Thursday 30 October 2008

TOP 5 CINEMATIC OPTIC MUTILATION BONANZA

Well, I think it’s time to put my film degree to good use at last. After 3 years of intense studying, and many more years of collecting and researching cinema, my knowledge of film is consequently without parallel. As such, I feel it is only right to share my knowledge with you less fortunate individuals, in the hope that you may glean some important knowledge. Thus, with the utmost scholarly endeavour, I present to you a load of films where people get stabbed in the eyeball





5: THRILLER: EN GRYM FILM
In at number 5, we have Bo Arne Vibenius’s 1974 exploitation sleezearama Thriller. In this generally poorly made filth fest, we follow the plight of poor Madeline as she is kidnapped from her pastoral existence, drugged, made hopelessly addicted to heroine and forced into prostitution. Obviously, our plucky young hero has a problem with this, and scratches her first client’s face up. However, her pimp, in what is perhaps the biggest over reaction in cinema history, grabs a screwdriver and gouges out her eye with it. Oh noes! This stabtastic scene, while brief compared to some of the others featured here get’s extra bonus points due to the fact the director claimed that he used an actual corpse for this scene LOL





4 : SHIRYU NO WANA
This little known 80’s creepy slash fest is often credited as being the first ever Japanese horror film. Oh, how I wish they still made films like this rather than the boring and dreary Ringu series… Anyway, Wana (or Evil Dead Trap as it’s known in the west for some reason) is a very well made piece of trash cinema with some genuinely scary touches. For some reason, it also has this particularly unpleasant scene right at the start of the film, where the 80’s permed protagonist views a snuff movie sent into her viewer submitted clip show. This is like the equivalent of sending your home made execution video into You’ve been Framed, and as such, the sender should be commended for his balls.




3: THE BEYOND
Director Lucio Fulci is perhaps best remembered for his films where people get their eyes torn out, so it was perhaps inevitable we would see him on this list. In this charming scene, the house’s maid is accosted by a zombie crawling out the bathtub, who then slams her head against a conveniently placed nail with predictable results.




2: GUINEA PIG

At number two, we have the pretty horrible fake snuff film Guinea Pig, from, that’s right, Japan. In the late 80’s and early 90’s in Japan, there was a small craze for these plotless, misogynist gore fests, often released without credits to heighten the authenticity. Guinea Pig was the first and most famous, and was lagely responsible for the implementation of video age certificates in Japan in the early 90’s. In the bloody climax, a young woman has her eyball pierced by a bunch of chavs. Probably the worst film ever made on every conceivable level, Guinea Pig still manages to secure a place in your hearts at number 2 :)




1: UN CHIEN ANDALOU
Well, it was pretty obvious, but novertheless, deneying Un Chein Andalou its place at the top would be sacrelidge. In this 16 minute surrealist short from 1929, a woman’s eyball is slit open on a moonlit night. As the clouds biscect the moon, so too does a razor split the woman’s eye, and with that, it was assured that every year thousands of people would groan in disgust in film classes across the world. The scene, performed on a real (cow’s) eye, was acted by the director himself, who was physically ill for days afterward. Bless him.
Anyway guys, that’s it, I hope you enjoyed a snapshot of what it’s like to be a film scholar! Join me next week for more fun facts and enlightening anecdotes from the world of film!


NEXT WEEK: RAPE

Tuesday 28 October 2008

Are you:

1) Unemployed?
2) A fan of interesting game concepts at a low price?
3) Otherwise stuck for something to do to waste your time?

Well thanks to an exclusive offer, you can now get the following valuable procratination toys free!

They come with the official TimCorp™ seal of quality, guaranteeing total satisfaction or your money back!




also recommended but not legally available for free download:


Sunday 26 October 2008

Saturday 25 October 2008

Life Sorted




After thinking about it for about 45 seconds in Burger King today, I've decided to change my career path entirely and become a sociology teacher. Hoorah!

Perks:

1: £6000 bursary

2: I'd get a job fairly quickly, unlike teaching film studies

3: Lots more choice of places to do a PGCE

4: I could grow a beard and drink a lot of coffee

5: I could transfer to teach film studies, or even teach sociology and film studies at the same time

6: Mum would love the idea

7: Dad would not



So, what are everyone elses plans?

Friday 24 October 2008

Just a little person, what's which continues?






With that has gone directly securely for the present, therefore as for me it you think; a little concerning by your concerning the time when what is written. As for that so there is here!

My name is Michael, I am 22 1/6 years old. My hobby performs the guitar perhaps, mainly inquires about loud music, and, what does the cool video game is included! As for genre of my taste of game game or of 2nd shooting, so it is; 'shmups'. Approximately 12 people of the world do those, but that those ways makes just me more! I very so it cools!

The hobby where I am largest being really drunk, being able, has forgotten concerning 1 just instantaneous my worries. The next day, I possessed terrible remains ones, generally fell very, just a little you obtain the veterinarian! When smooth it is rough you must take! As for part I, perhaps, you say is alchoholic and those right. I in the effect of alcohol now mentally and physical adicted. Randum XD of Lol

My plan of life until the monotone which now life crushes destroys me or so is 1 annual thing. Then I The Professor of Work or something, drinking dying by yourself of profit and my moderate salary in portable London where it goes. As for Excalibur!!! It goes!!

Monday 20 October 2008

Watch yourselves, these girls are HOTT!

5) Yoshika Suenaga

Yoshika first rose to fame on the NHK TV program "Sukei no Fukei", becoming an instant hit due to her almost pre-pubescent looks and boundless energy. Despite the potential consequences for my sexuality in picking such a youthful specimen, I've decided to award her 5th place.














4) Rina Akiyama

Awarded Japans Best Buttocks 2007, its easy to see the reason(s) why Rina-chan gained 4th place in my hott list.

















3) Yumi Sugimoto

Famous for her steely cold stare, Miss Sugimoto has been known to destroy men, and horses, with a single look. I've decided to take the chance and put her in at 3rd.

















2) Aoi Kimutoshi

Despite, or possibly because of her bizzarly coloured hair, I find Aoi makes me feel funny in my special place. Which is why she gets 2nd.

















1) Charlene Concepcion

Yes, our very own asain babe. Out of 5, I'd give her one!

And for that reason she is top of my hott list 2008, may god have mercy on us all.












Disclaimer: This hott list is in fact a parody of my perceived yellow fever and in no way should be taken seriously. I in fact do not have a hott list because I can't be bothered to keep track of people I find attractive on the TV/film, although I still maintain Thandie Newton was hot in Run Fat Boy Run.

The time is now in GMT.

This is definitely worthy of it's own post, as I have been wondering how to change it for fucken ages.

My 'hott' list!

Inspired by Chaz, I tried to think of who would be in my 'hott' (I don't like this spelling) list. Surprisingly enough, not many sprang to mind.

I reckon I can only really fancy someone if I think she's possible to get. So what follows might be me having delusions of grandeur, but the majority *are* in the 'independant' scene of their particular careers, so I guess I might have a shot. ;) haha

So here we go, in no particular order (except for number 1!)...

7. Kristen Schaal



A funny woman! There's nothing sexier really. She's also very pretty (in a very individual way - but I like it and I'm not alone!), and has possibly the best voice in the world. Star of Flight of the Conchords, but infinitely better in her individual work. Check out: Penelope - Princess of Pets



6. Julia Ruzicka



The rather gorgeous bassist from Million Dead. There's an amazing band picture of them on my wall at home where she's in focus. So lovely. She was in a band called Blackstorm that SD might be working with, but she left recently... C'est la vie! ;)




5. Sia Furler



I only just found out about Sia, from fuckface himself - Jools Holland. She performed 'Buttons' from her new album Some People Have Real Problems. The entire album is great, which is a real rarity these days with anything I like. She's an Aussie, but she lives in London.


4. Kathy Coppola



Bass player and vocalist for my favourite screamo/emo band Circle Takes The Square. She's an amazing musician and lyricist. Also very much involved in PETA and so on. Rock on!!





3. Drew Barrymore



Big eyes... Aaaah. Not very good at anything, but who cares? Did soft porn and a few 'quite-near-the-top-shelf-but-not-that-bad' mags, bless her.






2. Dawn Porter



Beautiful Dawn. I don't think she's as dumb as she appears on screen. I think she's a fairly savvy journalist who says what her target audience might think to connect. Me, defensive?! Anyway, she's gorgeous and fun and, and, and...





1. Helen Bensted-Smith



Aaaah, I'm such a cheesy bastard... But she deserves pride of place on my 'hott' list.








And that is that!

Shit Lookalikes



Sophie Ellis Bextor






Matt LeBlanc






Catherine Zeta Jones



Jim Davidson




Gerard Depardieu

Saturday 18 October 2008

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Monday 13 October 2008

Hott List

Pretty Self-explanatory
Here is a [non-ordered] list of people I like to ogle at. Awesome.


Jonathon Rhys Myers







Of 'Bend it Like Beckham' fame (where I first admired him with his dodgy Irish accent) and more recently 'The Tudors', seriously the only reason I've watched it. It's his eyes, his dreamy, dreamy eyes. Corr. They're all melty. It's great.















And this picture. This time, not just his eyes.










Whatsisname off Heroes, that Peter one




As with Jonathon, Milo [weird long name] also has the dreamy eyes. But he also seems like he'd be lovely and buy me shit and stuff. Btw, I'm talking series one here, not the other ones where he has cut his floppy hair and I hear he has gone all Neo, complete with leather (actually I may have to check out this new series). But yeah, he's your typical brooding, sensitive and moody type as shown here with his furrowed brow. It's all a bit obvious, but he's still damn pretty. A special mention should also go to the other hot men of Heroes (Mary also understands me btw) Isaac, who I suspect is not completely representative of all heroin addicts and the big Petrelli, whose name I can't remember but who is also good-looking for an old man.






And look! He's beefed himself up! Big strong arms, as Michael would say. I don't usually go for this kinda look, but I'm liking this one, a LOT.







Tamaki Suou


So yes. I was gonna talk about his amazing personality traits, but lets face it, he is indeed a cartoon character. I'm not going into it, but if I was I was an Ouran High School Host Club 'customer' I'd most definitely choose Tamaki. Although Kyoya there is nice too, all dark and mysterious and stuff. Let's move on..



Paul Bettany


I'm not entirely sure why. First thing, he's ginger! (No offence Tim). I'm not usually a fan of the those of the strawberry blonde variety, well, as in I don't think I've ever fancied anyone ginger, but there's just something about him, that is extremely sexy, despite the fact he always appears to play a twat. I can't explain it, animal magenetism perhaps. Whatever it is, it's made me watch Wimbledon, The Hole and A Knights Tale far more than I really should (i.e. more than once).






Razorlight/Johnny Borrell
I don't care, I still love them. Before the release of their shit second album that is and whatever drivel they're releasing this week (although I probably will download and weep for old times (The first album is amazing, fuck off)). Probably the first band (not counting the backstreet boys etc.) that I was properly fanatical about and followed around (I still have a blurry pic of me and johnny outside brixton academy, me looking incredibly geeky). But anyway, for all of Johnny's horsey face and big teeth and Andy's just plain weird giant chin, the 17 year-old (Jesus!) inside of me still adores them.



Jimi Mistry


Well for one, he has a fucking awesome name. But mostly, it's well, his winning smile. Seriously, it's amazing (not shown here...I can't find any decent pictures although this is good too - i'm liking the hair). That's pretty much it.









And that is it. Special mention also goes out to Gael Garcia Bernal, who is ridiculously pretty but I can't be bothered - he's properly hott, google! But this has taken me well too long - i really should be really be doing some work. There is also a missing hot women part missing but that will probably come later. Of course, top of any list is always that Mikey C fellow, but he doesn't picture as well as the above. And i'm sure his Konnie Huq-athon to follow will undoubtedly be much better.

ps. this blogger shite is a fucking bitch to format.

Guilty Pleasures? #1

OK, so our good ol' friend, soon-to-be-superstar, Joe visited recently, and whilst walking back from the city, he surprised me with a topic that seems pretty arbitrary, but has had me thinking ever since: guiltly pleasures.

Thing is, is that for all my neuroses, when it comes to entertainment/art/whatever, I'm pretty honest with myself and don't let silly things like feelings of guilt come into it. I guess guilt as an abstract idea is such a heavy thing to think about that I find it incompatible with entertainment.

Maybe not art (I don't mean just painting, I mean music and so on too), but I'm pretty nazi about art, so I think I rule out guilt there too. Before this becomes a rambling, pretentious post about the 'nature of guilt', I will return it to the throwaway nature that it was intended to be.

MUSIC:

Girls Aloud - The singles are all I've heard, but they're nearly all awesome.
Sia - 'Buttons' - (Why she's not releasing this as a single is beyond me).
Slipknot - The new melodic stuff. The old heavy material. New heavy tracks are just bad metal, which is the worst thing in the world.
Linkin Park - First album. Maybe the second. Never bothered with the third.

Embarressed about...

Katy Perry - 'I Kissed A Girl' - Horrible, homophobic, horrible, tacky, AMAZING.
Keane - Some stuff. LOLZ.
The Ting Tings - 'That's Not My Name' - *ahem*

FILM:

Will have to come back to this. I'm having a brain freeze.

TELEVISION:

Eastenders - It's proved to be a comfort through tough times. Those poor fictional bastards at least have it worse than we do!
Cookery programmes (The Restaurant, Masterchef, etc) - I find these strangely compelling but also really, really reassuring. Like a comfort blanket. Bizarre that I keep watching people cook meat when I'm a veggie turning vegan.
Gilmore Girls - I think I've joined Tim... Come over to the beautiful, intelligent side. It's Lorelai by the way. I was kinda close!

LITERATURE:

None that I can think of. I'm not a closet Dan Brown reader, alas!

Do yours!!

p.s. A spin off for this could be a topic about 'Stuff you should like, but don't'. I have a shit load for that.

Sunday 12 October 2008

Blog post featuring a Youtube link to a Japanese man doing something eccentric

Sorry about the Tim like nature of this post, but this is a short video of the Japanese noise artist Ito Atsuhiro doing his thing. Awesome stuff.

Saturday 11 October 2008

Friday 10 October 2008

L1NK0RS

WATCH THIS BIATCH

...AND LOOK AT THIS

Europe Mega-Trip Summer 2009!

Bearing in mind the last post that I wrote a few days ago but only published now, I'll follow it up with a more happy and hopefully successful sequel.

Despite our debilitating lack of money, I have decided not to let this stop me (and possibly/hopefully the house?!) planning future expeditions, especially with the success of PRAGUE!!

So with a Euro Mega Trip in my head, and cutting out environmentally horrible planes (and the currently completely fucked air industry anyway - it would be awful if we went with a cheapo oairline like we would want to, and then they folded - ARGH!), I chose to have a quick look at trains due to the seemingly awesome happy travels of Mary and Ichin.

Here we go then...

Global Euro Inter-Rail Train Pass. [STANDARD]
1 month continuous travel = £339. (1 Youth [12-25 years])

Includes: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, FYR Macedonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey.

Use Hostel Bookers (in association with Inter-Rail) to book accommodation in pretty much any city on our travels. For a private bedroom with a double bed, it tends to range from €8-15/night depending on the country. Eastern and Central Europe will be on the lower side. More ‘established’ EU countries in the higher price bracket. Some probably even more than the above price per night. I’d guess Italy would be more expensive for example.

Although the Inter-Rail pass books us on any train within the month, it does not ‘reserve’ us specific seats. To do this (so that we don’t get displaced by those that do, which sounds pretty likely apparently), it costs €9. Although this isn’t a lot, it might add up! The other option is to stand if there really is no room. I guess we’d have to choose which to do – some journeys might only be one or two hours so that wouldn't be too bad, but if we were actually using the train for a mega trans-country journey, standing for ages isn’t going to be fun. If we travel overnight it is advised to also reserve the type of cabins that have overnight sleeping quarters. This ranges from €25-125. Expensive! You can sleep in your seat, and to be honest, this would be what we'd have to do, unless we're all high flying executives in nine months time.

We also need to get a train/ferry/plane into Europe. Inter-Rail Passes are not viable in your country of origin. Seems a little unfair in my opinion… but not unexpected I guess. It adds expense though nonetheless.

In general this sounds amazing and I’m well up for it. BUT, it also sounds like there’s a hell of a lot of costs possibly incurred that are just around the corner, before we start partying it up at all.

If we went I’d definitely NOT want to be devil may care about it. Although it would be awesome to be completely spontaneous, I think for the amount of money possibly incurred and the short time we’d be doing (I reckon a month will FLY BY travelling around Europe), we would really want to organize ourselves an itinerary, so that we hit the right destinations in order to catch the festivals/markets/holidays/etc, that we wanted to go to.

I've been looking for 7 people: Chris, Helen, Mike, Charlene, Joe, Tim & Jess. If others want to join us, get in touch!

Obviously money needs to be made, and the hard task of possibly getting a whole month's time off work (probably not even possible?!) is something that's a major sticking point.

Anyway, here's to a possible Summer 09 blow-out!

p.s. Definately worth consulting Mary about how they found the train service. It's all under Rail Europe, but I mean more these details about reserving a seat and so on. Is it travel websites, etc, being conservative, or is it well founded?

p.p.s. I'll still have a look at more 'package-holiday' ideas for Easter time. Something similar to Prague in terms of price, flights, hotels, etc. Line your ideas up! Previously mooted destinations are: Budapest (Hungary) seems popular. Belgrade (Serbia) seemed to strike a chord too (I swear some flight operator offered this from East Midlands, but I can only find Heathrow going there now - will continue to search!). I like the idea of Split (Croatia).

Thursday 9 October 2008

The Coming Of...

Jesus?
El diablo?
Plain old gorgeous Chris?

You decide. I am come.

And on that note, I will write a rambling dirge...

The fight beween good and evil (see above) in the brain is one of our most human facets, and yet one, I can tell you, I could happily do without the majority of the time. Confusion. I don't like it.

Seems to be a pretty integral thing to life in Excaliber Cottage right now though... We're all at a crossroads. Decision time. One thing, or the other. We've had our time in the sun (Uni), and although life can still continue to be fun (of course!), there is one major wall in the way - money. And money means job, or something... anything. Busking?! Prostitution?! Maybe.

Big words like CAREER and SALARY, seem to dominate the mind, or at least phrases like 'Plan for the future' and so on.

I do not profess that I have any idea at all though. Far from it. In fact I am firmly burying my head in the sand. Imitate the ostritch. Become one with that sand and that salty, gritty taste of sweet, sweet denial. Myself and the silent member of our band of five (we shall call her Miss X for short), run a silly venture. A record label, or rather the 'Black Hole of Finance' as I prefer to refer to it in the jumbled mess I call my thoughts. Maybe it will do OK, maybe not. Probably the latter if we're being honest. The music industry is not friendly, and even when it is, it seldom comes hand in hand with good account sheets.

Relationships can feel the strain. Ours has. Not just over SD, but over the time in the house, and the changes as people we have... Endured (?)... Enjoyed (?). I don't know. The great thing is that myself and the misses are stronger than ever now. And the house for me, feels a little more contented than it has for a long time, if not a little subdued and with a distinct lack of 'omphf'.

The fact that we are older is inexcusable. We are only in our early 20's. However, our devious little friend called money is probably mostly to blame for the collective drop in action and general excitement. But overall, it's much better now.

...And all this without any dreaded pills on the misses part for the past month or so. Except I'm on them now. Figures.

p.s. Apologies for light heartedness being replaced by cold, harsh misery. El diablo strikes again!

Saturday 4 October 2008

Sod's Law

At the moment, I have a severe deficiency of money. However, that doesn't stop the fact there's about 1,000,000,000 awesome games out right now or over the next few months that I'm going to have to scrape around to buy. I'm making this list primarily to remind myself to buy all of these at some point, and also to remind the thousands of people who read this blog how awesome my taste in videogames is.


NINTENDO WII




Sin and Punishment 2




Sin and Punishment 2 (2009) - Epic genre confounding confusion sim

Oboro (2009) - Gorgeous sprite based ninja sim

Fatal Frame IV (2008) - Dingy ghost-'em-up

Mad World (2009) - Frank Miller baiting monochrome gore-fest




NINTENDO DS




Ketsui Death Label



Space Invaders Extreme (now) - Flashy rhythmic colour flashing pixel diversion

Metal Slug 7 (US now) - Shouty tiny screen pro-war rally

Korg Synth (JAP now) - Bleepy music hashing program

Disgaea: Day of Darkness (SEP (US) - Stupidly complex evil simulator

Ketsui Death Label (OCT JAP) - Panic bullet hell toilet blaster

Flower, Sun and Rain (UK OCT) - Poncy old fashioned puzzle and post-modernism package

Chrono Trigger DS (2009) - Legendary time traveling sprite based time waster, now in very small format

Dragon Quest IX (2009) - Colourful cheery rock hard grind-em-up

Nanashi no Geemu (:() - Creepy 1st person abstraction simulator, slim chance of English localization




XBOX 360


Deathsmiles



Street Fighter IV (2009) - Pastel hued nose breaking action, now with even more epic thighs :)

Ketsui EX (2009) - Revered floaty proximity based scoring action

DoDonpachi Daioujou Black Label EX (2008) - Headache inducing bullet curtains for masochists

Deathsmiles (2008/9) - Peado-tastic horizontal gothic blaster




Looks like I'll be living off borscht for a while longer :(