I just submitted my story for tonights 1001 Nights Cast. It will be broadcast live at 20.53 UK time at the site above - just less than four hours from the moment of my posting this. Later it will be added to the archive on the site where you can read it. I will add a link as soon as there is one (here it is!). The prompt for the story was "it is murky and opaque". Click on the tags below to find several other things that I've written here introducing the 1001 project and discussing other contributions.

Meanwhile Lyn Gardner at The Guardian has something on her blog here discussing the publication Programme Notes which she, I and a whole load of other contemporary performance people have contributed to. The book is available from the Live Art Development Agency here and consists of writings, case studies and so on exploring the relationship between mainstream theatre venues here in the UK and more experimental practise. Its a fraught topic, and one which can induce feelings of despair (!) but the hope is that things in the UK are slowly shifting towards a more challenging, open and inclusive definition of what theatre might be, especially in the larger spaces.

Let's hope, keep fingers crossed (and lobby), that further cuts to the Grants For the Arts scheme, or a negative result for the Arts Council in the Government's upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review don't make the environment for innovation even more precarious or hostile.

I definitely won't be applying for this which sounds more insane than almost anything Ballard ever dreamed up. You can wonder really what the organisers - the European Space Agency and the wonderfully titled Institute of Biomedical Problems - are looking to discover. Perhaps the strangest thing about it though is that Endemol aren't involved in any way, at least not yet. As soon as the floods have subsided I am thinking of organising a similar experiment in my cellar, if anyone wants to participate. 

A place to eat where the words ‘fresh food prepared on the premises’ seemed more like a warning than any kind of advertisment or inducement to consume. Indeed as a statement it only seemed to flag the need for more detailed enquiries, suggesting questions like – where exactly on the premises was the food allegedly prepared, by whom and when?

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A very strong new story from M John Harrison here at 1001 Nites Cast from the great prompt "not a hint of irony".  Maybe it's my jetlag but this one seems more melancholic than the others Mike's done there. Perhaps it's all in the narrator's distance from events, and in his articulation of a world in which certain possibilities cannot or should not, or can no longer be explored.

 For no good reason (I think) the story brought to mind these lines which I'd cut and pasted from an online guide to Beijing, a few of years ago.

 After the destruction of all the capital's dogs in 1950, it was the turn of sparrows in 1956. A measure designed to preserve grain, its only effect was to lead to an increase in the insect population. To combat this, all the grass was pulled up, which in turn led to dust storms in the windy winter months.

I'm writing again for the 1001 project on Friday - I have the feeling its going to be a strange one since because of timezones I'm getting the prompt first thing in the morning and I have to have it written by noon.  

In the walkway down to the plane, the guy behind us says:

"Clinton won't be elected. She has such high negatives".