Zorac's LiveJournal

So, finally here's my opportunity to bore you all with details of what I've been doing for the last month or so. Well, selected highlights thereof. This being part the first, so hopefully windows can do less damage than when it crashed and lost the whole lot...

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Lasagne + alcohol + Lion King = a much happier zorac

Anyway, it's invent-a-meme time. We watched Channel 4's 100 Greatest Musicals programme over Christmas, and inevitably it leads to a meme:

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Phew! 30% (possibly a bit higher, but if I'm not sure I've seen it, it doesn't really count) - there are a lot of the "classics" that I haven't seen, and plenty of things on that list that I would like to see at some point.

The last few days in brief:

Thursday: Saw Return of the King. It was good.
Friday: Made t00by faces at hermorrine via webcam when she wasn't looking. Well, except that she was...
Saturday: Went Xmas shopping in London - traffic very light, Oxford St. not really any busier than a normal Saturday. Found many presents, then had lunch with my aunt in the National Portrait Gallery - a very-nice rooftop-level restaurant with excellent views across the London skyline. Did more shopping, then came home and collapsed.
Sunday: Did the last of my shopping in Oxford, including sever tons of Lush stuff. Saw RotK again with kay_taylor and justamephit. Still good.
Monday: Had birthday. Felt older (OK, not really).

Last night I had the last cocktails of the year at You Know Where with malachan and owlman, taking advantage of the new happy-hour menu. After that, it was up the road to Pepper's for some food (we vote them the best burgers this side of the Atlantic). As this left me a good way from the centre of town, I decided not to pick up my ticket for Return of the King, and instead to sort that out this morning. Oops.

I don't trust the Odeon website for ordering - the one time I tried, it managed not to actually book any tickets (although thankfully, it neglected to debit my card either), but I did have a quick look to check availability this morning, discovering that the Magdalen St showing was already sold out, but the two screens on George St had seats available. So a hurried into town and queued up for the box office, only to find that both showings were now sold out. Woe! Woe!

At this point, food was called for, so I consoled myself with pizza - during which I recalled that I'd had an email earlier in the week letting me know that RoTK was also showing at the Phoenix Picture House (a mostly art-house cinema, but also some mainstream movies, albeit usually second-run). I went expecting them to be sold out for opening night too, but happily this was not the case, so I will be seeing LoTR on the 17th after all! *bounces*

Ack. I meant to post this earlier, but I lost track of time while designing Christmas cards. Anyway, I am in great need of going to see The Return of the King on opening night (Wednesday 17th), but going to London to do so is highly impractical, so I'll be heading to the Odeon in Oxford instead. Times are 19:15 at Magdalen St. (my preference) or 18:45/19:00 at George St. I'm going to get tickets tonight (Friday), if anyone else would like to come, then drop me a comment and I can get you a ticket either tonight or some time tomorrow (assuming there still some left).

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post in which I mentioned the movies we went to see, but failed to give any sort of reviews. Shame on me.

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This Saturday was different from usual - no trip into Oxford for retail therapy and a movie. I had vague plans to head into London for the Apple Expo, but when I looked out the at around nine to be greeted by pouring rain, I went for plan B - which mostly involved going back to bed. Much of the weekend was taken up with watching much of the extra material from The Two Towers extended DVD set. Alas, I failed miserably to remember all the amusing quotes I had earmarked for LJ post titles, so I've had to settle for a bit of paraphrasing (yes, PJ suggested that Rohan should get a branch of Gap). Somewhere along the line I managed to get some RS coding and other useful stuff done, but it was mostly a weekend of doing not very much.

Yesterday, of course, it was back to work - but at least it's only for half a week and, besides, things have been reasonably quiet of late. Last night's movie was Highlander, something I picked up on bargain DVD a couple of weeks back on the grounds that I haven't seen it and have heard much about it. Big mistake. That movie made Revolutions look good. Yes, there were a few interesting ideas, but that was about the only redeeming feature (OK, there was the Queen music, but even that was overloaded). Crowning moment: a scene with two characters - one Scottish, and one Spanish. The Spaniard is played by Sean Connery, and hence has a Scottish accent, while the Scot is played by Christopher Lambert and has an I-don't-know-what-the-devil-it-is-but-it-sure-as-hell-ain't-Scottish accent. Nuff said.

Today, I wasn't taking any chances, so I went straight for the Disney: Hercules. The more I watch it, the more I like it - Disney most definitely not taking itself seriously - and even sending itself up (...and you are wearing his merchandise!). The input of Gerald Scarfe is a stroke of genius - he gives the artwork a very unique look and a strong visual identity (alas, the CGI work is pretty sucky - which doesn't bode well for Disney dropping 2D animation). Hades is possibly my favourite Disney villain (if only someone had shown him the Evil Overlord's handbook...) and Megara is great too.

As for tomorrow's movie, I'm at the mercy of the airline as I fly to Chicago. Wheeeeeee!

...except that in parts of The Matrix Revolutions, that end just couldn't come soon enough.
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Further to this post, I have decided that my flat shall be henceforth known as The T00blerone - partially because I like that name best, but mostly because the walls of my lounge are in fact the colour of a Toblerone box. hanacandi wins a ( Collapse ) for her suggestion. Also, I'm pleased to report that no further trick-or-treaters dared to darken my door.

Saturday saw me making my usual foray into Oxford. This time, head of the agenda were some hair reduction measures, followed by lunch and a movie. I even managed to resist the temptation to spend money on CDs/Games/DVDs for once. The movie in question was the highly entertaining Intolerable Cruelty - we certainly seem to be doing well for rom-coms at the moment, with last month's Down With Love and the upcoming luvvie-fest Love Actually. Also went to Lush and must un-recommend the Xmas Pud ballistic on the grounds of it generating nasty scum and leaving a horrible ring around my bath.

Yesterday followed the usual stay-at-home Sunday formula. An unexpectedly large chunk of the day was taken up by an extended game of Warblade (see the second comment), so it was gone four before I even had lunch, and I have no idea what happened to the rest of the afternoon... After dinner I had a brief Y!M with malachan regarding T00bage Revolutions, and a longer chat with hermorrine (although Y!M's webcam functionality seems to have become unreliable since I upgraded to Panther. Grr).

Oh, and just in case no-one on your friends list has pointed it out to you yet, you can now but more userpics. Unless you have a permanent account, in which case you've already had your limit increased for 15 to 20. No, I'm not gloating, why do you ask?

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It's been so long since I last did a big whopper of an RL update that I've almost forgotten how. Or perhaps not. Here follows a tale of two weekends and many movies.

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