Archive for the ‘Film & Video’ Category

Mini garage sale

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

I’m having an online clear out of my DVD collection at Trade Me – Listings from bignoseduglyguy – a tiny selection including a Cold War classic, a documentary, a Russian horror, an Iranian drama and more besides.

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I’m calling it a garage sale as the money will be used to offset an increase in parking fees I have to pay at work.

Family member appears on local Radar

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

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With SWMBO out at a school meeting, the eldest out with friends and the middle two at dance rehearsals, it was just me and the youngest at home tonight.  Eschewing the usual drivel on the TV, we settled down to watch Radar’s Patch which we have on loan from the great ‘free to borrow’ selection at our local library.

The show, which won Best Information/Lifestyle Programme at the 2010 Qantas Film and Television Awards, follows Te Radar‘s humourous but informative attempt to live sustainably on a typical Kiwi quarter-acre section using methods he picks up from those he visits during the show.  As the house and section is just a few kilometres from our house, we enjoyed some quality couch time watching a few episodes and spotting local landmarks.

Halfway through episode five, as Radar is filmed enjoying the local Santa Parade that rumbles down our High Road every December, we each did an open-mouthed double-take.  We reversed the DVD and played it again and, sure enough, there with her friends yelling ‘Merry Christmas’ from the church float, is the same girl sitting next to me!

A great way to end a lovely ‘dad and daughter’ evening.

And In News Elsewhere…

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

…two things that caught my eye.

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I am slowly working through the shorts films that make up Ed’s Story.  Ed Dobson is a pastor who is recording his reflections on living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease.  These include gentle yet enlightening insights on hope, healing and forgiveness and more besides.

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For all those who have found their IT knowledge called upon by family and friends at some time or another, Mike Lacher’s story will ring bells and tickle funny bones.

The Feds are in town!

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

A day of variety.  Awoke to learn that we seem to have some naughty neighbours.  After a quick tea, hooked up and checked over our trailer before taking it to the vehicle inspection station for its periodic WOF.

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Took a bunch of stuff to read as the queue is always a long one on Saturdays.  Upon arriving, I was surprised to see that there was no queue – until I remembered that this is the weekend of the annual local hot rod show.  While the roads were choked with cars as always, clearly no-one was getting theirs tested, judging by the large number failing checks at the police check point down the road.

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Back home in record time and after fruit salad and coffee, I set to and tackled the ‘honey, do!’ list of tasks requested by SWMBO.  For the record this included:

  • Resurrecting the non-functioning turbine head on our Dyson vacuum cleaner.  Having fiddled with, disassembled, reassembled, tested, disassembled again, disassembled some more, cleaned, dried & re-lubricated the brush & drive components and reassembled again, I fixed the thing. I take my hat off to James Dyson and his design engineers – not only is the vacuum the best we’ve ever had, it is user serviceable and therefore flies in the face of the ‘cheaper to buy a new one’ mentality so prevalent these days.
  • Repairing the grip of the expensive salon-grade hairdryer.
  • Glueing a Dr Scholl’s heel file back together.

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After providing a quick lesson in how to use sandpaper to a crafty daughter making a wooden wall hanging, I jumped on the Brompton to run last night’s DVDs – The Tree of Life and Oranges and Sunshine – back to the store before heading to the library to scoop up a requested book for SWMBO and Brad Meltzer’s The Book of Lies for me.

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Following lunch, I took the smallest and a friend to see The Adventures of Tintin. Great fun and technically brilliant but always felt like it was tailored to favour the 3D version with heaps of in-your-face action and, with its linear plot and set pieces, maximise the spin-off game potential.

Later, after a brief read, a longer nap and a fish supper, we decamped to the home of Canasta-playing friends on a whim when SWMBO decided she wanted to learn to play the game.  Whether it was because I’m tired, was sober due to being the designated driver or simply not the most motivated of card players when it comes to longer games, I struggled from the first hand.  Even with the patient coaching of my mate Paul, I found it hard to match the enthusiasm and growing skill of SWMBO who was under the tutelage of Paul’s wife Tracey.  That said, we somehow won.

Back home and with a glass of red wine consumed, I’m off to bed and to delve into the darkness of Adam.

The Beatbox Nativity

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

Contemporary yet scriptural, dear reader, I give you TyTe and The Beatbox Nativity.

and, for those who like their greatest story ever told live and unplugged, the Nativity Rap live and on location.

TyTe (aka The Reverend Tyte) is a vicar at Uplyme Church in England and was a professional beatboxer before being ordained seven years ago.

 

 

Dinner Ladies

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Dinnerladies

 

I’m not scared. I’ve already had three near death experiences. Do you remember Bren? Oh, no, you weren’t there. The last one there was a light at the end of a long, dark passage and Dusty Springfield was beckoning to me with a lovely smile….turned out i’d passed out in the Mersey Tunnel with a drag act.

from Petula’s living will video in the last episode of ‘Dinnerladies’.

Victoria Wood’s words and Julie Walter’s delivery – few can match that combination for laughs and pathos.

Saturday Night At The Movies

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

As the father of four females and the husband of a fifth, my ability to influence prime time viewing in our house is somewhat limited, to say the least.

At one end of the televisual spectrum is surfeit of SPCA inspector / model / singer / designer / cook / doctor / customs dog handler reality fare.  At the other end of that spectrum is the seemingly unending geyser of imported rites of passage, ‘good vs evil’ movies.  These invariably feature a multi-cultural teenage dance crew/cheerleader squad/football team (who are secret either witches or superheroes) battling to save the world from sparkly vampires, t-shirtless werewolves or plain ol’ baddies aided by bespectacled boys, talking animals and cameos who should know better.

It is for this reason that, while reading this week’s TV Guide just now, I laughed out loud upon reading the following superbly acerbic movie review.

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Clearly, I am not alone in my misery but I think the reviewer’s pain threshold is higher then mine, as I would definitely question the two-stars (FAIR) rating.

Three Dollars

Sunday, October 16th, 2011

Three dollars

Just watched Robert Connolly’s Three Dollars and really enjoyed it.  The 6.2 IMDB rating belies a great Australian movie threaded with themes that many will identify with and characters that you care about played.  For Alfred Hitchcock fans or those who just love a nod by one director to another, there’s even a brief homage to North by Northwest to make you smile.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Monday, January 17th, 2011
Today, the 17th of January, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  The following presentation, posted by Matt Peyton at The Bluevine Collective ponders the ongoing legacy of King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail through words and video.
The Bluevine Collective is new to me but I have enjoyed what I have read there recently.

Eric & Ernie and Coronation Street

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

Eric & Ernie

In the last 48 hours, I have had the pleasure of watching Eric & Ernie and The Road To Coronation Street, a pair of biographical dramas about two of the most successful UK TV shows of all time. Laced with Northern working class humour that had me laughing out loud. Without a doubt, these are two of the best dramas I have seen – and that’s from someone who loved The Morecombe & Wise Show but never watched an episode of Coronation Street in his life!

Both were well written, superbly produced and played by exceptional casts; a rare combination these days, it seems.  Daniel Rigby and Bryan Dick delivered stand out performances as the eponymous Eric and Ernie, with Victoria Wood and Jim Moir providing the backstory of Eric’s Mum and Dad.  While The Road To Coronation Street had a stellar cast of familiar talent from the last 30 years of British TV, it was Jessie Wallace, a former soap actress playing a soap actress from the preceding generation, who convincingly stole the show as Pat Phoenix.

There is very little that makes me homesick but the quality of these dramas does make me wonder what else I might be missing on the television in Blighty.

The Road To Coronation Street