View through window of Þingvallakirkja, Iceland, 17th August 2017, Fuji X-T20.
Exterior of Þingvallakirkja, Iceland, 17th August 2017, Fuji ...
Þingvallakirkja
The Kickstarter campaign we've been running for "Exposures" has reached - and passed - its funding goal. We're moving forward into production with a healthy budget to see us through. I'd like to ...
Exposures Surpasses its Funding Target
Gael García Bernal stars as an ad-man creating the TV spots for the anti-Pinochet referendum campaign in Chile in 1988. Dir: Pablo Larraín, 2012. Seen at: Hackney ...
What I’m Watching, Feb 17th: No
Well, what a week! I feel like I managed about 5 hours sleep total throughout my entire time at the festival. Loads of incredible work on potential campaigns for films that were showing at the ...
Hard Work and Hedonism in Berlin
When we made "The Library of Burned Books" we part-funded it with donations from people around the world using Indiegogo (our pitch page - including Al's amazing comedy video - is still online) and ...
The Library of Burned Books Perks are in the Post
I'm heading to the Berlinale with a few other film school colleagues, from LFS and around the world. The main focus of the week for us will be a 5-day course on distribution and marketing strategies ...
Going to Berlin
I am proud and happy to announce that "The Library of Burned Books" is basically done. We have married the graded image with the final sound mix, and all is looking and sounding as good as it can. ...
The Library of Burned Books is ‘Basically Done’
If you're one of those rare people with money burning a hole in their pockets, a short film I AD'ed during the summer is currently crowdfunding its post-production. "The Night of Brian" (working ...
“The Night of Brian” Needs Your Help
I just dug out my venerable MiniDisc player out and hooked it up to my amp to play some tunes that I don't have on MP3 or CD. I love MiniDiscs - they never went mainstream, so there's something about ...
MiniDisc Rediscovery
At the moment I'm checking out films about models and photographers. It's part of my research for the short I'm developing.
Denys Arcand's film Stardom (2000) is a high-pace satire. Tina Menzhal ...
“Stardom” by Denys Arcand
Alasdair and I had an amazing morning grading "The Library of Burned Books" with Maria at Narduzzo Too on Monday. Now all we need to do is have the sound mixed, and we will be ready to launch the ...
The Library of Burned Books Nears Completion
This is one of my favourite images from behind the scenes of Like Spinning Plates: clips of Kevin (Toby Liszt) hanging above an edit bin waiting to be spliced into the conformed print by the ...
The Cutting Room
I've just started working part-time as a funding & marketing co-ordinator on Papa Hedi for Claire de Lune Films.
Papa Hedi is Claire Belhassine's first feature as director. She was in her late 20s ...
The Frank Sinatra of the Arab World
This morning we start fundraising for The Library of Burned Books. I'm producing, and I'm pleased to be working on such a good, solid script, and with a director who has a great eye for fantastic ...
Check out the pitch page for The Library of Burned Books
I've done a credit sequence for the directorial debut of friend and colleague Phil Whelans, Clowntime is Over, which takes its title from an Elvis Costello song. Phil plays a role in my latest LFS ...
Credits for Clowntime is Over
A few days ago I finished editing a promo for fellow LFS student, Jonathan Tomlin. It's a little teaser to give potential funders an idea of what the finished film could be. He's currently ...
Check out the pitch page for Coda
Last week, Mr Gray sent me a photocopy from the New Scientist about a paper from Cornell University that analyses attention span and cutting rhythm in Hollywood movies. Their methods involved ...
Attention spans and cutting rhythm
It's funny how humdrum everyday employment manages to eat up so much mental bandwidth. I've had almost no brainwaves worth blogging in months. Dull, dull, dull. But now the becalmed feeling is GONE. ...
Wind in my sails
I love reading well-written arguments from different sides of the global warming polyhedron.
First: Contraception Fights Global Warming from Salon.com
Second: The Population Myth from ...
Fewer kids = greener?
What happens when you translate the first line of a Dylan song into Japanese and back over and over again until it translates into the same English phrase twice?
You get a very mangled lyric which ...
Blowin’ in the Wind in Japanese, kind of…
Chris Marker's Junkopia is watchable online. I really love the framing and the rhythm of the cutting in this piece, and the way each shot of an object reveals a different aspect depending on angle ...
A Lesson in Framing and Disclosure
David Lynch was thrust into development of Dune too early in his career, it seems. The producers' idea was to profit on the success of Star Wars by creating another sci-fantasy epic, but a ...
Dune
The missus is re-reading David Mitchell's number9dream for the dissertation. Every now and then she reads a bit aloud for me.
I watched for a while longer. Not much happens in Paris Texas.
"Sort ...
Quote from number9dream
A River Runs Through It is Robert Redford's 1992 period feature about three men and their relationship to God, fly fishing and each other. Seeing as God and fishing are two of the subjects most ...
A River Runs Through It
You know that festival organizers are on the ball when they send each filmmaker an individual email with a link to where to buy tickets for their film's screening. Thanks, Boston!
Click here to ...
Boston’s on the Ball
Warning: spoilers after the jump.
It feels as if Samuel L. Jackson has spent the last few years sliding into self-parody in formulaic big-budget films, so I was keen to see him exercise his craft ...
Lakeview Terrace
I've spent this week up to my armpits in jpegs, pngs, html, css, mp4s and H.264, and this is the result. Please, friends, take a look and send me screenshots and news of how the site works for ...
“Julie, Julie” promotional website now live
The Film Council's new service, Find Any Film looks like it could turn into something rather good. At the moment it can tell you the nearest cinema that's showing a film of your choice. This has been ...
Film Council Launches Film Search Website
A seventies filmic retelling of Candide by director Lindsay Anderson, writer David Sherwin and star Malcolm McDowell, O Lucky Man! is a rare example of the picaresque in cinema. Starting as a ...
O Lucky Man!
This is a low-key romantic drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, with a couple of good supporting turns from Isabella Rossellini and Elias Koteas. I expected a solid piece of drama, ...
Two Lovers
Or, in the original Swedish, Låt den rätte komma in is the sweet and troubling coming-of-age story of Oskar, a young boy who finds the confidence to fight bullies and assert his place in the ...
Let the Right One In
A fascinating documentary about the trial of superstar film director Roman Polanski on a variety of charges of sexual misconduct with a thirteen-year-old girl. It's very sympathetic to Polanski, ...
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu pay the bills in this stylish French police suspense movie. Their collective star power almost diverts from the fact that they've both eaten too much foie gras ...
36 Quai des Orfèvres
Was I half-asleep or was it never adequately explained why "There can only be one?"
Highlander was a complete pile of nonsense, with a barely anglophone Belgian, Christopher Lambert, playing a ...
Highlander
Today there is a tram and bus strike which means I can't get to French class and C has a "Get out of Jail Free" card as regards work. I'm not sure why the drivers are striking and I'm hoping the ...
Greve
If all else fails, I'm sure I can get a job riding one of these. In France, the job security of a motocrotte rider must rival that of the undertaker. It is an ordinary motorcycle or motorscooter, ...
My next job: motocrotte rider
Now I'm back in Europe, I'm reminded that American political life looks even weirder at a distance than it does close up. I'm inspired by the gall of the Republican party almost daily, but today has ...
Pelosi
The other night C and I made a thorough investigation of one of Bordeaux's cultural gems. Cinéma Utopia in the Saint Pierre district, at the heart of the historic centre ville is a five screen ...
Cinéma Utopia
For the first time in what feels like months – and probably is – I rode my bike five miles to work and five miles back. I'd been starting to feel like a lardy, cranky bastard, but ...
Back in the Saddle
In A. S. Byatt's Little Black Book of Stories there is one about a woman who turns into an beautiful and bewildering assembly of stones. Naturally she ends up in Iceland, where the stones are still ...
Trunt, trunt
This weekend has been my first time off from jobs and movie stuff for about two, maybe three months. After ignoring most of the Superbowl, I took Courtney to see There Will Be Blood. Within the first ...
I Drink Your Milkshake
This weekend Courtney and I launched the Shooting Bulletins blog. It's where we're keeping a record of our progress as we attempt to make a short movie that will prove my worthiness to be ...
Shooting Bulletins blog now live
This weekend Courtney and I launched the Shooting Bulletins blog. It's where we're keeping a record of our progress as we attempt to make a short movie that will prove my worthiness to be ...
Shooting Bulletins Website Now Live
This is funny, sad, touching, hopeful and true. It's about the village of Botton in Yorkshire. I've only got so far as the two blokes in the print shop, who have a Goon Show-esque repartee, and if it ...
The Strangest Village in Britain
Wow, for about half an hour I thought I'd totally destroyed my blog. I just upgraded to a new version of Wordpress, and it wasn't the easiest ...
Not Dead, Just Resting
This week it's starting to get serious. I've received some useful feedback on my script, I've cast an actor, and Courtney's realising the scale of the project we're about to embark on. My short movie ...
The Journey Starts
This weekend was another orgy of video shooting. First off, most of Friday was spent preparing to shoot, and then shooting a Critical Mass of zombies and pirates. More will become apparent when it's ...
More Shooting
Palmer asked me if I could help him with a documentary project he's working on, so this Sunday we went to Sacramento to interview locally-based outsider musician Lenny G. Blat. Something about him ...
Rockumentary
Last weekend the missus and I headed to Monterey for a relaxing weekend on the Pacific coast. We took our bikes and locked them to the railing between our motel room and the car park. We figured ...
Drunken Fuckwit Mangles Bikes
Last week I finished editing a short documentary profiling the Sustainability Fair the Davis Food Co-op held back in July. I could spend ages tidying it up and making it perfect, but I don't really ...
New video: Sustainability Fair 2007
It looks like M&S is working to reduce its carbon footprint, which is a good thing. However, their marketing surrounding the introduction of sustainable technologies exaggerates the effect it will ...
Green Window Dressing
Recently I've had ideas for posts, but I've either been at work, visiting family, or too tired to be bothered blogging.
I'm determined to make time to write, produce, shoot and edit a short before ...
Playing catch-up
A three day weekend is a chance to blog! It seems my free time has dwindled to nothing recently, which is OK for the most part, except right towards the end of my week, when I simultaneously want to ...
Three Day Weekend
Has anyone noticed that no-one is referring to the internet as the "Information Superhighway" any more? This makes me
Dead Phraseology
Now I know what it feels like to be Fidel Castro. For some reason I ate an unripe avocado last night, which gave me a itchy swelling in the back of my throat. It seems I'm allergic to unripe avocado. ...
Attack of the Green Testicle
Avoid Tom Tykwer's movie The Princess and the Warrior. It would be a good movie if Tykwer had realised he'd written a black comedy. Sadly for us, he didn't, and all two and a half hours is played ...
Quick Tip
This one is particularly great:
Creationist Kid
Jake Huckerman is by day a Baptist maths teacher in Alabama, but by night one of a new breed of superhero, the next stage in man's evolution ...
Armando Iannucci’s superheroes
Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï has to be one of the coolest movies ever made. Just the production details offer a foretaste of its coolness: anything made in France in 1967 starring Alain ...
Le Samouraï
Last night was my last official night in charge of the Varsity, so now I'm free of those particular obligations, frustrations and quirks. My replacement is a thoroughly nice bloke, and it's been ...
Coming out of Chokey
Eyelashjam and pgd took this test. I was slightly off with "altruist."
Your Vocabulary Score: A
Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary!
You must be quite an erudite ...
Too easy
I'm sad to hear of the passing of Ian Richardson, an actor with one of the greatest voices I've ever heard, and coldly hypnotic eyes. I never saw him on the stage, but his performances for film and ...
Ian Richardson, RIP.
Looks like I've not posted in a while. Here's a summary of the last sixty-six days.
Those who saw me and possibly the missus during December will know how much we tired ourselves out having fun ...
Playing Catch-up
1) A Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch.
2) The FIAT Ritmo/Strada commercial it made reference to.
I have no idea why I know about any of this, because I think I was two at the time, but ...
Esoteric Early 80’s Humour
There's a story linked to by boingboing.net about why a certain TV programme called Lost doesn't work. I suppose it's not really surprising that someone who gets paid to write for New York magazine ...
Well, duh.
My friend Dr. Ellis Jones has just published a new book, The Better World Shopping Guide. He's launching it at the Varsity on Saturday 18th November. There's also a new website, Better World ...
Better World Shopper
Yesterday was my mainstream movie day. I caught The Departed and The Prestige at my local evil five-plex. Both good movies, and The Prestige was particularly noteworthy for being a fantastic ...
Christ!
In his review of The God Delusion in the London Review of Books, Terry Eagleton plays Devil's Advocate for theology in order to make some pointed criticisms of Dawkins' rhetoric. As a firm atheist, ...
Eagleton on Dawkins
Sometimes I wish there weren't so many options for ordinary folk to leave their responses on serious articles on newspaper websites. For example, I saw this today at the bottom of a brief, ...
The Trouble with Comments
For no particular reason, other than I'm in the mood and some of this stuff is classic, here are a bunch of songs (with videos) from early eighties Britain which prove the first seven years of my ...
80’s Flashback
Here are some of the highlights of the 15th September binge. It's about 15megs of streaming Quicktime file. Click on the "read the rest of this entry" link to see the video.
...
Time-lapse Drinking
Last night at the Varsity we showed Michael Winterbottom's movie, The Road to Guantánamo, in conjunction with a local human rights group. The day before the screening one of the members of the ...
Death Threat
Silent Library has to be the greatest exploitative TV game show of all time. Any show with a round entitled "Old Man Bites Tenderly" ranks right up with Vic and Bob in the pantheon of TV ...
Shh…
I was excited to read an article about the Tesla Roadster today. It's essentially a Lotus Elise, but with subtle differences - the most significant being that it runs on electricity, not petrol. ...
The Electric Lotus
I was going to call this my Summer compilation, but I'm not sure how much summer is left in the UK, where I guess most listeners will be, so here's the hypothesis: it's early September, and an Indian ...
An Indian Summer
I just booked a ticket to fly home for the festive season. I arrive in the UK on the 5th December, and leave again on the 3rd January. ...
Booked
There are few things that make me dance around the living room singing when I'm not already drunk, but I confess the arrival of a new Divine Comedy album is one of those things. I realise I'm a ...
Hurrah!
This is the best thing I've seen all week. A Total Eclipse of the Heart performed by Norwegian appliance-bashers, Hurra Torpedo. This is the place where art and rock ...
Dead Appliance Rock
The forthcoming Armando Iannucci series, Time Trumpet, looks like my kind of programme. It appears to be a nostalgia show set in 2031, in which celebrities reminisce about events like the ...
Time Trumpet
From Dave's blog (and all sorts of others before it):
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog ...
Book Challenge
It looks like we're seriously pursuing The Science of Sleep to screen at the Varsity in late August. I love Michel Gondry's work, so I'm really excited. Check out the trailer here.
It looks as ...
La Science des Rêves
Once in a while I discover a song which sounds like the inside of my head. The latest of these discoveries is from the Talking Heads 1979 album Fear of Music. Mind sounds much like a superior version ...
Inside
...and it was all over.
There's still something to smile about, though. I watched a couple of games last week with my German friend Daniel, who provided entertaining translations of German ...
One petulant stamping in the sensitive bits…
The World Cup is available here, albeit early in the morning. I've eschewed ABC and ESPN's coverage, though, because their commentators are both patronising and inaccurate. For example, yesterday ...
La Copa del Mundo!
There has just been a tenfold increase in the fine federal government levies against broadcasters who violate "decency standards." It used to be $32,500, now it's $325,000, with a maximum of $3m for ...
Fuck me, America is weird
My friend Jeff Palmer has started a blog about the experience of creating and selling a DVD of his own feature-length indie movie, On the Fringe. Is the indie film world all one-way traffic? How ...
On the Fringe
Last night Jeff and I went to an art show in a cannery. The place has lain empty since 1999, and is due to be demolished in the next few days. Last night, however, it was turned over to a group ...
Smoke from the big head tastes like marshmallows
Our flight back from upstate NY after our camping trip was not free of incident. For one thing, I got captured by the local ...
No Lights! No Aircon!
Today I picked up the appropriate soundtrack for the fast-approaching long weekend of drinking in the Catskill mountains with Courtney's family. John Barleycorn Must Die is an ancient song which ...
John Barleycorn Must Die!
It's very good for homesickness. I can see all the locations. I know Jason Taylor's route to school. I remembered that he would have attended the Hill School (it's called Upton upon Severn ...
First impressions of Black Swan Green
Or is it actually the nadir of laziness? Depends on whether you approve of idleness, I suppose.
What exactly would Bertrand Russell have made of pre-prepared beans on toast?
Courtesy of the ...
The Apogee of Laziness
Recent Japanese research suggests that kissing lessens the production of histamines, hence alleviating hayfever. I'm not joking.
Sadly the article doesn't explain how you convince your partner to ...
Kiss it Better
There's an awful lot of pollen in Davis. The air is disgustingly fecund right now, and my hayfever is the worst it's ever been. Clarityn, my antihistamine of choice, is unable to stem the flow of ...
Aaaah-tchooo!
I'm looking forward to Dominik Moll's new movie, Lemming. The American trailer isn't ready yet, so here's the French one. It looks sexy, creepy and absurd all at once.
Philip French, of the ...
Weasel Under the Cocktail Cabinet?
Today I saw a CNN Showbiz Tonight interview with Neil Young about his new album, Living With War. Neil gave a very good account of himself, despite the ridiculous tone of the questioning, which was ...
Bad Interviewer
I feel as if I was a little rushed trying to get this together two weeks after the grand opening, especially with all the hours I've been putting in at the coffee shop and the cinema, but on Saturday ...
The Varsity Story on DVD
Life has been hectic this past month, hence the lack of bloggage.
The big news is that the Varsity opened on Thursday 6th April to a capacity crowd, with all the usual paraphernalia. I didn't ...
All Neon Like
I'm coming closer to a final cut of The Varsity Story, the documentary I'm making for the opening of the Varsity Theatre (cinema, really) on 6th April. I'm happy with the content and how I've ...
Home on the Dynamic Range
This week I learnt that skiing on powder is far more fun than skiing on slush. I have also discovered that it is in my best interests to cover the whole of my face when skiing from 10,000 to ...
10,000 Feet High and Skiing
As promised, here's a photo of my first painting. Click on it for a bigger view. I made this piece in response to the cafe manager, Alli, declaring that the only art on display in the cafe during ...
Dots
I've just discovered this link to a treasure trove of Public Information Films, some of which I remember seeing on the telly, like Say No to Strangers. There's a creepily odd one called Strange ...
Say No to Strangers
Scientists said the animal, which they named Kiwa hirsuta, was so distinct from other species that they created a new family and genus for it. The divers found the animal in waters 7,540 feet deep ...
Hairy Crabs
[...]the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran of dispatching elements of its Revolutionary Guard to stir trouble inside Iraq. Mr Rumsfeld said: "They are currently putting people into ...
Mr. Pot & Mr. Kettle
Today I edited video for about ten hours, and painted for a further hour or so. Consequently I'm too tired to blog anything particularly worthwhile, other than to note that I'm excited about both ...
Drained (in a good way)
The closure of 25 McDonalds "restaurants" in the UK has prompted a tremendous celebratory article by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in the Guardian. I dream of the day when the only McDonalds in the UK ...
Vive la Révolution!
If this article means what I think it means, then Douglas Adams has been reaffirmed. It seems that a quantum computer has managed to find the answer to a question without knowing what the question ...
Deep Thought
...and coat, skirt, blouse, bra and knickers too, to the naked ramblers, Steve Gough and Melanie Roberts, who have just walked from Land's End, the most southerly tip of the UK mainland, to John ...
Hats Off…
Quickest customer of the day in Mishka's:
She: I'm gonna get a latte.
I: Certainly, what size?
She: A $3 one.
I: OK.
I ring her order into the cash register and look at her ...
Three Dollars
We have an opening date for the Varsity, April 6th. I've also allowed myself to be roped in to promoting the opening night. All sorts of interesting plans are afoot, but for now you can check out ...
Varsity News
My good friend Jeff has an exhibition of paintings starting on 1st March in Gino's cafe, Sacramento. Called Unearthed, it's a series of abstracts ranging from the folksy to the ...
Unearthed
I wasn't a huge fan of Beth Orton's previous album, Daybreaker, but I'm back in love with her thanks to the new one, Comfort of Strangers. Produced by Jim O'Rourke, who's been working with Wilco ...
Music from Norfolk and Belgium
Yesterday the sun was shining, the sky was blue and I was seized by an uncanny urge to buy a barbeque, so I did. Refusing to tell Courtney what was up I ushered her into the car and drove to a ...
The Way of the Barbie
Continuing my mission to reach a better understanding of the strange land I currently inhabit, last Sunday I went with Tom, aka Politco Wonk, to see my first basketball game.
...
I Wish I was a Little Bit Taller
Behold my first attempt at scones! They taste every bit as good as they look, and they were pretty easy to make. I'm basking in a warm yellowy self-satisfied glow right now. The ladies at ...
Baker’s Dozen
According to this slick-looking website, to which I sent the picture above, I look like a mixture of: Rosanna Arquette, Hrithik Roshan, Ralph Nader, Dave Mustaine, Pierce Brosnan, Hilary Swank, ...
Chav Doppelgangers
The Varsity doumentary is coming along. I shot interviews two weekends ago, and now I'm amassing documents. Above is an original lobby card for the first movie to play in the Varsity cinema on ...
Birds of Prey
This is a snap of the Central Valley taken by Courtney from the aeroplane that brought us back to California after Thanksgiving in New York. The original was very hazy and washed-out. I boosted the ...
Quilty
I thought that taking a year out before university was something you did to broaden your mind and get some experience of the real world. Perhaps no-one told this nutter, who has chosen to spend an ...
Mickey Mouse Degree
From the Random House website:
From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green ...
Black Swan Green
No, this is not a reference to the modernist poet. It's an expression of excitement because my Final Cut upgrade arrived today. I'm ready to roll with editing, now all I need is some ...
HD!
A mysterious box arrived in our apartment yesterday. The contents of the box made it possible to bring you this daft little film, (14.5mb). If you click on the link and just see a big blue Q and ...
Big Mac
Early last week Jeff emerged from his editing cave shouting "final cut" and waving a shiny plastic disc. He gave it to Carl's web oompa-loompas, who ran off to their chocolate factory to internet the ...
Enter the Niche
During a brief morning web browse I came across this little article about fixing your parents' computer. I was gratified to see that it recommends my first course of action:
Switch the ...
Grok the Transition
This week we're visiting Courtney's parents in upstate New York. It's snowy and crisp out, and the light this afternoon was pretty good, so I took a walk.
...
Upstate
I don't know exactly how this came to be, but I remember a degree of nagging and flattery emanating from Courtney, and a degree of arm-twisting from Julie at the Co-op. The upshot is that on February ...
Butt-Naked Chef
I've started pre-production on the Varsity documentary. Hopefully everything will be in place for a shoot on the second weekend of December. I'll post more news as and when it happens.
The ...
Varsity Documentary
My first shoot with my new camera seems to have been a success. Jeff and I went to Milbrae (near San Francisco airport) to shoot a bit of documentary-style video of a seminar. I wasn't pleased with ...
Proof of Pudding
My friend Jeff has decided to use me as the face of his Crow About Davis t-shirt range. I hope my mug doesn't damage his sales too ...
Smashingly Stylish
Last night, after months of wrangling, dithering, and what appears to be attempted sabotage, the city council finally approved my boss' plan to reopen the Varsity cinema in Davis as an art house ...
Art House
The other day a customer at the coffee shop asked "Did you see that?"
"What?" I asked.
"Someone just came up to one of the tables outside, changed their baby on it, and left without wiping ...
Speechless
I've decided to call her Madeleine. She weighs 12lbs, or less with her lens off.
I'll post some pictures of her
The UPS Man Delivered My Baby!
Regular readers may have seen the movie of pissing Czech statues I posted last month. Now, thanks to Rev. Rehash, I have an explanation of their bizarreness. I love these statues now even more than ...
Peeing Statues Explained
Sometime in the next 3-7 days I will be the excited and slightly nervous owner of a brand new Canon XL-2.
Damn! I'd better start thinking of something to ...
Coming Soon
We took Courtney's parents to Portmeirion, a village built entirely according to the plans of one man, Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis. Not only did I find it endearingly pretty, but also ...
Portmeirion Pictures
Courtney's parents are with us in England right now for a visit and a slice of Anglicana. Last week we took them for a Ploughman's lunch in the Farmer's Arms, an unspoilt pub on the fringes of ...
Wash ‘Em
On our second day in Prague I managed to capture a little video of an interesting occurrence outside the Franz Kafka museum. Click here for a .mov file ...
An Existentialist Moment
Last month, Courtney, James, Dave and I explored the Stiperstones in Shropshire. It's an impressively bleak landscape, and a site of scientific interest, which has peaked in recent weeks as ...
Pretty Bleak
I've sorted out my email glitches. My new address is my first name (all in lower case) @junkopia.net. My old clara.co.uk address will be defunct by the end of September at the latest. Cheers ...
New Email Address
Watching the Open University with Courtney late last night was the first time I've ever heard anyone exclaim "Ooh! Geology! Fun!" without a hint of irony.
But she was right; it was fun. The ...
Geology Fun
I have just broadbanded my parents' abode in Worcester, and consequently my clara.co.uk email address will expire in the next few weeks. I'll be changing it, hopefully to something @junkopia.net, but ...
Change of Address
Tomorrow evening we fly back to England. Lovely. How many jumpers (sweaters) will I need? Answers in the comments, ...
Packing
People in the UK may know Paul Newman from his roles in movies such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Cool Hand Luke, or perhaps from seeing his face on bottles of salad dressing in Waitrose. Over in ...
Lemonsucker Proxy
Wednesday was my last day in the coffee shop until late September. Fortunately it was marked by oddness.
At about 8am a distracted looking man in a cheap suit and tie came in and started examining ...
Birthday Cakes
My blog session in the wee hours of the morning cleared my head and sent me back to sleep nicely. Today's a day off. I had various plans involving DV cameras and movie watching but they've all fallen ...
Lazy Monday Afternoon
I was just drifting into sleep at about half past one this morning when a neighbour thoughtfully let off a handful of fireworks. Fireworks! Whistling fireworks!
The human mind is a perplexing ...
Improper Use of Fireworks
There's a point in The Big Lebowski where the Dude, played by Jeff Bridges, finds his car has been stolen. The police retrieve the vehicle; it's in a bad state, but at least the joyrider didn't steal ...
Jesus Freak Burger Bar
...and stuff him where the sun don't shine. Courtney has finally driven me mad with her Harry Potter fetish. I don't think she's uttered a single sentence in the last week that hasn't started ...
You Can Take Your Teenage Wizard…
I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing, but James did ask. Twice. By the end he'll probably be wishing he never did. This post is not for the faint of heart, containing partial frontal male ...
The Westgate Inn Incident
Flicking through the daily papers in the coffee shop yesterday, I came across what has to be the most tasteless headline I've seen in a while. Thankfully it was in the "Datebook" section of the S.F. ...
San Francisco’s Quality Daily?
Big Chill soon! Many of the acts I want to see normally draw blanks with everyone, and not just Courtney. So, in preparation for the festivities, here's my list of must-sees and reasons for ...
Accentuate the Positive
Hands up, who remembers Owen Paul? No, neither do I. But I do remember his 1986 smash hit, My Favourite Waste of Time. Well, the chorus at least. Here's the BBC flickbook to listen to as you read ...
My Least Favourite Waste of Time
On the 30th August 2004 I had my green card interview. It was, in the words of the immigration officer, a slam dunk. The card would be with me in two weeks.
It is now almost ten months later and ...
Legal Alien Homesick Blues
...six legs?
It's another beautiful day in northern California, and for the first time in a few weeks Courtney isn't working on an English essay. Earlier I managed to wrest the laptop from her ...
As Happy as a Dog with…
From last month's trip to Yosemite, here's the view from a boardwalk across the marshland of Yosemite Valley floor. The falls in the previous pictures feed into this contrasting ...
Yosemite Encore
Nagl, a Glasgow-resident sassenach, has posted a collection of three carefully chosen quotes on his blog, Falling Sky. They read rather well ...
Three Good Quotes
The word "gourmet" is over-used in the USA. Constant application to items such as burgers, jerky and cat food have stretched the word out, made it frayed and baggy, worn holes in the knees ...
Gourmet my Arse!
This week, Dave-Dad:
Hi Liam,
Your Big Chill tickets arrived this am.
Dad.
My response to this news is best expressed in the words of Alan Partridge.
JURASSIC ...
Email of the Week 30th May – 5th June
Wow, has so much time already passed since I promised to write more blog posts? Time flies when you're having visitors. In fact, I've over a month's worth of thought backlog to transcribe and edit ...
Oscillate Artfully
Although the blog suggests otherwise, I've not gone belly-up or been disappeared by Homeland Security. Visits from first James and then Mum and Dave-Dad (as opposed to Duncan-Dad) have eaten up all ...
More Soon
Today has been comment spam day. I just had to delete about fifty gibberish comments, all linking to an online poker website. Consequently I've installed a spam filter. Let me know if your ...
Play Online Poker!
Grrrboooaaaaggghhhh! The Big Chill website is down. We've been waiting for it to be back up so we can buy our tickets for about a week. We've given up. I'm calling their phone booking line tomorrow ...
Chilled Out
From Jon:
Fearn and me found a live rat in the bin outside the other day and had to kill it. First I tried hitting it with a pole and then tried smoking it out. Nothing worked so Fearn poured ...
Email of the Week 18th-24th April
Picnic Day turned out to be more fun than I thought. Having witnessed a pretty half-arsed St. Patrick's Day parade in Rochester last year, I've been apprehensive about parades. As I've discovered ...
The Day of the Cucumber Sandwich (part two)
Tomorrow I'm being hauled into work - missing the televised coverage of Crystal Palace vs Norwich - to help Mishka's deal with the craziness of Picnic Day. Apparently, everyone who has ever lived in ...
The Day of the Cucumber Sandwich (Part One)
I really hope this chap does some more updates, but I fear it is a blog as dead as its subjects.
Nil points for spelling and grammar, though. "Mouses," ...
Dead Blog
In future, should I mark facetious blog posts out with a little [facetious] in the title?
To clear up any misunderstanding that may have occurred after the last post, me and the missus are as ...
Facetiousness: A Poll
Considering the glut of qualified graduates queuing up for a job in the media, is it any wonder people are getting used? Reading this makes me think that my less conventional approach to breaking ...
Media Career? Think Different
When my old webhost deleted my entire site all the pictures went too. At Rev. Rehash's request I've restored all the pictures that accompanied my road trip diary. If you're really that ...
Road Trip (again)
This week, Kelvin:
Oh, last night at about two in the morning, there was a bizarre film about a man without a head, who was worried that his lack of bonce would prove to be a hindrance in his love ...
Email of the Week 11th-17th April
Davis Film Festival tonight and tomorrow. Lots of shorts, lots of schmoozing. And, thanks to one of my regular caffeine-addicts, I have a free ticket. Get ...
Film Festival
Apologies, this is a very Davis-centric post. Rachel, one of my regular coffee shop customers, recently mentioned that she's riding her bike 100 miles around Lake Tahoe in aid of a young lad with ...
Cycle Karma
In a craven attempt to get people to send me more splendidly written email - and so I have more material to fill the blog on slow days - I have decided to blog the wittiest, coolest, funniest ...
Email of the Week 4th – 10th April
According to Bono he was "the best frontman" the catholic church ever had. Yes, really. Everyone remotely famous has been queueing up to pay similarly ridiculous respects since Karol ...
Lest We Forget
I'm well aware that the story has been swishing around the internet for a couple of weeks, which makes it positively prehistoric in terms of modern-day newsworthiness, but the homosexual ...
Web-footed Fascists
Junkopia kudos to the first person to identify the movie this still is from.
Kelvin and James are not allowed to enter; they can send me smug emails ...
Guess the Movie
Or one customer, at least.
A woman bit into a portion of a human finger while eating a bowl of chili at a Wendy's fast-food restaurant in California, health officials said ...
Wendy’s Gives Customers the Finger
I don't normally get pant-wettingly excited about movies coming out. Normally the ones I enjoy most are the ones I discover almost by accident. Recently Shaun of the Dead, Hero and Sideways were ...
Share and Enjoy
A few people have been nagging at me to either send or blog photos of my everyday life: where I live, what Davis looks like, etc. On a sunny day last week I got the camera out and snapped my ...
Mundane Snaps (Part One)
The dates are set. Liam & Courtney's World Tour of England will start on 1st August and conclude on 16th September of this year. That's a whole six weeks of imposing on friends and family, ...
World Tour of England 2005
If Tony Blair can apologise for the Potato Famine, then I can certainly be offended on behalf of the Irish when America turns them into Dr. Seuss characters.
Reports were coming into the coffee ...