On Thursday

Thursday, in my country, will be A-Day. You might be thinking: What's that? Like, Asshole Day or something? Well, close, but it's actually Australia Day, which is also a public holiday. I have no particular reason to celebrate Australia, so I'm dedicating all of my time, energy and caffeine to update this blog.

If I don't finish Thursday, then at least I have the weekend. I fear I'm setting my expectations too high for this next post, and I may never get it done. But it's within my reach, as long as I repeat the four Orwell motivations until they set firmly in my cranium:

1. Sheer egoism.
2. Aesthetic enthusiasm.
3. Historical impulse.
4. Political purpose.

Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.

These may also apply to illustration, as we'll see...

Just so this post isn't totally devoid of content, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about books! I've just finished reading Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, I won't do a post about it, but I highly recommend it, whether you've seen the film or not. The film is great, but I've seen it so many times it's getting tedious to sit through. The book is so much more grittier, bloodier, mind-bending and totally absorbing.

"We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't. And we're just learning this fact," Tyler said. "So don't fuck with us."

Right now I'm currently reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. It's a good read, but anything by Kurt Vonnegut Jr is a good read. I'm currently waiting for my housemate Peter to get off his lazy butt and read Slapstick: or Lonesome No More, or anyone else in my vicinity, so that we can watch the film adaptation Slapstick of Another Kind, because there's no way in hell I'm watching that by myself, and there's no way in hell I'm watching it with someone who hasn't read the book.

But I do want to see it. I've read about it, in the MYOF article, and I get the impression that I will never be more insulted in my life. But that's why I want to see it, I want to know how far my buttons can be pushed. I want to feel my heart sink deeper into despair, for that is the power of film, that is the magic of cinema! I want to post about it too. When Peter did a post about Tank Girl, he told me "it's not so much a review, but a summary", to which I replied "yeah, but a summary with a tone". He liked that, and I like that too. I usually avoid summaries in my film reviews, because I find it's what every other critic does, and they don't dedicate too many words to actually reviewing the movie. But I like the idea of just doing a summary with a tone, as long as I'm not reviewing, and as long as the film is an awful, awful, awwwwful (there's nothing more to add to that).