Tag: inane ramblings

Comedy

Strangest Search Terms 3: The Last 18 Months

David Stringer

This will be the third in a series, in which I continue ripping off an idea from 101 Books. If a search term brought you here to my blog, I can see the phrase that brought you here. Obviously I can’t connect it to you personally, but this is a useful method to find what the people who turn up here want.
It also gives me the opportunity to laugh at the weird terms that led here.

It’s about eighteen months since I last wrote one of these, so a few weird search terms have built up in that time.

          there are downsides to looking this pretty samantha brick     
          daily mail samantha brick there are downsides to looking this pretty           
          samantha brick there are downsides to looking this pretty     
          samantha brick article there are downsides to looking this pretty      
          samantha bricks      

It’s now over two years since I wrote a piece about a ‘famous for being a bit of an idiot’ Daily Mail journalist turned celebrity TV contestant called Samantha Brick, but she keeps popping up. All of these are separate search terms, all near the top ranked of my search terms over the past year.

          neanderthal modern clothing

Unfortunately, I’ve not got pictures of this, but the idea does sound inherently hilarious. Neanderthals are from the distant past, but modern clothing isn’t – what an anachronism!

          how to make transformers paper bonecrusher

 But if you make the robots out of paper, then what’s the point of the movies? They’re only there to sell toys, you heartless parasite.

          graham westley spoof blog

 Graham Westley is a football manager who walked out as manager and owner of Farnborough for a better deal at Stevenage, allowing his former club to collapse; used a Daily Mail article to praise himself for turning around Preston’s ‘cancerous environment’ when they were on a run of 1 win in 12 and shortly before he was sacked; and texted players in the middle of the night to give them the team news and motivational messages. As far as I can tell, there is no Graham Westley spoof blog, but there should be plenty of material for it.

          robot dreams read by michael

It’s a good book – a collection of some of Isaac Asimov’s best robot stories. Unfortunately the recording I have of the stories being read is by a guy called Nicholas, so I can’t help out there.

          huddersfield prostitute

 I was hoping to keep my day job compartmentalised from the blog.

          wales from space

I’m choosing to assume that there’s meant to be a ‘h’ in there, and that this is some sort of cartoon where the whales talk, shoot ray guns and trade quips based on the species of each whale.

          early episodes of friends are better

 I definitely agree with this. And, like this searcher, I also like to type random things I believe into a search engine, just for the validation. Things like ‘blue smarties are the best smarties’ and ‘Picard is a better captain than Kirk’.

          sitcom slippers

 I also like to co-ordinate my clothing with the genre of TV programme I’m watching. I’ve got a nice scifi hat, and a great set of western socks.

          bananas behaving badly

Damn bananas. Constantly coming down the stairs, often in pairs.

          bear grylls slash rps fanfic

Bear Grylls is the host of a nature show, and slash fanfic is a genre that creates a romantic coupling between characters who don’t normally pair up in the show or book they’re in. RPS is a… rocket propelled shotgun? Is there a less disturbing option there?

          lego people with guns killing

 I’m not sure that this exists, but given the success of what Michael Bay’s done with the Transformers franchise, there may well be a dark and gritty live action reboot of this year’s cartoon movie just around the corner.

That is, unless the death of civilisation comes beforehand, which is a distinct possibility.

Egotism

IWSG: Spinning Plates

David Stringer

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, which means it’s time to have a whinge at myself in the name of the Insecure Writers’ Support Group.

InsecureWritersSupportGroup

I’ve been writing a fair bit over recent months, trying to keep a variety of plates spinning, writing for different sites on varied subjects.
There are many writers who are much more prolific than me, but I’ve been stepping up the amount of writing I’ve done – most of it web-based, as well as writing a few bits of fiction.
I have let down a few people, unfortunately – for instance I discussed writing something topical as a guest author, but because of being busy/having less than ideal time management, I let it slip away. I’ve got a similar backlog of what I think are decent ideas tucked away in the back of my head or in a Word file somewhere or other.
I’ve also found that working on so many things at once can lead to making daft mistakes.

For instance, in recent months I’ve been writing about football statistics for Squawka.com.
One of the problems with writing on a statistical basis about players I’ve only watched irregularly is that I feel that people who watch the players on a regular basis, who’ve seen every game that player has been involved in, will know things about the player’s performances that I’ve not seen.
I  made one particularly amateurish mistake – in a piece talking about Manchester United midfielder Nani, I mentioned in passing that his midfield rival Antonio Valencia was in his second season at the club – it was actually his fourth.
Obviously this kind of thing isn’t all that important, and didn’t affect the broad strokes of what I was arguing… but it’s still annoying to let that kind of mistake slip by.

I’m a fiction writer by instinct, and find research a bit stressful.
As much as I enjoying expanding my knowledge, learning more about the subjects that interest me, I find myself thinking about the information I’m not seeing as much as what I am. I’ve been writing a ‘Lower League Week’ for a year and a half now, and it can be a bit difficult to get my hands on information for some of the less well covered teams in England’s professional leagues. Coverage of what’s going on inside the clubs can be hard to come by, and there’s always the worry of local media glossing over the complications to keep their contacts inside the club, and fans reactions being clouded by emotion, often over-reacting one way or the other.
Personally, I prefer to get the foundations right, and then go off on tangents, inventing my own stuff. Unfortunately, I think this tends to be frowned on in factual writing.

I've been told dozens of times that the phrase 'and then the cake came to life and invaded the pitch' has no place in a football match report.
I’ve been told dozens of times that the phrase ‘and then the giant cake came to life, looking down upon the pitch with it’s cherry stalk eyes’ has no place in a football match report.

Stieg Larrson, a very influential journalist in his field, reportedly wrote the ‘Girl with a Dragon Tattoo’ books in the evenings, as a way of unwinding. Previously I hadn’t been able to understand that – I’m generally the kind of writer to plan things out in massive detail in advance, before getting started. I take story structure and character development very seriously, it winds me up enormously when a character behaves in a way that I feel clashes with their previously established behaviour, or a twist comes along that feels forced and artificial.
But I’ve been finding in recent months that, when I’ve got so many ideas going round in my head, there’s some that excite me more than others, and it’s useful to think of those as a kind of treat – things I can let loose and be more natural when writing, without worrying quite so much.
It might not be the ideal way to accomplish it, but one of my key aims when setting up this blog was to get myself writing more quickly and on a regular basis, rather than trying to make everything perfect, moving at a snail’s pace, and finishing nothing.
I’m currently trying to reach a pace of writing that I find difficult, but it’s better than the alternative.

As with actual spinning plates there are techniques to make the trick easier.
Just this past week I’ve gotten half a story written on Sunday night, 2 and a half thousand words written in a few hours. Not only was this a decent achievement by my standards, it left me feeling refreshed, and more energised for the factual work I had in my ‘to do’ list. I’ve also enjoyed collaborating on what could be a rare case of football-themed comedy that actually ends up being funny.

Really, I need to be better at both de-stressing and forcing myself to sit down to get first drafts of things completed. I’ve still got a lot to learn, but I feel as if I’m moving in the right direction.

Film & Television Opinion

Christmas in Albert Square

David Stringer
This Christmas Day, British screens have been filled with scenes of people suffering.
TV Tropes calls this ‘Soapland Christmas’, which is a pretty generic term that perfectly describes how generic the attempts to outdo each other’s misery have become.
The trend famously began with Den and Angie Watts on Christmas Day 1986.
I’ve never been a big Eastenders fan, and I wasn’t old enough to properly follow the show at the time. But my understanding of how the story progressed is that the pair, who had an aggressive and wild on-off relationship which drove a lot of the drama on the show at the time, were on the verge of reconciliation. But Den, having discovered that his wife’s cancer was a lie to keep them together, suddenly and surprisingly hands over divorce papers to his wife.
That’s how drama should work – keeping the audience on tenterhooks, unsure of what will happen, before revealing a twist that’s both shocking, emotionally powerful, and true to the characters.
Film & Television Opinion, Storytelling Geekery

Beyond the Bechdel Test

David Stringer

You may be aware of the Bechdel test. If you’re not, it’s a pretty straight forward idea – it’s a form of criticism, primarily of movies but which can be applied to any other form of fiction. To pass the test, the story must

Include at least two women,
Who have at least one conversation,
About something other than a man or men.

The Bechdel Test isn’t an in depth test of how feminist or misogynist a piece of fiction is. But it’s a simple way to measure if female characters are seen, and have their own problems and personalities, rather than just being defined through their relationships to the male characters.
I bring this up, as I’ve recently come across two similar tests.

The head the idea first came out of
Alison Bechdel, writer of Dykes to Watch Out For

Continue reading “Beyond the Bechdel Test” →

Comedy

Strangest Search Terms 2: May – December

David Stringer

Back in April, I took a look at some of the stranger search terms to lead to my blog.
I’ve decided to do the same again…

jordan rhodes yorkshireman

I think everyone from Yorkshire introduces themselves in that way.

chinless will

I get a few hits for ‘chinless’ because of a Walking Dead still I yoinked from somewhere, but I’m still surprised at the number of people who search for the word ‘chinless’.

lego evacuation of dunkirk

I don’t think we really did enough to get all the lego pieces out of occupied France. God rest their souls.

michael bay is awful

I’m pleased to see that this seems to be getting a few hits.

chinless person

As I’ve said, this is a fairly common search term.

do you like my crits yes they’re natural

Less so.

hulk share lyriks bruno mars iwanna be biilion

Hulk no more smash, Hulk reformed man. Hulk share lyrics to amusing songs!

robot asimov

There’s nothing strange about this term, given how much he wrote about robots (and invented a fairly ingenious Three Laws of Robotics). But it gave me the idea of Isaac Asimov living on in a robot body, which I think is pretty cool.

bruno mars wealth says he’s a billionaire

And if he’s not, he’s a dirty liar. Everyone should be held accountable for the things they say in songs. Bob Marley died without serving his life sentence, but there’s still time to lock up Tom Jones.

bride prostitute

Is this intended as a feminist statement, marriage, is like prostitution, that kind of thing?

travie mccoy write his own music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That depends what you mean by ‘write’. I’m fairly sure he’ll have transcribed his music at some point.

warwick davis seems nice

Glad I’m not the only one to think so. Despite some noticeably artificial and predictable plot twists, and a few characters who don’t act like any humans, a worrying number of people seem to have thought Life’s Too Short was a documentary.

gilf

Think about that.

pauos porno

Earlier in the year, I got hits for ‘smokink pauos lesbies kom’, which I noted sounded a bit like mis-spelt dirty words. Is this more of the same?

mel brooks on how i met your mother

I’ve got tags for both of these, and I’ve had a few hits for the pair combined – I really liked the episode of Mad About You he guest starred in, and his film work is genius.
I really want to see him guest star on HIMYM, and I’m sad that this doesn’t exist yet.

baseball square

I used this as a joke in a review of Moneyball – glad to see I wasn’t accidentally being original.

lego man doing coke

The idea amused me, so I did an image search, but couldn’t find anything. Disturbingly, one of the suggestions was ‘lego man doing a poo’.
I didn’t click on that.

who does matthew briggs talk to on twitter

I talk to him occasionally. Apparently he’s either got a stalker, or an overprotective mother.

samuel johnson quote “no manbut a blockhead ever wrotebut formoney.”

Unlike me you’ve got the quote right. You may want to put a few spaces in though.

cleveland show zombie

Is that because it lurches on when by all logic it should have been dead long ago?

fc blog women in boyfriend google search

I’m trying to figure out if ‘women in boyfriend’ is meant to be dirty.
But it’s not necessary to type ‘google search’ into the google search bar.

events 2012 mk dons jehovah’s witnesses

Well, crowds at MK Dons FC are only growing gradually, so going door to door could be the next option.

rev adam smallbone fanfiction

Rev. is absolutely fantastic, probably the best downbeat ‘Office’ style realist comedy in the past few years. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s inspired a bit of fanfiction.

citizen khan fanfiction

Oh, please God, no.

lifes too short to fall out meaning

Well…it means that life is relatively short, so it’s a waste to spend it mad at people you like.
Though if you didn’t find it self-explanatory, I’m not sure that my explanation will be all that helpful…

episode of how i met your mother where ross kisses rachel

There’s a few searches that seem to be riffs on ‘Friends and How I met your Mother are the same show’ but this is probably my favourite.

don’t tell me to be quiet

Wow – that might actually be someone specifically searching for my writing! I’m probably more flattered by that than I should be…

denofgeek.com the batman offside

If Batman does play football, I doubt he’d be caught offside. He probably has something on his utility belt to prevent it.

sitcom slippers

Is that slippers to be worn while watching a sitcom?
Or has someone tried to search for something they saw on TV, and tried to narrow it down by adding that they saw it on a sitcom?

4 person sack race

Is that a sack race between four people, or four people in the same sack trying to jump forward at the same time? If it’s the latter, it’s something I’d like to see.

messi was stalked by fabio capello

I quite like the mental image of Fabio Capello sneaking round the bushes after little Leo Messi. He’ll have to hope Messi doesn’t have a sudden burst of pace.

analyze friends epidsodes

I’ve analysed one in the past and intend to analyse more Friends epidsodes at some point soon.

the real billie bean

I’m not sure who this is, but she’s not my lover.

“used her beauty to”my pet” “beg me”

??

how much is graham westley money worth

I’m not quite sure on this, but his family had a pretty successful business, which he built up further in a break between being a footballer and a football manager. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s worth a few million.

followup to afrika reich by guy saville?

There’s a few searches along this line – Guy Saville is writing a sequel, though I’ve tried to steer clear of specific details. If you want them, he seems to update his facebook page pretty regularly.

citizen khan funny

We’ll have to agree to disagree there.

snyder’s beat sheet does it work for tv

I can’t see why not, but I’ve not looked at any specific episodes yet. The difference would be that, with TV, you already know the characters and the basic set-up at the beginning, so there’s no need to go through all the steps.

what dose a real devil

The devil would use the wrong dose, either so it does nothing, or does too much. Satan’s a meanie like that.

difference between all is lost and dark knight of the soul beat sheet

In ‘All is lost’, the hero realises something really bad has happened, the ground has been whipped out from under them. In the latter section, the hero is moping, lost, unsure how to recover from what’s just happened.
Though I do love the idea of ‘dark knight’ of the soul.

anthemion storylines software review

I’ve not written a review for this, and I don’t know where there is one. But Anthemion Storylines (which I got as part of Writer’s Cafe) basically runs on the idea of arranging plot points in a story you’re writing, with each plot point on a post-it note. But with Storylines being a computer programme, you can put things away safely, rearrange the order of ideas to see what works better, safe in the knowledge you can easily change it back. I find it useful.

does edgar david play for tranmere rovers

No, but Eugene Dadi, a muscular and dreadlocked forward who looks fairly similar, did… a lot longer ago than I remembered, actually.
Edgar Davids plays, and manages, Barnet – the Football League’s bottom side.

is asimov’s story eyes do more than see in public domain

I wouldn’t have thought so – in Britain rights stay with the author’s estate until 70 years after death, and I’d assume there’s something similar in America.

episode of men behaving badly when the blender

When the blender does what? I need to know!

dan snyder beat sheet

It’s actually Blake Snyder’s beat sheet – Dan Snyder is the director.
My main point of reference to Dan Snyder is Mark Kermode’s impression of him, so that idea amused me a bit. Also, I realised when I was searching for the video that Dan Snyder is actually called Zack Snyder, and Dan Snyder owns the Washington Redskins. They’re a talented family, the Snyders.

ross and rachel take a break opinions

I’m entirely on Rachel’s side. And not just because she’s pretty.

i am gulliver who has landed in the strange india of lilliput write a diary entry expressing feelings

The original opening to Gulliver’s Travels was perhaps a little too literal.

barnet fc+debt

Equals relegation, probably.

jonathan swift flows have little flows

This sounds almost like a zen riddle.

warick davis is a dick!

He always seems really decent in interviews, and has a similar reputation. Still, his character in Life’s Too Short is very punchable.

 

That’ll do for now, I think.

Egotism

Writing fiction on a regular basis

David Stringer

I’ve been writing something for NaNoWriMo.Although I’ve been plotting and doing background work on character motivations for a while, I started actually writing quite late. It was the 4th (Sunday) when I started, and I feel like I’m picking up a little speed in my overall daily word count.

I do get bizarrely self-conscious in my writing, and, though it’s a cliche, it makes next to no sense. It’s something I enjoy, messing around in created worlds with created characters is probably my equivalent of gaming. (I’m atrociously bad at games like Skyrim and the like – in two different games in the past few months, when attacked, I’ve accidentally managed to switch camera angles when trying to hit back. It’s not a very effective fighting method.)

The format won’t end in a 50k novel at the end of the month; more a series of short stories based on an existing fictional world. (Classic Simpsons did it with movies, West Side Story is based on Romeo & Juliet, so I will accept no criticism of my plagiarism.)

I think I’m writing about 1,000 words a day now (albeit not all of them originally mine), and with a bit more focus, sitting down to speed write for half an hour or an hour, I’m sure I can up this.

But the little bit of nagging remains – that what I’m doing is daft, a waste of time. But I’ve already written one scene – entirely my own – that I think is pretty cool, and I’ve got a couple more that I’m excited to get to.

Writing is fun. That’s pretty much the most important thing to remember.

Writing – tis an act which brings great happiness and much joy
Comedy

Strangest Search Terms – November to April

David Stringer

One of the features of the WordPress dashboard is a list of the search terms that lead to the blog.
This means that if a search term brought you here, I can tell what you typed into Google, Yahoo or even Ask.com. Of course I could tell what you wanted anyway, as I’m an internet based telepath, but it’s interesting to see the terms people have used.
I’m planning to steal an idea I’ve seen over at 101 Books, and look at some search terms that the blog itself wasn’t able to match up. I’ll do what I can to help some of the people who were unfortunate enough to wash up on my shore when they had somewhere else to be, and try for a cheap laugh at some of the stranger terms.

no audience

No joke, this is one of the highest search term leading here. If it wasn’t enough that I don’t have much of an audience yet, I’m apparently most famous for not having an audience.

chinless people

Strange, but there’s always going to be one or two slightly unusual phrases turn up. Probably just a one off.

chinless

Oh.

michael bay is awful

I’m actually on the first page of results for this. Strange, I would have there’d be a lot of people talking about Michael Bay’s awfulness.
A tip for anyone looking to increase the number of hits to their blog – think of phrases you’d think would be fairly common, use Google to find the ones that aren’t, and use them as tags.

samantha beck daily mail

If she’s apparently trying to make a fortune out of being a windup merchant, saying the most outrageous things, I’m glad people are getting her name wrong. And I hope people continue to get Samantha Dreck’s name wrong.

did samantha brick

I’m afraid I don’t know, did she?

walking dead star trek

I’d not thought of it before, but that would make a great crossover. I’ve they use the current, young cast, they’ll have to give Scotty a cricket bat.

lego german men

What makes them German, specifically? Given the colour that they come in, I’m just glad people aren’t assuming they’re Chinese or Korean.

hartlepool united tall girl -ships

This seems like it’s two or three searches that got mixed up together.
A hint – delete the previous search before typing the new one.

chinless zombie

Not this again. Is this some sort of racial stereotype? Because if you’re a racist googler, I don’t think that racism’s very nice.

is warwick davis a jerk

I don’t think so. He was playing a jerk in Life’s Too Short, but seemed too nice to pull it off.

bananas behaving badly

Do they ever behave well? You turn your back for five minutes and they go all mushy.

chinless man

Okay, I’m going to deal with this.
Even though the people of NATION may look ridiculous, grouping them together is a little offensive. Yes, they do have that trait that is more developed than in people of other nations, but they are still people, and I’m sure there’d be one or two of your traits that make the same impression on them. One of the traits we, as outsiders, associate with the culture of NATION, in addition to their lack of chins, is their excessive spending/young workers in sweatshops/having stiff, unexpressive faces, but that doesn’t make them zombies.

https://noonebutabloghead.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/journalist.jpg

That’s a very specific search.

lego man sodger

I named my lego men with random sounds when I was growing up as well. I had a king Roshaff and a soldier called Elmff. Elmff took off his hair and put Roshaff’s crown on, and no-one could remember which one was which.

boyfriend chinless

Just because he’s your boyfriend, doesn’t mean you’re allowed to be (possibly) racist towards him.

awkwardness of sex

Should I be glad that whoever this was got here, or worried about my reputation?

tescos promotional mix

Is this their equivelant of Woolworths’ Pick n Mix?

there is still doubt

Or is there?

lego man in space moves web

Is this a really low-budget scifi epic? Perhaps our hero has to battle a giant spacespider, who has spun a web that’s trapping Earth’s spaceships inside. Can the spacemen overcome the nefarious Spacespiders, or will they conquer the Earth? Den den dern!

wooden lego man

Part of me thinks this may be two sentences combined. What’s that you say doc, I have to use a wooden leg? Oh man!

best crossbow for the money 2011

I love the thought that there’s people wanting to buy outdated and horrifically dangerous medieval weapons, but who still want to spend their money wisely.

are plumbers needed in qatar for the world cup

I don’t know, but if they were, looking on a random WordPress blog would be the best place to find out.

smokink pauos lesbies kom

I can’t be certain, but three of those four words appear to be potentially dirty words spelled badly. Did someone’s search for porn end in disappointment?

smokink lesbies pauos kom

If at first you don’t succeed, rearrange the exact same words, and try again.

no man but a bloghead

That might be someone searching specifically for me! I’m humbled, but also a little reluctant to believe.

chinless brit

Really? We’re still doing this?

essay valley of fear sherlock holmes

I think someone wanted their homework done for them.

wich order to read the sherlock holmes books

I’ve read the novels first, and then the first short story collection. The wikipedia page has the dates of publication if you’d prefer to read in order. But other than Moriarty, who I think appears twice, and some mentions of Watson’s love life made in passing, they’re all stand alone stories, so pretty much any order works.

suits eternal law noonebutabloghead

More than one! I’m popular!

“satire is often described”

Yes, I’m sure it is.

why do cats stare out the window

Why do raindrops fall downward?

“rachel’s arms” “ross”

If I ever own a pub, I’m going to call it The Rachel’s Arms.
Well, I probably won’t, but I’ll recall the time it seemed like a good idea.

warwick davis nice guy?

Warwick Davis yes nice guy.

caroline aherne email address

I’m afraid I don’t have that, but I do have her phone number. Will that do?

spaceship with no background

That’s the way you want them. If your spaceship comes with a background, it’s as good as useless.

lego man killing man

Did he jump down his throat?

a rap about the queen of england

That sounds awesome.

warwick davis seems nice

I thought so as well.

pretty article

Unfortunately there’s only ugly articles here. And lots and lots of links.

in what year is the valley of fear set

Most of the Sherlock Holmes stories are set around the end of the 19th century, and early 20th, though I’m not totally sure on the years.
Holmes’ section of the Valley of Fear is set before Reichenbach Falls, and there’s a flashback section within the story.
So in short, I don’t know.

what happen when log into a domain

I recognise those words as vaguely internetty, but I’ve got no idea if that means anything. Sorry.

over thinking song lyrics

Does this count as a search for me? Unfortunately there appears to be a song called ‘Overthinking’, so probably not.

samantha flirt at work

That sounds like a line of a really inappropriate children’s book – ‘Flirt at work, Samantha, flirt at work!’

first meeting of the fa satire

Is this a request? There’s definitely potential there.

i liked eternal law

So did I!

where can i get the italian football lower leagues

Italy seems a good place to start?

warwick davis is an asshole.

No, we’ve already agreed he’s a nice guy.
I like how the searcher googles in complete sentences.

“why men wear panties”

This is worrying.

i will stand on my ground even you try to out me down

You might have been searching for Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’?
If so, the line is apparently ‘I will stand my ground, and I won’t back down’.

women looking throw the window

Throw it! Take it out and throw it!

mother of all inventions mockmentary

That mockumentary is here, but doesn’t seem to be very highly rated. Does sound like an interesting idea though.

“also like to draw your attention towards an interview on born offside with mark mcallister, the ‘video coach’ for”

What an oddly specific search. As a coincedence, I happen to have written a blog entry using that exact phrase!

stare at the window

Don’t stare out of it, stare at the glass itself.

keep calm and kill zombies

Always good advice.

hunedoara castle wikipedia

Apparently this is the home of Dracula. I don’t know how you got here, but I’ve learned something today, so thank you.

protagonist of the valley of fear

That would be Sherlock Holmes, or Jack McMurdo, if you’re looking for the slightly less well known protagonist.

favorite lower league english football teams

First of all, it’s good to see Americans show an interest in the English lower leagues.
And to answer your question, that would be Hartlepool United. They are everyone’s favourite lower league English football team.

liamneeson really on twitter

I don’t think so, but based on that documentary he did with Ricky Gervais and Warwick Davis, I’d really like to hear his comedy stylings.

travie mccoy on the voice 4/3/2012

I’ll have to make sure not to watch it then.

chinless person

And with that, I think I’m done.

Film & Television Opinion

Suits vs Eternal Law

David Stringer

This new year I’ve been watching two new lawyer based programmes – the American import Suits, and new ITV and Kudos show Eternal Law.

I’d been putting off watching the beginning of Eternal Law, as the concept of angels acting as lawyers seemed a bit gimmicky, and it was only the involvement of Kudos – creators of Hustle, Spooks and Life on Mars – that convinced me to put aside my reservations.

But Eternal Law fleshes out the concept of angels on Earth well. There’s references to their boss, ‘Mr. Mountjoy’; spotting an image of a friend on stained glass; ‘If that’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses, tell them they’re totally wrong’.
It all adds depth to the world, makes it seem more believable.

Suits is a bit more straight forward – a ‘normal’ law programme, albeit well executed, following a genius dropout with no formal training in the law, but the skills to excel.

I don’t know if this guy’s an angel, but I think he has a slug living in his nose

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Film & Television Opinion

Spoiler Alert

David Stringer

The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead up until episode 2.07.

The Walking Dead has just reached it’s mid-season finale here in the UK. Like many people who want to enjoy the visceral thrills of seeing a man beat another man to a pulp while remaining in denial about the serial killer within, I’m a fan.
The adverts in the week leading up have shown bits from the upcoming episode. Where The Walking Dead is different from many other programmes, is that rather than showing action shots from a variety of scenes, that look exciting but are difficult to gain any meaning from, The Walking Dead adverts on the FX channel have been an extended scene, taken, I think, from the preview at the end of the previous episode.

He’s going to be so embarassed when he looks down

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Egotism

Self Doubt & My Writer’s Contract

David Stringer

I started writing a blog with the intent of getting myself writing regularly. The idea was that if I blog regularly, take a look at different stories from an analytical point of view, as well as finally completing a version of a story I’ve referred back to a few times over the past couple of years, giving me the momentum to keep myself writing regularly.

I’ve been looking at an old TV programme, an old sitcom episode, analysing and applying the various bits of story structure I’ve picked up over the years.
I’ve more or less written notes out, but I feel like I’ve got nothing new or interesting to say, and take a long time saying it.
So yeah, my habitual, ingrained self-doubt is still there, nagging away at me.

A snapshot of the inside of my head

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