't so here's a quick bio for you. I'm Emma, I'm 21 years old, I hail from Hamilton Scotland, I'm the oldest of three sisters and I recently graduated from The Royal Glasgow Institute Of Fine Arts with a degree, yippee, and I'm a very good, good friend of the blog master himself Drew (DB) Carson the DB thing is a private joke don't worry if you don't get it. We talk everyday and share a lot of our lives together, hint, hint.

Now when he double dared me to write a blog post for him I of course said yes but then quickly found myself wondering "what the h*** will I write about?" I won't do the whole film reviewing thing justice compared to Drew and my life troubles are nothing compared to Drew's own so I thought maybe I'll just blabber on and hope at the end of it all something not to embarrassing or off putting to Drew's audience would be created. (wipes sweat from forehead) Man this is hard how do you guys do it?

The one thing I can definitely write about is art well art and coffee I love my coffee, lol, but I think I'll stick to art for now and in particular my photography. I've always had a camera in my hand as far back as I can remember and take my Canon Digital Rebel T2i everywhere I go because inspiration can grasp you anytime and you need to grab onto it.

These two are two of my favourites in my collection because I think there is real emotion on display well as close to real emotion as you can get out of an old boat and a deserted beach, ROTFL, but I think you guys know what I mean.

I always find that the hardest pictures to get right are nature pictures. You get very little time to line up the shot get the focus right and shoot (poor choice of words I know, lol) but they are so worth it when you get a good one.

I like to think these two represent hope and inspiration but I'm not quite sure if they pull it off (another poor choice of words, ROTFL) I think they are at least optimistic in concept and helped me gain that degree I mentioned as I turned both into paintings for my course.

These are two Glasgow landmarks, the one on the left is the S.E.C.C building where many concerts and shows are put on and to the right is the Clyde Arc or as it's affectionately known in Glasgow The Squinty Bridge. I just love the modern design of the bridge which is not far away from the classic sandstone buildings Glasgow is famous for, it truly can take your breath away at the right time of day.

I think I've taken up enough of Drew's blog now, hehe, hope this wasn't to painfully bad big man. I would like to thank everybody who reads this and please don't stop following this blog this was a one off trust me, lol, I'd also like to thank Drew this was actually really fun and I'm glad you talked me into it, I'll need to think of something to make it up to you (thinks hard, smiles) ROTFL, see you soon Drew.

Well let's hear it for Ms. Murty's very well written blog post and great pictures to go with it, we'll make a blogger out of you yet girl. I bet you used the spell checker almost as much as me though, am I right?........ Thought so.

Anyhoo

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Aller au cinema

2010-07-20T22:36:00.012+01:00

This is the first in what will become a regular feature, not that regular, possibly do it again feature on foreign films. A fellow blogger and outstanding poet Kenia Kris asked me via comment on this blog if I liked French Cinema? And if I would write a blog post about French films well the answer is yes but where to begin on dissecting the film industry of that great Country? If I started a blog post about the influences of French New Wave cinema on Hollywood in the 60s and 70s I would need to start an all new blog for my other topics.

Well thankfully another friend had the answer 'Blog about the last French film you watched and go from there, du'h', the immortal words of some girl named Emma something or other eh, eh.... Oh yes Emma Murty, lol. The last French film I watched was the modern day classic known in France as "Ne le dis a personne" and to the English speaking part of the World as "Tell No One".

Tell No One (from 2006)

The film is adapted from a novel by Harlan Coben, Coben originally auctioned the rights to his book off in Hollywood with director Michael Apted attached but after that deal fell through Coben turned to French actor turned director Guillaume Canet who had been calling Coben up for months telling him his take on the book. Coben was impressed by Canet's vision for the story and his understanding that the book was a romance first and a thriller second something Coben believes Hollywood never truly realised. Starring Francois Cluzet who also appeared in French Kiss and Round Midnight and the always wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas, this is a must see movie and a great introduction to modern French cinema for anyone interested in the Foreign Film section of the local DVD store.

The plot centres around Alexandre Beck still tortured by his wife Margot brutal murder 8 years previously, a murder for which Alex was the prime suspect. Alex soon finds himself the prime suspect once again when two bodies are discovered near where the corpse of Margot was dumped 8 years previous leads the police to reopen Margot's case . The mystery escalates when Alex receives an E-Mail showing Margot older and alive. The supporting cast is fleshed out with familiar faces from modern French cinema including Andre Dussollier, Gilles Lellouche, Philippe Lefebvre and Florence Thomassin.

In my opinion Tell No One is one of the best thrillers of the last decade and has something for everybody, romance, action, twists and great performances all through the cast a real 4/5 stars film and it is also blessed with an outstanding soundtrack.

(oh and if any of those names are spelled wrong just remember I'm Scottish I can barely spell English words right)

Future film reviews in this series will include:

Mesrine

Prophet

36 (Quai Des Orfevres)

District 13

Two Days In Paris (don't blame me, picked by Ms. Murty)

Me News

Today was my weekly visit to the psychologist which I always look forward to, no that's not at all sarcasm. Today we were talking about the "3Rs" Relaxation, Recreation and Relationships and how important for someone in my position it is to not neglect any of these. My homework last week was to fill in an hour by hour schedule of what I did and how stressed it made me to do it. This homework was slightly annoying to be honest but it gives them something to work with to see if stress affects my seizures in any way, shape or form.

The one thing I noticed about this schedule was the amount of time I actually spend writing, the best part of six hours a day not including my blog or my activity on the discussion boards. Scary amount but apparently this counts as being productive towards one of the 3Rs, recreation. The other somewhat startling statistic is the lack of sleep I get, I hadn't ever sat down and tried to work out how many hours sleep I get a night before it turns out on average this is less than two and a half hours a night.

Don't be alarmed if you are in the same boat as me on the sleep front as lack of sleep doesn't really have any long term problems associated with it other than feeling sluggish, moody and forgetful and forgetful oh wait I already wrote that, lol. The other topic discussed today was me getting angry with myself when I'm in pain this adds to the stress levels so when I get angry towards myself I'm to remember and say 'What would I say to a friend that was in this position?' I'm guessing I would say something like 'I'm sorry to hear you're so ill that must really p*** you off, eh buddy?' Maybe that's an answer I'll keep to myself and think of a better one for therapy.

Oh and as it will really annoy my good friend Emma here is a picture of Ms Murty, say cheese!

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Quote 1 Quote all

2010-07-18T17:24:00.020+01:00

Recently I was called up on the fact I tend to use quotes a lot on discussion boards to enforce my point of view, to be honest I just use them cause they tend to come to mind at the time and I use them as a kind of title for my comment.

Now a lot of these quotes are from such greats as Plato, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Robert burns, Oscar Wilde and of course Billy Connolly but I also tend to throw a few of my own into the mix and I have decided to make a blog post out of them. Now I'm not a philosopher, great poet or a wondrously funny comedian but as a writer I find that opening myself up to writing different styles helps me in developing my own.

Now most of the sites out there with quotes on them tend to have photographs of amazingly beautiful far off locations to inspire the reader I'm going to go a slightly different way myself and showcase my home town Airdrie, Scotland to the World and maybe up it's profile a little and by little I mean little, lol.

I'll post the quotes and underneath I'll try to give a little info on the subject I used that quote for. "The bravest of them all is the one who asks for help the earliest."
This quote was one I came up with for a discussion on what gets in the way of people seeking help for depression, my opinion was it is often pride and/or lack of self worth.

"A minority is less in number but equal in value."
This is a quote I posted on a discussion thread that I found the author of to have a very bigoted view of minorities in his local area.

"Scotland is a land of faith, faith that the wind will always blow and the National team will always suck."
This was a quote I used for a sport thread, I thought it was quite funny at the time.

"To know the truth ask one friend to know a lie ask three more."
Now I'm not 100% sure this is one of my own but I used it to describe the difference between a true friend and Friends that will tell you what you want to hear.

"To trust another with the truth is to trust yourself with a lie."
I can't quite remember what this was used to represent on my part I remember I was feeling quite depressed when I wrote it.

"The bonnie heart, scented by the flower of spring beats in time with my fretful heart."
This one came from a challenge by a person who thought that no man would have the guts to post a romantic verse on that thread.
"Fortune is to some the frivolous fold of green and ink but to others the joy of a warm embrace."
This was a comment header on another blogger's blog post about greed.

"Scotland is a lot like Heaven, cloudy."
This was first used by me on a comedy thread about describing your Country or town.
"For each a new day and for each new day a smile."
This wasn't posted on any thread but instead on the comments page of a friend's blog where I was trying to cheer her up, I hope it worked.

"To Hope for sun is to ask for rain."
I used this on a discussion thread about people who never have enough and always want more.
I think that will be enough and I thank any who managed to read this far, I'll be getting back to my normal posts about movies and myself very soon, anyhoo....

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Review of the Redeye

2010-07-16T00:03:00.006+01:00

I was asked via shoutbox on Blog Catalog by good friend and fellow blogger Juliana Matthews aka Ladygoodwood to review two films she had just seen on a flight as she thought I'd do a good review of them, well ego boosted I set out on my mission to complete this task. Funnily enough I actually believed I owned the first film Invictus on DVD but realised I had just picked it up in a store before but didn't buy it so I took a trip to an online DVD store and then two days later it arrived in the post and eagerly I set about watching the film and I was not disappointed.

INVICTUS

The film tells the inspirational true life story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's national rugby team Francois Pienaar to help unite their Native Country. Newly elected President Mandela knows all to well his Nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing there to be only one way to unite the people of his Country through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby team as they make their historic run to the Rugby World Cup final against the most dominating force in International rugby of that time the mighty All Blacks, New Zealand.

This is a wondrously well crafted film based on the novel "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation" by John Carlin and expertly reworked for the screen by screenwriter Anthony Peckham whose other screenwriting credits include "Sherlock Holmes" and "Don't say a Word" but it's in the direction of Clint Eastwood that brings this film to forefront of great films of this decade, once again Eastwood has chosen a subject matter that as an actor he wouldn't have been given the opportunity to work with and created one of his best films of his career. His career as a director is vast approaching eclipsing his historic career as an actor with this his 31st film as director and with Hoover and Hereafter which will reunite him with Matt Damon on the horizon there is another Oscar nomination or win in his not to distant future.

The central performance by Morgan Freeman is as great as you would imagine being that he was born to play this role and play the role he does. He portrays Mandela the man not Mandela the myth which is something I think most actors would fail to accomplish. His performance is filled with grace and gravitas befitting the great man he is portraying my only question is where does Mr. Freeman go from here? He's portrayed God, the President of the United States and now President Mandela what iconic figures are left for an actor of this stature to portray? I had heard of a rumoured Clint Eastwood pet project about the life of the Blues great BB King maybe this would be a great role for Freeman if he is willing to bulk up.

I was skeptical when I heard that Matt Damon had been cast as Francois Pienaar as I could barely remember him as a player and didn't really see a strong resemblance between them or think a non South African should play the role but humble pie I must eat as Damon owns the role completely. As an actor I actually do like Damon's work, The Bourne movies, Dogma, Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan and in the Departed he puts in stellar performances I guess it's the whole Team America thing every time I hear his name I remember the way that puppet said it 'Mattt Daaamooon', and it makes me laugh, childish I know but it was really funny the first time I saw that movie.

I think special praise should go out to another actor who has been criminally overlooked by most reviewers of this film and that would be Tony Kgoroge who portrays Mandela's head of security Jason Tshabalala in the film. With very little dialogue for the length of screen time he has he created an incredibly well rounded character that really sticks in your mind. He also manages to do this while sharing the screen with Morgan Freeman who is putting in a career best performance which makes it all the more impressive.

Invictus was budgeted at $60,000,000 and grossed $124,479,778 worldwide and earned two Oscar nominations and is a great film even if you don't understand the rules of rugby or aren't a sports film fan in general there is so much depth to the film that there is something for everyone.

THE BOAT THAT ROCKED

The Boat That Rocked or Pirate Radio as it was distributed as by US distributor Universal is an ensemble British romantic comedy with a twist as the romance in the film is between the young British people of the 1960's and pop music. The film is very loosely based on Radio Caroline, a popular pirate radio ship with a similar history and style. Directed by Richard Curtis (Love Actually) and starring an amazing cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Frost, Gemma Arterton and a surprisingly short appearance by Emma Thompson the film is about a group of rogue DJ's that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined that era and standing up to a government that believed such music was almost pornographic.

With a script written by Richard Curtis who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, the Bridget Jones movies and Love Actually I was slightly hesitant of this film at first. I'm not a big Rom-Com fan and found the movies mentioned above to be to sappy even for my taste but as he also wrote such classic British works as Blackadder, Not the Nine O'clock News and French and Saunders I was willing to give it a go.

The film has it's moments Hoffman, Frost and Nighy are on top form as always and the rest of the cast do their best with what they are given but I felt some of the other characters where underwritten and the plot dragged a little in the middle, the 2 hour running time could and probably should have been cut to closer to 90 minutes but on a whole I found it to be very charming in a very British way. It's a 6/10 kind of film for me, I like it, just not loving it but I will watch anything with Bill Nighy in it the man is a genius.

The Boat That Rocked made $29,800,000 worldwide which is very healthy for a British comedy as British humour often doesn't translate well into other languages or other regions. If your looking for a no brainer with a couple of good laughs check it out if you're looking for something with a bit more meat on it's bones I'd go with Invictus.

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Mixed Bag

2010-07-12T20:11:00.008+01:00

Today's blog post is a bit of a mixed bag and contains movie news I meant to post last night so it's no longer new news so to speak. The reason for the lateness of my blog entry is actually a good one I was busy writing a guest post on a friend's blog and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank her for allowing little auld me to have that honor, so thank you Jazz.

Movie Not So New News

Ed Norton will not be appearing in The Avengers movie after Marvel revealed they plan on recasting the Bruce Banner role with an unknown actor. This has caused a very split response amongst fans of these kind of movies online on the message boards. People either don't Care as they didn't like his performance in The Incredible Hulk or they are mad at Marvels' cost cutting on their dream movie.

My take on it is there is only three reason for casting a different actor:
1. Financial
His character doesn't appear on screen enough to warrant Norton's pay check and with Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth (next big thing), Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston already in the impressive cast you can see why cutting costs is on the Studio's mind.

2. New Direction
Marvel want to take the character in a different direction or concentrate more on The Hulk than on Banner.

3. Difficult Actor

It's well documented that Ed Norton can be a difficult actor to work with unless you like your actors to confront you when you have a different take on a scene than they do, frankly I wouldn't see this as a problem myself a confrontational actor is a passionate actor and worst case scenario I would just lamp him one.

The Plot

The plot is a closely kept open secret as Marvel will neither confirm or deny Internet rumours. I see the recasting as a clear signal that the plot will centre around The Hulk as the villain controlled by Loki, a plot device that Ed Norton has been vocally against for some time but Marvel see big bucks in an on screen confrontation between Thor and The Hulk. The only problem is with casting a new actor it will be the third actor in as many movies to play the role and isn't continuity something Marvel preached about when setting up this franchise gatherer?

Me time

Today was my weekly visit to the psychologist and for the second week in a row I have come away with homework, I didn't get this much homework in High School but every little piece of the puzzle we can find can help determine a way to improve my stress and depression problems. I still find it kind of funny that a person who sits at home all day doing SFA can have stress problems but I'm told it's all part of a vicious circle of get depressed which stresses me out which makes me more depressed yadda yadda yadda anyway I got this timetable thing to fill in with every hour of the day on it. I fill in the blank spaces with what I was doing and how stressed out of 100 I was doing it. It humorously starts at 7am in the morning which is funny to me as I tend not to get up till 11am. How many of these boxes are going to be filled with "was online" or "was watching TV" do we think poeple, 1/3 or most, lol.

I went for a family excursion to a shopping mall today after dinner, parents were buying a silver wedding gift, my Brother was going to look at the magazines and X Box 360 games so I thought as my back has been calm today I would tag along. We separated into two groups upon arriving, parents went one way us kids (me 28 him 33) went another. We went to WH Smiths which I don't think will be a name my overseas readers will know, let's think how to describe it? Eh, a hell here's the link they sell this stuff:

http://www.whsmiths.co.uk/

I think that will work anyway back to the story. We were looking at the magazines my brother the video game magazines me the blues music and film magazines and when we had found some that looked interesting enough to buy, which is harder than it sounds I find, I went up to the checkout to pay. The cashier was staring at me constantly while the line was decreasing in front of me and kind of freaking me out, I was thinking have I got something on my face? Have I knocked something over? As I approached the checkout I handed my soon to be purchases over to the short smiley girl behind the counter and fished nervously into my pocket for my bank card, damn magazine prices have gone up, lol. This was our brief conversation.

Smiley Girl: Your that guy right?
Me: Whit? (I'm always so polite, lol)
Smiley Girl: Yeah yeah your that guy, right?
Me: I'm a guy yes, how much for these?
She scans the magazines and then picks up a bag.
Smiley Girl: £13.32
I place my card in the chip and pin and nervously await my pin request.
Smiley Girl: I know you.
Me: Do you? That's cool.
Enter pin, get card back.
Smiley Girl: You got a blog don't cha?
Me: Yeah that's right.
Clapping her hands.
Smiley Girl: I read your blog, I read your blog.
Me: Cool thank you.
I reach out my hand to receive the magazines.
Smiley Girl: Say it.
Me: Sayyyy What?
Smiley Girl: Your catchphrase.
Me: I have a catchphrase?
Smiley Girl: Yeah you do, at the end of every new one you write it.
Me: What thanking you?
Smiley Girl: That's it, that's my favourite catchphrase I use it all the time.
Me: Oh OK.
She nods towards me.
Me: Thanking you!
She giggles.
Smiley Girl: Haha that's manic, love it.
Me: OK bye.
Smiley Girl: Thanking you!
I smile then leave quickly, my brother finds this very funny.

As the weather has turned from sun splitting the trees to the trees getting washed away down the street in Scotland I thought I'd finish with a picture of Oscar to cheer myself up, here's one with him wearing his favourite hat.

Anyhoo here's a special one for Smiley Girl

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

Short Fiction 2

2010-07-09T00:27:00.008+01:00

As I've not posted one of my short stories for awhile I thought I would put that right, this one like my blog post back on May 15Th I have a title and a character name but the rest I will just see what comes as I'm writing, writing blind here people which should be fun.

Insomniac Dreams

By Andrew G. Carson

For the love of the chased requiem had engulfed her and her faith in this love was unequalled and not without reason for slumber had been a best friend and lover for Nora's entire twenty one years on this traveling fireball we call home. Slumber had been the only constant in her ever changing life but tonight he was lost to her and she could feel the bitterness of realisation that her lover may be spending the night in another's arms. Insomnia affects all of us differently some use it to release their inner creative force others feel like every bone in their body is on fire and the reaper is at the door but for Nora it was neither of these just the feeling of betrayal from her most trusted friend.

She lay on her bed staring up at the off white coloured ceiling of her sparse apartment bedroom, her eyes already accustomed to the darkness engulfing her boudoir like a late night prowler. How had she arrived at such a lonesome point in her life with no friends only coworkers, no boyfriend only memories of past sorrow and no family on speed dial only Chinese take away restaurants. She hadn't always been this way she was once the life and soul of every party she attended, rooms lit up with her mere presence but now the closest thing to a social gathering for her was when her neighbour's cat would pay her a visit.

It was 03:21am and the noise of birdsong from beyond the ever lighter shade of dark coloured bedroom windows was driving her mad, what have they got to be so damn chirpy about? Thought Nora as she impaled the back of her head into her pillow hard while pulling the sides up over her ears. How can this side of the World sleep with this incessant racket drowning out the peace of silence? She questioned her inner self as the thought of choking that bird to silent death sprang into her head raising the sides of her mouth to a smile. She rose from bed and awkwardly stumbled to the window to gaze out upon her tormentor but alas she could not see him for the hundred year old oak behind her sandstone apartment building shaking it's leaves and branches at her menacingly in the early morning breeze.

She shrugged and staggered sleepily towards the kitchen through the conjoining living room turning the living room light switch on and off as she passes it as she does so her elbow knocks her receptionist of the year award off it's shelf, a plaque which she was only given to her as a peace offering after she was overlooked for a promotion. She entered the kitchen and opened the fridge unleashing a light that could lead the dead to heaven. Why has sleep betrayed her tonight of all nights? She paused to consider, did he not know of her important appointment in the morning, had he not listened to her thoughts of worry? What if she turns up looking like she has been out all night drinking? She would definitely not gain favour with the team over at Gilbert & Hall and she desperately ached to do so for this would free her from her shackles at Muir and Hollis where she has been overlooked time after time for they only give promotions to members of the boys club and she had the wrong kind of plumbing to join their club.

She stood back and brought the bottle of water in her hand up to her waiting parched lips she felt a slight buzz from the cold liquid as it slid down the back of her throat en route to her stomach, ahhh she said quietly to herself as she gathered the much needed energy to return to her chamber of sorrow. She placed the now half empty bottle of water back into the fridge and closed the door on the teasing light, with a deep sigh she walked back into the living room and picked up her least wanted award and placed it back upon it's dust covered shelf next to the photograph of her parents she paused briefly to look at the photo before turning the light switch on and off like before, a creature of habit Nora definitely was but this time as the light retreated out of the corner of her eye she spotted something...

It couldn't be her mind must be playing tricks on her she thought but when she tried to continue on her journey she found her feet not moving. "I know you saw me." a voice from behind her said quietly. Her body stiffened and she could feel a cold sweat on the back of her knees, Nora closed her eyes briefly before turning round. "Who's there, who are you?" she said with a notable wobble in her voice. "The man that's going to kill you if you don't do what I say." The reply came without a hint of emotion to the voice. "take anything but just don't touch me." Nora called out still to afraid to turn on the light switch. "Oh I'm going to take what I want you stupid C***, I don't need your permission." he replied. That word, the "C" word was one she hated and she wasn't going to let this bastard get away with calling her by it.

Nora reached around and flicked the switch to illuminate her would be attacker, he was average height and of stocky build and he had a pair of stockings over his head like the old bank robbers used to wear squishing his face out of shape to hide his identity. "F*** you!" Nora found herself saying with an anger in her voice that she had never heard before. "What did you say b****?" He replied shocked by her new found strength. "You heard me, get out of my house or so help m.." he cut of her line of thought as well as her speech as he lunged for her, his hands encased her neck, squeeze, squeeze her windpipe would surely crush under the pressure. Squeeze, squeeze he seemed impervious to the punches and slaps thrown by Nora for he outweighed her by sixty to seventy pounds and he was a good five inches taller than she was.

Squeeze, squeeze Nora's eyes bloodshot and on the verge of bursting with the pressure. "you stupid little c***, I'll kill you." His words echoed in her ears, that word again that "C" word Nora reached around to find something anything to save her life. Her fingers stretching up behind her back as her attacker continued to choke her the way she had thought about choking the singing bird. Nora's arms ached due to the contortion they were enduring to find a saviour, squeeze, squeeze his eyes glistened with glee through his stocking mask. Nora was close to the end when her hand finally reached something with every ounce of strength she outstretched her arm and swung her new found weapon colliding it with the back of her attacker's skull.

Slowly he dropped to his knees with a shocked expression upon his face the thought that a woman had ended his existence was something he could not believe. Nora dropping her weapon stumbles over to the kitchen door and reaches into the fridge and to grab her water bottle and slowly, slowly she raises it up against her bright red savaged neck. After a moment she looks over at the motionless body on her living room floor and her blood stained plaque. "Who's the c*** now? " she barks at her attacker before collapsing onto the floor, " Who's the C*** now?"

After hours of police questions Nora still shaken and traumatised by her ordeal finds herself lying in a hospital bed alone with her thoughts once more only a vase of cheap flowers sits beside her bed with a card attached from 'the office of Muir & Hollis', she looks over at the window and watches the rain collide with the glass, slowly, slowly she finds her eyes begin to close and before long her lover has returned to her as she drifts off to slumber.

And a Little Mo'

2010-07-07T13:51:00.008+01:00

Today has been a great day so far my back so far has been downgraded from severe to bearable on the pain scale and I have just downloaded the new Keb' Mo' album Live and Mo' from ITunes and am quietly chilling out listening to his crossover easy listening Blues sound. If you're not familiar with Mr. Keb' Mo' here's a brief Little history of this great artist:

Keb' Mo' born Kevin Moore on October 3rd 1951 in South Central Los Angeles, he is an American Blues singer, guitarist and songwriter who currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee. From a very early age Keb' had an appreciation for the blues and gospel music and by early adolescence he was already an accomplished guitarist.

His career started with him playing the steel drums and upright bass in a calypso band. He moved on to play in a bunch of blues bands and backing bands throughout the 70s and 80s. His recording career started in the 70s with Jefferson Airplane violinist Papa John Creach through an R&B group. Creach hired him when Keb' was only 21 years old and Keb' appeared on four of Creach's albums, Filthy!, the hilariously entitled Playing my fiddle for you, I'm the fiddle man and Rock Father.

In 1994 Keb' released his self titled debut album, Keb' Mo', which featured two Robert Johnson covers "come on in my kitchen" and "kind hearted woman blues", in the Martin Scorsese miniseries The Blues, Keb' states that he was greatly influenced by Johnson. Which is why in 1998 he went on to portray Robert Johnson in the documentary film Can't you hear the wind howl?

Keb' is also a political activist and in 2004 participated in the politically motivated Vote For Change tour alongside his long time friends and frequent collaborators Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne. Keb' Mo' is also part of the No Nukes group which was against the expansion of Nuclear power. In 2007 the group recorded a music video for a new version of the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth". Keb' Mo' has also won 3 Grammy Awards over the years for his albums Just Like You, Slow Down and Keep It Simple. Since his debut album Keb' Mo' has released 10 others including his most recent which I'm currently listening to which is a mix of previously released tracks, live recordings and four new songs and would really make a good introduction to his music for anyone who is unfamiliar with him.

The only blip so far today was when I entered the kitchen and didn't realise the floor just next to the fridge was wet and as you've probably guessed the klutz that I am slid on it and went down like a ton of bricks on top of my ankle. The reason for the wet floor was simple my little sidekick Oscar had just been having a drink and drooled it all over the place, now I know that he didn't do this on purpose he's just a messy drinker but when he comes over to you when you've just fell on your butt and he has a big daft grin on his face and those mischievous eyes it's hard not to think he knew what he was doing.

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Kill Me Now!

2010-07-04T16:47:00.008+01:00

That old terrible thing started on Thursday around midday again, no it's not Keanu Reeves latest attempt at acting I'm talking about but instead it is something less wooden than that. What I'm referring to is my back or as I should say my back pain. On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being a boo boo and 10 being oh my Christ kill me now! It's at about an 8 and working it's way up to a 9. Every nerve ending in my body feels like they are on fire and I can't for the life of me get comfortable be it lying down or standing up resulting in me only having about three hours sleep in the last four days but it could be worse I guess.

So far so not good it's taken me two and a half hours to write the first paragraph as I've had to get up walk about, crash on my bed and try not to swear to loudly as I curse my back using every four letter word I know and I know a lot of them trust me. If a passer by heard me they would think I was killing someone in here. Let's try and take a deep breath and try to turn this into a more productive blog entry, OK here we go, on the message boards I seem to have been given a new nickname my second so far the first was Non after the Jack O'Halloran role in Superman 2 as I am supposed to look like the guy I'll let you decide on that one.

My new nickname appears to be chewie after the wookie in Star Wars after a brief message board conversation on a film site where I had declared that I hadn't liked the newest three Star Wars films as much as the originals but this was probably due to the fact that I saw the originals as a wee kid and thought characters like chewie and C3P0 were real and without child's eyes anymore the magic had gone for me. I also said that I though Hayden Christensen was to short to play the young Darth Vader because David Prowse was like 7 foot tall. I like to put these kind of comments on this particular site when I'm depressed as it cheers me up to see the Star Wars fanatics jump all over them to defend all George Lucas' decisions because in their eyes he is a God, I know I'm pretty childish doing this but it gives me something to do with my time and it is very, very funny I recommend any depressed person out there to try it just ignore the impending death threats you will receive on the site cause mostly they tell you they are going to strike you down with their light sabre or some crap like that.

The only problem is I've realised a lot of the same people visit all the other movie sites that I do and the nickname has followed me, they tell me I'm called chewie because I said on a message board that when I get my height measured by the doctors I'm six foot seven standing up but six foot nine lying down, it's to do with the fact my back problems stops me from standing up straight as it's to painful to do so. So now I've been brandished with the nickname chewie as I'm tall and have a hairy face I guess the nickname could be worse and at least it's not offensive or to offensive.

Well my back just went up to a 9 so this will have to get wrapped up soon, it's taken over three hours to type so far and I can't actually remember what I originally was going to post about but hey it has past some time, some painful time but some time none the less, anyhoo.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

SpiderMan Revealed

2010-07-02T19:09:00.007+01:00

-SpiderMan Reboot News-

The Marc Webb helmed do-over of the SpiderMan franchise now has it's star and he is Andrew Garfield. Garfield who has appeared in such films as the Red Riding trilogy, The Other Boleyn Girl, Lions For Lambs and The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus beat out competition from the likes of Logan Lerman, Jamie bell, Aaron Johnson and Anton Yelchin. The firm favourite for the role up until very recently was 17 year old Josh Hutchenson the star of the upcoming Red Dawn remake and Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant seemed to be on track to take the lead and it is seen as somewhat of a shock by most for Andrew Garfield to be cast not just because of his status in Hollywood but also his age 26, as the new SpiderMan film takes place during the lead character's school days.

-In Production-

Gotham Group and LionsGate are said to be extremely happy with the Pre Production of their latest movie Abduction, the film being Directed by John Singleton centres around a young man who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after he discovers his baby photo on a missing persons website. The film stars Taylor Lautner and has a very impressive supporting cast including Maria Bello, Alfred Molina, Sigourney Weaver, Jason Isaacs and Lily Collins. Production starts on the 12Th of July and is scheduled to run till 22ND of September and is expected to be released just prior to the big summer blockbusters next year in late March early April.

LOL-Laughing Out Loud is another LionsGate production currently in Pre Production and here is the plot: In a World connected by Youtube, ITunes and Facebook Lola and her friends navigate the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship while dodging their sometimes overbearing and confused parents. When Lola's mother Anne, "accidentally" reads her teenage Daughter's racy journal, she realises just how wide their communication gap has grown. Through Hilarious and heartfelt moments between Mother and Daughter, LOL is a fresh coming of age story for modern times. These were not my words but the words of the Studio releasing this film as you could probably tell. This film stars Miley Cyrus as Lola and Demi Moore as her Mother Anne with a supporting cast including Ashley Greene and Douglas Booth and sounds like the kind of film I will give a wide berth, not my cup of tea at all but I think it will probably have a healthy take at the box office thanks in part to Ms Cyrus' tween fans.

-Casting News-

And for any of you actors/actresses out there here is a heads up on the latest 20th Century Fox and Oscar winning Director Cameron Crowe's latest film (based on a true story) We Bought A Zoo. The film is currently in Pre Production and Casting Director Gail Leven is conducting a national talent search and online open casting call for three lead roles for two teens and a child, here's a link for details:

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-42949-LA-Acting-Auditions-Examiner~y2010m6d16-20th-Century-Fox-national-talent-search-for-Cameron-Crowe-feature-film-We-Bought-A-Zoo

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Killer Penguins 3D

2010-06-28T22:20:00.008+01:00

Great quotes generally come from great people be it:

(Hope these are right they are from memory)

"For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." by Sun Tzu

"A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing." By Oscar Wilde

"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." By Martin Luther King Jr.

"A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand" By Plato

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." Edgar Allan Poe

" What the F***, killer Penguins?" may not fit into this fine list of great quotes but it did make me laugh out loud when I read it in a screenplay I received via E-Mail from a friend of mine, maybe friend is to strong a word, acquaintance? Maybe... Nah only kidding there B. A. B. Now If you ever get the chance to check out one of his scripts I implore you to do so as they are hilarious and thankfully that is on purpose. I won't put his link up here as it will really annoy him as he hates for people to help him in his search for traffic to his blog but trust me it is themed in name and if you can find it, maybe you can read the daft words of B. A Binoculars himself AKA the Cinema Voyeur.

B.A's blog posts are about his experiences getting into Movie Premieres and test screenings and often kicked out and what he thought of the films. He butchers a lot of films in a very humorous way and at times he goes over the top but it's out of love for movies he says. I've recently been well I wouldn't call it conversing maybe interrupting chatter with him on MSN about his latest script as he wanted me to give him some feedback on it, an E-Mail ten minutes later with his script attached and off I went trying to comprehend his latest incarnation.

It started off with an explosion at an Oil Mining facility at Antarctica which leads to all these penguins getting infected with Satan's oil as he calls it and in turn they become Killer Penguins! He wants to make it in 3D even though he hates all the recent 3D horror movies but as I said he's a bit out there. Anyway I had received the E-Mail and literally fifteen minutes later he sent me another E-Mail to ask what I thought, back on to MSN I go and this is the conversation.

ME: I've just started I'm going to need like a couple of hours to really get through it.

B.A: Sure, sure so what do you think of the opening sequence? Pretty sweet right? Didn't see that coming right?

ME: To be honest with a title like Killer Penguins From Hell, I kinda didn't know what you would do for the opening but fire and ice where two images I had in my head.

B.A: Yeah big bang, fire burns the screen and the opening credits come up 'KILLER PENGUINS FROM HELL 3D', catchy isn't it?

ME: Real catchy but maybe you could just call it Killer Penguins 3D.

B.A: Oh oh thats good like it like it, what else? Hit me, give me some of your thoughts.

ME: I was wondering how much you were attached to your lead character's name?

B.A: What do you mean AC?

ME: Well it's a bit low brow even for horror, don't you think?

B.A: What Part?

ME: The whole thing she's called T**Y Gumble, don't get me wrong there B.A it's funny in a childish way but when you are trying to create suspense it's best not to have a character, your main character having a daft name.

B.A: I see what you mean, I see yeah yeah It's a good point there AC before we go on when you get to the part where we meet her sister just mentally change her name to Joan or Beth or something, OK?

ME: What's she called now?

B.A:I'd rather not say but trust me it's funny but I see your point man yeah it doesn't help the suspense and all that.

(I skim ahead and find the name, think of something completely dirty to go before Gumble and trust me it's what your thinking)

ME: So I'll get back to you on the script?

B.A: yeah no sweat no sweat, what you working on? You still writing that show about the news guys? That s*** was funny man.

ME: I wrote about ten of them then someone wrote a fan fiction episode and it weirded me out a little, who writes fan fiction for a show that hasn't been made yet?

B.A: Yeah I read that one it was funny but didn't have the same bite as the others.

ME: I actually thought when I read it, it was paced better than my episodes she really worked the whole add breaks in well and kept up the previous episodes' story arc quite well.

B.A: Yeah but she didn't keep the sick humour there, it was all about the other guys rather than the sick guys with low morals, I loved those guys man.

ME: I do too to be honest I think I wrote the characters better in those 40 page scripts than in my movie scripts which is actually depressing.

B.A: That show has to be made my friend time for you to come to LA, we got great docs over here.

ME: To expensive, and I'm not physically able but one day I'll be there.

B.A: And I'll be your tour guide.

ME: God help me.

B.A: dude that was cold cold dude come on, cold.

ME: Icy cold, what you been up to other than writing Killer Penguins?

B.A: Don't that just sing to you? Killer Penguins 3D!!!!! I was at a test screening for *********(edited to save him from legal action) it blows and with all the budget they had I didn't see it on screen.

ME: Really, what did you put on your form?

B.A: Told them it was great of coarse, duh.

ME: Why?

B.A: Cause I God damns can't stand ******** (again edited for his sake)

ME: Hehehe.

B. A is a cool guy even if he has named himself after an eighties TV character, I finished reading the script and it ends rather strangely but actually with some politic overtures which if this was ever made would catch a lot of people of guard. He does this a lot he likes to writes a B genre script and then throws in political or social commentary at the end as his wee message to the World which I actually think is pretty cool. If it was me I would tend to write the whole script around that topic rather than just putting it into the mouth of a character that has been chased by deranged penguins for ninety minutes but I think his way is actually a good idea.

Anyhoo that's enough of that, just thought it would be fun to share one of our weird conversations with you guys.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Diary of the Non Dead

2010-06-25T21:56:00.005+01:00

For the last two weeks I've been keeping a kind of diary of all my seizures for my Psychologist for her to try to discover if there is any kind of trigger causing them. I have to write down when it happened, how long was I unconscious for, what was the last thing I was thinking about, if I turned my head to the side just before the seizure happened and what I felt like afterwards. To be honest I'm finding it rather depressing having to sit down and think about what was going through my mind just prior to being woken up on the floor with blood spurting out of my forehead because I've headbutted the damn Bannister again but if she thinks it will help who am I to question it, right?

The most annoying thing about this whole diary Palaver is I'm supposed to fill it in just after I come round from a seizure but at that time I'm completely out of it, room spinning you know total feeling of being drunk mixed with being on a ship bouncing up and down on rough waves not the best time to sit down and try to write a diary especially as it is almost completely impossible for me to hold a pen as I have no feeling in my hands. As expected by me I've kind of got lazy with this whole diary thing and haven't filled it in for a couple of days and am now having to try and wing it as I can't honestly remember what I was thinking about just prior to some of my most recent seizures with bad memory and all guess this is why filling the diary in just after is a good policy but heho that was never going to last long as an option.

I've been suffering real bad the last three weeks with insomnia and have only gotten about two hours a night sleep with some nights no sleep at all. To say this has made me crabby would be an understatement as the slightest wee thing has been driving me mad as of late thankfully I've been able to keep up with my blog posts and Blog Catalog discussion boards along with various other boards I post on at times over the last three weeks this has been all that has kept me sane. I found myself on a discussion at three forty five in the morning a couple of nights back trying to kill some time as my brain was working overtime and I could not for the life of me get any sleep. I tell you birdsong may be the sweetest noise in the World but at four in the morning when you haven't slept in five days you just want to go out and strangle that little birdy.

Anyhoo that's enough of this depressing post, just needed to vent I'll be posting a short story up on the blog in the coming days and I have a couple of more Movie News entries to do if anyone has a request just leave it in the comments and I'll get right on it and to cheer us all up here's a picture of my sidekick Oscar.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Second Enquiry

2010-06-22T16:55:00.007+01:00

Second request this time by another fellow Blogger who is a master of poetry, Kenia Kris. Kenia asked "Do you like the Coen Brothers? Could you think of a post or a series of posts talking about their movies?" well to answer the first question yes I love the Coen Brothers' unique view and filming style in fact The Big Lebowski is by far my favourite movie of all time. The second question got me thinking, what could I write that has not already been said about these four time Oscar winning Filmmakers? Well he goes I hope you enjoy.

Joel's film career started earlier than most think before his first film as Co-Director/Writer/Producer/Editor with his younger brother Ethan he found work on two low budget horror films the first of which was the little remembered Frank LaLoggia's Fear No Evil and he followed this up with working on as then unknown filmmaker Sam Raimi's career making movie The Evil Dead. On both films he was credited as assistant film Editor, he later along with his brother wrote the screenplay for Sam Raimi's less successful follow up movie CrimeWave but it was their independent film shot on a budget of $1.5 million dollars in 1984 called Blood Simple that launched them into the conscious of the film making community if not the mass movie going public.

Their follow up film would change that as they would soon become a well known commodity with screwball comedy Raising Arizona which starred Nic Cage and Holly Hunter and it was also the first in their long collaboration with John Goodman. Between their first two films the brothers made a name for themselves in Hollywood with their writing ability as they are reported to have been brought into do writing work on such 80's films as Spies Like Us, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, Twilight Zone: The Movie and Fletch all of which has went uncredited as writers replaced them on each project which is a shame because if you watch these films you can definitely see some of their writing on the screen.

Their first epic motion Picture was definitely Miller's Crossing which showcased a new side to the two Brothers and it's here that the filming style for future movies such as No Country For Old Men was born. With Barton Fink and Hudsucker Proxy next out of the Coen Brother assembly line in quick succession and to rave reviews it appeared they were ready to unveil there masterpiece to the world and that masterpiece was a little movie called Fargo. Shot on a budget of $7million the film would go on to gross over $49million worldwide and win big at the Oscars cementing the brothers as the new big thing in town.

Unfortunately with a great hit comes a great backlash and the Coen Brothers suffered this when their next movie and in this writer's opinion their best opened to weak box office. The Big Lebowski would go on to gross $39.5million worldwide but in the USA it was not a hit and the backstabbing began in Hollywood, was Fargo a fluke? This is what the big guns believed and the Coen Brothers' would have to make a come back quick to maintain their earlier success and the film they tried to do this with was O Brother, Where Art Now? A budget of $25million which is less than it's star could request today as his salary, the film went on to gross $45.5million it wasn't the great comeback the Brothers' would have been wanting but it was enough to rescue them from Movie Jail for another few years at least.

Their follow up picture was The Man Who Wasn't There with a budget of $20million this black and white old fashioned movie was maybe guilty of being a little to unconventional in it's style as it went on to only gross $7.49million worldwide and sent it's makers to Movie jail for a short stay. I actually like this movie and feel it's very underrated but it should have been shot on a far tighter budget or independently from a studio.

The next film they would attempt was one they weren't originally scheduled to direct in fact the original director was Ron Howard who left half way through to go shoot The Missing, they were brought in originally to overhaul the screenplay which was written by the talented Robert Ramsay and after Howard departed the project it was George Clooney who recommended the Coens to direct. The studio trying to keep Mr. Clooney happy agreed and Intolerable Cruelty was made. Budgeted at $60million to accommodate the salary of George Clooney a reported $14million the film went on to gross $35.1million worldwide at the box office but it recouped any and all losses on DVD as it was one of the biggest sellers that year.

After Intolerable Cruelty the boys took a break from Directing and decided to produce what was then a Bill Murray vehicle called Bad Santa but when Murray pulled out to star in Lost In Translation the boys hired their old friend Billy Bob Thornton. The film shot on a budget of $18million went on to gross over $60million at the worldwide box office and make Thornton into a bigger star. Confidence back the brothers decided to remake the British comedy Classic The Ladykillers which I have always felt was a major mistake. The film was budgeted at $35million and grossed $64.2million off the name value of Tom Hanks alone not the quality of the film. The original is far Superior and Hanks is horribly miscast in the Alec Guinness role. This was followed up by the musical Romance & Cigarettes which the Coens produced and Coen Brothers' film regular John Turturro Directed.

After a two year gap of pre production the brothers returned to directing with another masterpiece in the form of No Country For Old Men, shot on a budget of $25million this masterclass on directing went on to gross $159million Worldwide and relaunched the brothers' into the big leagues of directors in Hollywood. Josh Brolin was not the first person to be courted for the role of Llewelyn Moss the original choice was the late Heath Ledger but he decided to take time off from acting instead and Josh Brolin went on to own the role.

Some short films followed this as they awaited George Clooney to finish his filming commitments so they could start Burn After Reading. Burn was budgeted at only $37million due to all the lead actors taking severe pay cuts to work with the Coens, the film went on to gross $155million Worldwide.

In 2009 the brothers made a very personal film entitled A Serious Man, the film was based on their own upbringing. It was made on a budget of $7million and grossed $31million worldwide, if you haven't seen this film you should check it out, very well made and very funny. Next up for the brothers is their long awaited remake of the western classic True Grit, with a cast including Josh Brolin, Matt Damon, Jeff "The Dude" Bridges and Barry Pepper this film is shaping up to be another Oscar contender for the brothers.

They are also writing the script for the remake of The Gambit which is scheduled to be directed by Doug Liman, Suburbicon a film the brothers are looking to direct themselves and the long rumoured The Yiddish Policeman's Union which is rumoured to reunite them with John Goodman as well as starring Sean Penn.

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Response to Comment

2010-06-19T22:12:00.006+01:00

A comment left after the last post "Popcorn on the Cob" by The Gangster of Love asked what do I know about the Film The Rum Diary? Well here is what I know about it:

The Rum Diary is based on a novel by the late great Hunter S. Thompson, writer of "Where the Buffalo Roam" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". It was produced by Dark and Stormy Entertainment the company behind the TV shows "Kidnapped" and "My Own Worst Enemy". It was shot on location in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was Directed by Bruce Robinson famed for directing "The Killing Fields" and "Withnail and I" from his own screenplay. It stars Johnny Depp as Paul Kemp a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical point in his life while writing for a run down newspaper in the Caribbean. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self destruction.

It co stars Aaron Eckhart, Amber Head, Giovanni Ribisi, Richard Jenkins and Amaury Nolasco. It has a budget of $45Million and has had a strange and twisting journey to the screen. At one point the film was going to be directed by and star Benicio Del Toro till financial problems arose, other actors rumoured to appear in it over the years have been Josh Hartnett, Brad Pitt and Nick Nolte. Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson were both up for the role of Chenault but lost out to Amber Head.

Here are the first two pictures released of the film.

It was scheduled to be released this year but has been put back 3 separate times so far and rumours suggest the studio aren't quite happy with the final cut of the Picture. I think they are probably waiting to release it during Award season or when the next Pirates of the Caribbean flick gets released to catch some of the Depp factor off that film. Hope this is helpful Gangster and keep your eyes peeled on that Neighbour of yours and The Lawnmower Man.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Popcorn on the Cob

2010-06-16T00:30:00.006+01:00

Time once again for some good old fashioned movie gossip so here we go, first up Lord Of The Rings prequel The Hobbit may have a new director after all. After the financial woes at MGM forced Iconic filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro to relinquish the director's chair this film has been gathering dust but step forward Middle Earth's new champion...... David Yates! Granted to a lot of people this name may not be easily recognisable but he is the director of Order of the Phoenix and the next two (and final two) Harry Potter films so he has a good pedigree with handling big budgets plus he will obviously have Peter Jackson as his Executive Producer and two years worth of pre visualisation and development work by Del Toro to work from.

The only wrinkle in the way of this is Yates has months of post production in front of him for the first of The Deathly Hollows movies before it arrives in November and then again for part two of The Deathly Hollows running through to Summer 2011. I think this will undoubtedly force the Studio's hand and the director's chair will be filled by Alfonzo Cuaron due to his close friendship with Del Toro as the Studio is banking on starting production by the end of this year.

Next news is from 20Th Century Fox looking to get all of it's x-men spin off projects up and running after the success of Wolverine: Origins the gossip mills around Hollywood have been in overdrive and very interesting developments have been discovered regarding the long touted Deadpool movie. With star Ryan Reynolds already signed on to a supposed three picture deal the Studio has been in the market for a director.

The LA Times has done some digging and discovered that Robert Rodriguez has been sent the script to consider, now nothing is set in stone on this one but Internet message boards have been rife with Comic Book fans who are drooling at the mouth at the mere prospect of this coming to fruition. It is promising after all Rodriguez' last two movies, Predators and Machete, have went into production at the Studio but as big a fan of his work as I am I think the Studio will be waiting to see what kind of Bank Predators does at the box office before signing any contracts.

With the disappointing box office numbers for Grindhouse still on the Studio Head's mind Rodriguez will need a hit to get his career back on track. One great bit of news on this subject is that Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have written the latest draft of the script so the humour from the comic should be on show in the film.

Lastly I'd like to clear up a very funny rumour that has gotten slightly out of hand on various message boards out there. The rumour I mention is that of me being approached to write A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 this is not in any way true. I know a lot of message boards out there say I had an interview for the writer's gig via Scype with New Line Executive VP of Development Samuel J. Brown but it is a prank or something I've never had a meeting with New Line or this Samuel J. Brown guy who's name I had to look up online to see if he was a real guy, (he is) the writer of Nightmare On Elm Street 2 is Eric Heisserer who wrote the first film.

I made the mistake of going on one of those boards and saying this because the next day I clicked on it and low and behold there were fifty three replies saying that I only said it to keep it under wraps and that there was some kind of conspiracy and God knows what but it's just a prank by someone who had read my previous spat with the Executive I mentioned on the blog post The Problem With That is part 2.

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

2010-06-13T20:06:00.005+01:00

Just created a chatterbox for the blog so you can voice your collective opinions about whatever is being posted about or whatever is on your minds and I'll respond to it. Made this decision after a brief online conversation with a fellow blogger by the name of Jonas Widlund (hope I spelled that right Jonas) who says it's a great way to keep in contact with the visitors to your blog as like me he feel the comments page is for the visitor not the host to comment on. I had looked into creating one before but am not computer savvy enough to start tinkering with the programming of the blog but this chatterbox was a copy and paste one so that works well for me, that's my limit when it comes to this sort of thing.

In other news not like the above is news or this is to be honest but bare with me, in other news I have been approached recently from someone I haven't spoken to in months. His name is Robert Greening and he used to be the administrator of a very successful website named Screenwrite4life where new and experienced screenwriters alike would gather together to showcase their most recent scripts for feedback (sometimes good, sometimes bad) from the rest of the community.

Every February there was a competition, open only to introduced screenwriters which was chaired by three professional screenwriters and a script consultant. This year (the last competition ever) I finished first runner up to a writer who a month later sold his winning script for a six figure sum to a major Studio. It was the last competition as somebody only a few weeks later hit the site with a virus bomb and an unbelievable amount of spam which wiped the site of all content and also recked some of the visitors to the site's computers. Robert decided the hassle of bringing back the site was to much and that was that until now. He recently contacted me to inform me that he had been hired by a Smallish Production Company with a penchant for making Horror movies, in the role of an Executive (one of those guys likes me) and had gained the trust of his bosses.

He had used this new found trust to show some of the screenplays that had featured on his site around the company and apparently one of my old script had gathered some attention. "Could you get over to LA if I set up a meeting?" Rob asked. No but thanks for the opportunity buddy was the only answer I could give, in my current medical condition I couldn't spend that much time couped up on a plane. This I thought was the end to it but later I received another E-Mail.

"Look I wouldn't be able to get you funding for it or anything but what do you think about making an online documentary series about your struggle with illness, your perseverance to try and sell your scripts and writing your blog? It may open some doors for you" He asked. Honestly ........No, I don't think I could, for it to be a proper documentary I would have to open up my psychotherapy sessions to a camera and that I could not do even if I were the camera man and I couldn't thrust a camera in the face of my family for my own career advancement.

But then again maybe I'm over thinking it, so I decided to get your thoughts on the topic. Should I film some stuff and see what it's like? What would be the right kind of content to show? What would be the wrong kind of content to show? Should a documentary only be made to document world events, political analysis or social and ethical quandary? Or am I right to keep my counselling sessions private as they are intended? I'll listen to all comments from you guys and then take it from there.

Anyhoo

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

The trouble with that is..... Part 2

2010-06-09T19:42:00.007+01:00

A few posts back I wrote about the amount of sequels, prequels and remakes in development around Hollywood at the present time well I have had some feed back about my blog on message boards on other sites. Some of this feed back has been good but strangely I had a very angry response from an Executive from a major Film Studio (which will remain nameless for legal reasons) who had taken offence to my comments.

Chiefly he took offence to the fact I had mentioned three film projects he had green lit and he was calling for me to take these film titles off my blog, and post an apology to the Studio. He also used expletives when describing me and stated I had no right to talk about the Film Business as I'm an unemployed waste of space blogger.

Now being someone who firmly believes in freedom of speech I have not removed the film titles and am not going to do so but this response gave me cause to think, is there any topic that you can't write about on a blog? Before the hassle with this Executive (who believe me is a complete tool and I told him so) I would have said there were only certain topics I wouldn't mention. One so Topic would be a recent tragedy like the murders in Cumbria (England) simply because I don't know enough about the circumstances to write about them and I feel it would be hurtful for the families of the victims or members of the community for someone to write about the situation talking about possible motives or reasons for the killer's actions when they are unfounded and unwarranted.

But this situation makes me ponder on other topics that may be off limits, what topics would you never write about? Would you write about Religion? What about the morality of Stem Cell research? These are two topics I myself would stay clear of on my blog as I'm not the right person to discuss such topics as I'm not particularly Religious although I would consider myself to be some what Spiritual. I'm also no scientist and like a lot of people have no real grasp on the ins and outs of the Stem Cell process.

I believe I have a right to comment on the Movie Business as I'm paying for these Movies to be made through purchasing DVDs and my very occasional Cinema visits. Also I have some experience of the ins and outs of the Film making process as I worked for three months on a Film which was made in Glasgow, Scotland when I seventeen. My screen credit? Miscellaneous crew, a nice way of saying general dogs body. I was part of the camera crew for awhile then worked with the sparks and finally found myself as an editor's assistant for which I am entirely grateful for, this experience showed me what happens when a Director with a serious ego loses his crew's respect and loses his job through pissing away the investor's money.

It also showed me what can happen when a script is re-written by a Director who hasn't grasped the original tone and context of the subject matter. I also got to hang out on a film set for three months which to Actors is a completely boring place but for the crew is a fast paced lifestyle and also just really cool. Hopefully It won't be the last time I get to experience this as I would love to put the techniques I acquired making my short films at college to some use and I would love for one of my screenplays to make it to the big screen one day.

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

BAFTA Television Awards 2010

2010-06-07T17:30:00.009+01:00

Well it's that time of year again when all the British TV personalities pretend to all be friends and gather to discover who has won what. This year "The Thick Of It" was run away winner after scoring three gongs. Here is the full list of winners;

Best Actor

Kenneth Branagh- Wallander (BBC One)

Best Actress

Julie Walters- Mo (Channel 4)

Best Supporting Actor

Matthew MacFadyen- Criminal Justice (BBC One)

Best supporting Actress

Rebecca Hall- Red Riding (Channel 4)

Best Entertainment performance

Ant & Dec- I'm A Celebrity..... Get Me Out Of Here! (ITV 1)

Best Male Comedy Performance

Peter Capaldi- The Thick Of It (BBC One)

Best Female Comedy Performance

Rebecca Front- The Thick Of It (BBC One)

Best Single Drama

The Unloved (Channel 4)

Best Drama Serial

Occupation (BBC One)

Best Drama Series

Misfits (Channel 4)

Best Continuing Drama

EastEnders (BBC One)

Best Factual Series

One Born Every Minute (Channel 4)

Best Entertainment Programme

Britain's Got Talent (ITV 1)

Best Situational Comedy

The Thick Of It (BBC One)

Best Comedy Programme

The Armstrong & Miller Show (BBC One)

Audience Award

The Inbetweeners (Channel 4)

Best Single Documentary

Wounded (BBC One)

Best Feature

Masterchef: The Professionals (BBC Two)

Best International Show

Mad Men (BBC Four)

Best Specialist Factual

Inside Nature's Giants (Channel 4)

Best Current Affairs

Terror in Mumbai- Dispatches (Channel 4)

Best News Coverage

The Haiti Earthquake (ITV News At Ten)

Best Sport

World Athletics Championship (BBC Two)

New Media

Virtual Revolution (BBC Two)

Special Award

Simon Cowell

BAFTA Fellowship

Melvyn Bragg

The award to Melvyn Bragg was well over due in my opinion anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Total (Non) Recall

2010-06-03T16:19:00.011+01:00

The issues with my memory are getting worse my haphazard attempt to bluff my way through my medical history with my therapist has now led to me having to take one of my parents into my next session to fill in the blanks. Can you imagine, at twenty eight years of age needing to have your Mum or Dad go to see the Doctor with you? The word "embarrassment" does not even come close to covering it but hey at twenty eight years old and having to still live with my parents embarrassment comes very regularly to me.

To catch up any new readers here's the situation as it stands, I currently do not have a cast iron diagnosis for my current medical condition(s). I was diagnosed as suffering from epilepsy for about four years until tests proved otherwise. The current symptoms are as follows;

1. Seizures

2. Severe back pain

3. Loss of feeling in hands and feet (which makes walking great distances or even not so great distances a struggle. Also makes writing difficult as I can not tell how hard I am holding anything in my hands, so a pen is out of the question.)

4. Memory problems ( can't remember when past events in my life happened, forget words I should know, call things and people by wrong name etc.)

5. Suffer from depression, anxiety

6. Hands shake badly from time to time

7. Bouts of insomnia usually followed by days of not being able to stay awake

8. Feelings of Deja vu/ paranoia

9. General feelings of tiredness

10. Stomach Ulcers (due to previous medication)
11. Frequent headaches

Nice little bunch of aches and annoyances that put all together make me basically not want to leave the house or my bed if I'm truly honest. These problems have been with me since I was around nineteen, twenty years old and have basically stopped me from existing outside of them, no job, no leaving the house unless to go to hospital or doctor's surgery and basically no life. This hit home hard this morning when I found an old college communications essay of mine where I had been asked to write what I would be doing in ten years, my answer? Was not still living at home it was in fact writing for a living, screenwriting to be precise.

I have had a love of the craft of screenwriting since I was about thirteen, I even sent one of my scripts which was as you can imagine poorly formatted and about fifteen pages to short to the BBC at that time. They sent it back with a surprisingly blunt but fare evaluation of the subject matter, It was a cross between the X-Files and that old sixties show Invasion and not a very good one but I was informed that my eye for scene description and scene length was very strong. May not sound like much but to a thirteen year old from Scotland that was all the encouragement I needed. I had amassed a collection of about fifteen finished scripts and multiple more that I gave up on half way through with maybe four or five of them being what I would consider good enough to be sent out on my old computer before it died on me last year leaving me with only some printed out outlines, treatments and one screenplay I wrote to amuse my brother (cursing, daft humour aplenty).

Now I'm considering where to go from here, with no apparent cure for my illness in the pipeline a career in screenwriting seems as dead as a Dodo but when one door closes maybe another one will open. I've been giving a lot of thought to creating an E-Book and Audio book store with an emphasis on new writers and of coarse selling my own work. Only problem with this is I can't find a lot of good info on the web about how to go about setting it up, there are websites dedicated to setting up online stores but they all seem to specialise in other merchandise.

Anyhoo I've written far to much already on this post so

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

RIP Easy Rider

2010-05-29T23:46:00.011+01:00

Hollywood icon Dennis Hopper has died in Venice, California

of Prostate Cancer at the age of 74. Best known for his film Easy Rider for which he Directed, co-wrote and acted in alongside Peter Fonda had been appearing in classic films form the 1950's where he had a small role alongside his close friend James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and again in Giant.

He also appeared in such classic films as;

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

True Grit

The Last Movie

Apocalypse Now

Blue Velvet

Rumble Fish

Hoosiers

Speed

True Romance

Red Rock West

as well as cult hits like George Romero's Land Of The Dead.

He is survived by 4 children.

Financial Worries????

2010-05-29T01:29:00.010+01:00

I had a very strange and at the time worrying moment this week when I was shopping online at a well known music and DVD store with a three letter name, when it came time to pay for what was in my basket (a £2.99 DVD) I got this alarming message scrolled across the screen "INSUFFICIENT FUNDS". Now I knew this was wrong I happened to have had a recent mini statement which showed a healthy although somewhat depleted sum. The first thought through my head, as I am very paranoid even at the best of times was that I had been the victim of Internet fraud.

Now I had more dark thoughts circling in my head, was it from a store I had bought from perhaps the one named after a well known Rain Forrest? Or was it from when I won that short story completion online for which the first prize was £40 and my story (see two entries ago) would be printed in the e-magazine of the website? That darn e-zine hadn't been emailed to me yet and I was unaware of any payment from them so I had to investigate. First stop my bank via my online account, I knew this would come in handy one day but alas no joy. I entered what I perceived to be my password (it's one I use often, I know not a good idea) but after doing so I was confronted with another message telling me that my online banking service was frozen.

This scared me as now I had the terrible thought that not only has someone stolen my card details but they had stolen my identity. Panic attack ensued and after a few or maybe ten minutes of thinking I was having a heart attack I told my brother and he took me straight to the bank to get it sorted out. This is the benefit of having calmer heads around you in a crisis I find in these situations I, maybe because of the amount of head knocks and the possible brain damage that I have recently been told I could of experienced or my various other mental health issues basically makes me incapable of functioning at times.

Anyway we get to the bank and after a short queue, we Brits love our queues, I was called over to the cashier we explained the strange messages I had received. She punches the keys of the keyboard at her computer and behold I have not been robbed and I have every penny I thought I had in my account apparently the bank I'm with in the event of your card been used more frequently than normal freeze the said card until the card holder can be contacted via one of those computer voiced telephone services where you push the buttons on the phone that correspond with the security questions asked and you verify that it was you that made those transactions.

I can't tell you how relieved I am by this, I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination in fact I'm currently unemployed due to my illness and have been for almost ten years so you can guess that I've not got millions in the bank but every penny helps, right? I guess the moral of this story is take a deep breath, don't jump to conclusions and above all else tell your brother. Well I guess I'm back writing again and I'd like to take this time to thank each and every kind person for their moral support during my down time. It meant a lot to me and it is was what gave me the confidence to enter that competition I mentioned earlier for which I still haven't received the e-zine but have received the prize money so that's all cool, anyhoo...

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Four Day Gap

2010-05-25T00:43:00.005+01:00

I haven't blogged since Thursday which for me is a long time so here goes nothing, well something at least. The reason behind the four day gap is simple really I was to depressed to write anything, stupid really as writing is what breaks my low mood and calms my depression to a point at which I am somewhat functional.

It feels a lot like I'm just whining you know poor me, poor me but I'll try to get back on track hopefully by putting these words to paper er I mean to screen I'll be able to break the current cycle. I find writing helps me a lot when it comes to coping with depression or at least letting me escape my head for a while, be it allowing me to write about the latest movie news and rumours or permitting me to bitch loudly in a quiet fashion and importantly it also lets me keep my eye in for writing my screenplays, play, short stories etc...

I'll keep this blog short and sour and hopefully the next entry will be a little more entertaining or at least about entertainment news.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

The trouble with that is.....

2010-05-20T21:41:00.011+01:00

I was trawling the big Movie Studios websites (Warners, Dreamworks, Fox etc) to discover the latest greenlit films and casting news when I discovered something that has annoyed me somewhat.

Currently in development at the moment at the big studios, not including production companies like Lions Gate who have made about eight Saw movies, just counting the big studios there are about sixty sequels and over twenty remakes or reboot's in development alone.

There is even more in current production and post which leaves me wondering, has Hollywood ran out of originality? When I was younger some of the movies which are getting sequels or remakes would have made me smile but as a 28 year old some of them are a bit puzzling.

For instance do we really need a sequel to Super Troopers or Rounders.? Or a remake of Fright Night or Child's Play? Here's some of the others that are greenlit some good some bad.

SEQUELS

Ghostbuster 3, Underworld 4, Wolverine 2, Bad Boys 3, Wildhogs 2, Hancock 2, Zoolander 2, Terminator 5, Die Hard 5, Scary Movie 5, Hairspray 2, Jumper 2, Enchanted 2, Hangover 2, Iron-man 3, High School Musical 4, Cloverfield 2, Beverly Hills Cop 4, Zombieland 2, Austin Powers 4, I Robot 2, Independence Day 2 & 3, Monster Inc 2, Evil Dead 4 (this I don't mind), Jeepers Creepers 3, Hobbit part 1 & 2, Star Trek 2, Bond 23(possibly), Alien (prequel), Kick Ass 2, Kill Bill 3, Sin City 2 & 3 and so on.

REMAKES/ REBOOTS

Spiderman, Child's Play, Fright Night, Judge Dredd, Hellraiser, Dune, Footloose, Robocop, Superman, Escape from New York, Knight Rider, Airwolf, Logan's Run, Death Wish, Westworld, The Birds, The Warriors, Near Dark, the Dirty Dozen and so on.

Is it just me or a lot of these titles from the eighties and late seventies? And a lot of sequels to Will Smith movies? Look I loved a lot of these titles first time round but some of them were of their time and won't fit in to the modern era of Cinema.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Celebrations

2010-05-17T17:13:00.006+01:00

Well it's May 17 and for me that marks an extra candle on top of the cake but it also got me thinking what other historical landmarks where marked by this date in history? I did some research so here they are.

218- 7Th recorded perihelion passage of Hailey's Comet

1590- Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland

1620- 1st merry-go-round seen at a fair in Philippapolis Turkey

1630- Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi is first to see 2 belts on Jupiter surface

1790- New York Stock Exchange is established

1804- Lewis and Clark begin exploration of Louisiana Purchase

1845- Rubber band is patented

1875- 1st Kentucky Derby: Oliver Lewis aboard Aristides wins in 2:37.75

1876- 7Th US Cavalry under Custer leaves Ft Lincoln

1881- New Testament is revised

1883- Buffalo Bill Cody's 1st wild west show debuts in Omaha

1884- Alaska becomes a US state

1916- British Summer Time (Daylight Savings) 1st introduced

1932- Congress changes name "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico"

1935- English novelist Dennis Potter is born

1936- Easy Rider himself Dennis Hopper is born

1937- Juan Negrin succeeds Largo Caballero as Spain's Premier

1939- 1st sports telecast- Columbia vs Princeton- College baseball

1942- Blues legend Taj Mahal is born

1961- Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers

1963- Bruno Sammartino defeats Nature Boy Buddy Rodgers in 48 seconds to become

WWWF World Champion at Madison Square Garden, it begins the longest World Championship reign in Pro Wrestling history

1968- European Space Organization launches 1st satellite

1972- Tottenham Hotspur wins 1st UEFA Cup in London

1973- Senate Watergate Committee begins it's hearing

1975- NBC paid $5M for rights to show "Gone with the wind" one time

1976- Earthquake in Uzbekistan kills 1000's

1980- Kumar Anandan balanced on one foot for 33 hours

1982- The Housebound Writer is born

1984- Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "Monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend," sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal family and the course of modern architecture

1989- Longest cab ride ever: 14,000 miles cost $16,000!

1989- Nelson Mandela receives a BA from University of South Africa

1989-Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" auctioned for $825M

1990- Dow Jones average hits a record 2,831.71

1990- Cheers star Kelsey Grammer sentenced to jail for 30 days for DWI

1993- Intel's new Pentium processor is unveiled

2004- Massachusetts becomes the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage

2007- Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38Th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized zone since 1953

I think you'll agree not a bad date to have as your birthday.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Short fiction

2010-05-15T22:36:00.008+01:00

I've written a short story a 1000 words or so and am looking for feedback, I had a character name in mind but didn't know what the story was about untill I started writing the second paragraph. This is the way I used to start my short stories when I was a teenager but as I've got older I have always started with an outline. I just thought it would be cool to try this way again to see what would happen so without further adue;

Wings of Change

By Andrew G. Carson

As he lay there bound by pain and damp by way of a Misty Scottish rain, James Batchelor had many thoughts running a competitive marathon through his mind. Was this the end to his legacy? Was this what he would be remembered for? After all he was the man that aged nineteen climbed Kilimanjaro in Tanzmania all nineteen thousand three hundred feet of it. He had conquered the great Kanchenjunga in India all twenty eight thousand, two hundred and eight feet of it just two years later.

He then moved onto Rainer and McKinley in the US, Logan in Canada and Popocatepetl in Mexico before the age of twenty four. Later he moved onto his greatest accomplishments in the form of Lhotse, Makalu and the pinnacle of all mountaineering.... Everest when he reached her peak on the dawn of his 30th Birthday. Six months later he conquered K2 in Kashmir to round off the set and equal the great climb of his hero Sir Edmund Hillary a man, a great man he had the privilege of meeting only a matter of weeks before his death in 2008.

To go from all these great achievments to finding himself sat in a puddle filled with his own blood pouring out of the various wounds occupying his twisted lower limbs. Seated at the foot of a Scottish mountain for which he didn't even know the name of. A mountain he would call a mud hill, to him this was no mountain and for this to be the mountain that finally beat him in the deadly game of chance was unacceptable.

The thought of the World wide roasting he would experience at the hands and mouths of his rivals was bad enough but the ridicule that would be unleashed upon him by the British tabloids was enough to make him hope he would remain unfound, he was almost praying the reaper would pay him a visit first.

The fact atop this mountain there were sheep grazing was not something the great James Batchelor could find amusing no his ego would not alow that. He had been the greatest mountaineer of his generation this World had to offer leading him to be compared to his hero by a great many people not just the lazy tabloids or the trying to be hip broadsheets but by many in the mountaineering community who regarded his immense talent only matched by his immense self opinion. After all he had been known to boast to all within hearing distance that he conquered all the big climbs by a younger age than any other a statement that although may have been true was still far from modest and not in the nature of the greats that had preceeded him.

James stared down towards his frayed blood soaked rags covered legs both of which were visibly broken, bright white bones brighter than he could ever have imagined they could be stabbing through defeated skin and tattered trousers. No doubt in his mind that his pelvis was also the result of the two to three hundred foot drop. He had climbed bigger mud hills than this when he was thirteen, hell by the age of fourteen he had climbed Ben Nevis these silly little Scottish mud hills didn't impress him these were biginner climbs no match for the best of the best that he was.

The sharp pain in his pelvis was the only thing now keeping him awake and possibly alive as the blood loss from his lower extremeties had now become excessive. 'Why God, why me? What the hell did I ever do?' James asked aloud. 'I will spit on your face if this is how you end me, I will spit on your face.' Lashing out at a God he doesn't even beleive in James lay in a puddle filled with a mix of Scottish rain and Kiwi blood and was loosing his mind, his eyes loosing focus.

How long had he lay here? How could an experienced climber like himself loose there grip so readily? Why the hell did he pull his car over in the pouring rain? Why did he jump the small roadside fence? Why did he walk the steep incline too the foot of the mountain and begin to climb unaided? What did he have left to prove to himself? He found himself pondering as the icy rain eased off he closed his eyes and quickly faded away to slumber.

James awoke to a voice echoing in his ears but as he opened his eyes he could not find the owner through the haze. He found the sharp pain in his pelvis had now faded to a dull twinge. 'Mister can I help yae?' the voice shouted once more. James realized the voice sounded like that of a child's. 'Are yae all right doon there?' the voice inquired. James looked skyward to the heavens and found that above him on a small ledge maybe five hundred feet up stood a boy of maybe ten years of age.

'I need help, get an adult'. James replied as loud as he could. 'My Da is away tae get 'em rescue guys.' The child shouted down with relief in his voice. 'How did you get up there?' James asked with a now evident rattle in his raspy voice. 'I climbed up wi' mae Da.' the youngster replied with great glee in his voice before turning around and disappearing from sight.

Time passed strangely for James as he awaited his rescue from the boy and his "Da", time almost seemed to stand still. He contemplated what the boy had said about climbing up with his father and James found himself remembering back to his own childhood when he too climbed mountains just like this one with his own father. The joy he experienced from those adventures led to the development of his passion for the bigger climbs and to discovering the legacy of his Hero Sir Edmund Hillary. The flashbacks also unvieled to him the day he told his father that his lack of skill was holding him back from his destiny and that he no longer needed him on his climbs.

Remembering that moment caused him more pain than any caused by his various injuries, how could he have been so stupid? How could he have let his ego get so out of control all those years ago? James found himself remembering back a few hours to the questions that had flooded his mind, why the hell did he pull his car over in the pouring rain? Why did he jump the small roadside fence? Why did he walk the steep incline to the foot of the mountain and begin to climb unaided?

He now knew the answers to those questions it was due to the fact that twenty two hours earlier he had watched his father's coffin lowered into his final resting place without James ever getting the chance to tell him how sorry he was for all the things he had said. He never got to tell him that the fondest memories he had of his entire life were those spent with his father climbing those mud hills.

James looked down at his mangled lifeless lower limbs knowing that he would never walk again let alone climb and knowing this he smiled, he smiled knowing why he travelled to this mountain. He knew why he stopped his car. He knew why he jumped the small roadside fence. he knew why he walked the steep incline to the foot of the mountain and began to climb unaided. He did all these things because this was the first mountain his father brought him too, the first mountain they climbed together and the first mountain upon reaching the top his father had told him how proud he was of him. He came to this mountain because he wanted no needed to hear those words once more.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Kurt is Undying

2010-05-13T17:28:00.005+01:00

As I have not blogged about any movie news recently I thought I should add this news. Kurt Russell will be turning detective in new supernatural thriller UNDYING. Penned by Book of Eli scripter Gary Whitta, the film will focus on Kurt's character gumshoe Virgil Lone who is dragged into a surreal underground world when he takes a case from a mysterious woman named Delia. (not Delia Smith)

This sounds a lot like Alan Parker's 1987 movie Angel Heart which starred a fresh faced Mickey Rourke and the great Robert DeNiro. This doesn't bother me as I actually enjoyed this movie for all it's flaws and because I am a massive fan of Mr. Russell and always look forward to his next film sometimes disappointed by the outcome although never by the performance.

What I would love though would be for this film to reunite him with the man who brings the best performances out of him, that man being John Carpenter. This genre is one they could have a lot of fun exploring and the resulting film would be no doubt awesome. This though is unlikely as JC's plate is pretty full with his film THE WARD in post production and he has three other projects slated in for between 2011and 2012.

The only thing that could make this work out is the fact that Kurt Russell is rumoured to be starring alongside Adrian Brody in Rupert Wainwright's WACO, a film retelling the 1993 stand off between the U. S Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh. So fans of this duo can only hope.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

New PM for UK

2010-05-11T23:22:00.007+01:00

It's finally over and as the dust settles and the smoke clears the United Kingdom has it's new Government, a coalition Government consisting of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The new Prime Minister David Cameron has already moved into Ten Downing Street and held his first phone call conversation with American President Barack Obama who called to congratulate him within an hour of taking office.

German Chancellor Merkal has also phoned the PM to offer her congratulations and invite Cameron to Berlin at the earliest opportunity, Cameron's Downing Street office have confirmed. French President Sarkozy has offered his hearty congratulations to David Cameron on his appointment to the post of British Prime Minister, a statement from the Elysee Palace has revealed.

It has also been rumoured that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg will be appointed to the role of Deputy Prime Minister as part of the pact between the two parties. The departing Prime Minister Gordon Brown has walked out of Ten Downing Street with his wife and two children after thirteen years in Government. Speaking outside Number Ten he said " I wish the next Prime Minister well as he makes the important choices for the future."

Mr. Brown added "Above all it was a privilege to serve. And yes, I loved the job."

He finished his speech saying "As I leave the second most important job I could ever hold, I cherish even more the first- as a husband and father. Thank you and goodbye."

Thankfully this has now been put to bed as politics is not my favourite subject but I feel that it is important for people my age group to discuss it, hopefully I didn't bore you guys to much.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

The Future's Bright

2010-05-10T23:55:00.009+01:00

With a new day comes a new hope in the form of a Psychologist at my local Hospital who believes she can help me with the seizures I have been bombarded with for the past eight years. Gone is the diagnosis of Pseudo Seizures and now in the running is a diagnosis of damage to my nervous system.

This may seem totally in the opposite direction to my previous diagnosis but hey the one before that was epilepsy and before that was a stroke so they are getting closer to a realistic reason for these seizures. Saying that I will have to now be placed on a waiting list to see a Neuro-Specialist and UK NHS waiting times are famous World wide for their length (possibly 9 months) but optimism is what I’m going with on this one not my usual pessimist attitude, optimism reigns supreme.

That being said the fact that she doesn’t hold out much hope for the seizures stopping, I mean stopping full stop merely cutting the sheer number down to a couple a week or something like that but hey I’ll take anything at this point as I’ve had upwards of six, seven a day at times and I’m a big guy, REALLY REALLY BIG GUY when I fall I fall hard, I’ve had enough broken bones, concussions and a dislocated shoulder to prove that point.

But alas optimism is what I’m going for on this one, optimism reigns supreme.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Introducing the sidekick

2010-05-08T17:13:00.011+01:00

I thought now was as good a time as any to introduce my sidekick Oscar to my blog, you might be wondering why I refer to him as my sidekick well that's easy he follows me around the house all day long, if I'm lying in bed not well enough or too depressed to get up he is lying on the bed with me.

When I have my seizures he runs to find someone and barks at them and leads them to my location just like Lassie or the Littlest Hobo would on TV.

The difference between Oscar and Lassie or the Littlest Hobo is Oscar is nuts! Now I don't mean nuts in a funny way I mean nuts full stop. He will attack the ironing board when it is brought out of the cupboard, he will attack your feet when you get up to answer the phone. He rips the mail to pieces if you don't shut him in another room when you go to collect it, he barks for ages when someone visits the house who he has never seen before and so on.

He's simply just nuts but the truth be known I wouldn't have him any other way. I don't want a well trained Lassie or Littlest Hobo when I can have a nutball Oscar who is after all an incredibly loyal pet and a great friend, also did I mention he's completely nuts!

10 ways to kill your blog

2010-05-06T21:05:00.006+01:00

You would think that the last thing a person who is massively depressed and bored by his own existance would feel the unbearable compulsion too necessitate his day to day life but hey what else does the depressed and bored have too do?

With my busy life of doing nothing, getting up at the crack of lunch time and having numerous seizures I forgot to get the right to a postal vote and when I was going to brave the trip to the local primary school polling station I felt to dizzy to go. The rest of the household headed out leaving myself, my Gran (who had remembered to get a postal vote) and the dog behind, moments later I had a seizure and fell over the banister landing heavily (see pictures on site for reasons) on the staircase. When I came too I was left completely breathless and badly bruised but thankfull that this happened at home and not in front of a group of hesitant voters.

The reason I decided to entitle this entry '10 ways to kill your blog', was a rather simple one to grab your attention and then hopefully hold onto it with this rather personal of blog entries. I do have one tip to avoid killing your blog and here it is:

Don't write for anyone other than yourself, don't tailor make your blog for what you believe to be it's target audience and just write what you want to write about and if you don't get the big numbers at least you will have appeased your own inner reader.

Those people who tell you that this is a business and you've got to write about this and have that widget, you know what I say screw 'em and just be yourself.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

UK Election 2010

2010-05-05T23:08:00.006+01:00

As the UK General Election is tomorrow (thursday May 06) I thought as I'm a UK citizen I should blog something on the subject so here goes. Scotland's four main parties are to make their final efforts on the campaign trail before voters go to the UK polls.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott (good Scottish name) will campaign in the Scottish capital city Edinburgh and so will Scottish National Party leader and current First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond who will be taking in numerous areas all over the country to try and win support back for his party after their failed bid to get the PM debates taken off the air.

The Conservatives will focus their efforts on the Dumfries and Galloway area with David Mundell(?) vigorously campaigning. Labour's Jim Murphy and Douglas Alexander will be heading to Barhead, East Renfrewshire.

South of the Border Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Conservative leader David Cameron and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg have made their final plea to the public before voting on Thursday's election gets under way.
Gordon Brown said 'Only Labour could take the country forward and would always be on your side'.
David Cameron said 'A victory for the Conservative party would bring hope, optimism and change'. He also urged voters to 'trust their better instincts'.
Nick Clegg said simply 'This election is our chance'.
The polling stations open on thursday at 7am BST and close at 10pm BST.

And that's enough of that thanking you
The Housebound Writer.

Four Walls part 2

2010-05-04T22:48:00.006+01:00

The next installment of my short story Four Walls picks up where the first left off so re-reading part 1 might be helpful.

James untucked his favourite author's latest and opened the book to the marked page and began to read the horrific tale, lips mimicking speech and with one eye on the quiet disserted street ahead he paced on towards his destination remembering tonight he was getting to study with Macy Blair the girl he has had his eye on since high school and tonight was going to be his night to make his move.
Macy first came to his attention while they were teamed together by their science teacher as lab partners and for the next two years James spent every moment of those classes trying not to look like a fool in front of her or be caught when he was staring from behind his notebook.
James felt more confident now than he did as a fourteen year old scrawny kid but he new from past experience Macy still obtained the power to make his hands run sweaty and his lips run dry. She had come back into his life after nearly a three year absence, she was partnered with another girl named Laura Greenwalt in fifth year and James was demoted to sneaking sideway glances towards her in class.
But yet again they were partners in the lab as Macy herself was now attending university after taking a short break from her studies to travel around Europe backpacking with friends. The difference this time James conveyed to himself was she needed his help to catch up with the rest of the class as she was finding the time she took away from her studies had seriously affected her attention span and had come to find herself falling rapidly behind the rest of the students in the class even the mature student Isa Fonty, a sixty three year old divorcee who was trying something new.
Physics was not something to try on a whim thought James but to his astonishment Ms. Isa Fonty had grasped the subject with both hands and now fully owned it. Her growing knowledge only matched with her growing self esteem which she had found sorely lacking after she discovered her husband of thirty eight years had had an illicit affair with an ex girlfriend of their twenty three year old son.
This had come as a shock to dear Isa as her husband had always been an incessant bore of a man or at least he had been as far back as she could remember and he had never been described by anyone as a Robert Redford in the looks department more a Danny DeVito even the blind man at the fountain knew that. He was neither handsome nor rich so to what this young bimbo of a lass saw in him she knew not but she was in a way indebted to her although she would never tell her such a thing but she was indebted to her for giving Isa her life back and giving her a new found passion, Physics.
James was distracted by thoughts rushing through his head of how to broach the subject, he couldn’t just ask Macy at the beginning of the tutoring session as she would only say yes out of some sort of guilt. Maybe he should wait till the end and then ask her as she is leaving if she says no he can play it off as a joke and then quickly and hopefully hiding his embarrassment he can high tail it out of there with no one the wiser.
If only he could be as heroic as the mysterious Jack Elmry of Bradley M. Hawks series of Killer Winds novels, he fears no man nor beast and always gets the girl. James thought to himself that in the real world Jack Elmry would probably be locked up in the nut house for believing in the beasties of the night but in the novels he was the greatest modern day literary hero in James’ eyes and possibly millions of others. How does Hawks create such vivid characters James wondered to himself as he continued his long walk along the bare Civil street which stretches down to the town’s high street and down to the public Library and James could feel his hands begin to sweat.

Thor Revealed

2010-04-30T15:52:00.003+01:00

First pic of Chris Hemsworth from the Thor movie has been released and as a fan of this Marvel character I'm extremely jubilant about the fact that he appears to be wearing his legendary original or close enough to his original costume. Kenneth Branagh is definitely taking this franchise in the right direction I may have to brave the cinema for this one. With a cast including Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Ray Stevenson as Volstagg and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster this is shaping up to give Iron-Man a run for it’s money at the box office.

2010-04-30T15:33:00.003+01:00