Off Topic This is the time I like to call the 'gentlemen' hour

Crazy.

 

Northern Ireland is worse, believe me! They're electing convicted murderers (freed by the Good Friday Agreement) into Office!

I understand its a move to put the troubles behind them and show that 'if we can have so and so shake hands with so and so and share office with them, then everyone can move on' but still...

Gerry Kelly was convicted of carrying out the Old Bailey attacks, was put in Prison for 2 back to back life sentences, then escaped (shooting a prison guard in the face in the process) and is now in charge of Policing in Northern Ireland - how ****ed up is that!

 

I remember reading this specifically, and thinking it was a brilliant idea; though could only imagine what opposition parties would do with such information. "Legalize drugs! Lunatic pot head party! Crazy fools! Your children will die!" etc.

 

!

 

I'm a massive advocate of the decriminalization of some drugs and the declassification of others! Makes too much sense not to!

 

****ing hell, I had no idea. Do you often get religious/political clashes or riots in Belfast?

 

Napoleon Dynamites on 4

 

Nah not really, its usually in 'hot bed' areas...For example when those 2 soldiers were shot and killed a year or 2 ago, there was riots and celebrations in a little town called Lurgan.

I've never actually seen any violence while I've been over there (think I've only seen like 2 or 3 drunken fights in the street even). The recent clashes seemed a bit inevitable though! As far as I'm aware the paramilitaries from both sides have a number of fingers in a number of different illegal activities, in order to keep themselves important and therefore in power, they need to drum up support for themselves and fear of the opposition. The recent violence was orchestrated by the UVF (Prods) while the majority of stuff over the past 3 years has been RIRA or CIRA (Catholics)

 

Coolest film ever bar none! Love love love it!

 

I voted UKIP, I see that a lot of the problems we face in this country are due to the EU and that we'd be better off out!

 

Having written film scripts for my course this year, I genuinely can't fathom how people write this stuff...Also, how they pitch it to profit-obsessed bosses?

 

I don't know much about UKIP, do they say how they'd cope with the inevitable trade sanctions we'd face if we left the EU?

 

I know Lurgan a bit. Used to go out with a lady from NI, she lived in Craigavon which is very near to it I think. Was taken on a tour of all the local trouble spots Garvachy Road (spelling) and the estates with the UVF & IRA logos painted on. Quite scary. We used to go down to Newcastle Co. Down where the troubles didn't seem to happen and you didn't have to worry whether the pub you went into was Catholic or Protestant.

Lovely place NI and the people are (on the whole) wonderful, just wish they could move on from the troubles!

 

Exactly, because there aren't exactly stand out jokes or high profile scenes to sell it. The comedy and acting is so subtle. I suppose the biggest benefits for this were that the actors were largely unknown and the production low scale so the budget must have been very small. Even so that must have been some sales pitch.

You notice that there was a glut of geek comedies after this, none of which came close to mathing ND in my opinion!?

 

Yeah Craigavon is close, The Garvaghy Road (almost right) is in Portadown which is where all my family from. Its one of the more protestant parts of NI whilst my family are Catholics - wasn't a nice place to grow up (my Mam took a kicking off a set of grown men as a teenage girl for walking into the wrong place at the wrong time) but its nowhere near as bad as it was!

Newcastle's a class place, still really nice round there now.

 

Aye exactly, its the type of humor you can't guarantee, you have to just hope people 'get it'. Clearly its amazingly written, but I bet there was a few points before its first screening that they had 2nd thoughts!

And yeah, its always the case whenever something comes out of nowhere and works - seems a total cliche now, but American Pie seemed to do it as well!

 

Yeah I really liked it there. Like you say walking into wrong place was a problem which is why we went down to the coast. My GF was catholic, her best friend protestant and I was always taken as English (wrongly) because of my accent, meaning catholic pubs were a problem for me. A night out in Craigavon, Lurgan or Portadown was really tricky back then. Haven't been in about 8 or 9 years though and I really thought that this sort of thing had improved no end. Really sad when I heard about the riots last week!

 

And 3rd thoughts and constand doubts right up to the moment when it did really well at which point they probably coudn't believe how successful it had been. Fair play to them for backing it though because that was one of the braver decisions of recent years.

I know what you mean about American Pie, although I have to say i'm not a big fan. Thought it was funny but never understood the hype. Guess its my age, I can't be bothered with films that revolve around pseudo sex. If I want to get horny I'll bung on a porno, but when I watch a film I want a bit more depth or a bit more comedy and not just a half comedy bolstered by a liberal sprinkling of tits and nob gags. Sound a bit of a grump there don't I?

 

Nah to be fair, its target audience were and still are teenagers (probably too young to legally watch it in the cinema). I American Pie though wasn't such a fan of all the duplicates that soon followed.

I guess the latest style is the accidental/found footage stuff...Blair Witch Project kicked it all off, but there's been a huge increase those types of films recently with Paranormal Activity probably being the most high profile!

As for N/I, I don't think the larger areas will be too badly affected by the recent problems...Belfast for the most part will continue to be fairly non-partisan, especially in the student areas and City center. I'm not feeling particularly worried about potentially going back for another year...It'll only take one dickhead to take a disliking to me for my accent, but to be fair that could happen anywhere for any number of reasons!

 

Bump!

Well what a day! Went round London, sweated my arse looking at apartments, flats and studios. And also realised East Coast are a bunch of thieving gits!

Lost my train ticket, but had the reciept and other card with me....and they still wouldnt let me on the train. Had to shell out £65 for another ticket!