A Bug's Life

Films watched: 18 or maybe 19, includes one third of a multi-part thing. I'll say 18. 7 cinema, 2 stream, 9 BluRay/DVD, 0 LoveFilm.
Zoolander 2
A Bigger Splash
Trumbo
Rams
I Am Love
Deadpool
Song of the Sea (rewatch)
45 Years
Chef
Vulgar Fractions
Funny People
Chronic
Bone Tomahawk
Lilting
Love Is Strange
Mommy
Coherence
A Single Man

Gigs etc (4-7)
Ahir Shah, comedy, Cambridge
'Power Stations', John Hoyland, art
London Sound Survey location sound recording 1888-1950s
something about Kant that I really didn't understand, Aristotelian Society, philosophy talk

Loads of good films again - top few are Rams (which I'd watch again, small community Icelandic family feud, much better than I make it sound), A Bigger Splash, Chronic, Mommy. Has anyone seen 45 Years? I'd be interested to talk about it.
Noticed after watching Lilting, Love Is Strange, and A Single Man in the same week, how many same sex relationship movies incorporate bereavement, which is a bit depressing.

I'm having a bit of a patchy holiday to use up some annual leave - thought I would get lots of study in, but filled it with social excursions instead, then ate a bad food (when I say my meal needs to be dairy free and you discuss how the dish can be adapted to make it so, please follow through on the sides and accompaniments! I assumed the tiny dish of coleslaw would be ok) and have been fairly laid up. Starting to recover though.

Last weekend I went to London on Sun/Mon - a very full couple of days.
Art gallery first. I tweeted: "John Hoyland paintings: succulent raspberry and watermelon colours, with uncompromising bright rectangles. Soft edges, like distant poplars." I was less keen on the later works, with their sharp edges; they felt less made somehow, and I'm sure I didn't properly understand any of it. My new shoes made comedy creaking noises as I walked up and down the vinyl floor.

Cinema for Chronic, then Bone Tomahawk. Reviews below cut. ( reviews )

The main draw to London for me was that Sunday evening with the London Sound Survey and the Museum of Soho, featuring location sound recordings from the 1950s and earlier, with technical notes about how recorder miniaturisation in the war allowed a lot more street noises to be captured. Colliers with horse-drawn carts, market sellers with jellied eels and lovely vi-lets, and an excited posh chap reporting from a fire station as a (false) alarm went off - "I'm going down the pole now! I'm running across to the fire engine!" In 1888 there was a massive Handel event at Crystal Palace - someone brought a top end wax cylinder recorder, and a mighty funnel, and the massed hordes singing could be very faintly heard like ghosts whispering. There was no amplification, they picked this event as being as loud as they were likely to be able to find. Have a link because it is 2016 and these days they have it on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEhAjcz_iYI

Off to my Mum's after that, for an overnight and then spending much of Monday together. We went around the nearby Manor Farm which is Very Historic and has remnants of a motte and bailey and stuff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manor_Farm,_Ruislip then to her church, which I'd never been to before. She bumped into a couple of people she knew en route and I think was quite glad to prove that her daughter exists :-)

Then into London with Mum for a pootle round the redeveloped King's Cross area, Old St Pancras Church with the Hardy Tree, Camley Street Natural Park, then along the pontoon tow path to the new build stuff - The Granary? Lots to look at, and lots of talking.

Finally headed over to Senate House for a philosophy lecture that I understood little of, a nice dinner and good conversation (mostly me saying "but I don't understand the philosophical concept of redness how is it different from science and/or reality") with good company, an unnoticed poisoning, and home to a bed in which I awoke a few hours later with strange pains...

http://www.bl.uk/events/inner-space-j-g-ballard-in-the-seventies-a-symposium

If you are interested in such things, there is a J G Ballard symposium at the British Library on Sun 13 Mar, with talks and screening of the short Crash (1971) and preview of the new High-Rise film.

I'm busy doing something less good, or I would go!

Films watched: 16 or maybe 15, includes one third of a multi-part thing. I'll say 15. 9 cinema, 3 stream, 3 BluRay/DVD, 0 LoveFilm.
It Follows
Joy
The Danish Girl
The Hateful Eight
Bottle Rocket
Prisoners
The Squid and The Whale
The Revenant
Room
The Big Short
The Assassin
Babel
Creed
Spotlight
While We're Young

Loads of good films - top few are Room, Spotlight, Creed, The Big Short.

Can open the front door without worrying about Escape Beasts.
Can leave the house whenever you like without worrying about retrieving Errant Beasts.
Can leave small plastic things on tables and they are still there the next morning!
Sleeeeeeep.
Fewer smells.
Fewer night-time noises related to things that will smell.
Less vacuuming.
Nicer for cat-allergic friends to visit.
Keyboard always available.

Lodger K has just moved out and was planning to leave her cat (Inca) with me for a few months while they lived in bf's tinyflat and looked for a house with a garden and catflap - but instead K rehomed her, a friend of a friend wanted a cat, Inca suited, I went to London on Saturday all unsuspecting and came back to no cat. Cat is happy in new place, it's big with lots of fabulous nooks and a mezzanine level for Advanced Supervising. But I was sad to see her go with no goodbye.

New lodger O is not a big cat fan, so I'll be cat-free for a while. And available for holiday feeding for cats of friends...

As before but interior photos. Smaller this time but you can click through for full size.

( many photos inside Leper Chapel )

From site visit, for filmmaker group, move along, nothing to see except unartistic photos of the Leper Chapel)

( Several large photos )

I should make a template for posts like this which begins "It's very short notice but..."

A couple of my Cambridge filmmaking group are looking to film a historical piece for their showreel to support a proof of concept for another historical filming project.

Are you any sort of historical re-enactor and free on Sun 10th Jan or do you know people?

They/we want to film a really short sequence about 1-2min, a few actors with historical re-enactment of some kind at an interesting location. We have some location possibilities but are open to any ideas. A small crew would plan, storyboard, shoot and edit the entire production free of charge. We would supply a professional looking video which you could use if your group has a website etc.

We need to get it shot by Jan 10th as the deadline for the showreel is Jan 13th...

Books read (17)
Saga, volume 4

Films watched (205-215) (4 at the cinema, 5 DVD, 0 LoveFilm, 2 tv)
Into the Wild
Bridge of Spies
Sisters
The Inbetweeners 2
The Fisher King
The Red Shoes
A Most Wanted Man
The Good Dinosaur
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Date Night
Parents (rewatch)

Total of 74 at the cinema: 24 Arts Picturehouse, 35 Cineworld/The Light, 9 Prince Charles, 6 Other. 15 LoveFilm so I'm not getting the best from my subscription but it's not a definite cancel yet.

A rubbish year for reading. Still have several hundred on the unread shelves and keep buying more :-)

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (21-22)
Django Django with Stealing Sheep (gig, London)
James Acaster (comedy, London)

Books read (16)
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (2011)

Films watched (192-204) (7 at the cinema, 1 DVD, 1 LoveFilm, 5 tv)
Rope
The Prince of Tides
Flirting with Disaster
Shooter
Side by Side
Hanna
The Lady in the Van
Steve Jobs
Strawberry Shorts Commendations (shorts)
The Dressmaker
Carol
A Fistful of Fingers
Gremlins (rewatch)

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (20)
Suuns/Jerusalem In My Heart (gig, London)

Loved The Dressmaker, and Carol was very good.