I want my work to make people more sane

that sounds like something that could go on my epitaph.

as well as these new philosophic quotes I recently coined: "sometimes being a writer also means being a reader" and "ideas aren't created, they're noticed"

I note that the submission deadline for Stag Nights 2011, a yearly theatre festival showcasing new theatre from Glasgow Uni students over three nights, is fast approaching, in fact it's in two weeks.

And I have nothing new finished! Argh!

I have four plays in progress: Whoa There Cassanova, Robin, Like The Greeks and The Melody

I'm going to edit this later and give brief descriptions of each of them.

but none are that near completion.

I'd like to submit Like The Greeks most of all but it's a tough one to finish. Today I've mostly been working on Whoa There Cassanova and it's been coming on well, more news soon.

No Alternative? See Iceland.

"Millions of lives have been severely affected because of the claim that there was ‘no alternative’ to bailing out the banks that caused the economic crisis. But the people of Iceland have shown that this is nonsense. 

You would have heard a great deal about Iceland in 2008 when its banking system suffered a monumental and extraordinary collapse. Relative to the size of the Icelandic economy it was the biggest banking crash in economic history.

You hear very little about Iceland today because of the way its population of 320,000 dealt with the enormous challenges they were suddenly facing. There is nothing more dangerous to ‘no alternative’ than another alternative that works … the threat of a good example.

Don’t mention Iceland - Shhhhhh!

Today, just three years later, Iceland’s economy is recovering from the biggest comparative banking collapse in history because … they didn’t bail out the banks - they let them fail. Those who caused the problem took the consequences. This was the result of the Icelandic people refusing to take the hit for the mess the banks had created.

It was not the Icelandic people who chose to invest in the seriously dodgy foreign investor accounts promoted by Iceland’s private banks offering a better rate of return - it was the overseas investors. Why should those who didn’t own the banks repay the losses of private owners and investors in those banks? That was the stance of the Icelandic people and they were not budging."

- More or less as it appeared here

Yet More Fringe Reviews

Anton's Uncles ****
Alchemystorium ****
Homemade Fusion ****
I Love You Beause... ***
Little Shop of Horrors ***
Pollyanna meets Piaf ***
Rent **

The Facts on Spanking

Very Important Video

Ok cool so here are some guidelines on reviewing I was handed and endow upon you for posterity, they have served me well: - Write in the present tense so much as possible, it makes for a more engagin read

- Avoid the use of "I" <- it's a strange one because we all have egos but it does serve a purpose, there are rare occasions where it's acceptable. Some sites liek BroadwayBaby have reviewers that always use it and they seem less professional. It's a bit silly on one level but that's how it goes.
- Personally I find having a "tack" or and angle to come at it from really helpful, some kind of overarching umbrella that eveything fits into - 200-500 words, but closer to 200 is better that closer to 500, that's the skinny policy because apparently people don't read longer articles online they will stop halfway through, I used to always write nearer to 500 first but I've become more economical over the fringe, partly because I had to becasue I'm seeing so much and partly because I've learned to say what I need to say quicker I see 240-300 as ideal really
- read reviews! It really helps to see how other people are writing to see if you like it or not or if the way they are writing is good what makes it good, if bad, what makes it bad. But in the end it's about finding your own voice.

The Rules of Engagement:
- be polite to everyone, I know you'll have no problems with this
- Don't discuss the show with anyone in the venue or in ear shot of the venue
- Don't discuss shows publically (such as on facebook) until your review is up online, we each have varying levels of how comfortable we are with talking about stuff to close people like pals who might ask before it goes up. Gareth will almost never do it except with us, I've been known not to do it as well but during the year we don't have the writers privelages to put stuff up directly so it can take a while, we're working on trying to come to a compromise to sort that out.

I will subedit your articles before putitng them on the network, not much gets changed but I find having Gareth edit my work helps so hopefully you'll feel the same. Also if you want any mentoring in that process I will offer you feedback, only because I felt I didn't get enough when I started writing as a critic, I always felt out in the cold working on my own a bit so it's up to you, I don't consider myself an expert writer or anything but everyone has something valuable to say.

Superfun!




* insulting to very poor
** poor to average
*** above average to really very good
**** very good to excellent
***** life changing

Checkout my review of Legally Blonde - The Musical at The Kings

Review::: Legally Blonde - The Musical

Illich - The High Brow Sketch Show (Episode 10)

Performed by Illich, recorded and engineered by Jono at the Soular Power Suite