From the Orient

Bill Humphries “asks what he needs to know to get the references in Shaun of the Dead”:http://www.whump.com/moreLikeThis/link/03967. Tough one. I’ve thought about a similar question to this in the past when “Lonecat”:http://www.lonecat.org didn’t like “Spaced”:http://www.spaced-out.org.uk/ because it was reference heavy. It is also a critism of the Doctor Who book series. “No one will get the reference” is the cry.

“Shaun of the Dead”:http://uip.co.uk/romzom/ is a bit like Spaced in that there are references, mainly to the horror movie genre, but I don’t know many of the movies it refers to, and I loved it so you don’t have to get the references. However, Shaun is more a take on the British way of life (A more real take than say, “Love Actually”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/) , which brings me back to Bill’s question.

I think the easiest thing to do is to watched some Spaced. Specifically, if you can find “series 1, episode 3″:http://www.spaced-out.org.uk/episode-guides/series-one/official/e3.shtml

bq. This scene is replete with salutes to video games and movies alike. The point of the scene is of course, that Tim is lost in the game ‘Resident Evil 2′ but the real inspiration for both this scene and the ‘Resident Evil’ series, are George A. Romero’s seminal zombie trilogy. ‘Night of the living Dead’, Dawn of the Dead’ and Day of the Dead’. Here are a few other details you may have missed. The gun point of view shot is familiar to both the popular video game ‘Doom’ and the film ‘Evil Dead’. Tim’s line ‘Come get some’, was uttered by Bruce Cambell during the alternative ending to Sam Raimi’s ‘Army of darkness’, the third instalment in the Evil Dead trilogy. God, this is sad.

The characters in Shaun of the Dead are twentysomething English who are stuck in boring jobs in London. There are a few keys things to understand. One, the pub is the centre of their lives. I don’t do it myself (used to) but the pub is the place to go to of an evening if you just want to be somewhere and relax, have a drink. Generally from the outside, it looks quite boring, but people go there, have a pint (or three) and chat about football, TV, movies etc. If you stay at home, you just don’t have anyone to talk to. That is why in Shaun of the Dead, the natural place to go when being attacked by zombies is the pub. I notice a tendency in American films for people to head for the mall.

The next key point is the corner shop. In a typical town or city in England, the built up areas have corner shops. Sure, you can go to out of town supermarkets where the food is cheaper, but we are lazy and generally walking to the corner shop is quicker. Sainsburys have finally realised this, and have opened “Sainsburys Local’s” in towns but they are not the same. The corner shop (doesn’t have to be on a corner of a street btw) are often handily on the route back from the pub, so you can grab some tins (cans of beer) and crisps (french fries) on the way home. Oh yeah, pubs close at 11pm which is ridiculously early, so you have to go back to your house and amuse yourselves.

So, the general day to day live of a British single mail twentysomething consists of boring job, come home, microwave a ready meal bought from the corner shop, play some computer games on the console with housemates (single people often share a house or flat together to save money), then go down the local pub for a few pints. Then back home, for more drink, talking rubbish about stuff, playing X-Box/Playstation or watching a DVD.

Note, this is only one type of lifestyle in Britain. There are many many more. For example, quite a lot of people now stay at home with their parents until they are quite old. I couldn’t stand to do that myself.

It is just the lifestyle of the characters in this movie, and one I happened to follow between the ages of 18-25. Then I settled down and had some kids. So, now, I have a boring job, come home, put the kids to bed, drink some beer from the fridge, play on the computer, fall asleep whilst watching a DVD.

That was incredibly hard to describe. Someone else please expand on this further.

Paul Culture

Saw Shaun of the Dead last night. Best comedy film I’ve seen in a long, long time. This is a must see, must buy the DVD, hell if there was a game brought out where you have to choose which of your old LP collection to throw at zombies, I’d get that too and spend all day and night becoming good at it.

Paul Personal

1) Don’t cycle with your mouth open. You are liable to collect flies and when travelling fast, a fly in the mouth can be a very horrible experience.

2) When cycling along a path, and ahead you spy a wobbling cyclist moving erratically, don’t speed up, nearly crash into said wobbling cyclist, swear at them for not watching what they were doing and then speed off into the distance. The wobbling cyclist may just have swallowed a fly.

My task today is to swallow a spider to catch the fly.

Paul Personal

The launch night that never was has a link to a video (Real Player sadly) featuring Gerald Priestland trying to cope with the blackout at the start of BBC2.

Key things to look out for (apart from the lack of sound for the first two and a half minutes) are the rasist bus driver report, how little sensationalism was involved in reporting the blackout (note the “if you are wondering why your husband isn’t home from work yet” comment) and the very amusing telephone interuptions, which was exactly the sort of thing Monty Python would parody on BBC2 later on.

Paul Television

*Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:*
“the shape of the biodata strand, as the individual moves along his or her own time-line, is the true shape of that individual’s life.”

*Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?*
A glass of water.

*What is the last thing you watched on TV?*
BBC News, in the garage where my car was being MOTd this morning.

*WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is.*
1.45pm

*Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?*
1.59pm.

*With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?*
Belle and Sebastian – If She Wants Me on my headphones. If I take the headphones off, I hear someone talking to a customer and other people typing stuff into computers. So exciting.

*When did you last step outside? What were you doing?*
Driving to work

*Before you came to this website, what did you look at?*
Looking at the A9 search engine thingy

*What are you wearing?*
Shirt and trousers and other bits and bobs.

*Did you dream last night?*
Can’t remember now

*When did you last laugh?*
This morning when Kid A whacked my wife accidentally with a handbag full of toys. In bed.

*What is on the walls of the room you are in?*
A clock, a loney planet calendar, a few photos of family and some football pictures.

*Seen anything weird lately?*
I saw Gary Neville score, that was weird.

*Last movie you saw?*
Pirates of the Caribeen. Will be seeing Shawn of the Dead very soon though.

*If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?*
A new car so I don’t have to fork out for another fortune getting my current car through the MOT

*Reveal something that no-one knows about you.*
Can’t imagine there is anything _no-one_ knows.

*If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?*
Stop people asking silly questions like this one.

*Do you like to dance?*
I don’t and you wouldn’t like to watch me either.

*George Bush:*
Corrupt dictororial bastard

*Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?*
I couldn’t imagine my first child being a girl, because she is. She is known as Kid A.

*Same question for a boy.*
Eric

*Stretch your right hand all the way out, what is the first thing you touch?*
A computer screen.

[via Questions and answers]

Paul General

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve finally started reading The Book of the War. Lovin’ it, absolutely lovin’ it.

Apart from trying to find a place to start (is there a way you are *supposed* to read this book?) it is fascinating background stuff for the Faction Paradox Protocols. I was flicking from reference to reference, starting with Cwej and his Cwejen, and decided I just needed to think of it a Wiki in a book form. In fact, with multiple contributors this is exactly how it looks like it was created.

I started reading “BurningBird’s Anniversary Party groupd of posts”:http://weblog.burningbird.net/fires/anniversaryparty/index.htm which got me thinking not about the past of weblogging but the future, and it linked into “some ideas from Mags”:http://moosiferjonesgrouch.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_moosiferjonesgrouch_archive.html#108008681515391419 and memory, but I’m beginning to think that blogging isn’t where I want to be going. Something else out there is far more interesting. I don’t know what that is, and whether it yet exists, but I do think it will be based more on a Wiki than a weblog.

Paul Doctor Who