Zombies and fast cars

So, Christmas over. I got great presents from my friends and family, including the Lies of Locke Lamora and the Inglourious Basterds. Now my family's gone to our cottage for the New Year.

What this update is really about is following: the theatre of the National Audiovisual Archive (from now on Orion) has been running movies that have inspired or been made by Quentin Tarantino. I've been to see the original Inglorious Bastards and Commando Suicida (starring Aldo Ray) and, on Wednesday, the Grindhouses.

Planet Terror took me some accustoming to, since I haven't watched too many zombie movies and am not comfortable watching people being gutted. I warmed up to it, however, after I got used to the gore. It helped a bit that Freddy Rodriguez looked rather dashing and did some awesome stuff. :3 And that Quentin's cameo got sort of hilarious.


Death Proof I liked more, though it was certainly not Quentin at his best. I liked the girl power thing, and cool cars don't hurt, either. I was excited to realise Eli Roth and Omar Doom were in, too, and they sort of made up for that missing Irish Car Bomb scene I was looking forward to. (If anyone can tell me where to find it, I'd be grateful.)
This movie also provided me with a new idol. Zoë Bell, the kiwi stuntwoman playing herself, was so great. First I just enjoyed her accent, but she grew on me. I need to watch Kill Bills again, just so I can go screaming "That's Zoë! Omg she's so cool!"

See that? Part of the awesomeness is that she's actually doing it. You need to see her in the movie to understand why I think so much of her. I'll just say I would love to meet her some day, just to tell her how great I think she did in this one.

So, the year's ending today. Yay. I'll reminisce 2009 some other time, now I need to go - some friends are coming over and I need to make the house look presentable.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

The Big Q and something I noticed

I wrote "my bookshelf" in the search box of DeviantArt, because I like to see what people's bookshelves look like and what they read. After browsing the results I noticed something that annoyed me. Every single bookshelf introduced seemed to contain Twilight. How depressing is that? I understand that you might get it as a present from an aunt or some other relative who only knows it's popular right now. But so many people have the whole series, not to mention those who have several copies of all of them.
There's better literature in the world, munchkins. Get acquainted to it.


Now that I've gotten that out of my system, let's get to what got me writing today in the first place. I was looking through my book/cd/dvd shelves, when I noticed that there's something I have more stuff about than LotR. The title of this entry gives you a clue.

Yes, that's right. Quentin Tarantino. As you see in the picture, I quite like what he does. There's a biography that I bought a couple of years ago. (I'm not going to buy an updated one until he dies, that's for sure.) There are Four Rooms, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bills and Death Proof on DVD. I haven't watched DP yet, though, but they will run it in the Audiovisual Archive later this months, so I'll save it until that. Four Rooms is only a quarter Tarantino, but it's a good movie.
Oh, and I've also got Natural Born Killers and From Dusk Til Dawn on hard drive. I have yet to watch them.
There are the soundtracks for Inglourious Basterds, From Dusk Til Dawn, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and both Kill Bills. That man is a genious when it comes to putting together soundtracks. I've most liked Dogs and Basterds, though Pulp's is a classic also.
I'd like to point out that the corner of my bag being in the picture has a point. See that badge? It says "Reservoir Dogs". I have three more. My friend brought them for me from Paris. ^^

Then to my wall. I like buying movie postcards, and there have been some really good ones at a local shop. There's three of Pulp Fiction (all featuring my favourite character, Vince Vega! :D), one of Kill Bill vol. 2 and one of From Dusk Til Dawn.
The one with Vincent and Jules is also available as a door poster. I've been planning on buying it and putting it above my window. It'd be so awesome, having them point their guns at my "posters" town from a Discworld calendar! xD

But wait, there's more! I have three cards of Death Proof, as you can see. The one with Quentin pouring a drink was a birthdaycard from a friend, and the two others were a gift from another friend. Who also happened to bring me the big picture of QT himself (featuring Cap'n Crunch!) to inspire me.

I have yet to get something relating to Basterds, which is competing with Pulp for the place of number one Tarantino in my books. I have this little ad they were giving out at the movie theatre, but I'm hoping to get some room made for a good poster - hopefully the one with the Nazi helmet hanging from Donny's bat. I think that picture is just beautiful.

Lastly, I'd like to introduce my beloved posters. The "Kill is Love" was given me by a friend. It's slightly torn, but that has never bothered me. It just looks used and loved. ^^
The Dogs poster with Mr. Blonde - probably my favourite Dog - I purchased after thinking about it long and hard. Then, after rearranging my walls, there was suddenly a blank space next to the door! I was so happy I finally got this poster on.

Now there's just one dilemma left. I have to give up either my Kill Bill poster or my Éomer one to fit Basterds in. I'm starting to think it'll be KB, since Éomer is just... Éomer.

Anyway. Inglourious Basterds has been out on DVD for two days now. Wonder what I'll want for Christmas...

Tarantinist? Me? What on earth are you talking about? *innocent*

"Ladies and gentlemen! Now, the moment you've all been waiting for - the world famous Jack Rabbit Slim's Twist Contest!"

With wuw,
Wilzo

Five Books

Today you’ll get a glimpse of what I read. Here are five books from my bookshelf that I have enjoyed reading.

1) Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

This book is simply hilarious. There are three plotlines; the first contains a devil and an angel, the second a Witchfinder Private and a witch and the third a boy, his friends and his dog. It’s 1995, and the Apocalypse is just around the corner.

I bought this book as a Pratchettist. Back then – in 2004 – my English was really bad and I gave up after 80 pages. Two years later I picked it up, read it laughing hysterically and decided it was worth reading again. Now it has been 5 or 6 times, and I intend to read it again. You simply can’t get bored with Aziraphale and Crowley, or the Apocalyptic Horse Persons in their civilian lives.

383 pages. My copy is starting to look slightly dishevelled. I had to fix the corners with tape this year to prevent them from peeling.

 

2) Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

To my shame I have to admit I only read the book after seeing the movie a couple of times. But I prefer the original work – it’s more complicated and has finer details. (Though I really enjoy Miyazaki’s version, too.) I own the book in two languages, but last time I read it (which happened a week or so ago) I found that it lost some of its funniness in Finnish. My favourite bits are all of Howl. Who wouldn’t enjoy “Chapter Fourteen, in which the Royal Wizard catches a cold” or said Royal Wizard bursting in at early morning, drunk.

It just keeps getting better and better. It was off my Favourite Books –list for a while, but made its return.

302 pages. I love my cover, for some reason. Maybe I have too many books with sensible covers.

 

3) Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

Werewolves in modern day Los Angeles. Written in free verse. It’s very hard to describe this book, but if you’re a fan of werewolves, you need to read this. None of that walking-on-two-legs nonsense. It’s interesting, intense and beautiful. Far too few people are aware of this masterpiece. I happened to see it in the New Titles section at the bookstore, and got it for Christmas after hinting about it to my dad. I read it straight away, and then slowly again through this year.

313 pages. The cover is just beautiful.

4) The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

I bought Interview with the Vampire in Madrid 2006, and have been reading Rice since. Lestat has probably been my favourite, though I never got through the whole series. (There are 10+2 books, I’ve read 6.) It’s intriguing, flowingly written – and been too long since I read it. I fell in love with Rice’s vampires and can’t take this Twilight crap going on. (No offence – had Twilight become a hit a couple of years earlier, I would’ve been into it.)

I’m not going to say much about this now, because it has really been quite long since I read this book. However, I’m planning on rereading it after Christmas, mostly because I’m going to read Eclipse and am going to need proper vampires after that.

599 pages. I have the three first books with these covers. I like them a lot.

5) Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Book two of the Gentleman Bastard sequence. I would’ve loved to put the first book of the series, the Lies of Locke Lamora, here, but I don’t own it. Yet.

RSURS contains a lot of piratism. And card-sharping. And Gods, did I love it! After reading LoLL last summer I began craving for more, and finally bought this second book a few months ago. (There is one copy of this one in all the libraries on the area, and there were 11 reservations. I would’ve taken about a year to get my hands on it otherwise.) I wasn’t allowed to read it before I had finished my exams, but then I devoured it in four big gulps.

Scott Lynch is a brilliant author who has fewer readers than he should. This isn’t your goody-two-shoes Harry Potter, poor-in-language-and-characters Twilight or noble-serious-good-versus-evil Lord of the Rings. (Again, don’t get me wrong; I’m a potterist as well as a LotR-fan) This is something else, and I wouldn’t let kids aged fourteen and under read this stuff. It’s violent, harsh and very foul mouthed, and I love all those traits about it. (Not to mention interesting world and witty conversation.)

628 pages. Third book is on its way, there are going to be seven parts altogether, and novellas. This cover is so beautiful, and I’m aiming to get my Lies with the beautiful cover as well. I’ll post a picture when I do. 

That’s it for now. I’m leaving.

 
With love,
Wil