I forgot to add that we had a General Election yesterday. Of course, me and The Missus exercised our constitutional right and voted. The right man still won, but this time around, with a reduced majority, we have a slightly more democratic House of Parliament. What gets me is when the other political leaders say: “We wouldn’t have gone to war” it makes me laugh, because the decision isn’t taken by the Prime Minister. The intelligence services have a lot to do with it and the thought of little Charlie Kennedy looking all blank-eyed, like a ginger puppy in human form, as the case for war in Iraq is presented to him makes me snigger. Blair’s back…and this time it’s personal!
What I love about the UK is we don’t take any of this political stuff seriously. The biggest tabloid daily newspaper is The Sun and to illustrate the political fight, they published the following picture and a slideshow illustrating the political battle, with each lady representing one the political parties (the one in blue panties is Conservative, the one in the red panties is Labour). Who’s the best? There’s only one way to find out! FIGHT!
Latest Entries »
Nervous. Exciting things are afoot. VDGG reunion concert tonight among other things. Feel all shakey inside.
In the post: VDGG – Present
A great co-incidence that this arrives today. I have a press copy from months ago, but this is my official bona-fide copy. Spinning it again in order to get juiced up for the gig tonight. 🙂
The Apprentice ended its run last night and it was a very entertaining end to an equally entertaining series. The right man won it in the shape of unassuming Tim, but bigmouth Saira came up quids in too, she’s been offered a job with old craggy-faced Sugar too. I must admit, I kinda warmed to Saira. Her loud-mouted incompetence was hilarious and she is the female David Brent – the right two people ended up in the final. Congrats to all who took part and I look forward to the next series. My favourite, Paul, didn’t win, but appeared on the follow-up show “You’re Hired” dressed all in black. I remarked to The Missus that he should audition as a new Dr Who villain!
In the post, the new digital camera. I am off snapping random objects around the house. Look out Alex and Speckle – I’m gonna shove this thing in your face and snap away like a cheap papparazi. 🙂
I still can’t get a grip on this schizophrenic weather. One minute it is hot and my scalp gets sunburnt, the next it is freezing cold and I am wrapped up in my wooly jumper. I hope that this summer is better than the wash-out that was 2004. Fingers crossed, eh?
Ouch! My bald pate is sunburnt. It’s sore, it’s sore.
Today, got to get all my work done. Got to get it all done before deadline. Went mad and ordered a new digital camera on condition that I can flog my old one for £150 on eBay. I am constantly amazed how electronic equipment is constantly getting better. My old camera was the best of its class in 2002, but now three years later, I’ve bought a better one for a fraction of the price. Amazing.
Getting excited about the VDGG concert at the end of the week, though I won’t be listening to any VDGG music until the day of the gig, just to get me whipped up to fever pitch. 2005 is a great year for gigs so far.
More Sows’ Ears have been produced and are ready to be sent off to the US of A. Got paid for digital playbacks today. My goodness, the digital payment is pure profit and I am astounded that people are willing to buy music from a no good bum who’s never played a gig in his life. If only I was a proper musician, I might make some more money. 🙂
Was taken out in the car to visit a retail park, looking for a DTT Freeview box to replace our knackered Sky+ setup. Out of three shops, none of them had the one I wanted in stock – nor did they have any boxes with hard drives to store TV shows. Should have ordered one online, but I wanted to have a mooch in a shop. Sometimes some old fashioned shlepping around the shops is good for the soul, no?
On the way back, we stopped at the pub and had a couple of pints and a bite to eat. I was concerned that the man with the mobile phone would be there, ready to harrass us, but he wasn’t. After an afternoon in the sun, I got a big fat red face for my sins and a couple of quid lighter. On the way out of the pub who should be standing by the car park resplendant with a pint in one hand and his mobile phone in the other (clamped to his ear and engaged in conversation) than our old friend Mr Mobile Phone Big Mouth Man. People never change, eh?
Oh well, I sold out of Sows’ Ears again. 🙂 So the morning was spent making some fresh copies to go over to CDBABY. It’s a popular number and I’ve shifted a bucketload. I guess folks love quantity over quality everytime! So popular is the 4-CD set that I am thinking of just releasing another 4-CD compilation and dispensing with separate releases. This means that Without Words/Textures/I am Not Your Enemy/Fragments could all end up in a big boxset. It’s something I’m considering as it means my music gets out there with the minimum of fuss.
On a separate note, Dr Who was very good fun last night. It was very good fun indeed. 🙂
What can I say? When I was about ten years old, I was first exposed to the works of Douglas Adams. First it was via the TV shows, then the books and eventually the radio plays – so I kind of did it arse about face. During a run of the TV shows, I contracted chicken-pox and suffered for a fortnight, but that programme got me through and I loved how so knowingly clever it all was. Hitch-Hikers, like Dr Who, was a thing that I loved in my childhood, but both are having a resurrection, so at the moment, I am feeling a little bit like and eleven year old again. It’s bloody brilliant!
Back to the movie. There’s been a lot written by the “fans” about this film and most of it has been bad. This is a shame, because I thoroughly enjoyed this new version of the classic. Firstly, I wasn’t expecting a complete conversion of the book, I wanted something NEW and FRESH and that’s what I got. Not a crusty adaptation of a 30 year old book where the everyman Englishman was ever-so middle-class and had a tea fetish. I could never identify with the old Arthur Dent because he was so far removed from my experience, but I like the new Arthur Dent played by Martin Freeman who sums up his modernity towards the end of the film when he says: “I could murder a cuppa”. Too right, Arthur. 🙂
Anyway, the film radically departs from the book, leaving a lot of the oh-so clever, self-reverential words behind and instead taking a more filmatic journey through the HH universe. I think the fans that complained about this film wanted large chunks of the text projected onto the screen so they could read and giggle along – alas, movies do not work like that. They are a visual medium (no shit, Einstein). The story cracks on at a frightening pace and it is not long before we are into the action. It certainly was the fastest 109 minutes I’ve spent in a cinema. The special FX are absolutely excellent and I absolutely adore the new Marvin robot, voiced by Alan Rickman. All the cast work well with Sam Rockwell nailing it as the shallow, vain and frankly stupid Zaphod Beeblebrox. Some of the new ideas, like the point-of-view gun are inspired and I liked it how the white mice are more malevolent in this version of the story.
When the opening banjo plucks of “Journey of the Magi” began to play, all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It was fantastic. Granted, some of my favourite passages weren’t included, but it doesn’t matter. This is a new film aimed at an audience who hasn’t read the books. My only major gripe was that there wasn’t enough from the Guide itself, voiced by the superb Stephen Fry. I thought Mos Def did a great job as a spaced-out Ford and Zooey Deschanel made a very attractive Trillian. A lot as been made of the “romantic” thread in the film, but I thought it was OK. If you are the last two humans left alive after the destruction of Earth, it’s only natural that you might want to “get it on”. Am I right or am I right? 😉 Bill Nighy makes a great Slartibartfast and the journey through the planet workshop on Magreathea is the film’s money shot. I really liked that bit and the bit when they activated Earth Mk II. Fantastic!
This film was made for the next generation of fans-to-be and luckily, we had some ten year olds sitting in the row in front of us. It was cool because I was that age when I first got introduced to this work. The kids laughed at the jokes, loved the whale and let our a roar when the mice shouted “Bollocks!” and got squished. As the curtain came down, they looked like they enjoyed the film and I was left hopeful that they would investigate the source. The only people complaining were the fat, flabby-arsed, unattractive anoraks we heard outside moaning about the fact that not enough money was spent on Zaphod’s second head. For fuck’s sake, get a life. It’s a movie. It either entertained you or it didn’t.
I was entertained. For my money, I got 109 minutes of entertainment. OK – it’s not wet-your-pants funny, but then HH wasn’t like that for me. It’s more a wry smile “that’s very clever” kind-of-funny. When it finished, there was a final, very quick, shot of Douglas Adams’ face zooming off the screen and my eyes went a little moist. It was my love of Douglas Adams and Harry Harrison that made me start writing sci-fi stories when I was a nipper and caused me to vow that I wanted to be a writer. I liked this film a lot and it saddens me to think that a lot of fans who’s minds are stuck in 1977 or 1981 won’t realise that this movie wasn’t actually made for them.
I loved it and can’t wait to own it on DVD. Please, I hope that enough people see this film so that the DisneyCorpTM decides to make “Restaurant at the End of the Universe”.