February and March Diversions
No, not dead - just being vewy vewy qwiet.
Films: Slower than January. Brief comments here at 52filmchallenge:
10 Minute Tales (11 x films)
District 9
Plunkett and Macleane
Books:The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway: I *really* liked this. Ostensibly the story of a young man, told mainly in flashback through his childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, growing up in a world not wholly dissimilar to our own, and his best friend (nigh-on adoptive brother). The narrator becomes involved in The Gone-Away War, in which weapons of mass destruction turn out to be rather more massive than had been anticipated, and large portions of the world "go away", leaving behind an unnervingly blurred boundary between the real and the imagined. Depspite all the "wrold-building" and SFish nerd-speak, at it's heart this is a wonderfully real emotional story.This book had me laughing out loud several times, and very nearly in tears a couple of times too.
River Of Darkness, Rennie Airth: A neat paradox this - a modern Golden Age, Cosy, murder mystery. Set just post-WWI, this has cycling bobbies who know everyone in the villag, and large country houses with upper-middle-class families tended to by servants, and terribly-terribly-darling dialogue. It also has frequent references to the horrors of the trenches, graphic violence, a psychopathic serial killer, and pre-marital sex. Not without it's flaws, but nicely enough done to make me buy the two sequels (which I am not currently reading, because I have been nagged and shamed into reading a book that was lent to me first, for once).
TV: The CSI Trilogy wasn't too bad, mainly because it featured lots of Ray, and also because it made CSI:Orange look utterly ridiculous (which, admittedly, isn't hard to do, but damn, Horatio looks like a twat next to Ray). True Blood S2 started on FX, and Sookie is at least as annoying as she ever was. Luckily there seems to be slightly less of her in some of the episodes, which is a very good thing. Wasn't convinced about Eric in the first season, but he's growing on me :-p And House is back after mid-season hiatus, and in very good form. This might well be the best season yet.
Music: We went to see Tom McRae at the Glee CLub in Birmingham, in the fine company of wg, danmilburn, immortalradical and Anna. I think the common consensus is that this tour is one of Mopey Tom's best, and certainly this gig was excellent. I even bought tee-shirts.
Theatre: We saw Witness For The Prosecution at the local theatre. You know you're going to get stagey melodrama when you go see an Agatha Christie play, and this company have a patchy record, but this really was quite bad in places. There's little as off-putting as a poor attempt at a London accent, especially from an actor who can't project and instead seems to be shouting a bit (which causes the breathing pattern to change, which in turn means means that the lines sound stilted). A couple of good performances in the middle of it, but otherwise it was all a bit Am Dram (and for significantly more than Am Dram prices).
Miscellanea: We went to see the wonderful Eddie Izzard at the NIA, Birmingham, and he was brilliant. He's on an aetheist kick at the moment, so much of the show revolved around that; he's also in boy mode which mean goatee (rather than eyeliner/lippy) hottness. And in other news, we took a trip to Devon, to see my nephew married. For once, this involved some visits to places from my childhood, which brought bad some very fond memories; but also some visits to parts of the town I'm less familiar with, and it was good to see the place with fresh eyes for once.
Films: Slower than January. Brief comments here at 52filmchallenge:
10 Minute Tales (11 x films)
District 9
Plunkett and Macleane
Books:The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway: I *really* liked this. Ostensibly the story of a young man, told mainly in flashback through his childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, growing up in a world not wholly dissimilar to our own, and his best friend (nigh-on adoptive brother). The narrator becomes involved in The Gone-Away War, in which weapons of mass destruction turn out to be rather more massive than had been anticipated, and large portions of the world "go away", leaving behind an unnervingly blurred boundary between the real and the imagined. Depspite all the "wrold-building" and SFish nerd-speak, at it's heart this is a wonderfully real emotional story.This book had me laughing out loud several times, and very nearly in tears a couple of times too.
River Of Darkness, Rennie Airth: A neat paradox this - a modern Golden Age, Cosy, murder mystery. Set just post-WWI, this has cycling bobbies who know everyone in the villag, and large country houses with upper-middle-class families tended to by servants, and terribly-terribly-darling dialogue. It also has frequent references to the horrors of the trenches, graphic violence, a psychopathic serial killer, and pre-marital sex. Not without it's flaws, but nicely enough done to make me buy the two sequels (which I am not currently reading, because I have been nagged and shamed into reading a book that was lent to me first, for once).
TV: The CSI Trilogy wasn't too bad, mainly because it featured lots of Ray, and also because it made CSI:Orange look utterly ridiculous (which, admittedly, isn't hard to do, but damn, Horatio looks like a twat next to Ray). True Blood S2 started on FX, and Sookie is at least as annoying as she ever was. Luckily there seems to be slightly less of her in some of the episodes, which is a very good thing. Wasn't convinced about Eric in the first season, but he's growing on me :-p And House is back after mid-season hiatus, and in very good form. This might well be the best season yet.
Music: We went to see Tom McRae at the Glee CLub in Birmingham, in the fine company of wg, danmilburn, immortalradical and Anna. I think the common consensus is that this tour is one of Mopey Tom's best, and certainly this gig was excellent. I even bought tee-shirts.
Theatre: We saw Witness For The Prosecution at the local theatre. You know you're going to get stagey melodrama when you go see an Agatha Christie play, and this company have a patchy record, but this really was quite bad in places. There's little as off-putting as a poor attempt at a London accent, especially from an actor who can't project and instead seems to be shouting a bit (which causes the breathing pattern to change, which in turn means means that the lines sound stilted). A couple of good performances in the middle of it, but otherwise it was all a bit Am Dram (and for significantly more than Am Dram prices).
Miscellanea: We went to see the wonderful Eddie Izzard at the NIA, Birmingham, and he was brilliant. He's on an aetheist kick at the moment, so much of the show revolved around that; he's also in boy mode which mean goatee (rather than eyeliner/lippy) hottness. And in other news, we took a trip to Devon, to see my nephew married. For once, this involved some visits to places from my childhood, which brought bad some very fond memories; but also some visits to parts of the town I'm less familiar with, and it was good to see the place with fresh eyes for once.