Atticus in good behaviour mode

This is Herman Dune, they were the support band at last night’s Jolie Holland gig. Right now I’m going through the pics from the concert and editing some from our jaunt out to Peter Kerr island this afternoon. Brilliant place, it is. Plenty of colour, the (unrealised) possibility of bald eagle spotting and Atticus even got a wander around off his lead.

Notez bien! You’ll probably need to refresh the page (hit f5) to get the new link everyday… and some days will doubtless be better than others. It’s coming up to day 3 and I’m running out of ideas. Any requests?

Here’s that link again: http://agaveweb.com/atticalendar.html

Looks like it’s going to be a full week again, once I finish at lewis and clark I’m heading off to localise some more UK English stuff.

John Hurt, once Winston in 1984, does a formidable job as the Big Brother figure in V for Vendetta. It’s set in either an alternative reality or in 3 years time, hard to tell which, where Britain is governed by a totalitarian regime bent on power and rampant with corruption. The populace is kept at bay with scares about avian flu terrorists and immigrants and V, the masked protagonist, is out to shake them out of their ovine slumber with some bonfire night pyrotechnics all over London…

I’ve always been fond of Natalie Portman despite her Star Wars travesties but in this film her English accent is a stretch to believe. She sounds like a South African who had a Canadian au-pair. Luckily for her, her lines good enough for you think about what she’s saying rather than how she says it. And in the second half of the film there’s the constant expectation she’s about to launch into Nothing Compares 2U.

There’s constant meditation about the power of ideas and not-so veiled references to US, and to a lesser extent British, politics too. The Bill O’Reilly figure is pleasingly hideous. It’s all too plausible if you ask me. Jose watched it too and reckoned it was more like the PRI than New Labour, but that’s cultural differences for you. He’s right that New Labour hasn’t had any political opponents assassinated (yet), whereas the PRI does have that reputation…

I reckon this film could stand a few repeat viewings. There is a lot of stuff going on and in that sense is a worthy successor to the Matrix (shame about Matrix II & III) for the Wachowski brothers. As for why Alan Moore took his name of it, I’m guessing because it doesn’t go far enough. Although it is daring for a film to have a terrorist as its hero, he’s nowhere near as anarchistic as he could have been. I’m not criticising it for that though, he’s placed as far left as he can be and forces you to consider the whole freedom-figher/ terrorist thing. And there ought to be more films advocating political awakening and revolution.

Stylish, well-scripted and excellently paced I’ve no trouble at all recommending this one.

Ed’s got some envy-inducing shots up of his travels round the bottomest parts of Latin America on his latest entries. I recommend you head over there. Although the tag line “This week I lost my towel” needs work…

Things going well as per usual as we cruise on into the weekend. Jose & Fernando are coming over for a few chelas before heading off to the pub. Possibility of a gig tomorrow evening.

Have I mentioned it’s getting hot round here… gotta go sita’s just arrived.

… if you’ve not checked out my web portfolio in a while, I heartily encourage you to do so, Spanish speaking or not, tell your friends… It’s cheap as chips for now (prices double once I hit California’s Bay Area). It now boasts the latest site to go live, www.ultrasonido4d.com with more pictures of weird golden babies and extreme womb close ups than any site I’ve designed before…