This week, I have mostly been:

  • watching Moon
  • watching Moon again
  • talking to anyone who will listen about Moon
  • reading the Moon press pack
  • trying to get hold of a Moon poster
  • having a brief but informative tweet-chat with the director of Moon
  • thinking about when I can see Moon again.

Moon

At last I have seen Moon. Ever since seeing John Calvert’s excellent poster concept at All City months and months ago, the weight of expectation I’ve put on this film has been immense. It reached a point where I knew it could only disappoint.

Somehow though, it didn’t. In fact, it was so good that as soon as the end credits started rolling, Dr B suggested we dash out and immediately queue up for the next screening. I’ve watched films multiple times before, but not in one evening. The City Screen staff stared at us in what I assumed was awe, but on reflection was probably pity.

So, some thoughts:

  • The design of the sets and vehicles brought to mind the LEGO Space sets of the eighties: lots of clunky shapes and 45º angles. I don’t know if this was deliberate, but it added a new depth to the future-nostalgic look of the film.
  • It was bugging me, but I’ve since discovered that the display text used throughout is Eurostile Black Extended.
  • Sam Rockwell is great, and should be cast as Bilbo Baggins as soon as possible.
  • This film was made for £2.5 million. Amazing.
  • Do you know what HAL was missing? Somewhere to put down your coffee mug. Genius.
  • I need to buy me a walk-in sleeping bag, yellow.
  • Duncan Jones seems like a really nice – and quite frankly geeksome – bloke. He seems like someone I’d gladly sit down and play Twisted Metal World Tour with. Plus he’s responded to some of my tweets, which is almost definitely the second most exciting twitter-related celebrity thing that’s happened to me this year.
  • I can’t be sure, but I think I saw a certain Muji clipboard in the film, which just makes me want it more.
  • It should win lots of Oscars, but will probably lose out to a film about Meryl Streep looking after a gay puppy with tourettes. Or something.
  • That picture up there is making my eyes go a bit funny.

For a slightly more in-depth and informed appraisal of Moon, check out The Quietus’ review.

This week, I have mostly been:

  • feeling crappy
  • inventing uses for the Dyson desktop fan thing (mostly involving bubbles and ping pong balls)
  • wondering what the connection between “rock-hard, pointless and unbearably pain-inducing” and “wisdom” actually is
  • suffering from acute design-envy whilst looking through fellow FFF-ers websites
  • thoroughly enjoying Zombieland
  • mildly enjoying FlashForward, but accepting that it’s basically just a glorified screensaver until Lost starts again
  • being fed ridiculous amounts of M&S chicken soup by Dr B (I fear she may be feeding me up for… something …)
  • culling
  • being a grumpy old sod who resents the sudden arrival of 10,000 students called Josh and Tammy in York, all of whom want to get in my way and smell weird
  • waiting patiently for my D&AD annual (and it still isn’t here. Sigh.)
  • looking forward to a spot of relaxing weekendery with Drs B, Kermode and Zoidberg.

This week, I have mostly been:

  • rejigging my work computer with Snow Leopard and CS4
  • discovering that “dreams for minimal studio” and “absolutely craploads of stuff” do not mix
  • excitedly downloading Beneath A Steel Sky onto my iPhone and then pretending that it’s actually a really small Amiga 1200
  • calming down after being the victim of a drive-by (although, this being York, the gunman used orange squash instead of bullets … it was still pretty violent and 50 Cent-ish though)
  • writing/sending/awaiting fallout of an exceedingly terse email
  • watching the first half of The Wrestler
  • watching the entirety of The Hurt Locker (amazing by the way)
  • figuring out how to use Safari, particularly the Top Sites function
  • wondering what to do with my second copy of How To Be A Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul (and continuing to dislike that unnecessary comma)
  • going on a Bookcrawl (which I’ll report on at some point soon)
  • being all kinds of clipboardganised
  • coming to terms with the fact that “clipboardganised” is unlikely to ever find its way into the Oxford English Dictionary.

This week, I have mostly been:

  • moving house
  • watching FlashForward
  • enjoying sunshine pouring in through new windows
  • selling lots of bits and bobs on eBay (including a Kate Moss book that went for fifty quid)
  • observing the respectable beardlessness of Creation
  • finally catching up with the rest of the planet and reaching the end of the first season of Flight Of The Conchords
  • enjoying my clipboard
  • playing wardrobe Tetris
  • being all kinds of proud of my three year-old nephew’s robot voice
  • taking my shoes off, like a good boy
  • wondering how on Earth I’m going to be able to play Team Fortress 2 this weekend without a broadband connection (can you play it by post?)
  • being exhausted.

Creation

Creation is a good, unhurried film about people and science and faith. It’s a proper grown-up film with excellent performances from Paul Bettany and That Girl From Labyrinth. It has one major flaw though: given that it’s a film about Charles “Beardy Beardy McBearderson” Darwin, you’d expect to see at least one shot of a bearded Bettany.

But no. Nothing. Some fine lambchops, yes, but no beard. I guess we’ll just have to wait for Reverse Of Ten Pound Note: The Motion Picture.

Holes

Well I finally got rid of my collection of holes. I’ve had these since my days of rubbish-filing (literally, I use to file rubbish) at Westminster Council, all those years ago. I was never sure quite what to do with them. Now I’ve had a great big declutterification of my life, they’ve finally gone to the big stationery cupboard in the sky … but not before I snapped a few pics.

Farewell tiny holes, farewell.

Mr Sheen

Not that I'm easily starstruck, but this is quite possibly the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. Hello Michael.

Moving

And so the big house move continues. Never let it be said that I have a shortage of books. Or magazines. Or canvas bags.

International Emergency Sci-Fi Unit

Every now and then the world just decides to do something quite bonkers on a really massive scale. I propose that, in order to make the most of these events for cinematic gain, there should be an International Emergency Sci-Fi Unit.

This is how it would work: the IESFU, as it shall be catchily known, will be on constant alert for freak natural occurrences and as soon as they happen, they’ll air-drop in a film crew, some B-movie actors and a couple of hack writers.

Take the weird orange sandstorm thing that attacked Sydney this week (pictures courtesy of The Big Picture): would that, or would that not have made a truly awesome Mars-based film? Nature is providing all the special effects for free, all the IESFU needs to do is have a bunch of affordable square-jawed actors (e.g. Casper Van Dien, Michaels Ironside and Biehn) wandering around in some spacesuits pinched from the Moon set, discussing something vaguely existential, and hey presto: instant classic!

Unfortunately, the opportunity to make The Bridges Of Mars County has passed us by. Let’s get the IESFU set up straight away so that we may take full advantage of the next garish natural spectacle.

This week, I have mostly been:

This week, I have mostly been:

  • selling off beloved but redundant iPod (farewell, poignant engraved REM lyric, farewell)

  • reviewing, as a designer, a book for the Designer’s Review of Books, a website by a designer that reviews books for designers

  • making David smile with cushions and horses

  • watching The Escapist, Dazed and Confused, Away We Go and Betty Blue

  • thinking of some nerdulous, feltronic questions

  • seeing lots of Swedish metal appear in my iTunes library

  • realising that oh crap I’m moving next week oh crap oh crap oh crap

  • receiving my first ever “executive shave”, which, no, isn’t a euphemism and, yes, does involve a really sharp blade and some fire

  • plugging the locals on FormFiftyFive

  • pretending to be Damon Albarn (just call me Dan Abnormal, okay?), thanks to a smashing Fred Perry shirt from Dr B.

This week, I have mostly been:

  • penniless, thanks to See Tickets’ amazingly flaky website
  • having a good old Ministry Of Sound Annual II reminisce
  • spilling pretty much everything
  • politely asked to leave the champagne bar
  • having a bit of a tidy at work
  • wondering why the launch of the iTunes LP format and the reissue of the Beatles back-catalogue were completely unrelated – massive apple-flavoured missed opportunity, no?
  • excitedly installing Snow Leopard
  • watching livelihood fly out the window as InDesign CS3 decides it doesn’t want to play any more
  • loving District 9 a lot more than I thought I would and getting a little bit too excited at the awesomeness of the whole MNU vs IronPrawn bit
  • rather enjoying Jamie T’s new album, even if it has a terrible sleeve
  • wishing that I too had a business card that features a photo of a waxwork of Paul Daniels.

This week, I have mostly been:

  • setting fire to things
  • trying to set fire things
  • having a bit of a fire-related tantrum
  • watching Dexter (season two, should you care)
  • walking
  • getting wet
  • avoiding my inbox
  • booking two tickets for next year’s Latitude festival
  • envying Mr Gordon-Levitt’s wardrobe
  • doing one of the greatest things any man can ever do: making girlfriend sit down and watch The Empire Strikes Back for the very first time.

Bullets Over Broadway

God only knows how I’ve made it this long with seeing Bullets Over Broadway. I’m an on-off fan of both Woody Allen and John Cussack, and this film belongs in both their best-ofs. It’s just great, the sort of thing Allen should do more often – it has a story and everything! Plus Diane Wiest and Chaz Palimenteri, actors I always thought of as nothing more than dependable support, put in a scene-stealing performances as, respectively, pickled stage diva and henchman-writer (one of the less common multi-hyphenates in showbiz).

Anyway, aside from all that actual filmy goodness, I noticed in the credits that Windsor Light Condensed, Allen’s typeface of choice, has a really bloody nice ampersand. Isn’t it pretty? And now I put it to you: can you think of any other directors with special relationships to particular typefaces?

Duel 2

I see this signpost every day, just after dropping Dr B off at school. It always makes me think of a really cheap Duel remake, in which a man is being relentlessly pursued by a sinsiter (if slightly ineffectual) bicycle instead of a truck. Just imagine the terror.

These are the things that go through my head first thing in the morning.

This week, I have only been:

  • wondering just how minimal your portfolio should be
  • enjoying my new Ally Capellino bag
  • resisting watching the Hellboy Animated DVD until the Doc returns from her research trip
  • maintaining a healthy level of Olympic apathy
  • suspecting that Scoot McNairy made his name up
  • flicking The Face
  • reading my massive edition of Watchmen
  • redesigning my site. Again.