Weekend Round Up #8

I'm diving right into it. The Godzilla trailer dropped this week and I don't care what anyone has to say, I can't wait to see it. One of the first films I snuck out to watch was Godzilla vs The Smog Monster so I have fond memories of this series. (Though the Matthew Broderick debacle was painful...)

Here is the trailer - I was sold when I heard that iconic Godzilla roar!

I have a strange fascination with photography of deserted places. There is something haunting about seeing decaying buildings and the like and it makes me curious as to what happened there when there was life...

Christopher Payne, a photographer and author has released a book with a series of shots from inside a  State Mental Asylum and some of the pictures are amazing. It's definitely on my order list from Amazon. 

Photos by Christopher Payne from the article at Brain Pickings 

You can order the book through Amazon click here.

I'm a huge fan of Spoken Word Poetry/Slam Poetry and the folks on the youtube channel Button Poetry have some amazing videos from some powerful speakers. This is one I watched recently and I found the power behind the words almost captivating. 

 Check out their channel. 

Okay - this is serious. I have to recommend this graphic novel series by the amazing Joe Hill with art by Gabriel Rodriguez. I'm just waiting on the final book to arrive from Amazon. Seriously, this is a series that has me hanging on every word, panel and page. It starts with murder most foul and has some of the most realistic dialogue between characters that I have seen in a while.  Plus, the Lovecraftian undertones make you check doors and cupboards at night. I'm not going to give too much away because you have to read it. You can check it out on Amazon as well. 

And, in sad news for Geeks, Harold Ramis died this week. 

This is a fitting tribute to a great actor and director and was drawn by Ash Vickers. Source MegaCynics

Hope this has brought a little enjoyment into your day. 

Peace and pancakes

Jaime

On knowing my own address...and X Men

I technically* started work yesterday. Let's just say that it hasn't really changed in five years. (Just to let you know I haven't been unemployed for five years, I've been travelling and studying and writing...so not unemployed just not employed consistently...)

The day dragged as only a day can when working retail and re-training but it was after work that I was waiting for. X Men First Class came out in New Zealand yesterday and I dragged my dad along to see it. So, after a mediorce feed we got our tickets, popcorn and sweets and meandered our way up into the cinema. Firstly, I do have to say that our home town cinema has really let itself go, which is sad because it used to be rather pretty.

Anyway, we settled down into our seats and tried to ignore all the tweens and teenagers** who were talking obnoxiously loud, playing on their phones etc. We also ignored the guy who came in with his ipad or tablet or whatever and seemed intent on checking it every five minutes therefore creating a brilliant burst of light in the front row. Finally the lights went down and they chucked on one trailer after the other before the goodness that is X Men started to roll.

I'm not going to spoil the movie because that's not my job but I will say that I thought it was bloody well done. I'm now going to list five points that I thought were done brilliantly:

1. The actors who were playing Russians, Germans etc actually spoke their native language - there was none of that awful fake accent and no language. 
2. The actors playing Xavier and Erik did a really great job at portraying their differing points of view on the same problem. 
3. Nicholas Hoult, as beast, was amazing. He really seemed genuinely confused and tormented by his small 'disfiguring' mutation which led to 'bad' things. 
4. The attention to detail was excellent. Right down to costumes and everything. The 60s is my new favourite era...for now. 
5. There are a couple of squee points for those of you who know the universe - it's kind of like guess the character/guess the mutant. 

Oh and Kevin Bacon was pretty awesome. But then again, it's Kevin Bacon so...

It was the drive home that nearly ruined the night. For the first time ever, I got pulled over my the police and asked to do a breath test. Now, I know I hadn't been drinking, but the moment the cop asked me to state my name and address into the little machine thing my brain farted and I forgot my address (which is ridiculously simple). Luckily there was some recess of my mind that was still active enough for me to spew out the first line and that was when the cop said, "that's fine, you can go..."

That's all for today, folks, since I have to work in the shop and maybe try and scrounge a couple moments of sleep...

*It's still not official but they needed me in to rip covers off magazines...totally thrilling work, I know.
**Parents, do you know what your kids get up to in the theatre? I swear I'm getting old because some of this kids were right little...well you know...