who knows where the time goes?

15 days in artificial light underground in the Toybox Studios bunker with Ali the Engineer and Dave the Drummer. Recordings have been going wonderfully, but we ran out of mixing time and have booked more time after the Chrismassacre break.

Ali's band The Termites can be found here:
http://www.terminaltermites.co.uk/index.html


I just played a one-off solo show in Oslo. It was dark when i got there at 2pm, and dark when I left at 8 am.

Recent reading: (reviews posted on Amazon.co.uk)

Captain Britain - Alan Moore and Alan Davis

- Captain Britain, a lazily conceived Marvel UK character of tokenistically English origins is transformed into a flawed, sympathetic human being and plunged into extremely unusual situations by the nascent talents of Moore and Davis. The influential storyline contains the seeds of Moore's mature work, but nonetheles towers above the output of most contemporary comic writers. Thrilling, moving and funny. Twenty years ago Moore was twenty years ahead. In a perfect world all comics would be written by Alan Moore.

Alan Moore's Writing for Comics - Alan Moore, Jacen Burrows (Illustrator)
Solid reading for anyone thinking about writing a comic script, but the real gem here is Moore's recently penned afterword, which is typically self-deprecating, subversive and inspiring.


Batman vs Spawn - Frank Miller and Todd McFarlane

Lame scripting, tired plotline. Sworn enemies forced into reluctant buddy-buddy collaboration to defeat common foe.I have a hard time accepting that Batman would call Spawn a 'twit'. Maybe he confused the letter 'i' with the letter 'a' but that's academic. A slim enough volume to read on the toilet then tear out the pages for another purpose. Miller's lack of consistency is confusing.

Dark Knight Strikes Again, the - Volume 1 (Dark Knight Strikes Again) Frank Miller, Lynn Varley

Yawn. Should be as good as Batman : Year One but it's... not.


Punisher - Mother Russia - Garth Ennis and and Dougie Braithwaite

This is a continuing comic on it's third part now. I feel like a proper comic book geek as I have a standing order at a smelly comic shop. Like everything Ennis writes, it's pretty violent and pretty funny. For the 'mature readers' Marvel MAX imprint he's upped the violence and swearing. Not as funny as the Marvel Knights series he did, but i guess you can only run over Wolverine in a steamroller once. However, it's not as good as

Garth Ennis' War Stories: v. 1 Garth Ennis, Dave Gibbons, Chris Weston, David Lloyd

These one-shots on celebrated WWII tales subvert those old, jingoistic Victor and Eagle war comics with sympathetic characters, shrewd political observation, moral ambiguity and a deep respect for those who fought and died, regardless of nationality. Great to see the legendary David Lloyd finally team up with Ennis; Lloyd's characteristically bleak and haunting artwork (made famous in Moore's classic V For Vendetta) is the perfect vehicle for the grim naval tale that finishes the book. Highly recommended, this is Ennis at his most reflective.

I just started The Adventures of Luther Arkwright - Bryan Talbot
but tt's so mind-bendingly complex I had to put it down. I'll pick it up again when I have more of my brain capacity to spare. With glittering recommedations from Ennis, Moore and Michael Moorcock, it must be pretty damn good.