N A Martin

Martin. And I thought Khayem was keeping things on the lowdown

Please welcome Martin, our final #BlogCon25 interviewee. Martin has been blogging since Methuselah was in short trousers. In The Swede's recent Q&A I referred to him as the Father of the House; in that case, and he probably won't thank me for it, that must make Martin the Grandfather! His New Amusements blog has been a regular feature on my sidebar for as long as I can remember. I know he goes thru phases where he appears on the verge of ragging it all in but then comes back stronger than ever. Long may it continue (as Martin aludes to in the Q&A, we've lost too many great blogs over the years). Right, time for his interrogation to start...

* New Amusements - can you give me five Top Tunes (singles or album tracks) from this century?

Blimey, straight in with a hard one. These aren't the Top 5, that would take an age to work out. But these are all okay, and all 21st Century releases: 

- The WAEVE - Something Pretty

- Cathal Smyth - Are the Children Happy?

- Chris Wood - None the Wiser

- Radiohead - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

- Martin Rossiter - Three Points on a Compass 

Martin Rossiter - Three Points on a Compass (2012)

 

* Ditto Old Amusements - five bangers from before the millennium?

I thought about trying to surprise readers of the blog, but, really, what's the point? So I've reverted to type with five of the usual suspects, but maybe lesser known tracks: 

- The Smiths - Wonderful Woman

- The Wedding Present - Catwoman

- REM - Wolves, Lower

- Gene - Supermarket Bombscare

- The Jam - Life From a Window

* Who/what got you into blogging? 

I think I was just bored. I started in February 2005, a very transitional time for me and a period in which I felt a bit lost, looking for something but not knowing what. I deliberately eschewed Blogger and Wordpress for a long time - I had some free webspace and thought I could do it all myself. And I did: the HTML, the RSS feeds, I even wrote my own Javascript-based commenting system. Eventually I realised that the DIY approach made it very hard to attract any readers, which is how I ended up migrating to Blogger. Most if not all of the blogs that inspired me in the early days are defunct now: Chromewaves was an excellent music blog, as were Too Much Apple Pie and Ghost of Electricity. And of course there was Rol's debut, Sunset Over Slawit. The list of blogs I followed that have now retired is almost as long as the list of active blogs I still follow, and that makes me sad. 

- Supplementary question - you recently took a blogging sabbatical with a difference; no live blog posts but a series of pre-written blogs that went out in their place. What was the thinking behind that and did it achieve what you set out to achieve? 

The intention was to free up time to do other stuff, particularly creative writing. My standard excuse for not writing another, better novel is that I am time-poor. Whatever, I regret to report it didn't work. Sure, I had more free time, but life expanded to swamp it.

- Supplementary question to a supplementary question - do you think you'll still be blogging in five years?

I doubt it. If I am, I'll probably have driven all my remaining readers away by then. If a blogger posts and nobody reads it, are they still a blogger? (A question for the ages - JM.) 

* It's a baking hot day, your car's just been towed, the trains are on strike and the last bus has just gone. You've got yer thumb out by the side of the road and, by chance, two cars pull up at the same time. One's a limo with Noel Gallagher (being chauffeured) in the back - the air con hits you full in the face as he winds down the window and shouts "Get in." But the car behind has got Damon Albarn at the wheel. It's a 1972 Morris Marina belonging to his dad. Damon's got a bit of a sweat on but shouts "Hop in, it's not too bad in here if we keep all the windows open." In the words of the Cars, who's gonna drive you home?

The easiest question on the list. I'll jump in with Damon. This is partly because I think he is probably slightly less of a tool than Noel, but mostly because my oldest friend and blog commenter The Man Of Cheese used to have a Marina, so going for a spin in one of those would bring back some happy memories from the late 80s.

* Is there a film, or a scene from a film, or even a line from a film, that lives/resonates with you?

So many. One I've been thinking a lot about lately, and have blogged about in the past, is the opening scene from American Beauty. This is problematic, of course, because Kevin Spacey has been cancelled, so there's the thorny issue of separating the art from artist. (It's actually easier than you think - JM.) But this scene resonates because of Lester Burnham's experience, and his soliloquy about losing something, feeling sedated hits the spot. Another scene, without any culture wars complications, is the scene from the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis, in which the titular hero talks about being tired.

* How do you file your books - alphabetically by author? Or title? Colour of spine? Size?

When I had time and space, it was alphabetical by author, and then chronological by publication date. Now it's wherever there's space, in rough thematic clumps. It irks me but it's a compromise, so what can I do?

* The time machine question (with a twist). You can go anywhere in time forwards or backwards no question asked. Where and when are you going? The twist to this question is that the owners of the time machine are feeling very benevolent: they're prepared to give you a cheque for £50,000 when you get back for your trouble. Just one slight hitch. If you take the cheque your memories of your visit will be permanently erased. You'll have no recollection of your journey whatsoever, not even in dream flashbacks. You're still gonna take the money, right? 

No, I don't think I am, John, not if the alternative is to travel in time and not be able to remember it. (Is the right answer! - JM.) Sure, it's a lot of money but it's not crazy money. I'd rather go somewhere, some time, else, and be able to remember. As to where and when, well. I've always had an interest in ancient Rome but I think that is probably too far back and that I wouldn't cope well, without the comforts of modern life. I think I'd probably opt for mid-60s, SE England, get myself a scooter and a parka, and live Quadrophenia for real. Plus I could go and visit my parents when they were young, see my older siblings as kids, and acquaint myself with a world and people that I don't recall. 

* Wots yer favourite skyscraper? 

The temptation is to say something obvious like the Chrysler Building - it has the Art Deco thing going on, after all. Although if I was going with New York I'd probably say the very ordinary Rockefeller Center, because you can go up to the roof and see all the other, more beautiful skyscrapers from it. Closer to home, I do quite like 20 Fenchurch Street, aka The Walkie Talkie, because the Skygarden at the top is marvellous. All in all though, I'd probably go for the Montparnasse Tower in Paris. It's a big black monolith that makes me think of 2001, and offers fantastic views over the city, plus I have a great memory from the mid-90s of shooting up to the helipad on the roof in what was then Europe's fastest lift.

* Can you juggle? 

Three balls, yes, all day long. Four balls, not very well. Clubs, barely at all. The demands of life?

Er, how's that? Cheers, Martin. 

*

Thank you, Martin. Pitch perfect!