HURTS cover Kylie’s “Confide In Me”.
Magnificent.
29
Aug 10
The perils of ageing
This is the video for DJ Blaqstarr’s “Shake It To The Ground”, but believe me when I say this is all Rye Rye and rightly so.
I quite like this song and the video isn’t so bad. What grates though is that Rye Rye is only 19 and I couldn’t even hope to muster anywhere near enough talent to do anything like this when I was her age. What grates even more is how much younger everyone in music seems to becoming with every passing year. Just look at Justin Bieber and that Aussie knock-off that is Cody Simpson. Dreadful.
This never used to be a problem when I was younger.
Also: “Bang” by Rye Rye feat. M.I.A. also impresses. Get on it.
29
Aug 10
So. Conflicted.
Kimbra – Settle Down from Forum5 Recordings on Vimeo.
New Zealand has a fantastic tradition, where we only tend to celebrate our own talent once it has fled our shores to find recognition in the arms of others. This constant seeking of permission to give credit where credit is due is something that will never change, no matter how nonsensical it may be. All that matters I guess is that credit is eventually given where due.
And so we have the video for Kimbra’s “Settle Down”, an unexpected video from an unexpected young woman with an unexpected voice. Colour me well and truly intrigued, and that was before finding out she’s originally from Hamilton of all places.
Kimbra has since moved to Melbourne and seems to really be making strides, which is great especially if “Settle Down” is a sign of what is yet to come. If you don’t believe me, head here to see what Perez Hilton had to say about her and this song.
* the title of this posts relates to the internal conflict I have between how similar she looks to Gin Wigmore (huge con) and how dissimilar she sounds to Gin Wigmore (huge pro). For the record, I REALLY don’t enjoy Gin Wigmore.
29
Aug 10
Sad news: Satoshi Kon
Received some sad news last week regarding the passing of Japanese anime director Satoshi Kon at the relatively young age of 47. The director of disturbing fanboy-paranoia-film Perfect Blue, memory-hopping film Paprika and the deep Millenium Actress, I first came across his work through the excellent OAV series Paranoia Agent.
For a taste of how random his work has been, here’s the intro to Paranoia Agent:
And the trailer to Paprika:
I’ve been watching both as a tribute to the man. If you’ve never seen any of his work, now’s the time to make the effort.
21
Aug 10
Things I have seen: Rubber
When the credits finished and the lights came up at the theatre, the first thing Piers said to me was “was it worth it?”. My answer was along the lines of “fuck, yeah!” for quite possibly the most expensive film I’d ever paid to see didn’t disappoint in any sense except the ridiculous (think: “surely they can just replay it again for us”).
This is a film about a film being viewed like no film I’ve ever known by people I really didn’t understand. If that makes very little sense, then welcome to the entire premise behind Rubber. The image above comes from the introductory monologue that describes this film as an homage to “no reason”.
This isn’t a film for the ages, nor is it life-changing or ever likely to be considered Oscar-worthy. This is however one of the most enjoyable films I’ve seen in recent years and every fibre of my being resonates with unhealthy desire to see it again.
Take from that what you will.
21
Aug 10
Things I have done: Dunny 2010
POPUP hosted the launch of the new dunny series from Kid Robot and it was an enjoyable if subdued affair against previous series launches.
I won’t go into how early I got there, how much I’d had to drink before arriving, or how quickly I ended up with as many dunnies as I did.
What I will say is that I managed to walk away with 62 of the little buggers and they all look really rather good. I’ll post photos in due course, so you’ll have to trust me in the meantime when I say this is perhaps Kid Robot’s strongest series yet.
Working from left-to-right, top-to-bottom I have…
Esther Kim x 5
Huck Gee x 4
Sket One Boom x 2
Michelle Valigura x 5
Doktor A x 1
MAD x 1
Sket One Ketchup x 5 + Sweet Relish variant x 2
Damarak x 4 + green variant x 1
CW x 0
Shelterbank x 5
Travis Cain x 3
MCA x 3
Tizieu x 5
Sneaky Raccoon x 7
Amanda Vissell x 6
Jesse Hernandez x 1
The Beast Brothers x 0
Triclops Studio x 0
Frank Kozik Green Apples x 1
Frank Kozik Gold Apples x 0
Aya Kakeda x 1
The Huck Gee ninja foxes look amazing, as do the Sket One ketchups and the detailing on the Jesse Hernandez, Doktor A and Sneaky Raccoon figures is staggering. The prize for best design though, at least for me, is a tie between Travis Cain’s balloon dunny with it’s Jeff Koons-esque head and Aya Kakeda’s super-rare and completely-unexpected centaur dunny.
I only have a few gaps before I have a complete set and hopefully my patience holds out long enough to get one of the Triclops Studio zombie dunnies. Promo photos of it look really good.
I’ll definitely be heading back to POPUP to get more, so if you’re keen to swap spares, let me know either by email or by leaving a comment on this post.
The ones I’m really keen to build higher numbers around are the Huck Gee, Travis Cain, Sneaky Raccoon, MCA and Jesse Hernandez dunnies.
One can never have too many dunnies
05
Aug 10
Back soon
Just have a few things to sort out since arriving back from Melbourne.
Expect new posts anon-like.
21
Jul 10
I love Asians
Asian delegations to my workplace always bring the better goodies as gestures of heartfelt appreciation.
This time: cookies that look like blob-shaped gingernuts and an ornate mankerchief (the photo shows it in the paper bag).
UPDATE: the cookies are the most amazing sugar cookies I’ve ever eaten. Mother. Fucker.
