Playing the machine
I suppose, to be fair its a bit of a case of swings, and roundabouts, in that if I wasnt off work because of my brain issues, I wouldnt be in a position to accept a one off acting part, but equally, if I hadnt had the last seizure on the weekend I was meant to have my MRI done, I’d possibly have been free by now to fly to the US, and signed off from standard work on the ground of said brain issues, so I could have considered such a role. Ah well…
Mind, even then, currently I wouldnt consider flying to LA to film a short movie, if it wasnt for what the part what. Yes, a female robot! Yes, the request for an actress to play such a role appeared on the most obvious site for it to appear, Fembot Central. I’ve no idea what type of robot he was looking for, because there was no age limit mentioned, and there was no mention of it requiring a ‘sexy’ robot either. No, my big problem was the fact he wanted to get it filmed in the next few weeks, judging by his comments, and strictly I’m grounded at present because of the brain seizures until they find out whats actually causing them. Even allowing for the fact that the MRI is only 2 weeks tomorrow, its still going to take a while after that for the results to be looked at, the neurologist to give me the news, and then get any travel plans sorted out, lets face it.
But yes, I still decided to write, show some interest, but as I suspected, he looking to film it in the next 2-3 weeks, while not mentioning that my age would be a problem. Yes, I mentioned my 35 years of dramatics (including a couple of brief robot playing moments), which lets face it, gives a major clue that I’m not a cute 20 something, lol. I thought that was a neat way of mentioning the age thing, dont you reckon? Didnt seem to concern him, just my immediate availability (or lack of it) that was the problem. Of course, in these ‘sue at any excuse’ days, he may have just used that as a workaround from not saying I was too old! Of course, if the actress is wearing a robot mask/hood, or a full body robot suit, that wouldnt be a concern would it? Given he mentioned a voice track, and playing the robot as separate concerns, not just as one, I suspect the face might well be covered, if not the whole body?
Yes, you’re right, I’d love it all the more, the more I’m a robot, and the less I’m a human, anyway! Thats right, neither previous robot piece got me any kind of chrome body/face covering, shame! But no, I’m too sweet to hope that he might not find anyone for a few months, but anyway…
But yes, I dont deny it, I’d love the chance to do the full robot look (the fuller the better) just once before I accept I have to give up on the acting stuff, because of everything. Either acting, or a convention robot, or well, make an offer!
So yes, it hurts, but equally, if it wasnt for the issue with my brain which needs looking into, I wouldnt think about anything like this, before retirement anyway, ah well…
Oh, I have got a friend going to one of these convention things in Atlanta this weekend, and saying he’ll look for a robot/space girl/alien outfit for me, but I suspect at a sensible price, the latter two are more likely. Mind, they’d be a lot of fun regardless, I must say!
OK, video time. The voice might be the same, but its not the OMD version, its the original Elektric Music one. Yes, Andy McCluskey sang on both! The video is a more recent addition, put together by someone from a 2014 film, Automata.
Girls, boys, and so much more
I’m not claiming that I thought I knew all of the LGBT+ terms that people use nowadays, but I thought I knew most of them, but showed up my lack of knowledge yesterday.
Had a request by email, and on the work intranet yesterday for people to act as representatives for a Princes Trust panel early next year. Thing is, as they put it, they were after the lesser represented groups to come forward. And yes, seemingly according to this, Intersex, and Non Binary are far too normal, lol. As for Transgender, and Pansexual, and the like, no thanks.
No, the people they were looking for, were from the following groups, and in truth, I had to look these up to know what they were.
http://gender.wikia.com/wiki/Bigender
http://gender.wikia.com/wiki/Demigirl
http://gender.wikia.com/wiki/Demiguy
So yes, even someone with as much involvement as I have, can learn something new!
In truth, I dont really mind what term any person chooses to select for themselves, its all a personal choice. At the same time, there is a point where you can see why the ghastly ‘rabid right wing Christian nutcases’ might be entitled to shout enough, in their eyes at least?
Oh fine, if someone wants to offer me the chance to be officially designated as a Fembot, I wont say no! 😛 Ooh, zap me baby, lol! Yeah, I wish!
………….
Lastly, my patience finally ran out with First Buses again. 3rd letter of complaint in about 6 months, not that I’ve even had the courtesy of a reply to the previous two, so this time I’ve mentioned passing it on to the controlling board if I dont get a reply.
I wasnt looking forward to a physio appointment at 4.45 tonight, travel wise, and I was proved right. I got back to the bus stop at 5.17, raining, and cold, less than perfect conditions for me. Still, by using all options, I should have had a bus coming along every 5 minutes. I waited 29! After all that, the bus driver had to go ‘somewhere’ when we finally reached town, and that was another 10 minutes delay. Yes, I might have just ‘slightly’ laid on how disabled I am, but by the time I got home, the back felt pretty dreadful, so… and Monday’s journey home was an hour longer than it should have been, and was only that because I got a taxi home from town!
Still wont hold my breath for even the respect of a reply, despite all that, mind, they really are a dreadful company.
Right, video time. Back to the initial subject for this. Some live Blur, though to say Damon Albarn looks less than enthused would be putting it mildly!
When someone is on the line, 625 of them!
Lets just say that you never know who has seen you in the past, and I dont mean stalkers!
My first appearance on National TV, I never got to see! Why? Because I was about 12 at the time, and BBC pictures of Live Sunday League Cricket seemingly caught me on TV. I was at Gillingham, watching the game live, and seemingly my mother had it on TV at home. Yes, you can put two and two together, she saw me on TV. And because nothing was recorded back then, it was before the days of video recorders, and all that (hey, we only had black & white TV at the time, early 70’s), so its safely lost in time. I gather I followed up on a couple of other visits to cricket games (Kent were a strong side, reached cup finals back then) being on TV for at least a few brief seconds!
My first ‘proper’ showing on TV was soon after I started at William Hill in Somerset. It was a ‘well known fact’ that the government were going to change the betting tax rules at that point, and they wanted a representative from within the industry to comment on TV about it, for a couple of minutes of interview. Fine, head office was nowhere nearby, they knew I’d done some acting, so got asked if I would do it, and said yes. Again, I never got to see it, as I was still at work when it was shown on local TV. I did do a couple more related pieces for them before I left there in 1999, but it was unpaid work, and not exactly regular work either!
I did a couple more after moving to another shop in Newbury, again both betting industry related, though I did manage to catch at least one of them on TV! Nothing to get excited about, it lasted about 30 seconds post edit, but hey, I’d seen me on Local TV! I also gather that a play I worked in, during that time was filmed for TV publicity, though I have never seen it, so I have no idea if I appeared in the background or not!
After that, I managed to do a few more TV appearances, most of which I’ve never seen, because they were for foreign TV companies. I did some fembot related documentaries for a Canadian company, and a couple of US companies, which as far as I know, never showed over here. I did at one point have a video tape of the Canadian one, but have no idea where it is now! So no begging me to put it on You Tube lol!
Since then I’ve done a few diversity related appearances, pretty brief pieces, and no, I dont remember seeing them either. Again mainly because it seemed to be studios from across the Atlantic that was attracted to me! The British ones, no idea, but dont remember seeing them at least.
I’m told I’m in a few pieces on You Tube. An eclectic mix of snippets of said TV performances I suspect, some of the acting performances got there after they happened, and one rather lengthy hypno piece that I did with someone in Chester, about 4 years ago, that I blogged about. No, dont bother going looking for it, its tagged as private, so the only way you’d find it, is if you asked me nicely for the link! The others are out there somewhere, though I have no idea what they are, or where, never looked for them!
The only thing I know of recently (unless I’ve been in a crowd shot at a baseball game) that has been recorded, was the diversity presentation inside the Civil Service last winter. As far as I know, that was only recorded for internal purposes, so sorry, folks.
Where is this leading to, I hear you ask? Well, earlier this week, someone ‘friended’ me on Facebook, and told me that he’d done it because he’d seen me on MSNBC a few years ago. No, courage failed me to ask if it was robot related, or diversity related, though I suspect it was the latter. But yes, isnt it funny how fame can suddenly come back into your life? Fine, not real fame, but at this point in my career…
I suspect now, if I was to do anything, it would be LGBT diversity related, though its not so long ago that a fembot related documentary could have happened, had I been in Southern California, but I wasnt, at the right time. A couple of months later, but they wanted it done, so…who knows? But yes, if I was to do any speaking now, on any media, I suspect its more likely to be about LGBT, old age, disability, or combination thereof! In fact, someone would love me to do that to a Trans group in Florida, but fine, finances are my issue! But yes, I would, if I could!
OK, video time. Its a well known group, but one of their lesser songs. There is a clue in the blog title, but I doubt anyone could work it out from that!
One of these days, it wont be just talk!
One thing you quickly discover with the internet is that a lot of people are all talk, and no action. In other words, they come up with these interesting (to me at least) ideas, but when people actually show an interest in it, they just disappear again, as fast as they arrived. Yes, this looks like another one, much to my disappointment. Just over a week ago, over at Fembot Central, this headline appeared on a thread
An idea for actual conversion, looking for willing subjects!
So, unsurprisingly enough, I showed cautious interest. No, not cautious as in, do I want to be converted into a robot, because the answer clearly is yes! Even if its more of an organic, controlled robot, than anything more deliciously cybernetic, its a start!
His answers started impressively, answers clearly thought through for many issues, and not what I would call beyond potentially possible nowadays. Yes, EEG Caps, and Brain/Computer interface devices, rather than transformation pods, which fine, I would love, but practically, not going to happen for a while yet, in real life!
Anyway, after a weekend of dealing with the matter, seemingly quite professionally, everything has since gone quiet. So yes, I’m assuming it was never beyond a theory in his head, and is never going to happen in reality. Great shame, but am I totally surprised by this? No, not really! I’d love to be proved wrong, believe me I wouldnt, but I’m beginning to suspect he will never be seen, in a meaningful way again. I did send him a message on Skype, just to get a reply that he was trying to check on a couple of things, and would get back to me, but that was Tuesday, and not heard a thing! No, no plans to contact again, and no expectations of hearing anything now, either.
Fine, I was impressed when I saw it, though I couldnt see the practicality of someone controlling several (as was his plan) organic fembots on a long term basis, but I had to hope. Ah well…
On semi related news, the new book is progressing. I have the edited copy back, and if I can work out a way to buy the cover for it, it could be close to release. Snag is, due to the collapse of the pound, due to the Brexit campaign, I havent quite got enough on my pre paid credit card to pay $7 for the image. Minimum top up is £30 ($40), and the finances really arent solid enough this month for that, but fine, its going to be done, I guess?
Why is it related? Well, there is this thing, that generally, when creating robots, it involves a nice zap of electricity to the mind, or at least in the movies it does lol! And yes, a little bit of zapping might just be happening in my story, though not to transform anyone into a robot. Having got into the whole subject of ECT, its no surprise I decided to develop it into a story. I know, might hurt some sales, but might make others, who knows? Tackling something different might even prove to be a breakthrough moment? More likely make a few sales, and that will be it, knowing my luck! Yes, when available, I will advertise it, believe me!
In case anyone was wondering, no, I never got to do any more research on ECT treatment than I could find online. And I hate to break it to people who are against ECT, but the stuff you see in the movies, isnt general treatment nowadays! Yes, even a placebo walk through would have been helpful, and I did try for that. Not surprised I got no reply from local NHS, but I gave it a go. Yes, a low voltage session might have been even more informative, but practically, I wasnt expecting to get offered that! Bit like the guy offering to turn me into an organic robot, was never likely to happen!
Right, video time. You could jokingly say how a robot might think, especially an organically based one!
The sound of my voice
I meant to post about this in the previous blog, but I forgot…Yes, I’m blonde! So you can have the full length story, covered across from my other blog
Oh goody, you’re in for a video treat tonight. Lets leave it at that, for the length of the blog, at least.
At the beginning of this week, on Fembot Central, someone wanted a woman to do a vocal piece, a half of a conversation between a man, and a fembot. So yes, I said that if no one younger offered to do it, I’d do it for him. I have done these things in the dim, distant past, long before you could record it on to a program, on a laptop, for sure.
And yes, seemingly, its a bit like riding a bike, I soon got the hang of it again, just like reading a script. Fine, its a bit weird, doing your line, waiting a few seconds, and then recording your next line, to give him space to edit his lines into the middle of it. I’ve read scripts before like that, but all players have been there, so its easier to judge the pace. When you’re recording by yourself, hmm?
The other snag I discovered, when it came to do my lines, was exactly how robotic I was meant to be, I forgot to ask. Yes, I know, I was pretty sure he didnt want the monotone robot style, given she was a fembot, created to look like a human. So I played it in a clipped, human way, apart from where she was having difficulties with a malfunction in her system.
Actually, for someone like me, not an expert in technology, I had more fun getting it together, and sending it back to him! I mean, I’m the one who wants to be controlled by computers, not controlling them! Yes, the .wav things (I did one where I used the letter b, one where I used beta, as I wasnt sure which he wanted) I saved them as, was very large, and wasnt going to willingly be sent by email, not even separately. Eventually, the technical blunder girl saved it to her One Drive thing on Hotmail, and sent him the link! Yes, I mean, if we needed it recorded, we were all in one place, and put it on to a tape recorder, or cassette recorder!
Yes, fine, I loved the experience, it was great fun doing something like that again, after so many years. No, I dont think the tape will be going to Hollywood studios, even if it was fun. I’ll see how much he liked my voice, if I passed, I might be doing more. Yes, I’d love a contract, with decent money, for doing these things, but realistically…nope!
So, to that video. In honesty, Ultravox created some great videos. Vienna is the obvious well known one, but the barely known Passing Strangers is one I love, for the whole vintage feel. This one is just plain powerful, and far superior to the other one they made, for this song
stevielounicks 
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