Damien Hirst's Verity statue, Ilfracombe harbour

 See previous on this subject

I was very impressed with this, and thought it surprisingly restrained and tasteful in what is as you can see a beautiful  setting. The exposed insides of the figure are facing the sea and you would struggle to see them from the other side of the bay without a telescope (I imagine the kind of busybody objecting to the statue is well equipped with telescopes)

Approaching the statue from the other side of the harbour

There is definitely a touch of Ray Harryhausen Jason and the Argonauts's (the statue of Talos) about it 

I was thinking of Hurricane Sandy on the other side of the pond when taking this

It is obviously very popular. The pier was busier than I've ever seen it and  from talking to others I've heard hotel bookings in Ilfracombe have jumped since Verity has appeared

The dual nature of the statue fits Ilfracombe and  North Devon generally, an uneasy  mixture of  the  twee and the  primal.

Ridley Scott's Prometheus explained for morons

A bit peeved.

Finally caught up with that big movie of the summer, the one that allegedly made no sense, left a million loose ends, and requires half an hour of extras on the blu-ray to explain. I was expecting something like Peter Greenaway's Prosperos Books or some Terence Malik art  film. Instead I saw the best Alien movie since James Cameron's, leaving me with a level of stupefied disbelief at the people who struggled to deal with the plot.

What bits honestly didn't you understand? Can I dumb it down enough for you?

- It's  a remake of Aliens vs Predator with less Predators and more pretty pictures

Is that dumb enough?

How about

- it's a spooky mysterious space monster movie

It's got 'loose ends'? Hello? Blade Runner anyone? I guess these people are completely unfamiliar with anything ever written by Phiilp K Dick?

Unexplained plot elements? Does someone want to to explain to me how Daniel Craig acquired Sean Connery's gadget equipped Aston Martin in the "the best bond film of all time"*

(*all British newspapers)

Is it not enough that, aside from the Alien stuff, Prometheus is obviously the best Ridley Scott film since 2007, arguably since Gladiator (If you want to gauge the level of improvement, Ridley Scott's last movie featured 13th century landing craft in the most flat out ridiculous beach scene I've ever seen in a movie).

One of the benefits of being a middle aged movie fan is that you can remember the drubbing that classic movies got upon their original release. It is recognised today that classics like Blade Runner and John Carpenter's The Thing were somewhat - ahem - under appreciated on their release; but people forget Ridley Scott's Alien got a similar rough ride. "Nonsensical" is a word I remember. "Good horror movie terrible scifi movie" is another. "Captain Kirk wouldn't blow his ship up by accident" was maybe the most flat out stupid.

The lapses in logic in Alien, AND The Thing AND Prometheus are, for me, a bonus. These are nightmares. I don't want everything fully explained. I like that I don't know WTF Pyramid Head is in Silent Hill. I want my terror to come with a hefty dose of disorientation.

Loose ends? You should try some Italian horror movies.. it would take a week of DVD extras to explain the haunted underwater basement in Dario Argento's Inferno. Honestly,  these people would need a 5000 word backstory to view Fuseli's Nightmare.

The Alien films all generally make narrative sense but the horror of disorientation is a theme running through them, not so much in nightmare imagery like heads growing spider legs and running across the floor, but just in the loss of trusted authority figures. From the death of Captain Dallas on-wards the authority figure in each of the Alien movies dies or is lost and the collapse of the group dynamic (in contrast to the united front of 50s monster movies) is all part of the nightmare.

Compared to some of those re-valuated 80s classics Prometheus actually got an easy ride from critics this summer and made enough money for Ridley and Co to consider a sequel.What I think really irritates me is that I was lead to expect some Giger drenched version of The Shining and actually got something fast paced and straightforward, that was nevertheless beguiling, mysterious, thought provoking, funny and really scary in places. Frankly, for me, it could have been a whole lot more vague and mysterious, but I loved it as it was.

I highly recommend Prometheus for your Halloween viewing.

Mysterious inexplicable fish loose ends from the trip to see Damien Hirst's Verity statue in Ilfracome harbour

Y'know.. just because I know there are people who respond to this blog who genuinely, no kidding, ARE morons.. the plot of Prometheus is explained here

Elementary - Holmes - House

Just saw first episode of Elementary - loved it

It's not as good as the majority of the BBC SHERLOCK episodes and nowhere near the best of them but still well worth watching if you are prepared for it with an open mind. For me the definitive American Holmes will always be HOUSE, and the Johnny Lee Miller Holmes does have a bit of Hugh Laurie's drug addled Dr Gregory House but this is a far more passive character. Far more passive in fact than any previous Holmes I can think of. Somehow Lucy Liu creates a Watson that is nothing like a previous Watson yet is still  Watson.

Plots seem to be avoiding direct adaptations of Conan Doyle stories and much of the background around the characters is meant to be a departure.. which leads me to what I most like about Elementary.. It knows the real Holmes fans are sitting with their arms crossed outraged at the New York setting, and the female Watson, and right from the off it is deliberately tweaking their noses with a smile. It's smart, and it's cheaky, in much the same was as the Robert Downey Jnr film series is (at it's best)

HOUSE was brilliantly innovative in the way it transposed the cases to be solved into a medical, team format

BBC's SHERLOCK is innovative in the way it completely updates the Victorian concept into a modern environment and takes the method of storytelling (txts etc) along with it.

ELEMENTARY is really going to the bottom of those characters in a completely new way. Who knows if the standard of episodes will remains high (lets not forget BBC's Sherlock episode 2 is pretty crap) but I got to the end of Elementary episode 1 not wondering why they have a female Watson but why they didn't have a female Holmes as well (Tilda Swinton?)

Reality : "that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away"

Philip K Dick - Reality - Ilfracombe sea front

Thanks to This Is North Devon

Up here in Su's sunny attic room I have the GQ magazine Bond* special to cheer me up in my illness (terrible cold, missed work). Even when  listening to the new Muse album in the background GQ is 90% garbage ....but this one has a really great article on Philip K Dick by music critic Charles Shaar Murray. Very inspirational stuff.

Among the stuff in the article I didn't know:

• PKD was a classical music buff and actually wrote some music
• The schizophrenia in his later life he described to friends as the mind of an early Christian transported into his mind by a time travelling artificial intelligence
• Terry Gilliam said of him "For everyone lost in the endlessly multiplacating realities of the modern world remember: Philip K Dick got there first"
• The K in Phillip K stood for Kindred
• Dick himself described reality as "that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away"

It is vaguely dreamy here,contemplating the unlikely clear sky blue of reality through Su's velux windows (while overdosing on Lemsip), but when you are ill and on your own the only empty place you want to be in is your own place. After six weeks in London, I'm feeling a bit homesick. It's usually about this time that something happens in the sleepy perpetual twee of Englands Westcountry that makes you wonder what reality you are living in. Sometimes it's Great White Sharks being seen in the Bristol channel, sometimes it's the village you live in popping up in classic psychedelia.

After the incredible live Felix Baumgartner jump at the weekend we now have North Devon's follow up - Damien Hurst's 65 foot bronze statue of a woman with big boobies and her guts hanging out is lifted into place into place in sleepy Ilfracombe harbour. It's being shown live on the BBC as I type this.

What music could be appropriate? Also Sprach Zarathustra? Fanfare For The Common Man? Space Dementia? Drink Up Thy Zider?

Thanks to Belfast Telegraph

The boobie statue is called Verity* apparently and it'll be there for 20 years at least. Full report with my own pics and hopefully some gurning locals when I get back.

Reaction in the London press is not so positive

"Damien Hirst's new statue is a dangerous monstrosity  The giant bronze woman holding up a sword in Devon not only resembles the art of totalitarian dictators, it is helping Hirst destroy British art"

Of course it's hideous and I hope it's dangerous. Those are two words sadly lacking from the endless open air retirement home created West of Bristol. I live nearby (most of the time) and Ilfracombe needs all the attention it can get from people who are still interested in this reality (not the next one). Real Exmoor locals, who are a lot more lively and iconoclastic than you might think, will be loving it and good luck to them.

As for reality, Ilfracombe was the Monaco of the Victorian age, and has been sadly neglected for too long (I've seen more lust for life in Whitby). I expect Verity will at least make Ilfracombes next subjective 20 years move faster than the previous 50. Disbelieve her all you want, but she isn't going away.

*It's just occurred to me that VERITY is the name of the Madonna's character in the Bond film Die Another Day.. so perhaps this is all very strange Bond film hype

Downton Abbey and Boardwalk Empire : Port vs Absinthe

THE BLOGGER IS WATCHING ALTERNATING EPISODES OF DOWNTON ABBEY AND BOARDWALK EMPIRE IN THE HOPE IT ALL ENDS TOGETHER IN A HAIL OF TOMMY GUN FIRE

Downton Empire Final Episode

God Lady Mary is such a miserable sod isn't she? She belongs in the House of Usher not Downton Abbey

I've started watching the new Downton proper now, in order, and watched first of series 3 Boardwalk Empire at the same time. As Downton has caught up it is now contemporary with Boardwalk, roughly 1923 and the discovery of King Tuts tomb has ushered in egypt mania and art deco and everything its all starting to look like the real roaring 20s at last

I'm not sure Tom Bransons Irish Republicanism would have gone down that sympathetically in reality. Shirley McClain is holding back I think, so far anyway

Downton is a bit too sugary on its own and Boardwalk is way too bitter. (Boardwalk ended its last season darker than just about any US serious cable show I've ever seen - and that would include The Wire, Breaking Bad and Deadwood)

In order of female hotness

• Lady Sybil
• Anna Smith
• Lady Edith
• The miserable moaning cadaver that is Lady Mary

Coming soon, 1926 and the General Strike, apparently one of the highlights of Upstairs Downstairs. Probably won't split Downton that much I'd have thought but will be interesting to see what happens. Ten years after that, the abdication crisis, should really split the house down the middle.. how are the Americans going to handle the prospect of Wallace "gets a bouquet of flowers from german ambassador every week" Simpson as Queen? 

Best pic from Devon to Gibraltar Road Trip

I've banged on about the Gibraltar to Narvik road trip enough to almost forget what came before it,

Feb 2011

Just got into work in Gibraltar after driving the TT from Devon. 2066 miles

Took a lot of photos but this is probably the best of them. It's -8.C
below at this point, the top of the Pyrenees (24 hours later I'd be in
Malaga, temp 22.3.C )

Tottenham Tourism

It would be easy to wander around Tottenham (where I'm currently staying) and highlight the damage from last years riots. There are however a few sights and a few buildings which would be big highlights anywhere West of Bristol.

I'll grant you soon to be redeveloped White Hart Lane Stadium looks a bit shabby right now but it  must have looked spectacular in the 80s in its prime