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London Zoo: [Closed] My Last Saturday Night Open Mic (2jul11)

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      CommentAuthorwarrenellis
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011 edited
     (10000.1)
    FREAKANGELS ends in four episodes' time, and the conclusion of the series is the conclusion of my time on Whitechapel. Whitechapel was never "mine": it's owned and operated, at some expense, by Avatar Press, and kept working by the efforts of Avatar's Chief Mechanic, the priceless Ariana Osborne. The end of FREAKANGELS sees Avatar expanding its webcomics operation -- as in many things, I was the canary in the coalmine for this particular way of doing things with Avatar.

    Ariana won't be going away: she remains the engineer, while Si Spurrier (and, I suspect, others) take on the helmet and rubber underpants of the Warden role for this patch of the internet. I know for a fact that there are more than one new webcomics project coming from Avatar in the next few months, and I hope you'll support them and the creators as you supported me and Paul.

    Perhaps you might even read their fucking websites from time to time. Scum.

    In four weeks, then, I'm off. That said, the next couple of months are serious work crunch for me. So tonight, children, is my last Saturday Night Open Mic.

    After this, either Si will do them, or, if he chooses not to, you can do your own.

    So. It's Saturday night. What have you been up to this week? And how are you going to spend the rest of the year?

    Say hello.
    •  
      CommentAuthorAlan Tyson
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (10000.2)
    We're going to miss you, sir. So at least for me, this last Saturday night is going to be about telling you why I'll miss you - because I might not get another chance.

    I have been introduced to so many strange and new and wonderful things because of countless plugs, notes, and offhand comments that you have made and people you've introduced here. Coilhouse, Witch House, (possibly other houses as well), Richard Kadrey, Garth Ennis, Michael Moorcock, and countless others. Coming to Whitechapel and reading your blog (I never missed a day) and The Sunday Hangover before that made my brain sharp, and continuing to do so has kept it that way. My world has gotten bigger, because you let me see a little of your world.

    You say Whitechapel wasn't yours, and that's probably true. Still: it was an honor to have you on as barman, captain, Wise, Nude Old Man of the Internet Forest, batman and everything else you've been.

    That said, I, for one, welcome our new Spurrier overlord, and as I've been introduced to him through you, I have a good feeling he'll do a bang-up job.

    Hope to see you, if not on the 'net, then on the bookshelves, soon. You made me weird, and for that, you have my thanks.

    Good hunting, sir.
    •  
      CommentAuthorYskaya
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (10000.3)
    So in case I've been too obtuse: Thank you Warren, my thought-leader, internet jesus and get-things-done-inspiration.
    Rest assured I will be watching (and reading the website, you grump) your further experiments as closely as possible without my eyes bleeding and my brain vaporizing.


    Saturday is saturday. All is well with me and mine. I'm working throughout the weekend on fun sekrit stuff.

    Ginja has teased me with writing another story not unlike 'how I became a fox' and I'm building things for other 'chapelers aswell.

    Be seeing all you fun people on the net. take care.
  4.  (10000.4)
    Never really done the Saturday Night thing , but I know it's been important to many people here. I know they'll miss your presence.


    Been writing music ( hitting a harmonium) this week , and just wanted to say that your positive reaction to my stuff from early on was a big deal for me , meant a lot , and helped a lot of other people listen to it ( some of whom even liked it ).Thanks for your generous attention.

    The plan for the rest of the year is to complete and release at least one album and there are also a few gigs lined up at which all Whitechapellers , being more important than anyone else ,would be extremely welcome . Then there's the main goal of spending time with the loved ones , drinking wine , cooking lots of omelettes and finding a way to eliminate this evil government the UK appears to have been saddled with. Or at least shouting a lot at the radio.

    At this exact moment , I'm raising a glass to you. Hang on...NOW. All the best and see you around somewhere. .x
    • CommentAuthormbakunin
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (10000.5)
    So does this mean you're relaunching the-engine.com....?
    •  
      CommentAuthorCat Vincent
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011 edited
     (10000.6)
    Thanks guv'. And thanks to everyone involved at Avatar, and especially Ariana. This place and the crazed souls who inhabit it have widened my horizons, comforted me in bad times... and I'll stop there because There Is No Crying In Whitechapel.

    (And I do read the website. Someone has to.)
  7.  (10000.7)
    So does this mean you're relaunching the-engine.com....?


    No. Why on earth would you think that?
    •  
      CommentAuthorkperkins
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (10000.8)
    Well working tonight as usual (every other sat night), but it's been a good week. I've lost 8 pounds since Monday, with a diet change, 40 more, and I'll be happy. I'm sure it won't continue at that pace, but as long as it continues....
    Warren you say this was never "your" site, I'll disagree. If it wasn't for you a lot of things wouldn't have happened here that have. It would have been a different place. You make people want to make stuff, to explore things. You are a teacher, in the best sense of the word, and I thank you for that.
    I hope that those who follow can do as well.

    And, as always, thanks to Ariana for keeping this place running with bubble-gum, cigarette ash, and red bull.

    the rest of the year shall be spent finishing A Wicked Little Town, and then doing a couple of shorts, and starting a graphic novel (for want of a better phrase). And, probably some painting.

    And I do read you site, and twitter feed, so keep those updated so I have fodder for my monkey-brain. See you on the interwebs.

    Good night, and thanks for all the arse-eels.
    • CommentAuthormbakunin
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (10000.9)
    Because I still have my Engine T-shirt.....and I've been drinking.....
    •  
      CommentAuthorPintSizedCat
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011 edited
     (10000.10)
    Since I've been on whitechapel I have to say I haven't read any freakangels, (the artist style just doesn't do anything for me), however, I have gone through many periods and met many people who are fantastic.

    A shame you'll be stepping away, but I imagine I'll also step away and get on with being single, drinking, going out, and being merry. :) I'll also stay on the IRC channel for those there.

    I look forward to the next adventure you share with us.
    I'll be sharing my adventures at my twitter @PintSizedCat

    Addendum
    Warren, he'll do whatever you want him to!
  11.  (10000.11)
    Cheers Warren, so long and thanks for all the fish eels.

    Echoing others - I've appreciated this space.

    Hope all's well with Whitechapel... has been quite a hellish week, and the tension that's caused has led to a hellish day today - I need to do a lot of calming down. I'm finding weekends extremely hard - I come crashing into them and wake up on Saturday in a state of total panic that I've got to make the most of this little window of time. Because of that I seem to be wrecking them, either floundering around trying to do everything and achieving nothing, or having rows with my partner or probably both. I think I'm recognising that it's a vicious circle, a bad weekend makes the next week worse and so on. Still, there's tomorrow.

    The rest of the year? I don't know... I seem to have made such a hash of the first half, I've not got much hope for the second. Get back in control (or accept the lack of control with grace), is probably the first priority. Get some discipline back is the next. Just a general reboot. Focus my anger at the government into something constructive maybe. We'll see...
    •  
      CommentAuthoroutlawpoet
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011 edited
     (10000.12)
    Gonna miss you boss.

    What have you been up to this week?
    Mostly work, but some cool stuff is brewing at crashspace, we're going to be showing off some cool stuff at TwentyWonder and Create:Fixate, possibly including the new EEG headsets we got for the Neuroscience Group, controlling a display.

    Also the normal sleep deprivation and family drama, but who wants to hear about that?

    And how are you going to spend the rest of the year?
    crashspace is going to continue to grow and be awesome. We're going to finally open up a media wing. Right now the most we have is the blog and recorded livestreams from some events, but we really need to get a coherent internet presence.

    my company SmartAction is doing well, and hopefully things will continue to be good. It's frustrating that the project that I spend the most time on I really can't talk about publicly at all.

    got some other possibilities brewing, a video game incubator with some partners, art projects I keep putting off, reviving a webcomic long forgotten, but just about everything runs up to the time problem.

    Snapshot_20110702
  13.  (10000.13)
    This being your last Saturday Night Open Mic, I could hardly start this post talking about me.

    So, first of all, please show up from time to time. Here I thought about writing "WC might not be 'yours' but it's not the same without you", but true or not, the sappiness of that sentence might give you an organ failure.

    Second of all, thank you for this community. It provided the starting kick to pretty much all of my projects. Even my awful movie reviews in the blog section taught me a lot about cinematic storytelling and gave me the confidence to work as a filmmaker today. Having joined WC at the miserable age of seventeen, this was a great place to grow up, artistically most of all, and make friends. My gratitude also goes to Ariana, Mark and the rest of the WC crew, along with a welcome to the new helmers.

    And finally, good luck on your future projects, Warren. I'm eager to see the formats you will explore and innovate, and the stories you'll tell with them.

    As for me, I'm now a penniless independent filmmaker. I've just been told I'll be directing my second short film, significantly more complex than the first. Having finished the script, I'm now going to plan the shoot. I didn't expect to start doing this in Brazilian soil with Brazilian friends. My life has been weird, wonderfully so. Problems still abound, but they've never been more fun to solve.

    Filmmaking will be my main project for the rest of the year and beyond. I also have one novel being written with three others in the "basic concept" stage, as well as webcomic ideas. Also my usual webcomic, PITCH BLACK, which I'd killed, came back in irregular (i.e. really fucking slow) schedule because I missed doing it and saw no reason to completely stop.

    I'm planning a few trips over the next years, to the UK and the US, so I can finally meet some WCers in person. Perhaps at a comic con.

    So all in all, I'll be very busy with things I love working on. This sounds suspiciously good. With my usual pessimism I can almost feel the gigantic dingleberry dangling over me from life's asshole. It'll probably fall when I realize I'm getting fat again, requiring another suicidal crash diet.

    This will not change my plans to eat a few hot dogs tonight, though.

    Cheers.

    Ah, and a just-taken picture:

  14.  (10000.14)
    Today is trying to finish a short story re-write, read a tonne of plays to find something nice and classic to produce here in Calgary, (currently working through Tom Stoppard) and wrangling an comics anthology project whose title came from on of Warren's Bad Signals... FIGHT COMICS.

    (I've written five different stories for five different artists, which was an ambitious choice to start a self-publishing venture...)

    I've found myself more a listener than a speaker on Whitechapel; after working the day job and keeping up with many different projects, I often find myself with nothing else useful to say. That said, I've encountered so many interesting things just by listening. Much like how William Gibson finds Twitter as his Weirdness Aggregator, Whitechapel has been my 'interesting frothy mad ideas' and 'people making stuff' aggregator, and the community always inspires...

    Thanks again for helping build the playground.
    •  
      CommentAuthorlgenius
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (10000.15)
    Always enjoyed the Open Mics, but being a unemployed and unambitious man I never had need to contribute.
    As for me recently, I have been enjoying the National Rugby League a lot more that the Rugby Union.
    This week was also filled with meeting people who "I'll just love " and "you have so much in common with".
    Instead it involved meeting people who spent nearly a hour talking about how Gremlin's is still a mind fuck and for the first time in my life being accused of snobbery for not preferring Pabst as my beer of choice and smoking cigars instead of rolling my own cigarettes. Which is how I plan on speeding the rest of my year and I plan to get off my ass and finish some stuff that lays in large piles taunting me.

    It seem like your leaving this place in good hands.
    I will miss you coming in and closing threads when that start breaking down or the immediate shut down of useless threads.

    Will continue to read and enjoy your work.
    Thanks

    90% lurker Lance Grubbs
  16.  (10000.16)
    Farewell Lord of the Arse Eels (I feel you should have a business card that says that just for special occasions)

    This week was mostly nothing, but I've actually made it down to my local pubs the last 2 nights in an attempt to stop being such a shut in.
    Last night I had a discussion on whether aliens helped build the pyramids. The guys girlfriend and I fought a valiant losing battle against obstinancy on that.
    Tonight a girl went into the beer garden and returned with a balloon animal from somewhere. No-one knows where she got it from!

    The rest of this year will be spent tying to actually achieve something based on yours and others attempts to get us to Get Excited and Make Something. A novel has crystallised and many short works have found their form thanks to you and this forum. So if I make it medium (I'm not overly ambitious) then there will stilll be stuff the is Your Fault.

    I'm looking forward to Gun Machine.

    Be well, Boss.
    • CommentAuthorDarkest
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011 edited
     (10000.17)
    I'll miss having you round the place Warren. Ah well back to reading Warrenellis.com (This is a lie I checked it 5 subjective minutes ago)

    Don't really know much about Mr. Spurrier but He's made a good impression. Haven't read any Crossed yet because it isn't my cup of tea but if it's available for free, well there's no reason not to give it a try (with a bucket nearby naturally).

    But there is not Ocular Saline in Whitechapel so on with my week.

    I have mostly been doing the important bits of paperwork and orders for my shop putting the little gears for the device to run smoothly. Me and my brother have been doing the local fairs drumming up awareness and making some cash selling a couple of bits and bobs. Did the Godmanchester Gala day today it was ok. Talked to people and I think we increased the awareness of the shop. Exciting.

    On a more personal note I have been poking through my notes for a project I call Abstract which is a sort of supernatural mystery/ investigation set in Toronto.

    Also I have been trying to get out more and do things again because frankly my health is beginning to suffer and if it weren't for the shop I probably would have gone off the deep end.

    Predictions/ Plans for the (rest of the) year:
    Get a "smart" phone. Make an actual effort to get out and meet new people, see new places experience new things. Work towards getting my drivers licence. Properly contemplate learning an instrument (drums are the current front runner). In short get out of my comfort box a little. It's a pity I can't travel because obvious commitments but at least I should be motivated next time I have the opportunity.

    Hope we can keep S.N.O.M. going. I'm off to order some things.

    Edited to say: I appreciate how much Ariana and co work behind the scenes and to hope that Warren still pokes his head round the door on occasion.
    • CommentAuthorRenThing
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (10000.18)
    Hi, Warren.

    What have you been up to this week? Taking care of the kid. California, in that liberal/hippy fashion, has an awesome program where both parents can take six weeks off from work and the state pays for that time (at disability rates which isn't much but it's something) so I've been spending time with him and the wife. He's three months-old today and it's blood marvelous. I've also been (finally) getting back into writing and have downed one short and will be finishing another tomorrow.

    And how are you going to spend the rest of the year? Working, writing, traveling around California for various weddings of friends and with the job the wife just got we'll be finally digging ourselves out of debt.

    Warren, I followed you over here from LJ when you announced Whitechapel years ago and it has been a blast. This place may not have belonged to you but it was more than a little yours, if anything because of the constant threat of the eels if we didn't stay in line. Please come back and visit when you can, you mad old man.
    •  
      CommentAuthorFauxhammer
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (10000.19)
    It's been an honor, Chief.
    •  
      CommentAuthoredward
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (10000.20)
    Hello.

    Though I look more than type I have enjoyed the camaraderie of WC.

    So: tonight after I type this I wll continue making pizza with a hungry- looking Rott' watching every
    movement for falling food.

    Things look bleak for the coming year, trying to hold fast until I can move the dog & I out West hopefully.

    Other than that?

    Sunshine out in the arsehole of Rochester, NY & the hush before the Independance Day clamor.

    (By the way. I am mad about FREAKANGELS. Thank you.)

    E.

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