As expected, Christmas Day was quite relaxing, aside from the dinner cooking frenzy :) We opened gifts first thing and we'll continue when we visit Carrie's parents on New Year's. She gave me the Indiana Jones collection on DVD, some Led Zeppelin CDs, some gardening stuff (now we just need a yard!), and a fancy organizer tray for my writing efforts, among other things.

Dinner was roast pork with a fancy potato casserole, Caesar salad, some tasty rolls and the bread pudding. Throughout the day we also snacked on chocolates and other stuff from a gift basket sent by my sisters in Australia. All in all, it was an enjoyable, yet quiet, Christmas!

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Yesterday we watched the first half of The Magnificent Seven on DVD and saw the remainder today. It's been a long time since I've watched any Westerns (the last I recall seeing was either The Quick and the Dead or Tombstone), so it was a refreshing experience.

The Magnificent Seven puts a Western spin on the Japanese film The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, where a group of samurai warriors defend a peasant village from bandits. Much of the character of the source film is preserved, with similar events and personalities occurring in both. I do find the Western version more appealing, though.

Starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and some other big names, The Magnificent Seven is entertaining, even if the pace seems quite sedate at times. The acting is good and there are some memorable one-liners among the numerous action scenes. The score is probably one of the most well-known in motion picture history and fits the movie perfectly.

According to the making-of documentary on the DVD, there were a couple of sequels made and even a TV series, but I have my doubts these would've been half as good as the original. Feel free to leave a comment if you disagree - I haven't seen them ;) The Magnificent Seven is a genre classic and worth checking out if you've got a hankering for some gunslinging action.

Staying on the subject of movies, we rented a few more DVDs tonight - One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson, and Seabiscuit, with Tobey Maguire (of Spiderman). This weekend we'll also be going to see Cold Mountain, that new Civil War movie starring Nicole Kidman. I'll post thoughts on these as we watch them.

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I finished reading issue no. 13 of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet today. This is a well-crafted 'zine put out by Small Beer Press, featuring a nice glossy cover (apparently a first for this 'zine?) and excellent layout.

In addition to fiction, LCRW includes some non-fiction articles, poetry and a contributor list. The fiction is quite literary, including both mainstream and fantasy work. My favourite stories this issue were David J. Schwartz's The Ichthymancer Writes His Friend with an Account of the Yeti's Birthday Party (a mouthful of a title with some equally strange content!), Tim Pratt's Rowboats, Sacks of Gold (an engrossing tale by a hot new writer), E.L. Chen's White Rabbit Triptych (a time-worn theme with a nice twist), and K.Z Perry's Mama's Special Rice Tin (an interesting fantasy tale that wouldn't be out of place in F&SF).

What I'm Reading:
Analog Science Fiction & Fact, July/August 2003
Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2003