Sgt. Colbert: "Once more into the great good night. Cry 'havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war."
Cpl. Person: "Man, when I get home, I'm gonna eat the fvck out of my girlfriend's pussy."

Lost a couple hours this afternoon reading the articles about the Iraq invasion from Rolling Stone that inspired Generation Kill.

Folks should read them. They are great and fvcking harsh and beautiful and messed up in all sorts of directions.

Last week I was transfixed by the miniseries that HBO made of this story. Watched all seven and a half hours in two sittings. Had to watch the first three episodes twice each to have any chance of working out who the fvck most of the characters were and what the hell was going on amidst all the military lingo and codified radio chatter, but even when not much made sense at all I was gripped, which seems to be a common comment about this program, and should be taken as high praise.

You'd think Generation Kill as a piece of television would have everything going against it. And not only because it's about a bunch of jarheads who led a misguided, bloody and by now/in hindsight pretty deeply unpopular military invasion that's old news anyway. There's scant little time given to exposition in the series, a huge ensemble cast of men all dressed the same and with an often impenetrable vocabulary, a bonus total lack of PC sensibilities -- it's difficult viewing even before you hit the moral ambiguity.

And on top of that there's not a whole lot of bang-pow war action. There's a lot of sitting in humvees talking, or sitting next to humvees talking, or on top of them, or under them. And yet I never lost interest in any one of these people. Thinking back it's pretty much incredible to know all the craziness really happened, and so much of the dialogue was word for word what these guys said, as scribed by their embedded reporter from Rolling Stone. Yes the creative team behind The Wire helped pen this too, but it seems they were hardly even necessary to make this drama compelling. Every character is so nuanced...the unshakable warrior, the psychopath, the fruit, the nerd, the wigga, even the comic relief crackpots. I couldn't believe how much I laughed with and at every one of them, loved and hated their choices, and yet by the end how much my heart broke for each in turn.

Impeccably cast, have I implied this already? Fvck it is. James Ransone, freaking fantastic. Alexander Skarsgård doesn't even need to open his mouth by the time you get to about episode 5, he can act six conflicting emotions at once just in his eyes alone it seems. Likewise Stark Sands. Just, I don't even...it's just truly incredible.

I don't watch or read a lot of military anything, okay, but in what I have, you don't get character depth or arcs anywhere near like this, fact or fiction. Amidst the poor Latinos from South Central, you've got the Ivy League grads who chose to be there. Amidst the Republicans, you've got the Democrats and even Libertarians. Those who will go on to support the military, and those who will denounce the war. All Reconnaissance Marines, the toughest of the tough, yet amongst them still the one who carries Neutrogena into battle. Could hardly make this up even if you wanted to!

Regardless of anyone's position on the armed forces, America, the "War on Terror" or any other conflict really, I think these articles/the book/this tv show is genuinely something people should give some time to. There's no political agenda other than to tell the truth about a bunch of guys who found themselves at war; with an enemy, with each other and with their own consciences. This is arguably about as three dimensional as violent storytelling is ever going to get, and it is as thought-provoking in its subtlety of direction, cinematography, acting and dialogue as in its trigger-happy Marine Corps oo-rah.

It doesn't exonerate Marines or other defence personnel from the many fvcked-up war crime things we all know some of them did over there, but it does give a perspective and a truth that I think gets forgotten in our left-wing living rooms back home. Not everyone's a hero, not everyone's a murderer, but everyone's a human being just trying to get by for better or worse. Most of these Marines are my age or younger, so only know Vietnam in terms of the hippies and would've blinked and missed the first Gulf War. They come from single parent or two working parents homes, were raised on video games and hip hop, and all this spins a very different type of soldier than we've known before. One we're so inclined to say is poisoned; desensitised to violence. And what Generation Kill - articles/book and miniseries - does is simultaneously say yes, you're right about that, and no, you couldn't be more wrong.

Recommended.

Two dead bodies, skinless and fucking? Check.
Hacksaw, shady fedora and thing that looks suspiciously like a hotplate in the background? Check.
The look on Gunther's face, like he's just been caught doing something so not above board? PRICELESS.

( Read more... )

I seriously can't stop looking down over my shoulder and squeeing my guts up over the fact that I actually have Fucking Åmål and Together and Lilya 4-ever and Hole In My Heart kinda painted on my body forever!

Tattoos + I should've been born i Norden = YAY

( Read more... )

So yeah, I was in the paper on Saturday. Photo and four micro book reviews I wrote.

Scores of people have commented so far on the "nice picture" of me, but not a one has said anything about the reviews or even the books themselves, which they should infer I have actually read... Yes I am literate!

I can't help but feel that *this* is why we do derby, and why we preach "sport over spectacle".

To fight gender stereotypes and redefine femininity, so that someday, maybe, a generation of women can live without being relegated to just 'a pretty face'.

Go here to make a submission to the current Australian Senate inquiry.

http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/senatesubmission.htm

Your submission can be as short or long as you like. A personal story about yourself or a family member or friend is great, but you could just as easily send a one line submission: I support the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2009 and full marriage equality for all same sex and opposite sex couples in Australia.

The fact that this Bill has even been sent to inquiry is a big deal, so please take a few moments to throw some weight behind the issue.

( My submission, if you want some ideas for a kickstart. )

Last weekend I went online to some heartbreaking news. The news that the Stay Beautiful club in London will be closing up shop after one last night in August. I write this so I can say I paid proper respects to an extraordinary place and the *true* modern Death of Glitter.

( Read more... )

I can't believe it's over now, and she'll be all gone by the time I'm living in London in three months. I am genuinely upset. I actually got a little teary reading some of the comments on the Facebook announcement. I guess this is my personal version of Michael Jackson's death -- the passing of a true pop culture hero of mine, the Stay Beautiful club, whose existence made me the person I am today, for better and for worse.

CAN'T FVCKING BELIEVE that it's only three-and-a-half months til we'll be in the UK. I'll officially be an immigrant! God, that's kinda terrifying. All this talk, all this planning, all these best intentions, and now here we are and it's fvcking about to happen.

Can't believe I haven't seen Torchwood yet. Can't believe (no, wait, CAN believe) J-Wo groped James on the telebox. Can't believe how hard I laughed at Michael McIntyre, probably CAN believe that Clarkson is cruising for gays in the Cotswolds with his iPhone ;)

Can't wait to get my new smartphone, set up Skype, then hang out in wi-fi hotspots and never pay for phone calls every again :D

Can't wait for tattoos later this month, can't wait to skate again next week, can't wait for ANoH redux in October.

SEE THE BOTHERSOME MAN. SERIOUSLY, I CANNOT JUMP UP AND DOWN ENOUGH ABOUT THIS FILM. SEE THE BOTHERSOME MAN. Or at least see Left Bank.

By which I mean: Don't waste your time on a film like Martyrs, that only wishes it were intelligent and tries to philosophise its way through the writer/director's Catholic guilt with a completely bland result.

All the allegories viewers and the filmmaker alike want this film to be making - about fundamentalism/zealotry, extremism, neo-conservativism, senseless violence, etc. - are six steps too far sideways from where the film actually takes you and leaves you, rendering them obtuse and ultimately useless.

This is just another straight white male writing misogynistic bollocks to sell prints. It is no different to Irreversible, which - yes - was also overwrought, sexist, homophobic, "shocking" crap.

( Spoilers cut. Come back and debate me once you've seen it. )

Martyrs is a failure of a film! Everyone stop jizzing all over it, it's really not as good as you want to think it is.

(Oh, except: BRILLIANT soundtrack provided by Seppuku Paradigm.)

If you want a spooky genre film with a life-after-death allegory that actually works and characters you care about, check out the Belgian treat Left Bank.

And if you want all the subtle afterlife musings you can handle, in a film that is truly torturous to its main character in a totally non-horror film way - and pretty torturous to watch as a viewer too, that goes from bleak to bleaker from start to end without once feeling heavy-handed, that doesn't rely on any particular [non-]theistic position to make its powerful statement, and that will have a profound effect on you and may even affect change in the way you live your life, then FOR GOD'S SAKE, SEE THE BOTHERSOME MAN!

I am very much looking forward to having my mid-life crisis, just so I can be as un-classily ridiculous as Jonathan Ross.

http://twitter.com/McCainBlogette/status/1925662950

Here Meghan McCain, self-identified conservative and daughter of last year's Republican presidential candidate John McCain, comments succinctly on the Prop H8 ruling and shows more enthusiasm than most of the filthy queers she's defending. The rest of us are just tired, so tired... But it goes on.

I have had this rant many times before, but I just thought I'd document it in writing so you all understand just how desperate the situation really is. IT IS CRITICALLY DESPERATE! OPERATION BLOW-HOLLYWOOD-THE-FVCK-OFF-THE-MAP NEEDS TO GOGOGO!

D:

Extremely not good.

I hold Universal Pictures up for examination, as an example.

Here are some films Universal has in pre-production, production, post, or awaiting release:

Robin Hood (nothing new there)
Fahrenheit 451 (has already been pretty successfully adapted to film by Truffaut)
Jurassic Park IV (whyyyy?)
The Mummy (7th film in the modern franchise)
Pokemon (big giant spin-off franchise machine)
Psycho V (*sob*)
The Last Remnant (adaptation of a computer game)
Mace Griffin (adaptation of a computer game)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (remake of a classic auteur film)
Cobalt 60 (adaptation of a comic)
Magnum P.I. (adaptation of a TV show)
The Jetsons (live-action adaptation of a cartoon)
Alice (adaptation of the American McGee computer game, which was adapted of course from a book)
Barbarella (remake of a cult classic film)
BioShock (adaptation of a computer game)
Dragon's Lair (adaptation of a computer game)
The Munsters (adaptation of a TV show)
The Birds (remake of a classic auteur film)
Red Sonja (adaptation of a comic)
The Strangers 2 (sequel to an unsuccessful recent film)
Spy Hunter (adaptation of an arcade game)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (live-action remake of an anime)
The Incredible Hulk 2 (sequel to a sequel to a comic adaptation)
Drop Dead Fred (remake of a cult film)
Videodrome (remake of a classic auteur film)
Little Fockers (sequel to a sequel)
In The Heights (adaptation of a Broadway musical)
The Wheel of Time (based on a book)
Everlost (based on a book)
Cirque du Freak (based on a series of books)
Girly Boys (remake of a recent Thai film)


You'll be pleased to know, if you've read this far, that Universal do have *two* films slated that are original screenplays...

I wrote this just over a week ago with a felt-tip pen on some scraps of paper while flying home from Sydney. I had shed a tonne of tears in the preceding 24 hours, for reasons ranging from 'why does this have to end?' to 'I hate you, you uncaring jerk', and I know I was doing my best to be positive (...and nonchalant) in the wake of a powerful experience. If I was to write about Sydney now, perhaps there would be more sadness evident, as I have had 10 days (and a couple of emails) to realise that the lacking physical presence of certain good friends remains noticeable and ultimately kinda painful. But it still stands that there are key things about the trip I want to remember, and so I retype and record them here.

--

( I could write about ANOH in a stream of quoted song lyrics, but I actually want to remember this awesome experience when I look back, so 'vague' is out. )

The city of Sydney? Over-sized, over-priced, overly confusing, mostly charmless and with far too many angry drivers.
My trip to ANOH 2009? Yeah, fvck it, alright... It was priceless.

--

I learnt a lot about the film industry just from sitting and listening, especially about things that interest me like festivals, buying/distribution, financing, etc. - the kinda of things I think I'd quite like to do with my life - and was able to return to work today to confidently tell my boss that yes, the resignation I had tentatively tendered for October does still stand, perhaps stronger now than ever.

Wooooooow, Rachel Stamp, reunified and played and now it's over. What I came to experience; all done.

The cross-section of people in the crowd just blew me away. Teenage glitterkids, 20-something indie normals, proper 'ard men from Yorkshire, first wave punks who never grew up... And of all the bands in the world that could bring this motley crew together, I must admit Rachel Stamp seems about the least likely. But so it was.

I think I only need to note that there is a grainy photo on someone's camera phone somewhere of Robin Guy kneeling in the door of a scungey Camden nightclub as he draws a lovely sketch and signs my skirt. Robin fucking Guy! The person who is at least two thirds of who I am! It's not often you get hugs and kisses from the people who kinda sculpted you.

People ask me who Rachel Stamp are a lot, or what they sound like. I'm never really sure how to explain. I can't pin them to a genre and I certainly can't begin to discuss all the little nuances of Stamp and what makes them so important to me. I think the best story is from Matt, when he related to me that he had been explaining Rachel Stamp to someone else and had taken the inlay photo of a CD and said 'See these three guys? Courtney is made up of these three.'

That's Rachel Stamp. Quite seriously as much a part of me as my best friends or my own flesh and blood.

Guyzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!

I bought a film magazine yesterday that has an article on incest cinema, focusing on films where the incestuous relationship isn't explicitly condemned, and even goes so far as to suggest in context that possibly 'love is love'!

Fvcking hell I love you, UK/Europe.

The magazine, Electric Sheep fyi, is the best film mag in the world, I have to say. No arthouse genre crap, no indie by numbers, no national export cinemas, limited high-brow pretension and an apparent understanding that cultism can be discernment. Also, unashamed dislike of Status Geeks! Yay! Fvck you, Tarantino!

Okay, things are coming together now for Stampax 2009 oh-god-I'm-crazy Tour o' London. As well they ought...I've basically got one day left to get all my sh!t together!

No CouchSurfers came through, so I'm staying at Palmers Lodge. This is okay because Palmers Lodge is the happiest hostel on Earth :) Plus I walked almost everywhere from there last time I was over, so maybe this time I shall skate! Who needs the London Underground anyway?

I'm starting to plot my days out now.

I get in at rubbish o'clock on Monday morning, so I'll probably dump my bags and head to Shaftsbury Ave/Neil's Yard/Charing Cross Rd and get all that "oh finally I've come home again" sentimentality out of my system. Some book and DVD shopping. Why have all the Fopp stores closed down?! :'( - my heart breaks. Check in to hostel in the afternoon and sleep til tomorrow. Or I could skate in Earl's Court with London Rockin' Rollers that night.

Tuesday night has skating in Bermondsey with London Rollergirls, Thursday night is Chalk Farm with LRR, Saturday could be Brixton with LRG and Sunday could be Chalk Farm again with LRR. So that's the roller derby component taken care of :D

The only people I really need to catch up with are Gaz and DRP, and maybe Tom from Cronenberg's. Might try to hit an AFUK antihoot is something's on. No gig plans except for Rachel Stamp. I wonder if Patricide have a show...?

I suppose I will spend most of one day at the National Gallery, coz I always do. I'll need one or two full days at the Science Museum <3 and at least one day at the Imperial War Museum <3. (Last time I was there, unbelievably, I spent three afternoons at the War Museum [plus another at the Britain At War experience thing...] and I could've stayed longer.) I am going to seek out all the St Nazaire stuff this time.

Is everything closed on Good Friday, anyone know? How 'bout Easter Sunday? Bet I could go to some fvcked up Catholic services that weekend...

Maybe people are going to Brighton for Spellbound on Saturday? I always seem to end in Brighton on shonky overnighters...

Camden! I need to factor in Camden somehow, for shopping. And/or Portobello. And eating Raspberry & White Choc cookies from Sainsbury's :) I really want to go back to Greenwich too, but that might have to wait. And I've completely forgotten to think about the Hayward Gallery <3 and the Saatchi and the BFI <3 and the Barbican.

TELL ME your favourite non-touristy things to do in Londontown! I don't have the time to do my usual trick of spinning a dial and just walking aimlessly in that direction until the sun goes down :)

The Word of the Day for March 16 is:

tremulous \TREM-yuh-luss\ adjective
*1 : marked by trembling or tremors : quivering
2 : timorous, timid

As in "tremulous and tender", as in "grasp it, sense it", as in "the music of the night".

It knew, it knew ;D Today's WotD in my inbox from Merriam-Webster knows I'm going to Phantom again tonight. Knows my stomach actually hurts and my fingers are tingling because I'm so stupidly excited. Still, again.

Things I learnt from the arts as a child: lots of words. Including tremulous, garish, deftly, intoxication, and the phrase "savour each sensation" - abused as an excuse for how obnoxiously slowly I used to eat food. All those from one sugary Lloyd-Webber hit alone :) Also insolent, heh ;p Learnt that too.

Need to get home and download new Skins! Almost 1,400 comments in the reaction post of one comm alone!! This is unprecedented. Wtf has happened?! *twitches*

Need to get away from the stupids here in my whitewashed office before they eat me alive. You're damn right I think security cameras in mosques is a racist idea, you morons. Can't you open your eyes and notice we have Christian fundamentalists at about 10:1 here alongside these Islamic radicals you love to hate so much? Oh no, you probably wouldn't have noticed because they're not out to get you in your comfy heterosexuality. Check you priviledge at the door, slags. Why aren't you talking about putting cameras in synagogues too in case we get any radical Jews from Israel migrating, they've got a pretty decent history of terrorising in the name of religion too, you know? Oh, what's that, you don't know? Oh, that's right, because this isn't really about religion at all, is it? This is about you being RACIST. Well surprise, surprise.

Racefail 2009, meet QBE Insurance. You'll get along swimmingly.

Now stop this before you make me make my next post about problematic storytelling on behalf of People of Colour and lesbian characters in Skins season 3. You don't want that. *I* don't want that. Fandomwank politics makes the baby Jesus J. R. "Bob" Dobbs cry.

Someone* at my work may've just sent thru an email foward about how Australian's speak English and Australia is Christian and immigrants (read: Muslims) are skeevy and 'if you don't like it, leave'...you know how it goes.

And I may've just let fly and hit Reply To All and send back a politely worded fvck you, you're wrong, and I'm bloody well TRYING to exercise my "great Australian freedom: the freedom to leave" but even I - nice and white and English-speaking and Australian born and bred - am bound and gagged into second-class citizenship in this country you're asking me to be so proud of.

So screw you; you're wrong and you're a fool.

*shakes*

* Someone who is married to an Italian immigrant, no less, with Italian immigrant parents-in-law. Go figure.