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'Riflemind' Day

For anyone who wants to skip work (or school) today...


Calling all Marton Csokas and Hugo Weaving fans in Sydney, Australia:
 
This is beyond *extremely* short notice, but is anyone interested in seeing these two lovely LotR gentlemen live on stage today (21st November) at the matinee performance (1pm) of "Riflemind", a tale of clapped-out rockstars getting a shot at a comeback written by Cate Blanchett's playwright husband Andrew Upton and directed by Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman???
 
Our party has a ticket available (most of you know why). The ticket is $66; the play is at the Wharf Theatre at 1pm. 
  
If you're interested or know someone who is, please, contact me at larabee @ smokingkipper.com (minus the spaces).
 
Cheers!

MY LIFE SOUND TRACK

As seen around...

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, CD Player, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool.


Opening Credits:
Revelations - Audioslave (a kick start, that's for sure)

Waking Up:
Cry Little Sister - Gerald McMann (depressing way to start the day but comes from a cool 80s film: The Lost Boys)

First Day At School:
Selling the Drama - Live (can't see the correlation, except maybe for religion - I went to a catholic primary school)

Falling In Love:
Dame Lombarde - Malicorne (hmm, oddly enough this French band wrote plenty of 'love' songs, but this ain't one of 'em)

Fight Song:
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - cover by Roxy Music, not that Dylan didn't do it right originally... (nuclear war anyone?)

Breaking Up:
Open Your Eyes - Alter Bridge (not a break-up song)

Prom:
Delilah - Tom Jones (LOL)

Life:
Love of the Common People - Paul Young

Mental Breakdown:
How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths

Driving:
Oceans - Pearl Jam (won't be getting anywhere fast with this tune - Tom Petty's Running Down A Dream would have been a perfect fit)

Flashback:
Dancing For Money - Talking Heads (would be a flashback if I could remember hearing that track before now)

Wedding:
Peaches & Cream - John Butler Trio (this one should have been for the slot below)

Birth of Child:
Baby, I Love Your Way - Peter Frampton (yep, definite switch with the one above)

Final Battle:
You Know My Name - Chris Cornell (007 would do just fine but this isn't a battle song)

Death Scene:
Turn Me Loose - Lover Boy (here's something to kill ya!)

Funeral Song:
I'm Doing Fine - Colin Hay

End Credit:
Ebudæ - Enya (? I'm not a fulling cloth woman from the Hebrides...)


(and then repost this as "MY LIFE SOUND TRACK")

On this grey morning

Haven't posted on LJ in a while. Been flicking through the flist but not really commenting either. You'll excuse me. Just preoccupied. 

Crap weather. 

Don't know if I mentioned this but I have two aunts (& partner) currently visiting, all three camping in the granny flat. So when the sun decides to hide for a day, it's not nice on tourists. If only it were for a good cause, like some rain. Yesterday was a sticky hot day and Lily and I had plans to try the pool today. Well, bugger that now.

They're leaving next Monday to drive down to Adelaide, via Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. Then it's a flight up to Alice Springs and a sprint visit to Uluru then another flight to Rockhampton in QLD and a drive down the coast back to Sydney. Not too bad, given they only have three weeks after a week stay here in Sydney to begin with.

The funeral is Saturday and I won't make it. Air Canada is just as bad as Qantas. Surprise, surprise. Would have been hard leaving with the visitors here anyway...

I haven't done this in a while so I thought I'd get back to it. A bit of fannish behaviour. What have we got this morning? Oh, yes... Sean Bean and the movie Far North.

You can find a trailer here. I don't think it's the trailer; it's more like a glimpse at a scene. Looks dark and haunting. I've also come across a review on seanbeangroup. I think I really want to see this. Here's to hoping it will actually make it down here...

October 31, 2007

Far North

 

James Christopher at Odeon West End

Throw another log on to the fire because the story I'm about to tell blows as cold as an Arctic wind. The tale begins with a curse. A beautiful girl, Michelle Yeoh, is told by a venerable crone that horror and tragedy will befall any handsome beefcake unfortunate enough to catch her eye. According to my trusty sources, beefcake has rarely been spotted north of Elgin; it would be a miracle to find it two miles from the North Pole. But curses, like films and religion, have a dread power to imprison those who believe.

The prophesy is enough for Yeoh to seek isolation. When the magnificent thriller of Asif Kapadia crunches through the icy sea to discover the cruel tricks that time has played upon the middle-aged Yeoh, she has morphed into Ray Mears: a hard-as-nails beachcomber with survival skills second to none.

The performance by Yeoh is hypnotic. Her husky dogs and her adopted daughter (a terrific turn by Michelle Krusiec) are clearly the only companions she has known for many frozen years. The two women live in wordless isolation. They gut fish during the day and plait each other's hair at night. The arrival of a mercenary soldier (Sean Bean) is the unwelcome reminder of the real world. A nervous Yeoh discovers Bean glued to the tundra, half dead. She isn't sure whether to stick a knife into him or save him. It's an exquisite scene. Bean repays her kindness by teasing Yeoh's infatuated daughter, and sets in motion a sexual drama over which he has no control.

The friction in Yeoh's cramped tent is electric. Bean is the perfect stranger, he is grateful, but he gives nothing away. You can almost smell the guilt and blood. Krusiec gets drunk on the compliments of the craggy soldier and melts under his touch. Yeoh is tense and silent; inwardly raging at Bean's intimacy with her daughter. Kapadia's camera is always at a studied, wary distance. The scenic shots are extraordinary, though not pretty. There's a sense of slide and decay in the pictures of crumbling volcanic cliffs and dirty glacial ice. A scene glimpsed from Yeoh's fishing boat of a grim port, clearly on its knees, has the sulphurous whiff of Apocalypse Now.

Kapadia has had a couple of stumbles since his remarkable debut feature The Warrior. Far North is a terrific return to form for the young British director. He has an exceptional feel for mythic stories and the way that they can absorb and express the most poisonous realities. He doesn't shrink from shock or brutality. Indeed, the final ghastly twist, though fully earned, is barely watchable.

It's GMT time

Two minutes of silence, if you please...

 

Bereavement fare anyone?

Well, don't count on Qantas for that.

It's with a heavy heart that I pass on the news that my grandpa passed away yesterday morning. My mom had loads of time with him throughout the week, which was a blessing. She says she feels she can now better mourn this way.
I'm waiting to hear back from Air Canada to see if I can go attend the funeral on Saturday. It would have to be a flash trip there and back...

Thank you, guys, for all your thoughts.

The beginning of the end

He's had a pulmonary embolism but my uncle (without informing my mom) decided not to have him taken to the hospital. He's just being kept comfortable. My mom found out because a nurse called her, surprised my mom hadn't visited yet.

I know this is what my grand-father wants, and has been wanting for years now, but it's so hard to let go. Another six months and I would have seen him again, with his great-grand-daughter. 

My mom just got back from work to this news and now is foregoing dinner to go and be with him... and say good-bye. She's not ready. And if I wasn't half a world away, neither would I.

Busy Time!

 Halloween on Wednesday, Birthday Party on Saturday, real Birthday on Sunday! So much sweets, chocs, cakes, goodies and pressies, my head is spinning!

Halloween as a fairy... who likes footy.
 

Pressies, party and cake!
 
 

 
(and mom and dad survived...)