Unobservant

• Holy crap, Sean Malone (Cynic, Gordian Knot) has a blog. I'm surprised it isn't inundated with fans (*cough* fanboys/girls). Heck, if I were a fan, his blog would be my homepage. Instead, I'm in objective awe, rather than subjective awe, haha.
• Masterchef Australia is iffy. It isn't beautiful, compelling reality television. The judges haven't had much experience on the screen and it shows. But... it is a relief from what viewers are probably accustomed to. That is, wild, exaggerated, predictable, eye-catching drama.
  
• Swine flu. Everything has its purpose. Humans aren't sacred.

Update

Been a while since I last posted. Too lazy to gather pictures, so here's a lazy rundown.

Flims
Les Diaboliques (1954) - Enjoyable French suspense/thriller.

Masque of the Red Death (1964) - Not so enjoyable adaptation based on Poe's short story. Vincent Price was too ridiculous for me. Wasn't particularly scary or pretty. Could have used pointless nudity.

Misuc
Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 - Pretty cool. Wish the vocals were mixed down slightly. Lots of nice melodies.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced - Prior to just recently, my conception of Hendrix's music was just of crazy guitar wankery. Not the case. Lots of great songs here.

General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners - General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners - Nice. No fart noises from Patton here, good job all around. Wacky, but never stupid.

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Exodus - Again, I had a preconceived notion about reggae music. Again, my mind has been opened to its variety and capabilities.

Trivium - Ascendancy - Mmm... besides "Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr", album isn't doing much for me. Don't like Heafy's vocals either... there's no bite to it (besides in the song mentioned above, of course).

Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk - Hmm... quite different to In the Nightside Eclipse. Nothing here has had any impact on me.

Madvillain - Madvillainy - MF DOOM bores me. He doesn't rap, he talks. Madlib's beats don't strike me as being particularly special either. Cynic in me says: "underground cred, DOOM wears a mask, hipster music".

Sunn O))) - Flight of the Behemoth - I dig the aesthetic. I don't dig the 'everything sounds the same' ethic. I could make my own drone music. If I labelled it as a Sunn O))) product and threw it out there, people would eat it up.

Massive Attack - Mezzanine - Not a big fan of trip-hop. More than listenable though.

Bolt Thrower - War Master - You don't get fans of Death on Bolt Thrower's last.fm shoutbox trying to advertise Death. You do get fans of Bolt Thrower on Death's last.fm shoutbox trying to spread the word. Sounded like what I'd think generic death metal would sound like.

Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell - Some nice stuff here, but overall, I don't favour the overall sound of the group's hip-hop.

Not Watching the Watchmen

Disclaimer 1: Title is a play on the phrase "Who Watches the Watchmen?". I am not calling the comic or film The Watchmen

Disclaimer 2: I'm feeling quite lazy, so I'm just going to throw out the key points and I'll trust you to piece it all together.

- So I haven't seen Watchmen. Monitored any updates while it was in production. The more I began to see of it, the less interested I became in it.
- If Alan Moore doesn't like it, then I don't like it either (haha).
- I do agree with what Moore has said. Reading Watchmen, I experience orgasms at moments throughout. It's spectacular, and the experience itself is one that I cherish.
- I don't want to watch the film and have that joy bastardised.
- Just seeing Matthew Goode as Ozymandias turned me off. Ozymandias is a wide jawed, perfect man. Goode looks like a geek. I want the character to remain the same way he has been on the page.
- Now that the movie has been released, some of the reviews have shared the same themes when it comes to negative criticism, particularly with Snyder's style. That is also strong fuel in my bid to stay away.
- I don't get the chance to be an elitist very often, so I'm embracing my stance here.
- lol at the 'fanboys/girls' who support the film. Ooh yeah, there's that elitism coming through.
- Other gripes from what I've seen/heard about the film: Nite Owl's souped up look, Silk Spectre II being a non-factor, the violence and sex being too graphic, the Comedian having a moustache in the Minutemen photo, the existence of a soundtrack, having to go through its marketing, artistic licence.
- The film is ending its run at the cinemas. Will I watch it when it comes out on DVD? Maybe... I definitely won't go hunting for it. Should it all fall in my lap (or other part of my body), I might consider it further.
- I could either watch it to confirm my dislike of it or watch it and ruin my entire Watchmen experience. Both could happen I guess.
- Well worth the dosh I forked out.

Utterly jizztastic. I can't express what goes through my head when I'm reading this... just recall the experience of having something incredibly delicious in your mouth and savouring it, and you'll have something similar to what I experience with Watchmen, usually when I'm visually a single frame.
- Rorschach scaling a building wall to the Comedian's apartment. In the film, his grappling gun seemingly launches him into the apartment, so that he is able to land on his feet on the window sill. In the comic, he climbs all the way up and into the building. No fancy crap.
- You can tell I'm not much of an elitist. Not enough self belief/brain washing.

BMFV RAGE!!!

The Welsh metalcore band, Bullet For My Valentine, hosted Australian music video show Rage last night. Had first heard their music from playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Song was Hand of Blood, pretty neat track. In my metalcore phase a few weeks back, decided to have a listen to their Hand of Blood EP and that too made for nice listening.

I believe it was Matt Tuck and Michael Thomas that hosted the show. Their playlist is as follows:

Metallica - Fade to Black (live)
Metallica - Master of Puppets (live)
Metallica - Whiplash (live)
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Mötley Crüe - Kickstart My Heart
Faith No More - From Out of Nowhere (live)
Soundgarden - Jesus Christ Pose
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Megadeth - Holy Wars
Still Remains - Stay Captive
Gojira - To Sirius
Trivium - Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr
Lamb of God - Redneck
Ozzy Osbourne - Perry Mason
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
Mastodon - Divinations
Avenged Sevenfold - Almost Easy
Chimaira - Down Again
Five Finger Death Punch - The Bleeding
Tool - Stinkfist
Machine Head - Aesthetics of Hate
Jimmy Eat World - Sweetness
Slipknot - Duality
Bring Me the Horizon - Chelsea Smile
Corrosion of Conformity - Clean My Wounds
Meshuggah - Bleed
Karnivool - Themata
Fear Factory - Replica
Children of Bodom - In Your Face
Killswitch Engage - Rose of Sharyn
Stone Sour - 30/30 150
Testament - More Than Meets the Eye
AC/DC - Back in Black
AC/DC - Jailbreak
Michael Jackson - Dirty Diana
Judas Priest - Breaking the Law
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
Led Zeppelin - Rock and Roll
Davey Brothers - Heart Go Faster

As usual, their stint ended with their own music videos, and some Avenged Sevenfold:

Bullet for my Valentine - Waking the Demon
Bullet for my Valentine - Hand Of Blood
Bullet for my Valentine - 4 Words (To Choke Upon)
Bullet for my Valentine - Scream Aim Fire
Bullet for my Valentine - Hearts Burst Into Fire
Avenged Sevenfold - Unholy Confessions
Avenged Sevenfold - Seize the Day
Avenged Sevenfold - Afterlife

To see the additional random rock/metal songs that followed, visit here.

My thoughts (as opposed to yours):
- Rather solid rock and metal playlist (omg, I consider metalcore to be metal). Perhaps a bit boring and generic, but hey, they were all great tunes. I actually gave up after Karnivool and went to sleep (how untrve of me... kinda regret it actually).
- I should get myself more Metallica albums, only ever heard the popular tracks really. Only albums I've listened to whole are Kill 'em All and St. Anger. Excuse me one second while I vomit.
- Was cool to see Newstead singing on "Whiplash".
- I really don't like the old heavy metal hair look of long hair with short front.
- "Jesus Christ Pose" has such a cool music video... "Stinkfist" as well. You probably already knew that. I've also realised that Chris Cornell sounds a lot like Brian Johnson. Screeching vocals ftw.
- "Holy Wars". Long hair, no shirt, really tight jeans. Winning combination.
- I really enjoyed Trivium's "Pull Harder On The Strings of your Martyr". Might have to investigate further (though the first time I heard them, I didn't like their music at all).
- The BFMV lads were nice, genuine fellows. In introducing the Jimmy Eat World track, Tuck commented that as long as a song has great melodies and a sweet chorus, all was good. I think the same thing, therefore I am Matt Tuck.

Originally posted here

The Abyss (1989) / Michael Biehn extravaganza

I'm not going to expend too much energy here (I don't usually anyway, haha).

- Film was good for the first three quarters.
- Good action, thrills, special effects, settings, but...
- Ending sucked.
- Lots of cliches.
- Rather weak substance and delivery of theme.
- Good directing (for the first three quarters).
- I didn't feel the chemistry between Bud and Lindsey. Many cheesy moments.

***
In other news, Michael Biehn is cool.

Despite being a fan of both Grease and Biehn, I never knew that Biehn was in the iconic movie.

Biehn in the opening school scenes.

Biehn copping it in the stomach.

Biehn staring into the future. Wrong way dude.

Another piece of trivia I just picked up, was that a still of Michael Biehn (from The Terminator) was used as the base image of Solid Snake on the cover of the first Metal Gear game.

Cool.

In conclusion, The Abyss' ending screwed up its good start (and middle), and Michael Biehn was fully sick in this movie, The Terminator, Aliens, and Grease.

P.S. I've also failed to notice Biehn's appearance in The Rock (1996).

"How does he ride a bike?"

I respect my intuition. It doesn't often fail me. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I rely on it every second second. It comes to me when necessary.

I had heard about The Breakfast Club since I started getting interested in movies. Its reputation saw that it was referenced constantly. That said, I had never bothered to track it down until recently. Borrowed a copy from the library, but because it was well-viewed, skipped in a few areas. I like my film experiences to be comfortable so I hunted for another copy.

Now that I've seen it, I can't say I enjoyed it much. The main obstacle I found was that the characters were so jarringly vulgar. Their essence was exaggerated and shoved down my throat. Because of that, I found it difficult to connect to the characters. When they were at their lowest points, I didn't sympathasise - instead, I merely cringed. No sooner would we experience that emotional hurting scene, when director John Hughes immediately throws a lighthearted humourous curve ball, as if to make amends.

So yes, I found the writing and pacing to be dodgy. Interestingly enough, I enjoyed all of Hughes National Lampoon movies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck, and the Home Alone series (as well as others not worth mentioning). It just didn't flow. It was one section to another section. Thematic development as well. The ending seemed like rushed and tacked on.

Now for some notes:
- Dayumn, that Emilio Estevez character sure looks like Martin Sheen =D
- I don't get why Molly Ringwald looks so different on the film poster.
- "Don't You (Forget About Me)" was written for this movie. Interesting. I wonder if this was Simple Minds' only hit...
- Ally Sheedy was hot.
- I also wonder how much input this movie has had on youths experimenting with drugs.

Overall, it was an enjoyable viewing, in the 6/10 area. Interested in investigating more Brat Pack movies, particularly Sixteen Candles (which I recall seeing the opening minutes of) and maybe St. Elmo's Fire.

2 Albums 1 Entry

Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now


Was blown away by this record. Hegarty's voice was a new experience. Nice review by Pitchfork. Absolutely adore "You Are my Sister", featuring Boy George, whose contribution is also amazing - his voice is so deeply rich! It's crazy, I've really latched on to that song in particular, while the rest of the album just glides by. Really ought to invest myself into the rest of the album... I know it's good, I just haven't been paid in full yet.



Culture Club - Colour by Numbers
Shocking cover, haha. Boy George really looks quite frightening... a frightening sad puppy. Anyway, album seems to be a case of a few great tracks + filler. "Karma Chameleon" is cool, so too "It's a Miracle". Boy George's voice really reminds me of George Michael... there's that velvety softness about it.