Borat ... wawaweewah

Friday night I went to see Borat, or more precisely, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. It's not often you get such a vocal audience at a movie - lots of laughter, but also a lot of 'ewws' and 'no ways'. It's one of those movies that really pushes the envelope of good taste, but in it's own way, explores what makes the U.S.A. such a scary place to so many people. It relies heavily on the reactions of everyday people to the Borat character - after all, if you can't laugh at others, who can you laugh at? I'm not surprised that Sacha Baron Cohen is being sued by most of the people in the film.
Apparently, the cops were called on Cohen 91 times during the production of the movie.
All in all, it's a very funny, very offensive and sometimes revolting movie. The naked wrestling scene between Borat and his extremely overweight manager kinda summed up the whole thing for me. I laughed really hard, but I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
Visit Borat's official website here.

Feeling a little two-dimensional

Here's a South Park version of me showing up for work at 6:30am. You can create your own version at South Park Studio.

Thanks to Chickadee for the link.

In other news...

By the way, did you hear that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got married on ... Oh, who cares...

Black Friday

Just wanted to apologize to anybody who happened to cross my path on Friday morning. Due to the heavy rains last week, mudslides spilled into our reservoirs, resulting in brown tap water for much of the Greater Vancouver area. Because of this, ALL downtown Starbucks were not serving drip coffee for risk of contamination. Can you imagine? Very hard to wake up for a rainy 6:30 shift without my morning Starbucks fix. I spent the whole morning feeling like I was in a scene from Trainspotting.
In any case, Starbucks was back in full service on Saturday, so I was able to put the tragic events of 11/17 behind me. We still have to boil our water for the next few days or so until things are back to normal. I managed to get through the rest of the weekend alright though. Saw Borat on Friday night (more about that later) and went to a house party on Saturday night where I hydrated with lots and lots of Smirnoff Ice. I'm back on weekend shifts from 12:00-8:30 which is kind of a drag, since there's not a lot to do, but since the weather hasn't been great, I don't feel like I've been missing out on much.

Office life

Last Friday I went to my Mum's long overdue retirement party. It's hard to believe that she worked at the same accountant's firm for 25 years! It seems that the days of working for the same company for such a long period of time are becoming a thing of the past. Career changes occur much more frequently nowadays and most companies just don't seem to last as long as they used to. But all in all it was a very nice night - it was obvious that everyone genuinely enjoyed having her around and that they were sorry to see her go. Of course there was the standard cringeworthy Powerpoint presentation along with the usual free alcohol abuse and helium sucking sing-a-longs. But I am glad that I went.
It also got me thinking about office environments and the people you spend your working life with. It's incredible sometimes how such a odd, disconnected bunch of strangers can co-exist when they need to. That's the appeal, I think, of shows like The Office (yes, both the British AND the American versions).
I suppose that I'm pretty lucky to be working with a very nice bunch of odd, disconnected strangers. In fact many of the strangers have become friends. After a couple of days off, I look forward to seeing the people I work with; catching up on their lives, recycling the same old stupid jokes, gossiping, flirting, and bitching about silly things. Enjoying what you do is one thing, but it's the people that you work with who keep you going. My sister described a recent bad spell in her work environment as a little like Lord of the Flies. Yes, I have days like that sometimes, but it's not THAT bad. I haven't found a pig's head on a stick in my cubicle lately.

November Rain (and no I don't mean the Guns 'n' Roses song)

Been a while since I've posted. No excuses really. I think that maybe the weather has affected my motivation. It's been back to the typical Vancouver November rain lately and I just feeling like hibernating when I get home from work and not even going near a computer. The walks home from work just haven't been the same with all those beautiful fall leaves now looking like soggy cereal. I've just switched over to weekend shifts too which means I've just plowed through working seven days straight. Bleah.
On the plus side I do get three days off in a row now. Yay.

For my Mum...

Here's a design that I used for a birthday card for my Mum last week. A lovely card for a lovely Mum.

The Departed

Yesterday, I went to see The Departed; Scorsese's take on the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. I liked how he kept the basic framework of the original but added more motivation and depth to the characters. This was a much grittier and more character-driven film than Infernal Affairs, which was more stylish and action-orientated.
It also had all of the ingredients of a Scorsese movie - great use of songs on the soundtrack, it's opening voice-over, swooping cameras and sudden bursts of brutal violence. It also had great dialogue; characters that you really wanted to listen to between the action and suspense. The one thing I think he could have left out from the original was a subplot involving a romance with a police psychologist. It seemed kind of convoluted, slowed things down and didn't really go anywhere.
The performances were great too. I liked how Scorsese left Jack Nicholson's face in darkness for much of the beginning, just letting his voice do the acting. And as for Leonardo DiCaprio, nobody can do tortured anguish like he can. He's evolving into a tough looking guy - far removed from the pretty boy in Titanic.

Liam and Noel meet the matchstick men

Here's a great video from Oasis to promote their new greatest hits CD. The song is 'The Masterplan' and the video is inspired by those wonderful matchstick men paintings by L.S. Lowry. These paintings, in turn, inspired Status Quo to write 'Pictures of Matchstick Men'. Status Quo, in turn, helped inspire the sound of Oasis. And the cycle of life continues...



And here's one of Lowry's paintings; 'Coming Out of School' painted in 1927. More about him here.

And on a lighter note...

My Halloween activities continued last night with a trip to a haunted village with my sister and nephew Jack (dressed up as a little crocodude). Had a great time trick-or-treating with him, riding the carousel and making him roar at strangers. He was a pretty brave little guy considering all of the scary noises, dry ice, and costumes (like witches on stilts) surrounding him. At his age, I probably would have wet myself. Mind you we didn't really celebrate Halloween in England when I was a kid. Instead we had Guy Fawkes Night where we watched fireworks and burnt effigies on huge bonfires. Much more wholesome.

If you go down to the woods today...

Halloween started early for me this year. This past Saturday, I went to the Vancouver International Film Centre to see a film called Rituals, part of their current 'Terror on the Tundra - Canadian Horror Classics' series. It's the first time the film has been shown on screen since 1977 when it was first released. It's never been released on DVD and is nearly impossible to find on VHS. I still remember seeing it on TV way back when(maybe the early 80s) and that it scared the crap out of me. It's still very scary, despite some pretty dodgy choices for the soundtrack music (hey, it was the 70s) and some poor lighting in some of the night scenes.
The plot is pretty basic; five doctors go on a hike in the Canadian wilderness and are terrorized by an unknown maniac. What makes it so different from your standard horror movie is that the hikers are five intelligent middle-aged men, not your stereotypical group of hormone-charged teens. Apparently the whole shoot was a hell of an ordeal for everyone involved. They shot it chronologically to add more realism to the physical and psychological changes in the actors. Also, the actors did all of their own stunts - falling down mountains, floating down rapids, fighting off swarms of bees. You can see them getting dirtier, growing more stubble and deteriorating right before your eyes.
The movie owes a lot to Deliverance, but is much more of a psychological horror film. Like The Blair Witch Project, much of the horror comes from the wilderness around them and how their relationships slowly break down during their ordeal. A very effective and very Canadian movie, with some truly frightening and disturbing scenes.
By the way, I love the poster (see above) for this - there's nothing really 'GOTHIC HORROR' about it. It's Canadian eh?

Psome pseriously pswirly psychedelic pstuff

Here's a website I just discovered for a designer/artist called Si Scott (even his name is kinda swirly). He has a wonderful portfolio of beautiful flowing artwork and typography. You can see it here.

Found on Kaliber 10000.

Remake/Remodel

Here's a great clip that I had to post - Roxy Music performing on a German TV show in 1973. This is the Roxy Music that I really love, before they started making slick make-out albums like Avalon. Remake/Remodel is a song that really goes over the top, giving all the guys in the band a chance to strut their stuff and show off. I love the part at the end where they all get to do their own quirky little solos.
Oh and check out Brian Eno on the keyboards, dressed like a gay vulture.

Which one are you?

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are
always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
- Bertrand Russell

Another fine mess

Here's an incredibly ambitious Sony Bravia TV ad directed by Jonathan (Sexy Beast) Grazer. It used:

70,000 litres of paint
358 single bottle bombs
33 sextuple air cluster bombs
22 Triple hung cluster bombs
268 mortars
33 Triple Mortars
22 Double mortars
358 meters of weld
330 meters of steel pipe
57 km of copper wire
And no CGI!

It took 5 days and 60 people to clean up the mess. I guess they wanted to get their damage deposit back.

Hi-res version is here.
Lo-res version is here.

More Mew?

Ok, now I'm totally hooked on the Mew CD I bought last weekend. The guy has such an incredible voice. Great music to listen to when there's fog in the air and leaves falling around you. Here's their video for 'The Zookeeper's Boy'

Kasabian and Mew

I went to see Kasabian a couple of nights back at the Commodore. Their new album, Empire, is great. It has the kinds of songs that lend themselves to being sung with arms outstretched, backlit by spotlights and dry ice. They put on a really good show to a very enthusiastic crowd with lots of 'na-na-naaa' sing-alongs and shout-outs to the great city of 'Vancoovah'. They have a great video for their new single 'Shoot the Runner' on their website here.



One of the opening bands, Mew from Denmark, was also very good. They reminded me a little of Sigur Ros - very atmospheric and glacial. Singer looked a little like a blonde Tom Hulce in Amadeus. I ended up buying their CD after their set at the show. It's called 'And the Glass Handed Kites'. How's THAT for pretentious? Or maybe something was lost in translation.

What about Bob?

Saw Bob Dylan last night with my Dad, my sister and her friend. Very good show, considering it can be kind of hit and miss with the guy when you see him live. His band was incredible, breathing new life into songs nearly 40 or more (!) years old. It's always a nice change of pace to go to a concert and see 'real musicians' sometimes. Songs like 'Tangled Up in Blue' and 'Like a Rolling Stone' will be around for ever. I'm glad he played 'All Along the Watchtower' for the encore; it has to be one of my favorites. As every year goes by, it makes more and more sense.
I must admit that, growing up as a teenager, I didn't really appreciate his stuff. Dad loved him, buying every album that he put out, while I was listening to, oh I don't know, stuff like Sigue Sigue Sputnik or Power Station. Kind of embarrassing really - maybe I just wasn't ready for good music yet.

Now that's a nice set of conkers

The beautiful Fall weather continues in Vancouver (thank-you global warming). The Fall always makes me nostalgic, particularly when I happen across the many horse-chestnuts littered around the West-End. They remind me of when I was a kid in England, playing conkers with other pasty-white boys with names like Gareth, Nigel or Gavin.
By the way, did you know that ex-Python Michael Palin was disqualified from the 1993 World Conker Championships for baking his conker and boiling it in vinegar? Well, now you do.
More about conkers here.

Some record-breaking sex and violence

Now why didn't anyone think of this before? This is a funny, gory motion piece using classic album covers. Directed by Ugly Pictures and animated by Man vs. Magnet. It takes a little time to download, but it's well worth the wait. You can view it here.

Found on motionographer.