Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Head explosion imminent

Blogspot deleted one of my posts, it would appear they take affront to my playlists. Still...don't do that! How am I supposed to know what I said in that post, I will never get it back you know! I hate that. There's a reason I blog and it's not to entertain whimsical delusions of grandeur or narcissism. It's to catalogue. Grrr. By the looks of things it was the post about Lizzie's farewell, the party at World Bar, and such. It was probably the Brand New song that did it. This is why I should do write in Word first, instead of doing it directly. Bah.

I have a splitting headache that makes me want to roll over and die if it means it'll stop. I'm just blogging this and then retreating to a dark corner to do aforementioned rolling over and dying.

I saw District 9 today, it was every bit as bizarre as I though it would be. For those who don't know, it's about an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions after their ship coasts to a halt above Johannesburg. The film starts out as a documentary about the "relocation" of this slum before descending into chaos as unwitting beaurocrat Wikus Van De Merwe gets handed way more than he can handle. When I first saw the previews I was dreading another apartheid film (I think all South Africans can say they are well and truly not interested in watching those kinds of things, it's painful and draining and I, for one, have had more than enough) so the appearance by the aliens completely threw me for a loop. The film did not disappoint. It is utterly bizarre, and equal parts hilarious as I understand the Afrikaans going on in the background. One moment made me think of Abbi - her favourite swear word puts in an appearance! Made me giggle. I admit that there may be a bit of nostalgia involved as well, even if just because of that shot of the Vodacom tower at the end, which I still think of as the Coca-Cola tower and that I've spent many nights staring at since there's a perfect view of it and the surrounding area from my grandparents' backyard. Oh, and the typical South African approach to things. It's actually a very believable, very real film despite the gross aliens. Yes, that's the technical term.

Wikus' approach to his problem near the end of the film greatly reminded me of my own strategy when playing tactical computer games - namely run and shoot and just pray you're going in the right direction and doing the right thing (I can't even tell you how many times I reached the next level in a game without having any idea what I was doing). There are of course socio-political aspects at play in the film, but it's so subtle that it doesn't dominate your experience. It's easy to draw parallels but I appreciate not being hit over the head with a message that has essentially been done to death. It makes a refreshing change. I was a bit grossed out by certain things, but this is still an "alien movie" and so it's probably to be expected. I thought the production was excellent too. The film has overall gotten rave reviews and in the US I believe it actually opened at the top of the box office, many have even noted it may be the sleeper hit of the summer.

But I just have to say...there is no Kempton Park University. I couldn't let that go. My brain just stuttered and tripped over itself.


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Music: The Simpsons
Mood: Sick
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