movies: spectre

I think I said this last time, but Spectre definitely feels like a proper Bond movie.

Although, having said that, I didn't have the same enthusiastic response to this movie that I had to Skyfall.

But a Bond movie has a number of elements where it lives or dies (no pun intended)...

The pre-credit sequence... while it starts slow, it's the kind of big set piece you expect in a Bond movie.

The credits and theme song... these credit are definitely ones that you will get more out of the second time around... there's a lot going on... and they feature Bond in a way I haven't seen before. The song however... sorry Sam Smith, but no, just no. It's basically just screechy noise most of the time.

The villain... for the first time in the Daniel Craig movies, it feels like we have a proper bad guy. But that is because they've gone back to the original... Ernst Stavro Blofeld, played appropriately evilly by Christoph Waltz. And he has a proper lair and a proper henchman... things that I felt were missing from Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.

The women... Léa Seydoux and Monica Bellucci, although Bellucci is definitely of the "blink and you'll miss her" variety. Seydoux is very believable as a strong, capable woman who isn't so much a match for Bond as an appropriate counterpoint.

The action... of which there's actually not a giant amount... there's a couple of interesting car chases, although I did feel more like one of them was more about Bond and the car than it was about the chaser. And there's a fight scene that's part From Russia With Love, part Live and Let Die and more than a little Kill Bill 2. But other than that it's more cat and mouse or small beats of action rather than full sequences.

There were also a number of small nods to previous Bond movies... not too often that it got self referential, but there were things here and there.

Having said all of that, which was mostly positive... I will say that at 148 minutes, it was maybe about half an hour too long. Yes, I know that Skyfall was only 5 minutes shorter, but it never felt like it was that long, whereas this one did tend to drag at times.

There was also more involvement with M, Q, Moneypenny and the old M's right hand man, Tanner this time around... which did at one point feel like it was an audition for an English spy TV show.  But I do really like the interactions between Bond and both Q and Moneypenny.

So overall, good but not great... but it did feel more like the older Bond movies than they have up until now... which I suppose is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you feel about the older movies.

yani's rating: 4 helicopters out of 5

photo saturday: circling

The theme of this week's photos is circles... and to be honest, it seems appropriate given that this week did feel a little like it was fully of cycles... not exactly going in circles, but a little bit of history repeating...

To start with, after I fell last week, I realised on Tuesday morning that I'd jammed up my elbow, like I did the last time I fell. Granted it took me four days to realise, but once I did I availed myself of the first free appointment at the chiro. To be honest, while I can get my back adjusted all day long, any time I need to have my elbows adjusted its... unsettling. Not that I think she's going to do me any injury, but it does feel as weird as all hell. But it also felt a hell of a lot better once she'd done it.

I also seemed to be coming down with some degree of stuffy sinus, itchy eye bullshit. Not a cold I don't believe, possibly just the continuation of this hayfever that's seemingly developed out of nowhere in the last few years. But I went to see a nice lady at the chemist and she recommended some lovely drugs, which seem to be assisting, at least a little.

The main reason that I really felt that things were on some kind of cyclical path was the fact that I found myself doing a number of things for other people that H-San had previously done for me... mostly reading emails before they were sent to ensure the harsh things you really want to say are appropriately watered down into work-speak.

It's weird... until the bruhaha last week, I didn't really think about the fact that Sugarmonkey, Rockchick and I are the senior staff... regardless of the fact that I come and go, and not really having anything to do with job levels. We've just been around the longest. I know that on an intellectual level... but I guess it's not something I tend to think about that much.

Beyond all that, there's not much to say about this week, except for the fact that I'm glad H-San is back and that the year is starting the slide towards it's end.

Today was a less interesting version of last week...

Although I did have one weird encounter... when I got to the supermarket, the woman who runs the framing shop was standing out there having her coffee and said to me "You're missing your mum" (as in she was missing, not that I was missing her)... now this is a woman we've seen maybe once or twice in similar scenarios.... it's not a store we frequent, but it does happen to be exactly opposite the supermarket. So clearly she's observed the double act that is Ma and I... although who knows how often or when. So yeah, a big serve of weird right there.

I had a brief interaction with her, explained a version of the scenario and went on my merry way.

Shopping was, you know, shopping. I bought, I think the correct term is, a metric fuckton of cheese... and a few other interesting bits and pieces... but mostly the usual stuff.

Then when I was coming back to the car, she was out there again... and said something along the lines of "did you get all the right stuff"... you know, comedy. I could have explained the actual situation, or even gone for the "this is mine, then I'm going to take her to get hers" scenario, but just went with "yes", because, really, how much does she really need to know.

It was generally a weird interaction... although it was nice that it closed the loop... see circles again.

I came back here, put everything away, then headed down to Ma's.

Unlike last week, she didn't need to do a supermarket run, so we just ended up going back to the "farmer's market" so she could pick up the fresh stuff she needed.

And that was really about it... we hung out for a bit and then I took myself home.

I think we're pretty much back to our regular schedule next week though... which is good, if only so we can do whatever we need to do for Christmas before we're actually in the thick of it.

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photo saturday: opposite saturday shopping

I really would like to start one of these by saying that my week wasn't somewhat trying... but alas, this is not the week or it.

At the very least because while we generally get around 10 job requests per day... sometimes less, sometimes more, but on Wednesday we had 22 requests. Granted some were simple jobs and some were one job via multiple requests... but I wasn't loving it. I did love it when we got the 27 unread emails in the jobs inbox down to 7 by the end of the following day.

There was also a little drama on Friday, which has been brewing for a couple of weeks now (not caused by or otherwise related to me, thankfully), but I missed all the fireworks because I was in the bathroom at the time. But it wasn't unexpected... and I'm both glad and disappointed that I missed it.

And thank all the fucks that H-San comes back on Monday, if only so that I can stop getting his calls through my phone.

It was also Haircut Night on Thursday, so thank fuck for that too. This haircut was pretty much the same as usual... although I did make a suggestion for the pre-Christmas haircut that Tink was very enthusiastic about... I just need to be brave enough to actually do it. And that's all the information I'm sharing until it happens (or doesn't, as the case may be).

Oh, and it hasn't taken all that long, but I'm kind of bored with salad... possibly because there's less flavour options than there was when I was making soup. And the individual elements don't always keep as well over the length of a week. But it's easier than coming up with other ideas at this stage.

Today was a little more hectic than I would have preferred... because Ma is still recovering from her surgery, I was shopping on my own this morning, and then when I was done (and had picked up the Doctor Who set from Lego Dimensions without any drama), and I'd unpacked everything and dicked around for a bit, I headed down to Ma's place to take her out to her shops.

We started off with the "farmer's market" near her place... neither of us have actually been before, and it wasn't super amazing, but Ma got the stuff she wanted, and I picked up a couple of bits and pieces... although I'll be honest, I forgot we were going, so I'd already bought most of the stuff I needed at the supermarket.

Then we headed to her shopping centre. Now I know that we go to our regular supermarket first thing in the morning to avoid the crowds, and when we do end up in other centres on a Saturday we generally don't go anywhere near the supermarkets... but holy crap. I will say that there was a lot of hot rough trade action, but also a lot of wow, just no.

But I survived.

And that was it really... we headed back to Ma's place, I hung around for a while and then headed back to my place. So very much the opposite of a normal weekend.

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movies: crimson peak

If ever a movie lived up to the tag line on it's poster, it's Crimson Peak and it's "Beware" tag.

Which is what I'd tell anyone if they asked what I thought of the movie.

Normally I like Guillermo del Toro movies, the Hellboys, Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Blade II... but I don't know what the hell went wrong with this one. It's so blatantly melodramatic and painfully obvious... and if I'm honest, kind of boring because of it.

Part of the problem is also Mia Wasikowska... she always come across as insipid and a little wooden, and this role is no different. Tom Hiddleston and a frankly unrecognisable Jessica Chastain give better performances, but their characters are fairly one dimensional and obvious that it defeats the purpose of their performance.

And rather than relying on suspense and tension, del Toro has indulged in jump scares and a bunch of gore which isn't particularly frightening. It was also disappointing that the supernatural elements were incidental to the plot and could easily have been removed without affecting the movie that much.

Even the supposed "gothic romance" is lukewarm at best...

So I think it's safe to say that I wasn't a fan.

yani's rating: 1 black moth out of 5

photo saturday: all hallows

This week, once again, has been a big fat check in the "dude, seriously" column.

I will say that the upside was the fact that I was busy all week long. The downside, you guessed it, I was busy all week long.

There was some added stress because Ma went in for her elective surgery on Tuesday... I had one of those "what if the worst happens" brain farts that I couldn't quite shake. But she's all good, surgery went well and after a couple of days staying with her bestie, she's back home as of this morning. So that's a weight off my mind.

It does mean that Saturday's are going to be a little atypical for much of the month of November... and this Saturday was even atypical on top of that.

Oh, but before I get into that... I just want to state for the record, I do actually have a heart and it is in actual working order. I know because I've seen it.

Back around the time of my last bout of the flu I started noticing some ectopic heartbeats... essentially it's when it feels like your heart is "holding it's breath" for a beat and then the following beat is a big thump. It got to the point where I went to my GP about it and he referred me on to the cardiologist.

That led to me going in for an ultrasound on my heart on Friday morning. And I gotta say, laying there while the young woman shoved the transducer into my flesh and I got to watch my heart on the monitor is all kinds of weird. Especially as the thing that I could see most clearly was one of the valves right in the middle as it opened and closed.

Just weird.

But the doctor told me that my heart is in good shape, and the ectopic beats have pretty much stopped. So that's good.

On a completely unrelated note I booked in for a consultation on my tattoo cover-up on my left arm. The tattoo there is a cover-up itself and it's at least 15 years old at this point, and frankly it's pretty damn bad, especially compared with the new one.

And I had an artist all picked out, and he finally reopened his books this week... and that is the point where I discover that he doesn't do cover-ups. Goddammit! Anyway, that led me to look around for another studio and more specifically an artist whose work I liked and that I felt fitted into what I wanted to have on my arm. Which led me to Progression Tattoo, and their Open Day/Consult Day in December... and more specifically to one of their artists who has a couple of pieces very much in the style that I was thinking. So on Friday I called and booked in for a consult. Yay!

Insert mental image of me doing the happy dance here.

Today was... yeah actually today wasn't very exciting. As previously stated, I was on my own, but since Ma was only getting home today, she didn't need me for anything, so I was left completely to my own devices.

Shopping was fairly standard, beyond the general buying of a few extra treats... including grabbing some Turkish Delight for the production of Christmas Rocky Road. Yes, it is a whole month away from being required, but it's not going to come to any harm.

I did have a bit of an impulse buy in Target though... they have this "Summer" watermelon designed quilt cover, and it was fairly cheap, but the material didn't feel crappy... so I bought one, and a fitted sheets and extra pillowcases from their "home brand" range in bright red. It's going to look nice I think, and if the quilt cover is big enough then I can retire the ugly brown one I tend to use during winter. And then potentially match up the brown fitted sheet with the green IKEA quilt cover. Sorry, thinking aloud...

After that I came back here, unpacked everything and put it away and then headed into the city to the Flinders Street Market for their Mini Comic-con. I wasn't expecting a lot... and, yeah... it was okay, but not fantastic. And there was only one dude who's portfolio I really wanted to go through, however it was being hovered over by a guy who, granted, was buying a ton of stuff... but at the same time he was totally stopping anybody else from looking at the stuff.

In the end after a couple of loops around the place, I gave up, bought some gingerbread cookies and a giant messy meringue thing and came home.

And I kinda think it might be time to start working on Ma's calendar for 2016... and given that we haven't been on any interstate jaunts since my birthday last year I've been a little stuck as to what the hell I was going to do... but then I realised that our first trip together was in 2005, which makes it a decade of trips (this tripless year notwithstanding), and we've done twelve trips... so I'm going to go back to each trip and find a signature image I haven't already used and make up a calendar of that... call it Decade, appropriately enough.

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photo saturday: vanilla with sky

This week has been a little vanilla... although with the occasional coloured sprinkle... and the odd chopped nut or two... and I have now officially run this metaphor all the way into the ground.

I had my first "salad disaster" this week... I mean it wasn't a total write-off, but I definitely had to persevere through it. Part of the problem was the dressing was a little too thick and too creamy, mostly because I put the remainder of the container of sour cream I had in it. In theory good... in practice, it needed less.

And making too much risoni and too much chicken was also problematic, if only because it meant that the dressing I did have didn't go far enough.

The week itself was a little bit m'eh... we had our Halloween/birthday morning tea on Wednesday, I wore the mask I bought last weekend, which was appropriately creepy, especially when paired with a slight head tilt and a "broken doll" type walk.

Granted I couldn't eat with the mask on, and it did get very warm very quickly, so I ended up wearing it on top of my head for most of the time.

Then Thursday after work I had an interesting encounter... not exactly what I was expecting, in some ways better, in some worse... although the gentleman in question was the type who couldn't just stay still afterwards... which kind of broke the mood.

Yesterday I picked up my giant Assassin's Creed Syndicate box set... the Charing Cross edition, with the statue... and because of that the box is legitimately gigantic. And I won't be able to play it until after Christmas since that's when I'll get my PS4, and I also have to work my way through the previous game... and I'll also have Lego Dimensions for when stabbing virtual people gets too much. So, yeah, lots of video games to play...

Today wasn't overly exciting... well, there was some minor excitement due to some water coming out of the building's gas plant room, but I reported it and it eventually got fixed.

The supermarket portion of the day was somewhat more extensive than usual... Ma is having some elective surgery done next week which means she won't be driving for a while, so she needed to stock up on a bunch of stuff.

It also means that Saturdays are going to be a little different for a few weeks.

Anyway, once we were done at the supermarket, we took a wander around Target, and ended up finding a few bits and pieces for Princess T and Miss Oh for Christmas, so once we got back and I'd unpacked my part of the shopping we decided to head down to Marion, since they have all the stores.

It wasn't necessarily the most productive trip... It would be slightly easier if we spent more time with them... but then family you don't spend time with is always much harder to buy for at Christmas.

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photo saturday: street work

First off, I need to declare 17 October as National Asshole Day.

Yeah, it's been one of those days.

But before I wind things back, I have a message for the Adelaide 2015 ITU Duathlon World Championship event organisers.

Fuck you. Fuck you in all possible interpretations and meanings of the phrase. You close off two of the three thoroughfares between North Adelaide in the city, you close off the whole of Wellington Square. You do all of this for two whole fucking days. And I was a grand total of twelve goddamn bikes. Yes, okay, there may have been more around 3pm, but seriously, if you need to close the square off for two complete days, then I expect to see a cavalcade, a plethora, in short, a shit-ton of cyclists going around the square for the entire period.

Otherwise, as I previously stated, fuck you. And you can take your sporting event and shove it where the proverbial doesn't shine.

Okay, I feel better now.

This week has been... long. The weather didn't particularly help, going from cool to hot to cool again.

Work was at times completely insane... I had a meeting on Tuesday that I thought was going to be a simple discussion about one thing, but turned out to be a lot more work, which then ate up the majority of my Friday. And the fact that H-San hasn't been in had meant that I've been fielding a bunch of things I would normally have bumped up the chain to him. Or at the very least I would have discussed them with him and gotten his take on them before doing anything.

Thursday was Haircut Day, and it was about time because there was an extra week between cuts so I was feeling a little shaggy and unkempt.

It didn't perhaps run as smoothly as a normal haircut because Tink Jr had a bit of a meltdown after she went to bed, so Tink was a little rattled. Eventually Jr wore herself out and fell asleep though.

As previously mentioned, Friday was a little intense, so much so that I ended up working straight through lunch. Well, I had lunch, but I ate it while working.

Let's just say that when I left work on Friday, I went to the bottleshop for a six-pack of Strongbow. And came home and drank four of them.

Today was more annoying than anything else... the blocking off of Wellington Square changed our Saturday morning routine, then it just seemed to be one thing after another. We took a quick trip to Arndale, then made the mistake of going into the city. Because the two major routes into the city were closed off, everyone was taking other routes, so it took forever to get where we were going.

We didn't do very much, just had a wander and grabbed a couple of things here and there, before giving up and coming home again.

So a little bit of a stressful week/day...

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movies: macbeth

My connection (ie obsession) with versions of the Scottish play is well established at this point, so it's no surprise I was excited to see the version of Macbeth directed by South Australian director, Justin Kurzel.

And it's a stunning adaptation. Possibly the most beautiful I've seen.

Visually the combination of the Scottish locations (which I believe is the first time that there has been a movie version filmed on the Scottish moors), the cinematography from Adam Arkapaw, the production design, costumes and make-up all come together brilliantly.

Kurzel went with a very "realistic" approach, from the setting to the costumes to the set designs, it all feels historically appropriate. But settings like the final battle sequence are so spectacularly staged that they're just breathtaking.

Michael Fassbender plays the titular Thane of Glamis while Marion Cotillard is his lady... and they both do incredible work, even though I'm generally not a massive fan of Cotillard.

All the cast is great in fact, although I will say that the decision to use "authentic" Scottish brogue on top of the Shakespearean language did mean that even I who knows the play pretty much backwards and sideways couldn't always tell what they were saying.

There are generally three places where you make your mark as a director/writer with Macbeth... how you deal with the witches, the parts of the play you leave out, and the things you add visually because you can't add them verbally.

And this version got them all pretty spot on for the universe of the movie... the witches, beyond a little ritual scarification here and there, are very grounded in reality, as was everything else... although the decision to have essentially five characters instead of the regular three was a little odd, although one was a child and the other a baby. They also added in the ghost of a teenaged soldier who dies at the beginning, and assigned some of the lines from the witches to him, but that's easy enough to suggest that they conjure him.

I could complain a little about the parts they left out... but at this point I've seen versions with every possible combination of extractions... it's just that in this case, it's one of my favourite lines (and one that I have on the wall in my bedroom):

That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold.
What hath quenched them hath given me fire.

In fact a large amount of the things they removed from Macbeth/Lady M come from around the murder scene. Also gone is the "hubble bubble" sequence,I'm guessing because it felt too theatrical and over the top.

Other things to find themselves on the chopping block, as usual, were Duncan's younger son, the sequence between Malcolm and MacDuff about how terrible a king Malcolm would be, and the Lady MacDuff/Ross scene.

Those I can all live with them removing as they do have a tenancy to slow things down.

It's the things they added that were the most interesting... they add the battle that we only hear about at the beginning of the play, but then "show not tell" works much better in the movies. They also add in the "previous death of a child" that I've seen in a few versions which comes from one of Lady Macbeth's lines about knowing what it is to have a child suckle at her breast.

And the other thing is a sequence at the end that involves Banquo's son Fleance... given the fact that the witches tell Macbeth he will be king, but that Banquo will be father to a line of kings... but at the end of the play it's Malcolm who takes back the throne, not young Fleance, there's a cryptic little coda that may mean that Malcolm is going to now hunt down Fleance to secure his title.

It's definitely an interesting take, and not something that I've ever seen put together like that, and it was really, really good.

They also do a brilliant version of Birnam Wood "coming to" Dunsinane, and likewise not once I've seen depicted before.

This is a stunning version of the story, beautifully realised, brilliantly acted and a credit to everybody who was involved.

yani's rating: 5 ghostly daggers out of 5

photo saturday: winging it

There's been a decided element of winging it this week... firstly I kind of lost more of the Sunday and holiday Monday to a combination of unseasonally hot weather and general screwing around on my part... although I did end up putting together the Metalbeard Lego set late in the afternoon on Sunday.

I'm not sure if it was that or not, but I just ended up feeling very much like I hadn't even had a day off... or else that I needed several more, all strung together in a row.

The week, although short, seemed to drag and drag and drag. Not because I wasn't busy, but in spite of it, which was fairly annoying. Plus there was the added issue hanging over the whole week that H-San started his month long leave on Friday, which is going to end up meaning a bunch more stuff I'm going to have to do and/or not be able to bump up the chain of command to him. So, to coin a phrase... fuck!

This morning I got up early and did all the housework I couldn't be bothered doing all week long... which never takes as long as I think it's going to, but even so I tend to leave it until the last possible minute.

But I got everything done with time to spare, so it all worked out okay.

Shopping was, well, shopping...

I have to say that the summer regime of making salads for lunch is much less interesting and experimental than making soups was. It's essentially the same types of things repeated over and over again... so I may have to play around with the idea of dressings in order to make things interesting.

Anyway, once we were done with shopping, it was back here to unpack and then we headed into the city to go and see Macbeth.

During the movie I got a call from the comic book shop to say that my order had come in, so afterwards we headed in that general direction... firstly though we stopped off at Target since I hadn't heard anything back from them about the Lego Dimensions Portal 2 set that the docile boy allegedly put a raincheck on last week, so I figured I'd just check. Turns out that useless boy was exceptionally useless since they had the set on the shelf, and yet nobody had bothered to call me. If I get a phone call on Monday, then yeah, maybe all is forgiven, but I doubt it. I'm going with the fact that he was useless. And if they do call me, I'll tell them I already came in and got one.

But at least I have it now (not that there was any damn rush, since I won't get the game and the console until Christmas).

Next was the comic book store, and then we wandered back along the Mall, picked up a couple of bits and pieces and some books for Tink's kids for Christmas, then headed down to Burger Theory for the second anniversary of the Burger of the Month, the "Why Not Both?", what is essentially pretty close to their cheeseburger, but with the addition of a hot dog. And I don't know what it is about that, but I do love the hot dog in all it's slightly squeaky glory.

We also grabbed their banana/pancake/maple syrup concrete of the month, which I have to say is my favourite of all the ones I've tried so far. I do kind of wish they made half serves of concrete, as I always end up feeling very, very full after a burger and a concrete. But it was outstanding.

And that was pretty much it really.

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movies: the martian

From start to finish, The Martian is an exceptionally good movie.

The story by Andy Weir and the adaptation by Drew Goddard has the right amount of action, humour, suspense and emotion to draw you in from the very first minute and not let you go until the end credits roll.

And Matt Damon is absolutely perfect as the astronaut assumed dead and left behind on Mars. There's just something about him that is both charismatic but also vulnerable, and you completely buy him as the character. You root for him through the entire movie, feel his successes and losses and just want everything to work out for him.

But there isn't a single bad performance in the entire movie... everybody brought their A game, from Jessica Chastain as the mission commander to Jeff Daniels as the head of NASA and everybody in between. Even the very small roles, Donald Glover as an astrodynamicist to Mackenzie Davis as a NASA engineer feel like real characters.

Visually the movie is gorgeous... everything from the landscape shots of Mars to the essentially seamless visual effects (as in I have no idea what was and wasn't an effects shot, beyond knowing what probably must have been mostly effects), not to mention the amazing production design and costumes. The Mars space suits are just beautiful.

There's also a great use of music... in this case, predominantly disco, which is used fairly sparingly but also really, really effectively. And bonus points for the song choice used during the credits.

If there were any quibbles at all they would be two tiny shots using a body double to show how malnourished Damon's character had become... I get why they're there, I get why they used a double, but it just looks weird and definitely threw me out of the movie for a moment both times. But given their collective run time it's a very, very, very small nitpick in an otherwise exceptional movie.

yani's rating: 5 Martian potatoes out of 5