Vito

stillreal.mp3

I just recorded this directly from the YouTube video using a (free) program called Audacity, Audacity is primarily a tool for editing audio files although I have heard of bands using it to arrange entire tracks. It has a lot of interesting functions to distort and generally make your samples sound really strange.

Anybody had any thoughts regarding our unifying concept? Is "it's still real" acceptable or is it a bit too wrestling-y?

Bumping for nightshifters and tomorrows dayshifters.

A couple of years ago I tried to set up, for lack of a better term, a musicians collective. The idea was to assemble a group in which musicians and aspiring musicians from all different backgrounds and skill levels could work together to create something good. I'd hoped that after the primary project was completed that smaller splinter groups would form and go on to create works of their own and so on and so on, obviously I never achieved that goal but the concept has remained on my mind ever since.

Now I know that there are a few musicians (aspiring and otherwise) on the UKFF, some people aspire to make music but lack the technical knowhow, the confidence or the inspiration to do it by themselves, that's why I'm proposing a UKFF Musicians Collective in which we all make music together, either individually, in pairs or in groups. We can exchange ideas and expertise and inspire each other to persevere and actually do something instead of wishing we were doing something.

So what I suggest, and this is just a suggestion, is that we begin with a concept, for the sake of argument let's say that it's the infamous

That's the idea I've got and at the moment it's nothing more than an idea. If you want to have a go or pitch some ideas you may do so now!

Two ten year olds killing a two year old = String 'em up.

Someone (probably) in their early to mid twenties executing two ten year olds = Justice

Delightful hypocrisy.

Why do I get the feeling that this is going to end with a reenactment on CrimeWatch?

I don't really understand your complaint. The parts of the movie which were supposed to be part of the documentary the film crew were filming were shot in a completely different style to the movie itself and appeared as cutscenes, if your complaining about who shot the shootout then what about every scene that occurs before they go on the voyage and decide to film it? It's a movie and the invisible camera films the actors acting, I don't really see the problem.

The scene features Bill Murray wearing nothing but speedos and a dressing gown shooting a pirate in the neck with a pistol, don't you think you're over analyzing it somewhat?

I want to believe that Garfield was one of those things he did because the studio offered him a tidy sum of money and also because it was voice work he wouldn't have to travel too far or stay away from home. That's what gets me through.

For some reason I always find Bill's roles to be very authentic, some people say he's a joker, others say he's a miserable prick, it's said that comedians often carry a secret pain behind their deceptive demeanor and I think that a lot of that comes out in his roles. A lot of people disliked Lost In Translation for various reasons, some criticisms were valid, most weren't, but I felt that Bill's role in that particular film was about as sincere as you can possibly get. Here's a guy that's rapidly approaching sixty, he has a boring life and a wife who doesn't give a shit, when suddenly he meets a girl half his age on holiday and is totally rejuvenated by the adventures they have together. Obviously I can't relate to being a pensioner but I can certainly can relate to feeling downtrodden and searching for an escape, even a temporary one. Zissou was the same, an aging man goes on one last adventure while trying to fix the mistakes he made in the past, again it's realistic problems that you as a viewer can relate to.

I've often wondered what criteria Bill uses when he chooses roles.

I completely agree. After seeing the stop motion animation and the massive open sets with people all moving simultaneously in Zissou I was expecting to see the same sort of thing in Tenenbaums too, but was pleasantly surprised when they didn't 'feel' the same at all. So far the only similarities are Wes' choice of cast members and the sad endings. Is it possible to watch the "I wonder if he remembers me" scene at the end of Zissou and not be moved? I doubt it.

Rushmore is just as good, though Life Aquatic still remains my favourite. I got the three of them in a box set for around a tenner online.

If it's "The Wes Anderson Collection" then I too brought that, got it for eight quid which isn't bad for five discs.

Before the snow hit I brought a couple of DVD's from the Play.com sale. I brought; Ed Wood, Ghost Dog, Broken Flowers, The Fountain, The Hellraiser Trilogy, Coffee & Cigarettes, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Some of you may have noticed that fifty percent of those titles feature Bill Murray in some fashion, this was intentional.

Last night I watched The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, I'd heard the name Wes Anderson mentioned a few times in the past but I thought they were talking about the guy who directed Event Horizon, as it turns out that was Paul Anderson so I was half right. Having never seen any of Wes Anderson's films I didn't know what to expect from this, I really only brought it because of Bill Murray as I'd recently decided to buy all of his movies because, simply, Bill Murray is amazing and he deserves my money. As it turns out this film was great, in fact I enjoyed it so much I watched it twice in the same day. In this movie Murray plays a famous Oceanographer named Steve Zissou who after watching his best friend be devoured by a beast Zissou christens "the Jaguar shark" decides to go on one last voyage to hunt down and kill the creature. Along the way Zissou meets a young man named Ned (played by Owen Wilson) who may or my not be his son. This is a comedy which tugs on the heartstrings, there are some exceptionally funny scenes and dialog and unlike a lot of directors Anderson understands how to film an emotional scene without coming across as manipulative or overly sentimental.

Tonight I watched The Royal Tenenbaums, another Wes Anderson film. Under normal circumstances seeing the combination of Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller on the front cover of a film would be enough to make me recoil in disgust, thankfully I had enough faith in Anderson as a storyteller to make this potential disaster work... and I was not disappointed. I loved every second of this film and if I hadn't started watching this so late in the day I'd have watched it a second time. The story revolves around the Tenenbaum family, a family of gifted people who despite experiencing success in their younger days have ultimately become failures as the years progressed. When the estranged father figure, Royal Tenenbaum, who the now grown up Tenenbaum children hate for various legitimate reasons, reappears on the scene and reveals that he has stomach Cancer he faces the challenge of winning his family back by making amends for his past mistakes. Despite sounding like a generic family comedy drama this worked because the characters remain grounded in reality, for example Ben Stiller plays a father of two young boys who is so traumatised by the recent death of his wife in a plane crash that he constantly tries to wrap his sons in cotton wool, I find Ben Stiller nauseating at the best of times so it was refreshing to see him playing a real human being for a change. As with The Life Aquatic this was very funny with a slight dash of heartache, fortunately the film ends with one of the strongest jokes so you're left on a high when the credits roll.

Two great films, one great director, tomorrow comes Rushmore which I hope can measure up.

I Am Legend

I wanted to see this at the cinema but couldn't be arsed to go, fortunately it's not a very good film so it all worked out in the end. Will Smith's performance was excellent, he played his role of the last human left on Earth better than I would have expected and you could believe that he was genuinely riddled with guilt and slowly losing his grip on reality. I'm aware that this film is based on a novel and unfortunately I haven't read said novel so I don't know if the plot holes came from the source material or were added in by a Hollywood writer but by the time the end credits rolled I felt like I'd only watched half a movie. I was also angry that they broke the "pets don't die" rule, having lost a treasured family dog this year I really didn't need to see that scene.

Vito: Any chance you know anything regarding the 'Beep' sample? I've just read via the youtube comments that it was added by Kode9 to dissuade bootleggers from ripping the track... But it goes so well with the tune that I refuse to believe it.

What am I, his mother?

I know nothing about that track other than it being really good. Burial's still got it! Can't wait for the second album.

Back On-Topic:

Today I have been mostly listening to

SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read

This is how all shitty threads should be dealt with.

The leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin, found himself the victim of an extraordinary attack from his own supporters last night following his controversial appearance on the BBC's Question Time.

 

Lee Barnes, the BNP's legal officer, accused Griffin of "failing to press the attack". Barnes complained on his personal website that Griffin "should have stood up to these whining, middle-class hypocrites that use the race card for self-enrichment

According to the BNP the only people who belong here in England are the "ethnically British", that refers to white people who were born in this country. If you support the BNP then you support the deportation of every non-white and every white foreigner regardless of how long they've lived here or how much they've contributed to this country.

There's a sadistic side of me that would love to see what England would be like with no doctors, no taxi drivers, no street cleaners and no restaurants. I wonder who Nick Griffin would blame when England became a third world country overnight.

Why do the British Nazi's hate Nick Griffin and the BNP?

Nick Griffin and the higher-ups in the BNP are constantly seen wearing black jackets over white shirts in public. To wear a black jacket (which represents the filthy negro immigrant criminal) over the white shirt (which represents the noble white man) promotes the wrong sort of message and in the eyes of a few makes a mockery of the whole white supremacist movement.

Agreed. This weeks QT was, in my view, one of the most important broadcasts in British television history. To put the leader of a far-right political party on taxpayer funded television was an incredibly bold move and we're lucky that Griffin came across as an uneducated buffoon and not the colourful and charismatic character that BNP voters believe he is. As long as this country remains a Democracy the BNP, especially with the backing of one million voters, have a right to air their views, to deny them of that is to admit that freedom of speech really only applies to those with "acceptable views", which is more dangerous than the BNP could ever hope to be.

I think it's terrible that only eight million people bothered to watch this weeks Question Time, especially when you consider that last years X-Factor finale pulled in almost double those numbers. I don't consider myself to be politically active but in my view having Nick Griffin on the show was the right decision as he was finally given the opportunity to show what an ignorant fool he and his ilk truly are. I was disappointed that so much time was wasted discussing irrelevant matters from the past but I was relieved that Griffin clearly lacked the intelligence or wit to counter any of the accusations that were slung his way.

Dimbles: "The BNP are opposed to same sex marriages"

Griffin: "No we're not opposed to same sex marriages"

Dimbles: "Well on your website it says you are"

Griffin: "It doesn't say that on our website at all"

Dimbles "Yes it does because I'm quoting directly from it now"

Griffin "..................Yes it does say that on our website but...."

(Studio guest off camera tries to stifle her laughter).

This is exactly the reason why undesirables like the BNP should get TV time.

Third on the list was Punisher: War Zone which wasn't as fun as I was expecting. The violence was inventive and Dominic West was awesomely over-the-top, but it felt a little rote. Sure I wasn't expecting Shakespeare but it just seemed a little dull. Props to the inventive murdering though, I nearly cheered when Punisher wasted the Parkour guys, and there was plenty of fists and chair legs put through faces to keep things interesting.

Punisher:Warzone is everything an action film should be, a ridiculously high body count and dozens of fantastic novelty deaths. Did you notice how every foreigner in the film fluctuation beween their supposed nationality and Irish? The Jamaican Parkour guy alternated between Jamaican and Irish and the Russian mob leader started speaking with a heavy Russian accent only to then switch to Irish in the very next scene.