50 greatest films

Well, wtf happened to this post?  The WordPress editor has totally arsed it up, inserting multiple redundant strong tags that persist beyond the end of the post.  Even when I manually remove all the strong tags from the post in Textpad, the bloody thing puts them all back in when I copy the text back into the HTML editor. Grr.

Channel 4 this evening. Good list. I’ve seen 19 of them I think.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Not counting this. The videotape ran out, so I’ve only seen about half of it.

A Bout de Souffle

Saw this in Paris. Don’t think I liked it.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God – Not seen.

Alien
An old favourite. One of the first films I bought on DVD. Not sure where my Alien DVDs are now — does my brother still have them?

All About Eve

Never actually seen, but a friend has a copy I’ve threatened to borrow, after saying I liked Almodóvar’s Todo sobre mi madre.

Apartment, The
Not seen. In my list to be rented at Lovefilm. Will take forever before I get through my list.

Apocalypse Now

Never seen. Blimey, was that really Martin “Bartlett” Sheen?

Badlands
Black Narcissus
Boyz N the Hood
Brazil
Breakfast Club, The
Not seen any of these. Must ask P if knows the Breakfast Club. Apparently THE teen movie for people in their 30s. I wouldn’t know.

Cabaret

Three big musicals I know most of the words to: Cabaret. Rocky Horror. Little Shop. Maybe this time. I’ll be lucky. Maybe this time, he’ll stay…

Chinatown

City of God
Come and See

Not seen.

Dawn of the Dead

Seen as part of my Film MA. Sponsored by a butcher, who provided real offal for the gore scenes.

Donnie Darko

Saw this with P and his sister on a trip to see a Bollywood film. The film turned out to be unsubtitled, and I threw a strop, so we went to see Donnie Darko instead. I thought it was great. She wasn’t quite so thrilled.

Erin Brockovich

Only saw quite recently thanks to LoveFilm.

Fanny and Alexander -Nope.
Fight Club

Yes. Crazy film once you know the ending.

Heavenly Creatures

Yes, I own all the early Peter Jackson films after a friend enthusiastically described a scene in PJ’s awful debut film. Braindead subsequently became my favourite film, if not actually the German film Kondom des Grauens.

Hero
Ipcress File, The
King of Comedy, The

Nope.

Ladykillers, The

Oh, I must hae done? Surely?

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India

This looked good. Will add it to the list.

Lost in Translation

Urgh. Hated this.

Manhattan

Good soundtrack.

Manhunter

To my shame, never seen, despite owning a copy.

Mulholland Drive

Craaaaazy. I have a bit of a love-hate with David Lynch. My friends all watched Twin Peaks in formative years, and have shown them to me subsequently. Part of my massive cinemagoing time in Paris included a David Lynch retrospective with many of his films. I did like Dune.

Night at the Opera – Nope.

North by Northwest

Nope. Unbelievable. This was already on my list at LF, but will see it eventually.

Pink Flamingos – Nope.

Player, The

Nope, but looked good, so will add to list.

Princess Mononoke – Nope.

Pulp Fiction
“Oh, you must see this, Alex, it’s got one scene you’ll really like.” Turned out my university housemates were talking about the anal rape scene. Hmm. Thanks, guys.

Raising Arizona – Nope.

Royal Tenenbaums, The

Wow. Saw this with friends in the cinema when it came out – in a matinee audience full of people who weren’t really getting the film. We sat there and laughed like loons throughout. Everyone else sat there in stoney silence, and occasionally made faux-whispered thorny remarks. I’m used to sitting there laughing whilst everyone else does that. Remind me to tell you about the Dario Argento version of Phantom of the Opera some day.

Scarface
Searchers, The
Secrets and Lies

Nope.

Sexy Beast

I own this one. One of those films you couldn’t quite believe and had to get so you could watch it, then show it to other people to see what they thought too.

Shawshank Redemption, The

Well, yeah. Good story too.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Hell, yeah.

This Sporting Life – Nope.

Three Colours Blue

Saw on BBC 2 while I was doing my A levels. Can’t really remember.

Touch of Evil – Erm, don’t know.
Trainspotting

Can’t remember when I actually saw this, but hundreds of people had the poster in our first year at university.

Walkabout – Nope.

Typical


weather060720

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

It’s been scorchio all week. Blazing sunshine, too hot to work.

Next week the trend looks to continue.

But for Nottingham Lib Dem’s Bring’n’Share picnic in Wollaton Park this weekend — rain, according to the BBC long range forecast.

Bah.

Who’s for…

… Hedgehog Carbonara?

Hedgehog spaghetti carbonara (serves four)

500g spaghetti, 30ml olive oil, 250g lean hedgehog, 1 medium onion (chopped), 125ml water, 60ml dry white wine, 4 eggs, 60ml double cream, 100g grated parmesan cheese

· chop hedgehog into small chunks

· beat eggs and cream together in a bowl. Add half the parmesan cheese

· put pasta in boiling water

· put onions and hedgehog chunks in pan with olive oil on medium heat until onions are almost clear

· add wine and reduce heat

· drain pasta when cooked, combine it with egg, cream and cheese mix

· add meat, onions and wine without draining fat and mix thoroughly

· garnish with remaining parmesan. Serve immediately

Who's for…

… Hedgehog Carbonara?

Hedgehog spaghetti carbonara (serves four)

500g spaghetti, 30ml olive oil, 250g lean hedgehog, 1 medium onion (chopped), 125ml water, 60ml dry white wine, 4 eggs, 60ml double cream, 100g grated parmesan cheese

· chop hedgehog into small chunks

· beat eggs and cream together in a bowl. Add half the parmesan cheese

· put pasta in boiling water

· put onions and hedgehog chunks in pan with olive oil on medium heat until onions are almost clear

· add wine and reduce heat

· drain pasta when cooked, combine it with egg, cream and cheese mix

· add meat, onions and wine without draining fat and mix thoroughly

· garnish with remaining parmesan. Serve immediately

Bad puns

Monday was Full Council, which turned into quite a hostile debate on a number of issues. The mood in the Chamber was bad, so I didn’t get to do my pun about the Appointment and Conditions of Service Ctte report about from tiny ACOS, mighty oak trees grow.

There was also a report about the Gambling Act, and how it will affect Nottingham, with reference to the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services, so we also nearly had mighty oak trees growing from tiny LACORS, too.

But given how my attempt at levity in the incinerator debate went down – my few words on the irony of standing in a roasting chamber filled with hot air and heated debate whilst talking about an incinerator met with stony silence – it’s probably just as well I didn’t get to my feet any earlier.

Precarious Fudge


Precarious Fudge

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

F has an alarming tendency to sit at the very top of this first floor window to get the air and menace small birdies. P thinks he is in imminent danger of losing his footing and plunging to his death, but I think he has more sense. Since we also have an insect problem – large buzzy things and small whiney things have a tendency to come in at dawn and startle us awake – we’re vaguely thinking of getting some sort of screen.

Berries


Berries

Originally uploaded by nilexuk.

Something in my garden has berries on it. I wonder if they’re edible? They’re very hard at the moment, and they don’t look like anything I’ve ever eaten before. I don’t recall seeing any fruit at all in the garden when we first looked round it (now almost a year ago! Eep, time flies!)

Google vid bug

OK, now I have one or two other video clips I might like to share, like this one.

Again, upside down! Why? Why can’t I embed googlevideo objects in WordPress posts? Why?

So many questions.

EDIT: Ryan has put me right on at least one thing — upload the 3GP file directly to GV and not only is it quicker, it’s also the right way up. Here’s a new link to the clip posted earlier.