Rogue Assassin plus Death Proof

I was planning on watching "Rogue Assassin" at the movies. But then I found out I could watch it for free on the internet, and so I just did that.

I reckon there was probably something lost watching it on my laptop, but even still, it wasn't very good. It stars Jason Statham as an FBI agent who is trying to track down "Rogue", played by Jet Li. "Rogue" killed his partner (FBI partner, not the other type) in a flashback at the start of the film, and now Jason wants revenge. There was also a plot about a war between the Triads and the Yakuza in San Francisco, but I couldn't really understand that since they all looked the same to me.

Anyway, you don't watch a movie like this for the plot. The trailer promised lots of shootouts, car chases and kung fu fighting, and it didn't really feel like the movie delivered here.

I like Jason Statham a lot. He was great in "Snatch", and the first "Transporter" film. Most of his other movies have been pretty rubbish though, especially that "Crank" movie, which was just ridiculously bad. Sadly this seems to follow in that tradition. I really wanted to like this, but I couldn't.

I also saw "Death Proof", the Quentin Tarantino-directed half of "Grind House" recently. Again, I wasn't a huge fan. I'm starting to notice a pattern with Tarantino's films. After the masterpiece of "Pulp Fiction", he turned in "Jackie Brown". He followed that with the brilliant "Kill Bill", and now this. It's like he takes every second movie off.

Anyway, this mainly consists of a psychotic stunt car driver (Kurt Russell) chasing down women in his "death proof" car, which he's modified so that he can crash into other cars and still live. It's split into two sections, with each focussing on a different group of girls. Most of the time though is just them talking about girl stuff, and while the dialogue is usually great in his films, it's rather boring in this.

So overall I wouldn't recommend this. Hopefully "Planet Terror" is an improvement, because this was a bit of a let down.

TV on the internet

About a week or so ago I had my internet connection upgraded from 256kps to 1.5mbps. The difference seems about the same as when I went from dial up to broadband. Which means it is much, much faster.

The major benefit of all of this speed means I can now watch internet video without waiting for it to buffer. So I've spent a little more time on youtube, mainly checking out basketball highlight videos. This is great, but there is only so much you can take of watching 3-4 minute clips.

However, I've come across another site which I'm loving - www.watchtvsitcoms.com

Basically it's a youtube type page where you can watch entire TV shows in real time eg you don't need to bother downloading them first. There's a limited number of shows up there, but you've got all your major hits - The Simpsons, Prison Break, 24 etc. There's even a few movies, which is pretty cool. I'm looking forward to watching the remake of "Halloween" some time soon.

I wouldn't be surprised if this gets shut down soon, but until it does I'll be a regular.

Scrabble, basketball, and weathermen

I've started reading a book on the world of competitive Scrabble playing, called "Word Freak" by Stefan Fatsis, which I borrowed off Penglis several years ago. It's pretty good so far, although I'm not really learning any special techniques that will help me with my game. It's amazing the difference though between social games and competitive ones - if I'm playing I try to not use words that I couldn't put in sentence. Or at least give a definition for. I can honestly say though that I've never heard of 90% of the words that are used in the professional games described in this book. Words like "fustian", "eloiners", "oxtering" and "filariid".

After my rant about how all music sucks these days, I found something new that I like, an ep from Maynard Keenan's new project Puscifer. It's no Tool, but it's pretty good nevertheless.

If you're looking for quality basketball videos on youtube, check this out. http://www.youtube.com/groups_videos?name=truehoop

This was my personal favourite . . .



Also, Bill Simmons took a break this week from talking about baseball and football on his podcast to talk about the NBA with Charles Barkley. Definitely worth listening to.

I got the first issue in my subscription to "Esquire" this week. I'm really enjoying it so far. There's a few too many ads for $10,000 wristwatches, but it does feature Chuck Klosterman as a regular columnist. And there's a really interesting - and quite lengthy - article on Kobe in this issue. Plus pictures of Charlize Theron. No down side really.

The Kobe story is up online if you want to check it out . . .

http://www.esquire.com/features/the-game/kobebryant1107-2

I got a phone call as I was walking into the office yesterday morning from my old buddy Keith Martin, at the printer with his almanac, checking a few last event dates with me. He asked me when the Barossa Under the Stars and Big Day Out were going to be. I had to fight the urge to say "Are you serious Keith? You don't have your Big Day Out tickets yet? Rage Against the Machine are playing! You can not miss this show!"

Just another reason why I need a PS3

Is music getting worse?

I think it is.

Over the last month or so, I've aquired new albums from the following bands: R.E.M., Jose Gonzales, Eddie Vedder, Thursday, Radiohead, and PJ Harvey.

From these six albums, I think I really like two songs - Jose Gonzales' cover of the Massive Attack song "Teardrop", and the Radiohead song "All I Need". Not a good success rate. And yet if you were to ask me what kind of music I like, names like R.E.M, Pearl Jam and Thursday would probably get bandied around a lot.

I'm not sure if these bands are getting worse, or my taste is changing. If it's the latter though, shouldn't I be liking new and different music? Probably the only new band that I've added to my listening rotation in the last year has been The National. And that's mainly because they sound like Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen, two artists that I've liked for a while.

So if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them (Paul, I've heard of the Foo Fighters, and Michella . . . the Michael Buble thing is not going to happen. Sorry)

Anyway, while I'm on the topic, here are a few quick thoughts on the above albums, just in case anyone is interested in checking them out.

Jose Gonzales - In Our Nature
This is OK, although not much of a development from his last album, Veneer, which is great background music, and always makes me feel suave and urbane when I listen to it. The best song as I mentioned is the cover. Because he has such a unique style he generally does covers pretty well, his version of Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad" is the best I've heard.

Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild
This is a soundtrack to some movie, so it kind of gets a pass, because who knows, maybe it works as background music. But overall I just found this a little dull.

Radiohead - In Rainbows
This is probably my favourite Radiohead album since OK Computer, which isn't saying much. They released it via their website, and told their fans they could pay what they wanted. I chose nothing. But given some of the crap they've released the last few years, I kind of feel like they owe me money. What's even funnier than this sliding cost schedule though is they are also releasing a deluxe copy, with all this extra crap, which sells for $80 or something. So they are simultaneously looking after their fans, and trying to completely screw them over. Weird.

PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Instead of playing the guitar, she sticks mainly to the piano on this album. And instead of singing in her normal voice, she sings mainly in an unusual falsetto. Why? I have no idea.

Thursday - Kill The House Lights
This is a collection of live songs, demos and unreleased material. The overall quality seems to be pretty bad - the band broke up earlier this year so I think they just grabbed whatever was still lying around and threw it on here.

R.E.M. - Live
This is a live album from their last world tour (which Alen, Narelle and I took in at the Entertainment Centre a few years ago). I actually quite like their last few albums, so this is OK - the tracklisting includes "Walk Unafraid", "Drive", "I Took Your Name", "Boy in the Well", and of course the hits like "Losing My Religion" and "Everybody Hurts". It's just that there's nothing really here to distinguish the songs from the studio recordings - they're not really reworked, and there's not an overabundance of energy. Worst of all, "Country Feedback" is somehow ommitted, which is really inexcusable.

Rogue Assassin

Anyone want to go see this with me?

Book review

I haven't been reading a lot lately. In fact, I've always suspected I like books much more than I like reading, and think my recent dry patch has been evidence of this. Back living at home though means I'm back taking the bus to work every day, and so I feel like I should read something during my daily commute.

A few weeks ago I picked up a book called "Freakonomics" by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner. You could tell immediately that it was going to be semi-intellectual, given that both authors used their middle inititials, as smart people often do. Flipping through it though it looked really interesting and accessible, so I committed to reading it.

The main guy behind the book - or the ideas contained in it at least - is Levitt, described as a kind of "rogue economist". Which means that most of the writing doesn't apply to what most people would describe as economics. It's kind of more social science really. He uses data to answer a range of questions, which range from "Why do most drug dealers still live with their Mum?" to "What do real estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan have in common?"

It's interesting stuff, and makes you think about the world in a new way. Some of their claims can be a little disturbing - like the chapter in which they argue that more than any other factor, the Roe vs Wade decision which legalised abortion in the US was responsible for the drop in the American crime rate in the 90s - but you can't fault their logic.

If you're interested in this stuff the authors keep a blog on the New York Times website here http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/ which is worth a look.

I read it over a few weeks, but it only took me a few sessions - it's really easy to read, funny, and you feel approximately 20% smarter after finishing it. So, yeah, I recommend it.

Big Day Out 2008

Usually I leave Big Day Out tickets to the last minute. I figure that with the capacity of the Showgrounds and the size of Adelaide's population, there's little chance of missing out.

This almost backfired on me last year, when I delayed getting tickets and the first allotment sold out. We only ended up getting tickets because I waited in line the week of the show for a last minute release.

Anyway, my plan was again to hold back a bit this year, and wait till my cashflow situation improved a bit. But when I heard this morning that the BDO website had sold it's allotment of tickets, I figured I'd better get to it. Ten minutes later I was on venuetix, and had secured tickets for Muzz and I.

Part of me is pumped about the show, and part of me isn't. That's because, despite featuring the reformation of one of the greatest bands of all time (Rage Against The Machine), the 2008 Big Day Out lineup is almost entirely rubbish.

Bands in the first announcement include Bjork (whose music sounds like fingernails on a blackboard), Grinspoon (cliched, plaguarised alternative rock), Arcade Fire (overhyped and boring), Hilltop Hoods (rap music from and for bogans), Billy Bragg and Paul Kelly (is this A Day on the Green?), and a bunch of other bands that I don't know or don't care about. Seriously, outside of the headliner, this has to be my least favourite BDO lineup yet.

Hopefully there is some relief in the second announcement - The National are scheduled to do Brisbane and Melbourne pub shows here in January 2008 so I guess they're a possibilty.

I just hope that RATM can hold it together for a few more months, if they break up again before February I'm screwed.

I want a PS3

What's going on

If you're ever at the video store, and everything you want to see is out, and you see there's still a copy of the new Bruce Willis/Halle Berry movie "Pefect Stranger" in stock, and you think "Hey, it can't be that bad", don't pick it up. Trust me, just walk away.

After a long winter hiatus, I've started cleaning up the garden a bit. On the weekend finished the front yard, although the backyard still needs a lot of work. To call it a jungle would be kind of insulting to jungles.

Some team-specific basketball blogs I've been enjoying . . .

http://3shadesofblue.blogspot.com/

http://bucksfans.blogspot.com/

http://www.blogabull.com/

http://shamrockheadband.blogspot.com/

Two weeks out from the start of the season and I'm already checking our fantasy message board constantly during the day. Not a good sign.

Queenstown crime update: In the past week at 122 Spring Street we've had one bin stealing, and two car eggings. Although anecdotal evidence would suggest 2am burnouts on the street outside my bedroom window are down by 25%, so that's encouraging.

I'm loving the return of Entourage to Foxtel, but am lukewarm so far on Prison Break. First episode was great, second not quite as good, and the third is still waiting on my DVR.

Bathroom renovation update

Thanks to Murray Huber, I now have a working toilet in my house. Which means I don't have to pee in the backyard anymore.

A song about Tyson Chandler?!?!

Cool highlights though. And I'm more than a little excited about having him on my fantasy squad this season.

Week in review

It's been a pretty busy, interesting week.

Last Saturday Michella and I left Adelaide at the early hour of 7.30am to travel to Cape Jaffa. We only decided a few days before that we wanted to go away for the weekend, and apparently every caravan park in SA outside of Cape Jaffa was booked. Anyway, it had pretty much everything we were looking for (proximity to beach, cheap accommodation, solitude), so we went for it.

We stopped off in Kingston for lunch, and ate at the pub. I had salt and pepper squid, and it was pretty ordinairy. The plan was to stay and watch the grand final, but there were too many bogans, so we left for Cape Jaffa.


After settling into our budget cabin, we found our way to the common room to watch the game with everyone else. Most of the other guests were Geelong fans, although there was one quite vocal Port Adelaide fan. The game was obviously terrible, but the people were nice, and shared their food with us, including some delicious chicken wings.



At night we tried to go for a walk, but it was blowing a gale, and raining, so that didn't work out so well. We played a few games of Scrabble, and I won. Michella took it well.

On Sunday we drove into Robe for lunch (Cape Jaffa is basically a caravan park and a few isolated houses). This was a much finer dining experience than we had the day before. We travelled back to the caravan park via a couple of wineries, and picked up a bottle to have with dinner.


After tea we had another game of Scrabble (man this rock and roll life I lead is pretty full on). This time Michella won. She figured she might not do this again, so took a picture of the board to remember the occasion.


The next morning we left for home, stopping in Meningie for lunch. Unfortunately, I experienced a horrible pain in my tooth, which I vowed to fix on my return to Adelaide.

We spent the evening at a get together at Murray and Amanda's house. A couple of the hours from the evening are missing from my memory, but apparently I played Taboo (quite badly I presume) and headbanged to Rage Against the Machine (also, most likely, quite poorly).

Tuesday morning was my one day this week in Adelaide, and I rang the dentist first thing to get my tooth taken care of. It was a crown I had had put in only six months ago, so I was surprised I was feeling pain. The dentist tried to tell me everything was OK to start off with, then he realised the crown had broken and was coming loose. He took it out, and promised to put in a new one for free in a few weeks time.

Wednesday I was again up early, this time at the ungodly hour of 5.30am to take a flight to Ceduna for work.

We got in about 9am, and held our monthly Regional Marketing meeting in the Ceduna council chambers.

When we went to America a couple of years ago, Alen told an airline employee at the Seattle airport that her town was a hole. Whether this is true or not is debatable, but I'm guessing he wouldn't have said this if he had been to Ceduna.

As we drove into the town we passed six or seven indigenous youth walking along the road. Carrying rocks. This is not a town in which I would feel safe.

After the meeting we went to an Aboriginal art gallery. I'm not really a fan of dot painting, in my admittedly non-expert opinion it seems to be one level up from paint by numbers as an art form. So I didn't like this much. After this we had lunch at the Ceduna Hotel, loaded up on booze and drove to Fowlers Bay.

Fowlers Bay is a weird town. It's kind of an outback town, but on the coast. There's a permanent population of 14 people. And the town in surrounded by these really high sand dunes.

Our host Reg took us over the sand dunes in the back of his 4WD, and it was an amazing experience. I couldn't believe that we didn't roll his car, the dunes were so high and so steep. But I suppose he had done this sort of thing before.



We had a barbecue dinner on the beach which was great, and then stayed the night in an apartment.



The next morning we were up relatively early and drove out to the Head of Bight to see the whales.

It was kind of cool, but I'd be lying if I said I was the kind of guy who gets really excited about this kind of stuff. We then drove out to a Nullabor Roadhouse where a couple of my colleagues went on scenic flights, and I leaned against an outside wall for about two hours straight.


The Roadhouse seemed to have a pretty good deal going. They took whatever the normal price was, and doubled it. You want a coffee? Five dollars thanks. Hamburger with the lot? Eleven fifty. Plus it's mainly a cash business so you pay whatever tax you feel like.


After this we drove four hours or so to Streaky Bay, where we stayed the night.



Here was the view from my room in the hotel . . .


We had dinner at a place called Mocean. I had the squid, panfried in garlic butter, with shaved parmesan on top. It was amazing.

Yesterday morning we spent the morning driving around Streaky Bay in a bus, visiting various beaches. They mainly looked the same. We had lunch back in the town, and Matt told me about a local place where we could get a $25 hamburger than was bigger than the plate it came on. Unfortunately they stopped making it earlier this year though so I settled for a schnitzel.

After lunch we did a tour of an Abalone farm, then an Oyster production facility, and I was bored out of my mind.

Finally, we drove back to Ceduna to get our flight home. At 8pm we were about to take off, but the pilot couldn't get the second engine started. At this point I would have been happy to fly with one engine if we could, I just wanted to get home. He turned all the power off, tried again in another ten minutes, and an hour or so later I was dragging my tired body through Adelaide airport.

It's good to be home.

Hmm . . .

Sting just seems to keep finding new ways to sell out. Supporting The Police on their 2008 Australian Tour . . . Fergie?!?!