Top Ten Films of 2014

2014 was a quiet year at the cinema for me, not only due to the low number of films seen (100), but also the mediocre quality, and extended gaps between decent releases.

But here are my top ten (plus my favourite scene for each).

10. The Wolf of Wall Street (Leonardo tripping out on Quaaludes, crawling to his sports car)

9. The Lego Movie (Emmet forgets his pants)

8. Interstellar (Matthew McConaughey stuck behind a bookcase)

7. X-Men Days of Future Past (Quicksilver mocking a room of guards at supersonic speed)

6. Gone Girl (they resume their domestic bliss, happily ever after)

5. What We Do in the Shadows ("we're werewolves not swearwolves")

4. Pride (miners and gays marching together in London)

3. Guardians of the Galaxy (dancing baby Groot)

2. Broken Circle Breakdown (the music)

1. The Great Beauty (the first party scene)

Honorable mentions go to All is Lost, Her, The Desolation of Smaug, Stories We Tell, The Invisible Woman, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Yet More Street Art

Street Art of West Perth

St George's Cathedral

His Stage

A tour of His Majesty's Theatre

Fleeing Honeyeater

This honeyeater was fleeing from parliament towards the safety of Kings Park.

Barrack Street

State Parliament

Here's a chamber, or to. I snuck into State Parliament as part of their open day.

A Viwe

After 48 minutes of bushwalking, ant bites, blistering 23 degree heat, and surprise willy willies and a whirly girly, eventually a river glimpse appeared. It was so worth it. But notice how the river slopes to the left by a few degrees. What a remarkable natural phenomenom, or phenomemon, or phenonemon, or phoneme.

Bobtail

A scaredy-skunk.

Subtle Grasses

Sublime pastel colours abound.

Micro-Pom Pom

This tiny spiky pom-pom is often used as a weapon by small fairies.

Kangarooooo Pause

Did you know that Kangaroo Paws are so named because our national marsupial has to pause his hopping to avoid impaling himself on them?

Early settlers ran out of pencils, so only named newly discovered botanical specimens verbally. Once a shipment of JB Steadman HB pencils did eventually arrived, they wrote "paws" instead of "pause".

Wireless Hill Expedition

Rewinding a month or so, my last wildflower expedition of the year was to distant Ardross and its Wireless Hill Park, strangely enough, the site of an old wireless (i.e. radio) station.

Here's a delicate Lady of East Fremantle Lily. Notice the East Freo Sharks footy colours of blue and white.

Sunset over Jackadder

I've rarely seen such a pretty sunset. The whole western sky was aglow with purple and orange. Tragically I only had my iPhone, but it did a decent job of capturing the scene over Jackadder Lake. These are straight from my phone, unedited other than cropping.

West Perth is Maintaining the Rage

With the loss of Gough Whitlam last week, it's was appropriate to find this street art in West Perth.

Cub Rub

Mini-Roarer

Gi Raffe

Botswana's Setsun

Don't Come Closer !

Cow

Umm, is this an onyx, or a gnu, or an elk? Only a qualified zoologist can separate these closely related species.

Another Mongoose

Flappy Elephaunt

This juvenile male felt threatened as we approached in our Landcruiser. He stood his ground with ears out but when we didn't retreat, he ran off behind a bush.

Reclining Mongoose