Wednesday, February 27, 2008

I'm hard I am!

22



Click on the image above and have a go yourself.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

What is it that really makes a good film?

I ask the question because I have just finished watching a film I really enjoyed.

You know the type. The credits roll any it's not that you're sat there gob smacked at the twist you didn't see coming, or blown away by the big budget CGI. No, you're just sat there happy with that nice fuzzy warm feeling inside. The feeling that you get when the rest of the world has been shut out for an hour or two and you 'get' the ending.

The case in point is Say Anything. Now I remember this film fondly. I was entering that phase in life and there was this actress in the film (for the sake of this story we'll call her Ione Sky), and just let me rewind my mind some 18 years (crikey, I'm getting old) and say; Fwwwwoooorrrrrrrrr! Suffice to say I watched the film a lot and remember it foldly.

Fast forward 18 years and I watch the film with a big smile on my face. I watch the part where Lloyd Dobler sands there in the park after being dumped by his girlfriend, holding his ghetto blaster (yes this film is old school) above his head playing 'their' song at full volume so she can hear it in her bedroom, and think "wow, no one can ever write that again without getting the label 'copy cat'".

I spot great writing everywhere right up to the final second there the fasten seatbelt light goes out with a 'bing!' and we are told everything will be okay.

The thing is, I turn to my wife and she says "well I suppose it was okay!"

What!

Just Okay!

Burn her!

But does she have a point?

Do I only like the film because I simply remember having a crush on Ione Sky when I was 16?

Someone out there please back me up and say this is actually a good film showing off some good writing.

Please, I beg you!

Later

Chris

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

BOO!

Cough, splutter… Bloody hell, it’s dusty in here and the Dyson’s broken. I’ll just have to take a good old fashioned duster to the cobwebs.

So why post after such a long time (crikey has it been that long)?

Well I received an email from Jason that said (amongst other things) “Write some blog! we miss you”.

Gosh, ‘we’.

Who is ‘we’?

My ego may say “THE WHOLE WORLD MY DARLINGS!”

Reality may dictate one, possibly two people.

I’ll go with my ego for now :)

What I usually do after letting the blog slide is launch into a long drawn out promise about how this time next year I’ll be churning out a screenplay a month. Well not this time – I’ll leave that for my next post ;) For now I’ll leave you with random nothingness:

Canapés

I’m working in the London office this week and after work today I went for Canapés in the Executive Lounge of the Regents Park Marriott. It turned out to be hard boiled eggs with mayonnaise, and cream crackers with Philadelphia. Well it sounded posh to me.

The London Paper


The London Paper is a handy little publication. It has some good Sudoku puzzles, good reporting and the most important of all: You take the first one you are offered and carry it in plain sight so that the other gazillion people handing them out don’t bother you.

That works in most cases apart from with the woman who stands at the O2 Centre side of Finchley Road tube station. I walk down the street and I see her. I hold my copy of the paper out in front of me for the world to see, just like Delboy would with a file-o-fax (apologies if that means nothing to my American readers). I’m sure she sees it. I can see her glance down at it, but SHE INSISTS ON SHOVING ANOTHER COPY IN MY FACE!

WHY! I don’t need a spare. If I loose the copy I have, all I will do is shrug my shoulders and say “Shit happens!” What I will not do is kick myself for not taking that second copy from her.

I’d have said anyone could do well in a job handing out a free paper that most people want, but let me tell this woman something: “Get another job, you’re crap at this one!”

Sometimes it’s the small things that bug you :)

Gazillion

I didn’t think ‘gazillion’ was a word, but the spell checker didn’t seem to mind. Spell checker! I hear you exclaim. Well I got an E in English at school so I think spell checkers are a gift from God. Deal with it!


Sushi


I’ve developed quite a taste for it. I don’t know where I can get it where I live so I make it myself at home.

When I’m in London I’ll always eat at Yo! Sushi in the O2 Centre on Finchley Road. I spend quite a bit of money, but the company is paying. I was going to eat there again tonight and then go to the cinema, but someone made me feel guilty about not blogging for a while!

Instead I decided to go back to the hotel to write this….. With take out from Yo! Sushi :) I discovered you can get about three times as much sushi for your money if you buy their set take out boxes. I’m writing this feeling very bloated indeed.


Fancy Mobile Phones


I have a Nokia N95. As well as the ability to make calls and send texts, it has a 5 mega pixel camera, an mp3 player, wifi internet capability, a calendar, a 3D graphics engine, built in GPS with world maps, plays DivX movies, plus a tonne of other stuff.

All I do with it is call my wife at lunch time. All the fancy stuff on it is wasted, but I still want an iPhone.

I’ll stop there and leave you with this:

Be excellent to each other!