Watching: Most innovative use of a guitar

Ok, so it might seem as though I've gone Justin Sandercoe crazy but this really is a very clever and cool clip. Our Justin has been holding a "most innovative uses of a guitar" competition and this surely has to be the winner.



I like the quality of the animation, the stylistic nod to The Big Lebowski, the music and the particularly nice focus pull from the ball to the bowler.

WTFing: Compulsory employee microchipping is now illegal

I read the other day that California has passed a law that

would bar employers from requiring workers to have identification devices implanted under their skin

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a good thing to ban - what I want to know is how society gets to a point where business might think that effectively branding employees might be considered an acceptable practice. Given that these rfid microchips could be used to track workers wherever they go, it's a horrendous proposition.

I'm also impressed by the fact that

Nine senators opposed the measure, including Bob Margett (R-Arcadia), who said it is premature to legislate technology that has not yet proved to be a problem. "It sounded like it was a solution looking for a problem," Margett said. "It didn't seem like it was necessary."

Of course, I wouldn't be expecting any similar kind of protection under Workchoices II if Howard wins the next election.

(Thanks to one of the commenters on the riot-act for this nugget)

Watching: Adam & Joe's Quizzlestick

Some of you may know that I've got a bit of a thing for quiz/game shows so you'll probably understand why I enjoyed this clip so much

Watching: Justin Sandercoe Guitar Lessons

I'm a bit crap at practising guitar - I've been playing on and off for around 20 years and there are probably only 4 and a bit tunes that I'm any good at.

(Greensleeves, some two finger classical piece, House of the Rising Sun, 12 bar blues and most of Heart of Gold)

I'm pretty happy to have found Justin Sandercoe's collection of how-to videos as they seem both useful and achievable. (And he has more than 60 up online so far - with supplementary printed notes)

This one I like in particular because it's a series of finger exercises you can use to increase speed, accuracy and strength of note-hitting.



Legend. Thanks.

Exploring: My Bookcase(Part 2)

Previously on Exploring: My Bookcase - Part 1 :)

This might not seem to meet the "book" requirement of bookcase but hey, it's the 21st century, it's all media.

You can see part of my Things to do folder just creeping into the shot on the left - I must say that I haven't cracked it open in the time since I mentioned it in the first post of this series - let's see if it gets a look before I reach the bottom right corner of the bookcase. (But don't hold your breath)



The first video is a copy of an slightly obscure film by Alex Proyas, director of I, Robot, Dark City, Garage Days and The Crow. It's called Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds.

I posted a review of this on IMDB a few years back (which I'd totally forgotten about until I was looking around for info - it was only when I got to the end of it that I realised that it was me :)

This film has some of the most beautiful imagery and haunting music ever. (Not to overstate it or anything) A three hander set in a post apocalyptic Oz outback (but one which is wildly more fantastical than Mad Max), Spirits of the Air tells the story of Smith, a stranger on the run who happens upon Felix and Betty, far into the desert.



All around them are amazing images of cars buried into the ground like totems, huge flags blowing madly in the desert wind and their house itself is of the old oz pioneer style but decorated everywhere with crucifixes. Felix is an inventor obsessed with flight and making a glider, an obsession which has already left him in a wheel chair. Betty is one of the truly great film characters, just an absolute tripper - I can't describe her but the performance is a delight.



This is not a fast film, it is not action packed but is intense - the imagery and art direction are beautiful, the writing is distinct and very Australian but still universal, the soundtrack is haunting (a lot of windsound montages with a simple tune used to great effect) and the performances are both real and surreal.

Until you see this film (and for those who have enjoyed the increasingly brilliant work of Alex Proyas, you really should) you won't know what you are missing.

(By the way, to the @$#%ing mongrel who stole my Japanese import copy of the soundtrack on CD may you be locked in a room with Betty for a very long time)

Being the slightly obscure fillum, it's been a bit of task finding any video clips - there's apparently a clip on Alex Proyas' Mystery Clock website but it doesn't seem to be working.




Next along the shelf is a video about the art of one of my all time favourite directors, David Lynch. (This is actually the dvd cover but you get the gist)

I couldn't find any clips for this either but here's something from his video-art-music thing Industrial Symphony. (I'll bang on about David Lynch a little more later)





Next up we have a video which is labelled Quince. Quince is kind of tropical fruit and it was also the nickname of a guy I once shared a house with. The tape has my appearance on the quiz/game show The Weakest Link. (which I've since digitised and put onto DVD).

Finally you can see a somewhat florid small picture frame - this came from my friend Mick's wedding - a somewhat interesting affair in a fairly full on Christian way - quite a few references to the wife being obedient to the husband and so on that seemed a little archaic but hey, if they're both happy with that then good on them I suppose. (Given that Mick and his family were expelled from the Exclusive Brethren when he was a kid, I guess it could have been a whole lot weirder)

Playing: songs for Monday Sunset

Got some tasty ear-candy for you this week - featuring three tracks from the awesome new Beasts of Bourbon album, new stuff from Beck, Love of Diagrams, I Heart Hiroshima and Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment condensed into less than 3 minutes.

I Want You Bob Dylan Blonde On Blonde 3:09
Timebomb Beck Timebomb 2:49
Baby I'm Burnin' Dolly Parton The Very Best Of 2:37
Heart Of Gold Johnny Cash Unearthed 2 3:01
Master And Slave Beasts Of Bourbon Little Animals 4:51
The Beast I Came To Be Beasts Of Bourbon Little Animals 2:14
New Day Of The Dead Beasts Of Bourbon Little Animals 5:17
Valerie The Zutons Tired of Hangin' Around 3:56
The Great Escape We Are Scientists With Love And Squalor 3:18
Kooks David Bowie Hunky Dory 2:53
Better Go Home Now Dirty Three Dirty Three 3:42
Surgery I Heart Hiroshima Tuff Teef 2:44
What Was I Supposed To Do? Love Of Diagrams Mosaic 2:57
Herculean The Good, The Bad And The Queen The Good, The Bad And The Queen 3:59
Same Frente! The Kids Who Kill For Sugar: Popboomerang Records 5th Birthday Sampler 2:49
Happiness' Border Youth Group Urban & Eastern 3:11
Mr Circle Fred Smith Bagarap Empires 3:47
Hot Rich Girls Dropped In A Grange (Gwen Stefani vs. Snoop Dogg vs. ZZ Top) Torero Best of Bootie 2005 4:28
Dirty Water Randall Blair And The Wedded Bliss Tattoos And Taillights 4:46
Heavenly Pop Hit The Chills Submarine Bells 3:28
Raskolnikov Soursob Bob Living In The Long Grass 2:57
I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor Sugababes Q: Best Of 86/06 2:44
Calypso Spiderbait Ivy And The Big Apples 1:51
My Baby's Man Vanlustbäder The People Versus Vanlustbader 1:40

Listening: The Beasts of Bourbon - Little Animals - track by track

Previously - in Rock...

This album marks a most welcome return to recording by the Beasts of Bourbon, ten years after their last album Gone.

It contains a smorgasbord of dirty swampy rock goodness that is happy enough to tip the hat to a range of rockers from the Stones to the Stooges, Ian Rilen to The Drones and the PowderMonkeys to Kurt Cobain, all the while doing their own thing, doing it well and having a ball in the process.

At the moment, I'd have to call this my album of the year - maybe in a tie with Grinderman.

Can't wait to see these guys in Canberra on the 19th.

Recorded simply in three days, the bio on their Myspace page tells the story of the album better than I could but I liked this part in particular

The labour pains are short and sharp: a day and a half of ragged rehearsals on a wet winter's weekend, then three days at Newmarket Studios in North Melbourne, with the band's live mixer, Skritch, in the producer's seat. The place has the right vibe, Spencer says. That's crucial, and hard to find. The band sets up drums and amps to record live.

Tex is feeling ruthless. He wants to work on ten songs, max. He doesn't want to muck around with 15 or 16 and let most of them go to the dogs. He's thinking of classic, hard rock albums of the '70s: condensed, high impact. Short intro, first verse, chorus, solo. Bang-bang-bang. Keep it all happening. No fat, no filler and then, "oh shit, it's over."

I Don't Care About Nothing Anymore 2:45

Good old school rocker with just a hint of funkiness in its heart. There's an almost Tom Waits-ish quality to the way Tex barks out some of the vocals and then he just slides effortlessly into rock high notes (but not too high - more QOTSA than The Darkness) and back again. The guitar is buzzy and heavy and compelling, the beat is driving and the lyrics are basic without being simple. Great opening track



I Am Gone 2:13

From the opening chords, you feel like you're walking down the street like a rock badass - the style shifts a tad from the first song and the guitar feels at times like some kind of glorious rock punctuation mark as it chugs along. Vocally it's a little more in Cruel Sea territory but darker. A good album track - not outstanding in its own right but it builds the album mood nicely.

I Told You So 2:49

This song features perhaps the simplest guitar riff I've heard - it's just 1-2-3-4 over and over through the whole thing - yet somehow it seems to work. It creates this slightly uneasy feeling, like you're waiting for something more to kick in but it never suggests that it actually will.

Fortunately the guitar sounds heavy and buzzy and rock and the occasional key changes and the slight Cobain tinge to the vocals make this an interesting track. (Even the guitar solo is pretty minimalist compared to the rest on the album).

Lyrically, it's another in the basic but not simple basket.

Master And Slave 4:51

We return to more conventional dirty rock goodness in this Domination/Submission themed love song.

What I like about this song is that it knows it can rock hard without having to play fast or too loud - rather than strutting, it strides, surveying its rock environment and slowly nodding approval.

Elements of this song remind me of the Powdermonkeys - but as with the rest of the songs on this album, it's more of tip of the hat than anything else. In other parts, it's as good as Chase the Dragon.

The feeling from this swampy rock journey is almost exhilarating as you feel all the elements of the band rocking together in complete sync, the guitar in particular is rock-tastic and doesn't slip for a second.

Little Animals 5:14

I'm not sure but I think the Beasts have created a new sub-genre here - the downbeat rock/bluesy eco-lament. There's something unnervingly un-rawwwwk-like in singing about animal extinctions but damned if they don't manage to do it in such a stylish drinking-red-wine-in-a-dim-bar-at-3am kind of way that it totally comes off. It's not preachy or sanctimonious, just bluesy. Extra points for the sting in the tail and being able to put the word Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) in a song too.


The Beast I Came To Be 2:14

Back to the rock with this one with its Stooges-worthy energy,drive and vocal rhythms. It's an intense burst of rock, dark but measured - like a triple espresso in guitar form. And then, as sharply as it began, it's over. Pow.

Sleepwalker 2:58

This album is dedicated to the late Ian (Rose Tattoo, X) Rilen and I think that this song is the band's musical offering to him.

It's classic dirty sludgy heavy blues - and like a lot of Tatt's songs, it has all the attitude of a gang of 70s bogan toughs that you accidentally bump into in a back alley (and wish you hadn't).

Too Much Too Late 2:53

Solid 70s rocker that would be a highlight on any album by the current crop of rock wannabes (Airbourne, Wolfmother, Jet etc) but which in the company of the other songs on this album is good enough but nothing outstanding. (Of course, by definition, if every track was outstanding, then none of them would be).

Fortunately the depth of guitar talent here brings the rock in the solos and Tex Perkins could sing the phone book and make it sound cool, so it's all good.

New Day Of The Dead 5:17

This song effortlessly puts out the kind of epic deep-jangling take-your-time rock that the awesome The Drones strive for but still haven't quite nailed. This is the song that rock journos should be thinking of when they (over)use the word "soaring" to describe guitar work - shivers up the spine stuff.

Vocally and lyrically this is one of the stronger songs on the album as well - Perkins packs in the feeling and I love to know the story behind the lyrics.



Thanks 3:15

This track was the spark for this album and lifts the mood instantly as the band thanks someone (or everyone) for all the drugs (which I imagine if they did it individually would take quite a bit longer :)

There's a bit of a country blues Rolling Stones feel to this one and with it's spoken lyrics and cheeky lairish grin, is a fine finisher to the album that just makes you wish there were more than ten songs in total.



To the Beasts of Bourbon, from the bottom of my rock heart, I say thanks.

Rating: 95%

(This the band picture from the cover art - love that sense that the band is just about to dump you in a shallow grave somewhere)

Playing: Songs for Lost Highway

Bird Stealing Bread Iron & Wine The Creek Drank The Cradle 4:23
Islands In The Stream Philippa Nihill Dead Sad 3:21
Harry Was A Bad Bugger Tex, Don And Charlie All Is Forgiven 5:21
I'm Holding You Ween 12 Golden Country Greats 4:04
Sorry Song Tiddas Show Us Ya Tiddas 3:02
(Untitled 3) Warren Ellis 3 Pieces For Violin 6:29
San Quentin Johnny Cash Johnny Cash at San Quentin 4:09
Chelsea Hotel #2 Leonard Cohen The Essential Leonard Cohen [Disc 1] 3:08
Roscoe Midlake The Trials Of Van Occupanther 4:51
Guenevere And The Fire Penelope Swales Justifying Your Longings To The Doctor 3:22
Wedding vows Sam Evans Brown Couch Soundtrack 2:55
Heart Of Gold Neil Young Decade [Disc 2] 3:08
Terrified The Devastations Coal 4:54
Blood Red River Beth Orton Central Reservation 4:17
The Lonely Goth Mick Thomas And The Sure Thing Dust On My Shoes 4:30
Stagger Lee Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Murder Ballads 5:17
Tale Of The Bull The Spoils Hurtsville 3:50
Make It Count Barb Waters & Kim Salmon Rosa Duet 3:37
Pink Moon Nick Drake Pink Moon 2:08
Angels Of Warrandyte The Beautiful Few Metal For Melbourne 2:06

Browsing: Everyzing

I've been looking around Everyzing a little this morning and it looks like a site with a lot of potential.

It's a search tool for online audio and video - they convert speech in the clips (podcasts, youtube videos etc) to text which is then searchable.

You can also upload your audio and videos to the site but you need to sign up to their advertising plan, which I'm not so excited about.

I was a little put off by their laughably corporate sounding About Us blurb:

EveryZing is the most powerful digital media merchandising platform available today.

Media companies of all sizes leverage our unique ability to drive the volume of online content consumption and create new and powerful revenue streams. Through our speech to text, search and optimization technologies, and consumer-facing website, we create greater opportunities for consumer and advertiser access to online content.

The company's best-in-class technology and comprehensive set of advertising services enable our partners to profit from their content by launching digital channels that deliver the entertainment, news and information that consumers crave.

but that's their perogative I guess.

Exploring: My bookcase (part 1)

Maybe it's wrong but whenever I visit someone's place, I can't avoid taking a look at their bookcase and cd collection - it's a great way to get a sense of their interests and tastes.

I'm sure that to some level or another we are conscious of this when we stock our shelves - unless we have enough room for everything - and it's the books/cds that paint the best picture of us, the one that matches our own image of ourselves, that are placed most prominently.

Then again, maybe it's just the books that we think we are most likely to need.

I was looking at my bookcase a couple of weeks ago and realised that accurate or not, it does tell something of a story about me. This set of pictures (you can find the entire set on Flickr) simultaneously offers an opportunity to talk about some books that I think are pretty cool - killing two birds with one stone.

I'm going to start with an easy part as I'm now thinking that it would be good to have cover pictures of the books and I'm not entirely sure that I'll be able to find them all.


(Click on the pic for the full-sized version)

This is the top of the left bookcase - the place where the things that are too big to fit in the regular shelves live. There's also my hole punch, because it's one of those things that take up too much space on the desk and won't fit in the drawer with the rest of the stationery.

On the right is a folder of ideas and tasks that I'll come to someday maybe. (Probably, but not urgently). This came about after reading David Allen's book, "Getting things done" - which offers strategies for, well, getting things done. It's largely about organisation and lists and whatnot, as well as the way it's easy to get overwhelmed by the number of unfinished tasks we have floating around the back of our mind.

I've always been pretty chronically disorganised, which I put down to being easily distracted and regularly thinking of new things to do before the old ones are finished. (One day I hope to put the rest of the ideas in the book into practice :)

The folder on top of that one is the "Things to do" folder, with tasks broken down by context - e.g at the computer, around the house, at work, errands, calls to make. Sadly, it's probably a little dusty but from time to time I pick it up and try to knock off a few things or cross off things I've managed to get done anyway.

Below that is the manual for my printer, a Canon something something. I have a lot of manuals - again, that don't get a lot of reading beyond the time I first buy the thing or when it goes wonky.



This is sitting on the printed out manual for my favourite game creation software, FPS Creator. (ok, so I haven't tried any others but it's still awesome).

I've posted a little before about work I've done with FPS Creator but in essence, it allows you to create first-person-shooter video games. (This is where the point of view - pov - is yours, so you move around the environment holding - or not - whatever weapons or other objects you can find)

As much as I'd like to be more tree-friendly, I find it hard to go past the print-out when I want to read anything more than a few pages - it's the combination of the tactile and the ability to scribble on it that technology still hasn't quite managed to adequately capture yet.

The PC, smart young thing that she is wrote her Master's thesis in linguistics on some of the speeches made directly after September 11, both by Bush and Bin Laden. (Sorry honey, still haven't read it yet but given that it integrates two things I'm really interested in, politics and language, I'm looking forward to it.)

The bright red-spined book under this is a notebook of various ideas and rants and raves I've jotted down over the last 14 years - as well as some excessively angsty and self-indulgent moaning from my working-myself-out period in my 20s that I'm pretty happy to have put behind me.



Below this is an anthology of Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics that I think I inherited from one sharehouse or another in the past. An underground/counter-culture comic created in 1968, it ran until 1992 and is now being made into a stop-motion animated film. (Here's some of the test animation from it)



I like this one because it has a great subversive sense of humour and I've always liked comics.



I've also always been right into surrealism and dada - two art movements from the earlier part of the 20th century that explored the inner world. There was a major art show of the surrealists at the National Gallery in Canberra when I was at uni and I've always regretted not going along on the big road trip a few people arranged.

At least I have the book I guess.

Wondering: Is there a nude statue of Alexander Downer in the heart of Canberra

Alexander Downer is the current Australian Foreign Affairs minister (and renowned pillock).

This sculpture, in the main public plaza in the heart of Canberra was commissioned by his father, Alexander Downer Sr. in 1964 when Downer Jr was around 12.



The good folk at Artwranglers have rightly asked the question - are those the chubby buttocks of our current international face?

Kind of horrible to think about really. (But since the thought got into my head, it seems only fair to share it with you :)

The always awesome Paul Keating summed it all up nicely when he referred to Downer as "the idiot son of the establishment"

Comparing: My Humps - Alanis Morrissette vs Black Eyed Pea

I have to confess that I usually tend to let songs like My Humps (Black Eyed Peas) slip by me with their mindless crass commercial tackiness but after being pointed to a rather awesome looking blog - tuning - by Shane (thanks champ) I found a great reinterpretation of the song by Alanis Morissette (a.k.a God from Dogma) which points out how horrible the lyrics are by stripping away the funky beats.

Here's Alanis



and here's the original if you managed to miss it first time around as well

Playing: songs for Monday Sunset

Apartment Custard 2:26 Goodbye Cruel World (The Best Of Custard)
Point And Shoot Yo La Tengo 4:18 I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
Electioneering Radiohead 3:50 Ok Computer
Electioneering Easy Star All Stars 4:34 Radiodread
The dead step out Konrad Lenz 2:12 Film Music
Vending machine Snowbug 6:38 Inextricably intertwined
Why Won't She Marry Me? Digger And The Pussycats 3:56 Watch Yr Back
Don't Say Nothing Patti Smith 5:52 Peace And Noise
Another Episode Sleepy Township 1:29 Set Sail
Four Corners The Sea And Cake 5:44 One Bedroom
Fish In The Jailhouse Tom Waits 4:22 Orphans: Brawlers
Black Magic Jarvis Cocker 4:21 Jarvis
The Metal Tenacious D 2:45 The Pick Of Destiny
The Salty Knowledge Of Tears Soulwax 2:42 Much Against Everyone's Advice
Bad boy for love Ian Rilen 6:14 Love In Murder (Bonus)
Sister Morphine The Rolling Stones 5:34 Sticky Fingers
She's A Bread Baker C.W. Stoneking 3:17 King Hokum
Fistful Of Dallas Ground Components 5:37 An Eye For A Brow. A Tooth For A Pick.
Candidate David Bowie 2:40 Diamond Dogs

Watching: Priscilla Queen of the desert - the musical

Priscilla Queen of the Desert - The Musical isn't the sort of show that I'd generally go to see but I won tickets at a trivia night and it seemed like a good excuse to take the PC for a trip to the big smoke.

I was initially going to say that I'm not one for musicals in general but then I remembered that I really enjoyed Keating the Musical earlier this year and also got excited about the thought of Aaron Sorkin writing the script for a musical of The Flaming Lips album Yoshimi Battles the pink robots so I guess they're not all bad.

For what it was, PQOTD-TM was good fun - it's bright and shiny, colourful and loud and moved along at a good pace. The costumes and sets were a match for those in Cirque De Soleil - not as stylish/cool in some ways but far more out there and funny in others.



Musically (song-wise) it was what you would expect - one camped up commercial disco/pop anthem after another - all the songs that you've heard somewhere or another all well performed etc but generally just not my bag. (Because obviously I'm soooo cool and alternative and all :)

We went to the matinee session (better seats) so the main roles were filled by the understudies but this didn't seem to make much difference - I wonder in fact if they might even try a little harder as they have something to prove.

The audience was a classic seniors set - again I'm guessing that the evening show might be a younger, hipper affair (but who knows)

Overall it was good to do something a little out of the ordinary and indulge in the shallow glossiness that seemed to sum up Sydney so well.

70%

Playing: Songs for Lost Highway

Bird Stealing Bread Iron & Wine The Creek Drank The Cradle 4:23
Islands In The Stream Philippa Nihill Dead Sad 3:21
Harry Was A Bad Bugger Tex, Don And Charlie All Is Forgiven 5:21
I'm Holding You Ween 12 Golden Country Greats 4:04
Sorry Song Tiddas Show Us Ya Tiddas 3:02
(Untitled 3) Warren Ellis 3 Pieces For Violin 6:29
San Quentin Johnny Cash Johnny Cash at San Quentin 4:09
Chelsea Hotel #2 Leonard Cohen The Essential Leonard Cohen [Disc 1] 3:08
Roscoe Midlake The Trials Of Van Occupanther 4:51
Guenevere And The Fire Penelope Swales Justifying Your Longings To The Doctor 3:22
Wedding vows Sam Evans Brown Couch Soundtrack 2:55
Heart Of Gold Neil Young Decade [Disc 2] 3:08
Terrified The Devastations Coal 4:54
Blood Red River Beth Orton Central Reservation 4:17
The Lonely Goth Mick Thomas And The Sure Thing Dust On My Shoes 4:30
Stagger Lee Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Murder Ballads 5:17
Tale Of The Bull The Spoils Hurtsville 3:50
Make It Count Barb Waters & Kim Salmon Rosa Duet 3:37
Pink Moon Nick Drake Pink Moon 2:08
Angels Of Warrandyte The Beautiful Few Metal For Melbourne 2:06

Looking forward to: Dr Plonk

Rolf de Heer is a little like the Coen Brothers of Australian film - able to work in a huge range of genres and bring something new and awesome to them. (I think I'll post more on his filmography another time as it's pretty impressive).

His work includes dreamtime legend Ten Canoes, outback fugitive chase drama The Tracker, dark messed up psychodrama Alexandra's Project, touching tale The Old man who read loves stories, family melodrama The Quiet Room, highly underrated sci-fi eco-tale Epsilon, beautiful cerebral palsy love story Dance me to my song and cult favourite, Bad Boy Bubby.

His latest work is Dr Plonk, a modern day Charlie Chaplin style silent film comedy. It screened at the launch of new arthouse cinema Arc here and was fairly well reviewed on loadedog.com

It opens in Canberra at the end of the month.

Here's the trailer:

Watching: Black Sheep

Not baaaaaad, not baaaaaaad at all.



I got pretty excited a couple of weeks back when I first saw the trailer for the new kiwi film Black Sheep - a schlocky horror comedy tale of genetically modified killer sheep on the ram-page. (Oh, I've got more, don't ewe worry about that).

Anyway, after slogging through a bunch of study stuff, I managed to get out and see it last night and had a ball.

Here's the trailer:



The sheep are marvellous, whipped up by the effects wizards at Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop (source of the coolness in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Host - and about a million other projects including the upcoming Halo movie).

There are lashings of gore - organs positively abound - it's easily one of the most visceral films I've seen recently, moving into slightly less intellectual Cronenberg territory - more in the zombie movie tradition of bloody sinew ripping and tearing as the sheep chow down on us pesky humans. (There's also a fantastically gruesome trip to the offal pit and even the making of haggis brings it.)



The story is nothing amazing - it manages to tick all the right boxes with the mad scientist, the return home to face up to childhood trauma and so on - it's not Shakespeare but it's not trying to be. There are some great lines and that dry smart kiwi sense of humour pops up from time to time (in between some pretty funny and not overdone gags about farts and sheep shagging) and while the eco-activists angle has been taken before, it's nice to see some holistic hippy solutions used well in saving the day along the way (acupuncture, aromatherapy and meditation/chakra stuff in particular).

The heroes are all likable and good (or interesting) looking - which is something of a genre requirement, the sound and vision are beautiful (is it possible to shoot an ugly film in New Zealand with all that scenery? Even Once Were Warriors looked like a pretty place to live) and everything seems well resolved with no obvious plot holes or "why would they do that" moments.

One of the other things I really liked was the humans transformed into sheep monsters thing - which drew far more from the werewolf genre stylistically than anything else. It's been a long time since I've seen it but American Werewolf in London came to mind at times.



Black Sheep is a fast moving, easily watchable (if you have a stomach for lashings of very visceral gore), quite funny and highly enjoyable flick. I'd still rate The Host slightly higher, but only by the narrowest of margins and they really do sit in fairly different sub-genres of horror so comparison isn't entirely right. (And I'd say the makers of The Host threw a bucketload more money at their movie as well).

85% (The movie website is pretty awesome too - check it out here)

Studying: games in education stuff

Had a big party-like weekend of studying and nerding it up (which probably explains my procrastination fuelled post splurge), this was one of the things I wrote about - why using games and scenarios in education is awesome.

(And not just because I can justify xbox/ps2 time as personal development :)
(yes I still have last gen technology - if you have a spare wii/ps3/xbox360 lying around, please send it to the couchmedia tech relief fund - all donations taxable)


Scenarios make learning more engaging

Using authentic activities that reflect the situations and cultures in which learners will use new knowledge and skills makes course content more enjoyable, more relevant to them and easier to recall. In scenario based learning, learners are placed into a fictional setting where they take on roles that relate to the material being covered.

According to Brown and Voltz, “an interesting scenario will make extensive use of humour, imagination, reward, anticipation, or drama to enhance the activity. It will have topics and themes likely to be relevant and interesting to the target audience. It will make the learning activity seem like an obvious or necessary thing to undertake, given the situation presented by the scenario. “ (2005)

Brown, Collins and Duguid (1989) strongly emphasise the idea that concepts exist in a particular context which helps to shape the concept into useful knowledge. Presenting this information in a form related to its use in the real world, ideally in a form which requires the learner to act as though they are also in that context (i.e. As a historian or an educational designer), adds important layers of additional cultural meaning to the information being shared.

This is a useful strategy for me as an instructional designer as I recently worked on a project with a teacher which focused on a competency called Practice within legal and ethical parameters. This teaches nurses about legal and ethical issues within nursing practice, the law and their responsibilities. In the past, it had been taught essentially as a list of laws and policies that nurses needed to be aware of.

We created a detailed case study simulation in which nurses make decisions based on developments in a particular patient’s case, consultation with colleagues and other available information.

As the nurse progresses through the story, ethical and legal complications arise with the patient which highlight key areas of content.

This added hospital and nursing culture issues to the learning and allowed nurses to connect more personally with the course content, which to that point was considered fairly dry and boring. My approach was to use online multimedia resources to better visually represent the scenario context – something that Agostinho, Meek and Herrington (2005) didn’t emphasise, believing that “cognitive realism to the real-life task was of more significance”. (p. 231)

I have an interest in the use of games in learning, which is why this area interests me specifically and I’m currently in the process of creating an immersive 3D environment which is based around our umbrella dept at work, the Education Development Centre. A scenario based approach to this “game” seems like an effective way of structuring user interaction with it.

One factor to consider from the Agostinho et al (2005) research is that “use of scenario should be more flexible, to allow students with appropriate real-life contexts to substitute their own evaluation needs while still fulfilling the requirements of the course. (p. 241)

Brown, J., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, Jan/Feb, 32-42.

Agostinho, S., Meek, J., & Herrington, J. (2005). Design methodology for the implementation and evaluation of a scenario-based online learning environment, Journal of Interactive Learning Research. 16(3), 229-242.

Brown A.R., & Voltz B.D. (2005) Elements of Effective e-Learning Design, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/217/300

Watching: the photoshop wonder-diet

Reasons not to trust images in magazines #45

Before Photoshop



After Photoshop



Here's the process

Watching: short films about business meetings

First up - what would happen if people commented in business meetings like they do on web forums. (I guess the boards I visit are a little more highbrow but I have definitely seen a lot of these comments at one time or another - digg.com springs to mind). (There is some coarse language - but it's hella funny)



This next one is a Saturday Night Live digital short that crams more jokes into 90 seconds than I thought possible.(And it features Dwight Shroot from The Office (U.S)) (Enjoy Captain Pyjama-shark)