186: nothing to read here, move along

A series of increasingly mundane observations:

A made bed makes the room look tidy and the bed look inviting.  At 10am today I looked out of my window and saw an old lady in a black hood, drinking Strongbow and throwing stuff into a wheelie bin.  Crumpets are nice.  A cup of tea is nice too.  Crumpets are best with butter.  Tea is nice with milk, and occasionally, for a treat, with sugar.  Any thoughts as to the most interesting type of paint to watch dry?  Matt floor paint is quite good, but I like artist’s oil paint because it takes so long.

Ok, enough of that.  Hopefully that will have got rid of any non-committed stragglers.  The rules for writing for the internet clear state that people are impatient idiots, scream ‘entertain me’ at the screen and then immediately moving on to something else if they are not made to feel superior yet gently, mentally docile.  I can’t provide that (except for myself); I only have a commitment to fulfil.  I must write every day, even on those occasional boring days that even the most exciting lives sometimes includes.

Today has been a morning of ringing various council offices for various reasons and been booted from one hold queue to the next.  Now I must quickly ruffle my fingers through the cerebral cortex, give my face a refreshing slap, and set about on the rest of today’s business.  Blank Space is launching this Thursday 6-9pm, meaning there is a hell of a lot to be done.  Today’s unpleasant morning behind me, I can now finish this blog and get on the bus to chip in at the Space.

Not sure what needs doing, but I imagine there are endless final touches from painting walls and sweeping floors, to hanging art and stroking beards (that’s what artists do; it makes us look thoughtful).  Might take the new(ish) camera with me and take some pics (or ‘documents’ if you want an artier word).  I can’t wait to see how the office is set up, and to be able to do some actual editing work, instead of the desperate catch-up I’ve been playing for the last couple of months.

Anyway, I’ll write some proper stuff about Blank Media, Blank Space and blankpages over the next few days; you know actual informative and interesting articles, and not this disjointed mess.  Might even include some pictures for your gentle perusal.  Gosh, the wonders of modern technology.  Skip to the end.

Perhaps it’s the music that is distracting me.  I recently decided there are too many holes in my musical knowledge, and I have just started to explore Manchester & Madchester, Chicago house and Detroit Techno.  Seems to be a lot of good stuff I am completely oblivious to, even New Order’s Blue Monday sounds fresh and shiny new to me.  But they can make it hard to concentrate on the subtleties of writing prose, and forming thoughts that last longer than a few nanoseconds.

I tried to go to bed at midnight last night, and as soon as the audio and visual input was cut off to my brain my mind raced with storylines, word play and characterisation.  I couldn’t lay still and had to get up and write.  By 3.30am I showed no sign of tiring, but felt the imminent arrival of morning as a heavy weight, a guilty intrusion.  Even after all this writing and thinking, I continued to think but eventually got a bit of fitful and interrupted sleep.

Now I’m tired, but with some well formed and progressing story ideas, and a few good target markets to promote myself to.  I just want to earn a living!  Pay me, somebody, please!  Ahem, excuse my little outburst.  Right, I’m off.  Speak to you later.