Across All Platforms

Not quite a 'proper' post tonight- more an announcement (well, three announcements actually) of things going on near and far.  To whit:

 

1. Photos

Sue-Ann, resident of this parish and co-proprietor of the consistently excellent Levenshulme Daily Photo, has kindly asked me to guest-blog over there for a week.  Like I said in my email in reply to the invitation, Sue-Ann was more or less knocking on an open door there, as, even without the excuse of being invited to do anything by anybody, I've been known to wander the streets of M19 with my digital camera, inviting the disdain of passersby by taking wonkily-angled 'arty' shots of 192 buses and fragments of Victorian brickwork.  My seven days' worth of contributions to Sue-Ann's site will include examples of each of these, as well as some blokes smoking outside of a bar, also a streetsign and a bubble-gum machine.  That's all to come but you can start out by visiting today's introductory offering, which tells the story of Levenshulme's One And Only Shisha Cafe Snooker Bar (sadly now defunct).  Now come on, what are you waiting for get over there!

 

2. Radio

In a further move towards world domination, I've been on the radio.  This is courtesy of Charlotte's brother, who in his spare time runs a weekend internet radio station out of his bedroom, or from his canal boat, or from his mate's house in Inverness- or, last weekend, from his mother's apartment somewhere on the Wirral coast.  It's a bit like having a blog, only with more antennae and cabling- and the broadcast from the seaside  was achieved thanks to the transporting of a carload of impressive-looking space-age gadgetry half the length of the country and then plugging it all in to every available outlet, much to the fascination of young Frankie, who 'helped' in putting the portable  studio together (Read: followed Charlotte's brother around all weekend in a state of rapt fascination, plugging in anything loose to the nearest available live socket,  tripping over cables, and twiddling with promising-looking knobs).  The result of these endeavours was a three-hour broadcast featuring the station's signature fare of obscure Prog Rock numbers, as well as interviews with the family.  Among the highlights, we have Frankie singing 'We All Live In A Yellow Submarine', Charlotte's mam giving her verdict on the Beatles, and me introducing a Camara Oscura record and talking about growing up in Fenham.  The whole thing is exactly as wierd as it sounds, and can be found, via a BBC-esque 'listen-again' thingummybob, here  (scroll down to 5th April, I think Frankie's bit is in the second of the three downloads, and mine is in the third.  Put the kettle on though, they're big files, as you would imagine what with them being an hour long each and having been assembled using pieces of string).

 

3.  Book

Well, bugger me if another veteran of The School of 2004 (the school Crinklybee comes from) hasn't written themselves a book.  You quite possibly know this already, since the author is none other than Jonny Billericay whose effortlessly hilarious Private Secret Diary has kept us enthralled since time immemorial (well, since 2004) with tales of his manful but sometimes hapless efforts to make the transition from man-about-town to country gent.  The book, we are told, is not a re-run of the blog (which as its devotees will know is largely set in the Village Pub and features unforgettable characters such as Short Tony and the Well-Spoken Barman), rather the 'back-story' ; the journey that took Jonny Billericay from the verge of indiepop superstardom (his band once supported the Sultans of Ping at Hackney Empire) to part-time chicken farming, fatherhood, and a regular slot in the village bowls team. Anyway if it's half as good as the blog literary stardom should await, just like it did for Petite Anglaise, and without all the attendant hullaballoo of nationally-publicised blogging-related dismissals and hastily-choreographed interviews in the Daily Telegraph.

 

Actually Jonny's book has confirmed something I've suspected for a while- that the surest path to becoming a published writer lies in featuring first of all in my sidebar. Just look at the record.  Including the two mentioned already, no less than five of the choice cuts listed down there on the left have progressed from the online to the printed word (I mean, you know, being available on Amazon and everything) since they received the blessing of a link from Crinklybee.  And I'm not  even counting these three , who were, respectively, a published writer/ a nationally-famous comedian/ an actor from the telly before I paid them the honour of adding them to my blogroll.  

 

You know, not that I'm envious at all (no, really, I think they're without exception brilliant and utterly deserving of whatever comes their way, that's why they're in my sidebar)- but perhaps I should start charging commission.  Or at least running a sweepstake on who will hit the big time next (my money is here). And of course, if there are any publishers out there without a representative of the Class of 2004 on the roster who fancies backing 'Crinklybee: The Flange-Desk Years' for the 2013 Booker Prize, well, can you please form an orderly queue in the comment box and place your bids in an unmarked envelope.  No reasonable offer refused.   

Comments

[abby]

eeee, so much fame -- I am going to look at the daily photo now while listening to the radio broadcast -- it is all too much!

[looby]

Crikey, and just as I thought blogging was going through a slight dip as well! Very interesting that it seems on the contrary to be maturing. Something as good as Jonny B doen'st actually need all the hype, just simple promotion, so well done you. But more importantly (I think) the networking of guest blogging is a great idea to get people out of their familiar formats. Well done, all progressing nicely!