Good



Finding out my dear chum SweetRouge has had the question popped to her by her new man.



Neal Stephenson's The Confusion. Fabulous writing, rich narrative, good banquet for my brain.



Comix - The Underground Revolution by Dez Skinn. Not just a chronology of Crumb etc, but an art book, a culture book, a book on freedom of expression and social change/conflict. Fucking brilliant stuff. Expect the review on the Alien soon.



Richard Morgan winning the Philip K Dick award for his stunning debut, Altered Carbon - well done, mate! Next time you're in town I'll let you buy me a beer to celebrate :-)



Praying for Absolution by Muse. Good song, but fab SF video to go with it. High production values, good effects - not sure what it has to do with the song, but hey, so what? Ending has definite Planet of the Apes overtones, but with a British twist.



Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. Good guitar licks and cool video of a constantly moving montage, complete with skelton warriors right out of Jason and the Argonauts. Plus the drummer babe is a total hottie. Am I watching too much Kerrang! on cable? Who cares?



Postcard from Alex on his Edinburgh-London cycling trip - a postcard from Lougborough!!! Classic four-panel view with the washed out 50s-style colours, including images of Woolies on the high street... Nice to know he is seeing the great sights our islands have to offer :-)



Bad



Too many bills, evil council who put the council tax up every single year by more than the rate of inflation (and more than my weak-ass wage increment, so I'm actually worse off each year - nice). Seriously considering going on to some Fundamentalist web page and leainv anonymous message saying Edinburgh Council Revenues Dept all say the Prophet was a wussy fag just so they all get a Fatwa up their evil, money-grubbing arses.



Having to work too many bloody weekends and late shifts at Waterstone's.



Having to work at Waterstone's actually, come to think of it.



Women. And the contradictory things they do to you. Can't live with them, can't dismember their bodies and dispose of them in a quite, secluded place. On the other hand... Where's my shovel?



The Beltane Fire Festival now being ticket only entry (to a public place!!!), making you leave early to comply with license by evil Edinburgh council (wouldn't be that of it was a festival for mostly tourists and not locals I bet), keeping the noise down at it and getting folk to leave by 1-2am instead of staying to see the dawn (the whole point of Beltane)- what is the fecking point??



Tru Calling - formulaic, predictable, weak. Wanted to like it because of the luscious Eliza Dushku from Buffy, but nope, it sucks demon ass - avoid it. Will wait instead for return of Dead Like Me.



Having to wait months to get bloody Hellboy since the studio suddenly decided for no good reason to put back the UK release. Wowing audiences in the US according to Empire.



Saving democracy by torturing people. Well, I guess it goes along with the mass slaughter of civilians. No, not Saddam's regime - us. Fucking bastards. Bush and Blair shake their heads and go tut, tut, but let's be frank the sons of bitches should be in the Hague standing in the dock next to Milosivic. Everything that has happened is their personal responsibility; all of this blood is on their hands. And, I fear, all the blood that is still to come from the events they set in motion.





Undecided



Kill Bill Vol 2. Don't get me wrong, it ain't bad. It just isn't as good as the first one. Seriously sags in places and shows that it was originally designed to be part of one long film, suddenly chopped into two. Like I said it isn't bad, it is worth seeing. But it plays like the third act which isn't good when it is supposed to be a second half. Maybe they got taken in by the idea of multi-part movies a la Matrix, LOTR etc and thought, hey, let's make it into two. Double the box office, double the DVD sales - actually more than double since there will be the inevitable 'special edition' after the two are released singly. Badly paced, not as well structured as normal for Tarantino - would have been better as one, long film I reckon.



Still, enjoyable enough and more Spaghetti Western than Kung Fu - anyone else notice the straight lift of Ennio Morricone's music (think it was from the final gunfight between Eli Wallach, Eastwood and Van Cleef in Good, the Bad and the Ugly) in the scene between the Bride and Bud? And the damaged hand and cemetery references all right from the original Sergio Leone/Eastwood movies.