MARCH 2014

[Barry]

March 2nd 2014

I'm still buzzing from a night with the Penguin café - a highlight of any week/month/year. I see they are working with film - oh crikey I must get involved there.
I've needed their joy this week as it has been quite a tough one. A train trip from Bristol was coloured by a gentleman throwing himself under the train, and their have been some related tragedies at work, which has made everyone appropriately sober and thoughtful. Very sad, and puts what we do in perspective, but we are all very grateful for doing something we love.
I've managed to somehow squeeze in reading the proofs of the latest book - not quite sure that happened. I had found one detail I had got wrong, surprisingly connected with Hitchcock. I'd pondered on what his projected film of The war of the worlds might have been like, but of course it was Ray Harryhausen who tried to make War of the worlds and Hitchcock wanted to make wells' other book, Food of the Gods. We can only speculate at the combination of Hitchcock and giant chickens. I'm glad I spotted my mistake before being too late. Someone would have been very quick to point it out. I think in the last book I mention that Bambi's father got shot in the forest -----wrong! Do you your homework Purves. Check the facts, and don't rely on your colourful memory.
Hitchcock Blond has also had a tough week, with two of the cast struggling with the lines. time is short and am fretting, but we have a set, and some lighting and sound and some great moments.
Yep, things are pretty full on. Hitchcock will be gone in two weeks, and the book has gone so some space might appear in my head.
And I missed the Garrick doing 39 Steps, though we overlap some music of course, and I missed the Aurora Borealis through sheer fatigue.

[Barry]

March 8th 2014
Well I do believe it would have been physically impossible to cram any more into this week. Yes the tv series was busy, and I nearly lost it a bit....there was something resembling procrastination going on over the purchase of a small Ficus Benjaminus for continuity purpose. In the way of these things we could have grown our own in the time we took before I rather huffily stomped off and went and go one from Ikea - but I think it was Ikea that was the last straw. They may or may not have interesting stuff but, yikes, what a truly ghastly experience it is to shop there. But eventually said Ficus was purchased, shot, and placed in the office.

I've done two rather energetic talks at two different universities. One for Glyndwer (?) University, and I was certainly hyper as the previous speaker had eat into my time and wanted to give a good show. I think I did, in front of a packed assembly hall. This was a bit more about finding your own voice. At UCLAN yesterday I was on about the joy of animation and how everything should be considered, and I was on fine, lucid, spontaneous form - even if the tutor and I both drawn blood somewhere along the way. Now that was odd.

But two talks take some mental preparation and energy, and I finally managed to read the proofs of my book, and off it has gone. Some relief as I was in danger of too much tinkering.

But it has Hitchcock that has drained me a bit, with every evening devoted to the play and to overcoming the usual obstacles the theatre throws at us. But I think we will have a fine show for the audience on Tuesday - more than fine. Unsettling, disturbing, sexy and claustrophobic. The actors are all bottled up energy and looks good and sounds good - thanks Jack. I hope I have found a way to realise the huge scenic demands mentioned in the text. Even in that tiny space we have come up with something rich. A couple more runs and we are on, and sold out totally. I'm hoping a year of thinking and planning and these last few weeks will have paid off.

[Barry]

28th March 2014

Crikey I didn't get to write much in March, but what a month. I did talks in Preston and Wrexham, had several trips down past Birmingham with the tv series, went to see a film company but that didn't go anywhere, worked very hard on the tv series, did the proofs of my book, and did a play. Enough for one month I suspect and it is interesting how the project you work on affects your mood. During the day the series has kept me suitably childish and smiling, but doing the Hitchcock play at night really took me somewhere else. It took a lot of effort, that's for certain, but it required an openness to sex and violence and voyeurism and cruelty, and that informed much of our, much of my conversation, and that's not actually a good thing. The play has gone, so perhaps I can balance myself now. During the filming of Plume I was in a very dark, tortured place, and during Tchaikovsky I was full of frustration and melancholy and anxiety. What I do does affect me. Perhaps people outside of the arts may find that odd. Well I guess everyone must be affected by what they do during the day, and I don't know how nurses and police and such can switch off, but our projects are so detailed and intense and last so long and need so much involvement that a process of osmosis has to happen. Certainly after Hitchcock I had a huge slump, of exhaustion, and trying to lighten the mood. Hopefully I have come to my senses again, and can undo any damage. If this immersion doesn't happen I guess the work would be less rich, but .....crikey.

I think the next few months will be lighter, and hey it's summer time from sunday.