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Little Miss Sunshine - (possibly my film of the year)

You could argue that I have rushed into that headline, with little thought for other films ive seen, but hey im putting it out there - top 5 at the very least.

Little Miss Sunshine, is the story of the disfunctional Hoover family who are attempting to get their little daughter to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.




The ensemble cast is stunning, Greg Kinnear plays the father who's a wannabe motivational speaker in the Tony Robbins mould - only he can't get his 9 step programme produced. Toni Collette plays the mother with a focus on open dialogue and honesty - this is easily her best effort ever. The "it" man of the moment Steve Carell features as the suicidal gay academic uncle - who even failed at suicide, Alan Arkin almost steals the show as the dodgy heroin snorting grandfather - without ruining the film, the dance routine he teaches the daughter had me in tears. Then there are the two stars of the show - Dwayne and Olive, the two kids. Olive is the glue that holds the family together - she dreams of winning Miss America, and Dwayne is the teenage son who "hates everyone" and has taken a vow of silence until he gets into the airforce.

The story follows the family from New Mexico to California in their VW van, which ends up having to be push started, and at one point the horn won't stop!

Its one of the most touching/hilarious films you could see this year. Little Miss Sunshine is a great film - i give it a big 5/5. Check it out

Official site
IMDB site

Christmas Party

Normally our office Christmas party is one of two things - dinner at a restaurant, or a bbq at Prem House.

The bbq is better - as people can bring their families etc and we can play Cricket on the backlawn, but it means someone has to cook it - ruining the evening for someone. The downside is that you always get people who complain about both anyway.

So this year it fell to me to pull together our party. So this is the plan - its gonna kick ass btw. I have organised a spit roast company to do the food - $23 a head for 3 meats, 5 diff salads and desert (pav) a kick ass price - and $17 under budget! Instead of Cricket, we're gonna play Kilikiti (Samoan Cricket), everyone will get a lei (flowery thing around the neck if ive spelt it wrong) and a lavalava! And the ultimate part - I know a woman in the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra (pictured) so im trying to get them to perform!



How kick ass does that sound?? The boss probably wont be there for the Kilikiti, but im sure she'll love the Ukulele's!

NB Note Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords, hard left in the pic!

Brilliant!

Got to love those North Korean's!

Apparently they are locking up handycaps and midgets, a human rights report has said "Midgets are not allowed to reproduce and they are rounded up and relocated."

As funny as it sounds (dont lie you know it is) these are real human rights abuses - one question though - under his own rules, how is Kim Jong Il not locked up in one his own camps!

Herald Article

In other news its a long weekend - Labour Weekend, celebrating the fourty hour working week and other such great workers achievements. Im doing sweet FA to celebrate (I am in Rotorua next weekend though to make up for it).

Wellington play Waikato in the final of the Air New Zealand Cup - part of my role now is to do the Boss' messages of encouragement to NZ representatives (eg Ive faxed off messages to the Kiwi League Team and the Black Caps today) I was thinking should I create trouble by encouraging the Wellington team over Waikato? Well not that they'll need it! Tana and Jerry have been dominant during the playoffs - smashing both Auckland and Canterbury.

Log!

Quite rightly

They call me Mello Yello

You better believe it, its back in all it's goodness

As soon as I had my first taste today all the memories flooded back!

Larry David

Im now seven episodes through Curb your Enthusiasm's fifth season.

Curb is essentially the life and times of Larry David - who wrote Seinfeld and was the basis for the character of George Costanza.

In the episode im currently watching Larry is hosting a seder - a jewish passover function, naturally nothing is simple - a sex offender moves into the neighbourhood, and after making conversation with the offender in the street, Larry invites him to the seder. The best bit though is when he justifies it to his gentile wife Cheryl by saying "What would Jesus do?"

Larry is pretty much my hero and Curb is one of my all-time top 5 favourite shows.

Curb your Enthusiasm
Seinfeld
Im Alan Partridge
The Office
The League of Gentlemen

UPDATE: At the end of the last episode - aptly named The End, where Larry donates his kidney to longterm friend - Richard Lewis. Larry dies due to complications in the surgery, and he meets his guardian angels - played by Dustin Hoffman and Sacha Baron-Cohen. I think this was the first time I had ever heard Sacha Baron-Cohen speak properly with his normal accent - id only ever heard him as Borat, Ali G or the French dude in Taladega. Gotta love those cameos. Oh and btw Larry pisses Dustin Hoffman off so they send him back to earth.

Women dress up when ovulating??

I know WTF?

Check this article from todays Herald - a US study has shown that women dress up when they're ovulating.

A study of young college women showed they frequently wore more fashionable or flashier clothing and jewelery when they were ovulating, as assessed by a panel of men and women looking at their photographs.

"They tend to put on skirts instead of pants, show more skin and generally dress more fashionably,"

Lovely stuff

WRX - Caravaners car of choice!

Subaru may have failed to win the WRC since last century, but they've got something to show for their work.

The WRX has been voted 'Towcar of the Year 2007' by the Caravan Club of the United Kingdom.

Hell yeah!

I imagine its rather like being crowned a Lego champion - not exactly something you're gonna note in your CV is it?

Song of the week

Time for something a little lighter...

Ive just been re-listening to Ryan Adams' latest album 29. I bought it months ago, and gave it a bit of a go back then - but didnt really rate it. On second listen its grown on me.

So my song of the week - Blue Sky Blues - absolutely stunning, it almost matches La Cienega Just Smiled from Gold.

Now I would link to his website - but what a load of old bollocks that is, yes it looks cool - but just try to navigate it! Go on then Google it!

InDecision 08

No not NZ, but the US. Today I picked up a copy of The Daily Show's InDecision 04 - their coverage of the 2004 Presidential election.

As usual with The Daily Show, its fairly cutting satire - and with candidates like George W and John Kerry - they had a fair bit to work with!

W. cant stand again in 2008 - so there will be completely new candidates - which is nirvana for people like me!

So who's gonna run for the Republicans? (Bush's/bad guys)and what about the Democrats? (good guys)

Republicans
Arizona Senator John McCain is my front runner - stood against Bush in 2000 for the nomination. Former NY Mayor Rudi Giuliani is the other option, I think he's too close to the war/terror image. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has been talked up, but I dont rate that idea. Governor Jeb Bush (the younger brother) could be a dark horse.

My pick - either a (President/Vice Pres) McCain/Bush or McCain/Rice tickets, although my money would be on the McCain/Bush - it covers both the centre/liberal ground (McCain), while keeping the religous right happy (Jeb Bush).

Democrats
After selecting such a pathetic-no backbone candidate in 2004n(John Kerry), they can only get better!

The current front runner is New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton. In theory this would be fantastic - forgetting the blowjobs, Clinton was a good President, and Hillary was a key ingredient of that administration. However im not convinced Hillary is electable - dare I say it, she would be just as polarizing as Bush, which doesnt solve anything really. Other options include John Edwards (VP candidate in 2004) and John Kerry (Useless Presidential candidate in 04) neither is particularly exciting.

So who? Al Gore has stormed back into contention following his surprise doco film hit An Inconvenient Truth, and after winning the popular vote in 2000 (but not the vital Electoral College), I rated Gore in 2000 - he didnt campaign that well, but he was probably the best VP ever. I wasn't sure he could come back though - but I think the film has been a useful vehicle. Illonois Senator Barack Obama could be an outsider - he's a first term Senator, but an incredible speaker - high profile and relatively young, not to mention - Black! He is only a first term Senator though - so maybe VP looking to build for a later Presidential run?

So my Dem picks - Gore/Obama would be fantastic. Clinton will be strong though, Im not convinced she could win though, and after 8 years of W the Democrats must win.

So my pick is McCain/Bush versus Gore/Obama. Now what a race that would be!

Flight of the Conchords- Business Time

Crap line up - even worse headline

Now I am marginally interested in the Big Day Out line up - but the reason for this was TVNZ's headline to announce this, but we'll come to that later.

The bands announced so far are as follows - Tool (a little bit past it?), The Killers (good), Muse (dont really need to comment), Jet (good), The Violent Femmes (great as long as they only play their old stuff.... that wont happen will it) My Chemical Romance (bollocks), Eskimo Joe (are they still alive?) Peaches (who?) and Spank Rock (again who?) are the internationals. Naturally its padded out with a shitload of mediocre NZ stuff - Scribe, Evermore, The Mint Chicks (who people rate), Minuit, The Veils (who are huge in Britain) and the excellent Shapeshifter.

Like most years there are bands Id like to see - but as a package its not worth the effort. Gnarls Barkley are rumoured to be on their way too - but this is unsubstantiated.

Now the headline - The Forecast is for Rock at BDO '07

Champagne sub-editing there TVNZ!

Screw You Orlando

Ive been meaning to post this for a while, but a colleague was talking about how he ruined another film - so here it is!

As the song says he couldnt act his way out of a paper bag - but check out this hilarious track about Orlando Bloom - aptly named F U Orlando, My Girlfriend she wants to....

There's a free preview at Amplifier or you can pay $1.99 for a higher quality full download.

What a nerd

Im putting it out there.

While passing through the airport yesterday.... for my delayed flight to Auckland, I dropped into the CD&DVD Store and bought Off the Rails on DVD.

Now for those who don't know, Off the Rails was Marcus Lush's excellent doco series about trains in New Zealand - while this sounds awfully naff - its fantastic. Im convinced Marcus Lush is like a modern day John Clarke or Barry Humphries.

So there you have it! I like crazy docos about nut case NZers. Also who knew we had one of the great railway engineering wonders - the Raurimu Spiral. Its a classic bit of kiwi problem solving - in short they were building the main trunk line in two groups - one coming down from Auckland, and the other moving up from Wellington - only thing is that where they met was a steep rise - so they built the Raurimu Spiral.

I love these great crazy kiwi stories!

The day today - its all good stuff

Mello Yello has been re-released for a limited time by Coca Cola - Rock the Casbah! But anyway that wasnt what this post was gonna be about.

Well firstly - what was this guy thinking!?!?! It should probably be noted that in New Zealand, or Japan for that matter what this Congressman did would be perfectly legal - not entirely moral, but legal.... and its the moral point thats key. What I can't understand though is why can't they keep it in their pants?? The best bit of this is that the guy who did this, was behind the legislation that banned grooming of minors over the web! Which means he could now be put away under the legislation he created and promoted!

Now for some web goodies - White Heron Dairy in Parnell, Auckland has set up a blog - not sure you could find a more useless/kick ass blog??

While we're on about crap/funny/great websites check this puppy out - possibly the ultimate in design. (make sure you have your sound on - its totally worth it)

Now finally, while posting this I have been watching the very excellent/nerdy Mythbusters they have been looking at whether a Matchbox toy car would beat a real Dodge Viper on a gravity powered downhill run. They also tested how fast a Matchbox toy car could go before the wheels disintegrated. It got to 85mph which is about 136kph, before the car flew off - the wheels were fine.

Also here's something to ponder - theoretically could a plane take off on a conveyor belt??

Oh and the toy car won the downhill run over 100 feet.

Spooks in the Valley

Thirty years on from NZs great spy moment, the SIS agent who snapped a Russian spy is releasing a book on what happened and what a traitor the spy was.

Tonights Sunday show had an interview with the agent, and went into the whole thing. Basically at the height of the Cold War - while Vietnam was still going strong - in 1976 a young SIS agent was trailing a known KGB dude from the Soviet embassy, when he saw him hold a clandestine meeting with another guy - outside the Karori Bowling Club. It turns out the other guy was Bill Sutch, who was a high profile public servant, and former NZ Ambassador to the UN.

The SIS then trailed Sutch for another month or so, and one night was seen handing over a package to the KGB - which is when the SIS struck, arresting Sutch for Treason! The cool thing about this, is that the arrest took place in Aro Valley. The handover was witnessed by the War Memorial at the top of Aro St - where Raroa rd begins, and the arrest took place outside the public toilets, which were pulled down in 2000 - its where the clothing drop off bins are now.

To mark this site, there is a park bench next to the clothing bins, with a plaque on what was the back wall of the toilets.

So there you have it - NZs greatest spy episode took place just down the road from my place!

Sutch was acquited of Treason (the KGB agent managed to get away with the package - meaning there was no tangible evidence). Sutch denied he was a spy right up till his death from cancer a year later.