No 10 - They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha Ha!

They came for the model makers,
But I wasn't a model maker so I did nothing.

They came for the musicians,
But I wasn't a musician so I did nothing.

They came for the painters,
But I wasn't a painter so I did nothing.

They came for the writers,
But I wasn't a writer so I did nothing.

They came for the actors,
But I wasn't an actor so I did nothing.

Then they came for me,
But my networking and schmoozing skills were so bad that no-one knew who the fuck I was.


With apologies to:
Martin Niemoller and Nigel Blackwell

No 9 - PASSIVE!! aggressive......

Somebody peed me off today..... I was probably (in fact I definitely was) being over sensitive (as per usual), but instead of saying something to them, I became sulky. I don't even think this person had any idea that they'd upset me, but sulk away I did, like the spoilt little brat I am.

I dislike the part of my personality that makes me act like this. I wish I could just come out and say "oh you've pissed me off actually", but for whatever psychological reason, I can't. It's at moments like these that I realise just how immature and emotionally stunted I am......

Unfortunately, I think there's a part of me that actually gets off on having these kind of feelings. I fear that I'm looking for any excuse to be hateful. It appears that the body can become addicted to the chemicals produced during these negative episodes, and sure enough, it does make me feel weirdly high.

Looking back now, I feel fairly ashamed and embarrassed by my behaviour, particularly as I genuinely like this person; hopefully they didn't really notice, or if they did, let's hope it did nothing more than amuse them.....

Sorry about the self regarding, self indulgent nature of this post, but I just needed a bit of catharsis.....

Thanks for reading and remember:

I LOVE YOU ALL!!
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No 8 - It's a Shame About Ray.....

When I was sixteen years old, I met Mr Ray Harryhausen. Somehow, my friend J and I managed to blag our way into his studio in Kensal Green, North West London.

He was bang in the middle of filming Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, and (looking back now), was obviously under quite a lot of pressure, but he was nothing less than gracious and dealt with our (no doubt) naive enquiries with patience and good humour .

He showed us the "Trog" puppet and the smaller baboon puppet, which were both still screwed to the animation table, and then, on an editing bench, cranked through a few seconds of the previous days rushes.

To a couple of fan-boys like us, it was all absolutely thrilling.

We must have been in his studio not much more than fifteen minutes, but it's a quarter of an hour I've never forgotten.......

He came across as a thoroughly decent chap.

So to you, Raymond Frederick Harryhausen, I raise my glass.....

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No 7 - Well I liked it........

Here is a list of films that I know aren't very good, (or at least the general consensus is they're not very good), but I still like them nonetheless. This isn't one of those silly "guilty pleasures" things either. I'm resoundingly unapologetic about liking these. (Well perhaps I'm a little apologetic about some of them....)

So, in no particular order here goes.....

Clash of the Titans (yes, the remake)

Avatar

Godzilla (once again, the remake)

1941

King Kong (the Peter Jackson version)

Exorcist 2

Zardoz

Alien 3

Alien 4

Titanic

Body Double

The Core

Troy (particularly the Directors Cut)

King Arthur

Hulk (the Ang Lee version)

Frankenstein (the Kenneth Branagh version)

And probably lots of others I can't think of at the moment.........

I Thank You
X

No 6 - I'm Spartacus....

Just a quick one about the first series of Spartacus which I'm in the process of watching at the moment. So far it's proving to be really good fun..... I mean, it's no Game of Thrones (which I shall be writing about in a future post) or even the HBO series Rome (which I also liked a lot) but still very enjoyable nonetheless.....

Visually it's quite reminiscent of that ludicrously silly film 300, in that most of it is shot against green screen, but the technique is used very inventively and adds nicely to the heightened melodrama of the plot and action.

The term "sex and violence" could have been invented purely for this series, because it is fantastically violent (albeit with most of the blood CGI generated), and fabulously rude..... At times it resembles the sort of soft focus, soft core porn that was popular in the 1970's. Like Game of Thrones, it frequently makes use of the "sexposition" scene, whereby lots of slightly dull but relevant to the plot information can be imparted to the audience whilst the characters are "on the job", thereby making all that exposition seem ever so slightly less dull....

Acting wise, particular mention must go to Lucy Lawless and John Hannah who make an extremely entertaining double act as Lucretia and Batiatus, the cash strapped husband and wife owners of the Ludus (or Gladiator School). Viva Bianca, playing the lascivious Ilithyia is good value too.....

Of course one cannot help but mention the tragic passing of Andy Whitfield in the lead role, who died of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma soon after the first season was finished. Very sad indeed.......

So all in all, I'd recommend Spartacus: Blood and Sand. It's a little bit "soapy" at times, but generally, it's good, rude, bloody fun.

I thank you
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