Coffee and Cigarettes

I've never really managed to get the hang of smoking. I've smoked a bit in my time. Even flirted with cigars - which I can just about tolerate by the way - but smoking like a true believer has always passed me by. Perhaps I don't have the genes, or maybe my lungs are more advanced than most other peoples and have developed some kind of strange smoking immune system. Protecting themselves by making me ill. Either way its by the by.

Coffee! now there’s a drug I can readily get into my system. I'd happily drink the black bile of Zeus until the day they take away my liver. Even then I'd most likely find some other way to get my kicks. Adrenaline to the heart via a big fuck off needle perhaps. Well, just for starters at least. You might be wondering where this is all coming from. Surely these are words in the style of some queer acid freak. Possibly you're thinking some mad tramp put a wicked cocktail of speed and the crushed heart of a Silver Back Gorilla into my food and left me to scream into the night. You'd be wrong. I've just spent the day in cinematic heaven.

After spending the morning failing to find any interesting porn on the Internet (imagine such a thing) I de-evolved into re-kindling my love of film. Starting the hit with the classic 1953 Forbidden Planet starring Leslie Nielsen before his credibility got eaten away be a seemingly endless morass of evil comedy and inane Domino's Pizza ads. It also stars the surprisingly excellent Walter Pigeon as the suitable monikered 'Doctor Morbius'. Apparently the film is and interpretation of Billy Rattledaggers The Tempest, but since I've never read or seen it I guess that makes no difference to me. Forbidden Planet has always managed to captivate me, the acting is top notch and the special effects, even by today’s standards are fantastic. Its quite amazing what you can do with a matte painting and some drive. This film also marks the first appearance of the excellent Robbie the Robot. If you don't know who Robbie is I suggest you get your head out your arse and look him up in Wikipedia or something.

After the sci-fi goodness of Forbidden Planet I slowed it down with the classic (forgive my overuse of the word 'classic' but sometimes a word fits quite nicely) Vincent Price movie House of Wax, yes Stephen I did pick out this one because of the Wednesday 13 song 'The Ghost of Vincent Price'. Though in my own defence I have been meaning to see it for a while now. It goes without saying that Vincent Price is excellent here. The man is just captivating. There are only three actors who just seem to suck you into a horror film. They are Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. Interestingly enough he shares the same birthday as Christopher Lee (May 27) and Peter Cushing was born on May 26. Spooky eh? Anyway, House of Wax is great. Vincent Price exudes gothic horror and I doubt I could say anything that hasn't been said before about such a great man.

After a break for dinner and a chance to refocus my eyes on something that doesn't flicker at 24 frames per second, myself and the ever lovely (did you think I would say anything else?) Clodagh sat down to watch Sideways. Which was good, though I must admit to believing it was a little bit more of a ha ha comedy than it turned out to be. It was funny in the Lost in Translation and About Schmidt kind of way. Full of brilliant performances and little jokes that make you got 'That could be my life up there!!!' Strangely enough it makes you want to start drinking wine about halfway through. There must be some weird bastard subliminal advertising going on there. Hummm.

After that, well I watched, strangely enough, Coffee and Cigarettes. Best described as a series of vignettes starting a medley of actors and musicians. Perhaps I'm missing a point, but I didn't get it. Though it was wildly funny to see Tom Waits telling Iggy Pop that he was late because he had to perform roadside surgery and deliver a baby. I actually had a lot more to say here about this film but Blog Spot decided to eat it when I tried to check the spelling and I can't remember what I said so lets move on.

You may notice there is a new link, it leads to the blog of the most excellent Coop! Those of you who have frequented my house may have seen his book 'The Devils Advocate' which has the classic smoking Satan on the cover. I've been a big fan of his art for about 7 or 8 years now and was nearly orgasmically happy when I managed to get that book (not an easy thing on this side of the Atlantic). He even responded to my admittedly poor and fan-ish comment on his blog. Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy.

That’s it for now, I’m off to drown a child.