IFC had some kind of rock indie movie weekend and I caught this during my dinner break. It could be considered Julien Temple’s great apology to the members of the Sex Pistols for the sheer waste of funds and criminal pro-Malcolm McLaren propaganda that was The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle.

The Filth and the Fury had all the bits that make a good punk documentary: bitter interviewees, grainy footage of angry youths, brilliant little cartoon recreations of pivotal scenes, and, dare I say it, Johnny Rotten fighting tears. Oh my.

That’s really what did it for me. And that’s something a lot of people forget when they get into the snarling doomed heroin-addicted Sid and Nancy story. Sid was just a fucked up stupid teenager doing an onstage Johnny Winters impression and was Rotten’s best friend. Rotten lost his band, his money, and his best friend. Then went on to form PIL.

And I’ve never really thought about the wording of God Save the Queen. I always assumed it was just mean and sarcastic but I think they really meant it in a way. England’s doomed, God help the Queen when the end comes.

There are also great cameos of some very young musicians who came into their own later on: Billy Idol, Sting, Shane MacGowan, Sting, and Siouxsie Sioux (pictured smoking below in some archive footage of the Pistols on a drunken bbc interview show)

but I have a hard time distinguishing between Mo Rocca and Stephen Colbert. Am I alone in this?

Don’t get me wrong they’re both funny nerdy bespeckled smartasses so of course I love em both. But have you ever seen them in the same room together? Colbert seems a smidgen funnier while Rocca could be considered a little cuddlier.

Was cute, funny, stylized, and very very loud. I liked it. But I cringe for anyone who gets motion sickness easily or has sensitive ears. I’m neither of those and I was feeling a bit queased out and cringy during the admittedly cliched Spy Kids 2 ripoff climax.

The movie around the climax was worth it though. A distinct 1960s James Bond meets old school dc comics meets a primary color shag painting. Which I love because I’m a trend puppy just like your thirteen year old sister with the headgear I just carefully control which sort of trends I’m exposed to.

It took me almost 3/4 of the film to realize who was voicing the bad guy. Until I heard him say, “Are you NUTS??” and then I knew**

And the snarky little Asian Edith Head clothing designer was a thing of beauty. I. Love. Her.

And oh my god Sarah Vowell voiced Violet!!

I think I’m going to have a politics-free weekend. :and the crowd goes wild:

**I’m used to hearing him say this: Are you NUTS?? The guy looks like a DATE RAPIST!

Patti Smith

what punk rock goddess are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

You are Mike Ness, the frontman from Social
Distortion. You’re a man’s man who loves
everything manly, like drinking, fighting,
tattooes, man-pants, and Johnny Cash.

Which punk rock god are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

So I decided to cheer myself up by going out in the sunshine to play with the dog in the backyard. I took the el cheapo twenty dollar digital camera with me. But two months seems to be its limit. When I downloaded the newest pictures they were mostly fuzzy gross messes. But then I started looking closer to see if any had a salvagable image I could just crop. Then I noticed that some came out looking like really cool collages.

And in the spirit of Toy Camera.com I decided to embrace the flaws and just enjoy art for art’s sake.

Today is “base my posts on things found at Motor City Bad Kitty’s Litter Box day”!

ok my comments weren’t working over there so I’m posting my sad attempt here. Keep in mind that while I’ve never been to England I’ve watched every episode of The Young Ones, Monty Python, Keeping Up Appearances, AbFab, and Upstairs Downstairs. And drunk a lot of Twinings English Breakfast tea. And briefly dated a guy from Essex. And read all the Ellie Haskell and Aunt Dimity books. I’m quite the Anglophile aren’t I? Ha!

ReV’s TrUe oR FalSe EnGlaND QuIz:

1/ The Queen is in charge of England. True or False?
False

2/ We all like Tony Blair and regard him as a hero.
definitely False

3/ Bin Laden works in a kebab shop in Lewisham.
bahahahaha!

4/ A true Londoner is a Cockney.
False

5/ We all eat pie, mash and jellied eels.
You eat eels? Geeroooss!

6/ All Brits are ugly, but intelligent.
False?

7/ On “Bonfire Night” we burn a dummy person called Guy.
Um Guy Ritchie?

8/ Every Sunday it is the law to attend “The Church of England”.
ok that’s totally true. *Eddie Izzard sings “Hal-le-lu-jah”*

9/ The Queen sends everyone a letter when they reach 100.
True

10/ Posh people like chasing foxes and killing them with dogs.
True

nice to visit firda’s again. been a long time. I found this quiz over at mcbc’s site.

Clearly my weblog doesn’t own me hee. I’d like to see it try.

It’s not all about us and our flaccid elections, folks. (couldn’t resist the pun there.)

There was some very sad news today (yesterday) from The Netherlands about the assassination of Theo Van Gogh, great-grandnephew of my favorite painter, and controversial filmmaker who had received death threats after making a film about muslim women.

there’s a very interesting weblog entry about it here

ps-my last present of the day in the extended entry
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lalala I’m not watching tv lalala I’m not listening to the radio lalala I’m not looking at any news or political websites lalala unless it shows up on Blog Explosion then I go away after thirty seconds lalalalalala

Mmhmm. Yet another site touting blog explosion. I’ve found some really interesting sites out there. Yes, some were just awful, ugly, and pundit-y but for the most part I’ve found some wonderful new voices that I hope to hear more from.

As I’ve been touring around I’ve seen a lot of people blogging about the woes of being forced to read someone else’s poetry, political views, or lists of hates and angst while visiting other sites in order to promote their own. Here’s some news for you: Not everyone gives a shit about what you have to say either. Just wait the thirty seconds and move on please. It’s the nature of the web, baby, and people are suffering with yours just as much as you’re suffering someone else’s. Let’s just suck it up and try being polite, for once. Please.

And to set myself apart from a lot of those other posts about BE while conveniently distracting myself from all that stressful news stuff: I’m going to be positive and list the sites I’ve added to my ‘blogmarks’ which I’ll be adding to my blogroll as well. I think you’d enjoy them too.

Church of Steelle
Deenda
Educated beyond her Intelligence
Esoterically.net
Fictional Art
For F*ck’s Sake
Hammer and Nail
IddyBud
Insanely Inane Thoughts
JecklesGeekBlog
A Load of Bollocks
Michele Agnew
Miked up
Monkeyverb
The Montisci Papers
The Muttering Muse
Mystic Savage’s Trollchild papers
Pixel Tigris
Rants and Chants from WindReader
Rear Window Ethics
tlc: a public display of my affections
Youngfox Canada

Some are quirky, others outfright freakish, a few personal or cultural observations, some really nice photography, and even some deep thoughts.

(click extended entry for *yet another* surprise!)
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Guild Wars sucks, according to Mr Man. Despite being made by the guys who originally created Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. I think the quote was “It’s just like Diablo II but not nearly as good and doesn’t work as well.”

If you want to find out for yourself there’s a free playable preview for Gamespot members.

There’s also a preview for Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and the announced well over a year ago Jump to Lightspeed expansion for Star Wars Galaxies. Which I don’t plan to bother with.

If you’re a Fileplanet member you’re guaranteed a spot in the open stress test before the open beta for World of Warcraft. And the characters you create in the stress test will transfer to the open beta.