Nowness

It’s almost November 2024. I’m a writer-comedian. I live in Glasgow. I’m married to Samara.

I’ve been far too busy this year. It’s not my way. Thankfully, things are starting to slow a little. I’m blowing off creative production altogether from next week until the new year. Next year: no new projects and, as Beethoven used to say, chillaxing to the max.

Projects

I run a small press magazine called New Escapologist. I’ve been working on the all-new Issue 17: All the Way Home. It’s almost ready to print and can be ordered for shipping later this month. So. You know. Do that please.

Related to the above, I was interviewed by Appraisal magazine this month. It prompted me to archive some old interviews as an additional way to explain my behaviour.

Work continues on the film I’m making with Mark Cartwright and Anthony Irvine. We’re turning my book about the Iceman into a documentary and it’s been tremendous fun so far. Our most recent shooting block took place at Clowns International, the Bill Murray Club, and the University of Kent’s stand-up comedy archive. It was the most fun I’ve had with the film so far (which is really saying something) and Mark has been sending me frequent rough edits, all of which look amazing.

The Bill Murray shoot was a live performance, which will be used in the film but also released separately as a live performance video. Mark made a genuinely exciting trailer for it.

Reading

The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes proved to be incredibly good. Unapologetically magical but he’s also done the hard work of diving deep into law and statute.

I read Watership Down for the first time last week. I blasted through it over three days because I couldn’t put it [Watership] Down. I have a lot to say about it so I might review it for New Escapologist some time.

I’ve just started The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada and Escape to Life by Erika Mann.

Comics: Woman World by Arminder Dhaliwal was a lot of very beautiful fun.

Travel

After travelling very much this year, I’m preparing for mega-trips to Paris, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Zagreb, Belgrade, Athens, and Montreal. Beat that.

The Montreal trip is booked for December, but I might not be allowed into the country since I’m a resident there. Get your head around that one.

Cultural Devourment

I saw Seymour Mace live for the first time last month. He’s an incredibly skilled stand-up comedian and a seemingly lovely man. On the very same day I was blown away by pole-dancing comedian Siân Docksey who I can’t recommend enough. Both of the shows I saw were recorded will be released as videos by GoFasterStripe soon, but just go and see these artists wherever they turn up.

My pal Marcus Brownlow has an art show at New Glasgow Society right now and recommend popping in if you’re local.

I’m looking forward to seeing Michael Cumming’s Oxide Ghosts at The Stand in Glasgow, but Michael’s touring this show so see if he’s local to you.

I’m similarly looking forward to seeing the Necks three times in Europe because they’re an amazing band of deeply-skilled Australian jazz improvisers currently touring.

I saw The Substance recently at the GFT. If you like horror films, don’t miss it.

For a bit of horizontal bone-idle telly gawping, I’m trying to get into The Expanse but it might be a bit too straight for me so I’m cheating on it with favourite ’90s telly comedy and Porridge.

Eczema

I’ve been getting phototherapy three times a week for my eczema. It’s really weird. I have to stand in a sort-of up-right sunbed-like booth with a welding mask over my face and a jockstrap over my precious Dinklage and nothing else. I’m then exposed to UV light and heat for a couple of minutes. It gives me a couple of days of sunburn, during which I moisturise three or four times a day. It’s exhausting. I think is working but I can’t be sure. It’s hard work but hopefully I’ll be handsome and olive-coloured instead of red and gory.

I walk to the hospital for these appointments. It takes about twenty minutes. Google Maps takes you up some partially overgrown steps, which seems wrong, but takes you to a staff car park behind the hospital and then to a back door. Once you know this, it’s fine and perfectly direct, but it’s a bit confusing if you haven’t done it before. Every time, I help someone find their way up those steps to the hospital. It’s like a job. I even helped a refugee couple carry their pushchair up the stairs this morning. I have no idea how people will find the hospital once I’ve finished my course of treatment. I might start going there each morning voluntarily, just to feel useful.

Physical Form

Here’s a cheerful shot of me at the Bill Murray club, taken by Spencer Wakeling:

Old Now pages (Then pages?) are squirreled pointlessly into the Now Page Archive

It’s August 2024. I’m a writer-comedian. I live in Glasgow. I’m married to Samara (as of ten years ago) and all is exactly as it should be.

Creative Production

I run a small press magazine called New Escapologist and Issue 16 came out last month. It’s a thing of beauty so why not grab a copy? It’s selling quite well, which is pleasing.

I’ve started tentative work on Issue 17. Commissions are out, ideas are doodled, writing is lazily underway. Due for release in early December, this will be the last of the cycle of four issues we financed in early 2023. I’m not sure what will happen after that. It would be nice to do more.

I performed my one-person literary comedy show, The Annotated Audiobook, at PEN Theatre in south London last month. We could hear the rain hammering atmospherically on the roof (which I liked) but the audience was tiny. I quipped that playing to such a small crowd “is either a right of passage or a new low.” If I do more of these, I’d very much like them to be in black box theatres like PEN, though ideally with 30-50 bottoms to warm the seats.

Work continues on the film I’m making with Mark Cartwright and Anthony Irvine. We’re turning my book about the Iceman into a documentary and it’s been tremendous creative fun so far. Last month we were shooting in Devon. This month we’re presenting WIP screenings in Edinburgh and Birmingham to raise money to help finish the thing. September will see a final London shoot at the Bill Murray club.

This month sees the publication of Before I Go, the memoir of “the archaeopteryx of alternative comedy,” John Dowie. I’ve loved working with Dowie on this book (I served as his editor and helped to get it published) and I hope we stay friends once its all over.

In my previous ‘Now’ message, I mentioned that June would be devoted to something new and different. “Ooooh,” I said, and, “yes.” This half-happened. The first two weeks of June were dedicated precisely and successfully to this mystery project. Then things got busy again and I had to stop. Hopefully I’ll pick it up again soon.

I’ve got an article in the July-August edition of the Idler. My name’s on the cover this time and I’ve had some really kind emails about it too. Thanks idlers.

Reading

I finally finished that monster biography of Portuguese poet Ferdinand Pessoa by Richard Zenith. It was very, very good so it’s hard to begrudge the absurd length. I want to tell the world about Pessoa, but there would be no point: Zenith is your man for that.

As much as I enjoyed Zenith/Pessoa, it felt good to draw a line under it. Three months is a long time to spend reading the same book. Since then I’ve enjoyed a short book about Kraftwerk and a deeply entertaining collection of essays about the Talmud. I’m now reading two books (a novel and a nonfic) for review in New Escapologist 17. Bliss.

Travel

I have not travelled at all this summer. Our Canadian relatives are visiting next week though. That’s travel of a sort. They will bring news of a faraway land.

Cultural Devourment

Some films I enjoyed recently were a documentary about rewilding called Wilding (2023), La chimera (2023), mumblecore comedian drama I Used to Be Funny (2023), and wolfcut queer love-in I Saw the TV Glow (2023). That latter film was fascinating: truly, today’s youth have been robbed of their Buffy.

I also saw Oppenheimer (2023) which was one of the most boring films I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s resolutely uncinematic; just loads of dull men talking in rooms. On and on and on and on and on and on and on.

I saw these films at the GFT. Support your local art cinemas, you sods.

Inspired by the Kraftwerk book, I also watched boomer mystery road film Radio On (1979). So cool.

Our legendarily difficult local hipster pub quiz took a few weeks off while some football was happening. I don’t really understand the connection between these two things, but I’m long accustomed to my favourite things being cancelled or destroyed to make way for sport: from tuning in to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 1990s only find that the cricket has overrun, to the public libraries being closed for covid safety in 2020-21 while thousands of dullards are allowed to shout their lungs out at dribbling millionaires at Ibrox on the other side of the river.

For TV, I’ve been watching Batman: The Animated Series from 1995, a favourite of Dowie’s. It’s absolutely superb. Penguin is my homeboy. But I also like the Riddler, so skinny and green. Mark Hamill will always be my Joker, but then so will sexy grandma Caesar Romero. Inspired by I Saw the TV Glow, my wife and I also watched the first season of Charmed. It is rubbish.

Physical Form

Here’s my picture of the “month” so you can continue to monitor my ongoing decay, this time taken in a state of repose at the Devon film shoot:

It’s May 2024. I’m a writer. I live in Glasgow. I’m married to Samara. This is all exactly as it should be.

Work

I run a small press magazine called New Escapologist and I’m currently putting Issue 16 together. It’s a thing of beauty and will be shipping very soon, so why not pre-order a copy?

Work continues on the film I’m making with Mark Cartwright and Anthony Irvine. We’re basically turning my book about the Iceman into a documentary and it’s been tremendous creative fun so far.

I’m editing a new memoir called Before I Go for “the archaeopteryx of alternative comedy,” (Alan Moore’s words, not mine) John Dowie.

You might remember me mentioning Dowie’s other excellent book The Freewheeling John Dowie in my previous Nowness message. I’d enjoyed it greatly and was irritated that it was no longer in print. Well, I pulled some levers and strings and it’s now available again as an e-book at least. Hooray!

The month of June, if I can mop up these few projects in the meantime and since I’m not needed on any film shoots, will be devoted to something completely new. Ooooh, yes.

Reading

I’m 300 pages into a thousand-page biography of Portuguese poet Ferdinand Pessoa by Richard Zenith. It’s very, very good so it’s hard to begrudge the absurd length. I want to tell the world about Pessoa, but there would be no point: Zenith is your man for that.

Travel

I just got back from London where I was filming at the Comedy Store with Mark Cartwright and our little team. We met some incredible people and I’m particularly grateful to the Obi-Wan of improv Neil Mullarkey for all he did for us. Thank you Neil.

Culture Devourment

I’m writing this in a quiet moment at Tectonics, a weekend city festival of experimental music. It’s always one of my cultural highlights of the year. Today I’m all about Koichi Makigami.

For TV, I’ve been watching Werner Herzog’s filmmaking Master Class, chunk by 15-minute chunk. It’s more about spending time with Herzog than actually learning any practical skills for me. But as the Bavarian man himself says, you don’t become a poet by learning to type.

Some films I enjoyed recently were The Delinquents (2023) and Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days (2023). I review both in Issue 16 of New Escapologist since they’re about, in different ways, escapes from work. I saw these films at the GFT. Support your local art cinemas, you sods.

Physical Form

Here’s my picture of the “month” so you can continue to monitor my ongoing decay, this time taken at the Comedy Store in London:

Old Now pages (Then pages?) are squirreled pointlessly into the Now Page Archive

It’s February 2024 and all is well.

Samara and I still live in Glasgow as the baby Jesus intended. I’m a writer. Never mind what she does, nosey.

Work

I run a small press magazine called New Escapologist. Issues 14 and 15 are sold out at the official website but we recently expanded into the real world with these cool shops.

I’m making a film with Mark Cartwright and Anthony Irvine about the Iceman. We’re basically turning my book into a documentary. I was down in Bournemouth this week, filming away.

I’ve finished editing John Robinson’s second book about Momus. It was published this month and it’s a physically very beautiful book.

I’m writing a piece about my relationship with Richard Herring’s blog for the next issue of From the Sublime… magazine. The working title is “My Pet Man: 22 Years of Warming Up.”

I’m preparing for my live show in March. My posters are all over town, though the one at the Sparkle Horse pub keeps getting taken down and I keep putting it back up again.

I heard yesterday that I’m Out is being discontinued (all 1,300 remaining copies to be pulped) by Unbound who aren’t happy with sales despite their stupid cover and title change (that I advised against) and not lifting a finger to market it. I’ve got seven books under my belt now, but the stiff letter I sent to Unbound is one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever written.

Reading

I’m halfway through The Freewheeling John Dowie by, well, John Dowie. Dowie (I’ll stop saying Dowie in a minute) was a great alternative comic in the ’80s who quit the business when it became a business. He’s great. Stewart Lee mentioned him in the interview he gave us for the Iceman film a couple of weeks ago and I suddenly remembered “of course, I must read that book!” Unfortunately, it was published by Unbound (see above) who made an arse of things and is now out of print. You can buy it expensively second hand. Mine was free because it was damaged in the post and I demanded a refund. The book is at least brilliant: a grumpy memoir about cycling in Europe. It’s like Dervla Murphy but properly funny and realistically miserable. I love it so much.

I also recently read Werner Herzog’s excellently-titled memoir, Every Man for Himself and God Against All (which everyone should read but only if they’ve already read his more interesting Guide for the Perplexed) and Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan. The latter turned out to be translated by Heather Lloyd, my old friend Helen’s mum. I didn’t realise until I read her translator’s note and saw that it was signed off “Glasgow, 2013.” I enjoyed the unexpected sense of connection.

Travel

I was on the English south coast this week, filming with Mark Cartwright and Anthony Irvine and our little team. I’ve already said that. Pay attention.

We’re going to Lisbon next week. Like Lanark, all I need is some sunshine.

Time Wasting

Most weeks, we attend a particular Monday night pub quiz. It’s a waste of time, money, and health but we continue to attend for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s because we keep WINNING. Oh yeah.

For TV, my partner and I have been watching old episodes of Jeopardy! after we enjoyed the recent UK version despite it being hosted by an awkward old taxidermied bear. On my own, I’ve been watching Inside Number 9, which I gave up around the fourth season but am enjoying catching up with. “Merrily Merrily” is my favourite story so far.

Some films I enjoyed recently were that Scala!! documentary, The Holdovers (which was so surprisingly good that I can’t stretch my imagination in a direction capable of criticising it – it’s a proper film like The Graduate or something, which I’m told is “mid budget”), and Poor Things (which was good but I found myself annoyed by the London bits not being set in Glasgow instead; why resist the call to elevate something instead of doing the same old expected shit?). I saw all of these films at the GFT. Support your local art cinemas, you sods.

Here’s my picture of the “month” so you can continue to monitor my ongoing decay, this time taken in Meadow Road Coffee, Glasgow, where I stopped to recaffeinate and to get a pebble out of my shoe:

December 2023 is almost over and I should be thinking about my end-of-year roundup more than updating the Now page. What can I say? I live in the Now.

My partner and I still live in Glasgow, Scotland. I’m a writer, though much of my work these past few months have been writing-adjacent or administering the necessary business side of writing. I’m fine with that.

Work

From the Sublime… just published a piece I wrote about Pogs and nostalgia in their second issue. It was fun to write about the idiotic cardboard discs and I like the whip-pan “Dudley via Honolulu” structure I came up with.

I’m making a film with Mark Cartwright and Anthony Irvine about the Iceman. We’re basically adapting my book into a documentary. It’s been nothing but fun so far. We’re trying to cover some of our expenses with a Kickstarter so please chip in if you can.

Issue 15 of New Escapologist is out now. It’s been my main workload for at least two months: writing, commissioning, editing, proofing, printing, promotion, shipping. I’m trying to arrange proper distribution for this one too, which I think will happen in January thanks to distributor Ra & Olly.

My first novel, Rub-A-Dub-Dub just scooped a Saltire Award for Best Book Cover. Amazing. September also saw a nice interview about the book with my old friend Reggie Chamberlain-King in Pop Matters.

I’ve almost finished editing John Robinson’s second book about Momus. It’ll be published by P&H in February.

This is a lot of work for me. I’ve loved every minute of it but I’m looking forward to a proper break while the world enjoys Christmas and probably a deceleration in the year of the orangutan.

Reading

I’m currently reading Bore Hole, the memoir of Joe Melen who drilled a hole in his own head. Recommended.

I also recently read Butts by Heather Radke, a cultural history of arses.

Nina Simon’s Gum by Warren Ellis, meanwhile, is the story of how the Dirty fiddler pocketed Dr. Simone’s gobbed-up gum at a concert and what happened next. It’s fab.

Travel

My partner was finally granted citizenship this month. Rejoice! It’s been a long journey. Her passport also arrived today (a separate process, by the way), which means we can leave the UK for periods longer than 180 days if we want to. Ironically, citizenship means the ability to stay without fear of deportation but also the ability to get off this blasted island.

I was in Paris recently, visiting the Asia Now exhibition, dossing in a hostel, and hanging out with Landis who was over from Chicago, signing books and consorting with publishers.

I visited the Netherlands in November ostensibly for a day of Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht but also flaneuring around (and hostelling again) in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Delft. Oh! And Luxembourg, which isn’t even in the Netherlands! It’s hard to convey how much I enjoyed this trip: the freedom of solo travel, all those lovely European trains, a rich variety of experience.

I was filming in Wolverhampton and Birmingham later in the same month with Anthony and Mark, and also meeting the amazing Fliss, Jim, Michael and Arthur.

Time Wasting

Most weeks, we attend a particular Monday night pub quiz. It’s a waste of time, money, and health but we continue to attend for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s because we keep WINNING. Oh yeah.

For TV, my partner and I have been watching Moonlighting (1985-89), which is a lot of fun so far with its fast-talking silliness and two charismatic leads but I worry about all the fourth-wall breaking that’s starting to happen in the second season. On my own, I’ve been watching Season 5 of Fargo, which is awesome. The pared-down minimalist narrative doesn’t get my blood up like Seasons 1-3 but is a welcome reduction after the messy Chris Rock season.

A film I enjoyed recently was Other Music, a documentary about the important record shop in New York City. I also enjoyed Wil Hodgson’s comedy show Barbicidal Tendencies, free to watch on YouTube thanks to GFS.

Here’s my picture of the “month” (this time with Mark and Anthony) so you can continue to monitor my ongoing decay:

You’ve already seen that one? Okay, here’s another:

September 2023 is breathing provocatively down our necks. My partner and I still live in Glasgow, Scotland. And I’m still, thank fuck, a writer.

Autumn is approaching and I’ve been eating veggies and apples from Alan‘s allotment. Nature’s bounty has NOT given me the squits. In banal news we’ve got a new sofa bed coming tomorrow. We sold the old sofa on Gumtree last week and we’ve been sitting on the floor ever since.

Work

Last month’s Kickstarter to bring back New Escapologist went extremely well. In fact, it outstripped all of my expectations. The first new issue of the magazine is now printed and available and continuing to sell well.

Work has already begun on Issue 15. I’ve been writing, editing, and commissioning like a trooper.

The magazine is available in a handful of shops as of this month too. The ever-supportive Aye-Aye Books in Glasgow has a hefty wodge of copies, while Print Culture and Good Press in Glasgow are stocking it too. Exciting news for Londoners: we’re also stocked in the famous magCulture now. Success!

Also this month I’ve been working hard to promote my first novel, Rub-A-Dub-Dub. This has involved interviews and prize submissions and some chats with booksellers. I’m not sure when this will all start to pay off.

Oh! And I had a piece about the Iceman published in From the Sublime…, the cool new zine from Manchester.

Reading

I’m currently reading Salinger’s Nine Stories. This particular copy was given to me by Martin who found it in a Montreal bin.

I also recently read Claire Dederer’s excellent Monsters, Rodge Glass’s biography of Alasdair Gray, John Robinson’s first of three biographies of Momus (which I enjoyed so much that I uncharacteristically left a review for it at Waterstones), a so-so selection of comic essays by Sloane Crosley called I Was Told There’d Be Cake, and a great comic book called Hell Phone by Benji Nate.

Travel

We’re still waiting on my partner’s citizenship application and trying not to think about it.

This month I was in Wolverhampton to be interviewed for YouTube by Ginger Beard Mark, Hay-on-Wye to see some middlebrow tourist bookshops, and at the Edinburgh Fringe for fun and profit.

I’ll return to Edinburgh this week for some exiting hangouts and to see Simon Munnery’s Fringe show, Jerusalem.

Time Wasting

Most weeks, we attend a particular Monday night pub quiz. It’s a waste of time, money, and health but we continue to attend for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s because we keep WINNING. Oh yeah.

For TV, I’ve been watching Fleishman is in Trouble, which is okay but I don’t particularly recommend it. Danes dains to be great in it. My partner also got us into Gothic Homemaking with Aurelio Voltaire, which is exactly as it sounds.

The main film I can remember watching this month was The Red Shoes, a beautiful 1948 Powell and Pressburger movie. Oh, and Barbie at the GFT, which is a load of old piss really but the atmosphere in the cinema was fun.

Here’s my picture of the month (this time with GBM) so you can continue to monitor my ongoing decay:

It’s July 2023. My partner and I live in Glasgow, Scotland. I’m a writer.

It’s summer and the sun has been shining. I have a big pile of library books to enjoy. We recently made the switch from crap vegan margarine to real butter from a dairy I used to walk past when employed by Stirling University in 2014: it gives me a pleasant sense of connectedness when I spread it on my toast.

Work

I’m bringing back my small press magazine, New Escapologist and I’ve been working joyfully on the comeback issue. Please back the mag’s return on Kickstarter if you’d like to.

I published my first novel earlier this month. It’s called Rub-A-Dub-Dub.

Go Faster Stripe recently published my book Melt It! (with Anthony Irvine). We had a launch event of sorts at Guggleton Farm Arts in England last week.

Reading

I’ve been reading about early German Romanticism, fungi, Dora Carrington, and Eric Gill. I love public libraries.

Travel

I just got my passport renewed! It took only two weeks.

This month we’re also applying for my partner’s UK citizenship. Wish us luck please.

I spent last week in London, Devon, and Wiltshire. There are photographs in the July section of my Tumblr photoblog.

Time Wasting

Most weeks, we attend a particular Monday night pub quiz. It’s a waste of time, money, and health but we continue to attend for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on.

For TV, I’ve been watching Jeopardy! Masters, Mr. Inbetween, Cobra Kai, The Bear, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The only film I can remember seeing this month was The Red Shoes, the devastatingly gorgeous 1948 Powell and Pressburger film.

A friend sometimes gives me free tickets to the GFT. The most recent film I saw was Beau is Afraid. It gave me a nightmare.