“we are him”

15 second review

the new Angels Of Light album – meaty, at times playful, it has ‘bounce’.

this is Gira’s best work in a long time. while nothing will top my abiding all time appreciation of the “How I Loved You”album this is easily and clearly my second favourite Angels Of Light record.

a great listen!!

dodgy billboards revisited

seen this one about a bit around Mannheim, Germany the last week or so. don’t quite know where to start on commenting about this one, perhaps the steel tipped white shoes…?

click for bigger version

 

btw- WEST is a German brand

redheads smell best

my 15 second review of the movie Perfume:

visually pleasing but with dreadful accents and over used intrusive narration. the editing could have been better too, some scenes were overlong and others could have been extended. i haven’t read the book so can’t vouch for how close the film is to the book.

overall it was ok.

beneath the underdog

been reading Charles Mingus‘ “autobiography” and man was he one weird cat…

good read though

Party Party Party and packing packing packing

well, the time is really ticking along now – a farewell party has been held. Andy made most excellent snacks. And heaps of people turned up. I drank too many Gin Mint Julips (I was trying to reinvent the Kentucky derby in my kitchen), kami got so drunk he fell asleep on the couch and left some time between 8 30 and 11 am the next day. And one individual (not Kami) didn’t leave until the very end when really they should have gone a lot earlier. Its not appropriate to be 36 years of age and still have your mother  some one chaperoning you. Thanks to Sol and Liz for coming all the way from Melbourne – married life is clearly treating you well. And Watson has a girlfriend who is finally worthy of the title. Ahh all is well in the world. So well that I am blogging from work… he he he.

JLSD

CD Review: Rodrigo y Gabriela

i suspect i may be climbing on a bandwagon here but being a bit out of touch with these things of late maybe these guys aren’t as popular as i think they could be…expect to hear this in a slightly groovy cafe near you soon

Rodrigo y Gabriela are a couple of Mexican ex-metalheads who play fast, clear, acoustic guitar instrumentals (including percussion played on the same guitars) which sounds really quite good.

i don’t know if it’s just the power of sub-conscious suggestion and half baked cliche driven by the knowledge that these guys are Mexican but it seems to me like it would be an ideal soundtrack for drinking beer on a hot summer’s saturday afternoon

if only they had resisted the urge to include a cover of stairway to heaven…

Porgy & Bess – not the normal music review (for this blog)

M and I went to see Porgy and Bess at the Festival theatre. Really good productionalthough I must say that the lead singers were sounding a wee bit tired. and the guy who played Sportin’ Life had the odd tuning issue – but that also sounded like a result of too many times the same thing. Porgy was excellent – African american bass that sounded like caramel. Stunning. I liked the slight jazz to the opera and the bleak macabre nature of the story. The only serious criticism i have doesn’t relate to the music –  is that the surtitles were totally out of sync and often incorrectly translated. On some occassions they were ahead of themselves and so ruined the effect of the next line (really frustrating). But good that we saw it. M even liked it (there you’re secret is out!!). It was surprising to hear so many songs that we knew without ever associating them with the musical – Summertime, I got plenty of Nothing etc.

Garage Sale – all over in 2 hours

garage Sale was very successful and enlightening – without wanting to bite the hand that feeds me – the kind of people who turn up and stampede into the sale are really rather odd. Not to mention the fact that they all know each other ‘oh hi bob – what you get – oooh could have got that for less….’ etc and then the ones that buy stuff and then just stand around watching and chatting – and all before the thing officially starts. we shut it down by 11 30 and had made $600 – so we’re happy but god some people really are wierd.

not another crap movie review…

nope. it's two crap movie reviews.

nothing much else to say lately other than the countdown to our European tour is progressing so this will have to do for now…

15 second review – double feature

King Kong (the Peter Jackson remake):
overblown eye candy with plot holes bigger than the one in the ozone layer. willing suspension of disbelief will only carry so far – the fight scenes where Kong starts pulling Jackie Chan kung fu moves were the last straw for me. and another thing can Jack Black ever play anyone other than Jack Black (no evidence to the contrary so far).

The Proposition:
nice cinematography. very ordinary script.
(ps – Nick, don't give up the day job.)

movie review: The Five Obstructions

15 second review:

Jorgen Leth is really clever and does interesting work.

Lars von Trier is mostly a pretentious wanker (who still makes good movies).

this is very good and worth watching, especially if you are at all interested in the art / process of film-making. i especailly liked the Cuba and Cartoon sections.