Sandeberg Rising

Okay, so I’m procrastinating fixing the downstairs loo, and after four hours of sleep, I’m not feeling creative enough to come up with my parts to the Exalted Play by Post. So, instead, we shall speak of ‘The D’ and why they weren’t in my Reading highlights.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a funny show, but the problem was it was scripted to within an inch of it’s life. The crowd loved what they were doing and interacted with Jack Black, but it was a one way street. Black almost seemed to see it as an unwelcome interruption  before his next scripted line. This stole a lot of the enjoyment of the show for me.

The kids loved it though, and it sems they’ve all memorised the lyrics for all the ‘Pick of Destiny’ songs, which I never got on that well with.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, the lavatory calls, demanding fixing.

Shame the last few “tweets” (don’t ask, I didn’t invent the ridiculous term) didn’t really come through yesterday. But, due to someone dropping out I got to go to the Reading Festival after all, and got to see:

• Hadouken!
• Feeder
• Johnny Foreigner
• Feeder
• Tenacious D
• Last of the Shadow Puppets
• CSS
• Metallica.

It was quite a good day, despite me still not feeling 100%. Highlights were:

• Hadouken! were quite good, got the crowd moving
• Best time jumping up and down in a crowded tent went to CSS
• Best song went to Metallica doing ‘Enter Sandman’. I didn’t see all of Metallica, since I’m not a hardcore metaller, but what I saw was good
• Feeder rocked, really great show.

Of course this means we now have two days worth of chores to do in one day… Oops.

Okay, maybe not, but he had a moustache.

Feeder win.

Well, in short, I really enjoyed it and enjoyed it more than Batman Begins.

Arriving at the Imax was interesting. We were due to collect tickets and there was a queue in front of us and the guy at the ticket desk, with surprising patience just kept reiterating: “No there are no tickets left for today. No, nothing for the next three weeks except midnight showings. Sorry.” with occasionally interspersed, “No madam, we’re not showing anything else, we only have one screen.” Now, I could here this spiel from way back in the queue, so surely the people in front of us could too? Or they could read it from the screens? Or the signs that said “Sold out”? Wierd. It’s as if people just didn’t want to believe it was true. There was even one couple who exclaimed “But we’ve come all the way into London for this!” as if this would somehow sway the man.

When we got to the lobby, we were thrilled to see some people had dressed up, which was cool. There was a real buzz going around.

It turns out I was wrong. I’d read that certain scenes had been shot with Imax cameras and assumed that meant 3d. This was incorrect, it was all 2d, but the actions scenes were shot with cameras that did justice to the absolutely massive screen of the Imax. It was huge! Very immersive experience. Shooting this way and seeing action blockbusters in the Imax is totally the future. Especially as at £12 a ticket, the people there really, really want to see it, so aren’t likely to mess about!

Now to the movie itself. I’ll break it down by not completely logical sub-segments and in no particular order:
Jim Gordon: I’m buying the character more, he’s real. Though it’s been a mere year since he was an LT? And now commish? That was a bit fast.
Lucius Fox: I like him, but I’m still not buying him as CEO of the most powerful company in the world. Though I did like “Let me get this straight: You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who beats criminals to a pulp with his bare hands. And your plan is to blackmail this person? Good luck. ”
Rachel Dawes: Should have been played by Maggie in the first movie too, shame she’s gone, but she really had to die.
Gadgets: Way too much.
Detective work: Glad to see it there, but in terms of overall narative, when did Wayne become a forensics expert? Night school?
Batman: “I have a really gruff voice and I’m at the mercy of gadgets and other people’s actions!”
Wayne: I’m glad there was more Bruce this time around and it worked well.
Dent: Very, very good performance, though we thought they really pushed the whiter than white bit way too far, over-labouring the point. Also, didn’t like the scarred face prosthetics too much. Other than that, really liked the descent, particularly Penny who didn’t know Dent=Twoface. Question: Dead or alive?
Joker: Yes. Totally yes. Not only did I by the performance, I particularly liked the fact that at the beginning he’s a genius psychopath and by the end comes across sometimes shockingly sane and entirely spontaneous. I loved the character and I hope not just because the actor died. Such a shame he won’t be around for sequels.
Scarecrow: Brief, pointless and a phoned in performance from Murphy.
Sonar: Really? Every phone is sonar? Woo, a city full of bat phones. But then destroys it? Eh? Come on!
Ending: Good, glad they made him the Dark Knight instead of Hero in Black. Reminds me of a line in Shaft “I heard you quit the force!” “Do you think that makes me less dangerous, or more dangerous?”

Overall, a massively great film with some flaws, but toally worth seeing. In terms of heart vs head, I felt more drawn through the rollercoaster of Wanted than DK, but DK hangs together narratively much better and is less adolescent power fantasy. I would almost go as far as saying that overall DK has left the confines of the comic book movie, gone beyond it and used broader narrative traditions.

About to go into the Imax to see Dark Knight. Yes excited!

Backlog-tastic! I’d better get this down before it all leaves my tired and dessicated brain. Recently, Penny, Tim and I headed to one day of the Lovebox Weekender. The main reasons for me were a good time there with Tim the year before and I really wanted to see Goldfrapp live, after missing them do the Royal Albert Hall not once, but twice. So, here’s what we saw:

Sebastien Tellier, who couldn’t be more French if he tried. Imagine a one-man, bisexual, smoking, long-haired, bearded, disco Daft Punk and you kind of get the idea. Musically, I wasn’t really that enthused, but he certainly was compelling to watch. He is known for causing controversy this year for entering the first English language entry for France into the Eurovision song contest. There’s a wonderful quote by him: Mr Tellier, whose album is called Sexuality, defended his choice, saying he needed to use the English language to achieve his artistic goals. “To explain the vision of French people of sexuality and of life and so, to be understood, I need to sing in English,” he said.

There was then a bit of a gap for food (excellent) and exploring, following by the folk sounds of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, a Geordie folk singer, her sister and band. They were quite good, from my perspective. Tim, who is more folk-tolerant than I, was moved to tears and Penny bought their album, so there you go.

Next was one of my choices, the very young, Australian band, Operator Please who rocked the tent with their music that Tim described as “The B52s meet the Levellers, which souldn’t work, but does”. I’ve been listening to their album a fair bit.

Next up, Penny split off to see the Dandy Warhols, who she didn’t enjoy live, and Tim and I went to see Goldfrapp perform. It was a great performance, though it must be said that the new album didn’t work as well live as the older material. The dancers kept the crowd interested though, using a maypole  for a pole-dancing routine; a logical extension of use, if you ask me. Very glad I saw them live, though I still think they’d have been better in the Royal Albert Hall. And yes, I’m still bitter.

Finally, we bopped along to the mixed up frenetics that are The Go! Team, which was fun and a perfect, upbeat way to end our day in Victoria Park.