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Monday, 23 November 2009
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Goldfinger
Last night I got to 38,050 words in my NaNoWriMo novel, Vampire City.
Later on I finished reading the novel Goldfinger by Ian Fleming. The book was published in 1959, and the story opens with a tired and burnt-out James Bond, Agent 007 of the British Secret Service, returning from a particularly harrowing mission busting a drug ring in Mexico. When his plane is delayed in Miami, Bond is only too happy to accept an offer by a wealthy friend of his to spend the night at a five star luxury hotel and discover how the mysterious multi-millionaire Auric Goldfinger is cheating him at cards. Bond quickly discovers how Goldfinger's been doing it, and completely humiliates him. Back in England, Bond discovers that the Secret Service are also interested in Goldfinger due to their suspicions that he is a large scale gold smuggler and is also bank-rolling enemy agents. When Bond is assigned to track Goldfinger, he quickly discovers that his quarry is a lot more dangerous than he could have guessed and is masterminding the biggest crime in history. The book was made into a very successful movie in 1964 with Sean Connery playing James Bond. As with a lot of the original Bond novels, it's a lot grittier and more brutal than the films, which added most of the humour and all of the trademark gadgets. Also, by modern standards, the book hasn't aged well and it is very politically incorrect. However it is a pretty exctiting thriller, regardless. The James Bond movies that are closest to the books are the very early Sean Connery films and the recent Casino Royale films. Actually, Daniel Craig is probably the closest to how James Bond is in the books.
It was another really dull day at work. The work actually ran out for me about an hour before I was planning to leave.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
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Greatest Ever 3-D Moments
I got to 36,015 words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night. I've decided to call it Vampire City.
Last night I was watching a show called The Greatest Ever 3-D Moments, which was quite fun. There's a TV channel that's been running a special 3-D week all this previous week, and you can get special 3-D glasses from one of the supermarkets to watch it. The show was fun but I think 3-D works a lot better at the cinema. My TV isn't small but it isn't exactly big and so the 3-D looks more like you're watching a puppet theatre than anything else. It looks basically like a cute novelty. Also the new 3-D films at the movies have much better glasses than the cardboard ones with blue and red lenses (which are quite uncomfortable to wear with normal glasses).
I was also watching a 1960s episode of Doctor Who called "The Krotons", in which the Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton) and his friends arrive on an alien planet where the humanoid inhabitants are ruled over by a race of crystalline aliens called the Krotons, who live in a large machine The Krotons teach the planet's inhabitants and every so often select the two best students to go into their machine where they are never seen again. The story was good, but the Krotons themselves looked hilarious, because the costumes kept wobbling and the lower half was like a long skirt and they could only move in shuffling baby-steps, also one of them had a very strong Birmingham accent.
I went along to my parent's house today for lunch as usual. We had a kind of beef stew for lunch with mashed potato and mushrooms. After lunch we walked in to the Modern Art Gallery, but only really had time to check out the gift shop before heading back.
Saturday, 21 November 2009
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Friday the 13th Part III
Last night I was watching the fifth part of Lipstick on Your Collar. After that I was watching the 1981 film Friday the 13th Part III, directed by Steve Miner. Escaping after the conclusion of the second film, serial killer Jason Voorhees (Raymond Brooker) soon sets out on another killing spree. This time around his main targets are a group of teenagers sending a weekend at an isolated farm. Mostly it's exactly the same as all the other films in the series as Jason hacks, slashes, stabs, and crushes his way through the fairly anonymous teens. It's probably most remembered now for being the film in which Jason acquires his trademark hockey mask for the first time. It was made in 3-D, which accounts for the amount of objects being thrust or thrown at the camera. The version I saw was in 3-D. It was being shown as part of a special 3-D season that is on all week. It was actually kind of fun in 3-D.
Today was really quiet. It was pouring with rain and so I only went out to get my groceries for the week, and the latest issue of Total Film magazine. When I got home I cleaned up in the kitchen a bit and watched the second part of The Singing Detective on DVD.
Friday, 20 November 2009
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The Singing Detective
Last night I was watching another episode of Lipstick on Your Collar, and followed that up with the first episode of The Singing Detective, a six part TV serial from 1986, which was also written by Dennis Potter. The show stars Michael Gambon as detective novelist Philip Marlow, who is in hospital with a crippling skin condition whichleaves him almost unable to move. He tries to get himself out of the condition with memories of his unpleasant childhood in rural England, as well as imagining bizarre musical numbers in the hospital and also creating a surreal fantasy world based on his own novels where he imagines himself as his fictional creation the "Singing Detective", a Private Eye and part-time nightclub singer. As the story goes on his memories, his real life and his dream life start to collide into each other. It is a really great show and has been hugely acclaimed by critics. When they were first shown, a lot of the Dennis Potter shows were hugely controversial because of the sex and violence in them, although they are pretty tame by today's standards. Maybe now they can be re-evaluated and perhaps seen for the great shows they are. The Singing Detective was turned into a film in 2003.
Today was really quiet again at work. I got to 32,040 words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night. I had a lot of trouble with it last week, because I wasn't well, but I do think that I have made a comeback with it, so I am happy about that.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
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Writing and TV
Last night I was extremely busy with my NaNoWriMo story, which is up to 30,018 words right now (it needs to be 50,000 by the end of the month), and then I watched the third episode of Lipstick on Your Collar which was really good, and True Blood. After the show I went and had some microwave spaghetti bolognese for my dinner and watched a documentary about screenwriter Dennis Potter.
Another very quiet day at work today. I'm kind of happy that it's nearly the weekend now.
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- Name: Robert
- Gender: Male
- Member Since: 3/19/2008
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