Blog by Matthew Paul Argall

Films I watched last week

2012-02-13T18:41:00.002+11:00

5-February-2012
Fuzzy Knight and His Little Piano (WTF-worthy comedy short not listed on IMDb)
The Ponce Sisters (decent early musical short not listed on IMDb)
Frances White (1928) - 7/10 (early musical short. I wonder why this is listed on IMDb while the above 4 shorts are not)
Songs: Afraid of You and We Love It (1928) - 7/10 (enjoyable short)
Gus Van and Joe Schenck (1928) - 3/10 (lousy short)
Gus Van and Joe Schenck (1929) 1/10 (terrible short with the same duo as the 1928 film with the same name. Bad songs and bad singing)
Kiddie Revue (1930) 7/10 (in very poor condition. According to IMDb, this short film was originally meant to be a segment in the unfinished 1930 musical feature film "The March of Time")
The Song Writers' Revue (1930) - 7/10 (19-minute short. Most modern viewers will understandably find this to be tedious, but fans of early sound shorts will find it interesting. Shorts like this were an important stepping-stone to later, improved productions)
Crazy House (1930) - 7.5/10 (short comedy film in beautiful two-strip Technicolor)
The Devil's Cabaret (1930) - Infinity/10 (pre-code fun in this short as a man working for Hell decides to attract more people to come to Hades instead of Heaven. In delightful two-color Technicolor. One of the scenes is actually an excerpt from the unfinished feature film "The March of Time")
Over the Counter (1932) - 8/10 (more pre-code fun with suggestive sexual humor and even a bit of mild phallic imagery. Those early 1930s films could get quite "naughty" until the censorship office thingy started. A short film in delightfully primitive Technicolor)
Wild People (1932) 6/10 (mediocre short, though the use of primitive Technicolor adds much to the fun)
What Price Jazz (1934) - 7.5/10 (B&W short film)
My Grandfather's Clock (1934) - 7/10 (musical murder mystery comedy in lively Technicolor)

6-February-2012
The Spectacle Maker (1934) - 7/10 (corny dramatic short in Three-Strip Technicolor)
Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove (1934) - 8/10 (short film...another nice place I'll never get to visit until I die)
Starlit Days at the Lido (1935) - 8/10 (Beautiful-looking Three-Strip-Technicolor film showcasing 1930s Hollywood)
Pirate Party on Catalina Isle (1935) 7.5/10 (short film....more frivolous fun from the 1930s in gorgeous colour)
La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) - 7/10 (decent short, again photographed in lively Three-Strip-Technicolor)
Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs (1936) 6/10 (fairly dull short, saved by yet more lively Technicolor)
Cinema Circus (1937) - 5/10 (the 2nd-weakest of the series that started with "Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove")
The Nude Bomb (1980) - 7/10 (a funny film, but one filled with an endless series of flaws)
Hollywood Party (1937) - 1/10 (The short, not the feature of the same name. The Technicolor is stunning as usual, but everything else is terrible! OK, so the brief fashion show was OK, but the rest....puke)
Sunday Night at the Trocadero (1937) - 7/10 (decent, but nothing special short. The final film in a series of shorts, but unlike the rest, this is in B&W)
Billy Rose's Casa Mañana Revue (1938) 7.5/10 (enjoyable, overproduced B&W short)

7-February-2012
Musical Merry-Go-Round #1 (1948) - 7/10 (short)
Musical Merry-Go-Round #2 (1948) - 7/10 (short)
Musical Merry-Go-Round #3 (1948) - 7/10 (short)
Musical Merry-Go-Round #4 (1948) - 7/10 (short)
Musical Merry-Go-Round #5 (1948) - 7/10 (short)
Musical Merry-Go-Round #6 (1948) - 7/10 (short)
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953) - 7/10 (strange feature film about a boy who doesn't want to play the piano, and then has a dream in which an evil piano teacher is taking in little boys as slaves)

9-February-2012
The Artist (2011) 8.5/10 (highly enjoyable)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) 8.5/10 - (highly enjoyable "great depression"-themed feature film musical)

10-February-2012
Rambling 'Round Radio Row #2 (1932) - 7/10 (uneven music short)
Seasoned Greetings (1933) - 7/10 (interesting casting in this musical short. Robert Cummings and Sammy Davis Jr. both appear!)
We're in the Money (1933) 7/10 (decent cartoon short)
I've Got to Sing a Torch Song (1933) - 3/10 (lame cartoon short)
Pettin' in the Park (1934) 4/10 (fast-paced comedy cartoon short with no laughs)

11-February-2012
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) - 7.5/10 (fun feature that still rings true today)
The House of Tomorrow (1949) - 9/10 (hilarious cartoon short that somehow is both extremely dated and timeless)
With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) - 7/10 (enjoyable Doris Day feature, but nothing special)

Ever have a dream featuring a fictional movie?

2012-02-10T18:28:00.001+11:00

I woke up an hour or so ago from a dream featuring a fictional (fake) movie. In the dream, the movie starts with me in the large shopping mall. Cracks are starting to appear in the ceiling, causing bits to fall, which I quickly photograph with my camera. At first, I thought the crumbling ceiling was caused by the storage of a new video game console by NEC. A woman with a 1970s haircut who is vaguely connected to the cracks in the ceiling is pacing upstairs. It is then revealed that the cracks are caused by a female white bigot. A friend of mine plays in reels of 35mm film (not among the reels, but actually on the images on the reels), but as they are rented copies (which are supposed to be disposed of after the rental period is over...these are at a cinema), Ino (a character from "Naruto") decides to dispose of them, leaving me very worried. Finally, it turns out the shopping mall is actually a spaceship, and that I'm watching the first "Star Wars" (a film that in real-life, I've never seen).

Films I watched last week

2012-02-06T16:14:00.001+11:00

29-January-2012
The Vagabond (1916) - 7/10 (corny plot & ending ruin this drama/comedy short)
One A.M. (1916) - 7/10 (26 minutes long short. An interesting experiment that doesn't quite work)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) - 4/10 (entertaining garbage with no charm or warmth, plus a poor ending. It does however have stunning sets and a fun visual style)
The Astounding She-Monster (1957) - 7/10 (z-grade bad sci-fi. Enjoyable with some interesting ideas)

30-January-2012
Monsters, Inc. (2001) - 7/10 (not their best, but good fun)
For the Birds (2000) - 6/10 (decent short)
The Count (1916) - 7/10 (OK, but not great 24-minute short)
The Pawnshop (1916) - 7.5/10 (fun, funny comedy short)

3-February-2012
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) - 8/10

4-February-2012
Powers of Ten (1977) 8/10 (stunning short film. Makes you think about how small people are compared to Universe)
A Rough Sketch for a Proposed Film Dealing with the Powers of Ten and the Relative Size of Things in the Universe (1968) (a short film with a long title. An early version of "Powers of Ten")
901: After 45 Years of Working (1990) (short film, probably quite personal for the filmmaker)
Walt Roesner and the Capitolians (1928) - 6/10 (short film, with the usual faulty camera work seen in many late-1920s sound films)
The Five Locust Sisters (1928) - 7.5/10 (Short film....the epitome of "old!")
Leo Beers (early sound short not listed on IMDb)
Joseph Regan (early sound short not listed on IMDb)

I had a strange dream back in December 2011

2012-01-30T05:28:00.002+11:00

I was looking though some post I made on the "Film General" board on IMDb back in December 2011, which contained the following text:

In the dream, I was watching a movie....which was a Japanese dub of an English movie made using re-dubbed (ie. dubbed into English) clips from "Naruto" (confused? Good.) along with clips from "Seinfeld" and home movies taken on the set of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". However I didn't get to see the end of the film/dream because I was awakened in real-life.

Films I watched last week

2012-01-30T01:46:00.002+11:00

First time viewings are in italic.

22-January-2012
The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951) - 7/10 (Enjoyable mindless film with some laughable dialogue)

24-January-2012
Behind the Screen (1916) - 7.5/10 (enjoyable comedy short. I watched the 23-minute restored version)
The Rink (1916) - 7/10 (enjoyable comedy short)
Clambake (1967) - Infinity/10 (enjoyable dumb feature film with lots of fun datedness)
Easy Street (1917) - 8/10 (enjoyable mix of drama and comedy. I watched the 23-minute restored version, complete with heroin reference)
The Cure (1917) 7/10 (fun comedy short)
The Immigrant (1917) - 8/10 (another 23 or 24 minute short. High quality, well-produced stuff)
The Adventurer (1917/I) - 7/10 (another 23 or 24 minute short. Decent, enjoyable)

25-January-2012
Gekijô-ban Naruto: Daikôfun! Mikazukijima no animaru panikku dattebayo! (2006) - 8/10 (gee, is the title long enough? Probably the most G-rated ninja movie ever made, complete with feel-good moments and endless praise of friendship)
Roustabout (1964) - 7.5/10 (underrated Elvis Presley movie with good songs and fine support by Barbara Stanwyck. Yes, Barbara Stanwyck in an Elvis flick)
We Work Again (1937) - 8/10 (cheerful short film about jobs creation in the great depression, notable for containing a super-rare film record of a production of "Macbeth" staged by Orson Welles)

26-January-2012
Dames (1934) - 8/10 (fun musical comedy feature with fun musical numbers)
And She Learned About Dames (1934) - 7/10 (promotional short, created to promote the film "Dames", see above)
Good Morning, Eve! (1934) - 8/10 (weird, wacky and slightly risque 1934 short, worth seeing for the stunning use of three-strip Technicolor)
Don Redman & His Orchestra (1934) - 6/10 (stereotypical "Black" musical short)
Those Beautiful Dames (1934) - 7/10 (cartoon short from the Merrie Melodies series. Careful observers will note the complete lack of the colour "blue" in this short. This is because it used the so-called Two-Strip Technicolor process, which couldn't do the color blue)
I Only Have Eyes for You (1937) - 7/10 (cartoon short from the Merrie Melodies series, this time in lovely Three-Strip Technicolor, so this short does indeed have the colour blue).
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - WTF/10 (interesting feature film)

27-January-2012
Laura (1944) - 8/10 (feature film)
Grease (1978) - 8/10 (an unrealistic vision of the 1950s, but fun)
That's Entertainment! III (1994) - 8/10 (feature film documentary. A fun collection of classic musical numbers)
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) - 9/10 (I have watched four features in one day. Cool)
Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (1925) - WTF/10 (very short film. There's nothing else in cinema history quite like this infamous film)
The Floorwalker (1916) 7.5/10 (fun comedy short with Charlie Chaplin)
The Fireman (1916) - 7/10 (decent comedy short, but not a classic)

I love dated references such as these

2012-01-29T06:26:00.002+11:00

http://www.youtube.com/embed/-HP6RQL7KBY

Fun video I uploaded to YouTube, consisting of dated references from various TV series, a couple of movies, and even a comic book! Very unusual video with lots of variety!

The bonus features on the DVD release of "Dames" (1934) are interesting

2012-01-26T04:00:00.001+11:00

And She Learned About Dames (1934) is a B&W promotional short designed to promote the film. It is a mix of new footage and scenes from the movie, which oddly enough are introduced as being "rehearsals". Enjoyable, but nothing special, and ends with a woman being kissed by the male star of the film.
7/10

Good Morning, Eve! (1934) is filmed in Three-Strip Technicolor. Unlike the previous (so-called) "two-strip" process, Three-Strip could recreate all major colors. The 19-minute short itself is a strange story of "Adam" and "Eve" who walk through time, meeting Nero, King Arthur, and eventually finding themselves in the 20th Century. The film is fun because of the beautiful colour photography, which is quite stunning.
8/10

Don Redman & His Orchestra (1934) is a jazz short with fairly stereotypical Black people. Fun, but badly dated. I give Warner Bros credit for trying, though.
6/10

Those Beautiful Dames (1934) is an enjoyable but forgettable cartoon short (Merrie Melodies) done in the so-called "Two-Strip Technicolor" process, which at the time was being phased out. The story tells of a young poor orphan, whose home is re-done by a bunch of friendly toys. Careful observers will note the complete lack of the color blue, which "2-strip" couldn't reproduce.
7/10

I Only Have Eyes for You (1937) is another cartoon short, this time in Three-Strip Technicolor. So there's green, red *and* blue, plus other colours. Decent, enjoyable, fairly typical of "Merrie Melodies" of the time, but nothing special.
7/10

Charlie Chaplin, Elvis Presley, and Naruto

2012-01-25T19:25:00.001+11:00

Yesterday (technically spread over two days, since I sleep during the day), I watched two Charlie Chaplin shorts ("The Immigrant" and "The Adventurer"), a Naruto movie ("Gekijô-ban Naruto: Daikôfun! Mikazukijima no animaru panikku dattebayo!", which apart from having a long title also is possibly the most g-rated ninja movie ever made) and an Elvis Presley film ("Roustabout", which also has Barbara Stanwyck. Yes Barbara Stanwyck in an Elvis movie). Needless to say I need a life.

The thing is, if there was an alternate dimension with a film with all 3 of these people (I suppose a mix of live-action and animation), I'd pay good money to see it. However, while it's certainly possible that in this alternate dimension Elvis Presley could still be alive, it would require Charlie Chaplin living an extremely long amount of time...not very possible. However, a film with Elvis Presley and Charlie Chaplin would be possible in an alternate dimension, as would a film with Elvis Presley and Naruto. However, a film with Charlie Chaplin and Speed Racer would be cool and possible if there were enough alternate dimensions. I'd pay good money to see these films.

Yes, I realise this is an odd post.

Films I watched last week

2012-01-24T20:06:00.001+11:00

First-time viewings are in "italic".

15-January-2012
The Suburbanite (1904) - 6/10 (silent comedy short. Was previously 2/10)
De-Light: Making an Electric Light Bulb (1920) - 7/10 (short film, a documentary, slow-paced but useful as stock footage)
Skyscraper Symphony (1929) - 8/10 (arty-farty, but I like it)

16-January-2012
What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City (1901) - 8/10 (brief film famous for the bit where a woman's dress is blown upwards)
At the Foot of the Flatiron (1903) - 6/10 (brief short. Kinda interesting)
The Eighth Wonder (1902) - 7/10 (footage of a skyscraper. Interesting and useful as stock footage)
New York City 'Ghetto' Fish Market (1903) - 8/10 (these really old shorts are hard to rate. Depending on my mood, this short could be anything from 6/10 to 9/10. How do you rate 109-year-old footage of a fish-market, anyway?)
I Love to Singa (1936) - Infinity/10 (this short is so brilliant that it could save the world)
Now You're Talking (1927) - 8/10 (surprisingly entertaining 9-minute cartoon short)
There It Is (1928) - 8/10 (17-minute or so comedy short. Was previously 5/10)
A Bronx Morning (1931) - 8/10 (entertaining short that works on several levels)
Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888) - Infinity/10 (really, this cannot be rated on any conventional rating system)

17-January-2012
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) - 7.5/10 (I was dreading watching this, so of course I decided to make it my next thing to watch. Surprisingly enough I enjoyed it)
How Awful About Allan (1970) - 7.5/10 (fun TV movie with Anthony Perkins)
Doragon bôru: Majinjô no nemuri hime (1987) - 7/10 (at 44-minutes long, this is too short to be a feature, but too long to be a short. This is a problem. But I like this film anyway)
Bye Bye Birdie (1963) - 8/10 (due to staying up for over 24 hours, I re-watched this beautifully dated 1960s gem)

18-January-2012
The Self Image Film (If Mirrors Could Speak) (1976) - 7/10 (this strange short was produced for showing in school classrooms)
Village of the Giants (1965) - 7/10 (enjoyable BAD feature movie)

20-January-2012
Ziegfeld Follies (1945) - 8/10 (a mix of excellent, great, good and bad segments)
The Mystery Train (1931) - 7/10 (62-minute feature with Hedda Hopper)

21-January-2012
Gekijô-ban Naruto: Daigekitotsu! Maboroshi no chitei iseki dattebayo! (2005) - 7/10 (good, but not great. Needed more Gaara)
Modern Times (1936) - 9/10 (this is the 2nd time I've watched a film on Blu-ray)
How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns (1904) - 6/10 (dull comedy short)
Lambchops (1929) - 8/10 (funny comedy short with Burns & Allen)

Films I watched last week

2012-01-16T16:06:00.002+11:00

Most of these were re-watches except for "Studio Visit", "Cabin in the Sky", "Sandow", "That's the Way It Is" and "Gekijô-ban Naruto: Daikatsugeki! Yukihime ninpôchô dattebayo!!".

8-January-2012
The Grinch (2000) - 7/10 (A complete turkey, a mess, a disaster. So why did I enjoy it?)

9-January-2012
Studio Visit (1946) - 7/10 (includes the only existing footage of the deleted "Ain't It the Truth" scene from "Cabin in the Sky")
Cabin in the Sky (1943) 7/10 (unusual musical feature movie quite unlike anything else produced by "Mainstream Hollywood" at the time)
Her Crowning Glory (1911) - 7/10 (short comedy film. Actor John Bunny is best known today for being a once-famous actor who is now obscure)
The Unchanging Sea (1910) - 7/10 (short drama. Slow-paced but nice)
A Corner in Wheat (1909) - 7/10 (short drama. Good editing for the era)

10-January-2012
The New York Hat (1912) - 7/10 (short drama about a scandal and rumors. Quite nice).
The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - 7/10 (crude melodrama. Not bad, though)
OffOn (1972) - 9/10 (one of my favourite shorts. Sometimes listed as being 1968)
Blacksmith Scene (1893) (too short & simple to rate)
The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903) - 7/10 (1 minute long comedy. Enjoyable fluff from over a 100 years ago)
Three American Beauties (1906) - 7/10 (this brief bit of footage is a tasty bite-sized example of stencil tinted colour)
The Original Movie. (1922) - 6/10 (mildly interesting cartoon short)
Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre (1901) - 8/10 (very unusual brief short with time-lapse)
Move On (1903) - 8/10 (a brief "slice of life" from nearly 110 years ago. Probably staged, but who cares?)
Negro Leagues Baseball (1946) - 8/10 (probably outtakes from a newsreel. Useful as stock footage and historically interesting).
White Fawn's Devotion (1910) - 6/10 (short drama)
Luis Martinetti, Contortionist (1894) - (too short and simple to be rated)
Caicedo (with Pole) (1894) - (less than a minute, typical of 1894 shorts showing a performer doing their thing. But unlike the others, this one is filmed outside)
Sandow (1896) - 7/10 (less than a minute. Typical black background of Edison shorts of the era. Quite funny though I'm not sure that was the intent)
Carmencita (1894) - 7/10 (well-made under-a-minute short, showing a female dancer)
Annabelle Butterfly Dance (1894) - 7/10 (another 'under-a-minute short, and very typical of the era, with the black-background and simple staging. Today, these shorts are fascinating bits of history)

11-January-2012
Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970) - 8/10 (feature film about an Elvis Presley concert. Would have been "7/10" but one of the back-up singers had a really huge afro that stole every scene it was in, so I gave it an extra point)

12-January-2012
Gekijô-ban Naruto: Daikatsugeki! Yukihime ninpôchô dattebayo!! (2004) - 8/10 (This feature film would have been "7.5/10", but I'm such a nice guy that I'll round-it-up to 8/10. Also known as "Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow")

13-January-2012
New York Subway (1905) - 8/10 (6-minute short. A fascinating piece of history)
The Land Beyond the Sunset (1912) - 8/10 (excellent and beautiful film which proves that silent shorts can be just as artistic (without being "arty-farty") as features)
I'm Insured (1916) - 6/10 (3-minute silent cartoon. Nothing special)
Bucking Broncho (1894) - (too short and simple to rate)
Buffalo Dance (1894) - (too short and simple to rate)
The Country Doctor (1909) - 7/10 (drama short about a doctor who must decide which dying child to treat)

14-January-2012
The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (1910) - 6/10 (Short film. Strange version of the popular story)
Admiral Cigarette (1897) - 3/10 (pretty much a commercial from the 1890s. Not a very good commercial...but they improved over time, before declining in quality again during the 1990s)
The Stenographer's Friend; Or, What Was Accomplished by an Edison Business Phonograph (1910) - 7.5/10 (charming short film. Better than today's infomercials).
The Wild Engine (1915) - 7/10 (an enjoyable edition of the "Hazards of Helen" film serial)

Films I watched last week

2012-01-09T08:46:00.002+11:00

Mainly a lot of shorts this time. I got little sleep, sometimes being awake for 24 hours, so I took advantage of that and watched many films. All were watched on DVD except for the short films from the 7th.

3-January-2012
Words and Music (1948) 7/10 (decent musical which is almost sorta kinda partially based on a somewhat semi-true yet highly fictionalised story)
Going to Blazes! (1948) - 8/10 (well-made short film about firemen and fires. Could be useful as stock footage)
The Cat That Hated People (1948) - 5/10 (cartoon short. Great gags, but left a bitter taste in my mouth)
The Broadway Melody (1929) - 7/10 (decent, if slow-paced musical feature film)
The Dogway Melody (1930) - 2/10 (awful "comedy" short spoofing the above film)
Metro Movietone Revue (I) (1929) - 7/10 (Short. I think the Master of Ceremonies is gay)
Metro Movietone Revue (II) (1929) - 7/10 (Short. Best and Worst of 1920s entertainment. This time they even make a joke about the Master of Ceremonies being gay)
Metro Movietone Revue (I) (1930) - 6/10 (Short. Different master of ceremonies, this time someone who is not as gay and not as good. The Reynold Sisters never did another film according to their IMDb filmography)
Metro Movietone Revue (1930/II) - 5/10 (Short. meh and at times questionable)
A Movietone Divertissement (1928) 7/10 (enjoyable short with the racial stereotyping kept to a minimum)
Gus Van and Joe Schenck (1929) - 3/10 (a very short short. I did not enjoy either song)

4-January-2012
Summer Stock (1950) - 6/10 (meh feature film with a great cast)
The Cuckoo Clock (1950) - 7/10 (nice gags in this cartoon short)
Did'ja Know? (1950) - 6/10 (decent comedy short)
The Jazz Singer (1927) - 8/10 (well, this wasn't anywhere near as offensive as I thought it would be)
A Plantation Act (1926) - 5/10 (Musical short. Excellent songs, horrible blackface)
An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros. Silver Jubilee (1930) - 4/10 (long title for a short film. Useful as stock footage)
I Love to Singa (1936) - Infinity/10 (this cartoon short is possibly the peak of humanity)
Hollywood Handicap (1938) - 7/10 (stereotypical but decent short)
A Day at Santa Anita (1937) - 6/10 (okay-ish short with enjoyable though not perfected Technicolor)
The Voice from the Screen (1926) - 7/10 (listed on IMDb as "Witt & Berg". This short was a demonstration of the Vitaphone sound process, and was not meant for commercial release. Useful as stock footage)
Finding His Voice (1929) - 7/10 (decent but slow-pased cartoon short)
The Voice That Thrilled the World (1943) 2/10 (only in the 1940s could a mediocre documentary on the history of sound film suddenly become a bad piece of WW2 propaganda)
Okay for Sound (1946) - 5/10 (short)
When the Talkies Were Young (1955) 4/10 (short) (entertaining yet utterly worthless. If this was a lost film nobody would care except for me, and I'm weird)
Behind the Lines (1926) - 8/10 (short. The opening is lost. Not bad, awkward at times, but surprisingly decent. Could have been much worse).
Bernado De Pace (1927) - 5/10 (it's rather boring short)
Gus Van and Joe Schenck in a Comedy and Popular Song Act (1927) - 6/10 (Long title for a short film. a time when ethnic accents were used as comedy).
Blossom Seeley and Bennie Fields (1928) - 7/10 (not bad short, but some moments are near-offensive by modern standards. The performers are talented enough that one can overlook the use of a racial word beginning with the letter "C")
Hazel Green & Company (1927) - 8/10 (much-needed excitement from these old early sound shorts. More upbeat, more catchy, more recognisable as "pop music" to a modern-day audience. "Ain't She Sweet" could be a hit today with an updated arrangement)
The Night Court (1927) - 7/10 (more excitement. There's a jazz flavour that, curiously, makes the songs more accessible to modern audiences. In some respects this is a predecessor of the early backstage musicals. Enjoyable short!)

5-January-2012
The Police Quartette (1927) - 6/10 (short)
When East Meets West (1928) - 7/10 (short with various songs, including one about Ford!)
Stories in Song (1928) - 6/10 (some good songs and some bad songs. A short)
The Jazzmania Quintette (1928) - 7/10 (decent musical short)
The Band Beautiful (1928) - 5/10 (bored me...but this short may need a re-watch)
Chips of the Old Block (1928) - 4/10 (lousy comedy act. Good sound quality though for the time)
Dick Rich and His Melodious Monarchs (1928) - 8/10 (decent amount of excitement in this musical short)
Gus Arnheim and His Ambassadors (1928) - 7/10 (good music, visually boring)
The Beau Brummels (1928) - 8/10 (delightfully corny jokes in this "vaudeville" short)
The Roof Garden Revue (1929) - 7/10 (probably works better on a big screen than on a DVD player hooked up to a TV. Finale is excellent though)
My Bag o' Trix (1929) -7/10 (WTF-worthy vaudeville short)

6-January-2012
Green's Twentieth Century Faydetts (1929) - 6/10 (faulty direction with bad camerawork in this short)
The Eccentric Entertainer (1929) - 5/10 (one song is horribly dated, the rest are passable)
At the Seashore (1929) - 2/10 (annoying short about two annoying bitches saying annoying things. Annoying)
Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats - 6/10 (1929) (another late-1920s short with unfortunate use of the "d" word. Not bad, though with average music and direction)
Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder (1929) - 8/10 (wow, the young singer in this short is still alive. She sings well too!)
Lambchops (1929) - 8/10 (unlike the vast majority of acts in those old Vitaphone shorts, George Burns & Gracie Allen are still well-remembered today, thanks largely to their classic 1950s sitcom)
The Happy Hottentots (1930) - 6/10 (an interesting idea that doesn't quite work. Also, the title has nothing to do with the content of this short comedy)
Loving You (1957) - 8/10 (enjoyable Elvis Presley feature film with a plot)
Flowers and Trees (1932) - 9/10 (excellent cartoon short in early Technicolor. Watched this on YouTube)
The Kiss (1900) - (this cannot be rated. It runs under a minute and consists of a couple kissing. Enjoyable)
The Kiss (1896) - (this cannot be rated. It runs under a minute and consists of a couple who kiss at the end. Remade in 1900 as the above film)

7-January-2012
Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (1925) - 8/10 (Very brief and funny short film. Possibly a test of the equipment rather than a commercially released thing. Was previously 6/10)
OffOn (1972) - 9/10 (awesome short film. Who needs drugs when you can watch films like this?)
The Fall of the House of Usher (I) (1928) - 9/10 (strange short film by James Sibley Watson & Melville Webber. Very stylish)
The Lonedale Operator (1911) - 7/10 (decent drama short. A bit slow in a middle.

To Tell the Truth

2011-12-17T09:35:00.003+11:00

http://www.archive.org/details/ToTellTheTruthjanuary71958

I reviewed this episode of "To Tell the Truth" on the Internet Archive....and gave it a very strange review.

Here is the review:

Oh my.

Very.....nice.

I'm not sure if the Kazekage would enjoy this, but I certainly did.

However, despite containing no sex or swearing, I found this to be semi-educational in a weird, twisted way.

Great game show by the Kings of Game Shows, Goodson-Todman.

BTW, did you know this show is a kinescope?

100% Safe Sleep! Kazekage would find that interesting.

Where do you go to my lovely, when you're alone in your bed?

This is almost as good as "Ding Dong School"! But Kazekage would probably dislike that show. Kid Gohan on the other hand.....

I wonder if people in Norway are allowed to name their children after food?

The good news is that this is a very enjoyable episode, well-made and very fun. The Commercials aren't the best but they are sorta OK.

I wonder what warriors think of Geritol?

Geritol once sponsored "Rocky King, Detective". An exciting fight against crime...sponsored by a product for "tired blood".

In the future, TV shows like this will be praised more commonly. If they aren't, then I'll convince Kazekage to teach everyone a lesson!

Also note the promo for the infamous rigged "Twenty-One" show.

Films I watched last week

2011-11-20T23:41:00.002+11:00

13-November-2011
The Band Wagon (1953) - 9/10 (a fun musical with a plot)
16-November-2011
Singin' in the Rain (1952) - 8.5/10 (ditto)
18-November-2011
The Gay Divorcee (1934) - 8.5/10 (fun but somewhat slow film with lovely Art Deco sets)

Show Kids (1935) - 7/10 (Technicolor kitsch that, due to issues with the tech, results in some of the male actors having purple lips. Kankuro would not be amused)

Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove (1934) - 9001/10 (1930s in breathtaking Technicolor. Mary Pickford appears briefly and speaks. Stunning fluff.)

Shake Your Powder Puff (1934) - 8/10 - (delightfully unimportant cartoon)
Doragon bôru: Makafushigi dai bôken (1988) - 9/10 (I watched this recently, dubbed into English. This time I watched it with it with the original Japanese audio track and some English subtitles. The subtitles made it a harder to watch as I kept missing the animation while I was reading them)
19-November-2011
Shall We Dance (1937) - 7.5/10 (good)

Sheik to Sheik (1936) - 1/10 (garbage, badly dated garbage)

Toy Town Hall (1936) - 7/10 (cute, charming cartoon in Technicolor)

What's the Big Hurry? (1974) - 8/10 (a "driver's ed" film. Possibly the only "driver's ed" film in which somebody refers to Robert Redford as being "cute". Good footage of a junkyard with a muscle car being stripped of parts with a blowtorch and a rather nice-looking Ford being crushed)

Films I watched last week

2011-10-31T00:42:00.002+11:00

This is a hopefully complete list of films I watched last week.

26-October-2011
The Thrill of It All (1963) - 7.5/10 (Doris Day is hot)
27-October-2011
Fantasia (1940) - 9/10 (interesting...unusually experimental considering....)
28-October-2011
Spinout (1966) - 8/10 (really stupid, intentionally inane, dated nonsense. Highly enjoyable)
29-October-2011
"Speedway" (1968) - 7/10 (groovy sets, groovy clothes, nice footage of car racing. Overall though the plot is boring and the lead cast members (Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra) lack chemistry together. Songs are so-so and very uneven).

"Spinout" and "Speedway" are both re-watches.

If I could live forever....

2011-10-23T21:25:00.001+11:00

If I was immortal, I'd start pipe-smoking, become a swordsman, take over some country nobody likes, have myself declared Monarch, and start a jobs program involving producing new hydrogen-powered cars that look like 1950s cars but with airbags and stuff without copying an exact model. Everyone would win!

I'd also watch the complete UCLA collection of DuMont Network shows to fill-up my spare time.

Well, that was an unhappy night

2011-10-08T03:02:00.002+11:00

Last night I couldn't get to sleep (I prefer being awake during the night anyway, but I was so tired in this case that it wasn't a good thing), kept having broken sleep, couldn't get awake enough to do anything, and each time I got to sleep, I had a weird dream about going to the toilet (including one toilet that looked like it was wearing shoulder-pads).

Needless to say, I won't forget that night for some time, despite my efforts at doing so.

Conclusions

2011-09-15T12:17:00.003+10:00

I've come to the conclusion that, if I robbed a bank, stole a car, or stepped on their blue suede shoes, people would be less upset with me than if I said something positive about the CD-i multimedia system/game console/CD player/whatever.

Sure, it's a not a great console, or a good console, in fact it isn't really a console at all to a large extent, but still....it does have "Zenith" and "Cartoon Carnival"!!

The world has gone insane again, but at least I got an Atari 7800

2011-08-10T02:39:00.003+10:00

The world may have gone insane yet again (this is getting silly), and the previous moments of insanity, while inane & annoying & awful, at least resulted in some interesting movies themed-around the insanity (though it is still early, so there is still a chance for such films). Until the world stops being insane (well, at least going back to the normal level of insanity again), I can amuse myself with an second-hand Atari 7800 I've had for some months. Good system, love being able to play those old Atari 2600 classics (except a few by Tiger like "King Kong". Which isn't a classic game. Though it isn't that awful either...) along with the 7800's own games. The problem is that I only have 3 games for the 7800: "Donkey Kong", "Donkey Kong Jr" (how come we never got to meet Mrs Kong?), and Asteroids, a stunning and very *different* port of the arcade classic (my 7800 has the game built-in). Still, 3 is hardly enough, and as such some homebrew might make things a bit more exciting. Maybe "Beef Drop"?

Run for Your Lives!! Another post about a strange dream I had

2011-07-11T11:54:00.002+10:00

I couldn't think of anything interesting to post, so I'm posting this. Um, yay?

This was over a week ago, and the following was written down after I woke up.

I can't remember the first half or so of the dream.

Me and the members of the Beatles (who were visiting Australia) were trying to put our photos in a photo album, but bootleggers kept stealing them. We went to a recording studio to get some privacy. On the way there, me and another person were taking the strange-looking plastic things off the vinyl records (which looked more like Floppy Disks). We got to the studio, which had the ability to record Paul's violin, but there was still too much noise coming in from the outside. Meanwhile, the Beatles had turned into ABBA, who were in Australia making a feature film. I had won a contest to be with them while they were recording an album and making the film. They had no privacy while they were doing test recordings of songs like "Thank You for the Music". Scenes were shot an a historic mansion which gave ABBA special magic powers, and another place, but there were still privacy problems. ABBA, desperate, decide to go shopping for the most "common" and "cheap" clothes they can find. I am told by them they'll be back in a minute. I decide to go with my grandmother to a video game shop. At the front of the store are some shooting games that come with a Wii nun chuck. I look at the PSP selection, but the titles are very uninteresting, consisting of ports and tie-in games. The 3DS selection looks cool, but many of the most interesting titles are pre-orders. I was not planning to get any second-hand titles, as I have enough as it is, but I end up looking at the PS1 selection (too many racing games and stuff like that), their Dreamcast selection is weak, but I then look at their Nintendo 64 collection. I decide not to get "Excitebike 64" due to the large number of vehicle-based games that I already have to play, and I pass on getting "Yoshi's Story 2" (a game that doesn't exist in real-life) because the high chance of the back-up battery no longer working. But a couple other titles look cool and I decide to get them. They have a selection of VHS tapes. I decide to get some, one of which is a 1980s-era home movie tape someone made of their dirt bike riding. The person at the register is annoyed at us. He gets more annoyed when my grandmother points out that they added up the price wrong on the cash register. He eventually charges us less than $30 for the whole thing, though it is worth much more, mainly because he wants us to leave before he has to say "FUM". Meanwhile, my grandmother talks to another costumer, a young boy, about baseball and he mentions that New York and Brooklyn don't always mean the same thing. The person at the store register points out that what looks like an old film reel is actually an old video tape reel. I say that I don't mind and that I still want it. On the way home, me, my grandmother, and someone else, are dancing (well, skipping) for scenes to be used in the film. I try to avoid looking at restaurant tables because I can't stand the existence of orange filter-tip cigarettes, which I think look silly. We see a large sign advertising a new single for the song "Crazy World". Meanwhile, back at the city, ABBA come across a man with corny clothes and start laughing at him with British accents. I think to myself, I should upload this to YouTube as "Even ABBA Laughs at Your Clothes". The man cancels his special store credit card at the place he bought the clothes. I think while walking/skipping/dancing home, that the only way the film could get better is if it had Gaara of the Sand. I remember that he wasn't around in the 1970s, and mention to myself that maybe they could use Kimba the White Lion or Speed Racer instead.

Last part of the dream is fuzzy and I barely remember it.

Working on new YouTube account

2011-06-18T23:47:00.002+10:00

I have plans to start another YouTube account. While my main current one, "MattTheSaiyan", consists largely of vintage/retro television footage, the as-yet-unnamed account will be focused on video games. I already have concepts for three videos I can do at the moment (a CD-i slideshow, a video about the Konix Multi-System, and a 3rd project featuring 1990s stock footage), but any other video I'd like to do cannot be done as it will be a while before I can get a decent way to capture footage from game consoles and other things.

3DS - Yay

2011-05-01T00:12:00.002+10:00

On March 31st, I got the Nintendo 3DS I had pre-ordered. So far I have very much enjoyed the system. While the classic but flawed VirtualBoy often gives me a "sea-sick feeling", I have not had any such trouble with the 3DS. The first two games I got for it were Super Monkey Ball 3D and Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition. Since then, I have also got Ridge Racer 3D and Samurai Warriors: Chronicles. Still, I can't wait for the eShop to launch, as that will make this great handheld even better. I just hope that, one day, they'll add Atari Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket Color games as well.

Another of my ever-strange dreams

2011-03-17T00:48:00.004+11:00

I fell asleep in the middle of the day and wow, did I have a strange dream! There were many different segments in this dream, as is typical of my dreams.

In one segment, Naruto and Gaara are going to a mountain. They had heard that inside the caves is a large stash of SNES cartridges. There had once been around 10,000 of them inside , but many of them had since been stolen or decayed. They get there, and find large market-like stalls/tables fillled with games, not just SNES, but also NES, Atari 2600 and many others. Eventually, they leave, having got several games from the caves and buying two Lava Lamps. Gaara, however, decides he does not like the Lava Lamp he bought and smashes it into the rocks on the ground, causing it to explode.

In another part of my dream, somebody (who may have been a boyfriend an older sister once had) is playing a N64 "pokemon platformer" that is considered "really hard" (in real-life, a Pokemon platforming game would be a great idea!).

There was also a segment with some people from the 1800s showing dislike for a modern, bland, dull concrete bridge, and a segment where one of those people showing shown spinning, bouncing and finally running out-of-control (I suppose it was meant to provide the comic relief in the dream) going downhill, before stopping a playground where a 1940s film actress tells a brief, urban legend about an actress who had died.

Ugly buildings

2010-12-31T21:20:00.003+11:00

I still can't believe that fugly pre-fab buildings with little privacy are becoming a fashionable place to live again. It was a bad idea in the 1960s, and it's still a bad idea now. Plus the buildings are even more ugly than their 60s-era counterparts.

If they were going to bring back something from the 1960s, couldn't they have brought back something else instead? I'm sure many would have liked Merseybeat becoming a popular genre again. Though technically introduced in 1959, the original and quite cute Mini could use with a revival.

CD-i

2010-12-04T03:13:00.002+11:00

I've been playing video games a lot lately. One of the more unusual systems I've been using lately is the Phillips CD-i. This 1990s console is hated by many, but I like it. One of the oddest aspects of the system is it's use of still-photos and video footage within the games (The Golf game "Palm Springs Open" is a fascinating example of this). "Hotel Mario" is no classic, but it's no worse than "Mario & Yoshi". The version of Tetris has use of music and background video that makes it feel almost like a religious experience, which makes up for the awkward controls. "Battleship" is quite fun in single-player mode, and "Zenith" is a really good, completely original game for the system (and for once, I think, there's no use of any FMV or still-photos).

It's not a great console by any means, but it's certainly among the most interesting!

My 20th Birthday (Hope I don't sound too egotistic and selfish)

2010-10-18T12:24:00.004+11:00

I turned 20 years old on the 16th of this month.

It was an OK birthday. Kinda got what I expected as far as presents go (one great gift, some obviously discounted/cheap filler and a cool if unimportant novelty). Trouble was, I was still forced to stay home all day doing nothing and I didn't get to choose what we had for dinner. Plus the cake was awful. It's annoying being stuck at home most days because I have mild Autism. But on Thursday we went to the local shopping center (Knox City) and I got a really cool spare Atari Lynx (from Cash Converters in advance of my birthday, which is Grandmother's present. The system turned out to be faulty despite what they said at the store, but at least I have the dozen games it came with, which is what interested me the most.

But again, being home all day on one's birthday (which happened on a Saturday!) isn't good.

Guess I should still be grateful though. It could be much worse.

Not feeling well

2010-09-29T06:05:00.003+10:00

Not feeling well the last few days. Been a bit down, depressed and unhappy with a world repeating the mistakes of the past. Hope to feel better soon. Maybe that Wii game I've been needing to play, "New Super Mario Bros Wii", might cheer me up a little. Cannot watch "InuYasha", makes me more depressed. Shame, it's a good show.

Completely random and off topic note: Kinda wish Kings would stop wearing black business suits and wear more, uh, "royal" looking clothing.

Went to the Melbourne show last weekend. Got some showbags (Wonka, Garfield, other). Did a few of the games but only got consolation prizes, if that. Went on the pleasant Ferris-Wheel. Wish they had a *real* roller-coaster. Overall pretty fun to go again after not going for so long.

Again, Hope to feel better soon.

I just woke up from a weird dream trying to predict the future

2010-09-19T21:33:00.002+10:00

Well, at least I presume the dream was trying to predict the future. The whole thing was so confusing it's hard to say.

In the dream inflation is so bad that a good box of cereal costs $50 though income hasn't changed, a standard family car seats 12 people, they brought back some sort of advertising for tobacco, supermarkets let you eat food while shopping, intercontinental ballistic missiles are only museum pieces, and to have children, one hits their lover with a soft foam ball. Meanwhile, supermarkets are much larger, but have less food to choose from, and pre-made PC computers are extremely rare (though that replaced them is not mentioned). Also not mentioned is who is looking after my childhood cat named "Tom" (who has been brought back to life) while my family goes on vacation (How come in real life we never go anywhere?).

The oddest part of the dream is that the vacation is to a supermarket.

Addicted to a video-game

2010-09-15T20:09:00.002+10:00

Lately I've been addicted to the video game "Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing" for the Wii. I seem to have played it for an hour each day for a couple weeks now.

Over the years, I've been addicted to several video games. Some of these I still play often, such as "Super Mario Kart" and "Sonic the Hedgehog 2". Others, such as "Sonic Pinball Party", I don't really play anymore, though there's always a chance I'll start playing them regularly again. This is what happened with the already mentioned "Super Mario Kart".

Films I've watched lately

2010-08-02T08:58:00.002+10:00

Ed Wood (1994) - 8/10
Happy film about unhappy people
Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941) - 7/10
Not bad, not great. Good.
Smart Alecks (1942) - 7/10
Comedy-Drama-Crime movie with decent pacing and acting
Made for Each Other (1939) - 7/10
Flawed script, but watchable and entertaining
Spice World (1997) - 7/10
So Wrong, It's Right
Dial M for Murder (1954) - 8/10
Stylish film made largely on one set
Clambake (1967) - 7/10
Pleasant if shallow Elvis Presley musical-comedy
Bean (1997) - 6/10
Not bad but not as good as the television series
Easter Parade (1948) - 8/10
Charming Technicolor Musical
Space Jam (1996) - 8/10
Better than Family Guy, though that isn't saying much
Flubber (1997) - 6/10
I've Seen Worse
Chicken Run (2000) - 7/10
Pleasant and Cute
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) - 8/10
Makes time travel really fast
The Story of a Dress (1964) - 7/10
Decent promotional short in B&W though it promotes a colour film
The Harvey Girls (1946) - 7/10
OKish movie musical

The filmed I watched since monday

2010-07-24T20:16:00.002+10:00

The Wild Engine (1915) - 7/10
Watchable little action packed silent
Gretchen the Greenhorn (1916) - 7/10
A tad slow at the start, but has a great ending
The Breath of a Nation (1919) - 9/10
Very weird and strange
De-Light: Making an Electric Light Bulb (1920) - 6/10
Has historical value but is dull
Skyscraper Symphony (1929) - 9/10
One of the most fun films of all time
Shaw Talks for Movietone News (1928) - Unratable/10
Hard to rate, but very watchable
Head (1968) - 9/10
Very strange and amusing
What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City (1901) - 8/10
Not a bad short though a little overrated
At the Foot of the Flatiron (1903) - 9/10
A lot goes on in this very simple film
New York City 'Ghetto' Fish Market (1903) - 9/10
Very "busy" and filled with detail despite nothing that could be called a plot
From Leadville to Aspen: A Hold-Up in the Rockies (1906) - 9/10
Historical-value but not for casual silent fans
The 'Teddy' Bears (1907) - 2/10
Average film ruined by horrible ending
Children Who Labor (1912) - 7/10
Decent enough melodrama
The Flute of Krishna (1926) - 6/10
Only worth watching for early colour
Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (1925) - 4/10
Utter Nonsense
Clash of the Wolves (1925) - 7/10
Better than I was expecting
Now You're Talking (1927) - 7/10
Decent but not great cartoon
A Bronx Morning (1931) - 8/10
Interesting arty-film about life in the great depression
The Band Wagon (1953) - 8/10
Fun well-written musical-comedy
Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory (1897) - 6/10
Simple but does not out-stay it's welcome
Life of an American Fireman (1903) - 7/10
Odd editing, but has entertainment value
Panoramic View, Aisle B, Westinghouse Works (1904) - 9/10
Excellent camera work and filled with movement
Girls Winding Armatures (1904) - 7/10
Interesting as stock footage for later reuse
Falling Leaves (1912) - 7/10
Well-made and cute little drama.
A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor, Star of 'Kid Boots' (1923) - 5/10
Not very funny at all
President Coolidge, Taken on the White House Grounds (1924) - 1/10
Awful president gives awful speech in this awful film
Inklings, Issue 12 (1925) - 8/10
This is an amusing cartoon
Lady Windermere's Fan (1925) - 7/10
Pleasant drama-comedy, perhaps a little too long though
Cockeyed: Gems from the Memory of a Nutty Cameraman (1925) - 7/10
Really cool special effects
The Pleasure Garden (1925) - 6/10
Generic silent film drama, and that's a good thing
The Sealed Room (1909) - 8/10
More fun than a semi-automatic weapon
Mabel, Fatty and the Law (1915) - 6/10
Forgettable silent comedy
The Rough House (1917) - 7/10
Funny comedy short starring two famous people
Mabel's Dramatic Career (1913) - 6/10
Decent silent film about silent film
Fatty Joins the Force (1913) - 5/10
Unfunny but the star makes it watchable
The Bangville Police (1913) - 7/10
A very cute little comedy
Love, Speed and Thrills (1915) - 7/10
Good generic Keystone short
Throw Momma from the Train (1987) - 8/10
A fun film
Roller Boogie (1979) - 9/10
The "Citizen Kane" of Inane 1970s disco movies
Alcohol and the Human Body (1949) - 7/10
An old educational film with little artistic value but lots of historical value
Atomic Rulers of the World (1965) - 7/10
Enjoyably, endearingly bad movie
Jack Buchanan with the Glee Quartet (1930) - 7/10
Amusing Nonsense
A Crime Does Not Pay Subject: The Luckiest Guy in the World (1947) - 7/10
Well produced stylish short
The Hick Chick (1946) - 8/10
Funny comedy short
Solid Serenade (1946) - 8/10
Funny animation with Tom (who sings!) and Jerry
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) - 7/10
A bit heavy-handed, but good
The Airport (1948) - 8/10
Not a bad film, simplistic, but not bad.

The list is slightly incomplete. Many of these films are shorts. I am stuck at home all day with autism, hence why I can watch so many films.

The films I watched on DVD during the last 7 days

2010-07-18T11:51:00.002+10:00

Many were shorts, but some were features. A few were re-watches, but many I watched for the first time. Here are the films, my ratings and opinions.

One Body Too Many (1944) - 8/10
Cute unimportant comedy
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) - 9/10
One of my favourite films
Suspicion (1941) - 9/10
Fun
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894) - 6/10
Meh, dull
Annie Oakley (1894) - 9/10
Exciting and fascinating
Buffalo Dance (1894) - 3/10
Poorly-made and inane
Bucking Broncho (1894) 6.5/10
Not bad, but not great either. Edison made better shorts.
The Suburbanite (1904) 2/10
Unfunny and Overrated
The Wizard of Oz (1939) - 11/10
More fun than a semi-automatic weapon
Electrical Power (1938) - 7/10
Interesting Promotional short
The Country Doctor (1909) - 8/10
Cute little drama about death
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910) - WTF/10
No Comment
Ziegfeld Follies (1945) - 9/10
Wonderful Mess
Admiral Cigarette (1897) - 1/10
Unwatchable and annoying
Buy an Electric Refrigerator (1926) - 5/10
Good idea badly executed
The Stenographer's Friend; Or, What Was Accomplished by an Edison Business Phonograph (1910) - 7/10
Well-made advertising
The Invaders (1912) - 7/10
Interesting drama despite slight story

Many of these were on the DVD box set "More treasures from American Film Archives". The list is missing one film which I didn't add to the list I've been keeping.

Hyundai Getz and Ford Laser

2010-07-08T14:21:00.003+10:00

My grandmother (born 1928, named Gladys Brownlee) got a brand new Hyundai Getz a few days ago. So far she likes the car a lot. It's not that bad looking, actually. I hope it will last a long time for her. She's a good driver and looks after her belongings. Her previous car, an old late-1980s/early 1990s Ford Laser, will now be my older sister's car (Kim Argall). I have asked mother, that when my sister herself gets a replacement car, that I can add the Ford Laser to my random collection of old things.

I am currently considering uploading some photos I took of grandmother's car to Wiki Commons.

The Films I watched last week

2010-07-04T04:31:00.002+10:00

Carefree (1938) - 7/10
Mannequin (1987) - 6/10
Tickle Me (1965) - 6/10
Thank God It's Friday (1978) 8/10
Back-Room Boy (1942) - 9/10
Jetsons - The Movie (1990) - 10/10
The Man Called Flintstone (1966) - 9/10

"The Jetsons - The Movie" is unusual, in that the cuddly animals that appear towards the end look a lot like the Monchichis (another Hanna-Barbara cartoon), while Judy's boyfriend looks dangerously close to "Zarbon" from "Dragon Ball Z" (though this is certainly just a coincidence).

Also, while I enjoyed the movie and music of "Thank God It's Friday", I also can now understand why the disco backlash happened.

I Had Another Questionable dream last night

2010-07-01T13:48:00.002+10:00

Mum was driving me and my sister home from school (though neither of us have been at school for years), and while driving home, she seemingly died at the steering wheel, but we didn't notice because of the automatic-driving system used by the car. When we finally noticed, our seat belts disappeared and I turned into Fred Astaire for a few seconds. Our seat belts came back, at which point we were in the parking lot of a Mexican shopping mall (in real life we are Australian). A fake doctor said that our mother was OK, though by this point she had turned into a vinyl-record. Some real doctors came in and mother came back to life, but now looked like 1980s actress Shelley long

I don't remember much of the rest of the dream.

Michael Jackson's posthumous world domination

2010-06-29T18:45:00.003+10:00

It's a shame Michael Jackson had to die for him to make a comeback. His albums are selling like hotcakes (a few, like "Bad" and "Thriller", are outselling hotcakes in some markets), even "Blood on the Dancefloor", the shamefully over-looked 1997 album, has gained new-found appreciation.

But it doesn't stop there. Jackson 5/Jacksons albums are finally starting to get the respect they deserve. Even Rebbie Jackson's first two albums have been reissued.

The real question, is how long this continues for. I hope it's not a fad, and continues forever (just like it has for Elvis Presley).

One of my favourite songs ever

2010-06-14T21:53:00.001+10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsJfakLlkl4

This song, "The Calendar Song" by Boney M., is one of my favourite songs ever. It's fun, happy, bubbly, inane, stupid, dumb and fun.

I hope that it will one day become the next rick roll.

It's Good!

Movies I Watched Last Week

2010-06-14T13:27:00.002+10:00

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (9/10)
Very enjoyable, cute story.
Groundhog Day (1993) (9/10)
Funny and nostalgic.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) (8/10)
Very nice stylistically.
Hyde and Hare (1955) (7/10)
Decent comedy cartoon.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) (4/10)
Poor useless remake.
Streamlines (1936) (7/10)
Good footage of old cars.
The New Janitor (1914) (6/10)
Mediocre silent comedy
The Pirate Movie (1982) (7/10)
Campy and fun.
Hook, Line and Sinker (1930) (7/10)
A little slow in the middle.
The Bat (1926) (8/10)
A little confusing in the middle.
Speak Easily - 9/10
LOL.
The Awful Truth (1937)- 8/10
Very glossy and shiny.

Should I Laugh or be Shocked

2010-05-29T14:51:00.002+10:00

http://i46.tinypic.com/10h6iif.jpg

I mean, over 4000 results? Then again, Milton Berle's, uh, thing gets nearly 20,000 results on Google. Should we laugh at the silly nature of this? Should we be worried people care about such things? Should I be worried I searched this on Google to begin with?

Internet Problems Again

2010-05-22T00:36:00.003+10:00

One of the telephone cables where we live is in bad shape and as such the Internet has been very poor for the family lately. It's slow at times, and at other times doesn't work at all. We are paying for a broadband service that barely works. It's very annoying. I don't really spend that much time on the Internet compared to certain other people who shall remain nameless, but at times, what should take 1 minute takes 10.

What I've Been Watching on DVD lately, Part 3 of 2010

2010-05-22T00:32:00.002+10:00

I recently watched some feature films on DVD, which were "Grand Hotel", "How to Marry a Millionaire", and "The Ghost Train" (1940s British film), all old classic movies. They were all enjoyable.

I also watched some documentaries on baseball (very low budget and tacky), and I am currently watching season 2 of "Married...With Children".

After that, I plan to watch more old movies, and "InuYasha" season 1.

I Sure do Listen to a lot of Music

2010-05-10T07:08:00.003+10:00

It seems like each day I listen to over 100 compositions each day. Of course, I'm stuck at home all day with autism, and I enjoy other things like going for walks, watching DVDs, playing video games, reading, etc. However, music often gives me so much joy that I combine them all: Watching music videos, playing video games with music in the background, etc etc. It's a lot of fun and I do have a lot of music on my iPod.

I Wasn't Aware God Had a Singing Career

2010-05-08T15:00:00.003+10:00

http://www.last.fm/music/Rick+Astley

Rick Astley is a popular singer-songwriter known for his singing of Stock-Aitken-Waterman songs like "Never Gonna Give You Up", and for his own compositions like "She Wants to Dance with Me". He also recorded fine covers of songs like Don McLean's "Vincent". After being a hit factory during the late 1980s, he made a comeback when people started linking randomly to his "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video. Today his place in history is assured, both as a Internet meme and as one of the best manufactured pop singers of all time. He occasionally performs live to this day.

Brief Video Game Review - Tetris (CD-I)

2010-05-07T17:56:00.002+10:00

The version of "Tetris" for the Phillips CD-I isn't as good as the GameBoy or NES versions, but it's decent enough, and a lot better than some later attempts which tried to change the formula too much. But even the CD-I version is flawed, due to changes made to the game play, that result in a game using quick/short levels instead of the preferred "endless" and "Fill a certain amount of lines" modes. This harms the version badly, but the version is salvaged by some decent background music (but again, the original Tetris music, a well-known classical piece, would have been preferred), and some appealing eye candy (though it's an acquired taste). Overall, I'd give it 6/10.

My Top 10 Favourite Michael Jackson songs

2010-05-07T17:50:00.002+10:00

My top 10 favourite Michael Jackson songs are:
1. "Speechless" (should have been a single!)
2. "Man in the Mirror" (love the message and his singing)
3. "Just Good Friends" (a fine duet with Stevie Wonder)
4. "Is It Scary" (underrated!!)
5. "You Are Not Alone" (I love both the original and the "Blood on the Dancefloor" remix)
6. "Dear Michael" (obscure mid-1970s cut)
7. "Smile" (a fine cover!)
8. "You Rock My World" (catchy and dancey!)
9. "The Lost Children" (a lot of people hate this, but I love it!)
10. "Stranger in Moscow" (should of been a bigger hit!)

How many people can upload the same thing?

2010-05-07T17:42:00.002+10:00

If you go on YouTube, you'll see that many people are uploading stuff from the Internet Archive and uploading it to YouTube. Normally, there's nothing wrong with that, but there's too many people uploading the same videos. How many uploads does one need of Prelinger's commercial collections? It's getting out of control.

Make Sense of this Dream!

2010-05-07T17:31:00.001+10:00

Last night's dream certainly had star power. Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Willy Wonka and some characters from "Dragon Ball" all appear, and the dream had many plot twists and sets. Sadly, all this doesn't hide the lack of a good plot line, or that the plot twists were annoying and dumb. The entire cast is wasted, with Goku & friends wondering around a shopping center and trying to find a psychic while trying to find hidden messages in a road sign. Judy Garland was missing her hands and played a woman nearly murdered by her husband, but contributes nothing to the dream's plot line, except to remind me of the evil of another, unnamed character. Elvis Presley's character appearance amounts to a cameo, in a plot line about how I'm convicted of a serious crime while my father cannot find his tickets to the boxing match between Elvis and somebody else. The whole thing was a big budget dream with a storyline that went nowhere.

Tractor Crushes Truck

2010-05-07T17:27:00.002+10:00

Video I uploaded on my YouTube account, a Clip from the 1930s film "Earthworm Tractors" in which a truck is crushed by a tractor. Whoops!

Songs I Listened to in the Shower Today

2010-05-07T17:20:00.003+10:00

I had a somewhat long shower, though we do re-use water for the garden. I used Dove Soap, some unimportant shampoo, and some nice Colgate toothpaste (not sure exactly which one). Anyway, I listened to the following songs:

I Feel Good - Boney M.
Wait - The Jacksons
More More More - Andrea True Connection

While drying my hair and brushing my teeth, I listened to two Swinging Blue Jeans songs, "Three Little Fishes" and "Tremblin'". All songs played were good, though my copy of "Wait" by the Jacksons was a little quiet so I could only hear the vocals clearly, the music was hard to hear.

Last night, I had a strange dream featuring ninjas

2010-05-04T14:25:00.001+10:00

In this less-than-intelligent dream, I was training to be a Ninja, and me and several other trainees were taken to some fugly abandoned concrete mansion to find some important documents, while there I found a Atari 2600 and a Sega Saturn, and I got permission to salvage the consoles from the building, which were taken into the ninja-teachers 1980s station wagon. We then went back into the building, found some more old video games (including a copy of "ET"), and then it turned out a friend of the former owner of the building was secretly still living there. The Ninja teacher got into a fight with him, killed him, and I saw the Ninja-teacher defeating the enemy on a TV screen he had put a magic spell on. After that, we all went back to the teachers office.

It was one really strange dream.

When it comes to ebay, little is more annoying than....

2010-04-28T01:38:00.002+10:00

On eBay, there are few things more annoying than being out bid during the last few seconds of the auction. I was bidding on four Neo Geo Pocket games, and each one, I was out-bid during the last few minutes. It's was annoying because I really wanted them. Oh well, that's the internet I guess.

I had a strange dream yesterday

2010-04-27T02:37:00.003+10:00

My last dream featured many things, among them, a machine that would bring up pieces of stock footage within seconds matching your request. I requested for "car crusher", "tank crushing car" and "wrecking ball". The first got lots of footage clips, the 2nd got two clips and it could not find any footage related to "wrecking balls". The footage it did show were, in the dream, taken from old commercials and promotional films.

I also dreamed that I was watching an old kinescope of a 1950s soap opera with signal issues and the episode ended a story arch that was actually something that had happened to different characters (and not in a soap opera) earlier in the dream. Also, all the furniture in the dream had a button that, if pressed, would cause the furniture to shake. This was supposed to be a new, useful feature. LOL.

Other things happened in the dream, including several strange scenes featuring eBay and a Asian food shop, but these were the highlights.

Strange thing happened some minutes ago

2010-04-26T03:32:00.003+10:00

I was listened to Michael Jackson's "Blood on the Dance Floor" album, issued around 1997, and while listening to the final track (a clever remix of "History"), I could, for a brief moment, smell the washing machine my mother had around the time the album was released. It was a strange experience, if a banal one, and I enjoyed it however brief. Maybe I should listen to the album more often, it might help me remember other old smells.

I might be getting a Phillips CD-I second hand soon

2010-04-25T21:46:00.003+10:00

A friend of my father has one he wants to sell, He tried to sell it on eBay but got no bids, but he found out I want one, so I am buying it from him. It's not a great video game console by any means, but it's an interesting item, and I can't wait to use it. It comes with 5 games including "Tetris", and I am fairly excited. I do wonder if I'll be able to get more games for it.

Oh No! Another "what I've been watching on DVD' posting!

2010-04-20T12:56:00.002+10:00

So lately I've been watching some 1950s TV ("Meet Corliss Archer", Volume 4), some anime ("Dragon Ball", season 3), and some glorious movies (1930s B-Comedy "Earthworm Tractors", 1930s musical "High Cat", no, not "Top Hat", and 1970s hit "Grease"). All very enjoyable. I like watching DVDs a lot, though I must say I want to get a Blu-Ray player soon for my HDTV.

Michael Jackson Play-Day Group

2010-04-18T08:57:00.002+10:00

On Last fm, there is a group called "Michael Jackson Play-Day Group", the idea being that, every April 25th, the biggest fans of Michael Jackson on the website dedicate a day to listening to his music. I amn, uh, thinking of "attending", so to speak, since I love Michael Jackson's music a lot, from the Motown era to the "Invincible" era. Also, I can't wait for unreleased songs from the vault to be commercially released, there must be plenty of gems we've never heard.

eBay - What I bought lately

2010-04-10T16:29:00.005+10:00

I recently started using eBay (signed up last week), since then I've bought a second hand Sega Master System 2, an Atari 2600 Jr with 15 games in OK condition, a copy of "Casino Games" for the master system (I once had a master system before, and still had about 7 or so games for it), these have come in the mail. Things I bought that have yet to come in the mail include "Speedball" for the master system, and "Tetris 2" for the SNES.

Musical Things I want to Happen

2010-04-03T19:11:00.001+11:00

I want a Frank Farian solo album.
I want Debbie Reynolds to write a song.
I want Michael Nesmith to create a project of his favourite modern-day artists performing newly written songs by him.
I want a 2nd Peter Tork solo album.
I want a new manufactured pop group consisting of 3 Bisexual Jewish furries.
I want Betty White to release an album of her singing.
A album of ABBA songs performed in the style of the Sex Pistols (actually, I think there have been punk covers of ABBA before, which sounds like something I should check out).
An album of Pete Best and Ringo Starr duets. .
An album of somebody singing Michael Nesmith songs while imitating the voices of popular cartoon characters.

Things I've been watching on DVD, Part 1 of 2010

2010-04-01T22:35:00.003+11:00

Not that anyone cares, but I like watching DVDs. Some minutes ago, I finished watching a *fun* DVD of a Michael Jackson concert called "Live In Bucharest". Other things I've been watching lately:
"The Patty Duke Show", Season 2, which is wonderful and brilliant
A Milton Berle DVD, Volume 3 of the 3 or so Alpha Video have released
"Saved from the Flames", A DVD compilation of old short films (my copy turned out to be partly defective, but much of it was still watchable)
Baby's Day Out (I watched this movie a couple days ago and enjoyed it. It bought it very cheaply at a supermarket!!! LOL)
Dragon Ball Season 1 (very cute, plan to watch season 2 once I finish Patty Duke season 2)
Sonic the Hedgehog - Fight for Freedom (4-episode sampler of the lovely 1990s cartoon classic).

Notes on this blog

2010-04-01T22:08:00.002+11:00

1. I changed the timezone I used on this blog a few minutes ago.
2. *Please*, Internet Archive, archive my blog often!
3. It's gonna get even less focused than before during the next few weeks
4. My last few postings,m I forgot to use spell-checker.
5. Hi!

I Got a New Kitty!

2010-03-29T22:58:00.000+11:00

The Cat's name is Jeice, isn't it a cute, cuddly kitty?

A lagrer version can be seen here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Kitty_2010_Ginger.JPG

The cat was named after the DBZ character. The cat is playful, male, had that little operation, and likes to sleep a lot. It's so sweet!

I had a strange dream recently with demons, hotels and stuff

2010-03-24T08:47:00.000+11:00

A few nights ago (probably on the 21st or 20th) I had a strange dream while asleep. I've forgotten much of it, but I remember a few parts like:

I starting watching a tape of an old movie. It the movie, Gene Wilder sings "Pure Imagination" while scenes from "Super Mario" games are shown. Then, a demon-like cult leader kills a random man by setting fire to some cloth in his room. He runs a hotel. The other people there get suspicious quickly. They decide to confirm he's really a demon monster. They do this by creating a trap where if he attempts to enter a large flashing room next to a cliff that would be tempting to a Devil-worshiper. After his identity is proven, he chases them across a town, by the Hotel occupants hide from him by buying some magazines at a service station at which they buy some magazines and some antique fabrics. He then gets near a cliff. They try to pretend to jump off the cliff so he'll jump for them, but he doesn't get it fooled. Then, Goku from DBZ appears, takes the monster to the Prehistoric era, where an error in time causes the monster to vanish completely (at various points in the dream, the cult leader confusingly goes from a well-dresses 1930s man, to a devil-looking man, to a giant Dinosaur). Then, I seemingly wake up and decide to post about dream on my blog, but that also turns out to be a dream.

Confused? Good. Would it make a good movie?

I typed this pretty quickly so I probably made some spelling/grammar mistakes.

Yesterday I bought some records

2010-03-19T15:45:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I was at another (a different) charity shop and bought some second hand records.

The Following are 12-Inch 33RPMs:
Go! Hammond Go! - Wally Green (EMI)
Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits - ?? (MCA)
Tribute to Burt Bacharach - Various Artists (including Herb Alpert, The Carpenters, We Five, Burt Bacharach, The Sandpipers, and a bunch of others) (Summit)
Strolling Down Broadway - Wilber Kentwell at the Console of the Bourne Electric Organ (Columbia)
The Sound of the Seekers - The Seekers (Columbia)
You Don't Bring Me Flowers - Neil Diamond (CBS)
The Jazz Singer - The Neil Diamond (Capitol)
David Soul - David Soul (Private Stock)
Even Now - Barry Manilow (EMI)

The following is a 10-Inch 33RPMs:
Waltzing Among with Mantovani - Mantovani and His Orchestra (Decca)

The Following are 10-Inch 78RPMs:
Adventures in Arabia - The Continental Symphony Orchestra (Captiol)
Little Smokey, the Runaway Train: A Story with Music and Sound - ?? (Narrated by Robin Morgan) (Phillips)
Peter Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty - The Continental Symphony Orchestra (Captiol)

The following is a 10-Inch 45RPM:
The Story of Noah's Ark and David and Goliath - ????? (Merucry)

Here are some links to some photos I took of the records:

http://i41.tinypic.com/9iy82g.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/flh5pl.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/vfxrmh.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/adni8k.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/ml42a1.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/1zzmivc.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/116t9ww.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/24uyzbn.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/2z5vs07.jpg

I hope the photos I took turn out OK

2010-03-13T00:08:00.000+11:00

Some time ago, perhaps a couple of weeks, I took three rolls of film with a 1999 35mm camera that loads automatically. I'm still waiting for the films to come back, for reasons I don't really understand (mother says she put the photos into the K-Mart film developing service, whatever that means). I hope they turn out OK. I'd love to see what I took photos of, because I've kinda forgotten. I know that I took both indoor and outdoor photos.

I'm soon getting a new Kitty

2010-03-12T09:23:00.000+11:00

I've now got the things needed for a Cat, and my bedroom is ready to handle one. My mother says that within the next few weeks, I'm soon to get a new cat. My previous cat, named Tom, died of old age some time ago. I hope to get an orange kitty and name it Jeice (Get it?). I hope the kitty is friendly but playful and really stupid but smart enough to be kind and gentle.

I had a strange dream last night

2010-03-10T21:46:00.000+11:00

I cannot make a event-by-event posting of the dream, as I've forgotten much of it and it was badly disjointed. However, it included, among other things:

A scene involving Hanna-Barbera's 1970s classic "Scooby Doo's All Star Laugh-a-Lympics" launching a satellite which is near a Soviet and/or Russian satellite with bombs on it.
A scene involving "Dragon Ball Z" character "Master Roshi" owning a car-repair shop and Goku angering people by destroying/badly damaging their cars.
Me trying to find old second-hand video games at a Salvation Army shop.
Me getting angry when many iPods on my bedroom-floor start playing music without me knowing they are playing music because they don't have headphones inserted, with me having to turn them off and checking to make sure they didn't waste too much battery-power (I keep record of what songs I play on my iPod in real-life and am addicted to my iPod, which is probably what lead to this sequence).
Three teams of people trying to get some buses across some wetlands.
Me building a tower out of Plastic Jenga blocks (this scene lead directly to the iPod scene).
A Japanese restaurant with a black-and-white picture of the Japanese Emperor.

If nothing else, it was a truly International dream, if one that seemed to imply I was stuck in the past. For the record, the last thing I did before falling asleep was listening to "Beatles for Sale" by The Beatles. (repost of thread I posted on Internet Archive)

I had a strange daydream a few hours ago

2010-03-05T02:15:00.001+11:00

...I daydreamed that years from now, NASA had sent men and women to Mars. While on there, they discover two Aliens, one male and a female, engaging in sexual activity, and started to take photos of the aliens....The alien-man looks angry, starts to attack one of the NASA's astronauts, notices the astronaut are humans, writes down on a peice of what looks like a scrap of paper, saying that they are Aliens from another solar system, who can handle the mars atmosphere, and came to mars not expecting for anyone to see them there, and have avoided human contact, like most aliens, hoping to wait until they thought humans were reading to meet them. Realising that the NASA astronauts have video cameras sending footage straight to Earth, the aliens look sad and depressed, but write down that they are willing to visit Earth.

I bet $5 that somebody has already used this somewhere, whether as a short-story, a show, a movie, or a comic book. But if they have, I haven't seen it.

Yesterday, I bought some more old records, yay!

2010-02-26T06:50:00.000+11:00

"Run for your life" because I know you don't care what I bought!

One 10-inch 78RPM:
La Rinka (Berke and Hurndall)/The Royal Scots Polka (Denholm, arr. MacLeisir??) - Jimmy Shand and his Band (Parlophone)
One 12inch 33RPM:
Hammond Pops, 28 Hits on Parade - Klaus Wunderlich (Telefunken? Or is it Decca? I cannot tell)
One 7-inch 45RPM:
Torn between Two Lovers (P. Yarrow-P. Jarrell)/I Just Want to Love You (R. Sharp) - Mary MacGregor (Ariola)

I also bought 3 CDs, which I'll talk about later (before you ask, I do buy stuff from CD shops, amazon, iTunes, etc, but second-hand charity shops are FUN and make me feel GOOD!

Also, I bought 3 old CD-Singles at the Salvo shop:
Tears in Heaven: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack Rush - Eric Clapton
Blue (Da Ba Dee) - Eiffel 65
Macarena - Los del Río

Yay for me!

Not that anyone cares, but today I bought two 78RPMs at a antique shop

2010-02-21T15:32:00.000+11:00

"Why" (Schapiro-Fayne)/"Secret Love (from the Warner Bros film "Calamity Jane)" (Fain & Webster) - Slim Whitman, Vocal, with Instrumental accompaniment (London records)
"Shrimp Boats" (Howard & Weston)/"Lovely is the Evening" (Webster & Weston) - Jo Stafford, Vocal, with Paul Weston and his Orchestra, and the Norman Luboff Choir (Columbia records)

Good choices or not? I also got a vintage coin: An Australian Florin from 1963.

I Can Only Hope this Doesn't Last

2010-02-20T20:14:00.001+11:00

Since about Thursday, I've been unable to get any real sleep, or do much apart from laying it bed. Occasionally, though, I've been able to do some basic things for a few hours. This is one of those hours. But, my mind has asked me over 15 times now:
If werewolves ate Air Supply, would they get gas?
Yeah, I'm bored out of my mind. I can only hope I get some real sleep soon or at least genuinely wake up.

Archiving the Net? It Is Not Always Easy

2010-02-19T05:22:00.000+11:00

(Note: this was first written to be posted on the Internet Archive. I changed my mind, and am posting it here).

I tried to use one of those web archiving things (in this case, "Webcite"). Now I've used these before, so I know pages don't always have wonderfully. But I ended up submitting at least a dozen different Googles from around the world hoping *one* of them would archive with the pretty Winter Olympics image. I've done this before since they started having the pretty images (I like submitting pages to be archived), and most of the times it worked, even if it meant submitting 15 Googles from the around the world, just to get a few that worked OK. This time, only one worked, and just barely. I know Google probably keeps these images somewhere, but they are so pretty, I wanted to have copies as they were view as of the time they were most notably used. But gee, these web archiving services don't always work well. Then again, they are all sadly underfunded.

(on an unrelated note, I'm sure I made many grammar mistakes as usual. I never know when to use a ' and when not to, among other things).

(Yeah, I know, I'm using "Webcite" for reasons it wasn't supposed to be used for. I still say it's a good reason to submit a few Google sites)

Uh, I Really Didn't Like 2009

2010-02-05T17:32:00.001+11:00

I didn't like 1999 much either, but that is besides the point. I've said a lot of things about 2009 since the year began. If you are one of the few people who read them, you'd know I've said a lot of things, some of which contradict each other. Now, weeks after the year ended, my basic opinion of the year is the same: It stunk. If it wasn't as bad as say, 1943 or 1918, it was still yet another year that fell far below the most meager of expectations. Like the rest of the 2000s, 2009 contained some of the most despicable aspects of the past revived, presented as new and glorified despite being complete disasters the first time around (or, in the case of Urban Renewal, being complete disasters the first two times and just as unappealing in its 2000s version as well). Even with they revived a thing from the past that had appeal, it still wasn't enough to make for the blandness and annoying nature of a decade that was praised while it was happening for things that the same people criticised for happening in the past, and if I'm repeating myself on this post, well that's exactly how the whole year felt like: A gigantic re-run. No, re-runs can be fun, so make that a Remake. A Very bad remake.

Feeling sicker than ever

2010-02-03T20:07:00.000+11:00

Not that anyone cares, but lately I've been feeling more sick than usual. Everything, from watching TV, to eating dinner, to walking to the milkbar, to buying things online, is making me unhappy and depressed. Of course, I have asked for medicine that actually works, but they want me to wait until I've had work on my teeth. I've been waiting for that dental work for months now and I've sick of waiting. I am incredibly bored, depressed, annoyed and annoying. Note how I mentioned "bored". This depression makes me bored because I feel too depressed to do many things.

Uh, no, I'm not emo. I have several mental illnesses, and frankly, I'm sick of being depressed...Depression is extremely boring.

Bye Bye Foxtel, Hello Set-Top Box

2010-01-31T13:47:00.000+11:00

My parents (remember, I'm still a teenager) had our "Foxtel" cable cancelled because we couldn't get the signal most the time (it seems to have been fine for a few years then became increasingly worse as far as signal-quality goes). So, now I'm to watch TV through a set-top box (my father re-added an Antenna to the house). I am curious what I'll be watching on TV during the next few months. Some of the shows listed look kinda interesting.

Light Bulb

2010-01-29T01:25:00.000+11:00

Last night, while I was watching a silly 1950s sitcom in my bed, one of the light bulbs in my room shattered, leaving glass all over the floor and my bed. Several of the pieces came shockingly close to my eyes. Luckily, I was almost completely unharmed except for a small cut so minor that it didn't bleed. Still, it was a close call, and I don't think anyone in the household will be buying that brand of light bulbs again. Really, a light bulb that shatters for seemingly no reason should not be on the market. (FYI, the light bulb was one of the several new kinds that are becoming more common. I can only hope most other brands of these new variations are much safer).

Dress like a Prince, Prince!

2010-01-21T07:22:00.000+11:00

Am I the only one sick of royalty wearing business suits? The entire point these days of, say, the British or Swedish monarchies, is to be ceremonial. So, and I might be alone on this, I think they should *not* dress like a boring businessman. I say the same of women...Princesses, in my very biased opinion, should, uh, dress like princesses. Then there is Prince Charles of the UK, whose clothes would be BLAND and DULL for any person, let alone a member of royalty.

Humpty Dumpty

2010-01-17T13:37:00.000+11:00

Obviously, this version of "Humpty Dumpty" is far better than the BBC's version:
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a big fall
All the King's horses and All the King's men
Trot on him.

LOL.

So, a few days ago I was at a Salvo shop (Audio Cassettes)

2010-01-11T04:14:00.000+11:00

One of these stores that sells second-hand products to raise money for things. As a result, I now have Lou Bega's "I Got a Girl" in CD-Single format. While looking through the cassette piles, I also picked up Milli Vanilli's less-than-wonderful "All or Nothing (US Remix Album)" purely to annoy people, plus two rather good old classics, Kraftwerk's "Autobahn", and Paul McCartney's "Tug of War". I had wanted to buy some Vinyl but the vinyl section was dreadful (yes, even more dreadful than Milli Vanilli). I hope to see what they have this week.

Waiting for Medication

2010-01-09T04:53:00.000+11:00

For some reason, I have to wait until after I go to the Dentist before I can start new medication. However, that has been a problem, because it had already taken a long time and I'm still waiting to go the dentist. I have mental problems. I'm suicidal at times. I have massive mood swings. I need help. Do you understaaaand?! They don't. I just hope I go to the dentist before I do something I'll regret.

Spare Change

2010-01-08T17:16:00.000+11:00

I have, for several days now, been putting my spare-change from my trips to the local shops into a coin-jar. So far, that has become about $AU21 or so. These coins date as far back as the 1960s to last year. I don't know what these coins will be used to acquire, and I'm debating whether I should donate the money to a charity (for the record, I currently donate about $AU30 a week of my approx $AU177-a-week disability income to charity).
Whatever the money is used for, I'm amazed at how quickly spare change can build up (it would be even more in terms of coins if they still had 1-cent and 2-cent coins in Australia).

Retro Gaming with my Wii

2010-01-01T12:55:00.000+11:00

I really don't have an actual social life (then again, does anyone in my generation have one? LOL). So, yesterday, I decided to play my Wii and play some of the virtual console games I have not played much, such as "Mario & Yoshi", "Excitebike", and "Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts". All enjoyable, and entertaining. I also played a recent "official" remake of "Arkanoid" released via WiiWare, which during the last few days has become one of my favourites. Curiously, my gaming was cut short when a major storm started around 8 or 9PM. I was worried the power would go out mid-game, so I quickly finished the game I was playing ("Mario & Yoshi"). Anyway, I plan to look at Wikipedia's list of WiiWare games, as I plan to buy one or two with points I have (Note: I have a bit too many Virtual Console games, so now I want to start getting some WiiWare games instead).

(I am worried this post is even duller than my usual posts, but it has been a while since I last posted, too long in fact. I should also note the timezone given by Blogger isn't the one I use myself).

Misquoted

2009-12-17T09:25:00.000+11:00

On the Internet, I am amazed by often often I'm misquoted on sites like YouTube, IA, Wikipedia, IMDb, etc etc such as when I'm the message boards or posting a comment/review. I am becoming convinced some people misquote me on purpose purely to annoy me and other people. That, or they have *even worse* reading ability than me (is that even possible?). I've seen people do this to many other people. Lately it seems as if being insulting is the popular trend these days. Even fairly mundane news articles get misquoted (such as a while ago on Gamespot, when a news story about Microsoft no longer doing repairs on the first Xbox got interpreted by the readers as being about "Microsoft no longer producing the console", a new story/event that had happened a long time before).

Older Posts/Blog Name Change

2009-12-10T15:27:00.000+11:00

Some of my older postings here were deleted by me lately. There are various reasons for being deleted: Sometimes I change my mind on a subject, sometimes I regret a post, and in most cases, the resulting post is deemed a "waste of space". I am pretty sure the Internet Archive still has copies of most of these threads, which is good. This will continue for a while.

I have changed the name of the blog. It was formally called "Yetanotherdamnblog47".

Archiving the Internet, Part 1,396,847 (ok, not really)

2009-12-10T15:13:00.000+11:00

Due to the Internet Archive removing the "Archive-That!" function, I've instead been using "Webcite", another service, to make archival copies of important (and not so important) webpages. This includes many Wikipedia pages (I'm currently trying to get copies of each message they are using to get donations), some of them topical, some of them not, and while the Internet Archive makes copies each year of many Wikipedia articles, I prefer having exact copies of exact versions of exact pages.

I have been wondering if Webcite pages become viewable in IA's "Wayback Machine" (I have asked, but that was months ago with a "we'll see what happens" sort of answer).

Oh Dear, I Had Another Wacky/Crazy Dream

2009-11-23T18:03:00.000+11:00

I fell asleep at around 6AM, and, well, maybe it was the candy (an imitation "rice bubble bar" coated with a thin layer of chocolate from a cheapo supermarket), maybe it was the episodes of "Are You Being Served" on watched via DVD, or maybe it was the episode of the 60's sitcoms "Batman" and "The Double Life of Henry Phyfe" (and no, I'm not saying where I got copies of those shows), but I had a really crazy dream last night. I'm not going into every detail since my memory doesn't remember the exact order, but lets just say I never knew:
Dragon Ball Z (especially Prince Vegeta and his hair), My Mother's bad habits, Radiation, Inedible food, Royalty, Spongebob Squarepants, The habitability of extra-solar planets, Wii Game "Super Paper Mario", a floor that needs cleaning, Staying up late, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Driving late at night, Nintendo DS, The Afterlife, and the country of India could be combined into such a confusing, annoying dream that defies explanation.

Trying something new

2009-11-22T18:50:00.000+11:00

I recently acquired about a dozen recordings by an music-artist named " Huepow00". I found out about him/her/it/them purely by accident. I was randomly looking through what people have tagged across the websites I usually visit. I, out of curiosity, clicked on the artists name, and I said to myself "Hey!! I don't have any of that genre! I need it now!!". The genre is basically modern-style "dance/trance" sort of music. I decided to listen to it while I went with a relative to pick up dinner and other food items (including, strangely, a chocolate cake. Ah, but will that cake be good? I never know until I try it in a few minutes. That applies to all stores, even the one I was at, the cheaptastic "ALDI" supermarket!). OK, back on topic. I listened to it. I enjoyed it. Maybe not something I'd play everyday, but when I'm in the mood for it, it'll be there. It will be fun to listen to (with my headphones so I don't wake up everyone) late at night when I can't sleep...

The Wiz (1978) - I Like It

2009-11-14T19:43:00.000+11:00

I recently bought the late 1970's musical-film "The Wiz" on DVD (a second hand copy, probably an ex-rental) and found it to be OK. Personally, though I enjoy her as a singer, I found Diana Ross's acting to be annoying. Michael Jackson's acting though was surprisingly decent. I liked the set design and music more than the script. My favourite sequence was a long scene involving dancers all wearing the same colour dancing near the WTC and the colour they were wearing changing suddenly at the command of the "Wiz". It does appear this film has had something of a "cult following" for a while (a cable channel which has since declined in quality called "TV1" showed the film in the late 1990's as part of the "Groovy Movies" programming block) but with the sad recent death of Michael Jackson, the film has had a significant revival in popularity. Which is cool, since though the film is flawed, it is still (at least to me) a fun escapist popcorn flick.

(I do wonder though, why the pillars in one building started attacking the lead characters, but I guess that isn't important.

Computer Replaced

2009-11-08T22:26:00.000+11:00

My previous computer, which had come to the point that it refused to shut down on some occasions, has finally been replaced. The newer computer uses Windows 7, while my previous used XP. The change in operating system was largely to make sure I'd be able to user the "latest"software out there. Personally, Windows 7 seems OK, it will take a while for me to get used to it (I only first used it a few hours ago!). It took a long, LONG time to transfer all my files and documents to the new computer...Getting is right took several painfully long hours. These hours were painful largely because of reasons unrelated to computing...It was extremely hot today, to the point that I got dizzy just standing up. Even now, at 10:31PM with the ceiling fan on, it is still pretty warm. Most of the computer-work was done by my father and older sister (the younger of the older sisters). It will still take a while to get everything back to normal...But at least I have a computer I know will shut down!

Power Went Out Again

2009-11-07T19:51:00.000+11:00

As usual, there was yet another power outage, this time a few hours ago. It lasted over an hour. Usually, where I live, there is a long (over 50 minutes) power outage usually about once a month. Shorter outages, some of which last less than 5 minutes, usually happen about once every 2 or 3 weeks.

It is quite annoying, to say the least. The quick ones, which usually occur in the middle of the night after most have gone asleep, are worse than they would seem at first...Any alarm clock that uses mains power instantly resets itself.

(In what almost counts as irony, the power went out a second time just before I was gonna press the "publish post" button. The 2nd power outage lasted less than 15 minutes, and luckily, Blogspot had saved most of the posting before the power went out)

The Blogspot equivalent of Filler - Last Night's Dream

2009-11-04T16:34:00.000+11:00

But frankly, until the dream I had last night, I wasn't aware the subconscious could combine the following into a single dream:
Pirate radio broadcasts, Russia, Sim City, Demons, Elvis Presley movie songs, Union labor, McCarthyism, A Bus, Stale Food, Rubber Balls, Early Television, 1940's Pop Music, Pet Cats, and Dragons being hatched in eggs.

Needless to say, the dream was quite...something. It may have been caused by me watching an episode of "Calvin and the Colonel" followed by a few episodes of "Bewitched" and me playing the Wii game "Mega Man 9" before going to sleep. That, and the pizza I ate.

Been Watching Elvis Films

2009-10-25T14:57:00.000+11:00

I've been watching various Elvis Presley films lately. Such as "Wild in the Country", "Follow That Dream", "Double Trouble", and "Charro!". Here are my opinions of these four films:
"Charro!" - Decent western, but the DVD release had very poor video and sound.
"Wild in the Country" - Very Good, well-produced drama.
"Double Trouble" - A fascinating mess. Never before has so much plot been put into one silly -musical-comedy. Enjoyable nevertheless.
"Follow That Dream" - Much to "sedate" for my taste. Plot line a bit dull.
I enjoyed all four films, though. With the exception of "Charro", they all had excellent picture and sound.

My Birthday

2009-10-18T00:39:00.000+11:00

I had almost completely forgot the 16 of this month was my Birthday. The presents I got: A small refrigerator, a fancy clock, $AU 40 in cash and some DVDs. It didn't really feel like a birthday to be honest..perhaps since I got the main present some time in advance. Meanwhile, on Thursday 15th, I found some 110 film at a Camera shop, and spent some of my own money (to get a second hand Gameboy Pocket for $AU19.95, among other).

"Pyramid" Revival on Nine Network (Australia)

2009-10-10T12:49:00.000+11:00

Lately I've been watching the Nine Network's (Australia) revival of the classic United States game show "Pyramid". The new version, unlike the original, it largely aimed at children. Nevertheless, it is still an enjoyable revival and a lot better than the shows that follow it on the schedule (News, "Antiques Roadshow", "Hot Seat", news again). To make something clear, the Nine Network affiliate I receive is "GTV-9 Melbourne", and I presume the other affiliates of the network around Australia may have the show at a different time and may follow it with other content (The show itself appears to be produced in Brisbane ..on a side note, Brisbane's Nine affiliate is QTQ). The new version is certainly low budget (both sets and prizes), and in some ways that is a good thing..One can get sick of the over-polished/shiny nature of television in Australia these days, though the show would be better if the prizes were more significant.

Issues with Last FM website

2009-10-04T10:15:00.000+11:00

I have been having troubles with the Last FM website (an online radio and music recommendation service). Lately, tracks by many artists that were streamable a week ago have since ceased to be streamable, while some have become streamable again a few days later, while others haven't, with no clear logic behind any of it. While there are cases of record labels and artists requesting their songs to be removed, the nature of what has been happening lately is erratic and confused (example: One album, "Off the Wall" by Michael Jackson, is completely playable/streamable except for Track 1, and this doesn't make any sense since he never did any re-recordings (though there was some lackluster "Thriller" remixes a couple years ago) and stayed on the same label from the late-1970's until his death, more or less).

The Internet Archive? Still Problematic

2009-09-25T16:26:00.000+10:00

The "Internet Archive", a popular site for video, audio, text and archival copies of webpages, has some serious issues. The moving-image part of the site has not been updated in over 40 days, and though the "Wayback Machine", a collection of old webpages, was updated a couple days ago, all requests for infomation on the other sections have gone unanswered. It appears that the staff have either quit or just plain aren't doing anything.

Which is a shame, since there are many items people (including me) have uploaded that few can find because of this lack of updates.

Six Images of the IMDb Film General Board from 2006

2009-09-15T09:03:00.000+10:00

These six screenshots were made of the IMDb Film General board in late 2006. They come from my private collection of images that I have collected since 2006. I have nearly lost these images several times, as I've had my computer "re-built" several times since then. I had these images uploaded as part of a post I just made on that very same forum.
http://i27.tinypic.com/sg4l75.png

http://i30.tinypic.com/6dsd3d.png

http://i27.tinypic.com/2qdr1vq.png

http://i26.tinypic.com/29en34h.jpg

http://i25.tinypic.com/oj1lyt.png

http://i26.tinypic.com/20k2e7a.png

Sometimes I Wish I Had a Life!!

2009-09-08T16:38:00.000+10:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm bored. My life has for several months been stuck in the same repeating cycle (which is also applies to my blog). Everyday I wake up, start listening to music, then maybe have a shower (usually, if I have a supermarket), listen to more music, play the Wii (usually while listening to music), eat dinner, sometimes play the Wii some more (usually NOT while listening to music), then watch a DVD (usually a sitcom). It's gotten monotonous, and I want my life to start going in a different direction. That, however, may take more months to happen.

DuMont Network Episode Status - Most Surviving

2009-09-03T04:58:00.000+10:00

This post will list the handful of DuMont Television Network programs with a significant number of surviving episodes. Here is it:
"The Morey Amsterdam Show" (1948-1950)(71 or so episodes existing, nearly complete run. Note: The series first 13 episodes aired on CBS)
"The Johns Hopkins Science Review" (1948-Disputed) (186 episodes, all from the DuMont version of this program, are known to survive at the university which produced and funded the program).
"Life is Worth Living" (1952-1955, continued over ABC-TV until 1957) (Unclear, but possible complete run exists. It is the only DuMont Network series currently in re-runs)
"Rocky King, Detective" (1950-1954) (37 episodes survive at the UCLA, a few more survive at other collections. 4 episodes of this show were released on DVD by Alpha Video, and these four episodes are on the Internet Archive and YouTube, and probably a few other websites).

Curiously, I Still Remember (Part 2)

2009-08-28T16:10:00.001+10:00

More odd memories from when I was a little child:
1. I remember that when I first saw the mid-90's movie "Independence Day" on TV, I disliked it ALOT.
2. My two sister's first computer was a Packard-Bell with Windows 95 and featured a nifty program called "Navigator".
3. I can sorta remember when my family got it's Super Nintendo. I was home from something (I presume mum took me home from school as I was very young) and walked in the door, and aw my two sisters playing a game.
4. When I was 6 or 7, I had one of those cheap digital organisers, with calculator, address book, phone directory, and other stuff (why I had such a thing at such a young age, I dunno).
5. When I was 3 or 4 (maybe 5), an accident at a Petrol Station left me needing urgent attention at a hospital or something.

Odd little memories, aren't they?

Curiously, I Still Remember

2009-08-26T15:55:00.000+10:00

Due to concerns over my memory, I'm gonna use this blog to note some of my very oldest memories:
1. I remember watching an Australian game show, featuring both a "blue team" and "red team" that aired as part of ABC-TV's kids line-up (the show also featured a gigantic faceless doll, "EC". My sister Casey at one point had one, though obviously much shorter than the one in the show!). Later research found the title of the show: "EC Plays Lift Off", and it aired when I was 3 years old or so. At the end of each episode, both teams would be given a certain set of prizes (with the winning team getting better prizes than the losing team). In one episode, and remember I haven't seen the show since I was 3, a kid from the losing team picked up a prize for the winning team!
2. In either 1993 or 1994, my parents had the carpet cleaned with a large cleaner that soaked the carpet in water, and had two water containers, one clean, one dirty.
3. Back in kinder garden, there was a kid (I think a friend of mine) who almost always wore suspenders (this was circa 1994/1995).
4. When I was 6 or so, I found it peculiar that some cousins had the last name "Cooper". Odd, because of the video game characters named "Koopa Trooper".
5. When my family went on a vacation to Tasmania (I was around 7, so circa 1997), both me and my sister took our "Tamagotchi" toys with us. I have a photo to prove it!

Mario Kart Wii

2009-08-26T15:40:00.001+10:00

A couple of days ago I bought the Wii version of the Mariokart series of video games. Released in 2008, it cost me $AU69 of my own money (though it was my dad who picked it up, since I'm autistic and 18, and thus unable to drive to the store). I've played the game for over 2 hours now, and it's a real good game. Though parts of it are on the cloying side (such as the level designed like a shopping center/mall), I still found much to like. Also of note to me it that this game is the first I've played against random people online. It's fun, since you can't Argue with each other and whether I win or lose, nobody knows it's me, which prevents any embarrassment on my behalf! I have made a few recordings of my playing the game, it order to compare how my skills improve over time.

(On that subject, I wonder why Video Games cost so much where I live (Australia). Is the Australian currency really bad or something? A few weeks ago a store had the same game at the cost of $AU100!)