Still alive

But that's it for now.

sorry.

Michael Jackson

So Michael Jackson died.

Sucks.

I have been surprised at how much I've felt this. 

He was a big part of my childhood I suppose, and represents one more part of it that must now be tucked away into a box marked 'things that cannot be any more'.

May write more later, for me reasons, but the internet will allow for dissection of the issue.


videos

pictures

Buffy vs Edward

I know this is a week old now, so in internet terms it is covered in the thick dust of past-relevance, but it's so good that I had to have it here.

The below video is a mash-up of Buffy and Twilight, wherein Buffy meets Edward. It serves to illustrate how much of a stalky creep Edward is.

Massive thanks to Jay for showing me this.

Regarding Google

Some of you may have noticed that the Google Ads at the right of the page have disappeared.
Many of you will not have noticed, as they were rarely clicked on.

Anyway, here's an email I got from Google on Saturday:

"Hello,
While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense
account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since
keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our
advertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account.
Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the
interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We
realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in advance
for your understanding and cooperation.
If you have any questions about your account or the actions we've taken,
please do not reply to this email. You can find more information by
visiting
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team"

I followed the link and discovered that my only avenue to discuss this situation was through an online appeal form. I filled it out, and got this reply:

"Hello,
Thanks for providing us with additional information. However, after
thoroughly reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into
consideration, we've re-confirmed that your account poses a significant
risk to our advertisers. For this reason, we're unable to reinstate your
account. Thank you for your understanding.
As a reminder, if you have any questions about your account or the actions
we've taken, please do not reply to this email. You can find more
information by visiting
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153."

So yep. No more ads here. Don't know why. It's not a huge blow as the income derived from the service is minor. What is frustrating is the inability to find out why this has happened. All other avenues of communication are shut, or route me back to the FAQ which is supposed to answer all my queries, or a forum full of people with problems that are being met with a similar level of customer service.

Sparkly, dull.

When Leen, our friend Gina and myself decided to watch some movies over the weekend, I convinced them to see Twilight.

I did this for nefarious social experiment reasons, as my brother - the video store baron - and I have been unsuccessful in our quest to find a person of the feminine persuasion who does not like Twilight.

In general, the reaction to the film seems to be a quiet recognition of its flaws beneath a syrupy love for either source material or hunk that sparkles more brightly than a vampire in the sun.

So I was very pleased that, 20 minutes in, the movie was switched off to the sound of pantomime yawning from all. I did not say anything while the movie was on, lest I colour the experiment, but both ladies found themselves bored to tears.

A-ha! There is a woman who dislikes Twilight, and I have her. What's more, she's going to come and see Star Trek with me this weekend. Suck it all other dudes.

Photograph by i heart him.

I can stop driving in a slow panic

I've spent the last two days jumping through hoops in an attempt to secure my green slip.

I don't know if green slips are an international thing, but here in our wide, brown, barbecued land, that's what we call our 'compulsory third party insurance' - a document you must possess to register your car.

The entire ordeal has been painful, because it involves handing over an obscene amount of money for something that approaches pointlessness.

I understand why I need this - it provides a blanket of safety on our roads - but I don't understand why it costs so much. I don't know why our particular vehicular situation demands a higher cost. Having questions answered with 'that's just the way it is' is my least favourite thing ever, and it has been a repeated experience of late.

Photograph provided by FatMandy

Apparently, Marvel will soon release a mini-series that will go back over Spiderman's Clone Saga.

Really?

Spiderman has always been my favourite comics character. I was unlucky enough to develop my comics addiction during the nineties, when comics are considered to have been terrible. Luckily, I was young enough to love the hell out of terrible stories, as long as they involved bright colours and lots of punching.

At the time I enjoyed the Clone Saga - in which a clone of Spiderman reappears years after his fleeting appearance in a single issue - as it was epically long and involved.

With age and hindsight I realise the saga was overblown, directionless and just refused to end. It went off the rails, through a mountain and then crashed into the moon.

Apparently, this upcoming miniseries is going to present the saga 'as intended'. Despite my better judgement, there is no way I won't be reading this.

My understanding is the saga was originally intended to end with the clone being revealed as the real Spiderman, an idea I love, but I doubt that will happen here.

Anyway, this is a great time for me to point you towards the mammoth "Life of Reily" article, that I have read four times. Every once and a while I remember it, try to find it, and end up reading it all again.

It's written by some people that were working on the book when the saga hit, and it's a fascinating tale of storytellers pulling against a corporation in a mine cart headed to hell.

Even if you don't like comics, it really is fascinating.

The Life of Reily

Photograph provided by -sel.

A note about the blog

And now, an exciting item of housekeeping:

I've disabled the widgety doohickey that automatically posts my blog entries to Facebook as notes.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

The selfish one is that I'd like people to visit the blog rather than read on Facebook, because, well, I think the blog is kind of cool.

the slightly less selfish but still kind of selfish one is that the comments on post are currently split amongst the posts and the notes. The comments on posts live forever on the blog, but disappear after awhile on Facebook.
I like the commentary, and feel it adds at least as such as the posts they proceed, so I'd like to encourage people to say stuff on the blog.

I suspect the likely result of this change will be a drop in commentary rather than consolidation, but a man can dream.

If you've been diggin' the notes, and maybe you didn't even know where they came from, I would encourage you to pop over to the blog occassionally.

Photograph provided by Vicintosh87

The Underbelly Effect

Regarding Australian TV:

The Australian-made television series Underbelly appeared on screens in 2008. It was based on the Melbourne Gangland War. It was awesome.
It was not shown in Broken Hill, and it was some time before I saw it. I had the following exchange countless times:

Person: "Dude, have you seen Underbelly?"
Me: "No."
Person: "It's awesome! Seriously! Best thing I've seen in some time."
Me: "But ... isn't it Australian?"
Person: "I know! I thought it would be terrible too, but it's great!"

I eventually saw the program, and as previously mentioned, it was awesome.
I then had the following discussion countless times:

Me: "Dude, have you seen Underbelly?"
Person: "No."
Me: "It's awesome! Seriously! Best thing I've seen in some time."
Person: "But ... isn't it Australian?"
Me: "I know! I thought it would be terrible too, but it's great!"

I christen this The Underbelly Effect, because it's my blog, and I can make up names for things whenever I wish it to be so.

As previously mentioned, drama produced in Australia trends towards terrible. When Underbelly came out it took everyone I knew by surprise, because it was not shit.

I find the situation frustrating, because in Underbelly, each element - acting, writing, direction, swearing - were all top notch. In particular, actors who I had written off years ago were great in this.

It demonstrates that, in Australia, there is talent. If we wanted, we could make great programs. We don't.

I often wonder why.

(Hint: money)

Photo provided by mkrigsman

Gryffon

That dude up there? That's the new member of the family.

He likes lying around, sleeping and being a little overweight.

We get along well.

Blogged from the hip

I love you guys

The rant I posted on Friday in which I railed against All Saints generated some commentary that I really wanted to share.

First up was B, who brought up a point that I myself have struggled against on many an occasion:

"As much as you may dislike or like this program, it is worthy in that it is home grown television.
At the very least, it's Aussie-made and helps to stem the tide of foreign (American) TV that is threatening to completely swamp our airwaves.
It's drama like this that also helps stem the tide of reality TV - made because it's cheap (cheap and nasty most times).
Australian TV needs to invest in home-grown drama, comedy etc., otherwise it will die out.
We shouldn't stand for mediocrity or pure rubbish and that is reflected in ratings I suppose. Have you ever met anyone who contributes to ratings? Now, that's a true mystery (or conspiracy) who are the ratings people?
Just some thoughts."

While I agree with the underlying sentiment - that Australian drama is depressingly unexplored territory - I had a few quibbles that I wanted to explore, and was somewhat surprised that I hadn't already addressed them here on the blog, given the amount of dinner party discussion they have generated.
I was trying to think of what exactly to write when K came in with a response that, I feel, summed up what I was getting at:

"It may be home grown, but so are my stools!"

I think that about sums it up for now.

Photo provided by gtmc knight

All Saints

Have you seen All Saints?

For international readers, All Saints is an Australian-made hospital drama which appears to focus on some kind of emergency response unit.

I had never watched it, but earlier this week found myself flicking over to it mid-episode.
What I found was glorious.

The premise of the show seems to allow for low-key 'day in the life' hospital stories to sit beside balls-to-the-wall emergency plots.

Now, don't get me wrong, the show appears to be terrible, and I did not make it to the end of this episode, as it features that quality shared by almost all Australian drama - it is also a soap.
Seriously, no matter what genre an Australian drama occupies, it will inevitably be a soap opera. If not right away, then in the fullness of time.

But I had to mention this show because, judging by my 20 minutes of exposure, it is the most melodramatic experience available in today's world.

As well as a woman (pictured above, thanks All Saints website) who was allergic to the whole world, the ambulance squad - led by a man with silver hair and a chunky ring in his ear - were called to a car accident.
Not that exciting you say? Well they found a man trapped in a truck that was surrounded by live electrical cables! This meant:

This entire vehicle was electrified!

If he moved, or touched any metal surface, he would be electrocuted!

This was especially serious, because he was also having a heart attack!

Is was amazing. They tried to pass him medication by way of a wooden broom. It didn't work, so they had to resort to desperate measures! I know this because they told us.
The measures in question? Discovering that the key was in the ignition and had a small plastic cover on it, the man was instructed to drive a small distance forward! And he did! And it worked! Thank God!

Then I stopped watching. I assume the man went on to thwart a terrorist attack by driving forward slightly, before the entire hospital filled with wrist blood, which gushed fourth from a million audience members wringing their hands into oblivion.

Fox and Friends

The following video is magnificent.

All who disagree are mistaken.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Fox & Friends' Lingerie Football Romp
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

Good news everyone!

Futurama is back!

Comedy Central has ordered 26 new episodes, because people love the hell out of this show.

I'm paraphrasing - they've cited solid DVD and rerun performance - but that's the spirit of the thing.

The first four seasons of Futurama are rewatched often in our house. The show is smart, hilarious, and superior to the Simpsons, at least in our geeky household.

The movies were good too. They weren't great, but I feel like that was a format problem, and I'm very happy to see the show return in episodic format.

Photo by General Disarray

Happy birthday Queenie!

Today Australia celebrates the Queen's Birthday, and so everyone (except me) gets a day off work.

It's certainly one of those miscellaneous public holidays, given that the Queen of England has little bearing on the day-to-day life of the average Australian, and that England has been scrubbed entirely from much of the nation's consciousness (but cheers for exiling the criminals to a place with a superior climate).

Of course, as Australians, we'll take a long weekend for any reason, so who's complaining?

This is all terribly uninteresting.

What is more interesting is the thriving lego community I have stumbled across on Flickr. Almost every search I've undertaken over there has returned at least one photograph rendered in lego. for example, a search for Queen returned the excellent image above. I love lego, so this is awesome. Check it out.

Photo by ....Tim

Top Five TV Villains

The five best villains to ever grace a TV screen, as decided by me on an entirely arbitrary basis, are:

Twin Peak's Leland Palmer

LOST's Benjamin Linus

Buffy's Mayor Wilkins

The Wire's Chris and Snoop

Arrested Development's Lucille Bluth

So what do you think? Do you agree? Does this list make you want to stab me in the eye with a spork because I missed your favourite, or perhaps because you will film it in the hopes of appearing on a later list?

Photo provided by Stoneflower

Top Five TV Villains: Lucille Bluth

Where She's From: Arrested Development (Spoilers below)

Why She's Evil: She masterminded the Bluth family's illegal dealings, including some 'light treason'.

Why She's Awesome: She is the acerbic matriarch of the most dysfunctional family ever. The family's lack of social skills, life skills, tact and general ability are surprising at first, until you meet their mother.
Through much of the series she exists as a comic foil, undercutting her children's efforts and reminding them that they are too fat or stupid to succeed in what one assumes is a defense mechanism aimed at keeping them close. It is only at the end that we realise that she is behind the Bluth's illegal business dealings, and had allowed the blame to fall on her husband.
The joy of Lucille is her dialogue - razor-sharp, withering lines come with regularity.
Most importantly, her grand, greedy scheme is what kicks off Arrested Development, and for that we should all be grateful.

Best Moments: "Everything they do is so dramatic and flamboyant. It just makes me want to set myself on fire", "I never cared for GOB", "your father with his disgusting tweaking. I couldn't breast feed any of you kids because of that man", "You are a worse psychiatrist than you are a son-in-law, and you will never get work as an actor because you have no talent", wine is only alcoholic if you let it sit ... I could go on.

Honourable Mentions from Arrested Development: George Snr, J Walker Weatherman, Mr F, Wayne Jarvis

Top Five TV Villains: Chris and Snoop

Where They're From: The Wire

Why They're Evil: As enforcers for the coldest drug dealer around, these two killed a whole mess o' people.

Why They're Awesome: I know I'm cheating here by counting two characters as one, but Chris and Snoop shine as a duo. These two are terrifying. Chris is around in season 3 and Snoop appears with no fanfare at the end, but season four belongs to these two. Their cold method of adversary removal is a new level of creepiness for the show, and the wholesale disposal of people is made worse by the businesslike fashion in which these two work. They're entirely unfazed by the job they do. Snoop is especially creepy, as her small body houses a twisted soul who has seen too much. Chris' single flash of rage is shocking when it happens, and lends the glimmer of humanity needed to make him truly terrifying. These two are the creepiest people there are.

Best Moments: Snoop buying the nail gun, and the shopkeeper's changing expression, Chris noticing Avon's car, Chris tutoring Michael, their disbelief at Omar's fate, Chris hanging with Wee-Bey, "How my hair look, man?".

Honourable Mentions From The Wire: Avon, Stringer, Marlow, anyone in any position of power whatsoever.

Top Five TV Villains: Mayor WIlkins

Where He's From: Buffy

Why He's Evil: He turned himself into a giant, immortal snake and planned to eat an entire town. Also, he's a politician.

Why He's Awesome: There were a lot of good 'Big Bads' in Buffy, the villains who took all season to vanquish, but the Mayor is my favourite. He's just so nice. The juxtaposition of impeccable manners and mass murder, of cleanliness and eating demon spiders, were played note-perfect. He's like a nice uncle whose jokes are bad but you don't mind because he means well. He really cared about Faith. When, at the very end of the season, there's a flash of rage, it feels real. It's scarier than immortal vampires and cyborg terrors.

The Mayor is also a nice little metaphor for the fear we all feel when we're finishing school, that the real world will be absolutely terrifying.

Best Moments: Buying clothes for Faith, talking with Buffy in the hospital, "well gosh", getting the box of spiders back, demanding cleanliness.

Honourable Mentions from Buffy: Glory, The Master, Angel, Druscilla, Willow.

Top Five TV Villains: Benjamin Linus

Where He's From: LOST (spoilers below)

Why He's Evil: While his motivations are as yet unclear, one thing is - Ben is a stone cold, schemin' bastard.

Why He's Awesome: It's not clear yet whether Ben is a true villain, but he is without a doubt one of the most villainous characters on television. He may end up a hero, but certainly in an 'ends justifies the means' kind of way.
Everything he says is suspect, and the joy in the character is in rolling his words around in your head and trying to figure out what they mean, and if they mean anything. He has a teenage streak of petulance which nicely counteracts his ability to be one step ahead. He's stone cold, and he 'always has a plan'. Even though he's a bastard, half the time he's your favourite character. In season five, when you get the rare chance to see him lying while knowing what actually happened, it's a sight to behold.

Best Moments: The whole Henry Gale sequence, especially his creepy speech over breakfast, taking Juliet to see Goodwin, the look on his face when his daughter falls to the grass, visiting Widmore in the dead of night, a legion of facial ticks, possible lies and creepy inflections.

Honourable Mentions From LOST: Keamy, the Smoke Monster, Radzinsky, Ethan circa season one.

Top Five TV Villains: Leland Palmer

Where He's From: Twin Peaks (Spoilers below).

Why He's Evil: He murdered quite a few people - most notably his own daughter.

Why He's Awesome: For a start, he was less of a cold-blooded killer and more of an unwilling host to the homicidal spirit Bob. Twin Peaks is so great because it starts of as a murder mystery and grows into a sitcom, a soap, a thriller and a horror movie all at once. Leland Palmer is an excellent symbol of all this. He's at times hilarious, awkward and terrifying, sometimes all at once. He's batshit crazy and is equally likely to burst into awkward song as he is to murder someone. He grows from a subject of pity to a feared entity, but at the end of his life, he just feels used up and ashamed. He's got a great arc, and you've got to love him.
Once you watch Fire Walk With Me and can see the whole span of his character, it's really impressive. The casts a wide shadow over proceedings. I love the Twin Peaks mythology, but he works equally well if you want to think that he's just a nutjob.

Best Moments: Jumping on his daughter's coffin, dancing, his heart-wrenching interrogation.

Honourable Mentions from Twin Peaks: Bob, the Man From Another Place, Ben Horne, Evil Cooper.