Friday, August 29, 2003
My MainMan
David Bowie is doing a live international preview of his new album "Reality" in cinemas in a couple of weeks from now. I've kinda decided to go check it out, but I dunno about buying the album. Just went to his website and listened to bits of the new tracks and they sound like the crappy, "trying to write rocking songs" Bowie of 4-20 years ago (excluding Tin Machine), as opposed to the more recent "mellow and old" Bowie that I like.
Listening to: The Lemonheads - It's All True
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Saddam works for the US Government, and he is currently in their custody? There is supposedly interview footage that suggests this to be true, albeit based on the testimony of a single Iraqi officer. The US have Saddam, at Rense.com
Listening to: Stereolab - Olv 26
Monday, August 18, 2003
The Rugby World Cup will soon be here, and some mates and I are itching to watch one of the All Black games in Melbourne. The problem is, whereas queueing in a line in the real world was time consuming, at least it worked. This morning tickets went on sale at 9am, and there are obviously many thousand people trying to book online, each one of us repeatedly clicking the refresh button, and repeatedly seeing the same thing:
or:
I wonder if anyone will ever invent a queueing system for the Internet?
HTTP/1.1 Server Too Busy
or:
Our system is currently busy due to a large event on sale.
We apologise for the inconvenience.
We apologise for the inconvenience.
I wonder if anyone will ever invent a queueing system for the Internet?
Listening to: Mink DeVille - Cadillac Walk
Saturday, August 16, 2003
I was wondering why anyone would want to buy AltaVista (as Overture and then Yahoo did) - its web search results are terrible compared to Google and AlltheWeb, but it appears, according to comments at Resource Shelf, the other stuff at AltaVista is valuable:
And inside sources are saying that AlltheWeb and AltaVista will be merged. If they maintain the AltaVista brand name, it will be the zillionth time they have re-invented themselves, something I'm sure many searchers are wary of. The AlltheWeb brand is barely known at present, and I think it is a dull name.
My new name predictions:
Yahoo Super Search
Prisma (but prisma.com isn't available)
Mambo (Mambo.com owned by Liz Claiborne, not in use, would be a great search engine name)
Zen (domain not being used)
"I anticipate that AltaVista's unique search features will be very valuable to Yahoo! including News search, Multimedia search (AltaVista has the best multimedia search product bar none), Babel Fish translation, Prisma assisted search tool and Shortcuts."
And inside sources are saying that AlltheWeb and AltaVista will be merged. If they maintain the AltaVista brand name, it will be the zillionth time they have re-invented themselves, something I'm sure many searchers are wary of. The AlltheWeb brand is barely known at present, and I think it is a dull name.
My new name predictions:
Yahoo Super Search
Prisma (but prisma.com isn't available)
Mambo (Mambo.com owned by Liz Claiborne, not in use, would be a great search engine name)
Zen (domain not being used)
Listening to: David Onley - If it wasn't for the wind
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Melbourne International Film Festival just finished a few days ago.
Highlights for me were:
A Peck on the Cheek - lots of Indian melodrama packed into one movie - two love stories, one adoption story and the civil war in Sri Lanka. I cried every five minutes, and the two female leads were stunningly beautiful. Is right up there with The Big Blue, and definitely in my lifetime Top 10
Long Gone - USA doco about the hobos that ride around the country by train and beg for food. It's the result of following many different people for quite a few years, featuring positive idealism, low-life dramas and some lives destroyed by the Vietnam war. Exceptionally well made document of a unique lifestyle.
House of Fools - Chechen war as seen by patients in a mental hospital. Reaches that perfect balance of horror and comedy that anti-war movies require. All the cast are very watchable - a Cuckoo's Nest for the new century.
Burning Paradise - Ringo Lam made this frenetic kung-fu monk version of Indiana Jones in 1994. Highly entertaining, as good as Jackie Chan at his best.
Blissfully Yours - a meditation on quietness in a Thai forest. I never thought I'd ever be so happy to watch a lose up of a sleeping person's face for 5 minutes. Outdoes the French with some highly realistic and raw sex scenes. One of the most inventive films I've ever seen.
Passable:
Time of the Wolf - by Michael Haneke, he of Funny Games infamy. He is still pushing boundaries and make bold observations. This time it's an end of the civilized world scenario, and we are forced to sit through the same pained tedium as the characters. Some night scenes are filmed as dark as real-life nights, so one has to peer at the screen to make out anything. I left the film bored yet impressed.
Trouble Every Day - by Claire Denis, who sometimes is too clever for her own good. At least she tries her hand at everything... this is a cannibal love story, intriguing due to its unique premise, otherwise quite ordinary in terms of acting and presentation, and with a crap ending like only the French can screw up. Vincent Gallo well suited in his role. Nice to see Beatrice Dalle again.
Not so hot:
House of 1000 Corpses - made by Rob Zombie, it looked and sounded very good, with a cool group of cartoony ghouls, but the story could've fitted on a napkin. The younger folk in the cinema thought it rocked totally.
London Orbital - a 76 minute wank posing as a conspiracy theory about a motorway.
Highlights for me were:
A Peck on the Cheek - lots of Indian melodrama packed into one movie - two love stories, one adoption story and the civil war in Sri Lanka. I cried every five minutes, and the two female leads were stunningly beautiful. Is right up there with The Big Blue, and definitely in my lifetime Top 10
Long Gone - USA doco about the hobos that ride around the country by train and beg for food. It's the result of following many different people for quite a few years, featuring positive idealism, low-life dramas and some lives destroyed by the Vietnam war. Exceptionally well made document of a unique lifestyle.
House of Fools - Chechen war as seen by patients in a mental hospital. Reaches that perfect balance of horror and comedy that anti-war movies require. All the cast are very watchable - a Cuckoo's Nest for the new century.
Burning Paradise - Ringo Lam made this frenetic kung-fu monk version of Indiana Jones in 1994. Highly entertaining, as good as Jackie Chan at his best.
Blissfully Yours - a meditation on quietness in a Thai forest. I never thought I'd ever be so happy to watch a lose up of a sleeping person's face for 5 minutes. Outdoes the French with some highly realistic and raw sex scenes. One of the most inventive films I've ever seen.
Passable:
Time of the Wolf - by Michael Haneke, he of Funny Games infamy. He is still pushing boundaries and make bold observations. This time it's an end of the civilized world scenario, and we are forced to sit through the same pained tedium as the characters. Some night scenes are filmed as dark as real-life nights, so one has to peer at the screen to make out anything. I left the film bored yet impressed.
Trouble Every Day - by Claire Denis, who sometimes is too clever for her own good. At least she tries her hand at everything... this is a cannibal love story, intriguing due to its unique premise, otherwise quite ordinary in terms of acting and presentation, and with a crap ending like only the French can screw up. Vincent Gallo well suited in his role. Nice to see Beatrice Dalle again.
Not so hot:
House of 1000 Corpses - made by Rob Zombie, it looked and sounded very good, with a cool group of cartoony ghouls, but the story could've fitted on a napkin. The younger folk in the cinema thought it rocked totally.
London Orbital - a 76 minute wank posing as a conspiracy theory about a motorway.
Listening to: American Music Club - Jesus' Hands
Someone else agrees with my recollection of the Evan Dando gigs - look at the posts dated early August.
Listening to: Isaac Hayes - The Look of Love
Well now, hardly a daily diary this, is it? But I have been going through a changing of the home, supposedly right up-there stress-wise with funerals, lay-offs, romantic lay-offs, divorces... So no wonder this was neglected.
Saw Evan Dando - twice!
Evan #1
POW, St Kilda, an old hangout of his and mine, although he preceded me by several years, and his debauchery was a little more exceptional than that of me. As I said, I decided to attend this gig sobEr. Good call, for I thoroughly loved it and recall it nicely. He told us that they hadn't played in public as a unit before, and it showed, along with their professionalism in handling the situation. The music at times was as good as it ever could've been, and did justice to the material, old, new or borrowed.
The crowd was sometimes awe-struck, sometimes outsinging Evan (his voice missing part of the range).
Hold on, Buffy finale is on...
...okay, lots of blood and surprises - back to Evan
But really what made the show was Evan shining, glowing even. He gave the crowd a smile several times a song, and turned on the charm. That's why the crowd was mostly chicks, and that's why it was a top gig. Even his beard was strangely cute.
Evan #2
The following night I tried to get drunk at the Hi-Fi Bar but had more water than beer. One of the band wasn't present, and he had an exceptionally gorgeous young lady singing back-up vocals, except it took her a few songs of sitting to the side to get over her shyness. All very cute and nice, but it distracted from Evan and wasn't terribly professional. In other words, musically it sucked, and Evan seemed to be trying too hard to be Evan, and wasn't enjoying himself like last night. He hardly (if ever) smiled, the crowd never sang along, and he finished with a too long wanky solo drum session singing made-up something-or-rather (maybe not, but seemed like). He wasn't even applauded much when he finished, let alone any calls for an encore. If I had only come to the second night, I would've had an entirely different opinion of him.
For some strange reason all the cute chicks were at the POW, and I didn't find anyone at the Hi-Fi bar even vaguely attractive. I can find no solid explanation for this, apart from the obvious, which I feel is not it.
I had been hoping for a non-alc and with-alc comparison of how I could enjoy the same thing, but just as I failed to get drunk, he failed to charm two nights in a row. Oh well, he doesn't need to. He will always be he. And I seem to have lost the drinking urge.
Reviews at BigPond and The Age
ps. he is terribly skinny when you look at him topless and side-on.
Saw Evan Dando - twice!
Evan #1
POW, St Kilda, an old hangout of his and mine, although he preceded me by several years, and his debauchery was a little more exceptional than that of me. As I said, I decided to attend this gig sobEr. Good call, for I thoroughly loved it and recall it nicely. He told us that they hadn't played in public as a unit before, and it showed, along with their professionalism in handling the situation. The music at times was as good as it ever could've been, and did justice to the material, old, new or borrowed.
The crowd was sometimes awe-struck, sometimes outsinging Evan (his voice missing part of the range).
Hold on, Buffy finale is on...
...okay, lots of blood and surprises - back to Evan
But really what made the show was Evan shining, glowing even. He gave the crowd a smile several times a song, and turned on the charm. That's why the crowd was mostly chicks, and that's why it was a top gig. Even his beard was strangely cute.
Evan #2
The following night I tried to get drunk at the Hi-Fi Bar but had more water than beer. One of the band wasn't present, and he had an exceptionally gorgeous young lady singing back-up vocals, except it took her a few songs of sitting to the side to get over her shyness. All very cute and nice, but it distracted from Evan and wasn't terribly professional. In other words, musically it sucked, and Evan seemed to be trying too hard to be Evan, and wasn't enjoying himself like last night. He hardly (if ever) smiled, the crowd never sang along, and he finished with a too long wanky solo drum session singing made-up something-or-rather (maybe not, but seemed like). He wasn't even applauded much when he finished, let alone any calls for an encore. If I had only come to the second night, I would've had an entirely different opinion of him.
For some strange reason all the cute chicks were at the POW, and I didn't find anyone at the Hi-Fi bar even vaguely attractive. I can find no solid explanation for this, apart from the obvious, which I feel is not it.
I had been hoping for a non-alc and with-alc comparison of how I could enjoy the same thing, but just as I failed to get drunk, he failed to charm two nights in a row. Oh well, he doesn't need to. He will always be he. And I seem to have lost the drinking urge.
Reviews at BigPond and The Age
ps. he is terribly skinny when you look at him topless and side-on.
Listening to: Badly Drawn Boy - Cause a Rockslide
Friday, August 01, 2003
OK, off to see Evan Dando play, it's been 15 years.... and we are both going to be sober...
Listening to: Tarnation - Idly
