TH13: What ScotValkyrie's Been Doing Instead of Updating This Diary
Thursday, May. 31, 2007 at 9:13 a.m.
1. Working: Believe it or not, sometimes I actually have to do work at this job. Sometimes, like yesterday, the phone rings off the hook, but in general I get a lot more phone calls during the day because most of the technical centers are routing all their phone calls to me. Therefore, I get to try to . . . oh, wait. The phone�s ringing. Hold on . . . Okay, I just got another person yelling at me because one of our technicians is completely overwhelmed. I�ve done what I can. Time to do something non-constructive.
2. Knitting: Well, I suppose that this could be considered constructive, but I�m not sure if you can use that classification if you�re doing it at work. I have gotten the Kenobi Jacket and the Venus Sweater done (and I would show you pictures if I had a working digital camera) and the Kenobi Jacket is warm and heavy and lovely and glorious, yet I will only be able to wear it one day a year here in Arizona unless the Hubster takes me up north and throws me out of the car at Snowbowl. The Venus Sweater is a lovely color, but it turned out kind of �meh� because it�s kind of fuzzy and bulky; not a good idea when you�re fuzzy and bulky yourself. I have another lightweight sweater on the needles that should be less bulky. And it�s cotton this time.
3 � 12. Movies: I�m thinking that perhaps the movies should each have their own entry because there�s been a stinking lot of them. I also currently have Alien, Soylent Green, A Night to Dismember, and Midnight Plowboy to watch although I�m certain that the last two I probably shouldn�t watch at work. The first one is kind of iffy. Lately on the screen though, has been:
Look Back in Anger: an A&E production with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. Of course, this is the original �kitchen sink� drama by John Osborne, and in fact, is very angry. And very British.
The Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession: Dear god, if only I�d been living in the LA area when this channel existed, I never would have left the damn house. I am only saved by the fact that just about everything is put on DVD.
Wonder Showzen season 2: Again, sick, sad, wrong, but embarrassingly funny, especially this little red-headed kid who does the �Beat Kid� segments. He�s quite a card.
The Groove Tube: A flick by Ken Shapiro and featuring Richard Belzer and Chevy Chase. This may have been shocking in 1972, but really reads more like the red-headed stepbrother of Kentucky Fried Movie. There are some good moments, like when Koko the clown tells the little kids to get the �big people� to leave the room, at which time Koko starts reading the dirtier passages from Moll Flanders and the writings of Marquis de Sade.
The Young Visiters: This movie is based on the novel by nine-year old Daisy Ashford, and it is a delightful romp through the social castes of late 19th-century Britain. It features Jim Broadbent as Alfred Salteena, who at the elderly age of 42 decides that he needs a wife, and he then embarks on this adventure to become more seemly in the world of Lords and Nobles. Also features Hugh Laurie in a much more light-hearted role, like he used to do before House.
Evilenko: This movie is based on the true story of Andrej Evilenko, the Soviet Union�s most sinister serial killer who murdered and cannibalized more than 50 children from 1984 to 1989. Evilenko is a die-hard Communist overwhelmed by his country being �ruined� by Gorbechev, and he loses it in a big-time way. Malcolm McDowell stars as Evilenko. If you�re watching and thinking, hey, this music sounds a lot like Twin Peaks, that�s because Angelo Badalamenti did the music. It�s not that great of a movie, and damn if I didn�t want a big slice of pie when it was over.
Heavy Traffic: This, I guess, is the sophomore effort of animator Ralph Bakshi filled with violence, nudity, and utter strangeness. And rotoscoping. Michael is an aspiring cartoonist who falls for sometimes-bartender-former-prostitute Carol in the ugly and dirty parts of New York City in the early 1970�s.
Brothers of the Head: This was a very interesting and quite good mockumentary (based on the novel by Brian Aldiss) about two young men who happen to be conjoined twins. They are taken from their family at a young age for the sole purpose of entertainment, and they are groomed by an unctuous showbiz entrepreneur to be punk rockers. The two boys, Barry and Tom, actually become very popular with the punk crowd and fall into the oblivion and ecstacy of drugs and alcohol, and an unfinished biography by none other than Ken Russell (who appears as himself).
Hedwig and the Angry Inch: Oh, magnificent, just magnificent. What else is there?
If You Were Young: Rage: This 1970�s Japanese movie features several young men who leave their rural hometowns to �make it big� in the big city. Unfortunately, their dreams are met by violence, tragedy, and class struggles. Think of it as a sort of �Outsiders�, but with big gravel trucks. It�s actually very good, and I�m not doing it justice with this little synopsis. This movie was directed by Kinji Fukasaku, who also directed the Battle Royale series and the epic Tora! Tora! Tora!
13. Defacing the inside of a block-box theatre for Hair: Oh, cripes, now I remember why I don�t do this sort of thing anymore. Acres and acres of bare walls and I haven�t even gotten to the stage yet. Never, never, never again.
It will look wonderful when it�s done. As opposed to this:
