Pimp My Desk

Peace reigns. The pilot is in Greece, the kids are at school, and the hound is asleep. For the first time since July all I can hear is the rain. We managed to squeeze in the last barbecue of the summer a few days ago - golden sunset, citronella candles, shrimp grilling, condensation sliding down a bottle of white wine while Laura Cantrell sang bittersweet Country on the radio. Heaven. I'm a sucker for a bit of C&W once in a while, (what's not to like with all the broken hearts and big hair)? I discovered her work through the late lamented DJ John Peel. You just never get tired of her voice - there's such a beautiful, clear and wistful quality to her work, and great humour in her lyrics ('Oh the whisky makes you sweeter than you are/If I'd quit drinking sooner, I'm sure it wouldn't have gone that far ...'). That she started her recording and DJing career while holding down a day job is also remarkable. When I think of an original voice, I think of her - and that's what we're all aiming for in our work - a clear, original voice that comes from the heart.

Contrast this with Pimp My Ride UK. I end up watching a lot of car programmes by osmosis when the pilot is around. Pimp My Ride US is super cool - a good looking guy backed up by a garage full of dudes who look like they know what they are doing with a monkeywrench. The UK version has a white middle class hip-hop DJ and a pimply band of mechanics with directional haircuts. However, it was a proud moment for the pilot when he ended up sitting next to Westwood (the UK presenter) in the visa queue at the American Embassy a few months ago. Tim Westwood talks in a curious way - there is even a word for it apparently: 'ebonics'. He is no doubt a great DJ, has all the patois, and was even in a gangland drive-by shooting in Kennington where we first lived in London - however (and I'm not alone in this), his voice sounds put on. Perhaps he really does talk like that, but he is the son of a bishop, his first name is Timothy, and he talks like a ... well, as someone eloquently put it on Youtube 'He sounds too posh to talk common.' If you're curious, and your kids love Thomas the Tank Engine you might enjoy this:

TODAY'S PROMPT: How do you find this elusive authentic voice? I had a great meeting with Stewart Ferris (more of that later), and one technique he recommends is to take an author whose work you love and mimic their style: 'Practice emulating the style of the best of the genre or your favourite writer,' he says. 'Don't worry that this sounds like copying. We're all different and inevitably when we try to write like someone else the result is a blending of literary DNA to create a new voice.' Why not give it a go. If you write from the heart, perhaps you will come out with something clear and true like Laura Cantrell, or maybe it will be something quirky like Westwood - it may be different, but at least he's famous, it got him noticed and people are talking about him. Or if the storms and rain are getting to you (and they are to me), why not just have some fun with the kids, get out the glitter glue and Pimp Your Desk or notebook. If the Hadron Collider particle accelerator is going to zap us with strangelets and black holes, we may as well go down looking good.