Monthly archives: July 2006


Spinneyhead Presents

I’ve been working away at the Spinneyhead Presents idea for the last week and a bit. I have a plot for a six part serial, each episode at about five minutes. I’m at the point where I can start looking for locations and doing pre-production. There’s a script for the first episode and I’ve worked out most of the characters who will appear in it, so I can start looking for volunteers.

So it seems like a good time to launch the Spinneyhead Presents blog. I’ve posted links to most of Spinneyhead’s previous videos there and will be using it as a journal of the project as well as the place to premiere future productions.

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Deep Underground

A long time ago, the summer of 1991 I think, I worked at the NIREX deep borehole just a few miles away from Sellafield. They were drilling down and drawing up cores from far beneath Cumbria and then logging the state of the rocks down there. It’s where I got the name Discontinuous Infill, which has been applied to cartoons and other projects since then.

The aim of the borehole was to check the stability of the bedrock in the area to ascertain whether it would be a suitable site for the deep disposal of vitrified nuclear waste. My cynical take on it was that the government had already decided to bury stuff there and they thought the people around Sellafield were gullible enough to take on another nuclear dump and, anyway, it wasn’t a Conservative seat so they weren’t going to lose much.

It’s possible all that data I typed in may yet be reassessed as there are calls to hurry up on properly disposing of the country’s existing nuclear waste.

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Electrons are fast

Two pieces of high performance electric car news-

Lotus is to build the Tesla Motors electric roadster at its plant in Norfolk. (via Jalopnik)

Eight wheeled electric car the Eliica (Electric Lithium-Ion battery car) can out accellerate a turbocharged Porsche.

Performance electric cars are a step toward increased acceptance. If they can help shake off the milk float image then motor journalists and ordinary drivers will start to take them more seriously.

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Deadline magazine

In the ongoing, if sporadic, effort to get rid of as much of my clutter as possible I just dug out an almost complete collection of Deadline magazines, which shall soon be heading to one of the local charity shops. Deadline ran from 1988 to 1995 (or ’96 depending upon which site’s history you read) and I remember picking up the first issue in the Gateshead Metro centre, after which I was hooked. It was the “lifestyle magazine for slackers” and the only publication I’d ever buy which used the word lifestyle about itself. The short, nasty, brilliant and surreal comic strips were the draw for me, but I stayed for the indie music and politics. There were a number of striking characters introduced over the seven year run, but the one everyone remembers is Tank Girl. The movie was disappointing, but I had a private showing at Withington’s now defunct Cine City (well, I was the only person to turn up, if truth be told).

Why am I mentioning all this? Just because I’ve flicked through a few issues (if I’m not careful, I’m going to lose the rest of the night to them) and I really think there should be some sort of Deadline for the noughties. It won’t happen, it’s too hard a concept to frame in terms of target demographic etc., but I can hope.

Deadline in wikipedia.

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Around Spinneyhead

Just a quick spin around the last week in the Spinneyhead family-

Scale

Small Scale Customs in the press. Yes, the Small Scale Customs number plates were reviewed by Railway Modeller magazine. I’ve had a few orders as a result and I’m looking forward to a steady trickle of follow ons. I sent the transfers to them a few months ago and all but forgot about it, so this was a pleasant surprise.

How to Save the World for Free

VAT problems at the Energy Saving Trust, energy from passers by, silent wind turbines and more.

2 Wheels Good

Ken Livingstone loses the plot and panders to anti-cyclist prejudice and how not to lock your bike, amongst others.

Dig

How your garden can save the country’s butterfly population.

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Jazz festival in the rain

Jazz festival in the rain
Jazz festival in the rain,
originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

There are two free outdoor music festivals on in manchester today. One’s over by Urbis, an indie band affair that was asked to stop for half an hour so it didn’t spoil a wedding, and the jazz festival on Albert Square.
I left the indie festival when I realised most of the crowd were less than half my age- young enough, basically, to be my children. I headed across town to the one sponsored by the coffee company. Now I’m surrounded by people my age and their children and feel just as out of place.
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Heavensent 8.7

Gim had been testing the door and frame, trying to find weak points by judging tiny variations in flex. He stopped, closed his eyes and cocked his head. “It’s very busy out there. Time to go.”

“You’re certain?” Sheel was straightening her arm and making a fist. Her right elbow locked as she paced back and forth before the door.

“Activity peaked and is starting to settle down again. Though it’s still very busy and they probably won’t notice us.” Gim pointed to the exact point he wanted Sheel to fire at, which would hopefully destroy the door’s lock.

“And we’ll be able to find our way out of here?”

“I memorised every step of the way from the moment we came aboard. And I have data on these old propeller planes, so I’ll be able to fly one. Probably.”

“Okay. We go.” Sheel raised her locked arm. Gim wisely removed his finger and stepped back.

Sheel rocked back on her feet and there was the crack of a small sonic boom. The flat-headed projectile expanded so fast it vapourised, taking most of the lock mechanism with it. The door swung open.

“Ladies first.” Gim offered.

“You’re only saying that because I’ve got the gun.”

Heavensent 8.8
Heavensent 8.6
Heavensent 1.1

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