Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in richud's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
5:13 pm	labour day weekend Had fun - saw Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen, projected with 70mm film (as originally intended). Did other things too. Won at footie about 12-1. Swimming in Barton Springs. Bocci Ball. stuff. (Comment on this)
4:59 pm	it's been a couple of months since i last wrote in here and a friend of mine remarked on how morose it is. And that's true, except I thinkwe often only write when we are down. The torment of the manic-depressive in all of us. Well, here's my last non-cheery thought for the moment (since that's where I happen to be).. Mixing benadryl and whiskey is not the best idea in the world. Especially twice. There are better ideas out there. Other ideas do not lead to doing stuff while 'blacked out' and then being reminded of them a few weeks later. No matter how great an idea you think it is to lie under the covers and slip quietly away from a world you're pretty bored of, there's stuff in them thar pills that lead you to do things that aren't in any way cool. So - better ideas than mixing substances: - sport. I'm playing a fair bit of soccer at the moment. Keeps you fit and surrounded by good people. Good sense of competition, too. - vit-a-min B6. Keeps you away from the D part of manicD. But also keeps you away from the M part too. Just pleasantly chilled. - Omega3 Fish Oil. Highly recommended by my mum. Seems to do much the same trick as B6 - Echinacea; supposed to keep you healthy - Green Tea. Keeps the brain active but not panicky like what coffee does. - Art / Music. Letting the soul out onto paper or into sound. - Writing. Again, seems to only happen when down, but it's better than other alternatives - Going for a walk. A great time to have a good think. Often best done when not distracted by things (like the city). The country air is also particularly bracing. If you have a dog, they're great companions to go walking with cos they'll listen and never talk back. They usually sniff. - Stay in touch with family. Hopefully, this keeps you grounded and reminds you (for better or worse) where you come from. A lot of traits are hereditary - especially character flaws. - Write to friends. Otherwise they fade away. - Get plenty of good sleep. Don't pass out drunk; get some REM and deep dreams. - Eat healthily. I know that sounds obvious, but it really gets the right energies flowing. OK, now I'm sounding like a hippy. So I'll stop. Oh, yeah - went to Dylan's for bocci ball the other day. His new roommate person has a wonderful golden lab who plays with the tennis ball just like Bracken used to.. :) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
11:09 pm	well, this is weird Well, crap; this is weird and a bit much but it is written with tongue firmly planted in cheek. We've been filming the last scene of this short film (I've been running sound) and guess what - the final scene we're shooting is set in Heaven because..... he commited suicide. I mean, jesus. So anyways, apart from that, things are weird. It's rough hearing about, well, stuff. I'll keep it at that. The womb of the bed can be very comforting in some ways. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 4th, 2006
9:39 am	something more cheery... for you-know-who... Well, i'm feeling particularly uplifted at the moment cos I'm storyboarding for a short film I'm going to make. I am loving this process (which I've never really properly gone through before). Coming up with caffiene-injected ideas and drawing little cartoons... it really makes you think about perspective in art and how difficult it can be to be a true artist (i mean one who goes for realism). Nevie, who is helping produce, has suggested we go to Paris to film. That may be a little ambitious, although it sounds like fun! Either way, it feels like you get a lot more freedom making movies than you do with TV. TV for the most part has to be pretty linear. Films can jump about all over the place and be as surreal or entertaining as you wish to see. enough rambling. Since it's 4th of July.. haha (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 2nd, 2006
3:50 am	so then... ... it seems to me (to continue previous thoughts) that the main reason a suicide is halted is thoughts of family. A family would, in theory be devastated and a permanent hole would be left that would be impossible in some ways to cope with. Without wishing to sound callous, I think friends could cope better. Upset for a long time, yes, but utlimately able to continue with life. So, I think a solid framework for a family is a very good suicide deterrant. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
3:49 am	and more on the same it seems that if you detroy someone's dreams, their soul si detroyed. And a body without a soul is merely a shell. And a shell is brittle and easily cracked. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 28th, 2006
8:12 pm	cat isn't cat stephen's Tea For the Tillerman album perfect? (Comment on this)
7:59 pm	time to re-cap I don';t know who reads this stuff, but god, it's about now that reflection really takes its toll. I mean, up til now I've charged ahead with life and succeeded in doing everything I've set out to do. Well, in work anyways. When I was at university I wanted to do two things: work for Jim Hightower and work for Austin City Limits. I did both within a few months of leaving college. Then I wanted to film concerts and work with bands etc. I did that based in London, travelling the world following bands around and filming their concerts or interviews etc. But what about the deeper important stuff? Relationships and love and life. Not so good. Going perfectly well until I turned 21 and fucked it good and proper. And I've got the karma I deserve ever since (well, that's how I justify my continuing 'interesting' romantic recisions). As a child I always wanted to be a youngish father like my Dad; he was 26 when I was born. I used to love the fact that he was active enough to come out and play footie or cricket or whatever with us kids. And although it sounds odd, I was just telling a teacher last night how much I loved the fact that my Mum was home for the holidays (yes, even as a teenager!). I mean, I'm only 31 soon but things just seem to slip further and further with every passing day and it gets you deep inside - really. So, yeah, got a house and a mortgage and a job that I can make whatever I want (if I can drag myself out of this consistant grey cloud) but those few special things are as elusive as ever. (Comment on this)
7:56 pm	Our House Two of my most favouritest songs are both called Our House... One is just a beautiful overview of a perfect existance, the other is about the fun and drama that revolves around any household full of kids etc. I'll light the fire You put the flowers in the vase That you bought today Staring at the fire For hours and hours While I listen to you Play your love songs All night long for me Only for me Come to me now And rest your head for just five minutes Everything is good Such a cosy room The windows are illuminated By the sunshine through them Fiery gems for you Only for you Our house is a very, very fine house With two cats in the yard Life used to be so hard Now everything is easy 'Cause of you And our la,la,la, la,la, la, la, la, la, la, la..... Our house is a very, very fine house With two cats in the yard Life used to be so hard Now everything is easy 'Cause of you And Our I'll light the fire And you place the flowers in the jar That you bought today _______________________________________________________________ Father wears his sunday best Mothers tired she needs a rest The kids are playing up downstairs Sisters sighing in her sleep Brothers got a date to keep He cant hang around Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our ... Our house it has a crowd Theres always something happening And its usually quite loud Our mum shes so house-proud Nothing ever slows her down And a mess is not allowed Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our ... Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our ... Something tells you that youve got to get away from it Father gets up late for work Mother has to iron his shirt Then she sends the kids to school Sees them off with a small kiss Shes the one theyre going to miss In lots of ways Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our ... I remember way back then when everything was true and when We would have such a very good time such a fine time Such a happy time And I remember how wed play simply waste the day away Then wed say nothing would come between us two dreamers Father wears his sunday best Mothers tired she needs a rest The kids are playing up downstairs Sisters sighing in her sleep Brothers got a date to keep He cant hang around Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our ... Our house, was our castle and our keep Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, that was where we used to sleep Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our street (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
12:39 am	swimming pool woo hoo! we've finally got a swimming pool in the back yard. I know i sound like a kid but it's pretty exciting. Also got a gym in the spare room and it's the premiere of Scanner Darkly on Wednesday here in Austin!! Oh, and England only just won 1-0, but we won thanks to Beckham's goal (and all the other players of course). Ghana tomorrow - woo. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 25th, 2006
8:29 pm	handbags So what becomes of you my love When they have finally stripped you of The handbags and the gladrags That your poor old Grandad had to sweat to buy you They told me you missed school today So what I suggest you just throw them all away The handbags and the gladrags That your poor old Grandad had to sweat to buy you (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 21st, 2006
10:50 pm	20 dollar roach Somehow a cockroach has cost me $20. I found it sitting on my toothbrush one evening, so I tried to clean the brush (an electric one), and somehow water manages to break the thing so that it is permanently on - how can water break a toothbrush?? So, the only time it's not whirring and vibrating (remember it's only a toothbrush) is when it's on the charger. Stupid thing throw toothpaste and water everywhere. A new one cost $20. The reason I hate the things so much is that when I first got to America (about 12 years ago) I saw one on the carpet and put a cup over it thinking it would be dead the next morning. Of course, when I woke up, I lifted the cup expecting to have to carry out a dead bug and the thing was incredibly angry and the fucker came flying at me!! ugh. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
10:48 pm	Money Laundering Did you know you can put credit cards through a washer AND dryer and they'll still work? Well, I accidentally experimented with that.. they still work, sadly. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006
10:20 am	missing persons Took a friend out for a pint last night. Turns out his girlfriend is too ill to cope with a relationship, so she has to trim her life down a bit. Of course, he's very cut up about it so a Guinness was very much in order... All very sad. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 19th, 2006
7:12 pm	Graham Chapman I've been thinking about doing a Graham Chapman biopic for a while now and thought I'd get in touch with Jim Yoakum, his biographer and friend, to see if he'd want to partner on the project. Turns out Jim had the same idea, but already has a production partner sadly. Still - it's exciting news that a GC biopic is in the works - should be amazing! (Comment on this)
7:06 pm	Self Help This last week, I've been doing sound on a short film called Self Help. Normally I wouldn't work for free but Jim Eastburn is the DP and I like working with him so I said yes. It turns out a bunch of people I know are working on it (Chad Furrow, his g/f Jenn, her friend Vicky, and the actor Michael Conway - who was also in jumping off bridges). The director is a nice chap called Stan Von Miller and it seems to be a semi-autobiographical tale of Stan's life as a computer programmer. The crew all work really well together and it helps that the director has a swimming pool and well-stocked beer fridge... The other day was one of the special effects days where Michael's character bites his finger off and blood spurts out. He then spits the finger at a co-worker as another onlooker throws up. Well, the "throw-up machine" malfunctioned somewhat sending sprays of thousand island dressing etc all over the ceiling, office walls and crew. ha. I was happily behind a divider mixing the sound. (Comment on this)
7:03 pm	Texas Summer is bloody hot. And sticky. And the river is so low at the moment! And it's really hot. Saw a huge catfish sunbathing today in the shallows of the Blanco River. I also think he was trying to hide from the 3 fishermen upstream. Did I mention that it's in the high 90s here?? And invariably reaches 100. (Comment on this)
6:39 pm	another semi-annual catch-up right then. So - after not enough sleep or coffee, what's been going on? I'm killing time at work burning a CD for Johnny Marr's manager of a recording I made of JM with Beth Orton. So - time to kill... (having name-dropped sufficiently) Let's see... Well, it's been an interesting year. Not with Jenn really anymore, but still friends and still do stuff with the band she's in. Last summer I was the camera op on a Super16mm feature film called "jumping off bridges" which seems to be doing incredibly well on the independent film festival circuit around America. It was directed by Kat Candler who I really enjoy working with and with whom I've worked on a few short films - a trilogy of "roberta Wells", "Walter Lehman" and - my favourite - "Pilot and Olo". Kat is now working on getting funding for her new feature (which will be 35mm!) - "Brain Brawl." A very well rounded screenplay that I sincerely hope I can be part of on camera again. Christmas in England was ok - very very hectic and always seems to be high stress time. Cold, dark, London is a mess and over-tired stress. But always lovely to see the family. Since then, I've travelled with the Black Angels doing their projection for them (Texas. New Jersey area, Seattle etc) and kept the production company and studio ticking over. Now, however, I'm getting knuckled down to the studio and getting productions off the ground (short films etc). SxSW 2006 was as exhausting as ever. Did a documentary for the BBC on a band from England called We Start Fires about their first jaunt to the US. As well as that, was working for TBA and getting production trucks and projectors organised for Verizon Wireless so people could text messages to the screens for their friends to see. Also got to see my friend Krissy (but of course didn't get to hang out half as much as I wanted). Just got back from England where i spent a lovely ten days in the new family home. Oddly enough, it wasn't strange at all to be in a new place. Mum n Dad have done it up really really nicely and very classily. Lovely back garden with rabbits for the cat to chase. Saw all the grandparents and Wendy and Klaus. Also went to London to see a bunch of friends as well as Brighton for Abi's birthday. (Photos when I get them onto the computer.) While in London, went to see some friends at White City (the BBC offices) - for such a creative channel with some of the best output in the world, I am amazed at how fatastically dul the offices are. Open plan desks with all the floors looking exactly the same. Seriously. Oh, and on one floor they're trying a new plan called "Hot Desking" or some such bollocks. Basically, you don't have a desk, you just sit at whatever computer takes your fancy and sit there to work. Well, that's the plan anyway - of course, when people get in to work they have bags and coats which they leave at "their" computer and everyone makes their own nests at the same computers every day. I think the Beeb must have spent thousands on consultants for that system. Got back to America having read Chris Donald's autobiography about his life as the founder of Viz comic - very inspirational for someone wanting to set up business of their own and make it successful (seriously!)... Read it from cover to cover on the plane. Also had a new Razor phone waiting for me - still not got to grips with it but I would not recommend them. From what I've heard I'm not the only one who can't lock the side buttons so whenever you pick it up, you accidentally press a button and change the settings from "quiet/vibrate" to "loud/annoy the other passengers/diners".... It also changes the ring tone to whatever it feels like on the day. Could be anything. Depends what mood it's in. Really. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 22nd, 2005
6:27 pm	catch-up Alright - so I have written in this thing since November last year. Since then, I finished working on a high def feature in Michigan. The countryside and the weather and the people were all wonderful. The working conditions were less than good. I imagine if I were writing this at the time this would contain a lot more anger and frustration. I remember my Mum telling me that we are very similar in that we both *hate* it when things at work don't go pretty much exactly how we expect them to; we both get very frustrated apparently. I have a terrible time delegating sometimes (hence I get worn out) cos I have trouble letting others do the work I could do if only I could clone myself. I've got photos posted at photos.yahoo.com/richardwhymark in a folder called 2nd Day. That was the name of the film. It's a Bollywood remake of The Ring. Stop laughing. In September 2004, it was the ACL Festival and all the events revolving around that which kept me busy for a short while... But that's all in the previsou post I've just realised... More on Mike n Darcie soon enough. Then I met someone who has now become *the* major distraction and main attraction... In December, I met a girl called Jennifer who is in a band... Well, actually, she claims that I stalked her cos I saw her pics online and contacted her cos she's into the most excellent things (like the Smiths and Monty Python and good films and weird stuff). After I secretly went to see one of herband's shows, we met up at the Whiskey Bar, trophy's and places like that for cold, christmassy drinks when it all feels fun cos Xmas is just round the corner and we chatted some more...(and she kept a safe distance!) In the meantime, I moved house so I could live on my own. I found the perfect little garage apartment in Hyde Park (a hip little area in Austin - not a park bench in west London). Of course, I had to fly back to England for Christmas but stayed in touch with Jennifer online and annoyed her by IMing incessantly. Christmas was fun as always. It wouldn't be the same without getting a cold. Got to see family and friends and sit by the fire a lot with the cat. There are some photos of all that at photos.yahoo.com/richardwhymark in the England Xmas 2004 album. Happily, the day after I got back to Austin, she phoned me to ask me out for what turned into our first date (!) - one of the free Emos shows in early Jan 2005.... ok - more later. This is getting my brain confused and messed up aswell. It's odd writing about a time when you hadn't met the people you know now... and how the news changes in that time.. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 17th, 2004
6:54 pm	a short one-act play Two people are playing chess, sitting at a table outside an Italian restaurant. At the next table, a man and a woman in their early 50s meet up for the first time in what seems like ages. They share a small pizza. The man drinks soda; she drinks white wine. The woman dominates the conversation with stories of her house flooding more than once in the same month, sending sparks flying through her alarm clock. They catch up and drink. Eventually, it seems like time for them to leave each other. She gives him a big hug and says how wonderful it is to see him again. The hug is rather awkward as she is standing over him and bending over to hug him while he stays sitting. He closes his eyes with a mixture of sadness and happiness. She drives away in her small SUV and he walks to his nearby apartment. The chess continues. After a few minutes, the man returns to the front of the restaurant and looks around, standing awkwardly over the chess players, looking in through the restaurant's large glass windows searching for something. He goes back to sit in the seat the lady was in when they were talking and pulls out his cell phone. He phones her but gets her voicemail. He leaves a message saying that he thought he'd come back to the restaurant because he got home and couldn't see any reason to sit in watching TV so he was wondering if she would like to carry on their conversation there that evening. He sits and looks into the distance. After a while he gets up and goes into the restaurant to purchase a Macadamia nut cookie. While he's standing at the counter in one corner of the restaurant, the lady returns and sees that he's not at the table. She sits at the table the other side of the chess game and waits for him (as she is unaware that he is inside). After a few minutes, he sits at a table up against one wall inside. She looks at her watch and leaves. (Comment on this)