... about programming, growing up in the 1970's and 80's, games, science fiction, working in a charity book shop, films, spending too much time watching television, living in Basildon and Essex, and whatever else emerges from my fevered imagination. If you're reading this, it's your fault you clicked on the link: I am not responsible for your actions.
As has become traditional over the last few years, my sister and I went to Bluewater, just across the river in Kent, to do our annual Christmas shopping. I thought a Monday would have been quiet, but it was Bedlam, like a Saturday, with queues everywhere.
I already have most of the presents, so there wasn't much to get, but I did buy some Sugru from W.H. Smiths.
It's air-curing silicone rubber you can use to fix and modify almost anything with a surface.
Afterwards, me, my sister and brother-in-law were watching "Have I Got News For You" and in it was this Youtube video which seems to have become viral.
It seems to me to reflect the human condition: that at some deep down level, we're not that much different than some lunatic in the middle of Richmond Park shouting at his dog.
I have some holiday left at the end of the year so, taking a tip from my erstwhile colleague Mr. Woodcock, I have used some of it to have one day off a week in the run up to Christmas, taking two long weekends.
I started by watching my film subscription which turned up Jonah Hex:
Not bad for a pizza movie, but all the action seems to take place in the dark for some reason, which does diminish the fun.
I also watched Hobo with a Shotgun, and immediately wished I hadn't (don't watch this if you're going to watch Blade Runner in the near future. It'll break you heart):
It's sad to see Rutger Hauer reduced to this rubbish. He wasn't half bad, but you can see he's at the fag-end of his career.
Dragonmeet 2011
Because I was able to do some shopping on Friday, I went to a games festival on Saturday at Kensington Town Hall. It was the usual fare, but I got to play a couple of games. The first was called, fittingly, Lancaster, run by the Phoenix Games Club from East London:
Based on Medieval England in the time of the 100 Years war, it takes an hour-and-a-half, five turns, and is a political, military and economic game for up to five players. There are no dice, but some cards, to simulate fortuna. There were three experienced players, one eight year old girl (the daughter of one) and me. I came third and I got a nice logo embossed dice for playing!
Not all of Akira Kurosawa's movies involved Samurai. He did make quite a few movies set in modern times. Stray Dog is a film noire made in 1947 (Mifune looks about 23!) that I've started watching:
It also stars Takashi Shimura, another close collaborator. I couldn't find a trailer for the film, so here's one I could find:
Any film with Angelina Jolie in it has got to be a bit suspect. Think Tomb Raider, Mr. & Mrs. Smith... Salt isn't half bad and tries to be a good, if convoluted spy/action thriller:
The problem is that no-one seems to have their heart in it. Liev Schreiber is fairly robotic, Andre Braugher has a cameo role and is sorely wasted, and the whole thing is like one big action sequence. Watch only if you like Jolie a lot.
It was inevitable that I would catch one of the many colds that have been going around recently, so I'm stuck indoors with the budgies:
I've also noticed some new U.S. TV series which might be worth watching. The first is Once Upon A Time, which has been compared favourably to Grimm, which I pointed out a few weeks ago:
Anything with Robert Carlyle in it can't be all bad (arguments about Stargate Universe at a later date) and a fair bit of money has been spent on it, so who knows. It's in a similar vein to the Fables comic books by Bill Willingham:
Another new series is Homeland:
Damien Lewis is always worth the money. He was in Life a few years ago which was pretty good, if short lived. I'll warn you now, though: he is ginger (sorry Matt).
After about eighteen months of sitting around on a pile of other DVD's, I finally got to watch this:
It's not a half bad drama, but slow in places. A woman (Melissa Leo) tries to get the money for a new trailer home by smuggling people across the U.S. - Canadian border.
I'm not entirely sure this movie was about anything:
It seemed to be a sort of down-market video game version of Inception, which was overblown, but even that would be giving it some kind of status. Loathe though I am to say this of any movie, but it was 128 minutes of my life I'll never get back again.
Last year, a film was made on my birthday, 24th July. People from around the world uploaded video that they'd made of their day and the directors made the segments into a complete film. I'd heard of it and planned to watch it when it came out, and completely forgot about it. Then last night it happened to be on TV, so I watched it (this is the complete film).
