Gosling In Da Club

It's quiet 'round 'ere at the moment. As if Soph's departure didn't leave a big enough dent in our number, Pete has now buggered orf to Spain for a two-week field trip.

So when I yesterday decided that it was too nice a day for a lecture on the music industry and to invite everyone to the fountains to frolic in the sunshine...well, 'everyone' wasn't a lot of people.

It was Sarah and Cliffey, but that was enough. While waiting for them to leave their lessons (pfft), I purchased a prawn baguette from Gregg's and a Cars ball from The Entertainer. The latter cost me £4, which we all agreed was a little steep for a rubber ball but it proved to be well worth the price of admission. Serious games were played.

Eventually Tim joined us, as well as his not-girlfriend Qing, who is very nice and doesn't seem to fit Tim's description of her as a nipple-crippling ice queen at all. I suppose one should never trust one's first impression.

Exhausted from all of the ball games, we went to CAI for a spell before heading our separate ways. Cliffey had to go to the bank to sort out his lost debit card and Tim had to help Qing find and qeck into her hotel, so Sarah and I went to the cinema. We saw Source Code, which is excellent and highly recommended. Imagine if Groundhog Day were some sort of taut action thriller and you're halfway home.

This morning Cliffey and I have been combining songs with movie trailers, with hilarious consequences. Some of our favourites:

50 Cent meets The Notebook

Antiques Roadshow meets Adulthood

The Lonely Island meet...pretty much anything, but especially The Lion King and Titanic

Find your own combinations and send 'em in. By which I mean tell me on Facebook.

Joel.

Penarth Doubling

Went to see Submarine (Moss from The IT Crowd's movie) with Sarah yesterday, and thought I'd use this update to flag up a rather unusual example of California Doubling.

California Doubling is the phenomena whereby Hollywood films and TV shows will very often be filmed in California regardless of where they're set. This is mostly due to the cost of transporting the cast and crew - usually a fair number of people on large productions - to wherever the story is supposedly taking place. A good example is Friends: set in New York, filmed in Burbank, CA.

Well Submarine is set in Swansea, and for the most part I was perfectly happy to believe that that's where it was filmed. But then, at the start of Act 2, there's a scene where the main character takes his lady friend to see Joan of Arc at some artsy-looking cinema. At this point, Sarah leaned over and pointed out that they were in The Paget Rooms, which is in fact a cinema in - guess where?

P-Town. It had had a slight makeover for the movie, but from the outside it was unmistakable. Sarah could even see the place where she gets her hair done.

There may have also been a scene on Sully Island, but we weren't entirely sure of that one.

Joel.

Tonight's Predictions

Things I Think Will Happen Tonight:

1) We are expecting the arrival of one Andy Wright, and some assortment of us will proceed to the cinema to watch The Adjustment Bureau on this Orange Wednesday. There was some concern about finding a sixth person to make up three pairs; however, after Cliffey is killed in a Tom-based golfing accident, this need will be removed and Pete will be free to do what he wants.

2) Yesterday, Cliffey and I conducted a fridge-purge. Our harvest included at least five half-full bottles of gone-off milk, a few drops of which I spilled on myself while pouring the now cheese-like substance away. On our way to the cinema, I will begin to mutate as a result of exposure to this renegade strain of milk, and I will murder anyone who happens to be in the car.

3) If Matt Damon gets caught up in a thrilling conspiracy and none of us make it to the cinema to witness it, does he make a sound?

4) Later tonight, Pete, concerned after our failure to return home, will report our disappearance to missing persons. They will be uncaring, as most police are; as a result, Pete will launch a one-man mission to get to the bottom of the situation and bring whoever is responsible to justice.

5) Pete's mission will abort just over an hour later when he finds traces of the mutated milk and joins me on my own mission to kill all humans.

Joel.

Two Sevens In Bus Limbo

It's been a few days since I last updated, for no particular reason other than laziness. So sorry about that, this one will definitely be worth the wait. Well, maybe.

On Wednesday night went to see The Social Network, a week later than anticipated. I was the first to arrive at the cinema, and the queue was out the door and 'round the corner. It looked like we would once again have to postpone our viewing pleasure thanks to loads and loads of people arriving before us.

But wait! There was another showing an hour later. So, in lieu of making the long hard trudge to the Vue, we wandered 'round town for a spell - accidentally stumbling upon the new HMV in St. David's 2 - before returning for the 9.45 showing.

I thought the film was very good indeed, and so did Pete. Soph said she liked it too, but Cliffey was somewhat indifferent, and Tom didn't like it at all. I'm not sure of Alex's opinion, but if he's reading this, Al, do write in to let us know.

The film didn't finish 'til past midnight, and as Alex's car already had five people to fill it, I nobly volunteered to walk back. It wasn't much of a sacrifice to be honest; I rather enjoyed the walk, soundtracked as it was by the second half of Tom Waits' Rain Dogs album.

Upon my return I played a whole lotta Worms with Cliffey. We even attempted a few of the multiplayer missions, with varying results (just don't mention girders around Cliffey for a while). At around 3am, Anna Sharp dropped by having been to town, but I was quite sleepy by this point so I turned in.

Yesterday was a bit of a cropping fail. I had intended to meet up with Meic and do some recording, but I hadn't written anything yet and besides, his computer was misbehaving so we took a rain check. I rang up my mum to ask if she and my brother (both on half term) were doing anything for lunch. Having arranged to meet them in the bay and proceed to Pearl of the Orient for their rather excellent set lunch menu, I headed for the bus stop.

Well, I got into town okay. I was to meet my family at the Millennium Centre, and, like the fool I am, I got on a no. 9 bus to the bay.

Except not quite. The number 9 goes to the sports village, where the swimming pool and ice rink and Morrisons and Toys 'R' Us are. I thought it would go via the Mermaid Quay area, but alas, it just went straight there.

So I spent an hour stranded outside Morrisons, waiting for a bus (the number 7) that would take me to Pearl of the Orient. Two of them fell off the board (CAAAARDIFF BUUUUUS!) and I ended up arriving at the restaurant about an hour and a half later than I had hoped.

On the plus side, I got to spend some time in the bit around the sports village, which was quite nice. Also, it gave me time to write some lyrics and I now have something to record when I do eventually see Meic (it's about fast food). Also also, the Chinese still make delicious food, even when you do arrive late.

Tonight, my brother is coming 'round to play Risk and steal my fish fingers, and then it's Josh and Rich and Elusive Dave's Halloween party. I don't have a costume yet. I should probably buy one.

Joel.

P.S. Sarah has a very bad cold at the moment, everyone please send out lots of get well thoughts.

P.P.S. Tomorrow's update - and at my current rate it may not go up until next week - will be post no. 50, so expect something special, possibly.

Pedro The Benevolent

I had a lovely moment earlier this evening. I had dragged myself out of bed to make a quick run to the Co-Op, and I was on my way back home to grab a fork and demolish the chocolate meringue roulade I had just purchased. How middle class a student I am. Anyway, I was wearing my enormous black longcoat, and while I was passing a group of youths, one of them called me 'Undertaker'. I think I was supposed to be offended, but I wasn't. It was awesome. I used to love The Undertaker, he was my second favourite after Edge.

So last night we went to the cinema to see The Social Network. Sarah and I had been enjoying another awesome meal at Bella Italia - culminating once again in The Godfather, a gigantic sundae containing whipped cream, chocolate ice cream, brownie, vanilla ice cream, wafers, and chocolate raisins - and we rendez-vous'd with the others at Cineworld. Soph, Alex, Pete, Cliffey, and Tom were those who came, and we were all very excited right up until the point where we discovered that The Social Network was sold out.

This came as a disappointment. I had topped up my pone specifically to text 241, and Cliffey hadn't been to the cinema since Australia. But it was not to be - some of us were prepared to go and see a different film, but Despicable Me was ruled out on the grounds of being a "kid's film" (Soph) and we couldn't see Mr. Nice because it's an 18 and some people didn't bring any ID (Pete...and me).  So back we went, but not until after Cliffey and Tom had hit up the pick 'n' mix. They weren't leaving empty handed, no way no how.

When we got back we decided that we were watching a film come hell or high water, so Pete set about downloading one while the rest of us chilled. Tom, Cliffey and I had a quick game of Fifa (we were all on the same team, and we won 2-1 after extra time, boom) and before long the film was ready to watch.

So we sat down in the living room - minus Soph and Alex, who we'd lost somewhere down the line, and Sarah, who had gone to bed, but plus Gem, who had been hangin' around in the house this whole time - and watched Kill Bill.

In Italian. With English subs. It was still really good, but it did get a little confusing when people started speaking Japanese in Italian in English.

Pete would like me to point out that not only did he go to the bother of downloading the film, he also paid for our taxi back from the cinema. So thanks Pete; you kept us out of the cold.

Joel.