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!

weekend, films etc

We've had a nice relaxing weekend so far, but Carla and I have done our exercise workouts steadily over the last week or two, and continued over the weekend, completing a rotation of the "Slow and Heavy" programme by Cathe Friedrich. The workout targets the main areas of the body that need attention, such as the chest, back, arms etc. I'm very sore now, but it's worth doing to keep fit! We've also done some cardio workouts in between.

After popping into town to do a bit of shopping, today we watched another one of those Hammer 'Dracula' movies I bought last weekend, this time it was "Taste the Blood of Dracula" (1968) which was very entertaining, and far better than the one we watched last time (it was a direct sequel to that film.) We are enjoying this 'horrorthon' of ours, so I've ordered some more classic flicks: "Scars of Dracula", "The Legend of Hell House" and "The House on Haunted Hill", all of which we hope to watch on Halloween next Saturday! I also bought my pumpkins yesterday morning, and while in the shops had a look at the stuff on sale and picked up some other little halloweeny trinkets. Can't wait to trim up! Oh, late last night one of the channels was showing "Fright Night"- a classic from the 80's - which I must buy for the collection!

"Buffy The Vampire Slayer" continues to be a complete joy to watch. We are following it on the sci-fi channel and are up to episode 3 of series 2 at the mo. Spike (played by James Masters) has just turned up. Great character, but has a slightly dodgy English accent. I've been told by a friend that it gets better over the coming seasons!

Oh, it was also very nice to get an extra hour to our Sunday as the clocks went back last night! Also, glad to see that the terrible weather forcast never became a reality!

Lastly, I have discovered dark chocolate Mars bars!! Yay!

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.

****
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".



****
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. ------>