waking the dead series 9 promo, bitches!

thanks to the lovely midknight productions i am now in possession of the only waking the dead series 9 footage on the internet. this will be the final series of the show(along with spooks), as the "wise" people of the bbc have decided to cut costs in favour of ANOTHER season of doctor who. but, there is still (probably) 8 episodes left. so sit back, watch boyd beat-up some potential criminals and try to work out why exactly every season there is a new young female detective.... they expire so quickly. hmmmm.

Waking The Dead Showcase 2011 from Damian Knight on Vimeo.

back and begging for stuff.

so i'm back. feel bad for my extended hiatus, but it was essential. my last month has been hectic. full of assignments, exams, physie highs and lows with some work mixed in for good financial measure. all except the latter are over now for another year and i can't wait for 2011 to begin. EXCEPT for chistmas. it's pretty wrong that my first post back is grubbing for presents but as my sister is scared of shopping for my gifts i now present you with my updated list of summer/christmas must haves.... well things i must have.

i'm known now for my love of internet shopping and it really is a simple reason. i like stuff no one has or, maybe even didn't think they wanted until they saw it. 'hipster' is a disgusting word, but i really am one. combined with a huge dollop of geek for good measure. which is where i will begin.

battlestar galactic was and will always be my favourite show of all time. when it ended my sadness was cushioned by its sister show caprica. a few years ago bsg released 2000 limited edition cylon toasters. they sold out and to get one now you will be looking at a price tag upwards of $500. so, instead of maxing out mums credit card, you can now get cylon toast from a caprica toaster here. on sale for a measly $65.   

MODEKUNGEN are an amazing swedish brand. although, their site is entirely in their native tongue it is reasonably easy to navigate. this is their handvaska med nitar undertill bag.... no idea how to say that but has me going, oooh pretty. the brand suits my post-punk loving self but is still classic enough to be rocked with a cardie. will set you back 899 SEK or $132. another reason to shop online, our dollar rocks!

i'm a bit confused as to why i want these israeli desert boots. maybe i think they will make me look like ziva off ncis. meh for $70 it's well worth the consumer indulgence. palladium boots have some other rather less conventional shoes going on here and they are all very well priced considering how well made they are.




it just isn't summer without new swimmers and sunnies. this year black milk will supply the former and ray-ban the latter. the red galaxy one piece really does sell itself. just look at its amazing weirdness, and will set you back $85. quite reasonable, no? the black milk brand really is amazing, it's site is a print lovers dream. check out their other swimmers and leggings: R2D2, Astronauts and Skeletons.

ray-ban's have been on my christmas list for years and years, and i haven't really ever bothered to ask for a pair because they were simply too expensive. well the american dollar sucks and they aren't as out of your reach as you may think. a pair of wayfarer 2's will cost you $145, have a look at their many many colour options for two tone magnificence.


'think geek' really is nerd heaven. as someone who habitually loses book marks and even the book itself, this find could not have come at a better time. the book rest lamp is everything i have ever dreamt of and more. well, not really but it is very cool looking and more importantly nifty. combine this with a pac-man alarm clock, going to sleep and waking up will never be the same again.


now, please excuse my indie indulgence but i just must have these shirts, to turn into singlets.... well for mum to turn into singlets. kurt cobain and count duckula. bit of a questionable combo but still, these both make me squee with love in two very different ways. firstly, the daniel johnson shirt worn famously by kurt cobain is the personification of my disenfranchised teenage years. ooh the angst. and count duckula, well it's count duckula! possibly the best children's show EVER!

onto dvds and books. stocking stuffer essentials. let's pretend for a second that i have room in my apartment for anymore box sets and/or novels. hypothetically, it's not surprising that i need every season of waking the dead, peep show and jam and jerusalem. the english really do comedy and serial killers better than any other nation in the world. ebay is always worth a look for box sets, even after you consider postage, you can save a considerable amount of $$$. penguin classics are always a cheap and cheerful addition to any christmas morning. 'wind and the willows', 'madame bovary', 'journey to the centre of the earth', 'middlemarch', 'mrs. dalloway' and 'decline and fall' by evelyn waugh have been on my ebay watch list for the past month or so.

lastly, as i sit watching the first day of the ashes i'm reminded of the fact i have never EVER been to see live international cricket. for something that played such a big part of my childhood summers. so i'd love tickets to go watch the english FINALLY get what is coming to them. ticketek have some very good deals for families and even a concession price for us poor university students. a silver ticket as the SCG will cost you $90 for an adult (and $77 with concession).

well that's it. hope these sites give you some ideas for presents (not just for me, though keep me in mind) that might be a bit out of the box but fit someone you know and love.

the commonwealth games, the olympics retarded half sister!

if you are a member of a post-english empire country you may know that the commonwealth games are on. its all very unexciting. not a sports fan myself, spent the nrl grand final asleep. still, there is one thing i have noticed that quite often occurs at events like this, and that is the shitness of most national anthems. australia's really is rubbish, but i am comforted by the fact that new zealands is worse.

although, there is one that is quite clearly worse and to add insult to injury they are pretty good at sports now. 'god save our gracious queen'? oh please, does she really need that much saving? she does live in a big house behind barb-wire fences with guys with guns standing in front of that. now, that is one fucking saved queen! why does she need 'her people' to stand on platforms and sing to her good health? maybe she should be put in peril, send her off to afghanistan in her pyjamas. THEN maybe then the british would have something to sing about.

so this isn't my joke, can't remember where i saw it. but, it stuck with me and today made me angry all over again. do not even get me started on the pointlessness of flags....

acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk!

an hour ago, a free copy of klaxons new album, 'surfing the void' happened to fall into my computer shaped lap. a 'laptop' if you will. i know it has been a while since i raved about a band and their music, this has been mostly due to the fact that no one recently deserved my praise. the klaxons do! their much anticipated second album is amazing. cited as a band with the complex and aptly named musical genre, 'acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk' speaks to everything i love. combine this with some amazingly odd fashion choices, my love runs free.

get your hands on a copy of their album! if you haven't heard of them, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? in prison? a coma, perhaps. well, if so you are in need of a serious musical education. one, you can find here. or just check out their new single, 'echoes' official video below. could be just me, but i feel the need to run through the desert..... i never feel the need to run. disturbing.

a mind of one's own?

ok, so sorry for being so very slack of late but i do have a good reason. i have been staring at this post for 3 days trying to work out what it actually is and what i'm trying to say. it had the ideas, i think, to be one of my best ever but, alas, i don't think it's going to work out.

earlier this week, i began reading a book that has been sitting in my mini library forever. virginia woolfe's seminal non-fiction work, a room of one's own. in this short novel, originally 2 speeches, she outlines her views on women, fiction and the things that are required for great literary work. but, it is more than that. it is a post-world war 1 depiction of the plight of women throughout history up to that point.

so many things in this book got me thinking. perhaps most significantly, the way men saw women as far beneith them and not just intellectually but also, emotionally, spiritually and culturally insignificant. the concept of the work is that, 'a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction'. i began this adventure into early 20th century feminism expecting her to slander men, call them idiots and all female writers exceptional thinkers and people. this is far from the case and, i think, the reason why it will continue to influence not only the way i write on here but also, what it means to be a woman today. with the relative freedom to aspire to be whatever i choose.

this leads me to my second point. woolfe's main point in giving these speeches to young women who had only just begun to explore their new found access to education at a university level was to push them to understand this right (one she was not afforded) and also, their responsibility in paving the way for future female writers. she gives immense credit to the likes of jane austin, george eliot and the bronte sisters, as brilliant women who not only dared to write within their own styles but, who wrote in some cases exceptionally well. these women inspired woolfe and as a result she, i believe, inspired a generation of newly emancipated women who now influence the writers of today.

freedom? check. education? check. money? check. all requirements for the ability to choose your own fate. this got me considering how i feel about these three things, that i had never once considered to be a part of my life. but, they all are. without the ability to choose, then women today would be nothing more than wives forced into marriage and producing children in the 10s and 12s, instead of the 2s or 3s. how, although i respect women who choose this life for themselves (as mothers with the responsibilities that go with such a thing) i perhaps don't value it enough. what do i value? the power of love? not really. kindness? hardly. intelligence? oh yea!

reading this book made me look at the slightly disturbing aspect of myself that i value more than anything. and not in just me, it's what i judge you on first as well. intelligence. i've always dismissed it as fine, normal even, to do this. after all, it's better than judging someone on their appearance. but, when did i become such a snob? maybe, it's something built within my dna.... or is that just an excuse. still, after thousands of years of men telling women they are beneath them is it not completely understanding that we feel the need to push back in some way?

the short answer is, no. there was a line in the second chapter, that suggested the reason men (specifically during the 16th century and then again, when women demanded their right to vote) of these times saw the need to put down a woman's worth was to elevate his own. this is what i do. i think you are stupid, i feel smarter, i feel superior. this is not acceptable. there is always someone smarter than you are, and always someone not as intelligent at you. maybe, we should all remember this next time someone asks a 'stupid' question. i know i'll try.

news corp. trying a new scam for cash? no?

edmund burke once said, 'all that it necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.'. fair enough but, what is the result when evil men do something good? this conundrum has sprung from the recent decision, of news corporation head honcho rupert murdoch, to force our hands to our wallets in his latest new untested model for profit. the 'paywall' has, since the start of this month, started charging readers £1 per day for the online news pages of 'the times' and 'the sunday times'.

now, it is a fiercely held belief amongst liberal thinking people, that old rupert is a unscrupulous right-wing evil profit hungry bastard, i think this too, and that his latest scheme for profits is another example of his abject greed. morover that it also, won't work. why are people in the uk going to fork out money for something they have always been able to view, for free, when they can get equal if not better news journalism elsewhere? the answer is they won't. the guardian actually welcomed times readers the day the paywall was enacted.

here is my point, surely the guardian is shooting themselves in the foot. the day they realise that people aren't buying actual tangible newspapers anymore and they need some cash to you know, pay their employees. but also, maybe we should have to pay. rupert murdoch is most definitely evil but, that doesn't necessarily mean everything he does is evil. like most things television, books, movies, music, clothes, food (sex....ha nah just kidding), the things we spend our hard earned money on are treasured more. we enjoy them more due to the fact, we have sacrificed money and feel the need to savour the experience. maybe, because it is actually costing us something. news could be the same.

my other weird pro-rupert point (ok now i'm starting to scare myself), is that print media is a dying art form. yes, i do believe it is art and the publics willingness to go and view day-to-day events in an online environment has seen cut backs that directly affect the quality of the printed form. for example, the sydney morning herald last year was forced to sack all their sub-editors in an effort to cut costs. this has lead to a severe drop in the quality of the paper. typos and/or spelling errors on the front page of the oldest continuously published broadsheet newspaper in australia. disgusting! moreover, after these cut backs the paper has been accused of 'dumbing down' content and becoming far to akin to a tabloid magazine. as opposed to its previous status as a reputable port of call for serious news readers.

the internet is full of crap. lets be honest even my blog, that i love, is full of grammatical miss steps, spelling errors and unsubstantiated claims. we need experienced professional news sites to outweigh the amateur. still, i think we need both. but, if we aren't going to or even just open to the idea of paying for online content then we are to blame when the 4th estate can't afford to operate and there is no one on the front line of news, reporting to us as it's happening.

without real news reporting, who can we trust to tell us the truth? politicians? ha, yea ok.

murdoch's play for the british publics pounds sterling will probably crash and burn. his uk online newspaper sites are going to take a serious hit. not only because they don't want to pay for news content but, also because they are going to dismiss the idea out of hand as sheers profiteering on news corp.'s part then go read something else. this is not to say the idea is a bad one, it isn't, its quite a practical. to be honest, i don't think it's too much to ask for this service to be a paid one. we have got far too used to everything in the internet world being free.....

well kids, nothing worth having is free. maybe, its time we began to accept that in the online world as well.

suicide's easy, what happened to the revolution?

stephen fry - the sydney opera house - 27th of july - 8pm

foals - manning bar - 28th of july - 8pm

the strokes - the hordern pavilion - 29th of july - 7pm

black rebel motor cycle club - the metro - 1st of august - 8pm

....going to be a big week of AWESOME! woop can't wait. now, i got to go practice my thrash dancing.

the surprising adventures of sir digby chicken caesar.

as i listened to the two bogans next door have a massive 2am fight this video jumped into my mind.... "what are you a positcuba?" i'm pretty sure he meant 'prosecutor' but problem is they weren't even drunk; at least the characters in this mitchell and webb sketch have that to blame. moreover, they are funny. homlessness is funny. what, i can be whimsical!

check it! ->

daydream, i fell asleep amid the flowers.

bit of a music post. i have recently rediscovered the wonderful band 'i monster'. 4 of the songs on their album 'neveroddoreven' i have heard before on tv but my favourite song 'the blue wrath' is the theme tune from one of my absolute rewatchable films 'shaun of the dead'. if you haven't seen the english zombie comedy then i can't suggest enough you go out and find it at your local video shop or just borrow mine.

anyways, 'i monster' is a british electronic group, made up of sheffield-based producers dean horner and jarrod gosling that formed in 1997. they themselves aren't very well know yet, their music is instantly recognisable due to subtle melodies and catchy re-mastered versions of old classics.

and if all that doesn't convince you, then do check out their first album here. they also released their latest album last yr 'a dense swarm of ancient starts'.

who knew she was so sensitive about naked jokes.

after watching 'national treasure - book of secrets' yesterday, which is pretty good by the way, i noticed that there are a lot of things that helen mirren does well but, unfortunately an american accent in not one of them. also, the other thing i decided was, when i get all old and wrinkly i will aspire to look like helen does today!

now, i know she was pretty famous for taking off her clothes a lot in her long, interesting and prolific career but she is also a credit to her craft. minus the bad accent in the big disney movie she is rather wonderful. so here comes a mini list of her best -> the queen, state of play, elizabeth (mini series), the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, calender girls, gosford park, the hawk, where angels fear to tread, pascali's island and caligula (one of the worst movies ever, only surpassed by 'sex and the city 2').

soccer v football. not that it matters here.

i seem to be missing some sort of 'australian gene' that causes me to give a crap about sport. i am also not ashamed to say that at 4.30am yesterday morning i was dead to the world and having a lovely time in dream land with prince william. not up and cheering on our national world cup team to defeat against the germans. what a spectacular defeat.

so there really isn't much more to this post other than my expression of abject disappointment in my fellow australians. we don't play soccer! we play cricket and rugby and even at one stage were the best team in the world in those sports. seriously, someone who bothered to get up (and no, it doesn't count if you were up all night drunk off ya ass) and watch the early morning match needs to explain to me the off side rule. because, if you can't then why the hell did you bother!?

also, on a side note victoria beckham is a waste of very little space. i really hate her! she is rich and famous and skinny but hey, have you ever seen her smile...? she is nothing to aspire to, she doesn't contribute to society at all. moreover, i'm pretty sure she has had THAT much work done that when in fact she does die her corpse will probably never decay! little bit like a cheeseburger....

but, her birthday is in april....?

happy long weekend to all! so in the eastern states of australia we celebrate the queen, our monarch's birthday today. the problem is her actual birthday is the 21st of april.... so why do we have it in the second weekend of june? this has always bothered me, until today when i decided to consult the magical machine that is google.

it turns out that there is a very cool and rich history behind why we get a day off work; unless of course you work in hospitality and then, yay extra money. it all began way back in 1788 when governor arthur phillip declared the holiday in celebration of king george the 3rd (who was born on the 4th of june). the holiday did jump around to coincide with the birthday of the reigning monarch until it was decided after the death of george the 5th (queen elizabeth the 2nds grandfather), whose birthday was on the 3rd of june to keep it on its original weekend.

not going to tackle the issue of an australian republic because well, i'm not sure if i have a solid opinion on it. i don't like the idea of inherited wealth and privilege but i also equally like having a long weekend that usually falls around my own birthday.

burberry update.

bit of a mini post because well, i'm dyeing from some sort of next day beer drinking thing.... so burberry update! thanks to heather, jp, kel and my mum! the 'michelle wants a burberry coat fund' is going quite well. $100 down, with $500 to go. so help a sister out. otherwise i'm going to have to work for the coat.

i am planning on getting the coat the week after next with various donations, birthday money and my own hard earned cash.

check out the coat i'm buying here. thinking of getting the tan one but i also like the navy one. which colour do you think? navy is easier to keep clean but tan is just so....burberry.

also, how cool is the tartan under the collar?

bring on november!

harry potter and the deathly hallows, bitches! going to be epicly dark. first look at bill nighly as scrimgeour, griphook and john hurt as ollivander is back! can't wait for more footage. check out the first official trailer, though i'm not exactly sure what happens to the sound at the end.

danger mouse and sparklehorse present:

dark night of the soul!

this is a great cd written and produced by danger mouse and sparklehorse and deserves a serious listen for the sheer amount of wonderful names that are included in the artists list. iggy pop, pixies, the flaming lips, super furry animals, neutral milk hotel, julian casablancas, the shins, nina perssons, the strokes....it's like an orgy of amazingness! deep mellow tunes but, for some reason the album isn't actually that depressing. moody but jaunty.

still, my primary reason for this post is the rad 100 page book of photos that will be included with the cd. the picture above is one of them and shows the very talented david lynch, who contributed the stills and is responsible for great films like, 'mulhollond drive' and 'blue velvet'.

you can get your hands on a copy via the evil torrents and listen to the entire album that is live streamed here. or if you are more patient than me, and you can wait till the 13th of july when emi will be re-releasing it for a nice tangible hard copy.

a lovely man speaking in a lovely house.

exciting time here in michelle's world! one celebrity encounter with the amazing brian chase; made a slight douche of myself in front of him by swooning over his obvious love for me and my inevitable close friendship with karen o. but now, tickets go on sale to see stephen fry speak at the sydney opera house! the wonderful man of words, wit and wondrous neck ties is coming to speak in july. he could be my connection to david mitchell and hugh laurie.... still, other than that i am so excited to see the mans mind at work in person. squee!

you still might be able to get your hot qi loving hands on tickets. might have to go to the box office but i'm sure you can get them online. check out the official site here. hopefully we can have some post speech drinks and discuss the witticisms of the evening. i'm not drinking before hand, need to be completely sober and ready to absorb all the amazingness i can.

christmas in....may?

yes yes i know it is traditionally in december or july but here i go again, bucking the trend. but, today i watched 'love actually'. again. and remembered why i love it and wish i was english or even just lived in london again. there are two reasons i love this movie. one, the airport scenes that bookend the movie are rather amazing. real footage from heathrow airport is used wonderfully to highlight the nice family side of humanity. gives you a nice warm and fuzzy feeling in your heart. secondly, the cast. not just the obviously well breed and eloquent cast of rickman, thompson, nighy, neeson, linney, atkinson, firth and grant (who is a rather good dancer, as it turns out) but the kid that plays neeson's step-son steals the movie in my opinion. thomas sangster is his name and he is an absolute cutie. makes me feel quite old because as it turns out he is 20 years old. eek!

anyway, one of my fave scenes in this film. far too many to choose just one but this has music so it wins.

dreaming of burberry....again.

i want a trench coat! is it too much to ask for a beautiful tan, double breasted, knee length, tartan lined beauty with a sexy burberry tag? seems so if you aren't willing to sell a kidney to get one. under $500 is farely reasonable, no? yea it really isn't. upwards of $1000! for shame burberry.

well in my internet travels i found some wonderful pics but i really like this one the most. that kid screams innocent cool. not a bit of pretentiousness in sight. the satorialist couldn't have found a cooler kid.

oh well i guess i'll have to settle for a london fog trench. or not.....all donations for the 'michelle wants a burberry coat fund' are accepted via email and in person. ALSO, i do have a birthday coming up. remember, tan, double breasted, knee length, burberry! cheers. i promise to act surprised.

i heart you, maggie smith!

i also love that my uni degree (the fun one) allows me to watch movies as a requirement for assessment. anyway, the latest big assignment that i'm doing with alex is organising a film festival centred around a genre. hence 'hagsploitation' was born. well, we didn't invent it but we are bringing it out of obscurity for all to bask in its amazingness!

maggie smith is my favourite of all favourite actresses' of all time. in the movie 'keeping mum' she is a great modern example of hagsploitation or 'psyco-buddy'. in this movie, comedy is mixed into the genre well and proves that nana violence and laughs can go hand-in-hand.

maggie is a credit to her art and that fact that a grumpy cynical indie snob like me can fall for her charm and grace is inspiring. my first beagle puppy will be named in her honour!

combo love!

i really love film, music and trivia generally. so when i found out that this video combined 3 loverly things into one amazing music video i felt the need to share. the vid below is from the very talented band kasabian. now these young lads from leicester in the uk have been tinkering around with guitars and such for a few years now, as a result are now at the top of their game. some of you may have seen them play at the big day out this year.

this song is off their most recent album, 'the west rider lunatic asylum' and this particular song is directed by none other than mr. richard ayoade (who plays moss from 'the it crowd') and stars the very funny noel fielding (from 'the mightly boosh') as the serial killing vampire 'vlad the impaler'. the name 'vlad the impaler' funnily enough was the original name chosen by bram stoker for the character who would be later called dracula. how cool is that?!

there is also a wonderful line in the song, "joker, meet you on the other side". this is a bit of a shout out/homage to heath ledger on his work in 'the dark night' and his subsequent death. still, regardless of all the doom and gloom in this song the video is oddly funny. this is a great display of the inate humour of the band, director and the actor in this 4 minute mini movie.