Friday, December 21, 2007

Oh dear!
I've not even got to the airport and my flight is already delayed an hour... off to see Dingo for christmas. Looking forward to that.

My disappointment was tempered a few moments ago when a really dull car drove past with what looked like a dull estate-agent driving it, pumping out a 180bpm version of Gossip's "Standing in the Way of Control", voiced, I would guess, by Pinky and Perky, those lovable roguish pigs who seem to have found a new career singing for ned/chav/scally dance tracks.
Though as I only ever hear this shit coming out of cars, I'm not really sure that it can be classed as "dance" music.

Wonder what Beth Ditto would make of it?

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Not too much to report. I've still got a bit of a cold, so off to bed for me with a copy of The Wire! Thrilling. Doctor tomorrow: this has been going on too long.

Watched John Water's A Dirty Shame earlier. Or should I say tried to watch? I gave up after half an hour. It's bloody awful. An endless stream of teenage dirty jokes in celluloid form. It has none of the sophistication of Pecker or Cecil B Demented, none of the quirky commercial charm of Hairspray or Serial Mom and none of the shock value of Pink Flamingoes or Female Trouble. I'm sure that Waters would argue that it's a satire of middle-American prudishness, but it is merely tiresome. In terms of cinematic disappointments, it's right down there with Aronofsky's The Fountain.

Oh, and Tracey Ullman is a dreadful ham.

Monday, November 19, 2007

What an excellent weekend. Dingo was here and we went to Whitby for a break, to recharge and relax and to do a bit of research for a piece of work I'm making. It was really good to get away and to get out of the usual "glasgow-Brighton" routine of things. We set off on Friday at lunchtime and got there about 4.30pm. Our B&B was brilliant: run by a completely nuts woman, as can be seen from her taste in decor:





(Notice the decapitated Spanish Lady doll half way down the left-hand picture!)

She was, however, good "nuts"! Excellent fun, chatty but not intrusive and considerate.

On Saturday, we spent ages in the Whitby Museum, a museum which, until very recently, was in private ownership (though open to the public) and with an excellent collection of local fossils and strange things, such as the leech-powered "Tempest Prognosticator":





In which leeches generate an electric current which is measured to determine whether or not there is going to be a storm. We also found this, which I don't believe is the thing's real name:





A bird named to - surely? - make schoolboys giggle. There are SO many interesting things in this museum and it is really just another of those Victorian cabinets of curiosities which I love so much. We spent 4 hours in there. After we came out, it was off to the Abbey to wander about there:





There are loads more pictures of the Abbey and of the Museum on my Flickr pages.

The day was capped very nicely by an absolutely first-rate wood-baked pizza!
Could have done without the incessant shagging of the couple in the room above us. Also could have done without the fire alarm they set off by smoking in a non-smoking hotel. (They claimed it was the kettle, but the landlady knew better, of course!)

Sunday was horrible. We woke to more shagging from the couple above and rain blowing against the windows from outside. It was bitterly cold and wet so we abandoned plans to stay till evening and went north to Saltburn, where I wanted to see the funicular railway, the first in the UK but it was shut. Not only that, but it was too cold to even walk about so we had a warming coffee (and a delicious Yorkshire curd cheesecake) and set off on our return. In the evening, it was that time again when the christmas lights in glasgow are turned on. Uncle Clive has worked hard again to ensure that the neds get something fun to pull down and vandalise: they were not disappointed this year and managed to completely collapse a model stag before the lights were finished.
We enjoyed ourselves, being backstage and getting the best view of the fireworks! That followed by dinner in Ichiban made for an excellent evening.

Back to the usual routine this morning.
Pah!