The Kat

Last night I celebrated my first Burns Night. I was joined by John, Frances, Jeremy, Holly and Jonny. We sat around a table, ate vegetarian haggis a la Jeremy (seriously good numms) drank whiskey based beverages like Scotsmac and recited the poetry of Robert Burns.

We each took it in turn to read a poem (Jonny was our audience) which was quite some feat after a drink or too as they were written in a Scottish dialect. After we had finished the reader would receive a shot of whiskey as a prize. Then we got to the really long ones so we read a paragraph or two and passed it around. I was surprised by the number of his poems that I knew or have heard quoted. My favourite so far has to be To A Mouse.

It was a really fun but relaxed evening. We all stayed at the table, fire burning at the side and candles on the table having a good natter. Towards the end of the evening the conversation lead me to mention Harvie Krumpet, a short animated film I first saw at Glastonbury in 2005, so I ended up digging it out from upstairs and we watched it together.

Yesterday saw the return of El Matt. It’s been almost six months since we had last seen each other. During that time a lot has happened; I’m in a different shire doing a masters and Matt has finished filming Cricket with his brothers and is currently in the middle of editing…please note that the cast includes none other than our very own thespian Chris.

I met Matt at the station and took him to The Bear for a beverage. We had a hot apple and cinnamon cordial (my personal favourite) and caught up. After the refreshment I took Matt around some of the sights of fair Todmorden. One location I was saving till last was Centre Vale Park whose adjoining woods make up the view from my room. I love the park. I can’t wait for the summer so that I can utilize it to its full potential.

On the way we made a little detour and grabbed some chips…I’ve been hankering for a bag for a while now, at last I am satisfied! We sat in the memorial garden, had a nibble, and took in the serenity around us. While we were there I had the pleasure of the company of another old friend who I had not seen in a while, Cookie!

After we finished taking in the scenery we set upon a hike up to the woods. I showed Matt around all the locations of the short film I have yet to finish editing (there aren’t enough hours in the day). While walking around the park and woods I was surprised at the amount of squirrels I saw that day, one we were able to walk right up to while it was eating some nuts…always with the nuts.

We managed to walk the length of the woods which despite being at a high altitude on the side of a valley, is relatively level. However, going from a flat terrain to an incredibly sheer road was slightly mind bending. I had recently been in a truck driving up and down the darn thing as Todmorden was flooded a little earlier in the week. We started our descent in fear but persevered.

Twas a windy and cold day and the hours frolicking about Tod had taken its toll so we sought refuge in the warmth of a nearby pub. In the corner of the pub there was set of equipment by a large TV screen and with it being a Friday it looked as though they may have been doing some karaoke…well, needless to say after a couple of nummy ciders I got myself psyched up to do some singing – I was going to rock some locals socks off! But alas, they did nothing with the equipment. Denied.

Perhaps it was some kind of protest, or was it the booze, or was it the smokes? (shh) But Matt and I found ourselves going full circle and ended up back at the park, the bit where they keep the swings to be exact. However this time there was a lack of people and it was much darker. We has a fantastic play, we went on the swings, some kind of seesaw that could spin round and a swing slide…awesome!

Overall I had a fabulous, memorable and much needed day. Viva le adventure.

You may remember from a previous post my involvement in the Todmorden Station Gala…well I just finished watching a program called My Yorkshire in which I was filmed along with Jeremy. We taped it as we knew that they were focusing on Tod. Yey!

I have just come to the end of my first official week at university. It has been a rollercoaster ride as I have been going to lectures during the day, dashing to Bradford to work in the evenings then doing any necessary homework upon returning home. Consequently I have had a lack of sleep, however, this moan is undue as this week I have written, starred in and directed my first short film. The project started off by each of the students in my class writing a character biography, the next step was the formation of a script each which could only involve one or more of the characters created in the character biography. The script specifications were that it had to be set around a school reunion taking place in a hotel, and the filming had to take place in or around the university.

We ended up being one male down as us writers had to perform as the characters, so I called on the help of John. John acted in my film along side me and stepped in to be my main camera man, thanks padre. I have to say for a script that was written the day before, having only a two hour slot to film in, as well as having to edit in can, it was bloody good. We showed them all today to the course leader which was pretty nerve racking. I was told today that we are going to be doing more of this but with the luxury of more time and access to editing suites which I am really looking forward to. I guess with the stuff I’ll be making at uni and the films John and I are going to work on I’m going to have my own little show reel soon.

It’s the long awaited return of song of the week! It was tough call as I’ve been listening to a few good albums recently, but title this week goes to David Bowie with Life on Mars…so I’ve been enjoying the TV show of late, big whoop, wanna fight about it?

Seriously though, I’m digging this track right now, it’s got such an epic sound to it. I found the video on Youtube - in it Bowie I think looks like a mesh between Marilyn Manson and Frank-N-Furter, with some 70’s flares thrown in for good measure.

Chris just sent me a link to Adventure Time…go watch it…NOW!!!

I found a picture of me at the Todmorden Station Gala! I was borrowing a dress from John’s sister Holly who has an impressive collection of period dresses. To my left if Jeremy wearing a station masters hat which you may recognise as part of our Lord of Burgundia’s attire.

As you may have noticed I have been out of action for a good while, I swear I have had a month or so of pure nuts! The main culprit was my bursary application for Leeds. It required some extensive writables on my part, namely the first half an hour of a feature screenplay along with other essay based tasks. It was a shock to the system and a taste of things to come, but invigorating none the less. It felt good to write, it shook off a year of dust and I’m ready to jump back into the world of creativity.

I have now moved back to fair Todmorden, land of the free. Since I’ve been back I’ve participated in an array of fun activities such as the Todmorden Station Gala. Johns dad Jeremy was one of the main organizers of the event and in keeping with the festivities I dressed up in 1950’s attire. I had a great time and met a dance troupe who performed some impressive swing and jive routines. Mainly I have just been kicking back with the J-man watching a variety of films and such on the cinema he has constructed in his room out of a HD projector and wall sized retractable screen. Luxary. I’ve caught up on some notable TV series such as Rome series two, Dexter and Life on Mars, all of which I highly recommend.

I’ve also met up with some of the friends I made last year. Although I see Chris on quite a regular basis I hadn’t seen him in a while so a visit was in order. Firstly I saw him while he was performing in Funeral Games, one of two plays showing at the Square Chapel in Halifax. After the show we only met briefly as he had to help take down the set, so on second meeting we did things properly and he took me out for a welcome back meal. We had tapas and in a restaurant in Halifax and polished of a rather nice bottle of Rosé.

Last night I went to see Liam who I used to work with at the museum in Bradford. We met there as we were due to watch Transformers on the uber IMAX screen. It was really odd going back as it had been exactly a year since I had been there last. It turned out it was the opening night for the Bite The Mango annual festival so there was a large turn out, free wine and I got to see a lot of the people I used to work with. It was a pretty random fiesta, there was Bollywood dancing being performed and one guy interviewed me who was making a film on his mobile phone. Transformers was not so good though, sure it looks swell but the story sucked. We ended up mocking most of the film which was much more entertaining.

Matt just came over. I cooked some pasta and we did what we do best, watched some films and drank some wine. I didn’t feel much like sleeping so I sat and flicked about on the movie channels for a while but nothing caught my eye. He had left some menthol Marlboro as we sometimes enjoy the odd smoke ready for the next time we are together.

It was past one in the morning and I found myself outside. It’s a beautiful night out. It’s the sort of night I could imagine sleeping outside as the temperature is much more inviting that that of my room.

I stood in the darkness and lit a cigarette. It was so quiet outside. As I exhaled my eyes followed the smoke up into the sky. Above me sat a velvety blanket of starts dusted with wispy moonlit clouds. As I stood and smoked my ears adjusted to the silence and I was suddenly able to hear the insects desperately congregating around the street lamps.

Suddenly I felt small drops of light cool rain on my skin. At first I was surprised as there wasn’t much in the way of clouds. I could hear it falling on the leaves on the trees around me. For the first time in a long time I felt at peace. I stayed until I had finished the smoke and breathed in the fresh air. It is often the unexpected which becomes the most memorable.

Yesterday saw the 10th anniversary and last ever Dpercussion event in Castlefield Manchester. I had previously gone in 2005 and saw Badly Drawn Boy and hit an after party with a DJ set by Mr Scruff, it’s a damn shame that it’s coming to an end.

I went to the event accompanied by Chris, a fellow lover of dance music and booty shaker. We did a lot of wondering and caught quite a few sets but there were three in particular that stood out for me. The first was This Et All, I had previously bumped into my old roomy Pete who recommended them so we went to see it together. I really liked them; they really knew how to build up a song to a rocked out climax. We went to the front and I nodded my head like nobody’s business. After this we kept on bumping into Pete and ended up seeing most of the same bands together. I randomly bumped into quite a few people I knew that day.

The next notable artist was Norman Jay who had a very impressive hat that rivalled that of our lord of Burgundia. He played some pretty damn funky choons so we again found ourselves at the front busting a move. However after some hardcore booty shaking, around the 5th or 6th song we got a little hot and thirsty so decided to get a beverage. This is where we found This is Seb Clarke. They were a retro swing style band, dressed to the nines in grey suits with orange shirts. They were awfully good, so good I believe that may have gone over their allocated time and had to rush off after the finale. A couple of the band members came out into the crowd to do a little promotion so I went to say hello and brought a CD. Very nice chaps.

As it got later the event got busier, so after Chris and I got some nums we thought it best to bail – we got our £3 worth of fun. We met up with his sister Becka and I took them to the Fab café (if anyone is going to appreciate some retro sci-fi kitsch it was these two). Pete met us there a little later and we all had a few drinks and little conversation. We stayed together till Victoria where we got our last trains home. It was a good day.