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The latest
May. 11th, 2003 10:24 pmI've had a really uneventful, boring weekend actually.
I finished 'Guards, Guards' yesterday and started reading 'Pratt of the Argus' by David Nobbs.
Terry Pratchett is such a clever writer. I didn't start reading his 'Discworld' novels until this summer because I've never really been into fantasy stuff but now I'm into them I think they're great. It's the way that he takes things from everyday life and transplants them into the alternative environment of the 'Discworld' to make the reader find them hilarious that I think is extremely clever. In 'Guards, Guards' he features an eccentric lady who breeds swamp dragons as pets. It's utterly obvious that his inspiration for this is the world of pedigree dog breeding which is, of course, full of eccentric, rich people who wander around in tatty clothes and leave their fortunes to their elderly, incontinent mutts. Additionally, I never thought I'd be writing that I've been reading a series of books in which my favorite character is 'Death!' Although Rincewind and Magrat come a close second and third.
'Pratt of the Argus' seems really good as well. It's written by the same guy that wrote 'Reginald Perrin' series which I found hilarious when I read them some time ago. I also liked the TV adaption, I used to watch re-runs of it when I was a kid and I remember rolling around laughing when a different letter fell off of the 'Sunshine Desserts' sign over the doors to his building every morning as he walked into work.
'Pratt' is about a young man who becomes a reporter on a local daily paper in the 1950s. He really wants to get a scoop but all he ends up with are road accidents and lost cats. In the part I'm reading at the moment he believes someone's sabotaging his articles as they always seem to have typos. In one article about the opening of his uncle's new night club 'It should be a good night' appears as 'It should be a good fight.' Nobbs begins each new day with a summary of the events in the national news, such as terrorist attacks in Cyprus and Kruschev denouncing Stalin, and then follows it directly with details of the peripheral stories Pratt has been covering. It's such a simple technique but it makes me giggle.
Quite a good episode of 'The Tribe' on Saturday. More action this week and less faffing around with romantic sub plots. Interesting to speculate about where the relationship between Lex, Ram and Slade is going. Will Lex and Ram end up being friends? Will Slade win Ebony over? Where on earth does the impending return of The Guardian fit into all this?
I especially liked the complete avoidance of any description of special effects in the bomb blast. Jack chucked the bomb off of the roof of the Mall and as it blew up we cut to inside the building where the camera shook and a bit of crockery fell off of the wall. This is probably a positive sign, any attempts at using special effects in 'The Tribe' are usually pretty laughable.
Tomorrow I'm probably going to Richmond to get my Dad's old stamp album valued. Should be fun!
I finished 'Guards, Guards' yesterday and started reading 'Pratt of the Argus' by David Nobbs.
Terry Pratchett is such a clever writer. I didn't start reading his 'Discworld' novels until this summer because I've never really been into fantasy stuff but now I'm into them I think they're great. It's the way that he takes things from everyday life and transplants them into the alternative environment of the 'Discworld' to make the reader find them hilarious that I think is extremely clever. In 'Guards, Guards' he features an eccentric lady who breeds swamp dragons as pets. It's utterly obvious that his inspiration for this is the world of pedigree dog breeding which is, of course, full of eccentric, rich people who wander around in tatty clothes and leave their fortunes to their elderly, incontinent mutts. Additionally, I never thought I'd be writing that I've been reading a series of books in which my favorite character is 'Death!' Although Rincewind and Magrat come a close second and third.
'Pratt of the Argus' seems really good as well. It's written by the same guy that wrote 'Reginald Perrin' series which I found hilarious when I read them some time ago. I also liked the TV adaption, I used to watch re-runs of it when I was a kid and I remember rolling around laughing when a different letter fell off of the 'Sunshine Desserts' sign over the doors to his building every morning as he walked into work.
'Pratt' is about a young man who becomes a reporter on a local daily paper in the 1950s. He really wants to get a scoop but all he ends up with are road accidents and lost cats. In the part I'm reading at the moment he believes someone's sabotaging his articles as they always seem to have typos. In one article about the opening of his uncle's new night club 'It should be a good night' appears as 'It should be a good fight.' Nobbs begins each new day with a summary of the events in the national news, such as terrorist attacks in Cyprus and Kruschev denouncing Stalin, and then follows it directly with details of the peripheral stories Pratt has been covering. It's such a simple technique but it makes me giggle.
Quite a good episode of 'The Tribe' on Saturday. More action this week and less faffing around with romantic sub plots. Interesting to speculate about where the relationship between Lex, Ram and Slade is going. Will Lex and Ram end up being friends? Will Slade win Ebony over? Where on earth does the impending return of The Guardian fit into all this?
I especially liked the complete avoidance of any description of special effects in the bomb blast. Jack chucked the bomb off of the roof of the Mall and as it blew up we cut to inside the building where the camera shook and a bit of crockery fell off of the wall. This is probably a positive sign, any attempts at using special effects in 'The Tribe' are usually pretty laughable.
Tomorrow I'm probably going to Richmond to get my Dad's old stamp album valued. Should be fun!
