table football at a Biennale?

Hey
I’m really sorry.
I thought doing a PhD kept me busy, then I started trying to build a ‘track record’ as an early career academic. At the moment I’ve 5 different creative, academic, and other ‘works’ under submission.

I’m currently working days on this… Total Dik! and teaching evenings at QUT. It’s been chaos. But. I have to say AMAZING!! I love teaching, and this theatre stuff is a pure brilliant buzz. I’ve learned so much stuff. Talk to me about Samuel Beckett; Cannae get enough!

Here. That’s no why I’m on here, although I’m hoping it partially explains my absence from the blogpsphere.

Very recently, a very good friend put me onto this

It’s a really lovely clip about some design students making a work at the Venice Biennale, I know right? No exactly the kind of place you’d expect to see a football project.

She’s no interest in football, but has a keen interest in design and the clip is the perfect exemplar for their conflation; a vehicle for a means to make the beautiful game more so, and draw an audience who may never otherwise have any contact with it – if they could avoid it. The best thing the work does is prove football, like Homer Simpson’s donuts, really can do anything.

What my friend didnae realise is that my love of table football runs as deep as my love for the real thing. I spent a summer working in France developing my skills, and still hope to find the space in my home (and the cash) to get a really good table. The sturdy ones arenae cheap.

Needless to say, my gratitude is a double bubble. Thanks LT.

How did Darth Vader know what Luke Skywalker got for Christmas?

Posted a new football blogpost today. Most of it is about the Brisbane Roar’s last three games. Thinking about the games and how disheartening football can be – The Hope that Kills Us – made me realise the light at the end of the tunnel can have silver in it, but the shadows can stay for longer than they should… here’s the last section of the blog…

Regular shugmcgowan blog followers will know the wee yin (coming up for 10) played the beautiful game for a bit, and gave it away for the violin (‘because of the boys, Dad’). After her trips to the games at the end of last season, she was up for a season ticket this time round. And at 50 bucks for the whole season who can blame her – astonishing value – even if you get one for the kids now, it’s still an incredible bargain! She was happy with a game, scarf and face paint. For an extra 50 bucks on my season ticket, she got an ‘In Rado We Trust’ t-shirt, a cap and more face paint. She’s absolutely mad for it now – best of all it’s become about more than just the chips and soft drink. She was disappointed with the defeat against Adelaide, but thought the crowd were FANTASTIC (the Den in particular). Loved it so much my wife is taking her this week while I’m in Sydney. The wife doesn’t mind, she thinks Del Piero is a bit of all right.

The reason I mention it here is because I think the Hyundai A-League is getting to a place where it has everything, old players making a contribution, young players developing, smart coaches and the touch of romance some older Leagues lost a long time ago (You can’t beat the romance of Celtic beating Barca right enough). Most importantly, as it turns out, there’s something in it for every kind of fan.

Then reading over it made me realise I have indoctrinated my daughter. Worse than beating her, or starving her, or these days, over feeding her. I have shown her the warm (and terrifying) embrace of football support. The joy in a game more often eclipsed by sorrow. If I needed proof the Roar, her new found love, have just lost their last three games. I held my head in my hands. What have I done? There’s a bit of me hopes that her interest will blow over faster than a crush on One Direction. Only a tiny bit, though. WHAT have I done? On the brink of tears, I felt the smallest, wickedest laugh rise in my gullet. Am I a bad Dad? I’m not sure, but right now I feel like Darth Vader.

Oh by the way, the answer to this blog’s title is…

He felt his presence.

Teacake, dinner and writers

I’ve posted more Roar reviews on this site’s footballing sister.

This weekend I was down in gorgeous Stanthorpe to present a writing workshop to the friendliest people in town – and that’s saying something because me n the wife met some incredibly friendly people down there.

We stayed at incredibly comfortable (and excellent value for money)31 the Rocks, had a tremendous main in the boutique bistro surrounds of Patty’s on McGregor. The writing workshop, hosted by the warm and welcoming Stanthorpe Writer’s Group, was the highlight though. Good writers, lovely people and the best teacake! There’s more about it here on the blog written by author Karenlee Thompson, the human dynamo who organised the session.

Brisbane Roars

I’m working on a Bribane Roar project. I’ve got my season ticket and caught my first home game last night. A 5-0 win against Melbourne Victory. I’ve written about it here…In Rado We Trust!
It’ll be up on thefootyalmanac site too.

I’m going to be moving that stuff to the new project site very soon.

Its exciting!!!

While I’m here I also wanted to give a big shout out to a most excellent site, stuff and things. I was put onto it very recently – awesome podcast interviews with local luminaries and vee interesting peeps! Have a wee look, in fact have any size of look you want, its well worth it!

Big Shout Out, Angela Slatter, British Fantasy Award Winner!

A very good friend, colleague, advisor, and a wonderful writer, Angela Slatter picked up a very well-deserved British Fantasy Award last week. It’s a big deal, HUGE. Her story The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter is in the collection, A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones. Previous winners and shortlistees of the prize include Terry Pratchet, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and… seriously you don’t need any more than that, do you?

I’m fortunate to own a couple of Angela’s short story collections…they’re fantastic!

You can learn more about her and her work here…http://www.angelaslatter.com/

interactive narrative

Three things, well, maybe four actually.

The Street Reads project I mentioned last week is a good ‘un. It kicks off September 5 2012. We’ve put up the posters, the content is delivered and the QR nodes have been confirmed. These kinds of interactive narrative are becoming increasingly popular and more and more we’re seeing exciting crossovers where writers engage with technology in new and compelling ways. The idea that we as writers can amongst it, instead of quivering in our garrets worrying about the death of books, is one I think we should all be focused on. The writer of the 21st Century is a collaborative one.

The other things are good examples…

This is Kansas City was a piece of interactive theatre (Anywhere Theatre Festival May 2012) which asked its audience to enter ‘an augmented reality’ through a series of calls to their mobiles that directed ‘your body, gaze, and imagination’ to public spaces in Brisvegas where the story of The Monster was slowly unearthed.

Mike Matas worked for Apple an as interface designer, he got together with a friend and they developed Push Pop Press. They made this incredible digital book. Like Street Reads and This is Kansas City, the technology enables us to bring rich textures to our work. Now, sadly or not, Facebook have bought all of Push Pop Press soft wares. Not because they want to make a book or slow their falling share prices. Nobody knows for sure yet, but the application of PPP’s work to a social media platform is pretty obvious.

The other example is a feel good story, a writer who’s works have gained greater popularity as a result of going digital. The Crew, Dougie Brimson’s excellent football fiction continues its run at #1 on the Amazon and iTunes free sports download charts. I mention this because Dougie’s book met with success in paperback almost a decade ago. That its digital version has proven to be popular all over again raises a number of arguments for digital publication. It’s not an interactive narrative as such, but I read about it on Dougie’s wordpress site and I left a comment.

found stories

I’ve been working on several projects of late and I will tell you about them (not all today though) – they’ve been getting in the way of blogging.

I will mention one project. Street Reads is a new Brisbane City Council initiative. Each story will involve readers/participants picking the story up from QR codes on physical nodes and following them to work out what’s going on. My story has been outlined but as yet is not complete. It’s a difficult and frustrating process, but it is exhilarating. Looking at how the story is structured, where the nodes are placed and the notion that we are creating a story which needs to read from a number of different angles is, without a doubt, a whole lot of fun. The process will encourage people to look at their surroundings in new ways, and that’s something good stories always do. The details will, of course, be made known to the public very soon. I think I’m allowed to tell you my work is riddled with Steam Punk sensibilities.

As someone said to me recently, ‘The writer of the 21st Century is a collaborator’. Street Reads is a great example. An RPG games developer gives us guidance on the story’s interactive development, Council staff test the runs and tell us where the nodes can and can’t go, and a team of computer gurus and their sidekick, mechanised monkeys make sure all the pieces are in place. It’s an incredible thing to be part of.

On the subject of stories found…

I wanted to give a shout out to a brother in ink. Andrew C Ferguson penned some awesome football fiction. He’s written a great deal more, but that’s how we got to know each other. He’s recently kicked his own blog into shape and it reads as well as his football work. I interviewed Andrew and he gave me so much material I had to spilt it across two posts. The discussion focuses on writing football fiction and his excellent chap book The Secret of Scottish Football, you can read it on the football fiction blog