Things I Did Yesterday 21/03/09

Oh why not? Yesterday I:

- Felt rather spaced out for most of the day. If you don't know, I've been away in Sydney for the last two weeks for a wedding. Just long enough for my body to properly adjust to the new time zone, so although I managed to get a proper nights sleep on Thursday I still spent the whole day wandering around feeling as though I should be asleep.

- Attempted to sit down and get caught up on emails, web reading and general life admin. Didn't do terribly well. For example, I overspent terribly on my trip and had to borrow from our joint account, which I need to now sit down and calculate a repayment plan for. Couldn't really face that, so I went to the movies instead.

- Saw Bronson, what on the surface appeared to be a Chopper-like biopic of the man glorified by the tabloids as "Britain's Most Violent Prisoner". Charles Bronson (formerly the much milder-sounding Michael Peterson) has - apart from two brief periods of about 2 months each - been in prison for thirty five years, thirty of them held in solitary confinement. They actually have a separate unit set up for him and two other prisoners who are considered too much of a danger to other prisoners and guards to be held on standard cells, though he has apparently not been involved in any violent incidents for the past seven years. Certainly an interesting character, who has also won awards for his art and poetry produced while inside, as well as written a fitness book based around the regime he developed in solitary confinement.

I'm always a little sceptical about this kind of film. I loved Chopper, but it can't be argued that it didn't glamourise the man. Oh sure, he's horrible and there's an attempt to lure you in with his roguish charm then horrify you with the reality of the man, but I can't help that a number of people come away from that film more entertained than anything. Bronson looked much the same, but I'm pleased to say its anything but. I think the kind of guys who would like to glorify a man like Bronson will come away from this wondering what the hell they had just watched. It's art-house through and through, sometimes annoyingly but mostly to good effect. The narrative is unconventional and although it may seem to begin with that Bronson is being set up as something of an anti-hero, by the last scene its clear he is anything but. Not that it condemns, per se, but rather just underlines how tragic he is. There is clearly something in him that can't be fulfilled, a kind of gnawing hunger that has hollowed out his existence and stolen his life away. At least, as portrayed by the film.

All in all, an effective peice of film carried by a fantastic central performance which plays against expectations. It's still sitting with me this morning, which is a good thing.

- Stopped by work and picked up the last couple of weeks worth of comics to read, which I haven't really touched yet. Oh, for those who might be jealous of such things, I also grabbed the uncorrected black and white galley for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910, the first issue of the new series from Messrs. Moore and O'Neill. Started it on the way home but haven't gotten around to finishing it yet (unlike previous series, this is coming out as three 80-page one-shots, each set decades apart over the course of a century). It's curious, reading LOEG with such a different line-up, but I'm warming up to it. It's nice and dense with several strands being set up, including Nemo's daughter struggling with her destiny, the return of a serial killer and Mina and the boys (and boy/girl Orlando) looking into an occult threat which looks to be the overarching plot for the series. So far so good! Nice to read in B&W too.

- Popped out and met Alex for a drink after work with a mind towards getting some dinner and just about fell asleep in the pub. So we came home, got some takeout and chilled.

- I started watching the third-to-last Battlestar Galactica and fell asleep. Woke up just in time to see the credits come up. Went back to sleep.