Author Archive for MothRustPage 2 of 3

My Cinematic Alphabet – N

I started doing a movie meme called 'My Cinematic Alphabet' and got through the letters A to M. When I started getting tired of messing with the clunky and cumbersome Blogspot formatting I instead decided to focus on one letter at a time. The meme rules state that one movie must be picked per letter, but I just can't. I can't. This reworked meme will also serve to actually give me something to freakin' blog about each day or so or week. Today's blog is brought to you by the letter 'N'.

Napoleon Dynamite

My first impulse is to feature Napoleon Dynamite, because I completely love every line of that movie. It's awkward, and real, and sweet, and cringe-worthy, and is one of a kind. I'm a real sucker for coming of age movies and although I'm not sure he did 'come-of-age', it's a movie that hits me in a part of my brain that remembers being that age all to well. in fact, I think I stayed there.

Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills
The Notebook

The second honorable mention goes to The Notebook, because of quotes like these and how they affected my/our lives:

"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds, and that's what you've given me. That's what I hope to give to you forever. I love you. I'll be seeing you."

"So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What's it look like? If it's with him, go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again. If I thought that's what you really wanted. But don't you take the easy way out."

Q. Do you think our love can make miracles? A. I do.
A Nightmare on Elm Street

My third of four favourite movies, to the Nth degree, is A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy was a killer character that actually DID exist, if only in the young fertile imagination of my mind. He regularly intruded into my nightmares as a teen, and they were the sort of dreams that actually woke me up in fear, and I loved it. I'm still fascinated by dreams that can fill my head with that level of unreality and terror. The original movie was perfect and the third was great fun with the idea of the dream warriors being able to inhabit the same dream between them.

I can't really remember the fourth and fifth movies (Dream child... dunno, and no I'm not googling it right now), but I remember putting the 3D glasses on for what was supposed to be the 6th and Final Nightmare. After that, Wes Craven's New Nightmare was inventive, and Freddy vs. Jason was crossover coolness. I never saw the reboot, and don't care if I don't, but I probably will... and soon.

Why are you screaming? I haven't even cut you yet
Noise

The final movie, and the one that is most important to me, is a little Australian movie called 'Noise,' written and directed by Matthew Saville.


Tinnitus sucks. It really does.

The community reels after an incident on a suburban train. A young cop, beset with doubt and afflicted with tinnitus, is pitched into the chaos that follows this tragic event. He struggles to clear the noises in his head while all around him deal with the after burn of the crime.

I have a particular bias towards this film, and not just because it's VERY Australian, but because of the condition our lead character suffers with: Tinnitus. I've had chronic Tinnitus for ten years now, and it only gradually gets easier to live with. The constant high pitched shriek in my ears is like a demon that never sleeps, but whose very existence is to torment and torture me for all my living days in this world, but hey... I've got a blog for that already.

Loneliness and emptiness are states that Aussies can't help but explore. The twenty million of us live in a broad brown land with vast oceans between our neighbours, and some of them used our giant island as a prison for their unwanted citizens. There are shades of film noir in this movie accompanied by brilliant art direction and visually stunning cinematography. It is a very moving story that may leave you sadly speechless when the film ends. Warning: there may be plot holes a plenty.

Officer Graham grapples with the non-stop noise of Tinnitus in his head while manning a caravan that the public can visit and report to should they have any pertinent information to the crime. Graham is a nobody who few have respect for, and he's been kicked out of normal duty to do these late night shifts at the van. But perchance, his little van gets some shady characters that may or may not have information . How do you deal with the noise? How do you deal with people responsibly when the noise in your head frustrates you to the point where it take precedence over anything else? I've been there and it lingers.

This is a simple but brilliant film that has a lot to enjoy and will easily give you a subject for conversation afterwards, because I know, in every crowd of people there's some poor soul there, like me, with a demon in his ear.

Charlie Sheen vs. Jesus Christ – Animated

Short Film & TV Poems

Walt's making crystal meth and problem solving every glitch.
Jesse's Breaking Bad 'cause yo man, life's a ... bitch.

Crashed and LOST on an island. Two godlike brothers play their doom.
The survivors flash back here and there, then all meet up and ...poom

The 'Limitless' drug opens up your mind and give you your goals.
A great fun film, if you ignore the giant plot holes.

Driving Angry with Nic Cage after he's dead,
is like Ghostrider but worse, with no flaming head.

Ryan Reynolds' character is buried underground,
just a mobile phone and no one else around.

127 Hours. Stuck between cliff and rock.
Crazy thoughts and memories. Tick tock tick tock tick tock.

THOR is a Hammering Superhero; can you hear that thunder?
Who else could play a cranky god, but a guy from Down Under



Twitter Hash-Tag gags


#MathMovies
American Pi 3.14159265: Full Circle


#MustSeeMovieSequels
Buried 2: Decomposing


#InsaneSequels 
AVP3: Illegal Aliens vs Sexual Predators


#WhenTVMovieWorldCollide 
127/24 Jack Bauer's arm gets wedged between a rock and terrorist.

My Cinematic Alphabet (A to M)

If there's a meme going around, I'll do it. I caught this one at my Twitter-mate's blog, FrontRoomCinema. I'm a shameless follower and of trends, and of my own favourite movies. I think I'll have to do a separate list for horror movies and independent films. Some of the letters were a little tricky, e.g. O and Y, but here we go.

A is for Aliens AND Avatar.

Okay right off the bat I'm cheating with two movies in a 'letter', but there are so many similarities between these two that they're almost in the same universe. I'd like an Avatar vs Alien movie - AvA: Black vs. Blue. A Na'vi Xenomorph hybrid would be interesting.

Get the Mech outta here!

B is for Braveheart

It was an epic movie like no other. All other big battle scenes would be measured by those in this movie, but it was there first, and it found the sweet spot. Cheering and crying for William Wallace was all made easier by a beautiful and haunting soundtrack. Now, you can dance to it... check out the techno mix below. Love it!
Can I borrow a hair tie?



C is for Con-Air

For me, this was the ultimate popcorn action flick. This was when Nicholas Cage was gold and John Cusack was cool. Big action scenes. Big bad guys. Quotable quotes and Steve Buscemi as Garland Greene. I'm still a little pissed he survived to wear more people's heads as hats though (no, the caravan park girl didn't reform him).

This is Nicholas Cage's hair done right.

D is for Die Hard

Oh Dark Knight... I'm so so very sorry, but even my beloved Batman can't trump the perfection that is Die Hard. A movie THIS re-watchable and unapologetic in its swearing and kills? Brilliant. Like Con-Air, I completely love a movie where the wise-cracking every-man has to step in and save the mother-fucking day. There should be more of those please. And if you haven't heard this tribute song yet, I'll do you a favour. Check the youtube clip:

I hope I don't get another three of these days




E is for E.T.

Spielberg performed magic in the cinemas; absolute freaking magic. Who knew one day he'd go on to make Indy 4: KOCS? Sad. But, back then, he simply blew our minds with the sort of stuff we daydreamed about, and to see it on the screen and make it believable was a truly astonishing thing. This is me at Universal Studios, 1984. This was the same year m&m's were introduced into Australia. Good times. I don't know how E.T. contorted himself to fit in that basket.


How did E.T.'s body fit in that basket?


F is for First Blood and Finding Nemo

...because they're quite similar when you think about it.

They're just guys trying to... umm... I'm really reaching for any similarity here. They both start with the letter F, and Rambo gets wet at one point. Okay, from here on in, only one movie per letter.

I'm coming for you


G is for Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day

Did I just say only one movie per letter? I guess I did, however, this is the exception that makes or breaks the rule (whatever that means). Both happen to star Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. 'Stripes' could almost be thrown in to complete this trilogy of hilarity. Bill Murray was the king of laconic sarcasm and god I wished he'd made more movies with Harold that didn't include the lackluster Ghostbusters 2. Still, better than no sequel at all, in my opinion. Rumour is now that he's signed on to a third and fourth... we'll see. Oh, and  check this link for 101 reasons to love Groundhog Day.


Groundhog Busters

H is for Harry Potter

Because the only other film I could think of off-hand was Home Alone, which was freaking funny. I remember the fun of being in the cinema and just hearing non-stop laughter from everyone in the theatre. It  was fun and funny. Harry Potter is good too, 'spose.

I think the Hollywood teal and orange wash fad started here

I is for The Incredibles

Brad Bird and Pixar did a superhero ensemble completely right, and it was funny and amazing to look at. Personally, I like my supers to wear capes, but I can see how annoying it would be on a super speedster, or a stretchy woman. I'd like to see these guys go head to head with the FF (I'm not going to say who the FF are... you should know). They were no ordinary family.

Btw, the redhead is a bad guy because they ARE evil.

I made this giff

J is for Jaws and Jurassic Park 

Okay, this meme is NOW the 'One or Two' movies per alphabet letter. Both of these 'J' movies are Spielberg directed and feature ancient creatures with really big teeth. Jaws made it so that no other movie maker could ever make a decent shark movie compared to the perfection of this one. I think the same can be said for Jurassic Park. The wonder and terror from seeing all these creatures come to life is what movies are all about. We don't even need a rebooted Jaws with a CG shark, because we're happy enough with Roboshark himself.


Glasses on. Glasses off


K is for The Karate Kid

 In all the history of movie 'money-shots' this was the one that stretched VHS tapes and filled the screen with fuzzy bits. How many times did I rewind that final Crane Technique kick? A lot of times. I loved the whole trilogy, even the final Bonsai Buddy film where he had lost the girls he fought for in the previous two. Let's not speak of the Next Karate Kid, or the rebooted Kung-fu Karate kid... I just couldn't care about Will Smith's preteen kid finding balance in his life. Danielson, I cared about.

Get him a body bag... bwa ha ha

L is for Lost in Translation

There was something about this movie that I couldn't put my finger on, but loved nevertheless. In 2003 I identified with the emptiness Bill's character had. To be in a strange land, then to meet somebody and make a connection. It was a real movie, and had a real ending. I could identify with the characters and the idea of finding a soul mate. Soon after this movie I did find my soul mate, then lost her in translation, then found her again. Love you Joey.



M is for Music, The Sound of

Hey this is my list, and I've got to keep the S category free for Superman, and being my list I have to include the favourite movie of my childhood: The Sound of Music. Every sound and sight is ingrained into my head, and the soundtrack to it was the first CD I ever bought. 

It would wait every year for network TV to play it and then try to stay up and watch the whole movie. It then took me longer to work out what the nun had in her hands and how the Von Trapp family got away. No apologies for my love of Maria and the captain.

How DO you solve a problem like Maria?

Goodbye and farewell, until I get time to do the second half of the alphabet.

My Top Tweets

  • I tweet often 'cause I'm needy & insecure thereby needing the undeserved attention of others. Plus I like the clicky clacky keyboard sound.
  • The Big Bang happened this day 15.54334 billions years ago.
  • Before corn is cooked it is Hard Pore Corn.
  • I bet she only sells those seashells by the seashore to piss off her ex-boyfriend who must've had a lisp.
  • Twitterers don't self-deprecate themselves enough. I suck at self-deprecation
  • I think someone should make a prequel to Genesis.
  • He's the man of steel; Lois Lane is the woman of soft human flesh, some parts softer than others. I just can't see it working out.
  • Mother's Day. Mary Mother of Jesus was born on this day 2029 year ago.
  • Taurus: Your stars are billions of light years away and therefore have absolutely no significance on your life.
  • I always wonder how different my life would have been if my parents had named me Fonzie.
  • Every time I consider dieting, I remember pizza and think, 'oh yeah'. :(
  • America. If this 'bacon sundae' is for real, we're all coming over to slap you silly. Love, Australia.
  • When I see a Tweeterer much funnier than I'll ever be, I get ❒delighted ❒jealous ❒inspired ❒psycotic ✔insecure ❒needy
  • It could have been a radio-active sloth. Something must've happened to give me my enhanced powers of laziness.
  • How do you hold a cloud and pin it down and How DO you keep the waves upon the sand? These questions have not been answered yet.
  • Q. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? A. Whichever of the two was male.
  • As long as you serial kill to a code, it's alright nowadays. I only kill people who don't indicate at roundabouts.
  • The grass is always greener on the other side if they've bothered to fertilize it. Me, I'm twittering. The grass is dead.
  • The last thing I remember was writing this tweet.

TV and Me

I haven't written anything that spans multiple paragraphs for a long time. A long long time. I mark and criticise the writing of others (my young class members), but have forgotten what it takes to construct a piece of writing, yet alone try to make it interesting or funny. This is about me, but I'll branch out beyond the confines of my skull sometime soon. Not too far though. I've gotten a little addicted to the power of print after a couple of months of 'tweeting' and it's freeing to break out of the 140 characters for a change. @mothpete btw.

I was brought up in front of the TV. I was brought up by the TV. I don't hold any negativity towards my actual parents for sitting me in front of the thing, because I enjoyed it. Like Homer, I cite Tom Bosley as my father and I can thank Mr Cunningham, along with Michael Landon, for instilling me my ethics and morality. These were dashed by my 80's love of teen movies, but I watched enough Little House on the Prairie to know how to be some sort of human being. I'm amazed I got through my childhood with anything resembling an Australian accent.

I never watched or played sport. I never understood how something without a storyline could be deemed as entertainment. I remember having a family, but I don't remember interacting with them too much. We didn't sit around a table. My parents took their meat and mashed potatoes down to their television while my li'l brother and I watched Doctor Who and The Goodies on the ABC. I'd watched, laughed and cried with Hawkeye through the Korean war more times than Radar drank grape nehi. These characters were real to me, and goddamit... the are real. At this my partner Joey, will rolleth her eyes, but let me repeat. These character are real...

Jesus was real to me. I spent a long time believing in this 'character', but he is real. He's as real to me as Batman is. We created these personalities and gave them life, and power over ourselves. We care about what happens to them and invest in them, sometimes entirely giving ourselves over to them.

I like to think Jesus will make everything better. I wish he would. I enjoy the idea of Batman swooping in to cover my ass when I'm about to get mugged at the corner shop, but my reality isn't that skewed. I want to take this blog away from religious concepts, pretty much entirely, because I think I'm past that. My years living in religious guilt and condemnation have shaped me and will continue to bias my thoughts but I'll try not to focus on it anymore.

I don't want to ramble, and I want to confine future posts into singular topics, and movie reviews, and whatever. Thanks for reading. It'll be nice to blog actual text in this thing rather than random videos of religious nutters speaking in tongues.

Quoting the Bible


I still don’t know if there is or isn’t a god

"A sinless god bore our sin!" is the cry I hear from the Christian front

This is sacrilegious but...

But really... 'big deal'. He seemed to cope with bearing the sins. I mean, it stressed him out heaps, for sure, but it didn't kill him until he let the mob whip and crucify him, but even then it was only for a few days. People have suffered more and longer, and for less chivalrous reasons as Jesus'. I've no yard stick for the pain and hassle taking on all the 'sins' that we were all so guilty of. I guess it's like Superman when he flies around the world and gets uber-stressed because he can hear all the crimes happening, and he gets frustrated because he can't help out everyone. Jesus saved everyone... apart from all the exceptions, of which there are plenty.

Of course, Jesus is 'true', apparently, and Jesus could fix all the 'sin' problems, by this mysterious sacrifice and temporary sin-bearing. I'm sure there are a dozen books that could be recommended to clear my naive views on the subject. On the surface though, it certainly IS a mystery. Sinless god became a sinner for a short period of time, and then undid it, and suffered for us when he would probably have 'rathered' be sunning himself on a beach in some better universe he'd created previously.

I've asked this question in many ways to various Christian believers, and I've never got a memorable or logical answer other than, 'It just is, OK!'. If it came down to blind faith in the inconceivable then one may as well pick any religion to believe in.

I still truly battle within myself wondering if he exists or not. I honestly don't know, although I lean in favour of such a belief, but I don't feel as though I should start going to church and getting married, and doing all the Ned Flander's things in order to make 'him' happy and not allow me to be tortured forever when I die. This brain is all I've got to work with, and ironically it'd be the one he gave me that fails to grasp what I should be doing and believing.

And if I lived my life worrying about all the 'ifs'... If China attacks... if there'll be an earthquake... if there's a Jesus... if there's this god or the other... then I would be sitting in a bunker with foil on my head. If Jesus isn't true then life was what it was, a handing of the baton to the next generation, then I'll die happy knowing I did the best I could. If Jesus is true and I didn't jump through the correct hoops in order to trigger his salvation from sin scheme for me, then I'll have to live in eternal hell marveling at the craziness of the whole thing.

I still think Christianity is neat (compared to other religions) but it's just not a logical thing unless you prescribe to certain beliefs.

* This is a excerpt from a question I asked a theologian friend posted in a forum. I thought he answered them pretty well, dammit.

A magic baby is born in Bethlehem (Family Guy)



Jesus’ advertisements are intrusive

Jesus is a little heavy with the product placement I reckon. Check out the this blog to see an organised array of smudges and stains that look like a bearded man... or Doctor Zaius.


Jesus’ advertisements are intrusive

Jesus is a little heavy with the product placement I reckon. Check out the this blog to see an organised array of smudges and stains that look like a bearded man... or Doctor Zaius.


The Revival Fellowship Centres International

This is a series of animated videos I created in a cathartic exercise to exorcise the sect that had a hold on my mind for almost 17 years. They're mostly 'in-jokes' to those who have some knowledge of the Australian born 'Revival Centres' family of churches. They're mostly infamous for their belief that only believers who 'speak in tongues' are actually Christian. Everyone else is fooling themselves. This wacky cult also enforce marriage on sexual-sinners, and hold onto British Israelism prophesy, as well as Bible Mathematics and Pyramidology. Their founder, Lloyd Longfield' is depicted in the banner above; he's still alive and insane.

The banner is a link to the rest of the video series.

The video below is a preview:

The Revival Fellowship Centres International

This is a series of animated videos I created in a cathartic exercise to exorcise the sect that had a hold on my mind for almost 17 years. They're mostly 'in-jokes' to those who have some knowledge of the Australian born 'Revival Centres' family of churches. They're mostly infamous for their belief that only believers who 'speak in tongues' are actually Christian. Everyone else is fooling themselves. This wacky cult also enforce marriage on sexual-sinners, and hold onto British Israelism prophesy, as well as Bible Mathematics and Pyramidology. Their founder, Lloyd Longfield' is depicted in the banner above; he's still alive and insane.

The banner is a link to the rest of the video series.

The video below is a preview:

Marc Maron visits the Creation Museum

Recently, I've been a podcast listener, and am enjoying such comedians as Greg Fitzerald and this guy... Marc Maron, who recently took a crew and a microphone into the Creation Museum. He was fairly respectful, and had some funny things to say as he went through.

Ricky and Karl discuss Christmas

If you've never heard Ricky Gervais chat with Karl before... this is your perfect entry point. I'm amazed that there are people that haven't fallen in love with the Gervais podcasts, and I'm equally amazed that people haven't even seen or heard of the recordings (record breaking podcast recordings) made by Ricky, Karl Pilkington and Steve Merchant.

One among you shall betray me