Review : Shutter

Saw this last weekend (I've gotten a little behind on posting) because it was pretty much our only option when we got to the theatre. I didn't know anything about it other than it was a remake of an Asian horror movie. I have to say, that it wasn't too bad, certainly not as bad as I expected. Yes, that's not exactly a ringing endorsement but with all of the mining of East Asian horror films that Hollywood's been making the last few years, actually not loathing one is saying something. Decent story, genuinely creepy at times. Worth seeing in the theatre if there's nothing else. Definite rental.


Three Stars.

100

Won $100 today at lunch playing the pokies. Usually it's E that wins big, but not today

Park

My old wireless router didn't survive the trip to NZ. Of course I couldn't buy what I wanted here, so I had to buy it from NewEgg and have it shipped to HumanTeam, who, many thanks, shipped it here. Now that it's set up, I can access teh intarweb pipes from my phone again (I don't have a data plan here because it's insanely expensive compared to the US), which I tested by posting the picture of the courtyard of Park Road Post. It's pretty cool, a post production facility so real, you'd think you were in Los Angeles.

Review: 10,000 BC

If you can get past all the historical inaccuracy, and just suspend your disbelief for ninety minutes. Then this is an OK movie. I mean, this is Emmerich we're talking about here. You did see 'Independance Day' and 'Day After Tomorrow' right? We're not talking about the pinnacle of modern filmmaking. Roland Emmerich was Michael Bay before Michael Bay was Michael Bay. This is the "Plot holes? Who cares, let's blow some shit up" method of making movies. If you can accept that Jeff Goldblum can reverse engineer alien WiFi networks in one day, you should have no problem with Egyptians using slave labor (they didn't) and wooly mamoths (what ... the ... fuck?) to build the great pyramid of Khufu.

So, if you've got your belief suspended, you might actually enjoy this movie. It's a garden variety boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy turns into man who saves girl while saving the world movie. Effects range from good to god-awful. So this looks like a rental for sure. Whatever, it was Ms. STFU's turn to pick. I wanted to see Drillbit Taylor

Two Stars

McCrazy

They said "Vote for Us", then they folded on Bush's War. They said "Vote for Us", then they failed to stop the destruction of The Supreme Court. They Said "Vote for Us" and failed to stop the war that they helped start. They said "Vote for Us". Where's the accountability for Valerie Plame, for signing statements, for the budget, for warrentless wiretapping, for immunity for the telcos, for the energy task force, for any-fucking-thing at all?

Fuck the Democrats.

If Obama is somehow not the Democratic candidate for president in 2008 ... if the election is between McCain and Clinton ... you can bet your ass that I will be voting for McCain. He's all kinds of crazy, but at least he's not lying to me.

Easter

UPDATE: It's been, what? Six months since I posted this entry and it's still getting almost ten percent of the traffic on this blog. So, if you're here randomly, leave me a note. I'd love to hear from all you people who come here seemingly at random to look at pictures of my elbow.


While the rest of the gang was at GW&DW's house having brunch and hanging out with the usual suspects. I got to hang out at the local E.R. Why you ask? Well, this

is what a bursa sac infection looks like. I actually was in the ER twice, once on Saturday and once on Easter. On Sunday a nice young doctor who appeared to be about fifteen years old was nice enough to give me IV antibiotics and then stick a large needle in my elbow and suck out three or four cc of icky yellow pus. Saturday night was the worst I've felt in a long, long time. Never fear, I am, so far, on my way to recovery. The pen mark on my arm is where the infection was on Saturday afternoon the first time I went to the ER. The doc Saturday said "come back if it gets bigger", so, there you go.

Hussein

Frank

"'The Long Walk' will come about in the next five years..." - Frank Darabont

My collectors edition of 'The Mist" is pre-ordered on Amazon, since no one could be bothered to release it in New Zealand, I haven't gotten to see it yet. I'm glad that they're finally getting to King's short stories and novellas for movie material. I think it's where you'll find his best work.

Review: Vantage Point

This is a movie about the attempted assassination of the US president. It's told in Rashomon Style, thus the film's title. The problem was, in short, that it was a lame attempt and it was more of a gimmick than a story telling style. In the five or so times you watch the events of the movie occur from the different perspectives, only once did I ever feel like I was shown how something had changed based on my viewpoint. And after all that it just degenerated into a run of the mill action movie punctuated by an overly long and underly inspired chase sequence. Note to Hollywood. Film school gimmicks are not a replacement for story and/or actual character development.

Two Stars.

South: Part II

So, I'm in picton, and it's a quarter to ten and I'm about nine hours behind the rest of the group. Unfortunately, my day is not quite over. I have to get to Kaikoura, which is where we're spending the night and is about 160 km down the coast from Picton.

This

View Larger Map

was the longest ride I've ever taken in my entire life. I have never been so scared on a motorcycle ... ever. I didn't really know where I was going. I mean, I had an idea, but I left Picton on SH1 headed towards Kaikoura, and the next time I would see a sign telling me that I was headed to Kaikoura, I could fucking see Kaikoura. In SoCal, there's a sign every 10 feet telling you what freeway you're on or how far, and what, the next town is. You know what's between Picton and Kaikoura? not a god damn thing, that's what. So not only are there no signs to tell you where you're going, there's no, and I mean no, street lights. Or house lights. There's pretty much no lights at all. It was quite literally pitch black. It was so dark that I kept checking to see why I didn't have my high beams on, only to find that they were already on and they were showing me two things, jack, and shit. So I don't really know where I'm going, there's no signs to tell me where I'm going, it's pitch black and it's late. Which on one hand was nice. Since it was late there weren't a lot of cars on the road. On the other hand, there wouldn't have been a lot of room for the cars anyway ... because of all the tractor trailers going in the opposite direction. They kept on their side of the road, sometimes.

You have to remember here that SH1 is not exactly the South 405 through The Valley, 5 or 6 lanes wide in both directions and built straight enough to land a 747 on. SH1 between Picton and Kaikoura is one lane, each way, and about as straight as a Judy Garland concert. It's twisty, lots of decreasing radius turns and blind corners. All of the turns are marked with what must have been the legal minimum of reflectors. I lost track of the number of times I'd come over a rise and find myself having no clue whatsoever what the road was about to do. It's carved out of mountains that seem to be mostly sandstone so there's really fine loose gravel at the apex of seemingly every turn. It would be a challenging ride during the day. But it's not the day, it's night and I'm tired and in a hurry.

So, I put my head down and dropped the hammer and hoped for the best. It's too bad, it seems like it would be pretty scenic during the day. You spend a fair amount of time riding along the ocean after you come down out of the mountains. At a quarter to midnight I found myself pulling into the hotel.

South: Part I

So, I don't know if it was because it was February 29th, or what, but I had a hell of a day last Friday. Let me preface this little tale by saying that getting my motorcycle into New Zealand has been a nightmare. Customs took possession of the bike around January 10th, if I remember correctly, which I may not BECAUSE IT WAS SO GOD DAMN LONG AGO. Customs had it for weeks and weeks, and every week they would call me and tell me that they needed more paperwork sent in, or a form filled out. I did everything they asked. I mean, you don't really have much of a choice. so after they've had the thing for about 6 weeks, it's finally released to VINZ, which is kind of the equivalent of the part of the DMV that deals with the car, so that it can be inspected and approved for a plate. I get a call from VINZ from a guy who was incensed that I would attempt to bring such a miserable excuse for a motorcycle into his country. He seemed to be taking it pretty personally. At this point, it's already been a huge issue, but now, it's taken so long to go through the process that my trip is coming up fast and I'm now under a time limit, so, off it goes to the bike shop for new front fork seals, a new front tire, disconnection of my headlight and brake light flashers and various and sundry other ticky-tack things. I'm supposed to leave for the South Island in 8 days . I'm told that everything should be done by Monday evening. Tuesday, I call, and get told end of tomorrow. The next day I get told Thursday. Thurs-fucking-day afternoon I get told tomorrow morning again. This is now officially a problem because I'm supposed to meet everyone at a cafe at 9:00 am the next day to get on the ferry. I've already paid for my ticket. Finally, finally, at 11:00 Friday I get a call from the bike shop. Eight fucking days and $750 later, they've sent the bike back to VINZ. I've called the ferry in the mean time to see about catching the 2:15 ferry. What the hell, right? I'll be a few hours behind. Well, I would be, if the 2:15 trip wasn't sold fucking out. The 6:00 ferry is not sold out, however so I make a reservation, not pay mind you, just reserve a spot for me and one motorcycle. Now I cal VINZ and ask how long it will take to do whatever it is they need to do to get me my motorcycle back before 4:00, so that I can be at the wharf by 5:00 to get on the 6:00 ferry. The man who takes vehicle importation into his country so personally informs me "maybe". I don't even know what the fuck it is that they need to do. Not too long after I get off the phone with VINZ, W gets a call and the same angry man informs her that VINZ is going to need the pink slip for the bike and the papers for shipping the bike to NZ from Japan and that there was no way I could get the bike back until I got them that paperwork. Which is interesting since the bike came from Southern California, and we had already couriered them the California title about two weeks before. W makes the call, and I agree, I threw my gear in the back of the Toyota and we drive up to Lower Hutt to see, exactly, what the fuck is going on.

Now I've left out quite a bit already, but to make a long story even shorter, the practical upshot was that they had misplaced the title and literally all that needed to be done was to give them my name and address, fill out one form and pay. That's it. This bureaucratic, dipshit, dumbass, lazy, big turd in a little bowl just couldn't find my title, and didn't want to be bothered to do his fucking job and find it. And that was the reason I was going to miss my trip? Fuck you Mr. VINZ guy. W got all up in some poor girl's grill that VINZ already had the damn title. A few minutes of looking and, imagine that, there it was. Forms filled out, another couple hundred in fees (what the hell, it's only money right? at this point I'm just watching the clock) and it's done. I am in posession of my motorcycle, but, am not out of the woods just yet.

I get gas, get back home, pack the gear, load the bike and head out. I figure it's not too bad, leave at 6:00 get to Picton at 9:00 get to Kaikoura by 10:30, which isn't bad, but isn't really great either, considering that I was suppoed to already be there. And since I only reserved a spot on the 6:00 boat I have to be there by 5:00 to pay, or they'll give my spot away, so if I don't get to the wharf by 5:00, the point, as they say, will be moot.

Phew, that's a hell of a back story, and I really did just hit the high points, and as you can see here ...

... I made it. In fact, I made it just in time to find out that the 6:00 ferry was running about forty five to fifty minutes behind. Are you kidding me? So I took off my motorcycle pants, rolled them up, used them as a pillow and laid down right there, right there on the pavement and took a nap, for about forty five minutes. Eventually we got on, motorcycles first. yay! It was kind of weird, there were bike spots ...

... and each spot had a chock for the front wheel, but you had to tie your bike down yourself ...

... all I could think of for the first hour of the boat ride was "jesus christ I hope I did a good job tying my bike down". All I needed was to come down when we got to Picton to find that my bike had spent the last three hours rolling around the car hold of the ferry. Or that the sheep had crapped all over it ...

... the hold was full of cows, sheep and stink. Yikes.

Well, since the only way the day could get any worse is if the god damn boat just got halfway across the Cook Straight and then up and fucking sank, I'm pretty grateful that finally, finally, I am on my way.

And only nine hours behind.

Home

FYI. Here are some places that I'm guaranteed to be.

SIGGRAPH 2010
July 26-30
Los Angeles, California, USA

SIGGRAPH 2009
August 3 - 7
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

SIGGRAPH 2008
11 - 15 August
Los Angeles, California, USA

Bananas!

I'll never sleep again. **

** The bananas that you buy at the store are a mutant strain of the plantain, first cultivated by Jean Francois Poujot in Jamaica in 1836.

Goddamnit

2008 Coral Reefer Band concert dates

05.03.08 JAZZ FEST, New Orleans


I don't think that I'm going to make it.

Destroy

Hollywood must be done destroying my childhood, because they've moved on to destroying my adolescence. At least Katsuhiro Otomo, the original writer/director, is attached as executive producer.

DiCaprio, Warner Bros. in for live-action 'Akira'

Anime classic "Akira" is getting the live-action big screen treatment courtesy of Leonardo DiCaprio and Warner Bros.

Ruairi Robinson has been hired to direct what would ideally be a two-part epic. Gary Whitta is writing the adaptation, which DiCaprio will produce via his Appian Way shingle. Andrew Lazar is also producing via his Mad Chance shingle. Jennifer Davisson, who heads up Appian, will also be involved in some producorial capacity.

"Akira" originated in 1988 as a manga and then as an animated film co-written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. The story was set in a neon-lit futuristic post-nuclear war "New Tokyo" in 2019 where a teen biker gang member is subjected to a government experiment which unleashes his latent powers. The gang's leader must find a way to stop the ensuing swathe of destruction.

With its mature themes and cutting-edge animation, "Akira" was a milestone movie in anime and even animation circles, and led the way for anime making inroads into Western pop culture in the 1990s.

"Akira" has long been in development at the company, with producers Jon Peters and Basil Iwanyk involved at various times, as well as directors Stephen Norrington and Pitof. The rights lapsed but Warner managed to re-scoop them again for Robinson, who came to the studio with a vision of a two-part adaptation.

The new story moves the action to "New Manhattan," a city rebuilt by Japanese money.

The studio is eyeing a summer 2009 release for the first movie.

Greg Silverman is overseeing for Warners. Otomo is executive producing. Legendary Pictures is co-financing.

Whitta, repped by UTA and Circle of Confusion, wrote "The Book of Eli," which the Hughes Brothers are directing for Warners and Silver Pictures.

"Akira" would mark the feature directorial debut for Robinson who was nominated for a best animated short Oscar in 2001 for a sci-fi comedy called "Fifty Percent Grey." He also wrote and directed a sci-fi short titled "The Silent City." Robinson is repped by CAA and 3 Arts Entertainment.

Ten

That's how many primaries in a row Obama has won after crushing Clinton in Wisconsin and Hawaii. She's done, and should have the common sense to drop out of the race. Shrug. Hope springs eternal.

Five

Are you fucking kidding me? These aren't even out of print. The second was published in goddamn 2005! Three years ago. Three! I have to bend over just because I want to buy a hardback? Yeah, I think I'll pass.


















And because those are all links to transient web pages, that's

Only hardback copies available on Amazon/EBay
Dexter 1 and 2 - $499
Count Zero 1st ed, signed - $450
Jumper 1st ed - $650
Not spending $1600 on 3 books - priceless.

Review: No Country for Old Men

I had heard a lot of good things about this movie. I mean, it's the Coen brothers. Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Fucking Lebowski. They've made a lot of really great films. Uh, yeah, not this one. 'Unsatisfying' is the first adjective that springs to mind, with 'Disjointed' to place and 'Preachy' edging out 'Dissapointing' by a nose to show. I was enjoying it for the most part up until the third act, but I left the theater shaking my head and I put it solidly on the direction. The acting was great and the story was compelling enough for the first two acts, but I expect more from the Coen brothers.

Two Stars.

Awesome

Busy

Had quite a busy weekend. Went bowling on Saturday night with a whole slew of people, G&D, D&S, MT, DC. On my first throw something popped in the ankle I sprained camping at Whanganui, and thus, I was rater ineffective bowling. We had a good time, I think the beer won. Had the first, hopefully semi-regular, pancake brunch at our house Sunday morning with all the usual suspects. I cooked three, three, kilos of bacon and it all got eaten, along with quite a few plain/blueberry/banana/chocolate chip pancakes. G&D stayed pretty much all day and W and the gang went to get some Thai food for dinner with them. I already had plans to go lobster diving with E. We were supposed to go earlier, but C got food poisoning, so we ended up going later in the day. It got pretty choppy and we didn't see shit, so we called it and went home early, hoping to score some points with the respective wives for getting home sooner that we were supposed to.

If you're my mom you can stop reading here.

I'm going down to the South Island in a couple of weeks on a little trip. Some people and I are going to load the two wheelers on the ferry and will spend the weekend roosting around hunting for esses and fast sweepers. Mom, since I know you're still reading this even though I warned you not to. That translates as "five or six of us are going to spend the weekend on our sportbikes looking for the curviest roads that we can possibly find on the South Island". Going to travel super light, light as in, I'm only taking spare underwear and a toothbrush, and spend all day riding, or more accurately, spend as long as we can riding until the crappy roads eat our sticky tires. I promise to have as many pictures as possible for that post. No squids allowed. Tanslation? "Yes Mom, of course we'll be safe."

Sevens

Went to the Wellington Sevens rugby tournament on Friday night and Saturday night with ES, ER, SD, D and ND. It's pretty crazy, and instead of trying to describe it, you can just look here

Sevens Costumes

We all dressed up as lifeguards, because we're lazy, and it meant that all we had to do was wear red shirts with a cross, hats and a whistle. Considering the amount of drinking that was going on, simple costumes was probably a good idea. We were there for the 1 pm start on Friday to see the US upset Argentina. We didn't stay the whole day on Friday so that we would be up for day two. There was some fantastic rugby on day two. The US Eagles overcame a 17-0 halftime deficit to stun Kenya for third place on a try as time expired. Then the UK came from behind to beat Wales and NZ also scored a try as time expired to beat reigning chanps Samoa in the final. The crowd was rather appreciative.

Wow

Who knew?


Credit where it's due: this picture is from from a book by David
and Kelly Sopp: Safe-Baby-Handling-Tips

Whanganui

Went camping this weekend with the GW, ES, SD and ER and families in Whanganui, about 3 hours up the East coast of the North Island. It wasn't really camping as we were staying in a little room at a 'campground' but it was fun. Did some cooking out, swimming in the river and checked out a local park and 'gypsy faire' that happened to be in town. E brought his zodiac so all the kids got a quick ride in the boat. A good time was had by all ... well except for GW, who ran into a concrete bench with his BMW ... and ES, who lost his wedding ring, yeah, other than that (and it was all taken in stride) we all had a pretty good time. There are far too many pictures for this blog, so you can see
them here.

Whanganui Pictures

Shot

Finally got around to uploading this.

Review: Cloverfield

So, another movie that I've been looking forward to for a while. The thing is, no one has really known what it's about. The production has kept a pretty tight lid on the whole thing, and the only advertisement has been viral marketing on the internet. I mean, everyone knows it's a monster movie, but, what's the story?

Well, I'm here to tell you is that within the first ten minutes of the movie you realize that it's a love story, set among the total destruction of Manhattan by a giant monster from outer space. Yes, it sounds odd, but it's essentially Titanic in a different setting ... and much, much shorter ... with monsters. But the monster really is secondary to the story. The only problem is, the love stroy has a hard time carrying the movie for ninety minutes. There's just too much with the screaming and the biting and the dying to do any real character developement. They tease us with a couple glimpses on the tape, but I wanted more backstory. Anyway it's an entertaining movie. And I think the studio was right to market it the way they did, I don't think they would've gotten the viewers any other way.

It's a decent story. It's well directed. They didn't go for the cheap scares. I personally don't mind when a film doesn't use any 'stars'. The effects are competent. All in all I'd say it's one of the better monster movies that has come out in a long time.



Four Stars

Marty

Dive

I'm going on my first dive tonight with CB, ES and DC. If I post pictures later, it means I didn't get eaten by sharks, or drown. I'm excited and a bit nervous, although I know how to swim, so it's probably just fear of the unknown. It's a bit choppy from a bit of a breeze blowing offshore but there's zero swell so he water is pretty clear. It's low tide just as we're getting out of work so I couldn't ask for much better conditions for my first time.

Hair

RC got his hair cut today. I don't know how long it's been, but I'm pretty sure that it's been over a year. He wasn't sure, but he went with me becuase I was getting a haircut. I tried to talk him out of it. No hard sell, but I tried just hard enough to make sure that it was what he really wanted to do. There's been a fair amount of complaining about a cold head but after the initial shock I think that he's happy with it. He liked the non-conformity of it being long, but he wasn't fond of how much of a pain in the ass it was. It always grows back.

Boxes

So, our stuff showed up today. They brought the whole 30 foot shipping container. It's a lot of stuff. They even brought my motorcycle, but them customs came and took it away, bastards. Customs comes this morning to look through about 40 boxes that were set aside. They will probably want to fumigate anything made of wood to kill any wayward organisims and I suppose they want to make sure that there isn't 20 kilos of heroin stuffed in the TV. My guess is it's going to take about a month to fully unpack. It's like a bomb went off in the house right now. The beds are put together at least. No more sleeping on the floor.

Review: I Am Legend

What Can I say about this movie. I've been looking forward to seeing it for quite some time now. I even had to wait an extra month, as it didn't release in NZ until this week. This movie is based on what is arguably the best vampire story ever written, "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheston. It's a great, great book, a novella really, that, like the first three quarters of the movie, can not be more highly recommended. I really liked this movie. Had I never read the book, had I never seen what the ending originally was while I worked at the same place the effects were being done, I might even have loved this movie. It pains me to say how disappointed I was at the ending, only because of how good it was up until that point. It was like watching the defensive replacement at second base trying to score an inside tha park, game winning, home run in the bottom of the ninth, only to trip over third base and get tagged out to end the game. They were that close, that close, to making a classic. An epic monster movie. One for the ages. The worst part was how it was just tacked on. They spent so much time setting up the right ending. The book ending. All the little things about how smart the vampires could be, how social, how they were learning, only to end up with a weak, bullshit, feel good, Hollywood ending. Oh the beginning of this movie is so good. Sooooooo good. I love that Neville had decorated his house with Van Goghs. I loved the lack of a score, it made the Bob Marley tunes that much more powerful. You're totally sucked in to the isolation that Neville must have felt. It's very powerful. I mean, this movie got me to cry, and that's crazy. Not that I'm emotionally crippled or anything, I just very, very rarely cry at movies ... even more rarely when I'm actually watching them in the movie theatre. It can scare the crap out of you. When Neville follows his dog that follows a deer into an abandoned building, it doesn't get much better that that, but it's a compelling, emotionally powerful movie for 80 minutes ... and then ... silly zombie attacks, pandering to the religious right and a tacked on, crappy ending. So disappointing.

The effects are competent. I particularly liked a lot of the animation. A lot of the work making Ney York look decrepit was very nice as well. All in all, if you've never read the book, you'll probably like the movie, but I can't get past the ending.

Three stars.

Idiots

Wow, Huckabee? Iowa is full of idiots. It's like their voting for Bush all over again. This is a guy who has publicly, on camera, expressed his belief the there is no such thing as evolution. On the other side. I'm glad Anyone But Hillary won, although I hope Edwards gets into the lead when they swing down the east coast.

Quick

One ... point ... five ... miles ... to ... work.*


* This post is made of %100 Win

Wait, what?

My TV just became obsolete.

Tide

We spent a fair bit of time walking around the rocks in Island Bay at low tide yesterday and today. The tide varies a lot and the rocks are pretty craggy, so there's tons of little tide pools. The kids like to wander about and look for little creatures in the pools. There were tons of fish, mostly little blennies but we also saw a crab

but he was petty shy and hard to get a decent pic of. There were zillions of these little blue starfish.

There were some bigger starfish.

No, bigger.

Unfortunately we forgot the camera today, because we found one little pool with some of the little starfish, some blennies, a shrimp and two sea anemones. Pretty cool.

Tramp

We took a wee tramp up to the Eastern Walk near Mount Vic today. There's a open spot that looks down over the Basin Reserve where someone put up a rope swing. It's pretty cool but you have to get up on the part that says "Don't let go".

If you want to get any real air.

I said real air.

I can't imagine where they get it.

Fantasy III

LT came up short, and I, am $800 richer. I believe I might use some of that to buy boots, gloves, flippers, a knife and a snorkel/mask, since I got a semi-dry wet suit for Christmas. Going to be doing some diving this summer, I might even borrow a gun from ES and do a little spearfishing.

Fantasy II

So I left 40+ points on the bench in fantasy football, like a dumbass. Luckily my opponent played a running back that was on the roster as "probable" and ended up being anthing but, and scored 0 points. I'm ahead 99.44 to 64.14. He's only got one player left. Unfortunately, it's LaDanian Tomlinson. The 'Bolts are playing Monday Night this week, so I have to wait until tomorrow to discover my fate. Dallas has already clinched homefield advantage, so the game means nothing to San Diego, which will hopefully result in LT not getting a lot of carries and Darren Sproles getting a lot of Carries. I've got Sproles on my bench so there should be quite a Karmic tug-of-war going on there. I've got my LT voodoo doll all ready to go. $800 .. $800 .. $800 .. $800 ..

Playing Soon

Read it. It's by the guy that wrote "A Simple Plan". I read it because Stephen King gave it props in a collumn in EW. I can't say that I liked it, but I don't know that I can say that I didn't like it. I think it was just too far fetched. It's certainly a page turner. It should translate pretty well to film, though. I'd say read before you see.

Moving, Again

So we're moving, again. Two weeks in company paid housing, two weeks in a self paid 2+1 apartment downtown. Nice location, but, come on, there's six of us, yikes. Now we're moving yet again. We're going to house sit for our friends CB and CT in Island Bay. It's not too close to work but the view is nice. C and C are out of town for a couple of weeks, so we'll be here until the 2nd at the latest and the 28th at the earliest. I really can not wait to start getting settled. This nomad shit is really starting to strain everyone's nerves.

Review: Enchanted

Took everyone out for ice cream and a movie to get the hell out of our (second) temporary apartment Saturday night. This was the overwhelming favorite over "Mr. Magorium and the Willy Wonka Ripoff", which surprised me. I Really liked this movie. The animation at the beginning was crap, about the quality of a low grade Saturday morning cartoon. Jesus Christ, this is what Disney has been reduced to? At least it was short. Amy Adams was brilliant, she had the Disney Princess thing down cold and was perfectly countered by the continually befuddled McDreamy. I thought Susan Sarandon was under utilized as the evil witch. It was a short movie so perhaps her perfomance was on the editing room floor? James Marsden was a bit over the top as the prince, but it seemed like direction, you can't really fault his performance. The story hit all the right fairy tale marks without beating you over the head with it. The songs were done by Alan Menkin, so of course, brilliant. Throw in good pacing, a plot twist that the younger viewers can grok and you have a rather successful little picture.

Four Stars.

Ukulele

The "Wellington Ukulele Orchestra" Came by work today to hawk their CDs, and to give a bit of an impromptu show. If you look very closely, you might recognize the guy second from the left, at least, you will if you watch "Flight of the Conchords" on HBO.

He's Back

Well, I wasn't sure when I accepted the offer, but it seems that PJ and New Line finally made nice and now PJ will executive produce not one, but two Hobbit movies. To the tune of forty million dollars, no less. The release date is 2010 for the first, so it's going to be pretty busy around here for the next 3 or 4 years. Assuming that we get the work. It should be a slam dunk, but you never know. I would really love to work on Smaug, since I didn't get to work on the Dragon in Beowulf.

Cthulu?

It's supposed to be this big secret, but everyone's pretty sure it's just a take on the H.P. Lovecraft classic "The Call of Cthulu". No, not the Metallica song. The story. Anyway, J.J. Abrams is about a sure bet as you will get in Hollywood, so it should be good.

Fantasy

I won my semi-final round in the fantasy football league that I joined this year. I guess a lot of people take it pretty seriously, because I paid $110 dollars to join. Twelve teams. Eight ... hundred ... dollar ... first ... prize, which, I am now one week away from winning. So cross your fingers that Carson Palmer, Larry Maroney, Reggie Wayne, Ernest Graham, Maurice Jones-Drew, Tony Gonzalez, Bernard Berrian, Kevin Curtis and the Indy Defense have carreer days next week, because I could really use $800.

Review: Hitman

Not a bad, movie. It's not a great movie either, but it's hard to pin down exactly why. I think it could've been a great movie, but it was just a little off the mark. Maybe casting? Olyphant, like most of the cast, was competent but not great. Olgs K. excelled in a role that required little more of her than to be very naked and very hot. The action wasn't too cartoony, which is what usually kills this kind of movie for me. I mean, shit got blown up and all, but they tried to maintain some semblence of reality (Shoot 'em up, I'm looking at you). The story wasn't full of holes, but wasn't great. All the little places where this movie missed just added up.

Three Stars

Blocks

There's a web site here, trademe.co.nz. There's pages and pages and pages of old school Land Rovers for sale on it. Cheap. Flatbed SWB's and soft top Series 2A's. Defender 90's and 110's. Some of them go all the way back to the late 50's. Most of them are farm registered only. No, they don't have "Farm Use" painted on the sides. Anyway, I thnk I see a Land Rover restoration in my future. Don't tell Mrs' STFU that I want to put a farm vehichle up on blocks in the driveway. I hadn't ever really considered a Land Rover before, I was always on the look out for an old ('68-'72 FJ) Land Cruiser, or a Willy's, at home, you just don't see old Rovers. I might have to change my mind. I still want a chopped, flat bed '32 Ford, and this Land Cruiser is about the coolest thing I've ever seen in my whole life.

Come on, you can't go wrong with camo!

$3500!, and only 870,000 klicks. It's a Land Cruiser, it'll run forever. If you can't see the potential there, you shouldn't be allowed to drive a car. OK, I love me some Land Cruisers, but the old ones aren't really available here. Might have to get me an old Rover to drag around the surfboards, dogs, kids, tents, etc.

Review: Bee Movie

I've had mixed feelings about this since Dreamworks started with the early promotions way back last year. I mean, Seinfeld's stand up is pretty good, but a kid's movie? To be fair, it is pretty funny, but it's really not for kids. The majority of the humor is geared towards adults. I mean, Larry King jokes? My kids liked it, but I think that they would've loved it had it been more accesaable. The work was competent, but not fantastic. I liked the story, the message wasn't to heavy handed, but the whole thing got a little bizarre at the end. Hey, I was entertained.

Three Stars.

Movie Reviews

I've realized that I've gotten a bit behind on my movie reviews. With the move I haven't really seen too many movies in the last couple of months. I'm going to try to catch up on the things I've seen recently.

Car

We finally found a car. Sorry M, it's another Toyota. Number five, I think. And Land Cruiser #2.

Garden

Since it's close to where we were staying, we took the cable trolley

up to the

Wellington Botanical Gardens

It was nice to get out of the apartment for a bit. They have the coolest
carved tree that you will see all day.

Iran NIE

UPDATE

   Just a couple quick notes. We've decided on a house, it's not perfect but it's good enough. Hopefully after a year the housing market will be a little more resonable and we can look for something to buy. There's not much of a view, but it's big, and it's very close to work. I'll put up a picture when we move in, which won't be until the 29th. Our free housing runs out on the 11th so you can see that this is a problem.

   It turns out that the vet in Valencia screwed up a bunch of the paperwork, and had we sent the dogs with the paperwork that we had, they could have been sent back, or even destroyed. So the delay is just as well. The new vet knew right away that the current paperwork was FUBAR.

   Almost done with my first week of work, pretty slow so far. I've been looking through lots of documentation and asking a lot of questions, getting up to speed. People keep asking me what I want to do, which is nice. I've got something simple for on the side until I get something to sink my teeth into.

UPDATE

We've moved into temporary housing in Wellington. Internet access is $200/GB. Ouch. Turned off auto-load of images in Firefox. Got an e-mail from NZ biosecurity, and because of what amounts to a technicality, they threw out all the work to import one of my dogs. Everything. I have to start over, completely, from the beginning. Start over. And now I have to do it from eight thousand miles away. And the process takes six months, so instead of them coming in the first week of January they wont be able to come until the first week on July, IF THEY DON'T FUCK ME, AGAIN. Well, one dog could come, but they would probably not do too well if they were separated. I already miss them. I'm alternating between terribly sad and terribly pissed off at the stupidness of it all. Looked at two houses today one decent, one not. Looking at three tomorrow. Stopped by Weta this morning and saw GW, SN, JL, ES and a bunch of old timers. It's pretty weird to be back.

Boarding

Boarding, keep fingers crossed.

Dinner at Tom Bradley

Oh joy, overpriced airport food at the LAX international terminal. What a view.

At LAX

On the ground at LAX.

At Dulles

On the ground at Dulles. Of course our next gate is on the other side of the airport.

First Leg

Just boarded in Huntsville, flight leaves at 8:10.

Long

So, I got my itinerary today. We leave Huntsville, Alabama at about 10am on the 26th and we get into Wellington at about 10 am on the 28th. No, it's not a 48 hour flight but I'll save you the brain cycles, it's about a 30 hour trip. There is a 2 hour layover at Dulles and a 5 hour layover at LAX, but still, it's going to be an unpleasant experience. I got a portable DVD player with a spare external batter, so it should be good for about 4 movies on battery, and I've got my trusty Powerbook (thanks KTH, if you're reading this) but we have sooo much stuff. Camera bags and backpacks and purses and iPods and my laptop and a the DVD player and cell phones and books and pillows and blankets. Oi vey!. I got the import application for the dogs finally sent off today so I can relax a little, but not much. I'll be much happier when the permit
shows up at the transport company. It's terribly frustrating to be off work for 6 weeks and be more stressed out than I ever was at work this year.

Denied!

As I posted previously, I tried to get an environment personalized California license plate for my motorcycle. "IMPCHGW" was what I wanted it to say. As you can see, Mrs. Linda DiBernardo seems to think this is offensive to good taste and decency. I've got a big Fuck You for Linda DiBernardo. You know what's offensive? All the god, jesus and religious license plates that I see.

UPDATE

So I've been a little busy. I've quit my job at Imageworks and taken a job at Weta. Since Weta isn't in Los Angeles, this requires moving to New Zealand. So I'm moving, and selling my house, and selling my cars and applying for visas.

My beloved Indians choked away a Sure World Series win by letting the dreaded BoSox come back from 3-1 to win in 7 games. Why do all my baseball memories have to be painful?

Minority

Suck it New York

CC Sabathia and the tribe put an ass-whooping on the Yankees last night. Oh yeah. CC didn't dominate, but he pitched his way out of a couple big jams, and got the ball to the stellar Indians bullpen.

We Believe.

Minority

David Sirota writes a really good article on The Tyranny Of The Minority and why Washington DC is a writeoff.

 

http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota.html

 

creators.com doesn't seem to have a direct link to this article, dumbasses, so I'm duplicating it here.

 

Wondering why Congress rarely passes anything the public wants? Then grab Thomas Geoghegan's 1999 memoir, "The Secret Lives of Citizens."

The book shows that, like the Da Vinci Code, the answers to such important questions are often out in the open, encrypted only by our inability to step back and see them. And when you crack this particular mystery about Congress, you learn not only why Washington is paralyzed, but also where to look for domestic progress, and how stopping bills — rather than passing them — is probably the only way to end the Iraq war right now.

As Geoghegan notes, in the 100-member Senate, just 41 "no" votes kills most legislation with a filibuster. You might think that if 41 percent of our representatives oppose a bill, maybe it should die. After all, civics class taught us that the Senate is supposed to protect the voice of a significant minority.

But here is what civics class didn't teach: With each state getting two senators regardless of population, 41 percent of the Senate often represents not a significant minority, but an infinitesimal one.

Using Census figures, Geoghegan discovers that the 11 percent of Americans living in the least populated states have enough Senate votes — 41 — to sustain a filibuster. Yes, 89 percent of the population may support a policy, but 11 percent of the population has the senators to block that policy's enactment. When you go further than Geoghegan and consider the election-focused mindset of politicians, you see the situation is even more absurd.

Lawmakers trying to keep their jobs only need support from a majority of those who turn out to vote. In those 21 least populated states with filibuster power, that majority is typically about 7 million voters, based on turnout data. That's just 3 percent of America's total voting-age population wielding enough Senate representation to stop almost anything.

To see how this works, consider what followed a July CBS News/New York Times poll that found 69 percent of Americans support Congress either enacting a timetable for troop withdrawals from Iraq or defunding the war completely. When the Senate voted on timetable legislation that month, 47 senators voted "no" — enough to filibuster.

Should we be surprised that a policy supported by more than two thirds of America drew opposition from almost half of the Senate? No, not when we consider the math.

Those 47 senators understand they don't answer to mainstream public opinion.
They rely on merely 16 percent of the nation's total voting-age population to get elected and re-elected — a miniscule segment of America comprising the hard-core Republican base.

Obviously, small-state senators would block Constitutional amendments making our government more democratic. So why bother to know these numbers? Because they tell us how and where we can achieve progress.

In the Karl Rove age of base politics, this Senate setup means that most domestic reforms will not come from D.C., no matter which party controls Congress or the presidency. Change will come instead from the arenas that are more democratic and have no filibuster: state legislatures.

This isn't wishful thinking. As energy, universal health care and consumer protection initiatives face Senate filibusters, legislatures are acting. For instance, California already passed one of the planet's most far-reaching clean energy mandates and may soon enact a universal health care plan. North Carolina passed predatory lending laws that are setting national standards. Such examples could fill a phone book.

Of course, foreign policies like the Iraq War are federal issues and legislating those policies must involve the Senate. But the filibuster hardly means the campaign to end the war is pointless — it just means it requires a new strategy making the Senate's drawbacks the campaign's strength.

Specifically, Senate Democrats whine about not having 60 votes to pass Iraq-related legislation. They pretend they are innocent bystanders with no means to act, and some anti-war groups give the charade credence by echoing these excuses. Yet, if properly pressured, those Democrats might be able to muster 41 votes to stop war funding bills.

It is all about comprehending power. Geoghegan's book exposes the mechanics permitting a tyranny of the tiny minority — one that makes most of us feel disenfranchised. But the numbers also explain which arenas will likely deliver results, and which will not; where we should expend resources pushing for change, and where we should not; and what strategies are appropriate, and what strategies are not.

The question is, will we heed the lesson?

Writer and political analyst David Sirota is the bestselling author of "Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government & How We Take It Back." His daily blog can be found at www.workingassetsblog.com/sirota. To find out more about David Sirota and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Suck

My hatred for ticketmaster burns with the fire of a thousand suns. Van Halen, Staples Center, November 20th. Tickets went on sale at 10:00 this morning. I had my firefox on the event page, auto refreshing every 5 seconds. 10:00, pow page comes up to buy, 2 tix best available. My wait time? Only 2 minutes. Sweet! I should be gold. The ticker changes from 2 minute wait to 1 minute, 1 minute, 1 minute. "Sorry there's been a problem with your submission". Argh. 2 tix best available ... again. Wait time? 10 minutes. Fuck. "Sorry no tickets match your request"

 

 

FUCK YOU TICKETMASTER

30 Minutes

That's how long it should take you watching Paul Gilbert to become a better guitar player.

Plus you should listen to Satch talk about modes.

Last

ET turned me on to this thing. Last.fm? Like pandora except their player doesn't clobber the Linux box that I use at work. I'm going to check it out and report back once I get my headphones working again that is. Grrrr. They has a widget!

Review: 3:10 to Yuma

Wow, two movies in one week. We're on a roll here in Hollywoodland. I've been wanting to see this since I started seeing the trailers. Hmmmm, what can I say about this movie. Fantastic acting? Check. Fantastic Story? Check. Great directing? Check. Great cinematography? Check. Great ending? Check. Yeah, this movie was fucking fantastic. Easily the best movie I've seen this year. I really think that you'll be seeing a few Oscars go to this movie.

Five Stars.

Review: Shoot 'Em up

This was great, precisely because it was so over the top. Paul Giamatti is great as the hit man. How can you go wrong when someone cuts a baby's umbilical cord with a shot from a 9mm in the first five minutes of a movie? The body count is pretty staggering, but it's all Tres Cartoon. Good mindless fun.

Three Stars.

Close? Yes.

This was so worth it. Although, since I was there, the tribe lost. In the 10th. Garko hit a solo shot, off K-Rod, in the top of the ninth to tie it. It was pretty quiet in the stadium, except for me going apeshit behind home plate. It was awesome. There were fireworks after the game, which was nice. Going again Sunday with the whole gang although we won't be sitting in section 114. Upper deck baby.

In the shade.

Yeah?

Oh fuck yeah.

Update

So I got my crown fixed. Fucking $350. It's also like five hours later and I'm still numb. I swear, she nuked my face. I was doing pretty good. She was poking around the exposed tooth. She put some chemical on it that stains blue when it comes in contact with any organic matter. They want to make sure the tooth is totally clean when they put the new crown on. Anyway, she was in there scraping around, and it was all good, then she rinsed it off ... I think that it hurt worse than the time that I broke my leg. I thought my head was going to explode. So, she numbed me up pretty good. It's nine o'clock and it's just now worn about all the way off.

End

Review: Superbad

It's been a while since I've managed to get to the movie theater. I did, however, manage to get out last night with Mrs. STFU&GBTW and TS and SS to see 'Superbad'. It was sort of like a 'Weird Science' for the new millenium. It was consistently humorous, but only occasionally doubled over laughing funny.

Three Stars

Crown

Uhhh, yeah. I liked this a whole lot better when it was in my mouth, where it's supposed to be. On the way to my dentist (who happens to be the best dentist in the universe) this afternoon.

Roland

I'm not sure what I think about this. I really like Lost and all, but "Green Mile" is a phenomenal movie. Everything I hear about "The Mist" is good. How can he not let Darabont take first crack at "The Dark Tower"?

JJ Abrahms to Direct "The Dark Tower"

Really?

Beo

This is why I'm so busy.

Uhhh, Yeah.

I'm a little busy at work. Sorry. I stop being busy October 5th.

Two

Two days. Off. In a row. It's been so fucking long since I've actually had a whole weekend off I can hardly remember what it's like. Saw Potter (again) with the kids. Had time to buy a new pair of shoes. Got a haircut. Played 18 holes at Lost Canyon in Simi with DA, JP and KE. God I'm a horrible golfer. I hit par on 4 holes and still shot a 108 (54/54). I think at least 10 strokes of that is penalties from drops. It's nice to get out with The Boys and get some fresh air. Yeah, it killed the whole day, but I'm not going to the beach two or three times a week.

Fan

I am the worst fan in the history of baseball. If I want my team to lose, all I have to do is actually show up at the stadium to see the game. The Dodgers are torrid right now. I think they've won 8 of 10 coming into tonight's game with the Mets. I mean, the Mets are good, but, man, the Dodgers are hot. Whoops, take that back because I'm going to the game. And it was actually a pretty decent game, up until some nameless LA reliever threw a bad pitch that David Wright promptly deposited in the left field bleachers, making a 4-1 loss out of a 1-1 game. It never fails, if I go to the game, my team loses.

Supply and Demand

So I'm in the middle of re-reading Neuromancer. I figured that I go through the whole trilogy, it's been quite a while since I've read those books. All I have are the paperbacks and, since I'm a book snob and like to have hardcovers, I thought that I'd see about upgrading my copies. So, of course, I hit amazon where I find that not only can I get a new reprint of Neuromancer for about $17, but that Gibson also has a new book coming out in about 3 weeks. Yay! Two for one. Nice. So next I look for Count Zero. Hmmm, paperback only on Amazon. I check the resellers for hardbacks and there are maybe 7 or 8.

And the cheapest one is $63 ... used ... in fair condition. Couple collectable ones. $75 and $120. Jesus Christ. Distraught but not deterred, I checked for Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Sigh ... $40 to $100.

Then, a revelation ... Ebay! Got a nice 1st ed. of Mona Lisa Overdrive for a paltry $18 + s/h. OK, I'm on a roll, 7 come 11 daddy needs a copy of Count Zero ...

2 copies ... $75 and $150 ... damnit.

So, supply and demand strikes again. I curse and shake my fist at the free market. Damn you free market economy!

Walt

"We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders ... to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds."

"To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion . . . it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."

Who said that? How about Walter Cronkite, February 27, 1968.

Review: Harry Potter V

WIP

Vote for Edwards

Resign

Keith Olbermann is the only real newscaster in America Today.

Python

Review: Transformers

Hated the movie. I went to see a Michael Bay movie. I went to see giant transforming robots battling each other in downtown Los Angeles. I went to see slo-mo. I went to see things blowing the fuck up. I did not go to see a story. Instead of trying to mask the lack of story with things that explode, which, and I'm going to be honest, I like things blowing up in my action movies, it seemed like they tried way to hard to make it a 'real' movie only they forgot what makes a 'real' movie is a 'real' story. It stinks of Spielberg. It was far too restrained. OK, hated is strong language, let's just say, I am disappointed. There is a chance that it had something to do with the fact that the theater was totally full. I'm used to seeing movies during the week, during school. Read as "In an empty theater" and the stupid yappy bitch in front of me who would not cease her chatting. I don't like confrontation, and if you can get me to tell you in a normal voice to "Shut The Fuck Up" in a sold out movie. Then you, sir, are an asshole.

Three Stars, and it's only getting that because the VFX rocked.

In other news the race for the Visual Effects Oscar is over. PotC3, Potter and all you other people can just pack it up and go home. You lose. Thanks for playing.

Review: Ratatouille

What can you say about the guys at Pixar that hasn't already been said. This movie was smart, funny, well directed, well paced, gorgeous and above all supremely entertaining. Brad Bird might just be the finest director working today. Pixar hits another one out of the park. I love how there was zero hype for the voice talent, and there were some very recognizable names in there. Janeane Garofalo, Peter O'Toole, Will Arnet, Ian Holm, John Ratzenberger (how could Pixar not put John Ratzenberger in this movie?). I loved, loved, loved this movie.

Five Stars