Inksters Imaginarium

Journey to the centre of the Inksters

2011-12-03T18:16:00.002Z

Inspired by my parody video Hitler's reaction to not being able to get his favourite podcast, My good chum Paul Warren over at The Watchman has come up with this Fabulous piece entitled 'Journey to the centre of The Inkster's Hitlerian Parody'

I particularly like this Image, as Paul has unwittingly given you an all an inside to what goes on in this twisted, dark and depraved mind of mine, and this certainly does deserve to reside here in the Imaginarium. to view more of Paul's work please click here

Hitler's reaction to not being able to get his favourite podcast

2011-12-01T14:39:00.001Z

We've all been there, Wanted to listen to our favorite podcast or podiobook, only to find out we have Problems with our Internet Service Provider.

Now imagine if you were a colorful person such as Adolf Hitler, what sort of reaction would he have. Please note! There are a couple of Naughty words involved so view discretion is advised

The Fledgling

2011-11-22T23:23:00.001Z

Every night I relived

A tragedy death seeing

All who I loved in pain

Over my death and all

I can think is I need of

I’m thirsty and hungry

In every way

Mike Bennett another H.P. Lovecraft classic

2011-11-22T14:14:00.001Z

Mike has been busy beavering away to add some of his readings to youtube. The current reading is The music of Erich Zann.

A deliciously creepy tale of horror and madness from H.P. Lovecraft. A university student takes a room in a Paris lodging house. He meets another tenant, Erich Zann, an old man who plays the viol. At night, the student lies awake listening to the strange, eerie music coming from the old man's room. But he soon learns that is not playing for pleasure.

Artwork by yours truly
Features music: "Violino" by Marco Esu.

A Plea . . . . . .

2011-10-05T13:07:00.003+01:00

BLETCHLEY PARK NEEDS YOU!

You've probably already heard the great news today. If not, pop over to http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/docview.rhtm/651072 and then back here.

Yep, Bletchley Park has been awarded an amazing £4.6m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This is the next stage in a process started by Simon Greenish, Kelsey Griffin and all the hard-working people of the Bletchley Park Trust. I've been lucky enough to see a little of the behind-the-scenes work going on over this bid and it's been a phenomenal mountain to climb. Today they have been rewarded handsomely for their efforts. I salute them.

So what is this money for?

Visitors to Bletchley Park often comment to me on the layout of the Park and the lack of museum-grade facilities. To be fair, they are often sympathetic when I explain the financial plight of the Trust over the years. Bletchley Park has never received any government funding or major corporate sponsorship. It relies on it's visitors and it's volunteers to remain open. The site has been in steady decay since GC&CS left at the end of the war and it's been a struggle, to say the least, to slow that damage. In many cases, reversing has been financially out of the question.

Until today that is.

The plans, as I understand them, are to 'refurbish' Huts 1, 3 & 6 (3 & 6 dealt with German air force and army Enigma messages). These Huts are of significant historical importance so I am giddy with excitement that within the next few years visitors will be able to go inside and soak up the atmosphere. Thankfully, the work will only take them as far as being safe to enter as a full restoration would invoke many health and safety regulations that would undermine their authenticity. Think bright green EXIT signs and the like.

Best of all, we'll get a new visitor's centre in the form of Block C. During the war, Block C was home to a complex and ground-breaking punchcard indexing system built by the British Tabulating Machine company (later ICL). Google have helped raise money for it's restoration, calling it 'the first search engine'. The block is derelict and quite dangerous. Now it's going to be converted into a gateway to Bletchley Park, providing visitors with a much smoother entry process and, of course, a great gift shop to exit through. All in all, this is part of a long-term project to restore the 'heart' of the park to it's condition during the war and to provide museum-grade facilities that do not impede on the atmosphere.

There's a catch.

In order to access the £4.6m, Bletchley Park has to raise an additional £1.7m from other sources. Only then are cheques written and the B&Q shopping list drawn up. So where's that money going to come from? Well, that's down to you and me. Today Bletchley Park launch 'Action This Day!', named after the famous memo Churchill wrote to the Imperial Chief of Staff ordering him to provide Bletchley Park with all the resources it required. This campaign aims to raise £1.7m though donations from both the public and companies willing to be a part of the Bletchley Park story. This is your opportunity to help an important piece of your history be preserved for the nation. Here's a quote from the press release that I think says it all:

The late Professor Richard Holmes said, "The work here at Bletchley Park... was utterly fundamental to the survival of Britain and to the triumph of the West. I’m not actually sure that I can think of very many other places where I could say something as unequivocal as that. This is sacred ground. If this isn’t worth preserving, what is?"

Please, have a rummage down the back of your sofa, smash a piggy bank or better still, pop in to see your boss and ask if the company has chosen a charity to support for 2012, or if they would consider holding their next off-site meeting at Bletchley Park. Anything, big or small, will help.

CLICK HERE AND DONATE! EVERY PENNY COUNTS

Planet Underwood & Flinch Appeal

2011-09-16T18:10:00.001+01:00

My Good Chum Mike Bennet over at Underwood & Flinch Podcast has made an appeal for his listeners to make short audio recordings and send them in. Say who you are, where you are, when and how you listen, and then give someone a shout if you like. Send the finished file in to themikebennett@gmail.com and he'll run it on the podcast. What do you mean your not a listener? Head over to Underwood&Flinch and subscribe!

No Image today because.....

2011-09-06T19:15:00.003+01:00

Most of you do not know this, but I work at a place called Bletchley Park, the following is a true fact

On Saturday 6th September 1941 Churchill pays a visit to Bletchley Park. He is taken into the Huts, and Alan Turing is asked to tell him about the great breakthrough, but the hopelessly shy Alan is unable to say anything so Gordon Welchman takes over and explains that there are three points they wish to make to the P.M. When he finally gets to the end of the second point the Director, Alastair Denniston, interrupts to suggest that Churchill might wish to be moving on; Gordon describes “…whereupon Winston, who was enjoying himself, gave me a grand schoolboy wink and said ´I think there was a third point, Welchman’”. He goes on to visit the machine room, Hut 7, where Ronald Whelan noted that as he passed the sentry on-guard at the entrance “his bodyguards attempted to follow but in a voice which would have done credit to that of a huge bear, he rasped out ´Not You!` causing them to stop dead in their tracks”. The Head of that Hollerith machine installation in Hut 7, Freddie Freeborn, was a great showman. “On entering the Machine Room the visitor was presented with a scene of intense activity. There were 45 machine operators in action at as many machines. Then all the machines were halted at the same instant, and in the complete silence that followed Mr Freeborn gave an introductory explanation….At the conclusion of the demonstrations all machines were brought back into action as the visitor was conducted to the exit, but all brought to rest as Churchill paused on the threshold to make his farewells”. Finally standing outside Hut 6 on a pile of builders rubble, Churchill addresses some of the Codebreakers and starts with the somewhat inauspicious words “You all look very innocent; one would not think you knew anything secret”. But he made up for this by calling them “The Geese that lay the golden eggs – and never cackle!” John Herivel remembers “In just a few words, with deep emotion, he said how grateful he was to us for all the great work we were doing. So that was our finest hour”. But it would seem that Churchill was not entirely reassured by the sight of these clearly ill-disciplined and eccentric folk, more reminiscent of an old University Common Room than of the key battleground of the Intelligence war. When he drove off it is said that Churchill wound down the window of his car, and said to the Director “About that recruitment - I know I told you not to leave a stone unturned but I did not mean you to take me seriously”.

Summer Parade

2011-08-11T21:23:00.003+01:00

Step into the darkness,

Say good bye to the light

We live in an eternity

Were every day is night

Itsy Bitsy Spider

2011-08-11T20:54:00.002+01:00

Well, heres a nice surprise, one of my pieces was recently featured on the Freaking News website, i won a minor award to boot

My Mind Is Going

2011-06-05T21:21:00.002+01:00

Slip and fall into the hole

of your crazy mind

feel the blood run down your flesh

because the world's unkind

look into the eyes of the un-believing

you have noone you can call a friend

feel the heat of your hatred

that you will feel till the end

everyone says you do nothing but lie

but you really tell the truth

everyone looks at you with hatred

like a broken tooth

lie on your bed and listen to the emptiness

of the world that has all but betrayed you

Late Night Rescue

2011-04-23T11:14:00.001+01:00

Well, what can I say, I was working on some fan art for an Mmorpg I play called Regnum, but as per usual a different image came to light.

Too wicked for prayer, too weak for a moan
To be heard in the streets of the crazy town,
Gone mad in the joy of snow coming down:
To be and to die in my terrible woe,
With a bed and a shroud of the beautiful snow.

Helpless and foul as the trampled snow,
His accents of mercy fall soft on thine ear,
"Is there mercy for me? Will He hear my weak prayer?"

Reflection

2011-04-23T11:05:00.000+01:00

This Piece shows Daniel Underwood from a different perspective, possibly his more human side. Maybe all of the atrocities he has been guilty of in the past weigh heavily on his mind

Underwood & Flinch Episode 31

2011-02-05T17:38:00.004Z

Mr. Bennett has excelled himself with the latest episode of U&F. The plot’s intense; equally so are Bennett’s meditations, while never breaking the seamlessness of the story line, on the nature of love and evil. A bullet of a Story—and an absolute bull’s eye.

Depicted here are 2 scenes from the episode, one of John William Brooks as a Gentleman Highwayman and one Of the Black Horse Inn.

I cannot reccomend this episode enough to anyone who fancies something a little but different. Head off to Underwood & Flinch and download the latest episode. Also the story is up for an award, so head over to The Polidori Awards And Vote for U & F

Bedchamber of the Master.

2010-11-23T21:06:00.001Z

A vampire's life cold and dark.
A vampire's life a lonely existence.
My life is a hollow grave dead ground.
The moon kisses while the sun stings and burns.

A vampire's life is dark and dense never dying but never seeing.
We are feared but then what do we fear?
We have everything but it turns out we have nothing.
They want to be us, but in a vampire's life they want death.

The Fledgling

2010-11-23T18:16:00.001Z

I've been rather busy of late so i have been neglecting my duties here, anyway a new image of Underwood for you. This time he's in his vampiric infancy, somewhere back in the 18th Century.

Forbidden Fruit

2010-08-15T23:12:00.001+01:00

Ever wondered what would happen if Mother Nature decided to fight back, well this could be an example of her work

Crawford Tillinghast Concept Art

2010-07-04T21:11:00.005+01:00

The From Beyond Video is almost ready, meanwhile heres a piece of concept artwork for Crawford Tillinghast i used in the storyboard

If you go down to the woods today...

2010-06-24T14:37:00.003+01:00

Underwood & Flinch is back for a second long awaited season. The image shown above is of Underwood himself, so if your on your own, walking through woodland one evening, be careful you don't come across this hungry chap.

How I came across Mike Bennett

I was browsing the Itunes store for some short stories to listen to on the way to work, and came across in the first instance hall of mirrors.

I downloaded 'Night Crossing' as a trial to see how good the pod-cast was as there's many sub-standard ones out there. After listening to the episode, I promptly downloaded the whole of U&F, as I loved Mikes writing and narrating style. Soon after I downloaded the rest of his works.

Its really nice to hear how Mike has progressed from his earlier works to his latest works. I now really look forward to every new pod-cast Mike produces, and I really appreciate his hard work and time, to produce entertainment for myself and every one else. His combination of humour, and suspense make it all in all a great series of works that although are mostly intended for an adult audience, can be enjoyed by most.

Personally i think the likes of L. J. Smith, Charlaine Harris & Stephanie Meyer (the teeny bopper vampire writers) could learn a lot from him, as could Anne Rice to be honest, as she seems to forget too many details in her books so the stories lack continuity. Not so with Mike as we all know. Not only are Mikes stories, enjoyable but they are easy to lose yourself in.

If you want to hear some of Mikes work, click here

From Beyond

2010-06-13T11:50:00.005+01:00

This is the reason I have been so quiet on this blog recently, heres a trailer of H.P. Lovecraft's 'From Beyond'; the forthcoming video collaboration between myself and podcaster, Mike Bennett

Mannequin Genocide (acrylic on canvas)

2010-04-21T15:14:00.002+01:00

    The sky is Red ,the colour of blood ,
    Mannequin's bleed ,yet they are not real ....
   The sky is Red ,the colour of Genocide .
    all is quiet now

From Beyond

2010-04-10T22:15:00.004+01:00

Tillinghast creates an electronic device that emits a resonance wave, which stimulates an affected person’s pineal gland, thereby allowing them to perceive planes of existence outside the scope of accepted reality.

"From Beyond" is a short story by science fiction and horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was written in 1920 and was first published in The Fantasy Fan in June 1934 (Vol. 1, No. 10).

XI

2010-04-08T14:58:00.003+01:00

Henry and Maureen find an unusual cockroach in their apartment, could this be a new species? If it is, it could be the route to fame and fortune… or something far more unpleasant.

XII

2010-04-07T22:30:00.004+01:00

Another image inspired by a Mike Bennett Story. This is from the Hall of mirrors and depicts a certain character who's name I shall not reveal here. To find out you will have to listen to the hall of mirrors series

Dark Insanity

2010-04-02T22:31:00.007+01:00

The time for insanity had come,
The screams of horror,
By that which does not exist,
Comes to life within a slowing heartbeat.

Animals morphing into grotesque figures,
And we're watching you giggle,
As you rip out your much needed organs.
Eyes wild and bright you're going crazy tonight

Banished Forever

2010-04-01T20:31:00.005+01:00

He is an enlightened being who understands love and hate. Love is the frequency of consciousness that unites, heals and brings wholeness. Hate is the frequency of consciousness that separates, hurts and brings disintegration. He knows that love creates conditions of harmony, peace and happiness but hate creates conditions of chaos, death and suffering. An enlightened being knows that God is love. He loves God, but his original love has been twisted because his perspective was corrupted.

Mike Bennett Podcast

2010-03-30T18:19:00.011+01:00

I created this image for my good friend Mike Bennett as an illustration for one of his short stories Hair & Skin.

In Mikes own words:

For millionaire, Charles Mason, when every known, legal hair transplantation method has failed, it's time to embark on a journey into the unknown, the illegal... and the horrific.

The scene above shows poor Charles Mason having umm a problem or 2 - but if you want to know more, then you will have to listen to the story available from itunes or Mike Bennetts sites , the links to the sites are on the left

My (Short) Review of Underwood & Flinch

Mike Bennett is probably the most talented literary talent to take on a classic vampire novel. It is beautifully written and certainly has more literary merit than the vampire stories inhabiting pop culture now. The story is a grand sweeping tale spanning, locales and many exciting events with iconic characters. Mike is a wonderfully Gothic writer writer whose talents far outshine those of Stephen King and others in the field. I even found myself comparing the writing to H.P. Lovecraft, which is high praise indeed coming from a Lovecraft fan like me.

About The Author

Mike Bennett grew up in London and Windsor and spent many years in Brighton where he wrote his first novel, 'One Among the Sleepless.' He published 'One Among the Sleepless' through his own company, Seed Publishing, in 2002.

He moved to Ireland where he podcast 'One Among the Sleepless' from 2006 - 2007, then his short story collection , 'Hall of Mirrors' from 2007 - 08.

He is currently writing the second part to his novel, 'Underwood and Flinch', part 1 can be downloaded as a podcast either from his website or from itunes. He is married and lives in Ireland.