Fake Thanksgiving is becoming a bit of a tradition around, and, frankly, I love it. So, with Dorothy and the kids arriving tomorrow, the excitement is at a fever pitch. I figured I cool things down with a little blues. Hope y’all like.
The Thanksgiving may be fake, but the fun (and the Blues) is real.
This picture comes from the amazing gallery over at the Courier Post online – check it out! This was a 10K to benefit the Larc School. It took us over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge into Philly and back, then through the streets of Camden, past Salvatore J. Avena’s law office, over by the Battleship New Jersey, and finished in the left field at Campbell’s Field. Em and I worked a nice time (for us, anyway), and it was a beautiful day and a great workout.
If you’re not reading the Live For Films blog, do me the courtesy of saying why? In the meantime, I fucking love Steve Coogan:
Ray mutherfucking Winstone
Well, let’s up the ante a bit, shall we? Perhaps Michael Caine, Ray Winstone, Derek Jacobi, Vinnie Jones and Gerard Depardieu would make you feel better about the sheer credibility of it all? io9 is happy to report this project in preproduction, and I’m happy to be in receipt of such a report. Very happy indeed!
From the Darclight, the film’s production company, comes the following:
In an age of apocalypse, in a land without a leader, a dissolute prince finds redemption when he crushes a rebellion that threatens to destroy his father’s kingdom. But upon assuming the throne himself, he immediately engineers a war against a neighboring state to slake his lust for power.
Despite his enemy possessing weaponry rendering their forces almost invincible, the newly crowned king seizes a glorious victory from the jaws of defeat by ruthlessness and cunning. But for all his wiles there’s one thing the young monarch has overlooked. Just as he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure victory, so is his enemy…
I had to cut bait on Connie Willis‘ The Doomsday Book. After reading half way through a 575 page book, I finally realized that a comedy of manners about time-travel into medieval Oxford was not going to do it for me. I believe it is a fine work of literature and the author an artist of exceptional talent, but, personally speaking, I needed a bit more sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.
All that being said, I landed a pretty good title with Mike Carey‘s The Devil You Know. Carey became known to me via his work on the DC/Vertigo comic Hellblazer, which itself is a spinoff from the iconic Saga of Swamp Thing and Sandman series. Carey wrote John Constantine, the Hellblazer himself, as a wonderfully sarcastic anti-hero in a trench coat, prone to making VERY bad decisions, but also possessing a surprisingly strong moral compass.
Felix Castor is John Constantine, but belonging solely to Carey. In Hellblazer, Carey has to conform to a character that is not of his creation and managed by several authors over time. With Castor, Carey is the boss from word go.
Castor also operates in a slightly different professional capacity. Whereas Constantine made a living going back and forth between the temporal plane and the underworld, Castor is merely a privateer exorcist, using his tin whistle to move the undead away from a haunted realm to god-knows-where. But that little moral qualm of “killing the dead”, along with a suitably wrecked personal life and a weakness for the ladies makes this Chandler-esque supernatural romp most enjoyable.
Haven’t posted this video on the mpomy blog yet. Now that a bit of maintenance appears to be out of the way, here’s the video:
The English garden at Hampton Court Palace. What on earth could that have to do with David Gilmour, Jimmy Page and Keith Richards? This is precisely what I propose to discover.
Two days, 150 miles (actually about 156) on that little bike seat. We start at Woodcrest PATCO station, ride to Ocean City, NJ for Mack ‘n’ Manco’s Pizza and Johnson’s caramel popcorn, and then we wake up at dawn and bring that sucker home! All to raise money to fight Multiple Sclerosis. It was our first time doing the ride since cancer, and that, plus good weather, good, friends and an amazing cause, made it the best one yet!
Brian Eno – 2 Forms Of Anger (taken from Small Craft On A Milk Sea) by Warp Records
Some pounding guitars invade this preview of the new Eno/Warp collaboration just after the two minute mark. Just wonderful stuff! Can’t wait for the full release on November 2, 2010. Here’s the Warp link, and a tip of the hat to Synthtopia for bringing this delicious clip to my plate.
From QuietEarth, here is a trailer for something mysterious, dangerous and wonderful:
Mrs Peppercorn’s Magical Reading Room – Trailer from Black Lake Films on Vimeo.
Even the title is just right: Mrs. Peppercorn’s Magical Reading Room.