Christmas seems to be going on a long time this year. There’s talk of a white Christmas. Look at the weather forcast bozos. It’s sunny! Last week at work we had a Christmas meal so we went home early, plus they were handing out mince pies and mulled wine. Today there are people singing carols while I am at work which means free food (and wine) at lunchtime and no work getting done. At the moment some kids are doing a play which sounds bad to be honest but it’s better than work. Tomorrow we have a buffet lunch then its off to the pub, and then no work for 11 days. Maybe Christmas isn’t so bad.
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It’s Christmas, Christmas, Christmas time.
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A Clockwork Orange
I watched Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange on Saturday night. It was a really interesting film. I really hate it when people give the game away with film reviews and tell you the ending, or something important that happens so I will try hard not to do that. In fact I also don’t like reviews that make you want to watch a film that turns out to be awful. I think the point in a review is to tell people enough about the film to help them decide for themselves if they will like it.But first, some background information. A Clockwork Orange was banned quite soon after its release. People assume that this was becasue of the violence in the film, but as usual, people are wrong. The film was actually withdrawn by Kubrick himself, who never gave the reason for doing this, although it is suspected that it is down to the number of people imitating things that are in the film.
For this reason a lot of people condem this film, when there are plenty of other films around that are just as violent, if not more so (Reservoir Dogs for example). I think maybe another mistake a lot of people make is turning off the film before they get to the end. The end is definately what makes the film worth watching. If you decide to watch this, watch it to the end.
But at the moment we are still concerned with the question, do I want to watch this film at all. Well if you can’t watch violence, the answer is no. If you like happy endings the answer is also no. If you love the government, I would also suggest that you won’t love this film. If you like a lot of action and no plot, then you might as well stop reading this now.
However if you like a film which keeps you engaged with a good story, highly stylised filming and lighting and compelling characters, then you might well like it.
Alex and his droogs use a language, called in the book, Nadsat. This is another detail which makes the film interesting to listen to as well as watch. It’s a bit like watching Lock Stock, or Snatch, where you are trying to work out what the slang means as you are watching it. Infact, go here and have a look at all the weird words.
The other really interesting thing is the music. Alex has an obsession with Beethoven and consequently there is a lot of “Ludwig Van” in the film, but there is also a lot of other music in the film as well, and the way it is used is really good. Often the music in films is kind of unobtrusive and hence unnoicable. Kubrick manages to choose music which somehow works however strange it might look, once again every similar to Reservoir Dogs (I’ll review that sometime.)
There is a lot of attention to detail in the film which really makes it stand out. The only critisicms that I have seen of it are that it looks a bit dated. In most of the film I don’t think this is true. There are a few scenes where the effects look fake – like the car scene, and Kubircks idea of what things will be like in th future is definatley dated – all in one cat suits, sleeping pods, micro cassette players and mirrors everywhere, but aside from this it just looks really good.
I’ll leave it up to you then…
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The shortest day.
This is an old picture. I think it’s from Januray 2003. It’s on this website somewhere but you’ll never find it – even if I tell you where.
So, it’s the shortest day. This is good. From tomorrow the evening will be getting lighter again. There’s still a lot more winter to come – about 2 months by my reckoning, but now at least we are on the way back to summer, something to look forward to. If that doesn’t give you motivation to dig then you must have had your trails plowed recently – almost everyone has.It’s pretty miserable at the moment though. The time is five to four and it looks almost dark outside. I think the office windows are slightly tinted though – i think it is not properly dark until about 4:30.
The air is cold and it’s blowing through my bones.
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New Indoor Skatepark
Go here and fill out the form if you want a new indoor skatepark in the south east. And lets face it who doesn’t. Random bmx has a new look. It seems that they found a full pipe somewhere near dartford. Eyes peeled. While I am at it, I3mx has an update or too as well so get over there. Coming soon… A day (off) in the life of a trails builder. Also coming soon a film review, and if you pester Seb, a juice review. But now it’s time for bed.
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Sprocket Grinding
I like Sprocket Grind. I think it is a very good website. Their trails also got plowed, so they have my deepest sympathy. If you want to get in the website click the window on one of the houses. Go there now.
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No updates – digging.
There haven’t been any updates for a while, but if this isn’t a good enough reason then I don’t know what is.
Becky did her hair nicely
I have a boiler suit to dig in. It makes me boiling hot.
The banks have almost burst. Another foot and the trails will flood. And it’s still raining.
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Seb the madman
This is seb at Barmouth. I still haven’t put the xc fun weekend pictures up yet. Toooooo busy. Anyway this was a highlight. Seb was wearing a girls scarf and mittens and this coach load of old people turned up, so we started taking pictures of them like we were the paparatzi. They were loving it, waving and smiling. It was quite funny. Then they drove off and we waved to them and they waved back. Seb – put up one of the pictures you took. -
Send me your phones
I don’t have a mobile phone. I lost the sim card. It doesn’t really bother me not having a mobile, but it seems to bother a lot of my friends, so if you have an old sim card then send it this way please.or if you’ve got an old phone that doesn’t work any more I can take that off you hands too. I am operating a scrap phones yard. i have lots of broken old phones and I can pick good bits off them to build good new ones. So, old phons this way too. One like this would be nice, but I am not fussy.
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Swanley
I also went to Swanley at the weekend. I was the only one there on a Saturday. It was getting dark and I was trying 270 tyre taps on this hip.
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Westkingsdown Skatepark
From Random Bmx:
Just got some info and a new park Kevin Garwood has been building…
“West Kingsdown skatepark, it’s been open for the last couple of weeks… The park is real small, but it’s got a loada stuff crammed in, nice volcano, few quarters, wallrides, driveway/grind box, hip line, and a box/sub-box/mellow quarter type thing there, so it’s all good and rideable! ”
I went to this skatepark at the weekend. There are some good things about it and some bad things. The street spine was really nice, and it was fun to just air the quater, do the spine, tyre tap and go back. Next to this line is a 5ft lip and 6ft platform box, which is probably 6-8 ft long. It is really big and has a trany landing which is great, but it’s just too big for me to be able to get the speed. Also if you can get the speed you are shot into a small quater which is very hard to air at that speed so it’s brakes time. As you can probably see from the pictures, the ramps are very close together which means you can’t fit those pedal strokes in.
The other side of the park is driveways and stuff to keep the skaters out of the way, which is good. Also there is an inset quater which is good for walltaps, which I can’t do. The hip is fun but thin if you want to do it regular. In fact it seems that most of the park is built from someone that rides left foot forwards. The ramps are well built though and ride nicely. The transitions are good and well finished and it all feels right.
Here is some tricks. Air, Someone who could actually clear the box, and a trye tap which is harder than it looks from this angle.
scruffian 