Leaving the cinemas last Friday with two of my other friends was a notably strange experience as although we had all seen the exact same film; our reactions to the film couldn’t have been more different.
First up was me, a tad exhausted due to the length of the film, slightly baffled by the plot but ultimately pleased by the whole experience. Then there’s one of my friends, a little frustrated at parts but thought the film was as good as expected. Finally my other friend, who was positively fuming at what he has just seen and continued to spit disgust about the film for the rest of the long walk home.
Next to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the release of Guns and Roses’ album Chinese Democracy, Zach Snyder’s The Watchman can be argued as one of the most anticipated event of all time. The film comes after nearly 20 years in production hell for what many consider an unfilmable novel. It has split opinions from both critics and the hardcore fans, many of whom have literally most of their entire lives for a screen version of the graphic novel that Time Magazine included in their list of 100 greatest of all time, which also go to show that this film is not just another comic book adaptation.
What makes this irritating is that as I have not read the book I can’t give a full review of the film and with the hype that surrounds the film it just feels like a 2 hour 45 minute advertisement for the novel. My friend even suggested the film felt like someone read the book and tried to remember how it went, missing out vital parts of the story but left in all the sex and violence.
So what does make a decent adaptation? Why do some achieve both high praise for its novel form and its adaptation for the big screen like Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting or Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. What did Francis Ford Coppola do by turning a particularly average novel The Godfather into one of cinemas great masterpieces? And how did the ashamingly addictive page turner The Da Vinci Code become such bore on screen. Is there really such thing as an unfilmable book nowadays?
Gavin Clinton, owner of Forbidden Planet in Newcastle, an independent comic book store gives his opinion; “It’s only natural that some adaptations work better than other. How many people talk about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep compared to Blade Runner? And I have only just found out Apocalypse Now is from a short story.
Comic books are especially hard to adapt since you will have an army of fans ready to scrutinise the film if it goes against their expectations, I think only the Harry Potter franchise has a similar burden.
The Watchman comes with so much expectation and has such a complex narrative it was never going to please everyone but should be praised for its more then decent effort.”
So what next in terms of film adaptations, after Alan Moore’s The Watchman could they be an onslaught of apparently unfilmable films heading to a cinema screen near you?
With its unreliable story teller and heavy use of first person narrative, J.S Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye has long been associated with one of the best novels never to be adapted to film but unfortunately it may take the death of its author before we see it brought to our screens.
There’s a possibility that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon director is about to adapt Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, another fine example of a great book which many people just cannot imagine bringing to the large screen.
All I know is that if Shawshank Redemption can be made from a short story and Fight Club and is as complex and brilliant in film as in book form, then maybe there is hope for anything. Except Catch 22, which in my opinion definitely should have been left alone?
Monday, 16 March 2009
Monday, 9 March 2009
The Week That Was
When I entered the White Rooms the other night to watch local heroes The Week That Was, something just didn’t feel right, like I was an outsider. Then it dawned on me that possibly everybody who has been in a Sunderland band in the last five years was in attendance tonight.
The odd Futurehead here, various members of Field Music there, is that the Golden Virgins coming in towards the end of the gig? Of course it is.
What should have been a momentous hometown gig for Peter Brewis and the rest TWTW before they go on a North American tour, actually just felt a bit flat.
Speaking after the gig Peter mentions how tonight “was meant to be a warm up gig, more of a confidence builder. The idea was just to play in front of our mates and try and relax a bit.” It is here where the tonight’s problems lay. It was obvious they weren’t trying to win over new fans, just knock out a few songs for old time sake with some old friends.
When the biggest cheer of the night came at the end when they started covering the Futureheads, you get and idea about what this night was about. It also troubling when the main act gets overshadowed by the supporting act BEAK, the best bird orientated instrumentalist band I’ve ever heard.
That’s not to say it was an awful gig, favourites The Good Life and should-be-a-hit Airport Line sounded great and lifted the crowd, even if the latter suffered from the classic case of sounding grand and epic on record but unable to transfer the sweeping orchestral melodies to the live stage.
TWTW are possibly more of an albums band anyway. Peter even explains how “records are the thing I love; you can really create your own little world and are not bound like conventions like you are when playing live.” So this may not be definite TWTW it feels like a wasted opportunity to show why them and the other Field Music projects are seen in such high regard.
The odd Futurehead here, various members of Field Music there, is that the Golden Virgins coming in towards the end of the gig? Of course it is.
What should have been a momentous hometown gig for Peter Brewis and the rest TWTW before they go on a North American tour, actually just felt a bit flat.
Speaking after the gig Peter mentions how tonight “was meant to be a warm up gig, more of a confidence builder. The idea was just to play in front of our mates and try and relax a bit.” It is here where the tonight’s problems lay. It was obvious they weren’t trying to win over new fans, just knock out a few songs for old time sake with some old friends.
When the biggest cheer of the night came at the end when they started covering the Futureheads, you get and idea about what this night was about. It also troubling when the main act gets overshadowed by the supporting act BEAK, the best bird orientated instrumentalist band I’ve ever heard.
That’s not to say it was an awful gig, favourites The Good Life and should-be-a-hit Airport Line sounded great and lifted the crowd, even if the latter suffered from the classic case of sounding grand and epic on record but unable to transfer the sweeping orchestral melodies to the live stage.
TWTW are possibly more of an albums band anyway. Peter even explains how “records are the thing I love; you can really create your own little world and are not bound like conventions like you are when playing live.” So this may not be definite TWTW it feels like a wasted opportunity to show why them and the other Field Music projects are seen in such high regard.
Foyle Young Poet awards
Foyle Young Poetry Awards 2009 Launched
Last night saw the launch of this years prestigious Foyle Young Poet of the Year award at the Sage, Gateshead with performances from two of its previous winners.
The ceremony is organised by the Poets Society and aims to seek out the best new young poets aged between 11 and 17 in order to help improve their talents and is now in its 12th year.
The prize for the winners in the 14-16 age bracket is will attend a week-long residential course at one of the prestigious Arvon Centres where they will be able to discuss and share ideas with fellow aspiring young poets.
First up was Richard O’ Brien who won this award in 2006 with his poem Calendar Girl..
A writer since he was a young child Richard mentions how winning the competition “really made me think that people think my work is worth talking about and something that needs to be developed. It really made me take poetry seriously in a way in which I didn’t know I was allowed to.”
Richard also found the prize of a weeks residence at the esteemed Arvon Centre hugely beneficial. “In terms of meeting people who care as much about poetry as you do, just
spending a week sharing that love and that feeling that its worthwhile is definitely the best thing you can have as a writer when you’re 14, 15, 16.”
Caroline Bird has had two books published since she won the award once in 1999 and again in 2000 and she was second to read through her work which was both widely vivid and imaginary whilst at the same time steeped in everyday life.
Also a writer form a young age she says how she “Didn’t realise I was writing poetry at the start, I just didn’t go until the end of the line.”
This years winners are set to be announced on National Poetry day on October 9th and entrants can send in their poems through the Poem Societies website now.
Last night saw the launch of this years prestigious Foyle Young Poet of the Year award at the Sage, Gateshead with performances from two of its previous winners.
The ceremony is organised by the Poets Society and aims to seek out the best new young poets aged between 11 and 17 in order to help improve their talents and is now in its 12th year.
The prize for the winners in the 14-16 age bracket is will attend a week-long residential course at one of the prestigious Arvon Centres where they will be able to discuss and share ideas with fellow aspiring young poets.
First up was Richard O’ Brien who won this award in 2006 with his poem Calendar Girl..
A writer since he was a young child Richard mentions how winning the competition “really made me think that people think my work is worth talking about and something that needs to be developed. It really made me take poetry seriously in a way in which I didn’t know I was allowed to.”
Richard also found the prize of a weeks residence at the esteemed Arvon Centre hugely beneficial. “In terms of meeting people who care as much about poetry as you do, just
spending a week sharing that love and that feeling that its worthwhile is definitely the best thing you can have as a writer when you’re 14, 15, 16.”
Caroline Bird has had two books published since she won the award once in 1999 and again in 2000 and she was second to read through her work which was both widely vivid and imaginary whilst at the same time steeped in everyday life.
Also a writer form a young age she says how she “Didn’t realise I was writing poetry at the start, I just didn’t go until the end of the line.”
This years winners are set to be announced on National Poetry day on October 9th and entrants can send in their poems through the Poem Societies website now.
Circus Of Horrors-Sunderland Empire
Given that the name of this show is called the Circus of Horrors, I was hoping to see some borderline illegal stage antics that would give me night terrors until my late thirties. The type of show that comes with a warning that pregnant woman and people with weak hearts should not attend and the front three rows may get covered with blood, or possibly something worse.
Instead the one-off performance that occurred at the Sunderland Empire was really just trashy, clichéd, and most importantly pretty tame. Add to this its sound tracked by some awfully irritating camp rock music and the whole thing seems a tad under whelming.
The plot, not that it really matters, revolves around a totally over-the-top rock and roll ringmaster Dr Haze taking us through the show as the lunatics run amok taking over the asylum.
Now there’s the possibility that I have seen one too many internet videos and may be desensitised to things that would make most people feel a bit nauseous, but when the biggest scream of the night from the audience came at the sight of a midget’s penis, surely it isn’t just me.
That isn’t to say this show was a total failure. They’re were some genuinely exciting moments such as a gymnast who performed seemingly unfeasible tasks with a giant hamster wheel and some amazing feats on metal chains way above the ground. Also there
is a good chance that every red-blooded male in the audience took some pleasure from watching the female contortionists.
The problems were that the show didn’t really feature anything that you haven’t seen before superior to this, whether it be a man swinging bricks from his nose piercing, or a woman who can spin many hula hoops at the same time.
The Circus of Horrors has gone through many reincarnations in its time with different acts performing each time so it is possible that this wasn’t the best that it could have been, or has been in the past. It probably will remain a hit on the festival circuit where it began 14 years ago, but tonight sadly the whole thing just felt watered down.
Instead the one-off performance that occurred at the Sunderland Empire was really just trashy, clichéd, and most importantly pretty tame. Add to this its sound tracked by some awfully irritating camp rock music and the whole thing seems a tad under whelming.
The plot, not that it really matters, revolves around a totally over-the-top rock and roll ringmaster Dr Haze taking us through the show as the lunatics run amok taking over the asylum.
Now there’s the possibility that I have seen one too many internet videos and may be desensitised to things that would make most people feel a bit nauseous, but when the biggest scream of the night from the audience came at the sight of a midget’s penis, surely it isn’t just me.
That isn’t to say this show was a total failure. They’re were some genuinely exciting moments such as a gymnast who performed seemingly unfeasible tasks with a giant hamster wheel and some amazing feats on metal chains way above the ground. Also there
is a good chance that every red-blooded male in the audience took some pleasure from watching the female contortionists.
The problems were that the show didn’t really feature anything that you haven’t seen before superior to this, whether it be a man swinging bricks from his nose piercing, or a woman who can spin many hula hoops at the same time.
The Circus of Horrors has gone through many reincarnations in its time with different acts performing each time so it is possible that this wasn’t the best that it could have been, or has been in the past. It probably will remain a hit on the festival circuit where it began 14 years ago, but tonight sadly the whole thing just felt watered down.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Announcemet
I will now in fact be writing my blog on my Learning To Love You More assignments on my new blogspot ewan.72.blogspot. I hopefully will be starting these assignments soon and will keep eveyyone posted on how they are going in as many varied ways possible. For now I will continue to use this blog to pretty much carry on what I have been doiong so far, meaningless opions about stuff few will care about.
Anyway if you wish to find out more about my intended project, this website will explain everything http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com
Thank you
Anyway if you wish to find out more about my intended project, this website will explain everything http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com
Thank you
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Emmy the Great. First Love
Before actually listening to Emmy the Great, there are two things that could possibly irritate you before you have even switched the stereo on. Firstly there is the name which could give some lazy reviewers the ammunition for a shooting fish-in-a-barrel type review of ‘Emmy the not-so-great (guffaw). Secondly the arbitrary pigeon-holing into that increasingly meaningless catch-all anti-folk, has already cursed the names of Devandra Bahnhart and Jeffrey Lewis since they too play acoustic guitars and sings songs that can be described as ‘quirky’ or ‘kooky’ or other feeble adjectives people try to describe singers who choose to play bare footed.
Once you get past these minor obstacles however, you eventually get the main obstacles of the actually songs that come out of the stereo. First Love rolls by inoffensively with its mellow hippy guitars and slight almost twee vocals without ever really giving it anything to make it stand out from the current crop of exciting female vocalists such as MIA or Regina Spektor.
This despite the songs of fake pregnancies (We nearly had a baby) and the two lovers listening to Leonard Cohen’s track Hallelujah (First Love) try to have a seemingly dark under tone to them but instead end up appearing as edgy as Kate Nash. Lyrically there are some good moments but few and far between and only goes to show how good this album could have been if it took another direction “well you didn't stop, when I told you stop” from the aforementioned We Nearly had a Baby is generally a disturbing lyric, but you get the idea that many a 6th form students have written stuff like this in their bedrooms when trying to get over some guy in their media studies class.
Overall not an awful album, just one with so many petite songs that could it pass you by blandly so easily whilst listening to it. But then again there is a huge market for folkie/indie pop that is ever expanding nowadays and you do feel that Emmy is going to be one of the heavyweights of the genre.
Once you get past these minor obstacles however, you eventually get the main obstacles of the actually songs that come out of the stereo. First Love rolls by inoffensively with its mellow hippy guitars and slight almost twee vocals without ever really giving it anything to make it stand out from the current crop of exciting female vocalists such as MIA or Regina Spektor.
This despite the songs of fake pregnancies (We nearly had a baby) and the two lovers listening to Leonard Cohen’s track Hallelujah (First Love) try to have a seemingly dark under tone to them but instead end up appearing as edgy as Kate Nash. Lyrically there are some good moments but few and far between and only goes to show how good this album could have been if it took another direction “well you didn't stop, when I told you stop” from the aforementioned We Nearly had a Baby is generally a disturbing lyric, but you get the idea that many a 6th form students have written stuff like this in their bedrooms when trying to get over some guy in their media studies class.
Overall not an awful album, just one with so many petite songs that could it pass you by blandly so easily whilst listening to it. But then again there is a huge market for folkie/indie pop that is ever expanding nowadays and you do feel that Emmy is going to be one of the heavyweights of the genre.
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Bearded Magazine
Not too long ago I was looking for a magazine to write a presentation about for my magazine writing module. My first choice, the astonishingly designed and equally well written independent film magazine Little White Lies had annoyingly already been taken by my friend Dave. Everyone knows a Dave and a good 75% will apparently hinder your life. So I looked further and discovered an equally impressive looking music magazine called Bearded Magazine.
The signs were all there for a decent indie magazine. Obscure title meaning nothing to the content. Check. Front cover a drawing instead of an actually photo. Check. Made from recycled paper and struggling to make any money at all? Oh I am so there.
I registered online and subscribed to the mag and was further impressed by their mission statement to only review and interview bands who are signed to Independent record labels or even unsigned. With a couple of labels featured including White Stripes and Dizzee Rascal's label XL and Mr Scruff's Ninja Tune records (my own personal favourite for those pathetic enough to care) I was impressed that around 95% of the artists featured are still relatively unknown past the band's girlfriends/parents/ people they have upset at bars when they didn’t realize it was live band night.
What really impressed me however was that they give the opportunity to download, for free, an entire collection of songs from different artists each month. This did excite me. I had this image of me writing reviews of these unknown artists each month, then a year down the line when the band have gone supernova and become the 'next big thing' and the lead singer is pictured holding Duffy's hand on the front cover of the News of the World, I can feel slightly smug about how I gave them a glowing review all those moons ago. So whose career am I going to give the boost it so desperately deserves. Cassetteboy, two lads from Bristol making experimental cut and paste sampling music, perfect here we go...
Listening to Cassetteboy is possibly one of the most migraine invoking waste of time I have ever experienced in my life which many a time has been wasted.
No no no gosh darn it that wasn't supposed to happen but I’m sorry but really it’s a comedy album, full of nob gags I might add, that gets tiring way before each song is finished never mind listening to 17 tracks of it. What consists of samples of speeches by Tony Blair, George Bush, various newsreaders all cut up to make them say things like "weapons of mass destruction are in Blackpool" or as simple as "I am a paedophile" may raise a smile every now and again but soon turns repetitive and has you screaming 'when are the actual songs going to appear?'
Also if I’m honest if you want to hear a cut job of Stephan Fry reading Harry Potter that has been turned into Hermione giving him oral sex (an actual track I assure you) the you are a grotesque ugly freak and I don’t want you reading this page anyway. Although saying that I they should receive some credit (or bravery points/sick evil human beings bonuses depending on how you look at it) for the track 'Di + Dodi Do Di' which is the usual cut and paste news cast sampling of the Princess Diana death to shocking effect, one line reads 'I always knew the Mercedes would kill her' used from three different voice clips, which apparently was made just weeks after her death.
Now I know it seems very harsh to praise a magazine for its determination to support independent music then lampoon it the first chance I get. Let me just then take this opportunity to praise Bearded for introducing me to Throwing Snow, who use banjos and a percussion which consists off the rattle of a spray can that I feel doesn't get used enough nowadays, and the funk/soul oddity that id Ratface, both can be found and downloaded through the website if you so wish to do so. But when it comes to Cassetteboy, no tunes, no reason to ever listen to them again, no point I’m afraid.
The signs were all there for a decent indie magazine. Obscure title meaning nothing to the content. Check. Front cover a drawing instead of an actually photo. Check. Made from recycled paper and struggling to make any money at all? Oh I am so there.
I registered online and subscribed to the mag and was further impressed by their mission statement to only review and interview bands who are signed to Independent record labels or even unsigned. With a couple of labels featured including White Stripes and Dizzee Rascal's label XL and Mr Scruff's Ninja Tune records (my own personal favourite for those pathetic enough to care) I was impressed that around 95% of the artists featured are still relatively unknown past the band's girlfriends/parents/ people they have upset at bars when they didn’t realize it was live band night.
What really impressed me however was that they give the opportunity to download, for free, an entire collection of songs from different artists each month. This did excite me. I had this image of me writing reviews of these unknown artists each month, then a year down the line when the band have gone supernova and become the 'next big thing' and the lead singer is pictured holding Duffy's hand on the front cover of the News of the World, I can feel slightly smug about how I gave them a glowing review all those moons ago. So whose career am I going to give the boost it so desperately deserves. Cassetteboy, two lads from Bristol making experimental cut and paste sampling music, perfect here we go...
Listening to Cassetteboy is possibly one of the most migraine invoking waste of time I have ever experienced in my life which many a time has been wasted.
No no no gosh darn it that wasn't supposed to happen but I’m sorry but really it’s a comedy album, full of nob gags I might add, that gets tiring way before each song is finished never mind listening to 17 tracks of it. What consists of samples of speeches by Tony Blair, George Bush, various newsreaders all cut up to make them say things like "weapons of mass destruction are in Blackpool" or as simple as "I am a paedophile" may raise a smile every now and again but soon turns repetitive and has you screaming 'when are the actual songs going to appear?'
Also if I’m honest if you want to hear a cut job of Stephan Fry reading Harry Potter that has been turned into Hermione giving him oral sex (an actual track I assure you) the you are a grotesque ugly freak and I don’t want you reading this page anyway. Although saying that I they should receive some credit (or bravery points/sick evil human beings bonuses depending on how you look at it) for the track 'Di + Dodi Do Di' which is the usual cut and paste news cast sampling of the Princess Diana death to shocking effect, one line reads 'I always knew the Mercedes would kill her' used from three different voice clips, which apparently was made just weeks after her death.
Now I know it seems very harsh to praise a magazine for its determination to support independent music then lampoon it the first chance I get. Let me just then take this opportunity to praise Bearded for introducing me to Throwing Snow, who use banjos and a percussion which consists off the rattle of a spray can that I feel doesn't get used enough nowadays, and the funk/soul oddity that id Ratface, both can be found and downloaded through the website if you so wish to do so. But when it comes to Cassetteboy, no tunes, no reason to ever listen to them again, no point I’m afraid.
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