hardtack

In his time at the club, Salem has played just 45 games in total and this year had been averaging a tad over 21 disposals per game, which is not so bad. He has been cruelled by injury and illness. Yes, he might not be elite (although as someone stated, his kicking is), but he is certainly a cut above numerous others on the list, and with a good run free of injury/illness and another preseason under the belt, he will start to show the class that got him drafted by the club. You had him traded earlier this week based purely on what a few people had overstated regarding his being reported on Saturday - if you had actually been at the game and had seen the incident first hand (there was no available footage at the time you made your comments), then your comments may have at least had some validity... but instead, your judgement on that occasion was indeed clouded..

I'm still yet to see a single episode of this show.

This is late news, but RIP Robbie Souter who passed away last week on the 11th May... he was the original drummer with the Dynamic Hepnotics, as well as playing with Mental As Anything, Slim Dusty and numerous small Sydney bands. Was a lovely guy and will be sorely missed by the many who knew him.

I agree with those saying there is no real traditional rivalry existing any more... with the possible exception of the one game each year against the Pies on Queen's Birthday. I can however see a three way rivalry building between us, the 'Aints and the Bulldogs to be the dominant Victorian based team. All three have strong young lists now that are likely to be competing against each other for the next decade.

A brilliant performer... and physically he looks like a cross between Sean Connery and Mel Gibson.

I agree, it was hilarious. I didn't mind Jimmy Kimmel (sp?) as presenter either...the byplay between him and Matt Damon was very funny.

No, the person responsible for handing the presenters the envelope, gave them the wrong envelope (best actress) and because it contained the name of the La La Land actress, the presenters concluded the winner must be La La Land.

I very rarely get to the cinema these days and so the only one of the nominees I've seen is Arrival which I liked (unless Rogue One is also nominated, in which case I've seen two). I usually wait for films to come out on Bluray and then I can watch them at my leisure and as often as I like. One such film recently was Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children which I liked a lot as it was Tim Burton getting back to what he does best (dark fantasy). Will pick up a copy of Arrival in a week or so.

Lately I've been revisiting a few older films that have now been released on BluRay... The Night of the Hunter and Cape Fear (two of Robert Mitchum's best), Martin Scorcese's King of Comedy and After Hours (both brilliant), Lindsay Anderson's "If" which is one of my favourite films of all time and Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket. Have also rewatched one of my favourite recent films Hunt for the Wilderpeople which I consider to be one of the films of the year.

In some ways I prefer Woody's left of centre films like Zelig and Shadows and Fog.

I'm currently waiting on a number of blurays I ordered from Amazon in the UK. Firstly Lindsay Anderson's brilliant "If" and then four films from the Japanese director/actor/author/talk show host Kitano "Beat" Takeshi: "Hana-bi" (Fireworks), "Kikujiro's Summer", "Dolls" and "A Scene at the Sea". If you haven't seen anything by "Beat" Takeshi, I would recommend you try to check some out. Japan has turned out some superb directors and he is right up there with the best. They may not be everyone's cup of green tea, but there's only one way to find out for yourself.

Hopefully he does better than Ang Lee did with The Hulk.

I'm a big fan of stop motion/claymation work... have a lot of Aardman Studios early work on DVD as well as Svankmajer's shorts and his takes on Faust and Alice in Wonderland, David Borthwick's extremely disturbing Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb and finally the Quay Brothers animations. I have a number of the German Expressionist cinema works on DVD including Nosferatu, Cabinet of Dr Calligari (including the hand tinted colour version), The Golem, Waxworks etc.

It depends. I loved the original Japanese Ringu and Dark Water (American versions were terrible), loved the first Nightmare on Elm Street, The Others was clever, and I thought Descent was a very good film. Not into the franchises like Saw etc.

Well Saty, I don't consider directors like Lynch and Jarmusch to be typical of the American formulaic film and television production line or the Hollyweird factory - they are international directors/writers/producers who work outside of that framework. Regardless of where it was made, Twin Peaks (series 1) was a masterpiece (and if you want to see a superb piece of film making, take a look at The Straight Story) - I would be more disappointed in myself if I were writing off films and TV series based purely on where they were created.

I would agree to an extent that Twin Peaks was the greatest TV series ever made...that is certainly true of the first series, but I thought the second series was a little disappointing as he handed directorial (and writing?) control over to a number of different people, including (if I recall correctly) Dianne Keaton. To me this resulted in a lot of inconsistency in the quality of the episodes and didn't flow as well as the first series. I'm a huge Lynch fan, but strangely one of my favourites of his is The Straight Story...based on a true story about a guy who rides a ride-on mower across state to visit his dying estranged brother in the next state. A very slow paced, gentle film that is completely out of character with his usual fare, but which is mesmerizing to the point where it could only be a Lynch product.

From the moment I heard Ricky Don't Lose That Number, Steely Dan lost me completely. The fact that Skunk Baxter played for another bad that I could not stomach (Doobies) didn't help matters...I did however like Don Was with Was Not Was.

I'm taking my son to Barcelona, Paris and London for 3 weeks mid Sept to early Oct.

If you're traveling you will (or should) be too busy for watching a series... take a handful of movies instead, starting with What We Do In the Shadows. Where are you going by the way?

Wow, what a great clip! I was lucky enough to see Stephane Grappelli in the 70's at the Dallas Brookes Hall... he had ex Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge accompanying him. And speaking of Charlie Christian, he was the favourite guitarist of a bebop playing friend of mine who I worked with at Veterans' Affairs in St Kilda Rd in the late 70's.... don't know whatever happened to him (a guy named Steve Gunther), but he was a very very good guitarist who used to play at places like Bogarts in Nth Melbourne and The Grain Factory (was that the name of the place?). The last I had heard from him (decades ago) he was heading off to New York to study under bebop pianist Lennie Tristano.

Persevere... I loved it

I took my son to see Hunt For the Wilderpeople the other day (I had seen it on my return flight from NZ recently) and I have to say that it is one of the funnier films I have seen in a long long time... in fact, since Taika Waititi's previous film What We Do In the Shadows (a superb mocumentary about a share house in Wellington occupied by vampires). This film has a real heart, laugh out loud laconic humour, and the kid who played Ricky Baker (the overweight "bad boy") is brilliant, as is Waititi's cameo as a minister providing solace at a funeral. And Sam Neill is perfrect in the part as the hardened bushman "uncle" with a heart of gold. Just 4 words - Go and see it!!

I thought Fury Road was the best Mad Max film after Mad Max 2... really though, the only dud was Beyond Thunderdome.

Went to NZ for a few days (arrived back yesterday) and on the flight back watched "Hunt for the Wilderpeople"... it has to be one of the funniest films I have seen.... ever! After I saw "What We Do in the Shadows" a couple of years back,. I didn't know how anyone could make a funnier film...but somehow Taika Waititi has managed the feat. Can't recommend this highly enough (if this film doesn't raise a laugh, then you are officially dead).

Ok, I'll see your big noting and raise you... Firstly it should be understood that I have not seen any of GoT...not even a preview so I can't vouch for the veracity of this B.N.. Now, if you have seen the clip of my song that I posted a link to here for YouTube (song was Don't Blame Me), the guitarist in that clip Steve Ralphs is the advisor on correct use of long bows (he makes them) and has worked in that capacity on GoT since the beginning, or so I'm led to believe. Check out the credits and see if you can find him. Here endeth my big note.