Posted: Wed 25 December, 2002 Filed under: General Leave a comment »
Merry feckin’ Christmas
YAY! It’s over! (Well OK, it’s here, rather than over, but for purposes of me, it’s over *Grin*) And I must remember to put Neurofen on the shopping list for next time this bastard season comes round. No hangover, but my head’s bouncing all the same. As an ancient sage once said “My head feels like there’s a rave going on inside it”.
Anyway, have a good time, or whatever, and I’ll write more tomorrow most likely.
Now, where did I put that vodka?
Posted: Tue 24 December, 2002 Filed under: General Leave a comment »
I sympathise
Nice ot see it’s not just me who hates the season for various reasons. Mike’s having one of those days too.
Posted: Mon 23 December, 2002 Filed under: General Leave a comment »
The d4d 2003 awards – launched
Yes, I’ve launched the page – it’s available if you click here to see the initial list of potential awards. Enjoy. I hope the project will become fun – there’s some major potential winners for next year already with the houses in Middlesbrough.
Posted: Mon 23 December, 2002 Filed under: General Leave a comment »
The festering season comes towards a close
Ah, the joys of postal services. Firstly, Ma’n’Pa sent me a pressie – Rick Stein’s Food Heroes (I saw it when I was there, and went for the unsubtle approach) so I spent some of the morning drooling over recipes in there. (Sad, but true) Then got a courier knocking on the door to take back one of the orders that the book club had utterly keffed the other day. So that’s another problem out the way.
Of course, then there was the small matter of helping a friend with Christmas shopping. In Asda. What a joy.
Actually, I was good – I hardly called anyone retarded, and there were only a couple of muttered “For Fuck’s Sake” type comments. Well, except for the chimp who tried to run me over in the car park. Not often I can start an argument before I even get into the store. Although he was a cunt – driving the wrong way up one of the carpark lanes, and not even indicating that’s what he was going to do.
Still, other than that minor incident, I was good. Honest.
Posted: Mon 23 December, 2002 Filed under: General Leave a comment »
New bits
Just a quick set of updates to be going on with.
There’s a page of my mooses along with pictures. Additionally, the photos from the night-tour of the decorated houses of the north-east – be afraid, it’s pretty scary. And I thought the North West was bad….
There’s also a new page in the thoughts section about how 2002 has been for me and d4d. And I’m sure there’ll be more added during the day…
Posted: Sun 22 December, 2002 Filed under: General Leave a comment »
Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers
And it did carry it off. For the huge majority of the film it just raced past (the occasional muttered “OH, for fuck’s sake”, but then I’ve never been much for love scenes, it brings out the 10 year old in me and makes me want to retch.) with little complaint. Yes, so I’m a geek, and Green Fairy will hate me for it, but there we go. I loved the book(s), so I was always going to go and see the film. I even try and accept that of course the film will be different to the books, and go with the flow. So all in all, I enjoyed the film. Sméagol/Gollum is stunning – beautifully rendered, and as somone else said “George Lucas should be shown it to see how CGI characters can interact with human ones“. Is it, as someone else said, possible to nominate a CGI character for an Oscar? I don’t know, but with the appearance of creations like Dobby from Harry Potter and Sméagol/Gollum, I can see that the Film Academy might have to consider a new award in the not-so-far future.
But I don’t feel I can simply rave about the film. (Here come those plot/ending comments,folks) The final twenty minutes left me coming out of the cinema wanting to kick dogs, spit in small childrens faces, and generally utterly pissed off. I don’t know the timing, but the final “Frodo, we must go on because even with all this evil and blackness in the world, there’s still some good out there worth fighting for” speech had every possible ring of the much clichéd “Post 9/11” sentimentality. I freely admit, I need to re-read the book in order to know for sure whether my sphincter has gained teeth and a tongue or not, but I don’t recall a speech like that in the book. It felt tacked on, as though a test audience had objected to the film not really ending (a sentiment echoed by many in the first film, my brother’s “I spent three hours of my life and it doesn’t even fucking end” being pretty indicative) and needed a happy clappy ending to this one. Frankly, I loathed the ending – it sucked the arse out of the entire film for me, and began to be more like an episode of the A-team, Mask or Knight Rider where there was always some kind of moral or message at the end.
If the looks between Frodo and Sam had been any more laced with innuendo and lust, I think the film would have got an 18 certificate, and only been available in (ahem) “certain” stores. I haven’t seen as much homoerotic innuendo since I watched a Jean Claude van Damme film last. (Admittedly, quite a while ago) I’m not convinced that Gimli (the dwarf played by a six-foot two man) should be as played for laughs as it was – in something like Lord of the Rings- actually I’m not really convinced by the need for comedy relief characters at all. Sméagol had the same problem in some places – I did expect him to suddenly transmogrify into Dobby, or even Yoda. Perhaps some of this feeling was induced by the audience reaction – I’d need to see it again before being able properly to comment on that – but laughing at Gollum’s antics was odd – within the book (and I tried, oh I tried to not compare the two) Gollum is a truly vile creature, one to be scared of rather than amused by.
So, all in all, a film I enjoyed – and will definitely go and see again (only this time in a cinema where my arse doesn’t go numb after 60 minutes) – but if I can, I’ll leave after the battle for Helm’s Deep, so that children and dogs are safe for another day.
Posted: Sat 21 December, 2002 Filed under: General Leave a comment »
Bobble-hatted trivia
Found via Slashdot, Forbes magaine is 85 years old, and they’ve done a list of 85 most life-altering inventions which makes for good reading, and brilliant for the trivia-obsessed among us. The actual timeline is here, if you want to go straight there rather than thrugh the initial piece as well.