Just as I was preparing to spend the rest of 2007 in shorts, anticipating what is apparently set to be the hottest summer since records blah blah, AWRS or Absolutely Ridiculous Weather Syndrome is seemingly also upon us.
Decided to hit Leeds, the nearest big city to Chez Sonique, for a spot of Sunday lunch.
As the sun was beaming down I seized upon what looked to be the ideal opportunity to climb into a pair Sonic Shorts and some cheeky outré footwear. Then I look out of the window to see horizontal (and I mean horizontal) snow, if you will, blasting the local landscape and it's inhabitants into submission. Back went the shorts and the Urban-Geisha foot-fashion. Out came the galoshes and the thermal underpants.
This latter move was to prove unwise when, driving through the blizzard the snow abruptly stopped, the sun reappeared and stayed put for the rest of the afternoon. Damn it was HOT in them pants pop-kids. These two pics were taken 8 seconds apart.
As I've said before elsewhere, Mother Nature is one mad scientist and no mistake.

So today was dental check-up day. Never the highlight of any calendar I suspect, but it must be done.
Now, you know that part where Mr. Dentist exits the room for a minute or two, and leaves you alone in the chair? Naturally you start looking around at his toys and wonder which ones he's gonna be using on you when he gets back. Well, today I did just this. It's never a wise choice.
See that blue-handled implement in the foreground there? That's what popped out from under the cover when I got too nosey... and there's a whole tray of pain next to it.

I didn't want to dig too deep as Dr. Szell could've walked back in at any minute, and seeing me rooting around his pain-causing collection with an expression of horror on my face would've made him angry... and as he himself told me once, I wouldn't like it when he's angry.
Suffice it to say, he actually used the big thing there on me when he got back. Straight into the lower-right gum area. I'm now wondering if he has CCTV in the surgery and was trying to teach me a lesson.

I should add at this point that my dental treatment is private. This is primarily because I'm so fabulously wealthy, but there's another reason.
A few years back I got myself an appointment for some routine treatment at the same practice, but on the NHS (for overseas readers: a vast confusing money-pit that no-one over here currently understands). I duly turn up at the appointed time, only to discover that I'm being treated not by Herr Szell, but by one of his colleagues, whose surgery is in the room above.

I was eventually shown upstairs into what looked like a police incident room in 1970's Gdansk, the surgery of a man clearly not happy with his situation. He was just finishing a bottle of QC sherry. (To be fair, he offered me a chug). Scattered on the floor at his feet were what looked like small implements for cleaning farm-machinery.
I was ordered to sit.
The subsequent hour or so is now a blur, but when I awoke in the alley behind the surgery, I made a mental-note: Consider going private in future.

So this afternoon I went to see Ghost Rider.
Like most flicks these days, I'd have probably have been content with catching it on DVD at some point in the near-future. I'm glad I bothered though because this is pure Wide-screen, Oscar-immune Surround-Thyself-with-Salted-Snacks-style entertainment (I had a large nachos with everything on) ... and given that both DVD-hire shops within hog-riding distance of Chéz Sonique have simultaneously closed down of late, I'd probably never have seen it at all.

I've not been overly impressed by comic/graphic-novel characters brought to the silver screen in the past. The Spiderman movies look good but for me there's too much emphasis on the Lurv-Interest. Some notable exceptions though are the first X-Men, Hellboy, and Batman Begins. Top-class all, particularly the latter, and I'd put Ghostrider somewhere amongst those. Despite it's $120m budget, it somehow still manages to evoke the tone of a comic-book.

On a musical note, the wide-eyed optimist in me hoped that Suicide's rendition of the song of the same name might get used in there somewhere, but given that the score turned out to be largely orchestral, I quickly forgot such foolishness.
However, a brief trip to Youtube made me think again. Take a look at THIS pop-kids, and tell me it's not a perfect marriage of Sound & Vision. Sadly not featured in the movie itself but 10 out of 10 to whoever put this together.

Even Nicolas Cage's crazy-ass wig couldn't put me off, and it was good to see him incorporate some of those Elvisly Yours moves (used to great effect in Wild at Heart) into the Johnny Blaze character, who is basically an existentialist pairing of Evel Knievel and Elvis.
What this means is that he gets to look moody and preoccupied a lot whilst wearing a white leather jump-suit with flashes on it... and goddamit, don't we all want that?