Mon, 09 Mar 2009
PyRoom
I'm writing this blog post using a text editor called PyRoom, which bills itself as allowing 'distraction free writing'. I've also written all of my recent blog posts using it.
It's a really stripped down editor, which runs fullscreen and contains just a text area within the middle of the screen, with configurable themes to define background and text colour. It's designed for creative writing rather than text editing per se, and I really like it.
It's packaged for Debian (and so probably Ubuntu), or can be downloaded from http://pyroom.org/download.html.
Posted: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:22 | | Comments: 0
Review: Watchmen
On Saturday night, abandoning CompSoc to their own trip to see Watchmen, a group of friends and I went to see Watchmen at a cinema in Leamington Spa.
Overall, I considered the film to be just OK. Of the four friends I went with, two liked it and two disliked it, so I was right in the middle.
I should note now that I haven't read the graphic novel (yet). I should also note that I'm not going out of my way to avoid spoilers below.
I'll start with what I liked. I liked the action sequences, they kept me interested. Not the highest praise, but I'm not really an 'action movie' guy, so this was an achievement. I liked the world we were being immersed in. I liked the title sequence, with the live-action cells of a graphic novel, a lot.
What didn't I like? Quite a lot, sadly.
Despite that I liked the world we were in, I didn't know enough about it. Was it reasonable for the Comedian to start shooting his shotgun at the crowd in one particular scene? I don't know. It feels more like the strength of the world in the graphic novel is such that anything set within the world will be interesting but, as this film show, not necessarily satisfying. Hopefully reading the graphic novel will be satisfying.
The film was too explicit, both in terms of gore and in terms of sex. With the violence, it was obviously important that we, the audience, realise that we aren't in a standard superhero universe here. We need to know that people bleed blood here, and that facing off against a superhero doesn't just involve the word 'POW'. I get that. However, I didn't need to see bones popping through skin or entrails plastered on the ceiling to get it. I guess this was just to be expected from the director of 300 though.
We were also treated to an entirely needless sex scene or, at the very least, a needlessly lengthy sex scene. Apparently the sex scene is in the graphic novel, which I guess goes some of the way to explaining it. I just wish that the film-makers had spent more time on the interesting part of the graphic novel, the world we were in (see my above complaint), rather than a sex scene which we have seen in plenty of other films which could roughly be summarised by "these two characters love one another; people who are in love have sex".
The film became largely incoherent in the last third. Essentially from the scenes within the prison onwards. I guess this is linked into my first complaint. On the bright side, I'm told that the graphic novel has a different ending, which I'm looking forward to.
Overall, I don't think that this film isn't really worth seeing unless you have already read the graphic novel or really want some motivation to do so.
Posted: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:55 | | Comments: 0
Review: The Sound Of Building Coffins by Louis Maistros
The Sound of Building Coffins is, in some respects, like the Mississippi river that flows through its pages. It is turbulent and muddy whilst being powerful and beautiful. It tells a number of stories, all of which flow into the novel at various points, adding to and changing those that have come before them.
I was somewhat uncomfortable with the magical realism of the book to begin with. I guess that part of this was to do with not having a firm understanding of what 'magical realism' was, and so not being sure as to what statement Louis Maistros was making regarding some issues of spirituality and faith. However, as I went through the novel, these concerns were allayed as I began to make sense the world in which I was becoming immersed. If you experience similar concerns, I urge to push on through to the end.
Overall, I recommend this novel.
N.B. If anyone I know would like to borrow this book, just ask me.
Posted: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:01 | | Comments: 0