After my Shit Factor rant yesterday, I feel like you deserve something better, more rewarding to read, and a bit less shouty. Hopefully, here it is.
I like Queens of the Stone Age. I also like lying on my bed, pen in one hand, notebook on my lap, and writing pages from my eventually forthcoming film script, Henry Sugar. Based on the utterly amazing Roald Dahl short story, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, I've chopped and changed entire characters, brought in new ones, introduced new settings and basically retained the charm of the original story, while giving it my own twist with an expanded storyline, new characters, a hell of a lot of new dialogue and the obligatory Morgan Freeman voiceover. Of course, I‘m kidding, I‘m not trying to do Shawshank Part 2... I like what I've done so far. Once I get a bit more written, I might scan a couple of pages and put them on here, but that's a long way off yet, as I've got loads of ideas to trawl through.
There's a lengthy note I typed on my iPod in August at Paul's, and I like looking back at it to see how much my vision's changed. Initially I had actually planned to totally expand the story into a six-part series, with an entire episode devoted to Imhrat Khan, the "man who sees without his eyes" mentioned in Dr. Cartwright’s journal, who gives Henry the idea to gain the power for himself.
I can find inspiration and ideas in the smallest and most unlikely of areas, even from a tree outside my house, walking through Dundee in the cold and going through to Stirling to cheer myself up on a bad day, going into Europa Music to look through piles upon piles of records and ending up writing down an entire list of songs that I reckon would suit pretty well… (500) Days of Summer showed me that the soundtrack is just as important as the film itself, and I think my choices might offer an insight into my eclectic tastes!
http://open.spotify.com/user/dhmufc/playlist/77rHJP2qK42Javp4xlv6FW
For those that don’t have it, here’s the list in full, with some added extras I couldn’t find:
Arcade Fire – Lenin / Keep the Car Running / Wake Up
The Beatles - Love You Too / Tomorrow Never Knows
(Both Beatles songs are for the Indian scenes – Revolver!)
Belle & Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap
Bruce Springsteen – Atlantic City / The Ghost of Tom Joad / Lonesome Day / Waitin’ On A Sunny Day
Coldplay – Yellow
Franz Ferdinand – All My Friends (LCD Soundsystem Cover)
John Legend – Ordinary People
Queens of the Stone Age – Auto Pilot / Make It Wit Chu
Rivers Cuomo - I Was Made For You
The Smashing Pumpkins - The Everlasting Gaze
The Smiths – That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore
The Stone Roses – I Am the Resurrection
Thunderclap Newman – Something in the Air
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll / Zero / Maps
Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are has a re-recorded version of Arcade Fire’s Wake Up in the soundtrack, plus Karen O, YYY’s lead singer, (and Jonze’s ex-girlfriend, by the way, for those interested) recorded the original soundtrack. I’m itching to see it already!
Also, I finally got round to watching The Making of The Resistance, the DVD accompanying the latest Muse album, which I bought in September, and true to my theory, I always appreciate an album more if I read about how it was produced, and this is definitely no exception (Haven’t discovered one yet). From being 4th in my list of favourite Muse albums, with Absolution, Black Holes & Revelations, Showbiz, The Resistance and Origin of Symmetry being that list, it’s moved up a place!
I love records, as you’ll well know, and record shops in particular are a favourite of mine. I love nothing more than finding a new one, looking at what they have, buying a cheap vinyl to start me off, and then taking it from there. My aim is to have the Holy Trinity of Beatles albums (Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road), Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Metallica (The Black Album), The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead, Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, Jeff Buckley’s Grace (if it exists on vinyl) and Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland by the end of next year. I already have Sgt. Pepper, Christmas is coming up and I‘ll be working a lot over the 2-month break, so I might catch up on that list sooner rather than later. Groucho’s in Dundee and Europa Music in Stirling are the two shops I like best, but if you know of any more, let me know!
I’ve quite enjoyed writing this, so much in fact the router’s been turned off, so I can’t post it, but it’s a quick copy-and-paste job from Word in the morning, and all will be well in the world, until Tiger Woods’ supposed 37th mistress comes straight from The Jeremy Kyle Show tomorrow afternoon and into the wallets of tabloid newspapers everywhere. Christ, the latest one’s 48, and the one before was a mid-30’s porn star, I’m sure! Next it’ll be Hillary Clinton, but Bill wouldn’t be bothered much, he’s had a bit of experience in the cheating department before…
Heh, listen to me, making political jokes. Maybe that’s why not many people find me funny…
Christ, I’ve been writing this for three hours. At 01.51am and 953 words, I think it’s time to stop there. If you managed to read this entire thing in one sitting, I applaud you.
Darren out, saying you think I ain’t worth a dollar, but I feel like a millionaire!
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Now playing: Queens Of The Stone Age - Better Living Through Chemistry
via FoxyTunes
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