This Is How I Picture Carol ...

Now, it might be weird to equate a 20-year-old blonde girl with the 30-something Superman-in-disguise Clark Kent ... until you realise THEY BOTH HAVE THE SAME INITIALS!

I've made a conscientious decision to only and always refer to Carol as "CK" from now on, underlining a fact that I was previously unaware of until now.

I'm Jimmy Olsen.


In any case, Clark Kent likes being referred to as "CK" so much he even had the monogram etched into his belt buckle;

The way I figure it, if it's good enough for the Man of Steel, then it's aces for Carol.

... or, should I say, it's aces for CK.

Gits and Shiggles

The following is the concluding paragraph from an article about how it's suddenly become chic to refer to one's self as a "nerd" without having the hard-won right to back it up;

So, the next time someone tells you how nerdy they are, ask them this question: with what weapon did Megatron kill Optimus Prime? If they have no answer, punch them in the face and say "You're no nerd, just a slut with a broken nose."

I don't know about you, but that made me laugh.

The answer, according to Megatron's whiny insistence at least, is "with his bare hands". But I think the pleading for mercy before grabbing a discarded laser gun and taking a cowardly sneak shot is probably closer to the truth (we'll not mention using Hot Rod as a "human" shield).

I know, I know, this makes me a nerd. But at least I can say that without fear of getting punched in the nose and being called a slut. So there's some form of pride in that ...

... right??

Missed It By THAT Much

I took a very rare trip into the city today. I missed the train I was planning on catching in by a minute; I could see it pulling away as I neared the station.

Getting into the city, I found the pair of American Flag Converse shoes that Li-Kim had told me about. They had them in both high-top and low-cut, and they were discounted!!! I determined there and then to buy them ... only to find they didn' t have them in my size! I'm considering getting them in low-cut, but haven't made my mind up yet. Still no sighting of the black pinstripes, though!

Much browsing later, I turned to go home, and once again missed my train by only a moment, seeing it pull away as I got to the platform.

As least I got plenty of walking done, I guess.

Photoshop THIS!

So despite her feeling perfectly comfortable with telling me she hates my blog, for some reason Sarah wants her photoshop images loaded up onto my blog for all you millions of readers to look at!

Puh'shuh, I say! Ain't gonna happen, sister!

And so, by not posting anything at all image-related, this round goes to me! Take THAT, Statler & Waldorf!

Yeeeessss, yeeeeeessss, YES!!!

Scooping Ben

I'm fairly dubious as to what this is going to end up being like, but the urge to scoop Ben was too much. Behold, the Taiwanese poster for Transformers.

From what I've seen in the ads, the Transformers look less like giant robots and more like giant heaps of scrap metal haphazardly soldered together to form towering mounds of crap. But given that the ads are about three minutes of actors screaming and cars smashing with about ten seconds of actual robotos, I might be prematurely judging.

My Mediocre Review of a Mediocre Movie

Solo ... I believe its production name was Meh.

(click the above text for link)

Goddamn I Love This Show

I've been watching Cowboy Bebop pretty consistently since I got it, and I only have three episodes left to go. Of course, I've seen them all before, but it's been great re-familiarising myself with the series.

Further thoughts to come after the completion, no doubt.

Books, The Publishing Thereof, And The General Business Of It.

I'm currently reading Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.

It's amazing how a book about the construction of a cathedral in 12th century England can be so involving.

In other news, the marketing department had a function the other night for all the major booksellers. This consisted of giving the book buyers of major stores "goody bags" of bottles of wine with book cover labels stuck on them, sample novels and CDs. After loaning my belt to the marketing executive who'd forgotten his (and being subsequently saggy-arsed all day) I took all the goody bags down to the foyer to load into the limo they'd booked for the event.

The hummer limo.

If you've never seen one of these things, they're friggin' huge. Almost the length of a tram, and much more dangerous-looking. If you got hit by one of these, the physical pain of it would no doubt extend to all those in your bloodline.

So I started to load the bags into it. This is, more or less, what I saw when I did;

I'm not really one for being impressed by excess, but even I have to admit ... that's pretty damn pimpin'.

On the general "work" theme;

I heard a fairly desperate cry of "Help! Help help help!" emerging from one of my neighbour pods this afternoon. I rushed over to find one of the women I work with - in her late fifties and always, always dressed like she's going to the Melbourne Cup (that's a famous horse race for you Belgian readers) - fretting over her stereo. She'd been trying to work out how to switch it over to radio for the past ten minutes, and had become convinced that the brand new device was broken.

I leaned in, unsure of what I could do.

"Uh ... you haven't switched it on."

I pressed the stand-by button and it sprang to life, much to my co-worker's delight and gratitude.

I'm thinking a promotion to "IT Consultant" is in order.

The More I Think About It ...

... the more taken I am with the idea of incorporating Anthony Michael Hall as Jean-Paul Valley into the Batman film franchise.

If you streamlined the story, and simply had Jean-Paul Valley taking up the Azrael identity after being inspired by Batman's actions and becoming increasingly ruthless until a confrontation with Batman himself occurs, it would fit in really nicely with the themes of justice versus vengeance that were so strongly established in Batman Begins, as well as the idea of escalation that was touched upon at the end of that film and that's been promised to be elaborated on in The Dark Knight.

If the filmmakers introduced Jean-Paul in The Dark Knight and then depicted his transformation into Azrael and subsequent showdown in the next film, it would take all the things that Spider-Man 3 tried to accomplish but failed to because of its over-stacking the deck.

I guess the main reason I find this idea so compelling is that, besides the fact that I didn't previously see it as something that could be accomplishable in film, I've always had a fascination with doppelganger versions of heroes. From Azrael to Venom to Bizarro and beyond, "through a looking glass darkly"-style villains have always held a certain appeal to me, both aesthetically and thematically. Exploring the darker side of a protagonist by personifying it is, I believe, inheriantly fascinating. I guess it's also a little indictive of "low art", but I don't care.

Of course, all this is moot if it turns out Hall's been cast as some Joe Blow. But that's part of the fun of watching these films develop; the guessing game that goes along with them, followed by the enjoyment/disappointment of the reveal.

On a tangent; with Venom's appearance in Spider-Man 3, the Iron Monger in the currently filming Iron Man, and the possibility of Azrael in The Dark Knight, it's curious to think what's going on in the cultural psyche at the moment that sees us being provided with all these dark variations on our cultural heroes.

Pumpkin Pie

The Smashing Pumpkin's first album in seven years gets released in July, and serves as their comeback to the music scene after officially disbanding in 2000.


I'm both highly anticipating and highly dreading this. Ever since Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness, Billy Corgan has been progressively heading into a sonic realm that could only really be described as "unlistenable". Moving away from prog rock and goth pop roots into the realms of electronica and synth, each album Corgan has overseen since Mellon Collie - from the Pumpkin's Adore and Machina releases to Zwan's Mary, Star of the Sea and his own solo effort thefutureembrace - has relied increasingly on distortion, computer-generated melodies and, frankly, weird mixing. Corgan went from using distortion masterfully on Siamese Dream to drowning in it in Machina, and the synth beats on Adore and thefutureembrace came across more cold than New Order cool.

The most frustrating part for me was, given how interesting, imaginative and lush Corgan's lyrics are, why does he feel the need to bury them at the back of the song, while over-dubbing fifty fuzzy guitar lines?


Zeitgeist, the name of this latest - and frankly surprising - album, could be either a colossal triumphant (like Mellon Collie) or an embarrasing calamity (like thefutureembrace). Either way, given my obsessive devotion to all things Corgan, I'm sure I'll end up liking it. Whether that be a genuine appreciation or one I've talked myself into is yet to be seen. Oh, and when/if they tour Australia, one way or another I will be seeing them perform.

All this speculation seems a bit ungrounded really, seeing as the first single, Tarantula, has been released and I've yet to even hear it. Triple J is yet to play it to my knowledge, but I'm sure they will. I hope they will. Even if they don't, I'm planning on downloading it when I get home tonight. It'll serve as an interesting taste of what's to come, but the proof will be in the pudding that comes in July.

Fingers crossed.

I Believe In Aaron Eckhart

As fantastic a choice for Harvey Dent as I think Aaron Eckhart is, every time I see this image I can't help but wish he'd been cast as Captain America. He'd be a way better fit than the Brad Pitt rumour that's always running around.

Yours Sincerely, The Batman Club

Word is that your old pal Anthony Michael Hall - Brian the Brain himself - has been cast in The Dark Knight. Look at him get his "mysterious" on!


As to what role he's playing, well ... apparently that's being kept a secret for now. But there's rumour that he's been cast as a "Batman wannabe", in which case, does this mean he's Jean-Paul Valley?



For those of you unaware, Jean-Paul Valley was/is the mysterious vigilante Azrael, raised by his father to be a living weapon wielded by an ancient religious knightley order.


When Bruce Wayne's back was broken by the villain Bane during the Knightfall story, it was Jean-Paul who stepped in to carry on the Batman mantle. But eventually Jean-Paul went a bit loopy, becoming increasingly violent and unstable. He forged his own brand of Batman armour ...

... before finally a recovered Bruce Wayne stepped in and took the mantle back in a climactic showdown.

The whole storyline was meant to be a comment on the grim-and-gritty trend in comics during the late '80s and early '90s. Fans were constantly saying how they wanted an edgier, darker and more violent Batman, so line editor Denny O'Neil (I'm pretty sure, off the top of my head, that that's whose decision it was) elected to give them exactly what they wanted. In spades. No surprise, they hated it, and were very glad to see the comparitively moderate Bruce Wayne back beneath the cowl.

Now this is all speculation on my part, but it'd be really cool if they've decided to incorporate elements of the Azrael-storyline into the film franchise, especially given that Anthony Michael Hall is such perfect casting for it. Jean-Paul's whole thing is meant to be how he's a combination of socially-stunted, nerdy sensitive guy with brainwashed killing machine. Given Hall's background, he's the perfect fit. I'll be very interested to see where all this leads.

As for the recently revealed Joker make-up that both Ben and Steph have posted on their blogs? I'm planning on posting about that at some stage, when I get the time.

Mouse Trap

My mouse is giving me the absolute shits. The left-click button has become so sensitive it double-clicks practically everything! It makes using the mouse like trying to drive on ice! And I don't know what the problem is!

At first I thought it was the mouse itself, so I switched over the old one for another one I had spare. The problem continues. I tried to turn down the sensitivity in the Control Panel, but it was already at its lowest point! I have no idea what the problem could be!

ARRRGH!

General Updates Ahoy!

So I've been a bit lazy in posting the last week. This has pretty much been a result of having been busy at work and, frankly, not being able to be bothered. What's been going on, you might ask. Nothing much! Just workin'. Although;

-Went to a party on Friday night, which was fun but not huge. I left before midnight, given how much of a general humbug I am.

-I took a look at new glasses frames on Saturday afternoon, and have settled on both a pair of normal glasses and sunglasses! Yes, sunglasses! I'm finally going to do it, stretch the extra bit and pay for some eyeball protection against the sun. It'll be sweet. I made an appointment for next Saturday afternoon to get my eyes tested, before placing an order for the new glasses. I'll have to get some photos taken when the frames come in to show ya'll.

-Li-Kim has spotted the American Flag Cons! As to where they are and how much they cost, I have no idea!

-The last week of work has generally involved having my arse kicked by huge amounts of outgoing mail and the need to accomplish monthly tasks I've never done before. This has left me slightly stressed at times.

-I caved and bought season 2 of Justice League Unlimited. I ordered it from Amazon and it should be here shortly. I also purchased the Remix box set of Cowboy Bebop, which I've unsuccessfully lobbied both Ben and Li-Kim to watch a couple of times now. Curse the both of you!!

-We're going to be getting broadband! It's been officially decided. We're going to do it through Optus. I'm looking forward to it, but I think Ben's even more excited. I think he's putting together a list of TV shows to download as we speak.

-The Route 66 trip has been deferred until May of '08. While that's a bit disappointing, it makes a lot more sense, as it will give Dad the proper amount of time to physically recover from all his surgery/treatment and it'll give me a chance to save more money (which is helpful, given all the expenditures I've listed in this posting alone!).

-Charlie will be visiting at the start of June, followed the next week by Mum! My goodness!

-My lengthy posts on superheroes illicted more interest in their length and in Peter's replies (by the way; hi, Pete!) than they did in their content. Which is a pity, given that I'm intending on post a few more articles like that. Prepare your brains!

-I've also had complaints of not posting enough images, so with that in mind ...

... take THAT!!!

I Pity The Fool Who Doesn't Like He ...

In addition to collecting, distributing, packaging and sending out mail; collecting faxes; photocopying manuscripts, and data entry, I spend my time at work making stuff like this;

Well, to be fair, I did it at home on Photoshop. But now, it has a proud place above the flattened box deposit in the mail area. For this they pay me.

"Dark Tower"? More like "DORK Tower"! HA!

Apparently, to get Sarah's support (to the point where she'd wear a "We Heart Steven's Blog" shirt), I'd have to write posts more like this article from SomethingAwful.com. I'm hoping merely copying and pasting will suffice, as actually coming up with something as witty and insightful as this might be beyond me.

The article is all about disappointing surprise villains, and is specifically in reference to Stephen King's Dark Tower series;

Hey Stephen, if you build up a character as the ultimate evil in seven books written over the course of twenty years, then maybe you want to make him something a little more threatening than a cranky Santa Claus that's killed by a giant magic pencil eraser you introduced five pages earlier. I know I am not the award winning author of such novels as "Alcoholic Writer Versus Scary Ghosts" and "Alcoholic Writer Versus Scary Women" and this one short story where I swear to god it was about a young black maid who felt the compulsion to eat the semen off a popular horror writer's sheets (this is a story he actually wrote), but maybe you'll listen to my small word of advice anyway.

You may be a perfectly nice person, but all I'm saying is the ending to 'The Dark Tower' was the worst thing to enter your head since that van's bumper.

I Am Getting Fatter

I tried getting into my good jeans this morning, and for the second time in a row I just could not do up the top button. Even the second top one was difficult. I originally tried justifying this as simply being that they were fresh from the wash, but I think the grim reality is my muffin top is getting butter spread on it.

... which sounds really dirty.

Also, things have progressed to such a point at work that I can comfortably waste time emailing friends and family and updating/commenting on my blog.

Effing POTUS!

Reading the solicits for political thrillers made me realise how often the American President is involved in their storylines, either as the head of a vast conspiracy or the victim of a vast conspiracy. That's when the main character comes in and sorts things out.

What's the deal?? Why do Americans so desperately need to see their leader as either a swaggering hero or a malevolent villain? Why does the President need his own mythological status, with his own Asgard (the White House), his own Praetorian Guard (the Secret Service) and his own Sleipnir (Airforce One).

In Australia, we consider ourselves lucky if our Prime Minister can say the word 'mate' and not sound insincere (which the current one doesn't!).

It ALSO Occurs To Me ...

... that I have a penchant for creating sub-genres with the suffix of 'realism', what with my ideas of 'sci-fi realism' in relation to films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Donnie Darko (once again) and Sunshine (I remembered the third striking thing about Sunshine; the versimilitude of the plot's scientific concepts).

It seems film critics have a love of branding new sub-genres (I base this opinion on DK Holm, one of my favourite movie reviewers, who seems to be coming up with new genre sub-categories every other week). Perhaps this need to pioneer new definitions comes from the critic's innate sense of self-consciousness and desire to create; after spending a career commenting on other people's creativeness, the critic wants to be creative him/herself, but can only do so in pinpointing generic traits to such a degree that every film can fit into its own individual category.

And that's it. I'm done for the night. Promise.

Superhero Realism

All that blathering about Spider-Man, combined with tonight's airing of Heroes, got me thinking about an article/post I've been wanting to write about superheroes and their prototype outfits (think Peter Parker's red and blue wrestling pyjamas in Spider-Man, or the ninja outfit Bruce Wayne sports when he first confronts Jim Gordon in Batman Begins). That got me to thinking about Donnie Darko, and how Donnie's story is essentially a superhero origin story (right down to having a costume and a prototype costume; his costume being the skeleton suit and grey hoody, the prototype being the jeans, shirt and black hoody he wears when he burns Swayze's house down).


My thought process then moved onto the character of Peter Petrelli in Heroes. Peter is probably the most archetypically comic book character in the show, from his alliterative name (so reminiscent of Peter Parker) to his floppy hair (like so many haircuts from comic books) to his idealistic nature. His power - to absorb other people's powers - allows for such a wide range of abilities that he becomes the embodiment of comic book wonderment.

My original thought was how he himself had more or less an actual costume, with his white jacket that catches the wind when he flies, with the red hoody beneath it (what's with these adaptations and hoodies?) capturing the bold colours of superhero costumes. Googling for an image of that outfit, I came up with nothing, but I did find this;

Perhaps it's his nurse's uniform that really serves as his costume, seeing as he's wearing this when we're introduced to him. The image search also made me realise that *all* the characters have costumes; Hiro's prototype costume is his short-sleeved business shirt, thin black tie and thick padded coat. When he time travels from the future, he's seen in his actual hero costume of black clothes, coat and slicked-back hair (with accompanying katana!).

Claire, of course, as her cheerleader uniform (and even a bit of a codename in 'The Cheerleader'), Nathan Petrelli has his fierce business suits. The cop has his uniform, Nicky has her clingy black outfits whenever she switches into her Jessica persona, etc. So in that respect, amongst others, Heroes has been very faithful in adapting comic book concepts in a realistic fashion. But it wasn't the first to do so.

The aforementioned Donnie Darko was very much a comic book movie, with writer/director Richard Kelly admitting as much in the DVD audio commentaries. He even chose the alliterative name because of its "comic booky" quality.

Unbreakable was another film to take the conventions of comics and apply them to the real world. It was so understated about it in its marketing, however, that it wasn't until about 3/4 of the way through that it occured to me. Bruce Willis' character, upon accepting his destiny, also gets a costume (illustrated here by comic artist Alex Ross);

It's nothing more than a raincoat that serves as part of his security guard uniform, but it works so well it quickly asserts itself as a piece of superhero iconography.

What else would qualify? The '80s children show My Secret Identity, starring a young Jerry O'Connel as a teenager with superpowers, the short-lived '90s series The Sentinel, about a cop with heightened senses. Even Smallville, really, with the way it's forever brushing up against out-and-out fantasy without ever actually stepping into that territory (which led to an interesting stray thought; excluding Smallville's constant parade of red shirts and blue jackets, Superman's never really had the 'prototype costume', it's only ever been the 'hero costume' - as if Superman is the only superhero who wasn't formed over a series of time and experiences, but rather took the stage fully-realised, underscoring his theme of both having perfect ideals and, in turn, being one. But back to the subject at hand).

Donnie Darko, Heroes, Unbreakable. It's my feeling that these all fit into the same genre, but it's not as broad as 'the superhero genre'. Rather, it's 'superhero realism' where, as said before, the concepts and constructs of the superhero genre are adapted in a realistic fashion (usually outside the realm of the comic book, the super hero's traditional stomping ground).

Some might say Buffy or Robocop might fit into this category. I think both those examples step far too into the realm of fantasy to qualify. More accurately, they'd fit into the realm of the 'subversive superhero story', where the writer is telling superhero stories under the guise of another genre. The Matrix would be another good example of this.

But what else could be described as 'superhero realism'? I'm not sure off the top of my head. It's not something that crops up very often. I would hesitate to list things like The Three Musketeers or Sherlock Holmes because - in addition to being afraid Sarah would tear me apart for the crass comparison - those were stories that helped shape what the superhero genre would eventually become, rather than an author taking the tropes of superhero storytelling and applying them to a real world setting.

So that's what's been floating around in my head for the past few months. It's funny, in writing about superhero prototype costumes, I've come up with a bit of a prototype article about superheroes. Hope it wasn't too boring to read my ramblings. Just wait until I try collecting my thoughts about Lex Luthor and his reflection of American/global concerns into some form of coherant structure!

You'll all be sorry then!

Hey, This Isn't Springy, High-Flying Fun!

So, yeah ... Spider-Man 3.

I gotta say, I was pretty goddamn disappointed.

--Spoilers Follow--

The first one I thought was pretty good. It had its great moments, it had its crappy moments. They nailed the character of Peter Parker (excluding the part where he allowed the carjacker to fall to his death, which thankfully gets picked up in this film ... though not really to proper effect), but Kirsten Dunst was horribly miscast. Willem Dafoe was engaging, though over-the-top. Every single scene with the Green Goblin in costume was cringe-worthy. But fundamentally, Raimi, the cast and the crew all got it. They understood Spidey, and despite these sticky notes, it was still a fun movie.

Spider-Man 2, however, blew me away. Once again ignoring Dunst's miscasting and the fact that movie MJ is just NOT MJ, Spider-Man 2 managed to take all the good aspects of the first one and elaborate on them, while dumping all the cornier aspects of the first (excluding a few poorly conceived crowd reactions). It was funny, heartfelt, action-packed and genuinely moving. I still get chills whenever I watch the train scene, with Peter Parker unmasked in front of an awe-inspired crowd of commuters.

So with the bar being set so high, and with Raimi having proved himself twice now, I had big hopes for Spider-Man 3. I guess my first disappointment was when they released shots of the black costume. Rather than looking the way it did in the comics, it was simply - and unimaginatively - the normal costume coloured black. I could excuse this, though, as it seemed to make sense that it was being handled as the original costume with the alien symbiote having "stained" it.

The trailers had me completely psyched. The posters were awesome. I bought my tickets in advance and waited with anxious anticipation.

I can say it wasn't completely terrible. In fact, I wouldn't even say it was bad. It just ... wasn't that great.

The problem seems to be they over-extended themselves. With three villains to set up and pay off, an alien costume to deal with, relationship problems for MJ and Peter and the introduction of Gwen Stacy and her dad, it was obvious it was going to be hard for the filmmakers to pull off.

And it was. So much so that they didn't manage it.

Harry fronts up to exact his revenge, gets bopped on the head and has convenient amnesia for a good portion of the film. The black costume comes and goes, depending on whether the screenwriter remembered it was in there. Sandman? More like Blandman. I've read reviews of Thomas Haden Church's performance that call him 'reserved' and 'dignified'. What else could he play BUT reserved, given that they were trying to keep his morality ambiguous up until his final monologue with Spidey, but that just meant it was two hours of "Oh. Sandman. Kinda cool looking ... I guess. Remind me, why do I care about him again?". He was certainly no Alfred Molina as Dr Octopus (with one of the best movie lines for a villain ever, in my opinion; "I will not die a monster!", quickly followed by "The power of a sun in the palm of my hand.").

Peter acted like a dick even when he wasn't under the influence of the alien costume, which was necessary given the kind of story they were telling, but still. MJ whined quite a bit, but it was pretty much warranted. Of course, most of her problems seemed to revolve around her wanting to be in the spotlight with her boyfriend eternally cheering her on, and getting shitty with him when the reverse happens.

Of course;
PETER HITS MJ!!! And it's never even properly followed up on. It's not really something you can resolve in a Hollywood action blockbuster (which is why I wished they hadn't incorporated it in the first place) but it would have been nice for them to have had, I dunno, a conversation about it or something. The argument would be that Peter did it while under the influence of the black suit. But if you take that to its analogical position in reality, Peter did it while under the influence of drugs/alcohol. Not following up on that just seems really irresponsible to me, and given that the defining characteristic of Spider-Man is his sense of responsibility, it's especially jarring.

Oh, and Peter's black suit-inspired emo hair! After essentially killing Sandman, Peter comes running up out of the subway system into the street. Deciding he's badass now, he takes the time to look at his reflection and scruff up his hair, giving him a decidedly emo fringe. This becomes his "evil" look, along with a paler complexion and baggy pothead eyes. Why he felt he suddenly had to adjust his hair after he thought he’d committed murder, I’ll never know, but the second he did, the audience busted out laughing.

As if sensing this would happen, Raimi goes on to include a montage of ‘black suit Peter’ strutting around with his greasy emo hair, pointing at women in the street and giving them “sexy” looks, with each one of them reacting with disgust. Sure, it’s funny, but it’s not really the exploration of Peter’s darker side I was expecting (or that was promised). It just kinda served to undermine the whole thing. As did the second musical/dance performance (and that’s just Peter; MJ has two of her own as well!). God only knows why Raimi felt we’d all be so dense he had to illustrate Peter being morally ambiguous with gross hair and a sickly complexion. It just made him look like a petulant teenage punk and left the audience laughing at the movie rather than with it.

I won’t even talk about Venom. He shows up so late in the game and gets rushed off just as quickly. He’s barely even worth talking about. Ditto Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen and James Cromwell as her father, Captain Stacy.

But there were good points, too. The effects and action sequences were incredibly impressive. The humour was still quirky. The story still had some heart to it (though at no point did I get the same chills and pangs I got in 2). Bruce Campbell, JK Simmons and the whole Daily Bugle cast were fantastic. I liked the larger, more complex roles for Peter’s landlord Mr Ditkovitch and his daughter. And as clumsily as it was stuck in there, and as awkwardly performed as it was, I absolutely loved Stan Lee’s cameo.

In the end, I think the failing of Spider-Man 3 is it tried to do too much. It felt like it had to be bigger and louder than the previous instalments, and in trying to be so everything just spiralled out of control. Given how massively well the movie’s performed and that Sony has said it’s keen to have a part 5, 6 and 7, I can only hope Raimi and his cast – or whoever takes over, should they all want to move on – do what they did with part 2 in relation to part 1; learn from their mistakes, improve on what they got right, and make a Spider-Man movie to be truly proud of.

All that said, I’m still planning on seeing it again. What can I say? I’m a big Spidey geek, and my hope is on a second viewing I can appreciate the movie for what it is, rather than what I wanted it to be.

I really didn’t intend for this post to be as long as it’s turned out to be, but once I got started I couldn’t really stop. Given how Sarah’s said how boring movie reviews are in blogs, I hope she’ll let me off the hook for this one. It was good seeing it with her on opening night, actually. She could tell how bummed out I was by it and, knowing how (weirdly) important Spider-Man is to me, said it was okay for me to have still liked it if for no other reason than I wanted to.

Thanks, Daggy! Really made me feel better about the whole thing.

And that’s the end of that chapter.

Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend!

Three days down, two to go. Officially over half-way through the week! Huzzah!

On the outside of it, I think my job sounds pretty boring. I pick up, sort, distribute, pack and send out the mail. I order office supplies. I photocopy. But the atmosphere I'm doing it in, the place I'm doing it in, and the things I'm photocopying (manuscripts!) make it all really interesting and even slightly exciting to me. That said, I do feel a faint death chill at this whole full-time, 9-5 thing. No doubt my parents are scoffing at me for being exposed to what they've dealt with for decades on end, but I got into creative writing to avoid that, dammit!

I'm still, however, madly enraptured with the prospect of an hour-long lunch break! An hour! AN HOUR!!! Although I usually order and eat my food in less than thirty minutes, get bored and, after dawdling slightly, tend to head back to the office (yes, I now have an "office" that I have to "head back to"!).

All in all, it's going well. I worked pretty much autonomously today, with little to no supervision/guidance, which was a big relief. Starting a new job is stressful simply because you literally don't know anything; you're constantly asking questions, you do everything with such doubt and you generally feel like a drain on the people around you. But today felt good, because I was pretty much on top of everything. Phweph!

I Survived the First Day

Hey everybody!

Well, it was my first day at the new job, and I thought I'd just do a quick post to keep you all updated.

It went really well; mostly it was just a case of being shown some of the basics, although I did also go to a sales and marketing meeting where they worked out what titles would be released in October and what would be pushed back to the new year. It might make me a bit geeky, but I found it fascinating!

I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to discuss. Given that I have to carry around a swipe card to get in and out of the office for fear of industrial espionage, I don't think it'd be very wise of me to shoot my mouth off too much. I will say that we got some unsolicited manuscripts accidentally sent to us, and the quality of them was surprisingly low. One pitched the book, literally, as "having a beginning, middle and end" and that "stuff happens". Wow. I'm so inspired to run out and buy that.

I'll post my mini-review of Spider-Man 3 when ... well, when I have the strength (I didn't hate it, but it was a bit disappointing).

I did, however, see Curse of the Golden Flower the week before Spidey, and to succintly review it;
1) reminiscent of a Shakespearean tragedy
2) lavish production design
3) well worth checking out.

So that's it. I'm off to shower.

Clarifications and Minor News

Okay, there are a few people confused as to whether or not the shoes in the picture are mine; no, that's just the only other picture of American Flag Cons I could find through Google. I've never actually seen a pair in real life, let along had the opportunity to buy them.

I decided to go shopping yesterday to get some stuff for my new job. I wanted some new pants, shirts, possibly a pair of shoes (my aim was the pinstrip Cons) and a new bag (my old one is about five years old and falling apart; doesn't look massively professional).

I ended up failing miserably in my goal. I went out for new work stuff and came home with surround sound speakers. The progression was a lot more natural than that, though. I dropped in on Ben at work, and he pointed out how the speakers I'd had my eye on a couple of months ago were now discounted. Combined with his employee discount, they were too cheap to say no to. The beauty part was that the cost got taken out of the money Ben owes me, so in the end I didn't have to fork over any money for them.

So we now have kick-arse surround sound in the living room. My first instinct is to get Dad down here and put on Terminator 2, so I can scare the shit out of him when the cyborg's foot comes smashing down on the human skull in the first five minutes (just as what happened to me when he set up his surround sound 14 years ago).

I've got a bunch of articles I need to write that I'm having a hard time getting started on, and I have to go in tomorrow afternoon to have introductory work drinks and be shown around the office.

Spider-Man 3 tonight! Oh God, Oh God, Oh God! I can't wait!

I GOT THE JOB!!!

So as I'm stepping out the door for work this morning, I noticed missed calls on my mobile and a message on my answering machine. It was a guy from The Publishing Company [not actual name], asking me to call him back. I did. He asked if I wanted the job. I did. He said it was mine.

HOORAH!!!

First thing I did when I went into work was give notice. Saturday will be my last shift. I feel really bad that this has come at the time when I'm just moving into bio, and I imagine the technical manager and a few co-workers will be a little miffed about it, but I'd be absolutely insane to let this pass me by.

Monday is my first day, though I'm going in Friday evening to meet everyone in the office for drinks.

Maybe now I can afford those pin-stripe Cons!

God, I'm such a lady ... I get a new job and the first thing I do is think about buying shoes. Jeez!

I'm planning on writing a nice goodbye note to pin up in the staff room at work. I'm really going to miss everyone there.

But hey, I promised myself I'd be gone by the time my parking permit expired (June). It was looking really grim there - like I might have to (gasp) renew it - but just look at me now!

... not that you can ... because we're on the Internet ... and I don't have a webcam ...