Meets and Pirates
I've been into London twice this week. On tuesday I took the train to Paddington to meet up with some people from the XTC forum. This is the first time I've done so outside of an X-sTatiC gig, and they were keen to ask for more details as to why we'd split up, and whether we could be tempted to reunite for The Gathering in 2007. Which I think is unlikely; the pressure to put together a set of XTC material was always intense, and it took major chunks out of our lives which proved too much of a burden for those members with family commitments. And we'd surely never be able to top The Gathering 2005, which was why we decided to make it our swansong.
I'd never appeared on the forum before the final gig, which meant we had an obsessive audience who I didn't know but who all knew the music and who all knew me. It's as close to real celebrity as I've ever come, and confirmed what I knew already; that I'm not cut out for it. But I did meet a lot of lovely people, and now the band's over it's nice to be able to talk to them normally.
Yesterday I was back in London for the Afpmeet. Which managed to go through three pubs - none of them the one we agreed to meet in - along with a nice indian restaurant. And we discussed the idea that Aquarion needs to be kidnapped from his place of work, ideally by the Milde twins in black suits. And Aquarion as an official Culture Nazi, with a Radio 4 logo instead of a swastika. And the idea of Cricket: The Opera was suggested. You can't properly appreciate opera unless you don't understand it, so what better subject than cricket? Yep, it was another all-round good evening.
And this morning I went to see Pirates of the Carribbean 2. NO SPOILERS:
I watched PotC 1 again, and it gets more apparent with every viewing how much of a formula movie it is. I mean, it even has two comedy relief duos, the two bumbling guards and the two pirates. Disney clearly intended Depp to be the dashing, romantic type of pirate hero; what they got was an amoral and somewhat mad rogue who was funnier by far than his supposed comic relief. He was so far outside the formula that I actually didn't notice it was a formula.
PotC2 also begins with an ominous scenesetter before allowing Depp to make a spectacular entrance. But right from the start it's a much darker affair, and a lot more convoluted, bringing the characters and their goals into conflict not just with eachother, but internally. But because it's also a summer blockbuster there's plenty of comedy and big set pieces, including one of the most outrageous swordfights on precarious buildings ever. And tentacles.
Overall, a better film than the first. And with elements left nicely unresolved for the third.
I'd never appeared on the forum before the final gig, which meant we had an obsessive audience who I didn't know but who all knew the music and who all knew me. It's as close to real celebrity as I've ever come, and confirmed what I knew already; that I'm not cut out for it. But I did meet a lot of lovely people, and now the band's over it's nice to be able to talk to them normally.
Yesterday I was back in London for the Afpmeet. Which managed to go through three pubs - none of them the one we agreed to meet in - along with a nice indian restaurant. And we discussed the idea that Aquarion needs to be kidnapped from his place of work, ideally by the Milde twins in black suits. And Aquarion as an official Culture Nazi, with a Radio 4 logo instead of a swastika. And the idea of Cricket: The Opera was suggested. You can't properly appreciate opera unless you don't understand it, so what better subject than cricket? Yep, it was another all-round good evening.
And this morning I went to see Pirates of the Carribbean 2. NO SPOILERS:
I watched PotC 1 again, and it gets more apparent with every viewing how much of a formula movie it is. I mean, it even has two comedy relief duos, the two bumbling guards and the two pirates. Disney clearly intended Depp to be the dashing, romantic type of pirate hero; what they got was an amoral and somewhat mad rogue who was funnier by far than his supposed comic relief. He was so far outside the formula that I actually didn't notice it was a formula.
PotC2 also begins with an ominous scenesetter before allowing Depp to make a spectacular entrance. But right from the start it's a much darker affair, and a lot more convoluted, bringing the characters and their goals into conflict not just with eachother, but internally. But because it's also a summer blockbuster there's plenty of comedy and big set pieces, including one of the most outrageous swordfights on precarious buildings ever. And tentacles.
Overall, a better film than the first. And with elements left nicely unresolved for the third.