rollin, rollin, rollin…
Well OK, Rollins. Henry Rollins, one of my all time favourite people in the world for more years than I’d like to remember (going on for thirty, anyway) and star of the best new film I’ve seen so far this year – yay!
He Never Died was my runaway hit of Grimmfest and not just because it rekindled my adoration for the enduringly stroppy and oft baffled-looking shortarse (we have a lot in common) but also because it was gentle, charming, touching and all the other things one doesn’t normally go to a horror film to see. It’s also beautifully made and very funny if a bit overlong, or I thought it was, which of course doesn’t necessarily mean it is. The irony of it being followed by the barrel-scraping ineptitude that is Cherry Tree (quite the worst film I’ve seen this year by a country mile, resembling at best a GCSE Film Studies project and not an A+ one) was entirely brain dissolving and – having already lost 85 minutes of my life to it at FrightFest – so was the thought of sitting through CT again, and I beat a hasty retreat to the kebab shop on the corner for some cheesy chips.
Anybody who has ever happened across the force of nature that is M Rollins might be chuffed (as I was) to discover that he will be here in the UK this coming January to shout at us – details here! I will be attending as a birthday treat although I’ve yet to choose where; Newcastle would be the obvious and nearest choice, but having had a fabulous weekend in Manchester (and without a drop of rain until hometime on the Monday morning) I may well head for the Bridgewater Hall and possibly even squeeze in a couple of bookings – I haven’t decided. All in good time.
Even more fortuitously, I get another chance to see HND at Celluloid Screams, now less than two weeks away and boasting a stellar lineup extremely fitting for what will probably be my last horror hurrah until Glasgow Frightfest in February – boooo. I will be beavering away here at HQ both before and after; first (and a handful are now up, if needing a tweak or two) are the new pictures as promised, taken on location in Manchester inbetween festival offerings (and edited over the weekend inbetween cooking a giant pot of minestrone and baking vegan brownies*) – woohoo! See also overleaf, as that old black and white one was (wince) almost six years old.
More will follow in due course once I’ve sat down and rifled properly through the memory card; such was the bright and sunny weather that the usual problem of lighting was eliminated and I thus wound up with a good number for a change, despite for one set failing to check that where I was standing and where the camera was pointing were the same place, a rookie error I haven’t made in about five years and which resulted in some very nice shots of my right arm but very little else. C’est la vie.
For this week and next, I’m here! November will be a bit all over the place (and nobody will be more grateful than I for that extra Sunday morning hour when the clocks go back conveniently just before I set off for London on the 1st), but we’ll all get there eventually. Update soon…
* if anybody wants the vegan brownie recipe, get in touch. It’s that good.
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