COLD SHIFT
I have decided that I can do whatever I want to in my ‘blog’!
Wow. That feels good.
So, another podcast recommendation.
This one I found at least four days ago at the time of writing and so far, I have listened to six episodes. Take into consideration how much pressure I put on my free time that’s pretty good going.
The story follows the nightly transmissions from Jaran at the Deep Earth Anomaly Department, East Antarctica. Transmissions may be an overstatement as the radio hasn’t worked in a long time, but Jaran is hoping that eventually when the radio starts working that someone may hear his logs. Even six episodes in I have no idea what year this story takes place in as we have an android Ingrid, aliens of diminutive size who mistook a sneeze as a greeting, a Jaran clone, someone in a mirror and a whole host of other strangeness.
The podcast launched a couple of months ago and is created by a ‘Norwegian Storyteller’, and that’s all I know. I am not even sure of their name. The delivery is unique, quirky and after the initial ‘what is this’ it is quite compelling. The format of recordings of an individual character’s experiences is something that has to some extent been done to death in the podcasting world. However!... this really is unique, the story is quirky and engaging, the delivery is the same and it is absolutely worth the listen.
You can find the Cold Shift website here https://coldshiftpod.com/
Edge of the forgotten
Let me tell you a story…
Well, no. Why don’t I let Steven J. Scearce and Bear Weiter tell you a story – or two, or more.
Pale Matter Podcasts, who are Writers Andy Scearce & Steven J. Scearce, and producer Bear Weiter have released a new podcast – Edge of the forgotten.
To use their own words, they describe Edge of the Forgotten as - “a new hybrid supernatural horror podcast from Pale Matter, creators of Station 151, featuring narrated fiction, full-cast audio drama, and three intertwining storylines that lead to one terrifying truth”. I believe that Andy Scearce and Bear Weiter are the driving force behind this project.
As of the time of writing there are four episodes live – three with straight narration and one produced as a full audio drama. Each episode so far has followed different people and their experiences with ‘The Undoing’, a personified ‘entity’ that it would seem affects… well you’ll have to listen to find out.
So far for me it has been a very enjoyable experience to listen to. The three narrated short stories are I have to say my favourites. The stories are simple, engaging and narrated with a delivery that draws you in. Now I say the stories are simple and that isn’t intended to be an insult - I simply mean that they are easy to follow and enjoy. They may leave you wondering what it is all about and what or who is the ‘Undoing’ but they aren’t overly convoluted where you find yourself lost. The Pale Matter team hint that all the stories are linked and that they are all both beginnings and endings – so there is some intrigue there.
I especially found the stories available as I write to be relaxing listening at the end of the day. Something to wind down with. They have a little of the Tales of the Unexpected vibe about them, and they are a gentle slow burn type of horror and something that you can relax with rather than a slap you around the face with bangs, crashes, screams, jump scares and gore type horror.
So if you are looking for something new to listen to then I’d recommend giving Edge of the Forgotten a spin. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Edge of the forgotten can be found on… well, lots of places so I will just include their Linktree link https://linktr.ee/PaleMatter
There is a website, however as yet it is just a holding page – something that I personally hope will develop into something more.
the interloper
I am trying to write today…
This morning’s intention to write failed.
What I did was to continue to work on a horror themed sound piece I started a couple of days ago. The time spent this morning was a little more than intended. A lot more than intended - as it wasn’t on my list of things to accomplish for today.
The original two and half minute piece has developed into a five-minute piece over the course of its stolen time. The final piece will be much longer, but that cannot be decided on until I have finished the writing that should have been the focus today.
As it is, I am now once again diverting my attention by bringing this up here! At least it means that Word is open – which is a start. This could be a promising start as the other piece is sitting on a tab behind this mocking me.
As of late afternoon - I have finsihed the short story / script! It has been offered to a VA that I think will give a great reading.
Something this way comes – Copyright Charlie Creek. All rights reserved.
unexpected awards
My thanks to Mr T A Newman for something quite unexpected and for being the enthusistic and dedicated teacher that he is.
Two days ago, I apparently started a journal (I believe that this is the proof) and when I should have been accomplishing something entirely different. The following day I mused that since I had started a journal that probably meant I should write something for it. Anything new like this with just one post feels somehow – I’m not sure what - but it seems to need more to validate its existence. I however convinced myself that I didn’t really need to. The truth was that I honestly didn’t have anything to say.
Most days there isn’t really anything to say beyond the mundane. However, something happened on the night on returning home from work that was out of the ordinary and most often only happens to dead people. That’s got your attention hasn’t it. Fair, it may well have not got your attention but if I am going to keep writing the journal I have to convince myself that it will.
Now I’d love to string the suspense out for a little longer, but while typing this I have realised that the photograph that will sit above this entry will absolutely give the game away. So disappointingly for me I will start with the reveal.
I have had an award named after me.
Yes, it took me by surprise as well, believe me.
This is how it happened…
A few months back I learned that a friend, teacher and head of department from down South was starting a media course or at least a new part to it. For clarification the real down South as in Devon – not the down South that often means London centric. Ok, that’s lost any readers from a fair geographical region now. Oops. Also, I should point out that he wasn’t going on a course; I certainly hope that he is qualified and not moonlighting as a teacher - no he was starting it for the pupils at his school. I also learned that there was little funding for this.
As it happened, I had some equipment squirreled away that I no longer used and had it down on my list to advertise on Reverb and hopefully sell. Now I will be perfectly honest, I hate the rigmarole of selling online. Potential time wasters, possible haggling over price, finding suitable packaging and the parcel weight for postage, standing in the post office queue and then the concern that when shipped and received that there will be some accusation over the condition on arrival. This in reality meant that the equipment would have probably indefinitely sat mothballed on a shelf.
It occurred to me that while the money certainly would be welcome and the potential of me actually doing anything about selling it was slim to none, that there was far more value in donating to helping my friend meet his aims and as a result hopefully providing something that would encourage kids to get into creating. Something that I think is important and not just for children but also for anyone of any age. However, the opportunity to help a friend and his pupils seemed right. Of course, my act of charity still required standing in a post office queue – I obviously hadn’t thought this entirely through.
To cut a long story short, well not that long really, but more to get to the point – addresses were provided and the house scoured for a suitable box (this proved interesting as even a small mic boom arm and part of the gift is still quite long). There was the inevitable wrestling match with parcel tape that seems happier to fold onto itself before reaching the intended surface and then the realisation that the amount of parcel tape used to secure the contents left a one-centimetre square for the address. Then there was the long wait apparently just to serve the three people in front of me at the post office who bizarrely seem to need extremely complicated things or to pay for their road tax in pennies. But the parcel was sent, received and thanks returned.
That was that as far as I was concerned. Good deed done.
Travelling forward in time to the present I saw a notification. It was apparently the schools awards time and there in a photograph were two awards to be presented to students on the media course. ‘The Charlie Creek Award for outstanding professionalism and creative curiosity in media studies’. Two lots of letter ‘c’ alliteration toboot!’ There was also a very sincere message.
I was gobsmacked!
The simple act of kindness and recognition by my friend knocked me for six and while I feel totally undeserving it has made my day or possibly my month. I mean it’s not many folks that have awards named after them and as was mentioned at the beginning most who do are dead. I feel that this is something of a personal win-win situation.
It’s not the fact my name is on something. It is the kind act of doing it. Of course, secretly I am also a bit chuffed at the name bit – come on who wouldn’t be.
Words have just come into my head that would be fitting of one of those inspirational posters – you know the ones that state the fing obvious in condescending terms… but the simple act of appreciation really did give me a boost and I am also really pleased that the course is obviously happening and that kids are getting something out of it. Of course, the real praise should go to my friend for having the passion and drive to do it in the first place – it’s his name that probably should be on there.
As an aside - I set myself two aims for this evening.
This is one of them, and if there is a new Behind the Scenes entry, then I made both a reality!
I did! Composing Horror - An Experiment.
notebooks & ideas
So, I’ve created a blog – which seems like a very outdated term now seeing as my first blog started on Typepad back in 2003. Let’s call it a journal.
What’s the difference between the Journal and the Behind the Scenes pages? The Behind the Scenes are more specific to my process, these entries will just be the random stream of daily thoughts - although not posted every day.
I am currently looking at a pile of A4 notebooks. One of them has very recently migrated from my car into the work area. When I say work area, I actually mean a chair next to the bed which currently has four A4 notebooks on it. It wasn’t meant to end up there – the notebook, not the chair. It was meant to stay in the car for when I am out and have sudden light bulb moments. It probably won’t find it’s way back into the car even though only a few pages have been written on. I will inevitably buy another notebook for the car the next time I pop into the supermarket and the piles of notebooks will increase.
Actually, (yes, this is a tangent) - the chair isn’t meant to be there either. It has just ‘become’ a resident thing. It is a basic grey desk swivel chair. I brought it in one day to sit on rather than sitting on the bed while I was typing as I am now – but sadly not right now as it is full of notebooks and pens. There is a table there also. The table is full of notebooks, pens, a midi keyboard and other detritus, and when I am not using it the writing laptop. This is why the chair remains – I need somewhere to put my reading glasses, headphones and occasionally the odd sock. Oh, and notepads.
This particular notebook has a potential opening written down, corrected, entirely crossed out, rewritten, corrected, crossed out and then rewritten. Another notebook somewhere in the pile has the beginnings of a script idea related to that opening, and somewhere on the writing laptop is another draft of that script. It’s all pretty messy. The thing is between the three it is I think seventy percent completed. All it needs is a few hours concentration.
I had fully intended on my one day off this week to finish the writing for this specific idea and to possibly start recording. This also explains the notebook migration. The two notebooks and the word version on the computer were to become one. They didn’t.
What did happen was that I opened my audio editing and music production software and noodled around until I had created a very short piece of music. This unplanned endeavour also sent me off on internet searches for some ‘sounds’ and resulted in a couple more ‘unusual’ sounding instruments joining the production armoury. To be a little more specific an instrument created from different types of metal being struck and bowed, another created from the same processes being applied to glass and finally a heavily processed stone glockenspiel. Aways good to have and more useful than you might think. There was also a ‘summer sale’ on these instrument patches and who can ‘t resist a bargain…
Obviously after doing this I pushed on with consolidating those ideas in the notebooks. No, I didn’t. What I did do then was continue to revamp the website – something I started to do a few days ago and left unfinished. I also toyed with the idea of a new ‘me’ photo for the website. The thought however was too frightening and the less photographs of me there are in the world the better.
So, the idea which was so important to progress over my day off is still spread between two notebooks and the laptop word document. There are also a good number of other ideas in those notebooks along with some also partially snoozing away on the laptop waiting for their creator to get his ass into gear. And this is the issue – too many ideas and not enough organisation.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d rather be whinging about too many ideas than not having any – however I will whinge just a little at myself for not being organised enough to actually do what I intend to do. The piece of music I created instead of finishing the script isn’t a waste of time by any means. I enjoyed creating it, it was something new using different instruments, and it is up on Soundcloud so that someone might find it useful. It’s just that I think the other idea (the one in the notebook that should still be in the car) is - I think a good one.
It’s just getting round to doing it and not being distracted along the way. Distracted like say - starting a blog, sorry journal.
(I quite like the colour of the background for the journal. I am not quite so sure about the layout - although it does feel nice and informal. Anyway, that’s another distraction for another day.)