Eye Test

Today I was up fairly sharp because I had to go and meet my Mum in the city centre. We had some coffee and I had a raspberry and white chocolate muffin, and then I had to go and have my eyes tested. I get them tested every two years to see if I need new glasses. The testing went fine except for when they tried to take photographs of the backs of my eyes and I couldn't stop blinking due to the bright flash they used. I literally couldn't not blink, not matter how hard I tried. My eyes were fine though, and they slightly modified the prescription, but I just decided to get a new frame to replace one that had broken.

After the eye test I went and had a look around the shops. I got a Tchaikovsky CD and a book called A Dark Matter by Peter Straub. I noticed there was a quote from Stephen King on the cover of the Straub book saying how great it was, and I just thought it was quite amusing because it's well known that Stephen King and Peter Straub are really good friends and so King is not likely to have a particularly objective opinion. I'm sure it's a good book or I wouldn't have got it, and you can hardly blame famous writers for wanting to promote their friend's books it just means you kind of have to take it with a pinch of salt.

Extra Holiday

Last night was pretty quiet. I lisened to the second part of The Honourable Schoolboy on CD, read and played Assassin's Creed II for an hour or so.

Today was another fairly dull day at work. In the afternoon we had to go up to a meeting that lasted for nearly an hour. The meeting itself was pretty much pointless. One good thing is that I have an extra day added to my holiday! Instead of having to be in work on the 30th and 31st December, I only have to be in on the 31st. It seems there was a mix up in the processing.

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.

A Life Unmasked

Last night I watched the latest episode of Peep Show, which was very funny, and a documentary called John le Carre: A Life Unmasked, about the acclaimed British author of spy thrillers. The show was basically a long interview with le Carre, who is famously quite reclusive and claimed that this would probably be his last interview.

Today I went out to the stores and got a couple of PlayStation 3 games in the sales, namely Assassin's Creed II and Bayonetta. I also got a couple of audio CDs of the radio adaptations of The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. Both of them are based on John le Carre novels.

On my way home I got my groceries for the week.

The Runaways

This morning my Dad came to collect me and we went to the Gyle shopping centre. I had a scone and a mocha in the coffee section and then we split up to look at our own things. I got a book called The Hell of It All by Charlie Brooker, which is a collection of TV reviews. Charlie Brooker is a TV reviewer and general commentator and does various TV shows where he discusses TV, video games and the news and he hosts a comedy panel shows, and has written a couple of other books. I think he's really clever and funny. I also got a CD called American Anthems which is a collection of American rock anthems from the 1980s mostly. I happen to like that kind of music.

Then we went over to my parent's house. The latest issue of Fortean Times had arrived, which this month featured an article on the possibility of a giant serpent living in Sweden and an article exploring the background to the Peid Piper of Hamelin myth. The new issue of Sight and Sound also arrived, featuring this month a centenary tribute to director Akira Kurosawa. In the afternoon my Mum and I went out for a bit of a walk.

In the evening I went up to the Cineworld cinema to see the movie The Runaways, directed by Floria Sigismondi. The movie is set in the mid 1970s and tells the story of the all-girl rock band The Runaways, focusing mainly on lead singer Cherie Currie (played by Dakota Fanning) and guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart). The movie is pretty much a typical rock movie biography, but it's a lot of fun with a great soundtrack, and a cool, punky seventies feel to it. It also features great performances from Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart. Personally I really like Joan Jett, her version of "Crimson and Clover" is one of my favourite songs, but the movie only really deals with the early part of her career.

An Electric Ant

Last night was really quiet. I finished reading Human Is?: A Philip K. Dick Reader by Philip K. Dick. The final three stories I read in it were "An Electric Ant" in which a man is shocked to discover he is in fact a robot and, when he discovers that his reality is artificially generated, decides to experiment with his own perception of reality. That was followed by "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts" in which the USA's first time travellers arrive in the future a few days after they supposedly died returning to their own time. The final story was "The Pre-persons" in which children up to the age of 12 can be legally executed.

I was also watching a few epsiodes of Blake's 7 on DVD. Blake's 7 was a British science-fiction TV show which ran for 52 episodes over four seasons from 1977 to 1980. It was kind of a blend of Star Trek and Star Wars and concerned a rag-tag group of bickering revolutionaries and criminals who travel around space in a derelict alien spacecraft fighting against the totalitarian Galactic Federation. These days the show is often made fun of due to the often really bad (by modern standards) special effects and production values. However, the show was usually well-written and clever. It was also a lot grittier and bleaker than most science-fiction shows with a strong vein of dark humour.

Today I went out and got some postcards to send to a friend and I also got a CD called Dirty House Blues by Lightnin' Hopkins and a book called The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami. on my way home I stopped off in a bar and had a couple of drinks and read my book.

It's been a good weekend mostly, but it has been marred by the fact that I've been feeling really kind of depressed recently about the fact that I really am a complete loser (mainly the facts that I am kind of stupid, I'm ugly, I've never really had a girlfriend and I have never achieved anything). It does happen fairly frequently.

Empire and Inception

Last night I was reading a short story by Philip K. Dick called "If There Were No Benny Cemoli" in which an interplanetary law enforcement agency arrive on Earth in order to apprehend the people responsible for a devestating nuclear war, only to find that Earth's Government has stayed in power by fighting an endless campaign against an invented enemy. According to Dick, the story came about from his idea that at least half of the famous people in history never existed.

I finished writing a science-fiction story called "Shutdown" and started writing another one called "Hell Night".

It was another very average day at work. My friend Chris in the office lent me a CD of The Very Best of John Lee Hooker. On my way home a sudden gust of wind blew my hat off my head, but I managed to get it before it went very far. I bought the latest issue of Empire magazine. The main story this month was about the movie Inception and there was also a big article about the career of Alfred Hitchcock. When I got home I saw that my Film Festival tickets had arrived, so that is really good.

I had some microwave jambalaya for my dinner, which was really nice. While I was eating I listened to a reading of "A School Story" by M.R. James on the radio, in which two men are discussing traditions of ghost stories in schools and one of them relates a story from his own school days in which a Latin teacher with a dark past is hounded by a vengeful ghost.

A Murder of Quality

Last night I was listening to the CD of A Murder of Quality, based on the John le Carre novel, in which secret agent George Smiley (played by Simon Russell Beale) is asked by an old friend of his to investigate the murder of a teacher's wife at a boarding school. This was the second book that le Carre wrote and is the only one of his books to be set completely outside the world of espionage and his only foray into the detective novel genre.

It was another really dull and irritating day at work.

When I got home I listened to a short horror story play on the radio called Lullaby, in which an Irish couple become aware of strange voices singing in their new home, and the wife becomes increasingly preoccupied with painting pictures of a strange child she has never seen before, and start to delve into the dark secrets of their new home.

Calico Black, Calico Blue

Last night I listened to most of the CD of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold based on the 1963 John le Carre novel. Set in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War, the story focuses on Alec Leamas (played Brian Cox), a burnt out British spy working in Communist East Germany, who returns to England in disgrace after his network is uncovered and wiped out by a ruthless enemy spymaster. Wanting nothing more than to "come in from the cold" (leave the world of espionage), Leamas is nevertheless offered one chance to redeem himself and get revenge: become the bait in a trap set against one of the most dangerous and cunning enemy spymasters. However Leamas soon discovers that the operation is much more complex than he could have guessed. The book was written by John le Carre (who was himself a British spy working undercover in East Germany for many years in the fifties and sixties, until he was forced to escape when he was named to the East German authorities along with many other British spies by a double agent) in part as a riposte to the James Bond novels which featured a very glamorous and action-packed view of the spy world which le Carre considered completely unrealistic: In his novels the spying world is bleak, ambiguous and cruel and the spies are neither heroic or glamorous.

I also read a couple more horror short stories: In the first one, "Calico Black, Calico Blue" by Joel Knight, a London businessman finds a doll outside his flat door and returns it to the owner, who thanks him by inviting him to her flat for a drink. However he soon discovers that he has walked into a horrific trap. In the second story, "This Rich, Evil Sound" by Steven Erickson, a lonely man is driven insane during a cold winter in the Canadian wilderness.

This morning I went along to Ocean Terminal with my Dad. We stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and a muffin, before splitting up. I bought some things in a "three for two" offer: A CD of the radio adaptation of A Murder of Quality based on the John le Carre novel and the books The Way Home by Geroge Pelecanos and Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (which was made into a film recently by Martin Scorsese). We went back to my parents house for lunch, and in the afternoon had a walk with my Mum, which was nice.

Black Rain

Last night I was watching a 1989 movie called Black Rain, directed by Ridley Scott. The film tells the story of two tough New York cops (played by Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia) who are given the job of escorting a powerful Japanese gangster back to Osaka in order to hand him over to the Japanese authorities. However, the gangster escapes and the two cops are reluctantly forced to join forces with the Japanese police in order to locate the gangster. The film was okay. It was very stylish and visually it was absolutely stunning, however the storyline was kind of weak in places and Michael Douglas' character was just annoying.

I read a pretty creepy horror story called "The Children of Monte Rosa" by Reggie Oliver, which was set in Portugal in 1964 where an English family are on holiday and strike up an acquaintance with a sinister old couple of English ex-patriates who invite them back to their palatial mansion, however when the family's young son decides to explore the grounds he comes across some shocking secrets. It was a pretty good one.

I went out early this morning to meet my Mum in order to sort out a couple of things, and we went and had breakfast. I had some pancakes with maple syrup and a coffee. Then I went out and got an audio CD called Spine Chillers, which collected five short radio dramas based on ghost stories by M.R. James. M.R. James was a very well known English ghost story writer whose day job was as a professor of history and antiquities at Cambridge and Eton Universities. Apparently his habit was to throw parties where his friends and students would gather at his home and drink and he would tell them all his own ghost stories. It was only later that people encouraged him to write them down and sell them. Many of the stories revolve around timid, middle-aged academics who would sicover some kind of buried ancient secret only to find that they are invariably guarded by some kind of malevolent supernatural force. I also got a CD of the three part radio adaptation of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold based on the novel by John le Carre.

Witchfinder General

Last night I was watching the 1968 movie Witchfinder General, directed by Michael Reeves, which starred Vincent Price as the historical figure Matthew Hopkins, who during the English Civil War went around the countryside and, calling himself "The Witchfinder General", was paid by villagers to basically torture and execute anyone accused of witchcraft. The film, which is set in 1645, involves a Parliamentarian soldier on a mission of vengeance after Hopkins attacks his fiance and kills her father. The film is not particularly accurate, historically, but it is very good. The movie is really gruesome, particularly by the standards of the time. When it was released in America it was re-named The Conqueror Worm to tie it in with the Roger Corman movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Although this movie has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Poe.

After that I saw a 1962 Ingmar Bergman film called Through a Glass Darkly. It is about a family living on a small Swedish island, the daughter of which is slowly growing insane, the father is guilty about the fact that he is more curious than anything to see how his daughter's condition progresses, and her husband and brother look on powerless to do anything. The film is really bleak and very powerful.

I went to the shops today and bought a CD of That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Series Four and the CD of the recent radio drama of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Then I went along to the travel agent to get more details about my holiday.

On my way home I stopped off at the supermarket for my groceries for the week and got an issue of Uncut magazine which was running a special feature about the band Joy Division.

Soundtrack

Last night was really quiet. I did some more of my writing and watched some TV.

It was the start of another week at work, and it was as dull as usual. It was nice to get back.

I didn't get the chance to watch any of the Golden Globe awards last night, but I have heard some of the results and it was pretty interesting.

I've been really enjoying listening to the True Blood soundtrack. It's all kind of country, blues and rock. My favourite kind of music is the really old kind of country and bluegrass music, although I do like a lot of different music, that's my favourite.

Family Lunch

The fifth season of The Wire started last night, which was pretty good. I've decided not to record this one.

I had a day off work today and I went off to meet up with my Dad and my brother for lunch. We went to Cafe Rouge and had a three course fixed menu meal. I had mushrooms in garlic butter to start, followed by a burger done in the French style (no bun and garlic butter on top) with fries and fried tomato, and a chocolate mousse as dessert, so that was really nice.

Afterwards my brother's girlfriend arrived and we went along to a book store with a cafe for some coffee. The other three went home and I stayed in the book store for a bit and bought the CD of season one of That Mitchell and Webb Sound. I really like putting the sketch comedy radio shows on to my iPod, because at work or on the bus they are really great to kind of dip in and out of.

Tonight I'm going up to the Book Festival to see the comedian Arthur Smith. My brother's girlfriend is singing in an opera of Macbeth this evening and so my parents, my brother, her parents and her brother with his girlfirend are apparently going to go along and go out for a drink afterwards, so I am planning on going up to join them after my show.

Watchmen

Last night was pretty quiet. I was mostly watching TV, but there wasn't really much on. I was drinking some beer so that was fun. I was also listening to a Trisha Yearwood CD (I still really like CDs despite the digital music revolution or whatever). I got to bed at about five in the morning, planning to get up sharp in order to make it to the twelve o'clock screening of Watchmen. I woke up at eight and made myself my coffee and went back to bed to listen to the radio, but I must have fallen asleep again, because the next thing I knew it was eleven, and I was too late to make the planned showing. I remember I was having some kind of dream, but I can't remember anything about it except that it involved either Rachael Leigh Cook or Natalie Portman, and that it was a good one.

Anyway I did manage to make it up to the one o'clock screening of Watchmen, directed by Zack Snyder and based on the graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. The movie, and graphic novel, are both set in a kind of alternative USA in 1985. In this world costumed superheros are an acknowledged reality and have been since the 1940s, however due to government crackdowns most of them are retired. In this world, Richard Nixon is in his third term as President and the USA won in Vietnam. The USA and the Soviet Union stand on the brink of nuclear war, with America's principal weapon being the powerful, blue-skinned superbeing Dr. Manhattan (played by Billy Crudrup). The plot revolves around the brutal murder of violent crime-fighter turned government agent known as The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Investigating the murder, psychotic vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) comes to the conclusion that there is a conspiracy to assassinate costumed heroes and sets out to warn the rest of the now-disbanded group known as the "Watchmen", which both he and The Comedian, as well as Dr. Manhattan used to belong to. As the rest of the group are drawn into the mystery, they soon discover that there is more at stake then they could have imagined. The film is relatively faithful to the original graphic novel, and is possibly as close an adaptation as could be made of very difficult source material. The book blends comic book style with fictional magazine interviews, newspaper articles, book extracts and psychological and police reports as well as extracts from a violent pirate comic which a character in the book reads, the idea being that in a world where superheroes are a reality superhero comic books would not be popular and instead the comic staple would be pirate comics (the pirate story doesn't appear in the film, although it was made as an animation that apparently will be turned into a feature for the film's DVD release). The orginal writer, Alan Moore refused anything to do with the film, even refusing on-screen credit and royalties. Apparently, he refuses anything to do with any of the film versions of his comics (which include From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta) and won't even watch them.

On my way back I bought some milk and a fish supper.

That Mitchell and Webb Sound

Last night I was watching a Doctor Who story from the early 1970s called "Doctor Who and the Silurians". The story involved the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) investigating the mysterious power losses at an underground experimental power station, alongside the strange attacks on members of the stations' staff. It turns out that the culprits are a race of intelligent reptilian creatures who used to rule the Earth during the dinosaur period but were forced to move underground into suspended animation, until they were reanimated by the power from the station. It was a really dark and quite ambiguous story. The humans and the creatures were presented as being pretty much as bad as each other, with some of the creatures being quite sympathetic characters.

Later on I was listening to a radio adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel called Elephants Can Remember, which was pretty good.

Today I went over to my parent's house for lunch, as usual. The CD of the second season of That Mitchell and Webb Sound that I ordered had arrived. Here's what it says on the back of the CD:

"Starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, from Channel 4's Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Sound is a hilarious mix of satirical sketches and surreal characters that provides a fantastically skewed perspective on everyday life.
Meet soporific late-night DJ Adrian Locket; Peter and Ted, commentators who reeal the murky underside of the snooker world; crime fighter Angel Summoner and his redundant sidekick BMX Bandit; and the obnoxious incredibly posh person who is still unaccountably a waiter.
In addition there's Numberwang!, the maths quiz that makes very little sense, plus thrilling coverage of people you don't know buying houses and then living in them, and thinking where to go on holiday and then booking it.
Zany and original, this consistently funny and imaginative series highlights the absurdity of reality TV, politics, chat shows - and milk helplines."

I got back home at around half past five.

Bills

I was back at work today, and still in the old office. It was a pretty quiet and dull day and I was really happy to get away. At least there are only two more weeks to go before my holiday!

When I got home today I saw the latest electricity bill was there waiting. Which was kind of annoying because it was a lot of money this time, but it's better to get it over with.

I just ordered a CD set of the second series of That Mitchell and Webb Sound, a radio comedy show. I'm planning on putting it onto my iPod, because I do like to listen to comedy on it, and it would be fun to have some fresh stuff to listen to on my holiday instead of just the same Mighty Boosh episodes I've listened to about a hundred times each at work (although they are still good).

Tapping

Last night I was listening to an episode of Fear on Four called "Tapping". The story revolves around a man haunted by a tragic memory from his childhood who soon discovers that the ghosts of his past are closer than he thinks. It was pretty good and genuinely creepy in places. I think that radio can be really great for fantasy, science-fiction and horror, because you really do have to use your imagination which can be far more terrifying than any special effects.

This morning my Dad came along and we went over to The Gyle shopping centre. We had a coffee and scone in the cafe section and then went and had a look at our different things. I got an audio CD of The Mighty Boosh: The Complete Radio Series and an audio CD of Doctor Who: The War Machines, which is basically the soundtrack of the 1966 television story with linking narration to explain the more visual parts. They were in the sales so that should be fun to listen to. I'll probably upload them to my iPod.

Afterwards we went along to my parent's house for lunch, which was a kind of beef stew with mashed potato and peas. In the afternoon I helped my Dad load up the car with some garden rubbish to be taken away for disposal, and then I went for a walk to the Modern Art Gallery for some coffee.

It was a nice afternoon, and I'll be off tomorrow so that should be fun. I've signed up for the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which should be interesting. I was discussing emigration and she was very encouraging about that. I do think that it is time for a change of scenery. I think it would do me some good.

Chuck Palahniuk

Yesterday was eventful. I left my home at around half past four and made my way up to the Edinburgh Book Festival grounds to meet Katie and her friend, Taylor. We headed out to get some dinner, originally stopping at Ryan's Bar, but there was sport on the TVs there and it was just far too loud, so we went into the Rutland and had a burger with cheese and chips, which was really nice. After dinner we went back to the Book Festival to see Chuck Palahniuk.

It was really good, we were in the front row. He started out by throwing inflatable sex dolls into the crowd, and whoever blew up their doll the fastest got a horror movie DVD as a prize. Then he read a story that he had written specially for the event called "Loser" about a college fraternity pledge who takes part in a TV game show while tripping out on LSD. We were given the choice as to whether we wanted to hear the new story or "Guts" (the one which had become notorious for causing people to faint or vomit at readings) but I guess it was kind of old news now and the story is published in Haunted. After the reading there was a Q and A session, and whoever asked a question got a DVD and a doll. After that there was a signing, which took a very long time, Snuff got a chance to have a quick chat with Palahniuk. He did put on a really great show and was very, very funny, and he also came across as a really cool guy. It was a really good time.because the first few people had the chance to dress up as pirates and have their photos taken with Palahniuk. I didn't get a chance to dress up as a pirate, but I did get my copies of Rant and Snuff signed.

I got home at around half past ten and watched the first hour and a half or so of Starship Troopers before getting bored and putting on an REM CD.

Today I went out to my parent's house for my Sunday lunch, as usual. So that was good. I'm back at work again tomorrow for two days and then I'm off for the rest of the week to do Festival stuff and anything else that strikes me as being particularly entertaining.

Back to Work

Today I was back at work again. The strike is still scheduled for Thursday. Mostly it was a fairly ordinary day. Last night, I uploaded my Neil Gaiman CD pack onto my iPod and so I spent a lot of time listening to that at work. It actually worked pretty well, listening to the stories at work.

Where the Truth Lies

Last night I was watching a film on TV called Where the Truth Lies, directed by Atom Egoyan. The film opens in 1957 where a nightclub comedy duo (Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon) are at the top of their profession and internationally famous, until the body of a dead girl is discovered in their hotel suite, although they are never officially charged in connection with the death it ends their partnership and effectively ruins their career. Fifteen years later, an ambitious young journalist (Alison Lohman) is writing a book about the duo, and becomes preoccupied with finding out the truth about the girl's death. Before long her investigation leads her into a dangerous world of sex and deceit. As with most Egoyan films, this one frequently moves back and forth between the past and the present and often features the same events from a variety of different perspectives. I enjoyed it actually I thought it was fun.

I was off work today and so I decided to go out to Glasgow, which is about forty-five miles away. I left my home at around eleven and headed up to the bus station. After waiting in the ticket queue for nearly twenty minutes I managed to get a return ticket to Glasgow and luckily just managed to catch the bus before it left. The journey took about an hour and a quarter, mainly because of people getting on and haggling with the driver about the price. It was cloudy and dull when I left Edinburgh but Glasgow was dry and blazing sunshine. I went along to Borders and had a look around. About an hour later I went up to a Buger King (which, due to a problem with the machinery, wasn't selling any burgers) and so I had a chicken royale meal with fries and coke. I don't go to Burger King much, but I do quite like it and I prefer it to MacDonalds. I went back to Borders and bought a complete and unabridged audio CD pack of Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, and read by Gaiman. It's a collection of short stories and so I thought it would be perfect for my iPod. It's funny but it's been about a year and a half since I went to Glasgow, and Borders has not changed at all. I actually quite liked that. I caught the bus back at around half past four and got home at around quarter past six.

On a humorous note, I had been watching an episode of The League of Gentlemen last night and on the way into Glasgow I noticed that someone had painted the words "YOU'LL NEVER LEAVE" onto the welcome sign for a small town.