The title of this piece refers to a classic Italian post-war movie and aptly introduces the theme of this post; the moving image. My time in New Zealand allowed me the chance to catch up on some flicks. First up was The Big Lebowski (one can never tire of his dudeness), then a trip to the art-deco cinema in Hokitika to watch Avatar in 3D. The 3D wasn’t so bad but there will be better films for it. I was initially unnerved by Jarhead Jake’s resemblance to a certain Lance Armstrong … a man of amazing skill on a bike, which I respect greatly but a man of numerous other qualities which I loathe. Anyone familiar with how he operates knows that I should add nothing further. Another movie I saw was Sherlock Holmes; a very miss-able film perhaps saved by Robert Downey Jnr’s acting. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was quite thrilling but the gruesome sadist scenes were unnecessary in light of the fact that her mystique is explained further along. I made the effort to see Five Minutes of Heaven, simply because it’s an Irish flick and often they are worth a look. The acting was excellent and of course the theme quite upsetting. To think that I lived (live?) peacefully only 200k from the Troubles.

I do love movies and so I will always make the effort to go if there is an interesting cinema to experience one in. I never managed to load movies onto my laptop’s hard-drive but part of me doesn’t want to have such easy access. This allows me to savour the pleasure. As I mentioned in a previous post I mislaid my phone and iPod Touch in a pub in NSW. My guess is that most people would be lost without their iPod and so I didn’t know what to expect. As I have no movies or TV shows on my laptop my only real connection to moving images is in the cinema or the odd decent TV room in a hostel. I’m not one to spend time on YouTube preferring to limit my www time to emails and updating this website. I was curious to see how I would fare traveling with less technology.

Well, I can only say that it has been a cool experience. Each evening I look forward to sleep knocking me out to the world as my dreams are providing me with all the entertainment I could ever need. In the mornings I emerge from the depths of sleep flicking through the dream channels to recall what ‘shows’ I have been watching during the night. It is really unfortunate that consciousness must slap me awake at some point. My imagination has gone wild; my dreams have all the mystery, murder and intrigue one could ever want. I'm aware that pillow-talk is the more appropriate time to discuss dreams so I will only bore you with the dream where I stole a bicycle. It was a really cool mountain-bike laced with beautiful XT components. Despite its expense it was very inconspicuous as it was a Monteith’s (a west coast NZ brewery!?!). A brand-name that nobody would be familiar with in cycling circles but anyone who knew their bikes would see its hidden beauty. So, I robbed the thing in broad daylight and being plain stupid I did not wear a hoodie. Thus, people saw me cycling around town on it. Suddenly the law (Beadie from The Wire) was at my house. Realising that I was snared I faced the music explaining that I had no choice but to take the bike as it had been in my dreams to do so. While my Mom tried to convince her that I was a good kid my neighbour (Eddie Murphy) came over to see what the commotion was all about. As she was pleading with Beadie I exited the scene with Eddie to hit some golf balls off the cliff-tops onto the beach below. Bizarre. I’m slightly alarmed that I might steal this bike when I see it because I dreamed that I had no choice. If Penelope Cruz was to play the law instead of Beadie then I definitely will.

‘til soon
The Bicycle Thief

ps - for the record Steve managed to make the bag-drop … sounds like a drug deal I know but I am now reunited with my iPod. Suffice to say I couldn’t wait to play Ara Batur and Von (Sigur Ros) … what a fit of satisfaction! Back to regular dreamland now I guess!