Fish Story

Quietly whimsical Japanese film in which an obscure (pre-Sex Pistols) punk song saves the world from comet destruction decades later. (See also, in far more riotous vein, this one.)

Craig Mathieson - Playlisted

A collection of short essays, each nominally about a song, more broadly about the artist behind the song, and (usually) more broadly still about some aspect of Australian music or pop music generally (there's one exception, a slightly longer piece on possible de facto Australian national anthems). Nicely contemporary, and hits on most of the biggest and most prominent - and representative - acts going around, most of which I've heard a lot on the radio over the years. A pretty good read, though more as a diversion than for anything more substantial.

Sucker Punch

A great big spectacle - it holds the attention and it's exciting, steampunk zombie nazis and all. But as visually striking as the film is, and as vividly realised, it's as if some more subcutaneous imaginative layer is lacking - I'm not sure whether it's in the vision or the execution - something that would have given Sucker Punch an extra dimension that would have raised it from the level of 90 minutes' simple entertainment to the something more that it seems to aspire towards.

Mix cd (untitled)

A pleasing mix of folky-chamberish-miscellany from a rogues' gallery of eccentrics and iconoclasts. Favourites: "Go Do" (Jonsi), "Black But Comely" (Baby Dee), "Dreamer" (Tiny Vipers), "Saro" (Sam Amidon) - and also the mix made me realise for the first time how wonderful Joni Mitchell's "Amelia" is, and that one, which I've heard before but never really got, is the highlight.

(from JF)

Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be

Sub Pop's website quotes Dee Dee, the driving force behind the Dum Dum Girls, as describing her MO as "blissed-out buzz saw", in which case: mission accomplished. The referents here are obvious and cascading, most particularly the Ronettes and the Shangri-Las and then the Jesus and Mary Chain, but it's done with a nice touch and a fistful of good tunes - neat.

Giant Drag - Hearts and Unicorns

Scuzzy, catchy, loose-feeling indie-rock; at times Giant Drag come on like a noisier, trashier Breeders, at others they're a bit dreamier and strummier, more dazed. Actually, sounds very 90s to me, though it came out in 2005 - not that that's a bad thing.

James Blake - Echoes

Haunted contemporary chopped-up electro-soul. Been listening to it for a while now, but haven't made up my mind. Still, there's something about it that sticks in the mind.

"Best of the Edinburgh Festival" (Melb Comedy Festival)

Three acts - Carl Donnelly, Tom Allen, Seann Walsh. All pretty good - good for a Friday night.

(w/ some folk from work plus alumni - ET + 1, ZG + 1, EB, AM, HM)

Amélie Nothomb - Sulphuric Acid

Not up to her usual standard - her usual sharp-edged fable/fabulist style feeling a bit thin on this occasion. Many of the motifs are quintessentially Nothomb - most notably the fascination felt by one central female protagonist for another - but the premise (a satirically rendered concentration camp reality tv show from which viewers have the ability to select those who are executed) doesn't serve her well; the prose, too, isn't as sharp or as pleasing as in her other books.