Holliers Done (for now)
Hello mates, I've been off on my holidays to Spain. I just got back an hour or so ago. I went to Seville and Cadiz and all that. Very nice, I got a slight tan too, which isn't to be scoffed at after an anaemic Dublin winter. Will write more soon and get down to the hard work of episode 24 tomorrow.
Cheers. M

Episode 22: Girls' Talk
Episode 22, late but weighing in at a very healthy 35 minutes, delivered this evening (following two early frustrated upload attempts) after two hours crawling up the slimy pipe that is Irish Broadband. Three conversations in three places that reveal character and back story but more importantly - peel further layers off the onion that is 'One Among the Sleepless'.
I just realised as I was mentally back in the pubs that the episode draws upon as inspiration that the Two Brewers doesn't have the garish walls and jazz musos - that was a pub around the corner from where I used to live in Brighton. It had been a typical old-geezer pub (and fair enough, wasn't doing too well financially) but it became a red-walled, jazz musician gallery about seven years ago. I can't remember the name of it, but the description fits so many places in England now that it could be any one of a million pubs. I mention this only in case you're a Two Brewers regular and find yourself wondering why the walls aren't red.

Promo: How to Disappear Completely by Myke Bartlett

The plink, plink fizz of Alka Seltzer.
This morning I have a hangover and I'm deaf. Last night I went out with some friends and then went on to the Howling Bells gig on my lonesome. I had a good time, they're a great band so how could I not?

Yesterday on this blog - before and after the event - I was like a teenager, which was nice, but this morning I feel like a bag of spanners, I've got an episode to get out and the only bells howling are those of my hangover. Needless to say my enthusiastic blog postings of the last 24 hours have been deleted (as I predicted) and we're all very BBC again.
Here's a link to Howling Bells MySpace page. Have a listen. Below is the video for the new single. I have to go now and get on with my episode (I'm not at work this week - I took the week off)(Thank God).
Fade out to sound of low moan and the plink, plink fizz of Alka Seltzer.

Episode 22: Aaaargh! Two women of the same age from the same part of the same country and of the same class hell!
It happens all the time, every day, people of the same gender, age and class meet in pubs and have conversations. On the printed page it's all so obvious, but on a podcast, one man trying to be one woman is tough, but trying to get two women to talk together is hell. I considered giving one of them a headcold to make a difference, but that's just opening up a fresh can of editorial worms. Arse! Oh, it'll just have to do, I'm halfway through the edit and I want to rewrite things so a bomb goes off in the pub and kills the pair of them. The end.

In other news, Howling Bells are playing in Dublin tonight and I really want to go, but at the same time it's a cold day and it's a long walk and I've seen ten thousand gigs so why do I want to see another one? It's just interminable waits at the bar, a bad view of the stage and tinnitus for the next 24 hours. Yeah, but I still want to go. Ohhhhhhh, Arse!

The Big Podiobooks.com Digg
Boy! Today is turning out to be quite a busy day at the blogface. Following a very interesting article at Mac User by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen, the following digg frenzy has sprung up and it's the perfect opportunity for you to show your appreciation for the One Among the Sleepless podcast. Follow this link to The Big Podiobooks Digg at digg.com and sign up. Then say just how much you love One Among the Sleepless, me, Adam, Dusty, Gaz, Sally, Mick, Jimmy, Glen, everybody and everything. Go, man go!
Thanks in advance, and thanks too to Thomas for including One Among the Sleepless in his list of faves.

Scott Sigler's 'Ancestor'... Free!
And talking of Scott Sigler, as a prelude to the paperback release of his second novel, 'Ancestor' in paperback on April 1st, Scott is giving, yes giving, the text of the novel away for free as a PDF. You think I jest? Click here: ANCESTOR PDF and see for yourself. Why is he doing this? To whet your appetite of course, to give you a taste in PDF of what you'd much rather have in your hands. So come on people, click and download 'Ancestor' now, then if you like it, grab a copy of the novel in paperback from Amazon.com on April 1st.

Wired Pig Notices a Similarity

Blimey! My MySpace friend, Wired Pig, has noticed an uncomfortable similarity between me and Scott Sigler. W.P. has shared his observations with his blog audience, and you can read them here: Musings of a Wired Pig.
Now as far as I'm aware, I have no brothers, but then when you consider the whole scenario in J.C. Hutchins 7th Son Trilogy...?

Episode 22: Ladies' Night

Hello. It’s a public holiday here in Dublin for St Patrick’s weekend and I’m sitting here, surrounded by shop alarms that nobody’s going to be turning off for 24 hours, police sirens, and the sound of pouring rain: so if any of that should filter into the background on the final recording, file under ‘Act of God’: I have to do the recording today or I’ll be late – and we don’t want that do we?
So, Episode 22: another one that I’ve been dreading - this time because I’m faced with the terrible dilemma of having to do two women talking to each other. Why a terrible dilemma? Because I can only do one female voice – and that doesn’t sound particularly feminine at the best of times. Damn, if only I could take my nuts off and leave them in a jar of warm water for an hour or so - I’d be laughing. Hmmm, actually, I probably wouldn’t now that I come to imagine it.
There are two pubs mentioned in Episode 22, both of which are based not on real pubs in Brighton, but in Slough (The Moon and Stars – based on The Moon and Spoon) and Windsor (The Coach and Horses – based on The Two Brewers) respectively. So if you’re in Brighton, don’t go looking for them, because they aren’t there.
The Two Brewers is a pub which I used to frequent at the age that Lucy and Sally are talking about. I went back there about five years ago and it was as described in the episode – changed; all different. And that, as they say, is life.

Episode 21: Delays Expected

Due to heavy character dialogue and associated editing labours, delays on Episode 21 can be expected for approximately 24 hours. Which, in non-shipping forecast lingo means #21's been hard work and, though delayed, should go up on Wednesday by about 21.00 hours G.M.T.

La Cabina (1972) Dir: Antonio Mercero

I saw this when I was a kid and it freaked me out so much I've never forgotten it. It was called 'The telephone Box' in the U.K. and 'The Phone Box' in the U.S.A. I was thinking about it today and it occoured to me that maybe, just maybe, it was on YouTube. And what do you know...

MySpace Poetry Site

I forgot to announce the arrival of my new MySpace site, imaginitively titled 'Mike Bennett Poetry Space'. Here you can listen to four of my poems - read by me - or download them and listen to them whenever. Here's a link: Mike's Poetry Space

Episode 20: Return to The Pavilion Gardens

Episode 20 sees Mick and Sally once again in the Pavilion Gardens. The image here shows the Pavilion from the front, if I still lived in Brighton I'd pop down and take a few photos from the rear - which is where the gardens are located. If you have some pics of the gardens you'd like to submit, please do and I'll slap them up - and give you a credit naturally.

Featured Links
Mike Bennett Poetry Space
Banjo Strings by Larry Winfield
Ancestor by Scott Sigler