Drawing and Magazine

I went out to a shopping mall with my Dad. We started off at Starbucks, and I had a mocha and a chocolate swirl. I got a drawing pad, a notebook and a copy of Neo magazine (a magazine that specialises in reviews and features about manga, anime and related subjects).

We went along to my parent's house. The weather was so good today that we were able to go and sit outside for most of the afternoon.

Invisibilia

Last night I was watching an episode of Stranger Things. 

It was a pretty long day at work. I listened to Invisibilia which was discussing the concept of "fake it till you make it", how if you pretend to be something (say confident or whatever) you can sometimes become that, Answer Me This, Ron's Amazing Stories presenting a story about an astronaut stuck on Pluto for years who starts hallucinating due to loneliness, and Mystery Theater about a woman who wants to stop doctors performing a life-saving operation on her evil son-in-law.

On my way home I stopped off for groceries for the coming week. I also got a copy of Empire magazine, the main feature was about Suicide Squad, the story behind the movie Aliens and a list of the Best Movie Villains.

TV and Notebooks

Last night I watched a very interesting documentary called The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl and caught up on the latest episode of Preacher, which is a really good show. Later on I watched the second episode of Stranger Things.

My Dad came over and took me over to the Gyle shopping centre this morning. We stopped off at Starbucks first of all for something to eat. I had a raspberry cheesecake muffin which was really nice, and a mocha. Afterwards we split up and looked at our own things. I bought the latest issue of SFX magazine (a magazine about science-fiction, fantasy and horror), a drawing pad, a Moleskine notebook and a book journal (where you can note down about all the books you read). Dad and I went over to my parent's house. We had tacos for lunch. Later in the afternoon Dad gave me a lift back home.

Mother's Day

I did write some more of my Script Frenzy script last night, which means I'm now on page eight of it. The general rule of thumb for screenplays is the one page of a script equals one minute of screentime. The rest of the evening was pretty quiet. I spent most of the time watching TV and reading. This morning my Dad came round and took me to the Omni Centre shopping centre. We had coffee and a muffin at Starbucks and then went out to look at our own stuff. I got a DVD of the Dario Argento movie Inferno and a book called Ricky Gervais Presents... The World According to Karl Pilkington. Of course it was Mother's Day today. Mom was really happy with her present (a book called Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde) and her card. I'd also brought along some olives for my parents. The latest issue of Sight and Sound had arrived in the mail during the week. Among the articles this month was a feature about director Wim Wenders, an article about New Russian Cinema and a feature about the Alfred Hitchcock movie Vertigo. My mum had ordered Dad to make the lunch today, which was salmon, roast potatoes and peas. I thought it was nice, but Mum didn't seem to happy with it for some reason. I got home at around five, also I have tomorrow off work, so that should be good!

Pancakes

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watchng some TV and reading. I fell asleep on my couch while watchng the movie All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which for what I saw was an okay horror movie, but for some reason I wasjust feeling really tired.

Today my Dad came to collect me and take me over to my parent's house. The new issue of Sight and Sound magazine had arrived, which this month had a big feature article about the latest Woody Allen movie. I'm often surprised about how prolific Woody Allen is, considering that he releases at least one film a year. For lunch we had some sausage cassarole and some pancakes (diue to it being Pancake Day on Tuesday). I really like pancakes but I very rarely have them, so it was really nice.

After lunch I had a walk to a supermarket with my Mum and I got a DVD set of the complete Monty Python's Flying Circus TV series, which was in the sales. That should be really interesting to watch. Monty Python seems to be one of those shows where you don't often get to see the full episodes, more isolated clips and edited compilations.

Radio and Movies

Last night was fairly quiet. I was listening to the first episode of a new series of The Man in Black on the radio which was presenting the story of a student helpline operator who finds herself plagued by a mysterious and persistent caller who seems to have a connection with traumatic events from her past. It was pretty good. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. I watched some of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and National Lampoon's Vacation.

Today I went along to my parent's house for lunch, which was nice. The missing issue of Sight and Sound had arrived so that was good.

Wind and Rain

Last night was pretty quiet again. I was watching TV and reading pretty much most of the time.

Today was another slow day at work. The wind was really heavy on the way home and the rain was bad as well. It was actually difficult to stand upright and I had to walk with my hat in my hand so it didn't blow away.

On the way home I stopped off and bought a copy of Empire magazine. The main features this month were about the upcoming Captain America movie, a rumoured Alien prequel, movies that copied Star Wars and the behind the scenes story of the Michael Jackson movie Moonwalker.

I've got the day off tomorrow, and I'll be going up to get some new comic-books, but aside from that I don't know what I'll be doing.

The Vault of Horror

Last night I was watching the 1973 movie The Vault of Horror, directed by Roy Ward Baker. The movie stars Terry-Thomas, Denholm Elliot, Curt Jurgens, Tom Baker and Michael Craig, and revolves around five men who find themselves trapped in a mysterious sub-basement in a high rise building. To pass the time they tell each other stories of their recurring nightmares and deepest fears. The movie consists of five self-contained stories and a framing story linking them together. It was a pretty good film. I really like those anthology type films, because you always knew that if one story was bad there would soon be another one along. It's reviewed at Permanently Weird.

I went along to my parent's house today. The new issue of Fortean Times had arrived, the main feature this month being the theory that reports of the Chupacabras creature may have been influenced by the alien from the movie Species. We had some lasagne for lunch, and then walked along to the zoo for a bit. It was cheap to get in today due to the snow and cold. We saw sealions, penguins, rheas, parrots, tapirs, koalas, sun bears, chimpanzees, rhinos, pygmy hippos, gibbons and various monkeys. It was a nice trip and we managed to see a lot despite the fact that we didn't have much time and there was a lot of snow and ice.

I got back home at around half past five.

The Belfry

Last night I was watching an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Belfry". It was about a man who is in love with the local teacher and kills the man she is engaged to marry. When this fails to win her affections he goes on the run, but hides in the belfry of the local school, which also doubles as the local church, so he can spy on the woman.

I started writing a new story last night about a group of people who go to a new kind of virtual reality video game, only to esperience some strange after effects. This year I'm going to try to write more and read more, as well as watch more movies.

It was another average day at work. On the way home I bought some milk and the latest issue of Empire magazine, and also a steak pie supper for dinner.

When I got home the DVD of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World had arrived in the mail. So I'll probably be watching that tomorrow.

Birthday and Christmas 2010

On Thursday it was my 32nd birthday. I went along to my parent's house and in the evening we had a Chinese meal. For my birthday I got the graphic novel Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, the graphic novel Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly, the novel Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, the DVDs of Inception and Alfred Hitchcock Presents season two.

I stayed with my parents over the Christmas period. On Christmas Eve we didn't really do much at all. We did the traditional Christmas thing of watching Carols From Kings which is like an annual carol service from King's College Cambridge, which my Mum loves. We watch it every year. Later on I was watching the Peep Show night. A whole evening of programming devoted to the show.

On Christmas Day the heating stopped working, which was difficult because the temperature was below freezing. We had to get small heaters out to keep the place fairly warm. I got a graphic novel called The Comical Tragedy or Tragical Comedy of Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, a book called Live & Work in Canada by Frances Lemon, a DVD of An Idiot Abroad, the game Gods of War III for the PlayStation 3, a 2011 paper diary, an issue of SFX magazine and some chocolate and candy. My parents seemed to be happy with their presents. Their neighbours came through in the late morning and had a drink. They were there for about an hour. We had the traditional Christmas dinner of turkey, rolled up bacon, cocktail sausages, peas with onions, brussels srpouts, roast poatoes and stuffing. It was really good. Later on we watched the Christmas Doctor Who special.

I went back home today after lunch.

I really hope that everyone had a great Christmas!

Wrapping Presents

Last night I was watching the first part of the Red Riding trilogy on TV. They are a series of made for TV films based on the crime novels by David Peace. The first episode was based on the novel 1974 and starred Andrew Garfield as a young journalist who is drawn into a web of violence and police corruption when a child goes missing. It also starred Sean Bean, Warren Clarke and Rebecca Hall. It's good but unrelentingly grim and depressing. Not as depressing as the book, though.

Today I went out to the post office to pay a bill and get some more stamps and on the way home I got a sandwich, some sugar and the latest issue of Total Film magazine. This afternoon I spent my time wrapping Christmas presents.

It's my birthday tomorrow and so I probably won't be on much over the next few days because I will be very busy. It should all be good though, hopefully.

If I don't update befire then, Happy Christmas to anyone who is celebrating it.

Decorating

Last night I had a shot on my new games. Bayonetta seems like a fun shooting and beat-up game and Assassin's Creed II looks like it will be a really good game, with an interesting storyline. I also listened to the first part of The Honourable Schoolboy CD. The story is set after the British Secret Service has been ravaged by a traitor and spymaster George Smiley has been set in charge of repairing the damage, when he discovers that his arch-enemy, a Soviet spymaster code-named Karla is being financed by a Hong Kong gangster. In order to expose the link, Smiley sends a disreputable journalist and sometime spy into the Hong Kong underworld to investigate. It is pretty good. I also watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents about an alcoholic woman who wakes up in hospital with a badly injured hand and a bad hangover and tries to remember how she got there.

This morning my Dad called round and we went to the Gyle shopping centre. I had a cheese scone and a mocha coffee at the food court and then we went our seperate ways. I got a couple of books: Shoedog by George Pelecanos and Shame the Devil by George Pelecanos. Pelecanos is a crime author who sets all his books in and around Washington DC, he also had a lot of attention for writing several episodes of The Wire TV series.

We went along to my parent's house where the latest issue of Fortean Times had arrived. The main story this month concerned the idea that ancient mythology and religion could be explained by alien encounters. It was an idea that was very popular for awhile in the 1970s. We had roast chicken, stuffing, peas and diced roast potatoes in garlic butter for lunch followed by apple pie, which was really nice. In the afternoon I helped my Mom decorate their Christmas tree.

I'm planning on decorating my Christmas tree this evening.

The Green Monster

Last night was pretty quiet. I spent quite a lot of time writing and read a story called "The Green Monster" by Haruki Murakami from the book The Elephant Vanishes. The story is about a woman who is surprised when a small green mind-reading monster comes out of the ground in her backyard and declares that it loves her. It was a good story and pretty strange.

It was another really dull and annoying day at work today. On the way home I bought the latest issues of Total Film and Empire magazines.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Last night I was watching Russell Brand: Scandalous on TV. Basically it was a recording of a stand-up comedy show which he had performed in London last year and he was discussing the various scandals that he had been involved in during the previous year or so. Russell Brand's comedy is not to everyone's tastes but I think a lot of it is pretty clever and often very funny.

After that I watched the 1984 movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, directed by Leonard Nimoy. The film, as the title suggests, is the third one to be spun-off from the popular science-fiction TV series Star Trek (1966-1969). In this film Mr. Spock (played by director Nimoy) has died and his body has been shot into space and landed on a planet which was just used as a test subject for the experimental Genesis Device, which creates life on dead planets. Meanwhile the badly damaged Starship Enterprise is heading back to Earth for repairs. On arrival Kirk (William Shatner) discovers that before Spock died he performed a "mind-meld" on Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) merging his mind with McCoys and that if McCoy and Spock's body are brought back to Spock's home planet, Vulcan, then there may be a way to save him. However, the Genesis Planet is completely forbidden and the Enterprise is being decomissioned, and to make matters worse, a group of Klingons are heading towards the Genesis Planet in order to steal it's secrets. The movie was pretty good, although non-Star Trek fans might find it overly confusing, also if you've not seen any of the movies before its not the best one to start of with. In fact the second, third and fourth Star Trek films are best seen in sequence because they all follow directly on from each other. Fans will probably like it though, and the special effects are really good.

I went along to my parent's house as usual for a Sunday today, and saw that the latest issue of Sight and Sound had arrived. The main feature this week was the films of "Old, Weird Britain" about some of the old rituals and rhythms of life in Britain which occasionally cropped up in movies in the 1960s and 70s, and also one of the last in-depth interviews with legendary actor and director Dennis Hopper. My parents both wanted to watch the Wimbledon tennis matches but I just tried to tune it out and read my book.

Pygmy

Last night I finished reading the novel Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk. The novel is told in the form of reports written by an unnamed agent (who, due to his short stature, is nicknamed "Pygmy") who arrives in the USA from an unnamed totalitarian state posing as a high school exchange student. Taken in by an American family Pygmy is introduced to various aspects of American life which he views with total contempt, intermingled with flashbacks to his earlier life and training for his mission. It turns out that Pygmy and his fellow agents are planning a horrific attack upon America. This book, Palahniuk's tenth novel, is told in a dialect similar to what is known as "Engrish" (a kind of English originating in Japan and other East Asian countries). As usual with Palahniuk the book is kind of a satire of modern life and is very violent, rude and also extremely funny. It also has a level of heart that is quite unusual for Palahniuk.

Also, since I am determined to be successful I started writing a script for a TV show.

It was another very quiet and not particularly eventful day at work again. I am really looking forward to the weekend. On my way home I bought an issue of Total Film magazine which this month featured a list of 27 "mind-blowing" movies (2001: A Space Odyssey was number one), a big article about Inception, and a look at the life and work of Philip K. Dick (which was kind of a surprising coincidence for me because I'd been reading so much of his stuff over the past couple of weeks).

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.

The House of the Devil

Last night I ordered a movie from the On Demand TV service called The House of the Devil, a 2009 horror film directed by Ti West. The movie references and homages the horror films of the 1980s, and is set in 1980s America, telling the story of a student (played by Jocelin Donahue) who is really short of money and so takes a babysitting job at a remote house next to a graveyard and owned by a creepy old couple (played by Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov) on the night of a rare total lunar eclipse. The couple reveal that they don't have any children and want the student to look after an elderly relative. However before long she discovers some dark and gruesome secrets in the house. It's actually a fun and suspenseful movie which benefits a lot from it's slow pace but has plenty of gory set-pieces.

This morning I went along with my Dad to the Ocean Terminal shopping centre and I had some coffee and a muffin at Costa Coffee before we split up to look around. I bought some books in the centre which were Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division by Deborah Curtis, which is a biography of Ian Curtis, lead singer in the band Joy Divison, written by his wife, 1974 by David Peace and 1977 by David Peace, which are the first two novels in the "Red Riding Quartet" of crime novels, and a horror novel called The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce.

After the shopping we went to my parent's house where the latest issues of Fortean Times and Sight and Sound had arrived. The lead story in Fortean Times was about scientists who had been trying to discover whether the human soul had physical form and whether it could be photographed or weighed. The lead story in Sight and Sound was about the depiction of corrupt cops in cinema, the film career of pulp novelist Jim Thompson and a poll of film critics to find the best film books of all time.

My Mum had planned a barbecue for today but the weather was too cold and so we had to abandon it, but we had some barbecue chicken, peas and diced potato with garlic butter. After lunch Mum and I walked along to Sainsburys where I got a couple of DVDs, of the movies The City of Lost Children, which is a very good but very weird French fantasy, science-fiction, horror film that I've seen a few times before and Hansel and Gretel, which is a horror movie take on the classic story from South Korea.

The Ricky Gervais Show

Last night I was watching an episode of The Ricky Gervais Show on TV. Basically, a few years ago writers, actors and directors Ricky Gervias and Stephen Merchant (who created The Office and Extras) and producer Karl Pilkington did a series of radio shows and podcasts where basically they just chat about anything that comes to mind, and they've been turned into an animated TV series by HBO. The show is really funny, mostly consisting of Pilkington coming up with various bizarre or naive theories while being prompted, mocked and laughed at by Gervais and Merchant.

I also listened to another radio adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, in this one Holmes and Watson are pitted against a particularly evil blackmailer. In the end Conan Doyle wrote fifty-six Sherlock Holmes short stories and four novels, but apparently he really resented his own creation and it's massive fame because he thought it was taking his time away from his more "important" works (i.e. his historical novels).

I went to get my groceries this morning along with the latest issue of Empire magazine which had an interesting article about the history of the Three Stooges comedy team. I do remember I used to like the old Three Stooges short films when they were on TV, even though they never seemed to catch on as much outside the US.

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.

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.