Author Archive for MothRust

My freaking favstar fascination

Published
by
MothRust
on June 22, 2011
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Earlier this year I discovered Twitter and it really worked for me. I enjoyed meeting like-minded people and sharing thoughts and jokes about what was on at the movies or on TV. It was a great social experience and I was completely addicted, amassing about a thousand followers in a few months as I followed every lead.

Every now and then I'd write a tweet that got Retweeted and I thought that was great. It was an honour that someone thought my 'joke' was good enough to share with their followers, and I started working hard to write catchy retweetable one-liners. I hadn't yet heard of favstar. I was blissfully ignorant of the pressure I was about to put myself under.

I thought Twitter's 'favorite' stars were bookmarks, and they were, but a separate website called favstar collects that data so you are able to see who has been 'bookmarking', or favoriting, your tweets. I thought this was fascinating, and I started obsessively checking the site to see how my tweets were faring. Man, I thought Twitter was for the narcissistic, but favstar is another step up. Once I discovered that you could win Trophies from other users who were using the bonus features, I was in. A few years ago I was involved with a poetry website called AllPoetry and I worked my ass off for there for pixellated trophies too. I drove all my friends nuts.

And so I started favstarring about three weeks ago. I've been frantically starring other tweets and adding followers to my list, and churning my brain to write the perfect tweets that might capture the interest of these special breed of favstar people, and special many of them are. There are some brilliantly funny Tweeters who can write creative, original, funny one-liners, one after the other... and there are also the people who think they can. This is the place to go for people who believe they are comedians, in much the same way as SingStar is for those who think they can sing. You might sound okay in the shower, but in fact, you suck. I like to think I sound good when I karaoke, and I also hope to the gods my tweets are as funny to others as they are to me.

I've been practically begging for trophies to validate the monstrous ego within me that feeds on validation and praise. The rush of star applause that comes after posting a witty tweet is far too addictive to avoid, but every day that goes by without getting a trophy is a blow I can't seem to handle. It's a problem for me. It's also been a problem for my work and family life. It's time to stop fucking caring about these trophies. I'm getting grumpy and resentful seeing these very precious trophies being given away to tweets that just aren't all that funny, in my opinion, or to people that already have dozens... and I feel like punching bunnies.

Someone gave me a trophy recently, and I quickly thanked them, but they didn't receive the thankful tweet because I forgot to put their @ username in it. Less than a day went by and I got a very abusive message and a 'block' from this unhappy little tweeter. I was called an arrogant fuck! This favstar thing was serious and a little scary now. I was hurt, and there were strict rules to follow. *Note: I did manage to explain what happened and she did apologise for her reaction. We're all human twitterers after all... well, apart from the bots.

No more am I discussing horror movies and my favourite television shows that I once enjoyed doing. The friends I had made have been much ignored as I now appeal to the Twitter Elite who have the power to star me. I'm rewriting tweets that I wrote when I only had a few hundred followers and hoping no one notices. I'm finding myself deleting tweets that don't get enough stars and deleting response tweets because someone dared star them, messing up my 'Recent Tweets' favstar page. I'm stressing out because a tweet didn't make it to the Leaderboard quickly enough. I'm doing it all wrong! 

I think I've burnt myself out already. I'm not saying I'm committing favstarcide yet, but I've got to stop obsessing about what others think of me and write tweets that 'I' like. Five trophies is probably good for three weeks work and I'm damn proud of my Best Of list. I've nearly got about 1600 followers and I've met a lot of people that are funny as hell. I just need step back a bit and find that balance, because as my partner @eekjoey says, "It's just fucking Twitter".

My Life in Film (Movie meme over my 40 years)

Published
by
MothRust
on June 9, 2011
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My life in film. The idea is to pick out a movie of personal note for each year of your life from the year they were released. You don't need to have seen it in that particular year. 

1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Wow, it's been 40 years since this movie was released. Yep, I'm forty. I'd say something about this movie, but I'm too depressed now... 40.

1972 Monty Python's Flying Circus: When I was one years old the English discovered that you didn't need a punchline.

1973 The Exorcist: There have been very few completely awesome demon possession movies since. It was already kinda nailed. The only time I saw vomit used so well in a movie was 'Stand by me', and Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life'.

1974 Young Frankenstein: Goddam, Gene Wilder was awesome.

1975 Jaws: Some movie about a shark whose name 'Jaws' never gets mentioned.

1976 Bugsy Malone: Jody Foster's name was Talula and she lived til she died. Wasn't Chachi in this movie?

1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind: As a kid I was so confused by this movie title. Was this the third in a trilogy? Where were the other two?

1978 Superman: What can I say. I just remember going to Hungry Jacks (Burger King) afterwards and staring into my Coke in awe of what just happened.

1979 Breaking Away: I honestly spent that year of school trying to speak Italian. Drove family and friends absolutely bonkers. Belissimo!

1980 Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back: Imagine nine year olds arguing about the soap opera aspects of Darth being Luke's dad etc... long conversations from memory.

1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark: I wouldn't let my little brother see this because of the 'graphic' scenes. I was a douchey big brother.

1982 E.T. The book had m&ms while the movie used Reece's Pieces. That's one of my strongest memories.

1983 Star Wars Return of the Jedi: Man, I loved the original Ewok celebration song at the end. Nub nub nibbidy boo, or something close to that.

1984 Ghostbusters -Nightmare on Elm Street, Beverly Hills Cop, The karate kid. This was a big year for movies, but for absolute brilliance, who ya gonna call? No, honestly? Who?

1985 The Breakfast Club: I just always thought they would have made a good Superhero Team up, Teen Titans, or Power Ranger style. Power of a princess. Power of a Geek... Jock... Emo kid... and etc.

1986 Aliens: The ultimate false ending. Two climaxes!

1987 The Princess Bride: There are people who haven't seen this movie. Worse yet, there are people who have seen it but didn't love it. Go away.

1988 Roger Rabbit: Wow. Nowadays you could make this sort of movie in the tenth of the time with our new fangled CG, but they'd never come close to this level of amazement.

1989 Batman: I almost cried from disappointment that there weren't enough Batman money shots. I learned to love it after I got some more perspective. More of my thoughts on Burton's Batman here.

1990 Ghost: I liked it.

1991 Terminator 2: Shiny melty man. Yeah, I'm getting bored now. Read on.

1992 Unforgiven: When I went to see this movie with some of my douche Christian friends, some of them did a 'walk out'. I was uncomfortable too. God I love this movie.

1993 Groundhog Day: If I was stuck in a time-loop repeating day I would... umm... you know what? Groundhog Day covered EVERYTHING

1994 The Lion King: Elton John was a big deal to me back then. We saw it a few times in the cinema, and it was animated! A new era was dawning.

1996 Braveheart: Soundtrack, battle scenes, script. GUSH

1997 Independence Day: Fun

1998 Titanic: I saw this in the cinema four times, as did everyone else I knew. I was a very gay man, I'm now thinking.

1999 The Prince of Egypt: Yeah, I was still a Christian at that point. This was 'way' cool for my types.

2000 Gladiator: See notes for Braveheart

2001 A.I. - Don't hate on me. I fell in love with this film and I completely loved and teared up at the ending.

2002 Spider-man: Cool. I just kept on rewinding that last city swing scene.

2003 Finding Nemo: Freaking awesome eye candy, and Ellen was perfect as Dora the fishy explorer.

2004 Before Sunset: The most fulfilling and beautiful romantic film of all time. It's one long chat, but we love it and its sequel to bits. Ethan Hawke gets a free ticket for life from me, for this.

2005 Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith: Nooooooooo!

2006 Borat: So funny. So freaking funny. As was Bruno.

2007 The Brave One: I like vigilantes and Jodie Foster, from Bugsy Malone to this.

2008 The dark knight: OMG OMG OMG (See Dark Knight blog post)

2009 Avatar: 3D done damn right. Remember 12 months earlier we were promised this would be 'F*cking' our eyeballs. It did.

2010 127 hrs: Yeah, go humans! We can do it! Inspiring stuff. Oh yeah, and I love it when Jo nestles her head in my arms and can't watch gory bits.

My first animated Twitter movie: Twitter and Twatter

Published
by
MothRust
on May 24, 2011
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My End of the World Rapture Tweets… from Twitter

Published
by
MothRust
on May 22, 2011
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  • Make the most of the end of the world on the 21st. We won't get another one until December next year.
  • God's not rapturing anybody until he gets a Starship. Jesus, didn't anybody see Star Trek 5?
  • I can confidently predict the the Great Rupture, when all the hopes of Last Day idiots will be deflated.
  • If there are any end-time Christians reading this who may have rare comic books, could you possibly send them to me before the 21st?
  • I'm not gonna get this bucket list done by the 21st. Hopefully someone else bitch slaps Kesha for me soon.
  • Christians are waiting for that great and terrible day when they can finally say, "I told you so!"
  • I bet all the people were twittering jokes on papyrus outside the Ark before the rain started.
  • I hope everyone else is set up for skeet shooting when the rapture starts.This is gonna be great!
  • What if the world did end at Y2K and we've all been haunting it unknowingly ever since? Wake up! Series finale of LOST for everyone!
  • Don't worry, there'll be some 'chosen one' somewhere to vanquish the Big Bad End-Day evil. There always is.
  • You know why Jesus is coming back, don't you? He always had issues with planks. The whole planking thing is pushing him too far people.
  • If we can find the where the Hammer is we might be able to track down where Jesus will be returning.
  • The slightest earthquake 'anywhere' today is gonna give Harold Camping a feeling of justification. Nobody touch anything!
  • I can't find my TV remotes? Where are the remotes! Has everyone else's remotes disappeared!? It's happening!
  • It's now the 21st of May here. The sound of screams fill the air & stench of blood reeks strong. My god, I had no idea. This is not a drill.
  • Oh wait a minute. I'm watching Spartacus... Blood, sex and screaming is a good thing. So far no rapture.
  • I missed out. Apparently, they won't rapture people who wear Crocs. I should have listened. I should have listened.
  • So far no one's thanking me for all the virgin sacrifices I've had to make to avert this apocalypse. You're welcome anyway!
  • According to quantum physics it may have been the right date but wrong parallel universe.
  • I was hoping at least one of our kids would have been raptured. Oh well, back to feeding six bloody mouths again.
  • Just kidding guys. Don't get raptured, stay down here... we'll face hell and tribulation together.
  • I hope when Jesus does comes back he comes out of the closet as well, just to piss of the Westbro Baptist Church.
HASH/TAGS
  • #iftheworldendsonsaturday there will be NO Avengers movies, and if that happens, Jesus... I'm coming for you! And it'll be personal.
  • My two kittens are fighting a little rougher today than usual. So there's that. #EndOfTheWord
  • #endoftheworldconfessions Okay, I shot the deputy as well.
  • I hope Jesus looks like Josh Holloway! Shirtless. Crap, it's the end of the world and I finally realised I'm gay. #endoftheworldconfessions

My Cinematic Alphabet – ‘S’ stands for Superman: The Movie

Published
by
MothRust
on May 22, 2011
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Superman: The Movie. There was no mistaking this for a comic, or a toothbrush. This was a movie and the movie title said so. Thanks for the head's up, marketers. It reminds me of the first Star Trek movie, The Motion Picture; and the recent Simpsons' Movie, so titled. It's a redundant adage, but it solidifies it as an 'event'.

A real actor that looks like Clark Kent and has a real flapping cape! A superhero suit that looks as good, if not better than the one in the actual comic book? Unbelievable. The idea that a man can fly? Believable.

The opening credits were a bit long, but the soundtrack was a magical mix of mythical melody that immediately spilt into our skulls. And stayed there. The Krypton sequence... too long. The sulky Smallville years... not as long. The amount of time before we saw him in flight? About an hour and ten minutes.

Sure, Lex should have been bald. Sure, he shouldn't be hanging around with morons. Sure, Superman should not be able to go back in time whenever Lois dies. But that sky scream he gives by the car? Awesome. The montage that included saving the kitty from the tree? Cute. The wink he gives the audience thereby breaking the fourth wall, at the end? Totally forgivable. Superman II was more of a continuation and was even more fun. The other sequels, including Supergirl and Superman Returns? Never happened.

How I got sucked into Twitter

Published
by
MothRust
on May 16, 2011
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I've been on Twitter for nearly three months now and I've amassed over 3000 tweets and have had the good fortune to find about 700 fun and funny followers. And yep, that's more than 30 tweets a day on average. These statistics aren't lying. I'm a Twitter addict, much to my partner's chagrin.

I still use facebook, and it's great to touch base with family and old old friends, with photos and crap. It's a great communicative tool, but the truth is, I don't have a lot in common with many of those people. There are only precious few that don't whinge about how much they hate work and Mondays, or how much they love the meal they just ate. It has its place and, don't get me wrong, I love it. Me though, or 'I', I want an audience and peers who will give a damn about the latest comic book made to film, or a horror movie I saw. If I post a short review onto facebook about a film I've just seen, I'd be lucky to get a response. Heck, I mightn't even be showing up on their feed.

The following are some bad examples of some broadcast tweets I wrote. Not to be confused with social tweets which are more conversational. Other common tweets include web links (or course) or pics that can be easily revealed by the twitter stream.

  • Instead of putting pins in voodoo dolls, put them into the actual people. Cut out the middle man.
  • Fingers, some of the things my kids can truly count on.
  • Oh, I heard it as The King's Peach. Oh... Ok, that makes a lot more sense now.
  • Making the kids a quicksand-pit was a HUGE mistake.
  • Whoever named the 'Abominable Snowman' was just being a pretentious twat. I just say Bad Snowman.

I also want to be able to spill random thoughts out, and plenty of them. I feel like I'm annoying people on facebook if I'm updating my status too much. Twitterers though, they get off on good one-liners, and this is the place to go to read short sharp smart quirky quips. I'm in awe of what some people can do with 140 characters. I didn't think that it would be so addictive coming up with tweets but - my god - it is, and there's something very satisfying about coming up with an original line. It's even more rewarding if someone 'Retweets' it, or stars it as a favourite. There's the addictive part. The social aspect. The narcissistic ego driven self-centred awesomeness of it all... getting attention. But there's a fine line.

If you don't interact on Twitter, it's not going to be rewarding. There is an art to conversation in the Twittersphere, in that it's tidier if your participating tweets also stand alone to some degree, if you want to play that game. If you constantly tweet about yourself, you're not going to get many followers. Even the many hipsters, know-it-all geeks and pompous assholes want to feel special. The heart of Twitter is about following the right people, and that is something that comes with a lot of time acquired savvy. Twitter takes investment and there are traps, cons, and unwritten rules on Twitter that I will blog about another time. It's an interesting environment that can get very competitive almost to a hostile point as tweeters throw the friendly fire in response to a hash-tag joke or trend (I'll leave it to you to google that jargon if you're unfamiliar).

Twitter is an amazing hub to all any and all sorts of information. When the earthquake hit Japan, I saw the ripple immediately on the timeline, and I read tweets and saw pics from people who were stuck in traffic watching their city shake. When Charlie Sheen went wild, I was there... dumbstruck by his public tweets and new language of winning. It's simply cool, the way Twitter links us in, and the celebrity/fan environment has changed dramatically. I've mentioned enjoying reading a book, and had the author thank me personally. I've had an Australian talk show host tweet me in response to a question. I've had an have (extremely brief) chat with an actress from Joss Whedon's Angel. Nothing to boast about really, but each cool in their own geeky fanboy pretentious type of way.

Exactly three months ago I started Twittering. I thought I'd run out of things to say, but apparently, there's no end to the crap I can dribble. I wrote the following tweet this morning, and out of the 3000 I've written previously, this one has been Retweeted the most. It also prompted me to realise I've lost touch with reality:
"I told something to another teacher this morning and she repeated it to clarify. I froze for a moment as I took in a real life Retweet."
I don't think many people do this, but I'm an unapologetic narcissist, and I've posted what I consider to be the best of my tweets here in the blog. Click here for my Retweets.

Batman Began

Published
by
MothRust
on May 14, 2011
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This was the moment - True Love
In 1988, I discovered Batman when the newspapers ran with the story that Robin's death would be voted on by readers. Yep, the new readership they wanted by writing sensational event stories sucked me in. Until then I read black and white Phantom comics and had never considered buying the more expensive American magazines. And besides, Batman was some campy crap from TV. I was ignorant to the comic series, but this news that the Joker had pounded Robin to a bloody pulp with a crowbar got me interested. It seemed the campy stuff was over long ago. The first actual Batman comic I saw completely won me over. It showed him upside down, hanging from a tree. Oh yeah, I wanted to be that guy. It was the most striking image I had ever seen. I was smitten, and I still am.

Nipple free
I started to devour all things Batman. All the back stories and stand alone graphic novels, all the compendiums, and toys... everything. I drew batman icons on paper, and made suits for costume parties. There's something about that icon that is primal to me. I've even got a Batman symbol tattooed on my shoulder and I never tire of it. I became obsessive for the Dark Knight and I studied the character with devoted admiration. Soon after, I discovered that Tim Burton was making a film, and my imagination went wild. What would the Bat suit look like, and the car, and the cave? How would they show the years of dedicated training that formed this dark and disturbed yet focussed superior hero (yes, superhero) detective. It was a big budget movie and I hope it was going to be the biggest movie event of my lifetime.

Batman broods, and I like that idea. A hero that sulks. I could do that. Bruce Wayne is the epitome of obsessiveness and was a normal guy with billions of dollars, and dedication. Much like the Phantom, I was interested in the idea that anyone could be a superhero if you had a good reason and some determination. I've had plenty of arguments with people about the label 'Superhero', but I'll stand by it. Batman is 'super' enabled, much like most of the heroes of Gotham. He's more than ordinary... Super Ordinary? He's completely honed, so bad guys are completely owned.

Cool. Very cool.
Back to the movie. It opened to some deep emotionally charged soundtrack and a camera angle that weaved and swooped us through a maze that later revealed itself as the Batman emblem itself, in all its glory. It was beautiful and perfect. This was going to be great! The first scene involved a very dramatic and operatic caped figure instilling fear into a couple of thugs, and he told them... he, was Batman. The Batsuit looked dark and shiny and although he had a fat looking head and a chest emblem that didn't quite look right AT ALL, it had flair and presence.

It was all set up to be something more than magic, but then the Joker showed up, and literally stole the show. He stole it. He was in most of the scenes whereas I wanted to see more Batman. Not a Clark Kentish Bruce Wayne clutzing about and NOT the Joker being campy. I wanted to see the batsuit again. I wanted to see the cape fluttering by as he swang through the city and jumped from rooftops. He could hardly move his neck. He had so much rubber on him I couldn't see how he could make like Bruce-Lee and stealthily get around and kick ass, but for me, it's all about the cape, and the cape looked great.

Issue #700
I left the movie completely disappointed. Why wasn't he swinging through the city and jumping between rooftops? Why wasn't the movie simply called 'Joker'. I was underwhelmed, and kinda upset. On subsequent viewings I got a better perspective, but it wasn't my Batman. It was 'a' Batman though, and there was a lot to love about the movie. We never got enough time with BatBruce, and decades on we're still begging for more time with the man. In Batman Begins, we did at least get some backstory to the Bat story and then later we were lucky enough to get another Batman/Joker movie. Yeah, he still has the clunky bat-suit, and unfortunately it looks like it was made from car tires, tread and all, but it was a huge brilliant movie (although full of plot-holes). It'll probably be another twenty years before we see Batman and Joker at it again where their Dynamic Dual can be dissected some more, but I'm learning to be patient.

My Cinematic Alphabet – ‘R’ stands for Raiders and Robocop

Published
by
MothRust
on May 10, 2011
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Raiders of the Lost Ark


This is how I like my Indiana Jones: young, non-wrinkled and free of flying fridges. Indiana was the quintessential serialised rugged action hero plucked from a non-existent radio series and given eternal life by Lucas. God bless 'im for the wonder years of cinema, before he regurgitated them into the plunder years of cinema. My god, Indy 4 winked at itself so much that I could feel a breeze. You have to consider it a spoof rather than a sequel and then strike it from the records. I think most of us have already. I do hear the lego game version is great. Lego 'anything' is cute. Heck even a lego Steve Buscemi with a Predator's mandible mouth would be cute.

'Raiders' was there first with the greatest epic dusty action adventure of the modern age, and it had the score, the man, the hat and the whip we boys all wanted to own. I would've ruled the schoolyard with a whip like that. Indy was great when he was hunting religious relics and we were there in awe when the Ark was finally opened. Then we rewound the VHSs again and wewatched it many more times watching Nazi's faces melt off. Good times.

Robocop

Never before has the story of Jesus been told so eloquently, and with so many high tech machine guns. If Jesus died and rose again sometime in the future, how could he not want to do it Robocop style? Oh yeah, the whole 'peace' thing. Whatever. The late 80s was an amazing time for action movies with Die Hard, First Blood and Lethal Weapon, and they didn't hold back on the swearing, drug use, and memorable one-liners.

Robocop had it all! Sweet stop-start animation, and a costume design that never dated. NEVER. It's just gorgeous to look at and have as an action figure that I'm not allowed to display. All the robot designs were timeless. I loved Robocop 2 also, and I think it was an awesome thing with some real nasty stuff RoboMurphy had to deal with, despite Frank Miller not being able to do exactly what he wanted with it.

Thirty years later it seems Hollywood is trying hard to recapture the feel of those movies, but it just seems they're over. A reboot to Robocop has been mulled over for a while now, but Robo's resurrection was already done to perfection, and then overdone by the time the crappy Robocop 3 was released, plus subsequent TV series. No actor nowadays is going to sign up for a movie where half of his face is going to be covered up for the most part. Robocop has no Bruce Wayne alias that allows him to go out at night to sip cocktails. He's a brooking hulk of a figure that misses his wife and kid. 

He's only human. Onya Murph.

Actor’s Filmography meme (Bruce Willis)

Published
by
MothRust
on May 3, 2011
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Using only movie titles from one actor or actress, cleverly answer these questions. Check Wikiipedia or imdb for filmographies.

Pick an actor: Bruce Willis

1. Are you male or female: Last Boy Scout

2. Describe yourself: The Bonfilre of Vanities 

3. How do you feel about yourself: The Kid

4. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend: Perfect Stranger

5. Describe your current boy/girl situation: What just happened? 

6. Describe your current location: Striking Distance


7. Describe where you want to be: Sin City

8. Your best friend is: Nobody's Fool

9. Your favorite color is: The Colour of Night

10. You know that: Rugrats go wild

11. What’s the weather like: Tears of the Sun

12. If your life was a television show what would it be called? Moonlighting

13. What is life to you: The Story of Us

14. What is the best advice you have to give: Die Hard

15. If you could change your name what would you change it to: Hudson Hawk

 

What to tweet?

Published
by
MothRust
on May 1, 2011
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I'm retweeting my own tweets here, so they can be ignored in both places. Handy, huh?
  • Ah, another day, another successful rotation of the planet. 
  • Life's like a box of chocolates - you're born, schooled, conned, stressed, beaten - goddam it, no it's not like a box of damn chocolates. 
  • Only extreme contortionists can be truly pigeonholed. 
  • I practice my Tweets on those idiots at Facebook. This particular one wasn't very well received.
  • I'm watching people tweet about not watching the royal wedding.
  • I bought a 'Wookie' Cushion by mistake. When you sit on it it emits a gargling yawn sound. 
  • One of my students is trying to tell me the time is 60 to 1. I'm failing as a teacher. I should Twitter less maybe. 
  • Twitter > facebook: It's nice to be able to just add people without getting a, "Who are you?! How do I know you?! 
  • ArTHor - The hilarious tale of a drunken Norse thunder god. 
  • I wouldn't touch you with a forty foot barge pole. I'd probably use my fingers 
  • In nature, bats never ever hang around with robins! The whole DC universe just fell apart in front of me. 
  • Hustler or Playboy haven't explored the possibility of making pop-up books yet. Amazing. 
  • After a transporter uniform malfunction on the Enterprise, Picard nodded at Data and told Riker to 'Make it sew'. 
  • When girls chew gum it looks sexy, when guys chew gum they look like arrogant fucktards. #DunnoWhy
  • Constipated? There's a crAPP for that. 
  • Sometimes I wish we'd evolved from frill necked lizards. We'd have had fun decorating those things around our necks, and scaring each other. 
  • It's bigger than a matchbox and smaller than a house. What could it be? These are fairly inadequate units of measurement.  
  • I've heard sadomasochism is difficult, but I reckon I could do it with my hands tied behind my back. 
  • Needs some fruit? There's an APPle for that.
  • I have more of a fear of lows than a fear of heights. 
  • When I'm not sure what to reply, I just quote from The Princess Bride. It's gotten me through most job interviews, unsuccessfully 
  • Actually, I have more of a fear of widths than a fear of lows. 
  • THOR was great, but I was disappointed he didn't pause during a fight at some stage and say, "Stop... Hammer time." 
  • The platypus is a mammal with a beak. It lays eggs and is venomous. It's an actual Pokemon. 
  • I can't take credit for my tweets. I just type whatever the dog barks from next door. I ignore him when he says to kill everyone. 
#KidsBooksAboutLOST
4 fish 8 fish 15 fish 16 fish 23 fish 42 fish red fish blue fish
108 Dalmations
Are you my Constant?
Curious Locke
The very hungry Hurley

    My Cinematic Alphabet – ‘Q’ stands for Westerns?

    Published
    by
    MothRust
    on April 29, 2011
    .
    Quigley

    After Die Hard, not only did we want more Bruce Willis, but we wanted more Alan Rickman, and we wanted him as a bad guy. So we got him in 'Quigley' and he was "Hans Gruber Returns" as far as I was concerned, and he returned in Australia, of all places. This was, of course, a Western, but in my great brown land, which is more of a Southern than a western. I should add that Tom Selleck was great in this movie and he had a huge freaking gun along with a huge freaking Selleck mustache. I remember this having a soundtrack that impressed on me too, but I'll have to chase this movie up and check it out better because it's been way too long. Not a great title, I might add.

    Later Colonel Sanders went on to sell fried chicken

    The Quick and the Dead

    Sam Raimi directed this gem of a western, and Sharon Stone played the unknown girl looking for revenge. There is so much spaghetti in this western that you can hardly see the meatballs, but meatballs there are and plenty of 'em /spit-chew. What a cast! Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobin Bell, Kevin Conway, Gary Sinese AND the awesome Millennium man himself, Lance Henriksen. Sharon Stone's most memorable role besides the beaver movie.


    Sharon Stone, the lead in a Western? it happened. 

    Quantum of Solace

    Hardly a western, but James Bond did roam around in a desert for a while. I thought this was a worthy sequel to Casino Royale apart from the damned quick MTV action editing. I like this Bond so much better than all the previous 'hams'. I was never a fan of the Die Another Yesterday Forever gimmicky Bonds. I hope there's move of it, and soon.

    I'd give anything for a 00 7-11 right now.

    The kids and I star in JibJab Star Wars

    Published
    by
    MothRust
    on April 28, 2011
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    My Retweeted Tweets – Part 2 (OR Tweets that should have been RT-ed!)

    Published
    by
    MothRust
    on April 27, 2011
    .
    Most of these Tweets were inspired :P, so I think it best that I put them somewhere they can be easily found. RT @mothpete

    • THAW: The mighty god of defrosting 
    • I bet the origin to the phrase, "When the shit hits the fan," is one heck of a story.
    • People are so black and white when it comes to Chess..
    • Terminator 5 'could' work if Arnie has a robot suit that shoots freeze rays, and he peels off hilarious ice puns to go with it. no wait...
    • That Human Centipede movie sucked ass.
    • Apple presents the next Scream movie - iScream: Frozen with fear.
    • Tweeters with long usernames just haven't thought ahead.
    • After four days of constipation Watson muttered the now famous phrase, "No shit, Sherlock?"
    • Thed ayt hespac ebars wentw ild and chan gedev erything!
    • Concrete footpaths are such a grey area.
    • From memory, Johnny Depp gets out his scissorhands to fight Freddy during a dream. Been a while since I watched this.
    • Whoever this 'Helina Handbag' lady is, it sounds like I do not want to know her.
    • 1. Retweeted or not, my message is getting out there. 2. I don't have a message.
    • The A-team had Mr T. Could it be he's on the wrong team? Somewhere, there's a consonants gang with a missing member.
    • God cursed Eve with painful childbirth, because she ate the forbidden fruit. Heck, how big must have her vagina been BEFORE that?
    • If the damage I've seen to iphones is any indication, Skynet can be taken down easily by making a huge toilet bowl to drop it into.
    • I'd like to sun-bake under some venetian blinds for the stripey tanned look.
    • I've never gotten over the disappointment that Grease 2 didn't start where Grease left off, and explained the flying car.
    • The human Centipede was actually a remake of an un-aired episode of Catdog.
    • I think I downloaded a virus into myself somehow.
    • Did Krusty the clown also fall into an acid vat at the Gotham Ace Chemical plant? The place needs goddam safety rails.
    • We're freaking lucky we had ten fingers, or the decimal system would have been that much more confusing.
    • Is it ever acceptable to end a sentence with a question mark and an exclamation mark?!
    • The most amazing powers of all that superheroes possess is that of invisible seams and unwrinkled capes.
    • If I drilled & traveled through the planet to the diametrical side, I would be in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, so I won't.
    • Superman became upset and a little embarrassed that none of the other superheroes used the first letters of their names as chest emblems.
    • I don't even wanna know how Donkey Kong earned his name.
    • Drawing straws is really difficult without a straight edge ruler.
    • The Passion 2: Double Crossed
    • I'm pretty sure it will be photocopiers who lead the way when the robots uprise. They're already evil bastards.
    • All this alien probing news has me really concerned about what actually went down between E.T. and Elliot. E.T. was in the closet a lot too.

    My Cinematic Alphabet – ‘P’

    Published
    by
    MothRust
    on April 25, 2011
    .
    The Princess Bride

    There are people who haven't seen this movie. I know it's difficult to believe, and I know it's shocking, but there it is. Even stranger, there are people who have seen it and didn't like it. It's inconceivable! I've met those people, and I've had to commit to ignoring them for the rest of my natural life. I suppose the former of those two groups of people may not have seen the film due to their young age, or due to the film looking like a fluffy fairytale romance. Most of the time I'm able to convince them to see it, and I get a good report back and endless thanks and praise. Sometimes I get refusals on my recommendation because I was once 'that' guy who didn't mind Mars Attacks. People forgive a bad movie recommendation, but they never forget. It's hard to get that trust back.

    And honestly, I have to say, if you didn't appreciate the Princess Bride and its romance, and humour, and soundtrack, and cast, then... unfriend me, unfollow me, unfamily me, if you can, because you sir or madam cannot be someone I would be able to hold a conversation with. At some point in the chat we're going to get to The Dreaded Pirate Roberts, and you just won't be on board. Goodbye to you. Skip to the Poltergeist review because you'll probably hate The Phantom too. As you wish.

    This is a 'true' film. Truly brilliant. Do you think that comes along every day?

    "I will always come for you." Double entendre?

    Poltergeist

    Poltergeist certainly stood on its own as an effectively fun and frightening film and was satisfying because it pulled at the string and unraveled everything. It's an amazing concept enough just to have a chair move a short distance. It's scope increases when everything in the room spirals in a whirlwind, and then the whole thing snowballs into terror when the house take Kerry-Anne into the depths of their souls.

    Scary things covered: Clown doll ✔ Creepy tree outside window ✔ Ghosts ✔ Skeletons ✔. The sound effects were perfect, especially the eerie voice of the little girl between worlds. The special effects went into overdrive in the final showdown, and blew everything away, including the house. Just awesome.

    Spielberg made this back to back with E.T. and it shows. There's the same fun, charm, and familiarity. The 'Wonder' of it all was in their eyes of this amazing cast. A cast that had some fall victim to the Poltergeist curse over following years, or simply to bad luck, which is more likely the case. The sequel was bigger and even better and it was great to see these character come back and deal with the 'Big Bad'. The third was 'meh', but made good use of the 'mirror' concept before other films 'mirrored' that idea to death.

    They're here! Finally 3D Television.
    The Phantom


    I was a Phantom Comic collector from the age of 15 and I have a huge collection of them. I wore the good and bad marks of the Phantom on my fingers. Rumours of a movie version had come and gone so many times that we stopped believing them. Still, we had hope, and one day it happened. They were shooting the film in our area! Everyone in my circles wanted to be an extra, and those of us who did never made it off the cutting room floor, yet alone on the film.



    I thought Billy Zane was perfect for the role of the wise-cracking superhero, and filled the suit out with pride. The purple suit looked much better than I could have ever anticipated (Due to a coloring error in the 30s-40s the suit became purple when it was supposed to be grey 1. to blend into the shadows, and 2. To mimic the statue of the ghost who ruled the land). It was a low budget film that showed some of the spunk and spirit of Mr Walker, the Ghost who never dies... The Phantom. It was a period piece which rang true to the original comics also, and many a wink was given to the continuity that readers would identify with. They did break many rules though, which was disappointing: No one must ever see his eyes. He doesn't talk to his dead father. His ring isn't magic... the list goes on.

    Hopefully he'll be back with a bigger budget one day. There's always hope.

    Still looking for the Heart of the Ocean diamond from Titanic.

    The 30 Day Song Challenge

    Published
    by
    MothRust
    on April 25, 2011
    .
    I'll be updating this post daily... Don't bother checking in too often. You won't like this list.

    day 01 - your favorite song: Clocks - by Coldplay
    day 02 - your least favorite song: Anything by KISS or AC-DC
    day 03 - a song that makes you happy: Walkin on a dream - by Empire of the Sun
    day 04 - a song that makes you sad: Downbound Train - by Bruce Springsteen
    day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone: Unusual You - by Britney Spears
    day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere: Echo Beach - by Martha and the Muffins
    day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event: The Greatest Discovery - by Elton John
    day 08 - a song that you know all the words to: Ride on - by Evermore
    day 09 - a song that you can dance to
    day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleepSarah Blasko: As day follows night
    day 11 - a song from your favorite band
    day 12 - a song from a band you hate
    day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure: Singing In The Rain / Umbrella (Glee Cast Version)
    day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love
    day 15 - a song that describes you
    day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate
    day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio
    day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio
    day 19 - a song from your favorite album
    day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry
    day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy
    day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad: Fall to pieces - by Avril Lavigne
    day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding
    day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral
    day 25 - a song that makes you laugh
    day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument: Malibu - by Hole
    day 27 - a song that you wish you could play
    day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty: Incomplete - by The Backstreet Boys
    day 29 - a song from your childhood
    day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year: All I ever wanted - by Basshunter

    My Cinematic Alphabet – ‘O’

    Published
    by
    MothRust
    on April 21, 2011
    .
    'O' is a tricky movie theme in this meme. There's just not a lot of greats to choose from, and although the following two wouldn't fall into my top 50 movies, they're the top of the Os for me.

    Office Space

    The highlight of this movie was seeing a Xerox photocopier machine get done to it what we would all want to do. And that is to beat the living crap out of the freaking awful machines before they go 'self aware' on us all and take over the planet. This is a movie for everyone who hates their job and would love to be able to give the finger to the boss and do whatever.

    Office Space starts great, and even Jennifer Aniston has a good part. It slows down towards the end, but It's a classic comedy that was the best 'office' flick around before Ricky Gervais came onto the scene and got 'definitive' with the scenario.

    We need to talk about your TPS reports... yeah...
    Open Water

    A low/no budget film that delivered real shark fear, and without the swimming Xerox machine that was the original Jaws. The actors made me feel the desperation and futility of the situation. A great and chilling film with a final scene that has you staring at the credits, deep in thought... I love those moments.

    I live on the east coast of Australia and I often swim in waters where all sorts of sharks roam. I've never seen a shark in the wild - never - but I jump at shadows all the time. Imagine knowing those shadows WERE sharks and there were plenty of them, circling you. Scary stuff.

    Open Water 2 had its merits, while The Reef, 2011, which was a mix of the two, just completely sucked in comparison.

    Maybe it's just an angry dolphin, ya think?