There is something about reading The Kill Bill Diary that is surreal (a word that is thrown around far too much these days in my opinion). It is as the title implies a diary, written by David Carradine during the making of the films Kill Bill 1 & 2. It is a refreshingly frank account covering topics such as the negotiations between an actor and the studio to the pit falls of dealing with the media.
What makes this a real page turner is the ease and familiar dialogue that Carradine writes in, he really writes it like it’s his personal diary and you feel like you are getting to know the man himself and not just getting the inside story of behind the scenes of a film.
It certainly made me reach for the DVDs to rewatch them (although to be honest I haven’t had the chance to, it’s on my list though) and gave me an interest in the rest of Carradine’s work. I mean I know his work in Kung Fu of course but he has done so many films that people speak very highly of that it makes me want to catch a couple more of his performances.
That doesn’t sound very surreal?
Well let me qualify that statement, throughout the book Carradine and others refer to the effect that a Tarantino film has on your career. Travolta being the strongest example of this phenomenon (see the cinematic pun I did there!?).
Well Carradine, quite rightly hopes that this will also happen for him, one of my favourite lines from the book has him pointing out that he isn’t rich and unlike many other ’stars’ he has to work for a living.
Looking back over the last couple of years I don’t know if this has actually happened. I would be surprised, shocked even if he wasn’t at least getting a lot more offers but I don’t think he’s since been in any block busters. That being said he may not have wanted to be, although he seems quite keen in the book (hey things change!).
This doesn’t diminish the contribution to filmed history that Mr Carradine has made or marginalize how brilliant he is on screen it just seems that Hollywood didn’t break down his door as much as he hoped.
Me I’d be happy to see him in some more film and I’d be more than happy to read another diary!
More modern age/90’s Ace too, no cape or cowl for him, but he was definitely Ace the Bat-hound to me.
He was large, probably a little scary looking to others but was the most lovable friend you could ask for.
I met Memphis in Canberra just after Tracey and I got married, he was this round little puppy who crawled along the pet store floor like he couldn’t walk and had eye drops in so he couldn’t see. He was the runt of the puppies and we fell in love with him immediately. He came home with us that day.
He didn’t stop growing.
Even today I have trouble believing that Memphis was ever small enough for me to pick him up, he just got THAT big.
In our last year in Canberra we happened to be right in the middle of the devastating Canberra bush-fires, there was smoke and flames all around us, we had the water bombing helicopters overhead as we desperately rushed to pour as much water as possible on the house and over the yard. Right in the middle of all the anguish and fear Memphis brought me his ball, it was the oddest thing. It was like he wanted us to do something that we enjoyed to comfort me. He was just that special and completely unflappable, unless of course if there was a cat in the backyard and then he just wanted daddy to save him!
It was when we moved from Canberra back to Brisbane that we found out how big Memphis actually was or at least how heavy, coming in at around 65 kilos.
Memphis was the kind of dog that you warmed your feet underneath when it was chilly, he snored like a chainsaw and made the most pleasant snorting sounds as he got his belly scratched. His favourite toy in the world was a soccer-ball with rope around it, his second favourite would have been what we called ‘baby ball’, an over sized tennis ball that he could still fit in his mouth which he would pump with his jaw trying to pop it.
When I was feeling particularly horrible or sad I could sit out on the deck with him and a cup of coffee and he would sit next to me, just sitting, listening if I felt like talking. He was the most unselfish dog when it came to tail wagging, if he even sensed you in the next room you would hear a giant thumping noise coming from his thick tail against the wall/floor/bookcase or whatever.
Memphis continued to be by my side for eight years, twice we had to put him and his brother into long term boarding.
The second time was only three weeks or so ago.
We got to spend one week with him not showing any signs of the cancer that was swiftly making its way through his body. I like to think that he resisted the cancer long enough so that he could spend that week with us in our first home. He wanted to make sure we were going to be OK.
The last two weeks have been heartbreaking for us and we have done everything we could to try and keep him with us humanely.
Last Friday we rushed him back into the vet after his first week of chemo which he just hadn’t responded to, they gave us the option to try a last ditch attempt with a mega drug which if his lymph nodes didn’t shrink would tell us that the race was run. There was no real decision to make in honesty, we had to try everything for him.
The nodes went down and for 24 hours Memphis was bright eyed and interested in everything that we were doing, he was still having trouble walking so he couldn’t participate but his tail wag never faulted, not for a second. Actually even during the worst of it he still wagged his tail when he knew you were there.
Last night around 10:30 or so we took him in to the on call emergency vet as he had gotten worse.
I don’t think I will ever forget the shard to my heart as I by accident felt the lymph nodes under his throat.
They were swollen.
Which meant only one thing.
I sat on the surgery floor with him and for one last time he put his head on my lap and tried to roll onto me and we said goodbye. He weighed only 46 kilos.
This morning I made the call that I promised that I would if I thought that he wasn’t happy or comfortable.
It was one of the most horrible things I’ve ever had to do.
OK maybe kill me is too sharp a word but my natural sleep cycle is certainly against me (and the toaster has been giving me dirty looks too).
Now that we’ve moved a lot further out of the Brisbane CBD it is a bit more of a hike to get into town and I’ve got to use two different public transport methods to do so.
I’m actually pretty happy about it just quietly, it gives me a lot of time to read and listen to music, in fact my book intake has almost doubled since moving and even on my days off I’m finding it hard not to wake up and read for a little while (just so you know I’m reading The People of Sparks presently).
The problem though is that if I want to get into work early and thus not have to stay late I’m getting up at the crack of dawn. Which again I’m not complaining about as I really love early in the morning.
The problem comes up because my body clock is a night person. I’m naturally inclined to stay up well past midnight and into the wee hours of the morning, it’s when I do my best work and thinking. Of course this hurts like a son of a bitch in the mornings when I had barely a two hour nap.
I’m back at work tomorrow and that means an early early morning but I also hope that it means an early night tonight, I’m betting it won’t be and frankly I’m getting too old to pull all nighters like I did in high school.
So what about you? What’s your body clock, a night or a morning guy and do you have enough time for breakfast before you go in?
Sometimes the ideas they have for movies sound so incredibly stupid that I’m amazed that anyone would buy the rights to them, but studios do indeed snap up dumb ideas all the time (not my dumb ideas obviously). I guess they assume that they think they can mold us into believing that we’re enjoying the rubbish (though I honestly believe that this is changing, audiences are demanding more - to some degree, I’m sure tomorrow though I’ll read something to change my mind on that.).
But then every once and a while you hear an idea for a movie and you think ‘damn that sounds awesome, hell yes I want to see that!’. Allow me to throw something at you, let it sit in your mind for a couple of seconds, savour the concept and all that it could be…
Ready?
I really want you to feel this…
OK
Vikings fighting a giant alien.
Mmmmmmmm. Nice.
OK now build on this thought, ancient Vikings gearing up with broadswords and… I don’t know… Viking shit! Standing toe to toe with some giant alien menace that vaguely resembles a dragon and showing a space man how they do things downtown.
That feels good doesn’t it?
Hold onto that thought for a couple of more seconds, keep repeating to yourself Dude! Vikings smacking down with an alien monster!
Sweeeeeet.
Now behold:
Oh yeah.
Take that Bedtime Stories!
In case you need more here is the original trailer:
It’s not often that you see the words “Robocop Fried Chicken Commercial” in your feedreader and I imagine it’s even less often that it turns out to be as good as this video that /film has found.
It is actually not a bad costume, it’s a little shiny and the jawline thing is a little smooth but overall it’s not bad at all, even the guy playing Robocop in this puts in a decent performance - yes he makes me believe that Robocop wants him some fried chicken.
For those of you wondering too, yes that it is the music from Back to the Future III playing at the end of the commercial.
I’ve often wondered why these type of characters don’t get tapped for more advertising, I have a very vague recollection of this Aliens Pepsi commercial, I don’t think it ever played here in Australia but it might have been on one of the best of commercials television shows. Shows about commercials is whole other topic that I’m not going to go into today though!!
I mean this is a fairly lame commercial, the belching alien is a particularly crass inclusion but it served two purposes - sell Pepsi and enforce brand recognition for the Alien character (this was in conjunction with Alien 3 I believe).
I’ve always wanted to see a Nike advertisement featuring Star Trek’s Borg, something along the lines of a Starfleet officer running through a corridor away from the Borg, every once and a while we focus on his standard issue boots. The Borg quickly outrun him and he is assimilated, as the Borg walk away we see their feet and they have Nike runners assimilated into their costumes. Something comes up maybe explaining how they only assimilate the best technology and the Resistance is Futile Just Do it.
I was going to start the year off with a podcat regarding my predictions for this year, but it’s been really hot and with Memphis unwell and all the house stuff still going on (moving into a new house and unpacking completely takes forever!!!!) I just haven’t found the energy to be honest.
So instead I’ll kick the new year off with a post about something I dug up during my unpacking.
I’ve discovered that I have a lot of ’stuff’ mainly useless things that only gather interest from bower birds like myself and those really into the subject matter. I’ve talked about some of the stuff I’ve got in the past but because everything was in storage couldn’t show you all.
Obviously not the case anymore.
I bought this item in Fortitude Valley, it was the only one there and I think I got it for a dollar off or something. I’d never seen them before anyway and because the box was sealed it was going to be a surprise which figure was inside so my curiosity took over.
I was really hoping for the Terminator endoskeleton or even the figure that depicts the T800 being lowered into the melting pot. As you can see I got the fight scene one which I guess overall I am happy with as it is a nice compact piece. There are six figures in the collection all featuring the T800 towards the end of the film (except for the endoskeleton).
Weirdest thing though is that the Terminator’s face is dark grey on the figurine, leading me to believe that it is either a mistake, a rarity or a knock off. I am leaning towards knock off even though the box has the flesh coloured one on the back.
So anyone else seen these before or even have one?
So I’ve seen the SGA finale and it feels like we’ve come a long way to go kind of nowhere.
The finale two episodes are better than average SGA episodes, the second last being a kind of concept show which very cleverly ties into the final episode and of course the last episode featuring what they’ve always feared - the Wraith are headed for Earth.
I’m not giving anything away by saying that, I’m pretty certain they’ve been banging that drum a little already, if I have ruined it for you then I apologise but equally wonder how it is that you didn’t see that coming? I mean it’s pretty obvious that it’s the direction they had to go in. The Wraith aren’t much of a major villain but it’s all they’ve got.
So the second last episode is entitled Vegas and it focuses on an alternative reality John Sheppard who in this reality is a detective. The episode is really well done, there is a few songs in the soundtrack for a change including Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash, both of which echo John’s character (especially Mr Cash considering John keeps a Johnny Cash poster in his quarters).
I will admit I flicked through this episode, once I established it was an alternative reality episode I lost interest pretty quickly, I probably would have preferred a longer finale over a standalone episode. I will go back and watch this though (probably when I complete the series collection on DVD and do a marathon).
There is something though that happens right at the end of the episode which is crucial to the finale, I’m not spoiling stuff here so you are just going to have to watch it. I’m also thinking it was nice to have a Sheppard-centric episode towards the end, one of my complaints has always been the under-use of all the characters in favour of McKay.
The last episode ‘Enemy at the Gate’… hey I just got that pun!!! Dude that’s…. not as impressive as I thought five seconds ago. The episode features the Borg like attack on the Alpha quadrant… I mean Earth by the Wraith. It actually was only this minute that I’m reminded of the Star Trek The Next Generation episodes ‘Best of Both Worlds’ one and two and Wolf 359 (non geeks I’ll knock that off don’t worry).
The episode never feels like a finale, I think they’ve done much better season finales over the series one. Someone does die. No I’m not going to say who. Again you’re going to have to watch.
You see Stargate Atlantis ends the same way that it lived, interesting or familiar enough to keep me watching, characters who are like family but never really change and I never really feel like any of them are in real danger.
They do also mention rather awkwardly the Odyssey which is on a mission so secret that no one knows what it is. I guess this is the ship of Stargate Universe and knowing the storyline for that series I think maybe we could have picked a less obvious name for a ship. I mean you don’t call a ship Titanic for obvious reasons.
The ending opens them up to their obvious DVD movies in the pipeline. Of this I am grateful because even though the finale is well worth watching this is not the way I want to end it with these characters.
Yesterday Memphis seemed to be getting over his cold/illness that I mentioned in my Christmas post, we had ducked into the supermarket and bought a large BBQ chicken and tore it up for his dinner which he ate with some of his old gusto and he seemed to be a little brighter. This morning though he was back to looking and feeling very unwell and Tracey dashed him off to the vet.
Cancer.
Now we have some horrible decisions to make.
Well actually there aren’t that many decisions to make, the only real ones we have will be made for us by how far along it is and how he responds to chemo.
Chemotherapy?!
I didn’t even know dogs could get chemo.
I’m just really tired now, surely all the drama of the house move etc was enough, surely the universe has kicked us enough?
I’m in that stage where I’m looking for someone to be really angry with. The pet boarding place is my preferred candidate right now, our dogs were with them for six months, we paid them a very large sum of money to look after them. They returned our dogs with really long nails and covered in dirt. Memphis was obviously sick then, granted not as bad as he is now but he would have lost ten kilos there and the lumps were already swollen.
Before this particular experience I would have praised them and recommended them to anyone who loved their animals, Memphis and Baxter had stayed there before long term and had been looked after. Obviously despite the large sum of money paid our dogs were too much trouble to be given proper attention this time. Perhaps this place has gotten too popular for its own good?
But cancer is cancer and I know that despite their shit service this would have happened anyway.
It has been a really long day, there’s nothing we can do for him and we’re going and seeing the specialist tomorrow.
Apparently ninja weapons are extraordinarily expensive, I’d expect that they are even though I haven’t seen a ninja weapons catalogue since I was quite young but I imagine inflation and the economy have left their mark on the ninja supplies industry as much as any other.
So I have the solution for those of you who are a bit budget savvy but may find the need for such weapons in the workplace.
Behold the DIY Nunchaku:
You would be surprised to learn that this is immensely easy to put together and unlike other commercially available nunchaku perfectly legal. That’s right, the police can’t book you for possessing these weapons of madness*.
Lets take a closer look at what makes them up:
I know you’re impressed with my MacGyver like abilities, don’t feel bad that you didn’t come up with these yourself!! Just examine the pictures and you should be able to put together your own.
* I guess, I mean I’m no lawyer and have done NO research into this, maybe they can arrest you for possessing these?! Maybe you should just leave them in your desk or maybe disassemble them when you go out to the shops…
There is something about reading The Kill Bill Diary that is surreal (a word that is thrown around far too much these days in my opinion). It is as the title implies a diary, written by David Carradine during the making of the films Kill Bill 1 & 2. It is a refreshingly frank account covering topics such as the negotiations between an actor and the studio to the pit falls of dealing with the media.
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Cash poster in his quarters).
I didn’t even know dogs could get chemo.
