Brighton Rock(s)

I'm going to Brighton this weekend.

Brighton is one of my favourite places in the UK, up there with Cambridge, Stamford, Pembrokeshire, and parts of Cumbria. It just has 'that feeling', its a nice place if you know what I mean. It has a very bo-ho, slightly left field feel to it, plenty of alternative culture, lots of art, lots of veggies, lots of craft and music shops, lots of those 'homosexuals' you're always reading about in the papers. Of course on top of that theres a lovely shingle beach and a pier or two, some of which are even falling into the sea now.

But anyway, to cut a long story short my Aunt Sara lives there with her husband Ian, sometimes known by their Buddhist names (for they are said) Pragnagupta and Sanga Loka. They are on holiday in Crete for a while and my parents are over from France to house and fish sit for them. We are going over there Friday night along with my sister, Greb and Mindy the F*cktard dog.

There are several things on the agenda aside from spending time with my family, drinking and playing games and one of them is visiting the new Doctor Who exhibition on the end of the pier, with loads of stuff from the recent new series to look at, and blog pictures to post (hopefully).

The last time I was in Brighton was almost a year ago and was an unhappy time for me, working for a company who were never terribly nice to me, doing a job I didn't really enjoy very much for long hours whilst at the Labour Party conference. I'm hoping this weekend will sweep away those unhappy times and rekindle my love of the place and its folk.

For the completist only...

As most of you will know, I'm something of a rabid Doctor Who fan, with a collection of memorbilia the size of the EU butter surplass. Heck, John of Fraize.com fame is even too scared to engage me in MSN shenanigans anymore, for fear of a Doctor Who conversation ensuing. He persists in pretending he's on the phone, or has to go since a fruit bat is gnawing at his scrotum. Or something.

Imagine my surprise then when I discovered today that there was a DVD that not only was not in my collection, but that there was a 'missing' story that I was hitherto unaware of.

Apparently it comes in a soft or hardcore version. I'll let you know if its any good, and maybe more importantly where this story it sits in the Who timeline. If indeed it has a story.

This reminds me of some of my all time favourtie 'porno appropriations' of famous movies or TV show titles. The all time classic of which, in my mind, has to be the Italian conversation stopper that is 'Shindler's Fist'. If anyone can better that, I'll send them a Mars bar forthwith.

'So long and thanks for all the fish - MoFo.'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1577753,00.html

The Mandrill's - 'Wha...Wha...What are you doing..?!'

We had the Mandrills down this weekend. Here's a nice picture of them.

The one on the left is 'The Coot', 'Mandrette' sits on the right.

We (Helen and I) have know The Mandrills for about 6 years now, Helen was my boss for a while when we lived and worked in North London, and she took on The Coot to work along side me in the Client Liaison department of a company whose name is no longer mentioned in polite company. I believe our first conversation was about Pink Floyd, and it was only a short hop from there to the Beatles, Kubrick, breasts, and the worse kind of unPCness imaginable. The Mandrette is his erstwhile partner and all four of us have been good chums ever since.

This weekend was the usual mix of eating, viewing and increasingly loud conversations and debates ranging in subject from the failure of modern pop music, the merits of Cameron's Titanic, to fierce arguments over who has farted. Having the Mandrill's down is never a dull experience......

At least that sicko Saddam has gone...

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2005-09-21/news/news.html

Still, so long as they're protecting the American way of life, I'm happy.

ReBirth Redux

In more artistic, thinner, lazier days, I used to make short films/videos. Those were days where I had no responsibilities to speak of, and I had the time and freedom to express myself, get a degree along the way and end up a successful director or something.

Then I left college aged 21 and entered the real world.

Daily life and getting by became my focus as it became increasingly apparent that I wasn't going to be working for the BBC in a hurry. The focus for my creativity became music, as has been for the past 10 years, I've even become pretty good at it. Along the way, by a strange twist, Lady Fate laughed in my face a few times and I got commissions to write music for other peoples short films. Of course, movie making thoughts have never been far away, but never amounted to more than just that - thoughts. Until recently. I've hit one of those walls that creative people have from time to time, I don't even bother to sit down and start anything in my music studio anymore because I simply can't, and anything I come up with sounds forced. I haven't finished anything half decent since very early this year. Musically, I can't get it up anymore.

Barry is one of my closest and oldest friends, we met at college and dabbled in the moving image together. Our best attempt was a short film called the Birth. It was a decent enough script with some excellent moments, but looking at it now there's a lot wrong with it, some of whats wrong can probably only now be revealed to the eyes of a wizened and brow beaten 31 year old. Other shortcomings can be blamed on lack of time, resource, discipline and others at my own over ambition and lazy casting.

It was Barry's birthday on Wednesday, and we met up for a substandard pizza at a well known pizza chain, and had a good chinwag about things. Barry has just left his partner of 8 years and is looking for new challenges and feels he would like to dedicate more time to creative pursuits again. In short, one of the things he would like to rekindle is moving making. Funny, so do I. We're going to remake the Birth, all things being equal, and he's coming round on Thursday so that we can discuss how we're going to do it. At the moment, I feel I have said my piece in music, expressed as much as I can aurally. I still have plenty to say in moving pictures, if not more than I did when I left it 10 years ago. I haven't stopped thinking in moving pictures, maybe thats why my music always sounds like its describing a space.

I really feel this could be a second phase for us. Time will tell.

'Hawwww - You Brade Lunner!'

I go though phases, phases of obsession, usually with a musician, a TV program, an author or a movie, where I hungrily devour every snippet or morsel of information on said individual or production. That's the kinda person I am, some would say I'm sad, I don't really care. Some people are obsessed by football, nobody calls them sad.

At the moment, my phase is Ridley Scott's 1982 masterpiece, Blade Runner. The month before it was a little known British cult TV series called Ultraviolet (more on this in a later post methinks).

I've watched the movie twice in the past week, bought the 1992 directors cut on DVD, played the sound track to death, remastered the bootleg soundtrack I've had for yonks and read an excellent book which belongs to my father called 'Future Noir - the Making of Blade Runner' by Paul M Sammon.I love this film so much, and could very very easily eulogise for paragraphs on its merits, but I won't, plenty of folk have said it in words far prettier than mine could ever be.
Instead, let me tell you just one of the reasons I love it, or why I think I love it;

I love Ambient music (humour me for a moment), for those unfamiliar with it, this genre is largely considered to have started life as Eric Satie's 'Furniture Music'. Music that, whilst not 'musak' or 'easy listening' could be as much about a 'tone' or 'atmosphere' as about melody, counterpoint, harmony or rhythm. Ambient is now best summed up by the music of people like Brian Eno - remember the music for the bit in Trainspotting where the guy swims inside the toilet? That's Eno.

To me, films like Blade Runner, are almost like 'Ambient movies', they are a space into which I can escape, a film with such a strong and palpable feeling and mood, that I am almost travelling to another world. Ridley Scott has created a world so detailled I can sit transfixed, and totally absorbed for its duration, soaking in the vibes. It doesn't mater if there are plot holes you can drive a JCB through or that or if you can see the wires on an fx shot, or if Harry Ford's acting is a tad woodern, because it doesn't matter, its a soul drenched movie.

That's why I love Blade Runner.

Well, here I am, my first ever blog entry. It would be nice if it could be groundbreaking, earthshattering, or somehow hook you in from the word go - but it isn't, sorry. Thats yet to come...For now, this is just 'Hello' and 'see you next time' hopefully, with an interesting post or two;)