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!

Dangerous Habits

Last night was pretty quiet. I read the two Hellblazer graphic novels that I got on Friday. The first book, Original Sins, collected the first nine issues of the monthly comic-book from 1988, in which cynical, chain-smoking magician John Constantine faces off against a grotesque hunger demon, yuppies from Hell, the ghosts of a lost platoon from the Vietnam war, bizarre and deadly religious cults and life in 1980s Britain. It was a very good collection. In the second volume, Dangerous Habits, Constantine's smoking habit has given him terminal lung cancer. With time and options rapidly running out, Constantine has to make peace with his life and play one final desperate game against the Devil himself. That was a very good book and often genuinely affecting and moving. They are both reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Today I went along to my parent's house for lunch. We had a kind of sausage bake with potatoes, onions and cherry tomatoes, followed by apple pie. After lunch we had a walk to a supermarket but I didn't buy anything. I got home at around half past five.

House of Mystery

Last night I was reading my new comics, and the graphic novel of House of Mystery: Room & Boredom written by Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham and illustrated by Luca Rossi. The story revolves around the House of Mystery, which sits at the crossroads of many different realities, and where customers have to pay for their food and drinks in the bar with a story. A young architecture student from Texas finds her way to the House after being pursued by a ghostly couple, but is unable to leave. It's a pretty good story, and is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

The snow fell again overnight and it was really thick this morning, so I couldn't go along to my parent's house. Instead we went up to Cafe Rouge, a French restaurant, and I had some bread and olives to start, with a minute steak and fries with garlic butter as the main course and a hot chocolate and walnut brownie topped with vanilla ice cream for dessert and a pint of Stella Artois beer. It was really nice. Afterwards I looked around the shops for a bit, but didn't buy anything.

Radical Road

I had a half day from work today, and after I had finished up I went out with a few people for a Team lunch at a place called the Radical Road. For a starter I had a crayfish cocktail and for the main course I had some fish and chips. It was really nice. Afterwards myself and a few other people went out for a couple of drinks, so it was pretty good.

Adjustment Team

Last night was pretty uneventful. I read a Philip K. Dick short story called "Paycheck" about a man who has just finished a two year contract with a company. However the contract has a strange clause in which the man has to agree to having the previous two years wiped from his memory. Also, instead of a paycheck, he discovers that he has sent himself a bizarre collection of random objects such as ticket stubs, a length of wire, a bit of cloth and half a poker chip. All of which turn out to be unexpectedly useful when he finds himself hounded by the police who are investigating the company. It was a good story, which was turned into a film in 2003 directed by John Woo and starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman. Dick stated that the story was about how there are times when small and seemingly unimportant objects can sometimes be worth far more than might be apparent.

This morning I read another short story from Philip K. Dick called "Adjustment Team" which was about a normal man who, due to a mistake, finds himself arriving at his office at the same time that it is being operated on by a sinister organisation who re-write reality itself. It's being made into an upcoming film called The Adjustment Bureau starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.

One thing you could never accuse Philip K. Dick of was laziness, in his 53 years he wrote approximately 121 short stories and published 44 novels. Nine of his works have already been adapted as films and there are about five more on the way.

Today has been fairly quiet. I've not been out at all. I was getting a DVD down from the top of my shelves and about twenty of them fell down on the floor, so that was kind of an emergency, but despite some minor damage to the packaging of one or two, they seemed to be okay. I had an "American platter" for lunch which I got yesterday, it consists of potato skins filled with cheese and bacon, sticky barbecue chicken pieces, pork ribs, mushrooms in breadcrumbs and a pot of garlic and mayonnaise sauce, so that was really nice.

Weird Movie

Last night I was watching the latest episode of Doctor Who, which was really good. I think the latest season has been really good so far.

I watched a French movie from 1995 called The City of Lost Children, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. The film is set in an un-named coastal town which is plagued by a sinister cult the members of which are equipped with one electronic eye, a theives' guild made up of orphans and run by a brutal pair of identical twin sisters who share a psychic link, and a circus ringmaster who owns trained fleas which inject people with mind-control serum. The town's children are being kidnapped and taken to a delapidated oil rig set in a sea full of mines in which the mad scientist Krank (played by Daniel Emilfork) tries to steal their dreams while dealing with his henchmen: five dim-witted clones (all played by Dominique Pinon) and a conscience-striken, argumentative disembodied brain that floats in a tank. When the younger brother of circus strongman, One (Ron Perlman), is kidnapped he has to search through the town's bizarre and dangerous underworld to find him. It is a really striking and deeply surreal movie that manages to be both funny and often scary. The special effects and design are really striking.

I went to my parent's house for lunch, as usual for a Sunday. It was a nice afternoon.

Of course, yesterday there was the sad news that Dennis Hopper died at the age of 74.

The Ring

Last night I was watching a documentary by Stephen Fry abou the controversial composer Richard Wagner, who's most famous work The Ring lasts about nineteen hours in it's entirity. Stephen Fry, who is of Jewish heritage and is an unashamed fan of Wagner, was very engaging in the documentary and didn't shy away from confronting Wagner's legacy (Wagner himself was horribly anti-semitic and Adolf Hitler was a massive fan of his work).

Today I was off work and I had a walk around the city, seeing as the weather was so nice. I had a kind of pub lunch of steak and bacon club sandwiches which was really nice.

Barbecue

Last night I was watching the latest episode of Doctor Who on TV, which I thought was pretty good, and I also watched the first couple of episodes of the second season of True Blood on DVD. So far, it looks like it will be a really good series.

Today was really hot and sunny again today. I went along to my parent's house for lunch as usual. For a change, it was warm enough to have a barbecue and we had hamburgers, sausages and chicken legs with some salad, although we had to go in for a bit when it started to rain briefly but very heavily just before we were about to have dessert. I really like barbecues, but we very rarely get a chance to have many, due to the usual bad weather.

The new issue of Fortean Times had arrived during the week, the main story was about a theatre which is supposedly haunted by a donut throwing poltergeist. When I got home I listened to an episode of Doctor Who on the radio. They have a series of Doctor Who episodes specifically made for the radio, and a lot of them are really good.

Scanners

Last night I was watching the 1980 film Scanners, directed by David Cronenberg. The film tells the story of Cameron Vale (played by Stephen Lack) a homeless man who is also a "Scanner" (one of a group of people born with the ability to plug their nervous system into the nervous system of another person through mental power. This gives the Scanner the power to read another person's mind, control their actions and hurt or kill them). Vale is captured by a security company called Consec who are developing Scanners to use as biological weapons. However, there is another group of renegade Scanners led by the charismatic and powerful Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) who want to destory human society and take over the world. Consec decide to train Vale up and use him as a spy to infiltrate Revok's organisation. The movie is a really effective blend of horror, science-fiction and conspiracy thriller with plenty of memorable set-pieces, including the famous scene where a man's head explodes. It is probably the most mainstream of the early Cronenberg films and it was his first big hit. The movie spawned a couple of sequels and a remake is in the works, none of which have any involvement from Cronenberg.

I went along to my parent's house as usual for my lunch, and it was really nice. We had tacos for lunch, which I really like.

1974

I was watching the latest episode of Doctor Who yesterday evening, and it was a pretty good one this week, where the Doctor has to fight vampires in 14th Century Venice. It really does seem like vampires are everywhere in books, TV and movies these days.

I also finished reading the book Nineteen Seventy-four by David Peace. The book is a crime thriller set in Yorkshire, England during December 1974, and tells the story of Edward Dunford, crime correspondent for the local newspaper. When a missing girl is found brutally murdered, Dunford immediately connects it to a series of similar crimes several years before and, hoping this will be the case that makes his career, he sets out to investigate it, however he soon finds himself drawn into a nightmarish world of police and official corruption and violence. The book is the first of the four volume "Red Riding" series. The book is good, but very bleak and depressing. My Mum came from Yorkshire and we often used to go down there to visit my Gran, so I could recognise a lot of the places that were in the book.

I went along to my parent's house today, for my lunch. We had salmon, boiled potatoes and peas for lunch, so it was really nice.

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.

The Golden Army

Last night I watched the latest episode of Doctor Who on TV. It was a really good one this week and I think that the new Doctor and the new companion are both really starting to come into their own now.

Later on I watched a movie called Hellboy II: The Golden Army, directed by Guillermo Del Toro and based on a comic by Mike Mignola. The movie is basically about Hellboy (played by Ron Perlman) a large, cigar-chomping demon with a giant stone hand trying to defeat a rogue elf who wants to re-animate the robotic "Golden Army" and break an ancient truce between humans and supernatural creatures. I've not seen the first film but this one was a lot of fun, with plenty of action and humour and full of really impressive special effects.

I also watched a documentary called Not Quite Hollywood, which was about low-budget films in Australia, mostly sex comedies, horror films and action movies, which were dubbed "Ozploitation". A lot of them actually looked really good. The movie featured loads of clips from the films and interviews with the film-makers and actors, and also contributions from fans of the genre, such as an enthusiastic Quentin Tarantino.

Today I went along to my parent's house where the latest issue of Sight and Sound had arrived (this month it was featuring a special on Italian cinema) and also the game Dante's Inferno for the PlayStation 3 which I ordered on Monday. For lunch we had roast chicken, stuffing, peas, roast potatoes, chicken gravy and a can of beer. After lunch I had a walk with my Mum to a supermarket where I bought the game Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3. When we got back it was actually nice enough to sit out in the garden for a change. It was really warm and sunny.

Daylight Saving

Last night was pretty quiet. I watched some Twin Peaks and some ice hockey. The clocks all had to be turned back an hour last night for the daylight saving time, so that meant I had to lose an hour's sleep.

This morning I went along with my Dad to the Ocean Terminal shopping centre. First of all we stopped off at Starbucks and had some coffee and a muffin. Then we split up to look around. I got three books in the sales which were: It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock - A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler, Shout!: The True Story of The Beatles by Philip Norman and The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien.

After that we went along to my parent's house. The new issue of Fortean Times magazine ("The Journal of Strange Phenomena") had arrived during the week, so that was pretty interesting. In the afternoon I went out for a walk with my Mum to see if we could find any good branches for Mum to use to make her annual Easter Tree for the house.

I'm off work tomorrow and in the morning I'm planning on going up to see Shutter Island, and in the afternoon I have a dentist appointment to clean up the area around where my wisdom tooth was removed in November. I might need to get a filling with that.

The Mask

Last night I was watching the 1994 movie The Mask, directed by Charles Russell, on TV. The movie tells the story of a shy bank clerk (played by Jim Carrey), who is constantly being walked over and pushed around by everyone because he is such a nice guy, until he finds an ancient wooden mask which, when he puts it on, transforms him into a green-headed, super-powered wild man, with the ability to manipulate his own reality and pretty much do anything, kind of like a live-action cartoon character. The movie was originally intended as a pretty violent horror movie, similar to the comic-book that inspired it, but in the end they decided to make the film as a comedy. The movie is very funny and features ground-breaking special effects.

Later on I saw the film Mirrors, directed by Alexandre Aja, which told the story of an alcoholic ex-cop (played by Kiefer Sutherland) who gets a job as a night security guard at a burned out derelict department store. While there he begins to see strange things in the store's mirrors. Before long the things become increasingly vivid and dangerous. The movie was an English language remake of a Korean film, although I have heard that the American film is very different to the Korean version. The movie was fairly predictable, but it did have a few nice shocks in it. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Andrei Tarkovsky film Mirror, a surreal autobiographical film which mixes in childhood memories and Russian history.

Lastly I watched Day of the Dead, a 1985 film directed by George A. Romero, and the third of his Dead series of zombie movies. By the time the film starts human society has completely broken down due to the plague of flesh-eating zombies. However, a small group of scientists and military personnel have holed up in a disused missile silo. The scientists are trying to find a way to domesticate the zombies (teaching them to shave and read Stephen King books). However the rising tensions between the military and the scientists begins to pose more danger to both groups than the advancing zombie hordes. It is a good movie and quite interesting.

Today my parents came around to check my flat and make sure that everything was still okay, which it mostly was, and I went back with them for lunch. The new issue of Fortean Times ("The Journal of Strange Phenomena") had arrived during the week with plenty of bizarre and interesting stories in it. After lunch I walked along with my Mum to a shopping centre and bought the sixth season of Red Dwarf on DVD, which should be fun. I have seen it before several times on TV and I do think that it is one of the best seasons of that show.

German Market

I had the day off work today and went along to the German Market in the city centre. They have one every Christmas, and it sells food, drink, and homemade ornaments and crafts. They also have a fun fair next to it with a large ice-skating rink. I was there to meet my Mum and we started off by going to the art gallery next to the market and had a cappuccino and a cheese scone, which was really nice. While we were looking around the market it suddenly started pouring with rain and so we went along to some of the shops and I got a new pair of Dr Marten boots. I did need them because my previous boots, which I have had for two and a half years and starting to fall apart.

After that we went along to the art gallery again to hear a half hour lunchtime concert of some Christmas carols which was really nice. After that we got some lunch, which for me was a roll with bratwurst and sauerkraut and a glass of mulled wine, which was really nice.

Before we went our seperate ways I bought a kind of pendant thing from one of the stalls. It's the Egyptian ankh symbol on a leather strap you ca put round your neck.

Greatest Ever 3-D Moments

I got to 36,015 words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night. I've decided to call it Vampire City.

Last night I was watching a show called The Greatest Ever 3-D Moments, which was quite fun. There's a TV channel that's been running a special 3-D week all this previous week, and you can get special 3-D glasses from one of the supermarkets to watch it. The show was fun but I think 3-D works a lot better at the cinema. My TV isn't small but it isn't exactly big and so the 3-D looks more like you're watching a puppet theatre than anything else. It looks basically like a cute novelty. Also the new 3-D films at the movies have much better glasses than the cardboard ones with blue and red lenses (which are quite uncomfortable to wear with normal glasses).

I was also watching a 1960s episode of Doctor Who called "The Krotons", in which the Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton) and his friends arrive on an alien planet where the humanoid inhabitants are ruled over by a race of crystalline aliens called the Krotons, who live in a large machine The Krotons teach the planet's inhabitants and every so often select the two best students to go into their machine where they are never seen again. The story was good, but the Krotons themselves looked hilarious, because the costumes kept wobbling and the lower half was like a long skirt and they could only move in shuffling baby-steps, also one of them had a very strong Birmingham accent.

I went along to my parent's house today for lunch as usual. We had a kind of beef stew for lunch with mashed potato and mushrooms. After lunch we walked in to the Modern Art Gallery, but only really had time to check out the gift shop before heading back.

An Education

Last night I was watching almost the whole series of Smiley's People on DVD. It is very good and really faithful to the John le Carre book. It's much darker and a lot more bitter than the previous le Carre mini-series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It's also a lot more exciting than the previous work, although that was also very good. The special feature on the DVD was a half-hour interview with John le Carre and the show's director John Irwin where they discuss working with Alec Guinness who starred in both shows.

This morning I set out early because I was going along to the Cameo cinema with my Mum to see a preview of An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig, and a screenplay by novelist Nick Hornby, based on a memoir by journalist Lynn Barber. The film is set in England, 1961, and tells the story of 16 year old Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan) whose life is pretty much entirely devoted to passing her exams and getting into Oxford University to study English. Until that is she meets a charismatic older man, David (Peter Sarsgaard) who seduces her with his glamorous and exciting lifestyle, and leaves Jenny with some very tough choices to make. It is a hugely entertaining movie, and very funny, although it is also very emotional. It is definitely worth watching.

After the movie, Dad came to collect us and we all went along to La Tasca, a tapas restuarant, in order to celebrate Mum's birthday which isn't until the 2nd November. It was really nice. After that we went back to my parent's house for awhile, before I went back home.

Darker Than You Think

Last night I finished reading the book Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson. The book was first published in 1948 and tells the story of small-town newspaper reporter Will Barbee who is reporting on the return of an archeological expedition to the Gobi Desert, when he meets the enigmatic April Bell. When the team, who consist of Barbee's oldest university friends, arrive they seem strange, terrified of something that they discovered in the desert and preoccupied with the safety of an old box they discovered and a mysterious and deadly enemy they call "The Child of Night". Shortly afterwards, Barbee finds himself tormented by strange dreams in which he commits horrific murders in the guise of a large wolf. It's a pretty good book and full of twists and surprises, although a lot of the dialogue is quite clunky at times. The style of writing owes a lot more to the pulp detective thrillers of the 30s and 40s than it does to more traditional horror writing. Also it comes up with science-fiction explanations for the apparently supernatural occurances. It's worth reading because it is pretty entertaining.

This morning I went along to the Gyle Shopping Centre with my Dad. First off we had a scone and some coffee, then we went and did some shopping seperately. I got a couple of books: The American West by Dee Brown and Best New Horror Volume 20 edited by Stephen Jones.

I went back to my parent's house for lunch (which was tacoes this week). The latest issue of Fortean Times magazine had arrived with an article about the occult history of London, which was quite interesting.

The Virgin Spring

Last night I was watching a couple of episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on TV. I always really liked that show, and I used to watch it regularly. The episodes that were on were from the first season, before the show had really got going. Following that I watched an Ingmar Bergman film from 1960 called The Virgin Spring which was based on a 13th Century Swedish ballad. Set in medieval Sweden, the film stars Max von Sydow as a man who seeks violent revenge on the herdsmen who attack and murder his daughter. The film is beautifully shot and extremely powerful. At times shocking, it is a very somber piece of work. It was very loosely remade in 1972 by Wes Craven as The Last House on the Left.

I went along to my parent's house as usual for a Sunday afternoon. My Dad had gone up to a golf course at Gleneagles for a trip. My brother's girlfriend, Katherine, came over. She had been singing in a concert, but was unable to find a good train back to London today and so she decided to go over to my parent's for tonight and travel down tomorrow. For lunch we had salmon fillets in breadcrumbs covered with a kind of lemon dressing, sliced poatoes covered with a cheese sauce and peas. It was really nice. Later on in the afternoon we watched the first episode of True Blood through the TV On Demand service, which Katherine hadn't seen, but wanted to.

My parent's got me a new toaster which I tried out when I got home and that worked really well. It'll be nice to be abe to have some toast.

Monty Python

Last night I watched a documentary called Monty Python - (Almost) the Truth: The BBC Lawyers Cut. It was about the history of the "Monty Python" comedy troupe, set up to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Monty Python's Flying Circus TV series. A lot of people go on about the six members really hating each other, when from what I've heard and read, they really got on pretty well. There were arguements about what sketches were or were not included in the series, Terry Jones apparently used to get frustrated about the technical limitations of the TV show, and John Cleese left at the end of the third season to do other things, but it just seemed to be what you would expect from a group of talented witers and performers who all had their own ideas. It was funny though. I'm quite a big Monty Python fan so I knew most of it already. I remember I was eleven when I first saw the show and I really didn't find it funny at all. I didn't get the humour and the animation sequences just completely freaked me out, but when I saw it again four years later I thought it was hilarious. I used to have the video game for the Amstrad as well. That was the funniest video game I have ever played. You had to go through this "Name the Cheese" mini-game to get to the main one, and then you played this character going around this world styled around the TV animation scenes searching for the four pieces of your brain, which had run off and split up. Along the way you had to eat cheese and defeat killer Keep Left signs and attacking dead parrots by shooting fish at them. Also when you least expected it, the Spanish Inquisition would show up to torture you with comfy chairs and soft cushions.

I watched the end of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which was very good and surprisingly faithful to a very difficult book for a TV adaptation. It's the kind of show that probably wouldn't be made these days, because it is so sedately paced, so you need to give it time and patience to work.My parents had returned from holiday on Friday and so this morning my Dad came round and we went along to the Ocean Terminal shopping mall, where we had a muffin and coffee at Starbucks before going back to my parent's house. My Dad had to go away early because he had some Golf coaching to do. The latest issue of Sight and Sound magazine had arrived. There was a really interesting article in it about the recent wave of vampire movies. It actually gave me afew ideas for this year's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). There was also an interesting article in one of the Sunday newspapers about Stanley Kubrick's unmade film about the life of Napolean, which he had managed to fill 88 boxes with thousands of pages of script, notes, designs and photographs for the film. Kubrick himself joked it was "the greatest film he never made." For lunch we had some sushi to start and then chicken and mashed potatoes in white wine sauce, followed by marshmallows in chocolate fondue.

After lunch, my Mum and I went out to town to look through the shops. I got some new posters and a graphic novel called The Sandman - Volume Seven: Brief Lives written by Neil Gaiman. Which means that I now have seven of the twelve main volumes in The Sandman graphic novel series.

I got home at around quarter past five and spent about an hour and a half putting up the new posters.