Saving

Last night I watched the latest episode of The Wire, which was on really late last night, for some reason. They’re on season three at the moment (out of the five that were made) and it is definitely turning out to be pretty good.

Today was another quiet day at work, and there were more problems with the computer systems. Chris lent me a DVD of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, a documentary film about the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and founder of Gonzo Journalism.

I’m trying to save money at the moment for the Canada move, which is always easier said than done, but it will definitely be worth it in the end, so I’ve stopped buying as many movie magazines and cut down on going to the pub.

The Ruins

Last night I was watching a double-bill of episodes from the latest season of Peep Show again. Later on I watched a 2008 movie called The Ruins, directed by Carter Smith and based on the novel by Scott Smith. The story revolves around four American tourists: Amy (played by Jena Malone), Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), Stacey (Laura Ramsey) and Eric (Shawn Ashmore). They are enjoying a holiday in a Mexican resort when they learn about an archeological dig at a recently discovered Mayan temple. Teaming up with another couple of tourists: Mathias (Joe Anderson) and Dimitri (Dimitri Baveas), they decide to take a day trip into the rain forest to explore the temple. Once there they discover that the archeologists have vanished, and discover that it might be connected to the rapidly growing vines that cover the outside and inside of the temple. It’s a pretty effective and pretty gruesome horror movie. It’s one of those films that (like the Hostel films and Turistas) seems to be set on discouraging people from ever going on holiday again.

I was also reading some stories in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume Nineteen. One of the stories I read was called “Still Water” by Joel Lane, in which the police tracing a gang of jewel thieves to an old house discover the gang have vanished except for one who seems to be obsessed with a pool in the back yard. The other story was called “Thumbprint” by Joe Hill in which an American soldier, recently returned from Iraq, is haunted by her past. The third story was called “Lancashire” by Nicholas Royle, in which a young family discover that their new best friends seem to have far too much in common with them. I always like horror short stories, because usually the scare comes at the end, and the horror often isn’t destroyed at the end, it’s still there.

It was a very quiet and dull day at work as usual. I listened to some of my iPod songs (including some Sarah McLachlan tracks) and I’m still researching the move to Canada, but I certainly have come up with a reasonably solid plan of action.

Strange Dream

Last night I was watching a double-bill of Peep Show epsidoes on TV, and then I put on the DVD of a 1984 Doctor Who story called “Resurrection of the Daleks”, but I fell asleep on my sofa about half way through.

I had a really weird dream last night where I was at work and the singer Sarah McLachlan was giving a concert in the office, but I was the only one that was paying any attention. It was a really strange dream, and I don’t know what, if anything it actually means.

I went along to my parent’s house for lunch today, it took about an hour to get there, because of the traffic. For lunch we had salmon, rice, chopped up spring onions and red peppers, with some strawberries and cream to finish. After lunch, my parents went out to look at flats – they’re not thinking of moving anywhere, they just like to have a look, while I watched the episode of The Wire that I recorded during the week.

The Maiden Heist

Last night I was watching the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream, directed by Darren Aronofsky, and based on the 1978 novel by Hubert Selby Jr. The story revolves around four people in Brooklyn, New York. Harry Goldfarb (played by Jared Leto), his girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly) and his friend Tyrone Love (Marlon Wayans) are heroin addicts, who dream about making the one big drug deal that will set them up for life, while Marion’s ambition is to be a top fashion designer. Harry’s mother, Sarah (Ellen Burstyn) spends her time watching TV, especially a kind of infomercial-game show. One day she gets a call inviting her to be a contestant on TV. Sarah fixes on losing weight so she can fit into her favourite red dress and look good on TV. She goes to a doctor who prescribes her diet pills, to which she becomes increasingly addicted. Before long each of the characters find the dreams that sustain them, becoming increasingly sour and warped as they fall into their own personal addictions and demons. It is an unrelentingly bleak film, and very stylish. It is very faithful to the original novel.

Today I was up pretty sharply in order to get out and meet my Dad. We had to go up to the building society in order to do some banking business. Then we went out for breakfast at Cafe Rouge. I had sausage, bacon, poached egg, mushrooms, tomato and toast, with a cappuccino. Then we had a look around the shops before going our seperate ways. I went along to a jewellers to get my watchstrap fixed. It broke sometime last week, and I had to repair it with sticky tape. It worked for a few days. The strap took half an hour to fix and so I spent the time browsing in one of the book-shops. I didn’t buy anything, becasue I’m trying to save money for moving to Canada, so that was kind of annoying, because there was a lot of stuff there that I really wanted.

This evening I went out to the Cineworld cinema to see The Maiden Heist, directed by Pete Hewitt. The movie is set in Boston and revolves around Roger Barlow (played by Christopher Walken) who works as a security guard in an art museum. He spends most of his time staring at his favourite painting, called “The Lonely Maiden”. Roger is shocked when he discovers that “The Lonely Maiden” is one of a number of the museum’s collection that is being sent to Denmark. Then he discovers two other museum security guards, Charlie (Morgan Freeman) and George (William H. Macy) are both equally obsessed by other artworks, which are also being sent away. The three decide to plot an audacious scheme to steal their three paintings, so that they can keep them. It’s a very likeable, gentle comedy, and it is consistently funny. That is the last film that I have booked for this year at the Film Festival (it is the last day of the Film Festival tomorrow).

Of course there is a lot about Michael Jackson on TV tonight. I was never a fan, but of course I remember when his music was everywhere, and he was very talented. I really liked that song “Thriller” (which did have one of the coolest music videos and Vincent Price) and “Man in the Mirror”.

The Breakfast Club

It was another really quiet evening last night. I was watching an episode of Peep Show and an episode of The Mighty Boosh. I also saw an episode of a new series called Psychoville which is basically like a weird horror-comedy-thriller about five bizarre, apparently unconnected, characters who each receive messages from a mysterious figure accusing them of murder.

It was a really quiet day at work again. There was hardly anyone in the office today, even for a Friday it was pretty empty. I left fairly early, so that was pretty good.

When I got home I watched the 1985 movie The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes. it’s about five high school students who spend a Saturday in detention. Assigned to spend the day writing an essay, instead they spend their time chatting, arguing, messing around, and sharing their various personal secrets. It’s pretty good and very influental.

TV and Research

I recorded last night’s episode of The Wire because I didn’t have time to watch it.

It was another pretty dull and quiet day at work today, for a change. They are reorganising their procedures yet again in the office. I got home at around quarter past six and had a microwave macaroni cheese dinner.

It wasn’t a wildly exciting day today. The next Film Festival thing that I have booked is on Saturday (the last day of the Festival is on Sunday).

This evening I’m watching That Mitchell and Webb Look and working on my Canada move project.

Roger Corman

Last night I was looking at more places for jobs and accomodation in Canada, and I watched the latest episode of The Wire, which was a really good one.

Today was another really quiet and dull day at work. The biggest event in the office at the moment is that they may be getting more people moved around the departments, again.

After work I headed up to the Cineworld cinema to see the next event that I had booked at the Film Festival, which was a discussion with the legendary director, writer and producer Roger Corman. Corman has produced over three hundred films and himself directed around fifty. At his peak he apparently made seven films in one year (he said that he had periods where he was filming one movie, casting the next and editing another all in the same day). He started his career in the 1950s and specialised in low-budget horror, science-fiction, gangster, biker and teen movies with his biggest successes being a cycle of movies based on Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems with Vincent Price. He also gave directors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Rob Howard and James Cameron their big breaks, as well as actors such Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro. The event started late and over-ran by nearly half an hour but it was interesting and enjoyable, and Corman was full of great stories. It was hosted by Sight and Sound magazine, and we all got free copies of the magazine when we came in, which was nice (even though I’d already got this month’s – I have a subscription).

On my way home I got a fish supper for my dinner.

Demo

Last night was pretty quiet. I was looking at web-sites for jobs in Canada. Later in the evening I saw the first episode of the third season of The Wire.

Today I was back at work. It was another quiet and dull day. Chris lent me a graphic novel called Demo by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. It’s basically a series of twelve one-off stories centering around the lives of disaffected young people, most of them with spome kind of supernatural power.

My next Film Festival thing is tomorrow when I’ll be going up to see Roger Corman, the legendary “B” movie director.

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, Dad 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.