by simon baird

Thursday, November 30, 2006

King Arthur

This movie happened to be starting on Movie One last night just as we arrived home. Yadda yadda, here's my review:
  • Premise: This is the true story of the dudes who's tales were told and exaggerated to become the Tales of King Arthur. Arthur and his knights are under Roman command. They generally don't get on with the natives who refuse Rome's command. The Saxons are coming and the Roman Empire is not as mighty and good as it once was.
  • Keira's accent: Why did Keira not have some kind of Woad accent? I don't care what it sounded like just please not her posh tea and scones english voice from Bend It Like Beckham.
  • The Saxons: At least you know where you stand. You and your family will be put to death and your village will be burned. But you probably won't be raped. They have standards.
  • The cracking ice scene. Seems a bit unlikely. Plus the cracking seemed to go on way too long.
  • Keira shooting arrows in blue paint and a leather boob-tube: Thumbs up.
  • Clive Owen's range of vocal and facial expression: Thumbs down. Seriously, he is the English David Duchovney.
  • Romans: Boo
  • Woads: Yay
  • Merlin: Yay
  • Saxons: Yargh
  • Unrealistic lighting of outdoor scenes: Huh? The Saxons had a green spotlight in their camp apparently.
  • Lame dialog in romantic scenes: Boo
  • That aussie guy from that show with a beard: Yay
  • The knights: Cool as shit
  • The story: It kept me well interested even though it was on late and I was pretty tired. Thumbs up.
  • Enya rating: not enough Enya! The one time you actually want a bit of Enya...
  • Magic rating: Actually there is no magic or fairies or anything like that, which is a bit different for a King Arthur movie.

damn now I have to by an xbox 360

It's called Gears of War. Here's some gameplay.

blimey

I thought you might want to see this. It's a dude with an oxygen tank doing a version of a coldplay song. i know that sounds like crap but seriously take a look. via stereogum.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Dear Nora and Kate 'Katy' Davidson

Okay Kate has a blog about her tour/etc. It's here and it's pretty good. On it I found some photos from the gig I was at (not the first one obviously). The blue shirt guy is the bass player. Did I mention I didn't like him much? It may be because he reminded me of me. Except less skilled on bass and with better hair... ;) He played with Dear Nora also. And the drummer was the drummer from The Go-Betweens. For real! Also I found some pics of Bree Van Ryk (scroll down) playing charades I think. Can you guess...?

darren hanlon plays the ukulele

By sheer good luck I was in Sydney the weekend Darren Hanlon was playing at the Metro. Of course I got tickets. Here is a treat for you. A ukulele song. You don't see that every day. It's called Hold On, from Darren's new cd, Fingertips and Mountaintops. The concert was great. I especially like the drummer, her name is Bree Van Ryk. She's a very talented drummer and plays in a sexy way with her head back and mouth open a little. The bass player was pretty crap I thought. Keyboard guy, okay. Darren, brilliant. Also remind me to tell you about Kate from Dear Nora sometime, she was good. And remind me to never speak of Caxton ever again as I try to eliminate all traces of them from my memory.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

coolclock now has a google gadget

A guy named Bonstio has created a Google Gadget for my CoolClock. That means you can put CoolClock in your Google Pages page or in your Personalised Google Home Page. That's cool. He also made some Google-ish skins to go with it. The gadget is available here.

polar bears... polar bears with frickin' layzers

Actually no lasers. And the second video isn't actually mine but it was taken just under where I was standing in the first video. I was lucky to see this. The rest of the day the polar bears were mostly hiding in their airconditioned lairs watching Ice Age 2 or something like that. Upon request I may post videos of dolphins jumping.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

I got tickets

..for Joanna Newsom. Oh sweet rapture! She's playing in a tent!

A poo poo with one leg and a belly button

Click the link for some art by my talented nephew.