Underbelly 2

Last year I refused to watch "Underbelly" while it was on TV. This was mainly based on my experience with Aussie TV dramas, which tend to be really crappy. The few bits I did catch didn't do anything to change my mind. But once it was finished, I was given a DVD with downloaded copies of the episodes, and gave it a shot. I watched the whole thing in a few weeks and actually quite enjoyed it. Perhaps it was the fact that it was based on real events, some of which I vaguely remembered occuring in the nineties, made the difference.

Anyway, I went into this year's "Underbelly 2" expecting more of the same, but was disappointed for the first two weeks. Mainly it was just Matthew Newton (son of Bert/real life domestic abuse convictee) smuggling drugs into the country, having sex with a variety of girls, and occasionally executing a subordinate. Not terribly exciting.

This week's episode was fantastic though. I loved the whole war between Ray-Chuck, and the two brothers who looked like band members from "Almost Famous". Although I didn't really find Sally from Home & Away believable as a grown up, she still looks like she's 20 years old. And it did seem a little strange that Ray-Chuck's guys emptied two machine gun's worth of ammo into a guy in a small bathroom and there weren't any busted tiles.

It was easily the best hour of the series, and it looks like it will continue into next week, with the introduction of Chopper Read. I was seriously considering phasing this out of my rotation but will stay with it a bit longer now.

Destroying the planet one dolphin at a time

Friday night I picked up my new car (necessitated by my run-in with a certain senior citizen a few weeks back). It's a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I love it.

Of course, being a huge environmentalist, I don't like the fact that everytime I drive to the local blockbuster somewhere an innocent dolphin, or perhaps baby seal, dies. But on the other hand, I feel like Tony Soprano when I'm behind the wheel of this thing, so it all balances out.

My favourite part is the interior. Leather (heated) seats, wood-look panelling, a ten disc cd stacker . . . it's more comfortable than my lounge room. And I like the fact that I feel safe in it, you get the feeling that elderly and/or Asian drivers would just bounce off.

The downside is that the insurance company would only insure it for $11,000, $1500 less than what I paid for it. Which is crazy because they just paid me $5,000 more than what my last car was actually worth. I guess I'll have to concentrate on avoiding accidents from now on.

Guitar Hero World Tour

Friday night I had friends over for a BBQ, and movie in the backyard (after the votes were tallied, Fargo was the chosen film).

Before the movie started though Ash brought his new Guitar Hero World Tour game and we played that. Although my playing time was limited, trying to cook a BBQ and be a gracious host and all, everyone else seemed to enjoy it.

Especially Gav, who put his hand up to sing on almost every song, and got into character with the sunnies, and ad libbing little bits like "Hello Adelaide! How y'all doing?" during the song intros.

Anyway it was great fun, and I'm looking forward to doing it again, and perhaps spending a little more time rocking out with At the Drive-In and Tool then.

Weekend recommendations

Three things that I have experienced this weekend and would recommend to you, my reader (and presumably) friend.

1. Kefi

After hearing rave reviews from a number of people, we got takeaway from Kefi, a greek place on Tapleys Hill Road at Glenelg North last night. I would highly recommend.

To start of with, the serves are huge. I'd been warned of this so we just ordered one lamb souvlaki to share. It came with two skewers of lamb, delicious potatoes, salad, and some garlic-y sauce. I (barely) finished my skewer, Michella finished half of hers, and her dog Noah got the rest.

It tastes delicious too. I'm no major food critic, but this was good stuff.

2. Life on Mars

This month's Rolling Stone came with a dvd of the first episode of this series (apparently it starts on channel ten in February). Normally I'd ditch this kind of thing, but I noticed it starred Harvey Keitel, Christopher from "The Sopranos", Lisa Bonet (the hot girl from the "Cosby Show" who married Lenny Kravitz), and Lester from "The Wire". It was like I cast the show myself.

So I sat down and watched the dvd and thought it was pretty good. Its based on a UK show which I'll never watch, and is about a cop who gets hit by a car, and wakes up in 1973. You presume its part of a coma, but you don't really know. Anyway, he's a cop back then too, so he solves mysteries which may or may not have a bearing on current 2008 events.

I think I'll stick with it for a while, since I'm too lazy to get an aerial installed at my house I'll have to download the episodes.

3. The Free Darko Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac

I ordered this off Amazon a week or two ago and it arrived on Friday. To tell you the truth I have no idea what these guys are talking about half the time, but the pictures do look awesome.