LOST Flight 815 Crash in Real Time

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Superhuman tape measure skills (original)

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LOST – Season 5 Finale – Opening Scene (Jacob)

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Betty White lets rip at SAGs

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a long time coming is … a long time coming, but a little bit closer tonight

hey folks, those of you who know me beyond the blogosphere know that i write books for a hobby. well i did until a few years ago when the words stopped coming.

but good news, my third novel, A Long Time Coming, has to be at the publisher by the middle of this week so i’m posting the last few chapters as i get them done, right here … *pointing over to sidebar on the right* …

once it’s published, i’ll be taking the chapters offline, doing the right thing by the publisher, so make the most of the free offering.

chapter 6 is up now … click here if you don’t want to brave the sidebar.

film: ‘invictus’

a lot of people seem to be liking invictus quite a lot.

i didn’t much. well, not dislike so much, as one big … meh …

morgan freeman is too tall. matt damon is too short. all the rugby players look too … soft. not the boks, they looked pretty pumped. but the rugby sequences are not sharp enough, quick enough or crisp enough.

maybe i’m ridiculously picky, but i found myself laughing out loud at a couple of moments that just looked way amateur.

also morgan freeman’s left hand was very obviously injured from that car crash he had with his girlfriend. he could barely use it and it was puffy. it distracted me endlessly, as you can tell.

look, i don’t know how much truth there is in the concept of nelson mandela deliberately using the ‘boks as a unifying force. it makes sense i guess – but the whole thing felt forced and cheesy to me.

the shining light in the whole thing is matt damon, for mine. yes, he’s way shorter than francois pienaar, but he does an excellent job with the accent and the whole rugby culture.

but that’s about it. too much bad rugby, too few wallabies kicking arse, too much cheesy sentimentality. plus, we know who won.

worst clint eastwood film since space cowboys.

in a word: MEH.

film: ‘the lovely bones’

peter jackson is a little genius. i didn’t know how he was going to match alice sebold’s novel for sheer ethereal power, but bugger me if he hasn’t done it.

i was reading some noonger’s review on IMDB. the person in question said they didn’t like the film because there was ‘too much CGI’. lol. you tell me how you can illustrate the concepts inherent in any depiction of the afterlife in the way sebold did without CGI and i’ll concede the point.

this is one of those films that couldn’t have been made 10 years ago, i reckon.

i love the film, despite some gripes about casting. Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz just didn’t do it for me as Suzie Salmon’s parents. I even found Susan Sarandon’s casting as the grandmother kind of … irritating.

but saoirse ronan was sublime as Suzie. what a find she’s been. just mesmerising. here’s a bold prediction. she’s going to be the meryl streep of her generation. you heard it here first.

stanley tucci is one creepy dude.

the film’s tone is really hard to describe. yes. it’s sad, but there are genuine moments of beauty, and an entire sequence i found myself watching through my fingers, trying not to be too scared.

no, not the murder scene. that’s not seen in any explicit way at all. let’s just say, once again, stanley tucci is one creepy dude.

michael imperioli had me totally flummoxed until i remembered he was christopher in the sopranos. he was also excellent in this.

so, peter jackson passes the can-it-be-as-good-as-the-book test. next up, can john hillcoat make good on cormac mccarthy’s the road? we’ll find out next week.

in a word: SATISFYING.

photoshopping scandals of the decade

loving this gallery from newsweek. how magazines conspire to make women feel bad enough about themselves that they fork out squillions for their advertisers’ products.

check it out.

lucy lawless is desperate for a Xena movie

aren’t we all darling, aren’t we all.

Actress Lucy Lawless is calling on movie bosses to adapt Xena: Warrior Princess for the big screen – because she fears fans will lose interest in the fantasy series if it’s revived for TV.

The New Zealand-born star is best known for playing the warrior pin-up in the cult programme, which she is desperate to see brought back to life as a feature film.

She tells Out.com, “I love that character. I would do it if it was a movie. I doubt I would do it as a TV series. I can’t see how you would make it fresh.

“By the time somebody does come up with that I’m just going to be too old. And I’m really sad about that. I feel like it’s a completely wasted franchise.”

not to reopen old wounds, but it’s your husband’s fault, Lucy. If you and he and silly Sam Raimi hadn’t decided to KILL XENA in that last crime of an episode, then perhaps you might have had more chance of a Xena film. if it ever gets made now, i doubt it will be with Lawless and Renee O’Connor, which is a crying damn shame.

carry on. nothing to see here.

(link)

jeff sheng and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

jeff sheng is a photographer in LA. he’s produced a series of photographs based around the theme of the impact of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell on gays and lesbians serving in the US military.

take a look.