James visits Daddy's verk

on friday, young Napoleon, along with Mummy, Gran and Great Gran, popped into the office for a cup of tea and a sing song at my office. all seem to love Napoleon to bits, and it would be fair to say that he is (quite rightly) more popular than i am with everyone!!

i think someone else has more pictures, but here are what i have on my camera! there is another post with someone else to follow this one.......

James at 8 weeks

hey everyone

well, we (ie Michele) could not pick just one picture of James for the usual weekly update, so here's a series of the lad in his rather smart new bouncy chair thing that Grandma R got him.

James is doing well, daddy not quite so well. i seem to have some sort of cold/flu thing on the go. as it is not bird flu, it isn't particularly interesting and thus i will just try and get rid of it!

otherwise, i personally slept through Aeon Flux this week. take that review as you wish!

hope all is well with you!

be excellent to each other!!!!

7 weeks already!!

hey everyone

here's James enjoying seven weeks with his Grandma and his Great Grandma, the latter having come all the way from England to see her two Great-Grandchildren. nice one!!

the cousins together!

as mentioned in the last update, here's James and Katie just chilling away this afternoon!

Great Gran H arrives from England in a few days, i am sure she is going to love seeing them!

be excellent to each other!

smiles from James

hey everyone

surprise, surprise, it's another update with another cute picture of James :)

Michele took some really great pics today, this being one of our favourites (one of several thousand). he's been quite active and vocal, he seems to be developing quite rapidly! that said, Michele seems to wish for me to cease and desist with trying to encourage James to have as his first words "8 Ace", "Ace" or any variant thereof.

his cousin Katie came to visit today, and the two of them condescended to share the large donut thing James has to lay on. i will have a think and a see about uploading the pics!

otherwise, all is well here. James went on a massive expidition at the weekend - Baby City for what can only be described as the king of prams, Wimpy to see all his friends there and sit whilst Mummy and Daddy ate, and then off to see his Grandma Monica and his, erm, Great Grandmother or "Groot Ouma" in Afrikaans, i think.

i have just changed my cellphone's message alert to The Who's Baba O'Reilly. it is most excellent.

anyway, admire the pic!!

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

James - aged 6 weeks

heya everyone

well, this time it was bathtime for his weekly progress picture update! he cried a great deal at bath time to begin with, but now he seems to love it. having a bath does tend to help settle him for the night!

otherwise, Michele went for a check-up at the doctor today. many of you will be undoubtedly thrilled to learn that, apparently, her spleen is in the right place. i had no idea that it was under threat of movement, so there you go.

James also went on a shopping excursion with Mummy & Granny today. i believe they had some Wimpy too, lucky things!

as we are at the six week stage, James earlier this week had the dubious pleasure of having certain necessary innoculation injections - he cried for about a minute afterwards, but was soon fine again. i shall be crying for quite some time no doubt - i set up some investments for young Napoleon today. will cost a bit month by month, but it means that when he hits 18 (2023!!!!!), we should be able to send him on his way to buy some wheels and set him on his way to University. he can buy his old man a pint if he is feeling generous, i guess.

ho hum, probably loads of other things to speak of, but they have escaped my mind right now. oh yeah, some film reviews :

King Kong : not as bad as i expected, but nothing happens for an hour and it is still just Jurassic Park with an absolutely enormous monkey stuck on it.

Hostel : looked ace, woefully disappointing. for an 88 minute film with a really warped plot, it manages to drag its feet and be very dull and combersome.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang : saw it again. it is still a most excellent film.

i am sure there is something else i/we watched but have forgotten about. i guess that is a review of whatever it was in itself.

be excellent to each other!!

take it easy, son

here's James just deciding to pose for the camera for a bit. enjoy!

James aged 5 weeks (ish)

hey everyone

OK, this pic was a day after 5 weeks, but this is one of the best we have of him. hope you like it!!

all is well on this side of the world - off for 6 weeks' injections for the little fella, a few days early. i am sure he will be fine, i just hope his mother does not lamp the nurse when he starts the inevitable crying!

for my chum Sinbad

undefined

this pic is for Sinbad's Metallica avatar. appreciate it.

four weeks

hey everyone

well, here's the "little" fella at four weeks - 4.7kgs now, and getting taller every hour, never mind every day. i cannot imagine who he is taking after :)

all is well - he's still sleeping through longer and longer, i think some six hours is the latest record he has achieved!!

tomorrow we are taking him off on the joys of shopping - to, surprise surprise, baby city to get some more wet wipes, nappy bags and everything else that we can rememeber to! i could have stopped off myself during the week, but we have to be brave and bold at some point and take him out and about to places other than to see his grandparents! i figure the odds are with us - how busy and hectic can a trip to a baby store on a Sunday be? they could be famous last words, i suppose, but we shall see!

a special hello to Mike and Anne, as well as Sarah - thanks for checking in and seeing what i have gotten around to putting on this site!! hope all is going well with you guys!

thanks very much to all the anonymous surfers who have taken the time to send some very nice comments about beautiful young James. it still feels weird and improbable that anyone reads this site, so it is rather nice to be wrong!

otherwise, we kind of watched Pitch Black and The Chronicles Of Riddick last night, mainly to see what the fuss was all about. i kind of got through PB, it being a halfway decent and somewhat liberal retelling of the old Flight Of The Phoenix story, with a touch of Mad Max 2 thrown in for good measure (no bad homage since it was made in Australia). as far as Chronicles of Riddick, however, i was soon asleep during it, for it seemed to be far too Borg-esque in plot and it has not been all that long since i saw those Star Trek films or episodes. neither film was bad, but it is not like i am angry at myself for watching them earlier.

be excellent to each other!!

1987

good morning

well, it's an astonishing 19 years ago today that my Uncle Colin took me to the Manchester G-Mex to see the great, great Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

i will never forget the gig, my first ever and it was and is my favourite band of all time.

does make me feel somewhat old, but nonetheless Frankie were playing full volume in the car this morning!

James slept for a new record six hours straight last night - i am feeling rather awake for the first time in a while!!

watching something or other

hello

here we are watching something or other on television. looking at the rather sad, depressed and bored aspects of our faces, i suspect it involves the increasingly useless whims and ways of Middlesbrough.

i assure you we were all somewhat happier after whatever it was was switched off!!!!

James aged 3 weeks

hey everyone

a delayed update (blogger now being dead slow does not help), but here's a picture of James aged three weeks. i am delighted to say he is healthy and happy, and getting rather big!!

according to Michele, he finds me messing around with Prince music rather soothing, so i guess we will be playing more of the purple one on a night. he seems to quite like the Foo Fighters too. actually, i just made the observation to Michele that, whereas Dave Grohl was only 33% of Nirvana, he was conversley more than 66% of the talent of the band.

i have also (ahem) obtained video footage of David Lee Roth performing Jump with the Boston Pops Orchestra thing. it says it all that he spends most of the time attempting to hide in the orchestra pit.

be excellent to each other!

and another dinnertime pic

and one more pic of me sat with James as i sit and try and work out how to hold the bottle properly and best for him.

ten points if you can name the cat on my t-shirt, and describe what he used to look like!

with all these pics, i hope i am not turning the like of James into the Truman Show!!

be excellent to each other!

Hungry James

well, if there is one thing we know for certain about James, it is his appetite! the guidebooks are all pretty much out the window; he eats when he wants to eat. nothing wrong with a healthy appetite i guess!

it is not often i either get the chance nor the confidence to feed him - his Mummy does a most excellent job of it. however, i do try my best to help out and spend as much time as i can with him!!

a Mini Mini-Me?

hey everyone

just a quick James/Napoleon update for you all. he seems to be developing quite a knack for doing impressions - here he is doing his best Dr Evil pose! alas, could not get the camera ready for when he was doing it really, really, really well!

nearly three weeks on and James and Mummy are doing very well!!!

James's advert

hey everyone

hope you had a good time saying farewell to 2005 and have thus far had a most excellent 2006!! we were in bed by about 11pm - catching sleep whilst James did!

here's the newspaper ad my folks took out to mark the arrival of James in the world. i am sure some of you will want to see it!

otherwise, all is well on this side of the world. James is getting bigger and beautiful every day, and Michele has really got the hang of motherhood - she is rather something at it!!

i spent New Year's Day with The Colonel, showing him how to get his DVD-R working. he seems to have the knack of it now, and i have no doubt at all that he will be running off discs with no hassles. nice one, since he has taught me so much over the years it is nice to be able to reciprocate the ability!!

James had some visitors today, our good friend Maria and our "friend" Sinbad. i must say i was somewhat disappointed that James did not say his first words today - James spent five minutes in the company of Sinbad but did not say what most people normally do to Sinbad after spending that kind of time with him. alas, i cannot use that word on this web page.

meanwhile, for all my years in education, i have been left unsure as to what is the correct grammatical way to say "James's". i believe the "'s" is correct as we are reffering to something pertaining to James in the singular, ie there is not a gang of James', it is something that is James's. feel free to correct me on this one if you have a different view!

oh well, what do you know, a halfway decent update for a change!!

be excellent to each other!!

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!!