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Well, I don’t really think I’ve got time to read any more books this year and I don’t feel like hurrying. So the final two books of 2008 are:
30. Tales Of Beedle The Bard by JK Rowling
31. The Secret Societies Handbook by Michael Bradley
32. Polluto: The Anti-pop Culture Journal – Issue One: Post-natal Depression and the Mysterons edited by Jeff Vandermeer
Not a bad tally this year with 2.5 books per month. Not my best, but a solid entry.
Happy New Year!
I know this is a fairly juvenile thing to post about for a 37 year old man, but some things never change… and probably won’t.
I’ve already posted about the guitar I’d be getting for Christmas and it was everything I thought it would be. I even tuned it with my handy little electronic tuner. The only thing that let me down was the carry case included with my guitar pack… didn’t fit my guitar. Not even close really. It was a case that’d fit the thinness of an electric guitar, but not the acoustic that I’ve got. I’ll be lodging a complaint with Amazon after Boxing Day is over. I also got a couple of guitar teaching books as well.
I got a couple of movies, one was more classical: The Taming of The Shrew, and the other more cheesical, Gabriel. I love me some Shakespeare and Taming is probably my favourite Comedy. And Gabriel is a drama/action movie about angels, fallen angels, and pseudo-biblical storylines; it’s a subject close to my heart. Not that I’m an angel, either fallen or not.
I got a few books, more than I was expecting and more books is better. I go through many books in a year and I live in inconstant fear that I’ll run out. I got a few books on secret societies, which I have an interest in. Not that I believe that they control the world, but anything with bizarre traditions and esoterica is cool. I love systems, you see. Anyway, they are The Secret History of the World, The Templars, and The Secret Societies Handbook. Maybe I’ll incorporate some of it into my outstanding writing projects… From my parents I got Nation by Terry Pratchett and Red Herrings and White Elephants, which is a book that explains the origins of everyday phrases.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare! Brill! With gold-edged pages! I think I’m going to read a play a month until I’ve read them all, which as a big fan of Shakespeare, I’m ashamed to say I’ve not done.
The last pair of books are those that NE got me, not really books, but more magazine. They are a couple issues of Polluto, 1 and 2! They are filled with New Weird stories. One of my favourite sub-sub-genres. Didn’t see that coming. I’m pleased as punch. 
G, my son, got me a Homer Simpson gift pack with a mug, a coaster, and a key ring. I’m going to take the mug and coaster to work to use proudly and I’m not sure what to do with the key ring yet. I’ve got two key rings attached to each other already… Maybe there’s room for another! 
I was in the Boy Scouts when I was younger. Made Eagle Scout as a matter of fact! So, it’ll come as no surprise that I wanted and received a genuine Victorinox Swiss Army Knife! Brilliant and so handy with all the functions.
I probably forgot something, but I always do, but we’re going on a nice Boxing Day walk right now. Happy New year to all you folks!
When I put books I’ve read up here, it’s more for my own record, but if you’re interested then you must like books…
29. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
I must apologise for the infrequency of my posting. I’d promised to post often and here it is that nearly five days has passed without one. What will my public say.
It’s been a terribly busy week with plenty of Christmas-related activities going on at work. Every year they serve up a Christmas dinner at work and every year I’ve been there (six in all now) I’ve missed out on it for some reason on or other. Either I’d taken extra holiday around Christmas or went over to America during that time or whatever. This year I missed out on free vittles for a Christmas play that G was doing for Home Ed group. It was worth it, of course, to be involved in what he’s doing and to spend extra time with my family. I’m always up for that.
NE and I have thoughts on all the Christmas dinner opportunities that come up at this time of year and we both agree. There should be one Christmas dinner or it loses its singularity of wonder. Some of the people I know at work will be having 3-4 Christmas dinners. I’m not a big fan of turkey anyway, but to have it three times in three weeks would have me seeking a replacement for the grand old bird of Christmas. Maybe goose or ostrich would like to audition. Being an American, there’s an additional Turkey-op and that’s Thanksgiving, which always occurs on the last Thursday in November. So, you can imagine that consuming what would amount to in individual portion to an entire 10lb turkey over a month, would give you a mild turkeyphobia.
So, along with goose for next year we currently have a few out of the ordinary culinary choices in regards to Christmas. We favour figgy pudding instead of Christmas pudding and chestnut stuffing instead of Paxo. This year we’ll be mixing chestnuts into the brussel sprouts. We’re even compromising our Christmas cake, adding extra nuts and fruit to it. More of an American fruit cake! Our ham (Nigella’s ham) is lovely and steals the Christmas show anyway. It’s boiled in red wine and spices. The meat comes out fragrant, tender, and subtly spiced.
Chestnutty disaster! I didn’t have an actual icecream maker recipe, so I tried to adapt a normal ice cream recipe and luckily I only ended up with an sweet eggy syrup to put in the bin. The actual chestnut puree was not, thank goodness, involved in the disaster and I was able to go on and make chestnut ice cream from a real ice cream maker recipe. It tasted of… chestnuts. Which may not sound that odd, but in ice cream there’s always the expectation of sweetness and this hadn’t much. I’m not sure if I like it, but it might grow on me. Maybe on meringues or with crushed up biscuits (cookies for all you Americans )
Next up for ice cream will be a kind that G will pick. For the moment he’s going for Pistachio, which is doable, but who knows what he’ll want when we get to the making of it.
We’re buying gifts and decorating and like. So, this is just a note to note a couple of books that I’ve read.
27. Night Of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont
28. The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick
My parents had given me a gift certificate at Amazon for Christmas and with most of it I got a guitar starter pack and a couple of books to guide me through learning to play on it. However, with that spent I had a little bit of money, which I didn’t know what to do with. I was going to get a game to play on boxing day, but I found out that games are expensive! The only thing I could afford was Scrabble and little G was not going to get much mileage out of that one! Next, I thought PEN! I get one every Christmas so that was logical… Then I thought, “I get one EVERY Christmas!” and now I have loads of nice pens that I don’t really use. Books! was another thought, but I rejected that as I looked at what they cost retail. Ridiculous, really. I’m in no hurry to read the latest books. I have plenty of time for them to go second hand.
I was at loose ends, I couldn’t think of what to get. Until it hit me like a flash… An Ice cream maker! I told NE about it and she scoffed a bit at buying a machine to do ice cream when we could do it by hand. I didn’t want to go through that amount of stirring or even cranking. I bought the ice cream maker anyway as it was my Christmas gift and the best gifts are ones which you want, but would never buy for yourself. It arrived with some recipes included and one of those had an ingredient that we just happened to have, peppermint essence. So, with double cream and fair trade chocolate purchased I made a batch of mint choc chip ice cream. It tasted lovely and we served it for my wife’s friend, S and his family when they came for Sunday lunch the next day and they confirmed that it was fab.
During the next week, I made blackberry ice cream with the blackberries that we picked during summer and froze for a future use. It was stunning and had us wondering why we ever paid for that vegetable oily crap that we pay for in the supermarket.
Next up we plan to do rum raisin ice cream with real rum and nice plump, sultanas and then for Christmas we’ll do Chestnut ice cream. Lovely!
Every year without fail the family and I go to our local Christmas Market. I don’t mean to be a Market-Snob, but the last few years the Market here has become more like a lowercase market. A place where merchants flog their tat; normal socks, handbags, purses, and other stuff that you wouldn’t give as a gift to someone you actually cared about. And an entire area of carnival rides! I know that people want something to occupy their kids. I’m one of them! However, the ride area had grown so that it took up half the market and there were carnival games as well. I’m a bit of a purist as far as a Christmas Market goes, which is odd, because I’d never been to one before I got to England.
Anyway… This year they promised to do better and consider the spirit of the Market. And lo and behold it was so! There were three rides, no carnival games and nearly all the tat was driven back to the carboot sale from whence it came. There were more cheese and alcohol, of which we bought the former, but not the latter. We’ll buy some port next week as there’s nothing like a glass of port and lemonade to say Christmas time.
We did end up riding one of the rides. The bumper cars. You might want to say dodge em’s here, but dodge implies some effort to avoid each other and this was nothing of the sort. This was BUMPer cars and this bone-jarring, whiplashing variety of entertainment was in full effect. G was stunned afterwards, but would later swear that he had loads of fun. I think that’s just something you say when the memory is too painful to bear.
All in all, it was the best Christmas Market yet. Roll on Christmas!
I’ll have to get this out of the way. I don’t, as a rule like Christmas movies. In fact, most of them I actively loathe. They are mawkish, saccharine, and gaudy appeals to the sugary side of the heart in a time of year when everything seems geared that way. If they were innocent in their intentions and were fairly appealing to our softer side instead of gripping it tightly in their Hollywoodian claws, then I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with them. Instead they are among the most cynical of movies, using sentimentality to cover the horrible plots, lack of acting and poor production values.
That said, NE, my wife, loves everything Christmas. Christmas movies are no exception. No matter how terrible the Christmas movie, she sees no reason not to view it at least once during December. She loves and owns such classics as Santa Claus: The Movie, The Santa Clause One, Two AND Three!, Christmas Vacation, Miracle on 34th Street (modern version) and the like…
Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate all Christmas movies. I quite like Scrooged and The Grinch who Stole Christmas is a childhood favourite. I can happily watch a Muppet Christmas Carol and I understand the ephemeral beauty of The Snowman. And NE loves these a lot as well, especially The Snowman.
And then there’s the parade of movies that are set at Christmas, but aren’t Christmas movies per se. Gremlins, Love Actually, and Die hard are a part of this list.
We’ve subscribed to Lovefilm for our DVD’s and I’ve had to make a list of Christmas movies to see during the Yule season. NE owns nearly every decent Christmas movie and I refuse to put any horrid, horrid movies on the list (that we’ve seen at least). This meant that Elf (shudder) or Jingle All The Way or any number of hideous choices were out. What I came up with was the following:
There’s some older films in there. We’ve never seen It’s a Wonderful Life and White Christmas is almost obligatory at some stage in one’s life. The Wiggles is there for the singing, Charlie Brown for sentimental reason, Extras because NE and I liked the TV series. Fred Claus and Xmas with the Kranks is there to fulfill the chaff content. Surviving Christmas because NE loves her some Ben “The Fleck” Affleck.
Wish me luck. My eyes may bleed a bit… Merry Christmas!
NE and I have been on a bit of a non-English movie kick of late. It all started when my friend P at work loaned me a box set of Guillermo Del Toro’s movies, well three of his movies. I’d already seen Pan’s Labyrinth and while I thought it was great, NE hated the downer of an ending. She said it tainted it and I have to agree to a certain extent. I don’t know if I’d ever watch it again, knowing what happens.
Anyway, I watched The Devil’s Backbone next and it was just brilliant without the bad ending to mar it. The characters were vibrant and nuanced and didn’t take a backseat to action. So two out of two were very good. Cronos was up next and while we found the characters were wonderful, the production quality seemed to be out of the 70’s or 80’s. It wasn’t too bad.
Around this time we signed up with lovefilm, an online movie rental place. So, we went for a bunch of non-english films at the top of our choice list. Films in German, French, and Spanish mainly. I put a lot of Almodovar’s films on the list, but surprisingly it was a french film that came up first. The Science of Sleep by Michel Gondry, which was weird and alright, but not great; a bit flat. Another French film followed that one in the form of Angel-A, which was one that I’d been looking forward to. It’s directed by Luc Besson who did the brilliant Fifth Element. The film itself was slow, but fascinating, really. I enjoyed it.
A Russian film was next in the form of the execrable Day Watch. I thought the first film was okay, not anywhere near the hype. Then I read the books by Sergei Lukyanenko and they were fab, much better than the movies.
Then we finally got our Almodovar film! Volver, one of his more recent films and one that shows that Penelope Cruz can actually act! A stunning thought. It’s another case of Hollywood giving a good actor nothing to do. Volver was a nice little story with well-drawn characters. I liked it, but didn’t love it.
In came a French thriller, Tell No One. I don’t like thrillers, really, but NE doesn’t mind them. So, she watched it and told me later that it was a decent example of thast kind of movie, but with better characterisation.
Within the last week we received a German film, which was a first. It’s called The Lives Of Others and it’s about “East Berlin, 1984. State Security begins surveillance on playwright and, on the surface at least, good socialist Georg Dreyman (Koch).” This is an excellent film with many levels that reveals much of the humanity of its subjects. I highly recommend this film.
