Ran again this morning. Crikey it's cold today, just below zero according to the weather forecast and it certainly felt like it.

Yesterdays lunch was lovely. We were at a place called Mango, in Longcroft, which has an interesting combination of Indian and Italian dishes on its menu. Our party opted for the Indian options and I had the increasingly ubiquitous Haggis Pakora to start, followed by a slow cooked lamb dish that was most delicious - on the spicier side and incredibly tender.

During lunch Laura asked, to my surprise, whether I would like to continue on to Glasgow after the meal to see The Handmaiden. After a little time wandering around the shops as we arrived early, and having bumped into an old friend, we arrived at the GFT.

The Glasgow Film Theatre, to give it its full name, is one of my favourite venues. We're quite spoiled, really, having several wonderful independent cinemas within short driving distance of us in addition to a number of large multiplexes.

The Handmaiden turned out, as I had hoped, to be an interesting film. Drawing from a Sarah Waters novel originally set in Victorian England it transplants the action to Korea and Japan during the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula, and follows what presents itself initially as a caper to steal the fortune of a lonely heiress but which quickly pivots into a much more complicated tale. It's difficult to describe much more of the film without ruining the surprises but suffice to say both myself and Laura enjoyed it, and I'd certainly like to see it again.

I'm going to suggest that we take in Ghost in the Shell this evening as it will be one of the last showings of it locally, as I would still like to see it on a big screen.

Before we went out yesterday I indulged in a another little bit of media consumption and re-watched the first episode of Mad Men which has recently become available on Netflix. I watched the show when it originally aired on Sky Atlantic some years ago and I was curious to see how it had held up against my memory of it. Being a period piece it doesn't particularly date beyond the appearance and performance of the actors differing from my memories of the later series of the show. I found it fascinating again, as I did first time round, how the showrunners set about establishing the setting from the outset, from the obvious things such as the widespread use of cigarettes (blending into Don's challenge to market Lucky Strikes in a regulatory environment which even then was getting hostile towards cigarette advertising), to references to the then recent wars and towards the end of the show Richard Nixon's upcoming election campaign against John F Kennedy.

I'm glad to say that the show feels as good as I remembered it - always a risk when rewatching stuff that without the benefit of novelty it will not hit the same notes. I'm not sure whether I will continue and rewatch more of the show or not - lots of other things to watch and read that I haven't seen before.

(538 words) 2017-04-18 08:21