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.

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.

Work Drinks

Last night was pretty quiet. I got to bed relatively early, by my standards, and went to work, arriving for about ten past seven. It was a really dull morning, but I was only in for six hours. I left and got some groceries for the coming week. I was home for about an hour, before I headed up to a bar for a few drinks with some people from work. I was only there for a short time and had two drinks. The bar was really crowded and noisy and I didn't really know anyone so I made my excuses and left.

The Human Centipede

Last night I was watching an episode of Spaced on TV, which I really enjoyed. Later on I watched a frankly bizarre 2010 Dutch horror movie on TV called The Human Centipede (First Sequence), directed by Tom Six. It's basically about two American tourists in Germany who find themselves at the house of a demented surgeon who plans to surgically attach three people together to form a "human centipede". Despite the horrific premise, it really isn't a particularly gruesome movie. Pretty much all of the horror is in the concept and the resulting creation, and it all loses it's impact long before the movie is over. Although there are some pretty good suspenseful and scary scenes. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

I got to bed at about half past five last night and was awake at eleven this morning. The gas bill came today, and it was a lot, so that was pretty annoying. I went along to get my groceries for the coming week, which were four microwave ready meals, some bread, some potato chips, some flavoured milk, some chocolate and a bottle of wine, along with a TV listings magazine.

Back home I had some lunch and watched a couple of episode of The Big Bang Theory.

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.

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.

Ordered Book

Last night I ordered a graphic novel called EmiTown by Emi Lenox, which is like an autobiographical comic-book (a bit like American Splendor).

Today I went out and got my groceries for the week. I decided to spend the rest of the day at home reading and watching TV.

Season of the Witch

Last night I was watching a few of the extra features on the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World DVD set. I also watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on DVD, which was a pretty good episode.

There was a lot of snow on the ground again today. I went along to get my groceries for the coming week. Then I went up to the movies to see Season of the Witch, directed by Dominic Sena. The movie is set in the 14th century and tells the story of two knights (played by Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman) who return from the Crusades to find their home ravaged by the Black Death. Arriving in a town, they are ordered to help transport a young woman (Claire Foy) accused of witchcraft, who is believed to have brought down the plague by sorcery, to a remote monestary. Mostly it was a pretty bad movie, but it did have it's moments. It will probably become a cult film in the future. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

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.

The People vs. George Lucas

Last night I was watching the 1948 movie The Naked City, directed by Jules Dassin. The film is set in New York City and deals with the police investigation into the murder of a young woman. The movie's notable now mainly for it's semi-documentary style. It's a pretty good example of the 1940s film noir style. The movie was the basis for a popular TV series, The Naked City, which ran from 1958 until 1963.

Today I went up and posted a couple of postcards to a friend in North Carolina and a letter to a friend in New York. On my way back I went and got my groceries for the week.

This afternoon I went up to the Filmhouse cinema to see The People vs. George Lucas, directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, as part of the Film Festival. The movie is a documentary about the complex relationship between Star Wars fans and Star Wars creator George Lucas, especially in regards to the 1997 Special Editions and the prequel trilogy. The movie consists of talking-head interviews with fans and people who have worked with Lucas, including director Francis Ford Coppola and author Neil Gaiman. It also contains numerous clips from amateur fan films, some of which were really good. It came as no surprise that pretty much everyone hated Jar-Jar Binks in the prequels. The movie was really funny and very entertaining. After the movie the producer and the director came up and did a question and answer session with the audience.

I grew up with Star Wars. I was born in 1978 and a lot of my earliest memories centre around the movies. I collected the toys and games and comics and I saw all the movies, including the Ewok ones, and the cartoon spin-offs and played the video games. One of my earleist memories was going to the cinema to see Return of the Jedi when I was four or five and being really caught up in it. I went to see The Phantom Menace on the day it opened in 1999 and I actually liked it, although I thought Jar-Jar Binks was annoying and I don't know why they made Natalie Portman look like some kind of space clown, but it was a fun movie. The thing is that Star Wars is George Lucas' thing. It's his world and they are his characters and, to be fair, it's up to him, not the fans, what he does with it. The thing is that the prequels could have been the greatest films ever made and people would still have hated them, because what they wanted was the experience they had when they were kids and they first saw the Star Wars movies, but that is impossible to recreate, and unfair to expect. I suppose it's like the first time you fall in love really. Subsequently it might be better or it might be worse, but that initial feeling will forever be impossible to recapture.

When I got home I watched the first of the two part season finale to Doctor Who, which was pretty good.

The Variable Man

Last night was fairly quiet. I watched a couple of episodes of The Ricky Gervais Show which were really funny, and saw a show called Top of the Pops 2: Country Jukebox which was an hour of country music which I really liked.

I went along to my parent's house today, instead of the usual Sunday, because they are both busy tomorrow. It was good, we managed to get some groceries for the week. We had some sushi for lunch and in the afternoon sat in the garden, because the weather was so good. I read a Philip K. Dick story from 1953 called "The Variable Man" which was set in the future where Earth is at war with aliens but, due to the fact that humans are using computers to predict the statistical likelihood of victory before they attack, there have been no shots fired. However, when the scientists develop a new type of advanced bomb which tips the statistics in favour of humanity. However a new element is added when a time travel experiment accidentally brings forward a man from the early 20th century which adds an unforeseen variable into the equation and rendering the machines unable to calculate the statistics.

This evening I saw a really good episode of Doctor Who in which the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy (Karen Gillan) encounter an invisible alien stalking Vincent Van Gogh (Tony Curran). I really like Van Gogh and I went to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and saw the "Starry Night" exhibition while it was there.

I was re-reading some of my old diaries and journals last night, including one from 1993 which kind of felt strange to read. I was 14 in 1993 and, to be honest, despite the fact that I got to work instead of school, not much has really changed.

Film Festival Booked

Last night I was watching an episode of the second season of True Blood on DVD. I've got two episodes left to see of the season, which has been really great.

I had the day off today in order to book my tickets for the Film Festival. I managed to get tickets for The Runaways a film about the early career of Joan Jett starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, HIGH School a comedy about stoners in high school, Mr. Nice a British film about a famous real-life drug dealer, Two in the Wave a documentary about the friendship between legendary French directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffat, The People vs. George Lucas a documentary about fans of the Star Wars films and how they feel about George Lucas after all the "special edition" re-releases and the prequels, and My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? a film telling the true story of a murderer directed by Werner Herzog and produced by David Lynch. So that should be a good selection. I might get more later, but I managed to get the ones that I really wanted to see. The website I got the tickets from was really slow and for the first ten minutes showed all the tickets as being sold out, which resulted in me unleashing a barrage of bad language at the computer. It was only a glitch though and in the end it was all fine.

The rest of the afternoon has been quiet. I went out to the corner store briefly to get milk, sugar and chocolate bars. I also read a short Philip K. Dick story called "Imposter" in which a man is surprised to be accused of being an alien robot duplicate with an armed nuclear bomb in his chest. It was pretty good.

Splinter

Last night I was watching the 2009 film Drag Me to Hell, directed by Sam Raimi. The film tells the story of a young loan manager, Christine (played by Alison Lohman) who refuses to grant an extension on a mortgage for an elderly Gypsy woman, causing her to be evicted. The elderly woman places a curse on Christine, in which she will be subjected to three days of increasing supernatural terror before a demonic creature arrives to drag her to Hell. It's a really fun movie that's kind of a contemporary take on the M. R. James short story "Casting the Runes". Alison Lohman, who was cast at the last minute to replace Ellen Page, was an attractive lead.

Later on I watched another film, from 2008, called Splinter, directed by Toby Wilkins, which was a very low-budget horror film in which a young couple on a camping holiday are carjacked by an escaped convict and his drug-addict girlfriend. When they need to stop to fill up the car at a service station, they come under attack from a gruesome parasite which grows inside the host, which the parasite pretty much tears apart with long spikes and bizarre contortions. The movie is slightly similar to The Mist in certain ways , in that it's one of thse "seige" horror films. It is a pretty effective, and very gruesome horror film, and it's short enough that it keeps the tension up.

The finla of last night's movies was a 1997 film called In the Company of Men, directed by Neil LaBute. The film is a very darkly comic drama about two complete bastards: Chad (played by Aaron Eckhart) and Howard (played by Matt Molloy) two thirtysomething businessmen who have recently been dumped by their girlfriends and are heading to a regional office in another city for six weeks. Bored and angry at the world, especially women, Chad decides that they should exact "payback" on womankind by finding a vulnerable woman whom they will each seperately romance and date over the course of the six weeks before dumping her. When they meet deaf typist Christine (Stacy Edwards) they believe that they have found the perfect target. The film is intense, disturbing and bitterly funny, with Aaron Eckhart producing one of the most disturbing corporate sociopaths since American Psycho's Patrick Bateman.

Today I went out to the city centre to get aborthday present for my Dad. I got him a book called The Edge of Madness by Michael Dobbs, and a birthday card. I also got a book for myself called The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. On my way home I stopped off to get some groceries for the coming week.

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.

Witchfinder General

Last night I was watching the 1968 movie Witchfinder General, directed by Michael Reeves, which starred Vincent Price as the historical figure Matthew Hopkins, who during the English Civil War went around the countryside and, calling himself "The Witchfinder General", was paid by villagers to basically torture and execute anyone accused of witchcraft. The film, which is set in 1645, involves a Parliamentarian soldier on a mission of vengeance after Hopkins attacks his fiance and kills her father. The film is not particularly accurate, historically, but it is very good. The movie is really gruesome, particularly by the standards of the time. When it was released in America it was re-named The Conqueror Worm to tie it in with the Roger Corman movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Although this movie has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Poe.

After that I saw a 1962 Ingmar Bergman film called Through a Glass Darkly. It is about a family living on a small Swedish island, the daughter of which is slowly growing insane, the father is guilty about the fact that he is more curious than anything to see how his daughter's condition progresses, and her husband and brother look on powerless to do anything. The film is really bleak and very powerful.

I went to the shops today and bought a CD of That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Series Four and the CD of the recent radio drama of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Then I went along to the travel agent to get more details about my holiday.

On my way home I stopped off at the supermarket for my groceries for the week and got an issue of Uncut magazine which was running a special feature about the band Joy Division.

A Bunch of Books

Last night I saw the movie Antichrist, directed by Lars von Trier, which dealt with a couple (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) , left dvestated by the death of their young son. The husband decides to take his wife off the medication she has been prescribed for her grief and perform his own kind of therapy which involves them going to their isolated woodland cabin, only to find that nature has seemingly gone violently out of control. The movie is really bleak and very depressing. It is also pretty explicit in places. However it is very well-made. Apparently Lars von Trier wrote the film as a way of dealing with his own depression and many of the images come from his own hallucinations and nightmares. It is really too powerful and striking to ever get dull.

I also finished reading the graphic novel of The Sandman: Endless Nights written by Neil Gaiman. The book was started about five years after The Sandman series was completed and it is seven self-contained stories each one concerning a different character. It was a really good book.

Today I went out with my Dad in the morning and I bought a couple of books: The True Blood Omnibus by Charlaine Harris (which contains the books Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead) as well as the book Weaveworld by Clive Barker. I went along to my parent's house for lunch and in the afternoon my Mum had to go along to supervise at a birthday party for the kid of a friend of her's. She came back just before I was set to leave and she was absolutely shattered. Apparently it was a kind of disco party with about thirty kids, all about seven and eight, and aparently every single one of them hyped up on fizzy juice and cake.

Dawn of the Dead

Last night I was watching the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead, directed by George A. Romero, on DVD. It was the second of the Dead series of zombie films, following Night of the Living Dead, and takes place sometime after the first film where the zombie plague has become much, much worse. The story tells of two news reporters who have been trying to keep the station on the air as long as possible, and two members of a SWAT team who team up together and use a helicopter to fly out of the city and find some safety. However, due to lack of fuel, they are forced down at a large shopping mall, where they have to hole up and survive constant attacks from the flesh-eating zombies. It's a much bigger movie than the previous one with a lot of gruesome, action set-pieces. It is pretty good, although it does lack the intensity of the first film. It was fairly successfully remade in 2004.

It was freezing cold outside again today, although I know that if I get to Canada I'll have to get used to it being much colder. I only went out once today and that was to get my groceries for the week. The rest of the day I spent cleaning at home.

Samaritan

Last night was pretty quiet. I finished reading the book Samaritan by Richard Price. The book is set in a tough inner-city area of New Jersey in the present day, and tells the story of Ray Mitchell, who grew up in the tough housing projects but now in his forties he is a moderately successful screenwriter on a popular TV show. Returning to the projects and with an almost coompulsive urge to do good, he decides to take a creative writing class at the local high school. However one night he is brutally beaten in his apartment and hospitalised. The only cop who is in any way interested in the case is Nerese "Tweetie" Ammons, who grew up with Ray and owes him a favour from when they were children. However Ray knows who attacked him but for some reason refuses to give a name or help in any way and Tweetie becomes determined to find the truth. It was a pretty interesting book which moves between the events leading up to the attack and the events after the attack. It's well-written, interesting and witty, however the ending is kind of spoiled when it becomes a bit preachy, but mostly it is worth reading.

Today I went to the shops to get a new battery installed in my watch, which stopped working on Christmas Eve. I also got a DVD set called Box of the Dead, which collects all five of the Dead films written and directed by George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead). I also got a couple of desk calendars one of which I was planning to put up at home and the other of which I was planning on putting up in my office at work. The calendars were called The Book-Lovers Calendar 2010 and Urban Dictionary Calendar 2010. Heading back I stopped off at Burger King and had a Whopper Meal (basically a Whopper hamburger, large fries and a large coke).

Today is really the last day of the holidays. Work starts up properly tomorrow and this evening I'll be taking down my Christmas decorations and putting them all away in storage. It's always kind of sad, but there's not really much you can do about it. One good thing is that I do have about three weeks worth of holiday days to use up before the end of March, which means that I should have another two week holiday coming up in the next three months.

The Kindly Ones

Last night I was reading the graphic novel of The Sandman Volume Nine: The Kindly Ones written by Neil Gaiman. Unlike the previous entry in the series this one is a single story. When Lyta Hall's three year old son, Daniel, goes missing she blames Morpheus, "The Sandman", Lord of Dreams, and for revenge she makes contact with The Furies, the Kindly Ones, unstoppable, supernatural agents of vengeance who attack those who spill family blood and will stop at nothing until they have destroyed their target's entire world. As war comes to The Dreaming, Morpheus discovers that there are more sinister forces at work. It's another great story with actually a really epic sweep. There are a lot of sub-plots and things going on in the story, so it is probably best to read the others in the series first. Also, don't read the introduction before you've read the book, because it does contain a major spoiler about the ending.

Today I went along to town and got a couple of DVDs in the sales, including the third season of Blake's 7. By sheer coincidence I met my Mum in town and we had coffee together, so that was nice.

2009 has not been a bad year at all for me, but then it hasn't really been a particularly good year either, it has been kind of bland. The main things that happened this year for me were my holiday to Amsterdam and getting my tooth out. What I would like for next year is for something really good to happen. It would just be great for something to change for the better for once.

Tomorrow, of course, it's New Year's Eve (or Hogmanay as it's called in Scotland), and I probably won't be able to get back on-line for a few days, so I hope that everyone has a really great New Year and all the best for 2010.

Macbeth

Last night I was watching the 1948 movie of Macbeth, directed by and starring Orson Welles and based on the William Shakespeare play. Set in medieval Scotland, the story concerns celebrated soldier Macbeth (played by Orson Welles) who, after a victorious battle, encounters three strange women who proclaim that he will be named Thane of Cawdor and that shortly afterwards he will become king of Scotland. Immediately after they disappear, Macbeth is met by a messenger who informs him that the current Thane of Cawdor is due to be executed for treason, and that the King has appointed Macbeth Thane of Cawdor as a reward for his victory. Furthermore, the King and his entourage are going to be spending the night in Macbeth's castle. When he tells the news to his wife, she encourages Macbeth to murder the King in order to fulfill the prophecy. The movie suffers from badly recorded sound and some bizarre attempts at Scottish accents, with Welles' accent especially prone to drifiting back and forth across the Atlantic. However, it is very atmospheric with the sets and production design conveying a powerful sense of decay and corruption. There is an old theatrical superstition that Macbeth is an unlucky play, and it is said to be very bad luck to say the title of the play in a theatre, it is often referred to as "The Scottish Play". One of the stories behind it is that Shakespeare stole some of the rituals and spells from a real witches coven and used them in the play without permission and so the witches cursed it in revenge.

This morning my Dad came to collect me and we went along to the Omni Centre shopping mall, where we had some coffee and a chocolate muffin. Then we split up and did some of our own shopping. I got a book called Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Then I went along to my parent's house for lunch as usual for a Sunday.