Beasties and Bogles and Things That Go Bump In The Night...

I've had a welcome return to the fantasy genre recently and I can't get enough of it! Seriously, I feel like I've run out of entertainment, despite having oodles of DVDs and books awaiting my attention.

It started with Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith, the latest in the Discworld for kids series. Tiffany Aching (Granny Weatherwax JR) is back and so are the Nac Mac Feegle and this time they're in the Ramtop mountains so Granny and Nanny make an appearance too. Huzzah! Love it! Some people accuse Terry of just writing the same story again and again and again but I personally don't care, I love that story and it's the details that make them such a delight to read. I was reading it on my lunch break at work and chuckling so much my colleagues had to ask what was going on. For example (and I'm paraphrasing here so bear with me) "When it came to being odd, Mrs Treason took the cake. In fact she also took all the biscuits, the tea set, the tea spoons and old clothes you had lying around..." Or words to those effect. Love it!!

I almost spiraled into a Terry Pratchett binge but American Gods by Neil Gaiman came my way. Another brilliant read that I would thoroughly recommend. The old gods in America are in trouble. They'd been brought there by settlers in the new world and then for the most part abandoned and forgotten. The new gods (of technology, entertainment, etc.) want to pick a fight and a chap called Shadow gets stuck somewhere in the middle. Another cracking good yarn by Mr Gaiman. Apparently they're making a film out of Stardust, I do hope they don't screw it up. I'm apprehensive about the version of Hogfather that Sky are going to broadcast over Christmas: Susan never looked like that in my head!!

Fuelled by Pratchett and Gaiman I borrowed The 10th Kingdom on DVD from Kirsi. Man, I love that mini series too. Virginia and her father go through a magic mirror in Central Park and end up in the land of fairy tales, 200 years after the golden age of Cinderella, Snow White, Queen Riding Hood and Queen Gretel. They're on the run from Trolls (singing the BeeGees) and Rutger Hauer as a very, very scary huntsman. It's great and it's got totty in the form of Wolf (pictured). I defy any girly not to fall in love with that character! It's so good in fact that Kirsi has only lent me the DVDs for a week because she'll have a panic attack if she doesn't get to stroke and pet them regularly. I must get my own copy.

The fantasy fest was topped off with a trip to the cinema to see Pan's Labyrinth, the new film by Guillermo Del Torro (Blade II, Hellboy). This is about a young girl in Spain in the 1940's. Her and her mother have travelled to the countryside to stay with her new stepfather. He's a captain in Franco's army and they are trying to capture and stop the local Communist rebels. Parallel to the story of the rebels and the captain runs the story of Ofelia and the fairies. She meets a faun in the Labyrinth who tells her she's the long lost daughter of a king and she must complete 3 tasks to get back to her father's kingdom. It's dark and different and brilliant in the best tradition of grotesque European fairy tales. It's got a 15 certificate and Naomi, Emily and I all ended up with our hands over our eyes at various points. Just brilliant!!

Now I have to find more fantasy or I am going to go on that Pratchett binge... Where's my cow?!?

Yes, I See Your Movie Film

Bravo Borat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6153420.stm

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has defended his controversial creation Borat, saying he is a tool to reveal racism.

Baron Cohen dropped his alter ego for the first time since the Borat film was released, for an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

"The joke is not on Kazakhstan," he said. "I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist."

The film has topped the box office for a second week in both the US and UK.

The film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, has a naive yet enthusiastic Kazakh reporter meeting with people across the United States.

Prejudice 'absurd'

It has upset some because of Borat's anti-semitic, sexist and racist comments. A pair of US students are suing the film studio, 20th Century Fox, claiming they were duped into appearing in the film.

But Cohen - a practising Jew - said the film ridiculed what people were prepared to believed about other cultures.

"Borat works essentially as a tool," the former Ali G star said.

"By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice, whether it's anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism."

He added: "I think part of the movie shows the absurdity of holding any form of racial prejudice, whether it's hatred of African-Americans or of Jews."

I've had a pretty quiet time this week, saw a few movies, hung out a bit and so forth. It's been a week for navel gazing really. I was at the funeral of my old English teacher and mother of one of my friends last Thursday. Pippa Donald was, by all accounts, one of the finest teachers you could ever hope to meet and it's just coming to me now how much that woman taught me, and not just about Shakespeare. She loved a laugh, had a wicked sense of humour and brooked no nonsense from anybody. She scared the bejesus out of me quite a lot, even after we'd left school, but she's one of the women I most admire. She was claimed prematurely by cancer but didn't let it get her down and didn't ask "Why me?" She just got on with it and was teaching right up until the October break. What an inspiration! Oh, and she introduced me to one of my favourite Shakespeare quotes, from As You Like It:

Audrey: I am not a slut, though thank the gods I am foul.
Touchstone: Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness! Sluttishness may come hereafter.

All in all it's been a bit of a strange time recently, there seems to have been all sorts going on with everybody. There's been a higher than usual instance of couples breaking up, couples getting engaged, pregnancies being announced, things breaking down and so forth. Bruce keeps muttering about sychronicity from some hippy dippy book he's reading so I'm starting to wonder if the universe is messing with us. I'm not sure what the creative forces could be trying to tell me because one of my coincidences was telling Zoe and Byron about Shark Attack 3: Megaladon (an extremely shite film that's so bad it's funny. Huge prehistoric sharks man!!) and the star of that film being on Jonathon Ross the next evening. Erk? What? Are the creative forces telling me to watch more pish movies??

Talking of pish movies I went to see The Prestige yesterday. On the face of it you can't really go wrong: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, David Bowie. Magicians. Rivalry. Glamorous assistants.... For the most part the film was quite watchable, despite Christian Bale's character being thoroughly unlikeable, but it just got really stupid at the end. I won't say anything more than that but the phrase "Oh come on! You're kidding! What??" just about sums my reaction to the end of the movie. It may be controvertial and people won't believe me but I'd say spend your money on Borat instead. I don't know about the ethics of making fun of Khazakstan (if you believe that portrayal is real then you are a fuckwit though and deserve to have the widdle taken out of you) but I laughed mightily throughout that film. Plus, how often do you get to see a naked fat man being chased through a convention of mortgage brokers? (I must track down a mortgage broker and ask them...)

From Schubert to Shoes

Well, I had quite an eclectic weekend just past. It was started off with a trip to the RSNO Symphonies at Six at the Usher Hall. How highbrow! Well, good ol' 5pm.co.uk came through with another good offer and I thought "Why not?" I don't think it was a special offer actually but I would never have found out about the concert if 5pm hadn't emailed me so Bravo to them. The programme was supposed to be Brahms Symphony No. 1 followed by Schubert Fantasia D940 in F minor (piano duet) but there was a slight hitch... 12 of the orchestra were stuck on a train somewhere between Glasgow and Edinburgh. D'oh! Luckily they were on their way so we had the piano duet first, or movement for four hands as it was charmingly called. It's a very lovely piece of music in my opinion and Louise and I were quite taken with the French dude (Frank Braley) who accompanied the conductor (Stephane Deneve). Bruce was less impressed, though I suspect this is because he was jealous of his crown of foppish French hair ;oP

Then the rest of the orchestra had turned up and they could get on with the Brahms. Huzzah! There we were, enjoying the symphony and I happened to notice one of the violinists on the right hand side ducking out of a door. I don't know if it's coincidence or not but a few moments later the fire alarm went off and we all had to evacuate the building. Blimey! More bad luck. Well, not for me actually because I needed to see a man about a dog and took the opportunity to nip into the Trav bar. They did finish the concert after that, but about half the audience had beggared off in the interim. Needless to say the audience got one of the biggest rounds of applause I've ever heard at the end - mostly I think for managing to get to the end of the concert. Again, bravo to them and I'll definitely be back for their next Symphony at Six in December. That is supposed to be an Elgar cello concerto, Nielsen Symphony No. 4 and Bach solo cello suite no 3 in C major. Ooh! Can't wait!

After the symphony we met up with Craig and headed to Phenecia for dinner. Oh burpalicious my friends! Love that place! We had hummus and pitta to start and then I had the sunshine chicken. Yum yum yum yum yum. After dinner, as an antidote to all that highbrow culture stuff, a bit of Russ Mayer was the order of the day. I picked up a copy of 'Up' a few months ago for cheap in Fopp and we thought we'd give that a go. My goodness me! I perhaps should have read the back more carefully, but I doubt that would have helped. Nowhere on the box did it mention that the film starts with Hitler being sodomised by a bloke dressed as a pilgrim father. Then Mr Hitler gets eaten by a pirhana fish. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Got to love it! That's the start of a big tits and shagging and nonsense fest in the best traditions of Mr Mayer. It was ace!

On Saturday I finally gave in to the little voice inside me that's been telling me to put a bit more in the dressing up box. I was in Cameron Toll and before I knew it I was in New Look and at the till with my ruby slippers (see picture). Oh man! They are fantastic. I love them! They were quite cheap and, once I pick up a pair of stripey tights, I'm sorted for any future fancy dress parties I may be invited to. I can definitely justify the purchase that way ;o) They are just wonderful though and I will probably wear them out to a few Xmas nights out. I want to wear them to work just now though! Sigh.

Saturday evening was my old boss' fireworks do down at Bankton House. There was a huge bonfire, Crombie's sausages aplenty, mulled cider and a spectacular (for somebody's back garden anyway) fireworks display with accompanying music. Apparently Yvette's husband had been on a fireworks safety course this year, so that was reassuring. I'm not sure exactly what that means but one would hope it means you get access to bigger fireworks! The display was great though and the smell of bonfire only stayed in my hair for about 2 days afterwards. The mulled cider caught up with me on Sunday though and most of the day was spent in the company of Buffy and the Scooby gang. I'm on season 3 at the moment and I'm getting quite impatient as my Angel box set arrived last week and I'm itching to start watching those. I'm going to try and do it properly though and maybe watch it in tandem with season 4 of Buffy. Or I may just go 'Feck it!' and run off on a big Angel binge. Watch this space....

Kicks Andrew Lloyd Webber's Ass!

So Halloween eh? Spookiness abounds and trickle treaters run around trying to get something for nothing (Humph! They were guisers in my day. Earn your sweeties!) . I had no spooky plans for Tuesday until a pair of tickets for a showing of the 1925 silent movie version of The Phantom of the Opera came my way. The film was being shown in the Usher Hall with full organ accompaniment.

Now, I've never seen the ALW version on the stage (Icky! Ptooey!) but I did see the dreadful movie version of that the other year and I've read Masquerade by Terry Pratchett so I am familiar with the story. Somehow this version made more sense though, because it was pointed out that the Phantom was in fact an insane escaped criminal called Erik. Aaaaah! Now the motive becomes clear - he's a flipping loony. Trying to make the Phantom a sympathetic character is a big mistake in my opinion. Psychotic evil git - I can buy that. Christine was still an idiot though and her boyfriend was called Raoul. I just kept thinking "Heeeey laydeeez!"

http://www.oh-yeah.co.uk/

If you're not familiar with that one check out the web site. Raoul can dance like panther!!

Anyway, back to the Phantom...

I'm not sure how tongue-in-cheek the movie was when it was first released but there was more chuckling in the aisles that screaming. I suppose this could be because the silent movie genre has been around long enough to seem cheesy now. Apart from that it was still very enjoyable. Good ol' Lon Chaney (pictured) was suitably spooky but for the first part of the movie the Phantom was just shown in silouhette. It seemed like Christine was being coached by Orson Welles!

Right, I'm off to laugh at Raoul dancing like a panther... or maybe he will dive for me :o)