For the release of the Hobbit,
Lindsay Ellis of the Nostalgia Chick (
previously) has decided to look back at all the LOTR films in order to analyze how they changed genre film-making, expected movie length, extended cuts, the problems of adaptation, and why Eowyn and Merry are made for each other. (
Fellowship Of The Ring,
Two Towers,
Return Of The King Part 1,
Part 2) Still need more? Then why not watch Kerry Shawcross and Chris Demarais of Rooster Teeth (
previously) try to walk the 120+ mile journey across New Zealand from the filming location of Hobbiton in Matamata to the filming location of Mount Doom, Mount Ngauruhoe in
A Simple Walk Into Mordor.
posted by The Whelk
on Feb 1, 2013 -
29 comments
A boat blazes on a remote summer-scorched lake shoreline.
Onlookers are helpless to save the boat or prevent the imminent explosion of full gas tanks starting a grass fire. Or not. (SLYT - *Warning Bad Kiwi Language*)
posted by Catch
on Jan 1, 2013 -
45 comments
Between Peter Jackson’s penchant for cartoonish unserious gore and Bob McCarron’s off-screen makeup effects manipulations, Braindead
achieves something that approaches inspired genius in the heretofore unknown artform of human carnage. The film is filled with moments of joyous slapstick tableaux... And then there is that moment where Braindead
finally breaks through to achieve a transcendentally surreal glory of excess where Tim Balme wades into battle against the zombies armed with a lawnmower, drenching an entire room in showers of blood. (Braindead
holds the record for the greatest amount of artificial blood ever used in a film). The film is a work of perverse genius. -
Richard Scheib
posted by Egg Shen
on Dec 8, 2012 -
41 comments
In an attempt to make itself less desirable to copyright infringers, starting November 27,
RapidShare will begin capping non-paying users at 1 gigabyte of outbound downloads per day. (Paying users will have 30 gigabytes.) Meanwhile, controversial Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is planning a January debut for his new
Mega service - which plans to insure itself against litigation by having all hosted material encrypted by the uploader's browser before transmission.
posted by Egg Shen
on Nov 19, 2012 -
68 comments
One of New Zealand's greatest-ever exports of experimental music,
The Dead C. have built a huge catalog of challenging "rock" music over the last 25 years that offers massively dosed
psychedelic excess, improvised all-night flights, blistering free noise and deconstruction of
blazing garage punk for adventurous listeners. They've cheekily called themselves "The
AMM of punk rock" and it's not far from the truth. Their high-water mark -- the double-LP
Harsh 70s Reality -- has reached twentieth anniversary status and has just been
reissued on vinyl by legendary US imprint
Siltbreeze, restoring a few cuts that didn't make it to the late 1990s CD re-release and offering this fearless free music to a new generation of fans.
[more inside]
posted by porn in the woods
on Oct 23, 2012 -
24 comments
Charles Philippe Hippolyte de Thierry lead a storied life, and many of those stories are ones he made up. His family was associated with the French court, though there is doubt to his claims of noble lineage. In England, he met
two Maori chiefs and an English missionary from New Zealand, and attempted to purchase a northern portion of New Zealand in 1820. He then sought to turn this land into a colony first for Britain in 1822, then the Dutch government in 1824 when the English offer fell through. The Dutch, too, turned him down, so in 1825 de Thierry made the same offer to the French government, and was similarly refused. Fleeing creditors, he left for America. In 1834, he traveled south, where he was granted concession for cutting the Panama Canal. That, too, fell through, and he sailed west, reaching Tahiti in June 1835, where he elected himself king of Nuka Hiva. The kingdom was never his, and so he continued west and south, arriving at his plot in New Zealand in 1837, where again he offered land up to France for a colony. His efforts to claim a colony and a kingdom came to an end in 1840, with the signing of
the Treaty of Waitangi, sealing a deal between the British Crown and the Māori.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 16, 2012 -
7 comments
Bowerbirds, a family of 20 species in eight genera, are a fascinating bunch of birds who range from New Guinea and Australia.
Some are flashy, others drab, but all are named for the "bowers" (
avenues, huts, or towers of sticks;
source) that the
males craft and decorate to attract a mate.
There are regional styles (PDF) in the design of the bowers, and
the male Greater Bowerbirds even employ optical illusions. Some, like
the Vogelkop Bowerbird, add mimicry vocal to their repertoire of courting methods.
Add accidental cultivation to the list of fascinating features of the bowerbirds.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 26, 2012 -
44 comments
On February 22, [2011], 13 [bus passengers] were crushed by an unreinforced brick building at 603-13 Colombo St. I broke half a dozen bones or so, severed a tendon, spent two months in hospital and six months off work. And I was lucky. Twelve people died. I did not know them, but they forever travel with me.
Just after midday, North Carolina native and political scientist
Ann Brower boarded the no. 3 bus to Canterbury University. Shortly afterwards, falling masonry from the
2011 Christchurch earthquake trapped her and the other passengers in the bus. She was the sole survivor. Now, nearly a year later, she
describes her rescue and her recovery.
[more inside]
posted by Sonny Jim
on Feb 12, 2012 -
7 comments
Tired of the same old renditions of the Christmas Story? Try
this video and
its prequel, produced in the vein of Spike Jonze's
Where the Wild Things Are.
posted by kethonna
on Dec 15, 2011 -
6 comments
Ross Becker's
photographs of Christchurch. The central business district reopens this weekend for the first time since the earthquake (Previously:
1,
2,
3) on February 22, 2011.
[more inside]
posted by doublehappy
on Oct 26, 2011 -
3 comments
The Honeymoon From Hell. Stefan and Erika Svanstrom had planned a long trip that would start in Singapore in early December and end in China four months later.
But things didn't go exactly as planned. They encountered floods, fires, tsunamis and earthquakes along the way.
posted by mannequito
on May 6, 2011 -
14 comments
Split Enz were to New Zealand what the Beatles were to the UK, and like the fabs their legacy is impressive: an
endlessly entertaining back-catalogue and some
inspiring solo and band offshoots. One of these,
Crowded House, captured more of the world's attention, but few in New Zealand would question the priority of the Enz. Which must be why, in 2007, Radio New Zealand made an
eight-hour documentary series split over ten podcasts about their fascinating journey from art-folk-classical-prog to New Wave pop mastery:
Enzology is essential listening for any Split Enz fan, featuring "excerpts from all the hits and numerous album tracks, plus previously unreleased demos, live recordings and studio out-takes gathered from the band members' personal archives and elsewhere".
[more inside]
posted by rory
on Apr 28, 2011 -
63 comments
Eerily calm - Civil Defence New Zealand has released footage of post-earthquake Christchurch.
posted by Catch
on Mar 23, 2011 -
12 comments
In May 2010, New Zealand
introduced a new Animal Welfare Code effectively banning
the kosher slaughter of animals, or
“shechita”. Agriculture Minister, David Carter, rejected
a recommendation from advisers that Jewish ritual slaughter of livestock be exempted from animal welfare rules under the Bill of Rights - which provides for freedom of religious practice. The new welfare code had a requirement that all commercially slaughtered animals first be stunned, and forbade the importation of raw kosher poultry. Carter argued the Code was required on humane grounds, citing a study that said the animals suffered pain. A study which
Dr Temple Grandin has subsequently
criticised. Jewish law prevents stunning on the basis that this is, in fact,
cruel to animals. Halal meat in New Zealand is stunned prior to slaughter. The Jewish community contested the Code through the courts as a
direct attack on the freedom to practise Judaism in New Zealand. Bans on ritual slaughter inevitably raise
the ugly spectre of anti-Semitism. In November, immediately before the case was due to be heard, Carter made an
abrupt u-turn. The practice of shechita on poultry was declared no longer illegal while the Government also agreed to negotiate the ban on sheep. New Zealand Jews will still have to import beef from Australia, where shechita is allowed. The reversal raised the
ire of animal rights groups, and raised questions about
Carter's motivations in considering the ban.
Previously.
posted by szechuan
on Dec 12, 2010 -
75 comments
