What the fuck is wrong with Dymocks at Broadway?

Gosh, how times have changed. It's been quite a while since I last browsed the Dymocks at Broadway. Once upon a time, that wondrous space (in the old Grace Bros building, now Broadway Shopping Centre) was home to a very classy Collins book store. It had an intra-store Gloria Jeans and as many uni students working behind the counter as you could poke a stick at. They knew what you were talking about when you asked for a particular author or title, the range of books and categories was exemplary and as a consequence shopping there was a very pleasant experience.

A few years later I wandered in for a browse to find the shelves almost completely bare, even though the doors were open for business. Bugger. Bankruptcy. In its place, after some time, came a Dymocks. Oh well, I thought. Its a great space, they are bound to treat this as a second flag ship store. But no, no, no this was not to be the case. On the rare occasions I browsed there I found the staff to be only a fraction short of hostile and not at all short of ignorant and the layout and range of books hopelessly compromised.

But until my visit today (to spend a gift voucher), I haven't had an occasion to visit any other Dymocks stores for a very long time, but I can't imagine that their business model could have changed so radically. I never saw them as anything more than a suburban chain store, selling a pretty limited selection of titles, but this! The visual merchandising is appalling. Books are laid out on bargain tables, the shelves are dishevelled, everything is muddled together with racks of tacky knick-knacks and worst of all some sale items and subject categories are marked with badly hand scribbled labels on plain paper sticky-taped to the shelf.

So many questions, so few answers on the website. Doesn't the Dymocks franchise owner provide standard maroon and white signage for the stores? Are other Dymocks stores now like this? Who owns the Dymocks Broadway franchise/store? And what the fuck are they thinking???

Long live Gleebooks, Better Read Than Dead, Elizabeth's, Ariel & Berkelouw I say!

The Ark Project aka Fabulous But Unnecessary Purchases Part 1

Actually, the 'Part 1' in the title of this post is a little misleading. There are just so many unnecessary purchases in my past, and like past lovers, so easily forgotten when something newer and shinier comes along ...

A few weeks ago I wondered into Mag Nation on King Street, Newtown. My attention was immediately drawn to a fantastic illustrated book/magazine, 'Ark: an Illustrated Animal Bible'. So cool. The idea behind the Ark Project, as the name suggests, is to gather animals from all over the world and 'save' them in the Illustrated Animal Bible. More than 200 illustrators/artists contributed to the book, each providing an illustration of an animal from their part of the world. Australian contributors include Christopher Nielson, Nior, Monaux, Rinzen, Jeremyville, Drew Funk, Cupco and Ghostpatrol.

This afternoon I cracked and muttering something to MBH ran out and bought The Ark book. I just know this time it'll last.

Melissa Shoes

Attention! Attention! We at FTLOASD have a truly exciting discovery to report! Just this evening I have stumbled upon the wonderous loveliness of Melissa Shoes*. How I could have lived in ignorance of these divine shoe-beings is completely beyond my comprehension. I think its best if I just show you some purty pictures (borrowed with thanks from Fat4 and some other site) and some mouth-watering video.

The shoes above were done in collaboration with practically the only fashion designer I actually like, Vivienne Westwood.

Watching the video is imperative.



Chicka-bow-wow!

* the truly madly deeply fabulous thing about Melissa shoes is ... nothing had to die to make them. Sure, some petrochemicals were inconvenienced but its a great result overall. Yay for that!

Two Thousand and I Don't Think So

Ordinarily I would start a film review post with a spoiler alert, but honestly, the only thing that would "spoil" your enjoyment of 2012 is if you paid money to see it. Luckily, one of my besties paid for my ticket, so the only thing I lost out on was those 2+ hours of my life that I'll never get back.

We saw a preview for the new suped up, hollywoodified Sherlock Holmes movie. On the plus side Robert Downey Jr plays Holmes. On the very, very, very minus side that movie ruiner Jude Law plays Watson. On balance Law sucks more than Downey Jr shines, so I shan't be writing a review of Sherlock Holmes any time soon.

Back to 2012. The lameness begins in the first scene when we meet Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a geological scientist, watching the earth's core bubbling up through a manhole in India. The plot gets less plausible from this point. Woody Harrelson plays a hillbilly conspiracy theorist maddy and John Cusack, who I'm sure we all agree is a lovely chap, plays the unlikely hero who has been thrown into the eye of the catastrophe movie storm.

The plot goes like this: bigger than usual sun spots are superheating the earth's core and causing the earth's crust to break up. Along comes Adrian Helmsley with an urgent report for one of the US government's top men. For some reason they take him seriously straight away and start building big ships in China. Meanwhile, John Cusack takes his kids camping at Yellowstone and runs into Woody Harrelson, which is bad enough, but Woody's character turns out to be a plot device and tells John about the fate of the planet and that the go'ment is trying to cover it all up. John Cusack decides the best course of action is to round up the family and head to China! What else? Danny Glover plays the President, who goes down with his ship/country and there is a pointless side story about John's character being a writer. Yawn. It's the other annoying touches that really finished 2012 off for me, like one of the characters is a British scientist who wears a lab coat and walks with a limp and a cane. Cliched much? Anyway, they all get on the boats, run into the Himilayas and a month later the earth has reconfigured itself and they all sail off into the sunset.

There are annoying kiddies, dull heart felt moments and the most unbelievable plot since Roland Emmerich's last crockbuster. He also directed 10,000BC, The Day After Tomorrow, The Patriot, Godzilla, Independence Day and Stargate. I haven't seen 10,000BC or The Patriot but as with the rest of Emmerich's films you really don't need to. Having said that, I really quite liked The Day After Tomorrow but I may have been distracted by that dishy Jake Gyllenhaal. There are touches of The Poseidon Adventure and every other disaster movie I've ever seen, and basically its The Day After Tomorrow all over again but with fire instead of ice.

My friend and I exchanged "this movie really sucks' " several times during 2012. And for anyone who has seen it, the line "no more pull-ups" had me retching into my handbag. Recommended for ... well no one!

Further Shiny Objects (to line my nest)

I bought a totally shmick-oh new compact digital camera last week. It's the top of the range digital compact from Fuji. It's got all kinds of fanciness that I don't really understand and couldn't be bothered explaining, so instead here's a picture. Shiny.

The Greatest Show on Earth (Episode 3)

Apologies for the delay in posting my response to last week's episode of ALTL. Things have been moving pretty fast around here since MBH went back to work. In fact Episode 4 has whizzed by without me even watching it, which is lucky 'cause I'm over ALTL now. The delicious cringe value has turned to pity and that ain't no fun.

Here are the basic notes I jotted down from Episode 3:

Young Kelly made an impression this week with her proud assertion that "by the end of the night I've drunk myself stupid and I'm either abusing someone or chucking up in a gutter".

Some of the cutaways are witty. Jessica is told to turn to Mrs Shrager or Mrs Harbord if she gets nervous mc'ing the fashion show. Cut to a rather mad and severe looking Mrs Harbord. Titter.

Shiny Objects

Here is something pretty I'd like to get my mits on:

This is the La Sorrentina coffee maker, a reproduction of the Atomic Coffee Maker imported into Australia by the Bon Trading Co from the 60's to the 80's. According to the Bon Trading website the Atomic is still being made, but it is the opinion of some that none have been produced since the factory in Milan burnt down many years ago. Apparently, "new" Atomics are usually cheap knockoffs made in India and lack the quality and attention to detail of the genuine machine. Who knows the truth? Certainly not me. I have had my eye on the La Sorrentina, which is a licensed reproduction but still costs about 450 bucks, which ain't as much as the second hand Atomics!

After much agonising about whether to invest in such a lovely shiny thing I decided not to make the purchase. This is rare for me. MBH calls it having "a bee in my bonnet" but sometimes when such an objay has taken my attention I find it virtually impossible to resist. Somehow, this time I decided on a com-pro-mise and bought a perfectly lovely Bialetti Moka Express instead. Octagonal-y. As you can see, the Bialetti is no slouch in the lovely shiny thing stakes either:

Coffee anyone?

Sydney Cafe Vegetarian Delights

Lately, MBH and I have been checking out a few new cafes hoping to find a couple of cool new spots with good coffee and a decent range of vego options. What we already know is that Kelby's in Marrickville does a great poached eggs with dukkah, sweet potato and fetta, Sideways Cafe in Dulwich Hill does great corn fritters with baby spinach, haloumi and some kind of yummo relish plus the loveliest home made cakes ever, Big Brekky in Petersham does good coffee (but always slow to arrive) and scrambled eggs, Post Cafe in Marrickville offers a very good toasted turkish sandwich with goats cheese, thinly sliced roast pumpkin, baby spinach and sun dried tomato paste, Cinque in Newtown does good pea, mint and haloumi fritters and of course the incomparable italian hot chocolate, Sonoma in Glebe does fantastic coffee and mixed berry muffins, Campos in Newtown is just for a really bloody good coffee, le Petit Creme in Darlinghurst is good for crepe suzette and frites and Kazbah in Balmain is good for porridge with fruit compote, sweet couscous and vegie tagines.

All solid options, but I'm always looking for something new to add to my reportoire of vegetarian cafe goodness. Enter this recent Timeout article: 

http://www.timeoutsydney.com.au/restaurants/sydneysbestfood/sydneys-top-breakfasts.aspx

I've already been to Kazbah, Marigold and Baffi & Mo and I don't plan to visit Bondi or Balmoral any time soon in my searching, so we decided to try Clipper Cafe in Glebe and Bang Bang in Surry Hills. We visited Clipper Cafe on a Saturday morning before popping into the Glebe Record Fair and the joint was jumping. We sat at the end of a long bench seat with the other patrons. The service was friendly and fast and the home made baked beans with poached eggs were tasty but far too salty for me. The decor was pleasant, with white walls, a long wooden bench along one side and stools and high tables on the other side. High up on the opposite wall from where we sat were two bicycles and some retro objays (including an Atomic coffee machine) on shelves. We will certainly return.

The following weekend we met a friend for brunch at BangBang in Surry Hills. There were middle aged hipsters reading the SMH and younger hipsters not reading the SMH and the same bench style seating as Clipper Cafe. We wedged ourselves in next to the older hipsters and ordered our coffees. I had primarily wanted to brunch at BangBang for the promise of Welsh rarebit, which I have nevered tried before. I was curious and ready to have my taste buds blown off. It was ok but not all that I expected. BangBang is kind of an upmarket greasy spoon and therefore is rather meaty. Don't know if we'll be back as I don't have much reason to be in Surry Hills on a weekend morning.

The Greatest Show on Earth (Episode 2)

Oh what a night for reality tv. I must divulge straight away that my favourite moment tonight was Kerryn exclaiming "I just jizzed in me pants" when the girls were told they had a chance to take part in a vintage car motor rally. For me, the expression discloses genuine enthusiasm. I'll have to find a way to use "I just jizzed in me pants" in general conversation like our Kerryn. Even though she hasn't captured much air time yet I feel her star is on the rise.

Other ALTL highlights included the nudist bogan Shari's massive turn around mid-episode. She went from marauding harridan to submissive suck-arse so fast it's almost enough to make her parents sit up and take notice. And who knew a real lady would never open her own car door? Goodness! I have been getting it wrong all these years and I'm sure MBH will be thrilled to know there is yet one more way he can cater to my femininity. So how does it work if I'm driving by myself? Should I park near a good supply of men in the hopes that one will release me from the car? And what do the rules say about climbing out the window? Gosh, ettiquette is a tricky business.

I thought the ladettes would wait till at least week 3 to fall in a tragic heap in Mrs Shrager's arms but tonight not one but two ladettes, Jessica and Kaila were drawn into the bosomosphere, blubbing in their dreadful flat accents about their sad past and hopes for a better future.

Poor Samantha got the flick tonight, and for what? For being a bit hopeless at shelling 4000 quail eggs in half an hour, so a bunch of chinless twats can have a post-rally picnic under ominous British storm clouds, that's what. They always get rid of the frumps early on. No doubt just another predictable tweaking of the reality tv world. But still. Based on lady-like-ish-ness (or the lack of) I reckon that sullen cow Donnelle should have copped it tonight for sure. Waddaya reckon readers? ... readers?

Au revoir Samantha!

Aussie Ladette to Lady is on at 9:30pm Tuesdays on Channel 9.

Thinking Outside the Bottle

I tried to reference The Australian article of the same name. Max Allen wrote it for the Food & Wine section of The Weekend Australian, 3-4 October 2009. But do you think I could find it online to link to this blog post? Nahhhhhhhhhh. I may as well plagarise, since apparently The Australian couldn't be bothered posting this article to its website, but I can't be bothered so I'll just say it's about cool wine labels. Not just cool wine labels, of the type designed to attract young 20 something drinkers, but cool wine labels that are backed up by decent wines. I decided to try some of the bottles mentioned, just to make sure the wines were decent chop.

I've tasted the Ad Hoc Wallflower Riesling and The Killer Pinot Grigio but have yet to lay hands on Mother's Milk by First Drop or Monsters, Monsters Attack by Some Young Punks. The Some Young Punks Website is quite annoying with its applets and suchlike, but with names like The Squid's Fist, Double Love Trouble, Drink'n'Stick, Naked on Roller Skates, Quickie!, The Fire In Her Eyes and Passion Has Red Lips I've gotta get my hands on some.

By the way, Ad Hoc Wallflower Riesling and The Killer Pinot Grigio are heartily recommended. Both can be purchased at Dan Murphy's.

The Greatest Show on Earth (Episode 1)

I am, of course, refering to Aussie Ladette to Lady. That show has everything - slappers, loud-mouthed old school marms, well heeled inbred toffs, and everyone displaying appalling behaviour from go to whoa. Don't you just love it when a show simultaneously holds a mirror up to the boganity it exploits while showing up the equally crass, judgmental and class-driven snobbery of the supposed arbiters of decency and good behaviour? I do. And the even greater truth is that I, the viewer, revel in every minute of it.

Season two brings us a fresh crop of hard-drinking, hard-living young women all intent on outdoing each other's "ladette" behaviour. The stand out ladette for me as of the first episode is Shari, for whom "clothes just get in the way of a good time". For some reason, despite some pretty off colour behaviour, Shari made it through for another week of televisual humiliation. Perhaps they've recognised that a girl like Shari makes for good television. Or am I being cynical? Letisha got the boot on the first episode so we won't get a chance to plumb the depths of her bogan psyche. Jessica is another stand out ladette, but for my money I reckon Kerryn will bring home the pearl earrings. The rest are a mix of extrovert teens and early twenty somethings, mere episode padding fodder. And of course, Mrs Brewer, Mrs Harbord and Mrs Shrager bellow their way around Eggelston Hall, accusing the girls of being " disgusting sluts". Now that's finishing school!

Check out this link for more info on the girls:

http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/aussieladettetolady/ladettes/

I'm taking bets on which ladette will be first to crumple against the ample bosom of Mrs Shrager, sobbing about the terrible life she has led so far and how desperately she wants to turn it all around. I think we'll see some action of this sort by episode 3, episode 4 at the absolute latest.

Also, an honourable mention for whoever best describes the animal Mrs Harbord looks most like.

7th Annual Sydney Vintage Show

I made the trip to Canterbury Race Course last weekend to check out the vintage show. I picked up a gold glomesh coin purse for 15 bucks but apart from that I probably wouldn't have felt I got my $12 entry fee worth if I hadn't made a rather intriguing discovery. It turns out that one of my favourite characters about town, Jeff from Mitchell Road Auctions (Pic 1) is in fact moonlighting as Dame Edna Everidge (Pic 2).

Pic 1 - Jeff onsite at Mitchell Road Auction Centre

Pic 2 - "Dame Edna" at the Vintage Show

I waited what seemed an age for him to notice me standing demurely off to the side as he falsettoed his way through a number of bon mots with passers by. I had remarked to my companion a few moments earlier: "Wait til he sees me" and she looked through a nearby clothes rack as time passed and my confidence slowly wilted. Oh Christ, I thought, please notice me, this is getting embarrassing! Finally, Jeff/Edna turned in my direction and without pause he exclaimed: "What are you doing here?" Phew! Anyway, we chatted a while and he kept up the falsetto admirably well. My vocal chords were starting to ache in sympathy. I hope he survived the day.

By Popular Demand ...

Due to *ahem* overwhelming demand I am going to provide a couple of vague and unhelpful movie reviews, mainly because most films I see go in one eye and out the other. Anyhoo, here I go.

Inglourious Basterds

Brad Pitt doing a weird accent. Nazis. Thuggish jews with baseball bats. A vengeful cinema owner and much, much more. The real star of IB was the guy who played Colonel Landa. What a menacing prick he was. Recommended.

District 9

We ended up seeing District 9 'cause our friends got tickets first, then the session proceeded to sell out, then our friends gave us their tickets. What bloody superstars! Thanks Lala & Mark. It was a very entertaining flick, with what Margaret and David call a "predictable narrative arc" but nevertheless it makes my recommended list simply for being set in Jo'berg replete with cool, freaky SA accents and names like Wikas.

The September Issue

Anna Wintour is nothing but a stone cold bitch, and don't let this documentary lead you to believe anything different. She is THE woman responsible for bringing fur back into fashion. Enough said. The true hero of this doco is Grace Coddington, the fashion editor at Vogue. It is obvious she has serious artist talent. Heaven knows why she wastes her vast artist energies on fashion.

$9.99

We took TBC to a Reel Mums session at Dendy Newtown. We missed $9.99 at the Sydney Film Festival this year so I was glad to see it got a cinematic release. I was primarily curious to watch $9.99 as its a Sherman Production, as in the Sherman family who fund the animal rights charity Voiceless. Emile Sherman runs the film production business that has produced such Australian films as Candy, Rabbit Proof Fence and more recently Disgrace. Plus I'm also a sucker for claymation. There was an a-list cast of Australians voicing the characters - Geoffrey Rush, Anthony Lapaglia, Claudia Karvan, Joel Edgerton and a few others I can't remember right now. I enjoyed the film but felt the stories didn't intersect terribly well and relied on being set in the same apartment building.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil

See previous posting for a review of Anvil! Recommended.

Up

I'm not just a sucker for claymation but pretty much all animation, so seeing the new Pixar flick was never in doubt. Great animation with astounding attention to detail, amusing dialogue and characters produced a very good film. Margaret and David also loved it. Definitely not just a kids film as so many would assume. Also, there was a cool little short at the start of the movie about clouds making babies and storks delivering them. Cute.

Julie & Julia

J & J didn't really appeal to me but Mum asked if I would take her to see it and I had a two for one deal for Palace Norton St cinemas after becoming a member, so I thought what the hay (or hey? ... hmmm). J & J was mostly light and fluffy and fun, but Amy Adams' character was annoying and Meryl Streep's performance had to carry the film. Which it did. Recommended if you like this sort of thing.

Moon

I was looking forward to seeing Moon. It looked very suspenseful and I thought I knew how the characters and plot would turn out, but was pleasantly surprised that the 'narrative arc' took another turn altogether. I won't reveal the details as it is a film worth seeing, but I can say Kevin Spacey's onboard computer GERTY didn't turn out to be as menacing as I had assumed. And I expected more suspense but the characters were not left in the dark as is usual in a sci-fi thriller.
It is important to note that Sam Rockwell is a hotty.

What was with Sam's vision of the woman? I didn't understand that.

Movie Madness

Perhaps surprisingly, I've been getting out to the movies quite regularly since the arrival of The Bear Cub (henceforth known as TBC). In fact, since 27 July I have seen 8 films at the cinema, not to mention lots of trashy telly:

Inglourious Basterds (25 August)

District 9 (1 September)

The September Issue (15 September)

$9.99 (17 September)

Anvil! The Story of Anvil (22 September)

Up! (29 September)

Julie & Julia (12 October)

Moon (13 October)

That's roughly a film a week and a half or so. I achieved this glorious feat through a combination of (1) the use of babysitters - 3 times; (2) leaving TBC home with MBH - 4 times; and (3) taking TBC with us to a baby friendly film screening, in this case Reel Mums at the Dendy Newtown. Bloody good invention these baby friendly film screenings. Variously called Reel Mums, Babes in Arms and Mums & Bubs, these screenings allow you to take your Squalling Little Monster to the movies with other mums and SLMs without fear of the stern looks and head shaking that come with public social disapproval. TBC was pretty good, but it wouldn't have mattered if she wasn't 'cause other bubs were piping up at various times during the film. The volume (of the screening not the babies) was loud enough to be heard without being too loud for the babies to sleep.

Nick Cave Exhibition

We visited Canberra last week, mainly to attend the birthday dinner of one of MBH's good friends. The rest of the time we mostly caught up with family but did also manage to see the Nick Cave Exhibition at the National Library. I remember the first time I heard 'Deanna' and 'The Mercy Seat'. I immediately knew that this man was the coolest of the cool and I went out and bought 'Tender Prey', the Birthday Party album with 'Shiver' on it and subsequently 'Let Love In' and 'Henry's Dream'. I saw Nick Cave perform 'Where The Wild Roses Grow' at the Big Day Out with Kylie Minogue some time in the '90s, I watched his cameo performance in 'Johnny Suede' and I've even read 'And The Ass Saw The Angel'. But after many years as an unquestioning Nick Cave fan something just happened. I suppose I just started to lose interest over time after being saturated by his prolific talent. And frankly, the Kylie duet didn't help. What a sell out.

Nevertheless, I was interested in the exhibition and I'm very glad we went along. For me, the most interesting part was a book from Mr Cave's personal collection of Louis Wain illustrations, the artist known for anthropomorphic cats. Nick is a big fan and collected lots of Louis Wain originals over the years. Wain's illustrations are very recognisable and supposedly show the deterioration of his mental health.

The Nick Cave exhibition is on at the National Library until 29 November 2009.

Reusable Goodness

You know how the planet is slowing filling up with eon-slow degrading, wildlife choking, river polluting plastic? Somehow we humans managed to get in the habit of buying drinks and lots of other products in disposable containers and bottles. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a horrifying culmination of this penchant of ours. But what to do? I much prefer to drink my coffees from takeaway containers with those cool sippy lids and water is much more portable when carried in plastic bottles rather than in the palm of your hand.

Luckily, I have recently happened across a couple of funky little products that are dead cool and incidentally rather enviro conscious. The first one is the fabulouso Aussie made (another bit of brilliance to come out of Melbourne) KeepCup. I can bearly wrap my head around the coolness and cleverness of the KeepCup ... it's a re-usable takeaway coffee cup complete with sippy lid (virtually essential to coffee drinking enjoyment, I think you'll agree), moveable plug and silicone band so you can customise your coffee order. You do this by filling in your choice with a permanent marker. This means I can order my ridiculous Large Weak Soy Decaf Latte with 2 sugars without having to even open my mouth.

KeepCups come in an ever increasing range of colour combinations and three industry standard sizes (small, medium & large). This is what mine looks like: http://www.keepcupstore.com/servlet/the-22/KeepCup-MED-F/Detail

The KeepCup idea is just so bloody clever I didn't even blink when I laid eyes on the Cheeki stainless steel bottle. We don't usually buy water in plastic bottles as MBH has an understandable aversion to paying for water, and I recently read that its not such a good idea to reuse plastic bottles because chemicals can leech out of the plastic as they begin to degrade. We took our Cheekis on a roadtrip this week and they have definitely come up a winner. So far I have spotted them at pharmacies and health food shops.

LwkSyDeL+2

Yes, yes, yes. It's about time I was posting on my blog again.

Here's one. See that title up there? What do you think it means? The chemical formula for fabric softener perhaps? Nope. Perhaps my name translated into Cyrillic? Wrong again. In fact it's my coffee order.

LwkSyDeL+2 = large weak soy decaf latte with two sugars.

That's me. Ridiculous? Maybe. Delicious? Definitely.

What's your coffee order?

The Boat That Sucked and Si-nek-duh-kee, New York

I can't remember if I have mentioned my love of Phillip Seymour Hoffman (PSH) in previous posts. Well, anyway, now you know. I have followed him and his rising career since at least 'Happiness' and 'Magnolia'. I don't recall thinking 'oh look, the defining actor of his generation' when I saw him first in 'Twister' as a madcap tornado chaser, but he certainly hasn't disappointed me since. Until now.

MBH and I had quite a few hours between checking out of the hostel and boarding our flight home on a recent trip to Melbourne. The weather was appalling and I was coming down with a bug so we decided to take shelter in a cinema. There wasn't much to choose from so we ended up seeing 'The Boat That Rocked' by default. Man, that movie really sucked. I think it was the combination of my disappointment at seeing PSH lowering himself to such an ignoble role, further disappointment at seeing one of my favourite British comedians, Nick Frost, being just plain not funny, the inclusion of that scrawny, talentless, sleaze-bag Rhys Ifans AND the all pervasive chauvanism of every aspect of the bloody film!

But it was more than that. Holistically, TBTR really, really sucked. AND I felt personally insulted at the inclusion of a character called Marianne just so, when the love story inevitably failed, they had a feeble excuse to play 'So Long, Marianne' by Leonard Cohen. Sigh.

It was with much higher hopes that MBH and I took ourselves off to see 'Synecdoche (pron. si-nek-duh-kee) New York'. It seems they've really let Charlie Kaufman off the leash this time. I have greatly enjoyed his previous works - 'Being John Malkovich', 'Adaptation' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. Actually, I didn't enjoy 'Human Nature' but that might have been the presence of that scrawny weasel Rhys Ifans.

S,NY was a very interesting film in that it was unashamedly profound in it's subject matter and seemed to be an exercise in trying to draw something real out of an artistic medium. It is possible to try too hard to achieve such lofty goals though. I'm not saying the film was not effective as an exposition of the ultimate realisation of disappointment about life. As each character ages they are one by one confronted by the inescapable fact of death, a fact which drains them of their character. Pretty much everyone dies. I was left feeling that Kaufman's emphasis on futility and sadness drew us too far away from what is real about life, at least for me.

I recommend you see 'Synecdoche, New York' and decide for yourself.

Arresting Bumper Stickers - Part II

It is my quest to find the bumper stickers that (a) rock your world; (b) make you think; and/or (c) make you laugh. Bearing this in mind, please take a moment to peruse the following ...

This one is a little bit difficult to read, as the photo was taken with my camera phone, through the front windscreen of the car, but it says "I'm polluting your air". How refreshingly honest, I thought to myself. A 4wd driver who publicly acknowledges the impact they're having on the environment. Then I noticed the bottom line of the sticker, in smaller print, http://www.nosuv.org/ which reminded me of a plan some friends and I had years ago of having anti-4wd stickers printed up. We planned to have them printed on the stickiest of sticky, lurid coloured paper using the most powerful glues known to humanity, and then we were going to do 'missions' under cover of darkness to sticker 4wd vehicles. We had some fantastic slogans. If only I could remember them ... But, how wonderful that the subject 4wd driver obviously hadn't noticed the sticker by the time I took the photo. I wonder how long it had been there ?

I couldn't help but warm to the owner of these bumper stickers, reminding me of a short documentary film I saw last year called 'Rare Chicken Rescue' about a man suffering depression whose one passion in life is finding and caring for exotic chickens.

In case you can't read the stickers in the picture, the chook related ones read as follows (from left to right):

DUCK in & have a GANDER, We'll talk CHOOK! http://www.backyardpoultry.com/
Backyard Poultry, More than just a hobby, http://www.backyardpoultry.com/
SHIT HAPPENS, My chooks make it useful! (accompanied by a cartoon of a chook ... er, shitting)Chook MAGNET, http://www.backyardpoultry.com/
DON'T FOLLOW ME, I'm going to a chook show!

I can report that our car currently boasts two bumper stickers, one rather subtle white text on a clear background for FBI fm and the second, a rather less subtle black bumper sticker with white graphics and text promoting Sea Shepherd. MBH recently tried to make the addition of a Collingwood 'Side by Side' Member 2009 sticker. I'm not ashamed to admit I fake cried to avoid that one.

New PETA video

The new anti-fur video, with the voices of Pink and Ricky Gervais.

What kind of person steals a guy's coat?


Learn more at petadishoom.com.