| WEDDING |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|10:41 pm] |
a SMALL fraction of the actual pictures. i just did a quick upload.
i am so exhausted i cannot post much of anything.
we had a good day.
i will post more tomorrow after i get some sleep.
enjoy the photos
(i cannot put captions on today) |
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| 18 july |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|10:40 pm] |
the ks are here, pics from their first night and of the boy, some they took some i took |
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[Jul. 19th, 2008|09:32 pm] |
More fish died and my mom bought 3 more. Feeder goldfish.
I've seen The Dark Knight twice so far! I looove it. Heath is so awesome in it. Everyone is, actually! Except Christian Bales Batman voice... even I can do a better voice than that. I couldn't help but laugh every time I saw Two-Face though! My favorite part is when the Joker is a nurse. |
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| Cold |
[Jul. 20th, 2008|12:09 pm] |
Yes it is, cold today! Brrrr. |
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| perfect daughter or perfect horror |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|08:30 pm] |
I got back from my visit to my parents yesterday evening and tomorrow I’m back to work. Today was devoted to reacquainting myself with everyday life, things like going grocery shopping and collecting the Kitty from my sister’s where he stayed while I was away (thankfully he didn’t scratch my niece or nephew). Upstate New York is breathtakingly beautiful this time of year, fields of wildflowers—tiger lilies, Queen Anne’s lace and blue chicory. I saw turkeys, deer, hummingbirds, a rose breasted grouse beak and several fat, furry woodchucks, visited my grandmother everyday, went to a fascinating exhibit on Synagogue carvings at the local art museum and read a pile of comic books, mostly back issues of Elfquest and Urusei Yatsura. I can’t say I’m exactly refreshed from my vacation however. The tension between my parents grated on me like fingernails on a blackboard during the entire visit and perhaps to drown it I sort of created my own internal white noise by drastically cutting down on my daily caloric intake while drinking huge amounts of caffeinated diet soda in addition to sampling some of the prescription grade painkillers Mum had left over from a root canal she had last month (a Hydrocodine tablet and half a Vicodin a couple of days later—I didn’t really get buzzed at all but they did help with the shin splits I had from walking on hilly terrain). I’m not sure what gets into me when I go back to my parents. Half of me that strives to be the perfect daughter and the other half works equally hard to be a perfect horror. Interestingly I got some insight into this watching Batman Unmasked a History Channel special on the psychology of Batman. It talked about how Batman is a person who is filled with overpowering rage and fear yet is able to master it and how in a way that strength of will is his superpower. Joker on the other hand is described as seeing the world through a mad kind of logic wherein the existence of injustice cancels out the possibility of justice and where the fact that innocence is corruptible means that no one is innocent. Sometimes (like this last week) I feel like I contain both these persona and they’re warring it out in every decision I make. No wonder Batman has always appealed to me so much. |
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| New Fiction |
[Jul. 20th, 2008|02:06 am] |
After a long wait, Crimewave #10: Now You See Me is imminent, which features my fifty page '101 Ways To Leave Paris'.
In the same month, I've also just been informed I'm the lead story in Black Static #6 with a story I submitted over a year ago, called 'The Better Part of You'.
And if that wasn't enough, my reading of 'Bury the Carnival' from Black Static #1 will arrive in podcast form very soon too.
Excellent timing as I'm about to start submitting my novel to various agents. This writing lark: it's all waiting for months on end, then everything comes out at once. |
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| Flavia, the Heretic (1974) |
[Jul. 20th, 2008|11:07 am] |
Looking at the DVD cover art you’d expect Flavia, the Heretic (Flavia, la monaca musulmana) to be a fairly typical slice of eurosleaze nunsploitation. And you’d be dead wrong. This one is at least as much arthouse as grindhouse. It has more in common with Ken Russell’s The Devils than with nunsploitation flicks like The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine. It’s a movie that combines exploitation elements with a serious political purpose.
Based on actual events in Italy in the 15th century, it follows the fortunes of Flavia Gaetani. After killing her lover her brutal father locks her away in a nunnery. Flavia is unwilling to accept the rules of convent life, and runs away with a Jewish scholar. She is recaptured, and is savagely flogged while her approving father looks on.
The sadistic discipline of the nunnery fails to break her spirit, and she comes under the influence of a rebellious older nun who encourages her to defy the authority of men. Her witnessing of a rape that goes unpunished while her father has an unfortunate nun who has fallen under the spell of a crazed sect known as the Tarantulas tortured to death has already led her to question the justice of male authority. When a marauding Moslem army appears on the scene Flavia is more than willing to throw in her lot with the invaders, and she is given the opportunity to find both love and sexual pleasure for the first time, as well as revenge. Events do not turn out quite as she anticipated however.
Flavia, the Heretic has its share of the ingredients you expect in a 1970s European exploitation flick - there’s some extreme violence, considerable brutality and torture as well as lots of nudity, male and female. But it’s all done in a much more sober style than in the usual run of exploitation fare. There’s not a trace of campiness about this film. And the violence does serve a serious purpose. It’s often confronting and very unpleasant, but it’s not gratuitous. Nor can it be said that the nudity and sex are gratuitous - fear of female sexuality (especially in the guise of religion) is a major theme The feminist message isn’t just tacked on as a justification for the exploitation elements - it’s the heart and soul of the movie.
The acting is definitely a cut above the usual exploitation movie standard, with Florinda Bolkan outstanding as Flavia. And she is really given something to work with - Flavia is an intensely complex and contradictory character, and her character develops and changes throughout the movie.
The Synapse DVD looks terrific and features an interview with lead actress Florinda Bolkan, an interview that makes it clear that she took her performance very seriously indeed, and that she’s still proud both of her performance and of the film.
This is a disturbing film, a film that combines intelligence and passion with considerable entertainment value. It might not be quite what you expected, but it’s certainly very much worth seeing.
x-posted to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) cult_movie |
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| Collectormania and the Who Exhibition Earls Court |
[Jul. 20th, 2008|01:39 am] |
We had an excellent (if slightly exhausting) day out down in London today. Set out at eight and bombed down the M40 and was in Earls Court for about ten. It was the first time we'd been to the Collectormania show down in London and it was well worth the drive. It being Bri's birthday, we all met up inside - Me, Amanda, Bri, Kel and Ade - and spent the day checking out the stalls, getting a few autographs, stopping down the road for a pub lunch, then on to the Dr Who exhibition.
As much as we enjoyed the Cardiff exhibition, the Earls Court one is much more impressive. It takes a good hour to work your way around and, as they have more space, there's room for some really incredible props from the four seasons. The Face of Boe, LAdy Cassandra, the giant telescope from Tooth and Claw, the CyberController, the huge Empress of Racnoss and a fantastic moving Dalek room that has to be experienced to be beleieved. Even Ade, who's not a huge Who fan, seemed to throughly enjoy the whole thing.
Afterwards, we headed back to the Collectormania and I took the opportunity to get something signed by the lovely Georgia Moffet, who played the Doctor's Daughter in this season of Who, and even got a pic with her.
As we've got some tickets to see a talk with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart in Startford next month, we're going to try to get something signed there too, fanboy (and girl) that we are.
Anyhow, here's some pics (the rest over on the Flickr site)
  
  
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[Jul. 20th, 2008|03:40 am] |
забылся секунд на тридцать может приснился Чапа покойник уж не знаю к чему пить петь и плакать девяностые продолжают кончаться шестидесятые хуярят |
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[Jul. 19th, 2008|07:08 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
So on Thursday, Z and I finally went to see Walking with Dinosaurs at the garden.
First off, I was happy to find that how I originally envisioned the stage set was totally mistaken. Rather than being at one end, the show occupied the whole center of the garden, meaning our seats were pretty damn good and everyone got a great view of the wee beasties.
And how amazing they were. There were of course the favorites like the T-Rex, Stegosaurus and some raptors, but also Camptosaurus, Torosaurus, Ankylosaurus and the very amusingly named Lilliansternus. Z had been concerned we'd be the only adults there but there were a few... and what does it anyway? Dinosaurs always make me a kid at heart and watching that T-Rex pace the floor and make everyone jump with every roar was beautiful.
At work the next day I found out several of my co-workers were going too, which led to a great discussion about the whole thing.
Last night was Dark Knight, and then today I had been planning to see an apartment but found out they had already rented it out. That I didn't mind so much but considering they had scheduled a look at it today for me, the least they could have done to call me to let me know it was already rented out rather than have me try to chase them down. So the hunt continues.
I had also been planning to go see Rory Raven at the Nightmare Gallery tonight but that might have to wait until next week. And hopefully tonight if all goes well I'll get to see Amanda after she gets off work and we'll grab food or something.
And tomorrow, family and baby again. Goody! |
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| Premature B-day wishes to... |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|05:14 pm] |
...![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kyroraz, who has a birthday coming up on Monday. Wishing you a great one early because my long workday schedule might make me forget otherwise, amigo. May both employment and plenty of fun/bad b-movies be coming your way! : ) |
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| Barbara just washed both dogs ... |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|05:39 pm] |
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It's like a hair bomb went off in the bathroom! |
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| Who watches... this trailer? |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|05:15 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  excited | ] |
Holy shit...
This trailer really sticks in your head. I don't even particularly like Smashing Pumpkins but I love the use of that song here. I only hope Zack Snyder can give the story the same fidelity he seems to have achieved with the visuals.
And if you watch closely, you can see President Nixon in one shot! |
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| mi wireless networks, let me show you it |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|04:12 pm] |
click to embiggin'
I don't live in an apartment building, but in a typical Astoria, NY row house [1] [2]. These row houses have been chopped up into apartments based upon floors. For example, we have the first floor and a couple (Jose and Hitomi) lives upstairs in the second (top) floor and someone lives in the basement studio apartment (which is most likely illegal).
Even with this population density, I'm amazed at the number of wireless networks around. There's mine (named after Floss - see userpic) and then Shubert is probably our upstair neighbors' (Shubert is their cat).[3] The rest is just a mystery.
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[1] If you wish to get a mental image of our street, think about where George Costanza's parents lived on "Seinfeld." The street used for the exterior establishing shot for George's parents' house is one street over.
[2] In Spike Lee's "25 Hour" Edward Norton's character's rant about NYC includes the line, "Fuck the row houses in Astoria."
[3] I need to mention to Jose that he needs to add some security to his network. |
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[Jul. 19th, 2008|04:20 pm] |
OH MY GOD!
We have another FUCKING FELLA.
WHAT THE FUCK? |
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confused
exhausted
cold