December-January projects and ideas round-up

[leila johnston]

Subscribe-trons,

Hope you're having a great festive time, and very best wishes for 2012. Slightly later than usual, and in a different format (I'm just trying something), here's the round-up and the forthcomings. 

***** NOW

I have something in the January issue of WIRED UK (the one with the Zuck on the front), but it's only just been pointed out to me. Months ago I interviewed a gambling man in an attempt to persuade the curious mild nerds who read WIRED UK to snuff out their gung-ho start-ups, and instead take up a quiet noble life of professional online gambling. Say what you like about me, I'm never one to let a basic sense of ethics stand in the way of a story. It's on the front page of the Wired.co.uk at the moment. http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/01/how-to/pro-internet-gambler

Roo and I have spent the last month and a bit making a one-off bumper episode of Shift Run Stop for Christmas, after not recording for a year. It was a bit of a last-minute decision, and it took some effort to remember how we used to do it, but I think it was worth it in the end. We created a belt-busting, two-hour long show, featuring interviews with the likes of Jon Ronson, Stefanie Posavec, and Sound Diaries... and we got back on those iTunes charts! The lovely Lee Maguire came in to do the snacks sections on this episode, and they're some of the best we've ever recorded: http://shiftrunstop.co.uk/2011/12/22/episode-60-christmas-special-%e2%80%93-stefanie-posavec-sound-diaries-jon-ronson-joel-ronson-and-lee-maguire/

If you're wondering what I do all day, the studio I work for was profiled with a six-page spread in Computer Arts magazine recently, and they made a film about us, too. Scroll down to view: http://www.computerarts.co.uk/interviews/many-hands-one-vision

I recently recorded a segment about a real life time traveller for popular sceptics podcast The Pod Delusion, and you can download it from their site, here

***** IN THE FUTURE

On January 24th I'll be performing something possibly apocalypse themed at Helen Arney's Domestic Science night, Green Man, Riding House Street, 8pm. Hm. I need to get on that, really.

On February 7th I'll be involved in the fourth storywarp, a conference about storytelling I host on alternate months with Sara Williams. It'll be taking place in Concrete, Shoreditch. We'll probably be blogging about it fairly soon on storywarp.com, and there's a whole separate mailing list for me to annoy you from there too. The theme will be 'love stories'. The format is four panellists at the top of their game who each tell stories in very different ways. Anyway, it tends to go down pretty well. storywarp.com

Oh yes, and you remember my appeal for contributors for the End of the World event that I'm calling 'The Event'? It's all happening! It is, you might say, NIGH. I've got it down to two dates in February, Sunday 12th and Sunday 19th, with each Event unfolding over the afternoon from 2pm, for a few hours. Confirmed speakers and performers include scientists, award-winning authors, artists, journalists, zombie experts, volcano enthusiasts and musicians. I've booked the basement at The Albany as I think we'll be safe from most apocalypses there. Can you manage a Sunday afternoon in February? RSVP, explaining why you deserve a space. It'll be £5 to get in, but you know, what's your life worth? I'm currently seeking suitable things to put in goody bags, I have a few things but let's make them amazing. All details: thisistheevent.com. I might take it to Edinburgh for a bit, and creat some sort of documentary about it. Consider this my appeal for press, people and ideas. I try to run a 50/50 gender policy on everything I'm responsible for, so suggestions for women are always particularly good. In the meantime, do avail yourself of the Lanyrd pages and the Twitter @_theevent_

Oh and I fed comedy impresario John Fleming some stories about formative experiences meeting comedy people, and he blogged about it this week, mentioning The Event: http://thejohnfleming.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/the-comedy-girl-who-is-planning-what-to-do-when-the-world-ends-in-2012/, so that was nice.

The alumni mag for York, where I did my undergrad degree, is profiling me, this is what they're going to run (my utterly unsubstantiated advice to students studying arts subjects today) http://finalbullet.com/2011/12/22/dont-piss-it-away/

And I've been thinking about writing a musical about retro computer games. But if it's OK with you, I might take the rest of the week off. 

If any of the above sounds interesting, humour me with a coffee and a chat, to help get us through January. What shall we talk about? I think 2012 is going to be the year I start making complete things on spec, rather than pitching half-baked notions... the old 'if you built it' approach. Maybe we can start with that.

Happy New Year! Let's make things, while there's still time...

Leila

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finalbullet.com