“This is What it Feels Like!”

Listening to NiN’s The Wretched (of which the title of this piece is a lyrical snippet), I drift onto thoughts of why I like listening to NiN. Yes I know I have travelled this path previously on this here blog, but bare with me…

While listening, I am reading Dean Koontz’s What the Night Knows, in which a character has just mulled on the meaning of perspicacity – that being “having keen insight” or an almost uncanny ability to see through – and to comprehend – what is dark and obscure. Which pretty much explains my love of Nine Inch Nails. And the work that I do.

Ka!

Another Hit

Listening to Nine Inch Nails’ Where is Everybody?, walking to the station to catch my morning train, a little smile arises. It is darkish, the streets are empty, and my writer-ish imagination says this could be the opening scene to a zombie movie – not least of all because Where is Everybody? is from the NiN album, The Fragile, being the soundtrack to a zombie rock opera I have created in my head.

A crow flies overhead… the staple of zombie movies…

For an inexplicable reason I am compelled to check the details of the song on my phone. Specifically the year of its release. 1999. Thirteen years ago. It occurs to me that none of the boys in my class were yet born upon The Fragile‘s release. This wonderful, desperate, angry music of my… um… youth… ish.

Cripes.

“Anger! Blame!”

- I exclaimed, as I stumbled through a puddle of some depth and breadth, unseen in the morning twilight, on the path by the park. Both of these feelings directed towards the makers of the path, who didn’t make it flat enough so that the water would drain onto the grass; and also towards the weather itself, which had had damnable spite to rain when it was too dark to see the puddles relating to such.

How dare thee weteth my socks!

Bookless! … & review of ‘Super 8′

I feel bereft without my book! Especially when I have little more than 100 pages left of the entire Dark Tower series and I am eager to see how it all turns out. In the spirit of 2012 , however, resolutions still being fresh in my mind and all that, I will endeavor to “not sweat the small stuff” (my overarching 2012 resolution, as illustrated, laminated and stuck on a window of my class, alongside those of my students) and do something else in those times when I might otherwise have picked up The Dark Tower IV: The Dark Tower. Such as, for example, write a review of Super 8 – back in a tick!

…

Being a product of J.J. Abrams and Stephen Spielberg, I had high expectations. I was not, on the whole, disappointed – the film undoubtedly entertained – however…

It left me feeling a bit hmm.

Abrams being the writer/director, I was thinking Lost, MI3, Alias – ie. excitement and high production values, but also intrigue, mystery and not knowing what the hell is going on half the time. Well the excitement and high production values were certainly there – ramped up by Spielberg’s additional years of experience with such things – and there was some mystery and intrigue. Some. But nowhere near what I have come to expect from J.J. Which is sad, because the trailer gave very little away with regards to what exactly was captured on the Super 8 film of the title and the consequences thereof – whereas in the film, it is pretty obvious what is going on, all but a few details, from about the halfway point.

So it wasn’t very Abrams-y.

If one considers Super 8 as a Spielberg film, however, one is less likely to be disappointed. If one considers it as a Spielberg film of 30 years ago, it is perfection – because that is what it feels like. Super 8 is set shortly after the birth of the Rubiks Cube (if you have no conception of when that is, Google it). There are scenes which could have been pulled straight out of E.T. – kids on bikes haring around suburban middle America, for example. Also a fresh-faced boy communing with a misunderstood alien – although the alien in this case is a darned sight uglier and meaner than the phone-obsessed friend of Elliot, and the Super 8 version of Elliot is a little (but only a little) less fresh-faced and innocent than his fellow alien-befriender. Other than these minor-ish points, however, you would be forgiven for thinking that Super 8 is a more gruesome, slightly more sweary version of the 80s Spielberg classic, albeit with an extra-terrestrial who is more Giger than Frank Oz (again I invite you to Google these names if they are lost on you).

There is a definite nostalgic feel to this film. Not just because of the time in which it is set, but also its style, the fact that it stars a bunch of kids and the classic Spielberg-ish morality (it’s not about aliens or government conspiracies, it’s about love, forgiveness, family loyalty and letting go of the past). So if the idea of going back three decades into the past and seeing the-lost-Spielberg-film gets you all goosebumpy, then Super 8 will be a real treat for you. If however you have already pre-ordered season 12 (or whatever) of Lost and you are constantly badgering whoever you can find to be badgered on a slew of online forums about the unsatisfying conclusion of Alias, then I am afraid Super 8 may leave you feeling a little… well… lost.

Diary 8 Jan 12 – 11 Jan 12

8jan12

1056 h: sitting on our patio eating soda farls and sausages… in January – lovely! :)

*

9jan12

Can you believe I nodded off during Justin’s House?

…

Btw, Wii Fit age of 21 last night! :) Altho there was a bit of cheating (ish) involved…

…

I am a writer, but I don’t want to feel the need to write about everything.

…

I admit it, I want Mr Tumble‘s spotty bag.

…

Someone appeared to make a Christmas decoration out of a drying rack, but it was just the mottled glass.

*

11jan12

Doing some New Year consolidating: texts, notes, photos, emails, bookmarks, to do list, blogs. Can I consolidate my brain?

Diary 1 Jan 12 – 7 Jan 12

31dec11/1jan12

I hate fireworks.

*

2jan12

Bill Bailey…
roflysst
‘rolling on the floor laughing yet somehow still typing’
:)

*

2jan12

Katy Ashworth in gold leggings playing Aladdin in the 2010 CBeebies Panto. What’s not to like?

*

3jan12

Is it any wonder Why’s sounds like Wise?

…

I’m sure I used to be better at slicing cucumber.

*

4jan12

I seem destined to have Internet problems lately. In December 2011 I was completely without a service for several weeks, while we changed our provider to Virgin… and now I can rarely connect to the router wirelessly from the laptop, and when I can the signal is so poor as to make it almost impossible to use. One of my sort-of-resolutions for 2012 is to not get stressed about things which don’t matter that much – and there are ways around me not being able to connect wirelessly to the router from the laptop; e.g. checking emails at work, and using the iMac in the bedroom when I need to do other stuff. Neither of these things are, however, possible, first thing in the morning, when I have most time and most like to do stuff online… but no matter… one must adapt… and such. And Jo said she’ll ring Virgin tomorrow, when Talise is back at kindergarten and she has the mental space to ask the right questions and stuff, so (hopefully) all this will be a non-issue by tomorrow evening. In the meantime… I will not… get stressed.

…

The above is the reason for the resumption of the diary.
Everything before today has been jotted on my phone and posted retrospectively.
Hopefully this will be a short-lived resumption.

…

Watched some Tom & Jerry with my little girl this morning. The violence! The horror! But she liked it.

…

Wii Fit told me I walked with 90-something percent bias on my right foot t’other day. I always knew I was unbalanced… but c’mon!

…

Weekly train pass gone up by 50p.

…

Oraculum from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – tunage!

…

Iroquois – what’s that? (thanks, predictive text)

…

I sort of like writing in this diary format. Feels free. S’pose that’s an advantage of this Internet palaver (see earlier today).

…

Why doesn’t predictive text know ‘palaver’? C’mon, predictive text!

…

Taking a greyhound for a walk… seems oddly poignant.

…

Thank you, T.Reznor, for Sonoio… :)

…

I’m trying to shift my balance to the left – I’m trying!

…

“These are not the droids you’re looking for.” – Sonoio: Scientist.

…

One day we won’t have to touch anything.

…

Yay! Wii Fit age of 34 today! (I’m actually 39, btw)

*

5jan11

Enuf wind already!

…

I love a song in alternating 5:4/6:4 time… :)

…

Why does the train station smell fishy?

…

What’s with all the grey?

…

Trent is the master of the alternative time signature… :)

…

Blond hair, black leather gloves, black boots. Grey wool coat (mid-length). Dark grey sweater, grey trousers. The Metro beside her, virtually monochrome Nike advert, angry (determined/motivated) man on a bike. Blond hair – a touch of brightness.

…

Dodging popcorn on the living room floor.

…

Night night.

*

6jan12

Jelly Jam is one weird programme… but I love it! A nice little science fiction-y tale this morning, where one of the characters (sorry, I don’t recall his name), while out jogging and listening to music on his mp3 player, has to figure out why the whole world except him has stopped moving. He eventually makes the connection that the only reason he is still moving is because he has his mp3 player on – it’s to do with the music! In the end, it’s a race against time, as the batteries on his mp3 player are running out, so he has to make it to the Music Factory and restart the music before this happens, otherwise all movement will cease forever. He makes it in time, picks up a bottle of juice off the music-stopping button and music and movement resume… and he is the hero! Wonderful concept, I say…

…

I can’t see Jane Horrocks these days without thinking of Fifi and Little Princess!

…

Do Great Aunty from Little Princess and the witch in Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom have the same voice?

…

Random imagery from 1970s Generation Game came into my head this morning… then music from Mister Maker… strange head.

…

Right Where it Belongs brings a tear to my eye – Trent, you manipulator of my emotions!

…

If you look at your reflection,
Is it all you want it to be?

…

Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?

…

You can live in this illusion!
You can choose to believe!

…

I am still moved by Matrix-y concepts and imagery. What does this say?

…

Reznor sets strategically placed expletive charges… because you don’t have to fill a structure with bombs to bring it to the ground.

*

7jan12

The Abney and Teal episode, The Enormous Neep, is a nice little reinterpretation of the old classic, The Enormous Turnip.

…

“I don’t like it much – it’s a bit cold and ploppy.” – Abney on mud.

…

I like Abney and Teal… :)

…

I just did a bit of a skip and a wave – and I’m confident enough of my masculinity to admit it.

…