Take two parts western, one part Blade Runner. Put them into a blender, add a garnish of tart one-liners and some actually kinda grisly violence. And don’t forget to kill a few characters off just to show that, hey, your’re not messing around!

No, I didn’t really care for Serenity. Look outside the Whedon-cult worship, and it’s a professionally made B-movie with some great dialogue but some clunky-ass storytelling, a few very dodgy moments of CG, and a visual style that did the usual “We’ll shoot it exactly like the TV series but with REALLY BIG SETS!” thing. It’ll be interesting to see how it does, as dark-toned, brutal sci-fi has hardly gone down great guns at the box office recently.

I’m Thirty One. And, to be honest, I really don’t want to be here in Edinburgh anymore. I’m going to take the rest of today off- I was hoping the films would help, but- to be honest- they didn’t. The “Battle in Heaven” party last night turned out to be lots of people I didn’t know crammed into a tiny side-room of a club, with Mexican music played at ear-bleeding levels. I stuck it out for forty minutes, before making a run for it. Not my idea of a good time.

And, I’ve got to finish the Romero piece by tomorrow morning. I think I’m going to go and have a look at it now- as the sooner I get it out the way, the sooner I can relax (at least until tomorrow). The next few days are just stretching away from me at a dizzying rate, and the fact that I’ve got over a week until I go home… I’m feeling like I’ve made a really big mistake in coming here. I know I haven’t, but I can’t help that it feels like that.

Anyhow, I’m going to go and give myself the birthday I deserve. I forsee fun, sugar, and as much surreal theatre as I can get my hands on.