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- My Blog’s Year-in-Review
- Separation of Church and State in Australia
- Swordplay: Context is Everything
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review Archive
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![<p>Why is Tora Tora Tora such a good film and Pearl Harbour a steaming pile of turd? Surely Michael Bay is merely a symptom and not a cause.</p>
<p>I recently watched both movies again … well, watched one and raged at the other for 40 minutes before turning it off. It’s not so much the two film’s difference in treatment of the same event (and, in fact, many of the same characters and incidents) as the difference in tone and approach to story telling which intrigues me.</p>
<p>A friend of mine lays the blame for the difference between the two films […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-arts-115x115.jpg "Hollywood Sucks Ass")
Hollywood Sucks Ass
Posted on 24 September, 2010 | 3 CommentsWhy is Tora Tora Tora such a good film and Pearl Harbour a steaming pile of turd? Surely Michael Bay is merely a symptom and not a cause.
I recently watched both movies again … well, watched one and raged at the other for 40 minutes before turning it off. It’s not so much the two film’s difference in treatment of the same event (and, in fact, many of the same characters and incidents) as the difference in tone and approach to story telling which intrigues me.
A friend of mine lays the blame for the difference between the two films […]
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![<p><strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>Title</strong>: The Hound of the Baskervilles<br />
<strong>Author</strong>: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle<br />
<strong>Hardcover</strong>: 240 pages<br />
<strong>Publisher</strong>: Penguin Classics (2010)<br />
<strong>Language</strong>: The finest English</p>
<p>A great novel or the Greatest Novel?</p>
<p>So far this year, I’ve read the book again, listened to an audio dramatisation and watched a couple of versions on video. This book hits all my buttons. It’s got a murder, hints of the supernatural, the relentless march of scientific logic and is possibly the best Scooby Doo mystery ever.</p>
<p>Here is a quick list of the aspects of it which tickle my fancy. Below […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/houn-53-115x115.jpg "The Hound of the Baskervilles")
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Posted on 20 August, 2010 | No CommentsTitle: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Penguin Classics (2010)
Language: The finest EnglishA great novel or the Greatest Novel?
So far this year, I’ve read the book again, listened to an audio dramatisation and watched a couple of versions on video. This book hits all my buttons. It’s got a murder, hints of the supernatural, the relentless march of scientific logic and is possibly the best Scooby Doo mystery ever.
Here is a quick list of the aspects of it which tickle my fancy. Below […]
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The Abbey Festival 2010
Posted on 16 July, 2010 | No CommentsThe Abbey Festival (10-11 July 2010) was huge! Rumour has it that 18,000 people went through the gates before 3pm on Saturday. The spectacles and demonstrations that I saw were fabulous. There was falconry, archery, jousting, seminar talks, a couple of very interesting weapons demonstrations, stalls (selling medieval hot dogs? hmmm…) and lots of practical hands-on activities in the encampments. All of this was brilliant fun. -
![<p><br />
Each year, History Alive (June 12-13, 2010) gathers re-enactor groups from around Brisbane to one place at one time to show off. The groups involved span pretty close to the entire timeline of human history from the Near East of about 2000 BC to the very recent past. As well as being loud, colourful and a great day out, it gives a very clear snapshot of the state of living history groups in Queensland.</p>
<p>The first people I encountered on the day was Contact Front, the Vietnam re-enactment group, walking through around the site in skirmish line in silence and […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/p6120106-115x115.jpg "History Alive 2010")
History Alive 2010
Posted on 18 June, 2010 | 7 Comments
Each year, History Alive (June 12-13, 2010) gathers re-enactor groups from around Brisbane to one place at one time to show off. The groups involved span pretty close to the entire timeline of human history from the Near East of about 2000 BC to the very recent past. As well as being loud, colourful and a great day out, it gives a very clear snapshot of the state of living history groups in Queensland.The first people I encountered on the day was Contact Front, the Vietnam re-enactment group, walking through around the site in skirmish line in silence and […]
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![<p><strong>Title: </strong>Zombie Myths of Australian Military History<br />
<strong>Author</strong>: Craig Stockings (editor)<br />
<strong>Paperback</strong>: 288 pages<br />
<strong>Publisher</strong>: University of New South Wales Press (2010)<br />
<strong>Language</strong>: English</p>
<p>A fascinating look at the difference between received ideas and facts. It covers ten major historical myths across 200 years from the original settlement of the country by Europeans to our recent involvements in Southeast Asia and East Timor. It strives to show the reasons or circumstances which created and have sustained each zombie myth until it gained a life of it own and needs no more prompting. In many cases, the […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/zombie_myths-115x115.jpg "Review: Australian Zombie Myths")
Review: Australian Zombie Myths
Posted on 11 June, 2010 | 3 CommentsTitle: Zombie Myths of Australian Military History
Author: Craig Stockings (editor)
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: University of New South Wales Press (2010)
Language: EnglishA fascinating look at the difference between received ideas and facts. It covers ten major historical myths across 200 years from the original settlement of the country by Europeans to our recent involvements in Southeast Asia and East Timor. It strives to show the reasons or circumstances which created and have sustained each zombie myth until it gained a life of it own and needs no more prompting. In many cases, the […]
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![<p><strong>Title</strong>: The World of the Troubadours: Medieval Occitan Society, c.1100-c.1300<br />
<strong>Author</strong>: Linda M Paterson<br />
<strong>Paperback</strong>: 384 pages<br />
<strong>Publisher</strong>: Cambridge University Press, 1995<br />
<strong>Language</strong>: English</p>
<p>This is a book of lists which concentrates on the topics of:</p>
<ul>
<li>the nature of feudalism and vasslage in Languedoc and Provence</li>
<li>medieval medicine and surgery and their Arabic influences</li>
<li>the place and role of women in society which contrasts sharply to the north of France</li>
<li>religion and heresy, especially the reasonably well-known Albigensian Crusade and the Gregorian Reforms</li>
</ul>
<p>Scholarship in English on the south of France in the high medieval period […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/book_troubadours-115x115.jpg "The World of the Troubadours")
The World of the Troubadours
Posted on 14 May, 2010 | 1 CommentTitle: The World of the Troubadours: Medieval Occitan Society, c.1100-c.1300
Author: Linda M Paterson
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1995
Language: EnglishThis is a book of lists which concentrates on the topics of:
- the nature of feudalism and vasslage in Languedoc and Provence
- medieval medicine and surgery and their Arabic influences
- the place and role of women in society which contrasts sharply to the north of France
- religion and heresy, especially the reasonably well-known Albigensian Crusade and the Gregorian Reforms
Scholarship in English on the south of France in the high medieval period […]
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For Your Listening Pleasure
Posted on 27 December, 2009 | No CommentsI just realised that it’s Sunday and I’m two days late in posting. The schedule may be meaningless and self-imposed but it quietens the stabby-stabby thoughts. And to get it out of the way: Christmas was great. Kathi and I spend it alone and reconnecting with each other. It’s been a very valuable time for both of us.
Now to television and the best sci-fi show you’ll never see: Defying Gravity. This show is just plain awesome, not least for being targetted at adults rather than teens, but also for not being a Star Trek clone. This last point is […]
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TV and Movie Roundup
Posted on 11 December, 2009 | 2 CommentsI’ve been watching. And with watching come thinking. Which leads inexorably to blogging.
Paranormal Activity: This is a standout. Shot for US$15,000 and somehow managing to get a cinema release, this film is scary as hell, despite suffering from too much Blair Witch handycam camera work, precisely because of the low budget. Apparently, the filmmakers decided that because they had such a small budget they had to suggest the horror rather than spend their cash on special effects and such to show the horror. The film has nothing new to say but it is very, very creepy. I expect big […]
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District 9: Not Bad
Posted on 22 August, 2009 | 1 CommentGiven the glowing reviews and praise this film have been receiving, anyone who does not follow suit appears as a curmudgeon. So, I feel the need to explain a couple of things before I launch into my review.
First, I liked the film. I liked it very much and expect to see great things from this director. Second, it has only gathered such marvellous reviews because all the other current offerings, especially any other recent sci-fi, are sooooo bad. The vast fields of crap to which we (particularly sci-fi) fans have become accustomed to putting up with means that anything […]
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Book Review: A Canticle for Leibowitz
Posted on 31 July, 2009 | No CommentsA Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M Miller, JrA wholly remarkable book but not for the reasons usually trotted out by its fans:
- it is not about Catholicism or the benefits bestowed by religion,
- it is not about trite cliches such as ‘those who do not listen to history are doomed to repeat it’ or ‘with great power comes great responsibility’,
- it is not about power of faith in the face of destruction.
The novel outlines a thesis which describes humanity as fundamentally and irredeemably broken. Humanity, after global nuclear war brought it to the brink of extinction, has been […]