Empire and Inception

Last night I was reading a short story by Philip K. Dick called "If There Were No Benny Cemoli" in which an interplanetary law enforcement agency arrive on Earth in order to apprehend the people responsible for a devestating nuclear war, only to find that Earth's Government has stayed in power by fighting an endless campaign against an invented enemy. According to Dick, the story came about from his idea that at least half of the famous people in history never existed.

I finished writing a science-fiction story called "Shutdown" and started writing another one called "Hell Night".

It was another very average day at work. My friend Chris in the office lent me a CD of The Very Best of John Lee Hooker. On my way home a sudden gust of wind blew my hat off my head, but I managed to get it before it went very far. I bought the latest issue of Empire magazine. The main story this month was about the movie Inception and there was also a big article about the career of Alfred Hitchcock. When I got home I saw that my Film Festival tickets had arrived, so that is really good.

I had some microwave jambalaya for my dinner, which was really nice. While I was eating I listened to a reading of "A School Story" by M.R. James on the radio, in which two men are discussing traditions of ghost stories in schools and one of them relates a story from his own school days in which a Latin teacher with a dark past is hounded by a vengeful ghost.

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.

Book Festival

I had the day off work today but was still up pretty early to book my tickets for the Book Festival. For myself, I have got tickets for Neil Gaiman (who is going to be talking with crime novelist Ian Rankin about graphic novels) and David Simon (creator of the TV show The Wire and author of Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets). For myself and my Mum I have booked tickets for Arthur Smith, Will Self and Margaret Atwood (who is giving a specially written performance of music, songs and stories). For myself, Mum and Dad I have got tickets for comedian, actor and writer Frank Skinner and for my Mum I got a ticket to see Sarah Vine and Tania Kindersley. I was on-line and booking them at half past nine this morning and by eleven they were already starting to sell out. The Margaret Atwood event was sold out early and so was Neil Gaiman. Also this was the first day of booking, so I'm glad I got everything. I also had to write a cheque for a large credit card bill (I had to renew my home insurance) so it was a very expensive day when I'm trying to save for Canada! But it happens. I'll have to economise for the next month or so.

This evening I went to the Cineworld cinema to see my next Film Festival event, which was a talk and question and answer session with director Darren Aronofsky (director of Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain and most recently The Wrestler). It was very interesting, although Aronofsky refused to answer any questions about the well-publicised rumours of his involvement in the re-make of RoboCop. Then again, the original RoboCop is a classic. There was a lot said about low-budget film-making which was very interesting. Next month I'll probably try and write another novel or another movie to keep myself occupied without spending too much.

The third season of The Wire is on TV tonight.

Adventureland

Last night I watched a documentary about the history of brain surgery, which was very interesting - if gruesome. Then I saw a documentary in which two people tried to spend a couple of weeks living on the food that was popular the 1980s a lot of which I could remember pretty well. One thing that kind of made me laugh was how shocked they were by microwave ready meals, which are pretty much my staple diet today. After that I saw some of the 1983 movie Risky Business, directed by Paul Brickman. The story revolves around a mild-mannered high school student (played by Tom Cruise) whose parents are away for the weekend while he prepares for a crucial interview for acceptance to Princeton University. However he ends up meeting and falling for a beautiful prostitute (Rebecca DeMornay) and ends up with a novel money-making scheme. The movie is very funny and entertaining.

I got up pretty early today, my Dad came round and we went along to the Gyle shopping centre. We had a coffee and scone for our breakfast and then we went and had a look around. I bought a notebook and some pens. Then we went back to my parent's house and my parents and myself went along to Pizza Express for Father's Day. We had olives to start and I had a Diavolo pizza (a pizza with tomato, cheese, jalapeno peppers, spicy beef and pepperoni), it's really nice and very hot and spicy. For dessert I had a Chocolate Glory (which is ice-cream with chopped up chocolate fudge cake and chocolate sauce). It was a really nice meal. Back at my parents house, we kind of sat around for a couple of hours and I read some of the book that I had brought with me which was The Russia House by John le Carre (I'm trying to save money for Canada and so instead of buying new books I'm making an effort to read all the ones I've bought previously and never got round to reading).

In the evening I headed over to the Cineworld cinema to see the first film that I had booked for this year's Film Festival, which is now in it's sixty-third year. The film I went to see was Adventureland, directed by Greg Mottola. The movie is set in 1987 and concerns a high school graduate, James (played by Jesse Eisenburg) who, in order to raise money for college, takes a summer job at a run-down amusement park called Adventureland where he encounters various odd-balls and eccentrics and falls for co-worker Emily (Kristen Stewart) and befriends the married maintenance man Connel (Ryan Reynolds), who is secrelty having an affair with Emily. The movie is very funny in places, but it's also really moving at times as well. The star of the movie, Jesse Eisenburg was there to introduce the movie and answer questions afterwards.

Tomorrow I'm off work and I'm going to try get the tickets for the Book Festival. There's going to be a lot because I'll have to buy the tickets for my parents as well. As it stands I want to see Neil Gaiman and David Simon. Mum and myself want to see Margaret Atwood, Arthur Smith and Will Self. Mum wants to see Sarah Vine and Mum, Dand and myself all want to see Frank Skinner. I just really hope I actually remember all that!


"The line between actually very serious and actually very funny is actually very thin."
- The Russia House by John le Carre.

Rendezvous

It was another busy day at work today. However I have taken tomorrow (Friday) and Monday off for my annual leave as a kind of Easter break, so I get a four day weekend.

This afternoon I managed to get a couple of free tickets to a preview of the 3D film Coraline. I'm actually really glad about that because I originally saw the preview advertised in a magazine that I got on Saturday, but when I went to get the tickets they were all gone. However, I was a member of the magazine's weekly e-mail list and they had another set of tickets so I meneged to get a couple. I'm looking forward to seeing the film. It's based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, and I am a big fan of his work.

After work I went out to Rendezvous, a Chinese restaurant, with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend who are both up from London this week. We had crispy aromatic Peking duck to start, followed by egg foo yung, chicken chow mein, chicken satay, quick fried mixed seafood and a prawn chop suey. It was a really nice meal.

When I got back I watched an episode of The Wire.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

I went out today to buy a birthday present and a card for my Dad (his birthday is next Sunday). I bought him a card and a book called Don't Stop Me Now by Jeremy Clarkson. I also bought a couple of books for myself: A Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill and An Utterly Impartial History of Britain by John O'Farrell (which I thought looked like it would be really funny and interesting). I also bought a couple of cheap DVDs in the sales of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People. They are both TV adaptations of John le Carre novels and star Alec Guinness. After that I headed up to the Filmhouse cinema and picked up the tickets for the Film Festival that I had booked. I had a drink in the cafe/bar and checked them, and they all seemed to be fine.

I've finished reading the novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre, which was first published in 1974. A year after having been retired from "The Circus" (a nick-name for the British Secret Sevice) after an operation goes badly wrong, George Smiley is brought back into the fold because there is information that there is a "mole" (an enemy agent) working in the Circus for thirty years. Smiley is given the task of uncovering the mole, which means pitting his wits against his arch-enemy, the mysterious Soviet spymaster codenamed Karla.
The book depicts a far bleaker world than the Ian Fleming James Bond novels. A world of constant suspicion and paranoia, where, far from constant action and beautiful women, Smiley spends most of his time patiently interviewing his suspects and pouring over stolen files in dark, dingy offices and cheap hotel rooms. The book is very well written and very interesting. It forms the first part of a trilogy, followed by The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People.

Festival Bookings

Last night I was watching a 1997 film called Event Horizon, directed by Paul WS Anderson. Basically, in the year 2040 an experimental spaceship called "Event Horizon" disappears near Neptune while testing it's new 'Gravity Drive'. Seven years later, the ship reappears and a rescue mission (headed by Laurence Fishburne) got to investigate, accompanied by Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill), the "Event Horizon"'s original designer. When they arrive they discover the crew have apparently all been gruesomely murdered. Investigating the ship, the rescuers are confronted by terrifying hallucinations, which leads them to conclude that the Gravity Drive took the "Event Horizon" much further than anyone could have guessed, and that it has brought something back with it. The film is kind of like a haunted house story in space with very obvious similarities to both the Aliens and Hellraiser franchises. The special effects and sets are very impressive and there are some pretty spectacular action scenes. It also benefits enormously from a very talented cast. However there is nothing really new for fans and, despite being gruesome, it never manages to be at all scary.

Today I had the day off work and booked some shows for the Film Festival. I'm going to be seeing Ray Harryhausen (one of the pioneers of special effects) talk about his work, Dreams with Sharp Teeth (a documentary, narrated by Robin Williams, about the life and work of controversial science-fiction author Harlan Ellison), WALL.E (the latest Pixar anmated film about a cute little robot), Summer Hours (a French drama, starring Juliette Binoche, about family members fighting over a priceless private art collection), Red (a thriller, based on a novel by Jack Ketchum, about a man who finds his retirement disrupted by a gang of thugs), Married Life (a dark thriller about a man trying to get rid of his wife, starring Pierce Brosnan and Rachel McAdams) and the Surprise Movie (which is basically a mystery film which you don't find out what it is until it starts, basically). So I am very pleased I managed to get all of those.

This afternoon I went up to Holyrood Park with my mum. We had our lunch in a cafe there. I had a bowl of chicken and vegetable broth, a scone and a tuna sandwich. Then we walked around the park. It took about an hour and we walked around three miles. So, it's been a good day.

Day Off

I had terrible aches all over last night, and a very sore throat. It was actually quite hard even to get ready for my bed.

I had a day off work today and this morning I was still feeling really sore, but I felt better and headed out. I went up to the Filmhouse cinema to book my tickets for the Edinburgh Film Festival, but the queue was very long, so I went down and met my mum for lunch at a place called Ryan's Bar about five minutes walk down the road, where I had sanwiches of slightly toasted bread, bacon and melted brie cheese, along with some french fries, and a glass of coke.

Afterwards I went back up to the Filmhouse and the queue had barely moved. I waited for a while longer, apparently the computer systems had gone down but we were told that there were more booking tills open (and a shorter queue) at the Cineworld, so I walked up there. The queue was much shorter but they were still having difficulties with the tills. However, after a couple of hours of waiting I managed to book some tickets: I got tickets to the opening night film Hallam Foe, John Waters: This Filthy World, Death Proof, Ratatouille, Paranoid Park and Weirdsville.

I went out to meet my friend Jackie and her friend Sarah, who I have never met before. They were both quite drunk by the time I arrived and were soon heading off to someone's home, who I didn't know, so I just decided to go home after one drink.

I watched a documentary called Meetings with Bergman about the legendary Swedish film-maker Ingmar Bergman. This was followed by a 1955 film called Dreams which was directed by Ingmar Bergman and tells the story of two women, one of whom is a successful fashion photographer and the other is one of her models. They travel from Stockholm to Gothenberg, ostensibly for a photoshoot, but really so the photographer can meet her married boyfriend, while in the town the model attracts the attention of a very rich old man. It wasn't a bad film and it looked quite stunning, but it really wasn't one of Bergman's better ones. The film was followed by another documentary called Bergman and Faro Island, which was an interview with Ingmar Bergman about his career and his solitary life on the remote Swedish island Faro.