deco, chocolate and j

what's the connection between art deco buildings and frangipani plants? bracegirdle's divine dark belgian hot chocolate
Well, after an aborted attempt last week due to bad weather, I managed to get down to Glenelg today to partake of some serious photography action.

I was planning on looking around for some "new" instances (new to me anyway) of Benzo street art I'd happened across online as well as checking out the various bits of art deco architecture around the Bay. I think I left here around 10am, so I was able to wander up and down a somewhat deserted Jetty Road (much more deserted than I'm used to anyway) and snap away to my heart's content.

The street art turned out to be really easy to find... as I expected it was just around the corner from the largescale mural in one of the sidestreets... but I'm slightly annoyed with myself that I never bothered going around that corner to see what was there before now!

Anyway I wandered down to the beach, then back up to where I'd left the car, dropped off my jacket and backpack and did another quick wander down to a nearby church, then back to the car and I went in search of another couple of deco buildings that I knew weren't that far away... that led into a wander along the seafront and far too many shots of the water.

Then I drove back to Jetty Road and headed down to Bracegirdles in my ongoing hunt to find the perfect hot chocolate. On the way down there I called J and left a message on his voicemail for him to come and join me if he was up and about. I wasn't sure if I was going to hear back from him or not, but I had my book with me, so I ordered the sinfully tasty Dark Belgian Hot Chocolate (and the hands-down winner so far in the hot chocolate stakes) and spent some time with the very enjoyable work of Martin Amis (I was pleasantly surprised actually, I hadn't expected it to be as good as it's turning out to be).

After three phonecalls and a seemingly large amount of general faffing about on his part, J finally joined me in his new motorcycle jacket which is a vast and sexy improvement over the old shapeless mess he had.

We nattered away for a while, checking out the cute boys as they wandered past the window (I'd snagged the very comfy armchairs by the window for just such a purpose... even if they really were the only free seats left when I got there)... then went for a wander down to the jetty where much more random perving and general photoness happened (ocean, clouds, rusty pylons, etc) before we wandered back to first his bike and then my car. I'd kind of assumed that he would want me to take some shots of him on the bike (I mean what's the point in having a friend who's a photographer if you don't get them to take photos for you), so we found a reasonable bit of sea-frontage to take a few shots in... nothing stellar really, just some quick and random snaps.

Then after a quick stop of at J Central so he could copy the photos I headed home again, driving right through the rain that seemed to be heading from town down to the beach...

So a somewhat long day, in as much as I was out of the house for a good six hours or so... but I made good with the photos.

Current Mood:

body mind & psychic expo 2009

quiet centre spirit guide trioYou know what you don't often see... about a dozen people parachuting over North Adelaide at twilight... I have no idea where the hell they landed, but I thought at one point they were going to come down right in the middle of my street.

It was somehow a fitting end to a very groovy day.

I mentioned yesterday that I'd been looking forward to today's excursion for the past twelve months (and interestingly it's much the same thing that I said last year too)... this weekend is the Body Mind & Psychic Expo!

So clad in my new Croc boots and bright blue hoodie, with a slightly earlier than normal start to the day (not by much though) we got all the usual shopping and whatnot out of the way and headed down to the Showgrounds. Rather than bother with the drama of trying to find a free park out on the street, we just followed all the other little sheeps and parked in the grounds... not the cheapest option, but not the most expensive car park ever either.

I guess we must have been slightly later getting there than we were last year, because I remember there weren't quite so many people lined up (I don't remember a line at all to be honest), and we spent some time urgently champing at the bit waiting to go in... whereas this time it was "line up, pay, go in"... possibly less waiting around though.

We actually ended up going in a totally different door than we have every other time (and there might not have been any line at all if we'd gone in the other door, who knows)... but it did throw me off for a second, I wasn't quite sure where I was, and where everything else was going to be in relation to me... turns out a lot of it was in exactly the same place as it's been the last four years...

First stop was the "Visionary Artists" stall again so that I could put down both my name and Ma's name with Shiona to get Spirit Guide portraits done (and I just realised that originally we were going to be all "I'll pay for half of yours and you can pay for half of mine"... and in the end we just paid with our own money for our own session... ah well, comes out about the same in the end really anyway)...

We were about third and fourth on the list, and we had maybe half an hour to kill before my session so we did a big loop around the outer edge of the stalls... checking out a little bit here and a little bit there... Ma got all engrossed in the same jewellery stall she went back to about three times last year, I cast an eye over the little crystal animals (where I got my lion last year), and we just generally wandered about. Speaking of lions, the nice folks from Make-A-Wish had a stall, and they were selling general fund-raising merchandise... key-rings, pencil cases, blah blah (actually other than the pencil cases I don't remember what any of the rest of it was)... but they had little stuffed lions... so cute, so soft, so inexpensive... so, yes, I bought one. Then proceeded to carry it like I was five (held up to my chest, facing out), but only as far as the next stall until I realised what I was doing and Ma had unfolded one of her many, many bags so he had somewhere to go.

Anyway, we made it back to Shiona's stall just as her previous customer was finishing up... then it was my turn...

She definitely recognised me, but then we do kind of have this ongoing history thing, so it makes some sense... this year's reading was TOTALLY different from last year!

I mean that should be self evident from the image of the finished portrait... three figures, not one... no animal. Last time she touched my knee... this time she didn't... last time I didn't give her very much to go on beyond "whoever is making the most noise"... this year I used the phrase that's actually been buzzing around in my head since we were on our way home from last year's Expo... "My quiet centre".

To be honest, I don't think I'd even gotten as far as verbalising that when she was already off and running, had her eyes shut and seemed to be getting the image fully formed (I think my Zulu arrived that way last time too)... so all the stuff about animals went out the window and she just said that she "needed" to draw this. And really, when your psychic of choice tells you they "need" to do anything, what are you gunna do? Me, I just said "go for it".

Weirdly though, while she was drawing it, I found myself thinking that I knew these three figures... not in an "I went to high school with the one on the end" kind of way (although more on THAT later)... but they didn't feel unfamiliar. And unlike last year there really weren't any surprises (like the lion who appeared seemingly out of nowhere).

And she did comment that "you always make me work"... which is interesting, especially when you see the range of drawings she can do over the several hours we were there, some of them are quite detailed, but the ones she did for both Ma and me are somewhat more hurried, not in a bad way, but more like she's compelled (and I think she used that word to describe this portrait too) to get everything she's seeing/feeling down as quickly as possible.

Also unlike last year there wasn't really an incredibly long story that went with the image... maybe because I'd kind of asked for something particular, so she didn't need to explain that part of the story, I'm not sure...

The three figures she described as being the Medicine Buddha (who does seems to be blue when you do a Google image search) peeking out on the left... the centre figure she had a couple of names for, not all of which I remember, but she did say something about him being a "gate keeper" (I think I'm remembering that right) and a wise sage... and the angel figure on the right was not exactly the Archangel Michael, but "has Michael's face".

The fact that there was an "angel" there at all was somewhat surprising... but like I said, the three of them combined do feel very much "me"... I do pull in a lot of the symbols from various religions and cultures and mix them all up into my own unique blend... and interestingly I have felt like I was being drawn to some angel symbols and images recently (more so at Christmas when there's a lot more of it around)... and Michael in particular. Weird...

But the three of them keep me centred, they pull me back when I go flying off (in my dreams too allegedly... although I never remember any of my dreams, so I'll take her word for it)... and obviously there's a lot of stuff about the number 3 in religion and numerology... not to mention that whole circle/protection thing...

One other thing that she said is just now coming back to me... she said that the three of them help me (to be centred I assume), not just because I deserve to be helped, but also because I ask for it... which is interesting... I guess I do that more than I'm aware... not in any specific or directed way, but more in a kind of generalised and somewhat tongue-in-cheek "Help me out here Universe" kind of way. There was also something about them either combining or changing places or lining up to give me what I need, but I honestly don't remember that completely.

She also said that I had a large number of energies (spirit guides) around me and that I'd had a large number of past lives... neither of which was particularly surprising.

So, like I said... radically different from last year, but still very, very cool.

Ma had her turn next... which in many ways was somewhat similar to my experience last year. I didn't hear all of their conversation because I was busy scribbling some notes down about what she said... but while she was drawing it she kept nodding to herself like she'd done last year with me... and she did comment again that we made her "work"... to which I replied that it must run in the family. Anyway, Ma ended up with an Aztec (again, wouldn't actually have seen it coming, but it doesn't seem completely out of left field) called Manook (with the spelling open to interpretation).

I think Ma had asked her some kind of very generalised question about challenges with work or something, like I said I wasn't completely listening... but Manook had a headdress full of feathers indicating all the abilities Ma has (which is true), and that she shouldn't be afraid to start new things, because even if she "fails" she'll still walk away with something because everything criss-crosses and interconnects (which is true too... she's done a lot of things and while she might not technically always "succeeded", there have been connections and people who have come into her life because of it. She also needs to follow her passion... and Manook is trying to give her a shove to the front of the line every now and again, making sure she doesn't get overlooked.

So all very relevant and pertinent things.

Once Ma has done, we gave Shiona the requisite huggage (I'm not sure if she does it with everybody, but she did it with me last year, and with both of us this year) and went off to peruse the rest of the Expo.

I think there might have been less stalls this year than in previous years... it certainly felt more "open" in spots, and I think most of the lanes between the stalls were wider. And there weren't any food stalls inside... and I remember at least a couple last year.

But mostly we wandered, bought little bits and pieces... I bought some rainbow "toe socks"... which are kinda crap as far as socks go (they're supposed to be knee highs, but they so aren't)... but the toe bit is cool but really, really weird and just that little bit wrong. We went back to the crystal animal stand with it's slightly gormless employees and found an opalite wolf and Ma got a seahorse in something vaguely orange beginning with C that I can't remember right now. We bought some of the fudge that Ma so likes (and I don't mind it either) and a few jars of stuff from Sweet n Spicy (Caramelised Onion, cooked for 10 hours... so good!), looked at a lot of fairly ordinary jewellery and picked up a glass egg thing for Ma's birthday...

The Homo Force (of both genders) seemed to be somewhat out in force... the little homo who got fat that I mentioned last week was there... there seemed to be a large proportion of "wymyn" around too.

But the "Oh My Gayness - Scary Homo Flashback Award" has to go to the gentleman who was drawing his own particular brand of spirit guide portraits at a very Celtic inspired stall... I'd seen the stall on an earlier sweep of the area and they had some cool stuff... but then I noticed that they had a guy doing SGP out the front who hadn't been there earlier (actually there was a lot more SGP action going on this year... at least five different places this time around, up from two last year). Anyway, I wandered over to take a look at what he was doing... it wasn't really at any kind of finished stage, he seemed like he had only just started... so I was looking around, trying to see if they had information up about how much it cost (not for this time, you understand, but maybe next time)... and they had a piece of paper with the info stuck up on the counter next to where he was...

I still have no idea how much it cost because I never got further than his name... same name as my best friend in primary school who then became my "arch enemy" in high school... but it couldn't be him, right... I hadn't seen him in over ten years, but the height was about right... the hair was much the same... he just looked a little worn around the edges. I called Ma over and once she could see the side of his face properly she said it had to be him. Oh! My! Gayness!

And you know the worst and best parts... even though we were totally evil to each other in high school, he's actually kinda fuckable... but on the upside, I think he looks older than I do... so you gotta be happy with that.

Of course I didn't say hello (really, what the hell would I have said?!?), and made a run for it before all our collective staring made him turn around and potentially recognise me...

I think that was about the time we called it a day... I think we'd been wandering around for a good two and a half, three hours, and I don't know how much more time you could have spent there unless you were having multiple readings and stuff done or attending some of the workshops. We looked at the couple of tragic food stalls outside, nothing caught our eye, so we decided to go.

Continuing the theme, we headed up the road to The Eternal Spirit, somewhat on a mission to see what they had in the way of Archangel Michaels... the answer, not much... although they did have an awesome male version of Quan Yin that I couldn't resist... then we took a radical themic departure and headed over to Burnside to visit the Smiggle store.

They had the cutest little USB Men... and when I get my laptop (I've mostly decided on a laptop) it should come in handy. When we got to the store though, it was like the entire Burnside Under 10's Netball team were in residence, complete with all their mothers (oestrogen overload!), so we wandered off, got something to eat and drink and wandered back a while later to a mostly empty store (woohoo) where I also got Ma a cool stapler to add to her birthday haul (not the most interesting gift ever, but it is a cool stapler).

Then it was back here to sort through our haul, spray the two portraits with fixative and watch Heroes...

And now I'm just generally buggered...

Current Mood:

photo friday: lost keys

spotted on a fence on my way home tonight...Highly random thoughts from today...
  • Big brown eyes and a shaved head...

  • "Jesus and a monkey travelling around in a truck solving mysteries and turning water into wine!"...

  • 2900 emails... of which I could happily delete 2700 and ignore most of the other 200...

  • People must not be able to tie their own shoes or feed themselves if some of the emails we get are any indication...

  • I heart Trev...

  • Splitting up TV seasons across multiple DVD box sets is annoying... as are stores having every box set in a series except one...

  • Monkey noises crack me up and I have no idea why...

  • Not all hot chocolates are created equal...

  • I've been looking forward to tomorrow's excursion for a whole year...

  • "Snik snik, gobble gobble, slurp"...

  • I've been swearing like a sailor all day (and the Swear Jar at work is now somewhat richer)...

  • Black jockstrap with red and black striped socks...

  • "What problem are you trying to solve?" is both a very useful phrase as well as one of the most annoying sentences ever...

  • It's actually bloody cold, but I'm trying to avoid using the heater... because once I do, that will be it...

  • I need pizza... and I'm thinking about a bottle of tequila (probably won't happen though)...

Current Mood:

random worrall hotness

It's odd how things work out sometimes... and today's Random Hotness is no exception...

Up until about a week and a half ago I had a piece of paper on the table next to my computer that said "Luke Worrall" on it (actually, that's a lie, it said "Kelly Osbourne's fiancé", but it amounts to the same thing). I'd seen the pair of them in a magazine a while back when I was getting my hair done and I'd kept meaning to feature young Master Worrall. But I must have thrown the piece of paper out when I was doing a clean up at some stage.

Fast forward to yesterday when I spotted a set of shots by Hedi Slimane of the lovely Luke on Bodhi's blog... and, well, I always like a bit of sexy over-bleached "white trash" *grin*... especially when it's tattooed, pierced and mostly naked...

luke worrall luke worrall

Current Mood:

coffee with j

coffee boyAnother day where not much happened...

It was pretty much just me and Sugarmonkey at work all day today, H-San was off sick and La Ninj was in and out of meetings (as per usual)... so fairly dull...

After work I went and had a very quick coffee with J.

I don't quite know what's going on with him... I mean we haven't actually laid eyes on each other for about a year and a half (give or take a month or two), but since he's been back it seems like he can't go a week without seeing me. Which is kinda nice, don't get me wrong, but I'm very much a creature of habit and routine... and what with working, there isn't that much wriggle room in my routine at present.

That was part of the reason that I had planned on having a coffee with him on Sunday... but of course that never happened... so I deferred him when he rang me yesterday until this afternoon.

And it's not even like he had anything particular to say... plus I leave work at 4, he had to go off and do Uni things at 4:30, so it was a very brief window. Weird.

Although by his own admission, he really isn't in contact with about half the people he'd previously been friends with here... so that could be part of it. I do wonder though if he has a similar "problem" to Ludo, where he can't spend large amounts of time on his own and needs other people to amuse him.

Me on the other hand, I'm all about the alone time...

Current Mood:

uneventful tuesday

town hall tower church lamp
A couple more of the shots I took on my way home Friday night...

Its been a busy yet uneventful day...

In the slightly odd column, with the exception of when I went downstairs with Sugarmonkey after lunch, every single time I've gone to catch an elevator today there has been one ready for me... even to the point where I walked out of work ready to head home and an elevator just appeared at my floor, with nobody in it and I hadn't pressed the button...

Of course, knowing my luck, tomorrow I'll spend half my life waiting for the damn elevator.

Or maybe since I've spent about half an hour waiting for my stupid computer to sort itself out so that I could actually write a blog post, it all balances out. I really, really, really need to do something about getting a new computer...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 330

Turns out that because my A+O-G on my last tax return was equal to $0, K-Rudd isn't giving me my $900 bonus. As Sugarmonkey commented, it sucks to be me.

Beyonce's Single Ladies song references Pixar's Toy Story ("To infinity and beyond")... what's up with that?

Now for the other things that are currently rattling around in my brain... Unconscious Mutterings...
  1. Lisa :: Simpson
  2. Hope :: Bob
  3. Irene :: Dunne
  4. Tony :: Large
  5. Anna :: Paquin
  6. Dolly :: Parton
  7. Laura :: Ingles Wilder
  8. Debbie :: Does Dallas
  9. Wilson :: House
  10. Paula :: Abdul

Current Mood:

the best laid plans

the other kind of plans, obviouslyWhat is it they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?

Today has been a symphony of plans that never came to fruition.

I had planned on going down to Glenelg to try and track down some street art I saw on a website earlier in the week... and since J is down that way, I was going to catch up with him somewhere for a warm beverage.

Then last night it looked like I might be able to arrange a playdate for this afternoon...

Guess how many of these plans actually happened... yep, not one of them. It's been raining on and off all day, so there wasn't much point making the trek down to Glenelg... and since I wasn't going down there I couldn't catch up with J... and I messaged my playmate just after lunch and still haven't heard back from him.

I know I've mentioned it before, but that has to be my biggest ever pet hate... people who don't message you back. It's just plain rude. Even if you just send a "sorry" or something... and it's even worse when you ask a question that they don't answer. It drives me nuts.

So basically I've stayed home and watched DVDs all day... which isn't such a bad thing on a cold, grey, rainy day... but it isn't at all what I'd planned...

Current Mood:

straightforward shopping saturday

the supermarket we go to is somewhat more sophisticated than this oneA reasonably straightforward, if long, shopping day today...

We started as always with the Supermarket Safari... no surprises or unusual occurrences there (other than to say that sometimes it's very pleasurable to see that people who were somewhat evil to you in the past have gotten fat). That was followed by a quick spin around Red Circle so that I could look for some new, longer and chunkier socks to go with my boots from last week... not sure how well they're going to work in the chunky scale, but they're much longer than usual, which is good.

After a quick side trip to the Honey Man (oooh... "citrus" honey!) it was back here for Ritual Unpacking... then, since we still wanted to look at a particular jewellery store it was off to Arndale.

Because the weather was decidedly blustery, we stuck my white kite in the car too (Ma's new kite lives in the car so she always has it handy... not sure if that's the best place for it, but it's not my kite).

The jewellery store trip ended up being pretty successful... they had both the pendant and matching earrings that Ma wanted, plus a nice blingy pendant... so mucho bonus on the "For Ma's Birthday" front. I also looked at a couple of their very nice (and very much on sale) watches, since my wristwatch craving continues... and then when we were finished in there we went into another jewellery store and wasted a good ten minutes of the nice lady's time with me trying on watches I had no intention of buying. I'm undecided between one of those watches on the leather "bondage cuff" arrangements, or something decidedly chunky with a metal band.

I think what I need to do is buy a cheap-ass yet serviceable watch from one of those $20 stalls, just to see if I can actually wear one again... because it might be something that seems like a good idea for five minutes but then I get bored with it... and spending $100 on a whim seems a little excessive (although it wouldn't be the first time).

Once we finished yanking people's chains in jewellery stores and whatnot, we headed down to the beach for the flying of the kites.

And I'm happy to report that we FINALLY got Ma's new kite airborne. Actually it ended up flying pretty well... bombed out a couple of times, tried to kill me more than once, but for the most part it was good. And it only takes two seconds to get it ready since it's all "fold-out". I hadn't decided if I was going to bother with mine, but once I saw how good Ma's was I went back to the car to put mine together... and of course, every possibly cord that could get tangled was tangled... it must have taken me a good five minutes at the very least to get it all straightened out. But once it was all working properly and up in the air it was worth it.

I was also being particularly careful because of my knee... especially since were we on the very same stretch of sand that we were on before I screwed up my knee last time (and that was a year ago last Sunday)... so I was very conscious of walking slowly and where I was putting my feet, etc... although once we left the beach I did discover that my right knee was feeling that little bit temperamental... so I've been very careful with it and actually put my knee brace on when we got back to my place.

We eventually had to give up on the kite flying because the wind was picking up a bit and it was getting a bit nippy (plus neither of us had jackets)... so then we headed down to West Lakes...

It's always a joy and a pleasure to visit West Lakes on days when there are foozball things happening... NOT! Although they seem to have instituted some better procedures about allowing access to the carpark for people who are actually going to the shopping centre to shop (crazy idea I know). It was worth the effort (okay it didn't require THAT much effort, it was just there were stupid people in cars everywhere) though, since I managed to pick up a cheap copy of The Magnificent Seven as well as a copy of The Seven Samurai (which was, unfortunately full priced, but then I knew it would be unlikely that I'd get a cheap version). And since I liked the Bonds track pants I bought last week so much, I picked up a second pair (even though they weren't on special anymore... but I figure I'm still out in front).

Then, after a somewhat late lunch we headed back to my place... with a brief detour to the "clothing warehouse" place (where we got Ma's dragon jacket) to grab a couple of things for La Cousina's Christmas present... which I know sounds stupidly early, but we want to get these two little Chinese outfits framed, which could end up being a little pricey, so better to plan it all out now.

When we got back here I had a totally thrilling time cleaning out my freezer... the whole thing has been chock-a-block for a while now, and in need of a good sort out (and throwing out some of the stuff that's no longer identifiable)... which I did, and now I have space in there again... woohoo!

I must be on a tidy streak again though... after I dumped the computer monitor and teevee stuff, I also went through a pile of old papers and things that had been piling up and sorted that out last night... then today with my freezer... it's a sickness I tells ya!

Current Mood:

photo friday: and i...

and i...This has me very intrigued...

I spotted it on the way to drop off my dry cleaning last night, and recognised the "handwriting" as Jules... but then tonight I discovered a second piece on a nearby wall that said "i suk"... and around the corner from that was his name. There was also another piece on another wall that got removed not long after it was put up.

So if I was to put them all together it would read "jules. i suk. & i... shit in rubbish." Which is a trifle disturbing... and even if I haven't found all the parts of the "sentence", I don't see how it could get much better...

Oh, and I'm trying something "different" with my photos... making them bigger, dimension-wise.

In other news...
  • Wearing a bright yellow jockstrap to work, even if it's Casual Friday, somehow feels a little bit kinky.
  • Woohoo... my copy of Brent Corrigan's Big Easy finally arrived... which is weird, because I got the confirmation that it was on it's way well before the one from International Jock, but that parcel still arrived first.
  • It was a "Just Us Boys" day at work again today, which are always fun... but I also got a bunch of useful things done, which is also good.
  • Talking to H-San about his daughter's interest in photography has made me want to take more photos, and got me to drag my camera out of my bag after I left work.
Current Mood:

random 1987 hotness

Okay, let's see how today's Random Hotness, New York model Chris Laurence, stacks up on my "Things That Are Hot" scale...

Naturally and vibrantly red hair... big fat check. Skateboard... check. Eyecatching and unusual tattoo... check. Kilt... check.

In short, yum!

chris laurence chris laurence

Current Mood:

wednesday update

the way to spare oom in the land of war drobe black and gold
Lordy... what a couple of days!

Nothing major really, just a lot of little tiny things.
  • Had a brief sulk yesterday morning when it looked like I might have had to go and help run a training session. Fortunately it never eventuated.

  • Spent several hours trying to track down on tiny little error on a website. In the end we just deleted the page that was causing it.

  • Became the proud owner of five new jockstraps in red, baby blue, gold, black and army green (thank you International Jock and your timely delivery service).

  • Last night I deposited my old teevee/VCR (complete with arial and remote control... coz I'm nice like that) and busted computer monitor out on the curb before we went to the movies (Hard Rubbish's collection is visting North Adelaide again this week). By the time we got home from the movies the teevee and VCR were gone (so swiftly did they take them that they lost the battery cover from the remote)... and when I left the house this morning the monitor was gone.

  • Due to the teevee/VCR (and more recently the busted monitor) taking up space on the end of my dresser for the past *cough*fouryears*cough*, I'm now going to be able to see my reflection when I'm sitting on the little red sofa in the living room... could be a little confronting or give me the shock of my life when I'm not expecting it.

  • Went to a Writing for the Web briefing session this morning that was very informative and interesting... I will say that because it had been directed (I think) at marketing and communications groups, there was a high proportion of homo in the room. Sadly I only realised that when we were on the way out since my group sat at the front.

  • Had a brief meeting this afternoon and realised that the woman I thought was my former Total Bitch Supervisor may actually have been a completely different person who I worked with in the building at some stage... whoops. They do look eerily similar though.

Current Mood:

movies: star trek

star trek - the future beginsSumming up the new Star Trek movie in one sentence: Lens flare, camera shake and the complete decimation of the last 43 years of Star Trek chronology in just over two hours...

A warning before we go any further... this is possibly going to be a much more spoilery review than usual. Normally I like to avoid as much spoiler action as possible in my reviews, but my whole problem with this movie is because of it's central premise, so I'm going to have to bring it up.

And I would also like to add that while I have seen every episode of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, I don't know that I've ever seen a whole episode of the original Star Trek series, and I don't own any Vulcan ears or consider myself a hardcore Trekkie.

Just so we're clear... fan, not fanatic.

First we'll start with the things I did like... the cast was actually surprisingly good, I had no problems with that at all (and I thought I might because a number of them are people I recognise from other things and that's sometimes jarring)...

Zachary Quinto made a very good Spock. Yes, he was still somewhat Sylar around the edges, but it worked for the character. Also, Zoe Saldana made a hell of a fine Uhura (and not just because of my somewhat inexplicable love of sexy African American women)... and there's a whole relationship angle with her character that's weird, but just kinda hot. Possibly the only person who did seem a little bit of an odd fit was Karl Urban as McCoy... he wasn't bad, but maybe I've just seen him in too many other roles... and he also seemed to be very much cast against physical type.

My personal favourite though was the highly adorable Anton Yelchin as Chekov... complete with an actual Russian accent (at last!), but still with Chekov's signature mangled "V's as W's". He's got that whole perky little puppy thing going on (as evidenced by a scene of him running down the corridor to the transporter room), and it totally works for the character.

Big fat acting snaps also need to go to a totally unrecognisable Winona Ryder. I didn't even know she was IN the movie until her name popped up in the credits at the end and I just sat there making a confused face going "What the fuck?".

And I was surprised by how much I didn't hate Eric Bana as Nero. I'm not really that big of a fan of his and I thought his presence might have soured my experience a little bit. Not so, and he was actually a little bit hot in his dark contacts, tattoos and designer stubble. It was slightly disappointing though that Ben Cross didn't have even a tenth of the distinctive style, charisma and class of the late Mark Lenard. In the same vein, discovering that Captain Kirk's parents are the dude who used to be on Home and Away and the chick from House was possibly more amusing than it was supposed to be... although that kind of explains a lot.

Which kind of brings us around to Chris Pine as Kirk. He's arrogant, he's irritating, he needs a good smack in the mouth... however he does appear to fill out a pair of Starfleet boxerbriefs quite nicely, and eventually he ends up being quite likeable and charismatic. Pretty much everything you'd expect from James Tiberius Kirk. The preteen Kirk on the other hand just needs the smack (and some more character development to explain why he's such a damn brat... or alternatively just lose that entire scene).

I was also pretty impressed with the sets... mostly the Enterprise, because it's the most recognisable. The bridge was very bright and shiny and pretty, as it should be... and I think the Engineering department finally looked like it should have looked all along... like a giant industrial refinery of some kind (which is where I'm guessing they filmed it).

For the most part the effects are outstanding, as you would expect... pretty much everything that happens in space is awesome, but there are some other duds... the two alien beasts on Random Plot Device Planet (I can't be bothered looking up the name of it... it's covered with ice and just down the galactic block from Vulcan) are a bit naff (and, you know, feel a little bit tacked on at the last minute).

I'm also curious as to why, with the rich and diverse tapestry of alien life forms that exist within the Star Trek Universe they would go with only one recognisable (to me anyway) alien species (okay, two if you count Vulcans, but other than the ears they LOOK human). The others seemed to be random stuff that they threw together at 3am in the makeup trailer, and a CGI eye enhanced freak that made me a little nauseous.

And since we've now obviously moved on to the things I didn't like, lets just revisit my opening statement...

Lens flare. The question needs to be asked, why? And if the answer involves the words "style", "realism" or "artistic" then I'm going to hurt somebody.

Camera shake. Say what you like about the ten Star Trek movies that came before this one, but 99% of the time you could tell what was going on in any given scene since the camera stayed where it was supposed to and wasn't shaking all over the place for no good reason. See also the above question about why and the list of unacceptable responses. I mean, really, they invented the steadicam rig for a reason!

The complete decimation of the last 43 years of Star Trek chronology in just over two hours. See, this is where I really have a problem with this movie. And for those of you who don't like spoilers, this is where you need to stop reading.

My problem is with the entire central premise of this movie. What they've essentially done is "reboot" the entire Star Trek canon. They've destroyed things that weren't destroyed, they've introduced a character to a time period he has no business being in, they've robbed us of the possibility of certain beloved characters from ever appearing (in theory anyway, if you think about this time travel stuff too much your brain starts to leak out of your ears). And why? Because they were lazy.

They introduced a time travel element to a story that didn't really need a time travel element. If they had wanted to give Star Trek the "Batman Begins Treatment" and start the story over again without all the baggage and necessity for anal retentive continuity, then do it... but to shoehorn in the reason it's all happening is that Character A came from Time Period 2 to Time Period 1 and changed everything is not only lazy but it smacks of a "now we can go off and make whatever new Star Trek movies we like without having to worry too much about continuity" thought process.

And as a viewer, once that particular point is made clear in the movie, I felt cheated. I then assumed that by the end the timeline was going to be reset, and everything that I'd just experienced was never going to have happened and I felt cheated. And while that's not what they did, I wasn't impressed with the whole "alternate timeline" thing.

Okay... all you spoilerphobes can start reading again now...

Having said all that, and while large chunks of it did annoy me quite a bit, it wasn't a bad movie... particularly the first third or so. As a whole though, it's flawed certainly, but reasonably entertaining.

Also just one last thing... remember that that guy still possibly has that bug thing in his head... I'm just saying, it might be important later, okay...

yani's rating: 1 "wictor" out of 5

unconscious mutterings 329

I have the theme song from The Great Escape stuck in my head... not helped after I mentioned it to H-San and he proceeded to then hum, sing, tap out, find a version on the internet to play and otherwise kept it fresh in my mind. Bastard...

Unconscious Mutterings...
  1. Vex :: Cranky
  2. Relapse :: Illness
  3. Twinkle :: Little star
  4. Crawls :: Baby
  5. Optimistic moment :: Not recently
  6. Cage :: Match
  7. Superwoman :: Cape
  8. Personal :: Day
  9. Vapor :: Having the vapours
  10. Grocery store :: Anytown USA
Current Mood:

bitter

Sounds about right actually...


You Are Bitter

You aren't bitter at the world, even though you have a strong personality.

Instead, you are sophisticated and cultured. You appreciate acquired tastes.

You are very powerful. You have the ability to change a room's energy.

While some may find you disagreeable, your points of view are intelligent and interesting.


Current Mood:

a very shopping saturday

acme super marketIt was a very good shopping day today...

I did the Supermarket Safari thing on my own since Ma was off "having her hair did", which was fine... I think it took less time, but then it always does, so I had a chance to come back here, unpack everything, read the paper and watch some pointless teevee (or at least have it on in the background while I did all of those other things)...

Sidebar... Batman: The Brave and the Bold is possibly the most appallingly written cartoon show with voice actors delivering the lines in the most stilted and unnatural way... it's just not good.

Anyway, when Ma arrived, we'd both obviously had the same thought during the week since we both had a stack of catalogues to show each other (one of them was the same jewellery catalogue and we'd both noticed the exact same thing... spooky)... nothing earthshattering... a pair of groovy shoes, some Star Trek DVD boxed sets, the aforementioned jewellery, a very groovy red chair...

So with that we headed off to Marion since the weather was decidedly craptastic and it seemed like a good idea to be undercover and out of the elements. And it was... I actually ended up taking my jacket off and just running around in my teeshirt since it was nice and warm in there.

Interestingly (to me anyway), I read an article the other day about the Redhead Cluster Phenomenon... I'll tell you what, it was definitely in effect today! Partly there seemed to be a lot of redheaded little kids around, which doesnt' always mean they're going to grow up into redheaded adults... and a fair few strawberry blondes and people who's hair just looked reddish in the light they were in... but there were also a high proportion of true redheads running around...

But getting back to the shopping... and it feels like we did some hardcore shopping (well, maybe lightcore... but there was definitely shopping that went on)...

crocs ambler, bonds hoodie and crocs bajaFirstly we stopped off at KMart, and they were having a sale on Bonds hoodies... $29 instead of $45 (woohoo), although they didn't have the lime green one I really love I did get one that was a very rich sapphire blue.

As Ma said, "It's blue like your other one is red"... which sounds weird, but she's right, you think of the colour blue or the colour red and that's what colour they are. They also had the Bonds track pants $10 cheaper than normal and a long sleeved sweater like the sleeveless one I bought the other week for $13... but in red (what can I say, red really has taken over as my favourite colour) not black.

Ma got a new hoodie too, pink and black, very Punk Rock (okay, maybe not).

We also did a fair bit of wandering around, Ma found a semi cowgirl shirt in Red Circle, blah blah blah...

Then we headed into David Jones to take a look at the Crocs they had advertised (after a brief mistaken detour through Myer because I got confused over which store they were in). It seems like it wasn't enough for the to conquer the plastic shoe with holes market... oh no... now they're making plastic shoes for every occasion (they even seem to have high heeled shoes on their website, which scares me just a little)... including boots!

Yep, Crocs make the Ambler boot, resplendent in "Khaki" (really, it's beige)... and you know what, they're actually pretty comfortable, and fairly warm (and I should know, I'm wearing them right now). Unfortunately I possibly needed a 9½ and they only do whole sizes... but I was wearing very thin socks, so the 10's should be okay with thicker socks. And since DJ's was having a "get 50% off the second pair" sale, I ended up buying a pair of the very comfortable Crocs Baja thongs too.

So, yes... a very shopping day...

Current Mood:

photo friday: heart

empty heartOy... my evening in no way, shape or form resembled the way I expected it to pan out...

I was all set for a night of pizza and the unwatched DVD of my choice. maybe a little housework... but instead I didn't eat anything until after 10pm, my bed is all rumpled, I haven't done a lick of housework and yet I'm still pretty damn contented...

That's also the upside of having a second go at playtime (with the same person)... when everything works the way it's supposed to then it's much easier to organise.

And it was a very nice way to end the week...

Current Mood:

random autumnal hotness

The weather has taken a particularly autumnal tone of late... actually to tell the truth, it feels like it's been kinda cold for this time of year, especially at 6am... so I decided that some images with a crisp Autumn feel to them were in order for today's Random Hotness...

I have no idea where these shots of the lovely Ryan Phillippe originate from... I'm guessing they're from a magazine spread, but they just seem to say Autumn to me...

ryan phillippe ryan phillippe and chickens

Current Mood:

unexceptional wednesday

unexceptionalIt's been another fairly unexceptional day in a very unexceptional week...

I got up, I went for my walk, I went to work...

I fed Trev, I talked to H-San and Sugarmonkey about movies, I went to lunch...

I bought some new underwear, I had junkfood for lunch again, I bought two chocolate products that turned out to be awful...

I had what turned into a slightly heated discussion with La Ginga Ninja, I mused on why Sugarmonkey is the only person who is able to essentially tell me to get over myself without me biting his head off, I came home...

I made grilled chicken and green beans and mashed sweet potato for dinner, I listened to the audio commentary for The Magnificent Seven, I sent appropriately indecent text messages...

I wasn't sure what to blog about, I dicked around creating an image for this post, I'm now up past my bedtime...

I'm very dull...

Current Mood:

uninteresting tuesday with botany

bright botany flower tendrils
Not a whole lot going on with me just at present... work is fairly dull, I had issues with my computer this morning (but then that's nothing new... and I think it was my own fault because I fiddled with it as it was shutting down last night) and since all I seem to do during the week is work, watch teevee and sleep, there's not much else to report.

On the up side, H-San lent me The Magnificent Seven as a follow-up after I borrowed Seven Samurai from Sugarmonkey over the weekend... so I may watch that tonight.

So until I can come up with something more interesting, please enjoy these autumnal botanical shots from the Sunday before last...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 328

Samurai movies, goldfish, link descriptions, dishwashing detergent, urban suitage... thus was my day...

Unconscious Mutterings...
  1. Again :: And again and again...
  2. Shower :: Hot
  3. Flirting :: I'm generally crap at it
  4. Moving on :: I wish I could
  5. Rachel :: Used to cut my hair
  6. Chips :: An 80's show about motobike cops
  7. Texting :: Why doesn't anybody do me the courtesy of replying?
  8. Feel better :: Not yet
  9. Cashmere :: Sweater
  10. Sucked :: In (although I think we all know what my very first thought was)
Current Mood:

cupcakery


You Are a Chocolate Cupcake

You are deep, richly interesting, and at times overpowering. You have a strong personality.

You are drawn to people who adore you. You love it when your specialness is recognised.

You are like a cupcake because it's hard for people to get enough of you.

You have a mysterious charm that makes you incredibly addicting. People are drawn to your drama.


Current Mood:

mother's day shopping

oh goody more things for the kitchenActually, that's a lie... Mother's Day is tomorrow, plus I did whatever shopping I needed to do well before today. But even though Ma doesn't really "do" Mother's Day, we had a very nice day out.

I was a little bit dopey first thing... I didn't get to bed until late and only woke up when Ma sent me a text message to let me know she was on her way down... and I wasn't quite firing on all cylinders by the time she got here. Thank goodness for Strong Iced Coffee (although I didn't actually have that until we got back).

Supermarket Safari went off about the same as usual, although you would think that they would have more staff working the registers first thing on a Saturday morning (I'm sure I've whinged about this before though)... but sometimes I think that's just because the staff never show up after a big Friday night...

Anyway, once all the highly uninteresting shopping was done with (as well as the Ritual Unpacking and Consumption of Iced Coffee Products) we headed off into town with no real agenda in mind.

Mostly we just wandered about really, looking here, looking there... and I will say that it's both kind of cool and slightly disturbing when your mother thrusts a book called "Tales of Travelrotica For Gay Men" at you after she finds it in the $5 bargain bin. Of course I then proceeded to buy it...

Eventually when we reached that "need something to drink" stage of the day, we decided to throw our existing purchases in the car and take out a further four hours of parking for the astronomical fee of 20c (and by we, I mean that Ma stayed where she was and I wandered down the hill and did all of that)... okay, I think that sentence got away from me somewhere along the way... anyway, we decided to go and do a whole "Mother's Day lunch" (which is always better and cheaper to do the day before the actual day) at Saldechin, which we've been to once before and it's also where The Nut House went for our Christmas lunch thing.

It was a good choice actually... very pretty and attentive and helpful (and possibly just that little bit gay) waiting staff, the same tasty lunch deal they had at Christmas, and a nice pot of tasty tea. Then, after wandering back past Haighs (which is just deadly) we pretty much called it a day.

So a somewhat low-key day... but a good one...

Oh, and for the record, including the whole Yum Cha lunch thing, I got her Singing in the Rain, Graham Base's "Sign of the Seahorse" (hey, it's a seahorse thing again, what can I say) and another Kimmidoll magnet...

Current Mood: