Monthly Archives: August 2009

Everything old is new again… how very dull

Have you noticed how much nostalgia we have around us now? I mean, there’s so much, I feel like I’m drowning in it, daily.

Movies: Remakes and reboots aren’t just a trend any more, they’re business as usual. A Nightmare on Elm Street, Red Dawn, Halloween and more have all been or are being remade. Recent reboots included The Incredible Hulk and Punisher: War Zone with rumoured ones including The X-Files and of course, every Marvel property.

And if you’re not rebooting or remaking, you’re digging up a licence to something we are supposed to have liked as kids, like Transformers or G.I. Joe. Little wonder when a vaguely original idea like District 9 comes along, people go crazy for it. Continue reading

Everything old is new again… how very dull

Have you noticed how much nostalgia we have around us now? I mean, there’s so much, I feel like I’m drowning in it, daily.

Movies: Remakes and reboots aren’t just a trend any more, they’re business as usual. A Nightmare on Elm Street, Red Dawn, Halloween and more have all been or are being remade. Recent reboots included The Incredible Hulk and Punisher: War Zone with rumoured ones including The X-Files and of course, every Marvel property.

And if you’re not rebooting or remaking, you’re digging up a licence to something we are supposed to have liked as kids, like Transformers or G.I. Joe. Little wonder when a vaguely original idea like District 9 comes along, people go crazy for it.

Comics: Same trends, different medium, although it tends to be restricted to characters rather than comics. In the last few years just about every major DC character has been rebooted at least once (Batman, Batgirl, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Blue Beetle), either turning into a new incarnation of the same character or just undergoing an origin revision. Marvel isn’t immune to it either, whether it’s characters (Spider-Man, Captain America) or entire lines (Ultimate becoming Ultimate, er, Comics). Continue reading

Up early again

But then I probably haven’t changed the date and time in this thing, so it’ll look like I was writing this in the middle of the work day. Hmm.

Yesterday being awake early apparently spurred me to play Boy Philosopher, for some reason. As you can tell, a life-changing event like emigration can turn the most reasonable of men (yes, me) into some sort of navel-gazing fluffhunter. However, today, let me give you the right answer for the rorschach test; you know, the one you spout at parties.

We’re both fine, and settling in, just about. Continue reading

Up early again

But then I probably haven’t changed the date and time in this thing, so it’ll look like I was writing this in the middle of the work day. Hmm.

Yesterday being awake early apparently spurred me to play Boy Philosopher, for some reason. As you can tell, a life-changing event like emigration can turn the most reasonable of men (yes, me) into some sort of navel-gazing fluffhunter. However, today, let me give you the right answer for the rorschach test; you know, the one you spout at parties.

We’re both fine, and settling in, just about.

Ahem…

Well yes I could go into a lot more detail than that, but there’s a limit to what I’ll say on an open page. I will say that we’ve almost done everything we knew we were going to need to do before we left, and now we’re down to discovering things that are all-new. By that I mean we’ve moved into our apartment, we’ve bought a new TV (woo!), we’ve set up a bank account (and one with a credit union), we’ve gotten registered with all the right people, and I’ve even been paid a few times (as it’s happening ‘semi-monthly’, ie twice a month). We have a couch, a cat, a dining table, a couple of chairs, and a whole new series of incoming bills. Continue reading

One month in

I figured I owe you this, whoever ‘you’ might be, even if you’re just a section of my subconscious or a figment of my imagination. And I’ve been trying to concoct what I want to say in my head for a while, but, honestly… it’s been hard to decide.

There’s a lot to say, and simultaneously, not very much at all.

In case you’re wondering, I can say with some certainty that moving countries (even to a country where they generally speak English) is a bit of a bitch. Mostly just because of the ties that bind. The emotional ones, the physical ones, and not-so-physical, but still very real bureaucratic and political ties that prevent us from wandering this Earth like free people, man, free to do what we wanna do, even if that’s just sitting around playing our guitars and singing – kum-ba-ya, my Lord… ahem. Continue reading

One month in

I figured I owe you this, whoever ‘you’ might be, even if you’re just a section of my subconscious or a figment of my imagination. And I’ve been trying to concoct what I want to say in my head for a while, but, honestly… it’s been hard to decide.

There’s a lot to say, and simultaneously, not very much at all.

In case you’re wondering, I can say with some certainty that moving countries (even to a country where they generally speak English) is a bit of a bitch. Mostly just because of the ties that bind. The emotional ones, the physical ones, and not-so-physical, but still very real bureaucratic and political ties that prevent us from wandering this Earth like free people, man, free to do what we wanna do, even if that’s just sitting around playing our guitars and singing – kum-ba-ya, my Lord… ahem.

That, if I so choose, would be the ‘lot to say’. I could tell you of the swift break I experienced with friends and family, the lack of real feeling because I didn’t know how to feel, which gradually day by day is turning into a void in my heart which… I guess I’ll just have to tread carefully around. But I won’t. Continue reading