Greetings!

I hadn't realised the last update was so long ago!!

Things that have happened since then have included:
1) Lis and I are back together and back together jolly well.
2) 48 hours.

To expand:
Lis and I are back together. We're having a marvelous time. Not only is she a smoking hottie but he also makes me laugh and awful lot and... yeah. Apparently I'm funny. And in a sexy way. I did not know there was a sexy funny. But apparently, Yes! My days as Zoidberg are over. At least touchwood.

48 hours went rather well. We got musical which wasn't Ben nor my preferred genre - but we have the technology and the team (certainly not in that order) and what we came up with was something special. I wish I could show it to you. But that would disqualify us. So therefore suck it up and hope we win, which while delaying the awesomeness of you seeing New Fish (for that be the name of our sweet film), increases the chances of us getting phat booty.

Apart from that - at Dad's 60th in Blenheim. it is so far awesome. Also today I turned 28 and walked outside to work to see that Lis had plastered the front of my place with balloons and a giant sign that read 'Happy Birthday Dave'. Rarely have I felt so loved. It was pleasant.

She be lovely. But I don't want to curse it so instead I'll say she's alright. Yeah. ok. Nah not that interested. What you heard?

Wine is calling for euthanasia.

location: Blenheim!!! music: Dishwasher is ze background tags: rambling rambles

I think I killed my wife.

I didn't mean to. But then the screen loaded, I grew horns.

The problem was no-one took the time to listen to my side of the story.

Here's what happened. I was hanging around the temple of shadows (quite a popular place) when I thought I'd sacrifice a few of their disciples to their evil god. Wouldn't let me do this so instead I took 8 of them out for a walk, played them a song on my lute and then roasted them in fire until they burned. THEN somehow a) word gets back, and b) people think this is a bad thing. I don't understand... they were servants of evil. So my wife finds out, runs away - I run after her hoping we can patch things up. She runs into the gardens... by the time my Xbox has caught up with the drama the authorities have removed her body and taken my kid to the orphanage.

I don't know where the orphanage was.

So - and I was really angry with this - I went to the other side of the known world. Completing a job for a guy who says he wants to clean the place up. Grab some wine from a cupboard and someone starts shooting at me. So I kill them. A couple of hookers walk in. I think - why not? I apparently killed the only woman I ever... married. So I have a threesome with a couple of hookers. Apparently my shoulders are strong. Then we finish up and they see the corpse that was close by and freak out for some reason, grab a gun that didn't appear to be anywhere on their personages during the festivities and bang bang they're shooting at me.

So I have to kill them too.

By now people think I'm pretty freaking awful. Which makes me feel sad. I didn't mean to kill my wife, the strange angry homeowner or Anna and Sarah the aggressive, bisexual, raunchy, kinky, randy hookers. But it kind of happened.

I lost myself in freeing villagers from the slavers for a while. but my heart wasn't really in it.

So I do this quest for a gravedigger who's fallen in love with a 500 year old witch. Rescue her body parts (she was a witch so she'd been dismembered in a whole bunch of places) and sat around to watch the experimentation. Looked much better than I thought she would. And she obviously liked the way I looked. Gravedigger started crying but... well look everyone had been so mean to me that I wanted something I little bit special. I wanted to treat myself. And what says 'cheer up, sport' than a 500 year old undead witch?

We got married.

Somewhat confused by the fact we've had a child. Child appears to be not-undead. Child is not dead either, actually.

location: Albion mood: aggravated music: Heart-strings snnapping like a demented lute tags: xbox

I've been playing a bit of Fable 2 over the last few days. It's disturbing how attached I'm getting to my family... However I'm a little alarmed by several recent developments.

1: I moved my family to Bowerstone. Yet when I go to Bloodstone (a violent, dangerous place) my wife is already there hanging with the prostitutes. Is she trying to supplement our income? How'd she get past the banshees? Can't she leave me alone to do my job? Why is she out of the kitchen?

2) My daughter refused to talk to me. Or come inside. Or acknowledge me. Unless I gave her chocolate - in which case she ate it and kept ignoring me. This hurt the old heartstrings. So I moved us into a nicer place. She's started talking to me again. Cost me $30,000. In real life I'd bring out the old section 59.

3) My son is black. I don't know how this happened. I'm white. Missus is white. Maybe, as Todd has pointed out she has a recessive black gene. But I'm suspecting tomfoolery. Not happy.

4) I got propositioned by a hooker. And said yes. But she was in love with me and wouldn't sleep with me until we were married. She complained I thought she was a tramp. Random.

I'm enjoying the game. But suspect it's all going to end terribly for everyone. Especially my family.

No spoilers please - I'm enjoying this game far far far too much.

but I tells you - if I have one more ethnic child to that wife of mine theres going to be trouble...

location: Gregor mood: anxious music: Dave Brubeck tags: xbox

12 weeks smokefree.

Smell that? Smells like victory.
(also - I can smell again!!)

sweet.

location: Gregor mood: indescribable music: Elliot Smith - Alameda tags: excitement

Alright.

**** This post has a number of spoilers. Be warned! But you probably should see the film. Just don't if you can only see one film and you want to watch a good film****

I'm generally a fan of good things in movies. Like acting, plot, dialogue, cinematography and direction. Casting is often useful.

For all of those reasons this is a bad movie.

First up: The premise.
Something has reversed the self preservation aspect of the human brain making everyone kill themselves. Ok premise but could have been much much much more interesting had the self preservation gene simply been turned off leading to an increase in the number of deaths (due to not wearing safety belts, walking in front of cars, not turning safety on with guns etc etc).

The Acting.
In a word - terrible. Mark Wahlberg's is terrible. It's like he's hosting a kids show. Some terrible overacting mixed in with some awesome overacting. Zooey Deschanel's eyes steal the show as they dart everywhere. And a little old lady turns out to be the worst overacter since Mickey Rooney.

The cinematography:
Overall - poor. Some nice shots and some nice opening credits. Shot of people walking off building was pretty cool. But that was about it.

The script:
Possibly written by someone with the rage virus. Maybe an alien who'd never actually understood how humans interact or do... things. Its'... let's just say that Killing Spree was far, far, far more coherent.

Dialogue:
I can forgive a lot of things if dialogue is ok. And normally I'd classify this under script but due to the nature of the film it needs a special mention. And that mention is this: I am NOT a fan of the dialogue in Star Wars - except for anything with Harrison Ford, R2D2 and Chewy. And the dialogue in the prequels is truly appalling. The line 'You're not like sand' was, I believed, going to be the lowlight of my cinema going experience. I was wrong. I was dreadfully wrong. Fool. Most movies - most bad movies (in terms of script at least) - can be ratde based on the number of bad lines. That rating system does not work so instead I've invented a new system: How many GOOD lines are in this script.

The answer, sadly is none. Don't get me wrong, some of them are extremely entertaining and I had to try and stop laughing: Hotdogs, Lemon drink, The town of Princeton, Cough syrup... all were... special. And had the script been written by a deaf and mute three year old on speed suffering from premature dementia I would have possibly (depending on my mood) given it a pass. But it wasn't. So I can't. I'm invoking the power of negative numbers to rate the dialogue negative five on a 0-5 scale.

Verdict: You MUST see this film. It's a lesson in film-making.

location: The town of Princeton mood: confused music: Ben, Andrew, and Karen's laughter. tags: the happening

Winner: Best use of prop: TBALC.

We're through to be considered for the National Most Innovative Use of Prop.

Awesome.

Also nominated for Best Actress and Best use of Character.

Awesome.

So: We can't post it online. But - it's worth the wait.

Also glad cos I think we deserved to be in the final.

The regional winner was super awesome!

location: Gregor mood: vindicated music: Spooce Media's voice-soundtrack tags: 48 hours

TBALC are through to the finals.

Ossum.

location: Food mood: ecstatic music: Fiddler in Cathedral Square tags: 48 hours

It's getting closer.

And you know what?

It's going to be fragalistically explosively awesome.

Othello is going to rule.

Email Todd for audition times. You don't want to miss out on this one.

location: Gregor mood: crazy music: Where I End and You Begin - Radiohead tags: othello

Tonight the most awesome of movie binges is on. Hosted by that most awesome of movie bingers - Mr Todd.

As always - I'm a little aprehenisve.

BUT I don't think there is anything else out there that could approach the level of awesomeness. Except maybe Under Milk Wood - but I'm going to that tomorrow night so it's gonna be a good weekend.

Rock!

location: Gregor mood: excited music: Last Flowers to the Hospital tags: movie binge

Othello has a livejournal page. http://othello2008.livejournal.com/

It will update the progress of the production throughout its life (it is currently under consideration by the dramasoc committee).

Important information and updates will be posted by Todd (director) and myself (assistant director). Should be a good resource.

Please add to your friends page if you want to be kept updated.

A facebook page is also under consideration.

location: Un-named flat mood: happy music: The meaning of life tags: othello

Auckland is kinda weird.

Tomorrow I'm in de islands. And you know what that means.

You know what time is.

Oh yeah.

That's right baby.

It's island time.

I trip on a coconut but it's ok because I turn it into a sexy dance.

location: Auckland mood: chipper music: Flight of the Conchords tags: raro!