Home

  • TV EYE: Doctor Who, S4 E013: Journey’s End

    Okay- it’s two weeks late, but I was never likely to let that stop me…

    Fear the spoilers…

    ,

  • The Book(s) of Lost Things

    Holiday reading:- (Most of which was thanks to the e-book reader on my Asus Eee PC, a device I’m finally starting to seriously appreciate…)
    1: Farthing, by Jo Walton – an alternate history whodunnit, set in a world where the UK made peace with Hitler directly after Dunkirk, this was excellent stuff, functioning both as a great mystery and a very unsettling piece of fiction, allowing the really dark edges of the story (and the wider implications) to sink in gradually rather than going the sledgehammer route. It’s also very well characterised, and the first time in a while that I’ve read a genuine whodunnit. Powerful, effective, and very relevant.

    2: Infected, by Scott Siegler – a very Crichton-esque tale of a mysterious outbreak of psychotic disorders that turns out to be connected to an odd disease with very horrible consequences. It’s a very good pageturner, and he’s obviously done his research, but it all starts getting silly halfway through, and part of the central character’s conflict seems to be won by him embracing his similarities with his abusive father, which I don’t think was quite what Siegler was aiming for. It’s fun, fast-paced and fantastically gory, but you’ll have forgotten it twenty minutes after finishing.

    3: Four and Twenty Blackbirds, by Cherie Priest – An engaging tale of Voodoo and ghosts in the Deep South, although I can’t help feeling that the more the overarching plot becomes important, the less interesting the book gets. There’s a real charm in the far more episodic first four chapters that the book can’t quite sustain, and I can’t help feeling it might have been better as a short novella (or even a collection of short stories).

    4: Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman – To be honest, I didn’t finish this, and am not certain if I will. I seriously admire Newman’s short fiction (the collection Unforgivable Stories is wonderful), but I really have trouble with his novels. It doesn’t help that Anno Dracula is essentially doing the same thing that Alan Moore went on to do with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Newman’s stuff suffers from some of the problems that have admittedly started affecting the League (particularly in The Black Dossier) – the fact that if you can’t keep up with the multitude of references, it gets very difficult to care. There’s some fantastic ideas here, but it does feel a little too much like an intellectual exercise rather than a story that’s compelling me to find out what happens next.

  • What’s Going On

    For me, it’s very difficult to return from a two week holiday and not feel like Sam saying “Well, I’m back” at the end of Lord of the Rings. Fourteen days always ends up feeling like a long time – but I think this break has been good for me. Two weeks in southern Spain, staying with my in-laws in a rather lovely and roomy house that’s about an hour from Alicante, and gave us all plenty of opportunities to not do very much and sit by the pool. There was some exploring, a few trips, and an expedition to the beach (which was the most touristy beach I’ve ever been on – and actually gave me some major Jaws flashbacks, mainly because I’ve never actually swum at a big, wide, American-style touristy beach when it’s sunny – blame my Cornish upbringing…), but most of this time was spent being inactive and recharging my batteries. This isn’t something I’m always good at – my brain is very adept at tying itself in knots and creating things for me to get worked up about – but overall, it’s been a very good holiday for me, one that gave me the chance to see plenty of Spaghetti Western-style scenery and have lots of fun. The journey back was relatively smooth (although extremely hard work), and today is going to be mostly set aside for recovery and general lying around going “uhhhhhh”…

    It certainly helped that the run-up to the holiday was one of my most insanely busy work periods ever. Cramming proofreading, reviews and interviews into less than a week was certainly an education- from the beginning of the Edinburgh Festival through to the departure for the holiday, almost every single hour of my life was accounted for. I’ve now got a slightly quieter time, so hopefully I’ll be able to do some sorting out and re-orient myself. There are things I need to do to get myself back on track, and lots of them revolve around me doing lots and lots of writing.

    Plenty to do. Not enough time to do it.

    And- in case you were wondering – there’s still no news about the novel…

  • Departure Gate

    I’d love to blog in-depth, but it’s far too early, and I’m far too tired. Suffice to say, we’re off to Spain for two weeks tomorrow (well, technically speaking it’s today…), and I will hopefully be able to recharge my batteries. There’s a remote possibility I may get regular access to the net in that time- otherwise, look after yourselves, behave, and we’ll be back in two weeks to try and fill in the blanks of what’s been an incessantly busy time.

    Right now, the idea of lolling by a pool and doing very little sounds incredibly nice…

    See ya soon…

  • TV EYE: Doctor Who, S4 E12: The Stolen Earth

    Fear the spoilers…

    ,

  • TV EYE: Doctor Who, S4 E11: Turn Left

    A double bill of Whoblogging, thanks to Edinburgh Festival commitments. Later, I’ll be looking at the continuity-tastic ‘The Stolen Earth’, but here it’s last week’s edition of the RTD rollercoaster. Fear the spoilers…

    ,

  • Istambul (Not Constantinople)

    Today is the trip home, so won’t be too heavy duty…

    I wrote that on Thursday morning, and boy was I regretting it by Thursday evening. Thanks to a whole selection of weird occurrences my supposedly simple four-hour journey by train from Edinburgh to London (having basked in the magic that was WALL-E in the morning) turned out to be an eight hour journey into one of the lower circles of hell. ‘Signal Problems’ meant we got stranded at Doncaster station for 2 1/2 hours with virtually no news, and then limped the rest of the way into London, getting in at 11.10 (instead of 7.20). And, just to compound things, I was too late to get to Waterloo for the last train (at 11.20), so I was bundled into a Taxi with a couple of other Hampshire-based passengers (paid for by the Train company) and driven on a fairly epic journey back home. 2.10 am was my arrival time, so Friday was, to be honest, a wash-out. I managed to get myself together for the interview with Tarsem Singh, but other than that was not able to get much done. Today was a little better, however, and I’m getting back into the swing of things. I wish I did have the chance to slump, but there’s proofreading to do, reviews to finish, and an interview to write up, and other problems to sort. Friday is the day when we’re off on holiday, and everything needs to be done by then. At some point, I’m going to stop, and breathe out a very long sigh of relief. Just not quite yet….

  • Crosseyed and Painless

    Ah. There you are. I was wondering where you’d got to.

    It’s funny- I can remember Edinburgh Festivals in the past where I got to do regular blogging. Not this year, though- it’s Thursday morning, I’m going to be heading off to see my final screening soon (Pixar’s WALL-E, one I’ve been seriously looking forward to), and I think I’ve been able to pause twice in the last seven days. Balancing two interviews, the related work (transcribing, editing), getting enough sleep and watching as many movies as possible has not been the easiest job- it’s been one of those times when every single hour is spoken for, and you simply can’t take your eye off the ball. And, just to make things even better, I don’t even get to stop. Today is the trip home, so won’t be too heavy duty- but tomorrow, I’m interviewing Tarsem Singh, director of The Fall, I’ve got a stack of proofreading to do when I’m home, plus two reviews already of films I’ve seen here. We’re off on holiday a week on Friday- and for various reasons, the time up until then is simply going to be insane. I’ll get through it, but I can’t help feeling it’d be nice to acheive a little balance in my life- going from the kind of frustrating “what the hell am I going to do now?” quiet of a couple of weeks ago to this kind of full-on craziness is a little too much to cope with at times.

    Whoblogging on last week’s episode will be happening, but at a point where I’m actually able to string two sentences together. It might need to be a double-bill with this week’s instalment (an episode which looks like it’s certainly going to be off-the-scale in terms of “How many past characters can we cram in?”, which isn’t necessarily a good sign…)

    Now- must go and persuade myself that I am really awake.

    Zzzzzz

    ,

  • I Ain’t Got Time To Bleed…

    Saturday evening, and enthusiasm is not exactly running high. Partly it’s the general sleep deprivation of hostel living (no matter how long you sleep, it’s never quite enough…), and partly it’s the general stresses and strains of trying to fit watching as many films as possible into as short a space, along with doing all the work I’m doing on the interviews. The first one has been transcribed and roughly thrown together, which’ll make tomorrow much easier- but I’ve got another to do tomorrow, and ideally they’re all due in on Monday.

    Between all this, I haven’t had many opportunities to truly enjoy the bit I like of film festivals- sitting in a screening room watching lots of movies. I’m averaging two a day at a moment (but will hopefully increase once I get past Monday), and yesterday was TIRIMASU, a heartwarming and very charming Dutch drama about an ageing actress, and BANANAZ, a behind-the-scenes documentary on cartoon band Gorillaz which was thinly made, far too shambolic and at least half an hour too long. Tonight I’ve got two hours of a documentary about the Abu Girab photography scandal (it’ll be depressing, but at least I’ll be paid for it), and hopefully the evening will get a lot more fun with creepy-looking Spanish time travel murder mystery TIMECRIMES.

    I also went to a party last night- but film related parties are very rarely the kind of environments where I can have fun. The free booze was nice and the place was fairly roomy, but I didn’t truly enjoy myself, and it generally ended up with me feeling that I need to throw a lot more energy into my writing. I’m never going to feel like I completely belong here, so it’d be far more sensible to head in a direction where I have a chance…

    The one advantage is that with my decision to not do the whole festival, I’m not too far from my departure date. Next Thursday is my exit, and if I can keep myself busy, I really don’t think it’ll take too long to come around.

    Tick tock tick tock…

    ,

  • For Sleepyheads Only

    Arrived in Edinburgh- and it’s strange to be here without the mania of the Fringe Festival going on. It’s almost as if the city is half dressed, and there’s a certain feeling of energy that’s lacking. Speaking of lacking energy, I’ve also briefly encountered the problems of staying in a hostel when someone in my eight-bed dorm on the first night turned out to be an epic snorer. And, of course, he had to be on the bunk directly above me. And, to make life even weirder, he turned out to be a journalist I know who’s also covering the Festival- but thankfully, last night turned out to be a whole lot easier. Yesterday, though, was a bit of a wash-out thanks to being so ridiculously tired, but I still managed two films- MARRIED LIFE (a stylish noir-esque drama, well acted but a little too on-the-nose) and ELEGY (Brilliantly acted, gorgeously made, but very dour and a little hard going at times).

    This morning, I’ve got the first of three interviews I’m doing at the festival (one of which, ironically, is happening next Friday as a phone interview because I’ll be back home by then…), and I’ve got to try and factor in sorting the interview (and the one on Sunday) as well as seeing as much as is possible. I’ve said it before- Film Festivals aren’t completely designed for human beings, but I’m here, I’m busy, and I’m going to get through it somehow.

    The adventures continue…

    ,