Notebookery 10 (2006-2005)

 Here are earlier pages from the same notebook, including, in reverse chronological order - and not that I encourage you to go looking for them -  rehearsal notes for the show that took me to Japan, Sulayman Al-Bassam's Kalila Wa Dimna, (hence the recurrence of jackals and murk), and Shunt's Amato Saltone and Tropicana. Two pages down is a polaroid of me (far left) in the lift on the Tropicana's last show before I shaved my head and took over as the operator. The shaved head was to make it easier to produce a silicon replica of me for the lift operator's autopsy. You can see both it and me four pages down. The replica's nostrils are narrower because of the clay pressing down as the mould was made.

Notebookery 4 (2003ish bonus material)

 More from the green notebook, including some notes for Jonah Non Grata, and what would become An Execution (By Invitation Only).

The Round of Imaginary and Unproven Beings

Probably a bonobo or something (Source).

 Another fortnight rolls around and with it another quiz, so here's my round! Don't click on the image source links if you don't want the answers, which I'll post in the comments section as ever... "The Unexplained" we used to call this stuff when I was a nipper, but it really wasn't...

(source)

1. In 1917, nine-year-old Frances Griffiths and sixteen-year-old Elsie Wright produced these images of the "Cottingley Fairies" by...
a) Doctoring the negatives?
b) Photographing cardboard cutouts held in place by hat pins?
c) Nobody knows?

(source)

2. Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin's famous Bigfoot footage from 1967 was shot where in California?
a) Shit Creek?
b) Bluff Creek?
c) Hoke's Creek?


3. According to former BBC Breakfast Time sports presenter David Icke, who gave away that they were actually a shape-shifting reptile in a Sky TV make-up room in 1989 when their eyeballs turned completely black?
a) Former Prime Minister Ted Heath?
b) Future Prime Minister Tony Blair?
c) Stephen Fry?

(source)

4. What's this then?

a) An X-ray of a "ghost"?
b) An X-ray of a "genie"?
c) An X-ray of a "mermaid"?

5. According to Algonquian folklore the northern forests of Nova Scotia are haunted by cannibals called Wendigo whose insatiable hunger has caused them to chew off their own...
a) Hands?
b) Lips?
c) Bum?

6. Which of these images is not based upon Whitley Strieber's descriptions of the aliens that abducted him in his book Communion?
a)

(source)

 b)

(source)

c)

 (source)

7. What famous monster links:
a) The 1964 film The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao
b) The 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
c) The 1961 film What a Whopper!
That's not actually multiple choice, I realise.


8. Also not multiple choice: Which of the above film's depictions of this monster is the odd one out, and ideally why?


9. Back to multiple choice. This...

  (source)

... is perhaps the most famous image of which uncaught, eyelidless serial killer from creepypasta lore?
a) Slenderman?
b) Scary Mike?
c) Jeff the Killer?

 

(source) 

10. In 1871's The Coming Race, Edward Bulwer-Lytton describes the An-ya, a hyper-advanced subterranean offshoot of humanity whose women are bigger than its men. But which household product derived its name from the force that powers their wands?
a) Bovril?
b) Oxo?
c) Cillit Bang?

Monsters Placeholder and Angels Place

 Well folks, it's coming to the end of the year, so let's look back at how those resolutions went, for example, the draw-a-monster-a-day project. That didn't even make it to the end of February, and who can blame it? I mean, these aren't that great. Sometimes I try to make something out of that, mainly I don't. Anyway, here's February's remaining monsters.

Now that one was at least supposed to look slightly off.

And the one above was copied from a toilet wall in Liverpool, which is why it's interesting.

 Then we went to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks...

 What? Well, whatever I've written here when I arrived, I know I didn't feel it when we left.

This silhouette approached us downtown. The streets there are pretty empty of people without blankets.

But we loved Los Angeles. To anyone wondering where their jet pack is now it's 2014, it's probably in Los Angeles. It's just there's no record of that love in these drawings.
And after these, the intervals between them only got larger...

"I was driving down Sunset, and I turned down one of those roads that leads up into the hills. And we stopped at this place that overlooks the whole city, it was fantastic. I suddenly felt exhilerated. I was really moved by the geometry of the place - its conception - its brittle harmony. It's a fabulous city. To think some people claim it's an ugly city when it's really pure poetry, it just kills me. I wanted to build something right then, create something. You know what I mean?"