BBC News - Wednesday, 19 February, 2003, 13:55 GMT

The film, to be produced by Elizabeth Karlsen of Little Voice fame, will concentrate on Hendrix’s last days in London before his death inSeptember 1970.

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Came across the above news item in my incessant web surfing and was immediately intrigued, as a long-time Hendrix fan. Ever since I’ve been trying to figure out what happened to this flick.

Paul Greengrass has went on to direct two Bourne blockbusters, as well as United 93.

I e-mailed the UK film Council to see if I could find out what happened to this film, and got the phone number for the production company- Number 9 Films. I’d already found the name of the production company but had managed to find very little info about them- they don’t have a website. I wrote back to the UK Film Council saying that it was too expensive to phone England and did they have an e-mail address for Number 9 Films? I also averred that if I’d given someone £94,000 I’d expect them to have a website! The UK Film Council has provided me with an email address- let’s see what happens. They also said “we don’t require production companies to have website in order to fund their projects.”

Two guys out in an apartment in Timonium had me jump around in front a green screen last Thursday. It was a good time! They had a $5,000 Panasonic digital video camera and an idea for an entry into some contest the FX channel is having. They’re shooting a 3 minute demo/pilot for some comedy show. Of that three-minute pilot, there’s 30 seconds of a fake Karate commercial. The main character watches a Karate commercial on TV. I’m the star of that Karate commercial. The guys filmed me for two hours and of that two hours they’re going to edit it down to 30 seconds. Should be interesting. I had at least three lines: “I will teach you how to fight!” “You will learn Tiger Style, Seven Circles of Death, and how to Destroy All Opposition!” “No degree needed for assistant sensei.” I jumped around and did punches and kicks, played a guitar, and waved a large American flag, among other things. The finished product will be online eventually- I’m looking forward to seeing how it all turns out. It just goes to show that you can be pretty inventive these days with a good digital video camera and video editing software. Another good thing about the shoot was how quick it all happened- I learned about the shoot on a Tuesday and by Thursday I was doing it. My acting career rockets to new heights!

To see my headshot and some clips, go to:

 http://www.joshuaberlow.com/actor.htm

The Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

NOVEL

* Baltimore, Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden (Bantam Spectra)
* Generation Loss, Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer Press)
* Sharp Teeth, Toby Barlow (William Heinemann Ltd)
* The Terror, Dan Simmons (Little, Brown)
* Tokyo Year Zero, David Peace (Knopf)

Go to this link to find the finalists in the other categories and for more info about the Shirley Jackson Awards.

http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/sja_2007_finalists.htm

I initially thought that this was some sort of ‘net joke, but it’s just too weird to be made up.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUKL2290323220080422

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises…

“But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it’s become tiny…”