"...and there's no time..."

I do try to write stories. I really do. I have many ideas, and kind of half arsedly think about them, make notes, and write the occasional drafts of chapters of epic novels, or even series of novels, that exist in my head in a state of quantum maybeness. Little bits here and there, fragments of worlds that might one day exist... but there's very little in the way of completed stories.

There are a couple of short stories, though, both of which were all set to be spun out in to full length novels; at least until the maybeness, and the doubt, and the "oh, why in the name of sanity am I writing this, it's not fit to lick The Catcher in the Rye's boots" thinking. 

And if you will permit me to digress slightly (well I say permit; it's my blog and it's frickin' called digression...) that's clearly the wrong way to think; you should always read the worst professionally published writing you can get your hands on, and read that thinking "strewth, I can do better than that load of old Tottenham...!" I'll never write anything as good as Catcher, but I can certainly string something better than some of the stuff out there. Just, the stamina... they have it, and I seem to be lacking...

So, a couple of shorts stories.... one was called The Vampire Incident, and that dates back to the 90s. If you happened to read the fanzine I used to do, you'll have read it. Maybe one day it'll make it online. It was intended to be funny, but re-reading it recently some of it did make me wince a little...

Then, there was [edit]...

[edit] was never published anywhere, and concerned a chap who, all of a sudden, found he could jump back in time and edit his lifetime. The thing is, he could only go back in time, not forward at all, and couldn't go beyond a certain point. The main bulk of the story centred around a couple of incidents, the one that set it off, and another later, with only brief mentions of the various things he got up to in between. 

I liked the story and had always intended to return to it one day, flesh it out, go in to a lot more detail of the things he got up to, how he could do, essentially, whatever he wanted, and essentially live life with no consequences again and again. I'm sure it wasn't a spectacularly original idea even then, about ten years ago. I guess Groundhog Day immediately springs to mind, but that was just going back one day, and involuntary...

So, a few days ago I finally got around to watching About Time... And... wow... someone who can time travel within his own life time and change anything he wants to. Although, this chap can go forward in time. 

[Incidentally; I will be giving away whopping great spoilers here. Don't read on if you don't want to know how it ends... really...]

And here the time travel is used really thoughtfully; the chap travelling in time never really does anything massively extravagant, his changes are usually small in nature. The movies chugs along reasonably well... boy meets girl (Charlotte), boy travels in time to make girl fall in love with him, doesn't work. Boy meets other girl (Mary), travels in time to make girl fall in love with him, works. And for the most part it's fairly standard fare, despite the time travel...

There were a few times watching it, where I'd probably have done things differently. For a start, later when Tim meets Charlotte out on the town, and she invites him back to her hotel room I'd have had them getting down and jiggy with each other, only for Tim to be full of guilt and go back in time so that it didn't happen. Might have added a bit of friction in there...

So, the film chugs along and it's seemingly pootling along with its romance, and then, bam...

...Tim's dad goes and dies, and suddenly it's one sucker punch after another. It's sad enough when he dies, but hey, he's a time traveler, and he can go back and visit him when he wants. The scene where he's at the funeral and goes back is just wonderful. 

But, then it gets worse... 

To explain; one of the rules being that you can't go back to before when your children are born (although clearly this should be, when they are conceived) as any minor change will see a different sperm meet the egg and a different child be born...

...so, not long after he dies, Mary gets pregnant again. In this time travel paradigm, this means Tim can no longer go back to a time when his dad's alive, so he'll never be able to see him again. The moment he goes back, and tells his dad this is the last time he'll be able go back is just heart breaking. It helps by Bill Nighy being so damn good in every scene he's in. 

And it made me think that, really, even if I were to revisit [edit], I'd never be able to come up with anything a wonderful as that with this sort of time travel concept. The last half hour of this film is just the best use for it. It can't be topped. I'll probably try to think of something that would top it, but I doubt I will...

Having said that, though, there are a couple of whopping errors in there; the scene where he does go back before his first child's birth, and then find he's got a different kid, and then somehow manages to go back and get the original back is rather illogical; and in any case, should negate everything about the last half hour... it's a sequence that should have been snipped and replaced with some chat with ol' dad... 

And, that very last bit on the beach at the end breaks every rule as well! :)

You set up your time travel rules, you need to follow them! 

Whether I do go back to [edit] I don't know... maybe. I'll not be going back to The Vampire Incident. Though, I am sure there were a few more stories, but I just can't think of them...

"...a half finished lifetime of underachievement and misunderstanding..."

Way back in the day I used to do a fanzine. It never quite achieved what I intended it to do, and just when it was getting decent circumstance meant I had to stop it. I shan't bore you with the details. One of the things I liked about it was that I used to try to get a whole wodge of different things in it each month, so you never really knew what you would expect. It had its running strands, but I never wanted it to stay the same. 

I got sent a good few demo tapes by up and coming band to review, and they tended to range from a bit naff to pretty average. There were a few that were okay, but mostly... I mean, there were even a couple that didn't even make it in to the pages of the zine as they were so dreadful. But, there was one demo CD that stood head and shoulders above everything else. That was by Pop Threat. 

It was a three track CD with blisteringly good music on; wonderfully scuzzy guitars, and vocals to die for. The tracks were Falling Spike, The Last Resort, and D 4th S. I forget the order they were in, as I long ago lost the CD. 

Of these tracks to me the best one was D 4th S; which is one of those tracks with two sets of parallel lyrics. It had an Atta Girl vibe to it, without actually sounding anything like it at all. The lyrics here almost feel like they're about to be drained out by the swirling guitars at any time. Sometimes you feel it's best to let the lyrics wash over you as once you pay attention to what they're actually saying, you almost wish you hadn't paid that attention. It's heartbreaking. Halfway through, the song becomes an instrumental. You can imagine this being played live with the reverb and feedback up to the max, and being bashed out of the instruments until they bleed. Just wonderful. Wonderful. 

On the basis of D 4th S alone Pop Threat should have been massive. But, sadly, this wasn't to be the case. They lasted a mere four years, releasing a handful of singles, and an album, which didn't hit the shelves until after the split. 

And I never did get to see them live. 

The other day I was listening to music on my iPod on shuffle, and D 4th S came on. Made me smile. Just for the hell of it I googled Pop Threat, and found there was a compilation CD released in 2011, containing most of their songs including many I'd not heard in a while, and some I'd never heard before. It took me moments before I'd ordered the CD. And then moments later, thought... I wonder if it's on iTunes. It was! So, I bought another copy from there.

And... oh, it's great. I'm listening to it right now and loving it. Frankly every single one of you out there that hasn't already got a copy, which will be most of you let's be honest, must go and buy a copy NOW! It's called dirt 'n' dust, and is great. I mean, you only have to click here to go to the website to order the CD... And it's only £3.50!

If you want the iTunes release that's £7.99. Which is still a bargain for these 23 songs... 

Go on. Buy it. You MUST!