2012 and all that

It's a new year and I don't have a hangover which is good.  I've been busy with work and I've had a bad viral infection since just before Christmas so I've not had much time or energy to update this blog.  I have done one or two interesting things that I may write about in due course but I didn't really manage to do the regular update thing over the last month or so.  I decided just to spend new year with  my family because I couldn't be bothered with Glasgow at the height of winter alcohol fuelled madness.

The past year has been busy.  I've been working in a clinical job for most of the year after spending two and a half years doing medical research.  I've been running a ward, seeing referrals and working in clinics.  I've learnt a lot and hopefully I've helped a couple of patients.  Hopefully all of this will make me a better doctor.  I've spent 11 months living in the hospital because I work 80 miles away from where I live.  The room in the hospital is a dump but it's what I need to do just now.  I should rotate back to a hospital closer to home later this year.

In a way it's good to be away from home because I have a massive leak in the roof of my flat.  One of the problems with being a flat owner in Scotland is that you need to deal with a factor who is responsible for building maintenance.  Unfortunately the factor for my  building is useless.  These arseholes are not legally regulated so they can get away with doing absolutely fuck all while charging victims lots of money.  Bastards.

So it's a new year and new stuff will happen.  Everyone will get older and the world will keep turning.  Enjoy it folks!

Addendum to Grant Hart, Live at Mono, Glasgow

I seem to be getting a lot of hits on the gig review I wrote about Grant Hart at Mono last week.  As I said, the poor bloke looks like he's a bit unwell and a bit skint.  After the show I bought a couple of his recent albums.  Hot wax was his most recent studio album, recorded with members of Gedspeed You! Black Emperor.  It's a good record that's well worth some of your hard earned cash.  I also picked up the Oeuvrevue compilation album that I'm listening to as I type.  It's fairly solid and it has a nice version of 'no promise have i made' by Husker Du on it.

I also bought a few mp3s from Amazon.  You can't get intolerance  on CD at the moment but you can get individual tracks.  2541  is a great track and you should own it.

It's not easy for American musicians to get health care so think about it and pay for some music to perhaps help someone  who's down on their luck.

Green Lantern - DVD review

I used to read Green Lantern comics when I was younger.  I liked them.  I was less impressed by this film.  It's a bit of a turkey really, nearly as bad as the Fantastic Four films.  Not too good.

Avoid.

Grant Hart - live at Mono, Glasgow

I went to see Grant Hart at Mono last night.  I've been listening to Husker Du since I was about 12 and 'never talking to you again' is one of my favourite songs ever.  I loved seeing him play but it was heartbreaking to watch.  He does not look very well.

I'm not sure who the support act was.  He sounded like a one-man-band playing the Ramones.  It was OK but I don't think I'd rush to hear him again.

Grant came on and he looked terrible.  Even from 20 metres away I could see that he is jaundiced.  He looked worse later on when I bought a single from him after the show.  His teeth are a mess.  As a doctor this was sad to see.  I've worked in a few Glasgow hospitals and I've seen a lot of people in liver failure and you don't want to see a musical hero like this.  I don't know if it's viral hepatitis from when he was injecting drugs or if it's booze or if it's cancer but Grant Hart looks like a very sick man.  As a musician in America I don't think he has a health care plan and I strongly suspect he isn't getting much in the way of Husker Du royalties.  Poor bloke.

The sound in Mono was not great but Hart shone despite the sonic problems.  His voice continues to be great and he ran through his back catalogue playing requests as people shouted them out.  He played his songs from Husker Du including She floated away, Books about UFOs, Pink Turns to Blue and Sorry somehow.  He played my personal favourite never talking to you again as well as stand-out solo tracks like 2541 and Admiral of the sea  by Nova Mob.  He kept going for nearly 2 hours.  It was great to see.

I am worried about him.  He looks very sick and I hope he is getting decent medical attention.  I hope his health improves and he keeps going. 

Exit wounds by Rutu Modan - at the Plan B Graphic Novel book group

I made it along to this months book group and we were talking about Exit Wounds, a book that I wrote about when I read it in 2007 (see here).  I had to re-read the book because I didn't really remember it and thankfully it's a pretty smooth read and I got through it in about an hour.

Exit wounds is a beautiful book to look at.  The art is clean and it flows well.  I've been re-reading Tintin recently and the Herge influence is clear.  Some people felt that the simplicity of the faces in the book made it difficult to gage the emotions that characters were expressing but generally most people liked the art.

The story proved slightly more problematic for some people.  A few expressed the opinion that it didn't really go anywhere while some were struck by the 'kitchen-sink' reality of the story.  There is a big hole in the book as we never meet the absent father who is the McGuffin of the book.  His absence is a real feature of the book.  I have a theory that the titular 'Exit wounds' are the psychic wounds that the father creates as he leaves the lives of the various  women he has relationships with.

Again, this is a book that I would recommend to people.  It is an easy read if not a great read.  It's enjoyable but it's not a masterpiece.

NEDS - DVD review

I approached Neds with trepidation.  I was born in Glasgow, I grew up in Lanarkshire, I went to school with a lot of neds and I own a flat in Glasgow.  I didn't see this film in the cinema because I thought it would attract a dodgy crowd.  I've finally caught up with it on DVD.

I think it's a good film, possibly even a great film, but it could be difficult to follow if you don't speak the language.  It follows a young boy as he finishes primary school where he has academically excelled and starts  secondary school where he falls in with a bad crowd.  Outside school he starts to hang out with a bad crowd and get into trouble.

I recognised the characters and situations in this film.  I've seen people end up like the characters in this film.  It was very real to me and at times very upsetting.  On a personal level, I've been threatened with a knife, kicked in the head and I've had my carry out stolen from me.  I know how all that feels although I'm lucky that I've gotten away from it.  I felt that Peter Mullan and his actors have created a great film that is fairly true.

As I watched the film I was struck by a real feeling that if I have children I would want to avoid them putting up with all that sort of shit.  I guess that means moving to the country or something.  The events dramatised in this film still go on in Glasgow and other Scottish towns on a weekly basis.  Our society is fucked up.  If you disagree, read the newspapers or the BBC website.

The film ends ambiguously but it's a good ending.  You can pick your own ending.  I hope that the main character did well after all of this.  Having read other reviews on the internet I know a lot of people didn't like him but I hope he gets a second chance.

This is a story about how your environment fucks you up.  Well worth seeing.  Use subtitles if you need to.

The Adventures of Tintin - movie review

Tintin is another comic book that I read a lot as a child.  I learned to read with Tintin and Asterix books.  As an adult I guess that I enjoy the Asterix books a bit more.  Some of the early Tintin books were a bit racist which made them less readable. 

Despite these misgivings I was keen to see the film.  It has a great pedigree, directed by Steven Speilberg with a script by modern British writers such as Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish.  The voice talent was impressive too with strong turns from Jamie Bell as Tintin and Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock.

The look of the film is consistent with the comics.  The CGI motion capture is unobtrusive and not too much like a computer game.  The characters look like their comic book ancestors while moving like people.

The story is OK, mixing elements from several of the Tintin books.  It works for the most part.  I was slightly annoyed by some deviations from the original stories but on the whole I enjoyed it.  I might even go and see this again in the cinema.

Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser

Flashman is a 1969 novel written by George MacDonald Fraser.  The eponymous antihero of the book, Harry Flashman, is based on a charcter from the novel Tom Brown's Schooldays.  In this book, the first of a series of 13, we are introduced to Flashman who is a complete arsehole. 

He is a coward, a bully, a rapist and a racist.  He does several very unpleasant things during the story.  As he is the first person narrator of the story you are drawn in by him a bit but generally he is a difficult character to like.  The historical detail in the novel is good.  This book is based on historical events during the British occupation of Afghanisthan between 1839-1842 and there are certain resonances with current events.

This book can be enjoyed despite the flaws of Flashman.  I will probably read some of the other books in the series in due course.

Soylent Green - DVD review

I first saw Soylent Green on BBC2 a long long time ago.  It was shown as part of a series of cult movies.  I can't remember who presented the series but I greatly enjoyed the film.  It's frequently referenced in popular culture (the Simpsons) and while it looks a bit dated it's still good fun.

Soylent Green is based in the dystopian future of New York in 2022 (not long now).  The world is vastly overpopulated and running out of food.  People survive on protein pills made from SOYa and LENTils.  The protein pills come in different colours (red, blue, green).  Charlton Heston stars as a police detective investigating the death of an executive who works for the Soylent company.

The dystopia is well realised.  People litter the streets, living in stairwells.  Strawberries cost 150 dollars for a jar. The main character has never seen beef.  Rich men live with concubines called 'furniture'.  The film immerses you in this world.

Heston investigates the murder and finds out some shocking secrets.  The film is crying out for a remake but I don't know if it would works as well.  Worth tracking down.

The Girl who kicked the hornets nest - DVD review

This is the third in the series of Swedish language adaptions of the novels of Stieg Larsson.  In some ways I enjoyed the film more than the book.  The slightly wayward plot of the book has been edited down for some slightly more punchy storytelling.  Having said that, 140 minute Swedish courtroom dramas are not really 'punchy' by their very nature.

I always like Swedish films because I love the scenery and I love Stockholm.  The story is involving enough if you have seen the earlier films or read the books.  I have to admit that I did get a bit of an air-punching buzz every time one of the many bad guys met their fates.

A decent film but only if you have watched the first two.