Donkey Kong (1994) Review

Every now and then I play a computer game which just feels totally rounded and satisfying. You play it from start to finish and it neither overstays it’s welcome nor feels like there was more to be done. It’s a great feeling! Recently, I’ve started playing some Gameboy games after picking up a Gameboy Colour a couple of Christmases ago on a cycle back home (from a charity shop open Christmas Eve!). N. also happened to have a load of Gameboy games as well as a Gameboy Advance console (the SP version, which is backlit) from when she was a kid. So one of the games N. had was Donkey Kong (1994).  I played it and completed it over the course of about a month and, surprisingly to me, it was just one of those rounded, satisfying, and totally great games I mentioned above.

5 Book Covers

Some book covers in my collection of books which I particularly like. Sorry for the shitty photos :( 

I bought this copy of The Tales of Hoffmann the other day from Books For Amnesty in Bristol. I've read The Sandman before (when I was at university I was given a photocopy of it no less - do I still have that?) but would like to read more. However, the main reason I really bought this copy was the amazing colour pallette and that sinister Rasputin looking guy - alright there mate.

Looking down at their son

Memories of childhood comics

The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson

The back of my copy of The Black Arrow unironically states that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the book “primarily for boys”, which shocks me; not because the publishers were purposefully sidelining a portion of its readership, for it kindly lets the reader know that Stevenson “did manage to include a lovely heroine” (thanks), but because the language is quite (a lot) advanced. Not only is it advanced but it very clearly evokes a past historical period. This is clearly a great thing but it makes me wonder about my own literacy at the ambiguous age-range of “boy” or “young reader”, and I wonder, for this reason, how well this book holds up as a “book for children”.

The Hunting of the Snark

The Hunting of the Snark is one of those pieces of writing which invites illustration. Like Carroll’s other famous work of ‘nonsense’ fiction Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Snark is filled with both the bizarre and the familiar. The basic narrative follows a group of unqualified hunters seeking the eponymous Snark – some kind of exotic animal I imagine. However, it is the hunters themselves that are of importance here and their characterisation is perhaps what lends this tale it’s strong visual quality. These characters are a ridiculous and pathetic ensemble of men, yet they are all in some respects familiar; in their fears, their obsessions, and in their societal roles – none, it should be noted, suited to hunting. Of course, it is the juxtaposition of the familiar with the strange which helps establish Carroll’s adventure as nonsensical.

I realised at one point that both N. and I have a copy of the poem illustrated by different artists so I thought it would be good fun to look at the two approaches taken by each artist to Carroll’s poem and see how their differences impact our reading of the work. The copies we own are illustrated by Mervyn Peake (a favourite author and illustrator of mine – full disclosure) and Tove Jansson (well known, of course, for her classic children’s books about the Moomin family).

Double Bills #1: Spots and Dots

A few recent portraits

Reto Pulfer's Gewässerzeiten

Reto Pulfer’s exhibition at Bristol’s Spike Island presents a mixed-media, multi-part, assemblage contemporary instillation with a refreshing sense of imagination. Named Gewässerzeiten, which, according to Spike’s literature, roughly translates to “waters-times”, Pulfer’s exhibition is made up of several pieces including a “Maps” series of rough paintings, an assemblage of items under the name Methoden und Spieletisch (Methods and Game’s Table), and the central instillation MMMS Reticulum Gewässerzeiten. As I entered the gallery I was drawn directly to this main instillation, which is partly hidden by the layout of the gallery, however I could see the beginnings of it: a large net making a curved line into the room, inviting the visitor in.

Brushed drums

While on Holiday I had quite a lot of time on my hands. I wrote a bit and drew a bit - most of it I'm not really sure about - I started putting together some ideas for a longer short story based in Bulgaria but I'll see how that turns out. I felt like I wanted to complete some of the work I'd started there quickly - before it was too far in the past, so here's a poem I wrote while staying in a very small village outside Tryavna called Chakali in central Bulgaria.

Finally finished something

Over the years I've written numerous stories, poems and sketches which, if I haven't read out at spoken word events, have mostly sat dormant on my computer. It can be hard when you're not a publishable author to find closure for written work which simply isn't going to find a commercial outlet. Unless, that is, you do it yourself! So I decided quite a while ago that I would turn some of my own work into pamphlets, or zines, or leaflets, or little books, which I could then say: that's it; that's done now.

And so, behold I actually finally finished one of them.

Demon's Souls notes #0: Introduction

Infinite Intention

This is an edited article I wrote when Bioshock Infinite was originally released. Apologies for the recycling, which lies here strewn all over the place, but in this case I like the article and I think it worthy of a reblog.

untitled poem

For you, Ka

Here's a poem I wrote apparently in September 2013. It's a (comedic/serious) eulogy for my parents' car which I used to borrow a lot to go camping, driving to and from University, etc. I performed the poem at The Arts House open mic a week after I'd written it. 

Ka, with Nicola

Murdered: Soul Suspect Review

Figures in Darkness (ideas for a story)

Photograph taken of bust in Munich's Residence Museum, The Anitquarium

I'm currently writing a story to read at a spoken word/story telling event coming up in Bristol and I've chosen to write something based on an idea which came to me when I was on holiday in Munich. To assist myself and partially to feel like I'm doing something - though to be honest I've been languishing a bit over the final part of the story - I've decided to collect together here some thoughts and images surrounding the principle idea of the story, which is obscured representations of people, or figures in darkness.

I've Fallen in Love

Great and Powerful Men

This is a series of text/image diary entries which I performed at Show + Tell at Bristol's Cafe Kino on 5 March 2015. The brief was to talk about diaries so I chose to read some entries from some historical dairies. These were the three I chose. 

The Tortoise and The Hare Silly Symphony as Early Years Language Resource

Ok, so this clearly has limited interest to other people, but I have at certain times in my life been in love with Disney's early Silly Symphonies. I was pleased, then, to discover that using The Tortoise and The Hare film during a language group with Early Years pupils provided much to talk about.