Save 6Music

Sorry for the long absence, but it's been a strange, cold winter. I feel like a 3-yr. old who's been left at the supermarket, following the death of my mother.

My gloom was further heightened by the news that BBC 6Music will be shut next year. But instead of getting mad, I've decided instead to get even.

With manufacturing at an all-time low, the UK now considers its culture to be one of its main 'exports' abroad. By shutting 6Music, the BBC is sending a message to the world and a vote of no confidence in the music that this country is justly famous for.

So please come along to Broadcasting House on Saturday, 27 March if you love John Peel and the music he loved.

Save 6Music!

Urban animals

For some strange reason, I love the sight of lone animals trotting down urban streets. They can be pet cats just out for a stroll, or more commonly, an urbane fox doing its version of the Italian passeggiata.

Some years ago, I was walking home one night in north Kensington, when I sensed a small animal trotting alongside me. Thinking it was a cat or dog, I looked down - only to find a fox, carrying a box of KFC in its jaws. It looked up at me, as if to say, "What are you looking at?"

Animals on city pavements make me smile, because they remind me that we humans do not own the streets. We are not alone, and that's why strolling pussy cats are absolutely wonderful.

As his friend and collaborator Neil Gaiman puts it, Roger Avary's seemingly authentic tweets portray 'jail in 140 characters'.

I've been hooked, to the point where anything I could possibly tweet pales in comparison. Suddenly, my latest favourite film or newest discovery seems inane when you read about how Avary and his fellow inmates scramble for 'meds': 'Ambien, Xanax, Mobic, Valium, Benzodiazepene, etc. '

Avary is currently serving a year-long sentence for DUI. After successfully collaborating with Quentin Tarentino on such projects as Pulp Fiction, he has been working with Gaiman to bring the cult Sandman to the screen.

If it doesn't kill him, jail could be the making of Roger Avary. His pain could be the foundation for even more prize-winning projects, and his next film could make The Shawshank Redemption look like Disney.

Maybe more screenwriters should skip Robert McKee's classes (good though they are) and go straight to jail. They'll collect a whole lot more than $200.