Well, May has been a very busy month - I turn round twice and it is nearly over!
More sport - I can now run over 4 miles without stopping (we've done it twice) - I have discovered that my legs have a magical ability to speed up if I'm going uphill - I think that they know that it is going to hurt, so if they go faster, it will be over sooner! We're off to the in-laws on Saturday, and I'm hoping to get a run along the beach-front in if the weather is nice (it should be a 4 1/2 mile run if I don't get lost!)
Work has been a bit tricky - I've had a PQQ to get in. For the uninitiated, a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire is the first (major) stage of applying for work to a local authority / government body. Normally they concern themselves with fairly basic questions (which is why I get them all to myself...) looking at company financial and legal standing and whether, at a high level, you can do the work required. Usually they are the work of about half a day to get complete. This one, however, has been a bit of a pig - there are a number of essay style questions, which normally wouldn't cause me trouble (I have framework answers which I then adapt to the tender). Unfortunately, these answers are length limited, which means that I've had to cut down my normal verbosity and actually stick to the point! I'm currently struggling to get an answer down from 416 words to the 400 needed for the answer (it was originally over 600 words, so I think I'm actually doing quite well!). The deadline is approaching fast, though - I've got Verdi's Requiem on rather loud which is helping me to concentrate.
We've headed out to the cinema once more since my last post, this time to see Coraline, the Neil Gaiman film, which was great fun. It was definitely a children's film (though for its creepiness deserved the PG rating), and as we went to see it on a Sunday afternoon, there were a lot of children around (including a babe in arms!). However the film was able to hold their attention - there was considerably less disturbance than I had anticipated (and felt incredibly gratified that so many of them commented on how scary it had been as they walked out - it's Neil Gaiman - it's *meant* to be scary!), and I was able to concentrate on the film. The animation work was beautiful - there were loads of hidden gems that mean that I know I want this on DVD so I can watch it with my finger over the pause button! The music was gorgeous, too - another sound track to add to my Amazon wish list! Definitely one to see, though it doesn't top Star Trek :-)
Right - back to the grindstone...
Showing posts with label Cinema. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cinema. Show all posts
Friday, 22 May 2009
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Film review - no spoilers (hopefully!)
Ok, a non-sport related post this time...
Over the last couple of weeks, we've been to see two films; both of them prequels to a successful film series, filling in back stories on much loved characters.
Wolverine was a fun romp - purely a popcorn film, where you disengage the brain during the opening sequence, and re-engage it to find your way out of the cinema without treading on too many sticky sweets. The plot was used as a device to get the viewer from one explosion to the next, with the occasional good one-liner to make us smile. One that definitely needed to be seen on the big screen to get the full effects of the CGI (though I do wonder whether some of the final tweaks were a bit rushed following the leak - in particular the de-aging of Patrick Stewart made him look like he was wearing a plastic mask), but not one that I would watch again.
Star Trek on the other hand, was an amazing film. It fills in the back stories of the original crew of the Enterprise, with younger versions of Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Chekov, McCoy, Scotty and Sulu all making appearances. I will state here that I am not a Trekkie, though I did very much enjoy both the original Star Trek and Next Generation (I got thoroughly muddled with DS9 and Bab 5, which were playing at the same time, and gave up on them both originally, and never got into Voyager or Enterprise). By this, I mean that I would sit and watch and enjoy when I was able to watch TV, but I wouldn't dash home specifically to watch it, nor do I know all the names of all of the episodes ;-) (but, hey, I don't know the names of most of the Dr Who eps that I have watched far more recently...) However, a detailed knowledge of Star Trek or the universe that it inhabits was not needed to enjoy the film enormously - there were a number of nods to the series for devoted Trekkies, including a number of the cliches which everyone knows and expects from ST. However, if you had no sci-fi exposure at all, there was nothing in the film which would become incomprehensible should you not understand the in-jokes. The story was enthralling, and, even though you knew that the main players would have to be safe (in order for them to make the next film...), I still found myself holding my breath and willing the characters on. There was a lot of humour, and some excellent one-liners, as well as some real tear-jerker situations (not enough to make me wish I'd brought a hankie, but I did well up on a number of occasions...). If there is one film that you go to see this year, make sure that this is it!
The Onion has given its own, special take on the subject here.
Over the last couple of weeks, we've been to see two films; both of them prequels to a successful film series, filling in back stories on much loved characters.
Wolverine was a fun romp - purely a popcorn film, where you disengage the brain during the opening sequence, and re-engage it to find your way out of the cinema without treading on too many sticky sweets. The plot was used as a device to get the viewer from one explosion to the next, with the occasional good one-liner to make us smile. One that definitely needed to be seen on the big screen to get the full effects of the CGI (though I do wonder whether some of the final tweaks were a bit rushed following the leak - in particular the de-aging of Patrick Stewart made him look like he was wearing a plastic mask), but not one that I would watch again.
Star Trek on the other hand, was an amazing film. It fills in the back stories of the original crew of the Enterprise, with younger versions of Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Chekov, McCoy, Scotty and Sulu all making appearances. I will state here that I am not a Trekkie, though I did very much enjoy both the original Star Trek and Next Generation (I got thoroughly muddled with DS9 and Bab 5, which were playing at the same time, and gave up on them both originally, and never got into Voyager or Enterprise). By this, I mean that I would sit and watch and enjoy when I was able to watch TV, but I wouldn't dash home specifically to watch it, nor do I know all the names of all of the episodes ;-) (but, hey, I don't know the names of most of the Dr Who eps that I have watched far more recently...) However, a detailed knowledge of Star Trek or the universe that it inhabits was not needed to enjoy the film enormously - there were a number of nods to the series for devoted Trekkies, including a number of the cliches which everyone knows and expects from ST. However, if you had no sci-fi exposure at all, there was nothing in the film which would become incomprehensible should you not understand the in-jokes. The story was enthralling, and, even though you knew that the main players would have to be safe (in order for them to make the next film...), I still found myself holding my breath and willing the characters on. There was a lot of humour, and some excellent one-liners, as well as some real tear-jerker situations (not enough to make me wish I'd brought a hankie, but I did well up on a number of occasions...). If there is one film that you go to see this year, make sure that this is it!
The Onion has given its own, special take on the subject here.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Time...
Like a winged arrow bears all its sons away...
As it does my posts - when the post in draft is over a month old, it gets a bit silly to finish it as it is! So I am starting again with a bit of a summary of the last month...
Hockey - some great wins... I've not been able to play as much as I liked, with other events on Saturdays and Tuesdays preventing me from getting to matches and to practice. But we are still 2nd in the table with two matches to go - there seems to be an excellent chance that we will go up the league again!
Tae Kwon Do - I had another competition in Feb, this time in Cardiff. I came away with two bronzes, one of which was similar to the last time, as there were only four in the sparring, so, winning or losing, I was assured of a medal (and I did lose, but only by a point, according to my instructor, who was one of the judges). The patterns, however, had nine people in the group, so I had to beat two others to get my bronze - and neither time did I think that I'd done well enough to win, so I was incredibly pleased with that! I've also had the trials for the demonstration team - going round various fetes and fairs in the summer, showing off TKD to the masses. Very pleased to have passed that and got into the team, and even more pleased with my company, who have generously offered to sponsor our doboks, meaning that we won't have to pay for them! (Hey, I asked the MD on the off-chance, not expecting anything, and he turned round and said 'Yes' :-D)
Culture - We had a trip to London to see Sir Derek Jacobi in Twelfth Night, which was *amazing* - there wasn't a weak link in the cast, and the Letter Scene (which, particularly when Sir D.J was performing it, deserves the capitals!) was just side-splittingly funny. Add to the mix a brilliant meal in a lovely Chinese, and fantastic company - it was an amazing day.
Culture - We also went to see Watchmen - I really enjoyed the film - possibly a little too much blood and gore when compared to the comic, but certainly nowhere near as much as Sin City! The changes in storyline (which I know some of the fanboys have been screaming about), I felt were completely justified, and fitted the story a lot better.
Orchestra - We've got a whole load of new pieces, including Danse Macabre, which is one of the first pieces which made me realise that I wanted to play in a group, rather than as a solo musician. We've also got the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, which includes as the first piece, the tune from Stranger in Paradise, played first on the oboe, and then on the cor. As the first oboe can't play both instruments at the same time, I've picked up the first oboe part for this, and also for the first two of the Snow Maiden pieces (though I've handed it back for the Dance of the Tumblers, the last in the four dances - with having to do solos in 1 and 2, and having done a simplified version of Tumblers with a slightly different rhythm, I don't think I could cope with that one as well!)
New Zealand - We've had our medical checks, and they have all come back clear, which is a fantastic piece of news. I've also fired my CV off to a number of recruiters, but they've pretty much all come back and said "Let us know when you have a visa". I did find another GIS company (reselling a rival's software) in Wellington, who are very promising, so I'm hoping that they will take me on once we've got the visa sorted...
Microcon - We headed down to Exeter at the end of Feb for the annual Exeter Uni Sci-Fi Society convention - as always, a great mix of people, some really fun talks and discussions (including one on the nature of Fandom with a capital F - I'm sorry, but if I'm not a Fan because I don't tick every box on the list of Fandom (Go to conventions, Run a convention, Slag off other people because they don't fit in to your definition of Fandom, Slag off guests because they happen to disagree with you...), then I'd rather just be a small f fan and enjoy sci-fi in my own way. Here endeth the rant (poor John heard a lot more of it over the weekend!)), and generally an all round chilling time :-)
I've also signed myself up for Race for Life, which I'm a bit scared about - I don't normally run further than up the incline to Temple Meads to get the train! However, it isn't till June, so I've got all the time in the world to learn how to run 5K...
And that is, in brief, the last Month. Hopefully, I'll post another one before the start of the next one, though I wouldn't hold your breath... I'm currently out four or five nights out of seven till the middle of May...!
As it does my posts - when the post in draft is over a month old, it gets a bit silly to finish it as it is! So I am starting again with a bit of a summary of the last month...
Hockey - some great wins... I've not been able to play as much as I liked, with other events on Saturdays and Tuesdays preventing me from getting to matches and to practice. But we are still 2nd in the table with two matches to go - there seems to be an excellent chance that we will go up the league again!
Tae Kwon Do - I had another competition in Feb, this time in Cardiff. I came away with two bronzes, one of which was similar to the last time, as there were only four in the sparring, so, winning or losing, I was assured of a medal (and I did lose, but only by a point, according to my instructor, who was one of the judges). The patterns, however, had nine people in the group, so I had to beat two others to get my bronze - and neither time did I think that I'd done well enough to win, so I was incredibly pleased with that! I've also had the trials for the demonstration team - going round various fetes and fairs in the summer, showing off TKD to the masses. Very pleased to have passed that and got into the team, and even more pleased with my company, who have generously offered to sponsor our doboks, meaning that we won't have to pay for them! (Hey, I asked the MD on the off-chance, not expecting anything, and he turned round and said 'Yes' :-D)
Culture - We had a trip to London to see Sir Derek Jacobi in Twelfth Night, which was *amazing* - there wasn't a weak link in the cast, and the Letter Scene (which, particularly when Sir D.J was performing it, deserves the capitals!) was just side-splittingly funny. Add to the mix a brilliant meal in a lovely Chinese, and fantastic company - it was an amazing day.
Culture - We also went to see Watchmen - I really enjoyed the film - possibly a little too much blood and gore when compared to the comic, but certainly nowhere near as much as Sin City! The changes in storyline (which I know some of the fanboys have been screaming about), I felt were completely justified, and fitted the story a lot better.
Orchestra - We've got a whole load of new pieces, including Danse Macabre, which is one of the first pieces which made me realise that I wanted to play in a group, rather than as a solo musician. We've also got the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, which includes as the first piece, the tune from Stranger in Paradise, played first on the oboe, and then on the cor. As the first oboe can't play both instruments at the same time, I've picked up the first oboe part for this, and also for the first two of the Snow Maiden pieces (though I've handed it back for the Dance of the Tumblers, the last in the four dances - with having to do solos in 1 and 2, and having done a simplified version of Tumblers with a slightly different rhythm, I don't think I could cope with that one as well!)
New Zealand - We've had our medical checks, and they have all come back clear, which is a fantastic piece of news. I've also fired my CV off to a number of recruiters, but they've pretty much all come back and said "Let us know when you have a visa". I did find another GIS company (reselling a rival's software) in Wellington, who are very promising, so I'm hoping that they will take me on once we've got the visa sorted...
Microcon - We headed down to Exeter at the end of Feb for the annual Exeter Uni Sci-Fi Society convention - as always, a great mix of people, some really fun talks and discussions (including one on the nature of Fandom with a capital F - I'm sorry, but if I'm not a Fan because I don't tick every box on the list of Fandom (Go to conventions, Run a convention, Slag off other people because they don't fit in to your definition of Fandom, Slag off guests because they happen to disagree with you...), then I'd rather just be a small f fan and enjoy sci-fi in my own way. Here endeth the rant (poor John heard a lot more of it over the weekend!)), and generally an all round chilling time :-)
I've also signed myself up for Race for Life, which I'm a bit scared about - I don't normally run further than up the incline to Temple Meads to get the train! However, it isn't till June, so I've got all the time in the world to learn how to run 5K...
And that is, in brief, the last Month. Hopefully, I'll post another one before the start of the next one, though I wouldn't hold your breath... I'm currently out four or five nights out of seven till the middle of May...!
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Good News / Bad News
Well - it has been a busy week or so - again...!
On Saturday, I took part in a Tae-Kwon Do tournament. I had been given the impression that it was going to be a 'local' event - i.e. for the three clubs in our area, so I was in for a bit of a shock when I spotted teams from Paignton and London! This was a team event, so three of us competing per team. (There were only four teams in our category!) We came away with a silver in the patterns - these are synchronised patterns, so each member of the team has to perform at the same time and with the same pacing. We didn't get anything in the sparring, but then we were a bit unlucky - I went up first (and lost, though I was later told that both my fights were close things), and the lady from our team who went up second withdrew halfway through the match (she hadn't wanted to spar in the first place and panicked!). So (as it was a knockout tournament, and each round was best 2 out of 3), we were down to the third/fourth play off. I went up first again, lost again, and then the final member of our team went up. She was winning the bout, and then jumped and landed wrongly on her knee, ending up not being able to put any weight on it, and having to go to hospital! (Fortunately, x-rays have shown that it was just badly twisted, and no major damage was done; given that our instructor is out for the best part of a year after possibly snapping a tendon, we do know what problems can come up!!) But I still enjoyed it, so much so that I'm going to put myself up for a single competition (i.e. not relying on anyone else...!) in Cornwall on the 7th June. Overall, our club did really well, winning 56 medals overall.
We also had a fun evening yesterday - Paul Merton is touring with an improv comedy show, and by some fluke we managed to get tickets (it sold out very quickly); I hadn't realised who else was going to be appearing in it; Richard Vranch (who is actually a talented comedian in his own right - he was wasted hiding behind the piano) - and Mike McShane (who has lost a lot of weight since appearing in Whose Line is it Anyway - he is half the man he used to be, but no less funny!). Great fun :-D
We've also had a few less fun things - our poor Skoda is now pretty much broken to the point where it is going to cost more to fix it than it will to buy a new car, so we are off out to get another one with my company bonus this year (huzzah for the change of company financial year which means that I get it 6 months earlier than normal!!). Hopefully this one will last more than a few months.... We are also definitely now on the move again (when we've found somewhere to go...), as our landlady has failed on the mortgage again, and the bank has informed us that they are taking her to court to gain possession of the property (though we still have until August to get out, and she may still pay the overdue balance (though as this is the third time in 6 months, I'm not holding my breath!)).
But I'm confident that we will get both of the above sorted out, and in the meantime, we have so many cinema things coming up! We've already been to see Iron Man (very silly, but great fun as well), are going to Indiana Jones this weekend, and then have films such as Batman, Prince Caspian and Hellboy 2 to look forward to - it's going to be a fab summer!
On Saturday, I took part in a Tae-Kwon Do tournament. I had been given the impression that it was going to be a 'local' event - i.e. for the three clubs in our area, so I was in for a bit of a shock when I spotted teams from Paignton and London! This was a team event, so three of us competing per team. (There were only four teams in our category!) We came away with a silver in the patterns - these are synchronised patterns, so each member of the team has to perform at the same time and with the same pacing. We didn't get anything in the sparring, but then we were a bit unlucky - I went up first (and lost, though I was later told that both my fights were close things), and the lady from our team who went up second withdrew halfway through the match (she hadn't wanted to spar in the first place and panicked!). So (as it was a knockout tournament, and each round was best 2 out of 3), we were down to the third/fourth play off. I went up first again, lost again, and then the final member of our team went up. She was winning the bout, and then jumped and landed wrongly on her knee, ending up not being able to put any weight on it, and having to go to hospital! (Fortunately, x-rays have shown that it was just badly twisted, and no major damage was done; given that our instructor is out for the best part of a year after possibly snapping a tendon, we do know what problems can come up!!) But I still enjoyed it, so much so that I'm going to put myself up for a single competition (i.e. not relying on anyone else...!) in Cornwall on the 7th June. Overall, our club did really well, winning 56 medals overall.
We also had a fun evening yesterday - Paul Merton is touring with an improv comedy show, and by some fluke we managed to get tickets (it sold out very quickly); I hadn't realised who else was going to be appearing in it; Richard Vranch (who is actually a talented comedian in his own right - he was wasted hiding behind the piano) - and Mike McShane (who has lost a lot of weight since appearing in Whose Line is it Anyway - he is half the man he used to be, but no less funny!). Great fun :-D
We've also had a few less fun things - our poor Skoda is now pretty much broken to the point where it is going to cost more to fix it than it will to buy a new car, so we are off out to get another one with my company bonus this year (huzzah for the change of company financial year which means that I get it 6 months earlier than normal!!). Hopefully this one will last more than a few months.... We are also definitely now on the move again (when we've found somewhere to go...), as our landlady has failed on the mortgage again, and the bank has informed us that they are taking her to court to gain possession of the property (though we still have until August to get out, and she may still pay the overdue balance (though as this is the third time in 6 months, I'm not holding my breath!)).
But I'm confident that we will get both of the above sorted out, and in the meantime, we have so many cinema things coming up! We've already been to see Iron Man (very silly, but great fun as well), are going to Indiana Jones this weekend, and then have films such as Batman, Prince Caspian and Hellboy 2 to look forward to - it's going to be a fab summer!
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Catch up
Apologies for the absence of blogging recently - life has been very manic, both at work and at home.
Last weekend, we had a number of university friends come to Bristol for a spot of festive shopping (where I got loads of ideas for presents, then, as today has been the first day I could go in to actually buy the items, I go into town and discover that everything I like has sold out... Panicing? Not yet...), carols and music at our orchestra Christmas concert, and then a very cold, but nonetheless enjoyable day out at Caerphilly, where they had a medieval festival (though sadly very much reduced as a result of the atrocious weather that they'd had the day before) and Christmas market. We had a fun lunch in a pub where the waiter was (without meaning to be rude!) obviously hired on a 'positive action' programme. The first couple of times he came up were ok (he came to check the food order that we'd placed - 9 people meant that there was a lot of food!), but the popping up every five minutes to check that the food was alright, and to give us "Mr Pepper"... started to get a little bit creepy! The castle itself was gorgeous, and I'd like to see it again, in warmer weather. All in all, a good, if exhausting, weekend.
This weekend we had a very lazy Saturday and Sunday day, but busy evenings - Saturday, we were over at Oldland for the orchestra Christmas Party - a very silly, fun evening. Then, Sunday evening, we went out to see the Golden Compass. This is one of those films which has been hyped a lot, right from the first moment that it was announced (and even before - the books have generated a lot of coverage, mainly from the rabid-Christian types who don't like the idea of anybody even thinking of querying their beliefs, let alone writing a book which might be read to impressionable young children... (NB - Disclaimer - I am not claiming that all Christians are like this. Just the complete nutters...)) The cast list is amazing; Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Ian McKellan, Christopher Lee, Derek Jacobi and Freddie Highmore (and yes, I know that Freddie is still only a kid, but his name on the credits is now enough to make me want to see a film!) all making an appearance (even if Mr McK and Mr H are only in voice rather than appearing on screen). The graphics are fantastic - the daemons are gorgeous, and the scenery is beautiful (both real and imaginary - the scenes of the Scandinavian country - it isn't clear whether they are going to Norway or Sweden - particularly the going up the fjords and the docks, brought back very vivid (and happy) memories of the honeymoon). Some of the concepts could have done with more work - the idea of the daemons being souls are really only mentioned in the introduction, and not really covered in the film - and there were a lot of ideas and people which could have done with going into in more depth - the film felt like it was skimming over the surface. However, the acting was fantastic, particularly from Dakota Blue-Richards, who plays the lead - at age 12, and not having done any screen acting (at least, nothing that has appeared on IMDB...) before, she was breathtaking. She had to do a lot of acting against bluescreen (particularly everything that was done with the bears), and that in itself is very impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her! Overall, I wasn't as blown away by the film as I'd hoped to be, but it is still definitely worth watching, and I'm looking forward to the next film.
Also, since I last blogged, Heroes has finished... I've left this till last deliberately in order that anyone who hasn't watched it, and doesn't want spoilers, can stop reading now ;-)
A finale which answered most of the questions, but left enough hanging that I'll want to watch the next series (even though indications from the US are that the second series is rubbish). Sylar's meeting with his mother was brilliantly done - his final hope for redemption being rebuffed. There are queries hanging over Peter's need for his brother to fly him away from New York when he already had that power - my theory is that Peter, at this stage, is unable to control his powers enough to be able to use them more than one at a time (we know that in the future, he can, but that is a different Peter, one who has had more time to practice using his powers). I really enjoyed this - not as much as some of the episodes (particularly the mid-season break one, which had cliffhangers for all the characters), but the writing was great, the acting brilliant, and I am still of the opinion that this is, overall, the best TV series to grace our screens for a very long time (yes, even beating Dr Who - whilst DW had some great episodes, it was not consistently good, as Heroes has been)
Last weekend, we had a number of university friends come to Bristol for a spot of festive shopping (where I got loads of ideas for presents, then, as today has been the first day I could go in to actually buy the items, I go into town and discover that everything I like has sold out... Panicing? Not yet...), carols and music at our orchestra Christmas concert, and then a very cold, but nonetheless enjoyable day out at Caerphilly, where they had a medieval festival (though sadly very much reduced as a result of the atrocious weather that they'd had the day before) and Christmas market. We had a fun lunch in a pub where the waiter was (without meaning to be rude!) obviously hired on a 'positive action' programme. The first couple of times he came up were ok (he came to check the food order that we'd placed - 9 people meant that there was a lot of food!), but the popping up every five minutes to check that the food was alright, and to give us "Mr Pepper"... started to get a little bit creepy! The castle itself was gorgeous, and I'd like to see it again, in warmer weather. All in all, a good, if exhausting, weekend.
This weekend we had a very lazy Saturday and Sunday day, but busy evenings - Saturday, we were over at Oldland for the orchestra Christmas Party - a very silly, fun evening. Then, Sunday evening, we went out to see the Golden Compass. This is one of those films which has been hyped a lot, right from the first moment that it was announced (and even before - the books have generated a lot of coverage, mainly from the rabid-Christian types who don't like the idea of anybody even thinking of querying their beliefs, let alone writing a book which might be read to impressionable young children... (NB - Disclaimer - I am not claiming that all Christians are like this. Just the complete nutters...)) The cast list is amazing; Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Ian McKellan, Christopher Lee, Derek Jacobi and Freddie Highmore (and yes, I know that Freddie is still only a kid, but his name on the credits is now enough to make me want to see a film!) all making an appearance (even if Mr McK and Mr H are only in voice rather than appearing on screen). The graphics are fantastic - the daemons are gorgeous, and the scenery is beautiful (both real and imaginary - the scenes of the Scandinavian country - it isn't clear whether they are going to Norway or Sweden - particularly the going up the fjords and the docks, brought back very vivid (and happy) memories of the honeymoon). Some of the concepts could have done with more work - the idea of the daemons being souls are really only mentioned in the introduction, and not really covered in the film - and there were a lot of ideas and people which could have done with going into in more depth - the film felt like it was skimming over the surface. However, the acting was fantastic, particularly from Dakota Blue-Richards, who plays the lead - at age 12, and not having done any screen acting (at least, nothing that has appeared on IMDB...) before, she was breathtaking. She had to do a lot of acting against bluescreen (particularly everything that was done with the bears), and that in itself is very impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her! Overall, I wasn't as blown away by the film as I'd hoped to be, but it is still definitely worth watching, and I'm looking forward to the next film.
Also, since I last blogged, Heroes has finished... I've left this till last deliberately in order that anyone who hasn't watched it, and doesn't want spoilers, can stop reading now ;-)
A finale which answered most of the questions, but left enough hanging that I'll want to watch the next series (even though indications from the US are that the second series is rubbish). Sylar's meeting with his mother was brilliantly done - his final hope for redemption being rebuffed. There are queries hanging over Peter's need for his brother to fly him away from New York when he already had that power - my theory is that Peter, at this stage, is unable to control his powers enough to be able to use them more than one at a time (we know that in the future, he can, but that is a different Peter, one who has had more time to practice using his powers). I really enjoyed this - not as much as some of the episodes (particularly the mid-season break one, which had cliffhangers for all the characters), but the writing was great, the acting brilliant, and I am still of the opinion that this is, overall, the best TV series to grace our screens for a very long time (yes, even beating Dr Who - whilst DW had some great episodes, it was not consistently good, as Heroes has been)
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Back again...
Well, I'm back now - three weeks 'off air', and I've been amazed at how many people have looked at my blog even when I've not been writing (between 30 and 40 a week...)! Big hello to everyone :-)
NaNoWriMo didn't go terribly well - with only 10 days to go, I've not yet hit 2,000 words... A bit of a failure all round, really! But, the story, even though not really on it's way, does still have wings (I think), and I'm hoping will get a bit further. It's turned into another teen-sci-fi story though - I seem to be incapable of writing anything that isn't teen...
However, the reasons for failure have been many:
We've suddenly had every single council in the country (or so it feels) go out to tender, needing the documentation to be back before Christmas - most of them before this coming Monday... So the stress levels are running very high, and the overtime has been piling up.
In September, I started a college course (Introductory Certificate in Supervisory Management), which got off to a dodgy start ("We will be covering the same topics as in the full certificate, but instead of doing it in 35 weeks, we will do it in 10. By the way, I've only ever taught the 35 week course..."), got worse, ("Because no-one understood the basic stuff I went through in 3 hours last week, I'll spend 1 1/2 hours going through it again this week, and only do the first page of this week's topic."), hit a major low point ("Your course tutor has gone off sick permanently."), and then picked up again with a nice new tutor ("You will get an extension on your assignment (which would have been due in next week), but I want to go through the first half with you individually *now*"). Which meant that I've had to spend the last couple of weeks writing up the first half of my assignment!
Also - we still don't have a car (until tomorrow - huzzah!), which has meant that I've lost half an hour every evening (small excuse) because I've had to walk home, rather than have John come and pick me up.
But yay - as mentioned above, we are picking up our replacement for the Punto tomorrow. It's an L Reg Toyota Carina - not the swishest car on the market, but certainly a good buy, according to Yahoo. It has been very well loved, and the current owner is going to give us the contact details of the garage owner who has been looking after it for many years (not sure if since new, but definitely since it has been in this chap's family). After a month without wheels, I've not got used to not having a car - I'm sure that this says a lot about us and our modern lifestyle. Whilst everybody we know has been amazing in giving us lifts, often coming miles out of their way (big thanks to Sarah here) to make sure that we don't miss out, and my day-to-day life hasn't been disrupted *too* badly (I walk/train to work and back - John normally picking me up from the station in the evening), the inability to jump into the car to go somewhere, even just round the corner (10 minutes drive, 30-40 minutes walk) to Sainsbury's to go shopping has been frustrating. I will be glad to be in a car again, even if the thought of getting behind the wheel of a strange car is scaring me whitless! (I wasn't too bad when using the company pool car to go home for my mother's birthday weekend, but I had driven it before, and a Ford Focus isn't hugely different from the Punto)
The other thing that I need to catch up on before I sign off for the evening (it's getting late, and I've got a long day tomorrow!) is cinema reviews. We've been to a lot of films recently, and I've not talked about any of them - slap my wrists!
Daywatch
The sequel to NightWatch, this is an adaption of a series of Russian novels. Confusingly, although the film title sequence follows the titles of the novels, DayWatch is really an amalgamation of the second and third thirds of the NightWatch novel. We saw it in Russian with subtitles, and the subs themselves were as much a work of art as the rest of the film (one particular one that sticks with me is where one character yells "Bitch" at another, whilst throwing a lump of bloody meat at her. The meat hits the tiled wall, and the blood, running down the wall, forms the "Bitch" subtitles.) The story itself is very confusing, even for me, and I had read the book recently! There are a lot of interweaving threads, a lot of characters who aren't properly introduced, and who look similar to each other (we had met some of them in the first film, but that was shown a while ago...), and the ending is just HUH? But all of that pales into insignificance when you see the beauty of the film. Whilst Moscow probably isn't the most gorgeous of cities to have as a backdrop, every scene felt like it was crafted with care. My overall impression of the film, even over a month after watching it is still "Wow!" I'm going to be putting the DVD on my wishlist :-)
Stardust
This is an adaption of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel - and, though it has been a long while (must be three or four years at least) since I read the novel, I felt that it was pretty much faithful to the story. I really enjoyed it - a pop-corn type of film without any really hard thinking needed. It had a star studded cast; Peter O'Toole making a few minute cameo, and Ian McKellan doing a front and end narration! Michelle Pfeiffer played an incredibly convincing witch, Robert De Nero, a fantastically camp pirate, and a slew of British comedians also had roles (David Walliams, Mark Williams (only he could play a goat dressed up as a man...) and even David Brent (though he, as ever, only played David Brent...)). The film hardly had any CGI, which made a nice change, the scenery used was beautiful, and there were some lovely one-liners in it, and one great sword fighting sequence. Definitely worth a look - whilst you might not come away feeling changed or have any philosophical awakenings, you'll have had a great time!
Black Sheep
This was my horror film for the next five years... I don't do gore. I don't do spatter, and I definitely don't do horror. I therefore went to see this New Zealand independant film with a mild feeling of dread and the knowledge that I was going to be hiding behind my fingers for a lot of the time. But, hey, how could I turn down a film about zombie sheep? And when this was the trailer we saw, it had to be worth a look! I was prepared that all of the best bits would have been in the trailer, as is so often the case, but I was so pleasantly suprised! It was a very funny, but definitely *very* gory film. I *did* spent a lot of time hiding behind my fingers (often at points where, I was told, there were cutaways at the final moment), but I spent even more time laughing. Very silly, sick in places, not one for young children, but a brilliant film - I hope that this team do more!
And finally...
Beowulf
This is the much advertised retelling of the Old English tale - man meets beast, man kills beast, beast's mother gets a little upset and comes to complain... I'm not going to give away too much, as this one is still in the cinemas, and I don't want to add any spoilers (particularly where the story has been changed from the original). The technique of the film is interesting - the actors were filmed, and then animated, so the entirety of the film is CGI. Unfortunately, they seem to have been hanging a lot on this technique to sell the film (much is being made of it being seen in 3D, which we weren't able to do), and the technology isn't *quite* there to pull it off (apart from the final action sequence, in which almost all sins are forgiven!) The script was ok (not fantastic, given that Neil Gaiman was writing it), the acting was good (Antony Hopkins played a great King), and there were some lovely bits (the fact that Grendel speaks in Old English - it takes a while to tune the ear to it, and I know that they would have picked the words close enough to English to be understood, but it was still a beautiful touch). However, there just seemed to be something intangible missing. Something that could have turned this from a mediocre film into a brilliant one. I do think that I'll go and revisit the book, though...
And, now that I've written almost as much as I have for the whole of my NaNoWriMo story, I am going to sign off... Hopefully, it won't be another three weeks before I write again!
NaNoWriMo didn't go terribly well - with only 10 days to go, I've not yet hit 2,000 words... A bit of a failure all round, really! But, the story, even though not really on it's way, does still have wings (I think), and I'm hoping will get a bit further. It's turned into another teen-sci-fi story though - I seem to be incapable of writing anything that isn't teen...
However, the reasons for failure have been many:
We've suddenly had every single council in the country (or so it feels) go out to tender, needing the documentation to be back before Christmas - most of them before this coming Monday... So the stress levels are running very high, and the overtime has been piling up.
In September, I started a college course (Introductory Certificate in Supervisory Management), which got off to a dodgy start ("We will be covering the same topics as in the full certificate, but instead of doing it in 35 weeks, we will do it in 10. By the way, I've only ever taught the 35 week course..."), got worse, ("Because no-one understood the basic stuff I went through in 3 hours last week, I'll spend 1 1/2 hours going through it again this week, and only do the first page of this week's topic."), hit a major low point ("Your course tutor has gone off sick permanently."), and then picked up again with a nice new tutor ("You will get an extension on your assignment (which would have been due in next week), but I want to go through the first half with you individually *now*"). Which meant that I've had to spend the last couple of weeks writing up the first half of my assignment!
Also - we still don't have a car (until tomorrow - huzzah!), which has meant that I've lost half an hour every evening (small excuse) because I've had to walk home, rather than have John come and pick me up.
But yay - as mentioned above, we are picking up our replacement for the Punto tomorrow. It's an L Reg Toyota Carina - not the swishest car on the market, but certainly a good buy, according to Yahoo. It has been very well loved, and the current owner is going to give us the contact details of the garage owner who has been looking after it for many years (not sure if since new, but definitely since it has been in this chap's family). After a month without wheels, I've not got used to not having a car - I'm sure that this says a lot about us and our modern lifestyle. Whilst everybody we know has been amazing in giving us lifts, often coming miles out of their way (big thanks to Sarah here) to make sure that we don't miss out, and my day-to-day life hasn't been disrupted *too* badly (I walk/train to work and back - John normally picking me up from the station in the evening), the inability to jump into the car to go somewhere, even just round the corner (10 minutes drive, 30-40 minutes walk) to Sainsbury's to go shopping has been frustrating. I will be glad to be in a car again, even if the thought of getting behind the wheel of a strange car is scaring me whitless! (I wasn't too bad when using the company pool car to go home for my mother's birthday weekend, but I had driven it before, and a Ford Focus isn't hugely different from the Punto)
The other thing that I need to catch up on before I sign off for the evening (it's getting late, and I've got a long day tomorrow!) is cinema reviews. We've been to a lot of films recently, and I've not talked about any of them - slap my wrists!
Daywatch
The sequel to NightWatch, this is an adaption of a series of Russian novels. Confusingly, although the film title sequence follows the titles of the novels, DayWatch is really an amalgamation of the second and third thirds of the NightWatch novel. We saw it in Russian with subtitles, and the subs themselves were as much a work of art as the rest of the film (one particular one that sticks with me is where one character yells "Bitch" at another, whilst throwing a lump of bloody meat at her. The meat hits the tiled wall, and the blood, running down the wall, forms the "Bitch" subtitles.) The story itself is very confusing, even for me, and I had read the book recently! There are a lot of interweaving threads, a lot of characters who aren't properly introduced, and who look similar to each other (we had met some of them in the first film, but that was shown a while ago...), and the ending is just HUH? But all of that pales into insignificance when you see the beauty of the film. Whilst Moscow probably isn't the most gorgeous of cities to have as a backdrop, every scene felt like it was crafted with care. My overall impression of the film, even over a month after watching it is still "Wow!" I'm going to be putting the DVD on my wishlist :-)
Stardust
This is an adaption of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel - and, though it has been a long while (must be three or four years at least) since I read the novel, I felt that it was pretty much faithful to the story. I really enjoyed it - a pop-corn type of film without any really hard thinking needed. It had a star studded cast; Peter O'Toole making a few minute cameo, and Ian McKellan doing a front and end narration! Michelle Pfeiffer played an incredibly convincing witch, Robert De Nero, a fantastically camp pirate, and a slew of British comedians also had roles (David Walliams, Mark Williams (only he could play a goat dressed up as a man...) and even David Brent (though he, as ever, only played David Brent...)). The film hardly had any CGI, which made a nice change, the scenery used was beautiful, and there were some lovely one-liners in it, and one great sword fighting sequence. Definitely worth a look - whilst you might not come away feeling changed or have any philosophical awakenings, you'll have had a great time!
Black Sheep
This was my horror film for the next five years... I don't do gore. I don't do spatter, and I definitely don't do horror. I therefore went to see this New Zealand independant film with a mild feeling of dread and the knowledge that I was going to be hiding behind my fingers for a lot of the time. But, hey, how could I turn down a film about zombie sheep? And when this was the trailer we saw, it had to be worth a look! I was prepared that all of the best bits would have been in the trailer, as is so often the case, but I was so pleasantly suprised! It was a very funny, but definitely *very* gory film. I *did* spent a lot of time hiding behind my fingers (often at points where, I was told, there were cutaways at the final moment), but I spent even more time laughing. Very silly, sick in places, not one for young children, but a brilliant film - I hope that this team do more!
And finally...
Beowulf
This is the much advertised retelling of the Old English tale - man meets beast, man kills beast, beast's mother gets a little upset and comes to complain... I'm not going to give away too much, as this one is still in the cinemas, and I don't want to add any spoilers (particularly where the story has been changed from the original). The technique of the film is interesting - the actors were filmed, and then animated, so the entirety of the film is CGI. Unfortunately, they seem to have been hanging a lot on this technique to sell the film (much is being made of it being seen in 3D, which we weren't able to do), and the technology isn't *quite* there to pull it off (apart from the final action sequence, in which almost all sins are forgiven!) The script was ok (not fantastic, given that Neil Gaiman was writing it), the acting was good (Antony Hopkins played a great King), and there were some lovely bits (the fact that Grendel speaks in Old English - it takes a while to tune the ear to it, and I know that they would have picked the words close enough to English to be understood, but it was still a beautiful touch). However, there just seemed to be something intangible missing. Something that could have turned this from a mediocre film into a brilliant one. I do think that I'll go and revisit the book, though...
And, now that I've written almost as much as I have for the whole of my NaNoWriMo story, I am going to sign off... Hopefully, it won't be another three weeks before I write again!
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Weekend
It's Tuesday already, and the weekend just flew by!
On Saturday, I had my final two BSL Level 2 exams - they actually went rather well (if I don't jynx it by saying so...) We had two modules:
203 - Conversation - taken first, as a warm up for;
202 - Productive - a 3-4 minute story to camera
For both modules, we had already picked a Theme (for me, it was Food and Drink for 203 and Travel and Holidays for 203), and when we went into the practice session, we were given the list of topics from which we could pick one. The conversation with Martin went well-ish - I completely blanked on the sign for 'pudding', which was very stupid! But the story was a dream - I'd already practiced around my Australia backpacking, as it could cover so many different ideas - "the best holiday" "the worst holiday" (obviously different bits!) "why I like backpacking" etc etc - and the topic that I picked was "travelling alone" - absolutely fantastic! I was able to put in most of the ideas that I'd practiced, so I hope that it came across very well.
Just 6 weeks to wait until the results now...
Then, after meeting with Leanne, Claire and Heather in the Greenhouse for a debrief, it was back home for Dr Who "Utopia" and the first episode of Jekyll.
"Utopia" was brilliant - Derek Jacobi was amazing as Professor Yana - the emotion that he could portray without moving a muscle was just fantastic. And, although I knew who he was going to be at the end, I didn't realise who he would regenerate into! That was a complete jaw hitting the table moment! So looking forward to this Saturday now!
And Jekyll - WOW! A few itty bitty plot things that need explaining (the main one being that if you knew that you were having blackouts, and that whilst in that blackout, you were doing things that you couldn't countenance, wouldn't you voluntarily section yourself?). However, I hope that these will be explained later on in the series. James Nesbitt was brilliant as both Tom Jackman and Hyde - and the script was super - all hail Steve Moffatt for a show that had me on the edge of my seat and giggling wickedly at the dark humour.
Sunday, we met up with Sarah and Graham to see Fantastic Four (Karen came to the cinema for a chat, but with two dads to visit, and a family wedding to go to, she was a little busy!) - a very silly popcorn film - not a huge amount of substance to it (although more than the original...), the barest minimum of plot, reasonably wooden characters, and lots of explosions. But it worked, as a 'turn your brain off and relax' film - no real need to think, just let the images flow over you, and stop wondering how much bigger Jessica Alba's lips can get before they explode...
Then, after the afternoon showing of the film, John and I headed to the Hippodrome to see Derren Brown on the last day of his tour. The man is astonishing - even though you know that everything he does is a trick - a verbal and mental illusion, you still can't work out how he does it! (and yes, John and I did talk a few of them through afterwards, and picked out a couple, but tell me how he knew that a woman in the audience, picked at random, lived on a houseboat?)
And finally - my little touch of work - we've offered the position of Sales Administrator, and she starts on 2nd July - can't wait! :-)
On Saturday, I had my final two BSL Level 2 exams - they actually went rather well (if I don't jynx it by saying so...) We had two modules:
203 - Conversation - taken first, as a warm up for;
202 - Productive - a 3-4 minute story to camera
For both modules, we had already picked a Theme (for me, it was Food and Drink for 203 and Travel and Holidays for 203), and when we went into the practice session, we were given the list of topics from which we could pick one. The conversation with Martin went well-ish - I completely blanked on the sign for 'pudding', which was very stupid! But the story was a dream - I'd already practiced around my Australia backpacking, as it could cover so many different ideas - "the best holiday" "the worst holiday" (obviously different bits!) "why I like backpacking" etc etc - and the topic that I picked was "travelling alone" - absolutely fantastic! I was able to put in most of the ideas that I'd practiced, so I hope that it came across very well.
Just 6 weeks to wait until the results now...
Then, after meeting with Leanne, Claire and Heather in the Greenhouse for a debrief, it was back home for Dr Who "Utopia" and the first episode of Jekyll.
"Utopia" was brilliant - Derek Jacobi was amazing as Professor Yana - the emotion that he could portray without moving a muscle was just fantastic. And, although I knew who he was going to be at the end, I didn't realise who he would regenerate into! That was a complete jaw hitting the table moment! So looking forward to this Saturday now!
And Jekyll - WOW! A few itty bitty plot things that need explaining (the main one being that if you knew that you were having blackouts, and that whilst in that blackout, you were doing things that you couldn't countenance, wouldn't you voluntarily section yourself?). However, I hope that these will be explained later on in the series. James Nesbitt was brilliant as both Tom Jackman and Hyde - and the script was super - all hail Steve Moffatt for a show that had me on the edge of my seat and giggling wickedly at the dark humour.
Sunday, we met up with Sarah and Graham to see Fantastic Four (Karen came to the cinema for a chat, but with two dads to visit, and a family wedding to go to, she was a little busy!) - a very silly popcorn film - not a huge amount of substance to it (although more than the original...), the barest minimum of plot, reasonably wooden characters, and lots of explosions. But it worked, as a 'turn your brain off and relax' film - no real need to think, just let the images flow over you, and stop wondering how much bigger Jessica Alba's lips can get before they explode...
Then, after the afternoon showing of the film, John and I headed to the Hippodrome to see Derren Brown on the last day of his tour. The man is astonishing - even though you know that everything he does is a trick - a verbal and mental illusion, you still can't work out how he does it! (and yes, John and I did talk a few of them through afterwards, and picked out a couple, but tell me how he knew that a woman in the audience, picked at random, lived on a houseboat?)
And finally - my little touch of work - we've offered the position of Sales Administrator, and she starts on 2nd July - can't wait! :-)
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