Friday: Cats

So the Evil Doctor and I decided to attend the Royal Show. After all, any event featuring both duck-herding and pig-diving must be worth a look – you don’t get that at the Melbourne Writers Festival. And as a bonus, it was cat judging day, and there’s nothing I enjoy more than a pissed-off Norwegian Forest Cat.

Friday: Polish Sci-Fi Posters Revealed!

Last week we asked you to name these science fiction films, as expressed through the medium of the Polish Film Poster. To remind you, here were the clues:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

For the answers, keep on reading…

Friday I’m In Love: The Polish Science Fiction Poster Edition

Yesterday we looked at some Polish film posters, and then we cried in a corner for a bit.

Look at this – guess what this is the poster for?

Did you say Weekend At Bernie’s? Of course you didn’t. Why would you?

In the comments Tim said “Awww, you should’ve held on and revealed the answers next week, after we’d all made fools of ourselves guessing wrongly.”

Your wish is my command. Here’s round 2 – below are details from six Polish posters for well-known science fiction films. Can you name these films? Answers will be posted next Friday, feel free to share your workings in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Friday I’m In Love: The Weekly Wrap-Up

I was a guest on the world’s best podcast-about-television- recorded-in-a-radio-station Boxcutters again this week – you may remember last time I did that I wrote about RRR’s espresso machine. Well here’s a picture:

Oh coffee, I love you so. If you want to hear me blather on about Quantum Leap, visit www.boxcutters.net– since I’ve already done the research I’ll probably use it here next week as well – after all, there’s just so many unanswered questions.

I also recently had a chance to see the studios of Joy Melbourne– it’s somehow fitting that the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered/ intersex/ham-on-rye radio station should have the most fabulous studios in all of Melbourne. They’re part of a great new Arts Mind Meld building in the city, where a whole lot of organisations – MIFF, Fringe, Melbourne Queer Film Festival – have been locked in together and won’t be let out until they’ve created an important new work. Or had a bunch of marketing types fill in several grant applications, whichever comes first. It’s like Big Brother, only without the racist grandmothers. And the views from the studios are amazing, hopefully I’ll be in there again soon and will bring back pictures.

So what have we learnt from the Institute this week?

1. The food on the restaurant tram is surprisingly good.

2. If you’re ever in nineteenth century Melbourne, you can find prostitutes on Romeo Lane and Juliet Terrace.

3. Green Lantern once had an alien vegetable for a pet. It was called Itty.

4. There are no Italian knock-offs of 2001: A Space Odyssey starring Caroline Munro

Friday I’m In Love: The Weekly Wrap-Up

Another week, another step closer to death…

Vampires and death appear to have been this week’s theme. Not so cheery, then. And with the Melbourne International Film Festival over, the city is full of blank-eyed cineastes aimlessly walking the ancient routes of the city’s movie houses. Without even knowing, they trace the steps to the long dead picture palaces, the ghosts of the Mayfair, the Chelsea, the Paris and the Park… On Bourke Street a young woman, listlessly clutching an Edward Yang DVD, hears the watery roar of the Esquire‘s Wurlitzer, and a single tear rolls down her cheek…

So what have we learnt from the Institute this week?

1. Isaac Hayes was once in The A-Team.

2. It’s quite difficult to kill your babies. Those are metaphorical babies – it might be easier to kill real ones, I’m not sure. I believe taking candy from one is fairly straight-forward.

3. Cats make good vampire detectors.

4. Dick van Dyke, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis are all still alive.

5. There are now 128 films listed in our George A Romero Title Game… Of The Dead. (Incidentally, if anyone reading this is – or knows – a graphic designer, mock up a DVD cover for one of these films and send it in. Let’s go visual! You’ll find the email on the “About” page.)

Friday I’m In Love: The Weekly Wrap-Up

I’ve just come back from two days crewing an educational film about horse-riding for the disabled. Mostly this involved running backwards in sand with a microphone while trying to avoid steaming piles of horse manure. As the old joke goes – “And leave showbiz?”

And speaking of steaming piles… no, it’s just too easy, isn’t it?

So what have we learnt from the Institute this week?

1. Lynne Kosky is the Victorian Arts Minister – honestly, who knew?

2. There are now 109 films listed in our George A Romero Title Game… Of The Dead.

3. Eric Bana can speak German.

4. BFI: Southbank would be a brilliant cop show.

Speaking of comments, please do feel free to leave comments. I love your comments. I live for your comments. I am a comments vampire (in that I go out at night, drink the blood of the innocent, then return to my lair to check my blog and see if there are any comments). There are have been some great conversations going on under the articles, and I welcome you to join in the fun.

This Sunday marks the end of the Melbourne International Film Festival, as well as being Ecuador’s Independence Day and the 76th anniversary of the death of Rin Tin Tin.

Coincidence?

Yes.

See you next week.