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This Week in Lumps
#29 [04/12 - 10/12]

· There are many things I’m looking forward to in 2008. Gig wise, there are some real beauties in store, and the same can be said for studio albums. Some bands are long overdue to record some classics and then bring them to live in front of their fans; I’m secretly hoping that one or two artists in particular will restore my faith in the industry after (albeit for one or two exceptions) a fairly mediocre 2007. However It’s not music that will be the talking point next year: I strongly think that 2008 will be the year for some truly wonderful films, to the point where I’m strongly considering renewing my cinema membership. The year to come will see me write about (and hopefully enjoy watching) Cloverfield, Be Kind Rewind (from the genius Michel Gondry), 21, Rambo, Iron Man, Indiana Jones, and many many more, however the film I’m looking forward to the most is the follow up to Christopher Nolan’s 2005 epic Batman Begins: The Dark Knight.

The film will again star the flawless Christian Bale as Batman, along with returning stars Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman. The Joker will be portrayed by Heath Ledger, the character of which has been described as a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy”. The film follows Batman becoming more of a detective, dealing with the escalated situation from the end of Batman Begins as well as the dilemma of his vigilante crusade, and his friendship with district attorney Harvey Dent, played by Aaron Eckhart. The Dark Knight was filmed primarily in Chicago, as had been done for Batman Begins, as well as several other locations in and outside the United States.

Christopher Nolan was initially unsure of returning for the 2nd film, but eventually decided upon creating a new interpretation of the Joker, based on the villain’s appearances in the original comic books. The director also used an IMAX camera to film four major action sequences, including the Joker’s initial appearance. The Batsuit was redesigned, with a cowl allowing Bale to move his head, and a recreation of the Batcycle known as the Batpod will be introduced. There has also been pictures of a possible car for the joker, finished in that evil purple colour.

As mentioned back in week 15, the studio has put a lot of effort into a successful viral marketing campaign for the film, in which websites were created so Batman fan collaboration would reveal items such as new screenshots from the film. Pictures and magazine covers have been leaking onto the web over the past few weeks, not to mention the trailer which has been getting people excited for the best part of 3 months as well. The first six minutes of The Dark Knight will be shown before selected IMAX screenings of I Am Legend, which will be released next week. The preview ends with a montage of scenes from the film.

The Dark Knight has a proposed release date of July 18th in the US and July 25th in the UK.

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· I want to share an article I read recently in the Times newspaper (which also appears on their website, too), regarding wine. Now, I’m not sure if wine still has a reputation as being a snobbery tipple, suitable only for those who look down on beer bellied louts and the like, but either way I have started to prefer it over most other alcohol beverages (Although for me, this year has been one absent of alcohol. Rest assured, you will find out in next weeks entry the reasons why and all the other details, but I wanted to touch on that as you read on).

According to a recent report by Vinexpo, the wine fair, by 2010 the market will be the biggest in Europe, worth £5.5 billion. So obviously somebody likes it, right? Maybe you want to join in? Well, The Times is ready to assist you (the the help of the world wide web) in getting the facts right when it comes to grape squishing, ie what wine to have with what meal, what countries there are to choose from, where to buy your wine, it even goes as far as giving details about how to manage your cellar if you really get your nose into it. So by the end of next year, you should know your Chilean Red from your French white, and your blue nun from your chateaux neuf du pape.

Not to let The Times steal all the spotlight, here’s Wine Anorak.com‘s 10 tips why you should become a wine geek:

* Variety. There are dozens of wine producing countries, hundreds of grape varieties, thousands of vineyard regions, tens of thousands of producers … you get the picture! There is no justifiable excuse for boredom in a wine drinker.
* Wine drinking is eminently sociable. While you can drink wine alone, it is much more satisfying to share a glass or two with others, often with food.
* Wine is culturally diverse and rich. Wines are often intimately associated with the cuisine and culture of the region that they come from, and even where they are not, wine regions are still nice places to visit (see point 5).
* History. Following on from point 3, wine is often steeped in historical significance. It is a very old drink.
* Tourism. Added to this, you can have tremendous fun visiting wine growing regions. Vineyards are often very pretty places, found in nice parts of the world.
* Wine people. I’ve met a lot of people from around the world through my wine hobby, and they have invariably been pleasant, interesting, generous and friendly.
* Collecting. Because wine often benefits from — and in some cases absolutely requires — ageing, it is often necessary to build up a collection or ‘cellar’ of wines.
* It is a self-renewing hobby. You buy wine, drink it and then buy more.
* The world of wine is constantly changing. New regions emerge; with each successive generation producers can improve or get worse; fashions come and go; and to top it all, each new vintage shakes things up once more.
* Last, but not least, it’s experiential. You get to consume and thus ‘experience’ the object of your hobby. This is pleasurable!

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· I need to own up – I am a procrastinator. I am neither proud of this, nor am I ashamed. It’s a disease which finds us all one day (usually idle Sunday afternoons when there’s ironing to be done). It sounds like such a dirty word too: to procrastinate, to be caught procrastinating, it sounds very similar to a word which you may end up doing due to too much procrastinating. So to avoid that sticky situation, I’ve found a few ways for you to beat it. Whether it’s essays, or overdue work from the office, or whatever, here are a few articles on what it is, why we do it, and even how to beat it.

The first is from cultivategreatness.com, and is a guide on 4 reasons why we do it:

“Putting off the inevitable, sometimes until a deadline is staring you in the face, causes the highest stress level, and results in managing time by crises. There are many reasons why people procrastinate. For some it happens occasionally under specific circumstances, and for others, it is a way of life.”

The second is a guide on how to beat it, from getrichslowly.org :

“This is blindingly obvious, I know, but many people lose sight of this fundamental skill. It’s not that we don’t know that we should do things now; it’s that we’ve forgotten how.“

Thirdly, a great read on why there is good and bad procrastination, and how to do it really well:

“There are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you’re not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well.”

And finally, just for fun (in case the two previous articles have fallen by the wayside) is the popular flowchart on ways to avoid whatever you’re doing for a little while longer.

Me personally? I prefer quoting Steven Wright:

“Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.”

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That was the week in lumps, a week in which: Britney Spears has secret lesbian footage of Paris Hilton (apparently), our sex drive is killing the planet, a man gets his love length stuck and has to call the fire brigade, and Bioshock is the game of the year.

Heavens above; that is the end of week 29, which means I only have enough space to chat to you about the end of Series 1 of Heroes, which picked up 3.4 million viewers on Wednesday. A good way to end a great first series, although (as usual) I was picking ways it could have ended so much better. With two episodes back to back I was weary that the evening would drag on, but it wasn’t too bad. The end fight scene was a bit of a let down, and featured too many cameos from people trying to help out, if it had just been Peter, maybe with the others being disabled earlier on in the episode (I mean, it did take Peter, Hiro, Mr. Bennet, Parkman and Nicki to finish him off). I was sad to see Ted go, I thought he was great to watch, albeit being stuck with a rather temperamental and limited power. I still think two people with the best powers were those who died quite early on: Brian Davis, who Sylar killed for his Telekenesis powers, and the stunning Eden McCain, who had the power of persuasion. Both powers I’d chose over any of the others (except for maybe Peters, but that choice is a given for everyone).

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