I’m not really sure what compelled me to celebrate the 40th entry on Blogostino, but it just seemed right. Now that I’ve hit 50 entries (a lot faster than I’d expected to) I’m at a loss as to what I should write to commemorate this minor milestone.
Here’s something I wrote during the week, though, after one of my co-workers challenged me to write a pantoum. Most of you are probably wondering what on earth a pantoum is. So was I, so I had to look it up. Feedback welcome!
There’s no point in a movement without a destination
Collective heartbeats of the disenfranchised now found
Though even now the world is alight with occupation
By administering a band-aid to a festering wound
Collective heartbeats of the disenfranchised now found
Bathing in self-indulgent irony, occupying occupied space
By administering a band-aid to a festering wound
Pushing an unfulfilled agenda of an all-too-well off race
Bathing in self-indulgent irony, occupying occupied space
I am part of this 99 percent
Pushing an unfulfilled agenda of an all-too-well off race
But I am not so reticent
I am part of this 99 percent
As bullet casings are spent, bodies fall every day
But I am not so reticent
To sulk and vent about how things haven’t gone ‘my way’
As bullet casings are spent, bodies fall every day
Trust us, the richest nations
To sulk and vent about how things haven’t gone ‘my way’
In damnedest spirits and proclamations
Trust us, the richest nations
Though even now the world is alight with occupation
In damnedest spirits and proclamations
There’s no point in a movement without a destination
Make of that what you will, folks.
This being the 50th entry means that I’ve written close to or over 50,000 words since kicking this venture off in March of this year. I could waste a whole stack of time going back over each entry and doing the math related to this, but that would waste what little spare time I have these days.
I also just renewed my ownership of this domain for at least a year, meaning I’m invested in continuing whatever this is into the foreseeable future.
Outrage
That isn’t me expressing an emotion, it’s the name of Takeshi Kitano’s latest yakuza flick. For the record, it’s pretty damn awesome. Very slick and some framing of shots that reminded me a lot of anything Nikkatsu produced in the ’60s even remotely yakuza/gangster-related. This film is not for the feint of heart, though. A lot of people are killed quite brutally, and some are injured to the extent that you wish they’d have just been killed.
The soundtrack for the film is quite intriguing as well. Has a real darker, edgy ’80s synth vibe to it.
Breakin’
Ok. This film was watched because the crowd of people in my living room didn’t want to watch The Woman, which I have heard is fucking amazing, but low production values bored the sassafras off everyone else, so we switched from ‘Cannibalism and Primal Objectification of Women’ horror film to ’80s White Chick Learns to Breakdance’ film.
The result? Hilarious in that ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ kind of way. With special appearances by Jean Claude Van Damme, which made us all pause and go back to see him dancing around in the background, Ice T in his first film role and Christopher McDonald (more famously known as Shooter McGavin from ‘Happy Gilmore’).
I don’t really need to say much more except this film contained a lot of breakdancing. Like, too much. Even for a film that’s about breakdancing. Part of the shtick of dance films is that any excuse will do to bust a move. But when you don’t even have an excuse, you just have a long music video. We all stuck it out for the entertainment value.
And how many other films have lead characters named ‘Ozone’, ‘Special K’ and ‘Turbo’? NONE, THAT’S HOW MANY. There is also a character named ‘Cupcakes’ and I swear at one point in the film he has the equivalent of cock origami. It has to be seen to be believed.
Expect to read more in the future about the continued adventures of ‘Ozone’, ‘Special K’ and ‘Turbo’ when I watch the almighty classic Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.
Some other noteworthy points this week…
– Acts of kindness are good things. No, seriously, they are.
– Random nights where siblings can get together for dinner, dessert and book store browsing are good times.
– The Star Wars saga on blu-ray. So very, very epic. Expect a lot more Star Wars quotes out of me in the coming weeks, people.
– Picking up 7 Stanley Kubrick films and all 3 Toy Story films on blu-ray for $60? Amazon.co.uk, why can’t I quit you?
– What would a Blogostino post be without a random Japanese music video? What the hell? (Thanks to Gu-re)
– 21st parties should not try to sing ‘Lady Marmalade’ or ‘You’re the Voice’ in unison. It just should not be done, unless the 21st party is taking place in a nuclear bomb shelter some 200m underground.
– The term ‘double dipping’ is not strictly defined, or was severely misunderstood by yours truly. I can only offer my apologies.
I had a presentation on International Compensation earlier in the week. This also went well, but again I was trumped by the ‘disengaged student’ card. I gave everyone in the class a very brief questionnaire, asking whether they would accept X amount of dollars for a placement in a foreign country. Based on tax rates, etc, I then presented them with an idea of how much they would be actually earning which could then be related to cost-of-living for those particular countries. Yeah, sweet load of bupkis that did. I could have slapped half the class across the face and received nothing – nothing – for my slap-happy efforts.
And the lead-in to my exam period means that I have no less than four pieces of course assessment due within the next week, which is why I’m squeezing out another entry (ew) before it all goes to shit and I’m climbing trees and shouting at possums and passer-bys for fun.
Post root canal I feel generally better than I have in the past few weeks. I now believe in that thing everyone else seems to call referred pain.
50 entries down. Thank you.