Archive for March 15th, 2006

Spammers have being going mental recently. But to counter this so too has my spam-eradictor (Akismet). It has gone totally insane, eating real comments all over the place. I’ve managed to rescue some, but others are gone forever. Apologies peoples who have commented but been ignored. Sin é an fath.

I’ve turned the spam protection off, so now all spammy comments will get stuck in moderation, but cheapaim that although that is more work for me, it’ll mean none of your comments are devoured, especially considering that I’m going to be offline over the weekend.

Also, my free statcounter fingy was down over the past few days. Didn’t realise I was so addicted to it. This blogging thing should come with a rabhadh.

Chuaigh mé go dtí an pictiurlann tonight to see The Proposition, great film, but not a cheery one. But can I just say, screen hoppers, you is evil. Evil!

Round half way through a tháinig buchaill agus caílín isteach. Arms full of bia, and whispering to each other. Then, for pretty much the rest of the film agus siad ag caint. Not enough to actually hear what they were saying, but just loud enough to be annoying. Until the girl left, thumping down the stairs, and then came back, thumping back up the stairs. Bint! and then, five minutes before the film ended they began to pack up and leave, only yer wan dropped her shit all over the shop, which prompted much “sorry-ing”

Man, do other people ever suck

Which reminds me, when myself and NM went to the kino last, we were sitting beside this fella who was on the tall side. And someone sitting behind him asked, before the film had even started, if he could scrunch down, so she could see. Now the seats in the cinema are quite good, and while I know it can be annoying to have someone’s hair just in frame, how much more annoying must it be to be sitting all slouched and bent out of position. Some people are just plain ignorant.

Tags: people are stupid, spammer

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15
Mar

The Proposition

   Posted by: Fence   in Moving Pictures

  • Guy Pearce - Charlie Burns
  • Emily Watson - Martha Stanley
  • Ray Winstone - Captain Stanley
  • David Wenham - Eden Fletcher

Sometimes you go to the cinema hoping for a good film, but thinking that what you are about to watch isn’t going to be fun, it may not even qualify as entertainment. The Proposition written by Nick Cave had that sort of an aura to it.

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An Australian western, about a brother possibly heading into the outback to kill a brother in order to save another brother. A western that has far more in common with the violent realism of Unforgiven rather than the over the top, almost cartoon violence of some other westerns. It often makes for hard viewing.

None of the characters are the sort you’d want to take home and meet the family. Arthur Burns is a psychopath, middle brother Charlie took part in a robbery turned rape turned murder before leaving his elder brother. The police officer, Ray Winston’e Captain Stanley is the sort of man who would use one brother against another in an attempt to “civilise the land.” But at the same time you can sympathise with some of the characters, to a certain extent. Seeing Stanley with his wife won’t help you forgive some of his actions, but it does offer a sympathetic side. Likewise, Charlie’s desire to protect his younger brother Mike shows a less violence aspect to his character.

The great cast of actors are matched by some wonderful cinematography. The camera work doesn’t really make you want to go and live in the sand and grit, but it does convey the beauty and harshness of the landscape. And the amount of flies.

There is plenty of violence, and you see the effects, although it only rated a 16s here in Ireland, despite the censor’s warning of strong gory explicit violence. There are no bloodless deaths, nor off screen departures here. Everything is very sudden, and very real. And combining this with the occasional bit of poetical dialogue and the soundtrack makes for a great film. You will have to be in the right frame of mind to watch this film, but I’d highly recommend it.

IMDb | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds | Phil on Film | Random Burblings | world of mass

Tags: 10 Stars, Australia, cinematography, David Wenham, Emily Watson, excellent film, Guy Pearce, historical fiction, Nick Cave, R16, Ray Winstone, The Proposition, violence, western

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You know that saying about truth being stranger than fiction? Well, look no further than County Laois, where seachtar schoolgirls have set themselves up as arms dealers. Bhí siad ag oibre le the C4 programme Dispatches ar feadh sé mhí, and have had no problems purchasing “small arms and torture tools” and were even asked if they’d like to act as a loval agent by one company.

This is HI-larious.

And made even funnier, imo, because of the serious aspect. A total wtf! headline from The Irish Times Laois girls set up as arms dealers:

A spokeswoman for the Department of Trade said it was preparing export control legislation which would for the first time regulate arms brokering in Ireland and by Irish citizens abroad. [subs req'd]

On a less serious issue lets move on to Cheltenham. Where I’m sure half the country are already, and at a good portion of those not there are betting on it. But I don’t really care about that, I was more amused by this article[1] on the commentator in England having to deal with some Irish ainmneacha capaill.

There was big disappointment for the Irish in the festival’s opening race when Cheltenham’s in-house commentator correctly pronounced the name of a horse called Ó Muircheartaigh … The remainder of the meeting was a triumph, not least for the language movement. Dún Doire (owned by a syndicate from Dunderry, Co Meath) won the fourth race, while Native Jack led an Irish 1-2-3-4 in the fifth.

The third-placed horse here was called Buailtes and Fadas, as the race-caller’s Gaeilge exam extended to grammar. [subs req'd]

For those of you wondering Builtes are little dots that used to be placed above letters in irish to indicate pronunciation. And a fada is the difference between a and á and indicates a change in pronunciation. If you are interested check out this page on Wikipedia

Anyone want to guess how Ó Muircheartaigh is pronounced? I’d say it with 4 syllables.

Linknotes:
  1. again in the Times so subs req’d
Tags: Ó Muircheartaigh, lol, Mark Thomas, weapons dealing schoolkids

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