Photography, writing and technology
Category : writing
A final wee quiz for 2009. I generated this word cloud from the entire text of a novel**. If you can guess the novel you can win a copy of the book.
Second prize is 2 copies 
If you like this kind of Word Cloud type quiz there are another EIGHTY over at www.bimbogami.co.uk based on music and movies. All free and fun. And if you play you’ll make @manicmorff very happy.
Word cloud courtesy of www.wordle.net
** there’s a clue on this page
Category : zeitgeist
I‘m sure my reader would easily have guessed about 75% of these or more. I stayed honest and went for my favourites films to watch, rather than those I pretend to like for the purposes of appearing cool. It was a struggle, I think I need to know about 48 hours before I go as I’ve had to cut out too many good films.
The Big Lebowski
You need to get off to a flier and I thought I’d start with probably my favourite film. I think there is a Facebook group called something like “I judge people by their appreciation of The Big Lebowski” – couldn’t agree more. If you haven’t seen it, well, come now. Get on with it. I need to know what I think of you.
Just to show how great the dialogue it, it still very funny performed by 3 animated rabbits. Obviously, contains very strong language.
117 minutes used so far.
Altogether now…
So, there it is, another list I’d probably change tomorrow. Really regretted leaving a large number out but I stuck to my guns and didn’t go all cool for the sake of appearances.
And with that, I sign off the blog for 2009. Happy New Year all.
They don’t make them like this any more. Except, they do. Well, Woo does. Epic is perhaps slightly overused when it comes to films. You can’t argue if it is applied here. Everything is on a huge scale, not least the 293 minute running time across the two halves.
Red Cliff
The film tells the story of the Battle of Red Cliffs which took place in China in 208/9 AD. (The Wikipedia link contains spoilers for obvious reasons!)
This is film making on a very grand scale. Check out this spanking HD trailer, you’ll see what I mean and will give you a far better flavour than my attempts and finding more and more words that mean “big”.
Looks cool, eh? Well, it is. And in Blu-Ray it looks consistently great. The video quality is excellent throughout, helped by some excellent cinematography and vivid colours, especially in the customers. I’m almost certain at one point of the film you will say “nice helmet” with abandon. Sound too is very good although I found the soundtrack to be good not excellent. Not quite of the quality of a Tan Dun meets Yo Yo Ma.
Now, I understand that approaching 5 hours of subtitled Chinese history may not be for everyone. But you could easily watch this as a mini-series spread over 5 nights. You watched Shogun didn’t you? Bet you did. This is MUCH better.
Sometimes the plotting of ‘true’ events can be a little pedestrian, real life doesn’t always have the twists and pace to build tension or surprise – but there is enough artistic license allowed by the lack of known detail that the story entertains consistently. Although I suspect that much of the interesting detail was added by the historians much later.
Obviously, some of the fighting could be seen as a little silly. Single heroic warriors take on large gangs on baddies single-handedly in very choreographed sequences. You either like this or you don’t but it is entirely fitting with the genre and I’m sure it played very well with Chinese audiences. And, I suppose, post-Matrix, we have more of a fondness of it.
For a film that is essentially about a single battle, there is obviously a huge amount of depth around it. So battle lovers may drift off waiting for it to kick off. There are big lull’s between the 3 main battle sequences but these are just as entertaining in their own way. And when the final battles comes, you won’t be disappointed. It makes Helm’s Deep look like a square-go in the playground.
There is some pretty decent CGI woven in here too. The shot of dove flying over Cao Cao’s fleet is rather smart (you can see a short piece of this in the trailer) and I like the shots of the arrows flying straight at the camera.
All in all, it’s a cracking piece of entertainment and should be part of any Blu-Ray collection.
So, if you have a spare 5 hours to waste and you love great looking movies then get Red Cliff, especially as the full two-disc Blu-Ray is only £9 on Amazon
Mr Woo, what shall I do? I’ll watch Red Cliff again for sure.
The time has come to see how I did against my goals for 2009.
1. Throw Some Stuff Out
As previously reported, this went well, although their remains much to do. The garage still has to be reclaimed. But work has started on recovering some storage space.
2. A Great Photo
Still don’t think I nailed it but had a lot of fun taking photos this year.
3. A Complete First Draft
I gave up on this fairly early on this year. There is now a very robust writing plan for next year and a shiny new iMac to write on in a lovely yellow study with fairy stickers on the wall. There can be no more excuses. I still have doubts about Terra Exitus but I’m going to give it a serious go…
4. Sell Film Rights for The Beatle Man
This one was only ever here as a joke. I still think there is a good episode of Taggart in there though.
5. Spend Less Money
Well, this was a largely a fail but there was some sensible spending and the house is a lot better and we had a nice holiday.
6. Lose Weight
Panic set in after going to Italy. I was back to a record high weight. So I went on a bit of a diet and it worked. I’ve taken a few backward steps over Christmas but I have found hitherto undiscovered discipline and can stop eating chocolate at will and have found a taste for muesli. Who knows, I might even do some exercise.
7. Time Division Multiplexing
Needs more work but I have a plan, so that’s a start.
8. No Alarms
Fingers crossed. We’re alarm free.
9. The Photo Project
Approaching the start of success of a sort. I got the website live and started the first projects and got an excellent response with a large number of photos donated. I’ll be building the first book very soon. Which is quite exciting really. Thanks to all who have helped and supported.
10. More Writing
I did the sensible thing for this year. I gave up. Going to start afresh with a gang of four separate things to write. I’m working on the basis that I might just be arsed with one of them at any given time. I’m already 25% through one and 80% through another so it’s not that high a hill to climb.
I’m not going to set any specific goals for 2010. As blog content goes, I’m finding it a little dull. I know what I want to write, I might need to think about a new job at some point but other than that, I’m just going to try and relax and enjoy myself. Something I’m traditionally not all that good at.
Oh, and next year, I will be mostly 40… more on that later no doubt.
I struggled for about 23 seconds to come up with my regular (ahem) end of year blog meme. Could I top the previous success (ahem) of the Desert Island C90 at the end of 2008 or the infinitely forgettable Best Album Tracks of 2007 (or the Amazon £50 challenge I chucked in at some point)? Shouldn’t be hard, some might say.
This year, I thought I would stay away from music and try something in movies. So here it is…
You have 24 hours to live. What films are you going to watch to fill the time? Yes, yes, I know, you’d want to spend your time the family/high class hookers etc but work with me here… it’s just a game, go with it.
Once again, I’ve made this take so incredibly long that only the deranged/devoted/bored will be bothered giving it a go. Again, you have to think about value for time and you should ideally focus on the films you would want to watch, not just those that make you look cool in a list.
It’s best to fill the 24 hours ( you don’t want to waste precious time ), so going a little bit over seems acceptable. After all, when are Doctors ever that accurate. I’m sure you could hang on that final 30 minutes to find out who is the Dad in Mamma Mia. Also, you would gain some time back but chopping the credits.
As an aid, 24 hours is 1440 minutes and IMDB will give you the official film lengths.
So, get a couple of big bottles of juice, a 24 pack of crisps, 6 pork pies and bucket to pee in and off you go….