Vagabond

My Dad came over and took me to a shopping centre.  We went to Starbucks where I had a mocha and a stack of pancakes, then we looked around on our own.  I bought a five year diary and a couple of books:  An Inspector Calls and Other Plays by J.B. Priestley and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Dad and I went back to my parent's house.  I gave my Mom her Mother's Day present and card.  I drew a picture of a cat in  her card, and she seemed to really like it.  For lunch we had a selection of Indian food.

Dad took me back home.  This evening I watched the movie Vagabond, directed by Agnes Varda, who died on Friday at the age of 90.  It's a bleak and disturbing film which opens with the discovery of a young drifter (played by Sandrine Bonnaire) dead in a ditch, and then details her last days wandering through wintery rural France.  It's a bleak, grim and powerful film.

I finished reading the book Mindhunter:  Inside the FBI Elite Serial Crime Unit by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, which was really good, and genuinely quite suspenseful and gripping.

It

Last night I went out and saw It, based on the Stephen King novel.  I saw the two part miniseries adaptation from 1990 when I was about 15, and it was really my introduction to Stephen King, and I saw it several times.  I also read the book when I was 15, and I was on this massive King kick and buying pretty much everything I could find from him.  It is still one of my favorite Stephen King works.  The movie is good, and sticks fairly close to the book, although the setting is updated to 1989.  It's set in a small town in Maine (where else?), which is being terrorised by a string of mysterious disappearances of children.  Seven outcast kids band together to find out what is going on.  They soon learn that the culprit is a weird clown called Pennywise, which is just one manifestation of a hugely powerful, evil, shape-shifting entity, that the kids just call "It".

I saw the show with my friends Alan and Jackie, and we went out afterwards to Five Guys for some food.  I had a bacon cheeseburger and fries.  Then we had some drinks before heading home.

I went along to my parent's house today for lunch, which was fun.  When I got home I got the book I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist delivered.  I had pre-ordered it a few weeks ago.  Lindqvist is a Swedish horror writer, who is probably best known for Let the Right One In which was turned into a hugely successful Swedish movie, and was re-made in the US as Let Me In. 

I also got some writing done.

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.

The Wind Rises

Last night I saw the movie The Martian directed by Ridley Scott, based on the novel Andy Weir. It stars Matt Damon as Mark Watney, an astronaut on a manned mission to Mars who is left for dead after the mission is aborted. Alone on Mars, Watney has to find a way to get in contact with Earth and survive long enough to be rescued. It is a hugely entertaining film, and very close to the book.

I went out to my parent's house today. This evening I went to the Filmhouse cinema to see The Wind Rises, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It's a biographical animated film telling the story of aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi, it is a beautiful and powerful film.

Shows

It was a very packed day today: I went up to the Book Festival to meet up with my Mom. We saw actor Simon Callow talk about Orson Welles, to promote the third volume of Callow's massive biography of Welles. It was really good. 

After the show we went along to Cafe Andaluz and had tapas: seafood paella, small potatoes in tomato sauce and sour cream and some diced lamb in breadcrumbs with a cheese sauce, along with bread, olives and olive oil. It was a really good meal.

After that we went to a show called Rodney Bewes: Whatever Happened to the Likely Lad? Part Two! a one man show by Rodney Bewes, sharing anecdotes from his long acting career. I always liked his show, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, even though it's dated horribly.

We went along to see a show called Radio Active, which was a live stage version of a 1980s radio comedy show that purported to be the line up for a fictional radio station. I'm a big fan of radio comedy and drama and so I had heard a few episodes of the original show, and the live version really stuck close to it. 

Mom and I stopped off for a drink, and then we went to see a play called Of Wardrobes and Rings which was about the friendship between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and involves the elderly writers reconciling after a serious falling out. It was really good.

Mom went home after the show but I stayed out and had a Belgian waffle and maple syrup and went to see a show called 24 Hours with Mary Lynn Rajskub, which was a stand-up comedy show by Mary Lynn Rajskub (who is possibly best known for starring in the show 24). 

I stopped off at The Joker and The Thief on the way back home and had a couple of drinks. It was a really nice day and all the shows were great.

Writing and Food

I did some more writing last night.  

Today I went along to my parent's house for lunch.  We had roast chicken, boiled potatoes with mint sauce, peas and stuffing, followed by strawberries, profiteroles and butterscotch ice cream.  It was really nice.

Calzone

On my way into work I was listening to Chilling Tales: The Podcast. This week's story was called "Ultrasound" about a teacher who decides to play a trick on an unruly class by playing a special sound that causes horrific hallucinations. Unfortunately, the hallucinations don't stop, even after the sound is switched off, and the teacher realises that the sound summoned up much more than just a trick of the eye. It was a pretty good one.

It was a pretty long day at work, but afterwards I went out to meet my Mom. We went to Ask Italian to eat. I had some garlic bread with mozarella to start, a calzone filled with beef tomato sauce, chili, pepperoni and ham, for dessert I had a chocolate ice cream and a raspberry sorbet. It was really nice.

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!

Alien Blancmanges

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching repeats of comedy shows on TV, and reading some of my books.

This morning I watched an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus on DVD. This episode featured giant, intelligent alien blancmanges from the Andromeda galaxy turning the entire population of England into Scotsmen, in the belief that Scotland is the worst tennis playing nation in the world, so that the blancmanges can win at Wimbledon. They are eventually defeated when an elderly couple eat them.

I went along to my parent's house for lunch as usual. This week we had minced beef, carrots, mashed potato, spring onions and cheese baked together and some peas, with profiteroles for dessert. It was a nice lunch.

Natural Born Killers

Last night I was watching the 1994 movie Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone and based on a story by Quentin Tarantino. The movie deals with a couple of serial killers, Mickey and Mallory Knox (played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) who go on a three week killing spree through the southern USA leaving fifty-two people dead, until they are caught and arrested. With the pair now a media sensation and international cult heroes, Mickey is approached in jail by sleazy TV producer Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) to do a live on-air interview in prison. The movie throws pretty much everything at the screen with the film stock changing (seemingly at random), constant switches from colour to black-and-white, tinted scenes, weird filters, bizarre camera angles, on-screen captions, distorted images, stock footage, strange back projection, frenzied editing and even sequences shot like a 1950s sitcom. It was hugely controversial in it's day, and was a big sensation. The first time I saw it it gave me a massive headache, but I have seen it many times now, partly because, once you get used to the style it's one of those things where you see something different every time. There is a lot in it that is really good, and a lot that is absolutely terrible. I thought it was way too weird in places and I'm not a big fan of the second half of the film, once they get inside the jail, but there are great bits in it, although you do have to be in the right mood for it. It did seem to annoy a lot of people when it came out. I sometimes wonder whether Oliver Stone is on a personal mission to irritate as many groups of people as possible. Although it seems to have been a long time since there was a really controversial Oliver Stone movie. Still, there's time for him yet.

Today I went out with my Dad to the Ocean Terminal shopping centre. We had something to eat at the Costa Coffe there (I had a chocolate muffin and a mocha coffee) before we went to look at our own things. I got some books in a three for two offer: Money by Martin Amis, True Grit by Charles Portis and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, the first volume of a fantasy series which I don't think has been finished yet.

After that we went to my parent's house. The new issue of Fortean Times (the Journal of Strange Phenomena) had arrived in the mail so that was pretty good to read. We had spicy fajitas for lunch.

That's another thing that is quite interesting about the Oscars that I just thought about: The look on the faces of the people who don't win, trying to smile for the cameras but so obviously fuming that they lost. It's kind of cruel in a way the way they keep the cameras on the faces of the losers. I won't be watching it tonight, because it is on too late, but it will be interesting to learn the results tomorrow.

Posters

Last night I was watching the 2009 Swedish movie version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Niels Arden Oplov, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson. The movie tells the story of a disgraced journalist, Mykael Blomkvist (played by Michael Nyqvist), who works for the controversial Millennium magazine. He accepts an assignment from an extremely wealthy and powerful industrialist to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his beloved neice over forty years earlier. The industrialist is convinced that she was murdered by a member of his family, and he wants Blomkvist to go over the evidence to see if anything was missed in the previous investigations. For help, Blomkvist turns to expert computer hacker and investigator, Lisbeth Salander (played by Noomi Rapace). However, as they get deeper into the investigation, it becomes clear that someone will stop at nothing to prevent them getting to the truth. I thought it was a really good movie. I really liked the Stieg Larsson books, and the movie was pretty faithful to the source. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird. There is an English language version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara due for release in December this year.

Usually I go over to my parent's house on Sundays for my lunch, but I went yesterday. The reason for the change was that my parents were going out for lunch with some of their friends today. I went out and got a few posters. One of them was a painting of Batman, taken form the comics rather than the movies, the other was a kind of gothic style painting of a vampire woman, and the third was a "How to Identify a Zombie" poster. I've got them on the walls now and they look really good.

Back home I had a Tex-Mex Platter for my dinner, which I had got yesterday. It's basically pieces of chicken, ribs in barbecue sauce, potato skins filled with cheese and mushrooms in breadcrumbs with a little pot of garlic sauce. It was really good!

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!

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.

Missing Issue

Last night was pretty quiet. I still had a really bad cold and pretty much slept for most of the time.

This morning I was feeling a bit better, although the cold still hasn't gone away. My Dad called around for me this morning and we went along to the Gyle shopping centre. We had some coffee and I had a cheese scone and a mocha coffee, then split up to look around on our own. I got a couple of books: Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson and The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac.

After that we went to my parent's house where the latest issues of Fortean Times and Sight and Sound. Actually the previous issue of Sight and Sound never came so I've e-mailed them to get them to send another copy.

Pattern Recognition

Last night I was watching the 2005 movie Sin City directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller with "Special Guest Director" Quentin Tarantino. The movie is based on a series of graphic novels by Frank Miller and tells four connected stories set in a violent city. It's all hugely stylised film-noir shot in black and white with occasional flashes of colour. It is a really good movie.

I went along to my parent's house today for lunch and in the afternoon I finished reading the novel Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. The book was published in 2003 and tells the story of Cayce Pollard, a woman who has a bizarre allergy to certain corporate logos and symbols and who earns money by testing the effectiveness of company's new logos. She is hired by an advertising agency to investigate the origin of a series of strangely addictive film clips which are being released onto the internet. It is a really good book and very well written.

Both Sin City and Pattern Recognition are reviewed on Permanently Weird.

EmiTown

Last night I was watching a few episodes of Red Dwarf from 1991. I could remember watching them when they were first broadcast. I can hardly believe that it was twenty years ago now.

I finished reading the book EmiTown by Emi Lenox. It's described as a "sketch diary" and basically covers a year in Emi Lenox's life, from May 2009 until April 2010, through text, comic strips, random song lyrics and sketches. It's a really fun book with some really enaging artwork.

Today I went along with my Dad to the Ocean Terminal shopping mall. We had a coffee at Starbucks and I bought some books: Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane, Kraken by China Mieville and Black Hills by Dan Simmons. Then we went along to my parent's house where we had whiskey, and then a Burn's Supper of haggis, potatoes and peas. Burns Suppers are celebrations of the life and work of Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, and are traditionally held on or near the 25 January, Burns' birthday. Traditionally, Burns Suppers include a recitation of some of his poems, and the haggis is cermonially brought in while someone plays the bagpipes and recites the poem "To a Haggis".I'm thinking of maybe stopping writing on here every single day, to give myself more time to do my own writing and so on. I'll still be on several times a week, but just maybe not every single day.

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.

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.

New Year

Well, it's been a busy couple of days. On Friday I was up at half past five in the morning and got into work at quarter past seven. The place was pretty quiet, but then New Year's Eve is a really big day Scotland (where it's called Hogmanay). There wasn't really much to do and I left at about five past midday. Back home I got ready for when my Dad was scheduled to pick me up at half past three and take me to my parent's house. There, there were Christmas and birthday presents from my brother and his girlfriend. I got a Film Posters of the '50s 2011 calendar, a bottle of Ampleforth Abbey cider, a Budweiser gift set and a couple of boxes of chocolates and mints. It was a nice New Year. We just rang in 2011 with the family.

On January 1st, we had another fairly quiet day. In the afternoon we watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I thought was a really fun movie despite the overwhelmingly bad reaction it seemed to get form the internet.

This morning I went out with my Dad and we went to the Gyle shopping centre and had a scone and coffee. We split up and had a look around. I got a book called How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel. After that I went back to my parent's house and after lunch Dad took me back home. I've just been changing over my calendars and journals.