Of Coffee's For Closers (Location Scouting, Part II)

It's been quite a while since I last made a post on here, the reason being due to my slipping stability in regards to everything, all brought on by the catalyst that is a lack of response in regards to my locations. It seems that people are incapable of sending back even a courtesy rejection e-mail. A rejection is a rejection, for sure, but at least I would have had a firm answer, instead of being left in constant hope. Naive hope. 

I've also been neck deep in Liberty City. Man, GTA IV is a fucking big game. Old news to a lot of you, I know, but I'm only just getting into it (when I say 'just', I mean like last week) and went through some interesting phases. At first I loved it, I was in awe of pretty much everything - Rockstar have successfully created a living breathing world, awesome. But once that novelty wears off all that's left is driving. Fucking driving. And the driving controls aren't even that sound! The amount of Libertonians (Libertines? Libertinians?) I've accidentally mowed down...man, a moment is needed.

*respectful silence*

Okay, enough of that. The story is pretty damn good, if not too damn long. I'm about 2/3 of the way through now, I believe, and I've been playing for a good 20+ hours. The missions themselves consist of a lot of fucking driving. Some require you to get a vehicle, so you can drive, and if you're not careful you'll be seen by a cop, which means you then have to drive off and lose their attention BEFORE driving to the location to get into the mission, probably something to do with driving, before having to fight your way out and then drive away. Hm. I can see why this game polarizes people, I went from loving it to getting kind've bored pretty quick. It could do with being, like, half the length it is. 

ANYWAY, this isn't a review about GTA IV (I haven't done a review for a while...I think I should. I was going to do one about the first Resident Evil game, but that obviously didn't happen) this is supposed to be about the other days spent attempting to secure a location. My good friend Tim and I went out all around our area going in and bugging numerous coffee shop/cafe owners with incessant questions and intimidating looks (the whole persuasive, puppy dog eyes thing). Here's a few of the places we scoped, just cause, y'know.

The Organic Cafe in Greenwich

The George II in Greenwich

It almost seems pointless putting up a whole bunch of new photos of these potentials considering the good news I got yesterday, the Costa Coffee in Sidcup are willing to let me shoot there! I've got to send them some details regarding budget, and shooting info, etc and we should be on. It's as good as confirmed, it seems. Who knew sending a few e-mails and phoning up a couple of times (ie: harassing, sort of. Maybe.) would yield such positive results?! 

So, there you have it - I pretty much have a location. Fooled you with my little bait and switch, huh. The start of this had you feeling all 'Aw, poor Steve. He's having a hard time' and then BAM! The old fork in the eye. Or...y'know...my awesome reveal. I couldn't be more stoked about being able to shoot in this Costa Coffee, from the moment I went inside it I knew I wanted this more than any other. It's funny, this situation kind've mirrors my experiences when I was applying for Universities. 

Anyway, now the next part/s start - I've got to cast the thing, sort out equipment, schedule and then shoot the thing! So, not too much to handle all by myself. Right?

Right?

At least a part of this is taken care of now. Incidentally, I was so down about the lack of response that I had actually started planning a new idea for another short. So once this thing gets done, edited and sent out, I've got another project I can actually jump straight into! Awesomeness to the max, kiddo! 

This is me stoked. Pretty damn fucking stoked. Now I've gotta keep on top of this and make this shit happen! Time to get this thing rolling!

Here's some random shit that's caught my eye over the past couple of days:

- Monkey Island kicks? Are you fucking kidding me?! These are just way beyond awesome, I would love a pair. Not that I'd ever wear them, I would never want to desecrate something so beautiful in both reference and execution. JUMP!

- Relient K are awesome. Deathbed has got to be one of my favorite songs I've head in a long, long time. I'm listening to their 2004 album, 'Mmhmm'. Apparently they're a 'Christian' Pop Punk/Punk Rock band. Yeah, they sing about a few things relating to Christianity, but I never considered that. Frankly, it's a non issue. 

- I hate playing pool in GTA IV. That thing takes forever and I suck at it. Fuck you, Roman. Fuck you, Kate. I never wanted to win anyway.

- Wrestlemania 25's card so far really doesn't blow me away. Compared to previous cards, it does in fact equal the suck. Kind've like me playing pool in GTA IV.

- I've been working hard on a few songs during this time down from 'Coffee's For Closers'. They sound great. Definitely an awesome mix, some will have you dancing, others will have you rocking, some may even have you shed a tear. 

- For the more observant amongst you, you may have noticed I started a twitter account. You can find it here (JUMP!). If you're reading this blog, and have a twitter, please go on over and add me so you can be completely up to date with all the inane shit I do during my day. No, not really - I can promise you I will never, NEVER, make a post as dull as 'waiting for coffee' or anything in that vein. Hence the title, 'Random Musings', which I think utilizes Twitter a bit better. 

And finally:

This: 

And This:

UPDATE: I just saw this and, seriously, what the fuck? A new BBC One Drama called 'All The Small Things' What the hell is this show going to be about?

Just did a quick Google search. Apparently it's about this (JUMP!) which sounds like an interesting idea. Who knows, maybe they'll pull it off.

UPDATE II: Watched Episode 1 (which features blink 182's 'All The Small Things') and Episode 2 (which features The All American Rejects 'Swing, Swing'). Did they pull it off? No. No, they didn't.

Of My Country Journey Day Seven (20/2/09)

This isn’t going to be that long an entry as I’m watching The X-Files as I type this, so if anything seems nonsensical, or if sentences are constructed in an even poorer manner than usual, that’s the reason why. I’m near the end of Season 5 of the X-Files right now (Episode 15 ‘Travelers’) and have been enjoying it again since I took a little break after Season 4. I don’t know what it is exactly about this show, but I find that the quality, and continuity, of the show really fluctuates. The episodes that pertain to the over arching theme (alien invasion/occupation, government conspiracies, the smoking man, etc, etc) are always interesting and can be easily identified as they are always 2 or 3 parters. Every other episode however is pretty stand alone, adding little to the story that’s existed over every season. For example, in Season 5, you had the episode 12 ‘Bad Blood’ where Mulder believes in vampires and is convinced the town is being preyed upon by one. Then the very next episode, the first of a 2 parter, ‘Patient X’ has Mulder not really believing in aliens, convinced that it was all government manipulation (which to a degree is true in regards to him and his sister – this may change by the end of the series though!). How does the continuity of a series work when in one episode he believes whole heartedly and in the next he’s lost his way, his very faith, in the supernatural?

Oh well, I’m still enjoying it and will probably watch through to the end of Season 9. I’ve invested enough time into this series and these characters that I should see it through.

I’m officially staying in the country for an extra day now. I was supposed to be leaving tomorrow, but Eleanor’s parents are having a dinner party that they wanted me to stay for, so I am. It should be good; mainly because it’s all the awesome food I’ve been having all week in one day. With desert. Gnarly! Once I get home on the Sunday I’ll be locking my script before going location scouting on Tuesday with Gina. Hopefully something good will come out of that, I need to secure a location sooner rather than later and once I get the location, I can get the equipment and then the actors. Then, finally, the project will come together.

I bought Resident Evil 3: Nemesis today from Close Encounters (the comic book store/retro video game store in Bedford) for £4.99. I saw they also had Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, all for the same price. I was pretty pissed off to see the first Resident Evil there as Eleanor ordered it (the Value series one no less) off of Amazon for about £7/8. If we’d known about the store before we could’ve bought it there and then for less and with slightly better cover art. Not that I’m anal for these things, of course. Eleanor’s brother, Duncan, let us borrow his PsOne (the dinky one) and I play tested it for about a half hour. I’m looking forward to getting back and playing this series properly for the first time. I remember when the game first came out, I could’ve easily picked it up for very cheap (being in Hong Kong and all) but, despite my love of zombies (which came from an unexpected screening of Night of The Living Dead with my mum), I have always had too much of an overactive imagination to play them at that age, despite how much I wanted to. I feel that 13 years later, with the graphics now horribly dated, I may finally be able to! Go me and my conquering of past fears!

On the video game front, a quick note, does anyone else think it’s total bullshit that Ubisoft are releasing Prince of Persia: Epilogue? They’re essentially confirming that they sold an unfinished game, with an unfinished ending. I didn’t really like the game, which is a shame as I loved the other three, but I did kind of like the ending. A lot of other people, however, did not – hence this new ending and additional missions. I find it pretty questionable to ask fans to pay even more for a more conclusive ending which, arguably, should have been included in the first place.

On topic about my country vacation, there’s nothing really to report for today. Eleanor and I went for a walk this morning and then waited around before going back into Bedford where we had a bad experience in a crazy busy CEX (filled with country folk/chavs who talked like chavvy Londoners), I bought her Carmaggedon on the PS for 0.80p, but couldn’t find Resident Evil 3, despite the fact their website claims they have between 1 and 3 in stock. I was super stoked then to find a copy in Close Encounters. That’s pretty much about it today.

Short country blog done, I’m going to concentrate on X-Files now.

Of My Country Journey Day Six (19/2/09)

I know I’ve been lax in the writing of these things since I got here, but in fairness it’s been because I’ve been so busy! What I thought would be a lazy, slow and, ultimately, boring journey into the country has turned out to be anything but. Hell, it’s 11pm right now and I’ve only really been able to get enough time to myself to start jotting down all the things that’s happened in the past 5 days since my last entry. First off, and most importantly, I’ve been having a good time. A better time than I thought I would have had. Again, I figured it’d be a lot of doing nothing really, allowing me a chance to read a bit and finally lock my script, which I haven’t done due to the sheer amount of things I’ve been doing. In the past few days I have visited Milton Keynes (which I talked about in my first entry), Bedford, Nothampton and today I went to Cambridge. I really need to stress that Bedford, out of all the places I’ve visited, has impressed the hell out of me by appealing directly to the gamer in me. This place has a Gamestation, Game and CEX, all within one stretch of a shopping centre.

Their CEX was particularly impressive. Whereas most CEX’s I’ve been to (the London, Harrow, Bromley and Northampton ones) have all been small (some would say cramped), dingy places, the one in Bedford is a huge, shiny supermarket of a video game store that deals not only in the usual supply of old video games (namely, PS2/Xbox, etc) but ALSO PSX games! 

They also, ALSO (!), have a two floor comic book store with a kick ass Batman statue outside. I mean, the closest comic book store to me is Forbidden Planet in London, and I’ve got to spend about £5.70 (?) just for a travel card into London! Here I am, assuming I’m in the middle of no where, whereas in actuality I’m in a place that has more shops within a small period of space that appeal to me than I do at both Bexleyheath AND Bluewater.

I’ve been fantastically well looked after at Eleanor’s house. We’ve had home made food everyday and it’s been delicious Every. Single. Time. Not to say I don’t get home cooking at home, of course I do, and my ma makes some of the best food I’ve eaten. She’s also experimented now and then and made some rather questionable food too, but over the 22 years I’ve been eating her stuff I can say my opinion on her culinary skills is awesomeness. That being said, because she’s Filipina I tend to get a relatively Easternized version of Western cooking. It’ll be a Western dish, recognizable as a Western dish from taste and appearance, but sometimes there’ll be just something about it that highlights the fact an English person didn’t make this, sometimes it’s a blessing to be fair. The point being, on the first Sunday here I got, what could quite possibly be, my first proper, all-English Roast. I’m talking Roast Beef with all the trimmings. It was awesome! I’ve had stuff like that before at like pub/restaurants and roasts when my ma makes it (though it tends to be lamb) but eating at a pub/restaurant just can’t beat the goodness of a home cooked meal. It just can’t.

I don’t really know what else to write about right now. I’m pretty tired after wandering around Cambridge all day, including a period of time by myself after Eleanor stormed off all pissy. She didn’t really want to go to Cambridge at all today, I just go where I’m taken and today it happened to be Cambridge, so I wanted to make the most of it and enjoy my time there. To say that Eleanor freaking out and having a 5 year old hissy fit slightly dampened it would be pretty apt. It wasn’t the impression I wanted to leave this place with because, as we all know, we only get one, and I’ll most probably associate Cambridge with Eleanor acting like a bratty kid for a really long time now.

Cutting back for a moment, I picked up Yakuza for the PS2 from the Northampton CEX for £4. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Yakuza series and, after seeing just how fucking good looking the latest entry is looking, I decided I should pick it up and play it. If I pussy out of playing Resident Evil, I’ll always have Yakuza. I think the thing that’s always bugged me about playing Resident Evil more than anything else is the limited saving process. That and the limited ammo supplies. Limited saving = limited play time to me because I don’t want to have to play for ages, risking dying in the process, because I can’t afford to use a precious Ink Ribbon to save when I actually want to. I know it amps up the tension of the survivor/horror aspect of the game, but come on – that kind of game design does more to reject a potential audience than embrace them. Then again, here we are on the cusp of the release of Resident Evil 5, so there are obviously millions of people who think otherwise.

I’ll be leaving the Country for home this Saturday and, honestly, I wish I could stay longer. I love seeing Eleanor, obviously, even when she does act like a brat. But I need to sort out my own shit, I need to lock this script (which I haven’t even thought about since getting here, again because I’ve been constantly busy), shoot the movie, find a job, etc, etc, etc. Fun. It sucks too having Eleanor working to a school schedule as it means that the next time I’ll be seeing her won’t be until fucking Easter! So anyone who only lives 20/30 minutes, if not less, from your girlfriend/boyfriend and feel the need to bitch about not seeing them – fuck you. Fuck you and your little dog too.

When I get some downtime, I may write something actually focused on something other than what I’ve been up to (at least I managed to avoid that whole ‘woke up-had breakfast-yada-yada’ snorefest) – I saw an interesting topic on nodq.com asking whether predictability is really such a bad thing in wrestling. I thought that there was quite a varied range of topics you could talk about and it’s something I’d be interested in doing, especially with the whole Christian/Matt Hardy switch still so fresh.

Anyway, some quick thoughts again:

-       I finished reading Batman: The Long Halloween. It’s amazing how good Jeph Loeb is and how much of this story is lifted by The Dark Knight.

-       Lost was getting awesome again when it was finally definable (as a sci-fi shown no less) but this weeks episode didn’t blow me away the way I wanted it to.

-       I’m slowly collecting the Resident Evil games with the full intention to one day play them. I’ve always been too much of a pussy to play them in the past (despite being a massive zombie movie/comic fan) and since Chazz got me Resident Evil 2 for Christmas I don’t feel there’s that much of an excuse to not play it. Eleanor got me Resident Evil for Valentine’s Day and I’m looking to pick up Resident Evil 3 from the Bedford CEX for £3. When I get back, after doing script stuff, I’ll start playing it proper. If I don’t pussy out.

-       I really, really want a new Macbook Pro.

-       I listened to Enema of the State on the way back from Cambridge and am currently listening to Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Yeah, I’m pretty excited for their new album.

-       My heel really fucking hurts. It’s been killing me all day. I really don’t know how much affect this physio is having on it.

-       I want new Macbeth shoes. I also wish they still did shoes in the style of trainers instead of the straight up dress trainer/shoes they’ve been doing. I miss the London II’s.

-       Was I the only one shocked at finding out The Simpsons is now in HD and screening in 16:9?! I hadn’t read anything about it and so when I saw it, it was completely out of the blue. The HD animation shows, it looks like the animation quality of the movie, but, as the episode progressed, it proved that switching over to HD doesn’t necessarily make your show any better. 

Of My Country Journey Day One (14/2/09)

My first full day in the countryside and, to be honest, it’s not been that eventful. I had a pretty disrupted nights sleep, constantly waking up and falling asleep again, the kind of sleep where you get up in the morning thinking you had no sleep at all. I figure it has something to do with sleeping in new surroundings, I always find it hard to sleep in a place that’s entirely new to me. 

Eleanor’s parents went away to Exeter today and left pretty early, I woke up and heard them leave before falling asleep again; I think it was like 5 am at the time. Eleanor came in and opened the curtains letting the sun, literally, pour into the room at about 8:30. No matter how I tried to get the sun out of my eyes, I just couldn’t, so I figured it was time to get up and have a shower. For a house in the middle of nowhere it’s actually a pretty decent place, with a better shower system than the one I have back home in the London ‘burbs. 

The room I’m staying in reminds me of staying at my Gran’s house before I lived in England. I don’t know what it is about it, but it just has a smell and vibe to it that reminds me of being 10 and vacationing here. It’s nice. It also looks like a real B+B bedroom, which is pretty cool. It gives the whole trip a ‘Steve’s Country Getaway” kind’ve feel. 

We went to Milton Keynes today, supposedly the longest shopping mall in Europe (or the world, I can’t remember). To be fair, it was pretty long! Definitely a different mall than the triforce shaped Bluewater. I always find it really weird being out of my comfort zone, and this is pretty much the furthest away I could be from it. I had no idea where I was, with no sense of direction or anything. Eleanor thought I was mopey and grumpy while we were walking around, I wasn’t, I was just feeling really out of place due to my lack of comfort zoneness. Milton Keynes is a pretty impressive place, especially the insides of the Snow Dome where there was a wealth of awesome skating/surf/snowboarding shops. Literally brand name shops dedicated to nothing but that product. Billabong? Yep. Hurley? Sure. Roxy? You betcha. Atticus? Um, no, actually. Quiksilver? Yes. It was pretty cool, but some of the prices these places were asking for were fucking insane, it seems the recession has not been affecting Milton Keynes. £78 for an awesome black and grey striped Quiksilver hoodie (with a random, but cool, purple stripe along the middle), my reaction was a fair, justified; “Fuck you, I’m not paying that much.” 

I went to the American Import store that they have, it’s very much like the two ‘Sweets From Heaven’ stores in Bluewater, but that much better. For one thing, like how they roll in the USA, it’s bigger. There’s also a much wider variety of stuff, including an American brand Macaroni and Cheese that I grew up with (Kraft!), I was pretty excited over finding it as I can’t get that from the ones near me and I haven’t had it since I was a kid.  

I didn’t pick any up in the end, but if we go back I may. I also picked up a can of Moutain Dew: Code Red,  which I’ve had before in Bluewater. It’s good. I picked up another drink though, one I haven’t seen, or heard of, before. An energy drink that is ridiculously large (695ml!), like ‘If I were to drink that in one sitting my heart would stop’ large. It’s called Jolt and I got the grape flavour because grape soda is awesome and it’s something we’re all missing out on in this country. That and Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops and Fruity Pebbles, all of which we could get, but only at a high price, a price I’m not willing to pay after being able to buy them for next to nothing for like 13 years of my life. Jolt is a pretty tasty drink that’s a deep, unnatural purple colour and contains not only the ingredient Red #40 but ALSO Blue #1. Additive awesomeness!

This place also sold food; I’m talking American sized cupcakes. I wasn’t sure if they would taste like the cupcakes and muffins I had when I was last in the States in 2004, but considering I didn’t have that much in the way of funds after buying a £1.20 can of Mountain Dew and £2.65 can of Jolt, I didn’t pick anything up. I wanted to though. I saw they sold savoury food too, but I didn’t really have a look as Eleanor and her brother, Duncan, seemed to want to get out of there. It was only in the car ride on the way back to their house (a trip that takes approx. 20-25 minutes) that I wondered whether they did Corn Dogs in there. If I ever go back I’ll be sure to look, because Corn Dogs are little deep fried pieces of heaven on sticks. If I could clog my heart with one thing, it would be Corn Dogs. 

Anyway, that’s about it in regards to Milton Keynes. Nice place overall. The inner mall is a strange mish mash of old and new, you can see the original mall walls, etc (looking as though they were circa 1980. Quick Wiki search shows they were initially built in 1973 and the mall opened in 1989) but also the new wave of technology throughout, like the electronic store finders/maps, which were pretty neat. 

So, we got back from Milton Keynes and just kind’ve relaxed. We made lunch, from scratch; a pasta with white cheese and bacon sauce, which was pretty awesome. I’m not so good with remembering to take photos of things, else there’d be one here. I’ll try and take more photos in the next days to come. 

Eleanor has since gone to work for the night, which sucks. I won’t lie, it fucking sucks. Not only because it’s Valentine’s Day, but also because I came all the way up here to see her, to not get to see her. See? Kind’ve very lame. As far as today goes, in a Valentine’s Day sense, not so eventful. Eleanor is the kind’ve girl that doesn’t really do gifts, something I guess that stems from her childhood and lack of gifts growing up. That being said, I would’ve thought she would be consistently stoked whenever I get her anything, which I did/do. I had to ask her if I was getting a gift, kind’ve lame to ask, I know. But it was out of curiosity and the fact that I, unlike her, like getting gifts, and that on commercial days such as these, sometimes it’s fun to just lose the inhibitions and easy judgements about the Hallmark-holidays and just go with the flow. Sometimes it’s okay to get the lame cards and the sweet gifts. Unfortunately my girlfriend doesn’t share this opinion, so it wasn’t til about 3:30/4pm that I actually got a “Happy Valentines Day” from her. The same ideology applies to birthdays, Christmas and pretty much every major holiday; she just doesn’t do gifts, and again, as somebody who does, it kind of sucks. Not in a ‘I love material goods’ way, just in a general ‘presents = fun’/‘presents = thoughtful’ sort of way. Buying a present, or receiving a present demonstrates, to me, that someone has taken the time out to think about what you would like, find it, and then exchange cash for it – all to make you happy. And I believe that’s not something to just brush off.

Anyway, long story short I got her one of the Dexter books, as we’re both fans of the show. I also picked her up City of Angels today cause she wanted it. In turn she ordered me the original Playstation version of Resident Evil. Awesome. It arrived on the day I was leaving to come up here, not awesome. I was originally concerned with the disc, it looks pretty scratched up, thankfully it seems to play fine, super bad acting and all!

OH! Also, before I sign off; I bought a 12 pack of Budweiser’s from the Sainsbury’s here. They’re American style cans! Like, beer in the size of Coca-Cola cans, which I couldn’t believe! I see them all the time on TV and movies and such, but I’ve only ever drunk the huge pintish can equivalents. Anyway, I’m going to go back to reading Batman: ‘The Long Halloween’. I don’t think I’ll be updating everyday because, just looking at this post and the way it’s ballooned, I just don’t think it’ll be that interesting. If I do anything that deserves talking about, I will. I’ll start carrying around my camera with me too. 

OH! (again) One more, final, thing. I had dinner with Eleanor and her family yesterday. That was pretty awkward. I find her dad really weird, not intimidating in any way, he just has the potential to be pretty odd. Eleanor said I looked unimpressed through out again. Again, I didn’t mean to, I just didn’t know how to react to the stuff he was saying with out bluntly saying ‘that’s not funny, be quiet.’ The first thing I noticed about country folk is, like I mentioned in my Prologue, they all very knowledgeable about one another’s business. Not only that, but also the fact these people love bitching about each other. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. Like, they have nothing better to do than judge the other people around them; some of them, you have to assume, being their friends. They also always, ALWAYS, refer to the person they’re bitching about by their full name. So, if it was about me, a sentence may be structured as such; “Did you see Stephen Russell today?” or “Stephen Russell pushed over Mrs.Thompson today!” 

Weird.