All you need is science
I really ought to read more, I used to be such a bookworm. I've practically grown up in a library, but lately I can barely make it through one novel every two months (this from someone who used to go through a novel a week).
Currently reading Bill Bryson's excellent
A brief history of nearly everything. It tracks the progress of science in really really simple terms for simpletons like me. I used to be of the firm belief that science contributed nothing but exam stress and nerds to society. However, this wonderful book taught me that science created everything! That science - as misunderstood as it is by the people who practice it - is the key to everything! Science is the path to enlightenment, science is what makes the world go round..... wait...I think that was love. But I'm sure love is science and science is a pretty little flower in a field of irrational weeds.
Science is nice and happy and fluffy, and apparently (as it is claimed by the people who think their lives are justified by it) nothing like the monstrous ideology I used to think it was.
But still, all this talk of atoms and expanding universes sounds like witchcraft to me. You only have to read about
Stephen Hawking's 11
dimensions crap to think that the world had gone and made itself all dark-ages again.
Ehh, I could barely get my head around the world when it was still three-dimensional.
Everything's so complicated now. I miss the good old days when everything was flat and atoms didn't exist.
Sticky seats, spare tickets and sexy writers
Currently listening to:
The Killers -
Andy you're a starI'm totally obsessed by
Firefly. It is seriously the best thing to ever grace my tv screen (well technically my computer monitor, but still). I love love love love love it. I think right now, I'd rather have another season of Firefly than a relationship with the outside world.
People go see the movie version of the series,
Serenity, so it makes lots and lots of money and those greedy executive bastards decide to bring the series back.
Also, it'll be the best thing you'll see all year.
...
Now to in some way contradict my earlier point, I should stop going to the cinema so much. Tickets don't come cheap but I can't seem to stop going to the
The Filmworks Greenwich (my dealer of choice). Sure dvd rental's a lot lot cheaper, but there's something about those sticky seats and overpriced fizzy drinks that really gets me going. I like my screens big and the rooms sold out.
...
I've got tickets to a signing with
Neil Gaiman on the 8th of November. The sinfully sexy writer I've been meaning to abduct for many years. Everytime I get close, one of my contacts messes up, (Butcher Bill, I'm serious, that axe is for intimidation purposes only). However one day, one day I'll kidnap him and spend the next 10 years brainwashing him into thinking he loves me.
He's so gorgeous and his writing aint bad either (actually, it's brilliant, but the sentence seems to flow better that way). When I met him last year, he asked me what my name was and I replied Xu. He then said that he hadn't met anyone whose name started with an X that day, which I'm sure meant that he's passionately in lust with me.
I wonder if I'll be the only X again. I wonder if he'll finally admit his feelings for me this time. I'll keep you updated.
Also got tickets for a screening of the film
MirrorMask, a film directed by Dave McKean (master illustrator, of among other things
Sandman covers) and written by Mr. Gaiman. It's showing at the
London Film Festival and my dearest dearest friend Michael was kind enough to get me tickets. :)
Can't seem to persuade him to come with me to another signing though. He only came last time because
Jonathan Ross was hosting the event. I guess Lenny Henry doesn't excite him as much. :(
...
I've got a spare ticket for Athlete, but I can't find anyone who's even heard of them to come with me.
A belated and probably unnecessary plug
I tend to discover bands a million years after they've left the charts. Last year, I was delirious with my 'discovery' of Depeche Mode.... yeah.. I know. Then a while ago, it was Iron Maiden.
Recently it was Green Day and Franz Ferdinand. I saw Green Day's
American Idiot, thought it was a cool punk political rebellion sort of thing, but I forgot about them. My sister bought the album when it first came out, and I didn't listen to it until a month ago. Again, I thought I discovered the Holy Grail, but it turned out that everyone else had done so already and were currently busy flogging it for half the price on Ebay.
This usually means that I never get to see these bands live, because their tour's long over and they've probably settled into retirement by the time I hear about them.
I really should start submitting to the brain-crushing curse that is TV.
Anyway, here's my unnecessary plug for the
Kaiser Chiefs.
Their album
Employment is the most brilliant thing I've heard all year (apart from K'naan, see the post below). I wish I could eat their album, I'm suddenly overcome with the urge to make their funk a part of my DNA.
From the song
Time Honoured Tradition
Well it's not an old wive's tale
Too much red meat and ale
Will make you pay
Get five a day
Or that is the end of you
And it's a common misconception
But true without exception
These nights of booze catch up with yous
And that is an actual fact
What's keeping me busy?
At the moment, I am drafting treatments for several music videos to be shot in November/December. All of the acts I'll be working with are really really good, and I'll post more about them once we've started shooting.
I'm also set to direct a short film, with the working title
Double Date. I read a script by Mark Okakwu a while ago, and I really liked it. It's a relationship comedy sort of thing, it has very witty dialogue. I'm at a point where I'm able to work on this project again, so at the moment the film scheduled for shooting in early/mid January. Mark's currently rewriting the script, while I am busy in pre-production arranging the logistics of it all with my co-producer Charles Khumalo.
And when I'm not being harrassed by teachers for my coursework, I'm also working on a few short but ridiculously weird screenplays and trying to set up my independent production company....Shinra Productions.
If anyone wants to be a part of this project, let me know. Can't pay you, but you'll get a DVD copy of the project and pretty little credit.
Future Changes
Made a new site
XuphiliaGo check it out and report back what you've seen. I'm available for communication over the secure line, codeword = Leaking Fingers.
Gonna redesign the blog sometime soon.
