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Whats everyone reading?

Started by Paul faplad Finch, 30 March, 2009, 10:04:36 PM

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SmallBlueThing

Quote from: Dandontdare on 04 September, 2009, 11:28:09 PM
Quote from: SpookyTheCat on 04 September, 2009, 11:19:04 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 04 September, 2009, 11:02:54 PM
Quote from: SpookyTheCat on 04 September, 2009, 11:01:53 PM
And the man who curates/ lives in it is astonishing.


Does he sit in a fireplace with bricks falling on his head?

Cheers

Jim

Basically- yes. The place is like a cave, chocka with period L&H memorabelia- with a DVD cinema shoved on the side. It's amazing- and the bloke is lovely, has been there since The Very Dawn Of Time, and the MOST Enthusiastic MAN in THE world!

Steev

This has inspired me, I've wanted to see that place for years, and I may just take a spin out there very soon - it's not that far from Manchester. Their website is brilliant in it's amateurishness. I love the way it takes a while to load (but with THAT music to keep you entertained) and then opens with the sentence "This weekend, Saturday 18th April we will be making our move to bigger, brighter and better premises at the Roxy Cinema on Brogden Street, Ulverston. "

Ulverston! That's it. And yes, I remember now that it was soon to be moving when I was there last July... so in all probability it's now in a soulless prefabricated building, with everything sorted into neat displays and the lovable man replaced by a teenager dressed as Laurel reading from a multi-lingual guidebook.

Hope not though. It was just like someone had taken every existing L&H thing and shovelled them into a roughly-hewn cave, then put a man in to look after it, with nothing but L&H movies for company, for fifty years.

One of the autistic guys I took up there is a massive fan and he was absolutely overwhelmed.

Steev
.

Dandontdare

#436
Ah man, I've dug out my old tape from the last time BBC2 had a season, and am watching The Music Box as I type this - "1127 Walnut avenue? It's just up there, top o'the stoop..."

EDIT : Stan's just kicked a woman in the arse for laughing at him, and she's punched him in the face.

I, Cosh

Quote from: TordelBack on 04 September, 2009, 10:52:35 PM
I will persevere with a re-read because there are some good jokes in there, and some inventive violence, but I don't see where all the adulation comes from.
I feel pretty much the same way about Preacher. Having loved Ennis' run on Hellblazer I bought the first ten or so issues thinking it would give him the canvas to expand on some of the thigns he did there and I just never got into it. I frequently think about giving it a go again but would probably prefer picking up something I've never read before.

I think Ennis (as probably captured on the "Ennis, etc" thread) veers wildly between the brilliant and puerile childishness. While never quite approaching the Django Zoon level, there are times when his zest for OTT vileness is just unpleasant while other times it can be both hilarious and affecting. On the other hand, he has a gift for that sympathetic, manly, boozy conversation that really captures something about people. There's no real difference between Jesse & Cassidy's conversations and those between John Constantinen and the Lord of the Dance or, a personal favourite, Kit and her family in Heartland other than my own affection for the characters.

I stick with The Boys out of a combination of annoyance at having missed out on Hitman & Punisher and the fact that every now and then there is a flash of real character beneath the pastiche.


And now an update on The Snow Leopard. After another fifty pages there still weren't any fucking leopards so I gave up.
We never really die.

Paul faplad Finch

I live in the town where Stan Laurel spent his formative years. Apparently his parents ran the local theatre. I did not know this until relatively recently because for as long as I could remember said theatre was simply a burnt out condemned wreck and no effort at all was made to emphasise it's history. Then the council decided that it was an eyesore and hads to come down. At which pont the whole town erupted into a frenzy of "save our historic theatre" madness. It was at this point that I became aware of it's significance. Didn't save the theatre though. In truth, it had been dangerous for years and was beyond repair.

They renamed the spot Theatre Corner and put up a statue of the man himself. Well, actually they built an office building and did the whole renaming and staue bit over the road where the public loo was. Oh, the sense of history. Now of course, the novelty has worn off and todays kids are no more in the know than I was.
It doesn't mean that round my way
Pessimism is Realism - Optimism is Insanity
The Impossible Quest
Musings Of A Nobody
Stuff I've Read

Odd_Bloke

Quote from: faplad on 05 September, 2009, 01:31:16 AM
They renamed the spot Theatre Corner and put up a statue of the man himself. Well, actually they built an office building and did the whole renaming and staue bit over the road where the public loo was. Oh, the sense of history. Now of course, the novelty has worn off and todays kids are no more in the know than I was.
You should get the council to try and knock the public loo down, perhaps it'd have the same effect.

Paul faplad Finch

Nah, the loo had to go to make way for the statue, which now stands on the exact spot. 
It doesn't mean that round my way
Pessimism is Realism - Optimism is Insanity
The Impossible Quest
Musings Of A Nobody
Stuff I've Read

TordelBack

I'm on a bit of an Alex Robinson kick at the moment, working my way through the library's holdings, and I just misappropriated more than an hour of supposed work time reading his Too Cool to Be Forgotten in one sitting.  It's absolutely amazing, couldn't recommend it highly enough.  The guy is a serious talent.

mygrimmbrother

At the Mountains of Madness, again. S'been a while but it still makes me go all cold and goose-pimply.

IAMTHESYSTEM

Dan Abnett's Horus Heresy. Forgot how good it was.
"You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension."

http://artriad.deviantart.com/
― Nikola Tesla

Odd_Bloke

Patrick O'Brian's Master & Commander.  This is at least my third time reading this, and I still love it (and the other 19 novels that follow it).

TordelBack

#445
QuotePatrick O'Brian's Master & Commander.  This is at least my third time reading this, and I still love it (and the other 19 novels that follow it
).

Love this series, with very few exceptions (the immensely improbable rescue by a raft of south-sea amazons, mainly), and actually have to force myself to stop reading lest I do all 20 in a row.  Currently I'm paused before Nutmeg of Consolation.   Master and Commander itself is a magnificent novel, but the sequence I love best is in Desolation Island where the Waakzaamheid is chasing the horrible old Leopard in the Roaring Forties - the climax of that chase is one of the most gripping, gut-wrenchingly terrifying things I've ever read.  I also rather like the sequence in Other Side of the Medal where Aubrey ends up in the Stocks.  Stirring stuff.  Oh, and the fate of the Polychrest in Post Captain!  Genius!

Aside:  in recent years I've been learning to sail with an old friend, and as the Aubrey Maturin books are about all I knew of sailing before I started pretty much all of my jargon comes from there.  Thus we are forever heeling to larboard, missing stays and sailing  on a bowline, even those all those terms are archaic and irrelevant.  Drives him mad.

strontium_dog_90

I've just finished the new Ian Rankin book, "The Complaints." It's a quality read, anybody wondering if it's worth picking up, I'd recommend it highly. Plus just finished the last short story in the Edinburgh-themed "Crimespotting" anthology, which is one of the best collections I've read in recent memory. Great, great stuff, and for a pretty good cause, too!

Richmond Clements

Quote from: mygrimmbrother on 05 September, 2009, 07:41:29 PM
At the Mountains of Madness, again. S'been a while but it still makes me go all cold and goose-pimply.

Read it again last summer- a superb piece of work.

QuoteDan Abnett's Horus Heresy. Forgot how good it was.

I've just this very afternoon bought one of the collected editions of Dan's Warhammer books to have a go at them, never having read any before.

Currently reading Steve Earle's short story collection Doghouse Roses.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: His Lordship rac on 06 September, 2009, 07:50:12 PM

Currently reading Steve Earle's short story collection Doghouse Roses.

Hadn't released Steve Earle had written a book. I'm assuming that's the Copperhead Road alt country Steve Earle. If so is it any good?

Richmond Clements

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 06 September, 2009, 09:16:34 PM
Quote from: His Lordship rac on 06 September, 2009, 07:50:12 PM

Currently reading Steve Earle's short story collection Doghouse Roses.

Hadn't released Steve Earle had written a book. I'm assuming that's the Copperhead Road alt country Steve Earle. If so is it any good?

Yup, that's the one.
Steve's one of my favourite artists ever. The book is, so far very good- Steve's voice comes through loud and clear. The title story in particular is a hard read such is it's amazing honesty- it describes the life of a country rock artists who happenes to be a heroin addict...
And I was surprised to see a story called Tanneytown, which tells the same story as the song.

Yes- recommended.