Hooray (Part Two)

I've just been to see Casino Royale which I've been dying to see since I first heard they were rejigging the franchise. It's a fab movie and such a great version of a James Bond movie. It captures the spirit of Ian Fleming's novels brilliantly. And what can I say about Daniel Craig, but PHWOAR.... He's such a great Bond and definitely captures who James Bond should be, the hardened assasin and not the teflon ladies man he was in previous films. But I think for me (and possibly many others) the best thing about the entire film is this -



Phew.

Hooray! (Part One)

Yesterday I finally sat my test for a restricted license and I passed! Yay! My days of being stuck at home or relying on the kindness of friends and relatives have ended.

I am officially a driver.

:-)

I own a car!!

Today I purchased my very first automobile. Excitement! I almost feel like a proper grown up. It's a 1993 Honda Civic 4 door Sedan in red/plum. It's not quite the hatch that I was dreaming of, but it's a nice little car and in decent nick. Just got to pass that test *touch wood* and I'll be out on the road. Watch out Auckland. Heh.

Spammage!

I want these!

How cool are these Freudian slippers? Teehee.

(Link via Spare Room)

Step back in time

Some of you may already know of my increasing interest in Astrology. Not just your cheesy weekly sun sign horoscopes, mind, but the in depth birth chart stuff. I'm sure you're all thinking bollocks but bear with me.

Anyways Mercury is currently retrograde (going backwards) in my 11th house of friendship. Usually Mercury going retrograde causes all sorts of hassles, snarl ups and problems but unusually for me (and most other Capricorns) this time around having it transit through my 11th house can indicate that old friends and aquaintences pop back into my life at this time. And sure enough since the retrograde period started two weeks ago, people I haven't seen in years (and for the months since I've been back) have been popping out of the wood work. Bumping into my ex at the dairy yesterday just confirmed it for me. There's still one week left before Mercury goes forward again, I wonder who else I will run into before then.

When will I, will I be famous....?

I (along with Tammy's sister Jolene) made the Sunday Star times society pages this week! We got our photo taken last week at the Halloween party we attended in town, not really thinking too much of it. Then I receive a text from Tammy this morning and sure enough there we were on page 15 in our Halloween outfits...



How random!

Weird dreams

Since Carly shared her weird dreams I thought I'd share mine. The other night I had a bizarre dream that I was trying to seduce Brandon Flowers, lead singer from The Killers, despite the fact that a) he's a Morman and b) he's happily married. He didn't have the wispy 'tache going on, thank goodness. He did turn me down eventually but my ego must be pretty healthy as he struggled with the dilemma. Hee.

I'm not quite sure what it means other than possibly I'm really really excited about next's years Big Day Out or even my subconscious thinks I'm a ho!

In an amusing sidenote I was checking out the website Carly linked to and in one of the catagories I read "Cheese dreams" instead of "Chase dreams". I'd love it if they really did have a catagory devoted to the dreams that come with cheese....ooh cheese...

Wild weather

I think I had forgotten exactly how fierce Auckland (or NZ) weather can get. I feel like I'm in the middle of storm at sea. I suppose I almost am. Where did spring go?

Big Day Out 2007

Today was the first annoucement of the intial line up for Big Day Out 2007 and making an appearance are none other than The Killers and..wait for it....

Muse!!!

Oh and there's some band called Tool or something headling

Woohoo!! As you can imagine I'm pretty stoked. It may not be Reading or V Festivals but I'll take that BDO line up, thank you kindly. Roll on January and summer!!

Franz Ferdinand: The New Monkees/Beatles

I've always been one for the old 1960s pop band tv/movies. Help and A Hard Day's Night are classics in my mind and who didn't enjoy the brief Monkees revival of 1994? While watching the free dvd that I got with my new copy of Franz's album "You Could Have It So Much Better" (which I unfortunately left behind in London), I was struck with how Franz would be the perfect band to revive this trend. Not only are they nattily dressed and make kick ass music, as a group they have that sense of whimsy and fun about them. Plus stylistically I suppose they are a bit of a throwback to the 1960s anyway. There are a couple of cool little scenes on the dvd where they are racing around on bicycles and throwing axes at Alex and suchlike.

So I’m holding out hope for an upcoming Franz movie sometime in the future. Although perhaps I shouldn’t hold my breath on that one.

They'll be the Beatles of course, since they are actually talented.

I like that headline

	melanie was crowned as royalty
	After taking over the world and declaring themselves Overlord
'What will your Headline be?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Not entirely sure that I would be up for the deed but it's something to aim for...

This is sad. I don't really watch Top Gear as I can't stand Jeremy Clarkson (the man is an arse) and I'm not much of a driver (yet. But that will soon change!), but I always thought Richard Hammond was such a nice man. Plus he won Heat's ultimate secret crush poll last year! Here's hoping he pulls through okay.

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For a while it seemed the days of gratuitous shots of Ewan McGregor's, er, little McGregor were long gone since he is now a certified Hollywood star. In his early films (Trainspotting, Velvet Goldmine, The Pillow Book...etc) you were almost guaranteed a relatively non-essential-to-the-plot Ewan unrobing. But it seemed that Ewan had moved onto more family friendly fare in Star Wars, Moulin Rouge, Big Fish...etc.

So I was pleasantly surprised to discover a relatively recent film of his Young Adam on Rialto channel last night, a film where he once again takes his kit off and gives us the full show. His acting was alright too.

It's nice to see he's going back to his roots. So to speak.

I am so high-brow......Hee.

Best thing I've read all week

"My husband hates Lukas with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. I quote: "Look at him! He looks like something Gary Numan shat out!" Lukas is therefore known in our household as the "The Turd of Gary Numan"."

From Public Address.net

That's Lukas from Rockstar Supernova in case you don't know.

Update: He really didn't deserve to win either.

Thoughts while watching random Brit Indie movie from 1998 on Rialto

1. John Simm is really rather lovely. *sigh*

2 . When are TVNZ gonna get around to playing Life on Mars? That series was ace.

3. I should watch Human Traffic again.

3. Kevin McKidd, aka Tommy from Trainspotting, isn't bad for a ginger.

(Ssh, you didn't hear me say that)

4. Thank god short shift dresses, chunky stack heels and chokers are no longer in fashion.

Words of Wisdom circa 1991

"Pit Bull Terriers - should they be banned. That's the question being asked around New Zealand and Australia. In an attack recently a man had very serious facial injuries. His nose was bitten off and his right ear was ripped away. His plastic surgeon said it was the worst case he had ever treated. I think using a Pitt Bull terrier as a guard dog would be going overboard. My opinion is that Pitt Bull terriers should be banned. The United Kingdom is going to ban Pitt Bull terriers and hopefully New Zealand will."

- Melanie Scott, age 10


"Avalanches happen on mountains. They are caused by lot of heavy snow building on top of each other. Sound - for example shouting, can cause this great snow block to tumble down and bury anyone in its path. If you are trapped there is usually enough air to breathe for several days but you'll freeze to death if you're not found quickly because your blood will gradually drop down until your heart stops beating....Last year in Canada some people (including a New Zealander) were trapped in an avalanche but luckily they were rescued."

- Carly Pannell, age 10

And here's something from another familar face -

"I think of a tornado as a huge leg reaching out of the sky which goes around sucking things up like a vacuum cleaner kicking everything it sees."

- Andrew Bing, age 11

Isn't it nice to see that we started early with the biting editorial opinion and informative journalism. Heh.

Spot The Difference

Peter Jackson

Tyler from the Amazing Race

Geek Alert!

I've just watched the latest (NZ) episode of Doctor Who. It was an alright episode. David Tennant was lovely as always. [insert Tardis inuendo joke here] But I had to laugh - The No-Face Nana (once she got her face back) is none other than the nice/evil little old lady that plays Nanatoo in the Mighty Boosh! And the Doctor was going to get rid of the big bad face sucking TV monster by recording it onto Betamax and taping over it. If that wasn't a Mighty Boosh shout out, I don't know what is.

The Arctic Monkeys - A Slightly More Eloquent Review

I finally managed to finish this review about a month later! Excuse the lateness, I've been a bit slack.

So after literally months of waiting, Artic Monkeys Friday (tm) finally arrived. We went for drinks at the fake English style pub The Playhouse then rocked on up to the St James to catch the Arctic Monkeys. After a few minutes blind panic when I discovered I had no ID and possibly wouldn't even get in (thanks ASB bank!), I was let into the R18 gig by a sympathetic bouncer who could tell my teenage days were obviously long gone. Once inside I rushed immediately to the bar for another drink to calm my frazzled nerves. (I am a nana after all...)

We wandered in to get a spot downstairs with a good view of the stage. Not always possible for short arses like me. After waiting for a few minutes, the support act for the night, Brisbane band The Grates came on stage to decent applause. (Disclaimer - this is where my review gets a bit negative. Not like me I know!) Normally I'm appreciative of support bands, some of them put on a fab show, but I just wasn't impressed with the Grates. Not to say they didn't try. An unusual trio, made up of the female lead singer, female drummer and a solo male guitarist, who looked like they were just out of high school.....in the 1960s. This was partly due to the way they were dressed but also their blindly uncool enthusiasm which to us screamed Born Again Christian. The lead singer bounced around the stage with endless energy which made us feel tired just watching her. The music itself was alright but didn't manage to grab me anyway. By the end of their set, we were gagging for some real rock'n'roll from the Sheffield lads.

They started off slowly with the understated "Riot Van", and then launched into an absolutely blinding show. Seriously one of the best shows I think I've seen in a while. The raw intensity they demonstrate on the album is perfectly captured live. They played pretty much all the album tracks and a couple of new songs from their "Who The Fuck Are the Arctic Monkeys?" Ep. For such a young band, and with the newly aquired bass player, The Artic Monkeys are an extremely tight live act. Their set was only about 45 minutes long from start to finish, but it was packed with energy and every single song rocked. The crowd at the St James managed to match the energy the boys were putting into their performance. Alex even commented on what a great crowd it was. We were all left breathless and wanting more as they disappeared off the stage.

An amusing side note - in year or so since the the Artic Monkeys rose to fame, lead singer Alex Turner seems to have morphed from spotty Northern teenager to swaggering rock star. He had the feather hair and tight indie rock god top and everything. He even seems to have developed biceps! Heh. We all agreed he's heading into Richard Ashcroft territory. Let's hope that doesn't mean rabid egotism and mediocre music several years down the track. (Ooh burn...)

Anyways as I said it was a great show and my first review probably sums up it more accurately.

Oh and if you're wondering, I managed to get my revenge on that crowd surfer with several good kicks after he fell to the ground a little while later.