Episode 29: The Hardest So Far.

For many reasons, this has been the hardest episode to produce so far. In terms of writing, the original text had to be revised quite a lot; not only was I not happy with some of the original writing, but now that I have 'become' these people in a very real sense, I feel a much stronger connection with how they do and don't behave. The end result, I think, is stronger than the original. The original text is now looking more and more like a kind of prototype One Among the Sleepless, a kind of, white label version or an unedited proof.

On top of the re-edits, it's taken a long time to produce in terms of mic-hours. I don't want to bore you with the details, but if a blog is about the day to day stuff that makes up one's life, then outside of work - this is my life. Sad, isn't it? Oh well, not for much longer, eh? This probably took about 20 hours all told. Maybe you think I exaggerate? Ask my wife, she has to put up with it. She'd probably tell you it feels like longer.

When this is over, I'm sooooo going on holiday.

Oh, by the way, the picture that accompanies this posting is another from the original 'sunglasses' book cover shoot that Peter Pavement and I did in Brighton back in 2002. I might put a few more of these up online for you to have a look it. Maybe Flckr or something?

Episode 29: Recorded First Take

Phew! That's the first take done. It's going to sound quite strange as my voice gets worse as I go through the text. At the end I definitely sound different to how I sound at the start. Strangely, my singing voice has improved, so I'm going to spend the next ten minutes or so tormenting the neighbours with my version of Elvis's 'You Were Always on My Mind'. (And no, there's no connection between the song and the episode.)

It's my Birthday on Friday
Oh, and another thing. It's my birthday on Friday. I'll probably go to an 'old man's pub', get served quickly, sit down somewhere comfy and have a nice chat without the aid of an ear trumpet. Very nice.

Episode 28.2: Autumn Leaves
In a perfect world, Bert Kaempfert would be listening to One Among the Sleepless and he'd email me telling me how thrilled he was to know that I wanted to use his version of Autumn Leaves on Episode 28.2. He'd not only give me his full permission to use it, but he'd tell all his friends about the podcast as well and get them on board. Sadly, Bert is no longer with us, and even if he were, he probably wouldn't have heard of One Among the Sleepless, let alone be up to date with it.
Fortunately though, I have heard of him, and Bert's version of Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mort) has found its way - albeit silently - onto Episode 28.2. Copyright law prevents me from using even a snatch of the track, which is a great shame because it is - to me at least - an integral part of the episode. Still, if they ever make a movie out of this book, hopefully the film company will have no problem wrangling the rights to the song.

Episode 28.2 has taken by far the longest amount of time to put together of any episode so far. The voices - the accents and vocal mannerisms etc have taken me ages to get right. It turns out I was right to post Episode 28.1 last week, as not only would the episode have been gigantic, but it would've been very late also.

The Black Pig, like Shenanigans and The Coach and Horses doesn't exist in Brighton or anywhere else. All these places are like Frankenpubs - the stitched together bits and pieces of both reality and imagination. I mean, if there were a real Shenanigans for example, I'd be in court right now trying to plead ignorance, stupidity or mental illness.

As for my own taste in pubs, I'm a trad-pub man. I think I've always preferred places where people go to drink beer, get themselves a nice comfortable seat and have a good conversation with friends.

My friends have always told me - all my pub going life - that I have the pub tastes of a little old man. I don't think I'm like an old man, I just like to be able to get served quickly, pay a reasonable price for a nice pint, sit down in a comfy seat and be able to hear the person I'm talking to without the aid of an ear trumpet. Does that make me old?

It does?

Oh.

(sighs)

Oh, well.

Speaking of movie versions of One Among the Sleepless, if you have any thoughts on who should play whom, I'd be very interested in hearing your ideas. Mine shall, of course, remain a secret - I don't want to spoil your own mental images of the characters.

So, where is it?
If you've come here looking for info on 28.2, it's looking increasingly like it's going to be next week's episode. I know, I know, I said I'd try to get it online by today, but my life keeps intervening (I do have a life you know). Yesterday I went out for a drink with some chums and today I have a hangover. I've put together a promo for the Bonus Track which I've just sent out to Seth Harwood and Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, so hopefully you'll be able to hear that somewhere soon. In fact, if you're a podcaster and you'd be interested in doing a promo swap with me, either for One Among the Sleepless or The Bonus track, let me know and we can make devious plans together.
OK, now I'm going to have some a strong coffee and put in a couple of hours on the 28.2 edit.

Episode 28 - Parts One and Two

Yes, episode 28 was just taking too long, so I split it to keep the angry mob (Mr P. Chittings from Dudley and his cat, Tinkle) from breaking down my e-door and lynching me to cries of 'Grrrrr! Where's our episode?'

Part One, as you probably know by now, is a meeting between Mick and Sally and a prelude to things to come in Part Two. Part Two is the bit that's taking the time. I have many voices to do and all kinds of subtleties in those voices to boot. This being in a 'discreetly' gay pub, I have to create voices for gay men, but I want to avoid cliche or stereotype 'gay man' voices. I've also got a 'mature' woman, a wit and various sensitive human emotions in the mix too. So don't expect it tomorrow, listeners. However, my fingers are crossed for Saturday. Cross yours too and we may get lucky.

Episode 28: Last Orders at The Black Pig
If you've come here wondering where episode 28 is, I can tell you that I've nearly finished recording it. It's a big chapter, but it can't be split into two, so the whole thing is going into one big lump of an episode. The download will be like a snake swallowing a football (and I dread to imagine what the upload'll be like). It features new characters - and so new voices and is going to take me an age to edit together. So take a chill pill (as the youngsters say) and wait a few days. And when your iTunes starts looking like a snake swallowing a football, you know it's coming.

As Featured on Bonus Track #1

Download "This Night" (mp3)
from "Passion Leaves a Trace"
by Black Lab
Blacklabworld.com

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic
• Stream from RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at Napster
• Buy at Navio Download

More On This Album

The Bonus Track
So, complete with unremarkable but functionally tidy name, my new podcast 'The Bonus Track' is now live both in the Libsyn feed and at Podshow. The show will have its own dedicated site at Podshow for those who aren't listening to One Among the Sleepless; those good people who are, will get it automatically.

It features some insight into what motivated me to start writing One Among the Sleepless, plus the first part of a phone chat with Seth Harwood on the subject of Jack Wakes Up. It also features music from Fruitcake Superbeing, Black Lab and Lost Dog, plus my poem, Monster.

I hope you like it. To get it right now, click this link.

As a result of the labour that's gone into the new show, plus the fact that I spent the holiday weekend down in Wexford visiting friends, this week's episode of One Among the Sleepless will be late. It's a bigger-than-usual chapter too, so when it does arrive, it'll be a big one.

Episode 27. Recorded and Ready for Posting

I would've posted tonight, but on listening through once I'd finished it, I discovered 2 little mistakes. I'll fix them tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon and hopefully it'll be live by 6 p.m. (G.M.T.). Oh, and it's a good-un.
M

Indigestion - In More Ways Than One

So we went to the pub and had a good old chat about all sorts of stuff. Inevitably the subject of the new show came up and I aired some doubts about the new title. My wife agreed, and so now Clockwork Toy Box is also in the bin. After the pub we called in at Zaytoon, a Persian kebab house in Temple Bar. They do very nice kebabs and, like a fool, I bought one. If there's one lesson life has continually tried to teach me, it's 'don't eat kebabs before you go to bed'. When you're a young man, you can eat just about anything at any time of the day; but the more mature stomach is more discerning in what it's prepared to digest. I've spent most of the night tossing and turning and gulping down Milk of Magnesia.

And it's not just my stomach that's been working overtime; my brain keeps throwing words together and coming up with myriad name possibilities for the new show. It's a nightmare; it reminds me of when I was in bands in my youth and we'd spend hours trying to come up with a name for whatever new band we were forming; no sooner would one person suggest a name than another band member would shoot it down. This time however, I'm both the suggester and the shooter. Now, at five a.m., after three hours of raging insomnia, my brain is littered with the blasted debris of about two thousand possible show names. It's word carnage; all smouldering adjectives and buckshot blasted nouns. What I should really do is call it something simple, something light and unfettered, something with only one possible meaning. Something like, 'Mike Bennett's Other Podcast'. Hmmm, I'll think about it... probably for the remainder of the night and most of the day.

#27: First Draught Recording Down

Episode 27: First recording draught finally completed after the Quasimodo Chorus packed it in and shuffled off. The episode at the moment weighs-in at about an hour and twenty minutes, though of this about 55 minutes will be deleted as I spend a further ten hours or so listening and deciding which, if any of the lines I've read are suitable or will have to re-recorded (as so often happens). As I said earlier, it may be a Wednesday posting this week, this is going to be a tricky one. Though to be honest, they're all tricky blighters for one reason or another. Episode 28 is probably going be to the toughest one EVER; a serious range of voices, new characters and a new setting.
Hey, but that's a week away, let's stay focused on #27. It's a great episode; the conclusion of Chapter 24, in which Gaz's plans to, basically, f*** Sally are revealed. What's going to happen? (Evil laughter that gradually rises to a hysterical pitch which is followed by an explosion and a bunch of dogs barking. Why dogs barking? I don't know, maybe there's a dog pound nearby). Anyway, I'm going over to the pub for a pint with the Mrs. It's Sunday after all.

Clockwork Toy Box

OK, finally, I've settled on this, I still like the bike image, but I prefer this name. It's more representative of what the show will be about - eclectic, different, odd.
I'm writing this now as I wait for the bells of Christchurch Cathedral to shut up. I was recording episode 27 and they kicked off like a gaggle of manic Quasimodos were hanging on to them. Sunday is a dreadful day to record, but I was busy with the new show art yesterday and Monday and Tuesday are the editing days. Right now it sounds like the Quasimodo Chorus is going to go on forever. It could be another Wednesday upload this week. But hey, console yourself with the knowledge that you can soon also be enjoying The Clockwork Toy Box - hopefully by Friday.

Yeah, but saying that...

I've spent most of the afternoon doing that image and I do rather like it. I'll see how I feel in the morning.

New Show
Yes, I'm still fussing over that new show. I've spent most of Saturday kicking ideas around and writing bits and pieces. At one stage I felt sure I had it: I even made a show logo - see picture. But now, a little the worse for wine at 3.00 a.m. (and listening to my big new music splash-out; The Sisters of Mercy 'Merciful Release' package - O.K. out of some 40 or so tracks I really only like about five, but I get these nostalgia urges and I must obey them. I remember going to the Black October tour at the Lyceum in London in 1984... but hush, now I'm showing my age.

Er, what was I saying? Oh yes, the new show. I've done this artwork for the show, but still haven't settled on a title, 'Podcast Sidecar' is one option, but I'm still not decided.

Winter of Different Directions on Amazon.co.uk

Calling U.K. and Ireland book lovers: Steve McDermott's Winter of Different Directions is now available of amazon.co.uk. If you're up-to-date on the podcast, you may recall the promo for Steve's great podcast of the collection back on OAtS #25. Well, now you can have the actual book in your home collection. Follow this link and order it today!

Finally... Episode 26

So I got home, all gritted teeth and smoke coming out of my ears. I turned on the computer and began the upload and all was going well... until the signal flatlined for no apparent reason after 15 minutes and the upload was cancelled.
After I'd removed from the head from the wall, I began again. After an hour or so it looked like it actually uploaded - the green progress bar went all the way to the end and then went white again. Oh joy! But hang on, the files at Libsyn weren't showing it as present, if it was there, it was invisible. I was just getting ready to run my head into the wall again when a thought occurred to me: why not turn stuff off and then turn it on again? I did so - and good job too: Episode 26 was there. Oh genuine joy!

So, what's the story? Gaz, Jimmy, Glenn, Ted, Kay, Sally and Adam all sitting around the beer garden of Shenanigans. Suspicions, jealousies, doubts, desires and weirdness; and that's all in the first 15 minutes.

Promos: Jack Palms 2: This is Life / The Homegrown Podcast

Tried Again, Crashed. Try Again Later

I tried again, it crashed again. I'll try again later.

Episode 26 - It's Ready, But...

I can't upload it. Pathetic isn't it? Irish Broadband are notoriously slow; it's like trying to suck wet cement through a straw. At ten p.m. our time, Europe is checking its mail, the U.S. is in the middle of it's day and Asia / Australasia is getting up and checking its mail too. Everyone is watching all kinds of on-line video and stuff and the Internet is slow, which is why my FTPs keep cutting out before upload is complete and Libsyn times out through sheer boredom. What this means is: no show tonight. I'll get it up first thing tomorrow while The U.S. is asleep and Europe is trying to ignore its collective alarm clock.
Goodnight.

Episode 25: In the Can: Uploading Tomorrow Night
Episode 25 is finished, I just finished sticking the various bits together and getting volume levels right. I'll upload tomorrow evening: UK time 6 p.m. A day earlier than usual, but then after a two week break, I think that's acceptable.
As for the content; if you think things have been a little tame lately and are wondering when things are going to start heating up again, this one comes with one of those coffee cup warnings on it: Caution - Contents Could be Sick and Wrong. Not that you see that on too many coffee cups, but you get my drift.