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On this day...

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Barmymoo:
What were you saying on this day last year? Two years ago? Five years ago?


--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 15 Jun 2009, 11:10 ---You read books so quickly that the pages burst into flames and your house is incinerated, leaving you with second-degree burns to 80% of your body.

I wish I lived nearer the seaside.

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--- Quote from: Barmymoo on June 15, 2008 ---I went to a garden party today (disappointingly no big hats) and the woman at the door (no idea who she was) said "so glad you came, one more for my bouncy castle" which was nice and all, but the only people on the bouncy castle were three seven year old boys. I do not think that I look like someone who would enjoy bouncing with three seven year old boys, even if they are all wearing the same blue checkered shirt.

Anyway yesterday we got two kittens! It was a bit of a surprise, it was all arranged pretty much overnight. They are nine weeks old, and almost identical to the point that we have to keep checking which is which by looking under their tails. The boy will be called Moses and the girl Miriam, when they get big enough for colour-coded collars. At the moment they are just the Squeakers.

It's been a really nice, long-feeling weekend. Yesterday I had my driving theory test (I passed! 48 out of 50 on one section, 61 out of 75 on the other which is good since pass is 44) and bought some new clothes, and saw a carnival. Then the kittens came. Today was the garden party and afterwards I took the dog and the adult cat for a walk. We had to come back quite soon because the cat is not allowed to go past the crossroads at the end of our road, and he got all anxious and miowing when we left him. Sucks that tomorrow is college again but we have Tuesday off. It's meant to be a review day where we all go in for a fifteen minute "progress update" but no one ever goes, we just have the interviews some other time.
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I didn't post on June 15th 2007 and I didn't register until January 4th 2007. I'm sure some of you can top that.

Blue Kitty:
Oh fuck, five years to this day I made my first post.


--- Quote from: Blue Kitty on 14 Jun 2005, 14:41 ---Hello fellow forum members.  As you may know, I am new here.  I would be very happy if someone said hello to me.  Thank you for your time and have a nice day.

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KvP:
I joined in September '07, so.


--- Quote from: July 14 '08 ---Bliggity Blog,

unlike imapiratearg here, I had a wonderful dream last nite. I dreamt I was in a jewish history class, the instructor - Nick Cave. It was pretty awesome. So I woke up feeling pretty good, although I was disappointed when I realized I didn't have to get up to attend Professor Cave's class.
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--- Quote from: July 14 '08 ---Yeah, that's a pretty accurate comparison.

One thing I didn't like about MGS4 was that they took what amounted to a running gag from the first three games (Johnny whatshisface, the jail guard with irritable bowels) and made him an incredibly attractive badass, and his constant pants-shitting is explained away (apparently shitting your pants for a reason other than fear isn't unattractive, and a heretofore sensible female character falls in love with Johnny upon learning the reason for the pants-shitting)
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--- Quote from: July 14 '09 ---One has to remember the intense hype that sprung up around Mr. Shyamalaman after Sixth Sense hit. He was touted as a rising star auteur, a master of taut thrillers in the vein of Spielberg at his best (people specifically noted Jaws and Duel, both of which hold up today) Then came another movie with third-act plot twist. Then another. Then another. By the time Lady in the Water came out Shimmelman was only really being defended as a good director and not a good writer. That film put Schoolmarm's rather massive ego on display, including himself in the narrative and including characters obviously modeled after his critics solely for the purposes of dooming them to violent ends.

Then The Happening came out, and I disagree with your assertion that it's not that bad of a movie. It's that bad. It's worse. It is transcendentally bad. And to make matters worse, beyond the curiously uninspired direction it was very recognizable as a Shambliss film. Except here all the things that were perceived as strengths were actually weaknesses. The tension-building was ridiculous, as the threat to the characters was ridiculous. More importantly, Shasta McNasty's terse and economical writing, once seen as an asset, was super fucking dumb ("There appears to be an event happening!"; "We've lost contact" "With whom?!" "(pause) With everyone!") He changed his PR course rather quickly after the movie's release, claiming it was always meant to be awful, but I don't believe him.

And ultimately that does reflect poorly on his prior work, because there's not much of a good reason to say that two movies with several common central elements and a shared visionary can be vastly different. You watch The Happening and recognize that the writing is the stuff of sucky urban legend. You watch the Sixth sense and it has a very similar writing style that is considered a strength in one film and a crippling injury in the other, and you begin to wonder if the other's acclaim was mainly a boon of circumstance, the first cut being the deepest and all that. To be sure The Sixth Sense is a greater film than The Happening. But could it be the case not that Shimmerlong didn't start strong and got weaker, as the conventional wisdom goes, but rather that he was always mediocre and simply spent all his capital over time and ultimately failed? How would we view The Happening differently had it come out before people were tired of Shamwow's schtick? Before they even knew who he was? What if Sixth Sense had been last? Wider context often informs the way we view things we enjoy - knowing the stories behind the making of "Rumours" or the Pop/Bowie/Reed Berlin Recordings enhances the experience of listening to them. Reading the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame makes watching the Disney version ridiculous and perhaps a little unsettling. Lots of people saw The Sixth Sense without knowing what a skilled hack the man behind it was. There are elements of film that are objective, but when we're talking about artists and their patterns, and when passing gestalt judgments, perspective is rather important. It's partly a philosophical dilemma - If I like a band's single and decide it's their best track only to discover that they have dozens of nearly-identical songs, couldn't I have possibly heard one of their other songs and decided it was the best? How can I be sure of my judgment?

I'm reminded of a story I read a long time ago. A writer at Slate was lavishing praise on the Aphex Twin for releasing a remix of Nine Inch Nails that the writer thought was a perfect parody of industrial music - It was all steam whistles and sheet metal percussion and minor-key, movie villain horns. To the writer, the remix was an example of Aphex Twin's talent for recognizing ridiculousness in music and coaxing the good out of it. However I knew something that the writer didn't - Aphex Twin didn't really intentionally make the remix. He was paid for it in advance and forgot about it until the deadline rolled around and the record company started calling. Not wanting to put such effort into something on a small time frame, he picked a tape off his shelf of unfinished / unreleased works, added some samples of the Nine Inch Nails song at the end, and sent it off as an official remix. That it came out the way it did was largely luck. Having known that, the awesomeness of the track (and I think it is very good) was lessened a great deal, because one wonders if the Aphex Twin puts a similar lack of effort into everything he does and if so, how much better his work would be if he applied himself. But the author didn't know that, and so the work was evidence of genius that was in reality just providence. Which one of us is right?
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Lunchbox:
One year ago:


--- Quote ---Re: Blog Thread II: Beyond Blogosphere.    on: July 17, 2009, 12:22:21 AM
Man that happens to me all day every day Allison.

So hey my boy is back!
His plane was almost two hours late so I hung around with his parents, which was nice, and talked about how I've sorted things out for myself with my fancy new job and singing lessons and things. Then he got in! And it was so nice and I couldn't stop smiling! But so awkward. His parents were there. He doesn't have a beard anymore (IT'S CRAZY HE HAS CHEEKS I'M NOT SURE IF I LIKE IT AT ALL)! We got to be alone for like five minutes and then we just sort of kissed really awkwardly (airport chairs are not made for kissing) and then I had to go because I had tickets to see HARRY POTTER AT IMAX 3D SO AWESOME OH YEAAAAAAH
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What I neglected to write was that while that boy (C) had been in South America and completely ignoring me for three months, totally breaking my heart, I had hooked up with another dude (M), who I ended up staying with when C moved to Canada three weeks later. DRAMAS.


Two years ago!


--- Quote ---Re: Whatever, Let's Have A Goddamn Blog Thread, But Try And Keep It Reasonable    on: July 15, 2008, 01:35:36 PM
Hey Blag Throde,

Today I got my dress fitted for Peta's wedding. It makes me pretty much like a princess and it is all swooshy and big!
Tomorrow we are going to Whistler and we are doing an adventure trail with ziplines and suspension bridges and things, which should be neat!

Happily (slightly drunkenly) yours,

Ally
--- End quote ---

I miss Canada.


I joined in August 2005 so I don't have any July posts from then.


--- Quote --- I have an infestation at my house.    on: July 13, 2006, 10:53:12 AM
I kind of managed to tame one! She is purring on my lap, and has yet to notice that there are pet mice in my room too.


--- End quote ---

I met my kitty friend Tiger!

Scandanavian War Machine:
this oughta be interesting embarassing.


okay, nothing for 2009

2008

--- Quote from: Scandanavian War Machine on 14 Jul 2008, 10:23 ---i don't get offended by white stereotypes because they are usually true.

precedent.

--- End quote ---

nothing for 2007 either

and here I am talking about the shitty power metal that I thought was so cool back then


--- Quote from: Scandanavian War Machine on 14 Jul 2006, 14:44 ---Edguy
Advantasia

advantasia is ridiculous, they have the singer from edguy, ronny james dio, a guy or two from helloween and a few other big names too. its awesome.

and edguy is just pure badass.

--- End quote ---

how young and stupid I was

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