Celebrating the genius of Gerry Anderson on his birthday with 60 minutes of Spectrum Sounds and Terrahawk tunes in one mighty Mysteron mix.....    

  Beware! It's that pesky preachy/semi-serious final Autism Acceptance Week post incoming that I have to do a variation of every year but only when I've lulled you to a point of comfortableness! Yes, I'm sneaky.  But then again I have to be seeing as being an Autistic parent (of Autistic kids) with hands-on experience of working with vulnerable groups, running projects, setting up charities and the like (I don't just draw the wee pictures you know) I appear to be public enemy number one at times like this.   It's a running joke I have whenever I get asked to be involved in any kind of Autism-based project, from research type things to hands on stuff the folk in charge always say "Oh it's brilliant to actually have someone Autistic involved!" To which I always reply "You say that now but give it a fortnight and you'll be trying your best to get rid of me!" And why? you might ask. Well it seems to be that an Autistic adult with experienc

  A blast from the past today for Autism Acceptance Week 2024, Stuart Cosgrove, Jonny Drury, Scott McIntyre and myself engage in some top Autism dad chat for Scottish Autism from a few years back. Oh yeah and I'm still available for more chats, podcasts etc....and more importantly I'm cheap.  Enjoy!      

      An Autism Acceptance Week post that might - or might not, it's your choice, I'm not your mum - be of interest to those wanting a wee peek into the fabled 'Autistic Mindset'. Or more likely just interested in my work. Don't forget I'm available to hire. Either way, knock yersel' oot as they cry up here.     A few years back top music-type fella - and all round nice bloke - Paul Laird wrote a new book - The Birth and Impact of Britpop. And why the blatant plugging I hear you ask. Well type but you get the picture. It's because I did the illustrations for it and it's kinda interesting as to why I got so excited when Paul approached me. You see when I get approached to do a project the one thing I need to find (in order to actually do it) is a personal 'hook' - no matter what the subject matter or style it has to be something that gets me excited. Simply put if I don't feel I 'get' the subject (even in a small way) then I

  Well, you best get him a plaster then!   Yes, dear reader(s) it's that time of the year again where I drag this out for its annual - slightly rewritten - airing. You may not know/care that in 'the real life' I spend the time between drawing stuff for a living and wandering around meeting various folk to find out what they actually want me to draw (it keeps me off - well on - the streets I guess)  inanely blogging about films.  And sometimes (not often mind) serious organizations will even ask me to talk about them. As was the case with the Autism Through Cinema project who invited me to wax lyrically - and probably a wee bit over-excitedly - about THE greatest animated movie ever, Disney/Pixars Cars . By the way you, if that wasn't sweary enough for you, you can find my usual cinematic ramblings here but beware as it's frequently not safe for work according to Google. And it's probably not safe to read at home too. Especially if you care about the pr

    I reckon that World Autism Acceptance Week is as good an excuse as any to reshare the transcript of my Spectrum Sinema performance from The Edinburgh Fringe last year - the actual gig was edited for timing reasons/my rambling ways so it was fairly short 'n' snappy which was unusual for me but it seemed to go down OK. I mean there were no walk-outs but I did make a man visibly uncomfortable with the sheer Autistic intensity of my love for the films of 1982. This has been a dream of mine for years if I'm honest. Which I always am obviously seeing as Autistics are incapable of lying. Probably. Anyway, rather than share the short 'live' presentation I've decided instead to post the current work in progress long version of it. You see I'm planning writing (or maybe even performing) the whole thing - and more - at some point so see this as a taster. Regular readers may recognize some bits from previous posts but you've got to start somewhere and if