A Bug's Life

Film details are online but the most easily navigable option seems to be to download the brochure
**Asterisks mark those films the majority of people on my friends list are most likely to enjoy

Top picks
*The Fifth Season
The Redemption of the Fish
**The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
**Upstream Colour
Just Before Losing Everything (short)

Also pretty darned good
For Those In Peril
*Blackbird
**Dead Cat
Roland Klick: The Heart is a Hungry Hunter
Growing Pain (shorts)

Fun yarns/interesting docs if you share a taste with bugshaw
Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure: John Otway The Movie
Thomas Dolby: The Invisible Lighthouse
Anguish
No Surrender
Natan
The Lebanese Rocket Society

Not as much my bag as the other films, though many have redeeming features and in a usual month I'd rate them higher
Hawking
Hannah Arendt
Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth
Deadlock
Eyes On The Sky
White Star (Dennis Hopper is a redeeming feature)
Blue Jasmine

Books read (39-42)
The Derring-Do Club and The Empire of the Dead, David Wake (2013)
The Devil in a Forest, Gene Wolfe (1976)
Saga Vols #1 and #2, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (2012-13, 2013)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (2013)

Films watched (92-122) (25 at the cinema, 4 DVD, 2 stream)
(Cambridge Film Festival post to follow)
Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers
Kill List
The Great Beauty
The Machinist
Twelve Monkeys (rewatch)
Tron (rewatch)
The Ipcress File
Once Upon a Time In Mexico (rewatch)
Just Before Losing Everything (short)
Hawking
Blue Jasmine
The Lebanese Rocket Society
Growing Pain (shorts)
For Those In Peril
Hannah Arendt
Blackbird
Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth
No Surrender
Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure: John Otway The Movie
The Fifth Season
Roland Klick: The Heart is a Hungry Hunter
Deadlock
Upstream Colour
Natan
White Star
Thomas Dolby: The Invisible Lighthouse
Anguish
Dead Cat
Eyes On The Sky
The Redemption of the Fish
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (20-25) (cheating a bit as the Otway and Dolby were film/live performances and are on both lists)
Sebastiao Salgado: Genesis (photography, Natural History Museum, London)
Neil Innes, A Second Chance to Get It Right (music, Junction, Cambridge)
Austentatious (improv, Leicester Square Theatre, London)
John Otway: Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure (film/music, Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
Thomas Dolby: The Invisible Lighthouse (film/music, Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
Creative Cabaret (Union Bar, Cambridge)

Books incoming 4 (1 loan, 2 purchased, 1 proofread, read 20/26)

Good: lots of stuff

Cokezone points are stopping in mid-October. For the last couple of years, every time I've had a Coke I've peeled the label off the bottle or pried the tab from the can to enter a 12-digit code into a website. For 150 points (50x2-litre bottles, or 150 cans) I get a Cineworld ticket. I've just ordered what is probably my last ticket, given the amount of Coke I'd have to get through by 15 October. I'll still enter the rest of the codes I get - one point is equivalent to 5p if you donate it to charity so that's 15p per bottle.

I wonder if I will suddenly stop drinking so much Coke, or switch brands now?

For those who are sad that they often do not find out about it until after it has happened:
http://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/cambridgeteslathon/
Museum of Technology, Oct 26/27

Or go and learn how to build one in Nottingham on Nov 30 -
http://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/blog/tesla-coil-building-workshop/

Books read (36-38)
Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch (2011)
I, Partridge, Alan Partridge (Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Ianucci, Steve Coogan) (2011)
Other Voices, Colin Greenland (1988)

Films watched (78-91) (7 at the cinema, 7 DVD)
Only God Forgives
The Losers
Robot Monster (MST3K version)
Mystery Men (rewatch)
Mother of Invention
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
Holy Motors
Kick-Ass 2
David Bowie Is Happening Now (Encore)
Frances Ha
The Sheltering Sky plus short A Year Along The Abandoned Road
Moneyball
The Lookout
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (rewatch from a decade ago probably)

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (16-19)
Summer Exhibition (Royal Academy, London, art)
Go Go Gorillas (Norwich, art)
Houses of Parliament (London, tour)
CamCon (Cambridge, anime/comics/costume con)

Books incoming 1 (1 loan, read 16/22)

Good: Holy Motors, The Sheltering Sky, The Lookout

David Bowie Is Happening Now was an interesting experience - the cinema version of the museum exhibition which I didn't go to see (sold out v quick). I might do this again - plus points are the lack of crowds, good views of items, and extra interviews and comments - though you miss the thrill of being there, the smells, taking your time and following what you're interested in, and for this exhibition the immersive sound that follows you around. Some of the big screen footage did give me chills down my spine.

There's a petition about the proposed Arts Picturehouse sale/closure, and I think they're working on a similar thing for Cineworld.

If you're interested in Cambridge cinema you might like to know about this - following the takeover of Picturehouse by Cineworld, the Competition Commission have decided that this is a Substantial Lessening of Competition in Cambridge (and Aberdeen, and Bury St Edmunds) and have suggested the sale of either a Cineworld cinema or a Picturehouse cinema. Decision to be taken in late Sep/early Oct.

I'd be unhappy with this, they are great complementary cinemas with well differentiated programmes.

Comment at Take One (and subsequent posts including "Why not run it as a Co-op?")
and analysis at Movie Evangelist (and subsequent posts)

Books read (34-35)
Cerebus: Going Home and Form and Void, Dave Sim and Gerhard (1998-2001, issues 232-265)
Castles Made of Sand, Gwyneth Jones (2002)

Films watched (64-77) 5 at the cinema, 7 DVD, 2 tv)
Looper (rewatch)
Hush
A Field In England
Saw
Looper (rerewatch)
Pacific Rim
Ted
Insomnia
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Blancanieves
Wadjda
The World's End
All About My Mother (rewatch)

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (14-15)
Meet the Lemurs (Shepreth Wildlife Park)
Trovador (flamenco concert, Botanic Gardens, Cambridge)

Books incoming 2 (1 loan, 1 purchase, read 14/21)

Good: Blancanieves, Wadjda, The World's End

It is quite nice to have sawing and electric screwdriver noises coming from the kitchen and it not be yourself having to make them. The carpenter says the same about people typing things into computers. It is good that we do not have each other's jobs. It took me 40 minutes last night to clear the kitchen ready for them. It is a fiddly job to empty drawers, especially when you don't really have anywhere to put things. Anyone who has lived with me will be able to imagine the teetering piles of carefully-balanced spatulas in the dining room.

Apparently the bits of wood that run along the bottom of cupboards are called "plinths". I thought they were "kickboards". Everything has a name!

Ah ha ha! I accidentally set my FitBit to sleep monitoring mode this morning, from 9am to 4pm, while I was at work. Apparently I got 5h 21min sleep, with 79% sleep efficiency. I don't manage that some nights...

(I am being unfair to the poor thing and mocking it when I am confusing it by not using it as specified)

Me: have made plans with London Gigging Buddy and have tickets for something in Sep, Oct and Nov which are nice to look forward to.

Small hamster: has inherited big hamster's vertical wheel as well as his own flying saucer running dish, and he loves it very much.

And I've just overheard a passing cyclist (we get a couple of seconds of conversation as they swoop by) saying "I am a knight of the realm" in ringing tones. I wonder what he said before and afterwards?

Also - GIP: I seem to have acquired rather a lot of hair.