Memento: Lava Lamp

I'm starting a new series whereby I go through a whole bunch of my sentimental junk and chronicle my memories in photo and blog form so I can get rid of stuff without guilt. Basically what I want to say is: I value this item for its memories but no longer have use for it. Besides which, it's getting crowded in my small house.

First up is my lava lamp. This is not just any other lava lamp but a genuine original authentic Mathmos 'Astrobaby' Lava Lamp.

Received from: My brother Damian
Occasion: My birthday (16th or 17th? Can't remember)

I wanted a lava lamp so bad. I can't even tell you why. Maybe I thought it would inspire me. No, I wasn't going through a 60s phase, but it was going to be mesmeric thinking vehicle the same way a Newton's cradle tends to transfix people, but a hippie version if you will.

My brother, being fairly clueless about gifts in general, underwent the tried and true method of discovering what I wanted by asking me. I found out somehow that it cost $65 (quite possibly he'd left the price tag on) and remember thinking that was an awful lot of money. I'm going to hazard a guess that it was for my 16th birthday because that seems appropriately special for an expensive (and let's face it, useless) item like this.

The perennial question was: Why do you want a lava lamp? The perennial answer was: Why do I like the colour blue? I just do!

The lamp originally had blue water with purple wax; due to fading, it's now clear water with red/orange wax and, as of this evening, still works fine.

I've listed it on Freecycle because I know that way it will go to a good home. It also means I will no longer be surprised to find it hanging around on side tables, ready to topple.

Hey sexy

Some of the funniest things happen to me by accident via my mobile phone because my name is Adeline and I'm often at the top of people's call list. I'd like to hear from Aarons who may experience the same thing.

A former boss once called me by accident at 4am in the morning with what sounded like vigorous er, activity going on in the background. I asked his PA to delete me the next day. I also don't keep my boss' phone number on my phone in case the reverse accident happens.

An acquaintance also accidentally left me a voicemail that consisted of her having a blazing row with her husband. I've never told her about it.

Anyway, my latest anecdote comes outside of my own network: either a case of someone giving the wrong number or the sender mistyping the number given.

Last week I started to get some strange messages from an unknown number:
Hey sexy r we still on for tonight

I ignored this, thinking it might be a prank or a case of mistaken sending that the sender would soon realise, feel embarrassed about and then resend to the right person. But that evening another message came:
Hey so is tonight when we finally do it doggy style babe

Thinking that perhaps this person hadn't realised his/her mistake I sent:
I think you have the wrong number. I have no idea who this is.

The reply:
Is this nathan who i met last night at kens karate klub

Now, the previous night I spent having dinner with my boyfriend, his mother and his mother's friend in Wahroonga and I don't think you'd call it a karate club. I actually didn't know anything about Kens Karate Klub, so I Googled it and it turns out it's a gay sauna. So the answer was 'no':
Sorry mate, you've been given a dud number.

He was flippant about it, though:
Bummer thanks anyways

Bummer—or no bummer for him, actually—indeed.

#30: Five films that mean a lot to you

Love it when a 30-day meme takes almost two months.

This list does not include my favourite film of all time because I think it'd be too difficult to name just one from a list of about 20 films I really, really like and would be happy to watch over and over again.

But here's a shortlist of films that mean a lot to me and why.

Inception
Well, it was directed by Christopher Nolan, what's not to like? But beyond that, Inception is a cerebral blockbuster, the difficult balance between critical and commercial success. If you didn't think about it, you could still enjoy it. If you did think about, you'd enjoy it more. Who would've expected a speculative heist movie to earn so much at the box office?

True, Nolan was not nominated for an Oscar for his direction, but I think he was robbed (of a nomination—I don't think he should've won) because Inception is a difficult story to convey and the direction in it was spot on.

Add the fact that Inception was designed specifically for the medium, an original story, and not part of a franchise and you have an acclaimed filmgoer's film.

Teeth
This is a B-grade horror film (the humour is also so very black) that was screened at the Sydney Film Festival a few years ago. I liked it so much I later acquired it on DVD as an example of a horror film that I could actually watch again.

Teeth means a lot to me because it's a prime example of a film that's very firmly B-grade not aspiring to be anything else, yet with an excellent cast and well directed. It's money well spent in other words, and gives me faith that the industry isn't completely full of people who earn too much for bad movies.

The Graduate
This was the first old movie I liked. It is also a film that stands the test of time: I feel it covers the universal theme of a disaffected youth trying to find himself, his confusion about love and sex, and the point at which he grounds himself and chooses life.

Speaking of choosing life, what's not to like about a film that gets sampled in a George Michael video clip? "Do you want me to seduce you? Is that what you're trying to tell me?" Too funky, Mr Graduate.

Kundun
The scene of the massacre. Unforgettable.

Into the Wild
It's a romance about a young man's relationship with the world and it's based on true events. Let's call this a vicarious pick.

Read the entire 30-day movie meme.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#29: Last film you watched

I thought 'hang on a minute—isn't this Day #12?' But yes, it differentiates between films seen in the cinema compared with films I've watched in general.

Well, the last film I watched was at the cinema, Sleeping Beauty. I had these Dendy vouchers I wanted to use up so organised to meet my boyfriend at Dendy Newtown to see The Tree of Life. Unfortunately, due to train dramas we missed the start of The Tree of Life so we decided we'd try and catch the later session.

WELL, the later session was at 9.20pm and for a two-and-a-half hour movie, that would've made it incredibly difficult for me to get home. I saw Sleeping Beauty was also playing—I missed it at the Sydney Film Festival—and that the next session was at 9.10pm and at a respectable one-and-a-half hour running time.

So thanks to Cityrail, two more people saw Sleeping Beauty than would have ordinarily.

I liked it more than my boyfriend did. It was aesthetically quite cool and distant, which corresponded with the main character's (Emily Browning) encounters as she drifts from day to day, never really engaging with anyone or anything with any warmth.

Unfortunately, this meant that it lacked was audience empathy. I would say that about half of the audience in the cinema didn't care about her, or what happened to her. There were also lots of nipples.

However, there was the compulsion to want to know what was behind the things that happened—the creepy lingerie waitressing gig and the nude sleeping gig—which intrigued until the end. This was not climactic enough to make it a good film, I'm sorry to say, but I still thought of it as an interesting piece that was worth watching.

Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#28: Last film you bought

I... don't recall. The last film I acquired was The Hulk (starring Edward Norton), which was in a leftover promo pack and attained as a gift from a neighbouring publishing house.

The last DVD I bought was Leonard Cohen Live in London.

The last film on DVD I bought would've been during the Borders closing down sale and I think it was an enviro doco. Ah yes, it was Garbage Warrior, which I haven't seen yet. Unfortunately I missed this one at the Sydney Film Festival a couple of years ago, hence the purchase.

Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#27: Total number of films you own on DVD/video

Another difficult one to answer considering I've packed most of my DVDs, which was a preventative measure from when I had a thieving, lying, no good very bad housemate. That time has since led into a period of vague renovation and a furniture shuffle so in short, my parents still have the core DVDs from my collection.

BTW, I no longer have videos because I no longer have a video player, but my 'collection' consisted of Disney's Aladdin and its sequel, The Return of Jafar (which someone bought me as a birthday present because they saw I liked Aladdin). The rest were all part of the 'family' collection, which included The Sound of Music (taped from TV), 101 Dalmatians (pirated), The Last Unicorn (pirated) and a couple of Chinese ghost movies (taped from TV).

My current DVD collection consists of movies that I want to watch again and again. Strangely enough, it does not contain all my favourite films. As a guesstimate, I'd say there are probably 30 films there all up, and then another 30 DVDs of TV shows and music. It's reasonably complete, which is to say I'm not desperate to buy anything at this point in time.

I'm a little concerned that because the price of films has come down (I mean, videos used to be like RRP $30 and now you can get DVDs of fairly recent movies for $12.95 or even less at JB Hi-Fi) people just buy them without having seen the film before. I think I'm a little more discerning because while DVDs are cheap, real estate is expensive and I just don't have the room. I will always watch the film before buying the DVD and will only buy the DVD if I know I will want to watch the film at least a few more times.

I used to live with a friend who had more than 400 DVDs, so I just borrowed discs from her. Now I have a Quickflix account so I watch films that I miss at the cinema and also try out TV shows that I think I might like.

Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.

#26: Popcorn?

Er no, I shouldn't. I don't mind popcorn, but if I weigh things up correctly, in the big chain cinemas I'd pay something in the vicinity of $9.90 for a small combo (drink + popcorn) presented in receptacles roughly the size of my head.

If I finish the combo, I would have consumed enough sugar, salt and butter to power a small nation and therefore feel guilty. If I don't finish the combo, then I feel like I've wasted money and food and therefore feel guilty.

I'd rather pay less money for less popcorn, but they don't really give you that option unless you're at one of the smaller theatres. However, the smaller theatres I go to are usually licensed, in which case I generally purchase booze with the bill still only coming to $7.

Generally I don't like to eat in a movie because there's no real way to do it quietly. I was running late once and when I got into the cinema I realised I was starving but only had an apple in my bag. I ate it during the ads and trailers and the woman in front of me turned around to glare at me. I wanted to say, "lady, I'm not stupid or inconsiderate enough to eat this during the film" but instead I just smiled at her and took a large bite, daring her to say something.

My usual movie treat is an EasyWay, if convenient (the reason I go to Event Macquarie and Event George St) but I'll occasionally get a frozen Coke. Which reminds me—what the hell happened to the frozen grape Hoyts Mandarin had so very briefly and then took away?

Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.

Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.