Lashings of non-ginger beer

On July 1, I activated the Foxtel movie channels, and over the rest of the month have made the acquaintance of several fillums from the 2000s. A biblical 40, to be precise. Robot roll call! "The Killer Inside Me", "Fright Night" (remake), "Centurion", "Snowtown", "Thor", "Red", "Sucker Punch", "Page Eight", "Paul", "Black Swan", "Treasure Guards", "Page One: Inside 'The New York Times'", "Jonah Hex", "The Trip", "Freakonomics", "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps", "The Eagle", "Brick", "Conan The Barbarian" (remake), "Howl", "Kung Fu Panda 2", "Red Riding Hood", "War Of The Buttons", "Storytelling", "Morlocks", "8 Women", "Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", "The Special Relationship", "Dinner For Schmucks", "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold", "The Ghost Writer", "Another Year", "The Last Airbender", "Volver", "Kaboom", "Drive Angry", "Red Dog", "Johnny English Reborn", "Shaolin" and "Source Code".

If I was to recommend five of 'em for a rainy day, I'd suggest the guaranteed-not-to-bore mix of "Page One: Inside 'The New York Times'", "The Trip", "Howl" (was surprised by how much I dug this, since during my Beat phase I never cared for Ginsberg like I did for Kerouac and Burroughs), "8 Women" and, as an epic finale, "Shaolin".

Here are the relevant trailers:

http://goo.gl/aoDac
http://goo.gl/sBFmz
http://goo.gl/WC5Yp
http://goo.gl/32QWW (doesn't do it justice, I'm afraid)
http://goo.gl/TFp0Z

Liquid sunshine

Agatha Christie's mystery play "The Mousetrap" has been running nonstop in London's West End for six decades! To commemorate that milestone, licenced productions of the whodunit are being staged in 60 countries. The M. clan and I saw a matinee of the All-Australian version at the Sydney Theatre Company and agreed it was a very civilised way to spend an afternoon...except for the cold-blooded murder, obviously. I'm not going to spoil anything about the plot - indeed, there was a post-performance plea from the cast not to discuss it - and will simply furnish you with the premise: a killer is on the loose and an assortment of strangers at a snowed-in country guesthouse become convinced that one of them is the guilty party. "The Mousetrap" begins slow by modern standards, with the set initially the most interesting aspect (I could live in it if the fireplace was real), and there's the occasional non-PC remark representative of the era when Christie was writing. However, by the time you reach the intermission, you understand why the play has endured for 60 years - everyone's a suspect, the tension is breathtaking and there's no telling where it will end up. No telling at all :-)

Rydges Menzoberranzan

AM and I attended a DWCA meeting with a difference, where the video program consisted of chapters in "Doctor Who" history that could be diplomatically termed controversial but more bluntly categorised as reviled. To wit - Episode 3 of "The Web Planet" (Hartnell), Episode 4 of "The Horns Of Nimon" (T. Baker), Episode 8 of "The Trial Of A Time Lord" (C. Baker), the 1996 telemovie (McGann), "Love And Monsters" (Tennant), "Victory Of The Daleks" (Smith) and Episode 2 of the fan-made "The Power Of The Daleks - Reimagined" (Nick Scovell). Following each, audience members took the mic and argued for or against that particular episode/film, with the purpose of the day being to question received wisdom and see if any opinions could be altered. In my view, "Web" is quaint if sluggish, "Nimon" is saved by the leads, "Trial" is a total mess, the telemovie is worthless apart from McGann himself, "L&M" is ruined by the romance with the tile, "Victory" is shallow and illogical, and the reimagining of "Power", though used to raise money for charity, is fatally flawed in that I just don't buy Scovell's Doctor. Gaps in the meeting were filled with footage of Moffat, Smith, Gillan, Darvill and Skinner speaking at Comic Con (if only they were announcing Moffat's departure and not that of Gillan and Darvill). The DWCA's prez revealed the second guest for February's Whovention 2013: GOLD convention to be Camille Coduri, aka Jackie Tyler, who I think is an excellent choice. He said they are close to confirming a third star to join her and William Russell at the event to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary.

Thrown up by memory III

A sandwich topping I was mad about for a brief period in the 1980s. 'Twas a mixture of whole seeds, coated in a mysterious brown powder (looking back, I'm pretty sure soy sauce was involved). After getting home from high school, I would smash this stuff on buttered bread until Mum warned that dinner-spoiling was imminent and cut off the supply. I want to say my three siblings were equally addicted to the savoury seed mix, but it's too long ago... What I do recall is that it became an arvo diet staple, then suddenly disappeared from our pantry, never to return. So either the product/company failed or my oldies decided it was an unnecessary expense - especially in the quantities I was putting away.

A trick of the shadow

Someone posted this - goo.gl/qyvQj - to DL's wrestling group on FB and it's terrific. A 2012 Channel 4 documentary about a close-knit family of English rasslers. The mum and dad run a promotion in which they and their children also compete. One son and daughter have a legitimate chance at WWE contracts and the majority of this doco follows their progress. What transpires is surprisingly emotional. Give it a go.

Pasito

Thanks to Fighting Fantasist (see link at right), I've joined the unofficial fanclub for You Chose Wrong, a blog collecting unhappy endings from solo gamebooks. My favourite demise so far comes from "Choose Your Own Adventure #45: You Are A Shark". Your smileage may vary.

youchosewrong.tumblr.com

Thrown up by memory II

Uttered sotto voce by a workmate who was watching me watching an elegant lass with whom I'd just been chatting:


"You've got more chance of getting testicular cancer."

Thrown up by memory

Something I wrote half my life ago:


A bond I cannot see but feel
Burns anchored in my head
A paradox that moves me still
To words that can't be said

Through a hedge, backwards

Caught up with DW, DJ and DQ in Wyong (where DW presently resides with his wife and daughter). Homemade gourmet pizzas were eaten, home-brewed beer was drunk and home truths were told. Nah, there was no home truth-telling - I just thought that sentence had a nice ring to it. There was a good deal of reminiscing about our skool daze, though, as we took turns playing amusing YouTube videos on a wallscreen connected to a Mac and controlled by an iPhone. I slept better than I do at home and, in spite of the army of empty brown bottles that had made camp in the kitchen overnight, woke up without a hangover. The power of homebrew! Left glad to have renewed three friendships, sad that we're unlikely to all be in the same place again for 2-3 years, and with a new appreciation for Tim Minchin (whose LONG clever-clogs songs will be easier going when I'm sober).

Thicket basilisk + lure + regeneration

MC put me onto the On Cinema podcast and now I'm paying that shit forward. Hosted by Tim Heidecker (of "Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!"), with regular guest Gregg Turkington (aka Neil Hamburger), it's basically two characters who know very little about movies saying very little about movies. And despite Gregg being the self-proclaimed "film buff", he contributes even less worthwhile observations than Tim. A lot of the episodes only go for five minutes and the concept may not instantly grab you. In penile terms, it's a grower not a shower. You'll probably need to hear 3-4 before the mundane comments, mistakes, generalisations, awkward pauses, non sequiturs and random cattiness start to make you laugh.

oncinemapodcast.com/category/episodes/

1UPmanship

One reason I dig The Book Depository, besides the gratis international shipping, is this doohickey on their website that allows you to see what other people are purchasing and whereabouts on the planet they are. It's weirdly compelling.

www.bookdepository.co.uk/live

Wabi-sabi

Anyone else loving HBO political satire "Veep"? Produced by Armando Iannucci in the style of his "The Thick Of It" and "In The Loop", and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a vice prez stumbling from one SNAFU to the next, it's the smartest, funniest thing I've seen in yonks. Great line after great line. Unfaultable supporting cast. British comedy applied to American politics = this show was made for you, PG.

Who's the Bossk?

I'm tempted to declare Madame Tussauds (sic) at Darling Harbour a rip-off. Adult admission is $35, for the privilege of strolling through a roughly linear series of displays that take about 20 minutes to view. While the wax figures are amazingly lifelike, there is the odd inclusion that, in my opinion, fails to truly capture its subject, e.g. Shane Warne. (Then again, even Shane Warne doesn't look like Shane Warne these days.) A tourist attraction like this is obviously all about the photo opportunities. I strongly disagree, however, with the amount of props made available. In practice, it means you're repeatedly waiting for everyone in a group to try on the same hat...while being jolted by the noise of some dullard abusing the sporting equipment. Props are the too-easy option when insufficient attention has been paid to the actual settings. Layne Beachley gets a wave, a few famous folks like Obama have desks, and Barnesy and Farnsy are shoehorned into a band scene, but there's nothing spectacular. Worse, the only figure I'd have liked to snap myself alongside - the incomparable Cate Blanchett - is in a room with awful clashing lights. So is it a rip-off? If you've got kids who are into celebrities, they'll likely have a blast at Madame Tussauds due to the high interaction factor alone. Grumpy oldsters are advised to seek out World Press Photo 2012 at the State Library instead - infinitely more rewarding, and it's free.