Infected

My choice of blip changed a few times today, as better opportunities came about. It seems the stars came out for us! I feel a rambling waffle coming, don't feel you need to stay for it :-) It's there for when I want to reminisce :-)

Since Ms H has been busy for weeks, we wanted to try and fit some films in together, but her late night party last night and sleepover meant she dropped us for our visit to My Life as a Courgette (yes I took a photo for this option :-) It was a great film, stop motion animation about kids but also targeted for all ages and so moving.

On our way to pick up Ms H she sent a photo of her on the bus with a Proclaimer sitting behind her, but the bus doesn't travel 500 miles so not sure where he was going and how he will get there!

So then our first Film Festival film was Infected, a film of the album of the same name by The The, although the band is actually just Matt Johnston in the blip above. Just before the film it was announced he would attend for a Q&A afterwards. It must have been 1987 when I first heard this album, released on my birthday in '86 I just discovered, it was in a work colleague's white Astra... er... something fast, with a digital speedometer... never saw the like, and we were on our way down to Alton Towers for a weekend. Anyway, that album blew me away and I became a fan. Infected is full of songs about greed, money, the UK, the USA and the war on Islamic terrorism that I didn't take much notice of back then... 30 years ago... I was just a wee boy enjoying the tunes! But watching the film now was a wake up call, all issues that are even more at the forefront of political debate these days. So when it came to the Q&A I was interested to see if his rage back then had changed given the (deteriorating) state of the world now... and I was surprised to hear that he had mellowed, as his concerns turned to those closer to home, families, relationships and deaths. He also conceded his arrogance in his early twenties eventually changed to humility and that he was just a wee boy then too, if 3 years older than me. It was quite refreshing to hear his views... 

Then a quick break before going back into the same theatre for the premiere of Kaleidoscope starring Toby Jones - he's a favourite in our household especially in The Detectorists. Despite set in a dull, depressing apartment, it kept us on the edge our seats until the end... at which point my immediate thought was I wanted to see that again... knowing what I knew now! And to keep in the tradition for today, the stars and director (Toby's brother) had a Q&A  afterwards - in the extra, if you've made it this far :-)