Christmas Story

So I'm currently doing three things: re-writing and editing the text of the next Hall of Mirrors story; filling in an application form for a course I want to go on (so many damn details - I can barely remember my name, let alone my the addresses and whatnot of various employers and institutions I've attended) and also, I'm trying to write a story for the HoM for Christmas.

However, this is proving tricky, as the characters keep rebelling against my plans for them. Writing wisdom dictates that when this happens, you have to give up trying to control the characters and let them go where they go, say what they say and do what they want to do. But writing wisdom doesn't have a Christmas deadline banging on its door. If I'm to get this story podcast by Christmas, I have to start it next week. So right now, it's looking like it's going to be a 2008 offering. Drat! Still, I'll do my best, listeners.

Hall of Mirrors 9 Posted

Hall of Mirrors 9 (Hair and Skin 4) is finally live at podshow. It's a big one (50 minutes). So it should keep you busy for, well... 50 minutes.

Final Edits - Live Tomorrow

Urgh! I've been doing final edits on Hair and Skin 4 and writing and recording the bumpers - the chatty bits at either end of the show - all day. I thought I had it more or less finished, then a moment ago I realised I'd left something out. Arse biscuits! I'm just too damn tired to do any more tonight, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully up before midday our time. And IMHO, it's gonna be a good one ;-)

Fitness Regime

Huff, puff, just back jog around the block, yoga, press ups, cold shower. Feel knackered but exhilarated. This is my new fitness regime. I've given up work, so I sit around on my arse all day doing nothing but typing and sound editing. I felt I had to do something to keep myself healthy, other than imbibing that great health drink, red wine every evening (that has to stop too).
Anyway, slightly wheezy and with the neighbours doing some annoyingly erratic hammering, my work day begins.

I've given up work... for about 7 weeks.

I started my new 'job' today. My new job is writing and editing and recording and editing and podcasting all the things that I scribble, write, edit etc.
I told my boss I needed time off to do some work on the podcast and he said that would be fine. Needless to say, I'm not getting paid, but that's not an issue. Although, saying that, part of me panics when I think about not getting paid - the part of me that likes having a roof over my head.

I spent today working on the text for Hair and Skin part 4. It's the conclusion and covers 10 pages of Word document. I've now edited it about four times. I'm sure by the time it gets to the finished podcast, I'll have made some further amendments to it as well. But for now, I'm going to say, that's it: done. You can go around and around with this sort of thing, constantly fiddling and fussing. Ultimately, it's never going to be perfect, and after 100 revisions, what sounds good today sounds crap tomorrow. You wind up going back to the original document and being amazed at how good you got it first time around.

I'll record it tomorrow.

Finally, After a Week of Madness...
30 Minutes of Hair and Skin 3

Yes, it's been hard work, juggling loads of little files, finding bits I don't like and going back to do them again, changing a word, losing a file, watching shit crash, going slightly mad and a diet of peanut butter and rice cakes washed down with Tesco's Chilean Red, Hair and Skin #3 is finally done. What makes me laugh (and sit in the corner eating insects that only I can see) is that the bloody thing is only 30 minutes long. When you listen to it, it's like, bing! Finished. I know one of my problems is - and this is hitherto secret - I make multiple takes of almost every line, every word spoken in the podcast. I listen to all of them again and again before deciding on which one sounds best, or if the first part of that take should be spliced together with the end of that one. My wife thinks I'm a nut, she says there's no difference. But as I sit in the corner, giggling and feeling invisible insects scampering over my tongue, I know she's wrong... there's a biiiiiiiig difference.

Here's a direct link to the file: Hall of Mirrors 8

Bon Apetit

Eight Bottles of the Good Stuff Later...

It's been a good week for Hall of Mirrors in the USA, Listeners. HoM has held in the top ten all week. Its highest point has been number 7, which was a thrill (well, at least I was thrilled, I doubt your aura so much as even wobbled, but still...) Many, many thanks to Listeners in the US for making that happen. Falling is inevitable, but it's been really nice to have a run at the high end of things. You are, to coin a popular term, awesome.

In other news, Hair and Skin part three is recorded in its raw state and I'm going to spend today editing it together. Each voice has its own track and has to be edited into the main narrative track. This will take some time. I also have to record my bumpers (the intro at the start and chatty bit at the back) so that too will take a bit of time. But once those things are done, Part 3 can hopefully be online faster than a rat out of an aqueduct. I say this as we just got a proper phone line connected, so no more Ethernet blues (a network cable has been unplugged... the signal was reset automatically... etc).

H and S #3 won't be the conclusion however. I realised as I was doing the re-write that there was more to it than the skinny yoke I'd anticipated: it's chunky. Expect part 4 - and that really will be the end of it.

Also, there's now a Listener Group on Facebook; here you can hang out with other MB Podcast Listeners and share thoughts on such exciting topics as who should play whom in the film of OAtS. So far only I have commented on that, and frankly it's getting embarrassing: if someone doesn't say something soon I'm going to have to delete for fear of looking like Martin in the Simpsons trying to get the attention of Bart or whoever. For God's sake, don't Martin me, Listeners! I beg you!

Oh, and talking of low Listener response, look left. See that? That's the voice recording thing that's going to put you in The Hall of Mirrors, forever. Leave a message, I'll copy it and put it on an episode of HoM in the outgoing bumpers. This podcast is an Internet artifact in the making, when it's done, it'll be here for as long as the Internet exists - and you can be part of it. An installation in the Hall of Mirrors, as sure as Charles and deVere, Lucky Jim Haslet, Jack and Dave or Martin and the Trolls. So come on, Listeners, say something about the Hall of Mirrors. You can say something about the show, the stories or the Hall itself, after all, you're going to be in it: talk about the decor, the fact that the step needs cleaning, the smell of fear that lingers on your clothes even after you've left and gone home... Brrrr, that's chilly, man.

Today: iTunes USA


Oh, yeah. I'm opening a bottle of the good stuff tonight.