"Thank you for taking care of my bride, peasants."

First morning back at home. Unfortunately I was as sore as this morning. Both legs. I put it down to either a) the bed b) the pillow(s) or c) new routine. Quite possibly it's a combination of all three. Kept waking up with pains in my knee. But I think I got a decent amount of sleep anyway. Really sore in the morning.

Unfortunately, no cereal so improvisation was required. I tried to get up and do my new do my own brekkie routine but didn't really pan out that way. I was able to do most of the rest of my routine though. Showered without too much problem - basically there's much less room to manoeveur than Mum and Dads, but I was able to do it. Otherwise the bathroom is set up ok. I struggled with my injection this morning, really didn't want to go in.

Did my exercises. Mum and Dad came through and we kinda sorted going to see a film.

We watched another couple of episodes of Dexter Season 2. What a soap opera this is turning into. It's watchable, but is becoming more predictable, more conventional as it goes along. The status is that Dexter is now sleeping with Lyla after being bumped and then asked back by Rita. Dexter has basically stopped killing (although he does kill his copycvat which makes little sense) and now considers himself some kind of superhero (there are references abound, the comic book store was nicely put together and I'm just waiting for Dex and Lyla to start killing together). There was at least a cute dream/line that Dexter had where he was dressed up as a super hero. Rita now his her mum there and she's suspicious. And we Doakes who was suspicious then wasn't but now is again. And Dexter has filed a complaint against him to Maria. Maria, of course, set up the other woman by sleeping with her fiancee and then it comes up she slept with Doakes as well. Deb has supposedly now found the perfect man but is having naughty thoughts about a man old enough to be father (or is that what she wants?). It's still well written, well made and well performed, but seems to have lost its edge (and its nerve for that matter) now. And I've just worked out Rita's mum is JoBeth Williams - you're an idiot!

Sorting out the cinema going wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it wasn't completely without some pain. Dad found a lump of wood under the house perfect size to fit under my ass and extend out for my leg. I then sat on a pillow on the chair with another pillow between my leg and the lump of wood. I'm getting pretty good at the solo wheelchairing, only really having problems going up hills. We went and saw Enchanted. My first problem in the cinema was that the wheelchair bay was on a slope so they moved the chair up to flat ground and then me as well. So far so good. The only other problem was the my ankle got really saw for most of the middle act. I survivied (barely) but hope we can get a sturdier plank of wood for next time so my leg doesn't bend down.

Enchanted was a suprisingly lovely, entertaining piece of fluff. I was surprised because Disney haven't really made a live action film this good since, possibly the eighties or even seventies. It's no masterpiece, but it's well written, very well made and well performed. I think the keys here are the writer, Bill Kelly, who has written what appears to be an original, albeit Disney sanctioned script, the director, Kevin Lima, who keeps things moving at a snappy pace, and very rarely falls into predictable cliche and star, Amy Adams who truly shines as Giselle. She has that rare gift of natural beauty combined with intellligence and a goofy charm. She is competently supported by Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden. Timothy Spall and Susan Sarandon especially are under-used (Sarandon is too quickly turned into a giant dragon, that is, while Phil Tippett cool, a waste of her talents and seems one of the few real cliches of the film, to have a special effects finale). The film clearly cost Disney a lot of money and it shows - from the multiple New York locations with teams of extras to the practical and computer animated effects. The hand drawn animation is crude, but serves its purpose (in a nice touch it is in 4:3 then extends out to 2.35:1 for the live action) and nicely setups up many of the situations to grace the film in the third act. Some of the elements are too cute to really work (am I the only person sick of chipmunks?) but overall this is an engaging, witty and heartfelt movie for the whole family. Oh, and it has a really nice feminist bent that even Joss Whedon should be proud of! Oh and Rick Baker does a really great Old Hag makeup on Sarandon.

Came home and quickly did more exercises. We watched another Dexter. Moisturised my foot and I wore the boot for a while.


I watched Apocalypto. I really wanted to like this film. The film looks absolutely stunning. On BD with cinematography by the great Dean Semler using HD cameras it looks gorgeous - not a hint of grain, everything crystal clear, strong colors (mostly green, but some striking use of blue and even white!) and the most amazing small detail you've ever seen. The story is a compelling one and due to the complete subtitling the film is very much visual storytelling (which I always like). The dialogue while occassionally contempary, is never offputting and doesn't strike you as wrong noted at any time (as they say on the commentary, how would the average person know how the Mayan's spoke?). The film is very well acted by what appears to be a cast of complete amateurs. My problem is with Mel Gibson - and we all know he has problems. Like Passion Of The Christ and even Braveheart before it, the man is as subtle as a fucking sledgehammer. He constantly pushes your face into the most dispicable violence. He tells us within the first fifteen minutes of the film, yes, these are an incredibly violent people. At that point he should settled down and let the story carry the film. Any violence after this should be used sparingly, subtly (The Last Of The Mohicans is a simialr film that is much more judicious in its use of base violence). But NOOOOO, Gibson constantly smashes your face into the violence. Time and time again. At some point, it wore me down so much I basically gave up. Sure I kept watching the film, it is such a compelling story. But the violence had numbed me, in a way densensitised me to the point where I was going "oh, another uber violent moment, ok". Thats a shame, this could have been a really great film!

"I am Jaguar Paw, son of Flint Sky. My Father hunted this forest before me. My name is Jaguar Paw. I am a hunter. This is my forest. And my sons will hunt it with their sons after I am gone."

Had an accident on the toilet tonight, so I struggled a little. Did my blog and did a little internet surfing. Unfortunately that included more DVD buying on Amazon - I can't help myself can I? And now it's just on midnight! So good night!!

Diet:
Breakfast: 2 toast. Fruit salad Smoothie.
Lunch: Cabbage soup with toast
Dinner: Chorizo salad.
Snacks:

Exercise: 2 physio
Back Pain: None

"It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage."

Fairly usual this morning. Been listening to a lot of John Fogerty. Thats not a bad thing. Strangely, after having trouble yesterday with my injection, I had no trouble at all this morning. Having the fan is good, because it's distracting. Could hardly feel it this morning, just a little pinch. Mum's here now so it's a little more organised. I've started to pack up. Finally remembered to fill out the Disability Parking form but it's now got to go down to GP for completion. Unfortunately, GP wasn't in, so will have to wait til Monday.

The usual suspects came today. Dad shifted the recliner plus the toilet overlay and the shower stool to my place. Comment was made about putting me in the recliner and just taking me back like that. Ha Ha.

Had a good laugh over Dad's passport photo. He either looks like Voldamort from the Harry Potter books or the alien from the end of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.


Came out eventually from my hole and had some lunch. Stayed out for a little while on the other chair. Did my exercises. We pottered for a little. I'd pretty much packed everything at this point. So we sorted out to go to the DFO. I tried the wheelchair. Ok, can't raise leg though. Did managed to drag my up the garden path because he insisted on parking my car right up against the house. They were able to unload and load the wheelchair without too much trouble.

Off to DFO. We went to JB first. Man, it's different when you're in a wheelchair. As guessed, JB had not been designed for wheelchairs. It's packed with people and stands that can easily be knocked over. Around this point, I insisted I start doing my own chairing (yes, it really is MurderBall!). I enjoy doing my own chairing. Bit hard to turn corners and turn around but I started to get the hang of it. Nothing at JB. Well, that Pixar BD is there, but at $44 it's woefully overpriced. I'm waiting for a discount (wait, the 20% discount puts it at $36 which is around standard price!).


Off to Bev Marks and got some pillows. Hopefully they'll be ok. The guy was very helpful and even bagging people for not letting me through. Starting to master the wheelchair now. Wasn't too fussed about what pillows. Wanted black pillow cases but was convinced to get some black, and some others. Back home. That was tiring, but not too bad. I wasn't sure how I'd go at the cinema though!!


We relaxed for a little while and had some tea. Then packed and off to my place. We took both cars and everyone came down. I had managed to amass so much shit at their place! How did I do it??


Kinda unpacked but not really. Bits and pieces. Dad did the shower doors and shower hose cursing all the time. Is a bad smell in my bedroom? I tidied a little.


We sat and watched Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Man, I could talk for days about this film. But don't have a lot of time here. I guess the main thing is that this is one of my most favorite films. I know it's not perfect, but I adore it. It's heart is in the right place, it's so damned well made and is one of the few Spielberg films which isn't sentimental (in the slighest) at the end. It's well made, well written, well acted and it looks so damned good in upconverted DVD that I can't see how the eventual BD (yes, BD, not HD DVD) can look much better. [Sidenote: yes, they are currently preparing already the BD of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull even though the studio is Paramount who currently are HD DVD exclusvie, figure that out]. So damned good I guess because it was shot by veteran English cinematographer Douglas Slocombe (although he shot the first two sequels and they didn't approximate how good this one looks). [Sidenote 2: Spielberg and his longtime recent cinematographer Janus Kaminski are approximating the look of the earlier films for the new one, thank god!]. There's just something about the composition of shots and the use of blacks that works on a really subconcious level with me. I really want to sit down and analysis the Ravenwood Bar sequence in detail because I say its one of the greatest sequences ever committed to celluloid. It starts as Casablanca and becomes James Bond. Spielberg always wanted to do a Bond film, and by proxy he did that with the Indiana Jones films. There are some dazzlingly interesting camera position choices in the bar sequence. There are many typical almost cliched shots, but then there will be an interesting shot with a good part of the shot obscured by a wall or something and you'll just see Marion in one corner of the frame and Toht in another corner. Fascinating, great stuff. That wouldn't work on 4:3 television. The entire film is shot in a really muted color scheme as well. You never see much red or blue or strong colors like that (and when you do they are very muted) - it is nearly all browns or other earthy colors, which suits the locations in the film as well. The film's screenplay, credited to Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman, is a model screenplay. It is economical, yet manages to cover much ground, it is witty, but never shallow. Spielberg's direction follows suit to this. There are many continuity flubs in this film, but I'd just as soon put that down to Spileberg wanting to keep the material moving rather than poor script supervision. The film never rests, but is never restless. There are a number of dialogue scenes such as Indy and Sallah meeting on his rooftop or the scene between Indy and Belloq at the bar that are brief and to the point but convey a tremendous amount of story information. Credit that to Kasdan, Spielberhg and the actors. Speaking of, there is not a bad performance in the film. Ford conveys a significant range of emotion for what should have been a cardboard cutout. Karen Allen never allows her character to become too much the damsel in distress (although it does happen on occassion). Paul Freeman is the most charismatic villain of the piece, yet in his own words, he is really no different to Indiana Jones. Denholm Elliott is given little to do and he does it with relish (shame he wasn't in the sequel/prequel because he is taken advantage of in the third film). Even the cutout Nazi villains are given thought, with Toht being the standout (Spielberg even recycles a joke from the 1941 cutting room floor to greater effect). The special effects are generally very good yet never really overshadow the film. The first sign of supernatural goings on is the part melting of the Ark container and it is only in the spectacular finale that Richard Edlund and his team really get the opportunity to go off (how many kids films are there with melting and exploding heads?) and seems completely appropriate to this film. The ending really sets this film apart - how many action films (nay Spielberg films) have ended with an almost bitter, sombre resignment. Oh well, at least Indy gets the girl!




We settled back down later and watched an episode and a bit of Dexter Season 2. I don't where this is going. There are some disturbing things going on - Dexter is enjoying the program and his sponser a little too much, Deb has sex with a guy from the gym straight off the bat, then seems to come on to her much older FBI boss. They are getting closer to Dexter as the killer and his plan backfires. The lady boss is outed and the old one is back in then we find out she was sleeping with the old boss fiancee. Rita is becoming a little paranoid about Dexter and her mother is on to him supposedly. On the other hand, Doakes forgets about Dexter and has matters of his own.

Diet:
Breakfast: Apricot and cereal, 2 toast
Lunch: Egg and lettuce sandwich. Tea and shortbread.
Dinner: Chicken and pea rissotto. Fruit and yoghurt.
Snacks: Crackers and guaccamole

Exercise: 2 and a bit physio
Back Pain: None

Capital F, E, little L, LA, TIO

I going to try and make sense of the madness.

I got up this morning and read some more of the Making Of Star Wars book. It's a great, compelling read and I'm getting towards the end of it but I think after this I need to have a bit of a rest from Star Wars. I've crossed over to the dark side that is overkill I think.

I went for my walk this morning - this I got in about a full 30 minutes because I got up a little earlier because I went to bed a little earlier than usual.

Today on my iPod through the day I listened to The Police from a few weeks ago in Anaheim / Orange County, then in Berkely from 1977 then the Horden Pavillion from 1980 (btw, this was a Triple J broadcast!). I also listened to Slash doing the Godfather theme from a Guns 'N' Roses concert (which he played at Calder raceway) and a podcast of Get This with Tony Martin - this was ok on Kamal's recommendation but I'm not fussed about listening to more. The contrast between The Police shows was not as great as I thought it would be, but the earlier performances were more compelling none the less - they played furiously in the earlier shows as though they had something to prove (which I guess they did) and the recent show smacked of pretentious rearrangement as though Sting was exerting his solo influence over Stewart and Andy - I'll still go though. I also watched a Henry Rollins Show with Don Cheadle (he spoke about his Miles Davis biopic!) and Rufus Wainwright, Paul Rudd on the Daily Show promoting Knocked Up and started to watch the last few Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip.

At work it wasn't much of a work day. It was very quiet. I had enough to do so I had something for the timesheet but not much. I decided to get Crowded House tickets.

After thinking about it this morning I tried to find out how to convert that Prince press conference RM to another video file and may have found something on the net to do it here or here. I then stupidly realised that WinAVI Converter can convert RM to WMV - so I'm doing that right now as we speak (or type as the case may be!).

I also put together this morning a list of query dvd's and then researched them through the course of the day. According to Video Watchdog, the definitive version of Army Of Darkness is now Hong Kong. DVD Compare seems to confirm this. A strong recommendation from the Video Watchdogs I just read is Quai des Orfèvres which is another film from Henri-Georges Clouzot who also made Les Diaboliques. A few that I've wanted to see for a while are: Targets which Webflicks has, but without the extras; Winter Kills, which has a very nice R1 Special Edition; Squirm and Bordello Of Blood.

I had a souvlaki which was an absolute mess. It went nuclear on me.

Another thing I wanted to sort out today was those Ryan Adams lyrics and some how collate them all from the Answering Bell website into one long text list. After a couple of false starts, finally had the brain wave to download all the HTM using Free Download Manager - this took a couple of go's as the nearly 800 list seemed to crash, so I had to break it up. Once that was done I tried to PDF it all. Unfortunately, because all the backgrounds were black and the text was white, it just rendered everything as white backgrounds so the text disappeared. I tried to reconfig but it wouldn't budge. Then tried to use the old MS Access tool and guess what? It worked. So left that running over night.

When I got home tonight I had a problem. My bins were not out the front. I looked up and down the street to no avail. Called Dad. Then panicked because of that gate open, chair moved incident from earlier in the week. Then I found them just on the other side of the road. Talk about a paranoid kid!

Was quite impressed how scary the film Black Christmas was without ever resorting to gore. Four years before Halloween, it seems to be the first major North American slasher film. Sure it borrows liberally from Italian horror movies in its lighting and mood, but has a more convincing young American attitude that the Italian films can't possibly achieve. Its major assets are its director, Bob Clark, who seemed to be obsessed with Christmas in all its facets and its young cast including Margot Kidder and Olivia Hussey. Genre stalwarts such as Keir Dullea and John Saxon gave able support. Clark in particular gives the film a great subjective wide view of the film landscape which is impressive for two major reasons: 1. as I mentioned the film pre-dates Halloween by a few years which used exactly the same technique! and 2. unlike Halloween which was anamorphic, Clark only has a 1.66:1 view to contend with - he pulls it off admirably (although there is conjuncture on IMDB as to what the correct OAR should be) . There is a terrific use of windows and mirrors and the telephone plays an incredibly important ongoing role in the phone (they even have a scene in an old telephone exchange) - along with this is the excellent use of sound - from the telephone ringing to the sound of high heels. I couldn't quite work out why it had an R rating, although some of the obscene phone calls get quite sleazy. Unlike most slasher films this film has an ambigiuous ending and the killer is never revealed. Some dislike this, but I found it the only logical ending possible. In fact my mind started to wander at some point that it was actually the Olivia Hussey character who was the killer! The film was remade in 2006.


Black Christmas Wikipedia Page

I ended the day typing up this blog entry and I started to rip my Pearl Jam Live At The Gorge cd's.

The other from this week generally was that I've spent an obscene amount of money and can't really justify it all!

Think Happy Thoughts

Today's weather was a bit mild, with a chance of showers.

Breakfast: Vita brits, museli and a banana.

Work was a bit dull.

Lunch: roast pork and tomato sandwich that while nice, left a bad taste in my mouth. Was it the cold meat? Probably.

Movies: Just been to see "Babel" and I'm a little wrecked. It's a great film, no doubt. And it will probably win the Best Picture at next month's Oscars. Its an unbelievably overwhelming film. It's sad, it's depressing and in the end, just a little hopeful.

And, man, it drags you on an emotional roller-coaster - but it never manipulates you, it never tells you how you should feel about these characters - it simply tells their stories. There is so much raw energy to the film - the scene where Richard (Brad Pitt) and Susan (Cate Blanchett) embrace as she pees is remarkable.

All of the cast are spot on - I don't think I've ever been more impressed by Brad Pitt. Both Adriana Barraza (Amelia) and Rinko Kikuchi (Chieko) deserve their Oscar nominations.

The music is wonderfully evocative and well chosen and underlines a number of dialogue-free scenes. The nightclub scene with Chieko is a particular highlight as we cut back and forth between her deaf-mute POV and the "outside world".

The director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu creates a number of haunting moments during the course of the film. In addition, to the aforementioned nightclub scene, the moment of the two boys pretending to fly in the wind is particularly moving, considering the tragic events that are yet to unfold in this time shifting saga. And the final shot of the father embracing his naked daughter as the camera pulls back from their apartment balcony into the city is less about the CG gee-whiz aspect and more about the reconciled emotions of the characters.

It is wonderful to see that three of my favorite films of the past year all come from Mexican filmmakers - Babel, Children Of Men and Pan's Labyrinth. All are technically accomplished, all are independent productions and all have a deep appreciation for the foibles of man.

Dinner: Subway Chicken Fillet.

Studio 60 Episode 1.05 "The Long Lead Story" Review

I may have been totally wrong about this show. I still have a lot of issues with it. Still with the cloying soap opera moments. Still with the not-funny funny stuff. There are no deep truths to this show. It's all surface. We're still on the first layer of the onion. I've seen blogs with more insight into the workings of US network television than this show.

But maybe that's Sorkin's game. Maybe that's the point of this show. Don't forget it's on a major US network. And don't forget that in the opening episode Judd Hirsh went on a Paddy Chayefsky rant. If some less than Sorkin's talent had tried to sell this show to NBC they would have laughed. NBS? Please. Sorkin was the in position (I think) to do whatever he pleased. And now either, a) he's having to pull all his punches or b) he's building to something (hopefully b.).

This episode has Jordan passing on a (I thought) funny idea for a reality show in favor of a show it's creator wanted to take to HBO. This is a show that itself should have been on HBO. Curb Your Enthusiasm or Entourage do this sort of thing much better. I only hope that Sorkin starts to get some of the ol' zing, some fire in the belly.

Otherwise it's a class act. Very well shot (it looks like something Altman would have shot) - it's nicely textured and layered and the cast continue to impress. Despite my joking of Matthew Perry the other week, he really is the heart and soul of this show. And Aaron... could you keep up with the guest stars please? It's not every day you get to see Christine Lahti, Ed Asner plus Sting singing.