Science Museum Again

Went to the Lord of the Rings exhibition at the Science Museum at last, and it's over-priced-merchandise-TASTIC! Good to see the costumes and the props up close, to see the quality of them and the detail that went into them. Wasn't overly impressed by the much hyped cave troll model, and I thought generally there were too many things made purely for the exhibition. Why have this stuff in a museum? Also a few bits were missing, as they're being used in the third film apparently. I'm just nit-picking though, it was a nice afternoon out. We got a picture taken using the technique were Gandalf and Frodo are sat on the cart together, one where I am huge and Clare is small, and one the other way round, will scan in and post ASAP.

In the mean time, here are some other pictures to illustrate the sheer joy of my life. The first is a picture I found on the camera the other day, there was a whole virtual roll of virtual film taken at the Camera Obscura gig at the Water Rats, mostly pictures of me, taken by me, in the mirrors in the toilets, no idea why and I don't remember why I took them. This one Clare took, though again not sure why I'm holding two pints and stood at the top of the staircase up to the dressing room.

The other one isn't clear, but it illustrates one of my weird obsessions, which is the parking along Manor Road. Someone's made a placard saying "we need our parking space" and put it outside their house, and today the road is mostly clear, apart from a van parked outside their house. Maybe the council are planning to double-yellow the whole street? I hope so.

Listening to some Darkness rarities that I'd forgotten I had, including How Dare You Call This Love, a smashing tune, warming me up for the Hammersmith gig, which I'm muchly looking forward to.

Found my pension while we were cleaning the office the other day, well maybe... it's a demo of the Darkness EP, with a note from their manager, from 2001... it's PROOF that I was into them before you, and surely it will be priceless one day? Hmmm...

Did a nice little crawl of The Defoe (6X), The Shakespeare] (Old Bob, a new one on me, very good, strong and chocolatey), and then our first visit to The Yucatan (no real beers, but a couple of pool tables, man alive did we both play like a demons or what?) before heading to Anglo Asian, now definitely my favourite curry house in the area. Picked up a new copy of N16 magazine, a good read, though how annoying is their very own Polly Filler?

I don't know where you spent the summer...

pauly :: 2003 :: Comment / reply

Lord of the Rings Review

Invited to the star studded Leicester Squre Premiere? With my reputation? Read on...

Do you remember the last time you heard applause at the cinema? Seemed to happen all the time when I was a kid, whooping and cheering as the opening titles rolled up the screen. This was Hampshire, so possibly it was the wonder of electricity that people were applauding. Anyway, last night it happened all over again at the Lord of The Rings premiere...

Anyway, that applause - there was a big old fight, Boromir (Sean Bean) got it pretty bad from some big Orc goblin type beast so the full size hero of the film - Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson) - steps in. He thrusts, he parries, he slices, he dices, he cuts this big mother's head right off, and the audience went wild... It's one of many GRATE fight scenes in the film; if you were worried the film was going to be a bit Belle and Sebastian, stop fretting now...

They (Director Peter Jackson and New Line entertainment) don't seem to have taken any liberties with the story line as far as I can see, but they've possibly cut out some of the flowery dialogue - basically they've "sub-edited" it, and made it more relevant to the cinema goer. This is not a an academic text, this is a modern film for a wide audience after all... Some of the best examples of this are the encounter with the troll in the mines - it's CGI-tastic, so much more dynamic than I could have envisaged. It's Jurassic Park's T Rex terrorizing the kids, times a hundred. It may seem to the purist that casual mentions in the book are given too much of the film (like the love interest), and important bits aren't played out in enough detail, but I think the balance is, well, balanced... Another scene with more OOOMPH than you might expect is Arwen (aforementioned "leading" lady, Liv Tyler) is being chased by the Black Riders - it looks like they should be on Land Speeders rather than horses. This is NOT an episode of Black Beauty...

The New Zealand scenery is spectacular. If I had a garden, I'd be digging me a hobbit-hole to live in as we speak. At times (please forgive me) the setting of the film seems to slip into cliche, but then you realise - Lord of the Rings, uh, um - how do I say "wrote the book" in a non wanky way? This film blows the froth off anything I've seen for a long while (Harry Who?)

The effects are amazing, but subtle; it's easy to forget that Elijiah Wood (Frodo) and Ian Holm (Bilbo) aren't really half the height of Ian McKellan (Gandalf) and Christopher Lee (Saruman). Well not so easy for me, as I was sat about 20 seats away from them, but that's not important. Filming must have been MIGHTILY COMPLEX, but it flows together seemlessly, to make an exhilarating and moving experience. This film is smashing, and I liked it very much. It just about makes up for me missing my nephew's nativity play today.

Elvish has left the building.

(If you were wondering, I got in as a last minute stand by (replacing a major Eighties pop star) for the hottest film of the year, and found myself lovin' it lovin' it lovin' it for the whole three hours. More premiere league name dropping in Stalking Heads... Thanks to Emma @ Impressive PR who made it possible.

2001 :: Comment / reply

Barfly Cardiff presents Seafood

Seafood, "Katatonia", and Patrick Jones lovely poetry at Barfly Cardiff this month...

Hi, more listings, just to shunt that Limp Bizkit "story" off the front page...

Barfly Cardiff ~ Kingsway, Cardiff CF10 3FD.

Wed 20th June - Closed
Thu 21st June - FF VINYL presents: Patrick Jones + guests (£tbc)
Fri 22nd June - BARFLY & RIZING DAMP present: Zabrinski + Curveside + JT Mouse (£3) plus FEVER CLUB NIGHT with Mike TV 'till 2 am
Sat 23rd June - Headtest + guests (£3 tbc) plus FEVER CLUB NIGHT with Mike TV 'till 2 am
Mon 25th June - SICK FUTURE presents: Clutch + Throat + Taint (£6 adv)
Tue 26th June - SET IT OFF presents: Undeclinable + The Bombjacks + Adequate 7 (£5)
Wed 27th June - Crackout + Vex Red + Pop Vandals (£4 adv).
Thu 28th June - SICK FUTURE presents: Katatonia + Ackercocke + Gandalf (£7)
Fri 29th June - Haven + Reluctance + Cainer (£3 adv) plus FEVER CLUB NIGHT with Mike TV 'till 2 am
Sat 30th June - NME on Night: Tommy and the Chauffeur + The Soft Parade + Squeezebox (£3 adv) plus FEVER CLUB NIGHT with Mike TV 'till 2 am
Mon 2nd July - Biscuits for Cheese presents: 5 Knuckle Shuffle + Adequate 7 + Smash TV (£3 adv)
Tue 3rd July - The Kennedy Soundtrack + Belasco + Amorpha (£3).
Wed 4th July - TBC
Thu 5th July - Midasano + Oblivion + Okko (£3)
Fri 6th July - SET IT OFF presents: Whippersnapper + Shootin Goon + Bombjacks (£6 adv) plus FEVER CLUB NIGHT with Mike TV 'till 2 am
Sat 7th July - Aubrey Straw + Kinesis (£3 adv). plus FEVER CLUB NIGHT with Mike TV 'till 2 am
Mon 9th July - Walt Flannagans Dog + Megg + The State Mentality (£3).
Tue 10th July - Gracie + Mainline + Novello (£3)
Wed 11th July - Fenton + Nim Chimski + Flinch (£3 adv)
Thu 12th July - SET IT OFF presents: Consumed + Douglas + Adequate 7 (£5)
Fri 13th July - The 45's + The 49'er + Denzel (£3 adv) plus FEVER CLUB NIGHT with Mike TV 'till 2 am.
Sat 14th July- 4 Star Mary + Farrah (£5 adv) plus FEVER CLUB NIGHT with Mike TV 'till 2 am
Mon 16th July - Brassic + Funland at the Beach + guests (£3)
Tue 17th July - Jeff Killed John + Skep + Project (£3)
Wed 18th July - TBC
Thu 19th July - Seafood + Easyworld (£5)
Fri 20th July - Sacktrick + Elevator + guests (£tbc) plus FEVER CLUB NIGHT with Mike TV 'till 2 am
Sat 21st July - Snowpony + guests (£ tbc)

pauly :: 2001 :: Comment / reply