Hey guys! I'm not dead yet!

Contrary to the rumours currently not circulating the internet, I haven't expired from overwork, nor have I been sold into slavery in Torquay. Instead, I've been doing promotional work for Pimms by drinking copious amounts of their product and recommending it to my pals in America. I look forward to going over to San Francisco and then Portland in July in order to show the Americans just exactly how you mix Pimms and lemonade in the correct proportions, how to hold a glass of said mixture and finally, the perfect technique for relocating it to one's stomach.
[pause]
[sips Pimms]
God I love working for myself. It means I can indulge my alci tendancies without risk of getting fired.
New amusements – everything Tobey Maguire. Spider-Man. Wonder Boys. The Ice Storm. Pleasantville. The Cider House Rules (co-incidentally on TV the other day so that saved me from buying the DVD). Even Cats & Dogs, although admittedly that's only a vo and the film's not all that good – the plot's so transparent you could use it as a window. But I have to rant here about Wonder Boys. I got the script from my new favourite site SoYouWannaSellAScript? and over the last couple of weeks have read and re-read it more often than I've checked my email. Yes. That often. And I am convinced that it is a masterpiece. It's just the delicacy of the script, the subtlety of the direction and the performances by Maguire, Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr, which are all sublime. Maguire has this intense stillness on screen, this almost Daoist ability to convey emotion with nothing more than the sixty or so muscles in his face. Most actors only seem able to use the one.
I'm really into reading screenplays at the moment. There's something fascinating about them, trying to picture them in your head, figure out how they got from just black splotches on the page in front of you to that amazing (or not) display of filmic movement and light. With Wonder Boys, it's easy. Same with Pleasantville – easy just to read and laugh and see the action unfold in your head. The Ice Storm was much harder going. Even after seeing the film now I'm not entirely sure I know what the fuck the point was. Still that gamelan soundtrack was one in a million, eh?
Which brings me neatly on to Tom McRae and his new album, Just Like Blood. I heard the single, Karaoke Soul, on XFM, and just immediately fell in love. Well, you know, I'm just such a musical slut – one moment it's Elliott Smith, then it's, er, still Elliott Smith then… er, well anyway. The opening track, A Day Like Today, has that gamelan sound to it that ties it up in my head with shots of ice-laden trees, Elijah Wood getting himself electrocuted and Tobey Maguire sitting on a freezing, blacked out train in the small hours. It's a great album, though, it's what David Gray would be like if only he were more interesting. Don't get me wrong, I've come to like David Gray pretty much in spite of myself. I spent a long time determined to hate him, but I guess i'm a sucker for miserable fuckers.
I bet Tom hates comparisons to David though.
Well, would you look at that… 5.35 already. Shite. Today's just got away from me. Like Tuesdays so often do. But I am determined to update this blog more often than once every five months. Determined, I say.
Where have you heard that before?