A Bloggy, Commenty thing.

I posted this in reply to an excellent comment the other day, but I feel as though it should be said here: [in reference to the HP and the Half-Blood Prince film]

"i rather like the fact that they actually wrote new material for the film. i also like the new director's style and vision of the films.

the thing people don't understand is that adapting a book into a film and trying to visually represent the words on the page will never work. two totally separate mediums with different conventions, technical aspects and appeals cannot produce an identical thing.

what makes for a GOOD adaptation of a book into a film is the capacity of the director to capture the spirit of the book, the essence, if you like.

and this, i believe, is what they have done perfectly. the sixth book was great, but incredibly dark and creepy, and especially in the last say, 40 minutes, the film got this wonderfully right.

as an aside, people whinge about the film essentially leaving huge chunks out of the end, like Dumbledore's funeral, etc, but i don't think that anything was really lost by that, to be honest. seeing fawkes fly off was poignant and moving - the perfect note to end the film on, i reckon."

Now, furthermore to this, I'd like to add that Transformers 2 STILL IS AWFUL and should be expunged from film history.

And I'm sick of people saying it was good!

That's right Michael Bay, I think you make dodgy movies. Also, if you liked Transformers 2, then hunt down something known to us non-Philistines as "taste", then watch it again in HORROR.

I am kidding, slightly. I like to go over the top and make people cringe sometimes. In all honesty, if you liked it, good for you. Maybe I'm just jealous because while you came away entertained, I came away braindead. After paying money for it.

Also, if you liked Transformers 2, go and watch Cloverfield. Then come and tell me how "Blair Witch is just the same as this! How come everyone loves Blair Witch?" Think I'm kidding? I've had to actually prove to no less than 2 people (who liked Transformers 2) that Blair Witch did indeed beat Cloverfield to the punch (and the war, in my opinon. Vastly better film). Make of it what you will.

PS - I forgot the main point of my previous blog - wearing a hat while driving is clinically proven to steal away your driving skills. It's true. Ask Dr. Carl.

Why Drivers With Hats Are Bad News

Honestly, I don't think that even Volvo drivers can compare their woeful driving skills to people who drive wearing hats. Especially straw hats. At night.

Yes, this evening, I was driving along, wondering what the matter was with the driver in front of me (it looked as though an camel having an epileptic fit was behind the wheel, "steering" - I use the term loosely). Turns out, they were wearing a straw hat. At night, while in a car. Go figure.

Also, I have discovered that hoodies are possibly all about making seedy old bearded men on bikes look even seedier.

SO I went and saw Harry Potter the other night. All I can say about it is that as a film it was great, as a faithful copy of the book it was poor (of course, I despise films that try and make a direct copy of a book). The scenes they added were great, and some of the stuff they left out was a little disappointing. On the whole though, a good movie. Go see it.

On going to the movies

I'm going to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince tonight. Stand by for a review saying it's the best film ever, or the biggest load of crap ever. I have a feeling it will be the former, however, if the fifth film is anything to go by.

"Gotta write using less emoticons..."

So it turns out that my iPhone can get emoticons. I am unsure as to how this works, exactly, but my mate Higgins has informed me that knowledge will be imparted tomorrow night...

Bought a new book today by China Mieville. He is grand. If you haven't read anything by him, begin with the short story collection "Looking for Jake", and then progress to the first novel set in his unique and brilliant fantasy land of Bas Lag, specifically in the city of New Crobuzon, entitled "Perdido Street Station".

Hmm, what else... Ooh! Harry Potter is coming out, which is incredibly exciting.

Oh, right, I remember now. Last night (or this morning, if you want to be technical) at about 1.30am, I heard a bit of yelling and screaming and generic carrying on happening outside on the street. I peered out the window, but saw nothing. Now my dog, Ed, was a little excited by all the racket, and was trotting about. I went into the hallway to calm him down, and I heard a few more yells, and then a series of rather close, rather distinctive thumping. I looked out the window again, and saw nothing. I thought no more of it, until I mentioned it to Mum this arvo, asking if she had heard anything. She told me that a few thuds had woken her in the middle of the night, and that she'd gone back to sleep shortly after.

Anyway. I didn't sleep really well after that, so I had a nap this arvo. When I got up to go out, Mum comes into the kitchen (where I was drinking Iced Tea from the large bottle, earning me a rousing) and told me that the passenger door of her car bore footprints, a dent, and muddy footprints on the windows, where someone had tried to smash it.

Good grief?! I live in a nice suburb, a quiet place where this sort of rubbish just never seems to happen. So yeah. Weird. And annoying. And if it happens that you're reading this after trying to break into my mother's car, then shame on you. And, I have a really large sword beside the bed (not a euphemism, there's actually a katana there), so please come back and allow me to scare you witless.

Have a lovely evening.

Stop: Hammer Time

Some days, you see something, and you know that it is a good day. So what could be funnier than driving up to a STOP sign, only to see written underneath "Hammer Time!"??

Possibly the news that a midget was eaten by a hippo adorning the front page of the paper might bring more mirth, but still, one cannot argue that Hammer is always good for a laugh. (Note: a midget who was part of a circus act actually was eaten accidentally by a hippo a few years back - I didn't make that up).

I bought a case for my laptop to keep it safe (woot) and I have been setting up random Dashboard widgets (for those of you with windows, you can basically push a button on a mac and bring up a series of widgets that overlay whatever you happen to be working on at that present time - weather, international time-zones, wiki/google bars, etc are common), and I managed to get one that syncs with my iCal, which in turn syncs with my iPhone. Aaah, convenience. :D Thank you Apple, you cunning marketers, you!

Anyway, on an unrelated note, I also got some Jelly Beans at a special lolly store at The Junction, and they are awesome.

Not sure that there is much more to report, other than that I am a little stressed with uni work that I have once again ignored until it was too late to being without stressing. Aah, the irony of it all. Procrastinators, as they say, are the rulers of tomorrow.

Anyway. Have a nice night.

Am Tired, Will Sleep

Have you ever been at the point of being super tired, having nothing to stay awake for, and yet find yourself inexplicably drawn to the idea of staying up doing nothing for a little longer, if only to stretch out the last vestiges of the day.

That's where I'm at presently. I am incredibly tired, after having a huge weekend working and socialising, and I am ready for bed. And yet, despite the fact that I just yawned a yawn large enough to break my jaw and/or lose Tasmania in, I want to be awake.

Considering watching Dexter... It's always fun. Need something to nibble on though. I wonder if we have any fruit salad... Mmm. I could go some right about now.

Oh! And, in random news, Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came in as the No.1 Greatest Song of All Time in Triple J's Hottest Hundred of All Time contest. I was pegging Bohemian Rhapsody or Thriller. Oh well. At least it's a good song. Not like No.2 - Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine. I'm sorry, but if you like the song, then you're an idiot. It's crude, vulgar, and utterly untalented. That's right. I just dissed Rage Against the Machine. What are you going to do about it?

See? Told you I was rambling aimlessly along the path to sleep. In an unrelated note, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my dark fantasy stories, and have come up with a number of interesting additions in terms of fleshing out the theoretical background.

Again, unrelated but in my mind at present is the absence of China Mieville's new book "Kraken" that was meant to come out almost a year ago, but I can't seem to locate. If you've never read Mieville, I recommend him - brilliant writing style. Read "Perdido Street Station" for the best fantasy read you'll have had in years.

Uh. Just ran out of steam. Off to bed. Night all.

Hmm...

Just saw a picture of Depp as the Mad Hatter in the upcoming Tim Burton-directed version of Alice in Wonderland. Can't say I am that impressed by it... No doubt the film will be marlvellous - how could it not be? But that said, I wasn't thrilled with the look they have for Depp. Pity.

Days of Our Lives

So, I thought (for lack of anything else to write, but out of a desire to write something before bed) I would tell you about my day.

I worked today, which was nothing out of the ordinary, apart from one peculiar request for a coffee, with the coffee on the side. That's right- they wanted a cap, but with the shot of espresso in a little jug on the side. Go figure... I can just make it weak, people! I felt a little like Jackson Pollock, being asked to paint like Dali.

Anyway. It was a long day. By about 1:30pm, I felt ready to fall asleep; by 2:00pm, I felt ready to die; by 3:30pm, I was half certain that I was actually dead, but was still working nonetheless.

About 4, I got home, and stumbled into bed. I slept 'til about 6, when I arose with a leap and a bound, and went out to tea with a mate (Ed - he's big, wears glasses, and if you're single, and into nice blokes [and are female] would probably like to hear from you. He asked me to set him up :P). After that, I went over to another mate's (Jono's) and had good conversation and Halo 3-playing. All in all, a good day.

Thinking I might watch an episode of Dexter before bed. My eyes are a little sore, which is unfortunate, because my brain is incredibly active, due to my afternoon siesta.

Hope you're all having a great weekend.

A Truthful Tale of Artful Lies

I was recently confronted by someone convinced they had caught me in the act of a blantant lie. Indeed they had, although, they had missed the purpose - It was a joke. See, the "lie" in question was me pretending to be drunk at around 10am to my cousin, whom I was on the phone to. It was part of a much longer-running joke regarding the drunken nature of university life.

Now, the person in question did not know this, and essentially thought I was lying for whatever reason. The thing is though, I do it frequently. Not usually anything big. Or even really untrue. It's just in my nature as a storyteller to embellish any story I might be telling in order to make it more engaging and amusing. I don't think that's a bad thing.

In fact, I think it's a bad thing when people tell truthful, boring stories. Nothing kills the mood at a gathering of any description than when someone tells a totally boring story that has the amusement value of a half-brick. My brother once came out with a rare pearl of tradies wisdom: "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." I think it's fair enough.

I value truth and whatnot as much as the next person (assuming that the next person isn't Kevin Rudd or any of the "journalists" from Today Tonight), but I have to say, as someone who writes stories, and makes things up, I think taking a little creative license with a story is fine. Especially if it makes it more inclined to get a chuckle.

Blake out.

New Mac, Criticisim of Awful "Films" and Vin Diesel's Dubious Acting Abilities

Contrary to what the title may suggest, I am going to begin by talking about Vin Diesel. Well, not about him, per se, but about Babylon AD. Awful film. Insanely bad, in fact. I spent the first fifteen minutes wanting to cry, then I turned it off. I read a comment about 10 minutes ago on a forum that related to this movie. It said (verbatim): "In the future, Vin Diesel cannot act!!" I would like to point out that he can't act in the present, nor, indeed, the past.

Moving on... I finally got my new MacBook. I really love it. It's a wonderful little machine, and OSX is grand. Hurrah!

Now, onto Transformers 2. I wanted to not talk about it. I want to completely forget about it. I can't. Let me spin you a tale of woe.

I went to see Transformers 2 when it came out. Couple of weeks ago. Now, I had promised my mate Shaun that I would see it with him, but he was sick on opening night, so I went anyway, figuring I would be fine to see it again. It was awful. Now my sense of decency, and the fact that my word still means something led me to line up again on Tuesday night just gone to see this woeful piece of film.

Now, people have said "It's a Michael Bay film, its meant to have no plot...etc" Now. I would say, fair enough, but the fact is, we can't make excuses for rubbish movies because of the director. No-one said "Oh, no, killing Jews is just Hitler's thing..." Because you can't explain things away.

People also have a dig at me routinely for bagging movies. And I do, with startling frequency, it must be said. But that's because there are a lot of crap movies coming out. All the time.

Now, in fairness to me, I watch more movies than most people. By a long shot. And I've spent the last 4 years of my life doing a degree on Literature and film, and deconstruction of characters, plot, scenes, etc, comes naturally to me as a result. Think about your passion, hobby, profession, whatever. When you see an awful example of that, do you critique it? My oath you do. My hobby, passion, and profession just happens to revolve around what most people do for entertainment.

So when I see a film that is awful, I say something. When, however, that gem of a movie comes out, that is wholly brilliant, I praise, laud, salute, etc it for all I'm worth. The problem is, people are making worse and worse films, predominantly because they get away with it. It's in everyone's iterest to bag crap movies, and reserve excitement for the good ones. Its like natural selection - the weak will eventually die off, leaving better movies for everyone.

Watch Star Trek.

It rocked.