Do you expect me to talk?
Once upon a time around March 2007
Seen at SXSW: The Hoodoo Gurus. They sound like a band from the late eighties that came from Australia. I have not heard of their tunes previously, but it just kept creeping into my head: They sound like they are from down under (and not necessarily like Man At Work or, god forbid INXS, just that their sound just has that down under feel). Otherwise it was a fun show with one totally awesome surfer guitar song that surprised the hell out of me. .
Lessons learned from this year’s SXSW: Because I could not afford wristbands (again) and the decidedly crappy line up of headliners, I focused my attention onto the day shows. Now I only attended one due to time constraints and lack of sleep (stupid Turtles) but I managed to have fun. The sets were short which is merciful for a band like Payback (who were on before the Hoodoo Gurus) and a tease for a more well known bands that are usually dong a showcase later in the festival.
There were more day shows I wanted to see, but not desperately so. So next year I plan to pay more attention to the day shows. Another thing I might invest in next time is the film pass. With all the attention on the music, people forget sometimes about the movies. At $60-$70 it is a little more affordable than the $120-$200 wristbands for the music. If I can take a week off, there is at least two or three movies I would be interested to see at least once a day. I really would have liked to have seen the latest from Johnny To, Exiled.
Maybe next year.
Seen this weekend:
One and a have seasons with Xena, which Holly has never seen before. A definite guilty pleasure, the show does not get as much respect as other shows, which is interesting at the least as it runs through a lot of ground that Buffy would a few years later with the humor, Hong Kong inspired martial arts, homosexuality and musical episodes. We are currently halfway through season three.
I saw episodes when the show was on, enough to like it better than the show it spun off from and also enough to be happy when there was one that I have never seen before. Due to its syndicated nature, they tended to recycle the same episodes over and over (mostly from the first two or three seasons) and it was unpredictable when a new one would be on.
I was able to catch the finale when it was released on DVD and still think it is one of the best finales of any show ever- second only to the totally awesome Angel finale.
Plus- Bruce Campbell. Hail to the king, baby.
Would it have hurt to have at least one show where Ash falls through a portal and tell the primitive Greek screwheads that THIS A BOOMSTICK!
Oh, well I guess.
Also seen: Two movies that showcase the sport/martial art/boredom reliever that should rightfully be called Jackie Chanism and instead they refer to it as Parkour or Free Running- District B13 and Casino Royale. One was better than I expected and the other was not (until the second viewing where I may rethink my opinion).
I have to got to watch District B13 again eventually. You would think that from the way the movie was advertised, it contained nothing but wall to wall parkour (pun intended). It is still awesome in that HK inspired Luc Besson produced French action movie manner (I love the Taxi movies, Danny the Dog [hell, even Kiss of the Dragon] but could care less about the Transporter movies although the second one was an improvement), but as since us Yanks will not get to see the BBC documentary Jump London anytime soon- this is as close as we get to see Parkour properly explained and performed (the one in Casino Royale had more CGI assists).
By the way, I do not care if Besson ever directs another movie again- if he continues his streak of producing action flicks (and letting us Stateside watch them) I’ll keep supporting them. By the way, the Taxi movies I have are ‘imports’ that I was lucky to discover at one of the used DVD places around here. Too bad the remake failed otherwise we could look forward to Taxi 4 when it comes out.
As for Mr. Bond, Casino Royale is my favourite Bond movie now. I am not a huge Bond fan; I enjoyed the Pierce Brosnan ones for what they were: mindless entertainment. They were fun in that manner. Brosnan is a better actor that they let him be and it is a shame they never let him expand the Bond role. For the record: I never saw the Connery ones (or if I did, was too young to remember or make an impression), the Moore ones were cheesier than the Brosnan ones and the Dalton ones were more missed opportunities.
Daniel Craig made a good first, more inexperienced James Bond. Different from the rest but equally valid I fear that in his follow up movies, we will get more of the Bond the world knows of (although I cheered at the last scene where he finally tells up his name). I like the quiet fighter of this Bond who wants when he meets Vesper to leave it behind to retain his humanity.
Overall, it is still mindless entertainment, but it is nearing the border to make it more significant. As many bloggers have said, the filmmakers need to venture into R-rated territory and that is not going to happen (not enough money in it).
So bring on S.P.E.C.T.R.E., bring on the new Q, bring on Blofeld, hell-I would live to see a new and improved Odd Job. But keep this Bond the way he is who does not need the gadgets- just his wits and his fists.
________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy
http://catterpillarboy.blogspot.com/
http://catterpillarboy.livejournal.com
Seen at SXSW: The Hoodoo Gurus. They sound like a band from the late eighties that came from Australia. I have not heard of their tunes previously, but it just kept creeping into my head: They sound like they are from down under (and not necessarily like Man At Work or, god forbid INXS, just that their sound just has that down under feel). Otherwise it was a fun show with one totally awesome surfer guitar song that surprised the hell out of me. .
Lessons learned from this year’s SXSW: Because I could not afford wristbands (again) and the decidedly crappy line up of headliners, I focused my attention onto the day shows. Now I only attended one due to time constraints and lack of sleep (stupid Turtles) but I managed to have fun. The sets were short which is merciful for a band like Payback (who were on before the Hoodoo Gurus) and a tease for a more well known bands that are usually dong a showcase later in the festival.
There were more day shows I wanted to see, but not desperately so. So next year I plan to pay more attention to the day shows. Another thing I might invest in next time is the film pass. With all the attention on the music, people forget sometimes about the movies. At $60-$70 it is a little more affordable than the $120-$200 wristbands for the music. If I can take a week off, there is at least two or three movies I would be interested to see at least once a day. I really would have liked to have seen the latest from Johnny To, Exiled.
Maybe next year.
Seen this weekend:
One and a have seasons with Xena, which Holly has never seen before. A definite guilty pleasure, the show does not get as much respect as other shows, which is interesting at the least as it runs through a lot of ground that Buffy would a few years later with the humor, Hong Kong inspired martial arts, homosexuality and musical episodes. We are currently halfway through season three.
I saw episodes when the show was on, enough to like it better than the show it spun off from and also enough to be happy when there was one that I have never seen before. Due to its syndicated nature, they tended to recycle the same episodes over and over (mostly from the first two or three seasons) and it was unpredictable when a new one would be on.
I was able to catch the finale when it was released on DVD and still think it is one of the best finales of any show ever- second only to the totally awesome Angel finale.
Plus- Bruce Campbell. Hail to the king, baby.
Would it have hurt to have at least one show where Ash falls through a portal and tell the primitive Greek screwheads that THIS A BOOMSTICK!
Oh, well I guess.
Also seen: Two movies that showcase the sport/martial art/boredom reliever that should rightfully be called Jackie Chanism and instead they refer to it as Parkour or Free Running- District B13 and Casino Royale. One was better than I expected and the other was not (until the second viewing where I may rethink my opinion).
I have to got to watch District B13 again eventually. You would think that from the way the movie was advertised, it contained nothing but wall to wall parkour (pun intended). It is still awesome in that HK inspired Luc Besson produced French action movie manner (I love the Taxi movies, Danny the Dog [hell, even Kiss of the Dragon] but could care less about the Transporter movies although the second one was an improvement), but as since us Yanks will not get to see the BBC documentary Jump London anytime soon- this is as close as we get to see Parkour properly explained and performed (the one in Casino Royale had more CGI assists).
By the way, I do not care if Besson ever directs another movie again- if he continues his streak of producing action flicks (and letting us Stateside watch them) I’ll keep supporting them. By the way, the Taxi movies I have are ‘imports’ that I was lucky to discover at one of the used DVD places around here. Too bad the remake failed otherwise we could look forward to Taxi 4 when it comes out.
As for Mr. Bond, Casino Royale is my favourite Bond movie now. I am not a huge Bond fan; I enjoyed the Pierce Brosnan ones for what they were: mindless entertainment. They were fun in that manner. Brosnan is a better actor that they let him be and it is a shame they never let him expand the Bond role. For the record: I never saw the Connery ones (or if I did, was too young to remember or make an impression), the Moore ones were cheesier than the Brosnan ones and the Dalton ones were more missed opportunities.
Daniel Craig made a good first, more inexperienced James Bond. Different from the rest but equally valid I fear that in his follow up movies, we will get more of the Bond the world knows of (although I cheered at the last scene where he finally tells up his name). I like the quiet fighter of this Bond who wants when he meets Vesper to leave it behind to retain his humanity.
Overall, it is still mindless entertainment, but it is nearing the border to make it more significant. As many bloggers have said, the filmmakers need to venture into R-rated territory and that is not going to happen (not enough money in it).
So bring on S.P.E.C.T.R.E., bring on the new Q, bring on Blofeld, hell-I would live to see a new and improved Odd Job. But keep this Bond the way he is who does not need the gadgets- just his wits and his fists.
________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy
http://catterpillarboy.blogspot.com/
http://catterpillarboy.livejournal.com
posted by Catterpillarboy at 3:30 AM
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