Project 365 Redux: 13th Jan 2013 - Back To Back To The Future

A glorious few hours of entertainment this.  Perhaps I'd have been better served not starting past 11pm mind as I was struggling towards the end but all the same, I do love these films.

Three films. No time saved watching them all.

Just to keep those of you who have never seen any of these films before, here's a real quick synopsis *:

Back to the Future: A youthful and Parkinson's free Michael J Fox is friends with a crazy haired Christopher Lloyd who has invented a time machine. Mr J Fox goes back in time, nearly bumps uglies with his mother, thus nearly destroying the space/time continuum. Happily, he gets things back on track with his parents, thus ensuring that he is born and then gets back to his own time by nearly frying Mr Lloyd on a clock tower.

Back to the Future 2: Mr J Fox is at it again, on this occasion heading forwards into the future to solve yet more time-related trauma that will affect him/his family/Cliff Richard. There is a hoverboard involved, which most people of my age are particularly bitter about as it still hasn't been invented yet. We were promised hoverboards!  Where are they?!?

Back to the Future 3: Wild West time on yet another cross-time caper for Mr J Fox (who should really have found a cure for Parkinson's in the second movie - opportunity missed) to rescue Mr Lloyd who is stuck in the past. Hoverboards feature prominently, as do many Wild West cliches. It all ends well though. Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers is in the film, as well as ZZ Top (which, given the state of them, may well actually be their first recorded concert spliced in with the feature film).

* Disclaimer: synopsis may not be accurate.

A bit knackering but I'll never want those hours back unless it was to watch them over again.

Project 365 Redux: 12th Jan 2013 - Midnight Snackage

Bit of a dull one.  Well, it wasn't for me because I was there. To read about, it's like watching paint dry.

Midnight snackage with the beautiful lady in my life, sneaking around the house like a child. Like the Famous Five but with two people.  The Boo Boo to my Yogi Bear only with some orange juice and Ritz crackers instead of picnic baskets.

I have no idea where we got those Chinese people from. Or where I got that hat.

So yeah, happy couple being happy. Dry your eyes...

Project 365 Redux: 11th Jan 2013 - The Facon Sandwich

One of the problems with being a bit slovenly is that I'm now stupidly behind on write-ups, meaning that I need to probably keep these like a dwarf dipped in honey - short and sweet (and a bit hairy).

So today's new thing. A Facon sandwich. Verdict: Tasty.

Pig. Minus Pig.

If you need further info, I had it in white bread with some BBQ sauce. I cheated on pig and I don't care.

Project 365 Redux: 10th Jan 2013 - Read a book on my Kindle

This is one that while isn't particularly exciting, I'm very grateful that I was actually able to achieve at all given the amount of arsing about I had to go through to actually get a live working Kindle in my grubby little bear paws in the first place (first one didn't work out of the box for some random reason, second one got sent to my ex's house as I forgot to change the address on my Amazon account...).  Once I had it though, I was as happy as the proverbial pig in poop.  So I read a book. Which was this:

My tubby hero.

Having read his other books before, enjoyed his films (yes, even Jersey Girl although I have still to watch Cop Out) and being a HUGE fan of his various podcasts, of which my favourite is by far and away Hollywood Babble On with the awesome Ralph Garman, I suspected that this would be something relevant to my interests. Happily, I was not proved wrong.

I won't reveal too much about the book, mainly because I would suggest that if you enjoy the man's work then you should go read it for yourself. What I will say is that it's an amusing, interesting, sometimes heartbreaking, often insightful look at what you can achieve if you put your nuts on the chopping block once in a while and believe that you are capable of gaining what you truly desire. Which I think we can all agree is a noble idea and one that has served me well in recent months.

You can find said book on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_10/276-9829280-2940131?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tough+shit+kevin+smith&sprefix=tough+shit%2Caps%2C254

And if you are interested in the podcast stuff and like the idea of the world of stage and screen being mocked without restraint, then do give Hollywood Babylon a try here:

http://smodcast.com/channels/hollywood-babble-on/

Your thanks is not necessary.

Project 365 Redux: 9th Jan 2013 - Listen to a Lady Gaga album

I'm fully aware that music taste is subjective and therefore what may float the boat of one may well sink the battleship of another.  I decided to tackle this with the same enthusiasm that I tackled my first challenge (the Sex and the City movie), i.e. none whatsoever.

In fairness, as one of my future tasks will reveal, I really have no grounds for mocking anyone else's musical taste but I do like quite a varied selection of tunes.  I do struggle to get my head around modern pop music though and I'm curious as to whether this is just a sign of getting older (the stereotypical "What on Earth is this racket?") but to me, it all just seems very cookie cutter and a bit soulless, no doubt helped along by Simon Cowell and his musical mulch machine we all like to sit in front of on a Saturday evening every year and support thoroughly hurl invective at.

At the top of the list of things I no longer understand (ranking alongside Deidre from Coronation Street's insistence on still wearing glasses that were considered massive in the 80's - opticians have moved on, get with the programme woman!) is Lady Gaga.  While I'm sure that she does have some modicum of talent, I'm not sure how this finds its way through the meat suit or whatever other kooky marketing schemes her publicists cook up.  Maybe she is a musical genius and I've just never looked beyond her taking up valuable column inches in the press when there could be heartwarming tales of a squirrel's bravery or something.  So, in fairness to her and the wonderful girlfriend (by way of appeasement as her continued suffering in my company could be compared to that of an inhabitant of Guantanamo Bay), I gave her latest opus 'Born This Way' a spin and in order to document this momentous occasion, I present below a track by track review of said event:

Lady Gaga CD. And Emergency Stop tool. Oven Gloves obviously photobombing here...

1. Marry The Night.  I suspect the night will be asking for a divorce pretty sharpish...
2. Born This Way.  Or 'Express Yourself' by Madonna.  Lawyers should have been involved
3. Government Hooker.  Words cannot express how dreadful this truly is
4. Judas.  Actually quite lively.  I imagine this would have gone down a treat at the Last Supper
5. Americano.  More Mexican/Spanish immigrant.  I would have preferred this one personally...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqPUy4Ok2mU
6. Hair. Apparently "she is her hair".  The lovely girlfriend (who at this point was ready to take to me with the spanner) explained that it's a metaphor. So that's alright then
7. Scheibe. Yes, it was. Depressing Europop at its most dreary
8. Bloody Mary. Several of these would have made this ordeal more bearable
9. Bad Kids. Bad riffs more like it
10. Highway Unicorn (Road to Love). Poker Face Part 2. Without the charm
11. Electric Chapel. More bad riffs 
12. You and I. Didn't actually mind this one. I will now assume that Hell has in fact frozen over. Can anyone living in Telford verify this?
13. The Edge of Glory. The edge of sanity in my case, although there was a very pleasant sax solo.

So yeah, there's another one down.  How many more of these kind of things I can get through until the wonderful love of my life decides to put me in a sack and dispose of me humanely in the canal remains to be seen...

Project 365 Redux: A Frank Admission...

Hi.

You. Look. Stunning.

Seriously.  Like, Littlewoods catalogue model stunning.  If you were in the underwear section, my 11 year old self would doubtless have torn your pages out and used you as furtive self-pleasure material.

The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed a distinct tail off in posts over the past few months.  Indeed, no posts at all.  This is down to one simple thing.

Real life got in the way.

Yes, the daily grind has interfered with my grand plan to do one new thing every day/humiliate myself for your viewing pleasure. Unlike my previous project, which was relatively easy to catch up on, this is gonna be quite tricky.

Fear not, for I still have some posts as yet to publish - and I am still on the search for new things to do, so even if I don't get to do one every day, I will try and get at least one a week done and written up.

So, without further ado, let's have a catch up.

And I'm spent.

Project 365 Redux: 6th Jan 2013 - Vegan Fry Up

Right, I'm bloody exhausted and this washing won't put itself away...

Had a vegan fry up for breakfast this morning and very tasty it was to.  Look, here it is:

Nom in extremis

Vegan sausage and scrambled tofu with some spring onions, cherry tomatoes and so much pepper my anus has been sneezing solidly for 5 hours now.

With much love to the good lady for making it and my lovely flatmate for being too polite to comment on the fact that I have spent most of the evening making noises that would traditionally be employed to warn ships that they were getting too close to the rocks.

One week down tomorrow.  Hopefully I will hit more milestones than millstones on this journey...