I wonder if this painting has anything to do with Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi? If anyone knows please post a comment (as if anyone ever reads this blog), while I try and find a book about Ernst somewhere.

First edition cover of Ubu Roi, 1896:

Throne of Blood:

and My Neighbour Totoro:

in the last couple of days, all of which were pretty excellent. The Totoro trailer makes it look a bit stupid, but it was actually rather good; a bit more on the side of an out and out kids film than Spirited Away was, but heartwarming fun nonetheless. Throne of Blood is extremely atmospheric and spooky; whereas some of Kurosawa’s other historical dramas are pretty straightforward realism/with elements of myth, this one is pretty supernatural. Interestingly, Washizu, the stand-in for Macbeth, is brought down more by paranoia than ambition, due mostly to Asaji (Lady Macbeth), his wife, and her manipulation of his fear of betrayal; he seems to betray to avoid being betrayed, rather than because he really wants to become the ruler of “Cobweb Castle.” Best character in it is the witch, the scenes with her are pretty dang freaky. Three Colours Red was great too, although I think my favourite in the series has been Three Colours White.

My other recent time consumer, other than applying for jobs, has been Minecraft. I’m not really sure what to say about it; Heather assures me that it’s very boring to watch me play it, and a lot of it just seems to be endless digging through walls, but I love it. My heart leaps whenever I come across an underground cavern, diamonds, or (I discovered my first one today!) a dungeon with a chest. I can’t wait until the complete game comes out. The only problem is that it’s very difficult to think of things that no one else has built; some of the videos on Youtube of people’s creations are insane, and whenever I think of something that might be cool I look it up, and inevitably it’s already been thought of. Still, I have built a very nice windmill with a red roof. Video unrelated:

Here’s some examples of this song’s use as a sample, in order of how well I think it was used; it’s interesting that, in different ways, each of these subsequent producers have kind of gone with the same theme and attitude of defiance as the original song, as well as borrowing that distinctive riff:

Nas’s usage is probably the most well known, although in my opinion it’s probably the least effective; although that may because I love the Geedorah track and I have a soft spot for anything the RZA does.

Topical Budget newsreel:

Footage of Scott’s trip to the South Pole:

Jack Cardiff – Temples of India:

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog, and last time I updated it was the first time in a long time; but I have a month free of part time job responsibilities, and I’ve given myself at least a week off from uni work (although I have to get on with applying to jobs), so I’m going to at least try and get a few entries in before my time is completely eaten up again.

Since last time I posted I’ve taken up the position editor of the newly created creative section over at Durham student magazine The Bubble. It’s fairly exciting, if time consuming, and there’s been some really good submissions so far; I’d post some here, but I don’t want to show any favouritism (not that anyone is even aware that I have this blog), so go and peruse at will.

OFWGKTA:

Anyway, I’ve been in worse places.

I also went and saw Travesties at the DST, which was pretty good. I mean, the writing was excellent, being Tom Stoppard and all, and the acting was decent (although it did seem to take the actors 10 minutes or so of being on stage before acting properly), but I wasn’t massively keen on some of the stage direction. However, what really annoyed me, as usual, was “other people”. The problem with going to see student theatre is that the audience have a vested interest in appearing to enjoy themselves – that is to say, they want to support their friends, and they obviously take some genuine extra enjoyment out of seeing someone they know act like someone else. However, this leads to all sorts of overacting in the audience – for example, the dude sitting in front of me laughed in the most affected way imaginable, at the most inappropriate times, which was pretty irritating.

Tonight Heather and I are going to see Belle and Sebastian, with full orchestra. I’m really excited – I think I’ve only ever been to one sit down gig before, which was one of the first gigs I ever attended (RHCP), and it was completely lame (which may have had something to do with it being RHCP). However, I think sitting down will really suit the music and the experience, plus years of going to gigs has somewhat jaded me to the appeal of standing for hours and jumping up and down.

Portrait of Tristan Tzara (one of the characters in Travesties and a founder of Dada) by Lajos Tihanyi, 1927: