Looking back
It's now my habit to look back at previous entries in this blog to see what I was doing a year or two previously. This is interesting to me for now, in that the last couple of years have been enriched by a variety of formative experiences and I can now see patterns emerging in my behaviour which show how seasonal an animal I am. However, looking back on this entry in a year's time will be somewhat dull. I can imagine that I'll write, a year from now, something like: "Well, it seems that, a year ago today I was... well looking back a year ago to the day...". So, I should keep my retrospectives brief. One should look over one's shoulder, but not to the exclusion of moving forward. Yes. Very deep!

I wonder if there's a male pornstar with a pseudonym (a lot of them have pseudonyms, you kn0w) that's a tribute to the regular film star Johnny Depp. He'd be called Johnny Deep. In case you hadn't worked that out.

Sorry about that.

Comedy within 5 miles of my home
Tonight will be the second of a two night comedy binge within Newcastle. I know! Watching comedy within 5 miles of my home - can it be possible? Well, with the Newcastle Comedy Festival due to start at the beginning of next month, it's looking likely. In this case, though, it's the local promoter - Funny Bones Comedy - who opened a new gig in Jesmond last night and is presenting the established show in Heaton tonight. I like watching comedy. Good comedy is a treat to be savoured. A room full of laughter is a good room. The show last night was good because the laughs were friendly. The comedians were a good mix too. A lot of the best humour last night relied on the intellect too, rather than just pushing rude buttons.

Film themes
I'm going through a phase of wanting film soundtracks to listen to. This is not a bad thing. Many film composers are producing unsung (unless you're Hans Zimmer, who uses choirs a lot) masterpieces that secretly hide behind the action. I'm currently being aurally assaulted by David Arnold's soundtrack to the film Independence Day - this is not a grand masterpiece, but it is textured and enjoyable. With the recent Back to the Future evening a clear memory (I'm a bit gutted that I failed to notice the Lonesome Pines Mall sign when I watched the first movie on Monday - I remembered it on Wednesday) I'm hankering after a bit of Alan Silvestri - he used a 98 piece orchestra for the Back to the Future score. Wow!

John Williams features quite heavily on the list of movie composers to adore. John Barry is in there too. I can't afford to get too into this subject. If I'm into movie scores and musicals equally... well, I won't have time to do anything except go on ebay and constantly make new space for CDs.