Went for lunch with Atterin and her brother yesterday. Wonder if I can shag both? Had an attack after that but came home, took some Lorazepam, lied down and was alrite. Still had a jab later on though.

Met Jesica, a really fat chick jus now. Not too shabby really. Wonder if I can have more fat chick sex after Melissa. Coltrane's A Love Supreme was there but 2-disc edition. Probably get it on Monday. Still no Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz though.

I've got tons of new DVDs. Was in a pretty listless state of mind for the past two days and got some stuff to fill my time.

The lame ones first:-

Blades of Glory - Not as funny as I hoped it would be. Talladega Nights is heckuva lot better than this, it had Will Ferrell as well (only got turned to his talents after the impressive Nazi performance in "The Producers" (not the Mel Brooks' version)). Only really funny scene is the kiss without any pretext whatsoever and a rather startling sequence of the "Iron Lotus" skating move where the female skater got decapitated.

Next - Blame it on my PKD fetish as I want to watch all films based on his books/short stories. This one's based on "Golden Man" which I never liked as a short story in the first place. Rather interesting edits as Nic Cage can see two minutes into the future and a rather excellent scene where he examines all the probabilities within that 2 mins but a pretty run-of-the-mill action movie overall. What can you expect from Lee Tamahori (MI 3, XXX 2)? His early Maori film (Once Were Warriors) was a good debut though....

Middling:-

The Last King of Scotland - Pretty interesting fictitious take on General Idi Amin. Some events are real but told from a made-up person. I grew up during the wild stories about his reign in Uganda (cannibalism, mass murders, etc.) and it's pretty interesting to know the man more.

Hot Fuzz - Unfortunately not as funny as "Shaun of the Dead" which had me in stitches. Still, some good gags are in here. Although the main plot, ripped off from "Wicker Man" is not that well executed. Could do without the pointless action at the end also.

Grease - Just to revive my memories of Rydell High. As yet again, treads the same vein as "Saturday Night Fever", where a rewatching is not as good as the memories. But still gives me some thrill as I relived my childhood. A lot of Cindy Bullens and Louis St. Louis songs (on the soundtrack), which are recordings of the original songs from the musical, are not here. Damn!

Excellent:-

The Wild Bunch - Haven't watched this in full. But looks like a pretty violent and sturm and drang revisionist Western from my fast-forwarding previews. Lotsa nude ugly Mexican women as well. Seems like Peckinpah couldn't get the pretty ones to strip (or couldn't afford it).

Polanski's MacBeth - My fren in college was so caught up in the nude scene of Lady MacBeth so decided to give this a go. I'm very familiar with the text (did it in A-Levels literature) and this is an excellent rendition overall. I could do without the stupid "floating dagger" effect, as the absence of a dagger (in the "is this a dagger before me?" soliloquoy) has a better effect. However, could do with some modern music. CCR's Bad Moon Rising would fit it in the arrival of King Duncan scene, Hendrix's Dolly Dagger when Lady Macbeth is planting the daggers on the patsy murderers and of course, Dylan's Idiot Wind, before the "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" soliloquoy. Oh well, jus have to wait til I direct it.

Nuit et Bruillard (Night and Fog) - An absolutely chilling documentary about the Holocaust and gives an indication to what Spielberg said about an accurate filmic depiction, if there ever was one, that it would be confined to a museum (of horrors) and not the general public.

One I haven't see - Total Eclipse - Verlaine and Rimbaud's love affair. This DVD doesn't work well but I don't have high hopes as it was universally panned. Still, I love Leo.

Also some other stuff I got but never blogged about:-

Dylan's Live 64 - pretty nice, friendly, warm, succint performance one Halloween night in 1964. Also has Joan Baez guesting on four songs, which was a nice indication of what things would be like if they worked together on an album. She guested on Live '75 as well but not quite as magical, probably cos they were an item in '64.

Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years - the least melodic of the Frank trilogy but the most musically diverse. There are some painful spots, as on "I'll take New York" where he sings atonally. Otherwise, a damn fine album albeit my least favourite of the trilogy.

Also got three CDs for review - Bjork's Volta (which is quite hard to listen to), Maroon 5's forgot-its-name (lite funky stuff) and Republic of Brickfields (which I tot was ska but is actually reggae (Mento/rocksteady)). Jus asked for Brickfields cos it's my old haunting grounds.

Managed to procure some DVDs, one of them El Topo, which is a damn weird cowboy flick by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Recommended by pugs, no less. De Palma's The Fury is quite nice, though, and a precursor to Cronenberg's Scanners.

Might be going to Genting for Merdeka (Independence) Day celebrations with that hot hotelier chick, Amy Lee.

There's a virus in my ofis computer. Arrrgghhhh!!!! Felt like I've been there before. None of my anti-spam or anti-virus seem to work. Have downloaded a load of anti-virus and none of them seem to work. Also tons of added Windows 98 security features. Must be God's punishment for viewing porn.

This is my latest HAUL:-

1. The Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder

Loved their song on the MOJO Brian Wilson tribute CD so got this.

2. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther

MOJO said it's good. So did Dumbly from the BBS Message board I go to.

3. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer?

Heard a lot about them.

(all three above are import priced)

4. Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock (2 disc edition)

Have some of the songs here on other comps. Consistent and fiery.

5. XTC - Fossil Fuel (Singles 1977-1992)

Just to fill in some gaps after getting Skylarking, Drums and Wires and Oranges and Lemons.

A belated post from a week ago:-

Went to the fangled new store at Bangsar Shopping Village with all the hard-to-get stuff. Got these:-

XTC - Skylarking, Drums and Wires and Oranges and Lemons

Skylarking mainly cos it's a Music Babble (BBS chat forum I used to go) fave but it sounds cool. Drums cos it has Making Plans for Nigel, arguable THE song to accompany my early teenhood (tweenhood?) and Oranges cos it has Chalkhills and Children, a song dubbed very British by Mojo Magazine. They all sound pretty quirky and are psych-pop. Oranges even has a cool Sgt. Pepper-ish cover.

Booker T & The MGs - Best of

Well, I'm a big fan of the Memphis Muscle Shoals sound and an ardent admirer of Steve Cropper as well.The Meters - Best ofBeen meaning to get The Meters. Heard them and think they're incredibly funky and syncopatically weird, cos of the Mardi Gras parade rhythms. If nothing else, it'll improve my rhythmic guitar style considerably.

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

Mainly cos of pugs' (my San Franciscan fren from another chat forum) recommendations. It sounds terrific on the listening post. More claustrophobic than Swordfishtrombones, really.

Funkadelic - The Warner Bros years

Jus wanna get some smoother Funkadelic and also see what Public Enemy is raving about. Jus a bit peeved Eddie Hazel is no longer the resident guitarist.

Only heard them thus far on the listening post. Hope I won't be disappointed. Also ordered Midlake and Of Montreal's, Neutral Milk Hotel's and Apples in Stereo's latest.

(Post reproduced from post on "Only Solitaire", George Starostin's BBS chat forum message board)

Went to a member's meeting in Seremban to discuss what happens after liquidation of the company running the club. Despite what we were briefed on, the crowd seems to be quite well-controlled and peaceful and not rowdy.

Also got Dylan's Live 1975 (Bootleg Series Vol. 5). Not bad. Might be his best live album after all.