Where The Wild Things Are

I know that I liked this book as a child, although the details are a little sketchy. When I heard that a movie was being made of it I was obviously worried that it would ruin the story and all my memories would be trashed.

Being a little apprehensive, seeing it on a tight-arse Tuesday seemed like a good idea. However, it definitely didn’t let me down. I enjoyed the movie and would have gladly paid full price for it.

The effects to animate the face were very impressive, and at times I found it hard to believe that it was special effects. It helped that the actors of the wild things were actually inside the big costumes most of the time – with the giant extra-heavy heads. This meant that the movement was much more natural than a computer could have done.

Max Records, who played the main character Max, was quite impressive. Most child actors are frustrating to watch and either under- or over-act. Records managed to find a good midline and did the role justice.

The story itself obviously differs from the book – it has to to make it last for an hour and a half. However they managed to adapt it and make it work; the story is an average lost-childhood one which a lot of adults would love. The story didn’t do so much for me, but I can’t fault it, it’s just not my style.

The actors playing the wild things were also great but I was little alarmed to hear James Gandolfini playing Carol! I’ve recently been watching The Sopranos, so to put him in a ‘kids’ movie after that is a bit odd. He definitely fit the role though, especially the instability.

I loved the movie, but not for the story.

Bat-lame-ia.

Today Jes and I headed to the City Museum for the second last day of their Batmania exhibition. I haven’t head too much about the place, but was of the impression that it was a reasonably sized museum with Melbourne history. This was fairly wrong and it actually only consisted of a few rooms (upstairs, the gold vaults cost extra downstairs); the Batmania exhibition was two rooms plus some hallway. The information was fairly boring and poorly written (with many inappropriately placed apostrophes), and very few things to look at (a few notebooks and drawings). The other rooms had some mildly interesting items relating to the founding fathers and the immigration. There were several references to the gold mines and men who made their fortune on it. I don’t think I learnt very much about anything.

After that we decided to go to the Ricky Swallow exhibition at the NGV in Federation Square. This cost twice as much, and was worth every cent. The carvings were of amazing detail (and size). They were accompanied by the usual over-the-top descriptions but the pieces themselves were interesting and beautiful. It was inspirational to see something which had obviously taken time and talent to complete.

The afternoon after that was completed in pleasant laziness. We had a beer at Beer Deluxe (I had Warsteiner – a refreshing, flavoursome lager and a Sinha Stout – something different but tasty) and then headed for some lunch. After the first choice of a Chinese restaurant was shut, Shanghai Dumpling House beckoned and provided us with cheap food.

This evening we went out to see the new release, Zombieland. It was a movie that certainly didn’t disappoint. It’s a comedy, which was genuinely funny against what is usually a horror or drama background. There were only a few characters, which helped to develop each character, but followed one in the narrative, leaving some about the others a mystery. Abigail Breslin (of Little Miss Sunshine fame) was one of the characters and, as with her other movies, was fantastic. She’s a great little actress, and certainly has grown up since I saw her in Nim’s Island! The other three were definitely not a disappointment, including Bill Murray in a cameo role!

The movie was refreshing, even with the predictable love story worked into it. The ideas were nothing new, but it was brought out as something new. Best movie I’ve seen in a while.

Talking and Comedy

On Friday 30th, after a sunny day off work, my friend Jes and I went to see our last event of the Hello Darkness mini-festival, a talk and slideshow by Ken Warner about his photographs of Halloween from San Francisco.

I hadn’t heard of him before, but a quick search online found some photographs of high interest and good quality. He visited or lived in San Fransisco for twenty-odd years, and photographed the Halloween street parties which were based around the gay community there. He discussed how the parties came about, what people thought about it and some of the experiences he had while there. He showed us colour photos, as he had published a book of black and white photos and felt that the colour photos were something new.

There were some very interesting images involving people with costumes that were certainly worthy of some analysis. The highlight I think was the man who, apparently year after year, wore a costume consisting of pads and tampons with blood-red paint (at least I hope it was paint).

The room it took place in was on Brunswick Street, in an upstairs open-plan place. It seemed like the ideal place for a party, and although we headed off early, it seemed that a party would go on into the night. I even managed to sit on the hard wooden floor for the few hours it lasted. The crowd was an interesting mix of friends of friends of people who organised it, artistic types who were interested in the photos and quirky gothic types who just wanted to go to everything Halloween themed. I’m not sure where I fit in, but I was wearing plastic mini jack-o-lantern earrings.

The longer weekend was fairly quiet and lazy. Saturday afternoon consisted of an impromptu pub crawl and the evening a delicious dinner at the old Dainty Sechuan in Chinatown. Sunday was again, lazy, and involved watching
Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders’. We’d seen the first earlier this year, and this was significantly worse, but still amusing and lightly entertaining.

Unfortunately I had to work Monday, breaking up what could have been a five-day weekend. However, Cup eve evening was spent eating good food, drinking good beer and watching good comedy. We had dinner at Red Pepper at the top end of Bourke Street, a tried and tested Indian eatery. At only $6 for a veggie curry, and slightly less for an alcoholic beverage, it’s a great bargain.

Next up we headed over to Spleen, where there is free comedy on Monday nights. Although I’ve had the intention of going many times, this was the first time I actually managed to attend. Adam Rozenbachs was acting as MC and there was a huge set of other small-name comedians. Adam used a lot of the material he had at the comedy festival and when I saw him at the Comedy Club, but had added some new bits and delivered the old stuff in different ways.

Otherwise, Sammy J was fantastic, Felicity Ward was great and Troy Kinne was fairly good too. They were the highlights, but the others weren’t all bad. I think I’ll have to make an effort to go again, but not when it’s too warm – the air-con wasn’t very good!

Melbourne Cup Day was an enjoyable public holiday, and to avoid the racing rabble we headed to the cinema. We saw ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’, which I suppose is also called the movie that Heath Ledger was making when he died.

Overall, I liked it. It wasn’t amazing, and Heath Ledger didn’t get much of an opportunity to show how great he was, but it was an enjoyable movie and done well, particularly when you take into account what happened. I understand that they had to re-write chunks of it to enable three other actors to fill in (Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell). I can’t say in comparison to how it was before, but the re-write definitely worked and the other three actors stepped up to the mark and did fantastically. Tom Waits also deserves a mention; I think I’m becoming a fan of his.

Otherwise, the movie is a long one, but doesn’t seem it. The story is interesting, if a little confusing. The special effects are beautiful and the costumes are especially impressive.

After that, it was all downhill and back to work today.

Hello Darkness

A friend had pointed this film festival out to me, a special horror movie run just before Halloween. It was to be shown at ACMI, which has become a frequent haunt of mine, with their ‘Freaky Friday’ features. With an interest in most of the movies showing at this festival, we bought one of the four movie passes and picked the following:

Paranormal Activity
There has apparently been a significant amount of hype around for this movie, but I hadn’t heard too much about it other than a website petition for the movie to be shown in certain towns (a rather successful marketing trick). This showing was sold out, but I had low expectations – a hand-held self-filmed movie? I couldn’t help but think of the Blair Witch Project. Thankfully this turned out much better. It seemed to last for a long time, but only because it was so tense all the way through. Despite this the characters created some natural comedy, but not enough to override the tension, particularly later on. I found myself sucked into the story and about half way through I had to remind myself that it was only a movie and it wasn’t real.

I won’t give too much away, but the story was great, if lacking in detail in places and the action was simple and spectacular. The ending I saw (one of three according to most websites) was good, but I felt added too much comedy to it rather than fear. The other two endings that I have heard about sound better, but whether they were executed well is another matter.

The Last House on the Left
This was the recent remake of the original from the 1970s, and I saw it only half an hour after ‘Paranormal Activity’, so obviously my expectations were fairly high. As it was fairly different, it wasn’t hard to expect different, and there was definitely a comedic gore factor to it, as well as some social and moral issues lightly tossed in.

As I haven’t seen the original, I can’t say how it compares, but I can say that it was a good movie. The acting was fairly good (especially the ‘bad guys’), and the special effects of blood and guts was fairly realistic for the most part. It was a scary movie in a different way, because there wasn’t too much tension building (and what there was was short-lived). The fear came in the believing that people could act that way, and that revenge could be that easy.

As I said, I wasn’t scared by this one, but it was still a good horror movie.

Sheitan
The first of two foreign language movies, I was quite looking forward to this one. I’ve seen some French movies, and quite enjoy their quirkiness, but was unsure whether that would continue into the horror-style movies. It certainly did. This movie definitely did not disappoint – there was tension, violence, sex and generally strange things. It was fantastic.

I feel the camera work is also worth a mention, with different techniques being applied to bring out the different moods throughout the movie. This was a strong point for me.

Overall there was a certain element of humour throughout this movie, right until the end, and it helped to confuse the audience. The moments of humour would come at unexpected points, or be so closely linked to the fear that it gave a very uneasy feeling. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

Haute Tension
The last movie of my four, and another French one. A quick look at IMDB indicated that this would be different to the oddness of ‘Sheitan’ and a more traditional horror slasher gore-fest; it certainly didn’t let down on the last count!

The story was a little predictable, with an inkling of the ending in the back of my mind. However, the execution was fairly good, with the build up, the action and a prolonged conclusion all being of high quality. The acting was hit and miss at times, but the soundtrack, camera work and blood made up for this for the most part. The plot was also missing in parts, but I still thought it worked.

Probably the weakest of the four I saw, but going by the high quality, it was definitely not a bad movie.

After re-reading this, I feel that I’m being faithful to my ‘resolution’ of sorts to watch more movies!

Second Anniversary

On September 1st it passed the second year I’ve been in Melbourne. As pointed out in my last post, I’m quite settled here and enjoying everything.

Anyway, the weekend before last, I took a day-trip out to Mt Buller to see Australian snow for the first time. After doing some investigative work, the best deal I could find was through the tourist agency ExtraGreen for a bus from the city and back. After a last-minute upgrade, we ended up on a good quality bus on our way out of the city at 6am. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t exactly pleasant, and as we headed to higher ground, the rain started to fall. It continued all day, and all but ruined the day.

If it hadn’t been raining, we could have hired some snow shoes and gone for a hike, or completed the Gnome Roam (as it was, I could only find one gnome on the clock tower before giving up), or even just had a better look around the village. Unfortunately, after some lunch and some more skipping between buildings, we headed up Summit Road to a pub and spent some time playing Buckhunter! The snow barely got a look in.

I was almost grateful to be on the bus going home after the wasted day there. As we pulled into Mansfield (where people had hired snow-gear), the rain cleared and there was some beautiful late afternoon light. As we had some time to kill, we went for a quick walk around nearby and took some photos before the clouds covered the rest of the sky.

Other than that, nothing too big has been happening for me. This Friday past, I had free tickets to the Comedy Club, where I got to see Adam Rozenbachs as MC, with Terry North and Lehmo. Terry North is an English comedian that I’ve seen on two other occasions, and he still has no new material. Thankfully Lehmo and Adam Rozenbachs both made up for this and it was an enjoyable night.

I’ve been quite busy at work recently, but I’ve also been to the movies a few times. I saw District 9 a few weeks ago. This was a refreshing movie. The fact that it was South African, with little American influence, was quite noticable. The acting was a little iffy at times – with the main character barely developing at all. Apart from that, the special effects and costumes were impressive, and I liked the movie.

The other movie I saw was Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. Now this movie has had a fair amount of press, and I was looking forward to it. It didn’t disappoint. The violence was plentiful, and there was more than enough dialogue, but overall I felt that it worked. The in-depth dialogue and speeches were, at times, overkill, but added to the rest of the action, it was fantastic. The acting was fantatic, with mostly unknown (to me at least) actors. The character of Col. Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, was particularly impressive.

As the Melbourne Silver Mine’s Unsensored 09 exhibition closes on Wednesday, I highly recommend heading down if you get the chance. It sounds like it has been quite successful, with a number of people passing through and some of the pieces have sold (multiple times!) My image hasn’t sold, but I was aiming to bring it home to adorn our wall instead. It certainly would have been nice to make a sale, but after agonising over the images, I decided to hang them just for the sake of hanging, rather than to make money. This is the first time my work has been displayed in public, and I’m quite content just to be able to see my work large and on the wall!

While on the subject of photography, I visited Scienceworks Museum last weekend to see the Star Wars exhibition. Taking my camera and a couple of lenses was the easy bit, but with many of the displays poorly lit and behind glass smeared with children’s fingerprints, getting the photos was a bit harder. I took my still new-ish 40D with my 50mm f/1.8, and by using my adaptor, I also had two Nikon mount lenses – 85mm f/1.4 and 24mm f/2.8. Unfortunately the former of these was of little use in the crowded rooms, but the 24mm was useful on occasion to get some close-ups of pieces.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to see any more movies at MIFF, but I did see the Whitlams playing at the Corner Hotel last weekend. Their show was quite extensive, with only one support and playing one album in full (Eternal Nightcap). It was a fantastic show with an intriguing crowd. Thankfully, MUFF starts soon, and I should be able to see a few more of those.

Just this weekend, I saw ‘Drag Me To Hell’ as it’s cinema run is finishing. I thoroughly enjoyed this, despite mixed reviews. There were moments where I momentarily cringed and thought it would go down hill, but it managed to redeem itself. The acting, for the most part, was very good, but I felt there were too many ‘jumps’ to be fun. It ended up distracting from the story and acting. On the whole though, it was fantastic. Hopefully this week I will manage to see District 9 too.

While I’m remembering, I never got around to mentioning the latest Harry Potter movie. As a movie, it was fantastic. The darkness, the acting and the effects were all very good and the movie moved along nicely. Obviously, as a comparison to the book, it’s disappointing. Many, apparently unimportant, aspects and scenes were left out, and there were huge chunks missing. Also, the scene of Dumbledore’s death, which could and should have been amazing, was a huge letdown.

So last month my parents were in the country – mostly in Adelaide, but flew in and out of Melbourne so there was a chance for us to catch up. I took them around to a couple of places and showed them the city. We had an afternoon at Fairfield Boat House, and I treated them to a dinner at Punch Lane Wine Bar. Both were delicious and I strongly recommend them if you have a chance to try either.

Other than that, it’s been the same old photography/knitting/reading/socialising mess for me! I’ve been knitting a cardigan for a friend who is expecting a new baby, and I’ve branched out a bit with a striped pattern and different stitches – it’s coming along very nicely and pictures will be posted once it’s completed. I’ve also been using a very easy bootie pattern and made a few pairs with leftover yarn. It’s very basic, but quite productive as you can do them almost with your eyes closed.

Photography-wise, as per my last post, there’s an exhibition of film photography next week run by the Melbourne Silver Mine group. I have a set of three photos displayed at this, which have been printed and framed but I haven’t had a chance to collect them just yet. What I know of the other shots are very good, if a little ‘Melbourne-y’, and I’d highly recommend you head along if you get a chance.

For my birthday I was given a Holga 120N with a small flash, and I eagerly tried these out at the last Melbourne group Flickr meet. Although I mixed up the film size without a mask, the photos came out quite nicely on Neopan 400.

Last night I managed to see the first (and probably only) movie of the Melbourne International Film Festival, a Norwegian one called ‘Dead Snow’. It was a story about Nazi zombies attacking a group of young, attractive students. I really enjoyed it; there were laughs and jumps, and the writer knew how to make fun of himself. It turned out very well, and it’s made me want to see more movies of a similar vein – many of which I own on DVD but haven’t watched yet. I’ll get to them!

I don’t know that I’ll get time to see any others, which is a shame as there seems to be a lot on (even with those pulled out for political reasons). I’ve heard good things about Tony Manero and Chocolate though.

Books and movies so far…

1. Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa – Alex Kershaw
2. American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
3. The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures – Louis Theroux
4. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
5. Slumdog Millionaire – Vikas Swarup
6. The Burn-out Town Of Miracles – Roy Jacobsen
7. 1984 – George Orwell
8. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
9. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac – Gabrielle Zevin
10. The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova
11. War Trash – Ha Jin
12. Siberia – Ann Halam

Also currently reading “East Of Eden” by John Steinbeck and “A Cork on the Waves” by Halina Robinson.

So although I’m halfway through the year, I’m nowhere near the halfway point of 42 books of last year! Despite this, I haven’t been watching as many movies as I promised myself either.

I have watched some though. I’ve started to watch/re-watch the Star Wars collection (I saw the first three when I was younger but can barely remember them, and never saw the new ones) – which I’m enjoying. I’ve watched the first two of the original trilogy, and am grateful for the refresher.

I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine at the cinema recently. It was quite disappointing, as I’d heard from many people. The balance of action and character development is poor. The characters and relationships went too far, and the action could have been much better. Don’t get me wrong, it’s much better than a lot of movies out there at the moment, but it could have been as good as the other X-Men movies at least!

Also recently in the cinema, I saw a movie entitled ‘Flesh Gordon’. Now, I haven’t seen the more appropriately titled ‘Flash Gordon’, nor know anything about it. But I loved this movie. The poor recording quality (it’s from the 70s), the lack of technology and budget for the action and the c/d/e/f-grade actors all come together to make a very entertaining Friday evening! It was shown at ACMI in Fed Square, which seems to have a lot of old, odd or local movies showing.

A few weeks back, I saw ‘Deliverance’ at ACMI too, which definitely better than the modern hillbilly movies. I liked that the story followed the characters at the end, and again, the lack of technology and budget just added to the charm.

Anyway, I haven’t been watching as many movies as I could have been, but I am thinking about the ones I see more – as I did with the books I read last year. I mentally review each one in my mind, even if I’m not typing it all up!

So since the last post, I’ve had a few great nights of comedy.

The first show was Adam Hills: Inflatable. Although it had the usual charm and hilarity of a Hillsy show, there was a sadder aspect to it which brought everyone down for just a moment. However, ending with the Australian national anthem to the tune of Working Class Man, brought everyone back up. All in all, it was a different but fantastic show.

After that, a second big name was up – Danny Bhoy. Although I’ve only seen a DVD of one of his shows, I was excited to be able to see him live with new material. Despite a very rowdy (and not particularly funny) crowd, he managed to get through the show and make the most of it. I can definitely understand his hype, and I was impressed by his stage presence.

This week we also had tickets to see Adam Rozenbachs. We saw him last year and as we had to sit in the front row, there was some embarrassment as my housemate confirmed that I pee’d in the shower (his question after discovering I worked for a bathware company)! Thankfully this year we were sitting toward the back and could sit back to enjoy the show. The front row wasn’t quite as exciting (it’s hard to make fun of someone who cares for the elderly) but his show was interesting, up-to-date and as always, entertaining.

My Friday night plans unfortunately fell through, so we ended up seeing Randy’s Postcards from Purgatory – a puppet comedy. This was a new one for me, and was interesting. Obviously the puppetry demanded skill too, but it was more of a production of the last few years of his life involving different flashback scenes. It was funny, different and very interesting.

After that, we took a break from the comedy and went to see a showing of Deliverance at ACMI. I hadn’t seen this movie before, and I really enjoyed it. The story was better done than the lost-campers-hillbilly-trouble movies of today, and there were enough laughs to keep my attention for the entirety. After finding out that these showings are a regular event, I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes open for what’s on next.

Last night had two more shows in stock. The first was Rod Quantock Eats Himself, which I thoroughly enjoyed. He essentially just talks through the issue of global warming, what we should do, why the government isn’t doing enough – the usual. However, his delivery is what makes the show; he comes across as a mad scientist, complete with chalk-board. It was good to see the same material delivered in a new way and by a genuinely concerned and interesting bloke.

Later on, we went to see Ali McGregor’s Late Nite Variety Nite, a similar show to The Festival Club with a collection of comics performing while Ali McGregor is an MC, in a classic burlesque-esque style. As an MC, she has a great presence, but seems to rely too heavily on her guests; I would have preferred for her to take more of the show as her own. Despite that, we saw a good crowd – Kent Valentine, Celia Pacquola, Wil Anderson and Rima the itty-bitty burlesque dancer (yes, the midget from BB). I enjoyed all except the last.

With only one more week of the festival left, I’m not sure whether to start relaxing again, or to cram as many acts in as possible. I have a two more booked, but I’ll play the rest by ear; there are several more I’d love to see thoughC

Home safe

As was stated in the last post, I came home safely and thankfully had the Friday (13th!) off work too, to recover from my holiday. Most of my day was spent unpacking, organising photos and doing some washing.

In the evening however, I managed to get out the house and went along to Rankins Lane in the city, to see the exhibition of a vague acquaintance from Flickr – Velco. The Absinthe Dream/Conversations” exhibition was simply beautiful and I highly recommend going along (yes in the next two days) if possible! The opening was a nice evening, although I was getting a cold so I stayed away from the absinthe on offer!

The weekend following was quite uneventful. I saw The Watchmen, which I thoroughly enjoyed despite not having read the graphic novels. The soundtrack was especially good, the highlight for me being Bob Dylan at the start!

After that it was struggling back into work after a week and a day off. Of course there was catching up to be done, as well as taking on my full load again, but thankfully I got through it all! I had Wednesday off, which involved seeing the ENT about my dizziness, the physio about my knee and visiting Ted’s in the city to drop off a couple of colour films to be processed.

The ENT is still at odds as to what is causing my dizziness. He suspects that mals de debarquement is not the cause, but having ruled out the other main suspects, he is unsure as to what is the cause. I’m being booked in for a CT scan and a balance test before I go back to see him, so perhaps they will reveal something. I can only hope, as it does seem to be getting worse.

The physio was all fine thankfully. Even if it is not ITBS, the deep tissue massage on the ITB and the knee-cap tape is definitely working, and that’s all that matters! The deep tissue massages aren’t the most pleasant, but it seems to help. The taping I can now do myself, and did so throughout New Zealand and since. I notice it helping particularly when standing or walking – for example I went to a concert on Friday (see below) and I could stand without issue for most of the night. At least something is going well for me!

On the Friday night, I had a few friends over for drinks and nibbles (I whipped up a couple of potato pizzas, delicious) before we went down to the Corner Hotel. Although I didn’t know the bands particularly well – Nancy Vandal and Frenzal Rhomb, – I did enjoy the show, and have had Nancy Vandal in my head since then! I’ll be copying their CDs from a friend so that I can continue to enjoy them. It was a great night, if a little intoxicating, but I was home safe and sound and tucked up by 2am.

Saturday was mainly in recovery mode. I went to the Vegie Bar in Brunswick St for lunch with a friend, which was delicious, and picked up the films from Ted’s. Later in the afternoon I went to see a friend who is in the Royal Melbourne Hospital after a bad fall on her knee which required an operation. Three of four tendons had gone, but she seems to be getting on with things and we all have our fingers crossed for her.

Sunday morning dawned unusually early and brought with it the Camberwell Photographer’s Market – a highlight of the film-shooting-community. This was my first year in attendance, and also the first year the Melbourne Silver Mine had a stall there – for members to sell their gear. I hadn’t planned on making any big purchases, and had set myself a nice low limit of $50 if I did see anything. Thankfully I stayed well underneath that and bought only two things. The first was a film squeegee, to help with water marks when I process my own film. The second was a plastic camera – Cheungyun Minitech 3D-05. It shoots four half-frames at once (35mm) and I can’t wait to see the first roll out of it!

While I was there there was much discussion about medium format gear, as a lot of people were after certain items. It’s started to tempt me into buying one too (peer pressure is hard), although I will have to do some research first obviously. I have several friends who shoot with various makes and models, so I will have to investigate, but it’s something new which does appeal to me, especially now that I can process my own black and white film.

Not that I need any new cameras at the moment though, as last weekend I was also given a plastic panorama camera. Instead of having a high-tech method, it’s a matter of flipping a lever on the back and some plastic shutters lower over the top and bottom of the frame so that the negative isn’t fully exposed. I went out with it on Wednesday and found it far too easy to shoot with, the roll was almost done after a couple of hours. I will hopefully process that this afternoon and get scanning!

This week coming also holds some excitement for me in the form of a Scottish band. I’ll be seeing Biffy Clyro, who I haven’t seen since their first support slot with InMe after their first album all the way back in 2003! They’ve changed quite significantly since then, but still have a distinct sound which I love. I can’t wait! I also plan on trying to get out and shoot with various cameras at lunchtime and after work.

In the mean time, here are some more shots from NZ, both film and digital.