Gun for hire

So, I have recently applied for jobs in Shanghai, Dubai, the Maldives, New York and plenty more here on the domestic front, which is currently New Zealand. As regular readers of this post will already know, that’s where the so-called Jet-Set Hobo hails from. From December 1965 in a little seaside town in the South Island called Timaru, to be precise. These weren’t exactly ‘hobo’ origins. Yet make no mistake, there wasn’t anything remotely Jet-Set about them either. The Jet-Set Hobo is a total creation, because its author is an actor who read what Michael Caine once said about the secret of success. How it lies in inventing oneself.

Well, I invented myself a long time ago, as a bon viveur and man of letters, and a habitué of stage and screen.

Since then I’ve worked for companies such as Fox Networks, Channel 5 (UK) and The Sc-Fi Channel. That’s just in television. I’ve also penned guidebooks and reviews for people like Time Out, Fodors and Dorling Kindersley. As a performer, I’ve played a crafty Russian spy in a KGB mini series and supplied a monster voice for Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.

In any case I’ve just seen a job description advertised that I probably could have written myself. This was at an employment information resource called Media Match. It’s a good little networking site for film and TV professionals and the companies who wish to employ them.

Plotting and scheming mode now, so must away to formulate that killer application letter. Wish me luck!

The Wildcats Of Piran

Yesterday I finished writing my children’s book, The Wildcats Of Piran. Well, the first draft. There are bound to be a few revisions, but it’s pretty close to its final form methinks. So now to look for an illustrator.

So in a moment, some inspirational images for potential illustrators, plus there are some very good 3D representations of the town here.

All interested inquiries to the author, thanks very much!

Signora Fortuna's Terrace

More pictures after the jump!

Now at last, it can be told…

The Jet-Set Hobo can, from now on, be found at http://trueslant.com/scottyoung

Putting down roots

And here he is, putting down roots at the new site, which appears to have got off to a roaring start.

This page will still be updated from time to time, but please do check out my page on True/Slant.

Christmas Message from the Laburnian Empress

The Intergalatic Empress’ holiday message! Not self-explanatory? Well, those of you who grew up anywhere in the so-called British Commonwealth will remember that every year since 1957, Queen Elizabeth II has broadcast an “address” by radio and television; a tidy, polite little homily for all those millions of people who aren’t often referred to as her subjects these days, and that’s everywhere from Nova Scotia to New Zealand, where I grew up around the same time the counter reformation was going on in Italy. The Queen’s Christmas message was certainly compulsory viewing in my family’s living room back in the year dot. More recently, in a recording studio in London it provided inspiration for a voiceover in a series of animations called the ”Space Cadet Reports”. I wrote and with my phenomally talented brother Craig Young, voiced 26 of these 2-3 minute long interstitials commissioned by the British Sci Fi Channel. You can see 10 of the 26 episodes here if you are game for an inter-galactic giggle – or just click play below for a special Christmas treat. It’s actually Craig doing all the voices in this one – including the garbled screaming and clicking of the Laburian Empress, Chanwick Wahtoosie III, heard here in a rare and brief recording.

Technical glitches blamed in excuse-making exercises by recalcitrant blogger

The Jet Set Hobo has to shout out his most ferociously sincere self-admonitions because he has failed to post, for weeks and weeks now. The alternately frustrating and exciting explanation is that I am blogging as fast as I can elsewhere, for a paid still-under-wraps website backed in part by Forbes Media. From what I gather, the pre-launch trial I am part of now, will be as to blogging as the Manhattan Project was to weapons of mass destruction. I’ve also been writing hotel reviews for Time Out Buenos Aires lately, and I am in the infancy of creating a website that will be called The BA List.

What this means is that this blog wille be updated er, rather sporadically until March 1st, when I can finally direct you to The Jet Set Hobo’s new home in cyberspace at True Slant dot com. I will try and post something once a week here though. Anyway, it’s my birthday on Monday and that always makes me maudlin.  So let’s cheer ourselves up with these photos I took of Recoleta cemetery.

 

Obamaramaloopawopbamboom

 

 

 

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven”

William Wordsworth 

So wrote protean romantic William Wordsworth, talking about the early days of the French Revolution. And look where that all led. (That pre-Hitlerian, empire-line demagogue Napoleon with all his evil works, in case you didn’t know). 

Self coronation

Well, the euphoria greeting the Obama victory was a little like that. If you believe in the man, and you’re under 25, then you’re more likely to think that hallelujah, the new Messiah has stepped onto the world stage, and possibly also that Americans everywhere can once again be proud of their great country.

Faded Grandeur

I am a sucker for it. That’s one of the reasons I like this city so much.

Deco in San Telmo

So, somewhat unusually for this blog, a few snaps taken on my habitual Sunday stroll: The one that was sidetracked to the Gibraltar Pub.

The things you learn in pubs

A short time ago, one David Sheppard, a well-informed and creative Englishman living in Auckland, wrote me a charming letter, in which he suggested that this move of mine to the Argentine capital might not so badly timed after all: “It’s a good time to have nothing to lose” as he wrote. Yes indeed. David had begun his chipper missive with a comment about the shortage of small change in Argentina. As I replied, sometimes the shortage of small change actually works in one’s favour, as in when the Subway ticket vendor can’t give out the correct change, and just waves one on through. It’s less convenient when trying to travel on a bus, when the vending machine only accepts coins and the minimum charge is 90 centavos. Apparently, the centavo literally hasn’t been worth the nickel it is engraved upon.

English pub in BA

The Killing of the New Romantics

Was I ever so svelte?

Hola from Argentina. I’ll have more to say about this place presently: Oodles, in point of fact. For the moment, let me say I am staying with a well-to-do Porteno friend, in a beautiful apartment in ‘Belgrano’: the ambassadorial district. Essentially, I have my own quarters; seperate bathroom, regular maid service, etc. This I could get used to, haha. The city is every bit as great as I remember it; kind of New York and Paris meshed, and still not too hard on the wallet. Prices overall seem to be around 65% to 70% of what they are in New Zealand for example.