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From the Outskirts
2008-02-10 21:49:00
From www.wikipedia.orgWhy do so many of 'The Twilight Zone' episodes happen on the outskirts of the Twilight Zone (I'm just going by Mr Serling's introductions). What the hell would it be like in the centre?I watched an episode earlier entitled 'The Lateness of the Hour'. In terms of direction, dialogue and even acting, this was one of the worst of both seasons. It says a lot for the series then that it prefigures much of the Rachael subplot in 'Bladerunner'. Of course, Dick, the author of the original novel (written in 1966), dealt with the whole question of what it means to be human throughout his entire career (which started in the early 50s). The use of robots to highlight this question features in literature a lot earlier too; consider Hoffmann (and in particular, his 'The Sandman') or even, one could argue, 'Pinocchio' (think of Spielberg and Aldiss' take on the story in 'A.I.'). Still the Twilight Zone episode explicitly deals with a robot, with false mem...

Zoned Out
2008-02-09 13:26:00
Image from www.scifi.comI should mention that a week or so ago I finished watching Season One of the original Twilight Zone series. All my life my preference has been for the Richard Matheson ('The Last Flight', 'Third from the Sun') and Charles Beaumont ('Perchance to Dream', 'Long Live Walter Jameson') tales. My esimation of Rod Serling, who wrote the bulk of Season One (and of the other four seasons too; apparently over 120 25 minute episodes) has just grown and grown. Despite a moralistic tone, some occasionally clunky dialogue and a definite streak of sentimentality, his tales are showcases of good storytelling. Perfectly formed, they tend to center on an urban nobody, a thirty-something loser, given a chance at redemption, he something takes, but as often rejects ('The Big Tall Wish'). 'The Twilight Zone' features so heavily in my psyche, having made such a big impact from my childhood television viewing, that I could write on and on about its strengths and we...

What you don't see
2008-02-07 00:53:00
It's amazing what you don't see! Nigel was playing a gig up in Smithfield, so ten minutes beforehand I set off walking from my new abode. When you turn off Capel Street you expect just straight roads, but there was "Little Britain Street", effectively a fenced off green space in a place you never expected. And on the way back I came via Bolton Street and there was an Indian takeway, and a huge supermarket as close to me as the petty newsagent I have frequented up to now. And a chipper on my doorstep. And a blues bar. And, holy God, angel giftware with the number "66" on either side of the sign (there are three sixes within four sixes, you know). What you don't see when you stick to the beaten track! By the time I got to Bray, I had a completely different perspective on Dublin.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2008-02-06 21:37:00
After a career of dark-hued fairytales, Tim Burton takes things to the limit with 'Sweeney Todd : The Demon Barber of Fleet Street '. But full of music, singing and buckets of blood, will it scare off any audience?Burton's movie, despite the singing, reminds me of nothing so much as a Hammer horror movie. This is probably as much due to the particularly vivid colour of the blood used copiously (very reminiscent of 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness') as anything else. But Burton has been threatening to replicate the Hammer style all his career and most explicitly (before now) in 'Sleepy Hollow'. It does, however, make me wonder how Hammer never made a stab at this most quintessentially English horror tale. The barber from Fleet Street who slits his customers' throats, sending their souls to Heaven and their bodies to Mrs Lovett's Meat Pie Shop (as tasty filling for the pastries), is a figure who has kept me away from barbershop shaving all my life. I have never seen the 1936 versi...

Isn't it ironic?
2008-02-05 10:43:00
I have one of those crummy calendars on my desk at work, the ones with an event from history and a wiseass saying of some sort. Yesterday's maxim read:"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."The event was from 1938: 'Adolf Hitler took command of the German Army.' Someone's having a larf, mate, someone's having a larf....
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Cloverfield
2008-02-04 19:48:00
Boasting a trailer featuring the head of the Statue of Liberty rolling around the streets, 'Cloverfield ' has generated a lot of hype. With echoes of 9/11 in its tale of a largely unseen menace devastating New York, it seems to promise a challenging window on contemporary urban terror. In the end it's just Godzilla with a camcorder. To be fair that in itself might not be such a bad thing. Traditionally monster movies concentrate on the scientists trying to tackle the menace. The average Joe, the one actually suffering from the monster's carnage, rarely gets a look in (a notable exception is the original Japanese, 'Godzilla', which features a harrowing scene in a hospital where victims are treated for radiation burns). 'Cloverfield' spots this gap in the market, and resolutely centers on bemused New Yorkers rather than figures of authority. Indeed the military, the only official representatives we see, are largely anonymous. The use of the camcorder too seems a canny...

What can't Carbon Nanotubes do?
2008-01-31 17:58:00
A short while ago scientists revealed that they had perfected the blackest material known to man (99.99% non-reflective, I think they said). What was this mysterious substance? Bush's heart? Bertie's underwear? No, a new development of the high-strength, tiny girth carbon nanotubes. On that 'Visions of the Future' programme a few months back these tubes were going to be the basis for an elevator into space. Here they were making blackness. Well, now scientists have truly excelled themselves. Harnessing the full power of the tube, they have brought it together with a quartz wafer to produce the world's first fully functional FM/AM carbon nanotube radio! With a nanotube 10000 times smaller than a human hair it's the smallest radio ever, so small in fact that apparently "you can put a tracking collar on a bacterium". I have seen the future and it is now and it is black!Now if only they'd make them into curtain hooks.
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Newsflash!
2008-01-31 10:18:00
Hickey's have a monopoly on curtain hooks! An extensive investigation through Ireland's top department stores unearthed a startling truth: no hooks! Despite each having sizeable, in some cases huge, curtain departments, no major store continues to stock curtain hooks. When pressed on the matter, store representatives invariably gave the same advice: 'Go to Hickey's!'

Gravitas
2008-01-29 23:07:00
I believe Earth came close to some pretty serious devastation this morning. Breakfast tv, usually not very stetching on the old intellect, furnished me with the news that an asteroid as big as a house had just missed our lovely planet by a couple of hundred thousand miles. Oh yes, just um, fifteen minutes ago. While I showered doom lurked not very far away.  In the grand scheme of things a couple of hundred thousand miles is close, too close, and though house size asteroids may not sound like much planetarily speaking, I know given its speed etc. that impact would not have been pretty. Not quite dinosaur extinction scale, but a nasty bump for some country or other nonetheless. As the show's guest pointed out a few hours earlier and things might have been different.  Then to keep things relatively serious they had a plug for the Horizon documentary on tonight (I'm missing it right now!!!!) about Gravity (with a big 'G'). I don't know about you, but the whole...
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Room for One More Inside
2008-01-29 20:00:00
On my way to visit the folks. Already I find the second bus irksome. Having said that this bus had pulled away from the stop when I got there but he still let me on (he was caught in traffic anyway). And several more rushing fools were similarly let on. Are bus drivers becoming more accommodating now that I need them less? Nah, it's probably the driver's first day, or he's had an overdose of Prozac, or he's that scary hearse driver in 'Dead of Night' who goes, 'Room for one more inside....'  I need my endorphins. Either that or kick a kitten.  Shame on Tesco and their lack of 40x30 clip-on picture frames!  Ah, that Wilde quotation ("I have nothing to declare...") on the ferry poster is too old hat. Well, okay, so it is over a 100 years old; I guess I mean familiar. Or maybe it's just because I got the tee-shirt.  MSc class reunion is coming up at the end of February. 11 years!!!!! Typically it clashes with a retirement do for someone a...
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Rambling
2008-01-29 19:31:00
Seemed like the whole IT infrastructure was falling down at work today. In truth, it was just LDAP.  Curtain hooks, curtain hooks, my kingdom for some curtain hooks.  Bus book, 'Three Men in a Boat', doesn't float my particular vessel, but it's harmless enough to keep me reading.  As I pass through Phibsboro, the gymsters fast walk above Eddie Rockett's. Burger and the Beasts.  I hate the sound of someone clipping their fingernails behind me. Or are they toenails?
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Lust, Caution
2008-01-29 00:54:00
'Lust , Caution' is apparently based on a short story. After two and a half hours, you have to wonder what got gained in translation. A war-time story set in Japanese-occupied China, it tells of a young actress roped into a naive plot to assassinate a collaborator. To lure the security savvy traitor into the open she must become his mistress. But at what point does pretence end and passion really begin? I'm not entirely sure. Despite some infamous sex scenes, I found it all a little too passionless. As befits a film by Ang Lee ('Brokeback Mountain', 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'), this is a rich, beautiful movie, but with its slow pace and long running time, it suffers from the restraint shown. An occasional outburst by the excellent Wei Tang is simply not enough to gain our empathy. Does she really care for Mr Yee? Do we care? For the climax to have any impact, the audience can be in no doubt of Wong Chia Chi's feelings, and must have bought into them long a...

Running
2008-01-28 01:14:00
The fat politican rolled down the street. He licked his bulbous lips with the satisfaction he felt with the world and his place in it. Ahead of him a thin man in a long grey coat walked, slowly and melancholily. The sight made him even happier with himself.He could do no wrong. In television appearance after television appearance he had committed the ultimate political sin; he had let his emotions show. But the audience loved him for it. His smug scorn for his opponents was apparently lapped up deliciously by the people. They adored his blunt contempt, his selfish arrogance. He need not hide anything any more. Having initially trailed in the polls, now he led. The newspapers that morning said so. People loved him.He breathed in the cool spring air and looked, with an apprehension uncommon for him, in quiet wonder at the grey sky. Life was good. He could walk and walk and everything would be pleasing. The world was good. It was his. And this was his city, he felt like...
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The Gilliam Curse
2008-01-24 10:31:00
He hasn't had much luck, has he? After escaping the Pythons and wowing with 'Time Bandits', Terry Gilliam could only get 'Brazil', his critics prize-winning dystopia, released by taking out a full page ad in Variety asking the studio why they were shelving it. After the sadly unsuccessful 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen' (at least financially), he became a Hollywood pariah, the man who had brought in, over-time and over-budget, the most expensive flop of the time. Only by giving them Oscar-winning movies like 'The Fisherking' and 'Twelve Monkeys' would the studios forgive him. They still wouldn't let him make 'The Watchman', or 'The Golden Compass'. Then when he tries his hand at his own take on Don Quixote, his lead, Jean Rochefort, comes down with prostate cancer, exacerbated by the horse-riding involved in the part (not to mention a long string of additional bad luck documented in the excellent documentary, 'Lost in La Mancha'). Then Harvey and Bob 'S...
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Off the Rails
2008-01-23 19:22:00
Using a drill while standing on a chair balanced on a coffee table is not going to win many health and safety awards, yet that was my clever ploy, that was, last Sunday. The curtain rail was old and unhinged, so to speak, at one end. The curtain too pretended, badly, to cover the window, but hung down in the middle. The only solution, as I saw it, in my new industrious frame of mind (ordinarily quite unnatural for me) was to replace the rail and rehang the curtain. Unfortunately the rail I got needed new holes to be drilled. With my height and no ladder, just unscrewing the old screws was an ordeal. Drilling was painful. I now have the arms of an orangutan to complement my full body hair. Despite this apelike physique, balance and dexterity at a height still did not come naturally to me. It was only after many a perilous fall was avoided (or at least taken from coffee table height), and curtain re-hooked, that I noticed the new rail was for two curtains not one and so the c...
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Locked!
2008-01-16 11:31:00
With the new year come new beginnings and yesterday I was to move into a friend's apartment, apartment-sitting while he travelled. At lunchtime I met up to get the keys. There are a lot of doors involved - it's a city centre apartment - so before we parted I made sure that we went outside and that I made my way in, door by door, key by key. No problems. On my way home from work I bought some bed linen. Most of my stuff was in my parents', so I was going there ultimately, but I stopped in the apartment to drop off my purchases. No problems. Finally I collected a suitcase and my laptop and got a lift into town. I made my way through each door, I turned key after key in each lock. I stood outside my door, suitcase by my side, and unlocked one lock, then.... The last lock wouldn't open. The key turned, stopped, but no give on the door. One of my new neighbours walked by and, in case it was just me, I asked them to have a go. No, it wasn't just me. I struggled for ten,...
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Jackanory Time Again
2008-01-15 18:45:00
Might as well post a story/anecdote for this week:A Snowy NightThere was snow on the road. That would have to be his excuse. Lying on his side, he felt more annoyance at the blood flowing into his eyes than he did at what had just happened. It was an accident, nothing to do with him. Although he couldn't turn his head, he knew the young child's (dead?) body lay some way back. Damn this blood! Damn the snow! Damn! All he could do was wait. Between the pain, the seatbelt and the tightly packed metal, he was rigidly contained and couldn't move. Waiting was the only answer. A car would surely come soon, would round that bend and light up the scene in all its gory glory. They would phone for help and he would be cut out, carried away, rescued. Maybe the child might be saved too. Just wait. As it happened the way the car had fallen by the roadside, his eyes were pointed out over the edge, directly at the road below. He might see any approaching cars. He might do, if tha...
More About: Time

The Purty (Kitchen) Sessions
2008-01-14 18:51:00
It was an exceptionally heavy weekend - going away drinks for Francisco (world trip) on Friday, going away drinks for my cousin Barry (Oz) on Saturday), and a Nigel place gig on Sunday. The common thread was The Purty Kitchen , the city centre branch on Friday and Saturday, out near Dun Laoighaire on Sunday.Of course, things weren't that simple. Leaving work around 4.00 on Friday, we headed into the Czech Inn first for some Czech beer. An old, unintelligible geezer (Irish) tried to get into conversation with our motley crew, but we were in no mood to humour him. He sat down at a table opposite a sleeping girl and proceeded to do strange trips with his beer, pouring it from one glass into a mayonnaise dish into another glass and back again. Initially it looked like he was perfecting his rohypnol approach (obviously successful on the sleeping girl), but if this was the case he wasn't shy about sampling his wares. We left for cheap pints in the Purty Kitchen.Later it was down to...
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More Notes on The Night Stalker
2008-01-14 15:12:00
One big anomaly in Kolchak was having Richard Kiel, Jaws in the James Bond movies, playing an Indian wizard. More convincing by far was Kiel as the lettuce-covered creature, Peremalfait, in one of my most fondly remembered episodes, 'The Spanish Moss Murders'. Probably taking its cue from Swamp Thing and Man-thing, Peremalfait was a huge, green Bogeyman, remembered and unconsciously created by a sleep experiment subject from the Bayou. Kolchak must eventually confront him in Chicago's sewers with what is admittedly a somewhat ridiculous weapon, a whittled piece of Bayou gum tree. The huge Kiel being speared by the little twig is just a little too easy.The curse of the pathetic make-up surfaces again in 'Mr R.I.N.G' about a homicidal robot. A jump-suited actor with lights on his face strives to make itself human (learning philosophy from St Augustine, among others and using undertaker's wax and a ski mask for that Jason look). I think it's easy to see where the story had ...
More About: Night , Notes , Stalker , Talker

Kolchak: The Night Stalker
2008-01-09 14:27:00
After all my talk of books, it's sad to say I've spent the last two nights watching dvds. My buying frenzy was confined not only to literature, you see, and a week or so back I found a rake of old, macabre shows online for cheap as chips prices. Sadly none arrived while I was off work (I had planned one long day of watching), but on Monday 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker ' was finally delivered.I have fond memories of the 1974 show from my childhood, when it was repeated on late night BBC2. Starring Darren McGavin as the eponymous journalist, each week it featured a new monster or supernatural threat that Kolchak would investigate and usually dispatch, before finding evidence for his story go up in smoke (quite literally, most of the time). The type of show that a growing kid likes to see and I haven't grown up that much since.Of course, it's all very cheap and tacky, and the horror elements are probably not helped by the gentle comedy thrown into each episode. The only thing ...
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Unbelievable!
2008-01-09 10:23:00
So Hillary Clinton comes from 10 points behind in the opinion polls (conducted just 24 hours beforehand) to win the New Hampshire vote. And wasn't New Hampshire where Bill made his comeback when he was on his campaign for the Democrat nomination? From the Clinton perspective it almost seems too good to be true. Unbelievably good. Yes, unbelievable....I guess I've just seen too many movies. Speaking of which....From one set of nominations to another; the Golden Globes, scheduled for Sunday, have been cancelled due to the writers' strike. Does this mean Hollywood finally gives a damn about the writers? Now that would be unbelievable.
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Books Today
2008-01-08 14:33:00
Eason's Books hop on Dawson Street is closing down or something, so everything was half price. Unfortunately, though the sale started just after Christmas, I only discovered it last week (probably why it's closing). Although most of the good stuff was good, i still managed to buy an obscene quantity of books. Of the lot, however, I am only currently reading Verne's 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth', principally because it fits in my coat pocket making it ideal bus reading material.Like most kids, I read a lot of adapted versions of Verne when I was a child, and of course watched the movies. I am still unsure whether I read any of his books as they were written (well, obviously not as written, my French isn't good even these days, but you know what I mean). I have a faint recollection of reading '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea', one of my childhood favourites, but I could be wrong. Anyway 'Journey' is nice, breezy stuff. The principal pleasures are derived from the p...
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Books Read
2008-01-07 14:45:00
I finally finished a book or two that had been hanging over me.Before Christmas I finished the 'Pocket Essentials: Steven Soderbergh' by Jason Wood. Like most books in this series, the director comes out as a saint, the author/apostle finding nuggets of gold and pearls of wisdom in even his most obscure works (although I do agree on the positive appraisal of 'Schizopolis'). I have a lot of respect for Soderbergh, who has a lot of intelligence and something to say, but I would never rank him in the top tier (though who I would place there I'm not too sure these days). The book stopped at 'Ocean's Eleven', so we were spared Wood's excuses for 'Ocean's Twelve' or the needless remake of 'Solaris'. Nevertheless it was a pleasant trip through his back catalogue.Last week I finally finished Russell's 'Problems of Philosophy'. You cannot expect me to refrain from anger when he resorts to Platonic Universals to back up his case (something Schopenhauer's 'The World as ...
More About: Books , Read

Spoilt
2008-01-06 20:35:00
'What can I do for you, Mrs Quinn?'The man at the meat counter smacked his hands together with anticipatory professionalism. Grace looked at the display, not him, thinking how much he needed some meat himself. A thin man was Gary, but he suited the clothes at any rate. They must make them wear that straw hat and striped red apron, she thought. The traditional butcher's uniform.'A pound and a half of round mince. That'll do.''Fair enough.'He set to weighing the meat, adding little tidbits to get the exact weight. Around them both a soft, warm piggy smell curled lazily. The ovens shhhed as their fans swirled their heat.'Actually, give me some pork chops too, around four. They'll do for tomorrow.'Grace looked away from the glass fronted ovens as he continued to put together the order. It was a quiet morning in the supermarket, with only a few trollies moving up and down the aisles of the small store. A few young mothers with prams or toddlers or both.'Yeeeeeeeahhh...

Jackanory
2008-01-06 20:27:00
Last year, in a nasty mood, I determined to write a short story every day. I got as far as seven before laziness/writer's block struck (and that after ten days). Anyhow I might as well do something with at least one of them, so I am posting one, that seemed to be liked by the few I showed it to, next. Any comments are appreciated. Oh, and did I mention it's nasty?

2007 - In (Some) Pictures
2008-01-05 23:07:00
Okay, let's get 2008 kicked off, firstly by looking back.I was clearing out my phone this evening and came across the following. That's life, 2007 style.Bronte Beach New Year's Day 2007Walking to BondiBondi Beach - New Year's Day 2007Mary at the Kauri Tree - New Zealand, this day last yearDarklight Festival 2007Summer in DublinSummer in DurhamLiffey SwimmersDublinSquirrelsIt's Will's party..." ...and he'll cry if he wants toProbablyRosalind's PartyGer in The Botanic HouseSunny MurciaHalloween BonfireGrafton Street Today
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Better Late than Never....
2007-12-27 01:56:00
A truly Bad Santa wishes you well!Can't believe I forgot to post this before Christmas, but then it has been a very, very alcoholic week. Anyway you get the point. Hope you had a good one and here's wishing you, dear reader, ah, so very dear to me, a 2008 free of Bush, Bertie and bad flicks (at least Blair's gone). Slim hope, I know, but I'd like it to be a good one.
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Shoddy, and Yes, I am Jealous!
2007-12-13 21:43:00
It's strange, but film buff though I am, I only got around to seeing Channel 6's film programme, 'Take Six', tonight, and even then only the beginning and the end. I don't feel I lost much by missing the middle. Okay, as someone who'd give his right gonad to host a film review show, I'm bound to be envious and just a wee bit critical. However, of what I saw it's badly edited (sentences chopped off before they end), badly framed (the host sits so far back as to require binoculars), and the 'questions' (and I use the word in its broadest sense seeing as they usually involve reams of senseless flattery) are often far longer than the answers by the celebrity guests (in this case Renee Zellweger). At the end we were left with 'a trailer of a great movie not out for a little while'. A 'little while' I suppose can mean twenty four hours, since the movie trailer shown was for 'We Own the Night', opening tomorrow. Not that you'd know, by the way, given that neither the...
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The Golden Compass
2007-12-12 23:27:00
It is inevitable that a hugely successful series of fantasy novels, adapted for the screen with lashings of CGI, should attract comparisons with 'The Lord of the Rings', Harry Potter and 'The Chronicles of Narnia'. I don't think any reviewer could go without mentioning any of those adaptations when tackling 'The Golden Compass '. I don't intend bucking that trend, but let's get it out of the way. While a vast improvement on the likes of 'The Chronicles of Narnia' (in retrospect they really ruined that adaptation), 'The Golden Compass ' is no 'Lord of the Rings'. At base, it's probably on par with some of the earliest Potter movies.The film follows the adventures of the precocious Lyra, a young girl living on an Earth of a parallel universe. Pursued by the malignant Majesterium, a dictatorial theocracy, and in search of a horde of children stolen by the Gobblers, it is through her eyes that we see a world where people wear their souls on the outside, literally. Ev...

The Healing Cup
2007-12-12 23:13:00
Well, I've gotten over the stomach bug, but did little today anyhow.I read a little about the use of myth in 'The Natural'. Apparently the novel uses the Sir Perceval story, originally the knight who finds, loses and finds again the Holy Grail, healing the ailing Fisher King. A novel should stand or fall on its own merits, regardless of its use of reference, but 'The Natural' does that. It's excellent, just very depressing. I was angry for quite a while after finishing, my lot for a lot of books this past year.With the end of the year nearly upon us, I've been thinking of listing off what's been read etc.. Then again with so much drink ahead of me, will I have any brain left for such work?
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