Ghostbusters II

Last night I was watching the 1989 film Ghostbusters II on TV. The story involves the Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson) re-uniting when their old friend, (Sigourney Weaver) and her baby son come under threat from a demon trapped inside an oil painting. The film holds up pretty well compared to the first one and is really funny. The special-effects have inevitably dated, but then nothing seems to look dated quicker then special-effects, just because the technology moves so fast. Later on I was watching a film called Vacancy in which an estranged married couple (Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson) break down near a run-down motel and take a room for the night, only to find it contains the owner’s collection of ’snuff’ movies, and discover that they are lined up for the starring roles in the latest production. It wasn’t a great film but it wasn’t too bad.

I went out to my parent’s house for lunch today and helped them move all the stuff from the loft. It was filled with absolute rubbish and also several boxes of my old stuff, some of which I have had all my life. A lot had to be thrown out which was really hard because a lot of it did have sentimental value, but it has to be done and I did save quite a bit, in particular Doctor Who, Red Dwarf and Blake’s 7 videos (who remembers Blake’s 7?).

One of these videos is autographed by Jon Pertwee.

Loud Noises

There was a lot of noise and shouting in my building last night for some reason. I think somebody had been having a party of some kind as well, because I could hear some very loud music.

Today has been kind of quiet. I went out and got my groceries, including a chocolate milk drink that I usually like, but I opened it and took one mouthful of it and had to spit it right back out. The milk had completely soured. So I was not happy about that. Aside from that I’ve just been reading and watching TV.

Books

Today was fairly busy at work because we had to put all the stuff on our desks into large plastic boxes in preperation for the desk move over the weekend. It’s amazing how much stuff accumulates in the ten months since the last move.

I finished reading a book called The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carre. The book was first published in 1977, and forms the second part of le Carre’s “Quest for Karla” trilogy. Opening shortly after the end of the previous book (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy), the British Secret Service (nicknamed “The Circus”) is in complete disarray due to the activities of a Soviet double-agent, and George Smiley, who has been promoted to the head of the Service, is increasingly obsessed with tracking down his arch-enemy, the Soviet spymaster codenamed Karla. Smiley learns about a money-laundering and drug-smuggling operation being run out of Hong Kong, which he believes is providing secret funds for Karla, and decides to investigate. he sends out journalist and sometime secret agent Jerry Westerby (nicknamed “The Honourable Schoolboy” due to his aristocratic background), and who has a lot of knowledge and contacts in the Far East. While Smiley and company become increasingly involved in inter-office rivalries and diplomatic squabbles in London, Westerby finds himself dodging spies and gangsters in Hong Kong, and bullets in war-torn Cambodia, as he finds himself in increasing danger from both sides. Whereas the first of the books is quite sedate, this one has a fair amount of action and adventure, and it’s globe-trotting plot provides plenty of exotic backdrop. The first book was turned into a hugely successful television mini-series by the BBC, but they decided against adapting Honourable Schoolboy, due to the cost involved in making a televison series set mainly in the Far East as well as the fact that the series central character, George Smiley, has a much smaller role in this one, and so they instead adapted the final book in the series, Smiley’s People.

Desk Move

It was a really quiet day today. Tomorrow at work is going to be fairly busy due to everything having to be packed up for the desk move over the weekend. It’s going to be a change anyway.

This is a really short entry, but there’s just not really much to write about today. I spent most of yesterday evening sitting quietly reading a book.

The Late Shift

Last night I finished reading American Supernatural Tales, which I thought was really pretty good, although a lot of the stories were not exactly supernatural, they were more like science-fiction. The stories were all arranged chronologicaly and prefaced by brief biographies of the author. One story I was reading last night was “The Late Shift” by Dennis Etchison, in which a sinister company reanimates corpses in order to provide free labour for the late night shifts in stores and garages, and “Last Call for the Sons of Shock” by David J. Schow, in which the old “Universal Monsters” (the creatures from the horror films made by Universal Studios in the 1930s, such as Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolf-Man) have survived into the present-day where Dracula is a high-class drug pusher, Frankenstein’s Monster owns a rock bar in Hollywood and the Wolf-Man is a professional wrestler and they gather for their annual reunion to look back over past glories and learn that the Creature from the Black Lagoon has returned home, while the Invisible Man has just vanished.

It was another really quiet day at work. I got home at around quarter to six.

Stranger Than Fiction

Last night I finished reading Non-Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk. The book is at it’s best when Palahniuk writes about his own life and experiences which are sometimes very amusing: such as his experiences in Hollywood with the Fight Club movie, his attempts to use a lip enhancer to get the Brad Pitt look, and his experiences of walking around Seattle dressed as a dog. However they are also sometimes very poignant and moving: with his meditations on, among other things, life, death, writing and memory. I don’t really know why the title was changed in the UK (in the US the book is entitled Stranger Than Fiction) because as far as I know there is no difference in the actual text.

I was also reading a couple of stories from the American Supernatural Tales collection. The first one I was reading was “The Events at Poroth Farm” by T.E.D. Klein in which a young college lecturer takes a room at a remote farmhouse in rural New Jersey in order to spend the Summer reading horror novels in preperation to teach a course in supernatural fiction, but soon finds himself getting some first-hand experience when he discovers a powerful and deadly force in the woods surrounding the farm. The story is mostly written as extracts from his diary, and so his thoughts about the events around him are constantly changing based on the books he’s reading. I also read a story called “Night Surf” by Stephen King about a small group of teens hanging around a resort town after a lethal strain of flu has wiped out most of the population of Earth. It’s kind of loosely related to King’s novel The Stand. I have been really enjoying that short-story collection. Some of them have been really good.

It was a fairly dull day at work. The fire alarm went off and we all had to stand outside for about half an hour. It turned out that the reason was that the alarm wasn’t working properly.

Warriors of the Deep

Last night I was watching a Doctor Who story from 1984, called “Warriors of the Deep”. It was set on Earth in 2084, where two powerful rival political blocs are locked in a ‘Cold War’. The TARDIS materialises in an undersea military base which contains an arsenal of nuclear weapons permanently locked on the opposing bloc. When they arrive the Doctor (Peter Davison) and his friends are immediately assumed to be enemy saboteurs. In fact, there are enemy agents aboard the base, but a far more powerful threat lurks outside: The reptilian Silurians and the amphibious Sea Devils, the original inhabitants of Earth before humanity evolved, have come up with a scheme to wipe out the human race and regain control of Earth. It was a really good story and well scripted, however it does suffer from some unintentionally hilarious special effects (in particular the Silurians’ pet sea monster, which looks a lot like a green pantomime horse with a fishy head). I think it was one of the first Doctor Who stories I ever saw when I was about five or six. I was quite surprised by how much I could remember.

I was back at work today, and was still on desk training for the new job at work. There is going to be another big desk move at work over the weekend.

I was also reading the book Non-Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk (it was published in the USA as Stranger Than Fiction). The book is a series of essays where Palahniuk discusses a sex festival, a demolition derby, wrestling, life aboard naval submarines, writer’s conventions and psychics, as well as interviews and profiles of people such as Juliette Lewis, Marilyn Manson and writer Amy Hempel. He also writes about his experiences of trying body-building and being kidnapped by a limo driver. It is hugely entertaining.

Printer’s Devil

Last night I was watching an episode of the original series of The Twilight Zone called “Printer’s Devil” which concerned an owner of a struggling small town newspaper who meets a strange man who offers his services as a reporter and typesetter, but he seems to be able to predict the news before it happens. It was quite an amusing story.

Today I went up to the Book Festival to meet my mum. We were there to see the author Will Self talk. He was very good, really, really funny, especially when he was answering questions from the audience. After that we went back to my parent’s house. The latest issue of Fortean Times had arrived so that was good.

That’s the Book Festival finished for this year. It ends tomorrow. This will be the first time in about four months that I haven’t got anything booked.

I also managed to get some new batteries for my digital camera, so here is a picture of my new hair cut:

Trainspotting

Last night I was watching Trainspotting, directed by Danny Boyle, and based on the novel by Irvine Welsh. The film centres around Mark Renton (played by Ewan McGregor) a heroin addict in Edinburgh, and his group of friends, as they attempt to come off drugs and get re-addicted, while all the time searching for the perfect scam that will set them up. The film merges surrealism, dark comedy and social realism as it deals with the highs and horrific lows of the characters lives. The film is very different to the novel, which is kind of like a collection of short stories and episodes that are linked by recurring themes and characters. However, while it lacks the richness of the book, the film effectively blends hilarity and horror. Incidentally, I was there watching during the shooting of the opening sequence of the film, where Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner are running down Princes Street in Edinburgh. I’d been out buying notebooks to write screenplays in. Also watch out for Irvine Welsh in a cameo as a drug dealer.

Today I went out to get my groceries for the week. I bought the latest Stephen King novel, Blaze, for £1.99 at the supermarket. This afternoon I went out to meet a woman named Husnal that I had met over the internet. We had a nice time and a few drinks.

James Bond and Rock Stars

I went out to meet my mum in Princes Street today. We went up to the City Art Centre to see an exhibition called Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design which focussed mainly on the cover designs of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books from the 1950s and 60s to the present. It also had exhibits of some of the film posters, some of the prelimenary sketches and memos, along with one of Fleming’s manuscripts for a book, with his notes. It was good, but it could have done with a bit of analysis about the art work and what aspects of the books different covers focussed on. Some really focus on the sex appeal, some on the exotic locations and some on the action. After the exhibition I had a look in the gift shop and bought a book called Major Works by John Keats (it cost £4 reduced from £11.99).

After that we went along to Pizza Express and I had a Four Season pizza (basically it’s a pizza divided into quarters with olives: One quarter is plain cheese and tomato, one is mushroom, one is pepperoni and one is anchovies and capers). For dessert I had a Chocolate Glory (vanilla ice-cream with squares of chocolate fudge cake and chocolate sauce).

After eating, we went along to the Edinburgh Book Festival and saw Rick Wakeman. in the 1970s, Rick Wakeman was a pretty big rock star in bands like The Strawbs and Yes. These days he does quite a lot of TV shows. He was really, really funny. With some hilarious anecdotes especially about his days as a session musician working with people like David Bowie and Lou Reed.