Circumspect Bastard

I'm not having the best of long weekends.

On Saturday, I twisted my ankle. Today it is swollen and painful and doesn't like me walking on it.

Last night, while turning over in bed, I managed to pull a muscle in my back, which hurts like billy-oh when I breath. Good job I have my work chair in my own office now; it allows me some comfort and support. However, not one of my vast array of painkillers has been able to touch it. I have been in a lot of discomfort now for all of my waking hours. My ankle doesn't hurt, so they're working on something!

Things come in threes and I'm thinking perhaps I should go and hide myself away, out of harm's way.

***

I'm being highly critical of my serialised book. I'm really happy that people are reading it; happier still that it's allowed me to touch base with some of the people I liked from my past; but I'm expecting to spend a large part of today - Sunday - re-editing part of it and rejigging the duration.

Since it's been serialised, I have been going into the scheduled post a few days before it gets published and I've been editing it, again. Just having a read through and generally tidying up anything I might have missed in March. Ironically, the version on my PC in Word and the version slowly being released to the net are growing more and more diverse.

The reasons for my Sunday editing session is simple - I'm highly critical and I think the next 4 or 5,000 words can either be improved on or cut out altogether. In the grand scheme of things, I looked upon sections such as these as the condiments for the meaty parts; but sometimes there has to be a relevance. For instance, I realised that the opening paragraph in Chapter 15 not only belongs at the end of Chapter 14, but requires a bit of bridge work because the change is so jarring. I have to admit that the serialising was done quickly and I might have missed some logical breaks.

Obviously, if you're not reading My Monthly Curse this means nothing to you, but if you have been then hopefully you'll not notice anything different, apart from maybe it flowing better again.

***

Director's Cut by Kate Bush is possibly the most underwhelming album of 2011 so far, and trust me it's far from a classic year already.

I've been trying to get into some new stuff over the last few weeks, and I suppose you can't class the 'new' Bush album as new stuff by any stretch of the imagination. I mean I've been trying to listen to things I maybe wouldn't and this has included an album by The Unthanks, a soundtrack CD of The Wire and The Pierces...

Nu-Folk doesn't really float my boat, although overall it was the best of the three. Hip hop is an enigma to me; I just think it's a load of shit with no redeemable features and the alt-country sisters, the Pierces are pleasant enough, but I must be listening to the wrong stuff because if it is then famous people must be letting their questionable standards slip.

I have been listening to and thoroughly enjoying the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Cure albums - all classics. Some of the songs make Leonard Cohen seem genuinely upbeat!

***

If you ever watched The Young Ones you might remember Neil the hippy being blown away by the cycle of life - we plant the seed etc. Well, it is pretty funky. my own vegetable excursions this year are having a better than average time of it. My spuds are looking healthy and blight free; my rhubarb crown is bursting out all over and my spinach is just about ready to pick, to encourage more of it to grow and allow me a summer of green leaves. my beans are better than expected in my grow bag experiment and despite the best attentions of one of the shitbag dogs, the beetroots and peppers are thriving. The basil and coriander isn't up yet and my instincts are they won't - I think the seeds were too old (plus, the weather has stopped being good for germinations).

Just as an aside, the spell checker on Google Chrome doesn't accept that a beetroot can be pluralised... Obviously in it's logic you can have more than one of them or the world will end in fire and runny pooh...

***

... Or something like that.

A final thought about Doctor Who. I watched a bit of the Proms concert the other day and it had loads of excerpts from the last 6 years and I realised that for me DW is largely throwaway. I mentioned to the wife that they should bring Davros back, completely forgetting they had. I try very hard to feel the same way about it that I did with some classic US SF in the past, but I can't get past the fact that whoever is in charge of the show, it just lacks ... something.

I really like Matt Smith; I think he would have made an excellent first Doctor - maybe a young William Hartnell - because of his fascination with life and its complexities; but after Ecclestone and Tennant, I just don't think this regressed DW works. What's more, I'm not convinced that this first half of the series is going to hold together logically.

I don't think Steven Moffat has been any more sophisticated or thorough than Russell T Davies. They both have to serve their masters and that is to understand that DW is a kids' programme. A series and a half into Moffat's run and I'm actually growing more ambivalent about the show than I did when Tennant was the Doctor. Now considering the rude things I'd subject Karen Gillan to, this suggests to me that the show hasn't actually gotten any better; it's just got new clothes and I'm beginning to see through them as well.