Some days you get 5 hours sleep and feel fine.
Other days, not so much.
(Or to put it another way, “Give me back my hour, you bastard farmers.” - though having a cold hasn’t helped with the sleeping portion of the nights. I’m going to sleep.)
I had one of my trademark horrendous colds this weekend, the kind that involve feeling like I’ve been kicked in the face, from the inside out. But on the other hand, there’s that one glorious moment to look forward to each morning when I sneeze and all sorts of yellow rcrap comes out and I know that I’m on the mend. Plus I got the day off work because I was having a slight case of difficulty focussing on the screen without severe head pain, but that’s gone now.
None of this was helped by the traffic we encountered yesterday on the way home. Usually, it takes us plenty under 90 minutes to get from door to door, Warwick to Ealing. Yesterday, Damian and I left Josh’s at 5:45, picked up Nikki, and then didn’t get here until gone 9. Something very horrible had clearly happened (and I’m not talking about the strange disappearance of one hour this weekend) and it meant that in order to get back, we had to first wait in traffic for a few hours, and then try a diversion of our own making through Wycombe, which naturally every other Tom, Dick and Harry with a road atlas and a chimp-like sense of reasoning had decided upon.
My point is, that I would very much like to complain to the management. I’m not entirely sure who that would be, but I’m leaning heavily upon directing the complaints to whichever swedish hauling contractor flipped his juggernaut across 3 lanes of traffic after falling asleep at his filthy right-hand drive, since I’m relatively certain that’s the kind of thing that was going on. 3 hours to drive home is far beyond the limits of my charity. I hope they’re dead, because if not, I’ll kill them.
Previous to this, I had been at Dad’s for lunch, and then on Saturday Damian, Josh and I drove down to Memorabilia at the NEC (Where Josh bought a replica sword, Damian bought a Genshiken figure, and I bought the Robot Chicken DVD) then to the Stonebridge toby carvery, and then to Leamington where we roamed around the new development, which is trés trendy. It feels like they’ve placed a slice of Covent Garden actually /in/ Leamington. We went for drinks at the well, which was surprisingly deserted and full of people wearing shirts. Most surprising. We played on the quiz machine and won about £4 in total, but at the overall expense of £5.
I’m not so bothered about that quid, because this month I got all my taxes back after finally being shuffled onto the right administrative code. Whatever the hell they mean. This meant a paycheck fattened with over £1000 of ripe monies and a healthy bid goodbye to the overdraft, though I’ll hang onto it just in case, for now. I also paid off all those tickets on my credit card.
Today, when I was feeling up to typing, I also did some more comics reviews for Noise to Signal.
Google Page creator is amusing:
http://jrhunt.googlepages.com/
I’ve also subscribed to Windows Live Mail (the update of Hotmail.) My advice to anyone trying to get into that program is “don’t bother,” because it’s already crippled my functionality and looks like ass. I mean, that’s not just opinion, it actually is inately shit. Good job I don’t use my hotmail account properly, really, else I’d have become very annoyed with it by now. Even logging in for a short time is painful.
It took me quite literally 6 hours of refreshing the order pages, but getting this confirmation makes it all worth it. Though in my haste I accidently paid on debit instead of credit, because I know my debit details without the card and typed them in without thinking. Ah well. Salary gets paid in soon., so it’s not like there’s any real budgetry damage done.
Date Venue Qty Each Total
19th May 2006 Hammersmith Apollo London (General admission standing) 2 £ 32.50 £ 65.00
Total Ticket Cost £ 65.00
Handling Charge £ 6.50
Shipping £ 4.00
Order Total £ 75.50
Just because I’m trying to make sure I keep updating, no matter how little I have to say, especially while I’m trying to organise a scan of that incredibly interesting questionnaire they gave us at V for Vendetta.
Josh and I spent some time exploring XBox Live on his 360. It’s fucking great. We beat the crap out of some guy on DOA, and then had the crap kicked out of us by vastly superior players. It’s the circle of life. Between DOA4 and XBox Live I’m almost tempted to buy my own, but I believe I can hold out at least until we move house. I’m attempting to wait for the Revolution, but since it’s not even got an announced release date I might just go for the 360.
Nikki and Josh are both currently ill. Is it wrong to hope for my own illness, so that I can take a free day off work? I’m trying not to use any holiday until Easter, but by god it’s testing my patience. Around Easter there’ll be like a day off every 2 weeks because of all the bank holidays, or some crap. At the moment I’ve got 23 holiday days left for the year though I’m thinking of taking a day off to hang around attempting to buy Reading tickets, if the lineup’s any good. I’d do that for Radiohead tickets if they weren’t going on general sale on a Saturday. The chance for Radiohead tickets is quite slim, but if anyone’s had experience camping ticket websites, it’s me, so there’s as good a chance as we’re getting, I suppose…
Also, Seb and I put up more comics reviews this weekend. Read them, despite your disinterest!
Whenever Hollywood gets hold of a decent concept, there’s plenty of scope for them to fuck it up something awful. Such is the case with a good portion of comic adaptations. (On a side note, when Hollywood gets hold of a shitty concept, there’s even more scope to produce something so terrible you’d rather gouge out your eyes than watch it. For instance, anything based on a game and directed by Uwe Boll) So whenever someone announces the movie of the comic, you can pretty much hold your breath and brace yourself for a terrible film. Three films based on Alan Moore’s concepts/characters are prime examples of this. The original work is pure unashamed genius. The films, Constantine, From Hell, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, are nothing less than a complete affront to all that is good and holy.
Imagine, then, my utter surprise, when V for Vendetta turned out to be one hell of a good film. Not just “good” good, it’s quite likely to be “best film I’ll see this year” good. They’ve changed a good chunk of stuff from the comic, but most of that is about thematically updating things or structurally augmenting it for film. Hugo Weaving puts in a great performance as V, and it works incredibly well, especially since you don’t see his face for the whole film. It’s fucking oscar-worthy. Natalie Portman plays a good Evey in all ways except that ear-shredding accent of hers. Eliza Doolittle watch out. Stephen Fry, John Hurt, basically every actor is giving it their all for every scene, and it’s hard to find fault with any of them. If someone had told me that the film version of V would have the Benny Hill theme in AND that I’d find it hilarious and appropriate, I would probably have sold them out to the government immediately, and yet it does turn out to be hilarious (and simultaneously nauseating, because you know what’s going to happen afterwards…)
I can understand when Alan Moore didn’t like it. I can understand why some fans of the comic will find it a terrible travesty. The pure fact, though, is that if you judge it alone without comparing it to the comic, it’s a slice of genius. It’s a rare situation where the source and derivative works can be surprisingly different but good in their own ways. Unlike THHGTTG which, taken as a film, was a horrible pile of crap. But I always say I’m not going to bash the WORST FILM OF 2005 again. V leaves me with the same kind of feeling that Fight Club left me with at the end. It distills within you the desire to rebel against something and go down in flames, though unfortunately as a middle class white male I am the establishment and as such, any rebelling is likely to be either against myself or highly ignored by everyone else. Though maybe I’ll buy myself a can of spraypaint just in case the chance comes up to use the V symbol. This film has taught me that Grafitti = freedom. The scene where Parliament explodes nearly moved me to tears, that’s the level of awesomeness we’re dealing with, and I’ll be happy to explain to anyone who doesn’t like it why they’re mathematically wrong to hate this film.
(As films of the comics go, it’s up there with Sin City and the Spider-Man films as being enjoyable while retaining the spirit of the original, if not necessarily staying entirely faithful)
We went to see V at the VUE near Park Royal, and as we walked in to the screen, they gave us a bunch of focus-group questionnaires which I found highly amusing, and that I’ll be writing more about tomorrow. Today we went for a Carvery lunch at the New Inn, played some DOA3, and then Josh had downloaded the Sims 2 so I’ve been torturing my own creations in that. Is there no simpler joy than moving a family into a house, deleting the door, and watching the descent begin? I think not.
One thing I didn’t mention was that on Wednesday, Nikki and I went to the Placebo instore at Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street. I’d never been to an instore this one, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I did think the sound quality would be shite, since most people have said that’s the case, but for this one it was actually really good. I had ear plugs just in case I was in danger of some traditional ear-bleeding, but they were wholly unecessary.
The setlist was almost entirely new material (Meds, Infra Red, Drag, Because I Want You, One of a Kind, Song to Say Goodbye, and as an encore, Running up that hill) and as expected, the stuff off the new album does improve being played live. It’s only recently I’ve had that experience, for years I vastly preferred the cd versions of music to seeing it live, but I think between this album and the last ben folds album coming to life when I’ve seen them at a gig, I might be moving in the opposite direction. Still, the best song was easily “Running up that hill.”
After they played their set we queued for like an hour to get our CDs signed. That in itself was nothing special, but it was cool enough to get up close to the band like that. It’s incredibly unlikely that I’ll even get to see them in a venue that small again, let alone get close enough to rip out a chunk of hair (if I were so inclined). They didn’t have the same effect on me that Simon Pegg did, though, so I like to think I’m still cool.
Check it out:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6886
I can’t be the only person who thought Gargoyles rocked multiple Casbahs. It’s criminal that I don’t already own the DVDs, but to be fair, I already pirated the series before they were available (and forced Ian to watch the entire thing with me when we were at Uni.)
It’s also incredibly rare for me to get excited about a licensed comic (especially after Dreamwave’s Transformers burned me so badly with its wonderful art and terrible story) but because this is the CREATOR who’s writing it, I can’t help but feel cautiously optimistic. Considering that Sonny Liew, who did Malinky Robot, is involved with the new Wonderland comic, and Roman Dirge has had a hand in the Haunted Mansion series, I can’t help feeling that the SLG/Disney alliance is working out incredibly well. Only the Tron comic remains to be seen. If they can somehow make that concept work in these tech-savvy times, then it’ll be a perfect set. Licensed comics that are GOOD? I never thought I’d see the day. Almost makes me wonder about the Galactica comics that’re coming out…
Working in London has finally paid off. This morning before work Ian and I went up to Virgin on Oxford Street to get the new Placebo album, and with it, two coveted in-store wristbands for Wednesday evening (Ian was there to get one for Nikki). Though, I’m kind of worried about the quality of fan that I’m likely to be rubbing shoulders with. The kind of weirdo who’s going to buy the £20 special edition of the album just because he’s a rabid fanboy. Ahem.
In other news, did someone say comics reviews? I think so. Y’know, for the three of you that are interested. Can’t hurt the google indexing either ;-)
Last night I decided to throw in the towel on Friday and went to bed at half 1, though I’d already been asleep for about an hour before that. I don’t like going to bed earlier than 3am on Fridays because when you’re stuck in a job it’s one of only two nights where you get to stay up late, and instead I went to bed EARLIER than most work nights. What a tragedy. It does mean I’m actually awake before half 11 today, though, so I guess the time can be made up.
Consequently, I spend most of today writing the comics reviews for Noise To Signal that I had intended to do yesterday. I’m hoping to update with this at least once a week, and I figure scheduling it for Saturday means I’ll usually get Thursday and Friday to do the work as well. Plus it avoids the all-important reading of Paul O’Brien’s X-Axis reviews, which are so accurate as to subvert any opinion you might have. He’s so often correct in every way, that I’m secretly very proud when I get a grade the same as him because I know the analysis I did must’ve been correct.
Garry’s been away on holiday at work recently, which has vastly changed the dynamic at work. Dipesh and I spend all day screaming about how things are screwed and we’re going to break the site horribly, and how it’s all running smooth until Garry leaves then we look incompetant. Luckily, a lot of people see quite pleased with my Last Minute Holidays category, so that’s the past month’s worth of work justified at least. It’s not perfect yet, but being the enterprising young fellow I am, I’m attempting to sort out the small issues that remain.
On Friday night after work, Nikki and I went to Smollensky’s for dinner, because they’re doing Steak at 1980s prices! Which, apparantly, were about the same as now. I dunno, actually, maybe it was a couple of quid cheaper. The place has a really nice atmosphere, probably because there’s a 6 inch gap under the door that lets the breeze in. Makes a change from Nandos, that’s for sure. I had this bread roll with it that was fucking great, too. I really appreciate a decent bit of bread with a meal because it seems disproportionately difficult to get any most of the time. Even chip shops will look at you like you’re insane for asking if they do it. Maybe it’s because I’m a “northerner”.
And, speaking of crazy Northerners, call me a radical thinker, but why not just TURN OFF THE IGNITION? I’ll tell you why, he probably hotwired the fucking thing, that’s why. I wish this news story was uncommon, but reading the Metro on the way to work has opened my eyes to a whole new level of idiots. One day I’ll have to bring home a particularly stupid issue and we can go through the horror together, online.
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