Globe trotting

I have just finished watching the amazing series Long Way Round. Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor rode their motorbikes around the world with a cameraman in tow. 20,000 kms. It was just extraordinary. I know it sounds naive of me to say but I don't think I understand just how big the planet is. Watching them go round it slowly, I was struck by the scale. And I wondered why people wanted to travel to outer space when outer mongolia is just so amazing.

The viewing of this series has coincided with me toying with the idea of going to New York. I sat in the travel agency last week and I was transfixed by the wall of brochures.

So many places.

But I've never considered Russia, Kazikstan, Syberia as travel destinations. I'm 'strictly pavement' as Woody Allen would say.
But Long Way Round at least gave me a glimpse from the couch of what these places look like and it's great to have them rattling round in my head.

Enough with the ape already!

Every year My friend Michael and I celebrate his birthday by seeing a movie together. He made me see The Lord of the Rings, all three of them. And this year I was subjected to King Kong.

I started looking at my watch even before I'd seen the monkey.

Is there something wrong with me? Why don't I get it? It worries me that I don't appreciate Peter Jackson. I just don't think he's a good filmaker. Visionary maybe, and certainly surrounds himself with an amazing technical team, even hires semi interesting actors (Adrien Brody's nose is a sight to behold). But he gets all these great elements together and then bloats the project out so much that in the end I'm left thinking - 'yeah ok scary island, bugs, dinasaurs, ape, whatever. Can I get some dialogue with this epic?'

I know I'm alone in this.

I'm just waiting for Jarhead, Hostel, Aeon Flux, X-MEN...


Happy Birthday Michael

Ramona

Heatwave Film Festival

Top Five films to cool you down

5. The Day After Tomorrow (you think our weather is bad...)

4. The Shipping News (steely drizzle, a great house)

3. Fargo - (blood looks so red in the snow!)

2. Smillas Feeling for Snow (another Gabriel Byrne Guilty Pleasure)

1. Anything by Woody Allen who only shoots in Autumn

Stay Cool Couch Potatoes

You know I should say something about the Golden Globes. I love award ceremonies and i did watch every minute of it. It's the party of the year after all. yeah, a party we are not invited to. But this year did have some higlighlights

TOP FIVE MOMENTS OF THE GOLDEN GLOBES 2006

5. Hugh Lauries speech - comic GENIUS

4. George Clooney - sigh. Funny. my pal Beck has just seen Solaris for the first time (best Soderbergh EVER) and I ventured out to see Good Night and Good Luck - a film that is just as neat as a pin. It's clean, well made, simple - elegant. Much like the Clooney I suspect.

3. Geena Davis - look I'm pretty sure that Commander in Chief is going to be a dud show. I'm a huge West Wing Fan and can only deal with one White House on tv at a time. But quite frankly I thought Geena had gone the way of Sigourney Weaver and would never work again - but she stands triumphant - all 7 feet of her.

2. Chris Rock. Smart, funny. My FAVOURITE combination in any man. I know people go on about Jamie Foxx but he's an idiot, a mysoginist (just guessin there) and he sure aint funny. chris is THE ROCK.

1. Mary Louise Parker beating all the desperate housewives - a victory for all normal women who don't do their housework in high heels.

cheers from the couch

Ramona

So little time so much television.

I worked it out once, while watching a Seinfeld marathon on TV1. eight to ten hours of tv a day, that's 70 hours a week. That's nearly three days a week on my couch. I watch probably a film and a half a day. which works out to be over 500 a year. But you know, I'm not fussy. Sure I'll try and watch every film nominated for a golden globe award, but I'll get as much of a kick out of the daytime emmys. I know what you're thinking, sad really.

Don't panic, Im not completely passive. I eat, I make things, I draw, sometimes during a particularly slow test cricket match I'll even read. I've worked out a way where I can cook, clean, garden, sew, paint, knit, write and sleep - all within sight of my Loewe widescreen tv. But there are a few things I can't do. I can't drive, I can't walk or play tennis or see a band (unless they are on tv). And for some weird reason I can't use my computer. It was geographically impossible to get the computer and the tv in the same room. So I can't read reviews, or blogs or spoilers from the couch. I know there are ways you can do it (laptop anyone) but funds haven't streched that far - I have to leave the house to work people!)

So I thought a blog was in order.
couchville.
stuff Im watching.
From the couch.