Robot Action Boy

reading paul’s blog today i discover katherine hepburn is dead. it’s not that surprising, but sad all the same. none of the obituaries i’ve read mention my favourite(one of many) hepburn films though, stagedoor. it’s on my list of films that i wish was available on dvd.

last night peter and i went up to yamingshan to see the night view. to be honest, the view of taipei isn’t all that special. but while we were up there, we saw some fireflies. this made me more than happy as i’ve never seen a firefly before and was starting to think i never would. i’d heard that they no longer existed in the taipei area because of the pollution. but apparently a few still exist up on yamingshan. i’ve always wanted to see them in real life ever since reading sam and the firefly when i was little.

tonight after work, peter met me in kuanghua and i picked up a few dvds. i got almost famous and blue velvet. i had bought blue velvet before, but had to return it as the disc had some problems. once i got home i checked the scene that had the problem to make sure it was ok, and it seems to be. almost famous i’ve been wanting for awhile. they show it from time to time on tv here, and nearly everytime i get sucked into watching the whole thing. this is the two disc set. the first thing i did was watch the deleted scenes. i didn’t sit through all of the sweetwater concert as i really don’t like their music much on it’s own. but i like the way it is used in the film(ie not too much).

there’s a scene in the film where william’s sister gives him a bunch of records and she leaves a note that listening to the who’s tommy will set you free. they show him put it on and it does seem to open up worlds for him. and i can relate, as music did the same for me when i was a teen. and it makes me wonder, these kids that listen to britney spears or jennifer lopez – do they have such feelings for that manufactured pop music? does it open up worlds for them – or is it just something more to be consumed and tossed to the side as soon as the next fad hits?

my favourite scene in almost famous is when they are all on the tour bus singing along with elton john’s tiny dancer. whenever i see this scene it makes me want to get some old elton john. the part of this scene i really like is where william says i have to go home. and penny lane says back at him you are home.

is it just my cynicism that makes me surprised to hear that the u.s. supreme court knocked down this anti-sodomy law? it’s nice to hear some good news for a change. though it’s interesting that the cnn article ends with people saying this will be the end of the family. isn’t this what they have been saying for ages? anytime there is a change, it’s the end of the family. women can’t vote – it’ll be the end of the family, women can’t work – it’ll be the end of the family, you can’t have sex in that position – it’ll be the end of the family. well, if any of those things cause the end of the family, then i’m all for the family ending.

riaa to start suing individual downloaders. i can’t say i’m surprised, but i still don’t see how suing your customers is going to save your business.

apparently, the people over at photoblogs.org think that taiwan is a province of china. this is horribly offensive to your average taiwanese. i’m not even taiwanese and i find it offensive. are they just ignorant or kow towing to china’s whim just like the WHO? and more importantly why would they? they’ve got no stake in such things as far as i can tell.

to make things even more confusing the one blog listed as from taiwan uses the flag of taiwan(while saying “province of china”), yet chinese delegates have been known to fly into a tizzy upon that flag being displayed. often taiwan delegates to trade shows are pressured to remove their flags. a few years ago, at an international art event, the taiwan table was forbidden from even using the name taiwan. an artist from another country went around asking people for a letter from their country names so that the letters would spell out taiwan. he then put it on the taiwan table and said this is art you cannot remove it.

anyway, i dropped them a line about this. i mean if hk can just be called hk shouldn’t taiwan just be taiwan without having province of china added to its name?

there are quite a few films i’d like to see come out on dvd. it seems that a lot of the more obscure films that have come out on videotape, haven’t quite made it to dvd, and may never make it there. one of the films i’d really like to see make it to dvd is whatever happened to susan jane?. bascially the story of a suburban housewife that leaves her husbund and goes out to san francisco to look up an old classmate. once in san francisco she ends up hanging out with artists, drag queens and other scenesters. i’m pretty doubtful that it will ever make it to dvd, but there is a small article on the makers of this film here. and a review with a clip of the found footage they used in the film here.

i stayed up way too late last night reading this online comic cat and girl. how many comics mention joseph beuys repeatedly, and even feature a joseph beuys zombie? or talk about hipsters’ merit badges? via yip yop.

this morning when i woke up i was in the mood for record shopping. i don’t mean cd shopping but in the mood to go somewhere and thumb through used vinyl and see what treasures present themselves. it’s not something i’ve done in a long time, as i really don’t have the option to, and usually when i go to a cd shop here i have something in mind i want to buy. i’m sure this feeling can mainly be attributed to the fact that george and i have been discussing the joys of vinyl in recent emails. well, tonight after work i met up with a friend of mine to give him the cds i’d ordered for him, and after doing that we decided to hit this used shop that neither of us had been too since they’d moved over a year ago. i ended up being bad and getting the following:

• rita reys sings burt bacharach
• mark hollis by mark hollis
• pressure points by anne clark
• hopeless cases by anne clark
• best of sammy davis jr. and the mike curb congregation

so i guess i sort of satisfied that record shopping desire this morning by hitting this cd shop. i have no idea who rita rey is, i bought it merely because she’s doing burt bacharach songs. i hope i’m not too disappointed. the mark hollis cd i’ve been wanting for a long time, but whenever i went to buy it something else would demand to be bought instead. well, by waiting so long at least i got the cheap price. anne clark is an old favourite from the 80s and she even has ties to french and saunders if you go back far enough. i don’t have any sammy davis jr. so i figured this would be a good place to start. looks like it has some classics like candy man, singing in the rain, and movin’ on up. hmm, movin’ on up?! i wonder if that is the theme to the jeffersons?

my friend paul has brought this scary article to my attention about a politician that wants to develop a way to destroy the computers of people who download music illegally. hmm, how well are they going to be able to tell if something is legal or not and what happens when they destroy someone’s computer who is downloading mp3s legally? at least for now this seems like a pipe dream, but if it was to happen, it’d make me want to download music even more.