Black Screen of Death!

Hi swarf I get the following results in the terminal,

vaio@VGC-LS1:~$ ~$ ls -lta /var/log
~$: command not found
vaio@VGC-LS1:~$ ls -lta /var/log
total 1852
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 114669 Nov 29 23:49 dpkg.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 284320 Nov 29 23:45 kern.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 360867 Nov 29 23:45 syslog
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32520 Nov 29 23:07 pm-powersave.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 52224 Nov 29 23:07 wtmp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 29 23:07 lightdm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27029 Nov 29 23:07 Xorg.0.log
-rw------- 1 root root 2410 Nov 29 23:07 preload.log
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 Nov 29 23:07 .
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2384 Nov 29 23:07 boot.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root adm 62510 Nov 29 23:07 dmesg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 283056 Nov 29 23:07 udev
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 Nov 29 23:06 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27886 Nov 29 23:06 Xorg.0.log.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 root adm 62672 Nov 29 20:56 dmesg.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root adm 15973 Nov 29 18:56 dmesg.1.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root adm 16060 Nov 29 07:48 dmesg.2.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root adm 15935 Nov 29 07:02 dmesg.3.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root adm 15964 Nov 29 06:38 dmesg.4.gz
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 29 06:21 upstart
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2990 Nov 29 06:04 alternatives.log
drwxr-x--- 3 root adm 4096 Nov 29 06:03 samba
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 29 06:03 jockey.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46195 Nov 29 06:03 jockey.log.1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 29 06:03 cups
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 247701 Nov 29 06:00 syslog.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 94883 Nov 29 05:54 kern.log.1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 29 05:26 ConsoleKit
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 29 05:26 news
drwxr-sr-x 2 syslog adm 4096 Nov 29 05:26 mythtv
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm 0 Nov 29 05:26 ufw.log
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 29 05:25 dist-upgrade
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 29 05:19 installer
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 29 05:17 apt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 292292 Nov 29 05:17 lastlog
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24024 Nov 29 05:17 faillog
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 29 05:16 pycentral.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 auth.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 boot
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 bootstrap.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 daemon.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 debug
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 lpr.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 mail.err
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 mail.info
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 mail.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 mail.warn
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 messages
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 10 02:29 user.log
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 10 02:29 fsck
drwxr-s--- 2 mysql adm 4096 Jun 13 19:43 mysql
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 4 2012 hp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 12 2012 unattended-upgrades
drwxr-xr-x 2 ntp ntp 4096 Mar 6 2012 ntpstats
drwx------ 2 speech-dispatcher root 4096 Feb 6 2012 speech-dispatcher
vaio@VGC-LS1:~$

Some are in red like dmesg.1.gz, while some are in blue like lightdm, upstart, samba, cups, Console kit, news, myth tv, dsit upgrade, installer, apt, fsck, unattended upgrades, ntpstats, speech dispatcher, hp, mysql.

What in your expert view is wrong with the above?

Thanks.

Chris.

PS: am trying to watch Sky Fall..........