Daily Absurdities

Stumbled upon Teddy Thompson today. Great. Very Chris Isaak.

Arrived in Sydney and finally got to get out and really take a look around. Went to the obvious spots and took photos. As if people weren’t asking enough questions about us, we bought dinner jackets and went to the symphony in the famed opera house. A very powerful performance from their solo violinist.

Capped it off at a bistro overlooking the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Lights at the Melbourne visitor center. Was listening to Radiohead’s “How I made My Millions” while I walked by this, so I thought, why not?

Melbourne Visitor Center from URL Venture on Vimeo.

This movie really got under my skin. It was bad yes, but even worse, they made some errors and ommissions that really alienated a lot of terminator purists.  Let’s go: 

1) I know you’re trying to add the element of surprise that SW is a robot, but you can’t just make him a weakling early in the movie and the Incredible Hulk later in the movie. If he’s a robot, I’m pretty sure he would be annihilating human combatants early in the film, since he was basically handing it to Arnold late in the film. 

2) He was the most advanced robot Skynet had created, and he was made in 2003. He infiltrated the human camps the way Arnold never could and was able to endear himself to John Connor. You’re telling me it took the machines an extra 15 years to develop Arnold, a less advanced hulking robot who any idiot could spot walking down the street a mile away? If they were able to make a Haley Joel Osment-style robot who could act like a human, why make a body builder roid rage robot who acted like a machine to go back in time? 

3) “The T-800 is the most advanced killing machine blah blah blah”. Oh yeah? Is that why every time he tries to kill a human he walks up and just throws him across a room 20 times? Is that really the most effective way to get rid of someone if you have the strength of like 200 dudes? Just toss him around for 5 minutes? Why not pop his head off? If you’re directing this film, why even get into scenes like that? You’ll never be able to make it plausible. 

Not to mention that you could practically see the film being filmed as if you were on the set. Bad direction, bad script, and an under-utilization of a quality actor in Sam Worthington.

Not really though. Just another example of some of the shameless advertising you see here. People are also allowed to flip the bird in newspapers, ads.

This comes a few years late, but I was perusing the list of the 180 greatest superheroes of all time, and noticed they used Michael Turner’s Supergirl in the list. Turner, who was my favorite comic book artist of all time, took the human body and made it into an impossible to achieve temple, personified in the likes of Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Bruce Wayne. He was a true comic book artist and understood that comics are about fantasy, and not trying to achieve a slice of reality by applying even an ounce of fat or imperfection to the human body.

So I watched this movie last night because it was late and I didn’t want to think. I would have watched The Soloist because it has two of my favorite actors in it, but I wanted to make sure I was on point when I did. Things to note about Obsession (which I did, in the theater, by myself, and quite loudly):

1) Beyonce is possibly the biggest diva alive and it comes out in her character. It’s un-cover up-able.
2) When someone throws themselves at you in the workplace and you rebuff all advances, your wife will automatically not trust you for it. Your attempts at logic and reason are meaningless. Even ocular proof is out the window at this point. If a stranger who shows obvious obsessive and manic traits says you did it, and the detective is incredulous about your story, you did it in the eyes of your wife. Case closed. Papers served. The details:
a) confronted in the mens room while urinating (your fault)
b) getting the car in the parking garage trying to go home and confronted (again, your fault)
c) roofied-up at a company junket and taken advantage of while sleeping (definitely your fault)
3) When your wife doesn’t trust you, she can throw you out of a (read: “her”) house that she didn’t pay a dime for. There is no discussion here. And you will be kicked out of “her” house for no less than THREE MONTHS with only temporary visits with your child
4) If you want her to let you live on your property again, you have to beg and plead and admit wrongdoing for no wrongdoing. Then you “might” get a house key for your birthday.
5) If you’re either a) a home wrecker trying to steal someone’s husband or b) a wife protecting her family from a home wrecker, you will have superb hand to hand fighting skills for the inevitable climactic fight that will ensue to settle the matter against either (a) or (b).

GREEEEEEEEEEEAT MOVIE!!!!

When I first saw the preview for this movie, I snickered to myself. Who actually goes and watches these? Then I remembered that I saw Fools Gold opening day. Damn you McConaughey.

Last night we found ourselves riding around the entire island in a pickup bed on the way home from the 1/2 moon party. Pretty overrated party but the view from the bed was incredible – every star in the sky. I fell asleep on the beach last night and slept better than I have in ages.

Thanks to Justin for figuring out this feature on the camera (my version shown):

Koh Phangan Sunset from URL Venture on Vimeo.

Nike just released another commercial under the auspices of being an artsy and small-time athletic shoe company. This time though, they’ve used my old neighborhood and my beloved Wilson High School in it. Why, of all the places and towns in the world, did they choose this neighborhood? Maybe Wieden & Kennedys’ travel budget ran short so they just hopped on Barbur and looked for something to shoot. Check it: