h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi cactuscafe.

It must be possible to write a variant of the traditional tales that tell about a beggarwoman who comes to a house. One brother treats her roughly and drives her away, only to suffer ill fortune. The other is kind to her and the beggarwoman turns out to be a goddess, or a who can grant a wish.

I love the story about Eddie Murphy.

And I love all those ideas you folk come up with.

hey mvp writerlady,

interesting idea! the mysterious magic person in disguise! I love it!!

Reminds me, a bit, of a story someone once told me, probably well known, about this guy who turned up on the steps of a church, but the people were hostile, and they wouldn't let him in. Turns out he was Jesus (or someone who embodied a healing peaceful force) (it was a sort of like symbolic type story), but they didn't like him. I forgot why they didn't like him. . Sorry ... anyway ... So he was cool with that, and he sat on the steps of the church with all the other errant people who had been thrown out, and told them magic wonderful stories.

I always wanted to make a film of that story, in black and white, with a musical soundtrack.

So .... so .....

grrrr ..... what? well ..... grrrrrr.... its okay, now I have a story trying to fall out of my brain ..... have to go make Notes ...do you think its possible, mvp, or anyone, to write a story with a musical soundtrack, like you'd have to keep writing down what track is playing .... hmm. what song for the beggarwoman in disguise ...

I'm sure the congregation that inspired this famous song were rather embarrassed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9VsF8sCGec

hah! a classic! although I never heard that before, and now I have to think about Johnny PayCheck, so there's the soundtrack then, heheh, already written.

Funny how stories get around, and they change a bit in the telling, but the essence remains the same.



I figured the comeuppance thing at 4.32 am! like, my take on it. sheesh! remind me not to sneak into the AWW ... I can't relax till the ideas fall into place ...heheh, only kidding, about the AWW,I love it, its a challenge.



Its well publicised now, the story of Leonard Cohen, who was about to retire, but then found that his manager or someone had gone off with most of his retirement funds, so he had to go out on the road again, in his mid 70s, did some of the best shows ever, and has now written a new album, with perhaps another to follow ... the point being, he used the fork in the road creatively, rather than getting bitter, so it is a sort of comeuppance theme, is it?I think it is. Creative lateral thinking, rather than revenge.



Anyway, point is, getting back to my low budget, no budget zero-action creative output, , my (true) story might be about walking home for an hour and a half over town, because my wallet got nicked, with the busfare within, and on this walk nothing really happens, except I am sneezing and freezing and wheezing.

Yet there is a heartbeat poetry in the echo of my footsteps, and there is a scruffy pigeon pecking by the fountains in the park, and there is a flash of sunlight on the side of a car, and in this moment of metallic light delight I devote my life to the colour orange for no apparent reason, except that I am suddenly extraordinarily happy that I had to walk home, even though I am freezing and wheezing and sneezing, because it becomes a prose poem that I wouldn't have otherwise experienced,

and that's a good story innit?

no?? .... hmm.

thanks again, all, for idea inspiration.

H

champagne?? Oh no,not champagne. Its six in the morning! this is Bel's fault. what?

What a nightmare having your wallet stolen!

I'm sorry you had your wallet stolen.

But it's true that you notice more things when you walk, from the litter in the gutter to the flowers on the hedge.

yes, and hey ,

and moral of the story, the thief got about fifteen quid, which okaaay is good, but the noticing of the small things is a way of seeing and being, which last longer than fifteen quid, like its a soul feeling, sort of thing, like a different kind of richness.

ooh eh, bit philosophical here tonight. .interesting though, you know, the litter in the gutter to the flowers in the hedgerows. that's really all I have to write about these days, like the small details of life, that aren't really that interesting until the spirit of poetry seizes them by the soul.

OK, so off to write an essay about how the pattern of the shower curtain represents a map of uncertainty, with added blue spirals.

a reliable source in my life called me an Anorak today. this I see as a compliment. off to my journal to analyse the situation.

sorry, something weird happened to my capital letters.

The Anorak

I always think that Anorak sounds like a language spoken somewhere in the Arctic Circle.

The pattern of the shower curtain sounds like one of your amazing photos.

I think it's usually good to be an Anorak. They are thoughtful and patient and knowledgeable.

And isn't the word one of the few words in English that comes from an Inuit language?

So we now have this picture of you in a canoe, paddling between icefloes, thinking about maps of uncertainty.

I have been reading up on this 'anorak' business.

Elektra: Isn't an 'anorak' a windbreaker?

Me: I thought it was a parka.

Turns out I was right. Now, our next question was, 'What's dorky about a parka?' We have been enlightened by Wikipedia. Thank you.

These trainspotters sound like bird watchers to me. Now, although we have bird watchers here, we do not habitually make fun of them, but envy them their eyesight. Trainspotters would have trouble here, as the train is an endangered species in many places.

heheh.

Interesting, Anorak being an inuit word. I did wonder about its origins, with it ending in ak rather than ack. Beautiful word.

Funny thing, mvp, I was in fact in a canoe just the other, paddling between icefloes, sort of , well, it was the Canadian Rockies, well, in fact it was the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne.

You ever been there? Great cafe. They have some great exhibitions there. Depends what you like, of course. Anyway there's this exhibition there right now called Visitor...

you go into a log cabin, and get into a canoe and there's this screen in front of you with a Canadian lake and you can steer the canoe and you can land on the rocky shores, and there's this mysterious landscape with all birdsounds and light on water and everything ... I was in there for ages .. .

The train is an endangered species in the States? Like, the passenger trains? Is this worrying? I feel sad about it. Not the freight trains, surely? Those long long freight trains that go on for ever, like in the songs ..

I have great Anorak delight in watching trains, but I only know about UK trains, I would like to learn more about trains in other countries. I don't record the numbers, I just check the names, and chart their journey .. names like Cornish Riviera .. etc. As if each train is an entity,which it is .. fascinating... ah yes yes yes

typo. means just the other day. of course it does. just the other ... Just the Other .... is there a story title in everything??? I think there is. heheh.

That exhibit sounds like so much fun.

A few years ago, we were down on the wharf in Philadelphia, where they were having an exhibit. I think it was the 400th anniversary of some ship, anyway...

You got inside a big metal box, and strapped yourself into the seats. Then the lights went out and you watched the film. You were a mouse on this 17th-century ship. You ran up a rope and onto the railing...

The thing you were in moved around, so you felt the ship tilt and roll, etc. You went up and down, and finally you landed in Virginia and ran off into the New World. (There to alter the ecosystem, no doubt.)

We had fun talking to the young lady who ran the exhibit. It seems her family owned it, and it spent its spare time parked on their farm out in the country...what a cool way to time travel.

That is waaay cool. . To become a mouse in a 17th century ship. I wish I'd seen that. Might be difficut to un-become the mouse, once the show was over. Un-become? . You know what I mean. . You would live the rest of your life thinking you were a mouse from a 17th century ship. People might find your conversation strangely interesting, tinged with something curious, something otherwordly, kinda mousey. .

Make a good story.

Or else they would offer you cheese.

Or set a tr .....sshh .. no no! ....

I like the mouse-speek.