The Word Cloud

The thirteenth Dr Hairy instalment, concluding the first series of short videos about the adventures and frustrations of an ordinary (but rather hirsute) General Practitioner. In this one, Dr Hairy reaches a crisis in his career and decides to seek the help of a mentor - with hilarious results!

To view the video on my site, go to http://www.edwardpicot.com/drhairy/mentoring.mov ; or you can see it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs4O9SuYfto ; or it should be on DVblog (http://dvblog.org) in the near future.

The whole Dr Hairy series is now available in DVD form at http://drhairy.org - perfect for that late late late Christmas present! Or a very early one for next time around!


- Edward Picot
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange

Last year (2011) we took a trip to America for the first time, hiring a Ford Mustang and driving through California, Arizona and Nevada. It was glorious discovering new places, new environments, new ways of doing things, but we didn’t leave all the discovery till we arrived. We brought a couple of guidebooks beforehand, googled a few places on the Net, pored over some maps and studied details in the brochure.

All this is quite natural.

How about the Bigger Trip at the end of earthly life? Where are the guidebooks? Which web pages should I google? Where are the maps and tourist brochures? Once again it is natural to want some information. Where should I try?

From time to time I hope to post articles on 'Matters of Life and Death', and shall be evaluating various sources of information:

·       Science: how much, if anything, can it tell us about non-material reality?
·       Religion: how much can the familiar Christian variety tell us?
·       Poetry and music: can these reveal any ‘Truths of the Imagination’ for us?
·       Inner Resonance: how much weight can I place on something that ‘rings true’?

And there is one more source I shall consult, Spiritualism. For a writer, it is a brilliant resource. Spiritualism had a considerable vogue before and after the First World War, but nowadays it is deeply unfashionable. As a result, there is a cornucopia of wonderful but neglected materials for me to plunder

At my bedside I have volumes with such evocative titles as Life Beyond the Veil, Gone West and The Living Dead Man. They all date from the time around the First World War and have a sense of the drama and intensity involved in the time. But wait a moment, you might say, aren’t they too spooky for the bedside? Not at all. They make splendid bedtime reading, often cheering, frequently astonishing, always fascinating. I have dog-eared many a must-revisit page, made vertical lines in the margins of read-again extracts, and added double – or even treble – lines for especially mind-boggling material.

But how much can I trust such things, I hear you ask. Well, there are basically four answers to this:

·       Firstly, I can check the materials for consistency. How do they match up against each other – and also against more recent material coming from Near Death Experiences and Hypnotic Regression? Do they support or contradict each other?
·       Secondly, I can ask how far the stories match up with common sense. That is, do the humans behave as humans (albeit in different circumstances)?
·       Thirdly, I can employ the Inner Resonance guide (as mentioned above) – do the stories and descriptions ring true?
·       Fourthly, as a novelist I can ask whether they would make darn good tales.

That last one is a good criterion for me. I am engaged on writing an updatedDivine Comedy trilogy in which the scope and vision of Dante are compounded with the buddy-style interplay of, say, Butch and Sundance. A mismatched pair of cousins are sent to quarrel their way through Earth, Hell and even Heaven (which is not where you’d expect to see a lot of quarrelling, but they’ll find a way).

Recently I have been busy with Book Two, A Short, Selective Journey Through Hell, and have happily drawn on Life Beyond the Veil, Gone Westand The Living Dead Man, as well as plenty of other resources.

Well yes, you might say. Rattling good tale, you might say. But is it all true? Do you really believe all that stuff?

Well, my friends, believe is a funny word. It implies loyalty to one set of propositions and not to another. This can be very limiting, and, if you are a scientist, it can be disastrous. There you go building your career on – what? – certainties about dinosaur bones, about continental drift or perhaps even the speed of light, and then along comes evidence to prove your whole life is one big mistake.

No, belief is a very limiting word. Let’s go with something rather more open. It has been suggested that science fiction writers do a lot better in the Next World than saintly believers, and this seems credible to me because science fiction writers are in the business of imagining the unimaginable. They’re not held down by the diving boots of belief.

So let’s say I value Life Beyond the Veil, Gone West, The Living Dead Man and suchlike for their Wow factor. They may or may not hold vast amounts of truth, but I can try to check them for consistency, common sense and resonance. And, having done so, I’m inclined to say yup, they make the better story.

(This post has been simultaneously published on my blog  http://dimensionsbeyond.typepad.com/ 
complete with a lovely pic of Death Valley - seen from 'Dante's View' - which I would have included here, only I couldn't get the picture uploader to cooperate, alas. Do feel free to call in on said blog and sample the numerous delights therein...)

At last! A layman's guide to the Government's healthcare reforms, explaining them in terms so simple they might have been written by a complete idiot, and charting the development of health care from the good old days to the present and beyond - with hilarious results! In fabulous stickman-o-vision, with bits of colour. Kind of a Dr Hairy spinoff, but the Dr Hairy episode it span off from hasn't been made yet.

To see it on YouTube go to http://youtu.be/k-heGn8QzGg ; or to download it from my site right-click http://drhairy.org/problemofhealthcare.mov and select "Save as..."

- Edward Picot

But as I hate predictive text, this is hilarious proof why I am right (again!)

Hi Cloudies,

Can't spend much time on the cloud at the mo apart from popping in occasionally because I'm doing NaNoWriMo for the first time. However, I saw the following and thought I would pass on the info - these opportunities sound too good to miss if you want to write for TV.

One of the projects is only for writers from my part of the country i.e. the North-East of England, but I know there are at least 3 cloudies up here, and the others are open to all.

Let me know if you are going to submit!

Axx

Northern Film and Media are promoting a raft of exciting new writing opportunities for writers… Read on to find out more – and please note the looming deadline for the first opportunity.

Cracking crime
This is an exciting new opportunity for writers committed to writing for TV. A second series of Vera was greenlit by ITV earlier this year after drawing average viewing figures of 6.6 million. Four more instalments of the crime drama starring Brenda Blethyn and David Leon are currently being shot across the North East. The show is based on North East author Ann Cleeves’ best-selling sequence of books. Writers serious about breaking into TV writing are invited to submit a treatment for an episode of the series of no more than 2,000 words by 5pm on Friday 11 November.

Shortlisted writers will be invited to join a number of masterclasses with a range of industry experts in adaptation, character development and visual storytelling. Successful participants will be assigned a mentor/script editor and will be introduced to Vera producer Elaine Collins, who will talk them through the script process on Vera. The opportunity is aimed at writers with some experience who are keen to move into writing mainstream TV drama. New Writing North director Claire Malcolm will be helping to shortlist entries for the scheme.

At the recent Durham Book Festival, Ann Cleeves, Sally Wainwright (screenwriter of recent ITV hit Scott & Bailey) and novelist Val McDermid (who wrote the novels behind ITV’s Wire in the Blood) took part in a conversation about Criminal Women . This inspirational discussion may help inspire some new approaches to pitching for this project. You can listen to a recording of the event at http://newwritingnorth.podomatic.com.

You can read full details of the scheme at www.northernmedia.org/?mod=news&pageid=38&id=1417.

Contact joanna@northernmedia.org for further information on how to submit your work. Please not that this initiative is only open to writers based in north east England.
 

Jesting About 2 launches
Jesting About is Northern Film and Media’s flagship project with the BBC. This wide-ranging scheme for writers at all stages of their careers offer a variety of opportunities to submit ideas in the field of radio, TV sitcom and TV comedy.

Radio
BBC Newcastle and BBC Tees are keen to discover new comedic talent to write and/or perform sketch material for a specially commissioned half-hour pilot show to be developed for a daytime audience across the North East. This 30-minute programme will be made up of individual two-minute written sketches. These can take the form of individual written stand-up sequences or performed vignettes. In terms of subject matter, they are interested in comedic reflections of life in the North East but without being too parochial. You can hear the half-hour sketch show created by previous Jesting About participants at http://bbc.in/jestingabout.

TV sitcom
The BBC are making the development of new scripted comedy a high priority and are keen to see ideas brimming with confidence and underpinned with a real understanding of the BBC audience. The show pitches need to be loud, noisy and mainstream and have the potential for real longevity; think My Family, My Hero, Green Green Grass. There are two specific projects that writers can pitch for:

* A new project for Joe Tracini and Miriam Margolyes that builds on the chemistry the two actors had in Coming of Age. The episode that they feature in can be seen at http://vimeo.com/29845989. (Use the password Comingofage1)

* Toy Boy: the story of a 22-year-old who hooks up with a successful 48-year-old divorced mother of two.

Writers wanting to pitch for either of these need to deliver a treatment that gives a six-episode overview with key character breakdown and ten pages of the first draft of the pilot episode. Selected writers will be mentored to develop their script further with a view to holding a read-through with actors.

Comedy entertainment
The BBC are looking for a weekly live comedy and entertainment series that will work on BBC3 and they are keen to experiment with new formats. There are two projects to pitch for:

* Show ideas that are based on traditional game show formats re-imagined for the 21st century

* North versus South: a hybrid comedy entertainment show which pitches guests from the North against counterparts from the South. The show might be made up of interviews, pre-recorded sketches, live stunts, hidden camera set pieces and more.

Writers are invited to send a short overview of a format idea plus up to three ideas/scripts for sketches/ rounds/strands based on either of the briefs above.

Deadlines for Jesting About 2
The deadline for applications is 12 noon on Monday 28 November 2011.

Successful applicants will be notified by Friday 9 December 2011 and must confirm that they can attend North East located workshops that are planned for the beginning of December through to February/March 2012.

Read the detail
Full information on the project strands, helpful notes and the small print about fees and rights if your work is shortlisted are available at www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy.

Further help
Jesting About project manager Helen Spencer will be undertaking a limited number of one-to-one meetings with writers on Wednesday 9 November. Email joanna@northernmedia.org if you are interested in taking part. There is also lots of useful background support available on the BBC writersroom website at www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom.

I hate mondays - how many ways can you say  "sorry" - sometimes meaning it and others, not?

let's have the background, the full monty...

Actually, old bean, I had a snifter too many, what? Wouldn't happen in chambers... 

THE INFAMOUS SEASIDE RESORT OF PATTAYA — Known worldwide as a den of crime and vice, Pattaya municipal officials have decided to embrace its reputation by officially renaming the city “The Infamous Seaside Resort of Pattaya”.

Explaining the decision, Mayor Tik Kunplome said, “We found that almost every international press report referred to us as ‘the infamous seaside resort’. Rather than waste more money trying to brand our city as a family-friendly destination, we’ve decided that the moniker will help bring in more of those tourists to whom we cater best. Let’s not pretend anymore. Sex, drugs, prostitution — this shit sells.”

The mayor said to generate fresh international publicity for The Infamous Seaside Resort of Pattaya, police would raid go-go bars, briefly detain some of the town’s best-known pedophiles, throw a few old foreigners off balconies, and ask the town’s waxworks museum to resurrect its Hitler billboard.

-- NotTheNation.com 2011-07-29

The tenth and eleventh in a series of 10-minute videos about the adventures and frustrations of an ordinary (but rather hirsute) General Practitioner. In Appraisal Part 3, Dr Hairy and Dr Underslider have their appraisals - and Dr Gladstone is cornered at the Cricket Club - with hilarious results! In Part 4, Dr Hairy has to attend a Professional Development meeting - also with hilarious results!

To view the videos on my site, go to http://www.edwardpicot.com/drhairy/appraisalpart3small.mov and http://www.edwardpicot.com/drhairy/appraisalpart4small.mov ; or you can see them on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29zYePR8TSA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPtRmNjIZvI ; or they should be on DVblog (http://dvblog.org) in the near future.

The whole Dr Hairy series is available at http://edwardpicot.com/drhairy .


- Edward Picot
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange

Like Frankenstein's Monster, it rises from the cold slab. Of my hard drive. Then it eats my brains and wrecks the joint.
No! Wrong movie, sorry.
This one is about a soon-to-be-successful writer and the project which is his pride and joy.

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls; dogs, cats, guinea pigs and at least one person who has a profile picture of a walrus; my book, 'THAT BEAR ATE MY PANTS!' is finally available for public consumption*

*Do NOT attempt to eat this book. A Kindle may look tasty, but it has small bits which will get up your nose. Tony James Slater cannot be held responsible for injuries sustained in such a manner.

Anyone thinking of buying it, please go here: http://amzn.to/thatbear
(You may have to cut n' paste - I still can't figure out how to make a link.)
You have my deepest, most sincere thanks.

Anyone not thinking of buying it, thank-you anyway. But think hard - you've got all day to change your mind. Tony still loves ya baby!

And here is a picture of the front cover, to tantalize your taste-buds further. But please see above for rules about not eating it. Food for thought...