Spirited Away

I went out to the Filmhouse cinema this afternoon and saw Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It tells the story of ten year old Chihiro who finds herself trapped in a magical fantasy world when her parents are changed into pigs. It's a brilliant film and one of the classics of animation. It was the highest grossing film in Japan when it was released, and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

 

This evening I went to the Book Festival and saw Ben Aaronovitch, who has written comics, urban fantasy novels and scripts for Doctor Who (he wrote the "Remembrance of the Daleks" which I would say is one of the best older Doctor Who stories). It was basically an hour long Question and Answer session, and Aaronovitch gave some really good writing advice and was very funny. After the show I bought his book Rivers of London and got it signed.

 

The Sea Devils

Last night I was watching a six part Doctor Who story from 1972 called "The Sea Devils" which starred Jon Pertwee as the third Doctor and involved intelligent undersea reptiles who used to be the dominant species on Earth but went into hibernation millions of years ago to avoid a cataclysm that never came and then wake up to find humanity the dominant species on Earth and start to sabotage shipping in order to reclaim the Earth. It was quite a good story. One of the more action oriented ones.

I had been drinking quite a bit of cider during the evening, but wasn't in any way drunk. However when I woke up this morning I had kind of an annoying headache. I decided to stay in today, and watched some TV. At the moment I'm watching the Ralph Bakshi directed 1978 animated version of Lord of the Rings, based on the J.R.R. Tolkien novel (Tolkien was born on this day in 1892, by the way). The animation isn't great, but there are some interesting effects. It uses a lot of a technique called rotoscoping where a scene is shot in live action and then painted over to animate it. Also the film only covers half the story. They originally intended to make two films but the second was never made.

Tomorrow is the final day of the vacation so I'll probably go out and do something then.

There is sad news that the actor Pete Postlethwaite died of cancer yesterday at the age of 64.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Last night I finished reading the book Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. The book was first published in 1962 and is set during the last week of October in the small town of Green Town, Illinois. It tells the story of two 13 year old boys, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, who were born minutes apart, live next door to each other and have been best friends all their lives. The two boys are intrigued when a strange carnival, Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show, arrives in town, and before long the entire town is enraptured by the strange magic of the carnival, which promises to restore youth and fulfil everyone's deepest wishes, but Jim and Will discover the carnival's dark side and the horrific price that must be paid for the granted wishes. The book which has become acclaimed as one of the classics of the horror and fantasy genre is written, like many Bradbury books, in a very unique style that mixes in heavy amounts of sentimentality and nostalgia, along with very poetic descriptions, which is an extremely difficult style to pull off and to get the balance right, and even Bradbury isn't successful all the time but mostly it really works well. I think the Bradbury style is one of the reasons why they very rarely adapted, successfully, for film. The style is really beautiful when it's read, but to hear it spoken as dialogue sounds very stilted and artificial. Actually, Something Wicked This Way Comes started out as a screenplay Bradbury wrote for Gene Kelly. Kelly loved the script but couldn't get financing for it, and so Bradbury turned it into the novel. The book was turned into a film in 1983 by Disney, which Bradbury described as: "Not a great film, no, but a decently nice one."

I was back at work again, but only for one day before the weekend so that is good. Although it was pretty weird being back in after two days off for just one day and then having another couple of days off. The problem is that Friday's are so difficult to get off work now, and so I tend to go for days in the middle of the week now.

Clash of the Titans

Last night I was watching the movie Theorem on DVD. It's an Italian film from 1968, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, and basically involves a wealthy family in Milan who are visited by a mysterious stranger (played by Terence Stamp) who proceeds to seduce every member of the household one by one, and then abruptly leaves, resulting in each member of the family reacting in bizarre and extreme ways. It's a pretty interesting, and very strange film, which is very much a product of it's time, but still pretty watchable.

Following that I watched Three... Extremes on DVD. It's basically an anthology film of three short horror films from three of Asia's most celbrated horror film directors. From Hong Kong comes "Dumplings", directed by Fruit Chan, about an ageing actress who is happy to pay anything for some of Aunt Mei's youth-restoring dumplings, which do however have a shocking secret ingredient. From Korea there's "Cut", directed by Park Chan-wook, in which a successful film director and his painist wife are imprisoned by an insane movie extra and forced to play a gruesome and sadistic game. From Japan comes "Box", directed by Takashi Miike, about a successful young novelist who is haunted by dreams and visions concerning the death of her sister. It's a fun movie and there is plenty to entertain fans of Asian horror. They are all very impressive in their own right, especially "Box" which is actually quite a beautiful film with amazing images.

Today I went out and bought my groceries for the week. After that I went up to the cinema and saw Clash of the Titans in 3D. The film is a remake of the 1981 movie based on Greek Mythology. In Ancient Greece, Perseus (played by Sam Worthington) has to embark on a dangerous journey in order to save the city of Argos from the revenge of the Gods and their pet monster, the fearsome Kraken. It's an entertaining enough movie with some impressive monsters, even if at times it's more like going from one battle scene to another, and it never really takes advantage of being in 3D (which apparently was a last-minute decision imposed on the production after the success of Avatar). Also the computer generated monsters lack the charm of the Ray Harryhausen model creatures from the 1981 version. However, it does lack the annoying robot owl from the original, and it has Gemma Arterton who is cute.

The Children of Hurin

Last night was another really quiet evening. I did watch the latest episode of Doctor Who, which I thought was really good, in which the Doctor (played by Matt Smith) encounters his oldest enemies, the Daleks, in Second World War London.

I finished reading the book The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is set in Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth about 6,500 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, where the world is terrorised by the evil Dark Lord Morgoth, who takes revenge on the warrior Hurin, the only man who ever dared defy Morgoth to his face, by placing a curse on Hurin's wife and children that they will be plagued by disaster and misfortune for the rest of their lives. Most of the book focuses on Hurin's son Turin as he wanders from place to place, bringing tragedy and misfortune wherever he goes as he tries to venge himself on Morgoth and find a way to break the curse. It's a pretty dark book and quite brutal, but it is really good and worth checking out. Tolkien worked on it for years, but never managed to finish it before his death in 1973 and, like all of Tolkien's posthumously published works, it was edited by his son Christopher.

I went along to my parent's house as usual for a Sunday, and had my lunch there. We had minced beef and carrot, topped with mashed potato and baked cheese with spring onion on the top, and peas. It was a nice lunch.

Down of Another Week

It was a very quiet evening last night. I was just at home, reading my book and watching TV. There wasn't really anything on though, just the usual repeats of old comedy shows. I started reading the novel Weaveworld by Clive Barker. It's a kind of fantasy book about a magical world hidden inside an old carpet. However as it's Clive Barker it's quite a lot stranger and darker than many other fantasy novels. I've read about a hundred pages and so far it is pretty good.

It was the start of another week at work and it was really quiet and pretty uneventful. I got home at about six o'clock.

I need to get on with my writing. I've just not known where to go with it the past few days.

Guards! Guards!

Last night I was listening to a radio adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story called "The Three Gables" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this story a woman is offered a large amount of money to sell her house to a wealthy buyer who also wants all of her personal possessions. When the woman refuses the would-be buyer starts to use threats and intimidation to force her to sell, and so she hires Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to investigate. It was quite a good story.

Following that I listened to the first of a six part radio adaptation of Guards! Guards!, based on the novel by Terry Pratchett. It was one of the Discworld series of comedy fantasy stories and concerned the inept City Guards who, worried that they have become little more than a joke, decide to summon up a dragon to terrorise the populace so they can banish it and become heroes. It was very funny.

I did some more writing last night and it seems to be going quite well so far.

It was another dull day at work, and I was feeling kind of tense all day. At least it's the weekend now, anyway.

Good Omens

Last night I finished reading the book Good Omens written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The book was first published in 1990 and is kind of a mix of comedy, fantasy and horror. Basically it opens a few days before the End of the World, as the armies of Heaven and Hell gather for their final battle, however, due to a mix-up at the hospital, the Antichrist has been sent to the wrong parents and instead of being raised by the American Ambassador to Britain, has been raised by an ordinary couple in a small town in rural England, completely unaware of his true identity. As the situation for the world grows increasingly desperate, an angel and a demon, who realise that they prefer the world as it is, decide to join forces in an attempt to stop the apocalypse. However the only person who truly seems to know what's happening is a long-dead witch who wrote a book called "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch", the world's only truly reliable book of prophecy. It is a very funny book and the combination of the styles of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman works realy well. The movie director Terry Gilliam is a huge fan of the book and has been trying to get a film made of it for a number of years.

The streets were really icy outside today. Really icy. It was actually quite treacherous walking about. It was another very busy but very dull day at work. Already it feels as if the two week Christmas holiday never happened.

Special Features

Last night I was watching a movie of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, directed by Andrew Adamson and based on the novel by C.S. Lewis. It's the second film in the Narnia series, following The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The story revolves around the four kids from the first film in 1940s London, a year after their return from Narnia, who suddenly find themselves transported back there only to find that in Narnia one thousand years have passed and the country has been conquered by the brutal Telmarines. The kids join the Narnians as they try to restore the noble Prince Caspian (played by Ban Barnes) to the Telmarine throne. It was an entertaining enough film, with some pretty good special effects and action sequences.

Later on I was watching a Doctor Who story from 1973 called "The Time Warrior" on DVD. It was a pretty entertaining story that I had on video once.

This morning I was watching some special features on the DVD of 2001: A Space Odyssey. In particular a documentary on the making of the film and an interesting feature in which various scientists discuss what life on other planets may be like. It's an a mazing film that really stands up well today, even forty years later. The special effects are still really impressive.

I went along to my parents house for lunch today, as usual for a Sunday, so that was really good.

Season of Mists

Yesterday I read the graphic novel The Sandman: Season of Mists written by Neil Gaiman. The story revolved around Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, who thousands of years ago condemned a woman to Hell after she rejected him. Convinced by the rest of his immortal family, The Endless, that this was wrong, Morpheus travels to Hell to rescue her. However, Lucifer has not forgotten how Morpheus humiliated him in the past and is preparing his revenge. It was a really good story.

Last night I was watching The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan, in which Batman (played by Christian Bale) has to fight against master criminal The Joker (Heath Ledger). It is a really good and complex superhero movie, with plenty of spectacular action, and brilliant performances, especially from Ledger. I remember watching it at the cinema when it was out last year.After the movie I went on to the computer and was up until about half past four in the morning writing. I've pretty much finished the story, but I want to rewrite the last part because, after I've thought about it, I'm not really happy about it.

Today was another really bright and sunny day. I went along to my parent's house as usual for a Sunday and we had a barbecue. Which was hamburgers, sausages, chicken legs and salad followed by strawberries dipped in melted chocolate and beer. It was really nice. We always like having barbecues but the weather is very rarely nice enough to allow us to have them. We didn't have any at all last year. It was also nice enough to just sit out in the garden.

When I got back I listened to the final episode of Voices From the Grave, which this week told the story of a parson who takes over a new parish in a small English village and promptly bans a violent annual fighting game, much to the horror of the villagers. The decision also enrages evil ancient forces which demand a blood sacrifice. It was a pretty good one. That has been a good series actually.

Neverwhere

Last night was pretty quiet. I wrote some more of my story and I watched the latest episode of The Wire, which was really good, and listened to another radio adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story.

It was a very quiet and dull day at work today and I was feeling kind of tired. There wasn't much work in, presumably due to it being the day after a bank holiday, presumably.

I finished reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. The story revolves around a young man named Richard Mayhew who lives in London in an ordinary flat, has an ordinary job in an office and a glamorous fiancee. One night he encounters an injured young woman, named Door, on the streets. He helps her recover and shortly afterwards discover that he has become invisible to everyone around him, and even his oldest friends don't seem to recognise him. He ends up discovering a secret subterranean city called London Below in the sewers, tunnels and underground stations beneath the city, populated by "people who slipped through the cracks", along with monsters, angels, vampires, knights and people who can talk to rats. It's a very imaginative and an endlessly entertaining book, full of action, adventure and humour. I remember watching the BBC TV version back in 1996.

Quiet Times

Last night was pretty quiet. I was writing some more of my story and reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I just started reading that novel on Saturday evening and I'm already well over halfway through it. I have been really loving it so far. I also listened to the latest episode of Voices From the Grave on the radio. This episode involved an unhappily married woman who becomes increasingly obsessed with an old Victorian mental hospital and the ghosts which are reputed to occupy it. It was a pretty good episode.

Today I was back at work, and things were back to normal, although I was working on the new computer system which I was trained on last week. It was pretty dull however, because I got in pretty early, I also managed to leave early. This evening I'll be writing more of my story, reading more Neverwhere and watching the latest episode of The Wire.

The Colour of Magic

Last night I finished reading an omnibus collection of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett, the first two novels in his Discworld series. The Discworld novels are a series of comedy fantasy stories set in a fantasy world called Discworld, which is completely flat and rests on the backs of four elephants who are standing on the back of a giant turtle which swims through space. The novels in the omnibus volume tell the story of a cowardly, failed wizard called Rincewind who has to guide a naive and over-enthusiastic tourist named Twoflower, who is constantly followed by his Luggage which walks around on hundreds of little legs and eats anyone who threatens either it or it's master. They go off on a journey around the disc, getting into various adventures involving magic, monsters, bandits and so on, as well as having to save the entire Discworld when it looks like the turtle is going to swim straight into a star. The books work as genuinely exciting fantasy adventures, as well as being extremely funny. They are very enjoyable and hugely entertaining.

It was another very quiet day at work. I was still in the old office, where I was working when I first started at the company, and have been working for the past four weeks on a "loan-out". Joe lent me a PlayStation magazine, which was nice of him. I got home at around five to six.