Friday 25 September 2009

[old blog import] Insert your own damn brittany spears joke

This evening we (by wg=hich I mean I) went to see HITT.

Why's that I hear you cy? Well, basically because he seemed like he'd pretty good and fun. Also Japanese. He might not be a 12 year old girl, but who's counting?

Things got off to a somewhat inauspicous start as the queue seemed woefully short. Then there was the fact that doors didn't open till at least half seven, which is bad even by underworld standards. But finally, we lucky few are herded through a noticibly different door to normal and down into the half closed underworld.

At this stage there isn't even a merch stand set up, so there isn't really anything to do except wait for another hour or so trying not listen to teenage girls talk about each others boobs. So yeah, that was fun.

All told I guess there was about twenty people there total. I may not be the only male there (there was ONE other, but I think he was escorting some clearly underage companion or other) but once more I'm definately the oldest. Oh I feel so happy, please start the damn show already.

And lo, in the begininnig was the word, and the word was HITT. On his own. One guy, a keyboard and a DAT machine. Not what I was expecting to be sure. But godamn does the boy put on a show. Whilst suffering from various technical difficulties, language barriers and a rather noticably not full venue he certainly gives it his all and plays a really great set. The informal and intimate atmosphere of a tiny sho like this is great, don't get me wrong, but I can't help but feel he deserves to be playing to bigger crowds in bigger venues. But then I'm sure he'll be getting all that on the continent. Britain does seem to rather lack in the J-Rock support department. Maybe if they could have got him opening for Miyavi or something? Be nice to have a support band at least once for this sort of thing, but I guess the logistics preclude it. He'd certainly go down well with that crowd I'd think.

But yeah, a great, fun and entertaining night of some pretty groovy music. I am most pleased, all thing considered. I guess the only real dissapointment was that they only had the one CD on sale at the end. But at least I got something.

Rock on.

Friday 4 September 2009

[old blog import] Prawnography

District 9. It is a good film.

I hadn't paid much attention to the hype for this film, though it did have a habit of cropping rather frequently in my various data streams. But it had at least caught my attention in some small way. So since I had time off and it was showing, I figured why not check it out?

Certainly not the worst decision I've ever made.

The film is very good, well acted and at least reasonably plotted. The effects are obviously very good, but serve the plot, which is a nice change from the usual mindless spectacle. Whilst the protagonists transformation is somewhat limited, it does progress throughout the course of the film and evokes Cronenbergs The Fly in places. Good stuff.

A very dark film certainly, and when there's violence it certainly doesn't shy away, with various chunks and fluids splattering over the camera as well as the bystanders. Not an action film by any means, but certainly a film with action in it.

It's shot in a very interesting way, using a documentary style to tell the story, often using TV or security camera footage, as well as more usual camerawork.

It's kind of interesting that there's been some desperate attempt at fuss over racism for this film, since the whole thing is a rather massive and obvious metaphor for apartheid, though personally I get more criticism of the horrific state of poverty in these sort of places. But I suppose the issues are all strongly interrelated.

It's interesting to note that the characters shown are largely an unlikeble bunch, but all solidly believable. Whilst it's easy to critique from this side of the screen, they do feel like a part of the world in which the drama takes place. Imperfect people in an imperfect world if you will.

An intelligent piece of mature themed science fiction, and well worth seeing in my humble opinion.