Not one to blow my own trumpet…

Things have been quiet of late in these parts. Jeffman shows willing but must try harder…

A combination of HFoS, research, various other writing projects and a shouty daughter have conspired to keep me from filling you in on all the tedious details of my life. However, a brief respite from the unforgiving schedule of staring blankly at a laptop screen between bouts of nappy wrestling gives me the opportunity to share a spot of news regarding the old writing thing.

Read more »

Desperately Seeking Roy Wood

So I’ve recently written this article for a music magazine chronicling the musical career of Roy Wood. Trouble is, it’s lacking a touch of colour that can only be injected by a spot of input from the bearded Brummie himself.

Image ©EMI/Harvest

You’d think it would be a problem easily remedied. But oh no, not this time.

Read more »

“Looks like we’re shy of one horse…”

Assuming your browser allows images you’ll have noticed this site’s banner and may be wondering what its significance is. None at all really, other than my personal love for Spaghetti Westerns. It’s a still taken from the opening scene of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, which I have photoshopped and performed various feats of jiggery-pokery upon. So long as Paramount doesn’t catch wind, it’ll remain pride of place.

The scene itself is one of the all-time classics of the genre – Jack Elam, Woody Strode, Al Mullock and Charles Bronson meet at a dusty, forsaken train station in the middle of a sunbaked nowhere – though the film itself is not my favourite.

That honour lies with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, its threeway gundown at the climax being ten-or-so minutes of cinematic perfection, unsurpassed anywhere else in film history. There are other close contenders for the title spot too. An article I wrote for LateMag.com discussing a few of my favourite Spaghetti Westerns can be found here.

Read more »

Have Pen, Won’t Travel… reads the card of a man

Have Pen, Won’t Travel. Indeed so.

A curious title for a less than curious blog, no? Maybe not, but I had to call it something.

Anyways, my name is Nick James and I’m a writer (a published one at that). I have numerous bits and bobs scattered across the length and breadth of the internet, as well as in that tried and trusted old dog, print.

I am the author of Head Full of Snow, the psychedelic and progressive rock website that’s making ripples in certain corners of my imagination, and an occasional contributor to both LateMag.com and Little White Lies. But music and film aren’t my only vices.

Gadgetry, technology and ultimately useless stuff I can ill-afford also stokes the creative fires of @jeffman – as I’m known in web circles. Why Jeffman? Why not?

Read more »