Charlie don't surf...

Posted on Mon 23 February 2004 by alex in general

Seemed like a busy weekend, probably because I was working both days and tried to fit other stuff in. Friday night was a quiet night in with Katy although I wasn't massively talkative as my brain needed to flat-line a bit after href=http://www.bennee.com/~alex/news.php?wl_mode=more&wl_eid=114>Thursdays

uber work session. We did marvel at Louis Theroux and how he gets away with it. - I'm sure he puts a lot of the self-deprecating stuff on just so people are more relaxed around him.

Saturday involved a quick trip into work (bizarrely I got in earlier than I usually do during the week). I managed to make some progress which was good. I also discovered that it is possible to get substantially less than 300 miles to a tank of petrol. I must start to pay attention to the fuel economy display on my car when it heads towards single figures. Still its nice driving on empty roads on a bright spring day.

On Saturday evening we went to see a play at The Lowry. I think the last play I saw was the Merchant of Venice last summer. This was the first contemporary play I've seen for some time. It was well done, funny and thought provoking. Its quite impressive what a small company can do (I think there where 5 actors) which a stage and a few props. Of course with my

LARP background the suspension of disbelief with the sparsity of the stage wasn't a problem. About the only thing I can say against it was some of the story elements where quite compressed compared to what I remember, however thats probably more a problem with the medium than that particular adaptation.

Sunday involved more work followed by catching up with the Wendyhouse refugees at the Fisherman's
Retreat near Ramsbottom. They had a very nice guest beer so I think I'll have to make sure we do the Ramsbottom walk next weekend so I can go and sample it again. Maybe I'll convince someone else to drive as well. After suitably re-stocking with food we headed back to mine to watch Apocalypse
Now Redux which I'd bought recently. I was wondering if I'd enjoy the new footage given some of the comments made about the film dragging on as well as a discussion with Katy on how she preferred later films like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket which has expanded and in her opinion improved on Apocalypse. The extra footage does add a fair bit to the film although generally making the whole thing even
more surreal. I can see why they where dropped originally though as it did add significantly to the length of the film without adding to the plot. However the do add to the growing sense of insanity about the war which is probably the most important theme of the movie so on balance I think they where worth it. There is also a lot more footage
at the end involving Kurtz and his conversion of Willard which makes it even more clear that Kurtz was in control at the end. After having watched it this weekend I'm still of the opinion that Apocalypse Now is a great film, enhanced by the additional footage and anyone who thinks otherwise about the film is IMHO wrong ;-)