The Baillie Bugle

I had quite a good weekend, and I'm back on solids again now, so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself.

Let's see... On Friday I went to see Adaptation in Camden. I think Charlie Kaufman is my new hero.
He writes the most thought provoking stuff in Hollywood for my money. He really started making me think with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Adaptation just blew me away though.
You have to go see it.
I wonder if he's related to Andy Kaufman... I was really into him for a while a couple of years ago after seeing Man in the Moon, and reading the book.
Talking about Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, someone else that's impressed me this year is Georgie Clooney. Georgie, who I loathed for making a crap Batman movie (which you'd think was impossible after the first two! Val Kilmer came close but... NO cigar) did well with Ocean's Eleven last year. This year though he did Confessions (which I think he directed) and Solaris which, despite what the press said, is a really good remake.

On Saturday I sat in the sun and wrote up the scripts for my Epic submissions. I'm quite pleased with them so far. I have two, really different ideas. One of them is straight Marvel fare with a bit of a twist, the other a low key first person internal monologue thing. I'm having a lot of fun writing them, which is cool.
And I didn't get sunburnt.
Which is even more cool (and surprising!)

After that I went to the (public showing) premier of Neil Gaiman's new short film, A short Film About John Bolton. It was held at the annual meeting of the BSFA (which they called the Goldfish Factor this year) in Bride Lane, above the Bridewell Theatre.
It was interesting little film, which depicted John Bolton as an eccentric quiet artist who paints lots of naked lady vampires (John Bolton wasn't actually played by John Bolton, but John Bolton did briefly appear as a party guest). It made me laugh in the right places (I think) and it moved enjoyably, if a little predictably, toward a satisfying conclusion.
Kim Newman had a short film on show too, which felt like a nicely wrapped Future Shock from 2000AD, and made everyone laugh.

On Sunday I went to the monthly comics fair at the Royal National Hotel in Russell Square and left lots of free copies of my comic, Awkward Fascination, on the tables at the entrances and exits. All told over a hundred copies are now living in other peoples' houses (or in their bins, but I don't mind that thought too much).
I was kind of scared to begin with that someone would catch me leaving my free produce for the public and so did it quite discreetly, running from the scene of the crime and trying to blend back in to the comic buying crowd.
After a few iterations I became quite blatant. I'd tidy up the bundle of comics left on the tables, arranging them into a nice fan shape (which I discovered caught the eye of passers by a lot better than a simple bundle) and refreshing supplies.

I even took photos of people picking up the comics, and of one chap sitting reading it by the table. He seemed to be enjoying it, or at least he read it cover to cover.
It was just such a buzz to see the piles disintegrate, knowing that they were travelling off all over London, into other peoples lives.
Very satisfying.

So that was the weekend that was.
I'm not red.
I've finally seen Adaptation.
And A Short Film About John Bolton.
And my first print run of AF #1 has 'sold' out.

I hope the week goes as well.