Movies
Terminator TV, Back & On
Mar 16th
So, where was I?
Oh yes. If you haven’t watched any of the Terminator TV series, don’t read on yet…
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles may have the most lumpy and ill-advised title ever to spew forth the creative machine that is the US TV system, but it is (surprise, surprise) damn good. It started a few weeks ago on Virgin 1 and I have been concientiously using SKY+ to record it. Unfortunately, at 10pm on a Thursday I am usually driving home through Plymouth’s dark streets with only Robin Lustig and Radio 4′s The World Tonight team to keep me company.
Regular readers will know that the first Terminator film ranks only second to Jaws in terms of cinematic excellence as far as I am concerned. A simple film, made with a small budget at a time when I was busy failing my O Levels. I watched it first in the 6th form common room after a school dance, completely wasted and only able to concentrate for 5 minutes at a time. Several months later, it arrived in Wolseley house and I watched it all the way through for the first of many, many times.
In an almost Phantom-Menace like moment, the sequel arrived in 1991 and after huge anticipation before and momentary excitement during, it faded away. Apart from the advancement of the mythos and ground-breaking special fx, I didn’t like it much. All of those “thumbs-up-hasta-la-vista-fake-smile-boy-and-his-terminator-I-promise-not-to-kill-anyone” moments didn’t sit well with me at all.
Almost predictably, I quite liked the third one.
So the TV series arrives. It completely ignores the third film (at least I think so, I am still not quite sure) and continues the story of a 16 year old John Connor and his mother still running from Skynet. As tradition dictates, the future John Connor sends a terminator (Summer Glau) back in time to protect his mother and younger self. Skynet has also sent back at least one Arnie-type evil terminator to kill John Connor. By the end of the first episode, the heroes have leapt forward in time from 1999 to 2007. At the beginning of the second, we learn that Skynet has been sending people back in time as far as the 1960s and that John Connor has been sending resistance fighters back for many tasks, not just protecting his younger self.
So far, this sounds pretty predictable and if you were not a fan of the film series, you are probably not converted. To be honest, I can’t see anyone being truly converted by the TV series alone. Apart from the issue with the third film, it is incredibly faithful to canon and will confuse the hell out of anyone who has not seen the films. I see from online episode guides that future installments in this 9 episode first series wil feature Dr. Silverman and Kyle Reese. So far, there have been previous few “friendly-terminator-becoming-human” moments, indeed Summer Glau’s character is written as far closer to Arnie’s character from the first film than anything else. You are left to wonder how this tale can be stretched over 6 or 7 years worth of episodes though.
On the plus side, the actors are all great, the budget seems to be huge and as far as I can tell from the interweb, seems to have been given at least one more series.
Back.
I hurt my back. Again. At almost exactly the same time as last year, I was reminded that I am no longer the lithe and agile I being I have never been. I was just bending down to switch off the PC before work when a shiver of pain shot up my right side from foot to armpit and I was frozen. After a few moments, it calmed down to a dull ache that only manifests itself after long periods of sitting or lying in the same position. Just the right thing for me then…
Its 4 days later now and it is much better. I finally got a few hours sleep last night and felt all the better for it.
On.
In hot dietting news, I had a disastrous few weeks. The graph in the sidebar of this blog died a few weeks ago when I installed Vista (long story) so I am going to sort it out later (update: Done!). Anyway, back to Slimming World. I put on ½ pound then stayed the same, then lost ½ pound then last week put on 1½ pounds. Perhaps not a disaster but damn demotivating. I have been so good this week and after Hayley returned from her holiday in the States and had a slight gain we have both promised to stay under 6 sins a day. This is hard but I have managed it so far. Don’t ever underestimate the value of having someone you see all day doing the Slimming World thing with you.
My sister Jo continues her journey to slimdom. After 8 weeks, she is now ½ pound away from her 2 stone award and has now been Slimmer of the Week for 4 of the last 5 weeks.
The end. There is no more..]]>
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Jaws, Yoof, Friends and Same Again…
Feb 16th
We Don’t Need That Bigger Boat Anymore.
On Monday 10th February, Roy Scheider, the star of the best film in the world ever (don’t bother to argue, it just is), passed away. Despite the fact that Jaws has given me a life-long fear of deep water and oversized man-eating sharks, I still watch it about four times a year. I watched it again on Tuesday and although the rubber shark still looks rubbish, it doesn’t detract from the perfection of the film one bit. I read the book long after I first saw the film but barely managed to make it to the end. I gather from a few people online that the book was a great read until the film came along. Once Scheider, Dreyfus, Shaw and Spielberg brought it to life, the written page was forever spoiled. The film didn’t change the book much really. A few plot points were removed (Brody’s wife and Hooper having a relationship) and the ending was changed – out went a drowning shark and in came an exploding shark (“Smile You Son Of A Bitch…”) and that was that.
Roy Scheider’s role in Jaws is that of the audience. He is the everyman, worried and frustrated by Quint, out-classed by Hooper’s intelligence and experience and completely out of his depth on a small boat. We see everything through him and we see him grow over 2 hours.
One of his last professional engagements was to provide the narration for an epic, fan-made documentary about his most famous role. It’s called http://www.sharkisstillworking.com and I for one can’t wait until you can buy it.
Yoofs
I had the good fortune to encounter a few of those drunken youths the media are so fond of the other night. I stopped at a local convenience shop with a friend because we both had the need to pay four times as much as normal for a few household essentials. Most such places now go once step better by having a cash machine on the premises, allowing you to pay £1.85 to take £10 out of your bank account to pay over the odds for own-brand, low quality imitations of quality consumables. Anyhoo, there we was waiting to pay when the automatic doors slid open when what can only be described as a white hooded tosser stumbled in and shouted a mobile number and the poor, hapless chavette behind the till.
“Oh, f**k off Brad”
Pissed, he took no notice and a dribble of expletives and sub-standard grammar spilled from his lips. What made it worse was that he was no older than 13 or 14. He wasn’t just cider-tipsy, he was full blown drunk as were the six or seven other wastes of space hovering just outside the shop.
We paid and slipped back to the car. They paid us little notice, unlike the poor woman still working in the shop and presumably still listening to his nonsense. It’s a sad reminder of the times we live in and the state of youth society. Did we do stuff like that at that age? No. We had Mr Tidmarsh’s German prep to do and by god we did it.
Dull Work Weeks Ahead & Family Slimming World
It’s all change and a period of dullness ahead for me. Hayley is off to Florida for 3 weeks next week and Julie is having her long awaited knee operation on Wednesday. She will be off work for a few weeks and not very mobile and excited for quite a while after that. So, lonely lunches, drives to work and coffee breaks for a while. Also, it will just be me and sis at Slimming World for a while. Jo is doing amazingly well. After a month, she got her 1 Stone award this week and was Slimmer Of The Week for the second week running.
I just lost another half pound this week. Not very impressive I feel but at least it’s still going in the right direction. After 6 weeks, I still haven’t gained or stayed the same. Even at this rate, I will hit target before Summer, so I must’nt grumble.
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A Day Late
Aug 6th
Look at me, all back of the bus and shit…”
You will hunt in vain for the relevance of the quote, I just like the sound of it. Try saying it at work and stare in wonderment as the Pitch Black fans pull odd faces as they try to remember where they have heard the phrase before.
Don’t get too big for you boots though and try it with Shakespeare though. A few will silently admire your education, most will think you a tosser.
Today started well. A flat car battery. That’s the short version anyway.
The long version. I turned the key in the ignition and the holy audio hell that is my car alarm woke a sleepy Plymouth housing estate from its peaceful slumber.
Sweet baby Jesus and the orphans…
I tried everything – taking the key out of the ignition, putting it in again, getting out of the car and pressing the lock and unlock on the key fob, getting in again, turning the ignition. As blood began to pour from my eardrums and the grey-haired might of the Badgers Wood Net-curtain Nazi squad grew more angered, I noticed the “boot open” light on the dashboard was lit. I tore round the back and slammed it shut. I slammed it shut in just the way I should have done after returning from Tescos on Saturday morning.
Shit.
The little light in the boot had been burning for almost 2 days and whatever charge remained had been sucked away by the loudest car alarm in all Christendom.
Fortunately, I pay £20 or so a month to a well-known motoring association in case of just such an event. A mere 20 minutes later the nice man arrived. I gave up singing “You’ve Got A Friend” only after it became abundantly clear he wasn’t going to join in and we passed the rest of our time together time happily, as only we British people can do with someone they have never met before and will never meet again, first by talking about the weather and then about work. I really shouldn’t have mentioned who I work for and I certainly shouldn’t have mentioned the strikes. Let’s just say that politically he was slightly to the left of me and leave it at that.
” You just call out my name and you know whereever I am….”
In other news, work continues apace on my Excel project at work. I have learnt more in the last 3 weeks about VBA code than in the previous 39 years. I even started calling it VBA…
Night Night Mary…
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