holiday-imposed hiatus to come

lxxi. the five people you meet in heaven, mitch albom
EHHH. so popular, or at least it appears so, and i don't understand why at all. nice concept, average story, very average execution.

lxxii. the curious case of benjamin button and other stories, f. scott fitzgerald
quite good. i almost expected some fuddy-duddy o. henry type stuff and therefore was pleasantly surprised.

lxxiii. design of the 20th century, charlotte and peter fiell
decided to do some research in my very recent area of interest, and everybody and their mother studied architecture! verrry interesting. there is so much to know.

lalala

viii. matt and kim, jan 21, becks festival bar, sydney festival

this was seriously the most fun gig i have been to in a long time. it was awesome! kim and matt were super energetic and enthusiastic, kim didn't stop smiling the whole time! and we had a balloon party and they just did whatever the hell they wanted, like asking guys to hold kim up as she WALKED out on to the crowd and did a booty dance. i also appreciate their MO of standing on their instruments, like why the hell not!


i realise i did not review ix. marina and the diamonds, dec 30, factory theatre

superlatively impressive, fantastic voice, appropriate props, centre stage fans for the hair. i find it a very strange phenomenon that when hearing something live, the pitch will seem absolutely perfect, and then on watching the exact same performance on a video some out-of-tune notes are more apparent. is the live enjoyment factor really that compensating?

seemingly random numbering system

xl. the social network
quite enjoyable. a movie about a website, i am still flabbergasted.

vi. the rapture, jan 6, the metro
suffocatingly hot! disgustingly humid and gross. i wasn't such a big fan and i am still eh about it.

vii. holly miranda, jan 15, the famous spiegeltent
pretty good! she was slightly different to what i expected, much more loose and jeff buckley-esque.

lxix. a model world, michael chabon
a good short story collection. i never know what to think about separate short stories one after the other with the same characters, especially in only the 2nd half of the book

lxx. manhood for amateurs, michael chabon
possibly more personal essay collection than memoir, but the memoir component was much more deeply analytical with respect to society and the changing of pop culture, than in others i have read (to wit: bill bryson). also sometimes hilarious especially when extolling on the virtues of the manbag: 'a purse is basically a vagina with a strap.. I adhered rigorously to the way of the pocket.. the only storage alternative was the dreaded belt clip, a kind of prosthetic penis, in its own inverse way as emasculating as a purse'. i found it very generous that he was able to discuss lego and the merits of custom (read: unreusable) pieces without ever referring to the obvious commercial interests involved, or the fact that lego is now like ikea furniture and just as fun.

i finished watching party down season 1 and have a sinking feeling about the future of henry and casey's relationship hahaha sigh, fav tv couple like, ever

another fortnight, another review dump

lxvii. ghost world, daniel clowes
i remember reading this really really fast after seeing the movie a long time ago and didn't really like it. i read it again quite fast and it seemed so much deeper this time, so much more jaded. it's probably me. now i want to see the movie again.

lxviii. american psycho, bret easton ellis
holy wow, the beginning of this book is so good. so gradual. and then it explodes everywhere like a bloody watermelon.

xxxix. black swan
combined with finishing the book above in the same week, this made me feel extra crazy. good movie though, overall i thought it was well done and the acting was good, it's almost sad that acting is 'good' these days when nothing is jarringly incompetent. natalie portman's neck is so small. also notch up another on the winona ryder comeback trail.

i started watching party down!! so good.

p.s. is 'movie' not a word anymore? i think my spellcheck is royally screwed up

must get mini pig

surely this is the most reblogged picture of any small animal ever but i don't care, look at it!
(ok i deleted the picture because people keep coming to my blog because of it)

my fish hjerb was previously eating very unenthusiastically but now i have starved him twice for possibly 4 days, upon which he subsequently ate like a normal greedy fish each time.

movie review - doctor zhivago

hmm, i don't know about the inherent condoning of adultery but whatever. russia is cold, furry hats seem awesome, how does one resuscitate an iodine-drinking suicide attempt with a length of rubber tubing?

cool hand luke - i like paul newman more than steve mcqueen

the town - sometimes the boston accents slipped. not as good as was hyped

cloudy with a chance of meatballs - surprisingly better than i expected as a non-pixar effort

the sun also rises (re-read) - i still can't figure out if brett is her first name or maiden name.

the creamsickle - i'm going to read another book and then re-read it straight away. kinda messy but good.

bits

oh yes this week i made like a cultured person and went to the theatre to see iv. 'true west'. it was hilarious and disturbing and all that good stuff. the american accents only slipped occasionally.

i also realise i failed to review lxv. 'the book of other people', ed. zadie smith. i liked this a lot, a good anthology is enjoyable to read.

i finally dumped my phone photos so here is some fancy advertising:

written evidence of my insect nature, march-nov '10 (and terrible prescription-style handwriting)

oh look i lied again.

whereupon lied = forgot.

lxiii. let the great world spin, colum mccann
well i saw the doco 'man on wire' and have to say i much preferred that. yes, there were some good parts but overall i felt like it all fit together way too nicely in the same way that 'crash' the movie did.

lxiv. this side of brightness, colum mccann
a bit waffly and somewhat predictable, non-epic family epic.

therefore unlikely to read any more colum mccann in the near future.

nothing witty here

sorry for the slight hiatus.

i read a bunch of medical memoir type books, not worth reviewing. i saw and re-saw a bunch of movies also not really worth reviewing, including toy story 3, baby mama, easy a. ok i take it back.

xxx. easy a - it is rather sad when a movie which has received 'good' reviews turns out so average. it was like a montage.

xxxi. despicable me - only good for the fluffy unicorns and minions.

xxxii. scott pilgrim etc etc - man! another well-received movie falling in a splatter. no reasoning behind anything means no meaning.

xxxiii. please give - this was good. it is typical that i would like this. weird and extremely awkward.

xxxiv. the runaways - this was also surprisingly good. even better with commentary, fucking hilarious to hear dakota fanning, kristen stewart and joan jett shoot the shit.

i also watched top chef: just desserts! i kinda sorta want to be a pastry chef. without all the work.