matthew walker's blog: January 2009

Having spent eight and a bit years existing in the twenty first century I have finally caught up and created my very own website with out any help from anyone.

I have had a website in the past but I merely designed that one and then gave it to Felix Massie to make it work. This he did, and he did it well. It was done in Flash and had animated pop-up windows and everything. It took him a very long time and was incredibly difficult apparently and he has refused to do me favours since. This proved problematic when it came to updating the website because I did not have the faintest idea how and even if I did it was probably really complicated and not worth the effort so I scrapped that website and made this blog instead.

Now, after one tutorial and two evenings of fiddling in Dreamweaver, I am finally on the same rung of the evolutionary ladder as this man, and he knows how to make a website worthy of the Internet.

I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to master the admittedly quite simple art of website making but better late then never.

For now this blog is still the homepage of www.mattdotwalker.co.uk

The new website is at my new web address; www.matthewwalkerswebsite.com that is where you will now find my films and other work.

Felix Massie and I returned from the Sundance film festival on Friday evening. Our luggage arrived on Sunday evening after a brief stay in Atlanta.

It was good fun although unlike any other film festival I have been to. Mainly because it is primarily a feature film festival with people you recognise from films walking around looking a lot shorter then you realised. I now know for a fact that I am taller then Kevin Bacon, star of Tremors and Hollow Man!

Unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to see how my height compared to that of Robert Redford, star of Cosmic Collisions at the Hayden Planetarium, New York. I was hoping he would greet us at the airport, and at the B&B, and at our individual screenings but sadly not. He wasn't even driving any of the taxis or shuttle buses! It seems he is not nearly as omnipotent as I assumed. Maybe his omnipotence is reserved for the feature film makers.

Our screenings went well. Both Kieth Keith Reynolds Can't Make It Tonight and John and Karen got good responses. It was the first time I have seen John and Karen with an American audience and there was quite a difference (I have seen it with a Canadian audience which was close but not quite as vocal). They are very good at the audible buildup to a laugh followed by the laugh and a single clap (sometimes two!) at a joke they like. It was a nice feeling.

The feature film John and Karen preceded was Peter and Vandy (a romance shown out of sequence with the break-up at the halfway point and the first date towards the end) which I really enjoyed. Other films I enjoyed were Dare (the psychologically scarring side of teen romance), Black Dynamite (blacksploitation spoof with Richard Nixon doing kung-fu) and Bronson (not sure how to succinctly explain this one but it was very good). I did not enjoy Shrink (a Hollywood shrink who is as messed up as his various high profile clients) which felt like Hollywood examining it's own flaws but deciding that they aren't flaws at all and coming over a little bit smug about it. The whole intro and Q&A session afterwards also came across as a bit smug and self-congratulatory which left a bitter after taste and maybe marred my appreciation of the film. Kevin Spacey was there though, provoking uproarious applause every time he made a noise. Unfortunately he was too far away for me to successfully gauge his height.

I think my favourite part of the festival was the Q&A sessions after each film (except perhaps for Shrink). Particularly Dare which featured Sandra Bernhard, who I am only familiar with from her role as the nutter who wasn't Robert De Niro (Masha, thanks IMDB) in The King of Comedy, but the film geek in me silently applauded when she appeared on the stage.

The other highlight was the large quantities of snow everywhere. I am glad I took some quick-drying walking trousers with me because I spent as much time as I could up to my knees in the stuff. We threw some snowballs, built a moderate snowman and spoilt every bit of unspoilt snow we could conveniently and legally spoil. The only downside was that it did not snow while we were there and the snow gradually became dirtier and slushier over the course of the week. I successfully fell over three times. Not proper full-length Home Alone style falling though, but the more embarrassing nearly-saving-yourself-windmill-arms-and-legs style falling. Felix Massie failed to fall over even once. Bastard.

I also ate my first Twinkie which was closely followed by what will probably be my last Twinkie. After the influence of Ghostbusters and Die Hard I really wanted to like the Twinkie but it was really quite horrible. Saying that I probably would not turn down another Twinkie. I think they may have addictive qualities, like smoking and Cartoon Brew.

We also watched Obama's inauguration at the B&B we were staying in. There was a definite buzz among everyone around the town that day and there were people with Obama hats and t-shirts. I can't even begin to imagine Gordon Brown on hats and t-shirts.

I learnt yesterday that HP stands for Houses of Parliament. I don't use brown sauce very often so have failed to notice the presence of Big Ben on the label and make the connection.