Rio Bravo

Last night I was watching the 1959 movie Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks, on TV. The movie is set in a small Texan border town during the Old West and involved a murderer who is locked up in the town jail by the local sheriff (played by John Wayne), who has to keep the killer locked up and out of trouble for at least a week until a US Marshall can show up and take him, away. Meanwhile the killer's wealthy brother has employed a large gang of ruthless hired killers to bust him out of jail, while all the sheriff has to help him is the town drunk (played by Dean Martin), a garrolous trigger-happy old jailer (Walter Brennan) and a young gunslinger (Ricky Nelson). It's a really good Western, which was very influential on future action movies. It's got some good, witty dialogue and some great action scenes. Also, if you're a fan, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson sing a couple of songs. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Watching it I really thought about my Gran, who died about four years ago, and I don't know if she ever saw it, although I assume she did because she loved movies and watched a lot of them, but this would probably have been one of her favourite movies, due to it being a Western and having John Wayne and Dean Martin in it. I remember watching a lot of the old Westerns when I was down at her place or when she came up here.

Today I had another day off work and went up to the comic book store, where I did get a lot of stuff: Batman: Conspiracy (which was basically a one-off compendium of a three part story from the '90s in which Batman investigates a series of bizarre ritual murders which leads him into a sinister and pervasive conspiracy), Detective Comics Classics (which had three bizarre Batman stories from the '60s and '70s, including one in which Robin and Batgirl had to fight the ghost of Benedict Arnold who had teamed up with the Devil), X23 issues 4 to 6 (which I've never read before and I kind of got on impulse), American Vampire issue 12, Dracula: The Company of Monsters issue 7, X-Men: Legacy issue 245 (which seems to be starting a big new storyline), Scalped issue 46, Detective Comics issue 874, Spawn issue 203, Ultimate Spider-Man issue 154, Morning Glories issue 7 (which I got because I'd heard a lot of really good stuff about it on the internet) and The New York Five issue 2 (which has had an interesting story so far and is by the author and artist responsible for one of my favourite graphic novels, Local). I also got a graphic novel called John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Fear Machine written by Jamie Delano, with art by Mark Buckingham, Richard Piers Rayner, Mike Hoffman and Alfredo Alcala. On my way home I stopped off and had a quick drink. I just figured that I'm having a few days off, it's like a short holiday so I might as well treat myself by splurging money on comics! Besides I'm very happy with what I got. When I got back home I had some microwaved chicken chow mein for my dinner which was really nice.

Tomorrow I'm off work as well and I think I might go along to the movies.

Memories of "Casino"

Last night I was watching an episode of The Twilight Zone from 1959, about a stressed out executive who returns to his old home town and finds himself transported back in time and meets his family and himself as an eleven year old. I also watched one of the first Doctor Who episodes from 1963, it was the first story to feature the Daleks (the show's most popular adversary). It's really interesting going back to the earliest epsiodes of shows that you like and seeing how they begin. It often takes awhile to get everything worked out in a series. It's interesting that Doctor Who was originally conceived as an educational series to teach kids about history, and most of the stories were not intended science-fiction elements aside from the central premise of time-travelling, however they would put in the odd trip to the future and other planets for a bit of variety. However it soon became apparent that viewers much preferred the science-fiction stories to the historical ones and they were quickly phased out after a few years.

I also watched a documentary about the true story behind the Martin Scorsese film Casino. It was really interesting although I knew a lot of it already because I had read the Nicholas Pileggi book that the film was based on. I remember watching the film with my Gran and in one scene where Joe Pesci's character had comitted a brutal murder and was going on a swear-laden rant, my Gran piped up with: "Eee, Joe, you don't want to be using language like that. You'll get your mouth washed out with soap and water." Bad language was the only thing that ever really bothered my Gran. I remember she was once complaining about something she had seen on TV and I said to her that I thought she liked her murder stories, and Gran replied: "Oh, I love my murders, but only the nice ones." I asked her what exactly a nice murder was, and she thought for a bit before replying: "Well, one where no-one uses any bad language."

I had a really bad night's sleep last night and I was absolutely stuffed up with the cold this morning. The whole day was freezing cold and there was a very thick mist. It was really cold at work as well, where there was hardly anyone in.

Back Home

My parents came to collect me at around half past nine on Tuesday to go down to Leeds. The journey is about 200 miles and lasts about four hours in the car. We had a break for some lunch at a Little Chef restaurant just outside Newcastle. We arrived at my Gran's old house in Leeds at around two. It was really sad to see in a way, because everything was just as Gran had left it and I almost expected to see her come in. She had been living in that little house for about twenty years and when my brother and I were kids we used to go down all the time on Summer and Easter holidays. She had left me her eight volume set of The Diary of Samuel Pepys. My brother was due to arrive from London on the train at around half eleven at night, but it was delayed by an hour.

Wednesday was the day of the funeral, so we went out to the crematorium quite early, because my brother was playing the organ for the service (he's a professional classical musician and sometime music teacher). Of course my uncle and aunt, and two cousins were there, alog with various freinds of Gran. It was a Humanist service, because Gran was not religious, although at her request, my brother played her favourite hymn All Creatures Great and Small. After that there was a reception in a local hotel, where we all ate from a large buffet and there was plenty of wine. My brother had to leave early to get back to London. My parents and eye stayed after everyone had left with my aunt and uncle and cousin, looking at old photgraphs, mainly seeming to be my mum as a teenager at the beach, myself and my brother as babies, and my grandad and his colleagues from World War 2. It was obviously an extremely sad and emotional day.

Thursday, we decided to do something a little more holiday like and paid a visit to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, which is an exhibiton of weapons and armour from throughout the world. It was very interesting and enjoyable. They had this display called the Hall of Steel, which was like a stairway the walls of which were compeletly covered with swords, guns and shields. We also watched a display of fighting with a medieval sword.

Friday, we went into Leeds for some shopping. I got a new pair of Dr. Martens boots, a couple of notebooks and an Irvine Welsh novel.

Saturday, Mum was at a conference in Nottingham so Dad and I drove into Manchester to visit my Gran on his side (who is now my only surviving grandparent). She lives in a care home now, which seemed very nice, and my Dad's brother and his family live nearby so they see her a lot. My Gran is now blind in one eye and she is losing the sight in her other one, she can't hear well, and so you almost have to shout so she can hear you, and her memory is really bad, she'll forget what you told her minutes before, and she didn't recognise Dad when she saw him, so it was a really tough visit.

We left almost first thing this morning, and I feel completely drained, exhausted and I seem to have a splitting headache.

Evening Out

Last night I watched an episode of the first season of Masters of Horror, this one was called "Chocolate" and was done by Mick Garris who created the series and has directed a few Stephen King adaptations for TV. The episode was about a recently divorced man who works manufacturing new food flavours and suddenly finds himself experiencing periods where he finds himself seeing through the eyes of a mysterious woman, with whom he becomes obsessed. The film was slow moving, even for an hour, and not scary.

It was a dull day at work. I'm planning on taking the whole of next week off work, because I'll be out of town for at least three days for my Gran's funeral.

After work I went to Le Monde bar with Michele. It's a really nice place and I had a very nice time with Michele.

Sunday

Last night was fairly quiet. I watched the latest episode of Doctor Who, next week is the final episode of the current series. I also watched a 1964 film called Marnie from the Alfred Hitchcock box-set I bought yesterday. The film stars Tippi Hedren as a deeply disturbed young woman who is a compulsive thief and liar. Sean Connery plays her latest employer who catches her stealing from him and blackmils her into marriage. It was a good film. I've seen it a couple of times before.

This morning I had an e-mail from my Mum with a draft of the eulogy for Gran's funeral. My cousin Ian is delivering the eulogy because he is the eldest of the four grandchildren, and the text itself is being written by Mum and my Uncle David, but she wanted me to have a look at it and add to it. That was pretty emotional.

I only went out once today and that was to the corner shop for a paper. The weather has been really dull and very wet.

I've read two books in the course of the weekend: Choke by Chuck Palahniuk which I bought last week, and Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis. Choke is about a man who works as an 18th century servant in a "living history" theme park reconstruction, while running a scam in which he pretends to choke on food in restaurants and maintaining his mother's hospital care. He also has an addiction to sex. The story moves between his various activities to memories of his childhood on the road with his eccentric mother. It's quite good, well written and often very funny.
Lunar Park has the book's author Bret Easton Ellis as it's main character. After experiencing the height of literary success in the 1980s, Ellis' excessive lifestyle almost destroys his career and himself until he marries a famous movie star, who is also the mother of his son, and swears off alcohol, drugs and casual affairs. However, not long afterwards Ellis notices that the house they are living in is subtly changing, his daughter's doll is violently malfunctioning, there is a spate of mysterious murders and disappearances in the local area, and Ellis notices the appearance of his most notrious character Patrick Bateman (from Ellis' most famous novel American Psycho). It was one of Bret Easton Ellis' better books in many ways, with an interesting story and lacking most of the lurid excesses form books such as American Psycho.

Weekend

I was really tired last night. I put on a Hammer Dracula film, which I usually like, but I just ended up falling asleep during it.

This morning it was pouring rain, and I went out to meet my mum. We went to a French restaurant called Cafe Rouge, and I had a platter of warmed French bread with humous, chicken liver parfait, camambert cheese, dried cured meat and salad. To finish there was a slice of chocolate and caramel tart with blackcurrant compote over it. My Gran that died was on my mum's side, but she seemed fairly relaxed about everything, although obvioulsy it will take a while before things are back to normal.

After the meal, which was really nice, we went our seperate ways. I had a look in the sales and bought a box set of fourteen Alfred Hitchock films on DVD. It cost £25 reduced from £90.

Friday

Life has been moving along slowly. I've been kind of oscillating between feeling more or less as normal and then into deep depression when I think about Gran. I wish the funeral was sooner, so that at least we could get some sense of closure. I've just been trying to cheer myself up as much as possible.

Work was slow and dull. As usual for a Friday there were very few people in, especially in the afternoon.

On the way home I bought a copy of a music magazoine called The Word which I got mainly because the featured article was an interview with Leonard Cohen.

I'm going out for lunch with my mum tomorrow.

Another Day

Things were really bad last night. I could barely do anything, I was just completely in tears. Once my Dad had left, I just broke down.

I went to work today. I just wanted to get back to normal. If I hadn't gone, all I would have been doing is sitting at home depressed, so I do think it was probably for the best. A

fter work I went out with Joe and Jackie for a couple of drinks to cheer myself up a bit.

I spoke to my parents on the phone this evening. They said that the funeral will be on 4th July. So of course I'll be going down to Leeds for that.

I know that Gran wouldn't want us to be all depressed and miserable and everything, because she wasn't like that. It's just there's so much I wish she could have seen.

Sad News

My Dad came round this evening with some very sad news. My Gran died this afternoon at about half past five.

It's hard to put down exactly how I feel. My Gran was 85 years old and she had been ill for years, and it had gotten worse in the past few months and we all knew that she was actually dying for the past week. I was always really close to my Gran and we used to talk on the phone almost every week. I just feel really empty inside right now.

Pirates of the Caribbean

It was avery cold and very wet day today. I left work early this afternoon, at four and went up to the Cineworld cinema to meet Michele. She arrived late, having got on the wrong bus and then been held up in traffic. So we missed the first five minutes or so of the film, but we did see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which I really enjoyed. I liked the first two, and really you do need to have seen the first two films, especially the second, to really get this one. Michele really enjoyed it. After the movie we went for a couple of drinks. We should be meeting up on Sunday to go to dinner.

I was supposed to be going out for lunch with my Mum tomorrow, but I got a text from my Dad this afternoon saying that they both have to go down to Leeds to see my Gran.

Standing Order

Yesterday evening I went along to The Standing Order bar to meet my Dad, who just came back from a holiday in Madeira on Monday. My Mum had to go down to Leeds because my Gran is feeling ill (she's actually been in a very bad way for months), and my Dad wanted to let me know what was happening, and also to catch up after his holiday. Despite the news about Gran it was a nice time, although we weren't out for very long.

Today has been fairly quiet at work, and pretty dull.