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Whacking Permalink Archive 3 January 2004 Supporting global consumerism: the adventure continues I bought a brand-new motorcycle today: The Kawasaki z1000. I take delivery in 12 days.
The funny part is, I went out to the dealer to buy some oil and ended up sticking a deposit on a new bike. They were offering the last orange '03 model at around $2000 under the regular price, so I snapped it up about two minutes before another gent came in and said he wanted to buy it. Hah. There's nothing different in the '04 version except colour. The new ones are red. A bloody nice red mind you, but I wanted the striking orange. So, come next pay day, I'm settling the balance and riding the thing out the door. If you're a motorcyclist, take one for a test ride. You won't regret it. Striking looks, assloads of power, very comfy yet very compact, and awesome handling. The bloody thing turns on a coin, and as I found out today to my surprise, it's a great pillion machine too. I could have gone another way. Suzuki have released their new naked V-twin - the sv1000 - yet Action Motorcycles (the sole Suzuki dealer here) didn't have a bloody test bike available. How do these wankers expect to sell bikes without letting people test them? Well, I guess some people must, otherwise they'd be outta business. But how many other bikes could they sell if only they offered test rides? I've asked for three different test rides there over the last two years (all on new, popular bikes) and on every occassion there's been no test bike available. The Triumph Speed Triple was another possibility. Cracking engine and striking looks, but was hampered by weird ergonomics: handlebars which were narrow and provided little leverage and a bloody uncomfortable seat. For a while, it looked like I was going to grab a Honda CB1300. This bike was a real surprise package. The big, heavy retro-naked turned out to have excellent, nimble handling, a great engine and was a fantastic pillion machine (a consideration for me nowdays). But the Kawasaki just has the edge on handling, looks and the sheer "fun factor". So the Kwaka gets my dollars. 12 days. Dammit, I wants it now. No commie country
could ever give me a machine like this.
Tom Paine details an interesting recent experience with Air Emirates. Of course, certain
idiots keep telling us that incidents like this are merely the imagined
products of Jewish paranoia. 2 January 2004 Ahhhh, my first post of the new year Hope you had a pleasant new year celebration (or lack thereof). To kick my blogging year off, here's an intellectual comment from a typical leftist pants-wetter in The Canberra Times letters page: The Yanks can't help themselves, they are a fat, selfish people with lying, hypocritical leaders. Ahh, where would we
be without idiot lefties? 30 December 2003 William Shakespeare's postmodern Piglet
This evening I checked out the postmodern film adaptation of Hamlet, set in NYC in the year 2000. This visually stunning effort stars Ethan Hawke in the title role, and also features Bill Murray, Leiv Schriebler, Diane Venora, Julia Styles and Kyle McLachlan. What did I think of it? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. It usually takes me two viewings to make my mind up, as I find some of Shakespeare's text impenetrable at a first hearing. I'll give you some initial impressions though. First, it's an extraordinary looking film. The modern urban setting and 21st century technologies are used to terrific narrative effect, particularly the scene where Hamlet uses his amateur film viewing to expose Claudius' plotting. The weaving of the modern setting into Shakespeare's centuries-old text is achieved more effectively than in Baz Luhrmann's messy Romeo and Juliet. The supporting cast is impressive: Murray restrains his usual tired smirking to deliver an effective and witty portrayal of Polonius. Styles makes a convincing Ophelia. Sam Shepard registered strongly as dad's ghost in a sizzling scene with Hawke. Kyle McLauchlan is suitably slimy as Claudius. Venora - a fine actress - has little to do in her usual "harried waif" role. Unfortunately, Ethan Hawke is a snooze in the lead role. Though I'm not sure if this is because of him or the role itself. Hamlet - both as character and movie - is burdened with lengthy monologues: something I've never enjoyed in Shakespeare. His text works for me best in the interplay of dialogues, whereas the monologues are something I find both impenetrable and tedious. Hamlet's internal tortured whining made me wish the self-absorbed prick would just shut the fuck up and die already. The musical score was a problem also: effective at first, it became intrusive and distracting. So where does this fascinating schitzoid film stand in relation to other "postmodern" Shakespeare adaptations? For me, the judgement is affected by the source material, rather than the movie itself: Hamlet, as a story, simply isn't as interesting as Ian McKellan's Richard III or as emotionally touching as Romeo and Juliet. Yet, as a motion picture production, I found it superior to Luhrmann's movie, and almost as good as Richard. It looks and sounds great, with intelligent direction and a fine cast. The problem, ultimately,
is that Hamlet just isn't anywhere near as much fun as the
other two. I think I've worked out the problem: when I see Hamlet enter
a scene, it feels like I'm watching Kurt Cobain.
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