Pictures as words: Cartoon time #6

Another one - because I can !

Writing fragment: "The Glass Story"

Sometimes I write something and I get all enthusiastic about it and I then tell a few other people I've had a great idea. Then though, in a slack moment, I start to wonder quite where it'll go. That leaves me wandering 'off topic' and it becomes a little file clogging up my hard drive with a hopelessly uncertain future. This is such a file, a Ronin of my writing attempts..........


He came to, groggy and a little to the left of himself. It felt odd for a moment until he settled back into where he was. A curious feeling indeed.

As he reached for the drink in front of him he realised that everything was almost imperceptibly vibrating.

No. Wait. Not everything was.

Only things made of glass. Tiny, ridiculously subtle pulses moving through them. Almost invisible to the naked eye but causing a very unnatural feeling when touched.

He realised it was stranger still. The pint glass, half filled in his hand, was quivering in this odd way but the content wasn't. Not a ripple or bubble. No sign of anything out of order even though the glass container was all but dancing in his hand.

He put the glass down and watched it. No sign of it running across the table, no noise of rattling against the marble surface. He reached a finger out to check he wasn't losing his grip on things again. The recoil of his fingertip as it found the surface told him all he needed to know.

He stood, shakily, shifting his weight quickly to avoid toppling straight back down again. It was always a few minutes before the effects wore off. It was the one side of it he always regretted.

Because you like them: Cartoon time #4 - 5

Blame mild insomnia: Cartoon time #1 - 3

Click on them. Enjoy them. Humour me.

Half full. otherwise empty.

Strange, this blogging thing.

I read posts on blogs from people in this little group making long rambling posts about how they feel and what it is that's knawing at them and really making them feel painfully mortal.......and they then say they wish they hadn't posted it.

I'm just wishing I had the balls to do one right now but most likely won't.

Ironic, isn't it........

Two ladies with a style of their own.......

If you have a half decent web connection head over to the new Corpse Bride website. It's pretty graphics intensive but, for once, more than worth the download.

Truly amazing graphics considering it's all Flash done, great sound all through and VERY interactive - loads of stuff to do hidden away in each area. If you love that Tim Burton look and got a kick out of the stop motion charm of Nightmare Before Christmas then you'll be loving this too. Probably.

I'm about 15mins in and still finding things to do or make happen. A lot of these yield extra artwork etc to download and most of it is actually very good quality stuff.

(Hints: try a popular pub game or try your piano skills !)

On the subject of dramatic gothic ladies with pale complexions (ok, it's a very tedious link) I'll be spending a couple of hours in the company of Siouxsie tonight as I got her "Dreamshow" live DVD in the post this morning. Her lovliness herself, Budgie, Leonard Eto & an orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall - Banshees & Creatures tracks in full effect. Even three tracks filmed in the infamous 100 Club amongst the extras.

This, as you may expect, makes me very happy indeed.

Arcade on Fire.......live

Just watching the full live set by The Arcade Fire over at http://www.pukkelpop.be/ as part of the festival there - some bands are being streamed live to WebLand - who knows, maybe we'll get some of the Pixies tonight or Nick Cave tomorrow, who knows ?

I'd forgotten just how good this lot were - on fine live form tonight.

For those still to get into them just imagine Talking Heads jamming with The Pixies, Bjork on backing vox and all members of the band slightly bonkers.....in a Parisian drinking den......in Canada.....in your head......

Hmmmm, bet that only makes sense to me, right ?

Regular readers will remember my initial reaction to this lot over here......

Gohatto: where the sword doesn't cut the deepest.

Gohatto
(Takeshi Kitano pictured)


In around 100mins director Nagisa Oshima guides the 1996 "Gohatto" ('taboo', or more literally, 'against the rules') through much more than the Samurai militia movie that cover photo's alude to.

Bringing together, for the first time since 'Merry Cristmas Mr Lawrence', the music and mood setting of Ryuichi Sakamoto with the understated yet on the money (as ever) Takeshi Kitano, Oshima threads together a tale of a garrison of samurai around the time of the decline of shogunate power and an involved murder mystery.

Recruitment brings two new applicants into the garrison. The brash and forthright Tashiro and the beautiful and provocative Kano. As time progresses and the all-male school reacts to the characters brought into the fold, it shows on many levels how repressed love, lust and jealousy can cause ripples that lead to waves through class, honour and even the most the established power structure of the time.


Kano and Tashiro.


What makes this so different from the current crop of sword-and-man themed movies is that this is firmly grounded in very earthly reality. There's not a moment of flying wireplay during the fights, no magic potions are thrown and absolutely no running is done across rooftops. This is fighting with stumbles, trips, brute force sometimes replacing skill and the very human nature of combat, albeit honed.

The same themes are evident in the surprisingly expanded characters - from the new entrants, through to the the highest ranks, nobody is free from the most base of feelings and emotions.

Some scenes are simply breathtaking, especially the entrance by a fully-adorned geisha paid for by Kitano's Captain Hijikata as a method for pouring oil on the troubled waters of the school. Even in scenes like this there is none of the paletted panels of recent epics, reaching for many fewers colours yet painting something more vivid.


Hijikata tests Kano


As a story of death and honour of the period it's very good, but with the many layers of human frailty toning the semi-accepted yet still harshly controlled love of one recruit for another, it lends itself to being quite a unique film.

Anybody out for another "Hero" or "Crouching Tiger..." may be surprised or turned-off by the subject matter, but as a microcosm of man's love for his fellow man, both in honour and lust, this is a restrained gem.

Another Kitano work happily ending up on this Carpathians shelves.

Victoria doesn't Book-em

Victoria "I'm not posh spice anymore" Beckham has revealed to Chic magazine that she has never read a book in her entire life.

Not at school ?

Not with parents when she was little ?

Not even her own 500+ page autobiography "that she wrote" ??

Strikes me as the sort of dumb unfounded quote, borne of a very selective memory, that celebs love to drip out to make column inches.......

.....or the sort of thing somebody who'd never read a book might say.

So kids, read a book or end up like Stick Spice - the choice is clear !

Pop goes the.........monitor.

Of course, when you post something on here all cheery about your computing abilities, or their upcoming improvement, the Ying-Yang-O-meter will hear this and home in on you to redress the world balance.

So, I'm sitting having a smurf of the w3 and suddenly........

{pop}

........15% brightness and smeary contents on the screen.



The monitor above is no longer my friend. We have fallen out.

Luckily I had another one available and this works, thankfully proving it's not the base unit itself.



This monitor is old and cranky but works (as such).

Seems I have a warranty replacement to arrange.

{sigh}

Slow news day but getting faster soon........

As some of you may remember, tucked away in the recent past, I moved service provider from my previous adsl connection over to a 2mb cable service with Telewest.

Well, I'm glad I did.

I spotted a press release today which, in a nutshell, means that my service will get an upgrade from 2mb up to 10mb.....for the same price and still un-capped.

I think that deserves a "woo hoo", don't you ?

Owzat ? Bloody wonderful !

SECOND TEST - MATCH SUMMARY (Day 4) :
England 407 & 182 bt Australia 308 & 279 by two runs

Wow.

The fourth day of the second Test ends with the sort of nail-biter that would seem unbelievable if it was worked out fictionally. I've seen many Test's over the years but this must be up there with one of the closest, most twisting competitions to have been played, either here or overseas.



'Freddy' Flintoff was a stormer with both bat and ball: 52-3 & 79-4 in the field and 68 & 73 with the willow. That storm of sixes, including the one OVER the crowd and onto the roof.....well, it was a joy to see.

Warne deserves a mention too, of course, for the 46-6 in the 2nd innings.

All over though that was a great England win to level the Ashes.

Bring on Old Trafford on the 11th !

These boots were made for....buying.

Finally, after about a year of looking at them, picking them up and putting them down again, talking myself out of buying any, I've given in and bought myself a pair of New Rock boots.



Wonderful detailing, a very comfortable fit and, by all accounts, a good lifespan - I ended up just caving in. Walked in wearing my Docs and walked out carrying them.

I have to say that they're damn nice to wear - considering they have to break in a little they're a great fit straight off the shelf (they never even made it into the box)



"Blimey", you'll be thinking, "they must have been expensive ?"

{coughs nervously and avoids tell-tale eye contact}

Er, you might well be right but we don't talk about that, ok ?

This Carpathian is happy......

This was number 4 and the end of the bottle.

By this point I can just about say the word bottel, er, botteell, urm, bootle......

No mind, however it was contained, I am now officially happy....

.......and can't feel my limbs.

:o)

Ship in a bottle / days in a post.

Just thought I'd drop a quick update on as I've not posted so much over the last few days.

There's no real reason for the lowered wordcounting, just one of those times when nothing really noteworthy is happening. When I started the blog I pushed like crazy to get at least one post in every 24hours and for a few months it went ok.

Times come round though, as in other things, where this means the effort is somewhat forced. I've seen a few others either fall by the wayside or wipe things and start again, partly (if I'm right) due to the feeling of pressure to blog overiding the actual need or desire to. I got through this myself and now enjoy being able to either post 23 stupidly involved and picture filled things or just an odd thing as the mood takes me. I think it's less of a chore that way.

So, to sum up the last few days or so I'm going to open my mouth (keyboard) and see what sound (things) come out. If you're lucky I'll put some pics in too. You like pics, don't you ?

Anyway, here goes:-



raiding my Siouxsie and the Banshees back catalogue
swooning over pics of Siouxsie Sioux (as ever)

growing to love the latest Queen Adreena album
working on a remix of the Curve track "Unreadable Communication"



leaping about to the Japanese garage rock of Guitar Wolf
hearing the new Opeth album

drinking green tea to relax
making Japanese cold barley tea
trying Korean Kimchee and wanting to try more



.....watching the Tall Ships build up
enjoying the crowds and markets
and watching the Tall Ships dwindle again......

preparing for the new football season by buying £70 of Wolves clothes/merch



wondering whether to clip the climbing roses by the front door
arguing with my old ISP
buying a ticket to go and see Goldfrapp

sending a gift to far away friend.......
.....receiving a surprise from a far away friend

ordering three more Takeshi Kitano movies
saying hi to Sir Bobby on the Quayside
recounting two embarrasing tales from my past to somebody

playing snooker for the first time in ages



Actually, when you condense even a few days like this, you do then realise that there have been quite a few things going on that you pass by without a second thought.

Hmmm. I'm glad I took the time to do this after all..........