hey! Well, I am not feeling Italian this morning. The Czechs did the Dutch a favour, and the mighty Orange managed to pulverise the rather unfortunate Latvians and so secured themselves a spot to play Sweden in the quarter finals on Saturday. The Czechs left it late, and didn't make it easy for themselves; and the Germans were fiercely competitive and also extremely unlucky, but I went to bed (but not to sleep - I was far too amped) a happy boy. Before we go any further, yesterday's soup for lunch was horrific. Really fucking horrible. Just had to tell everyone. Headed out to a book-sale from our larney book chain this morning and picked up four great (I hope) books - 2 fiction, one science-fiction (short stories) and one science/sci-fi blend - an attempt to explain concepts and origins in modern physics and mathematics. Sounds like a cracking good read, I know! And the branch that I visited is at a mall located outside the harbour, so I got to take a good look and close examination of the bay to make sure that it is all working properly (and it is). Justin arrived home from Sweden in one piece, so that's good news. His erstwhile PhD thesis also got two thumbs up from his two supervisors at the University of Uppsala in Uppsala south of Stockholm and Novartis Pharmaceutica in Zurich, so he's heading into the home stretch with a smile so wide it's practically decapitatory, so that's good news, too. It was wiped off rather rapidly, though, when he discovered his flat had been broken into while he was away - jimmied a window and made off with his DVD player and his Robocop Trilogy boxset. Robocop - a masterpiece. II - okay, but not brilliant. III - What a fucking waste of money. Still, he was pissed off, and rightly so. Worked last night - do every Wednesday at Hell's Video Store - and spent a large portion of the evening helping the guys I do karate with break into the toy machine. You know the type - put a coin in, move the crappy crane claw thing over a fluffy stuffed creature (sometimes an animal or a well-known cartoon character; the ones this month are just bits of fluff stuffed with foam-rubber with eyes and shit stuck on. As if they were made by Edgar Allen Poe on crack-cocaine with a hangover during a bit of a rough day on Hallowe'en). Well, somebody broke one of the panels on the "Happy Crane," as its called - although I would have called it Fucking annoying singing irritating shitty Crane - and if you're quick enough, you can wiggle the panel out of the way and ransack the nightmare toys. So I stood guard and directed the process. The machine did its I-detect-motion-fire-up-annoying-anime-voice "don't kick the machine!" and "Come on guys! Have Fun! You can do it!" The karate boys ran off with about six bright orange, bright blue, and dark choc-shit brown feathered fluffy evils for various girlfriends and sisters and whatever. Yeah, whatever. Ken Park (dodgy Larry Clark film - he did Kids back in '95, remember?) got a local release on DVD and VHS here yesterday. Hell's Video Store is buzzing with everyone wanting to watch it and asking "Is it good?" And I can't answer that question fairly; I think I missed the point of the film, to be honest; and I do think it's pornography (especially two of the scenes - can you say erections?? Hello!) dressed up as art-house social commentary; and I think it falls fairly short of the mark I think it was aiming for. In fairness, I will admit to not getting it, so perhaps it really is a gem. It is off-side, though; not smutty, pornographic; gratuituously so. If Clark was an edgy, 20-something filmmaker, okay, fine. But he's like 55 or something, and he just comes across as a man in a filthy trenchcoat with Ken Park. And there was also Bully, from 2002, which is hard-hitting and horrific, but also borderline exploitative of its cast, especially the young female ones. As I said a few days ago, I am not a prude. But this stuff was a leeeeeeeeetle OTT for my liking. I mean, if you want to make porn, make porn - in fact, I encourage it. But don't pretend it's art. Hefner never did; that's admirable. And his isn't porn, anyway. Flynt had porn and was proud to say so - that's admirable, too. Okay, I shall step off the pulpit now. All of you get on with your business, or whatever. Yeah, whatever. laters