"I'm Cringing"

I decided to spoil my imaginary readers with yet another post, to make up for the inevitable lack of posts that will surely result from the start of the new university term.

Firstly there is something that happened a while ago - not that interesting, mind you - that nonetheless I thought I may as well post.

A little while ago I found some documents just lying next to the pavement. They were confidential, an assessment of some kind of some individual. I worked out the address of the individual and posted the documents to them, hoping it would get back into the correct hands. I left a note explaining a little about what happened and some contact information, and sure enough I got an email from the authority involved asking me to clarify events. Now I wonder - has someone been sacked because of me? I would hope they are disciplined in some manner - it was definitely a cock-up that could have resulted in much more dire circumstances - but I wouldn't want to think anyone lost their job because of me, particularly in the current state of the job market.

Although with that said it is still possible to find work. If you are disciplined, organised and motivated you can find a job - I am certain of that.

Last night I told some of my mates about a list I had written a while ago that contained everything that - at that time - I disliked about myself. There was nothing physical in the list, I should probably be insulted that people assume there would be, it is just aspects of my personality and character. Each point has a paragraph describing it in detail, I think there are 12 points and the whole document covers 4 sides of A4. They encouraged me to publish the list on this blog. I considered it, other people can do things similar, maybe it would be cathartic.

However I have decided against it, for two main reasons.

1) Some of it is no longer relevant or true. There is a part where I say I "don't have any feelings" and "nothing excites me". I no longer feel this way, I can be a bit difficult to please at time but once you learn to find pleasure in the really simple things in life it can make a big difference. Even if it isn't really hugely pleasurable. Just tell people.

I like satisfying buttons. Not the ones on clothing, the things you press. I like buttons to have a satisfying tactile response. I hate those buttons which are just a sticker or a symbol painted on to a hard piece of plastic. There is no raised part to push in, just a flat piece of plastic, you usually see them along the top of laptop keyboards. You get no response from the button itself whether you have activated it or not, you have no idea how hard to press. I also don't like touch screens for the same reason. I don't like buttons that are wobbly or "mushy" like most laptop keyboards. The power button on the slim PS3 is good. And while I think of it the PS3 button on the PS3 controller is good too. Well done Sony.

I may elaborate on other things I enjoy in another post but now we need to move onto the second reason.

2) It is too personal. There are times on those pages when I tear into my personality, and I really don't want to publish words so deeply personal, for the enjoyment of a few people. So no.

Oh and if those people are reading this how about we trade lists instead? Write your own first, then you can read mine.

"That Mostly-Dormant Thing Between Your Ears"

Greeting, imaginary readers. By popular request, I am going to attempt to do a post that doesn't feature any reviews. Haven't done one of those in a while so here we go.

First of all: I applaud the principle behind fair trade produce. It is a commendable initiative, that cannot be denied. However it has - through no fault of its own - become just another tool for the bourgeoisie to emphasise their superiority of the proletariat. I know what you're thinking: "alright Vladimir Ilyich, it can't be that bad." However I have often overheard conversations along the lines of:

"I only buy fair trade - I can't believe there are people out there who don't buy fair trade, I mean it is just disgusting."

Oh fuck you. When did we become so self-involved as a society? When did we lose our empathy? I actually know exactly when that happened but that is another post for another time. Does it really not occur to these people that some people simply cannot afford fair-trade-dolphin-friendly-environmentally-aware bread for £3.27 a slice? Maybe I am just making way too much of this but it seems to be indicative of a society unable to see beyond their own bubble of self-involvement.

Now something on the issue of piracy (that being copyright theft, rather than the swashbuckling kind). People who create commercial content have to accept that their content can be distributed illegally. There is no way around that. What is really needed to reduce piracy is distributors to have a much more open view to how their presentations can be viewed. In the case of films this means having a worldwide release that is the same for every region, and the ability to see the films at the cinema - for cheaper prices than now I might add - but also watch them streaming or download them for later. Download and stream would be cheaper - DRM is a sticky subject and I feel you would never get distributors on board without a very secure DRM method. And an open one too - if such a thing would be possible. If you give the consumer options and good value for money there would be very few people who would bother with illegal downloads. For a lot of people it is the only way of seeing certain films. For others it is the only economical way to see the huge number of films released every year. If cinema tickets were £5 and streams\downloads were £3 the amount of piracy would be dramatically reduced. We have gone some of the way - Curzon are now offering streaming viewing of some of the films playing at their cinemas.

"Why didn't I say anything until now?
So much is said without a sound."
- Local Natives - Sticky Thread

Just thought I would slap a great lyric in there.

During a slightly ridiculous conversation last night it occurred to me: is it possible that some people can have nothing they are passionate about? I would say that I am passionate about socialist politics. Capitalism is wrong - for me that is all there is to it. However I can also be moved by film, television or music. Surely everyone has the ability to be moved by something? Perhaps some people don't like to admit it, in our constantly-sarcastic everyone's-a-cynical-critic society people might not want to say that they love something - Lord knows love is scary. In the words of Morrissey: "it's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate - it takes strength to be gentle and kind". I find it hard to believe that there can be people who would think it silly to be moved to tears by a song, or to be filled with joy by a film.

Be brave - admit that you love something. Or someone - now wouldn't that be a great New Year's resolution?

Bryant, out.

Cinemagasm

I suppose I have to get the requisite "I-haven't-posted-many-updates-because-I've-been-really-busy" excuse out of the way. There.

I've finished semester 1, with a lot of stress for 2 assignments and some lovely exams to look forward to in January. Hurrah!

Luckily I managed to find the time in between stress-induced nervous breakdowns to watch some films. Quite a few actually, the list - in sort-of chronological order is:

Brassed Off
Trois Couleurs Bleu
Of Gods and Men
The Prestige
District 9
In Bruges
The Social Network
Raging Bull
The Kids Are All Right
Local Hero
The Other Guys
Milk
The Departed
Green Zone
The Exorcist
Toy Story 3
Wild Target
Pontypool

I can't really be bothered to post reviews of all of those particular highlights were Toy Story 3, The Exorcist, The Departed, The Prestige, Trois Couleurs Bleu and Brassed Off. I'll probably watch some more films today, but I have also been watching Sym-Bionic Titan and Yes Minister - which is as much of a contrast as there can be between two viewing experiences. Yes Minister is intelligent and quite funny comedy - it doesn't quite have the incisive wit of a Blackadder but it has the subtle, cynical comedy of bureaucracy and organisations. I think once you have worked in a large organisation you can appreciate the appeal of Yes Minister. It is also still fairly relevant - although The Thick of It is the definitive comedic take on modern politics. Sym-Bionic Titan is an animated series by the creators of Samurai Jack and The Powerpuff Girls. It appears to be aimed at a teenage audience and I could see it being quite popular amongst that group - there is action for the boys and a lot of nice character interaction for the girls (those being grossly stereotyped views of what boys and girls look for in entertainment). It ticks all the right boxes without seeming forced or fake, which is a very hard thing to do.

I have only bought one album since the last post Acolyte by Delphic. I haven't been able to listen to it enough time to really get a grip on it so I can't really post a review.

I can't really be bothered to write any more so I guess I shall go. Bye, imaginary readers.

As A Bee

Amazing how blogging takes a back seat when stuff is actually happening in your life, isn't it? So I have been crazy-busy with FYP and assignment stuff for uni - but not too busy to indulge myself a bit. I recently bought Everything Everything and Local Native's albums - amazing. I can't stop listening to Everything Everything, for some reason. Local Natives is damn good as well, in a completely different way. Everything Everything hits you with brilliance, Local Natives is what I like to call "nourishment for the soul" - I challenge you not to want to sing along to "Airplanes", at the top of your voice and from the bottom of your heart. I bought the latest album from The Bees "Every Step's A Yes", have only listened to it two times (once through laptop speakers, yuck!) but early signs are very good.

I also bought some video games, I've now got Skate 2, Racedriver Grid and PES 2011. Only the last one have I played for long periods. Pro Evo is back - I am completely addicted. I won't throw away FIFA 10, although the bugs in Manager Mode are really annoying and apparently they haven't been fixed in FIFA 11. Haven't played much Master League Online in PES 2011 yet, it looks bloody difficult and you need to be around at set times during the day.

Seen a lot of films and got hold of a lot more, yay for culture! Unfortunately there are no good cinemas in Stafford or Stoke so I had to go back down south for my fix of current releases. I saw Winter's Bone at Curzon Soho, The Illusionist at Odeon Panton Street and A Town Called Panic at Curzon Soho. Curzon Soho is my favourite cinema, a teensy bit pretentious but there is a nice cafe area at street level, a bar one level down and the cinema screens and confectionery area at the bottom level. They play good independent and arty films, stuff that might be difficult to see elsewhere. However, reviews are needed.

Winter's Bone is an intense thriller set in a close-knit community in the American south. The story follows a girl who must find her father in order to keep the family's farm, which her father put up as a bond. If I could use one word to describe the tone of the film it would be "sinister" - that is the feeling you get the whole way through. It is also one of the few films that deals with drugs in a very mature way. Most films that deal with drugs are either "stoner flicks" that revel in the comedy of drug use or hard-hitting anti-narcotic films that try to reduce the characters to one-dimensional "drug fiends". Winter's Bone did neither, crystal meth was discussed openly and casually but was never portrayed in a hugely positive light.

The Illusionist is an animated French film, following an elderly magician who finds his act becoming out of style, so travels to Scotland to find more work. Along the way he establishes a relationship with a young girl - and I shan't give any more away but I should say that the film is kid-friendly with a message that may, perhaps, be lost on a younger audience. Well worth the price of entry, and Odeon Panton Street is definitely the pokiest cinema I have ever been to, a tiny screen with a men's toilets that was the width of a corridor and as long as a disabled toilet cubicle. That said, very good film.

A Town Called Panic might be the most thoroughly mental film I have ever seen - in a good way. You know those Cravendale adverts? That, basically. It follows three characters - Horse, Cowboy and Indian - and from the basis of "we forgot Horse's birthday, let's make him a barbecue, oops we bought too many bricks" the story charges forward from there. It includes aliens, crazy snowball-chucking scientists, accidentally going to the centre of the earth and lots more. There is even time for a Horse love interest. Well worth the price of entry, huge laughs throughout.

I also found time to watch Memento, Funny Ha Ha and Baghead. I didn't think much of Baghead. Enough of that. Memento is quite brilliant, I love the plot structure and finding out more about the mysteries as you move back through the film. Funny Ha Ha was a very good film - clearly low-budget but the realism of the character's exchanges and the little awkward moments made the film for me. It is quite funny in places, but I was immersed in the story right from the opening exchanges.

I now have copies of The Exorcist, Nowhere Boy, This Is England, Being John Malkovich and Amelie. So what if I have seen This Is England and Amelie? They are great films and it is fantastic to have them on DVD.

I think that is just about everything, I am off to attempt to work on my assignments and final year project. See you.

Filler

So I have seen some films recently. They are: Collateral, Snakes on a Train, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Wet Hot American Summer, The Fountain, Primer, The Expendables, A Serious Man and Megashark vs Giant Octopus. If some of those films sound like shit it is because I quite like crappy films, and cheapo rip-off production company The Asylum is a goldmine of movies that are pants. I have started trying to watch as many of their films as possible, there are loads of just rubbish films and also some rubbish cash-ins of famous films. Transmorphers is their most famous film.

I came across the films of The Asylum accidentally, some mates came around to watch films and Megashark vs Giant Octopus happened to be okay. Featuring some '80s pop star most people would never have heard of (as a marine biologist) and lots of "science" - which in film terms means pouring liquids into beakers until the liquid glows. I'm pretty sure that is how all science works.

Anyway, A Serious Man is a black comedy with a very dark heart - it isn't exactly accessible but it is a very good piece of work. The Expendables, however, is testosterone-soaked dreck. It is a compilation tape of explosions and violence, the acting is eye-rollingly clichéd and the writing is laughable. That said some people like it and it is taking millions at the box office, so clearly there is an audience for this pap.

Pap would be a term that could never be applied to Primer - a high-concept science fiction film about a group of scientists who accidentally discover time travel. The story is compelling, complicated and never seems to patronise the viewer. The film unravels a little at the end but overall it is a very interesting film. The Fountain is an engrossing stories-within-stories, parallel tales adventure with stunning visuals; it also showed to me that Hugh Jackman can actually act, which is something I did not know. At times it can seem very pretentious but there are some great performances and if you let yourself be caught up in it, just go with the film, you will be very entertained.

Wet Hot American Summer is a comedy that seems very out of place for the time it was made. For a film made in 2001 it has a "silly comedy" feel that is more reminiscent of the comedies of the late '70s, early '80s. It is pretty alright, however don't expect a classic, or anything spectacularly witty. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is a cash-in film from The Asylum that is without wit, intelligence or reason. The climax is a fight between Sherlock Holmes in a hot-air ballon fitted with machine guns and a bionic man in a giant mechanical, flying, fire-breathing dragon. Whilst an exploding, clockwork woman attempts to blow up Queen Victoria. There is also a mechanical dinosaur that roams the streets of London. In other words it is preposterous. But hey, at least it is a thoroughly original take on the character of Sherlock Holmes. Who the bionic man continually refers to as "Robert".

But enough ridiculous trash, onto quality cinema, and with this I bring forth the example of Snakes on a Train, a startlingly moving piece about the nature of hysteria and irrational scaremongering. Sometimes the most horrifying monsters are those that we create for ourselves - SoaT takes this concept and runs with it until the cows come home. Or rather they run home, screaming, because everybody has "got snakes".

If the above paragraph managed to trick anyone into seeing that awful film my job here is done. Although the previous sentence might give the game away. I was, like, being sarcastic, yeah? It is good, because it's bad but it's sort of not? Which is why it's so bad, but that's also why it is so good? (That's the hipsters baited, in case you were wondering the question marks were to draw attention to the annoying habit some people have of saying everything as if it were a question? Even if it isn't? With that slightly higher inflection of the voice at the end of a sentence?)

Anyway, recently I saw Four Lions, but seeing as I have already seen that film fairly recently there isn't much point writing a mini-review, although I would say it may be better on a second viewing. Collateral is a slightly odd film. Not exactly your typical star vehicle, the talky bits are pretty engrossing, and I felt like the action got in the way. The direction at times was grainy and rough (and I mean that as a compliment) and there was some good dialogue - it felt like both writer and director need to be doing smaller, more intellectual pieces. Michael Mann is a decent director, Stuart Beattie has done some okay stuff, maybe I am just yearning for the talky style of Wes Anderson, which is a bit odd since the only film of his I have seen is Fantastic Mr. Fox (which I didn't really care for).

I am currently trying to sample a number of music artists, to see if there are any albums I desperately need. Using Last.fm as my guide, I am currently listening to playlists of:

Beach House, Beirut, Camera Obscura, Darwin Deez, Grizzly Bear, Local Natives, Modest Mouse, The Drums and The Joy Formidable. I have also been listening to a little bit of Why?, A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under being a current favourite.

This hasn't been all that interesting (but when is this blog?) so for now I will leave a thought: why do all completely straight-from-the-top-of-my-head sentences end up so disjointed, as this one does now?

Rubbish, I know.

I'm Still Here...

Just to let you (and by you I mean my imaginary readers) know: I am still alive.

I am in Stafford now, meaning I am back at uni and the rain is pouring down the window as I type these words. I have only had one introductory lecture so far - so not quite back in full flow just yet, but I can already feel myself getting back into a student rhythm.

Now I don't have a 9:00 to 5:18 I have more time for discovering music. Or for now, catching up on everything I've missed. I'm thinking of downloading loads of music, 3 tracks per artist with bands I have heard of and bands from my Last.fm recommendations. Slap them together in a playlist, put it on shuffle and pick the best. I've been trying to program something to do it for me for a while, but I couldn't find a decent way to download tracks without duplicates or remixes. Last.fm does it all anyway, it is just that having the MP3s there is a bit more convenient.

I can't talk for much longer, I am trying to find a USB drive with some rather important possibly-could-help-my-final-year-project data on it. Perhaps some more interesting discussion next time. Bye.

Groundhog Day (Again)

So some little coincidences happened which persuaded me to watch Groundhog Day again. You know the film: knockabout comedy with Bill Murray, relives the same day over? Plans out a perfect date to get the girl, decides to be nice to people. Except that isn't what happens. At all.

First I read this article about Groundhog Day and A/B testing, describing Phil's setup of trying to find the perfect date by trial and error. It made me realise it wasn't quite the film I thought it was. Then I saw this, someone asking how you would prepare if you knew you were about to enter a Groundhog Day.

Watching it again does make you realise something: it is way better than you think. It is also way darker - he commits suicide multiple times on-camera, and we must assume many more times as well. We only see glimpses of his life, we see flickers of mania ("I am a god") and we see self-improvement through study. We don't see if he does any truly reprehensible things in the film, if there were no consequences he could go on a killing spree and wake up the next day as if nothing happens. It could easily turn him into a psychopath. We never see him go down that path, we see him wallowing in drink, attempting a one night stand (and we assume many more) and punching an annoying person. And he doesn't get the girl with trial and error - that just leads to rejection. In the end his self-improvement and good deeds allow him to win over Rita.

It is a whole bowlful of philosophy, that film, for instance is it morally acceptable to do things "in Groundhog" that otherwise we would frown upon? I have to go with no, but you could easily argue it would be okay as everyone would "reset" come 6:00am. What is the most damaging thing you could do in 12 hours? Blow up the President, the Pope? You could pull off the most audacious heist known to man - and come 6am it would all return to normal. Perhaps the only thing that would keep a person from doing all this would be the fear that tomorrow really would come. This would bring questions about whether we only act morally because of society's expectations and consequences, so if we were left to our own devices we would have no morals at all.

It leaves you with plenty to chew over, so go see Groundhog Day again.

That isn't the only film I have seen recently, however. Inception doesn't need a review from me, I can't think of any film recently that has sparked this much discussion, debate and hype. It is all good - it was like a arty concept film with an enormous budget and lots of CGI. You want to come out of the cinema and discuss what you have just seen.

Scott Pilgrim versus The World is a very different film. Based on a comic book - so expect "zaniness" it is a rather good action-comedy. In fact I would have preferred a little more focus on the central relationship. Some of the other characters seemed to be barely explored at all. That said it's quick-fire visual gags and irreverent humour were very entertaining - my problem was looking for more than just entertainment.

Blood Diamond is a pretty brave film - big-budget but with a purposeful, hard-hitting message. It is also that man DiCaprio again - and to think I used to consider his film career a bit of a joke. He's made me look silly. Anyway this is a film that takes itself seriously, with thrills and an important message too. All we need now is a Hollywood film about the conflict in Rwanda. Yeah, right.

Edit: Apparently I am an idiot and need to see Hotel Rwanda. Forgive me while I read the Wikipedia article on the Rwandan genocide a lot more thoroughly.