The Quiet of Grey

A soothing, quiet early winter seems to have encroached on the Cape. My Mountain has been removed completely and the tree outside my window seems to be buzzing with bird life. A wonderful stillness has come over the place.
Am I sounding corny?

I don't know, after having lived in the UK for four years I must admit that I am not a huge fan of winter and of being cold, but down here it is just so beautiful. Cape Town seems to have a party pulse that kicks 24 hours a day, so when it covers up with grey you get... a peace and solitude that is often missing.
And more importantly, it's not that cold :o)

In my wanderings through MySpace I recently came across Inge Beckmann's page.
For those of you who don't know, she is the lead singer of the phenomenal band, Lark, and though I'm a huge fan of the band, I had no idea she had a solo project going on the side.
Her ability to manipulate her voice like an instrument stirs up memories of Kate Bush, and though Lark's music tends more towards electro-pop (with a dark Nine Inch Nails influence), her solo stuff makes me think of the haunting sounds of Goldfrapp.
She creates glorious soundscapes of voice and instrument, a blend so seamless that it leaves you in doubt as to where one begins and the other ends.

Moving along, the outstanding and mind-numbing series Heroes starts on SABC3 next week Wednesday (23 May 20:31) .
For all the publicity they've given it one would be forgiven for thinking the SABC has decided to actively hide the fact that they are about to screen one of the best series ever made.
Don't let their ineptitude put you off. This really is the television scoop of the decade for our little National broadcaster.
Do Not Miss This Show!

I'd better stop waffling and get back to publishing a magazine.
Enjoy
Joe

What a fortnight!

Well, Issue 3 has hit the shelves and the first few complimentary emails have started to trickle through.
I was planning to go into a deep hibernation for a couple of weeks post finishing off Issue 3, to de-stress and calm down to a mild panic after the usual hysteria that is deadline week, (week before going to print).
As it turned out, it was not to happen.

A good friend and indie-filmmaker partner, Digby Young, (author of On The Road Again - printed in Issue 2), called me up less than 4 hours after having handed over Issue 3 to the printers, to inform me that he was flying down from Joburg in four days to handle the Cape Town leg of castings for a new 7-part HBO mini-series about the Iraqi war and would I be available to be a reader - help read opposite the actors who are auditioning for the parts.
I of course said "absolutely, no problem".

I spent the weekend putting up the brand-new Something Wicked Movies website and as I finished it he arrived with a pile of scripts for me.
We then spent Thursday-Sunday doing full days of castings for "Marines" and "Iraqis" followed by take-away pizza's and all-night editing, encoding and uploading sessions to send the audition clips through to LA for the Producers and Director to see.
We must've had about 16 hours sleep during that period. We were both delirious by 4am Monday morning.

I had enough time to flop down on my couch and go, "phew!" before I had to start delivering Issue 3 to retailers and posting off copies to subscribers and as soon as I finished that, Digs called me again to tell me the US Casting Director was personally flying to Cape Town to oversee the callbacks and could I be her driver and reader again. For those of you who don't know, a callback audition is basically the 2nd round of casting for the actors who were lucky enough to get through the first round.
So back to the grindstone. 8 am Saturday morning the rental car was delivered and by 9 I was on the road to the airport to pick her up, followed by a quick lunch and back to the casting studio.
I again spent the whole weekend casting followed by 3 am encoding and uploading of audition tapes.

Have I mentioned before how much I love my job? :o)
I really do, exhausted though I am, I have had the most spectacular couple of weeks.
I love reading in auditions and this script is so fucking good that it's a pleasure to be able to play around with the lines and help the actors deliver the best performance possible.
Meeting the Casting Director was also brilliant. It's not every day you get to sit and discuss movies and television with a double-Emmy Award-winning casting director.
In the meantime we bumped into Jason Ritter, (the wheelchair bound brother in Joan of Arcadia and son of the late John Ritter) at the Nelson's Eye.

Seriously though, it was an absolute blast.
I think I might going blind from fatigue, but hey, I'm fucking loving it!

Anyway, now I have to get some sleep because it seems I have used up my two-week holiday between Issues, which means I need to get started on Issue 4. I have about 35 story submissions (the most ever, with the exception of Issue 1's Short Story Competition) and I still don't have a theme for the mag.
I have to start going through movie news and trying to get pics and articles.
And most importantly I need to start developing a strategy to sell a bucket load of ads.

Thanks again to all the fans out there for your tremendous support, both by buying the magazine and by submitting to it. You guys have really kept us going through all the dark times, (and there have been many), I only hope I don't disappoint you.
Joe