Anotherblog

Marco & Kylie

Marco & Kylie
Wow. Four kids. Our house is currently being occupied by visitors: Marco & Kylie and their four children, aged between 11 and 2. They’re all very nice, too; over the weekend they played a lot of computer games and made much noise, and Anna and I thought “We can cope with this.” There’s another five days of it, mind. Marco & Kylie are, as usual, good company. We took them to a BBQ on Sunday, but have otherwise left them to their own devices as far as Sydney tourism is concerned. I think we have slightly terrorised them with our driving (which we weren’t trying to do, honest), and made up for it by showing them “Apples to Apples”, which would be a fantastic family game if we could drag the kids away from the PS2.

Film Forensics
I posted the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade review, at long last. It was a very difficult one to write. I think I’ll try and pick on something easier for the next review - maybe Van Helsing or Dodgeball or Catwoman or Alien vs. Predator. Any suggestions? For that matter, anyone want to write a guest review?

Babies!

Babies!
My sister Jen has given birth to twins, Sophia (2.4kg) and Sara (2.1kg), six weeks premature, but that’s OK. All are well. Mum & Dad are coping well with being grandparents. Dad has entered the World Conker Championships, so is becoming properly grandfatherly eccentric.

And I’m an Uncle! An Uncle!

Magic Tournament

Magic Tournament
We had our third magic tournament at my place on Saturday - a Mirroden/Darksteel/5th Dawn block draft, using actual sealed boosters rather than our usual virtual boosters. Once again, the home-ground advantage (beer was provided) proved too strong - I won, with a 5-0 record in matches. I also lost only one game, making it my best tournament overall.

I’m going to put my (fairly detailed) tournament report in the comments of this entry, mostly because I don’t have the notes on me right now.

Sport

Sport
It took me all week to recover from the game of squash last Monday, but I was finally better by the time I played Badminton on Friday, which was the usual fun. Then, on Sunday, the Fun Day for our company, at which they had the “Horizontal Bungee Jump” which sounds rude but isn’t. Take two bungee cords, an inflatable bouncing castle, and some bits of velcro, and come to think of it, it still sounds rude. Anyway, we had to run as far as we could and slap the velcro things down to indicate our best distances. Good fun.

There was also a gladiator challenge, which was sadly less than challenging. Each person stands on an inflatable platform and whaps the other person with a big foam cylinder. Anna and I had a go, and I eventually realised the only way you could fall off the platforms was to try and swing too hard and put yourself off balance. So I just let Anna hit me for a while. Neither of us fell off, so we called it a draw.

Finally, played squash again this lunch time - unfortunately, I quickly discovered that I had slightly injured my right leg, and I wasn’t keen to make it worse, so I tryed standing in the middle and making Ian run around. However, he is rather good at that, so he beat me 8-2. The two games I won were before my leg started hurting.

Forensics

Forensics
I finally finished the review of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” on Saturday. Much thanks to Rob S., who made many excellent comments.

Next review will be on “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. Anyone want to be my editor?

Squash

Squash
I played squash again today, the first time since Ted went to Japan. Ow. Me sore. I was playing against Ian B., my old table-tennis nemesis and more recent badminton nemesis, and he beat me 7-3. But I was very rusty. I think I can do better.

Music
Jon & Kate came over on Sunday and we played much music together: a bit of “A Day in the Life”, some “Come Together”, and a smattering of “For No One”. Kate was very excited to discover she could play a little bass guitar, and we mucked around with “I’m Down”, for which the bass part is easy and fun. Then I showed them Michel Gondry video clips until they ran screaming from the house.

It was a good weekend.

Shaolin Soccer
I was also lucky enough to happen upon a copy of “Shaolin Soccer” at the local Asian video store. It has been out for so long in Hong Kong that it was in the “weekly” section. So I rented it and watched it and laughed and laughed and laughed. Wonderfully funny.

Film forensics
I almost changed my mind with my next Film Forensics subject, ’cause I wanted to write about what I’d just seen, but I figured it was a bit obscure. Still, I can’t quite face the prospect of dissecting A.I. yet. I’m going to attack the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which should be a fairly simple ask after the complications of Underworld. Anyone up for a preview?

Film Forensics

Film Forensics
I’ve finally finished the review of Underworld. Phew. Next up will probably be A.I., which I am somewhat dreading doing. It’s going to be a difficult one. Still, It’s better to push myself.

The Work of Director Michel Gondry
I got this DVD on the weekend from the proceeds of John & Claire’s wedding - I did some video in the church for them, and they rewarded me with a gift voucher from Borders.

It’s very good. I’d seen some of the music videos before - the Kylie Minogue one with multiple versions of her walking around a city block, the Massive Attack “Protection” video, The Chemical Brothers’ “Star Guitar” and “Let Forever Be”. And after seeing his film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, I was very keen on seeing his other stuff.

Other gems on the DVD include Bjork’s “Bachelorette”, Cibo Matto’s “Sugar Water”, and The White Stripes’ “The Hardest Button To Button”. I was rather charmed by Michel, as well - he is inventive, funny, and has an engaging way of looking at things. He reminds me a little of Marco P.

Sick

Sick
I was sick yesterday. Slept in heaps, shuffled around the house, bought some extremely unhealthy food and scoffed it. The latest: chocolate mandarin biscuits with raspberry yoghurt. Next week I’m back on the no-sweet-things thing. There is no doubt whatsoever.

Underworld
I wrote a review of Underworld last weekend, and by Tuesday came to the conclusion that it needed to be completely rewritten, thanks to Rob S. and Luke K.’s excellent advice. So yesterday I rented Underworld and watched it again - the first time I’ve done that for Film Forensics. And probably not the last. Most of the films in my “To Do” list will have to be rewatched before I can properly comment on them.

Anyway, I’ve mostly rewritten the Underworld review, and it’s much better now.

Exercise
Despite yesterday’s illness, I played Badminton today at lunchtime. Wow. I was getting exhausted just standing there hitting the shuttlecock (Twit). I’ve got a long way to go, baby. Very happy it’s the weekend coming up and I can sleep in some more.

Fork
Cracked 140k words. Stupid story. Started killing people off. End in sight. It’s still taking up most of my spare time, though Film Forensics is making inroads.

Film Forensics

Film Forensics
Who’s up for a preview of Underworld?

Hail storm

Hail storm
Sunday’s hailstorms were particularly thrilling, as both cars were outside. During the first one, at 3:00pm in the afternoon, we watched hail stones bounce off them, and reflected on the fact that we’d changed our insurance down from comprehensive to third-party property only. Fortunately, no dents.

Later that night, after I’d gone over to Jon & Kate’s place and we’d practiced some old Beatles tunes (A Day in the Life, Come Together) the hail was considerably more spectacular. By then, both cars were under cover, so there was no danger and we could enjoy the hail. It was pretty spectacular. The noise was incredible.