As you may have noticed by the Blog title on the home page, this is the final entry. Unfortunately, Yahoo have decided to end their Geocities sites and before the end of summer, this site, and anyone else's Geocities site will be gone. I was going to upgrade to their snazzy new type pro accounts; in fact, I did so for a short whiule but did not like the set up. So, I will leave this another few weeks, I will either then take the site down, or, it may be that Yahoo decide the time is nigh and do it themselves. But, one door closes . . . Sometime in the autumn, maybe sooner with luck, I will have a brand new site hosted elsewhere; to my small but loyal band of returning visitors, just google 'Haines Rogan', I am sure you will find the new site then. Cheers everyone, John.
Christmas Day 2008. Hello again and a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. Well it sure does not feel like Christmas does it? But, if you believe, then continue to believe, mark the day as you know you should do, and that is all an ordinary Joe or Joella can do to try and keep alive the rapidly vanishing spirit which made it special, and even protected sons, brothers and dads from great ( or perhaps greater ) ridicule in the pub while wearing the traditional and over-colourful new jumpers. Even JK gave a nod to these in her Harry books ( you got it spot on, JK ). Well, short and sweet, that's it, as this insomniac is going to try and get some sleep. Best wishes to friends old and new - John. - WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 29 2008 Just time for a quick splurge here. Since my last post, I have had contact from 2 old friends, both living down south and both doing very well. First is Ian, a superb singer / songwriter and musician, and the only person to ever come up with an explanation of what the TV show 'The Prisoner' was actually about, beyond the obvious of not letting 'Drake' ( some say it is Drake / some say not, I am on the fence meself. ) retire. He is, finally, on the verge of big big sucess with a CD release imminent and a show about, drum roll, Liverpool. He actually wanted me to sing 'The Skipper's Lament' in it, but, graciously declined. Nerves and a baritone / bass would not do the song justice. I was still a baritone then, but, with a lighter tone than what I would sound like now, so, as he is such a good bloke he has full and free permissions to sing it to death whenever and wherever he wants to. Not too sure on the full details, but the show seems to be about a history of Liverpool with a folkie back drop. He has already plundered Gerry Jones' site to check on various lyrics. Anyway, without his permission I won't say his surname but, if you saw the Andrew Schofield 'Imagine' some years back, Ian played Paul. Good luck Ian, when you've cracked it mate, there's that turrety house on Chestnut Avenue which you can feel free to buy for me, I've called it 'my house' for years, so get that show on the road and call the estate agents. Ok, onto Ben, and this, purely because I have a black sense of humour, was funny. He rang in a panic with demands of 'Am I all right?' 'What's wrong? What's the matter?' Turned out he had made a visit to Liverpool, did not have time to call in but saw a few people over the weekend who knew me, and, unless he is porky pie-ing ( I don't think so though ), all said ' Oh, he's on his way out / he's had it / not long to go / finished', and that prompted this frantic call. Who the hell primed him with that, I've no idea, but I'll found out, and then laugh some more. Now, the X Factor. Well, if you saw Noel Gallgher on BBC North West a few weeks back, his mocking words came so true. Why the producers do not state very firmly before it even gets to the televised parts, ' Please, no sob stories, you are here to sing and be the best,' I just do not not know. Now, as I've said before, and I know it's a paradox, but I hate reality shows. I also do not like being duped as to just how popular they are. Come on now, be honest, is 'Celebrity Come Dancing' the hot topic of conversation in the house? Work? The Pub? No, I know it isn't and that's why I think it is easy cheap TV backed up with 100% hype. Anyhoo, I was really on the X Factor wasn't I? Well, the paradox is, I will watch these shows if I like the actual core reason for it, and as it is music, I do watch this. All I can say on the current debacle is, the producers ( higher than Cowell ) should have stepped in to reverse the decision. That Daniel fella, as well as trading on misery, cannot sing that well, and as this is to find the best singer, then the decision was wrong. One more thing on this, how Cheryl can ever criticise anyone ever again after that bad bad bad performance with her old band, I just do not know. They stank. Ok, onto other things. Now, old friends that go on to be very very successful. Got any of these? I have, trouble is, years later they have moved, their online resumes have blanked out their roots and when they are home they are not the same people any more. This has not so much affected me, but other friends of mine. I cannot say their full names, we are still a free country so I have to allow them that, but, one bloke, now a world famous surgeon, corrects old friends he used to spend every weekend with, with the correction - ' No, no, don't call me Dave, it's Mr .... ' He has done that to 2 friends of mine now and I am awaiting the day I spot him in Aintree / Fazakerley Hospital, he will be Dave'd to death, from the car park if need be. The other, is now an esteemed psychologist-cum-do-it-like-this Harry Enfield style guru and life coach. Although dog barking sessions and a Dinner Ladies style Scottish Country Dancing Away Day is anathema to me anyway, he too is now well and truly lost from the fold, behaving much the same way as Mr Dave. Sad. Now, Ross, Brand and the lovely Mr Sachs. The solution should be, sack Ross, blacklist Brand. What has Andrew Sachs done to deserve that crap? Ok, last comment, and it is about BBC North West again; if Ranaveer gets any closer to Gordon on the couch, she will be on his knee. Bye for now. SUNDAY 12 OCTOBER 2008 Well well well, since my last post the world seems to have imploded, well, on the edge of implosion, anyway. The worrying thing about this time round is, it seems we are on the brink of having to go through something far worse than most of us have experienced thus far. Most people in their 40s and upwards are old enough to have gone through at least 2 major recessions and several other various economic downturns. Now, as bad as these were, and I am mainly referring to the recessions of the 70s and 80s/90s, people still thought things would improve eventually, and, they did. But, I have an ominous feeling that what we have seen so far with oil and food prices, and then the stock / money markets, will get worse again, and may undo most of the improvements and advances made by ordinary people over the last 40 odd years. ( I am not going to say 50 years, my Mum used to say that on the day Macmillan said 'you've never had it so good' the house was freezing and there was nothing in the larder. ) But if things did get worse, where would it bottom out? At something akin to the 20s and 30s were the difference between working and not working was paper thin due to evilly low wages? Or could it be worse than that? I surely hope not, but, the way things are going, you never know. One more thing on recessions, of those I have been around to witness, I knew, even as a kid, or teenager at least, that there was the rather ironic 'other side of the coin' scenario; there were people and situations that actually benefitted from being in recession. Although I know many experts are already advising anyone not set up securely for life with millions in a safe bank, NOT to try this, in previous recessions a simple economic truth was applied, by some; shares tumble in price? What do you then do? Buy shares! If the market had bottomed out, then unless the murky world of finance and economics has its own version of an aftershock, then bottomed out meant just that, rock bottom, and what direction is the only one in view, up! But, as Alan S applies this method as he seeks to gain Woolies, this is NOT for Joe Public in these uncertain times. Another slight take on this, is trends and start ups, and here there is a little psychology to think of. If the market ( again ) has bottomed out, then, if you set up a new business at this point, you set it up with the harsh financial realities in mind. No slim margins but no massive ones either, accept the reality of hard work and only modest gain, then, when things pick up so will you / your business, but again, not for us Joeys I think, you really have to have the hard nose of one of the Dragons off the Beeb. Ok, my first and last babble on things which by and large are paradoxically anathema to me. Books and things? Well, jettisoned most of the non starters from my online store at Lulu, I like the slimmer leaner look, and I am glad I decided to combine my shorter stories - better size book, better value. My novel revision is going faster than I thought, but, I do have to stop at times, and go back through 68 chapters and mull, and I mean, sit there and think, or surf the net for endless grammar punctuation sites, drag books off the shelf and see what anyone from Charles D to Joanne K R would do, trouble is, its not flippin' well consistent! An example: Village Hall or village hall - is it one is right and one is wrong? Nope, not 100% anyway. Is it whether you are being general over specific or vice versa, perhaps, but again not 100%. Nor do the accepted differences gain agreement in all of the sources, the strictest say Village Hall if a direct refrence to one such place, but village hall if you are being far more general; but, the rub is, many other sites say it is choice; if you choose to capitalise, ensure you do so throughout the whole work, if not, then keep to not capitalised throughout. Myself, I am going for the intermediate fudge; if I am off to the one in Ince Blundell, say, then I am off to Ince Blundell Village Hall, if talking about good old British village halls, then they stay all lower case. Actually, I am not stuck on these words as such, but, as its a story about magic, I am trying to see if a form of magic travel is capitalised, as well as the doing word for the action of it. The odd thing is, I refer to JK, go 'a ha!', then put the book back, then think, 'it still does not seem right' and off we go again! So, that's the books, they quickly grew into a weedy jungle, but have trimmed it all back to a neat lawn, just go to Lulu.com and look for Josh Rogan in the search. I will also be publishing a book of Liverpool Folk songs for my pal, Gerry Jones. He is going to include all the standard Liverpool folk tunes, and both Gerry and I are pleased that for the songs were the composers are still with us, we have been given the permission to publish their work; this includes the brilliant hybrid folk-singer and computer scientist ( not a joke, the guy's a genius ) Stan Kelly's 'Liverpool Lullaby' ( Oh you are a mucky kid ) and that one about 6 in a bed by the old Pier Head. So do look out for this, especially those who bought the CD of many of these songs performed by Gerry Jones. Other stuff? Lulu TV ( not the book site ) is to close in about 2 weeks, I have many many things there, classic films, many videos ( some rarities ); these include all of the intros and some end credits / music to all Gerry Andersen's spacey 60s puppet series, you want that scary start to Space Patrol? Go to Lulu TV now. I won't be resaving 99% of it when it goes, so, when the site has gone, so will all these wondrous oddities, do take a look and grab what you can before its too late. And ... that's it. Cheers, John. Wednesday August 27 2008. Hello again, mainly to a strange core group of Latvian visitors to this - here today, gone tomorrow and back again the next Haines Rogan Blog - . Is Blog collecting a biggy there then? Let me know if you can, I am curious. Ok, this hastily reinstituted blog is really to say a public thank you to a group of Swedish McFly fans who went with my daughter Alex to the recent Pop in the Park concert in Nantwich. From the moment we left her in their care at Lime Street Station, they looked after her magnificently. So a great big thank you to Bjorn, your good lady, your family and their friends. The warmth of most Scandinavians towards the British is very very humbling you know? It can make you cry. They jumped off the train and swamped my daughter in her wheelchair; these hard harsh concepts pushed by these disabled rights type folks just go down the Swanee - ironic but there you are. So thank you all again, it was and is very much appreciated. Ok, well, what else? I recently had another rethink on my books. The POD industry is great - for self publishing writers - not so good for buyers. So, I have combined all of my shorter stories into one single book, the Josh Rogan collection; should be listed on the main online sites by October. Finally, watched a lot of the olympics and nearly went into a sleep-deprivation psychosis. I enjoyed the running, swimming; particularly that swimming in the canal thing; well, the river anyway. Fed up of the marginal, dubious 'sports' though, if things carry on in this vein, it will be synchronised Chess and Beach Cluedo next. Also, as usual, it was too long; I wish they would shave a week off and compact the running schedule. Almost done, but forgot, I have extended my book of verse and poems and musings etc, some of these new items are now on this site, do take a read. Bye for now.Sunday June 1 2008 Captain Slog - Supplemental - ' Those Klingons have been getting on my nerv... '( 'John - wake up ! ), Oh sorry, right, where were we? Oh yes, well, rapid and I have to say unexpected progress on the 2008 revisions, all the Josh Rogan titles bar the novel, are now at 99.9% acceptable for submission, or, even if they still reach the ubiquitous File 13 of the Publishing House Readers' office, then they are still fine to read just as they are, for free. I have now moved on to my Victorian Detective novel, with a working title or titles of John Quicksilver and the Shattercane Murders, or, By Royal Appointment, not sure which yet. The early and very rough draft of the 2 main introductory scenarios are actually on here and readable. My job is to now pad it out, and bridge these, then move beyond both to the finale. In case you are wondering, Shattercane is a poison found in a cereal plant. And some oddity to report, seems a big EBay seller likes taking a chance on self published works, along with many other titles from Lulu.com by other writers, this seller, or company going by the blurb ( maybe hype, not sure, could be a grandad in his loft in Cleethorpes ) has listed 2 of my titles on auctions. What prospective buyers do not know however, is, there aint no books to hand, which breaks the rules. Although many do do this, the person has simply listed the books, if they sell, then he buys them and sends them on. It doesn't bother me, doesn't even bother Lulu.com, but, sure against EBay rules. And with that little piece of trivia, I am off. ... ' Chancelleor Gorgon of the 9th Quadrant informs me of an alliance with the Romulans, and ...' ( 'John !!' ' Mmm, oh yeah, sorry, these hay fever pills ... ) Bye. Tuesday May 27. I seem to be blogging more than Soft Joe at the minute, which must be good as he himself has been blogging more than Soft Mick. Right, Crosby Music Festival, weekend / Bank Holiday just gone. The sun is a great reconciler, it really does not matter about quality as long as there is a beat while you sit there with a glass of lager in the warmsunshine. This is just as well as what I saw / heard on the Saturday was poor. Ok, fast forward to the Bank Holiday Monday, different thing altogther. Although I broke my own rules of not bothering with bands who no longer have anywhere near the same personnel as when they first started, I am glad I made an exception here. Although 2 of the original brothers and their 2 mates who set up the band have long gone, Gary Christian has soldiered on ( yes, it begs a pun on an old hymn title, I know. ), and the sound is fantastic. They played an hour plus set, the harmonies were strong, perfect, guitar work superb. The greatest surprise was the inclusion of 2 Beatles numbers, Revolution was mind blowing, especially for somneone who was only a foot away from the speakers. One surprising thing, unless Wiki had made a mistake ( many errors on there, so maybe ), Gary Christian is 53, and is the youngest of the brothers originally in the line up. If he is, then he looks about 35 and sings as if he's 25. If you get the chance, go to see them, you will not regret it. Next stop, the new Indy film, mostly good reviews, some naff ones, big takings in the US, seems worth a gamble. Let's hope the Plaza's sound system is up to it. Sunday May 25 2008. Just want to add a few comments about Anne Robinson's latest blast at her home town. Basically what else can she rightfully expect? Crosby is a provincial town, a suburb of a major city, just like any one of thousands of similar town all over the country. We cannot all be St. Mary Mead; plus, I can assure Ms Robinson that the affluent shires and Royal Boroughs she is more at home with these days are just the same anyway; tatty, many dogs and a plethora of youth and youth inspired vandalism. Until someone can show me and prove to me that our problems ( Crosby or Liverpool, whatever ), are genuinely worse than that in Westminster, and Chelsea and Kensington, then I cannot accept any undue and unfair negative focussing on Crosby. Soap Box packed away - gone. Sunday May 18, one word, aaaaarrrggghhhhhh!! That should do it. Ever deleted an Index page? No? Good for you, I have, earlier today, it's ok saying that the index is just links to what is still on the server, but, rebuilding the damn page has been and still is a pain. Oh one minor novelty to report; we now have in our possession, 1 sweaty stage towel belonging to Danny from McFly. Of all the things my daughter could have brought home, drumstick, plec, no no no, one 'orrible sweaty towel !! This was from Friday's show at Aintree, my daughter's view was impaired as the wheelchair area does not come with good views, odd but there you are, the trouble now is, getting to the damn thing to wash it, no chance. Now, just in case, FAO Gerry Jones and Freddie Baker, sorry chaps, have not got to your links yet, but will do soon, hopefully tonight, no later than tomorrow. Bye for now, John. Friday May 16: 3 blog posts 12 days, that really is a record for me, but, this one brought on purely by a virtually sleepless night, happens when its too hot or the pollen is high, I'm either a latent asthma sufferer or the equiv' for hay fever, never been able to find out for sure which one. FR has been rejigged again I see, and it is now free, but, the new owners have got some ground to catch up on, not only on what FR itself chose to ditch in their infinite wisdom, but in relation to the rival sites that have mushroomed since. Music now: It is no wonder that the UK music industry is running scared, with the existing copyright laws, anyone and I mean anyone, can copy and repackage and resell any music that has been openly available for over 50 years, and this applies even if the bands / singers are still with us, it is not like books where the countdown begins only after the passing on of the author. So, the way it works, officially. Take the year you are in, and disregard it, the 50 year rule applies to the end of the year of the 50th year after the music was first made openly available. So, right this minute, you can sell ( in UK ), any music that was released right up to the end of 1957; just think of the biggies from the Rock 'N' Roll era: Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lewis, Chuck Berry; and think of more of the same from them as you move year into year, and then the newer artists who came after them. And, of course, once you get to the end of 2012 or put another way, 50 years after 1962 then unless the laws have changed by then, you can well and truly say the money train has arrived - Yeah Yeah Yeah!!----ENDMonday May 12 2008: Two posts in 8 days, unusual, but, it all balances out, may not post again for months. Ok, what is new in the last week? Well, I have 2 more voices recruited for my audio poem, 'The Ballad of Old Windrush Cave' so progressing better than I thought, and my revision of the Happy Harold stories is steaming along, 4 done, 3 to go and with the next story part new, but is also having an older story not previously linked at all, combined with it, courtesy of atomic time travelling apples which have the novel ability to act like video cameras!! So it is bye bye to Backwater Blues, and hello to Happy Harold and the Atomic Apple. not much else on the book front, really. Went to a show last night at our local cinema / theatre , The Plaza in Waterloo. It is an old cinema which ended its life as a commercial privately owned cinema about 15 years ago but gained a new lease of life when dedicated camapaigners saved it from the developers and kept it going, not only as a cinema, but as a general community driven amenity. Last night's show was a fund raiser for the house, and starred Billy Butler, Wally Scott, a comedian and some tribute bands. The music was great, the Scouse Patsy Cline made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck ( what's left of them, oh ok, made my neck stand up! ) . The Everley soundalikes, though ocasionally rough around the edges, were great too. The last band, though good, were really padded out too strongly by backing tapes, not just the music either but the vocals, and, many did notice this, but still, good music no matter what. Billy and Wally did 2 spots, bombed first time out of the curtain, but were superb the next. The comedian was a game of 2 halves as Mick Channon or Alan Ball used to say, he was overall, crap, but, then he'd throw in a real funny gag. Trouble with the comedian and Billy and Wally, is, it was a little too near the knuckle for the type of show it was supposed to be, there was no age limit set for the audience, no warnings of adult material, and many young kids were there. I am not saying they would give Chubby Brown a run for his money, it wasn't that bad, but still, spoilt it for some. Also, I am always a little wary of the now done to death 'we're better than the rest' type gags, but, I suppose, with Billy and Wally, this is their bread and butter, and as the late Bernard Manning used to say when he overheard grumbles at any of the tables in his own club;- 'If you don't like it, Sir, Madam, you are of course at perfect liberty to try another comedy venue' or something like that. After the show, well, after missing the rush and the crush and going out ahead of the rest to have a sly smoke, I spotted an old friend I had not seen or spoken to for many many years, and then with the shock of this I almost got run over as I had to then go and get my lift, and worse, never managed to say hello, I wish I had have done. If by chance my old friend ever comes across this humble blog, then 'hello, hope all is well!' Hope it's not another 30 years. Life's odd eh? Sunday May 4 2008 : 'Ello 'ello 'ello, what's all this 'ere then? Which is just my way of saying to myself, what is new? Well, not much really, apart from to say that the revisions of all my books has begun in earnest, with 1 story from 'The Happy Harold Stories' completed, and posted both on here, and on Lulu, entirely free of charge, for a few months at least, so do have a read. I am still trying to recruit voices for my audio book of 'The Ballad of Old Windrush Cave', I have the main female character, this is being voiced by the great Angela Hooper, who fortuitously, is originally from Exeter and can easily revert to the 'Oo ar my pretty daorlins' lingo, very easily. Trouble is the charatacter is From Poland, no no, kidding, I have a West Country voice for a West Country lass. If you fancy a bash, let me know, you will be pleased to note that there are no fees at all, it will be quite awkward and repetitive, and the only chance of making a penny is for me to cut you in on the royalties, which may never accrue anyway, great innit? But, seriously, if you can manage anything from the main narration ( a lot, believe me, best read the poem if you want to see how much ), or Jack, the main male character, or any of the small / bit parts ( Jacks, father, Molly;s parents, a Commodore, an Admiral, and a few more one or two line parts, do let me know, cheers. Nothing else to report other than to say, I feel like throwing the TV out of the window. Have the makers ran out of money? Ideas? Both? I don't know about you, but when I do watch the old goggle box, it is not to see lives and situations parralel to what I know anyway, or see every day when looking out of the window. I watn Errol Flynn and Maureen O'Hara, not Pat Butcher and Alan Sugsr. It really is not worth the license any more. Ok, soap box getting folded back up, gone, bye for now. Monday March 10 2008, or, in, Dibley-ese 'The Great Storm of 08'. Our back gate has just become an ex-back gate, fit only to give to old fellas from Bevington Bush who move puppet-dolls around and sing weepy songs ( if you are not into Liverpool folk songs you won't 'get that' but, seeing as we may be window less before the night is through, not inclined to explain further. Ok, what's new? Well, Lulu TV where I did reasonably well divvy wise, has drastically down-graded itself; no more pay outs, no more workable links from outside, but, the site itself and if you are prepared to search on an exact title or member and not use links, it is still just about extant. What else? Well, the much loved Liverpool singer Freddie Baker has teamed up with me, to see if we can get his new CD into the parlours of anyone who love's Freddie's inimitable style; do take a peek, either on Lulu.com or via the link here. Now, rather coincidentally, the set up here on Geocities has fired into life; for years I could not get the site to take embedded videos, now it can; and so, some of my own have been rescued from Lulu.TV, shunted to Youtube and / or Google Video, then embedded here; the links via these 2 do work fine, I know, but nowt like having the vid' directly available. Plus, I am glad to say, some of the videos are brand new, like Beefburger Blues, a short bluesy instrumental written and recorded about 6 months ago to remind me of the hell I went through while on a year plus diet of SlimFast. And, the near useless shout box is back, please do try it, I know the last one stalled and had to be started over time and time again, but, I am sure this one is more reliable, so shout away. Ok, off to see how the gable end is faring in the great storm of 08. Bye for now. Sunday February 11 2008. Talk about 11th hour, this blog has had yet another stay of execution; a little news and finding myself at a loose end while a massive file is uploading means I will add something here rather than stare at the upload indicator. Ok, 2008 will see all of the Josh Rogan titles updated and edited to maximise chances at the mainstream publishers, so for 11 months or so, I will be in ellipse heaven, or hell, probably the latter, as I do a U Turn away from my fellow members of the 'colons are finished' brigade. The honest truth is, publishers are like a brick wall between writers and readers, and for a large slice of the time, is a brick wall nobody wants or needs. Readers in the main, really do not care where the commas and colons are, or are not, they really do not. But, publishers certainly do, and seeing as ( for now, but your time is nearly up, peeps, POD will swamp you, and soon ) they still call the shots, I have had to concede defeat and commit myself to a massive no-comb-left-unturned re ( and final ) edit of all my books. This mass revision will also see the end of one Josh Rogan Esq. It is not that I do not like the name, it does fit as I do love curry, but, in the early days for both Lulu.com and Amazon's then new POD arm, they went and used my real name by mistake. I am not bothered about this as such, but, the end result is confusion over who is who, despite both being me, if you get my drift. I have not decided on my new pen name yet but will do soon. Ok, nearly done, apart from to say that the revision has begun, and I am posting each book's revision in serialised form, starting with Mike Miller, Son of Pendragon. The first 6 chapters of this are finished and are accessible on this site. I will add each new chapter section as it is completed. Oh, nearly forgot, I was humbled to find several people enquiring about what they called 'My Christmas Page', I am sorry to say that I had a flu ravaged December and was not able to do the usual, but, always next year. Bye for now.
Monday December 10 2007
Ok, Christmas nearly upon us once again. This has become a far more simplified affair for the family now, and I am glad. Not because I do not believe any more, I most certainly still do, but, it has got out of hand and the only course of action is to withdraw. There's hardly any point in celebrating something with others, when most others do not have the same beliefs; the booze, the food and the presents and the time off work ( for most ) is all that seems to matter, so, the 12 day fiesta of nothingness has been banished from this abode - A Carol service, Midnight Mass ( if I can find a real one - common phone call to Presbyteries in recent years ' What time is Midnight Mass please?' - '8-30' - 'Thank you' - 'You're welcome' ) and a good dinner is really it for me. So, what's new? Well the audio book of The Old Man's Trousers is now out, and has found a small but loyal band of followers in the USA - take a read of the following Press Release - a certain degree of hype of course, but after initially panicking and contacting the audio company - Jammer Audio Productions - to ask if enquiries really had been made ( hype as in aggressively highlighting something I can live with, I do this myself, but 100% porky pies I cannot ) the answer was yes, they had and still are, so, have a quick read :
According to a rep for Jammer Audio, fans are discussing release strategies for what they affectionately call "the Trousers," a new mp3 format audio book written by Josh Rogan of Liverpool, England.
A fan named Trevor recently contacted Jammer to make his plea for an organized freedom march on Starbucks, a company widely seen as in the avant guard of those breaking down the strictures of boxy distributors. Wearing a Ken Roley t-shirt, Trevor was adamant that he would not rest until the Trousers were released.
"For one thing, it's Christmas," he said. "Why are The Old Man's Trousers stuck in a drawer? Where do Trousers belong---stuffed in people's stockings, that's where. And Starbucks can help."
His friend, Felicity, agreed. "We want our coffee and The Old Man's Trousers. That's not too much to ask. I love Jingle Bells, but a funny audio book is a great change of pace."
When urged to release The Old Man's Trousers, a spokeman who may or may not have been connected with Starbucks commented that Starbucks' hearmusic label had already released Paul McCartney's "Memory Full" cd (now available for the holidays in a special DVD gift pack), as well as Joni Mitchell ("Shine"), James Taylor ("One Man Band"), Josh Groban ("Noel"), "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, and various holiday compilations, such as "Stockings By the Fire."
"Stockings by the fire?" Trevor asked incredulously. "While The Old Man's Trousers are left out in the cold? I don't think so."
Jammer Audio reps did note that Starbucks was indeed a leader in bringing new talent to a wider marketplace. Hilary McRae, for example, who is recording her first album at Spectrum Studios, in Pompano Beach, Florida, will release her cd through Starbucks in Spring 2008. Her song, "Consider Me Gone," is available in most of Starbucks' 9,000 stores nationwide now.
Razor & Tie Entertainment, which owns the wildly popular Kid Bopz series, also produces artists who have released discs in conjunction with Starbucks' hearmusic label, such as "global superstar Angelique Kidjo" and "award-winning kids music star Laurie Berkner."
Some Starbuck releases, such as Saturday Night Live's Best of 2006-07, are so successful, they nab re-release deals with additional distributors. According to press reports, the SNL disc will be re-released by Universal in March 2008.
Finally, Starbucks has released the audiobooks, The Velveteen Rabbit and The Night Before Christmas, both read by actress Meryl Streep.
"We agree with fans that The Old Man's Trousers should be released by Starbucks immediately," said Susan Flowers, blogger and marketing wonk. "The Trousers audiobook is a joy. It's a completely charming tale that's easy listening at its finest. It's perfect for lightening up a little over the holidays and bringing a smile to young and old. And what an interesting gift."
"There's nothing wrong with blockbusters, the mainstream same-o," Flowers continued, "But once in a while it's beautiful to discover the little gems along the path less taken. I hope Starbucks is listening along with everyone else who is enjoying The Old Man's Trousers audiobook."
"The Old Man's Trousers" mp3 audiobook is available at lulu.com.
Not bad eh? If like me, you still believe, then say one for me and mine for this to fly, thanks; and, look out for a few Christmas pages in the next week, that's it for now. All the best. John.
Thursday September 13 2007
From April to September? Seems like I'm living a song and a TV programme, either where 2 old farts try and be young again, or some old git's best mate is a young lad. Anyway, I digress, it has been a long time, but the answer is easy, I didn't like blogs when I started one, and I still don't like them now, and I think I'll rearrange the nose of the last person who said to me it was a good idea. So, there'll be this, then the Christmas one where I tart the pages up with a dock leaf and some silver here and there cloned from a picture of a coin in Paint Shop Pro, then come Jan 5th, that will be the end of this blog, gone, pining for the fjords, that blog is an ex blog etcetera etcetera etcetera ( going baldy meself so may as well go the whole hog ). Ok, what's new, well, courtesy of the goodly Reverend Hocking, I am now earning monthly beer and cig' money from my reprint of 'Her Benny'. Great book if you like a story punctuated by wisdom and faith. If you are a left footer like me, I think you can forgive the said Rev for his not too pleasant attitude to the dock side of Scotty Road, he wrote as he saw it, and he was a genuinely good man and did not remain aloof from those of both sides of the fence at the time ( right up until the 30s to be honest, the fence that is, although Sil' did live right into this era also ). And, da da da da da da da da daaaaaahhh!! I am almost published in the mainstream, but, it is still a gamble. A very small and very new, publishing company based in the USA, has bought the rights to my story, The Old Man's Trousers - a caper involving 3 men, and a pair of nuclear powered trousers that run amok in the Wiltshire country side. The owner has basically said, as they say on Dragon's Den when they invest in a portable electric desalination plant with short wave radio and espresso maker, 'it's a punt'. There will be a greater effort made on the audio book they have produced, but this will be backed up by a small campaign to get the hard cover into libraries in the USA. It is hoped one will impact / spark off interest on / in the other, so, left or right footer, or no footer at all, say one for me if you would please, it may mean the end of Kwik Save mince 8 nights out of 7 ( we buy in packs of 4 so we eat 2 tins on one night ). When I have my compy author copy, I will post 20% ( aah, my own work and I can't even control what I can do with it, sad ) for all to listen if they wish, if you get hooked, buy the CD ya bum. The American lady who has voiced the story, has made a fantastic job, really brought the story to life in a way I could not have done if I had attempted this format. So, what else? Well who said stop shot animation was easy? As the Harry Potter phenomenonnnnnnnon came to an ( and lousy one at that I thought ) end, I thought I would go to town on my own magic book, Mike Miller, Son of Pendragon, and blitz the net with video ads. My idea was to have a book delivery van with the book cover image on the side, leaving Camelot fully laden and end up delivering to a store. Well, I've been at this weeks. I first needed the wheels to turn, so I dotted 30 dots at some precise degree measurement ( 12 I think ) right around the wheel, this was to help feign movement, 30 wheels, 30 dots 12 degrees apart, did that ok, once, for one full lousy turn of the wheel, it covers a fraction of the animated road. It seems terrible at first, but then you realise you can just repeat the same sequence, copy it into the film editor many times, great, but, same scenery!! I am now torn between saying 'sod it, what's it matter?' ( apparently the Flintstones had precious little background so I am in good company ), or saying ' damn, more scenery needed', or, my preferred choice, just 'sod it'. I think I will persevere, but it will take me a long time. The only other thing of note, is, I am on a mission to get old films well out of copyright, out of the hands of those who stash them, and make them freely available. I beat Granada TV to making the Lumiere film 'Liverpool Scenes' available freely ( in fact more than beat them, as the one they showed, you have to pay for ) But, seriously on this, the biggest joke of the lot is the North West Film Archive, 'we believe in keeping film alive blah blah blah', can you get a copy from them ? Nope. I want 2 Crosby films featuring a 30s carnival and a road race, not a chance. The question must be , why not? Who gets to see them if they keep them stashed ? They are not the only cuplrits though, Pathe are not letting full versions of some brilliant material go for free, they should do really, but if you want a full film it will cost you at least �25.00 for some, ( to be fair there are some good ones at this price, especially a doc on the tomb of Honk-the-horn-and-enter, sorry? Oh yes, Toot and come in, eh? Oh, yes, Tutenhkamen, sorry. ) but the versions at high res with full rights cost a fortune, not right, not considering the age and the fact that you are only buying a copy , not the flamin' acetate. Well, what's that word? Oh yes, penultimate, the penultimate post of this blog has ended, be back when the first candle is lit, then, finito.
Friday April 20 2007
Well, yet another long gap; not exactly going to make blogger of the year am I?, never mind. Books are now selling better, averaging 80 a month since Christmas, split between the sales sites and my own stocks; royalties are poor from the site sales though, but, enough to keep me in curry, rice and chips when I feel like it. The ironic thing is, since working for the very company / site that publishes my books, my own works have now stalled. Still in the bag is a tale of an old farmer, and more importantly, toy maker, who gets conned out of his home and livelihood, only to be saved by.....you've guessed, no? Tough. Also, I have the beginning and end of a Victorian crime drama, with Victorian the operative word - you will have to wait until I've finally got round to finishing it to understand this and know the rest. Plus, as ever it is Johnny Come Lately - I was beaten to the Iron Men of Crosby Calendars by an outfit that could afford more advertising than I could ( that's my story, anyway! ), and now, while musing on making the self same Iron Men into mythological Greek avengers come to reclaim the Elgin Marbles, I read only today that a crime drama featuring the display has already been published. Not the same genre I know, but still a novelty pincher I would say. But, things to look forward to: My reprints have had a sudden surge of sales, can't think why, but there you are. Grimaldi has suddenly started selling well again; I can only assume that there has been some sort of celebration of his life, and - drum roll, fanfare and whatever else you can think of - my 2006 reprint of Her Benny is on an upward trend - started with a handful, then a bigger handful, and now averaging 30 a month and rising, so if your own copy is worn out, just follow the various links to the various sales points and bag a new copy, you will love the original illustrations. And my one and only novel is still selling moderately each month, around 5, of the newer version, but the older one sells about 20 a month, and I can't think why when I thought the newer more compact version would suit better; nowt as odd as book readers. New reprints, almost forgot, I have brushed up and re-re-published 'Diary of a Nobody'. It is now a TV show, so do watch that then buy the book! And, I am waiting on ( hoping for, really ) a 1908 through to 1927 edition of 'Scouting for Boys'. These editions are curiously out of copyright, in USA, anyway, which is where I publish some of my stuff from, as I want to republish this in time for the 100 years of Scouting next year. Anyone able to help? If you can supply it, I will cut you in on the royalties. Must be one of the bona fide antequarian not re-published reprinted later than 1927 editions though; if not, even if its a facsimile reprint, I can't use it. And what about the box? I still hate TV but I particularly hate Reality TV. First, I want newsreaders to read news, and footy players to play footy, and as for the even 'realer' reality TV, real life is with us 24 / 7, if I switch on the box it is because I want to escape from all that - fat chance now - One more nobody wannabee or 5th rate soap star getting sent home, voted out, fired, disqualified or even a Tron style De-ressed and I will go bonkers. But, I never have watched much telly anyway, it's never really been any good. And that is it. See you in.. who knows.
November 18 2006: Well then, what's new now? One thing is, my reprint of Her Benny has suddenly had a rush of sales on Amazon, which is great news, and not far behind are increasing sales across the board of all my other stuff bar one item, this is the revised 2006 edition of Mike Miller; but, this is being hampered by the continuing steady sales of it's older, and far cheaper, brother. Trouble is, I have cancelled this, but Amazon aint listenin', weird eh? Or maybe not, if I sell, they make money so corporate deafness is a handy thing to have, still, there's a choice to be had, the older version has it's charm but is far from formatted like a novel should be, unlike it's baby brother. There's alo a brand new Happy Harold story, although it will be included in a re-jig of all these stories, at the moment it is only posted here, so do scroll down the page and look for 'Happy Harold and the Cold Ghost'. Takes a while to load though so do be patient. What else? Just watched Liverpool, can't see Rafa lasting the season to be honest, lacklustre upfront, virtually useless wing play, and too frequent dodgy goalkeeping. If we don't buck up we will be stuck in what I think of as the useless zone, mid-table mediocrity, too good for the dross, far from good enough to bag the league. And onto the telly, still watching the X Factor, can't see the Rat Packy Liverpool lad going the distance now, you can only swing so much. Hope the Rod Stewart - Joe Cocker sound alike goes on to win it, but more than that, to also stick around longer than previous winners have. Finally, back to the books, in a few weeks all my works will be available on Amazon, do take a look, and remember to check the affiliate listings, most ( but not all ) sell books for a lot less than Amazon themselves. Oh, will also do another Christmas page, that will be posted early December. Cheers. John October 15 2006 And hello once more. Well, what's new now? Not much really, I suppose, the Gerry and the Minesweepers CD is now on sale good and proper, follow the link for more info. Also, I have a prize quiz on the go, the prize being one copy of the revised edition of Mike Miller, Son of Pendragon. I've also been watching the latest X Factor, which as I've said before is odd, as I hate all this type of TV, but the soap opera dramatics can be ignored if there's good music to listen to. The trouble is, in this series there hasn't been much, but the young Scouse lad with the Ratpacky type voice and a cocky but friendly swagger has something, hope he wins it. But is it worth it? Where are the winners / finalists from 2 years ago? Was it that operatic crowd doing classic rock covers? And more importantly what about last year? Where is this Shane fella? Hardly hogging the tube is he? ( Maybe youtube! ) And that's it again, bye for now.
September 9 2006. And hello, again. I can confidently say that, first, if you are reading this, you are reading this!; but less flippantly the stats show a reasonable amount of hits to each page on this site from a wide range of countries, and a large number of locals ( any Liverpool / NW regulars, do say hello now and again, I won't bite. ) including this blog, and quite suprisingly to the pages which I thought I had shelved for a while for purpose of rotation, but still searchable as they always were, the power of the Google Bot, incredible - and maybe undeleted cookies, who knows. What's new? Well, my republishing of Her Benny is gathering pace, within two months my edition of this will be available from many places, online anyway, but still orderable from the ordinary bookshops. I'm also into comic/interesting video shorts, removing the music and adding my own choice of soundtrack - please see the link to my Youtube pages, or go to Youtube and look for Josua12345, there's currently 4 vids to watch, with more to follow. Finally, the unapologetically self indulgent 'Why?' album on CD, by Gerry and the Minesweepers ( ie, me and two friends one of which was called Gerry, strangely enough ), has been put on hold while extra material is added, but it will be on sale again soon. And, that's it for now. Cheers. John. Jul 29. Rather a large gap between posts I know, but, you may have noticed this site is slowly but surely losing weight, unlike me, someone recommended the Chip and Pie diet, at least I thought that's what they said, but it doesn't seem to be working. Ok, well, first, disregard most of what's gone before, it's either no longer relevant, or just old hat. My sales are now slowly increasing, one day I may be able to dispense of the word slowly, but there you are. The long delayed 6 x 9 version of 'Mike Miller, Son of Pendragon', is finally here, and is printed in Spain for any Euro orders, so get your cards out or harass Pritchards. I also spend a lot of my time on the Lulu.com site Help Line, dispensing wisdom on such things as corrupt files, image files too small to fit page, and even the incredibly stupid question, 'what is a file?', but, like Magistrates these things are sent to try us. Ok, this is it for now, and I don't know how long before the next update. Bye for now. April 13. Just a few things to mention. I've recently uploaded a couple of things, one is definitely just for fun, the other has a little more substance. First, as those who know/knew me know, I used to dabble a little musically, and over the years made various tapes. Most were bad, but great fun, others actually surprised us, and are at least reasonable. So please look for the page 'Songs from the Dungeon'. My only regret here is that by the time I had a decent song, The Skipper's Lament, and access to decent recording facilities, the other two were not available to join in, which was a great shame as Gerry Connor is a great rhythm guitarist. But listen to the 'album', which really is for sale ! - you'll at least have a laugh. Also, my daughter Alex and I have made a couple of videos. One is a little arty thing to music, ( Alex and I singing / playing ), and the other is a re-hash of all the individual short vids of the Mersey combined with music. These two also have their own page, so please do click on the links to have a look and listen. And, it's almost Easter. Does it mean / still mean anything to you? Thankfully, it certainly does to me. So, Happy Easter one and all.
Well, here we are again. A new or perhaps revived 'blog'. Those who made the occasional visit up until Mark One was given the chop, will know that I had toyed with giving it the old heave-ho for a long while, until I eventually did do so. But - no sooner did I do so, than I received several messages asking me where had it gone? It just goes to show the power of the otherwise invisible surfer. However, trotting out the mundane has never 'grabbed me', so this is its final test run. If I get cheesed off with it again, it goes. For good.
So, what's new? In a word - nothing much. My self-published works still sell, slowly but surely, but the operative word out of these two is 'slowly'. But I am aiming at improving the situation. My novel gets ever nearer to trade paper back size. It's next overcoat will be the odd American size of 6X9. Still not the classic shelf size, but not far off; a fair few books both in UK and abroad do exist and sell in this format. The irony here is, it will look like war and peace, because of its length, weighing in around 300,00 words / 630 pages. This is why it started off life in either 8.25 x 11 or A4 and even then had to have Arial size 9 as the font. But, I now have access to machines which have a generous limit for 'perfect' binding in the 6x9 size.
I also have a new site, on Freewebs.com. This will gradually replace the main functions of this site, but I will still keep this on.
I've been digging out more tapes that I've made over the years, and some of them were surprising to me. I've come across one tape where I sing 'Will ye go, Lassie, go' in its entirety. After one listen, I recalled when it was recorded, and also remembered being absolutely pie-eyed - this comes through in the recording, although amazingly I did stay in tune but the tempo etc, is a bit chugg-ish. There are also snippets of Beatles songs, Cavatina, a blues guitar duo, and a listenable version of Apache. I'll do a sound collage of the lot, and put them on my sites.
And that is it for now. Oh before I go, here's a tip for the Grand National - don't bother.
John
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