13th of December, 2007

This blog is now closed

The continuing saga of Dion can now be found here.

Posted by Dion at 2:59 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

12th of December, 2007

Okay, this is scary…

I’m going to move this blog to a subdirectory on my host’s server and give it the subdomain archive.thewhimwham.com. Wish me luck…

Posted by Dion at 9:21 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

12th of December, 2007

All good things

This post is to announce the end of this, the “Alice” era of The WhimWham and the start of a new era: the “Brazil” era.

I’m going to reorganise my domains very soon, but in the meantime, you can access the new blog here.

Posted by Dion at 3:55 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

20th of November, 2007

Parra Leagues: Challenge Yourself

I had lunch today at Cafe 88 at Parramatta Leagues Club; the food was decent and the servings were proportional to the price. I’d happily go again.

But seriously, I think it’s a front for the Australian Defence Force. There were widescreen flat-panel TV’s mounted all around playing some promo loop and (I kid you not) at least every second ad was for the ADF. It was quite incredible.

But the Chicken Schnitzel was great.

Posted by Dion at 9:05 pm | Permalink | 2 Comments »

14th of November, 2007

New blog

Both The WhimWham and Bleat! have a lot of… “baggage”, so I’ve created a new blog at WordPress.com called Dion at the Flicks which will exclusively focus on film reviews. The first review, Michael Clayton, is there now. Have a read, if you’re so inclined.

Posted by Dion at 9:14 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

12th of November, 2007

Eagles: Farewell I Tour - Live From Melbourne

Picked up the last Eagles live DVD the other day. I guess I’m in an Eagles kind of mood.

Eagles: band or brand? The same could be said about Pink Floyd from about Animals onwards — either way, I don’t give a shit. I’m a Star Wars fan, after all. We’re not talking about Britney Spears here, and as long as the product has artistry behind it, it could be wrapped in a McDonalds wrapper for all I care.

In any case, these guys are bloody good musicians who can put on a spectacular show. They sound amazing and obviously work hard. Not everything has to be a wankfest that’ll appeal to five people with arts degrees, yet neither does it have to be soulless inanity that aims squarely for the lowest common denominator. The Eagles manage to strike a good balance between the two extremes.

Pretty much all the hits are here, including some solo tracks (particularly by Don Henley, who is still cool even now). Go out and buy it ASAP!!!

Posted by Dion at 8:49 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

10th of November, 2007

More movie viewing

Here are the movies I caught up with this week:

• Neil Young: Heart of Gold again demonstrates Jonathan Demme’s knack for making true concert films — this is as much a character study, with long closeups on Young in particular, as it is a document of a musical performance. Three-and-a-half stars.
• Strangers With Candy, a prequel to the Comedy Central series, is perhaps most notable for the fact that Stephen Colbert co-stars and co-wrote the screenplay. This is not great intellectual comedy, but it’s still occasionally hilarious (particularly Colbert’s character, a closeted-gay, born-again-Christian high school science teacher). Two-and-a-half stars.
• Death Proof is half a movie expanded into a standalone feature, and it feels like it. Read my review here. Two stars.

Posted by Dion at 7:24 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

1st of November, 2007

The Eagles

So yesterday I picked up the new Eagles album and it totally rocked my socks off, which is funny since, while I’ve always had a fondness for their stuff, it never went beyond that. (I did develop an interest in Don Henley’s solo work, however.)

This album is great, and it makes me want to re-examine their classic work. I’m currently listening to The Very Best of the Eagles and suddenly it’s grabbing me on a level it never did before. Am I becoming an enemy of The Dude?

My review of the new album (Long Road Out of Eden) can be found here.

Posted by Dion at 2:07 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

29th of October, 2007

Upgrade successful?

Finally got around to upgrading WordPress today — as far as I could tell, it’s been 18 months since I bothered to upgrade last. The process is first-class tedium, I must admit. But now it’s done! And it doesn’t appear that I’ve broken anything!

Here’s hoping…

Posted by Dion at 4:30 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

27th of October, 2007

V for Vendetta

Saw this last night. Found it to be a real letdown, to be honest. Everyone was great in it, but it had no emotional resonance for me. Maybe the Wachowski brothers just leave me cold.

I may try to update Wordpress tomorrow — hopefully the blog will survive…

Posted by Dion at 3:46 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

25th of October, 2007

Movie viewing

Yesterday I got my life back (for the time being), so today I chose to celebrate by getting back into movie viewing…

• The Brothers Grimm, despite being yet another case of Terry Gilliam fighting against the studios, is just fantastic. It’s gorgeous to look at, and Heath Ledger in particular is a lot of fun to watch. Nobody makes films like Gilliam.
• Children of Men I found slightly disappointing, though it’s still an excellent film. The visceral intensity of some of the scenes is outstanding, and Clive Owen and Michael Caine are both excellent. Bonus points for including references to both Pink Floyd and King Crimson.

Posted by Dion at 6:13 pm | Permalink | No Comments »

3rd of October, 2007

It’s hot and windy

The sun… It’s that scorching heat that signals summer like some crazed, fiery demon with a grudge against the polar ice caps. It’s 25 degrees inside but it feels like 28 at least.

The wind… It’s that fierce, gusty wind that you expect from August rather than October. I swear, I thought a tree was going to blow on me when I was outside earlier.

Still, I’ll love the spring/summer weather. Give me blue skies any day.

Posted by Dion at 2:50 pm | Permalink | No Comments »