Month: September 2010

Unserious Linky

Not much serious stuff this week. Lotsa random stuff. It’s all out of the folder, haven’t had time to go looking about lately…

An unlicensed Xbox Twin Peaks homage/rip-off

Kevin Spacey does impressions. Smug comes off the guy in waves, but he is good at this.

Retrospace: blog of the 70s. So many great photos.

SFX mag presents a script for Firefly/Serenity in 5 minutes.

The Andy Rooney Game: “Remove everything but the first and last sentences from Andy Rooney’s segment on 60 Minutes. Then post that onto YouTube.”

This is how you do web-series self-promotion on a tiny tiny budget. Those smart kids at The Guild created another music video:
<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&#038;from=sp&#038;fg=shareEmbed&#038;vid=8cb424dc-cbdb-40be-90c5-8fb450462d2f" target="_new" title="Season 4 - Music Video - "Game On"">Video: Season 4 &#8211; Music Video &#8211; &#8220;Game On&#8221;</a>
(Here’s the last one: Do you want to date my avatar)

This totally plays to Western stereotypes of Japan rather than enhancing cultural understanding, but nonetheless, 6 Japanese subcultures that are insane even in Japan

This is relevant to my interests. Art made out of licorice.

And finally… HAL 9000 sings “Hot in Here”

Per Capita

In New Zealand classrooms, every morning we stand up, face the flag, put our hands on our hearts and say together: “New Zealand is the best country in the world, per capita.” Those two little words, per capita, are a crucial part of our national self-esteem and self-image, and saying “per capita” is as true-blue New Zealand as asking overseas visitors how much they like our country.

So I want to pay homage to the Tall Blacks, knocked out of the eight-finals stage of the FIBA World Championships for the second time in a row, in a torrid defeat to an equally determined and much bigger Russian side. I’ll do this in the traditional way, by citing population statistics and saying “didn’t we do well, per capita”.

Russia: 141 million.
New Zealand: 4 million
Didn’t we do well, per capita!

And congrats to unbeaten Lithuania (3 million), knocking out China (1.3 billion). Er.

In all seriousness, it’s been a fun World Champs to watch and thumbs up to the Tall Blacks for doing a great job. Next time I run into one of youse fullas in the street I’ll raise my eyebrows at you in hearty appreciation.

(Population count source: wikipedia)

Piranha 3D (USA 2010)

Things that were 3D in this movie:
* Fish
* Cave
* Gore
* Vomit
* “Naked underwater skank ballet” – Nathan Rabin, AVClub
* Eli Roth

I had a great time. Directorially? The suspense wasn’t ratcheted up nearly as high as it could have gone. But on the other hand, the violence was perfectly judged – you saw things that caught you by surprise and made you shout, but were still silly enough that you laughed. The nudity was also perfectly judged – you saw things that caught you by surprise and made you shout, but were still silly enough that you laughed.

Several dimensions better than Avatar. Best seen with a crowd.

Getting Ready

Perhaps you heard: there was a great big earthquake in Christchurch. A reminder that NZ is basically a big faultline with Lord of the Rings scenery on it. And, as Jack has noted, it’s a reminder that in NZ the disaster survival kit is an everyday common-sensical thing, rather than a sign of extreme right-wing anti-government paranoia.

I’ll expect that disaster survival kits were hauled out and checked across the country this past weekend. We certainly checked out ours, and yes there are a few bits and pieces we could add to it.

But human nature being what it is, as the earthquake recedes from memory, our impetus to add those things will fade away. I’m going to use this blog and its small but attentive readership as a motivation tool, by declaring: in three weeks, our disaster survival kit will be fully stocked up.

Have you checked yours, and found it wanting if so? I invite you to add your name in the comments making a similar pledge. I’ll check up on you and on myself in advance of the three-week deadline. Don’t run the risk of waking up to a local disaster next year and kicking yourself for letting it slide now.

Read up on what you need here: NZ getting ready website

Tall Blacks Linky

Watchin’ the Tall Blacks vs France at FIBA World Champs in the other window. NZ playing its best game of the tournament so far. I love (LOVE) watching random guys from the NZ basketball league taking NBA players to the hole. But I will not spoil the game for ppl who record it to watch later. So only cryptic comments from now on.

This week’s Star Wars linky: sleek, funny character redesigns

Pero Cameron! The maestro!

Check out David Tennant in the Roddy McDowall role in the Fright Night remake. DT fangirls will find new, strange ways to squee.

(from bekitty) Virtual Choir: created by distributing sheet music and a video of the guy conducting.

Half-time. Tall Blacks playing well.

(from Lyndon) Hipster Dinosaurs – it’s the chosen medium that makes this perfect

Disney Princesses give Advice for Young Girls. “The key to love is to tolerate everything.”

Animaniacs tribute – with interviews with the animators etc. Haven’t actually watched this but it has enormous good buzz. Animaniacs was great comedy.

Abercrombie! As commentator guy says, he can really go upstairs!

Hearing a random song in 1990 vs. in 2010. Everyday example shows huge change in knowledge infrastructure for human species. IS IGNORANT ROCKIN’ OUT GONE FOR GOOD?

The Map Realm: fictional road maps by a guy who really loves maps. Maps are fascinating objects.

From Rach B back a ways: amazing, lovely bookshelfery

Here’s a treat: the death trap page from Treasure Hunters University, which appears to be a site by a guy who’s all about going into Mexico and looking for ancient treasures in deathtrapped tombs, for realsies.

3/4 time. This is a great game to watch.

And finally, something simple and cute and a little bit brainwormy… Spike the cockatiel sings tequila

Perfect Blue (Japan, 1998)


With a couple hours to fill before the Tall Blacks vs Lebanon game began, I decided to watch this film. And blog about it too. It was in a stack of DVDs the Knifeman loaned me a few months back that I am ever-so-slowly working through. The director Satashi Kon died a few days ago, aged on 46, which was good impetus to finally see this animated film.

It’s been on my list for a long time. I’m fairly sure it came through the NZ Film Festival back in ’98, and it was one of the films I circled in the guide but didn’t go to see. It’s a psychological thriller that’s one part Alfred Hitchcock, one part Dario Argento, and one part Wes Craven – or their Eastern equivalents. It starts out as a fairly by-numbers suspense film, but then goes very weird indeed in the second half, finishing up with an intense final sequence that is carried off by its visual verve and commitment to its distinctive vision.

There’s some stuff in it that doesn’t entirely sit well with me – the film was too keen to show us the lead character naked and exploited, so much that the in-story protests about how this was gratuitous and demeaning seemed both too much and too little. One line of plot in the film is about an actress working her way to greater prominence by using her body and performing in scenes involving sexual violence, but as the story fractures around questions of reality and fantasy it becomes impossible to find any resolution for this thematic question. Not as well-handled as I’d like, and raises questions it can’t quite resolve.

It’s a great ride though, with some amazing flourishes. There’s a funny scene that precisely dates the film where the main character struggles to understand the internet and the web; this scene played out in a lot of TV and film in ’97-’98 as I recall. How far we have come…

Overall: it’s a good watch, if not quite as cerebral and intense as I’d been building up in my head for the last decade. Contains nudity and violence, so not for family viewing or casual night, but if the suspense/psychological stuff like in Shutter Island works for you, this will be a good time. Thumb goes up.