While I was in London last week for the Apple Tech Talk, I decided to go watch The Shawshank Redemption at the Wyndham Theatre.

Most of you will be aware of the Film by Frank Darabont. Some of you may even be aware that it is based on the short story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King.

I love the short story and I love the film. So when I noticed the other day that there was a play on in London, and that it was only running until the end of November, then I figured I should go watch it while I had the opportunity of being up there.

Firstly, I enjoyed watching it. It wasn’t great, it was ok.
I wonder if I am just not attuned to theatre. I don’t mind musical theatre, I get that, but the difference between plays and films seems to be vast. In this case, everything seems to be said in a shout.

The play is apparently based on the book and not the film – plenty of copyright issues here I guess. The problem is that Frank Darabont did a magnificent job of adapting the book, that it was always going to be hard to stray away from that. So the first think the writers did to differentiate the play from the film was to go back to the original source and have Red as a red-haired white man of Irish ethnicity – right? Wrong! Red is a Morgan Freeman wannabe… and it doesn’t work. His voice is gravelly, and fast, and loud. Morgan Freeman is controlled, slow, and soothing. I can’t read the book anymore without hearing Morgan Freeman narrating for me.

The version of Red’s voice-over, that makes the hairs stand up when delivered in the film…

There’s a con like me in every prison
in America, I guess. I’m the guy who
can get it for you. Cigarettes, a
bag of reefer if you’re partial, a
bottle of brandy to celebrate your
kid’s high school graduation. Damn
near anything, within reason.

In the play, this is the opening lines… rushed, shouted, gravelly, and disappointing…

All in all my concerns with the play were that even though the writers were apparently trying to steer clear of the film, they kept coming back to it. Many of the characters seemed liked they were poor versions of the film characters. In fact Tommy was almost identical that I wondered if they had just lifted the original actor.

In the film many of the characters we amalgamation of multiple characters – Brooks and The Warden in particular. In the play – yep you guessed it – amalgamations. Warden Norton – looked the same, if a little more portly!

I hated Andy Dufresne in the play ( Kevin Anderson). He’s cocky, too forward, almost having a controlled route through his time at the shank. But he still has this kind of Tim Robbins look-a-like thing going on.

So in the end, the play can’t make it’s mind up – be the film, be the book, or be neither. There are some very odd changes and additions that had no earthly right being there.
To be honest, I think the play is really cashing in on the film and not a decent theatrical version of the book. The writers have tried to avoid the obvious copyright issues without dropping things that their audience of film fans might take issues with. I mean, the whole thing starts with the name right? Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption…

I think my favourite part was when the cast sing as Tommy is hanging in his cell… that was a wonderful moment, and almost worth the entrance fee alone.

For those who have not read The Deathly Hallows and are still intending to do so, then you might want to look away now as this may contain spoilers.

I’ve just finished re-reading Harry Potter. In fact I’ve been reading the series to Rebekah over the last year. Anyway, there is a part toward the end of The Deathly Hallows, where Harry is squaring up to Voldemort, and Harry starts to question Voldemort’s assumptions on the true ownership of the Elder Wand, that in my head sounded very different to the words that were actually on the page.

This is what I heard…

I know what you’re thinking. “Did he take rightful possession of the wand?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. So it all comes down to this, doesn’t it. Does the wand in your hand know that its last master was disarmed? Because if it does… I am the true master of the wand. And being as that is an Elder Wand: the most dangerous wand in the world, and is able to perform feats of magic that would normally be considered impossible, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

I drive about 10 hours a week to and from work. I also do about 4 hours in the gym during the week. The gym is the crux of the problem. Sometimes I find while running on the treadmill that I get bored and start clock watching, and when that happens every minute seems to take about 10 minutes to get through.

While I was working at IBM I decided to try and fill my driving time with
audio books. I tested Mort and On Chesil Beach – one that I had previously read and one that I hadn’t. Anyway it went well, I found I could drive and take in the story without problem, the only issue was that as I was using my iPod Touch I didn’t like driving while wearing earphones.

So, for the gym I bought some new audiobooks. I found that it so helps with the concentration. I can focus on the book and go through the motions of the gym work without any issue at all.

With the new found success of audiobooks at the gym and decided to by a FM Transmitter for my iPhone which allows me to listen to the iPhone through my car stereo. This combined with the gym, means that I can now listen to books for an extra 14 hours a week! I can *read* a decent size book ( 500 pages ) in about 10 hours.

So far I have listened to Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse.

Many years ago my dad told me a story about one of his friends Billy (
William Black ). He told me about him taking part in a race where he had
to run up a very steep road/hill/lane while carrying a sheep over his
shoulders.

Not long after that conversation I got to thinking about a story “The
Legend of Billy Black”. It never really formed into anything it was just
this concept about this kid who was remarkable at everything he did,
generous to a fault, and extremely well liked by everyone who ever met
him. The story would follow him as he grew up.

I did an amount of searching on Google to see if I could find any high
profile people with the name, especially anything written or filmed. I
didn’t want to create a character that was already prominent. Nothing came up. Yes there were plenty of Billy Black’s but nothing that I felt
concerned about.

As part of my Dreamgate novel I decided to weave Billy into the story in
order to have some form of cross over. I like the idea of connecting my
short stories and other works with Dreamgate. I even toyed with the idea
of giving Blacks identity to one of the mysterious main characters ‘The
Traveller’.

Anyway, I started listing to the Audiobook of Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight. I listen while at the gym, it’s so much easier to get through a workout when you are distracted by something else; I clock watch less…

To my horror, very early on, a character called Billy Black appears…
re-doing my google search, the results are filled with Billy Black from
the book and film of Twilight… and in that moment I saw the death of MY
character.

I finally finished The Dark Tower series by Stephen King at the weekend. I started reading back in April, and six months and seven books later, I am finally finished. I very much enjoyed the story, it’s not without its problems; it could have been shorter for example – yes I know this is often levelled at authors when they write Fantasy – but that’s how I felt. It took King about 25 years to write the whole series and not to mention nearly being killed before he had finished the last three, so there is no surprise that maybe it wanders a little.

The story is an epic in all senses of the word. King blends standard fantasy with horror, super natural, contemporary, and western. It makes reference to and is often linked with many of his other works ( although there is no need to have read them). Basically, this is his magnum opus. It’s the think that sits right in the middle of everything he has ever written.

I’m not going to go into detail about the story other than to say, at least read the first book The Gunslinger.

I enjoyed the journey, and even though many fans didn’t, I enjoyed the end too!

Long days and pleasant nights to you…