intertube moofies

Because we are queen of media, and because our local video shop sucks arse, I am considering an online DVD ordering arrangement. It’s terribly old school – DVDs coming in the mail. Just like ordering seeds from a catalogue (my favourite thing ever), and I guess as soon as the internet becomes a superhighway rather than a single lane (covered) central Queensland highway it’ll be superseded by downloads. But for now, it’s about the most exciting thing I can imagine.
So does anyone use any of these things? We’ve looked atquicklix and bigpond, but quickflix is winning at the moment. Once you get to the $36 per month plan, you get unlimited DVDs per month, 3, 4 or 5 at a time. It’s a bit cheaper on Bigpond (especially as we have a Telstra phone account for our internet), but Bigpond don’t do the unlimited DVDs and they have some slightly dodgy small print. Both offer free trials.
I’m not sure which account we should get. I’m a massive DVD renter, so I think there’s definitely the potential for unlimited DVDs. When we had a halfway decent DVD shop, I’d get DVDs out every other day – 2 and 3 at a time. So we’re looking at a family who’d hire about 10 DVDs a week, possibly 5, and that’s about 20 a month. That’s $46 on Bigpond or $36 on quickflix. The issue would be how many you can have at a time – only 3? Would 4 be better? It’d depend on your turn around time and how good you were at putting them in the mail. We’re weak on returning DVDs round here.
And you have to keep 20 DVDs in your list to be hired on quickflix. There are no overdue fees, but you are paying for the service, monthly, so you’re losing money if you don’t return DVDs.
… I guess we’d take advantage of the films (especially the older, harder to get arty ones and others that I think of as ‘weeklies’ – musicals, classics, foreign, etc), and would really benefit from the telly. It’s easier to get through multiple discs of a telly show than multiple movies, because you watch them in 30 minute, 45 minute and 1 hour blocks, rather than committing to one and a half hours at a time. That’s good for me because I like to watch an episode of something over lunch, to take a break from work.
So, does anyone use any of these services? Which? What’s good about them?

let’s say no to perforations

Three interstate trips in one month. No more, thanks. Conference, christmas and a funeral. Brisvegas was interesting and I quite liked seeing it – it’s changed, I’ve changed, so it’s kind of nice that we could get together again after seven years and find that we had lots to talk about and quite liked each other.
Acclimating to mega-humidity? Tick.
Family visited, without incident? Tick.
Old mates visited. Tick.*
It is hot today, and I have cleverly booked in an appointment with the doctor for another ear inspection. It’s becoming an annual thing. Well, something I do a few times a year, actually. I have had enough of not being able to hear properly – it makes me irrationally furious, inciting Shouting, Stamping and Offensive Language. So I will have them irrigated today at 3. When the ambient temperature is about 40 degrees C. I’m hoping it will soften the wax and aid its removal.
I have plans for films to see, and I have started thinking about redoing the thesis. I have decided that it will now be known as The Book rather than The Thesis. I will start thinking about fonts immediately, as that is obviously the most important part of the process. Pav articulates my current feelings about the project quite nicely. As an ob-con type person, proof reading and editing is really the best place to site my natural abilities and interests. Serious Tidying will commence in a few hours, once this post is written, a cup of tea made, and a little clothes mending completed.
What fillums have I seen lately? Well, one of the most pleasing was Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers. I hated this when it came out, but now, after a few years of Howard government, it makes a lot more sense. It’s also part of a recent spate of early 90s sci-fi fillum delightfulness, after we watched Total Recall the other night. In discussion with a fellow nerd yesterday afternoon, I realised that they’re both actually Verhoeven fillums, and that’s probably why they’re both so wonderfully specrappular. Having read this type of SF as a Young Person, first discovering the Adult part of the family bookshelves (at about the age of 11, when carefully scanning the Adult stuff for the least hint of sauciness), these two fillums really capture the mood of terrible authors like Peirs Anthony. It’s lovely, teenage stuff, and absolutely low-brain. So that’s a tick tick and a V.G. from us.
ITMFL.jpg
Last night on SBS I also stumbled over In the Mood for Love, a Kar Wai Wong film that I absolutely love. I keep hoping their relationship will end well, but it never does, no matter how many times I watch the film. I love the obvious stuff – the colours, the framing of shots, the slo-mo, the soundtrack, the almost-love-affair ness of it.
Let’s have a look at a couple of PR shots:
ITMFL2.jpg
ITMFL3.jpg
And just in case that’s not enough, here’s the trailer:

I think I might have a Thing for Tony Leung. My Thing for Maggie Cheung continues.
This new Thing is only fuelled by the immanent arrival of Ang Lee’s latest film, Lust, Caution, which I’ve heard has heaps of hot sex, which I know will be an absolute visual feast, and which I’m terribly excited about. I’m thinking about special preview sessions on Friday day. It also stars Leung, which is very nice, and Joan Chen, who I also love (you might remember me crapping on about this stuff a little while ago in this post). I have rewatched Lee’s Sense and Sensibility in preparation. Because no one does suppressed lust and caution like Austen.
The nicest part about catching this film last night was discovering it’s part of an SBS series screenings of films by the cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The worst part was realising I’d missed Hero. Dumplings is on Wednesday 23rd January. I’m not sure if the others have already been on or not, but the SBS search function on their site sucks a bit, and I can’t be bothered figuring it out. Guess I’ll have to go to the video shop. Oh wait, our video shop SUCKS, so that won’t work. Guess I’ll be the last kid on the block to get into it, and use Netflix/Quickflicks.
Additionally, I also missed the first episode of Skins, a new series by the doods who made Shameless. And that’s a big poo.
Well, think of me as I make it by PT (it’s probably too hot to ride) to the doctor this afternoon, and pray for my ear drum. Let’s say no to perforations.
*twice in a year! Dang, we’ll have nothing left to talk about next time!

want

fcjb.jpg

And, because it’s not all want, I’m quite enjoying the Loose Marbles CD the lovely D sent me. Check out their version of ‘When I get low I get high’ (yes, a drug reference, yes one of the bestest songs evah). You can hear and watch them here, playing one of my favourite songs, ‘Four or Five Times’, heading towards the version I most prefer (a la the McKinney’s Cotton Pickers). The lyrics?
Four or Five times – McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, 1928
[scat]
I’m never about,
??
Just keep a-strolling,
Keep the ball a-rolling,
This isn’t a boast
But what i like most
Is to have someone true
Who will love me too,
four or five times.
Four or five times
Four or five times
there is delight in doing things right
four or five times
[four or five times]
Maybe I’ll sigh,
Maybe I’ll cry,
And if I die,
I’m gonna try…
four or five times.
We like to play
We like to sing
We like to go scedadilah do
Four or five times.
Bibop one
Bibop two
bibop three
Didahdiladee
Four or five times
[scat]
Yes, sure, ok!
What?
Yes. ! !
Four or five times,
Four or five times,
There is delight,
In doing things right,
Four or five times.
There’s a bunch of scatting in there I couldn’t transcribe, but you get the point.
Oh, and yes, it’s all about double entendre, yet again.
I love this song a whole lot, especially this version, though I never get to play it (too old, too fast, to obscure for mainstream lindy hoppers). I do play a pretty fabulous 1930s version by Woody Herman and his Orchestra which always really rocks the dancers. It’s a lot straighter and safer and very lindy hoppable, but still lots of fun.
There’s a version by Jimmie Lunceford (c 1935) which gets a fair bit of play in Melbourne, and I do prefer it, musically, though it’s lower energy than the Herman version. I play the Herman far more often than the Lunceford version. I also have a fully sick version by Lionel Hampton, which I never seem to play. I have no idea why not – it’s freakin’ awesome.

i have nothing to do

and no energy even for made up jobs. It’s 11.13 and I’ve been up for hours already. The less I have to do, the earlier I get up so the more time I can spend sitting (or wandering) about, staring aimlessly into space or blindly tapping my way through the internet. I keep thinking ‘it’s cooler – go out and take advantage of it’ but I have no motivation.
I really don’t have anything to do. Well, I have a book review to do – but it’s not due til March. I haven’t read the book, but I’ve begun it and pretty much know how it’ll turn out. I have thought about making a conference paper into a journal article, but I lack inspiration. Or motivation. The thesis needs to become a book, quite soon, but you know what? I just can’t be arsed. Sewing? Hm, whatever. Fiddling with my music? Nah. The garden is weeded and mulched and happy on its own. The house isn’t too dirty.
Smells like post-holiday dumps.
We had a very nice time in Hobart. Nice weather (mostly), nice visit, nice festivus. We have to go up to Brisvegas for a funeral this week, which won’t be nice, but hopefully it’ll be ok. I haven’t been back in seven years. I’m not really looking forward to it. As The Squeeze says, We Don’t Go Back.
I have no plans for this year. I do have some sessional teaching lined up, possibly some lecturing, but I lack enthusiasm.
I have been doing some serious long stitching lately. Is that what it’s called? Where you do looong stitches across the canvas. Feels like cheating to me. I’m a tapestry person (when I can be arsed with canvas work), and all those long stitches feel like cheating. There are a couple of fancier knots and things, but still. We’ve been watching Hornblower DVDs compulsively since christmas. Dad, The Squeeze and I would take over the lounge room and giant telly and watch them in Hobart. We brought them home with us and lay on the couch watching a welshy annunciate his way through the Napoleonic wars through that latest hot spell. We have a bunch of Sharpes to get us through this weekend’s heat.
I’ve also been watching some other DVDs. Got Shameless season 1 from The Squeeze, and it’s great. All watched, though. Good thing there are four seasons (I think). Have also made my way through three Spike Lee films lately – Clockers, Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever. Clockers was the only one I hadn’t seen, and it was ok. Bit preachy, really. I know that’s Lee’s thing, but I prefer the sermon cloaked with a little story telling. There were some nice wanky narrative tipups in there, but not all that amazing, really. But I do like Lee’s fillums. Crooklyn is my favourite, though. Of course. Though I quite liked Summer of Sam.
We saw Darjeeling Limited at the Kino this week. It was neat. I love that man’s fillums. I love them very much. We also saw The Golden Compass in Hobart. It was neat. We have plans to see I Am Legend, but I am suspecting some serious crap. That actor sucks bums and I bet there are some failures to explain basic historical and practical points. Electricity? Rotting bodies? A man who has to explore and hunt through a city using a treadmill to keep fit? Excuse me, mate, but subsistence living will strip the pounds from you to the point where you’ll be too busy for moping about on a treadmill. Is anyone else thinking Z For Zacharia here?
Speaking of which, what was it with all those fucking horrible post-apocalyptic, WWII, holocaust books we read at school? As a keen reader I was either thoroughly bored or thoroughly traumatised by the crap we read at school. Why not a nice, encouraging book about happy things? Maybe they figured all we northern suburb, working class public school types needed a bit of buck-up-man-ship.
Ok, so back to me and my malaise. Is malaise the right word? I feel slothful. Lazy. Unproductive. Apathetic. Guilty for having nothing to do. No serious work on the horizon. And any way, what should I research now? What should I write about? I really can’t think of anything. It’s like I’ve used up all my creativity with that PhD. I guess I’m looking forward to teaching – I always learn a lot and get all inspired and creative with my teaching. Pity it doesn’t leave me enough time to write anything. Guess I’d better get over that quick smart, though.
I am a miserable old poo. Guess I should get out and get some exercise. Give myself a bit of a happy endorphine injection. Bah humbug.

acma’s report on families, gender and media technology

I’m sorry I don’t have time to write something clever, but I thought some of you would be interested in this. It’s ACMA’s “Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007” report. I’d seen a few news articles about it, but have only just had time (because it’s boxing day and I’m home alone while the family are out buying stuff) to actually look through the report. If you can’t be bothered reading the whole report, check out the the press release for an overview.
There are, of course, some concerns about the sample size, etc, though it’s presented as a having used a representative sample (only 750 responses, but that’s actually not too bad, considering), I’m concerned about the issues of class etc tied up in the sampling process.
But if you read the report, there are some interesting points:

  • Around 70 per cent of girls aged 14–17 have a MySpace or similar profile,
    compared with 50 per cent of boys.
  • Almost two-thirds of girls use a mobile phone, but less than half of boys do.

Interesting stuff there, about gender and media use. My interest is caught by the fact that girls are more likely to use technology with an emphasis on communications. I do think, though, that it’d be worth exploring the communicative, collaborative potential of gaming. Apparently boys spend more time gaming than doing things like MySpace, and one of the definite appeals of things like WOW is the option of real time, collaborative play. Which of course, involves real time, collaborative problem solving and communicative ‘work’. Which is, of course, one of the functions of ‘gossip’ – real time, collaborative communicative work where participants explore potential ‘solutions’ or ‘answers’ or ‘reasons’ for interpersonal ‘problems’ (ie ‘maybe he cheated on you with her because she puts out?’).
I also wonder about the significance of literacy. Young people make greater use of online technologies as they get older – as their literacy skills improve. And I wonder about girls’ preference for text-based media. Is there perhaps a correlation between girls’ literacy and their social media use?
It’s all very interesting and definitely worth exploring.
The report itself has some problems – the same comments about ‘watching violence on telly making kids violent, which is actually quite difficult to substantiate. Violence is far more complex an issue than can simply accounted for by watching violence on telly. So, you might be more likely to ‘use’ violence on telly (whether for models for your own violence, or as inspiration or energiser) if you’re already living in a violent home, if you’ve had experience with violence, or if you’re otherwise vulnerable. So there’s a confluence of factors contributing to incidences of violence, and it’s inaccurate to say that ‘watching violence on telly makes you violent’. So this report doesn’t seem to have taken that into account.
There are also a few, similar problems about ideology and lifestyle – still the idea that ‘technology has an effect’ or that there’s a causal relationship between media technologies and social behaviour. We don’t approve of that, over here in the lefty cultural studies media studies feminist corner.