The week before everything changes in SFX towers…
Having finally settled back in to the office after three days gallivanting round Camber Sands, the team is bracing itself for another upheaval next week as we start work on the first redesigned issue of SFX . More importantly than that, however, the team will also be playing musical chairs round the office and swapping seats to better accommodate our expanding family. Life as a sci-fi journalist can’t half be glamorous sometimes.
Despite this being our final week to get the latest issue finished before the publishers send round the hitmen, it’s been a week filled with (productive) distractions: Weekender feedback meetings (rest assured folks, all your thoughts are being taken into consideration) and an evening at Rich’s for the latest round of Couch Potato. Award yourself 500 bonus SFX points* if you can guess the theme from this choice quote: “This is the campest Starfleet I’ve ever seen.”
Russell’s as insane as ever. He actually came in on Monday morning with a LIST of what he’d watched over the weekend. Basically he didn’t leave the house except for some hunting and gathering. His list went something like this: Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (six episodes and extras), Land Of The Giants (six episodes and extras), The Prisoner “Schizoid Man” commentary, Virgin Witch (sleazy Brit horror from 1970), The Strange Door (Boris Karloff chiller), episode five of Marchlands , “Abducted By The Daleks” (“for research purposes, honest”), Wake Wood (twisted new horror film) and non genre stuff like Alan Partridge on the internet (“brilliant!”), the extras on Mary And Max , Lee Mack sitcom Not Going Out , Laurel and Hardy in Bogus Bandits , a documentary on the Beatles at the Cavern and a YouTube debate on religion with Grayling, Hitchens, Dawkins and Scruton. Many of these were for work, he tells us. We think he needs a lie down. Pity he has half the mag still to sub...
Nick and Dave G are both living it large in the Big Smoke this morning. And by living it large we mean working. Nick is interviewing a certain X-person and Dave G is, er, experiencing the Doctor Who Experience. As exciting as this would usually be to Dave, it pales in comparison to the lifelong ambition he’ll be fulfilling there this afternoon as he be pops into broadcasting house to record a segment for Radio 4. Nothing to do with SF though so we weren’t really listening when he told us about it.
Ade wants to say a massive thank you to Verity Hayter for sending us an amazing package of sweetie goodness all the way from Scotland. We've been diving in all morning as its another manic deadline week and a sugar rush will be much appreciated.
Ade’s also really pleased to tell you that we have raised just over £2000 from the Great Ormond St auction we did at the Weekender, not forgetting of course the money Dave Golder raised by getting his head shaved. He’ll be taking a trip to the hospital in a couple of weeks so will let you know how it all goes.
Rob has finally found somewhere to live in Bath, and although he's sad to be (temporarily) leaving his girl and his cat, he's pleased he won't have to get up five minutes after going to bed to make the trek from Oxford any more. He's also finally got his hands on Batman: Arkham Asylum and is thoroughly enjoying spending his evenings pretending to be the caped crusader. Unfortunately, his attempts to lob a grapple hook on top of SFX towers and pull himself up haven't quite gone according to plan - turns out it takes more than a pair of Batman pants to imitate the Dark Knight, which came as quite a surprise.
Dave B and Jon are downstairs. Still. And Rich is reading (and enjoying) lots of pages from issue 207. The only thing that's delaying Ian's reviews section from being completed now is... er... Ian. So he's at home, slaving away over reviews of Skyline , Primal and Doctor Who: Mara Tales , and trying not to let the fact that one of his cats keeps lying across the keyboard with its legs in the air distract him. Having experienced life in Ian’s shoes (not literally) yesterday while putting the videogames reviews page together, Jordan decided to spend the evening with some hardcore horror cinema – namely The Human Centipede – but wimped out at the last minute. To be fair he was feeling moderately suicidal after watching this traumatising (but ace) trailer for upcoming videogame Dead Island . Looks like wholesome family fun!
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Random Quote Of The Week: “And this is what human genitalia looks like.”
Whose Socks? (last time’s answer: they were Catherine’s (shiny gold), Jordan’s (black leather) and Dave G’s (black canvas) Converse!)
*Note: SFX points are non-redeemable and non-refundable.
