This is the Message Centre for Baron Grim

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Post 1

Baron Grim

I thought I'd go ahead and start my journal entry about the stuff I watch.


Last night I got quite lucky. A football (US version, big brutes in armor) game was running long so my normal Sunday night Simpson's, King of the Hill (search for something on any other station during Family Guy and American Dad) routine was delayed. I searched through the program guide and found "Hogfather" on some station called "Ion". I'd never watched that channel. Apparently not many have as I looked through the guide in the hopes that they would be re-airing Hogfather (I missed the first 20 minutes) and most of their time is filled with Paid Programming.

I quite enjoyed Hogfather, having read all of the Discworld books. I enjoyed seeing some familiar faces aged quite a bit... There was Young One Neil and the dog's body Baldrick among others. I also recognized Marc Warren as Teatime from an episode of Doctor Who. I had to look him up then just to see if he was related to Malcolm McDowell... he bears a striking resemblance.

I looked up Hogfather while watching it to see if it was available on Netflix (or at all). It wasn't. But what I was very surprised to see was the US release date listed as 25 November, 2007. I was watching the U.S. premiere! On some unknown cable station. Pratchett's works aren't nearly as widely known here in the States, sadly but I expected more than this. BBC America could have premiered it... Or FX or Sci Fi even. But Ion?

Well, anyway, I was extremely lucky to see it at all as it's not available otherwise. I did add the animated Wyrd Sisters to my netflix queue though. I'm looking forward to that.


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Post 2

fords - number 1 all over heaven

I watched the Hogfather when it was on Sky One last year. I was very surprised to see it on Sky One (one of Murdoch's y'see) but I thought it was a great production. Wyrd Sisters is really good, you'll enjoy that smiley - smiley

I did a double take on Marc Warren as well - is he related to Malcolm McDowell then? I'd be very surprised if you found out he wasn't! smiley - yikes


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Post 3

Baron Grim

Not that I can see. I'm sure IMDb would have mentioned it if he was his son or nephew or whatnot. I can find no mention of any relation on either one's IMDb profile. There was a mention in a forum that Marc Warren was to play McDowell in Colour Me Kubrick but I think that was mistaken. He did play in the film, but as a character named Hud. (I've added it to my Netflix list anyway.)


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Post 4

Baron Grim

OOhhh... I just remembered something right before I leave for lunch that changes my plans. I need to pick a restaurant in proximity to a store that sells DVDs because the new Futurama movie is out today. smiley - biggrin


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Post 5

Baron Grim

Well, I won't be going back to that restaurant for at least a month... they're already playing xmas music. It's a chinese restaurant. The Indian restaurant I went to yesterday had crimbo decorations up but at least they had some good raga playing.


Hmmm... according to the cover art, Fry has a tattoo of Bender's head on his ass. smiley - bigeyes

The disc also features a full length episode of "Everybody Loves Hypnotoad", the future's most popular TV programme. smiley - magic

I can't wait.


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Post 6

Baron Grim

Billy Connolly as a Pet Zombie... need I say more?

Fido


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Post 7

Baron Grim

Oh, and again I was flipping through my programme guide and saw that Hogswatch was re-airing on that Ion channel, but this time it hadn't actually started yet so I got the whole 4 hours (lots of long commercial breaks) recorded. Now I just have to find a way to burn it to DVD since I don't have a functioning VCR anymore.


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Post 8

Baron Grim

"Who Killed the Electric Car"

A very informative documentary about General Motors' EV1 and other vehicles that were pulled off the roads and crushed because they worked too well.

This film actually changed my mind about Fuel Cell Vehicles. I have been eagerly anticipating the fuel cell revolution that has been eminent for a decade and a half (and which probably still won't arrive for another decade at least), but now, not so much. The technological concerns aside, who will distribute and control the hydrogen fuel supply for these vehicles? The same companies that control petrol now. And the price of hydrogen won't be cheap. These same companies bought the patents for a revolutionary NiMH battery system that would have made plug in electric vehicles even more viable and palatable for the public and quashed it to further ensure that electrics wouldn't take off. So of course they want to promote fuel cells if it means they'll still be in control.

Anyway, fascinating story, worth renting.


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Post 9

Baron Grim

Well, I'm on season two of Deadwood. I couldn't resist anymore so I googled "hooplehead". The first hit points to one of my favorite sites, World Wide Words.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hoo3.htm

Ok... now that I know there is no politically insensitive origin for this word I'm going to start using it. smiley - evilgrin


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Post 10

Baron Grim

"Why We Fight"

An excellent documentary concerning the forces that have kept the US militarized since WWII.

There wasn't a great deal that I didn't already know about, at least in some degree but seeing these elements together was enlightening.

One aspect (which is more thoroughly featured in the cut scenes) that I wasn't as aware of is the illusion of "smart weapons" that we've been fed since Gulf War 1. All those carefully controlled images of missile A entering into second story window, third from left has greatly impacted how we select targets in populated areas. They have made us much more willing to drop missiles and bombs right next door to residences and schools and hospitals.

One factoid featured in the film: In the first 6 months of Operation Iraqi Freedom 50 leadership targets were attacked by intelligent weapons, not a single one was hit.

When they say that I'm assuming they are referring to actual people, not necessarily the buildings they were believed to be in. But regardless of that distinction what is undeniable is the high numbers of civilian casualties involved in these strikes. These weapons are not nearly as accurate as we've been led to believe.


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Post 11

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

Looks interesting, and Netflix has it. Definitely not your Alex Jones type of film.


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Post 12

Baron Grim

I'm not sure who Alex Jones is, but since he's linked directly to infowars.com I have an idea. That bunch is a bit "out there".


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Post 13

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

I think Alex Jones *is* infowars. He's a complete nutter and usually premières his new films at the Drafthouse smiley - biggrin


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Post 14

Baron Grim

This Film is Not Yet Rated.


This is a good one. If you watch films, you should watch this investigative documentary about the MPAA.

It won't surprise many to find that the MPAA is more lenient on violence than sex nor that they're more tolerant of vanilla heterosexual sex than gay or alternative sexual styles. But you may be surprised how secretive they are and who actually controls the MPAA.

There's also a featured Q&A session from the Alamo Draft House (During last year's SXSW).

But unless you have Netflix you may have a hard time finding it... It's unrated, after all.


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Post 15

fords - number 1 all over heaven

What I've never understood about the US is why sex and violence in a film is fine, but if there are too many swear words people start to object? This was summed up perfectly in the South Park film of course smiley - evilgrin


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Post 16

Baron Grim

Well, on that subject, I truly highly recommend another documentary. The title of which will set off this site's censorship filter. But it shouldn't take you long to find it if you look it up on IMDb. Just search for the one word that everyone seems to be afraid of.

(And in that documentary you will find that while no one really knows where the word came from, it's definitely not for unlawful carnal knowledge nor does it have anything to do with the king.).


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Post 17

Baron Grim

It shouldn't have taken me this long, but I finally watched Metropolis last night.

Honestly, it wasn't nearly as odd as I expected. I can now see just how influential it was. I was surprised that one of the futuristic devices featured in the film was a video phone. I guess "video phone" technology is one of those technologies that are ubiquitous in sci-fi, but will never be ubiquitous in the real world. Sure, we think we want them, but no one really wants to see or be seen by the people they're talking to on the phone.

Oh, and it had small airplanes flying around the city above. Ok... that's like flying cars. I think that's another thing we really don't want. You think it's bad when a soccer mom is careening around in her SUV talking on the phone, imagine the same thing in the air!

Anyways, Metropolis was pretty fun to watch. I didn't bother with the extras on the DVD as I'm sure it would have been long winded and pretentious blather about the political repercussions of this and the importance of expressionism to that. I just got a kick out of seeing the facial expressions of Machine-Maria. It reminded me of several girls I knew when they got drunk.

Oh, and 11811... what a cool name! Much cooler than THX1138. It's palindromic (and whatever the fancy word for the same thing vertically).

Anyways, it was definitely one of the more enjoyable silent films I've seen. More fun than Battleship Potemkin, anyway. Man With a Movie Camera (1929) ranks higher though and if you haven't seen that,(and you just feel in the mood for a silent era flick) I recommend it.


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Post 18

Baron Grim

This weekend I watched Wristcutters: A Love Story http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477139/

This is the kind of film that makes me really love Netflix. I don't remember why I put it in my queue. It might have been from a preview, or it might have been from a mention on a website, like http://www.aintitcool.com/ , or maybe a mention here... not sure. Doesn't matter. When I got it in the mail I saw the title and mistakenly thought it was some dark comedy about disturbed emo girls cutting themselves for attention. That might have been fun too, but this was different. This film is set in the afterworld, but not just any afterworld. It's the afterworld for suicides. It sucks there. It's not like hell or anything, it just sucks. You get a lousy job. Nothing works right. You physically can't smile or laugh.

This ends up being one very strange road film. One thing I didn't pick up on until I watched the commentary is that all the songs are by artists who killed themselves... Nice touch. Oh, except for one song, but the main character hasn't killed himself yet. The opening song is Tom Waits' "Dead and Lovely". And guess who shows up later in the movie?... Tom Waits!

As Hollywood continues to pump out special effects laden dreck and comic book adaptations and vapid romantic comedies and endless sequels, I'm so glad to have access to indie films like this.


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Post 19

Lady Pennywhistle - Back with a vengeance! [for a certain, limited value of Vengeance; actual amounts of Vengeance may vary]

Hey, I saw that movie!
Liked it a lot - as well as the story it's based on, 'Kneller's Happy Campers' (I think that's how they called it in translation) by Israeli writer Etgar Keret. They're a bit different, especially the ending, which is much more optimistic in the film, but each is good in its own way. And yes, this was a lovely little film. smiley - ok


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Post 20

Lady Pennywhistle - Back with a vengeance! [for a certain, limited value of Vengeance; actual amounts of Vengeance may vary]

Oh, and another thing - there's some music in there by gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello, and I'm pretty sure they're still alive. The head singer is actually in the movie, as far as I remember... although the IMDb page gives another name. smiley - erm Huh. Maybe I'm just confused.
Anyway, I don't think anyone in Gogol Bordello killed themselves. Thankfully.


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