The new promo for SBS’s movies is a creepy wonder to behold…
I can’t help but feel I’ve seen that demon thing from the start somewhere else…
Category: TV and Cinema
Shooting Fish
Is it the closing ceremony yet?
Ah yes, the Commonwealth Games are on. This means I’ve had to totally rearrange my TV viewing since Channel 10 has dumped its regular schedule in favour of broadcasting the competition around the clock (do something else instead of watching TV? Are you mad?:))
I really find it hard to get excited about the Commonwealth Games. They’re really nothing more than a second rate Olympics with all of the serious competition removed. In several areas (the swimming in particular) Australia simply has the best athletes in the Commonwealth, which makes picking up medals akin to shooting fish in a barrel. What’s our tally so far? Nine gold, ten silver, five bronze, for a total of twenty four – putting us at the top of the medal count and thirteen ahead of current second placers India.
This sounds impressive, but with the big boys missing it’s all really kind of pointless. It even approaches embarrassing, particularly when the media try to get everyone all revved up about it. “Gold for Australia! Gold for Australia!” has a kind of hollow ring when there are no Americans, Russians or Chinese in the competition. Without meaning to put down our fellow Commonwealth members, it’s like wining a foot race against a bunch of amputees – crowing about it just comes across as pathetic.
So yeah, the Commonwealth Games. Is it the closing ceremony yet?
Tasty Chewy Crispy Smokey Bacon!
Once again I am undone by food
I suppose it’s a bit redundant now that the show’s finished but I just wanted to say that the titles to the Chaser’s Yes We Canberra are some of the best I’ve ever seen on TV. The city of Canberra converted into an array of nonsensical infographics is a genius concept, and it’s brilliantly executed as well.
But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. Here to talk about chips.
Different countries have different flavours of chips (crisps, potato chips, those crunchy things you buy in a bag). Which is fine, except when your country doesn’t have the really good ones.
In the magical land of the United Kingdom for instance they have two flavours of chips (or at least crunchy, nutritionally void snack foods) that don’t exist here in the colonies. These flavours are a gourmand’s delight, the kind of chips they’ll serve you in heaven. They are Smokey Bacon and Pickled Onion.
Oh the delights of smokey bacon! The subtle (oh, alright, completely overwhelming) vinegary goodness of pickled onion! No snack food in this benighted nation can compare to their greasy enchantments! At least, none could until now…
Just recently the Red Rock Deli company has released a new flavour of their gourmet chips – Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar. While not quite as delightfully devastating to the taste buds as the fabled pickled onion, they’re actually pretty good. The one bag of chips I allow myself to indulge in each week has rapidly become completely monopolised and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, or at least until the sour receptors on my tongue burn out completely. Well done Red Rock Deli!
That’s all I have to say.
Castling
Another damn series for me to obsess over…
I admit it. Despite the excellent reviews and general buzz I’ve been avoiding watching Castle. My reasons for doing so are threefold…
1) I watch far too much TV as is
2) They always put it on stupidly late
3) Watching Nathan Fillion playing anyone apart from Mal feels like some kind of betrayal (not to mention the fact that it’s a reminder that there’s no more Firefly – *sob*)
Despite this, last night I stumbled into the first 10 minutes of an episode – the first time I’ve seen any of the show at all.
Which episode you ask? The Halloween one which opens with Nathan dressing up in a “space cowboy” costume suspiciously identical to Mal’s 😀
What I saw of the rest of the episode was pretty damn good too – I suspect I’ll have to get the series on DVD now…
Silence in the Courtyard
Can’t sleep – Clowns will eat me!
Honestly, if you’re not watching Psychoville you don’t know what you’re missing.
I don’t usually agree….
Vampires don’t f’ing sparkle!!
Apprently the Vatican has declared the latest emo vampire flick, New Moon to be “deviant” and a “moral vacuum”.
Now I don’t usually agree with the Pope, but in this case I think I’ll make an exception 😀
Blast from the Past
Like sands through the hourglass…
Dingalings do stupid things, they don’t think of others at all,
They’re dopes and bullies, see the trouble they bring? That’s what we call dingalings!
If you’re now wondering about my sanity then you obviously didn’t grow up in Perth in the 80’s…
Dingalings
Vitamins
Nutrition
Dirt and Germs
I stumbled across a Livejournal page linking to these while searching for info on the old Ascot Water Playground. This was a favourite summer destination when I was a kid and I only just discovered that it’s all shut down and derelict. I cycled over today and scouted it out for Abandoned in Perth. I’ll probably get a proper expedition together later on.
It was a great place Ascot Water Playground. You had a big pool at the bottom, a sort of concrete bunker halfway up with fountains and slippery metal ladders (which were a death trap waiting to happen frankly) and two smaller pools at the top linked with locks. Locks! Like on a canal! A paddling stream ran from the top pools all the way down the hill to the bottom pool and one year (oh the excitement!) they opened a new pool with water slides. And admission was whatever you decided to put into the tins at the gates!
One of the defining moments of my childhood was at Ascot, the day when I finally summoned the courage to climb the deathtrap ladders all the way to the top. All the other kids (including my younger brother) who’d been clambering up and down them with abandon for years kept mocking me mercilessly about my cowardice, and on this particular day I decided I was going to conquer them even if it meant I fell to my death on the concrete below. I waited until there was no one in the bunker (both so the other kids wouldn’t figure out how badly their mockery hurt me, and so that if I chickened out at the last minute there’d be no one to see) and hauled myself up the slippery bars and over the top onto the roof. Then I clambered back down and wandered off, quite happy with myself.
(I only ever climbed the ladders once again – the next time the other kids started mocking me. I climbed up and down once to shut them up, and then never risked it again. Honestly, I’m amazed no one was ever killed on those things.)
But – back to the modern day – run off from the park into the river was apparently getting out of control (the site is right on the riverfront) and there were all kinds of liability issues (those ladders I bet), so the playground had to shut down about five or six years back. Another irreplaceable childhood memory gone – although at least it’s gone in a way that provides me with something to clamber around and take eerie photos of.
The Livejournal page I stumbled across has a bunch of other musings about Perth in the 80s, including a reminder of the plastic tugboats and space shuttles you used to get Red Rooster in. How could I forget those!? They were made of extremely thin and brittle plastic (that crumbled after only a few hours exposure to Perth’s harsh summer sunshine) and you got a sheet of stickers to personalise them with. Great days!
I’ll have to write about my memories of Atlantis Marine Park and Dizzy Lamb sometime I suppose…
Foolish Musical Ideas
If I had the tools I’d do it myself.
Back in ancient historical era known as the 80s, British House giants Cauty and Drummond (perhaps you remember them as the KLF – also known as the Justified Ancients of Mumu, and furthermore known as the JAMs) sat down to create a House remix of the Doctor Who theme.
After messing around with it for some hours and getting nowhere they realised that it’s in triplet time, and you can’t do House in triplet time. So they threw the House idea out the window and just mashed the theme up with perhaps the most famous triplet rock song ever – Garry “I want to touch your children” Glitter’s Rock and Roll Part 2.
The result was one of the most successful and annoying novelty tracks of all time – Doctorin’ the Tardis – which transformed them into millionaires almost overnight.
The reason I mention this is that in the shower yesterday morning I realised that Marilyn “Oo! I’m so Evil!” Manson’s Beautiful People is also in triplet time. Which means you could easily do a Doctor Who – Beautiful People mashup!
Go on! What are you waiting for?! 😀
Nimboid
It’s new word time!
Nimboid – adjective – Highly musclebound, of low intellect and prone to violence, often as the result of hormonal imbalance (see nimboidism).
My brother and I invented the word ‘nimboid’ as children after seeing a TV news article about the z-movie classic A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell and mishearing the title. We didn’t necessarily formalise the definition, I just always figured – after assuming one of the musclebound freaks show in clips from the movie was the barbarian of the title – that this is what it meant.
Go on! try it out next time you pass a rugby league player!
What’s the Scouter say about her Sweetness Level?
It’s over NINE THOUSAND!!!!!11!!!!1
Last night’s episode of Good News Week confirmed what I have always thought – namely that Kelly Clarkson is just about the cutest and sweetest woman on Earth.
I’d never buy any of her music in a million years mind you – she’s just really sweet that’s all 🙂
