Lars Von Trier invites you to visit his Denmark

Big fan of Lars Von Trier - love his thoughtfulness, his imagination, willingness to push the limit and his darkness.

Can't say that I would've chosen him to direct a tourism campaign though - but what do I know about marketing.

(Bless those Onion folks for showing us how things might have been)


Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier

From Kirk to Spock via the worst Aussie accent ever?

Completely unintentional juxtaposition here of two of the leads of Star Trek TOS - sometimes you just get lucky I guess.

No idea what the film was, I'm guessing mid to late 60s, but I think I'd like to see it now.

Can't stop saying Denny Crane

I'm a late-comer to Boston Legal but now that I'm there, I'm kind of hooked. 

It's not that I think that it's the most amazing tv show ever made or anything - The Wire and pretty well anything that's ever screened on HBO is still well ahead there - but there are a couple of things about it that I seem to be fixated on at the moment. 

For one thing, while it's a fairly clever show and definitely well made, it's relatively light and fluffy in comparison to the excellent/worthy shows on my "to-watch" list. We're talking about The Corner, Generation Kill (both from The Wire creator, David Simon), Breaking Bad, Caprica and a few others. Truth be told, these are all fantastic shows - I do believe that we live in a golden age of tv - but over all, there is something of a seriousness, even a modern grimness to all of them.

Boston Legal creator, David E Kelley, has an admirable track record in sharp, funny production over the last few years - Ally McBeal and The Practice of particular note. Shows that take a very tv look at current events and issues by popping them into the middle of a busy, big-time law firm peopled with fascinating and ridiculously good looking and witty staff. Rather unlikely in reality but perfect for tv. 

Boston Legal's core is the great Denny Crane - played, of course, by William Shatner. A more than a little bit eccentric, larger than life character who has never lost at anything. His catch-phrase is simply his name, repeated frequently as though the words themselves are simply all that need to be said. And, like songs on commercial radio, after a little while, the repetition really does its job. 

The phrase "Denny Crane" becomes shorthand for "don't worry, it's me, what bad thing could possibly happen" or "of course we won, it's me". It's a call of absolute and utter confidence, mixed with that dash of justified egotism and there is something incredibly affirming about just saying the words. It says - everything is ok and yes, I am freakin awesome. 

Forget that Denny Crane is a full-blooded right winger, forget that he is gun-crazy and even shot Omar (yes, from the Wire) in the head with a paint-ball gun in one episode, all that matters is Denny Crane. 

(Personally, I'd like to be more like his best buddy, the brilliantly played James Spader character Alan Shore. Incredibly intelligent, wry, sound lefty, incredibly magnetic and with a nice measure of dark self destructiveness to keep things entertaining. One day. ) 

Denny Crane

Hep cats demand Miaow

It's clearly the cat lover in me but I'm rather tickled by the name of the new moral-panic of the week party drug Miaow.

Can't say I'd heard of it before reading this story on the ABC website (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/12/2818459.htm) but it seems to be similar to ecstasy and cocaine, with a come-down that's a "little bit more subtle. "

As you would expect, the police report also mentions links to psychotic episodes and possibly deaths and so on.

Still, I can't help wondering if it makes people purr. :)

Daybreakers - what do vampires do when the blood runs out?

Daybreakers is the new film from Oz genre-masters the Spierig Brothers. It is set in the near future (2019) and tells the tale of what happens when vampires rule the earth and the supplies of humans are seriously dwindling. It offers a refreshing new perspective on the genre as well as through in some spectacularly gratuitous (but fun) gore and effects.

I saw Daybreakers last night and Undead, their low-budget zombie effort, a few years ago. I'd call it a really solid film but not yet a great film or a classic. The style, effects and gore are unmatched for an Oz genre film and the story and pacing held together really well until the final act. The guys also have a real knack for putting action sequences together. (There's a nice reference back to one of the highlights of Undead, when a zombie vampire hangs by his feet from the ceiling in mid-battle)

It is an improvement over Undead but mainly because of the evolution of fx technology and (of course) the larger budget. The Sperig Bros have some interesting ideas and aren't afraid to look at a genre from a new perspective - the concepts alone in Daybreakers are worth the price of entry. (Maybe a tv series would have been a better direction?)

Having said that, let me say this - they do seem to have a bit of trouble finishing stories. Undead had an interesting but unsatisfying finish and this one was more solid but still seemed to end with everyone distractedly wandering off to look at something else. For such a strong build up, a much bigger finish was needed. (Unless they are eyeing off a sequel?)

For the cast that they had to work with, the performances all seemed a little flat. Could be the George Lucas effect - strong with the whizbang but less so with working with actors. (Either that or the direction was all about underplaying things but I couldn't say why)

If you are looking for a smarter than average actiony/sci-fi/vampire pic, it's hard to go past this one.

Tony Soprano is a Wild Thing

James Gandolfini's role in Where the Wild Things Are revoiced with his work in The Sopranos. What's not to love?

iPad pwned by MadTV - back in 2006

It's a name that just begged to be messed with.

Jon Stewart is with me

I posted about a fairly under-reported but significant piece of American political news the other day - the Supreme Court decision to remove restrictions on corporate political campaigning.

Jon Stewart explains it much better than I ever could. (And sidekick Jon Oliver delivers a blindingly funny response celebrating the end of discrimination against corporations)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Supreme Corp
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The big deal is really that for a bit over 100 years, corporations have enjoyed the same legal status as individual citizens.

Even Barack Obama is less than impressed.

Brother Ali - Uncle Sam Goddamn

I've been listening to this guy for a few weeks now - I knew he was from Minnesota but never realised that he was white. Not that it matters I guess - great tunes.

Update: I just noticed that poster image that YouTube decided to take from the video - not the most appealing one I know but the song is still well worth checking out (yo)

Scarier than Skynet - the corporations are winning

I've posted more than a couple of times here about advancements in military robot technology that make me a little concerned (and probably make me look like a tin foil hat wearer but that's neither here nor there)

This news story from the US though leaves me seriously troubled.

WASHINGTON — Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

The 5-to-4 decision was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.

The ruling represented a sharp doctrinal shift, and it will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted. Though the decision does not directly address them, its logic also applies to the labor unions that are often at political odds with big business.

Maybe I'm missing the finer detail but it seems to me that corporations in the U.S are now free to spend as much money as they can raise on making sure that the people they like get elected. They can potentially spend billions of dollars if they choose on tv advertising and all the other costs of campaigning - money that they have never before been able to kick in.

The most telling part of this case for me is the almost Orwellian name of the body who brought it to the court - Citizens United. ( funnily enough, one of the anti-internet lobby groups in the GTA universe is Citizens United Negating Technology - although it just doesn't seem so funny any more)
This isn't going to end well.

Update: got some more info that reveals that things could be worse -

"The judges also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, enacted in 2001, which barred union and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.

The court's ruling leaves in place a prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions and did not touch a ban on unlimited donations from corporations and unions to political parties."

(from The Age)

Still, there's a whole lot of wrong about this. Supporters might (disingenuously) argue that this is a matter of free speech but if you have the money to ensure that yours is the only voice heard over and over and over, what does that do to the free speech of everyone else?

How about some fair speech?

Breaking news Breaking Bad great

So, sure - Breaking Bad has already finished its second series and the lead actor Bryan Cranston (the dad from Malcolm in the Middle) has already won two Best Actor emmys for his role in the show  but until last night I hadn't seen it so in Couch Media world, I guess this passes for breaking news.

It was just the pilot that I saw - possibly the hardest episode of a series to make because you have just under an hour (or half an hour) to set up your premise, introduce your characters and give viewers a reason to come back. Tick, tick and tick.

In a nutshell, Cranston plays high school chem teacher Walter White who is struggling to make a living and then discovers that he has inoperable lung cancer. Cheery start right. (Did I mention that he also has a mildly disabled son?) After learning just how much money is to be made in the production of crystal meth (ice), he decides to go into business, with the intention of setting up his family for the future. Despite the premise, it's not a depressing story - it's real (but not too real) and Cranston's White is a genuinely interesting and likeable character. (And it's always good to see kinda-nerds being a bit badass)

It's also won the Emmy for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series for the last two years - one was for the episode that I saw last night - guess it helps to have a good editor.

Pay Attention

A great spiel about why if you're not using technology in teaching, you're losing your students.

Countries with the Southern Cross on their flags

I've seen the stars of the Southern Cross painted, tattooed, on stickers and hand drawn in texta across the persons and vehicles of any number of  nationalistic young people in recent years. Personally I think these kinds of displays of nationalism - while often made by perfectly decent people - are a little American - over the top and tinged with a kind of intolerant tribalism.

Saying that everyone who feels proud of this country is an ignorant bogan or redneck is to oversimplify things - there is a lot to still celebrate about Australia (something that the joyless, overcritical wowsers on both sides of politics forget sometimes). The things that I like most about Oz is the laid back but practical nature of how we do things. The whole quiet achiever thing. This strikes me as the greatest sign of confidence - not needing to jump up and down and wave your arms around.

The rise of the Southern Cross as a sign of national pride is extra puzzling because it's a constellation that can be seen from most places in the Southern Hemisphere. Four other countries like it so much that they have it on their flags. You could argue pretty easily that the Federation star, with its 7 points representing the states and territories is a more distinctive symbol of national pride. (Let's overlook our colonial master's flag still perched up in the top corner - even the Barmy Army has been heard to say "get your shit stars off our flag")

The Eureka flag - which has been adopted by a range of groups from trade unions to white supremacists - could also be ripe for reclamation. Of course, it would be better if it was accomplished by some kind of meaning popular movement against unfair oppression - but like that's going to happen.

I've got nothing against the Southern Cross itself - it's a good looking group of stars and handily can be used to find south without a compass - but it's not uniquely Australian.

Australia

Brazil

Brazil actually wins in the story about why the Southern Cross is on their flag. It represents the stars they saw on the morning of the 15th of November, 1889, the day the Republic of Brazil was declared. Each star on the flag represents one Brazilian state. On top of this,

the flag portrays them as they would be seen by an imaginary observer an infinite distance above Rio standing outside the firmament in which the stars are considered to be placed.(flagspot.net)

New Zealand

Papua New Guinea

Samoa

(images from Wikipedia and in the public domain)

Exciterrifying - Augmented ID

The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) has a video up of a prototype of a system for your phone that excites and terrifies me. In essence, you point your phone cam at someone (with an account set up presumably) and it displays on screen a range of info from their social networking footprint.

I'm excited because it's another step forward in this amazing digital era we find ourselves in, where the concepts of knowledge and information are being radically reimagined every other day and terrified (ok, perhaps not that extreme but it worked well with my exciterrify portmanteau) because of the potential for evil it displays. When you think about it though, face recognition has been around for a while and who knows what the powers that be are doing with that tech. 

Or, in their words:

Augmented ID is a TAT concept that visualizes the digital identities of people you meet in real life. With a mobile device and face recognition software from Polar Rose, Augmented ID enables you to discover selected information about people around you. All users control their own augmented appearance, by selecting the content and social network links they want show to others. Modifying your augmented ID is easier than fixing your hair in real life and, of course, TAT Cascades will make sure you look great!

Time for a new hairstyle?

Time for a new hairstyle?
Originally uploaded by couchmedia

Just found a nifty iPhone app called OldBooth that makes it verrrry
easy to Photoshop your face into other styles.

Beautiful and simple interface.

Dreaming

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Henry David Thoreau

Because C3PO needs a more obvious package.

It seems like almost every day Youtube gives me something to be thankful for. I'm not sure where to start with this but it does appear to have answered my questions about what Star Wars would have been like with more C3POs and Darth Vaders - dancing badly and in too-much-information tights.

Thankyou late 70s French tv.

The guy who did the spider drawing to pay a bill has a whole website

You must have seen the email detailing the amusing email exchange between a guy trying to pay his power bill with a drawing of a seven legged spider and his power company right? It's gold.

Anyway, I found out today that he in fact has a whole website of similar exchanges - either he's a massive smart arse or a very imaginative writer. Either way, it's entirely worth a look.

Personal highlights for me include his response to a client asking him to do some graphic design work for free (a not-uncommon request in the design world) as well as creating some pie charts.

The general modus operandi seems to be responding to irritating and/or officious requests with a beautiful hybrid of rambling, absurdity, trolling and sarcasm. I'm not normally that great a fan of sarcasm - on its own it's generally what people who overrate their intelligence use to feel witty - but in combination with everything else, it works a treat.

Other posts seem to be even more random, possibly grabbing images from social networking sites and concocting bizarre stories around them. One resulted in a threatening legal letter (which he of course took the opportunity to play with) before agreeing to "change the name" of the target - the name which funnily enough remains listed in the legal exchange.

In fairness though, the guy does have a very clear message on the complaints page of his site to

Go away

this site contains none of your business
and is for my amusement only.

You do not have permission to access the content and if you do decide to enter this site, you agree to waive all rights.

From what I can gather, this guy is also from Adelaide (for which he has my deepest condolences)

WiFi winners

It's been a little while since I've visited Passive Aggressive Notes.com - a very amusing site that allows people to share some of the notes that get left around the place.

This particular post made me lol - mainly because it reminded me of the all-time best/worst wifi network name I have ever seen. I was riding through the industrial part of Footscray (near Melbourne) just before Christmas and my phone asked me if I wanted to connect to a network called cuntseepage.Classy.

Belated Win

Love this pic that I found up in the Win section (the antithesis of the Fail section) on the ICanHasCheezburger.com site - natural home of lolcats.

I can only imagine the neihbours wondering if this guy is taking the piss. (sorry)