Aches and pains. Feeling like I’ve been run over by a small (but perfectly formed) truck.

I had a good night last night.

Headed to the GUY X party- and it was a walk and a half. In the north area of Edinburgh, down a pretty major hill and finally to a place called the Edinburgh Academy. The party was happening in their gymnasium, and it was fun trying to find it- I ended up wandering around this Victorian country house that looked like UNIT HQ from old episodes of Doctor Who- I even ended up on the roof at one point, purely by accident. After ten minutes of thinking this was a very complicated way of getting me out in the middle of nowhere and getting me assassinated, I finally found some signs to the party (even though they were in the traditional airport style of aiming in seemingly random directions), and eventually got there. A big, traditional, wooden-floored gymnasium complete with climbing ropes. I started in on the red wine fairly quickly, guzzled pretzels like there was no tomorrow, and then- the DJ arrived. And started playing Sixties tunes.

Well, that was it. I danced my ass off for most of the night, in the kind of mad, extravagant, I-don’t-give-a-damn-what-I-look-like style that I’m able to get when I’ve got the right music and I’ve got enough room. I was able to work out an awful lot of my tension from the last week, and feel a hell of a lot better as a result. I was also asked by two seperate people if I was a professional dancer, which really started to freak me out. I talked, I mingled, I had a tremendous amount of fun, and the evening vanished in an exciting, adrenalised blur. Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, the best time I’ve had in Edinburgh so far.

And then, I managed to almost spoil it by accidentally leaving my jacket in the dinining room when I came back to the hostel with Sausage and chips (was desperate for something to eat), going to bed, and then waking up the next morning and freaking out. You know when you expect something to be there, and it’s not? Trouble was, it had my mobile in there as well, which would have been potentially a very serious problem- but a really nice Aussie guy who works at the hostel (and who I’d been chatting to in the Dining Room) remembered that I’d left it there (I wasn’t sure when I woke up- it could have been stolen, for all I knew) and was able to track it down, which I was very, very grateful for.

So, today is not (despite my initial fears) going to be a disaster. I’ve done the transcription for Serenity, and all I have to do now is transform it into copy. I’ll do as much else as I can today, but considering how achey and tired I am, it’ll be okay if I can’t manage that much.

This time next week, I’ll be home. And I think I can do the rest of this.

Fact. I slept okay last night.

As it turns out, the rest of my Birthday went much better. Saw a daffy music-and-dance revue all about the Cinema called SPLICE which was a mixed bag, but when it was good it was absolutely brilliant (Recreating the Psycho shower-scene with a torch and some red cloth, and- most genius of all- actually doing an onstage version of those vertigo-inducing trombone shots (reverse-zooms) from Vertigo. Also a quite insane Barbershop-quartet-themed Star Wars song). Went back to the hostel, and was actually given some food by some terribly nice Australians who were in my room (weirdly enough, one of them- a girl called Jodie- actually worked in a place where I applied for a job a few months ago), ended up having a lengthy surreal conversation all about cricket, films, the royal family and the iniquities of modern mathematics teaching with another gang of entertaining teens at the hostel (I seem to be doing this a lot), and then settled in with two episode of Lost. (I’d completely forgotten that I had the first fourteen episodes of the series crammed onto the hard drive until I got here, and it’s a terribly nice way of relaxing and blowing off steam).

And, as I said, I slept well. To sleep at just past midnight, and up at 7.15 (which seems to be my default waking up time at the moment). I’ve seen one film so far this morning- a british flick called Song of Songs, which had me staring wild-eyed in confusion and saying “What the HELL?” by the climax. One of those beautifully made, totally inscrutable films about people who absolutely aren’t going to give in to their incestuous desires until right at the very end that the Brits seem to specialise in. One of the actresses from My Summer of Love is in it, and she’s very good, but as for what the hell it all means- your idea is as good as mine.

I’ve sent the Romero article, after plenty of tweaking, and have currently got major pins and needles in my feet as a result of sitting at a very short chair at this terminal. The Serenity press conference is later on today, and I was interested to see that my previous comments fanned the flames of controversy (Hurrah!). I’m sure plenty of people will enjoy it, but- as someone who watched every season of Buffy and loved most of it (I could even cope with most of Season 6), this wasn’t the cinematic debut I was hoping for from Joss Whedon. To be honest, it’s more like Whedon’s script for Alien Resurrection than anything else- and (at least for me) it’s proof that it wasn’t just Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s kooky direction that messed up that movie.

Anyhow- got more to do, and am feeling better about doing it. I cross the halfway point today, and I think things may get easier to cope with from hereon in. I also had plenty of people calling up wishing me happy birthday yesterday, which made me feel an awful lot better.

Onwards…

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.

I get to the Press Conference, all ready for action- and am promptly informed that it’s been cancelled.

After missing a screening this morning because of oversleeping (thank you, Italians…), I seem to be shaping up to have a slightly frustrating day.

Well, I’ve got Korean ultraviolence to come in A Bittersweet Life, so maybe the day is going to start looking up…

Woke up this morning. Got myself a gun.

Or at least, I would have done if there had been one to hand. As I’ve said, the happy-go-lucky gang of wonderful teens who were populating my dorm at the Hostel have sadly moved on (although they left me a lovely goodbye note), and last night a group of Italians arrived late. They unpacked. Not very talkative, but I assumed from the way they’d spread themselves out, that they were going to be here for a little while. Fool that I was…

At 5.00 am, the noise starts. Lockers clang. People stomping around. Suitcases being wheeled. It sounded like a herd of elephants attempting to tapdance and, as you can imagine, it took a while to get back to sleep afterwards. Basically, they were packing everything up, and within half an hour, the room was empty of Italians. Now, I’ve had to leave from a Hostel early myself, but you do sensible things. You pack early. You get everything together. You make the minimum amount of noise. Why the hell they decided to do it that way kind of defeats me, but I guess you can’t have everything. Hopefully, tonight will be a little quieter.

Spent most of this morning working on the George A. Romero interview (he talked tons, which is always a boon), and I’ve got the Thumbsucker press conference this afternoon, followed by A Bittersweet Life. I’m hoping to see something fun soon, as the last couple of movies have been very unrewarding, maudlin stuff (I am hugely looking forward to Serenity, which screens tomorrow). The departure from Edinburgh still feels a great distance away, but I’m not going to get down about this- and I am going to remind myself that doing this as reconnaisance is a good thing. It’s giving me more of an idea of how Festivals work, and I’ve got a party tonight, so I’m actually going to attempt to (SHOCK! HORROR!) socialise, rather than just sitting in a dark room and staring at a screen.

I’m going to be 31 tomorrow. I’m trying not to think about it…

Definitely no more haikus.

Promise.

Just saw Thumbsucker- a cool, smartly written and quietly beautiful film. Now, I’ve got one hour until the first Press Conference of the day. And, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that Hostels and I just don’t get on. I’ll be okay for the rest of the Festival (and being ill doesn’t help), but having a space that’s officially my own is very, very important to me- and I always end up feeling horribly disconnected when I don’t have one. If I do this again, I might have to do it for a shorter time, or just figure out some way that doesn’t involve sleeping in the same room as seven other people who I don’t really know.

I have the horrible feeling this is turning into a catalogue of complaints about tiredness and illness (and general insecurity).

And now- a haiku. (Just not a very good one)

Sweeping low, the majestic.
How leaps the lizard when he crawls?
The magician only knows.

I really need to get something to eat…

A better night last night. I managed 8 hours sleep (although not in one block), and am feeling a little more human as a result. Today is the first of the Press Conference days, with Stoned and Land of the Dead to look forward to. I’m off to see Thumbsucker in a little while, and I’m booking myself in for more time in the Videotechque later on. Actual work is going to happen today, and hopefully it’s all going to go nice and smooth.

The friendly gang of teens who’ve been making my life louder, weirder and a hell of a lot more entertaining for the last couple of days are out of the Hostel today- but, I’ve grabbed a couple of their e-mail addresses and am going to try and keep in touch with them. You don’t forget a night like Wednesday in a hurry (Remind me to tell you about it one day…). I shall miss them.

Time to go- a screening at 9, and the cinema is a slightly boggling distance away.

The trouble with being tired, is you’ve got to try and stop it from taking you over.

I’m going to get through tonight until 10.30 ish, and then collapse into bed, mainly because I don’t want to disrupt my sleep patterns. Today has been mucho film watching, although not as much as I’d like. Saw Mirrormask, which was stunningly beautiful (we need more creepy, gloriously messed-up childrens films in the world), An Unfinished Life, which was well-played, beautifully shot and stunningly predictable, and Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist, which proved that an Exorcist prequel was always going to be a bad idea. Also tried watching a swedish film called Popular Music, but the guy in the Videoteque booth next to me was watching the same movie but half an hour ahead, which was too bloody distracting.

Also saw my first Edinburgh show last night- a madcap saga of victorian time travel called Madam, I’m Adam. Some very funny moments, but it didn’t quite hang together, and lost an awful lot of comic momentum in the second half.

Food is beckoning.

Anyhow…

Luck and strangeness. All present in heavy doses.

I managed to shop yesterday, and I’m now fully stocked with various food to last me a few days.

I also ended up staying up till 4 in the morning, all thanks to a bad throat and a surreal evening involving trying to sober up a drunken teen in as fast a method as is possible.

I’m currently extremely tired. If I’m up to a more detailed update, I will present one later.

At the least, the problem with the article is solved (more or less) thanks to the miracles of technology and USB “memory sticks”.

I have more films to come. I’m not going to let today defeat me.

I think (and hope, and pray) that I’m going to be able to sleep tonight…