green_amber

Back from London, where I had an extremely intense 24 hours of reviewing papers and external examining and for the first time in two weeks, subsequent boozing from 4.30 onwards, with result that I ended up back in hotel room at 10 ish, shaking, coughing and alnost unable to breathe. Dramatic! It was all good fun though, except the collapsing bit. Somehow the sun, the vague ever present sense of illness, and magical codeine brought by courier after emergency phone calls to Best German Lesbian Pal added a rather surreal tint to proceedings (not unhelped by dinner in Strada where clientele was hundreds of 12 year old girls , succeeded (thank the goddess) by several rizque hen parties, one I'm sure mostly drag). I think I discovered that friend A (yet another of my flock of Andy's) was now writing a column on Internet law for The Sun. Wtf?!

"Which of these women would you fancy if you were a lesbian?" demanded Best German Lesbian Pal of straight married monogamous A, pointing at a table of 6 hen-partied up actual women. "Er none of them?" said A, sweating. "Right answer!" said J, "They're all too attractive!"

I'm not entirely sure what point she was making.. (She's also fallen in love with Edward from Twilight. I ask you..)

Saturday, I cancelled the arranged lunch with Best Other Gay Non-German Collaborator in interest of Sleep and Recovery, (and also avoided the temptation of being sucked into Plokta Central, although I did rapid-fire dictate optimistic programme items down the phone - no, I hadn't been drinking bohemiancoast but I WAS probably high on codeine!) but actually felt much better, so wandered around Holborn and Covent Garden before getting back to Shef to relieve catsitter.

It was a rather glorious day, and I felt blissfully free, free from work commitments , from illness and even (don't get this wrong) free from the usual social commitments I arrange in London with the attached duty to be alert and entertaining. I *schmooried*, ancient Jewish Glasgow word for just bobbed along, happy as bubbles. Brunch outside Chez Gerard, coffee & cake on the steps of Covent Garden watching the fun people having fun, and goodies from Lush and HMV (I did my bit for the record industry by actually BUYING CDs - new Doves, Killers, Paul Weller - I don't know why I didn't buy the DVD of Being Human too,what kind of mad meannness struck me that I decided to go hom and see if it was cheaper on Amazon? I could have it NOW!)

Oh and in middle of all this I FELL DOWN. yes just TRIPPED outside Karen Millen , to great aghastness at own stupidity and on being helped up discovered had broken leg. OK not quite but is bloody sore and AGONY if twisted in wrong direction. This makes going down steps, sitting on toilet (!), putting on jeans etc extraordinarily difficult. OH DEAR!!! Is there any thing I should do? walking is possible and actually seems to make things better not worse so am assuming nothing broken, but something (tendon??) has gone into spasm and movement is relaxing it a bit. Any more suggestions?! I might go talk to the para medics next door - they've promised to fix my computer viruses anyway..

Yes my life really is this odd. Get over it already.. I'm off now to ask Ex Housemate's advice on where to go from Hong Kong on, and then hopefully to fillum of some kind (lots happening: In the Loop, State of Play, Swedish vamp flick - any recs??)

Advice welcome from here too : the story so far. Going on werk trip to Oz then HK, in early to mid June. Would have liked to go back to Oz after, but on looking at map is really a bit crazy. Want a few days to a week after, somewhere lovely, with water, and fish and stuff, and manageable for lone English speaking woman who doesn't want to be backpacker/get hassled - seems mad to have ticket like this, and not use it for Fun.

Friend A squared (OK, Andrea) suggests Singapore as she's going there for more work after HK - but on looking, Singapore is also south of HK (wrong for sensible flights) and not that exciting. Maldives and Seychelles will both be into monsoon season and are also really in wrong place. Kerala is possible? Angkor Wat (Cambodia) and Laos both much recommended, but not sure about hassle/lone woman/relaxation factor. Now considering Chiang Mai (though this breaks unwritten rules of New Places as went to Thailand LAST year. But only Southern Thailand... and is in exact right place for breaking trip on way back.)

peteyoung what do you think? Any recs for lovely place to stay in Chiang Mai with nice pool?? Is it nice place for lone traveller? looks it on Internet..

ps Eddie Izzard is TOURING!!! Sheffield, 25 Oct. Sheffield people/ang_grrr, etc, wanna go?? Expect will sell out fast!

pps who wants to be on the Being Human panel at #plokta then??

ppps anyone fancy one of the new-ish "adult" festivals for this sunmer, with theatre and comedy as well as bands?? the Guardian is full of em. I fancy Big Chill , 6-9 August, Malvern (Tim Minchin! David Byrne! Dylan Moran!) a lot, and Latitude 16-19 July ,Suffolk (Where IS Suffolk??) quite a bit ( Nick Cave/Pet Shop Boys/loadsa interesting theatre/ballet!/Ben Moor!!.)

Guy/Nuala/Andrea/Chris n Doug/Cambridge folks/Maggie & Spam?? I could try camping for the first time ever!!!

M. Outlook just talked to me. I swear.

It said "Please type your message in the text box."

My god, it's like living in Twin Peaks. When did this happen?

POTC 2 no spoilers. Meh. Too long. Needs lots of editing. Dominion gave us an Intermission which was quaint, but didn't help. Last half hour or so is dead good though, and can't wait for part 3. And yes, there is something at the end of the (endless) credits (Adele insisted there would be): but it ain't worth waiting for (especially if you need the loo). Great tentacles, as advertised.

God I'm tired!

EDIT: still awake at 3.49 and it is either getting light or has never been dark. Sometimes you remembner how far north Scotland is.

Well - as comicbook action movies go, it was Ok. really OK. OK plus even. But..

( spoilers - only for people who've been reading the X Men since 1981 or earlier.. )

Marvellous review of the Dull Vacant Code

"The story of “The Da Vinci Code” goes like this. A dead Frenchman is found laid out on the floor of the Louvre. His final act was to carve a number of bloody markings into his own flesh, indicating, to the expert eye, that he was preparing to roll in fresh herbs and sear himself in olive oil for three minutes on each side..."

Transamerica is a sweet little film, and Felicity Huffman is ded gud (as Flick would say). Acting as a woman, to look like a woman who used to be a man, is a damn good trick to pull off, and she does. Very good make up too , one imagines.

The guy playing her son is also teh hotness (as I don't say); rather reminiscent of Little Leo de Caprio before he grew up and went off -I wonder if this one will last the pace?

Does anyone know if the writer/director is transgendered, or was he just interested in the subject?

The trans coming out party in Dallas - all big hair and guacamole dips - is an absolute hoot. Ignore the comparison on the film posters to Sideways - this is much more funny, with far more engaging characters - more like an Americana version of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. (But, OK, without the Abba.) I am just a bit tired of fair minded, non-sexist gallant Native American characters (very Kingsolver-esque), but hey, I guess we have a few decades of equally unrepresentative caricatured villainy to get over there first..

Great Line : "Your parents' house was much nicer." "Yes. But it came with my parents."


In other news, I still have a sort of sore weird lump behind my right eye that's been there a few days - it feels like it's right in the eye socket. My optician said she couldn't see anything (this is partly why I finally went) and it might be a bunged up tear duct, 'cept it's the wrong place. Any ideas? It's giving me a bugger of a headache. (I am resisting the urge to claim it's a brain tumour, cos I am Not a Hypochondriac.)

Tescos Online have delivered 10 mins into allotted 2 hr slot, no fuss. I heart them (even if bizarrely, there were no tinned tomatoes due to Delays Caused By Snow. Now is the end of civilisation nigh.).

Today's (other!) Happy Thing was Ladies Who Lunch with yonmei, hfnuala and (not actually lunching!) chillies, which was very pleasant, with lovely food at Urban Angel (oops! whisper salmon risotto, rocket salad and strawberry bakewell tart with home made amaretto ice cream - extremely yummy). We all made plans to Go Back Soon.

And tonight i'm actually going to, unheard-of-ly, Stay In on a Saturday night,cook that leg of lamb, play with the cats and watch the ice dancing final. That sounds absolutely wonderful..

Oh and .. film challenge number no-fucking-idea, Good Night and Good Luck was much much better than I expected, indeed v g indeed. Very much a poster child for the usual liberal causes, freedon of speech and the American way, etc, but not nearly as been-done for all that as I anticipated. David Strathairn takes a tremendous part as McMurrow and the b & w cinematography catches the 50s look quite staggeringly well. I hadn't realised till I got in that the characters were all real, and that the film was integrating real footage of the McCarthy hearings - but the direction and camerawork is such that the join is seamless. There are moments that, deliberately, do jolt you out your seat with their modernity - the much quoted line about how you can't spread freedom abroad if you don't have it at home is one - and I'm impressed to see Clooney sharing writing as well as directing and acting credits. Doen't he know he's just a pretty face?

Another Neil Jordan encounter with transvestites/transsexuals, the Irish troubles and as an aside, a beautiful black woman. What are you trying to tell us, Neil?? Hmm. Very very good indeed (and, incidentally, a good antidote to Brokeback Mountain for those who maintain that "gay" or at least non-het films made for a mass film audience can only end in tragedy). Yes I did cry (yet again) but as V maintained when talking me into going, this is on the whole a remarkably light and sweet film for such potentially heavy material. I now really would like to know a bit more about the biographicalness or otherwise of the subject hero (rozk touched on this in her review) and may even have to read the book - zut alors! Oh and the soundtrack, of the forgotten side of 70s trash pop and love anthems, not the well known Abba anthems but Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep and Morris Albert's original Feelings, brought out the longing to be young in this 40something's breast. All this and Wombles - you should go.

EDIT: And why is everything I see at the moment about the 70s huh? All in one week or so, BB Mountain, this, and Life on Mars, which I am, unexpectedly, rather enjoying. I told V, my theory is the people of our age are now in charge of the domainant cultural meme, and we're reliving out teenage years. Strange after all that stuff about the 70s being the decade taste forgot..

Before it gets too late.. I saw in 2005 (in no real order, ones I loved starred, ones I saw on planes P)

( films list )

28 37 films. In 2004, it was 27. As with last year, too much sf blockbuster, not enough interesting foreign stuff though I do try on the English speaking indy front. I missed Primer, Pride and Prejudice, Bride and Prejudice, Thumbsucker and Nightwatch, all of which I would like to catch at some point, although it doesn't hurt to leave a few films to watch at Xmas :-) (This year the only films I have seen for the first time on TV at Xmas have been mega old - First Knight and Withnail and I. I watched Charlotte Gray again too, which actually stands up well to re-watching despite poor reviews at the time.)

I've raved here about all the starred above before, I think (I may go back and put links in at some point, even) except Sky High. This is a piece of sfx fluff yes, but it's also gloriously high concept and silly - Legion of Substitute Superheroes meets Hogwarts school, as the children of superheroes go to school in the sky and deal with bullies, the school prom, girlfriends, boyfriends, demanding parents and super-villainesses who want to take over the world. Entirely formulaic but enormous fun, and my unexpected hit of the year. (And some actor whose name I can't recall does the best proto-Heath Ledger totty bad boy turn since, well, Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You. Phhwoarr!) Festival almost got a star - it's a wee gem for anyone who knows the Edinburgh Festival with the indomitable Daniella Nardini and I laughed and grimaced in recognition like a drain - but I don't know what it would be like for people who aren't regular Festival-goers..

Absolute suckfests - 9 Songs - just rent porn, already!. Sideways - not nearly as funny as the critics all said it was, espcially not the second time. (Sorry bohemiancoast!) Fantastic Four - I fell asleep before the end, though admittedly, I was on a plane! HHGTG - so pointlessly otiose I actually forgot I'd seen it even though Andy talked of little else for months before..

And best film? Tough. It may be the nearside recognition effect talking, but I think I'd still on the whole go for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with Life Acquatic a near second.

Anyone want to make me a film icon..??

Not what you might think from that title..

At the fag end of what has been on the whole a pretty bloody awful year, I'm pleased to say that Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is certainly the best written film I've seen all year, and probably the best of the year full stop. It makes me really really want to go back to the scriptwriting thing, and use words like "self reflexive", "autopoietic", "postmodern" and "fucks Tarantino sideways" . I'm not even going to attempt to mention the plot - it's one of those films that you feel like if you went to it 3 times in 2 days you might work out if it actually makes sense , but that doesn't actually matter - but you'd never know it was this good from the trailer, and it's practically at the end of its run, so GO GO GO NOW that's what I'm saying. And Robert Downey Jr plays Robert Downey Jr, as ever, but there's no bad in that, ever, and, my god, isn't Val Kilmer ugly now? (Nor that he ever was very cute.)

And the best line, which my audience actually clapped at, was "Oh thank god I thought it might be some kind of gay thing." But you'll have to go to know why that is so good. (oh and the dog.. NOOOO...)

This really is a really really good film - are you getting that idea?

as David Bowie once opined ... except it is.

Walking down to the Cameo, I just kept running into adults dressed in fancy dress. Does anyone else remember when we Brits reluctantly let our kids enjoy the odd sparkler on Guy Fawkes Night, which was SIX DAYS LATER than all this stuff - when it was guising not trick-or-treat, ducking for apples not worrying about razor blades in "candy", and when adults had absolutely nothing to do with Halloween except, slowly but surely, watching Roseanne and then Simpsons Halloween specials on TV? Am I 125??

Globalisation has a lot to answer for !-)

In spirit with the holiday, however, I went to see Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (as did everyone else in Edinburgh it appeared) and it is indeed GREAT and very pretty, but really, I'm not sure there's much else to say, except, did you notice Danny Elfman has a speaking part, aww!, and I wonder what Tim and Helena's kids will look like? Probably they'll dress like OU physics lecturers, anything not to look like goths!!!