RIP Adam Watene 1977-2008

I haven’t quite forgotten about this blog, and updates will appear in due course. I would like to take this moment to pass on my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Adam Watene, who died aged 31 this morning.

Many who read this blog who don’t know me personally are unlikely to be familiar with the Cook Islander. Those who do know me will know that I am a passionate supporter of Rugby League, and Castleford Tigers in particular. Adam played for Castleford in 2005 and was most recently playing for local rivals Wakefield when he passed away unexpectedly during a gym session.

My thoughts, and those of the Rugby League community are with Adam’s family and friends at this horrible time.

Thanks.

We aren’t sleeping…

Well it is 1.30am in Britain and I can’t sleep. The reason for this could be related to a piece I wrote earlier today (yesterday) on the Bearded site about two big announcements in my life tomorrow (today).

The first announcement comes at 10am and is the confirmation of the 14 out of 19 teams playing in rugby league’s Super League for the next three years. I’m a Castleford fan born and bred and am quietly confident about our chances. It would be pretty disastrous for the club if we didn’t make it and after four years of hurt and uncertainty, the powers at the Rugby Football League can’t prolong the pain – can they?

The second announcement, which comes in at 11.30am, is this year’s Nationwide Mercury Prize nominations. I’m not really too fussed about them as I’m sure they will be a huge disappointment (especially with the hideous Lauren Laverne hosting the announcements).

But neither of these announcements stir me enough to really contribute to my insomnia (which had gone away for a few joyous weeks). What I attribute it to is the fact that I am, yet again, doing a cash flow forecast and refining Bearded’s (well, Fleeing from Pigeon’s) business plan.

It is the scourge of being an independently funded publication. Finance is key, and it is hard to attain without some sort of prostitution. I’ve talked in privately about the difficulties of funding (apparantly giving artists – both musical and visual – the chance to get their work known by tens of thousands of people isn’t actually worthy of merit), and told people of the horror stories I’ve heard and experienced of people receiving millions whilst other, arguably more worthy, causes have had pittances (and we are talking hundreds of pounds here) refused. I’m not going to get onto it, rest assured though that if you haven’t got funding in place yourself (which Bearded thankfully did for the first year), you’re going to have a hell of a task getting yourself off the ground.

Bearded is at a make or break stage. We have been publishing for a year come August and now have a clear, concise knowledge of the market and our readers and how to reach them and make the magazine sustainable (and profitable). All we need now is the finance to help the cash flow and allow us to expand. Hopefully positive announcements to be made shortly. Bearded is a hell of a publication with an absolutely bob on (morally) mission. Now, thanks to insomnia, we have the business plan to go with it.

Even if you reading this don’t have the money to invest in Bearded, you can help us by joining Beardaid – £2 a month for free records and mags… can’t be bad!

Fairtrade whips

It isn’t often that I have sinister thoughts, or see things that may or may not be there. This morning, fresh from dehydration and a morning queue for milk, the stall where said queue protruded from had a large, hand drawn Fairtrade sign.

Now, Fairtrade, as I’m sure you know, deal with getting a better deal for third world farmers than Nescafe probably do but there is something sinister in this commonplace logo that I have never spotted before – that of someone being whipped.

For the uninitiated when it comes to magic eyes (I’m colour blind so cannot do those anyhow), my reading of the Fairtrade = torturous masters logo is in the black gap between green and blue segments. To me it looks like a body with one arm outstretched as if brandishing a whip. The whip is the right side outline of the blue section and the circle in the middle is the head. See it?

I guess it could mean one of two things. One that Fairtrade alleviates this sort of global conglomerate bullying or two, that hidden within Fairtrade’s increasing production and prominence in global supermarkets, some questionable labour practices are going on.

Ludicrous? Probably. But which one?

On the rout to Denmark

I set of for Denmark on Saturday with the long tube journey through London to Heathrow. On the way I got what I would call subtlety attacked by an American woman who didn’t seem to realise that someone on crutches probably has a bad leg and continually kicking them isn’t a good idea.

What was worse was their vicious assault on the English language, but it got me thinking about the inconsistencies of phonetical speech (you can sense the excitement), especially when she said ‘router’ as “rout-errr” as in someone who does a lot of routing (whatever perverted connotation you want to put on that).

Obviously us who speak the language would say “route-r” but can you pronounce ‘r’? Should ‘router’ be spelt ‘routeer’? Obviously not, that would be pronounced “route-ear”. And this blog is stupid, sorry.

In the meantime, this is what I impersonate whenever I have too much beer in a Danish field:

Magazine review magazine

A number of times since I started Bearded, the lovely Geoff Baker has compared me to Felix Dennis (although, I hope, without the alleged murderous tendencies) and in a sense it is true, although probably only by the fact that I come up with what we’ll call unique but my mother would call idiotic ideas to resurrect the world of publishing.

I’m reminded of one such idea I had recently whenever my fellow idea developer feels like making me laugh or whenever I’m being slightly serious and assessing market reaction in Magazine Review Magazine (TM) – a magazine set up to review magazines.

Of course the idea is inane, but it has a quirk to it, probably one that would work as a blog. The idea developed into a thumbs up/thumbs down scenario so that the commuter on the move can make a quick decision of what to read before the 12:43 to Darlington puffs out of the station. A blog or a free pick up paper anyway.

So it has its good points does the idea, I’m not just an idiot, well at least I hope not…

Well? What do you think?

GARETH MAIN RETAINS (VERY) POOR MAN’S COPYRIGHT ON THIS IDEA PLEASE MAKE IT SUCCESSFUL SO I CAN TAKE SOME OF YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY

Other inspiration

I thought it might be worth noting some other inspiration for this particular blog. My former mentor and  someone I admire and respect greatly Geoff Baker started a blog after continuing his lifelong slide into psychosis. It’s a very good read – Geoff Baker’s Diary of a Madman.

Geoff is probably the greatest person I’ve ever met who isn’t John Dwyer. Former right-hand man to Paul McCartney, he was sacked (or resigned, depending on who you believe) after what I’m led to believe to be a falling out with a now very rich, undeserving singleton, most likely to be to do with his and his employer’s (very much, erm, alleged) marijuana habit.

It also hasn’t escaped my attention that in a post called ‘the chronicles of Bearded’, I failed to explain what Bearded is. I’m sure if you’re reading you know, but I’ll explain further at some point (alternatively you can go to www.beardedmagazine.co.uk).

Currently listening to: The Beatles – The Beatles (Apple Corps)