Friday, 26 June 2009
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Look who's all over the Halesowen News
Comic Art Masterclass in Halesowen, in the paper: http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/4453595.Kev_s_cartoon_masterclass/
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Friday, 19 June 2009
MPs Expenses Claims Song by the Scottish Falsetto Socks
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre present a topical song looking at this week's news, and the MPs latest expenses claims and the redaction thereof.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
South Shields Socks Review
Hev just emailed me a review she'd found of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre in South Shields: http://www.shieldsgazette.com/show/Reviewed-Scottish-Falsetto-Sock-Puppet.5308813.jp
I thought for a dreadful moment that it was going to be a three star review, because her email was head "South Shield review xxx".
Turns out those were three kisses.
And talking of changing the subject, I'm staying with my parents for a couple of nights (they live in Leicestershire, yesterday's work was in Doncaster, tonight's is in Manchester, tomorrow's is in Birmingham, and I live near Bristol, you can work out the logistics). And a question just sprang to mind looking round their kitchen:
Are my Mum and Dad the only people in England to have a pulley in their kitchen? Pulleys, which hang from the ceiling and that you hang your clothes on to dry, are a very common sight in Scotland, especially in tenements, and Mum and Dad's started life in their first house in Aberdeen, where I was born. They then brought it with them as a matter of course to Leicestershire and it was only when neighbour after neighbour would remark on it that they realised pulleys were rare and possibly unknown in England.
Mind you, they might also be an artefact from a bygone age. I've had them in flats I've stayed in in Edinburgh, but those that have had more recent and fashionable makeovers have often dispensed with them. Maybe we've got a valuable antique.
Anyone know otherwise?
I thought for a dreadful moment that it was going to be a three star review, because her email was head "South Shield review xxx".
Turns out those were three kisses.
And talking of changing the subject, I'm staying with my parents for a couple of nights (they live in Leicestershire, yesterday's work was in Doncaster, tonight's is in Manchester, tomorrow's is in Birmingham, and I live near Bristol, you can work out the logistics). And a question just sprang to mind looking round their kitchen:
Are my Mum and Dad the only people in England to have a pulley in their kitchen? Pulleys, which hang from the ceiling and that you hang your clothes on to dry, are a very common sight in Scotland, especially in tenements, and Mum and Dad's started life in their first house in Aberdeen, where I was born. They then brought it with them as a matter of course to Leicestershire and it was only when neighbour after neighbour would remark on it that they realised pulleys were rare and possibly unknown in England.
Mind you, they might also be an artefact from a bygone age. I've had them in flats I've stayed in in Edinburgh, but those that have had more recent and fashionable makeovers have often dispensed with them. Maybe we've got a valuable antique.
Anyone know otherwise?
Friday, 12 June 2009
Frankenstein - New from the Socks
Fresh off the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre production line, a serialised version of Frankenstein, in three glorious chunks.
And while you're enjoying that, don't forget you can catch the Socks live in St Albans tonight (Maltings Fri 12 June 09) and twice tomorrow in Cambridge (The University Centre, 6pm and 11.15pm Sat June 13 09) Details here
And while you're enjoying that, don't forget you can catch the Socks live in St Albans tonight (Maltings Fri 12 June 09) and twice tomorrow in Cambridge (The University Centre, 6pm and 11.15pm Sat June 13 09) Details here
Friday, 5 June 2009
Getting distracted again, notes on this sort of creative week
I do too many different things, that's a truth universally acknowledged in our household. You can call it not putting your eggs in one basket, or you can call it spreading yourself too thinly. You could call me a polymath or you could call me a Jack of all shit. (Quite nice that, must write it down to use later).
Anyone who's worked with me knows I have a tendency to get very excited about a brilliant new idea and pursue it to the neglect of something else I'm supposed to be getting on with. I can appear to have the attention span of a mayfly. With ADHD.
But give me a deadline and I'm a creative demon. If I have to get a strip written or drawn for publication then that deadline keeps me focussed until the job's sent off. And the feeling of completion I get from delivering a good job on time is pretty well unrivalled.
The Comic Art Masterclasses in schools give me a similar regime to work in. The kids have to finish their comic within a morning or afternoon, I then run it off on the copier and deliver the completed comics to them to take home. I'm happy, they're happy, it only takes a few fun-filled hours, and it pays twice as much per day as drawing for the Beano used to.
Comedy I find can be looser. Every gig is a deadline, but the preparation has to be done further in advance and right now, in the 8 week run up to my next Edinburgh show, it all still seems a bit nebulous and far away. But this week and last, and a bit of next, I have time in my office and creating to do. This should have been a Socks writing week.
Then what happened? Another thing came up. Can't tell you too much about it yet as it's under wraps, but in the next fortnight it'll be launched. It's a comedy thing I've been involved with before and had not had much to do with for three or four years. Then I talk to people, we all get excited about this thing, and lo it's Friday and I have spent most of the last 10 working days doing stuff for this thing. Today I set myself the agenda of knuckling down to Sock writing, but I've still got a head full of this 'thing', and I just know I'm going to be doing more on it today. And the irony is that this 'thing' is actually supposed to take none of my time and lots of someone else's.
Anyway, enough mystery. I've unburdened myself, to no great avail, and oh look I've wasted another chunk of time that could have been spent writing Socks. Must write Socks.
Later.
Anyone who's worked with me knows I have a tendency to get very excited about a brilliant new idea and pursue it to the neglect of something else I'm supposed to be getting on with. I can appear to have the attention span of a mayfly. With ADHD.
But give me a deadline and I'm a creative demon. If I have to get a strip written or drawn for publication then that deadline keeps me focussed until the job's sent off. And the feeling of completion I get from delivering a good job on time is pretty well unrivalled.
The Comic Art Masterclasses in schools give me a similar regime to work in. The kids have to finish their comic within a morning or afternoon, I then run it off on the copier and deliver the completed comics to them to take home. I'm happy, they're happy, it only takes a few fun-filled hours, and it pays twice as much per day as drawing for the Beano used to.
Comedy I find can be looser. Every gig is a deadline, but the preparation has to be done further in advance and right now, in the 8 week run up to my next Edinburgh show, it all still seems a bit nebulous and far away. But this week and last, and a bit of next, I have time in my office and creating to do. This should have been a Socks writing week.
Then what happened? Another thing came up. Can't tell you too much about it yet as it's under wraps, but in the next fortnight it'll be launched. It's a comedy thing I've been involved with before and had not had much to do with for three or four years. Then I talk to people, we all get excited about this thing, and lo it's Friday and I have spent most of the last 10 working days doing stuff for this thing. Today I set myself the agenda of knuckling down to Sock writing, but I've still got a head full of this 'thing', and I just know I'm going to be doing more on it today. And the irony is that this 'thing' is actually supposed to take none of my time and lots of someone else's.
Anyway, enough mystery. I've unburdened myself, to no great avail, and oh look I've wasted another chunk of time that could have been spent writing Socks. Must write Socks.
Later.
Monday, 1 June 2009
Uploading videos to itunes is not easy
This afternoon I have been mostly trying to get our videos onto itunes. We're very big on YouTube, and itunes is very popular, so we'd like to be on there. Is that too much to ask?
It would seem it is. The explanation of How To seems simple enough. You get an RSS feed of your videos, and itunes will take that. Only it won't. None of the following RSS feeds works on itunes. I am mostly told there are "no episodes" in the feed, or that there is something else wrong with them. Does anyone out there know, having looked at these RSS feeds, what I can possibly do to get my videos on YouTube.
VIDDLER VIDS RSS
http://www.viddler.com/explore/kevf/videos/feed/
MYSPACE VIDS RSS
http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/rss.ashx?Channelid=94101711&RSSAction=VideoChannel
YTPODCASTER RSS FEED:
itpc://www.ytpodcaster.com/feed2.php?id=sitcomtrials&type=itunes&hd=0&start-index=1&max-results=20
YTPODCASTER FLASH VIDEO:
http://www.ytpodcaster.com/flashFeed.php?id=sitcomtrials
RSS FEED http://www.feedmarklet.com/get_feed_html.php?id_blargus=Scottish_Falsetto_Sock_Puppet_Theatre_
SOCKS TEST RSS: http://www.feedmarklet.com/get_feed_html.php?id_blargus=Socks_Videos_Test_Feed
FEEDBURNER RSS FEED (BLOG):
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/KevFComicArt
RSS FEED ALL YOUTUBE VIDS:
http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/sitcomtrials/uploads?orderby=updated&alt=rss&v=2&client=ytapi-youtube-rss-redirect
RSS FEED TAG (SFSPT)
http://www.youtube.com/rss/tag/Scottish%20Falsetto%20Sock%20Puppet&mode=.rss
PIPES RSS FEED:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?YouTubeUsername=sitcomtrials&_id=53721391a93317e2d20fa3c122066e27&_render=rss&itemLimit=25
This has taken all afternoon to absolutely no avail. Help!
It would seem it is. The explanation of How To seems simple enough. You get an RSS feed of your videos, and itunes will take that. Only it won't. None of the following RSS feeds works on itunes. I am mostly told there are "no episodes" in the feed, or that there is something else wrong with them. Does anyone out there know, having looked at these RSS feeds, what I can possibly do to get my videos on YouTube.
VIDDLER VIDS RSS
http://www.viddler.com/explore/kevf/videos/feed/
MYSPACE VIDS RSS
http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/rss.ashx?Channelid=94101711&RSSAction=VideoChannel
YTPODCASTER RSS FEED:
itpc://www.ytpodcaster.com/feed2.php?id=sitcomtrials&type=itunes&hd=0&start-index=1&max-results=20
YTPODCASTER FLASH VIDEO:
http://www.ytpodcaster.com/flashFeed.php?id=sitcomtrials
RSS FEED http://www.feedmarklet.com/get_feed_html.php?id_blargus=Scottish_Falsetto_Sock_Puppet_Theatre_
SOCKS TEST RSS: http://www.feedmarklet.com/get_feed_html.php?id_blargus=Socks_Videos_Test_Feed
FEEDBURNER RSS FEED (BLOG):
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/KevFComicArt
RSS FEED ALL YOUTUBE VIDS:
http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/sitcomtrials/uploads?orderby=updated&alt=rss&v=2&client=ytapi-youtube-rss-redirect
RSS FEED TAG (SFSPT)
http://www.youtube.com/rss/tag/Scottish%20Falsetto%20Sock%20Puppet&mode=.rss
PIPES RSS FEED:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?YouTubeUsername=sitcomtrials&_id=53721391a93317e2d20fa3c122066e27&_render=rss&itemLimit=25
This has taken all afternoon to absolutely no avail. Help!
