into 2006

well, whereas my posts and updates have been sporadic and random, i can say that this is the last one for 2005. quite a year, but what a wonderful year as illustrated by this pic.

our very best wishes to all of you, and let's hope that 2006 proves to be most excellent to all of us!!

cheers

lee, michele and james

James two weeks on

hey everyone

a bit late again, but here's a pic of James aged two weeks to the minute. and before you get any funny ideas, the hairy nipple he is lying against is mine!!

all is still well. he has an extremely healthy appetite and seems to be sleeping reasonably well on a night, sometimes four or five hours straight!!

be excellent to each other!!

Merry Christmas Erika

we decided to get Erika some clothes vouchers for Christmas. we also decided on a very impressive and somewhat different form of wrapping parcel for the vouchers.

Christmas

hello! here be the three of us on Christmas Day at my parent's house, just after their usual excellent breakfast! sorry if i look a bit like a hunchback, i have a great tendency to "overlean" for photographs as i think i will be a touch too tall in them!

as was the case in the earlier post, Christmas was wonderful. James has been given some really excellent toys, and he is enjoying the ones designed for newborns - the colours black, white and red are all he can detect apparently, and the funny looking stuffed ones he has of that nature are popular.

as for us, well, Michele and I got the best present we could ever have hoped for, so we agreed not to get each other anything more. the money would be wiser spent or held on to for anything James needs. that said, the family were very generous to us - i now own all of Father Ted on DVD (ace!), and Michele's passion for Sudoku continues with a rather special handheld electronic game of it.

James is off for his first weighing tomorrow. he has a healthy appetite, and i assure you he has no toilet troubles, so i will be kind of interested in seeing what the new weight is. all i know he is very, very, very comfortable to hold on to and watch and watch.

right then, will try and give more updates as and when time permits!

be excellent to each other!

one week later

hey everyone

hope you had a good Christmas! OK, i know this pic is somewhat late, but here's James exactly one week on from his birth - to the minute! sorry, i intended to post it sooner, but as i am sure you can all guess, days are busy and nights are busy right now!!

we are all still doing well - we had a wonderful Christmas, and James got to see all the grandparents over the weekend. he also has some most ace toys!!

last of Little James for now

having a sleep - sensible lad!!

another James Robert Liam

being held by a very proud grandmother!!!

James Robert Liam

born 7:45pm SA time, 3.22kgs, 15th December 2005, 48cm long. mother and baby very well and very happy!!

sorry, too tired to write much, except how happy we are! let me put more pics up instead!!

love and best wishes to all who have sent kind words through to us!

Ladies of Denver : Urgent Announcement

i am pleased and proud to announce that my good friend Blondie will be putting on a snowboarding display for the benefit of the ladies in Denver, Colorado this weekend.

all ladies in the area are most welcome to go along and watch his highly stylish and class moves. as he is a ladies' man of some note and considerable reputation, i guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

i would imagine that on an evening of the weekend he could be tempted into a smart jaccuzzi, so long as the right quality ale and bong matter are provided.

the baby situation

hi everyone

well, after some long, hard, emotional and medical days, i am pleased to say that Michele and James/Napoleon are both fine, but still in the same body, as it were.

we did indeed go through the inducing process and all that stuff for some 18 hours on December 2nd, but he was having none of it. the doctors and experts are somewhat confused as they have not seen two inducing attempts not work before, but there you go, what do you expect when you consider who the parents are!!

at the moment, then, there is something of a concern that Michele might be missing the enzymes needed to allow the cervix (less technical term - "the business end") diallate (less technical - "open up"), and thus we may have no choice but to go for a caesarian.

however, we do have the time to still try for a natural birth, which is what Michele really wishes to have. we have up until the 14th for her to go into labour naturally. if there is no joy, then we will be in hospital that night to try for another inducing. if that does not work, well, then it's a caesarian.

as i am sure you can imagine, the upheaval and all involved has left us drained somewhat, but we are fine. just waiting still!!!

i promise to give more news as and when i can on what happens next!!

erm..................

Revolver, apparently, is Guy Ritchie's return to form after the ill-fated Swept Away managed to all but wipe out the solid, excellent name he had given himself with Lock, Stock and Snatch. ahem, no it bloody isn't.

OK, there's a whole stack of avant-garde, post-modernist stuff i could lambast you with right here, but unfortunately the whole thing, as far as this film goes, is an illusion. it's a whole load of nonsensical gibberish being advertised as "intelligent". yeah, that's right - if you don't get it, you are the thick one, it's the film-makers who are the clever chaps. no, not at all.

SPOILER PARAGRAPH : yes, Mr Richie, we get the clever Green/Gold spin on money. you could not have made it much more obvious. granted, no idea on the $12 note concept at all. we even get the A to Z reference as a spectral guide to the narrator, if i can call him such. but what exactly is the conclusion???

i think i will watch it again to see what exactly happened in it, but my initial advice would be steer well clear of this film.

the best film of 2005.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang turned out to be all that i suspected it would be. and then some.

in a year which has seen some decent contenders for film of the year, like in particular The Descent but also Revenge Of The Sith and Batman Begins, this one is a plain, simple work of cinematic genius. Shane Black has always had a reputation of being a writer of note, and the one question hanging over his directorial debut is why on earth did he wait so long if he's this good?

the cast are outstanding to the point of dazzling. here we get the Robert Downey jnr excellence of Natural Born Killers and Chaplin, the film for which i still maintain he should have got an Oscar for. it's difficult to find the right words to convey just how good he is. could there be a possible comparison? not really, this is a one-off performance and well worth seeing for him alone. except, of course, you get so much more and what you get is a brilliant Val Kilmer too. acting / performance wise, this is one step beyond his work in Wonderland, which if you know me is saying something as that was also quite a film. in fact, does that count on the list for 2005 or was it last year? anyway.....

.......i am perfectly aware that i have not mentioned much, if anything, of the plot of this film. and quite deliberatley so. much like, say, Fight Club or even a Usual Suspects of Se7en, this film works best when you know next to nothing of what it is about or what to expect from it. i implore you to trust me and see it as soon as possible and know as little as possible about it when you do watch it!!

otherwise, Napoleon kicked at me for much of the film, which was nice!!

on a dour cinematic note, i did have occassion to re-watch The War Of The Worlds. not as bad as my initial reaction to it, but it remains by and large a very hollow, empty and pointless film. the only aspect of consequence to it is, as far as i can tell, it is the first time in his career that Tom Cruise has not had his face slap bang in the middle of the poster for it (i suspect he wasn't on the Legend one but i am not 100% on that). quite frankly, i am surprised he left his name on it. on that note, why on earth Mr Spielberg has gone back to being "Mr Slumming It" is beyond me - i may not be the greatest admirer of his films, but he has a huge talent and none of it is on display with this one. so what's the problem with it? the fact that 30 minutes of the "ending" takes place in a basement springs gloriously to mind. very reminiscent of the "30 minutes on a train station platform" opening to Matrix Revolutions, that other spectacular failure of note.

i would be interested to see or hear from anyone who actually liked this version of War Of The Worlds, as it happens. there must be some point of view or interpretation i am missing??

oh well, away from cinema, Michele and James/Napoleon are doing rather well, thanks. not much longer to go at all now!!

now go and see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang!!!!!

tickets booked

well, we will soon be at the cinema to see Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. it has Robert Downey jnr in it, and looks rather smart. i recall reading about it when it showed at Cannes earlier this year, cannot work out why the delay in the final release. all reviews are good, so off we go.

will try and post a review when we have seen it, but things are getting busy these days as you can probably well imagine!!

outstanding investments

hey, it's payday and 13th cheque time and all that good stuff. whereas most of the money is going towards any and all of James/Napoleon's requirements, here's something i could not resist - an ace Darth Vader statue.

oh, i also picked up a Samsung DVD-R drive. tried one disc on it, it seems OK. now go and admire Darth Vader.

ahem, one more scan......

ok, THIS one is the actual last scan. i post it with some reservation, but Michele seemed quite keen.

what is it a scan image of? well, it's what Cliff out of Dead Man On Campus would refer to as the "junk"...

one last scan

hey everyone

well, this could well be the last scan you see of young Napoleon (OK, James) whilst he is still safely in Mummy's tummy. the date of birth ebbs ever closer - Friday 2nd December! time to be scared? well, what's the point in that, we will have to be ready and just try to do our very best!

the doctor is "as happy as ever" with progress, he would just like the little one to turn a bit more before next friday. erm, if you know about these things then perhaps you will know what exactly is meant by that; i find myself too worried to ask or find out more!!

there is more stuff around, but let me not distract from the baby update!!

Alien vs Predator

OK, a year after getting and playing A v P 2, i have finally found a copy of the original game. nice one!!

it is a lot tougher, like. the weapons are somewhat limited, and the controls cumbersome. ho hum, i eventually (on easy) managed to finish off the marine level. it was quite class at one point - i had the surround sound on, and got the shock of my life when i heard the Predator long before i saw him. the ending is against the queen alien, and the way you finish her off is very much like the film Aliens.

i am having a crack as playing as the Predator right now. it's smart how you get extra energy by ramming some sort of knives into yourself, and i notice that everyone can see through my cloaking device and shoot me anyway.

i am not the biggest lover of games, but it has to be said i make an exception for things that would interest me anyway. you know, stuff based on films and what have you.

and just when exactly will Duke Nukem Forever be released? or is it out already??

parental advisory

this is my good friend and respected colleague Mervin. Mervin today suggested that he wished to have an unrepeatable act performed on himself by a "devenomed viper" or some sort of snake. i would suggest that if it was de-venomed, that would take all the challenge out of it.

Mervin also once shared with me his theory about the death of Tupac Shakur. for legal reasons i feel it unwise to republish it here, but it involved Mr T and Cheetos.

Merv, if you are reading this, it is an honour to present you on my blog site.

oh go on then, another pic.........

here's Richard, Erika, Michele and myself with young Katie Louise. sorry that i look knackered in it, spent two hours on the road to get over to see her!!

Erika is quite protective of young Katie, when she is around no one else is allowed to hold her for too long!!

notice the "soon" look in Michele's eyes :)

an advert

hey everyone

sorry again for the lack of posts - hectic times all around, as i am sure you can imagine!!

here's the newspaper add for Katie Louise - figured i had best post it here to avoid the ageing of newspaper print!!

all is well on our side - counting down to December 2nd, when Michele will (if all goes to plan) be giving birth. no doubt it will be a rough day for her, so please keep her in your thoughts!

cheers everyone!

Troy, according to Michele Ricketts, historian extraordinaire........

we had Troy on TV at the weekend, a film i had somewhat obviously already seen, but Michele had not. we watched it together. here are the reviews; please feel free to compare them :

WARNING!! IF YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH TROY OR THE WORKS OF HOMER, THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!

Lee's review : a rather impressive interpretation of Homer's The Illiad, probably the best we will ever see. Brad Pitt was outstanding as Achillies, capturing the arrogance, adulation and near-perfection perfectly. special praise also for Eric Bana in the complex role of Hector, and full credit for casting the annoying, elfin-like Orlando Bloom as the pathetic Paris. well done director Wolfgang Pieterson, an outstanding job and a wonderful introduction to the world of the classics for everyone.

Michele's review : despite lengthy explinatons that it underlines the very crux of the concept of "Greek Tragedy", Michele declared it rather lame that Paris killed Achillies, particularly as it involved an arrow through his heel. this kind of led to a conversation about the phrase "achillies heel", but i was promptly ignored as the credits came up. Michele pointed out that they had far too many hairdressers employed on the set, reasoning that they were (mostly) Greek peasants, and thus did not require hairstyles as such. She also pointed out that, i quote, "Achillie's Girlfriend" should have smacked Paris about for killing him, and is still trying to work out why exactly Helen went off with Paris anyway, as he is such a wet fish.

i will ceed the point around Helen and Paris to Michele. otherwise, you by all means go with which review works for you.

be excellent to each other, and please bear with me as Michele has mumbled that she would quite like me to take her through and explain my favourite Shakespeare play to her, King Lear. this could take quite some time..........

Katie Louise Farnworth

hey everyone


well, sorry that it's not the best image, but here's my sister Gillian's lovely baby, Katie Lousie, approximatley 6 hours old!!

all went well with the birth, mother and baby are both fine.

for those who want the details, i believe she was born at 2.5kgs in weight, measuring 50cm long!!

i will have some proper pictures soon!!

Michele is next!!!

the pregnant ones

hey everyone

well, a quick update as i am somewhat hectic here at verk!!

here's Gillian and Michele together, seemingly noticing that each is pregnant.

Gillian has gone into labour this morning - will kepe you all posted on developments, deliveries and news!!

it looks like December 2nd for the arrival of Napoleon!

be excellent to each other!!

Scrabble 2005

oh yeah, i picked up the "new" version of Scrabble for the PC. i appear to be useless at it and get beaten off some AI player that is apparently 7 years old.

do i even say sorry for the delay?

hey everyone


well, as usual, running around and doing everything under the sun except update this site. ho hum, sorry about that kids, especially Mrs R who appeared to be most put out that there was no update.

OK, baby news. there is no news - all is well, and still apparently on course for a December 15 delivery, but to my mind there is no way Michele will last that long. she is H U G E, as in bigger than me, and not at all doing well in the heat. we are off to the doc again on Thursday, so with some luck there will be some news in some shape or form after that!!

a very big hello, good evening and welcome to Bronwyn and Faye. tremendous to hear from you both, and a real delight to hear that you both have most excellent lives right now!! as she was mentioned, a hello to one Ms (or possibly "Dr") Toni Tonkin esq, should you visit this page!

otherwise, in a big surprise i am sure, i have the Episode III DVD on my shelf. i am somewhat disappointed with the extras - the deleted scene of Liam Neeson appearing as the "force ghost" which was filmed did not make it on. oh well, no doubt George Lucas will install it in a super duper uber edition at some point in the future.

i appear to be getting called upon once again to help various younglings with their homework. no bad thing at all, and i really miss the stimulation of teaching, coaching or mentoring people. it is nicer, of course, when it is in the field of my beloved literature, but i like to help and assist as and where i can.

business as usual on the verk front. actually, it has been somewhat quiet, and so in the past couple of days i have been able to produce a new newsletter for my area. alas, it is far too big and cumbersome to post here, and i suppose most of the jokes and comments would fall flat unless you happened to be "in my area", as it were.

we went out with Spiros and Linda for dinner the other night. it was a place called The Baz Bar, and thus we were excited as we hoped it was named after Baz out of the Viz comic. sadly, it appears that it is named after a Baz that (ahem) "bats for the other side", and seems to be a gentleman's club, in the somewhat loosest sense of that concept. why do i suggest that? hmn, let's see - a big Euro Champ League night, and on the big screen they are broadcasting...........Fashion TV. oh dear.

another good friend has turned up out of the blue - one Patrick Arthur, no less. a very good friend indeed, and someone i have not seen for several years. and still have not seen, as it happens. i will be calling him soon and seeing if we can't get together for a shandy or something.

erm, my credit card bill landed today. sorry, it's the usual balance, there's no story there, just wondering what to write next.

oh yes, Nicky Carklin - if you are reading this, don't forget you have seen South Africa before. i suggest that you cancel your holiday here as it clashes with the chance of seeing an Ian Brown gig. see Mr Brown, he is the king!!

unless i find some curious images to post on the blog, that's that for this update. hope it was OK, and i hope to post more soon!

be excellent to each other!!

our baby??

here's a picture of the real Beaker, being experimented on by Professor (or Doctor) Bunsen Honeydew out of the Muppets.

well, if our baby does look like this, i guess he will have his mother's red hair.

latest baby scan

hey everyone

well, here's the latest scan of the baby for you all. if you are of a keen eye, you will see the right eye at the top, a hint of the left eye, and the mouth.

on the mouth, Michele informs me that his mouth was constantly opening and closing at the scan. hmn, maybe we should call him Beaker out of the Muppets instead of Napoleon, then!!

otherwise, things are getting hectic here. Michele is busy finishing up and handing over everything at her office, whereas i am have the same old killer days at verk. ho hum, they do not pay me for my good looks!

Bronwyn - if you are reading this, looking forward to hearing from you soon.

i now have the swanky double disc of Batman Begins. although, if memory serves, i did not bother to review it here, it is hands down the second best film of the year. this means that it is better than Star Wars Episode III, but not quite the mindblowing cinematic work of art that was The Descent. if you have not seen those three films well then stop reading this and go and see them. except The Descent if you do not like horror films, or films that have a gift to totally play with your emotions.

oh well, that will be all from this side!

be excellent to each other!!!!

if only you could see what i've seen with your eyes

OK, after many many years of wondering, i have now seen two of the deleted/changed sequences that only featured in the workprint or sneak preview versions of Blade Runner, a film which appears to be making quite a resurgence in my life.

are they what i expected or hoped for? i had no idea what to expect and i hoped for nothing. here's a breakdown, then.

Hospital Scene - Deckard visits the unfortunate "blade runner" who got hit by Leon in the opening (Holden?). he's in an enclosed "iron lung" thing, a machine keeping him alive. i see now why they got rid of it, totally distracting and adds absolutely nothing. it also makes Deckard an "actual" detective, in so much as he is doing detective work. the fact that, by and large, the "final" (ha! we have still not seen a final version as far as i am concerned) version of the film does not show Deckard doing much hunting, for some reason he knows where they are, adds to the ambiguity of the fact that maybe, just maybe, Deckard is a replicant himself. which leads us too..........

Unicorn Dream Original Edit - and it's no longer a daydream or a memory. in this first take on it, Deckard is quite clearly wide awake and all too aware of his vision of the unicorn. significance? the origami unicorn in Deckard's apartment at the end. this edit of the sequence makes it fairly clear that Deckard is supposed to be seen as a Replicant himself. not sure how great an idea being so blatant is, much of the charm is that it trusts an audience to interpret at will.

none of this will make much difference if you hate the film anyway, or just think that it is "OK". i would still very much like to get my hands on a full blown copy of the workprint or the sneak previews, but alas it seems they are no longer available for sale anywhere. ho hum.

not much else other than listening to Blade Runner has been happening.

....and a baby update

blimey, two updates in the same day!!

well, here's the latest image of Napoleon Elvis / James Robert Liam. as you can see, he is somewhat elusive and shy. i suspect the experts amongst you will be able to work out the details!!!

baby letter

hey everyone

sorry for the long delay in updating once again, just running around as usual with verk and all that good stuff.

here's a letter to a Pregnancy magazine that had Michele in stitches - hope you guys find it just as funny!

otherwise, i have managed to obtain a bottle of genuine Eastern European Absinthe. it is lethal and i want more!!!

the new Depeche Mode CD, playing the angel, is well worth a listen!!

the four of them

hey everyone


erm, happy October, if that is appropriate!!

well, it was a baby shower for my sister today, who like Michele is also expecting! she will probably not forgive me, but here's a pic of her with Michele earlier this afternoon!!!

i can, with my hand on my heart, reccomend Red Square hot shots to anyone who wishes to get enormously drunk. i reccomend that you have a few ladies pour it down your throat as you kneel in some catholic mass position too!!!

otherwise, a quick hello to Feminine Allure, who should be visiting shortly. go through the archives for the past couple of months and you should find some pics of me! look around and you will find my tribute to the real K i nky John too!!!

be excellent to each other!!

electric sheep

hey everyone


just a quick update to say that i am listening to the Blade Runner soundtrack. it is ace.

not much news, really. i seem to be writing again, kind of sort of for myself.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i think i remembered......

did i post here that the 7" of Ian Brown's All Ablaze did indeed arrive?

if not, it is a most ace clear vynil affair. very aesthetic. we should get around to framing the singles and putting them up as planned, but as you can see from the pictures in previous posts, we are a little busy these days!

Baby Update

hey everyone.

ok, let's see if i can post more than one pic in each update first!




well, so far it looks like yes!! we went for the 3D scan today, and all is well. young Napoleon might be one week older than we initially thought, but the due date is still December 15.

the black & white pic is from the "usual" scan, and the colour one is the 3D version, which i grabbed from the DVD we made of it. as you can see, he is looking fine and well!!

not much else to report other than all is well with the baby!!

actually, i think there was something else to say, but i cannot recall what. oh well, if it comes back to me, i shall do another post!!

by the way......

i am sure you can guess on the basis of my last post (the new Franz Ferdinand cd is not released until 3rd October), i have found a WinMX replacement. nice it is, too.

update

hi everyone


well, it was off for another scan today and i am pleased to say that all seems well. have to say and not show this time as young Napoleon Elvis was lying with his back to us, so there was nothing to take a photograph of! all is well, though - growth and development (if that's the right way of saying it) are on course.

we are off for the 3D scan thing tomorrow, one from which he presumably will not be able to hide away. it will be put onto video, and so with some luck i should be able to get some images to post here. if not, expect my apologies to be printed instead.

otherwise, i decided (surprise surprise) to watch the three films which have been made of Bret Easton Ellis novels to date. my opinions, for what they are worth, would be (in chronological book order) :

Less Than Zero : other than another sterling job by Robert Downey jnr, this film is somewhat at a loss and a bit of a mess. it does not know what it wants to be. it picks up some vague thread of a plot from the book and does the best that it can with it. i do not believe that this is the best that could be made of the book, but i doubt anyone will ever revisit it to have another go.

The Rules Of Attraction : outstanding, breathtaking, ingenius filmmaking and it does a damn good job of trying to capture what the state of mind of the book feels like for the reader. well done Roger Avary for the adaptation, and take a bow James Van Der Beek for your exceptional performance as Sean. i only wish all film adaptations of novels were like this, since we live in a world where you have to have film adaptations. good luck, cast and crew, with your efforts to secure funding for filming Glamorama. and the soundtrack is spot on!

American Psycho : oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear. what a mess. Christian Bale was an ace choice as Patrick Bateman, but what on earth is going on here? the violence was clearly impossible to film. instead of coming up with some vague way of referring to the acts, instead we get completely different murders, and a stupid "murder mystery" plot with Willem Dafoe as a detective who, at best, lasted a couple of lines or maybe a paragraph in the novel now being a key character. i thought i was just being harsh the first time i saw it, but the 2nd viewing, a couple of years later, has not helped. dismal, and very annoying.

conclusions? why can't we just have books to read, films to see and never, or rarely should the two meet??

otherwise, i have played the new Franz Ferdinand album, You Could Do So Much Better With Franz Ferdinand, and i am still in two minds about the group. mostly, i think they are ace, but part of me suspects they are just one big lazy Talking Heads / Happy Mondays collision tribute, with a few rifts stolen from Ocean Colour Scene. they are a band that i reccomend you listen to, though.

right, lightning crashes outside, so i had better disconnect the pc.

behave yourselves!!!!

the end of an era

good morning

oh dear, it is bad news for music lovers. after a couple of days of not being able to connect to WinMX, the best source of music on the net, i decided to do some research and see exactly what was going on.

it would seem that WinMX was hit with a "cease and desist" letter, and thus the network is no more. bummer, man, it was a great place to get stuff that you cannot get anywhere else.

i have no problem at all with the legal download places, but they just do not offer the rare, collector's items that fans like me seek. ho hum. something always happens, and i have no doubt that a replacement functions will avail itself sooner rather than later.

not much else right now, but i suspect a really long slow quiet day is imminent. i may well yet add more.

it has arrived

well, today i pretty much listened to The Rules Of Attraction soundtrack on repeat. this evening, and tomorrow and thereafter, it will be Ian Brown : The Greatest that will play again and again and again.

it is a very lavish and smart set, well worth the large amount of cash invested to get it couriered (or however you spell it) here. a great book with an ace essay, some fantastic pictures and comments on each song from The Man Himself.

if there is one small complaint, it would be that possibly his best achievement, the song Shadow Of A Saint, does not feature on the disc. OK, you can't have everything, but why two remixes of F.E.A.R.??? good as the song is, perhaps another example of his genius would have been better?

oh well, not much else to report, obviously. once again, i cannot reccomend www.hmv.co.uk highly enough. their service is impeccable, and their prices are by and large the best out there. give them a try!

but wherever you get it, make sure you get Ian Brown's greatest CD compilation!!

just a thought

did you know that the dude who gets his arm cut off in the first Star Wars film (or fourth, if you are young enough to be watching them chronologically), and as a consequence was the first recipient of "death by light sabre", is the same dude who first gets killed in Highlander? yep, the one who tells Luke "you'll be dead" is the same gent who upsets Christopher Lambert at the wrestling and thus gets decapitated in the car park below it.

not much else to update on at present. i now have the newly (ahem) obtained Rules Of Attraction soundtrack going in the car, and it is ace. i am for some reason quite drawn to the Erasure track on it. ho hum, i am sure it makes sense to someone somewhere.......

dumbing down a dumbed down film

OK, to be fair, Transporter 2 does not pretend that it's going to be some big artistic statement or work of artistic merit. that said, it is just lazy taking a film like Man On Fire, which took itself far, far, far too seriously, and simplifying it even more.

would you enjoy Transporter 2? yes, if you liked the first one. still unsure? then do this quick test and see what the conclusion is "


Question : which is the most ludicrous scenario?

(a) The Driver, needing to get up a bridge, deciding the best approach is to run towards a very moving truck, somehow jump on it, climb up the face of it and get on the bridge off the top of the truck


(b) The Driver perfectly timing a jump so that he is not sandwiched between two cars on a head-on collision course, he being intended as the "meat in the middle"

or

(c) The Driver knacking 20 or so well trained mercenaries with a hose pipe.


Answer : if you are even weighing up any of these options, the film is for you.


otherwise, thank you to Rebekka for leaving a message on this site. nice one, it is always pleasing to learn that not only people visit my page, but that the world at large still appreciates the Happy Mondays!

approx 23 years later...a homage to Blade Runner

well, with some reservations i sought this film The Island out, and we watched it last night.

after a somewhat confusing, ill-defined opening twenty minutes or so, the film settled down to what it would seem it is intended to be - a "kind of" reversal of Blade Runner. i say "kind of" as it fails somewhat to do this. it strips the emotional side away from what would be the 'Deckard' side of the story, focusing exclusively on the 'Replicant', or in this case clones, end of it all. and therein lies a problem - if one side is under explored, what exactly is the point in trying to understand what happened in the other?

in Blade Runner the creations were given memories to develop them and have them function better. in The Island they are merely given a mass hallucination, and when they all of a sudden develop something along the lines of memories that they did not themselves experience, it's pretty much just stated as such and then brushed aside.

overall, The Island has a pretty interesting premise, but, much like something like AI, the story has absolutely nowhere coherent to go and so messes about until it hits a very open ended, almost i, Robot type finale. if nothing else, it at least shows that practically anything Ewan McGregor is in is pretty much watchable. if the option presents itself, though, go watch Blade Runner again instead.

on the note of young Ewan, i seem to have picked up a couple of his films lately. i have Big Fish (excellent) and Young Adam (not seen - looks heavy) sat on the shelf waiting to be watched of re-watched.

also sat on the shelf is, at last, Chaplin, Robert Downey jnr's greatest single performance. thanks Mrs R - looking forward to seeing it again.

oh well, other than Ian Brown's greatest expected to arrive today, not much else to report on!

have a good one......

The Greatest : On The Way

well, i got a most class email today - my Ian Brown greatest hits package has been shipped by www.hmv.co.uk, as well as the CD single of All Ablaze. and the 7" single too, although for some reason they have sent that seperatley. go figure.

we have a couple of 7" singles by the maestro. i believe the idea is to one day frame them or something. they would look class, i guess!

Michele has been and gone to Durban. after that and the trip to Cape Town recently, i think young Napoleon has the hang of flying now! it will be Michele's fault if he grows up wanting to be a pilot, an astronaut or, most likely, a human cannoball..

the world offered up in Lunar Park continues to be disjointed, disturbing and depressingly good. none of the books from Mr Ellis can be considered to have a good effect on the reader, and this one is no different at all. i shall continue with it, of course. boundaries are quite pointless if they are never crossed, and Mr Ellis leads the way over them.

do i reccomend anyone else try to read the books of Bret Easton Ellis? not really not really no. by all means have a go. try watching the film version of The Rules Of Attraction. if you can stomach that excellent but toned down introduction, then go for the books. do not approach the novel American Psycho on the basis that the film version was "not that bad, in fact rather tame".

on that note, my parcel of new DVD's arrived today. we watched Whoops Apocalypse this evening. i feared that it might have been badly dated, what with the Cold War finishing off quite some time ago. i am delighted to note, however, that if anything it is even funnier than i recalled. it has Peter Cook in it which is reason in itself to find it, and Rik Mayall is somewhat special as the, well, special SAS leader.

anyway, i guess that's about all to tell for now. it's late, but i am contemplating watching another of the DVD's which landed. it's rather tempting to watch the Hanson brothers cause mayhem in Slap Shot yet again, but there's also The Thing sat there begging to be watched............

go where you're going, say what you're saying, sounds good to me

currently listening to the Happy Mondays. i suppose some would call that ironic for a Tuesday.

lyrical prowess

i have just been listening to a compilation of The Who, made for who (hee hee) is turning out to be a rather good friend. it has given me something of a memory jog, it has.

i once tried to convince a dear Literature Mentor, Mrs G Maddock (i dare not spell her name Glynns incorrectly as she would kill me, oops), that The Who's lyrical skill and prowess was amply displayed in the line "out of my brain on a train" from the song '5.15. laughed? if i recall, she nearly crashed the car, such was the hysterical reaction to my (now as it was then) valid observation.

i do wonder where Mrs M is. i regret not being in contact with her, for she appreciated my worship of Richard Burton a very great deal. perhaps i will try and investigate her whereabouts or locale......

meanwhile, thanks J. for giving me the opportunity to listen to The Who again. i have not played them for a while, and i was sorely tempted to swing my arm about like a windmilling guitar god that Townsend is and always will be.

which kind of reminds me of an unfortunate incident in which i attempted to "do a Roger Daltrey" with a mircophone at a kareoke evening. well, the short is that the waiter was OK and i doubt i would have gone back to the bar again anyway.

i do seem to be getting increasingly nostalgic these days. not sure if it is coincidental or consequential in respect of the imminent arrival of Napoleon. oh well, as it does not seem to be a bad thing, i shall not show too much concern.

in other news, Mrs R decided to sit on the floor and do some work this evening. Mrs R needed my help getting up, so round has she got. hee hee hee hee hee hee and yes she will slap me for this.

be excellent to each other, and if you see Michele about, offer to help her get up!!

quick edit - for some reason this is not appearing on the site. see if reprinting, as it were, does the trick.

Michael Vaughan, my Lord, Michael Vaughan

i hoped, dreamed and suspected we could do it. but i did not believe it until late this evening when we had the urn back.

nice one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you will never listen to George Michael's Faith the same way again

no update really, I was just browsing the net for images for my cellphone wallpaper and found, once again, this very ace and very banned poster for the film version of The Rules Of Attraction.

i am still unsure as to which is the most demented, the film or the novel. get your hands on both if you dare, but consider this a serious warning around the content. a heavy film/book it is, and also the darkest, most depraved work of comedy at the same time.

you may be pleased to learn that, despite my fears in an earlier post, i do indeed have a "sneak preview" (ahem) version of Ian Brown's new single. it is quality.

enjoy the poster, find the film, read the book!!

enjoy the new direction!!

well, i do seem active with this blog today for some reason. either i am inspired by the fact that people are reading it, or i am just bored and have nothing else to do right now.

i finally found the bit to edit that gets rid of my name and profile. for some reason the blogger site insists that my starsign is pisces, when of course it is aquarian. if i get rid of the link to that, it no longer bothers me.

erm, this does make my page somewhat anonymous, save the name of the thing. ho hum, any strangers stumbling by are welcome to leave a comment!!

right, will try to make a substantial, interesting post in the near future.

test sort of a success

hmn, well, this blogger for word thing might be OK, but going on the lack of a Stone Roses picture in my first attempt with it I guess I cannot upload pics this way. ho hum, the inability to put the images exactly where I want is somewhat annoying.

that said, if I do a check and find the pic has turned up, nice one!!

not a great deal to add at this present moment in time. we are both feeling better, although it has to be said I was in bed by 10 last night, which meant that I was up at around 6am. hence me fiddling with the internet and playing about with things like this “blogger for word” device.

I checked in on my order at www.hmv.co.uk and it’s a mix of good and bad my 7” and CD single of All Ablaze are sat in a courier bag waiting to go, also waiting for Ian to finally release the Greatest CD. I wanted them all shipped at once – it’s 15 pounds a go, so it kind of makes sense to wait! and yes I have been looking for a “sneak preview” version, and no I have not found it. at best I found a few seconds of the song, plus a streaming video that did not play so well via my 56k modem.

oh dear, this programme capitalises the “i”, something that I do not like having here.

I somehow doubt that I will be able to use this new software at work, since we can barely use anything on our PC’s let alone install anything.

oh well, let me play around some more, see what I can come up with………

testing Blogger for Word

Just a quick test to see if this “Blogger For Word” programme will make my life easier. If it does, there should be an image of The Stone Roses with this text.

The Return Of The Manics

a touch unexpectedly, it has to be said, the Manic Street Preachers have returned with a new song, "Leviathan". it's for the War Child charity album, link above. you can buy this and other tracks for 99p a go. be warned, though, the server they appear to have is as close to a modern day ZX Spectrum as you can get and it takes ages to download the track you want.

what do i think of it? i think it's a nice gesture for a good cause, helping raise money for the only true innocents of war. if they released it as an actual single, then the conversation is different. it would be a sign of the end of the band. it would be "Manics have lost it" everywhere. ho hum.

otherwise, Michele and myself are ferociously ill at present. well, not quite so ferocious anymore. i seem to have bounced back OK after flirting with some form of bronchial infection, Michele has indeed been diagnosed with Bronchitis. the medication does seem to be working, though, and her and young Napoleon are feeling better.

on that note, since there are a number of people i am aware of reading this site of mine, thanks again for the concern and help!!

as usual, of course, my method of self-healing involves taking all sorts of concotions and mixes of medication. it fixes me up good and proper, but it means a night of lurid hallucinations and fever. i do not think i will delve into what ran through my mind all last night, but at least it works. the short of this would be, then, that Lunar Park has been left unread for a couple of days. if i am already spinning in my mind and have lost control of what is real and what is not, i do not forsee Mr Ellis' self-imposed similar circumstances assisting me right now.

right then, let me go off and take some more pills, thrills and bellyaches, as well as possibly give another spin to this Manics track.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!

not quite an exit, but close to it

Hi there


wow, two updates in the space of a week, i must be feeling saucy or something!

actually, not a great deal to comment on, except reading Lunar Park as much as i can. it's going rather well thus far, i must say. there are some disturbing references to his previous works, and this idea of his to fictionalise himself and make Brett Easton Ellis the protagonist is paying off.

those of you who are more enthusiastic about my own writing will be delighted to hear that around about page 30 of Lunar Park i felt a real urge to start writing again. no promises but i have some ideas kicking around.

anyway, that's about all i can say.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spring

Hello everyone, thanks for sticking with me and checking in long enough to read and see if i have done any updates!

well, here's a pic from a surprise baby shower our friends Michelle, Barry, Julia, Clive and Les threw for us. it involved a fair amount of dressing up, and me drinking Indian Beer from a baby bottle.

nice one guys, thanks for the effort!!

meanwhile, the whole of the inside of our house has been rennovated, and looks very smart indeed. walls painted, ceiling fixed up and touched up and all that stuff. it's just a matter now of putting everything back together like it was!!

i have commenced reading Lunar Park. it is all that i wanted it to be. nice one Mrs R for buying it for me.

OK, that will do that for now!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!1

The Rule Of Four - another historical folly......?

OK dudes, if you intend to read The Rule Of Four and have not yet done so, or still have not read Da Vinci (groan) Code or Angels and Demons, you may wish to skip this posting.

I have just finished The Rule Of Four, and yet again it is a book that heads for the trustable Raiders Of The Lost Ark ending. this follows in the path of Dan Brown's mega selling works, the mentioned Da Vinci and of course Angels and Demons.


all three are damn enjoyable reads, right up to the end. when it cannot have any conclusion but the Indiana Jones one of having the ark of the covenant (or the equivalent in the three books) 'mysteriously' boxed up and kept a secret. the problem, peeps, with manipulating history to suit your story is that you have to either :

(a) have "but it was all kept a secret still" as the ending

or

(b) come up with such an outlandish ending that it undermines the whole book (something that Angels and Demons flirts well with)

or

(c) have Pam wake up, find Bobby in the shower and declare it all to be a dream.

the "big" titles of literature at the moment are filled with astounding stories and incredible thinking, blending fiction and fact with relative ease. I do love this kind of fiction, the kind that turns around conventional thinking.

could I reccomend that Mr Brown, and indeed the two authors behind Rule of Four, take my advice and consult the great weaver of fact/fiction literature? that would be the late Anthony Burgess, of course. he came up with some unusual and certainly unconventional twists to history by leading the authour to question how we interpret actual historical conclusions, and not by playing with the steps taken to those conclusions. a slight, but effective, twist to this latest publishing craze.

if i have to read one more book which reminds me of Professor Jones being assured that the "top men" are looking after the conclusions of a great deal of time sacrificed by reader/audience, i will give it a real hiding on this page. that said, Dan Brown's Deception Point could well be my next read. you have been warned in advance.

ho hum, Lunar Park by the great great great great Bret Easton Ellis should be with me soon, as well as "Haunted" by Chuck Palithinuck (or however you spell his name, sorry), and indeed My Side Of The Mountain and Farenheit 451. some works of literature that I can trust and read with joy!!

right, off to bed!

be excellent to each other!!!

down with the Makems, you're going down with the Makems

here's Mick McCarthy, celebrating Sunderland's 100% record this season, which would be played four, lost four :)

that's 19 top league losses in a row for the Makems, and long may this record grow.

someone at work has very kindly put the Sunderland logo as my desktop wallpaper, and indeed added the Makem "Black Cat" logo to my image on the notice board. how kind.

i will find who did it and they will pay.

be excellent to each other. but not to Sunderland fans.

now i have a scanner ha ha ha

nice one michele, thanks for the scanner!! here's my first scan, a copy of the postcard my Aunt, Uncle and two cousins sent me of the last ever match at Ayresome Park. nice one!!

i am not 100% sure what exactly i will be scanning, but i felt this overriding need to have a scanner, so there you go.

should i scan anything class, and suitable to put here, i will put it here!

otherwise, i picked up Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on videotape for a mere R25 yesterday. a wise investment, although i believe Spiros has the DVD on the way.

be excellent to each other!!

baby update

hello everyone! well, here's the latest pic for you. if you are smart and sharp of eye, you can see the forehead, the left eye, the cheek, the mouth and a hand!!

still no clarity on a name as of yet; Michele says James Robert Liam, I say Napoleon Elvis Ghengis. I think I will lose!

that's all for the time being!

be excellent to each other!!

a couple of good movies

DESCENT is one the most mindblowing, terrifying, stomach churning films i have ever been lucky enough to see. it's also very difficult to give much in the way of a plot or description as i would hate to spoil anything. it had both of us jumping in our seats.

if you ever saw the same director's first film, Dog Soldiers, you will know just how good he is. i believe this film is getting a very limited release. if you can see it, please do so, often!!


THE FANTASTIC FOUR, meanwhile, happily takes the approach of Spiderman, Batman Beings and The X-Men. this means that it is a quality film in its own right as well as being (i suppose) a good comic book adaptation, and is not The Hulk, a film which failed on every imaginable level.

it is really good fun - see it if you can!

been a while

hi anyone still checking

well, no excuses for not updating, at least i am updating now!!

all is well on this side. Mrs R & baby are doing very well. sorry if you were hoping for a surprise, but I must release the info - it is a boy on the way. we think we know what he will be called, and i know we are not going to be naming him Napoelon Elvis!!

the due date we have is December 15, but i am convinced that it's not quite so an exact science as to say that for fact. i guess we had better start getting ourselves ready and prepared, although Michele has started buying nappies and things!

it's our second wedding anniversary this weekend, well sort of. Tuesday is the actual day, but as that is a public holiday we have taken the Monday off and decided to make a long long weekend of it. we were planning on going away, but things always change. as mentioned above, i guess we are getting ready for the baby! not sure what we will be doing, just chillin' i expect.

otherwise, i have finished off reading another Dan Brown novel, Angels and Demons. not too bad, but still it seems his best was placed in Da Vinci Code. i shall be reading Deception Point at some stage, however......

we are mere days, ladies and gentlemen, away from the return of Bret Easton Ellis. Lunar Park is due to be published on August 16. I never did find the "bootleg" version on the internet, and i am glad that i did not. i cannot wait to get my hands on it!!

there have been a few good films lately, but let me put up some seperate reviews!

be excellent to each other!!

forever-ever delayed

Heya

is it worth saying sorry for the lack of updates? i did not think so......


well, still so far so good with the pregnancy. week 18 now, i believe, and he/she is turning into quite a big baby. i guess it will take after daddy in at least one respect!!

not sure if i mentioned in my last post (doubt it), but, believe it or not, a better film that Star Wars Episode III has arrived. it is called Batman Begins. a most excellent film from a class director with an ace cast. if you have not seen it, see it!

otherwise, major thanks to my mate Chris - he has sent an excellent package of tunes and videos, including footage of the Manics gig Michele & I went to! nice one fella!

meanwhile, I seem to have started an international ring of emails about David Hasselhoff. sure, there are many going around, but this one is in a circle of 20 people and has made dubious, unsubstantiated comments about my boss trying to dress like the Hoff. it can only be a matter of time before I am threatened with dismissal.

otherwise, all is well here guys. I will try and put the "proper" scan image up soon, but then again we will have a new one as of the 25th!!

be excellent to each other!!

a first look at the young one!!

OK, we have a scanned image of the baby, and here's our best copy of that pic using a digital camera, cellphone cameras, a sponge and a rusty spanner :)




beautiful!!

we have a suspicion that we know the gender, but I shall remain quiet for now. next scan is in four weeks time, we may know for sure then!!

update

hi everyone

well, since i sent the link out to a load of people recently, i suppose i should try and keep everyone updated!

the news is that, well, there is no news. i may be tempted to the cinema again this year for something that is not Star Wars - this Batman Begins film looks rather smart.

my class Miami Vice DVD set should arrive tomorrow, along with a couple of discs that are not Miami Vice. nice one to Mrs R + 1 for buying it for me! she will be away on stocktaking duties, which means i can watch it this weekend. a strict condition of it being bought was that Mrs R + 1 did not have to see it. ever.

hmn, the new series of South Park features an episode called The Death Of Eric Cartman? bummer, man, that's a bummer.

be excellent to each other!!

and the news is.....

there is no news!!! no updates of late because there is not much happening at the moment to share with the world at large!!

Michele needed to go to the doctor last week, and as a consequence our next scan has been put back a week. we will only know how the baby is, and if it is a little boy or girl, on June 27th.

otherwise, I have established that it IS possible to watch Episode III far too many times. I think I will avoid it again until the DVD release.

be excellent to each other!

looking smart, Mrs R+1 !!!!!

this is us on Richard and Erika's wedding day.



see, I can dress properly when I want to, or at least when I have to!

ahem, as ever, Michele looks wonderful. if I am not mistaken, this is the first time her image has appeared on this page of mine!

time for an update

hello everyone

well, once again, sorry for the delays. it's been busy days for us, as my last post or two hinted at!

first off, most important - baby talk. Michele has been for some tests, owing to her existing medical conditions, and everything seems 100% fine with the pregnancy. nice one! we have a due date of 15th December 2005, but I understand and accept that delivery dates for babies are not quite an exact science. ho hum, when he or she decides to turn up, we will try to be ready for it!

Michele next goes for a scan on 20th June. I will be with her of course, but I doubt they will want to scan my tummy! that should be 14 weeks into pregnancy, and I believe it is possible that we will be able to find out if it is a boy or a girl. I doubt that I will pass up on the chance to find out!!

Michele's cravings are getting more and more interesting - she absolutely needed fillet steak and tons of vegetables for lunch today, which was nice!

OK, our other major event - Richard and Erika's wedding. it went really well, and everyone had a fun time. the Elvis impersonator doing the singing was ace!!

some of our family came out for it - Colin, Angela, Christopher and Andrew to be precise. it was wonderful to see them all, and sadly we waved bye-bye last night. it sounds like they got home OK!

what other news do I have for you? well, I have been back at verk for three days, and it seems in my absence I was made employee of the month. nice one!

it's is Matt's birthday today - sounded like he was having fun when I called him, I trust he still is!!

oh, well, that's just about it all from here for now.

be excellent to each other!

not taken the pirates long....

the rather bad looking pirate copy of Episode III. you can clearly see that this is a time-encoded copy, with someone fading out the time stamp.

really, this is not worth the effort. the original DVD will be out by the end of the year. for such a special film, do not waste your time or spoil the experience with such a poor version of it.

seen it!

Episode III = ace film. go and see it as soon as possible!!!

Revenge Of The Sith and other news

well, I am a mere 14 hours away from seeing Revenge Of The Sith.

that does not seem to exciting anymore, considering Michele is pregnant!

totally out of the blue, and certainly unplanned, but there you go!

will endeavour to send more news and so on when the shock goes and it's all 100% joy!

No Way, Sis

well, thanks to a nightmare in the traffic this morning, I was able to hear the new Oasis album twice today.

it's not bad, but it is not great either. it's the quality of the b-sides for the singles off the first two albums - very good, but not quite good enough. ho hum, well worth a listen, and please go and buy it. I will as soon as they release it here - that could be a year or so, knowing now useless our CD stores are!

14 days today and Revenge Of The Sith hits the cinemas. nice one!

be excellent to each other!

a mere 17 days to go......

.....to Star Wars Episode III : Revenge Of The Sith. nice one, hard to believe that this event is barely two weeks away! wahoo!

anyway, I have been having a look at some other, lesser films in the mean time.

Sin City, picked up mainly because Matt was after a copy, is not a bad film at all. I have no idea at all about the graphic novel it is based on, but it may well be worth a look on the basis of this flick. Mickey Rourke yet again proves he is one of the most underused sources of talent in the galaxy, and Bruce Willis stands around a bit doing Bruce Willis things.

Constantine I have not watched, but Mrs Ricketts has. she seemed to enjoy it. well, she was impressed with the special effects, hence me hearing "holy s@#$" every few minutes as she saw it. me? watch Keanu? I don't think so, my dear.

Hide And Seek is yet another entry into the world of Robert De Niro's "look, give me the cheque and I will mumbe a few things and then shout a bit" works. oh dear, what a shame to see the great one constantly slumming it. which leads nicely into.....

GodSend, featuring more of the De Niro as painted above.

what the hell else did I watch? oh, Ring 2. well, the first one was OK, this one is kind of more of the same and yet not more of the same. see it and figure it out.

back to verk tomorrow after the long weekend. no doubt a chaotic morning ahead, no surprises there.

anyway, be excellent to each other!!

excellent!

check out this web page :

http://darthside.blogspot.com/

hello

not even sure if I have regular readers, thanks to the irregular nature of my updates!

well, what can I tell you about? not much, really, plodding along as usual. Michele is getting ready for her exams, we are all counting down to Richard & Erika's wedding, and of course there is the small matter of Star Wars Episode III very, very soon!

read Dan Brown's first novel, Digital Fortress. not bad, I guess, but not the most brilliant book my eyes have cast over.

ho hum, if all is well, and nothing dramatic has happened, I shall leave you to it. I have no doubt that many, many posts will accompany me seeing Star Wars :)

be excellent to each other......

Purple Haze....................

just what is eminating out of General Grevious' head????? I can only imagine that he is getting lamped here.

bye bye Ani, hello Darth............

Anakin Skywalker in a textbook definition of what "being lamped"actually is and looks like. this boy looks like he has taken one hell of a beating. go Obi go!