Everything Under the Sun
Quiet round here, innit? I was thinking about making my obligatory Christmas Humbug posting, but I can’t be bothered. Haven’t felt much like blogging since… Read More »Everything Under the Sun
christmas
Bob Monkhouse, R.I.P.
Bob Monkhouse has sadly died. I heard it on a radio playing in the background this morning while I was out and about. Immediate thought: ‘Shit.’ It wasn’t a great surprise, but I was hoping his treatment would give him a bit longer.
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Good Riddance
Well, I guess Christmas is almost over for another year. The Day Itself is done with. It seems like our television schedulers have given up any pretence of making any real effort this year… I wonder if that reflects an overall feeling of growing apathy?
Christmas day was just like a weekend day, really. Only with decorations and turkey. We ended up watching My Fair Lady in the afternoon, which I hadn’t seen for years. I’m not a musical fan, but this one’s a sentimental favourite for unknown reasons. I like it. Rex Harrison was great.
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Ho Ho Ho
The Christmas display in Birmingham is well up to its usual unimpressive standards. Tourists are flocking from yards around to see the spectacle. Hm. Yes. Well, actually, I’ve just found that taking a snap of part of it while walking makes it almost look interesting…
Psychedelic! Well, kinda.
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Christmas Entertainment
No updates over Christmas period. I couldn’t be arsed. Actually, I have (yet again) been wondering what purpose this Web site serves at all, and I’m lost for answers. It is something to do when all else fails, yes. I enjoy fiddling with it sometimes. But it doesn’t really say much or do much. It’s just there. Hmmm.
Christmas was quite boring. The television was generally rubbish, so no surprises there. The Only Fools and Horses special was pretty good—somewhat better than last year’s weak effort, anyhow. I OD’d on the soaps a bit, and they were, uh, full of shocks… Jamie died in EastEnders (wow, big surprise), Ray was the stalker in Emmerdale (wow, even bigger surprise), and Richard didn’t kill anyone in Corry (actually, that was a surprise).
The Hound of the Baskervilles film (mentioned here) was fairly good. It wasn’t quite as faithful to the original as had been implied, but I did like it. Although, Richard E. Grant being in it (as Stapleton) made me realise what an absolutely perfect Sherlock Holmes he’d make. Richard Roxburgh’s Holmes was okay, but Grant could have been genuinely great. A missed opportunity.
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More Retail Therapy
A bit of semi-Christmas shopping today. And I got to pick up that Cycle of the Werewolf book, thanks to a bit of Xmas money from mom. It looks great, anyhow. The story’s pretty short. (BTW, the movie Silver Bullet was based on this.)
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General Frippery
Some fairly un-serious things.
Crosswords: I can almost never finish the things. I’m thick.
Archives: Maybe I’ll start them up again, as I’ve been writing more of this nonsense lately.
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Just a Hound Dog
Item of interest (well, to me) on Christmas BBC1 schedule: yet another adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. I guess I’ve been looking forward… Read More »Just a Hound Dog
Computer Fakery
Since I was droning about Harry Potter earlier… today (er, yesterday), I read the appalling story/rumour that they might use cast-off footage of Richard Harris from the first two movies, combined with his stand-in and computer trickery, to generate an artificial ‘performance’ for the third movie!
I really, really hope this is only a rumour…
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Christmas Approaches
I got pretty bummed out yesterday, but it was just over general stuff. Nothing major. Mom was in out-patients briefly, to have a couple of skin cancers removed… not serious, just an unfortunate side-effect of the drugs she takes as a transplant patient. (Kidney transplant, 1990.)
Today, we watched the 1956 Moby Dick movie on Channel 4. I generally don’t watch afternoon films, but I’d actually never seen this one. It was directed by John Huston, screenplay by Ray Bradbury. Anyhow, glad I finally saw it. Gregory Peck—who I’ve always had immense admiration for—was typically brilliant as Ahab. And it reminded me that I’d like to see To Kill a Mockingbird again sometime, as I hardly remember anything about it (I saw it a long time ago). Harper Lee’s original novel is excellent, and would probably be in my top ten list if I thought there was any sense in making in such things.
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