Jason Bourne

Last night was pretty quiet. I did some reading (I'm currently reading The Fireman by Joe Hill). I also did some writing, and downloaded a Mary Chapin Carpenter album,State of the Heart.

This afternoon I went out and saw Jason Bourne, directed by Paul Greengrass. It's the fifth in the Bourne franchise and the fourth to actually feature the character Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon). In this movie a hacker investigating secret CIA operations, runs across documents revealing secrets about Bourne's past. Soon Bourne finds himself on a globe trotting quest for the truth, pursued by the CIA and a brutal hired killer. It's a good thriller and pretty exciting. Although I would warn you, it's filmed in this fast cutting, constantly shaking, moving camera, which kind of gave me a headache by the end of it.

Jaws

I watched an episode of Game of Thrones last night. I was feeling really kind of down afterwards and listened to a whole lot of Mary Chapin Carpenter songs.

This morning a Kuretake brush pen came in the mail from Japan. The new issue of Fortean Times arrived in the mail as well. I went out to the Cameo cinema to see a one off showing of Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie is probably one of the most influential ever made, because it pretty much started the whole idea of the Summer blockbuster. If you've never seen it, it's about a small beach town which is terrorised by a giant, hungry Great White Shark. It's a great movie, I've seen it many times before, but never on the big screen. It was actually better than I had remembered it, although I had forgotten that it is actually pretty gruesome.

Turning Point

It was another quiet evening last night. I watched an episode of the fourth season ofGame of Thrones. I'm way behind on that show, because I don't have the network that broadcasts it and so I collect it when it come out on Blu-ray. I read a bit more of End of Watch and played some Uncharted 4 on my PlayStation 4.

It was a really busy day at work, and kind of sucked. There were a couple of meetings, one that took over an hour, about all kinds of changes that they are bringing out, that in addition to the regular work. I didn't have a time for a break today at all. I was listening to a lot of Mary Chapin Carpenter to cheer myself up. I also listened to The Comicsbound Podcast which is a pretty new podcast about all aspects of comics. It's fun, and pretty interesting. 

Back home I saw that the book Turning Point: 1997-2008 by Hayao Miyazaki arrived in the mail. I listened to Bizarre States, which this week was about Pokemon Go, a giant telescope being built in China, and the story of the song Gloomy Sunday, the so-called "Hungarian Suicide Song". I am currently listening to this week's episode of Ron's Amazing Stories, which is a podcast that bills itself as "Stories to Take You Away From Today", which presents vintage stories and radio plays often on a weekly theme. This week's theme is the Bermuda Triangle. 

When You're Strange

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

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

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

The Runaways

This morning my Dad came to collect me and we went to the Gyle shopping centre. I had a scone and a mocha in the coffee section and then we split up to look at our own things. I got a book called The Hell of It All by Charlie Brooker, which is a collection of TV reviews. Charlie Brooker is a TV reviewer and general commentator and does various TV shows where he discusses TV, video games and the news and he hosts a comedy panel shows, and has written a couple of other books. I think he's really clever and funny. I also got a CD called American Anthems which is a collection of American rock anthems from the 1980s mostly. I happen to like that kind of music.

Then we went over to my parent's house. The latest issue of Fortean Times had arrived, which this month featured an article on the possibility of a giant serpent living in Sweden and an article exploring the background to the Peid Piper of Hamelin myth. The new issue of Sight and Sound also arrived, featuring this month a centenary tribute to director Akira Kurosawa. In the afternoon my Mum and I went out for a bit of a walk.

In the evening I went up to the Cineworld cinema to see the movie The Runaways, directed by Floria Sigismondi. The movie is set in the mid 1970s and tells the story of the all-girl rock band The Runaways, focusing mainly on lead singer Cherie Currie (played by Dakota Fanning) and guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart). The movie is pretty much a typical rock movie biography, but it's a lot of fun with a great soundtrack, and a cool, punky seventies feel to it. It also features great performances from Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart. Personally I really like Joan Jett, her version of "Crimson and Clover" is one of my favourite songs, but the movie only really deals with the early part of her career.

An Electric Ant

Last night was really quiet. I finished reading Human Is?: A Philip K. Dick Reader by Philip K. Dick. The final three stories I read in it were "An Electric Ant" in which a man is shocked to discover he is in fact a robot and, when he discovers that his reality is artificially generated, decides to experiment with his own perception of reality. That was followed by "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts" in which the USA's first time travellers arrive in the future a few days after they supposedly died returning to their own time. The final story was "The Pre-persons" in which children up to the age of 12 can be legally executed.

I was also watching a few epsiodes of Blake's 7 on DVD. Blake's 7 was a British science-fiction TV show which ran for 52 episodes over four seasons from 1977 to 1980. It was kind of a blend of Star Trek and Star Wars and concerned a rag-tag group of bickering revolutionaries and criminals who travel around space in a derelict alien spacecraft fighting against the totalitarian Galactic Federation. These days the show is often made fun of due to the often really bad (by modern standards) special effects and production values. However, the show was usually well-written and clever. It was also a lot grittier and bleaker than most science-fiction shows with a strong vein of dark humour.

Today I went out and got some postcards to send to a friend and I also got a CD called Dirty House Blues by Lightnin' Hopkins and a book called The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami. on my way home I stopped off in a bar and had a couple of drinks and read my book.

It's been a good weekend mostly, but it has been marred by the fact that I've been feeling really kind of depressed recently about the fact that I really am a complete loser (mainly the facts that I am kind of stupid, I'm ugly, I've never really had a girlfriend and I have never achieved anything). It does happen fairly frequently.

Nineteen Seventy-Seven

Last week I finished reading the book Nineteen Seventy-Seven by David Peace, the second part of the "Red Riding" series. The book is set against the background of the brutal Yorkshire Ripper killings and tells the stories of a corrupt and violent cop and a journalist who is rapidly falling apart. Both of them become dangerously involved with the murders when they start to suspect that there is more than one killer on the loose. The book is tense, mesmerising and powerful, but it is extremely disturbing, bleak and violent. The whole series has been really good but the unrelenting misery can be a bit much at times.

Last night I listened to the first part of a Doctor Who story on the radio, which was really pretty good and I also watched a show called Worried About the Boy about the rise to fame of pop star Boy George, which was pretty interesting. I was never a fan, but I usually enjoy watching music biographies.

It was the start of another ordinary week at work.

Touching from a Distance

Last night I finished reading Touching from a Distance by Deborah Curtis. The book is a biography of Ian Curtis, the lead singer and lyricist of the band Joy Division (Deborah Curtis was married to Ian from when they were both teenagers until his suicide in May 1980 at the age of 23, two days before the band were scheduled to depart on their first US tour). It's a fascinating, but very bleak book, and Ian Curtis does not come across very well at all in the book. The book is very short, but it does include a complete list of Joy Dvision gigs and discography. It also includes all the lyrics that Curtis wrote and fragments of notebook entries. The book was used as the main source for the 2007 film Control.

It was another very quiet day at work today, but at least the weather had brightened up a little.

Shout!

Last night I listened to a radio adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story called "The Three Students" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this story, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are called in to investigate the theft of exam papers from a respected college. It wasn't one of the best but it was okay.

I also finished reading Shout!: The True Story of The Beatles by Philip Norman. The book was published originally in 1981 but was brought up to date and reissued in 2004. It pretty much tells you pretty much anything you'd ever want to know about the Fab Four and is full of interesting information, although it might reveal more about the personalities of the band than some fans would want to know.

I started reading another music biography last night Touching from a Distance by Deborah Curtis, about the life of Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division.

It was another quiet day at work today, as usual.

Let It Be

Lasy night was pretty quiet again. I was playing some of Heavy Rain on the PlayStation 3 which was a lot of fun and really involving. In a weird way it does remind me a little of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that I used to read as a kid, and you'd a get a bit of story and then there's be a decision to make and it would be like "To turn left go to page 93. To turn right got to page 109" and whichever page you turned to there would be a different outcome. I also started reading a biography of The Beatles which so far is really interesting. I was never a really big fan of the Fab Four but I've always liked them. My Mum told me that when she was a teenager The Beatles were playing just a few streets away from her house and she desperately wanted to go, but she had exams the next day and my Gran made her stay in and do her revision. So Mum never got the chance to see The Beatles and run off with Paul McCartney, and I don't think she ever really let Gran forget it.

It was a really quiet day at work again and fairly uneventful. I've booked for Friday off and so I'll get a good long weekend, which I am looking forward to.

Control

Last night I was watching the 2207 film Control, directed by Anton Corbijn. The film tells the true story of Ian Curtis (played by Sam Riley) who grows up in the Macclesfield area of England duing the 1970s, works in the local Job Centre and marries his high school girlfriend Debbie (Samantha Morton). He is also the lyricist and lead singer of local band Joy Division, who quickly start to become one of the most influential bands of the British post-punk movement of the early 1980s. However as the band increasingly become more famous, Curtis starts an affair with a Belgian journalist and soon the pressures of fame, combined with his increasingly complex private life and his severe bouts of epilepsy cause him increasing problems. The movie is beautifully shot and very well-acted. The film is based on the book Touching From a Distance by Deborah Curtis, Ian's wife, and the director, Anton Corbijn, knew the band pretty well having worked with them on several music videos. In it's look and style, the film has a lot in common with the British social realist, or "kitchen sink", films that were churned out during the 1950s and 1960s.

I took a half day from work today and then went to the travel agent to find out about prices and schedules for my holiday. After that I went and met my Dad to have a look at cameras and we went back to my parent's house for dinner, so that was nice.

Soundtrack

Last night was really quiet. I did some more of my writing and watched some TV.

It was the start of another week at work, and it was as dull as usual. It was nice to get back.

I didn't get the chance to watch any of the Golden Globe awards last night, but I have heard some of the results and it was pretty interesting.

I've been really enjoying listening to the True Blood soundtrack. It's all kind of country, blues and rock. My favourite kind of music is the really old kind of country and bluegrass music, although I do like a lot of different music, that's my favourite.

Endless Nights

Last night I was listening to another of the Sherlock Holmes stories on the radio. This one was called "The Retired Colourman", based on the 1926 short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and told the story of a retired art supply dealer who enlists the aid of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson when his younger wife runs off with another man, taking a large amount of his money with them. However Holmes soon suspects that the truth is far more sinister. A 'colourman', by the way, is an old term for a man who makes or sells paint. It wasn't one of the best of them, but it was pretty good. That's the last in the series, apparently. I wish I could find those Sherlock Holmes tapes that I used to have, but I think they've gone, and I've never been able to find them either in the shops or online. It often seems to be the case that you don't even look at something for years, and then as soon as you've thrown it out you suddenly realise you want it again.

I did some more of my writing and then I watched some of the sixth season of Red Dwarf on DVD, which was really funny.

Today I went out and had a look at the shops. I got the soundtrack CD of True Blood, the movie Antichrist on DVD and the graphic novel of The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman. That's me got the complete set of The Sandman now! I went along to American Express to get some information about my planned holiday, but it looks like the flights will be too expensive so I might have to rethink it.

New Writing

Last night I was listening to a radio dramatisation of a Sherlock Holmes short story which was really good. I used to have a set of audio tapes of those dramatisations ages ago but somewhere along the line they've vanished, presumably thrown out at some point.

After writing my post last night I did start writing something. It's a kind of dark-fantasy horror thing. I'm hoping that it will get to be a book at some point and I am also planning it to be the first volume in a series.

Today was another really dull day at work. The only thing slighlty notable was they showed the monthly business news video thing. I left work quite early and headed up to the Cineworld cinema to meet my parents. We saw the movie Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, directed by Mat Whitecross. The film tells the true story of British singer and songwriter Ian Dury (played in the film by Andy Serkis) who rose to fame in the late 1970s - early '80s as lead singer of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, with songs such as "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick", "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" and "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part Three". Left disabled after contracting polio as a child, Dury was known for his sometimes brilliant and frequently controversial lyrics and for his flamboyant on-stage persona. The film moves back and forth in time from Dury's childhood, abandoned by his father in an austere school for the disabled, to his rise to fame in the seventies and eighties, and his troubled and complex relationships with his own family. It's very well-made with some great performances, and it certainly never gets dull.

After the film I went to my parent's house for something to eat before returning home.

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.

Last Train to Memphis

Last night was really quiet. I spent most of the time sitting around listening to my CDs and reading a biography of Elvis Presley called Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. The book covers Elvis' early years, up until he went to Germany in 1958. His story is concluded in a second book called Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley.

It was another really dull day at work and I was glad to get home. I left pretty early today, at around three, which was fun.

At least it is the weekend now!

The Weekend is in Sight

Tonight was the last of this week's batch of episodes of The Wire. It's kind of funny to think that in a couple of weeks it'll all be over.

I've been enjoying my new mobile phone. So far it is a lot of fun. I've recently put on a couple of wallpapers and screensavers to personalise it a bit.

Today was another very quiet and pretty uneventful day at work. On my way in I stopped off to renew my bus pass for the next month.

At the moment I'm sitting here listening to a country music show on the radio.

Woodstock

Last night I was watching most of Woodstock, a 1969 concert movie about the famous Woodstock festival. It was a pretty good movie, and definitely worth watching for anyone who likes the music of the late sixties. However it was long: The version that they broadcast was the three and a half hour "director's cut."

Today I went out to my parent's house for lunch as usual. During the afternoon my brother and his girlfriend arrived from London. They are staying with my parents until Saturday.

Very Early Movie

Last night I was watching the first movie ever made, Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory, which was first shown on 22 March 1895. The film was made by brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere (interestingly, "lumiere" means "light" in French). The film runs less than a minute and just shows workers leaving a factory, but that is where films started. I also saw an 1895 film of a train arriving at a railway station, which became famous because audiences were sent into a panic at the image of a train coming towards them. Apparently, while the film was a sensation it didn't cause anyone to panic, the reason for the story was that the train was also shown in 3D, which the Lumiere brothers experimented with but decided it was less profitable than conventional 2D films. The 3D screening did cause a panic due to the illusion of the train coming out of the screen.

Later on I watched a Doctor Who story from 1966 on DVD called "The War Machines". In the story the First Doctor (played by William Hartnell) arrives in 1966 London and has to confront a powerful computer based in the Post Office Tower which wants to take over the world with the help of it's army of robot "War Machines". It was a pretty entertaining story.

I was out sharp today to get my groceries and then I went along to meet my Mum. We went down to the Jam House, for their Blues Festival. The program lasted nearly four hours and consisted of four acts, the headliner being Lightnin' Willie and the Poor Boys. It was a good show, and we had a couple of beers, because it was like a cabaret setting. After the show I went along to the sales and bought another couple of Doctor Who DVDs and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Last night I watched most of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, directed by David Lynch. The movie was released in 1992 and was based on the Twin Peaks TV series. The show revolved around the investigation into the murder of high school student Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee) in the small American town of Twin Peaks. The movie version is a prequel to the series, which opens with an FBI investigation into a similar murder a year previously and then goes on to depict the last seven days of Laura Plamer's life. The series was a kind of blend of murder mystery, soap opera, supernatural horror, surrealism and comedy with genuine warmth. The movie, however, pretty much takes everything that was dark, twisted and just plain weird from the show and makes it central, including making plain many of the darker subtexts of the show. It was a huge commercial failure pretty much everywhere, except for Japan where it was a huge hit. I've seen it many time before. I first saw it back in 1996 before I had seen any of the series, and so I didn't really understand the movie - although the movie is pretty obscure even for people who have seen the series. I've always liked it because it is scary, weird and genuinely moving at times. Watching it again brought back a lot of old memories from that time. I remember seeing David Lynch give a talk a couple of years ago, and he was asked if there was ever going to be any more Twin Peaks and Lynch replied that as far as he was concerned Twin Peaks was over, and he was finished with it.

On a side note, I really think that Twin Peaks had the best opening theme music of any TV series ever.

It was a really dull day at work again today. My cold is much better now, but it's still lingering slightly, so I didn't really have the patience for it all today, as I haven't really all week. However it should, hopefully, be all over with by the weekend.

I'm also still working on planning everything for the Canada move. I really hope that everything works out well with it all.