Film: I Saw the TV Glow

Now in the middle of two days with my somewhat neglected horror film group, The Hideout! Last night (second film in a row, first of three days with Meetup), we saw I Saw the TV Glow, a psychological horror that I was disappointed to miss at the time, now showing in the Prince Charles. Meeting in Victory House beforehand as usual - and yay, I booked for Bella Italia before that. Left an extra hour for eating, after the rush last time, and the organiser was joining me again. And again, I had a £15 voucher for there, lovely.. and so much easier to redeem than Cote's offer!

Handily, I was in the office - less than a quarter of an hour's walk. (Glad of that, with my heavy backpack.) And a pleasant walk, through Soho.. I got there just in time, and was offered one of the tables for two downstairs, or a larger table upstairs. As I remarked to the waiter, a table for two is never big enough for two.. he agreed, and led me upstairs, where I chose the table for four by the window.

My companion had messaged that he'd be a bit late - not a problem, with the extra time I'd allowed, and the person serving knew me and brought me a glass of wine before I'd even taken off my coat! When he did arrived, we got to chatting (and I got to rant a bit), so it was a while before we ordered - I had the same again, he had the Caprese salad and "signature" lasagna - as he said, he did wonder what made it a "signature" dish. Anyway, we didn't fancy desserts, and probably wouldn't have had time - paid, and off around the corner to Victory House..

Where they remembered me as well, and served me another glass of wine! We took a seat just past reception, and now the chat turned more to things film-related. After a bit another couple of members joined us, and we drank and chatted till it was time to go in.

I left my rucksack in reception, and we headed downstairs - one of the group had never been in this cinema before, and it was cool to get to show her the blackboard downstairs where you can write film suggestions. Anyway, it was soon time to go in.

Ah well, it'd been a good evening up to that.. I'm afraid I hated the film. As our organiser (somewhat less biased than I) later pointed out, it's more an art piece, character- rather than plot-driven, seeking to convey the emotions of the characters rather than portraying a story. We all agreed that in no way is this a horror film, and it's misleading to categorise it as such. And for sure, there is no real plot. He liked it better than the rest of us did.. and the scores afterwards ranged from good to terrible. Yes, have to admit I got nothing from it whatsoever.. not everyone will feel the same (after all, I'm presuming the people that made it derived something). Well, at least my curiosity was satisfied. And it'd been a lovely, social evening.

Had nearly got to the bus stop when I realised I hadn't picked up my rucksack.. so I had to go back and get it. Then had to change buses - and lo, my second bus came unexpectedly early.. I tried waving frantically at it as I ran to pick up my rucksack, but no, the driver wasn't in the mood to stop, and I had to wait for the next. I've complained to TFL. Anyway, was too tired to blog last night.

And tonight, we're headed to see Lee Cronin's The Mummy - same arrangement as last night, except we're in the Vue - but we're apparently having a mummy quiz beforehand!

Finally, on Saturday I'm on another walk with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpies -this one is The Backstreets of Islington. And no, the issue where the event demands prepayment with PayPal has NOT been resolved! So he's just keeping an offline list of who's going. 

And that evening, finally back with La Isla Flamenco (having had to miss a couple of theirs) for A Sip of Spain: Flamenco, Folk & Copla at Pulse & Pickle CIC.. tickets from Humanitix.

For Sunday, a friend asked whether I was interested in Patel's Millions 2, a Bollywood-inspired musical comedy (sequel, by the sound of it) about the owner of a corner shop who comes into money, then loses it, but his family are still spending like there's no tomorrow. Does sound good - showing in the Beck Theatre, which I've discovered I can get to in under 1.5 hours. Isn't that nice? However, she's selling two tickets, so she said she'd try to sell them as a pair, and would sell one to me if she couldn't. Failing that option, it'd be cinema again, and I was looking at My Father's Shadow, in which a father shows his young sons the sights of Lagos during the inflammatory election of 1993 - closest showing to me (that's not too early) is in Picturehouse Hackney.

Ah, but then Movie Roadhouse London advertised a trip to see Father, Mother, Sister, Brother in The Barbican. So I'm now going to that instead - the trailer does look good.

On Monday, second day in a row, I'm also looking at film - and thinking of Project Hail Mary at last! It's one of those that a lot of people I know have seen, but I haven't gotten around to it - stars Ryan Gosling in a dystopian future where the sun is dying, and he has to go into space to perform some kind of rescue mission. Along the way he meets a cute little alien being. I've heard people rave about it, and he's always watchable, so perfectly happy to give that a shot! Closest showing to me is in the Everyman Borough Yards.

On Tuesday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats to see Heart Wall, a drama about a woman returning to a home where she no longer feels she belongs. Showing in the Bush Theatre.

On Wednesday, back with the Crick Crack Club at Folklore, where Nell Phoenix will be delivering a show called Uncanny, a set of apparently true scary stories. Tickets from Dice, as ever, and I'm eating beforehand in The Blues Kitchen Shoreditch, as usual.

Next, two nights of cheap shows courtesy of CT. On Thursday, I'n seeing Ancient Grease, a parody of the famous musical, Grease, but - well - set in Ancient Greece! specifically, on Olympus, and focusing on the love affair between Hera and Zeus. Showing in the Vaults Theatre.

And next Friday, Down to Chance is a comedy play about the Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964, and a local radio operator's role in helping. Showing at the Pleasance Theatre.

Finally, on the 25th.. well, someone from LoMAZ suggested creating an event to eat sachertorte. Apparently the Lanesborough Hotel is hosting a temporary pop-up, giving you the chance to eat sachertorte and apfelstrudel prepared to the original recipe of the Hotel Sacher in Vienna. However, wouldn't you know it, that's the only day this month that suits James to meet! And he, Mark, and Martin aren't members of that group, and it's a private group event.. the group is headed to a ceilidh that evening, but I said I'd skip it and hang out with James and Mark and Martin, if it suits.. ah, the difficulties of scheduling!

But then, when I asked about timings, the organiser said he'd completely forgotten about it - and was it on the 25th or 26th? Well, I don't have anything for the 26th, so asked for that, and he was fine with it.. but a couple of others aren't. Unfortunately, I was outvoted.. I'm going to skip it, it's too much hassle.