What I've been watching

Some of my brief thoughts....

The Wolfman

This is mediocre in every aspect. The acting wasn't lacking but it's not going to win awards. The visual effects were sometimes good and at other times awful - lol @ costumes especially. The plot was done to the classic horror/thriller formula which fulfilled requirements but simply wasn't memorable. etc. etc.

District 9

Novel concept, decent graphics, brings up a bunch of touchy race-relation concepts but then fails to adequately address them in a really shallow storyline. It's a fun enough film but I'm not sure it's really satisfying. I also thought the whole humanoid insect thing was a bit weird and awkward because I wasn't sure if it was intended to be funny. I'd probably class this in the "watch for entertainment only" category.

Zodiac

As far as biopics can be riveting (see Milk), this is the exact opposite. A story that could've gone the thriller route instead gets driven into the ground by a plot that takes far too long to resolve. Skip this.

Shelter

Out of all the gay-themed movies I've watched, this one sticks out the most because it's a coming out story where the main conflict doesn't derive from coming out. I found the whole movie absolutely charming; the acting, the plot, the art, the music. Totally watchable even if you're not specifically looking for a gay film.

Were the World Mine

I've been watching some really great gay-themed films and this is another. It's not quite a musical but some of the pieces are great. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a classic, and this take on it is a whole lotta fun. Meaningless fun, but fun nonetheless. Loved it but probably intended for a queer-friendly audience ;)

My new made-up phrase

"Wikipedia journey"

It's where you keep clicking links in Wikipedia until you have no idea where you started from. I do this every night. I'd start off at midnight looking up something innocent like "NCIS", then next thing I know I find myself two hours later on a far more sinister page, like "dental floss".

...

Don't ask.

You can't always be happy...

I always like to make sure that I indulge in a daily dose of a "not happy" emotion. Sometimes I watch sad movies and cry, or I'll enter into a state of despair at the follies of humankind, or I'll rage big-time at my computer because some idiot can't tank.

It's all part and parcel of my plan really. You know how drug addicts need more and more drugs because the chemicals in the brain have less and less effect over time? I think emotions are a bit like that. If you're happy all the time, your senses become dulled to that emotion. Sounds crazy yeah?

I challenge you to think on it and maybe try it out. Be sad or angry or afraid sometime and you might just find that your happiness becomes so much more valuable. Or you don't have to believe, I really don't care. I'm still gonna yell at you from my car when you drive in front of me at 10 Ks below the speed limit, because it makes ME happy :)

Back in Business

Ok with me being busy moving house and having horribly inconsistent access to internet over the past few weeks, this blog has kinda failed. But you know what, one thing I realised is that it's also failing because I've kinda started not caring about it.

I always try and imitate things, like popular blogs that I read with well researched, rationalised opinions, when really, what's the point - I really don't think anyone's gonna stumble on this blog and assume that I have any expertise in anything (because I don't). So watch out! This is gonna get a whole lot more organic.

Ma Po Tofu - my style!

I have this cookbook called "the Food of China" - which has some awesome recipes, most of which are fairly simple and traditional. One which caught my eye yesterday was Ma Po Tofu, basically tofu cooked with mince.



Whilst I love the dish, I don't eat pork so I had to modify it a bit by replacing the minced pork with minced prawns, luckily it turned out great!

What I've been watching lately

Inglourious Basterds

Very Tarantino, an intoxicating mix of humour and gratuitous bloodshed. Maybe not for everyone, but I certainly loved it.

Milk

This film about gay rights was very touching - and while it's a must-see for gay people interested in gay rights history, I'd recommend it even if you're not. I generally don't expect much from biopics, but this one was surprisingly good.

Rent

Not exactly a new movie, but since I picked up the DVD I've watched it too many times. Like all musical-turned-films it's a bit camp but that's fine when the outlook of the world isn't sugar-coated and happy. Quite possibly my favourite movie ever!

Cooking blog hmmm...

So the blog's kinda been dead for about a month and a half, what with me starting to play WoW again and then with the Christmas and New Year's break. I'm making this post as a kind of New Year's resolution - to commit to writing posts this year. But I think I need to take the blog in a certain direction as it's kind of meaningless at the moment.

On the way from Australia back to New Zealand I watched "Julie and Julia" on the airplane. It's not a movie I'd normally go to see but it was surprisingly relevant - it's about a cooking blog! The idea is great, Julie, a younger woman decides to write a blog about cooking every single recipe in a famous cookbook by Julia, within the space of a year. It's not all happy times - there are some spectacular failures as well as successes, but she blogs them all anyway. Now I'm not going to do that, no way, but certainly I might borrow the idea a bit. (And I'm sure every second blogger in the world is probably doing this right now, haha.)

As for the movie itself - I thought it was very good. The story is rich, very Hollywood, but in a good way. The pacing is perhaps a tad slow but nonetheless well-measured. Perhaps I'm biased, but I thought Meryl Streep nailed it. I think it's definitely DVD-purchase-worthy if you're even remotely interested in watching decent movies.

Of course I'm terrible at writing anything including reviews, so I'm going to stop here. Til next time :)