More Lonely Cities

Last night I wrote a review of EmiTown by Emi Lenox on Permanently Weird, wrote some more on my comic and watched an episode of The Wire and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

It was another dull day at work. I got back at around six.

I actually think that I have nearly finished the script for the first issue of my comic. I know the look I want to go for on it. I'm going to try and write a few more issues this week and then at the weekend do some test drawings for the artwork.

A Long Week

Last night was pretty quiet again. I was watching another episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which was pretty good. This was the final episode of the first season.

Today was another pretty average day at work. It's felt like kind of a long week this week. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get in really early so I can leave early. Hopefully I'll be able to have time to go up to the comic-book store.

The Creeper

Last night I watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Creeper", which was about a blue-collar New York neighbourhood which is plagued by a serial killer, called The Creeper, who targets women who are home alone while their husbands work nights. The story focuses on a woman left alone who spends a nightmarish evening dealing with her unsympathetic husband, sadistic ex-boyfriend, strange janitor and the completely evil woman next door, along with her own increasing paranoia about The Creeper. Despite containing no violence at all it was probably the scariest thing I have ever seen on TV, with a memorable shock ending. It had that feeling that the best episodes of The Twilight Zone had that anything could happen at any time.

It was another pretty quiet day at work. I got in at nine and left at half past five. Back home I had a microwave spaghetti and meatballs ready meal.

Decoy

Last night I was watching an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "Decoy", in which a man heads put to confront his girlfriend's abusive husband, but as soon as the man comes face to face with the husband, he is hit from behind and knocked out. When he wakes up he has a gun in his hand and the husband has been shot dead. It was a really good noir-style story. Aside from that I spent the evening reading.

It was another pretty dull day at work. I got home at around six and microwaved a ham and mushroom tagliatelle ready meal.

The Hidden Thing

Last night I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World on DVD. I saw the movie last year when it was first out, and I really liked it a lot. The movie was directed by Edgar Wright and based on a series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Set in Toronto, the film tells the story of 22 year old Scott Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) who plays in a garage band and is dating 17 year old Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). However,he immediantely becomes infatuated with mysterious American delivery girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but in order to date her he must defeat her seven evil exes. The movie is really stylised with endless references to comic books and video games and so on. I think it's a great movie, with an awesome soundtrack. It's actually one of my favourite movies.

After the movie I watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Hidden Thing", about a man who struggles to remember key details after he witnesses his girlfirend being killed by a hit and run driver.

I was up at five o'clock this morning and in work for seven. The place was absolutely snowed under at work, so it was a really busy day. There was a baguette run though and I had a panini with roast beef, brie, jalapeno peppers and English mustard on it. I left work at three.

The Belfry

Last night I was watching an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Belfry". It was about a man who is in love with the local teacher and kills the man she is engaged to marry. When this fails to win her affections he goes on the run, but hides in the belfry of the local school, which also doubles as the local church, so he can spy on the woman.

I started writing a new story last night about a group of people who go to a new kind of virtual reality video game, only to esperience some strange after effects. This year I'm going to try to write more and read more, as well as watch more movies.

It was another average day at work. On the way home I bought some milk and the latest issue of Empire magazine, and also a steak pie supper for dinner.

When I got home the DVD of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World had arrived in the mail. So I'll probably be watching that tomorrow.

Decorating

Last night I had a shot on my new games. Bayonetta seems like a fun shooting and beat-up game and Assassin's Creed II looks like it will be a really good game, with an interesting storyline. I also listened to the first part of The Honourable Schoolboy CD. The story is set after the British Secret Service has been ravaged by a traitor and spymaster George Smiley has been set in charge of repairing the damage, when he discovers that his arch-enemy, a Soviet spymaster code-named Karla is being financed by a Hong Kong gangster. In order to expose the link, Smiley sends a disreputable journalist and sometime spy into the Hong Kong underworld to investigate. It is pretty good. I also watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents about an alcoholic woman who wakes up in hospital with a badly injured hand and a bad hangover and tries to remember how she got there.

This morning my Dad called round and we went to the Gyle shopping centre. I had a cheese scone and a mocha coffee at the food court and then we went our seperate ways. I got a couple of books: Shoedog by George Pelecanos and Shame the Devil by George Pelecanos. Pelecanos is a crime author who sets all his books in and around Washington DC, he also had a lot of attention for writing several episodes of The Wire TV series.

We went along to my parent's house where the latest issue of Fortean Times had arrived. The main story this month concerned the idea that ancient mythology and religion could be explained by alien encounters. It was an idea that was very popular for awhile in the 1970s. We had roast chicken, stuffing, peas and diced roast potatoes in garlic butter for lunch followed by apple pie, which was really nice. In the afternoon I helped my Mom decorate their Christmas tree.

I'm planning on decorating my Christmas tree this evening.

And So Died Riabouchinska

Last night I watched a bunch of episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on DVD. The first story I saw, "The Derelicts" was a comedy episode in which the inventor of a successful product kills his business partner so he can keep all the money for himself, but the murder is witnessed by two homeless guys who blackmail the inventor for $1000 a month and also move themselves into his expensive apartment, where they proceed to eat him out of house and home and steal anything they can get their hands on. It was very funny. The second episode was a bizarre one called "And So Died Riabouchinska", which was based on a Ray Bradbury story, it revolves around a murder in a theatre which is investigated by a tough detective (an early role for Charles Bronson), and his prime suspect is a successful ventriloquist (played by Claude Rains) who has a deeply strange connection with his dummy. The third story was called "Safe Conduct" and was basically a spy story, set on a train travelling from Communist East Germany to the West where an American journalist meets a local sports star who persuades her to smuggle an expensive watch through the customs, but when they get to the checkpoint he denounces her to the authorities.

It was another very quiet and dull day at work, as usual, but at least that's it over with for another week. I honestly can't believe that it's been over three weeks since I came back from North America.

Shopping for Death

Last night I was playing Batman: Arkham Asylum on the PlayStation 3. Basically, the storyline of the game is that Batman is delivering the Joker to the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Gotham City. However when Batman delivers the Joker it turns out that it is a trap set by the Joker, as all the inmates are set free and take over the Asylum, taking guards and medical staff hostage, with the Joker as the self-appointed boss of the Asylum. Basically, you play Batman and you have to explore the Asylum, rescue hostages, fight the villains (including most of the familiar Batman adversaries), solve puzzles and eventually defeat the Joker. It's a really involving game and a lot of fun.

I also watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on DVD. It was a story called "Shopping for Death" written by Ray Bradbury and concerned two elderly insurance salesmen who are trying to save an extremely obnoxious woman before she annoys someone enough thet they kill her. It was one of the more unusual episodes.

It was another quiet day at work today. I managed to listen to all three hours of the radio adaptation of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold which I've got on my iPod. I do like it when it's really quiet and empty at work, because I'm perfectly happy just to sit and listen to my iPod and just get on with it, basically.

The Older Sister

Last night I watched a couple of episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The first one was called "You Got to Have Luck" and told the story of a murderous bank robber who escapes from prison and holes up in a farmhouse, forcing the young woman who lives there to help him. It was a pretty good story and features a genuinely frightening performance by John Cassavetes as the sleazy and dangerous convict. Cassavetes is probably best known as Mia Farrow's husband in Rosemary's Baby and also as an acclaimed film writer and director. The second story was called "The Older Sister" and was a take on the famous Lizzie Borden murder case from 1892, where Borden was accused of murdering her parents with an axe, although she was later acquitted. The story takes place a year after the murders and concerns a suspicious journalist who tries to get an interview with Borden and her sister, Emma. It was pretty good.

Today was another fairly dull and uneventful day at work. I stopped on the way home to get some chips and a steak pie, and got back at about half past five. The food was pretty good, although the pastry on the pie was a little too thick.

Six Hours

Last night was really pretty quiet. I watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents set in San Francisco in 1909 about a dowtrodden file clerk who shoots his boss when he gets sacked but is shocked a couple of days later when he is asked to return to the office as usual and his boss is apparently alive and well.

I was at work today and in the morning we had to go to a meeting about the new corporate plan. Due to the recent problems with the housing market the organisation have been losing a lot of money and they are expecting that to continue, and they are looking at ways to save money, although we were all assured that they were not planning any redundancies, basically they are letting it happen through natural wastage. Anyway, it's one of these regular panics that boil up every so often, but I am still definitely planning on the Canada move.

I left after six hours today and when I got home I decided to order the video game Dante's Inferno for the PlayStation 3, so that should be fun.

The Long Shot

Last night I was watching a couple more episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on DVD. The first one I saw was "Our Cook's a Treasure", based on a story by Dorothy L. Sayers, and told the story of a man who becomes convinced that his new cook is a serial killer. The second episode, "The Long Shot", starred Rat Packer Peter Lawford as an unlucky gambler who accepts a job to drive a wealthy Englishman from New York to San Francisco to collect an inheritance, however the gambler's greed leads to murderous consequences. Both of them had pretty neat twists at the end. I also watched the third episode of A Perfect Spy, which has been been very good. The story is very slow-moving but it is really quite tense and suspenseful partly because you know right from the start that things are going to end up badly for the characters but it's a question of what and how.

It was a really quiet day at work again today. However we're on strike tomorrow which meas a day off work, even though it means we have to lose a day's pay. I'm looking forward to tomorrow though because it's still a day off and it'll break up the first week at work after my holiday.