000089 - do u remember?

the above are some pics from a bmx exhibition/gallery thing i attended recently that was put together by a friend's work's boss. a little bit of nostalgia. although i never had anything fancy with my bmx nor did i wear vans shoes.

went to a birthday dinner at a vietnamese restaurant called the gate and sung karaoke with some of my friends. we did "california dreaming" but i'm pretty sure our mic wasn't on or something. i remember the first karaoke song i ever did was "careless whisper" (because it was traumatic for both me and the people having to listen to me sing it).

comics.
scott pilgrim vol.1 & vol.2 - probably one of the best comic reads i've had in quite a long time. very fun stuff. the street fighter references probably helped. vol.1 is a fantastical read as a single book while vol.2 has more characterisation and development as you'd expect. creator bryan lee o'malley has created some really fun comic books.

demo: the collection - basically 12 short stories about young people at crossroads by brian wood and becky cloonan. my favorite piece would have to be "what you wish for" which is also co-written by cloonan. the range and variety that becky cloonan went thru with her art style for demo is very amirable and what i love most about this book. story-wise, most are quite strong but some are a bit pedestrian relationship angst type stories and don't really stand out as life-altering given the short amount of time the characters have to developed within each short. i wouldn't rate it as "indie of the year" but it's a pretty good read.

all-star superman 1 & 2 - the first issue cover really caught my eye even though i'm not the biggest fan of frank quitely's art. i think colourist jamie grant has really enhanced the artwork here. the feel of this comic series so far is very cinematic but also drops the reader in the middle of it all pretty immediately. at times it feels like this is an elseworld version of superman probably because writer grant morrison is throwing out all these mad and interesting ideas at the reader at 120 km/hr!

the dreaming vol.1 - i read this late at night and in terms of emoting a scary atmosphere, this book definitely creeped me out! i've watched heaps of horror / thriller movies and i'd have to say only a few gave me real chills but this manga by queenie chan really gave me the icky feeling at times, especially her artwork. storywise, i could criticise it for being a bit predictable but i think it's more to do with it being mostly setting up the situations and introducing the characters in this first book. so i'm looking forward to the next book to see if there's any twist.

eldritch kid 3 & 4 - the premise of a western fantasy is certainly an interesting idea. i like the whole dark arts / magic thing particularly introduced in the first issue. the partnership between the kid and ten shoes might seem stereotypical until the third issue, which was a nice surprise as was the ending, which i'm not saying is surprising as such, but follows true to the path of the characters. christopher burns art is great, quite chris bachalo-like, the first 2 issues were dirtier and more detailed while the final 2 issues are more cleaner. the only minor criticism i'd have is the late-intro of the flesti character in the series. seems very throwawy.

also always good reads are invincible, street fighter 2, shaolin cowboy, hellboy and 100 bullets and savage dragon.

movies.
skeleton key - wow. this was a surprisingly good movie. kept me glued to the story and characters all the way thru and didn't even see the ending coming (ok i loved it but what actually happened wasn't my cup of tea). i'm not going to say too much about it, but highly recommend this voodoo thriller movie. it's one of those movies that makes you go back and rethink about all the scenes and the motives of the characters.

the red shoes 분홍신 - a haunted pair of pink high-heal shoes appear on a train station platform, this korean horror is a bit derivative in some ways and the typical twist ending wasn't greatly executed in my opinion. like i got what it was trying to do with the audience preception but it was a bit "been there, seen that" kind of deal for me. some of the clues were a bit too obvious as well.

the hidden blade 隠し剣 鬼の爪 - fantastic samurai movie. a slow start with a whole cast of characters all introduced at the start. the pacing and atmosphere is very very quiet and serene almost until the inevitable duel / sword fight ending and then you get another ending! i didn't recognise actress takako matsu (who i haven't seen since april story and love generation) until later in the movie. another great film by twilight samurai's yoji yamada.

the corpse bride - wanted to see this at the cinemas but missed out due to a busy uni schedule last year. always love stop-motion / clay-mation and at times i thought some of the characters facial expressions were so smoothly animated that it was cg! love the characters even though storywise, it was a bit predictable. and it felt so short! i wanted more. more!!

games.
we ♥ katamari - what a great game! i'm glad i finally got to play it since katamari damacy never got an australian release. the design and packaging of this game is just awesome. gameplay is simply pushing a ball around to stick things to it and the music is so fun and crazily memorable. the king and the fan comments are a bit annoying at times though but that would be my only complain. love the added stuff like 2 player modes and the interface.

also been playing in small doses of alien hominid (ps2), and super street fighter 2 turbo revival (gba) as well.

that's about as exciting as it has got around here. freelance work has been keeping me way too busy to do anything else productive. i have got a few of my 101 things crossed off though...