Favourite genius #5

I'm on a real roll with this subject so I'm going to bang out another one (although I know this means I may run out of genius's quicker, it's a risk I'm going to take).

Dear Chuck Palahniuk,

When I was 17 my dad decided (one night when my mum and sister were away) that it was time to sit me down and show me Fight Club. For weeks I was obsessed and when I showed the film to my best friend we obsessed together for months. Word spread around (because I was queen of the nerds at my school) that the film was awesome and not stupid as for some reason everyone thought and before long everyone in our year level had seen it. The less intellectual of us started their own fight club and got suspended, but those of us who actually understood the film sought out our literature teacher and talked to him for hours about existentialism. He turned us on to Albert Camus and before long I was sitting down to lunch and reading Being and Nothingness by Jean Paul Satre (while everyone else was reading the last Harry Potter book).

I started crushing pretty badly on Edward Norton, not because of his impressive torso for if that were the reason I had fallen I would have just fallen for Brad Pitt. But the reason I was crushing so hard was because of what he was saying and the way he was saying it. I am jack's bleeding heart.

I went out and got the book and read it in just a few days (which is impressive when you consider that I was studying my final year of high school). For my birthday that year my friend bought me Lullaby, and after my exams a month later I read it in a couple of days. Then I bought Survivor and Choke and read them quick smart. I saw the film adaptation of Choke in a double with Fight Club at the Astor and fell even more in love with Sam Rockwell (his little sexy dance moves and turn to the dark side in Charlies Angels first had him catching my attention, then his turn as a creepy pedophile in The Green Mile turned me off, but his smooth moves in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind had me back on a bit more).

But enough about how well your books transfer to the screen and back to your books. People in interviews with you get stuck on Fight Club or the fact that Guts makes people pass out on trains but the thing that gets me about your novels is the fact that the scenarios you put forward are completely feasible, utterly ridiculous but absolutely convincing because you have this amazing handle on your subject matter and everything about your bizarre worlds is so detailed.

I recently read Sylia Plath's The Bell Jar and I got to the bit SPOILERS, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ THE BELL JAR, PLEASE DON'T READ THIS BIT! where she has sex and just about bleeds to death and I passed out... on the train no less. So when I got Haunted for my birthday and I got up to Guts, thanks for putting that right at the start by the way, I thought I was done for, but I was fine. I didn't know any actual details about the story except that people pass out when they read it. It is pretty gross, but I don't have sexual deviations or a penis so I couldn't imagine how that would have felt. But I get why people would be sickened by that story, and I'm worried that you've developed the reputation that makes people come up to you and tell you these kinds of stories.

But mostly I want to thank-you for the stories you make up yourself. As you can probably tell I am quite well read, and it is only because you wrote fight club and introduced existentialism to a new generation.

I love your brilliant mind.

Much love,

Kendal Coombs
Melbourne, Australia

Favourite genius #4

Dear Edgar Wright,

When I first saw Shaun of the dead I thought it was funny, but not hilarious like everyone had been telling me it was, but then again, I had never actually seen a zombie film. Throughout my wanky film school studies I ventured in to the realm of zombie movies and saw what I had been informed was the original zombie movie, Night of the Living Dead (the original 1968 George A. Romero film). It was slow burning, a little bit scary and completely ridiculous, and after a double header at the Astor featuring Zombieland and another film I can't remember because I was so distraught SPOILERS from this guy being killed in Zombieland that's all I can really remember from that night, I felt I knew at least some of the tropes of zombie movies enough to watch Shaun of the Dead again and enjoy it a little more. I think I would have liked it a second time around without watching the other films because such is the genius of Edgar Wright.

I was told for months on end that Hot Fuzz was the funniest film ever and one night when I was home alone and had nothing to do I borrowed it from the video shop and watched it. At first I found it mildly amusing but when the action sequence of the film started I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. The next night with all the family home my dad posed the question "what should we watch?" and I leaped up saying "I have a movie you'll like." And I sat down with the family to watch Hot Fuzz. The Second time around I laughed at everything, such is the genius of Edgar Wright.

For my 2nd year anniversary with my comic loving boyfriend we decided to go to gold class and started saving early in the year. We looked to see what would be on at the movies on our anniversary and found that the much anticipated Scott Pilgrim vs. The World would not be released in cinema's in Australia until 5 days later, so we settled for Inception. However, the beauty of having your first date at the Melbourne International Film Festival means that usually there are good film festival films on on that day. And guess which day, out of all of the days of the festival, was the one day they were playing Scott Pilgrim? Yep, our anniversary. Having watched your films alone at home, with family at home and in a packed out cinema with the creme de la creme of Melbourne filmies and geeks, I have come to fall in love with the genius of Edgar Wright.

Your parodies are understated and brilliant, the success of your films in cult circles is testament to your brilliance and a sign that, having not been a box office success during your career, your films will be adored for generations to come.

I cannot wait for Tin Tin and the third in your trilogy of films with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Your ever-adoring,

Kendal Coombs
Melbourne, Australia

Favourite genius #3

Dear Christopher Nolan,

I have to admit that I didn't always know who you were and am a relatively recent fan of your work but I am only 21 years old. The first film of yours I saw was by accident. I went to visit my friend in Parkes, a small town in the middle of New South Wales Australia, in summer. One day we went to Orange to go for a swim but the pool was full and looked like people soup so we went to the movies to get out of the heat and as Orange is even smaller than Parkes the movie theatre there only has two cinema's and they were only playing Borat (which I'd already seen in Melbourne on a kind of date thing) and The Prestige, which was absolutely amazing. There were so many twists and turns that when my friends father asked us about it we couldn't think of one thing to say that wouldn't spoil it should he decide to go an see it himself. I love all that old magic stuff anyway, but throwing in David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, all the secrecy, mystery and lies, sexy magician hands etc. it kept me thinking for a long long time.

Then when my dad went overseas he sent us a copy of Batman Begins, which for some reason I hadn't seen until then. Perhaps it has something to do with Australia always getting stuff months and months after it comes out every where else, or maybe because at the time I wasn't dating a comic book geek, but I really loved that too. On father's day that same year we went to imax to see The Dark Night. Again I was blown away and the name Christopher Nolan became familiar to me.

Last year we waited and ignored what people were saying about Inception until it was our anniversary and we went to Gold Class to see it (very very early in the morning considering we'd been at the cinema the night before until about 1am seeing a film about a tire that blows up people's heads with telekinesis) and it was the best beginning to an anniversary ever. We had quite a bit of time to kill before going to see Scott Pilgrim vs the World at the Melbourne International Film Festival, but it felt like no time at all because we talked the whole time over rosemary lamb chops about how brilliant you must have to be to write a screenplay like that and actually have the mind to go on and make it. So many levels of genius are involved in Inception that I am still reeling almost a year and 4 viewings later.

I have since watched Momento and have decided that I am in love with your brain Christopher Nolan.

Kind regards,

Kendal Coombs
Melbourne Australia

(Plus, he's also British, you've got to love that.)

Favourite genius #2

Dear Steven Moffat,

When I was 15 and home alone one night when my parents were at rock n roll dancing lessons I turned on ABC (the Australian Broadcast Corporation, aka the only good channel on Australian free to air television) and a great and weird show called Coupling came on. The episode featured a very very drunk encounter between two of the main characters at a staff party, and the encounter was told from both male and female perspective and was the most hilarious thing I had ever seen.

When I started dating my current boyfriend and went over to his house I noticed he had the entire series of Coupling on DVD, so I borrowed it and watched them all in a week. I decided then and there that I would devote myself to the genius of one Mr. Steven Moffat.

The Curse of the Fatal Death is also one of the funniest things I have ever seen, not only did you demonstrate how much you love the coolest TV show in the world (Doctor Who) but you were able to parody it without making the show itself seem ridiculous. Also, my favourite episodes of the current series' of Doctor Who, without even realising it, are The Girl in the Fireplace, Silence in the Library, Forest of the Dead, Blink, the creepy World War II episodes with the "are you my mummy" kid, and almost all of series five and so far all of series six.

David Tennant's regeneration into Matt Smith was the greatest regeneration ever ("Arms, legs, chin, nose, ergh, had worse."). I am so glad you are now head writer of Doctor Who, it was getting pretty lame and embarrassing but now I'm proud to turn people onto it. Matt Smith is my Doctor and it's mostly because of your writing (a little because he's really cute and makes funny faces, but mostly your writing).

Then last year your series Sherlock finally aired in Australia. It was so good my parents even watched. Since then I have read more Sherlock Holmes books/stories than I thought there even were.

But Tin Tin is what I'm now waiting for with baited breath and it appears that it has no release date in Australia.

I cannot express in words how much in love with your brain I am so I'll stopping being creepy in a Steve Martin kind of way and just leave it at that. Please keep writing, I can't wait for what you do next (and for part one of series six of Doctor Who to end so I can start going on Twitter again without spoilers).

Your ever-loving fan-girl,

Kendal Coombs
Melbourne Australia

New blog lovin'

Yay, three posts and already a follower. Woohoo.
Thank-you for commenting on my posts, I'm glad someone is reading and enjoying my latest blog.
I would like to start this post by praising the genius on my new favourite writer, Neil Gaiman. Saturday's episode of Doctor Who (The Doctor's Wife, and yes I am watching as they air in Australia putting me a week behind the rest of the world, so please don't send spoilers my way). I have started to notice how much I love writer's and how I have crushes on lot's of people, but mostly writer's, so I'm going to start writing little love letters to them.


Dear Neil Gaiman,

In 2008 I started dating a comic book "geek" (his preferred word) and thus took a crash course in comic book geekdom. He recommended series for me to read and I read them as he bought them. I started with some Batman trades and then read 100 Bullets, Fables and now I collect Doctor Who. One series he really wanted to read, above all others was Sandman, so for our second anniversary I bought him the entire Sandman collection (which set me back a bit but I secretly wanted to read it as well) and he loved it.

I must confess at this point that I have not yet read Sandman as I started collecting The Invisibles after seeing Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods, and have distracted myself with Doctor Who novels, but having watched The Doctor's Wife last night (oh, in case you were wondering, I'm Australian and prefer to watch Doctor Who on my big fancy HD TV as it airs and not on a computer screen so I'm a week behind the rest of the world) nothing will get in my way, this week I will finish reading Piaf, take it back to the cafe I borrowed it from and start reading Sandman because I am in love with your brain and I must have more.

The Doctor's Wife was absolute perfection. Ever since Rose looked into the heart of the TARDIS and started speaking as the TARDIS (ish) I have wanted someone with a bit more knowledge and creativity to bring the TARDIS to life (so to speak) and let her speak her mind. She is such a recognisable pop culture icon it's about time someone delved into the heart of the relationship between the Doctor and his ship. We know she's alive, so why not? I couldn't imagine anyone doing it more perfectly than you, it's a shame the BBC didn't have enough money to throw into the extra rooms of the TARDIS, I would have loved to see that.

I laughed, I cried, I don't think the smile was off my face at all the entire episode and I was so satisfied at the end I wished I could watch it again.

Please write another episode.

Thank-you again for making my weekend, I love you Mr. Genius. Please come to Melbourne for some sort of comic convention or the Melbourne Writers Festival.

Your ever loving fan,

Kendal Coombs
Melbourne, Australia


So there we go, letter number one of my new regular blog segment in which I will write love letters to my favourite genius's. I have a lot so expect a bit of an onslaught. Also, most are writer's, mostly of film and television, some novelists or songwriter's. The next one I shall write will be addressed to Steven Moffat. Rest assured, I am not only attracted to people who right episodes of Doctor Who (although that does help).
I have a lot of work to do because I have just realised that Neil Gaiman has an online journal and I have to go read it so that if I ever bump into him on my travels I will know what to talk to him about. But not in a stalkery way. Y'all should read it too. Then you'll know why I call him a genius.
love love love.
blah blah blah

ergh

I applied for two jobs today. One at a radio station and one at a magazine. I hope I get one if not both as one is an internship and if it's non paying like all the other internships I've had then I won't have to be there every day of the week. and the other one is only three days a week filling in for parental leave for 6 months.

There's another radio job I want to apply for but I want my application to be amazing so I have to work on it a little more.
I'm hoping I get something soon because I'm really starting to lose faith.

bored

So, today I felt really tired and didn't want to get out of bed, so I didn't for ages, just snuggled up to my BF and cuddled him until he decided that we should get out of bed and do something. After breakfast when he left and I had nothing to do I started feeling really sad for no real reason, like yesterday when I went to meet him after he finished work and we were going to see Paul but the cinema website lied and there wasn't a 4.30 session at all but a 4.00 session and I was really annoyed because all I wanted to do yesterday was see Paul and we couldn't because the session after was at 6.30 and wouldn't finish until 8.25 because of all the previews, and my nearest train home at that time leaves at 8.25 and the one after doesn't leave until 9.55 so I wandered off to find a newspaper but there were no movie sessions in it so we went to uni to look on a computer and decided to see Source Code at the same cinema because it is only an hour and a half long, and Duncan Jones is the director and I liked Moon and the session was at 5.15 so we'd be able to make the 7.25 train home. But I was so upset about missing Paul I felt like I was about to cry. I really need somebody to give me a proper job. I think I'm becoming depressed.
Today I watched last years Christmas episode of the Graham Norton show on youtube because Matt Smith was a guest and I love him. He didn't really get to say much though which is a shame, but he said that all his fan mail gets answered by his mother so I might send her a letter because I think that's a really nice thing to do. I almost cried when I was watching it because David Walliam's of Little Britain fame (who is a huge huge mega Doctor Who fan) said that he thought Matt Smith was the best Doctor in the history of the show and I thought that was a very nice thing to say (and also I agree).
Emotionally I am such a mess this week. Things should pick up though because I am booked in for a Barista and coffee art course on Thursday and that should be exciting. It's also a pretty integral skill for getting a job. I hope it leads to a job. I really need to get out of this house to do more than spend my non-existent money.

ANOTHER new blog

Just because I can. And I'm pretty bored. I guess that's what happens when the only job you can get after completing a three year degree is one day a week until June and you don't get paid. And there are no movies left to watch.
So I'll just spend my time trying to think about stuff to write.