Aidan Williams - High Acuity

Another hectic week has passed and nothing particularly eventful has happened – but I like that. After the gym on Thursday last week Sanj and I met up with Jen, hobbled to Ping Pong and tried almost everything on the menu.

Ben, John, Mark, Luis and myself went to see Brick on Wednesday (God bless you, Orange Wednesdays). It’s slightly pretentious, over-acted, teenage-angst, clichéd film noir and at certain moments it did feel like watching a bad school play. Having said all that though, it’s still enjoyable. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the overly-confident, nothing-to-lose pseudo detective, Brendan, excellently. Searching for the killer of his ex girlfriend he makes his way up the high school chain, using his friends – brilliant characters such as ‘The Brain’ and Kara (Matt O’Leary and Meagan Good) – to help him on his way. It’s worth seeing, it’s won a plethora of awards, but it didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. Which is probably one of the most compelling reasons to see films like this – the fact that they initially have little hype surrounding them.

On the other hand, this weekend I bought Lord of War and it’s a stunning film. Fantastic storyline, incredible acting, brilliant dialogue and dark humour; add a splash of New York and you know I’m sold. I don’t want to say too much about it, but Nicholas Cage is amazing in this film, playing an arms dealer, dealing on the grey side of international law. Also staring Bridget Moynahan and Jared Leto, it’s definitely worth seeing.

The Macbook family is complete!

On Tuesday last week, my work mate Sanj took me to this amazing health food store just off Portobello Road in Notting Hill. I’m not usually such a huge advocate of healthy eating but this sandwich tasted sooo good – organic chicken with pesto, beefsteak tomatoes and rocket.

Then we went to the Hummingbird Bakery – a store dedicated to creating the finest cakes/cupcakes in Notting Hill. We tried the Red Velvet cupcake with vanilla/chocolate sponge, deep red colouring and a cream cheese frosting. I guess the whole ‘healthy eating’ plan went out the window at that point but damn those cupcakes taste good.

On Thursday night we went out to celebrate the launch of another website, this time at Beach Blanket Babylon. The first paragraph of the review describes the place perfectly:

“A very unassuming entrance to a virtual fairytale of a restaurant, you can instantly see why BBB retains such a popular following. The upstairs bar area is surrounded by display cabinets of fabulous vintage looking rings and necklaces while bejeweled statues looked down from above. This restaurant is a bit like a trip into a child’s storybook.”

On Saturday morning I met up with David at Borough Market – an incredible food market near London Bridge. We browsed the stores trying every kind of food that was offered to us, including one of the best lattes I’ve tasted. We spent half the afternoon cooking while singing along to Al Green, with David’s flatmate Andrew, and the other half watching David Attenborough’s Blue Planet. Well, I say ‘watching’, but we were all so tired and David Attenborough’s voice is so soothing that we all fell asleep on the couches.

Saturday evening was spent at the Sosho bar celebrating Jen’s birthday with David and Chorna. Great music, great cocktails, great design of everything in the place and Jen looked really beautiful.

Today I met up with Nathan – we grabbed some lunch at Pret a Manger and ate in Saint James’ Park before going to see 16 Blocks at the cinema, starring Bruce Willis and Mos Def. Not the best or worst film I’ve seen, but there were some wholly ridiculous moments in it.

Afterwards we went to Forbidden Planet and then Covent Garden for some hardcore window shopping and now that I’m back, as it’s Sunday, I’m going to order a Dominoes Pizza and chill out with my flatmates and some friends. Byeee!!!

It’s so close I can practically smell it!

I haven’t bought a comic in… roughly 8 years, but I still go to Forbidden Planet every once in a while.

This time I picked up Powers: Psychotic and it’s the best comic book/graphic novel I’ve read… well, ever. It’s about a city filled with various people who have super POWERS! And two detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, who investigate the mysterious murders of these superheros. The storyline is fun, intelligently-written, intriguing, witty and dark, and the illustrations are incredible – a completely unique style for a comic book, written by Brian Michael Bendis, drawn by Michael Avon Oerning and coloured by Pat Garrehy. If you’re any kind of a comic book fan, it’s definitely worth a look.

This week was slightly more relaxed than last week, although my weeks are generally never relaxing – we had a lunch out on Wednesday to celebrate two new website launches.

Yesterday I went to Regent’s Park with my flatmate Mark and a few friends, for a party that was being held for one of his friends. A few bands were playing and everyone was dressed in 20s style dresses and suits. It was raining and we felt a little under-dressed, but it didn’t matter and we had a great time.

I had a meal with my brother and two sisters and various other ‘appendages’ (husbands, partners, etc) at my brother’s place last night. We all live in London, but rarely get to see each other. My sister is five and a half months pregnant and I managed to make her laugh so hard she had to run to the bathroom due to a serious lack of bladder control.

This morning I got up early and went to the 10am showing of MI:III by myself, which was, in my opinion, fantastic. Although my enjoyment of the movie could have been slightly influenced by the fact that there were only 6 people in the cinema and I had a hankering for some action-style brain candy.

And the award for “Potential Fim of the Year 2006” this week, goes to…