you are a stinge award: to the man with a briefcase and laptop, who originally asked if we had wireless set up. we don’t, so he wanted to use the free internet, but you have to be a member of the library to use it. if you don’t have an address in the state, you can only become a temporary member with a twenty dollar deposit. so he went ahead and did that, and while we were writing up his membership details, he told us he was leaving at five this afternoon.

oh for heaven’s sake, he could have spent a few dollars at an internet cafe for more time than our one hour a day maximum. also just bloody ridiculous going around the rules and making us run around just for free access. and to compound, when he was done, he came up to the desk and waved the library card wordlessly in my face. “what do you want,” i said tersely, even though i already knew. filled out the paperwork for his twenty dollar refund, cancelled his membership, collected the cash from the workroom and handed it back to him. but he had another question, could he borrow any books? aaaaarggghhh

lately i’m obsessed with the idea of watching more films. i’m trying out quickflix, which sounds like an australian ripoff of netflix. i have a ridiculous 100+ titles in my queue, which makes me think i might subscribe to it monthly, rather than have to scramble around video store closing times and their small selection. in the mail already is harold and kumar and i’ll sleep when i’m dead. hope they can find me a copy of times square soon.

“you’ll be better off with this abercrombie and fitch crowd. i’m too salvation army for you.”

“if the script is really going to go as written, then we’ll get more lines like that out of deadpan clive owen. because it’s really quite weird when he turns the comedy on - remember the “star” bmw short with madonna? when he starts playing up (”look ma no hands”) i think i’m actually laughing at clive.

“sorry pal, i don’t have time to wait for you to get brain cancer from the electro-magnetic field created by your phone.”

alright, it’s funnier when in the context of the script. but it looks like possible copious amounts of violence and gun play, and it’s a new line film too?!? and paul giamatti as the villain? goddamn, i can’t wait.

(btw, who needs bond anyway? just splint all the bmw films together, and it’s the best film ever, minus all the boring side plots and women.)

the new chimpanzee is out! if you can get your hands on one, it’s a nicer full bleed comic book size (and yes, there are plenty of comic book reviews inside too).

there’s a japanese hip hop special that i wrote (well, only the ones i think are worth listening to, no bling bling please) plus a review of inside man (i would be so happy if we returned to the state of american movies in the 80s when mainstream film was well thought out and done well).

download issue 5 from the pdf archive.

dammit, my old blog is better. sorry. probably because i had a heap of time to kill in my old job. i will get my own homepage soon, and because of ego and pride, make proper entries instead of excuse ones.

meanwhile, i really would like a worst actors ever page, but this will do for the time being.

and i’m being totally serious when i say i can’t wait until scary movie 4 opens here next week. craig bierko does tom ryan does tom cruise. i’m sold! is bierko doing more comedy these days because he has big googly eyes, which cannot get him any decent scripts lately (well other than cinderella man, in which it sounds like he was not very chummy with russell, which is fine by me).

one of these people is clive owen. which one i do not know

i love writing. i have spent most of my weekend writing, apart from going out for hotcakes, antique window shopping (not about buying windows), and watching sin city. what other device can i use to describe sin city other than words? words are my staple.

why didn’t i see this film at the cinema? work and/or hearing about people walking out of it halfway. but it isn’t even like that - maybe i’m desensitised, because the violence is cartoonish, the blood alternately white, yellow and red that it just doesn’t matter anymore. what a world! what a digital comic book! thankfully nothing like robocop 2 and 3 (adaptations of frank miller’s other work).

my brother: “borrowed bride and prejudice… the indian one… and alfie. they are not my choices.”

go out and watch inside man, even if you aren’t that fond of denzel washington. there are so many tiny details to mention - street name allusions, “we will not forget”, ethnicities, camera work… it’s probably just me, but i was overjoyed to pick up on the trail spike lee left behind.

i love you matt dillon, but… no.

i’m so pissed that crash won best picture (even their website is irritating). but i’m not alone: filmbrain was certainly annoyed, giving an ice cube film as a better alternative; while all these wonderful things summarised the feelings of many others.

it’s not that i wanted another film in particular to take out the prize, but not this condescending film about race for whiteys. uh huh, that’s what i mean.

from now on, who cares who wins an oscar if it’s you and your best friends (several hundred of them) voting for your film? (of course i am speculating, but it’s a wild guess just like the chance of this film winning an academy award)

but for all of that, there was jon stewart, the frat pack, stephen colbert narrating the “campaign” ads, phillip seymour hoffman and a glimpse of dan futterman.

hana presents alice with her first magazine cover - alice looks closer at the “dot” on her nose…

melmo is a ficticious magazine created for the film, and is also a replica of olive!

even the cover tag line is taken from an old issue, replacing ‘olive girls’ with ‘melmo girls’…

olive is now defunct, ceasing publication after the aug 2003 issue, but the film hana and alice was released in 2004 so somewhere during filming their paths crossed. it’s a pity the reference came out too late to keep it alive.

i’ve kept all my old issues, a couple of years’ worth. what i liked most about the magazine was the concordance of culture. if you possess a certain aesthetic, their style of dressing will appeal to you, and the music and films suggested will already strike a chord.

rip slyme, okuda tamio, and ego wrappin’ are some of the musicians covered in issues. of course there was some creep in by hello project’s matsuura aya and johnny’s talent, but they were mostly for cuteness factor. photographer ninagawa mika used to have a monthly page, collaborating with writer sakurai ami. mangaka minami q-ta had a monthly comic, and naomi lemon (nao of seagull screaming kiss her kiss her) also had her own page of drawings.

so if it follows the rule, then hana and alice, and by extension, shunji iwai’s films, all belong in that world of olive girls culture.

it makes it even more awesome that capote is written by dan futterman. i think when i was twenty-one i wrote something along the lines of ‘dan futterman plays my ideal brother in judging amy‘ because when you’re that age, you still get annoyed when your brother is an ass.

that has little bearing on the quality of writing, but until it opens here on feb 16…

a go go!

i really love old shaw brothers films, which i usually catch in passing on cable tv. i don’t mind the odd david chiang/ti lung bust up either. weirdly enough, my father thinks they’re old hat and changes the channel, but everything old is new for me anyway.

i only saw the end of hong kong nocturne, but old fashioned songs about hong kong (the place that erases your troubles in the mist?) given a beat twist? and of course the saturated colour and lavish sets…

more pictures here and a little about musicals in hong kong
about hong kong nocturne