| Beautiful, Man | ||||
| 03:26pm 01/12/2009 | ||||
Elliot is a nice Jewish boy whose parents own a filthy, failing motel in the Catskills. When he hears that a nearby town has rejected plans for a music festival, he spots an opportunity for his parents and the rest of the community. Soon White Lake, NY is knee-deep in mud, hippies and deep-voiced transvestites who fought in Korea. Woodstock happens on a dairy farm hitherto known only for the superior quality of its chocolate milk. The sets and scenery are lovingly shot, taking us from the kitschy El Monaco with its laughably optimistic signs hand-painted by Elliot ('Future Site of Casino') to the psychedelic patterns and colours of the festival-goers and their camper vans. Imelda Staunton shows off her enormous acting range as the hero's mother, there's that bloke from A Mighty Wind and also that bloke from Frasier. My companion pointed out that the use of split-screen was a homage to the Woodstock movie, which we saw together, and several scenes were faithful recreations of iconic images from the film of the event. It's not perfect. The acid trip scene goes on way too long and much is left unresolved - ( spoilers ) - but it's sweet and watchable. By halfway through I had resolved to buy it on DVD when it comes out (and also read the book). And, of course, the soundtrack is fantastic. |
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enthralled| Round Britain Rally: Results | ||||
| 10:19am 01/12/2009 | ||||
I got my Silver award with 845 points out of a possible 2000 - which, according to my spreadsheet, means all the landmarks I did do were the right thing and correctly photographed. I came 83rd out of 165 finishers, almost exactly halfway down the list. Now, what shall I do next year? How about this? Why do all bike rally organisers use Comic Sans? |
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accomplished| New Traditions | ||||
| 06:05pm 30/11/2009 | ||||
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} raja_laba_laba, le_loup_peint and big_pup_diary.As I turned into their road on Friday night it started to rain heavily, which just made the light spilling out from the open door that little bit more welcoming. We ate Chinese and watched Up, the latter thanks to the kindness of fuzzytoedcollie. ( Spoilers )On Saturday, astonishingly, it didn't rain. This was astonishing not only because it broke the pattern for the last fortnight (though it started up again in the evening) but because we were off to the Christmas Fair in Portsmouth and in my experience it always rains at Christmas Fairs. The jolly Victorian orphans, convicts and prostitutes were thus able to frolic gaily in the artificial snow without getting their crinolines all soggy, and it was a joyful scene of Dickensian consumerism. Chik'ki and Louvé found lots of lovely presents for their loved ones while I, er, found lots of lovely presents for myself, like ginger cheese and olives stuffed with entire chillies. There were many samples to be taste-tested; as I was enjoying some rum liqueur a uniformed peeler popped up behind me to ask if I was twenty-one, and I went all simpery. In the evening, just as we did after the Christmas Fair last year, we decorated the tree and watched a Christmas movie (How The Grinch Stole Christmas). It's strange how something you've done twice can feel like a tradition - in fact, it already felt like a tradition after the first time. I hope it's one we can keep up for many years to come. |
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hopeful| From A-ha To The Zombies | ||||
| 10:54am 26/11/2009 | ||||
Create a Spotify playlist containing exactly 100 songs. There are no limits on genres, content, length etc. Instrumentals are fine. However, you may only choose one song per artist, and one artist per song. This was pinched from Working within the limitations of Spotify is quite tricky. Some artists aren't on there at all (no Pink Floyd! No Frank Zappa! No Country Joe & The Fish!), and some of my favourite songs are lacking so I've had to pick an alternative by the same artist (hence the Cure are represented by 'Boys Don't Cry' rather than 'The Lovecats' and the Eagles track is from the only available album, Long Road Out Of Eden). It was particularly frustrating picking a Dylan track: there are lots I love, and lots on Spotify, but apparently not much overlap between the two groups. And don't get me started on trying to select just one song from my very favourite artists. It's possible to bend the rules to your advantage, however: 'Nancy Sinatra' and 'Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood' count as two different artists, and presumably 'Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra' would count as yet another. I could probably have allowed half a dozen entries for Jefferson Airplane what with the various Jefferson Airplane / Jefferson Starship / Starship / Kantner - Slick / Kantner - Slick - Freiberg permutations. Having to pick a hundred songs by different artists did, as Logan found, take me slightly out of my comfort zone; I went back to songs I enjoyed when I was preschool age, like 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' and 'Rasputin'. It was an interesting experience, however, and you could probably learn everything you need to know about me from the list. Plus I have six hours' worth of songs I really like, all in one convenient alphabetised package. Yes, I was tempted to add every Bond movie theme tune, but I limited myself to two. ( List under the cut. )URL: http://open.spotify.com/user/huskyteer/p Finally, I note that the very first song I ever tried to find on Spotify, whose lamentable absence put me off using it for some time, still isn't there. So the missing hundred-and-first song is 'Walkin' My Cat Named Dog' by Norma Tanega. |
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bouncy| The Ice Van Cometh | ||||
| 10:22am 25/11/2009 | ||||
I hope they have an entire fleet of vans with different Bond puns, like 'Licence to Kill' or 'Coldfinger'. On my way to work I saw a man wearing what appeared to be a pink foil gimp suit. But I suspect that's another story. |
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Friends Info Calendar Alice.Dryden.co.uk |
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