... 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).
I was walking along the towpath of the Regents canal today when, passing by the bottom Lock, I saw a chap in a hoodie wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, like one of these:
It gave me quite a start, but I don't think it was meant to represent Guy Fawkes, but the anarchist in Alan Moore's story V for Vendetta.
It's been well over twenty years since I read the book and I remember it having a profound effect on me then: I joined Amnesty International after reading it. All the story chapters begin with the letter V, Valedictory, Venom, etc. thus the title of this blog. Strangely, given it's reputation, I always thought of it as a dark romance, as well as a political work. Althought the film was not a critical success, it did get the chapter on Valerie right.
There are a few new TV series in the states which look quite good and should be winging their way over to us shortly. The first is Grimm, a bit like Supernatural, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but a bit more serious:
The other is Person of Interest, which is a bit like The Equaliser, if you can remember that far back:
I mean 6 - 1 !!! 6 *!£$%-ing 1!!!!
After I stopped laughing, I realised how this might feel for all those Stretford people with their team being beaten by a Manchester team. And started laughing again. So I think I'll be watching that this evening.
I'd like to contrast two new science fiction tv series, Terra Nova and Pioneer One.
The first is a muti-million dollar epic from Fox with Steven Speilberg as one of the producers:
It follows the fortunes of a family sent back in time from a poisoned future to the Cretaceous period, the era just before the final extiction of the dinosaurs, about 85 million years ago, to start a new life.
It is, as you would expect, a lavish spectacular, with all the latest special effects, CGI dinosaurs, etc. It's main problem is that it's somewhat safe, even predictable.
To contrast, there's Pioneer One (Below is actually the entire first episode, not a trailer):
The is a low budget, web based tv sci-fi drama. An object from space crash lands in Canada containing a young man, speaking only Russian. It turns out that he's from Mars, a survivor of a small colony sent there by the Soviets in the 1970's.
I like it. Yes, you can tell it's low budget: there are no special effects and the actors are not "names", but it is rather charming and thought has gone into character and plot, rather than gimmicks. It's funded mostly through donations and I've got a mention in the credits for the season 1 DVD for mine!
The latest movie I've watched is R.E.D., an action movie with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox and Mary-Louise Parker.
It's not a half-bad movie, elevated from the mundane by Mirren and Cox as former oppenents and covert lovers, obviously enjoying themselves and acting everyone else off the set. The other is Mary-Louise Parker who has a kind of geeky charm as Willis's love interest. Willis is a very one note actor, and a flat note at that, and I've never understood why he's a lead, but if you can stand that it's a good pizza movie.
I'm watching Howl, a film about Allen Ginsberg's poem and the subsequent trial after it was published in 1956:
He was more than a little screwed up, but it is a good film and Ginsberg had a certain endearing geekiness to him, which I quite liked. Also James Franco is so like Ginsberg in looks, manner and voice it's difficult to say where one ends and the other begins, as in the final scene where it's actually Ginsberg singing, rather than Franco.
There are moves afoot to go and see the new film Drive:
Back in the 70's there was a very similar movie called The Driver, with Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern and Isabelle Adjani. This is when movies were good (The French Connection, All The President's Men, Three Days of the Condor):
