Welcome to July.

July? How on earth can it be July now? I’m sure it was April last week. Maybe it’s an aspect of getting older but (my remaining) time seems to bound forward alarmingly. I suspect I notice it most in the run up to my birthday – it’s now a month away so I can’t ignore it any more. My other half keeps tempting me with Lego – she’s been/will have been to two Lego Stores in a fortnight. I bleed with envy. I may settle for a cup full of pretty bricks.

Miraculously the sun has appeared and produced some semblance of summer this last weekend, which was fortuitous for the Furthest From The Sea Festival. It’s been a very fine weekend with the regular monthly show at The Glee Club on Friday and the long day in the sun on Saturday. It was a fiercely early beginning of the day as I attempted to put up flags and carry chairs with Scott Thomas; it shouldn’t have been quite so challenging.

The comedy stage under Tony Bigissue Peppiatt‘s guidance kicked off at 11.30 and I rolled out my Captain Pigheart nonsense to a satisfying crowd. I didn’t get to see much else on the comedy stage as it became one of those days of wandering between places and talking to people about improv. There was however the regular sound of familiar musicians drifting across the square which made for a rather lovely day.

We finished it off with a MissImp trio performing an Unspeakable Act based on the Rocky screenplay. I don’t think it usually ends with priest Rocky knocking out the Pope shouting “Jesus was a Jew”. Fine work! I think it was one of those lovely days that cements friendships; nothing bonds people more than dismantling a festival. Thanks to friends and family who could make it along for the ride.

Huge thanks to Matt McGuinness and Tony Peppiatt in particular but with tonnes of respect for the fine graphics of Matt Newton and everyone else who put an awesome amount of work into the best free festival in the East Midlands (I don’t know what happens out West).

• This Week’s Scribbles
• My Thrilling Life
• Writing
• Last Week’s Scribbles
• Lego Blog
• Musings on Improvised Comedy
• Media Intake
• Books
• Films
• Events and Excitement

♥ This week’s scribbles

Tuesday Hayfevered Dreams: A Brain-Scrambled Story #1 My mind is filled with goop, that’s bound to go well into a story.

Wednesday Lego Blog: Disordered Man, this Lego is a mess.

Thursday The Desert Crystals Part 12 “Hark, The Wings” The series is back!

Friday Film Review Round Up: Man of Steel, Despicable Me 2, Snitch, World War Z  Super short multi-film review time.

Updates on my thrilling life

Writing

I got a surprising amount of last week’s scribblings done on time, though not necessarily in the order I wanted. Ho hum. I’m ending up writing more stuff about myself, particularly my mental health than I’d ever really planned to. I’m not sure why that’s happening – apologies if it’s distracting from the fiction. I suppose it’s just what I feel driven to write at the moment; the gap between my day and my brain is narrower than I’d like.

Last week’s scribbles

Autofiction: Betrayal When I’m angry I like to let it out; you’d like me when I’m angry.

Autofiction: Anxiety Games The weird experiences of anxiety and panic.

The Desert Crystals – The Journals Biologinary #3 The third zoological interludes – The Tooth-Furred Gambimole.

Lego Blog: Lego Memories I dig out my old and beloved Lego Space from the ’80s.

Lego

I still have a huge bucket of black, white and grey Lego to sift through, and possibly wash before I can do much with it – the warm weather may make that less of a hassle this week. I’ve also been the recipient of yet more lovely Lego bits from last year’s Lego City advent calendar (thank you Jefuz!). And, in further acquisitorial news The Daily Racist, sorry – Mail had Lego giveaways this weekend. Normally I can’t bear to see a penny spattered on their worthless hate-filled words but Lego will persuade me to give them money and hand back their newspaper. Even better on Sunday we foudn a copy on the train and filled in the coupon. So I now have three Gandalfs and a cool little black car. Victory!

Improv Comedy

Fun show on Friday, it was a bit odd being back down in the claustrophobically ceilinged floor one performance space but I very much enjoyed the work of our team. We did some pretty thoughtful, theatrical improv I think.

Martin, David and I took to the comedy stage at the Furthest From The Sea Festival too. I was very tempted to change our intended show and just do a bunch of scenes off the back of the previous stand up comic whose material was filled with weirdness. Sadly the daytime nature of the show and the kids in the audience didn’t really help her out. Instead we stuck to Unspeakable Acts, offering the audience a choice of Rocky, Titanic and The Phantom Menace as base material. They chose Rocky. It is a terrible screenplay and I don’t think we got further than opening scene where Rocky is battered by (and I kid you not) “BLACK FIGHTER”. We were sold, and proceeded to tell a story about racist Rocky turning to the church via going to war and ending up fighting the Pope in the ring. Great fun, and the audience loved it. Most satisfying…

Parky and I had our last session with the beginners’ class last Monday too. It’s been a wonderful experience; we’ve got as much out of it as the students I think. We need to figure out what to do next for them, to facilitate their development and interest. Personally I’m also glad to have Monday evenings back again! I’ve been consistently impressed with their ability to absorb improv ideas and apply them – we’ve seen some wonderful scenes and I look forwards to playing with them in future.

Media Intake

Books

I burned through A Planet For The President by Alistair Beaton. It’s an easy reading little political satire and I enjoyed it despite it being rather predictable – I just didn’t find the idea of the American government killing the rest of the world that suprising, or much of a stretch. I’ve moved on Peter F Hamilton’s book of (long) short stories Manhattan In Reverse and am finding myself on reassuring and comfortable sci-fi ground.

Films

I’ve taken a couple of days off and overloaded on okay films – too many to compactly scribble about here, so I’m going to try to update you on those later in the week. For reference, I’ve seen The Losers (again – still good fun), Despicable Me 2, Man of Steel, World War Z and Snitch. I have eaten a lot of popcorn.

Events and Excitement

Gorilla Burger – Thursday 11th July

7.30pm at The Corner, Nottingham.
Live improvised lunacy from anyone willing to get up on the stage. Bring your own booze!

Knickerbocker Glorious – Saturday 20th July

11-3 at The Fountain, Market Place, Derby.
I’m compering a day of free music, comedy and spoken word entertainment.

MissImp in Action – Friday 26th July

8.30pm at The Glee Club, Nottingham.
High energy improvised comedy show.
Weeks That Have Come Before

This week, Monday 3rd June 2013 (captainpigheart.com)

This week, Monday 10th June 2013 (captainpigheart.com)

This week, Monday 17th June 2013 (captainpigheart.com)