Ponderance

The Hulk: Afterthoughts

A few more thoughts/afterthoughts about The Hulk (this will be the last Hulk post, I promise ... at least for now!). A few people have said they missed the mandatory Stan Lee cameo. Very early in the film you see Stan "the man" Lee walk out of a building alongside a security guard. The guard, incidentally, is Lou Ferrigno, the guy who played the Hulk in the live-action television series!

The one thing I forgot to mention in my earlier review was the amazing editting in The Hulk. Some of the scene changes are absolutely amazing; very artistic and subtle (reminiscent of the scene changes in the original Highlander film). Personally, they reminded me a bit of 24 to start with, but my brain is very small. Grant "the angriest ex-video store clerk in the world", points out what the scene changes are all about:

Hulk is designed to look like a comic book. The screen regularly splits, morphs, turns, wipes and contorts itself in front of you. It creates a visual collage for you to soak in, in multiple simultaneous panels and frames. Some people have found this technique irritating. I found it utterly amazing. There has never been a film made before that so accurately replicates the effect of a comic book on screen. Innovative cinema is rare. Innovative cinema in a $150 million dollar summer blockbuster is damned near unprecedented.

Amazing cinema it is. See it you must, or worse grammar than Yoda may you develop.

The Hulk: More Than Incredible

Even before its international release, The Hulk had already suffered from a number of negative comments and questions about the credibility of the green Goliath al a CGI. These early criticisms (many of which were based on viewings of a pirate download of an unfinished version) tapped into many fears--not least of all since Marvel�s merry mutants and superheroes seem to have enjoyed too much success in recent years; a flop seemed due. However, I can say with absolute surety, these early negative reviewers were completely and utterly wrong. Ang Lee�s rendition of The Hulk is without a doubt brilliant, absolutely brilliant. The Hulk is the best sort of cinematic experience: the story is intelligent, thoughtful and provocative; the directing is focused, tight, consistent and committed; the acting is wonderful and the leads very well chosen; Danny Elfman�s score heightens the emotional content without ever overpowering it; and the effects look amazing in service to the story, not replacing it. I was never a huge fan of The Incredible Hulk comic book, but I am a huge fan of the film.

As with many films, the review which most aptly summarises my feelings comes from David Stratton:

Hulk stands out from all the other sci-fi films based on comic-book characters because, as directed by Ang Lee, it's so intelligent and so interesting. The character of the troubled scientist who becomes a monster is basically a variation on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Lee brings out all the pathos and the dark horror of the story � with Danny Elfman's excellent music score, some very inventive photography and editing, and fine performances all round, this is a very superior entertainment.

The Hulk does indeed, SMASH!

AutoFocus

Writer-cum-Director Paul Schrader has done an amazing job with Auto Focus, a sexually overdosed biopic based on the story of Bob Crane�s life and scandalous death. Crane, who played Hogan in the much loved television series Hogan�s Heroes, is portrayed brilliantly by actor Greg Kinnear. From the boyish charm of his early life, through his downward spiral into sexual addiction and denial, to his brutal death, Kinnear gets everything just right. Willem Dafoe is decent as John Carpenter, Crane�s questionable best friend and fellow sex addict (although it�s hard not to see the annoyingly comical Green Goblin from Spiderman whenever Dafoe gets angry!). However, the real power of this film is Schraeder�s portrayal of sexual addiction: even though there is female nudity on screen for at least half the film, it is never erotic. The sense that this is not sensual, not even sexual, but purely an addiction, is acute and overwhelming. As such, the film is dark, claustrophobic and rightly very disconcerting to watch. In short: this is a brilliant film, technically superb, but very depressing. Definitely worth seeing, but definitely not a date film!

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

In a very clever cross-marketing move (albeit bordering on spam!), the X-Men Insider email list distributed a link to a brand new teaser for the upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film. I saw a trailer for this earlier in the year and was a bit worried, but the new footage looks like a quantum improvement on the earlier promotional stuff. Check out the new footage here.

For those who have never read Alan Moore's amazing League of Extraordinary Gentlement graphic novel, I suggest you do so before the film. Although, be warned, you may find yourself having to buy everything Alan Moore has ever written once you get a taste!

Getting Red for the Kids

Kristen from Kristen's Blog has posted this beauty:

Happy Red Nose Day!

PS Check out the cool Red Nose Day theme that Brendan's got up at his Happy blog! Nice.

Quote of the Blogging Week!

Neil Gaiman:

If Blogger improves any more, I'm investigating Movable Type.

I concur: why won't naffing Blogger let me include TARGET tags in URLs today? Is this an "improvement"?!?
Are you naffed off too?

William Gibson wishes George Orwell a Happy 100th Birthday

There is a brilliant article by William Gibson in today's New York Times called 'Welcome to Oceania' which looks at Orwell's 100th birthday and the state of the world today. He reiterates the common assertion that his style of writing, and Orwell's, aren't focused on the future, but rather on concerns of the present day. He also explores privacy and relativistic truth issues in contemporary society. His best bit is this:

It is becoming unprecedentedly difficult for anyone, anyone at all, to keep a secret.

In the age of the leak and the blog, of evidence extraction and link discovery, truths will either out or be outed, later if not sooner. This is something I would bring to the attention of every diplomat, politician and corporate leader: the future, eventually, will find you out. The future, wielding unimaginable tools of transparency, will have its way with you. In the end, you will be seen to have done that which you did.

I say "truths," however, and not "truth," as the other side of information's new ubiquity can look not so much transparent as outright crazy. Regardless of the number and power of the tools used to extract patterns from information, any sense of meaning depends on context, with interpretation coming along in support of one agenda or another. A world of informational transparency will necessarily be one of deliriously multiple viewpoints, shot through with misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories and a quotidian degree of madness. We may be able to see what's going on more quickly, but that doesn't mean we'll agree about it any more readily. ...

This is not to say that Orwell failed in any way, but rather that he succeeded. "1984" remains one of the quickest and most succinct routes to the core realities of 1948. If you wish to know an era, study its most lucid nightmares. In the mirrors of our darkest fears, much will be revealed. But don't mistake those mirrors for road maps to the future, or even to the present.

Great stuff! Reminds me I should update my Gibson resources page at some point soon.

(Gibson article originally mentioned at Null Device).

Red Nose Day 2003 Update: Bingtek goes Hi-Tech for the Kids

Mr Nath of bingtek fame has taken the Red Nose Day idea and improved it about a thousand-fold from my sad little Hulk effort. Check out Red Nose Day @ bingtek for Bill Gates with a rednose, and join in the Red Nose Day graphics challenge! You can also get this cool button:

And remember, it's for the kids!

Red Nose Day 2003: Do It For The Kids!

This friday, June 27th is Red Nose Day, which is the national fundraiser for research to prevent SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and also to provide support to people directly affected by SIDS. Red Nose Day has a strong history and allows Australians to send much needed funds toward preventing SIDS while having fun with some novelty and practical merchandise. The (in)famous red nose has many people walking around as clowns, but in a slightly less, er, intrusive manner you can buy pins and buttons. However, my purchase this year was definitely the most pragmatic which is a very funky looking space-age pen. It's $5 which means a reasonable amount is going to research from each sale, but the pen is very stylish, specially designed by Luigi Colani for Red Nose Day.

In a similar light, I wondered what fun I could have promoting Red Nose Day here and I came up with my very silly but, in all fairness, painfully simple edit of the Hulk image. Can you do something more creative? Sure you can, so why not promote Red Nose Day on your blog? SIDS is one of the few things I think everyone can agree is completely bad, so don't forget to buy your Red Nose purchases (at Coles, KMart & BiLo), and get into the spirit of Red Nose Day 2003!

Layers of Humour!

America's best satirical paper is always funny.
However, this little gem made me laugh more than usual:

Big Brother Three: DeCaffeinated Torture

Using this space as a bit of a confessional couch, I must admit that the third Australian series of Big Brother has grown on me. Initially, I found the ratings-building devices like dividing the victims into two houses rather contrived and annoying. The recent division of the remaining six housemates into �haves� and �have-nots� once again seemed to be the most cruel trick thus far, but today something happened which pushed my sympathy over the edge. Today�s news on the Big Brother website begins thus:

Chrissie has been dreaming of real coffee for weeks - the smell, the taste, the sound of the machine frothing milk - she's a connoisseur. Vincenzo is also a coffee fanatic - it's in his blood, and Patrick gets physically ill from withdrawals. What could be worse for the three Have-nots than being able to look, smell and touch but not taste?

Being a coffee addict myself, I felt empathy for the housemates for the first time. Poor bastards! This whole haves/have-nots reminds me of an educational documentary called The Wave in which students were divided according to an arbitrary trait (eye colour, I think) and inadvertently started acting like fascists. Will there be a blood-in-the-streets revolution inside the Queensland house-cum-prison? Perhaps not. Am I finally being seduced by the rating giant Big Brother: yes, yes I am. Hmmm.

Big Brother Three: Online Overdose!

In related �news�, I was amazed at how many fan websites there are related to the Big Brother phenomenon. Apart from the advertising laden official Big Brother website, there is the very slick and professional-looking Behind Big Brother which looks very similar to the official site, but a lot more interesting. Amusing and fun is the Big Brother Tipping site where you can get the odds on whose leaving this week. There are numerous housemate-specific site, but the most vigorous and maintained is the Go Regina! site dedicated to Australia�s most famous fish�n�chip shop worker since Pauline �I don�t like it� Hanson. For more links, see Behind Big Brother�s links page. That should keep all you BB3 fans happy for a while!

Bruce Almighty: Not Quite Divine

Jim Carrey's facial contortions can often sell a film all by themselves. However, Carrey's cartoon-like features really shouldn't be the only thing worth seeing in the film. In Bruce Almighty, things aren't quite that dire, but at times, it comes close. Indeed, if we think of Bruce Almighty as a story with three parts the quality of those parts would be thus: crap, hilarious, crap.

Crap part the first: Bruce has a tough life, makes the oh-so-cliched mistakes every ego-centric male does and blames everyone else for his woes (most loudly, God); God hears his complaints and Bruce is endowed with His powers to see if Bruce can do a better job. Contrived, dull and predictable.

Part two: Bruce discovers, much to his shock, he has divine power. He can do whatever he wants and takes side-splittingly funny revenge on co-workers and persecutors. He has his trusty dog using the toilet and remembering to put the seat down afterwards. And his girlfriends breasts seem mysteriously larger the next day!

Crap part the third: Bruce discovers there are consequences for playing with great power (done so much better in last year's Spiderman). Bruce stuffs the world up a bit. Bruce regrets. Bruce finally makes an unselfish act after trying in vain the convince his girlfriend to get back with him. Bruce admits God knows best. God and Bruce moralise. Bruce was bad. God is good. God does good deed, then Bruce does, too.

The middle segment is, however, well worth seeing the film for. The whole audience I was viewing with were in simultaneous hysterics for several minutes as one newsreader's voice is divinely tweaked! However, director Tom Shadyac (Dragonfly, Ace Ventura) could have done a lot more with the potential this story had. Carrey does a reasonable job, but could have got more mileage with a bit of prodding. Jennifer Aniston is forgettable. Morgan Freeman is credible as God to start with, but is just too over the top by the film's end.

Overall: a lot of padding for a few great gags.

Hulkwatch: Part II

Today's The Western Australian features a much more positive review of The Hulk. Mark Naglazas talks about US reviewers having been simply unable to enjoy the serious exploration of human identity and anguish in the comic book derived action film. Probably a fair comment in some ways; the unofficial tagline 'Hulk Smash' doesn't come from nowhere, after all! However, I've got to say, I'm a lot more positive in my Hulk countdown now. It's released in Perth at 9pm Wednesday night, so look for a full review here sometime this weekend.

Revelation Film Festival

Perth's Revelation Film Festival has been going strong since last Thursday. The two gems I've made it along to were the fascinating documentary on French philosopher, Derrida, and the animation and short film showcase. Derrida: The Documentary could very easily have been too tacky or self-important to handle, but Dick Kirby and Amy Zeiring Kofman have made an admirable effort to show the world of Derrida without glorifiying his drugged past or marginalising his sometimes incomprehensible ideas. Indeed, the structure of the documentary attempts to deconstruct the very form of docu itself, and, I have to say, does a pretty decent job. And Derrida himself has a wonderful wit and sense of humour in whichever language he's speaking that day! Well worth a look.

The Animation and Short Film showcase as always had a number of amazing films (and one or two just bizzare ones!). It was amazing to see that the two best were local productions. The mockumentary Changing The Earth: The Dean Dirtbug Story was an amusing tale of the life of Dean Dirtbug who revolutionized the hive before dying tragically early, but survives as an icon of all things good in Dirtbug society! :) Along a similar line is the Davison brothers' Medusa. Poor Medusa just can't find someone to love her since the snakes in her hair turn every potential caller into stone before a fun night can be had! Is there a solution? And what part does a very blokey cupid play? It should be your mission to find out!

Tune it tomorrow...
Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel

Empire Aftershocks

As the US continues to flex its mono-superpower muscle, now looking at Iran and North Korea, and the EU makes bold plans to be a military power of comparable force, hijinx at the former centre of the Imperial world continue to amuse. Yahoo news reports that Aaron Barschak, dressed in as Osmama Bin Laden with a dress, and calling himself the 'comedy terrorist', crashed Prince William's 21st birthday. Kind of silly, you might say; typical 21st others might argue. However, the crashing of Willie's bash Britain's interior minister ordering "an urgent inquiry"! Overaction?!? Another interesting question might be the value of irony: if Prince William is so terribly interested in Africa and the African people, why doesn't he realised that an "Out of Africa" themed party might just sound like old imperial tendancies coming to the fore in the wannabe King? Mind you, Britain's been commodifying and appropriating African cultures for centuries, so why should the new blue blood be any different?

Matrix XP: Feeling burnt by Reloaded? Then watch this!

Well, the Star Wars Kid might be keeping the Lucasfilm buffs happy, but where do Matrix fans turn when Reloaded just doesn't quite live up to expectations? The answer: The Matrix XP. Two German brothers, the Rickerbros, spent many an hour working on this hilarious live-action short with very neat fx, but, more importantly, a *very very funny* script! These guys are definitely my heroes for at least the next three hours. If you're on a dialup like me (*sigh*) then the medium quality version is fine, but if you've got the patience or broadband, get the fullsize version (oh, and there is a German and English version, so if you don't speak German, watch what you select!). Rickerbros, thanks for a great laugh!

The Incredible Hulk: You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm ... Cinematic?

Bad news filmbuffs! Today's review of the new Hulk film in The New York Times is, well, less than encouraging! The first paragraph of A. O. Scott's review contains this gem:

It might be described, in any case, as incredible, but only in a negative sense: incredibly long, incredibly tedious, incredibly turgid. As for the grumpy green giant himself, I'm sorry to say that he is not very credible at all.

Not Happy Jan! This reviewer picks up on every fear I have about the film ... and, sadly, Ang Lee is due for a dud (just to prove he isn't omnipotent after the glory that was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). I guess I'm a little encouraged by Harry Knowles' review from Ain't It Cool News, but still I worry. Please don't let this be the Marvel movie to break the otherwise upward trend! Universal Studios wouldn't like disappointed filmgoers if they're angry ...

Hmph.

TripleJ on FanFic and Slash

It's always interesting to hear people dealing with the idea of Slash and FanFic for the first time. On today's Morning Show on the national youth radio station TripleJ there was an interesting attempt to look at and address the issues arising from slash fiction. For those new to the idea, slash is a subgenre of fanfic--fan written fiction using existing characters--which deals with gay and lesbian pairings of characters not that way inclined in the narrative of the text/show/thing itself. The term slash derives from the first recorded story being described as 'Kirk/Spock' and the diving and joining '/' in the middle became the name. La Trobe media lecturer Sue Turnbull was brought out as the resident expert on the topic and did pretty well, although, like me, struggled to escape jargon speak for a generalist audience. Poor Sue, though, made one gaff when talking about "Spock and Dr Kirk"! ;) Audience reaction was fairly mundane, although I did discover that some of the Harry Potter fanfic (and, in particular, slash) sites had been shut down by Time Warner. A similar thing happened to a number of Star Wars fanfic sites a few years back when LucasFilm decided that if they were making everything for a PG audience, so should everyone else! Other tidbit: there are more Buffy fansites than for any other show, but X-Philes have more slash fiction on the web. Curious.

The banning of Ken Park, part two: Melbourne

In today's The Australian (p 12) Lynden Barber looks to the next step the the war against stupid censorship. The Melbourne International Film Festival has also got Ken Park down to screen in their programme, but would, like Sydney, break the law if they did so due to our insane censors (the Office of Film and Literature Classification). The Sydney Film Festival was defeated by the censors, and instead had a forum about censorship, artistic expression and freedom of speach in the slot Ken Park would have taken. The directors of the Victorian festival are looking into taking the matter to their (state) attorney-general, to repeal the censors' decision, and I can only wish them better luck than the Sydney crowd!

In happier news, David Stratton's excellent review of Ken Park appeared (with more than a hint of irony) on The Australian's website today. It concludes:

However, the refusal to allow Ken Park to screen at the Sydney Film Festival is a serious scandal. It's inconceivable that international arts events such as Cannes, Venice or Edinburgh could fall prey to this kind of government interference in programming. It is a sad day for the arts in Australia when this sort of thing occurs.

Read it in full here. Thanks David!

Stop the World: I Want to Get Off!

Greg Egan's Permutation City is an amazingly provocative book. Catherine Waldby's exploration of The Visible Human Project is one of the best readings of medical desire and the biomedical imaginary I've ever read. So why does mixing the two drive my brain into Conniption City? I'm trying to finish a paper called "IatroGenic Permutations: From Digital Genesis to the Artificial Other" which looks at the way Artificial Life operates in Egan's Permutation City as the necessary 'other' used to define subjectivity. This is stuff I know! I've given the smaller version of this paper already! Yet my brain is still trying to do a runner out my left ear. Hmph.

So, instead of writing, I've been following some silly links people have sent me recently. Without a doubt, the best microcosmic representation of all things silly at Microsoft is here: Icon War (you need the latest Flash Player, but it's worth installing just to see these icons battle for supremacy!).

PS Yes, I've become a capitalist: if you click the links to books or dvds in future, you'll end up at Amazon.com and may be enticed to order them. I might make 1 or 2 cents if you do so. Feel free not to click these links if that's an issue for you. (I reckon give twelve to thirteen years and I'll get enough clicks to earn my first $10 Amazon voucher!)

Today's Episode of Procrastination!

I used to love reading Neil Gaiman's The Sandman when it was still being made. Now, thanks to the marvel of online personality tests, I know which of the Endless I'm most like ...


Which Sandman Character Are You?

And, in related quiz/trivia/wasting-of-time news: I scored 29.78304% on the Geek Test making me, I'm told, a "Total Geek". Hmmm. How do you rank?

The Star Wars Kid: Reloaded, Remixed ad nauseum!

How much is too much when it comes to Ghyslain, the infamous online pseudo-celebrity The Star Wars Kid? There is now a dedicated site (jedimaster.net) which contains not just the original footage of this French-Canadian teenager swinging his wanna-be dual lightsaber, but now THIRTEEN remixed and edited versions!! The first of these, Star Wars Kid Remixed, was actually pretty good in that it added in the lightsaber effects! Not too soon thereafter came probably the most impressive re-edit, The Star Wars Kid: Reloaded, which remixes Ghyslain's footage with the Matrix: Reloaded preview audio and puts in some quite clever effects. But wasn't that enough?

Of the remaining Star Wars Kid remixes, some are pretty impressive, but some are really, really crap. Those worth taking a look at are: Dork Clones (Ghyslian ends up fighting his own clone!), Star Wars Kid 2.0 (new lightsaber effects added in which the SWK fends off laser blasts), and SWK meets Dancing Baby (which is a bit silly, but adds the SWK and the Dancing Baby footage to make an interesting critique/comment on online celebrity and fads in our wired world). Of the remaining 'clones', many are crap: the Mortal Combat Workout (an aerobics workout to SWK footage; not much editing, not terribly clever), Benny Hill, Dark Maul Girls, Fart Man and Gay Bar (all just add new music; nothing exciting here), while SWK Highlander has some promise (albeit mainly in due to long titles, nothing to do with the SWK footage) and, finally, the Ep3 Pre-Teaser is okay but mainly due to the titles, again, not the edits. I can't be bothered linking to all of these; if you must watch them, head to JediMaster.net.

However, if you watch *anything* to do the Star Wars fans and humour, you MUST check out the extra video footage in the 'Star Wars Video' section of the site. Here we find Star Wars Dorks, a 10 minute look at the hardcore fans who were lined up, in costume, just before Ep2. The interviewer (a puppet dog with a cigar) makes some priceless comments and observations which play on every stereotype about fandom there has ever been. This is hilarious! Watch it. Also good is the Star Wars Blooper Clip from Ep2.

And can we let the Star Wars Kid saga end there? One can only hope ...

Gollum's MTV Award's Acceptance Rant!

If you've not seen Gollum's acceptance speech from the recent US MTV Awards, then you should. Right now. Andy Serkis starts off being all polite, and thanking everyone, and then the *real* Gollum turns up and, how shall we say, is rather less polite about the viewing audience, Peter Jackson, Dobby the House-Elf, and a great deal more. This is definitely the funniest acceptance speech I've ever seen. The wonderful people at theonering.net have hosted the acceptance footage here (you can download is three formats, go for the larger one if possible, it looks the best).

Gratuitous Self-Promotion

Just thought I�d let you know that the response I wrote to Patrick Wynne�s letter �Buffy Finale Has Little Girl Power� in Science Fiction News has been published in their current letters section. They edited a tiny bit and gave it a more polite title, but I�m very pleased to see it there since I suspect there pupported 300,000+ readers might be slightly more traffic than this blog sees (with a grand total of 150 unique hits clocked over yesterday � oohhh, I�m hitting the bigtime now!). My reply on the Science Fiction News site is here, while my original rant is below in my blog.

The Coolest Science Fictional Images

Normally it takes a lot in an advertisement to impress me, but when I was in the US in March and April I managed to catch a few shows on the SciFi channel and their promos are just amazing. You can download these from their website and it�s definitely worth taking a look at them. My favourite is of a very, very weird little CGI pet that looks like it walked straight off the drawing board of Episode III! The �Generations� one is, I think, a homage to Kubrick�s 2001, and it very pretty in its own right.

Too Many Buttons?

Yes, I realise this Blog may be a bit button crazy in the sidebar right now. I will probably be renovating soon and keeping only the coolest. Anyone want to suggest which should stay and which should go? Comments are always welcome!

Keep Smiling, and Bye for Now!

Australian Freedom of Speech takes a serious blow: Ken Park banned.

For the first time since 1969, a film has been banned from the Sydney Film Festival. It seems Australian�s won�t be seeing Ken Park (co-directed by Larry Clark and Edward Lachman), even though it�s already screened at film festivals in the United States, New Zealand and across Europe. Now, this might not seem that unusual since the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) has had a fairly conservative board for the last few years (the controversial French film Baise Moi was banned in 2002). However, film festivals are a different case since they are normally exempt from the everyday rigmarole of classification. Rather, festivals get a special screening license where all screened films are treated as R18+ as long as the names of these films are submitted to the OFLC. However, since a relatively unknown Queensland distributor (Independent Pictures) submitted the film for consideration regarding a video release, and the OFLC decided �this film deals with matters of sex in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that it should be refused classification�, it is now officially banned in Australia. Even though I�ve not seen the film, I am personally aghast at this censorship and affront to freedom of speech and artistic expression in Australia. As a film lover, and a film festival goer whenever possible, I�m doubly outraged. Film critic extraordinaire (and director of the Sydney Film Festival from 1966 to 1984) David Stratton recently voiced his dismay at the banning. Current festival director Gayle Lake has said that the Sydney Film Festival will appeal to the Attorney-Generals of both NSW and at the federal level. Read the pathetic statement by the OFLC here. If you wish to email the OFLC and voice your dismay at their decision, the OFLC email is oflcswitch@oflc.gov.au. The contact details for both attorney-generals and support campaign for the film to be screened at the Sydney Film Festival are here. Personally, I�m writing a few firmly worded emails right now. I hope you�ll be doing the same.

Buttons & Logos ... so terribly addictive!

If you take a gander at the sidebar to your right and scroll down a tiny bit you will notice quite a few new buttons. Some are credits buttons (thanx to Blogger, Dreamweaver, Gimp et al) and many are my personal interests, favourite sillies and so forth. But the best part, are the buttons themselves! Seriously addictive. More to the point, you can make your own at the button maker factory (so simply, even your average Tama can use it!). There are already 500+ really good ones waiting for you to pick and choose from at the main button site, so feel free to visit them and find the joy that is tiny little, hard to read, but very cute, buttons:



Ciao!

PS Is it just me, or is it fascinating that logos, the ancient greek word for reason and rationality, now means the centre of advertising culture, the logo? (Personally, I blame William Gibson's Pattern Recognition for pointing out such obvious but disturbing things!)

The Matrix: Reloaded

Almost every even vaguely film-related blog out there has had something to say about The Matrix: Reloaded. I won't bother with a major review here since you all know the basics by now: very pretty, good soundtrack, in desperate need of a good editor (cut 30 minutes or thereabouts), a bit convoluted, really needs the end of the trilogy for audiences to gauge whether this was an okay middle-film the first of two increasingly bad ones. I must admit, though, that I enjoyed it more on a second screening because some things that seemed like contradictions weren't (I get how Zion-the human city-could have been destroyed 5 times before, whereas I thought the script originally said that all humans had been eradicated 5 times before), and I stopped comparing its originality since you can't really make an original sequel (both a grammatical and technical oxymoron, after all!).

The Animatrix

One of the reasons I'm sure that The Matrix: Reloaded could have been better is because the Animatrix is better. These shorts are much tighter, in many cases just as pretty as the film itself, and often have more intricate plots which you can both follow and feed into the meta-matrix-narrative. 'The Final Flight of the Osiris' is obviously the best eye-candy made by the same director that did the visually stunning by d-grade scripted Final Fantasy film. The historical 'The Second Renaissance', parts one and two bookmark the collection (on DVD at least) and are quite interesting little stories. They also complicate the human/machine relationship further in that these two suggest that it was humanity treating the machines as a slave-race which caused their rebellion in the first place. 'Kid's Story' and 'Detective Story' are interesting to watch, quite interesting visually (especially the film noir-ish animation for 'Detective Story') and also contain dialogue by the stars of the Matrix. Best, to my mind, though, was the inventive 'Beyond' which looked at a bit of the Matrix where the rules don't quite work and felt a bit like the recent anime Spirited Away (which is brilliant, incidentally). The Animatrix DVD is definitely worth watching if you enjoy animation on any level and contains nine interesting stories which do more for The Matrix franchise than the new film!

Matrices of Comments

I mentioned all the online copy about the Matrix: Reloaded, so where is it all. Here's a quick summary of the more interesting stuff:
Matrix Theories: A blog full of interesting theories about how the first two Matrix films work, what's 'really' going on and so forth. Breaks down in character studies, cinematics, plot analysis and intra-film themes. A lot of detail and well worth a look. I was quite amused by the quite feasible explanation Neo's seeming 'real world' powers at the end of Reloaded: someone off-camera shot an EM pulse which took down the squiddies and Neo!
Matrix Essays: This blog has some amazing essays and some really, really silly ones. Definitely worth checking in on now and then to see what's being proposed and sometimes the comments are funnier and/or more insightful than the posts themselves!
Philosophy and The Matrix: Part of the official Matrix website, this section has various philosophical takes on the original film by academic philosophers. Some are insightful. One or two are even sillier than the worst fan comments! Again, worth a look, though.

Enough Matrix for one day, methinks ...

It's a Sweet, Sweet World!



What are those, you ask? These are what boiled lollies look like in 2003. Last time I tried boiled lollies I thought they were terrible; things that only our parents generation enjoyed because they didn't have enough access to chocolate! Now, however, I understand the appeal. Every different colour has a specific and rather nice flavour. The orange ones taste like orange, yellow as lemon, light green as lime, dark green with red centre something approximating watermelon and the light blue ones taste just grand, but I can't actually identify what they're supposed to be. These lollies, incidentally, were part of the prize that our table won at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance quiz night last night. We came second after three tie-breakers! And how does this picture end up gracing your screen: that's right, Tama's got a new digital camera! Woohoo! Actually, it's the cheapest little thing: only $180 and fairly limited functionality, but it takes an okay picture, and that's all I really need. Now you ask yourself, has this Blog gone so far downhill it'll all be what Tama ate today and what Tama purchased last week? No, probably not, but I couldn't think of anything else exciting to talk about this morning ... unless you want me to rant about the trials and tribulations of the New York Times and the sad state of affairs that has one journo making false reports, and two main editors shielding him (who quit last week). Nope, not going there today. ;)

Secretary: S&M plus Maggie Gyllenhaal Can Make You Think!

Probably the most inappropriate word to apply to contemporary film is "original". Just about every film out there seems to be doing the same old thing but bigger, brighter, louder and with more CGI. 2003's 25+ big name studio summer of sequels is evidence enough, really. However, in the midst of all this same-old-same-old there are gems to be found. And Secretary is definitely one of those painfully rare diamonds in the rough.

The film itself is complicated enough and any description is unlikely to do any justice to the complex and clever story, but, in a nutshell, I'd have to call it a hyper-generic-romantic-ultra-reflexive-black-comedy-with-S&M. Now if you've not seen the film, that description will conjure something completely inappropriate, and if you have seen it, you'll probably disagree. Indeed, I suspect the only constant about the viewing experience of Secretary is that people will need to talk about it and, most likely, will disagree.

For me, the film takes a stock standard romance plot and pushes every idea to an extreme. Lovers have to be found who are compatible: who more so than a sadist and masochist? Cinderella needs to escape a bad home environment: how better to express this trauma than Cinderella physically self-mutilating (as in the beginning of the film) due, in a larger part, to her family life? Prince Charming has to rescue Snow White from a seemingly inescapable slumber: so why not have him "save" her from a self-imposed exhaustion taken so far she's passed out? You get the idea (or possibly, the wrong idea).

The real joy of the film is it paints no easy pictures, takes no (avoidably) cliched routes and never quite fixes a reading for the audience. Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lee, the secretary in question, does an exquisite job with the character, proving every bit as talented as her brother Jake "Donnie Darko" Gyllenhaal. James Spader plays, well, a slightly more internalised version of the same character he's played since Sex, Lies and Videotape, but juxtaposes well against Gyllenhaal to build a really quite fascinating relationship. Steven Shainberg's direction of a script based on Erin Cressida Wilson's short story is spot on, as are the set design and lighting. Even when the film teeters on the edge of the chasm-which-is-cliche in the last few minutes, it is saved by a last, disconcerting, and very hard to interpret, close up on Lee which, to my mind, acts as a question mark for the audience regarding their experience of the film, and also questions their entire generic tradition of the romance narrative in film. And about time, too.

Girl Power 101: A Reply to Patrick "but Spike did it" Wynne

(Chock full of Buffy spoilery goodness, all the way to 'Chosen'!)

Patrick Wynne in "Buffy Finale Has Little Girl Power" (Science Fiction News, Issue #319, Letters) suggested that 'Chosen' lacks girl power because Spike was fundamental to saving the world (and destroying the Sunnydale Hellmouth). Yes, Spike used the amulet, was a champion, and that the amulet was delivered by Angel, so two men helped save the world. (I certainly wouldn't be childish enough to point out it was given to Angel by Lilah--a woman.) So what if Spike was one of those who fought to help save the world? So did all the new Slayers--some of whom died (at least, I'm sure, Amanda did)--, so did Faith, so did Dawn, so did Willow (in a very pretty, spectacular and satisfying counterpoint to last season's finale, I might add), and so did Giles, Andrew, Xander and principal (of a bloody great hole in the ground) Wood.

Yes, Spike's death/sacrifice/act-of-championess was very touching, and pretty and a bit sad. And it felt a bit familiar ... because it was very, very similar to a sacrifice Buffy made at the end of season five! And why does that matter? Because the finale (and most of season 7) was a conversation about subverting both traditional gender expectations, and the narratological expectations of the show itself. We've seen Buffy die to save the world before, so this time Spike dies (being somewhat less heroic, I might add, since he didn't know it was going to happen when he agreed to wield the amulet). We've seen the Watcher's council as the patriarchal center of knowledge for the entire show subverted: (a) by most of them dying, (b) by Buffy explaining to Giles there's nothing he's got left to teach her and (c) by Buffy completely re-shaping the power of the Slayer(s) by ignoring the "traditional" way and symbolically enacting the show's feminist message in its most literal form. (We also see Giles accept Buffy as leader and admire her tactics and intelligence, not just her fighting skills). We also see Joss Whedon wave goodbye to the 'Chosen One' idea per se, and wave goodbye to the show in an enjoyably self-referential dig at the show's original prologue. We see Angel and Spike being the emotionally "bitchy" characters in terms of jealousy. We see Xander become the emotional heart of the group, the empathic character (and slightly less successfully try and build a bond with Andrew "get used to the feeling, Betazoid"); we see Dawn creeping into a Watcher-like role (Watcher Junior!); we see the darkest magics (evil willow) juxtaposed with the most brilliant ("oh, my goddess!"). And, of course, we see Anya finally taking on those damn bunnies. Now, there could be a lot more to this rant, but my point is, the show finally and utterly destroys (within the show, at least) the idea that any role or act is gender specific and, in a similar vein, the idea that any heroic act can be an individual act: everyone helped fight the First and the ubervamps; sure, Spike died, but so did Anya (and Amanda ... and other Potentials before that). It wasn't the Chosen One who did anything, but the power of the whole Scoobie Gang, and more, which saved the world. And Buffy's symbolic gaze down the open road ahead in the last scene, and her telling smile when asked about tomorrow, reminds us that it's the future that matters ... a future full of empowered (but not all powerful) women who are (at least) equal to men in every sense. So at the end of the show Spike is dead (for a while, at least) and Buffy, Faith and a host of Potentials (and, yes, that symbolically includes all women) are empowered. Forgive my ignorance, but that certainly seems like "girl power" to me.

Recognising Gibson's Patterns

Started reading William Gibson's new book Pattern Recognition last night. I'm only 25 pages in and already love it. I suspect every third book (barring disappointing co-writing efforts with Bruce Sterling) is a self-conscious 'dialogue' with Neuromancer. In Virtual Light, Gibson went to great pains to satirise his earlier novel, not least of all with characters who wear mirrorshades and are allergic to almost everything in the industrial world, nor with a protagonist (Rydell) who is on the receiving end of hackers' work, rather being the hacker (Case). Pattern Recognition starts with Cayce Pollard (yes, sounds exactly the same as Case, doesn't it) who has just arrived in Camden Town, London, from New York. Gibson's dense style of writing is at its finest; Google is a verb (as it is for so many these days); logos are the steering influence of the story; email has become hotmail ("the penis enlarger is still after her", [p. 5]) and contemporary difficulties with online life are succinctly captured with minimum wordage (chat: "the hectic speed, and the brevity of the lines in the thread, plus the feeling that everyone is talking at once, at counter-purposes, deter her" [p. 4.]). Chapter three is simply called 'The Attachment' and revolves around some mysterious footage circulating the Net. I'm hooked.

Checking out Gibson's Blog (which has gone from daily, to semi-daily, to a warning that summer is commencing and it may well be weeks between posts since sunshine is still a wonderful thing to see) always produces little gems. Yesterday, it led me to a summary story of Salam Pax's 'Where is Raed?' blog-related tale. If you've not been following, Salam Pax's Blog was, during America's recent attacks on Iraq, and presumably still is, one of the most frequently read and discussed Blogs owing to the fact it was written by a Baghdad national still living in Iraq who has relatively good English and has lived overseas long enough to speak the language of popular culture (he, apparently, drops David Bowie references here and there). There was speculation that he was fake, or too good to be true, but this article suggests that he is completely authentic (and I'm convinced).

TWIAAP. :)