I love getting free stuff. I love 80s slasher films. Put this together and you should be smelling the ripe blog I’m about to squeeze out.

Chae and Tim, whom you may remember as the pair who had me dry wretching over some microwaved sweets, have come through once again this time with a DVD copy of Prom Night, eighty-nine minutes of pure 1980s slashfest starring the leading lady of horror, Jamie Lee Curtis.

If you’ve never seen it, which is a safe bet, I won’t be ruining any surprises by telling you it features a killer running rampant at a high school prom night. What isn’t quite so obvious from the cover is the dazzling array of treats to delight you along the way. Let’s take a look see at a few of them, shall we?

Curly Haired Boys: At some point the casting director thought it would be magnificent to cast two guys with curly hair who look somewhat similar to play the two young male leads in the film. To add to the confusion, Boy 1, who is our lead’s brother is seen in almost romantic scenes while Boy 2 isn’t clearly established as the boyfriend of the lead. Clearly, this struck someone else at some point during the production so I failed to find a scene with Jamie Lee and Boy 1 in which the latter did not say “But I’m your brother!” What to do with that pesky exposition? Just say it and get it over and done with, of course!

Creepy Janitor: This classic is clearly not afraid to be drawn of genre archetypes, and this is one of the most famous. This creepy janitor is established very early with some line like “He’s so creepy. He’s always staring at me.” Complete with mental disability and greasy appearance, he’s linked to every plot point in such an obvious way that you can instantly rule him out as the murderer.

Breathy voice: Long before “Do you like scary movies?”, our favourite AT&T customer was ringing up the chicks to ask “Do you still like to play games?”. What puzzled me throughout was why the caller’s apartment was so sparse. Sure, set dressings can be expensive, but would a bowl of lillies or something go astray?

Jamie Lee as Hedwig: There can be little doubt that Jamie Lee’s appearance in Prom Night would have been an inspiration to John Cameron Mitchell for Hedwig as the two look spectacularly similar in many instances throughout the movie. Jamie Lee’s strong diamond shaped head and her frighteningly emphasised cheek bones had me expecting a rock ballad at every moment. Alas, I didn’t get it, but I did get…

One Disco Number, Repeat Ad Nauseum: Not content to mindlessly leech just one popular fad at the time, producers figured the disco world was ready for a scare and inserted a lengthy, completely choreographed dance break for Jamie Lee to strut her stuff. Parallel cutting between the murderer on the chase and Jamie’s hot moves, the DJ seems to have left one track, suspiciously titled “Prom Night” on continuous loop on the turntables. Hey, where did that DJ go?

Effeminate Murderer: Unlike most murderers who can slowly advance on their prey with 3 metre strides, this murderer does a lot of running and chasing. When the murderer finally does catch up, it seems to let out an assortment of girlish squeals as he judo chops and super slow motion throat-slits that would make even Mr. Humphries seem like a world class boxer.

Leslie Nielsen: If you thought Naked Gun was Nielsen’s greatest crime against Art in the 20th Century, perhaps you should pay Prom Night a visit. In a spectacularly unfunny role, Leslie exceeds all expectations and even has the dignity to disappear half way through the movie allowing a few people to ask “Where’s Mr. Hammond gone?”

Sequels: Although Prom Night didn’t rack up the number of sequels Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street did (10 and one expecting, and 7 respectively, plus the crossover film for those playing at home), three sequels were produced, the last in 1991 and all three of its sequels are available on DVD. Apparently the only thing connecting the films is that they all take place at the one school. Man, wouldn’t that school be low on the national register.

Mr. Pose: As if the above seven points were not enough reason to see the film, this eighth point set me over the edge: This character. By far my favourite part of the film, one fan website simply labels him “Gang Member”, but he was so much more. Serving as the school bully/slob Lou’s sidekick, for each of the 1.6 seconds he’s on screen he’s sporting the exact pose you see above. Sometimes he turns his head forward for variety. His grip on the jacket is quite magnificent. In fact, it seems the actor, Lee Wildgen, was so taken by his own ability to hold things that he felt his experience in this film put him in good stead to become the Props Guy for a whole range of television productions.

I think that’s what touches me most about the film. It’s that heart-on-the-sleeve enthusiasm for chasing your dreams and being the very best you can. Oh, and the throat slashing, teenage sex and drug abuse. Thats fun too. A film for the entire family. Available in all good bookstores. Must close this weekend.

Early on in the blogging revolution there was much talk of ‘commercialising’ blogging, allowing bloggers to make money from their efforts. We saw the same thing occur in the podcasting field, however in both cases, few are able to make a substanial income off their output. Part of the problem is that it takes a lot of work to find sponsorship, or you’re left making 3 cents a month off Google adwords.

This is an unusual state of affairs considering the fact that some developers of new products are services are beginning to consider online communities, in particular blogs, as a source of marketing. A few mentions on the big blogs and your product has an instant reputation. This word of mouth to the nth degree. But what about the little blogs? It’s impractical for either little blogs or marketers to find each other without some kind of facilitation.

ReviewMe.com, a new online service provides this marketplace, building a simple infrastructure to link buyers and sellers of this new kind of advertising. ReviewMe has clearly recognised this deficiency and has analysed the needs of both parties. Suddenly it’s incredibly easy for bloggers to find sponsorship, and marketers to find the right channel for their product no matter how niche.

So what does this mean for you? By simply signing up for a free account and submitting your blog(s), you are listed on the marketplace together with a description of your blog. A site rating is also calculated based on your site’s Alexa and Technorati ratings and estimated RSS readership. This is the factor that determines how much money (Paypal or cheque) you’ll score for each review, which is half what ReviewMe collects off the advertiser, so it pays to get your linkage up (literally). Then its a matter of sitting back and waiting for the advertisers to request a review, which you can accept or reject.

I must admit my blog has a very niche audience and I may never find an offered review, but if you run a website with a strong focus and loyal readership, chances are ReviewMe may be exponentially more useful than those 3 GoogleCents.

This post was brought to you by the letters A, C, the number 7 and ReviewMe.

I joined our community’s elite to witness the best our little town could summon up last night at the latest concert given by the Wollongong Symphony. To make my opinion of the event crystal clear, I’ve decided to bold the major issues.

Arriving late, mostly because who in their right mind starts a concert at 6pm, I was standing outside Door 6 of the Entertainment Centre as the orchestra struck up their first piece, Also Sprach Zarathustra. I was talking to one of the staff when I hear a loud applause after about 30 seconds. “So you mean they aren’t playing the whole work, just the bit that everyone recognizes?” Fantastic. The second piece began. It was, as the compere later recounted “John Williams’ Star Wars Suit” (sic).*

The program continued to push the boundaries and present rarely heard high art pieces, like the 1812 Overture, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and as our able compere described, after a moment of sheer terror and whythehelldidn’tireadthisbeforeiwalkedonstage “Pro-ko-Five’s Peter and the Wolf“. No one else seemed outraged that Pro-ko-Five copied significantly from the more often performed Prokofiev.

Add to this “fireworks and special effects” that were actually just lights so bright I feared I might have an epileptic fit**. Oh, and the Japanese soprano, who apparently Wowed the people around me with her renditions of Ave Maria, Nessun Dorma and ALW’s Muzak of the Night.

The orchestra performed better than the first time I saw them, but there were still plenty of horn flubs, messy string passages and the like. The massed choir was a bit lumpy and could have done with a conductor of their own, because they sure weren’t following the orchestra’s conductor. One gentleman with a rather obnoxious voice seemed to be right in front of a microphone and insisted on singing badly most of the night. I’ve done the massed choir thing before and having some old man come along and sing whatever he feels like when everyone else has done the hard work is pretty annoying.

Certainly, though, my favourite point of the evening was at the reception afterwards when more Japanese artists were performing on Koto and Shamisen. The faces of the “music lovers” was gold as they listened to the performers playing “Waltzing Matilda”, but thinking it was traditional Japanese music. It was so Christopher Guest I could hardly contain myself.

* I actually wanted to double bold this sentence, but it wouldn’t let me.

** I actually was diagnosed with mild epilepsy and do suffer strange things when I see ultra bright light.

The curtain would have only just fallen and the word is seeping back to me already about the latest production from a rather infamous local theatre group. This being from the same company who put on the production of Oliver that I, shall we say, wanted destroyed.

At interval I recieved a text message from Chae:

Oh. My. God.

Tim followed up with this just now:

I think that was my last [insert theatre company name here] show.

I’m so glad I didn’t slip $26 dollars into the man’s pocket to sit through his latest abomination.

Please let it be so.

I was doing some serious research (reading the Neighbours page on Wikipedia), and saw that a new character coming up is named “Pepper Steiger”. Quite apart from sounding like something you’d pay an awful lot for, never use, but be sure to wave it around in front of guests at a dinner party, she shares a surname with everyone’s favourite finger toting police officer.

Could Pepper, or “Pepsi” as I have already decided I will call her, be a crazed-lunatic wife who steals people’s babies and burns down an old farm shed ala Blue Heelers? More likely, Pepper is going to be a new kid on the block, struggling to fit in to school, who must undergo a series of taunts and bully sessions about her father being a policeman (and a deluded one at that). Alternatively, she might be the pet dog of a lonely, Susan-hunting (who wouldn’t?) Constable Steiger, and Neighbours is finally taking the small step into post-modern expression that I’ve always wanted it to take.

Neighbours, I’m watching you, don’t go stealing my ideas (or at least pay me). And isn’t it about time Karl and Susan broke up again?