Hello darling, it’s been a while hasn’t it? You look nice though. New hair and…have you been working out? Thought so. Look, I know what you’re thinking, here he is cap in hand, crawling back to us from his latest failure. A man who thought himself bigger, better, brighter than the humble blog that spawned him. I know how you people think. You can smell the guilt oscillating off me in great stinking waves. So here’s my confession.
I’ve been seeing other people. There, I said it. In an effort to expand the ol’ portfolio and convince myself that a creative writing degree hasn’t been a complete waste of time and money, I ended up trying some freelance copy writing and whoring my meagre talents round a few other blogs and magazines. Some of that worked out great and I’ve met some excellent people through the course of that journey. Some of it was more akin to Dante’s explorations of the infernal circle, nosediving further and further into a cocaine fuelled abyss of blatant rudeness and unreasonable expectations. I came to the conclusion that there’s an awful lot of people wandering around in that industry that have never had their eye socket smashed in as a response to some of the shit they come out with and that’s a real shame. Despite the lack of righteous violent reprisal, it’s been a valuable experience that I have learned from none the less and I am grateful for the education and the new tools.
The lesson? It made me realise how much I missed writing with enthusiasm about the things I enjoy. And how sad it makes me to see this Corehammer thing languishing somewhat. I’ve neglected our progeny at the expense of my own ego and that will simply not do. So let’s make some positive changes, lets grow together. The first piece of business has been to rediscover our mission statement… somehow the original credo of ‘punk lads having a laugh’ got lost somewhere along the road.
Secondly we had always talked about broadening the remit of Corehammer’s content, to take in not only gaming but relative music, literature, cinema and experiences. I always wanted this to be something of a magazine with weekly content that would appeal to readers with similar appetites and interests as ourselves. Once again we have fallen a touch short in that regard.
How best to rectify those failings without losing sight of the punk attitude and defiant spirit that is CH’s defining characteristic? Consolidate and expand.The Offspring once suggested that ‘You’ve gotta keep’em seperated’ and that is some great advice when high school gang violence or organising your fried breakfast is the hot topic. But I’m sorry Noodles, when it comes to content for this blog I think quite the opposite. To quote Reservoir Dogs Mr Pink ‘What we need is a little solidarity’. So moving forward we’ll be housing all the various idea strands under one roof to keep Corehammer bumping. To that end we’re adding two new pages.
Dungeonpunx is the title of our occasional RPG podcast. We’d been planning a website to accompany it for some time. To serve as a repository for old episodes of the podcasts and to host articles that were related to the subjects discussed on the show. Those features will now appear here under the heading….wait for it….Dungeonpunx. Makes sense does it not? Marked For Justice was a blog I had planned on doing with some friends to expand upon the Chronicles Of Ridic: movie review series and the regular Retroview feature on the Dungeonpunx pod.Why the name? Well man like Swoz suggested it as a riff on the typically naff old shite starring Steve Seagal, Jean Claude, Olivier Gruner and all the rest of that wonderful toss. We wanted to look at old action/horror/martial arts movies from our youth and put them under the microscope. Revisit halcyon days when a trip to the Video Shop (with whichever parent had you that weekend) was the highlight of the weekend. It must seem insane to younger generations who can literally watch any movie they want on demand at the touch of a button, but to us old farts the video shop was a temple, a sanctuary. Lets treat these seedy shrines of entertainment with the respect they are due.
Kinda makes sense to host it here rather than let it wander out into cyberspace scared and alone. So now DxP and MFJ are both going to move in here with us alright? All living together, laughing and learning It will be just like that old show Rising Damp. Which makes me Rigsby I guess? Oh.
I’ve reached out to people beyond the immediate CH circle; writers, artists, podcasters and punks who by virtue of their own example simply ‘get it’. You’ll be meeting them soon enough once we commence with the regular posting.
So if you’re still here, cheers for sticking with us. We know the last eighteen months have been a bumpy ride but I’ve got a big old wasp buzzing around up my poop shoot about getting this creaking old ghost ship back on the right course again. Stick around.
And since I mentioned them earlier….
Cheers for the reminder of how good the offspring once were 😀
Genocide still gives me goose bumps when that riff kicks in….
Looking forward to what the future brings, keep it loud and the shits given to -11
Oh man, an Offspring track. I remember smashing a lot of beer bottles to this 25 years ago. 😀
I think that’s a good idea. The whole Oldhammer thing has made me think that there’s a retro/homemade ethos out there that’s not just about wargaming but definitely overlaps with it. It’s like something has been lost along the way of wargaming getting big and it’s up to enthusiasts to find it again.
Looking forward to the new stuff. I still remember getting Robocop and The Long Kiss Goodnight from one of those old video shops.
You’ve got a creative writing degree? Cool. I’ve thought about it at times but worried that I’d end up writing proper books instead of ones with spaceships in!
Glad you’re into it Toby. I really wanna focus on the area of the Venn diagram where all those elements collide. We’ve plenty of naff movies lined up to crucify and the blog has regular updates scheduled for Mondays, Wednesday’s and Fridays. Exciting times!