An Official Glimpse of The Joker

hey everyone

the first official picture of Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight has finally turned up. you may recall the retrospectively obvious fake one that was posted here a few weeks ago.

there are two ways of seeing the picture. firstly, you can click on the link in the title, register and assist in removing the blocked image of The Joker pixel by pixel. the second option, and i would reccomend you do this in particular if you are a bit rushed, is simply have a look at it here :




reaction to the picture? a considered hmn, i guess. on the one side, i guess they are not going for the theatrics of the earlier incarnations of The Joker, and thus Christopher Nolan will be carrying on with the darker, more "grown up tone". on the other side, however, is that the idea of The Joker looking like a somewhat misguided tribute to Robert Smith out of The Cure is not exactly going to thrill too many people.

the fact that the link takes you to an alternate tribute to Harvey Dent (do a google interweb network search for "i believe in Harvey Dent") suggests that here we go again with two villains in the film. not wise - the 80's/90's Batman films fell apart by overloading the plots with as many bad guys (and, spectacularly badly, girls) as the writers could think of.

anyway, there is still over a year to go before any of us see the finished product that would appear to be called The Dark Knight. if any more pics turn up i will put them here, hopefully they will start to get more interesting real soon!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!

The Dark Knight

some film news!!

as Warner Bros have set up a website called The Dark Knight and have this logo on it



i guess it is safe to say that the follow up to the most excellent Batman Begins will not be called Batman Intimidation. ho hum, a bit of a pity, but there you go. the logo does look ace, mind!

by the way, if there was any lingering doubt, the previously shown Heath Ledger pic as The Joker was indeed a fake. told you so!

family portrait

hey everyone

sorry, this should be called an attempt at a family portrait whilst James is full of energy and refuses to sit still.



no bad thing, really - who would want a posed picture when you can have a look at James in fun mode?




be excellent to each other!!!

Go Go Gee Gee!!

James loves Grandad. James loves horses. Grandad loves James and he loves horses. what better way to spend a sunday afternoon than watching a touch of horseracing??

i do recall fondly watching some Sky news with a horse race on, and James all of a sudden shouting "go go gee gee go go gee gee" at the television not so long ago!

i am sure James will soon be old enough and big enough to go to the real gee gee's with Grandad. if he has as much luck (sorry, skill) as Grandad does on the horses in regards of picking out winners, well, so much the better!!!

tortoise! tortoise! TORTOISE!

hey everyone

no pics for a while, and all of a sudden a whole load turn up!!! they are all pics of James, of course!!

James is very proud of his extensive vocabulary, and we are very impressed that he has mastered a seemingly complicated word like "tortoise" with relative ease. it helps, presumably, that Grandma and Grandad have tortoises walking around in their garden! James loves them to bits -




whilst James has mastered the word, he has not neccessarily mastered the concept of "tortoise", and what "tortoise" does. when he gets to the grandparents, he excitedly looks for them with some lettuce in hand. when he finds one, he puts the lettuce on the tortoise, and starts doing a very excited dance whilst shouting "tortoise tortoise tortoise eat eat eat tortoise" :





the tortoise, alas, have thus far been most un-co-operative, and refuse to devour one half of a hefty lettuce within seconds of James presenting it to them. oh well, never mind son, keep trying!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!

more James pictures!!

hello again

more pictures of James from today! here he is sitting in his car seat, looking rather chuffed with himself!!!!



and here he is having some orange juice cordial type stuff, something that became quite a favourite of his at the party today!



as with the sweets, i suppose we should try and control or limit the amount of juices and things like that James has. however, as the picture below clearly illustrates, most of it tends to end up on his chin and shirt rather than in his tummy!




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Clever James

here's James showing you how to use your good looks and natural charm to casually steal some popcorn of your mesmerised cousin :



be excellent to each other, and try to respect your cousin's popcorn stash!!

James and the Cousins

Hi Everyone

Today was James's Uncle Dylan's 9th birthday (don't ask, a very short long story), so we were all together for a big party and to hand over to Dylan just as many Spider-Man 3 toys as those clever Chinese types can make. Or wherever they come from. Anyway, James got to spend some time with his dear cousins, the twins Jade and Skyla :







As you can see, they are eating all sorts of things that probably are not very good for them, but what is life without the occassional treat, especially at a party?

They all had a great time running around - sorry, i attempted to take pictures of them running around, but they really do move too fast, even for these fancy new cameras!!

Everyone seemed to have a good time, even those who rushed off to watch some sort of important game with a funny shaped ball!! Dylan seems very impressed with his array of "Spidey" things, and James has run himself into sleeping long and hard tonight. i also got my (ahem) dear Mother-In-Law a set of Mills & Boon books and DVD for Mother's Day, and she got me a rather snazzy walking stick as a belated birthday present. a successful day all around, then!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Jack Coleman Bridge

Ladies and Gentlemen


Once in a lifetime, perhaps more often if you travel, you get to witness an architectural curiosity that leaves you speechless, astounded, in awe even. Unless of course you never travel anywhere other than Edenvale and are just left bemused.

Here is the sign for The Jack Coleman Bridge :




And this is The Jack Coleman Bridge itself :




Just who is Jack Coleman? I mean, I am very interested about a chap who is famous enough or well established within their community to have a bridge named after them, but that the bridge in itself is impressive to the extent that you can barely get two cars next to each other on it, and the length of it is barely more than a car!

I would imagine that Mr Coleman is a property developer, or owned the land around which the bridge is located. What river or stream does it cross? I have no idea at all, and Michele is busy playing with some bubbles with James, so I am not going to bother asking.

Mentioning Michele, here she is looking very excited indeed. When this picture was taken, she was a mere two corners away from crossing The Jack Coleman Bridge for the third time today. It should have only been twice, but we went back around to get more class pictures of it for you all :






If you have any idea at all who or what Jack Coleman is or was, or are Jack Coleman, please feel free to leave a message or comment here enlightening the masses!


Be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!

James and the Stars

hey everyone

at last, some new pictures of James!!! i keep getting requests for them, so i figured i had better take some. and what better opportunity than of him being rather proud of his award from school today!!

as James helped a new baby boy settle in on his first day at school today, and as a reward for his vast and impressive vocabulary (trust me, he speaks a lot!), he was awarded three gold stars on his head! as you can see, he was rather proud of this!





Mummy is also very proud of young James too! here she is trying to hold him still for a picture to be taken - no easy task, especially as Big Cook Little Cook, currently the thing above all things that is the centre of James's universe, was on the TV!!





and here is one last pic of him with his stars, kindly posing for the camera but looking very tired indeed - well, it was not long after this that he wanted his night night bottle and to be carried up to bed!!





otherwise, not exactly a great deal to report on here. a busy weekend for us, in particular as Mother's Day looms on Sunday. hmn, i wonder what exactly James has got his Mummy for this special day..........?

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!

Stalked by Trigger

hey everyone

well, rather bewilderingly, i can give you pictures of Michele and myself at this Cokefest concert thing!

i was back in at verk today, and in my inbox was an email from Trigger, one of the lads in the office. simply entitled "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST FRIDAY", it included a series of pics from the concert :



i was somewhat taken aback to see them, and thus asked if he had got them off a interweb net site thingie somewhere.



the answer was no, he had taken these pictures himself with his cellphone camera thing. i must say, it is a rather high quality cellphone camera thingie, then, as the originals of these pics are most impressive - they have been reduced in size and quality a bit here to make it easier to upload them.





now, if we put aside my surprise/delight at getting these pics, and the compliments to the cellphone camera thingie, i did ask Trigger exactly, if he saw us, why the hell he did not say hello to us, and come and have a drink or something! according to Trigger, we "looked like we were on a mission". this is somewhat at odds with the reality, as of the 12 hours, we spent a good 7 or 8 at the beer tents and the food places just, as it were, "chilling". it transpired, of course, that he did not say hello mostly due to him being in the company of some ladies. as he gets to see me all day at work, who could blame him for admiring some talent of the female persuasion when the chance occured?

Trigger appears to have enjoyed the day too, and gave us a rather smart badge from the day. alas, he did not take any pictures of the ladies who disrobed during the Evanescence performance, but it is not like i would post them here anyway.

on the note of Evanescence, it would appear they have split? i saw some story of the guitarist and drummer leaving, but not at all sure if this was before or after they played here. it says something of my knowledge of the band that i would be unable to tell either way.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boro live to bore another day.

born and (mostly raised) in Middlesbrough means that i am a Boro fan. it doesn't mean that i have to like how things are going at the club, though.



it is not every team which goes from UEFA Cup Finalists one year to scraping to survival in the Premier League the next. that is what we have ended up doing, despite having a team of established professionals mixed with some awesome young stars.

the reason for the year being such a struggle? Gareth Southgate. a nice man, a very good player, but just not the kind of person you need in charge of a football club. why we ended up with him in charge instead of looking towards Tony Mowbray is still beyond me.

the season in review - a sparse amount of halfway decent results, one or two inspired performances for great victories and a whole bunch of dreadful performances which led to well deserved defeats and, on occassions, batterings.

Southgate claims to know "how to fix" Boro during the off-season. i would like to think that this means he is going to admit he is not up to the job and suggest that they get a new manager who can do the job properly.

5fm My CokeFest 2007

OK, this review is a bit late since it was on April 27, but let me give you a rundown on what i recall of it!

Firstly, it is quite smart that 5fm and Coke bring over some decent acts to South Africa - it takes a fair bit of cash to get these tours together, so nice one and thanks, hope the advertising you got out of it means you will be doing another!

But that gets followed up with the downside. As this (presumably to be yearly) event is sponsored/promoted by sucha big Corporate, you are never going to get bands taking part in it that you would really want to see. i appreciate that others in South Africa (this Durban-based blogger in particular) have no quarrel with overtly commercial, some would say "sell out" acts, but it would be ace to see someone like the Manics, Pearl Jam or Morrissey play here. they are not going to do that with a massive Coca Cola sign on the stage. ho hum. i suppose you might get monoliths like Bowie or The Who or The Stones agreeing, but then again they share the stage with no one.

The biggest bad thing about this concert was, of course, the failure of Axl Rose and what he claims is the band Guns N Roses to turn up. i kind of predicted that he/they would pull out, and this they did, owing to some injury to a bass player that no one has ever heard of - Tommy Stintson or something. whereas many would have loved to see them, i do recall that when i saw the proper version of the band in 1992, well, they were not exactly brilliant then. i cannot imagine that this 3rd rate, sham line up using the name would be much better.

onto the day out, and the bands that were good enough to show up!

we had a most excellent day and night of it. James was with his grandparents for the day and night, so it was the first time in some 18 months that Michele and I had been out and about on our own. i must confess, as a result of this, we spent more time just "hanging about" with each other, less so concentrating on the bands. here is a rundown of what we saw and heard, or at least what i can rememeber of them :

The First 5 Or So Bands - i am sure you are rather smart, hence getting the gig. what i heard of you in no way offended me as i hung around the beer tent, the toilet, the pizza dude and the t-shirt stand.


Springbok Nude Girls - one of the few true SA bands that are world class. an excellent band, led by an ace frontman. i am not sure what, if any, international success they have had, but they could handle themselves on the world stage with ease. nice one.


Hoobastank - never heard of them. this band turned out to be good fun! i couldn't name a single song of theirs, and i am not sure i am going to rush out and buy a cd or two by them, but if they ever played live near you, i would say yeah, go and see them, they are rather smart. the singer has a smart sense of humour, and they interract with the audience rather well. possible winners of the day.


Staind - i knew very little of this band before the gig, except that song they do it's been a while. it would seem that their usual sound is normally a great deal heavier than that song suggests. in no way are they a bad band, but, dear me, they need to work on their set-list. it seemed that each and every song required a 60-90 second break to switch guitars, instruments, whatever. a rock concert is about energy and momentum, chaps. the result of the perpetual breaks between songs was that it was difficult to get into them much. oh well, they sell more albums than i do, so who am i to complain? a major highlight of Staind's set, and the day, was the lead singer out of Staind making offensive comments about Axl Rose.


3 Doors Down - i think that is what they are called. neither myself nor Michele were interested in them at all. we just left to have a few more drinks and a bite to eat whilst they were on. sorry if you are a fan of them, but to us it didn't sound like we missed much.


Evanescence - in the absence of Axl, the headline act of the day out. unless you see someone called Wickhead who came on after them as the headliners. they were certainly the most polished act of the day - read into that what you will from my earlier comments, i guess.





Michele was more excited about seeing this band than any of the others, and thus we did the decent thing and stayed for the whole set, or most of it. not really favourites of mine, but they did a decent set (ie mostly one song after another without dramatic instrument changes) and they are pretty good. rather like the band Live, though, whilst i enjoyed the live music, the CD's really don't do anything for me. bewilderingly, two ladies in the audience decided that during a female singer's performance was the best time to flash their topless selves at the stage and for all others to see, unless they had been doing it earlier and i just had not paid attention. it sounded like they played all of their big numbers - i might possibly have even recognized My Immortal and Bring Me To Life somewhere in the set, and all and sundry seemed rather impressed with them.


overall, my memories of the day will be an ace day out - spending time with Michele, buying a large amount of beer for guys who couldn't get into the ale tents, and in general just having fun. i would be very interested in going again next year if it is as well run as this one. reports were that the 2006 one, headlined by Metallica, was a disaster - you couldn't get anything to eat or drink at it. this one was not like that at all.

i doubt these reviews, if i can even call them that, have helped anyone, but we had fun!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

slight return

hey everyone

well, after my last post, i am pleased to report that James is now fit and well. quite a scare with his high temperature and fever, but he seems to be back to normal.

i have not been so well - in rushing around looking after James last week, i managed to give myself a nasty smack to the head. the headache after it did not clear up, and so i have been for C.T. scans and what not.

no results back as of yet from the scan, but i am sure someone would have called if there was a problem??

anyway, i seem to be feeling much better today, and so it's time for some updates!

James is unwell

hey everyone

well, quite a weekend!! James has been rather ill for most of it. he's had a high temperature and a fever.

a couple of trips to the hospital and back has given us a wide range of medication that, whilst he does not in any way, shape or form like taking, seem to be helping. he is more or less back to his normal self!

well done to Mummy for giving him the medicine, and for looking after him day and night!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robert Downey Jnr Officially Indestructible?

hey everyone

here's Robery Downey jnr entering the world of the comic book films. he plays someone called Iron Man in something called Iron Man, which i assume is a comic about some man made of or encased in iron?



i am quite the fan of Robert's work, both onscreen and very much off it, but i am not too excited about this one. as they have hired a very decent actor for the lead i am sure they intend for this Iron Man to be in the "more serious, mature" comic book stable of films, but yet another comic book hero in a film it fundamentally is.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Batman : Intimidation

hi everyone

after the success of Batman Begins i think everyone was looking forward to what Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale were to do with the inevitable but actually welcomed next one. it's supposed to be called Batman Intimidation, but then again so was Begins.

many of you will recall that Begins ended with a teasing image of a playing card featuring The Joker. was he going to appear in the next film, or was this a red herring?

rumours started linking some interesting choices for The Joker - Sean Pean was arguably the most exciting prospect, and Michael Keaton being linked was certainly interesting.

then statements, rather than rumours, suggested one Heath Ledger was going to get the part.

Heath Ledger? not a bad actor at all, but could he cut it as The Joker in this actually proper, darker presentation of Batman? i am not so sure, many others are not.

now we get this picture appearing on the interweb net thing :





it claims to be from the first makeup tests of Heath as The Joker. it looks dubious to say the least - the hand holding the colour test pattern doesn't look like it belongs to the head and body, does it? it's also got the WB logo at the bottom. why exactly would they blow up a very early, incomplete to the point of not really having started makeup shot to the size of a poster and put their logo on??

well, depending on what film sites you visit, if this pic turns out to be legit, remember that you saw it here first!

personally, i am in favour of the red herring interpretation - i think this whole "Heath Ledger as The Joker" is a massive curveball, intended to distract finding out what they are actually doing with the film. this is based more on Christopher Nolan doing this with all his other projects rather than any substantial info.

whatever happens with Batman Intimidation in regards of plot, actors and so on, well, as indicated, Christopher Nolan is one of the few directors you can trust to deliver something most excellent.

and on that note,

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

300 = 100 wasted minutes

there has been a lot of excitement, fuss and enthusiasm for this film 300 of late, so we had a look at it. Michele is of the impression that it is a rather good film and would reccomend it. i am not and would not, quite frankly.




whereas people are celebrating the fact that it was all done on one stage (or perhaps two) with the backgrounds added in digitally, i cannot for the life of me see how this is a wonderful thing if it is always so blatantly obvious that you are looking at a false set that it is distracting.

ah, you say, i should be concentrating on the plot and acting, not looking for flaws. well, it would be nice to do that, but the plot is so mind numbingly one dimensional and simple it is tiresome, and the acting looks like it has been done by a group of actors who know only too well that they are, to all intents and purposes, about to be inserted into a cartoon.

the filmmakers claimed that they "never intended this to be historically acurate". oh, really? then why use the name and mythology of the Spartans at all? why not make something up completely from scratch? too complicated, is it? the interweb network thing is no doubt littered with sites lambasting the historical folly of 300, i shall not bore you further with them in a film review.

the much lauded and heralded action scenes? dull, tedious, repetitive, dull, tedious, repetetive. nothing new here whatsoever, and they manage to be exceedingly unimaginative with their cloning of other mythological battle films.

300 does nothing but underline the fact that Troy was a masterpiece of cinema, horribly underrated by the world. blimey, 300 makes something like Red Sonja look original and authentic.

i understand that my view on 300 will be a minority one. but don't be fooled into thinking you simply have to find this film cool or brilliant.

Brett Anderson

much like the new Manic Street Preachers album, it seems that Brett Anderson's solo debut is causing one or two mixed reviews. not sure why, really.

although some of the lyrics are Suedesque ("plastic people still bother Brett), this is quite a departure from vintage, classic Suede stuff. predominantly acoustic and certainly "mellow" at heart is the way we go here. i quite like it, too.

Brett has moved on from she who sells meat, she who sells heart, and no longer asks what turns her on. Brett likes a nice night in, maybe some wine, and a chill session. no bad thing, we all "mature" i guess. grow up or get old just seems wrong, as there is kick in the album every now and then.

should you try this? well, here's what you need to ask yourself before you do :

* do you like male vocals that are not whiny, nasal soppy things a la James Blunt, James Morrison and so on?

* did you like Suede mostly for Brett Anderson's voice?

* did you find Suede "a waste of a good vocalist"?

* do you enjoy music that doesn't treat you like an idiot, but yet does not preach to you and bang on about current world headlines?


answer yes to any of the above and go for it. i would reccomend starting with the single Love Is Dead, mind - particularly the CD single with Clowns as an extra track.

on that note, no particular song stands head and shoulders above the rest on this album - they are all seemingly treated the same, nothing is clearly punted or presented as intended to be "the big hit".

if Brett Anderson has called his album Brett Anderson because this is who he is, then the man is a very decent chap indeed, not to mention the obvious amount of talent. money, and most importantly time, invested in this CD is a wise investment.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Send Away The Tigers

OK, if you have "done a google" and are at this site looking to download Send Away The Tigers by the Manic Street Preachers, hit the back button and try again. it's not here. sorry if that annoys you.

this album is released relatively soon, and thanks to a tip-off from a good friend, i have been able to hear it. i was somewhat dubious about hearing it, as there have been several negative reviews - some from people who would rather lose limbs than live without the Manics.

is the album any good? yes it is. a masterpiece? no. the worst thing ever done by the Manic Street Preachers? no. is there any point to it? possibly, possibly not.

i have played it through three times now, and the above suggests that i am still somewhat undecided. it is nowhere near as bad as some have made out. but that doesn't make it easy to define.

to compare to aspects of their back catalogue, it's punky but not as punky as Generation Terrorists (punk itself is seldom as punky as that one), not as dark as The Holy Bible (what is?), not as accessible as Everything Must Go, not as frustrating as Know Your Enemy and does not contain any bona fide classics in an otherwise album, a la Lifeblood (1985 being a personal favourite).

their claim that it is about, amongst other things, the liberation of Bhagdad zoo and Tony Hancock, is nonsense. it's a collection of songs rather than an album. each song has its merits of faults, but they are not really well connected; disconnected but not disjointed is the better way of describing it. i mean, it flows OK through the stereo, but it's not an "experience" like other Manics efforts.

dangerously at times they simply borrow favourite bits, be they a guitar rift or bassline, and slap it together to make a new song. In certain instances, and Your Love Alone Is Not Enough springs to mind, they just lift entire lyrics from the past and present them as new. James, Nicky, Sean - you did a song called You Stole The Sun From My Heart, the line was fine in that song along.

standout tracks? nothing thus far has demanded the "back" button on the CD player, but i am just not sure if that's because none are that far above average or if it's just because i am lazy. Autumn Song and I Am Just A Patsy are pretty good, as is the imminent single Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, despite the flaws and borrowed bits.

bad tracks? well, Underdogs is no classic, and i am not at all surprised that this one was given away on their site (see previous posts). and i have no idea what the cover of Lennon's Working Class Hero was thrown on for. there have been many versions before, and this one does not hold its weight against any of them. why does it exist? a dig at someone or other? a dig at Lennon himself? they did, after all, used to sing "i laughed when Lennon got shot" before they got all mature and dropped the line from Motown Junk.

Send Away The Tigers is extremely unlikely to attract many new Manics fans, and it might cost them one or two die hard types. upon release, however, a copy shall be sat on my shelf and it will get played every now and then. the recent solo efforts appear not to have influenced the "new direction" much, save for the odd vocal from Nicky Wire on the album.

overall, i am happier to live in a world where there is a new Manic Street Preachers album. if buying this album keeps the Manics in the world, i request that you then go and buy it. their demise has been exaggerated, there's still something manic and something a bit preachy within them yet.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007 - a year for promising tunes!!

2006 was a pretty depressing year artistically. no really mindblowing films, no great new works of literature and, sadly, not a good deal of music to get excited about.

2007 looks a good deal more promising, musically at least!!

my signed (!!) copy of Brett Anderson's debut solo single, Love Is Dead, arrived recently. and i am delighted that it has. a different approach from the "pop trash" days of Suede, both musically and vocally. Brett takes on a different tone here - i mean, you know it's him, but he sounds here unlike a conventional Suede track, except maybe The Chemistry Between Us. a great song - no idea how the charts in the UK work these days with all this download business and what not, but i hope it is a success for the lad. i am looking forward to the solo album, entitled Brett Anderson for good measure.

in the mean time, if you see them, why not purchase one or both of the CD singles, or just the tracks online, if you live in a country where iTunes sells tracks? for some reason they won't sell to us here in SA!!



the Manic Street Preachers return to the airwaves in 2007, after the two solo ventures in 2006. James Dean Bradfield & Nicky Wire's respective solo efforts were probably just about the best things on offer last year, but it is nice to see them back as a band.

their new album, Send Away The Tigers, is due in May, if i am not mistaken. it seems that they have reverted to the era of The Holy Bible for image and style, as we have the reverse "R" being used again. i hope this is not an indication of them being lazy with this record!

thus far i have only heard one track of this album, The Underdogs, which if you click on the name of you should be transported to their own interweb net thingie on which you can download it for free. i am undecided on the basis of this track, really. it sounds like a "throwaway" song at the moment, something which would be a 4th track on the 3rd single released. their stuff does tend to grow rather than instantly hit you, mind. i think it was only ever 1985 from them that instantly grabbed me, for somewhat sentimental reasons.

if these two developments were not enough, there is of course the small matter of IAN BROWN due to release new material very soon. the last i heard, right, his album was going to be called THE WORLD IS YOURS or something like that, and he was busy trying to get Paul McCartney to guest on it!

now, if Primal Scream and Derek Bowie could be persuaded to release something this year too, that would be most class indeed!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watching the Wildlife

hey everyone

other than the pictures of James, i did take a few other pictures of the wildlife at Lory Park zoo today. it really is an amazing place, and i look forward to going along with James (and his Mummy and possibly Grandparents) again real soon!

i have included the link for their interweb net page thingie above, please click on and support if you can!!

here is a magnificent Bengal Tiger. sorry about the bars in the picture - i got as close as i dare to take a picture. he or she did not look at all happy about having his or her bath and play in the pool being disturbed by my flash, so i took a pic and left. thankfully, it came out rather majestic. at least i think so!!





next is the crocodiles. they were mostly sleeping, or keeping cool in the water, so with no fear i took some snaps (ha ha, excuse the play on words). then one woke up and started coming along to me. here is the pic of that moment, just before i retreated to a somewhat safer distance!!



finally, here is the bit where a man brought a tiger up to the restaraunt and let the tiger have a drink of milk!! quite a beautiful creature, but i am not sure if he or she got angry the little yellow stick the zookeeper had would have done much to save many of us!





James appeared more interested in the birds hopping around than he did the tiger. odd, since he loves chasing our cats around the house!!

thanks again to all at Lory Park Zoo for having a most excellent place to go and spend a lazy Sunday afternoon!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!

a Gary Busey film?

hey everyone

we recently picked up The Firm on DVD, and watched it for probably the first time since it was on at the cinema back in 93 or maybe 94.

it's not a bad film at all - Cruise was starting to have a go at being a proper actor, and Hackman is fantastic, despite his insistence on his name being removed from the film (see the poster below, although i think he still featured on the credits). worth seeing if for some reason you are interested in this kind of film and yet had avoided this one for about 14 years.



a point of confusion for us, though, was Gary Busey and his contribution (or lack thereof) to the film The Firm. now if you have not seen it, my observations could be considered as being spoilers. you have been warned.

Gary Busey features in The Firm for about ten minutes, split across two scenes. important scenes? maybe, but not exactly overtly demanding of a Gary Busey appearance. which is to say it is not like Sydney Pollack sat down in the production office and said "we need Busey for this or the whole project falls apart.". granted, that kind of thing is seldom, if ever, spoken of Mr Busey i suppose.




now here's the trick - despite his limited appearance, Gary Busey features in a disproportionate 33Z% of the full theatrical trailer for The Firm, and, get this, has his picture on display on the DVD menu for the special features - something that turns out to be the aforementioned trailer.

one could easily have ended up going to see The Firm on the basis that it was in fact a Gary Busey film, at least on the basis of the trailer alone. difficult as it is for many of us to comprehend, there are people out there who would actually only watch a film because of the appearance of the "Busemeister".

if you are someone who saw the film on the basis of the trailer and assumed it was the big comeback film for Gary Busey, i would be delighted to hear from you - please take the time and trouble to leave a comment.




i guess, in at least one scene, Gary Busey did make look Tom Cruise look like a proper actor in comparison. you have to remember that this was all pre Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia, long before he had a proper director to make him actually work, so Cruise needed all the "comparatively good" performances he could land. i wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that the "Cruisemeister" was personally involved in getting the "Busemeister" on board, under that circumstance.

not that i have anything against Gary Busey as such, mind. The Buddy Holly Story was of course a great movie, and he was class in Lethal Weapon as the unhinged Mr Joshua. And I do have Predator 2 on my shelf.

oh dear, now that i think about it, that makes 4 (four!) Gary Busey films i own, since i have the mentioned ones. perhaps i should purchase Point Break just so that i can say i have "the very best of Gary Busey" on DVD?

be excellent to each other, and to Gary Busey, i guess..................

Zoo Station

hey everyone

well, it was a nice sunny Sunday here in our part of the world, so we took James off to Lory Park Zoo in Midrand, reasonably close to where we live.

James & Mummy had been before, but it was my first trip. and it is an ace place!! James loves it to bits, as the pictures show!!

Meercat's (or however you spell them) are my favourite, and James seems to have taken a shine to their friendly ways too :




James was also rather taken with the parrott (or possibly cockatoo) that decided to come and take Mummy's sandwich for lunch! surely, as Mummy was having a chicken sandwich, this was kind of like cannibalism?? Mummy has just assured me that it was a parrott :



and here is James giggling away at something - quite possibly more parrotts, although he has a soft spot for the monkeys too!



we had a most excellent time there, should you be in the area it is well worth your time going!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!

Grandad and the King of Meals

hey everyone

i trust that this Easter weekend was a quiet, peaceful and enjoyable one for you, wherever in the world you are!!


Grandma and Grandad came to visit today, bringing with them one of the finest foods known to man, KFC



alas, it seems that they did not have any of James's most favourite favourite today, which would be Mash & Gravy. perhaps The Colonel prohibits purchase and consumption of his fine Mash on an Easter Monday?? never mind, James took a shine to The Colonel's cheesy bites, as well as a couple of bites of Grandad's crispy chicken!!




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gunmen - B Grade Excellence

i was browsing around a CD & DVD store when i stumbled upon a somewhat forgotten gem from my earlier years, Gunmen. i saw it at the time (early 90's, i think) as it had my beloved Denis Leary in it. Mario Van Peebles and Christopher Lambert are the main stars, and it also features a, at the time, relatively obscure Patrick Stewart.

i am not going to even pretend to not have spoilers here, as the thing is ludicrously straightforward and surprise-free. the plot, granted with more potholes than your average Johannesburg highway, revolves around Patrick Stewart's $400 million of illegal money being on a boat somewhere in the world, with only the joint knowledge of Mr Van Peebles and Mr Lambert being put together providing the answer of exactly where in the world it is.

needless to say, as keen as Mr Lambert and Mr Van Peebles are to get the cash, Mr Stewart kind of wants it back, and thus despatches the mental, insane Mr Denis Leary to go and fetch them and the money.

Mr Lambert and Mr Van Peebles do not like each other, which does not help their quest. shooting each other in the leg so that one of them does not run away is a nice touch, and the bullet wound is not so severe that it stops them doing ace roundhouse kicks on people, nor does having a bullet wound in the leg stop either of them swimming. gravity and all we know of how the human body reacts to damage is pretty much thrown out of the window as the two of them throw themselves out of helicopters and planes on a regular basis, now that i think about it.

the star of the show for me, predictably, is Denis Leary. a very bad bad guy he is, full of ace one-liners that could have come straight from any of his one man shows rather than the script for the film, should Gunmen have actually had any sort of script. Mr Leary's final scene in the film is one of the all time greats too, sort of.....

a very silly, predictable slap-people-about film if you wish, but one that is rather good fun and hard to switch off (Michele was heading off to bed when i put it in the DVD, yet she stayed awake for it all). if you are lucky enough to find this on tape or disc, or if it happens to crop up on late night TV wherever you are in the world, you can do a lot worse than watch it!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!

more James!!!

hey everyone

just a couple more pictures of James from last weekend, taking turns with Grandma and Grandad!!

here his is with Grandad - a rare shot of the two of them not pottering around building or remodelling something in the garden!!




and here he is with beloved Grandma, clearly pondering what he should shout out or talk about next!! or he could be just contemplating the bowl of profitterols (or however one spells the word) that Grandma is holding!




be excellent to each other!!!!!

an odd film

OK, before i begin this review of The Number 23, i must confess that someone went and told me the ending to it first. i will not be repeating it here, but just be mindful of the fact that my review may be less than great as most of the suspense was taken away from me. hope you are lucky enough to avoid having someone ruin it for you!

in short, Jim Carrey gets a book called The Number 23 for his birthday from his wife, Virginia Madsen. As Jim starts reading it, he begins to believe that the book is somehow based on his own life.......

and i am not sure what else to say about the plot. the good news is that Jim Carrey is back to being a decent actor, last seen as such in The Truman Show and Man On The Moon. Unlike those two fine films, there is no injustice in the lack of awards or recognition here - it is, at best, an mildly average horror/thriller flick, and at worst it is an episode of The Twilight Zone stretched too far, even at 90 or so minutes. too much of the film feels like a rehash of Secret Window, which in itself was not exactly a great of modern cinema.

as horor / thriller stuff goes, it is better than the endless junk sequels and remakes that are being turned out, but it is not as original or as innovative as it thinks it is. watch it if you are in the mood for something distinctly average, i guess!

be excellent to each other!!

naughty face? moi?

hey everyone

firstly, unless i missed something, what a dull lack of April Fool stories this year! i guess the world is taking itself too seriously these days. ho hum.

James went to visit Grandma and Grandad today. he is very much into his climbing at the moment, and his insistence on climbing on a chair allowed me to snap away with the camera, getting a couple of good pictures of him :




sorry son, Mummy says that you have my "naughty smile", which, coupled with the dimples, she says is how she knows i am up to something. i guess it means that she knows when you are up to something too!!




and in this pic it looks like you are about to make some sort of profound statement. probably along the lines of "woof woof", but maybe about to ask Grandma to stop holding you so you can get on with this climbing business!




otherwise, it feels like it was a busy weekend. helping our neighbours push a battered car uphill into a garage didn't help (long story, don't ask) and i seem to have some sort of eye infection now. i believe they are called "sties", and they are in my eyelids and are rather sore. Nurse Michele is administering some sort of liquid to them and they seem to be getting better. i don't know, i can't see them, d'oh!

i have obtained a most excellent Leatherface out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre statue. it is a version of Leatherface from the remake version, but at 12 inches high it is impressive. i still like my six inch statue of the Leatherface from the original film version, though.

on that note, James finally worked out the chainsaw engine button on his new toy (see previous posts). he has an excellent time attempting to cut open the fridge!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!