Pop quiz: when was the last time you looked up a phone number in a white or yellow pages? Strains the old grey matter doesn’t it. I personally haven’t touched a phone book in more than three years. And even then that was probably to add an extra few inches to a stool whilst changing a lightbulb.
A recent news story prompted me to opt out of receiving the annual 2 kilogram lump of paper waste they call a phone book, and it’s really quite simple to do.
Simply phone Sensis on 1800 008 292. You will need to state a reason why you are opting out (“Well, I just heard about this thing called The Internets. Apparently it’s a handy source of information.”) And then you can spend the rest of the day feeling like you made one tiny dent in your environment footprint. Sensis are apparently working on a website where you can optout, but it’s not yet operational.
Just printing telephone books uses 52,000 tonnes of paper a year, not to mention the carbon footprint created by the printing and distribution.
Count me as one of the 99.98% of Australian cinemagoers that has not seen M.Night Shyamalan’s new film ‘The Last Airbender’. The online vitriol towards the film is abundantly clear, and some industrious smart alec even charted the slow and steady demise of Shyamalan’s critical appeal, forecasting the first ever negative Rotten Tomatoes review in 2013.
Having said that, I have no qualms about eventually seeing ‘TLA’ despite the animosity, and probably would have checked it out if it was showing at my local cinema. Although ‘The Happening’ was a defenceless abomination, I have enjoyed all of Shyamalan’s previous earlier works to varying degrees. Also I have a masochistic streak when it comes to movies that would allow me to get some entertainment out of it, even if it was one of the worst movies of all time (trust me, I recently watched ‘Troll 2′ and ‘Megashark vs Giant Octopus’ in the space of a few days).
Perhaps it is M.Night’s ever growing focus on story mechanics and not the beating hearts of his characters that has seen him lose his way as a filmmaker. Bruce Willis’ David Dunn, the lead role in ‘Unbreakable’, is one of Willis’ most indelible performances, with its quiet gravitas. In some ways I feel ‘Unbreakable’ is a superior work to the more highly rated ‘The Sixth Sense’, the success of which appeared to lock Shyamalan into a fascination with the third act twist (excellently parodied below).
‘Signs’ and ‘The Village’ were engaging although flawed. As a modern day fairy tale written specifically for children ‘Lady In The Water’ works (I like to think about it in comparison it to ‘The NeverEnding Story’, a film that my ten year old self never questioned and my adult self is bemused by).
Will Shyamalan turn it around? His best chance would be to focus in on the less bombastic elements of humanity and truth that coloured ‘The Sixth Sense’ and ‘Unbreakable’ and convincingly fused the unbelievable with the everyday in Spielbergian fashion.
By The Beards. These guys are really preaching the gospel. I agree wholeheartedly.
Great video, laugh out loud funny. Though I suspect one of The Beards may be an imposter – there’s something not quite right about that fluffy gray beard. Let’s just hope he was having a bad beard day.
Well, I guess I’m not really back from the grave…. More a self imposed blog hibernation. Forget waiting for Spring, it’s time to get blogging again.
I’ve redirected my personal page to this site to save the double handling. The way it used to work was I tried to split up content into stuff that was arts and entertainment related here, stuff that was sports / personal over there. Not any more. All my future content is going to be here at RTP, warts and all*
Going to keep posting some youtube videos from artists I am digging, as well as previews of movie trailers and any other goofy vids that come my way. But I’m also hoping to create a bit more considered written content this time around.
So, thanks for visiting, stay tuned for more…
* I will try not to publish actual photos of my warts.
The preview to ‘Public Enemies’, director Michael Mann’s new pic, with Johnny Depp as notorious bank robber John Dillinger is here:
The movie also stars Christian Bale as FBI Agent Melvin Purvis the man determined to bring Dillinger down (Sidenote: How many kids born in 2009 will be named Melvin? Six? Four?).
Much of the negative slanted discussion in the comments section at Hollywood Elsewhere is focusing on the digital look of the film, a style of cinematography Mann has embraced since ‘Collateral’. I personally don’t think it will weaken the film, even though it is a period piece. I like the unusual vibe it gives Mann’s films (I thought it was one of the best qualities of ‘Miami Vice’).
I’m happy to see Depp stretching his acting muscles outside of a friggin pirate film. He’s the perfect conduit for Dillinger’s dangerous charm.
Mann is certainly one of the best directors working today (he’d make my top 5, with Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, Scorcese and Darren Aronofsky) and I look forward to seeing how he his Mann-isms work in a period crime drama.
You’ve gotta have a bit of knowledge of the source material to get the humour – here’s an alternative universe version of ‘Watchmen’ had it been made into a Saturday morning kid’s cartoon.
Part of me is laughing at these morons at affiliate TV station WKRC-TV in Cincinatti, but another part of me is pretty certain that this is the exact kind of thing I would end up doing if I was in their position.
One of the best albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening to is from Sydney band The Devoted Few. It’s called ‘Baby, You’re A Vampire’ and it’s an amazingly varied collection of heartfelt ballads, slinky grooves, balls-out rock songs and poppy singalongs. They worked on the album for almost two years, and it’s paid off; there’s an intimacy and personality to the album that is genuinely affecting. ‘Trigger Fingers’ is the energetic opener, guaranteed to get your feet tapping, but it segues into a crooning chorus that you don’t expect. The album is full of these sudden left turns and diversions during songs, and to the band’s credit they work almost everytime.
‘The Death Of Us’ is an angular, jolting, stream-of-consciousness farewell to a relationship. ‘Don’t Listen To Us’ is sure to be a blistering live song, with its slippery base and insistent chorus. Ballads ‘Tom Said’ and ‘You & Me & Everyone Else We Know’ are beautifully sung, simple yet affecting. ‘We Burn’, apart from being a damn good rock song, is a reminder of how cool a horn line can sound when it’s done well.
The Devoted Few have a dash of Faker, a dollop of Death Cab For Cutie, but ultimately their own diverse and musically literate voice.
You can check out a 4 episode ‘Making Of’ Diary at their official page, or preview the majority of this brilliant album at their Myspace page. I highly recommend you check out ‘The Death Of Us’, ‘We Burn’, and ‘You & Me & Everyone Else We Know’. I’ve also chosen ‘Don’t Listen To Us’ as today’s Song of the Day.
