bucketFountain

The copy of Revolution OS I ordered has arrived and it is great!

This is great, the Microsoft movie Halo (which is being made in Wellington) is being produced on Linux servers.

Went to Dig! last night – awesome film. Funnier (nearly) than Spinal Tap, and waaaay more rock’n'roll than Some kind of Monster. It’s about the Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. The Brian Jonestown Massacre were pure rock’n'roll – chaotic and high as kites. In contrast the Dandy Warhols are pussies. Great entertainment and great music.

In other news, I am now exclusively using Linux on the laptop. Still a few things to sort out, like power management (standby problems mostly). But URPMI has been a Linux changing experience and must be one of the best kept secrets of Mandriva linux. I’ve also installed Debian on a mate’s server (which has been highly entertaining), and Debian is also awesome. Debain’s equivalent of URPMI is apt-get. It too is bitchin’ and appears to offer a few advantages over URPMI.

If you’re a nerd who loves your software then Revolution OS is the doco for you. In fact, I’ve watched this film twice this week with three non-nerds and they also loved it as much as I did. It plots the rise of Linux and free/open source software. Lots of hyper-intelligent guys with beards, long hair and ethical business practices.

Watching a film called Roger Dodger. I can see why some people liked this, but it’s risky making a film with a main character that is a twat/arse. Roger is supposed to have a type of charm but it is lost on me. He is less annoying than at the start of the film. The film is completely absurd. Swingers covers the similar ground of ‘picking up girls’ but it is funny and charismatic. This was described as a ‘black comedy’, but this is just sad….

Have watched three vids – “Une pure formalit? (A pure formality)” in which Gerard Depardieu is held in purgatory for his suicide. Reclusive writer Onoff (Depardieu) gets a lesson in the dangers of what happens when you shave your majestic beard.

“Waco – the rules of engagement” a doco showing the shocking incompetence and brutality of the ATF and FBI in Waco. An eye opener as I really knew so little about the Branch Davidians other than the one-sided sound bites of the time.

And we’re half way through a picture about Tammy Faye Bakker (the ex-wife of Jim Bakker the tele-evangelist) called “The eyes of Tammy Faye” . Once again, I knew nothing about her but this doco outlines her positive characteristics, and she seems quite likable although I’m sure that she’s no saint.

Check it: The Power of Nightmares by Adam Curtis. A great doco about the role of fear in modern politics, looking at neo-conservatism and radical Islamists. It challenges a range of conventional notions such as the presence of an organised terrorist network like al-Qaeda and it sheds light on the neo-conservatism.

Just saw ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’. Rockin’. It made me want to smoke dirty cigarettes though. Best scene: the one with RZA and GZA of course. Peace god.

I’ve been lucky lately to see so many amazing films, and I’ve struck gold again with Sexy Beast. It’s a British Gangster film with big bollocks. Highlights include: Ben Kingsley, the music, the story, the cinematography….

“I know your face. You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in pictures. You used to be big.”

“I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”