Les Diaboliques

Last night I was watching the movie Kick Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn, on TV. It's based on a comic-book by Mark Miller and John Romita, Jr. and tells the story of a New York City teenaged comic-book fan (played by Aaron Johnson) who, despite having no powers and no training, decides to become a superhero named "Kick-Ass". Despite the abysmal failure of his initial attempt he soon becomes an internet celebrity and attracts the attention of vengeful ex-cop turned superhero "Big Daddy" (Nicolas Cage) and his murderous 11 year old daughter "Hit Girl" (Chloe Grace Moretz). It is a really entertaining movie with plenty of humour and action.

Today I got some more of the Akira graphic novels by Katshiro Otomo delivered in the mail. Mostly I had a really quiet morning watching TV. In the afternoon I went out to the Filmhouse cinema to see the 1955 movie Les Diaboliques, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with the Horror Group. The movie is based on a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, who also wrote the novel that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo. The film deals with the brutal and cruel headmaster of a second-rate boy's boarding school (Paul Meurisse) who is married to a fragile young teacher, Christina (Vera Clouzot), who has a weak heart, while openly carrying on an affair with another teacher, Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret). Tiring of his ill treatment of them both, Christina and Nicole decide to murder the headteacher. However, after the murder, the body goes missing and a succession of strange and disturbing events begin to occur. It is a really good suspense film, and features a memorable twist. Apparently it was one of the influences for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and Robert Bloch (who wrote the original novel Psycho) named it as his favourite horror film. After the movie we went out and had a couple of drinks. The movie is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

A Very Short Week

Last night I wasn't really doing much except watching repeats of comedy shows on TV (namely Spaced and The IT Crowd) and thumbing through my copy of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which I have read before.

Today was the start of another week at work, but I have taken Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off, so it will be a really short week! I had been intending originally just to take Wednesday off, because I'm going out tomorrow to see The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with the Horror Group, and it means that if people are going out afterwards, I can go along and have a few drinks without worrying about being okay for work the next day. I figured I'd take the rest of the week off, because I'd saved up quite a few days of annual leave, which I need to take by the end of March anyway, or I'll lose them. I haven't any plans for the days off but I'll probably go to movies, buy comics and do some much needed work on my own writing and artwork for my comic. So it's all good.

When I got home from work I had a microwave Thai green chicken curry with jasmine rice, which was really nice.

Carrie

Last night I went along with the Horror Group to see the movie 1976 movie Carrie, directed by Brian De Palma and based on the novel by Stephen King. The movie tells the story of shy, unpopular high school senior Carrie White (played by Sissy Spacek) who is constantly the target of bullies at school and abused at home by her fanatically religious mother (Piper Laurie). However, after a particularly traumatic experience at school, Carrie discovers a previously hidden power of telekinesis (the ability to move or cause changes in objects with the power of the mind). It's a very stylish and very disturbing movie. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird, which is my movie and book review journal.

After the movie I had a drink and a chat with a couple of other people from the group and got home at around one in the morning. It was a really nice evening.

Today my Mum came around to pick me up and we went out grocery shopping and then we went back to my parent's house. I had some sushi for lunch, watched a couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory, and read some of the comic-books that I got yesterday, which were all really good, by the way. I also listened to a radio adaptation of the novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.

Back home I listened to a radio episode of The Man in Black, which this week was presenting a story about an unsuccessful writer who owns a failing print shop and whose wife died several months earlier. One day a mysterious man appears who offers the shopkeeper a contract by which the old printer will produce hugely successful novels. Obviously it goes without saying that there turns out to be a very heavy price to pay. It was good. personally I love horror on the radio. It can be really effective, because you don't have the visual element you have to rely entirely on your imagination, which can produce things far more disturbing than anything in a movie!

Comics and Bills

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching repeats of comedy shows on TV and doing a bit of reading.

I was up at half past five in the morning today and got into work at five to seven. It was a pretty quiet day although there weren't many people in and most people seemed slightly hyper due to the fact that it was Friday. We had some blueberry muffins brought in which were really nice and there was a baguette run. I had a panini with roast beef, English mustard, brie, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers and onions. It was a really nice sandwich.

I left work at one today and went up to the comic-book store, where I got a pretty big haul this week: Hellblazer issue 276, Night of the Living Dead issue 3, Memoir issue 2, Fables issue 102, Daredevil Reborn issue 2, Superman and Batman issue 81, Wolverine issue 5.1, Wolverine issue 1000, X-Men: Legacy issue 244, The Suicide Forest issue 3, Let Me In: Crossroads issue 3, DMZ issue 62 and Batman issue 707. So, yeah, it looks like a good set.

There was an electricity bill waiting for me when I got home, which was slightly more than I had been expecting, but not by too much. Bills always seem to come at the wrong time, but then there isn't really a right time for bills.

This evening I'm off to see Carrie at the movies with the Horror Group, so that should be fun. This is only the second time I've been out with them, but so far it has been really good.

I've been thinking about my holdiay for this year. I had been thinking of taking few days in Amsterdam next month, but I haven't got round to booking it, and I'm not sure if I'm really all that hot to go. I've been to Amsterdam before and really liked it, but I feel like waiting and maybe doing something like I did last year when I was travelling around the US and Canada, but going to different places. Anyway, if everything works out I shoud be doing a lot of travelling this year.

Horror and Offices

Last night I booked a ticket for a special one-off screening of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on Tuesday. It's a silent movie from 1919 and is being shown with live musical accompaniment so that should be really good. I'm going with the Horror Group. Mostly it was a fairly quiet evening I watched an episode of the US version of The Office, which I think is a really funny show. It's very different to the original Ricky Gervais version, but they are both good in their own ways.

This morning at work I had a meeting with the boss about my on-going training and developemnt and whatnot. It went pretty well. I'd been working hard and they seemed happy enough with my progress. The fire alarm went as well this morning, which meant standing around for about half an hour in the freezing cold. I think the alarm had gone off by mistake. The problem with the fire alarms is that we all have to congregate in the car park and we're only allowed back into the office though the main entrance and the only way to get there from the car park is up a narrow staircase which always becomes completely jammed with people and there's a big crush.

Anyway, I got home at about half past six and had a microwave king prawn, tomato and pasta ready meal. Tonight I'll be getting to bed early so I can get into work for seven in the morning. That means that I can do a six hour day and leave at one, go up to the comic-book store to get my comics for the week and then head back home. In the evening I'm off to the movies to watch Carrie with the Horror Group, so it should hopefully be a good day.I always find it really difficult getting up so early on Fridays, but it is definitely worth it when it means I can leave work at lunchtime.

Meh

Last night was yet another quiet one. Mostly I was watching TV and reading. There really wasn't much on that was worth watching.

It was a really dull day at work today. It's not really been a great week so far, but I should be going out to the movies on Friday night anyway, with the Vampire/Zombie/Horror Group to see Carrie, which should be good.

The Faculty

Last night I went up to the Vampire/Zombie/Horror Group. The movie that we saw was a 1998 movie called The Faculty, directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Kevin Williamson (who wrote Scream and Scream 2 and created the TV series Dawson's Creek). It stars Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Jordana Brewster, Robert Patrick and Famke Janssen and is about a group of Ohio teenagers who discover that the staff and most of the students of their high school have been infected by mind controlling alien parasites. It's a pretty good movie. I remember watching it when it was first released. The group itself was really good. We had a few drinks afterwards and I got home at around two in the morning.

Today has been fairly quiet. I stayed in most of the time. Aside from going out to get some groceries for the coming week.

A Not-So-Early Start

I actually didn't manage to get up at five o'clock this morning like I had intended and instead woke up at around half past six and almost panicked. I got straight in the shower, dressed grabbed my bag and headed out for work as fast as I could, and ended up arrivng at twenty past seven (and it's about a half hour walk there).

There was a baguette run this morning and I had roast beef, brie, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers, onions and English mustard. It was nice. I was only working a six hour day so after work I went up to the comic book store and got my weekly comics haul: Northlanders issue 37, Batman and Robin issue 20, Spawn issue 202, X-Men issue 7, Spider-Man issue 153, Death of Spider-Man issue 1, Daredevil: Reborn issue 1 and Fables Are Forever issue 1.

This evening I am going out with the Vampire/Zombie/Horror Group to the movies. We'll be seeing the movie The Faculty, so hopefully it should be good.