Cheap Therapy

Beowulf was very cool.

Possible spoilers below.

On the animation side, I’m guessing we’re about 2 movies away from being unable to tell live action from animated. Most of that will probably be because the badly animated scenes will have reached a quality such that you won’t notice they’re not real and they won’t snap you out of the reality. Regardless of how good the well animated scenes are, I think the film’s only as good as its lowest common denominator animation.The models were great, the dragon was fabulous (I’m sure there’s some Godzilla or Mothra somewhere in its heritage

I’m hoping the DVD release at least won’t feature the somewhat farcical genital hiding necessary when Beowulf goes into combat naked. Also, the film suffered a bit from being released in some places in 3D, thus necessitating lots of ‘things poking at the screen’ to show you how good the 3D is, arrows, flagpoles, that sort of thing (perhaps it’s fortunate they didn’t show Beowulf’ genitals It may also just be that I’m oversensitive to such things having previously worked with 3D stereoscopy.

The story has survived through time, and the script by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary brings it to (larger than) life for the film, while at the same time highlighting the human failings of the characters and adding the onset of Christianity as the up and coming religion. Grendel is hideous and there is much mead, women and song amongst the ongoing carnage, along with the embellishments of an oral folklore tradition when the heroes were more heroic, the monsters more monstrous and those who survived the carnage got to drink, sing and wench (or be a wench?) once more after burying their dead.

… could get you 40 lashes and up to 6 months in jail in Sudan.

Before there was the time travelling Delorean there was the nuclear reactor powered Ford Nucleon.

This is a very cool cardboard rocketship for kids to play in.

To help cow the populace into submission, make sure they’re afraid of terrorism: afraid of drugs (or their kids on drugs):and of course, the internet, because they might use it to find out stuff that the politicians don’t want them to know.   

Saudi Arabia, our partners in peace.

Aside from the overpriced mediocre food, and the appallingly slow coffee service it turns out that if you buy food on your salary sacrifice card the waitstaff will then prevent you from buying alcohol, even if you aren’t buying it on your salary sacrifice card, and it’s after 5:30pm. Even in the days of Perth’s new dining + alcohol laws. So I guess the solution would be to buy the alcohol first, then the food? They’re unlikely to be able to deny you food with your alcohol order.  

Maxine McKew is infinitely cooler than John Howard: 

According to Salon Amazon are about to release their e-book reader using e-paper and having a 30 hour battery life.

• Dinner at Must, sans sproglets
• Shopping
• Replaced indicator bulb on car
• Replaced washer on tap
• Cleaned an iMac
• Shredded some documents
• Caught up with visitors
• Took Puggle to the park
• Fired up the Weber and roasted a chook in something approximating Jamie’s BBQ sauce
• Now, exhausted.