coxy's blog

In 1978, director Martin Scorsese turned his camera on his friend and roommate, Steven Prince, creating the documentary 'American Boy'. Prince was best known for his role as the gun salesman in 'Taxi Driver', but to many was a true-life raconteur, actor, ex-drug addict, and road manager for Neil Diamond.

To Scorsese, Steven's life was more fascinating than what any screenwriter could dream up, it had to be captured in celluloid, and 'American Boy' did just that and became somewhat of a cult documentary amongst notable directors and movie-types - so much so that Quentin Tarantino based a famous scene from 'Pulp Fiction' on a story Prince had told of during the recording.

Three decades later, filmmaker and producer of 'A Scanner Darkly', Tommy Pallotta draws out Steven Prince to recount his days since 'American Boy' and to compose the next chapter of his story under the guise of a new documentary 'American Prince'.

'American Prince' has been legally made available to download for free via mininova.org

Cadbury's chocolate is well nice, and I've eaten far too much of it over the past few days. Yesterday I even had a big bar for breakfast when I got into work, and two Cadbury's Creme Eggs when I got home last night. This is normal for me.

I decided I shouldn't have so much chocolate today, but I get into work to find Laughing Squid linking me to this Cadbury's chocolate advertisment. To be fair, it is quite cool, albeit in a fucked up way.

As other people are leaving Opera Community, some are returning. After a long time of not posting anything personal here, and more than a month of not posting anything music-related here, I'm coming back for more Opera Community action. I tried setting up my own eggblog, I moved to Pownce and nothing could replace this blogging service. So, I'm back.

Anyways, on Thursday, Vikki and I went to see previews of The Dark Knight on IMAX and it was absolutely amazing! Seriously - go see it at the cinema, in IMAX - it's worth it.

Time to update my beloved blog. The question is, do I work forward from then to now; or back, from now to then. I could just make this post up as I go along, I suppose.

So, right now I'm in a pretty good mood. I've just come back from a well-needed 'night in with the lads' where we watched The Sentinel. It was quite a cool story and quite well implemented; and a good quality DVD ripp from the web. Shh! - 4 / 5

I've just recently come back from a holiday in Lyon (France), with the girlfriend. It was a great holiday, and we had a lovely time. I guess thinking back; we didn't actually do a great deal - but it was still good to get away for a short while - and I'm happy with what we got to see of Lyon.

Click this picture to go through to my photos on Flickr. If you can't see the image below, or any of the other images, it's because you need to be a friend of mine on Flickr. I'll adjust permissions when I can be bothered. In the mean time, message me to get me to add you.


Some other stuff I want to let you in on, is that come payday I'm looking to buy a new MP3 player for myself. I say MP3 player and not iPod (whereas I've previously owned an iPod) because that I want a change. So, at the minute, I'm going to go for a Creative Zen V Plus. They look alright, and should be more reliable than my iPod was. I just hope it's compatible in one way or another with my mac. I can live with a drop from 20GB to 4GB, right?

Speaking of change; Vikki moves to Manchester this weekend. It's going to be quite hectic - so I best get rid of this cold I've been nursing for the past three days to lend a hand. She's going to University in Manchester to study Computer Science and will be living with a bunch of other student-like people. It'll be great for the both of us: she gets to make some new friends and live the student-bum lifestyle - and I get to use her student discount. Oh, and stay over at her flat after a night out in town.

Anyway, I'm going to wrap this up with a few links. For those that own a mac, make sure you have the latest Open Source software by downloading MacLibre. If you like to play pranks on friends and family, check out deadfake which lets you send emails from practically any email address you want. Gamers and non-gamers looking to fill some time, why not point your browser to |g|ridwars - a neat little game based on Geometry Wars that you can download for free. And don't forget that it's International Talk Like A Pirate Day on Sept 19th.

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I've always been into animated films from a young age, and with a company such as Pixar making such beautiful movies, it was no surprise that I came to love 3D animation moreso than others. Unfortunately, this set more traditional methods to one side as my love for 3D animation excelled; that was until Pixar's John Lasseter brough Sprited Away ( info | IMDB | trailer | buy ) to my attention.

Spirited Away sees the main character, Chihiro plunged into an alternate reality, much like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. On the way to their new home, the petulant adolescent and her parents find what they think is a deserted amusement park. Her parents find a food stand and stuff themselves until they turn into pigs, and Chihiro discovers they're trapped in a resort for traditional Japanese gods and spirits. The result is a moving and magical journey, and so aesthetically pleasing that it took my breath away.

Eager to see more from the creators of Spirited Away, Studio Ghibli, I'd experienced many failed attempts at buying DVDs or going to see films at the cinema - where Manchester's Cornerhouse would show such films. This was through either having no money available, or being late for cinema showings.

I succeeded when Studio Ghibli and Optimum Home Entertainment released Howl's Moving Castle ( info | IMDB | trailer | buy ) which I picked up on DVD the other week. Upon Howl's cinema release in Japan, it cashed in over $210 million, passing Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke to become the nation's Number 3 most popular cinema release in Japanese history, behind Spirited Away at Number 1 and Titanic at Number 2.

The film, Howl's Moving Castle, is based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones and sees Sophie, a 19-year-old girl who believes she is plain and boring, transformed into a 90-year-old woman by the Witch of the Waste. In her aged guise, Sophie searches for a way to break the Witch's spell and finds herself taking an unexpected adventure where she discovers her hidden potential - finding that she's not so plain as first thought.

The combination of the story and animation is most marvellous and brings the whole film to life. I found myself enthralled in the film, and didn't want to blink for fear of missing something. There's some wonderful characters throughout the film who are so well formed, and well expressed that you can relate to their presence and emotions. It's a truely powerful film, and one that everyone should own.

With liking both Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle so much, I've spent part of this month's wages on more Studio Ghibli films; taking a trip to Amazon.co.uk and purchasing;
My Neighbour Totoro ( info | IMDB | trailer | buy )
Pom Poko ( info | IMDB | trailer | buy )
and the original book of Howl's Moving Castle.

If you ever get the chance to see or own any of these films mentioned above, don't think twice - just do it.