Seat 13 - Issue One

Back in October I started thinking, very seriously, about putting together a film magazine. I e-mailed some people I thought might write for it, I also spoke to a gallery about getting cover art from one of their artists, and the response I got from everyone was so positive that the magazine move forward at quite a rapid pace.

Things got a little delayed, which, in the end, turned out to be beneficial. I found a couple of additional contributions that I really like, and started e-mailing a couple of printers. The cost of doing a professional print-run though seemed a little steep, so I thought about tackling all the printing myself. After printing out two and a bit issues I realised that I'd be spending a small fortune on ink so went to my local photocopiers and got twenty issues (bar the cover which I am still printing myself) done there. It was around this time that I started to think; I hope I can sell some advertising space in issue two!

I'm really proud of the magazine, I love how its all turned out, I'm really pleased with the quality of the articles and contributions, I am so thankful to everyone who has contributed to this first issue and I look forward to collaborating with them again on future issues. But, there's that whole tricky business of trying to sell something that is home-made and the cynicism that you can face as a result. My instinct was to charge £2 an issue, but, after a friend had a look at a draft copy we agreed that £1 was probably more realistic in a way... though, from a recouping costs point if view, not so!

What I hope with this first issue is that I can get a small audience that will want to read the next issue, this first issue is special in that I don't think issue two will be advert free, I don't think issue two will have the same paper for the cover and maybe I will go to a printers for the whole affair. This has been a real learning experience, I wish I had the resources to keep producing the magazine to a similar level, but I know now I've got to find that middle-ground between ambition and finances.

If anyone reading this would like to buy a copy you can order it by clicking HERE.

You can also join the Facebook group HERE.

Records Of The Year 2008

Following on from my favourite films of 2008, I now present to you my favourite records of the year, this time in alphabetical order by artist (with links to my original reviews where appropriate):

Beck - Modern Guilt

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Colourmusic - f, monday, orange, february, venus, lunatic, 1 or 13

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Angles

Alex Dingley - I Lost My Honey In The Grass

Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords

Fredrick Stanley Star - Heaviside Layer

Hedluv - Cosmic Sounds

Joan As Police Woman - To Survive

Kate Goes - Happy Dancing EP

Elspeth Anne Macrae - Wood Closet Songs EP

Stephen Malkmus - Real Emotional Trash

Rivulets - You Are My Home

Shearwater - Rook

Threatmantics - Upbeat Love

The Voluntary Butler Scheme - Tomatoes, Pepper, Garlic + Mushrooms EP

The Weather In Sweden - I Break The Ice, I Broke Your Heart

James Yorkston - When The Haar Rolls In

Films of the Year 2008

Well, 2008 is now done and dusted, and so I shall be posting my 'Best Of' lists. I'm going to start with my favourite films that I saw at the cinema over the past 365 days, feel free to comment, complain or compliment my choices!


1. The Fall

The second feature from music video and commercials director Tarsem, after the visually stunning yet in-all-other-aspects flawed 'The Cell', is an absolutely amazing film that completely surprised me in its spectacle and heart. It is a story about storytelling in much the same way as 'The Princess Bride' yet the story being told is an escape for both characters; a little girl (best child performance I have ever seen) with a broken arm and a stunt-man suffering serious depression. In its fantasy sequences it is a work of art, pushing its visuals as far as it pushes the emotions, and in its reality sequences it is tender, dark and heart-breaking stuff. I truly hope this film finds an audience on DVD because it is one of the best films I have ever seen.

2. Die Welle

Critics seem to be giving 'Die Welle' a hard time in a similar way to 'The Fall', for all its effect this film has been criticised for the archetypes it presents, but, for me, I found that to be a huge part of its power. The impetus for this film is a real experiment conducted by a teacher in his class asking the question about whether another dictatorship could arise in modern Germany, and his class seem sure that it couldn't and he goes farther than he expected in proving them wrong. The use of highly identifiable, almost American teen movie, archetypes here is what made the film so affecting, in some ways this is a John Hughes movie gone very, very wrong! But, more seriously, it is a troubling and provactive drama brilliantly acted by a great ensemble.

3. The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly

Another true story, this one tells of Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffered a stroke and had to live with an almost totally paralyzed body at the age of 43. Thanks to a nurse he managed to dictate his story, his thoughts and feelings, by the blinking of one eyelid and what he produced, and what director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, another over-looked masterwork) has adapted here is a truly human, beautiful and uplifting story.

4. In Bruges

I never would have thought a 'gangster' movie would have made my top 5, but this is not another bog-standard Guy Ritchie clone. Taking the dark comedy to wonderful, sweary, violent and offensive heights this is the surprisingly touching, and laugh-out-loud hilarious tale of two hitmen (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, both excellent) sent to the quiet Belgian town of Bruges to lay low, they don't quite succeed.

5. There Will Be Blood

There's probably not much more I can say about this film than has been said already, such was the awards frenzy around it and, in particular, Daniel Day Lewis's monumental performance. But this film truly marked Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights) as a truly great and incredibly versatile director, Lord knows how he's going to follow this!?

6. Wanted

A Matrix-lite action movie starring James MacAvoy and Angelina Jolie from the director of Nightwatch? Here's another film I never expected to make my top 10, but 'Wanted' did what so few action movies of current times have done; be fun. A great throwback to 80s action cinema but with 21st century flourishes, this is unashamedly over-the-top, violent and often funny with a charismatic lead turn from MacAvoy and great support, especially from Morgan Freeman. It's not going to change the world, but it's one of the best beer and pizza films in ages.

7. Waltz With Bashir

Visually stunning, this animated documentary seemed to be just a curiosity, but it is one of the best examinations of the effect of war on a soldier and the existential crisis that can follow since the work of Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller.

8. Teeth

Even moreso than 'Wanted' I would say this film is not going to be for everyone! This tale of the vagina dentata seems to switch genre with every scene and is held together by the wonderful performance of Jess Weixler. But this film is one of the finest and edgiest dark teen comedies since 'Heathers'.

9. Son Of Rambow

A great family movie which is both a love-letter to the 80s as it is a celebration of the kind of family-movies the British Children's Film Workshop used to produce on an almost weekly basis! With two wonderful child performances (with this, The Fall, Eden Lake, Somer's Town, I think 2008 may have been an amazing year for young actors) and so much warmth, wit and heart this film will hopefully live a long life as a film for all generations, or at least, all those who fondly remember Rambo!

10. The Orphanage

Another great child performance here from Simon Princep, as the son who goes missing and causes a truly spooky and chilling journey to take place in this throwback to good old haunted house horrors, but with an intelligence often missing from similar efforts. Beyond all of that though 'The Orphanage' makes this top ten by being really, really, really scary and not just relying on cheap shocks - well, there is one scene that will make you jump, laugh it off and then really jump!

11. Man On Wire

Another documentary that is a brilliant study of artistic passion and ambition, building towards a dazzling, vertigo-inducing and magical piece of performance art on a tiny wire stretched between the World Trade Centre towers. An excellently told story that paints a funny, stunning and occasionally sad portrait of obsession.

12. The Mist

Another film I think will grow and grow on home cinema formats. This is the first time that Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) has adapted a Stephen King horror story and he does so in uncompromising fashion, making the key choice that in all 'scary' situations it's other people you have to fear the most rather than whatever supernatural creature may be trying to eat you! With an excellent cast and a dark heart this is a modern horror classic akin to John Carpenter's 'The Thing'.

13. Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle genres hops again, after sci-fi (Sunshine) and zombies (28 Days Later), by going Bollywood with this touching, heart-warming, funny, sad and beautiful tale of a young man who finds himself going from India's slums to the last question on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire'. He is interrogated by the police as to how he's 'cheated' his way into this position and he relates his life story to them, explaining how each question has had some relevance in his journey.

14. Persepolis

Adaptation of the graphic novel about an outspoken young girl growing up during the Islamic revolution, similar to Art Spiegelman's graphic novel 'Maus', this features Marjane Satrapi's family telling a range of tales about survival and support, and Marjane relating her own up-rooted sense of self in a strange time to be a young girl and a teenager. Beautifully animated and respectfully told, this is a truly unique film.

15. Wall-E

Not quite the incredible experience I was expecting, nevertheless, Pixar manage to make another dazzling animated feature that surprises by managing to be one of the year's finest romances (between two robots) and a very dark satire on the future of the human-race. Above all this is funny and heart-warming, though I personally still wished that the entire film was a silent movie and that they had used live-action actors for the humans all the way through.

The 'What I Had For Dinner' Project Blog - Tuesday 14th October 2008

Well, I'm back from Germany and it was a rather confusing week with regards to the 'WIH4D' project (as the cool kids are calling it). I had rather a few late lunches that meant dinner was either non-existent and/or alcohol based, once it was nibbles and once there was a post-drinking snack (called a Tasche I believe, from Efe's in Gottingen, bloomin' lovely it was too), but generally I became a tad bewildered by when I was actually dinnering and when I eventually had a dinner at the usual dinner time on Saturday night I completely forgot to take a photo of it; so we have had the first ever 'Artist's Impression' entry into the project.

But I'm back in Cardiff now and things are in their usual state, starting with a humongous portion of vegetable rissotto accompanied by a sizable tear-n-share tomato bread that I tore but not, er, shore.

I am now probably going to stay up all night even though I start work in six hours, I have to shave my face (stupid work's no stubble policy) and iron my clothes (stupid work's no creases policy) and then work for seven hours (stupid work's no not going to work because you don't feel like it policy).

Ah well, another day another dinner, folks! Watch this plate.

Owain. x

The 'What I Had For Dinner' Project Blog - Sunday 5th October 2008

It's day 46 of the project and we're about to reach another interesting week as I'm off to Germany on Tuesday morning and we shall have - when I return - a collection of intercontinental photographs. It's a quite unexpected, exciting and nerve-wracking trip and it will be the first time I have been on a plane since I was 3 years old. (All my other European trips have been by ferry or train.)

We've had a couple of other 'landmarks' over the past week, including the first evening so far where I had nothing for dinner and the first ever guest photographer on the project; JT from the band Attack + Defend.

So, hopefully when I return from Germany there will be an interesting array of new meals to upload (I tried to buy more memory for my camera but it's too old to cope with the now-standard 2GB cards!).

Hope you're all eating well.

Owain. x

The 'What I Had For Dinner' Project Blog - Friday 19th September 2008

aka. Dark (Dinner) Times

There have been some good meals of late, I've perfected my rissotto technique a little (knocking up a very nice white wine flavour with chef-like ignorance), I had a fantastic vegetarian breakfast one evening (though the scrambled eggs were a bit runnier than usual) and I was very proud of the cold homemade pizza I took away with me.

We've had a few repeat appearances - which was inevitable, the question now is 'What will be my most repeated meal?' - and we've had one slight slip-up when I was too preoccupied to photograph one dinner and ultimately took a photo of my midnight snack. Well, I took a photo of a midnight pitta bread and salad, took one bite and then spat it into my bin. (I was camping at the End of the Road Festival and this salad and been prepared before I left, it had not aged well!) So, eventually that dinner entry was a bag of crisps I ate in my tent at midnight. I feel quite bad about this because what I had for dinner that night was very nice, it was a bourek from a regular festival-based eatery called Moorish Feast. Only the 'Rocket Special' pizza from the weekend trip made it onto the project, as most of my fancy food was purchased at lunchtime. Still, there will be an opportunity come next year's festival season to make up for these oversights!

The following week is going to be a very interesting (if worrying) one for this project as I have no money and won't be getting paid until the end of next week, so, expect some meals scraped from the bottom of the barrel!

Hope all's well with you.

Owain. x

The 'What I Had For Dinner' Project Blog - Sunday 7th September 2008

Afternoon all,

Those of you who are my Facebook friends may be aware of a photo gallery I have been updating daily called 'The 'What I Had For Dinner' Project'; it is, quite simply, a photo journal of what I have for dinner (aka. the post-afternoon meal) each day. I have the grand intention of keeping this food diary for one whole year, well, just over so I can end on the day I started, except in 2009, because otherwise I'd have time-travelled and, cool though that may be, it would just be odd and inconvenient and would mean I'd only been documenting my dinner for one day, yet I would have 366 photos... so it'd be exactly like the end of the film 'Contact'. Except with photos of my dinner. Other than that, EXACTLY like the end of the film 'Contact'.

I've decided to include this blog entry to try and lure outside people into the seedy world of my food photography (the gallery should be accessible to all by clicking on these words) and to give perhaps a little more 'insight' into my fears and paranoias relating to this foodblog, or flog, or waste of time (delete as appropriate).

I was recently told that the new issue of the New Scientist (the New New Scientist) featured an article about photographing ones meals, and I was both dismayed that someone had ripped me off but pleased that this kind of strange behavior was newsworthy in a positive sense. Anyway, for those who care the article can be read HERE. There are a number of differences between the food diaries reported about in the article and my own project, but it is true that I have become very conscious of what I am eating (but only at dinner time, I had two Double Deckers at lunch) and I am not looking forward to the moment when I eat something that I've already had before, it feels like a bit of a defeat and I fear that defeat may happen tonight. I am also aware that I've been a tad frivilous with my money and my budget for the following weeks pre-payday is going to be a lot stricter, and thus the repetition in my meals may increase as a result of laziness. This dramatic downsizing occurs because of a weekend trip that's eating up (no pun intended, but now accepted) my food budget.

Tonight marks 'Dee Suvun-teeen'* (as the Big Brother voiceover man would say) of the project and it is strange to look back at yesterday's photograph and think; 'That wasn't yesterday? Surely? That seems like forever ago! Yet where did today go?'

Right, I've got a few things to do before I embark upon the grand mission of dinner, hope you're well whatever you may be up to.

Owain. x

*Day Seventeen