So, yeah. I saw some threads from a while ago. But one was about Thorn's trip and what he should take on vacation. And the whole what have you been watching thread is much too long for me to really want to read. Soz.
Anywho. What's everyone reading? What movies have you peoples been into recently? TV?
Books that I have read, bought, or been given recently (or all of the above):
Reading:
Empress by Shan Sa. Apparently this girl has been published since the age of 9. NINE. The book is good, if not a bit too wordy at times, but then I like tales of Chinese history type fiction. It's all about a girl who grows up to be...you guessed it: Empress of China during (I think)the Tang Dynasty (no, not the drink).
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Actually, I bought this book when it came out originally, but haven't read it yet. Then A found the "Special Illustrated Edition" and bought it for me. Which is what and why I'm now reading it. Pictures make things purdy. :s
Just finished reading:
Marley & Me by John Grogan (he writes for a nationally known local newspaper)
It's the story of the "life and love with the world's worst dog." It's fabulous. I laughed and got very teary eyed. Even if you've never owned a dog (or pet for that matter), I highly recommend this book. It's great. In fact, I think you should all go out and get it right now.
Recently read (like within the last 6 months to a year):
The Genius Factory by David Plotz It's regarding "the curious history of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank". Very interesting.
Freakonomics, which I think everyone has heard of. Good book, though A and I found it to be a bit tedious in spots.
Started reading:
Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century by Mark Leonard, but since I had classes I just didn't have the time for it, and lent it to a friend, who still hasn't returned it. But, I know where she lives. muahahaha.
Xmas pressie from A:
Glass Soup bt Jonathan Carroll If an artist were to draw this book, the artist would have to be Dali. It's the most surreal book I've read in forever. If ever.
Getting ready to read:
The Book of Loss by Julith Jedamus Japan 10th Century. Love, loss, regret, and some other emotions.
Read:
Memoirs of a Geisha before the movie came out, b/c I wanted to see how they compared, and the book had been sitting on our bookshelves for ages. It's a must read...doesn't sound like a man wrote it at all.
That's all I can think of right now.
Movies (which you can all google, as I['m getting tired of typing...nails a bit too long right now):
Started watching House of Fury (Hong Kong kick ass movie). Seemed like it would be fun, but then it just stopped working. Sigh.
Oldboy (a must see)
Sympathy for Mr. Vengenace
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (these thress movies were a trilogy of sorts)
Jet Li's Fearless. LOVED it. He kicks ass! (and I just think he is so cute )
Jackie Chan's New Police Story (very good)
Sorum ( a bit slow, but good)
il Mare (which is a Korean movie that Hollywood just remade into Lake House starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullocks. slow, but a nice love story)
Movies lined up to see:
Marebito
A Touch of Zen
The Promise
The Myth
Master of Flying Daggers (which I think is supposed to be a comedy, making fun of House of Flying Daggers, but I can't read the back of it,as it's not in English, or the little bit of French and Chinese that I know. Which really isn't that mcuh, lol)
The White Dragon
TV:
Lost (Love this show, can't wait til next season.)
Alias (those bastards cancelled my fave show)
Battlestar Galactica (new version)
I can't think of anything else.
So there you go. Your turn.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Welcome back, TMO's laziest poster.
Posted by squirrelandgman (Member # 201) on :
I read Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates as it was out on a table in Borders and I remembered Mr Benway saying I reminded him of Switters, the leading man.
I enjoyed the book and felt flattered at the comparison(was I meant to?). Although he was a bit peado.
I read the Maradona autobiography(good!), Lord Rochesters Monkey(boring!), and Blindness by Saramango(brilliant and a bit disturbing!).
Things I have learned from the above, Maradona is funny, Lord Rochester is not so funny and if everyone went blind we would be in a whole world of shit. Literally.
Posted by Grianagh (Member # 583) on :
i've been reading various books but the one that is haunting me the most at the moment is
Conversations With the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer
for those of you that have read jane green or jenifer weiner you might, like me, expect a light chic-penned feel good novel. however i've had to put the book down at times because of ms palmers very realistic dialogue concerning the modern female ideal and image. i'd recommend for anyone looking a little motivational push without all the psycho babble
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: Welcome back, TMO's laziest poster.
Why thank you, Mr. Mask.
But, you try typing with too long nails, when you're used to relatively short nails. (b.c the last three times I've gone to the salon, I've forgotten to get them cut)
I can't even begin to tell you all of the typos I've had to correct.
Good thing I'm going to get them chopped off this weekend.
edit: if you're nice, perhaps after i've gotten them shortened, i'll expand on the movies. but i really do need a nap. i was up half the ngiht taking care of my brother and his not-girlfriend. i'm on one hour of sleep and need to rest up before class. so
[ 27.06.2006, 08:04: Message edited by: Amy ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
hallo hallo Amy. Yes stil watching stuff from the East, although anime more than anything else at the moment. Just obtained something called Haibane Renmei that's supposedly influenced by the benway-recommended Murakami novel "hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world". Haven't started watching it yet though, as I've got something called Paranoia Agent to get through. Same dude who directed Perfect Blue, which you may have seen.
Not bothered about Jet Li. I've seen a couple of his films but while he's good at fighting, the films themselves have been fairly generic and uninspired. Kiss of the Dragon was one of them.
Marebito is excellent. Won best picture at Raindance festival here in London a couple of years back, and I was lucky enough to catch it then. Shinya Tsukamoto is very good in it. Certainly, it's a more interesting and challenging film that Ju-on.
I think that the last Japanese horror I watched was a film called 'virus' or something similar, and it was about a 'thought virus' breaking out in a hospital. Kind of interesting, but too similar to Garth Merenghi's Dark Place, and not in a good way.
And, I'm not reading anything at the moment. Haven't picked up a book and really got stuck in all year. This is mostly because there aren't any bookshops next door to where I work any more. I should probably have a go on Amazon, as there've been a few books in Boldtype that have interested me recently. Actually I saw a program last night that was based on a book, and it seemed interesting. The book is called 'And they walked into the sunshine' or something, and is about how the University anti-Vietnam war movement grew in the States. In reality, I'll probably just buy a load of old pretentious wank that I'll never pick up, and carry on playing Animal Crossing / staring at my own warped reflection on the tube.
eta: what a dismally bland post that was. Sorry TMO. *shoots self*.
[ 27.06.2006, 09:52: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
quote: After the March 16 attack, he wrote in his diary: "I carried out sacred experiments today to confirm how fragile human beings are... I brought the hammer down, when the girl turned to face me. I think I hit her a few times but I was too excited to remember." The following week, on March 23, he added: "This morning my mom told me, 'Poor girl. The girl attacked seems to have died.' There is no sign of my being caught...I thank you, God Bamoidōki, for this... Please continue to protect me."
Posted by bluefairy (Member # 856) on :
I've been reading the Phillip Pullman's dark materials trilogy, just finished the Amber Spyglass which is the second book.
Also just read The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night Time which is ace. You may already know of this book but its written from the viewpoint of an autistic boy
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by bluefairy: I've been reading the Phillip Pullman's dark materials trilogy, just finished the Amber Spyglass which is the second book.
Apparently, Billie Piper is leaving Doctor Who to play Sally Lockhart in a dramatisation of Pullman's other (superior) series of books.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
hmn... I think a lot of us have heard of that one actually bluefairy. It was quite a famous book.
I have actually finished some books this year. Three to be precise.
First one: Bret Easten Ellis: Lunar Park Throughout this novel I remained completely confused. In fact the only time things started to make sense was when he mentioned Patrick Bateman and then five minutes later I was lost and bewildered again. I carried on reading because American Psycho is like my all time favourite book. Eventually finished. Remained confused. Read some stuff on the internet. Realised I am actually very very stupid.
Second one: A million Little Pieces - James Frey Ah this is more like it, easy reading, simple style which sometimes grates sometimes grates. I cast TMO's own Vikram in the starring role as James. Verdict. Alright.
Third one: My Friend Leonard - James Frey Follow up from the first book as we wonder around with James apres rehab. More of the same but shorter and now I know the characters so I'm straight into this one. Even gave up some quality xbox time to read this in the lounge. Verdict: very enjoyable.
[ 27.06.2006, 10:53: Message edited by: not... ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
well done for reading lunar park anyway, IAN.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
Freakonomics: I haven't read it, but I'm sexually attracted to the pregnant woman on the poster for it.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: well done for reading lunar park anyway, IAN.
quote: waste of time, 20 Oct 2005 Reviewer: A reader This book is utterly bleak and, i'm afraid to say, utterly pointless. It seems as if the writer has been watching too many supernatural movies. The plot is ridiculous and when you finally reach the end of Ellis' rambling, you leave the book completely unsatisfied. This is without a doubt the worst book I have ever read.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
I've been making my way through In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell. For the last couple of weeks I've had this in my briefcase alongside We Can Remember it For You Wholesale, a collection of Philip K Dick short stories, figuring that on the occassions when I didn't fancy Russell, I could satisfy myself with some Dick. Amazingly, though, the Dick has remained unmolested, apart from when I needed something easier to swallow.
Anyway.
The Bertrand Russell's proven to be a - to me at least - surprisingly readable and energetic series of essays taking the psychic temperature of the nation in - think - the 40s. Much of it still rings true, and most of it provokes argument. Warning to Benway and AMP: Russell does use an incredibly relentless and unemotional logic in laying out his argument, which may cause you to become distressed.
On the downside, he's prone to making crazy generalisations and savage, widespread criticisms. It kind of loses him credibility, although it's often done for the sake of being funny, which is a noble enough cause, I suppose.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
yes, I read Russell as part of my degree. He does indeed use cold, calculating logic, but it's hard to discuss theories of causality and determinism without it.
I'm getting tired of these jibes though.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
As for 'watching', on Sunday I watched Citizen Kane, which I picked up in the HMV sale for a meagre £2.99. It's been over ten years since I first saw it, and I think my 15 year old self found it a bit difficult to get to grips with. I'd pretty much dismissed it as a film of historical importance only, with no worth beyond the fact that it signified the introduction of things like non-linear narrative and deep focus, into the mainstream Hollywood cinematic lexicon.
Watching it again though, fucking hell did I underestimate this film! Every single shot is magnificent, from the peeling back of the layers of Xanadu, to the opening newsreel that tells you everything and nothing, to the fantastic composition of the scene where the family arranges Charles's future as he plays in the background, it goes on and on and on. A genuinely breathtaking tour de force of considered and effective filmaking binding with a great script to produce a cohesive examination of the kind of territory explored in Heart Of Darkness.
The film also fires off good ideas like superhero films spunk out gene-mapping credits sequences. There's the breakfast table montage, the camera panning through the opera house, the newsreel, the reflection of the nurse in the snow globe, the shot of the wife, with the medicine in the foreground. It's terrific!
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
yeh, I got about ten minutes into that film, but couldn't be bothered. It was in black and white!
[ 27.06.2006, 11:27: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: on Sunday I watched Citizen Kane... It's terrific!
The ghost of Orson Welles heaves a sigh of relief.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I watched a channel 5 documentary about John Holmes last night! It was good.
eta: you got to see his massive cock, but not when it was 'read for action'. But I don't want to see that anyway because I'm not GAY!!!
Also I liked the bit where they interviewed him and he was on drugs and all fucked up and shit.
[ 30.06.2006, 05:36: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
FUCK!!! I could really have done with seeing that. Don't suppose anyone recorded it did they? I'm trying to research the porn industry at the moment and that sounds like it would have been perfect. I've dedicated about 18 years to intensive research of the output, but I'm currently on the look out for good behind-the-scenes stuff.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I ALSO watched a film called "Barefoot Gen", has anybody else watched this? Well, for the uninformed, it's an anime film based on some very famous manga books. The books were written by a man called Keiji Nakazawa who survived Hiroshima when he was a kid. The books and the film (which is a condensed account) tell the story of life before, during, and after the bomb.
Quite a different style of anime to what you get these days, this thing was knocked out in 1981 I think. It feels rougher and more natural than a lot of modern stuff. The voice acting by the kids is especially well done, and the character of gen (he's barefoot because he's part of a poor family) is rounded and believable. The scenes of the bomb itself, and the state of the town and people once the radioactive dust settled is as grim as you're likely to get, and even though the film is only like a 12 cert or something, the sense of horror is conveyed brilliantly. Babies sucking on dead mother's radioactive tits? Soldiers suffering from bleeding anuses due to fallout? Bodies being piled up and burnt? Lovely. Makes the bomb bit in terminator look about as horrific as a warm breeze on a summer morning.
I would say that it's worth checking out even if you're not an anime fan.
[ 30.06.2006, 05:53: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: FUCK!!!
It was really good, loads of John Holmes footage, and the interesting revelation that he was a compulsive liar. It was good because by the time it ended, any notions of his life being cool or glam had been kicked to the kerb. I got the impression that the film "boogie nights" probably put a positive spin on things.
[ 30.06.2006, 05:59: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
That's really maddening, because I was planning on writing a thing about a pornstar who's a compulsive liar and as it progresses the notions of glamour and success would be gradually kicked to the kerb. So this could have been *quite useful*.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
maybe you could torrent it? Or we could meet up, and I'll and try and describe the whole thing to you in the best detail I can manage.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
The first Superman film was on Sky the other night - it was lovely. I don't think I'd ever quite appreciated the subtlety and range of Kidder or Reeve's performances. Lois and Superman's 'date' was terrific, genuinely enchanting cinema - made you realise how charmless and irritating the current crop of superhero films are by comparison.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Kidder looks likes she's chewing on an invisible paving slab.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
It's a great comic performance - she mixes the brassy-reporter-dame stuff with a convincing vulnerable side; it's pitched at adults, too, which is refreshing for that sort of movie - she gets a couple of properly filthy double-entendres.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I've started to read the da-vinci code, just to see what the hype's all ab out. Suffice to say, not even a literary spakker like me could fail to realise just how poorly written, plodding and clicheed this book is. Soul crushing stuff. I pity anyone who enjoyed it.
Althoguh to be fair since the last book I read before it was Dante's Inferno, it's not hard to see why it may not live up to expectations.
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
I don't know...I enjoyed the da vinci code. It was a very fast, fun read. Saw the movie, and I'm really really attracted to the albino monk. I feel like I shouldn't be, but he's hot. Then I saw him on ellen, and that sealed the deal. Apparently he's married to Jennifer Connelly. Like you all care. Meh.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Amy: Apparently he's married to Jennifer Connelly. Like you all care. Meh.
*scrubs the marian fantasy off his list*
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
I meant like you all care that I think that guy is cute.
Marian as in that movie that I loved that I can't think of the name right now?
scratch that. I've remembered: requiem for a dream.
[ 30.06.2006, 16:13: Message edited by: Amy ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
That's the one. If there was a scene that could sum up someones psyche I reckon the a$$ to a$$ would be Benway.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Watched Lord of War on Sunday and it felt a bit undercooked, partly due to the script and partly down to the directing.
It couldn't seem to decide whether it was some kind of savage attack on the arms trade or just a black comedy. They missed a lot of opportunity for drama, and some times it just seemed like a documentary on how it all works rather than a piece of drama. It was pretty bleak, though, and parts of it were great (like the opening montage of a bullet going from production, to shipping to between the eyes of a soldier.
But that just about sums it up: the directing was good in terms of visuals, but not really particularly clever at illustrating anything. A topic like the arms trade offers - surely - a lot of opportunities for making stark points through the use of visual metaphors, astute editing etc and I didn't really pick up anything from that. Instead it just gives that job to a script which often seems only to want to maneuver people into a position so they can explain the issues at hand. In one really clumsy sequence Ethan Hawke goes "That's a rescue helicopter is it? What about those missiles over there going to the same address?" and Cage goes "You know as well as I do that shipped seperately there's nothing illegal about these items." "Well, that's a loophole in the law that needs to be changed," "Yes but as of today that loophole is still open." The sequence stops just short of Ethan Hawke turning to the camera and going "You can log on to amnesty international dot com to get that loophole changed". I mean you get the idea. It's very laboured and quite tedious. There are a few good lines - like an Interpol guy shoving a gun in Cage's face and him replying "Ooo! The new MP5! Do you want a silencer for that?" But that's the best it ever got - when it was just being a silly comedy about an arms dealer. The script never seemed to pitch much higher than that, and revelled in moments like Cage reeeling off weapons features and behaving like a car salesman. Even the miserable last quarter just felt like the bit in a Jim Carrey film where the jokes stop and he realises - gasp - it's better to be honest and love your family.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
I've recently finished The Time Traveller's Wife, and shed a tear, even though I found it essentially unsatisfying. I never really felt the wife was a rounded character, and was defined by being married to a time-traveller, and as being a wispy artist moping in a studio. The 'wacky japes' the couple get up to with their friends seem a bit false too. But the main character was very engaging, oddly, for someone who travels through time uncontrollably.
Now I'm back to ploughing through the last quarter of Human Traces. By missing out any of the lecturing, and just reading the sex scenes, I should be through it in a trice, however.
[ 03.07.2006, 11:57: Message edited by: herbs ]
Posted by ExtensionsOff (Member # 16) on :
Watched Factotum this weekend. Besides confirming my opinion that Lili Taylor is the most desirable woman in Hollywood, it made me realise that I have to read some Bukowski if I wish to hold my head high in the literary salons of the West Riding.
So, TMOers, since you are, of course, the most well-read posters on t'internet, recommend a place to start. Novels or short stories, you decide.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I love these type of threads. I am always searching for a good read.
I have just finished reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. It was a light, quick read and I didn't put it down until I finished, but couldn't tell you why. The father reminded me of both Mr Trebus, the old man from a Life of Grime, and a Polish man I knew years ago who had walked across Europe as a child after WW2 to escape the Russians so that might be why I stayed interested. Before that I read Death in Venice and Forgotten Voices of the Great War. I am now reading The Woman in White for a book club I belong to. I didn't think I would like it but I am actually enjoying it.
I don't watch a lot of anything but rubbish on TV or watch films much but I finally got round to watching The Usual Suspects on DVD this weekend and enjoyed it though it was a no-brainier and I have just bought Its a Wonderful Life because I felt I ought to have it. I must get Citizen Kane too now I am reminded to.
On TV I look for Dr Who and The Convent. I missed The Monastery but caught this and I am hooked on the nuns and trying to work out what anyone would get from a living in a secluded, closed order. It's worth putting up with the deeply uninteresting Big Brother antics of the silly women who are staying with them.
I've got Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man to read next and now I think Glass Soup looks worth investigating. I like surreal.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by ExtensionsOff: it made me realise that I have to read some Bukowski if I wish to hold my head high in the literary salons of the West Riding.
The great thing about Bukowski is it's all pretty much exactly the same, so you only really have to read one, and you've pretty much got the gist: people are scum, life is pain, being an alcoholic gutter dwelling lowlife fucking kicks ass etc. I remember laughing out loud at Women so maybe that's a good one to go for. They're incredibly easy to read, galloping on in a flip vernacular with little or no plot, just evocative descriptions of boozing, fucking and shouting and cynicism posing as enlightenment.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: The Time Traveller's Wife...I never really felt the wife was a rounded character, and was defined by being married to a time-traveller, and as being a wispy artist moping in a studio. The 'wacky japes' the couple get up to with their friends seem a bit false too.
I suppose the thing with the wife is that she is totally defined by the time traveller as he has quite a long life before he ever meets her, but she knows him from childhood onwards. He's got a history, she has a couple of one-night stands.
It wasn't a perfect book, but I enjoyed the japes. Not that they are a particularly essential part of the story. The thing that did bug me, as it does with most books I read and films I watch, was the ending. In this case it was completely revealed about 20 pages before the actual end.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I'm also reading this book. For some reason I'm imagining Henry to look rather like TMO's Mart.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Y b N b Y... I suppose I could easily feel why Clare loved Henry - he had a personality beyond being a time traveller - whereas Clare's personality never really came through enough for me to see why Henry loved her. Apart from her hair, which does get featured rather a lot.
Posted by George the Robot (Member # 681) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis:
quote:Originally posted by ExtensionsOff: it made me realise that I have to read some Bukowski if I wish to hold my head high in the literary salons of the West Riding.
The great thing about Bukowski is it's all pretty much exactly the same, so you only really have to read one, and you've pretty much got the gist: people are scum, life is pain, being an alcoholic gutter dwelling lowlife fucking kicks ass etc. I remember laughing out loud at Women so maybe that's a good one to go for. They're incredibly easy to read, galloping on in a flip vernacular with little or no plot, just evocative descriptions of boozing, fucking and shouting and cynicism posing as enlightenment.
Thorn's right that most of Bukowski's stuff is very much alike, but if you want to read 'Bukowski by numbers' his best work is probably Post Office. If you want to know how he got himself into this mess, you should try the semi-autobiographical Ham on Rye, which is far less 'cool', in that he fucks less women and boozes less, certainly at the start of the book anyway. However, it has more depth, is more varied, and is consequently more interesting than his other novels. They're all great reads though so you can't really go wrong, other than by reading them back-to-back cos they'll all blend into one huge, drunken rant.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: whereas Clare's personality never really came through enough for me to see why Henry loved her.
I guess that being handed a beautiful girl who already loves you, understands and believes you would be fairly irresistable. Plus she seems very willing to get into to the old sheet acrobatics anywhere and any time, and Henry does appear to be a rather enthusiastic practitioner of that sport. Personality would be a bonus, but possibly not essential in that case.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
RickJ Norton would be proud of me - I've been reading Selling Hitler by Robert Harris, and am also dipping in and out of The Light's on at Signpost by nutty old crazyman George Macdonald Fraser (of Flashman fame).
And languishing on the bedside table is this little beauty:
Nazis, nutters and fast chicks. You are what you read.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I'm waiting on delivery of three books: Black Rain (Masuji Ibuse), Gyo (Junji Ito) and Our Man in Havana.
I also just got a DS Lite though, so, you know.
[ 04.07.2006, 05:42: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I've got Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man to read next and now I think Glass Soup looks worth investigating. I like surreal.
You should read Glass Soup. A gave it to me for Xmas, thinking I would really enjoy it, and he was spot on. Sometimes you're like wtf is going on, but then oh. yeah. I get it. If that makes sense. Just a sec. I'll get the book, and give you the inside flap.
Glass Soup:
"The realm of the dead is built from the dreams- and nightmares- of the living. Octopuses drive buses. God is a polar bear. And a crowded highway literally leads to Hell. Once before, Vincent Ettrich and his lover, Isabelle Neukor, crossed over from life to death and back again. Now Isabelle bears a very special child, who may someday restore the ever-changing mosaic that is reality. Unless the agents of Chaos can lure her back to the land of the dead-and trap her there forever.
ExtensionsOff (I think it was you anyway): I've never read Bukowski, but we have almost (if not all) of his books. A says you should read Post Office (as did someone else, I believe).
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
All right Amy? Good to see you back Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
Benway- you should read Battle Royale. It delves so much more into the characters. It's probably one of my all time fave books.
edit: Hello Mart. Thanks It's weird posting...not used to it and it probably won't happen very much come the end of August. But hey. I figured I might as well pop in over the summer and say hello.
[ 04.07.2006, 05:53: Message edited by: Amy ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Dang, fair point. Sadly it only goes to confirm the shallowness of man. I just wanted to like her more, I guess.
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
I think I want to read The Time Traveller's Wife now. I picked it up a few times in Barnes and Noble, but always put it back. Thanks for the recommendation!
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Amy: I think I want to read The Time Traveller's Wife now. I picked it up a few times in Barnes and Noble, but always put it back. Thanks for the recommendation!
I enjoyed Time Traveller's Wife. I was gripped in places and winced in others, but like herbs I worked out that the book wasn't actually about the wife and I would have liked more of her and I felt the ending at least was vaguely unsatisfactory. I can't really say why without giving too much away but no-one else in my reading group agreed with me so perhaps I am just too sentimental.
Thanks for endorsing Glass Soup. I am off to play.com now.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
At the risk of turning this thread into "TTW: what was it all about, eh", I too found the ending unsatisfactory. It was flagged up practically all the way through, so you kind of knew what was going to happen, but it seemed such a random way to [verb deleted], unconnected, in a way, to his time-travelling-ness. Maybe it's one of those books that needs reading again to fully unravel all the strands.
ETA: Erk! I gave the ending away. Changed now...
[ 05.07.2006, 07:38: Message edited by: herbs ]
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
Eeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh. No spoiler alert?! You just gave the ending away, and I havent read it yet. *sigh*
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I think Herbs hates us, Amy.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: At the risk of turning this thread into "TTW: what was it all about, eh", I too found the ending unsatisfactory.
I really think there should be a specially trained Ending Department in all publishing firms. The number of books and stories I've really enjoyed reading, only to turn the last page and go, "Oh, FFS!" The Ending Department should just return the whole thing to the author with, "Oh, FFS!" stamped on it in bold. OK, there'd be the odd author suicide here and there, but that would be the best type of ending for that sort of writer, let's face it.
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: I think Herbs hates us, Amy.
I think so too, Misc.
Dang- I totally agree. I had never read anything by Stephen King before, until Cell. Great book, stupid ending. I think I said something like "Oh come on!"
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Amy: I had never read anything by Stephen King before, until Cell. Great book, stupid ending. I think I said something like "Oh come on!"
I haven't read Cell, but didn't think much of the extract which appeared in one of the papers a few months back. I would recommend giving Misery, Firestarter and Insomnia a go, if you're planning to read more King.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I read Cell. I'm still not quite sure why I did it. Seemed like a good idea at the time. It's a total copy of The Stand, which he wrote about fifteen years ago. That dint on the head broked his imagination, I reckon.
King recommendations; short stories The Long Walk and The Body and the overblown brilliance of It. I also second Misery and for hideousness, the unsung bit of utter nastiness which is Gerald's Game.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
The Dark Half is also worth leafing through. The film isn't a patch on the book, btw.
Posted by turbo (Member # 593) on :
The last few months I've only been reading Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series. Somewhere inbetween I read the newest Marian Keyes book, Anybody Out There? for something completely different. Thoroughly enjoyed all of them.
Seen quite a few newish films lately too:
Keeping Mum - awful and cringe-worthy and so very predictable, whilst trying to be 'surprising'. Walk The Line - singing along with Johnny Cash. Enjoyed it, especially as the music has sentimental value for me. Shopgirl - Bit strange but still enjoyable, if only to see the amazing house the Steve Martin character lives in In Her Shoes - chick lit in film format. Entertaining enough and good if you're feeling hormonal and the idea of sisterhood makes you cry. The Constant Gardener - liked this one muchly even though I'm not the greatest Ralph Fiennes fan. Kept playing through my mind in the days after I watched it. Rumour Has It - more chick lit in film format. Can't even remember what it was about, but I like Jennifer Aniston, so I think I enjoyed it.
Am currently downloading the Da Vinci Code film, which I will probably hate but feel compelled to watch nonetheless.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Re: Bukowski.
Hello? Poetry..?
He's all about the poetry, people.
My favourite collection = The Roominghouse Madrigals
(Best Poem Title of Non-Existent Bukowski Poem = My Beer-Drunk Soul is Sadder Than All the Dead Christmas Trees in the World)
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
You might also want to try Raymond Carver, the slightly-nicer-middle-class Bukowski. Less of a breathtaking prick and a more coherent voice.
[ 06.07.2006, 15:50: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I saw Office Space at the weekend because it was on TV. I enjoyed that. A couple of moments where I LOL'd to myself! The scene where the dude has his interview with the consultants after the botched hynotherapy was funny.
quote: BOB SLYDELL Y'see, what we're trying to do here, we're just trying to get a feel for how people spend their day. So, if you would, would you just walk us through a typical day for you?
PETER Yeah.
BOB SLYDELL Great.
PETER Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late. I use the side door, that way Lumbergh can't see me. Uh, and after that, I just sorta space out for about an hour.
BOB PORTER Space out?
PETER Yeah. I just stare at my desk but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too. I'd probably, say, in a given week, I probably do about fifteen minutes of real, actual work.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
Yeah....and I went ahead and watched Equilibirum last night, which was very shit. I remember, back in day, Raz and I went to watch Jackass the Movie, and the trailer for Equilibirum came up. I was in pretty bad shape on this particular day, and as a result I thought that Equilibrium looked pretty good. I mentioned this to Raz and after a particularly violent "GOD!!!", he didn't speak to me for a few hours after we came out of the cinema, in punishment for saying that Equilibrium looked good.
But, as always, Raz was in the right and I was woefully short of the target. Not a good film. Had a very shouty teenage feel to it. The whole 'in the future there wil be no emotions' thing is kind of stupid, and the hordes of biker helmeted bodyguards being dispatched in a series of homicidal ballet moves felt like the sketches of a GCSE student just after The Matrix had been released. Bale just looked angular and waxy, and gave pretty much the same performance that he did in American Psycho - a man who's inner turmoil is in the solitary confinement of the soul.
I normally like dystopia, but the future in Equilibrium didn't sit well with me. It's lazy to be making films about monolithic, oppressive, and paternal dictatorships taking over the West these days. That was fine in the early part of the twentieth century, but the State is now such a complex and insidious entity, with it's boundaries blurred all over the place, that it seems too simple to still be relying on traditional and literal notions of big brother. So that didn't work either. Nothing did. The society outside of the administrative processes was never really examined and the people didn't feel real. Whether they were on Prozium or not, nothing about the perfomances felt natural. But I watched it until the end anyway, and am tired as a result.
I did quite like the recurring motif of people being shot in the face through the visors on their biker helmets.
[ 10.07.2006, 08:55: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
benway ever since i first saw office space the 'damn it feels good to be a gangster' scene has always made me think of you. i dont know why. its just a totally benway scene.
[ 10.07.2006, 09:47: Message edited by: dance margarita ]
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I watched the first 20 mins of Equilibirum (Benway, 2006) last night - this has the best/only good bit in it, with the gun kata battle with the people in the blacked out room, which is immensely fun and very graphic-novelly.
Then I channelsurfed for a little while, then I went to bed.
Also went to see POTC 2 at teh cimena yesterday - dm if you were in the 1.30 showing at Cribbs I was in the second row back of the back bit with 4 close personal friends all munching popcorn like there was no tomorrow.
Enjoyed: Norrington being a bastard. Enjoyed: Pretty men in pirate costumes - I think I'm developing a fetish like some people do with uniforms. Enjoyed: Rapid fire references and one-liners e.g. Jack when showing palm infected with black hairy spot "but I still have my eyesight" Enjoyed: Tom Hollander getting some good villain on. He's lovely. Small but perfectly formed. Enjoyed: Bill Nighy's exaggerated consonantal enunciation at the end of words. Disenjoyed: Keira bloody Knightly and her jaw that doesn't shut properly, leaving her a permanently shark-like gritted teeth vibe going on. Disenjoyed: too many Kraken attacks.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
My favourite bit in Office Space is when he's at the therapy session and he says "Ever since I started work, every day had been worse than the one before it. That means every time you see me, that's the worst day of my life." Oh, and when he goes "It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care."
On Friday I watched Wolf Creek and The Hills Have Eyes. Easily the better of the two, Wolf Creek felt menacing and claustrophobic. I also liked the way they used the Australian landscape. At first it's beautiful, and then it's menacing but eventually you come to realise that both of those are readings you're imposing on the scenery, like an ink blot test, and really the scenery just is. I liked that, and it fitted well with the idea of characters stranded at the 'mercy' of an indifferent fate. There were a few too many frustrating 'stupid horror movie' moments, though, including one moment where the protaganists are gifted the most incredible opportunity, faced with the unconscious body of the killer and an assorted rack of weapons and they fail to do anything about it. That's guaranteed to have you yelling at the telly. A shame, because that mars an otherwise relentlessly gruelling experience.
By contrast, the remake of The Hills Have Eyes is just a romp. It's schlocky and glossy and cathartic. There's no real attempt to build an atmosphere of dread and some of the special effects are pretty dire - one cast member getting burnt looks considerably worse than the equivalent moment in the 70s original. There's not a great deal to recommend it - it's well made enough, but it's a soulless, passionless experience. Some decent pickaxe action, but other than that it's all a bit blunt.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
Head on a Stick!
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
That really upset me, that bit. I'd be grateful if you never mentioned it again.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
Didn't you find in Wolf Creek that you wanted the main characters to die? There was something about them that made my skin crawl.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
wow coming up to 9000 now.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
9000 what?
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
9000 wasted opportunities.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
so will the big 9-oh-oh-oh be any different?
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I doubt it.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: Didn't you find in Wolf Creek that you wanted the main characters to die? There was something about them that made my skin crawl.
They were accurate portrayals of the kind of people I would normally try and avoid if I met them at a house party, that's true, and seemed to have that thing where they think that because they boozed their way across the outback they had some kind of amazing epiphany. You know, like the kind of person you meet at university who went to India in their gap year and had a 'really amazing time'. So they were irritating in that sense; not especially likeable.
But, as for wanting them to die. Erm, not really. For starters, Mick seemed like such a recognisable and intimidating type of bigotted beefcake, so much like the kind of burly, country-dwelling half-wit that used to act threateningly to me in Dorset pubs that my imidiate reaction was to side with the kids, however much I might have found their conversations tedious and their holiday choices questionable. I definitely wanted Mick to die more. The kids were vacuous and self obssessed, which as you correctly identify may mean you don't want to spend time with them, however Mick was a sadistic murderer who enjoyed extreme acts torture and rape, not just on teens but on families and young children, and when the chips were down, I thought that was worse than being 'a bit annoying'. So. Mostly I wanted Mick dead, and the kids to get away.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
Being annoying is reason enough to die in a horror film. Their fates were satisfactory - especially head on a stick - and there were some excellent moments of extended horror and torture. The only moment that I felt uncomfortable was when the girl was tied up to the post and he was knocking her head about. Like, banging it against the post over and over again. That was unpleasant.
I didn't really want Mick to die though. He was more of a force of nature than a real person, like an outback Jason Vorhees, and as such, I was rooting for him. It's a shame that there weren't more kids for him to kill, but there you go.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: I didn't really want Mick to die though. He was more of a force of nature than a real person, like an outback Jason Vorhees, and as such, I was rooting for him.
I'm not sure I agree entirely with this. Jason was man-like, but he couldn't really sit down for dinner without raising suspicion. Mick managed to interact with people, seeming helpful if a little common. You could imagine him being brought home for tea by his girlfriend as he turns the air blue a few times but manges enough charm to get away with it. Jason would be a nightmare.
You: 'but muuuum, he has to wear a boilersuit because he works with things that make him dirty'
Your mum: 'so what's with the bloodstains?'
You: 'He works in an abatoir ....I think'
Your mum: 'What do you mean you think? Don't you know?'
You: 'He doesn't talk much. Ever actually. He can play a set of maracas though'
Your mum: 'Does he use his hockey mask for work?'
You:*shrug*
[ 10.07.2006, 11:13: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
Mick seemed to be part of the Outback. He was the malicious evil that we fear when we're in a space like that. So far away from civilization, chaos rules, and he was chaos, with no moral code, no ties to other humans, a pure hedonist. Mick was nature's scorn on the kids who thought that they can live by their rules in her domain; who assumed that they could carry civilization with them.
Jason performs a similar role, only he punishes those believe they can dabble in chaos/sin/hedonism and still live normally. It's not the immorality in itself, but the victim's belief that they can exist within the moral world while committing immoral acts. These creatures are there to maintain balance. I felt that pretty strongly with Mick, it's just that his kids were those who believed they could maintain order in a world of chaos.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Is Wolf Creek good then? I’d not heard of it till reading this thread. Is it worth me nipping into Blockbuster and renting it? I’ve not got much planned tonight and I’ve got a bag of popcorn in the cupboard. A film sounds like a pretty good idea.
In fact, anyone want to recommend something for me to rent tonight? I feel like a horror film of some kind.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
Wolf Creek is alright, yeah. I wouldn't say it was brilliant, but it's diverting enough, and nicely sadistic.
Although Imdb suggests that it is a brilliant film. I'm basically always wrong about films.
[ 10.07.2006, 12:10: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
stupid Benway edit
[ 10.07.2006, 12:12: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
sorry ralph
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I forgot my blockbuster card when I went out so I didn't rent a film last night. Instead we watched Napoleon Dynamite from my own shelf.
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
Me and A thought that movie sucked...no offense Ringers. We just didn't get why everyone made such a big deal about it.
I think everyone should see Garden State. It feels like life. Especially if you're from New Jersey...which I am. So yeah. Watch it...
[ 11.07.2006, 14:13: Message edited by: Amy ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Amy, what you need is to watch The Station Agent. Thorn will back me up on this. It´s so good, I bet you've already seen it.
Me, with the wife away, I have been indulging in a bit of hardcore old-movie action, namely Rebecca, with an astonishingly, incredibly, superlatively beautiful Joan Fontaine. She does this whole-body quiver thing, and doubt runs around all over her face, never stopping, and her shoulders droop dowdily with inadequacy and disappointment in herself, and yet light shines in her eyes like the autumn sun on a leaf-dappled forest stream, and her mouth... oh I'd better stop there or TheGree will think bad things about me.
Posted by jnhoj (Member # 286) on :
I just read the latest adrian mole book (well, it was released two years back) and I found it funny (one of the few books to ever make me laugh properly, which is pretty bad), stupid, and quite touching. Well, as touching as an adrian mole book could be. I'm starting to wonder now if my ambivalence at everything is roooed in reading too much adrian mole as a child.
Hold on, are the adult adrian mole books still for kids? I don't understand
I also read a book of love letters bought for 1.99 from the works, I tore pages out in a fucking faggy way because I am all broken hearted, a bit like any number of popular emo singers. Except without the nice clothes and hair. It felt a bit weird reading through everyone's private bits but also reassuring that most people go mental in love letters and throw cliché into a stream of literary defying writers piss.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
I saw the most emo boy ever the other day, he had floppy hair and big glasses and a corduroy jacket and everything! My chum and I were just discussing his total emo-ness, when he whipped out a camera and started taking pictures of the grotty building above a kebab shop!
Emo +10!!!
I should probably warn you all that I am still drunk at the moment...sorry everyone.
Posted by Fionnula the Cooler (Member # 453) on :
I no longer know the difference between emo and indie, between indie and hipster, between hipster and art school dropout, between art school dropout and fashionista, between fashionista and cyberpunk, or between cyberpunk and goth. Everything has converged. No piece of clothing is safe. I daren't dress. I am a nervous wreck. Whose fault is it? Is it Abby's?
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
He sounds perfect.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
Sorry Fionula. How about retro-louche? That is quite popular at the moment?
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I've been rocking the same look for the last 6 years. Grey t-shirt, blue jeans, brown trainers. It says 'I give up'.
[ 14.07.2006, 06:56: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Abby: I should probably warn you all that I am still drunk at the moment...sorry everyone.
What the fucks going on TMO? All the girls are turning into lushes and heroin addicts, like a particularly amazing dream!
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
And I think I may have taken too much of my pain meds. And still haven't gone to sleep yet.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I am entertaining a rather excellent fantasy of being fed grapes by girls ripped to the tits on all the different kinds of drugs. Maybe pushing the envelope into naughty territory if herbs comes on and tells me she's had too much coffee to drink today.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I forgot to apply my Germolene this morning, does that help?
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Only if you do a few ludes in the sci-fi aisle.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I'm doped up on antihistamines and cold remedies, does that help at all? I'm sure the ensuing woolliheadedness and vacuity would compensate for the overabundance of phlegm.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I've run out of cocodamol. I'm substituting vodka and red wine. If I make it to the end of five weeks without lung cancer, skin cancer and liver cancer it'll be a miracle.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
NWoD - I had a beer at lunchtime, at the Gourmet Burger Place in Clapham Junction to get to know my 'team' - and can feel a Zantac coming on. Pretty crazy combo of drink and drugs, I think you'll agree.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: Wolf Creek is alright, yeah. I wouldn't say it was brilliant, but it's diverting enough, and nicely sadistic.
Although Imdb suggests that it is a brilliant film. I'm basically always wrong about films.
No in this instance your instincts were correct. It is mediocre at best. Took about an hour of tedium to get going, I was just starting to contemplate turning it off when it started to look up a little bit. But it never really went anywhere and seemed like there was absolutely nothing original or interesting about the film, save for the slightly unsettling sadism. And while I didn’t specifically want the characters to be killed, it didn’t really bother me much when they were. It was all a bit too Texas Chainsaw Massacre-ey really.
I did, however, discover that Initial D, the live action film version, is now out on UK release, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to see some amazing driving. It’s got to be more worthy of rental than that awful tripe, The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift. The only downside is that they seem to have replaced the original Japanese electro-pop soundtrack with an altogether more juvenile ‘banging’ drum and bass affair. Disappointing but didn’t really ruin the film. It just seemed a little too Max Power for my liking. The driving and the gorgeous cars more than make up for it.
In other news, I’m nearly finished reading The Da Vinci Code, and can confirm that it’s poorly written, badly conceived and basically rubbish, but infuriatingly compelling. What Brown does is give you tidbits of information on virtually every page, hinting that the explanation is just around the corner. You don’t want to put it down, not because it’s a good book, but because there’s no point at which you can satisfactorily stop reading. I’ve never read anything like it. It’s terrible and addictive, like smoking crack. You know it’s bad but you keep doing it…
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I don't actually smoke crack, that was just a simile.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
The Proposition
In this Australian-set western Ray Winstone is repeatedly declaring "I will civilise" this country. Obviously anyone who's ever set foot in a Walkabout knows that this noble, yet impossible, task will be met with a bitter failure. If he'd succeeded, 21st Century Wimbledon wouldn't be clogged up with belching, blond, gorillas in shorts trying to fuck everything with a pulse, and Australia might be good for something more than supplying London with bar staff.
Anyway.
Ray Winstone, seeking to eliminate the troublesome Burns gang holds young, retarded Mikey Burns hostage and dispatches middle brother Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) to kill older brother and ringleader Arthur Burns.
Although it's Guy Pearce's face on the poster, the film is at least as much about Ray Winstone's character and his collapse under the weight of trying to force order onto a bleak and chaotic country, something complicated by the fact that the powers he serves aren't really interested in law and order at all and essentially operate with the same savagery and amorality as everyone else.
The film is relentlessly grim and the tough violence means it's often hard to watch. I don't mean that in a bad way - the horrible power and inevitability of the ending was potent enough to make me want to hide behind the sofa: a rare feeling indeed. There's no-one to root for in the film at all, which keeps things interesting. Ray Winstone would be kind of a nice guy, and occasionally appears to give a moral centre and voice of reason to the film, except that he keeps ordering his men to slaughter Aborigines. Guy Pearce is difficult to fathom, and represents both vicious brutality and the means to tame it, while Arthur Burns is charismatic and resourceful but far too rapey and sadistic for the audience to want anything other than his vanquishing.
The music's brilliant, the cinematography kicks ass and the acting's great - especially by Ray Winstone. The Nick Cave script is occasionally a bit overcooked ("Australia. What fresh hell is this?") but draws some convincing characters and steers well clear of cliches. Recommended, if you reckon you've got the stomach for it.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Orange Film Ad w/Steven Seagal
Begs several questions, this one. Firstly, is Seagal famous enough to even work in one of these Orange ads? I reckon most of the people in the cinema wouldn't have had a clue who the fuck he was. Secondly, just how long is it since Seagal was last on the big screen? Thirdly, how many other action stars did they call before they called Seagal.
The plot is a bit more complex than many of his recent films, although it makes more sense. He chases a Orange film exec across a golf course tryign to pitch a romantic comedy while indulging in a series of action movie cliches (car chase, explosion, helicopter escape). It's moderately clever, and about as funny as these things usually are, although that's no thanks to Seagal who mumbles and murmurs his lines as though it's now so much effort to move his fat fucking face he just has to expel air through his mouth in a sustained drone, and hope that people can infer meaning through the actions/ responses of his co-stars.
The ad will probably be seen by more people than the last 20 Seagal movies combined, which I suppose is good for the Buddhist Bonebreaker. He was probably getting sick of people assuming he'd died. On the downside, he really is in worse shape than ever and his increasing reliance on stunt doubles for demanding physical action (running down stairs, opening car doors etc) is - staggeringly - even in evidence here. He does do a brief bit of kung fu, and it's not quite as degrading as it is in Submerged when he does his kung-fu scene sitting down, but it's not great.
Posted by Jack Vincennes (Member # 814) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Orange Film Ad w/Steven Seagal ... he really is in worse shape than ever and his increasing reliance on stunt doubles for demanding physical action (running down stairs, opening car doors etc) is - staggeringly - even in evidence here
I really, really want to see this. What film did you see it with Thorn? Anyone who has watched Channel 5 on a Saturday night -ever -will know who Seagal is. He's actually too lazy to even punch a guy any more, instead just kicking cans of petrol at people then slouching away.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
It was on before the apparently controversial Pirates 2 when I seed it. Strangely, I knew who it was, even though I have never seen a Steven Seagal film.
I blame Thorn for that.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jack Vincennes: He's actually too lazy to even punch a guy any more, instead just kicking cans of petrol at people then slouching away.
lol! More Steven Seagal/Jabba the Hutt stories please.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Munich
Saw this on Saturday night, after Good Night and Goood Luck, and where that film was smart, tight and intelligent, Munich was tired, flabby and stupid. It seems incredible that this was nominated for Best Picture last year, although I suppose given that it has this is a SERIOUS and WORTHY film written through it like a stick of rock, I suppose it's not suprising. The last time I saw a movie that was striving so hard to be SERIOUS and yet managed to be so CRAP was Crash, which actually won the Oscar.
So. Munich. What really unravels this film - where the directing and acting are at least adequate - is the terrible script. It's got horrible self-reflexive moments in it like Eric Bana's wife saying "I'm not the hero's nice wife," which sounds like a line from the synopsis rather than a piece of actual dialogue. That sort of thing might work in Scream, but it's stupid in a movie claiming to be a fictionalisation of real events.
The crummy script infects the whole movie, dragging it way, way down into the muck. "I knew guys like you in the army," one guy tells Eric Bana, "You'll do anything as long as you can do it running, the only thing you fear is stillness." It's typical of the film, spelling out meaningless descriptions of characters in place of actually demonstrating and developing them.
It also suffers from those awful, false moments of exposition made popular in 80s action movies, where two characters will exchange information, which they both already know, for the benefit of the audience. That shit may be forgivable in something like The Rock when they're discussing John Mason being locked up for 20 years, but when Bana's wife tells Eric Bana the story of his own childhood (which, presumably, he must have already told her at some point) it doesn't feel like he has a history, it just feels like the scriptwriter was told "Can we put in something about his fatherless childhood?" So you have his wife say "You grew up without a father," and rather than go "Yes. I know." Bana responds as though, like the audience, this is a fresh perspective on his character.
The direction of the film seeks to re-create the seventies spy genre, which again doesn't seem appropriate. This - surely? - isn't a Kill Bill style 'film-about-films'? It's like it's a trick for the sake of it, aping the cinematic lexicon of The French Connection et al, may be neat style device, but it doesn't make sense in a film that's about true events in the seventies, rather than about its cinema.
Other problems arise in the repetitive nature of the movie. Find terrorist. Blow up terrorist. Repeat. The movie tries to instil some blockbuster dynamics in these sequences by having innocent bystanders wander in and out of the line of fire. However, it's a hollow device - none of these points of tension ever impact onto the plot or theme of the film: the hits always eventually go over OK. So there's ultimately no point to these extended riffs, but like so many things in Munich, they're there anyway.
What else? A few people talk about how Spielberg refuses to take sides, shows both points of view, yadda yadda yadda. I suppose that's true, but before you embark on this three hour journey into tedium, it's worth noting that the level of debate in the film is roughly equivalent to one of those 'issue driven' episode of Hollyoaks. So you'll have a character who thinks one thing, one who thinks another, and then they'll take it in turns to speak at each other. It's not exactly using cinema to the fullest extent of its capabilities.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: The last time I saw a movie that was striving so hard to be SERIOUS and yet managed to be so CRAP was Crash, which actually won the Oscar.
Didn't you post a really quite positive review of Crash here some time ago Thorn? Have you changed your mind?
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Yeah, I think before I was trying to stir up a debate about it so I could rally my thoughts on it, but the more I thought about the film it dawned on me that it was really bad. I agree with your comment that it was Hollywood's impression of an intelligent film. I think the reason for my lapse in judgement was that prior to seeing it I'd overdosed on blockbusters and so it maybe seemed smarter than it was. Plus some of the camerawork reminded me of Traffic, which may have made me think 'Mmm! Traffic!' and contributed to my over-estimation of Crash. Apologies for misstep. My current opinion is "Crash?!? Gash more like! loL!" (actually I quite like gash.)
Actually even when I was saying it was 'good', I didn't seem particularly impressed with it.
quote: What was the deal with every single character being a racist? It was like a joke: "How many racists does it take to drive home a point?".
[ 31.07.2006, 09:58: Message edited by: Thorn Davis ]
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
I watched Wolf Creek on t'telly. it was aces. really brutal and quite funny. there were two negatves about the film: based on true events was pointless, especially at the end. and it needed to be more rapey really.
i think benway wrote about it in his horrozine. did you like wolf creek benders?
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Cool re:Crash Thorn.
Kidulthood
I'm pretty certain this film wanted to be a grime version of Larry Clark's Kids, and I would certainly have preferred that film's confrontational nihilism to the insipid melodrama on offer here.
Tragically Kidulthood comes over like a product of the Children's Film Workshop, but with suitably 'urban' quantities of implausible sex, drugs, and violence, all with Streets' tracks inappropriately slapped over them. Plus it's got Ricky from Dr Who in it. Innit.
Ya unnerstan wha um sayin?
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
worst film title ever
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
also: Mickey, surely?
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I guess that whole alterno-universe thing must have thrown me, but icky regardless.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
On the subject of films with terrible titles, I watched Lucky Number Sleven on Sunday.
It's okish. It's well shot and edited, it looks very good for a film of what seemed to me to be quite limited financial resources, and the supporting cast of quality character actors do solid work.
Unfortunately despite the quality presentation the story ends up ringing a bit hollow, due to the convoluted twisty script that wishes it was The Usual Suspects while being more transparent than the average episode of Scooby Doo.
[ 01.08.2006, 11:02: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
[ 01.08.2006, 10:22: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
watching: dave chappelle's block party at the cube microplex. and i love the place, dont get me wrong, its the very best volunteer run indie cinema in the whole of bristol, and the home- made cola as featured in the guardian is tasty as and its always full of mopey indie fringe people with nice blouses on, and if you volunteer there they give you free curry... but the sound was absolute gash throughout last night's double bill, all distorted on the bass and horn section. i am *very* very sensitive to this, and was unable to watch all of 'awesome i fucking shot that' because it was just like, ech, the doof- doof- register made me want to scratch my brain and wince. it is quite important when you are watching films about hip- hop that the bass is not actually painful to listen to. it is therefore a marker of how very enjoyable dave chappelles block party actually is that i stayed for the whole thing; its mondo hair- stand- up exciting to watch, i laughed throughout and felt that my woefully out of touch sorry white arse had been very satisfactorily educated about What Is Good Now in the world of modern hip- hop music and also about dave chappelle, of whom i was only peripherally aware, mainly because i often get him confused with that gay who made the terrible hennes advert. all said i would award dave chappelle's block party TWO THUMBS UP AND ONE YA BASTA!
[ 01.08.2006, 10:43: Message edited by: dance margarita ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
this weekend I saw Halloween 3: Season of the witch, The King of Comedy, and Ed Gein. Of the three, The King of Comedy was the best, and Gein was the worst. I've not seen TKoC before, and was really impressed with the way the tension built, and how the film gently moved between reality and nightmare. At first I thought it was going to be straight, or at least, straighter than Scorcese's other new york comedy, "after hours". But no. De Niro was superb (but he is, after all, a very good actor as well as a love-er-ly perschwan), and Bernhardt as well was wicked, and I'm suprised that she hasn't really made as big as she could do.
Did anybody else see it? At the end, was that all fantasy, or real? Or was it saying that actually, it didn't matter, because to act, to perform and appear on stage, is to live in fantasy anyway? Either way, a great film: Heartbreaking and funny, with the frustration of the main character's journey being brilliantly released as real eye watering warmth. And my eyes don't often water.
Also - Midnight Run was on afterwards! But I watched Ed Gein because I saw midnight run only a few weeks ago. Ed Gein wasn't very good. Slow and slack. A dreary b movie.
Halloween 3, while being the most illogical and hole-filled film ever, was still fun. Sil-ver Shamrock! I didn't realise that the main bad guy was 'the old man' from robocop.
I also watched Ghibli's Porco Rosso last week on the new fangled FilmFour channel. Very good, but then, that was to be expected.
At the moment in my pile, I've got Shisenjiyou no Aria, Straw Dogs, and Graveyard of Honour. Don't expect any reviews or even mentions of these films again. What would be the point?
FILM ATTACK! with steven m
For the record, The Pig Fucking Movie is pretty dour, difficult film. The version I watched was a divx rip from a copied video, so for the most part it looked like what you might see if you closed your eyes and pushed your eyeballs a bit. Just a swirl of colours with occasional rorschach style images that disappear the second you're aware of them. Mostly it was a naked guy wandering around a farm, with lots of shots of chickens, and a smattering of the eponymous pig fucking. If I was giving a Sunday Times style one word summary, it would be 'Impenetrable', even if the starring sow was quite the opposite.
And I also watched August Underground's Mordum - the self styled 'most disturbing film ever made'. This would be true if the most disturbing thing you could imagine is a load of pissed up naked gothy teenagers screaming, crying, vomiting, covered in blood, pretending to be serial killers. Just your average teen party really. It's all very shouty. Nothing shocking. It would probably make good visuals for a club, like, playing in the tv screens at a goth night. It's all filmed with camcorders, is very shaky and poorly lit, and features quite a bit of gory sfx, and some transgressions thereof, such as a dude fucking the belly of a chick after she's been gutted, and the rape of a dead child in a bathtub. Perhaps the standout moment is where they get these two chicks and they're naked in the basement, and tied up next to each other, hunched over on the floor, and then a bad chick comes along and vomits all over them. That was a visceral moment. More so than the sequences of exposed viscera. I was unmoved by the film for the most part, although it was consistent enough in style and tone to draw me in to their world, even if it was too am dram to be disturbing.
really, I haven't said anything that you couldn't read off imdb. I don't know why I even bothered to write all that out. Some memory of times past maybe.
I'm going to cleanse my pallet with The Third Man soon, which is playing at the NFT. I did go to see it at the weekend, but arrived too late, so I ate a crepe instead.
[ 14.08.2006, 10:33: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
I watched Harrison Ford in Frantic the other night and it actually made me go out and buy a Grace Jones record for the first time ever. Can you imagine that? An 80s recording. Well, it sounded quite good on the Frantic soundtrack, and it's good as background music when you're working. Someone on another forum described her voice as "fashion-statement vocals" which is very true, but the music's actually quite good.
I got this one by-the-way, which is the Compass Point stuff with Sly and Robbie.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I liked her in james bond shes sexy
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
shut up benway
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: Also - Midnight Run was on afterwards!
I love Midnight Run. Every single line is a gem.
Fave bits: When he steals Alonso's badge and does that cop-like turnaround in the street. When Moscone pulls the money he owes Jack out of his awful socks. Serrano's jumper. When the two goons start shadow boxing on the phone to Serrano. All the ace swears. When Jack goes to see his ex-wife and daughter. Beautifully played scene, which ends with Jack carefully placing the Duke's coat tail inside the car before closing the door. I reckon it was unscripted, but it's a lovely touch. When Jack is on the phone to Moscone and threatens to kill the Duke and throw him in a ditch, then immediately shakes his head to the Duke to reassure him. The bit in Red's bar. Yahpett Koto's face throughout it. And when he steals Marvin's fags. And the whole shades thing. Oh, loads of other bits as well.
:boringpost:
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
i watched six degrees of seperation starring will smith the other day. it was far more intelligent and interesting than i thought it'd be. and not a comedy - in fact it's tragic. really enjoyed it.
also tried to watch ed gein but gacve up after aout ten minutes. boring.
oh! jarhead. fantastic. especially the blanched desertscapes. a great movie though a bit too first half of full metal jacket at times (which i guess is intentional, but still).
benway!!! i haven't had a drop of booze IN SE7EN DAYS1111
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
well done vikram! Feel better?
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: i haven't had a drop of booze IN SE7EN DAYS1111
Why??? Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
i am miserable!
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
no, I like midnight run too mart!
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: i am miserable!
Try going without for seven years and get back to me. Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
tell you waht doesnt fucking help - your friends looking at you in disbelief. not that i'd give up booze, but that anyone would. they buy me drinks which i then refuse. they don't get it. *****.
why can't i have friends that meet up in cafes? oh i do except all the fucking cafes serve booze too. would you like a shot in your americano, sir? fuckers, all *****, all of them.
oh and i've been well mardy to my superhot new flatmate. wooo me! AND
I CANT DANCE
without alcohol or drugs I CANT DANCE
Not even to gay 80s
WTF
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
i'm like a rubbish indie kid. *****
stop bitching ralph. this is MY PAIN. MINE you fuck
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I had plenty of booze last night, and am miserable today. So, it looks like you can't win.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
No, I think it's more like you can't.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I'm winner
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Oh, and The History Of Light Entertainment was on in the background the other evening. This episode was about comedians. Mostly dull, as one one expect, but the section on Ben Elton was brilliant. First they showed some really, really drab examples of his stand-up style, basically accused him of blatantly ripping off Alexei Sayle, then there was a suggestion that he might have sold-out. Cut to Mark Steele. "I don't really go with this theory about Ben Elton selling-out... I think he was always fucking shit!"
It was said with such excellent venom that I LOLed proper. When he said, "I don't really go with this theory about Ben Elton selling-out..." I thought he was going to give us an anecdote which proved that Ben Elton was actually the funniest bloke in the world.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
maybe i should go and live in the mountains and stuff, away from civilisation. like that ralph.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
Vikram and Ralph: Lifeswop
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
Actually can I have a go of your life for a week Vikram?
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: stop bitching ralph. this is MY PAIN. MINE you fuck
I wasn't bitching. I was just trying to convey to you that I understand your pain, and I'm here if you need me.
[ 14.08.2006, 09:43: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: maybe i should go and live in the mountains and stuff, away from civilisation. like that ralph.
No offense dude, but based on what I know about you, you wouldn't last 10 minutes.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I want to do that too. I want to go and live in a stone hut in a field in transylvania, and sob every day for a year. Then work as a farm hand, spending my pennies on a diet of incredibly heavy and hard loaves of bread, and mysterious pickled vegetables.
[ 14.08.2006, 09:52: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by not...: Actually can I have a go of your life for a week Vikram?
Why would you wnat to do that? My life sucks.
quote:Originally posted by ralph: I wasn't bitching. I was just trying to convey to you that I understand your pain, and I'm here if you need me.
Hippy
Okay yeah movies and shit - I watched BBC/Yank TV terrorama The Grid yesterday. Missed it first time round. It's replaying on Hallmark. Twas alright, I guess. A bit worthy. A bit flash chisel jawed American shite. I'm a huge fan of 24 even if Jack Bauer is a disgusting murderer that should be in Guatanamo, and I love Spooks even if it's a bit boring sometimes, oh and I bloody loved Sleeper Cell - once it found its groove it became one of the smartest and most sensitive of its genre. Where was I? yeah The gird was okay, i'll give it a chance
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: No offense dude, but based on what I know about you, you wouldn't last 10 minutes.
He'd be squealing like a pig.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: Cut to Mark Steele. "I don't really go with this theory about Ben Elton selling-out... I think he was always fucking shit!"
lol, sweet. I wish I'd seen that. Occasionally I go on Ben Elton's page on the imdb and read the forums. The worst threads are the ones about his horrible books, which always contain phrases like "You have to read This Other Eden - it's the best book I've ever read". It reminds me of Dan Ashcroft's retort in Nathan Barley: "What's the second best book you've ever read?"
Man, one of the lowest points of my professional career was being at some stupid ceremony where Ben Elton was given two awards for some shit thing he'd done (a musical he'd written with fucking Queen) winning the award for "Actual thing initially sounding like a nightmare scooped out of your own brain turning out to be a genuine event that is subsequently lauded by the terrifyingly unhinged general public and press". So he won twice and I had to sit through two of his fucking thank you speeches about how fucking awesome it was. He even bleated on about his struggle to get it made, as though he had to overcome a bunch of short-sighted corporate suits in order to get this fucking atrocity made. His speech cast them as obtuse bad guys, rather than a desperate united front of brave men and women gallantly trying to spare the world yet another digraceful indignity.
So, anyway. I don't know why I read his imdb threads. I guess it's like cutting yourself, except there's no blood yet the wound goes deeper.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: No offense dude, but based on what I know about you, you wouldn't last 10 minutes.
Shut up. I've seen Red Dawn, I'll be alright.
Actually - as I have said before - I reckon there's one place in this world which could sort me as my problems (booze, women) are vorboten there -
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Snorton to AustraliOiOiOi, Ralph to Montana, me to Saudi, Benway to Hell. Today has been most productive!
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
shut up, mart. i've used squat toilets, squat toilets! hello end days
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: I liked her in james bond shes sexy
I didn't realise that that iconic picture of Grace Jones was a retouch job.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: Shut up. I've seen Red Dawn, I'll be alright.
I simply meant that you'd die of boredom. Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
I already have, Ralph. I already have.
Posted by Grianagh (Member # 583) on :
it's so boring in the middle of nowhere, usa that all there is to do is drink, vikram
you would be drinking twice as much and suddenly finding the local women attractive in your drunken state and organising events in the middle of the woods
square dances or something
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
I've seen enough movies to know that you are lying
Prom Losing virginity on school touch down line Drive thru cinemas Diners Serial killers Riding the railroads Crop circles Rattle snakes Cadillacs Hooker motels Country music bars where real men brawl Hitch hikers Dust bowl Casino boats Escaped convicts Giant worm like creatures
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Oh!
Gay cowboys
Posted by Grianagh (Member # 583) on :
is that a list of pros or cons?
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: Drive thru cinemas
lol. Those would have to be some pretty short films.
I believe you meant drive in cinemas. Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Sorry that should have said "Drive by cinemas"
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
lol
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I feel so miserable today. This fucking weather.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
it's lovely up north you know
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Don't worry Dr B. It's going to be sunny tomorrow. In London. I'll be in East Manchester. Where I believe it will rain.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
It's 28 degrees in my back garden today, Herbs. And that's approximately 26 miles from East Manchester!
Though East Manchester has the Pennines. That sometimes makes it wetter than it possibly should be.
Posted by Grianagh (Member # 583) on :
it's so bright and sunny in our dining room right now that i've half the curtains pulled to keep out the light....its gorgeous out there
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Shockingly, an open return to Manchester from London is over £200!!eleven!
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
the 20th floor is enveloped in thick grey cloud today.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
The windows of my office are covered in a peculiar white smear, making the world look foggy even if it isn't...
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
We seem to have palm trees surrounding our building. It makes the place look like a secret location for an evil genius. The pond hides WMDs and the tennis courts reveal a giant Anti-Matter ray.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: Shockingly, an open return to Manchester from London is over £200!!eleven!
Jesus! My brother flew to Bangkok and back for £235 last year. Fucking railways
That guy in that article's a bit of a fucking prick, isn't he? He starts off complaining that train companies are reticent about letting people know what the cheapest train tickets are, and then declares his great strategy for finding the cheapest fares is... to go and look on the official site.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
[ 14.08.2006, 11:46: Message edited by: mart ]
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
HP 3k Herbs!
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Do I get a picture tag for reaching 3000? Do I? Please?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I've been reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. It's probably slightly better than the da vinci code, but not by much. Like the da vinci code, you get the impression that dan brown is a 17 year old A level English lit student. It's pretty poor. Compelling, but poor.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I just finished reading the The Time Traveller's Wife, by Audrey Niffywhiffycatzenellabogenbythesea, as recommended by assorted frumites. I'll have to try and find the bit where you all talked about it before, to see if I agree or actually have an original opinion (unlikely, I'll grant you, given my general level of contribution).
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
Two things of interest were on last night, and they sadly clashed. Did anybody else watch either Robocop 2 or United Gates of America? Both disappointing in their own way.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I watched Underworld last night, to see if it really was as bad as I remembered.
It was.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
of course I'm discounting the leering thrills of "The man whose arms exploded", which while compelling, was nothing more than a freak show.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
I didn't see RoboCop 2 last night, but I've seen it quite a few times. There are a few good moments. When I watched it again, I actually thought it did a good job of predicting the whole PC thing, with the woman executive and her attitudes and language representing a move towards 'caring corporations', which turns out to be just a front to soften the blow when they do the same ruthless crap they've always done. I thought that was OK. And the line "Doesn't he look scared?" is pretty awesome. Oh, and i liked RoboCop 2 gunning down the press conference. I've often wished that would happen.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
that woman executive is quite sexy
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: that woman executive is quite sexy
There's definitely something about her beyond her good looks, isn't there? I imagine getting into a relationship with her would be like stepping into a gladiatorial arena. She seems like she'd apply that ruthless aggression to every aspect of her life, and I know I'd already be on the back foot given that I don't make any money, or even subscribe to that kind of corporate ethic. So I'd be on a losing streak already. I'd have to attack on a different front, where everything's equal: the bedroom. Grudgefuck. Warfuck. Twist her round, flip her over, make her gasp, scream and beg. Hammer her till she's smacking the matress like a defeated wrestler. Yeah there's definetely something about her.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
yeah, there were a few good moments, but overall it wasn't the masterpiece that Robocop was. Tom Noonan was very watchable, but overall the film lacked the subtlety or the humanity of the original film. The 'old man' of OCP seemed to have turned evil. He'd changed from the kindly patriach from the first film to a fascist dictator. I always felt he was a good guy in the first one, a benevolent ruler over a corporation tearing itself apart with greed and ambition. Yet this was reduced down to being a Nazi in the second film, complete with swastika OCP flag (a pointless exposition on the message of the series).
The plot with Kane seemed pretty much identical to the plot with Clarence, only without the emotional weight behind it. The whole 'nuke' thing with the kid gangster felt more cartoonish and Judge Dredd than menacing. RoboKane was good though. Some good animation on that. It got me thinking though. RoboKane was kind of like a Gorilla, like donkey kong, with the small legs and the barrel chest. What creature was ED-209?
But all that PC thing didn't work with me. It gave us a reductive and bleak view of the future where violence really is the solution. In the first one, it seemed more like violence was only neccesary because of the violent ways of the corporation. Robo's violence came from the same place as the criminal's violence. Yet the second one was saying that society & individuals, all individuals including children, are inherently violent and selfish, and need the constant threat of violence to keep them together. The attack on 'PC' felt bitter, clumsy, and childish. At one point he turned a water hydrant off and ruined the kids fun, and then nearly shot somebody's head off for smoking a cigarette. That felt like a kind of "It's PC GONE MAD!" rant, which cheapened the value of Robocop.
I suppose overall my favourite part was when Kane's ex-girlfriend encounters him in cyborg form, and starts trying to be a bit sexy. There was a real tension there. The violence was always going to be come, and it was going to be brutal, but it left the audience waiting for some time before the payoff. As she's stroking his claw and you can tell that it could pulverise her skull in a second, and that it probably was going to, yet she tried her best to get back on his good side. Something about that scene worked for me.
Also, way too much of robo running around and being athletic. It looked much more like a bloke in a rubbery suit in Robo 2 because of the amount of Robo-centric action sequences. In the first one he pretty much just walked around in either night or half light, but in Robo2 he was doing all kinds of running and jumping off buildings. Maybe the point was to make him look crap compared to the RoboKane.
Robocop 2 was the first film I ever saw on pirate copy. I remember when they popped the top of kane's skull off, I had this wave of pleasure, like, I knew that this was the good hard stuff.
eta: And Lewis had shit hair, but she was sexy in the first one.
Still, a much better film than Robo 3.
[ 15.08.2006, 05:46: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
United Gates of America was okay, but fell down because of the bloke presenting it. He treated the audience like idiots, constantly trying to create metaphors about freedom, or just voice-overing things like 'if you lock out the world, are you locked in?'. Still, the community itself was fascinating, terrifying. It really did seem like Cocaine Nights in there with all the boozing, porn and alleged orgies. Then the kidnapping, the arson, the skinhead kids; it was like it had been scripted. Every bloke seemed slightly mad or wasted, and the women were big titted robots. But that's probably just editing... The presenter clearly had an agenda. Maybe I'm used to Theroux style straight faced deadpanning rather than passionate New York chutzpah, but there didn't seem to be enough of the characters speaking for themselves, acting naturally. Perhaps the prejudices and fears were so open that there was no need to pry, to dig underneath.
Anybody else watch it? No? Ah well. It was worth it, despite the frustrations.
[ 15.08.2006, 06:17: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: But all that PC thing didn't work with me. It gave us a reductive and bleak view of the future where violence really is the solution. In the first one, it seemed more like violence was only neccesary because of the violent ways of the corporation. Robo's violence came from the same place as the criminal's violence. Yet the second one was saying that society & individuals, all individuals including children, are inherently violent and selfish, and need the constant threat of violence to keep them together. The attack on 'PC' felt bitter, clumsy, and childish. At one point he turned a water hydrant off and ruined the kids fun, and then nearly shot somebody's head off for smoking a cigarette. That felt like a kind of "It's PC GONE MAD!" rant, which cheapened the value of Robocop.
See, that kind of appealed to me. The whole thrust of the film seemed to be one of those Daily Mail spittle-flecked rants about the dangers of treating drug addicts and criminals like human beings, in a kind of bug-eyed "Is that what you want CUZ THAT'S WHAT'LL HAPPEN!" style, which I always find entertaining in a kind of 'other' way, like furtively reading a found Evening Standard on the tube and working up a satisfying head of righteous anger. Even better when it's livened up by bone-crunching violence and giant robots fighting.
Plus, you know. These days there seem to be no end of cuddly lefty action flicks. RoboCop Too is pretty right wing in the old-school 80s tradition and that's something I like to see once in a while. Women are Wrong. Might is Right. Sadism kicks fucking ass.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I find that the red giant of righteous anger eventually goes supernova into a black hole of despair. I generally try and avoid any extremes of emotion.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
lithium's working out then?
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
...........
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I finished "Hunger" yesterday, and it was very good. Simple, timeless formula of a man going mad through isolation, hunger and sleep deprivation in Norway. I am now carrying on with the nutzoid french erotic/violent romp "The Story of the Eye", which I love, as I've already mentioned.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I watched United Gates of America. It seemed, somehow, I don't know, flat. The presenter didn't help at all. He was a total dickweeed. I got the impression he was just trying too hard to be flat faced jaded. When in reality he was just gurning at some of the damn impressive breasts that were on show.
Then I watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Because I couldn't be bothered to reach six inches for the remote.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
yeah he was a dickweed. And his beard was a dickweed as well.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
It was a really bad beard, wasn't it? Like some fluff had got stuck on his chin. If I had to talk to him, I imagine I'd end up staring, fascinated, at his terribly bad beard.
The worst bit of the whole programme was the bit with the kid crawling out under the wire and then coming back in. It was so forced, and just so pointless.
Oh, and I watched Cutting Edge doing single mothers in Pram Face before that and that was excellent.
[ 15.08.2006, 08:32: Message edited by: Louche ]
Posted by Grianagh (Member # 583) on :
we began watching Junebug last evening i watched the remainder of the film this afternoon
it was much better than i expected i loved the silences
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Also, I took the Masketeers to see Nacho Libre the other day. We all larfed.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
did any other motherfuckers sit they ass down and watch "Re-animator"? That was a good film, eh readers? I've seen many films described as "campy horror fun" or similar, but that film really was the epitome of the genre.
I also watched Scarface. Quite a good film, but I didn't like Tony Montana. He was a **** all the way through the film, I didn't feel any warmth towards him at all. That made the film overall quite a cold and empty experience. Maybe that was the point... What's more cold and empty than cocaine and money. The film didn't have the highs to counteract the lows, it started and stayed in the gutter, with no hope of redemption. I can see how it's become so popular as it makes some bleak points about immigration, america, and money, but it had no heart.
[ 21.08.2006, 09:58: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: I didn't like Tony Montana. He was a **** all the way through the film, I didn't feel any warmth towards him at all.
You should read what Disco Dave Courtney has to say about Tony Montana. It's very touching.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
how about you summarise it?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Well, basically, like most genuine decent villains worth their salt Tony never actually done anything wrong. He was merely satisfying the laws of supply and demand. A bit of charlie on the weekend never hurt no-one, never. Occasionally he had to dish out a slap, but when he did he only ever did it as a last resort and only to ***** what had it coming. You know, leery ***** and grasses. At the end of the day Tony was a lonely man. He knew he was on his own against the world and you have to respect that. His downfall was he broke the cardinal rule, 'don't get high on your own supply'. Muppet.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
He kept trying to fuck his own sister, and then shot her husband in a bout of jealousy. A lot of people would count that as 'doing something wrong'.
[ 21.08.2006, 10:16: Message edited by: Thorn Davis ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Alot of people would count that as 'doing something wrong'.
Prudes, perhaps.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
That's not how I read it, but then I never done used to be wiv ole reggie an ronnie back in the good old days, great lads, loved their mum din't they, things was simpler back then.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
You could leave your front door open.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
Dave Courtney should be crowned King of Essex.
Posted by Online Poker (Member # 870) on :
Anyone who hasn't seen Volver yet is a twat without a soul. Fekkin treemendous, no snakes, planes, jap-slapping or other ladsmag offal.
It's Friday, I thought I'd start with a generalisation and work my way up.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I have read Vickram Seth's Two Lives. I was really surprised at how moving I found it considering it was virtually just him rambling his way through his memories of his elderly uncle and his wife, and the stuff they left behind after their deaths. There was no melodrama or graphic descriptions at all, but the effect of the extermination of the Jews by the Nazi regime was somehow particularly poignant in just his reaction to what he found and all the things his aunt didn't say or do. The thing I felt was the sense of his aunt as also German. It sounds odd but I had always thought of Jewish Germans as primarily Jewish and not German, if that makes sense. It was her own homeland which killed her family and rejected her and it felt to me as if she touched the earth lightly after that. Forever displaced yet so middle class and ordinary after that. I ended up thinking about Rwanda, Kosovo etc. and it left me really affected.
Perhaps not the best book to be reading whilst sharing a hotel with a bunch of Germans. I kept wondering what their grandparents and maybe parents had known at the time and what they had told them about it, if anything. Obviously I had the sense not to ask them but I really, really wanted to. Isn't it funny how afraid we are of stirring up the waters when we should be open about it. Like the way everyone excuses the settlers in Israel for some pretty racists attitudes towards their fellow countrymen, the Palestinians, and Arabs in general because of what the Jews went through and their need now to be defensive all the time. In general, few media sources want to say too much about that aspect. Andrea Dworkin, for instance, was vilified for trying.
I also read The Grapes of Wrath. I can't believe I have never read it before because I absolutely love Steinbeck. Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row are a howl; they are similar to Zora Neale Hurston's work in the love and poetry in them and all the more remarkable as they were written by an outsider. Of course Of Mice and men is just a masterpiece.
I didn't get on too well with the ending of 'Grapes'. I know it was symbolic for a lot of things and so was right for itself, as a device, but it was still creepy. A very angry book but you can always tell how much he cared about and respected the people he wrote about and he is such a great, lyrical writer. Really beautiful style.
I am re-reading [/i]Catcher in the Rye[/i] for about the seventh time, and that will make twice this year, and Shamarrived from play.com whilst I was away. I am going to pass it on to my sister who thinks self-help books are the best things since mankind learned to boil eggs and discovered convenience food. I shall read it first of course, but she really needs a book on how not to read books like this! I am a bit worried about it because the blurb tells me the author wrote for, among others, The Reader's Digest and Good Housekeeping. It says: "his inside look at the industry whilst working at a leading lifestyle publisher". You've got to laugh at someone clever enough to milk the cow at both ends, eh?.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
saw Hard Candy. the cinematography was well done, though a bit too MTV at times. the movie was pretty much two people talking in a room and the script frequently sparkled - often wickedly funny - and the performances were great. however the two characters (paedo and charlesbronsonTeen) were both totally unsympathetic - it was a cold and dehumanised film, lacking any possibility for empathy. if i did feel for anyone, it was the paedo. at least his motivations were explained. he felt like a human person, unlike the psychotic girl.
yeah whatever: 6/10 + meh.
[ 31.08.2006, 21:47: Message edited by: vikram ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I took the Masketeers to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2, yesterday. It was fucking mint! Cannibals, voodoo, evil Englishmen, rum, swordfights, hermit-crab-headed bad guys, larfs, romance... it had it all. Apart from sailing into the doldroms for about twenty minutes, halfway through, when they reinforced some of the plotting, it was pretty much adventure all the way. Very Disney, very much a kids' film, but fantastic entertainment. nonetheless.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Any of you seen any Lukas Moodysson films? We've watched Show Me Love/Fucking Åmål and Together recently, and we thought both of them were truly superb, weaving hope and optimism into the bleakest canvas, finding a way for people to triumph despite all the shit. They're films that immediately draw you in and let you be the one to experience the changes that the characters undergo rather than simply be a passive witness to the events. Sort of. I don't know. At the end of Together I wanted to jump up and down. We have Lilya 4-ever to watch next.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
haha, yeah I remember being a bit ecstatic at the end of together. As we left the cinema, I confidently predicted to Christina that we would raise our children in a lefty commune.
[ 01.09.2006, 04:52: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: A very angry book but you can always tell how much he cared about and respected the people he wrote about and he is such a great, lyrical writer. Really beautiful style.
I love Steinbeck too, the stuff I've read. Such a clear and fluid style. I'm always a bit scared of commenting on literature because I've read so little and everyone else here seems to have read everything, but have you tried Erskine Caldwell at all? Similarities with Steinbeck, and fantastically grim humour.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Together is great.
I missed the small breasts documentary the other night because I was watching Head On, an almost brilliant film about a couple of Turkish Germans.
The first hour or so is engaging, funny, and sad, moments of desperation and sweet humour are brilliantly balanced, and some pertinent observations about immigrant identity are well made. Unfortunately it decends into melodrama about halfway through, as the characters tragically self-destruct, pull themselves together, and slip away from each other.
Still, it's extremely well directed, in a style that mixes warmth, distance, and confrontational closeness, and both the leads are very good indeed.
Whilst I was in foreign I read a big compendium of Joan Didion's essays from the 60s and 70s, Live and Learn, and The Farenhieght Twins, a short story collection by Michael Faber.
Didion and Faber are both extremely precise and elegant writers. Didion has a wonderful descriptive and analytical ability.
Faber's stories, whilst sometimes incredibly slight, are beautifully satisfying.
I'd heartily recommend both.
[ 01.09.2006, 05:04: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
last night I watched 'breaking up with the joneses', which wasn't very funny.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I'm hoping to watch 'Slither' later today. Has anyone seen it ?
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Not yet fella.
I'm hoping to watch Volver, Severance, The Death Of Mr. Lazarescu, A Scanner Darkly and maybe something else this weekend between shifts of decorating.
[ 01.09.2006, 05:25: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Has anyone seen the trailer for Little Guy? Does it not look like the worst film ever made?
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Is that that Wayans thing?
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
If so, yes.
[ 01.09.2006, 05:27: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Sweet jesus.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: last night I watched 'breaking up with the joneses', which wasn't very funny.
I watched about ten minutes of that and it looked way too depressing. Only other thing I saw was (most of) The Dragon's Den which remains almost essential viewing. One thing I love is that the dragons seem to not only loathe the pathetic little peasants that come to see them, but each other as well. They're genuine cuntrepeneurs, the lot of them.
In fact, I'd love to walk in there carrying a mysterious steel box, and they'd sneer, "What's that then?" and I'd say, "It's a barbed-wire and salt gun" and they'd rolleyes and say, "And what sort of market is there for that?" and I'd say, shrug, "Dunno really. Anyway, watch this..." presses button.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: One thing I love is that the dragons seem to not only loathe the pathetic little peasants that come to see them, but each other as well.
It's almost as if they did it on purpose...
What I hate about this programme, and perhaps all television these days, is this:
One of the dragons says "I'll offer you 200 grand, but I want 45 per cent of the equity." The hopeful says "Hmmm... that's a lot more than I was aiming for. Let me have a think for a moment." Then the voice-over says: "Deborah Meaden has offered her the full £200,000, but wants 45 per cent of the equity. That's a lot more than she was aiming for, and will need to think about the offer before making a decision."
It's almost as if they think people who watch TV are idiots...
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
I know! I almost have to mute it every time Euan comes on with his 'helpful' recap of exactly what we've just heard.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I didn't watch any telly last night or any films or anything at all, except looking up music videos on Youtube.
I'm currently reading Dan Brown's Deception Point which is marginally better than the other two books of his I've read. Mostly because he's not ripping furiously into the clergy, which is refreshing. He's ripping the government instead, which is disappointing.
And I'm also reading Bruce Campbell's If Chins Could Kill which I mentioned on another thread and is simply brilliant.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
aye, that is a good book.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Saving up tinker tailor soldier spy on freeview recorder, and reading Our Man in Havana. I've only read Brighton Rock before of Greene's books, but this is a lot better, lighter and somehow more realistic characters, or perhaps simply closer to how era than Brighton Rock?
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I'm reading that too. Weird.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
What do you think?
I'm really enjoying it, but for what seems to be such a small book, it's been taking me a long time to read.
I've got a book called something like 'History of Giant Monster Dogs' or something. I'm completely judging it by the cover at the moment, and haven't actually started it so not much to say yet... er, great
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I'm enjoying it, it's had me chuckling a couple of times.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
I'm reading Carter Beats the Devil, all about a magician, and it's pretty ripping so far. So. That's good.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Slightly off topic, but is it possible to record films from digital on a 'normal' video recorder? I ask because I've fallen asleep in front of numerous FilmFour offerings in the past month or so, simply because they've been scheduled at crazy times (the exceptions: Re-Animator and Apocalypse Now - both of which were unfallasleep-able). The issue is particularly vex' as many of the poncey foreign films I fancy are on at, like 1.50am.
Also: watching Apocalypse Now again I was struck by how crystal-sharp the cinematography is - none of the mushy look you get with most films shot in the decade before (and, indeed, after). Can anyone provide a brief explanation of Coppola/Storaro achieved such high definition, twenty years before HD?
Posted by Octavia (Member # 398) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: I've only read Brighton Rock before of Greene's books, but this is a lot better, lighter and somehow more realistic characters, or perhaps simply closer to how era than Brighton Rock?
I read BR recently too - I think it's more about the ideas of good and evil he works through than about being a realistic story, or an evocation of an era. He wasn't particularly familiar with Brighton gangs. It has made me want to see the fillum though, to see whether they picked up the morality story or the gangster story. You'd probably enjoy The Human Factor and The End of the Affair too. I don't like his Riviera/European stuff much.
Other than that I'm reading a book about the invention of zero (v interesting, but a bit selfconsciously poetic for a book about the history of a digit), and Henry Bech by John Updike.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Greene wise A Burnt Out Case is good too, set around a leper colony in the 1950s Congo, plenty of parallels with Heart of Darkness.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by mart:
quote:Originally posted by dang65: One thing I love is that the dragons seem to not only loathe the pathetic little peasants that come to see them, but each other as well.
It's almost as if they did it on purpose...
You think they go for a pint and a chuckle after filming? I suppose you have to be a good bluffer to get on in business, but that lot look don't look like chums of each other to me. I am one of those born every minute types which another famous enterpeneur once referred to though.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
Ben, if you mean can you hook a VCR up to a digital box then the answer is yes, you just have to make sure the video is on the digital channel you want to record and the same for the digital box..
You can't get the video (or at least I can't) to change the channel on the digital box, so if you accidentally leave the digital box on the wrong channel the video will just record that insteadof what you wanted..
if it's SKY there are bits of kit available that you attach to the box and the video which allows the video to change the channel, but I've not played with them yet.
I think I have it setup so it's scart to TV for Skybox, and then coax out from Skybox to video and coax out from video to televison tuned to channel 0.
That should work, so leave the TV on Film 4 and away to bed recording a movie to watch later..
Of course if you still have an arial which picks up normal TV remember to run the coax from that into the digital box, then the coax that you have running from the digital box to the video will carry the old analog signal allowing you to tune the VCR to the analog channels and also have them routed back into your TV on the outward coax, so you could watch BBC1 or Channel 4 on analog while recording Film 4 on the digital..
You could also hook the video in via scart as well if you wanted too, but I think you'd need the coax running from video to TV to getthe analog signal tuned in on the TV.
[ 01.09.2006, 08:00: Message edited by: Darryn.R ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: [QBYou think they go for a pint and a chuckle after filming?[/QB]
I suspect they go to hospitality and get wined and dined, yes. And charge for their time. Though they may actually hate each other as well, of course.
But remember, a show is made in the editing room.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
i am reading a compilation of lesbian pulp. it is okay, but they sucker you one by putting all the excellent smut at the beginning. and then when you think all the stories will be full of buttock spanking and rosy pink nipples they force you to read nine extracts in a row from books set in dark smoky east side dyke bars in 1958 where all that happens is a butch called mickey looks moodily across the room at a blonde fat arsed cape- wearing femme called sylvia, who cannot admit her true nature to herself and so instead chugs a warm flat beer and tears up beermats before retiring to her tenement apartment in order to alternately stub out cigarettes almost immediately after lighting them and stand on a balcony, weeping, wondering how all of this came to pass and why she couldnt just have loved brice the way she wanted to. and youre like, screw this mama! what happened to all the fresh young bosoms and healthy young co- eds rolling around on beaches, panting?
im going to see volVER in an hour or two. you have to call it volVER because otherwise, as my sister pointed out, its sounds a bit like youre saying 'vulva'. 'have you seen vulva?' ' no i havent got around to seeing vulva, is it good' 'oh you must see vulva, its absolutely marvelllous.'
[ 01.09.2006, 07:58: Message edited by: dance margarita ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I've got that Zero a Biography of a dangerous number (or something) book also, any good?
As for the quality of A' Now - it was probably partly down to the film stock and lens, and partly down to what they were photographing, a lot of good natural light in that part of the world probably helped - the higher film stock made it look ritcher and the lens helped - I'd imagine, and partly down to a probably cleaning of the film print for the DVD release.
Although camera's aren't really my area....
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
<warning: contains spoilers.>
Last Friday I watched Severance, as recommended by a friend. The fact that he and his girlfriend hammered two spliffs en route to the cinema suggested to me that perhaps I wouldn't enjoy a similar viewing experience, as I have long since given up smoking weed.
The film was... I dunno - different. Not often that you are surrounded by an audience laughing out loud as someone's leg is cut off by a bear trap, but the theme of comedifying otherwise gruesome incidents works very well throughout the film. I was puzzled as to how Danny Dyer's magic mushroom chomping character could have made it into any successful corporate team, let alone one specialising in military arms, but he plays the part very well, nonetheless.
All-in-all: a fairly entertaining film, but not worthy of serious recommendation.
Also, watched Adrift last night - the sequel to the highly impressive Open Water - hoping for a good old shark-filled piece of Sunday night action.
This time around a group of friends are left stranded next to their yacht, in the middle of the ocean, because the fucking wanker 'captain' (aka pseudo-financial guru/highschool drop-out) doesn't know how to get back on the blasted thing. Duh.
Inevitably, as time passes, they each drown one by one. 'Captain' cunt also causes the death of the one guy who almost figures out a way of getting back on the yacht (sticking a knife into the flap on the side of the yacht and letting someone - preferably of light stature - climb onto his shoulders and back onboard) and conclusively becomes one of the remaining survivors, being rescued by the woman who he threw in initially - thus causing the whole deadly scenario. This angered me.
In summary, it was nowhere near as dramatic or realistic as Open Water. It was all very depressing and frustrating. And there were no sharks in it either, which was particularly galling.
[ 04.09.2006, 07:45: Message edited by: Zygote ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
This weekend I bought a two disk edition of Akira from Virgin Megastore for a mere £8.50. At that price, I couldn't afford not to buy it!
[ 04.09.2006, 07:43: Message edited by: Ringo ]
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
It was an impulse purchase, while I was buying Initial D
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
My head is hurting and my eyes are dry and tired today. I blame staying up late to watch Fight Club on FX and to chate to enwad on MSN.
I feel that if someone put a bullet in my brain, or a stingray barb to the chest, they'd be doing me a bit of a favour, right about now.
And I have to clean the house tonight because my mum's coming to stay tomorrow so that I can go out and be the breadwinner whilst I have 'people' in on Weds & Thurs, so I can't even crawl into my den like a wounded animal when I get home.
Mondays suck.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
When I wasn't doing it myself this weekend I managed to see both Volver and Severance at the cinema.
Volver is, simply, marvelous. After the masterful gloom of Talk to Her and Bad Education it’s an altogether more enjoyable affair from Almodovar, a sensational(ist) story of female friendship, familial love, murder, and ghosts. As consumately constructed as any of his recent work, this film also has real warmth. It's everywhere in the film, from the vibrant colours that surround and clothe the character’s to the relationships between the various women. It is, simply, marvelous.
Severance was good fun, managing to balance the horror comedy thing well. It sets up and maintains an effective sense of dread, keeping the emphasis on the horror but allowing brief comic interludes, before cutting to the next inevitable shock-scare or gore-effect. Percy from Blackadder has a couple of particularly fine moments. Not as grippingly terrifying as The Descent, nor as funny as Shaun of the Dead, this was nevertheless highly enjoyable.
I also watched the entire first season of Deadwood on dvd. I believe I’ve raved about it’s brilliance before, but Deadwood really is fucking superb, a wonderfully profane, bleakly romantic view of a murderously dangerous western frontier town illegally set up in Injun territory during the gold rush.
Prinicpal attraction is Lovejoy reprising and embellishing his dead-eyed-psycho shtick from Sexy Beast to stunning effect as terrifyingly crooked town-overlord Al Swearengen, but he's really the icing on a hugely complex and involving layer-cake of characters and relationships.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I watched Rocky last night, which is actually a thoroughly brilliant film in every sense. I forgot that Stallone actually used to act for a living..
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
He wrote the script too.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
last night I watched something on bbc3 where that Sandeep fellow off newsnight etc did some training in russia on scientology and then underwent the auditing procedure. It was alright, but it managed to stay fairly hazy, and came to a shrugged shoulder conclusion. Scientology is obviously very mysterious, and it's a shame that the show didn't go very far in penetrating it.
Still, what little was shown, was still interesting, and it did seem like at least initially, the overall benefits of the burden-relieving processes were beneficial. As somebody who is crippled by an inability to think clearly and live in the present, it was interesting for me to see how seemingly easy it was for Sandeep to not only confront things, but to do so under his own power, and to gain a sense of relief. But then at the end he's like "Will I continue with scientology? I can honestly say I don't know", which is very frustrating.
I mean, I wouldn't actually consider scientology as a means of 'spiritual enlightment', but it didn't come across as being as bizarre as I'd expected. Certainly the emphasis on finding clarity of meaning and the pursuit of personal truth seems reasonable, but then, how does that manage to escalate into believing that the souls of dead aliens are the main factor in human spiritual enlightment?
Anybody else watch this?
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Oh I didn't know about that. Must record the repeat...
When are we going to the Scientology Center, Benway?
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
dammit vikram that's not going to happen.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
I'm reading The Possibility of an Island by ben's favourite garlic-fucker Michel Houellebecq, and it's depressing the living fuck out of me. It just seems so bleakly anti-human and joyless and wearing that it's genuinely sapping my will to live. Anyone else read this? It's often on 3 for 2 at Waterstones. I was just wondering whether it continues on this relentless grind of "Love is a lie, and women are good for fucking at least until they get too old"? And what's with all this 'death of love' bullshit anyway? Martin Amis keeps chirruping on about it, but it only makes me think "speak for yourself Grandad,". Miserable. Miserable old men and their miserable books.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Well, I started to grow extremely weary of Houellebecq on the bus back from Oxford last night, so instead I started on the 'new Jack Reacher thriller' One Shot, as recommended by Barbelith's only funny poster. It's as blandly readable as you'd expect and its undemanding style managed to draw me in despite the fact that I was tired, sad, and slightly drunk. The only real problem I have with these Reacher books is that they're so blatantly written with the aim of being mega-selling blockbusters. There's an enervating cynicism underlying the whole enterprise, as though Lee Child thought 'I suppose I'll write a series of gajillion-selling airport novels, then' once he'd been kicked out of Granada TV. They're formulaic, and a bit uninspired and Reacher is kind of like all four members of the A-Team combined with the Littlest Hobo, but when nothing else holds your attention, they do the trick.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Saw Volver on Friday, and was transfixed. Fantastic haunting story, and so beautiful to watch. The people behind laughed uproariously to every line, making me think that they were Spanish and we were missing something in the translation.
I had a huge lump in my throat most of the way through, and absolutely bawled my eyes out at the end, and looked like a total mental, as everyone else was all upbeat. I had to compose myself outside the cinema before I could walk the streets.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Is it anything like All About My Mother? That was a totally overhyped pile of bogus ballsacs.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
No.
Actually, I've never seen AAMM, but Vulva was no load of ballsacs.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: Is it anything like All About My Mother? That was a totally overhyped pile of bogus ballsacs.
Watched this the other day at the Prince Charles. I thought it wonderful. Even shed a few tears.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
has anybody here read anything by tariq goddard? i tell you for why i am asking; im in the libarary, looking at the shelves with all the books on, and i see one of his books, right? boy- sy cover, got a tank on it, but theres something nagging me... i know his name... did i go to school with him? i think i did. it says on the inside cover that he was born in london in 1975 and when i googled him he looks very much like a grown- up version of the boy i was thinking of in my head. i seem to remember he was bullied a bit, and was a bit speccy, but then so was i so i could be conflating his experiences of school with my own. ANYWAY. has anybody read any of his books. are they any good.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
have you read that book that I recommended yet? I am about to start yours.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: cover got a tank on it
I liek the sound of this book - I might give it a trial run for you. Maybe as a thank you for recommending 'Kavalier and Clay', which i loved, and then leant to my flatmate and then my grillfiend, both of whom loved it.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Pic plus interview. Apparently Sven Hassel is an influence, so it might be up Dang's alley. That said, he's published by Sceptre, who seem to churn out nowt but utter shite.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:He also talks about his own influences: Sholhokov; Babel and – unexpectedly – Sven Hassel.
Who, by the sacred knobbly mace of St Elizabeth, are "Sholhokov" and "Babel"? I'm not sure I trust this guy. I think he's only mentioned Sven Hassel to appear - unexpectedly - normal.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Isaac Babel - short-story-writing Jew - big influence on Raymond Carver and the like.
Sholokov - 'Quiet Flows The Don' - vast epic of WW2 and Stalingrad in particular.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
I've heard of "Quiet Flows The Don". It's just that the intro says...
quote:He also talks about his own influences: Sholhokov; Babel and – unexpectedly – Sven Hassel.
...and then he doesn't even mention Sholhokov or Babel and calls Sven Hassel a "bad literary influence".
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
If anyone wants to watch me on BBC1 tomorrow morning, then you can. I'm just sayin'.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
quote:Originally posted by London: If anyone wants to watch me on BBC1 tomorrow morning, then you can. I'm just sayin'.
You got a fixed time slot yet ?
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
Also I am reading 'Hunger' by Knut Hansen (sp?) and 'Of Marriage and Morals' by Bertrand Russell. And the letters of Jean Rhys. And Bitch magazine.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
What programme and when?
And: well done!
[ 12.09.2006, 12:46: Message edited by: ben ]
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
BBC Breakfast, BBC1, at 0740 and 0840.
eeep! I don't have a telly, I'm not going to watch it!
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
9.40 it is, I'll post here after and tell you how lully you look and all that.
It's not live is it ? Damn, missed my chance for a TMO plug..
[ 12.09.2006, 14:57: Message edited by: Darryn.R ]
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
no, it's not live. thank fuck. eep.
[ 12.09.2006, 15:10: Message edited by: London ]
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
doneanddone
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
[ 12.09.2006, 15:16: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
thanks!
sadly the internet is not what it once was. i've grown now to think of it as a big old tabloid newspaper instead of this comfortable little zone where we can all talk about private shit in public and share our feelings and support each other and do {{{{hugz}}}} and stuff, as we could circa '99-2002. it's just not like that any more, and showing weakness in public is not advisable.
pm me though buster and i'll cry you a river.
[ 12.09.2006, 15:42: Message edited by: London ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
[ 12.09.2006, 15:13: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: have you read that book that I recommended yet? I am about to start yours.
not yet, i am going to reserve it at the liarabry tomorrow when i have paid off some of my gargantuan debt. nine pounds eighteen pence! my continuing state of penury combined with an unslakeable thirst for knowledge serves to ensure that soon i will be forced to jettison my dignity and offer to pay my library debts in kind. hang around the door to the admin office wearing short shorts (revealing an inch of stretchamrked buttock), a grand-canyon bustier and acres of bruisey blusher, one hand on my hip and eyelids lowered suggestively. 'i dont do backdoor but if you give the four pounds for 'the nightwatch' the elbow well see if um, something can be arranged somehow'...
glad you and your kin liked 'kavalier', thorn. Posted by clark (Member # 890) on :
i'm reading bret easton-ellis' 'lunar park' right now and i've been watching a lot of 'curb your enthusiasm' (series 1). re: tv - the only thing i'm really following at the minute is 'sleeper cell' on channel 4, it's alright but it's no '24'. i'm looking forward to all the good new comedy stuff on the horizon and the return of 'wire in the blood' because i'm sad like that.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Saw The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse for the first time last night and thought it was completely ace. The segment in the churchyard at the end produced a series of LOLs the like of which I've not uttered for a good twelvemonth or more.
Those people must be completely schizo after acting their way through that lot. And yet another first class performance from David Warner (seem to remember Thorn mentioning that at some point). Might even watch it again some time seeing as FilmFour will no doubt repeat it about 60 times a week for the next month.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
sorry dang, but you're wrong. It is not ace.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: sorry dang, but you're wrong. It is not ace.
Really? I loved it. I'm not fitting in today with the film good taste crowd am I. I'll have to have a quiet word with myself. Yeah, right.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
I thought it was quite good. *pats dang on shoulder*
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
aside from that, I done saw a fillum last night called "This Film Is Not Yet Rated", which is a documentary about the MPAA. The film was alright. The MPAA really is a strange organisation, very secretive and unnaccountable, and the interviewed film makers were all fairly damning. John Waters was probably the most entertaining of the bunch, and it was nice to hear from the director of American Psycho. The other part of the film involved a couple of private detectives tracking down MPAA members in Hollywood, which was kind of pointless, but broke up the interview action.
When not directly investigating and attacking the MPAA, the film threw in some hazy and seemingly contradictory theories about the potentially detrimental effects of on screen violence. It even went so far as to include the obligitary Columbine footage. For a dude to make a film about censorship and then chuck in some very weak and unresearched asides about The Kidz was not cool, and hurt the otherwise measured take on what could only be described as a related subject. Still, once that strange part was over (and it only lasted about 10 minutes), things went back to normal, and the pop shot of the film was the revelation that the ratings appeal board was made up of execs from major studios.
The whole film was based around the NC-17 rating, which is like an X rating of yore. When a film is given an NC-17, it won't get promoted or distributed by a studio. So for the appeals board to be studio execs... Well, it's no suprise to learn that the conservative right pretty much set the agenda for all media.
Personally, I'm not that interested in modern Hollywood anyway, and this film pretty much backed up my own instinct that film makers over there are unable to bring their vision unless they make asexual male orientated children's films. Okay, an exaggeration, but a system that allows Little Man through on a PG-13 but forces cuts to an orgasm scene in the superb 'boys don't cry' is clearly artistically bankrupt and morally broken.
eta: I'm sorry that this is such horrendous writing. I'm not quite proper yet.
[ 14.09.2006, 06:17: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
sorry that was barely in the english language. The thing is that the film was at the ICA and there was an ultra-scenester gig on at the same time. When we left the cinema and went to the bar, it was filled with rakish androgynous aliens, jerking their bodies to some kind of MySpace sponsored electroclash future music. So my friend and I stayed until 1 and got well pissed up with some chicks. The mighty boosh were also in the bar, being fabulous, with lots of people surrounding them. It was funny lol because I was at the bar waiting for a drink and the small one was in front of me and he was being very media *******. He turned round to get a view of how many people behind him might be loving his routine, and I gave him some killer evils, but after a split second I realised who he was and then felt really ashamed.
anyway the point is that i'm still pissed.
[ 14.09.2006, 05:55: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: aside from that, I done saw a fillum last night called "This Film Is Not Yet Rated", which is a documentary about the MPAA.
Before I read any more of your post, did this film have a clown with leprosy in it, or not?
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I wouldn't bother with the rest of the post, dang65.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I'm amazed Sindy hasn't asked if she can touch you yet, benway. Doesn't she have an unholy crush on one of The Mighty Boosh?
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
I think that's quite a common thing. They were both wearing women like mr t wears gold.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
Spooks last night was, as ever, enjoyably far-fetched. Poor old Colin! I appreciate that not many dramas are brutally brave enough to write off nice characters, but..poor old Colin. I wish that the writers had spent a bit more time on this particular piece of dialouge:
Sultry dirty-blonde: you look well for a man who's just escaped a high velocity bullet
Sexxus Adam: you look well for a woman who's just uncovered a terrorist cell in Baghdad
Ideally they would have replaced all these words with good ones.
[ 18.09.2006, 04:04: Message edited by: Vogon Poetess ]
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Good old Spooks - if there's one thing the nation needs at the moment it's to be reduced to a state of pointless, helpless terror by footage of some people getting onto a bus.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Damn, I totally forgot that new Spooks began last night. Are they repeating the episode at all, does anyone know, or is it perhaps viewable on demand interactively?
Posted by clark (Member # 890) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: Spooks last night was, as ever, enjoyably far-fetched. Poor old Colin! I appreciate that not many dramas are brutally brave enough to write off nice characters, but..poor old Colin. I wish that the writers had spent a bit more time on this particular piece of dialouge:
Sultry dirty-blonde: you look well for a man who's just escaped a high velocity bullet
Sexxus Adam: you look well for a woman who's just uncovered a terrorist cell in Baghdad
Ideally they would have replaced all these words with good ones.
Sultry dirty blonde? I think I was watching a different episode of 'Spooks'
... but yes poor Old Colin Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: Damn, I totally forgot that new Spooks began last night. Are they repeating the episode at all, does anyone know, or is it perhaps viewable on demand interactively?
I think you're supposed to just shout, "Get me Spooks up on screen, now! And I want the writers in my office by 2pm. Tell them it's an awards ceremony or something, anything will do but I want them in here. Megan, do we have the last series on file? Get a copy to forensics. TokenBlackPerson, find out when the next episode is on and analyse possible clashes with Ant & Dec's Saturday Old Fashioned Show and TV's 50 Worst Nob Ups Of The 80s. Dave, get me a coffee, cream, eight sugars. Come on people! Let's do it!"
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
I LOVE SPOOKS
Episode 2 is a corker. High octane conspiracy stuff. Wicked!
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Just realised that I ignored dang a couple of pages ago asking if I’d read Irskine Caldwell. The answer is no, but I will now if you think it has something of Steinbeck about it.
I bought a second hand copy of U2s The Joshua Tree at a tat fair yesterday because it’s a classic and I thought I ought. It is bloody great. It makes me feel high and drunk and sort of really happy. Not bad for a bit of noise. I also got an old copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I’ve never read it but it says on the blurb it will change the world. Well, that happened, didn’t it?
I got all excited by the free DVD of Belleville Rendez-vous and actually bought The Times in order to get it. Absolutely mesmeric and weirdly wonderful. I know fuck all about cinema technique so that’s the extent of my analysis.
I fell asleep during Spooks last night and missed almost all of it, but it was shaping up to be well silly. Now I don’t know whether to avoid tonight’s and watch them both when they get repeated or watch it even though I won’t get some of it now. Or aren’t they sequels to the same incident? As if it really matters.
My book club is insisting I read The Bridge by Ian Banks. I tried him a few years back and couldn’t get on with him. Someone say something positive about this book so I can get my mind round having to read him now.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
You found the scene where poor old Colin was dragged into the woods and fucking hangedsilly??
You heartless bastard, Sam.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: You found the scene where poor old Colin was dragged into the woods and fucking hangedsilly??
You heartless bastard, Sam.
LOL
I have to admit I never bother listening to the names of the characters. Which one is Colin? The old or the young one?
If, and I say if because I don't believe a word of it, this happened, I must have slept through that. Which is a pity because if it happened it would have been more than well silly; it would have been superb.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
*gasp* Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65:
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: Damn, I totally forgot that new Spooks began last night. Are they repeating the episode at all, does anyone know, or is it perhaps viewable on demand interactively?
I think you're supposed to just shout, "Get me Spooks up on screen, now! And I want the writers in my office by 2pm. Tell them it's an awards ceremony or something, anything will do but I want them in here. Megan, do we have the last series on file? Get a copy to forensics. TokenBlackPerson, find out when the next episode is on and analyse possible clashes with Ant & Dec's Saturday Old Fashioned Show and TV's 50 Worst Nob Ups Of The 80s. Dave, get me a coffee, cream, eight sugars. Come on people! Let's do it!"
Now, you see, dang, you're just making yourself look silly here, with your old-fangled 'watch it on the TV in the broadcast slot' approach. All I was asking was if the BBC are doing the same thing with Spooks as they are with Extras 2, i.e. can you watch an aired episode at any time from the website?
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Dang mistrusts any medium that isn't made of wood, glass valves and bakelite.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: Now, you see, dang, you're just making yourself look silly here, with your old-fangled 'watch it on the TV in the broadcast slot' approach.
My pastiche of a Spooks-style MI6 Operations Room leaping into action didn't really work then?
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: My book club is insisting I read The Bridge by Ian Banks.
In this instance they are correct.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Not if they spell his name like that they ain't.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I watched a few things recently. Nightwatch, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and Bride of Chucky. None of them were fantastic.
I thought that the texas chainsaw remake was strangely empty. I just couldn't believe that it really was 1972, as it suggested. And leatherface took his fucking mask off for crying out loud.
It felt like a very generic slasher . The whole suicide thing at the beginning was okay, quite horrible, and then wrapping up the body in clingfilm and picking the bits of brain off the seat, that was all alright. And the dodgy cop was passable if strained and obvious. But none of this made the film any good. It never seemed sweaty or claustrophobic enough. The original worked because they weren't just physically trapped in a single place, but they were trapped in a whole world, in a warped system of belief, in a whole area of society that for all we know, might actually exist. You knew that if the victims escaped they'd still run into more trouble. But that didn't come across in the remake. The phones4u world is more menacing and warped than the one of the Texas Chainsaw remake. And then leatherface is down as having been born with a skin complaint! Surely the whole point of the original was that you just didn't know what had happened, and tended to suspect that he'd suffered years of abuse... He was like, the personification of family abuse. A creature that had been completely dehumanised, stripped of name, gender and language. But not in the remake. The whole family aspect was lost completely, once again moving away from what was so fucking scary about the original. Why? What is wrong with people these days that they can only handle horror if it's not actually scary?
Also, it looked very generic. The house, the basement, the chase between the walls, the meat packing place, the rainy outdoor shots. Blah blah. Looked like something on a Universal Studios tour. The drained browny greeny style of picture has been done to death too. I think that's why I liked the Rob Zombie films, because they had colour in them, they didn't try and 'disturb' people simply by making everything browny green. Hmmph. Overall, even though I watched it all, I was unimpressed to the max.
Russian epic Nightwatch was also pretty disappointing, and I actually paid Telewest £3.50 to watch it. Started off good, nice idea, that good and evil have a truce, and there are agents of both sides in the world who monitor each other to make sure that the truce is held. I also dug the subtitles, which have been written about endlessly on the internet, because they are integrated into the film, rather than simply pasted onto the bottom middle of the screen. But, the film appeared to have been chopped up quite badly to squeeze it into a sub-peter jackson running time. It didn't flow, and seemed like an FX showcase in places. A good example was when the good team was driving very fast in their souped up school bus, and then a bad guy stood in the road to stop them by holding his arms out. In spectacular style, the bus crashes into him, does a somersault and carries on. And that was it. Looked good, but completely pointless. The ending was weak as fuck, wasting a fair bit of tension. Overall it was like a shabby matrix, and the charismatic lead couldn't save it. I was tired and bored by the end.
Bride of Chucky and Nightmare on Elm Street 5 aren't worth even mentioning. here is the best bit from Nightmare on Elm Street 5. An unusually cruel and shocking sequence from a franchise that was well past it's sell by date by this point. This bit alone made it better than most of the other ones. No nudity or even violence, but quite nightmarish imagery. I bought a boxset of the films 1-7 for like £8 from HMV.
Today I ordered "Street Trash" which is supposed to be excellent.
[ 27.09.2006, 10:47: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
whatever happened to sam?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
If I was, say, to go to blockbusters tonight and rent a film, and I wanted something reasonably violent and camp, like a cheap crappy horror film which I can plug into for an hour and a half without having to think, what would you recommend?
I’ve heard that Hostel could be a good candidate?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
toxic avenger?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
actually, it's been about ten years since I saw that, so it's probably not as 'fun' as I recall it being. I don't know, I don't watch things that are campy very often these days. I've heard that Hostel isn't that good, but I haven't seen it, partly because I have a blazing jealousy for Eli Roth. I'm sure it's another crashing wave of 'meh', like every other fucking film.
[ 27.09.2006, 11:46: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Oh! House of Wax. That'll do ya. Or Silent Hill. I enjoyed both of those. But nobody else did I was all ready to write a review on the former called "House of Whack", but it turns out it wasn't whack, even though it stars Paris Hilton, ffs. And so the world was spared another rambling mind-spew from the true house of whack.
[ 27.09.2006, 11:51: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
your new name is fucking stupid, benway.
paris hilton: this photo was taken in her house apparently. tis good she's not self-obsessed:
i did enjoy house of wax though.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
leave my goddamn name alone, "vikram"
Posted by Joey No Dick (Member # 896) on :
vikram's right though. Your name sucks.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: paris hilton: this photo was taken in her house apparently. tis good she's not self-obsessed:
Paris wants to get her self a decent decorator. Look at the state of that paper on the ceiling.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay:
quote:Originally posted by sam: My book club is insisting I read The Bridge by Ian Banks.
In this instance they are correct.
Finished it the other day. Not bad at all.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I rented Silent Hill in the end. It was ok.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
well, that's pretty much all you could have hoped for with the criteria you set, fella. I thought that there were some good deaths, some novel atmospherics, and a couple of warped moments. Sure, it didn't add up to film of the century, but it was honest and fresh, which is worth something.
I watched Keane last night at the NFT, because I'm cultured. For the first half hour my worst fears about the movie (or 'film' as dickheads like me call them) came true. Damien Lewis was sweating, wandering around new york, being mentally ill, looking for a possibly fictional lost young daughter. Then he hooks up with this mother and daughter staying in the same rundown hotel as him, and they have a couple of stilted yet tender moments. Then the mum leaves the daughter (who's about seven or eight maybe) with the titular 'Keane', and they hang out a little bit, and he goes a bit mental, but everything is apparently ok in the end. That's it. Lots of acting. Acting all over the place. There isn't a single smile in the film, and for the most part I was sitting there in rigid tension as I waited for the main character to spazz out and shatter any chance of things going ok for him.
What kept the film rolling was the constant sense of 'oh, it's all going better for him', followed by a cringeworthy plunge back into madness and disaster, or him teetering between doing the right thing and doing something awful (things include breaking into his new friends' hotel room to sniff their clothes, shouting at invisible people at an ice rink, walking off and leaving the kid on her own). In the end, the film worked, and was nowhere near as overwrought or acting-centric as the almost unwatchable first half an hour suggested. And that half an hour was bad. Lots of muttering to himself, drinking vodka and shouting, asking strangers here his daughter was, crying, sighing, sleeping on the pavement etc. I think that the director must have had a glance at the as yet unmade short that I wrote a few years back called "The Interview" which featured some almost identical sequences. Yes, that's surely what happened.
So, overall, not a date movie, but a refreshingly adult film, with lots of acting, and an excellent performance from the little girl. She's the only character who isn't a depressing disaster (yet), so her presence on screen is always a welcome relief.
Bah. You see, this is why I shouldn't write about films. Look what a man says on the imdb:
quote: Despite my first comment that 'Keane' is a film without artifice, there are elements to the structure and editing that show the director/writer had made extremely subtle uses of film technique to compress, heighten and intensify William Keane's psychological character.
.
How much more cleverer does that sound?
[ 28.09.2006, 05:11: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Joey No Dick: vikram's right though. Your name sucks.
who's this clown?
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts:
quote: Despite my first comment that 'Keane' is a film without artifice, there are elements to the structure and editing that show the director/writer had made extremely subtle uses of film technique to compress, heighten and intensify William Keane's psychological character.
.
How much more cleverer does that sound?
His sounds wanky, like he wrote it out like this and then flicked through his thesaurus:
quote:Even though I said before that 'Keane' is a not that clever a film, there are good bits in it and editing that shows that the director/writer had made pretty good uses of cameras and stuff like that to make William Keane's psychological character much betterer.
I much prefer yours.
Go after his job please, now.
[ 28.09.2006, 05:22: Message edited by: not... ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
adding "and stuff" to sentences always makes them more interesting, and also helps increase the width of the consuming demographic.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: well, that's pretty much all you could have hoped for with the criteria you set, fella. I thought that there were some good deaths, some novel atmospherics, and a couple of warped moments. Sure, it didn't add up to film of the century, but it was honest and fresh, which is worth something.
I dunno, it was ok just a bit underwhelming. The ending was weak, to be honest, and any lingering sense of horror was defused about 30 minutes before the end of the film. I guess having played and enjoyed the game, I was just hoping for something a bit more…. horrific I guess. The cinematics were good and it was a decent visual translation of the game, but while in the game there’s a genuine sense of increasing danger and horror, the film just never really got there. I would have liked it better if it had been a lot more intense and unrelenting, an hour and a half of psychological punishment for the viewer. There were plenty of good bits, don’t get me wrong, but these tended to be little moments rather than extended scenes. It was certainly a hell of a lot better than the complete failure which was the Resident Evil adaptation. I was just disappointed because Silent Hill the game is one of the most creepy and horrifying titles that I’ve ever played and I really don’t see why the film couldn’t have lived up to that. The material is there to be taken wholesale from the game, I just don’t see how it’s possible to fuck it up so badly. This seems to happen in almost every computer game port to cinema and I just can’t get my head round it.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yes, you're right. The end was weak, and while it certainly felt like Rahda or whatever she's called was having an adventure, complete with levels and boss characters, it never felt as menacing or horrible as the games. You never got that ohshitwhatwasthatnoise feeling of paralysing terror that the games delivered. But then, maybe they weren't trying for that. I saw it in the cinema and while it didn't blow me away, I was carried along for the ride, because there were enough set pieces to keep my interest. I'm biased, that's the problem here. I love the Silent Hill series of games to the point where they could release Silent Hill ready meals and I'd buy them. Pyramid head, the sirens, the town, the fog, the 'other world', all kept me happy.
You're right also about computer games and films. It's a shame that they got seemingly quite close with Silent Hill, but still missed arguably the most important thing. At no point did Rahda rotate on the spot a few times before walking into the corner of a room and swinging a pipe into thin air while an enemy tore chunks out of her. Also, the camera never seemed to suddenly spin around and completely lose sight of the actors, which is also a main feature of the games. The lack of control does give the games a feeling of constant helplessness, because you know that if something suddenly jumps out, you're fucked, and if you want to run away, you'll just end up getting stuck on an invisible wall.
[ 28.09.2006, 06:17: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
not's right - it's just bluster. You could transpose that comment to literally hundreds of films and it wouldn't be out of place. It's like saying "Oh his use of framing was interesting, I thought", and then praying that no-one asks you to give an example.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
they should do more video game adaptations that feature the quirks of the gameplay itself.
*writes sub-par 'humour' piece for lo-rent UK version of The Onion. Again.*
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
In the Splinter Cell:The Movie movie it's going to involve a scene where highly trained covert anti-terrorism operative Sam Fisher is stood on top of the Iranian Embassy in Moscow, silently watching guards move in circles beneath him, when all of a sudden he jumps when he meant to crouch plummets 20 stories to land right in the middle of all of them, breaking both his legs and plunging the world into nuclear Armageddon.
Also: every film of a First Person Shooter should include a scene where a character is climbing a ladder and then falls off to one side halfway up. Also a scene where a character takes a running jump over a chasm, but forgets to jump and just runs straight over the edge and plummets to their doom.
[ 28.09.2006, 06:41: Message edited by: Thorn Davis ]
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
Yeh when the Halo movie comes out all the characters should call each other niggers and faggots and a 12 year old kid should walk into a wall for ten seconds and then suddenly leap out the top of the film above the scenery
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
lolol! It's funny because it's true.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
benway, i can't read your posts any more. it's the name, you see. please change it to something less idiotic.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
lolol, In resident evil, I missed the bit where, half way through the film, the main character had to go back to a box featured in the opening scenes in order to store her ammunition and pot plants.
*waits*
Somehow that's just not funny. I suck at comedy.
[ 28.09.2006, 06:54: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Also: every film of a First Person Shooter should include a scene where a character is climbing a ladder and then falls off to one side halfway up. Also a scene where a character takes a running jump over a chasm, but forgets to jump and just runs straight over the edge and plummets to their doom.
Yes, and another scene where a character inexplicably starts running on the spot in the middle of a battle before disappearing completely 30 seconds later.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
And then later, in another scene, a character should run round the corner with his machine gun blazing, only for it to suddenly turn into a rocket launcher and blow himself into a hundred gooey pieces, while another character quips “lol n00b!!!1! XD”
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: benway, i can't read your posts any more. it's the name, you see. please change it to something less idiotic.
who's benway?
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
I agree with Vikram.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
I agree with London.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Jesus Christ! It's Jimmy fucking Big Nuts, okay? What possible difference could it make?!
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I'm with Ralph, London and Vikram. Maybe we should set up an online petition?
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
I'll sign that...
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Charging into a room full of Russian gangsters and trying to take them out with a pair of binoculars. Or a lockpick.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Jimmy Big Nuts = Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps but with less intelligence.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I like the new name.
How about... a cutaway scene where there's a room full of Chechnyan terrorists hanging out, from the next room comes the sound of gunfire and explosions, bloodcurdling screams... they continue playing cards and smoking.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Excellent. Shooting one of two men having an important conversation, for the other guy to continue talking as if his buddy wasn't laying dead at his feet.
Being able to tell that someone's behind a door because the tip of his gun/elbow is protruding through the surface.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
This has been done to death, but also, all henchmen must stand near barrels of extremely flammable liquid.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Excellent. Shooting one of two men having an important conversation, for the other guy to continue talking as if his buddy wasn't laying dead at his feet.
lol
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
In a quiet moment the main character could just start wandering around randomly hitting things with his melee weapon, just to see what he can break.
Main character throws grenade at bad guys. Grenade bounces off and rolls back to good guy's feet. Good guy goes to run away but runs into the wall. Good guy gets blown up. Bad guys continue milling about as if nothing had happened.
[ 28.09.2006, 07:30: Message edited by: Ringo ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Being able to tell that someone's behind a door because the tip of his gun/elbow is protruding through the surface.
...jiggling up and down as he's jogging on the spot.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
The good guy swims through a mile of sewage tunnel, freeclimbs a towerblock, rappels down the other side, scissor kicks his way straight up a narrow alley, then is stopped in his tracks by a small wooden barrier with red and white stripes painted on it.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Come on! This subject is not exhausted!
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Henchman - "hey boss, what should we do with all these ammo clips and medical packs we've got?"
Boss - "Just distribute them randomly into small wooden boxes and vases around our super secure evil lair"
Henchman - "Right so"
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Ah man, I'm totally late to the party otherwise I would have submitted my idea for a film: The Capcom Avenger, in which a plucky young man's girlfriend whose been kidnapped by a biker gang. Invariably he will be accompanied by a huge man with almost Cartoons (ooh aah ooh aah aah) style facial hair, who disposes of scores of bad guys. Bad guys that fly across the street and will flash into non-existance while he performs a walking lariat into their general direction.
There will be a gripping climax within a 100 story high-rise building, complete with animated suits of armour and red carpet inviting them in. Our heroes will be on death's door, but one of them hurls a knife, stunning a 12 foot mafia boss, causing an apparition of tweeting birds to circle his head. They will roll over some nearby crates (which shatter natcher natter), containing piping hot roast chickens which will revive them to perfect health. One swift 32 hit combo from The Capcom Avenger will ensure a slow-motion Matrix bullet time fatality followed by a girlfriend, whose bonds will snap as they are tied to a time release affixed to the villains pacemaker. She will be completely fine, not traumatised and star-jump happy to see her boo.
PS: Everybody will be able to do the Shoryuken. Even the hot-dog man in Act 3.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: The good guy swims through a mile of sewage tunnel, freeclimbs a towerblock, rappels down the other side, scissor kicks his way straight up a narrow alley, then is stopped in his tracks by a small wooden barrier with red and white stripes painted on it.
lolol
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: Cartoons (ooh aah ooh aah aah)
what kind of a penis remembers and then references this abomination?
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
You are an extraordinairy young man. trained in armoury, marksman skills, medicine, hand to hand combat and an amazing acrobat, but the feat that amazes everyone is how you manage to carry a knife, a chainsaw, a pistol, a shotgun, an uzi, a snipers rifle, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, a biological weapon and a doomsday device without crushing your bollocks into your splintered ankle bones.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Evil scientist - "Right boss, your new super armour is ready. It's absolutely inpenetrable to all forms of firepower, has built in machine guns and rocket launchers, and is light enough for you to perform all manner of kung foo moves"
Boss - "Does it have any weaknesses?"
Evil scientist - "None! Except this large hole in the chest right in front of your heart"
Boss - "Ah, I'm sure it'll be fine..."
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: what kind of a penis remembers and then references this abomination?
I need backup Thorn.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Your superiors appoint you a team consisting of a marksman, a demolitions expert and a medic. But, who ends up taking out the tyrant with the sniper-rifle? Who has to place all the breaching charges? Who dishes out the med-kits?
That's right!
All I'm saying is I'd like a little help once in a while...
And, while we're on the subject, when I give you an order to take out a position I'd appreciate it if you actually showed a bit of enthusiasm, rather than just shooting ineffectually over the heads of the enemy. Leaving Muggins, here, to get his hands dirty.
[ 28.09.2006, 07:54: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo:
Boss - "Ah, I'm sure it'll be fine..."
lol
Boss - "Do you think it needs anything else"
Evil Scientist - "Such as?"
Boss - "I don't know... maybe the heart-hole could glow occasionally?"
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
outside a police station. night time. police chief and constable are just going home for the night.
Chief - "Right, we all locked up?"
Constable - "Yep, I locked the doors on the first floor with the diamond shaped key which I then hid behind the painting about the fireplace on the third floor. I put the lighter into the safety box, and the key which opens it I put into the hand of the statue in the lobby. I've shifted the two statues which operate the secret door to the basement off of their pressure switches, and pulled the lever to raise the collapsible ladder to the balcony on the second floor. Oh, I turned the lights out too."
Chief - "Great, what did you do with the key card for the computer system?"
Constable - "Oh I left it sitting on the main desk in reception. I figured it would be ok there"
Chief - "Good lad. I'll see you tomorrow.."
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
resident evil 2!
or was that 3?
[ 28.09.2006, 08:01: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
We're in rural Spain, the most sophisticated weapons in use among the locals are the pitchfork, the axe and the occasional chainsaw. Where did all these arms dealers spring up from?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Military commander - "Right, here's the situation: The evil boss and his evil scientist have created one of the most powerful weapons ever created. This is a threat to the entire world. He has about a thousand well armed men occupying an almost inpenetrable fortress. I need ideas people"
"airstrike?"
"Nuclear weapon?"
"Storm the building with tanks and several hundred special ops?"
"How about we send in a single, lightly armed soldier?"
Military commander - "Perfect. Someone give that man a promotion!"
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: resident evil 2!
or was that 3?
Technically both. The police station is one of the main settings in two but your first run-in with Nemesis happens outside the police station in 3, and I think there are some bits inside too.
I might dig it out and have a play of 3 actually.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
A young village boy raised by foster parents is shocked to discover that despite only owning a wooden sword and some leather underwear that he is actually from a long heritage of legendary heroes. His adoptive family will begrudgingly reveal secrets from his past only when they hear he has cleared out the local hostelry from bothersome oversized rats.
He will soon learn that his career path is not limited to carpentry, but with enough determination he can truly follow his destiny. As long as his destiny happens to be a Fighter, Rogue or Mage.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
There'd be no fear of Jason Vorhees springing back to life. You'd be able to tell by looking at his life bar.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: [QUOTE]Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: [qb] resident evil 2!
I might dig it out and have a play of 3 actually.
I never finished that. I got stuck in some bit where you're trapped in either a park or graveyard with the nemesis, and he killed me every time with his grabby hand.
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: what kind of a penis remembers and then references this abomination?
Is it just me or does Jimmy Big Nuts have more of a raw edge to his posting than the good doctor of old?
[ 28.09.2006, 08:19: Message edited by: squeegy ]
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
You are attacked by a party of snakes or large rats and after slaying the beasts you discover they were carrying several gold coins and a magical health potion.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Henchman - "hey boss, what should we do with all these ammo clips and medical packs we've got?"
Boss - "Just distribute them randomly into small wooden boxes and vases around our super secure evil lair"
Henchman - "Right so"
Henchman - "Ok boss, I went round and hid all the ammo and medical packs like you asked"
Boss - "Excellent"
Henchman - *shuffles nervously looking at the floor*
Boss - "what is it henchman?"
Henchman - "Well... me and some of the guys were talking and, well, we're a bit worried that we might not be able to find the ammo if we need it"
Boss - "hmmm yes. How about this: go down to the kitchen and under the sink you'll find some Mr Sheen and a few dusters. Take that, and all the boxes and vase you used to hide the ammo, polish them up and position them in such a way that they catch the light and sparkle conspicuously from any angle"
Henchman - "Ok boss I'll get right on it. There was something else as well..."
Boss - "yes?"
Henchman - "well you know those hidden laser bombs you asked us to put in some of the coridors to stop people walking down them? Well, we're a bit worried that we might accidentally walk into them. You see the lasers don't show up so it's a bit dangerous"
Boss - "yes, I see your point. Ok, go and see the Evil Scientist and see if he can add some big flashing red lights to all the laser bombs, that way you'll be able to see them easily and shouldn't have any accidents"
Henchman - "ok, thanks boss!"
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
He is cold because he think she can get away with it squeegy. The cheeky sod.
Also: at forgetting my all time favourite computer game bollocks: Animals that contain suits of armour. How could I have forgotten that classic faux pas?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Henchman 1 “Ok, all the defences are in place, we’re now totally secure. We’re here to guard this room which is the only way through to the room containing the secret plans. So long as we stay right here where we are, nobody can get through to the plans”
Henchman 2 “Hey what was that noise down that random corridor? It sounded like someone throwing a small stone against a wall”
Henchman 1 “I don’t know, could be trouble. Let’s all go and check it out…”
Ok I'm done now..
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I'm liking Ringo's 'Boss and Henchman' show. Another B&H moment
Boss: "This guy that's infiltrating our base....what to do with him?"
Henchman: "Well boss, we could bump him off easily, but I do know you like to recruit some of our strongest opponents"
Boss: "I do, don't I? We'd best do what we usually do in these cirumstances"
Henchman: "Boss?"
Boss: "You idiot! Deploy our forces in a tier system, making each defense gradually stonger until he enventually gets to us in our tower. If he gets to the ramparts and turns down our offer of employment during our first meeting I'll allow him to rough me up a bit. Then, if he declines again when he catches up with us here, I'll show him the true extent of my power. Maybe with the tentacles or something"
Henchman starts to walk off
Boss: "...and number 1..."
Henchman: "Yes Boss?"
Boss: "Don't make it too hard for him eh? Maybe leave a rifle in the ghost train in the safe that unlocks when you shoot at least 10 skeletons or....do you know Ted?"
Henchman: "Ted who swallowed the rocket launcher at the Christmas party Boss?
Boss: "That's the guy. Make sure he at least gets to fight Ted before the tanks. Jobs are hard to come by around these parts."
[ 28.09.2006, 08:50: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
I've just found out the origin of Jimmy Big Nuts. Adam & joe show podcast 19 about 12 mins in
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I think Benway Big Nuts has an enjoyable and slightly annoying ring to it. Lets call him that. In fact Darryn, could you changed his name to Benway Big Nuts and tag him with the fierce mouthed bollock image? That would be excellent.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
I prefer Benway No Nuts or Benway Is Nuts myself. But definitely tag him with the testicle.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
It's the only possible solution for us to deal with this rebranding nightmare.
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
Yeah, tag him with that terrible testicle.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I'm counting the votes Jimmy and assuming you are going to say 'fack that shat' I see it as 3-1 to us and you with the angriest bollock this side of forumsville.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Henchman 1 “I just can’t figure Mary out sometimes, it’s like one minute she’s hot, the next she’s cold”
Henchman 2 “I know what you mean. Women, they mess with your head sometimes. At first it’s all walks on the beach and kisses in the sunset, then once they know they’ve got you hooked they just turn it all off”
Henchman 1 “I wouldn’t mind so much if she at least acknowledged me sometimes. She just seems so distant now”
Henchman 2 “The President’s daughter is being held in a room on the top floor. There’s an air vent which goes from the kitchen all the way up there”
Henchman 1 “sorry?”
Henchman 2 “I don’t know, I just kinda blurted that out”
Henchman 1 “How random”
Henchman 1’s head explodes in a shower of brain fragments. His blood spattered body falls limply to the floor
Henchman 2 “So did you catch the game last night?”
Henchman 1 “…….”
Henchman 2 “Yeah it was a great match, we’ve got good prospects for the season this year”
Henchman 1 “…….”
Henchman 2 “I know, injuries notwithstanding of cou…. Hey, did you hear that? Sounded like someone throwing a small stone against the wall down that corridor”
Henchman 1 “…….”
Henchman 2 “ok we’ll go and check it out….”
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: I see it as 3-1 to us and you with the angriest bollock this side of forumsville.
Best make that 4-1. I'm all for the bollock.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I always thought he looked more like a Lord Peanut. I mean look at that monacle. Is that the sort of thing a Mr would wear?
Perhaps Baron Peanut. Professor Peanut?
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
So sorry to interrupt.
Mikee, mail to your g-spot is being delayed apparently. If you email me certain details, I will make the arrangement.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
loving Ringo's work.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Can someone remind me why I didn't like Atomised? I really don't want to read it again just to find out.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
you were offended by the sexual content, and being a catholic, you were unable to cope with the cynical assasination of spirituality and spiritual communities.
[ 05.10.2006, 06:35: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
All I can remember about it is feeling cheated by Ben (Ben of all people) and a graphic description of middle aged testicles.
[ 05.10.2006, 06:33: Message edited by: Louche ]
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
In fact I'm kind of obsessing a bit over it. I'm watching youtube footage of the characters in it. I watched the Channel 4 "Seduction School" program that was on in august (also on youtube). Now I'm listening to podcasts from "Juggler". Anyone else read it?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
you probably didn't pay attention then. Maybe a re-read wouldn't be such a bad idea?
I can report that I'm this close to finishing Hangover Square (I got distracted by the official World RPS strategy guide), and it's a tremendous read. The author manages to yank you between despair and joy over and over again along with the main character, yet it never feels contrived or melodramatic. It also paints a grim and realistic protrait of life as a barfly. This is drinking without the transgressive romance of Bukowski; just the mundane and pointless cycle of lifting pints, hiding from reality, and waiting to die.
Next up: The Piano Teacher. Freudian psycho-sexual hell. Pornographic imagination as torture. Uber dysfunction. At least, I hope so.
[ 05.10.2006, 06:43: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: just the mundane and pointless cycle of lifting pints, hiding from reality, and waiting to die.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Well, the book makes it seem very claustrophobic and inward looking. Although it's not about drinking, barely a page goes by without somebody having a few drinks, or being drunk. It colours the atmosphere, makes it seem quite menacing. Both chaotic and utterly predictable, even if that does sound like an oxymoron.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
See, I tried to read Atomised having heard there was sexual content, but I got bored before I found any.
Also can I have a quick show of...words...for and against Boxy an Star. I found it in a box outside a charity shop in Shepherd's Bush, and I remember there was some controversy over shit vs. excellent. Is it worth me getting used to reading the mongy text speak style of writing?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: Both chaotic and utterly predictable, even if that does sound like an oxymoron.
No, no, I'm quite familiar with the predictability of chaos.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
VP thought Boxy and Star was a big pile of poo, if I remember rightly. VP and Thorn are good barometers. Especially after Ben proved to be very flaky, even to the point of recommending Generation X. Oh, and 'bandy sez it's good' is quite a positivce indicator as well.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Are you a mathematician? Fractals, chaos theory, that kind of thing?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: VP thought Boxy and Star was a big pile of poo, if I remember rightly. VP and Thorn are good barometers. Especially after Ben proved to be very flaky, even to the point of recommending Generation X. Oh, and 'bandy sez it's good' is quite a positivce indicator as well.
I enjoyed Boxy An Star. Sid and Nancy was on TV last night, and it reminded me of that book.
[ 05.10.2006, 06:55: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
happy 2k abby
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
You liked Glamorama, though, which makes you odd.
This now sounds like I have a spreadsheet documenting forumite's tastes and marking them on ten for them. I don't.
Oh, and Black Mask is two posts off 9,000. Shall we bully him into doing something good, abandoning it halfway through and affecting a stupid name chnage in the hope that no-one notices?
[ 05.10.2006, 07:02: Message edited by: Louche ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Yeah I did like Glamorama. But then I like anything where reality collapses.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Did you read the new one? It all goes a bit odd in that. And something horrible happens to a labrador.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I love labradors. I saw a guide dog on the tube today. They are the best thing in the world. It’s a shame blind people can’t see it.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I did read that, yes. I didn't think that it was his best... It felt like he was coasting a bit in places.
By the way, his book 'The Informers' is being made into a film now. Presumably like that an 80s version of that Altman 'short cuts' film. Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: I love labradors. I saw a guide dog on the tube today. They are the best thing in the world. It’s a shame blind people can’t see it.
lol. There was a bloke with a black labrador puppy in the station today and it seemed like any woman who spied it dropped to her knees and started burbling in some sub-human language, giggling with childish delight at its little face.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
I love guide dogs too. They're so faithful, they bring tears to my eyes. There's a lovely black one that gets on at Walthamstow, and always gets up just before getting to the right tube stop, even when there's no announcement. Or, I imagine it's the right stop. That would be confusing for the owner.
ETA: [thorn]how would an announcement help a guide dog anyway, you mongtard. It's not like it understands English[/thorn]
[ 05.10.2006, 07:16: Message edited by: herbs ]
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: Can someone remind me why I didn't like Atomised? I really don't want to read it again just to find out.
It's by a French. Some cock in The Grauniad once wrote an article that started something like "in Britain, J K Rowling is the biggest selling author. In France, it's Michel *Gallic Grunt* [not sure how this translates into words- you know the sound I mean]", basically insinuating that the French, the French, are like so more intellectual than us plebs.
I was told (by ben) that this was some kind of especially "toxic" and exciting novel. I don't remember much about it at all, apart from it was quite dull and there was a Polish name in it.
Boxy an Star was more offensive than The Da Vinci Code. Tedious rubbish about retards. Vikram probably liked it.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
well you may say that herbs but i once had a very interesting conversation with a dog trainer who adopted a portuguese dog and was completely unable to make this dog follow his wont until he learnt how to say all the commands in portuguese rather than english. isnt that fascinating.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: the usual stuff about everything being shit
ie, it didn't feature any mythical creatures, wizards, or magic.
[ 05.10.2006, 07:24: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
The blind man got on the tube and then, without realising, he whacked his guide dog in the face with the sleeve of his coat. For a second the dog pulled this "Stupid, blind bastard!" face then it just went back to mellow alert.
When I first moved to London, I was going out with someone who worked at Harvey Nichols. I used to meet her for lunch every day after wandering around job agencies being transformed into dog shit by the magic stares of the people who worked in them. I would meet her in Hyde Park, often sitting alone for half an hour before she arrived. During my 30 minutes of solitude, I would watch daily installments of a new guide dog being trained. The first day, a sighted trainer brought a puppy along with a blind man; it was really excitable as it jumped up and wagged its tail. It had on a 'guide dog in training' bib and I thought it must be some kind of homicidal Dom Jolly skit. But day by day, the dog got calmer and more professional looking; until, on about the last day before I split up with the fucking bitch from Harvey Nichols, I saw the dog lead his blind master across the busy road without a helper. I cried. It was beautiful.
ETA: The man was blind, the dog was not (nor was it a deity). I'll get this right in a minute. Also the dog wagged its tail and jumped up, not the blind man.
[ 05.10.2006, 07:32: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
*weep*
I wonder how long the waiting list is to be a guide dog trainer. It would be the best job in the whole world.
[ 05.10.2006, 07:33: Message edited by: herbs ]
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
It must be the saddest thing in the world when a blind person’s dog dies. I imagine they have to communicate to their master that they are ill. Licking his fingers and nuzzling more than usual. Somehow trying to say "I'm sick, master." The master unable to see and the faithful helper unable to talk. A bit like Pryor and Wilder in See No Evil, Hear No Evil but, you know, sadder.
[ 05.10.2006, 07:41: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: [thorn]how would an announcement help a guide dog anyway, you mongtard. It's not like it understands English[/thorn]
My dog used to understand basic commands in English. 'Sit', 'stay' etc. I think this is quite common in dogs?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I think that they tend to put down the owner when this happens.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
quote: I wonder how long the waiting list is to be a guide dog trainer. It would be the best job in the whole world.
Another good job I spotted this morning would be cruising along the canal in a little boat, with a couple of mates and some chainsaws, chopping down any overhangging greenery.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
The French probably only pretended to read the Michel whatsisface books. When in reality they were too busy burning cars and taking pictures on their mobile phones.
When I was in France last I met a bilingual dog, who knew how to sit in French and English. I was inordinately impressed with this. Since my mother bought a puppy I have become horribly soppy about small dogs. I make people look at pictures of her.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Jonesy is painting a one sided view of the story.
Day 1
Oh yes this is all very exciting isn't it? What's that over there? Oh this is brilliant! Look I'm wagging my tail. A face! Yes! Let me lick your face! Yes. What? Brilliant! Oh I love jumping! I think I might wag my tail some more. Yes! what? Oh it's noisy. No don't like that. Ow. Hurts my bum. This isn't so fun anymore and I don't know why you're shouting at me. Oh what am I doing?
Day 2
Oh look hooray it's that man who who played with me yesterday! He was nice! The lady didn't like me much but this man did! Can't wait! Let me lick your face, yes. Oh. It's some kind of belt. Are we not playing then? Oh dear. More shouting. I'd better try to do this properly. Don't like shouting. Or being hit on the bum. No.
Day 3
Bit tired today. Want to play but no-one lets me. My bum's sore. Best just get on with what they ask. I just have to take this man everywhere. No time for playing. If I play I get shouted at or hit on the bum. Straight lines. Have to sit on my bum and wait for those bit square machines to pass first. Can barely sit. Bum hurts a lot.
Day 4
Hi bloke. Have to take you across these road things eh? Cars? That's them. Yep. I know. Straight lines.
Day 5 Everyones talking about 'graduation' tomorrow. I can't wait to get this over and done with and get back to playing.
Day 6
Kill. Me. Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: Since my mother bought a puppy I have become horribly soppy about small dogs. I make people look at pictures of her.
Your mother? Let's see her, then.
[ 05.10.2006, 07:46: Message edited by: mart ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis:
quote:Originally posted by herbs: [thorn]how would an announcement help a guide dog anyway, you mongtard. It's not like it understands English[/thorn]
My dog used to understand basic commands in English. 'Sit', 'stay' etc. I think this is quite common in dogs?
But do they understand [barely audible]schhhhkkthe next fffffffft is highbury and islingtttrr[/barely audible]?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I'm sure that thorn's dog could.
[ 05.10.2006, 07:50: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Abby: Another good job I spotted this morning would be cruising along the canal in a little boat, with a couple of mates and some chainsaws, chopping down any overhangging greenery.
Sorry, but all those elements are just asking for trouble.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
quote:Originally posted by mart: Your mother? Let's see her, then.
After yesterday's disaster I don't think I am risking photos.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay:
Kill. Me.
KILL ME!
[ 05.10.2006, 07:51: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
*dies of sweetness overdose*
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
For Herbs:
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Goodbye Cruel World. Geronimo! Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
Abby, I'll summarise Boxy an Star for you if you like:
Two semi-literate junkie teenagers who are half a heartbeat away from terminal retardo-coma struggle through a series of basic daily actions (walking home, catching a train etc) in a tedious sequence of misspelt dialogues. I think people like it because despite being devoid of any kind of basic communication and life skills they weally wuv each uvver. I was genuinely amazed that people rate that shit.
Jimmy, the "wizards only books" line was really quite poor, and as you very well know, entirely inaccurate.
I haven't had much time to read recently (mugging up exam notes on the train at the mo). I did guiltily enjoy The Historian which is like an updated Dracula, but it was essentially a slicker and more literary Da Vinci Code with better exposition.
Required: book recommendations for my forthcoming holiday.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Note: that's my mother's carpet, not mine. For the record, like.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: Required: book recommendations for my forthcoming holiday.
Mark Haddon's new one is quite good. A Spot of Bother. Really beautifully written, occasionally laugh out loud funny, mildly disturbing on some levels. It follows a perfectly ordinary family and their perfectly ordinary antics whilst revealing their increasingly bizarre quirks. The finale is one of the best comic-tragic things I've ever read. There's one really grim chapter, which I had to skim read because I am an utter girl, but other than that it's brill.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
lol. I was praying it was yours.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I read Cold Comfort Farm while I was on my holiday. I found it very funny and impossible to date without looking inside the front cover after I'd read it.
Am I a bit hommish for enjoying Cold Comfort Farm?
If so, I also read Day of the Triffids and Dark Star Safari, in which Paul Theroux talks a lot about whores.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
And Hard Times which a man being smashed to pieces from a fall and the word 'hard' in the title.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I never found Boxy An Star tedious, which is obviously where we are differing here, VP. While there was an initial challenge over the first chapter of working out what was going, if you were willing to enter the world that as being presented, it did open up. Essentially, you're right, it was almost slushy romantic, but it did seem to have some darker undertones, about their life in the periphary of society and their lack of connection with what happens around them. That's why Sid and Nancy reminded me of it. Right down to the seemingly nonsensical language.
It's been a while since I read it, but I thought that there were references to their families, clues as to what has driven them together and away from everybody else? That's what keep me interested in it I think, the way that you gradually came to understand them, to be able to read their language etc. Kind of like how adults often say they can't understand how kids speak, or they can't connect with them, and then the book opens a seemingly impenetrable world up, and shows you something quite touching inside it. You get a sense of entering into something secret. I don't think that it should be written off as tedious.
[ 05.10.2006, 08:15: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
I'm reading Carter Beats the Devil at the mo, about an early 20th-century magician. It's quite good.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
And You only Live Twice to make sure.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: I read Cold Comfort Farm while I was on my holiday. I found it very funny and impossible to date without looking inside the front cover after I'd read it.
Am I a bit hommish for enjoying Cold Comfort Farm?
How odd. I read Cold Comfort farm on my holiday a couple of weeks ago. I also thoroughly enjoyed it. But I left it in the holiday cottage in exchange for a cheap crime novel to take my mind of my friend's driving on the way home.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Carter is a good book for holiday reading. When I last went on holiday, in 2002, I took that book and The Steiglitz "globalisation and its discontents". Needless to say, one was much more suited to the job than the other.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
And when I say 'holiday', I mean 'honeymoon', with my wife.
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
Hey! Congrats Jonesy!!
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Thanks Amy.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Sweet, funny, and heartfelt, at times sad, at times poignant, but always always fresh and is an amazingly fun read. It was hard for me not to just read right through in one sitting!
I haven't read it, but it was popular in the summer on the tube.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
owen meany is a good one for holidays. you can read it with either an intense degree of concentration- which it kind of deserves and requires, because its quite dense- but you can also half- read it because the words are so nice you dont necessarily even have to associate them with any sort of plot. when i was stuck in cincinatti airport for 9 hours i found owen meany a total boon, because if i wanted to get lost in it until the airline people did the rounds with the hourly ration of saltine crackers, brain- numbingly cold mineral water and blank- eyed empty promises i could, but i could also dip in and out whilst sitting in the cheers bar blowing bubbles into my $8 gin and tonic and using the fleshy parts of my own arm as an alternative to nicotine replacement chewing gum. its a terrrrribly good book, and may make you weep profusely and enigmatically in public. theres nothing the foreigner finds more intriguing than an enigmatically weeping woman, i reckon.
youve probably read it though.
[ 05.10.2006, 08:25: Message edited by: dance margarita ]
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
quote: Sorry, but all those elements are just asking for trouble.
That is the beauty of it I think.
quote: happy 2k abby
thanks!
[ 05.10.2006, 08:52: Message edited by: Abby ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
One of the best books I've read in the last couple of years was The Kid Stays In the Picture. Once even, a random man on the tube saw me with it and had to tell me how much he liked it as well. Never happened before.
quote: I love to read about Hollywood, and I know I would enjoy this book if the "Eff-word" wasn't used so much. It proves to me that to get anywhere in Hollywood you have be very low-class and profane. Any really educated person would have a stronger command of the language. The eff-word is a stupid substitution for any word at all, and I just can't get interested in the book because of it. If you don't mind eff this and eff that you might enjoy the book. Too bad. It could have been a good read.
[ 05.10.2006, 08:48: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I watched Jack Dee in his new sitcom LEAD BALLOON last night; I thought it was rather good, standard Dee stuff, but well written and well executed.
Though my laughing hard at the last line left Femke a little confused..
They'd been invited to a christening but didn't want to go, ugly child with really big ears.. Anyway long story short the invitation ended up in the bin and was found by some tabloid journalists who ran the story in the paper citing the fact that on the card someone had scrawled in biro "I eat buns" which I thought was funny, but Femke didn't get at all..
And tonight if I can stay awake I want to watch Lady Vengeance on Flim Four at 10.50pm UK time meaning 11.50pm for me.. And Oldboy is on Friday if anyone else cares..
[ 05.10.2006, 09:13: Message edited by: Darryn.R ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Over the weekend I saw the Winterbottom / Coogan 4th wall busting film-within-a-film-fest that is "A Cock and Bull Story". Not bad, but I was expecting something a little less gentle. At first it's hard not to get Extras out of the imagination, as it initally seems to follow the same structure. But eventually it breaks down into something more like a Paul Auster work, where the life of the artist (Coogan) and the life of the text (in this case, a book called Tristram Shandy) intertwine and feed into each other. Basically, as it progresses, the events of the novel (and the titular character that Coogan plays) inform both the audience, and to lessser extent Coogan himself, about the flaws in Coogan's actual life. So, it works like this quite well, and has got some good comedy moments as well as a touching journey as we follow Coogan's relationship with his supposed wife and young son. The comedy isn't as thick as you might expect, and as I said, some of the set pieces are reminiscent of Extras. The rivalry between Brydon and Coogan reaches a pretty childish climax, and many of the best scenes involves Coogan being humiliated in some way, or at least, acting without grace and tact. Overall though it at least assumed the audience to have some intelligence, which is always a relief, and it was good to see Coogan playing a character that isn't a derivative of Partridge.
I also watched the 'Perfect' collection of three tv movies that were edited together and cut to make up the classic Hentai shocker 'Legend of the Overfiend'. From wikipedia:
quote: Urotsukidoji has become one of the most infamous animes ever made and frequently given the title of the sickest animated film ever - though this is disputed quite frequently. Many see it as a turning point in anime history due to its storyline, characters and impact; though unfortunately (due to its controversial nature) others immediately dismiss it as 'just another hentai'.
It is known to have brought anime as an actually recognized form of entertainment in the UK along with numerous other anime of its time (1987), but unfortunately cemented the idea in the public consciousness that it was representative of ALL anime, all but destroying the anime and manga industry in the UK until the worldwide interest in the genre beginning the late 1990's finally revived it at the turn of the century.
This film is infamous as one of the first to be released outside Japan that explored the tentacle rape theme. It is part of a genre of hentai that is best described as erotic horror, or ero-guro ("erotic grotesque").
The version I watched is called Chôjin Densetsu Urotsukidôji, and as far as I can tell, is the most complete english subbed version. When I was a kid, I saw the spliced, cut, censored one that wikipedia talks about, and it's always been something that I needed to see again, to confirm things, and maybe in a way to be able to understand it and move on. So I watched the three episodes that make up 'part one' yesterday.
Maybe I'm just hardened to this kind of thing, having spent a few hours going over the Gurochan website, which I still maintain is probably the most mind bending collection of fantasy imagery available. Not work safe. The shocking elements of Urotsukidôji are what I remember from watching it as a kid, but seeing the thing in it's entirety means that the story now makes sense, the disturbing events are put into context, and therefore seem less senseless than they did in the butchered UK18 release. But still, there's tentacle rape, lots of people being ripped in half, lots of female/demon couplings, everything that's become standard hentai fare. It kicks off in a school, where a dude is wanking while spying on chicks getting changed. Then a teacher turns into a crazy penis monster and rapes a schoolgirl, then a different lad turns into a man-beast and tears the penis monster apart, and it all pretty much rolls on like that until the world is destroyed. But it's got a coherent story that's slightly similar to Akira, in that it's concerned with the apocalyptic destruction of Tokyo and a subsequent rebirth. It looks good, it's moody, atmospheric, and has an even tone, even if some of the erotic scenes seem to go on a bit too long. The porn is pretty much concerned with chicks being penetrated in every possible way at once by penis tentacles, and then killed by a devastating torrent of monster spunk. Not as crazy as it seemed in the chopped up and compressed version as there's chance for exposition, and characters don't just appear and disappear seemingly at random. Overall, recommended for anybody who's curious about hentai but isn't likely to get off on it, so might need a proper story to back it up.
I also watched a collection of Tom Goes to the Mayor, which I really like. It's on Adult Swim.
[ 16.10.2006, 05:47: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Prime Suspect last night was a bleak triumph, though with less tentacle rape than BigNuts's choice. I felt so sucked into Jane Tennison's lonely existence I spent the night having gloomy dreams about pointlessness and death, and this morning questioning whether my existence has any relevance.
More please!
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
last night I watched the hundred greatest albums, even though I'd seen it before, and I still couldn't guess what #1 was.
[ 16.10.2006, 05:50: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Oh, I meant to watch Prime Suspect but then managed to forget it was on. Probably a good choice, as last night involved swinging between elation and lacerating guilt.
Yesterday I watched the sun set over the wind farm at Kendal in the Lake District. Wind farms make me feel inexplicably happy yet tearful.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I have all 4 series of Overfind, but only the last one is the uncensored release. I feel kinda uncomfortable watching it if anyone's likely to walk in and see, as most people simply wouldn't understand.
Is it really worth me getting the unbutchered versions?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I don't know. What I watched only makes up "Legend Of the Overfiend". It's nearly 3 hours long, and is in three episodes. I've got the 2nd series too, the one with nazis and the raping machine, which although is compressed into a single 'film' version, I think is still a bit more complete than the UK release. So, I haven't got the pieces that make up parts 3 and 4 of the UK series. I haven't ever seen them. I didn't understand "Legend of the Overfiend" when I first saw it, but the one I saw over the weekend made sense. I could send you what I got if you want.
Where did you get an uncensored version of the 4th series?
[ 16.10.2006, 06:05: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: most people simply wouldn't understand.
Oh Ringo, the problem is, that they understand all too well.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Think I got the 4th one from Play. Saying that, it might not be totally uncensored. I just know that the UK version is like half an hour long, as opposed to four times that in the version I have.
I remember seeing the first one on TV years and years ago, and it made sense to me then what was going on even though it's the severely cut version, whcih is basically what I've got on DVD. It's still not what you'd call tame though.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I bought this from play.com at the weekend.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Has Veep been on Holiday yet?
Regardless I'd recommend The Farenheit Twins, short story selection by Micheal Faber. Made for good Holiday reading while I was in Frenchland over the Summer.
Great writing and dark, scary, touching stories.
I saw the The Departed last night, and I have to say that whilst good in comparison to your average Hollywood thriller I didn't think it stood up well in comparison to Infernal Affairs. At all.
It's very well made technically, but in it's attempts to translate the story for an American audience it loses many of the qualities - in story, character, and style - that made the original film work so well.
So if you're a fan of the original I think you'll be disapppointed. Otherwise you may well enjoy it.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I watched Straw Dogs last night. Two glaring problems with it that ruined an otherwise ok film - no straw, no dogs.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
It don't half drag on about too
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
watched Children of men last night. Apart from the slightly heavy Christian allegory and one awfae 'new age' character, I thought it was well weapon. It's about a future where all women are infertile, the world has gone to shit, yet Britain stoically 'soliders on', with the rounding up, torture, imprisonment and slaughter of foreigns being the pre-occupation of the State. Quite devastating, with one of the best sequences I've seen in recent times near the end, as a refugee camp in Bexhill breaks out into some incredibly realistic and intense warfare. Loads of people getting shot and blown up, with some amazing single takes. The jist of the film is super depressing, and the grim, end-of-days London of 2027 is created in such a way as to grind your nose in the state of the current grim, end-of-days London. I came out wondering if Ringo had a point about how awful the place is! Imagine! There's a good central performance from trusty old Clive Owen, and a nice support from Caine, who isn't quite as grating as usual. The only let down is the mother from Darling Buds of May, but to be fair, her character was pretty shonky to begin with.
Anyway, aside from the misery, there's plenty of wry jokes throughout, although these seem to dry up once we enter the refugee camp. Superb series of images as we enter the camp by coach, and out the window we can see a man standing in a cage, wearing a hood, with wires running into his hands, then a cage full of half naked men... It's a perfectly handled 'future as now' world throughout, and there's loads of little things that point towards the current state of affairs.
I wasn't expecting it to be quite as tense or as emotional as it was, so I was suprised and pleased. I did need a couple of drinks to recover, and that's got to be a good thing.
[ 19.10.2006, 05:19: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Just got that ghostbusters double. Looks nice. Probably watch em back to back over the weekend.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I have it too, plus I have Ghostbusters 1 on UMD for my PSP..
There's some great one liners in Ghostbusters, perhaps we should have a "classic movie one liners" thread..
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
we did that already, in 2002.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
natch.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
I'm very sorry the government taxes their tips, that's fucked up. That ain't my fault. It would seem to me that waitresses are one of the many groups the government fucks in the ass on a regular basis. Look, if you ask me to sign something that says the government shouldn't do that, I'll sign it, put it to a vote, I'll vote for it, but what I won't do is play ball. And as for this non-college bullshit I got two words for that: learn to fuckin' type, 'cause if you're expecting me to help out with the rent you're in for a big fuckin' surprise.
Sorry. I wasn't here in 2002.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
the only acceptable quotes are from Robocop.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
lol. I'm out then.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Godd. I used to know practically the entire script to both Ghostbusters & Highlander by heart, and a fair old chunk of The Thing (80s Carpenter version) and First Blood, as these films were on permanent rotation in the room of the student to which we'd repair after the college bar shut, for after-hours drinking and 'smoking'.
It's true, this man has no penis.
Och Connor, you're all muck and muscle Aye blossom, the way ye like it.
And the flowers are still standing!
etc. etc.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
I could probably reel off Stand By Me verbatim, as well as The Philadelphia Story, Casablanca and Star Wars, but everyone knows the last two so they probably don't count.
lol. mind's gone blank now.
[ 19.10.2006, 07:08: Message edited by: mart ]
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
The Big Lebowski Walter:
You mark that frame an 8, and you're entering a world of pain.
Do you see what happens, Larry? Do you see what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!
I told that Kraut a fuckin' thousand times, I don't roll on shabbos! Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Am I my brothers keeper? Yes I am.
You'd better step off Gra-an-Pah!
Money talks and bullshit runs the marathon. See ya and I wouldn't wanna be ya!
Idolater, your soul is required in hell Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Brothers! Oh, brothers! We have all gathered here, to preserve our hallowed culture and heritage! We aim to pull evil up by the root, before it chokes out the flower of our culture and heritage! And our women, let's not forget those ladies, y'all. Looking to us for protection! From darkies, from Jews, from papists, and from all those smart-ass folks say we come descended from monkeys!
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
thats not one line, you fuzzyfaced moron. its eight. i can type the entire judd nelson 'my impression of life at big brians house' monologue from the breakfast club word perfect from memory* but that doesnt mean im going to. and anyway, i bet you didnt even type that from memory, did you. i call google on you ralph.
[ 19.10.2006, 07:53: Message edited by: dance margarita ]
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:You stupid fucking **** . You, Williamson, I'm talking to you, shithead. You just cost me $6,000. Six thousand dollars, and one Cadillac. That's right. What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it, asshole? You're fucking shit. Where did you learn your trade, you stupid fucking **** , you idiot? Who ever told you that you could work with men? Oh, I'm gonna have your job, shithead.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
again! not a one- liner! did we agree this was a one- liner thread or not? where did we agree you could type chunks of dialogue? where? you people are idiots.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
this is my impression. of life. at big brian's house.
'hey dad!
'hey son! how was your day?'
'great dad!'
'super. say son, how'd you like to go fishing this weekend?'
'great dad! but wait... i have homework to do...'
'thats okay son! you can do it on the boat!'
'great dad!'
'honey...isnt our son swell?'
'yes honey...isnt life swell?'
(throws punch to left) DOOF! (throws punch to right) DOOF!' Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
there are one liners included within the chunk of dialogue you see. thats okay son, you can do it on the boat, that is a oneliner. because it is one line. but it is found within a 'chunk of dialogue'. thats a technical term im using there.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Plus I've made it clear that quotes only officially count if they're from Robocop. This whole debacle is exactly like how the Edinburgh fringe overtook the original Edinburgh festival.
[ 19.10.2006, 07:59: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
the line 'i carried a watermelon', does that count as being from robocop? i know its actually from 'dirty dancing', but as robocop and dirty dancing actually perform the same function but for different genders i thought maybe you would make an exception.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
This is anarchy. Darryn lock the thread.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: the line 'i carried a watermelon', does that count as being from robocop? i know its actually from 'dirty dancing', but as robocop and dirty dancing actually perform the same function but for different genders i thought maybe you would make an exception.
sorry, damage. I'm not the ruler here. Just because I know the rules, doesn't mean I can change them any more than you can. You made a mistake. Now it's time to erase that mistake.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I cannot participate in this thread, as I have never seen Robocop.
Goodbye, TMO.
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
If the shit fits - wear it!
You are home!
No prisoners! Har har har! Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
is that a robocop quote? i havent seen robocop since 1989. i have been too busy watching dirty dancing, as is right and proper and dictated by nature.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
dirty dancing was on the teevee on sunday night. i made the mistake of switching over to 'celebrities in spandex'. what a foolish schoolgirl error that was, as my mum then wanted to watch ruby wax prove that she should never. ever. ever. do live presenting.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: is that a robocop quote? i havent seen robocop since 1989. i have been too busy watching dirty dancing, as is right and proper and dictated by nature.
are you going to watch the live show or have you seen it already?
[ 19.10.2006, 08:19: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
somebody phoo "dirty robodancing" please.
thanks.
and people can phoo lines from the two together as well.
like, er:
"i've had the time of my life, and i owe it all to you, robocop"
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: is that a robocop quote? i havent seen robocop since 1989. i have been too busy watching dirty dancing, as is right and proper and dictated by nature.
For all your carping about 'chunks of dialogue' and all the rest of it, this quote isn't even from a film! Fuck a duck!
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: are you going to watch the live show or have you seen it already?
no, i am a purist and do not believe that any woman alive can mimic jennifer grey's portrayal of baby's Journey from gauche teen to sensual, erotically curious yet principled young woman. grey's iron- fisted grasp of baby's inner truth is, i would argue, inimitable.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
I've not seen RoboCop OR Dirty Dancing. Honest! Which would TMO recommend?
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Attempted murder? It's not like he killed somebody? Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: Am I my brothers keeper? Yes I am.
You'd better step off Gra-an-Pah!
Money talks and bullshit runs the marathon. See ya and I wouldn't wanna be ya!
Idolater, your soul is required in hell
I love New Jack City
'She was maa Mo-ther!'
Oh and, oooh guns guns guns! Come on Sal, Tigers are playing, TONIGHT! And I never miss a game.
all the best lines go to Clarence.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
everything Clarence says is a kick-ass one liner.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: [i]Money talks and bullshit runs the marathon.
I like it when they're at the place an the man goes in the water an he starts melting an he's all like 'Hoawwragh! Help Me!' an Clarence hits him with the car an he flies apart.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
he dosent just flie apart!!111 he EXPLODDES!1!!!!111!!!
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
denied
[ 19.10.2006, 11:12: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
watched The Holy Mountain on Friday night. A good film, very enjoyable. Funded by John Lennon and coming fresh from 1973, It follows Jesus on a quest for spiritual enlightment. After a seriously intense opening 15 minutes featuring a massive amount of dead skinned animals, animal carnage, nudity, blood, and scathing blasphemy, it settled down into a series of portraits of 8 other enlightment seekers, who are all representations of character traits and dimensions of society, as originally assigned to the planets (mars=war, etc). Then they go up a mountain, and some weird shit happens, and the ending is very much an excellent punchline. The film is basically an attack on the corruption of the search for spiritual enlightment, and contains some scenes of social and political satire that are as fresh now as they must have been back then.
The blood, animal death, nudity and general eye fucking imagery carries on through the film, and it does has an effect of transporting you to a different place, a land where whatever is imagined can exist, and that's pretty refreshing. The spiritual metaphors are hard to follow sometimes as very explicit references to spiritual lore are made throughout using literal imagery, and if you don't know what it means then it just comes across as craziness. This can spoil the flow once you find yourself 'digging it', and then all of a sudden completely lost, but perhaps that's the point in terms of the director's desire to produce a headtrip of a film. Confusion is part of it, and makes the clarity seem so much more important.
Basically, I really liked it, and hope to see it again soon after I've done some reading. I will say againt that it's not for the squeamish when it comes to animal death and the manipulation of the subsequent cadavers.
Lots of hipster ***** were at this film, so I imagine that it's been blogged to death by London's new culturati. Bobby Gillespie was hanging around the NFT before we went it. I saw a man take a photo of a light switch.
I also watched Ghostbusters which I didn't like so much. The overall message seemed to be pretty conservative, and I'm sure you could pull all sorts of meaning from the whole extermination of vagrant spirits in new york thing. I noticed too that there was lots of smoking for a kids film. Every other scene, one of the Ghostbusters was lighting up. Also lots of biblical references; it was clear that they were doing god's work by cleaning up New York. I don't know. It just didn't move me like it did when I was a kid, and I found it smug, stupid, and not funny.
One Hour Photo was on last night, which is an alright film. Slightly crass and shameless in the way it manipulates the audience, but still a good scary and then sad film.
[ 30.10.2006, 06:00: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I also watched loads of Sealab 2021, which has got to be the most hit and miss thing ever.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Went out to see A Good Year last night - against my better judgement, I wanted to see The History Boys but was overruled.
Don't bother. The City trader stuff is hopelessly overdone and outdated. Jeff from Coupling makes a brief appearance but is a complete snarling stereotype dupe.
The Provence stuff looks pretty but is again unoriginal and moderately dull. There are faux comedy moments that raised a wry liptwitch but that's about it really.
More Tom Hollander would have been good (I love a good Tom Hollander) but he was shamefully underused.
Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott and you get this tedium. What a letdown.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
That film does look pretty awful. Anything set in Provence is likely to be appalling twee horseshit, surely?
[ 30.10.2006, 06:03: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I watched Land of the Dead. As usual, I am a whole year behind everyone else. Zombies. Meh.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: That film does look pretty awful. Anything set in Provence is likely to be appalling twee horseshit, surely?
Yeah, and from that perspective it wasn't really a letdown as such, as I had no major expectations.
From the trailers last night and general word of mouth, I am sooooo looking forward to The Prestige that I'm practically wetting myself.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
zombies are cool, louche. land of the dead is shit.
seeing little children tonight. looks alright. kate winslet.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I've never really 'got' zombies, though. I don't find them very menacing. The Dawn of the Dead ones were quite scary, what with them having a good turn of speed on them. But mostly they're all just a bit shambolic, I think. Messy. I am too fastidious for zombies.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: zombies are cool, louche. land of the dead is shit.
seeing little children tonight. looks alright. kate winslet.
yeah I heard a pretty detailed analysis of that last night by the filmspotting guys and they said it was alright.
this looks okay. Maybe a bit wanky though, so further investigation needed.
[ 30.10.2006, 06:16: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
A Good Year looks like it might work as a peculiar nightmarish vision of hell, as though you're trapped at a dinner party with an insufferable c**t croaking on about his culture clash adventures with a load of digusting French peasants. I wonder whether Russell Crowe made the film just to get everyone to start admitting it was a lot more fun when he went round beating up hotel staff. I haven't even seen A Good Year, but the very existence of it makes me puking mad. Everytime I see that fuckawful poster campaign that looks like an advert for fucking... incontinence nappies or something I just want to... gah! I can't bear it.
Anyway, if someone wants to hear me express an opinion on a film I've actually - you know - seen, I watched Bottle Rocket on Friday, which I really enjoyed. It's got a real charm, and a funny idea for a script in which a small town crook attempts to embark on a life of crime using woolly management techniques (5 year plan, performance appraisals etc). It's a little bit directionless in places and feels a bit like a film that was once a short film, and then got extended when the filmakers managed to raise some more cash (90% sure this is what happened). But it's got some great lines and some great visual gags. I recommend it.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
I love the newer Dawn of the Dead. It is awesome, though I kinda missed the mall culture commentary aspect of the original. And yes, fast zombies are better than slow ones.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Fulci zombies are the best, and they're slow.
[ 30.10.2006, 06:33: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
is that overkill?
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
what other zombie films do you recommend benway? do you have any on dvd? you should come over and watch them with my new flatmate
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Can I come and watch zombie films with you guys?
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
if you can make it past all the asbo-operated suv barriers, sure
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I've got a few Fulci films on dvd. House by the Cemetary, The Beyond, Zombi, and City of the Living Dead, which all appear above. I think I've lent a few of them out though, although I watched City the other day. Good scene where a woman vomits up her entire digestive system (you can see her up there, with bleeding eyes, about to start the fun). There's no social commentary in his films, just gore, bad dubbing, illogical plot devices and bizarre editing. But they can be unsettling.
[ 30.10.2006, 06:50: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I've got Zombie Flesh Eaters which is actually a pretty good film.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Ringers- what did you think of Hostel? I was slightly disappointed...expected much more gore.
My brother just saw Saw 3(sounds weird) and said it was by far the best Saw. Said the gruesome parts are very very gruesome. Yay.
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
Oh! Another movie that I've seen recently is Duma. It's a story of a boy who (with his father) finds a cheetah cub (my fave big cat) on a road. They take it in, with the knowledge that they'll have to return it to the wild. Here it is on imdb.com
It brought tears to my eyes. (I'm a geek, what can I say)
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Amy: Ringers- what did you think of Hostel? I was slightly disappointed...expected much more gore.
I thought it was pretty weak to be honest. The problem with films like Hostel is that, for there to be any real sense of drama or peril, you have to want the main characters to be ok. You have to empathise with them at least on a basic level. Three morons backpacking across Europe hoping to get laid, however, really do deserve to die, and so it's almost disappointing that one of them doesn't. The only scene which had any kind of impact on me was the one where he cuts the girl's eye out, because she's just standing there screaming and you're thinking 'what do you even do in that situation?' but even that is let down by the rather poor special effects. It was like something out of Braindead.
To summarise: Hostel = rubbish. A horror film that'll appeal only to people who don't understand or appreciate proper horror films.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Anyone planning on seeing this?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I kind of am thinking about it, even though it's going to be generic rubbish. I kind of am.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
The first Saw film was pretty poor. I haven't seen Saw 2 and probably wont bother with 3 either.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yes I didn't really like saw 1. Good opening, but then really, where was the film? Just a load of people in traps. Like an extended nine inch nails video with some stupid bollocks tacked on at the end.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
you could say that the plot was looser than belladonna's bottom.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: this looks okay. Maybe a bit wanky though, so further investigation needed.
It was on this time last month Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: seeing little children tonight. looks alright. kate winslet.
yeah so alright film. great performances. i want to have an affair with kate winslet! the dude is totally unsympathetic though - grow up. actually, everyone is unsympathetic, apart from maybe the paedophile and his dear old mum. and it is a bit smug liberal upper middle class, not in a good way.
This week I'm gonna go watch You, Me, Dupree, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and Miami Vice.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
I watched (some of) The Secret Policeman's Ball on TV last night. I found it a bit hit and miss.
Russell Brand - ok, first time I've seen him doing stand up and I think the size of the audience was perhaps not suited so much to his style.
Chevy Chase - pretty shit, shitty sketch although I suppose it had a serious message to get across so...
Graham Norton - I flicked to another channel,
Eddie Izzard - Usual reasonably funny stuff, with Eddie doing his crayzee stream of consciousness type stuff "Jam, toaster, fluff, more jam" etc all of which I have seen before and know is a well rehearsed routine. Average.
Sarah Silverman - Highlight of the show for me, lots of confidence, moments of uncomfortable silence which reminded me of bill hicks when he was on stage. Some great material that's not afraid to cross into racist/homophobic territory and a story about her nan dying where she breaks down quite convincingly eliciting some cheers from the gullible audience members. Ended with the words "Please let there be semen in my dead Nan's vagina" Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
good old racism/homophobia. I mean, let's face it, we all have those thoughts.
*waits near trap*
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
oh i didn't even know about this. what channel was it?
On Monday i'm seeing Lee Mack, We Are Klang, Lucy Porter, Earl Okin, Mark Watson, Stephen K Amos and Daniel Kitson. I like the last two a lot, especially Kitson.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
it's political correctness gone mad etc.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I would enjoy comedy much more if they performed from behind a two way mirror, so there was NO WAY of them picking on you and making you the laughing stock. It's not cool when you're sat there with everybody laughing at you, or they ask you a question and you know whatever you say is going to make you look like an ass. They keep asking you questions and people just laugh gutteral laughs, laughing at you and laughing in the relief that it's you and not them. Even less cool if it happens when when you go to see comedy.
So....did you hear about my dog? He can't smell!
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
dude: Stewart Lee
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
that was even worse! That was awful. And funny.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: good old racism/homophobia. I mean, let's face it, we all have those thoughts.
quote:Having seen Sarah Silverman on the Dawn French comediennes' programme and been attracted to her sense of humour, I bought this dvd and was expecting great things. Not so. I'm known to have a pretty warped sense of humour but could only describe myself as offended, completely unmoved (except to mild anger and a lot of irritation) by this 'show'. I felt Silverman picked on the most serious of topics (who can find rape of an old woman funny - no matter in what context it's placed??) As for her singing - it made my gums bleed. I would therefore recommend that you save your money on this one - there are plenty of 'alternative' (yes, still) comedians/comediennes out there who are genuinely funny. Silverman is not one of them. A deep disappointment.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
anti-semite Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by not...: I'm known to have a pretty warped sense of humour
translation: wears a south park tie.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: that was even worse! That was awful. And funny.
You weren't laughing at the time
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
that reminds me of this meat one time. I think it was near Oxford Street in a bandy bar. It was late and we were all drunk, and I go for a piss. Then I hear this "Psss psss! oi benway! coming from the stall next to me. I presumed I was going to get some free drugs so I went in and it was boy racer, sitting on the toilet with his trousers down. I obviously recoiled, but then he goes, look at this!! and to my horror, pulls his pants half way up his legs to his knees and pointed to the south park design on them, giggling away, going look! LOL!. That was pretty fucking strange.
[ 01.11.2006, 08:34: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
oh god Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
could you be found slumped in the corner later, nursing a scotch, head bowed in shame?
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Lol. They were Simpsons pants Benway, Simpsons.
I watched some of the SPB. I saw Brand, and must admit to finding him much less irritating doing stand up. Unfortunately I was completely knackered from decorating and being an unfit elderly gaylord and went to sleep during the Chevy Chase sketch, thus missing Ms Silverman. I am now annoyed. She's superbly bitchy at the Start of Way of the Gun.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: Lol. They were Simpsons pants Benway, Simpsons.
even so
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: could you be found slumped in the corner later, nursing a scotch, head bowed in shame?
Later on Carter lost an expensive pair of glasses, and I got hassle from the police after kicking a traffic cone at a bus.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Even so what ralph?
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: Even so what ralph?
You don't show another man your underwear. Especially whilst seated on the toilet. It's just not done. At least not in the states.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Whatever you say Ralph.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
What would you do to men like that in the States ralph. Would you call them a faggot and rough them up outside their locker, then spill their exercise books all over the floor?
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: boy racer, sitting on the toilet with his trousers down.
Pre, Mid or Post shit ?
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: What would you do to men like that in the States ralph. Would you call them a faggot and rough them up outside their locker, then spill their exercise books all over the floor?
I wouldn't do anything to them, nwod. Benways partly to blame, as if someone invited me into their stall, I'd probably decline.
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
eh.
[ 01.11.2006, 14:03: Message edited by: Amy ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote: (who can find rape of an old woman funny - no matter in what context it's placed??)
[ 01.11.2006, 14:34: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R:
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: boy racer, sitting on the toilet with his trousers down.
Pre, Mid or Post shit ?
Come on Benway, if you're going to make up stories about me, and I have the decency to play along, then you could at least keep up the intrigue.
[ 02.11.2006, 11:03: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
made up? Lol! I wish. How do I know what stage you'd got to? I tried to ignore that whole side to it.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
When I first read Jimmy Big Nuts's post I assumed it was a joke, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the kind of thing Boy Racer would probably do.
[ 02.11.2006, 11:40: Message edited by: Thorn Davis ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I put my head in my hands because it could have been written by AWOL StevieX like this
quote:that reminds me of this meat one time. I think it was Manchester. It was late and we were all drunk, and I go for a piss. Then I hear this "Psss psss! oi Stevie! coming from the stall next to me. I presumed I was going to get some free drugs so I went in and it was Mikee, sitting on the toilet with his trousers down. I obviously recoiled, but then he goes, look at this!! and to my horror, pulls his pants down to his ankles and pointed to the horrible piercings sticking out of him like christmas decorations, giggling away, going look! LOL!. That was pretty fucking strange.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
luckily I didn't see BR's bone, or if I did, I've erased that. But I'll never forget that laughter.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
That's much better.
So much better that I am now not entirely sure it didn't actually happen.
I did own some Simpsons pants. They were a Christmas gift. From my Mum.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I saw Borat yesterday - I feel cheated. Best bits in the trailer for the most part and over hyped until it was flat and not as funny as it could have been. There are some horrible moments, the Frat boys in the RV sum up everything wrong with that part of the US, the scary cowboy racist and religo-nuts were good.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
my friend Becs wanted to go and see this but so far I've not been persuaded. I think I win! FACT.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
Just finished reading High Society, by Ben Elton. Racy, hilarious, upsetting, thought-provoking... excellent. It's been a long time since I've started reading a book and found it impossible to put back down. Didn't get to sleep until 3.30am this morning (and ruined my stop-drinking-a-bottle-of-wine-every-night ban) because of the fucking thing. First book written by Ben Elton that I've read - I'll definitely be buying his others if High Society is anything to go by.
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
quote: Originally posted by Zygote: Just finished reading High Society, by Ben Elton. Racy, hilarious, upsetting, thought-provoking... excellent.
lol
[ 03.11.2006, 08:40: Message edited by: Dedalus ]
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dedalus: lol
Have you read it?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
This looks great.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote: i would recomend this book to everyone. it writen in a way that you understand everything she is trying to tell you which for Jade is hard to believe bless her heart. Get it!!!!!
quote: I was recommended this book by a friend of mine (who told me it would help me find someone that she was also looking for?), and imagine my surprise when I found a copy that someone had left behind in my hotel room!
The book, lengthy and difficult to read, is set in a fantasy world where 'God' creates his own world and then procedes to bully all his creations, apart from his favourite ones. He has a huge temper and kills almost everyone quite a few times - especially gay people and those of different religions to his.
The first chapter makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (how did he make all that stuff before turning the lights on?), and quickly dissolves into an obscene tirade of homophobia, rape, racial stereo-typing, mass muder, anti-abortion, ethnic cleansing, sadomasochistic, genocidal filth.
Considering the fact that the central character, God, wrote this trash, it comes as a shock to find that he depicts himself as a bully, a murderer and an egotistical maniac, with a singular egocentric philosophy along the lines of 'Bow down before me, or die'.
The first third of the book concerns a lot of drug taking ("I give you all the seed-bearing plants on this earth"), intertwined with some lurid trips (burning pillars of salt?) and some heavy sex and rape scenes. The world almost ends a couple of times, and a few plagues threaten to wipe out the entire globe just because one person said the wrong thing to God.
About half way through the book God has a son around Christmas time (though this part wasn't explained very well) by having sex with a girl named Mary (who is actually married - but the husband doesn't seem to mind). This son is such a dickhead that he only has 12 friends, and by the end of his short life he gets tortured to death.
The penultimate chapter is all about the coming of the end of the world. You get the feeling that the author has just seen that ben Aflek movie about that meteor one or two many times. There's even a controversial take on the 9/11 conspiracy talking about "pillars of fire falling from the sky".
Surprisinlgy there isn't really an ending to speak of - leaving the reader somewhat confused and disappointed. (That is, if you ever get to the end). In fact, this book is so confusing there are global wars going on right now simply because people don't have a clue what it means.
Overall this book does for literature what straight-to-video releases did to cinema.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
I just finished reading Hangover Square, which was immensely impressive. I think someone here had the last line as their signature for a while, and when I got to that bit, it made me depressed and angry. Kind of the way this funny, sad and under-rated book had been co-opted into being a badge of edgy cool for some twat on a message board. It just screamed "Yeah, you know, I like books that are a bit different". It reminded me of Louche's accurate description of people who like Generation X standing under a bridge looking meaningfully alone. The book itself was lovely, though.
Before that, I read Great Apes by Will Self, which was recommended to me by ben. The 'human' passages of the book were pretty ghastly. Unoriginal and over-written. Fortunately, though, they only last a couple of chapters and the book switches to its description of a society run by chimpanzees. This part of the book was much better with lots of satisfying chimp-on-chimp violence; enough to lift any book out of the doldrums.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by SilverGinger5: set in a fantasy world where 'God' creates his own world and then procedes to bully all his creations, apart from his favourite ones. He has a huge temper and kills almost everyone quite a few times - especially gay people and those of different religions to his.
See, this actually sounds like a brilliant idea for a book.
[ 03.11.2006, 09:11: Message edited by: Thorn Davis ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I've just finished Dr Mukti And Other Tales Of Woe, by the disturbingly talented Will Self.
It's a collection of stories (some shorter than others) which as explore the minds of the mentally ill. I could use predictable words like dark and twisted to describe his writing. If you were feeling argumentative, you could justifiably reply with pretentious, overly wordy and smug. But where would that get us?
I've read most of Self's books over the last few years, and in my ho, this book is worthy of four point five garries, and bettered only by How the Dead Live.
ETA: Thorn - Just noticed you mentioned Will Self above. The final (and sadly shortest) story in this book is entitled Return to the Planet of the Humans and might be worth *reading.
[ 03.11.2006, 09:23: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: I just finished reading Hangover Square, which was immensely impressive. I think someone here had the last line as their signature for a while, and when I got to that bit, it made me depressed and angry. Kind of the way this funny, sad and under-rated book had been co-opted into being a badge of edgy cool for some twat on a message board. It just screamed "Yeah, you know, I like books that are a bit different". It reminded me of Louche's accurate description of people who like Generation X standing under a bridge looking meaningfully alone. The book itself was lovely, though.
lol Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I'm still 'reading' The Piano Teacher, but it's just not good tube material, so I haven't picked it up for a week now. It's getting dangerously close to being relegated to the 'will never read' shelf on the bookcase. This year that includes Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation and Georges Bataille's The Accursed Share. I don't know what I was thinking buying the Schopenhauer book.
[ 03.11.2006, 09:30: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
Is that the same Piano Teacher as the film of the same name?
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
I'm about to start Dr Mukti And Other Tales Of Woe. I'll post a similarly 'lollable' "review" when I've finished it. Loved My Idea of Fun and Quantity Theory of Insanity so my expectations are high.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
i hated the film of that so much that i actually used it as an anti- depressant for some weeks. every time something went wrong i thought 'well, its not as bad as it could be- you could be watching the piano teacher again'. god, it was a gruelling experience.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yes dedalus it is the same one.
[ 03.11.2006, 09:33: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
[ 03.11.2006, 09:34: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: i hated the film of that so much that i actually used it as an anti- depressant for some weeks. every time something went wrong i thought 'well, its not as bad as it could be- you could be watching the piano teacher again'. god, it was a gruelling experience.
I watched this movie at the cinema in Bristol which is now the Carling Academy (under the ice rink). I went with two girls who then proceeded to deconstruct it in the pub afterwards at great length. By the end of the night I wanted to stab both of them in the eyes.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: i hated the film of that so much that i actually used it as an anti- depressant for some weeks. every time something went wrong i thought 'well, its not as bad as it could be- you could be watching the piano teacher again'. god, it was a gruelling experience.
I'm looking forward to this. I like Haneke. He's alright. Miserable. I'll watch this film, and probably try to deconstruct the fuck out of it afterwards. Then I'll come here and write about the ' stunning technical composition' or 'alienating cinematography' or some other made up bollocks. Then I'll watch the ensuing deathly silence and take it to mean that I've blown everybody's minds with my higher level of comprehensive ability, when in fact I've bored the tits of my tmo friends with yet more unconvincing pretentious horse shit. What a wanker.
This, however, is not an exit.
[ 03.11.2006, 09:48: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Who wrote Hangover Square? Should I read it?
And hello SilverGinger. I miss you, sometimes, when it's late at night.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Oh Benway, I read The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek ages ago and thought it quite stunning: "The writing style is manic, violent, the story awful and compelling. Unexpected flashes of gallows hilarity and it creeps up and makes you care, despite the cleverly crafted alienation and dark nihilism that pervades every page. It is flawed - too much word play, too knowing at times - but still a thrilling and intelligent examination of a lost soul."
I miss reading. Last book was this. Pretty good, but then I like all books about people like them or set in situations like that.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
It's probably best to read it standing under bridge, posing yourself in such a way that if anybody walked past they would be stunned by just how alone and contemplative you looked. If it was a chick, she'd instantly get down and start sucking your cock in an attempt to find the magnifient essence of your labyrthine soul. If it was a dude he'd have to go home and evaluate his entire approach to life, having found his existance to be shallow and wanting after glimpsing you, posing, under a bridge, reading a book.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
when i read the review of vikram's book on amazon, it came up with lots of other suggestions for other books to read. books about rwanda, about genocide, about the UN, aid work, medecin sans frontiers, altruism... when i scrolled to the bottom of the page i was suddenly confronted with: your most recently viewed item- my story, by jade goody. this juxtaposition says a lot to me about my life of late.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
that juxtaposition sounds like E4 gold. Jade's Aid. You can imagine what happens.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
'wheres zamibia?'
[ 03.11.2006, 10:47: Message edited by: dance margarita ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
right, let's make this relatively snappy and painless. If you're wondering wether to carry on reading, I'd recommend not bothering as you're just going to get an awkward mess of adjectives that don't really mean anything.
Rather than go out and socialise with friends, the derth on invitations meant that instead I sat in and watched films on saturday night. I couldn't sleep because of all the explosions and revelry, so I dug out a couple of films that I've been meaning to watch for sometime.
up first was Branded to Kill an extremely stylised B/W Japanese film from 1967, about a hitman. This fellow is known as "number 3", because he's the number 3 hitman in Japan. A job goes wrong after a butterfly lands on his gun barrel and gets in the way of the scope, and then he's marked out to be killed himself because of the 'kill or be killed' ethic of the hitman profession. He's also only really turned on by the smell of cooking rice, he's a hit with the ladies, and he looks like the kind of guy that mart would idolise, as he's always very very cool and slick looking.
Anyway, the film's a bit of a classic, so there's not much I could say that wouldn't be more explicitly and succiently identified elsewhere. The photography is superb, the film is weird, the atmosphere is unique. Cool jazzy music, hot females, and a great interpretation of noir add up to a film that is as much if not more of an 'experience' than a story. Indeed, the story itself isn't remarkable. The film is more of a collection of quirks, in the appearing characters, the photography and the style. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Within the first ten minutes I thought it was going to be well shit, and I think it deliberately made out like it was going to a standard crappy espionage type of film, but then it goes way bizarre, and it's all good.
Almost the exact opposite of that film, I then watched the Physic endorsed Graveyard of Honour, a Japanese yakuza film made by Kinji Fukasaku back in 1975. It's about a young guy who seems like he's going to be a Yakuza in the post ww2 slums of Shinjuku, but then fucks everything up by killing / beating up anybody he feels like, pissing all the mobs off, and then getting hopelessly addicted to horse.
It's almost a textbook definition of 'gritty'. It's filmed with a faux documentary shaky cam, putting the audience right in the middle of rucks and meetings that have no sheen or glitz. the film stock seems to change with locations, sometimes the colours are faded to sepia, other times they're burning the screen as the claret flows. The main character doesn't say much, but remains locked inside a personal hell that we're never shown. He's pure anger, there's nothing cool or calculating about him. His story is grim from the first shot to the last, and this makes the film a harrowing experience.
It reminded me of City of God, in that the environment seemed to be the biggest character, and the humans were just facets of the bigger picture of poverty and desperation. The slums of shinjuku are brilliantly captured, and you do get the feeling of a community that's given up on principles in order to survive, in contrast to the typical impression of the orthodox yakuza code. From time to time the American occupiers are visible, which again shows how pressured life was for the impoverished japanese at that time. There's no suprises in the story; it can only go one way, and while it's often awful and miserable, it's always an urgent and heartfelt work.
chinese ex-POWs and Japanese yakuza duke it out in a Shinjuku jail cell
I went into the Odeon Haymarket to go and see "The Red Road", but decided I couldn't shell out the £20 for two tickets.
[ 06.11.2006, 06:23: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
coming soon - a shitty non-review of the Japanese sensation 'Densha Otoko'(train man). I got it today. Looks sappy. Geek wants to go out with chick, stops being geek, gets the chick. Where's the fun in that?
[ 06.11.2006, 06:15: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
So you've read all about Kenji's 1975 classic "Graveyard of Honour" and want to catch a piece of the action? No problem!
Yakuza Graveyard is on at the NFT in a few weeks! Lucky! I'll be there, will you? (no).
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: coming soon - a shitty non-review of the Japanese sensation 'Densha Otoko'(train man). I got it today. Looks sappy. Geek wants to go out with chick, stops being geek, gets the chick. Where's the fun in that?
I'd be interested to see what you think of it Jimmy - my house guest has just flown in from Osaka - maybe I should get the low down from him about how huge this thing is there.
[ 06.11.2006, 07:02: Message edited by: Waynster ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I wish I had a japanese houseguest. Although I might have to notify the council about it beforehand in case the resulting awesomeness caused problems for nearby residents.
[ 06.11.2006, 07:04: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
is that film about the train man the one that came out a few years ago about a japanese man who gets really really drunk and then he makes a woman on a train have an orgasm using his hand- which is quite hott- and shes quite young, and then they sex and then they hate each other for about an hour and half solid, thats it, just them hating each other? i saw that film some years ago on television. it was shit, except for the orgasm bit. benway might have liked it but i hope not. hes better than that.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
no, this is a romantic comedy that's suitable for all ages. There's nothing like that in it as far as I know. The box calls it "Computer aided love between a beauty and a youth!"
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
Benway, Have you seen Takashi Miike's version of Graveyard of Honor?
I've not seen the original, but would like to see how they differ.
Kinji Fukasaku is the one who brought Battle Royale to the screen, if you've not read the book, I highly suggest you do. Delves much deeper into the characters. Hard to come by, in the shops at least. There was only one copy at my local Barnes and Noble, and since I've bought it (two years ago now), they've not replaced it.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
So is that the same film you reviewed that's on at the NFT Benway?
I too want to see Red Road, I dunno if you've got a Picture House near you Benway but my local is £5 on Mondays. Also want to see The Host.
I did finally get round to seeing Children of Men, which I thought was excellent. I did see what Benny mentioned about the lulls, but I thought they enhanced the very well developed sense of danger that built throughout it. Clive Owen was the best he’s been since Croupier. Michael Caine is pretty damn good too. And the political aspects of the story, particularly around immigration, are handled with intelligence and style. There’s a little production design gag on Guernica and graffiti in it too.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
i totally dug all the christian symbolism in children of men. benway hated that
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: So is that the same film you reviewed that's on at the NFT Benway?
No, it's a different one. One is called Graveyard of Honour, the other is called Yakuza Graveyard. I haven't seen the Miike version although I am aware of it. I've got a Miike film at home that still needs watching though - Shinjuku Triad Society. After Izo I stopped with the Miike.
Also, I read some of the Manga of Battle Royale, and that went further into each character, and painted the teacher as a bit of a paedo which I don't think the film did. Still I only read about three before I stopped buying the fucking things. It seemed like it was going to go on for ever. I haven't read the novel though. I probably won't either, I've seen that film so many times now that it's not something I want to revisit.
[ 07.11.2006, 05:16: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: No, it's a different one. One is called Graveyard of Honour, the other is called Yakuza Graveyard.
I got that clever bollocks. I was wondering if it was a quirk of translation/alternate title, which I believe has been known to happen.
They sound very interesting regardless.
I have Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter myself.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
What's this for? Anyone? Benway?. Has anybody seen Saw III? Apparently it's totally awesomely horrific. Quite fancy some of that.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer:
I got that clever bollocks. I was wondering if it was a quirk of translation/alternate title, which I believe has been known to happen.
They sound very interesting regardless.
I have Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter myself.
It's 'Big Nuts'. And, there's a season of japanese films on at the nft starting tomorrow!
[ 07.11.2006, 06:38: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
i have been reading 9/11 truth movement debunk sites. lots of them. for hours. seven hours on friday. if you are being annoyed by a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, ever, send them to me. i will FUCKING RIP THEM. 9/11 conspriacy theorists- cuntnuggets.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
needing an autumnal comfort blanket, i've been re-reading space opera novels. i'm so uncool.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: if you are being annoyed by a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, ever, send them to me. i will FUCKING RIP THEM.
*clickity* Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
oh my me. you see, having said the above, theres simply no talking to that sort.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
you could take a shot at charlie sheen?
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
quote:originally posited by charlie sheen:There was a feeling, it just didn't look any commercial jetliner I've flown on any time in my life and then when the buildings came down later on that day I said to my brother 'call me insane, but did it sorta look like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?'
lemme at 'em! lemme at 'em! Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I saw Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, today. I now have diabetes.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I saw The Prestige last night. I thought it was excellent. I won't give a detailed review:
a) because I'm shit at them ; and b) because this is one of those films where it's best to go and see it with as little foreknowledge as possible.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: Has anybody seen Saw III? Apparently it's totally awesomely horrific. Quite fancy some of that.
I watched it on Friday. Key words that sprung to mind: average, tedious, predictable, fairly bloody. The first one was okay; the second was bad - this one is worse. The first ten minutes or so brought gasps and whispers of 'I can't bear to look!' from the audience, but even the more squeamish members of the audience soon fell into the comfort zone. The film doesn't really shock at all.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Pt 2. On friday and it was shit.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
quote: ...needing an autumnal comfort blanket, i've been re-reading space opera novels. i'm so uncool.
Space opera is cool. Anyone who says otherwise is simply wrong. Have you read any Neal Asher?
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Nope. Space opera in the form of Liaden novels by Lee & Miller, or the Vorkosigan novels by Lois McMaster Bujold. Also military sci-fi by David Weber, Elizabeth Moon, David Feintuch.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
which Neal Asher would you recommend as a first read then, Abby?
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
[u]Wither Thou Space Orc?[/u] is a pretty good starting point.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
I think I found Gridlinked -> Line of Polity -> Brass Man worked quite well...they are linked but not a rigid series as such. Each is better than the last. The Skinner and Cowl are kind of separate, and Prador Moon chronologically precedes The Skinner but is not on that site for some reason. It is not so good in my opinion so maybe that is why it is missing. Hidden in shame...
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I watched that 100% English doc followed by The Martians and Us doc on BBC Four last night.
100% English was a great example of building idiots up for falls, and seemed a bit like shooting fish in barrels on occasion, but I thought that some seemingly revolting people had quite interesting reactions to their results.
The Martians and Us was pretty standard BBC Four excellence, even if it did cover alot of familiar ground.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I saw a film about Long Gone John recently, that was really interesting. He's a bloke who lives in LA who's well into collecting Lowbrow culture, and also runs a very hip record company called Sympathy for the Record Industry. While it focused on him in for about half the film, the rest used his central place in lowbrow culture to expand outwards and talk to other artists and figures in the scene.
I don't know much about lowbrow, to the point where I hadn't even heard the term before outside of it's more general use. But it relates to a kind of warped LA americana that studies common and powerful iconography. Think the look, feel, and characters in Ghostworld. Toy collecting, record collecting, 50s imagery, underground cartoons, all that kind of thing is associated with lowbrow. Wikipedia can tell it better than me, although I can't link to the page because it's got () in the title.
Anyway, I found that side of it very interesting, and the film effortlessly swayed between the biopics of both the man and the movement. Then after the film a bloke called Savage Pencil was there, and there was raffle and the director did some talking and everything was lovely, albeit cold because we were in the hipster's favourite cinema, The Horse Hospital.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I quite like the look of this film 'Joy Division'. I met the writer/director of this recently while I was aimlessly wandering the streets trying to find a gutter where I could do drugs. He was very friendly, same age as me, cockney sparrah, and invited me to a screening and gave me his number and everything and was all like, you know, i could help you if you want to get into films, you seem alright. But I couldn't bring myself to text him until recently because I suppose I was scared and I couldn't really believe that he meant it because you know I'm such a dick, I'm just an embarrasment, so maybe he was taking the piss, but by the time I got back to him it was too late and he didn't respond and I've thrown away a chance.
[ 16.11.2006, 07:16: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I went to see South Korean giant mutant tadpole movie The Host last night with TheLady and we both thought it was fantastic.
It's a heady blend of comic family melodrama, with some finely played social and political commentary, and a cracking great monster movie.
Full of great performances from the central cast, combined with unobtrusively skillfull direction from Joon-Ho Bong (of the equally excellent policier Memories of Murder), and plenty of jump scares. The CGI monster effects by US outfit The Orphanage are superb.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
JBS - I tried to get a job on that, Control. I'd just come off a job with Samanth Morton, who is hard work (although I had no problems with her, I must add), but a good actress, and I like the look of the film from what I've seen so far.
I'm currently watching X-Files box sets (series one is half bad due to dating terribly, but series two is great)and reading the last book in the Baroque Cycle, The System of the World, by Neal Stephenson - all been very good so far, if a little over detailed - but not in a Stephen "I write 2000 words a day, what ever they are" King, just makes for a slow read.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
Anybody else seen Hard Candy? Just been watching it and I don't think I'll uncross my legs for the next week..
Seriously though, highly recommended, not entirely original as there are some obvious parallels with Audition, themes of sexual predators getting their comeuppance, and reversing the stereotypical roles of the male as the aggressor and the female as the victim, but aside from that it has some very original touches and some very powerful acting.
It manages to tell the story without coming across as overly preachy as well, which is always a big risk, I think, with films based so strongly around moralising.
As I say, recommended.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
I thought Hard Candy rubbish. The film lacked empathy, was so cold, contrived and calculated. At least Audition was original in parts. This was just boring.
[ 19.11.2006, 09:54: Message edited by: vikram ]
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: The film lacked empathy
The whole point of the film was to make it difficult to fully relate to either character, to blur the lines between who was in the right and who was in the wrong and force you to really think about to what extent you could excuse her actions based upon the motivation, and to what extent she was just like him.
quote: cold, contrived and calculated.
Again I thought the cold, calculated part seemed deliberate to me, the way she just went about what she was doing so calmly was one of the scariest things about her, and suggested a degree of sociopathy to me. I mean she says herself that "4 out of 5 doctors agree that I'm crazy".
quote:Audition was original in parts. This was just boring.
There's a lot of things you could see about the film, but I struggle to see how you can really call a film like that boring whatever else you make of it.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: i hated the film of that so much that i actually used it as an anti- depressant for some weeks. every time something went wrong i thought 'well, its not as bad as it could be- you could be watching the piano teacher again'. god, it was a gruelling experience.
Fans of gruelling, hateful films will be pleased to hear that it's on at the NFT on tuesday night. I won't be there, sadly, but that doesn't mean that you can't go and pretend to be me.
[ 27.11.2006, 06:58: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I saw Pixar's Cars at the weekend. It was well wicked.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
If you enjoyed Cars, why not try "Over The Hedge" next weekend,it has a few noice lines and a kinda feelgood story..
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: I saw Pixar's Cars at the weekend. It was well wicked.
My nephew is obsessed with that. He is bringing it up with him when he visits me next weekend and apparently I have to watch it with him. I hope it is good because I begrudge sitting still through boring stuff. Life is too short. I was forced to watch the second Pirates of whatever this weekend and in spite of it having been part of a birthday goody-bag from my partner, who was watching it with me, I started reading 'We Need to Talk about Kevin' again, to save myself.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: I saw Pixar's Cars at the weekend. It was well wicked.
Did you really think so? I thought it was very pretty but totally empty and souless.
[ 27.11.2006, 08:48: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: Did you really think so? I thought it was very pretty but totally empty and souless.
That's reassuring seeing as I am doomed to a viewing.
I guess souless doesn't bother the average three year old much. I suspect that lttle 'un'll be less tolerant of me reading during his film than Mr Sam though.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
It's just sort of strangely blank and vapid.
You might be okay with a three year old, though my 5 year old nephew got decidedly bored and fidgety, and that was at the cinema.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: my 5 year old nephew got decidedly bored and fidgety, and that was at the cinema.
ADHD.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
did you give them coke and maltesers before hand. They contain sugar you know...
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
That's like saying I have ADHD because I couldn't sit still and watch Pirates of the whatever.
Who gives a kid Maltezers?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: Who gives a kid Maltezers?
What?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
old geezers?
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: Who gives a kid Maltezers?
sam, I thought you were a bit of a gentle touch, you know, a bit motherly and that but denying a child maltesers is practically child abuse. Jamie Oliver has a lot to answer for. If the fat tongued prick had tried to give me a feta and rocket salad wrap as a kid I'd have hurled it aside and shown him the wrong way to ingest a Lion bar.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: I'd have hurled it aside and shown him the wrong way to ingest a Lion bar.
There is no wrong way to ingest a Lion bar. There's the fast way, the slow way, the nice way, the nasty way, but... there is no wrong way.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Well, when I said ingest I meant 'to obtain food by engulfing it' but I don't think that makes what you said any less true.
The sideway. That would smart a bit I reckon.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: 'to obtain food by engulfing it'
Have you ever anally ingested a Lion bar whilst shitting through your mouth? I've heard it's supposed to be some kind of near-spiritual experience...
[ 27.11.2006, 11:57: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Sorry, I wandered off there.
Maltezers taste of malt and are horrible.
What's wrong with tons of brightly coloured,poisonous looking e-number infested,shiny, enamel-chipping crunchy real sweets?
Maltezers are for old women who are still stupid enough to think they don't make you fat.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: [QUOTE]Have you ever anally ingested a Lion bar whilst shitting through your mouth? I've heard it's supposed to be some kind of near-spiritual experience...
[oldpreacher'ssouthern twang]That sounds like th' sortta spiritual experience tha'll get ya sent straight to hell, boy![/oldpreacher'ssoutherntwang]
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
they still have lion bars? i want!
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: they still have lion bars? i want!
You want?
You want to fuck smaile blacke babeys in the arse? Well Lion bars are made by Nestlé, so every time you eat one, that's essentially what you'll be doing...
Enjoy!
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Nestlox own Lion bars. Oh for fuck sake.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
late to the party on this, but finally watched Brick. At first I thought I was going to dislike it, but after about twenty minutes I really got into it. Quite hipsterish in concept and execution, in that every frame looked like it could have come from a fashion shoot for The Face. However, the grittyness felt genuine, and the film wasn't trying to redefine or update the noir genre in any ultra-conscious post modern way. Instead, it was a straight noir placed in a novel context, and it worked great. I found it hard to follow some of the dialogue at times because of the mumbling and the use of language typical of the genre, but once I had a grip on the story, I was hooked. The performances are quirky without being annoying, and the plot remains tight as it increases in complexity.
[ 30.11.2006, 06:50: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I also saw the live show "The Blue Man Group", and that was okay too. Some genuinely fun moments.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: Nestlox own Lion bars. Oh for fuck sake.
I bought a Lion Bar at the Al Saad stadium the other night while watching Qatar beat Jordan 3-0.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Even after I realised they were nestle I tried to buy one yesterday as I was really hungry. The machine ate my money and I pressed my face against the glass and wailed at my stolen chocolate. On a scale of bad things that could happen. I'd give it a 6/10.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: the other night while watching Qatar beat Jordan 3-0.
I suppose with tits like that she can't get round the field as well as one might hope.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Drifter's - now there's a chocolate bar.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I've always hated Curly Wurlys after the time my parents bought four of them and handed them to us to pass down in a line. When I got mine my brother whacked it over my head and it stayed bent in a comedy boomerang shape. My entire family laughed. Not only did the caramel feel like it had cracked my skull but when I opened it, the chocolate flaked off onto the floor with every bite, leaving everyone to enjoy curly wurlys and for me to eat a stick of bendy caramel and stomp around in chocolate shoes. Curly Wurlys are *****.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Boosts make me sick - I sprained my ankle at school jumping bread baskets, catching the last one and coming crashing down. As I lay in pain, someone stuck a boost in my mouth, to what end I am not sure - I've never liked them since.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
best chocolate evah! Peanut Kit-kat. mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Drifter's - now there's a chocolate bar.
Benny = 100% correct.
The Drifter is not in as wide distribution as it deserves, although perhaps that is part of its enigmatic appeal.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
oh come on, the drifter is just a slightly caramel-y kitkat with pretentions of grandeur.
kitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkit katkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkatkitkat
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
You haven't got a fucking clue, have you? Not a clue.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Drifters? Don't they have wafer and nuts?
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
And now they've taken the silver foil off Kit Kats so you can't even brass-rub the logo on them they're even more useless.
Kit Kats? llol n00b!
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
No nuts in a Drifter, my man.
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
The mighty Double Decker comes a close second to the sublime Drifter.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Drifter.
Sounds a bit gay, doesn't it?
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
That's part of the appeal, admittedly. The transgression of the outsider snack.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Caramac.
Do they still make those?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Nutty.
They had nuts in. Or rather on. Not surprisingly.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
With fudge in the middle.
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
You're trying to wind me up aren't you, mate?
Caramac fucking **** .
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
Christ I feel physically fucking sick now.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
And the milk chocolate one with the little bits of rice crispie in...
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
What has a hazelnut in every bite?
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
You don't care who you offend, do you?
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
It's all about the chocolate Black Mask likes, all about him.
Never mind the poor ***** working themselves into an early grave so he can get his Caramac.
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
Thatcher's favourite chocolate bar was the Nutty.
F a c t
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Everyone's a fruit and nutcase...
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
Pinochet of course was a Texan fan.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Triiiiiiiiiiiii-OH! Oh, triii-iii-iiio!
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Who would win in a fight between Double-Decker and Picnic?
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
Reagan once had Airforce 1 fly 250 miles for a box of Hersheys, the idiot.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
NUTS! Whole hazelnuts! Ooh! Cadbury's take 'em and they cover them in chocklet!
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Picnic. No sweat.
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
Noriega was a great lover of Marathon, but his lisp makes him sound funny when he asks for a Snickers, so now he sticks with his next favourite, the Bounty.
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: Picnic. No sweat.
lol orly.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
A bar of Snickers would twat fuck out of a Picnic any day. Any fucking day.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
Can I just say, I had a Drifter when I was about 13 and I didn't like it much, since then I haven't had another. I'm pretty sure the Drifter is a low quality chocolate snack. Their rarity is due to the fact that they are a rubbish 80's throwback which don't sell in comparison to today's class leading chocolate such as Mars Bar, Yorkie and Twix.
The Drifter is described thusly:
quote:Drifter Chocolate Bar - The laid back snack. Crisp wafer dipped in chewy caramel and covered in real milk chocolate.
The wafer is the real problem here. A wafer based chocolate bar gives the impression of cheapness. The sort of thing your mum puts in your sandwich box. The Drifter is really only marginally superior to a Tunnocks Caramel wafer. The sort of thing you would ooh and ahh over in the rationed days of WWII perhaps. It's a sweet you can eat but there is no real sense of thick chocolatey satisfaction there. As you crunch your way through the wafer section you know deep down that you're being ripped off.
[ 30.11.2006, 10:04: Message edited by: not... ]
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
I just punched the computer screen
Posted by Dedalus (Member # 892) on :
I've got a meeting now, but when I come back you'd better all be singing the praises of the Drifter and the Double Decker or the shit will hit the fan.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
I have no problem with Double Decker.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Clark bars rule.
Snickers, Zygote? Snickers????
kicks Zygote in the groin Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
Double Deckers have that unnaturally white, not quite nutty chewy stuff in, don't they? Gross.
Kitkats are boring. Whenever wafers are involved, half the product essentially just becomes air. Also, cheap, thin nasty Nestle chocolate.
Cadbury chocolate bars automatically have richer, thicker, tastier chocolate, and the winner must therefore be the Crunchie for the delectable contrast between the gleaming richness of the tempting gold tooth-rot honeycomb and the smooth chocolate. Mmmmm.
Having said that, Mars bars would surely win in any kind of fight, due to their solid, brick-like nature.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
Oh, poor Ralph has to eat Hershey chocolate, because he lives in a poor country. Man, that's harsh.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
At least my crappy country has been able to put a man on the moon. But hey, chocolate's pretty important too. I suppose. Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: Clark bars rule.
Snickers, Zygote? Snickers????
kicks Zygote in the groin
Ralph, all american chocolate bars are named so as to directly not link with their rest-of-the-world counterparts - you were probably eating chocolate coated chicken wings when you got a snickers...
quote: Originally posted by not... The Drifter is really only marginally superior to a Tunnocks Caramel wafer.
not... over 4 million of them sold daily (Tunnocks that is), granted mainly to the scottish, but still don't diss the tunnock - dip it in a brew you fool!
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: At least my crappy country has been able to put a man on the moon. But hey, chocolate's pretty important too. I suppose.
God ralph, that was so faked - like, the flag was totally blowing because of the studio air con, and the shadows were all totally all wrong totally, god!
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: God ralph, that was so faked - like, the flag was totally blowing because of the studio air con, and the shadows were all totally all wrong totally, god!
We want the rest of the world to think it was fake. We don't want word to get out that Americans routinely travel to space as easily as the rest of the world walks down to the corner store for a pack of smokes. I myself have been to the moon several times. I'm sure that rooster and froopy will back me up on this, unless of course they're afarid of what would happen if they told the truth.
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
quote:not... over 4 million of them sold daily (Tunnocks that is), granted mainly to the scottish, but still don't diss the tunnock - dip it in a brew you fool!
I have no problem with Tunnocks Caramel wafer. But the fact is they are a simple cheap snack, usually bought in a pack of five or so. It's ok though, they're not pretending to be anything else.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Am I imagining this or did there used to be a chocolate bar called a 'Secret' which was like a real work of confectionary art? Like a cross between a walnut whip and a mars bar, sort of, with a kind of latticework of dark and milk chocolate over the top?
Incidentally, Walnut Whip for the win. Just throw the stupid nut away, or spit it in someone's face.
Ralph - The British invented America, meaning that anything America does is a British achievement. Never forget that, because one day you'll be repatriated, along with the Australians, and I wouldn't like to be in your shoes pal Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: We don't want word to get out that Americans routinely travel to space as easily as the rest of the world walks down to the corner store for a pack of smokes.
I see. That explains those disasters then. Also - the Indians and Chinese will be 'better at space' than the Americans in approximately 80 weeks.
[ 30.11.2006, 10:42: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
okay, as you were.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: I see. That explains those disasters then.
To which disaters do you refer? Baseball?
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Ralph - The British invented America, meaning that anything America does is a British achievement. Never forget that, because one day you'll be repatriated, along with the Australians, and I wouldn't like to be in your shoes pal [/QB]
So you guys are responsible for Bush? Bad, bad British.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
that's cold Misc...
Hey, Ralph, what does NASA really stand for?
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
the moonlandings were real! where do you think 'nam was filmed?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
No no, another great thing about being British is being able to catagorically blame all bad things in the world directly on the French.
So Bush = another filthy French invention
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph:
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: I see. That explains those disasters then.
To which disaters do you refer? Baseball?
Challenger, Columbia - they were set up to make the world think you were shit at space, right?
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: that's cold Misc...
What can I say? I blame the fucking avatar...
[ 30.11.2006, 10:48: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by not... (Member # 25) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo:
Incidentally, Walnut Whip for the win. Just throw the stupid nut away, or spit it in someone's face.
There's something sexual about the Walnut Whip. Like sucking the spunk out of a fat man's stubby wrinkly nub of a penis.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
then nibbling round and round his foreskin
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: Challenger, Columbia - they were set up to make the world think you were shit at space, right?
Oh, Misc. Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Hey, Ralph, what does NASA really stand for?
[badtaste1986] Need Another Seven Astronauts [/badtaste1986]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Christ nwod Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I didn't think that was bad considering H1ppy is suggesting eating a fat mans foreskin.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: I didn't think that was bad considering H1ppy is suggesting eating a fat mans foreskin.
What she does in the privacy of her own home doesn't concern me. But to mock the dead is another story entirely.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: What she does in the privacy of her own home doesn't concern me. But to mock the dead is another story entirely.
Oh my fucking christ.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: Oh my fucking christ.
Oh, so now he's your fucking Christ is he? Let me guess, the British invented Christ, and the God the American's worship is just shit, right?
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
(i shall stop pic posting now)
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: Oh, so now he's your fucking Christ is he? Let me guess, the British invented Christ, and the God the American's worship is just shit, right?
No'm but I've heard he's quite the potty-mouth on X Box Live.
[ 30.11.2006, 13:09: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I heard he was french...
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I'm only kidding. The Americans have the same god as us. The original was Um Big Chief God, obviously.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Do you believe in God, nwod?
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
When God is surprised or amazed by something, he says, "Oh my NWoD". He says it with a Woody Allen accent usually, though no one's really sure why. It's God so he does whatever he fucking wants.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: Do you believe in God, nwod?
Do you mean....do I believe in an omnipresent creator who sculpted the world in seven days and sent his son down to die for our sins?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Of course NWoD believes in God - he wrote a song called Punch your way into Heaven, (which even mentions The Lord by name), ffs! I didn't know NWoD was a Christian before I heard that track. Afterwards, I wracked my brains to check if I'd ever said anything offensive about religion in his presence. He¹ takes this stuff pretty seriously.
¹That's He as in NWoD, not He as in God. I just used a capital H because it was the first letter of the sentence, you see? But I guess God takes it pretty seriously too, so whatevs...
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
Recently Read:
Dr. Mukti and Other Tales of Woe by Will Self.
Dr. Mukti - Hilarious psychological duel between two twisted psychiatrists. Tears-down-cheeks funny at times.
161 - Deliberately sluggish urban tale. An OAP and a teenage thug form an unlikely relationship. Packed with trademark Will Self metaphors.
Five Swing Walk - Short, misanthropic story involving an anger-ridden Father, his children and a very bitter end.
Conversations With Ord - Strange tale involving two odd men and their bizarre conversations held whilst strolling around London.
Return to the Planet of the Humans - I haven't read Great Apes yet, but I'm sure that this very short Ape-related finale will mean more after doing so. An amusing end to an excellent compilation.
Blast from the Past by Ben Elton*.
An amusing tale of romance-lost, romance-rediscovered, with a very irritating stalker that makes you want to gouge your eyeballs out. Not as entertaining as High Society but nonetheless, an afternoon's reading well spent.
*Especially for Dedalus.
Currently Reading:
Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys by Will Self.
[ 06.12.2006, 09:02: Message edited by: Zygote ]
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I misread that as
Tough
Tough Toys for Tough
Tough Boys
...like some sort of trilogy.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
You ought to lay off the Tippex, H1ppychick.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
well I finally finished Elfriede Jelinek's astonishing The Piano Teacher, and it's a pretty far out book. It's not like anything else I've read. There's little action, but the emotional landscapes of the principle three characters of the teacher, her mother, and her student, are drawn in a disturbingly raw and insightful way. The most private and uncomfortable elements of these people are individually stripped out and dissected through their own thoughts, hidden or otherwise. There's no love going on here. Just biting, jagged claustrophobia, and three broken characters screaming from inside mutant egos. Every hell is private, made more so by their various interactions.
I suppose it's essentially a study of sado-masochism, and it drills far beyond the comfortable in it's quest to lay the characters (and by turn, the society they live in) open. Excellently cruel. I'll probably read it again after I've had a chance to mull it over.
I've also finished Griffin's High Concept: Don Simpson and the Culture of Hollywood Excess. It's a pretty sloppy gutter-born account of Don Simpson's adventures in tinsel town. It's not a generous book, and it paints him as a right bastard, reguarly abusing everybody around him and staying constantly loaded on booze, pills, and coke. The regular suspects are brought in: Bob Evans, Heidi Fleiss, Madam Alex etc, and everybody crashes cars, covers each others asses, and gets wasted. Absorbing, in a guilty way.
What else what else.
Started Batailles' The Accursed Share, and it's hardcore, but I'm going to persist. I think it's some marxist type business, with the 'accursed share' itself being a more general economic form of that thing in Das Capital where Marx talks about how all labourers work for free for a portion of their day in order to produce profit for the owners of the means of production. In this case, it's about the excess 'energy' produced by *all* economic systems that we're granted as 'luxury', whether it be personal or systemic. But it's also to do with sex, so, we'll see.
[ 06.12.2006, 09:53: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I also looked at Cameron Diaz in the latest issue of Marie Claire, and she looks alright. I like her with dark hair. So does my mate Ian.
Not the best picture, but it gives you an idea.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
ooh i want to read the secon of those books! sounds fun.
you should read foreign babes in beijing by rachel dewoskin. this chick right, she's a journo or something, she's smart, but she ends up playing a gwailin whore on chinese soaps. it's quite fun, but genuinely interesting, and is about your homeland dude.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
all women are whores.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
am I right, guys? Yeah.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
You have to apply.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
you're such a misogynist
eta: benway i mean. obviously.
[ 06.12.2006, 09:58: Message edited by: vikram ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Nah, I hate women too, with their 'tits' and their 'menstrual cycles' - they think they're so damn special.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
to Don Simpson, it was the literal truth that all women were whores.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
don simpson is my hero
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
I love women. They're cute - they always look so vulnerable when they're asleep.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
I love and respect women. I think benway owes women everywhere a huge apology.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
ha ha.
I have still not read the High Concept Don Simpson book. I do, however, love the final line in the 'Kid Stays In The Picture' - that's my first contribution for the day - what a winner!
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I remember reading a story about Simpson at some 80s wrap party or other, possibly for Top Gun.
Someone supposedly walked in on him simultaneously eating a sandwich and pissing on a prostitute. Don’s response was allegedly “Fuck off. Can't you see I'm eating.”
Charmer that Don.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: I love and respect women. I think benway owes women everywhere a huge apology.
I love women, but I couldn't eat a whol.....
jesus, I'm tired today...
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: I love and respect women. I think benway owes women everywhere a huge apology.
i think benway owes everyone everywhere a huge apology
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: i think benway owes everyone everywhere a huge apology
amen brother. amen.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
sorry, internet.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
What's going on? Why are there not women in this thread kicking the living shit out of us right now?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: What's going on? Why are there not women in this thread kicking the living shit out of us right now?
...and where are the babes?
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
*Pulls out penis and runs fingers across stitches making a short succesion of out of tune notes* Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Does anyone remember when Benway became a wanker? I'm sure there was a time - a before, a time past, perhaps - when he was really sweet.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
it's since he became jimmy big nuts
there was dude on that c4 show about millionairres patronising peasants in the ghetto called Ben Way. he was a wanker a bit
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I've always been a wanker, Louche.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
I loved sweet Benway.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
there's Ben Way, in his yacht, just off Dover.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I'm still sweet... Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
no worries benway, you'll be a deckhand on bandy's yacht soon
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
only if he goes further than Dover.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote: This is a horribly written page, probably by him. Its not fair that he's got like £20M and he can't even write a decent page. Stupid picture too.
To the author of the last sentence: unfortunately you have the sort of attitude that means you will never have a penny.
lol.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: At least my crappy country has been able to put a man on the moon. But hey, chocolate's pretty important too. I suppose.
Is there no-where in the known universe that America hasn't bloody interfered with, ralph?
.
You just remember, when it comes to colonising places and interfering with the sovereignty of nations, WE did it first and we did it best. Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I've just read Hornby's The Complete Polysyllabic Spree. I'm not a big fan of collections of regular magazine or newspaper articles by anyone, especially literary lovies, which he keeps insisting he isn't but just as clearly is. They get dated so quickly as well, but this was a birthday present and I have to say I enjoyed it most of the time and might buy some of the books he reviewed. I'm going to be a complete pretentious twat and photocopy a couple of pages to give to my book club to read and discuss over our mince pies at our next meeting. Being laughed at will be good for me.
He did recommend one Thorn liked too so I might get it. Hangover Square.
I am now reading Emergency Sex (and other desperate measures) which I may have seen recommended here. I'm really enjoying it.
I also saw Cars with my nephew and it was a fun experience, but probably because he was enjoying it so much. I didn't object to it, anyway, which is more than I could say for Through the Hedge. That was poo.
I have just re-watched The Colour Purple again. I had forgotten how moving it was, in spite of its many flaws.
How about coming up with a list of films that really get to you; the lump in the throat, damp eye variety? I hardly ever watch films and a bit of sentiment over Christmas would be fun.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: How about coming up with a list of films that really get to you; the lump in the throat, damp eye variety? I hardly ever watch films and a bit of sentiment over Christmas would be fun.
The Shawshank Redemption, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Ghost.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I've not see planes, trains and automobiles. It doesn't sound immediately sentimental.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I am now reading Emergency Sex (and other desperate measures) which I may have seen recommended here. I'm really enjoying it.
I recommended that I think. It's not the best book ever or anything, but it is real and if you ever dreamt of being an aid worker type or war journo or anything like then it is a great read. Also, I love Heidi.
I've recommended it a million times already, but if you're interested in rwanda and the gross fuck ups of the UN and 'international community' the very best account is We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram:
quote:Originally posted by sam: I am now reading Emergency Sex (and other desperate measures) which I may have seen recommended here. I'm really enjoying it.
I recommended that I think. It's not the best book ever or anything, but it is real and if you ever dreamt of being an aid worker type or war journo or anything like then it is a great read. Also, I love Heidi.
I've recommended it a million times already, but if you're interested in rwanda and the gross fuck ups of the UN and 'international community' the very best account is We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families.
Damn. I never get enough time to chat any more and this is interesting. Before I go though, I shall try the rwanda one, since you recommend it.
[ 07.12.2006, 05:18: Message edited by: sam ]
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
Christopher Koch is good too (fiction) - exotic locales, good men seeking salvation in saving others. His Highways to a War is about Cambodia. Fantatsic but the ending is a bit silly.
i really quite like William Boyd's Brazziville Beach. Africa, war, monkeys.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I've not see planes, trains and automobiles. It doesn't sound immediately sentimental.
The end bit is pretty sad - especially when you consider that John Candy died prematurely not long after it was made. The story's set around Thanksgiving Day too, so that adds sentimental value.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zygote:
quote:Originally posted by sam: How about coming up with a list of films that really get to you; the lump in the throat, damp eye variety? I hardly ever watch films and a bit of sentiment over Christmas would be fun.
The Shawshank Redemption, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Ghost.
Elephant Man Cool Runnings The Champ
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Brief Encounter always gets me bawling. 'You've been away a long time'. Wwaaaaaahhhhh....
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball:
quote:Originally posted by Zygote:
quote:Originally posted by sam: How about coming up with a list of films that really get to you; the lump in the throat, damp eye variety? I hardly ever watch films and a bit of sentiment over Christmas would be fun.
The Shawshank Redemption, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Ghost.
Elephant Man Cool Runnings The Champ
It's a Wonderful Life Bambi Chopper
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Seven years = not long in Zygote's book.
It's a Wonderful Life. Uncle Buck. E.T.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
in the mood for love kinda ridiculous but emotionally effective hinglish filmblack short circuit 2 Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Damn you Barry! ($LOL)
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Now look what you've done... Your Mum's upset.
[ 07.12.2006, 06:46: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
is it wrong that I wanted to do things to Eric Bana as Chopper?
...in my defence, I mean the bit at the beginning when he is youngish, thin-ish, and has both ears...
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Bit early in the day for kung-fu, isn't it, Jimmy?
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam:
quote:Originally posted by ralph: At least my crappy country has been able to put a man on the moon. But hey, chocolate's pretty important too. I suppose.
Is there no-where in the known universe that America hasn't bloody interfered with, ralph?
No. But you'll be proud to know that at a town meeting last night, the members of my town voted almost unanimously to impeach Bush and Cheney.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
It's only a matter of time before Homeland Security hear about this.
Well, it's been nice knowing you, ralph.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Votes like this are being held at town meetings all over my country. Obviously nothing will ever come of it, but still.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
ralph is the new stealgate
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
he's more Steele Dan
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Oh Benny. Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
civil disobedience is still disobedience ralphy. the fonz told me that
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
barry you're giving me whumpage with your quality bana action.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: civil disobedience is still disobedience ralphy. the fonz told me that
What civil disobedience? It was a vote. Our democratic right!
Here's a copy of the reolution we voted on:
quote: Resolution to Impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney
WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired with others to defraud the United States of America by intentionally misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 371;and WHEREAS, George W. Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805; and WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of the "Federal Torture Act" Title 18 United States Code, Section 113C, the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution are part of the "supreme Law of the Land"; and WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney acted to strip American citizens of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention without access to legal counsel, without charge and without the opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the President of a U.S. citizen as an "enemy combatant", all in subversion of law; and WHEREAS, In all of this George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have acted in a manner contrary to their trust as President and Vice President, subversive of constitutional government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of xxxxxxx, Massachusetts and of the United States of America; and WHEREAS, Petitions from the country at large may be presented by the Speaker of the House according to Clause 3 of House Rule XII; BE IT RESOLVED, That George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, warrant impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States; BE IT RESOLVED FURTHER by the Town of xxxxxxx, That our senators and representatives in the United States Congress are hereby requested to institute in the Congress of the United States proper proceedings for the investigation of the activities of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, to the end that they may be impeached and removed from such office. BE IT RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Town of xxxxxx is hereby instructed to certify to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, under the seal of the Town of xxxxxx, a copy of this resolution and its adoption by the Town of xxxxxx, as a petition, and request that this petition be delivered to the Office of the Clerk and entered in the United States Congressional Journal. The copies shall be marked with the word "Petition" at the top of the document and contain the original authorizing signature of the Selectboard Chair.
eta: the fonz. lol.
[ 07.12.2006, 07:52: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I think it's very sweet, Ralph.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
shut up Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
sounds kind of communist to me
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: barry you're giving me whumpage with your quality bana action.
Always good to know.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I agree, benny. Reds. And homosexuals. All of them.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Was it John Locke who said "The greatest freedom a man can know, is the freedom to ask how enslaved he truely is"?
It was either him or Ralph Mouth
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
fuck off back to berkeley
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Was it John Locke who said "The greatest freedom a man can know, is the freedom to ask how enslaved he truely is"?
It was either him or Ralph Mouth
It was actually John Riggins, a running back who found fame in the eighties.
John Riggins contemplates the paradox of universal liberty.
[ 07.12.2006, 08:10: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote: In July of 1980 the Redskins, balked at his demand that the club renegotiate his $300,000-a-year contract. The Redskins placed him on the left camp-retired list
Sounds like another commie to me...
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
don't talk trash about Riggo.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
weeeelll, running back - kind of sounds like surrender to me...
spits tobbaco-thickened phlegm onto shoe.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: t was actually John Riggins, a running back who found fame in the eighties.
How on Earth did you find John Riggins? As a Philadelphia boy growing up in the late 70's, I always hated Riggins as he was the star running back for the dreaded Washington Redskins. Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: The Redskins placed him on the left camp-retired list
OMFG it's just like RED DAWN
Wolverines!
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Being fans of both American Football and socio-political theory, my brother and I often used to play games where one of us was John Riggins (the best), and the other would be notorious intellectual hellraiser and running back for the now defunct New Jersey Generals, Herschel Walker (2nd best). The game involved running around the house trying to prevent each other from getting touchdowns, as well as replicating some of the classic locker room debates that the two players had regarding the state of American Democracy.
[ 07.12.2006, 08:27: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
lol
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
i love you benway
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
yeah, he's ok.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
shut it Bolshevist
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Think yourself lucky, ralph. Our soccer players in the UK would be incapable of such invigorating, naked debate in the changing rooms...entrenched as they are in the rigid logic trivium favoured in classic medieval universities. It's a crying shame that Wayne Rooney (a professional logician and part time soccer striker) refuses to entertain a broader philosophical range and remains shackled by limiting logical concepts.
[ 07.12.2006, 09:16: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: Seven years = not long in Zygote's book.
Seven years = one quarter of my life = not long.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
So I am reading Emergency Sex, mostly with my mouth hanging open in disbelief (why didn't I know all this? What am I doing with my life when all this horror just passes me by in my smug little life?), and the stuff about Haiti is getting more and more stacked up and more and more awful, and suddenly I am reading how the Americans are pulling out and its like a blow to the stomach and I have to put the book down. For a while I can only read it in bits because I find it so painful.
This morning on Five Live I am fixing my hair and there are two bods arguing about pulling out of Iraq and I find myself silently screaming at the radio; you can't pull out now. Not now. You can't leave all the people there who came out to stand by us because they thought they might get democracy to be killed. They can't be abandoned now; this damn thing has to be seen through somehow.
ETA Yeh, I know. The syntax is bloody awful, but hey, Im at work. I just wanted to say it to someone. No-one at work cares. I know you lot are a bunch of cynical bastards, but somehow you care. I feel stunned. The book is doing in my head; it's making me think about all the uncomfortable things.
[ 08.12.2006, 05:35: Message edited by: sam ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
ralph, how does that work in America? It seems conmpletely alien to me that a whole town can impeach a leader. How does that sort of thing come about?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Sam, I agree - <cynicism aside> the pulling out of iraq debate has been getting much coverage in the economist of late, and it just seems such a mess but we still (and by us, Ralph, I mean US and UK) owe it to the nation to ensure that we don't just abandon it - much as old Europe owes it to Nato to do something more than just pout about Afghanistan (yeah France, I'm talking to you)</cynism aside>
So what's this book about? Sounds compelling.
Does anyone know the title of the book by the UN general who was in, ummm, can't remember, Timor, maybe, who basically tells how they had no support, hardly any bullets and were sitting just waiting to be attacke?
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
shaking hands with the devil by romeo dallaire. the guy is a fucking hero. and it was rwanda
oh wait that probably isnt it. um
[ 08.12.2006, 06:07: Message edited by: vikram ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
thanks V - worth adding to the christmas book list?
ETA - no that's the one I was thinking of, glad you got it from my cack handed summary
[ 08.12.2006, 06:09: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I can't help you with the UN and Timor one, but it sounds really familiar now I am reading this book. The book is about three people in their twenties who go to work for the UN as peace keepers. They meet in Cambodia where one is a Dr, one a UN secretary and another a lawyer,; the last two are overseeing the elections, and then they spread out to other troubled places. Each writes their experiences at each place in turn, in short bites. It sounds disocconnected, but it isn't. They have a coherent voice in that all care deeply and are either all cracking writers or were helped in writing it. You get a cumulative picture of each place and the role - with a very clear picture of the limitations of it - that the UN takes. It's about the 90s but boy is is it ever relavant now! Nothing much appears to have changed.
I also like that the personal 'voices' of the three comes across; there is a very real sense of them as they strive to survive amidst such mind-numbing horror, all the while conscious that what they suffer is so much less than the suffering of the peoples on whose behalf they are there to witness.
You can tell I like it, eh?
ETA Damn! That last sentence was tortured!
[ 08.12.2006, 06:14: Message edited by: sam ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
vickram I don't know much about you except you used to travel a lot. Are there links with your life travelling and the books you are talking about here? Just curious about why you know so much about the UN and that sort of thing and wonder if you were ever involved.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
the dallaire book is superb, though hardly festive reading. he knew what was happening but was prevented from intervening by an international community still smarting from mogadishu. he was personally devastated about what happened, or rather what didn't, and tried to kill himself a few years later. i saw an interview with him once, some time ago, and he was a doped up jittery wreck Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram: he was personally devastated about what happened, or rather what didn't, and tried to kill himself a few years later. i saw an interview with him once, some time ago, and he was a doped up jittery wreck
One of the things I picked up from the Emergency Sex book was the effect on the people watching it all, helpless to affect anything in real terms. I know I simply couldn't do it.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: ralph, how does that work in America? It seems conmpletely alien to me that a whole town can impeach a leader. How does that sort of thing come about?
quote: Impeachment is the legal statement of charges. It is NOT the involuntary removal of the President from office. Impeachment, as defined by the American Bar Association, is a process, authorized by the Constitution to bring charges against certain officials of the federal government for misconduct while in office.
The House of Representatives has the power of impeachment by bringing the charges against an official (President). After the President is impeached by the House, he is tried by the Senate. Conviction requires the vote of two-thirds of the Senate members who are present. With two-thirds vote, the President would THEN be removed from office.
Two Presidents have been impeached. Andrew Johnson in 1868, and Bill Clinton in 1999. Neither was removed from office because he did not get the two-thirds Senate vote needed. (In 1974, Richard Nixon avoided impeachment by resigning.)
Basically, my town took a vote whether or not to impeach Bush and Cheney. It was almost unanimous in favor of doing so. The record of that vote will be sent to our elected representative in the House of Representatives. What our rep does with it is up to him I suppose. But if enough House members received this request from the people, they could possibly have it put to a vote in the House. If it won in the House, then the President and Vice President would be tried by the Senate. Chance of this happening? Slim. But it has been done before.
ETA: Just so you don't think it's only my town that's doing this...
Other states, cities and towns have adopted the resolution:
State Legislatures (pending)
• Illinois State Legislature • California State Legislature • Vermont State Legislature • New Jersey State Legislature (drafted, not yet introduced)
Cities/Towns
• Arcata (CA) • Berkeley (CA) • Carson (CA) • Fairfax (CA) • Oakland (CA) (pending) • Santa Barbara (CA) (pending) • Santa Cruz (CA) • San Francisco (CA) • Sebastopol (CA) • Silver Lake (CA) (pending)
• Champaign (IL) • Chicago (IL) (pending) • Urbana (IL)
[ 08.12.2006, 07:29: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
so how come your town voted? I mean, who started the process off?
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
To mislead the American public, surely Bush would have had to know that what he was saying was untrue. Seeing as he believed that Iraq was a genuine threat, or at least that Saddam had to be removed - and so did most of the American voting public, media and politicians (same in Britain) - it's hard to see how Bush alone can be blamed, 'buck stops here' or not.
We're all culpable, even those who were shouting "STOP!" nearly four years ago. None of us did enough, except moan about it on forums like this, and maybe wave a banner for a couple of hours.
All that Americans are doing by signing these impeachment forms is admitting that they were idiots themselves. It's the same here in the UK where we have the fucking Tories calling for an inquiry into why we invaded Iraq, as if they had nothing whatsoever to do with it themselves.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: so how come your town voted? I mean, who started the process off?
I'm not sure which town member got on on the warrant, but it's fairly easy to do. It could have been any number of people, as my town consists mostly of aging hippies and lesbians. Not exactly Republican material. For the record, I'm not registered as a Republican or a Democrat.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: We're all culpable, even those who were shouting "STOP!" nearly four years ago. None of us did enough, except moan about it on forums like this, and maybe wave a banner for a couple of hours.
What else could I have done? I know I can't go back and do it now, but you know, for future reference.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: I'm not registered as a Republican or a Democrat.
what does that actually mean? registered? does it mean you are a member of the democrat or republicna party or what?
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram:
quote:Originally posted by ralph: I'm not registered as a Republican or a Democrat.
what does that actually mean? registered? does it mean you are a member of the democrat or republicna party or what?
If you're registered either Republican or Democrat, then you can vote in the primary elections for the party you belong to. The primary election determines which of the candidates running for that party get the nomination of that party to run in the general election.
[ 08.12.2006, 09:40: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph:
quote:Originally posted by dang65: We're all culpable, even those who were shouting "STOP!" nearly four years ago. None of us did enough, except moan about it on forums like this, and maybe wave a banner for a couple of hours.
What else could I have done? I know I can't go back and do it now, but you know, for future reference.
What, you think I know?
Revolution would have been the only option, but one doesn't do that sort of thing in polite society, does one. I don't think impeaching the President is of any value now though. Maybe campaigning for far, far more stringent criteria for starting a war in future might help. This mess should put a stop to any new invasions for a few years anyway, but it doesn't take long to forget again. D'oh.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: What else could I have done? I know I can't go back and do it now, but you know, for future reference.
You could've blown yourself up on public transport.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: You could've blown yourself up on public transport.
Public transport? The nearest public transport is 30 miles away.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I really like some things about the American system and what you described is one of them, ralph. It sounds cool to be able to do that.
Confusion. Why do you have to register as any party? Or is it just more common to join the parties you vote for over there?
Something tells me I should be searching out an Idiot's Guide to the American Political System and reading it.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: Confusion. Why do you have to register as any party? Or is it just more common to join the parties you vote for over there?
You don't have to register to a particular party. I'm registered as an Independent, with no affiliation to any party. I'll have to look and see if I can find a party-by-party breakdown of what party the registered voters in the US are in.
Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
Are you an Independent or an Unaffiliated?
I thought if you registered "Independent" you were signing up for the Independent Party, and if you registered Unaffiliated you didn't have any party membership. Though some news reports tend to use "independent" as a catch-all for anyone who isn't registered as a Democrat or Republican, including Reform Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party, etc., etc.
I could be wrong though.
Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
London's going to get all cross with us again for talking about American stuff here isn't she.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
She'll get over it.
I don't believe there's an Independent party. There's an Independence party and an Independent American party. I think I'm what you would call unaffiliated.
So...cold enough for ya?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
watched the 1928 silent classic "Pandora's Box" last night. Enjoyed it - very sad and poignant. Louise Brooks is fit. Somebody else off the boards came with me and FELL ASLEEP.
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
For about TWO SECONDS. And you wouldn't have known about the film if it wasn't for me. And you didn't know who Louise Brooks was till yesterday, you philistine. So I'M WINNER.
[ 14.12.2006, 06:02: Message edited by: London ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
it's all true. I've got nothing to brag about Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Did you share a popcorn?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
would have been nice, but it gives her the trots.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Who recommended Will Self? I have always avoided him; too much of a blokey bloke I thought, but I am really enjoying his book. You lot recommend good books, that's 2 out of 2 so far I've liked.
My partner falls asleep during dvds. We've dozens he's never seen but swears he has. Bignuts sounds like a man he'd get on with. Is that good?
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: Who recommended Will Self? I have always avoided him; too much of a blokey bloke I thought, but I am really enjoying his book.
A few people recommended Dr. Mukti and Other Tales of Woe if that's the one you're reading.
[ 14.12.2006, 06:37: Message edited by: Zygote ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I also recommended How the Dead Live.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I'm reading Dr Mukti, but I shall now buy How The Dead Live. I was aware quite early on that tmo had the ability to broaden my outlook in slightly disturbing ways but to find culture is a an unlooked for delight. My mother would approve.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I'm reading Dr Mukti, but I shall now buy How The Dead Live. I was aware quite early on that tmo had the ability to broaden my outlook in slightly disturbing ways but to find culture is a an unlooked for delight. My mother would approve.
I find the way that you write quite hypnotic sam, but I'm not sure why. I think it's that you're very honest.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
that sounded like a sleazy pick up line, but it wasn't.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Erm, isn't How the Dead Live utter shit?
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: Erm, isn't How the Dead Live utter shit?
It's the one I've never been able to read because the only decent line was 'cancer ripped through her like it was late for an important meeting with lots of other terminal diseases'. Oh, and the Book of Dave as well, but that's just because I don't dophonetic. Write. Fucking. Properly. You. Lamers.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
I'd love to give Sam a big hug.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: Erm, isn't How the Dead Live utter shit?
It's single fucking malt, Jonesy.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: that sounded like a sleazy pick up line, but it wasn't.
That's a pity. I've a soft spot for you, even though renaming yourself bignuts is one of the slightly disturbing things I was on about.
I thought my luck was in there.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: [QUOTE]It's the one I've never been able to read because the only decent line was 'cancer ripped through her like it was late for an important meeting with lots of other terminal diseases'.
If that's the best line it would suggest the rest of the book is really dire. It reads like he got to the end of the simile and ran out of ideas? I mean, "lots of other terminal diseases". What's that about? It neither comments upon cancer as a disease, nor the speed at which it works.
I am going to read it anyway. Conflicting reviews aside, I like Misc's avatar.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
m-maybe it was a sleazy p-pick up line.
[ 14.12.2006, 07:51: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: Conflicting reviews aside, I like Misc's avatar.
This comment makes me like sam too. Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by missgolightly:
quote:Originally posted by sam: Conflicting reviews aside, I like Misc's avatar.
This comment makes me like sam too.
Racist! Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
Nah I just liked the fact that she went from intellegent book reviews to deciding something based on an avatar in about a split second lol.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
quote: I was aware quite early on that tmo had the ability to broaden my outlook in slightly disturbing ways...
You should check out the fettish thread.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
i wonder what the adjective "fettish" could describe? my mind's gone off on a weird tangent.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Abby:
quote: I was aware quite early on that tmo had the ability to broaden my outlook in slightly disturbing ways...
You should check out the fettish thread.
They say the imagination's a powerful tool but if its a competition between tmo's imagination and mine, that's unlikely to be true, so I'm not risking it. I had a sheltered upbringing. Mum always told me sex was dirty.
Thank heavens she was right.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: i wonder what the adjective "fettish" could describe?
[ 14.12.2006, 09:14: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I know that guy's pose is supposed to look "hand on gun bounty hunter for hire aren't I cool and dangerous", but to me it looks a bit more "I'm a little teapot..."
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah if you fell down a massive hole in the sand, that could be called a 'fettish' thing to do.
Sorry to everybody who hasn't yet seen Return of the Jedi.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
In Maori 'e' is pronounced like a soft 'u', as in 'much', and 'tt' (double t) is pronounced like a hard 'k', as in 'take'.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: yeah if you fell down a massive hole in the sand, that could be called a 'fettish' thing to do.
Do you contribute to *Urban Dictionary, BigNuts?
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: yeah if you fell down a massive hole in the sand, that could be called a 'fettish' thing to do.
Or simply: Appearing really hard, but going out like a punk assed bee-atch? Thus applying to both Jango and Bobba.
[ 14.12.2006, 10:36: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: I know that guy's pose is supposed to look "hand on gun bounty hunter for hire aren't I cool and dangerous", but to me it looks a bit more "I'm a little teapot..."
LOL
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
[SW Pedant] Boba [/SW Pedant]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I saw Gladiator, and thought it was okay. My brother ruined it quite early on by announcing that *SPOILER ALERT* they both die in the end. I also saw The Island and thought it was not so good. I got bored during the 20th chase sequence and went to the kitchen to pick at some mince pies. The chick was pretty fit in that though. I saw Broken Flowers, and thought it was pretty good in a typically jarmusch kind of way. Understated and thought provoking. I watched Silent Hill again but that was ruined by my dad constantly asking me what was going on, and then telling everybody what he thought was going on, what would happen later on in the story, and how stupid all the characters were anyway for going there in the first place. I also rewatched Train Spotting and City of God. The former seems like a much smaller and simpler experience than it did way back in the nineties. The latter is just awesome.
I also watched a massive amount of Murder, She Wrote.
I already said I read that Nico book, which was very good. James Young - Songs they never play on the radio. It creates a yearning for adventure, and makes settling for the reality of everyday working life seem like a chump's game.
If you've been getting strung out with anticipation over what book I'm reading next, then I can reveal that today I put the World Rock Paper Scissors Society book in my bag, and started on it this morning. I bought it off amazon when I was pissed up. I reckon it'll be like any other internet humour book. Alright in short doses.
I also read a book called You'll never make love in this town again which was a load of 'confessional' tales from hookers in Hollywood. It basically made it clear that all hollywood actors like both pissing on and being pissed on by hookers. This was further research on my Don Simpson tip. There was one story about a chick who got in the shower with Jack Nicholson and without even needing him to ask, she just got on the floor and opened her mouth, and he 'instinctively knew what to do'. That scene reminded me slightly of the Batailles book that I've been going on about - Story of the Eye. I was able to put my knowledge of Don Simpson to use during a drunken argument with my brother, who revealed that Top Gun was the reason he wanted to join the Navy. I told him it was complete fantasy, and he reacted badly. My justification for shooting down his dreams was that I'd "read it in a book". We didn't really speak after that argument, apart from christmas dinner, which he spent taking the piss out of me for refering to myself as Londoner.
A friend picked up another book by Patrick Hamilton, he of Hangover Square fame. I'm hoping to get that off him soon. This is the same friend that gave me the k-foundation book. He's basically better than me in every way.
I also watched the Queen's speech. My dad insisted we all watch it, just so he could take the piss out of her voice and tell us that she needed a bullet in the head.
[ 03.01.2007, 11:36: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I sat through the new Mike Judge project "Idiocracy" at the weekend, I’m not sure what to make of it really, has anyone else seen it ?
Over Christmas I watched "Rocky Balboa" and TBH I fucking loved it, I found myself chanting along with the crowd.
“Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, Rocky”
OK, so Stallone looks like he’s melting and you know the story before it starts and the acting isn’t great, but I love Rocky films and this one is a cracker.
Yesterday I half watched "The USA vs. John Lennon" but I kept falling asleep…
And besides, all these documentaries about Lennon end the same…
[ 03.01.2007, 09:29: Message edited by: Darryn.R ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: Over Christmas I watched "Rocky Balboa" and TBH I fucking loved it, I found myself chanting along with the crowd.
You're not the first person who has given this film good reviews. Where would you rank it amonth the rest of the films in the Rocky series? Surely it can't be as good as the first one?
[ 03.01.2007, 09:58: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Instead of watching Rocky, why not listen to DVDA's track Now you're a man? The only thing better than that tune is the Rocky with Dolph Lundgren, where Rocky ends the cold war via the magic of punching.
quote:Rocky IV has some of the best training montages ever filmed
[ 03.01.2007, 10:05: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph:
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: Over Christmas I watched "Rocky Balboa" and TBH I fucking loved it, I found myself chanting along with the crowd.
You're not the first person who has given this film good reviews. Where would you rank it amonth the rest of the films in the Rocky series? Surely it can't be as good as the first one?
It's very similar to the first one, I love the first Rocky film, and this isn't as good as one, or probably even two, but I thought it better than 3 and way better than 4 and 5 (Though 4 has fantastic kitch value)
I think if you could ignore 4 and 5 and just assume that he'd not made them and that you only have Rocky 1 - 3 to line up, it's 1, 2, 6, 3.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I have mostly been reading books recommended, so I read Dr Mukti but might have already said that, and Grisham's The Rainmaker and Bennett's Untold Stories. Bennet is a 'National Treasure', but I am not sure why. I have tons of books on order from play.com and am looking forward to them arriving. I have downloaded loads of stuff from the Internet onto my recently acquired second-hand i-mate and am looking forward to browsing through it whilst commuting next week. I work in two different places which is why I keep disappearing as I don't have proper computer access. Most of the stuff I got is essays and articles about a variety of subjects that I come across whilst browsing. I am currently reading The Poisonwood Bible for my book club but very slowly. I read most when working away because of commuting.
Over Xmas the ma-in-law insisted I read Paxman's book about the English which was vaguely irritating and curiously lifeless. I pretended to read it most of the time, so I didn't finish it. You could see where he was trying to be funny, but you weren't actually laughing. She also gave me Little Lord Faulteroy to read, a copy of which she had found in a 2nd hand bookshop, but that was one step too far. She doesn't read herself, just collects the damn books, and she has this weird notion that people who do read a lot will read anything.
I forgot to watch much TV over Xmas, but my partner did bring home the DVD of the last King Kong or whatever its called. I laughed through most of it, but for all the wrong reasons. Was it Disney? It seemed very Disney. I watched Cars again because my nephew insisted, in between kicking me to death on Christmas Day. Coincidentally, I am buying the entire set of Star Wars this weekend and am going to watch it all the way through over the next couple of weeks.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I have mostly been reading Lindsey Davies' Marcus Didius Falco books over the past couple of weeks.
I've also been watching lots and lots and lots of Battlestar Galactica episodes. I bought the miniseries probably about a month ago, immediately purchased and watched over the space of maybe a couple of weeks the series 1 DVDs, put series 2 on my Christmas list but didn't get it, ordered it from eBay last Tuesday, it turned up on Friday and I've watched 16 of the 20 episodes over the past few days. I really need to get out more.
I'm saving the last 4 episodes for the weekend, and woot! series 3 is starting on Sky One next Tuesday! That'll cut my addiction down to a manageable hour a week - or 40 minutes when zapping through adverts on Sky+.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: Over Xmas the ma-in-law insisted I read Paxman's book about the English which was vaguely irritating and curiously lifeless. I pretended to read it most of the time, so I didn't finish it. You could see where he was trying to be funny, but you weren't actually laughing.
There's something about sam's writing here which is so honest and unpretentious that you could imagine Paxman withering the instant he read it. Like, he would be able to stomach a sneering, smug review in the Guardian, but that this would leave him feeling a bit, well, gutted. Yes Jeremy, I could see what you were trying to do... but... look, I don't want to be nasty... maybe it just wasn't for me?
Any. Way. Summing up films and books may be a bit lame for a 10,000th post but I'll see what I can muster.
I started reading The Plot Against America which is basically a Jew whining about a bunch of stuff that never even happened. It sort of reminds me of those moments where you go "I bet they lose it in the post. I bet they do... I bet...! Oh it's arrived." and feel silly for getting yourself worked up. The book's about what would have happened if anti-semite pilot Lindbergh had become president instead of Roosevelt. Then there's 500 pages of stuff about how shit Roth's childhood would have been, if this thing that didn't happen had happened. The book's got a very austere, utterly confident and convincing style to it, as befits one of the West's great living writers. I re-read the first three chapters of my own current project, and my work seemed utterly utterly feeble and amateurish in comparison, which only made me dislike The Plot Against America even more.
Also over the holiday season I watched The Squid and the Whale which was so far beyond depressing it almost came out the otherside, with a few moments being so breathtakingly black-hearted they generated a kind of stunned half-lol at the bleakness of it all. Worst of all was Jeff Daniel's character - an unattractive, utterly pompous twat who approaches every conversation as an opportunity to fling his (lacking) intellectual weight around, relentless pummels people with his opinions on books and films and sneers at anyone who doesn't agree with him, and spends the rest of his time whining about the fact that he can't get his book published while comparing himself to far superior writers and leering after 20 year old students and bullying them into sucking his cock. Needless to say, I found him impossible to identify with.
The film is billed as a 'hilarious' comedy, but really it's too realistically bleak to actually be 'hilarious', and it reminded me of a lot of kids I knew at school who pretty much fell apart because of their parents selfish actions. A good movie, but horribly grim.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Did you ever finish The Sandman, Thorn?
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Oh yeah. Ages ago. I thought it was OK. It seemed a bit generic-mind-of-a-serial-killer-novel, a bit too similar to loads of other books I'd read. But you know; it was crisply written, and had one really funny set piece that still makes me chuckle when I think about it: the bit where the guests keep turning up for the dinner party. But mostly it made me think of a fairly talented teenager trying to do 'dark'.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Bugger. I've just re-ordered it on Amazon.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
My proletarian taste in film can be exeplified by the fact that over the Christmas period I watched and thoroughly enjoyed the Jurassic Park trilogy. I particularly enjoyed the third one, as it had the hilarious mobile-phone-in-dinosaur scene and also because I was skiving off from a family party, so the guilty pleasure of scarfing chocolates on the sofa when I could have been listening in enforced silence to the Daily Mail being regurgitated was immense.
I also adored King Kong, which was dire as all hell, but in an entirely amusing way. And I am not the sort of person who can resist a giant monkey fighting a dinosaur. In fact, all films should contains scenes of giant monkeys fighting dinosaurs. And the love affair between a blonde thing and aforementioned giant monkey was most affecting.
Apart from that, my telly universally showed Lego Star Wars. I read nothing of note, though I went on several hearty walks, none of which are particularly worthy of review in this thread.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: I went on several hearty walks, none of which are particularly worthy of review in this thread.
I think we need a Walk thread in Life.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: I also adored King Kong, which was dire as all hell, but in an entirely amusing way. And I am not the sort of person who can resist a giant monkey fighting a dinosaur. In fact, all films should contains scenes of giant monkeys fighting dinosaurs. And the love affair between a blonde thing and aforementioned giant monkey was most affecting.
A giant ape fighting a dinosaur, and the love affair between the blonde and the ape are - surely - the mainstays of King Kong. If one is great and the other affecting how can you think the film is 'dire as all hell'? If it gets the two key elements exactly right then... oh I don't know. Maybe it makes Louche feel smart to make that qualification before she expresses her opinion and maybe I shouldn't argue with that. But it just sounds a bit like "Oh, of course, I know that romantic comedy was dire as all hell... but the comedy part was hilarious and the romance was really moving."
Ah well. Is anyone else looking forward to Apocalypto? I've been reading the reviews and it looks magnificent. Even the bad reviews are getting me excited, as they tend to focus on the facts it's either 'too gory', or 'too tense', which is incredibly promising.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I don't think I'll see Apocalypto.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Why not? You'll watch countless episodes of Murder She Wrote but not that?
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Quelle concidence, Thorn. I watched the Squid and the Whale too. And fark me. It was so squirm-inducing, it was almost impossible to watch. The way Jeff Beard moulded his son into his own two-dimensional image was just ghastly.
SatW was just one of a trio of jolly Christmas DVDs R bought for the festive season. The second was The Proposition, which was a laugh a minute, especially at the end. By the time the third DVD - Three Burials - was cued up I went out and lay in a gutter as light relief.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Given that King Kong was universally panned for appalling script, badly set up plot pieces, some spesh effects that looked like they'd been done in the 1980s and some genuinely laugh out loud slow motion emotional moment stuff, I didn't really think it worth mentioning these. I was operating from the principle that,like, everyone had seen it and knew that, and that I was probably odd for enjoying it.
Also: fuck off Thorn.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
lol. What a merry Christmas that must have been. I found myself trying to come up with reasons not to watch the end of The Proposition, once it becomes obvious where it's going. Getting up to empty to the washing machine, putting it on pause and ringing my girlfriend. In the end I decided to just tough it out. If I'd watched it straight after The Squid and the Whale, I probably would have killed myself.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: Given that King Kong was universally panned
I mean, that sounds snide, but the mainstream press's reaction to Kong was totally delirious in a way that I can't ever remember seeing with an action blockbuster.
[ 03.01.2007, 12:25: Message edited by: Thorn Davis ]
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Oh, I only listen to my mates. Reading film reviews reminds me of Boy Racer and no-one needs that in their ordinary life.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Has anyone else been enjoying the eye-popping freakshow that is the World's Strongest Man competition? Alas, yet another thing we suck at. I could be a strongman y'know. I was told that by a body building champ at the gym once. Good frame for it, apparently, and big solid calf muscles which is hard to build up if you don't have it naturally.
Whaddya think, should I try out for world's strongest?
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Well it's been said on here before that "it's better to regret something you did do, than something you didn't" and I think this idea of yours is a great example of that.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask:
quote:Originally posted by Louche: I went on several hearty walks, none of which are particularly worthy of review in this thread.
I think we need a Walk thread in Life.
I saw a couple of interesting books in the V&A just before Christmas: Great Churches of London and Great Cemetaries of London (possibly these could have been thematically combined into one volume?), so I may be going on some cultural walks this year. It would be nice to have some company.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Hi thorn. Thanks for your comment re Paxman. I do quite like him, but he is a touch pompous about his abilities, no?
Why is it the mode on tmo to talk about posters rather than address them directly? Not that I mind, but I am curious. It is quite distinctive.
On the film King Kong, I'm with louche. It was panned in that it was not an unmitigated box office hit and everyone I know thought it rubbish. I don't read reviews but I was under the impression that after a few initial raves which seemed a touch lovey-ish to me rather than meaningful, critical praise, it sank.
I liked the monkey-dinosaur bit, and especially the stampeding dinosaurs and comic, improbable survival of most of the characters in the ravine, and as I said, it made me laugh, so yes, certain key elements were in place, especially the special effects, but oh my golly, the pace and timing of the rest of it was dire and the plot had huge holes and extraneous bits stuffed in there solely to show-case the special effects. There were also symbolic aspects that were deep and meaningful popped in which went absolutely no-where at all so that you were left wondering why the hell they bothered with them as they served only to distract. Even the special effects were overdone because they went on too long and thus killed the sense of suspense or dramatic tension several times so that was patchy too. It was such a mixed, and at times, distracting bag that although I liked it well enough and laughed a lot, I had to make a deliberate mental effort to overlook the flaws; which was not exactly what Wilde's meant when he talked about a willful suspension of disbelief being a prerequisite.
The best bit was Kong's. His mouth. It turned down in one corner and I found myself watching to make sure it wasn't a mistake. It wasn't, so that was a wonderfully observed, humanising effect for the special effects team to create, I thought, bearing in mind that they actually retained the 'gorilla-ness' of Kong throughout. It would have been so easy to over-anthromorphise him. His laugh was just right as well. Just enough of a human note to let us know what it was, but blended with an animal-like sneezing noise. Marvellous.
The smile also was somewhat similar to my partner's quirky expression. Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Well it's been said on here before that "it's better to regret something you did do, than something you didn't" and I think this idea of yours is a great example of that.
Having given it some more thought, I realise that in order to accomplish this feat I would probably need to take steroids. This has many drawbacks such as:
Making me want to beat people up Making my cock shrivel to a tenth its size Turning me into a complete ****
So on second thoughts I don't think I'll bother.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Didn't all of that happen during puberty Ringo?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
It happens whenever you're around
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: Quelle concidence, Thorn. I watched the Squid and the Whale too. And fark me. It was so squirm-inducing, it was almost impossible to watch. The way Jeff Beard moulded his son into his own two-dimensional image was just ghastly.
Super uber ultra coincidence, mon ami. I too watched The Squid and the Whale over Christmas, driven by the 'hilarious' boast on the cover of the DVD.
I felt a bit robbed. I mean, I knew it wasn't Pixar but for some reason the title and the 'hilarious' stamp made me think it might turn into a cartoon halfway through or something. Like, you know, when (***SPOILER***PULL UP NOW***) the kid rubs his puberty goo on the walls, we might zoom in really tight and find a whole microcosmic world of ocean-going tadpoles living inside a sperm whale with some dancing calamari voiced by Robin Williams (inexplicably with a Mexican accent) or something.
But no. It was just a really well worked depressothon.
And halfway through I found myself being so taken with the shaping the son in the father's image thing that I pointed at the screen and said something like "This film is set in, what, the late 70s, early 80s? Well, that Volvo S60 parked on Berkman's street couldn't have been made until the late 90s at the very earliest."
Which is exactly what my Dad would have done.
[ 04.01.2007, 12:58: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: I watched Rocky last night, which is actually a thoroughly brilliant film in every sense. I forgot that Stallone actually used to act for a living..
I watched it for the first time last night and was struck by just how good it was. I'd previously been under the impression that the only reason it got the Oscar was because it pushed the right 'feelgood' buttons, but it's actually a very strong movie, with what must have seemed at the time like an explosive break out performance from an unknown Italian actor called Sylvester Stallone.
My only previous encounter with the franchise had been Rocky III, which had - I thought - confirmed my worst suspicions as to what Rocky films were all about. Cheese, shitty scripts, crummy characterisation. The first one was marvellous though, with some great moments - my favourite being near the start where Rocky picks up the photo of himself aged 8 and looks at it like he's apologising to this kid for fucking up his life.
I also watch Rambo - First Blood Part II which was... er. Not so good. I'd kind of fetishised this film since I was a kid and used to see the poster (Stallone, holding an RPG, wreathed in flame) in the local corner shop, and I suppose it was exactly how I imagined it would be. By this point in his career Sly's acting chops had evaporated to the point where he can't even walk convincingly. It also draws attention to the rarely stated truth that the coventional tactics of the Vietnamese army were no match for the guerilla warfare of American soldiers.
It's churlish, though, to criticise a rip-roaring comic adventure for being exactly that, and the film does have some good explosions, some excellent helicopter porn (a chase between a Huey and an Apache had my little RPG launcher standing to attention) and a great one of those torture sequences where the victim says "I'm going to kill you all", and the bad guy laughs right up until he gets his face gouged off by a survival knife. Also the cinematography is great. And the dialogue. "You made one fatal mistake: You forgot you were dealing with Rambo" is a good one, but it's trumped by "One other thing - what you call hell... he calls 'home'."
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
the first rambo movie is a genuinely brilliant film and nothing like the sequels
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
What I saw: Octavia got me an Audrey Hepburn box set for Christmas. Thus far I have only watched Roman Holiday, which I really enjoyed. We watched Wedding Crashers yesterday, which had plenty of good gags in, although the happy-couply ending ruined it for me, obviously. I saw Miss Potter on New Year's Day, which was suitably twee and comforting.
What I done: Plenty of exhibits recently. The Twilight Photography at the V&A was quite good, although some of the inclusions weren't really that twilighty. Over the NY weekend I saw the Past from the Air one at the British Museum, which I found very absorbing- lots of stuff that I didn't know anything about (mainly old stuff in Africa/Asia ie there are lots of ancient pyramids outside Egypt) and variants on familiar stuff ie more mental shapes from the Nazca Lines in Peru etc. Definitely worth a fiver. There's also a free BM show on totems and stuff from the Pacific, but fairly familiar to anyone who's ever been to a museum in New Zealand. I really enjoyed the display of Tiffany jewellery at Somerset House- boxes and boxes full of amazing sparkly things. Highly recommended, only it's finished now.
I have been reading a lot of Minette Walters and Peter Robinson out of the library.
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
This weekend I managed to catch the 40 year old virgin and red eye on cable - both ok I guess. Apart from that I have just been reading GTA Liberty City walkthroughs and copies of What HiFi magazine, prior to purchasing a new TV and surround amp. Shamefully, I think I only read 2 novels in all of 2006 - I think when I spend most of my time at work with my head in technical manuals, it kills the joy of reading in my spare time Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I thought The Squid and The Whale was hilarious. Especially Jeff Daniels.
Which bit of the end of The Proposition was the problem Thorn? I’m not sure how you could distinguish a more or less depressing point.
I haven’t been to the cinema at all over Christmas. The only thing I have any real enthusiasm to see is London to Brighton and that’s only on at Panton Street now and I can’t be fucked with that. Will probably check out (and I suspect enjoy) Apocalypto at some point soon I guess.
Over Christmas I enjoyed that opiumy Billie Piper costume drama, thought Dr Who was bad naff, and laughed greatly at Harry Hill’s TV Burp.
I went to the Velaquez and the Hockney Portraits exhibition. I didn’t think much of the Velaquez. It was way too busy, there was no information by the paintings if you didn’t use the audio guide, and the majority of the paintings failed to move me.
I loved the Hockney though, I was smiling pretty much continuously throughout the exhibition, helped by the potrtraits of his family, his mother in particular, being the first thing you see on entering. It was also interesting to see the progression of his style over the years, many of his later drawings have a cartoonish quality that reminded me of Robert Crumb’s more detailed drawings.
Want to see Hirst's collection at the Serpentine before it's off.
Bought myself Michael Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White which I’ve just started reading, it's great so far.
[ 09.01.2007, 03:39: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
I thought The Proposition was great personally, Guy Pearce in particular was as brilliant as always.
I also watched Robots the other night, having been bought it for Christmas, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, almost as much as the two Ice Age films in fact which is saying a lot. Then again I love any of those type of things, I even loved Brother Bear, which probably gives you a fair idea of just how resolutely I've refused to grow up.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
Rob, try Flushed Away it's really quite good, Happy Feet is utter arse though, Over The hedge has a few moments and Cars is pretty good..
I didn't go much on Ice Age 1, is 2 better ?
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: Rob, try Flushed Away it's really quite good, Happy Feet is utter arse though, Over The hedge has a few moments and Cars is pretty good..
I didn't go much on Ice Age 1, is 2 better ?
Ice Age 2 is probably a little more on the comedy side than 1, still plenty of soppy sentimentality but a good few genuine lol moments as well. I'll look out for Flushed Away Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I watched Tokyo Drift last night. It was pretty poor, all told.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Physic: I thought The Proposition was great personally, Guy Pearce in particular was as brilliant as always.
Don't get me wrong fella, I loved The Proposition. It's bleakness was much of it's appeal, which was kind of my point.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I saw Pan's Labyrinth finally. Good. Very gripping. I also saw The Black Dahlia which was bloated and boring. I hate Josh Hartnett. And I saw Bandidas, which was sub standard, but both Salma Hayeck and Penelope Cruz were very easy on the eye, and did a fair amount of semi naked wild west themed cavorting
Tonight I'm going to check out the new Verhoeven one.
Full Metal Jacket was on last night, and I watched that for the bazillionth time. ITV4 is my favourite tv channel now.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I saw Pan's Labarynth at the weekend, I was left kind of detached from it for large chunks. The little girl was amazingly good, the Captain a nasty piece of work, and the denoumont worked very well - I just felt a little disinterested by the resistance movement story line, like too much was given to them for my liking. Still a good film though.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
*spoilers*
right. I was expecting more fantasy than was served up, perhaps purely because it had 'Labyrinth' in the title. The violence was great though. That inital bottling / execution was a cracking way to kick the film off, and the leg amputation scene got the cinema doing a collective cry of horror not unlike the one you get during Hard Candy. Also the face slashing was super, and the unseen torture of the resistance man was deliciously horrific. What more could you want?
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: What more could you want?
I dunno, maybe they could have shot someone in the head in a way that makes their eye move in their skull disturbingly?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah, that would have been good. Close ups of all their faces, like in robocop during the operation at the beginning. Perhaps slow motion sequences of the skulls caving in and facial features being shattered. Intercut with x-rays like in Ricky-O, showing the extent to which the bones have been damaged in the process.
I did think that there was going to be some kind of Indiana Jones Lost Arc style crazy facist slaughter at the end on PL. Like, the girl was going to open the portal and all these nutty woodland spirits would go rampaging, killing everybody apart from her. That would have been sweet.
[ 23.01.2007, 12:24: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I thought the dead eye shooting thing was very well done - the bottle in the face was grusome and the knife in the mouth great - but where was the romance????
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
so I saw black book last night, and it's a good film. Long, although this only becomes noticable in the last ten minutes or so. The story is about a dutch jewish chick in nazi netherlands who is mixed up with both the head of the ss in the netherlands AND the dutch resistance. Hilarity ensues. It's a tight, tense thriller. In every scene the dialogue flirts around the deadly secrets that the characters all hold - everybody is always a word away from being discovered and killed, either by each other or the opposition.
It's also an interesting subject. Verhoeven has already made at least one film about the dutch in WW2, and in Black Book he addresses the blurred lines, and the lengths that people would go to either for the cause, their survival, or simply to satisfy their greed. You get the impression that there are no heroes, just survivors.
the chick in it is fit. The film is a boob fest.
[ 24.01.2007, 06:55: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I totally saw "Assault on Precinct 13" the other night - for the first time! I'm talking about the original John Carpenter film here. I haven't seen the remake. Anyway, it's a good film. An element of Night of the Living Dead to it - a rag tag group of survivors are under siege in a disused LA police station to a gang of (mostly unseen) street punks. It all happens in one night, and there's a kind of unstoppable silent senselessness to the relentless attacks and entry attempts being made by the gang members. The lead siege survivor is a black cop, and he's got a couple of chicks and a couple of prisoners under his command.
It feels like this film is to LA what dirty harry was to San Fransisco. It's about the tensions in the city during the social transitions of the seventies. There's a sense that things have reached a tipping point, it's a land where the gangs of suburban LA have more control than the police, and nobody hears the gunshots anymore. Moral decency is marooned in a sea of individualistic chaos and underground motivations. For such a Daily Mail kind of topic, the film didn't feel like a knee jerk fear-inspired response to social change, but more like a warning that society was quietly fragmenting. I think that in LA at this time, working class living areas were being torn down and ghettos were growing, so this kind of thing - the rise of an aggresive subcultural youth - was probably becoming more visible anyway.
Carpenter must have a thing about street punks, having also made Escape from LA and Escape from New York, although Precinct 13 is a more modest and brooding film that either of those. The music was good - reminded me of the soundtrack to some of the computer games I had on the Amiga (I just looked this up, and on wikipedia it says that xenon II megablast sampled it - which would explain the connection!). And I liked the build up to the main event, showing all the different locations around LA with the street and time on the screen too. But then Carpenter is a master of build ups.
There's something about these kind of films that I love, regardless of what they're about. US cities at that time looked so good on camera - the boxy cars, the soft drink adverts everywhere, the clothes, the browny orangey hue that everything seemed to have. The way that the pictures have been softened with time. The way that directors weren't afraid to include silence, to keep the camera at a distance, and to have downbeat endings. All good. I really enjoyed the film.
Also - Braindead was on TV on saturday night! Hadn't seen that for years.
[ 12.02.2007, 07:47: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
also, Nathan, like ex-forumite thorn david, you're into Steven Seagal aren't you? Did you see him on The Friday Night Project? He was good I thought.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I also saw a play at the National Theatre called "The Man of Mode" that just confirmed my suspicions that theatre goers are mostly dull middle class dickheads whose idea of a good time is snickering at tedious 400 year old sex comedies. Every 'cleverly' veiled or cunningly angled reference to sex or class prompted a blood boiling ripple of polite titter from underneath the sea of silver hair. In the end I could only relieve my frustrations by following Louise into the toilets and repeated slamming her head into the the automatic hairdryer, so that the blood was gently and evenly airbrushed across the wall and floor of the room.
Of course, I'm a joyless c**t, so my assessments of these things are pretty pointless. I'm operating from such a confused and bitter perspective that my experiences have no real relation to the actual events that transpire, making any review I vomit out nothing more than another damning portrait of my own blindness.
[ 12.02.2007, 07:41: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I wondered into Babel the other weekend. I understand the metaphor about American policies and all that, but wtf?
Anyone willing or able to defend this film?
Meanwhile I've read Mystic River by Dennis Lehane, a thriller I enjoyed and now can't remember a thing about; George and Sam by Charlotte Moore because Nick Hornby said it was one of the better books about Autism, and am reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, also recommended by Nick Hornsy, I think. I am watching all the Star wars films from one through to six. Never watched them in sequence before. In fact, have never seen them all before. In 30 minutes am about to start watching number three.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I didn't see that, no. I never watch broadcast TV. I keep forgetting it exists. I love Assault on Precinct 13, and am willing to give your comments on the film my fullest endorsements. Well done, Jimmy.
On Saturday night I watched a terrible film called Warrior King, starring Tony Jaa of Ong Bak. Octavia and I have a real soft spot for Ong Bak, so we were looking forward to the follow up, but man was it shit. Basically it's about these villains that kidnap two of this dude's elephants and then he goes and breaks all their limbs.
The film gets off to a good start - all the stuff with the elephants is engagin, in the cheapest possible way (baby elephant crying over its shot mother), and there's a really good sequence where a huge, huge elephant goes rampaging through a Thai street market. But then the action shifts to Australia, and comes unstuck, with some dreadful editing and some of the worst acting outside of porn. You get the impression that Tony Jaa is working his heart out but the film mostly remains at the level of late seagal acting and directing.
That said, there were three or four incredible action sequences, including a really breathtaking 5 minute single take sequence in which Tony Jaa makes his way up a series of staircases dispatching of opponents as he's goes. That was jaw dropping, but it's more like a stunt than a satisfying piece of cinema. The rest of the action sequences were decent, too, with one showdown involving more limb snapping goodness than seagal has delivered in his entire career. The film sort of goes off the rails a bit at the end, when the an elephant joins Tony for the final fight. Having an elephant on your team would seem like a winning move, but one of the villains gets it in a headlock and throws it through a window. Implausible.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: .....that theatre goers are mostly dull middle class dickheads whose idea of a good time is snickering at tedious 400 year old sex comedies. ....
Is this the fault of the tedious middle classes or the out of touch theatres for their inability, or perhaps lack of genuine willingness, to pull in anyone else?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Having an elephant on your team would seem like a winning move, but one of the villains gets it in a headlock and throws it through a window. Implausible.
LOL
I only watched the staircase scene, I didn't have the patience to watch the rest of the movie.
Also, Re: AoP13. I named my 'Company', Vanilla Twist, after that movie.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I think that the theatre and it's go-ers do bask in the perceived high-brow nature of the entertainment available. Of course it's hard and pointless to 'trendy up' the majority of classic plays, but the building itself seems kind of dour and safe, and the whole atmosphere was comparable to standing in the foyer of a library. I wasn't expecting to be reminded of a Miami bass club during a period of unusually cheap coke, but still.
[ 12.02.2007, 08:05: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: Is this the fault of the tedious middle classes or the out of touch theatres for their inability, or perhaps lack of genuine willingness, to pull in anyone else?
It's the fault of the thickie everyman that turns his nose up at theatre as being pretentious nonsense for people who think they're clever. It creates an atmosphere where it's impossible to go to the theatre without on some level being aware that according to some perceptions you're engaging in an act of cultural elitism. So people wind up doing that horrid murmuring laugh at every shit gag as though attempting to prove that they are enjoying it, that they're not just there because they think it makes them brainy. It's like you have to justify going to the theatre now because of all the shit-for-brains plebs watching shit on shit TVs and making like you have to apologise for not being a thicko retard slug brained half-wit. So the theatres only put on smirking, horrid productions, because that's only what gets people in. But, you know. Even stuff like Shakespeare carries a stigma with it, despite the fact it was never born from cultural elitism. That's the depressing thing. Today's man on the street thicko half-wit can't even cope with a play that was originally written for an illiterate medieval peasant with no teeth who couldn't read and thought leeches were the cure for demons in the bloodstream.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Two sides of the class war, there, given voice by TMO's most insightful posters.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah, well, I didn't feel like I was engaging in cultural elitism, more an exercise in insufferable tweeness.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
still I got pissed up in the end, so I shouldn't grumble.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Today's man on the street thicko half-wit can't even cope with a play that was originally written for an illiterate medieval peasant with no teeth who couldn't read and thought leeches were the cure for demons in the bloodstream.
Theatre would be a lot more palatable if they presented it the way they did in the 17th century. Intersperse the acts of the play with strippers, death-defying stunts and magic. Tear out all the seats and sell beer, brandy and pies. I'd go.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
Jimmy, I've only seen one production at the National, and agree it is a bit of a faceless warehouse.
I've never been disappointed by anything I've seen on stage in London, and every time I go I think "must go to the theatre more often." I guess I've mostly seen Shakespeare (Macbeth, Lear, Henry V, Julias Caesar, Titus A) and plays with big names in (eg Brand with Feinnes, Dance of Death with McKellan). I know it's lame to go just because of the celeb, but those actors are famous for a reason- they can fucking act, and had a distinguished stage career before getting into film. But then, Corin Redgrave was the big name in Lear, and he was definitely the weakest thing in it- totally outshone by the (to me unknown) ensemble cast. So I don't know if I'm a discerning theatre-goer or not. I mean, I have read a lot of classic drama (ie Ibsen, Pinter, Webster, Chekhov etc) so I am always interested to see it on stage, as it's so much better than on the page- there always seem to be far more humourous moments and clever bits than you get from just reading a play. But I don't know anything about modern theatre.
I mean, when I periodically look at London theatre listings, the things that jump out at me are classic plays that I recognise, or something that's come personally recommended (ie The History Boys). So I'll probably go and see Patrick Stewart in The Tempest. Does that make me a c*** or not?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: Theatre would be a lot more palatable if they presented it the way they did in the 17th century. Intersperse the acts of the play with strippers, death-defying stunts and magic. Tear out all the seats and sell beer, brandy and pies. I'd go.
It'd probably do wonders for the quality of plays, too. It'd encourage ghastly shit-wits like Patrick Marber to raise their game if the consquence of a duff play was raised from just the possibility of a wryly sneering review in the Guardian, to an inevitably fatal lynching from a howling mob of enraged peasants who'd flushed away the weekly food money on a turd like Closer.
[ 12.02.2007, 08:40: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
ich nichten lichten
[ 12.02.2007, 08:43: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: ich nichten lichten
I am a night light?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
"I don't like it, but I'll have to go along with it." Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Bun fight! Bun fight!
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: [/qb]
It's the fault of the thickie everyman that turns his nose up at theatre as being pretentious nonsense for people who think they're clever. It creates an atmosphere where it's impossible to go to the theatre without on some level being aware that according to some perceptions you're engaging in an act of cultural elitism.[/QUOTE]
Uh? So its the actual absence of "thickie everyman" from the theatres that is what creates the atmosphere of ponciness inside the theatres? Like suddenly the average working, middle ability state-educated Joe is at fault for the fact that the middle class audiences act like ponces when in a theatre?
How would it work then? Get the working classes to go and sit in their boiler suits and pick their noses whilst watching a nice geilgud revival and British theatre would immediately improve?
[QUOTEToday's man on the street thicko half-wit can't even cope with a play that was originally written for an illiterate medieval peasant with no teeth who couldn't read and thought leeches were the cure for demons in the bloodstream. [/QUOTE]
This doesn't sound a million miles away from the scriptwriting brief for any Brit soap to me, but then, soaps and sit-coms don't have the advantage of having been written in dead English 400 years ago and being rammed down every schoolboys throat thanks to the school curriculum by middle class ponces who seem to think that if it ain't difficult to understand then it ain't literature.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
keriste, chip on shoulder much, sam?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: So its the actual absence of "thickie everyman" from the theatres that is what creates the atmosphere of ponciness inside the theatres? Like suddenly the average working, middle ability state-educated Joe is at fault for the fact that the middle class audiences act like ponces when in a theatre?
Yeah, I mean pretty much. I don't agree with your portrait of the non-theatre goer, though, because that description - average, middle ability, state educated - pretty much sums me up and I occasionally visit and enjoy the theatre, but a bigger and more varied audience would probably dilute the self congratulatory smugness of the enterprise. I think people need to rid themselves of the idea that it's only something 'middle-class ponces' do, and that because something might require a mild investment of mental effort from the viewer, it's for classically educated wankers only. If everyone thought like that then theatres are bound to only be filled by classically educated wankers.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: keriste, chip on shoulder much, sam?
Nah.
I like a good argument. Sad to say i don't always agree with what I say, but if it sounds good, why not say it? It's like a judicious lie can add savour to almost any situation, don' ya think?
I avoid some theatres because the audiences are so poncey and I want to be cool about that but I'm not and it makes me miserable going so I don't. I like Leeds though. That doesn't scare me.
I also like Shakespeare but you can't have a go at people for not understanding him; the language he wrote is half-dead for heaven's sake. Very few actors can act him and make it really make sense as you are listening unless you already know the play well, and that's a fact.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak:
quote:Originally posted by sam: So its the actual absence of "thickie everyman" from the theatres that is what creates the atmosphere of ponciness inside the theatres? Like suddenly the average working, middle ability state-educated Joe is at fault for the fact that the middle class audiences act like ponces when in a theatre?
Yeah, I mean pretty much. I don't agree with your portrait of the non-theatre goer, though, because that description - average, middle ability, state educated - pretty much sums me up and I occasionally visit and enjoy the theatre, but a bigger and more varied audience would probably dilute the self congratulatory smugness of the enterprise. I think people need to rid themselves of the idea that it's only something 'middle-class ponces' do, and that because something might require a mild investment of mental effort from the viewer, it's for classically educated wankers only. If everyone thought like that then theatres are bound to only be filled by classically educated wankers.
You are talking chicken and egg here. You can't expect Joe Average to go to the theatre in spite of its dull productions, poor welcome and expensive seats just so theatre gradually changes in response to his presence. We work some of the longest hours in Europe and we should give some of our precious stress-free time up to get stressed improving an apparently elitist activity? The theatrical world doesn't want to change that much.
I am going to dispute one point with you most strongly and that is your claim that you are: middle ability. You ain't that. I am not trying to flatter you mate, just stating facts.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I also like Shakespeare but you can't have a go at people for not understanding him; the language he wrote is half-dead for heaven's sake. Very few actors can act him and make it really make sense as you are listening unless you already know the play well, and that's a fact.
I don't agree with that. Shakespeare is no more difficult to get to grips with than say, the Nadsat in Clockwork Orange. When read aloud, is easier to understand. I was forced Shakespeare at school and the reason I didn't enjoy it was not because the 'language was dead', but because a Comedy of Errors makes Peter Kayes unlaughable 'Garlic Bread' line seem funny enough to warrant adamantium rib splints.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay:
quote:Originally posted by sam: I also like Shakespeare but you can't have a go at people for not understanding him; the language he wrote is half-dead for heaven's sake. Very few actors can act him and make it really make sense as you are listening unless you already know the play well, and that's a fact.
I don't agree with that. Shakespeare is no more difficult to get to grips with than say, the Nadsat in Clockwork Orange. When read aloud, is easier to understand. I was forced Shakespeare at school and the reason I didn't enjoy it was not because the 'language was dead', but because a Comedy of Errors makes Peter Kayes unlaughable 'Garlic Bread' line seem funny enough to warrant adamantium rib splints.
I love Shakespeare and silly me, some lines make me cry no matter how many times I see the plays. I am less turned on by his humour, I admit. I still know more people who have trouble grasping him and so can't follow the play properly than can, though. But that's all right by me. Why should everybody have to like or enjoy him?
That, in a way, is my point. To assume everyone should and can do so, and failure to 'get' him is because they are merely being too lazy to put in what others take upon themselves to judge as "a mild investment of mental effort", is intellectual elitism, if we are going to be honest about it.
Theatre is entertainment; not hard work. It isn't our place to enjoy poor stuff by straining ourselves; it is its job to entertain us. If theatre refuses to leave its comfort zone of catering to its archetypal audience that is a very sad loss. I would like to see the theatrical world shaken out of that attitude; something I do believe that Leeds theatre tries to do, and other theatres could try a bit harder at. Until it does, it'll be the sort of place bignuts quite rightly finds more to despise than otherwise.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: You are talking chicken and egg here. You can't expect Joe Average to go to the theatre in spite of its dull productions, poor welcome and expensive seats just so theatre gradually changes in response to his presence.
I don't think the theatre is dull, or all that expensive - the Travalex season at the NFT is roughly half the price of a cinema ticket for the Leicester Square Odeon. The last time I went there was for a production of Henry V, which bI loved because chock full of M16s, violence, and an armoured car onstage and that's exactly the sort of thing I like. So I don't think theatre is failing to provide for John Q Public, just that he can't be fucked to turn up because of stupid prejudices.
I don't know. Most of the time on here, when people have a pop at the theatre, they actually just wind up slagging off the audience - exactly in the manner Jimmy Big Nuts has done. So it's not really crummy productions that upset people, as it is other theatregoers. But it's not like theatre has got the monopoly on c**tish audiences, compared to the honking, gorging loudmouths of the cinema-world, or the mobile phone waving nob-ends you get at gigs. People here still seem to go to live shows and blockbusters, so I never really understand why the audience is such a deal-breaker in the theatre.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: That, in a way, is my point. To assume everyone should and can do so, and failure to 'get' him is because they are merely being too lazy to put in what others take upon themselves to judge as "a mild investment of mental effort", is intellectual elitism, if we are going to be honest about it.
Surely assuming that everyone is capable of understanding a play is precisely the opposite of intellectual elitism?
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I love Shakespeare and silly me, some lines make me cry no matter how many times I see the plays. I am less turned on by his humour, I admit. I still know more people who have trouble grasping him and so can't follow the play properly than can, though. But that's all right by me. Why should everybody have to like or enjoy him?
They shouldn't have to like or enjoy him, but as his work is compulsory education for 13 year olds, it doesn't say a great deal does it?
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
I've never really noticed the audience in theatres. I don't recall ever hearing a mobile phone during a play, so if perceived elitism is keeping the plebs out, I'm all for it.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay:
quote:Originally posted by sam: I love Shakespeare and silly me, some lines make me cry no matter how many times I see the plays. I am less turned on by his humour, I admit. I still know more people who have trouble grasping him and so can't follow the play properly than can, though. But that's all right by me. Why should everybody have to like or enjoy him?
They shouldn't have to like or enjoy him, but as his work is compulsory education for 13 year olds, it doesn't say a great deal does it?
On the contrary, it says a great deal. A great deal about our education system. Nothing wrong with reading and enjoying him at school, I did when I was about 11, but for an exam! Yuk.
And i have heard a mobile go off in the theatre. It's a damn sin; it really puts the actors off.
Lets face it; all audiences are plebs; modern people stink and should be banned from all public places.
And on that slightly hysterical note I'm going.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: I've never really noticed the audience in theatres.
Read Benway's post for the grisly truth - they're not rowdy and they laugh at the jokes. It's enough to put anyone off.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
An actress at the RSC turned round in the middle of a scenetold someone in our party off, once. (School sixthform trip to something or other). That and Kenneth Branagh's willy are amongst my top theatre moments.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: Kenneth Branagh's willy
?????????????????? Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Never saw a penis before, sam? Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Ralph! Really.
VP was talking about Branagh's triumphant 1986 production of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Old Vic.
Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: Ralph! Really.
VP was talking about Branagh's triumphant 1986 production of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Old Vic.
Yes, indeed:
quote:The Sunday Times, 1986: It must be said that Branagh's willy is definitive. A truly great willy against which all future willys will no doubt be measured. Outstanding.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I'd comment about how I like the theatre but since my ponce credentials are fairly well established I'm not sure what that'd prove.
I would say that the theatre isn't expensive when compared to going to a football match, although you can buy beer and pies at those and shout swears at people who are under performing, which I agree would greatly improve a great deal of contemporary theatre productions.
I got season 3 of The Wire last week and watched all 12 hours over the weekend. It was awesome. Season 4 starts tonight on FX for those lucky folk what can afford non-terrestrial telly.
I've just read the novel Wicked, on which the popular theatre production is (I assume loosely) based. It's quite entertaining.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: I would say that the theatre isn't expensive when compared to going to a football match, although you can buy beer and pies at those and shout swears at people who are under performing, which I agree would greatly improve a great deal of contemporary theatre productions.
Who's the wanker in the black? Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Richard the Third.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam:
quote:Originally posted by Louche: Kenneth Branagh's willy
??????????????????
Kenneth Branagh is a bloke. He has a willy. I went to a production where he got all his kit off. Ergo, I have seen Kenneth Branagh's willy.
Why does Dang think I'm VP?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Excoriating, bitter, miserable.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: Why does Dang think I'm VP?
Oh gosh, what an insult. I do apologise.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Thorn's probably nailed it right there. Have you started Transmet, yet, Thorn? I was reading Global Frequency on the train this mo0rning and thought of you. I bet that warms you up inside, doesn't it?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Yes, I spent an extremely pleasant chunk of Sunday afternoon, sitting on the sofa in my den reading Transmetropolitan, which I really enjoyed. It's a great conceit - that Hunter S Thompson in the future thing. I loved it, actually. I've been putting the rest in my Amazon's bucket, ready for payday.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Kenneth Branagh is an excellent actor: I loved his iago. Not however someone whose willy I feel interested in. But I larfed nonetheless at the pun.
Thanks for mentioning two other books I can buy. Never heard of them but happy to broaden my outlook.
Last night, having mislaid Gilead somewhere, I started Francis Wheen's How Mumbo Jumbo conquered the world. I am really enjoying it. The man argues well. I like a skillful, well put together argument and he is rather entertaining. Not quite, as Paxman on the cover puts it: 'hilarious', but perhaps Paxman had a sheltered life.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Yes, I spent an extremely pleasant chunk of Sunday afternoon, sitting on the sofa in my den reading Transmetropolitan, which I really enjoyed. It's a great conceit - that Hunter S Thompson in the future thing. I loved it, actually. I've been putting the rest in my Amazon's bucket, ready for payday.
Oh, I am glad you like. I got the first four for my birthday the other year and read them back to back in desperate page twitching fashion in the sunshine. Transmet in the sunshine was excellent. I'm quite in love with Spider Jerusalem. And to make this post slightly more than just a Transmet love-in, Global Frequency is rather good as well, though I am trying to work out whether Stephen King nicked the idea for Cell from Warren Ellis or vice versa. My money is on Warren Ellis coming up with it first.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Are they horror? I like Sci-fi but not horror.
ETA Right. A graphic novel series.
[ 13.02.2007, 07:24: Message edited by: sam ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I have an opinion but I'd like to know if it is correct or not. Could Thorn or Benway please tell me whether Pi is a good film or not?
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I don't know what they think but I thought the first 3/4 were good, interesting, novel, but the ending sucked ass.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I enjoyed Pi, but I watched it a long time ago. It's a good idea with a fairly unique execution. The style sometimes overpowers the substance, but it doesn't ruin the experience.
Last night I watched Videodrome again. That damn film. I love it so, but I still don't really understand it.
[ 15.02.2007, 05:12: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: I enjoyed Pi, but I watched it a long time ago. It's a good idea with a fairly unique execution. The style sometimes overpowers the substance, but it doesn't ruin the experience.
Ok, I'm glad we agree. It came up because I was having a conversation about 'best films ever' and a friend said Cube, and I said no, if you want a film which is a bit unusual but very very good, then Pi is what you're after. I like the idea of repeating themes and sequences, each time showing slight progression from the last, running in tandem with the progression of the main character towards the goal. The ending was either totally weak, or totally great, depending on how you look at it, really.
Great soundtrack too, that jungle/drum and bass track that plays throughout is absolutely supoib.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Warren Ellis is on fire at the moment. I just read the TPB of Desolation Jones last week, fantastic. And his monthlies, Nextwave (final issue this month), New Universal and Thunderbolts have all been pleasing and intriguing. Ooh, there was another Fell last week, as well.
Good old Warren.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Pi's alright.
Videodrome, it's about Big Brother series 7 isn't it?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: Warren Ellis is on fire at the moment. I just read the TPB of Desolation Jones last week, fantastic. And his monthlies, Nextwave (final issue this month), New Universal and Thunderbolts have all been pleasing and intriguing. Ooh, there was another Fell last week, as well.
Good old Warren.
I really liked Desloution Jones - is was one of the last comic's that I collected before I chucked it all in because they were mostly turning to rubbish.
I gave my nephew my collection of 100 Bullet's he better appreciate it, the little shit.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: before I chucked it all in because they were mostly turning to rubbish.
Yeah, I only buy about half as many comics now as I did a year or two ago. Most of the comics i do buy are short runs or independents. I find I'm holding out for the paperbacks instead. The 'events' are getting ridiculous. House of M was a bit of a sprawl but Civil War is just ludicrous. I couldn't be fucked with Infinite Crisis and that seemed to segue straight into 52... so the whole DC thing has just passed me by. Still, Bruce Wayne will probably wake up covered in sweat in six months and the whole thing will have been a dream.
[ 15.02.2007, 05:39: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
DC has turned to shit - the Infinite Crisis and ID Crisis' were just awful, fanboy nonsense - kill of a few characters that never sell well and who we don't really have the rights to or something, and then wrap it all up in gosh aren't bad people bad they commit rape and stuff crap - I thought it might turn out okay when the implication was that the grim and gritty crap of the 90's was part of some temporal glitch that caused heroes to go mad and kill and stuff, but it bottled it at the last minute and made it about punching people, punching reality, punching space time etc etc
I really like Warren Ellis - Barbelith (which does most of my comic book reading nowdays) seems to not like him much, but it's such a Grant Morrison love in over there, that anyone else pails in comparison it seems.
Planetary remains one of my favourite series ever.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I abandoned Barbelith as a source for recommendations when someone said 100 Bullets was one dimensional in a way that Sin City isn't. It was at that point I realised they were reading comics from bizarro wrong-world where everything is entirely backward to the way it is here.
[ 15.02.2007, 05:43: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Planetary rocks! What's happening with the culmination, though? There seems to be an issue released every six months or so. (This is another title I'm holding out for the paperback of.)
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: someone said 100 Bullets was one dimensional in a way that Sin City isn't.
That's just... PAH!
The finale is about thirty issues off now (what's it up to now? Late sixties? Mid seventies?) Whenever I get my hands on a new TPB of 100 Bullets I'm just totally hooked. One dimensional? In comparison to fucking Miller?!
The TPB that has me aching is still Walking Dead.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Ha! I just got a parcel from Amazon! Hellboy Vol.s 1-3 and The Goon Vol.s 1 & 2!
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Plus! It's Thursday!
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: That's just... PAH!
The finale is about thirty issues off now (what's it up to now? Late sixties? Mid seventies?) Whenever I get my hands on a new TPB of 100 Bullets I'm just totally hooked. One dimensional? In comparison to fucking Miller?!
Book 10 (called Decalogue or Decay or something) that just came out takes it up to number 75 or 76, so yeah - about 25 issues to go. I just wish they'd produce them faster. I can't wait another two frickin' years to find out how it ends. It's driving me nuts. I can't wait to sit down and read them all in one session.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I'm still reading The Onion which occasionally manages to pull one out of the hat. Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
After a good start, Newsbiscuit has been a bit hit and miss recently. *This is a good one though.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
In a fit of 80s madness, I watched Friday 13th IV and Friday 13th V last night. Both were shit, but V is way shitter than IV. Amazingly, I hadn't seen either before.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
IV and V are bad - I quite liked VI and VII - if they are the ones that I remember them as (brought back by lightening strike?) it goes shit again for Takes Manhattan (VIII) except for the black man punching him a lot - the rest are rubbish.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I watched Hot Fuzz last night. Not as good as Shaun of the Dead. Humour felt broader, characters were more cartoonish, plot was laboured and inconsequential, and there were too many jump cuts. I nearly laughed twice, which isn't bad I suppose. Unlike Shaun, I wouldn't really want to watch it again.
[ 23.02.2007, 05:21: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Also watched the Dario Argento 'Masters of Horror', which featured a man literally chopping his face off by headbutting a man-trap style animal trap. And it had loads of tits, lezzing up, and Meatloaf in the main role. Good old Dario. I only wish that Bravo showed the series a bit earlier in the evening.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I bought Pi in the end. It's as good as I remembered. Brilliant film.
Worst review ever.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
Dario Argento's Dèmoni and Dèmoni 2 are a couple of my most vivid movie memories.. I'll have to watch them again and see how they've held up.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: I'll have to watch them again and see how they've held up.
Can't be that vivid, then, ey?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
watched Friday 13th VI on Friday night, and it's bad. Really dull, stupid and flat. It crawls from one lacklustre death scene to the next one, held together by a tedious device where the guy trying to warn everybody about Jason is being hunted by the cops for committing the murders. It's not got any sleaze or edge or quirkiness. At least with V (which was also really shit), it had this kind of sweaty, grimy feel to it, even if nothing happened. VI feels like it was made for TV, and it's really coy about the violence. In fact, there isn't really any violence, just cut-aways and severed heads rolling around. Awful. Don't bother. I've only got VII and III left now until I've seen them all, but I don't know if I can put myself through it any longer.
[ 26.02.2007, 06:50: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Jason X is pretty good - in many ways it's the best in the series. Got some tits in it, some good deaths (girl gets face dunked in liquid nitrogen, frozen, then smashed off), some really funny moments.
Part VIII is best for unintentional laughs, including the most ridiculous shooting-up-heroin scene in cinema history, even stupider than the bit in Wild Geese where Roger Moore makes a drug dealer eat two kilos of heroin by threatening to shoot him.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
VIII has got Kelly Hu in it. She looks good.
[ 26.02.2007, 07:17: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Kelly Who? lol.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: Dario Argento's Dèmoni and Dèmoni 2 are a couple of my most vivid movie memories.. I'll have to watch them again and see how they've held up.
Are they the one's set in the cinema and the tower block - I loved those when I was younger.
Hot Fuzz - regressive, too much camera shit, but, yeah two very funny moments, one very creep up funny moment (I laughed thinking about it later than actually while there).
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I went to the cinema to watch Freddy Vs. Jason. That was whack.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
VI was bad? I remember it being okay - the one where he digs up the body and sticks a iron spike into his heart, bringing Jason back to life? Maybe it was shit then, maybe? Unless that's VII. VIII is hilariously bad.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Which is the one where they nick the plot of The Hidden, and Jason's essence goes from host to host, making people do murdering? Is that number nine? That one was pretty shit, too. I mean - technically it didn't even have Jason in it.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Kelly Who? lol.
No, Kelly Hu.
oh, lol!
I thought - but you - so - but, really - hahah!
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: I went to the cinema to watch Freddy Vs. Jason. That was whack.
Me too. I was tempted to ask for my money back. It's right up there alonside Bride of Chucky in the list of sequels that should never have happened.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Which is the one where they nick the plot of The Hidden, and Jason's essence goes from host to host, making people do murdering? Is that number nine? That one was pretty shit, too. I mean - technically it didn't even have Jason in it.
Jason goes to Hell, which was 9. That was pretty hardcore by the usual standards for the series, at least, as far as I can tell from the ones I've seen.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Wiki has some pretty graphic descriptions of how a lot of the films are cut. And some.
quote:According to interviews in the book Crystal Lake Memories, a large percentage of the cast was homosexual, including Jeff Bennett, William Butler, and Craig Thomas. During filming, the cast and crew jokingly referred to the film as "Fri-gay the 13th."
Those gays. Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Freddy Vs Jason is the only one from both series that I haven't seen. I saw Freddy (Nightmare) movies at the cinema from about V onwards I think - but Jason movies weren't at the cinema until X?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
It's about time we had a new slasher flick. While they were typically American or Italian, I think you could probably set one in London and get away with it. Set it around a heavy clubbing scene, so you've got lots of scummy toilets, screwed up frightening characters, drugs, violence, skanky bedsits and general grime / brokenness. Try and get an atmosphere that's like Irreversible crossed with Bad Lieutenant and Nightmare in a Damaged Brain. Hard, uncomfortable, abusive yet compelling in a 'decent into hell' kind of way. The main killer could be a drugs cop whose son/daughter was killed by a drugs overdose, but who was also gay, and the killer's inability to accept his son's sexuality leads to him 'punishing the peverted' as well as the general wrong-doers. So this guy takes out people who live their lives in a way that makes them conspicuously different from the mainstream, who are immersed in subcultures. If there's one thing the man on the street doesn't like, it's youth subculture.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Yes, we certainly do need a film where a repressed gay violently slaughters goths and emos. I'd buy that for a dollar.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah this guy basically represents a kind of personification of conservative fears. Perhaps as he kills, he finds himself physically transforming with every murder, as his hatred literally takes over his body. Subtle at first, but by the end he's well fucked up.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
You should write this film JBN. It'd be good.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
The danger is that you might be seen to be adding some kind of social commentary in the subtext, potentially being accused of sympathising with goths and emos, rather than saying they simply deserve to be killed. I can imagine one floppy-haired chin stroker sitting watching the film, then phoning his lame-o buddy all like "you should totaly watch this film man, it's so true, it's all about how the man hates us young people just because we dress different and want to be individual".
You would hate yourself if that happened, really. The only way it would work is if you made the victims out to be complete losers, and for the hero to go through a process of rejecting lame youth subcultures before he's able to stand up to the killer. I think that would work well in fact.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Someone has spray painted 'All Emos Must Die' on a ginnel wall near my Mum's house. Perhaps the emo-killer is already out there. You could find yourself making a documentary instead of a film. Gritty northern urban landscapes. And my Mum's house could be in it!
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
what's a ginnel?
wasn't there a 'Kick an Emo' day recently?
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
What on earth is a 'ginnel'?
Edit: Glad I am not alone in my thirst for knowledge
[ 26.02.2007, 08:27: Message edited by: Waynster ]
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I bet Ben would've known what I meant.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
lol@southerners
edit: that's not really fair, is it, and a bit pointless. sorry. un-lol.
[ 26.02.2007, 08:32: Message edited by: mart ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
The hero will be a chick who's part of the scene, and a cop who starts off basically blackmailing her with a drugs charge to try and get deeper undercover, but perhaps they come to rely on each other as the bodies, fear, and suspicion begins to mount. Then they bone, he maybe wrecks his career by abusing his position in order to save the chick and catch the killer. But then he dies, and she's the 'final girl'. Or maybe the other way around.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Bones and lives? Controversial.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
one of them dies. I don't they both should.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Hmm, it sounds a bit wrong to me. Maybe you could focus on her for like the first half of the movie, then she's just suddenly killed and everyone watching will be all like "Wtf i thought she was meant to be the hero??" only to have some other person step up instead. I don't know how well that would work. Better than your idea though, I'm willing to bet.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Just because Hitchcock could do that, doesn't mean anybody else can. I think that you need some kind of central relationship. Another alternative would be that this chick is having a relationship with the killer. And the other cop is seperate. The other cop, who is a good guy, used to be his partner, and holds the key to the mystery. Or maybe you think he's good, but he turns out to be bad, and killed his partner's son to protect a drug dealing operation that he's got going. So, you know, who's the real monster? And then Mel gibson handcuffs himself to the killer and they jump off a building.
it's not a whodunnit though, it's supposed to be a filthy, disturbing film about killing.
[ 26.02.2007, 08:58: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I think Filthy Disturbo has quite a nice ring to it. Sounds like a homage to a cheap slasher flick.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Facial scarring or a mask?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
The killer should initially be an everyman, able to melt into the crowd. As he loses control of his hatred, he will eventually have to start covering himself up to hide the physical malformations.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
So it's semi-autobiographical in a way then, Benway?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
shut up
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
lol pwned
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Quiet, today, innit?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
That doesn't work at all - Benway's never really been an 'everyman' and he's not angry at all - he tends to favour a tone of whimsical understanding of humanity that's tinged with frustration when it lets itself down. Plus, he makes no effort to hide nhis physical aberrations.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeh. I'm dicking around, not really working.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
reading grouphug.us
quote:ok this story of mine is mega weird. it shocks even me. ok so was about 11/12 when i got bored during the night. i looked out of my window which looks onto another house about 15 meters away and i could see right into there window. i saw this guy in there who was just moving boxes and stuff. i dont know y but i turned off my lights and got naked and just stared at him. i then done some weird kind of dance which made me go hard. then his woman friend walked in and i started to hump the bed watching them just moving stuff about. i then done my weirdo dance again but they looked over at my window and straight at me, i was completely naked looking right at them dancing! i jumped as fast as i could out of the way of the window thinking fuck fuck fuck they saw me. i looked at there window 10 mins later and all the lights were off and they had gone. i now see them everyday as i go outside or at the shop. they give me weird looks and i just wonder what they thought. a small boy completely naked looting at them with a hard on.......ok freak...
[ 26.02.2007, 11:19: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Ok pendant. You're no fun sometime Thorn. No fun at all.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I'm spinning things out til fiveish, I think. Then I might do some shopping. I have a new job but no-one is giving me anything to do. So I sit here and eat jammy dodgers and read the internet. The jammy dodgers are running out, though. The end of the jammy dodgers might be my crisis point.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I've been here since 8am and I'm here until 6pm. I spent most of the morning working hard only to find my queue had mysteriously filled up again. So I still have over 50 people to call. I don't call all of them though. Sometimes I send them a cowardly robotic email telling them the work is done and not to call back again. Ever.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Mikee, am I too old for tiny black dresses?
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I can see if you're asking you want reassurance. No, you're not too old for little black dresses.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Are you sure? It's a very tiny black dress and I am thirty now. Old!
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
It was odd this morning. I was on the train and I started hearing Eric Burdon & War in my head. They did this terrible hippy song called Beautiful Newborn Child, which was basically a load of hippies chanting:
Beautiful newborn chyyy-ild
for about half an hour. Thing is, Eric Burdon was one of those people that could make even a ridiculous hippy chant sound sinister. Actually, it sounded quite sinister anyway now I think about it. *suddenly occurs* Fuck, d'you think they were devil worshippers or something? *worried* What were they going to do with the Beautiful Newborn Child? *shakes head* Anyway, I came out of the station and this second hand record shop was there which I hadn't even noticed before, and in the window... was... an old LP... called... Eric Burdon's Greatest Hits.
I've got a feeling Satan has plans for me. I hope it's something nice anyway.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I think you would look gorgeous in a little black dress Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I can safely say if you wear a little black dress then attractive men will fantasise about you. Does that seal the deal?
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Thank you, Ringo, you're lovely. As I would like attractive men to fantasise about me, I will probably buy the tiny black dress. I am worried about looking like a badly aging goth. But it is for a NIN gig. It will be full of badly aging goths.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: I think you would look gorgeous in a little black dress
See what I mean?
[ 26.02.2007, 11:45: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
I'd like to imagine you wearing a tiny black dress for a Nim gig, coolly deploying your sophisticated Nim strategies while looking smouldering in a haute-couture black number.
And you'd beat the guy from Last Year in Marienbad who always wins.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
You'll have to post a photo. That would be awesome.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I liked your post Dang. It made me do a LOL.
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: But it is for a NIN gig.
Oh wow, just when I thought Louche couldn't get any cooler, she says she's going to wear a little black dress to a NIN gig.
No you're not too old, and yes I'm sure you'll look amazing.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: Thank you, Ringo, you're lovely.
I think you'll find he was talking to me actually Louche.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
Louche. Wear the dress. You know it makes sense. You'll be the envy of every NIN fan there.
[ 26.02.2007, 11:57: Message edited by: Zygote ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Are you going to show us the dress or is it in a RL shop?
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
Yes, let's have a shufty at it Louche.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Come on Louche Don't be a douche whip out the camera and show us your tush
(in a dress)
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
I watched Hot Fuzz today finally, all I can say is although it starts a little slowly, by the end it packs in just as many laughs as Shaun of the Dead imo; more than enough laugh out loud scenes to make me a very happy movie goer..
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I think it was on this board that someone kept on about The Wire ~ so whoever you were, I hold you responsible for the fact that I just dropped 20 notes on the first box set.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Physic: I watched Hot Fuzz today finally, all I can say is although it starts a little slowly, by the end it packs in just as many laughs as Shaun of the Dead imo; more than enough laugh out loud scenes to make me a very happy movie goer..
I laughed at Hot Fuzz about as much as I've ever laughed at a film in the cinema. Thought it was great fun. The ending seemed to drag on a little bit, but that one minor thing aside I really liked it. Despite all the 'big' silly gags (old women in John Woo style gunfights), there were some nice, subtle moments. Things like the encroaching countryside denoted by the diminishing bars on Nick's mobile phone signal. Also I got a retroactive LOL when I remembered and placed the line "Forget it Nick... it's Sandford."
Posted by saltrock (Member # 622) on :
I have just finished reading Louis Theroux's Call of the Wierd. He revisits a lot of people that he has made documentaries about in the past to see how their lives have panned out. There really are a hell of a lot of loons out there huh?
His subjects were a male porn star, a prostitute, 8 year old twins who were singing "White Power" songs at rallies, the leader of a major neo-nazi organisation in the States and a con-man who runs "I can make you a millionnaire" seminars. Good reading.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I think it was on this board that someone kept on about The Wire ~ so whoever you were, I hold you responsible for the fact that I just dropped 20 notes on the first box set.
I'm still waiting for my season 1 - stupid Play got season 2 ready to go though.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Also I got a retroactive LOL when I remembered and placed the line "Forget it Nick... it's Sandford."
I've had that a couple of times - Brainfreeze still makes me chuckle more in hindsight than it did in the cinema - still, kicking an old woman in the face was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.
Posted by saltrock (Member # 622) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Also I got a retroactive LOL when I remembered and placed the line "Forget it Nick... it's Sandford."
I've had that a couple of times - Brainfreeze still makes me chuckle more in hindsight than it did in the cinema - still, kicking an old woman in the face was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.
Does it say something about our society that the thing that nearly everybody I have spoken to who has seen this film enjoys the most is the kicking the old lady in the face scene? Frankly I'm shocked and horrified that so many people would find this amusing!
Actually I'm lying. I laughed like a fucking drain when I saw it.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
Personally the old woman in the wheelchair being sent flying by the car door was probably one of my biggest lol moments, but I suppose that isn't much better..
The bit which had me laughing so hard I was in tears though was the bit where Danny gives his own reasoning for thinking the blonde council woman is into older men - fantastically deadpan delivery and so true to life.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Oh man, I so want to go and watch this again now. I'll have to see if I can drag some neophytes out later in the week.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Did anyone watch The Eclipse on Saturday night? There wasn't much plot at all really and I thought it dragged a bit after the first half hour, but I'm still glad I caught it.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Yeah, I saw it. I don't know who did the lighting design, but it was good work (although the colours seemed a little bit off, somehow).
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I didn't see the sclipse. I spent a few days infirm recently, which involved lying in my bed while Paramount Comedy played in the background. I've listened to more Two and a Half Men than I'd ever need to.
Last night I watched I, Robot, which was, you know, alright in a shruggy shoulders kind of way. It never felt like it was gunning for anything other than thrills, guns, and explosions. Not Blade Runner, even if the title did cunningly lure me in with a hint at some sci - fi existentialism.
After that, an interesting enough sub-sociological thing by Tim Lott on BBC Four about the cultural war taking place within the middle classes. I liked his angle that said even if the middle classes are individualist consumption addicts, if they are driving things like ecologically aware production and improved education, is it such a bad thing? Food for thought. Some interesting things about how the new cultural consumption is to try and include the greatest range of cultural items rather than depth, which rang quite true. I think you see that quite a lot on this forum - being able to effortlessly switch between consumption and criticism of high and low culture gives an impression of cultural mobility. Like I've done on this very post - moving from talking about bottom of the barrel US comedy to a show about cultural trends and social benefit gives me the perceived ability to feast on a large spectrum of cultural product, and the degree to which this cultural opulance is exhibited is how people judge each other within a certain area of the middle class.
[ 05.03.2007, 08:56: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
[ 05.03.2007, 09:01: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: Some interesting things about how the new cultural consumption is to try and include the greatest range of cultural items rather than depth, which rang quite true. I think you see that quite a lot on this forum - being able to effortlessly switch between consumption and criticism of high and low culture gives an impression of cultural mobility. Like I've done on this very post - moving from talking about bottom of the barrel US comedy to a show about cultural trends and social benefit gives me the perceived ability to feast on a large spectrum of cultural product, and the degree to which this cultural opulance is exhibited is how people judge each other within a certain area of the middle class.
Brr. Busted.
I don't read a BigNuts post expecting to be vicariously nailed by Tim Lott. I think I'll exercise a lot more caution reading your posts in future. Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
If it's not in Games, it's not worth reading.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
My girlfriend gave me a selection of books last night by Guy N. Smith: Cannibals, Locusts, Entombed, Carnivore and The Master. I've yet to read any of his books. Has anybody on here read anything by Guy Smith? Should I bother reading any of them or should I just pretend I read them and tell her that they were 'pretty good'?
I know I could look up reviews on-line, but I was hoping to gain feedback from some of the horror experts on here.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
It sounds as though your girlfriend would also enjoy the work of R.L. Stine under the "Goosebumps" YA imprint. They seem to be along much the same lines.
These creepy, crawly stories with plot twists galore will keep your reluctant readers going and your better readers challenged! We present the first 10 books in the series.
Titles: Abominable Snowman of Pasadena The Barking Ghost The Cuckoo Clock of Doom The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Deep Trouble Egg Monsters From Mars Ghost Beach Ghost Camp Ghost Next Door The Haunted Mask Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
The "Ghost" trilogy is especially good, following a spine-chilling arc as the titular spectre travels from the beach, to the camp, to next door.
PS. I thought you were going out on the pull wearing black clothes recently. This must be a new girlfriend Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I've never heard of this bloke, or his books.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Fucking hell, these books sound brilliant. You should read them and review them on here.
quote: Gordon would you … take me away from here? Take me with you, where there aren’t such things as wolves, Black Dogs and people cutting their heads off with saws. – from Werewolf by Moonlight
She needed a man. A real man. Not the boyish Chris Latimer. Someone who would dominate her. Take her as a woman should be taken. – From The Sucking Pit
...her reply was lost in the moans and the writhings of their united bodies as they reached the ultimate possible peak of pleasure which any man and woman can climb. – From Night of the Crabs
...Suddenly he found himself becoming aroused. Hell, it was a long time since he’d gone a fortnight without a woman. Nevertheless he was determined that such pleasures would have to wait and attempt to satisfy his craving the only way he knew how. But it did not stop him getting an erection again… Every man had his Achilles heel. – From Sabat 1: The Graveyard Vultures
But what chance did they stand against this army of attacking pheasants? – From Carnivore
Why shouldn't a child's corpse turn into a pike? No reason at all...Maybe he was a fish and hadn't realised it up until now. – From The Undead
Any woman who could give him an erection after all the anti-hormone drugs they stuffed into Caerlaverock personnel deserved to be heard out. – From Warhead
It was his first taste of human flesh and he wondered why he had ever bothered with hares and sheep before. – Werewolf by Moonlight
This doomed girl had not only risen from her deathbed but she had turned into a nymphomaniac. – From The Resurrected
He did something that caused the elephant to go berserk and the potato vendor to burn to death. – From The Dark One
"Nothing else mattered...Not even the giant crabs." -From Night of the Crabs
I'm half tempted to buy them myself.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: PS. I thought you were going out on the pull wearing black clothes recently. This must be a new girlfriend
Indeed it is.
I didn't realise that Guy N. Smith's books were aimed at children. I had a brief flick through Cannibals and I certainly wouldn't recommend it for children. Unless, of course, you were 'having a dig' with your recommendation of "the Stephen King of children's literature" Robert Stine.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I think I must be very naive, because I thought from the titles that these would be similar books. But I've looked up the "Goosebumps" series and it seems to be quite different, though equally quotable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then he saw a strange ghoulish shape moving among the dunes. It was not like anything Jim had seen before! It made him scared. "Ghost Beach"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ghoul raised one eyebrow. It made a strange face! "Is that what passes for fashion round here?" it said.
It was looking at Jim's shoes. They were good shoes! "I like my shoes," Jim replied.
The ghoul examined its nails. "If you say so, love," it said.
"Ghost Camp"
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Anyway I have been reading some recent books by American modern authors who used to be young turks!
JPod ~ Coupland
Lunar Park ~ Easton Ellis
The Good Life ~ McInerney
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Fucking hell, these books sound brilliant. You should read them and review them on here.
Some 'interesting' quotes there.. I'll give them a whirl. If anything, they're likely to offer some amusement. Not a bad thing.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Currently reading; Robert Fisk's - The Great War for Civilisation - a big old book which is, so far, a really interesting read - about the authors experiences as a reporter in the Middle East.
Just come back from the cinema, having seen The Illusionist - it's okay, good cast, beautifully shot, but kind of empty - like being told that a new manuscript by Charles Dickens had been found, only to discover that it was really a new Dan Brown novel.
Now getting ready for the night and to watch this;
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dreams... Sun 11 Mar, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm 60mins The Trap: What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom
F**k You Buddy: A series of films by BAFTA-winning producer Adam Curtis that tells the story of the rise of today's narrow idea of freedom. It will show how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom. This model was derived from ideas and techniques developed by nuclear strategists during the Cold War. It was then taken up by genetic biologists, anthropologists, radical psychiatrists and free market economists, until it became a new system of invisible control. With some strong language.
Which has gotten fantastic write-up's and looks great
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I wanted to watch those docs Benny, but missed them in a haze of roast chicken, wine, and crass American humour (Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Family Guy -Season Five specifically) instead.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I watched The Queen the other night. I found it deeply boring. Helen Mirren was good, but only in the way that, say, a juggler is good. Skilful, impressive, but it can't hold my attention for 90+ minutes.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I loved Talladega Nights. That just about demonstrates my natural level on the culture front.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Talladega Nights is very very funny Hippy.
Season Five of Family Guy (which I finished watching last night - including a pretty fine Poltergeist spoof) is all new kinds of hilarious wrongness.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I found Talledega very disappointing compared to the towering Anchorman.
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: Season Five of Family Guy (which I finished watching last night - including a pretty fine Poltergeist spoof) is all new kinds of hilarious wrongness.
Definately! When Stewie started singing In The Air Tonight from inside the tv I thought I was going to die laughing. Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: American modern authors who used to be young turks!
Oddly enough, I've been reading a book about the Armenian genocide and 'your actual' Young Turks were murderous nationalists - not quite sure how the term came to mean 'the bad boy of [INSERT MEDIUM HERE]' but it seems staggeringly inappropriate.
Anyway, the book's called Burning Tigris: A history of the Armenian Genocide and is a genuine eye-opener - certainly explains why Orhan Pamuk caused such a stir last year when he talked about Turkish censorship of any mention of the state-sponsored massacres of 1915.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Tonight I'm going to check out Inland Empire.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Continuing the 'downer' note, I'm now reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which is a ferociously bleak depiction of the end of the world. The writing is beautiful and the father and son who are the book's main characters are painfully convincing.
Read it! Then gas yourself and your loved ones in the family car before civilisation crumbles and it all comes true. Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I found Talledega very disappointing compared to the towering Anchorman.
I know what you mean. It's certainly much sloppier, much less successfully ensemble based, and overlong in comparison. But it's still pretty damn funny.
I want to read The Road and see Inland Empire, but I don't think I'll manage either tonight.
[ 14.03.2007, 07:55: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I found Talledega very disappointing compared to the towering Anchorman.
I'd have to agree, Anchorman is total comedy genius, most notably the 'gang fight' scene. Talladega Nights, while having a number of genuine laugh out loud moments, never really seemed to scale the same heights.
I watched Clerks 2 at the weekend and thought I was going to rupture something I was laughing so hard. Crass but hilarious, always a good mix.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
My signature used to be "I'm expressing my inner anguish through the majesty of song", as a tribute to Anchorman.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Has anyone seen the direct to DVD companion piece (maybe a sequel) to Anchorman, which I think was shot at the same time? Is it any good?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Being an idiot, I didn't have a frickin clue what was going on Inland Empire for 80% of the time. In retrospect, it didn't help that I'd had a curry and a couple of pints before I watched it. Louise fell asleep a couple of times in some of the slower moments.
Anyway, it's pretty similar to Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway in subject, although it goes on for three hours. Looks good, it's got some good moments, but my problem here is that there is so much of the film that is ambient, yet then there'll be a split second where a major plot point is revealed. It's thick with metaphors, unreal characters and morphing identities, with moments of strange humour chucked in. Overall though, it left me cold. While Laura Dern did some good acting, I felt that really I was just watching her act for half the time. I couldn't believe all of her characters, and I was sick of looking at her doing to same puzzled / horrified face.
I couldn't work out who everybody was, why we were moving between poland and hollywood, what was real and was was imagined / dreamed / fantasised, and what actually happened during those three hours.
But as I said, I'm an idiot.
[ 15.03.2007, 06:30: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: Has anyone seen the direct to DVD companion piece (maybe a sequel) to Anchorman, which I think was shot at the same time? Is it any good?
I saw it when I was a bit drunk round "Bailey's" house... it seemed funny enough but was very much bonus material rather than a film in its own right, as I remember. It does include a video of "Afternoon Delight", I think.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I'm waiting to see 300 - I think it looks like fantastic, weird, shouty fun - I want to shout and spit SPARTA every time I speak - for a while at least.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Barbelith finds 300 problematic.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Screw them - sour so and so's....
All it takes is one or two of the 'celeb' (the posters that people seem to fawn over, not famous ones, I mean) posters over there to say something, do something, post something, and it becomes a "my post touched their post" contest.
SPARTAAAAAAAA - spitooo!
et change the terrible spelling - I'm tired.
[ 16.03.2007, 03:48: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Oh, I thought you were still on Barbelith Benny, and sort of "part of" it. I don't think I've become a celeb on there; a regular supporting role or something, perhaps.
[ 15.03.2007, 18:29: Message edited by: wonderstarr ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I do still go to barbelith, sometimes though it's hard not to feel totally ignored over there - I love that they have some forums that you can ask very good questions on, and get very good answers - but all the sqeeee-ing and all that isn't for me. I like the comics area, games, sometimes temple and politics and head shop - but this whole board is a thousand times friendlier, warmer and more enjoyable than their conversation thread. Plus, to be honest, I really only like some of Grant Morrisons stuff.
[ 16.03.2007, 03:46: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I'm well up for 300.
I forgot to say that I bought The Host on dvd last weekend, and I now think it's at least a tie with Volver for my favourite film of last year. It's scary, funny, touching , smart, I can't recommend it strongly enough.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Yeah, but you probably like The Science of Sleep Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Science of Sleep would be a much better film if someone shouted SPARTAAAAAA and spat every few minutes.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I watched Borat last night and was sort of underwhelemd, especially after the all the "So funny you'll weep spunk and shit your dessicated womb out of your nose" reviews I read in the likes of Harpers and Queen, and Country Living. I kept getting distracted by the editing, trying to work out where they'd spliced in reactions to different jokes to try and get things the way they wanted (this seemed to happen a lot). Plus the whole Exposing the Ignorance of America angle didn't really work bar three or four choice moments people were largely polite and tolerant almost to a fault and half the time his 'targets' were just things like... some feminists who got annoyed when he called them 'sweetcheeks', or some Southern Baptists who were taken aback by him bringing human faeces to the dinner table (although, that did make me laugh). Eh. Mostly though you could see SBC waiting for something funny to happen - starting to talk and then hoping he'd come out wiht something cheerily offensive at crunch time (most obvious during his rubbish improvisation about a Kazak drinking game).
Still there were some funny moments - streaking through the hotel was great, largely because fat people running is always hilarious, and er... some other things mainly. But largely the movie was a disappointment.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
300 looks like a guiness advert.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Harpers and Queen, and Country Living.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I had a wander into Waterstone and noticed there's a new Ian Banks out. Can someone read it and tell me if it's any good please? I simplay cannot go through an experience like Dead Air again.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
I also saw Borat the other night. I had fairly high hopes as I found the 15 minute slots on the 11 O'Clock Show hilarious. Unfortunately after an hour or so of watching the film - barring the odd laugh - you're striving not to turn it off. Conclusion - wank.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Yeah, but you probably like The Science of Sleep
I did quite like The Science of Sleep, mostly for all the wacky Gondry imagery, but it was otherwise pretty plot(clue)less and Gael Garcia Bernal's character really started to irritate me after a while.
I tried to watch katana-free Kurosawa corruption thriller The Bad Sleep Well last night. It seemed pretty good, but I kept nodding off.
Posted by Hades (Member # 57) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: Tonight I'm going to check out Inland Empire.
I really want to see that but its not playing anywhere near me.
I was in london over the weekend and noticed it on at one of the Odeons but didnt have time to see it.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Well, I have read Powers: Retro Girl in an hour or so... I feel a bit uncharitable saying that it's ho-hum, because it's obviously intelligent, decently enough drawn (though there are some ugly, lazy panels) and reasonable fun. The dialogue is probably the most significant innovation, aiming at (I suppose) the TV cop-show aesthetic of interruptions, improvisations, pointless rambles and phatic speech rather than the brusque, deliberate statements more common to comic books.
Maybe I've just consumed too much of this kinda thing? It barely seemed worthwhile for Bendis to create a whole new superhero universe, when there are already so many out there, with their own rich, genuinely complex history. A one-man universe can't hope to have the same depth as DC, with its 70-odd years and countless creators.
I kept thinking about where I'd seen all this before: the male-female, old-guard-and-rookie buddy team-up, with uncomfortable start and spiky banter, from X-Files and Top Ten; the art from Bruce Timm, a bit Jaime Hernandez; the dead chick clearly both Supergirl and Princess Diana, the assassin clearly both John Lennon and his killer; the set-up clearly Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby; Triphammer clearly built on Iron Man. Even the little kid seemed right out of Monsters Inc.
I don't know - I kind of feel that if I'm going to read superhero comics, I might as well mainline the big guns like All-Star Superman or the monthly Batman, instead of this sweet little pocket universe.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Isn't that exactly what Bendis was trying to do with Ultimate Spider-man, his run on Daredevil and House of M?
You should check out his 'crime' graphic novels, where his style really works well - Daredevil worked okay, but would have had more punch if they hadn't put Matt Murdock through a different wringer once a week of the last 20 years. Torso is pretty good though (get it out from the library if you can).
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
This is my first Bendis, Benny, but aside from the dialogue, which is unlike anything else in comics, I don't see him as all that stand-out, so I'm not sure if I'll drop any clams on his other work. The guy who said he was the best comics writer ever has to be tripping.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
It's not superhero but DMZ is good. It's keeping me entertained while I wait for the next Walking Dead, Y, 100 Bullets and the Black Dossier. Plus, it's cheap! Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I've been reading 100 Bullets 2, and had the same feeling of sad disillusionment that I experienced with Powers. That is, the book's fine, but it's just nothing, nothing at all that I haven't seen before - and that I haven't probably seen done better. Probably, in fact, done better by films and TV, which makes me even sadder because it suggests that the comics medium is what's disappointing me here. The praise for 100 Bullets does often seem to mention that it has a cinematic aesthetic - as if that's what comics should aspire to at best, to be like movies. (You occasionally hear of a film praised because it looks like a comic, but it's very rare, and usually for an adaptation of a comic; so, an issue of tight fidelity). So, yeah, one chapter is like History of Violence, except that it's over 28 pages so it's much more simplistic and condensed, and the action has to be told in maybe a dozen frames per page instead of 24 frames per second, and the dialogue is restricted to what the letterer can realistically and pleasingly fit in a balloon, with only so many possible balloons per A5 page before it looks cluttered (before it looks like a normal book, which also does dialogue better than comics). I'm disappointed by the fact that this title seems to be about short stories, which get samey very quickly, with little sense of a big, rewarding arc or grand intrigue - how many times do you want to be introduced to some other no-hoper who gets 100 bullets and is bound to kill someone by the end of the tale? (It's not even a very exciting, liberating proposal - the bullets are unmarked but the idea isn't that you kill anyone you want - it's that you kill the person Agent Graves sets up for you, which makes the stories pretty conservative and linear). I'm disappointed by the stale scenarios (who would have fucking guessed that the girl left home and spiralled into prostitution because her daddy sexually abused her? Christ, how many more times does sexual abuse of a kid have to be a "shocking" plot "twist"?) But most of all, I'm disappointed because I keep feeling comics aren't doing this as well as novels, TV and films would. I want to read some comics that do something other media can't do - not comics that approximate good stuff in other forms, and get half or most of the way there.
[ 23.03.2007, 05:37: Message edited by: wonderstarr ]
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I saw 300 last night. It's graphic, portentious, thrilling, violent, camp, highly sexuallly and racially dubious, intentionally and unintentionally funny, and generally pretty damn entertaining.
Posted by My Name Is Joe (Member # 530) on :
I hadn't read comics in perhaps 10 years until one day I went into Forbidden Planet and noticed that the Marvel Civil WAr series was jusr starting. Normally I notice these things half way through a run and it's too late (expensive) to ctach up, so I bought it.
Anyway, I enjoyed (at first), and started branching out. It's reached the stage where I now buy about 15-20 titles a month, and I'm enjoying it. Comics today seem a lot grittier and 'realistic' than ever before.
Currently I am particularly impressed by:
Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead, although there was a recent bit of rape followed by graphic torture which was clumsy I thought.
Thunderbolts, especially the new Warren Ellis arc.
Captain America, I don't really believe we've seen the end of Steve Rogers.
The Ultimates, an excellent retelling of the Avengers origin.
Ultimate Fantastic Four, which again is a refreshing new take on the 'first family'.
and Black Panther, which is well written and interesting, even though it sometimes blatantly contradicts the Marvel universe continuity.
All pretty vanilla I suppose, I've never really liked comics which fancy themselevs as modern art.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I'm disappointed by the fact that this title seems to be about short stories, which get samey very quickly, with little sense of a big, rewarding arc or grand intrigue -
Not being funny but what the fuck? This sounds like it comes from backwards land - like the Barbelith comment that 100 Bullets was more one note than fucking Sin City, of all things.
I've never read anything that attempts what 100 Bullets achieves on the level of BIG story or deep intrigue. The massive 100 issue arc is what makes it compelling, for me, anyway. I can't remember how book two ends, actually, and I think it may be the case that at this stage you're still so early in such a gigantic story that the shape of it just isn't apparent yet. I think the first few stories are designed to get people into the world more than anything - think of people just picking up a single issue on the shelf - while the title picked up steam. But surely by the end of book two you've been introduced to major characters like Megan Dietrich (end of book one I think, ringing an unknown accomplice and announcing 'Graves is still alive'), Cole Burns the ice cream man who - apparently inexplicably - turns into a major league assassin at the mention of a single word, and doesn't small time gang-girl Dizzy (destined for big, awful things) crop up again at the end of book 2? And there's all the stuff with Graves meeting psychotic hitman Lono (and setting up a very amateurish hit involving some small time chancers and their car). So there's loads going on in the big narrative, and setting up the massive intrigue. There's a lot going on in Book 2- I had to read it a second time and really pay attention to the background action before things started to fall into place, and the connections between the stories started to become apparent.
It's true there are a few 'take gun/ kill man' stories in the first few books, but like I say I think this was to give people who were picking an issue up of the shelf a fighting chance of understanding something that was going on, because the narrative is incredibly complicated, interwoven and outright huge. I think Black Mask described it as 'A massive conspiracy built from the ground up through individual tradgedies', which is a great summary. Rest assured though, that after a while there are very few stories about a guy being given a briefcase and a picture, especially once the big arc starts to come into focus.
But complaining about 100 bullets because it doesn't have a big arc or major intrigue is... I dunno... completely insane.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Dissing 100 Bullets
Hmmm... I started out enjoying 100 Bullets for the short noirish stories... I enjoyed them enough to stick with it until the stories started to unravel a bit and spiral outwards until you get a glimpse of the protagonists' place within a wider conspiracy. It's a lot to ask to expect readers to sit tight for three or four volumes until the real intrigue kicks in, but it's worth it. I think so anyway. I had the same problem with Azzarello's Loveless I didn't have the patience or the engagement to hold on for that slow burn, though. I'll probably hold out until volume four and buy and read the whole lot together.
Re: the child abuse thing. I agree some of the characters are very broadly drawn, but the characterisation is less important to me than the overall air of doom in the books. It really is the closest thing I've felt to the atmosphere in a Jim Thompson novel. Everyone's doomed, but then everyone's a shit, so...
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Yeah, I think I was saying it doesn't seem to have any grand arc. I read Book One maybe a year ago, so I don't have much continuity to go on there, and as I've stated plainly, I've just read Book Two. For you to call me insane and backwards because I haven't seen the subtle start of a huge narrative that's clear to you looking back from the hindsight of Book Twelve or whatever, is a little shortsighted. But, thanks in general because obviously you're recommending I read the whole thing and that it would be worthwhile. Maybe if I check out Book One again I'll be able to detect some pattern where the mosaic pieces build up into something more.
Still, my broader sadness was about comics not being able to do anything (or so it seems to me at the moment) better than films, telly and novels.
Just back from 300 anyway and can't quite understand why it keeps getting one-star reviews. I don't really care if it seems to be about a pure, muscular master race taking a stand against exoticism. Surely a lot of legends told from one point of view are going to "other" the enemy like that? It's basically Spartan propaganda. You won't find much propaganda that doesn't make the home side look glam and courageous, and the opponents like cowardly monsters.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Cole Burns the ice cream man who - apparently inexplicably - turns into a major league assassin at the mention of a single word,
But this is the story I said was too reminiscent, to me, of History of Violence. Which, as I recall, was based on a comic, so I don't know if 100 Bullets came first.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I didn't mean you were backward - like educationally - I meant coming from a backward world where the opposite is true.
The first time I saw a trailer for History of Violence, I actually thought it was a 100 Bullets movie, especially once I decided Ed Harris was Agent Graves. As the story develops, though it doesn't have much in common. The very basic idea (man suddenly reveals aptitude for killing) is similar, though.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: I didn't mean you were backward - like educationally - I meant coming from a backward world where the opposite is true.
Well, yes, backwards in that I'm at the start of the story and you're at the end.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: I didn't mean you were backward - like educationally - I meant coming from a backward world where the opposite is true.
Oh, well recovered. Bravo.
[pythonquote] "Your Highness, you are also like a stream of bat's piss."
"What?"
"I merely meant, your Majesty, that you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark." [/pythonquote]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: my broader sadness was about comics not being able to do anything (or so it seems to me at the moment) better than films, telly and novels.
Interesting. I watched Children of Men the other night, I really enjoyed it, about 10 minutes in I thought to myself, "Wow, this is good, this is the sort of thing I only expect from comic books these days."
Very little modern 'culture' engages me as much as comic books (not counting music, obv.)
Not all comic books, but the handful I read regularly and recommend.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Children of men reminded me of V for Vendetta, the comic, or any of those angry, '80's, Warrior style British comic strips.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Children of men reminded me of V for Vendetta, the comic, or any of those angry, '80's, Warrior style British comic strips.
I'm now stuck with an image of Children of Men as a strip in Crisis, painted in watercolours like Troubled Souls.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Children of men reminded me of V for Vendetta, the comic, or any of those angry, '80's, Warrior style British comic strips.
Yeah... I can see that... Maybe that's why I liked it? I eat that shit up.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I didn't much like the film V For Vendetta, but I think I'd rather see it again than read the graphic novel a third time... I found the latter really cramped, dingy, over-wordy, the artwork overworked - the whole thing just fucking laboured and obvious, even quite pretentious. It felt like an ancient Look and Learn historical strip written by a well-read, precocious sixth-former.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
w, I think you're having a mid-life crisis.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer:
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Children of men reminded me of V for Vendetta, the comic, or any of those angry, '80's, Warrior style British comic strips.
I'm now stuck with an image of Children of Men as a strip in Crisis, painted in watercolours like Troubled Souls.
I'd rather munch shit than read that kind of dreary, grubby watercolour early 90s "post-literate sequential art" dreck again. You guys should be reading All Star Superman... if you want to see the only comics I'm remotely digging at the moment, that is. You might be happy with your own of course.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I found the latter really cramped, dingy
Isn't that at kind of the point? Isn't it supposed to be dingy and repressive and montone and claustraphobic?
I'd agree the story could be seen as somewhat pretentious, and I think it has dated badly in some respects and not at all in others (surveillance culture for one).
But rather watch the film? It's bobbins.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I think I'm regressing to kiddy comics, it's true. I'm thinking more these days about what my life was like in the 90s, and how long ago it was, and how weirdly fragmented and unstable it was (never kept a job, romance, house for more than three years maximum, and sometimes for only a couple of weeks)... so yeah maybe it's all a big process of dealing with and reacting to my 20s, and the comics are part of that.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: But rather watch the film? It's bobbins.
I quite like bobbins these days. Also it would be over a lot quicker, and have one or two good bits, which I don't think the book does.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
V for Vendetta was my favourtie comic book for ages - partly because I first read it at a time when I was young and Warrior seemed daring and edgy and full of anger - and partly because I finished reading it when it was reprinted by DC and my dad was in prison, so the anger, edgy etc etc stuff was coming out again. I probably like it more than Watchmen, but to be honest, reading comic books kind of depresses me at the moment - it feels like there is this world that is full of possibility and the best that they can produce is the same old tripe, with added grim and gritty Batman and big breasted women. I really like the Jim Sterenko Nick FURY stuff, but I can't really read anything else. Oh, maybe Zenith.
Also, the whole Barbelith thing of saying "well, that comic was okay, but I can't help but wondering how much better it would have been if Grant Morrison wrote it" puts me off reading anything by Grant Morrison at the moment (except Zenith, of course). Comics just get me down....
Does anyone want a complete run of the trades of the Invisibles?
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Benny, I've got Quimper, Counting to None, Entropy and Invisible Kingdom, and I wouldn't say no to reading the others.
I don't honestly think Babyliss only champions a comic if it's by Grant Morrison - the project to re-read and annotate Invisibles was met with mockery recently, and a significant portion of the community seems keen to distance itself from him.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I'd like the leftovers. What could I give you in return?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
nothing for now - don't worry, I won't want your first born or anything - I think that GM designed them to be disposable and to be passed on, so trying to keep that idea alive and free up some shelve space.
WS - yeah, I know they don't all champion him, which is quite refreshing, over there. I did think that Seven Soldiers failed miserably as a project and that Seaguy wasn't great - but ASSuperman looks fantastic fun.
So, what's the best way to get these to you both?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
to note;
Wonderstarr - Say you want a revolution, Apocalipstick and Bloody Hell in America
BM - Entropy in the UK, Counting to None, Kissing Mister Quimper and Invisible Kingdom
Either of you want the awful anarchy for the masses thing as well?
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
If you stick your email up for a minute, we can send you our addresses? That's really kind of you Benny, I was about to buy Apocalipstick but it takes 4-6 weeks to ship.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
[ 23.03.2007, 12:40: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Either of you want the awful anarchy for the masses thing as well?
That's the guidebook, isn't it?
I think I might give that a miss. Thanks, though. My email is ...
[ 23.03.2007, 12:53: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
x
[ 23.03.2007, 12:41: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Thanks I've mailed you.
Oh, not sure what questionnaire it was. The X-Files? Or that Dark Knight article? Shameful how many times I've used internet fora as research material.
[ 23.03.2007, 12:41: Message edited by: wonderstarr ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Oh, not sure what questionnaire it was. The X-Files?
lol. I remember filling out that questionnaire! Did you even write an article based on that research? I'd be interested in reading it if you did. Seriously.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
X-Files. It inspired me to go back and re-watch the series from the start - onto series five at the moment - the first series has dated so badly, but I think that for the most part it is still great.
ralph - are you an X-files fan? Cool!
[ 23.03.2007, 13:04: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Scully was a little minx in season one.
[ 23.03.2007, 13:10: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph:
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Oh, not sure what questionnaire it was. The X-Files?
lol. I remember filling out that questionnaire! Did you even write an article based on that research? I'd be interested in reading it if you did. Seriously.
Yes of course I did, you punk! Admittedly, it has been out of my hands a long time, but it is (unless I've confused it with another article) published in this book
from New York University Press, very prestigious I'm sure. However, if you want to read it ralph, I will mail you it. I honestly can't remember if it's very good.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I can't even find it on my computer. Maybe I should buy the book.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Maybe I should buy the book.
Yeah, double those sales.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Perhaps our library system can get it for me. Good or bad, I'd still like to read it.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I wouldn't buy it - it's £45!
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
No, you can read it Ralph (and Benny), I've found it. Too right, I wouldn't drop 45 clams on that book.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I wonder which of the quotations is from "ralph"! Hmm...
quote:one respondent, Steve, stated explicitly that his preparation for watching The X-Files involved getting “hammered (ie. indulge in alcohol and drugs)”
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Seems likely...
quote:Steve reported “I lose myself, but not to the extent of forgetting the real world”, yet added “I’ve felt the whole range of emotions, ranging from extreme joy to anger”
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:“I hated being interrupted… I responded with anger ” (Steve).
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
:shame
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: No, you can read it Ralph (and Benny), I've found it. Too right, I wouldn't drop 45 clams on that book.
Any chance of forwarding a copy to me? If so, I'm xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ETA: Please let me know when you've seen this so I can delete my address and go to the pub.
[ 23.03.2007, 13:53: Message edited by: Zygote ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Sure, if Ralph posts up his address (sorry Ralph, I didn't know that was really you... very unprofessional of me) I will fwd it to all of you at once.
Like BM says, that's probably tripling the number of people who'd read it otherwise.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Oh, that's ok. It just reminded me of why I stopped drinking and drugging.
sms10101 AT hotmail DOT com
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I've got to go to the pub myself, very soon.
OK it is sent Part 2, "I Want To Believe", seems to be the bit with the email questionnaire responses in it.
Vogon Poetess is in it, too. Basically it's a who's who of desperate internet loners.
[ 23.03.2007, 13:53: Message edited by: wonderstarr ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
cool - I'll read it post burrito's and Mean Girls!
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Nice to know I wasn't alone...
quote: Ten respondents echoed Steve’s comment that external distractions broke the spell of the X-Files; disruption often riled them to hostility. “I really don’t like it” (Schally), “I was never happy about interruption” (Bellefleur), “It has happened – and I’m not pleased when it does!” (Kevin), “It would greatly annoy me” (Chantal), “I get annoyed to start with… if there’s more than one phone call, I’m not a happy bunny” (Katherine), “I was extremely pissed off” (Seoirse), “I hated being interrupted… I responded with anger” (Steve).
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Vogon Poetess is in it, too.
What's her real name?
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Basically it's a who's who of desperate internet loners.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
VP is the one who confesses "I'm desperate", in the article. Just do CTRL-F "desperate".
Christ I am being mean and unethical just now.
eta sorry, it was someone else who said she's "desperate", not VP. I can't even read my own typing.
[ 23.03.2007, 14:05: Message edited by: wonderstarr ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
thanks lol
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I'm just joking, like. Because I'm so excited that three people are reading this article. Which is as many as have already read it, ever (ie. the editors).
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: OK it is sent
Mine's not arrived yet. Did you remember to include an extra 'a' at the end of 'piranha'?
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I'm pretty sure I copied and pasted it, Zygote - I've got to go myself though, could you mail Ralph at his address above? It worked for him.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
I just sent it, Zygote.
eta: It's bounced back as an invalid address. Sorry.
eta: have just tried again, using your correct email address.
eta: all you fuckers have gone to the pub, haven't you?
eta: no luck Zygote. it's bounced back yet again.
[ 23.03.2007, 14:40: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by SilverGinger5 (Member # 49) on :
I'm not in the pub if that helps ralph. Although you may have gone home now. I've not had a drink for 31 days now Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
you must be thirsty
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
"Gasp! A lager top, please."
Posted by SilverGinger5 (Member # 49) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: you must be thirsty
LOL(quetzal)
[ 23.03.2007, 17:29: Message edited by: SilverGinger5 ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
lol
I'm pissed now
[ 24.03.2007, 05:04: Message edited by: wonderstarr ]
Posted by Hades (Member # 57) on :
Could you also send me the x-files article? same address as last time if you've still got it.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I think I may have mislaid your address, sorry. You could mail Ralph I'm just being lazy.
Posted by Hades (Member # 57) on :
cant remeber which one i gave you now.
you can use phill_haw2@hotmail.com
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: I just sent it, Zygote.
eta: It's bounced back as an invalid address. Sorry.
Got it now. Cheers Ralph!
[ 26.03.2007, 09:47: Message edited by: Zygote ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Ah.
I've just sent it again.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: BM - Entropy in the UK, Counting to None, Kissing Mister Quimper and Invisible Kingdom
Benny, I received these this evening. This really is extremely generous of you, thanks. You made a shitty day much better.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I haven't received mine, but having finished book 2 of 100 Bullets (can't remember if I lied above and said I'd finished it, as that was easier to report than being 2/3 of the way through) I can see that Thorn is correct about a big intriguing "arc". So, that will make Thorn happy.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Cool, BM - no problem. Yours was posted at the same time, wonderstarr, so should be arriving soon.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I saw 300 yesteday - it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but they eschew storyline for image, which is fine, considering it's origin. It was, perhaps, a little over long because of this fact - and cartoon gory (only a 15!). It looks great, and the end credits are fantastically designed... I give it 3 Iranian upseters out of 5.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Various websites have talked about the excellent end credits - unfortunately I got dragged out of the cinema by my friends at the beginning of them.
I thought that 300 was totally batshit, and totally brilliant.
I loved the contrast in the musical styles, from the Gladiator-esque throbbing orchestral stuff coming up against the nu-metal battle scenes.
I thought the writhing oracle (obviously shot underwater, but the effect was superb) was beautifully done.
The superhuman 8-foot god-emperor Xerxes was intriguing. It's only a couple of days later that I realised he was played by that really rather attractive Brazilian guy who was in Love Actually.
(I couldn't take the captain's son seriously, once I realised it was Marco from Mile High, but managed to put that small niggle aside.)
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
BTW, did anyone else think that the v/o of the final stand bit was somewhat 'tick followed tock'-ish?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
The v/o was quite lazy, I thought. It was intruding on the funky music (I loved the twangy, Persian theme).
The Oracle looked great - there was so much that looked great, it was almost a series of still shots, slo-mo being used to capture moments, and then a voice over.
Marco from Mile High! I thought I recognised him! ha ha.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: BTW, did anyone else think that the v/o of the final stand bit was somewhat 'tick followed tock'-ish?
Lol. Now I do, although I thought they were pretty nicely set up by the wolf bit at the beginning.
Benny, it was easily half hour too long and the end credits were great, but seeing the Miller artwork made me wish they'd done the whole thing as animation.
[ 28.03.2007, 05:18: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I agree - it was practically an animated film anyway, but once the stylish end credits came, I just thought it looked so much better.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I gather this was pretty much a green screen affair, and it was very successful as the joins were invisible - how much of it do you think was built set and how much was computer-generated?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I read that 90% green/blue screen, 10% live - roughly. <geek> the blue screen effect can be lit less harshly than green screen, plus the red and blue would read better on a camera for some reason (thought it would be green and red as clashing colours, but not the case) so blue was used a lot in an old skool way </geek>
Anything forground and low level was probably build - the odd colum here and there, a rock that someone stood on - that sort of thing.
[ 28.03.2007, 05:33: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
Only foreground, boulders and stuff, would've been built set.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
what's the next release that's got you moist under the collar in anticipation?
I have to admit to finding the trailers for Sunshine quite intriguing (hey, at least I didn't say Ocean's 13...)
There's a film coming out called The Last Mimzy. When I saw the trailer a few weeks ago I couldn't suppress a guffaw, much to the confusion of accompanying friends.
Spidey 3 I suppose, though I can't really get all that worked up, for some reason. It didn't help that the trailer shown before 300 effectively summarised the entire plot. Not so much a teaser, then.
[ 28.03.2007, 05:49: Message edited by: H1ppychick ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Yeah, Spider-Man 3's new trailer was awful. I like the look of the wigs in Zodiac - not much else is getting me fired up though. Stardust looks alright.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I'm well up for Sunshine. And I'm intrigued about Stardust.
I'm so up for Spidey 3, but given the end of trilogy ramping-up I'm wondering if it'll manage anything quite as quietly brilliant as the 'Raindrops' sequence from Spidey 2.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: I'm so up for Spidey 3, but given the end of trilogy ramping-up I'm wondering if it'll manage anything quite as quietly brilliant as the 'Raindrops' sequence from Spidey 2.
They seem to be hammering the 'DARK' angle a bit too hard. Part of what made the first two films so charming was that they were quite... whimsical. Stuff like that Raindrops sequence in SM2 and the rubbish initial costume in the first film set it apart from try-hard sinister wank like Ghost Rider. It'll be a shame if they abandon that tone completely.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
I'm quite tempted to go and watch 300. My brother attended the premiére last week and raved about how "fucking brilliant" it was. Having said that, he also thinks that the Jay & Silent Bob films are "hilarious".
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
One of the deleted scenes from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is quite funny....
300 - there's a lot of stuff about how it's pro american nonsense, Iran moaning about this and that - however I read it completely the other way - Persia = US, Sparta = Islamic army, ready to die for it's cause, brave, nobel. The humchback = those islamic states that have fallen under the spell of the US and the West. Big army vs brave men.
Anyway.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: 300 - there's a lot of stuff about how it's pro american nonsense, Iran moaning about this and that - however I read it completely the other way - Persia = US, Sparta = Islamic army, ready to die for it's cause, brave, nobel. The humchback = those islamic states that have fallen under the spell of the US and the West. Big army vs brave men.
Anyway.
Hmmm... so it's a worthwhile watch then? I can think of no other film worthy of my Orange 2-for-1 Wednesday voucher, so I'll probably go and check it out.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
yeah, why not.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Benny. Tell me about 28 weeks later.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
American troops have sanctioned off a safe area in London, and are in the process of removing the infected and returning people to their homes. Begby from Trainspotting lets his wife die, and then runs away with his kids trying to get them to the safe area, all the while guilting about his wife - who happens to have some kind of natural on/off infected thing in her make up (and her son is also like that). The American's make a big mess of everything, and lots of things get shot and chopped up. It might be utter tripe (the cameraman couldn't keep his shots still for more than 3 seconds, which really gets on my nerves).
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: The American's make a big mess of everything, and lots of things get shot and chopped up.
This is what I thought, but isn't the film British and what's the plot like?
:rodhull:
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
it is a kind of multinational fare, I think there is US and French money in there. Nothing is truly british anymore in the cinema - it was filmed over here, with a mexican DOP and Director.
The plot is kind of rubbish really - it's fun for the "look at us we have all these weapons and are great - oh shit it's gone wrong!" kind of way. The family story is rubbish. The guy in the wheelchair from Oz was really good - but Begby was miserable (his son was ill during the shoot, so his mind really was else where) and the little brat boy was a little c**t.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
That's the kind of stuff I want to hear. In a twist of fate, hapless housemate felix is working on some low budget but paid work. You should hustle him for something when he gets back from Qatar.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Qatar - shudder.
Actually, I only shudder from the memory of how cold it was because of the stupid air conditioning everywhere.
How long has he been in the desert?
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Looking at my palm.....five days. He wanted to take his skateboard.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
I got Hollywoodland out on vid last weekend. It was quite good- Adrien Brody's always good value, and Ben Affleck nailed the part of a vain, wooden actor quite well.
I enjoyed the Easy Riders book about 70s film making, although I don't think it had a consistently readable style. It's mainly memorable for anecdotal evidence of just how arrogant most of the big guns were; I think it was Friedkin who insisted on having WILLIAM FRIEDKIN- I WON AN OSCAR FOR THE FRENCH CONNECTION printed on the back of his directors chair during his follow-up film. And I liked the way they all claimed to be noble artistes but were casually greedy about money.
I am currently reading I Married A Communist and a Jim Thompson.
A mate insisted on lending me A Million Little Pieces. I had no intention of reading this even before the author got accused of lying, but my friend pressed it into my hand and claimed it was great. It looks awful, and it's quite fat. Has anybody bothered with it?
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
vogon i have read a million little pieces and i am here to tell you that it is horrible, just horrible, and to plead with you not to waste even one of the valuable minutes of your too too short life on it. or alternatively you could read it, and then come back and rip james frey to pieces for the hyper- macho, self- aggrandising prick that he is.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: to plead with you not to waste even one of the valuable minutes of your too too short life on it.
Is VP dying? Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
you have no poetry in your soul, miscellaneous files.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
You have no capital letters in your posts, DanceMargarita.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
you blatantly need to find a new diss, miscellaneous files.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
and a soul
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
thats a little harsh, ralph.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
possibly.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I went to see The Family Friend last night, rather than sit through the horror that is England playing football. It's a great looking film, a little flakey in its meditativeness, but I really enjoyed it. I haven't seen Consequences of Love, but might hunt it down now, as my mate raved about it when he saw it. Anyone?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: and a soul
For fuck's sake - now ralph's doing it...
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
ANYWAY. back once again to the... renegade master? reference veep made to peter biskind's sleazy weasels, raging egos: my favourite bit in that whole book is the story about when william friedkin's girlfriend gets pregnant, and first of all his response is to ask her to marry him. and shes like, eh, not so sure, youre quite patently a shitwizard. then i think he says 'well abort my baby then you witch!' and she doesnt and then he wont give her any money for the baby and generally acts, much as she predicted, like a raging shitwizard. so she takes him to court for alimony and hes all prepared to go to court and rant and rave about how its not his fucking baby, she must have fucked someone else but of course she did because shes a fucking whore, and hes going to sue her for perjury because its so patently not his child. and then someone finally convinces him that suing her might not be such a good idea because her child is so similar to william friedkin in looks as to be his tiny doppleganger and that he will be laughed out of court. i dont know why i love that story so much, it doesnt even have a very good punchline, i just love imagining the little mini- friedkin in his pram, waving his legs in the air and thinking 'oh, no, why is my daddy such a raging shitwizard'.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
although peter fonda 's knockout line to dennis hopper 'well i may be an asshole... but at least i dont hit chicks!' is pretty killer too.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
William Friedkin sounds amazing judging by Easy Riders, Raging bull - like the greatest man who ever lived. The whole time I was reading it I wished I could be him.
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: i just love imagining the little mini- friedkin in his pram, waving his legs in the air and thinking 'oh, no, why is my daddy such a raging shitwizard'.
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: William Friedkin sounds amazing judging by Easy Riders, Raging bull - like the greatest man who ever lived. The whole time I was reading it I wished I could be him.
While reading DM's post I kept imaging the same Mini-Shitwizard scenario but with the baby wearing dark glasses and waving a shotgun around just like his Pop.
I love Freidkin, the story about him slapping the priest for the bit at the end of The Exorcist never gets old.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: I love Freidkin, the story about him slapping the priest for the bit at the end of The Exorcist never gets old.
Yeah that was really good. It bothers me that I'll probably never get to the point where I can punch a priest in the head in front of a bunch of people that already hate my guts.
I also looked all the madness surrounding the Wages of Fear remake. Especially when the preview starts and it's obvious what a horrible turkey it is, and he says "Remember how I said it wouldn't be better than the original?" "Yes" "I was right!"
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I'm drunk - just gotten back from a Good Shoes gig, and all I could think of while there was how much vikram and wonderstarr would have loved the embrionic crowd!!!
wonderstarr - have the books arrived yet?
vikram and bandy - let's meet up soon for drinks
tmo - I love you all, you make me happy at a time when my default setting appears to be miseray.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
cyi
[ 29.03.2007, 20:20: Message edited by: vikram ]
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
why would you say that in public, vikram? think!
[ 29.03.2007, 19:55: Message edited by: vikram ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: I'm drunk - just gotten back from a Good Shoes gig, and all I could think of while there was how much vikram and wonderstarr would have loved the embrionic crowd!!!
wonderstarr - have the books arrived yet?
vikram and bandy - let's meet up soon for drinks
tmo - I love you all, you make me happy at a time when my default setting appears to be miseray.
I'm not sure what sort of person me and Vikram would both like? Kirsten Dunst perhaps.
Benny they have arrived when I was out (I assume) and been lodged at my local post office for me to collect, and I hope to pick them up today. Thanks!
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
I wanted to see The Family Friend and would have gone last night but they'd stopped showing it at my local independent.
I watched Emir Kuristica's film Underground, a gloriously bonkers parable of the former Yugoslavia, on dvd instead, followed by the Storyville about System of a Down's efforts to get the Armenian genocide recognised. Interesting evening.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I'm not sure what sort of person me and Vikram would both like? Kirsten Dunst perhaps.
she's with johnny borrell i'm afraid. forever tainted Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I keep getting really shit free ticket offers for films that are just, well, fucking terrible. Here's the latest offering:
THE RED BARON is an epic story of honour, comradeship and love, giving an insight into the bravery shown by WW1 aviators as they fought like gladiators for air supremacy. Europe, 1916. Filled with a sense of adventure and euphoria, 24 year old Manfred von Richthofen, like many thousands of other young men, goes off to war. Quickly establishing himself as a fearless flying ace, he becomes Germany's top pilot, known as THE RED BARON and is an icon for soldiers on the battlefields, and a national celebrity and pin-up at home. However, von Richthofen soon realises that his status as a hero is misleading. His love for nurse Kate (Lena Headey) opens his eyes to the brutality and barbarity of war and, when he realises how the military are manipulating him, the consequences are tragic and far-reaching.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
The last one was about a guy who doesn't get into Uni, so he creates his own to fool his parents into thinking he has enrolled. He and his pals later discover they have to take on hundreds of over people who have been rejected. Hilarity, ensued, when I left the cinema and someone made a funny.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Don't leave me guys. Guys? GUYS! IZE IZe ize ize Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
who are you signed up with? i love free films, even shit ones. i just like sitting in cinemas, away from the world for a couple of hours
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I'll forward you the mails for this and if you go, you can sign up after watching.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Benny - they haven't arrived! It was a copy of Bryan Talbot's Alice In Sunderland at the post office, instead Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I hope they haven't been thieved at the sorting office
I posted them the same time, so unless some crappy postcode lottery thing is happening before our very eyes, then I don't know?
I hope they come...
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Oh no I'm mistaken. Alice in Sunderland was delivered. The parcel is still at the post office! It's OK Benny! I should be able to get it before going to Sydney on Sunday!
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
cool.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Got it, thanks again Benny Posted by Hades (Member # 57) on :
A quick glance at my bookshelf has revealed that I apparently have 4 books on the go that I had completely forgotten I was reading.
A Generic Doctor who novel - read a chapter earlier today, wasn’t that great
"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins - an interesting book but the fact that I had forgot I was in the middle of it isn’t an amazing sign.
"Lynch on Lynch" - The bizarre director in his won words (albeit in interview form)
"The boy in the stripped pyjamas" by John Boyne - got it at a book signing when interviewing the author, felt obliged to buy a copy.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Hades: "The boy in the stripped pyjamas" by John Boyne - got it at a book signing when interviewing the author, felt obliged to buy a copy.
I've just had to read this for my book club. We have a woman who insists on putting up children's books, which is a touch odd to say the least. The book itself is touching and takes hardly any time to read but you can tell it's a children's book and I thought my adult understanding of the holocaust dulled the intended effect and I predicted the ending fairly early. A good kids book though and an interesting way of dealing with a difficult subject for kids.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote: Especially liked the little girl's interaction with Mimzy
quote: The Mimsy before this one was apparently sent to Lewis Carroll, who shared it with his young friend Alice
quote: Then when they examined Mimzy, I guess I am more observant than the other viewer, because I started laughing at the close-up.
quote: I saw Mimzy with my two children both under the age of 14 who enjoyed it
[ 02.04.2007, 04:31: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I love a good Doll, Teleportation, Crystal adventure.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: I love a good Doll, Teleportation, Crystal adventure.
Do you like Mimsy?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I prefer the antipenultimate Mimzy, but, you know, any port in a storm.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
She's looking at its Mimzy
[ 02.04.2007, 04:59: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
Finished Great Apes the other day. There have been mixed reviews, however I enjoyed it immensely. I think that most posters on here have read it, so I won't bother going into detail about it. Suffice to say, viewing the chimps' world is extremely entertaining - the shit-eating, testicle cradling, polygamous, ridiculously dressed chimps are hilarious. The only downside is that - especially whilst pissed - I have started telling my girlfriend that I "revere her ischial scrag", which she's started to get really fucked off about.
About to start reading The Tortilla Curtain and one of two books that I recently bought following Black Mask's recommendation - Emergence and How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World.
I'll probably leave the Guy N Smith books for the beach this Summer.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zygote: How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World.
I haven't finished this - I am reading it in bits and thoroughly enjoying it, but I need a break every now and again. In some chapters I had to have a dictionary to hand.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
alright sam?
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Fine jimmy. Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
cool, cool. Been up to much?
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: cool, cool. Been up to much?
You know. A bit of this, a bit of that.
You?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
oh, I don't know. Not much really. Just the same old things. My parents are on holiday again. My brother has finally got his job sorted out. I bought a new shirt on Sunday. Nothing unsual.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: oh, I don't know. Not much really. Just the same old things. My parents are on holiday again. My brother has finally got his job sorted out. I bought a new shirt on Sunday. Nothing unsual.
I am kinda busy at the moment looking after a sick relative but I get web access every now and again and get to skim stuff. Didn't you mention something like an imminent child? Or was it a marriage? Vague I know but I thought at the time it was pretty seismic before sleep deprivation wiped my brain.
Surely it couldn't have been you said you were going to buy a shirt?
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I think it was the shirt y'know, he's very particular about his shirts..
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
sounds like a heavy scene you've got there. Good luck with that, sam. I'm trying to think of some seismic news I may have had, but you've probably got me mixed up with somebody else. It wouldn't have been the shirt though, because that was a spur of the moment thing.I was walking past M&S, and seeing as I'd saved money by not buying anything on tottenham court road, I treated myself. I'm wearing it at the moment because I was supposed to - and this is slightly unbelievable - do some on-camera acting today.
Anyway, I can't think of any news that I might have had. I hope you're okay though.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: I think it was the shirt y'know, he's very particular about his shirts..
I thought that at the last pic he posted. Spotless white shirt.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: sounds like a heavy scene you've got there. Good luck with that, sam. ... I hope you're okay though.
Sleep deprivation has to be my excuse for saying this out loud, but you always make me feel warm and fuzzy and kinda good.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
That's just wrong on so many levels.
I hope things don't get to be too much for you to handle, sam.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
way to try and chief my sympathy love, ralph. Jeez.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
but, you know, thanks for noticing my white shirt, sam. I got mocked pretty badly for that, you know, they were all calling me names.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
'Shirty' was one of them, if I recall.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Hey, the man looked cool. Clean and crisp. Smooth. I liked it.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph: That's just wrong on so many levels.
I hope things don't get to be too much for you to handle, sam.
Believe me ralph, there are times when a woman likes warm and fuzzy.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
One of the things I'll never understand is how Jimmy always has a really tight, sharp shirt. All of the time. To me, it indicates a sense of authority amongst his self confessed hedonism. You know if you're going to go out with Jimmy, it'll get messy, but you never think you'll wind up, face pressed against his chest, sobbing uncontrollably as he says 'that's it Mickey, don't be ashamed' and gently saying 'it's ok, let it all out' as you tearfully weep your fears and frustrations onto a taut, bright white blanket of care.
[ 03.04.2007, 13:10: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Congrats btw to NWoD and BM for their new jobs and Mart for passing his test. Good stuff. Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Thanks Sam. The thing with Jimmy Benway and his shirts is that they're in stark contrast with his beard, which always looks a bit messy - not very messy, just a bit messy, like someone who can't be bothered shaving so decides to act as though they're cultivating a beard. But I bet he works really hard at that beard look. Just as he irons his shirts to a crisp smoothness, so must he do the beard equivalent of ironing a shirt, whatever that is. Grooming, I suppose they call it. Trimming.
Jimmy Big Nuts: grooming, trimming and crisping his way down the helter-skelter of his life.
Remember being given a doormat to go down the helter-skelter? Anyone. You paid 20p, a big bloke gave you a bristly doormat, like a rectangle of Benway beard, and you climbed up and round, up and round, until you reached the top, then you sat on the beard and slid down.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
jimmy's beard confuses me. it's the half beard of a man who's not quite convinced. it's a dutch beard. a bit like spiller's, in the groovejet video. mind you, spiller was hot, in a smiley giant sort of way. so there you go. perhaps benway gets skirt becaus of some sort of spiller white shirt/dutch beard cosmic vibe.
jimmy, yesterday Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
hippy, jimmy's beard is nothing like that guy's goatee.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
has spiller been stealing crude?
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I love that tmo can appear dead to the world and deserted; ragged pieces of torn paper rolling gently down its alleyways in the lonely, late evening wind. Then in the morning, posts will have appeared as if under the impulses of a mysteriously whole other life of its own that I had managed to miss by only a single beat the night before.
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: One of the things I'll never understand is how Jimmy always has a really tight, sharp shirt. All of the time. To me, it indicates a sense of authority amongst his self confessed hedonism.
I cannot vouch for his hedonism, nor have I met him, but something about this rings true. A picture of him that showed the corner of his kitchen sprang to mind when I saw the shirt and rang bells in my mind. The kitchen was chaos. How can someone who lives in chaos wear immaculate shirts? Does chaos do crisp and groomed? Factor in the beard and the anomaly becomes even more disturbing. Beware, my friends, there is more to this than meets the eye.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by mart: Remember being given a doormat to go down the helter-skelter? Anyone. You paid 20p, a big bloke gave you a bristly doormat, like a rectangle of Benway beard, and you climbed up and round, up and round, until you reached the top, then you sat on the beard and slid down.
They still have these dotted around. My little nephew got stuck on one recently, frozen with terror on the steps as rabid grownups on a memory kick shoved him to one side. His mum had to rescue him. £2.50 it cost, no refund given. The other day a straight slide was sitting in the market place and it had the mats. There was an irregular stream of little kids stomping up the steps at the side, lugging the heavy mats. I used to love the mats; all frayed and prickling painfully into the back of my legs if I was wearing a skirt.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I feel bad about this guys, but I had a shave the other morning and now I've just got a light frosting of beard going on.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: My little nephew got stuck on one recently, frozen with terror on the steps as rabid grownups on a memory kick shoved him to one side.
First guilty chuckle of the day.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: I feel bad about this guys, but I had a shave the other morning and now I've just got a light frosting of beard going on.
What shirt are you wearing today, then, so?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
it's another new shirt. Edges like razors. white with thin grey vertical stripes, which have even thinnner blue borders.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Man, you are one sharp, crisp motherfucker.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
the fuck?
[ 04.04.2007, 07:26: Message edited by: Ringo ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by mart: Man, you are one sharp, crisp motherfucker.
You've only got his word for that. I bet he actually looks like one of those bags on an aeroplane that people are sick into.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
hey I saw weird science on friday. It's supposed to be some kind of classic eighties film, right? Son, you need to check your head because that film is shit. What is supposedly good about it? How is it classic? C'mon. It's not sexy, it's not funny, it's almost entirely meaningless and it's painful to watch.
[ 10.04.2007, 07:05: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
It's got a giant talking turd in it and...and...you know...and...erm... now make yourself one dick weed!
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
Reading:
Love Is A Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield. I've only just started reading this, but so far it's a great book. A had bought/read it sometime this past winter and seeing that I was in need of a book to read he recommended it.
Here's what the jacket sleeve says:
What is love? Great minds have been grappling with this question throughout the ages, and in the modern era, they have come up with many different answers. According to Western philosopher Pat Benatar, love is a battlefield. Her paisan Frank Sinatra would add the corollary that is love is a tender trap. Love hurts. Love stinks. Love bites, love bleeds, love is the drug. The troubadours of our times agree: They want to know what love is, and they want you to show them. But the answer is simple: Love is a mix tape.
In the 1990s, when "alternative" was suddenly mainstream, bands like Pearl Jam and Pavement, Nirvana and R.E.M. - bands that a year before would have been too weird for MTV - were MTV. It was the decade of Kurt Cobain and Shania Twain and Taylor Dane, a time that ended all too soon. The boundaries of American culture were exploding, and music was leading the way. It was also when a shy music geek named Rob Sheffield met a hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl named Renee, who was way too cool for him but fell in love with him anyway. He was tall. She was short. He was shy. She was a social butterfly. She was the only one who laughed at his jokes when they were so bad, and they were always bad. They had nothing in common except that they both loved music. Music brought them together and kept them together. And it was music that would help Rob through a sudden, unfathomable loss. In Love Is a Mix Tape, Rob, now a writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs of fifteen mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with Renee. From Elvis to Missy Elliot, the Rolling Stones to Yo La Tengo, the songs on these tapes make up the soundtrack to their lives.
...
Even though I'm only on Chapter 2 or 3, I think you should all get this book and read it. I'm really enjoying it.
As for what I'm watching:
Heroes. You must must must see this show, if you haven't already.
x
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
I've just finished 20,000 Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton. It was brilliant. Quietly but deeply sad, and very British. Loved it. I shall read his whole oevre.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
That's sitting on my shelf at the moment. I bought it in January.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I've been killing my thumb playing 'Family Guy' on my PSP, though having played Tiger Woods golf all afternoon on Friday on the PS3 over at Wayne's I'm almost sold on picking up a PS3 as soon as I redo the living room...
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Amy: Music brought them together and kept them together. And it was music that would help Rob through a sudden, unfathomable loss. In Love Is a Mix Tape, Rob, now a writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs of fifteen mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with Renee. From Elvis to Missy Elliot, the Rolling Stones to Yo La Tengo, the songs on these tapes make up the soundtrack to their lives.
...
Even though I'm only on Chapter 2 or 3, I think you should all get this book and read it. I'm really enjoying it.
I know I've got a reputation for being negative and all that, and I don't really want to fuel it, but this book sounds totally fucking retarded. It actually sounds like a joke someone invented to make fun of books by music journalists that are really about girls.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Hey! I was right!
quote: One Saturday night we met at a party and danced to a few B-52's songs. Like all Southern girls, Renée had an intense relationship with the first three B-52's albums. "All girls are either Kate girls or Cindy girls," she told me. "Like how boys are either Beatles or Stones boys. You like them both, but there's only one who's totally yours." Her B-52 idol was Kate, the brunette with the auburn melancholy in her voice. I wanted to stay all night and keep talking to Renée about the B-52s, but my ride wanted to go early. So I left her stranded and went home to pace up and down the parking lot outside the subdivision, shivering in the cold with my Walkman, listening to Prince’s Little Red Corvette. The ache in his voice summed up my mood, as Prince sang about a girl driving right past him, the kind of car that doesn't pass you every day.
the auburn melancholy in her voice? Jesus.
quote:Renée and I ran into each other again when the poet John Ashbery came to town for a reading. He was one of my idols, the man who wrote The Double Dream of Spring. I got to meet him after the reading, but I blew it. A bunch of us were hovering around, trying to think of clever things to say.
They must have been there a long time.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
lolol! Music journalism is often very much about showing off how amazing you are as a writer, both gratifying and wooing the reader, and the reality of the subject can be distorted as much as you like because you're describing a purely subjective thing. So this dude writes his aggravating horseshit in order to impress girls and people, not to try and actually say anything. Hence those kind of phrases; meaningless yet emotive, like a greetings card.
That book sounds like the textual equivalent of that fucking advert for mobile phones where the people all appear / disappear as if in illusion magic with that fucking music going 'hey there little snapping turtle...'.
But maybe not, maybe the book's alright. I still lolled.
[ 10.04.2007, 09:28: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: 'hey there little snapping turtle...'.
What is it with all this faggly folk shit? I hate that fucking turtle song, and the one by the whiny bird (Imelda fucks lemons unfort-you-naut-lee and I am push heavens indup-it-ub-lee...), and all that fake 'World' garbage, made by bushy-bearded, 14 year-old Berkeley prodigies, solely to sell fucking telephones or TVs or non-specific branded tat.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
And what's the one with the guy riding on the porch of his house? And the guy pushing the window? Who are these fucking ads aimed at? *****, I'm guessing.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I'm currently hating the new Lynx ad campaign more than anything else in the world right now. Every time I see one of those adverts I have to change the channel before I start involuntaraly kicking my TV. If it gets to one of those 'bum-chika' bits before I find the romote, I have to drown it out by screaming FUCKOFFFUCKOFFFUCKOFF!! repeatedly until I can either find the remote or turn the telly off. Honestly, it's the most fucking retarded bullshit piece of non advertising I've ever seen. Anyone who even finds it bearable is a supercunt and should be killed.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I've been googling the turtle song and it's by some some dude called devandra banhart who seems to be some kind of God. I guess 'psych folk' is like folk music but with the storytelling and human element swapped out for whimsical stoner cack. Man I sound like a nazi. I'm not you know. It's just that song...that advert...It really grinds my gears.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Let's not forget 'got my eyes, got my nose, got my tits, got my toes' to sell fucking yoghurt If anyone didn't have a single one of those things, they'd be really hating Muller right now. It is so congratulatory and shouts down anybody who takes these things for granted. If I was face down, belly-grinding the dirt, bullets and bombs whistling past my head in a middle eastern country, then I wouldn't be grateful I was doing it so that the ungrateful pricks back at home can eat Muller Rice in their lunch break. Fuck! What next? Freedom Creme Caramel?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: I've been googling the turtle song and it's by some some dude called devandra banhart who seems to be some kind of God. I guess 'psych folk' is like folk music but with the storytelling and human element swapped out for whimsical stoner cack. Man I sound like a nazi. I'm not you know. It's just that song...that advert...It really grinds my gears.
Well, well, well... who would've guessed he looked like that? Look at him! The dirty, hairy, despicable, hippy fucking rat!
[ 10.04.2007, 09:50: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
that house riding one is another piece of shit. I hate this idea that the best way to sell to my demographic is via the medium of self-congratutory cumshots to the eyes. But then, we're living in an era when Fruitstock is an acceptable day out, so fuck it eh.
[ 10.04.2007, 09:52: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I like it most during a conversation like this when someone says "Yeah, but, you're talking about these products, so these adverts totally work."
I love those people. I mean, really love them.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Look at that bush! His dick must be crushed beneath the buckle.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: the one by the whiny bird (Imelda fucks lemons unfort-you-naut-lee and I am push heavens indup-it-ub-lee...),
To me, that song perfectly ecapsulates the summer of the afternoon of March a couple of weeks ago. I look at the kids today, driving around and I think - they'll never know what it was like, the first time - hearing the burnt-umber ambivalent neurosis that flows through the notes of that song, like whiskey over a smooth pebble that's being held in the hands of the most beautiful woman your heart ever ached for. Every time I hear that song, its coffee-bean smooth notes whisk me back to that first listen. I was with Carolyn. She was the kind of girl that makes you feel like you were somehow meant to be alive in the years between the day you were born, and the day that you died. When you spent time with her, it was like you were truly alive in those hours. Breathing oxygen. Rebuilding cells. Processing energy. Living. Her hair was bumblebee yellow, like the way Jeff Buckley's live version of Hallelujah would sound if it was hair, and if he wasn't dead. Her eyes were like the twinkle of Joni Mitchell's voice on Blue (they weren't actually blue though). Her legs were like the second guitar solo on Cannibal Corpse's Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's (unt. So I remember that first moment I heard that song, sitting in the cinema waiting for Hot Fuzz to start. Those magical notes, taking us away to a place where Svetlana sucked lemons. I listen to it now, and it brings those memories flooding back - the dry-throat air conditioning. The sticky floor. The sound of popcorn scattering in the aisles.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: "The advertisers win"
They'd be right too, if Muller had paid all that money for me to smoosh a pot of yoghurt into someones face when I see them eating it.
lol@nathorndleak
[ 10.04.2007, 09:57: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Oh... my... fucking... GOD! I'd like to make him another headdress, like that one, but with sticks of dynamite instead of feathers.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Her hair was bumblebee yellow, like the way Jeff Buckley's live version of Hallelujah would sound if it was hair, and if he wasn't dead.
Lol.
You got Vikram's help with that post, didn't you?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: Lol.
LOL
[ 10.04.2007, 10:01: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Lolol.
[ 10.04.2007, 10:04: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Amy: Rob, now a writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs of fifteen mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with Renee.
Ah, Rob, did you tell zem about ze African music? 'Ow I loved eet, zat one you sent me. You know, ze South African one. Ze tape from ze Cape. Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Oh Dang.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Amy: Reading:
Love Is A Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield.
...it was music that would help Rob through a sudden, unfathomable loss.
I'm assuming this bitch is dead now?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Pulmonary embollism. Apparently it's agony.
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
The advert that has been winding me up for a while is the one with the boxer in a shop sorting out his car insurance on the phone. I just want to know what question they asked him to make him answer "No, not really, I have sat nav" ("Do you get lost a lot?", maybe, or "Can you read a map?") and how that can possibly be relevant to his insurance.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Pulmonary embollism.
Were they on the mixtape?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by missgolightly: I just want to know what question they asked him to make him answer "No, not really, I have sat nav"
"What do you do for a living, Mr Lewis?"
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask:
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Pulmonary embollism.
Were they on the mixtape?
*** WARNING: Love is a Mixtape Spoilers ***
Final Chapter: Renee's Hospital Mix
702 – Don’t Go Breaking my Heart Aqualung – Breaking My Heart Again Beastie Boys – Heart Attack Man Windstorm – Pain in My Chest John Mayer – Dreaming With A Broken Heart Faith No More – Surprise, You’re Dead Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
oof!
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Epilog: Renee's Funeral Mixtape
FAME - David Bowie We're Only In It For The Money - Frank Zappa This Could Really Boost My Career - Devendra Banhart It's What She Would've Wanted - Jeff Fuckley Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
That Muller one's from a Nina Simone song, the full lyrics of which are here. Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: That Muller one's from a Nina Simone song, the full lyrics of which are here.
quote:I got my boobs
Classy.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: That Muller one's from a Nina Simone song, the full lyrics of which are here.
I really like the Nina Simone song and it doesn't really dovetail with what the ad seems to be trying to make it say at all. One of the stupidest examples of this (and there are very many) was Mercedes Benz using Janis Joplin's song Mercedes Benz, even though it's really obviously about wankers with a sense of greedy entitlement. I mean, in a way it's completely appropriate but probably not in the way Mercedes wanted it to be.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
In fact that whole verse is a little racy:
quote:I got my tits, I got my breasts, I got my chebs, I got my mams, I got my boobs, I got my norks, I got my rack...
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
chebs? what the fuck is a cheb? if i might misquote the song, i aint got no chebs.
that song is originally from hair: the musical. you know i love nina, we all love nina, but its not her song. its from hair: the musical. i am very protective of hair, because as i believe i may have mentioned on here- possibly some years ago, but i still cherish the foolish idea that someone out there has the content of every single one of my posts catalogued in a file in their mental catalogue, you know, im deludedly solipsistic, you know that about me- it is my absolutely most favourite musical. i am also fond of west side story- the orchestration, the lyrics, rita moreno, the dancing, dear kindly sergeant krupke, i love all of it and everything, but the thing is, if you go and see west side story youre not going to see any cock are you. when i went to see hair in 1994 i saw john bannerman's cock! i gotta say, it was awesome. i got a pretty good look at it; great girth. i havent spent that long thinking about it over the intervening 13 years but i could probably still draw a pretty accurate sketch if you asked me too. also, sinitta's bush: sparse. her interpretation of 'frank mills' was sensitivie enough to compensate, however.
[ 10.04.2007, 12:47: Message edited by: dance margarita ]
Posted by Harlequin (Member # 454) on :
This sounds interesting, anyone ever watched this TV series:
Attachments is a BBC TV Series that ran for two seasons from 2000 to 2002, a total of 26 episodes. It focuses on a group of young professionals in London that work for an Internet startup company called "seethru" during the dot com boom. The fictional company ran an internet portal website at seethru.co.uk updated as the show progressed, and still exists today. The show was criticised for being too offensive. While the show was originally released on VHS, there are no mentions that it is to be released on DVD.
Seethru was started by Mike (Justine Pierre) and his wife Luce (Claudia Harrison). Other major characters include Jake (David Walliams), the site designer, Sophie (Amanda Ryan), the content writer and Brandon (Iddo Goldberg), the nerdy technology expert. Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
This might be out of order, but where do we stand on banning Harley on spam terms?
Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
Wait, was Steely trying to be funny?
Posted by Harlequin (Member # 454) on :
quote:Originally posted by froopyscot: Wait, was Steely trying to be funny?
No I was providing information for newbies and not so newbies who arrived here after the Seethru days. Seethru ended over five years ago now and loads of people have never heard of it. Especially I suppose the recent influx of posters from Flirtbox.
The origins of this online community are very interesting to the newcomer and providing info on its history should be a must. Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I watched a fair bit of Van Helsing last night. Jesus...
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
I spent a lot of my week off reading.
I finished I Married A Communist, which I enjoyed, and am just about to start The Human Stain (good title).
I'm afraid I'm about to give up on contemporary fiction. I knew disco was bound to be right, but I went ahead and read A Million Little Pieces. What a load of unnecessary shite. Was I really supposed to give a fuck at any point? I also read The Time-Traveller's Wife, rather naively hoping it would be more science-fictiony than actually about wives. The central gimmick was good, and well sustained throughout, but essentially it's a novel about a couple, and a lot of it's about dull everyday couply life. I can see why it's been so popular, especially with women (very old-fashioned in the way the heroine is "destined" for one man, and her whole life revolves around him), but just not my thing at all.
The above meant I was craving for some proper Literature, and I read Sense & Sensibility, which I haven't read in over a decade, so obviously that was a lovely treat. I'm now re-enjoying Pride & Prejudice and think I'll stick with the nineteenth century for a while.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I re-read Richard Price's Freedomland last week, which was 500-odd pages of excellence and far better than the disappointing, clumsy bodge-job of Iain Banks' latest novel. I finally allowed myself to go through Lee Child's The Hard Way, which I finished within one 20-hour period I think. It's reliably solid but not the best Reacher: a disappointing lack of tension and violence, actually. Some decent humour in Reacher's displacement to London, then Norfolk ("Must remember the etiquette. 'A pint of best, landlord," Reacher declared. 'And a half for the lady. And would you gentlemen care to join us?'") but disappointingly and contrary to the blurbs, most of the novel is set in NYC rather than the UK.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I've just read 'Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About' by Mil Millington, adapted from the website of the same name from 2002.
Quite sweet, a bit two dimensional but very funny in places I'd give it 7 out of 10.
[ 13.04.2007, 04:19: Message edited by: Darryn.R ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: I went ahead and read A Million Little Pieces. What a load of unnecessary shite. Was I really supposed to give a fuck at any point?
This is depressing. The book is waiting to be read after I have finished On Beauty, which is a dull book about a family who don't matter in the slightest.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: I've just read 'Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About' by Mil Millington, adapted from the website of the same name from 2002.
Quite sweet, a bit two dimensional but very funny in places I'd give it 7 out of 10.
He has a column in the gardian, or did have anyway.
Posted by Benny in the East (Member # 903) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: I watched a fair bit of Van Helsing last night. Jesus...
It's about the worst film this side of League of Extrodinary Gentlement, innit.
I'm reading the Penguin History of the World - there was a column by Charlie Brooker a few weeks back in which he said that watching the news is like watching an episode of the longest running soap opera, but never being told the beginning. I kind of agree - the Economist tries to, and often succeeds, write in a style of non-patronising back-filling explaination, but most papers and news sources eschew this. Anyway, thought I'd read the earler scripts, as it were, and try to get an idea.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
I'm struggling through London Fields at the moment. It's my first Martin Amis, and probably my last. It's so much about plot construction and being clever, rather than being interesting, that I'm finding it tedious. Still, I'll carry on as not finishing a book is sinful, and there's still a slim chance I may begin to give a shit.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam:
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: [b] I've just read 'Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About' by Mil Millington, adapted from the website of the same name from 2002.
Quite sweet, a bit two dimensional but very funny in places I'd give it 7 out of 10. [/qb]
He has a column in the gardian, or did have anyway.
Yeah, his column was called 'Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About'. It had a picture of its author, Mil Millington, at the top. He looked like a versatile man.
Posted by Benny in the East (Member # 903) on :
wait...2002?! Oh My god!!! Is Mil Millington Harley from the past?????
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I'm afraid not detective. Mil Millington writes a column detailing things he and his girlfriend have argued about. Harley writes about not being able to get a girlfriend. I know you like to go with your gut instinct, Benny, but I think you're wrong about this one. I'm going to use science to find the truth. Smoke a fag and swear a bit; I'll be back with some fibres in half an hour.
[ 13.04.2007, 05:16: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
When I was listing my books on Green Metropolis last month, I looked at the shelf with the Martin Amis stuff on it and thought why? I still wonder why I put myself through that.
I managed the first chapter of Freakonomics on the train the other day. I am not sure if this 'counts' as proper reading.
Posted by Benny in the East (Member # 903) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: I'm afraid not detective. Mil Millington writes a column detailing things he and his girlfriend have argued about. Harley writes about not being able to get a girlfriend. I know you like to go with your gut instinct, Benny, but I think you're wrong about this one. I'm going to use science to find the truth. Smoke a fag and swear a bit; I'll be back with some fibres in half an hour.
But time travel! 2002 he argues with is girlfriend about things - 2007 he is single and needing a new girlfriend (perhaps because he argued about things with the old one).
Actually, perhaps we should check some fibres and wait for the lab report...
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Having just read this dude's web-page, I can see how you could spin an amusing enough 100-word column from the premise, but a whole book? It's quite wearing reading about two people bickering for that length of time, surely? Although it did make me grateful that I'm such a seething mass of repression that's never had the backbone to contradict someone in real life, that my girlfriend and i rarely argue.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: I managed the first chapter of Freakonomics on the train the other day. I am not sure if this 'counts' as proper reading.
Surely it can only count as improper reading if you are a small boy panting over a porn mag under the bed covers?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: I looked at the shelf with the Martin Amis stuff on it and thought why? I still wonder why I put myself through that.
Lol, yeah - good one. London Fields and Money are absolutely fantastic books. Octavia is reading London Fields at the moment, and every time she laughs out loud (which is alot), I get her to read what it was that made her laugh, and then I laugh too. There's a thread on Barbelith where half-wits can parade their stupidity by pretending that those books are anything less than great. Why don't you piss of out of here and join them you dumb headed fuck?
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Having just read this dude's web-page, I can see how you could spin an amusing enough 100-word column from the premise, but a whole book? It's quite wearing reading about two people bickering for that length of time, surely? Although it did make me grateful that I'm such a seething mass of repression that's never had the backbone to contradict someone in real life, that my girlfriend and i rarely argue.
It's maybe a third of them having conversations and the odd arguement and the rest is a story about a university librarian who ends up embroiled in all sorts of nonsense involving the Triads, human skeletal remains, highly toxic nerve gas and the university he works for..
It's the sort of book Steven Moffat would write if he wrote books..
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I was about to buy London Fields just now from Amazon, following the comments above but gather from a couple of the reader reviews that it's maybe not the best one to start with, that it might be better to become attuned to Amis with one of his others first. Does this sound sensible, and if so, which would you recommend as the book to start with?
[ 13.04.2007, 05:42: Message edited by: H1ppychick ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I liked Money. I also enjoyed Dead Babies that was like Lucky Jim written by Charles Manson.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I wouldn't listen to them. London Fields is only the second Amis I read (after Money) and there's nothing you really need to get attuned to. Unless you feel you need to get attuned to incredibly lively and relentlessly funny writing that's obviously written by a clever person. Other than that, I wouldn't have any reservations about diving straight into London Fields.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: I was about to buy London Fields just now from Amazon, following the comments above but gather from a couple of the reader reviews that it's maybe not the best one to start with, that it might be better to become attuned to Amis with one of his others first. Does this sound sensible, and if so, which would you recommend as the book to start with?
I think Amis is a bit patchy and haven't liked all of his that I tried. I enjoyed the book about his father the most and I liked some of the essays in his book with Cliches in the title, but I thought London Fields was OK. Not the most brilliant of books but not that bad either. Not enough to buy any more until his auto?biography came out. Sadly I haven't read Money because one of that.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I will, of course, read Money now, thanks to the endorsements on here.
Posted by Benny in the East (Member # 903) on :
I'm, for the record, not endorsing it.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
HIppy - If you do try London Fields or, I presume, others, you'll have to get used to the feeling of MA saying 'do you see what I did there' in your ear now and then though.
It could be, however, that I just don't 'get' it, due to being a thicko, rather like just not 'getting' opera. Or that I just haven't got the heart for an argument with Thorn.
[ 13.04.2007, 05:52: Message edited by: herbs ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: HIppy - If you do try London Fields or, I presume, others, you'll have to get used to the feeling of MA saying 'do you see what I did there' in your ear now and then though.
It could be, however, that I just don't 'get' it, due to being a thicko, rather like just not 'getting' opera. Or that I just haven't got the heart for an argument with Thorn.
Could it be because it is a blokey bloke's book? I know at least one woman likes it and one man doesn't, but the majority feeling does suggest a gender divide.
[sound of sam being blown out of the water by NB]Bwow!!!![/sound of sam being blown out of the water by NB]
[ 13.04.2007, 06:01: Message edited by: sam ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
There does seem to be a gender divide. At least, Thorn likes him and I seem to remember that disco doesn't, which is the world in microcosm and good enough for me.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
I'm surprised you're struggling with Amis, herbs, I thought you'd appreciate his cleverness and enjoy his character descriptions (being a wry observor of human wankery yourself). His working class characters are ruthlessly brilliant.
I read Night Train ages ago, but recall it being rather different to his other stuff in tone, so people might like to try that.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Poor Octavia! I imagine that after months of resisting relentless Thorn-nagging she eventually caved. “Thorn, if I read some of this Amis stuff, will you promise not to shit in the kitchen sink again? Even if it’s empty??” Seconds later there’s a stained copy of London Fields being thrust into her hands. As she settles on the sofa with a nice cup of tea and opens the battered paperback, a bony elbow nudges into her ribcage “well, well, are you enjoying it yet?”
“I’ve only read the first line.”
“It’s a brilliant first line, though isn’t it? Genius. Sparkling with cleverness and wit. Isn’t it? Isn’t it a brilliant first line?”
“Er, yeah, possibly”
The reading continues. She’s curled onto the sofa. Thorn’s staring at her with the intensity he usually retains for other women’s breasts. His eyes haven’t left her since she started. He’s trying to read her body language, desperate to get a single nuance of pleasure from her posture. It’s not possible. She looks bored, slightly disgusted with him, as though she’s about to put the book down and pat him on the head.
“It’s really good, isn’t it? Doesn’t it make you laugh?”
Octavia forces a bitter almost-giggle from between lips made numb by ennui.
“Which bit was that? Which bit? Read it out!”
Octavia read a couple of paragraphs. She wonders how it all came to this. She blames TMO. She wonders how long it will take her to pack up five million quids worth of expensive cooking utensils. She wonders how long Thorn will last, alone, with only a porn dungeon to fall back on. She concludes he’ll still be there, even post potential-apocalypse, wanking away with cockroaches for company.
“Se, it’s brilliant, isn’t it? Is’t it great! It’s like, the best book ever, it’s so witty and erudite and beautifully written!”
Thorn’s so excited he’s got his cock out. He’s starting to masturbate.
“Not in the living room! Not without the paper down, remember!”
Thorn collects yesterdays Guardian, or the bits that haven’t already collected the leaves of expensive vegetables to be recycled in Octavia’s compost heap.
“Thorn, why do you like this book?”
“Er, I think Ben told me to.”
Sigh.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Octavia LOL(Money). Oddly, it was R who suggested I read London Fields, and he kept asking me if I was enjoying it about every second paragraph.
Veep: I do enjoy his characterisations, it's true. It's the 'clever clever' plot construction that gets on my tits. I may also have scuppered the experience by stopping in the middle and reading 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, which was both brilliant and totally different, and I've lost the thread.
[ 13.04.2007, 06:08: Message edited by: herbs ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I thought London Fields was OK. Not the most brilliant of books but not that bad either.
I don't know what standard you can be holding literature to that pegs this novel as 'OK' and 'not that bad'. I mean, I kind of see where people are coming from when they get turned off by a perceived misogyny in the writing, or find him a bit arch occasionally, but I can't think of any modern novel that's electrified me with it's use of language to the same extent as London Fields. It's so fresh and alive with invention that it gives you energy when you read it; the way the writing is so free of cliche, the level of commitment involved in making every sentence perfectly pitched and tightly sprung. And it's so, so funny. There's no book - aside from perhaps Money - which has made me laugh out loud as much as London Fields. From the first description of one of the main characters ("Keith Talent didn't look like a murderer. He looked like a murderer's dog"), to the character of Marmaduke, who - at just a year old - TMO's Ben described as 'one of the greatest villains in literature', it's absolutely fucking hilarious. I can't see how anyone who enjoys TMO at its filthiest and funniest can fail to find these two books funny.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: I liked Money....like Lucky Jim written by Charles Manson.
Mmnn. An endorsement indeed.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I see that London Fields is so wide open to criticism that the best retort that Louche can manage is a joke about Thorn wanking. Perhaps it is this originality she feels is missing from the novel.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak:
quote:Originally posted by sam: I thought London Fields was OK. Not the most brilliant of books but not that bad either.
I don't know what standard you can be holding literature to that pegs this novel as 'OK' and 'not that bad'.
It was a while back that I read it so I can only give you the overall impression it left me. I would love to discuss it properly because I enjoy talking about books, but I would have to re-read it.
I do feel as herbs does about his language, even though I also admire it as you are right about its intelligence, so maybe, if I am having trouble engaging with his characters, that's why I enjoyed his non-fiction much more.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:thorn I see that London Fields is so wide open to criticism that the best retort that Louche can manage is a joke about Thorn wanking. Perhaps it is this originality she feels is missing from the novel.
Lol.
If we're just like saying for the record whether or not we liked London Fields then, for the record, I thought it was brilliant. I know Louche's Thorntavia at home sketch is a fiction but it's interesting that Herbs was steered towards the book by her man. And it's mostly the men who are queuing up to defend Amis from these thick sluts.
Using huge generalizations, as men often do, do the male of the species get on better with the kind of preening, self-congratulatory brilliance and macho word fucking that Amis goes in for? And would VP have East End Benny in a no rules, bare chested, bare-knuckled, blood-and-teeth brawl in a wet pub car park?
[ 13.04.2007, 06:35: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: thick sluts.
I hope you're not suggesting I'm over weight. Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: Using huge generalizations, as men often do, do the male of the species get on better with the kind of preening, self-congratulatory brilliance and macho word fucking that Amis goes in for? And would VP have East End Benny in a no rules, bare chested, bare-knuckled, blood-and-teeth brawl in a wet pub car park?
I dunno, man. These kinds of generalisations never really work for me - it was VP and Octavia who convinced me to give the guy a go in the first place, after I'd assumed that he only ever got famous off his dad's name. Octavia even really rates the shitty stuff like The Rachel Papers and Success, which I really didn't enjoy. Zadie Smith also rates him, and admits to being hugely influenced. So I don't think it comes down to being a boy thing or a girl thing.
[ 13.04.2007, 06:45: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Concerned readers will no doubt be glad to hear that I've just ordered London Fields and Money for the total princely sum of £3.24, courtesy of a couple of Amazon's second-hand tat merchants.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
You could have bought my copies off of Green Metropolis. Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
What's/where's Green Metropolis?
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I even quite liked The Information. But only because I listened to it on Radio 4 and it was read by Bill Nighy (before he was, like, everywhere). When I read the book a few years later, I was quite disappointed with it.
I liked his memoirs thing (Amis's not Nighy's), was it Experience? I was surprised that he was able to turn me from outright hatred for the teenage Amis into almost liking the man as an adult and then feeling quite emotional when he got to the Fred West stuff. And I came to the book preloaded with HATE 2.0, determined to despise its author.
[ 13.04.2007, 06:54: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Hmmm... whenever I read his journalism or hear him on the radio, see him on the telly, I always think "Christ! What a cock!" But he's undoubtedly a great literary stylist and a funny fucker, too.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I like the sound of that place, I have cases upon cases of books and really need to clear out some of the stuff I'm unlikely to read again.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
.
[ 13.04.2007, 07:17: Message edited by: sam ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
*sigh*
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: The British literary world seems a bit too closed in and smug to me.
Before you ask I get this impression from the same reviewers; same authors endorsing each others books; same people at all the parties and festivals and discursive TV programmes; same sameness rammed onto the 3 for 2 shelves. It seems so circular.
[:bitterfailedthron:]You'll find no argument from me there.[/:bitterfailedthron:]
I pretty much agree with you there. The whole thing's really tired and self conscious and serious and kind of enervated. There's a sense of try hard literatti about the circus that's kind of a turn off, but I suppose all 'scenes' have that feeling about them - that you're either a part of it or you're not, and the people who are in on it kind of carry that feeling of smug elitism. You get it when a music scene kicks off, or cinema or BritComedy troupes or whatever.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
sam oh ye of faint heart, you edited. Never edit, says Pan! except for crappy typos.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I believe what I said, but I thought I sounded like some pretentious idiot. Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: but I suppose all 'scenes' have that feeling about them - that you're either a part of it or you're not, and the people who are in on it kind of carry that feeling of smug elitism. You get it when a music scene kicks off, or cinema or BritComedy troupes or whatever.
I think it is because we are such a small country.
I hate that as a reader trying to find out good, meaty modern literature through the media, because where else can I find this out, that I keep coming up against the same crowd crowing all the time.
I do feel for new writers because there appears to be either only an in-crowd to burst into or a sort of fashion-led criteria for novels defined by what is assumed to make for immediate mass appeal and mass turnover; an appeal and turnover massaged by those damn booksellers' 3 for 2 tables.
One fashion that seems ubiquitous and ever increasing is the pushing of a novel because it is a new author's first novel, as if that in itself gives it a freshness that can never be repeated. It seems a bit of a feat to get a second novel printed as publishers rush onto the next 'new' first novel.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I believe what I said, but I thought I sounded like some pretentious idiot.
You've got to sound like some pretentious idiot on here sometimes, though. Be warned by one who been hooked on the edits, it's a slippery slope, Sam. You start off thinking hey I sounded like some pretentious idiot there, best's edit, then you think hmmm, sound a bit aggressive there, best edit; a bit stupid, best edit....suddenly you only exist as a little cross...like a cut price Jesus.
[ 13.04.2007, 08:01: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: ....suddenly you only exist as a little cross...like a cut price Jesus.
Or ralph.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
What the fuck is going on with ralph. Is everyone being down on ralph because he's disappeared or has ralph disappeared because everyone is down on him? Or am I getting confused? I know he's on the meds but...can I have a ralph summary please.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: What the fuck is going on with ralph. Is everyone being down on ralph because he's disappeared or has ralph disappeared because everyone is down on him? Or am I getting confused? I know he's on the meds but...can I have a ralph summary please.
I wasn't meaning to sound down on him. I would expect him to find my comment amusing. Sorry ralph if you read it and you didnt.
I like ralph. I miss ralph and I want to know where he is.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Bit of an elaborate alternative persona though wasn't it Halle? I had my suspicions when you kept going on about having a beard. Rang all sorts of alarm bells that did.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
stupid Halle Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I can't believe an actress would pretend to be someone else. That's shocking.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
I like the fact that she got upset when no-one believed it was her. I mean, that's why I've never told you lot I'm actually Leslie Crowther; you just wouldn't swallow it.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Oh I dunno, I could believe that Lesley had managed to pull you off Mart.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: a sort of fashion-led criteria for novels defined by what is assumed to make for immediate mass appeal and mass turnover; an appeal and turnover massaged by those damn booksellers' 3 for 2 tables.
Yeah, I think that's definitely the case. Like Hollywood with sci-fi or superheros, one film suggests that a genre is profitable and the studios shovels more of the same onto the production line.
The thing that makes it really absurd, is that it's not even a case of the industry following market forces. Amazon gets something like 40% of its book sales from the titles that you find stocked in Waterstones etc - the bestsellers. The other 60% is from books that you can't really source anywhere else. In other words people actually want to read a bigger variety of stuff, but the opportunity isn't there. It's just easier to follow established trends and plug away with established authors. I think that's where the 'First Book!' comes into it. I don't think the first novel actually makes that much money, but I think it's used as a barometer of the potential to set an author up as a franchise.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Oh I dunno, I could believe that Lesley had managed to pull you off Mart.
I'd imagine he'd come easily.
[ 13.04.2007, 09:40: Message edited by: herbs ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: I'd imagine he'd come easily.
Lesley does keep his parts amazingly smooth and natural. I bet Mart was hard though.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak:
quote:Originally posted by sam: a sort of fashion-led criteria for novels defined by what is assumed to make for immediate mass appeal and mass turnover; an appeal and turnover massaged by those damn booksellers' 3 for 2 tables.
Yeah, I think that's definitely the case. Like Hollywood with sci-fi or superheros, one film suggests that a genre is profitable and the studios shovels more of the same onto the production line.
The thing that makes it really absurd, is that it's not even a case of the industry following market forces. Amazon gets something like 40% of its book sales from the titles that you find stocked in Waterstones etc - the bestsellers. The other 60% is from books that you can't really source anywhere else. In other words people actually want to read a bigger variety of stuff, but the opportunity isn't there. It's just easier to follow established trends and plug away with established authors. I think that's where the 'First Book!' comes into it. I don't think the first novel actually makes that much money, but I think it's used as a barometer of the potential to set an author up as a franchise.
I totally agree and hadn't thought that about the new book thing, but it makes sense. The business about wanting to read a bigger variety is so true of me personally that it feels it has to be true of more readers too. I hadn't known about the Amazon statistics.
It is so damn frustrating. You as a writer and I as a reader have found this to be so, and it enrages me that we can't shift the way books are marketed and writers picked in spite of it really , or supposedly, being about us.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I thought you had some interest in your book, Thorn? Did it not come to anything?
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Did it come to nothing?
quote:NB [:bitterfailedthron:]You'll find no argument from me there.[/:bitterfailedthron:]
What the fuck do you think, Grissom?
[ 13.04.2007, 10:26: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I walked through Waterstones on the way back from my utterly stultifying meeting and accidentally bought a book, in passing. This is not particularly relevent, but I thought I'd mention it.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I resist the lure of the three for two, though. Well, I did in Waterstones. I didn't in Marks and Spencers, where I purchased three utilitarian tshirts for £10.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
There should be a Friday thread for this sort of burbling banality. Where's Gemini when you need her?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: I thought you had some interest in your book, Thorn? Did it not come to anything?
They sent me a quite a nice letter saying they'd really enjoyed it and found it totally original, but that it didn't fit with their line up. I shelved it in a fit of complete disgust for a good few months after that, and worked on No. 2 for a bit. Recently I took down the old one, rejiggered it for the umpteenth time and have started whoring it out again while I work on the second. I dunno. I'm not all that impressed with the first one anymore. It has its moments, but I'm kind of sick to death of the c**t. In a way, I'll be a bit pissed off if I'm put in a situation where I have to do yet more drafts because I never want to look at it again, ever.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
The only new book I've tried to buy recently is "Microsoft Sharepoint 2007 Development Unleashed", which I needed urgently at work about three weeks ago.
Unfortunately, Amazon have been sending me an email every few days saying it's been delayed and I've now come to the conclusion that the whole thing is a elaborate hoax in an attempt at beating the world pre-orders record for a dull programming book.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: What the fuck do you think, Grissom?
We have former posters Pan and Gemini leading to Pan moments and Gemini moments.
We have Harley who is neither solely former nor wholly current, but who nonetheless is somehow 'of himself'; leading to Harley moments which add, in their own small way, somewhat amusing commentaries to the tmo mix.
Do we now have Grissom moments?
I would like Grissom to be a former poster and not merely a character from CSI. Please tell me there was a former poster called Grissom.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
wtf is grissom?
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I would like Grissom to be a former poster and not merely a character from CSI. Please tell me there was a former poster called Grissom.
There was. Grissom was a Japanese student or something. I think he's a politician now. You can see him on youtube I think. I'll see if I can find him.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
He was totally different on the boards, mind. He was pretty forgetable to be honest.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Are you telling me that a baldy little japanese revolutionary fascist called Toyama Koichi was once a poster on tmo?
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Called Grissom, yes.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Oh yeah I remember now.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
It has taken me 29 minutes to catch on. Fcuk me for a woodenhead.
I am so gullible.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Sorry. You wanted it so badly, I had to make something up.
quote:Sam I would like Grissom to be a former poster and not merely a character from CSI. Please tell me there was a former poster called Grissom.
I’m sorry, Sam, there was never a poster called Grissom on TMO. That Japanse revolutionary thing; that was working for us. You should have run with that one and everyone would be happy but, you had to fuck it up by asking questions.
Perhaps, they say the truth HURTS.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
But I think vinegar tits is more realistic.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Lol jonesy Lol
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: But I think vinegar tits is more realistic.
Sometimes you are too enigmatic for me, oh funny loony one with the scary avatar. Do you mean vinegar tits as in a cryptic reference to PAN or are you suggesting I have vinegar tits?
Let me tell you, milk would be proud to come from my tits. It would be manna from mount olympus after flowing from my tits. my tits rock.
Except they are softer. Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
It's just pan:
quote:Perhaps, they say the truth HURTS. But I think vinegar tits is more realistic.
I don't know why the lost words of Pan mean so much to me, but they do.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999:
I don't know why the lost words of Pan mean so much to me, but they do. [/QUOTE]
Can anybody write a better one?
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
My favourite is the Sinatrian:
quote:...so if he is and is not what is he?
Actually, I'm not sure that it really is my favourite, but I'm wanting to use it.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
That's all very well, mart, quoting his stuff but, well, do you know how we can hope to get the truth and deep non-engaged analysis of problems from them.
[ 13.04.2007, 13:56: Message edited by: sam ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Well who makes up the fucking rules these days? You?
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
But, if you want a serious answer to your question, it's this: sources of sensations. It all starts here.
[ 13.04.2007, 14:04: Message edited by: mart ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
sorry, that's pants
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I wented off and started watching some crap tv programme when I really wanted to join in this game.
What would the great PAN say?
Shallow and swift writers
Indeed; I bow on awe before the great PAN's superior wisdom.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:Originally posted by mart: sorry, that's pants
Pan's.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: The only new book I've tried to buy recently is "Microsoft Sharepoint 2007 Development Unleashed", which I needed urgently at work about three weeks ago.
[Geek Chate] How do you find Sharepoint for developing with? Just wondering because it seems there's a good chance I might be having to interface our Data Warehouse web presence with it at some point in the future. Probably not for a while yet though since we've yet to create the new version of the web presence, or decide which reporting layer product we're using for that matter, stupid IT-fearing Microsoft-dryhumping upper management types..[/Geek Chate]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Weird. I was sure I'd posted a reply before. Well...
[Mr Bean voice]
Well, I haven't done much more than rebrand a basic Sharepoint site so far. Haven't created any new "web parts" and that sort of thing.
It was a pain in the arse to track down the right files for editing, but once I'd sort of hacked my way around the thing it was pretty straightforward. You do need a reasonable grasp of the .NET framework, ideally.
My main problem has been finding decent documentation, which is why I was looking forward to reading that book, but it seems it's not due out till June now, along with another book on the same subject by Wrox. Might be a bit late, but I've left it on order anyway, just in case it comes in useful another time.
[/Mr Bean voice]
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
Cool, thanks dude, hopefully by the time I need to start developing it (next year at least at this rate) there might be a bit more documentation and other resources about..
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
saw El Topo on friday. I preferred it to The Holy Mountain. I still couldn't really get a grip on it, but it felt more fluid because it was at least set around the same location, and the overall story about the gunman worked most of the time. Even better than the film though was Jodorowski in conversation afterwards. An inspirational man. I came out of El Topo saying that I probably wouldn't watch another one of his films, but after the conversation, I'm really looking forward to checking out Santa Sangre.
Other films I watched last week: Death Line (superb london underground horror flick) and Psychomania (bizarre occult biker romp).
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Thanks again to Benny the Ball for those Invisibles you donated with astonishing kindness.
I am reading Apocalipstick now, a couple of chapters b4 bed (predictably I had a dream that I was in the Invisibles, duh... how 90s). I like the stuff about that pervy tranvestite!!! dirty and sick, but sort of good Gives me a funny feeling deep inside.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
Just finished The Tortilla Curtain by T.C Boyle. A meticulously constructed tale dealing with immigration and the huge financial divide of Los Angeles in the nineties. The storyline thunders along relentlessly, the characters are very easy to become emotionally attached to on both sides of the 'immigration issue' at hand, and the climax is both sad and heart-rending. A cracking read.
Eight Tortillas out of ten.
Keep meaning to start How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World, which I will, along with Will Self's Cock and Bull, which I bought fucking ages ago.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I'm now rereading Richard Price's Samaritan. I wish this guy would write some more, or I'm just going to have to put his best and biggest 3 novels on repeat, because right now I'm struggling to find anything better.
Also, I think he wrote for The Wire, which is what I'm watching every night.
Also digging Invisibles, thanks Benny! though it's a bit embarrassing that I'm now having the "fuck, he's really onto something with this city under a city, urban magic and aztec gods shit!" experience I should have had, like everyone else, when I was like 26 and the comic was first published.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
You're welcome.
I've got episode 14 of season 6, or two of 7?, of the sopranos sitting on my desk top waiting to be watched - man I love that programme. I can't actually start the wire without this finishing, so another 7 more episodes until it's completed and then the wire can start (I've watched the first 3). I taped and watched the Hotel New Hampshire - I first saw the film when i was about 7, and for some reason really liked it (probably because it had strange sex and slapstick sped up moments?) - it's funny, I saw the film years ago, then read the book and got a lot more out of the story, and then saw the film again and got a lot more out of the film. Also have Consequences of Love to watch before I bin the DVD rental account.... Been reading history of the world, the first section on prehistory did nothing for me, but once it hit ancient history I remembered why I loved my degree so much.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I've been watching The Wire every night too. Just up to the episode where McNulty flips out and kills the lesbian with a bread knife(spoiler?).
It's very, very good. A real sense of veractiy and a brilliantly conceived storyline. It's not as poetic as The Sopranos, but comparing the two is really a bit of a dead end I reckon. The only things they really have in common are high quality, bursts of nasty violence and a habit of setting scenes in strip clubs to break the tension. Like, "Man, that last scene was pretty gruelling... I'm not sure I can.... Hey! It's a bunch of titties flopping about! Woo-hoo!"
Posted by Boy Racer (Member # 498) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: It's not as poetic as The Sopranos.
I'm not sure I agree, I think it's just poetic in a different way, as you say though comparison of the two isn't necessarily useful.
Have Wire watchers got to the sweary Bunk and McNulty crimescene scene yet?
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Yeah, I got to that scene. That was certainly a kind of poetry, finding so many ways to say "fuck". Thorn may be interested to know that I taught one of the strippers from Sopranos. She stripped one episode, was killed the next.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
last night I watched that thing about Turkmenistan. It was good: I liked it.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
I spent my lunch hour in the Oxfam bookshop on Gloucester Rd. I was really tempted to spend £2 on a book entitled How To Make Anyone Fall In Love With You which was full of brilliant advice such as rating your own attractiveness on a scale of 1-10 and then ensuring you were only "hunting" those in within 2 points of you. It seemed to mention "studies" and "feedback" fairly frequently and to be quite serious. Do you think I should buy it?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Yes - it sounds like an extremely insightful tome. You wouldn't want to find yourself as an octogenarian sitting on a rocking chair and smelling of cat urine, thinking back to today with a tear in your eye:
If only I'd bought that book back in the early 2000s. It was only two quid...
Where do you rate your attractiveness on this scale?
[ 19.04.2007, 10:34: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Where do we all rate ourselves on this scale?
I watche Consequences of Love - which my best mate raved about. It was pretty, but bloody depressing.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: How To Make Anyone Fall In Love With You
Anyone? Anyone? Even Derren Brown?
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I saw Sunshine yesterday. I read on another board that Boy Racer did'nt like it, but I mainly enjoyed it - I enjoyed it more when it was pastiching 2001 and Solaris, instead of boringly retreading Alien. I didn't really follow the plot much but I kind of tripped along with the visuals.
Then I went on a stand-up sunbed, to live the experience, and today I look like one of the people from the Icarus II's viewing deck.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
quote: last night I watched that thing about Turkmenistan. It was good: I liked it.
How awsome were those burning pits of fire in the desert?! ...Very awsome, thats how awsome they were.
But apparently Tukmenbashi died shortly after filming. Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
they were awesome. As I was going to sleep I was trying to work out how to put them out. I decided that the best way was to either build a giant metal lid to put over the hole, or fill it full of some kind of.....material...or something. Either way, it'll make me a millionaire.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: the Icarus II's viewing deck.
Now there's something I don't get - why name the ship after someone that failed when they got too close to the sun? It's like naming it Prometheus, who spent eternity in torment - it's an attempt to show that they know history, when they completely miss the point.
Although - I guess most classic myths tell of the hubris of man - so....
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
I recently read Cormac McCarthy's unremittingly bleak post-nuclear nightmare The Road, which I recommend unreservedly to everyone on the forum.
The language has a carbonised beauty that seems a bit much at first but gradually fills you with the terrible feeling that, when 'it' comes (atomic war, environmental collapse, starvation rape and cannibalism) this is pretty much exactly as it will be.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Caution: DO NOT read this book if you are about to bring a childe into the world. Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball:
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: the Icarus II's viewing deck.
Now there's something I don't get - why name the ship after someone that failed when they got too close to the sun? It's like naming it Prometheus, who spent eternity in torment - it's an attempt to show that they know history, when they completely miss the point.
Although - I guess most classic myths tell of the hubris of man - so....
Yeah, it's like manning a spaceship into the icy wastes of Pluto and calling it the Titanic.
And then launching another one when that crashes, calling it Titanic II
stupid future people
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: gradually fills you with the terrible feeling that, when 'it' comes (atomic war, environmental collapse, starvation rape and cannibalism) this is pretty much exactly as it will be.
No cars though. It's not all bad then.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Is he the guy who doesn't use " " marks but - instead?
I just read this on the BBC website;
quote: Composer and theatre producer Andrew Lloyd Webber says he will only attend this week's edition of Any Dream Will Do - in which budding musical actors bid to win a leading role in the West End - unless the BBC fly him back from his beloved Leyton Orient's away match with Bradford.
Terrible english, BBC website monkey no read??? Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I finished Auster's "The Brooklyn Follies" the other day, and it's a pretty weak book. Didn't get much enjoyment out of it. I wouldn't bother with it if I were you.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
Just finished Will Self's Cock & Bull. Two novellas, both of which offer hilarious insights into how sexual roles can be reversed. I found them both highly amusing anyway. Also read Carnivores by Guy N. Smith. A no-holds-barred, no-brainer horror flick, dealing with a 'curse' that affects the entire population of a prospering Stratford estate, leading to a pretty sick chain of events, including a scene where a baby is decapitated by a buzzard, followed by the Mother and Father, who were both stark bollock naked as they'd been fucking in the bushes while the baby was asleep. Hmm. Perfect beach-reading material.
Have started reading How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, which is shaping up very nicely and Will Self's Junk Mail.
Am tempted to start another Guy N. Smith book in the meantime. Doubt I'll ever grow out of low-budget horrors. Think I'll give Cannibals a whirl as it has the sickest cover.
[ 01.05.2007, 13:00: Message edited by: Zygote ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Football tonight - but I really want to watch this;
I hate that I can't watch and tape at the same time - stupid freeview Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
im really thinking i need to sort out my teevee situation. its all very interesting living without the idiot box for five months, and it is pleasant not having to deal with the constant, almost sub- conscious feeeling of irritation that regularly subjecting yourself to most advertising and popular culture inevitably leads to. a life without vernon kaye and steve jones and shipwrecked hutcum diaries is not a life immeasureably the poorer, i can confirm this, as if you were even arguing such a thing. BUT. on the other hand. im really beginning to miss the rubbishy telly, to the point where im actually fetishising it a bit. after doctor who i get to watch maybe half of DREAMCOAT, and then im torn away from it as the people whose telly im borrowing throw me out onto the streets, and i go home and its like premature ejaculation. i really really really miss slobbing out all night in front of some load of absolute detritus. i miss being braindead. another consequence is that reading is becoming difficult. i read three books last week, and half- read another two, and im getting really bored of reading. im totally incapable of reading anything that is not located somehwere on the spectrum between middle- brow and moronic. i tried to read an article about the janja weed last weekend and my brain was like 'nah, not happening. lets try this article about mika instead'. i read the whole article about mika, even though i loathe him and want him to die or be maimed. wh' happen?
[ 01.05.2007, 12:01: Message edited by: dance margarita ]
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Interesting. I've been without tv for five years and one day now, and I still don't miss it.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
But you have American programmes.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
yeah
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
I've been without TV for a year now, and what I would really like is a flat-screen tv attached to the wall opposite my bed. That would be so awesome. I'm starting to miss it too... programmes like Zena, Warrior Princess, or The OC, or Buffy... all the brilliant things that are like these unexpected nuggets of pop culture awesomeness. Having no TV feels a bit like chucking the baby out with the bathwater. At first I liked the austerity, but now it makes me feel sad. I haven't told my sister this though. She loves not having one.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
the americans invented americas next top model! which is total gash but i really feel an almost physical pull towards the television when its on. last saturday, just before doctor who started, we were watching a little bit of antm, the bit where the Stroppy Black One and the Soppy Black One were having an argument about the Amazonian Midwestern Blonde, and Stroppy took off her pants and wiped them all over Midwestern's duvet cover... my sister went to turn over and i was like, you cant turn over! i need to see what happens! she just wiped her lady- smee all over her duvet cover! this is watercooler stuff! i felt a bit dirty inside afterwards. and then doctor who wasnt even any bloody good. fucking daleks! i dont care about fucking daleks and i dont care whether the doctor and martha ever tongue! being as how you obviously cant show them engaging in sweaty tardis based animalistics, possibly involving butt- fucking, im really not interested.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
quote:Originally posted by London: or The OC
The OC is over... I missed the last episode.
Damn.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Everything was destroyed.
Probably.
Doctor Who is wank - I fucking hate how bad it is in direct relation to how good everyone says it is. It looks cheap, is badly acted and terrible terrible scripts that people seem to be hearing as really clever. I don't mind that it looks cheap, but it's trying to pretend that it looks great - Dr Who - know your limits!!
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
part of me agrees with you. i suppose i like the idea of there still being such a thing as 'event telly', even when the event doesnt live up to the hype around it. also, it gets me out of the house, and quite often i get free food whilst its on. so. you know.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Doctor Who is wank - I fucking hate how bad it is in direct relation to how good everyone says it is. It looks cheap, is badly acted and terrible terrible scripts that people seem to be hearing as really clever.
I was forced to watch an episode of this last week and was similarly appalled. Every aspect of the show was fucking dreadful. Unfortunately I couldn't contain my disgust at it all and laughed/moaned constantly throughout it, much to the disdain of my girlfriend and her friend - who's also obsessed with Doctor Who. I don't think they'll be inviting me round again.
I never watched it as a child, so I suppose there's no emotional attachment between me and the series. Still, as a neutral, it sucked.
Posted by Samuelnorton (Member # 48) on :
I was a fan of Doctor Who when I was in short pants, and naturally I was keen to see the new stuff. I thought Ecclestone was good, but find Tennant annoying in that he appears to love overacting. One can ham up a character, but to ham it up to the point where it becomes cringeworthy is another thing entirely. When I see him leaping around the TARDIS like a deranged rabbit I just want to cut off his legs.
Then there is the whole set of cultural issues that are set off by his having a blacke companion - during the last two episodes they were in 1930s New Yoik ffs - a place where a blacke woman in tight jeans would have been arrested let alone be some sort of earth-saving herione. At least the term blackamoor was used in the Shakespeare episode.
Then there is the Russell T Davies effect - that is, trying to shoehorn his sexuality into every other episode. It is most annoying, and I bet Patrick Troughton is spinning in his grave.
I also watched the Turkmenistan documentary, which might have been more interesting were it not for Waldemar Januszczak poncing around like a caricature of the equally annoying Jonathan Meades. The Boratesque comedy muzak didn't help.
As for what I have been watching - hmm. The cricket world cup has only just finished.
[ 01.05.2007, 13:26: Message edited by: Samuelnorton ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
That's the first time I've seen an episode of Doctor Who singled out for praise because it used a racist insult.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I held off starting The Invisibles until I had all 7 volumes, I read volume 1 yesterday. I understand what all the fuss is about. Thanks again, Benny.
Posted by Samuelnorton (Member # 48) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: That's the first time I've seen an episode of Doctor Who singled out for praise because it used a racist insult.
lol. I didn't mean it that way. It made things more believable. Well, slightly more believable.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: It looks cheap, is badly acted and terrible terrible scripts
It's exactly because it's stuck to the original spirit so closely that it's worked so well. My 5-year-old hides behind the sofa. My 10-year-old checks out the next episode on the web and watches all the Dr Who Confidential stuff religiously. They all recreate this week's episode all week long till the next one comes along. They spent a week making their own flying camper vans out of Lego after that New New York episode.
It is terrible, no doubt about it, but that's all part of its attraction. I'm not even sure it would be possible to do that scenario in a serious or professional looking way. It would almost certainly become very dull very quickly if you tried to keep things remotely believable. You need permanent access to deus ex machina and silly puns and forehead slapping realisations to keep the momentum going.
Once an episode is finished, I tend to never want to see it again, but I thoroughly enjoy the nonsense while it's on, and the involvement of the children. They had the right hump last week when Dalek Sec turned nice. They were so disillusioned that I had to explain that he'd been contaminated by human DNA and I'm sure he was still really horrible underneath it all.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I'm doing the same as Mask re. The Invisibles, and I'm somewhere in the middle of Volume 2. I'd read maybe four of the books before, and not really "got it" - not really seen why anyone would be fanatical about it. Even though the art is often criminally bad, and I think Barbelith man Haus is right to describe it as essentially a Boys Own Adventure story, I can see how it might have changed people's worlds, which is what Morrison apparently intended with this "hypersigil" aspect.
I'm holding off from reading the return of Quimper because it put the shits up me so badly last time (over a year ago) that Quimper, whispering backwards "once I was a little light" (and his origin story in the book, and the true origin story that apparently he was based on the foetus Morrison and his partner terminated) is still the image that comes to mind when I'm alone in the dark and not sure if I'm really alone.
So, I'll have to read Kissing Mr Quimper on a crowded train or something, I think.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
UK Living is about the only channel worth watching at the moment. America's Next Top Model is on every single night of the week and the other day I caught the ghoulishly compelling finale of The Greatest Loser an aspirational weight loss programme presented by the sexy aunt from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
It was strange comparing the contestants of TGL with those on the British equivalent, Fat/Fit Club - Stateside the contestants all look like fucking models once they lose the weight, whereas in the UK version someone can lose 17 stone and still look like a sack of shit.
Attention scientists! Did anyone else watch Horizon last night about those crazy particle-crashing motherfuckers at CERN? One thing - among many - that vexed me about the programme was that they never accounted for the effect of the expansion of the universe on how far away a star was and, therefore, how old the light reaching earth actually is - if you're looking at a galaxy 14 billion light years away, isn't it the case that because that galaxy has been accelerating away from us since the beginning of the universe it's going to skew its relative position to our world and, therefore, the age of the light now reaching us?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Yeah I've always thought that. If you're seeing something that's 50 light years away, for instance, you're actually seeing soemthing as it was 50 years ago.
Interestingly, if you were to head towards that object at half the speed of light, you'd actually end up seeing things on that planet (for instance) at around 1.5x the speed they actually happen. Like watchig a video on fast forward. If you looked behind you, things would appear to be happening at half their usual speed. This is part of the whole 'theory of relativity' thing, where it's impossible to accurately state your place in 'time' because time is relative to where you are, and how fast you are travelling. It's pretty simple stuff once you start to think about it.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: the art is often criminally bad,
It is isn't it? It's atrocious at times. But you're on the ride for the stories, really, aren't you? It's thick with ideas, as thick as Promethea, even. But, I'm actually enjoying it more because of its Boys Own-ness. King Mob feels a bit laboured in his counter-culture signifiers, but really... crap art and a lousy central hero are minor quibbles in a work that pulls together such brilliant ideas so coherently and entertainingly. And that's quite an achievement in the genre of superhero comics where cool art and cool superheroes are all most books have to offer.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank. The awful second Punisher film was loosely based on this book, but it's a lot of fun.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: Attention scientists! Did anyone else watch Horizon last night about those crazy particle-crashing motherfuckers at CERN? One thing - among many - that vexed me about the programme was that they never accounted for the effect of the expansion of the universe on how far away a star was and, therefore, how old the light reaching earth actually is - if you're looking at a galaxy 14 billion light years away, isn't it the case that because that galaxy has been accelerating away from us since the beginning of the universe it's going to skew its relative position to our world and, therefore, the age of the light now reaching us?
I really wanted to see this - was it good? I've missed some great stuff lately thanks to a really flakey EPG on my freeview recorder - that travel's with my camera, diary of a nobody? you want them taped you say? Nope, not gonna do it... Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
You can watch it here Benny. It's a pretty good programme for the general viewer, though I do find it irritating that they don't flag which animated sequences are actual images created/captured by scientists and which are jazzed-up cartoons by the BBC's cgi people.
Most frightening bit was when the genial Indian scientist at CERN was asked about the possibility of a black hole being created when the LHC is switched on at the end of November this year. He says something along the lines of, "Yeah, of course if there was a black hole it might suck in gravity, light, CERN, the Alps and probably the rest of the planet and solar system, but we don't think that's very likely. *Nervous LOL* Any black holes that are created are likely to decay very quickly. *Nervouser LOL*"
Newsflash bitch: if you're talking even about the possibility of creating a black hole for shits and giggles, I don't want nervous laughter I want iron-clad certainty thant nothing bad will happen, ta.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
You're a star, Ben! (pun probably intended, sorry)
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: Newsflash bitch: if you're talking even about the possibility of creating a black hole for shits and giggles, I don't want nervous laughter I want iron-clad certainty thant nothing bad will happen, ta.
one word: heisenburg
mother fucker
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: "Yeah, of course if there was a black hole it might suck in gravity, light, CERN, the Alps and probably the rest of the planet and solar system, but we don't think that's very likely. *Nervous LOL* Any black holes that are created are likely to decay very quickly. *Nervouser LOL*"
I read an article with similarly unsettling uncertainty in it. Sorry, can't remember the specifics, but the thrust was in a hollow mountain somewhere in central Europe there are scientists creating 'novel' elements by battering, bombarding ripping apart and reassembling quarks and quasars, one of the scientists came out with a line like, "We're pretty sure we won't create an element that causes time to become unstable or that crystalizes all the gas on the planet or something... heh... pretty sure... *coughs*"
Who line manages these guys?!
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: I don't want nervous laughter I want iron-clad certainty that nothing bad will happen, ta.
I suppose that if a black hole suddenly appeared in the middle of Europe then we'd simply be dead and that would be the end of that. I say, let them have a go and see what happens. We're all going to die slow deaths anyway from world drowning and mysteriously disappearing bees. Maybe they'll create a special little black hole that will just suck in global warming and then close up again. Stranger things have happened.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: Maybe they'll create a special little black hole that will just suck in global warming and then close up again. Stranger things have happened.
Not many stranger things, though, must be said.
Those dudes were crazy. I liked that they might discover new dimensions, that we hadn't noticed before because they're too small, or happen too quickly, or don't emit light. WHAT? On the plus side, the experiment is going to happen on my birthday, so if we all get sucked into a black hole it will frankly be a blessed release from having to worry about my age.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote: "We're pretty sure we won't create an element that causes time to become unstable or that crystalizes all the gas on the planet or something... heh... pretty sure... *coughs*"
Kurt Vonnegut had something like this happen in one of his books, where all the water on earth crystalised.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: Who line manages these guys?!
The thing is... you can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
It's all a little convieniant though, new earth discovered, old earth falling to bits - they're gonna whack us, aren't they? We no longer any use to them are we?
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
These "scientists" are all actually reptiles who eat gerbils and guinea pigs, and wear sexy red 80s uniforms.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
When people talk about actually doing sciencey stuff that I read in old science fiction novels I think about triffids and it makes me anxious.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Yeah, all those beards and drab clothes. Brrrrr. Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
Walking trees, though. Come on, surely there's nothing more terrifying in this world than walking trees?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I'm sure that if it gets too heavy then the Creator will step in.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: Come on, surely there's nothing more terrifying in this world than walking trees?
Well, actually, I can think of quite a few things more terrifying than walking trees. Hundreds of thousands of evil bad guys running towards you with machine guns and spears and BO, for example. Being lowered into an industrial-sized mincer is another one. Having sex with Noel Edmonds. I could go on.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
None of those things strike as much fear into my heart as walking trees. Not even the sex with Noel Edmonds one. Walking trees inspire me with a visceral, twitching fear.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
or you're in a room and you notice that one of the old victorian dolls on the shelf has turned it's head to watch you.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Louche: Walking trees, though. Come on, surely there's nothing more terrifying in this world than walking trees?
Are there any gardening shops in Manchester called "The Triffid Centre"? They'd surely do a roaring trade with pun loving gardeners. Which is most gardeners from what I can tell.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Dang have you got some sort of Iranian-style pun-enrichment centrifuge, because that's some weapons grade shit right there.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
I have an irresistable, orgasmic urge to get these puns out and then afterwards I just feel depressed and wish I hadn't done it. Especially when I read a post like Jonesy's on that there other thread. But I can never see how bad the puns are till they're rendered right there on the page. It's a terrible affliction. (Mainly for the other people on the forum.)
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I like your puns Dang. They're the wood that builds the furniture of the boards. Your puns stand tall and dependable, towering over the dark forest of TMO's filth, photosynthesising fresh air into an otherwise choking environment. They're a piece of ewe and you should never renounce them.
[ 03.05.2007, 07:13: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Bless you, Jonesy. Encouragement like that really makes me want to redouble my efforts. Actually, I thought of one on the way home the other day and forgot to use it. Brace yourselves... (It's on another thread.)
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Haha. Do you just ride around France on your bike thinking up puns and inventions, Dang?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: Haha. Do you just ride around France on your bike thinking up puns and inventions, Dang?
That and murdering prostitutes.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask:
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: Haha. Do you just ride around France on your bike thinking up puns and inventions, Dang?
That and murdering prostitutes.
I'm afraid the market's already flooded with machines for murdering prostitutes, BM. Don't think I haven't done the reasearch.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Sorry. Rotting the thread. Yesterday I went to see The Painted Mask. I hadn't meant to see it really. I had a few hours to kill before meeting someone so I just went to see the first film that was available. I scanned through the little summaries, chose a film about a teacher with a drug problem, or something like that, bought the ticket and went in. I'd obviously got mixed up because the film about the drug teacher is actually Half Nelson. I was quite surprised, therefore, to see the period setting of my film was actually the 1920s. Strange, I thought, I can't imagine many sink school teachers with drug problems cropping up here. But what the heck. Anyway, the film was OK. An uptight Ed. Norton traveled to China with his unfaithful wife to try and tackle a cholera epidemic. You know the kind of thing: nice scenery, piano music, pissing in bags, puking, cute kids, fatal illness, I won't post up any spoilers, just in case anyone else accidentally goes to see this film. Suffice to say, it's a bit short on drug addiction. Nice acting by the Nortster and some other people, though. I'd give it three stars.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: I'm afraid the market's already flooded with machines for murdering prostitutes, BM.
Really? I don't think I can think of a single one, off the top of my head. Perhaps, other technically-minded forites would like to bring me up to speed on some of the more popular models available on the market?
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
The combine harvester works pretty well. Although you need a really good cover up team behind you to use it more than once.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Haven't you seen the new Whore-B-Gone 3000 from Black and Decker. I got given three of those at Christmas.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
OMG Thron meld.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
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Fits neatly into an overcoat pocket.
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[ 03.05.2007, 08:08: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Do you ever find yourself standing on a deserted canal towpath, blood on your hands, a tit in your pocket, but the jobs not quite done? There's your whore, convulsing, moaning, blood-bubbles all over her top lip so thick she looks just like your uncle Morrie. The bitch just - won't - die!
I had that problem, too! And then someone introduced me to the K-Tel Slut-o-Matic. It chops, slices, mashes and dices. All in one easy action. You'll never have any more trouble with death-defying tramps. And that's a guarantee!
The Slut-o-Matic! I was so impressed I bought the whole company!
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
LOL.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Man if there was a gold medal in being the World's Most Predictable Bunch of Savages...
[ 03.05.2007, 08:12: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
You mean, like, a TMOlympics? I've never heard of such a thing. Maybe some other forites would like to fill the rest of us in on the events in this worthy tournament?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
the 100m whoreshred
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Pro' wrestling?
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
Wow. You can tell I've been away from TMO for too long, because I'm feeling... distressed.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
i didnt pay her to say that.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
ah whore-be-gones and slut-whackers are fine, but the real question is: do you compost them and claim them as carbon offset?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
The Invisibles is just getting stranger and stranger and better and better. I took a break from it yesterday to read Vol. 6 of Walking Dead. Not the best volume by a long chalk, it's like Kirkman felt he had to up the gore-levels, so went nuts for a few dozen pages, then got bored and went back to pondering morality and humanity again. Still, the story's driving forward. 6 out of 10.
Now, back to The Invisibles...
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Have you read the stuff with Boy and the slave trade underground thing in the US yet? That's my favourite bit I think...
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Have you read the stuff with Boy and the slave trade underground thing in the US yet? That's my favourite bit I think...
No, I think that bit is coming up. Jack Frost has just come to terms with his abilities, spooked one of the Archon and resurrected King Mob. Jim Crow is about to spirit them out of the UK. The art's improving periodically, as well.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Have you read the stuff with Boy and the slave trade underground thing in the US yet? That's my favourite bit I think...
Hold on... do you mean the Black Train and the gang-bangers as the secret army of the NWO? That was at the end of book 3. Yeah, that was great. With very dark blocky art, like a cross between Rizzo and Mignola. I should probably know the artist's name, but, you know, it's all about the story...
Each book is just fucking thick with ideas, it's a bit overwhelming in places.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
That's the one. The art is amazingly up and down - I think the series suffered from the shifting so much in the earlier issues. It does get great at moments (the 60's/70's inspired stuff is great).
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I think Benny meant the later reprise of those ideas in (?) American Death Camp; when Boy is stripped of multiple cover identities, including (apparently) the backstory about her two brothers.
I'm at the start of Kissing Mister Quimper now, and expecting it to get scary. The Invisibles overall does feel like a series of episodic adventures - Harmony House, Sir Miles, House of Fun, Dulce, Hand of God. There are overlaps and returns to previous episodes, but it's largely proceeding in terms of mini-missions, with the big arc made up of character development rather than a grand narrative.
Although, of course, the big story is supposedly Invisibles vs Archons... which I find the least convincing, most embarrassing bit of the whole comic. The whole idea of alien monsters, the forces of order and repression, crops up time and time again in Morrison's work of this period (Zenith and Kid Eternity both have their own very similar versions) and the Archons look worst of all the incarnations: just cheesy. Not to mention that the idea of our heroes embodying "rebellion" (= sex, drugs, dancing, shaved head, fetish leather) comes across as kind of lame.
I have some vague memory that the basic concept of a war between rebellion and order are subverted by the end of the last book - which would rescue the series for me in this sense, just as the most interesting episode so far is Best Man Fall, which makes King Mob look like a shit instead of a cool-ass assassin.
If this isn't the case, then the whole idea of a Grant Morrison lookalike and (as he's openly explained) fantasy avatar as the bald, leather-clad sex god of kewlness, fighting with his shockingly trendsome friends (a hip-hop musician! a tranny! a sweary boy! a black woman!) seems kind of naive, transparently egocentric and... very 1990s, not in a good way.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Although, of course, the big story is supposedly Invisibles vs Archons... which I find the least convincing, most embarrassing bit of the whole comic.
I think it's great, a Cthonic/Illuminati hybrid, drawing together threads of legend, sci-fi, conspiracy theory, esoteric religion, the occult, physics... Good stuff. Surely, KM's coney rubber jacket is the most embarrassing bit of the whole comic?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr:
I have some vague memory that the basic concept of a war between rebellion and order are subverted by the end of the last book
I'd certainly hope that some more doubt would be slathered onto the noble derring-do. Dane hints at it often enough in the opening chapters.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask:
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Although, of course, the big story is supposedly Invisibles vs Archons... which I find the least convincing, most embarrassing bit of the whole comic.
I think it's great, a Cthonic/Illuminati hybrid, drawing together threads of legend, sci-fi, conspiracy theory, esoteric religion, the occult, physics... Good stuff. Surely, KM's coney rubber jacket is the most embarrassing bit of the whole comic?
To be fair, I think it's more the inside and outside-cover blurbs I'm getting this from, with their summaries of the books thus:
There's A WAR going on between the forces of Oppression and a small band of terrorist Freedom Fighters!
Join
KING MOB: the baddest, baldest cool assassin of this - and ANY OTHER century!
RAGGED ROBIN: Girl from the Future. She became King Mob's LOVER. (You'll see them shagging - and how!!)
BOY: She's a girl... and she's Black! Don't mess with this sista... she's from HARLEM (the baddest, blackest town on this Earth) so she grew up hard, on streets where smarts and MARTIAL ARTS are the only way to survive!
JIM CROW: As another Black person, he brings VOODOO and his HIP HOP skills to the team!
LORD FANNY: He's a girl... she's a ... BOY? Also a South American Shaman - or should we say, SHA-woman? Prepare to have your senses shocked!
JOLLY ROGER: See what we did again? Roger's a girl... and she could soon become someone's LOVER! Cause she's a Lesbian (she knows Martial Arts, too).
JACK FROST: He fucking hates that name! And he's not fucking afraid to say "FUUUUCK!" Could also be the New Buddha.
Also inside: Marquis de Sade (historical and literary sex)! Ecstasy drugs... The Number 23... The Roswell Alien.
THERE'S a war ON between King Mob's team and the forces of control and repression, like men in SUITS, guided by ALIENS.
which side ARE YOU ON??
------------> King Mob's side of Rebellion and Cool? or the men in suits trying to control us, who are REALLY CONTROLLED by Aliens <------------
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr:
which side ARE YOU ON??
------------> King Mob's side of Rebellion and Cool? or the men in suits trying to control us, who are REALLY CONTROLLED by Aliens <------------
Ummmm... it's a head versus heart thing, isn't it?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
What if, deep in your heart, you just want to fit in?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
It's monkeys versus spacemen, and who wants to be a smelly stupid fucking monkey?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I would love that, actually, if Robin or someone went to have a word with King Mob and he was all like "What happened to your hair... your clothes...?" and they replied "Ah, yes, well that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I've been offered a job, you see. And well... I was thinking... all we ever do is whizz around the dimensions and fire weird guns at aliens, and for a while now I was thinking it might be nice to... you know... settle down. And there's prospects, you see. And. Well. You know. Properties aren't getting any cheaper, and you know what it's like trying to get a mortgage without a permanent job... I mean, I haven't even got enough official ID to rent a film from Blockbuster at the moment, and Ocean's 13 has just come out. And well. To be honest I just wanted to fucking grow up."
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
If anyone can tell me how to stop turning into Mark from Peep Show, I'd be most grateful, ta.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
It's a Catch-22 situation, really, isn't it? Be an Invisible and be cool, or be an Archon-slave and get a pension.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Or, be an Archon slave and read about the Invisibles and pretend like you're cool.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Now I think about it, I really can't decide whether I would rather be a monkey or an astronaut. Either would be really excellent.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Check it out! Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I think I was obviously too harsh on sabian. You can have it all!
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: Check it out!
If he could communicate telepathically, if he had a sword and a machine gun and a pet attack-hyena, a hover bike and a license to kill, and a billion quid, that would be perfect and I'd even give up being me to be him.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I saw a film called 'swingers' yesterday, and it was pretty good. Coming of age / buddy kind of thing involving a group of twenty something male actors trying to get started in Hollywood. A feel good film, but it had some tight scripting and a comforting indie feel to it. Worth it if you get the chance.
[ 14.05.2007, 05:39: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I've been reading this *BBC News article about a woman who followed the advice of her satellite navigation system and drove her car onto a railway track.
quote:"I put my complete trust in the sat nav and it led me right into the path of a speeding train," she said.
"The crossing wasn't shown on the sat nav, there were no signs at all and it wasn't lit up to warn of an oncoming train."
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
That picture layout has a hypnotic effect.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
It must be difficult enough for a double hand transplant patient to drive, even without the 'help' of a death wish satnav...
ETA: Could it have been a head transplant?
[ 14.05.2007, 06:01: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I'm going to see 28 weeks later on wednesday. Reviews suggest it's a good one. Anybody seen it yet?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Goat husband Charles Tombe is refusing to comment on the affair
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
anybody like films?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
They're alright.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sense and Sensibility. Both very good. Well done Ang Lee. Well done.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
I watched "The Prestige" the other day, they changed quite a few key elements of the book. One of them being that when the magician guy duplicates himself in the book the duplicate (the prestige) dies, whereas in the film the duplicate survives, so has to be killed off by the magician (via a trap door into a locked water tank. It's fucked up when you think about it, because when he first does it the prestige kills him. Like, if you created an EXACT duplicate of yourself either one would be you so if the other died you would still be alive.... dunno would it work like that, like if I duplicated myself and then the duplicate killed me would the other me be me, if you see what I mean.
Suprise appearance (for me) by David Bowie as Tessla (the electric dude) acting not great, weird eye quite good.
Anyway, 5/10, not really worth the effort of renting it out.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
OH and the above post contains spoilers.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
really because a few people i know saw the prestige and said it was worth seeing.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I was going to watch "The gods must be crazy" because it's on cable but then I was like, you know, tribes, quirkiness, earnestness, behhh, no.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: really because a few people i know saw the prestige and said it was worth seeing.
I really liked The Prestige, but it's not really worth seeing now because Tilde's post contains spoilers that will have completely ruined the experience of watching film for you. His score of 5/10 is also unreliable because he has taken the end of the film at face value and assumed the machine works, despite Michael Caine's comments about not having seen what you think you've seen.
But like I say, the film's ability to hold your attention rests entirely on the ongoing revelations of its secrets so spoilers really are spoilers, and I'd probably say that anyone who knows about the twists mentioned in Tilde's post needn't bother watching the film.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Did you watch that thing with Simon Pegg and Tim Frost last night?
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak:
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: really because a few people i know saw the prestige and said it was worth seeing.
I really liked The Prestige, but it's not really worth seeing now because Tilde's post contains spoilers that will have completely ruined the experience of watching film for you. His score of 5/10 is also unreliable because he has taken the end of the film at face value and assumed the machine works, despite Michael Caine's comments about not having seen what you think you've seen.
But like I say, the film's ability to hold your attention rests entirely on the ongoing revelations of its secrets so spoilers really are spoilers, and I'd probably say that anyone who knows about the twists mentioned in Tilde's post needn't bother watching the film.
Actually I've left out the whole twin = assistant spoiler of his rival magician, and anyhow, who reads this apart from me you benway and misc? It's not like benway is going to go and rent it out is he.
Also, face value? What other explanation is there?
[ 14.05.2007, 07:16: Message edited by: Tilde ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
no, I watched This Is Spinal Tap and then spent hours reading about scientology.
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: Actually I've left out the whole twin = assistant spoiler of his rival magician
Oh come on, I could see that coming a mile away. And I'm terrible at seeing things coming from a mile away.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
people please. I haven't watched this film yet.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
It's ok big nuts I have been reading Derren Brown's tricks of the mind and I'm going to attempt to perform a technique that will erase all memory of the spoilers that you have read in my posts... you see Nathan, there's no point in getting your knickers in a twist as I have a plan anyhow.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
[ 14.05.2007, 07:28: Message edited by: Tilde ]
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Now click on this NOT WORK SAFE Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
AND WATCH THIS NOT WORK SAFE Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
Don't long threads like this break TMO?
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
You see - squeegy has already forgotten.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: AND WATCH THIS NOT WORK SAFE
Christina is marriage material. Seen that clip a fair few times over the past month. Heavenly.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: Also, face value? What other explaination is there?
SPOILER B HERE FOR ALMOST ALL OF THE PRESTIGE
.
.
.
Ok, the biggest problem with the theory that 'the machine didn't work' is that I can't explain just how Angiers does his trick. However, i don't think that means it's not a trick. David Copperfield made the statue of liberty disappear - I can't say how he did it, but the thing I can be certain of, is that he didn't magic it away. In a film about misdirection, deceit and trickery it seems reckless to take its central assertion at face value when it rests on a mad flight of fancy in a movie otherwise grounded in reality. So, I think it's worth considering the following...
Alot of the film is made up of grand examples of characters playing the pledge, turn and prestige on each other: Borden sets Angiers up with his false diary, creating a situation where, like the audience at a magic show, Angiers is practically begging to believe that Tesla created the Transported Man trick for Borden (we know he didn't, of course - he just supplied the zappy electricity to give it some showmanship). BUt Angiers won't see the simple explanation. Tesla kind of strings him along - he's just reluctant enough to keep Angiers interested, and all the time these experiments are going on Angiers is showering Tesla with money. All Tesla has to do is give a little zappy light show every couple of weeks. Eventually, there's his big reveal, just as the money's about to stop of dozens of hats and several black cats. But, it's easy to explain those as just being, a bunch of hats designed the same way. Crucially, when Tesla zaps the cat, he then takes it's collar off - a red and gold neck band, I think - and the ones outside, it's supposed clones have different collars.
Moreover, if this machine is really working, why the flipping heck does Tesla get run out of town for paying his bills? His behaviour is inexplicable if the machine works - because he's basically got an endless source of cash, or if he wants to share his invention, he's got a revolutionary product on his hands. He protests a bit to Angiers about how dangerous it all is but he still gives him the flipping thing, even though it's not what he wanted, and Tesla claims it's evil. That's barmpot behaviour if the machine works, not to mention the impossible to swallow co-incidence that when Borden sends Algiers on the wild goose chase he just so happens to send him to a guy who can provide a solution to the act. No - it was surely a set up Tesla was part of, got paid handsomely for and then he bailed out on the back of a supposed angry mob of his rivals men.
So Angiers arrives back in London, and realises he's been taken for a ride, so in turn he sets up his revenge. The only purpose of this is to trap Borden - he actually says as much when he talks about designing the flyer for the show. If Borden has actually given Angiers what he wanted, why this elaborate revenge? Angiers would still feel like he had won, but he's more desperate than ever to set Borden up.
So he has his super-transported man trick to get Borden back stage, with all the trappings - the blind stage hands, the covered tanks etc being misdirection to further baffle Borden. He goes backstage, is framed for murder. Angiers wins: this was his plan. Also, it's worth noting that the scene in which Angiers kills his double is narrated by Angiers to his arch rival - the guy he doesn't want to know his secrets. Like much of what they tell each other, this could be another lie. Remember, when Borden turns up in amongst the tanks Angiers's words are "Huh, twins". If the Tesla machine worked, why does Angiers immediately assume that Borden is a twin? Surely he would think 'clone'? Then of course, the film ends - with a voice over saying "You haven't seen what you think you've seen", and a shot of the black hats. That's a heavy intimation that some sort of sleight of hand has gone on on the part of the filmaker - that he himself has conducted his own Pledge, Turn, Prestige on the audience, and that the answer we're left with is no more the explanation than David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear by magic.
SO, like I say, I can't explain the trick and the drowning. We know there's a doublt, but we know Borden can see through that. And that doesn't explain the drowning. Personally, I htink the clue is in a shot earlier in the film of Angiers holding his head under water - like he's practicing. We know in the final act that he can do the escape from the water tank. I reckon he just doesn't drown in that sequence, that when the glass is smashed he comes out alive. But I've only seen it once, so I can't be sure.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak:
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: Also, face value? What other explaination is there?
SPOILER B HERE FOR ALMOST ALL OF THE PRESTIGE
.
.
.
Ok, the biggest problem with the theory that 'the machine didn't work' is that I can't explain just how Angiers does his trick. However, i don't think that means it's not a trick. David Copperfield made the statue of liberty disappear - I can't say how he did it, but the thing I can be certain of, is that he didn't magic it away. In a film about misdirection, deceit and trickery it seems reckless to take its central assertion at face value when it rests on a mad flight of fancy in a movie otherwise grounded in reality. So, I think it's worth considering the following...
Alot of the film is made up of grand examples of characters playing the pledge, turn and prestige on each other: Borden sets Angiers up with his false diary, creating a situation where, like the audience at a magic show, Angiers is practically begging to believe that Tesla created the Transported Man trick for Borden (we know he didn't, of course - he just supplied the zappy electricity to give it some showmanship). BUt Angiers won't see the simple explanation. Tesla kind of strings him along - he's just reluctant enough to keep Angiers interested, and all the time these experiments are going on Angiers is showering Tesla with money. All Tesla has to do is give a little zappy light show every couple of weeks. Eventually, there's his big reveal, just as the money's about to stop of dozens of hats and several black cats. But, it's easy to explain those as just being, a bunch of hats designed the same way. Crucially, when Tesla zaps the cat, he then takes it's collar off - a red and gold neck band, I think - and the ones outside, it's supposed clones have different collars.
Moreover, if this machine is really working, why the flipping heck does Tesla get run out of town for paying his bills? His behaviour is inexplicable if the machine works - because he's basically got an endless source of cash, or if he wants to share his invention, he's got a revolutionary product on his hands. He protests a bit to Angiers about how dangerous it all is but he still gives him the flipping thing, even though it's not what he wanted, and Tesla claims it's evil. That's barmpot behaviour if the machine works, not to mention the impossible to swallow co-incidence that when Borden sends Algiers on the wild goose chase he just so happens to send him to a guy who can provide a solution to the act. No - it was surely a set up Tesla was part of, got paid handsomely for and then he bailed out on the back of a supposed angry mob of his rivals men.
So Angiers arrives back in London, and realises he's been taken for a ride, so in turn he sets up his revenge. The only purpose of this is to trap Borden - he actually says as much when he talks about designing the flyer for the show. If Borden has actually given Angiers what he wanted, why this elaborate revenge? Angiers would still feel like he had won, but he's more desperate than ever to set Borden up.
So he has his super-transported man trick to get Borden back stage, with all the trappings - the blind stage hands, the covered tanks etc being misdirection to further baffle Borden. He goes backstage, is framed for murder. Angiers wins: this was his plan. Also, it's worth noting that the scene in which Angiers kills his double is narrated by Angiers to his arch rival - the guy he doesn't want to know his secrets. Like much of what they tell each other, this could be another lie. Remember, when Borden turns up in amongst the tanks Angiers's words are "Huh, twins". If the Tesla machine worked, why does Angiers immediately assume that Borden is a twin? Surely he would think 'clone'? Then of course, the film ends - with a voice over saying "You haven't seen what you think you've seen", and a shot of the black hats. That's a heavy intimation that some sort of sleight of hand has gone on on the part of the filmaker - that he himself has conducted his own Pledge, Turn, Prestige on the audience, and that the answer we're left with is no more the explanation than David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear by magic.
SO, like I say, I can't explain the trick and the drowning. We know there's a doublt, but we know Borden can see through that. And that doesn't explain the drowning. Personally, I htink the clue is in a shot earlier in the film of Angiers holding his head under water - like he's practicing. We know in the final act that he can do the escape from the water tank. I reckon he just doesn't drown in that sequence, that when the glass is smashed he comes out alive. But I've only seen it once, so I can't be sure.
hmnn, interesting. However, it is Borden holding his head underwater - in the scene I am thinking of- (in the sink) directly after Angiers wife drowns. Presumably in some sort of fit of self hate.
Anyhow, going with your theory that the machine doesn't work.
I can't see how he would do the trick either - appearing on the balcony whilst simultaneously falling through a trapdoor into the (locked) water tank. Although if we suspend belief for a moment and say that he did, did he do all that just to frame Borden with his own murder. Seems a bit toooooo far fetched to me, eg.
1. He has to rely on Borden being there at that exact moment (there's no way he can know when this will happen).
2. He has to "drown"
3. Borden has to see that he is dead
4. Borden gets caught
5. In the final scene of the film Borden is in the area where Angiers stores all the dead replicates (The Prestige Materials) in their water tanks - presumably there is quite a few of them. What are they - elaborate realistic models?...
6. If this was all a set up in order to get Borden framed, and hung...Wouldn't it have been a lot easier just to get someone to just.. kill him?
I don't remember the voice over at the end of the film, I may have to watch it again with your comments in my mind and see if any of your theory rings true. I'm not entirely convinced but if it did work on that level rather than face value I'd probably give it a 8.5/10
[ 14.05.2007, 08:44: Message edited by: Tilde ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
MORE PRESTIGE SPOILERS
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Anyhow, going with your theory that the machine doesn't work.
1. He has to rely on Borden being there at that exact moment (there's no way he can know when this will happen).
He can obviously see through the glass whether Borden is there or not - any other night he can just climb out. He only starts to 'drown' when he sees Borden standing outside the tank.
quote:2. He has to "drown"
Yes, either him or - possibly - the double he uses earlier in the film. But he could be faking. He's a big fella and we see from the courtroom that the model of the tank has got a big hole in it - the glass was smashed to get the drowning body out.
quote:3. Borden has to see that he is dead
Well, yeah... dead or playing dead. I don't see this as any kind of a problem.
quote:4. Borden gets caught
Again - yes because it appears as though he's killed Angiers, but don't think that negates the possibility that his double is back. I mean, whatever interpretation you take, Borden is being set up to be arrested for a crime he doesn't commit - there is bound to be some oversight on the part of the justice system, because we know he's innocent, whatever your interpretation.
quote:5. In the final scene of the film Borden is in the area where Angiers stores all the dead replicates (The Prestige Materials) in their water tanks - presumably there is quite a few of them. What are they - elaborate realistic models?...
But... we only see one. The film plays on your presumptions all the way through, it shows you something, lets you infer a wrong conclusion and uses that to undermine your take on events. It is what makes it a good film.
quote:6. If this was all a set up in order to get Borden framed, and hung...Wouldn't it have been a lot easier just to get someone to kill him?
Surely this applies whatever you believe about the machine working? It's made explicit that the show is there as bait to get Borden backstage and frame him for murder. It may well be a lot easier to get someone to kill him, but that's the case if Angiers is framing him using a double, or a sci-fi clone.
More to the point, Angiers's revenge centres on creating a trick Borden cannot explain - by not giving it away at the end (ie by lying to him) Angiers actually 'wins' by the terms of their rivalry. Also - remember when Angiers is dying he says "The world is solid, and miserable" and laments the boring explainability of everything. Those aren't the words of someone who's just learnt 'real' magic - they're the words of someone who knows the banality of the truth.
The thing is, the central motif of the film is misdirection. It's a film about magic tricks, and it's a film that is itself a trick, with the director as a magician pulling a Pledge, Turn, Prestige on the audience. That Michael Caine quote warns us at the beginning and end that we're about to be sleighted, so it stands to reason that everything you see unfold is not necessarily the last word on the matter.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
That's just my take on it though - plenty of people agree with what you're saying. If you look on the imdb board, it literally alternates with threads claiming it did work and threads claiming it didn't, each claiming to have definitive evidence.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak:
quote:5. In the final scene of the film Borden is in the area where Angiers stores all the dead replicates (The Prestige Materials) in their water tanks - presumably there is quite a few of them. What are they - elaborate realistic models?...
But... we only see one. The film plays on your presumptions all the way through, it shows you something, lets you infer a wrong conclusion and uses that to undermine your take on events. It is what makes it a good film.
We do see a whole rank of tanks, uncovered, with bodies/models/dummies/whatever of Angier-alikes in them, not just one.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
SPOILERS ALSO....
Like Nathan, I haven't quite worked out how he did it, but I can't see how you can satisfactorily conclude that Angiers "transported" himself by magyke. The whole point of the film is that there is no magic- just brilliantly clever trickery, staging and presentation. It seems really jarring to have one single bit of actual, repeatable controllable supernatural power amongst the blunt reality of "magic"- trapdoors, knotwork, birds getting killed on a daily basis, tricks performed by stunt doubles/twins etc. It's against the whole spirit of the film.
Key points are the fact that Angiers is desperate for Borden to suffer as he has suffered- death of a loved one and the anguish of a professional secret. He has limitless funds to spend on any number of baffling misdirections (many tanks, employment and silence of blind or fake blind stagehands etc). Borden condemned to die in prison, knowing his daughter's future is uncertain and not knowing how Angiers did it is the ideal outcome for him.
One possibility is that it's simply another actor double being used for the 100 show run. Angiers knows Borden will be tempted to snoop backstage at some point, and is prepared to drown the double on that night to frame him.
Remember, all the tricks done in the film rely on hours of behind the scenes practising, patience and sacrifice to get right. Angiers has the time, money and veangeful attitude to pull the Transported Man off somehow.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Wow. That thing about the endscene is true as well, you do only see one replicate (presumably) dead in the water tank. If the director did set the whole thing up as a "trick" you can see how that end scene would cause him problems. From our viewpoint we do only see the one replicate... something that is a bit strange if you think of it from a director's point of view, as perhaps having borden run through the crypt dragging the covers off of the tanks and seeing a hundred dead replicates drowned would perhaps have had more visual impact...
I dunno, I read the book first which I think has the premise that Tesla's machine works and ends with a hundred replicates stuck in a crypt.
I'm going to have to watch it again.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
What a great film. 9/10
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: SPOILERS ALSO.... Like Nathan, I haven't quite worked out how he did it, but I can't see how you can satisfactorily conclude that Angiers "transported" himself by magyke.
I watched a program called 100 greatest Magic Tricks and there was a guy on there who did a vanishing trick on stage and about 10 seconds later he was in the chandelier of the theatre. It was very similar. So it could be physically possible, especially as Angier performs his show in the same theatre?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: 10 seconds later he was in the chandelier of the theatre.
the old 'fake chandelier' routine. A classic.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I've been a bit 'meh' so far about getting the DVD out and re-watching this, but this thread has rekindled my enthusiasm.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde:
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: SPOILERS ALSO.... Like Nathan, I haven't quite worked out how he did it, but I can't see how you can satisfactorily conclude that Angiers "transported" himself by magyke.
I watched a program called 100 greatest Magic Tricks and there was a guy on there who did a vanishing trick on stage and about 10 seconds later he was in the chandelier of the theatre. It was very similar. So it could be physically possible, especially as Angier performs his show in the same theatre?
I too watched this - the great ott stuff was best - the woman being drilled and the catching bullets or having tigers burst through your stomache - but after a while I wasn't impressed by anything - the floating light bulb was crap, and I can't even remember what came first...
stupid magic.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
MORE SPOILERS
One ingenious theory I read was based on the idea that Angiers's revenge was in motion before Borden sent him on the wild goose chase; that Drunk Root was actually a competent double (or an actual twin) playing a role to misdirect Borden into thinking that Angiers's act was a laughable failure, and that Borden doing a number on him, by sending him to Tesla was actually just a smal cog in Angiers's bigger plan, that Angiers was always going to come back and use his perfect double to completely stymy Borden, with all the paraphenalia back stage being there to bewilder his rival. They take turns going into the tank, knowing that when one of them sees Borden there, he will have to die. The idea of Drunk Root actually being a set up to make Borden think Angiers's double was shite is an ingenious one.
However the two problems are 1. Two sets of secret twins that happen to know each other is a bit of a stretch and 2. TwinRoot wouldn't have a motivation for risking his life in the tank. TwinAlgiers might do it to avenge his wife, but the other guy willing to die for his brother's personal motives is a bit of a stretch.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Does anyone have a link to the Prestige thread on IMDB?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
This is the IMDB board for the Prestige, but you have to have a free account to view it.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I watched episode 6/9 of Sopranos this morning - it was great.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
I watched Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive last night and enjoyed it quite a lot. Think I watched one episode last series. It's not dissimilar to Extras. In fact, it's a blatant rip-off of Extras, but it's still good. And I don't even like Rob Brydon usually.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: I watched Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive last night and enjoyed it quite a lot. Think I watched one episode last series. It's not dissimilar to Extras. In fact, it's a blatant rip-off of Extras, but it's still good. And I don't even like Rob Brydon usually.
There's a bit of Larry Sanders and Alan Partridge in there too. I can't decide if I find Robrydon funny or not. Current thinking: Sometimes, but begrudgingly. Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: I can't decide if I find Robrydon funny or not. Current thinking: Sometimes, but begrudgingly.
Yeah, same with me. Been like that for years. I've got a similar thing with Steve Coogan (and in fact they might be the same person). This one's generally very watchable though anyway.
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: TwinRoot wouldn't have a motivation for risking his life in the tank. TwinAlgiers might do it to avenge his wife, but the other guy willing to die for his brother's personal motives is a bit of a stretch.
Maybe they were, you know, tag-teaming her.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Finished reading Mother's Milk on the train this morning. I can't remember the last time I was so desperately longing for a book to end, and if it hadn't been so short and easy to read, I think I would have abandoned it quite early on. Some of the prose is strong, and the imagery is vivid, but the way St Aubyn exposits the mental landscape of his characters - just describing it outright in the most banal terms - is tedious to the point where it almost becomes unbearable. Plus, the dialogue is kind of a disaster - see-sawing between Patrick Marber-esque self congratulating cleverness ("Aww he thinks he's stuck in the glass" "I don't think he's read Lacan's essay on the mirror stage just yet mother! That's where the real confusion sets in!") and really uninspired 'skewerings' of all the usual characters you'd expect to find in such a novel: aggressive American, spoilt only child, money-grubbing divorcee, etc and yawn. And the thing is, the book is almost exclusively made up of these two things: the pages and pages of tiresome analysis, interspersed with pages and pages of this awful dialogue.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
lol - sorry Thorn. Guess that's one for the Magus pile.
I thought you'd enjoy the despicable Irish character and the Patrick's mother's appalling determination to do the worst thing to the very end - I also recall a really first-class drunk scene.
Maybe I was a bit more forgiving of it because there are so many recognisably gruesome parent anxieties in there.
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
Watched Pan's Labyrinth last night, as it was released on dvd here yesterday. We really liked it, although we wished they had done more with the fantasy part of the film.
Also watched a Korean fillum called Arang. About a ghost and revenge. Which seems to be a lot of Asian movies recently. It was pretty good, and it held our interest.
Haven't been reading anything recently, unless you count school books. Oh! That's not true, when I had time I read Love is a Mix Tape...finally finished it. I enjoyed it. It wasn't just about some music journalist trying to meet girls, as someone on here might've said. But it dealt with the death of his wife and the grief he went through. Was sad.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: lol - sorry Thorn. Guess that's one for the Magus pile.
I thought you'd enjoy the despicable Irish character and the Patrick's mother's appalling determination to do the worst thing to the very end - I also recall a really first-class drunk scene.
Maybe I was a bit more forgiving of it because there are so many recognisably gruesome parent anxieties in there.
I dunno - I looked up a few reviews while I was reading it and they seemed to be universally gushing, to the point where I thought maybe I had a faulty copy or something. So it's not like you had a peculiar take on it, but I couldn't really get my head round the praise I was reading for it.
Personally, I thought the Irish guy typified the novel at its worst - setting up an easy target and limply demolishing it. The whole New Age/ money-leeching thing just seems so... easy. It was like something out of a Ben Elton sit-com. Like the bit where they go to America and Patrick observes that everyone is really fat, alot of it came across as blandly obvious. Even the mother reminded me alot of another take on Livia Soprano, although i do agree that her ability to keep being appalling even after her faculties have all but evaporated was really inspired.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yo I totally watched Sleepaway Camp and Class of 1999 last night. That's like a dream evening for me.
I've been wanting to see Class since the video cover first disturbed me as a kid, and it didn't disappoint - three miltary grade cyborgs enter a school that's been torn apart by gang warfare between two tribes of violent new romantic kids - the Black Hearts and the Razorheads. The robots, entering under the guise as new teachers, must restore order at any cost. Awesomeness ensues. Kids with machine guns, cars with loads of pointless cladding, future drugs, and homicidal discipline machines. As the cover says, it's very much robocop + terminator; the whole evil corporation behind the program ('Megacorp', lol) is another OCP, and the trio of killer teachers are campy terminators. Amazing.
Sleepaway Camp was a recent recommendation. A twist on the standard camp slasher in that the camp is full of kids as the murders take place, and they are the main focus of the drama rather than just the counsellors. The strange sexual undertones throughout the film explode into an incredible ending that burns some fucked up images onto the brain. It's American, but the warped sexuality gives it a Euro feel. In every scene the kids are all wearing very short shorts and either cut off t-shirts or bare chests (men only), the head chef is a paeodophile, and the counsellors are making out with the kids. When the end comes it draws all this together into something way more screwed up than you'd anticipate. So again, a cracking film.
I remember The Stuff! You'll never look another marshmallow in the eye.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I'm hoping to receive:
1 of: My Cousin Vinny [1992] 1 of: Addams Family Values [1993] 1 of: The Cars That Ate Paris [1974] 1 of: What About Bob? [1991] 1 of: Midnight Run 1 of: Where The Buffalo Roam [1980]
before the weekend.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
The Stuff is great - satire of the highest order - I remember bothering Mr the Ball sr for months whenever I saw the trailer at the begining of a rented film - when he finally hired it, I wasn't disappointed on jot.
Where the Buffalo Roam is okay, bit dated - my stepfatherinlaw did the sound, fact fans...
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball:
Where the Buffalo Roam is okay, bit dated - my stepfatherinlaw did the sound, fact fans...
But... it's got Bill Murray and Peter Boyle in it. And Bruno Kirby. And Rene Auberjonois as Harris from the Post. "I'm feeling wonferdul!"
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I love Peter Boyle - his X-Files was the best ever.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I'm about to settle in and start watching 'HEROES'.
I'm slowly downloading series one on the advice of my younger brother, and I'm wondering if that's a good idea or if in fact it'll be shite.
Anyone here seen Heroes ?
Amy ? I'm guessing you have..
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: I'm about to settle in and start watching 'HEROES'.
I'm slowly downloading series one on the advice of my younger brother, and I'm wondering if that's a good idea or if in fact it'll be shite.
Anyone here seen Heroes ?
Amy ? I'm guessing you have..
PHENOMENAL! I highly recommend Heroes. It's one of my all time fave tv shows - ever. We decided that we're going to buy it on dvd, whenever it comes out. They did a great job in making it feel like a comic book, without being cheesy.
edit- fyi: this coming Monday is the season one finale.
[ 18.05.2007, 09:03: Message edited by: Amy ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
TheGree and MiniGree saw some of it the other day and raved like loons about it to me afterwards.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Spoilerish
Amy - we've just found out that *coff* is *coff*'s father. How many more lovely lovely episodes do we have in hand?
Posted by Amy (Member # 11) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: Spoilerish
Amy - we've just found out that *coff* is *coff*'s father. How many more lovely lovely episodes do we have in hand?
Hi HC
Honestly, I'm not sure. Probably only a little more than a handful. If you go to the Heroes website, you should be able to trace how many episodes are left. I would do it for you, but my interweb just went into slow motion and I'm having a helluva time bringing up web pages. But yeah, I think no more than seven episodes. Are you the one who bought Entourage on TMO's recommendation? If so, are you enjoying it? How do you like Heroes?
Mart, you should watch it with the wifey and kid, because they are spot on about how good it is.
We watched The Queen last night. I'm not sure if A liked it, but I did...mostly because I like Helen Mirren quite a bit.
[ 18.05.2007, 10:58: Message edited by: Amy ]
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
Can't recall if I mentioned that I was reading Annie Proulx's Close Range- a selection of some of the best short stories I've ever read; brutal, brittle and vivid. Includes the gay cowboys one.
I also finished The Human Stain, which I think I enjoyed most out of the Roths I've read. Recommended.
I have had a thoroughly delightful time revisiting Northanger Abbey. Such a shame she only wrote 6 books in total.
I seriously enjoyed The Woodlanders, by terminally untrendy rustic miserablist T Hardy. I know it's massively uncool to like his stuff, but I find him to be one of the most evocative writers in English.
Currently getting stuck in to The Idiot, and spending some lazy afternoons guiltily lapping up some rare Agatha Christies that I hadn't already devoured.
Oh, on Friday I got out Little Miss Sunshine, which was exactly as American independent cinema should be. Excellent and highly recommended.
Edit: Coronation St has been amusing me greatly. Blanche on hairdressers: "man-stealing trollops, the lot of them".
[ 21.05.2007, 05:10: Message edited by: Vogon Poetess ]
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
quote:Originally posted by Amy:
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: Spoilerish
Amy - we've just found out that *coff* is *coff*'s father. How many more lovely lovely episodes do we have in hand?
Hi HC
Honestly, I'm not sure. Probably only a little more than a handful. If you go to the Heroes website, you should be able to trace how many episodes are left.
I've just checked on www.tv.com and last week's episode was 14, no. 15 being broadcast tonight. So, a double-handfull, then! *glee*
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: ...However, it is Borden holding his head underwater - in the scene I am thinking of- (in the sink) directly after Angiers wife drowns. Presumably in some sort of fit of self hate.
rong, it was Angier.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Reading the excellent Jungle Capitalists - really good book about the formation of Global Food and the establishment of Banana republics in central America from the 19th C to modern day.
Watching - not much at the moment, there are some interesting looking programmes on this week - Marr's Modern History of Britain for one, and the Birth of the Tabloid looks quite good. Might record Breakfast of Champions tonight, just out of curiosity. Soprano's episode seven/nineteen should be ready by the time I get home.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
I'm reading Saul Bellow's Ravelstein which is pretty dreadful and henceforward absolves me of ever having to read any more from this supposed 'literary giant'.
Did anyone see Gavin & Stacy? Great stuff. "Fags and weed, glue and speed. But I draws the line at crack." Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I've been enjoying Jeeves and Wooster on Saturday afternoons. It's about the lightest of all possible entertainment. Also - Adult Swim. Anybody watch adult swim? They're re-running Modern Toss, which I'm finding better second time around.
[ 21.05.2007, 09:55: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
Just been watching the season finale of Heroes, that show just gets better and better, can't wait for the next series
Incidentally if anyone wants to see it and hasn't I've got every episode in avi format.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Is it true that Sean Connery makes an appearance in the finalé?
"Shave the cheerleader. Shave the world!"
*punches self in pubis
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I'm currently reading the Wonderstarr recommended Clockers, about a third of the way through and I'm really loving it. Other people who might enjoy this book are Black Mask and Vogon Poetess. I also think that Wonderstarr, if he is reading this at the moment, would do well to check out James Ellroy's The Big Nowhere, if he likes this kind of vivid crime fiction brought to life through poetic street slang stuff.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
hey physic - I haven't seen it yet - I was waiting for it to come onto BBC. So it's worth investing into? I've kind of hit a wall with tele at the moment - I've got about four decent sounding documentaries saved to watch, but have only been watching Sopranos and that's it - Heroes is on the list, as is the 2nd series of Rome.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: hey physic - I haven't seen it yet - I was waiting for it to come onto BBC. So it's worth investing into? I've kind of hit a wall with tele at the moment - I've got about four decent sounding documentaries saved to watch, but have only been watching Sopranos and that's it - Heroes is on the list, as is the 2nd series of Rome.
I'd say so yes, as others have mentioned before it kind of feels like a comic book ported onto television in a way, but done really well. Plenty of little twists to keep you guessing and some great characters.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
quote:Originally posted by Physic: Incidentally if anyone wants to see it and hasn't I've got every episode in avi format.
What resolution ?
Damn me and my full HD TV, I downloaded avil files I'd normally watch and they're so small and crappy resolution wise I can't :-(
Ace looking show though.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R:
quote:Originally posted by Physic: Incidentally if anyone wants to see it and hasn't I've got every episode in avi format.
What resolution ?
Damn me and my full HD TV, I downloaded avil files I'd normally watch and they're so small and crappy resolution wise I can't :-(
Ace looking show though.
Not sure off the top of my head, they're about 350Mb per 45 minute episode if that tells you anything?
ETA: Just checked and they're all all 128-132Kbps, if that's any good at all to you then drop me a mail and I'll be happy to send you off a package of televisual joy..
[ 24.05.2007, 20:06: Message edited by: Physic ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
28 weeks later is fucking sweet. Way better than I thought it would be. Fast and furious, and spattered with some horrendous set pieces. Shocking and awesome.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Zodiac: really very good. Has the mark of all good films based on a true story - even though you know how it ends, it still ratchets up the tension. Tip: if you want to be a serial killer, do it across police jurisdictions, and in the 1960s, before fax machines and DNA sampling.
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
Whilst bored and stuck in the departures lounge of Gatwick airport I invested in a few DVD's/Blu-Ray discs, and then proceeded to watch all of them when I got home.
Syriana, Written by Steven Gaghan follows the same format as Traffic and is one of those films you have to pay a lot of attention to, with a montage of storylines which all apparently come to a conclusion at the end. Looks good but I need to watch it again paying total attention to it.
The Last King of Scotland is a brilliant portayal of the ogre Idi Amin, superbly played by Forest Whitaker - you really start of liking him, but only later does his paranoia give way to what an eveil bastard he was. Whilst a fictional account it is based on a lot of true facts and gives a solid idea of what this period of Ugandan history was like.
Paul Verhoeven's Zwartboek (Black Book) I'd wanted to see for a while, but picked it up in the UK as my Dutch and German skills may have made me misunderstand a lot of the complex but compelling plot - A young Jewish singer (played brilliantly by Carice van Houten) is embroiled in the Dutch Underground after witnessing the murder of her family, and she becomes torn between her loyalties and a complex affair with a sympathetic German officer. Incredible film that shows the nastier side of some peoples drive during occupation. You can see a lot of similarities between this and Soldaat van Oranje(Soldier of Orange) - Verhoeven's 1977 film about the Dutch Capitulation, but that's to be expected - apparently this film was 20 years in the making, but definately worth the wait.
Saints and Soldiers was the wildcard - never heard of it but a lot of awards and what looked like something I would enjoy sadly was a bit of a dissapointment. A low budget film about 4 US GI's and an English Airman escaping after the Malmedy massacre and their subsequent race to get information from the chance meeting with the pilot to their own lines should have been great, and with the amount of awards I was hoping it would be. However a thin, and sometime implausible plot, added with another Hollywood actor camping up a poor British accent, and the soundtrack stolen from the Medal of Honour Computer game, added with and underlying Mormon preaching of how bad people are just made it a poor film. If you want to see a proper film along these lines, watch To end all wars instead - far more powerful film.
Still was nice to sit and watch a few new films, even if one was dissapointing, but certainly Zwartboek and The Last King of Scotland were excellent, and I shall not leave Syriana on the shelf, as it is surely worth a second gander.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
over the weekend i watched:
The Good Shepherd Casino Royale Syriana The Last King of Scotland Babel Blood Diamonds
(in order of excellence)
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
We watched Look Both Ways, which was great, a very nice Aussie take on life and death and all that stuff in between, such as testicular cancer.
Also watched Sunshine , with Ralph Fiennes doing three generations of a Hungarian family. Very well intentioned, but ultimately a bit empty.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
The *trailer for the new CG Star Wars : Clone Wars series. Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
i spent most of my weekend reading the mists of avalon by marion zimmer bradley. i kind of did this on the orders of My Wife, The Ninja, after our weekend camping in glastonbury where i think she got a bit tired of me asking questions like 'so it wasnt king arthur who burnt the cakes then' and 'is the grail and the chalice the same thing i dont understand' etc. as i have always been entirely antipathetic towards books of the fantasy/ mythic genre and almost relentlessly unpleasant about the kind of frizzy- haired, gadzooksy bumwizards who read them, i wasnt really sure what i would think of the mists of avalon- but i was ready to give it the old college try at the behest of my lovely wife. imagine my surprise then that i should have loved every minute of it, finding myself utterly absorbed from the word go. i loved it! i couldnt put it down! i was transported entirely into another world. my favourite things about the mists of avalon: 1) the fact that i didnt realise that 'merlin' is actually just the title given to the chief priest- y/ wizard- y/ type bloke, and that merlin's real name is actually kevin, b) the fact that many of the characters in this epic tale of britain's golden age of chivalry have names which are now more suited to middle aged, middle english middle managers- names like kevin, gareth, elaine c) literally every time guinevere opened her mouth thinking 'oh shut up, you wanker'. i never would have imagined that guinevere was as much of a wanker as she is portrayed as being in this book. shes unbearably wanky. she does at least have the grace to admit that she enjoys the drunken two's- up with arthur and lancelot, but its only a fleeting thing. most of the time shes wanking on about god and sin and sorcery and chastity and youre like, oh SHUT UP you WANKER d) the fact that guinevere has a drunken twos- up with lancelot and arthur. you cant have a 1000 page historical epic without a liberal dash of the kind of very soft porn that forms the bedrock of the sexual fantasy life of vaguely alienated and socially dysfunctional teenage wiccans everywhere and crikey the mists of avalon does not disappoint- theres incest, lesbainism, and guinevere gets raped in a deserted castle by a big lunk (throughout which you are trying not to think 'good, serves you right', because she is such a wanker). its just generally ace, and im very glad i read it, albeit glad that i read it now and not seventeen years ago, because over the intervening period i am sure i have saved myself a lot of money on incense and books about the goddess and crushed velvet skirts with little mirrors on.
i watched: grizzly man and gangs of new york, both for the third time, both of which im hella glad i saw on the big screen. (are there really people who dont watch films in the cinema any more? what fresh fuckery is this i ask of you.) i know there are a lot of things wrong with gangs of new york- john c. reilly's accent, cameron diaz's... well, cameron diaz, the sort of draggy bit with the elections, the u2 theme tune- but the more i watch it the higher it moves up my favourite films of the last say oh ten years or so list. i really like the way the nasty graphic violence is sort of tempered by more cartoon-y violence. but basically my favourite thing about gangs of new york is the REALLY TALL HATS. i love those hats. and when bill the butcher first appears on the screen, and you think 'wow, thats a really tall hat, a man in a hat like that is gonna fuck your shit up no question', and then he takes off the really tall hat and hes wearing a leather skullcap and youre thinking 'run away! run away! hes going to dead you all until you are quite simply dead, because under the really tall hat is a leather skullcap ohhhh mummy!'... thats pretty much my favourite moment in cinema this decade, bar none that i can think of.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
There are some really powerful examples of facial hair in GoNY too.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: (are there really people who dont watch films in the cinema any more? what fresh fuckery is this i ask of you.)
No it's OK, you see because if you hold your iPod video really close to your face it's exactly the same.
I really like Gangs of New York, too. It's crazy and a bit unhinged, and gutsy and unusual.
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
I might have to dig GoNY out and watch that tonight - I bought the DVD and watched it the once some time ago, but might be nice to get re-aquainted with it. I just recall lots of dodgy fighting and dodgier Irish accents.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
oh yes. its generally a film packed to the gills with looks that men would be well- advised to think about adapting for the modern world of today. i wish we lived in a world where it was commonplace for a man to wear a handlebar moustache, huge buggergrips, a paisley weskit and terrifying high- waisted yellow and purple britches.... all accessorised by a cudgel of some sort and maybe some facial scarring. also, im very fond of the bit where theyre all lying around getting wasted on brew and opium and all the women are walking around in their bloomers, and their corsets, but with their tits hanging out. you wouldnt do that if you were sober, would you. theres loads of really dubious fake shagging going on in the background, its great.
[ 29.05.2007, 08:20: Message edited by: dance margarita ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Are you describing Doctor When?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I might go to the cinema if they open one in my town. I'm not going to Basingstoke though. Fuck that.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Are you describing Doctor When?
i suppose the bit up to but not including 'a cudgel and some facial scarring' is doctor when, yes. when you include the cudgel and the scarring, it becomes a description of the bastard offspring of doctor when and lowlevel. oh, the past!
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
I watched Doctor Who (vg.8/10) and United 93 and Spun at the weekend.
U93 was technically dazzling and delivered an unrelenting final hour or so, although it was kind of hard to see any wider 'point' that was being made. There's was a bit where the passengers battered one of the hijackers in the head with a fire extinguisher (kind of Irreversible-lite as fire extinguisher batterings go) which was good while it lasted but, in retrospect, seemed to be a rather cynically-confabulated bit of catharsis in a story which otherwise had very little to offer in that direction.
Spun was appallingly bad - I don't really know why I watched it. Basically it was Requiem for a Dream re-made by Nathan Barley. The best thing about it was Mickey Rourke - which is a pretty pass for any film to get into. Oh, and you got to see Mena Suvari taking a dump... and John Leguizano wanking into a sock.
Basically it's the film a lot of people who shouldn't go anywhere near film-making would make, if they were so permitted.
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
I saw Spun about 4 years ago (mainly because although you only hear 3 seconds of it on repeat, there is a silverginger 5 song in it). I quite enjoyed it on the whole - its not particularly groundbreaking, but fairly original in a lot of the way it was made. I guess its just a fucked-up film about a fucked-up way of life.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
i watched zodiac on sunday. its good. i like the way the film updates the office scenes as smoking fades out and typewriters etc are replaced.
reading: gimme a clue i'm lacking books at the moment.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: Spun was appallingly bad - I don't really know why I watched it. Basically it was Requiem for a Dream re-made by Nathan Barley.
i enjoyed Spun! Britanny Murphy has the best sweet-naughty smile ever and she always looks so cool. I love her.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
well weapon
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by doc d: reading: gimme a clue i'm lacking books at the moment.
The Looming Tower - Lawrence Wright = Best general work so far on the run-up to 9-11. A gripping read and likely to broaden the perspective of most readers.
Assassins' Gate - George Packer = Searing reportage of the non-planning and botched execution of the invasion of Iraq, told with increasing haggardness by someone who started out as reluctantly pro-war.
The Revenge of Gaia - James Lovelock = I used to think the whole Gaia thing was a load of old hippie bollocks but Lovelock, in this book, makes it clear why the metaphor is such a powerful device for looking at such a complex and thoroughly inter-related system... and, indeed, how 'we' have irrevocably fucked it up. Never have I read something that has so necessitated the presence of a bottle of whiskey at one's side while reading.
Field Notes from a Catastrophe - Elizabeth Kolbert = More of the same, but from a hard-nosed journalistic perspective: the author travels from the melting ice-sheet of Greenland to the worse-than-useless bureaucracy of Washington DC and explains in detail how climate change impacted on the consciousness (and through the hard statistical data) of scientists working in a wide variety of fields.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
(are they choose your own adventures?)
seriously, i'll see if my local library stocks them or can get them.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
I watched One Hour Photo for the first time last night (bless you Film4, I'm slowly catching up on years of not seeing anything half decent) and I thought it was amazing to look at. Really sterile, which is a style a few films use to good effect, though I can't really think of any other examples at the moment.
* SPOILERS *
Trouble is, I missed a couple of fairly important scenes due to external distractions. Like I missed the bit where he drops off his own photos of the manager's daughter to the developer.
So, without having read anything about the film before, do I take it that the point is that Robin Williams' character was abused as a child and is upset that the perfect family he's kind of adopted for himself is under threat? And at the end he's just put the frighteners on the cheating father but hasn't actually taken any pictures? Maybe that isn't stated and you're just supposed to work it out (which isn't too difficult), but I think I missed something.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: watched Children of men last night. Apart from the slightly heavy Christian allegory and one awfae 'new age' character, I thought it was well weapon. It's about a future where all women are infertile, the world has gone to shit, yet Britain stoically 'soliders on', with the rounding up, torture, imprisonment and slaughter of foreigns being the pre-occupation of the State. Quite devastating, with one of the best sequences I've seen in recent times near the end, as a refugee camp in Bexhill breaks out into some incredibly realistic and intense warfare. Loads of people getting shot and blown up, with some amazing single takes. The jist of the film is super depressing, and the grim, end-of-days London of 2027 is created in such a way as to grind your nose in the state of the current grim, end-of-days London. I came out wondering if Ringo had a point about how awful the place is! Imagine! There's a good central performance from trusty old Clive Owen, and a nice support from Caine, who isn't quite as grating as usual. The only let down is the mother from Darling Buds of May, but to be fair, her character was pretty shonky to begin with.
Anyway, aside from the misery, there's plenty of wry jokes throughout, although these seem to dry up once we enter the refugee camp. Superb series of images as we enter the camp by coach, and out the window we can see a man standing in a cage, wearing a hood, with wires running into his hands, then a cage full of half naked men... It's a perfectly handled 'future as now' world throughout, and there's loads of little things that point towards the current state of affairs.
I wasn't expecting it to be quite as tense or as emotional as it was, so I was suprised and pleased. I did need a couple of drinks to recover, and that's got to be a good thing.
SPOILERs I saw Children of Men last night. I was amazed by the single takes particularly the 12 minute sequence where they are in the car and they get ambushed and have to reverse whilst getting attacked on all sides, and then the motorbike comes up and... fuck me at that point I actually said out loud "How are they doing this? This is amazing". Truly incredible film making. Also the most realistic birth sequence I've ever seen on film. Also I loved the painful getaway sequence where they're trying to jump start the car, and the bit with the flip flops. Anyway can't recommend it enough 9/10.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
you should check out 28 weeks later for more "how did they do that" london based apocalypse fun. It's definitely one for the cinema rather than DVD. I needed a drink after that one too. But don't think of the plot so much as the imagery, the symbolism, and the set pieces. As Louise pointed out, it has a newsreel feel to it. If you can let go and watch it as the blood 'n' guns porn that it is, it's proper boner material.
[ 30.05.2007, 05:35: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
The Business, starring Danny Fackin Dyer was on last night. Anybody seen this? Insanely bad.
Posted by Waynster (Member # 56) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: The Business, starring Danny Fackin Dyer was on last night. Anybody seen this? Insanely bad.
Yes I had the misfortune of sitting through that one. I've forgotten most of it, and after only a few months - just that it was him and his co-star from the Football Factory, and it was in Spain in the 80's. Oh and it was pants.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
We've got some BBC series called Outlaws to watch on DVD: is it "good"?
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
dunno. can someone recommend a good "style guide" for writing and such?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Here's a tip damo: Capital letters are considered good form at the beginning of new sentences.
[ 31.05.2007, 06:42: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
that's where i've been going wrong. sneaky edit there by the man like theo.
[ 31.05.2007, 06:43: Message edited by: doc d ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
quote:Originally posted by doc d: dunno. can someone recommend a good "style guide" for writing and such?
The Economist Style Guide is v good, and something of a bible for the pedantic.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
depends what you want. most newspapers do good ones. then there are books by people like keith waterhouse and bill bryson which give good advice about writing proper like.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
the economist you say. right i'll have a look at that.
i'm applying for bottom of the ladder assistant editor jobs in scientific journals. i can do science. english i have problems with.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
was there some kind of terrible lab accident in Nashville that means you can never go near a bunsen burner again? If there was an outbreak in the UK and you were the only person available, and a couple of people come from the army to get your assistance, would you be all like "I was a scientist...once...but now... I'm sorry gentlemen, I can't help you. You'll have to leave..." "but wait - doc - you're our only hope!" "son... I haven't put on a lab coat in fifteen years... Not after that day... That terrible day... No, I'm sorry. I can't help you"
[ 31.05.2007, 07:00: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Also, for what it's worth, if you frequent your local library see what books they have in the reference section; they might have one or two in there to get you started - if only by getting irate at how shit they are and thinking "I could do better than this!" That's always a good place to be.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
jbn: kind of. i ran out of money. realized i wasn't cut out for that lark. didn't like my prospects. did another job in nashville for a bit. it wasn't great. decided to come home. in a nut shell.
mart: will do. i got back from an interview yesterday and i wasn't too impressed with my scores so i thought i should do something to try and improve my abilities.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: "I was a scientist...once...but now... "
Doc D: Dad, I don't think I want to do science any more
Dad: That's nice Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
man, i wish it went like that.
me: dad, i don't want to do science anymore. i want to do something that makes me happy. like have my own business, maybe a record store.
dad: what a waste.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
What about some kind of online record store, or an internet radio station or something, that connects everyone up in a really clever way. That would be good.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
or a van with some usb ports on it so you can download mp3s.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
"Damien's Dash"
[ 31.05.2007, 07:36: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
damian not damien
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
the record store thing is just a dream man. just a dream. meanwhile in the real world i'm contemplating admin as a way of life for the next couple of months....
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
youre right to do so. admin is a way of life.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
its also, almost an anagram of 'damian'. i think i just made that decision for you, huh.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
we've got an admin/production job going at our place. Sadly, the pay is derisory, it's in a dingy basement in Battersea and the carpet hasn't been hoovered since February. Otherwise, dream job. If you know about print production and can use InDesign.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
dont be sad damo. im not sure that my amazing new anagram- based careers advice service is really a goer. after all, admin is also almost an anagram of 'damien', which- as you have emphtically pointed out- is not your name. and 'damien' is not an anagram of 'antichrist'.... you know, just screw that whole idea, its obviously bumwash. anyway why arent you out there farming geeks for me?
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
i'm not farming them, i'm pharming them. get it? get it? eh?? eh?
oh.
eta: natural history museum's dana centre. that's where its at. for hott geeks.
[ 31.05.2007, 10:19: Message edited by: doc d ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: im not sure that my amazing new anagram- based careers advice service is really a goer.
Don't give up, there might be a future for you in Tarmac Drainage, or Armada Catering.
[ 31.05.2007, 10:28: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Saying that, I don't much fancy a future working in Mescaline Fuel Silos...
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I just saw Spider-Man 3 with the Masketeers and I thought it was great. A little overlong, but exciting, coherent and (relatively) honest. The long-term characters are actually developing and the new characters were quite well fleshed out and with motivations that went beyond the standard comic-book-movie fare. It's still quite broadly drawn, obviously, a Spider-Man flick is never going to be The Magnificent Ambersons, but it was nice to see a 'kids'' adventure picture allowing its protagonists some emotional vulnerability and growth. It was a bit cornball, heavy on revenge, sick-kid, loneliness, redemption, the-whole-great-power-great-responsibility schtick, but I think it slid those elements in nicely with some excellent butt-kicking, explosions and mild peril.
I totally bought the Sandman conclusion, he didn't just walk away, he didn't even want to be there. That scene just showed that some people are schmucky and out of luck and have an unfortunate habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I liked the initial Sandman transformation, as well. Struggling with his new powers, falling to bits, trying to maintain his integrity...
I liked it. It was good.
[ 31.05.2007, 12:45: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: If you know about print production and can use InDesign.
Heh, I've learnt a lot about how InDesign doesn't work so if you're ever in a rut, Herbs.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I've somehow become your personal IT assistant in two days. Would anyone like a hand at something not IT related and shit?
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: I totally bought the Sandman conclusion, he didn't just walk away, he didn't even want to be there. That scene just showed that some people are schmucky and out of luck and have an unfortunate habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I liked the initial Sandman transformation, as well. Struggling with his new powers, falling to bits, trying to maintain his integrity...
Yeah I'd agree completely with that, saw it at the weekend and I particularly wanted to see the end bit with Sandman just to see if what Thorn said rang true, because right from the off it seemed clear that he was acting out of desperation, and hated himself for doing what he was doing more than anything.
The only bit that bugged me was the stupid news presenter woman with her bizarrely wavering between British and American accent, along with her complete, utter, cringe inducing inability to convey any kind of emotion whatsoever.
I seem to recall criticism of the 'bad Spidey' schtick too, when it was so blatantly played for laughs I can't see how anyone could really complain. I mean the guy's an utter gimp, just because he turns bad it doesn't change the fact that he's still inherently awkward and nerdy.
A solid 7.5/10 for me.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Last night I watched the BBC Three series Outlaws on DVD, and it is very, very good.
Set within the grubby, ugly world of a magistrate's court and the local nick's custody unit, there's Dunbar, the old-time cynical solicitor who takes on Gulliver, a younger, recently qualified lawyer with principles as they deal with the smackheads, thuggish youths and street whores when they get nicked. The most important thing is not to make sure they have proper legal defence, but to make sure they sign the Legal Aid form so they will get paid. It's a shitty, grimy world, and there is no let-up in the cynical roundabout of arrest, interview, charge, deals with the CPS, pissing off the police, court appearance, sentence. The script is fast and almost incomprehensible in parts, but very, very funny.
Dunbar (consoling a woman crying her eyes out): There, there. Let it all out.
Gulliver: Is she alright?
Dunbar: Just found out her husband's got a five-stretch.
Gulliver: Oh, right. Not taking it well.
Dunbar: She's been crying solidly for... (looks at watch) ...53 minutes. Another eight and I can charge her for two hours.
That sort of thing.
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
You can add me and Pink to the list of people who now love Heroes - we finally got around to downloading it and ended up staying up til 1.30am watching the first 5 episodes last night. I'm already totally addicted and will probably end up watching the whole season by early next week.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
The Hulk is on tonight on ITV2. I plan to watch it to see whether Nathan is correct about it being 'one of the best' superhero films.
Maybe we could 'meet up online' after it finishes to discuss our reactions... say, 23.00 aqui?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
The Hulk, plays with the genres, dropping what seems to be true comic book narrative stylings into cinematic trappings - often leading to jarring editing, and line-crossing to frame shots like panels. However, these curiosos don't hide the fact that the actors are lackluster, the pacing is shoddy and the ending is just plain rotten.
Hulk Smash, grrrrr Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Yeah, best not to start watching Hulk whilst under the misguided impression that you're about to see something good. It's absolute shite. Possibly the worst comic book movie I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot. Long, dull sections where nothing happens, followed by "CGI" which is only slightly advanced from those little dots that bounce along the words of songs on karaoke screens. I could just about scrape together a good word for its stylishness, but that very quickly wears thin.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
In a comic-book stylee, I have split off into two personalities: one is looking forward to the opportunity to tear Thorn a new a-hole for recommending such an obvious heap of blithering toss - the other is thrilled at the prospect that only he and I can see past the surface to the neglected masterpiece that others scorn!
Who will win, wrestlemaniacs? Tune in tonite to find out!!
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
So what did you think, Ben?
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Mmmmmnngh.
Spectacularly frustrating film. Any movie that has both Sam Elliot and Jennifer Connolly in its cast ought, by right, to be one of the greatest films of all time. As it was, they pretty much kept the entire show on the road between them as the rest of the cast dissolved into a bunch of gibbering wrecks in the grip of a script that began with many promising elements but which completely lost any sense of wtf it was supposed to be about someplace about halfway in.
Gah! I mean, it could have been great the melancholy tone was entirely in keeping with the Frankenstein meets King Kong meets Jekyll/Hyde nature of the Hulk myth; the father-son conflict had terrific potential; the comic-panels storytelling was tenderly-observed and effective and at least some of the action sequences were well handled (eg. Hulk smaaash helicopters and tanks in the desert)...
BUT
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
checked out Zodiac at the cinema - a sweet movie. It's captured what I imagine sixties / seventies san francisco to look and feel like, and even though it goes on for some time (2:40), it doesn't sag. Ruffalo is fantastic as a young cop trying to follow the Zodiac trail, Gyllenhaal is okay as a concerned citizen, and Downey Jr is himself, although that slightly unhinged energy works well in his role as a journo on a downwards addiction spiral.
It was better than I thought it would be, although it was sold to me as not really being about the killings, in the same vein as Summer of Sam. Well, it is about the killings - the film is about the cops and the San Francisco Chronicle following complex leads and trying to decipher the clues left by the murderer. There are a few murder scenes, but it's really a story of the impact of the mystery on people's lives. Obsession, addiction, personal sacrifice, blah blah blah. It's not totally stereotypical, but I'm sure that Fincher enjoyed working with themes he's already proven himself with. The whodunnit aspect is kind of redundant considering it's based on a true story, but the water is frequently mudied in order to reflect the lack of clear investigative direction.
Overall, the important thing is that it's kind of light. There's humour throughout, and it's not hugely tense. It's not like Se7en, for example. It's more of a ride through the era, which looks as good and real as it could.
[ 04.06.2007, 05:15: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I watched The Alien Versus The Predator at the weekend. It was bloody brilliant! There was this one bit, right, where the predator sliced the alien's head in half with his blade! And loads of mad fucker aliens jumping about the place. And the "queen" alien was totally MASSIVE! And the predator maked his kill on his head with aliend blood (which is like acid, remember) And at the end SPOILER WARNNING[b] the dead predator (deadator, lol) on the space ship has a (wait for it) fucking.alien.predator.crossbreed.baby inside it, so I reckon there might be a sequel...
YES! I just looked up on IMDB and it's gonna be january next yr! Only seven months and I'm definitely going to see that in the cinerma!
[b]AVP2: Predalien FTW W00T!!! Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
I saw Zodiac yesterday too, and thought it was stylish and involving. I genuinely didn't know it was an uresolved case though, so felt a bit cheated by the ending.
A "grown up" film that ben might enjoy was Jindabyne- slow burning Australian drama about the impact of a murder in a small community. Gabriel Byrne didn't even bother with an Aussie accent, but was very good. I don't know why the Australian government doesn't just arrest all single, middle aged white males who live outside of cities, as they are clearly all rabid mentalists dreaming of their next backpacker/hitchiker killing.
My DVD player has broken Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Apparently the world is going to end in 2012. Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Oh misc
it's okay - it's only the end of this stage of humanity and life as we know it - after December 12th 2012, the human race will evolve into a wonderful new era of love and understanding...
or everything goes to shit. it's fifty fifty really.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Oh at least it's not until December, so London will get to do the Olympics.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Top ten books that best define the 20th century (in order of publication) according to a *poll.
quote:Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
Put them in rank order, suggest your own top ten or just have a bit of a rant. Bring cakes.
Hang on... Bridget Jones's Diary
zeitgeisty
[ 05.06.2007, 06:04: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
I've read two of those, and I'd be much happier if modern life was "Hellerian" than "Orwellian". In Catch-22, life is completely ridiculous and frustrating, but there's plenty of characters ready and willing to stand up to it and rip it all to bits anyway. Nineteen Eighty-Four is just pure, hopeless bleakness and it's incredible that it's actually been taken as almost an inevitable prophesy of the real future. It's like, "Ah, yes, that was in 1984... I've been expecting that to happen. *sigh* Never mind, eh."
"GIMME EAT" should be the response on everyone's lips the minute some twat starts laying down new rules and regulations, not "Oh, it's Big Brother look. Awright Big Brother?"
I don't want to read any of the others because they're probably even more depressing.
(I think I read The Grapes Of Wrath once, but it doesn't fit in with my comments, so fuck it.)
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Brave New World is definitely worth a read, Dang.
quote:Originally posted by dang65: (I think I read The Grapes Of Wrath once, but it doesn't fit in with my comments, so fuck it.)
Time for a haemmorrhoid gag?
[ 05.06.2007, 06:37: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: Time for a haemmorrhoid gag?
It's always time for a haemmorrhoid gag, especially as everyone else seems to have gone out somewhere for the day.
Is Brave New World good for a laugh then? We've got a copy at home but it has this kind of depressing aura about it similar to Marvin the Paranoid Android so I've never picked it up.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Very boring
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
Whatever
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
It's alright
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
S'okay
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Prefer East of Eden
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
I like this one
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Oh boo hoo - it's rubbish.
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Fuck off you stupid disaffected yoof, he isn't you.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Yeah, this one's good
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
Fuck right off
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
There you go, ladies. In order to cut it as a twentieth-century great you have to either, a. get murdered by the Nazis or b. be a caricature of shallow materialist ditz.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
The Diary of Anne Frank isn't a "real" book, if you know what I mean, so it doesn't count to my mind.
If the list is specifically "define the 20th Century", then there should be at least one movie tie-in novel, plus a Jeffery Archer, as a reminder that most people in the last century either couldn't read or didn't deserve to be able to.
P.S. Only a godless savage would find Heart of Darkness boring. It's only about 90 pages long ffs.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
God is dead, Veep. Don't you know anything...
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Heart of Darkness is great but I'd go for The Secret Agent, a novel that casts a gimlet eye over the potential political upheavals of a scary century pregnant with change.
All Quiet On The Western Front, anyone?
Bulldog Drummond by Sapper is an interesting thumbnail of the bullet-headed spawn of a brutal and ignorant Empire sniffing its imminent demise.
The Bond novels, of course, should be in there somewhere.
Um, Burroughs' Junky or Algren's Man With the Golden Arm, Puzo's The Godfather or Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run, or towards the end, you should have Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail as a diagnosis of a very sick superpower.
Um...
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Luigi Barzini's The Europeans.
Alan Moore's From Hell entertainingly describes the traumatic birth of the Twentieth Century.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
our man in havana
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I suppose Marx's Capital should be in there, if anyone could be fucked to read it.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
The list of defining books of the 20th century is probably very, very large. We could go on all day, tossing names into the hat like grains of sand into the gritty cauldron of "20th century literature soup", or somesuch other ludicrous analogy.
To get a top ten out of it is ridiculous. Although you could do that google wars thing maybe to get an idea of perceived importance, which although differs from actual legacy, is probably more valid. If. Or. Maybe actually perceived importance is the most useful thing though. It's not like anybody actually reads books.
[ 05.06.2007, 08:55: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: All Quiet On The Western Front, anyone?
Not a very witty remark.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts:
To get a top ten out of it is ridiculous.
You're right.
Top thousand?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: Not a very witty remark.
Remarque, shurely?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
*Punches self in pipe Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
*punches Zygote in the testicles Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
*punches Primo Levi in the pyjamas Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
*punches Nelson Mandela in the freedom
[ 05.06.2007, 09:06: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
*Punches Hemingway in the corrida Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
*punches Zygote in the testicles Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
*punches Zygote in the testicles
[ 05.06.2007, 09:12: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
good lad.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
*punches Jimmy in the Big Nuts Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
I only got round to reading Heart of Darkness a couple of years ago. Suddenly, the point of Apocalypse Now became much more clear.
I didn't even make it past the first twenty pages of Catcher in the Rye, I have an inbuilt Wiganners loathing of Orwell, the rest of 'em are alright, apart from Catch 22, what rocked.
I also second Benny's Steinbeck preference. And why no American Psycho?
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine is the only book you need to grasp that bullshit century.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad i liked it. i did the right on thing by reading things fall apart after.
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell not read it.
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald is ok.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley loved it. when i was 18ish. haven't read it in a while. liked bumblepuppy.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck its not of mice and men.
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell oh no. rats. really liked this. especially the ever shifting alliances of the countries at war.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank where's the sex gone?
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger crumby.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller how much do these eggs cost? loved it. so much i bought closing time.
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding v v poor.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine is the only book you need to grasp that bullshit century.
Hmmm...
Just the one book?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: Spider-Man 3...coherent
Man, I totally should have added this to yesterday's lol-list.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak:
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: Spider-Man 3...coherent
Man, I totally should have added this to yesterday's lol-list.
What, did you have trouble understanding Spider-Man 3?
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Just for the StevieX of it...:
co·her·ent (k-hîrnt, -hr-) adj. 1. Sticking together; cohering. 2. Marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts: a coherent essay. 3. Physics Of, relating to, or having waves with similar direction, amplitude, and phase that are capable of exhibiting interference. 4. Of or relating to a system of units of measurement in which a small number of basic units are defined from which all others in the system are derived by multiplication or division only. 5. Botany Sticking to but not fused with a part or an organ of the same kind.
com·pre·hen·si·ble (kmpr-hns-bl) adj. Readily comprehended or understood; intelligible.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: What, did you have trouble understanding Spider-Man 3?
Yeah. There was quite a lot that didn't make any sense. Perhaps you can furnish me with explanations of the following...
Spider-Man 3 spoilers, for anyone who cares...
Stuff like: Harry's butler suddenly coming clean with the way his father died. "Oh yeah, did I mention that your dad died because he skewered himself on his glider? And that the vendetta you've been pursuing against Spider-Man is incorrect. I actually don't know why I didn't bring it up before, actually, and neither does the screenwriter. Or why I'm suddenly a forensics expert, cleaning the wounds of a dead body." And anyway, he already knows his dad was the Goblin and was evil, so why does the precise manner of his death matter to Harry?
Also Harry's suddenly able to not only understand his dad's inventions, but actually improve on them, despite needing help wiht his frickin science GCSE homework in the first movie.
And while we're on the New Goblin, why do they make a big point of showing that his fell-down-building scar is healing super-fast, and then later show him with his manky face scar from his duel with Peter? Why doesn't that heal? And why do his performance enhancers allow him to catch falling objects and battle Spider-Man, but he can't flip a pancake? Why is he even cooking when he asked the butler to get the food? Maybe the butler had another autopsy to perform. Why does the loss of his short term memory mean that he can't remember his father's death, which happened years ago?
Other things... Peter sitting maskless but otherwise costumed in front of a crowd of baying photographers who are on the lookout for Spider-Man? How the hell did they all miss that? And why on earth did he think he would get away with snogging Gwen when he knew his girlfriend was watching? And why does Spider-Man, when he goes to rescue MJ at the end forget that Sandman is incapacitated by water? Why is the symbiote easy to take off except for that one occasion when he takes it off in the church? Why does he even go to the church to take it off, rather than his apartment? What was he planning to wear home?
Things like, the super lazy scientists doing the sand experiment: "Oh it's probably just a bird flew into the pit. It'll probably fly away." WTF? Isn't an experiment supposed to be sort of controlled? And his clumsy retcon into the Uncle Ben murder is completely incoherent - how come none of the witnesses standing round Ben in film one ever mentioned that there were two crooks?
There's other just plain bizarre stuff like MJ dumping Peter on the bridge. Why doesn't she tell Pete that Harry is making her do it? She knows Peter is Spider-Man, after all - at that point there's no reason for her to go along with Harry's plan.
The movie's just chock full of WTF? moments that destroy it's internal logic. I'm sure some people might find plenty to enjoy in its spectacle and occasional moments of inspiration but to list 'coherence' as one of its virtues is laughable.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Now, you're just nitpicking.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Zodiac is beautiful - Mark Ruffalo is excellent - Sopranos is awsome - I have Deadwood and the Wire and Prison Break lined up, but they will not replace Tony easily...
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
You should watch Outlaws.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
My mate and I went to see Pirates last night. What a drag. We couldn't believe how long it took to end. When you spend the money, though, you're reluctant to leave. Most depressing was the way it set up the next sequel.
Week before last we saw This is England. Good, solid film, really enjoyed it. We are going to see Zodiac next week and its encouraging that it is getting good reviews from you guys.
As to reading I made an earnest effort to like Martin Amis' fiction again after reading a recent thread here. Maybe it was a mistake to select the novel solely on the grounds it was cheap in local PDSA charity shop but 'Other People' is not a book I intend to finish even though I have only thirty pages to go. I thought Thomas Hardy was depressing, but at least he managed some variety of tone. Dire.
Tenderness of Wolves was good though. I've just started Gormeghast and it looks an endearing idea but I am not sure I will make it to the end. Im too tired to cope with serious writing at the moment. Who's read it? Will the story pick up or is mostly heavy description all the way through? Should I persevere or not?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
hey! It's sam! Look!
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Look! Up there!
*points*
Sam! Oh you've missed her now. No, she was just there, just behind me. I was pointing at her! No, she's gone now. She's gone, she went off. Yeah. Yeah I saw her, she looked kind of different.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Yo jimmy. alright?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah alright, sam. Feel a bit skanky because I couldn't get any hot water / shower this morning. Bit tired, need a shave, but I'm functioning. How are you. Alright yeah?
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I'm alright. Tired still. Mum is back in hospital which is why Im around now. I came back early from visiting her.
Good news about your own place. Who needs a soul until you're old enough to fear Lucifer, but a house can be a handy thing.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah, we'll see. Sounds like things are tough for you at the moment.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Yes, well. You get on with it I guess. I appreciate the thought.
What's your place like?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
it's empty! There's pictures of it on my flickr if you're interested. Now we're frantically buying things to put in it. I want a holiday.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Those pictures are great - I wish I had your life, Benway.
Also: could it be that a replica gun is *the* best photo prop imaginable? Having a gun to brandish really seems to dissolve people's inhibitions - a chilling glimpse, perhaps of how British society would fare things went all City of God.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I couldn't put the damn thing down.
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
it's strange how benway is all grown up now. he just spurned drinks with me in favour of "house stuff". good for him i say!
i imagine ben's flickr is all pics of wrestling wild boars and drinking bitter in country pubs
[ 07.06.2007, 12:43: Message edited by: vikram ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: it's empty! There's pictures of it on my flickr if you're interested. Now we're frantically buying things to put in it. I want a holiday.
I like it. It's got a good, clean look to it with the pale wood floors and stuff, and the white bathroom. Don't clutter it up with stuff and the torture of filling it up'll soon be over. Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Aw vikram, why did you take your 'hello' off?
Hello back at you.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: it's empty! There's pictures of it on my flickr if you're interested. Now we're frantically buying things to put in it. I want a holiday.
Nice pictures, but I don't understand why you have to buy things to put in it. You've changed man...you're one of them now.
eta: Hey sam! Good to see you again!
[ 07.06.2007, 12:58: Message edited by: ralph ]
Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: Aw vikram, why did you take your 'hello' off?
it was more my asking how your hair was
hulooooo!
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Yo ralph.
I feel like I'm being dead mean to myself for posting today though. It's started something I'm enjoying and then I won't be able to post again for awhile and I'll have given myself the aggravation of missing it.
I couldn't resist today. I read it late at night too and it makes me smile. Or sometimes snigger.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by vikram:
quote:Originally posted by sam: Aw vikram, why did you take your 'hello' off?
it was more my asking how your hair was
hulooooo!
My hair is cute. Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: My hair is cute.
Well of course you would say that. Posted by vikram (Member # 98) on :
i'm sure it is
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph:
quote:Originally posted by sam: My hair is cute.
Well of course you would say that.
ralph man, if you could see what I see in the mirror.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: ralph man, if you could see what I see in the mirror.
What? I'd think I was a woman with cute hair? Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: I couldn't put the damn thing down.
I know that feeling. My friend's got two air pistols and every time I go over there I more or less spend the whole time with the things in my hands. Just absently feeling the weight, the solid feeling in my hand (no, not cock, stop it). Occasionally lining something up along the barrel. Guns are awesome.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by ralph:
quote:Originally posted by sam: ralph man, if you could see what I see in the mirror.
What? I'd think I was a woman with cute hair?
LOL
But you have cute facial hair.
That must be weird. I will have to wait until I am quite old before I can do that.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I read it late at night too and it makes me smile. Or sometimes snigger.
Sam, please report to the Diary Room.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
I remember The Stuff! You'll never look another marshmallow in the eye.
awesome!
quote: The company has removed all references to frozen yogurt from its marketing materials, and its Web site describes the product as "chilly bliss, honest food and dessert reinvented." The site also posts a message to consumers: "As some of you are aware, claims have been made recently about the nature of our products. ...We are, of course, investigating these claims and look forward to being able to demonstrate the quality of our product."
you know, I'm really getting bored of the lazy 'crack' prefixing in describing something. Crackberry - shut up.
And facebook - it's not as addictive as crack, you fucking morons, it's a website.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I finished watching Ghost in the Shell SAC: 2nd GIG last night. Remember when I used to bang on about GiTS all the time? Great days. Anyway, I watched nearly the whole thing up to this point in one sitting late last year, and then got distracted and never finished. But last night I found the whole thing - both series - streaming in flash from that tv-links website, so I watched the final 3 episodes from the 25 episode series. Pretty sweet. Gripping and complex, with a much less overtly philosophical ending than the first series, which may or may not be a good thing. Personally I found the end of the first one a little confusing which I suppose lead to it being anticlimactic, but the second series ends with a nuclear standoff, machines gaining sentience, and a debate about the nature of socialist / individualist politics in the face of a hyperconnected world. It feels more of a statement about the actual world and events of now than the first one did, which dealt in more more abstract metaphors.
I know that cyberpunk is officially shit and uncool after the Matrix drove it into the ground, and now we're all on facebook the net doesn't seem quite so scary or complicated, but still, GiTS has got me combing amazon for cheap Baudrillard again. It's refreshing to feel inspired by a TV show, even if it's probably intelligence flattery rather than actual stimulation. Benway says check it out. And there's the film of the series coming out in a month or so (although I don't doubt that it's available on torrent). If you found the first couple of films heavy, this new one might be more enjoyable as the series has generally felt more accesible and exciting than the original vision. I get the first film, but the second one, while pretty, made no sense to me at all.
[ 19.06.2007, 07:07: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I've nearly finished watching Season 3 of The Wire, which is a show that's keeps climbing in my estimations. It's so tense, and smart and thoughtful - the comments about it ruining everything else on TV are pretty well founded. I was thinking last night that it's exactly the nkind of thing Jimmy Big Nuts would get a kick out of, with it's strong characters and considered social analysis coupled with believable portrayals of inner city gangster life. I think he should watch it and post his thoughts.
I'm also reading The Prince by Machiavelli, which seems quite useful if you ever plan on taking over a principality and need some advice on how to subdue the populace (killing anyone who might pose a threat is a common solution).
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Good old The Prince by Machiavelli. What next - Sun Tsu's Art of War? I'm still reading 20,000 streets under the sky. As herbs said, it's pretty depressing stuff, but I like how deep Hamilton is willing to go in attempting to expose and purge hmself. It's pretty funny as a result of an almost standup style of observation, and then crushingly miserable when you remember that it's all going horribly wrong.
Maybe I should watch The Wire seeing as everybody is banging on about it. Is it better than CSI: Miami?
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
as good as, at least... Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
alright I've got The Wire. This is a big step for me: I don't do TV dramas.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I have to say, I'm really curious as to what you make of it because while I've been watching it, I keep finding things that I think would appeal to you, from the way the story springs from the characters, to the careful analysis of the systems that trap and destroy individuals to the meticulous manner in which it picks apart the urban malaise. The first series is probably the most conventional, with a lot of the drama arising from the cops vs crooks stuff, but even there it steers clear of the usual cliches and instead manages to excite the viewer the ins and outs of police grunt work. By the time the second series is under way it's really thrown off the cop-show shackles and ends up having more in common with something like Bleak House - a story that seeks to encompass every tier of its society and picking it apart with tremendous insight. It's really special. Plus - quite a few shots of tits.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Actually, now I think on it, the best tits don't crop up until about half way through the second season - sported by Nicky Sobotka's girlfriend, so it's worth perservering with the show.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
I saw Hostel 2 at the weekend, not a bad film in a deeply sick and twisted way. It gives you a bit more back-story to the whole torture/murder club than the first one, basically showing the setup from the side of the 'punter' as much as it does the prey. Some nice dark humour in places as well, similar to the first one.
Any man who can sit through the end stages without wincing and going 'jeeeesus..' is doing better than either me or any of the other fellas who were there..
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
Reading:
Recently read two John Saul books, Brainchild and Second Child. Both really enjoyable, but Second Child is winner due to the scene where a little servant boy is hacked to death and buried in a pottingshed. First books I've read by John Saul and they were both well-written, fast-flowing and - in the case of Second Child - pretty gruesome in parts.
Not half as gruesome as some of the Guy N. Smith stuff that I've recently read, mind. Classic pulp horror. The Master was pretty good, the storyline taking place in a wealthy boarding school in the Highlands where the Headmaster is a satan-worshipping, virgin-obsessed tyrant. Locusts and Cannibals were far more straight forward affairs, but, nonetheless, offer nice, brief bursts of bloody entertainment. Interesting Fact: Guy N. Smith was last year's "Pipe Smoker of the Year".
Currently reading The Godfather which I bought for 50p from a charity shop. One of my favourite films, so it was inevitable that one day I would finally get hold of the book. Also started Heavier Than Heaven, the biography of Kurt Cobain, by Charles R. Cross.
Watching:
Finally saw Hostel last week, which was 'OK'... Will be watching Napalm Death next Saturday, which should prove to be a far more fulfilling affair.
[ 04.07.2007, 10:08: Message edited by: Zygote ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
reading Lovecraft again. I love the way he writes - everything is hateful, loathsome and unspeakable, which after a while does seem to work in terms of loosening the imagination. I guess it's a bit geeky to be reading about Ghasts and Ghouls and Zoogs, but you know. Only for a week or so.
Recently saw Coffee and Cigarettes for the first time. Patchy - felt a bit like a an acting jamboree in places, but the one with RZA, the GZA and Bill Murray was fucking fantastic. I wish I could have that entire sequence as my screensaver. And here it is!. If you have 8 minutes to spare, it's well worth a look.
Listening to: Cappadonna's reviled "Yin and the Yang" album, Battles' new one (anybody else got this? Like it?) and Bruce Springsteen. Yeah Bruce Springsteen.
The next DVD I'm getting is "Video Digital Essentials". I'm going to callibrate my TV isn't it. Get a better picture isn't it.
Saw The Host the other day. Alright, but a bit hard to place. Not really funny, scary, moving or interesting. Seems overhyped.
[ 04.07.2007, 07:47: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
x
[ 04.07.2007, 10:07: Message edited by: Zygote ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Reading - Any Human Heart by William Boyd - it's great so far, the kind of book that has enough little moments in it that you can think of about a hundred people that will enjoy it so feel like recommending it to everyone. Sadly makes me wish that I was either attending Oxford in the 20's or that I was living in Paris, eating bread and cheese and drinking wine.
Watching - Die Hard 4.0 - prep work was slow yesterday, so I sloped off to the pictures and watched Bruce Willis yippee-kiya his way through a stupid but fun story, fighting one of the cowboys off Deadwood - some good stunts, but some CG-stupidity, which looked worse because of a Bourne Ultimatum trailer which ran before. Also, how long before Hollywood gets over it's freerunning french jumping thing fixation? Double also...er...nope, damn, I got distracted and forgot.
[ 05.07.2007, 02:56: Message edited by: Benny the Ball ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Last night I rented Severance. Pretty ok actually, in a silly sort of way. Some good amputation. Some virtually naked Eastern European chicks. All in all, an enjoyable, in unchallenging film.
I've been trying to read my way through Greene's Art of Seduction but frankly, it's boring, badly written, and generally not very good.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I've just started reading the new Christopher Brookmyre, but I'm only about 10 pages in so far.
I was seduced by a 'signed by the author' stickered hardback (actually, to call it seduction is inappropriate, I'd have bought the hardback anyway). I've never been to a signing but seem to have randomly acquired a few such signed books over the years.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
Is it any good? (maybe answer this a bit after the 10 page mark) ...I thought they were getting a bit weaker of late...
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I'm currently reading Iron Council by China Mieville, and it's DULL AS SHIT. The first two books, I really enjoyed, but this is lame as fuck.
Books are pretty shit at the best of times, but this one's a load of weary crap. Seems like I've been reading it my whole life. Very disappointing. The only thing keeping me going is that I'm planning to read Monte Cassino by Sven Hassel when I'm done, as a kind of reward.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I'll let you know when I'm further progressed with it.
From his more recent stuff, I liked All Fun And Games..., but not so keen on the most recent "Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil" one. I think my favourite (apart from the early Parlabane ones which are what hooked me in) were A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away and One Fine Day in The Middle Of the Night.
Have you read Douglas Lindsay? Similar dark comedic stuff - very funny.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Saw Bourne Unltimatum yesterday and loved it. Maybe it is time to stop making them now because there were one or two moments when the coincidences were too intrusive, and it wouldn't have worked as a stand-alone film; but it was good enough to keep me enthralled virtually all the way through and normally only books do that for me. The film that has most engaged me this year. Mr Sam and I are great fans of the first two though, so maybe we are biased.
I have also started reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History. I failed to engage with her The Little Friend, but if The Secret History lives up to its early expectations, I may revisit the Friend one. It's seriously good prose and the characters are intriguingly weird. I like weird. I am also intrigued by the suggestion it will explore morality. We'll see if she can sustain the early promise.
I read the last Harry Potter too whilst I was away. I always feel silly reading those books and I don't get so lost in the world as some adults claim to. My mother of all people really gets lost in it. How wrong is that? Your own mother? She likes fat, juicy historical novels for pity's sake. I enjoyed it well enough though. If I had been a kid I think I would have loved it totally but as it is I prefer the films.
Posted by Harlequin (Member # 454) on :
I have been watching Life on Mars on Youtube and as someone who can actually remember the year 1973 I was six going on seven in that year, I found it great entertainment. Thanks a lot youtube! Now I can watch television programmes without having a television. Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Sam - I saw Bourne Ultimatum on Sunday too! It was good, though as I could follow the plot, it didn't feel quite complicated enough. after thrillers I usually like to vex R to the point of murder with questions afterwards. 'Why did he do that'? 'Who was the man in the suit?', etc.
I found the use of hand-held cameras for the chase sequences, while enhancing the sense of speed, danger and chaos, made me want to hurl. I had to shut my eyes to give my overheating optic nerve a break.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: Sam - I saw Bourne Ultimatum on Sunday too! It was good, though as I could follow the plot, it didn't feel quite complicated enough. after thrillers I usually like to vex R to the point of murder with questions afterwards. 'Why did he do that'? 'Who was the man in the suit?', etc.
I found the use of hand-held cameras for the chase sequences, while enhancing the sense of speed, danger and chaos, made me want to hurl. I had to shut my eyes to give my overheating optic nerve a break.
I had a similar reaction to the lack of complexity, but it was tying up lose ends for me so I forgave it. I got on fairly OK with the handheld camera thing once I took my bi-focals off so I didn't feel too giddy. Bi-focals are useless in a cinema. I would love to say more but I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't seen the film. It was good stuff though.
I do think they must not make another. This last one was as stretched as it could get and still remain entertaining and worthy to be part of the series. I want Matt Damon to do a sensitive part in his next film now, so we don't lose sight of that side of him. Too many action-man parts, no matter how cool, and these have been cool, will spoil a decent, rather sexy actor like him and I am running out of men to drool over on the big screen.
[ 28.08.2007, 10:41: Message edited by: sam ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Harlequin: I have been watching Life on Mars on Youtube and as someone who can actually remember the year 1973 I was six going on seven in that year, I found it great entertainment. Thanks a lot youtube! Now I can watch television programmes without having a television.
Life on Mars is a great series, Harley. They are going to do a similar series set in the 1980s I think and that should be pretty good too and perhaps get the memories going even better.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I watched a film called Cat O'Nine Tails the other day, and I enjoyed it a lot. It was good. Early Dario Argento. Everybody looks very fashionable. A good "falling down lift shaft" scene. Also watched Bring me the head of alfredo garcia, which was good as well. Sweaty.
Tonight I am going to see Eagle Vs Shark, which I've heard is good. I would also like to see Knocked Up.
I have Midnight Cowboy at home, but even though I know it will be good, it's not leaping into the DVD player.
I recently read a book called 100 bullets, and I thought it was good.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Me'n'Gree watched Atonement last night at a special preview in Bradford, neither of us having read the book. I was gripped the whole way through - the build-up to the main thing that happens was very well done, with the different perspectives taken into account. The music was also very effective - there's a scene in a hospital where it all starts kicking off with wounded soldiers coming in, and the young trainee nurses are suddenly enveloped in crazy gory madness, and the music really rammed home how they must have felt - totally swamped by events going on around them.
The scene on Dunkirk beach was incredible - one of those uncut shots that just goes on and on, along the beach as crazy stuff happens, round a bandstand, into a bar, back out of the bar, up to the buildings... it lasts about three or four minutes without a cut and is very, very impressive. AND it was shot on Redcar beach, where entirely by coincidence Sunny and I had been only the day before.
It's not a perfect film - Keira Knightley grates a fair bit, and James McAvoy, while very good, looks almost exactly like David Cameron, which is rather unnerving. The supporting cast was very good. Other not-perfect bits revolve, no doubt, around trying to get all the bits in the book stuffed in there, but it was still a very enjoyable cinematic experience.
Mind you, it had been months since I'd gone to the pictures, so that might have had something to do with it. And it was free.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: I have Midnight Cowboy at home, but even though I know it will be good, it's not leaping into the DVD player.
Midnight Cowboy really freaked me out when my head was totally done in and I haven't watched it again. I expect you'll like it Benway.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
What is it that makes Keira Knightly so exceptionally irritating? Is it the way she juts her chin?
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I think it's the fact she's massively successful with only limited talent.
[ 29.08.2007, 09:24: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
I think you're onto something there herbs, It's like she's asking for it to be punched. I wondered why I was always irrationally drawn to inflict violence upon her.
Other people who are asking for it... Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
It's her gritted feral teeth and inability to actually, you know, act, that annoys me. The only thing I've seen her in that didn't make me want to eviscerate her was The Jacket, and maybe I was distracted from her by the general weirdness/claustrophobia pervading that film.
I watched ten episodes of Lost yesterday from my sick-bed (aka 'sofa') whilst at home and feeling sorry for myself - episodes saved to my Sky+ between August and December last year from the end of season 2 and beginning of season 3.
I'm hooked, all over again - only 15 more episodes to go until I'm caught up, I think. If I then watch/skim/whatever the approximately 20 hours of Glastonbury coverage that have been there for two months, I can get back to a respectable %age available on the Personal Planner.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Affix to punchbag.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Hippy, I'm into Lost too, I've watched all series 1 and 2 on dvd boxsets and I've started recording series 3 on sky+. The only this that worries me is that apparently they've done a 4th series which is kind of frustrating.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: Affix to punchbag.
I wouldn't know whether to hit her or hump her. It's sending out conflicting signals to some part of my brain.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Why don't you compromise and do both?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
That's not even a compromise. It's the most desirable option.
I don't mind Keira Knightly. She's incredibly attractive and her acting doesn't grate on me too much. I especially liked it in The Hole where she was bent over the toilet sicking herself to death with her lovely arse in the air.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
W...what have I become?
[ 30.08.2007, 07:31: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I'd really like to go out with Keira Knightly. You'd probably have to weather the occasional tantrum and nod along to the occasional moronic point of view, but I've gone along with that for girlfriends that weren't as attractive or anywhere near as rich as Keira. I could probably quite happily marry Keira, beautiful and rich as she is.
[ 30.08.2007, 07:48: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I've just sat here for 15 minutes getting really annoyed by the fact I'm not going to marry Keira Knightley. If I could just meet her... if she could get to know me I reckon she'd be quite charmed, just like the tiniest minority of girls that meet me in real life.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I can imagine you getting on alright with her too.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
in a way, she seems to share many characteristics with VP. Like, I was just writing about how wan and frail Keira appears, how she maintains a kind of studenty yet flattering style of dress, her association with Orlando Bloom, a kind of serious nature, and realised I was also describing VP.
[ 30.08.2007, 07:58: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
I spent last night wondering the same sort of thing about Julia Stiles, Thorn. About how if she met me and stuff.
It's a shame for her that she probably never will, really. Poor woman.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
It's a shame for George Clooney that he never meets any nice normal ladies who fill out a pair of trousers nicely and talk about milm, and that. I think a down-to-earth kind of guy would benefit greatly.
Maybe we could start a service, enabling lonely stars to meet normals, for some good basic fun. No references to film, 'loving your work', limos, chihuauas, etc, allowed.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Loving your work on TMO, Herbs. Yah. Gotta go. Ring me for tennis later. Okay? Let's do lunch. Yah.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
That makes little sense.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah, is that supposed to be George Clooney?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
can we swap logins please mart.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
sure. my password is ******.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: yeah, is that supposed to be George Clooney?
I think it was supposed to be Mart being Mart but as a... no. I don't know. I can't imagine Julia Stiles being impressed with that, at any rate. Conversely, I reckon if Knightley read my work on TMO she'd crack her pelvis like a wishbone opening her legs for me.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
No, I don't really know what it was. As soon as I hit send I knew it was crap, but if I then just cross it out and leave an X, Thorn would come back and say "Why did you delete that particular post? You've written loads of posts that are way shitter than that."
So, er, yeah, no idea what I was trying to riff on, there. Spiel like that just wouldn't impress herbs or George, me or Julia, Keira or Thorn, or Benway and his Japanese girlfriend, would it.
God. How am I ever supposed to be ace when all I am is shit.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
she hasn't posted here for years though.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
She stopped posting around the time Fifichan left, right?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah, that's when she finished her GCSE's.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I've just gotten really angry and disgusted with myself for imagining a situation where I'm living happily married with Keira Knightly in a big house in Kew and then I ruin it all by having a sleazy affair with Kerry Katona. Like, leaving my beautifully furnished victorian house, with Keira and my two adorable, well behaved kids playing with some beautifully designed scale replicas of 1920s fire engines on inch deep carpet in front of a hug open fire. Heading up North to some gaudy new-money bolthole town, secretly letting myself into Kerry's gated modern monstrosity (still talking about the house, guys), and banging her against the cheap white plastic wardrobe in her bedroom while her squalling kids batter on the door shrieking "Mummy! Mummy Thomas done a shit in his hand and is trying to make me eat it Mummy!" I can barely get to grips with the amount of shame and self loathing I'd feel after getting caught out like that. The pictures in the paper of Kerry staggering around Manchester town centre, with her knickers trailing from one ankle. Keira head down and dignified. Awful. I already regret it and I haven't even done it yet. Still. You can't change the future eh. No use crying over yet-to-be-spilt milk.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Keira drove you to it because she was never there, and she hadn't had sex with you since you both got drunk at Christmas.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I can't blame her for that. I knew what things would be like, marrying a career minded actress, and I welcolmed the opportunity to spend the time at home alone to work on my book. It's not Keira's fault the publishers weren't interested and the last thing she wanted was for me to abandon it. I don't know what I was thinking. So, the marriage bed's been a bit cold since the second kid was born (since the first, actually, but we don't talk about that). We're both tired. She's got her work. I have the kids... sorry. Had the kids. All that's gone now. She won't let me see them. Won't let me near the house. I've lost everything. And for what?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
At this point, I'd probably finish my drink, leave the pub, start walking home, pull my phone from my pocket, put it back, start walking again, stop, pull the phone out, dial a number and be all like "Kerry...? It's Thorn... are - you... are you busy?"
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Are there any other starlets whose initials are KK that you'd like to involve in your fantasy, nathan?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Get him out of my sight. He was hanging round the house an awful fucking lot when Keira was filming her Bend it Like Beckham sequel, just before she took a career break with our youngest. I know she needed a trainer and everything but when flowers start turning up with "Beckham can't bend like you!!" on the card. Well. You ask questions. Or rather, just bury your head in the sand and remember who's paying the bills.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
lol, it's like that better than life game in red dwarf.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Hm, Karen Karpenter?
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Ku Klux?
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Koo Stark?
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Starsky and Hutch?
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Etc.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Thorn, is there room in your alt-life for
?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I think we'd probably be pretty happy together until I lost her in a gambling debt to Kris Kristofferson.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Lol (2K)
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
These alt-life riffs always get me down. I loved alterna-Benway day, to the point of laughter and tears but found myself getting really frustrated and upset that it wasn't real. I've just been looking through Keira's IMDB board thinking "Oh, you scavengers - you maggotts - you think you know her..." I wasn't even that fussed about her this morning - just thought she had a pretty face. Is this how a psychosis begins? Am I edging towards enveloping myself in a fantasy world where everything that was ever posted on TMO is all true in my mind at the same time? Where Benway is a super-successful director hell bent on self-destruction, as well as a fat drunk marrying my daughter? I feel like I'm losing my grip sometimes, like I don't know what's real and what's not anymore. I forget my own name - little things like that. And I think about things, like people doing things, but I can't really get my head round the fact that those people aren't really doing those things in real life, that the scenarios in my head don't really exist. Like when you're lying in bed at night having conversations with your friends in your head and you don't really believe that they're not there, that it's just you, talking to yourself. TMO Alt-Days are a lot like that, but more emotionally draining.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
If it helps, in real life TMO's Harlequin has a full page colour spread in the redtops.
What I'm saying is: Benway CAN become a director and bang you're daughter. It's going to happen.
[ 30.08.2007, 11:55: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
See, when things like that happen, is it any wonder I start to lose my grip on what's real and what's not? If you gave TMO to someone and ask them to decipher which bits were real and which weren't, you can bet Harlequin's appearance as a love rat in the tabloids would got straight on the 'not real' pile. Fuck it, they'd probably put Harlequin himself there.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
YOU ARE DAUGHTER!
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Also, as well as the real world of your life, and the alterna-world of TMO, where everything is true, there's also the world of what life would have been like if you hadn't joined TMO at all, if you'd never found it, if all there was was just, well, real life.
*sobs into beer*
Posted by Grianagh (Member # 583) on :
quote:Originally posted by mart: Also, as well as the real world of your life, and the alterna-world of TMO, where everything is true, there's also the world of what life would have been like if you hadn't joined TMO at all, if you'd never found it, if all there was was just, well, real life.
*sobs into beer*
i'm assuming you are crying because if you hadn't found tmo - you wouldn't have met me - all those degrees of kevin bacon.
but that's just an assumption. of course.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
no it was just a sort of "oh blimey, reality, life, what's it all about" sort of thing
actually it was more about the whole time-wasting element of TMO (or, i suppose, the internet), and how that time would have been employed otherwise.
[ 31.08.2007, 08:15: Message edited by: mart ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by mart: no it was just a sort of "oh blimey, reality, life, what's it all about" sort of thing
actually it was more about the whole time-wasting element of TMO (or, i suppose, the internet), and how that time would have been employed otherwise.
I never think of TMO as time-wasting, because I almost always do it in work time. For starters. It's also fun, and creative and interesting and educational (sort of, well... no. Maybe not educational). I'd never describe it as a waste of time.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Yeah, you're right. In my case, however, when I was self-employed, it had a fairly direct relation to how much I managed to get done, and therefore how much money I actually earned, and that sort of thing.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I watched Atonement last night. That's the first time I've been to a cinema since 2005. The screen was very big, and the sound was loud, but the seats were highly uncomfortable and the fruit pastilles were £2.50 a bag!
On the whole, I'd give the cinema experience two smaile blacke boys.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
what was the film like
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
It was good. It felt like something was missing in a way, but perhaps that was because I hadn't read the book first. Kellifer (who had read it) really enjoyed the film.
Erm, I liked Keira's dress, and the fact that she smoked in almost every scene. Hottness.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
I did a review two pages back, Shasbo...
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I watched Brokeback Mountain last week, which I'd never seen before, and it made me cry like a baby. It's probably the best film about love I've ever seen and carries a remarkable, exhausting emotional weight, which most of Ang Lee's films wield to some extent but which doesn't take centre stage to the extent it does in Brokeback Mountain. It seems to get its power from its honesty; there's an emotional truth to the film that's impossible to deny. I really loved it. The only thing that annoyed me is when the bummer married Anne Hathaway. Girls that hott shouldn't be wasted on bummers.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
He's the hotter of the two bummers though.
I loved that film and saw it in the cinema, where it make me do that restrained "crying but hoping not to be observed" thing that most Englishers resort to (that reminds me of seeing Gladiator and turning around at the end only to witness my straight friend Alan dissolved into tears).
In fact, Brokeback was such an emotional wringer that I've kind of avoided watching it on DVD since.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
There was this moment in Atonement where some british soldiers in The War: World Edition V2.0 were complaining about the French - saying something like "Britain should keep India and Africa, but let the Germans have this shithole" (i.e. France). The old folk sitting behind us in the cinema were obviously terribly amused by this, as they kept chuckling to themselves for about ten minutes afterwards.
When the typewriter was seen typing "cunt" you could almost hear their disgust increase with each keystroke.
Csilence Uno, it can't be, surely he wouldn't... Ngoodness me! would he? Tthat's it dear, we're leaving! Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Did I mention I was in Stoke-on-Trent? While I was there I red two cool books. One was Johnny Come Home by Jake Arnott. Set in the 70s it's a tale of sexual politics, glam rock and mad bombers. The pay-off isn't as strong as I'd hoped but I really enjoyed reading this. 8/10
Next up was Rogue Male by the improbably named Geoffrey Household. This was top. Grim, claustrophobic, xenophobic, square-jawed Inter-War stuff. The nameless hero is a sort of cross between James Bond and Bertie Wooster and he spends most of the book buried alive in a hole because he tried to assassinate a vile foreigner for a lark. Fucking great stuff. Another 8/10
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I watched 28 Weeks Later last night. Not bad. I liked the bit where the helicopter tilted its rotors into the horde of infected. I read about a similar manoeuvre in a zombie novel a while back. Could they be related, perhaps? Or do chopper-pilots habitually chop up the enemy?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
What've I been reading, you ask..? I've been dipping into some old pulp. Bulldog Drummond, Carnacki, Conan, some stories by Lovecraft and Rice Burroughs and Machen. Oh, and I started reading some Deadpool comics that were making the Masketeers laugh, they were pretty good, he does some cool post-modern asides in his monologuing, quite funny. Next up, I'm reading a book about Africa by a bloke called Meredith.
Posted by SilverGinger5 (Member # 49) on :
I just got a bit stack of philosophy books delivered but haven't quite got stuck into the non-fiction ones yet. I have started today to read "When Nietzsche wept" by Irvin Yalom and the first chapter seems "good". I shall report back later with more useless adjectives.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
sorry
[ 26.09.2007, 11:34: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
reading a herman hesse book called steppenwolf.
I was going to watch deathproof, but didn't bother in the end.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I watched tron the other night on telly.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
not seen it before. Thought it was quite good. But I was semi-hallucinating after eating a bad frankfurter, so I can't judge it properly. Lots of potential for armchair analysis as well. Seemed like there may have been something about communism in there.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
What do you reckon on communism Big Nuts? Unworkable evil, or the way of the future?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I've got it on DVD
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Tron, that is, not communism
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Karl Marx looks a bit like Father Christmas.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
seems a bit contradictory to human nature, which isn't going to make for a happy system. bit of lefty business is alright, you know, raising taxes to try and improve the quality of life for the people who aren't doing so great. One thing though that bothers me is that on the hand I think that community can help people feel like they're valued members of society, but on the other hand, a community is also excluding a lot of other people. How do you get over that one? You don't want a world that's one big neighbourhood watch, but also, it sucks if people don't care how their actions affect other people. You need a bit of nationalism, to build common idenity and foster a sense of 'belonging', and socialism, in order to make sure nobody is left behind. I think that would be the best way to run a state. I can't see how nationalism and socialism could fail if combined under a strong, caring leader.
I believe we shouldn't discard the notion of society just yet. But then, I want to live in a world that ruled by the kind of people who made children's animation for the BBC in the 70s. All those jumpers and utopian dreams. Actually I just want to forget reality and concentrate only on utopia and dreams. Maybe I can build a huge underwater colony, where men and women can be released from the shackles of free market capitalism, and be free to work in a strictly controlled environment, towards a society where everybody is nice to each other, and everybody has plenty of room to live in.I can call it "Contentment".
[ 26.09.2007, 11:59: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Will there be a blow job clause?, Something like if a man fancies a blow job and there is an available women nearby he can say "BJ Clause" and she has to give him one. Maybe to be fair you could limit it to just weekends and bank holidays (idea! change bank to wank!)
I'm just freestyling here, but some good ideas I think yeh, I mean a lot of problems are caused by men with a build up of sexual tension, things like rape, indecent assault, murder and jaywalking. It could all be a thing of the past with the BJ Clause.
[ 26.09.2007, 12:04: Message edited by: Tilde ]
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Also, no christmas, easter or any other card related celebration. Everyone gets 6 weeks holiday a year, to take whenever they want. No religion, and a hand job clause on mondays and wednesdays.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
yeah, but they'll be controlled by the state. You'll need to go through a complicated licensing and taxing procedure if you want to start giving them out yourself. You can't let that kind of thing go unregulated if you want order and mutual kindness in society. to get things done you need to keep power structures in place, and they'll be torn apart if your citizens are giving each other blowies. I suppose the best way would be if the state banned giving them altogether for citizens, and only distributed through it's own infrastructure.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I watched the first episode of The Tripods last night.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
you wouldn't want BJ clause coming down your chimney on christmas. Or maybe you might. Depends if you've got kids around.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
It was pretty good, yeah. The special effects look a bit dated in places, but
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Prison Break, Series 2.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Just started looking at and listening to season three. It's bleak.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
it's quite a good programme, for mindless, don't-think-or-question-it-too-much television. We're about half way through, so avoiding series 3 at the moment - isn't it on sky or something stupid now though?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: it's quite a good programme, for mindless, don't-think-or-question-it-too-much television. We're about half way through, so avoiding series 3 at the moment - isn't it on sky or something stupid now though?
Yes, it's on both Sky and TehPirateBay.
[ 28.09.2007, 06:05: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
I caught Saxondale on telly last night - the first full episode I've seen, not really knowing anything about it.
I thought Coogan's physical acting (his facial tics, the sadness in his features) and his delivery were superb - he manages to convey a life of crap mediocrity and social failings with the slightest of nuances, and this was the strength of the show, rather than the overly ludicrous situations he gets himself into and out of.
Does anybody else here watch it?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
haven't watched anything recently. Mission to Mars was the last film I saw on telly. Awful. Also one of the 'tropics of lust' films that are part of the erotic scheduling of movies24. Again, awful.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
I'm watching Lost series 3, enjoying it. Watched a documentary by Stacey Peralta (did Dogtown and the Z boys) called Riding Giants about surfing and the origins of big wave riding. Lots of grizzled old fellas romanticising the days of their youth and bullshit surfer machismo, still pretty awesome stuff in there, particularly the wipeouts.
I got This is England to watch on DVD, looking forward to it.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
at home I've got Rosetta, Uzak, and Midnight Cowboy to watch, but I'm having a hard time getting round to them.
[ 04.10.2007, 11:08: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Pepper (Member # 353) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: I got This is England to watch on DVD, looking forward to it.
I saw that last night. I quite liked it, but not that much. Sean being 12 with a 16 year old girlfriend took more of my attention than it ought to have I reckon.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I saw that film SUPERBAD. It was good! though there was a sense of two divergent plots (last summer of high school heterosocial romance / cops can be fun zany escapades) that were almost forced to intersect at various points. You could have taken the cop story out and the main point of the film would have been intact, though it would have been about an hour long -- which, maybe disappointingly, might be exactly why the cop story was there.
Interesting 2000s comparison to American Pie, Breakfast Club etc.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
has anyone seen Control yet, or it only out today, or something
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
no, I haven't seen it.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Maybe someone else has seen it.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I haven't seen it, but I was hoping to work on it. A load of films that I hoped to work on last year have started to be released now, which is annoying as nothing I have worked on (as a mixer) has been released yet...
The girl who is in it that was in Downfall told me that it was "too bad I was married" in a suggestive way when I worked with her though. Which was nice.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I've been reading Lord of the Rings book 1 - it's alright, except for the songs, the fact that it takes about 120 pages for them to get out of the bloody shire and the hippy crap about everything being older than everything ever is or was. Tom Bombadil as well - why did they never film that section?
Watching - at the moment World at War is back on loop, so watching that again.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: The girl who is in it that was in Downfall told me that it was "too bad I was married" in a suggestive way when I worked with her though. Which was nice.
Please stop fucking bragging.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
dick!
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
pussy
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
pussy'ole
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
dick-mouth
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
sssh, you two, Tenko's on...
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I think I have been online too much. I started watching Sunrise, the last great silent film from 1927, and when The Woman From the City stripped off her thin robe to brush her hair in a corset, part of my pathetic brain thought helpfully better start wanking now! .
The actress playing The Woman from the City was born in fucking 1900. She is probably pretty old now. Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I watched 300 last night. It's a shame to watch it on a small screen really, as I imagine it was awesome int he cinema. Still, top fun though. Has everything an epic action film needs: Swords, armies, violence, a naked chick flailing around in slow motion, and a giant homosexual being put in his place by a rugged straight buy with a beard.
This film got me so pumped I kicked my girlfriend in the face
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
what do you make of the accusations that 300 is ultra nationalist, pro-fascist nonsense?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I think they're pretty retarded. It's a big dumb action film. Plus, while there's some poetic licence going on there, it's fair to say that there is a reasonable degree of historical accuracy to the film.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: I think they're pretty retarded. It's a big dumb action film.
Yeah, whoever heard of a ultra-fascist big dumb action movie? Next thing you know they'll be painting stuff like Rambo and Cobra as some kind of right-wing nationalist power fantasy, or something equally ridiculous.
[ 08.10.2007, 07:36: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
presumably in the same way that Indiana Jones is historically accurate.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Having not seen it, my impression of the film is that it's lots of oily musclemen jumping in pop promo slow motion and shouting "FOR SPARTA!".
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I would however rent it if I had an HD DVD player.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
for wanks.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: presumably in the same way that Indiana Jones is historically accurate.
Well no, I mean in the way it's based on actual historical events. There really was a famous battle between a small group of Spartan warriors against an enormous Persian army, and the Spartans really did inflict a massive amount of damage agaisnt the disorganised Persian army as a result of their training and military cunning.
There are also several aspects of Spartan life which are depicted with relative accuracy, i.e. the fact that the strongest boys are trained from a very young age to be soldiers, and the weak ones ended up being killed.
The way in which poetic licence is used is more in the depiction of the spartans and the persians and obviously the style of combat. That's really where the controversy comes from, with the Persians seemingly depicted as marauding savages lead by an androgynous leader, while the Spartans are clearly 'perfect' masculine ideals. But it's told in the style of a Greek fable, and that's really all there is to it. In my opinion of course. But I think it's understandable some people object. I just think they're wrong for reading so deeply into a film which, at it's core, is just about pressing people's basic buttons.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
You're impressions are correct. However I did enjoy it, really nice style, cinematography, whatever. And constant and unrelenting fighting, beheadings aplenty. And men being real MEN to a comic level.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: I think it's understandable some people object. I just think they're wrong for reading so deeply into a film which, at it's core, is just about pressing people's basic buttons.
I don't think you can read too deeply into stuff which is just about pushing people's buttons, unless what you're saying is unsubstantiated by the film itself. I don't hink "it's just a piece of entertainment" is really a defence, surely? It doesn't have to be art to be a metaphor for America's righteous and lonely stand against camp, marauding followers and whether it was the intention of the filmmakers or not to make a piece of "Might makes Right!" fascist propaganda is irrelevant, if that's what they ended up with.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Right, but that doesn't even really make much sense. Surely it's America who are the overwhelmingly strong army, the disorganised ones who fuck everything up and get their asses handed to them by a small but determined group of freedom fighters? If you're going to start taking readings like that, then surely it's a much more logical conclusion that it's actually anti-American propaganda? Since it's obviously America who rock up to other countries with an enormous show of force, with the proposition that the defending country can basically go about its business, so long as it's prepared to accept the rule of America, the strongest country in the world?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Well, yeah, but the States doesn't really see itself the way everyone else does. I remember when 300 came out and I think someone asked the director "So which one [of the leaders] is Bush supposed to be?" and I think the guy dodged the question because he didn't want to alienate anyone who might go and see the move, by pinning the allegory down one way or the other.
There's a great deal of conservative rhetoric about how America is standing alone in the face of this savage threat from the Persian gulf, so I suppose some people saw the film as an extension of that. But, yeah. You're not alone in reading the super-powered Persian army as analagous to the Americans, except that I understand the American viewer is being asked to identify with the handful of brave Spartans throughout the movie.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I watched the remake of The Hitcher, yesterday. It was shit. Sean Bean could've been good as Ryder, he didn't need the American accent. The premise of the original, psychopath cat-and-mouse, was given the Hollywood airhead treatment, two protagonists, a cool young couple, her=sexy, him=boho, driving a cool muscle car, with the body count quadrupled and the Hitcher transformed from obsessive serial killer to near-indestructible SuperMurderer. Stupid. I watched a bit of Cody Banks, as well. That was hilariously rubbish. Keith Allen must be SO ashamed of that movie.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Well, yeah, but the States doesn't really see itself the way everyone else does. I remember when 300 came out and I think someone asked the director "So which one [of the leaders] is Bush supposed to be?" and I think the guy dodged the question because he didn't want to alienate anyone who might go and see the move, by pinning the allegory down one way or the other.
There's a great deal of conservative rhetoric about how America is standing alone in the face of this savage threat from the Persian gulf, so I suppose some people saw the film as an extension of that. But, yeah. You're not alone in reading the super-powered Persian army as analagous to the Americans, except that I understand the American viewer is being asked to identify with the handful of brave Spartans throughout the movie.
I see what you’re saying, but what I’m trying to point out is that you’re having to suspend a fair amount of your understanding of reality in order to make that association between the Spartans and the Americans. I mean, you’re saying that it’s simultaneously pro-fascist, and pro-american, yet capitalism and fascism are based on fundamentally opposed ideologies. Like you’re looking at subtleties in the allegorical subtext which seem to support what you’re saying, while having to overlook the fact that, like, the Spartans were a warmongering bunch of baby murderers, and it even says so much explicitly in the film. If it was the intention of the writer and director to put in the kind of messages you’re talking about, they’ve made a pretty hashed up job of it. It seems more like the controversy is little more than a knee-jerk reaction of over-sensitive people to a film which shows white people killing brown-skinned people. Which really doesn’t stand up to any kind of scrutiny whatsoever, once you start to look at the details.
Is it not far more feasible that Zack Snyder read Frank Miller’s comic series and thought “hey, this would make a totally kickass movie!” without giving much thought to how it might be compared to real life? Y’know, you could kind of apply this kind of analysis to just about any movie which seems to depict a struggle between good guys and bad guys, where the bad guys are portrayed in a negative light. At some point you’ve just got to accept there will always be people out there who are going to be offended by anything which is less than 100% politically correct, but it doesn’t make them actually right, and it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to watch computer-enhanced beautiful men beating 70 shades of crap out of other computer enhanced men. In slow motion with CGI blood splatter.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Maybe we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
But, 300 was written by, you know, Frank Miller.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
afaik frank miller wrote the original graphic novel and is credited as something like 'executive administrator' rather than writer for the film adaptation, which was written predominantly by Zack Snyder.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
So, the movie bears no relation to the book?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
a lot of people would suggest that there are elements of fascism in the American system. The need for constant war, the erosion of rights in favour of state power, the cultural collectivism. It's a popular theory. I don't neccesarily subscribe to it, but a lot of people seem to have come and said that 300 is a fairly rousing statement in favour of fascism in America. This Miller seems be regarded as a bit dodge anyway. But you know. Interesting that you enjoyed it without this stuff 'leaping out' at you. Not even in slow motion. Tilde as well. Which is why I asked the question. I'm maybe more interested in watching it now that two people here have come back with generally positive things to say. Makes it seem like maybe it's not so obvious that it seems crass....more like sly undertones... and it's fun to watch a film like that. You know, one that you can analyze and pick things out of.
[ 08.10.2007, 09:55: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: So, the movie bears no relation to the book?
I've not read the book but I'd imagine so, especially considering the precident of Sin City which is taken almost frame for frame from the original. But then, this in itself just opens up further questions, since the book came out in something like, what, 1998? When the world was a pretty different place, politically.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
A movie or a book about a small gang of steely-eyed, stout-hearted guys taking on a vast sea of shifty-looking foreigners in the name of 'freedom' could've been produced at any time in the last zillion years (not film, obv.). Hating foreigners didn't start with 9/11, neither did thinking your own particular bunch of good guys was standing alone against the foe. They're just cheap narrative devices. It's pretty obvious to me that the Spartans are meant to represent good, Hawkish, Republican Americans and the Persians are meant to represent... Persians. Are there any French in the movie?
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
You can read anything into anything though can't you? If you really want to make the connection you can produce the evidence.
Just look at Harlequins 911 conspiracy theories. A lot of the posts in this thread are beginning to sound like that.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
You seem to be forgetting/ignoring the fact that this actually happened. It’s not some work of fiction, and from a historical perspective it’s pretty much an accurate account. The way in which they’ve pissed about with the truth is in making out that the Persians are savages. But again, if this is supposed to make Americans feel/look good, it’s not doing a particularly good job. The Spartans are brutish, violent, homophobic, while the Persians are shown as being a fairly progressively minded alliance of countries.
It just doesn’t seem to stand up to scrutiny, as I say. I can understand you saying these things about a film like Pearl Harbour, or Saving Private Ryan, or whatever. But the notion of 300 being ‘blatantly’ pro American just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
You just don't get it.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
No, I get it, I just don't agree with you.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: You can read anything into anything though can't you? If you really want to make the connection you can produce the evidence.
No, that's incorrect. You couldn't really produce a convincing argument claiming that a movie like Speed, for example, was a pro-facism advert for a militarised state where the gay, female and foreign were despicable, weak and dangerous.
I also don't think that a slightly deeper reading of a pop-cultural story is somehow akin to crazed paranoia about state control. Presumably you've approached stories as being more than a literal statement of some facts that happened, and then stopped happening? As a child did you hear the story about the tortoise and the hare and acknowledge that what it was actually about was complacency, and could be mapped onto an almost infinite number of scenarios. So really, you already know that stories aren't ever really just stories and that they're the narratives that are there to produce a view of the world as it is now even if - on a literal level - they appear to be something else entirely.
I mean, that's basic level stuff, right, and I feel ridiculous having to point it out, but when someone starts sayign "Oh if you think a film is about more than simply the precise literal events that happen on screen then you are a crazed paranoid crackpot", I think it's important to get the groundwork there, to make it clear that it's not paranoid to suggest other meanings arise from any story, however told, it's simply inevitable.
[ 08.10.2007, 10:19: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote: But again, if this is supposed to make Americans feel/look good, it’s not doing a particularly good job. The Spartans are brutish, violent, homophobic, while the Persians are shown as being a fairly progressively minded alliance of countries.
you seem to be saying "it's unlikely to make americans feel good" and then going ahead to say exactly why it will. I'm guessing it's not about america versus the middle east, it's (as bm said) about republican America vs it's perceived moral and political detractors, like Europeans, democrats, progressives. Man, I have to see this film now.
[ 08.10.2007, 10:19: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts:
quote: But again, if this is supposed to make Americans feel/look good, it’s not doing a particularly good job. The Spartans are brutish, violent, homophobic, while the Persians are shown as being a fairly progressively minded alliance of countries.
you seem to be saying "it's unlikely to make americans feel good" and then going ahead to say exactly why it will. I'm guessing it's not about america versus the middle east, it's about republican America vs it's perceived moral and political detractors, like Europeans, democrats, progressives. Man, I have to see this film now.
Yes but even by that token the ideologies are all screwy and backwards. I could agree with you and Thorn if the portrayal of the Spartans were consistent with Republican values, but it's not.
Maybe Thorn is forgetting this, because he seems to be saying that the Spartans think women are dangerous or something, but actually the Spartans women are shown as having an equal status in Sparta, and it's the Persian messenger who is shocked and outraged at being spoken to by a woman.
Similarly, it seems to be a suggestion that the way in which the Spartans train their boys/weed out the weak, is a plot device, or carries some kind of social sub text. Again, as I keep pointing out, this is factually accurate and not something which has just been made up.
Y'know, it's like on the one hand you're saying that it's not good enough to just watch the film without trying to analyse what it's saying about contemporary society, but on the other hand it's fine to ignore the fact that as a commentary on contemporary society it's completely inaccurate and inconsistent. Which is why I'm saying it doesn't really make sense.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: No, I get it, I just don't agree with you.
I'm just taking the piss. But, Thermopylae is seen as a significant historical turning-point. The moment when Evil foreign zealots (no matter how nice their cuisine or scintillating their mathematics) were repelled and noble Western reason and philosophy could breathe freely again. I can't see how recognising a notional parallel between those Spartans and the guys rattling their sabres against the Axis of Evil is so problematic.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Well yeah but by that token you could apply all the same criticism to the Lord of the Rings films/books.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: [QUOTE]Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: Maybe Thorn is forgetting this, because he seems to be saying that the Spartans think women are dangerous or something, but actually the Spartans women are shown as having an equal status in Sparta, and it's the Persian messenger who is shocked and outraged at being spoken to by a woman.
You're conflating my challenge to Tilde with my reading of a film I havent seen, which is a mistake on your part. My comment on asking for a reading on Speed isn't precisely my reading of 300, it's just a few things that often come out of right-wing action movies in general, designed to demonstrate that you can't just "read whatever you want into anything".
quote:Similarly, it seems to be a suggestion that the way in which the Spartans train their boys/weed out the weak, is a plot device, or carries some kind of social sub text. Again, as I keep pointing out, this is factually accurate and not something which has just been made up.
I think it's entirely reasonable to draw meaning from a film's portrayal of events that are, in essence, factually accurate. It's a dangerous term to use in this context because a highly stylised blockbuster movie doesn't have the same responsibility to its facts as something like The World at War. Moreover, it's completely possible to take the same event and through the way it's shot, scored, scripted and acted, through what you choose to show and to leave out, you can give it a different meaning. The examples of this are almost too numerous to mention - you could look at all the different takes on the Second World War, the differences between a movie like U571 and Das Boot, or you could look at the differences between Young Guns and Pat Garret and Billy the Kid.
Objective truth is pretty much non-existent in narrative film, so the idea of a being "factually accurate" and consequently beyond analysis is quite troublesome.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
I like the way the americans wear loin cloths and get all sweaty together in an obviously homoerotic way and throw babies away so they can create a master race.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Well yeah but by that token you could apply all the same criticism to the Lord of the Rings films/books.
... Yes.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
It seems that... if a film-maker or author wants to suggest some sort of satirical or topical parallel between the actions of some ancient civilization and the actions of a current regime, nation or agency... there's going to be a significant wedge of the audience who will deny that 'subtle' parallel unless he goes the whole hog and puts Robin Hood in a Hummer or gives Napoleon an M-16.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
only on a conscious level though.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
I think I'm going to add you as an xbox friend purely so I can beat thorn over the back of the head with my rifle butt in halo and then tea bag him whilst laughing uncontrollably.
Even as I type that I can see thorn imagining that whole scene as some sort of gay rape fantasy metaphor
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: The Spartans are brutish, violent, homophobic, while the Persians are shown as being a fairly progressively minded alliance of countries.
I don't know how in the hell you can have interpreted it this way. The Spartans are depicted as being honourable warriors, devoted to the continued independence of their country against the prevailing consensus of their own corrupt political and religious elite, courageously fighting to the death in the face of an overwhelming horde of brown-skinned physical and sexual deviants from the middle-east, held in the thrall of a manipulative and cynical king falsely claiming to be a god.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I've been teabagging people.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: I think I'm going to add you as an xbox friend purely so I can beat thorn over the back of the head with my rifle butt in halo and then tea bag him whilst laughing uncontrollably.
Even as I type that I can see thorn imagining that whole scene as some sort of gay rape fantasy metaphor
Well... it's not really a metaphor, is it? It's just a gay rape fantasy.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Was Father Christmas a metaphor?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
No. He was a gay rapist.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I just called Father Christmas a gay rapist.
Is no one safe from me?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Honestly, this idea that stories are about more than simply the events that happen in them is something that you're introduced to at the age of three fucking years old the first time a character fucks up and things go bad for him as a result. How can you act like this is an idea put about by crazies? It's like trying to deny the multiplication table, for Christ's sake.
[ 08.10.2007, 11:17: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Big bearded man with a bulging sack, breaks into your house and gives presents to your kids. HO HO HO indeed. Santa... hold on, Santa is an anagram of SATAN...
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
What about Fools and Horses?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
[ 08.10.2007, 11:30: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: What about Fools and Horses?
Del (LED) represents a vulgar, status-obsessed technology-driven future, while Rodney (Yonder) is the honest, decent, simple past of our youth, most of the stories revolve around the tensions emanating from the demands of a horrifying future and the gentle pull of nostalgia.
Del, is corporate America, Rodney is cricket on the village green.
[ 08.10.2007, 11:24: Message edited by: Black Mask ]
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Honestly, this idea that stories are about more than simply the events that happen in them is something that you're introduced to at the age of three fucking years old the first time a character fucks up and things go bad for him as a result. How can you act like this is an idea put about by crazies? It's like trying to deny the multiplication table, for Christ's sake.
Ok Nathan.
I think though, some things can be taken at face value and some things can't. In the case of 300, I personally didn't see any hidden political propaganda in it. Although I do accept there may be something in these theories, and if I were to watch it again with the points that have been raised in the back of my mind as they no doubt would be, I may well come out of the film with a different perspective.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I can imagine you saying that very calmly to nathan, as he sits bound in a chair, covered in petrol, tape over his mouth, and you're waving a zippo in his face.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Now, I'm imagining Nathan standing in a craggy mountain pass, all buff and white, with his sword and shield, while millions of CGId Ringos and Tildes, seething, furious, ullulating, darkie homos, come barrelling towards him. And he fucks them all up, two times.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I can't really imagine tilde though, because I don't know what he looks like. I just see James Blunt.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: I can't really imagine tilde though, because I don't know what he looks like. I just see James Blunt.
That would be the ullulating homo bit.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Honestly, this idea that stories are about more than simply the events that happen in them is something that you're introduced to at the age of three fucking years old the first time a character fucks up and things go bad for him as a result. How can you act like this is an idea put about by crazies? It's like trying to deny the multiplication table, for Christ's sake.
Nathan, you're perhaps making the mistake here of thinking that because I don't agree with you that 300 is about Republicans vs Deviants, that I somehow don't think that any film has a subtext, ever.
I just think that in this case, your reading of it is wrong. I don't think it matches up with what I saw last night.
Like I said earlier, I don't think we're going to agree on this one and in lieu of there being anyone who can actually give a decisive ruling on this, we're probably best off just agreeing to disagree.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
so what do you think it's about, ringers?
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
From what I remember it seemed to be about a group of 300 Spartan soldiers mounting a last stand against a giant invading army under the rule of the Persian Empire. It appeared to be told in the style of a Greek Fable/Opera, with the characters depicted in a similar style to ancient Greek artworks, and a narrative which could easily have placed the Spartans among such characters as Odysseus etc etc. But of course glammed up and stylised in such a way that it appeals to a modern audience.
At worst, I'd say it's a bit on the homophobic/xenophobic side, but I don't think it carries any specific political messages, and I certainly wouldn't call it propaganda.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Nathan, you're perhaps making the mistake here of thinking that because I don't agree with you that 300 is about Republicans vs Deviants, that I somehow don't think that any film has a subtext, ever.
I think you're making the mistake of assuming that you're the only person posting on this thread - Tilde was explicitly mocking the idea of looking for subtext/ allegory and my posts were directed at that. I though that was pretty clear - Tilde seemed to get it, and it's apparent that his skills in textual analysis are about those of a two year old.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Oh I'm sorry, perhaps it was the fact your post followed several posts where BM was going on about gay rape.
I wonder if you've ever considered the irony of certain aspectsof the persona you have on here, whereby you make a point of trying to extract subtle meaning from films and books and suchlike, while at the same time making needlessly simplistic and obtuse observations about your fellow posters?
Anyway, the point applies equally to Tilde as it does to me - saying that there's little or no deeper meaning to 300 than the story itself and its entertainment value, doesn't imply that there's no deeper meaning in anything. But equally you surely have to accept that not every film carries a specific subtext or allegory.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: At worst, I'd say it's a bit on the homophobic side,
That's not very historically accurate, then. The Spartans were all up each other. It was the law. You could be killed for NOT bumming.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: But equally you surely have to accept that not every film carries a specific subtext or allegory.
Not a specific one, but they pretty much all carry meaning. Like I said earklier, the emergence of a subtext of some description is inevitable. It happens whether the author/ film-maker/ painter want it to or not because as soon as elements start to interact, meaning emerges. As soon as you put two words next to each other, the meanings of each start to collide, the significance they carry moves beyond the literal. I mean, that's not really my idea, much as I'd love to take credit for it, but it's something artists in all disciplines have been ruminating on for thousands of years. So yeah, every film/ book/ cartoon/ whatever has some meaning beyond what it makes explicit.
[ 08.10.2007, 12:24: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask:
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: What about Fools and Horses?
Del (LED) represents a vulgar, status-obsessed technology-driven future, while Rodney (Yonder) is the honest, decent, simple past of our youth, most of the stories revolve around the tensions emanating from the demands of a horrifying future and the gentle pull of nostalgia.
Del, is corporate America, Rodney is cricket on the village green.
Actually very funny Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Not a specific one, but they pretty much all carry meaning. Like I said earlier, the emergence of a subtext of some description is inevitable. It happens whether the author/ film-maker/ painter want it to or not because as soon as elements start to interact, meaning emerges. As soon as you put two words next to each other, the meanings of each start to collide, the significance they carry moves beyond the literal. I mean, that's not really my idea, much as I'd love to take credit for it, but it's something artists in all disciplines have been ruminating on for thousands of years. So yeah, every film/ book/ cartoon/ whatever has some meaning beyond what it makes explicit.
Well yeah, I agree with that. But what I mean is a specific subtext. I mean, when you start calling something propaganda, I'd have thought the inference was naturally that the film or book or whatever, was written in such a way that there was a very deliberate message in there which was added with some ulterior motive in mind. This is what I just don't agree with, because I don't think that 300 promotes any political ideals particularly strongly. Maybe a few basic moral principles about honour and bravery and whatnot, but when you start talking about allegory, what you're really saying is that the writer had a very specific intention beyond the story itself. And I just don't think that's the case with 300. It is with plenty of things, but not with 300.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I watched two films last night, "Blades of Glory" and "Broken Arrow".
"Blades of Glory" is quite funny in places, "Broken Arrow" is a godawful, ridiculous heap of shit.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
[ 09.10.2007, 06:52: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
I watched "10 Canoes" last night, about a tribe or aborigines in the outback of old. I really liked it, it's very different, and is basically told as a narrated story interspersed with events actually taking place. It has some great characters and is written in such a way that you can almost forget that they're aborigines at times, and just relate to them like characters in a more modern, familiar setting. This is particularly evident in terms of the dialogue, which several times just comes across like your average bunch of blokes having a bit of laddish banter.
Recommended.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Last night, in startling contrast, I watched two Oxbridge teams compete in an intellectual tour-de-force in University Challenge, then switched over and watched a dozen or so vapid airheads compete to wear make-up in America's Next Top Model.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
last night, in between watching films, I saw a thing about the rise of russian nationalism / christian orthodoxy under Putin. Grim. Presumably not as grim as the thing about selling babies in china though.
I also watched the adult swim shows:
Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Moral Orel Frisky Dingo Saul of the Mole Men
in that order. I didn't have the energy or conviction for xbox last night. Just sagged in front of the telly from 7 until midnight, then read for 3/4 of an hour, finally fell into dream that involved travelling around europe, having sex with hookers, and being rejected by my schoolfriends. Woke up had a shower, a coffee, ironed a shirt, travelled into work, posted on tmo.
[ 09.10.2007, 09:30: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
Three episodes of Family Guy, one of American Dad and an old episode of House.
I've also been watching Planet Terror which is a bit shit, but a one legged stripper with a fick off bog gun as an artificial leg shooting puss filled zombiesque freaks and soldiers is just groovy..
Does nobody watch Eastenders anymore ? I remember when they said 'everyones talking about it' now I don't think anyones even watching it..
Oh, I watched Hollyoaks too, I quite like Hollyoaks.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
BTW I'm making notes on textual bullying that goes on here and I'll be hopefully submitting my case in the early part of 2008.
"Vain Prick" Nathan Bleak
"seething, furious, ullulating, darkie homo" Black Mask
"I just see James Blunt" Jimmy Big Nuts
"it's apparent that his skills in textual analysis are about those of a two year old" Nathan Bleak Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
hey, come on guy. That's not an insult. That's just because I've never seen a picture of you, and all I know about your appearance is that a woman once said you looked like james blunt.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: Does nobody watch Eastenders anymore ? I remember when they said 'everyones talking about it' now I don't think anyones even watching it.
I watch it to complain about the shit acting and largely hideous cast. I imagine Zygote still watches it for the hott Carly Wicks action.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
where did zygote go.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: BTW I'm making notes on textual bullying that goes on here and I'll be hopefully submitting my case in the early part of 2008.
"Vain Prick" Nathan Bleak
"seething, furious, ullulating, darkie homo" Black Mask
"I just see James Blunt" Jimmy Big Nuts
"it's apparent that his skills in textual analysis are about those of a two year old" Nathan Bleak
LOL
But... Tilde?
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: where did zygote go.
Didn't someone give him a link to downloadable internet porn?
I imagine he's sat in front of a computer screen, tears rolling down his face as he unwraps the bandages and attempts to wank what's left of his bloody mutilated stub of a penis.
[ 09.10.2007, 09:50: Message edited by: Tilde ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Yes, that was my fault. Sorry for killing Zygote.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
oops. don't click refresh.
[ 09.10.2007, 11:57: Message edited by: H1ppychick ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Right, I watched 300 last night and... it was transparently a puff-piece for the War on Terror. Jesus, there's even a helpful little speech recapping the main points at the end. Freedom from tyrrany and mysticism, anyone?
And Ringo? Your claim that the Spartans were painted as bad guys is pretty fucking weak.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
I watched the feel good pro-Democrat hit of...err..spring..I think, "Bobby". It was £.99 on Virgin. I thought it was extremely 'passable', and felt like a tv movie, only with a ridiculously large cast of famous actors.
I reckon that if I spent a few years writing a movie, it would turn out like "Bobby". It tries to be epic and important, yet feels slightly contrived and shallow, with the messages being put across in a heavy handed and signposted way that kind of sucks the gravitas from them. But, it's gentle enough, fairly heartwarming in a fuzzy way. Even though it's set in the sixties, it doesn't feel that way at all. Everybody seems very informed and wistful, as if they are reminiscing about the the time they're supposed to be living in Every character so obviously represents a unique demographic type, and all they seem to do is discuss the very issue that you'd expect them to based on your initial assumptions. So the old people talk about being old, the young people talk about dreams for the future, the middle aged couple talk about how their marriage is crumbling. It just does exactly what you'd expect, so while it's not totally insulting, it doesn't exceed expectations, or offer anything genuinely moving or insightful about American society either then or now.
It's hard to hate on though, because it's heart is in the right place. Emilio Estevez isn't doing a Sean Penn, he's not screaming in your face about how everything's gone bad. It's more like the end of the night and you're both a bit drunk, and he looks at you with that adorable little smile and goes "you know what? We all need to be a bit nicer to each other".
[ 15.10.2007, 05:55: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I also watched Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
I love those men. I want them to be my friends Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Finished watching Prison Break series 2, which, despite the questionable logic of most of the characters actions at any one time and Sucre's absolute uselessness, was incredibly enjoyable.
Also watched the first episode of 30 Rock - a kind of American Office meets Scrubs, which worked a lot better than Arron Sorkin's Stuido 60...
Went to a screening of Stardust - which was okay, a little flatly directed, but was fun enough and well paced enough to be an enjoyable 2+ hours.
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
I’ve been reading some Henry Miller as part of my ‘revisit dead straight white male authors that you avoided because they were apparently misogynist and you did not want to pollute your innocent female brain with their femme-loathing rantings’ project. I’ve finished Nexus and I’m about ¾ of the way through Sexus. Miller’s not the rip-roaring success that Bukowski was with me but he’s still kind of enjoyable. Sometimes there’s not much sense of narrative – it feels more like a bunch of creative writing exercises slung together. ‘Observe the characters who hang out in the local furniture shop!’ ‘Describe that drunk night you had when you tried to borrow money off that guy you once spat on at the CosmoCoccyx Telegraph Co!’ But then, it’s basically a memoir so that’s ok, really. I like his utter sense of self-worth. And he is awesome at describing sex, the ridiculousness of it and the selfishness of it and the sloppiness of it and the urgency of it. Sometimes I hate him so much I want to kick him in the belly. But that’s quite enjoyable too. Yes, I’ve enjoyed reading Miller. I’m going to go back to Kate Millet’s analysis of his work in Sexual Politics as well, see how that reads now I’m older and less flighty and less strident and more considered. Who next shall I check out as part of the project?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
try out Herman Hesse. I read his stuff as a kid and had no real idea what was going on. But Louise stuck Steppenwolf on the bookshelf the other day and it's quite slim, so I picked it up for the tube. I've nearly finished it, and it's been a pretty exhilarating ride. It's initially a depressing journey into the misery of ego driven existential doubt and self-hatred, but then that's resolved by finding company and solace within the Jungian concept of the self. That's about as white male as you can get. More like misanthropy though than misogyny. Maybe not appopriate.
eta: American Psycho?
eta: No, BEE isn't straight.
[ 15.10.2007, 06:27: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: Went to a screening of Stardust - which was okay, a little flatly directed, but was fun enough and well paced enough to be an enjoyable 2+ hours.
I saw the trailer for this. Michelle Pfeiffer looks absolutely astonishingly beautiful these days, to the point where it made me want to go and see a film I would have had no intention whatsoever in watching. What is it with Hollywood blondes that as they hit 50 they achieve a level of beauty that is just... thermonuclear? It's the same with Sharon Stone. And Viginia Madsen. The cynical answer is cosmetic surgery, I suppose but that doesn't really explain why they look so much better, so much more... womanly than they did in their twenties.
quote:Originally posted by London: Who next shall I check out as part of the project?
What about Evelyn Waugh? I'm just about to take a swing at A Handful of Dust, which I understand he wrote when he was in the middle of a divorce and the book just happens to be about a breathtakingly cold and cruel woman whose sluttish ways condemn her naively romantic husband to a life of miserable hell.
[ 15.10.2007, 06:19: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I'm with you on Michelle Pfeiffer there Thorn, she looks amazing.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I am reading American Psycho for the first time, like only 30 years late! It is surprisingly funny.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
it is funny, and it's also hot when he's having sex with them and then fucks them up.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Yeah, some (all) of the torture stuff was pretty sexy. You listen to all this high-mided debate about the book, all that "honhe-hon he-hon I think it's a portrait of alpha males run amok and it's about how money can allow you to get away with anything", and wonder whether not one of these dudes got the slightest bit frisky at any of it, like when he puts the electrodes on her titties, or any of that stuff. I mean, what the hell is wrong with these people? Even sat up in bed at midnight alone, they won't ackonowledge the tiniest moment of furtive dark pleasure at turning beautiful young women into your meat-sack plaything. Sometimes I think I'm the only normal person left in the world.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
I've been reading Joe R Lansdale's horror-western-sci-fi short story collection Mad Dog Summer. It's bracing yarn-spinning and pretty reprehensible on many levels (most stories seem to involve someone getting ass-fucked in a not-good way - he seems to have a thing about not-good ass-fucking) but it's a long time since I've been so gripped by short fiction. The East Texas setting is pungent and immersive, the dialogue nice and salty. Rather than reading an actual book-type book, you feel more like you're reading a scrawled beer 'n' spunk-stained manuscript you uncovered amid the detritus in a drug dealer's kitchen. Actually, it's amazing, and heartening, it got published at all. Read it now.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde:
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: where did zygote go.
Didn't someone give him a link to downloadable internet porn?
I imagine he's sat in front of a computer screen, tears rolling down his face as he unwraps the bandages and attempts to wank what's left of his bloody mutilated stub of a penis.
Not a million miles away from the truth, however the real reason for my absence has been due to the fact that I've been on holiday to Turkey for 2 weeks and I'm now working full-time for a 'major company' again and the internet security is so tight that I can't even access my fucking Yahoo email account. Imagine my surprise when, as munching into my home-made cheese and spicy mango chutney sandwich just a few minutes ago, I managed to access TMO!
Anyways...
Reading: That new Stephen King novel, Lisey's Story. About halfway through. Not bad. Getting better.
Started reading Men On Top whilst on holiday with my Dad in Turkey a couple of weeks back, but had to quit reading it after the 'Semen' chapter. Not the best book to read whilst hundreds of miles away from potential sex.
Watching: Heroes. It's probably been savaged on here at some point over the past month or so, but I'm really enjoying it.
Watched Gangster No. 1 over the weekend (wank), along with Mindhunters (also wank) and something else that escapes my recollection.
Fuck, there goes my lunchtime internet slot. Time for a well earned cigarette.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I watched IT last night, for the first time in years. I knew it wasn't very good, but I had forgotten just how utterly toss it really is.
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Yeah, some (all) of the torture stuff was pretty sexy. You listen to all this high-mided debate about the book, all that "honhe-hon he-hon I think it's a portrait of alpha males run amok and it's about how money can allow you to get away with anything", and wonder whether not one of these dudes got the slightest bit frisky at any of it, like when he puts the electrodes on her titties, or any of that stuff. I mean, what the hell is wrong with these people? Even sat up in bed at midnight alone, they won't ackonowledge the tiniest moment of furtive dark pleasure at turning beautiful young women into your meat-sack plaything. Sometimes I think I'm the only normal person left in the world.
Really, though? I mean I'm no stranger to pervy sex but I thought all that was just so vile it wasn't even remotely hot. Admittedly I was much younger then (e.g. more reactionary) but I was still a perve and I felt not a flickr. Just fear and disgust. Did all the blood and drilling and bone and rats-in-vagina actually make your penis hard?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
See, I thought it was too over the top to be scary. It was a lot like the sort of stuff you get at asstr.org, but better written. I dunno. Maybe it was a phase I was going through - I was looking at a lot of BDSM stuff on the internet at the time, as well, which doesn't do anything for me any more, compared to just pictures of chicks in lingerie. But yeah, a lot of the torture stuff in American Psycho seemed quite, er, exciting. You know. They're all fit chicks (at least, they were the way I imagined them), and fit chicks being terrified and big open mouthed screaming, and pink flesh being penetrated with metal objects, a nipples being tortured. You know. It's all good. Like watching the meat hook scene in Texas Chainsaw, in slow motion while speeding and smoking cigarettes. It's sort of really potent, but you kind of hope at the time noone ever finds that out about you.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I haven't got up to any torture bits yet. I guess I'm reading pretty slowly? My journey to work is now 10 minutes though.
So far I'm experiencing a mixture between amused, complacent relief that I can feel distanced from Bateman, recognise his behaviour as (or believe that his behaviour is) a parody of neurotic, narcissistic 80s masculine excess, whereas I think twenty years ago I would have only felt envy of his lifestyle and consequent insecurity about my own. (Also, I feel quite superior towards him because he doesn't even have a good time; he doesn't even enjoy himself)
Oh yes a mixture between that -- my sentence broke in half there -- and a sort of guilty aspiration to be more like Bateman. More like Bateman than I am, even. Which is a fair bit. Apart from the slicked-back hair, a lot of Bateman's behaviour could almost be a parody of my ideal life.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Did anyone see the excellent documentary about young international math' olympiads last night? It was absolutely absorbing, full of fascinatingly brilliant characters who chuckled nervously whenever confronted with emotions, as they fought their ways' to the final select 6 to represent GB at the IMO.
There was a beautifully shot montage of all the nervous tics and fidgetry performed by the olympiads during the x2 4 1/2 hour math contests.
Anyone?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I watched some of "S.W.A.T." and then a couple of CSI's.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I watched Der Letzte Mann, an accomplished silent film from 1925 I think, and a YouTube thing that mashed-up the Notorious BIG with Hitler. I recommend people watch both of them.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: I watched some of "S.W.A.T."
I was going to watch that, but decided to watch the snooker instead. It was alright.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
S.W.A.T. was fucking shit.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
I watched The Hamiltons, which was rather good I thought. An independently produced horror film about a family who've recently moved to a new neighborhood after their parents died and they had to sell the family farm, and who turn out not to be as normal as they might seem. Not the most original of scenarios but well made and with some nice twists.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Has anyone seen a short film with the innocent title "2 Girls, 1 Cup." I hear a lot about it, but I'd like to know if it would be disturbing to watch.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
I saw about the maths people in the really annoying good things you missed last night section of the metro, it looked good. I was annoyed. Especially since I was actually at home watching TV for once! (Wife Swap & Alfie - bad choices ).
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Has anyone seen a short film with the innocent title "2 Girls, 1 Cup." I hear a lot about it, but I'd like to know if it would be disturbing to watch.
I've seen it, it just two ugly girls eating poo and being sick into each others mouths, y'know, much like Cardiff town centre on a Bank Holiday weekend.
Posted by SilverGinger5 (Member # 49) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Has anyone seen a short film with the innocent title "2 Girls, 1 Cup." I hear a lot about it, but I'd like to know if it would be disturbing to watch.
Do not try to watch that. Do not google it, do not image search it. Do everything that is in your ability to forget you ever heard that title. I cannot stress strongly enough how bad an idea it would be to watch it. Yes it is very disturbing, no it isn't in any way enjoyable.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I heard of a worse one, called "Scat Swap". That one apparently disgusts even graduates of "2 Girls, One Cup".
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
I wonder if shteatrfrk (or however he spells it) still has a website. I'd look but I'm at work.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Yes, apparently people on a forum called "Fucking Nasty Shit" are puking up, repulsed, by that one.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
those girls are going to get ill. I feel a bit sick after a rich meal. I can't imagine how rough you'd feel after eating a cup of shit and puke.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
even if you puked it all out, you're still going to feel bad. Still - young love, eh?
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
How much would you do it for, Benway?
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
Essen mein scheisse
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: How much would you do it for, Benway?
a good, universal question. There are so many factors. I don't know. Depends what you're offering.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Yeah, but once you've said you would do it, for some kind of sum, you've sort of said you're a prossie, haven't you. Then it's just a question of haggling for price.
Or that's what I heard in some apocryphal story. Or perhaps I just mean in a joke, or comedy routine.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
quote:Originally posted by Abby: I saw about the maths people in the really annoying good things you missed last night section of the metro, it looked good. I was annoyed. Especially since I was actually at home watching TV for once! (Wife Swap & Alfie - bad choices ).
I saw it! Or most of it. There was one who looked like a young Benway, but with fewer teeth, and one extreme aut, who only saw his relationship with other people, such as his parents, in terms of entirely empirical matters, such as 'they give me shelter and food, I give them... er... I don't really know what I give them'.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Or that's what I heard in some apocryphal story. Or perhaps I just mean in a joke, or comedy routine.
I'd love to know where that quote really comes from. People keep attributing it to Winston Churchill, which is ridiculous. As if the Prime Minister of England would just open a conversation with someone's wife by asking if she fucks for money, and then proceed to further insult her. It's beyond implausible. The other person it keeps getting attributed to is George Bernard Shaw, which seems marginally more likely, especially if its roots are in an exchange in a play, rather than something he said in real life. Who knows. The internet doesn't seem to have a solid answer, and that's about as far as my ideas go with regard to research.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Flipping heck. A double post. Been a while since I've seen one of them.
[ 16.10.2007, 04:57: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
The Mary Whitehouse Experience did a sketch that had it being done By GB Shaw, if that helps. Them being historically accurate and all.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
apart from "2 girls, 1 cup", I also watched that new thing starring Fox Mulder. It was annoyingly alluring because this guy - Fox Mulder - basically embodied the man who you'd want to be.
Hugely successful author of only one book that's then been turned into a film (that he hates). So he's talented and loaded. Moves from New York to Hollywood, so he's cultured (new york) and like to party (LA). But he hasn't written since, and he spends his life driving around in a battered 911 (rich yet carefree - doesn't prize material goods for status), boning chicks (a lot of chicks) and hanging out in bars with his agent.
The beginning of the show started with him dreaming about getting sex from a nun, waking up to find himself receiving a blowjob from a hot young chick. Then he's kicked out, drives off in his 911, gets home to meet his hot ex-wife who clearly still loves him. She drops off his teenaged daughter. Then there's a naked chick in his house, waiting for him. Then he goes to hang out in a bookshop and pulls / bones a chick who's reading his book. Later on, after getting drunk and having a go at some woman, he meets another hot chick, and bones her. He drinks beer all the time, and has a fit body. He's not PUAing these chicks either, just wandering around in a kind of stupor, with sex landing on him over and over again.
And at the end he has a little cry because he's lonely really. Boo hoo, poor man. In a ridiculously literal sequence, he's having a tearful end-of-the-night flashback about his wife and kid, and then a cheesy acoustic version of Rocket Man starts playing. So we're treated to the line "I miss my wife" at the exactly the same moment as being presented with a soft focus sequence of his wife. The whole show, in fact, was literal and stupid. Just one long montage showing how awesome this guy's life is, and how cool he is. It's no Entourage. But I guess it was the first episode. I could see it being watchable though, just because there's plenty of tits, a porsche, and LA. And the lead male is a lazy beer drinking bastard who gets laid over and over again.
I also watched "30 Rock", which was very good. Better than the one with Fox Mulder. it included a damning yet touching portrayal of Martin Lawrence as a paranoid and deranged ego maniac. It felt like Ugly Betty, only set in the world of live TV sketch shows. Crazy corporate characters, extremely smart lines, and a generally absurdist portrait of The Biz.
[ 16.10.2007, 06:38: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
How did you get on with The Wire, Benway? I've been waiting to hear your thoughts. You didn't hate it, did you? You're not cross with me for recommending it are you?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I watched one episode and thought it looked pretty good, but since then I haven't been tempted to watch another one. I find it quite hard to keep going back to TV shows where there's a single story arc. It's like settling down to watch a 12 hour film. No matter how good you think it's going to be, there's a sense of "christ, this is going to go on forever". I will carry on one day. But, you know, I could never get into the Sopranos for the same reason. The thought of committing that amount of time to one set of characters puts me off. You know that you're not going to get any resolution after each episode, just another cliff hanger. Even at the end of the series there'll be a question mark. I'm too lazy. But I will finish The Wire, I promise.
[ 16.10.2007, 06:42: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I also watched CSI, and failed to amuse Louise with some very bad impressions of Horatio, talking as he does, but in mundane situations. The contrast between his dramatic and emphatic manner of speaking and the trivial nature of everyday things (such as trains, or telly) was supposed to be funny, but I just ended up being a dick. At least I tried though.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
remember, charlie brooker and flight of the conchords are on tonight.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
no? Have I killed tmo?
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: I also watched CSI, and failed to amuse Louise with some very bad impressions of Horatio, talking as he does, but in mundane situations. The contrast between his dramatic and emphatic manner of speaking and the trivial nature of everyday things (such as trains, or telly) was supposed to be funny, but I just ended up being a dick. At least I tried though.
I think it sounds funny, if that helps. Give an example of said mundane situation and Horatio phrase.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I think I said something like
"Mr. Wolf.....I want you... in my apartment.... now...and I want you to bring....some beer....and a pizza...."
and
"Mr. Wolf...my train... is not running on time....I want you...to let the team know....that I will be in...late"
Not really funny. But if I did the voice, you'd understand at least what I'm attempting. How he draws things out, adds pauses all over the place, and over- emphasises the subject of every sentence. Also remember that we'd had a bottle of wine, and we were both tired to the point where there was no conscious thought taking place. You know how you just go completely retarded when you're talking to your girlfriend / boyfriend in front of the telly, babbling on without being aware of speaking.
[ 16.10.2007, 07:55: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
That sounds quite funny. I think it's OK to engage in a bit of lighthearted horseplay with your partner. I think it would be quite a joyless life that insisted on sensible, considered conversation in those nquite moments togther. The other day Octavia shouted 'Eagle Claw!' and struck a kung fu pose and I retorted "Your Eagle Claw is no match for my... puppy on laminate flooring!" and skidded around in an uncoordinated parody of a newborn pup, then actually slipped over and impaled my head on the corner of the dining room table. She laughed so much her eyes filled up with water, and then she stopped when she realised I was getting blood on the rug.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
we need one more idea and we've got a sketch show.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
or an advert WKD alcoholic orange squash.
Dave TV appeared on cable last night. More repeats of Top Gear. So, the same as every other channel. Maybe they'll throw some Dog the Bounty Hunter and World's Wildest Police Chases on as well.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: But if I did the voice, you'd understand at least what I'm attempting. How he draws things out, adds pauses all over the place, and over- emphasises the subject of every sentence.
Surely you should have done sunglasses acting, and a sort of strained pun, Benway.
Like, while waiting for a train:
"I think it's time" (put your sunglasses on here!) "this journey got...back on track."
Thorn did you get Octavia another present or was that her "big one".
I am taking a real interest in people today, proud of myself.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: we need one more idea and we've got a sketch show.
Ok, what about this other thing I did once where I was lying in bed and I coughed and she was all like "Sounds like you won't be much longer for this world", so I did this whole death bed thing. You know sayign "C-come closer my ch-child... I h-have something to t-tell y-you. Y-you have a b-brother... h-he lives in Fulham" and she was all like "Yeah, with two kids. I know." You know... like a deathbed revelation that's always something banal. I don't know. It's just a thought. Could probably fill up ninety seconds each week.
[ 16.10.2007, 08:24: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
That was probably her "big present".
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: You know how you just go completely retarded when you're talking to your girlfriend / boyfriend in front of the telly, babbling on without being aware of speaking.
I know what you mean there. Just last night I did an impression of Ross Kemp bumming a Mongrel Mob member for Pia because we were getting ready to watch another Ross Kemp On Gangs. So far I've been enjoying it a lot. Ross paces about the entire world in just a pair of jeans, black shirt and rucksack, seeking answers and inside information from the worlds toughest gangs. You do feel terrified for him, because in a lot of the locations he was the only white guy there. Clearly the minority and he does all he can to appear tough, grounded and neutral. The trouble is, Ross Kemp has got a face like a baby with constipation, so he spends the most part grimacing at them, arms folded. A bit like those posters where people dress up babies in leathers and put them on a motorbike and have 'Born to be wild' written underneath. So while in South Africa, folllowing the prison gang 'The Number' they are saying things like 'so den we smesh his brens at with this pedlock' Ross has this goofy dribbly look of anger on his face. Afterwards he does a serious close up on camera outside the prison. 'So. As you can See. These men. Are brutal killers. I've done a poo. In my Pants. And it's just. Not. Funny'
I was intrigued by the London special though, because it made you realise what mewling brats the 'gangstas' are here. In comparison to Jamaica, where they were living a constant war that spanned about 50 yards away from their homes. Or Sri Lanka, where a Gangster hadn't seen his daughter from birth, for six years and could only see her because he went with Ross in a van to the prison (He'd be killed if he used public transport) and to see 10 Brixton lads making these statements like 'The Americans are the real criminals' and 'we want to do good, build community centres and that' and acting like they were from Bosnia. When they could just take a 40 minute walk and be in an entirely different borough altogether. Basically, they're trying to say they don't receive what we know are available to the public. Employment opportunities, benefits for the unemployed and compulsory education. It made me want to adopt a PENI member.
[ 16.10.2007, 08:23: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Thorn did you get Octavia another present or was that her "big one".
You've sort of confused me here, because it was her birthday last week, but I didn't think I'd mentioned it. And I don't know what *another* present refers to, because I didn't think I'd mentioned any present, because... erm. I didn't get her anything. It just doesn't seem appropriate to buy your fiance presents on her birthday, you know?
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Oh right sorry if I made you feel guilty.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
You said you were taking her out for some posh meal, didn't you? So stop pretending.
Pretending you didn't mention it, and pretending you didn't buy her anything
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr:
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: But if I did the voice, you'd understand at least what I'm attempting. How he draws things out, adds pauses all over the place, and over- emphasises the subject of every sentence.
Surely you should have done sunglasses acting, and a sort of strained pun, Benway.
Like, while waiting for a train:
"I think it's time" (put your sunglasses on here!) "this journey got...back on track."
yeah I missed out the strained pun, but I did do the whole looking sideways and looking down / raising gaze at end of sentence thing.
Hours of fun. Unlike Grissom, who you can't really do at all.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Back on topic, I am watching Battlestar Galactica the re-imagined series. I sat through 3 hours of the miniseries over the weekend, and now I'm getting back into my 8th hour or so of Season 1. I almost feel like I'm living with them.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
Last night I watched The Last King of Scotland. It was quite enjoyable, especially as my housemate knows about politics and history an ‘ting so he could fill in background. But mainly we just shouted at the protagonist for being so utterly, blindingly, stupid. I mean, inadvisable fumbles after a few drinks are hardly a rare occurrence, but if it was with the wife of a brutal and insane military dictator I think that no matter how pissed you were, a little voice might, just might go ‘is this really a good idea?’
*Spoiler* . . . . . . . He gets suspended from the ceiling by some large metal hooks through his nipples, and she gets her legs and arms swapped over, making her look like some kind of grotesque fleshy frog.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
BSG is like crack. Mmmm. I have not started season 3 yet....oh...I have no one to watch it with now
nb: I have never had crack.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: It just doesn't seem appropriate to buy your fiance presents on her birthday, you know?
Man, you better never say that out loud round my house. You be a dead man.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by Abby:
*Spoiler* . . . . . . . He gets suspended from the ceiling by some large metal hooks through his nipples, and she gets her legs and arms swapped over, making her look like some kind of grotesque fleshy frog.
LOL
I've not seen that movie yet, if that scene's not in it I'll be very disappointed.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: You said you were taking her out for some posh meal, didn't you? So stop pretending.
Oh that. No - that wasn't a birthday treat, it was just because she'd come back from a trip away. On her birthday... er. She paid for dinner. But that was because she wanted to, and I'd bought dinner the week before. I did get her a present, although it still hasn't arrived. It was a corset, from Rigby and Pellor. Is/ was/ will be if it ever fucking turns up. I've just checked and I ordered it a fortnight ago. A fucking disgraceful service.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Current favourite lame sitting room jape: cat likes to sit on swivelly office chair, which usually faces the desk. Thus, occasionally R turns the chair round with his foot, saying 'We meet at last, Mr Bond'. This goes particularly well with the cat's blank - ie evil and inscrutable - expression. Do you see? It's like the cat is a Bond villain... *wipes eyes*
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: I did get her a present, although it still hasn't arrived. It was a corset, from Rigby and Pellor.
Brilliant. That's like a present that you can benefit from too. Meaning if she dresses up in it and does a tap dance. Or you could even wear it yourself. What other presents are good for a women that you can use yourself?
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
A tap dance, how's she going to do a tap dance without the appropriate footwear?
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: What other presents are good for a women that you can use yourself?
Shotgun? Hunting rifle? I bet if you bought Vogon Poetess a shotgun, she'd be really stoked with it, but really it'd be a present for yourself. This might not work with normal women, though. A hairdryer would be another one, or a vacuum cleaner. If you buy her a vacuum cleaner, you benefit from a nice clean house. Also: cooking equipment. Yeah, there are loads. Drumkit, for example.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
A pack of smokes would be a good.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
"Do you want one?"
"Oh go on. Just the one"
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
FUCK OFF THEN.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Gutted!
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by Abby: BSG is like crack. Mmmm. I have not started season 3 yet....oh...I have no one to watch it with now
nb: I have never had crack.
I've just started with the teevee movie thing - about 50 minutes in. I like it so far - the religion with bombs thing was a bit heavy handed, or maybe I was just cringing at the bad Doctor Bashir impression by that bloke from Syriana.
I too have never had crack.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
having had crack, I can confirm that if watching BSG brings out an animalistic sexual intensity in you, creates an unstoppable drive for deviant activities, and then, two days later, leaves you feeling like you've been run over by a car, then yes, it's just the same.
[ 16.10.2007, 12:15: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: having had crack, I can confirm that if watching BSG brings out an animalistic sexual intensity in you, creates an unstoppable drive for deviant activities, and then, two days later, leaves you feeling like you've been run over by a car, then yes, it's just the same.
Crack sounds good
I don't think I'd buy a girl a Rigby and Peller corset? That's what the Queen wears, famously, so unless you fancy Helen Mirren (but uglier), I don't know why you would want that association.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I bet the queen doesn't have to wait two weeks for the fucking thing to turn up.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Things are really "buzzing" on here just now! with us three.
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
I've never had crack. It was offered, but I declined. Can't really remember why.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
I guess I have had crack then.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Got crack?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
no.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I watched Atonement last night. It is the most beautiful cinematic film that I have seen for a long time - by this I mean it really uses the language of film to tell its story in a wonderful way. I recommend it to one and all.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
come on though, Keira Knightley. She can fuck off.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
I don't know if I can stomach going to see a film based on an Ian McEwan book. He kind of pisses me off.
Posted by Nathan Bleak (Member # 1040) on :
Oh, and in answer to the thread question I have been readingA Dead Man In Deptford by Anthony Burgess, which was challenging, but rewarding. The whole time I was reading it I kept thinking it was the sort of book that would appeal to Ben, so he should maybe give that one a go if he runs out of Richard and Judy recommendations to read.
I just started The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Benway's friend Murakami. I'm enjoying it, though somehow I'm getting the impression that it's quite an early book of his, or that the translation isn't quite as slick as the other books of his I've read. The occasional slips into cliche or similes that don't really work take me out of it every now and then, which is really unusual for Murakami, but there's still that sense of his mighty control over his symbolism, clearsighted thoughtfulness and lively dialogue.
[ 18.10.2007, 05:01: Message edited by: Nathan Bleak ]
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
i am reading big babies by michael bywater. it is fantastic, and makes me want to be a grownup more than anything else in the world.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I watched
midnight cowboy which I liked a lot, more than I thought I would. Not often that I'm into 'performances', but both the lads in that were amazing. Only annoying thing about it was the soundtrack. It was great, but almost all of it I've heard in other places, films, etc, but I can't remember where. Still, excellent. Wish I'd seen it earlier, back when I was creative.
Rosetta. no lols to be had here. Dreary belgian verite thing about a girl who lives with her alcoholic mother in a caravan park. Everything is grey, rainy, and muddy. Things is fucked up, and this chick is really cold hearted, just trying to cope, trying to get a job at a roadside waffle place. Nobody speaks much. Ends in a suicide bid. The film answers the question "what would you eat before you attempted suicide" - the answer, of course, is a single hard boiled egg. Grim. But good! I 'enjoyed' it.
Scream 3. Watched this years ago, and I didn't really want to watch it again, but I had to find out who the killer was. A bad film by all accounts. Irritatingly, I ended up staying awake until 2.30 to see the reveal. Not worth it.
Ghostbusters 2. Saw this last night. Probably only the third time I've watched it, and I tried to approach it without a critical eye. It was entertaining enough. Something about collectivism defeating the threat of european immigration maybe, but who cares. Bill Muwway was great. I liked it when Dana says she's going to 'put the baby down' as in bed, and then Bill Muwway says he'll do it, and then goes to the baby "you're short, and your belly button sticks out too far". Lol, you think he's going to put the baby to bed, but instead he just 'puts its down' in a different way lolll.
[ 22.10.2007, 06:22: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
also watched tim and eric awesome show great job! and moral orel. Orel was more disgusting then usual, because in it he learns that it's a sin to waste anything that god gives you, including urine.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
I watched Dirty Dancing last night, and loved every second, like some sappy girl. I even cried at the 'lift' at the end. No, I'm not proud.
Also, Californication, which was most enjoyable. Mainly watched it because of Benway's recommendation, so thanks for that, Dr B.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
tonight I'm going to get my rocks off at the National Film Theatre, watching "Zoo" - a documentary about people fucking horses. Wheee!
Posted by Hades (Member # 57) on :
My reading at the moment is probably as far away from high brow and interlectual as you can get before you reach the Mr men books. Currently reading Star Wars: rouge planet. I decided a couple of months ago that i was going to work my way through the enitre star wars book range.... which turns out is a hell of a lot of books.
Currently watching californication - have to agree that this is a great show. Its ocupying the place in my tv watching sourly missed by the lack of new Studio 60.
Pushing daisies - this has to be the quirkest new offering this tv season. About a guy who can bring people back to life with a touch. bizarly protrayed and comically narrated it is well worth a look.
Posted by Zygote (Member # 883) on :
I watched two episodes of Father Ted last night. They were most amusing. Unfortunately I missed the snooker final as I spent all day moving my life's belongings into my girlfriend's flat, which proved to be a most tiring and time-consuming experience. I read some more of Lisey's Story, which is just getting better and better. The fun never stops.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
looks like the fun does stop, right after you post.
[ 22.10.2007, 09:03: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Cold.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
that wasn't meant in a nasty way all. Does that appear cold?
Posted by SilverGinger5 (Member # 49) on :
It's not in any way warm. Cold might be an overstatement but I guess saying "Room temperature" isn't as sinister a comment.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Tepid.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Bracing?
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
oh dear, that's no good at all. Seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up, but you can't seriously accuse somebody of killing the forum these days can you? Considering that 2-3 hours breaks are the norm?
Posted by SilverGinger5 (Member # 49) on :
Shouldn't Thorn be posting more anyway? I think he can probably be blamed for the lack of posts today.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Today thorn will be feeling optimistic, Who needs that shitty job anyway, the world's his oyster, if life deals you a lemon make it into a lemonade etc. He'll be spending some time searching for new jobs on the internet and in the papers, updating his CV. Slowly as the day goes on the early enthusiasm begins to fade. There's no good jobs, or the ones that are good he's not qualified for. He takes a break, flicks on the TV, Loose women is on. He goes to the kitchen and picks up the toaster, climbs the stairs, starts to run the bath.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
TD: "Hello pussy what's your name?"
OSCAR: "PURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"
[ 22.10.2007, 10:50: Message edited by: Tilde ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
that's a very handsome cat.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I was on vacation last week. Could someone bring me up to speed on forum events, please?
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Ant can you tell your wife that I have recorded her CD, but have left it at work and I am off all this week.
Will post it early next week.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
London moved to Stockholm, Thorn got sacked, jhonj got beaten and robbed, Ringo ditched his cokehead girlfriend and is going to become an IronMan, I got dumped and wallowed around in misery (nb. I am not Ringo's ex) eating pizza.
Ok?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Abby: (nb. I am not Ringo's ex)
Not yet...
quote:Originally posted by Mart: stuff
Kellifer will be over the moon.
[ 22.10.2007, 11:15: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: I watched Dirty Dancing last night, and loved every second, like some sappy girl. I even cried at the 'lift' at the end. No, I'm not proud.
Yep, me too, to all of the above. I'm pretty sure that was the first video I ever bought too.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: Bill Muwway was great. I liked it when Dana says she's going to 'put the baby down' as in bed, and then Bill Muwway says he'll do it, and then goes to the baby "you're short, and your belly button sticks out too far". Lol, you think he's going to put the baby to bed, but instead he just 'puts its down' in a different way lolll.
He also says 'and you're a terrible burden upon your mother' or something - this is about the only line, apart from 'you are like the buzzing of flies to him!' that I remember from that film.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: Also, Californication, which was most enjoyable. Mainly watched it because of Benway's recommendation, so thanks for that, Dr B.
You (and Hades) should also watch 30 Rock - it's very good, and much funnier than Studio 60.
Posted by Hades (Member # 57) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball:
quote:Originally posted by herbs: Also, Californication, which was most enjoyable. Mainly watched it because of Benway's recommendation, so thanks for that, Dr B.
You (and Hades) should also watch 30 Rock - it's very good, and much funnier than Studio 60.
I'll catrinly try that.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
last night I watched a semi-documentary called 'zoo' which was about a load of dudes up in Washington State who used to let horses stick it in them, until one dude bit off more than he could chew, and died of internal bleeding. Quite an interesting story, but the film was like 999 crossed with Jam, and not in a good way. Self-conscious 'beautiful' photography of the nearby scenery is put to a soundtrack of ambient flotation tank music and a sparse scattering of painfully slow soundbites from some of the dudes who were involved. Any potentially interesting fictional framing of the incident is marred by the need to stay half in reality, and vice versa. Disjointed, egotistical effort from a self obsessed director. Would work in the chill out room of a club in 1996, but as a film, it's ass. Horse's ass. The only good bit was when a po-faced horse rescuer told of her horror when they were 'rescuing' the stallion involved (only to chop it's cock off moments later as a precaution) and a little horse came up and gave it a blow job.
I'm watching this stuff so you don't have to.
[ 23.10.2007, 05:38: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
if you want to be like me, then there's still loads of places left in the 'experimenta' section of the festival. I'm going to book something for sunday.
The only other film I've got booked so far is this one - "An off-the-wall comedy horror featuring murderous hair extensions".
Anybody else going to watch any films at the LFF?
[ 23.10.2007, 05:52: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
I really wanted to see Mister Lonely (one from my ouvre) as I haven't seen it yet, and am really interested in seeing how they put it together - but sadly, am working. There were about 12 films I circled when I got the broucher through, but will probably see none of them now...
Posted by Hades (Member # 57) on :
I recently bought on DVD the latest David Lynch offering "Inland Empire" and have to say that i wasn't very impressed.
I usually like Lynch's films but this one dragged a lot and didn't hold my interest. I actually turned it off to do something else and only came back to finish it a week later.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: I watched Atonement last night. It is the most beautiful cinematic film that I have seen for a long time - by this I mean it really uses the language of film to tell its story in a wonderful way. I recommend it to one and all.
I don't at all understand the comment about using film language to tell its story, but it was a very beautiful film and I watched it in a sort of mesmeric state. I won't call it actual enjoyment, but it lives on in my mind. Very little else lives there as a rule.
Midnight Cowboy is a great film bignuts. A great film. I also think The Warriors is too for different reasons. I don't know enough about filmography to be able to explain why neither send me to sleep the way many films from that period do.
I watched 300 again last weekend. I am really fascinated by it and love the way it looks. Some of the men have nice thighs too. I appreciate nice, chunky thighs on a man. The film was a damn sight better than the something 4 one I recently saw; the one with the wet super-heroes who are better in the comics. Even Spiderman 3 was better than that film. Hellboy was better than that one and they are both a 12 certificate.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Sam, what do you make of the accusations that 300 is ultra nationalist, pro-fascist nonsense?
I only ask because we had a big debate on it that started on page 53 and dragged on for ages with Nathan getting so annoying that eventually I had to pull some strings and get him sacked from his job.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Inland Empire pissed me off. The main lesson from the film was probably don't go drunk into a 3 hour long David Lynch film, but really. There wasn't even a sense of a narrative. Lost Highway and Mullholland Drive worked for me because at least the films has consistent pacing and a discernable structure, even if sequence and character were loose. There were mysteries in those films that became clearer the more you thought about it, and the films opened up with repeated viewings. But Inland Empire just seemed like a montage, and it left me bored and angry. I don't think I could bear to sit through that again.
Did you know Inland Empire is a region of California? I only found that out the other day.
[ 23.10.2007, 08:35: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: Sam, what do you make of the accusations that 300 is ultra nationalist, pro-fascist nonsense?
I only ask because we had a big debate on it that started on page 53 and dragged on for ages with Nathan getting so annoying that eventually I had to pull some strings and get him sacked from his job.
OH, obviously I wasn't reading tmo that day.
tbh I don't make too much of it. It may be true but as I personally have no trouble separating film from reality I didn't think I would come to personal harm watching it and enjoying the grainy colour and firm thighs.
I always check to make sure I am not buying anything nescafe make - but I know you can't always tell so I bet stuff slips by and I know other manufacturers are also killing thousands of babies with pushy sales techniques of powered milk and I can't boycott them all. I don't buy the Sun, Daily Mail or Telegraph on principal, and I do contribute towards a couple of nationally known, reputable charities. I reckon there is a limit to what I can fight against and I do my best where I can and sometimes the choices I make about where I am not going to be lathered involve very selfish reasons I am entirely unapologetic about.
Like the grainy colour and very firm thighs in that film.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I see where you are coming from tilde now I have read a page of the discussion.
The film is superb on the big screen.
[ 23.10.2007, 10:25: Message edited by: sam ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
last night I watched Night of the Creeps which is a cheery little horror comedy from the mid eighties about an outbreak of zombifiying brain slugs at an American college. It's very self-aware, yet this is handled carefully, so the whole thing remains subtle enough to be believable as a proper b-movie horror. It stays out of parody territory, and doesn't become a boring 'homage' fest, even though, for example, every main character is named after a famous horror director, and the device of the film is lifted straight from Shivers. It's got everything you might want from a horror comedy - lovable characters, quotable dialogue, and moments of decent gore. I enjoyed it more than I was expecting, and will probably try and pick it up on DVD if it ever comes out.
Also watched "They Crawl", which featured killer CG cock-a-roaches, but it was TV-movie ass. Flat, boring bullshit. The only highlight was a bizarre chase scene involving Mickey Rourke, who appeared completely unaware of what was going on around him.
[ 26.10.2007, 08:28: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I've got King of New York and Last House on the Left to watch this weekend.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
TV movies really are insulting gobshite for the most part aren't they. I've a friend who i regularly watch movies with, we go to Blockbusters and whatnot, usually a couple of times a week. Anyway, she bought this box set of TV movies. 'creature features' or something like that. But she keeps saying we should watch them and I'm like, but I don't want to because they're all toss. Shark Attack 3 was ok, probably one of the best TV movies I've seen, but even that was like watching a porno movie with all of the sex bits removed.
She says we should watch the crocodile ones. I mean, she's even watched them already and wants me to see them. But I'm like, crocodiles. Crocodiles are shit. If a regular crocodile is shit, then a massive crocodile is a massive load of shit. Y'know? It doesn't even feature anything silly good, like Boa Vs Python. It's just wank.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Alligator, on the other hand, is a sweet film. At least, it was one of my favourites when I was a kid.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I'll have to see if Aligator is among them. it might be.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I love Aligator. Best documentary ever.
[ 26.10.2007, 09:39: Message edited by: jonesy999 ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
yeah yeah
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
King of New York is a strange film by an odd director with a weirdo in the titular role. In KONY Christopher Walken plays a big time dealer who's just got out the pen. Him and his crew start taking out all the other coke barons in New York, so Walken can raise enough money to fund a hospital. While that may sound like a Japanese yakuza flick, it's definitely a Ferrara film.
New York looks incredibly gritty as the vampire-like Walken leads his people through a series of bloody gun battles. Snipes, Caruso and Fishburne all star as hoods, and are all looking young and tough. Sadly, hailing as it does from the early nineties, the whole film is dripping in New Jack Swing fashion and music, which just makes it seem dated and cheesy. Like New Jack City, but for adults. There's nothing new in the story here, but as I said, it's definitely a Ferrara film.
Last House on the Left is so named purely for the ominious connotation of "last", "house" and "left". There's actually no last house on the left in the film. Wes Craven's 1972 remake of The Vigin Spring is pretty good. Amazing perfomances from the baddies as they kidnap, torture, rape, and finally kill a couple of naive teenagers in a Connecticut forest. The verite style and constant folky soundtrack turn the violence into a strange parable of the vietnam era. It took a few years before the world caught up with what Craven was doing here. Rubbing america's nose in it's own shit. A cold, angry film that should be watched by everybody who is too young to remember the seventies. Sadly though, I'm sure that you miss something by watching the UK release. They cut out the very things that made this film different. You can go back, watch them online etc, but still. The cuts are obvious.
Also watched The Ninth Gate. Seventies throwback satan-on-earth action, lacking atmosphere, and with an uninteresting performance from Depp. I felt a bit cheated after sitting through this. It seeemed like it wanted to pick up where Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist etc left off, but it was lacking any kind of unease. There's a chance that it was trying portray Lucifer as not that bad, maybe a reversal of those films, but it just made satan seem dreary and fusty. Anyway, the film's about a book dealer who is hired to find two copies of a book that was supposedly based on a book written by Satan himself. So the man (depp) travels around europe talking to people, looking at books and having adventures. Lots of mysterious people, and some hidden codes to unravel. Bleh.
[ 30.10.2007, 06:48: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
[ 30.10.2007, 06:49: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Just finished reading The Damned Utd, which was excellent - made me want an ongoing series of the adventures of Brian Clough. There was talk of the book being made into a film, with thinking-man's Mike Yarwood, Michael Sheen as Clough.
Started watching the Shield, for grim gritty urban modern televisual landscaping it's quite good - a lot funnier than it sold itself as being, and more like Homicide meets Soprano's than NYPD Blue as the box claimed.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I am watching Supergirl with the DVD commentary. It's disappointing. This afternoon, the director's cut of Superman II.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
c. Something oldschool like wispa bars or spangles f. A reference to masturbation
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
So, referring to anything pre-1990 and anyone male or female who could be conceived as attractive is the giveaway sign of my posting style. Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
d. Some sort of smiley
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
Nah, ignore me wonderstarr, I'm only messing. Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
no you're not...
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I think you said an "ironic" smiley and I meant that one above.
I'm really sorry I watched Supergirl again, actually -- some twenty-two years since last viewing. I kind of knew it wasn't very good, but I didn't realise it was a horrible tedious mess and not entertaining in any way at all.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Also the back of the box lists "theatrical trailer" and "trailer", and there's only one trailer on the disc.
I think I'll do some pilates and book an eyebrow wax to cheer myself up.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I was about to suggest the original Batman movie with the commentary by Adam West and Burt Ward would be much more rewarding viewing, but then I realised you probably already knew that..
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
DVD was very new-fangled the last time I properly got into Batman movies! So, I didn't know it existed. I don't think I even watched a DVD until... 2003 or something.
I did watch the first five minutes of Tim Burton's Batman on DVD this morning. It doesn't look very impressive either.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Well I don't know about any of the 'modern' films. I mean the one with Adam west, with Joker, Cat-woman, the riddler et al. I've had it on DVD for aaaages and it's still hilarious, especially with the commentary.
Though thinking back I remember you saying something about not having much time for the camp, tongue-in-cheek Batman series.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Au contraire mon ami, I think it's probably the most enjoyable Batman on TV or in the cinema, apart from the animated series perhaps.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
You should totally get it then. If you've not seen it for a few years, it's almost certainly even better than you remember.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I did watch the first five minutes of Tim Burton's Batman on DVD this morning. It doesn't look very impressive either.
I watched 40 odd minutes of Batman Returns the other day and was shit. I'd always remembered it as vaguely decent... but, no. It didn't really seem to have any direction to its story. Stuff just kind of happened without any real sense of forward momentum. There's the attack on the Christmas Lights party that is supposed to be about kidnapping Christopher Walken, but they don't really seem to care about him at the time. They just drive around kicking things over while the target runs away. In fact it's only blind luck that lets them capture him. Plus, it's a really leaden, unexciting action sequence (something that hampered the first movie, IIRC). Footage of men firing guns. Footage of men firing back. Really static and wearing. Plus, when the batmobile turns up, it chases a thug down a blind alley, and then looks a bit... stuck. So a stand comes out from under it, lifts the car, and rotates it through 180 degrees so it's facing the right way. It's supposed to be another "Wow, cool!" moment for Batman's arsenal... but it's a fucking... it's a gadget that makes doing three point turns easier. It's like something your parents would come up with. "Oooo! That would be handy!" Plus, you have to wonder what situation lead to Batman adding such a thing to the batmobile's ordinance. Clearly he'd fucked up there before, stuck in an alley, punting the vehicle against the walls like fucking Austin Powers.
Scenes seem disconnected from the main film and - although it's been said before - Batman really is barely in the first half of the movie, and when he is it's just footage of him watching The Penguin.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
You're probably right** but I just spent £130 on shit like Escape from New York/LA, Aeon Flux* and Ultraviolet, and I don't have any room or money right now.
------ * they sent me Everyone Loves Raymond instead.
** Ringo
PS. I think all the Batman films from 1989-1997 are pretty bad in different ways.
[ 30.10.2007, 09:38: Message edited by: wonderstarr ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I would offer to lend it to you but a) I think it's unlikely I could be bothered to actually post it, and b) based on past experience* it might be some time before I get it back
*I lent Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 to popular TMOer Mikee Teevee and not only was it the better part of a year before I saw it again, he even wrote a song just to rub it in that he'd not returned it to me. The shit.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I will probably buy it next month, but thanks. My bank phoned me Friday to check whether someone had fraudulently used my account to buy all this shit off Amazon. I had to say no, it was me, and if you look, I do the same every fucking payday.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
martin I'm going to get 'a matter of life and death' this week from my dvd rental company this week. Expect a painfully sloppy appraisal at some point.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Great. I've got Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth on its way.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Great.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Yeah.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
You poor, poor man
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
lol Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
the other film I'm getting is "the conversation". I put Uzak in the machine the other day, but ended up watching gamespot's "on the spot" show instead. I know that when I do finally watch Uzak I'll love it, but the idea of a turkish film about two depressed men always turns me off. In my head I can already picture it - long still shots, people sitting around not talking to each other. People looking at objects that have significance. People walking. People holding back tears. Maybe some shouting and violence at one point. Possibly a suicide. And turkey. Turkey to me seems like a place where nothing works properly, poverty runs rampant, and people are generally stressed about religion and politics. I've never watched an Iranian film for the same reason. All these supposedly amazing indie flicks coming out of Iran, but you just know/assume that they're going to be fucking miserable. Sparse shots, knackered buildings, children with no shoes who become fixated on things like kites or footballs, metaphors piled up so densely you can't tell where one ends and another one starts. Rape. Bastards. Death, but not in a glitzy John Woo way, but a painful kitchen sink way that wrenches everybody. Old women dressed in black, tears running down their wrinkly, punchable faces. The inescapable misery and hollowness of life, rammed down your throat until you have to turn it off and watch a father ted dvd.
It's going to be with a very heavy heart that I finally manage to watch that film.
Some films are like that aren't they. You think they're going to be the biggest fucking drag ever, and then they turn out to be okay.
[ 30.10.2007, 11:38: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
The Conversation is really good.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
Great!
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
I saw Eastern Promises the other day. And, therefore, Viggo Mortensen's anus & bollocks, from all sort of angles.
Posted by Tilde (Member # 1215) on :
f. A reference to masturbation
Sorry Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by mart: The Conversation is really good.
It's excellent.
If I may recommend a little gem to you, also featuring the Hackman, The Scarecrow, featuring Gene and Al Pacino, pre-shouty period. It's an excellent, overlooked 70's gem, I tell you.
Oh, and The Passenger (with Jack Nicholson) is beautiful.
I have Three days of the condor, vanishing point, elephant man and all the presidents men in, managed to get them in before the 'dvd embargo' issued by Mrs the Ball, using the 'they were ordered ages ago, and must have been delayed in the postal strike' pass.
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I saw Eastern Promises the other day. And, therefore, Viggo Mortensen's anus & bollocks, from all sort of angles.
really? his anus? mark kermode says that in his opinion viggo mortensen is the new robert de niro. maybe thats what you have to do to qualify nowadays- show the world your anus. i mean, is it just me, or is that not... just...
Posted by dance margarita (Member # 848) on :
i suppose now he really is lord of the rings.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Oh very good.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita:
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I saw Eastern Promises the other day. And, therefore, Viggo Mortensen's anus & bollocks, from all sort of angles.
really? his anus? mark kermode says that in his opinion viggo mortensen is the new robert de niro. maybe thats what you have to do to qualify nowadays- show the world your anus. i mean, is it just me, or is that not... just...
I always thought that was more Harvey Kietels thing - showing arse and letting out a terrible moan...
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita:
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: I saw Eastern Promises the other day. And, therefore, Viggo Mortensen's anus & bollocks, from all sort of angles.
really? his anus? mark kermode says that in his opinion viggo mortensen is the new robert de niro. maybe thats what you have to do to qualify nowadays- show the world your anus. i mean, is it just me, or is that not... just...
It's pretty quickly cut, but I definitely saw the underside of his bollocks... you know, the... the perininum or something? The bit that connects the end of his arsecrease to the vulnerable squashiness of his ballbag.
Anus was surely in shot then, though my attention was drawn by the sight of Aragorn's testicles.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: I always thought that was more Harvey Kietels thing - showing arse and letting out a terrible moan...
lolol. That moan of angst is up there with my all-time favourite amusing noises in film. It only comes second to Arnies 'straining' noise.
Posted by wonderstarr (Member # 1158) on :
Superman II, Richard Donner's cut, was very interesting and worth watching -- it made up for the disappointment of Supergirl.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
.
[ 30.10.2007, 21:32: Message edited by: H1ppychick ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I watched Phantasm last night. I hadn’t seen that one before and I’ve got to say, it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about. It’s meant to be a classic and I’m sure several people on TMO have named it as such. But it’s just... not very good. The premise is pretty sketchy, the acting horrendous, the scripting pretty bad, the editing and camerawork are patchy at best, the musical score a bad joke, and special effects which are anything but. It feels similar to a few Lucio Fulci films but without the relentless gore factor which make his movies so compelling.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t insultingly terrible, like Don’t Go in the Woods, it’s vaguely entertaining. But it’s certainly no horror masterpiece. About the best thing about it is the array of fabulous 70’s hairstyles and facial hair. Oh, and camp Phil Collins, he’s pretty good.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
Phantasm is the one with the Tall Man right? That whole series of films is great because they're so cheesy and seventies-tastic. those little flying things that drill into people's heads are rather entertaining as well..
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
"camp phil collins" was one of the less successful summer schemes for highschoolers in the eighties.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
sorry about that.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
quote:Originally posted by Physic: Phantasm is the one with the Tall Man right? That whole series of films is great because they're so cheesy and seventies-tastic. those little flying things that drill into people's heads are rather entertaining as well..
I guess I've just seen so many camp, cheesey horror films from the 70s and 80s, Phantasm doesn't really offer much that I've not already seen done camper and cheesier. Kind of like how people say that films like Hostel and Saw and whatnot are really awfully gory and disturbing, when I'm watching them thinking, yeah I suppose it's pretty bad, but it's certainly not the worst I've seen.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: Superman II, Richard Donner's cut, was very interesting and worth watching -- it made up for the disappointment of Supergirl.
Just today I read the Richard Donner-penned Bizarro three-parter in Action Comics. I only bought it because it was drawn by Eric Powell, normally I don't like Superman stories. This one was pretty funny, though. The art was fantastic.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by Physic: Phantasm is the one with the Tall Man right? That whole series of films is great because they're so cheesy and seventies-tastic. those little flying things that drill into people's heads are rather entertaining as well..
1 and 2 are good - but after that, they realise that the actors are crap and go all silly for silly's sake.
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
Benway, have you watched A Matter of Life and Death yet?
I watched The Awful Truth last night, as promised. I might say some more about it tonight, but I probably won't.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: I have Three days of the condor...
Oh, that's a big favourite of mine. Template for any number of classy thrillers, including the Bourne movies I reckon.
Don't forget to listen out for the "This is the Panic Office..." sample used on Fitter Happier by that Radiohead (and credited on the album as being from "Flight Of The Condor" duh).
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
I watched some music videos on The Hits last night. They have a little middle aged woman in the bottom right corner of the screen doing sign language and dancing.
[ 15.11.2007, 09:27: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
The Mighty Boosh. As enjoyable as ever, despite the obvious budget increase. Although I do worry about the potential misuse of Noir's Indie Celebradar.
[ 16.11.2007, 05:47: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
I realised this morning that I'd forgotten to watch it, grr. Will have to download it asap and get my boosh fix.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65:
quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: I have Three days of the condor...
Oh, that's a big favourite of mine. Template for any number of classy thrillers, including the Bourne movies I reckon.
Don't forget to listen out for the "This is the Panic Office..." sample used on Fitter Happier by that Radiohead (and credited on the album as being from "Flight Of The Condor" duh).
Will do - hoping to watch this soon - Mrs the Ball scrunched her nose and suggested it might be a bit 'rough' for her dilicate eyes, so it's been sitting and waiting and waiting and waiting...
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: The Mighty Boosh. As enjoyable as ever, despite the obvious budget increase. Although I do worry about the potential misuse of Noir's Indie Celebradar.
I still haven't seen the new series due to chronic amnesia re when it's on, but, I hired a car at the weekend and the fucking thing didn't have an aerial, which I only realised when I was a couple of miles into a traffic jam out of London and couldn't go back and complain. So I had to drive on my own to Manchester with the radio sounding like the World Service on shortwave in Calcutta in 1935. Fortunately, in the petrol station they had some CDs. I nearly bought The Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady. But then I saw The Mighty Boosh 3CD complete radio series. Sweet. Tell you what, the music's bloody ace. I'd only heard it on a tinny radio before.
Er, end of non-smission.
Posted by Samuelnorton (Member # 48) on :
Saw I am Legend at the weekend, which was pretty decent save for the slightly disappointing ending. The image of a post-apocalyptic NYC topped the similar London scenes in 28 Days Later.
Reading: The State of Africa, by Martin Meredith - a fascinating potted history of the dark continent.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
watched a lot of films recently. 2019: After the Fall of New York, Lifeforce, Omen IV, Red Room, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Forced Entry, Delirium, 2009: Bronx Warriors, Massacre at Dinosaur Valley, Mangiati vivi!, Trilogy of Lust 2, Beyond the Darkness, House at the Edge of the Park, Hollywood Meatcleaver Massacre, and some Kenneth Anger films.
favourites were probably Let's Scare Jessica to Death due to it's strange, lo-fi folksy atmosphere and Delirium, because I enjoyed the mix of massive boobs, violent murders, and surreal hallucination sequences.
Worst (and most gratuitous) was probably Red Room. "Forgettable, amateurish splatter- and rape-fest"
I'm reading a biography of andy milligan.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
[ 02.01.2008, 06:26: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Did anyone ever actually do a review of transformers on here?
I saw it a couple of weeks ago and thought it was absolutely brilliant, but I get the feeling that Thorn or Benway might be able to tell me why I'm some kind of sucker for enjoying it.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I have seen it. I didn't enjoy it at all, but I did think that the scene where bumblebee humiliated the sector 7 official by urinating on his head seemed a bit extreme for a kids' film.
eta: Actually, I didn't hate it. It was very boring, empty, and stupid, but it had a couple of momentarily dazzling set pieces.
[ 02.01.2008, 07:41: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
There were a lot of bad bits to it, I'll admit. Ropey acting, the peeing scene, but for me the sectacle of hundred foot tall robots fighting each other in the middle of a city was done so perfectly that the rest of the film was completely forgivable. I honestly don't think I could ever have imagined a better giant robot fight scene, even if I was still 8 years old.
The bits with Starscream flying around and transforming made me want to whoop and holler out loud at my TV
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
the city fight was where I stopped paying any attention at all, so tedious was the cgi fest. The best bit was at the beginning when the helicopter landed and then went bad. That initial transformation had a slight wow factor, but after that it was a bit like, yeah, I get it, they transform into robots and shoot guns. For me, it would have worked better if there were fewer robots, less ridiculous shit involving idiotic government agents, and shorter gun battles. Also, the robots should have felt a bit more like alien beings, rather than a pack of righteous frat boys. I couldn't see any reason as to why optimus and the lads would really care that much about the humans. Also, the relationship between the two main characters seemed like ass. None of it felt genuine.
I watched Fast and the Furious the other day, and I think I preferred that to Transformers. The hopelessness of FnF all gave it a kind of charm. Like a badly 'riced' Ford, there was something endearing about the massive distance between the fantasy and the reality of what the film was trying to do. With Transformers though, I couldn't even tell what it was trying to do. The tone was too weird. It was a bad film, but also heartless.
[ 02.01.2008, 08:01: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I'm sure thorn loved it though. He's a man of the people when it comes to the pictures.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I don't know about that. If I remember rightly Thorn accused me of supporting Nazis when I said I enjoyed 300.
[ 02.01.2008, 08:11: Message edited by: Ringo ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
but didn't you say that 300 had no parallels to modern conflict? Let's not go back to that thread eh.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
I also watched Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, which was very good.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
I merely said that although parallels could be drawn with current conflicts and political situations, I didn't think was the intention of the people responsible for the film, who really ultimately just wanted to make a film about some kickass Spartans because Spartans, much like Ninjas, are super cool. And Thorn turned this around to infer that I was saying there was no such thing as subtext and allegory and whatnot in any film ever. But yeah, let's not get into that one eh.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
in the end I think we all agreed that you were wrong, but let's not drag up this argument again.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
But surely by extension you're agreeing with Thorn that there is actually no such thing as a film which seeks to do nothing more than entertain. That every film ever made has some kind of political or social agenda behind it.
And all because I said it was a big dumb action film.
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
come on ringo, let's not do this.
Posted by Ringo (Member # 47) on :
Fine. But let's not throw words like 'wrong' around like that. There's no such thing as wrong when it comes to films.
Unless you say that Underworld is anything other than offensively bad.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I read Douglas Coupland's Jpod over Christmas which I quite enjoyed, now I'm reading Eleanor Rigby by the same author, how 90's !
I watched I am legend, which was shit.
Transformers was ace !
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
darryn, you're wrong.
Posted by Physic (Member # 195) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: I watched I am legend, which was shit.
I was going to watch it this afternoon but when I got to the cinema, far from being nice and quiet there was instead a huge queue of noisy irritating teens, so I decided not to bother. Is it really that bad then?
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
I really didn't rate it, it was OK in the start but ended badly and wasn't anything like the book, which I reasonably enjoyed.
My main gripe (and for someone who insisted the film was shit this might seem pretty strange) is that it was too short.
Too much story or rather back story was missing, it felt rushed and seemed like something that had great potential but that was held back by the studio from being a turly good film.
Also, WTF Bob Marley ? Legend ? I am Legend ? WTF NO.
And Benway, Transformers really was ace
[ 02.01.2008, 13:26: Message edited by: Darryn.R ]
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: I read Douglas Coupland's Jpod over Christmas which I quite enjoyed, now I'm reading Eleanor Rigby by the same author, how 90's !
I just finished The Gum Thief, which I really liked and highly recommend - I thought it was much better than Jpod (which was fun but kind of OTT) and closer to his earlier books. Also, I didn't even realise Douglas Coupland had a new book out until I saw it in waterstones while christmas shopping, so it was a nice surprise.
Posted by Darryn.R (Member # 1) on :
Yup, Gum Theif is next MG. Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
finally started on The Wire, season 1. Done 7 hours of it now, and it's very good. The only thing that's spoilt it is learning that the dude who plays McNulty is an eton educated lad from sheffield. I mean, I understand that actors aren't the same as the characters they play, but you know. I keep imaginging I've heard him lapse into northen now.
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
His accent does slip occasionally yeah, but he grows on you, don't worry.
We're up to about episode 7 of season 5 now and it's just got better and better, so stick with it.
I'm currently loving Reaper too, watched 10 episodes of that last weekend.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
What is that thing that Eddie Izzard was in recenlty?
Hmm?
Is it any good?
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
The Riches, and yeah. Not bad.
Posted by missgolightly (Member # 34) on :
I saw about two thirds of the season and liked it, but then kept forgetting it was on and missed the rest. I'd like to see more at some point but I'm not desperate to, so yeah, 'not bad' and 'watchable' sums it up really.
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
I've been reading Crash by JG Ballard and watching Ugly Betty which is ace. I'm so fucking middlebrow.
[ 04.02.2008, 04:59: Message edited by: London ]
Posted by Jimmy Big Nuts (Member # 895) on :
finished season 1 of The Wire. Really enjoyed it, as you might expect. The Wallace 'clean-up' was particularly harrowing. Already got the second series waiting on the shelf.
Posted by doc d (Member # 781) on :
season 2= ace
i have the first seven of season 5. but her indoors is going with "lets rewatch the whole lot. 1-5. beginning to end".
i feel i am going to be a shell of my former self.
Posted by jnhoj (Member # 286) on :
I read Jpod, didn't think much of it tbh, just wasn't very funny or insightful.
I've just read T Pratchetts last 3 and making money is just a not as good postal. Postal was super relevant to me cus I was a postie and also a telecoms worker so that was fun.
Then I read Dennis Cooper's Try, thanks to Mcnadrew, which I thought was stupid.
Then I read sopranos, thanks to mcandrew, which was much better.
Posted by Carter (Member # 426) on :
Heh. My father got in an excellent namedrop a few weeks ago. I was collecting some books from my parents' house, and he asked me if I had any Pratchett. Bit confused, I said yes, and asked why.
"Oh, I was sitting next to this nice lady called Antonia the other night at a dinner party, and she recommended them as a good light read"
"Antonia who"
"Byatt..."
So. You know. That's a double burn to those who don't like Pratchett or dinner parties, and those who haven't won the Booker prize.
That's ben and Thorn, isn't it?
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
lol at thorn.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
What? We're the only two that haven't won the Booker? That's depressing.
Speaking of depressing, on the way to work today I finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, which is supremely, monumentally depressing in a cosmic kind of way. Just a relentless description of man's inhumanity to man the point of which seems to be to highlight the pointless futility of all life the defining characteristic of which is suffering. Even The Road seemed to have more of a ray of light, being about the presence of Love even at the end of all things. Blood Meridian is just a grind through perpetual human misery.
[ 15.02.2008, 08:36: Message edited by: Thorn Davis ]
Posted by Carter (Member # 426) on :
Pretty much. I hear Ralph only got the Bollingen, which he thinks gives him parity.
*snicker
Posted by ralph (Member # 773) on :
Seems that you're misinformed old chap. I was offered, but declined the Bollingen, once I learned that Ezra Pound had been a prior recipient.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jimmy Big Nuts: reading a herman hesse book called steppenwolf.
I started this recently. I'd been looking forward to it but it's a bit... you know. By page eighty it's like I understand he feels alienated and conflicted. I totally get that. Can we move on please? Judging by Hesse's foreword, things are going to develop a bit from there, but at the moment I'm getting a Hamilton sense of being given the same information over and over again.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
Oh ratfuck. I've replied to the wrong 'what are you reading and watching thread'. Now what a fucking mess I've made. Of course if these fucking threads didn't exist this would never have happened, but I suppose it's important to have these gargantuan threads where posts disappear, that newbies will never get to grips with, and that drag the media forum to inactivity in the process.
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