Newspaper Dick Drawings

I meant to post this on Halloween but was hallucinating with a fever instead.

I’d almost forgotten about this story. Along with what he wanted on his tombstone, this is my favourite Alfred Hitchcock story…

‘Well, it was a quite shocking, I must say — there was blood everywhere!’ Alfred Hitchcock began suddenly from the rear of the elevator. We were in the New York St. Regis Hotel, heading down to the lobby. There was as light flush to his cheeks from the several frozen dauquiris he had just drunk in his suite. The elevator had just stopped and three people dressed for the evening had joined us, and immediately Mr. Hitchcock had started to speak, sounding as though he were in midsentence and projecting in that careful and familiar TV tone of his.

He went on, ‘There was as stream of blood coming from his ear and another from his mouth.’ The people had recognized him immediately, but now they seemed purposely to avoid looking at him. He went right on, gazing beatifically ahead of him as the elevator stopped again and another well-dressed couple came aboard: ‘Of course, there was a huge pool of blood on the floor and his clothes were spattered with it — Oh, it was a horrible mess.’

No one on the elevator, it seemed, was breathing. ‘Blood all around! Well, I looked at the poor man and and I said, “Good God, what happened to you?”‘ At that point the elevator doors opened onto the lobby, and Hitchcock said, ‘Do you know what he told me?’ and then paused. After a moment, and quite reluctantly, the other passengers moved out of the elevator and then looked back at the director as we walked away.

After several foggy moments, I asked, ‘Well, what did he say?’ and Hitchcock smiled benevolently, taking my arm, and said, ‘Oh, nothing — that’s just my elevator story.’

– Peter Bogdonavich, Who the Devil Made It, 1997

Nothing worth blogging about, but have been keeping busy the last couple of weeks and now with some free time, have found a few blog worthy net things around. One site in particular worth checking out is futilitycloset.com. My new go to site to stave off boredom and kill time at work. Anyway, onto some other things…

The Rupublic of Molossia

The Republic of Molossia (moe-LAAHSS-eeyah) is a sovereign, independent nation, located in and completely surrounded by territory of the United States. With a total area of 9956 sRN (2.5 ha / 6.3 ac), Molossia is one of the smallest nations on earth, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in spirit. A sense of humor characterizes most Molossian people, which, coupled with the casual and comfortable western lifestyle, makes Molossia an enjoyable place to visit. [website] [wikipedia]

Republic of Whangamomona

In 1989 regional council boundaries were redrawn, with an emphasis on connected catchments. These revised maps made Whangamomona part of the Manawatu-Wanganui Region. Residents objected, as they wanted to continue being part of the Taranaki Region, and on 1 November 1989, they responded by declaring themselves the “Republic of Whangamomona” at the first Republic Day. Though the move began as a pointed protest, the town continued to hold a celebratory Republic Day once a year, during which a vote for President was held. [wikipedia]

Enviromental Space articles from New Scientist…

Phantom storms: How our weather leaks into space
Space radiation hits record high
Illegal toxic waste spotted from space

And another behind the scenes video for The Fantastic Mr Fox on how Wes Anderson videoed himself in every part and edited the performances together for his new film I still can’t wait for…

Gwaaah… the start a new week. Always so much fun.

Woke up retardedly early today with two tentative filming gigs offered, which is always a fun start, followed by chasing some growing rumors of a new radiohead album possibly appearing soon, though I’m not holding my breath on that being the cynical bastard I am.

Also caught up with a surprising number of people I’d not talk to in a while and some I just like talking to and then proceeded to get annoyed at the useless bastards who are taking way too bloody long to fix my cellphone. Something I could have and should have done on my own now that I realise how bloody long it actually takes the bastards just to replace a screen.

Wandered the streets crying out for my cellphone to return to me till I realised I was hungry and then proceeded to eat a bunch bakery foods while watching How to Lose Friends and Alienate People which is good, but not great, but still amusing. Paid some bills, sent some emails, fought a mountain lion and then went to work.

Hopefully that fills my personal blogging quota for now.

Been enjoying just posting odd links here and there, it ain’t quite as interesting to post things about myself, which are just boring to read as you can see… Well, except for posts about how awesome I am at playing guess who for the future of the human race against robot invaders (their rules of conduct are dumb).

Oh and big congrats to two lots of friends who’ve announced their engagement recently, Art and Judy; and David and Brooke. I look forward to being drunk at your weddings.

Been an odd week of coincidences. Before the 48 weekend I got out my copy of No One Belongs Here More Than You, a book by the great Miranda July, which led me to rewatch her great film Me and You and Everyone We Know, which is also great. Some days pass and Spike Jonze mentions July in his Where The Wild Things Are blog, which is cool cause they’re both cool. The next day I stopped into JB Hifi to do the usual consumerism of buying things, but then I see the soundtrack to Me and You and Everyone We Know on display and on clearance for hella cheap at $3. Also great. I’m now just waiting for the next moment when she turns up to my door, in soaked clothes from the terrible winter weather and needing a place to crash. That’ll be awesome. Better than Great.

• Bought a new phone… sexy Nokia N95 8GB. Old phone’s battery couldn’t keep a full charge going like a drunk teenager couldn’t keep it’s virginity at an after prom party.

• Was left half a crayfish on the doorstep to my old house with a note attached addressed to me. Whoever did this has yet to reveal themselves and I wish they’d do so sooner. Images viewable on facebook here. Seriously, who the hell did this?
• As of yet, haven’t registered for the 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking Competition, but according to the local papers, I’m challenging the whole region to beat me and my team. Something I’m pretty sure I haven’t said, but an have agreed to go along with anyway. Mind you, the challenge didn’t need to be issued out, cause apparently, several groups have their goals set simply to beat me. Charming.
• Been still looking for regular media work in Auckland, though sheepishly slowly, I blame the recession, my lack of actually living in Auckland and the fact that I’m currently distracted by 48 Hours and 48 Seconds stuff and several music videos I should really get more ahead of.
• Good friend and all around nice guy Tim Leslie got married the other week to his darling girl Lusi. Hope they enjoyed the wedding card and messages we left them.
• Other good friends and awesome super couple Joe and Marama just had their baby daughter born the day. Two weeks overdue and an induction needed I think… I’m gonna refrain from making lewd comfortable uterus jokes… so congrats!

There’s so much more I know I’m forgetting to post right now, but this’ll have to do for now.

This hilarious screensaver is downloadable from the funnyordie website here. Or you can just watch the awesomeness that is Craig Robinson in this video.

Not content with just the robots taking over the planet, I’ve been reading up a lot of articles on the big bang theory and the ultimate fate of the universe, which, though long after the robots have enslaved our planet, stripped it of all its resources and took to the stars, is the theory that the universe is actually expanding at an accelerating rate and eventually will be nothing but redshift to radiation. Gotta love science.

Anyway, been pretty shit still at keeping this constantly updated, which I still maintain is a robot conspiracy. Caught up with some friends over the weekend and managed to stay conscious through the most of a friend’s Samurai movie marathon and got to watch a few films that I’ve been meaning to watch for a long time. In particular is Hari-Kiri by Masaki Kobayashi which was just great and something I’ve got to get my own copy of sometime. Wonderful lighting and intense performances from all, check out his other film Kwaidan if you can sometime.

Also caught Watchmen which left me at a loss for an opinion for a few days and even now I’m not as close to deciding if I liked it or hated it. On one hand, the adaptation of the comic in terms of visuals and dialogue have been done brilliantly well and the film looks amazing and lots of the scenes reminded me of bits exactly in the books, on the other hand, that’s almost just saying that comics are nothing but movies that don’t move and I think that’s the growing attitude towards graphic novels which is stupid. While this worked in Sin City and 300 cause there was this macho attitude towards everything in the comics and that attitude was there on screen, Watchmen the comic is full of nuances and subtext and themes that just weren’t there on the screen. It was like a hollow doppleganger or carbon copy of the general plot and no soul behind it.

In saying all that actually, I think I’m getting closer to not hating Watchmen. Other gripes I had were that the pacing of the film was very off, the soundtrack (apart from the wonderful use of Dylan in the opening credits) was awful, the changed ending was terrible, most of the action scenes were boring and unnecessary and what the hell was up with Nixon’s nose? It was hard to pay attention to anything else when the damn thing was on screen.

I wanted to like the movie, I really did, and I admire Snyder for “staying true” to the comics, but in doing so, he’s just made a hollow moving picture version that made me want to go back to the comic and stay there.

Really, I should have posted this semi-review separately, but meh. Here’s a version of Watchmen I’m certainly glad they never did and yet strangely would have still watched it anyway…

And catching up on some 30 Rock, here’s the best scene from season two and Alec Balwin at his finest…