I have discovered the I-Pod late in life.  Not just the rather good quality sound that I can hear when I want but the wonderful collections of free horror and science fiction stories hidden away deep inside I-Tunes (if you know where to look).  Imagine Christopher Lee reading The Monkey's Paw while you cower under the sheets!  Or the sheer evil of a Cask of Amontillado.  I have Mary Shelley's The Mortal Immortal and Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter to come ... 'Er indoors has got one too now.  But for her it is the tango, the Pussy Cat Dolls and the Latin beat.  At last, freedom from Radio 4 and the eternal whining about Zimbabwe and global warming.

Meanwhile, I am getting to believe in astrology despite all my rationalist determination not to do so.  The Sunday Times horoscope told me that, today, lots of money would come my way as a long cycle of Saturn was replaced by something else (can't really remember the rest).  The conjunction must have been very precise.  My business partner left the room for an admittedly rather long business meeting. Wthin the three hours that he was away: i) a recalcitrant large debt was paid, ii) a lead into the London office of a major global financial institution was confirmed; and iii) a major project of considerable potential value was confirmed as 'on' after two weeks of unexpected silence.  On the other hand, I could just have been sensitized to the subject by watching The X-Files'  astrological episode on Sunday night.

Which brings us to the X-Files.  It is our domestic habit to get one great TV series and work steadily through it on the laptop in bed in short bursts - maybe five or six episodes over two or three nights and then drop it for a month.  We did the Millennium series with the lugubrious Frank Black [Lance Henriksen] grossing us out to order and now we are into the X-Files - middle of Season 3 to be precise in a Sisyphean project that will almost certainly bring us to the end of the decade at our current slow rate of consumption.  I am not one for spoilers but it is about at this point in the series that you get pretty damn sure that there is a cover-up and Mulder is not koo-koo ... and now we know ('cos we missed this bit first time around) why Krycek is so wierd.   Doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo etcet.

Tags: culture (popular)
Current Location: Tunbridge Wells
Current Mood: recumbent

I was not as entranced by my son but, still, Hot Fuzz is fun - Wicker Man meets the Sweeney via Midsomer Murders.  It is the same team who made Shaun of the Dead so you can expect a few gratuitous severed body parts but the sight of Timothy Dalton and Jim Broadbent hamming it up in a film that you cannot believe that the actors did not love making is not one to be missed.  Another post-modern film in a post-modern age.

http://www.hotfuzz.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425112/maindetails
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Fuzz

Meanwhile, last night had me in an 'Irish' drinking session with P*** E****, which is always an enjoyable mix of political banter, cultural reminiscence and kind thoughts about mutual friends.  Not what I do often but sometimes it clears away the cobwebs and wipes away the gloom.  There was barely a trace of hangover this morning because we maintained that Golden Rule - never mix your drinks.  In any case, a newly favourite haunt, the Seven Stars in Carey Street, an old-fashioned pub discreetly nestling behind the Law Courts, offers a fine pint of Adnams and some good Napoli Sausages and mash to line the stomach.  No nonsense bar staff who know their beer and food and a certain necessary scruffiness.  The only warning is that if you feel that you need a 'leak', don't leave it to the last minute - the facilities are limited and queues form at peak times :-)

Tags: culture (popular), friends
Current Location: Tunbridge Wells & London

I never knew the Transformers as a kid - too old - but my son can name every one of the Autobots (the good guys) and the Decepticons led by the truly Satanic Megatron.  Personally, I identify with Optimus Prime, clearly the 'good daddy' robot sent to protect humanity from the bad alien robots.  This is the perfect film for biffy boys: imagine a car that turns into a towering mechanoid who will be your friend and was sent solely to protect you.  Ignore the po-faced critics - what do they know? - and enjoy.  HP Lovecraft fans should get the key plot reference to one of his masterpieces - hint: ice-strewn wastes, sigils, buried aliens ...

http://www.transformersmovie.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers_(film)

Tags: culture (popular)
Current Location: Tunbridge Wells
Current Mood: happy