Pynchon

I've been watching the first episode of the second series of "Vincent", starring the mighty Ray Winstone. I'm impressed. It looks like ITV took my criticisms of the first series onboard, as the second series is much harder and grittier and plays to Mr. Winstone's strengths. i.e. Being a hard bastard.

Good stuff. I enjoyed it. I'm going to add it to my sidebar.

So, "The Night Listener".



Robin Williams is a gay late night talk radio host named Gabriel Noone. Gabriel's relationship with his younger lover Jess (played by Bobby Cannavale) is crumbling and Gabriel feels lost and alone. Gabriel strikes up a phone relationship with a 14 year old boy called Pete; a victim of childhood abuse, suffering from AIDS, who has written a book about his experiences. Various events conspire to put doubt into Gabriel's mind as to whether Pete exists at all, and Gabriel decides to track him down.

... And so on and so forth.

I liked "The Night Listener". I thought that it was genuinely a creepy, unsettling and off centre film. I've not read the book, but from what was implied in the trailer, it was not at all what I expected. It's heavy on atmosphere rather than plot, and is as much concerned with the breakdown of relationships and people in pain (mental and physical - the shadow of AIDS hangs heavy throughout this film) as it is about being a mystery or a thriller. Very good performances, especially by Robin Williams and Toni Collette.

I must confess to knowing very little about Armistead Maupin's work except for the "Tales Of The City" TV series, which I liked very much. I will definitely make the time to read some of Armistead Maupin's novels.

Fancy a joke? Of course you do.

A handsome man named Jack walked into a sports bar around 9:58pm. He sat down next to a blonde at the bar and stared up at the TV. The 10:00pm news was on. The news crew was covering a story of a man on a ledge of a tall building preparing to jump.

The blonde looked at Jack and said, "Do you think he'll jump?"

Jack said, "You know, I bet he will."

The blonde replied, "Well, I bet he won't."

Jack placed $30 on the bar and said, "You're on!"

Just as the blonde placed her money on the bar, the guy did a swan dive off of the building, falling to his death.

The blonde was very upset and handed her $30 to Jack saying, "Fair's fair. Here's your money."

Jack replied, "I can't take your money. I saw this earlier on the 5 o'clock news and knew he would jump."

The blonde replied, "I did too. But I didn't think he'd do it again."