3/29/2004 05:50:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|An uneventful few days. We saw Hundred Reasons play in the week. They put on a good show, and were pretty impressive but they had been booked into a venue far too big for them. There were a few hundred people in a room that could easily have held three or four times that. If it had been in a smaller place, it could have been a really good gig. We also went to see Zatoichi, and it was good fun. Sword fighting action, some gore, a lot of humour, and tap dancing. I am determined to drag Es to the Dawn Of The Dead remake this week. I had my doubts about this whole project, but so far I have heard nothing but good things. Can they have pulled it off? This website has been put together by a Russian girl who rides her motorbike around Chernobyl and takes pictures. It is grimly fascinating. I am blogging to:Explosions In The Sky - Those Who tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever |W|P|108050884498237465|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com3/25/2004 07:03:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Keanu Reeves IS John Constantine. Jesus Christ. Someone is going to pay for this. I am blogging to: the sound of my jaw hitting the floor|W|P|108016589271607560|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com3/24/2004 06:31:00 PM|W|P|dan|W|P|So, Cerebus is dead. I'm going to miss the little grey bastard. Reading Cerebus has been a part of my life for 14 years. When I started university Cerebus was sitting catatonic outside a cafe. When I graduated he was about to start his fight with Cirin. When I started working properly he was stuck on Pluto. When I met Esther he was on a barge with Jaka and F Scott Fitzgerald. When we got married he was founding a new religion. But as of last week, I am never going to hold a new issue in my hands again. It's a strange feeling. It's easy to focus on all the controversy attached to the book for the last six or seven years and try to dismiss it, but I think Cerebus (the book, not the character) is simply the best comic book narrative ever published. The technical skill and storytelling ability evident in the work is beyond compare. The achievement of taking 26 years to tell your story, all the while retaining sole creative (and business) control is frankly flabbergasting. Thanks Dave. If all that meant nothing to you, this is as good a place to start as any. I am blogging to: The Beta Band. I don't know why either. |W|P|108012148149604913|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com3/21/2004 01:28:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Hong Kong then. We arrived in the early evening, and got to ride the bus in from the airport as it was getting dark. Probably the best time to enter, as we got to see the full effect of the neon overload that is Hong Kong Island. Tall structures jammed in next to each other, all glowing with different colours and signs. Very like Blade Runner, even down to the giant TV screens on the side of buildings. The whole time we were on the island I think we saw maybe one building less than about 30 stories tall. Once we reached the hotel, the jetlag kicked in and we crashed out pretty much right away, only to find ourselves awake at 3am for a late night Pocky eating session. The next day we dove into the skyscraper maze of the Causeway Bay and Central areas. Busy. HK is definitely a very business orientated place, even if it is now supposed to be under the aegis of the godless commies in Beijing. Lots of financial institutions with people from all over the world working there, and lots of expensive malls and coffee shops for them to spend their ill gotten gains in. At least the park in Kowloon has "Kung Fu Corner", where we got to see some cool Chinese dragons and puppetry (but sadly, no actual violence). After a couple of days of that kind of frantic behaviour we needed to get out, so we took the ferry to Lantau island, and then the bus to the Po Lin monastery. This place is famous for it's statue of Buddha on a hill. The statue is bronze and about 35 feet high - it can be seen from miles away. He even has an authentic swastika on his chest. The monks gave us some vegetarian food as well. In general, we found eating to be OK. Someone had warned us that as veggies we would probably be stuck with pizza places, but we found a couple of decent places in our guidebook. Of which by far the most...interesting was "Vegetarian Court" in Wan Chai. The address given in the guidebook turned out to be a featureless frontage, with no signage or clue to what was inside. We shrugged our shoulders and stepped in, took the lift to the second floor. The doors opened on what was clearly a restaurant, so at least we'd succeeded that far. The waitress looked very surprised to see us, and we soon worked out none of us could understand the others language. Magical. We took our seats and pointed at a few random lines in the (Cantonese) menu and realised as we waited for our food to arrive that we were the only non-Chinese people in there . I think we were actually the first non-Chinese people to be there in a while, as a lot of people seemed to be interested in us - the cook kept coming out of the kitchen to peer at us when he thought we weren't looking. Good night. Good trip. Some of our photos are here. If the link doesn't work please say so in the comment box, and I will try to move the pictures to a different hosting service, as I am pretty sceptical about this one I've got now. Right, tomorrow, it's time to talk about Cerebus 300. Sob. I am blogging to:Stiff Little Fingers|W|P|107980193425138982|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com3/09/2004 05:41:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Wow. You remember all those mash up records that were popular a while ago? I just heard one that Amon Tobin has done, where he has put an evil Amen break under Slayer's Angel Of Death. Go listen to it, it will make your ears bleed. I am blogging to:the constant ringing in my ears after that record.|W|P|107877868909901343|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com3/06/2004 07:04:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Oh, and I hate Southampton. I am blogging to:Metallica|W|P|107852434657126040|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com3/06/2004 06:20:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|We went to see Infernal Affairs last night with our friend Tain. It was very good, very tense. Go and see it. Less than week till Hong Kong now, and I am getting very excited. |W|P|107852218269612106|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com