The Wrestler

Last night I did start working on a comic-book. So far it's called Lonely Cities. It opens with someone arriving in a strange town looking for something that they've lost, but they don't really know what it is. The feeling I'm kind of going for in it is that feeling you get when it's 3AM and you're completely alone in a strange part of a strange city and you can't find your way home again.

I watched the 2008 movie The Wrestler, directed by Darren Aronofsky. The movie stars Mickey Rourke as a one-time professional wrestler who was at the top of his career twenty years earlier but is now pretty much forgotten and spends much of his time wrestling at the weekend on the independent circuit trying to recapture his glory days. It also stars Marisa Tomei as the stripper with whom he strikes up a tentative relationship, and Evan Rachel Wood as his estranged daughter. It was a really good movie. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

This morning someone came to my door at quarter to eight while I was having my breakfast (or at least a cup of coffee, I never seem to have time for a proper breakfast). It turned out it was the book that I ordered on Friday. The book is EmiTown by Emi Lenox. It's described as a "Sketch Diary", and is pretty much an autobiographical comic-book, along the lines of American Splendor.

It was another fairly dull day at work, but there was a baguette run that was good. I had cajun chicken, onions, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers and chilli sauce. It was really nice.I was listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter songs on my iPod on my way to and from work this morning (I walk, so if takes about twenty five minutes each way).

6,500 Years Earlier

Last night was pretty quiet. I watched a couple of episodes of South Park on TV and I started reading The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien. I read the first hundred pages of it, and so far it seems pretty good, and certainly very different to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The books are all set in the same fantasy world but Children of Hurin is set about 6,500 years before the other books, and is quite surprisingly dark and violent.

I was back at work today, and mostly it was pretty quiet and dull except for the constant moaning from some of the people. I listened to some episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Sound on my iPod. That Mitchell and Webb Sound is a comedy sketch show and a lot of it is very funny. I left work at around ten past five. On my way home I bought the latest issue of Total Film magazine, which this month was about the previews of the upcoming summer movies.

Shopping for Death

Last night I was playing Batman: Arkham Asylum on the PlayStation 3. Basically, the storyline of the game is that Batman is delivering the Joker to the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Gotham City. However when Batman delivers the Joker it turns out that it is a trap set by the Joker, as all the inmates are set free and take over the Asylum, taking guards and medical staff hostage, with the Joker as the self-appointed boss of the Asylum. Basically, you play Batman and you have to explore the Asylum, rescue hostages, fight the villains (including most of the familiar Batman adversaries), solve puzzles and eventually defeat the Joker. It's a really involving game and a lot of fun.

I also watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on DVD. It was a story called "Shopping for Death" written by Ray Bradbury and concerned two elderly insurance salesmen who are trying to save an extremely obnoxious woman before she annoys someone enough thet they kill her. It was one of the more unusual episodes.

It was another quiet day at work today. I managed to listen to all three hours of the radio adaptation of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold which I've got on my iPod. I do like it when it's really quiet and empty at work, because I'm perfectly happy just to sit and listen to my iPod and just get on with it, basically.

Human Statues

It was another really quiet evening last night. I was kind of half-watching The Blair Witch Project, but I had seen it just a couple of weeks ago. I did read a story in the Best New Horror book I got on Sunday called "Feminine Ending" by Neil Gaiman, which was about a human statue (one of those kind of mimes that you see around on the streets pretending to be statues) who turns out to be a stalker. The story itself is written as a love letter from the human statue. I had a really strange night's sleep where I kept waking up.

It was an incredibly dull day at work. The time just seemed to drag on forever. I spent most of the afternoon listening to my iPod. Which I must remember to recharge this evening, actually.

iPod Stories

Last night I listened to the latest episode of That Mitchell and Webb Sound on the radio, which was really funny. Later on I watched the latest episode of The Wire. They've got to the half way point of the final season, so that's it almost finished and I'll need to find something else to watch on weekday nights!

Today was yet another really quiet day at work, and I was kind of bored and tired all day. I listened to some fantasy stories written and read by Neil Gaiman on my iPod, so that helped liven the day up a bit.

Coldheart Canyon

Last night I finished reading the novel Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker. Subtitled "A Hollywood Ghost Story" the novel was published in 2001, and the story revolves around Todd Pickett, an actor who is at the top of the Hollywood "A"-list, more due to looks than actual talent. However, it looks like his time at the top of the tree is about to come to an end because his movies have started to become less and less successful and, at the advanced age of 34 years, he is worried that he is getting older and that his looks are starting to go. This being Hollywood he decides to have plastic surgery done, however it goes wrong and leaves Pickett seriously disfigured. Anxious to recover away from the prying eyes of the press and his fans, Pickett retreats to a deserted mansion which used to be owned by Katya Lupi, one of the biggest stars of the 1920s, but whose sadistic cruelty earned the place the nickname "Coldheart Canyon". Before long, Pickett discovers that the Canyon is not as deserted as he thinks, when he meets Lupi who has not visibly aged a day since 1926, and discovers that the grounds are haunted by the ghosts of countless old Hollywood legends and bizarre monsters, who are imprisoned in the Canyon by an evil and ancient supernatural force existing in the house. The book is not as good as Barker's best work, such as The Great and Secret Show and Cabal (which was filmed as Nightbreed). However it is still a good read working as an effective horror story and an entertaining attack on Hollwood. Actually, Clive Barker, who lives in Los Angeles himself and is involved in the film business, criticizes Hollywood and the whole world of celebrity pretty savagely in the novel. There is a lot in the book that is really great, but there was a lot in it that could have been cut, really. The book is 750 pages long, and I think a couple of hundred pages less wouldn't have heard but I enjoyed it. As is often the case with Clive Barker it was very gruesome and violent in places and very sexually explicit as well at times. It's also full of fun (if often unflattering) references to Hollywood stars old and new.

I was also watching a movie last night called The Libertine, which was released in 2005. Set in England in 1673, the film tells the true story of the notorious John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester, (played by Johnny Depp) who basically spent his time drinking and having sex with pretty much anyone, and penning poetry and plays when he felt like it, which are frequently very explicit and savagely critical of King Charles II (John Malkovich). The movie deals with Wilmot's difficult relationship with his wife (Rosamund Pike) and his relationship with a young actress (Samamtha Morton) who he trains having made a bet that he can turn her into the most popular actress on the stage. The movie is pretty and entertaining, with some great performances.

It was a pretty dull day at work. I was on my own at the table for pretty much the whole afternoon, so I spent the time listening to my iPod. I listened to the Juno soundtrack and an episode of The Mighty Boosh.

I've been thinking of moving over to the Nova Scotia area of Canada, but I might decide to go to Vancouver or Toronto.

Another Quiet Friday

Last night I was watching a really funny episode of The Big Bang Theory. I really enjoy that show. I was also doing some more writing, which went pretty well.

Today was pretty quiet at work. The hawk was around again. It always attracts a lot of attention around the office, whenever it's around. It was a very quiet day at work. I was listening to a few songs on my iPod from Sixpence None the Richer, Van Morrison, Aretha Franklin, REM, Roy Orbison, the theme from Twin Peaks and an episode of That Mitchell and Webb Sound.

Recently I've been reading Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker. It's a horror novel set in Hollywood, and so far it's pretty good.

Hawk

Last night I was updating my iPod with some music and plays and stuff.

On my way into work I stopped off and renewed my bus pass for another four weeks. It was a really quiet day in the office. In order to solve the problem of pigeons around the building they're using a trained hawk to scare the birds off, so that always creates a real stir whenever the hawk is around.

On the way home I stopped off to vote in the European elections.

I was thinking that it's been a couple of years since I last had any kind of date. I have pretty much given up on it now. I suppose the advantage of not having a romantic life means that I have more time and money for other things. For one thing there's not enough plastic surgery in the world to make me look good! LOL! Seriously though, I think if it ever really was going to happen it would have happened by now. Maybe in the extremely unlikely event of me ever becoming successful, I might have a chance. Then again I've never had any good experiences in my romantic life. So I've pretty much shut the book on it now.

The Collector

Last night I was watching a 1965 film called The Collector, directed by William Wyler and based on a novel by John Fowles. The story, which is set in England, revolves around a young man named Clegg (played by Terence Stamp) whose hobby is collecting butterflies and wins a large sum of money on the pools. Clegg is obsessed by an art student, Miranda (Samantha Eggar), whom he kidnaps and keeps locked up in his large basement, in the hope that she will eventually fall in love with him. It is a disturbing film, but well-made and very well-acted. I think it's become something of a cult film. The two actors knew each other pretty well before the film beacause apparently while they were both at college, Stamp had asked Eggar out and she turned him down. I've never read the book the film is based on but apparently it is very good.

There were no more weird incidents with my watch last night.I got up later than I had planned and so I went along to work without having had any breakfast. I spent quite a lot of time listening to my iPod today, mainly episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Sound. We got new security passes today. The photos for them were taken about six months ago. In my picture I look really angry for some reason.

Fawlty Towers

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching a documentary charting the history of Fawlty Towers, which was a really funny sitcom from the 1970s. It's interesting that they only made twelve episodes of it, so it never really got the chance to outstay it's welcome. I sometimes think it's far better for shows to do fewer episodes and retain the quality rather than for them to run forever until they're just run into the ground.

It was the start of another week at work of course, and it was pretty busy. I was listening to more stories from the Neil Gaiman Fragile Things collection on my iPod, so that certainly made the afternoon a bit more bearable. I got home at about ten to six this evening. The weather was really warm and sunny. Hopefully it will stay like this for awhile.

Festival Brochure

Last night I was working some more on my story and later on I watched an episode of The Wire.

On my way into work I stopped off to renew my bus pass for another four weeks. Work was quite a bit busier than it was yesterday. One annoying thing was that there was a problem with my work computer wasn't switching on properly. After about half an hour trying to get the IT department on the phone, and them not answering, I just unplugged it and plugged it back in again, and then it worked fine. I spent quite a lot of time at work listening to short stories by Neil Gaiman on my iPod. I like doing that, especially in the afternoon. I find it relaxes me and helps with concentration.

After work I went up to the Filmhouse cinema to pick up a brochure for the Edinburgh Film Festival which was released today. They seem to be having a good lot of guests this year. Every year they have filmmakers talking to an audience about their lives and careers and answering questions. This year they have got Darren Aronofsky (director of Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain and The Wrestler), Sam Mendes (director of American Beauty, Road to Perdition and Jarhead), Joe Dante (director of The Howling, InnerSpace and the two Gremlins movies among others) and Roger Corman (who directed and produced countless cult "B" movies in the 1950s through to the '70s). There are also a whole load of other special events and premieres. I booked for the day off on Friday, just so that I can get all my Film Festival events booked up before they all get sold out.

It took an hour from when I left work to when I got home, so that was pretty annoying, but at least I got what I wanted. On my way home I got a sausage supper for my meal.

Silent Office

Last night I was writing some more of my story. I was also watching repeats of comedy shows on TV and the first hour or so of a re-make of Night of the Living Dead, which I wasn't really getting into so I didn't watch the whole movie.

I got up later than I had planned and headed off to work. I've put in to take Friday off because that's when the booking opens for the Edinburgh Film Festival in June, and the popular movies and events sell out really quickly, so I like to be on-line and ready as soon as the box office opens. All the bosses in the office were off work so I wasn't able to get it signed off today, but hopefully it'll get signed off tomorrow. They are having one of their regular panics about too many people taking Fridays and Mondays off, so if I can't get that day off I'll just have to think of something else. It was a Bank Holiday today and so the whole office was almost deserted. There wasn't really much work in today, and so it was pretty quiet. I was listening to Neil Gaiman reading his book of short stories Fragile Things on my iPod.

I got out of work pretty late, because I got in late and on the way home I stopped off and got some milk and the latest issue of Total Film magazine. The main stories this month were a large feature about the up-coming Terminator film and a very large feature about the history and increasing popularity of 3D movies. When I got in I had some microwaved spaghetti bolognese and a glass of apple juice. This evening I'll be writing more of my story and watching the first episode of the second season of The Wire, which is on TV tonight.

On Target

Last night was pretty quiet again. I did some more of the script last night and made it up to 84 pages. I should reach the 100 page target in a couple of days which means I'll have a few days before the end of April to get things sorted out, if need be. I'm hoping to get it all done by the end of the weekend. I know I won't be able to get much if anything done on Tuesday, because that's when I'm going to see the 3D preview of Coraline. I watched the latest episode of The Apprentice which was pretty entertaining.

It was really busy and kind of stressful at work today. There was a lot of pretty difficult and very time-consuming jobs to be done, and also my computer locked itself for some reason and I couldn't use it for awhile, until they got it fixed. To kind of relax a bit I spent some time listening to my iPod, namely the soundtrack to the film Juno, and a couple of episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Sound.

I left work at about quarter past six and got a fish supper on my way home.

Watership Down

Last night I was playing some Dead Space on the Playstation 3 which was a lot of fun! Although it did end up with me shouting swear words at the TV with frustration as I was killed yet again by alien mutants. I also watched a new episode of The Big Bang Theory which was funny.

Today was another busy, but relatively uneventful day at work. When I had to go through to another office to get some more work I had a chance to have a chat with my friend Joe, which was fun. We were mostly talking about fun things to see in Amsterdam, movies, comics and video games. I also had a chance to listen to listen to my iPod including an episode of The Mighty Boosh and two episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Sound, so that made time pass quicker.

This evening I've been watching Watership Down which, for a cartoon about talking rabbits, is quite surprisingly violent and dark. It's a British film from 1978 based on a novel by Richard Adams and follows a bunch of plucky rabbits who are fleeing the destruction of their warren to find safety in the hostile English countryside. I first saw it when I was about five or six and the ghostly Death Rabbit absolutely terrified me when I first saw it!

The Apprentice

Last night was pretty uneventful. I was watching the first in the new series of The Apprentice, which I think is one of the funniest shows around. Later on in the evening I was playing Tomb Raider: Underworld, which was quite a fun game.

It was a pretty busy day at work, but nothing particularly exciting was happening. I managed to listen to a few things on my iPod though. Namely four episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Sound.

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).

Sit-Coms

Last night was really quiet. I watched a repeat of an episode from the most recent series of Peep Show, which was very funny. I still think that that is one of the best sit-coms that has ever been on TV.

Today was very quiet at work. I spent quite a bit of time listening to episodes of The Mighty Boosh radio series and music from the Juno soundtrack on my iPod. I'll be working in the old office for at least another week (which would make it six weeks instead of the original four), although it would make more sense if I spent the next two weeks in that office because I'm off on holiday in two weeks, but common sense tends not to come into it much. Someone was being moved into an office in another building and celebrated by taking an extra long lunch and flicking rubber bands at people who walked past.

I got home at around quarter to six, had some microwaved pasta and watched an episode of Millennium.

Of course it's Friday the Thirteenth today and providing that I survive until tomorrow I was planning on celebrating Valentine's Day by watching the new Friday the 13th movie. I'll also have to get my holiday booked.

Music at Work

Last night was fairly quiet. I spent quite a lot of time watching repeats of comedy shows on TV, notably The IT Crowd, which is always really funny.

Today was another quiet day at work. I was listening to my iPod for awhile (I heard a couple of Bob Dylan songs, an episode of The Mighty Boosh radio series, the soundtrack from Juno and some Mary Chapin Carpenter). The iPod was working without any problems today.

On my way home I stopped off and bought some milk and when I got back I found that someone had been to read the electricity meter, but hadn't been able to since I was out at work all day and so I had to give them a meter reading over the phone. So I'll have an electricity bill to look forward to in the next couple of months, and it is going to be expensive, because it always is during the winter, even at the best of times.

I made myself a microwaved spaghetti carbonara meal and a glass of apple juice. I am really looking forward to my holiday. I am planning on going away for a few days but I'm not entirely sure where yet though.

Radio

Last night I had plugged my iPod into my radio set in order to charge it up. However, when I unplugged it, the screen flashed white for a second and then went dead, and however much I fiddled about with it, it wouldn't work and nothing happened. However this evening I plugged in the iPod to my computer, in the hope it might jump-start it a bit, and it actually seemed to work. The screen lit up and it seemed to be working fine. I really didn't want to be going off on my holidays without the iPod working.

Last night I was listening to the second episode of Weird Tales, a series of one-off radio horror stories based on the world created by H.P. Lovecraft. This story was set in London in 1906 where extensions to the London Underground system reveals a strange skeleton and a bizarre subterranean temple. It was a pretty good story, although at times it was a little too similar to Quatermass and the Pit, which also dealt with the discovery of buried, other-worldly mysteries beneath London. I also listened to the third part of Small Gods and the second part of The House on the Borderland.

It was another pretty dull and quiet day at work today.

Start of the Week

Last night was really quiet, I was busy writing my NaNoWriMo novel (I'm up to 18,636 words at the moment). I think it has been going quite well so far, and I have been enjoying the process. I hadn't actually written anything in a while before it started.

It was a very quiet day at work, and really cold, even in the office. There weren't maybe people in, but then there was originally a strike scheduled for today, but it was called off at the last minute on Friday, so probably quite a few people weren't aware that it wasn't on.

I had updated my iPod over the weekend, so it was fun to have some new music to listen to.