Pynchon

On Saturday I asked Lorraine if she wanted to go on a date with me. Of course she was immediately suspicious.

"What do you mean a date?", she said.

"You know. A movie, a meal, a club afterwards, if you fancy it. A date."

"What have you done or what are you after?", said she.

"I've not done anything and I'm not after anything, either. OK, forget it. I'm sorry I asked", I said.

"What did you have in mind?", she asked, and I knew that General Pynchon had won the battle.

So Saturday evening we went on a date, but the whole of Saturday was good.

Saturday morning there were chores (hoovering, washing up, dusting, etc.) while Lorraine did some work on the computer. At midday we went out and stopped at Asterias for lunch. In my humble opinion Asterias do the best baguettes in Brum, although ever the Philistine, Lorraine had a cheese and chilli jacket potato. Vileness. It looked awful, but then again, it did contain cheese so that was to be expected.

Next we stopped in Rackhams and looked at furniture. Lorraine had spotted a corner unit last week and was determined to buy it so that she would have something to display the ever growing number of ornaments and photographs and she has been accumulating. It was perfect... but too tall. Shame. It was also nearly 700 quid, so I was not overly upset that she had been denied the purchase of it.

Next we stopped in Beatties and Lorraine tried on every pair of trousers in the shop. They were all unsuitable in her opinion because a) She was too gross , or b) The trousers were too gross. (Lorraine is not gross. Lorraine is a fine looking woman. Would I hang out with a woman that was not a fine looking woman? No, I wouldn't. Ridiculous.)

Next we stopped in Woolworths and Lorraine purchased a couple of faux fur throws to... er... throw over the settee.

Next we wandered around W H Smith, where I successfully resisted the temptation to buy any magazines except the official Alias magazine, and then we went home.

Cup of tea, change of clothes, glass of Frangelico and then out again. Lorraine and I were on a date.

First stop was the Electric Cinema where we saw Atom Egoyan's film "Where The Truth Lies". It starred the extremely underrated trio of Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth and Alison Lohman and I thought that it was very good indeed. But then again, I have never seen a bad Atom Egoyan film and so am biased. Here is the plot outline from IMDB. I couldn't describe it any better myself.

"A female journalist tries to uncover the truth behind the breakup, years earlier, of a celebrated comedy team after the duo found a girl dead in their hotel room. Though both had airtight alibis, and neither was accused, the incident put an end to their act."

It was hardly a first date movie. Extremely sexual and explicit (Atom Egoyan repeatedly cut the movie to try to avoid an NC-17 rating in the States, but failed to do so - I think it is released uncut in the UK) in all sorts of ways (Alice In Wonderland, White Rabbit, hallucinogenics... Hahhhh!) and delving headfirst into the seedy underbelly of showbusiness, I think that it would make a really good double bill with "L. A. Confidential". It shared the same kind corruption under the surface and also had a similar kind of sweeping, string laden soundtrack. Kevin Bacon (shark-like and hyperactive) and Colin Firth (genial, but ever so slightly creepy) were fantastic and Alison Lohman (an innocent? but abused and corrupted) was just wonderful. I have liked Alison Lohman in everything that she has done and this is probably her most adult role.

"Where The Truth Lies" goes on general release in the UK in December (the Electric Cinema had it as a single showing part of their mini festival this weekend). I will probably buy it when it comes out on DVD. Lorraine said that it is the sex scenes that impressed me the most. Not true. It is a really good film and really good films should be celebrated. If I just wanted to buy a film for the sex I would buy porn.

Saturday was only the second ever time I have visited the Electric Cinema since the refurbishment. It is a wonderful place. A little bit pricey, but very cool indeed. As I understand it, the guy who now owns it runs it at a loss (I believe he is something in the music business and can afford it). The Electric Cinema tries to make going to the flicks a special experience. There are sofa seats (we bagged one!) where you can text your drink order to the bar and they would bring it to you (I was not allowed to do this.) There is a hint of decadence and bohemia about the operation. They sell Absinthe in the bar! Lorraine did not let me have any Absinthe. The last time I had Absinthe was at the last Good Food Show. I had several glasses and my tongue stopped working for an hour. We were with friends at the time. I think that Lorraine felt a little showed up. On Saturday I stuck to San Miguel and Lorraine had a double Southern Comfort and Orange Juice. Oooh, ain't we just the wild pair?

I enjoyed it that much I went to the Electric Cinema again on the Sunday, but more about that later.

After the cinema we went to Milano Ristorante Italiano in Ladywell Walk, just outside the Arcadian Centre. Another first. We both enjoyed it immensely. Lovely atmosphere (the tables were just far enough apart from each other so that your conversations were private), good service, great food (huge starters - Fritto Mistro and Insalata Di Mare, huge mains - Filetto Di Manzo Barolo and Bistecca Di Manzo Olive, Capperi e Pomodoro), potent wine (no idea, but it had the word De'nero in the title), nice desserts (again, no idea, but sambucca was in there somewhere and it came to table on fire) and liquor coffees (baileys and quantro (sic)). Very good.

We were very tired when we got out of the restaurant and so we did not bother with the club. Taxi home and bed. To sleep.

Next morning... A little hangover. Not bad. I had some tea, some headache tablets and cooked some eggs. Felt much better. We watched the "X-Factor" repeat (Chenai was kicked out, and quite rightly so. No energy, no life, nothing, boring.) After that I put on all the charm I could muster and asked Lorraine if she wanted to go upstairs and fuck. Turned out that she did and we went upstairs to bed.

10 seconds after that, when I had finished (I am the lover man!), Lorraine kissed me on the cheek and said that I was a tiger. Sarcastic cow. I had a shower and ran Lorraine a bath. I made her a cup of tea and I left her sitting in the bath planning to do dial on to work to do some work.

I wandered around town. I went to see my Mom and my Brother. My Brother said that he might come to see the Prodigy with me at the end of November. Good for him. I think that he also believes that I am going to pay for him. Fuck off. My Brother is growing his hair long. I think that he has finally noticed that he has got a bald spot and is growing his hair to compensate. Male pattern baldness is apparently caused by an overload of testosterone. It explains a lot. We are men...

I went back to the Electric Cinema to see a documentary called "We Jam Econo: The Story Of The Minutemen". The Minutemen were a band I knew only a little bit about. I had heard a handful of tracks (on the John Peel show?) which I liked and remembered a fantastic video that was shown on The Tube around 1985, which impressed me a lot, even though I had no idea what the track was called. For some crazy reason, probably because they were a 3 piece, they reminded me of the Jam. In retrospect they were nothing like the Jam. I remembered a little story in the NME when D. Boon died, but other than that, the Minutemen were a mystery to me. It's a good documentary. The picture that is painted is of a band on the verge of a commercial breakthrough and growing and changing all the time. It is a great shame. A guy on the way out of the cinema was trying to impress his lady by saying that if D. Boon had lived they would probably have become as big as R.E.M. Maybe. Who's to know?

Phew. I am written out.

I am working late tomorrow, so I may not be here until Wednesday. See you later.