My back was a little better, but decided to stay in bed for most of the day and rest up. And by playing up the seriousness of my condition slightly I was able to get my girlfriend to bring me drinks and food which was awesome, so might pretend this is still bad for a few days yet. Ha ha ha and she will never know. I will live like a king. A bed bound king.
I decided to finally watch the video of "Apocalypse Now" which I bought in the 1990s and have never viewed - I have never seen the film either, though have watched "Heart of Darkness" the documentary about the making of the film and seen enough clips and parodies to know quite a bit about it. But it was one of those videos that it never felt like the right time to see it. And weird to be viewing it in this archaic format - even with this never watched, but admittedly old tape, the screen jumped around a bit and the occasional snow storm of fuzz and buzz of white noise interrupted the action. But it didn't spoil it for me - what an astonishing piece of work it is. I don't know how I got this far without seeing it, but glad it didn't pass me by completely. The classic "smell of napalm in the morning" scene justifies the high level of quotage that it has had. Duvall delivers it like he already knows he's going down in movie history.
It's strange how we can have these blind spots and I am a big fan of the rest of Coppola and the other 70s big hitters, so it's astonishing that it's taken me getting crocked to see this. But there are several DVDs and videos in my collection that were bought and never viewed. Maybe I should make it a weekly tradition to finally validate the purchase of one of them. To be honest I am astonished at some of the DVDs and videos I felt were worth owning even if I did watch them once. Unless you think you're likely to go for repeated views then it's not really worth buying anything that costs more than the rental value. But I've got some right shit, which even if I got it on a 3 for £10 offer it's hard to justify. What made me buy "Honest" - the All Saints Movie (my girlfriend suggests it is because one of the Appleton's is topless in it, but I always preferred Melanie Blatt)? Ed TV - what was I thinking? Bob and Rose? I could go on. What a stupid money wasting idiot the young Richard Herring was. Not like now. No, now I waste money on expensive gadgets that I will never need. And gym membership. Oh God, please forgive me for destroying your semi-beautiful, but surprisingly imperfect given it was created by someone perfect (how does that even work?) planet.
Talking of spectacular wastage, I loved seeing this film of
an entire fireworks display going off in a minute. I wouldn't ask for my money back if I'd been there. This is just awesome and wonderful. Screw fireworks going off in time to music in carefully orchestrated displays. Who hasn't wanted to see hundreds of them stuffed in a box and then have someone chuck a match in? Beautiful.
