Let me just start by saying racism is completely ignorant and stupid and I don't like it any form.
Now, that we've got that out of the way, have you seen this ad?
If you can't be bothered clicking the link, it's a little like the one below, but instead it asks 'Which one of these men is aboriginal?' Well I can tell you which one is Aboriginal because I have two working eyes! It doesn't make sense. Sure, everyone should have equal rights and treat everyone the same, etc, but if someone has darker skin and a different freaking bone structure to their face than someone else then I can see that. That's not being racist. That's being realistic.
Okay, the gang one isn't so bad. I get the point and it's not a terrible advert EXCEPT for one little thing. 'WE'RE hoping you COULDN'T answer that'????? The normal use of WE'RE is to abbreviate 'we are' not 'we were' so the whole thing just makes me confused and annoyed, changing tense and making me pissed off that an organisation that is trying to do something good is just coming off like a bunch of ignorant morons.
Perhaps it's just me who's coming off ignorant. What do you think?
I've been watching a few telly shows inbetween work and uni and whatever else, and here's my two cents on them.
First of all, I love Gossip Girl. I know that the majority of you reading this are now thinking, 'Well that automatically makes your opinions on television irrelevant and stupid'. You may be right, but I don't really care. This show is ridiculously entertaining for me. It makes fun of itself just enough, and has the right balance of ridiculous plots with nice 'awww' family moments, and shocking 'oh my god!' plot twists. It's just a top show that is easy to get sucked into. I'm currently 5 eps into season 2. I'm trying to spread this season out a little longer than I did the first one, but I'll probably just rush through it all too quickly again.
We watched the first ep of Joss Whedon's new baby Dollhouse. Within the first minute of this show Eliza Dushku is having a motorcycle race through the city with some guy. Her bike falls over and skids across the ground, but she gets up, hops back on the bike. Before she continues to race with an injured leg she decides to take of her life saving motorcycle helmet, shake her hair about, and finish the race helmetless. Does this make any sense at all? No. If you watch the show with that mentality in mind then it's pretty enjoyable. The whole premise is that this organisation takes people, criminals or some junk, and erases their memories. Then rich folk can put in orders for specific personality types. They can be for a perfect date, or hostage negotiations, or whatever. Of course this doesn't all pan out as smoothly as intended and there are ethical dilemmas and blah, blah, blah. It's a good idea, but the writing is so funny. You can tell that Whedon is sitting at his PC typing this dialogue, going 'Man this is soooo fucking coooool.' It's not a smart show, but whatever. Also, if you're a buffy fan, like 99% of the shows viewers will be, then you get treated to seeing a bunch of the buffy cast working again.
Next up, local telly.
I think I've spoken about Compass before on here. It's an ABC programme that deals with religion and ethical viewpoints and that sort of thing. I try and always watch it. It's not always brilliant, but it is always interesting at least. Tonight's (sundays) episode was a really good documentary; probably one of the better ones I've seen in a while. It's called The Brotherhood and is about The Universal Brotherhood; a sort of hippy commune/cult that existed in WA in the 1970s. There were a good variety of viewpoints from the people involved shown, and it actually made me feel sorry for one of the guys running the thing. Any film that can make me see where a cult leader is coming from is worth a look I think. It was sad to see what started out as an idealistic nice idea turn into yet another controlling cult like establishment. If you're in Australia I think the show is available online here. You can also check out last week's episode about Billy Graham's visits to Australia. Next week's show is a celebration of Compass's 21st birthday; a roundtable discussion on religion and belief. I'm looking forward to it.
It looks like new South Park eps are finished now on SBS, but this Monday night is OSCAR NIGHT! Are you excited? Well, you have to stay up even later to watch the thing now, because they can't change the schedule of showing underbelly at 8:30pm. Lousy channel 9 criminal bums. Anyhow, what should win best film. I've seen them all (well, except that I didn't watch all of benjamin button but whatever) and I think The Reader is probably the smartest film of the lot, but Slumdog Millionaire might take it because every one seems to be raving about how amazing it was. It was okay, but it wasn hardly life changing stuff (to me anyways).
Should I try and pick a few more? Yeah, what the hell.
Okay, anyone who is going against Ledger for 'Best Supporting Role' must be bummed because they are going to lose.
I think Amy Adams or Marisa Tomei should win 'Best Supporting Actress', but Tomei has an oscar, and it'll probably go to that Henson chick for being sappy in button. We'll see.
The director award should go to Gus Van Sant. The way he blended real footage together with the film was pretty crazy good. Maybe that's an editors award then, but whatever.
Wall - E will totally get the animated film award.
Winslet will probably win 'Leading Actress' for The Reader, which will make that scene in Extras about her talking about holocaust films as a shoe-in for an oscar all the more funnier.
She was pretty awesome though. It's such an unusual and hard role, but I bought it. She was really good.
I missed The Visitor, but Mickey Rourke was pretty great in The Wrestler, even if he is a jerk in real life, asking for more money to be in comic book films. C'mon man. Before this nomination nobody knew who you were, and then you were in Sin City and everyone remembered that you can act. Jerk. Sean Penn might win it. I don't know. It's a tough one to pick. As long as Brad Pitt doesn't win I'll be happy.
Thank God Australia only got nominations for costume design. I don't care who wins costume design.
That's a fairly substantial blab about nothing isn't it?
This commercial is hilarious on so many levels. Not only are Fred and Barney endorsing cigarettes; they're also sitting around watching their wives mow the lawn and do 'manly' things. It's pretty classy.
We saw Death Cab For Cutie at the Freo Arts Centre last night, supported by Youth Group. It was fantastic. We braved direct sunlight in the afternoon, lining up early at the gates, and got a spot right up the front. Death Cab are fantastic. When Ben Gibbard came on for the encore to play 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' and every single person in the place sang every single word with him it was pretty sweet. He was getting all misty eyed along with every one else. Awww.
You know you're a nerd when this website with very little on it gets you extremely excited, because if it's anything to go by it seems in a similar vein and style and atmosphere to the comic. See? I'm a nerd.
You also know you're a nerd when you make videos like this one every single week.
That's it. I'll blab about moofies some time soon, but I'm going to bed to read comics right now.
There were eight of us at Book Club tonight, the largest turn out we'ev ever had. The book of the month was Terry Pratchett's Night Watch, chosen by Joanne. This is Joanne's favourite Pratchett novel because of all teh time travel loops stuff, which she is a self confessed sucker for. There was a whole lot of Pratchett love in the room. Corey, Joanne, Guy, and John are all well versed in the Discworld universe. Noelene and I read the book also, and enjoyed it despite not knowing all the characters particularly well. Pratchett writes in such a way that his complex world and characters are fairly easy to get your head around quickly. I'm not normally a fan of fantasy fiction because it is way to flowery and wanky, but tonight we discussed that while Practhett's characters and setting may be fantasy, his style of writing and even his plots are not. There are no epic quests or typical heroes. It's all very suburban, ground level type stuff. It just happens to take place with trolls and zombies.
Joanne also read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, which she highly recommends. I've read this too and I would say the same. It's this sad beautiful book that could easily be too cheesy, but it isn't. She's also started reading Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.
Corey read a manga of Gon by Masashi Tanaka. Gon is the little unlockable dinosaur character from Tekken 2. The book has no dialogue and crazy detailed animal art. For a book based on a video game it looks pretty classy. He also read Screenplay by Syd Field. It seems Field isn't known for writing screenplays, to which John said he's going to write a book about being a pregnant mother. Corey went on to say that Field's job was to read through hundreds of screenplays and decide which would become films, so I guess he does know a little about it. According to Field's it's all about structure.
Adrian read 2010: Odyssey 2 by Arthur C. Clarke. While the technological advancements are far from correct (apparently HAL was built in 1992) he says that it all feels realistic and very creative. The Monoliths are large black towers that advanced the human race from cavemen to where we are now, like in the start of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The idea of a character who is a black tower appeals to him.
John also read Pratchett's Men At Arms and found it strange how underdeveloped the characters were, compared to the other Watch books. He also read Tintin and the Secret of Literature by Tom McCarthy. He said after reading this and going back to re-read Tintin he can see all these seemingly obvious subtexts and wonder how he missed them the first time around. There's a whole chapter on sexual imagery, and a bunch of the political movements and ideas that were around when Herge was writing Tintin have filtered through promintently into his work. McCarthy's argument is that Tintin is literature because it can be read on many levels, mostly in a way that the author intended. John has been cooking from The Kitchen Revolution by Rosie Sykes. This is a book that is planned out into a year, complete with shopping lists. There are meals that can be made from the leftovers of other, larger meals you have cooked. When we have a house with alarger fridge and freezer I would love to try using this book on a regular basis. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell is about how we often think over things too much before we make a decision, and how our instant reactions to things are sometimes correct enough to rely on. He calls this over thinking 'thin slicing'. I like theidea that we should rely on our intuition more, so I'll probably check this book out. In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore is something that was referred to in Enough and Slow Food so John picked it up. He says it's good, but it's retreading ideas that he's read in other books already. We spoke about Jung some more, but apparently the Cambridge Companion to Jung is not a great. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp is about how to be creative under pressure. Tharp is a choreographer who has to come up with that 'creative spark' when she is called upon to do so. She can't just be creative when it comes to her. In this book she shows the techniques and practices she uses so that she can be creative when she needs to be. She doesn't believe in creative inspiration, but in organisation. John's last book for the evening was the Reading Group Handbook by Rachel W. Jacobson. While it had a coupole of good ideas about forward planning books to read and some great suggested reading lists, it is primarily aime at middle aged house wives. There is a chapter about what food you might want to serve.
I started reading Holmes this month. I haven't read any Holmes before so I started with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. They're totally brain dead reads, but enjoyable ones. I love the character of Holmes, how he thinks hes so awesome and hnags around with Watson, his greatest admirer. Watson even talks about Holmes to his wife, saying how awfully clever he is. It's also cool how the stories in the book are tenuosly linked together. "Remember how last week we were talking about bla, bla? Well..." I also started reading The Crying of Lot 49, but more on that next month.
Rhys, our newest member, just finished Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown. He said it was a hard slog to get through and pretty much nothing happens in it, but that it was really good and very profound. He's just started Orwell's 1984.
Noelene read Margaret Atwood's Payback. Last month she was saying how much she was enjoying it. The whole thing seemed to be leading to some kind of new ideas on social change. Then the end of the book turns into a green idea about how we owe a debt to nature. Noelene isn't against those ideas, but she felt ripped off by a book that led one way and then became something else altogether. She will stick to Atwood's fiction from now on.
Guy is reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Some people, like myself, complain of Dawkins and the way he writes, but Guy insists that Dawkins is great because he makes complex ideas easy to understand. This book is about how evolution can apply to everything, even outside of biology. He applies it to the tiny crystaline structures in mud.
So.... what's going on within my limited global radar or whatever?
Well, the New York Comic Con has released a bunch of sweet comic book announcements from Marvel that make me happy. They've also released some pretty devastating ones from DC too. Why do I want to read 8 trillion new Batman titles, in which he may not even be starring in? Meh.
Here's a sweet photo compilation of all the hardcore costume goers to NYCC this year.
I'm going to see Gran Torino and a 3D Horror Film!!!!!!!! this week, so that's pretty exciting.
I'm also well and truly a cafe worker guy now. I've done everything except the chef's jobs and make coffee. I've done teas, shakes, salads, served tables, lots of dishes, etc. It's still an enjoyable job where I get along with everyone. Hopefully it will stay that way.
There are fires killing a bunch of people in Victoria! It's so crazy. The news here is filled with all these scary stories about people being trapped in their cars and homes, and dying. People describe how fast the winds are moving the fires but I can't even imagine what it's like.
So yeah, I'm having a great week, but it's hard not to keep thinking about how lucky I am compared to people not that far away from me.
What else is going on?
I have Ms Kate to thank for introducing me to the wonders of Chris Dane Owens. Enjoy :)
Some suits decided that Australian audiences didn't want to see The Spirit on Boxing Day like everyone else, so we didn't get it until last week. It's an odd film. Visually it's the pretty much the same as Sin City, but it also has this strange slapstick costume comedy thing going on that I didn't quite understand. I still enjoyed it, and I think on repeated viewings I'll enjoy it more because I'll know what to expect, but at the moment I just don't quite 'get' it. Sin City is one of my favourite films ever. The Spirit isn't, but it wasn't bad. It just felt a little confused. It was sweet to see all the foxy babes in all those cool get ups, and the visuals are still great.
After seeing the trailer for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button I pretty much knew it wasn't for me. Then I saw that David FIncher directed it, it starred Cate Blanchett, and it was based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I figured those were three reasons that I might be able to sit through this. BAH BOW! Ding dong, I was wrong. This is awful. After the first 30 minutes I decided I didn't need to see the rest. "Mama, what's wrong with me?" ARRRRRGGGGHHH!!!! Avoid this tripe. It bugs me because I know this will win awards. People love this crap for some reason.
Some screen writers sat around one afternoon for a bit of a film fest. They watched War Games, 2001: A Space Odessey, and The Game and said, "If we ripped off these three films and made something starring Shia Labeouf then we'll come up with a half decent thriller". I'm sure that's what happened. Eagle Eye is in no way original, but I enjoyed it. Labeouf can totally carry a movie. D.J. Caruso also directed Labeouf in disturbia, which despite its crappy title was another unoriginal but totally entertaining and easy to watch film. I never want to see Eagle Eye again, but it didn't piss me off and I liked it.
Eagle VS Shark was one of the best films I've seen in ages. I loved this. Taika Cohen, who's worked on The Flight Of The Conchords telly show, wrote and directed this. It also stars Jermaine from the show. It's like a nicer version of Napolean Dynamite or something. Picture the nice, funny, stuck in the '80s stuff from Napolean, and then imagine all that in a nicer film from New Zealand. This was 5 star stuff. So great.
Anchorman was hilarious, right? Well Step Brothers is almost that hilarious, but there's a few too many moments that go way to far into silly town and kind of ruin it. I still laughed heaps, so if you dig Will Ferrel then you should watch this film, but it's not his best.
Soooooo Taken. Okay, so Qui-Gon Jin used to work for the government as this tough 'preventer' guy who did whatever it took to prevent bad things from happening. Then he realises that he's missing his daughter too much and his hot wife Jean Grey is off with some other dude, but that's okay because she's a total bitch anyway. Qui-Gon is also a total loser because he buys his daughter a karaoke machine for her birthday, only to see that her new dad buys her a pony. What a loser. Then he does this security job for some friends protecting Holly Valance from being stabbed by some faceless random after a concert. I could go on like this, but it would be uninteresting.
The trailer of this film pretty much gives the premise away. "Imagine if your daughter was taken away. Would you have what takes to get her back?" Well, if I had to shoot some innocent woman in the arm and torture a bunch of people to death then no, probably not. This film was offensive, and the fact that Liam Neeson gives a performance that is comparable to Keanu Reeves in The Watcher in this just makes it all the more painful. It would just be funny and entertaining if it wasn't for all the socially acceptable violence, and the retarded idea that you can't trust anyone outside of the United States because they're human traffickers or some shit. Whatever.
What happens at the cricket when your team looks like it's going to lose by heaps? People do the mexican wave and make enormous beer snakes. Squint and you can see some pretty impressive ones in these pictures :)
