Tuesday 10 July 2012

The Brog.

Just a note to say that although I don't often post blog posts here in the first place - aside from updating my Comics post - any blog postings I do make in the future will be on my new(ish) blog, which, while still trying to find a reasonable look, can be found here, which has the hilarious title of the Brog (Bromley's Blog. D'you see?)

Anyway, most of my mind-leakages tend to be on Twitter, so if you want me, you can find me there, as @bromley001.
Or do go have a look at The Brog. Up to you.

(I'm also on Facebook, though I very rarely use it. Link down there on the left.)

Ciao.

Saturday 21 April 2012

Ched Evans

The sentencing of Ched Evans has, I must admit, knocked me for six. There are certain types who seem to see the whole incident as a proof of how Sheffield United and all players, staff and fans are just scum and should be abused and made an example of.
I am a long standing Sheffield United fan, and I will not be made to feel ashamed of supporting the club I love, *my* club.
United haven't made a final statement yet, preferring to take in all the facts and make a sensible statement, probably next week sometime. I don't really do 'serious' very well, so here's the best way I could sum up my thoughts to a friend of mine on Twitter yesterday, via a series of Tweets which I've reproduced here.

"As a Sheffield Unitedite who's been singing the praises of our top scorer all season, I'm a bit stunned at the verdict. While I can accept that he's been found guilty, with good reason, and in *no way* condone what has happened, I think it's a case of a group of young men having too much to drink and going too far (exactly like the advert). The case should serve as a warning to young men out 'for a good time'. (Again, without wishing to appear flippant, *like the advert*). I think it's wrong, however, to paint Evans as some kind of animal or predator - he's just been very stupid and ruined a *very* promising career. I suppose, in a sense, I'm biased in his favour, but there's a lot of unwarrented hate from non-SUFC supporting types headed his way, and I think those anti (and pro) United need to remember, as I keep repeating, that this is a criminal case, and has absolutely nothing to do with football. If anyone, for example, suggested that SUFC should be punished (points reduction or Suchlike), that would be ridiculous."

Monday 6 February 2012

My li'l Red Dwarf home recordings.

Well. G&T posted this about the original 1988 Red Dwarf listings.

While I've no Red Dwarf stuff from the first series myself, I've been having a look at my old VHS home recordings. I've lost a fair amount of stuff in the last few years, which I've had a good moan about elsewhere, but here are some photos of the video sleeves I designed for my recordings, and some of the Radio Times clippings and listings from the later series and repeat showings.

RD01 The VHS Collection http://yfrog.com/odhmpgwj
My assorted home recordings of Red Dwarf, and my *ahem* wonderful sleeves.

This is the first series I actually recorded. That pencil and Red biro thing I've got going on there...nice stuff. And my 'J's that look like 'Y's. Obviously from the 1994 repeat showing.

Recorded from the original showing. I've foregone actual drawing here, and stuck a photo on the front, from the Radio Times. I've done the logo, though, and I've done the RDVII logo as it appeared onscreen. Worth noting that I recorded the other series' as well, and probably taped series VI on it's first broadcast. I've just lost a lot of videos.

RD04 Red Dwarf Night http://yfrog.com/obwhbrij
The lovely sleeve I made for my recording of Red Dwarf Night in 1998. Note the sellotaped-on tenth anniversary logos on the back, which have been cut out of the Radio Times.

Not sure when I recorded this - definitely after the official VHS tapes had been released, as the BBC made a point of the fact that series I had never been repeated, only to immediately repeat it once the die-hards had been and bought the tapes. My sleeve was left only half completed, with no contents list. I saw that a satellite station was showing a complete run one night in the tenth anniversary week, and just cut out the listing and stuck it in the back of the case. I'm very pleased with the drawing I've done on the front, though, which is obviously copied from a Smegazine.

Again, more photos, but I've used a nice font for the writing. It's amazing what you can do with a black biro.

RD07 Spine Inserts http://yfrog.com/nxttvjkbj
I probably did this when the DVDs started coming out. I got a eight-VHS-spine-sized piece of paper, did a Red Dwarf logo in the middle, then cut it into eight, added 'I' to 'VIII' at the bottom of each, and slipped them into the spines of my eight tapes. It looked pretty good, I thought.

The RT cuttings for each episode of series VII. I'd cut out the programme info/cast lists and photos where applicable, and sellotaped them to the inside of the box. I always used to do this for everything I recorded - Red Dwarf, Vic and Bob, The Fast Show...allsorts. Actually, I had loads of cuttings for series VII - there was a Radio Times cover for the series (likewise Red Dwarf Night), and a big article in, I think, Cult Times or Starburst, something like that. I cut it out and actually went to the trouble of binding it with sellotape and a red ribbon. Needless to say, it's now lost, along with my bag of drawings and assorted RD crap.

More series VII programme info.

The first half of the series VIII show synopses...

...And the second lot.

RD12 RDNight Cuttings http://yfrog.com/oeiormyj
Red Dwarf Night was the Radio Times choice of the day, so there's a preview cut out of the magazine, and the listing for the 'Night' itself (You'll just have to turn your head).

Sunday 22 January 2012

A Night at the Dwarf

Well, you know all about the whole 'me/Red Dwarf/tickets' thing, and now that's been and gone, I really ought to write about it...

Well, I turned 33 on Thursday. So that was nice. But it was Friday I was really looking forward to.

Up fairly early (for me) Friday morning (Time for an Audioboo*). Having already packed our overnight bag with clothes the night before, I couldn't put all my medication in the bag 'til after I'd had my morning dose (I have four types of tablets, treating my epilepsy and other conditions, plus two different types of insulin for my diabetes...yawn), so once all the important stuff was away, and we'd got stuff to eat on the journey, we were ready to set off.
I'd got tickets for my sister Grace and myself, and we were looking forward to this, really quite a lot.
We got to the station and, after taking our seats in the wrong half of the train, we set off on our two hour trip to London.
My epilepsy can sometimes be a little exacerbated by stress or panic, so we did wonder how the transfers from St Pancras to Vauxhall (via the Tube), then onto Kempton Park, where we got off and walked the five minutes or so to our hotel (big up for the Sunbury Travelodge!) would effect me. Luckily, no rushing about and no panic, so no problem there.
After getting changed (I'd bought a brand new Starbug t-shirt for the occasion, and, while not official Red Dwarf merchandise, it is rather beautiful), we were back on the train down to Shepperton station, and from there to the pub, to meet the Ganymede & Titan crowd.
Around 5pm, we left the pub to make our way to Shepperton Studios. Where the magic happens.
We made our way down to the back entrance which has lain the welcome mat for Red Dwarf fans for the past month, and made our way down the dark, muddy path towards the actual studio buildings. We held onto our tickets, and were ushered into a cage, sorry shown into a holding area, where we were given numbers, could grab a drink and a chocolate bar, and pop to the loo before we went to the hangar of a studio which is home to Red Dwarf X.
We were called in groups (hence the numbers) and were led to the studio. My overriding memory is standing at the door of the studio, seeing half of one of the main sets, and my jaw just dropping - these sets are just outstanding.
We took our seats, and (speaking personally) just stared in wonder at the beautiful sets until the wonderful Ray Peacock, our warm-up/compere for the night said hello and started to, well, warm us up. He announced the cast one by one, who each came out to whoops, cheers and rapturous applause. Co-creator/Writer/Director Doug Naylor said a few words, reiterating the need for the internet to stay spoiler-free until RDX airs (that may have been before the cast appeared, actually. Can't remember. Sorry.). Then Phones were turned off and we got going. A lovely scene on the far set, another on the set on our half of the studio, a pre-VT, then back on the far set.
Doug then took to the floor to explain that the middle section of the episode wouldn't be being recorded tonight, but we would be shifting forward until after these missing ten minutes or so had happened, and gave us a brief explanation as to what may have occurred in those ten minutes. We then saw the end of the episode recorded, and a couple of pick-ups from earlier episodes.
Perhaps in acknowledgement that our evening had perhaps been a little shorter than expected (we'd still been in our seats for just under three hours, so no short shrift here), we were then treated to a rough edit of the first episode of the series, recorded some five weeks earlier, which was great.
Then it was finished. The cast were treated to more applause, and we began to shuffle out.
Grace and I hung around with the fellow fans - nay, friends - I know from online.
Still, I had supper to grab, tablets to take, needles to stick in my flab, and we left with a friendly "Fuck off" from our dear friend Ian, who we bumped into once again in the chippy (Jack's Fish and Chips, certainly the best chips I've had in a long time. Honestly, they were lovely, although a bit more salt wouldn't've gone amiss).
So, we ordered a taxi back to the Travelodge (Robert Llewellyn had retweeted the phone number of a local taxi firm a few weeks ago, and we'd made a note), and sat and watched TV for a while before we said goodnight and Grace trotted off to her room. I, meanwhile, summed my day up, then turned in for the night.

Next morning, and following a late breakfast (around 10.20am - the staff were beginning to tidy up around us), we got our stuff together and set off.
The journey back was much the same as the journey down, to be honest, so I won't go through it in any real detail, apart from recounting my spectacular trip outside Sheffield Station, as I made my way to the crossing, tripped on a step, took a flying dive, and landed with a whack, flat on my stomach. Okay, so my stomach is far from flat, but you know what I mean. "Are you alright?" Grace asked. "Yes," I wheezed pathetically. "I just need to sit down a minute, I'm a bit winded."
We were on the bus and home just after half past five.

So. Red Dwarf X. It's funny - very funny - and though I'm the sort of Red Dwarf fan who loves the show somewhat unconditionally - it is better than VII, VIII and Back to Earth. I can't wait til September to watch it on TV. I've been a Red Dwarf fan since I was nine. Now I'm 33. An evening over Twenty years in the making.
One evening.

A day and a half later, I'm still on a bit of a high.

*Audioboo is a website which allows you to record messages, stories etc using the magic medium of sound, usually in chunks of three minutes or less. I'm new to this, but decided to record a few Boos during the day (at least one of which isn't great sound quality...), all of which are linked to in this Blog post.

Wednesday 4 January 2012

What are we gonna do now?

I want to liven this blog up. Redesign it. Do something with it. Any suggestions? Leave a comment.

If you want. Don't feel you have to.

Does anyone actually read this rubbish? Oh, bollocks to it all...

Monday 2 January 2012

11111011100

So then. 2012. Happy New Year, and all that.

So what does the year ahead hold? Well, a total of 366 days, for a start, it being a leap year, and all. All those born on February 29th can legitimately celebrate their birthdays. Huzzah.

Personally, I've got a few family birthdays coming up. My Mum turns 60 in a couple of days, my little sister enters her twenties in four weeks, and my youngest brother has his birthday on Valentine's Day. Ah, bless. Oh, and it's my own birthday on January 19th. Make a note. I'm gonna be 33. Thirty fucking Three. How the hell did that happen?

I shall be celebrating my birthday by venturing down to Shepperton the day after, ready for the recording of the fifth episode of Red Dwarf X. Oh yes, I'm very excited.

Later in the year, we'll get new episodes of Doctor Who, plus the broadcast of that there Red Dwarf X on Dave in September. Bring it on. And we've already had the rather wonderful first episode of series 2 of Sherlock.

So, provided the world doesn't end, 2012 looks like being a good year.