movies: the producers

You know, I actually can't remember the last time I laughed so much, and for so long as I did tonight... we went to see The Producers and damn it was funny!

I don't always find Mel Brooks humour that funny... sometimes he's good, sometimes he labours the point a little too much. But The Producers, was just funny enough in all the right places and in all the right ways... yes, it's definitely farce and a little slapstick, but it's also really FUNNY! Ma was worse than me... she's never one to laugh quietly, and there was more than one occasion where I was sure everyone in the cinema could hear her... *rolls eyes*... Mothers... whatchugunnado?!

Anyway, I love Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (Matthew especially, all the way back to the days of both Ferris Bueller and Torch Song Trilogy) and although there was a large amount of them chewing of the scenery in a BIG way (but both in very different ways, which helped), it was well done, and just fitted the feel of the movie.

I can see why it probably offended a whole lot of people back when it originally came out, but I didn't have a problem with any of it, from the over the top queens (including a bare-chested, non-speaking cameo by my favourite Queer Eye, Jai Rodriguez) to the whole Springtime for Hitler thing (on that note, I was also amused by the fact that the "perfect Aryan Stormtrooper" we see at the beginning of the musical within the musical was actually played by John Barrowman, a openly gay man.. whether that was intentional or not, I don't know... but I liked it)... like I said, the whole thing was extreme farce, and very much taking the mickey out of itself.

Having said all that, I've never seen the original movie, or the play, so, who knows, maybe those are better... but I very, very, very much enjoyed my first exposure to The Producers... and this is another one that will definitely have to find it's way into my DVD collection.

yani's rating: 4 goose-stepping chorus boys out of 5

four!

I got bitchslapped... err... tagged by The Other Andrew to do the "Four" meme...

Four jobs you've had in your life:

• Online Support Officer at Department of Education & Children's Services
• Assistant Finance Officer for the Department of Human Services
• Support Consultant for a recruitment company
• Word Processing at a business college

Four movies you could watch over and over:

• Clue
• What's Up Doc?
• Chicago
• Any of the Bond movies

(It doesn't mean that any of them are among my favourite movies, although Clue actually is, but that I can watch them over and over... occasionally while doing things like washing the dishes or cooking)

Four places you've lived:

(I've only ever lived in five houses, all in South Australia, and the suburbs repeat so...)

• Elizabeth Vale
• North Adelaide
• Golden Grove
• North Adelaide

Four TV shows you love to watch:

• Oprah
• Veronica Mars
• Mythbusters
• Lost

Four places you've been on holiday:

• My house (does that count?)
• Melbourne
• Aldinga (beachside suburb to the south of Adelaide)
• And Melbourne again

Four websites you visit daily:

• Gaydar
• Blogger
• Dudes 'n Organs
• Yahoo Mail

Four of your favorite foods:

• Turkish bread
• Lamb Rogan Josh
• Chicken (breast in general)
• Rocky Road

Four places you'd rather be:

• Somewhere with airconditioning
  (I'm looking at a week of 30C-plus temperatures with no aircon)
• Working
• New York
• London

Four Play:

I tag... actually I tag nobody... for one, when I get tagged by either Andrew or Eddy, whoever tagged me has already tagged the other one, and since they're two of the people I know will pretty much always do a meme it makes my list harder... so I'm not tagging anyone... so ner! But if you want to do the meme, go for it.

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montage monday: red

It's weird, the way things work out sometimes...

Yesterday I did that long rambly post about the Mean Reds, which only really got that title because the line from Breakfast at Tiffany's popped into my head part way through...

Then this morning I realised I had to get the final shot for my Monday Montage... and it was only then that I actually realised that my montage theme was red... honestly... I did most of the montage at the end of last week (and would have finished it on Friday if the battery in my camera hadn't run out of juice part way through my walk), and never connected it with the post when I was writing it yesterday.

Technically it's a red montage, but it kind of ended up being red with a minor in white and black because they tend to show up together a lot on signs and things.

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mean reds

A couple of days ago I realised that I hadn't written a long rambly post for quite a while... in fact since New Years a lot of my posts have been fairly light on actual information... yeah, I got my hot water back, and had coffee with a potential model... but I haven't really had anything to SAY... at least nothing that actually looks like something of importance.

There are a couple of those longer rambly posts rattling around in my head, but one of them needs to wait until I've read one of my Christmas presents and the other won't let me pin it down long enough to actually work out what it is...

I think part of the problem is that, like a fair few other Bloggers around the place, I've kind of come down with a case of the Post Christmas Mean Reds* (see bottom of post)... I don't know that it actually has anything to do with Christmas being over... maybe it's more about the start of a new year and the fact that I pretty much feel stuck...

Of course, the Universe, having a fairly sick sense of humour, finds it funny to send particular things my way when I'm in this kind of mood... like on Thursday, watching Oprah, the show was Have You Let Yourself Go?... and while most of it was about stay-at-home Moms and just women in general, there was just enough in the show to hit home with me to make me, once it was over, pick up the phone and call my girlygirl at my new agency to check in with her and see what was happening... stoopid Oprah...

The end part of the show was about asking yourself Who am I? (stealing from Oprah.com... It's a lifelong question. It's not about the stuff… "I'm a mom," or "I'm a good employee" - it's "When I was born, what was the plan for my life?")... And to be honest I'm in two minds about both knowing and not knowing the answer...

For the path of my life up until this point, yeah, I'm fairly sure I know what the plan was, because it's all there, laid out behind me, and I completed it all, or at least all the bits of it that I can see... it's the other half... the future path that I'm pretty much clueless about... I don't know that it's all one big plan though... although there is a whole theme at work, but I don't know that I've got anywhere left to go in said theme...

Hmmm... I think this might have been the other rambly post that I mentioned at the beginning wouldn't be pinned down... and it possibly deserves its own post at a later date, where I can be less vague and quasi mysterious about it all...

Anyway... where was I...

The aforementioned agency girlygirl didn't call me back until Friday morning... technically I should have known she would probably be doing interviews all afternoon on Thursday... I mean I went to see her for my interview in the afternoon... on a Thursday... and she came straight out of another interview before me... so... yeah...

She gave me the usual "Things are picking up again after Christmas, I'll keep you posted" spiel... I worked for an agency at one point myself... though not as a consultant thank god... so I know how it goes... I do have a good feeling about this girlygirl though... she's all funky and whatnot, and I know there's a job on it's way... I just need to be in the right place at the right time.

I've only heard back from one other agency out of the seven I sent my resume to... and that was a really brief email (which actually got caught in my spam filter and very nearly got deleted... which also makes me wonder if there were other answers that DID get killed by the spam filter) basically saying "Thanks, we don't got nothing for you, but we're lazy, so add your details to our database on the website so we can look you up without having to do anything"... I haven't bothered as yet... stoopid agency...

I really do want to be working again... this whole "enforced vacation" thing was fun... but I'm kind of over it now... like Eddy I like the whole routine and mental stimulation thing of work... at least when I'm working somewhere fun, or if not "fun", at least stimulating... hell, at this point I would even be up for somewhere that's dull and not so mentally challenging... so long as I was getting paid.

Which weirdly enough, does seguay into one of the other things that's been floating around in my head a lot of late.... a combination of thoughts about what happens when Ma dies and what happens when I die... cheerful, no?

Ma isn't getting any younger, she'll be 59 this year, and given that we have this very atypical relationship, it's mother/son but with a secondary "friend" layer over that... I actually enjoy spending time with her... which is partly why we do the movie thing... spending time with her isn't a chore or something to be suffered through.

And so, I wonder what happens after she's gone... which then makes me wonder about what happens after I'M gone... I especially get that feeling looking around my apartment... what happens to my tons and tons of crap after I'm dead... who do I leave all the DVD's and all the books and all the stuff to?

Part of the whole Ma thing comes back to the job thing... she's not going to be working forever (retirement in Australia is somewhere in there between 60 and 70... but there doesn't seem to be hard and fast rules about it), and I'd like to be able to spoil her, buy her things, take her places, not support her as such, but throw money in her general direction when appropriate... lord knows she's done it for me enough times.

Add to all that the fact that my friendship base is pretty damn thin on the ground (ie pretty much non existant) at present... given that J is in London, Lownee disappeared into the ether, Raury is dealing with his own traumas, and various other friends have chosen to absent themselves from my life for one reason or another. There's the Camera Club gang, but they're more acquaintances than friends... and the one person who I did consider a friend disappeared from Camera Club for most of last year...

I'm a solitary person though, so for the most part it isn't that much of a problem... and I suck at the whole social situation thing, unless I already know at least a couple of the people around me...

So yeah... such is the sum total of my life at the moment... not quite sucking beyond the telling of it... but it has it's moments...

It also explains why I just read certain things written by other Bloggers and just roll my eyes... yeah, friends, good job, great apartment, an only occasionally psychotic boyfriend, lot and lots of sex... how terrible is your life! (I'm only teasing (mostly)... I love the little smurf really)

Okay, I think that's enough of a rambly "Where's My Head At" post... waits for the collective sigh of relief from around the globe...

* Mean Reds: "The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?" - Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's

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movie star double

Your movie star double is Ethan Hawke!

An intellectual like you needs to be played by someone who understands how to be deep without being boring, someone who can grasp complicated subjects and make them seem clear cut, someone like Ethan Hawke. Whether bringing Hamlet to life or getting published himself, Ethan has shown the world that being smart can be sexy.

Were you sometimes the kid in class who realized when the teacher made a mistake — even if you didn't always point it out? Now that you're grown up, it wouldn't surprise us if you still liked the challenge of banter or enjoyed staying up late talking about the latest in political, social, or celebrity circles. Your glamour comes from your head first and radiates out through your looks. So keep that confidence up. Ethan's a natural to star as you because he, like you, has a good head on his shoulders. And isn't afraid to use it.

Who's Your Movie Star Double?

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photo friday: bougainvillea

I don't know what it is about this, but when I saw the gate with the bougainvillea over it on my daily walk, I had to take the shot... It might just be the combination of the white, green and magenta... or I could have just been channelling The Other Andrew...

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random mikkel hotness

I've kind of got another random photographer for this week's Random Hotness, but this is more about the model, Mikkel Olsen, than it is about Norwegian photographer, John Andresen... I couldn't help feeling I needed something a little summery this week... and while this is a very fake beach, I do like these shots.

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my blog should be...

Not exactly like this was a surprise...

Your Blog Should Be Purple

You're an expressive, offbeat blogger who tends to write about anything and everything. You tend to set blogging trends, and you're the most likely to write your own meme or survey. You are a bit distant though. Your blog is all about you - not what anyone else has to say.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

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movies: valiant

Well it seems like its all "bird related CGI movies" at present... last week there was Chicken Little, and this week, World War II carrier pigeons in Valiant.

Of the two, I have to say, I enjoyed Valiant a lot more... partly because Valiant actually had a story that had a beginning, middle and end and actually went somewhere, and partly because it was a British production, from Vanguard Animation, and it was just nice to see someone new muscling in on Pixar and Dreamworks.

The story isn't anything brilliantly new... we have a main character who is (insert appropriate difference here), leaves home to (insert plot here) and meets some other oddball friends along the way, until finally his (insert appropriate difference here) means that he (saves the day/gets the girl/insert other appropriate plot ending here)... we've seen it all before, in about a billion different variations, but it's nicely done here.

It's also interesting that this is the second "kids movie" out at the moment that has a backdrop of World War II... The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe being the other one. I'm not especially sure how appropriate an animated "war movie" is for kids... but, hey, I'm not a parent, so what do I care...

As with a lot of these animated movies where there is a lot of well known voice talent, although this one does seem to have more than it's fair share.... I tend to spend the first couple of minutes pulled out of the moment because I recognise the voice before I can just let that go and enjoy the story. In this case, with this all British cast being full of voices I recognised, from Hugh Laurie to Tim Curry and all points in between, it did take me a little while to stop being distracted by working out the voices. Having said that, there were a bunch of the actors I didn't pick up on... most notably Rik Mayall as one of the German falcons, Cufflingk.

One other thing I did notice that I thought was a nice touch... every time you hear the pigeons fly, it had that unmistakable pigeon sound... the cooing noise overlaying the wingflaps, which made them sound very believable. On the downside, the animators seemed to have worked so hard at making the birds (and mice) look "realistic", that the handful of humans you see just look a little too fake, although I couldn't tell you why.

I'll be interested to see what Vanguard do with their next project, Phreex, which is due out in 2007.

yani's rating: 2 wing feathers out of 5

montage monday: numbers

Another Monday, another Monday Montage... I don't actually know if there will be one next week or not... haven't been inspired with a subject as yet...

Anyway, I started this one while I was still finishing up last week's Strangeway's montage, with the 21 at the beginning of the second row and the 81 two rows down... and it grew from there. I don't know that I've ever noticed house numbers more (except of course when I'm actually trying to find a specific one).

On a slightly related note, during my walk this morning, I turned down the street with the "Roman Frieze" house and spotted a little figure standing way off down the street... and the figure was just standing there, and kind of moving it's arms... and I couldn't work out what it was doing... then the arm movements looked familiar... whoever it was was taking photos. I did wonder at that point, whether or not it might be someone from Camera Club... I doubted it, but you never know.

Eventually I got close enough to work out that I was right (not about the Camera Club thing, but about the taking photos thing), although from where she was standing, I have no idea what it was on the opposite side of the road that she might have been taking photos of.

Anwyay, she was headed towards me, and we crossed paths just outside the Feet Fountain house, where she stopped, I assume, to take a shot of the fountain and the little concrete feet... but I couldn't help grinning to myself as I was walking past thinking... "Been there, done that!".

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