Updatingness, and stuff, and vampires and Star Trek

The State of Play.

I have, I think, a mere six weeks left of my time in the USA. I shall miss
bits of it.

In the next six weeks, I have to reduce my life to less than 100,
preferably less than 80, lbs of stuff. I have to quit my job, quit my
apartment and leave behind everything that the last eight years has meant.
Then I have to rebuild it all in another country.

I admit, I'm nervous. Eager for the challenge, but nervous.

It's all uncomfortably close. Right around the corner, this big change.

Vampires

I've seen Let the Right One In and ooo, that was good. Dubbed into English, since I don't speak Swedish. The Americans don't think anyone will understand a movie set in Sweden and are remaking it. I certainly hope they don't get it wrong.

The film itself was written by the guy who wrote the book, so it's interesting to see what cuts and changes he made, alongside a director who was dead set on making the entire book into a movie and using all of it. Naturally, this would have been a long movie.

The movie is chilling, not so much for vampire creepery, but because the location and the characters contribute to the feeling that everyone and everything in the film are somehow trapped. Trapped by habit, by weakness, by immortality, by desires and by actions. It presents a really bleak picture which herds you and hems you in. It's also strangely beautiful.

Plus, the writer actually sat down and wondered what happens if a vampire enters a dwelling uninvited. Score!

I also rediscovered the 1998 TV show Ultraviolet starring all sorts of interesting people. Joe Ahearne wrote and directed this single series 6 episode run about vampires and the government team that investigates them. If you want to know what Torchwood pre-Children of Earth could have been, and what Torchwood post COE might be, it's worth buying the DVD and watching this intelligent, interesting show.

I have also seen Star Trek. Excellent cast, excellent fun, makes my inner scifi geek sit up and scream with anger while at the same time making me love the heck out of everything that happens. I can point to a half dozen things that were rubbish (like being able to see Vulcan from Delta Vega) whilst at the same time willingly ignoring absolutely everything because of the main cast's performances and the breakneck speed of the plot.

Less lens flair next time, though.