WATCHING, READING AND LISTENING TO

THE EDITOR:

WATCHING - The Da Vinci Code on DVD was the last thing I saw. Never read the book, but was slightly disappointed that the 'plot twists' were all sign-posted way off by Ron Howard. However, I'm fascinated by history, so I found the whole thing quite interesting even if it was trying to pass a load of speculation off as 'FACTS', so it was quite enjoyable really. Also recently seen The Break-Up (alright, but not very funny) and The Holiday (VERY sappy and had Jude Law in it, but otherwise ok). Bring on The Simpsons Movie on Sunday night!

READING - Back to Jung Chang's Wild Swans. After reading her Mao biography I've become very interested in China's 20th Century meltdown, so it's very moving to go back to Chang's tale of the same period of history as told through the lives of her grandmother, her mother and herself. At the moment, her mother is a young radical Communist in a country ready for revolution and a better future under men like Mao. Sadly, the reality won't exactly match up to the idealogy and this book is set to get a whole lot darker...

LISTENING TO - As usual a really wide range of music, but things that have been going down well recently include: REM's Life's Rich Pageant and Reckoning, both awesome early albums, though I also really enjoyed Around The Sun, so I'm not one of those tiresome people who don't like their modern music just because you can understand what Michael Stipe says nowadays; Death Cab For Cutie; the new Josh Rouse album; Al Bowlly, a great pre-war British singer probably best known now for a song used a couple of times in The Shining, called Midnight, The Stars And You. Lovely music.

THE WRITER:

WATCHING - The last thing I watched at the cinema was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is ok but overloaded with plot and simplistic political subtext (especially in the Dolores Umbridge character). On DVD, I last watched Zathura, which is Jumanja in space but highly enjoyable and directed with real zest by Jon Favreau. And on TV, I'm still struggling to get into Heroes. It's perfectly ok, but the plot relies too heavily on tenuous mystery instead of genuine character development, something not helped by the fact that most of them are intechangable hunks who do little else but muse on fate and destiny.

READING - Essential X-Men Volume 2. Now, this is what you want if you're looking for intelligent superhero stories. The Dark Phoenix saga, the Days of Future Past and the introduction of Kitty Pryde are all included in this collection of classic Chris Claremont and John Bryne X-stories from the 1980s. Obviously some things (Banshee's incredibly silly Irish accent for one) don't really stand up to the test of time, but anything that has evil goddesses, space fights and alternate futures ruled by the Sentinals is ok by me.

LISTENING TO - Raiders of the Lost Ark score. In celebration of the fact Indiana Jones 4 seems to be proceeding quite nicely (with added Karen Allen - hurrah), I've been listening to the score for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Obviously, the Raiders March is the best and most memorable piece, but the less well known cuts are also impressive, especially the romantic Marion's Theme and that great shift from elegant elegy to apocalyptic poundings that happens when the Nazis open the Ark and all hell (and face-melting special effects) break loose.