McBlog

Kitt really enjoyed watching the Robotech series when she was a kid so when we found them on sale for about AUS$16 per box set (3 DVDs per box) we wound up buying all 7 boxes. Yup, that’s a lot of Robotech.

We’re about half way through the first series (Macros Saga) then it goes into the Robotech Masters before winding up with the New Generation. They certainly spun the first series out as it’s full of flashbacks and repeats of various bits to ensure you’re up to speed on what’s been happening. Between that and the Minmei character singing the same damned songs over and over again, it’s getting a little bit draining. But, we’re sticking it through and it’s certainly fun to see how the story is developing.

Another series Kitt loved as a kid was Battle of the Planets so we may wind up cruising through all them too. Personally, I prefer the original Japanese version, Gatchaman, where everything occurs on earth (ever wondered why where-ever G-Force went, it always looked like earth?), there were no robots (7-Zark-7 was bad enough but 1-Rover-1???) and Jinpei (aka Keyop) talked normally.

On with the show…

Last Friday night we took Nykolai to see “Just MacBeth”, Andy Griffiths’ version of The Scottish Play performed by members of the Bell Shakespeare Theatre Company. A bunch of kids and adults at the Arts Center to witness the impossible. Seems that MacBeth isn’t all about tragedy but is actually a comedy – who knew?

Andy Griffiths is an Australian author who’s a number kids books that Nykolai enjoys, so when we found out that he was working with Bell Shakespeare on a MacBeth variant, we just had to go. What a great way to introduce Nykolai to Shakespeare.

Mapping Andy’s main characters of Andy, Lisa and Duncan into MacBeth, Lady MacBeth and Banquo, the story takes us from current day 12 year olds back to the Scottish hills. With school level effects (mostly via rear projection and an overhead projector), lots of fart sounds, audience participation, a fair bit of original dialogue and some adlibbing, the play brings comedy and fast paced fun while still putting across the message of tragic loss.

If you ever wondered how marshmellows, whiz fizz, skateboards, karaoke, no undies, drag shows, garden gnomes and a food processor could be applied successfully to MacBeth, this is the show for you. With plenty of humour for the adults as well as the kids it is well worth going to. Hopefully they’ll do it again to another classic play.

Yet another movie experience today and yet again at the Astor Theatre near home. They were showing The Dark Knight and we’ve been hanging to go and see it. Nykolai had seen it before but was very happy to go again, so we wound up with one of his friends and family as well as us.

All up, a great movie and well worth seeing. Some have said that there was too much packed into it and yes, it did feel almost like two movies rolled into one. Perhaps that had to do with having both The Joker and Two Face in it. I didn’t find it too over the top and felt that the pace, action and story were great. Heath Ledger as The Joker was amazing, mixing some aspects of Jack Nicholson’s portrayal from Tim Burton’s Batman movie with his own version of a complete psycho. It’s worth it just for him alone.

Definitely a keeper and soon to be appearing in our collection, I’d say.

Yesterday was the “Kelly-Woodford Festival of the Boot” at Nykolai’s school. Basically, it’s a Parents & Teachers vs the kids game of Aussie Rules Football that happens every year around the time of the finals. This was the third time it’s been run and the past two events were won by the kids, so could the adults finally win one this year?

Those of you who know me probably know that these days I’m not much into sport and especially not AFL. I think I’ve seen 5 or 6 professional games in my life, and a few of those were when I was a kid. Going to a football match takes me into an alien environment which I normally stay well clear of. I do wind up in the middle of it every few years or so having scored a corporate seat for an AFL game some 6 or 8 years ago and going to the Argentina vs Australia soccer game a year ago. Given this, walking around the school grounds yesterday with all the team songs playing and watching adults & kids running around the place in their gear (players and supporters) was a rather surreal experience.

I have a rough idea of how the game is played but otherwise have no idea what to do out there. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s played on a large oval shaped field with players roaming all over the place, no concept of offside and no time-outs for injury (play goes on around the medics on the field – amazing). Between the running around like mad buggers and leaping in the air to get the ball (often by leveraging off the back of others) the real game is amazingly energetic with players typically being lean and bloody fit.

Having grown up in New Zealand playing Soccer or Rugby Union then spending a bit of time mucking about with American Football, my instinctive reaction when getting a non-round football lobbed at me is to throw it like a torpedo or flick pass it so handballing and bouncing it while running are not immediate reactions for me.

If this is the case, what the heck was I doing in the middle of a game of AFL? Was it because Nykolai was playing? Nope – he was more interested in catching up with friends and mucking around – I don’t think he even watched the game despite being near the field. Was it because I really really wanted to play? Heck no! Did I want to relive my childhood? Get real!

No, I was there because one of the fathers had hassled me to attend, telling me it was all a good time and a bit of a laugh. After having my arm twisted a bit, I said I’d join in and wound up standing with a bunch of adults in sports team jumpers wondering what the hell I was doing there. Once the captain was aware that I’d never played before and had less knowledge of the game than the ball itself, he managed to arrange things so I never had much more to do than try to keep an eye on some of the opposition and generally block. Yeah, that sorta worked.

A few of the organisers had a go at commentary that was somewhat like Roy & HG complete with fashion advice and references to some adults being wiped out in the warm up let alone in the game. The kids enjoyed themselves and the adults had a good go at it, getting to within 5 points of the kids in the end. Some of the kids did amazingly well with a some of the grade 5′s & 6′s showing they’ve been playing for a few years already.

All up it was a fun day despite having to spend more time looking down at the kids than up at the ball. Nykolai had fun with a few friends, I did my duty and I’ve (hopefully) done my sporting bit for the year.

Last night we took Nykolai and one of his friends to the Astor to see Kung Fu Panda. So glad we did as it was a great movie and we haven’t laughed so much in ages. We’ll definitely be picking up this one on DVD.

I’ve also realised I’d forgotten to list a few other movies we’ve seen lately, including:

Prince Caspian:
While a fun movie, it wasn’t anything super spectacular and was about on par with the first Narnia movie. If anything, it was not quite as good as the first. Still, worth seeing and maybe one day we’ll buy both of them on DVD.

Spiderwick Chronicles:
This was also a fun movie but, once again, nothing amazing or worth writing home about. Not in any real hurry to see it again but I’d probably get it on DVD.

Iron Man:
This was a great movie and we really enjoyed seeing this one. We went Gold Class to see it and I’d quite happily go and see it again in the cinemas. Definitely one for the DVD collection.

Night Watch and Day Watch:
A pair of Russian movies that are very grainy and raw – a good pair of movies that tell a story that spans them both. Based on the books of the same name, the movies a similar but with a few plot twists and changes. They’re not the usual Hollywood style movie having a dirty, disjoint and off-center feel to them. Oh yeah, and they’re in Russian with subtitles. While we enjoyed the movies and may very well wind up with them in the DVD collection, I have to say I preferred the books more. There’s a third book called Twighlight Watch that I’m about to start reading. It’s apparently going to be made into a movie as well so we’ll see how that all hangs together next year when it’s due.

Indiana Jones – Crystal Skull:
Returning to the adventure of the first movie, this one substituted religious mysticism for science fiction as the driving force behind the search & discovery. A good story with the usual larger-than-life action stunts that kept your attention right through it. Definitely a keeper.

Looks like Ecuador’s new constitution will include inalienable rights to nature (Pachamama). Que bueno es eso?

It’s going to be interesting to see if it gets voted in and, if accepted, how it will work out, but I think it’s great that there’s a country out that that’s willing to at least try. Now if only we could get other countries to do the same.

We’ve got one of Nykolai’s friends staying over with us tonight. We had talked about going to the movies but Kitt’s sick and I’m zonked after a long week. So, to make up for not going out to see Hancock and Zohan, I picked up a copy of Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii.

I got home about 7pm with the game and they started playing. It’s now gone 10:30pm, they’ve eaten dinner (go pizza!) and they’re still buried in the game. I went in before to see how they were doing:

“Hey munchkins, how’s it going?”
“Good”
“You guys tired?”
“Nope”
“It’s 10:30, you know…”
“Really?”
“How’s the game?”
“Great”

All this while totally focused on the screen and the game. Kitt went into the lounge before to get a couple of things and they were fully engrossed in the game, hardly even reacting when she climbed over the couch to get back out again.

Guess it’s not a bad game then…

Gotta feel sorry for the folks in the Bahamas and the Carribean – they’re getting pounded by a series of tropical storms and hurricanes this season. We’ve already had Tropical Storm Fay go up the edge of Florida and Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana. Now there’s Tropical Storm Hanna which was a Hurricane for a short period before it dropped back to TS level. It’s working its way to Florida and North Carolina with a good chance it’ll go back up to Hurricane status. All of these are dumping massive amounts of rain on the area causing flooding, wind damage and general chaos.

As if all that wasn’t enough there’s also Cyclone Ike that’s way out in the Atlantic and was Category 4 (on a scale of 1 to 5) but is (as of the moment) Cat 3. Plus there’s Tropical Storm Josephine all the way over closer to Africa. You can see a lot of this over at the National Hurricane Center

Given the season officially started on June 1st and we’re up to the J’s already, if this keeps up it’s going to be one hell of a bad time to be an insurer. The folks who live around this area are going to be in for a rough ride – glad I’m living well away from it.