Indiana and the Manchester Museum

Bank holiday weekend. Nothing much to do except read more of The Yiddish Policeman's Union. So decided to get out and do something.

First we went to the Manchester Museum. I've been meaning to go there for a while as I haven't been since I was a kid. My interest was piqued by the Lindow Man exhibition as I did not see it on any of the previous times it has been in Manchester. Unfortunately it was an incredibly disappointing exhibition. Things are laid out in a confusing manner with very little real information beyond what is in the leaflet. There is also a pointless aside as a whole bloody section about a woman who, as a girl at the time the Lindow man was found, was in hospital and got a Care Bear. And apparently Bros were popular at the time. I don't mind have the discovery put into cultural context but found it ridiculous that it overpowered the exhibition to such an extent. There is also a big fuss about showing respect for human remains but when you get to the case with the body in it there is nothing - no label, no explanations, nothing at all that would indicate that this is something you should pay attention to, let alone pay respect to. Everybody involved in putting the exhibition together ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

The rest of the museum, though, is definitely well thought-out and there is a lot to see. The Egyptian exhibition is entertaining, informative and interesting. The exhibition of stuffed animals is very much as I remembered it and still a little creepy. And there was more that we didn't get the time to see, especially as the normal entrance to the dinosaurs was blocked although the exhibit is apparently still open. Interestingly the bodies on display in the Egyptian section are all covered up with cloth and there little notices to say that this is an attempt to show respect to human remains and is being done as part of an attempt to stimulate debate on how we should treat these bodies and whether it is right to have them on display. However it all smacked of hypocrisy with the Lindow Man exhibition just downstairs.

Link to Manchester Museum.

And so, on to the next relic on show: the new Indiana Jones film. Like everyone else with a fondness for the first films and the burning rage of the Phantom Menace still too fresh in my mind I did feel a little nervous about going to see it. I re-watched Raiders of the Lost Ark on Friday. Cautiously I peeked at reviews to try and get a sense of what to expect without reading any spoilers. A mild optimism encouraged me to get it over with and so we went last night. I enjoyed it. It's an Indiana Jones film. Sure, it isn't as good as Raiders or the Last Crusade but it's still thoroughly enjoyable. I want to stay away from giving any spoilers but it really does feel like an extension to the other films. Like someone you haven't seen for a long time and then meet up with again, it's a bit awkward at first, and there's a few more grey hairs, but it's still the same person. I read somewhere someone say it is the third best Indiana Jones film and that's probably about the best summary I could think of.

Nanowrimo is almost upon us again. I'm looking foward to it. My laptop has shiny new flavoured Ubuntu (amazingly easy to do this time). I have a few vague and confused scribblings that barely make sense, let alone a plot. I have a big stack of tea and coffee. I have a pile of books by my favourite authors to star at and curse when I need inspiration (for the record: Alfred Bester, John Brunner, W S Burroughs, Joseph Conrad, Sam Delaney, M John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin and Gene Wolfe). It's going to be awesome.
If you're interested in joining in just head over to the web site and sign up. If you want to follow my progress then my profile is here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/134290

In other news, I had my birthday, it was strange at first and then fun, I bought an ipod, and spent a couple of hours in waterstones but didn't buy anything. and went to the art gallery. work busy.

Work has been very busy and looks set to remain so for at least the next couple of weeks. However I am feeling much happier about it than I was last week.
We went to see Monkey;Journey to the West on Saturday. It is an opera directed by Chen Shizheng with music by Damon Albarn and animations by Jamie Hewlett. It also has an outstanding cast of fantastic actors and acrobats which all combined into a fantastic, wonderful experience. The set and costume designs were great - really matching the artwork - and the movements of the actors amazingly well choreographed so it actually felt almost seamless as it switched between live action and animation. And this is despite having crappy seats with restricted view.
Much, much better than the Mahabharata.
And despite being busy and tired am making myself do some writing at last and work through my own, personally developed (and stolen) journal. Drew a picture of an apple today and some origami. And as soon as something is good enough to show I'll be sure to upload it.

No blog posts recently as I moved into my new apartment a three weeks ago and it has taken me this long to get broadband set up. My own fault for going with BT who have been rubbish. You'd think it would be easy to do something that they specialise in and do hundreds of times a day. They messed up setting up my phone line too. Now they want to charge me... I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry but have decided to wait a couple of days before calling to discuss everything with them again. Although what's the point? They don't care about their quality of service.

Which has been a major grumble for the past few weeks but also about my only one. Work is going well, the new apartment (just near Picadilly station) is very nice and things are trundling along nicely. I even managed to install Feisty on my laptop, despite more than a few problems with my ATI graphics card, and have now got it all more or less setup how I want it. (verdict - the ATI card thing is a real pain, some things are a bit easier but overall not a great deal of difference from Edgy, especially as I already had many of the new features already installed).

So, quick rundown of what's been happening: Went to Leeds got drunk, came back, went to Leeds again to see sister, work, work, work, work and saw Sunshine at cinema, work, Soo and Ant came over and we got drunk, felt terrible, parents came over for roast dinner, work, work, work and saw Spiderman 3, work and watched Pan's labyrinth on DVD (thanks Soo!).

Work is going well and I am enjoying the job. It's quite nice to be able to get my teeth into some of this stuff again and the feedback has been positive too. Sunshine was pretty good, really enjoyed it and glad I went to see it at the cinema because the vision of the sun is religious in the way it is used. There's a bit of a shift in tone at the end away from character that is a little disappointing though. Spiderman was better than I'd expected from some of the reviews and basically no better or worse than the others in the series. Pan's Labyrinth is really cool. Hard to believe it's from the same director who brought the world Hellboy (a film I enjoyed but came out of the cinema with no desire to see again. Feel maybe I should now, just to check).