Partly because the Boxcutters mocked my choice of blogging venue, but mostly because Wordpress is proving to be more suitable to my needs, the Outland Institute has moved to:
http://outlandinstitute.wordpress.com/
There's heaps of new stuff there already! Oh, you'll love it. You really will.
Go on. You know you want to.
http://outlandinstitute.wordpress.com/
There's heaps of new stuff there already! Oh, you'll love it. You really will.
Go on. You know you want to.
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Last night, I couldn't get to sleep at all. No. No, no. I lay awake, unable to get a single moment of peace. One thought kept running through my head, over and over again... And that thought was, "What would it look like if Canadian alterno-pop sensation Feist appeared on Sesame Street?"
Then today I saw this:
Now I like Feist, I like this song, and I like muppets. So all this is good. but I'm particularly pleased to know every time something like this happens, another truck of money gets sent to New Buffalo's Sally Seltmann. Good on her.
While we're on indie-muppet stylings, let's also have a look at R.E.M. performing their big hit, "Furry Happy Monsters".
Come on, monsters! You don't have to cry! We can be happy!
Then today I saw this:
Now I like Feist, I like this song, and I like muppets. So all this is good. but I'm particularly pleased to know every time something like this happens, another truck of money gets sent to New Buffalo's Sally Seltmann. Good on her.
While we're on indie-muppet stylings, let's also have a look at R.E.M. performing their big hit, "Furry Happy Monsters".
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I had the pleasure this week of being a guest host on the Boxcutters podcast, along with the ever-delightful Josh Kinal and Brett Cropley. Yes, a podcast – it's a bit like what I would call "being on the wireless", only it doesn’t exist anywhere. Or it exists everywhere. Like Skynet from The Terminator.
Anyway, Boxcutters is a weekly show about television, so part of the show involved discussing TV projects I've been involved with. I was trying to be on my best behaviour throughout, but God knows if I succeeded. I do have a tendency to go on a bit, so it's turned out to be one of the longest Boxcutters ever, and that's even with me manically speeding up as the show goes on. So if you want to hear me rant about Battlestar Galactica, defend Six Feet Under, and jabber on about meerkats, simply click here.
Ironically, even though Boxcutters is a high-tech information-superhighway zero-gravity-haircut hoodie-and-skinny-jean wearing podcast, it's recorded in a radio station. Old school.
The radio station in question is none other than
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As much as I hate to
a) promote viral marketing,
b) promote a bank, or
c) promote a bank's viral marketing, I think you should see this -
http://www.happybanking.co
Enter your name and gender, and then watch as three CGI kittens sing a song that involves spelling and a glockenspiel... Is this genius or madness? I just can't tell anymore. But it doesn't really make me want to take out a home loan...
"Who are you with?"
"Oh, the singing kittens."
[pause]
"They got to you too, huh?"
Thanks to Catherine Donaldson for freaking with my mind grapes.
a) promote viral marketing,
b) promote a bank, or
c) promote a bank's viral marketing, I think you should see this -
http://www.happybanking.co
Enter your name and gender, and then watch as three CGI kittens sing a song that involves spelling and a glockenspiel... Is this genius or madness? I just can't tell anymore. But it doesn't really make me want to take out a home loan...
"Who are you with?"
"Oh, the singing kittens."
[pause]
"They got to you too, huh?"
Thanks to Catherine Donaldson for freaking with my mind grapes.
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Q. How do you know if someone's been to NIDA?
A. They tell you.
(if reading this in the UK, simply substitute "RADA" for "NIDA")
A. They tell you.
(if reading this in the UK, simply substitute "RADA" for "NIDA")
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On Friday the BBC News website ran a piece about Delia Derbyshire. An electronic music pioneer, Derbyshire's best known work is the original Doctor Who theme, which combined tape loops, sound samples and electrically generated tones. She worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop during the 1960s and early 70s, but also did freelance work, created library music, performed live and produced records such as the White Noise album An Electric Storm.
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I'm probably going to be too slack to keep this up for long, but I thought I'd run a Melbourne International Film Festival blog here. Because I believe you have a right to my opinion. No, don't thank me.
This is the third time I've worked in the box office for MIFF, and the customers are the nicest of any of Melbourne's arts events. They have a genuine excitement for both the festival and film as an artform, with none of that “the world owes me everything” attitude you get from – say – the MTC audience (a lot fewer red blazers, too. What is it with the MTC and red blazers?). It's the most egalitarian of the festivals, which may well be a matter of ticket price – film is an art everyone can afford. Also good value for money – after all, some-one may have spent fifty million dollars for something I can see for fifteen. Could you make The Bank Job at home for fifteen dollars? No, you couldn't. You probably couldn't even get Saffron Burrows to pop around for a cup of tea for fifteen dollars. She'd cost more than that. And that's even with you providing the tea. And biscuits.
Speaking of The Bank Job, the evil Dr Chris and I attended a MIFF pre-screening because we're both huge fans of Jason Statham. He's a fine, fine actor. Just look:
This is the third time I've worked in the box office for MIFF, and the customers are the nicest of any of Melbourne's arts events. They have a genuine excitement for both the festival and film as an artform, with none of that “the world owes me everything” attitude you get from – say – the MTC audience (a lot fewer red blazers, too. What is it with the MTC and red blazers?). It's the most egalitarian of the festivals, which may well be a matter of ticket price – film is an art everyone can afford. Also good value for money – after all, some-one may have spent fifty million dollars for something I can see for fifteen. Could you make The Bank Job at home for fifteen dollars? No, you couldn't. You probably couldn't even get Saffron Burrows to pop around for a cup of tea for fifteen dollars. She'd cost more than that. And that's even with you providing the tea. And biscuits.
Speaking of The Bank Job, the evil Dr Chris and I attended a MIFF pre-screening because we're both huge fans of Jason Statham. He's a fine, fine actor. Just look:
A FINE, FINE actor. Especially when he's topless. And wet. Which happens fairly regularly in his films, in all honesty, so everyone wins. As the Onion AV Club's Nathan Rabin once said about Matthew McConaughey, Statham is fighting a “one-man war on the tyranny of shirts”. The reason for attending this screening was because Mr Statham was there in person to introduce it. And he is, after all, a fine fine actor.
Oh yes. Statham was good value, although he was wearing an unflattering top that – bewilderingly – he didn't take off at any point. The Bank Job is a pretty good bank heist/caper flick, with an early 70s setting both in plot and feel. That said, it could easily have been half an hour shorter (in common with many films at the moment) and it did seem to get bogged down in unnecessary sub-plots involving minor characters. It's based on a true story and you can't help thinking that more some simplification and fictionalising wouldn't have been amiss. Even though there's no such word as fictionalising. I also found the tone a little uneven, running between comedy and thriller, and for my money much more successful at the former than the latter.
We also watched George A Romero's latest, Diary Of the Dead. I'm a big fan of Romero's zombie films, but this sadly is the weakest in the series (especially disappointing since I loved his previous, Land Of The Dead). The subtext here – and there's always a subtext with Romero, which is what makes him great – involves the responsibility of journalism, especially in these days of blogging and youtube. But it just comes off as grumpy rather than insightful, and I never believed the film's central premise that I was watching some kids filming on dv cameras (more successful in Cloverfield, although both films suffer from exceptionally bland characters). The lighting, the sound and – in particular – an irritating voice-over stops you from ever really thinking you're in the moment, rather than watching a film. There are some great moments, both visually and conceptually, but sadly it's less than the sum of it's parts. Still worth a look, though, if you've seen his others (all of which are playing at MIFF, and I'd definitely recommend you see Night, Dawn and Land of the Dead if you haven't already).
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