Trailer treasure

Sadly, I'm busy both nights this is screening at the Sydney Underground Film Festival -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvGNfx0TaE4

Tony or Frank?

Respect to Gold Coast fighter Dylan "The Villain" Andrews, who injured his left shoulder in the first round of his stoush with Papy Abedi at UFC Fight Night 27 but soldiered on for a comeback third-round knockout via some big rights. And thanks to Carlos "The Natural Born Killer" Condit for winning me money with his victory over Martin Kampmann in the main event (commiserations to "The Hitman", who I've interviewed and reckon is an OK bloke). The question now is: should I stick the profits on Pettis or Mir at UFC 164 on Sunday?

FIVE reasons I loved Lindsey Stirling @ The Metro Theatre

1. Clarity of audio.

2. Rabid crowd - I've seen tamer audiences at death metal concerts!

3. Minimal competition for upstairs bar during gig.

4. Zero waiting for downstairs loos after gig.

5. Ultimate fusion of melody, capering and cute.

This new Foxtel channel sounds promising

"NHK World is an English-language channel which immerses you in Japan's fascinatingly diverse life and culture."

Astute video about so-called "booth babes"

http://goo.gl/HvGimg

4pm appointment

Straight outta comp sci

Magic: The Gathering hip-hop exists and I have been listening to and not hating it. Here's a sample -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H367O_T4DU

Word to your Mother (Of Runes).

"Knightmare" HD remake!

If you have to ask...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74r-EbIqt9s

(Starring Isy Suttie, aka Dobby from "Peep Show".)

Aurak, Baaz, etc.

After a rave review from RS, I have pre-ordered a PS3 copy of side-scrolling swords-and-sorcery-'em-up "Dragon's Crown" from EB Games. Ish. They were a tad vague regarding the free art book, being unable to access the internet even to check the special offer on their own webpage. You can understand the company not wanting its employees to spend their shifts faffing about on the net, but that seems downright draconian.

Name dropping & show stopping

There were three combatants on UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen who I interviewed during my stint in MMA journalism - Michael McDonald, Matt Brown and Chael Sonnen. All were friendly and provided thoughtful answers, so I'm doubly glad they all won their bouts on this card in spectacular fashion (and all collected at least one bonus cheque).

Run don't walk

Dead End Thrills, which I learnt about from Kotaku, is an attempt to elevate videogame screenshots to the level of art. I think it succeeds. Do you agree? http://deadendthrills.com/

Seeing this today with the M. family

"Omni" is back!

I used to borrow issues from the public library when I was a spotty teenager. More for the sci-fi stories and futuristic covers than the science/pseudoscience. They always had top writers. The print version ceased publication in 1995, but it'd dropped off the radar years before. Now, the "Omni" I remember is back in online form.

http://omnireboot.com/

Letters and numbers

Distractedly browsing uni websites around Oz and abroad... Wondering if I should have enrolled in a creative writing MA to follow on from the BA (Hons) English I got in the '90s, instead of in a brand-new undergrad degree. An option for the future, perhaps - bank account willing.

You can't beat a root (or a nice bit of roo)

Tried The Cookhouse, Randwick, in the old Montpellier/Balzac building. Drinked Greene King IPA (mellow) and ated chargrilled kangaroo loin with lentils, kale, beetroot, mushrooms and jus (darkly delicious combo). Same time next week?

"You've got to pick up every stitch"

For a full-time student, admission to NUTS' staging of "The Crucible" was a trifling $5.30, which is less than I paid for a shiraz at Coco Cubano beforehand. It was a competent telling of a not exactly fun tale, what with the religious hysteria, subjugation of women and state-sanctioned mass murder of the C. 17th. An important tale, though, and done justice on this occasion.

Friday night footlights

AM, CM and I saw a production of JB Priestley's 1932 drama "Dangerous Corner" at the Genesian Theatre. It's a play with a single, simple location and in which the action is 98% verbal - and the talented performers made it work. Particularly convincing in their roles were Elinor Portch as Freda Caplan and John Grinston as Charles Stanton. The closing scene was startlingly modern and left us pondering the central theme of painful truths vs. comfortable lies.

The DVD-smashing machine

Not a bad night's indolence. Yes, I know I'm running the UK slicks. Deal with it. Would rate them 3.5, 4, 3 and X stars, respectively. "X" because I haven't finished "Community" yet. Ta to JH for the first and to SC for the last.

Rain stops play

The university's annual celebration was marred by cold, wet, windy weather, with a powerful gust snapping the handle from my umbrella as I walked to campus. The only shenanigans I witnessed were a couple of dudes in summer dresses and a few other guys'n'gals toting wine casks. It was a far cry from Nuke U's muck-up days, where brakeless billy carts would hurtle down the steep slope towards the union building, past artificially foaming fountains and contestants puking their way through the legendary eating competition, while scavenger hunters returned bearing Ronald McDonald statues, etc. "borrowed" from surrounding suburbs. To say nothing of the ritual human sacrifice.

Pretty cool

Natalie Dormer keeps turning up like a pouty penny with a plunging neckline. In "The Tudors" as Anne Boleyn, then in that dumbass Captain America movie, then in "The Best Show On TV", portraying the wiley Margaery Tyrell. She was recently in "Elementary" as - SPOILER ALERT - Irene Adler/a lady Moriarty. And, as I now learn, she voiced Door in the radio adaptation of "Neverwhere" broadcast in Pomland earlier this year and bound for CD. I was gonna sidestep that incarnation of Gaiman's London fairytale, having watched the telly series multiple times and read the novel, except that the cast list also features Benedict Cumberbatch, Anthony Head, Bernard Cribbins and Christopher Lee! But back to ND... As if the above appearances weren't enough to make her a fanboy crush, she's equally at home wielding a poker hand or a fencing sabre!

Silent, upon a peak in Darien

I once met a bloke who'd had a job scratching labels off computer parts and replacing them with the stickers of a different brand. He told me that sometimes, when there was a lull and he was bored, he'd scratch off the replacement labels and do them over again.

Tea totaller

Couldn't stop drinking tea today. Rooibos with honey for early morning warmth. A Pokka blueberry iced tea between classes (tasted like bubble gum). Ginger tea with lemon to wash down a $3 pizza. And then I polished off the last of my chamomile teabags in the evening. Four.

To your likings?

For those who haven't already downloaded the shit out of it, "Vikings" starts this Thursday on SBS One at 8.35pm (double episode).

The Nintendo way

"The question that we ask is, 'Does a new character really make it a new game?' And to me, the answer to that is, 'No.' What makes it a new game is new gameplay and new interactions. So when we're creating a game, we're always looking at it from, 'What is the gameplay and how is [it] new?' And then, 'Who is the character that is best suited to that gameplay?'" - Shigeru Miyamoto in "Game Informer" #44

Cult classic is world shaker

Every week, dndclassics.com releases another helping of historical handbooks and modules in .pdf form, and every week, I eagerly hoover up the "basic"/1e/2e ones our group didn't use back in the day. I tend to ignore the 3e/3.5e material, as I find that era as dull as the corresponding brown and grey covers. There was just something magical about the TSR of old. Example: "Earthshaker!" (1985), a companion-level adventure about a titanic steam-powered automaton - four football fields in height and housing its own community - that comes stomping into the players' kingdom, causing all manner of chaos.

Matinee eyeful

The program for the latest Graphic festival (Opera House) is out - http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/about/program_graphic.aspx

Shame it's not Grant Morrison *without* Gerard Way. I shall be crossing my fingers and attending Dave McKean's weird musical thingy, "9 Lives".

Sushi Whatchamacallit

As a belated birthday present, I shouted sister AK and her hubby and kids dinner at the relatively new sushi bar located on Parramatta Rd at Annandale. They called it Sushi Bibigo, but the neon sign said something else (which I can't remember). Anyway, it was clean, the staff were friendly and the food was cheap. Unlike at a lot of sushi bars, miso soup and green tea were both free. The stars for me were the crumbed prawn salad with hot orange sauce and blazed prawn nigiri with peppery yellow sauce. It's always about the sauce, isn't it? The gyoza were very good, too, with the odd whole prawn visible inside.