If you’ve ever wanted to see a hammy over-acted rendition of Hero Quest then now your dreams* have come true
* to be fair, if you wanted to see this there are probably lot’s of other dreams you have which are unfulfilled.
A funny thing happened on Facebook. They made a change to their group settings. I was going through old groups and realised the UGS group only had 4 members now. No way is that happening. I quickly invited everyone again and by the end of the night there were close to 100 members again.
Over the next couple of days loads of old faces popped up – including ones I had forgotten or lost touch with. Old hard drives were scoured for flyers and photos and much reminiscing about the good old days.
I repeated my call for UGS to be kick-started again or at least something for the same purpose. A semi-regular troll of KJ where people sneer and go na too many trolls
, except this time people responded.
A group of about 8 of us have gotten together and created The Rusty Hip Collective. Except some more information over the coming months but we have a ton of stuff planned.
The core purpose is to try and give the Dundee music scene a shot in the arm and reconnect the disparate groups to create a vibrant scene again. But it’s not just about music, zines, art and loads of other stuff is involved too. Get involved if you can and support/promote it as best you can.
Let’s get Dundee gigs packed again!
You can get involved with or keep updated on activities of the Rusty Hip Collective in these places:
Rusty Hip on Twitter: @RustyHip
Rusty Hip on Facebook: Rusty Hip on Facebook
Commuting to work has rekindled some memories of exactly how much cycling I did as a kid.
Some of my earliest memories are being in our first home aged about 2 or 3. I can remember us moving to our new house (where my parents still stay) when I was four, and me going there by some kind of pedal powered device. Whether it was a tricycle or toy car type thing I can’t remember, but I do remember moving in it.
My first proper bike, where I had stabilisers removed was something similar to the Raleigh Street Wolf. I can’t remember if it was this or not, but searching for ’80s bikes with electronic sound effects on them keep coming up with that. The year of 1987 is probably right for me getting a bike at about 6 too. Digging out old stories/diaries from primary school work (yes I still have loads of it in the attic) might reveal the bike, or asking the parents.
After school the bike used to be used for quick transport to friends and back, I remember jumping up over the lowered pavements at edge of the road thinking I was a BMXer at about 7 or 8 and the fun you had of living up a road with a big slope in it. I also remember building wee ramps in the square and loads of us having races round it, loving especially the 45degree/135degree turn at one end as a short-cut over the two 90degree turns favoured by the wusses (and losers of races).
Later on at about the age of 10 I got a mountain bike of some description. I used this until I was about 15 and then after it lay in the shed for years it was gifted to a neighbours kid to use.
Reading this blogpost reminded me of an incident on that bike at about the age of 11 or Primary 6. I was out cycling around Balbeggie with I think my dad, a sister (don’t know which) and uncle. We had went for a route round the park and the surrounding areas. A quick look at Google Maps makes it look at a decent 4 mile route or so. On the way back we were tearing down the side of a farmers field near St Martins. I was in the lead and underneath the shrubbery/stalks was an old gate. I hit the gate and went head first over the handlebars landing on it. Everything seemed alright, right elbow was a bit sore where I landed.
Got back on my bike, dusted myself down and we headed back to my grans house. Later we get home and I was kneeling on the living room floor reading some comics. My younger sister came past and accidentally kneed me in the elbow. I howled in pain and it swelled right up.
A trip to the A&E showed it to be a fractured elbow. I had it in a sling for a week or two after that.
With that bike I also remember taking my Cycling Proficiency Test which was probably what gave me the confidence to go out on some roads on my own at that age. My younger sister and I used to cycle up and around Clatto Park on the bikes some evenings and days during the summer holidays. I also remember going up there with a backpack full of toy weapons with friends to play commandos on the bikes at about 11 or so. I can’t remember taking solo trips much further than that but with dad and younger sister used to go through Templeton Woods and Camperdown before returning home (fun dodging the glue sniffers in Templeton). as well as trips up to Clatto, round Downfield Golf Course, through Templeton and back home.
In January 2009 I bought a mountain bike with the intention of commuting to and from work in it after building up some fitness again. I did go out on rides in it but never actually commuted on it. There were a number of reasons for this – work not moving office away from the Forfar Road when expected being the main one. When the eventually did, I hadn’t built up fitness/confidence on bike enough to do so. A number of reasons then conspired to keep me off the bike for the next couple of summers – being away almost every weekend for various reasons, shitty weather when I was here and of course laziness.
I did, of course, break it in with a cycle round Clatto.
When I eventually bought a bike as an adult I had thought I wanted a hybrid but settled on a mountain bike. When I read about Bike Boost and work were considering it I popped out on the mountain bike to try the route to work. Got to the peak of the hard bit of the route and gave up, thinking bloody hell – I’ll save it for the hybrid.
When I got the bike through the scheme it was a lot of fun. I didn’t have the confidence at first to cycle in to work first thing with the extra weight of spare clothes etc without trialling it. When I realised it was 4 days and I hadn’t used the bike I just said sod it
and rode in. Bloody hell what a revelation.
My normal commute was walk 5 minutes to bus stop, wait 10 minutes for bus (depending on which I get) sit on bus for 15 minutes, walk 2 minutes to work. Total time 32 minutes.
The first time I cycled in it took me 25 minutes. I felt tired, needed to stop a few times for water and to get used to using the gears etc. Getting home took 30 minutes, as I walked up a steep brae when I hit an energy wall through not using correct gear.
Later it took me 25 home and 20 into work depending on traffic at a couple of spots. I have slightly refined the route now. I am still a bit wary of a couple of spots where the traffic is heavy and the pavements are very wide so resort to slowly cycling on pavement there (it connects a core path to a cycle lane so I don’t feel so bad, a very short part of about 20ft is labelled as cycle path too which is weird. I may email councillors to enquire about it being made a core path too). The place I have had the most trouble with traffic though is the roundabout next to work. Blind corner with shrubbery around it and cars just zoom through without stopping. On the way home you have busses up your arse and have to jump on pavement early or do a slam of breaks and 90degree turn into a pavement barrier to get onto the shared cycle path route home.
On a number of the days it was raining on the way home so I just carried on. One morning it was torrential rain so I just said sod it
and chucked on my coat and cycled in. Does that mean I no longer count as a fair weather cyclist. So far since the day I chose to start commuting I have only travelled in by bus one day – and that was because I had been picked up the night before by car, going by bike every other day.
It’s now coming to the end of the scheme and I intend to buy the bike at the cheap offer and carry on cycling. I will probably stop when it is horrendous rain or when we get heavy snow but will hopefully get some decent winter clothes with money saved from bus fares. I am considering creating a savings account and just transferring bus money into it but know it would turn into the Bicycle Fund, so am not sure that’s the best idea.
I have considered doing the Cyclathon but am not sure it’s the best idea to attempt 26miles having managed 2.5miles at most in one go. Admittedly uphill, but still. I have put the feelers out and know someone who might consider it so might have someone to go round it with.
So far all my bikes have been flat bars. I remember trying a racer
when I was an early teen and found it uncomfortable, but I’m not sure if it was just a poor fit and that’s why I didn’t take to it. I have also read about Fixed Gear Single Speed stuff but advocates don’t come across well and they seem more suited to less hilly terrain than Dundee.
I also haven’t cycled up to the parents from my house or work so that’s something I should do whilst it’s still light at night or when I have a free weekend. Crossing the Kingsway is daunting though, but I should be able to stick to Core Paths for trip one anyway.
My work are encouraging people to sign up to Bike Boost – a month long campaign to get people in Dundee cycling organised by the Get Cycling campaign.
At the end of the challenge you have the opportunity to purchase the bike and supplied accessories for a knock down price of £199 too (RRP £470). I’ve signed up to try out a hybrid. I originally wanted a hybrid but settled for a mountain bike. I have only used it for leisure though and not cycling to work.
You can sign up too!
Last night’s talk by Scott Hanselman was really good. The most amusing paraphrase was something along the lines of Reading Twitter is like swimming in a sea of shit
It seemed a mixture of:
Information overload (video)
Social Networking for Developers (video)
Outlook Rules (blogpost)
Essentially it boils down to: if you can’t hyperlink to it it’s a waste of time. Email sucks up way too much time. If you have to write anything more than 5 sentences write a blog post and email the link so you can refer to it again. Set aside time for email every day (he suggests after noon) as if it’s important someone will contact you in a synchronous fashion about it. Don’t subscribe to lots of news/blog feeds – find someone else who does and who links to the best of it all. Set up rules in outlook so you can filter and prioritise the email that does come in and train people to expect you to not reply outside working hours.
I would recommend viewing them all – I am gonna listen to the videos today to see if there’s anything he cut when he compressed the talks.
I emailed this around work breaking the 5+ line rule and didn’t write an internal blogpost about this as I don’t really share my personal blog around work. We are right now trialing Sharepoint with personal/team/department blogs etc so if this was already in use I would have written this there (and may copy there when my beta testing starts).
A friend told me about a showing of a film called Nefarious: Merchant of Souls at a church in Dundee. I was a bit weary at first as to say I don’t agree with that church is a bit of an understatement. But given the content of the film I thought I would give it the benefit of the doubt and if nothing else, going to see a film about sex trafficking in a church is a new experience.
I was also curious what the conclusion (if any would be) as the interesting debate which took place in the SSP a few years back resulted in support for the Swedish Model. (see pamphlet: Prostitution:a contribution to the debate available freely online).
As an information piece it was very good, concludes on the Swedish Model, has a number of really interesting interviews and explores worldwide sex trafficking and the various forms it takes. It is however deeply flawed as a documentary and as a film.
The film starts with the filmmakers discussing how they found out about sex trafficking taking place and how horrified they were by it. They got some money and went to one country to investigate the issue, over a 3 year period they visited over 40 countries interviewing prostituted women, pimps, johns, brothel owners, traffickers and those working to rescue kids from child prostitution in Thailand/Cambodia.
In Amsterdam you see secret filming down the streets to show what it is like, a brothel owner is interviewed about his business and the like. A focus on Eastern Europe shows how vulnerable women are tricked or kidnapped into being trafficked. The brutal breaking
process and the lasting psychological damage that it causes.
In the Far East horrifying reality of child prostitution is exposed including parents selling their children into it. A pastor who buys the children to free them has some heartbreaking interviews during this portion of the film.
The dangers faced in the UK and American are also discussed with former prostitutes from Nevada interviewed too.
The movie switches to look at Sweden and the model adopted there which has both massively cut prostitution and made it safer for those who are involved in it.
The final segment was basically everyone in the film talking about how Jesus saved them.
This may make it sound compelling, and it is, but it is not, sadly, good.
I have been very generous in splitting the film into segments, when in reality it jumps all over the place from story to story and back again. As a film it would have been much more effective to explore one area at a time and then compare and contrast and show the conclusion of the investigation.
But that alone investigation
gives the film too much credit. At the start they discuss how they wanted to find out information about trafficking and that was their motivation. A number of points in the film made me uneasy about the film-makers position as observers of the situation. Early on they show a blurred out mans face in Cambodia or Thailand as they chase him of declaring that he is a paedophile and threatening him should he return to the city again. All the viewer sees though is a band of vigilantes chasing a man and threatening him. You don’t actually see what he did or how they know that he is a paedophile. That’s leaving aside them actually taking agency in the situation.
Late in the film one of them also discusses how they set out with the intention of saving girls, rescuing them and so on. These are all admirable things to do and they interview some people who are doing just that. But for those filming a documentary to try and take part in the activities of some of the subjects of the film made me very uneasy and broke the trust you have in the information provided being objective.
Similarly a number of sourced statistics are shown on screen. The most horrifying though were not sourced though. The pair that stuck out (and I may be remembering wrongly) was that there are 800,000 Cambodian child prostitutes in Thailand. And that 80-90% of Cambodian families have sold their children into sex slavery. If true is is horrifying but without any source presented to check it presented in the film the power of them is lessened.
During most interviews instead of showing the emotional reaction of those telling their stories (as they did at the end – accept Jesus – part) there are really terribly acted re-enactments of their stories. Maybe for some audience members this would be a welcome addition but it did put a dampener on it for me. Maybe that’s just my preference for how I like information to be presented though.
The other major flaw for me was the obvious inclusion of proselytising. I had hoped that I was seeing an objective film shown by a concerned group trying to spread the information as far as possible. Everyone in the film spoke about how Jesus saved them and now they are happy, not because they are out of the business but because they have accepted Jesus, etc etc. This turns a documentary into a progopaganda piece for religious conversion. Worst of all though it limits the audience of the film. If it had concluded at the natural conclusion – adopt the Swedish model, I would have no hesitation in recommending this film, flaws and all, far and wide. But the tacked on conversion stories broke the flow of the film completely. I would add for me
. Maybe the intended audience is the religious or already revivalist/fundamentalist/evangelical audience. It may well be the piece added they need to move the issue higher up their agenda. If so then great. But it is quite sad that it may result in a small number of people caring a bit more about the issue when with some minor changes it could have resulted in a far greater number of people moving the issues up their agenda.
Secondly, everyone interviewed had turned to Jesus and was no longer involved in the sex industry. An objective film would have had a far wider look at people. Only discussing the issue with people who are very close to your belief system and don’t represent those involved is not a good way to make a documentary. To show why this is a real issue and not just me whinging about religion: a number of formerly prostituted women are interviewed. Not a single currently working prostitute is interviewed. One of the statistics discussed in the film is how 96% of women who leave prostitution very quickly return to it (one of the story follow ups at the end says one interviewee did just that). (in fairness I think there was a very very brief interview with one current John who did not discuss Jesus and a short piece with a brothel owner but a genuine documentary would have had a far higher proportion of the film taken up by interviews with people currently involved in those positions. Or at least attempts to interview)
Having concluded on those flaw it would be remiss of me not to discuss the religious elements of the film and the reality of that message if followed to it’s conclusion.
To take one example, a woman discusses how she was kidnapped, beaten, repeatedly raped, dehumanised and forced into prostitution. Then at some later date, she asks God for help and he saves her, isn’t he wonderful. Well maybe. But given she was kidnapped, beaten, raped and forced into a several year long career
of sexual abuse was he a bit too busy to do anything during that time? Are we to believe that during that entire time, it was only once that she cried out to God for help?
How anyone can hear the stories in this and have it aid their faith in a Christian deity is beyond me. An omnipresent, omnibenevolent, omnicious being who stands and does nothing whilst children are sold into sex slavery to be raped and abused by sick men is not one I would worship. Even if we are to believe that it was their cries to God/conversion that prompted him to interfere (not that I do, clearly) then it poses a serious question. What kind of self-absorbed insecure asshole stands and lets someone be repeatedly abused until they worship it?
Not only that but he is everywhere watching everything we do. So every time one of those trafficked children is raped he is right there watching it. Of course as most of them will be Buddhist and some of them about 6 or 7 years old they might not even know what Christianity is. It’s their tough luck though if they don’t reach out to him to be saved or are lucky enough to be rescued by a Christian though.
At the showing we were also presented with 3 pieces of material (none of which I have read, just scanned through).
The first was a sort of viewers guide to the film. Interviews with the filmmakers and so on. It discusses the organisations which try to help victims of prostitution as well as more information on the Swedish model.
The second is a 31 day prayer guide for the Olympics. The horrendous expectation that thousands more women will be trafficked into the UK for the forthcoming Olympics, as seems to happen at most large sporting tournaments is discussed with a different issue to think about each day. All of these are through a religious lens. So although I might agree with day 27s prostitution devalues women takes away from their precious standing
the addition of in the sight of the Lord
both stops my agreement and undermines the message. Surely the most immediate impact is the devaluation of women and the effects that has on women, men and children now.
The third is an issue of Scottish Christian Broadcast which seems like it would go down very well with the intended audience. It contains an article by my pal David Robertson.
The turn out was very high – at least 200 on a Saturday night. The film was introduced by someone from the filmmakers church. I rolled my eyes at some of the parts, was very happy at some of the issues discussed but really really annoyed at one in particular. The church had everyone pray over an issue all night. The next day they found out an internationally co-ordinated raid had busted a large trafficking ring. Prayer works everyone. Because no doubt a massive internationally co-ordinated police action was only decided that night. It won’t have been meticulously planned for weeks or months on the basis of months or even years of intelligence gathering and undercover work. It was that small group praying which did it. Praise Jesus. Oh yeah, and maybe we can find time to thank the work of the police for doing it, nah, let’s ignore that.
After the film some information was presented – but after twice saying the most important thing to do was to pray in this sprititual battle it was then suggested that we contact the MSP who is currently trying to change the law in Scotland to be close to the Swedish Model. As everyone was getting their pens and paper to take the details some biblical readings started. It was at this point my friend and I left.
The bill seems to be Criminalisation of the Purchase of Sex (Scotland) Bill, and mentioned supporter Rhoda Grant. It was proposed by Trish Godman, so I don’t know why it was Rhoda getting the credit unless there is a different bill and I have it wrong.
If you are able to go to a free showing – go and see it. If it eventually ends up on YouTube or the like – watch it until after the Swedish Model conclusion part. It is worth watching for the subject matter and information presented up until that point but the quality of the film really lets it down. Also if you can’t see it, but are interested in the subject – watch Lilya 4-Ever instead.
Martha Payne, a nine year girl, has been blogging about the dinners available at her school.
The school is some bizarre crackdown on attacks on their services have decided that she is now banned from taking photos of the meals.
Obviously this kind of thing never backfires which is why as of right now the counter on her blog is at 2, 671, 895 views.
Argyll and Bute Council have issued a pretty terrible statement about it.
Argyll and Bute Council wholly refutes the unwarranted attacks on its schools catering service which culminated in national press headlines which have led catering staff to fear for their jobs. The Council has directly avoided any criticism of anyone involved in the ‘never seconds’ blog for obvious reasons despite a strongly held view that the information presented in it misrepresented the options and choices available to pupils however this escalation means we had to act to protect staff from the distress and harm it was causing. In particular, the photographic images uploaded appear to only represent a fraction of the choices available to pupils, so a decision has been made by the council to stop photos being taken in the school canteen.
Of course, the morons who decided this was a great response also wrongly used the word refute. No, I am sorry, you did not refute anything. You might have denied it, it might even upset you but you didn’t prove that the criticism levelled at you was incorrect.
As well as highlighting the types of meals she is being provided with, Martha was also using the attention her blog received to raise funds for charity.
I mentioned in my blog NeverSeconds.blogspot.co.uk that last year my friends and I set up Charity Children at school and we made felt soaps and candle holders. We had a sale and raised £70 for Mary’s Meals enough to feed 7 children for a whole year!
My blog is being read all over the world and some people have said I am very lucky to have lunch at all. They are right. Lots of readers have asked how they can support Charity Children but because I can’t make enough felt soaps it is best if you support Mary’s Meals directly.
I’ve thrown a tenner her way and it is being drowned in the total which right now is almost £18,000. Enough to pay for two kitchens in schools in some of the poorest countries in Africa and well on the way to funding a third.
Album available at name your price
with a minimum of £0
ONSIND are an acoustic pop punk band from Durham. Their name is in reference to the lack of abortion facilities in some areas of America.
I recently attended a gig put on by the Make That a Take anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-homophobic
) collective in Dundee featuring ONSIND and was blown away at how incredibly good their set was. Their gig had more people at it and more politics in it than most public meetings by parties.
The album is a really nice package which contains liner notes including full lyrics and each song accompanied by a quotation. Philosophers have only interpreted the world…the point is to change it
– Karl Marx should give another taster at their lyrical content which also mentions weighty lefty tomes. The majority of the song are two male vocalists, one lead; one backing with acoustic guitars. Occasionally other instruments and backing singers pop up. But it should certainly be a more accessible punk album to those who don’t normally listen to the genre or it’s millions of sub-genres.
The album opens with the lines Homophobes are terrified to admit that during their lives there have been moments where they’ve wavered in their minds
on the track heterosexuality is a construct. It fills you with incredible hope to be a straight male in a crowd of 90% straight males singing along to I’m not a heterosexual man, I’m not ticking your boxes, that’s not who I am
and love is not a crime
. To quote a recent comment on Twitter Yes, I support gay rights. No, I’m not gay. I’m against deforestation and that doesn’t make me a tree.
. These kinds of attitudes and behaviour are surely a massive step forward and something possible in the kind of space provided by Make that a take that you may not get in less socially conscious live music spaces. Normally punk/metal/alternative shows are filled with macho posturing men faux fighting with their male friends. Most times it’s fine but sometimes it can spill over into the rest of the crowd and drives everyone else to the back of the venue or out of the music scene altogether.
Either he’s dead or my watch has stopped is essentially a call for revolution and referencees the Royal Bank as being a source of our woes.
We have nothing to lose but our chains…I’m just another naïve prole, with revolution on the mind, but I’d fight a line of riot police if it’d help to clear the sky…Melancholia and Marxism, this must be where I belong…I’d bomb the Royal Bank if it’d blow the clouds away
The other essential track to hear is That Takes Ovaries. A call at arms for men to help smash patriarchy from our position of burden and privilege
as something more productive [to do with] all that spare testosterone you have to throw around
. A welcome addition to the discussions around feminism and patriarchy I’m sure you’ll agree.
The closing song I could carve a better man out of a banana tells the story of a female victim of domestic violence resorting to killing her abuser. she took a knife and drove it through his back with all the strength she had left
– the first song the band ever recorded showing from the start they intended to set powerful political lyrics to tunes.
There have been a surprisingly small number of articles about the recount taking place for the council elections in one ward in Glasgow. The media coverage has been poor with bloggers picking up the slack.
See for example the commentary by Lallands Peat Worrier
Well, lets look at the story by the BBC
The result of a Glasgow council ward could be in doubt after it emerged that a ballot box was not counted during last week’s local government elections.
…
BBC Scotland understands that the Langside ward ballot box was wrongly verified as containing no votes. It is not known who made this error or how it happened.The council is now set to seek court approval to look at those votes and enter them into the counting system to establish what would have happened if they had been counted.
If they would have changed the result for Cllr Hainey, the council will need further court approval to formally re-run the count for the whole Langside ward.
Terrible reporting. Might I suggest that the buck falls with the Returning officer: George Black. From experience in Dundee, the returning officer is a high ranking council bean counter paid a hefty 5 figure fee for the role.
The second set of quotes is the most in need of analysis though.
A court order is needed to re-look at the votes and run them. Should it change then another court order is needed to re-run the count.
Why isn’t this being picked up?
Surely the default should be that it is reran, with a courts intervening should a count not be re-run under these circumstances.
Democracy my arse.
As an aside, how bloody good are the graphs Lallands is producing for his psephological analysis of the results? Electoral nerd drool.
It’s been a while since I posted anything of length here, but as the three of you who read this blog know me in real life you’ll know why that is.
I’m slowly catching up on my RSS feeds but have some lengthy articles on the backlog to read, my email inbox is as far from Inbox Zero as ever (currently 1446 unread of 10292). My magazine pile is quite high, including Private Eye as I’ve been listening to music rather than reading on the bus in the morning.
I created a site with a friend as project but we haven’t really kicked that off yet so as I get back into writing I’ll throw some stuff over on JoyStuckInThePast.
So I’ll do a quick round up instead of the films I can remember seeing at the cinema so far this year.
I went to see this with low expectations for the film but high expectations for the 3D effects. The trailer for Titanic 3D (spoiler: the boat sinks) made me turn and go I hope they didn’t use the same technique, that looks awful
. Unfortunately, they did use the same technique. I saw the 2D version when it came out and then watched it twice on VHS but hadn’t seen it since (having only seen episodes 2 and 3 once each at cinema too). Jar Jar was as annoying as ever. The pod-race was more awesome than I remember. The 3D effects were terrible. Things rushing close to the screen and blurring the background whilst adding even more CGI creatures isn’t my idea of a good movie experience. Nor is the £9.40 asking price.
Unfortunately I will probably end up seeing the next two just so they go ahead and destroy the original trilogy even more when they 3D it up.
Having been disappointed at Star Wars my next trip to the pictures was to see John Carter. It was surprisingly good. I hadn’t seen the terrible trailer and promotion which was the source of most peoples negativity of it. Of course it was only good when I eventually got to see it. The first time we went the screen failed during the trailers. Our options were money back and free ticket/see different film/wait 2 hours for the 3D version. We opted for free tickets and went the next night.
Unlike Phantom Menace the 3D blended into the background, in most places was necessary and you didn’t notice it. It was a bit too long but worth it. Unfortunately Hollywood accounting
meant it was already a flop before it was released so you have to wonder if the terrible promotion/trailer were deliberate as some kind of tax write off for losses by the studio.
Having seen the awesome reviews I took my nieces to see the Muppets movie. Jason Segel was amazing in it. Youngest niece was slightly bored as it took a while for the Muppets to actually be doing anything exciting. She was waiting on the fart shoes and Miss Piggy so once the fart shoes appeared that was the film over as far as she was concerned. The older niece and I really enjoyed it though. The best part for me was that it was a kids film where the adult jokes weren’t innuendos but ripping the piss out of movie cliches that would fly over kids heads.
Electric Man had a showing at DCA with a Q&A session with the director and writer. A really low budget film (I hate low budget films…) set in a comic shop in Edinburgh (not aimed at me at all). It was really good. Obviously it had the flaws you would expect from a low budget film but what it did well far surpassed those. The direction and casting was excellent (Fish! the only other actor for the role would be Tam Dean Burn) and the shots of Edinburgh were fantastic. It really showed off the Grassmarket area really well, normally films set in Edinburgh stick to the Princess St/Castle and the only film that has come close to showing off Edinburgh was Hallam Foe. They are currently looking for a distributor and really deserve it to be shown wider.
Dundead Festival opening night had the Cabin in the Woods showing. I was one of the first to buy tickets for it like the rabid Joss Whedon fan-boy that I am. I had avoided the trailer and was glad that I did, watching it afterwards it didn’t really show off the film as trailers should, mainly because of the twists and spoilers. Due to that I won’t talk about it more just now, only to say it dissected the cabin in the woods horror genre from a different angle than Tucker and Dale vs Evil and was as enjoyable if not more so. Definitely more so as I then went to see it on opening night at the chain cinema. The inclusion of 3 Whedon alumni in the cast only added to the awesomeness for me.
As part of the @Dundead Festival they showed The Raid as final film. It was the UK premiere of the new cut with Linkin Park member Mike Shinoda produced score. This was an incredibly good action film. I’ll definitely head to see it again when it goes on general release later this month. An amazing baddie
who you really believe can beat the goodies
and at some points find yourself rooting for.
Scott Myles was allowed to pick some films to show alongside his exhibition at the DCA and chose Instrument, a documentary about Fugazi to be shown. I hadn’t seen it before and was totally blown away at how good it was as a music documentary. Heavy Metal in Baghdad had been my favourite one until I saw this. It is also available on YouTube in it’s entirety so you can go view it there.
As part of the introduction the guy said he had watched it several times on VHS, some points in the film looked like it was a copy from his much watched VHS. That fault aside it was really interesting, sometimes with long stretches of no talking, just music, one sequence is just viewing the fans at a show and it was interesting looking at the fashion and dress of the gig-goers. The highlight though had to be the on stage filming of intimate gigs in large venues – especially the opening scenes.
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