David Fincher will produce the movie. He said: “This is a movie about iconoclasts. It’s about youth and energy and anger and fulfilment. How could one not think of Fred Durst?”‘

Jesus. And I’ve told people that I have respect for Fincher. How will i ever leave the house again?

Fred says he’s been skating since 1978… hmmm…. maybe, just maybe we’ll get to see Fred rack himself rilly fuckin hard. that’d be worth buying the dvd for. i could watch that on repeat for days and it wouldn’t get old. and if it ever did get old, i’d come back about a week later and watch it, and it’d be like brand new again.

Aye, I went to see 24 Hour Party People on, err, let me think…Thursday! I was vaguely interested when I heard about it, slightly put off by Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridgeisms in the trailer and then swayed by mostly good reviews and wee stuart saying it was the most hilarious film he’s ever seen. Anyway, it’s about the rise and fall of Factory Records: Tony Wilson, Joy Division, Happy Mondays, The Hacienda and all that. It’s all filmed in day-glo fake documentary style which is equally amusing and annoying. It’s not a film to take too seriously as they certainly don’t take it seriously themselves, Tony Wilson often narrating the story and making asides to the audience, pointing out things that they’re exaggerating for the story. It still manages to deal with all the suicide, financial troubles, violence and failure in a non-jokey manner [mostly] and doesn’t make anyone out to be a hero, even Ian Curtis. Basically it’s an enjoyable romp through punk, rave and indie with the music at the forefront and it feels really good to have this stuff up there on the cinema screen. Our history and not our parents’. Must be even better if you used to go to the Hacienda and stuff. It does seem a bit crazy that they’re making a film about people who are mostly still alive and bands that are still going – I found myself getting quite annoyed that the actors didn’t look exactly like their real life counterparts but that’s unfair. I’m also not very good with real life stories – I keep hoping it’ll turn out differently and am then a bit upset when it doesn’t. So no surprises, Ian Curtis does kill himself, The Happy Mondays do bankrupt the label, the Hacienda does close down, but you’re still left feeling optimistic at the end. This stuff is important, that you set up labels wth your friends and release badly recorded records by local bands that lose you more money than you ever had and that it’s all more important than money, it’s about your friends. Awww. It’s also very funny and the music sounds fantastic. So, not life-changing but very enjoyable. I’d also like someone to write a hefty tome about the real story of Factory in the same way that David Cavanagh did for Creation. And speaking of Creation, I’m just dreading someone seeing this film and thinking, “let’s make ‘The Creation Records Story’ with crazy Alan McGee and Oasis!” Please no, that Paolo Hewitt book was bad enough.

In other news, there’s a new issue of the diskant ZINE up for your enjoyment. An All Tomorrow’s Parties special no less so go read.

And I’ve got a ticket to see Fugazi next month. Wooo!

So, Sunday then. First stop of the day was the Glasgow Film Theatre to see the Cinematic Orchestra playing a live soundtrack to the film Man With A Movie Camera, a silent black and white documentary filmed in the 1920s. It’s certainly something that should be done more often as I found it really exciting having a band playing right in front of me with odd shadows of equipment poking into the corners of the film. The film started up silent showing the opening of a cinema and the people streaming in and sitting down with the orchestra preparing to play and when the onscreen orchestra started (silently, obviously) the real Cinematic Orchestra started playing. That was my favourite bit really. Not that the rest of it was a letdown, the band managing to compliment the images without ever trying to outdo them. Advertised as a jazz collective and playing for the most part jazz, they did also have a dj/electronic element which I particularly enjoyed, bringing in samples of strings and the odd bit of scratching. The film was a marvel though and a real document of its time [1920s Russia]. It was almost as if they’d attempted to document absolutely everything that ever happens around them so we got the whole scope of local people at work and play, marriage, death, birth, accident, sleep, travel, holidays but most interestngly for me all the workings of the factories and the trams and buses. It also had two different viewpoints: one man filming stuff and another one filming him dragging his camera around the most precarious places. Watching someone set up their camera on the outside of a very tall tower or in the depths of a mine was certainly fun. I don’t imagine I’ll ever need to see the film again but I hope to see this kind of event being repeated.

Intellectual culture fix over (only kidding) I went to see Arab Strap and Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai in a very nice church in the east end. I’d arranged to meet Chris in the old 13th Note and was struck with horror the minute I walked through the door. Gone were the scruffy locals with their sticky pints and spicy chips listening to unlistenable music on badly recorded cassettes. Instead it was full of trendy overenthusiastic girls holding drinks with straws while their boyfriends drank american branded beer. There was a fruit machine in the corner! The noticeboard promised a ‘new menu’, no doubt free of pesky vegan politics. That was the longest ten minutes of my life as I mourned the death of a place I loved more than any other. Look after your local venues people before you lose them. Once I manage to work out where the hell they’ve set up the new West 13th venture I shall be going to give them any spare money I have in return for sticky pints and badly recorded music.

But anyway, foul-mouthed scots performing in a church. How did they get that one past the vicar? At least they were all being relatively quiet, this being an acoustic show. Wee Stuart was up first, just him with his guitar and orange amp. He started with a cover and then worked his way beautifully through Mogwai’s vocal moments: Cody sounding lovely as always and Tuner bringing the usual tear to my eye. They should bring it back into the Mogwai live set now. Stuart was in his usual chuckling mood, slagging sponsors Tennants and giggling to himself. He attempted to sing a song by The Cure but gave up and shouted for Aidan Strap to come onstage and sing it with him which he did rather well. Then we got a medley of Take Me Somewhere Nice and Secret Pint with Stuart’s vocals sounding really confident and strong before he finished on a rather apt cover of Lord Can You Hear Me by Spacemen 3. Go the wee man.

I’ve now seen Arab Strap live three times, once as a fantastic rowdy bunch of fools, once as a rather dull keyboards and rant thing and now in a church with acoustic guitar, violin and cello, the odd battering from a drum machine and Aidan’s rueful tales of life. They were really rather stupendous, managing to be downbeat, funny, ramshackle and heartfelt all at the same time. They played lots of songs, most of which I didn’t recognise due to the fact that I appear to have never bought a single record by Arab Strap. I think I might rectify that soon. Free exclusive 5 track cd as well, available at an eBay near you soon.

Got to say a couple of words in praise of the Edinburgh Film Festival Early Spring thing. Some fine fine films that there’s still time to see (esp if you’re in London) but aren’t going to get released in this country. Lantana is set in Sydney, a murder mystery with a nice meandering feel and flawed, believable characters. I was even more impressed with Les Blessures Assassines (or Murderous Maids if you prefer) and have to use words like gritty, realist and ouch to describe it. It’s like Heavenly Creatures without the fluffy bits and its take on served/servant relations makes Gosford Park look like, ooh, a tedious and mannered waste of celluloid.

Consumer Protection Warning: I’ve seen an advert for Trouble Every Day, Vincent Gallo’s new film, and it’s claiming to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Deep Throat. That’s bollocks: it’s a vampire film with sex in it, directed by a French arthouse darling. That makes it The Hunger with less shoulderpads, less Bowie, less dialogue, more moodily framed shots, more meaningful looks, and a soundtrack by the Tindersticks. It’s a good film but don’t go expecting Buffy Does Dracula (that’s still in pre-production).

i saw monsters inc. last night. it’s really good, hmmm, but i didnt think as good as either of the toy story movies. but don’t get me wrong, it’s still great. also quite worrying was the fact that there were bigger laughs during the ‘out-takes’ section during the credits than the rest of the film, so if you go see it, make sure you stay til the end. but yeah, check it out, deffo.

i’ve been on an excitement fest this past week. well, by my standards, anyways. on thursday i met up with marceline in london to go see trail of dead. i also met david for the first time. surprisingly, pie was eaten. trail of dead were fantastic. i’d not seen them since Reading 2000. damn, that seems so long ago. lesson learned that day: don’t trust rock stars to pass messages on for you. i’m sure marceline will have more elaborate tales of rock on the TOD front, so i’ll not go on about it.

last night i saw ghostworld, and you know, it’s as good as everyone else said it was. the reason i’m seeing it so late is because my local odeon only show non-blockbuster types on special screening events. it’s been southend projection month or something these last few weeks. ghostworld, unfortunately, is the last in the series, but i did see the pledge with jack nicholson the other week, which was equally good – a touching story with a surprising ending. jack was on top form.

i’ve also been making a skateboarding video on a digital camera which has been fun.

and today is my birthday. so yay. i’m Getting Old too. i give up.

heh

i went to see amelie yesterday, free ticket clutched in my paw, only to find it was full. still, i did manage to get abused by what i loosely refer to as ‘skaters’ when i came drove down their ramp in my car. i wouldn’t have minded, but honestly – get off the rollerblades and get yourself a fucking skateboard. then i won’t try to run you down. fuckers.

I went to see My Neighbour Totoro yesterday and it was the best thing I’ve seen in ages. Japanese anime but the charmingly cute kind. Basically the story of 2 sisters who move to a new house in the country where they wait for their mother to be allowed out of hospital. And they discover all these spirits of the forest: sooty dustbunnies in the attic and a family of Totoro in the forest who live in a camphor tree. There’s two little Totoro who collect acorns and a big enormous Totoro who appears at various times and helps the older sister Satsuki to find her little sister Mei when she gets lost. There’s just lots of really funny bits and the big Totoro has the most fantastic beaming grin. There’s also a huge fluffy catbus with torchlight eyes which the Totoro travel on. And the animation looked amazing and really brightly coloured. I just loved it all. I want a Totoro now!

I went to see Lord of the Rings last night on Simon’s recommendation. I’d been quite keen on the idea of it about eight months ago but once all the hyper-publicity got going it went a bit ‘just another Hollywood blockbuster’ in my eyes. I should maybe mention here that I’ve never read Lord of the Rings and the nearest I get to fantasy is Star Wars and the Narnia books, having as I do a horror of faeries and goblins and all that nonsense. However, I was drawn in really quickly and found myself totally believing it: because they’ve made the film in such a historical way it’s as easy to believe in as cavemen and dinosours [heh, dinosours, they’d be a new type of sour fizzy sweet in the shape of a dinosaur], dinosaurs and giant squid. They just managed to keep away from most of the cliches of fantasy stuff like magic potions and talking trees and instead focused on the characters who acted for the most part like humans, having no supernatural powers [except for the power of good etc.]. And though the story was basically a group of good people delivering an important item to a faraway place while hordes of bad people tried to kill them and take it, every new event still felt exciting as they travel through some of the most astounding locations imaginable. That’s the other strength of the film, that they mostly use real locations with the CGI effects used only to add spectacular and believable touches or to build the complex cities. There was a slight reliance on near death [every good character nearly dies about 12 times in the film] and knife edge thin pathways for thrills but it sure worked. The one thing that would have made the film better would have been to not have a ten minute intermission half way though. I’m sorry, but are they allowed to do this? I know it’s a long film but it totally broke my concentration and reminded me that it’s not real. I’d definitely recommend you go see it soon, not least because it won’t look even half as good on your little tv screen.

There’s also something to be said for walking home at night eating half a packet of LoveHearts so thanks to Orange Splifffish for those. Let’s hope your demo is better than your name but at least you have good taste in confectionary bribery.

I went to see Mulholland Drive last night with Chris and his friend whose name I don’t want to spell wrongly. I really liked the film but the idea was initially supposed to be for a tv series and I think that’s the major flaw in the film. Everything happens too fast and it’s all a bit too condensed. There’s all these great characters that you don’t get introduced to properly and who only get maybe one proper scene before they disappear and they could have almost been the main character in the film. Even the actual main three characters you don’t feel you get to know much about them. I just felt that almost everything in the film could have been built up into something much longer and when it finished I was kind of expecting more. But other than that there’s some really beautifully shot bits and it’s intriguing and as long as you don’t struggle to keep hold of everything so you can feel clever when it all starts to tie together at the end then it’s really enjoyably odd and a bit scary.

Also nice to know that it takes 18 minutes to walk from the 13th Note to the GFT as long as you don’t mind tearing some ligaments.

When I got home I found a newly-delivered box of Careless Talk Costs Lives magazines sitting on my bed. It weighs an absolute ton and must have cost a fortune to post. I was too tired to think of opening it though so opinions will come later.