Oh Christ, this morning I had The Mortality Thought. It begins with thinking about how old I might live until and ends with me imagining myself on my death bed: what my last words might be; who might be there; will it be painful? Not a pleasant line of thought to start my day. The other thing I obsess about is knowing that when I’m there, I’ll be thinking “Bloody hell, that went quickly. What happened to the last 30 years?”
Anyway, on with more positive things, yesterday I:
- Got up fairly early and made myself a little plan which I didn’t really follow in the end, but it was nice to have a plan.
- Was sort of amazed by the vitriol I’m getting for my negative review of The Shadow over on my Fright Fest post. Makes me laugh.
- Got an email from Matt Z informing me that Spotify Mobile had been released! Very exciting stuff. So I signed up to the premium service, which I had been looking for an excuse to do anyway, and downloaded the app to my Android phone. So far it’s been a little frustrating. I have a particularly annoying crash problem which locks up my phone, forcing me to pop the battery out to restart. It appears to be download related, as it happened mainly when I was streaming music, or when I was trying to sync playlists for offline play. I’ve raised a support question about it and I’m not the only one having this issue, so hopefully there will be a bug fix soon. Playback of said offline playlists seemed fine. That aside, I’m still excited about it. Okay, so it’s over a 3G connection and therefore missing the P2P quick play experience (each track needs about a 20 second pause to buffer even in good 3G reception) that makes Spotify stand out from the crowd on a desktop, but the interface is all very nice and the offline mode is really what makes it so attractive to me. Spotify has actually become my default music player at home, so being able to build playlists within it to download to my phone (a doddle to do, by the way) is great. Hopefully they’ll sort out the kinks soon.
- Went into town and did some writing, then decided that I would go check out a movie. Timing was good to catch The Hurt Locker, which I was really wanting to see. Excellent film about a bomb squad operating in Iraq. Although it’s been described as deliberately apolitical, I don’t think that’s strictly true. It’s just that the politics aren’t worn on its sleeve and the real message is more along the lines of: War is hell, but war is addictive. It’s a sentiment brought home by one character’s return home at the end of his tour, only to realise that he needs the thrill that war gives him. It’s the only thing he truly loves any more. Anyway, Kathryn Bigelow has always been a director with an eye to suspense and she has never been better. The feeling of imminent danger – from bombs, from snipers and even from friendlies – is brought across in a series of nail-biting set pieces. Highly recommended.
- Came home and did some domestic stuff before having a quick run on Grand Theft Auto 4, which I haven’t played in bloody ages. In fact, after finishing Fallout 3, I had started playing Mass Effect, but realised I had better make GTA my next game to work through, as Alex bought it for me last Christmas and I’d hardly touched it. Well, not like it’s a hardship, eh? One funny thing: I got laid in the game, which was represented by a dawn cityscape with a soundtrack of sexual ecstasy and a vibrating controller. Quite. Then stole a taxi and helped a West Indian gangster kill a bunch of rival drug dealers. And enjoyed it.
- Watched an episode of Band of Brothers (the excellent “Bastogne”) before settling down with Alex to watch the second True Blood. Still undecided on this, plus I keep getting this creeping question: would I read this? Given my general distaste for “paranormal romance” novels, I suspect not. This inevitably leads to the question: why am I watching this? Oh well, we’ll see.
My Photos
www.flickr.com
|
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Things I Did Yesterday 08/09/09
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Things I Did Yesterday 06/09/09
Quickly! Quickly, Andrew! Yesterday you:
- Got up and did the dishes, as you knew you were going to be out last night and working today. You didn't want to risk wifey's wrath, as you'd left them about all you could get away with already.
- Worked, mainly stuck up on the till, though you managed to get a few things done. You sure have a lot of work to get through, Andrew. Better pull finger! Still, there were only three of you yesterday, so it's hardly surprising.
- Met up with a bunch of good folks for the lovely Ellen's birthday. Wandered up to Lamb's Conduit Street for a drink before heading to the Brunswick Centre for dinner at Giraffe (though wifey missed it, as she wasn't feeling too well). You had a chicken blt burger, and it was very nice indeed. A last drink at the Doric Arms in Euston (a curious den of iniquity with an appealing Euston-themed décor) then you walked out the door, straight into a 476 and all the way home.
- Had a bloody awful night's sleep. You may have snored a bit, my friend. That would explain the ragged throat this morning.
Fright Fest, Baby!
So I completely forgot that I wrote a few notes about Fright Fest the other morning! I had a great time over the weekend, my fears of a numb ass and just general burnout coming to nothing. I must admit, working on the Saturday was probably not a bad thing just to break it up, but I'd still like to get a weekend pass one of these years. But anyhow, I saw me some movies!
The Horseman – A gritty revenge thriller from Australia. Apparently made on a shoestring by way of local financing, it’s an impressive feature with an excellent performance from lead Peter Marshall. As the father of a girl found dead from a drug overdose after starring in a seedy porn film, he grounds what could have been a schlocky exploitation flick. The grainy, digital cinematography – now pretty much a standard look for any low-budget horror – is well handled, adding to the atmosphere rather than distracting. It also has the distinction of being unflinching, but only when it really wants to hit home. It often cuts away from the extreme violence, be it genital mutilation or just bashing someone’s head in, saving the explicit shots for moments when they have real impact. But it’s the performances that really make this work. They lift it above the material, bringing real drama to proceedings as the father’s trail of revenge harvests bitter fruit. A great little film and probably my favourite of the fest.
Beware The Moon – A fan-made American Werewolf in London documentary, looking back at its production and release in an exhaustive series of interviews with the key participants. It’s almost a scene-by-scene breakdown of the film which will be great as a DVD extra, but ran a little too long for a theatrical showing. It was quite obviously intended to be carved into 10-minute segments and would be great to dip in and out of, but as interesting as it was I just found my attention wavering after 140-odd minutes of talking heads with a few brief behind the scenes clips. Still, a nice labour of love which really added to the experience of watching the actual film.
An American Werewolf In London – This was a newly remastered version, projected from blueray, and the clean-up job on it is certainly impressive. Landis introduced the film and did a Q&A afterward, which was entertaining if not terribly informative. The film is of course still great. As much as people might tell you the transformation sequence is still as impressive as ever, it has dated somewhat now, but that’s really not what makes this film. The blend of humour, horror and drama has still never been topped to my mind, best encapsulated in the film’s opening sequence. One of my favourite films and a real joy to see on the big screen. Also, John Landis, while coming across as a bit of an arrogant bully, is very funny and not at all shy about speaking his mind. He was also very good about making sure that anyone present who was involved in the production came up onto the stage.
The Shadow – Well, this was certainly the lowlight of the festival for me. Luckily it was the only real duff film I saw all weekend. Touted by festival organisers as being the discovery of the weekend and the renaissance of Italian horror, Shadow is the brainchild of Federico Zampaglione, an Italian pop-rock megastar (apparently) making his directorial debut. It would seem that this has probably been knocking around Mr Zampaglione's head for some time, like since he was about 14, because that’s about the level of it. Basically (SPOILERS AHEAD) (not that you should care), a soldier comes back from the Iraq war for a cycling holiday in a remote Italian mountain range. He meets a girl and is terrorized by a (ridiculously accented) Brit and American pair who are on a hunting trip. Why? Because the girl makes the Brit miss a deer, so of course they have to die. Anyway, all four stumble into a weird region of the mountains and are captured by a chalky-white figure who takes them back to his Hostel-like torture chamber. There are hints this guy has some kind of Nazi background, but he also has souvenirs of other mass-murders throughout history. Hijinks ensue, torture happens, Brit and Yank die, girl disappears, main guy nearly escapes but pale guy appears at the last second and everything goes black. Main guy wakes in what appears to be the torture chamber but is actually (gasp!) an Iraqi field hospital! Turns out girl is a nurse and Brit & Yank were two soldiers (dead on the tables next to him) who were responsible for some kind of massacre while he was on duty with them. Leaving the scene of said massacre, they hit a landmine. So, wow, that means that, like, the pale figure was actually DEATH! And by fighting on and escaping, he escaped DEATH! Except he didn’t, actually. He got caught before waking up, remember? Oh well, nevermind! Anyway, it thinks it’s terribly clever but isn’t and looks for all the world like a Tool video. Also: it’s a pile of shit. We scurried out as soon as the credits came on to avoid what would no doubt be an embarrassing Q&A with the director.
La Horde – Funny one, this. What starts out as a serious crime drama quickly becomes an OTT, played for laughs, zombie siege flick. Basically, a group of corrupt cops track a gang down to a near-abandoned housing block to exact revenge for the death of one of their own. It all goes tits-up when the gang clocks them before they can attack, kills a couple of them and captures the rest. But before the cops are executed, the dead start returning to life and the tower is suddenly under siege by a ravening zombie mob. So it’s team-up or die time, with double-crosses and inter-group breakdowns along the way. It offers pretty much all you would expect from a film of this type: gore galore, character pick-offs and a downbeat ending. It’s not perfect, but there’s some great action and lots of genuinely good laughs along the way. Recommended, but probably better over a few beers. It may be a while before it surfaces, though. The films only gets a release in France next February, so god only knows when we'll see it again. Oh, they had a review embargo, too.
Trick’R’Treat – This seasonal, twist-in-the-tale anthology horror is a proper 80’s throwback, and a pleasure to watch for it. Witheld from release by Warner since 2007 for reasons no one will explain (but I suspect might have to do with the number of kids involved in the gruesome goings on), it’s about to come out on DVD. The director was present, as mystified as we were as to it’s lack of release. It’s quite mainstream, really, produced by Bryan Singer, featuring the likes of Dylan Baker, Brian Cox & Anna Paquin, and feels like it would be a solid hit for Halloween release. Okay, it makes a conscious step away from pretty young thing horror, but it’s hardly a grungy underground movie. Anyway, a lot of fun and probably a solid hit on DVD. Landis was in attendance. His response during the director Q&A to the Warner decision not to release: “Fuck them!”
Salvage – Made as a part of the Liverpool Year of Culture or somesuch, this is a great low budget horror. The key, as with The Horseman, are the performances. The main cast in this are fantastic and it feels more like some gritty UK drama than a monster movie. A teenage girl, estranged from her career-obsessed mother, is forced to spend Christmas with her, only to walk in on her shagging some random bloke. She runs off to the neighbours and before you know it the military have swooped into the quiet cul-de sac and quarantined people to their homes. Something is loose in the neighbourhood, something which has escaped from a washed up container on the nearby beach. Needless to say, things start going wrong and people start to die. The film definitely tries to say something, mainly about how the government uses fear to make us jump into line, but it has fun along the way. It’s a shame that there are just a couple of people behaving stupidly moments and lapses in logic that almost threaten to break it, but in the end it still impresses through style and performance.
Pontypool – An intriguing concept is the hook for this film: a virulent disease turning people into ravening zombies spreads through the English language. But again, it’s the central performances that really carry it. One performance in particular: Stephen McHattie as washed up DJ Grant Mazzy. McHattie is magnetic, from his initial incredulous reactions to what’s happening in the small Canadian town through to the acceptance of his own role in the spreading – and perhaps curing – of the disease. Performaces are particularly important here, as this is essentially a single-set piece, based around the radio studio Mazzy broadcasts from with a core cast of three (later expanding a little). The horror is mainly just from the callers, describing what’s happening outside in the blizzard conditions. I’ve since found out that it was concurrently produced as a radio play, and that’s not surprising. Like most films of this type it occasionally falls down, here mainly regarding logical inconsistencies with how the concept is treated, but it’s a bold, experimental horror film and is worth seeing for that reason alone. Landis was there. In fact, he seemed to be pretty much everywhere I turned during the festival, and was clearly enjoying himself.
I Sell The Dead – A silly, mish-mash of (mostly) comedy and horror that I absolutely loved from start to finish. I cannot understand how the grossly overrated Dead Snow was seen by many to be the highlight of the festival (a horror/comedy written by someone who just isn’t very funny) when this little gem was forced to languish in the tiny “Discovery” screen. Actually, I could make the same case for any of the films I saw in the small screen. This is a funny, warm-hearted film about a grave-robber who specialises in the undead. It has a strange feel, paying homage to Sam Raimi and the films of Hammer and Amicus. The story, such as it is, is slight, but the characters are a lot of fun as they drunkenly fall from one situation to the next. It has a nice, quirky look, exploiting its low budget to develop a style of its own. Highly recommended.
Black – Curious one this. A modern blaxploitation flick starring a French rapper. It’s actually a very entertaining crime flick with a slight supernatural angle towards the end, but a real mystery as to why it was in the Fright Fest. In fact, the supernatural aspects - all about totem animals possessing the bodies of characters - were the weakest part of the film. It’s on much better ground with the set-up, When our titular anti-hero heads to Senegal after a robbery goes wrong. His cousin has tipped him off to an "easy" diamond heist that doesn’t go as smoothly as he might have hoped. Lead actor MC Jean Gab'1 is a charismatic figure and carries the film well, along with his misfit backup men. It’s exciting and it’s funny, but it’s never, ever horrifying. Worth a look though. Also, Landis did a presentation of Thriller and the making of Thriller beforehand. All well and good, but the bloody film didn’t get started until 12.40am!
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Things I Did Yesterday 02/09/09
Quickly, before dinner is served! Yesterday I:
- Woke up feeling bloody awful. Just tired, tired, tired. Wrote my usual stream of consciousness drivel, then tried to write something creative and got about two paragraphs in before my brain just kind of shut down. The thing I’m fiddling with at the moment is writing character introductions, just random things for characters I’m making up on the spot for all kinds of genres. Yesterday was a boy and girl in a young adults post-apocalyptic setting. But I’ll be buggered if I could actually do it. Every time I set myself to it, a murky fog seemed to roll across my mind. Oh well, maybe today...
- Worked, though I wasn’t able to get straight into the main thing I wanted to do. A bit of tidying and looking at publicity for upcoming signings to start with. Then after lunch I was able to get packing on some library deliveries. Though I ran out of packing material. All told, not a great day.
- Alex came down and met me after work and we wandered an interesting route towards home, which was nice. Thanks to Fright Fest, we spent hardly any time together on the weekend, so it was nice to just hang out. We stopped at Angel and went to a new Turkish place there. The food was delicious.
- Came home and intended to watch something, but just dithered about on the net until it was time to get to bed.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Things I Did Yesterday 26/08/09
In the nick of time! Yesterday I:
- Walked in, which I don’t do nearly as much as I should. It’s amazing how good I was with walking at our old place, and yet the place we’re currently in, though it’s only really another 10 minutes up the road, just seems a whole lot further out. I think it’s a combination of a few things, mainly the unattractive nature of the route (Essex Road...mmm...), the availability of buses along the route (which I didn’t have before), and the fact that the journey time is now that much closer to an hour. But I should get back into the swing of it. I had twigged that by adding less than 5 minutes to the journey time, I could head down a parallel road which took me onto the canal, then rejoining my old walking route. I was enjoying the journey, listening to audio books as I went, but at some point just got out of the habit, which I’m having difficulty re-establishing. It’s a hard knock life, eh?
- Worked. It was Nat’s first day back, so that was nice. Had a meeting with Josh about what’s coming up in the year and what we need to prioritise. Then just got stuck into libraries, which I’m seriously behind with at the moment.
- Met Dana for lunch. She’s looking proper preggers now!
- Worked late, until just after 8. I don’t want to get into the habit of it, but I’ve just got this hump of work to get past and it’s so much nicer working on this kind of thing when the store is empty.
- Got home, had lovely dinner and then talked money a little bit with wifey. We’re looking seriously into house buying now (got ourselves provisional mortgage approval and everything), but first we really need to take our finances in hand. We’re both quite wasteful in our spending, which is something we need to sort out.
- I faffed about a bit, then suddenly it was bedtime! But not before I quickly caught up on Facebook chat (which is awful) with Lisa, who I hadn’t spoken to in ages, and Claudia, who was on very briefly but seems to be settling in slowly but surely to her new LA digs.
- Went to sleep!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Things I Did Yesterday 25/08/09
Crikey! Two days in a row? Well, as it happens, yesterday I:
- Didn’t get up until about 9-ish. I did some internet doodling, then got ready and headed down to Angel to do some writing before I met Doug for lunch.
- Went to Euphorium, a new branch of which recently opened on Islington Green. Nice little chain of cafe’s, with great food and good coffee. Unfortunately their espresso machine was out of commission, so the latter evaded me. Was a slightly weird time sitting in there, as I seemed to be surrounded by people working on various aspects of the business, from a guy sitting over the back from me talking with a bank man about financing an expansion, to the woman sat at a nearby table doing accounts, to the store manager (who had just arrived) talking with various people about restructuring the staff hierarchy, ordering, who has access to the safe and the broken coffee machine. I think I was about the only actual customer in the shop.
- Had a good little writing session, outlining my plans (again), making commitments to regular writing times (again), deciding to get started on the daily blog updates (again) and fleshing out a few ideas I’ve got kicking around (again). Now, it may seem like I’m just repeating myself, but every day is a fresh start and all that. Also, I figure if I keep doing it long enough, something has to stick.
- Met the Fuller-man and had a nice catch-up over a burger, then walked home, grabbing stuff for dinner on the way.
- Did a spot of cleaning, then played some Rock Band 2. Completed a gig in Stockholm that convinced the label to buy us a plane. Let me tell you: Myron Danger, guitarist for Cranial Gunge, totally rules. Ahh, Cranial Gunge. Rodger...you out there?
- Got started on Mass Effect, just getting to the point of landing on the planet’s surface. I like the look of it so far, though. Seems right up my street. Now it may seem that I’m wasting my time playing games here, but actually I hardly ever play on the Xbox and have been wanting to have a weekend where I really put some time into it for ages. So, y’know, now I have.
- Alex got home and settled in for soap night. We had dinner and then I cleared out. Watched episodes 2-4 of Band of Brothers which were great. I was a bit bleh about the first episode, and it does suffer from the US-centric view of the war (there are more Brits playing Americans in the cast than there are Brits playing Brits), but I’m slowly getting drawn into it. Plus, the action (sorry – the harrowing realities of war) is great. Plenty of nice little touches that you don’t often see, too: American Germans fighting with the Nazis; paratroopers losing their equipment during drops; clothes left at the laundrette by troops that have been killed. It’s certainly good enough to keep me watching.
- Oh, went to sleep.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Things I Did Yesterday 24/08/09
Only just shy of a month since last time! Yesterday I:
- Got up at around 8-ish. Faffed about on the internet for a while, just catching up a bit. I’ve fallen ridiculously behind on my RSS feeds lately, just because we’ve been away or out so much that they’ve been building up and I’ve not been able to catch up. This has actually motivated me to cut down on the amount that I’m reading, culling out sites I never seem to find time to read, or that double up excessively with other sites have. Certainly, I’m not going to shed any tears for less time spent in front of the internet. I’m trying to clear things out a little, streamline where my time is going. Mind you, this is hardly a new obsession for me.
- Cleaned the kitchen. May not seem noteworthy, but it was a pretty major job given we hadn’t been home for a number of evenings this week.
- Alex had stayed over at Ben & Michelle’s the night before (I had piked out early, my hangover from Matt’s wedding finally running me to ground). She’d apparently been up until about 5am, so there was no sign of her coming home by midday. I decided to head for a movie.
- Went and saw Inglourious Basterds. I understand it’s been dividing critical opinion and I understand why, but for my part I found it a joy to watch. It’s curiously put together, a mish-mash of styles and odd techniques (for example, one (and only one) character’s back story is preceeded by his own garish blaxploitation-styled logo popping up over a freeze-frame) but it all hangs together. Even the use of Bowie’s Cat People theme song works in a way that it just shouldn’t. The film consists of five chapters, all connected, but each with a different feel, from the brilliant spaghetti western opening chapter to the tense cellar bar espionage riff. The performances are nearly all great, with the only exception being Mike Myers’ bizarre cameo as a British commanding officer. All in all, it’s a film that will stick in the head; certainly my favourite Tarantino since Jackie Brown.
- Came home and played some Rock Band 2, scoring well in Stockholm. Next up: the 744 gig. Time to get my own plane, baby!
- Dithered about a bit before playing some Fallout 3, which I hadn’t touched in ages. Every time I play that game I realise I had completely forgotten how much I enjoy it. The setting is so addictive, even though I’ve now gotten to a level of power where very little is challenging, unless I stumble into a proper nest of bad guys. I guess I could turn the difficulty up...
- Alex arrived home! We had some dinner (mmm...steak’n’chips!), had a little catch up then did our own thing for a bit. She crashed out at around 10, so I went back to Fallout.
- Finished Fallout at around 1am. I was a little disappointed, to be honest. The ending is quite sudden and doesn’t really satisfy at all. Well, it’s all about the journey I guess. Anyway, I’m going to have to go back to an earlier save at some point and continue to explore the world, which still has a lot of blank territory on the map. But first, I’ve got a massive bloody backlog of games to get through, let alone the ones out there I want to buy. So I’ll take this opportunity to play through some other games before coming back to Fallout later. I played through this time as a good guy, but I think maybe I’ll start again as a bastard.
