4/16/2005 06:18:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth has a new book coming out. How much do I want this? |W|P|111359994743032138|W|P|it's like they read my mind|W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/16/2005 03:34:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|I have been off work this past week. Just a week's holiday that I had to use before the end of April. Es has been working however, so apart from from our day in Bath, I've been hanging around the flat. Playing computer games (still Resident Evil 4, but also dipping my toes into Doom 3), reading a lot of books and comics, and watching a lot of movies in my own private film festival. Highlights so far have included Battle Royale. Yeah, I know, it's 2005 and I've only just got round to watching this. I enjoyed it, it was good, but you knew that already. I also really liked Warriors Of Heaven And Earth. I think it got overlooked in the rush to fawn over Hero and House Of Flying Daggers, but it is definitely worth watching. It's basically a Western set in 7th century China, with the good guys protecting innocents from bandit raids and mostly getting slaughtered for their trouble. Not much in the way of martial arts, but plenty of good honest swordfighting, some spectacular desert locations, and a touch of Raiders Of The Lost Ark style mysticism. Also falling before my DVD player have been A Chinese Ghost Story (still ace, after half remembered viewings on late night Channel 4 at the back end of the 80s), Russian Ark (undeniably pretty and technically brilliant, but just a wee bit dull), and Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon (HK cops and robbers action, funny in a I-can't-believe-I-just-laughed-at-that way). Going to start ploughing through my Herzog-Kinski box set this weekend... I am blogging to: The Arcade Fire|W|P|111359125160857710|W|P|the week of living idly|W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/14/2005 04:28:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|A few weeks with no update. Not because I've been fantastically busy, more like splendidly lazy. A few weekends ago, I went up to Nottingham for the Page 45 10th anniversary birthday party. Page 45 is far and away the best comics shop I know, and Mark and Stephen deserve huge kudos for their unflagging support of independent and self published comics (superheroes do get the odd look in too). It's a comic shop you wouldn't be embarrassed to take your girlfriend to, and if that sounds like faint praise, just think of all the others you've been in over the years. So a drunken Saturday night was spent in Nottingham, in the company of some other comics fans, but most pertinently my good friends Rich and Marcus and Marcus' wife Vanessa. Fun for all, apart from poor Esther who was woken up at 1.00am by a drunken fool of a husband, because....well for no good reason at all really. We went to Bristol on Sunday just gone, to see Idlewild. It was a good energetic show, and miles better than the Doves gig we went to about a month ago and that I never blogged at the time (quickly: good start, good finish, acres of grey porridge in the middle). Interesting long instrumental jam at the end of the set, where they were moving into Crazy Horse territory, and a fun Ramones cover (I Wanna Be Sedated) in the encore. Not bad for a band whose latest album is so "adult contemporary" it sounds like someone from the record company phoned them up and said "listen lads, REM are a bit shite these days. Do a load of songs that sound like they used to and you'll cash in big". Yesterday we were both off work, so went to Bath for the day (Bristol, Bath, Nottingham - it's all pretty glamorous and globetrotting round here, eh?). I liked it - lots of interesting little shops set in smashing architecture, and a refreshing change from the giant corporate sports bar that is Cardiff. It's undeniably staid - a bit like Brighton's grown up and more sensible big brother. We visited the Roman baths, which was kind of unavoidable given my background, but still (I think) enjoyable for Esther. The baths site was at the time being invaded by the combined forces of every school trip currently in the field in Western Europe, but you know, when they're kids it's easier to push them out of the way. And the French ones are used to surrendering anyway (sorry Berengere). We had a good lunch in a small veggie friendly restaurant, with an amazingly talkative owner. By the end of the meal, we knew how tall his kids were (gigantic, apparently) and when his next dentist's apppointment was (that afternoon. I hope it didn't hurt too much). We also found Secession Books, a smashing little independent bookshop. In an age where most independent bookshops either seem to be poor copies of the chains, sacrificing the charm and strengths of a good independent in attempting to match something they will never be able to, or closing, it was so good to find a shop with an admittedly smallish but evidently carefully picked range, with handwritten reviews bigging up everything from Kathy Acker to Japanese death poems. I flashed back to Acker's Blood And Guts In High School that same night, while watching Battle Royale as part of my week long unofficial film festival. But that's an entry for another day. Maybe tomorrow... I am blogging to:Masters Of Reality|W|P|111342380247603777|W|P|lots of words in here|W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/02/2005 02:36:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Watched a couple of films recently of note... Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter...And Spring is a Korean film about a Buddhist temple in the middle of a lake. Not a lot happens, but it doesn't happen in a really beautiful way. Hardly any dialogue, and only about half a dozen different characters in the whole film, but very calming and thought provoking. And Love Me If You Dare was a faintly silly French film, which was redeemed by some gorgeous photography and visual tricks. I am still unsure of exactly what happens at the end. Other than that my days have been spent playing Resident Evil 4. Oh yes. You can have all your arty foreign films, but nothing beats the satisfaction of a few well-aimed headshots into a crowd of angry middle European villagers armed with torches and pitchforks...until you get your head chainsawed off. I am blogging to: The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good, which I hadn't been able to listen to for ages because my record player was knackered, but which I am now enjoying thanks to my shiny new Project III deck.... |W|P|111237746964241618|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com