Albino Moontanning

Eight books from around my house...

20 December 2008 22:33:31

...that I am reading or hope to read soon.Kafka On The Shore by Haruki MurakamiA Happy Death by Albert CamusDracula by Bram StokerStasiland by Anna FunderOn The Road by Jack KerouacThe Transformation and Other Stories by Franz KafkaThe Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki MurakamiAkira Kurosawa - Interviews

4 months

10 December 2008 01:17:01

...since I last posted one of these babies. I had a 4 month writer's block, a 4 month drought in the brain lake, maybe. I can't remember what's even happened in that time, oh well who needs to know.I am currently on holidays, about a month in with two months until I go back to the institution of education, I'm reading two books at the moment, still too early into both to give a proper opinion, but neither are a daunting task. In the last four months I dabbled in singing in a soul/r&b/rock n roll band as well as writing solo music and lyrics, too much energy invested in it all, I'm drained.As usual, I am constantly planning in my head what comes next, where I'm heading, what I'm leaving behind, but still never coming to a conclusion. It's so hard to say without a second opinion, what I should do with myself, when I keep on looking through these tinted glasses. Boy I wish my video store were better, so many movies I want to see that they don't have there.Forever writing them, I am yet to finish a script/screenplay but I am hopeful I will have something to show for all of this before I go back to school in February. For those interested in some good films (in my opinion), they should check out my Top 50 list, still rough and not ordered but the content is pretty legit. Here.That's all I can summon up for now, I'll be back sooner than you think.

Bibliothèque accompanied by Blogotheque

09 August 2008 17:43:34

Books.Books?Yes, books.Today, my father, sister and I went to the holy grail of cheap (but usually shit) books.Dirt Cheap, Collingwood.A haven of new books, cheap as chups (without fush).It's a tradition, usually bimonthly (every two months, or more) to scavenge what we can from stacks of books upon books (and occasionally absolutely terrible CDs).The search lasted about 45 minutes, as I dug my way through endless unofficial Stones and Stalin biographies, self help bibles, Limp Bizkit CDs and True Crime "non fiction" novels.I finished with this.The Book of Other Peopleedited by Zadie SmithThe Complete Polysyllabic SpreeNick HornbyThe Hitchhiker TrilogyDouglas Adams The last five came in a box, like a box set, or in this case a 'trilogy' (yes I understand that there are five there, thus not being a trilogy at all, don't ask me, ask Douglas Adams!).I do own all of them in one book, but being much afraid of large books, this way they seem much more approachable and I'll be able to have a break between each one, regain sanity, rinse and repeat. I am excited, looking forward to reading them, highly recommended by all male family members, seen the movie, etc.I believe the set was $15 , or three dollars per book.So, I bought The Book of Other People because (a) the cover design was much nicer than nearly every other book in the store, (b) it was a book of vignettes/short stories (I like this), including some from Nick Hornby (see below) and Daniel Clowes (the fellow who did all of the Ghost World comics) and (c) it has comics in the middle, mmm... $9.95Last but not least, I bought The Polysyllabic Spree (a mouthful, via keyboard).I bought Nick Hornby's High Fidelity (read two posts back) and got through about fifty pages until I couldn't stand trying to read an English novel while hearing John Cusack's thick American accent. But I do know that I liked it, Nick Hornby is the kind of author people I know like. People recommend and I obey, most of the time.This wasn't the only one of his books there, they had a few others (About a Boy, oops saw the movie first, and one about Soccer, isn't that reason enough to leave it be?) and I chose this one, it's a book of book reviews from a column of his, I believe.I'm through the introduction and when I finish this post I will delve further into the pages and let you know when I'm finished.I definitely feel that I need to have at least one of his books, right?(not books)La Blogotheque.As far as I know, it's this one (possibly French) guy, Vincent Moon who films bands playing live along the streets of Europe. I mostly like the idea because of the excellent Beirut and Arcade Fire videos (watch the A.F one where they play Neon Bible in an elevator, excellent!).Youtube channel linkage.

Camberwell Market pt 1 - 'Pop culture 1977-1981'

22 July 2008 06:54:04

So it was one of those times, I woke up early on Sunday morning and headed down to the Sunday Camberwell Market, a few dollars in hand, looking for a good deal. Did I find one? I think so, bwahaha.Okay so here I have (all original) 'Rumours' - Fleetwood Mac [$3], an Atari 2600 Pacman cartridge [$3] and one Atari 2600 Space Invaders cartridge (probably broken) [$3].I spent about an hour having a gander hither and thither and I found nothing that I urgently needed/wanted, then I came across this album that I've never heard, but I'd heard about it being a cornerstone in pop culture (in the neutral sense, equally good/bad) so I spared my coffee money for it. I got a few scoffs and giggles when I was walking around with it tucked under my arm, yes! Good sign...The Atari games were a last minute impulse buy that I'm glad I found, the space invaders cartridge looks to be broken but I mean come on, these are the original two video games, the original two video games, and I don't own an Atari or plan on buying one soon, but I felt it was a wise choice that even Merlin would have made. (I had a look at ebay value for these guys but in much better condition they only go for about fifteen dollars.)When I got home, I put Rumours on to give it a listen but...uh...it's a little warped.And by that I mean a lot warped, still plays (mostly) until it gets to the point were the highs are low and the lows are high, if you get me. The first side of it (which I have a feeling is the better side) works fine with a little pitch change, but I can hear the classics, I can hear the classics.So like, nine dollars all up, and uhh...I REGRET NUSSINK.

Nostalgiac

27 June 2008 22:50:47

So there I was trying to get to sleep last night a little tipsy from some red red wine with the Cowboy Bebop Movie playing and I suddenly remembered this Playstation game I loved years ago, Jade Cocoon was the name and I vaguely remember what it was about but I just remember it being really good!The characters were designed by a guy who did some stuff for Hayao Miyazaki's films.Since the PS game there has been a sequel which I know nothing about for PS2, I'm considering buying the sequel for 25 bucks from ebay and hopefully I can find the disc for the first one around the place.I have such an urge to play it right now!We also watched a really good film called Tekkonkinkreet;It was crazy cool.I still really want to play Jade Cocoon, I'm going to go and look for it now.That's all for now!

Japan, the best place I've never been to.

17 June 2008 06:33:54

I'm gonna pawn my shit and buy a one way ticket...Sushi, Akira Kurosawa, Takashi Murakami, Toshiro Mifune, Hayao Miyazaki, Sake, Karaoke, electronic toilets, video games, Super Famicon, manga, anime, samurai etc.

b10g?

11 June 2008 22:00:36

I deleted all my previous posts because lame factor was high.So I'm stealing most of Oli's top 5 idea, here 'tis.Records (High Rotation)1. Axeman's Jazz by Beasts of Bourbon2. Lesser Matters by The Radio Dept3. Family Music by YMCK (for the 8bit amazement)4. Zuma by Neil Young5. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!Films (Recently Watched)1. Seven Samurai2. Oldboy3. Taxi Driver4. High and Low5. Be Kind RewinDirectors (At the mo')1. Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai/Rashomon)2. Wes Anderson (Royal Tenenbaums/Rushmore)3. Jim Jarmusch (Mystery Train/Down By Law)4. Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away/Nausicaa)5. Coen Brothers (The Man Who Wasn't There/Lebowski)5. Chanwook Park (Oldboy/Lady Vengeance)Songs (New love)1. Golden Brown by The Stranglers (not recent, but so good)2. Strange Things Will Happen by The Radio Dept.3. Top Ranking by Blonde Redhead4. Jackals, False Grails: The Lonesome Era by Pavement5. Nantes by BeirutAnd I leave you with a lovely artwork;by