In 1985 I wrote a song called Not Just Anything.  In 2009, I rewrote the lyrics to form the song A Room With A View.  Unlike the award winning Merchant Ivory film of the same name (adapted from the 1908 novel by E.M Forster) my song is not a about an Edwardian romance.   In 2007, I had written a filmscript, Mc Reedy’s Christmas (represented by Bicoastal Talent) about a post apocalyptic society and related to climate change in a world where we did nothing to stop it.  The lyrics to A Room With A View were based on Mc Reedy’s world.  Here’s its lyrics: Read the rest of this entry »

  I recorded the song Boulevard of Broken Dreams back in 2005.  It was written 15 years ago in 1990.  In fact, before Green Day put out their version in 2004, there had been 5 other songs with the same title in the years of 1954, 1958, 1957, 1984 and 1989.  In my version, there is mention of Marilyn (Monroe), James Dean and Elvis, referring to the painting by  Gottfried Helnwein also titled Boulevard of Broken Dreams.   My version of the song is basically about our the ‘irrational rationality’ we take for granted in affluent Western societies. Read the rest of this entry »

  For anyone who has been a Baa Baa Black Sheep, you can hear this gothic blues version by Donna Williams and The Aspinauts on our music page. Read the rest of this entry »

  Following the recent incendiary theatrics surrounding international autism expert and author, Tony Attwood, I invited him to a Skype interview.  I recorded the hour long interview in which I asked Tony about his involvement with FAAS, his take on CAAD, his view on autistic culture and the autistic pride movement, about the concept of hate groups and whether he does farcical characterisations of non-spectrum people too.  The result was an amusing interview over on my podcast site, Odd Pod. Read the rest of this entry »

THAT’S SO GAY a song by Donna Williams 2009

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  Michael Jackson was a fascinating human.  But as much as the autistic community wants to claim him as an icon, he was likely only as autistic or not as most members of the human race.  But whether he had Exposure Anxiety, a condition easily confused with (and which commonly co-occurs with autism) is another question, and perhaps he had more of that than most.

As a performer he was fearless, wildly creative, innovative, in his own world and a league of his own.  As a person, he was somewhere between painfully shy and extremely vigilant.  In his interviews he’d fluctuate between almost autistic in his avoidance of direct touch, eye contact and his voice could retreat to a timid whisper.  Then, in the blink of an eye, he could confront before, just as quick, he’d be gone again. Read the rest of this entry »

  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is not Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) but its often confused with it.  Read the rest of this entry »

  In an autism fruit salad can be a range of things and two of us in The Aspinauts experience Tourette’s tics Read the rest of this entry »

At one of my UK lectures a warm, solid personality sat not far from the front.  She exuded a feeling of stability, peace, acceptance and on the break she came over to my book table and gave me a book of her own.  Her name was Phoebe Caldwell.  Read the rest of this entry »

    When an 18 year old Sky Walker, a severely autistic man, bashed his mother to death he was facing charges of murder even though he couldn’t understand the charges of what he’d done.  Read the rest of this entry »