Cut

Got a haircut, after weeks of not finding the time, so currently at the start of those few days of looking sharp and feeling under control before it all starts to go horribly wrong. If you see me in the next week, go ahead and run your hand up the back of my head. Mmm :)

A nice change from that haywire state it's been tending to lately. Annoying at any time, positively embarassing if I happen to be called in to teach. Five minutes in class and it turns into a shapeless sweaty tangle that wouldn't look out of place in some dodgy Vietnam movie, sported by a hapless bit-part GI who's been up country for weeks and isn't going to make it through the next reel alive.

A trampolining friend has just recently acquired from the US the DVD box set of the first series of Soap, which hasn't aired in the UK for nearly 20 years. I went over for a screening yesterday and we watched the first 10 episodes pretty much straight through, which was both nostalgic and hilariously entertaining in its own right. A very clever series that still stands up amazingly well. Some of it has dated, but for 1977 it's pretty incredible.

Continuing the veg-out trend, tonight we watched the extended version of The Two Towers, which was also pretty good. The added material is hit and miss, some excellent, some cute, some pretty awful, but overall it probably adds up to an improvement. Now I just have to find time to watch all the extras and stuff, which I know Ian won't want to sit through. I'm pretty sheepish about my own desire to do so, but some of the things on the Fellowship discs were really exciting, most especially the doco about WETA.

When I was young my biggest ambition was to work in movie special effects. That was what led me to LCP, though the focus was already gone by then. I got over the whole idea eventually, but still find the field very fascinating, and the dedication and creativity put into the process by so many people is inspiring. I've had a career of working on projects that no-one believes in, least of all me, month after month of drudgery to produce something utterly without value, bit bucket bullshit destined only for landfill. After that, even a glimpse of the kind of astonishing labour of love that went into LOTR makes me both incredibly jealous and, despite that, a little more positive about life.