Boxed Sets

How hellish was 'EC' from the kids TV show Liftoff?

2011-11-14T20:24:00.004+11:00

Nikki uncovered some blog that was listing the most terrifying kids TV show characters. EC would have to take the cake, don't you think?

Movies I want to see again to see if they're actually good

2011-11-12T21:12:00.001+11:00

Jurassic Park
Ghostbusters
Gremlins

How to get the most out of Beethoven's 1st and 3rd Symphonies?

2011-11-09T12:42:00.001+11:00

I'm going to hear the TSO perform Beethoven's 1st and 3rd Symphonies in a few weeks. I don't know a whole heap about classical music. But as Montgomery Burns once said 'I don't know a lot about art, but I know what I hate... and I don't hate this'.

Actually I know I really like Beethoven's stuff. But I would to think this is a chance to do more than just 'like' Beethoven in a fashion mildly more intelligent than a Facebook 'like' button.

I'd like to learn to appreciate it. So, music buffs: any advice?

I've already borrowed a recording of these symphonies so I can get familiar with them in advance. Watch out workmates.

TV show recommends

2011-10-13T19:16:00.001+11:00

Here are some shows Nikki and I are into at the moment:

Modern Family - you see the adverts and think it's like 'Family Guy' with real people and so you ignore it. But you must watch it. Genius. Very talented comedians.
Parks and Recreation - another tip off from Dan who went to the USA with me. 'The Office' style mockumentary of a small town council parks office. Very clever and great cameo from Rob Lowe.
Crownies - quality Aussie legal drama. Good characters and interesting plots.
Rush - but the first two seasons were noticeably better.

Gossip, AIDS and Africa

2011-10-13T07:40:00.001+11:00

A fascinating report from This American Life about how gossip about sex functions in AIDS education and prevention in Malawi.

Very sad and wise observations at the end about how hard it is to change the understanding and actions of government and big NGOs.

The Avengers film trailer

2011-10-12T20:30:00.002+11:00

Can it be May next year tomorrow?

Thanks to Jason for the link.

Girl with Dragon Tattoo USA remake

2011-09-25T14:30:00.001+10:00

I'd be very "meh" about this remake... not that I'm in theory against remakes. I mostly disagree with people who say 'the original foreign version was better'. They're generally purists. And they're generally wrong. Americans often remake foreign movies well - they're much more patchy at remaking American movies.

(I thought the first Girl With... movie was good. I also thought the book was alright ( I also don't agree with people who say 'the book was better than the movie' - see Silence of the Lambs). I liked the icy setting. I liked the digging into history thing.

Both main characters were pretty unbelievable. Big doses of male wish-fulfillment which seems pretty ridiculous. I also found it inconsistent that the books claim to be opposing violence against women while containing explicit and revolting sexual violence well beyond what is needed, in my opinion, to make the point.

I started reading the second Girl With... book. But it was so dumb I had to point it down for fear it would give me brain damage.)

I would be very "meh" about this remake. Except it stars James Bond (Daniel Craig) as Blomkvist and it is direct by David Fincher (Seven and Fightclub). So it's probably worth a look.

Lawnmower Wars

2011-09-10T13:07:00.001+10:00

I'd like to think most of my posts are pretty young inner-city kinds of posts. About coffee and trendy bands and websites.
Well here's a suburban post for all my readers in the burbs.

Nikki observed a few months ago, that whenever I get around to doing the lawnmowing, about 30 minutes later, the next door neighbour does. Should I feel bad about this? There are at least 4 possible explanations:

Nag-prompt: his wife hears and points out that that Woman's Husband Does the Lawnmowing...
Inspiration: I lift my neighbour's heart and mind to greater heights - Yes We Can Do Lawnmowing....
Synchronicity: me and my neighbour are long-lost twins or otherwise bound together by fate. Perhaps he is from the future also. Maybe just if males live in close proximity long enough their chores begin to synchronise?
Time-piece: kind of like the guy in your street who manages to keep track of which week is recycling week or green waste week...

What do you think?

Stone Temple Pilots has a higher play rate on Seattle radio

2011-08-27T16:24:00.001+10:00

I don't remember hearing Stone Temple Pilots much anymore on
Australian commercial radio.

But while I was driving in Seattle for a couple of days, I listened to
the radio quite a bit. And I think I heard Stone Temple Pilots 3 times
in 2 days.

I suppose they are radio-friendly grunge?

I wonder what 90s songs remain on high rotation on Australian radio
that are long-gone elsewhere in the world?

Break-up songs

2011-08-27T08:05:00.001+10:00

Break-up songs made me feel better. And by better, I mean worse. There's something so satisfying about listening to sad songs. Like how you would actually be spending your day if you could just break down and sob and grab hold of everyone you met. They make you feel less alone with their crazy thoughts. They don't judge you. In fact, they understand you. A break-up song won't ever suggest you start online dating, that you're better off without him. They tell you that you're worse without him - which is exactly what you wanna hear because it's how you feel. I didn't want to be cheered up, I didn't want to bounce back, I didn't want to meet someone new. I wanted to wallow. Big time, deeply and with the least amount of perspective possible. And the only way to do that was by turning off my phone and turning up the sad, sad music.

From here.

What break-up songs have featured in your life? 'Apart' by The Cure was one of mine from high school.

Banh Mi pump up in DC

2011-08-08T04:50:00.001+10:00

We stumbled across this place at lunch today. It was killer modern Vietnamese: Ba Bay

The bread was really nice, light, crusty, bubbly baguette. The mayonnaise and lovely pork terrine sausage was made in-house. Real kick with the green chillis.

It was the cat's meow.

Tourist tips for Jersey, DC and Atlanta?

2011-07-16T11:53:00.001+10:00

I'm going on a work trip with an organisation I founded The Geneva Push to the USA. The trip includes Manhattan, New Jersey, Washington DC, Atlanta and Seattle.

I feel pretty confident with New York and Seattle. I've been to both places before and I know what I'd like to return to (Museum of Natural History in NYC for example, Thai Tom in Seattle) and I know what I missed out on (Rockerfeller Centre, Brooklyn in NYC and key coffee and microbrew pilgrimmages in Seattle).

But not so sure about Jersey, DC and Atlanta. Of course the key monuments in DC - and jogging along the water while making a backdoor deal like in West Wing or a Grisham novel.

But places to eat? Cultural icons to be photographed in front of? Places to drink? Suggestions?

Crowded House write amazing ballads and dorky rock songs

2011-07-08T09:27:00.001+10:00

Triple J are doing a Hottest 100 Australian Albums of all time. The other day they did Number 13: Crowded House's debut album Crowded House.

Crowded House are a great, great band. They write amazing music, great lyrics and heartfelt vocals.

But as I listened to them play through the album it struck me afresh: these guys do amazing ballads. "Don't Dream It's Over" is gorgeous.

But man, their rock songs are all so dorky. Jerky, middle of the road, big, fat, blotchy, horn-section 80s rock-pop. It makes me think of Ken Done and flat top hair cuts and piano ties and tuxedo t-shirts.

They should do a digital remaster of of the entire Crowded House back catalogue, with all the rock songs removed.

Never shake a man's hand sitting down

2011-07-06T07:57:00.001+10:00

Another good bit of advice from Rules for My Unborn Son.

Thurston Moore album review

2011-06-29T09:43:00.001+10:00

"I think Kim Gordon is a total fucking badass and I would listen to her shout her grocery list at me over a blender full of i-Phones."

And:

"I suppose there are people who might get their expectations way up for Demolished Thoughts because it pairs Beck and Thurston Moore, but my only expectation was that it would be mostly good and have a few songs that were too goddamn long."

And:

"My expectations in this case were about three-quarters correct – Demolished Thoughts is a largely beautiful album with really only one song that's too goddamn long. Each of the nine tracks is over four minutes long, but "Orchard Street" is too long at seven minutes because it spends a lot of time at the end just being noisy (how much is "a lot"? Three fucking minutes, that's how much).

And:

"Demolished Thoughts is an acoustic affair, with lots of lovely string bits here and there. For some reason, it strikes me as the sort of album lots of elder statesmen of rock are inclined to make"

(From here.)

Man snack

2011-06-27T08:43:00.001+10:00

Sweedish snack with potatoes and salami and sausages and bacon all fried up and then served with an egg yolk that you toss through before eating.

I want to go to there.

Why I love Mark Twain

2011-06-22T08:54:00.001+10:00

He's one of my favourite writers. He is so grumpy. And hilarious.

Here's a great quote of his on Jane Austen:

"I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice,' I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone."

H/T Nathan.

If Twilight was good it would be Let The Right One In

2011-06-22T08:50:00.001+10:00

Let The Right One In is an awesome, atmospheric Swedish horror film from 2008. Some people rate it as one of the best horror films of the 2000s.

I watched it with my brother last night, expecting more of a one the edge of your seat fright movie. It's not that. But it is... simmering. It has a creepy disorienting atmosphere the whole way through and great characters.

It's so hard to make a good vampire movies. Probably the hardest horror genre to do right, I reckon. Often it's overly erotic/romantic or overly monster movie. Few get the blend right. I don't know if I've recommended Daybreakers before on this blog. But that is another one that does a great job. That one's a cyberpunk vampire movie with a twist. And it really works.

But back to Let The Right One In. At the centre of it is this romantic-friendship relationship between a teenage boy and an eternally teenage vampire. It is really engrossing. And creepy.

If you can handle a bit of violence - and there are a few gruesome scenes involving acid burns and dismemberment - then I really recommend it.

Even its American remake Let Me In rates 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Cousin Luke's chess advice

2011-06-20T09:34:00.001+10:00

Luke and Amy came around for lunch on Saturday. Amy is Nikki's cousin.

Xavvy's been learning to play chess. I've never really learned how to play chess properly so I have limited wisdom to give. I have always played chess by trying to figure out the moves as I go. I've never really learned relative value of pieces, classic opening moves or basic strategic rules of thumb.

Over time I have realised that chess, as with lots of things, don't rely on people being brilliant by figuring things out from first principles. Instead they rely on people collecting more and more rules of thumb and shortcuts. Really smart people are rarely powerful at processing everything from first principles really quickly. Instead they are people who can discover and use shortcuts quickly. Same chess as maths as languages as music as sport.

So anyway. Luke gave Xavvy (and I, listening in casually) three guidelines for chess strategy:

First third of the game, focus on gaining control of the middle four squares.
Second third of the game, go for the king, like Darth Vadar strangling one of his commanders with the Force.
Final part of the game, clean up as many of the opponent's pieces as possible.

Thanks Luke. The Lynch boys have memorised your advice. Can other readers supply helpful chess advice?

Go the F%&* to Sleep

2011-06-16T08:38:00.002+10:00

(language warning)

Australian miserablism

2011-06-13T09:30:00.001+10:00

A great description for the genre of which Snowtown is an example.

Don't miss the team photo

2011-06-11T16:11:00.001+10:00

H/T Rules for my unborn son.

What am I going to call the server?

2011-06-11T16:09:00.001+10:00

One of the life's toughest questions.

You forget how much of your time as a teenager is spent just waiting around

2011-06-04T08:00:00.001+10:00

Waiting to get organised, waiting for people to arrive, waiting for the person to return with your liquor. This was the largest portion of the evening.

From Acts 3 of This American Life #186

Things that take that little bit too long so you overdo them

2011-06-03T18:23:00.000+10:00

Too long to comfortable stand there and wait. Too short to safely go away and do anything else without making a mess, burning, extinguishing, flooding:

Making custard
Stovetop coffee
Crumpets
Filling the sink
IM with a 40+ year old
Lighting a fire
Waiting for a 3 year to finish a task
eBay
Odd-numbered game ad breaks in tennis and goal ad breaks in AFL
Other?

Kids books were sick and scary in the 80s

2011-06-01T08:18:00.000+10:00

No wonder we're all so messed up now.

Nikki was given a bunch of kids books from a retiring teacher. As we worked our way through them, there were some that we just didn't feel comfortable reading to our kids.

Top of the black list was The Paper Party by Don Freeman (Puffin: 1977):

The book is hellish. Let me show you.

Jory's parents are holding a dinner party so he goes down into an empty basement like something out of a Saw movie to watch TV:

Then in a blend of Stephen King's IT and The Ring, Dinky the Clown reaches out of the television and invites him in:

He plays with them for a while and it's all lovely. But then they offer to turn him into a puppet and they give him a replacement paper dog.

"Come play with us," Dinky and his paper friends say, like the twins from The Shining "Forever. And ever. And ever."

Jory runs away:

And returns safely to his real life and his real dog:

Perhaps it was all a dream... or was it?

Rave review of Emmylou Harris' latest album

2011-05-17T19:11:00.000+10:00

Interested to read this review.

Emmylou Harris reminds me of my Dad. He has a pretty wide musical interest, ranging from standard Sinatra-Elvis-Beatles-Stones-Hendrix stuff. He has a great record collection of that 40s-70s time period.

But he is also a big country music fan. So it's strange and fun to find a positive review of her latest album on Bollocks! of all places!

It's ok to not like things...

2011-05-08T16:54:00.002+10:00

Language warning on this one:

H/T Andrew Turner

Murray Street by Sonic Youth

2011-05-06T12:44:00.001+10:00

Is a great album. Nikki borrowed it from the library. It's from 2002 and it has a lovely cover (with Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon's daughter, Coco on it). Nikki's been doing that a lot lately. It's great because one of they guys who works at the Hobart Lending Library is a old Hobart-head, part of the alternative music scene etc. He makes sure the library is stocked with great music. And it saves us money but exposes us to a massive amount of music.

It's a 'little album' but terrific. Mellow. Poppy. Psychadelic. And it doesn't get ruined with one totally noisy song that is just there to prove they are still punk.

Murray Street is just a very, very pretty album. Check it.

The National and parties and friends and lagers

2011-05-04T22:05:00.001+10:00

"Let's not tiptoe around the subject: The National are a little boring. Yet they're boring in all of the right dependable, everyman ways-- the ways parties and friends and lagers are boring."

From Pitchfork re: Boxer album

Little John video clip

2011-05-04T10:41:00.000+10:00

I went to school with John at Scotch College in Melbourne. Scotch College is totally Hogwarts private school - massive grounds, quadrangle, teachers in academic gowns for assembly, full 'live' and 'dead' rooms in the music school, 50 metre pool, 1, 3, 6 metre diving boards, rowing sheds, cadet corps, scout troop, St John ambulance group etc. Strange times.

Anyway. John is a lovely guy and a talented musician. Please enjoy:

You need to be talking to your kids... about Star Wars

2011-04-29T08:18:00.004+10:00

Funny video:

There's a wealth of information out there nowdays. We need to keep talking to our kids about this.

I didn't know what else to tell him. He just saw these images. And asked these questions. So I told him: Darth Vader is Luke's father. Does that make me a bad father?

I didn't start early enough with this one, I wish I had.

Farewell dear friend

2011-04-21T09:35:00.000+10:00

I bought this T-shirt from a shop above the old underground cinema where Crossroads met in the early 2000s. It is beautiful and has French on it: Toujours en Janvier I think. It was one of the first non-second hand or K Mart T-Shirts I bought as an adult.

It has traveled with me for 9 years. Through most of my Christian ministry. I loved that T-Shirt. But today I threw it in the bin.

Following the life-cycle of a T-Shirt, it should have become a Keeper and Archived shirt. Instead it has just spent a year as a pyjama T-Shirt.

Goodbye dear friend. All things must pass.

Where are the choruses?

2011-04-17T08:58:00.000+10:00

Thanks for Emma for a link to this video about Radiohead:

Degradation of 1990s music

2011-04-14T08:27:00.001+10:00

From Nirvana, Rage and Jane's Addiction to LimpBizkit.

Degradation well symbolized by "Shine" by Collective Soul.

(from Radio Show linked to in previous post)

Radio show on 90s music and culture

2011-04-14T08:21:00.001+10:00

Thanks to Kate for this link. You really should give it a listen, to either relive the 90s or get to understand just how awesome 90s music was if you were born in the 90s.

Already they have listed great albums of the 90s as:

Nevermind by Nirvana
Grace by Jeff Buckley
Ok Computer by Radiohead
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel

Two of the greatest albums of the 1990s: Siamese Dream and Grace

2011-04-08T12:09:00.001+10:00

Bollocks! reviews two mighty albums:

Totally agree.

New cafe ... but what does its name mean?

2011-04-07T16:55:00.001+10:00

Some good mates are opening a cafe at the end of this week.

Geek slang: TL;DR

2011-04-07T11:46:00.001+10:00

Jason is a geek.

He blogged about a whole bunch of internet abbreviations.

I liked this one particularly:

"TL;DR = Too long; didn't read
Used to provide a reader with a cliff-notes/short version of the longer body of text. For example, "[Huge wall of text complaining about the weather] TL;DR It was raining today. I didn't like it." Also often used in a dismissive fashion to note that a piece of text is too long."

Existentialist Peanuts and Garfield cartoons

2011-04-03T09:54:00.001+10:00

Awesome:

H/T St Eutychus

Geocaching

2011-04-02T15:13:00.000+11:00

The internet has probably known about this for years. I only heard about it from Wil last night, when we were eating vindaloo and drinking wanker beers to celebrate the birth of Nick's son.

So geocaching is where people hid tupperware containers with a log book (and other variations) in some random location. They then log the GPS coordinates on a website like this and people will track it down with their phones or other GPS devices, write in the log book (or whatever riddle you have attached to the spot). And on it goes.

It is simple and fun way variation on the Sunday drive or whatever. But I can imagine there are some hardcore nuts out there too...

The lamest thing is that in geocache culture, the term for people who don't know about geocaching (and so think you're weird rummaging around in the bushes looking for your container) is 'muggles'. It's so bad it's good.

Nevermind

2011-04-01T11:23:00.001+11:00

This album is 20 years old now. It is as old as Let It Be by The Beatles was, when it was released.

It is a very, very strong album.

Sounds more 'produced' and polished to my ears now.

And gosh On A Plane and Stay Away sound like Nirvana-by-numbers album-filler, compared to every other song on the album.

I love you... I know: the romance of Han Solo

2011-03-31T17:37:00.000+11:00

Classic Empire Strikes Back line:

Although it's meant to embody Solo's cocksure, piratey attitude, it's always struck me as quite genuinely romantic.

There's something wonderful about someone you love tell you they know you love them. It is an expression of understanding. And trust.

And yes. This was a serious post based on a Star Wars movie.

The Sabbath Manifesto

2011-03-27T10:35:00.001+11:00

Them crazy Jewish artists... a group of them have come up with a
creative/reactive response to technological life - <a
href="http://www.sabbathmanifesto.org/">The Sabbath Manifesto</a>

It has ten core principles:

1. Avoid technology
2. Connect with loved ones
3. Nurture your health
4. Get outside
5. Avoid commerce
6. Light candles
7. Drink wine
8. Eat bread
9. Find silence
10. Give back

H/T <a href="http://www.communicatejesus.com/2011/03/the-sabbath-manifesto/">Communicate
Jesus</a>

Sad Estsy Boyfriends

2011-03-21T12:15:00.001+11:00

Hysterical: http://sadetsyboyfriends.tumblr.com/

Animals in The National's High Violet

2011-03-05T10:16:00.001+11:00

The National are today's most awesome boring indie band, taking over the mantle from REM. High Violet is probably one of the top 3 albums of 2010 and it's the first one I've have really loved. Alligator and Boxer didn't do it for me.

But this album is so highly strung and beautiful as it seems to zero in on singlep, life-changing moments like a 20th Century prose poem.

There's a lot of animals in it. Terrible Love walking on spiders. Heading top Ohio in a swarm of bees. And my 3 year old, Esther, misheard the last song's refrain as "I'll explain everything to the geese [kids]".

Can you hear (or mishear) an animal in every song on High Violet?

Gourmet Traveller's take on Hobart

2011-03-05T08:39:00.001+11:00

Thanks to Jason for the link.

I haven't been to Garagistes yet. Doesn't super-appeal to me, but my friends Dan and Miranda went and were very impressed.

But dare I say, living in Hobart and knowing these places and the places that are not mentioned, I can't help but wonder if there's a lot of politics and personal favours that go into who gets a mention and who doesn't...

Phantom Menace is actually a pretty decent movie.

2011-03-02T19:22:00.001+11:00

Nothing ruins a movie like a big build up. "You have to see it" "It's the best thing ever". And so on.

Many friends were pretty down on True Grit for that reason. It was the most awesome Cohen Brothers thing ever... except how could it live up to that expectation?

Talk about expectation. Poor old Phantom Menace was doomed. Add to that George Lucas' annoying CG additions to the original Star Wars movies just before, which didn't help.

I just remember annoying Jar Jar Binks, cartoonish CG aliens, boring podracing, Star Trekky costumes (and those rubberface Neimodians), technology that seemed more hi-tech than the original trilogy (even though technically earlier in time) and a short Darth Maul who said hardly anything and had very little actual screen time.

The only thing I remember really liking was the underwater scene

But I have recently rewatched A Phantom Menace, introducing it to Xavvy for the first time. And it's actually much much better than I remember it being. It's no Empire Strikes Back or Revenge of the Sith. But it's a pretty strong, satisfying film.

Even Jar Jar Binks has his place, I think. At the very least, he's no more annoying than the Ewoks, right?

This is an important prequel, that sets up so much of the prequel trilogy, and indeed of all six films. It is a political film, a war film, a car film, a kid film, a CG film. And it has some great acting from Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson.

Things always seem more solid when we don't make them...

2011-03-01T19:11:00.001+11:00

... or don't know anyone involved.
- Nice Tweet from Alain De Boton.

Always wanted a hat with crocodile teeth

2011-02-22T11:13:00.001+11:00

My family travelled up the East Coast and down the centre of Australia
in 1988. It was a great time and lots of fond experiences.

I remember desperately wanting a hat like Crocodile Dundee.

My parents bought us Akubras at Sovereign Hill, in Victoria. But they
just had braided things around the crest. It was bluey grey colour.

I eyed off tacky touristy crocodile teeth all over far North
Queensland. And those bite-mark 'shark attack' and 'croc attack'
singlets.

I don't think I ever got any crocodile paraphernalia or not, in the end.

Two Phil & Ted's pram bugs

2011-02-19T17:10:00.000+11:00

1. Impossible to fold up or unfold while holding a baby.
2. Brake very hard to put on and even harder to take off without peeling off the sole from the toe of your shoe.

The Cheeselessburger

2011-02-12T10:59:00.001+11:00

The McDonald's Junior Burger.

The Whopper (without cheese)

Who? Why?

Poor Pablo is dead

2011-02-09T10:58:00.001+11:00

Sad times.

Grizzly Bear cover of Graceland

2011-02-08T15:07:00.000+11:00

H/T Nathan for this great link

Toby goes to sleep to A Kind of Blue every night

2011-02-04T20:50:00.001+11:00

And we're still not sick of it. The last track is amazing, in that all its delayed resolutions draw it sleepily out of background-music-jazz and back to your attention. What an album.

Miles is perennially cool.

So is Bob Dylan.

Who else is perennially cool and never irritating?

jml does does the single geekiest thing that has ever been done in Dallas

2011-02-02T19:26:00.001+11:00

... tells us what we probably alread know (that Batman: Arkham Asylum is a great game); is reminded of how great Hamlet is; and wonders why male yoga teachers aren't more beefy.

A really lovely and funny post from a dear from on the other side of the world.

There is a blog dedicated to Filofaxes

2011-02-01T19:28:00.001+11:00

And they linked to my blog post about my Filofax.

Lol.

American Museum of Natural History Virtual Tours

2011-02-01T08:52:00.001+11:00

One of the highlights of going to New York a couple of years ago was seeing all the massive dinosaur bones in the Museum of Natural History.

Xavvy and I just discovered that their website has virtual tours of the fossil halls. Awesome.

Managing Hurrcane Katrina was more like a nuclear attack than a storm

2011-01-28T07:44:00.002+11:00

A fascinating, 20 minute interview with Admiral Thad Allen who took the lead over the Katrina disaster, along with many others, and changed the way they approached the whole thing. Very interesting and moving podcast, well worth a listen.

One person's fave films/rentals of 2010

2011-01-15T15:59:00.001+11:00

This is a nice list from a smart guy.

The King's Speech: a perfect film

2011-01-15T08:52:00.001+11:00

Nikki and I went to see it at the State Cinema. Nice to go to a cinema where you can watch a movie with a beer or a glass of wine.

The previews advertised two films that look great: Another Year by Mike Leigh and True Grit by the Cohen Brothers.

The film itself was dynamite. Very much a character/history/dialogue film. An acting film. In that way it felt a lot like the awesome Frost/Nixon. Perhaps like The Queen? I haven't seen it.

But it was a bigger film than that. It also looked terrific. Brilliant sets, costumes, photography. Really beautiful and atmospheric. Didn't feel just like a period piece. Definite not like BBC TV teleseries. It had the same effect that Mad Men has: makes you look afresh at the decor of your grandparents' house and understand how young hip people could've ever liked wood panneling and pink ceramics in the bathroom.

It had superb acting. The Winston Churchill felt cartoonish, but otherwise it was just spot on. Great story. Great characters. Great comic moments. It was uplifting without being sentimental.

Three key elements of the film worked perfectly:

The study of friendship: the relationship between the king and his speech therapist was honest, rich, human, gentle, restrained. I couldn't help reflecting on my friendships as I watched.
The freedom and constraints of duty: this was not a film all about casting off the shackles of duty and expectation to be a free individual. Nor was it simply about the noble sacrifice of duty. It was about the place in the middle, where duty limits your choices and forces you into difficult situations and yet your free choices within that context are where you discover your individuality.
The intersection of the global and the personal: World War II was not just the setting for this film. It didn't rely on previous knowledge of the audience to make you feel the significance of WWII. It made you truly feel the global issues emotionally. But it also caught you up in the profoundly personal challenges of overcoming physical and psychological issues.

Go to see it. You won't regret it.

PS It also made me resolve to read a few more biographies this year. I think I might start with one on Churchill.

Beethoven master class

2011-01-10T20:20:00.002+11:00

Watched a fascinating doco on the ABC about an Irish virtuoso taking a masterclass in some beautiful town on the Italian coast:

Strange watching astonishingly brilliant people being told how to be better,
Strange to hear the teach have an Irish accent,
Strange how he goes from the most imaginative, passionate, 'airy fairy' advice through to very concrete mechanical advice. Great mix of art and craft that makes the great into the amazing ('When everything's right but it's still not special, I say 'It's walk in the woods time. Imagine what could be.')

Nathan's 2010 mixtape

2010-12-17T13:13:00.001+11:00

May this bless you:

Zola Jesus – I can't stand
Pocahaunted – All of is of
Sufjan Stevens – Too much
Paint Your Golden Face – We Keep Cutting Each Other's Throats
The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio
Bunny – Submarinian
Beach House – Silver Soul
Warpaint – Undertow
I Am Kloot – Radiation
Joanna Newsom – Good Intentions Paving Co

If Nathan recommends it, you've probably only heard about 10% of it. But the other 90% is well worth tracking down.

Sharing silence with a beautiful person

2010-12-16T21:44:00.001+11:00

A silence with a beautiful person always leaves you feeling you're the boring one.
- Alain De Boton tweet.

'Sing' by Blur

2010-12-15T20:53:00.001+11:00

Comes from their horrible first album, Leisure. But I first heard it on an awesome soundtrack album for the film Trainspotting.

It is such a sad, lost, lonely, wistful, drowning far out at sea song. With sleigh bells.

I call my diary my Life

2010-12-15T13:58:00.002+11:00

Cause if it's lost, I'm dead.

It is a paper based thing, a Filofax like my Dad used to have when I was growing up. In fact I think he bought me my first one for my 17th birthday. My Dad uses a Blackberry now. I don't like using technology for that stuff. Feels like you spend as much time trying to get it to work as you do actually getting anything done. Besides, I like the tactile feeling of writing, crossing out, scrunching up and so on.

I have a plastic sleeve at the front that works as an inbox but I also keep photos of the kids and of Nikki in there. I have little bits of A7 (is that even a size?) paper in the front and A6 paper in the back. I also keep stamps and the latest fliers for church in the front. These become notepaper once they're out of date.

I have one day per page and draw a margin down the side of each page for things that must happen on that day, birthdays, due dates and so on.

I don't like many toys but I do like a good pen with some nice weight to it. One day someone will buy me a Montblanc maybe. I'd like that.

I don't have a paper address book. That's in my phone and synchronised with my laptop.

The current dividers in my Life are:

Urgent/I'll Avoid It Otherwise list in the front of my Life. All phonecalls go here because I will always avoid phonecalls.
Computer TODOs
Errands
Daily Expenses list to keep track of how much money I'm spending on Hungry Jacks, petrol and coffee.
A couple of Quick Reference Project sheets, that I need to have with me even if I have nothing else with me
Waiting For list of things people have borrowed from me.
Upcoming Sermons/Conferences to help me pace my preparation
Someday/Maybe list which includes 'Read William Faulkner's 1950 Nobel Prize speech' which Benny suggested to me. It has been there for four years. Also 'replace plastic cover on gear change lever on my bike', 'Buy Tilt by Scott Walker', 'Read Religion of the High and Middle Class' by William Wilberforce, 'Climb Federation Peak with Dad', 'Read Bernard De Clarivaux on the cross of Christ', 'Change Passwords' and 'Read Hegel'.
Checklists ranging from how to manage staff, what to emphasise in my preaching, how many more interstate preaching invitations I can accept, a reminder to read the notice sheet from the residential college where I'm a chaplain, ideas for things to do with the kids, areas of responsibility, 1-2 year goals, 3-5 year goals and lifetime goals.
I also have a Hard Landscape page of things I want to do weekly, fortnightly... three yearly. This moves from week to week and gets added into TODOs and the calendar as needed.

The thing that holds my pen is too loose and so my pen always falls out.

Book of Eli pump up

2010-11-28T09:35:00.001+11:00

Denzel pump up.
Gary Oldman pump up.
Tom Waits pump up.
Atticus Ross soundtrack pump up.
Cinematography pump up.
Matrix/Kill Bill fight scene pump up.
Cool biblical encouragement that God will preserve his Word pump up.
Cool twists without being a twist-movie pump up.
Cool that chick didn't become a love interest pump up.
Amazingly non-gory and non-sexually explicit while still being gritty pump up.

Annoying that if God exists he is basically an enlightenment humanist take down.
No mention of Jesus take down.

General Book of Eli pump up.

Borrowing things

2010-11-25T16:14:00.001+11:00

I think it's fine if people want to give a time limit to a lend. I know a few people who ask you return stuff within three weeks. Fine. I would never do it myself, but I understand the logic.

I think it's fine to keep a borrowed thing for a long time, as long as you are still actually reading/listening to it. But I think it is a very good idea to try to return stuff promptly if you are just not going to get around to it.

It's a bad thing to keep things so long you just absorb them into your own property.

That's about it. Other lending/borrowing advice?

Girls in socks

2010-11-20T12:49:00.002+11:00

Hal note that girls always seem to slip out of their shoes when they assume any kind of spectatorial posture.
- Infinite Jest

Daylight Tremor website

2010-11-18T18:59:00.001+11:00

A friend of mine is a solo musician and calls himself Daylight Tremor. I get into trouble when I try to describe friends' music so I'll avoid it.

Anyway he has just launched a very beautiful website.

Got a band T shirt

2010-11-15T19:39:00.001+11:00

A Sonic Youth Goo T Shirt.

It's new. There's probably some purist who says I shouldn't buy a new T Shirt from an old band. Unless it was the first run of T Shirts printed and it was printed in pure ink from the pen of the band members it's inauthentic.

I don't mind. I like my new T Shirt.

I don't go for band T Shirts unless they are special bands. Almost beyond-band bands. Sonic Youth is like that for me.

I generally don't like things on T Shirts. I especially dislike the 2000s screen print fashion of random old clubs, brands and countries and festivals.

I like plain clothes. Or clothes with designs that mean something.

Make sure you compliment me on my new T Shirt :-)

Waging losing battles against small animals

2010-11-15T18:25:00.001+11:00

Just watched Xavvy waging a losing battle against ants.

Remember doing that?

The dumbest "500"-style wars I remember fighting with my brother Davey were against jack jumpers and jellyfish. Both ended miserably in the bath.

Marijuana and motivation

2010-11-13T09:29:00.000+11:00

This tendency to involuted abstraction is sometimes called 'Marijuana Thinking'; and by the way, the so-called "Amotivational Syndrome" consequent to massive Bob Hope consumption is a misnomer, for it is not that Bob Hope -smokers lose interest in practical functioning, but rather Marijuana-Think themselves into labyrinths of reflexive abstraction that seem to cast doubt on the very possibility of practical functioning., and the mental labor of finding one's way out consumes all available attention and makes Bob Hope-smoker look physically torpid and apathetic and amotivated sitting there, when really he is trying to claw his way out of a labyrinth. Note that overwhelming hunger (the so-called "munchies") that accompanies cannabis intoxication may be a natural defense mechanism against this kind of loss of practical function, since there is no more practical function anywhere than foraging for food.
- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest (somewhere in a footnote to an endnote)

Darth Na, Darth Ca, Light Anakin, Force Falcon, Light Kinometer

2010-11-13T08:48:00.001+11:00

Xavvy is playing elaborate games which are variations of Star Wars. But he is struggling to come up with truly original names.

I remember struggling with that in primary school. It felt like all the names from the TV shows were awesome, and all the ones I came up with either sounded like cheap imitations - like buying a pair of Okkley sunglasses in Bali - or sounded totally lame.

I'm trying to coach Xavvy is cool names. How to mix and match threatening-sounding words (spider, death, power) with Celtic sounding names.

Subculture of the day: steampunk

2010-11-07T16:30:00.002+11:00

Chris labelled my preference for paper organizers as due to a slightly hipster, steampunk, off-the-grid sensibility.

So I googled Steampunk.

Lol.

Cucumber sandwiches with cream cheese

2010-11-04T12:06:00.001+11:00

Thanks to FBI Agent Landy from Dexter season 2, for teaching Nikki and I about this.

What a combination.

Nikki's gardening again (or real peppermint and chamomile tea)

2010-11-03T16:19:00.001+11:00

Nikki's garden is going well so far this year. She's started another patch too, with tomatoes. So we have lots of mighty silver beet. Which means awesome awesome spanikopita. We have lots of great herbs, including, I hope, lots of parsley this year. We also have rocket this year. Which is so yummy and peppery. It's gone really well.

But Nikki also got some clippings of chamomile from my brother's garden and bought a plant of peppermint the other day too. Fresh chamomile and peppermint tea are totally unlike the teabag version. Come to our house and drink them with us. Actually, they are our His and Hers pre-bed drinks of choice but don't come over then.

Sufjan Stevens' new album

2010-10-31T15:42:00.001+11:00

Sounds like Bjork. I like it. I don't know what else to say about it yet. But I needed to acknolwedge its existence.

Music Paul introduced me to

2010-10-27T08:15:00.000+11:00

Neil Young
Einsturzende Neubauten
Ween
Jane's Addiction
Tom Waits
Johnny Cash
Nick Cave
The Pixies

It's meant to be awesome but I don't think I'll watch it

2010-10-26T20:08:00.001+11:00

New Aussie horror film called 'The Loved Ones' is getting really good reviews (link)

But I really struggle to watch anything that goes near the 'torture porn' genre: stuff that doesn't make a big deal out of scares, but rather out of squeams and gross-outs. Big examples are Hostel and Saw and Antichrist and Wolf Creek. No thanks. Not interested.

But I wonder if this one is safe enough to justify watching for its other merits? Hmm. I doubt it. But I wish it were.

People who shun new technology

2010-10-21T18:49:00.001+11:00

Douglas Coupland:

People who shun new technologies will be viewed as passive-aggressive control freaks trying to rope people into their world, much like vegetarian teenage girls in the early 1980s
1980: "We can't go to that restaurant. Karen's vegetarian and it doesn't have anything for her."
2010: "What restaurant are we going to? I don't know. Karen was supposed to tell me, but she doesn't have a cell, so I can't ask her. I'm sick of her crazy control-freak behaviour. Let's go someplace else and not tell her where."

Barbecue sauce in his veins

2010-10-21T18:41:00.001+11:00

This blog makes me laugh. Some choice quotes from the post Does It Rock Or Does It Not?

Concerning Insane Clown Posse:

You guys write songs about rape and claim to be evangelical Christians. You've forced me to gain two respect points for Kid Rock, bringing his total up to two points higher than negative infinity).

Concerning Metallica:

Metallica is the musical equivalent of Wes Craven movies, which can be divided into two categories: hilariously stupid and infuriatingly stupid (sample dialogue from a Craven movie: "If something is evil enough, can it come back from the dead?")

Concerning B B King:

B.B. King can call his guitar Lucille because he's an octogenarian Southern black man with barbecue sauce in his veins. You are not*

* "If you're in a metal band and name your guitar Skullfucker, that's pretty cool. Especially if your bass player uses "Skull" as a stage name"

The one thing one my TODO list that was pleasant

2010-10-18T19:35:00.001+11:00

Masterchef rice pudding with orange jewels and tarragon.

Dessert ftw!

West Wing v Wire

2010-10-15T10:06:00.001+11:00

Nathan posts an annoying discussion that disses the West Wing in favour of The Wire (link)

I love both and think it's totally annoying to claim that the differences make The Wire superior.

What do you think?

Email monsters

2010-10-10T07:50:00.000+11:00

Thanks to Nathan (link) for linking to this email shitlist (link)
My two favourites:

And:

Important items of clothing in the history of rock VII

2010-10-09T11:20:00.001+11:00

Bon's belly top:

Important items of clothing in the history of rock VI

2010-10-09T11:15:00.000+11:00

Joe's tie-dye T-shirt:

Important items of clothing in the history of rock V

2010-10-09T11:14:00.000+11:00

Roger's tassles:

Important items of clothing in the history of rock IV

2010-10-09T11:11:00.002+11:00

The King's white vegas suit:

Important items of clothing in the history of rock III

2010-10-09T11:09:00.002+11:00

John's glasses:

Important items of clothing in the history of rock II

2010-10-09T11:08:00.001+11:00

Damon's zipups(link).

Important items of clothing in the history of rock I

2010-10-09T11:06:00.002+11:00

Kurt's cardie:

Intelligent for finding you attractive?

2010-10-09T09:14:00.001+11:00

Alain De Boton's Twitter:

There are people so unusual looking, you feel intelligent for finding them attractive.

I'm not here to make friends.

2010-10-06T11:29:00.003+11:00

The ethics of reality TV:

from here.

Mulholland Drive - a defining film of the 2000s?

2010-10-02T19:27:00.001+10:00

I read this in some review. What do you think? Is there something to it? I like the idea of this claim. Anyone want to play with it?

Tron remake

2010-10-02T18:59:00.002+10:00

Looks good:

I won't let the internet ruin Arcade Fire for me

2010-10-02T08:52:00.001+10:00

Writes Bollocks! (link)

And it's not that I disagree with the general consensus that the Arcade Fire might be an actually Important band – their music always seems to capture the zeitgeist without being trite, and that's no mean feat. But Internet, you're starting to get about the Arcade Fire the way you got about Radiohead, which is I'm sure how your Dad got about that certain unspecified New Jerseyite....

See, Internet, this is where you might use a word like "mature" in your review and honestly, that's kind of lazy. "Mature" doesn't cut it. That's like saying Black Flag's Damaged is "intense." If you listen to the music, you need more words to describe what's happening....

The thing is, Internet, you get all tingly and chatty about the Arcade Fire because they have a real chance to go down in history as a band that accurately chronicled what it was like to be alive at the start of the 21st century. "We Used to Wait" is practically wearing the zeitgeist for a hat and that's one of the reasons I love it, but that doesn't mean "Post-Arcade Fire" is a legitimate genre...

I guess my fear, Internet, is not how I will feel about the Arcade Fire because of what you say about them. I'm afraid that people who have never heard the Arcade Fire will see the giant cyberspace hard-on you have for this band and be frightened away from the music

Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots...

2010-09-30T11:57:00.002+10:00

Do history of hiphop:
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Awesome.

I discovered the Postmarks through Yo Gabba Gabba

2010-09-26T07:41:00.001+10:00

A kids TV so cool it makes my eyes bleed.

They sing Balloons Balloons Balloons Make Me Happy on Yo Gabba Gabba (link).

Here's their myspace (link)

I like their sound. Very soothing and elevator-musicish.

Description of sound old school dot-matrix printers made

2010-09-25T12:59:00.000+10:00

"The printer's needly sound fills the waiting room... Each line of Alice's printed response sounds like some sort of supposedly unrippable fabric getting ripped, over and over, a dental and life-denying sound."
- David Foster Wallace