In celebration of my book on clichés

Hehehe.

Oh Julie. Least you jumped before you were pushed.

So you think you can dance... again?

Well I know I can dance, what about you?

Season 2 is here. Everybody: Season 2 is here. MUMMMMMMMMMMM Season 2 is HEEEEEEEEEREEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Contrived crap if I ever saw it.

And as much as Jason kept saying Season 1 was about setting the benchmark and Season 2 is about raising it, I just can't see how that could possibly happen. Not only do we have recycled contestants (Blow Job, Gee-ahn and Chanel no 5), we have an excess supply of hip hoppers! I like hip hop very much, oh yes I do, but come ON. Lleyton is quaking in his boots about this.

Bonnie had clearly hit the pre-show entertainment bucket of thrills, spills and pills. And Jason is probably going to struggle to keep it in his pants this series as it is like he is looking at a Man in the Mirror when it comes to Danny, the-only-gay-in-the-Broken-Hill-village:

OK ok...

I know that was a bit of a:

Looong bow

But I am very busy at my place of employ and so my creative juices are not flowing like an extra juicy Starburst.

To the performances:

• Contemporary is drawn by Pania. (what kind of name is that - sound likes a Spanish herbed bread). Pania partners up with Ben. The praise is lavished from the judges after their turn on the d-floor to the Presets. As jaded as I am, this made me think about smiling.
• Then we have cha-cha. Emmanuel from a country town near you is partnered with Talia. Emmanuel has some seriously grotesque facial expressions - some moves clearly called for some serious strain, either that or he had passed a smidgen of stool or even worse, he suddenly remembered he left the iron on. This performance was more of a mild boring.
• Ooh lyrical. My fav. We have Lamb and Timomatic... the resident ovine pocket rocket and the-guy-from-Canberra-who-thinks-if-you-soup-up-the-name-Tim-it-sounds-a-hell-of-a-lot-cooler. Next!
• Broadway. Are those band aids over your nipples Amy or am I in an emergency ward? And Dad - bless - he likes to watch. Damien is quite the dark, brooding, boring burger. He'll be out the door in the next two weeks for sure.
• Rumbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Stephen and girl with superfluous hyphen: Ash-leigh. What a contrived performance. What a contrived pash. I could create a steamier scene with a brick!
• A hip to the hop with Penny (aka I always end sentences with an upward inflection) and Charlie (aren't you just adorable?). STARS. Although the contact lenses were a bit OTT. Ugh.
• Lyrical-alicious with Kat and Danny. Clear that these cool cats are the team to beat (c.f. what the judges said about Penstar and Charlstar above). In true predatory style, Kat tried to catch flies on her tongue. Danny was just mmm hmmm mmmm - Jason had to change his underwear afterwards. And then the song - David Lynch meets base reality TV - I like it, I really do.
• YAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNN for the MGMT explosion - ugh. Max and Jesse - OMG WTF FFS etc etc.
• Then we have B(low)J(ob) and his partner Gianne up to do some quick step. It was very good. I must say, I did grow fond of Mr Fellatio in the Top 100 part of Season 1. It's good to have you back kid. No tears please.
• Jazz-a-razz-a with our two Clockwork Orange donned dancers - Chanelle and Loredo. My the film noir cinema industry must be tonight's (un)proud sponsor! So there was no slinky because Ms Perfume kept dropping L on his head - poor lamb. He conked his head several times. Hope there was no permanent damage!

Bottom 3 couples = Max and Jesse; Stephen and Ash-leigh; and Emmanuel and Talia. I think its curtains for M&J. Their performance was downright scary.

No matter how hard you try, you'll never be as scary as me.

Boom shake shake shake the room.

Nadal won and it's all Nic's fault::(

I like the stimulation but otherwise...

Yes, that's right. I liked K-Rudd's stimulation package, particularly the part about it being related to your 2007-08 income. Mmmm yum yum.

Otherwise, life just is blurgh today. I know I should be happy - particularly because I ticked a few items off my list titled 'products I would like to purchase', and of course, the usual things to be happy about - I have wit, I have charm, I have brains, I have legs that go all the way to the floor my friend.

But I can't help but feel that a stranger has f\/cked me up the arse... in fact, I am desperate to check to see if a big fat guy has used a crow bar to smash up my shiny vehicle.

My feelings:


But out of darkness a new dawn will emerge - tomorrow I will be blogging about sunshine and rainbows. Just you wait.

And the Oscar goes to...

That's it. You've got it in one. It's time for some Oscar love:

I have a passion for hot, dripping, smelly refuse.

Not that Oscar. The other one – the Little Golden Guy.

So shiny, so Terminator II like...

As you all know, the 81st Academy Awards are just a few weeks away. Boy I love this time of year – I go out and see a swathe of movies and engage in lively debates about whether the plot is exquisite/bleak/honest and whether the characters are ridiculous/engaging/boring/downright idiotic.

My sheer ability to turn the spotlight on the hard hitting cinematic issues can sometimes put David and Margaret to shame.*

I must say, in this the Year of the Ox, there is very little to be excited about with very few hard-fought contests on the cards. Indeed, most of the major categories have clear frontrunners. This had led to speculation of a downturn in the ratings (might be something more to do with the personality (or lack there of) of the host, Spew Hackman).

Go Ellen, go Ellen, go Ellen!

That said, I think that some categories have two stand outs, which may ­rather ironically ­- split the vote and allow a Steven Bradbury-esque performance to transpire. Or at least I can wish.

Now, firstly a few points of irritation regarding the Academy’s glaring omissions.

1. Why the feck were The Dark Knight, Revolutionary Road and The Wrestler all left off the Best Picture nomination list? And what about Wall-E? Defamer thought it would be a two-horse race between Wall-E and T.D.K. – sorry, but you could not have been further from the truth. Much to the collective dismay of all and sundry.

2. Why the feck was Clint Eastwood snubbed for the chance of a Best Actor gong for Gran Torino? Unbelievable! I suspect that Ken Bruce was involved. And Franco Cozzo. Perhaps even Frank Walker?

3. Why the feck (you are seeing the pattern here, right?) was Chris Nolan left off the Best Director list? The Dark Knight IMHO was beautifully directed. Hollywood - you have a lot to answer for. Nolan is DESERVING. Is there a cataclysmic tear in the space-time continuum that I don’t know about?

What are you insinuating there?

What does warm my cold little heart is that Kate Winslet is more than likely to be the recipient of a gold statue for Best Actress for the very first time. It's hard to believe that not one of her previous performances – particularly, Titanic and Eternal Sunshine... – have been duly recognised for what they are – Oscar-winning! Helen Sea-Hunt and Hilary Skank-Whore saw to it that Kate walked away empty handed, respectively.

But not this time, the lovely Kate will triumph over adversity. She will beat the pants off the two buxom brunettes:

Not without visual appeal

And nudge out the two vivacious veterans:

Insert pithy, jocular comment here...

To become the WINNER:

It’s all so easy for you to say

Time will tell. It always does. Telling time, on the other hand. That's a different story.

Now to the other categories. My tips are underlined. Who I want to win are in italics.

Best actor
· Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor” (Overture Films)
· Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon” (Universal)
· Sean Penn in “Milk” (Focus Features)
· Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
· Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight) (CLINT, CLINT!!)

Best supporting actor
· Josh Brolin in “Milk” (Focus Features)
· Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder” (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
· Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt” (Miramax)
· Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.)
· Michael Shannon in “Revolutionary Road” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)

Best supporting actress
· Amy Adams in “Doubt” (Miramax)
· Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (The Weinstein Company)
· Viola Davis in “Doubt” (Miramax)
· Taraji P. Henson in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
· Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)

Best director
· “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Fincher
· “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Ron Howard (well not really, the LGG should go to Nolan)
· “Milk” (Focus Features), Gus Van Sant
· “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Stephen Daldry
· “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Danny Boyle

Best picture
· “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), A Kennedy/Marshall Production, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
· “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
· “Milk” (Focus Features), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers (should be the THE DARK KNIGHT but amongst this drivel, I choose calcium)
· “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti and Redmond Morris, Producers
· “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, Producer

----------------------------

* Lies, all lies.

I'll get that t-shirt if it's the last thing I do!

Oh yes my friends. I was out running this morning, as you do. And I had a little flashback to the days of extreme yore.

Not the days where I spent my nights completely trashed on Midori illusion shakers or even, off guts on those evil alcoholic slurpees from Frostbites (hey, if you haven't been rolling drunk, screaming your request at the Dan Ryder Band to play a classic Aussie rock song, such as Onion Skin or Run to Paradise, I don't think you've really lived).

But more the days when my education consisted of a force-feeding of BTN, playing that lemonade game (ooh inflation - now that's a big word) and making a little green turtle draw lines on a black computer screen.

If there was a rain delay during P.E. at primary school we had to watch the children's classic - Sammy's Super T-Shirt. What a classy flick that was.

There was Sammy, a tiny pipsqueak of a boy, who wanted desperately to be a sporting superstar.

Pipsqueak is not the preferred nomenclature, height-challenged please.

And there was Marvin, Sammy's BFF, who was helping him train for some long distance run. Sammy had a 'lucky' shirt - with a tiger on it. Much to Sammy's dismay, the t-shirt gets thrown into the window of a science lab by two school bullies where, after some short circuiting and an explosion, it becomes a super t-shirt; giving its wearer extreme physical powers.

Of course the scientists find out about the t-shirt's awesomeness. Sammy and Marvin get chased. But Sammy escapes in the process he jumps over walls, stop cars with his hand, blasts down the road like a rocket, throws a flagpole after pulling it up with ease...

Then something happens where the quoteable quote is duly appropriate: 'where's the cheese?"

Sammy then goes in the race and his t-shirt works well until about the middle of the race. Just when the scientists turn up to take it, the t-shirt's awesomeness wears off completely. But then of course, Sammy wins the race anyway. Off his own bat. Without the super t-shirt.

Look closely - doesn't the podium look like the back of a Collingwood jumper? No?

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I want one. Who's in?

Review - Rainbow Serpent Festival

On the weekend, I went to Rainbow Serpent. Located way out west where the rain don’t fall. That's Beaufort to the locals.

Why did I go? Well let’s just say, the chance of a ‘root’ was just too good to pass up. Thanks Mr Cox.

Snakespsssssssss

Highlights:

* Prolific use of the c-bomb by the HDP crew.

* Nenad’s magical op shop delights.

* Hodgey: What’s the time Mr C\/nt?

* Russell: I accidentally the whole (insert noun here).

* Car with ‘ang’ number plates.

* The NBL ball with the screw.

* Timmehh – particularly his fluoro.

* Ben – aka Egyptian Sun God.

* Amber fluids, water bottles, sprinklers, vanilla vodka (thanks C and C!) and actives of the psycho variety.

* And you know, plenty of good ol' fashioned fun:

Lowlights:

* Prolific use of the c-bomb by the incredibly nasal-voiced (in fact, nasal-enough-to-put-Fran-Fine-to-shame) bogan.

* The Deathstar.

* Sam going head over handlebars on Matt’s candy striped bike. Result? A refashioning of his chest to look like one of those ‘Where is Spot?’ flaps.

* Not really dealing with the extreme dip in temperature at night time. I was not prepared for the microclimate. Brrrrrrr.

* Dirt and its ability to penetrate through everything. Saw dust too. Ewwwwwwww.

* Samvir not making the trip.

And you know what? I think I’ll do it all over again next year.

RSF: 4 and a 1/2 stars.