When You're Strange

I had another day off today and went along to the city centre. I got a few books in the sales, namely The Soft Machine by William Burroughs, The Ticket That Exploded by William Burroughs and Mr. Nice: An Autobiography by Howard Marks (I saw the movie adaptation a couple of weeks ago at the Film Festival).

After that I went up to the Cameo Cinema and saw When You're Strange, directed by Tom DiCillo. The movie is a documentary about the influential 1960s rock band The Doors. Mostly the film focuses on the group's charismatic lead singer and songwriter Jim Morrison. It's made up of concert footage and some backstage footage along with clips from the rarely-seen 1969 film HWY, which was written by and starred Jim Morrison as a murderous hitch-hiker. The movie, narrated by Johnny Depp, will probably not have much new for Doors fans, but it is a good overview of the history of the band and of the period which they helped define. The concert footage shows just how powerful a performer Morrison really was. The only real omission is that it doesn't have anything about what the surviving Doors (organist and founder Ray Manzarek, guitarist and songwriter Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore) did after Morrison's death. It's definitely worth watching though. Actually in the audience while I was watching the movie there was some guy who must have been kind of drunk or something who was singing along with some of the songs and pumping his fist and making heavy metal style devil horns at the screen.

After the movie I went along to the Rutland Hotel and had a pint of Heineken beer and a club sandwich before heading off home.

Games and Beer

Last night I watched the final three episodes of the second season of Blake's 7 on DVD. It was pretty good, with a good cliffhanger climax.

Today I went out to the city centre and walked around for awhile. I bought a couple of games for my PlayStation 3, namely Red Dead Redemption and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I think they're both supposed to be pretty good games, so I'm looking forward to playing them.

On my way home I went and got a few bottles of beer, just because it is so hot outside today and I don't have many cold drinks at home.

Alice in Wonderland

Last night was really quiet and I spent most of the time reading and watching episodes of South Park on TV.

This morning I went along to the supermarket to get my groceries for the week, and then I headed up to the movies. I had originally intended to see Clash of the Titans, but the cinema web-site listed the wrong time and so I decided to see Alice in Wonderland instead. I had three quarters of an hour before the movie started and so I stopped off and had a bottle of Budweiser beer before I went in to the film. I saw the 3D version of Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton, and I really liked it. The movie isn't really as much based on the books by Lewis Carroll as it is inspired by them. The film is set 13 years after Alice's original adventures in Wonderland, and concerns the now 19 year old Alice (Mia Wasikowska), who believes her previous adventures were just a dream, tumbling back down into Wonderland to find the place held in a grip of terror by the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). The film was visually really amazing, especially in the 3D version, and it has a lot of very amusing performances, especially Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. I can imagine the movie annoying a lot of Lewis Carroll purists, who might be annoyed that many aspects of the film owe a lot more to Burton than they do to Carroll, but personally I really enjoyed it.

Back to Normal

It's been really quiet for the past couple of days. I didn't go out at all yesterday, and just stayed in on the internet and watching TV. I ended up dropping off on my couch while watching Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (which I think is a pretty funny show). I did manage to write the first poem that I've written in a couple of years.

I had been planning on going out to see Watchmen today, but I didn't get out in time and instead went out to renew my bus pass for another month and look at DVDs. I didn't buy anything though. I don't much like going to the shops unless I am actually going to buy something, but I couldn't really decide and eventually just went back home. On my way back I got some beer as a kind of treat for the evening. However, they didn't have any bags in the shop, and I dropped several of the bottles while I was trying to put the key in my door, but nothing was broken though, and I managed to collect them all.

I'm definitely going to try and make it up to see Watchmen tomorrow. I really want to see that film because I really liked the original graphic novel.

While I was away in Amsterdam I did come to the conclusion that I am probably my own worst enemy in many respects due to my supreme lack of self-confidence and total lack of faith in myself and my own talents, abilities and intelligence (if any).

I also had some really great ideas while I was hanging out in my favourite coffeeshop over there and can't remember a single one of them now.

Friday Feeling

I'm back on here again!

Yesterday evening I went to the New Yorker bar next door to the office for a few drinks with my friend Joe. I had three pints of beer and a plate of chips (French fries) covered with melted cheese. When i got home, I watched the second part of Desperation, based on the Stephen King novel. It's pretty faithful to the novel, which is a pretty good read, if not one of King's best.

Today was quiet, and the office emptied pretty quickly, as it almost always does on a Friday. There never seems to be much done on a Friday as people entertained themselves by flicking rubber bands at each other.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. I've got to get birthday presents and cards for my brother and Jackie, and get Jackie's present wrapped and organised before the party in the evening.