The Blogger's Guide to The Galaxy

31 Jan 2007

What a tough day. Need a holiday...

So here I am, beer in hand, ready to embark on another marathon blog that about three people in the world will read. Oh well.

Hmm, what's new in my world? Well, for a start, I haven't logged my expenses yet, I haven't written the life-changing novel I've been promising to write for years, I haven't booked in my car for a service, I haven't booked our honeymoon yet, and I certainly haven't had time to play games for what seems like ages.

What I have managed to do though, is revisit some old friends. Not real friends you see, rather wee nuggets from the past in the form of my "All-Time Favourite Cartoon," Ulysees 31, and another blast from the past in the form of Rocky Balboa.

Anyway, this nice chap from work has lent me the box set of Ulysees, with all 6000 episodes on it. I've managed to watch the one, and I've left the box on the telly, in the vain hope that it will encourage me to watch more. Sadly, though, it's dawning on me that I'm actually going to be seeing more of Eastenders, than this classic cartoon. The first episode brought back a few happy memories, and a few unwelcome facts that I'd somehow forgotten over time. Firstly, the animation is shocking. It's one of those cartoons where there's about six characters in any one shot, but the only thing that's actually moving is the jaws of the characters in dialogue, and even then, they look as if they're dubbed. That's the main problem. Well, the only problem really, as the rest of it was as good as I'd remembered.

For those of you (he muses, pretending there's a captive audience out there somewhere) who don't know the series, it's about the captain of a large ship, called the Odyssey. They leave the planet Troy on a routine mission to Earth, and end up routinely killing the Cyclops and accidently angering Zeus in the process. Zeus punishes Ulysees by sending his crew to sleep, until he manages to find the underworld of Hades. Cue big voyage through space, some cracking rock music torn kicking and screaming from a Deep Purple MKII drunken jam session, and some moral lessons thrown in. Miss this at your peril, but bear with the ropey animation.
I can't not mention The Chronicles of Narnia here. That's one thing that didn't translate well into adulthood. A year or so ago, I ventured into 'smiths to pick up The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, due to the hype surrounding that film. I spent about five years of my life, re-reading the whole series between Famous Five novels and the Roald Dahl books, which I loved. TLTWATW (found in the kids section, I might add) just seemed so kiddified compared to books like The Lord of Rings and the Pullman books. I still started to watch the film a few months later, and managed about 45 minutes of the film before I switched off, even though there was nothing else to watch. It was shocking too. Hope no-one wastes their time and money making another one. Quite sad really.

Anyway, back to the present. Last week, a friend of mine took advantage of the "Orange Wednesday" deal at Guildford Odeon, and off we trotted (well, if I'm honest, caned it down the M25 to get there before the film started) to see Rocky Balboa. I wasn't really expecting much, so I wasn't disappointed. What I encountered was a surprisingly charming effort from Stallone, and I came away unexpectedly nostalgic about the series. Sure, the script is utter trash, the acting little better, and one-liners that were more tragic than funny, but when the theme music came on when the 56 year old (ahem) Rocky starts punishing the meat in his training schedule, you're reminded of how inspiring the Rocky formula has been, and made me yearn for those simpler times. Not for Rocky V though, that was sh*t. You can certainly do a lot worse than a Rocky film.

I was on TV the other day. How fun. I nearly crapped in my pants though.
Better go soon, I think I'm starting to get RSI. I was shocked to find that someone had sent me a gift through the post yesterday that wasn't a videogame. It was series four of Family Guy (thanks Keith!). I'd mentioned once lunch that I hadn't seen the series and someone thought I needed educating. Aside from some very obviously American political injokes, I found it really funny, so that's another thing on the 'must watch this year' pile.

And finally, I got The Secret of Crickley Hall for Christmas. It's another large hardback book from James Herbert that will take me six months of reading for ten minutes before bedtime. I'm about 7 pages in, but got told today that it's rubbish. They then gave it 2/10. What do I do now? Do I read it, fully expecting it to be sh*t, or do I cut my losses and pick up something else? No, I shall embark on Day 26 of my honeymoon research before the nervous breakdown kicks in.

Or perhaps, I'll just sleep. Good night.