These Past Few Days.

just a recap of my last few days.

monday night: got my little brother stoned, quite funny, i’m enjoying the fact that since i’ve moved home i’m getting along better with both my brothers.

Tuesday, took my little sister Xmas shopping, which not surprisingly was her going to Warrnambool to spend money on herself.

We ended up spending most of the day at my friend B’s house, sister eventually left, I, on a whim decided to sped the night, B took some bad medication and wasn’t in much of a fun mood, but i don’t think i was either. Plans of moving to Melbourne with B were discussed, i said it would be good for her, which i think is true, but i also know i’ll have to be there for her a lot, as she’s terrified of the city, ultimately i want the best for her, but sometimes i don’t know if i’m the best to give advice.

time will tell.

also have plans to shoot a documentary of the summer, as well as my script which isn’t coming along.

anyways, at B’s i mostly played Tekken with her awesome roommate M, a thirty something stoner guy, and in my grand tradition had several cones and ended up fucked. K also came around to visit which was great, but i was pretty out of my head.

everyone went to bed pretty early so i chucked on one of M’s enviable DVD collection, i saw Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds, i don’t know if it was the pot but it was awesome, especially the start, it reminded me of Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, but horror.

part biker chick movie, part generic horror, part gross out comedy. 6.5/10

and as usual when i’m stoned at B & M’s i chucked on a Dario Argento film to trip out on.
last night was The Stendhal Syndrome. not as good as others but still pretty cool, the transfer to DVD was shit and the plot confused me (what was the twist???) but still awesome.

psychological thriller, gender issues galore, not Argento’s best. 6/10

and today the heat was sweltering! it was truly horrid, and i was stuck in a pair of red skinny leg jeans all day, Xmas shopping with B’s family. lovely people though. i think.

got home at around 6.30 with a massive headache, so took two strong painkillers just before dinner and by the end of it was nearly passed out in the salad bowl. mum woke me up when she got home, pills have lost effect so i’m up blogging at nearly midnight.

also on topic of the blog, i think i shall not swear or use emoticons, and just include screencaps from movies i’ve recently watched to keep it aesthetically interesting, as i go i’m finding my pace and style for the blog, though the last few weeks i’ve been exhausted, and not getting to deeply into things.

peace, love and merry holidays!

over and out, Cal xoxox

Exhausted

I’ve been constantly travelling the last few days, all up in the last 5 days i’ve spent over ten hours on trains. it’s torture.

mostly travelling between Camperdown and Geelong moving houses organising leaving etc.

but last night i went to Warrnambool with my best friend, met some of his friends, went to their house, jack left to go to a show, i stayed with these new people and ended up greening out. (smoking waaaaay to much pot) so i’m in people i don’t knows house, throwing up, with absolutley no sense of reality, when who should turn up but one of my primary school teachers and her husband my high school math teacher.

fucked. up.

and now i’m hundreds of dollars in debt.

and all i wanna do is fall asleep.

I’m going home.

Moved back in with the parents, the next two months are gonna suck.

I just wanna smoke pot.

Pretty sure next blog will be about financial woes.

Over and out. Cal

Lady Gaga

a riddle, wraped in a mystery inside a thong.

This Lady has me thinking.

It all started when I was watching singer Amanda Palmer’s live webcast, the other night which involved a debate, ‘Lady Gaga friend or foe.’

I think I’ve decided to take the stance of friend. I wouldn’t say I’m a fan, her songs that i’ve heard haven’t compelled me to listen to more, but I do think she’s talented and pretty darn cool.

Based on just her music videos that I’ve seen, I would definitely take the stance of foe. I would say that she is a vapid clone of pop stars before her, taken to the extreme for the next generation.

However I think to fully understand her is to delve deeper into her image.

To look at her red carpet outfits, interviews, biography and live performances she comes off completely different. I think that her record company may have a little something to do with this, I mean who wants the latest ‘hot new thing’ to alienate possible fans by doing something like this;

Possibly she has started out her mainstream celebrity status in a less oddball fashion to gain pop star status, but over time she’s revealing more of her art, sexuality and weirdness.

Either way it worked, every club I’ve been to lately is blasting her music and the more mainstream kids love it, I believe this is her agenda, to get people to pay attention, to have the appearance of a pop star, and then to comment on it.

But if she’s such an artist, why should she have to do things like the Pokerface video and such, I mean certainly they’re injected with her uniqueness but it’s all been done, to say she’s original at this very moment would be rash. Certainly some of her stunts are original, but to be a true original should she be portraying, this ambiguous a parody of pop?

Is this her brand of social comment? Should it be?

The way I see some of her media is like a beautiful woman dressed as a drag queen. (not to bring up ridiculous rumours about her gender) but when you see that isn’t it just “hey that chick’s wearing too much make-up” it’s not any obvious artistic statement about anything, like it could be, it’s just over the top, to a point where it can come across as tasteless. Unless you did it in an underground drag club and overdid it, but the thing is she’s not underground, she on the radio, your mum is listening to her, she’s in magazines etc.

Has this celebrity she has gained made her comments about fame redundant?

Sure she can be shocking, but yeah shocking to who? The boring people. My world, the freaks, artists and outcasts aren’t impressed with this.

she is highly sexualized, but i just wish she would do something hideous, i don’t know what. it’s hard to be shocking when people love ’shocking.’ More specifically i wish she would come out as trash, but to quote john waters ”The Hollywood system stole our sex and co-opted our violence,” what would make me happy is if she took a shit on stage, oh the pleasure that would give me! It would just make confirm that she isn’t Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera or Madonna. Wouldn’t be pleasant for her though I guess….

The one other artist that I see the comparison with, is Marilyn Manson. Complete opposites, and yet strikingly similar. they’re even collaborators

I can see how these two would be drawn to each other, both make a comment of the state about society that seems to be “I am the product of pop culture.” Both are synonymous with the word “shock.”

But they come from opposite ends of the spectrum, Manson doesn’t say ‘fuck’ sixty times in a song because he’s stalling for time, he’s doing it because society will condemn him for it. The point of his brand of shock-rock only exists because it’s what you can’t stand, and it’s in your face. (not including his last two albums which i would say cater to his fans more so.)
Whereas Gaga makes the statement, “Here’s what you want, another lifeless record company pop idol, but I’m in on the joke, I’ll dance around wearing some band aids and a thong, but do you realise that i’m not that, I’m commenting on that, are you in on the big joke?”

Basically Manson says “here’s what you don’t want, why?” and Gaga “here’s what you want and why?”

Gaga is the antithesis of Manson, and both in my opinion are great performers.

She is certainly much more talented than a bland old pop star, if you want proof I would suggest you watch the video of her performing “Imagine” by John Lennon.

I’ve also heard her acoustic sets are great to.

I just wish she would show her songwriting talent off in her music, even her voice is heavily distorted in her songs.

in conclusion, I think she’s going to get weirder and weirder, I think this will lose her some of her fan base, but I really like what she’s all about and more so what she’s becoming. I hope that she drops the dancing around in undies, pretend to hang herself more often and let her freak flag fly.

So what do you think, Gaga, friend or foe?

Over and out, Cal xoxox

Where The Wild Things Are

Oh man I just lost a massive post about my day, I cant be bothered retyping it, so here’s the jist

– packing the house/boredom

– saw Where The Wild Things Are, it was phenomenal!!!

– movies

sorry.

I’m tired can’t be bothered.

Greetings…

Hello there, anyone who may be reading this!

getting to know me;

Well the basic deatils are – i’m a 19 year old, causasian, male.

I suppose the theme of my blog, will be informing the bloggosphere of, my daily life (quite dull) my filmmaking progress and  posts on topics that interest me (ie. film, music, art, GLBT politics etc)

More about me!

Well i currently live in a share house in Geelong, Victoria, well for at least for 5 more days before i move back to my hometown, for a few months. In 2010, i’ll be moving to the state capital Melbourne, to study digital film and media at Deakin University.

I am very ambitious, and one day plan to write/produce/direct independent films.

musically, my tastes vary wildly, currently i’ve been addicted to Nina Simone, Amanda Palmer, Gossip, La Roux, Joe Cocker, The Magnetic Feilds, Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, Nina Hagen, The Cure and Siuoxsie And the Banshees.

As For film tastes/influences,  I woould say my all time favourite auteur is John Waters, but i also love the works of fellini, Bergman, Tarantino, Kubrik, Terry Gilliam, Gregg Araki and John Cameron-Mitchell.

i don’t read as much as i would like, but i just finished Judith Lucy’s ‘Lucy family Alphabet and i’m currently reading Dear Fatty by Dawn French. contrary to popular belief i think women comedians are really much funnier, beside the aforementioned i’m a huge Maria Bamford fan, check her out!

as for my daily life, currently i’m slowly packing for the move home, but i really can’t stand doing it. instead today i went for a walk around my suburb, which i will miss greatly, ate subway (am doing that way too much!) and began writing a film script which i hope to film this summer.

well thanks for checking me out, leave a comment if you read this!

over and out, Callum

also you can find me on the net at;

twitter.com/SHARKDYKE

http://www.facebook.com/CallumA.C.Skene

myspace.com/callum_mtlhd

Email: callums@hiptop.com