hardtack

With the need for a forward, with Jamar nearing the end of his career and with Gawn being injury prone, I would not be surprised to see Wright get the nod as he fills both needs.

Just spent the past three and a half weeks in the UK, Berlin, Brussels and Paris with my son. The long flights are a great chance to catch up on a few movies. Those that caught my attention were: The Chef, Pictures and Words, The Double (an odd little Brazil like film) and What We Do In The Shadows, which is a very funny and extremely well scripted mocumentary about a house shared by vampires in suburban New Zealand.

Looking forward to seeing that. I rate Rodriguez as Tarrantino's equal and find it very funny that he is able to create Spy Kids and films like Sin City, Desperado, Planet Terror etc without any difficulty in the transition at all... particularly the way he can have you looking at Danny Trejo (sp?) as pure evil one moment (the knife man in Desperado) and as the most gentle uncle you could imagine the next (Spy Kids). He's a very clever man!

I am pleased to hear that there is going to be a sequel to "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel". That is one of the few films I can watch over and over. The only other films that have made such an impression are "Intouchable", "Diva", "Monsoon Wedding", "Spirited Away" and "My Neighbour Totoro". I'm now waiting on my Werner Herzog collection on blu ray to arrive (it finally shipped from Amazon in the UK after multiple delays in its release) and also Miyazaki's latest animation "The Wind Rises". Took my sons to see "Guardians of the Galaxy" yesterday... what a hoot!! Absolutely loved it and is by far and away the best of all of the Marvel releases. Clever wit, great action and you even find yourself caring about the characters which for me was a little surprising.

I finally got around to watching Ben Stiller's Secret Life of Walter Mitty the other day and really enjoyed it... well written and well acted. And besides, just about anything with Shirley MacLaine and Sean Penn in it, cannot be bad! One good thing about having young kids means I have an excuse to go and indulge in the occassional guilty pleasure... went and saw Godzilla (latest remake) recently and absolutely loved it and will go and see Guardians of the Galaxy in the next week or two. Have to say though, that I am a sucker for Godzilla... having DVDs of every Godzilla and associated kaiju such as Baragon, Mecha Godzilla, King Ghidorah (and Mecha Ghidorah), Mothra and so on... I have roughly 45 of the TOHO films on DVD. The only dud was that appalling American effort in the 90's (or whenever it was).

Loved that "mini opera"

I'm pretty sure that was originally a movie and was possibly made in Scandinavia (Norway?)... remember seeing it a while ago.

Apparently Porte has the best time trial times of all in the top 10, so hopefully if he can maintain position until the second last stage without losing too much ground on Nibali, he may be in with a shot for a podium finish (if not outright victory).

Wrist guards in teh wet wouldn't have helped Froome as he did his wrist in the dry in what appeared to be a really innocuous fall. The commentators last night were speculating that it may actually have been broken. But what riveting viewing that stage was! I thought the ride of the stage was (and I forget his name) Porte's team mate in dragging him up to within 1:54 (I think it was) of Nibali by the finish. The way Nibali rode the cobbled sections was also beautiful to watch.

Was that the mark over Yze? (I think Winny said something about sharing the car or whatever the prize was, with Yze in return for the leg up).

Well, I guess you could look at that as being due to the fact that film schools tried to adopt that as a standard wen the likes of Polanski, Bergman and Fellini were all de rigeur Which film school by the way? I studied graphic art at Swinburne in the very early 70's and had some contact (more on a social level) with people in the Film & TV school - my only recollection of anything film related then in my studies, was some visiting "expert" talking to us on how they blue-screened everything in The Sound of Music... they sent just a camera crew to the alps to film the scenery; apparently not a single actor actually set foot in Austria (or Switzerland?). As for me, I'm just a fan of film, so I'm not professing any knowledge on the technical aspects

Not sure I will be able to get along to the festival yet - finances and other plans allowing or not. (what is the film you have playing there?). Re Repulsion... I saw both that and Images for the first time in 1972, so not having been over exposed to SFX at that time, I found myself pretty immersed in Repulsion (especially the hallway scene with the groping hands)... also, considering Repulsion was made in 1965, the effects weren't too shabby - yes, not exactly Harryhausen, but still pretty ok ;-) If you have time for a drink when you are here, let me know. Would be good to start connecting names with faces on this forum.

My favourite Altman film is Images... originally, the explanation for it not being released on DVD was that the original print was supposedly lost, but then suddenly it appeared on DVD. Excellent psychological thriller that I first saw around the same time as Polanski's Repulsion (which although rather more visceral, had a few similarities).

I have... his name is Salem

I think we should stick with him... but having said that, if things keep going the way they are on both sides of the country, we might be able to do a straight swap for Nik Nat ;-)

Yes, that was made for TV "On Death Row". I've been a Herzog fan since the early 70's and if there were ever any doubts I might have had about him, Fitzcaraldo erased them completely... superb film from a master of the craft... and lunatic to boot! He makes a film based on a true story about an opera lover who hauled a paddle steamer over a small "mountain" with nothing but local tribes people, a few logs, ropes and pulleys and so what does he do? He repeats the feat hauling a paddle steamer over a small "mountain" with nothing but local tribes people, a few logs, ropes and pulleys!! I believe he also ate one of his boots after losing a bet with his main actor Klaus Kinski.

Just a heads up for those who are seriously into watching DVD and BluRay like myself, and just in case you aren't already aware of it....it might be worth your while looking at investing in the Laser BR1080P 3D BluRay player. It is region free for DVD and via the setup menu can be assigned to play any bluray discs from any region (A, B and C). The other good thing is that it comes with a 3 year warranty. The only other multi region bluray player I know of is the Kogan (there used to be a Soniq), which is pretty ordinary in terms of life... I had one and it died after about 18 months with just a one year warranty. Quality is very good with the only issue I have found being the fact that it doesn't handle 48 frames per second 3D well... I brought this to their attention (they are a local Sydney based company - of course manufacture is in China) and they are looking into fixing the problem. So far the only 3D discs I have found that are 48fps are Life of Pi and The Hobbit - most others are 24fps which works perfectly. This issue only relates to the playback of 3d bluray... not the regular 2D discs. I purchase most of my blurays from Amazon in the UK as well as from the US or Japan as even with the cost of shipping, it works out to almost 50% cheaper than buying locally (well, not the case with Japan... but certainly true for the UK and US). Anyway.... cheap as chips and well worth a look.

Watching "the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" for about the 10th time. Don't know what it is about this film, but it manages to pull me in every time in watch it...the characters, the story, the scenery (in Jaipur, a place I have been and have fond memories of), just everything about it is perfect! This and the "Intouchables" (a beautiful French film) are two films I am completely in love with.

Well, the way things have gone at the MFC, that could well be the end of their careers.

No, you won't know until the end of their careers.

Off to see Jeff Beck (among many others) at the Byron Bay Bluesfest next month... can't wait!

I've just put in a pre-order at Amazon UK for the Werner Herzog collection on Blu Ray... it comprises 7 discs with all of his films remastered: The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967) Last Words (1968) Precautions Against Fanatics (1969) Handicapped Future (1970) Fata Morgana (1971) Land Of Silence and Darkness (1971) Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972) The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1975) Heart of Glass (1976) How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976) Stroszek (1977) Nosferatu, the Vampyre (1979) Woyzeck (1979) Huie's Sermon (1980) God's Angry Man (1980) Fitzcarraldo (1982) Cobre Verde (1987) And it costs approx 44 quid (British pounds) shipped (releases on July 21st)... can't wait!

Haven't seen it, but re the subtitles, you may be able to find an English language subtitle online... just google the video's file name along with the word subtitles. There are plenty of sites that make subs available for download at no charge.

Was never a big Steely Dan fan, but did love Was (not Was) who I believe had some 6 degrees of separation thing going there:

I hope to put up a YouTube link here in the near future, for a song that an old band mate, his son and I have recorded just recently. The interesting thing with the recording is that my friend (the guitarist) and his son (who until just a couple of weeks ago, had a great little band called Dying Breeds) are both living in Norwich in the UK and I am here in Sydney. They recorded the music (my friend laying down all of the guitar and bass and his son the drums and production) then sent me the mixed MP3 as a guide. I then loaded the guide track into GarageBand, put my MacBook Pro under my arm and wandered off down to a friend's studio in Ultimo and added the vocals. I then sent back an isolated vocal track and my friend's son then mixed a final version and now we just need to throw together some sort of clip using a bunch of still images. The other thing is that the original version of this song was recorded on a four track tape in 1979 and just 500 copies pressed (very roughly I might add), some of which sold through Missing Link in Melbourne and Phantom Records in Sydney. The reason our band split at that time was that my friend the guitarist had to return to the UK due to being an illegal immigrant following the expiry of his visa. We finally made contact again just recently through Facebook and decided to redo the song... the marketing line I suppose will be "Separated by 35 years and 17,000 kilometres" Anyway, as soon as it is finished, I will put the link here. In the meantime, here are a couple of clips of Dying Breeds (my friend's son is on guitar (Les Paul, not Stratocaster) and vocals) - hope you enjoy: This one (Planet Me) has a pretty cheesy clip, but I like the song...