Well I'll be...

Would you look at that, this blog still exists. I think I will indulge in some necromancy and bring it back to life.

Traversing a Squeaky Corridor

I actually read this book a while back, but I found the third book in a charity store and so went back to read the first two to refresh my memory.

This is one of my most favourite books. It is about a boy who grows up in a village in what appears to be feudal Japan (the book never specifies). He is brought up in a family of "Hidden" which I believe to be Christians (again the book doesn't specify but their beliefs are similar). His family is killed by a warlord who persecutes the Hidden more than most, but is saved by another lord who ends up adopting him.

The story then follows the boy and the lord in a political story, which sees warlords plot against each other. It is made more interesting with the addition of ninja assassin type people, to which the boy actually belongs to. They are an underground group of people with special talents, which you can buy for a price. Their motives are a second layer onto the already complex game of houses going on in the book.

The best part of the book is the writing. It is descriptive, never too long winded and really draws you into this colourful and intriguing world. It is easily the type of book that you can get lost in for an unhealthy amount of time, and coming from me, that says a lot.

I actually have nothing bad to say about this book. Bravo Lian Hearn.

Nostalgia From Down Under!

I thought I would do a nostalgia series to remind myself of all of the things I used to watch as a child.

As far as gaming went, I only ever played Super Mario and Street Fighter 2 to any extensive degree and my first real gaming experiences were in the late 90's with Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Golden Eye, Half Life etc etc. Thus, as far as nostalgia goes, nothing beats children's TV shows for me!

I am going to start with live action TV shows, because there were only about 3 or 4 of these I ever watched as a child and pretty much all of them were made in Australia.

1: The Finder (Or Finders Keepers)



Sweet Lord Raptor Jesus was this hard to find. I kept on getting that stupid game show where kids would run around a fake house looking for stuff. But no. This is about a boy that uses a creepy ass clock to go to an alternate dimension where there was always a game show running. One which required him to find something or TERRIBLE THINGS WOULD HAPPEN! TERRIBLE THINGS! It was notable because the intro music was hyper creepy and I always remember the last episode where the sky was literally tearing apart. The game show was also one of those psychedelic wacky things that was popular in the 90s but was actually just scary.

A: The Girl From Tomorrow



Jenny Kelly! This was about a girl from Saturn called Allana (or maybe Ellana, I don't know). She was learning to use the Transducer, which was a hair band that had something to do with the dots on her head. This magical item let Allana heal and shit with her mind. I remember this being totally gripping. It was one of those shows that you just had to watch. Missing one episode basically meant that you were forced to commit sepuku.

Numero 7: Pugwall



Not entirely sure what this was about, only it had some guy in it that was given a guitar for his birthday but no amp. The only part of this tv show that I remember is the intro as well as Marmaloid.

F: The Tribe


Not quite early 90s, but nostalgic nonetheless. This was about a world where all the adults either die from a disease or head off into space, leaving the children behind. The kids then band together into tribes such as the Mall Rats, the Locos and the Ecos. The protagonists are the Mall Rats, who live in a shopping "mall". This tv show had pretty much everything. A dystopian punk future with awesome clothes. Some tribes turned nuts and went religious. Others were just out to screw their fellow man. The real menace came from a chap called Zoot, who thought himself God, got one of the female heroines pregnant and then died. But did that stop him from appearing in pretty much every season? No! Because he was a bad ass.

Dishonourable Mention: Round The Twist

Fucking hated that show. It was maximum gross.

Well, there you have it. The Australian/New Zealand TV shows that I used to watch. I don't really think that any of them were very good except for maybe the tribe, but nostalgia is not about good or bad. It is about nostalgia... And that is that.

Sjambok

Zombie films are getting better and better, but still, you can count the good Zombie films on one hand alone. This film is also called Siege of the Dead and is a German attempt at the genre. I must admit, it is pretty good.

Zombie films invariably come in three categories. Comedy (Shaun/Zombieland etc), blood-fest (Zombie-2/Flight of the Living Dead) and toned down human interaction story (Night of/28 days) although strictly speaking the latter is usually due to budgetary considerations, such as Night of the Living Dead, or because they attempt to put some seriousness into the film ala the first half of 28 Days (the second and arguably weaker half is a blood-fest). These are pretty much always the best ones.

If writers leave out the over the top gore and comedy, you end up with Rammbock/Siege of the Dead. A very watchable horror/survival film about a man in an apartment complex. The story starts with the man going to find his furry loving girlfriend Gabi in Berlin. As soon as he enters her place, all hell breaks loose and POW! zombies. He happens to be there with some kid who was fixing the central heating, and the two then are pretty much stuck in a siege like situation. There are other people in the complex who shout at each other (and attract zombies doing so!). The dude and boy leave Gabi's house to meet up with some of the other residents, and during so they figure out the zombies' weakness (flash photography) and meet up with furry lover Gabi, who is naturally banging the neighbour's son. The film then rushes to the end as the team decides to make a dash for the boat and as you would expect, people die and people survive in a predictable manner.

This film is very short. Just 60 minutes, but trust me that is a good thing. The film does what it says on the tin. If they had forced it longer, it would have had to be filled with pointless gore scenes and stupid shit that always creeps into zombie films (seriously, fuck off with the action in zombie films... unfit middle aged men do not take on hordes of zombies with a crowbar, nor can they headshot from the hip). Thus, even with the predictable survivors list and the predictable plot developments, it skips the crap that makes zombie films bad, thus is good thanks to the ok acting, ok directing and ok setting.

Shmellies!

Perhaps my favourite smelly is easily Hammam Bouquet, which is the first Penhaligon's scent. But my brother wears it and thus it is banned for me. The notes are Lavender and Bergamot, Rose Otto, Cedarwood, Orris and Jasmine, Amber, Musk and Sandalwood, and it by far the Rose, Musk and woods that shines on my skin (at least according to my uneducated nose).

Anyway, for quite a while now I have been wearing The One, by D&G. Big step down you see...

As such, I decided to peruse the perfumery isle and expand my tiny collection with something new.

First up is Gypsy Water by Byredo:



According to the Interwebs, this smells like Bergamot, Lemon, Pepper, Juniper Berries, Incense, Pine Needles, Orris, Amber, Vanilla and Sandalwood. To be honest, I don't get the Bergamot because the initial blast of the lemon is so strong. However, once that dies down, it is Vanilla and Sandalwood that come to the rescue! I sprayed this stuff on my skin and didn't like it, but about five minutes later it was like gold coating my nasal passages. Byredo do a number of other scents but I am not really a fan. Apparently they were inspired by the travels of Ben Gorham... and claims that this one is "a glamorization of the Romany lifestyle, based on a fascination for the myth. The scent of fresh soil, deep forests and campfires illustrates the dream of a free, colorful [sic] lifestyle close to nature." Nice.

Numero duo is Kyoto, by Comme des Garcons:

CdG is known for their clothing line, but they also do good smellies and this, my friends, is the best of the best. If Gypo Water is gold up my nose, this is rare Mongolian monkey silk. These are the notes: incense, cypress oil, coffee, teak wood, vetiver, patchouli, amber, everlasting flower, Virginian cedar and damn, do they work well. Having grown up around incense, this is quite possibly one of my favourite smells, and works well providing a sweet balance to woods. In fact, this is a direct rival to Hammam for me.

BOTTLE SHOTS!

Yes! Do It Again!

The 2000's were full of shit films. There is no denying that. In fact, it was home to some of the shitest of the shit.

Most notable were the Marvel comic films. Spider Man... bleargh! Fantastic 4... phoooey! Daredevil... gahhh! And not to be left out, The X-Men!

So naturally when I heard that First Class was out in the cinema, I thought that it would be another X-Men movie. You know. Like the last one. X-3 or whatever. With that transvestite clapping screaming woman and fucking Cyclops. But boy was I pleasantly surprised.

First you must note the picture. That is not the film poster no. It is a picture of Rose Byrne who plays the role of Moira MacTaggert. My new favourite person.

Anyway, the film... It follows Charles, Eric and Raven (Mystique) as they grow up, find each other, and set up a school for the gifted. And how they then part ways and Eric and Raven go off leaving Charles, Moira, Hank McCoy and the rest of the newbie mutants to themselves. It also does the Charles loosing his ability to walk very well, which was surprising.

The story itself is very good, the acting pretty decent and the visuals are as you would expect from a modern film. I also liked how they didn't forget to add Raven into the story because I always felt that they missed something special and a chance to develop some back story to Raven in X-2. Especially because they completely ignored the fact that Nightcrawler was in that film who is Mystique's son and all.

Talking of back stories, pretty much everyone gets one and it does them pretty well. A fantastic part was looking at Beast and Mystique and their differing views of how to cope with the way that they look. This is taken to a higher level with Charles and Eric, because as pure and good Charles is, you can't help but think that Eric has a damn good point. If I were in the position of some of those mutants, I would have a hard time not falling in with Eric rather than Charles.

One criticism of the film is that I don't think they worked the friendship between Charles and Eric that well. I mean I got that they respected each other, but not that they were friends. I also don't see how Eric is supposed to be a clever and refined gentlemen from that film. He basically plays a rough and aggressive character in the film and his intelligence is never really explored. I think part of the fact is that the two never really grew up together or even spent a huge amount of time together to warrant the level of respect that they have. The first X Men film had Magneto claim that he helped Charles build Cerebro, but that is dumped in this film too. Actually, not only that but even any inkling that Eric might be clever enough to even know how Cerebro works.

Well regardless, good film.