Early Thrasher: The Channel

Fucking hell. Haven’t posted here for a while. Been quite busy with my life and some stuff which is actually important to the world… such as… I dont know… reading up on the current situation in Iran? What a bunch of fucking shit. Dont get me started. We dont do politics here at the channel. I’m going to upload a clip of me falling into a bush of nettles on a recent Encounters shoot today. Fucking hell it hurt. I was not laughing at the time, let me tell you.

Karl Hicks’ reaction is funny though. He likes to see me in pain. I had to run to a nearby river to try to soothe the pain. My head and both arms were severely nettled. To make matters worse, nobody knew what a doc leaf looked like… so I had to continue to act… in severe pain. Fuck.

So there’s that whole thing… and… its the Mercury League gig tonight. They’re playing with the Dauntless Elite. I cant wait. I’m looking forward to it immensely. Haven’t seen TML since we last played with them in July or something. Such a good band.

Going to the woods to shoot more of Encounter today. Hopefully we’ll get a wrap on Karl Hicks and we’ll get to meet our “Squealer” character. Lots of fun to be had. Lets hope I dont fall into the nettles again. Fuck. Its not everyday you slip on a dog shit and fall into a nettle bush…. at least I hope not.

Later gang. Stay tuned. “Live” is fucked…. so… fuck it.

You read it right. My parents were cleaning the carpet. They put a lot of carpet cleaner on the carpet. I unknowingly walked accross the carpet with barefeet. The next day, I am in some serious pain. My feet are red and it feels like I’m walking on hot coals when I move them. I have a headache and feel queezey. No webovision tonight.

However. Tomorrow, there will be a very special re-run episode, and then we’ll be back to normal after that. Check out my paranormal investigation I did a few days ago, thats much better anyway.

Still shooting Encounter. Got lots of good night footage the other day. Had to drive the car onto the pavement and into the woods in order to light the place up. Boy does it get dark fast. So that was pretty sketchy, but it was a lot of fun. The movie is looking good. Still quite a bit to shoot and loads to edit. I’ll try to get some more video up over the next few days.

Had a band practice today. Its made my feet 10 times worse. I have to crawl around the house now. Did a live demo of our first song (this is my new band… not my long-running band). Pretty cool. Went to the Chillingham to see some good bands the other night. Lots of fun. Attack! Vipers! Lavotchkin, Kanashibara and The Plague Mass. They were all fucking awesome. Next week I’ll be off to the TML/Dauntless Elite show. That will be rad. Me and Dan are putting a gig on at the Star and Shadow Cinema on the 23rd. Plenty of good live music over the next week or so.

Stay tuned guys, sorry I’m allergic to carpet cleaner. Need some more antihistamines.

Anyone who attempted to watch the live show last night, my apologies. Everything broke. Literally nothing was working. The live feed was jittering. I had nothing to say. I just wanted to go to sleep. The plan was to broadcast live from Rich’s house, and do a paranormal investigation special. Turns out that Rich’s internet was being a loser and that my camera wouldnt hook up to his laptop. To make matters worse, when I returned home, in the desperate hope that I could still shit out a show, everything crashed.

These events were beyond our control here at the channel. I was in my shirt and tie, ready to have a phone in show. About 10 minutes in, I realised nothing was working, no one was watching… and it was time to show a re-run of me and Karl when we went live a couple of weeks ago. It was a funny show. Unfortunately, even the re-run wouldnt play on the live screen without jittering. So I gave up. Sorry. Hopefully we’ll be back on Friday.

So instead of posting nothing, I decided to use the paranormal investigation footage I shot early that day with Rich, Helen and Strad. It was actually very scary in there. There is one area which I was too scared to enter. This was a small hole under a bridge. It looked like it was full of zombies. Maybe we’ll go back there and check that out in another paranormal episode. We actually should go to a graveyard at night or something…. or find some more abandoned buildings. Its such a thrill when you have no idea whats in there!

We’re still shooting encounter. Karl Hicks is not answering his phone. Should I take a hint?

So I’m supposed to do this fucking live thing again tonight. Jesus. Think I’m gonna be broadcasting from a totally different location. Yes we’ll be out of our usual studio… and into a secret, undisclosed location, miles above sea level. Pretty cool.

We’ll also be shooting a little video today. Going to be sneaking into an abandoned building and checking out any potential paranormal activity. Thats gonna be scary. Maybe we’ll do a little seance in there? That would be funny. But I’m going to be crapping my pants. Mark my words. I almost went in last night but decided that it would be funnier if I went in on camera and had no idea what the building was like inside.

Went out to this fucking place last night. Most bizarre place I’ve ever been to. Sounded like a bomb kept going off every 2-4 seconds when the stupidly loud (and stupidly awful) music went off. Some guy was hanging out in the bathroom… so when you wanted to wash your hands after you’d pissed, he’d spray your face with cheap perfume and expect payment. Naturally I obliged… but wasn’t too happy about the fact that I smelled desperate. The smell of desperation was smeared all over my face. Sickening. I understand why I don’t go out. Its simply not fun. Its craicy and boring. Yes, I’ll be sticking to reading from now on.

Got to do a podcast. Should really do it tomorrow. Cant really think of anything interesting to say (makes a change). Jeez. Okay. Time to put a call into my co-host tonight. Tune in 8pm GMT assholes.

What a sour bastard I was yesterday! Its funny how that decision that Encounters would be the “last you’ll hear from me” prompted a downright ridiculous video yesterday. Its me miming to a Morrisey song. Ha!

Yeah, I’ve neglected a few things round here, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop posting stupid videos, ya know? Lets be positive! (I’m well aware this is turning into one of the most bi-polar blogs in internet history).

I think the blog title sums up todays feelings. It seems to me thats what I’ve been doing… and I think I’ve probably found it. Back to normal at last. Focused. Watched this show called “Peace, Propaganda and the Promised land last night” which was cool. Ordered some new books including “The Mars Trilogy”, “The God Delusion”, “Open Road: Palestine since 2003″ and “American fascists”.  I’m also looking forward to the new Bob Torres book which comes out this Autumn “Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights”. Sounds cool. He’s a pretty right-on dude.

So I’ve sorted myself out. Gonna hit the bar tonight and have some fun with a few select friends. Gonna go for a run. Maybe I’ll cut together some footage. Maybe I’ll make a little video today! Really… I can do anything I want, at least for another week. Then its back to the grind. To focused study. To reading books all those books I ordered. To playing in my band. To making goofy video…

Lets have a positive day gang.

Something I’ve learned over the past 2 months we’ve been doing this, is how difficult and time consuming making goofy videos is. Really, the only reason I’ve been able to do so much is my band taking a month off, and a disgraceful lack of focus on things that really matter. Lets make September the month of the channel, and then… I think I really need to start getting back to things that matter to me most.

Right now… I just want to go in the shower, put all my props away, and read a book. Its been a weird few months. I think my craziness is actually starting to subside. Maybe I’m confusing mental illness with a detachment from reality. Not paying attention to anything certainly makes it a lot easier to get through the day. But is this the sort of existence that a human with limitless potential to move things should be seeking to live? I dont think so. This is awfully deep for the blog. But its just whats running through my head today.

I think today I need to hop in the shower… catch up on some world events… read a couple chapters of my book… and then cut together some of the Encounters Movie. I think I’ve misplaced my priorities severely. Its pretty frightening. So whenever I’ve been talking about not being myself… I think I understand why that is now. Its just taken a little while to figure that out.

I’m not nuts. I’m just avoiding issues to make it easier for me to get through the day. Trivial, pointless and self-indulgent pursuits reign…. and I’m actually not too happy about that. I thought I was sensible enough not to let that happen.

I’ll be on live on Tuesday’s and Friday’s… feeling like I don’t want to be there probably. I’ll be finishing Encounter. But really I think this is the last thing I’m doing for a while. This is a full time goofy project… which is really insignificant compared to the stuff that I should be doing with my time. Its haunting.

So expect encounters, expect early thrasher live… just don’t expect anything else for a while. From me at least. If anyone wants to submit video go for it. I’ll still be blogging, it really helps me get my thoughts straight.

Sorry to sour you all out today. Funny old mood I’m in. But it feels more like me talking.

We were shooting for the Encounter movie all day yesterday. I spent the day running through forests, firing guns, diving into the dirt and rolling around in bushes. Then we had to apply make-up to people for alien scenes, shoot things infront of annoying spectators… and was generally just worn out.

I sat there at 9pm and thought… I actually don’t have it in me to sit and talk to all of these people for half and hour. I just want to go to bed. So I did basically.

Our record arrived in the post yesterday. Fucking bliss, Jason Sanderson you are a hero. Send some business his way. You know when you can just tell you’re part of something that’s gonna take off? Thats how I feel about Jase. I know he’s going to be doing this for a long time, and he’s going to be very successful. More than I can say for my band.

Today the plan is to continue to capture footage and edit together some first cuts. We’re shooting the movie wide-screen like we shot “The Last Case”. Now I know what you’re thinking. “Where the fuck are the shorts you promised”. I’m maybe gonna shoot one tomorrow and stick it on the site. Should be funny… just need to rally a crew together.

Right. Back to work. Keep checking back at the Channel, new content soon.

I had forgot how stressful film making is. I think its this temporary dip in memory which has lead me to pursue this project…. but at the end of the day, the shots we got yesterday, under some truly despicable conditions, were great and this is the best thing I’ve ever filmed. This looks pro so far.

Today we shoot more… in similar locations. Today we take to the woods to film a gun fight. We are also going to be shooting a big alien scene. That should be scary. Jord has signed up to play a cameo. That will be funny.

Today our tracks will be arriving in the post (fingers crossed). They were posted on Wednesday night, so in theory it should only take a couple days. I’m nervous an excited to hear them. At least we’ll be able to listen objectively considering we haven’t heard any of our own music in 3 weeks since we’ve taken so long off. I am nervous. I just hope they’re good and people enjoy them. I just hope this is something I can be proud of for once.

I’m expecting the guys in about 10 minutes. We’ll get to work right away… filming in the woods… then head back and with any luck, the tracks will have been posted through my door. If not… there’ll be 1 or 2 tears for fears I do imagine.

Lets all calm down today, yeah? Go with the flow. There’s no rush. Lets just stop flipping out over little things and focus on the bigger picture: SAVING THE WHOLE FUCKING WORLD MAN!

Ya Know? See ya gang.

Today, we start shooting our latest movie Encounter. We are shooting on location all over the North-East today and tomorrow. Tomorrow we get to cover Karl in face paint, today, in fake blood which I am yet to make… my parents are getting me some red food die hopefully. That will be fun.

I’ve just been doing a shooting script for the parts we’re shooting today. One of the most vital and complicated scenes. The opening scene. Its probably going to be a nightmare.

Yesterday was fun! I went to a band practice with my other band. Andy Malone came too, he’s our bass player now. Probably the most fun I’ve had with those guys. I kept dropping my plectrum… every sing song… sometimes multiple times… and then could not stop laughing for about 10 minutes. It wasn’t annoying at all!

It was awesome.

Haven’t written an update about our recording studio visit for a while. Jase texted me asking for my address so I’m assuming he posted the new tracks yesterday at about 6pm. I assume that’ll take till about Friday to arrive at my house… since it was past the last post on Wednesday? I have no idea actually. Maybe it will come today. I am super excited about it. I actually had a dream last night that the demo arrived and sounded horrible. The postman knew my sister’s name for some reason… weird. I put it on my CD player upstairs, most of the vocals were not even on the CD, and all of the music was horrible. Like… we were just totally inept at playing our instruments and made a horrible demo. Then I told Jonny I should probably quit… because there was really no future in this “godforsaken band”.

… THAT WASNT A DREAM!!!!!! AGHGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHG…

Only joking…

… or am i?

Hi everyone. Sorry I didn’t have time to blog yesterday. Had a pretty jam packed day. Karl Hicks, my co-star in Encounter, dropped by the channel and we did about 30 minutes live. That was fun. Wish we’d have taped the show… but everything crashed. What a nightmare.

We basically just hung out and goofed around all day. I let him borrow my Evil Dead boxset. Good times.

Had a good show at 8pm last night. All of the equipment crashed as we were about to go on air. Luckily we sorted it out and had fun with wigs. My friend Rich was on the show. Think we’re gonna do the show from Rich’s house next week. That’d be fun. A nice change of scene. My friend Leonard Kilvington also dropped by. That was nice of him but he’s kind of annoying. Hopefully he wont be coming over too often in the future

Today I’m off to get a few props for the movie and then a band practice.
See ya. I’ll try to write some interesting shit tomorrow when I have some time.