The Office

Last night I was watching a showing of the entire first season of the original British version of The Office which also featured comments on the episodes by the cast and crew as well as famous fans. It’s actually not aged very much in the eight years since it was first shown and it is a very realistic, and very funny, depiction of office life.

Today was the start of another week at work and it was one of those days where it felt like absolutely nothing went right. I was really glad to get back home.

Margaret Atwood

Last night I was really tired when I came back home. I watched some of The 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comedians but dozed off on my couch. I woke up at about quarter to seven and went to bed.

I had to be up quite sharp because my Dad was coming over to collect me at half past ten. We went along to the Ocean Terminal shopping centre and had a coffee and muffin at the Costa Coffee there, before splitting up to do our own shopping. I bought a couple of books in the Waterstones there. The books I got were Clockers by Richard Price and The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos. I used to own a copy of Clockers about thirteen years ago, but somewhere along the way it got lost, and I would really like to read it again.

I went back to my parent’s house for lunch, which was roast chicken, diced potatoes with garlic butter and peas, followed by strawberries and cream. After lunch my Mum and myself went to St. John’s Church to see a special Book Festival event with Margaret Atwood. The event was to launch her latest novel The Year of the Flood. The event was basically dramatised readings from the novel interspersed with music and songs. it was a very good event and pretty unique. After that we went along to the Book festival grounds for a drink. That is pretty much the last event of the Festival for me, at least for this year. It has been really good.

Clockers

Last night I watched a movie from 2006 on DVD called Red Road, directed by Andrea Arnold. The film is set in Glasgow, and tells the story of a CCTV operator named Jackie (played by Kate Dickie) who spends her time monitoring the city and reporting anyone in distress or committing a crime to the authorities. One day she spots a man from her past on her monitor, the last man who she wants to see, and who she thought was in prison. Jackie becomes preoccupied with following the man’s actions and eventually finds herself compelled to confront him and her own past. The film is intriguing and very well-made, although almost unrelentingly bleak and grim. The title comes from the name of a quite notorious area of Glasgow.

This morning I went out and got my groceries for the week. After I had had my lunch I headed out to the Filmhouse and met up with my friend Chris from work. We were there to see a special screening of the film Clockers. The movie was made in 1995, directed by Spike Lee and based on a novel by Richard Price. The film is set in the housing projects of New York and tells the story of Strike (Mekhi Phifer), who is a “clocker” – a low-level drug dealer. When a rival dealer is shot and killed, Strike’s brother Victor (Isaiah Washington) confesses to the crime, however veteran homicide detective Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) smells a rat and determines to find the truth. The film is lurid but gripping. The film was followed by an audience question and answer session with Richard Price, moderated by crime novelist Ian Rankin.

Afterwards Chris and I went to look around at the record and DVD shops. I got a book called Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. After that we went to the Edinburgh Book Festival and had a drink before going in to see David Simon, who has written a couple of non-fiction books and co-created the TV series The Wire. As would be expected from his work, Simon was very clever and funny. After the talk we managed to meet him and he signed my copy of Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Coincidentally, Richard Price also wrote for The Wire.

Finally, Chris and I went and had a whiskey and listened to a band play a couple of strange jazz style easy listening songs, before we went our seperate ways.

Last Train to Memphis

Last night was really quiet. I spent most of the time sitting around listening to my CDs and reading a biography of Elvis Presley called Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. The book covers Elvis’ early years, up until he went to Germany in 1958. His story is concluded in a second book called Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley.

It was another really dull day at work and I was glad to get home. I left pretty early today, at around three, which was fun.

At least it is the weekend now!

The Weekend is in Sight

Tonight was the last of this week’s batch of episodes of The Wire. It’s kind of funny to think that in a couple of weeks it’ll all be over.

I’ve been enjoying my new mobile phone. So far it is a lot of fun. I’ve recently put on a couple of wallpapers and screensavers to personalise it a bit.

Today was another very quiet and pretty uneventful day at work. On my way in I stopped off to renew my bus pass for the next month.

At the moment I’m sitting here listening to a country music show on the radio.

You Have Been Watching

Last night I was watching a comedy panel show called You Have Been Watching in which basically, the host and a panel of comedians and TV presenters poke fun at the week’s television. It can be very funny at times. Following that I saw the latest epsiode of The Wire, which was pretty good.

Today has been pretty quiet. It was a fairly dull day at work, and the work ran out about an hour before the end of the day, however at that time it was really too late to do much about it.

I’m still pretty much set on pretty much abandoning the whole idea of dating. To be honest I just find it depressing and pointless because it never actually has worked for me. Maybe if I get to Canada I might change my mind, but I honestly doubt it.

Another Early Day

Last night I watched the latest episode of The Wire.   It was a fairly average one last night, but it was still good. 

Today was a pretty quiet one.  There were no fire alarms anyway.  I left work early again today at around three in the afternoon and went to the New Yorker bar and had a drink with Alan, who used to be a good friend of mine a couple of years ago.

Then I went home and had a microwave meal of spaghetti bolognese and listened to the first epsidoe of a new series of That Mitchell and Webb Sound which was pretty funny.   It’s a sketch comedy series starring comedians Robert Webb and David Mitchell who do a lot of really clever and funny material.

Monday Again

I got back late last night and slept in later than I had planned, getting up at seven.

Work was pretty much the same as usual. There was yet another fire alarm set off while I was having my lunch. This makes the third one in two weeks and it is incredibly irritating. In the afternoon I went up to a meeting about the video news thing that the organisation does. Basically it’s to try and gather information and news items for them, if that’s possible.

I got home at around quarter past five today.

The House by the Cemetery

Last night I was watching a doucmentary called The Rules of Film Noir on TV. It was part of a weekend long season on one of the TV channels celebrating all things film noir. Later on I watched a violent Italian horror film from 1981 called The House by the Cemetery, directed by Lucio Fulci, in which an academic moves with his young family to a large house beside a cemetery in a small New England town. The house has a violent history of people being brutally murdered, and of course it’s not long before the family find out why. The film is very gruesome and violent but it is pretty stylish. It was very obviously dubbed into English which creates kind of a weird thing because a lot of the children’s voices heard in the film are obviously provided by adults trying to sound like kids.

I went over to my parent’s house today. In the afternoon my Dad and I went out and I bought a new mobile telephone and so far it looks really good.

This evening my Mum and I went out to the Edinburgh Book Festival and saw Will Self talk. He’s kind of a comedian, pundit and satirist. He was very funny. After the show we met Dad at La Tasca and had some tapas. After our meal, the three of us went back and saw Frank Skinner who is a famous stand-up comedian. He was very funny.

Late Evening

Last night went pretty well. I headed up to the Book Festival and saw the comedian Arthur Smith talk and read from his newly published autobiography. It was pretty good and he was very funny.

After the show I went down to the All Bar One near the Sheraton Hotel. I was waiting there for my family and I had a book with me (Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman) and I wrote a bit in the notebook I had with me so it was okay, even though I was waiting for nearly an hour and a half.

When they arrived we moved through to the Sheraton itself. It was my parents, my brother, my brother’s girlfried, her parents, her brother and her brother’s girlfriend. This was the first time I had ever met my brother’s girlfriend’s parents, or her brother and his girlfriend, but they all seemed nice enough. It was a really nice evening. We all left late and I got home at around two in the morning.

Today has been very quiet so far. I went out for a walk in the afternoon, so that was quite nice.