The mystery benefactor is revealed (well to me!)

I have an important announcement.  All has been revealed. I now know who the mystery benefactor is (and was).  I am sworn to secrecy NOT to reveal who they are though because they want to remain anonymous, but I do now know who it was.  I think the person felt they had to let me know, especially that now my financial situation has improved somewhat. I do understand how this might be annoying for many of my readers, but I would like you to consider a couple of things before you turn off in fury and frustration.

If you consider this mystery to be a little like a piece of magic; mysterious, unexpected, remarkable and memorable.  Would you be really be happier if you knew how it was done?  All the particulars and details of how the smoke and mirrors were manipulated to effect that transformation? Or in fact are you really happier still to be in the dark, Amazed And Astounded And Actually Astonished At All Aspects (to parody my benefactor).  Of course you would, so that’s how it shall remain.  A Marvellous Mystery. I must say though, how very grateful I was and will always be for the generous, warm and caring contribution to my financial situation last year with the anonymous cash donations arriving unannounced in the post.  And all the creative and curious conundrums for me to attempt to solve, which kept my spirits up at a very low ebb. If ever they are in anything like a similar boat, I hope they will let me know so I can reciprocate.

Talking of generous contributions I must let everyone know how well the project to fund Maff’s amazing music is going.  I spent a couple of hours today putting together a fund starter website on Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com). Already, within one day, I have almost raised half of the required project funding.  I am humbled by this, and thanks to those who have given and thanks to those who have taken the time to check it out (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/990902434/mr-alexanders-travelling-show) – I’ve had a few emails from people who say they will give something to the project when they’ve a little more funds.  Listen to me carefully.  I know what it’s like to have so little money you don’t know how you’re going to make it through the week.  Please only give if you really can afford it.  It is a great project but bread is more important than circuses. Especially if the bread is for those around you.

Enough said on the topic of money. On other topics; along with everyone else I am deep into preparation for winter mode.  At least the lorry is sound with no major mechanical challenges and, thanks to my friend Colin who spent this weekend furtling under the Passat (which he generously gave me when I had no car last winter) and which needed a pile of stuff doing to pass the MOT, it is now ready for the test and will now surely pass OK. So I will have a legal car with a tow bar again.  Oh the joys of twenty-first century life.

Cat’s Paw Theatre is readying itself for the winter tour of schools in North Wales.  The Welsh Assembly government has funded another year of schools shows, still on the topic of rape and sexual consent for 14 year olds and has requested us to have the tour translated into the welsh language for welsh-speaking schools.  This has been a great challenge but we have risen to it and next week are rehearsing a welsh-speaking cast into the piece and they are booked every day for three weeks in Gwynedd and Anglesey schools.  I am so proud of this work and hope that, if you are ever able, please come and see this other side of my performing life, particularly this production which opens young people’s eyes to the challenges of sexual relationships at a time in their lives when they can think of little else.

I can almost remember what that used to be like.

All the best from a road near you,

Mr Alexander

A request to all my readers

As you may well know this summer season has been especially exciting because Rhys Edwards, the award-winning documentary film maker has been trailing me filming all the strange and wonderful aspects of my extraordinary life, and I am pleased to say that his final recent visit to Widnes was successful and he now says he has enough ‘in the can’ to finish the short documentary which he is planning to enter for film competitions throughout Europe during the course of next year.  He is to call it ‘The Last Little Show at the End of the World’ which is one of my occasional audience gathering lines, (used especially if I am somewhere where the audience are slow in gathering or look as though they’d prefer to be at home watching tv). I haven’t seen the finished product yet as he is still editing from the hours of footage those special moments that will make the end product a great success.  I have every confidence in his abilities and you can check his films out for yourself on his website (www.rhysedwards.tv).  Included there are his award winning short film ‘A Good Bitch’ and also a lovely film tribute to his daughter Heti.

Part of the agreement between Rhys and me was that there would be enough footage to complete a DVD about Mr Alexander’s Travelling Life.  I am planning to help in the process of editing this over the next few months once the Festival film is finished. 

One of the challenges of this DVD project has been the music.  Rhys has had to pay a small fortune (rightly in some ways) for the performers’ rights for the music I use in my shows for the Festival film. For anyone wondering, I pay the Performing Rights Society for an annual license to use the music in my live shows, but using it for films is a LOT more expensive and it would be far too expensive to use it in the DVD we are planning. 

So I have come up with what I think may be a solution to the problem.  Regular readers of this blog will know that Maff Potts, a musician/composer in Wallingford has recently composed about twenty minutes of original music which he played as live accompaniment to my shows at the BunkFest this year and a recording of which I have been using at shows since then.  I have developed a silent show to this wonderful suite and plan to properly premiere it at Wallingford next year, but I think the music would make the perfect accompaniment to the DVD.  Maff is in agreement and we would both like to have the suite recorded by a small cabaret band so the quality is good enough for the DVD.  The only issue is the cost involved in scoring the suite, rehearsing a band and recording it in a studio.

So what I am launching today is a fund to raise the money for this. I am proposing a sponsorship deal for individuals, associations or companies to raise the required funds, which in total is likely to be in the region of £1000.  If anyone is interested in making a contribution to this I propose the following incentives and rewards:

For £25 sponsorship

A free copy of the DVD

For £50 sponsorship

Two free copies of the DVD signed by all the artists involved

Your name immortalised on the DVD cover

For £100 sponsorship

The above plus

A specific show dedicated to you (or a charity of your choice) during my 2015 season and the contents of all the money taken in the hat at that show (which would be yours or could be donated to your charity)

For £200 sponsorship

The above plus a free show for you, your family, friends or work colleagues at a venue to be decided.  This would be my family party show that includes much of what I do in the stage show, (but without the stage).  Travel costs to the venue might have to be found, but the show itself would be free.

Sponsorships for any larger amounts would receive all the above plus some even more amazing special benefits.

If you are interested in sponsoring Maff Potts’ amazing ‘Mr Alexander’ suite for the DVD, you can got to my Kickstarter funding page (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/990902434/mr-alexanders-travelling-show) to give direct or you can use Paypal to make a payment via the same email address.  Or you can send a cheque to me, David Alexander, at the address below.  Please include your email or snail address. If you would rather donate anonymously please drop me an (anonymous) postcard to

David Alexander

Unit 28 Barrowmore Ltd

Barnhouse Lane

Chester

CH3 7JA

and we will work out something. I like mystery benefactors as you probably know.

Above all you would be directly sponsoring the Arts, without any middle men, administrators or buildings.

Thank you for at least reading this far.

Here is a link to download the music played by Maff on his front room piano. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Download Mr Alexander suite

All the best from a road near you,

Mr Alexander

Bed wars

I cannot believe we’re back to early morning fires and empty trees.  Well not quite empty but looking decidedly patchy. Some delightful colours up here in Cheshire this autumn.  Muddy walks with the wolves and even Mimi is, genetically speaking, 90% wolf (and 10% cotton wool).  The time of free weekends is upon me.

So the time has come for planning a few changes to the living space and I must start with the bed.  I once saw a t-shirt with the slogan ‘I sleep with dogs!’  Funny.  Anyone who has dogs close in their lives know that they are never happier than when they are snuggled up in your bed with you, and if we dog owners are honest there is something very nice about having a warm body snuggled up to your back in the night.  I’m no exception.  Since ‘lives alone with dogs’ is one description of my life I do allow my two, Mimi and Blue, to sleep in the bed with me if they wish.  Many people would say it’s not hygienic or it’s too permissive.  Sod that.  It’s nice and my dogs are clean and I wash my sheets at least once a week.  I’m not involved with them in any other way than emotionally! But I do know them well.  Dogs lovers will be settling down now for a nice doggy chat.  We can go on for hours about our dogs in the way some people will go on about their babies.  If you’re not a dog person then skip the rest of this chapter because it’s mostly about my dogs, with a little bit about my bed.

I actually have three beds in the lorry.  Mine, a guest bed and the dogs’ bed.  I have converted the passenger seat in the lorry cab to the dogs’ bedroom and it works really well.  It’s where I can chuck them if they do come in muddy.  They can keep an eye out for visitors (or intruders) which they consider is part of their job description and they travel there too of course so it’s convenient and obvious.  It means that the lorry cab can be a bit dogodorous (my word but it trips off the tongue and is wonderfully descriptive and accurate).  Non-dog lovers will now decide to stop reading. But I do clean it out regularly and spray with ant-flea stuff. The two can jump through into the front easily and seem to enjoy their own space.  Let’s be honest, it’s a child’s bedroom.  When I do clean it there’s all sorts of doggy bits they’ve taken in there and they make it theirs. 

The second bed is for guests and doubles as my sofa.  I do occasionally have a guest to stay and although they will inevitably be living close with us, it’s perfectly possible to maintain the proprieties of life with someone else for a BRIEF period.  I think any longer would (and did once) send both of us mad, but short breaks are possible and quite fun.

The third bed is ours.  I say ours because I mean mine and the dogs’.  They think of it as theirs which they graciously allow me to share.  The politics and logistics of bedtime are worth observing.  It changes from time to time, but currently they are warring over the prime space.  The bed pulls out slightly so it affords a strange wedgeshape bed, close to the fire (nice in winter!) and with the tv at the bottom it is very cosy indeed.  The wedge makes it about four foot wide at the top and three at the bottom, which fits the human frame really well.  The only reason beds are rectangular is that they’re easier to make like that, but feet don’t actually need all that width.  The prime space is alongside the pillows, against the wall.  It affords a warm, secure protected space, closest to me and Mimi has long held it as hers.  As the senior and Alpha female, she considers it hers and Blue has never tried to take it.  Even if I put her there she moves down either to the foot where there is more space or to about half way down.  All this has been fine until recently when Blue has been surreptitiously invading Mimi’s space and refusing to budge when Mimi grunts and complains about her closeness.  They never fight but the body language is hilarious.  It has become a dance of space claiming, and can go on for hours. And Mimi knows how to patiently explain the situation to me, expecting me to do something about it.  Dog owners will know what I mean by this.  You come to know every nuance of your dog’s behaviours exactly like language, and although it’s not talking, it almost is.

So the bed has to change as this nightly and sometimes extended ritual war is depriving me of sleep.  And I like my sleep.  So today is space change day.  I plan to widen even further the pull out section, making the wedge even wider at the top and hopefully to allow more room for the dogs at the top end of the bed and, at a stroke, restore domestic harmony to the Alexander household. Watch this space.

All the best from a road near you,

Mr Alexander

Photo with Blue invading Mimi’s space on our wedge bed.  Mimi has temporarily given way and is the lump at the foot of the bed!