Archive for January, 2006
Tuesday, January 31st, 2006
Knowing Adam’s love of Star Wars we naturally thought he might like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and we weren’t wrong. It was a little bit saucier than I remembered but he was oblivious and he always shuts his eyes during kissing scenes anyway. He didn’t quite follow what was going on but reminding him of Star Wars parallels kept him on track. The amazing fight scenes are awesome for any age group so they would have kept him interested anyway; a particular favourite of his was the fight in the restaurant when Jen Yu beats all comers.
My favourite is the one between Jen Yu and Yu Shu Lien. There is something awesome about watching two women beating the shit out of each other a la Faith and Buffy and the fighting between Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi (so gorgeous that Andy involuntarily informed us that “she’s lovely”) are fantastic. What’s also good to see is that the majority of the work is done by the actresses themselves and not conspicuously by stunt doubles.
Posted in Films | No Comments »
Friday, January 20th, 2006
OK, not ruined but it is certainly my current obsession.
It was kept under control while Andy and were working our way through the box sets (if under control equals watching two episodes a night) but after watching Sunnydale being swallowed up I was on the internet catching up and trying to find out whether the consensus was that BtVS had essentially gone downhill after Tabula Rasa when magic became a metaphor for addiction (it isn’t, it’s a power not an indulgence) and we had to watch Buffy and Spike boffing. I think the answer is yes, and, don’t get me started (not just now anyway) on what they did to Willow in Season seven.
There is so much! I am currently reading my way through The Chosen (I have linked to the description free episode list because the pictures on the home page contain a spoiler) which is a continuation of the series (I think there are others) and it is remarkable. I have just finished episode 03 of Season 9 and so far, the storylines, the dialogue, the humour, the drama and the guest appearances are spot on. It’s not perfect but then when was the “real” BtVS perfect (not after Tabula Rasa anyway!)?
Posted in BtVS, Television | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 17th, 2006
The Roaring Twenties is a cracking film with a great performance by James Cagney though he doesn’t get the best lines. The montage sequences are fun history lessons while prohibition itself remains a big huh? Though this paper is a good start at understanding.
George: I always say, when you got a job to do, get somebody else to do it
Panama: He used to be a big shot
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2006
Once More With Feeling is one of the finest moments of television ever.
Which hasn’t got too much to do with the following story except that I was puzzled by the gesture that Tara makes in “I’ve Got a Theory”. The transcript on Buffyworld (how I love those transcripts) says that she is doing “jazz hands”. I haven’t a clue what jazz hands are so I googled them. I found a blog where Planetdan discusses his search for jazz hands and goes on to chat about Rita. He never says why he’s googling jazz hands even though he is asked. Later I find that the author of Kill Fee has also searched for jazz hands and also found Planetdan’s blog which gives her a “warm feeling of harmonic convergence”. Well, me too.
Posted in BtVS, Misc, Television | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 17th, 2006
Mallory brings out a camera from one of the cupboards.
MALLORY: This is a 35mm camera. Now my suggestion is you’re starting out is just to set it on auto and that way you-
VERONICA: I’d really be more comfortable if I could just use my own camera.
Veronica pulls a serious camera out of her bag.
VERONICA: Um, the swivel LCD really comes in handy when you’re doing overhead shooting or ground level macro-shooting.
MALLORY: [Bemused] Right.
VERONICA: The optical zoom actually goes up to 71.2mm and it’s good to have the raw file option because you can mess with the images post-exposure without nearly the loss of image quality you’d get with a JPEG file.
MALLORY: And… when it’s dark outside, you should-you should use a flash.
They both laugh and Mallory puts the simple camera back in the cupboard.
Found here (I hope a snippet isn’t considered naughty).
Posted in Television | No Comments »
Saturday, January 7th, 2006
Apparently it is the time of year that you recall the best music you bought (and/or heard) last year.
My list is headed by the very belated discovery (belated in the sense that she has been around for years) of Paula Frazer who I heard on Tom Robinson’s show on 6Music. She sang a couple of songs and her beautiful soaring voice took me by surprise. What astonished me most is that I hadn’t heard of her before - her style is exactly what I like - spine tingling vocals, folky and country style arrangements - sort of a less arch kd lang.
Paula Frazer - Leave the Sad Things Behind
Kathleen Edwards - Back to Me
Maria Taylor - 11:11
Aimee Mann - Forgotten Arm
Kate Bush - Aerial
All these albums were out this year.
My discoveries of the year include Paula Frazer, of course, Tara Jane O’Neil, Azure Ray,and Sarah Harmer. This was also the year I decided that downloading Barbara Manning songs should be replaced by actually buying her albums to keep her going in college so I bought 1212 which is brilliant.
My guilty pleasure of the year is the soundtrack to Once More With Feeling.
Posted in Music | 2 Comments »
Friday, January 6th, 2006
I have joined WordPress, Andy made me do it…
Posted in Misc | No Comments »
Monday, January 2nd, 2006
I intend to update this blog more regularly as I also intend that this year will be a year to remember. My desultory existence is boring. Wow, sounds melodramatic when I put it like that but it isn’t.
Posted in Misc | No Comments »
