Saturday, April 10, 2004
Mike's cool new fiction blog
My boyfriend is so fucking talented :) ¶ 10:43 PM
Kate Winslet is one of my very favourite actors. Sure, she's taken some truely terrible roles, *ahem*Titanic*ahem*, but she's also done 'Holy Smoke', which is pretty much perfect. Why the Guardian has decided to publish this is beyond me. Sometimes they are WORSE than the Sun or whatever
Perfecting the illusion
Why she can't just be judged on her work is beyond me. ¶ 12:20 PM
Me and Mike are watching Monty Python on Sky. Maybe I'm the only person in the world that hasn't seen the sketch where Mao, Marx, Lenin and Che are on a TV show quiz where they stumped to be asked obscure footballing questions. Yes, it is the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. ¶ 12:53 AM
Friday, April 09, 2004
Iraq spirals out of control
Count down to civil war, anyone? :( ¶ 11:56 PM
Thursday, April 08, 2004
"Now I absolutely despise the murderer Herzog. I tell him to his face that I want to see him perish like the llama he executed. He should be thrown to the crocodiles alive! An anaconda should throttle him slowly! The sting of a deadly spider should paralyze him! His brain should burst from the bite of the most poisonous of all snakes! Panthers shouldn't slit his throat open with their claws, that would be too good for him! No. Big red ants should piss in his eyes, eat his balls, penetrate his asshole, and eat his guts! He should get the plague! Syphilis! Malaria! Yellow fever! Leprosy! In vain. The more I wish the most horrible of deaths on him and treat him like the scum of the earth that he is, the less I can get rid of him!"
- Kinski
Phase 2 of our Klaus Kinski marathon: 'My Best Fiend', a documentary by Herzog about their explosive collaboration and sometimes friendship, sometimes grand and psychotic hatred for one another.
We are embarking on this marathon, of course, because of our friend Johnny. Mike and him spent a good few hours in a pub in Perth going over the highlights of these films and had me utterly enchanted with them.
The concept of Fitzcarraldo: a crazed and failing entreupreneur in Peru hoists a boat over a mountain in the middle of the jungle. In order to exploit rubber reserves considered to dangerous to reach. In order to establish a Grand Opera house in his sweaty village in the middle of the rainforest, populated by Indians and rubber barons and whores. It's like something Marquez would write, but substituting despair and realism for 'magic realism'. The degree to which Kinski brings this out of the role is obvious when you see the footage (in 'My Best Fiend') of an earlier version of the film. Jason Robards plays Kinski's role, but with Mick Jagger as a side kick. The result is something more like a 'comic eccentric' than Kinski's maniac.
Herzog's stories of Kinski's extroverted meglomania match oddly, but somehow understandably, with Herzog's quieter -or, in this film at least, less obvious madness. He relates that the Indian Chief told him the Indians, who he thought were frightened and upset by Kinski's rages, were really frightened - but of him. Or the slight reaction of his photographer when he talks about how he and Kinski worked perfectly together - two geniuses side by side.
Herzog has a way of articulating Kinski's amazing acting talent (this review calls him 'the German Olivier'). Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising from, not only a talented director, but a talented director of Kinski.
And then there is the truely loving, and very moving, ending: footage of the two fooling around, hugging, Kinski with a butterfly resting on him.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to watching the rest even more now :)
Thanks Johnny :)
p/s I'm getting pretty prolific with the blog thing now!
¶ 11:14 PM
More Quizzes!
I'm on a role of pointless blog material today :) These stolen from Natalie Davis
You're Mexico!
While some people think you're poor and maybe a little corrupt, you
know where it's at, enjoying good food and nice beaches. You like to take things a
little slower than those around you, and you really wish the air were cleaner, but sometimes
compromises must be made. For some reason, Chevrolet keeps trying to sell you Novas
as well, even though they don't really go.
Take
the Country Quiz at the href="http://bluepyramid.org">Blue Pyramid
You're Catch-22!
by Joseph Heller
Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you
see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense
of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an
ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You
could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of
people.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Not bad at all actually. I LOVE Catch-22 with an unhealthy passion, but unfortunately I don't think I'm anything like it :)
¶ 8:08 PM
Another stolen survey:
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4, write down what it says:
I spent my time looking at the water and the sky and hardly opened a book for the whole ten days.
2. Stretch your left arm as far as you can. What do you touch first?
Some coins on top of some ancient 70s woven table mats that used to be my mum's.
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
The Simpsons where the teachers go on strike.
4. WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what time it is:
7.30
5. Now, look at the clock. What is the actual time?
7.33
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Mike surfing the Kill Bill 2 site and the washing machine.
7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
A couple of hours ago: I went to the gym I just joined the other day for half an hours swimming.
8. Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
Blogdex, my email.
9. What are you wearing?
My black trousers with all the zips, a Zodiac Mindwarp t-shirt, a black jumper so worn it's see-through, and black shoes.
10. Did you dream last night? What about?
I don't really remember, except that it was one of those complex epic dreams that just goes on and on...
11. When did you last laugh? Why?
During the Simpsons, about 20 times :)
12. What is on the walls of the room you're in?
A Spirited Away poster, a Kill Bill poster, a map me and Mike bought at this exhibition in Helsinki about Arctic Exploration, a picture of my old cat that my grandmother painted (it's above Merry's litter tray hoho), and a japanese calligraphy print. I can see the kitchen, too, which is covered in film postcards.
13. Seen anything weird lately?
Nothing out of the ordinary run of weirdness.
14. What do you think of this quiz?
I should be writing something real for this website, not this :)
15. What is the last film you saw?
Three Businessmen. Check out my entry on it a few days ago :)
16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
I would help out all my friends and family with stuff they need. I would buy Mike a prop from one of his favourite zombie movies, or something :) And for me: a whole truckload of books and music and films.
17. Tell me something about you that most people don't know.
My life is an open book darling.
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
I don't know: I'm tempted to say I'd make people just treat each other with respect, and see each other as equals not some thing to be exploited. But that would be meddling in human nature, wouldn't it? I probably would still choose that. Or I would make the entire world use eco-friendly resources and get rid of oil. Or nukes. Fuck, there are a million things. Make the world socialist. Give the world free water.
19. Do you like to dance?
Yes, but I'm terribly bad at it, so I have more of a comic dance style than anything else :)
20. George Bush
A scary, moronic fuck. Religious extremist. The embodiment of everything I abhor.
21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Elizabeth
22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Danzig
23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Definately. I would love to live in the Netherlands. Or Sweden. Or Australia. Or San Francisco, if it set itself up as a seperate country.
24. Will you pass on this survey?
Here it is, for all you 14-30 daily readers :) ¶ 7:50 PM
Mike has designed some really cool new 'Dawn of the Read' shirts, get yours here ¶ 4:15 PM
US Administration wages war on pornography
My favourite line in this article:
"Ashcroft, a religious man who does not drink alcohol or caffeine, smoke, gamble or dance..."
Ashcroft is too religious to dance! Of course, the famous Nietzsche quote springs to mind.
My dad has a theory about America, the wisdom of which is no doubt matured by living there for some years: America is in it's 'Victorian' period. Stuff like this makes you think he has a point, don't you think?
My own family has some experience of this religion/dancophobia business. My cousin, who is an ultra-religious Jew, got married a few years back and on the invitations it said there would be no dancing at the reception, especially between men and women. Religion can sure be crazy and joyless. Even my, by all accounts slightly deranged, immediate family found this excessive and extreme and refused to go.
¶ 12:37 PM
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
This morning we were greeted by a veritable shower of books through our front door, as we have both been on an internet spending spree recently. I got an ancient book of essays and interviews with Anais Nin The Sensative Man, and Mike got a few books including Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which I've been dying to read because of the title and the swirly cover:
I am about half way through the Anais Nin, and as usual with her writing I have mixed feelings about it. She's too involved with a kind of psychotherepy that I find retroactive, and, despite being an utterly liberated woman is still prone to be unhappily old fashioned. One example: in one of the essays she talks about the fact that the 'modern fashion' of wearing jeans prevents men from appreciating female sensuality/sexuality. Ug. Still, she is of her time, I suppose... Or actually, transcends her time in so many ways that it is perfectly easy to forgive her some things like that.
Wishing I hadn't broken the camera yesterday, and I had photos of last night's gig to put up here.
I had a really weird dream last night. My old friend Pippa died in it. There was an earthquake or something. Anyway, Pippa should be back in London in a few days, so it should be cool to hang out with her. On Saturday me and Mike went for drinks with Xandrija, which was a lot of fun. We went to the Intrepid Fox, which was as good as usual. But, Xandrija has gone to France now, so we will miss the oppurtunity of all hanging out together like the old days.
Today I am 95% piratically dressed.
Only the boots are missing.
But I am wearing new leather shoes, with studs in them.
Which is a bit piratey :)