Two Trailers You May Be Interested In (Or Rather, Should Be Interested In)

So today I have a couple of links to some new trailers for a couple of new films coming our way in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

The first one is to The Fantastic Mr Fox, the new film from Wes Anderson. It's a stop-motion film based on Roald Dahl's book, which I've never heard of, but it looks pretty cool. I'm eager to see how Wes brings his sensibilities to someone else's work. IMDB credits Noah Baumbach as screenwriter with Wes again, who you remember was also the writer on The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.

The next trailer is for A Serious Man, the new film from the Coen Bros. Always looking forward to a new Coen Bros. film, though Burn After Reading left me cold. Still, you can't argue with their track record. Incidentally, Video Ezy at Sherwood was selling Blood Simple for $9.95 if you were interested.

Baby Spock

This picture is from a scene that didn't make it in the final Star Trek film, but must've been released for publicity.

I love the little Vulcan ears.

Dylan quote I liked.

I was reading an interview with Bob Dylan in the latest issue of Mojo, and there was just a paragraph from that I wanted to share with you. The discussion was coming from talking about the characters in Bob's song, and Bob was saying they're not characters, it's just him singing. The interviewer then asked can't a singer act out a song, to which Bob agreed. Then the conversation turned towards actors, and Bob shared this little slice of pie, which struck me just because it's Bob referencing Tombstone, and using a quote I often use myself, which just struck me as cool.

Funny thing about actors and that identity thing. Every time I run into Val Kilmer, I can't help myself. I say "Why, Johnny Ringo-you looked like somebody just walked over your grave." Val always says, "Bob, I'm not Johnny Ringo. That's just a role I played in a movie." He could be right, he could be wrong. I think he's wrong but he says it in such a sincere way. You have to think he's right.

I love the wry humour at the end there. But one thing I have to pull him up on, Val Kilmer played Doc Holliday in Tombstone, where the quote obviously comes from, and that was one of his lines in the movie. He wasn't Johnny Ringo. That was Michael Biehn.

Where The Wild Things Are is coming...

I was just meant to be logging onto my computer to do some job applications, but did a quick search through some blogs, and came across this featurette over on AintItCool, which I thought was pretty awesome, and needed to be shared with you straight away.

The World Is Doomed...

Be Warned.

Be Prepared.

For those who can see, the writing is on the wall, humans are under threat. It seems we are under attack from every angle.

Off Alaska, there is a large unknown blob. I've seen the movies we're all doomed.

And now scientists, those foolish fools, have just brought the Robot Apocalypse one step closer. Sure, it starts with flies, but it ends with us in slave camps for our Robot Overlords.

Doomed I tells ya, we're all doomed.

I know. I've seen the writing on the wall.

The Eagle Path: New JCVD

So here is the goods on the previously mentioned new Van Damme film. I'm not as excited as I was a couple of days ago, but still, it's interesting to watch someone try take control of their career again. I'm going to get out JCVD tomorrow, so hopefully that film delivers, and all this buzz will have been for something. See stuff on The Eagle Path.

My Continuing Journey With The Ramones.

My brain is hanging upside down

I need something to slow me down

I was listening to my ipod on shuffle in the car a week or so ago while driving, and a song came on which I don't remember hearing on my ipod, but was very familiar to me. I thought I recognised it as the song playing over the montage of Jack Black teaching his kids the finer points of rock'n'roll in School of Rock. I reached down to flick the scroll wheel to light up the display to see who it was playing, and the name of the song. It was The Ramones and some longish name with "brain" in it, I think. Anyway, I was surprised to see it was The Ramones. I'm not overly familiar with them, but I know a few of their songs, and the vocal didn't remind me of those other songs.

To me, The Ramones were on the periphery. I'd seen their shirts, I knew they all had the same last name maybe. They looked like slackers or the kids smoking behind the toilet block. They weren't Dylan or The Floyd, so I guess I wasn't interested. But I guess I must've had friends who maybe listened to them, or something, because somehow I started listening to them. I think what it was when that documentary came out about them, and I went and saw it. I like rock documentaries, and this seemed like a good way to fill in some gaps in my knowledge. So I went and I enjoyed it. Before the movie I would have know maybe a couple of their songs. I definitely was aware of "Rock'n'Roll High School", maybe one or two more, but I remember walking away with strong impressions of that and "The KKK Took My Baby Away", mainly because of the story behind it. Then there was "Judy Is A Punk" from The Royal Tenebaums soundtrack, which appealed more to Jared than myself, but it was still another song of theirs I know. Then some where along the way, I was re-exposed to "I Want To Be Sedated", a song with obvious appeal due to its lyrics and title. A catchy tune, easy to remember. I'm sure I heard it in the above mentioned doco, but Richard had a greatest hits compliation, so I got to listen to that, and there were a couple of songs on that that stood out for me. "I Want To Be Sedated" and "I Don't Want To Live This Life (Anymore)" were the two I really listened to repeatedly. When Zoë died, there were about three songs I listened to to help me grieve or express something or I'm not sure what. Offer some kind of comfort maybe? Whatever. These three songs were expressing something of what I was feeling. The first was "I'm Not There" by Bob Dylan, the second was another Dylan song, but the cover by Jim James & Calexico of "Going' To Aculpuco" and the third was "I Don't Want To Live This Life (Anymore)". That was certainly a sentiment I could relate to, and I'm glad they could express it where I couldn't. Still a good song, I liked it before that dark period, and I like it still.

So I knew some Ramones material, but was in no way an expert, so I heard this song on my ipod while driving in my car, then forgot about it. But it didn't go away, must've just been bubbling away. I'd think about, but usually when I wasn't near my computer. But then the other night it was like an itch I couldn't scratch, but I remembered I could look stuff up on my iphone, so I googled the School of Rock soundtrack, saw there was a Ramones track on there with the word brain in it, looked up my ipod, and played "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bongo Goes To Bitburg)". It sounded like it was good match for the scene in School of Rock. Without really understanding what it was about, it seemed to be about expressing some anger at politicians, which lines up with the theme of rock'nroll in School of Rock, of sticking it to the man. Some of the lines that stand out clearly are:

If there's one thing that makes me sick

It's when someone tries to hide behind politics

I wish they're time would go by fast

Somehow they manage to make it last

It might actually be "I wish that time would go by fast", but I prefer what I hear. Anyway, I've included a couple of youtube clips, the first is the song as used in Scool of Rock, and the second is some kid just doing an acoustic version. With the first, if you watch it stick around to the end to hear some dialouge in Spanish. The second clip reminded me of Brad.

School of Rock

Kid singin' it

Also, for your further education, I've included the link to the Wikipedia page on "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down..."

A Clip From That Guy From The Karate Kid and Taledaga Nights

More of a private joke, that headline, but this clip is pretty amusing, if you haven't seen it already. It's been out for a while, and I'm sure I meant to put it up ages, but never got round to it. It stars Will Ferrell and is called called The Landlord.

SMC!! Raging Phoenix: This is what has been missing from my life!!!

I was going to put up a link for the trailer to the new Van Damme film that'll be coming out soon, but then I came across this.

This is what;s been missing from my life a female Muy Thai fighter using hip hop to create a "dance of death", so much so that I couldn't wait to share it with you. Twitch.com has two trailers up, which you can view by clicking here. I going to see if I can track down her first film. Hope you enjoy.

Some thoughts on Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

Not that I'm happy Richard Harris died, but I do prefer Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. He seems more vital, more alive than Mr. Harris, who to me seemed to frail to pull of Dumbledore. Also, I'm probably inclined to prefer Gambon since he was in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, a personal favourite film and anyone who has been in a Wes Anderson can do no wrong. Except Owen Wilson, funnily enough. But that's neither here nor there, Gambon is great again as Dumbledore in this film.

I wish I felt like I was in love again, rather than feigned disinterest. I wasted my youth. Well, that's what I feel like anyway with everyone hooking up in this film. I never really bought into the Ron/Hermione hook-up in the books, and I still don't buy it here. I think that as separate people, they are attractive to the opposite sex, but I just don't buy THEM hooking up.

Nice tension built up in the movie. Draco has really grown into a great villian, really tortured. This story ( I originally wrote film, but changed it to story, since I'm not sure you get the full sense of it just from the movie, without having read the book) is almost really about the battle for Draco's soul. And what a sacrifice Dumbledore makes at the end, begging Severus to kill him so Draco doesn't have to.

And Snape, how good once again is Alan Rickman? I'll tell you how good, exceptionally good. (Did you see what I did there? In Die Hard Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber retorts back to Holly Genaro/McLean that he is an exceptional thief after she calls him a common thief. Just a little something for the kiddies there.) And Helen Bonham-Carter, just chews up her scenes. They say you can tell the quality of the hero by the quality of their villains, so I guess by that standard, Harry must be a pretty good hero.

Actually that was something I was thinking about Harry, how he does step up, how he doesn't back down. He knows there is evil in the world, and he doesn't run away from that being something he has to deal with. He's still a teenager, yet he's not prepared to just leave it for someone else to deal with, he takes that on. He is pretty heroic.

As I was watching the movie, I didn't really miss anything from the book. I haven't read it for awhile, so it's not fresh in my mind, but the only thing I missed when I was watching it was some early Tom Riddle stuff to do with his family, his mother, all that kind of stuff. But I didn't miss it all that much, more just realised its absence. Talking with Matt after, other things came up, but as always, you can't get everything in. It felt like a pretty good adaption.

It was nice to seen Luna Lovegood again, and a lot of the familiar faces that populate the films, even if they really don't have all that much to do. I kind of wish we could go back in time and re-make the first couple of films so that when the series is finally over, I can miss them a bit more fully, rather than just the later ones. You'd like to see them continue, popping in every year and see how they've been growing. It's kind of amazing and part of the appeal to see how they've all grown over the course of the films.

One final thought before I sign of, the chair. It's a little thing, and maybe inaccurate for me to think of, but Dumbledore's chair looks like many ornately carved chairs, but I wonder if the carving in it is appropriate. To me, I associate some of the carving with christian design work, so I wonder if a wizards chair would be using the same symbology as christian symblogy.

And now for some youtube clips, which i don't know how to embed, so you'll have to click on the link to them. They're both of a Japanese fan who won a competition and got to meet some of the cast. First up is Ron (Rupert Grint) and then Harry (Daniel Radcliffe). They're sweet and funny. I like 'em.

I just realised there's a Hermione (Emma Watson) one as well, but you probably just have seen that from the side menu over in youtube anyway, couldn't you.

(p.s, it's Snape)

Oops, sorry. Did I just spoil it?

Architecture and the World.

"It is a book about architecture. Which means it’s a book about everything, including but not limited to all of history, all of the future, being completely mad, living in all things at all times and the death and also the saving of science fiction."

I was reading a blog entry by Waren Ellis, comicbook writer, over at Bleeding Cool.com, where he was talking about a book he thought people should read. In his discussion was the above quote, which while I'm not entirely sure about the accuracy of the statement, feels like reasonably true statement to make. "It is a book about architecture. Which means it’s a book about everything..." It seems architecture is a pretty defining thing. A shaper of civilisation, or does civilisaion shape architecture? Jared has a book I borrowed and unfortunately had to give back about Cities. I think it probably covers the same kind of ground. I know within my Beedle work, I want the City to be a very real part of it, even if perhaps the casual reader is unaware of it, I know I want it to inform every aspect of it, of how make it. The City and Beedle are linked. The story of the City is the story of Beedle.

No, that's not true. The story of Beedle is the story of the City. That's not it either.

But there's some kind of link.

The City existed before Beedle, and will exist after he is gone, but it will be changed by both, his pre-existence and his existence.

And probably by his death.

But I haven't got to that part yet.

I'm still writing the revolution.

How Cool Is This?

This is about one of the best pictures I've seen. The source is unknown, but I got it form Ain't It Cool where they were asking for help trying to track down its origin.

I love the 70's feel of the clothes, actually more 80's really, juxtaposed with the future elements of a robot. Someone must've made a model, otherwise that's really good photoshopping.

A couple of links for you

A couple of links before I go away for the week.

The first one involves a sewer monster. May I recommend you watch the footage first for maximum creep out effect, then read the explanation.

Next is a short film which was quite nice. An exploration of human connection. Probably too long for the youtube generation, hey Clay, but worth watching.

If I released an album...

If I released an album, I'd want this to be the cover art and title. Unfortunately, someone already beat me to it.

I found this tape at the Lifeline Book Sale, and knew I had to buy it, and share it with the world.