| 2009 in Retro |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|01:18 pm] |
What did I like this year? Liked finishing a novel, man; I liked that a whole damn lot. (Smirks.) But otherwise…
Well, let's start with movies, as ever. I watched a fair deal, many of which were A) viewed in the sanctity of my own home and B) just not very good. Threes to twos at best, on a five-whatever scale. This was particularly so in terms of the horror I saw, unfortunately. However, there were fun experiences to be had nevertheless, here and there. Some of the best, as follows:
Inglourious Basterds—Demented exploitation wish-fulfillment melodrama, with added history of cinema jokes. A bit of a guilty pleasure, I suppose, which may be why I haven’t bought it yet.
Watchmen—Pretty much everything I wanted, particularly in its expanded state. I’m still debating whether or not to eventually get the version that adds in the “Black Freighter” animated sequences; probably.
Star Trek Reboot—And again, though this gets weaker in terms of science and plot construction every time I rewatch it, I just don’t care. It’s pure chemistry, much like the original show.
District 9—Rented this recently, and rewatched it with Steve (his first time). “Oh Neil Blomkamp, why do you hate humanity?” He asked, sadly, after emerging; well, hmm. I think I know. But then, since I don’t disagree, it doesn’t appall me quite as much.;)
The Princess and the Frog—see yesterday’s entry, especially the comments.
Sherlock Holmes—Purists may rant, but I am seriously stumped as to why. “So rare you see two equally good movies on the same day,” I remarked to Steve as we left, and I maintain that opinion: Both Frog and this are keepers.
Martyrs—This is just a serious punch in the face, which you will either enjoy, or you won’t. (“Enjoy” is a negotiable concept here, BTW; I don’t think you’re actually supposed to enjoy the second half, and would avoid you, if you did.)
Timecrimes—I’m not Ms. Science Fiction in general, but this is just a fascinating Moebius strip of inadvertant/advertant fuck-ups whose main thesis seems to be: If you’re thinking of doing X for no good reason, JUST DON’T. Solid advice, going by the evidence. (Hard SF runner-up: Moon.)
Pontypool—In a church basement, a disgraced Big City talk radio host launches into what he thinks will be just another shitty small-town morning show, while outside, language mutates into a virus and everything falls apart. Word to the wise, CanCon: This is how you do no-budget.
Surveillance—Two FBI agents arrive in Buttfuck Nowhere, U.S.A., ostensibly to figure out why a not-exactly-“routine” traffic stop resulted in dead bodies aplenty. Do the words Rashomon meets The Devil’s Rejects mean anything to you? Jennifer Lynch’s eye is clinical and dreamy, as befits her heritage, and the performances skirt just this side of so-weird-they-must-be-true.
Jennifer’s Body—Over on the other side of “but chickz cant make good [insert genre here] moooviez”-land, meanwhile, we have the unholy trilogy of Karyn Kusama, Diablo Cody and Megan Fox, with a side-order of Amanda Seyfried. The result is fucking vicious, so if you can’t get over M-Fox’s boobs, then whatever; you’re probably just lime-green jello.
Deadgirl—Oh, and so much hate online for this one, too! Which is too bad, since it’s the most interesting examination of nu-Milennium porno culture I’ve seen in a while; again, not “enjoyable” as such, and not meant to be. Two slackers cut school, fuck around in an abandoned mental hospital, find a supposedly dead yet nubile female body which proves less dead than they originally thought. One of them immediately wants to keep her, screw her, maybe rent her out—the other objects, but not too strenuously. It’s a trailer-trash moral quandry for the morally impaired, cut liberally with personal danger and existential awfulness.
I Sell the Dead—Somebody really likes old-school Hammer Horror, and this is the result—a ghoulish Resurrection Men horror-comedy in which the comedy is genuinely funny and the horror is genuinely horrific. Great Penny Dreadful comic-book snap to it all, too. (Ten other horrors worth your time, some already covered: Paranormal Activity, Left Bank, Sauna, Vinyan, The Burrowers, Red Sands, Clive Barker’s Book of Blood, Trick ‘r Treat, Seventh Moon, Pandorum.)
And then, as ever, there were the older movies I stumbled across: Yankee Doodle Dandy, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), Gilda, a weird little indie film called The Sticky Fingers of Time which I’d forgotten I had on video, and forms an interesting female-centric partner to Timecrimes. Plus The Long, Hot Summer, which is crazily Southern Gothic and stupidly sexist, but also has Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward going at each other like weasels in a bag, to make up for it. So that’s good.;)
Next up: Books. Graphic novels. Music. TV. (And feel free to ask for expansion on any of the listed films in comments—I’ll get to it, though not immediately.)
Amended to add: Oh yeah, and I also saw--and liked--Coraline. But considering I forgot all about it, maybe I wouldn't put it on this list, after all... |
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| Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century at Jaroo |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|04:14 pm] |
Cress has pointed out that Cookie Jar (who bought out DiC a while ago) have begun to show full eps of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century at their streaming video site (a few eps up, more in the 'coming soon'.) I hope more companies figure out that this is the way to go: actually hosting or selling older shows online and making a few quid off advertising, instead of clamping down on YouTube vids yet doing nothing with the DVD rights. Selling old stuff has worked for games on Steam, so let's have a bit more old telly to watch with friends, please. iTunes downloads are mentioned too, but I can't see any SH22 in the UK shop.
The Jaroo site also has other former DiC-owned shows such as Paddington Bear, Inspector Gadget, Wombles, Ulysses 31, etc. SH22 is being updated one ep per week, so I hope they loop back to the earlier eps some time in 2010. ;) |
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| The future is 3D? I hope to hell it’s not. |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|02:57 pm] |
I saw one 3D film this year (’UP’) and I couldn’t see the fuss (film was good, 3D pointless) – if you want to see 3D go to the theatre. As a bit of a sci-fi geek I decided that I had to see ‘Avatar’ even though the trailers didn’t make me that fussed… so like every good sci-fi fan with a cinema membership I booked my ticket in advance, paying my extra £1.50 on top of my normal ticket price. When getting to the cinema I was told I had to pay an extra £1.50 on what I’d already paid extra in order to purchase the 3D glasses. What the hell? I’d already paid extra! What was the extra for? Not being prepared to pay more for a film I’d already paid more to see I got a refund. 3D is a gimmick that only lasts the films cinematic run, unless they’re planning to hand out 3D enabled TVs when ‘Avatar’ ultimately comes out on DVD I don’t see the point in bothering at all (especially as it’s also showing in 2D). Many film makers were saying that they were going to watch closely to see how ‘Avatar’ did before deciding on their own 3D ventures, by all accounts it’s doing brilliantly and will probably come away with a few technical awards during Oscar season but if this is the way cinema is headed then I might just hand back my cinema membership. Many people believe that the existence of this new brand of 3D film making is to combat piracy, well you know what? I’ve never seen a more positive advert for film piracy. My local Vue is showing it in 2D and that’s where I will be spending my money (particularly as I have a free ticket to use there – technical problems during a film I saw there a few months ago). |
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| Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|01:04 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "sherlock holmes" ost, hans zimmer (of course!) | ] |
...you may wonder what's been going on, chez Files-and-Barringer. So:
Had Christmas Eve and Day with Mom. Took Cal to his very first-ever movie in a theatre, and that went amazingly well...so much better than I'd ever dreamed it would. Helped that there were three people he could move around between, that we bought him popcorn as a distraction, and that the place was not exactly full up with kids who were just as excited as he was. Also, turns out that The Princess and the Frog is A) really good and B) has a musical number roughly ever five to ten minutes: Excellent. So that's a keeper, once it's out on DVD.
Later, we returned on our own to see Sherlock Holmes, which I liked a heck of a lot. It's more faithful than you might think, and entirely engaging. Worth more of a review, too, but not right now.
Next day: Slight shopping, illness, Cal decompressing. Today: Barringers faux-Christmas. More reading Sunburst awards books; I sorted the first load yesterday, separating out maybe six which proved unreadable/deadly boring, then compiling a "Read Now" and "Read Later" pile. First up was Megan Crewe's Give up the Ghost, which proved less fun than Sarah Rees Brennan's in-five-minutes version of the same--but then, most things do. Her version of The Magicians and Mrs. Quent was fairly hilarious as well, and made me long for her to do one of A Book..., not that that's ever likely to happen--though my interests and hers do seem to intersect, overall, there is that little "heinous lack of awesome ladies" problem to consider.
And--that's it. Gotta go catch a train. Back tonight, maybe with a list of prezzies and such. |
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| an Englishdude |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|06:47 pm] |
Thanks muchly to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) englishdude for today's hanging out, and the kind prezzies (one of which is causing confusion by being both fiction and non-fiction ;) ) I'm lucky to have such a great mate (not just the one either, but loads of you.) Going to go and spam my LT account now ;D Please stroke the cats for me! |
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| SH22 Therapy |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|09:48 am] |
Feeling a bit crappy today, but I remembered that Fraggles have mildly curative properties, so played my Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century Fragglevid to cheer myself. It reminds me why I love SH22, for all its cringeworthy rubbish bits! I just mentally edit them out, and concentrate on the Robot-love, dystopian angst and and arse-kicking.
eta: flying pimp for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) deaddetective |
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| Top Fives of the Year |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|09:32 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  content | ] |
The year is drawing rapidly to a close and I feel that for the most part it has been a perfectly fine year. For the first time in about five years I felt like I had a home in London and was able to settle down and indulge in my many vices (mainly films). I wish I’d managed to read more books this year but I got a little sidetracked towards the middle of the year and wasn’t really able to get back on track again, however I have discovered a new love in graphic novels and found myself picking up more non-fiction (even if I haven’t quite got round to finishing them!). Finally, and more importantly, I was able to see some spectacular theatre productions that reminded me why I fell in love with the theatre in the first place. My film top five is strictly inaccurate, as I won’t be seeing ‘Avatar’ until the 28th December and people do seem to be saying it’s their film of the year. I remain sceptical as nothing about it has struck that little bell that screams “THIS IS AWESOME!” based on the trailers, we’ll see though – my favourite James Cameron film is ‘The Abyss’ and from what I gather most people don’t think it’s all that. I’m seeing ‘Nine’ on the 29th December, and that’s another film that seems to be getting a lot of buzz – I have to be honest, the only song I like from the musical is ‘Be Italian and am a bit worried that, that’s the song they’re using in the trailer but it looks intriguing. (Not in any particular order) Top Five (new) Films: 1. An Education / Cracks
2. Star Trek
3. Doubt
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Up / Where the Wild Things Are Top Film (old) Films: 1. The Haunting / In the Loop
2. Stand by Me
3. Chopper
4. Son of Rambow
5. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas / The City of Lost Children Top Five Books: 1. The Terror by Dan Simmons / A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin
2. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
3. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
5. The Haunting by Shirley Jackson / The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde Top Five TV: 1. The Thick of It (especially episodes #3 and #7)
2. Dr Who: The Waters of Mars
3. Warehouse 13 season finale
4. Psychoville
5. Boston Legal finale. Now this final one is in order because I’ve only actually seen six stage productions this year and 'Madam de Sade' wasn't worth writing home about. 1. War Horse
2. La Cage aux Folles
3. An Inspector Calls
4. Waiting for Godot
5. Endgame |
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| LOL Doctor Who |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|06:15 pm] |
Certain scenes in the new Doctor Who remind me of .... this. Oh noes, hehe. ;D |
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| Christmas Eve |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|11:05 am] |
Somebody was talking about Night Heat on Someone Else's Friendslist today--one of three or four I regularly surf, so you'll never know where I am, heh heh--and made me think, once again, about the subject of Stealth Canadianism on LJ, let alone the Internet itself. That thing where you suddenly realize that someone you'd default assumed was American gets the same ridiculously local cultural references you do, so...oh right, they're from Vancouver, or St. John's, or Red Deer. Or Montreal. Or Ottawa. Or maybe they live in the same city as you, and you just didn't figure that out, somehow. Because we could all be typing dogs, for all we know.
Then again, Canadian shows are widely distributed, globally--far more widely than we realize. My Mom gets intermittent cheques from ACTRA's Performer's Rights division every once in a while, usually for the grand sum of $3.25 or so, probably because that episode of The Littlest Hobo she was on once just screened in Bahrain. People in Australia have seen Night Heat. People in Denmark have seen Due South. The people who tend to forget all about these shows are, in order, A) Americans, who often never saw them at all and B) Canadians, who are trained from an early age to avoid acting like they give a shit about CanCon product, because don't you understand that if it comes from your own country it simply isn't cool? (Unless you're from Quebec, that is. And maybe not even then. Maybe if you're from Nunavut.)
Meanwhile, it's the Day Before the Night Before, and Cal is watching Toopy & Binoo, a CanCon product I personally wish had never been approved, let alone distributed. Yesterday's visit to the doctor--my last in 2009--confirmed that though I appear to have two holes in my left-hand anchor-scar, the flesh beneath is pink and healing, uninfected; I just have to resign myself to it being an "unstable area", keep changing the band-aids, and call him in February. Etc.
Minutiae. Happy Merry, all. |
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| Very Silly: Holmesian Error Messages |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|04:58 pm] |
For some reason I felt like mocking Windows, Holmes-style. These are all from the Granada series, so some of them rely a little on recognising the adventure from context :) I put the name of the story in the mouseover text for those who don't know Granada well :)
( Read more... ) |
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| *whinge* *whinge* |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|09:48 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  awake | ] |
Ok, seriously, own up.
Who's idea was it to have a matinee, followed by a Christmas Eve show, followed by two shows on Boxing Day?
I promise there won't be any repercussions. Ignore the big pointy stick. |
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| This Week in YouTube |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|07:01 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "a little at a time", magnolia electric | ] |
Finally saw the trailer for Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and my Lord, that looks like tripe. OTOH, Iron Man 2 benefits heavily from each repeat viewing, not least because the version up at iTunes kept timing out every half-second, causing me to miss little details like the fact that when Tony Stark is dropped out of a plane at the beginning--yelling "You complete me!" back at Pepper, after she's kissed, then punted, his helmet--he isn't actually going into battle, or anything. Instead, he lands center-stage at the Stark Expo, surrounded by stripper-nubile ladies in Iron Man-colored bikinis with fake arc reactors stuck to their ample, scantily-clad chests. Oh, Tony: Never change.;)
Something I'm surprised to find myself increasingly excited about: Clash of the Titans. Something I'm not surprised to find myself excited about, but am nevertheless gratified to observe seems not to suck: Sherlock Holmes. Jude Law makes a particularly pretty, put-upon, man-of-action Watson, as it should be. I also love the clip which has Holmes mentally breaking down how he's going to break down his bare-knuckle boxing opponent, then physically doing it, while Irene Adler completely ignores him in the background.
Hmmm. I wonder if there's a trailer up for Neil Marshall's Centurion yet... |
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| Or, Then Again... |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|12:25 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "natural blues", moby | ] |
NOBODY SLEEPS
Twenty-four skulls at the window, floating,
look in
on the Principessa’s nuptials.
They are angry, jealous.
Even now, in their bodiless state,
their hot brains dry and shrink—
crumble, bleak as moldy walnuts.
Turandot and Calaf lie entwined
in the lotus’ centre, a seed-pod
wrought from seven silken veils.
Nine months later, this sweet coccoon
will turn red.
The blood that births their twins
will stain it beyond repair,
leaving this slim moon of a girl
broken open, as—all the while—
her grim suitors stare down
into the babies’ wide eyes,
unappeased.
Send up the fireworks!
Peking rejoices.
Heaven’s dynasty will continue,
Turandot’s lunar reign a mere
detour, that rotten forest of heads
discreetly packed away.
Out in the street, celebrants
remind each other: They were
only foreigners.
They chose to come here, to play
her games. In a way, what happened
was all their fault.
In the palace, nobody sleeps.
Turandot and Calaf’s great passion,
that insomniac fever, infects
the whole world.
In the Ox’s hour, when
bad dreams breed, sad Liu
wrings her hands in vain.
Calaf, you have married a mask,
a dark mirror. I wish you joy
of your own reflection.
On the bed’s other side, meanwhile,
raped Princess Lou-i-ling leans down
to whisper:
Great-granddaughter, you have failed
me, failed us both,
betrayed at last by your own desires, as
I always knew you would be.
Now—
—get up, find a cleaver,
and bring me his head yourself.
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| Xmas Approaching: T-minus Three Days |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|10:47 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "bulletproof", la roux | ] |
Last night was my parents-in-law's fortieth wedding anniversary. Think about that, for a second: Forty years. We celebrated at the Mandarin, up in Mississauga, and things went far better with Cal than I could ever have hoped they would (though he did have one very brief breakdown when he realized we weren't actually going into Gran-and-Grandad's house, which has a basement full of toys for visiting grandkids. Nevertheless, he fell heavily asleep in the car on the way over to the restaurant and was scatty but good thereafter up until we left, when he started spinning so uncontrollably in the parking lot that he couldn't walk a straight line).
Otherwise, it's mainly been about Christmas, like it usually is: Buying stuff, posting stuff, dubbing stuff. Last night, I "unwound" by searching feverishly for various So You Think You Can Dance '09 tracks--Seasons 5 and 6 U.S., Season 2 Canada--and was amazed at how quickly things began to expand. Unlike previous years, I didn't even vaguely try to locate stuff from other cultures, which certainly helped; the stuff I couldn't find that I miss is mainly things like tracks from various Cirque de Soleil ("Jeux d'Eau" from O, "Pursuit" from Ka)/movie soundtracks ("Village Attack" from Blood Diamond, I'm looking at you), some ballroom tracks and a song by Mario Spinetti which seems to have become the Contemporary go-to track du jour. See also: Almost everything Sonya Tayeh likes to listen to. It'll probably amount to three separate CDs at this rate, not that I mind.;)
Today, meanwhile, I have to hook up with Mom and go buy more stuff--not a lot of it, really, compared to previous years. But you can't completely avoid it.
If I can get out of this season reasonably intact, I'll be happy. |
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| Snow Kraken |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|08:54 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | local | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | ow, my hands :p | ] |
Alas, I should have gone out last night after all, as the snow had gone hard and crunchy overnight and could not be scooped or moulded with gloves. Well, I wasn't to be defeated, and by attacking the snow with a sweeping brush was able to scraped together enough icy crust to form a snow kraken ;)
( Read more... ) |
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| Snow at last! |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|12:00 am] |
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*restrains urge to go out and roll around in it* |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|09:20 am] |
my gran's in hospital and will probably die soon
i've cried too much this winter, you'd think i didn't have tears left. |
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