Diary: Locker, Stock and a Barrel of Laughs

A cracking La Liga clash between Real Madrid and Sevilla was my send-off at TEAMtalk Towers for a week's holiday. I've got loads of time to take between now and the end of June so with no major plans other than a couple of nights in London in midweek, it was a good opportunity to down tools.

While hunting for some blogs to inspire me to start writing, I found this excellent Guardian website article by Andy Bull, which tells the story of how four guys with little to zero experience ended up winning Olympic gold in bobsled at the 1932 Winter Games in Lake Placid. It's a fine piece of sportswriting and everyone who I forwarded it on to agreed it would make for an exciting movie. Kind of like The Aviator mixed with Cool Runnings, if you know what I mean.

On Sunday night, I went to see A Single Man at the Hyde Park Picture House - a cinema here in Leeds that I'm bound to write more about in due course. It dates from 1914, the Edwardian era, and is a beautiful venue in which to watch movies. Mark Kermode can often be heard raving about it (he's at it again on his latest blog post, about 30 seconds in); indeed, I was fortunate enough to meet him there recently on his book-signing tour. I've been a member of the cinema's Friends group for a couple of years now and am hoping to get more involved with all the events etc they have going on. I never got around to writing a review of the film, which I enjoyed very much even if it was a bit of a triumph of style over substance. Colin Firth is compelling in the lead role and as a study in human loss early on in the film, it's hard to fault. After that, if you can get the past the fact that it's strange how Firth's George is suicidally lonely when everyone he meets is so friendly, there's plenty to enjoy - not least the fashions and the appeal of a Santa Monica summer. It was freezing in Leeds that day so the prospect of sunnier climes was as attractive as a slightly tipsy Julianne Moore (one of my very favourite actresses) dancing to Booker T & the MGs' Green Onions (as previously heard on screen in the superb Get Shorty). The melancholy score by Abel Korzeniowski is well worth a listen too.

On Monday morning, I watched the Oscars back having Sky+d them the night before. No real surprises other than perhaps The Hurt Locker taking Best Picture over Avatar. The actual announcement of the big award of the night was such an anti-climax, Tom Hanks striding on stage and declaring the winner in about 30 seconds flat. Kathryn Bigelow's film is tense and thrilling in all the right places but it was nowhere near the best of 2009 for me. My most-loved were A Serious Man and Moon, both of which I hope will find a bigger audience on DVD etc in the future than they did in cinemas last year.

I went to a play reading of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts on Monday evening with an amateur dramatics group a mile from where I live called the Adel Players. It was my first meeting with them and I really enjoyed it. I'm thinking of getting back into drama so I shall probably go and watch them rehearse their current production of The Cherry Orchard at some point to find out a bit more about them.

On Tuesday, it was down to London where in the evening I watched a dreadful football match (QPR 2 Plymouth Argyle 0). It was great to catch up with friends however, and on Wednesday I saw the production of The Little Dog Laughed at the Garrick Theatre, just up from Trafalgar Square. This was a sharp satire on Hollywood attitudes to homosexuality and Tamsin Greig was the stand-out performer, cast as an acid-tongued agent.

Back to Leeds on Thursday, and an enjoyable Friends meeting with other Hyde Park Picture House members. So far this weekend I've watched The Hangover, Rocky Balboa and caught up with some more of Damages Season 1 - all DVDs that have been loitering in my 'to watch' pile for far too long. Finished reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire and started on Michael Bilton's Wicked Beyond Belief. Tomorrow morning I'm off to see Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side (preview screening at Showcase Cinema). Review coming later then!