What I've been watching

What I've been watching:

Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. Absolutely hilarious.
If you only see one comedy about Hitler this year, this is it.

If you only ever watch one Charlie Chaplin movie ever, watch this. Now, before I get hate mail, this was made before Hitler's atrocities became known. A great satire on dictators everywhere. It's a talkie to boot. Plenty of slapstick, but some verbal humour too. Highly recommended.


D.W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms
One of those silent melodramas. Interesting to see the early development of certain visual techniques. More enjoyable than I thought it would be. The emoting seems a lot more toned down than say The Wind. An interesting departure from his epic features.

Still I much prefer something like Orchids and Ermine, one of my favourite Silent comedies. Those flappers were something else.

What I found most interesting is that I usually get restless when watching silent movies, but watching on my computer I had no problem. When I played it on my normal DVD player I started to get fidgety after a while. I'm sure this has something to do with the sound intimacy of headphones versus the lesser sound
quality of a standard TV. Normally not an issue with movies, but Silent movies are different with only a dodgy instrumental soundtrack. Though I did manage to see The Wind with a live ambient band which was great. Even when I'm enjoying
them, the lack of spoken dialogue makes me restless.


B-Grade Sci-Fi movie: Mammoth
This one's a winner. A undead vampire mammoth is defrosted and goes on a rampage.

Just digest my new two favourite word combination:
vampire mammoth

Hmmm.

Add a couple of agents straight out of MIB, then Vincent Ventresca as the absent minded scientist with Summer Glau as his daughter and some guy who looks like Kris Kristofferson as his father and how could you go wrong? Well, pretty easily, but in this case they got it right.

After BSG stuck the bug back up sci-fi's ass, it's good to see some people didn't get the memo.

Blokesworld weekend shut down

Blokesworld weekend shut down
A female lobby group has claimed a victory for women's rights following the shutdown of Blokesworld Live in Brisbane on the weekend, reports The Courier Mail.
Members of Women's Forum Australia (WFA) gathered outside the RNS showgrounds to condemn the event, which was inspired by the late-night Network Ten program Blokesworld. The protestors claimed that the event was demeaning to women. WFA's Katrina George said the event "promoted a stereotype of women as recreational objects, always available for male entertainment and pleasure."
A representative of Brisbane City Council, however, said that an entertainment licence was not issued for the event because it did not meet public health and safety requirements and neighbouring residents did not receive enough warning about the event.
Blokesworld Live organisers intended to host the ultimate weekend for men, featuring lingerie pillow fighting championships, topless bullfighting, the Australian beer games and the Flirtmodel dancers.
Although exhibitors reportedly lost tens of thousands of dollars because of the closure, Blokesworld Live organisers promise the event will return bigger and better than before.
Blokesworld is a beer-swilling, ute-driving, big-on-breasts TV show, or to put it more politely, a men's lifestyle program. Hosts Knox and Ben-Wah delight their male audience with everything to do with the average Aussie bloke.
Blokesworld airs at 11.30pm Friday nights on Network Ten.

Bughunters 2: Cruise Control

The Epicurean
Ionic class luxury cruiser

The first luxury cruiser to use hyperspace travel.
Before the discovery of hyperspace madness.
Disappeared <50> years ago, presumed destroyed.

Now found. Our heroes are to investigate.

New campaign ideas

The Eyes of Heaven
Iron Heroes
PCs are "The Eyes of Heaven" - spies for the emperor.
1421
Sent out on the treasure fleets that circumnavigated the globe.
Encounters: Incan/Mayan empires, Hiawatha, Slave traders, Lost Macedonian colonies, Vikings etc..

Nyambe - African Adventures
PCs member of a tribe, dealing with rivals, natural disasters, other tribes, supernatural threats etc...

Polynesian - New Gods
The world is newly created.
PCs are unique. First of their race or first of their class etc...

First post

First post to get this puppy started. Hopefully I can delete this inane post later.
Updating....