Movie: The Wolverine, in 3D

If there was ever an actor who was born for a role, it is Hugh Jackman with Wolverine.

Interestingly, he came to the role late. The original choice of director Bryan Singer was Russell Crowe, but he asked for too much money. Then followed a whole bunch of big names that were associated with the role: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Edward Norton, Vigo Mortensen, Gary Sinise, Keanu Reeves and Aaron Eckhart. The role eventually fell to Dougray Scott, but he couldn't do it because of Mission Impossible II.

Enter Hugh, who seems to be a really nice guy in real life, and the rest is history. The Wolverine is a very worthy addition to the X-Men film universe.

The film begins with a bang, literally. Logan (Wolverine) protects a Japanese soldier from the bomb, the Nagasaki atomic bomb at the end of World War 2. The film then jumps forward to the present day where that same soldier has become a very powerful Japanese industrialist, and has been searching for Logan for the last year. He's dying, so Logan decides to pay him a visit. This is where things start to go bad for the Wolverine.

What follows is a real wild ride. The fight on top of the train is frenetic and brilliant. It's probably the standout sequence of the whole film. The ending was a little bit soft, but that's not to say it was bad by any means. It's just that moments before, there was a big fight scene, and the climactic fight scene was a little bit less than that. Maybe they ran out of money to make it any bigger.

This is a great film. I came out at the end feeling pretty good. I see there is another X-Men movie coming soon, again directed by Bryan Singer. I can't wait.

Bronte

I've been playing with Paintshop Pro some more...

This is Bronte, walking across the cricket practice nets down at the park. I experimented with carefully blurring different parts of the picture to get an unusual and interesting visual effect. It's great fun learning how to do things like this:

Movie: 3D Pacific Rim

First of all, I'm very glad that this movie was made by Guillermo del Toro and not Zach Snyder. Mr Snyder, whose Man of Steel was way too over the top for me, should have a look at this movie to see just how to combine kick-ass special effects and action scenes with a fantasy story.

This is great entertainment, even though at first look, giant robots saving the world from aliens from another dimension sounds a bit childish. In fact it is childish, and the kids at the screening I went to loved it, but that doesn't mean that adults can't call up their inner child and enjoy it as well, perhaps on a different level than kids would.

I enjoyed playing the "Now, where have I seen that actor before?" game. A lot of them are TV actors, probably to keep the cost down, and most of them appear to be British. The only actor that I knew straight away was Ron Pearlman. The lead actor, Charlie Hunnam, is somebody I have never seen before. but he is an example of perfect casting. The lead actress, Rinko Kikuchi, was in a film called Babel (was she the one who took all her clothes off?). And there were two actors who I knew, but just couldn't quite put my finger on where they were from. So when I got home I jumped straight onto the IMDB to do a little bit of research. One is Clifton Collins, who played Thomas in one of my favourite shows from a couple of years ago, The Event,  and the other was Burn Gorman, who was in the short lived Torchwood.

I had to laugh at some of the attempted accents though. There are two Australian characters, one played by a British actor, Robert Kazinsky, and the other by an American actor, Max Martini. I don't think they were really trying very hard. They both sounded British to me.

The music is excellent, done by another TV guy, Ramin Djawadi, although he did the first Iron Man movie, and the third Blade movie. He did the Game of Thrones music, as well the music for a Medal of Honour video game. Quite a varied body of work.

CD: Ice On The Dune by Empire Of The Sun

I've waited a long four years for this CD...

This is another great album from the prodigiously talented Luke and Nick. First of all, I just want to say just how happy I am that they didn't just do a remake of Walking On A Dream. This CD sounds very different to the first one. Whereas the first CD has a more light and poppy sound,  this latest album has a more dense, layered sound. I don't know what they did, but they have treated Luke's voice so that it sounds huge. There's plenty of echo there. I love it. I think he sounds better on this album than on the first.

This may sound strange, but I think Ice On The Dune is a better album, but Walking On A Dream has better songs. What I mean by that is that the songs on Ice On The Dune sit better together, it flows nicely from one song into the next. The songs on Walking On A Dream are great pop songs that sit nicely on their own. I'm not sure I explained that as well as I could, but I can't think of a better way to put it right now.

There are some great songs on here that I really like a lot. The albums kicks off with a great orchestral track (which is a favourite type of music of mine), and then goes into the best song on the CD (in my humble opinion!), called DNA. Having said that, there really isn't a bad song on the whole album. My only gripe is that it's too short! I want more! I suppose I'll just have to wait for the next one now.

As usual, the art work work is superb. I have this fantasy. I've been thinking recently of getting a tattoo, or maybe a few, and I think it would be great to have a tattoo designed by Luke Steele. How cool would that be?. I don't think it'll happen though.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to get Luke to sign my Walking On A Dream CD:

Unfortunately, I've never had the chance to meet Luke in person. I have met a few members of his family though, who live not far from from me. I met his father many years ago when I was a member of the blues club and he was running it (he still does). I met his sister Katy in the park when she was walking her dog. And I know his mother. We are both members of the West Coast Eagles football club and occasionally she drives me to the games. She's a very nice lady.

In preparation for this post, I put Ice On The Dune and Walking On A Dream back to back on my MP3 player so I could compare the two while I was doing my regular long walk today. I haven't actually listened to Walking On A Dream for a few years, so I couldn't really remember what it was like. I have to say that it sounds a lot better than I remember it from the first time I heard it. It sounds really good. Standing On The Shore is an outstanding song, maybe the best on the album. And that's saying a lot considering that We Are The People is also there as well. But the real surprise was a song called Swordfish Hotkiss Night. I just can't stop listening to it. It's very quickly jumped up on my list a favourite songs.

A Few Black and White Shots

Here a few recent pictures given the black and white treatment.

A Few Abstracts

A few abstracts given the oil painting treatment.

This is one of my car windscreen just after some rain. I used the camera's macro lens to get really close to the glass:

This one is taken through the car windscreen of a tree in the park. It's in black and white. The water on the glass provided an interesting sort of filter effect:

This is an ants nest outside my front door:

Football Paintings

I have to admit I really like the oil painting function on my image processing software. I think it creates some really nice pictures.

I took these the other day.

Kookaburra

This was taken during a rain storm, just a few hours ago. I wish the rain was visible. It would have been a nice little added effect.

Anyway, the picture wasn't great. I don't think the light was good enough for my little camera, so I fired up my trusty copy of Paintshop Pro, and messed around a little with the image.

Football: Eagles v Dockers

Well, a defeat for the Eagles. Not much else needs to be said.

My Best Songs Ever, Part 4

Well, I managed to rustle up 10 more songs to add to my continually growing list of songs.

Here are the first three parts:

My Best Songs Ever, Part 1
My Best Songs Ever, Part 2
My Best Songs Ever, Part 3

I have used numbers just as a counter, but the songs are in no particular order.

31: This Is Tomorrow
Bryan Ferry

"This Is Tomorrow" on YouTube

32: Jive Talkin'
Bee Gees

"Jive Talkin'" on YouTube

33: Nightmare
Brainbug

"Nightmare" on YouTube

34: Around The World
Daft Punk

"Around The World" on YouTube

35: Don't Let Go The Coat
The Who

"Don't Let Go The Coat" on YouTube

36: Rock 'n' Roll Over You
The Moody Blues

"Rock 'n' Roll Over You" on YouTube

37: The Things We Do For Love
10CC

"The Things We Do For Love" on YouTube

38: Gloria
U2

"Gloria" on YouTube

39: Hell's Bells
AC/DC

"Hell's Bells" on YouTube

40: Girlfriend Is Better
Talking Heads

"Girlfriend Is Better" on YouTube



(For something a little different, here is a version of "Girlfriend Is Better" by the Yonder Mountain String Band:  "Another version of Girlfriend Is Better" on YouTube

Dandelion

As I was walking the dog through the park the other day, I spotted this one, fully intact Dandelion, so naturally I had to grab a few shots. I threw in a few special effects shots as well, just for fun.

My Two Favourite Dogs...

Here are my favourite dogs, little Oscar the puppy, and Ari, the big dog who thinks he's a puppy. They are both black Schnauzers, although Ari, who is 4 and a half years old, has become more silver than black. Oscar is still totally black for the moment. Oscar is only a few months old.