Obviously having been incredibly busy lately what with being occupied with publishing zines, going to conventions, having visitors to stay and…er…sitting around on my arse playing PS3 games for long periods of time, I’d like to come out of blogging hibernation with an astonishing post detailing my mind-expanding super theory on the interconnectedness of everything.
Tough! That ain’t gonna happen, but I have finally eaten at Rick Steins after all these years of living in Cornwall, although it was admittedly at his new chip shop if Falmouth, not the uber-expensive fish restaurant in Padstow. The verdict? Good quality fish with decent chips all freshly cooked. Pity the whole thing was let down by rather bland mushy peas. All in all not bad, but I think I’ll miss the green goo out next time.
Posted in Life...and stuff | Tagged Cornwall, Falmouth, food | Comments Off
With the recent passing of Eric Rohmer I thought it’d be a good opportunity to re-watch Pauline A La Plage, a film I first over 20 years ago as an impressionable teenager.
During the Eighties BBC2 and Channel 4 went through a golden period in showing films that now in this dumbed-down-demography-chasing-era seems unthinkable; they used to broadcast entire seasons of interesting and oddball cinema, something that when it happens now is relegated to BBC4 or Film4. During that period I remember such themes as 50′s B Sci-Fi, Woody Allen, Cult Classics, Banned Films, Hammer Horror, Red Triangle Movies and Bergman. Searching endlessly for an escape from my dull teenage life I watched everything I could whether I knew anything about the film on or not. Pauline A La Plage was a random late night discovery on BBC2.
I have a vivid memory of watching this film unfold on my small portable TV as Marion and her young cousin Pauline spend the last weeks of summer on holiday in Normandy. Recently divorced Marion bumps into an old flame Pierre, who it turns out still hasn’t gotten over his feelings for her even after all the years apart. Marion only thinks of him as a friend, and is much more interested in the sleazy Henri. Pauline falls for a boy she meets on the beach, and from here things go wrong…
The film is essentially quite basic and is essentially a bedroom farce. It may have long pseudo-intellectual conversations and a thoughtful if at times ponderous tone but it can’t escape that its bedroom farce core. What made an impression on me though all those years ago was that these people were completely unlike anyone I knew. They summered by the sea, had deep long conversations about the nature of life and love, and seemed incredibly sophisticated, especially the young Pauline who wise beyond her years is the only sensible character in the whole movie. Throw in a blue watered beach and the film had a glamorous foreigness that no other movie I had seen up to this point had. Pauline A La Plage was the first French film I saw.
So having just re-watched it this week, did it stand up to the test of time? Mostly yes I’d say, but with a slight touch of no. I still enjoyed it, the dialogue still stood out, and Pauline was still the smart attractive kid she was when I first watched it. But the beach seemed smaller and slightly grubbier now, and the adults were too self-absorbed. The glamour had faded.
I did return to Pauline A La Plage one one previous occasion, whilst at uni, about 5 years after I had initially encountered it. I was staying at a friends house, who despite his nickname of Brainrot was a nice chap (his real name was more mundane – John). The film was on TV, and we both to watch it as we’d discussed our favourite films down the pub one night. As the end credits rolled, Brainrot turned to me looking slightly disappointed saying “I remember there being more nudity in it”.
Posted in 24fps, On The Beach | Tagged cult films, Film | Comments Off
Well if I achieved one thing this week, it is that I managed to finally complete reading Neal Stephenson‘s Anathem. Having just typed that statement though I realise that I’ve made it sound that a) reading the book was a chore and b) that I spent the last decade toiling through the thing rather than devouring it over the Christmas period.
So what did I think of it then? Well I won’t hide the fact that I like Neal Stephenson’s work. His early cyberpunk novels although enjoyable occasionally frustrated me, especially in the abruptly manner they tended to end. The Baroque Cycle on the other hand was the single most enjoyable series of books I have read. It’s lively mix of history, action and science kept me gripped from the opening sentence of Quicksilver to the last page of The System of the World.
With Anathem, Stephenson jumps back from the historic novel to science fiction by setting his latest story on an fictional Earth-type planet called Arbre. The story involves a young Fraa Erasmus caught up world-changing events. Erasmus lives in what appears at first to be a religious cloister, but as the story reveals itself you soon discover this is a closed scientific and philosophical sanctuary (or Concent) rather than a religious ones we had on this Earth; religion does exist on Arbre, but is something that people who live outside the world of Concents believe in. Not wishing to spoil the story for anyone out there that still hasn’t read the book I’ll skip over the details of the plot. Suffice to say that the idyllic days of tending plants, learning about planetary geometry, singing and taking part in philosophical debates are quickly and quite traumatically wrenched away casting Erasmus and his friends out of their comfortable existence into some very dangerous adventures.
One of Neal Stephenson’s strengths is world building. I totally bought into the strange way of life that goes on in the Concents and also in the wider world of Arbre. The book contains many invented words to describe the peculiar quasi-religious existence that Erasmus inhabits, and although this made the first thirty-odd pages hard going I was soon in the right headspace to read the novel and had completely forgotten the need to consult with the back of the book glossary.
As in The Baroque Cycle Stephenson taps into one of my favourite topics – the history and development of science. I studied this for a while in my second year at university and enjoyed it the most of all the subjects that made up my Degree. I suspect I am to pre-disposed to liking the sort of fiction that Neal Stephenson writes to be too critical (the idea of devoting your life to science living in a closed environment was highly attractive to me and somehow I felt oddly jealous of the main characters for being able to do so). The only two minor quibbles I can think of are that occasionally the book slowed down as characters debated differences in scientific thought and that the book was too short; I could have happily read on for another 500 pages not been bored.
Posted in Books, Science Fiction | Tagged Neal Stephenson | 1 Comment »
You’d think that with the recent snow outbreak that the world had ended and not the UK just experiencing some of the coldest weather that it has seen in some time. Although it has provided an amazing feast of images for the 24 hour rolling news programmes, the cold snap story breaks down into a number of easy-to-swallow smaller chucks.
- Snow fell
- The authorities were under-prepared for it
- People stayed off work, schools closed
- Some accidents happened
- Some people can have fun in the snow
- It looks pretty
What irks me most about the news coverage is do we need it re-told endlessly? Let’s face it the story is pretty similar whether you broadcast it from Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Yorkshire, Wales or the Isles of Qwghlm.
I’m also finding it difficult to stomach the endless debate of adequate preparations against the damage to the UK’s economy. Isn’t it really a case of deciding as a country whether we want to pay for larger salt reserves and gritters on stand-bye all through the winter, or accepting that when extreme weather happens we are going to experience some form of disruption and economic loss?
And now some pretty pictures of snow…
Posted in Life...and stuff | Tagged Cornwall, Falmouth, snow, weather | 1 Comment »
My friends Richard and Tina (who aren’t online in any form, which is a pity) gave me this CAMRA book by Roger Protz for Christmas entitled “300 Beers to Try Before You Die!”. It is a great present for someone like me who likes real ale, and especially tasty foreign ales from Belgium and Germany. The book struck me as a fantastic project, however as I’m supposed to be doing something about my weight this is going to be a long term-project – let’s face it, as the title says before you die…and I intend sticking around for a very long time.
The book itself has an interesting assortment of ales categorised into your usual beer types like milds, bitters, pale ales etc. The selection of beers is diverse taking in curiosities such as Rodenbach Grand Cru (a favourite here at the Fernsehturm) through to quite mainstream ales such as Theakston’s Old Peculiar and Fuller’s London Pride. I could quibble about the non-inclusion of some beers such as Mort Subite’s excellent lambic beers or no Skinners ales, but it is a good cross-section of what is available on the market today. Some of my personal favourites are represented such as Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted, Deuchars IPA and St Austell Clouded Yellow. Cornwall punches above its weight here, with the inclusion of Blue Anchor Spingo and St Austell’s HSD.
I reckon that I’ve had throughout my life probably about 60-odd of the beers listed, but have decided to start from scratch again, with one exception U Flecku Flekovsky Dark, a wonderfully flavoursome dark beer from the oldest brewpub in Prague. I visited it 2008 and sampled their lovely beer, but can’t see me getting back to the Czech Republic anytime soon.
Posted in Books, Life...and stuff | Tagged beer, CAMRA, Christmas Presents, Insane Projects, Real Ale | Comments Off
I’m not going to make any New Years Resolutions this year, I never stick to them. This year I am going to decide to have a To Do list, which I know sounds a bit work related but might (and I do say might) force myself to get of my arse and do some stuff. If I manage half of them I’ll be happy.
So here goes.
- Lose weight
- Blog more frequently (I’m hoping for over 50 posts)
- Publish 2 issues of our fanzine Head!
- Get the Head! website up and running
- Publish a perzine
- Finally finish that EP I was recording
- Finish decorating the utility room
- Write more songs (last year I wrote 1 so logically the only way is up)
- Read more, see if I can get up to 50 books
- Decide what I want to do with my life, this might be tricky as I’ve been thinking about this since I was 12 and still haven’t gotten anywhere.
Fin.
Posted in Life...and stuff | Tagged To Do List | 1 Comment »
November 28, 2009 by Doug
This is my guitar. There are many like it but this one is mine. My guitar is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my guitar is useless. Without my guitar I am useless. I must play my guitar true. Well not quite…
However it is fair to say that since I’ve bought my Danelectro DC59 it has re-ignited my enthusiasm for playing guitar. I now spend a large part of the eventing learning my blues scales and jamming along to whatever old psychedelic classic I can easily lay my hands on, usually early Grateful Dead if the truth be told. So why has this instrument had such an effect on me?
Well for one thing I find it so easy to play compared to my trusty Ibanez acoustic. I’ve struggled for years with barre chords on the acoustic, but on the Danelectro it feels like I’m not even trying. Not only that but playing lead is a dream, the action is just right, and I didn’t need to fiddle with the set-up at all.
Secondly I love the sound. There is a real edge to it, a dirty quality that suits garage rock and is perfectly suited for thrashing the instrument around. This isn’t a guitar you want to play quietly or elegantly; it requires a bit of rough treatment to get the best out of it. Stick it through some delay and distortion and it comes into its own – it becomes a true psychedelic garage band monster. We’re talking Syd Barrett-era Floyd noise here (and quite right since Syd was perhaps the most well known Danelectro player).
Sure the build isn’t as good as on a £500 electric, in fact in some ways it feels downright shoddy, but for £150 what do you expect. However for the sound you get and with its playability you can pay a lot more and do a lot worse.
Posted in Life...and stuff | Tagged danelectro, Grateful Dead, guitars, ibanez, Syd Barrett | 3 Comments »
November 23, 2009 by Doug
Posted in Life...and stuff | Tagged Paris, beer, Rodenbach | 1 Comment »
What with the soon to be arriving Jonah Hex film it seemed like a good point to stop and take stock of the current DC comics series.
Frank Quitley's Jonah Hex
In case you don’t know Jonah Hex is a Western character in the DC Comics Universe. To be more accurate he is is hideously scarred bounty hunter, an ace killing machine and one of the meanest bastards in the Wild West. His seeming lack of morals, coupled with a relentless way he revenges himself on people who have wronged him make him more an prophet of death than just another gun-slinger. However Jonah occasionally drops his hard exterior to right the odd wrong without payment which shows some sort of vulnerability underneath that mutilated face.
Hex was the creation of writer John Albano and Tony DeZuniga in the early seventies. Since his creation he’s fought his way through the West, been exiled in a post-apocalyptic future and fought zombie cowboys. The recent re-launch of Jonah Hex puts him more or less back into his old stomping ground of the dusty trail and smokey saloons.
The current series written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and illustrated by a rotating cast of artistic talents, is mostly composed of one issue stories, although as the comic progresses more multi-part plots appear. This format though gives the writers great freedom in writing tales set in such far flung locations asdusty Mexico, swampy Louisiana or in the frozen wastes of Canada, but also allows them to tell tales from all periods of Hex’s life. While not tied into the increasingly complex DC continuity, other western characters such as Bat Lash crop up from time to time; the dandy gambler outlaw teams up with Hex in this collection’s The Slaughter At Two Pines. The stories though well written cover familiar western topics as child abduction, bounty hunting and writing wrongs – fairly standard fair, but Gray and Palmiotti give every character depth and manage to inject a fresh modern twist into every plot they write.
Jonah Hex, don't tell him what to do!
The first collection Face Full Of Violence collects issues 1-6, nearly all illustrated by Luke Ross. Ross has a clean almost computer generated style which coupled with his letterbox page layouts gives the stories he draws an epic feel. I’m not sure if the dramatic pauses are a result of the script of the artist’s interpretation of it, but with moody close ups and dramatic pauses the action switches easily from widescreen landscapes to spaghetti western stand-offs.
In stark contrast to the artwork of Ross is that of Tony DeZuniga. The original Hex illustratir returns in the Christmas With The Outlaws story. While Ross easily conveys the epic nature of westerns, DeZuniga has a dirty, busy style which gives his story a claustrophobic, grim feel.
Another great feature of this series is the cover art. Hex is a character who seems to bring out the best in some of the greatest artists out there; my favourite being Frank Quitely‘s startling cover from #1.
So if you fancy a well written comic that is a a welcome change from the vast majority of continuity heavy superhero stuff pick up a copy of a Face Full Of Violence.
Posted in 24fps, Comics | Tagged Bat Lash, Jonah Hex, Westerns | Comments Off
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