Head over to my blog now I've dusted off the cobwebs. There's also a review of our recent visit to London for the theatre production of Breakfast at Tiffany's...
http://simonavery.blogspot.com/
While foregoing some of the classic (yet admittedly very 60's) imagery, it seems to have managed to hit all the necessary beats and plot points of the show and retained the look of Rover as well. Definitely retaining some (if not all) of the original McGoohan themes and madness. It's coming in November, and look's like it's going to be well worth a look. As to how they'll end it, I've no idea. The original is deeply strange, and although I loved it, I dount they can get away with such left field thinking in these unadventurous days...
The two guests we were after this time were Nathan Fillion and Phillip Glenister. Both were very friendly and we came away with a signed Serenity poster and a Life On Mars print to hang somewhere on my by now rather crowded walls. Leonard Nimoy was also there, but the queues were huge and his security seemingly on loan from the US president, so we didn't even catch a glimpse of the pointy-eared one.
We also caught up briefly with Ade, Rachael and Bri who'd also braved the elements. We popped over to the shopping centre in the afternoon to grab some lunch (and pick up some a couple of discounted Supernatural books from the Works - the official guide, one of the novels and the graphic novel, all for under a fiver) and were back for about five. Next stop: the London Comic and Movie Con to get another signature on the Serenity poster...
And some pics...
We had a splendid time at Wroxhall Abbey in Warwickshire on Sunday for the wedding of Mr Joesph Hegarty and Alison Baldock. The sun came out and stayed out, and we really had the most glorious setting for it. Wroxhall abbey is an incredible place - a beautiful building, church and some staggering pretty grounds that we took full advantage of. There was much drinking, eating and a little bit of dancing besides. Amanda, Ade and myself travelled up there for midday and met up with Big Al and his girlfriend Holly and a multitude of Joe and Alison's friends and family. It was great to see a good friend finally find 'the one' and look forward to a rosy future.
I took a few pictures, most of which are uploaded on my Flickr stream here
And some are ( beneath the cut )
A splendid day was had yesterday down in London as part of my birthday celebrations. Having found a carpark in Hillingdon station which is literally just as the M40 turns into the A40, it only took me just over an hour to get down there and cost a quid for the entire day. Another 50 minutes or so and we were in the centre and we took in a few shops around Covent Garden - the Tin Tin store (so very expensive), Forbidden Planet (filled to the gills with too much stuff), Fopp (where Amanda bought me The Day The Earth Stood Still as an easter present; the old 50's classic, not the Keanu one, god forbid), Orcs Nest (for the Arkham Horror game with birthday cash), VinMag (just because it's awesome and I always have to buy a print of some kind from there; this time a Carter The Great magician poster), and few more comic stores besides.
Then in the afternoon we headed over to Victoria to the Apollo theatre (which is an awesome bit of old time Art Deco inside and out) to see Wicked. Adapted from the novel by Gregory Maguire, it's a sort of parallel novel to the Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the witches of Oz, Elphaba (the future Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (the Good Witch of the North), turning the story effectively on its head when Elphaba is revealed as the 'good guy' as it were.
I haven't seen a huge amount of musicals (although after seeing Cabaret last year at the Rep, I felt I'd seen one of the best right there), but I enjoyed the soundtrack to Wicked a lot. The songs, while conveying a lot of the story, are excellent tunes in and of themself, so by the time we sat down to the show yesterday, it had the effect of going to a gig and hearing the 'greatest hits'. Needless to say, Amanda (being a life-long fan of this sort of thing) was so excited she was virtually hyper-ventilating!
It's also one of the most visually stunning shows I've ever seen. There's clearly a lot of money been spent on effects, costumes, sets and visual trickery; every scene is an absolute feast for the eyes. It's also just a great story. It barrels along at a furious pace, it's funny, witty, emotionally engaging and has some brilliant perfomances. Three hours of brilliance. It was an awesome birthday treat, really. And afterwards, while passing the stage door, we lingered awhile with the crowds (as we didn't have to rush home) and got our programmes signed by Kerry Ellis, the lead actress, who's played Elphaba for the last three years here and on Broadway. Another signed programme to be framed and placed somewhere on the increasingly full walls in my flat...
Aftrewards we did a little more shopping then caught the train back to Hillingdon for nine, and we were back home a little before eleven, deeply knackered and loaded down with bags. Excellent day.
Being a huge fan of the TV show Angel, I was shocked to hear that Andy Hallett, who played Lorne (or The Host) died of heart failure last night at the age of 33. Although he'd spent his post-Angel years working on his music career, he'd been admitted to hopsital frequently for the heart condition. What a great shame.Well worth it for the short movie by Jay Dahl, There Are Monsters. Fantastic little idea that had the whole audience leaping out of their seat. Watch it in the dark with the volume way up!
Tears All Over Town.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/4
http://simonavery.blogspot.com/
There have been a lot of reviews referencing Dirty Harry in Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood's supposed acting swan song. It's part of what attracted me to the film to be honest. I was brought up on a diet of Eastwood movies, my dad being a major fan. I've seen the Dirty Harry movies many, many times, and I've heard my dad yearn often for a final return to Harry Callahan before it's too late. Well, Gran Torino isn't that film. And although there are references to all those Eastwood hardasses that he's played before in Torino's Walt Kowalski, there's also a bittersweet twist to all that simmering violence that's one of the most suprising things about this movie.
Gran Torino takes it's title from the 1972 Ford automobile parked in Walt's garage, a symbol of an idealised past while Walt spends his days on the front porch, glowering at the immigrants who supposedly threaten his patch of suburban Detroit.
Thao (Bee Vang), the son of the Hmong family from next door tries to boost Walt's car as part of a gang initiation, but when Walt catches him, the boy is forced to work for him. Walt puts him to work doing up the eyesore of a house opposite, and gradually the old man and the boy begin to bond. The thaw continues when Thao's sister, Sue (Ahney Her) stands up to Walt's racial slurs and invites him round to sample her fatherless multi-generational family's food and beer.
If it sounds a little cliched and over-earnest, you're right; it is. Gran Torino's script by newcomer Nick Schenk, is clunky in places and you can hear the gears grinding (no pun intended) at times as the movie changes tone and mood. Only Eastwood's surefire direction keeps the movie on track at times.
Initially Walt is Dirty Harry in the suburbs, it's true; when the gangbangers invade on Walt's territory, Eastwood cocks his rifle, squints at them down the barrel and growls: "GET. OFF. MY. LAWN." Then when, the same gang attack Thao after his first day at a job that Walt has arranged for him, Walt heads over, waits them out and stands on the head of the last guy left until he gets the message.
But what makes Gran Torino more than the sum of it's parts is the ending that turns that myth of the cliched Eastwood hero on it's head. It's an audacious and bittersweet twist that more than makes up for the earlier lapses in the script.
It goes without saying that Eastwood is terrific. He takes the caricature of the obnoxious and bigotted curmudgeon Walt and infuses him with subtlety and a sly humour. Now, as much as any time in his prime, Eastwood is a magnetic prescence on the screen, one of the last Hollywood legends. He also elicits some excellent performances from the first timer Hmong cast; both Bee Vang and Ahney Her more than a match for the 78 year old veteran on his swan song.
Gran Tornio is no Unforgiven. Although both movies flirt with similar themes, Torino is a little generic, a little too simple and predictable. But its final act that flirts with the notion of the Eastwood hardman, cleaning up the neighbourhood for one last time, only to turn into something far more moving and redemptive is more than enough to be a fitting close to the man's acting career, and more than enough to recommend it.
Cross-posted from my blog, Tears All Over Town
The central concept is wonderful: that of Jamal answering each question on his quest for the million being answered by a cascade of stories as he and his brother grow up, living (and surviving) from one moment to the next. It's a Capra-esque bit of cinema, beautifully shot and superby acted. Dev Patel more than deserves the attention that's been lavished on him. Upbeat, feelgood cinema. Highly recommeded.
We also went to see a Valentine's Day showing of Casablanca at the Electric Cinema today. I haven't been to the Electric for years, and it's recent art deco refurbishment has the place looking lovelier than ever. And Casablanca... well, what can you say? One of the greatest movies committed to celluloid. And it was lovely seeing it on a big screen with an appreciative audience. No idiots, no mobile phones. Just Bogie and Bergman and some celluloid stardust.
We also caught Joss Whedon's new show, Dollhouse, that aired last night in the US. And it was pretty good. It's had a little bit of a savaging from the critics and I fear that it'll go the way of Firefly before it finds it's feet. Which will be a shame as, despite it's similarities to a few other shows (Alias, Dark Angel), it certainly shows enough promise. And it's nice to see Whedon doing TV again, along with a lot of writers that made Buffy and Angel so dear to my heart. Time will tell, but I fear that thirteen episode boxset of a cancelled show before it found it's feet a'la Firefly.
Basically you build a profile similar to the other networking sites, then upload at least ten thousand words of your book for other people to read, discuss and rate. Authonomy counts the number of recommendations each book receives, and uses it to rank the books on the site. It also spots which visitors consistently recommend the best books – and uses that info to rank the most influential trend spotters.
Once a month Collins pull out the top five books from the Editor’s Desk Chart, and passes them on to their Editorial Board. HC editors will read from the first 10,000 words of each manuscript, feed back their comments to the appropriate authors and, if the book's good enough push it up the ladder with a view to publishing.
After a bit of hesitancy (mainly due to a reluctance to having a chunk of my book available for anyone to read) I decided to bite the bullet and join up. It doesn't hinder your chances to submit the work to other publishers or agents, so it seems like a win-win situation.
So tonight I uploaded a photo, a profile, a pitch, a working cover for the book (cribbed from one of my Paris photo stash) and then the first eight chapters of my book, Secret Skin.
Here's my profile page and here's the page for the novel.
If anyone wants to join up, you can and should! You don't have to have a book to join; you can just sign up as a reader. That way you can back my book and push it up the charts.
http://simonavery.blogspot.com/
This beautiful animated film, made in 1999 by Brad Bird (who worked on The Simpsons, King of the Hill and then had huge hits with Pixar's The Incredibles and Ratatouille) more than deserves it's reputation as an overlooked gem; one of those movies that failed to find an audience upon release, but now has a huge cult following.
The Iron Giant, adapted from the late poet laureate Ted Hughes book, The Iron Man shares some themes with E.T. - a young boy meets a visitor from outer space who's stranded on Earth, and falls prey to paranoid government agents. But The Iron Giant is so much more than that. When lonely kid, Hogarth Hughes, who's raised by his single mother (Jennifer Aniston) meets the amnesiac iron man (Vin Diesel), he enlists the aid of hipster beatnik, Dean (Harry Connick Jr) to stop an obsessed Federal Agent from finding and destroying the Giant.
Taking place during the fifties at the height of the Cold War, The Iron Giant is an utterly charming and lovingly crafted parable. It draws on a stylised view of the past when America was preoccupied with nuclear holocaust and little green men (indeed there's an hilarious cartoon public service film, Duck and Cover where kids are advised to shelter from a nuclear attack by hiding under a table), and looks utterly unlike any other cartoon you've ever seen.
I'm not a huge fan of cartoon movies as a rule. I get easily restless during the parade of cute animals and song and dance numbers. But The Iron Giant has none of that. What it does have is some of the best voice acting I've ever heard on an animated movie, a loving 50's retro-futurism look to the characters and the huge clunking Giant, a lot of humour and a huge huge heart. This is the movie of a true auteur. Moving and unforgettable, The Iron Giant is one of the (if not the) best animated movies ever made. Wonderful.
(Cross-posted with http://simonavery.blogspot.com/)
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