Hogmanay celebrations are a tricky thing to get right. If you try to implement a strategy of immense detail you will inevitably fail. Doomed to see in the New Year in a crowd of people you are not particularly bothered about, which won’t matter too much anyway because you will spend most of your evening in a queue for an overpriced bar before concluding the proceedings being driven to a homicidal, insane rage searching for that completely elusive taxi home.
Leaving your plans to chance can often be a preferable option however can sometimes result in watching the BBC celebrations on the TV whilst eating shortbread with your Gran. Mind you, given that my wee Granny has been gone two years now I wouldn’t say no to that option if it were to suddenly present itself. That’s a bit maudlin...I probably wouldn’t like that, Zombie Gran Invasion is not the optimal activity.
Therefore when it was (semi) drunkenly decided on the spur of the moment, via text, with a good mate whilst I was in the pub and she was at home, to book a trip to London to see Sonic Youth and Shellac play the ATP Strange Days gig at the Hammersmith Apollo, the stress of trying to arrange something fun whilst keeping everyone else happy was suddenly alleviated.
I’ve always been of the opinion that the specific activity chosen for your Hogmanay doesn’t really matter so long as you are spending it with the people that are important to you. For me, this year, the numbers were very much narrowed to two very special folks therefore it made sense.
Of course, there are a couple of other people whom had they been able to join us would have made the whole trip absolutely perfect however if you do decide to hop over the border for a party then it is to be expected that not everyone you love will be able to join you. Them’s the breaks.
That being said, this year’s Hogmanay was the best I have had in long and weary; there was very little pressure being placed on anyone and it was just, well, awesome.
With regards to the gig itself, the bands were tremendous; Shellac were particularly fantastic, I was reminded of just how amazingly tight they actually are. And Sonic Youth brought in the bells with a blistering opening to their consistently excellent set.
The DJs that accompanied the continued New Year debauchery until 3am were equally ace and my friend and I danced like complete tits. A video of this has been provided for your enjoyment and blackmail purposes.
Another thoroughly lovely element to this trip was the fact that we were very kindly put up by two friends who live in London. It was really refreshing to spend this particular time of year in the company of some really cool people that due to geography I just don’t get to see. Myself and my party had a really awesome, beer fuelled, banterific two days in their company.
They also introduced us to a phenomenon surrounding a movie called Troll 2 which, frankly, I am completely baffled as to how I led my life unaware of. What will follow in 2011 will be a number of Troll 2 social events in which I systematically pass on the knowledge of Troll 2 to everyone I come into contact with.
What else did we manage to squeeze into a very short two days? As we were in London it felt rude to not try and go to the theatre. Our first choice, given that post-Hogmanay drunken shenanigans had instilled the need for something silly, was Legally Blond. However, this plan was thwarted due to exorbitant West End ticket prices.
Instead, we settled on a deal for End of the Rainbow at Trafalgar Studios; a biographical piece of drama based on the final few months of the life of Judy Garland. Now, I have been an avid fan of Judy Garland my entire life so this was a fine option for me however my two friends were, it’s perhaps fair to say, less enthused.
Fortunately, my companions being appreciative of high-quality drama were not disappointed with End of the Rainbow, as that is exactly what it is. The whole evenings entertainment ended with a standing ovation and me in floods of tears...(I swear I must have been a gay man in a previous life!) Not exactly the silly shenanigans we had hoped for but fulfilling none the less.
So Hogmanay celebrations 2011 were a resounding success, I'm thinking a foray into the wilds of the North of Scotland might be on the cards next year.
The one and only disappointment, if I had to locate one, was that in my absence from shiny Glasvegas I missed one of my best mates performing for the first time under the banner of a new musical creation of his. Franks Wild Band is Scotlands only Tom Waits tribute and very good he is too! Franks Wild Band has a residency in uber-trendy and Waits inspired gin bar, The Long Way Home. The disappointment of missing him the first time was fortunately short lived as he is making a triumphant return on the 6th February for a "Blue Valentine" gig.
So roll on 2011 and all your new adventures.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Adventures in Montreal
I spent the entirety of last week exploring the sights, sounds and cultural landscape of Montreal, Canada. In true intrepid adventurer style I made a number of influential discoveries. The first and most important of which is Poutine, a popular Canadian dish; one part french fries, one part incredibly rich beef gravy, one part cheese curds and one (optional) part chicken. I had to acquiesce and credit Canada with perfecting the ultimate hangover cure, knocking a can of Irn-Bru and Piece n’ Square Sausage off the top of the league table. Poutine is equally enjoyable as the reverse of remedy, as an accompaniment to copious amounts of beer. In fact, it can bolster you into drinking twice as much, comfortably and with panache!
The second discovery and of, now that I consider it properly, of equal importance is the fact that it is not uncommon in Montreal to find bars with beer taps plumbed into the tables; allowing you the freedom to pull your own pints as frequently as you wish regardless of the business levels at the bar. Dangerous yes, but where’s the fun without a little risk? If you ask me, this particular concept is long overdue in Scotland. Tennents, there’s something for you to market.
Another discovery made was that I quite enjoy ice-hockey, however this may be down to the utterly infectious passion that the natives have for this brutally fun sport.
However, I was not there solely as an ambassador for sport, beer and deliciously unhealthy snacks. The real purpose of my trip was as a delegate at CINARS – the International Exchange for the Performing Arts. Probably the largest of these types of conferences I have attended in my career to date it consisted of showcase performances, workshops, seminars and exhibition booths for companies and artists participating in CINARS. The purpose of CINARS, and of these types of events in general, is to strengthen the circulation of the performing arts, endorse artistic creation and promote business exchange and collaboration.
My specific responsibility during this trip was to speak on the panel of one the discussion events being held in the programme of activity, the focus of which was the “OFF Phenomenon”. To clarify, this phrase doesn’t actually exist within the UKs cultural vocabulary but it can be interpreted to mean the same as “fringe”. So in the same way that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe exists “on the fringes” of the Edinburgh International Festival other large cultural events across the globe have seen the inception of smaller, alternative programming side events bearing the “off” label.
It’s often easy to become acclimatised to the peculiarities to your own situation, because you’re in it, and what was brought home for me during the course of this discussion event was just how unique the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is as a model. The ripples of amused astonishment that reacted through the crowd of attendees as I relayed some staggering statistics about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that to me have become commonplace in some ways; 40,254 performances of 2,453 shows in 259 venues is utterly mind boggling. So in a way, through enlightening others to the fact I was reminded of just how wonderful a situation that is to have gotten used to and experienced the awe of it anew.
Other discoveries I made were artistic; there was a lot of performances to see over the course of my short six days. I confess that some of the theatre work I struggled with due to my terrible grasp of French.
I was exposed to some...interesting dance work...interesting being for lack of a less polite adjective.
Let’s put it this way, on more than one occasion I was transported to Spaced – Series 1 – Episode 3 “Art”. In my head I heard “Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit....ooh, like a little flower...rabbit, rabbit, rabbit”. It’s true what they say; really great art is NOT as easy as it looks.
What I did love however, and will keenly spread the word to anyone willing to be bored by me was:
L’Orchestre d’hommes-orchestre - http://www.lodho.com/ - Also check out their Facebook
I’m not sure how to describe them other than what I saw was an epic tribute to the works of Tom Waits, crazily performed in the most non-traditional fashion.
Just....well, just look them up.
They were, I think, my main highlight. Not least because of my pre-existing enjoyment of their muse but I remained utterly enraptured by their manic performance style throughout. Unique, insane and captivating; it’s these sort of crazy bastards that make travelling thousands of miles, across on ocean, to discuss the politics of art worthwhile. Because discussions, politics and business aside, they are making it happen, in their own way, and that is ultimately what really fucking matters!
The second discovery and of, now that I consider it properly, of equal importance is the fact that it is not uncommon in Montreal to find bars with beer taps plumbed into the tables; allowing you the freedom to pull your own pints as frequently as you wish regardless of the business levels at the bar. Dangerous yes, but where’s the fun without a little risk? If you ask me, this particular concept is long overdue in Scotland. Tennents, there’s something for you to market.
Another discovery made was that I quite enjoy ice-hockey, however this may be down to the utterly infectious passion that the natives have for this brutally fun sport.
However, I was not there solely as an ambassador for sport, beer and deliciously unhealthy snacks. The real purpose of my trip was as a delegate at CINARS – the International Exchange for the Performing Arts. Probably the largest of these types of conferences I have attended in my career to date it consisted of showcase performances, workshops, seminars and exhibition booths for companies and artists participating in CINARS. The purpose of CINARS, and of these types of events in general, is to strengthen the circulation of the performing arts, endorse artistic creation and promote business exchange and collaboration.
My specific responsibility during this trip was to speak on the panel of one the discussion events being held in the programme of activity, the focus of which was the “OFF Phenomenon”. To clarify, this phrase doesn’t actually exist within the UKs cultural vocabulary but it can be interpreted to mean the same as “fringe”. So in the same way that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe exists “on the fringes” of the Edinburgh International Festival other large cultural events across the globe have seen the inception of smaller, alternative programming side events bearing the “off” label.
It’s often easy to become acclimatised to the peculiarities to your own situation, because you’re in it, and what was brought home for me during the course of this discussion event was just how unique the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is as a model. The ripples of amused astonishment that reacted through the crowd of attendees as I relayed some staggering statistics about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that to me have become commonplace in some ways; 40,254 performances of 2,453 shows in 259 venues is utterly mind boggling. So in a way, through enlightening others to the fact I was reminded of just how wonderful a situation that is to have gotten used to and experienced the awe of it anew.
Other discoveries I made were artistic; there was a lot of performances to see over the course of my short six days. I confess that some of the theatre work I struggled with due to my terrible grasp of French.
I was exposed to some...interesting dance work...interesting being for lack of a less polite adjective.
Let’s put it this way, on more than one occasion I was transported to Spaced – Series 1 – Episode 3 “Art”. In my head I heard “Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit....ooh, like a little flower...rabbit, rabbit, rabbit”. It’s true what they say; really great art is NOT as easy as it looks.
What I did love however, and will keenly spread the word to anyone willing to be bored by me was:
L’Orchestre d’hommes-orchestre - http://www.lodho.com/ - Also check out their Facebook
I’m not sure how to describe them other than what I saw was an epic tribute to the works of Tom Waits, crazily performed in the most non-traditional fashion.
Just....well, just look them up.
They were, I think, my main highlight. Not least because of my pre-existing enjoyment of their muse but I remained utterly enraptured by their manic performance style throughout. Unique, insane and captivating; it’s these sort of crazy bastards that make travelling thousands of miles, across on ocean, to discuss the politics of art worthwhile. Because discussions, politics and business aside, they are making it happen, in their own way, and that is ultimately what really fucking matters!
Saturday, 6 November 2010
IETM Glasgow 2010: Reflections, Part 1
One thing that I have enjoyed is the opportunity to reconnect with my own city. Even before I started spending five days of my week in Edinburgh I hadn’t really engaged with Glasgow properly in a long time. Pounding the streets during IETM has allowed me to do that and in some ways perceive it a new.
By visiting all of my home towns significant cultural locations I’m feeling imbued with a feeling of pride, confidence in what my country has to say in the Europe wide cultural dialogue and, perhaps most importantly, a feeling of security in my own participation in that conversation.
Round table discussions about the mobilisation of arts advocacy across the European Union has helped me to identify more with the cultural landscape in which I work and play, create and enable.
Over the course of three short days I have created links not only for myself, as a creative individual, but for the Edinburgh Fringe Society, the organisation I represent, with Barcelona, Poland, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
I also won £5.40 on the euro millions which I have decided to take as significant. Perhaps it is representative of the fact that primarily I am Scottish but I am also European.
All this cross-cultural interconnectivity has been illuminating not only in the context of what I already know but also on where my knowledge could do with sharpening.
A point that has been addressed more than once this weekend is that it is so easy to work in your own little bubble and forget that there are entire continents out there with whom we can communicate and work alongside in order to make things easier and better, creatively and politically.
It is important to remember that we, the current generation of creative practitioners and professionals, leave the legacy for the next and therefore we should endeavour together to make sure that it is a good and sustainable legacy.
We should be aware of what our colleagues and peers are doing and what we can to do to support each other.
One of the key issues highlighted during the sessions of IETM is, of course, the universal problem of budget cuts for the arts and the societal value of arts activities, or lack there of.
What stood out in my mind, and it is a symptom of where we are going wrong and a consistent bad habit within the cultural sector. It is, to paraphrase John Holden, that arts policy debate takes place between experts when it should be a conversation between audiences.
Linking into that is the fact that the fate of cultural funding is always in the hands of politicians who will campaign for what is important to society at large.
Society at large is your audience; you take the debate on policy to them then you create value in cultural activity where perhaps it hasn’t existed before. That will inevitably translate into influence on how they use their vote. You instill value for what you do in the people that can consume it then it follows that you instill it in the policy makers, because they have to respond to their audience just as much as we do.
By visiting all of my home towns significant cultural locations I’m feeling imbued with a feeling of pride, confidence in what my country has to say in the Europe wide cultural dialogue and, perhaps most importantly, a feeling of security in my own participation in that conversation.
Round table discussions about the mobilisation of arts advocacy across the European Union has helped me to identify more with the cultural landscape in which I work and play, create and enable.
Over the course of three short days I have created links not only for myself, as a creative individual, but for the Edinburgh Fringe Society, the organisation I represent, with Barcelona, Poland, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
I also won £5.40 on the euro millions which I have decided to take as significant. Perhaps it is representative of the fact that primarily I am Scottish but I am also European.
All this cross-cultural interconnectivity has been illuminating not only in the context of what I already know but also on where my knowledge could do with sharpening.
A point that has been addressed more than once this weekend is that it is so easy to work in your own little bubble and forget that there are entire continents out there with whom we can communicate and work alongside in order to make things easier and better, creatively and politically.
It is important to remember that we, the current generation of creative practitioners and professionals, leave the legacy for the next and therefore we should endeavour together to make sure that it is a good and sustainable legacy.
We should be aware of what our colleagues and peers are doing and what we can to do to support each other.
One of the key issues highlighted during the sessions of IETM is, of course, the universal problem of budget cuts for the arts and the societal value of arts activities, or lack there of.
What stood out in my mind, and it is a symptom of where we are going wrong and a consistent bad habit within the cultural sector. It is, to paraphrase John Holden, that arts policy debate takes place between experts when it should be a conversation between audiences.
Linking into that is the fact that the fate of cultural funding is always in the hands of politicians who will campaign for what is important to society at large.
Society at large is your audience; you take the debate on policy to them then you create value in cultural activity where perhaps it hasn’t existed before. That will inevitably translate into influence on how they use their vote. You instill value for what you do in the people that can consume it then it follows that you instill it in the policy makers, because they have to respond to their audience just as much as we do.
Friday, 11 December 2009
Spaced...The Lost Generation
I went to the doctors the other day, which is boring I realise but relevant to this blog, stay with me my story gets better!
Whilst waiting to see my GP and to be told something utterly useless I rifled through the magazines in the waiting room for something printed after 2007. Finding something from 2009 was an epic success.
Anyhoo, my luck was clearly in, this particular issue of (I think it was Vanity Fair, but don't quote me) had a very interesting interview with one of my personal idols, Simon Pegg, conducted by Janice Street Porter.
The media standard questions were issued, albeit with a touch more informed finesse from the JSP; Spaced/SotD & Hot Fuzz/Hollywood beckoning and a sprinkling of questions related to Pegg's personal life.
Of course one of the main topics that piqued my interest, always, is that of Spaced. Given that I believe it to be the best television show Britain has ever produced.
And what I want to address is a comment made by Pegg on the concept behind Spaced which I think sums it up perfectly and makes it one of the most germane sitcoms for my generation (and by my generation I mean those who are in their mid/late twenties and early thirties).
The comment was (roughly, I didn't take the mag from the GPs for reference) that Spaced essentially speaks to what can be referred to as today’s "Lost Generation". Up until fairly recently when you hit the 25 mark a special tag embedded somewhere in you went off in a sort of Logans Run type fashion. When this tag sends out its beacon it starts your biological clock and alerts society to start piling on the pressure for you to get married, punch out a few kids, get that promotion and the house in the suburbs and live normally ever after.
For my parents, the parents of pretty much everyone I know and the generations that preceded them this was the societal norm. Not in a fascist regime kind of way, it's just what everyone did. There was an unspoken agreement about what sort of time in your life you really should have figured everything out and be a grown up.
However, for my generation (the "Spaced" generation) we seem to have acquired an extra ten years that we, in Peggs words, "don't really know what to do with".
This extra ten years that bridge the gap from 25 to 35 (roughly, you can allow for extra on either side of those numbers depending on your situation) are spent barely navigating our way through our lives desperately trying to figure out what the hell it is we want to do with ourselves.
Tim & Daisy encapsulate this feeling of extended studentness perfectly and it's expertly peppered with the added anguish of well...the fact that we aren't students any more but supposed grown-ups in the eyes of the world but sure as hell not feeling like it.
We are the Star Wars, Genre Loving, Pop-Culture Quoting "Lost Generation" and that's why Spaced speaks to us. That's what makes it so good. Well, that and it's groundbreaking cinematic style, exceptional writing and brilliant cast of course.
It tapped into what we were all feeling, and still are to an extent, and put it on the small screen in the best way imaginable.
Spaced pretty much said; we get it, and isn't it hilarious?
Best. Sitcom. Ever.
Whilst waiting to see my GP and to be told something utterly useless I rifled through the magazines in the waiting room for something printed after 2007. Finding something from 2009 was an epic success.
Anyhoo, my luck was clearly in, this particular issue of (I think it was Vanity Fair, but don't quote me) had a very interesting interview with one of my personal idols, Simon Pegg, conducted by Janice Street Porter.
The media standard questions were issued, albeit with a touch more informed finesse from the JSP; Spaced/SotD & Hot Fuzz/Hollywood beckoning and a sprinkling of questions related to Pegg's personal life.
Of course one of the main topics that piqued my interest, always, is that of Spaced. Given that I believe it to be the best television show Britain has ever produced.
And what I want to address is a comment made by Pegg on the concept behind Spaced which I think sums it up perfectly and makes it one of the most germane sitcoms for my generation (and by my generation I mean those who are in their mid/late twenties and early thirties).
The comment was (roughly, I didn't take the mag from the GPs for reference) that Spaced essentially speaks to what can be referred to as today’s "Lost Generation". Up until fairly recently when you hit the 25 mark a special tag embedded somewhere in you went off in a sort of Logans Run type fashion. When this tag sends out its beacon it starts your biological clock and alerts society to start piling on the pressure for you to get married, punch out a few kids, get that promotion and the house in the suburbs and live normally ever after.
For my parents, the parents of pretty much everyone I know and the generations that preceded them this was the societal norm. Not in a fascist regime kind of way, it's just what everyone did. There was an unspoken agreement about what sort of time in your life you really should have figured everything out and be a grown up.
However, for my generation (the "Spaced" generation) we seem to have acquired an extra ten years that we, in Peggs words, "don't really know what to do with".
This extra ten years that bridge the gap from 25 to 35 (roughly, you can allow for extra on either side of those numbers depending on your situation) are spent barely navigating our way through our lives desperately trying to figure out what the hell it is we want to do with ourselves.
Tim & Daisy encapsulate this feeling of extended studentness perfectly and it's expertly peppered with the added anguish of well...the fact that we aren't students any more but supposed grown-ups in the eyes of the world but sure as hell not feeling like it.
We are the Star Wars, Genre Loving, Pop-Culture Quoting "Lost Generation" and that's why Spaced speaks to us. That's what makes it so good. Well, that and it's groundbreaking cinematic style, exceptional writing and brilliant cast of course.
It tapped into what we were all feeling, and still are to an extent, and put it on the small screen in the best way imaginable.
Spaced pretty much said; we get it, and isn't it hilarious?
Best. Sitcom. Ever.
Monday, 9 November 2009
Moon (Very minor spoiler alert)
I finally saw "Moon", quiet Sci-Fi from the more appropriately named Duncan Jones starring Sam Rockwell. Sam Rockwell who I believe is a decidedly underrated actor.
Actually, it's more like Science Future than Science Fiction. It portrays a not too distant nor too unbelievable future whereby man is present on the moon and mining it for Helium-3, a fuel required to provide clean and a pretty much inexhaustible source of energy to the earth.
A lonely job but someone has go to do it; a human presence is required to oversee the mining station and that presence is Sam Bell. Bell is assigned to a three year contract on the Moon Base with only an AI computer system called Gerty for company.
We come into the canon of Sam Bell at the point of 2 weeks until his 3 years are up and establish that Satellite Communications have been damaged and he has been unable to receive any live feed messages from earth for some time but rather pre-recorded messages received periodically. Through this we also discover that Sam Bell has a wife called Tess and a 3 year old daughter back home on earth.
Three years isolated in the silence of space have clearly taken their toll and there are already hints of slight barminess fringing Sam, just around the edges.
When Sam begins to hallucinate you would be forgiven for thinking that you were about to embark on a mans descent into madness brought on through intense solitude but this isn't the case.
During a routine mission to one of the harvesters Sam sees a young girl standing on the Moon's surface and understandably crashes his rover. He wakes up in the base infirmary, relatively in-tact and being cared for by Gerty.
At this point I should probably mention a few things about Gerty. Voiced by Kevin Spacey, he's sort of like a roving microwave with a couple of pretty sophisticated arm mechanisms that are operated by him but move around separately, if you can imagine. He also has a little monitor that projects Emoticons (or smileys) to convey what he is feeling, a touch I really liked. There are echoes of Hal, naturally, from 2001 but fortunately Gerty lacks the homicidal maniac chip as his AI is in fact not that sophisticated.
What happens next turns your expectations of the movie; during his recovery process Sam overhears Gerty having a live conversation with the Bosses back on earth, cue suspicions. Suspicion leads him to disobey orders of confinement and ventures out to investigate the crashed rover where he finds, well, himself still there and barely alive. As you would, he takes himself back to the base for treatment.
That's right, you guessed it, there's more than one Sam Bell. In fact there's a fairly limitless amount of Sam Bell's being stored under the base.
Sam Bell is a human product; there are hundreds, maybe thousands of clones ready to replace the current live version as it comes to the end of it's three year contract. Without giving too much away about the ending we end up with two Sam Bell's interacting and leading the movie to its conclusion, one that that has been there for three years and is getting sicker (and more gross!) by the second and the newly awakened post-crash Sam.
There is some nice contrast seen between a Sam Bell who has spent three years in crushing isolation and subsequently gone round the bend and a a newer model who is altogether a grumpier and less sympathetic version. Their scenes together are well done but once or twice are let down by their lack of impact, by that I mean the conveyance of general annoyance at each other as opposed to any real turmoil or emotion you would anticipate from the discovery of a clone of yourself.
The inspirations are apparent and well applied; A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Silent Running, Darkstar and even a few specks of Sunshine.
It's an excellent Sci-Fi contribution from Duncan Jones; dark, brooding and thankfully there is no naff twist.
Its evocations of loneliness and the importance of human connection are touching and I think it makes an interesting comment on identity and how that is valued in society.
It definitely merits another watch.
Actually, it's more like Science Future than Science Fiction. It portrays a not too distant nor too unbelievable future whereby man is present on the moon and mining it for Helium-3, a fuel required to provide clean and a pretty much inexhaustible source of energy to the earth.
A lonely job but someone has go to do it; a human presence is required to oversee the mining station and that presence is Sam Bell. Bell is assigned to a three year contract on the Moon Base with only an AI computer system called Gerty for company.
We come into the canon of Sam Bell at the point of 2 weeks until his 3 years are up and establish that Satellite Communications have been damaged and he has been unable to receive any live feed messages from earth for some time but rather pre-recorded messages received periodically. Through this we also discover that Sam Bell has a wife called Tess and a 3 year old daughter back home on earth.
Three years isolated in the silence of space have clearly taken their toll and there are already hints of slight barminess fringing Sam, just around the edges.
When Sam begins to hallucinate you would be forgiven for thinking that you were about to embark on a mans descent into madness brought on through intense solitude but this isn't the case.
During a routine mission to one of the harvesters Sam sees a young girl standing on the Moon's surface and understandably crashes his rover. He wakes up in the base infirmary, relatively in-tact and being cared for by Gerty.
At this point I should probably mention a few things about Gerty. Voiced by Kevin Spacey, he's sort of like a roving microwave with a couple of pretty sophisticated arm mechanisms that are operated by him but move around separately, if you can imagine. He also has a little monitor that projects Emoticons (or smileys) to convey what he is feeling, a touch I really liked. There are echoes of Hal, naturally, from 2001 but fortunately Gerty lacks the homicidal maniac chip as his AI is in fact not that sophisticated.
What happens next turns your expectations of the movie; during his recovery process Sam overhears Gerty having a live conversation with the Bosses back on earth, cue suspicions. Suspicion leads him to disobey orders of confinement and ventures out to investigate the crashed rover where he finds, well, himself still there and barely alive. As you would, he takes himself back to the base for treatment.
That's right, you guessed it, there's more than one Sam Bell. In fact there's a fairly limitless amount of Sam Bell's being stored under the base.
Sam Bell is a human product; there are hundreds, maybe thousands of clones ready to replace the current live version as it comes to the end of it's three year contract. Without giving too much away about the ending we end up with two Sam Bell's interacting and leading the movie to its conclusion, one that that has been there for three years and is getting sicker (and more gross!) by the second and the newly awakened post-crash Sam.
There is some nice contrast seen between a Sam Bell who has spent three years in crushing isolation and subsequently gone round the bend and a a newer model who is altogether a grumpier and less sympathetic version. Their scenes together are well done but once or twice are let down by their lack of impact, by that I mean the conveyance of general annoyance at each other as opposed to any real turmoil or emotion you would anticipate from the discovery of a clone of yourself.
The inspirations are apparent and well applied; A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Silent Running, Darkstar and even a few specks of Sunshine.
It's an excellent Sci-Fi contribution from Duncan Jones; dark, brooding and thankfully there is no naff twist.
Its evocations of loneliness and the importance of human connection are touching and I think it makes an interesting comment on identity and how that is valued in society.
It definitely merits another watch.
Why I have changed my Blog...again!
Because in its previous incarnation I was never inspired to write anything. The reasons for this are several. The first being it was presented under the monniker of "Lucille Burn"- my cabaret singing alter-ego. I felt this was limiting because by writing on behalf of Lucille I was blurring the lines between who I am and the sort of thing that Lucille should be saying versus the perceptions of the character. I have since realised this was silly.
Lucille doesn't need a blog, she has a MySpace - www.myspace.com/lucilleburn
Secondly, things that spew from brain on a day to day basis tend to be short and meandering which is why we have Facebook.
And thirdly, I just wanted my blog to represent who I am and I think this is it, I reckon there's a chance it will be more interesting this way.
So there you go...
Lucille doesn't need a blog, she has a MySpace - www.myspace.com/lucilleburn
Secondly, things that spew from brain on a day to day basis tend to be short and meandering which is why we have Facebook.
And thirdly, I just wanted my blog to represent who I am and I think this is it, I reckon there's a chance it will be more interesting this way.
So there you go...
Things that you can be pretty sure of.
In todays unpredictable world I like to know there are some certainties in life, a few of those for me are...
1. That I will never make up my mind what I want this blog to be for and I will NEVER update it as regularly as I would like
2. I will never like the Star Wars Prequels
3. I will never like Ricky Gervais
4. Even the XKCD strips I don't get, I enjoy (www.xkcd.com)
5. I will never go to bed on the same day that I woke up
6. I will always need more snooze
7. I will always argue that Spike is an infintely better character than Angel. (Angel only has two settings - moody and evil!)
8. Battlestar Galactica (Reboot, not the original) is quite possibly the best TV show ever made!
9. LOL Catz will always distract me from the work at hand
10. Babylon 5 is a big pile of shit (not mine but thrown in for comedy value)
1. That I will never make up my mind what I want this blog to be for and I will NEVER update it as regularly as I would like
2. I will never like the Star Wars Prequels
3. I will never like Ricky Gervais
4. Even the XKCD strips I don't get, I enjoy (www.xkcd.com)
5. I will never go to bed on the same day that I woke up
6. I will always need more snooze
7. I will always argue that Spike is an infintely better character than Angel. (Angel only has two settings - moody and evil!)
8. Battlestar Galactica (Reboot, not the original) is quite possibly the best TV show ever made!
9. LOL Catz will always distract me from the work at hand
10. Babylon 5 is a big pile of shit (not mine but thrown in for comedy value)
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