The anniversary celebrations power on in SFX towers, but there’s also the small matter of issue 201 to deal with
Regular FROM THE OFFICE readers will already be well aware, but life behind-the-scenes of a monthly magazine can be a strange existence. No it’s not because team mates create hermaphrodite aliens stuck to post-it notes out of their used chewing gum and then flaunt it round the office in the manner of a psychopath proud parent; a magazine’s production cycle can really mess with your internal clock.
Take for example our current conundrum – as the SFX community and our own website talk up our magnificent, jam-packed issue 200 the office hive mind is currently beavering away on issue 201, veering perilously close to deadline. In fact some of us have started work on issue 202. Even the Doctor would have a tough time getting his head round this one.
Timey-wimey madness aside, after last week’s frivolity it’s been back to business as usual in SFX towers. Despite the deadline, Dave’s off to London today to have lunch with Simon and Lynsey from Transworld (Terry Pratchett's publishers), no doubt to come up with some schemes for the Weekender. He shall be proofing pages on the train, if that makes everybody feel better. This time of year also marks the start of annual appraisals at Future Publishing (well, we say the start the deadline was the end of August originally, err…) and Dave’s got a long couple of weeks ahead of him, sitting down for an hour with every team member to chat about their work over the past 12 months. It’s like Parents Evening but without mum and dad and the chance you might get fired at the end of it. No wonder everyone’s been so nice to Dave of late.
Rich is still putting in silly hours to make his super-looking Joss Whedon Special worthy of a magazine dedicated to the big man. FROM THE OFFICE has had a sneak peek and take it from us you won’t be disappointed. After Rich ventured north of the border to Edinburgh Fringe a couple of weeks ago, last weekend it was Dave B’s turn to put on his best Rab C Nesbitt for the Edinburgh International TV Festival. In case you’ve been imprisoned in a Pandorica since Sunday the big news from the festival was that Doctor Who season six will be broadcast in two halves to be shown in the Spring and Autumn – a move which earned the Team SFX seal of approval, not least because we can now take summer holidays without fear of missing an episode.
Ian has spent much of the week struggling to concentrate, as ideas for the SFX -special-after-next (which he'll be editing) keep bubbling up in his brain. Trust us, it's gonna be great! Today he's at home, listening to The Drums as he beavers away on reviews of Forbidden Planet , [REC] 2 and Fringe . He's also excited about Robin Of Sherlock , the time-travel movie he accidentally invented by getting his words mixed up, in which Sherlock Holmes is flung back into medieval times by HG Wells's time machine. Come on, that's a winning pitch right there, surely?
SPORTS FLASH! Russell played football and although he was on the side that lost heavily managed to score three of his team’s goals. And has the bruises to prove it. Russell also caught Piranha 3D at the cinema (ten pound bloody fifty!) and declared the nude underwater ballet set to Delibes “a work of genius”. “Strange how Kelly Brook then covers up for the rest of the film,” he pondered. “Maybe it was a contractual thing?” Ade meanwhile is back from a week’s holiday (well a new bathroom kind of holiday anyway) and is reminiscing about the SFX 200th party a week after the morning after. His main thought: he never wants to feel that ill ever again.
After a fortnight of walking round half deaf (an old swimming maladay coming back to haunt him) Jordan made the most of a return to life in stereo last night by watching The Matrix on Blu-ray before tuning into Arrested Development for the first time, if only to stop Catherine and Rich hounding him every time he mentions the fact the complete boxset has been sat on his shelf for about a year. Jordan also made his first trip to Future’s London offices this week where he marvelled at the life-size Big Daddy (from Bioshock ) and Lara Croft looming over the cafeteria there. He’s since put in a request to the publishers to have a Big Daddy and/or Link (from Zelda ) installed in the SFX offices, but at well over £1000 a pop each he’s not getting his hopes up.
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Office Prank Of The Week: Russell pulled an old trick out of the bag this week (and managed to get himself struck off Dave G’s Christmas card list in the process) by pretending the person Dave had been waiting to interview called while he was in the loo, only to pass a panicked Dave the receiver with nothing but a dial tone on the other end. The old cad.
Office discussion of the week: After Russell discovered a ginormous spider in his house last night (the biggest you’ve ever seen, honest!) Dave B let us in on his tech savvy method of dealing with 8-legged freaks – he takes a picture of them then emails it round to everyone he can think of. Not that that helps in getting rid of the spider.
Whose T-shirt ? (last week’s answer: they were Russell’s shoes!)
