In which we discuss the Scott Pilgrim movie, one case of a comic-to-film adaptation that keeps all the spirit of the comic it came from.
Published at 8:18 pm on September 5th, 2010
Filed under: Media Addict.
Back, back in the mists of time — well, in December 2007 — I posted a review of Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, the fourth, and at that point, the latest, book in the Scott Pilgrim series by Bryan Lee O’Malley.
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Keyword noise: adaptation, books, comics, film, literature, review, Scott Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim vs The World.
In which an Ikea Antonius takes rather more effort than normal
Published at 6:39 pm on June 24th, 2010
Filed under: Dear Diary.
In which we go to the cinema
Published at 9:44 pm on May 1st, 2009
Filed under: Media Addict.
A trip to the cinema with Mystery Filmgoer the other week, to see *Let The Right One In* (or, rather, Låt den rätte komma in) the Swedish vampire movie which has been going down very well lately. As I haven’t seen any Swedish films since I was a student, as usual I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Raw meatballs? Home-assembly furniture dripping with blood? Bat-haunted forests with man-eating elk?
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Keyword noise: cinema, film, horror, Let The Right One In, review, vampire.
In which we go to see The Boy Least Likely To
Published at 4:56 pm on March 25th, 2009
Filed under: Media Addict.
As soon as we get home, we’re out again. To a gig, at the Louisiana, to see The Boy Least Likely To, hard at work promoting their new album that’s just been released. We were slightly confused when we arrived, to see that according to the posters the gig was on Monday, March 24th, and we’d turned up on a Tuesday. After checking our calendars, we went in. Inside, there’s not much room in the Louisiana. It’s quite a cosy place, so cosy that we quickly spotted that a good chunk of the pub was taken up by support band The School tucking into their tea.
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Keyword noise: Bristol, gig, indie, live music, music, review, The Boy Least Likely To, The Fox And The Bramble, The Louisiana, The School.
In which we are delighted by music and storytelling
Published at 9:28 am on February 1st, 2009
Filed under: Artistic.
Since we moved here, we’ve been promising ourselves that we’ll get Out And About, go to lots of local events, be actively artistic, and so on. And, well, we haven’t quite managed it. We’re doing better than we used to; we go to more things than we ever did before we moved; but the calendar still isn’t quite as full as we’d like.
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Keyword noise: Bristol, folk, folk music, Folk Tales, gig, Jet McDonald, Jetfly, Jethro McDonald, live music, music, review, Scout Hut, Shaun McCrindle, storytelling.
In which we watched Being Human
Published at 12:00 pm on January 27th, 2009
Filed under: Media Addict.
After the post last week, I felt we really should watch Being Human, the new BBC3 series set largely in Totterdown. We were, I have to say, pleasantly surprised.
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Keyword noise: BBC, Being Human, Bristol, drama, fantasy, ghost stories, review, sitcom, television, Totterdown, vampire, werewolf, Windsor Terrace.
In which we discuss books and the French Revolution
Published at 1:42 pm on January 14th, 2009
Filed under: Artistic, In With The Old, Meta.
One thing about yesterday’s post: it gives you a good look at the state of one of our bookshelves. Not a good enough look to make out what most of the books are, though, unless they’re books with distinctive spines that you’re already familiar with – like Peter Ackroyds’s London, for example.
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Keyword noise: biography, books, Books I Haven't Read, Fatal Purity, France, French Revolution, history, literature, Maximilien Robespierre, review, Robert Graves, Robespierre, Ruth Scurr, The White Goddess.
In which we review Rachel Unthank and the Winterset
Published at 11:24 am on December 16th, 2008
Filed under: Artistic.
This weekend’s gig: Rachel Unthank and The Winterset, at the Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital Theatre. “People ask us if ‘Unthank’ is our stage name,” said Rachel. “Who’d choose a name like ‘Unthank’?” Personally, it reminds me of Scotland;* but the Unthank family are Northumbrian. Rachel and her sister Becky share the major vocal parts, with a piano and another musician behind them.
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Keyword noise: Allendale, Bristol, folk, folk music, gig, live music, music, Norn, Northumbria, Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, Rachel Unthank, Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, review, Winterset.
In which we go to a Death Cab gig
Published at 3:07 pm on November 19th, 2008
Filed under: Artistic.
I wonder, sometimes, how much music reviewers know about the bands they review. Some, it’s obvious, are fans. Some are at least knowledgeable. But there must be some, surely, who turn up knowing nothing and leave knowing less.
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Keyword noise: Benjamin Gibbard, Bristol, Colston Hall, Death Cab, Death Cab For Cutie, gig, live music, music, photographers, review.
In which we see Pelle Carlberg
Published at 4:12 pm on November 6th, 2008
Filed under: Artistic, Media Addict.
We were hoping, when we moved here, that there would always be lots of exciting little gigs to go to, given that this city is always supposed to have an exciting music scene. Last night, we went to the second one we’ve been to since we moved to, to see one of our favourite Swedish indiepop acts, Pelle Carlberg. Swedish indiepop? Yes, indeed. A classic genre, I’ll have you know.
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Keyword noise: Bristol, gig, indie, live music, Made From Clouds, music, Pelle Carlberg, review, Stokes Croft, The School.
In which we discuss “Halting State” by Charles Stross
Published at 9:20 pm on June 24th, 2008
Filed under: Artistic.
This month I have mostly been reading: Halting State by Charles Stross, a near-future techno-thriller set in an independent Scotland, ten years or so from now. It’s a very good book; I recommend it; full of where-tech-might-be-going extrapolations. When reading it, though, I couldn’t help thinking: I have a bit of an advantage on the average reader.
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Keyword noise: Bannermans, books, Charles Stross, Cowgate, Edinburgh, Halting State, High School Yards, literature, review, science fiction, SF, Stockbridge Colonies.
The band, not the album, not the feeling
Published at 11:01 am on April 19th, 2008
Filed under: Media Addict.
Last night: we popped up to The Sage, Gateshead, the first time I’d ever been to a concert there. To see a band which has been on my “second-favourites” list for a few years, but who I’ve never really been a fan of. Low. The audience was a strange mixture: lots of former indie-boys now in their thirties, and a good supply of men with long hair, glasses, and bristly Vollbart beards. We spotted, in the audience, the waitress from the Side Café in Newcastle, a very good café which I’m sure I’d written about on this site before; but I can’t find any such post anywhere. Ah well; it’s a very good cafe, and I even have a photo:
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Keyword noise: Gateshead, gig, live music, Low, music, Newcastle, Portland, review, Side Cafe, The Helio Sequence, The Sage, Utah.
In which we go all grand guignol
Published at 11:16 am on February 6th, 2008
Filed under: Media Addict.
Before going off on holiday, we popped down to York to see *Sweeney Todd*, the new Tim Burton version of the Sondheim musical. It contains, as you might expect from a Tim Burton film, a lovely, dark, damp and grimy version of 19th-century London, albeit one with a rather anachronistic Tower Bridge opening near the start.*
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Keyword noise: Alasdair Gray, film, Fleet St, grand guignol, Johnny Depp, Lanark, London, musical, review, Sacha Baron Cohen, Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton.
In which we like Scott Pilgrim
Published at 1:48 pm on December 22nd, 2007
Filed under: Media Addict.
The latest book in Bryan Lee O’Malley‘s *Scott Pilgrim* series, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, has been out in shops for a month or so, now. And it is, as expected, an excellent book. As it says on the back-cover blurb:
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Keyword noise: Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canada, comics, graphic novels, review, Scott Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together.
In which we get down with the youth of today
Published at 4:36 pm on December 13th, 2007
Filed under: Artistic, Media Addict.
Having written that big review of Indietracks the other day, I’d almost forgotten to mention the gig I’d been to the day before: Patrick Wolf, at the Middlesbrough Institute Of Modern Art, a venue so stylish they insist on only ever being referred to in small letters: “mima”.* You could argue that it’s been done, but never mind.
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Keyword noise: gig, live music, Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough Institute Of Modern Art, mima, music, Patrick Wolf, review.
In which music and trains make us happy
Published at 10:09 am on December 8th, 2007
Filed under: Artistic, Media Addict.
Every month I promise myself to start Blogging Properly again, and every time I’m tired.
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Keyword noise: Butterley, Derbyshire, gig, glockenspiel, indie, Indietracks, live music, Midland Railway Centre, music, railway, review, Ripley, The Deirdres, The Icicles, The Poppycocks.
In which we like Swedish music
Published at 7:38 am on December 1st, 2007
Filed under: Media Addict.
Why is it that Sweden has so many good bands? Why is it, in particular, that it has so many good indiepop bands? I don’t understand it. It’s a shame more of them aren’t better-known in England; I wish I knew more about them, to tell you about them. I’m sure Dimitra could compile a list of 103 excellent Swedish indiepop bands who started in their teens and have only ever released on vinyl,* but I can’t, and I wish I could.
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Keyword noise: album, In A Nutshell, indie, music, Pelle Carlberg, review, Sweden.
In which we are the oldest people in the audience
Published at 10:22 pm on November 5th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary, Media Addict.
Mike Troubled Diva recently wrote about how it feels to be middle-aged at gigs, and suchlike. I’m not middle-aged yet, but I know how he feels, because on Saturday night I went to my first gig in ages, at Leeds Met SU. It felt like: I was the only one there over 25.
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Keyword noise: gig, Grindie, Hadouken!, Leeds, live music, music, New Rave, NME, review, Yorkshire.
In which we become scared of fields
Published at 12:45 pm on October 24th, 2007
Filed under: Media Addict.
“That’s two hours of my life that I’ll never get back,” said one of the women in front of us, as we left the cinema* I thought she was being slightly unfair. The film had only been 87 minutes long, after all.
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Keyword noise: Black Sheep, comedy, film, horror, movie, mutant, New Zealand, review, sheep, zombies.
In which the end of a series is within sight
Published at 5:25 pm on July 20th, 2007
Filed under: Artistic.
No, not the book. As I reviewed film number four for this blog, back in 2005, I thought I may as well review the fifth one too. I still haven’t seen any of the earlier films.
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Keyword noise: books, children's books, film, Harry Potter, Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, J K Rowling, literature, movie, review.
In which we wind the windows down and sing along
Published at 6:48 pm on May 22nd, 2007
Filed under: Artistic.
Still recovering from my awful, hacking-cough cold. For The Mother, who thinks I have had bronchitis continuously since August, this is more evidence that I am leading a terribly dissolute lifestyle and need to stop having sex, stay indoors watching TV, and go to bed at 9pm every night just like she does.
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Keyword noise: album, Astronomy For Dogs, bronchitis, Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager, cold, coughing, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, gossip, indie, music, review, sickness, Standing In The Way Of Control, The Aliens, The Beta Band, Victorian English Gentlemen's Club.
In which we listen to The Pipettes
Published at 7:00 am on August 5th, 2006
Filed under: Artistic.
As I said yesterday, I’ve been listening a lot recently to the debut album from The Pipettes, released a few days ago. It’s light, bouncy, pop music, always trying to evoke school discos and teenage fumbling. The band deliberately tries to come across, it seems, as a modern indie version of a 1960s girl group; hiding the musicians behind the scenes and relying on the singers to front the band.
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Keyword noise: album, disco, girl group, indie, music, nostalgia, review, The Go! Team, The Pipettes.
In which we uncover something that might count as proto-blogging
Published at 10:15 pm on May 29th, 2006
Filed under: Artistic.
As I mentioned on Friday, I’ve been rereading How To Travel With A Salmon, a book of comic essays, mostly, by Umberto Eco. I first read it when I was an impressionable, pretentious teenager,* and hadn’t looked at it for about ten years.
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Keyword noise: books, essays, How To Travel With A Salmon, literature, review, Umberto Eco.
In which we watch the Tenth one
Published at 8:36 pm on April 16th, 2006
Filed under: Media Addict.
In which things are true to life
Published at 2:46 pm on February 3rd, 2006
Filed under: Geekery, Media Addict.
New Channel 4 comedy series *The IT Crowd* starts tonight; being a big geek, of course, I had to watch it. And, overall, it’s rather good.
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Keyword noise: Channel 4, comedy, computing, Great Wave At Kanagawa, Hokusai, IT, review, television, The IT Crowd.