I haven't written a blog for a long time and I also haven't written a newsletter at all this year so I thought it was time to catch up. Writing the blog became a bit of a chore as I wasn't really doing anything worth writing about on a daily basis. At the moment I am writing a new one man show for Christmas based on Die Hard which is taking up a lot of time and so I have put the two projects on ice for the time being, The Sunday Alternative Radio Sessions and Nottingham in America while I concentrate on writing. These are both made up of live music sessions from my archive that were performed several years ago and re-edited for YouTube on a weekly basis, the likelihood now is that when I get time to sort the remaining episodes I will release them all at once, Netflix style. 

As for the blog, the real reason I packed in writing daily is that I feel that it has served its purpose and as such it was in danger of becoming repetitive. The purpose of the blog when I first started writing it was to build up a name for myself, my early blogs appeared on MySpace which was a platform that did me a great service. I was a nobody when I set up the MySpace account and have since then conquered radio, created a world renowned podcast, had a radio show in America, written for the Nottingham Post (which I have since quit, more of which later in this blog), promoted gigs, and moved into producing a music video series. All of this was done without ever once being mentioned in the local media. Now that my name is out there the blog has therefore done the work that it set out to do when I was starting out in the business and now I don't feel that I need to do it anymore.

While I'm on the subject of the Nottingham Post, the food critic who goes by the byline of The Food Sleuth apparently retired last month. I offered my services as a breakfast critic given that this is an area of my expertise that I am known for thanks to the blog. Since his retirement he has been back through the doors as a freelancer and has done nothing but breakfast reviews since. I am sure that this is not a coincidence and that this is another example of the local media ignoring me while at the same time copying my ideas, something I still refer to as 'Broadway cinema syndrome' from the time they profited from an event that I pitched to them and was turned down because it wouldn't work. On a similar subject, Leftlion recently reached their 100th issue and carried interviews with several notable Nottingham people, apart from me. This is the magazine that not only ignored the fact that I was getting Nottingham musicians their first American airplay, but even when one of their writers/editors co-presented The Sunday Alternative with me it didn't warrant a mention. 

Anyway, I have managed this far without their help or support so I must be doing something right, so fuck them. As long as I have a creative outlet and an audience I am cool with it. 

News time then. To begin with I will be reducing The Sunday Alternative in the not too distant future, episode 200 will be the final weekly edition before I turn fortnightly, with additional Bank Holiday Monday extras. Although I haven't stopped enjoying it, it does take up a lot of time and effort which I feel is preventing me from working on other projects. I intend to move more into documentary making, directing short films and getting more into interviewing people of interest. My hand will be still in the music business with The Random Sessions, which is going to be expanded on as I genuinely enjoying this project. As you may know, it began as The Random Saturday Sessions out and about which is a strand that I intend to revive during the summer as we all had a great time doing that.

My next two projects will be a couple of audio documentaries that I will be able to make reasonably easily but the big thing will be a short psychological horror that tips its hat to Alfred Hitchcock that won't cost much more than £300 to make and will be submitted to various film festivals. Of course once that is all done and dusted the film will be released online totally free of charge. This transitional period in my career is exciting for me as I make a slight change of direction, and of course it is important that donations do not dry up. As for documentary making, I am currently laying the foundations for a couple of audio documentaries, in the old radio style. This is a more economical option than video and will enable me to get more content out there. Of course if donations increased then visual would be back on the table. It seems that the donations method is still something that a lot of people don't understand fully. Basically, I will use the money donated to make comedy sketches, podcasts, The Random Sessions, films and documentaries and in return for your generosity I will make them available online free of charge, that way everybody can enjoy what you have helped me to create. You can share the things I make with your friends and boast about how you played a part in something that will last forever (unless the Internet closes down which isn't very likely, I think it will catch on). 

I am also taking bookings for A Christmas Carol one-man show that I will once again be doing at Christmas. 

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