Is it Wednesday already?

It's my dad's birthday today. He's 61.

On Monday I had another two and a half hours' work done on my tattoo backpiece. It's looking so motherfucking rad now, man. I really love it. Which is a good thing, cos it would kind of be a problem now if I didn't, wouldn't it?! According to my little black book, that puts the total time spent in the chair so far at 12 hours. And unlike some tattooers, Xam tends to be working the whole of that time, rather than taking phone calls and shooting the shit with passers-by. As a client I really appreciate the difference. He reckons we'll be pretty much done in about another two sessions, or around five hours.

This week's session was the most painful yet. There were times when I was thinking I'd have to stop. I've never experienced that before. But I kept saying to myself, "If I tap out now, it's another six weeks or so until I get back here." That was enough to spur me on and endure the discomfort.

What else...?

Oh yeah, I sent Shea a copy of the short film I made (whisper it) 11 years ago, coupled with a music video from the following year, I think. It'll be interesting to hear what he thinks of them. If I ever get around to it, I might even post them up on here someday.

I've set myself a small film-making challenge for this week, too, so I hope to get that started and finished in the next couple of days.

Italy went out of the European Cup, losing to Spain on penalties. That sucked, but they didn't play so great.

If you've not been over to my movie reviews (such as they are) in recent weeks, there has been some activity there, though I confess to having been a little lax. I'm trying to get on top of that shit, cos I'm watching some good films at the moment.

I'm sure I had some other stuff to write about, but it's gone clean out of my head. Oh well, probably wasn't very important. Not as important as me getting downstairs to deal with the washing up, anyway. So, off I go.

Preserving the past

Today a box arrived for me in the post. I was expecting it, of course. In it was a secondhand camcorder I bought off eBay earlier in the week. It's a Digital 8 model by Hitachi, and I suspect it's almost 10 years old. But I needed it.

You see, despite already having a new Mini DV camcorder, I wanted this Digital 8 one in order to transfer some of my old Hi8 camera footage to my computer and back it up, edit it, and keep it for posterity.

Footage such as our honeymoon in Thailand, including lots of me, sunburned and drunk, singing karaoke with the Filipino band at our resort.

Footage such as the wife and I getting tattooed in celebration of our engagement.

Footage such as the documentary we started shooting about the trials and tribulations of getting married abroad.

Footage from the short film I shot and might now be able to do a redux edit of on the Mac; ditto a music video I shot for a friend of my dad's.

Footage of our nephews and nieces and, I suspect, various animals we have known. There may even be footage of people who are no longer with us.

There is a whole lot of stuff waiting to be rescued from obscurity. My only hope is that the motor and/or heads of this machine still have lots of life left in them.

It'll probably be a few weeks before I'm really able to throw myself into this labour of love. Wish me luck...

Wednesday miscellany

Some weeks it feels as though there really is no time to do anything but work and eat. Last night I left my desk at 7:40pm and headed down to the kitchen to start cooking. Half an hour later, Red joined me. One of the things she asked me, within about ten minutes, was whether I wanted her to help me that evening with A.N. Other work project that is sitting on the dining-room table. While the work has to be done, I hadn't even eaten yet and had only just finished a long day's work. It can be kinda depressing like that at times. (It doesn't help that this particular job came to me unannounced and unexpected as the final part of a job I finished six weeks ago, and of course they want it yesterday. I feel pissed off at them and not inclined to bust my balls doing it in the evening.)

Here's something I learned today: After making a bacon sandwich, wash your hands before going for a pee. Otherwise you might smell like you've been fucking Miss Piggy. I tried that lame gag out on the wife first. She was unimpressed. I suspect everyone else will be too.

I gotta give props to my man Shea over at Shea of the Dead. Some of my readers here will know that Shea makes films. I don't know the full ins and outs of the role he plays in the film-making process, but he impressed me yesterday with a two-minute showreel of some of the best bits of his output. You can see it here. Inspirational stuff, for sure. I believe you can even buy copies of his work, proceeds of which help towards keeping the movie-making machine in motion. (Don't you just love alliteration?)

What else? Well, you'll be pleased (no doubt) to hear that the wife and I made up after Monday morning's disruption to normal service. As far as I'm aware, all is now hunky-dory. Huzzah! (By the way, has anyone in real life EVER had make-up sex?)


This week is Jamboree week in the wife's Italian home town. Traditionally we head to her seaside childhood home every summer, and occasionally we catch a bit of the Jamboree, which is a 1950s-themed week of fun and entertainment. It's been running for just three or four years, I think, and people come from all over Europe to celebrate the '50s. It's really quite odd that this town was chosen -- maybe the organizers live thereabouts. And this year they have excelled themselves: not only is The Killer himself, Jerry Lee Lewis, playing there, but international burlesque superstar Dita Von Teese (above) is also performing. That's all happening this coming Friday and Saturday. It's a shame to miss it, but we have bigger fish to fry this summer.

Well, time's a-wastin', and I gotta get on and do some work. Hope you all have a rockin' Wednesday.

Want movie reviews? We got ’em!

Been a bit short on time to blog this week. Also been short on time to look and edit the video footage I shot of all the cool dogs at the Dogs Trust Open Day, near Canterbury, on Sunday.

I have thrown up a couple of movie reviews over at Such As They Are, though, so feel free to swing by there and check them out.

Hope to catch up with you all soon... Once I get all this work out of the way.

Ain’t mates great?

Sometime back in March it was Buy A Friend A Book week, and my blogmate Karen was kind enough to give me a gift voucher for Amazon.co.uk

At that time, shortly after my birthday, I had a few books that I had yet to get around to reading. Birthday gifts some, but also some Christmas ones. Hell, who am I kidding? I've got books from years ago that I've never got around to...

Anyway, bottom line is, I didn't want to rush out and buy the first thing that came into my head only to have it sitting there doing nothing. I wanted to pick the appropriate gift. And I wanted to pick something as close as possible to the value of the voucher, so that Karen bought me a whole book.

The book I eventually bought, just a couple of weeks ago, was Digital Film-Making by Mike Figgis, director of Leaving Las Vegas and Internal Affairs and one of the biggest proponents of DV in Hollywood.

What a book! I couldn't put it down. For about a week it felt as though I was superglued to that book. In a good way. And it's small enough to carry with you wherever you go. If you are interested in low- and no-budget film-making, this book is an essential purchase. It will now take pride of place on my bookshelf alongside that other low-budget film-making bible, Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without A Crew.

So, thanks Karen, for buying a friend a book. Sorry it took so long for me to redeem your voucher, but I hope you know it was worth the wait!