The Rodeo

 
 
I said I’d do a review of Sin City, but Craig already wrote one. My view of the movie is pretty much in sync with his: it is fantastic artistically, loads of violence (some quite disturbing), and a bit of pointless nudity. 
 
The colouring of the movie (black and white, with a few splashes of colour here and there) seems to emphasise the violence, while at the same time de-emphasising the skin. Don’t know how that works, but it does. 
 
As the movie is almost shot-for-shot from the graphic novels, there are great many points where pausing will give you what looks to be a panel from a comic. It looks very cool. 
 
The story is pretty simple, without any big twists, but the clumsy narration is what drives the film. Each of the protagonists has a voice-over running through the entire length of their sections of the movie. It feels awkward, but it fits. They explain everything that happens, and it all makes sense. From their perspectives anyway. 
 
I don’t think I’d watch it again, but it looks fantastic and that’s probably a good enough reason to watch it, if you can stand the violence. 
 
RodeoClown: will never look at someone called ‘Kevin’ the same way again.

Phil Steinmeyer sent me a copy (well, I downloaded it) of his game Bonnie’s Bookstore to review. Very nice of him

While installing, I skimmed through the EULA and spotted this little gem:

“If the Software is configured for loading onto a hard drive,
you may load the Software only onto the hard drive of up to
five machines that you own and run the Software from only
those hard drives.”

I think this is fantastic - I have multiple computers at home, and I know many other people do too, allowing installing the game on multiple computers without forcing the customer to resort to piracy is a very polite thing to do. And people do notice :). This means I can stick a copy on my laptop as well as having one on the desktop at home. Handy.

Bonnie’s Bookstore is a word game, where you get a whole bunch of letters on a grid, and you have to make words out of those letters while trying to cover every tile before you run out of turns.

It’s actually simpler to play than to describe

As you can see in that screenshot, there are a few different types of tiles:

1. Coloured letters don’t get removed when you create a word
2. Stars count as a wildcard - use it as whatever letter you want
3. Padlocks cover tiles, and are removed when you use a letter next to them.

There are a few other types as well, but that’s pretty much it. It’s a pretty fun game to play - good when you want to kill a few minutes here and there as it doesn’t take 10 minutes to startup, unlike some other games out there *cough*Half-Life 2*cough*. I discovered (by accident - it wasn’t announced anywhere), that when I quit, it would save my position, so next time I fired it up I was exactly where I left it - I like this alot, and thought that I’d have to start from the beginning of that level again. Another handy little bit of polish that helps make the game good.

There were only a few things that bugged me about the game:

1. It feels very ‘girly’ - I think it would do better with a more asexual theme. Not that it really matters in the long run, but men who aren’t as secure in their manliness as I am (I’ve got TWO boys, heh!) might not want to play something like this on the train (what with the big pictures of princesses and the like).
2. The story felt extremely ‘tacked on’, it could be removed with no loss at all and a possible benefit, as it would mean you could jump to the next level much more quickly.
3. “Dogs” is not considered a valid word… but “dog” is.

All in all, they are pretty minor quibbles, the game is pretty good, nothing to rave on about, but it feels very polished and is relaxing to play as there is no time pressure (unless you choose to add it).

It costs $19.95 US, but when you go to buy it online, it will automagically give you the Australian price (assuming you are in Australia…), which at this time is $27.20, so it won’t break the bank. I think it’s a worthwhile buy if you are looking for a new time-killer, it’ll be sitting on my desktop for a long while to come I’d imagine.

RodeoClown: is cool with playing a ‘girly’ game.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate going to the video store? There is nothing good to hire; you can either have sex or extreme violence, and even the violence generally comes with a pointless nude scene or two.

I went to the video store twice on Friday night. Didn’t get anything the first time, so Jen convinced me to go back and get something… fine.

I came back with Murderball and Primer.

Murderball is the original name of Quad Rugby - a wheelchair ‘football’ game. Obviously being quadraplegics there is no foot play to be seen, but rather a bunch of grown men stuffing themselves into armoured wheelchairs and then ramming the crap (technical term) out of whoever has the ball.

The movie/documentary focused on on the USA team, who were virtually undefeated until we saw them lose to Canada early on in the movie. There was also the Canadian head coach, who was the US’ best player for years, and then got cut from the team, so went to Canada to get them to win gold at the paralympics.

It was a pretty interesting doco - lots of swearing (but that’s pretty hard to avoid these days) and a completely unpredictable chapter on quadraplegic sex. With movies. That was kind of wierd to watch with a wife who was already annoyed that I didn’t get Serenity instead. FYI - I skipped to the next chapter. There was one guy who they filmed who had been disabled only a few months previously and he was really down, and then they stuck him in one of these chair/chariots and you could just see the guy light up like nothing. That was pretty moving.

Primer was wierd. Really slow to start, but you could see that it was heading somewhere interesting, so I didn’t mind. It’s a low budget movie about time travel, it’s pretty different to most mainstream movies, and has a feel very much like Cube, Hypercube and Donnie Darko. That is, it doesn’t treat the audience like idiots, leaves out a lot of detail, and makes for a large amount of conversation afterwards.

Also the plot gets a bit hard to follow, but it was interesting nonetheless. Jen decided after we finished watching it that she didn’t like it, I figured that I did, but it was a very considered opinion in both cases - we didn’t decide till about an hour after it finished (it was only an hour and a quarter, so it’s not a huge chunk of life gone in either case).

I went searching on the net after the movie finished to try and get a few things clarified, and discovered that at the movie’s official site is still running strong with people trying to decipher what the go with the story is. I also discovered that it was the director’s first movie (which explains a few things), and that it only cost $7000. Which means he should be rich just from me hiring it.

Two very different movies, I’d probably recommend Primer, but I’m still not sure about Murderball, with it’s crazy-sex stuff.

RodeoClown: thinks time travel is a great idea for stories.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a wierd movie. The kind I enjoy watching. It has Jim Carrey in a straight role, he still manages to pull a few wierd faces, but he’s not doing the Ace Ventura/Mask thing here.

It’s based very much on defeating the ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression’ premise. With a collander-on-the-head bit of science fiction, we get to go inside a mind and experience what it’s like to have defining moments of your life removed.

The ending was a qualified happy one, with a definite fatalistic feel to it, but it seemed ‘right’ anyhow. I thought this was great.

RodeoClown: sometimes wonders how he and Jen would go if they had another first meeting.

On the Poddy with Dan and Dave (it just sounds better).

This is a great podcast - if you use iTunes, grab it here.

Dan and Dave are leaders at Central Coast Evangelical Church Youth and record this show from their bathroom (or take the ‘porta-poddy’ with them). You can email them at ccecyouth@gmail.com. They are all about getting emailed.

These guys have one of the highest rated podcasts in iTunes’ Religion and Spirituality section, and if you listen to them you can see hear why.

They sound like they are having a great time, I cracked up listening to them on the train on the way home - I’ve gone through their entire back catalogue in the last three days.

Well worth the listen.

Callum, Spanna, you guys need to get this and listen to it.

RodeoClown: is all about the poddy.

If you haven’t seen this movie, I suggest you stop reading, go and hire it, come back, watch it, then continue reading.

Seen it yet?

Didn’t think so. Go watch it. I really mean it.

Paul Rusesabagina was the hotel manager of the Hotel Mille Colline in Rwanda. In 1994, the Hutu majority began the systematic torture and murder of around a million Tutsis. The Mille Colline became a safe haven for over a thousand refugees whilst thousands upon thousands of ‘cockroaches’ were brutally murdered  and raped with machetes whilst the UN stood by watching. This movie is about Paul and his family.

It is not a nice movie, but it is a great movie.

There is no gore shown, just blood (and not much of that). The director didn’t want to give anyone an excuse not to watch it for it’s violence.

I learnt the following after watching this movie:

1. Don Cheadle is an exceptional actor.

2. The UN seriously screwed up. Useless in resolving conflicts. Keeping the peace by allowing the silence of the grave is not keeping the peace. The UN needs to radically rethink it’s goals and methods. Letting a million people be slaughtered while standing by and watching does not constitute leadership (or anything other than complicity).
3. Africa is seriously screwed up. Genocide seems to be an African tradition. It happened in Rwanda. It’s happening now in the Congo and the Sudan.
4. People are seriously screwed up. Anyone who says the heart of man is ultimately good is wrong. That normal people can treat others like animals to be killed, merely because they have a slightly narrower nose, is evidence of this. That good people can stand by and let it happen is proof.

RodeoClown: wept.

…a lover of attention.
…a clown (see above).
…all about correct spelling and punctuation.
…the husband of but one wife.
…missing her.
…affectionate.
…a dad.
…a super-cool dad,
…who dresses like a pirate from time to time.
…sporting a beard,
…sporting a super-cool beard.
…warm and cuddly.
…less than 100Kgs (yay!)!
…at work,
…externali(z/s)ing strings.
…waiting for the sunshine.
…a winner.
…a child of the one true God.
…a bassist,
…a super-cool bassist.
…the only person I know who has a seat-belt for his guitar strap.
…unusually tired.
…afraid.
…a friend.
…a fiend.
…lonely.
…really good at Cities and Knights of Catan.
…a programmer.
…a liar.
…a cheat.
…forgiven.
…an artiste.
…wanting to go outside and play.
…looking at a photo of my family.
…missing my mum.
…running out of things to add.
…doing this because Craig asked me to.
…in Sydney.
…nearly finished.
…the only developer in right now.
…not going to answer the work phone.
…done.

…RodeoClown: I am indeed.

Superman’s one weakness proves to be his latest movie’s weakness too.

Magical green rocks.
Kryptonite.

Superman Returns was an OK movie. I enjoyed watching it and, contrary to what everyone else said, it wasn’t too long. It is two and a half hours, but takes it’s time and uses it well. We get to know who Superman is (the same guy he always was, and I agree with Bill, Clark Kent is definitely the costume) and see what happened to Lois Lane (she shacked up with Cyclops and had a kid*).

We don’t really see why he left and what state the world was left in without him. A brief text introduction imforms us that some astronomers found Krypton (exploded) and Superman left (in a hurry) to check it out and see if there were survivors (there weren’t). No time for goodbyes**, not even for his (dream) girl…

Kevin Spacey is a great Lex, and Brandon Routh could be mistaken for Christopher Reeve (who’s desire to kill unborn babies to try and walk again made me think a lot less of him). Kate Bosworth was acceptable as Lois, and whoever it was that played Kitty, seemed like she’d just stepped out of the original movies.

There is no doubt catching aeroplanes and launching space shuttles looks awesome. Walking into a minigun firing 900 rounds per second without flinching and then taking a bullet to the eyeball is trés cool. But when the only thing that can hurt Superman is Kryptonite***, it’s hard to generate much empathy for the character. Spiderman is just a kid, and although he’s pretty tough, when he jumps in front of a train to try and save everyone on board, I know that it’s really going to hurt. When Batman gets punched and stabbed and generally beaten up, I know what it feels like (thanks Callum). But I have no frame of reference as to what it feels like to fly through lava and blink off bullets. There’s nothing in common with my experience.

Smallville’s Clark generates a lot more empathy, not because we can relate to his super powers (cool as they are), but rather because we know what it’s like to love someone who doesn’t love you back, and what the death of someone close means. Keeping secrets is hard. What do you do when your best friend does something wrong?

It’s the small things that we can relate to, not picking up really, really big rocks.

I liked the movie, but it doesn’t come close to Batman Begins and the Spiderman movies in terms of comic conversion greatness. Superman is just too alien and I didn’t ever get the sense of him being one of us, but just a bit faster/stronger/smarter. As much as wanted to, I can’t relate to Bryan Singer’s Superman.

RodeoClown: not so super.

*De facto relationships are OK now. Really. The movies told me so. Despite the fact that Lois seems to have jumped into bed with a guy the same day that Superman left and now has a kid and hates her life and took up smoking, it’s cool to live and sleep with people you haven’t married. At least until someone better comes along.
If you haven’t noticed I really hate that common culture says this is now acceptable.

**Also, why is it that no-one notices that Clark and Superman have both
been gone for 5 years, and then both appear on the same day?
Fortunately for humanity’s future, at least one kid notices that Clark and Superman are quite obviously THE SAME PERSON. Unfortunately for him, a spontaneous asthma attack stops the secret being revealed. Forever apparently.

***Also also, it would seem that 90% of Krypton landed on Earth after exploding. Sucks to be allergic.

We met with a friend of Jen’s on Saturday and she shouted us drinks at Mash café in Glenbrook.

We were trying to decide what side dish to order with our drinks, garlic bread or chips? After a long period of indecision, I made the call - garlic bread.
Shortly thereafter the waiter (not the one who took our order) came out with our garlic chips…

Yep, the original waiter had misheard, and the chef had made our fancy-sounding, not-on-the-menu order.

We told him that we’d take them any way. And they were delicious, absolutely fantastic. I guess the chef put garlic butter on the wedges and cooked them that way, they were served with a small dish of aioli, and that just perfected the small meal.

RodeoClown: wants more.

I had a crazy dream last night where I went to Tasmania and met Angus and his hockey team. He seemed like a pretty decent bloke.

While we were talking in a classroom, we all got rounded up and sent to a space station. A Sydney Swans puddlejumper came to rescue us, but a super soldier smashed the door in before we could leave.

We got away somehow, and I think there may have been a dance sequence lined up, but I was woken by a crying child.

Oh well.

Plenty of Crazy Linkage in there for you

RodeoClown: dream weaver.

We watched this movie last night.

I thought it was pretty good, definitely didn’t treat Christianity in a light manner.
My knowledge of Luther is not that extensive, so I don’t know if it got all the details right, but it made him look right and justified in what he did.

I didn’t like the ending, which states that Luther “brought religious freedom” to Germany. I don’t think that is what he was after at all, he just wanted the corrupt church to stop being corrupt. No mention is made of him wanting people to believe what ever they want, only that he wanted what they believed to be true.

It felt like a cop-out, feel-good blurb on a movie that didn’t need it.

Also, they didn’t need to say how many Christians there are in the world that aren’t Catholic. That is also beside the point.

So, to sum up: good movie, worth watching, next time don’t put text before the closing credits.

RodeoClown: would like a monk’s robe.

Worth a watch.

Not by me. By Dr Ransom at Faith Fusion. It’s actually a review of the story, rather than the anti-Christ writings therein, which makes for a change.

I thought this quote was fantastic.

Brown spends so much of his time repeating the phrase “sacred feminine,” “sacred feminine” as if a religious mantra — which, of course, it is. It’s almost enough to make me want to head right out and punch a girl just for spite.

Read the review.

RodeoClown: unlikely to bother (with the book, not the review).

Wednesday I went and checked out Nintendo’s new console - the Wii (pronounced ‘we’).

Very small. Very cool.
That remote in the pictureis what you use to play the games, it is motion-sensing, and you can also use it as a pointer on the screen. It’s a lot heavier than I was expecting.

The demo unit had Wii Sports running, a game that comes with the system including Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf and Boxing. I tried out bowling and tennis.

Bowling consists of holding the remote in front of you - holding the trigger on it’s underside - and bowling, releasing the trigger when you want to let go of the ball. If you twist your arm as you bowl, it puts spin on the ball. Just like real bowling. Neat, but my shots always spin to the left… have to work on that.

Tennis is just hitting the ball, your little character (a ‘mii’) runs all by him/herself to the ball - you just swing the remote to hit the ball at the right time. Again, spin is put on the ball by twisting the remote as you ‘hit’. I played versus some random guy and lost because I wasn’t swinging like a real racquet. As soon as I did that, I got a sweet rally happening.

Super fun.

They are also releasing a new Zelda game at the same time, increasing my wanting this even higher.

One final benefit is that it plays all the old GameCube games as well, which would be fantastic as I discovered today that my GameCube died in a recent electrical storm (along with our microwave), meaning I have a dozen games sitting unplayable in our entertainment unit right now.

RodeoClown: wishes he had a spare $400.

Looking for a great new read?
Something sci-fi, but without the cheese?

Go read Crimson Dark.

It looks great, reads great, and is even made by a passing acquaintance of mine (which I didn’t realise until I had been reading the comic for a while).

The story is really starting to pick up now (it’s up to chapter four), but it makes the most sense if you start from the beginning. It’s got a bit of a Firefly feel to it, which makes it worthy of reading by itself, but add pretty explosions, witty banter, and a willingness to treat the readers as real human beings with real human brains makes it a real treat.

Do yourself (and David) a favour, and go read it.

RodeoClown: I mean it! Go read it! (Anybody want a peanut?)

Today I am going to take you into the world of lunchboxes. And stupid slogans.

This is my lunch-box, take notice of it’s nifty red colouring, and the plasticy speed-lines that help it open faster. You probably can’t feel the fancy fabric, or smell the lingering aroma of garlic chicken (although you may be able to see the discolouration).

It does its job of transporting foodstuffs admirably.

This is my lunch-box’s stupid slogan:

*

This slogan bothers me every time I eat lunch. I don’t really want my lunch-box to have attitude, I want it to have lunch. And that ellipsis, it just screams “unfinished sentence!“…

Do you have any everyday items with stupid slogans?

RodeoClown: really just wanted to show off his nice lunch-box.

*If the image didn’t show, it reads “It’s about attitude…”