g'bye 2011, and hello to 2012.

Just thought I would post a few lines to bring this blog into 2012.

As for films, I enjoyed my cinema trips and DVD watching in '11 - my favourite blockbusters being either "Thor" or "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" .....can't decide! I think my most unusual cinema visit last year was to see the excellent "We Need to Talk About Kevin", which Carla and I went to see on a Sunday morning back in the autumn, at one of our local cinemas - the Coventry Showcase. The screen we were in is also used as a live venue, often for evening comedy shows, so only the back of the screen had the typical cinema seasting. The rest of the auditorium had tables and chairs, and there was a bar to the right. Apart from the odd layout, we were in there ON OUR OWN, so it was basically a private screening of what proved to be a very gripping picture. Tilda Swinton gives an amazing performance as a mother 'on the edge'!

We had a nice simple Hallowe'en weekend, but I always enjoy that time of year. We put up a few decorations and carved a couple of pumpkins as usual. Our pal Teresa came round and we watched "Trick R Treat" and "Halloween H20". I have to say, "Trick R Treat" is a gem of a horror film, very exciting and funny in places -a solid anthology flick.

Our Christmas break was ok as well - we had a nice time off work relaxing. I got Carla the "Battlestar Galactica" DVD box set - the 're-imagined' version of the series that was broadcast between 2003-2009. This afternoon we completed watching series 2 (we were both off work today for Carla's birthday) which is arguably the best series of the show. It has been wonderful to watch these episodes again; the characters are well realised, and for the most part the plots/scripts are very good, and for television the visual effects are excellent. My favourite cast member is James Callis who plays Dr. Giaus Baltar, and his pairing with the tall blonde Cylon woman, Caprica 6 (played by Tricia Helfer) makes for some great scenes. Carla got me "The Benny Hill Show: 1980-1989" DVD boxset, which I've watched a lot of so far and have thoroughly enjoyed! I don't care if the comedy is dated, Benny and his team of regulars, including his main Hill's Angels girls, Louise English and Sue Upton, make me laugh my head off. The best sketch so far has been 'A Tribute to the Lower Tidmarsh Volunteer Fire Brigade'! Great retro tv. :)

Some new TV highlights for us recently have been the first part of series 2 of "The Walking Dead" (what a cracking end to the first half of the season!) and the rather oddball "American Horror Story", which has improved by leaps and bounds over its run. What I like in that show is spotting the horror film/TV cliches in every episode - you can almost tick them off a list! Another TV highlight of recent weeks has been "The World's Strongest Man", this time won by an American, Brian Shaw, on his home turf. Well done to Brian for pipping Savikas to the title in the last event, the Atlas Stones.

Oh, also well done to my pal Trudi for appearing in a National Geographic TV special, called "Roman Murder Mystery" - a very interesting show.

It was sad to hear about the recent passing of Bob Holness, most famous for presenting "Blockbusters". That was in my thoughts recently, as Challenge TV have started to screen episodes from the early 90's, which have been enjoyable to watch.

Anyway, as the weather improves and as we head into spring, hopefully we can start doing some day-trips to castles, historical sites, and do some more country walking again. Looking forward to it! Not to bothered about the Olympics this year, but the Euro 2012 finals should be good.

Halloween weekend and other Autumn stuff.

Back in late October (over the Hallowe'en weekend) we did a couple of fun things. On the Friday before we had a day off work and went over to Hereford, a very historical city in the west country, about 2 1/2 hours from here. Not a bad drive, as there is some lovely countryside to see in Herefordshire. The main reason for our visit was to go to the medieval cathedral and see the 'Mappa Mundi' there. This is a world famous map, created around the end of the 1200's showing the then-known world. It was a fantastic experience for me to see this (being a cartographer by trade.) It was also interesting to see the displays which explained its significance, and the famous chain library...books on chains! We also had a good look around the city centre, an interesting and bustling place with lots of varied shops and street entertainers. Good to do a charity shop trawl as well. We spotted the scene of the recent fire that had threatened to destroy a very old timber building right in the centre. Hopefully that can be saved. We also made a a brief visit to the River Wye. Shame the weather was a bit chilly and windy...brrrr!

On the Sunday - Halloween - we went down to the Rollright Stones, an ancient stone circle site on the Warwickshire/Oxfordshire border. This was to see the Cotswold Order of Druids perform a Samhain ceremony, and to visit somewhere that would be very atmospheric on Halloween. I was worried as we left in the rain, but it soon cleared as we headed South, and was clear but quite cold, and misty later - certainly atmospheric! On the way, we stopped off at the small town of Shipston-on-Stour, which had a very 'country' feel to it, and seemed a bit well-to-do. On our wander around the town centre, we went into an antique shop that was full of teddy bears, and then onto a deli to pick up some nice biscuits to munch!

The Rollright Stones site was easy to find, and certainly fascinating to see. The site is actually three separate locations: the main circle of stones - 'the Kingsmen', the 'Whispering Knights', and the 'King Stone' on the other side of the road. Basically, a smaller version of Stonehenge. As the ceremony wasn't going to start for some time, we had a slow wander around the stones and chatted to some other visitors, many of which had come dressed up in pagan/druid style. Carla got her medieval style cape on later, and we also brought a drum for 'raising energy', as well as two lamps. It was amazing to watch the sun start to set over trees the ceremony started. Soon the ceremony started, and the druids welcomed us and guided us to enter the main stone circle from the East, where two druids (dressed in white robes) held aloft staffs for us to pass under. It looked really good as the sun set and it got dark and misty: the ring of people within the stone circle, surrounding the fire, which had lit jack-o-lanterns around it. The ceremony went on for about an hour or so. To start, the druids invoked the elemental powers by greeting the four cardinal directions of the compass, starting in the east where we entered. Next was an Anglo Saxon tale of heroism and dragons performed by a troop of alternative style morris dancers. Very entertaining! Then we had more ceremony, which included the group taking honey mead and a bit of flapjack, placing sticks into the fire, etc. These were symbolic of making a connection with ancestors and saying farewell to recently deceased family and friends. Things got a bit disorganised on their part I felt; the ceremony dragged on a bit with lots of silence, which surprised me. Oh well. The druids closed the ceremony by giving thanks to the four cardinal powers, and then as a group we all held hands and shouted in a final bout of energy releasing. A fascinating and generally enjoyable visit.

As usual I had to decorate for Halloween. Seemed to take ages to carve those pumpkins, but at least I had a few classic horror films on DVD to watch!

I got to see some fireworks on the Sunday after Bonfire Night, as usual from my kitchen window. The days before had been wet, so Sunday was actually the best day for fireworks here. The people across the green outside of our flat had their annual party.

I went to both the Memorabilia (Birmingham NEC) and Collectormania London (Olympia) shows in November. Very good events to attend. I managed to get some more autographs and chat to the usual friends. I also managed to start selling some of my old collection of film and TV memorabilia; items I no longer want, such as my old British comics got sold to a dealer. Thankfully Ebay has helped in the process as well!

All Hallows Eve weekend

Last Friday we went to visit Tamworth castle (just up the road from here) which was good fun and a bit spooky - see Carla's blog here. I particularly like the 'Hammer Horror' style shot of the castle she took! How atmospheric.

We've watched a few more horror flicks over the last few days for Halloween. We've been working though some old Hammer Horror 'Dracula' titles which have all been entertaining, but do vary in quality! For instance, "Scars of Dracula" was disappointing in terms of its plot and overal 'scope', and featured some of the worst 'flying bat' effects in the history of film! "Dracula: AD 1972" was much better, one reason being that it featured dear old Peter Cushing, and it seemed a lot more kinetic. Shame about the overlong and downright bizzare music sequence at the start though. We also watched a couple of older horror films - "The House on Haunted Hill" (Vincent Price flick from master entertainer William Castle - I love the skeleton!) and "The Legend of Hell House". We also watched the very classy 1979 version of "Dracula". Seeing that lead to Carla posting her list of fave screen Vampires here.

As for Halloween night, on Saturday evening our pal Teresa came round and we watched "Halloween II" and "An American Werewolf in London" - both excellent flicks. We also had some wonderful non-dairy chocolate cake that Carla made, and some non-dairy ice cream to go with it. Yum! We didn't get any 'trick-or-treaters' call (thank goodness) but I did see a few witches and goblins on the other side of the green going to the houses (we live in a flat, so its difficult for the kids to call at our door. Oh well, more sweets for us!) Nice relaxing evening, and the decorations looked good as well.



<--- Some of our Halloween decorations.












<--- with my creations!












<--- Teresa, Carla, and Pingu....as a Witch!

Some recent films and TV watching

On Sunday we started our Halloween 'horrorthon' a bit early, with the DVD of "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave", the third Hammer 'Dracula' film starring Christopher Lee, made in 1968. Have a look at Carla's blog here for the posters. I look forward to seeing the other old Hammer flicks I bought at the weekend over Halloween. Not sure why I love the Halloween thing, but it's my favourite festival of the year, and Autumn is my favourite season - I've always liked seeing the leaves fall from the trees, and the slight chill in the air. I've always had a soft spot for Halloween related trinkets, and I carve a pumpkin or two every year - and they are usually given silly names! Anyway, as far as other entertainment goes, I'm sure I'll dig out some other classic films from the DVD shelves for us to watch. Postal strike permitting, I should be able to get some more flicks from the good old internet.

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We are following "FlashForward" on Channel 5, which is really entertaining! ('Your new TV obsession' said one very positive review.) The premise is intriguing: what if everyone on the planet blacked out for a short period of time, and then woke up with a clear vision of their future in six months time. Apart from the dealing with the choas, injury and death the event brought about, what about how society deals with the reasons for the event, and how it occurred? How would people live with knowing their future, and what about those that had no vision?

"FlashForward" features the usual excellent production values of US television, a strong cast, and after four excellent episodes, some interesting character dynamics have developed. The show reminds me of why I enjoyed "Heroes" in its first series.



<------ Joseph Finnes surveys the devastation caused by the black-outs in Episode 1 of "FlashForward".



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The sci-fi channel have started to repeat every episode of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", so having missed it first time around back in the late 1990's, we've started to watch them. Thoroughly entertaining it is too! We completed series 1 last night, when Buffy defeated the Master. A very well written show that balances humour, scares, action and teen drama. The cast are a joy to watch, particularly Sarah Michelle Gellar. Series 2 starts tonight - woohoo!

****
There have been some cracking programmes on BBC 4 recently in their Electric Revolution season, the highlight for me being "Micro Men", a drama about two wizards of the early days of home computing: Clive Sinclair (Alastair Armstrong) and his once employee, Chris Curry (Tim Freeman.) The show follows the battle of their rival companies to get their computer product to be chosen by the BBC for a government run programme, to encourage computing in schools. Also, the winning machine would be featured on BBC computer television programmes. The drama focuses on what is essentially a personal rivalry between two very intelligent and driven people. Acorn Computers (run by Curry) ends up winning the BBC contract, although Sinclair hits gold with his high selling Spectrum machine. Over time however, both entrepreneurs became unhappy with the direction their products were taking: Sinclair's Spectrum became the highest selling games machine of the time (to quote Sinclair in the show: "Jet Set F*ucking Willy!") while Curry's Acorn Electron was thought of as a business/serious machine. Both wanted a bit of each of their rival's market. Hence Sinclair's attempt with the QL machine. However, the good times soon come to an end for both companies when the computer sales bubble burst at the end of 1984.

With hindsight, it seems clear that if both had put aside personal rivalry and ego and joined forces, they would have had the ability to take on the American and Japanese computer giants. The final scene in the credit sequence is both clever and brilliant.


Tim Freeman as Chris Curry (left) and Alastair Armstrong as Clive Sinclair. ------>

Halloween pumpkins, a collectors show at Coventry Football club, and Daniel Craig!

Last Friday, Halloween, I was able to get out of work a bit early, and after a doctors visit and a little shopping, head off home to get the house ready. I put up my usual array of halloween decorations, mostly comprimising of pumpkins in various guises that I've collected over the years, including two new real ones that I carved. Of course, we had to name them after Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross this year! The display was ok, but I think previous years have been better. Never mind, it looked ok.

Carla and her work pal Teresa were at a work event until 8pm (see her blog), so I went and picked them after that and then we all came back to the flat to have a bit of a horror film session! Whilst eating a schlubby dinner of saugages and chips, and then cake to follow, the three of us watched the DVD of the John Carpenter 1978 film, "Halloween" (this DVD version contains four new scenes, which were actually shot for the 1980 TV screening) as it was the film's 30th anniversary, and it being the proper night and all, it seemed appropriate! Also, Teresa had never seen it, so it was interesting to show this classic to a new viewer! As Carla says, it's good to analyse a 'classic' and explain to somebody new why it was a success - the most successfuly independent released film of all time - an honour it held for about twelve years. I love the film, even though I have some issues with the plot, because Carpenter has a wonderful skill of achieving a creepy atmosphere through moody photography, and simple yet effective theme music. The way the film is edited builds the tension slowly. Anyway, after the film finished, I was all up for watching "Halloween II", but Teresa had to go, so I lent it to her the DVD instead (she hadn't seen that either!) Maybe I can get her to watch "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (a guilty pleasure of mine - I love that film even though everyone else thinks its rubbish!)

On Saturday, our pal Mandy came down to stay, and we went off to the 'Collectormania Midlands' event, held at the Coventry Ricoh Arena. At the show we met up with our friends Kevin and Gerald. Like the last one held there I went to, it was a bit quiet, but fun to attend. It was the usual mix of dealers selling old and new tv/film related merchandise, and had the added attraction of some celebrities signing autographs. As the leading guest was Dirk Benedict from the "A-Team" and "Battlestar Galactica", the organisers had two "A-Team" original vehicles on show, the van and the corvette. My pal Kevin was in his element getting Dirk's autograph and having a picture with the van! We also went to a free talk by Dirk, where he rambled on a bit about various things including his son playing for Southend United Football club, and how Mr T and George Peppard didn't talk to each other on the set of the "A-Team" - quite a mix! After the show, we all went back to the flat for a bit of a chat and drink (and to finish the cake!)

After Kevin and Gerald left, and after a quick dinner, the three of us headed off to the cinema to see the latest James Bond flick, "Quantum of Solace", which was released the day before. It had been raining heavily since the early evening, which put a damper on the local authority-organised firework display which we passed. At the cinema, we ran from the car trying not to get too wet. Unfortunately, as we just turned up at the cinema without booking, we had to sit only five rows from the front, which made the screen very big and too close for our liking. Oh well.

The film picks up 'about an hour' after the the last scene in "Casino Royale". We see James Bond in a high octane car chase on the Italian coast. Well, I say 'see', because to be honest, I couldn't make out what on earth was going on for that whole opening sequence. It was edited very choppy and fast - too fast! Anyway, I was irritated by that, and the film seemed to be playing ok in the non-action sequences, but every time there was a chase, fight, explosion etc, the director and editor seemed to go a bit over the top with the fast editing. Arrgrghh!! Films that give me a headache in the opening five minutes don't really appeal.

The most effective part of this rather disjointed (and ultimately disappointing) film was the opera scene, which was very thrilling and well thought out. Funnily enough, his choppy editing style worked at this point. So, to sum up....the plot? Fine - an interesting continuation of the first film. Acting, locations, photography, sound, visual effects, all good. Editing on the action scenes? DREADFUL. That's a word you don't want to appear in an action film. It would have been nice just to have some of the action scenes edited like previous Bond pictures. If somebody could re-edit the action scenes to tone down the over the top cross-cutting, it would be a 10/10 movie. I'll give it 6/10 until that happens. Shame.

Hmm, I'm thinking the film might work better on the small screen. We'll see when the DVD comes out.

Sunday was a lazy day. I wandered into town after Mandy left, and picked up the DVD of "Star Wars: Robot Chicken": the silly frame by frame animation show, which in this episode lampoons all things "Star Wars". I adore the Jar Jar Binks/Darth Vader skit when Binks dies and comes back as a Jedi ghost. "Mee-sa all spark-lee glow-ee!" After that, we watched another DVD, the 1960 drama "Peeping Tom" - a superb (if unsettling) tale of a deranged film-maker, Mark Lewis (played with surprising sympathy by the excellent Carl Boehm - pictured on the right with glamour model Pamela Green) who murders women and films their deaths in order to catch their fear on film, all to become "a martyr to psychology". A stunning film. The old Channel 4 documentary included on the DVD was very interesting as well - particularly the piece about the negative reaction to the film on its original release.