Time moves on a pace - my homepage relaunch date is drawing near and, as is traditional, I've not done all the writing I've intended to. I'm hoping to get through Pieces, which will be a randomly ordered story similar to B.S.Johnson's The Unfortunates. I've had to boil a life down to 110 little memories, which has been a bit of a struggle. What has been interesting with it is sitting down and planning as much as I could of it, but then, in writing it, finding there were parts I just couldn't or didn't want to write about, and other totally unplanned sections that came to mind and fit really well with the whole work. But completion is still a long way off. I've not yet written the javascript for it yet, deciding that I really ought to work on the text of it first.

I'm also going back and revising the One Hour Photo extended piece I started hem-hem years ago. Taking a break this long has been worthwhile, in that I can now coldly throw out much of what I had already written with regards critical analysis, and start again. Because One Hour Photo is such a packed and textured film, I found my own thoughs about it getting increasingly cluttered. I've managed now to go back to the film and pull out three distinct subjects, which I will be able to tackle separately before tying them all up at the end. Structure, y'see. I've even emailed Mark Romanek to see if he'll fill me in on some curiosities in his CV.

I've also decided to do a shorter companion piece on Static, Mark Romanek's other debut film. Working on them both simultaneously is a bit tricky, in that there are certain similarities between the two films, but it's ground I don't want to tread to firmly in the OHP piece if I'm just repeating what I've already said in the Static piece. The other struggle with the Static piece will be getting production information. I did try and contact the Page Film Unit, Page being where Static was shot, but they've no record of the film in the unit, not even under its working title "Necessity". I've details from an email interview with Keith Gordon which I can put to good use, but his memory is understandably shaky after all this time and relative disinterest. I tentatively asked Romanek if he would consider discussing the film, but don't hold out much hope.

So what to do on relaunch day? It's clear I'm not going to get nearly enough stuff completed, but I have finished a lot that isn't on the old Hamilton's Brain site. First and foremost I have an obscenely fancy menu system (bye-bye switches) and, added to that, I've put up a few short stories, almost all of my God's Rude Wireless articles, and links through to a Wiki site I'm hoping will gain some interest.

I've also very slightly extended the Go Bits and will be adding more stuff to that as time goes on. As I've sat down and structured the OHP and Static articles, I may do a coming soon style teaser menu for them both, which will allow me to add sections as and when I complete them. Pieces is a little trickier, so I may write up an introductory note - I'll have to be a bit tricksy with it though; I laughably consider the story to be art, and I am wary of art that has to be presented with explanation. Also, as I think I have shown in all of the above, talking about my own work is difficult as it tends to make me come off as self-obssessed, arrogant and pretentious (Watashi?).

There's stuff I've yet to even get to, such as a wiki fiction project, and a reinvention of my Spatchcock character (dirty restaurant critic). So much to do, so little me.

I'm going to instigate a monthly update, which will give me the focus to get things complete and presentable at specific times. It should even allow me to honour one of my original intentions, which was to have a new strapline for the loading page every day. I do it to myself, that's the sad thing.

And I've not even mentioned last night! Took in some stand-up, but I'll probably write that up tomorrow, as we're off out for more tonight. Bad pics too!