I’ve been stuck on the idea of having my blog/website in my own name. Last night I finally took the plunge.
Welcome to PaulSchiernecker.com
Blog
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Going live.
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You’re a wizard Paulie.
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to experience the Making Of Harry Potter tour at Warner Bros Studios. It took me back to how I first discovered the books, and how important they became to me. When Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone (book) was released in 1997 I was ten years old. I was prime Harry Potter audience. I didn’t discover the books until two years later when Prisoner Of Azkaban was released and my parents bought me the books as a trilogy boxset. It was the first set of books to grab me since the likes of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had done years earlier. In the space of our two week holiday in France that year I read all three books, and started again on Azkaban which still holds dominion as being my favourite. I was amazed you could have a literary hero who was a geeky teenager in glasses. That’s the role I filled in my family, and there was a tiny bit of me that awaited my Hogwarts letter upon our return home to England. It never arrived and I slowly grew up alongside the books. I went to a midnight opening to get a copy of Deathly Hallows. Since then Harry Potter got sidelined by any number of other pursuits. I had almost forgotten how important the books had been to my teenage years, and the subconscious effect they had on me as a fledgling writer. Luckily for me, there was time to rediscover. On Friday it was my birthday. I turned 26. As part of the league of presents I received my wonderful Gryffindor girlfriend got us tickets for the studio tour. Knowing I was going beforehand (because she can’t keep secrets) we had spent the last couple of weekends watching the films with her brother and his girlfriend Stacy who is the go to girl for all things Potter in my eyes. I also started re-reading the books. This meant by the time we got to Leavesden I was about as giddy as I had been the previous Summer when we went to Disneyland Paris. As soon as you get inside they start the music and the whole experience is absolutely magical. It’s so well constructed and so well organised, and it makes you realise the efforts that went into some of the most important family films of the last twenty years. I won’t say too much else, I just hope the pictures do justice to the marvellous experience.
On the way out you naturally have to walk through the gift shop. I was ready to claim I wasn’t going to buy into the capitalisation of my beloved childhood book series, that I didn’t need any of the branded merchandise they were offering and there was no way I would be fooled. Then I found myself walking out with a t-shirt, a replica wand and a notebook for Kate. It’s an awesome experience for anyone who has been absorbed by the Harry Potter series in the last ten/fifteen years. It’s a fantastic opportunity to geek out and celebrate the wizarding world.
“Mischief managed”.
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A message from James.
Happy birthday mutherfucker lady plucker thumb sucker cum chucker blood sucker in the gutter gay trucker cheese cutter young putter dumb and dummer!! Xx
http://www.nme.com/news/the-cribs/68734
Paul is 26 I bet he enjoys bday bjs and dicks, he has music to play and inject aids, he is going to get munch in the form of man lunch, a munch bunch meat trunch lunch -
Happy birthday to me.
Today I am 26. I wish it was some kind of recognised milestone but as my brother was very clear to point out I’m “basically thirty”.
I’ve spent most of today shut in the dark, recording my new EP. Rees (my buddy and studio tech) is working his magic now to make it sound good. He’s a master at that. I’m just sat enjoying my own dulcet tones.
I’ve already had so many awesome presents. Kate got me two Dylan records and some Hemingway and Wilde books. She’s also taking me to the Harry Potter Studio Tour tomorrow which I’m excited about.I’m looking forward to spending this evening with my family and tomorrow night with my friends. I’m very lucky and very blessed.
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Dating a dude.
Last night I went out for drinks with another guy. For some reason the very prospect of such a venture made me more awkward than my usual state of ‘tensed up and ready to drop dead’.
The reason for this is no fault of my own. Society makes it difficult. This dude (A) and I got chatting at a Christmas party and realised we had loads of stuff in common. We talked about music and university experiences and books. The next time we saw each other, much more sober, it was as if the whole thing had never happened.
I consulted my brother who can often be the Tom Cruise to my Dustin Hoffman.
“Just ask him out man, it’s not gay. You get on. Why are you being weird about it?” – Cracking advice there bro. The problem being I hadn’t asked anyone out in over two years.Eventually I plucked up the courage and asked A out for a beer. I can expressly remember telling him there was nothing gay about it as though this might convince him my intentions were honourable.
It worked. We went out, had some beers, talked about a multitude of things and those first date nerves are out of the way and everything is fine.So don’t let anyone tell you there is something wrong with a bit of man on man time (for want of a better phrase).
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Django Unchained – an almost review.
Last night I finally got to watch the new Tarantino film at the cinema (thanks Kate). It lived up to what I expect from his films. The characters were quick, the acting was spot on and the death count was high. Nobody knows how to spray blood like Tarantino, there is just a red mist over everything.
For a boy who was brought up on a steady diet of spaghetti hoops and Spaghetti Westerns it worked a treat.
While a little on the lengthy side it constantly ebbs to keep interest.
The drawn out scene at dinner is punctuated with the sudden explosive shoot out for which Tarantino has become renowned.Jamie Foxx is one cool cat. He joins the legacy of Pitt, Thurman, Travolta and the like who have shown just how good characters can be. While it can be sent Tarantino has a penchant for stealing characters and story lines from films he personally enjoys, Foxx’s take on Django is entirely his own.
For a film that comes in at just under the three hour tide mark the dialogue is consistently snappy, witty and engaging.The soundtrack is the usual blend of the classic with the disco classic as Django funks his way across the frozen South. I don’t know how or why it is acceptable but it wouldn’t be the same without it. Tarantino has said previously he will write a scene to a song, using it as a basis for the action and its nice to see he hasn’t lost this model for film writing.
Go see it little troublemaker.
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Recording on Friday.
I’m quite excited about the prospect of recording another EP this week. It’s been knocking on my head more than anything else recently. I’m really proud of the songs I’ve written and I feel it’s another step along from the Get Me To Marrakech EP I recorded myself in September of last year.
I can remember one of my friends asking why I didn’t take the time to work on the songs for GMTM for longer, to make sure they were the best they could be and I told her in six months there would be more songs and they would be better, and here I am.
I’m very lucky in the fact I can keep spinning out words at the moment. I haven’t had writer’s block proper in over a year and I feel obligated to push myself while it is coming to me.The plan is for the six or seven tracks to be available as a free download through Bandcamp. I’m also toying with the idea of selling personalised physical copies as well. I might see how the download aspect goes first though.
It is exciting though. I can’t wait.
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Snow Britain – a first world problem.
I don’t know if you are aware but there are other countries where it snows. When this happens life doesn’t come to a standstill, I wonder if there is even a Facebook status about it.
The fact is we love to moan about the weather. In four months time it may well be “that ‘orrible sticky weather”. It’s always too cold, or too wet or too hot or too mild.
I struggle to understand how we got this far as a species when we are dusted in snow. I’m talking more about the south now, I know they have proper snow up north.
How have eons of evolution led to this many car crashes, wet feet and groans about a bit of weather. It’s good for you. It’s bracing. Go and play in it. -
Friends in plays on Leicester Square and how nothing pushes me on like seeing others do well
Morning.
What a great day for fuzzy heads.
I’m a fuzzy head today. Are you a fuzzy head?
Last night I went to see the final night of The Bastard Children Of Remington Steele. Written by brilliant comedienne Sadie Hasler, it’s a dark and twisted comedy about a group of orphans who take on the belief the fictional Remington Steele is their father to assist one girl’s trauma at the loss of her own parents.
It far exceeded my expectations, and really highlights what four people are capable of doing in the confines of a stage play. Everything flowed so incredibly swiftly, they dropped and picked up characters with natural ability, there were heartwarming moments, there were laughs.This morning I am left with the slight hangover of a man coaxed into a cavern to drink red wine, and a desire to work. I would love to write something like that. It was very inspirational, intentionally or not and I have woken with a million thoughts I want to pursue.
First, the book. Then the music. Then the play? -
An unlimited supply (BFI).
Last night I went to the London Comedy Film Festival showing of Wreck It Ralph. I managed to secure a plus one and took my little Mex for an evening out. It was so good. I won’t say too much about the film because that is what Screen Geek expect from me. It is visually incredible and very funny, and fits in nicely with the continuing legacy of Pixar films. That’s it though. That’s all I’m saying.
The showing was followed by a Q&A with director Rich Moore and Sarah Silverman who stars in the film as Vanellope. It has really invigorated my desire to one day make my own film project. I’ve had so many things on the back burner for so long, and I would love to get behind the camera and really make something of them. I think when a director does a job well it shows, and listening to Moore talk last night you could tell he knew he had hit the jackpot and was indeed living the dream.
It’s a shame directors aren’t given more time unless they’ve got all kinds of mega sass and a massive following behind them, because there’s a reason they get to be in charge of these projects, and there is a lot to be gained from them.
Paul Schiernecker 