Pynchon

It was Bottom Sister's 30th birthday today. After fighting our way through the maurading, joyless, scowling, barbarian hordes of shoppers in the city centre, with a quick stop in Starbucks for hot chocolate and blueberry muffins, Lorraine and I made our way over to Bottom Sister's house for a birthday buffet. We had a good time. With the exception of my Brother (who is currently feuding with Bottom Sister over some imagined slight or other) the whole family was in attendance. My Mom, Top Sister, Middle Sister, Bottom Sister, Niece, Nephew and Lorraine. Sandwiches, sausage rolls, sausages, potato salad, coleslaw, chicken nuggets, onion rings, tomatoes, lettuce, fish sticks, garlic bread and several varieties of birthday cake, sponge cake, chocolate cake and fruit cake were all consumed. There was no alcohol at all. The most potent drink I consumed was a couple of cups of PG Tips. It was an old fashioned birthday party; the kind you might have had when you were 8 years old.

During the afternoon Lorraine and I helped my Niece and Nephew make Christmas decorations. During this artistic endeavor I was interrogated at length by them about the plans for 23rd December. On that day Lorraine and I are taking my Niece and Nephew to see the panto Peter Pan starring Joe Pasquale. It has become a tradition that just before Christmas we take them out to a show and give their Mom's time to sort out Christmas arrangements. My Niece was very concerned about what we were going to eat before the show, as she has just announced that she has turned vegetarian. Her school friend told her about a machine that has live pigs put into it at one end and then at the other end has sausage's come out. She didn't like the sound of that very much. I can respect that.

My Niece is 8 years old.

It was a fine time. It was a good day.

Yesterday I went to see "Doom". It could be the worst film I have seen this year, if not the worst film I have seen in the past 5 years. It is an appalling piece of shit. It is crap. It is terrible. It is dreadful in every way. It is also a really boring and unexciting film, and the first person shooter section isn't that great. Without any characters to like (have a look at the "Aliens" or "Dog Soldiers" for films that both feature military units dealing with extreme circumstances, where you actually care about the characters) or a story to engage (ditto) then there isn't really a lot to keep you interested. I have never played electronic games, but I would be interested to hear if an appreciation of the "Doom" game is in any way necessary for an appreciation of the movie. Perhaps The Rock will become a more animated Arnold Schwarzenegger for the 21st century, but he will need a better movie than "Doom" to achieve that.

Rosamund Pike was nice to look at, though. (The shape of her nipples beneath her tight white top certainly got my attention.) I have only just realised that Rosamund Pike looks exactly like Lorraine's friend Lana Blue, but without the torquoise eyes. A couple of years ago I saw Rosamund Pike naked onstage in the West End. She was in a very good play called "Hitchcock Blonde", written by Terry Johnson, in which she played Janet Leigh's body double. Well worth seeing, for all sorts of reasons, if there is a production in your area.

Rosamund Pike can do a lot better than appearing in a turd like "Doom".