The Penis is Evil

Thanks to the wind blowing a gale out there, I've been up since 2.30 am. After reading for a while, I remembered that on some discussion forum I read, someone posted a YouTube clip of an interesting film trailer.

It was for a 1974 film called 'Zardoz' starring Sean Connery and it was quite frankly the weirdest trailer that I had ever seen... so I just had to watch the entire film.

So earlier this morning I downloaded and watched it via iTunes for $4 CND - money well spent, imo!

What a head trip! I can't really describe it.

Just watch the trailer:

As for a review? Ha! I'm still reeling from seeing Sean Connery run around in thigh-high come-fuck-me boots.




It was, at once, one of the worst and best film I've ever seen. If you like movies like that, I highly recommend it.

I can't think of anything else to say, so I'll let Zardoz speak:

"The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was, but the gun shoots death, and purifies the Earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth . . . and kill!"

Ok, since Zardoz brought up the evil penis, I'll mention that there's another penis-related scene that's just hilarious:






It really is the weirdest film that I've seen in a long time. It's great!

(I have no idea what it was about though, lol!)

A bit of light entertainment.

I'm not that much into dance and I don't really like the Kenny Loggins song 'Footloose' but together all edited up with clips from various films over the years... the end result is, imo, entertaining:

Movies Reviews

Ms Toastburner style...

Crazy Heart
OK-ish. A bit dull.

Jeff Bridges was great but obviously the Oscar he won for this role was not really for this role but for his performance in The Big Lebowski. That's my very biased take! :D

Robert Duvall was great too. I wish there had been more of Bridges and Duvall together in the screen as their characters and chemistry were the only really good bits in this film. The rest of the characters were two dimensional and cliched.

Tested my tolerance for country music.


Precious
Pretty good.

Irritating pretend amateur documentary style cinematography.

Fantastically frightening acting from Mo'Nique. She was brilliant.



Into The Wild
I couldn't finish watching this one. Two reasons:

First, it's not a good film if you're hard of hearing. There is a lot of 'narrated thoughts' in this film - mainly from a woman whose voice is hard to hear. And she talks aaaaalll the friggin' time! There's a lot of reading of subtitles while flashback scenes are happening in the film. I had to rewatch so many bits; once to read the narration, once to watch the flashbacks.

Second, it's telling that when the main character was getting beat up by a railway worker, I had the thought, 'give him one for me.' I didn't like the main character at all. I didn't care about him nor find him compelling, just irritating.

That all said, I've just found out that there is a documentary of this Into the Wild tale called 'Call of the Wild' -link- (not the Jack London story). I would be interested in seeing this as it is an interesting story. I'm going to try to tract this down locally.


Harry Potter
I've now seen the first two Harry Potter flics. These were fun. Loved them.

I survived the willy thing. ;-)

Harry Potter and his Nimbus 2000.

This is a post loaded with confessions and ends with a dilemma.

Unrelated photo of a very cool car. Love it!

Confession One:
A few weeks ago I read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I have since read The Chamber of Secrets and I'm now just getting into The Prisoner of Azkaban.

I purchased these three books a few years ago for a dollar when a local bookshop went tits up. I was actually intending to donate the books to a charity. Somehow I didn't.

Then a few weeks ago I was in the mood to read something light and easy and as I scanned my bookshelves I kept coming back to Harry Potter.

Confession Two:
I've really enjoyed what I've read.

It's not intellectually challenging nor thought provoking but it does take me back to my childhood and the discovery that I could go on adventures through reading. Very simple and very nice.

Confession Three:
I've seen Harry Potter's willy.

It happened long ago when I was reading an article about 'child stars' and how some manage the transition to serious adult actor and how some (most) do not. Daniel Radcliffe was presented as a current example of going about it the right way, ie, do some serious theatre and get your lad out.

When I saw the the nudie shots that the article had mentioned, I thought that they were rather arty and sexy and that he's an attractive young man. And never thought about it again... until a couple of days ago when I rented the DVD of Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone.

Dilemma:
How do I watch wee Harry Potter after seeing what I've seen without feeling like a right perv?

;-)

Polytechnique

I briefly mentioned this film in a previous post and I've finally just watched it.

It's not a feel good movie by any means. It's dark and meditative and excellent.

It's based upon the 'Montreal Massacre.'

More info about the film here.

Worth seeing, imo.


Here's the trailer:

Souper Sunday

I make various versions of 'spicy veggie tofu' soup several times a week. I usually use a nice veggie stock, miso or a good Japanese soup base and I add soba noodles or brown rice. For veggies, I just use what's around and sometimes I fry the tofu first just for kicks and top it off with green onions and toasted sesame seeds.

I also do a 'OMFG I'm starving' version using the old earthquake preparedness stash of Itchybum noodles and as minimal cooking work as possible. Here it is:



Not too bad considering how quick it is. My fancy version is much nicer but some days, like today, I needed the 'OMFG I'm starving' version.

You too can eat it:

1. Stove on - high.
2. Water into the pot - about 2-3 cups.
3. Chop some onion - throw it in the water.
4. Same with a carrot and a clove of garlic.
5. Add the MSG-laden stock powder that comes with the Ichiban noodles.
6. Dice up some tofu, chuck it in.
7. This should be boiling pretty good by now.
8. ...meanwhile, drizzle a spoonful of sesame oil in your bowl.
9. Break up the noodles a bit while still in the package and toss 'em in.
10. And then the frozen peas.
11. Let it all go for about three mins.
12. Spoon some hot chili sauce into the mix.
13. Off goes the stove and pour the lot into your bowl. Yum.
    

Tasty, quick, easy and though not as healthy as my usual version, it's pretty ok nutritionally.

And today I remembered a little feature on my cheapo point and shoot... so I made a gritty documentary.




;-)

Play D'oh.

I was practicing a variation of mindfulness meditation this morning called the white room. It's similar to many other mindfulness meditations but with a different (mental) prop.

Basically, you get comfy and chilled out then imagine your consciousness as a white room with two doors; an entrance and an exit. You then observe your thoughts entering the room and you just watch them, identify them, be aware of them and then watch them exit... thought after thought, without judging them or reacting to them, just 'awarenessing' them.

So I was doing this mediation this morning and thoughts came and went but one thought entered my white room and did not leave. It was the memory of an excellent animation by Jan Svankmajer. I tried to just 'be there' and be aware that I was feeling like I really wanted to see the film again... Stay Marnie... staaaaay, staaaay... fuck this! I just had to stop meditating and find the film on YouTube, haha. ;-) If you watch the film, you'll see why.

Anyways...

Do yourself a favour and watch this wonderful film:



Cool, eh?

A sexy little film.

This is one of my most favourite films ever by one of my most favourite film makers ever, Jan Svankmajer with a little squiggle over the S.

It's sweet, sensual, comic, tragic and wonderfully unique. I find it quite sexy (sad ending though) but those with certain dietary choices might find it offensive. Enjoy:

Still Life - film

I watched a very good film last night called Still Life. It's a Chinese film about two different people looking for their long-lost spouses in a time of mass social relocation. It takes place in a town on the Yangtze River called Fengjie which is going through the process of being submerged with the building of the Three Gorges Dam. It's a very slow, meditative film. I would love to see this on a big screen.

The plot is simple yet there are layers of subtext going on about relationships, the landscape, the dismantling of a town, etc that are interesting to think about. One of the layers, however, is most interesting and it kept me up in the middle of the night wondering. It involves a building suddenly taking off like a rocket. In a film that was otherwise very much right on the ground and real, this sort of grabs your attention. Well, mine. Anyways, I liked the filum.

Here's a trailer for the film:



In true Marniestyle, I've had the DVD rented out and it's about 5 days overdue, which will likely cost me 10 bucks or so, and as I was searching for the trailer for this post I stumbled across the whole bloody film on Youtube for free, lol. :-)

So grab a bowl of noodles and enjoy.