Raspberry Jammed
Posted: Tue 9 February, 2021 Filed under: Domestic, Food, London, Reviews(ish), Thoughts 2 Comments »I’ve been a fan of raspberry jam for a long time, and it’s usually part of my breakfast. I’ve tried most of the different brands and types over the year, although over the last few years I’ve settled more on Tesco’s “Finest” offering, which is pretty well priced and tasty. (Before that it was the Bonne Maman version, which was almost twice the price, and even now is £1 more expensive per jar)
Over the years, I’ve also always been interested in Fortnum and Mason when I visit London. I returned there in 2015 after far too long of not visiting, and have been back a few times since.
On that 2015 visit though, I saw they had some interesting jams – in particular, a golden raspberry one, and a purple one. I couldn’t get them at the time (because I was doing a ton of walking and theatre stuff, so wasn’t going to be carrying other stuff as well!) but on and off they’ve been on my mind since.
They are also ridiculously expensive – six-ish times the cost of my Tesco one, for a jar half the size! – so it’s a bit of a jump to be able to justify that kind of cost.
Anyway, back in October, I’d been to one of my favourite restaurants for my birthday meal (a saga in itself of rescheduling, lockdowns etc.) which is also effectively just round the corner from Fortnum and Mason. So, having done an epic lunch, and needing to walk, I went in. And having just spent a silly amount on Lunch (as well as a couple of drinks) it was probably the only time I could rationalise the price of those jams. So I did. (Although I’m still gobsmacked at the price of them)
They’ve sat around since then, waiting to be tried, and it’s only been in the last couple of weeks they’ve been opened.
All told, they’ve been good, but definitely not worth the price. The golden one is noticeably sweeter and soft-of softer than standard raspberry jam, and the purple one is slightly different in taste (and very much so in colour) but certainly neither one is anywhere close to being something I’d eant to have on a regular basis – even if they were the same cost as the usual ones.
I’m really glad I got round to buying them and trying them, and to now know what they’re like. But I can’t see me getting them again.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane – National Theatre
Posted: Sat 28 December, 2019 Filed under: Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Theatre, Thoughts Leave a comment »Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to get to see the play of Neil Gaiman’s “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” at the National Theatre. It’s on for a comparatively short run – only about eight weeks, I think – and in the smallest theatre (the Dorfman) which only seats 400 people – so it’s fair to say that demand for the tickets were pretty high.
It’s been an eventful couple of months for “Ocean…”, as prior to the play starting there was also a new version released with illustrations by Elise Hurst (which is beautiful) although as I understand it the two things aren’t actually related or connected.
Anyway, the play itself is superb – I would say it’s probably the best thing I’ve seen this year – and the staging and lighting are excellent as well. It’s hard to explain things without spoilers, but basically the story of a man returning to his childhood home, and remembering the things that happened back then. It’s a lot more than that, with themes of magic, loss, change and sacrifice.
I truly hope that it goes on to another theatre, and/or on tour – if it does, it’s totally worth making time to go and see it.
Richard III
Posted: Fri 17 May, 2019 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »This year, for some reason, it appears that my Shakespeare input is primarily consisting of various history plays – not something that’s been planned, but that’s how it’s worked out. Prior to this year I hadn’t seen any of them
I’ve already seen two different productions of Richard II this year, and last week’s Henrilogy of Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. And last night I went to see Headlong’s production of Richard III at Northampton’s Royal theatre.
I was really impressed with the whole production – the set is small, making interesting use of mirrors and lighting – and overall I really enjoyed it.
The cast were excellent, and I found the entire thing far easier to understand than some of the others I’ve seen. (That may also be down to the source material, I don’t know for sure)
Obviously it’s not a happy play, but all the same, it was well worth going and seeing.
Dick Comparison
Posted: Wed 6 March, 2019 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »So far this year, I’ve been to London to see two versions of Shakespeare’s “Richard II” – first at the Almeida Theatre, and then last weekend at the Sam Wanamaker theatre at the Globe. (I’m also seeing Richard III later in the year, as well as the Globe’s three-plays-in-a-day marathon slog of Henry IV Part One, Henry IV Part Two, and Henry V – by the end of that, I may be somewhat kinged out!)
The Almeida’s production was a modern interpretation, and much-abridged – it had a run time of 1hr 40mins, which was pretty much the same as the first half at the Globe. By comparison, the Globe’s was more traditional in how it was staged and performed, but with a cast entirely of Women of Colour (WOC).
It’s been interesting to compare the two, so I thought I’d write a bit about it here. Obviously all views are my own, and all that jazz. It’s also worth pointing out that I had done my usual thing of going in with no real idea of the story, chronology or characters, which sometimes doesn’t help.
The Almeida
I found the Almeida’s production to be far harder to follow – and primarily that was because of how it was being staged. The entire stage was made into a steel box, with no active exits (there had to be some, for getting on/off the stage at least, but they weren’t used during the actual production) which meant there could be no cleanups, no costume changes, and no scenery changes. That meant it was hard to actually keep track of who was who – and even more so with a reduced cast. As an example, one actor’s first character died off fairly early on, and they then played a different character (and possibly two) but still wearing the blood and costume of the first role – which meant it was pretty hard to follow. Honestly, I’d almost rather have just had the actors wearing placards with names on, in order to explain who they were at any one time.
Additionally, the abridging of the text – and the speed with which it was performed – made it even more confusing, with seemingly more focus on people chucking gloves at each other than the actual plot and actions.
So all told, I didn’t like the production that much – I felt there was too much that got rushed, or that made no sense at all. It was interesting in many ways, but also fairly high on the infamous “Load of old bollocks” scale.
The Wanamaker / Globe version
The production at the Wanamaker was (for me) far preferable. I’ve found I have very few issues with changing roles/stereotypes and doing things differently – particulary with Shakespeare, the story seems to take precedence over who’s doing what, so it doesn’t matter (to me) whether Richard is played by an older white man, or a coloured woman. I know it annoys purists and so on, but I truly don’t feel it matters.
I’d not been to the Wanamaker theatre before, but really liked it – the entire thing is lit by candles (with the exception of the windows ‘out’, which are lit changeably with LEDs, although it’s not intrusive) which makes for an interesting semi-authentic feel. (It also means that there’s a person in the cast/creatives list whose title is “Candle Consultant”, which is pretty special)
The production itself made a lot more sense to me – the cast size is similar (I think there’s one more cast member in the Wanamaker version) but because they’re allowed off-stage to change costumes for the different roles, it was far easier to follow who’s who and so on. Additionally, the extra run-time meant that it didn’t feel rushed, which also helped.
I’m glad I went to see both productions – but in this case I far preferred the more traditional version at the Wanamaker to the modern/short version at the Almeida.
Closing The Year
Posted: Mon 31 December, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, 2018/19, Bankruptcy, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Looking Back, Rebuilding, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Thoughts, Travel, Weight Loss Leave a comment »And so we’re at the end of 2018. And as such, it seems apt that the last post of the year should be a quick assessment and overview.
All told, it’s been a good – and busy – year.
There’s been more travel than usual, with that week in Toronto to add into the bargain.
There’s been more work, but also more fun times, trips out, meals, etc.
I’ve been doing a lot of work on weight-loss which has ultimately ended up not doing much – but I have more knowledge, more figures, and the steps I’ve taken have improved my health, strength, stamina, and resilience. They’ve just done sod-all to lose actual weight. But I’m OK with that, and it’s something I’ll continue to work on.
On the downside, I’m ending the year with a bit more debt than I’d like. It’s nothing earth-shattering, nor even major. A fair chunk of it is for tickets for things in 2019, of which another decent chunk is owed to me by others for their tickets. But all the same, it’s more than I’d like it to be.
However, in a fit of progress and being grown up, it’s also now all in one place, with zero-interest ’til 2022, and it’ll be done by the end of 2019. I could do it even quicker if I wanted – and I may do so – but it’s all under control, and I’m OK with it.
There are, as always, things I haven’t done – no matter the good intentions, they just haven’t happened. I’ll continue to work towards those things, and I’m going to write more about that tomorrow.
All told, it’s been a positive year, and I’m feeling pretty good at the end of it.
Coming To A Close
Posted: Mon 10 December, 2018 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Out More, London, Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »This weekend, I saw my final performance of the year – I know there’s only three weeks to go, but still, I’m pretty sure I was seeing stuff ’til later in the year last time round.
This weekend I was at the BBC Radio Theatre (as a plus-one for the friend who’d managed to get the tickets) to see Neil Gaiman recording a programme that will go out on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Day. As it turned out, he’d also brought along some friends, including Mitch Benn, Peter Capaldi, and some refugees (his words, not mine) from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. It was a good evening and lot of fun to see. It’ll also be interesting to see what makes the actual broadcast.
The previous weekend, I’d been to see Tamburlaine at the RSC in Stratford for the matinee performance on its final day. I did enjoy it, although some casting choices were a bit odd to me, particularly in the second half, where the same actress is doing two roles – one as the wife of Tamburlaine, and one as the heir of the dead king, aiming to overthrow Tamburlaine. It’s a credit to her that it was impossible to confuse the two roles as she played them, but it still made things rather more complex and odd than they needed to be.
I’ve already got several theatre visits lined up for next year, but just for now it’s on pause. Which is fine by me.
Troilus and Cressida, RSC
Posted: Mon 22 October, 2018 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »As part of my ongoing education about Shakespeare plays, I went with my friend M to see Troilus and Cressida at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday.
As usual, I knew sod-all about it beforehand – I’d figured some of the basics (that it was around the Trojan war and so on) but that was it.
It’s an interesting production, with extra percussion and sound created by Evelyn Glennie, and in some ways feels like it’s a mix of Stomp and Shakespeare. (Which isn’t a bad thing, in my own pantheon of opinions/preferences) It’s also a fairly modern staging, with shipping containers taking the place of tents and so on, whereas the costuming (and in some cases lack thereof) is more traditional. So it’s a bit confused, but in a way that I liked.
I was, to be honest, less taken with the play itself. It was interesting enough, and enjoyable enough, but at the same time I don’t know that it’s one I’d make a big effort to see again.
Weirdly, Troilus and Cressida themselves aren’t really major roles within the play – they’re on stage a lot less than most of the other primary characters.
All told, there’s a lot of focus on political intrigues and deal-making as well as the war itself, and it makes for a complicated script and set-up that can sometimes be confusing.
So yes, I enjoyed the entire thing and I’m glad I went. But there are other Shakespeare plays I’d prefer to see before seeing Troilus and Cressida again.
Touching The Void, Royal and Derngate Theatre
Posted: Fri 19 October, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Reviews(ish), Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Last night, I went to see the new play “Touching the Void” in at the Royal part of the Royal and Derngate in Northampton. Based from the film that’s based on the book by Joe Simpson, and all three are the story of Simpson’s near-fatal accident on a climb of a mountain in Peru.
It’s had some very good reviews in the media from the Bristol part of the tour and looked interesting, so I booked a ticket to see it in Northampton.
And all told, I have to say I was really impressed with the play as a whole. The staging is really clever, making use of tables as an initial example of a rock-face, and it’s also a hugely physical production, with a large suspended structure being used to tell most of the story of the mountain climb.
There are a couple of odd bits (two musical numbers in particular seem pretty stramge) and I personally found the last five minutes to be a bit of a let-down, but all told it’s a very very good production, and worth going to see if you get a chance.
A Very Very Very Dark Matter, Bridge Theatre
Posted: Mon 15 October, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Day Trips, Do More, Five Year Plan (now Ten), London, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »I’ve liked all the films by Martin McDonagh – “In Bruges“, “Seven Psychopaths” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” – but didn’t know until this year that he’s also been a prolific playwright.
(This, it turns out, isn’t unusual – the knowledge of McDonagh’s works seems to be pretty polarising. I haven’t yet met anyone who could blather about both sides of his work – people know either the films or the plays, but rarely both, and are surprised to learn of the other side)
Back in January, it was announced that there would be a new McDonagh play premiering at the Bridge Theatre in London, and on spec I thought I’d book tickets and give it a go. (Still knowing nothing about his plays) The play was called “A Very Very Very Dark Matter” (always a good omen) and the description for it was…
In a townhouse in Copenhagen works Hans Christian Andersen, a teller of exquisite and fantastic children’s tales beloved by millions. But the true source of his stories dwells in his attic upstairs, her existence a dark secret kept from the outside world.
As it turned out, I managed to get tickets for the second performance – previews rather than “proper” performances, but still, second ever one. Which is pretty good, by anyone’s standards.
On Saturday, that’s where I was. And it’s a strange old production for sure. I’m fully aware that I have other friends going to see it still, and I’m not tosspotty enough to spoiler it at all (which makes this a bit harder to write) but it’s a weird, dark, sweary and scabrous affair.
Jim Broadbent plays Hans Christian Andersen as a fairly unpleasant human being – utterly self-centred, but also a quite spectacular idiot – who is taking advantage of the source of his stories. He also goes to visit Charles Darwin Dickens (a regularly repeated joke through the play) who is played by Phil Daniels as an exceptionally sweary (and very funny) Cockney – and who may also be housing a similar source for his stories.
Along the way there’s violence, creepy attics and puppets (and arachnophobes should be aware that one of them is a big spider), time travel, writers, lots of swearies, and general weirdness. In short, it’s a Martin McDonagh script.
All told, I did enjoy the play – although I did feel that it could’ve been better, and made more of the subject matter it had – but I don’t honestly know that I’d want to see it again…
Queen Margaret, Royal Exchange, Manchester
Posted: Wed 3 October, 2018 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »A couple of weeks ago, I read a piece on the BBC about a new play, “Queen Margaret” that was being staged at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
“Queen Margaret” is Margaret of Anjou, who has parts in four Shakespeare plays – Henry VI parts one, two and three, and Richard III – and across those plays, she has the most lines Shakespeare wrote for any part. For Queen Margaret, the playwright (Jeanie O’Hare) takes those lines and adds new ones to connect all the extant scenes.
Anyway, it all sounded interesting enough that I booked a ticket for last Saturday’s matinee performance, and made a day-trip of it. It’s easy enough – the train from Milton Keynes gets to Manchester in 90-100 minutes, which brings it well within day-trip range. I certainly couldn’t do the drive in the same time.
I’m really glad I did so, too – I thought the entire play was excellent, and done well enough that you couldn’t easily tell who had written which lines. (Although I’m no expert on those Shakespeare plays, so if one were super-familiar with them then I assume it’d be easier to separate the two writing styles) The whole thing held together really well, and I enjoyed it thoroughly – while also learning a lot about all of the stuff around Henry VI and Richard III.
The run finishes this week (on Saturday 6th October) and I really hope that it’s generally perceived as having been excellent so that it gets a longer run, and ideally comes down to London and elsewhere. In my opinion, it thoroughly deserves it.
Brian Blessed, Cambridge Corn Exchange
Posted: Wed 12 September, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Cambridge, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Reviews(ish), Theatre, Thoughts, Travel 3 Comments »On Monday night, I trolled over to Cambridge to see Brian Blessed on stage doing his “An Evening With” tour. Safe to say, it was a fun night.
I’ve been a fan of Blessed since his turn on Flash Gordon – which is now a very long time ago – which also gave him his most recognised phrase (and with which he opened the show) of “Gordon is Alive!”
The entire show was kind of ramshackle and rambling, certainly nothing like the far slicker comedians and musicians that the audience was obviously more used to. I saw a few people with expressions of “What the fuck?!?” as it went on, because the were very few coherent stories, it appeared to be all more of a shotgun approach, as and when he remembered stuff. (Without seeing the show again I have no way of knowing whether it’s intentionally shambolic, or that it’s just the way Blessed is)
For me though, I’d pretty much expected that, and it didn’t disappoint or disconcert me at all.
I thought the entire thing was a lot of fun (and also very loud, and sometimes sweary – also things I’m OK with) and would happily go and see it/him again.
I think the final note to leave on, though, is this notice on the doors.
Othello and Aristocrats
Posted: Fri 24 August, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, London, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »On Tuesday, as I mentioned before, I went down to London to see Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe. I’d not seen any previous productions of it, and it seemed like a good plan – particularly as it was only £5 for a standing ticket.
All told, it was OK. Standing at the Globe is OK, although the concrete floor is a lot less forgiving than the original’s mud, straw and whatever. I get that that’s less sustainable in modern London, but yeah, a bit tough when standing for near-as-dammit three hours, once you include arriving before it starts, interval, and leaving.
The play itself was good, and I had a decent view of the stage, albeit from the side. Going in with a pretty blank and basic idea of the play, it fulfilled most of that, and was easy enough to follow. I had always had the idea that Iago was a lot more panto-villain with hand-twisting moustachioed evil – although I suspect that’s just how it’s been built up over the years, as a lot of the irony of calling him “honest Iago” wouldn’t work if he were being blatantly manipulative and machiavellian – so it was interesting (and a bit jarring for me) to see the way it’s played by Mark Rylance as a much quieter role, more of a jealous little man, overlooked by those in power, assumed to be a nobody who couldn’t possibly come up with such intrigues.
But I enjoyed it (although I feel the ending is another of Shakespeare’s more melodramatic dollops) and came out feeling I’d got what I came for.
Then, because I’m an idiot, I’d also booked to see Brian Friel’s “The Aristocrats” in the evening, at the Donmar Warehouse. Which also conveniently meant I could go and have a quick dinner at one of my favourite places in that area, Chick’n’Sours (Fried chicken and sour cocktails – my kind of place)
So that’s what happened – a walk back from the Globe to Seven Dials, food, and then with plenty of time to kill I sat outside an empty building on Earlham Street, right by Donmar Warehouse, and just relaxed for an hour – which was lovely. It’s a really quiet street – surprising for being in the Covent Garden area – with enough people going past to be interesting, but not chaotic.
And then Aristocrats. Which, in my opinion, was sadly an absolute bag of bollocks. Apparently it’s Chekhov-esque, which apparently means “sod-all happens”. I’d seen generally positive reviews of it, but couldn’t find much to be impressed by in it, myself. It was good to have seen it, and understand a bit more about the kind of plays I don’t like – which is always a useful reference point, so long as you haven’t spent an absolute shed-load of money to find out you hate it – but it’s definitely not one I’d bother with again.
Mind you, I was in a seat in the second row of the stalls, right by the stage, and it cost me £30. So it could’ve been an awful lot worse than it was.
All told it was a good day, and not massively expensive. What more could one ask for, really?
Bat Out Of Hell, Dominion Theatre
Posted: Fri 3 August, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), London, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Theatre, Travel Leave a comment »Last weekend, I went to see Bat Out Of Hell, the juke-box musical based on the Bat Out Of Hell trilogy by Meatloaf.
It hadn’t been super-high on my priority list, but a friend of mine is running the lighting desk, and it was also in consideration as something to take my mum to later in the year, so I picked up a ticket to see what it was like.
I didn’t really know what to expect – and in many ways, I’m glad of that. While I did enjoy it, it’s not one I’d go and see again (and also I’m not convinced that mum would like it) so it was definitely worth seeing as research first. In fairness, a lot of people really like it and have seen it multiple times – and Meatloaf himself saw it a couple of days before I did, and seemed to be pleased with the entire thing. It just didn’t really do it for me – it’s a subjective thing, and I’m never going to say to anyone “Don’t go”. It just turned out to not be my thing.
The staging, set, lighting and so on are great, the music performances are pretty good – but the story itself is woeful, and seems to be there just as a kind of bare basic scaffold on which to hang the songs. (I’m no expert on juke-box musicals, so this could be the case with all of them, I don’t know – and I’m not going to generalise based on a sample of one!)
But still, it was entertaining enough, and kept me amused. I didn’t come out thinking I’d wasted my money, or disappointed in the production – but I still wouldn’t want to pay to see it again…
Ministry, O2 Forum, Kentish Town
Posted: Mon 23 July, 2018 Filed under: Domestic, Gigs, London, Music, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »I’ve been a fan of the (very loud) band Ministry for a very long time – I missed their last gig in London due to other stuff occurring, and had made sure I got tickets for the gig on Saturday night at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, London.
As I had nothing else planned, I went down to London early – I know the local area, and there are a few places very close to the venue where parking is free on a weekend, which makes the entire proposition even easier. In light of my whole “not doing as much” policy, it was still a quiet and easy day – I had lunch, then found a couple of pubs to sit outside and either read, catch up on internet stuff, or do some reading. With the weather the way it’s been, it was all most civilised.
For the gig itself, I got there in time to see the support act – a singer I’d not heard of before, called Chelsea Wolfe, and her support band. Personally I wasn’t overly taken with them, but they were better than expected. (I generally expect support bands to be bobbins, but still go to see them if possible. If they’re better than bobbins, it’s a bonus. If they’re bad, then it’s purely as expected, and I don’t feel disappointed by that)
And then onto the main thing. I don’t know what happened, but the venue suddenly got exceptionally hot, and stayed that way for the whole concert. It was bad enough that I know a lot of people left early, it really was pretty intolerable. The gig itself was great, and thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing – but was definitely sweaty and stinky by the time I’d also driven home.
I’d go again, happily – but ideally in rather cooler temperatures, or a venue where the air-con/ventilation was capable of coping with 2,000-ish gig-goers…
Ignition
Posted: Fri 1 June, 2018 Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Kindle, Reading, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »A long, long time ago, someone on Twitter repeatedly introduced me to the chemically geeky “Things I Won’t Work With” blog, which basically did what it said on the tin. Chemical compounds and experiments that were… on the energetic side, shall we say? The way it was written made me laugh, and I loved seeing the sporadic updates.
Then it disappeared, and I pretty much forgot about it.
Only it turns out to have been (still sporadically) updated, but on a different site – something I found out this week. I’d been on The Twitter to mention to that original someone about a newly reprinted copy of “Ignition!” (which , from memory, had been one of the inspirations for “Things I Won’t Work With”) and then other Twitterers reminded me of the name of the blog.
“Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants” is fascinating. Originally written in the early 70s, it hadn’t been reprinted in decades – (but there’s obviously been some demand for it, as the publishers weren’t going to go to the effort if there weren’t) but it was on my ‘want to read’ list if I ever found a copy. When I saw earlier this year that it was being re-printed, and available as an eBook as well, I pre-ordered immediately, and it arrived this week.
The book itself has an irreverent style to it, which is fine – and even understandable, considering that the author was part of a very select group involved in all this stuff. I’m not a full-on chemistry geek, so some of it is a bit mind-boggling, but it’s been a great read. I’m really glad I managed to get it in the end.
Danny Baker, Northampton Derngate
Posted: Mon 28 May, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Out More, Gigs, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Travel Leave a comment »Seeing Danny Baker on stage was never one of the things on my to-do list. I’d never been overly taken with his character, or the (very little) I knew about him.
But last weekend, I heard an interview with him on the radio, and he seemed… less of a dickhead than I’d previously thought, and actually with a pretty interesting life. So when I got home, I had a look at details for his current theatre tour, and saw that he was playing in a week’s time in Northampton. And there were still seats available. So I thought “Well, why not? The most that can happen is I decide I still don’t like him“. Ticket booked, and on Saturday evening there I was. In Northampton.
As it happened, the show was a lot of fun. And bloody long. He’d said in the interview (and at the start of the show) that he’s taken over the mantle from Ken Dodd and so on for marathon shows. (My parents used to say about Doddy telling the audience “I’m the only one who knows when you’re going home”, and this was much the same) In this case, he started off at 19:45, there was a 15-minute interval at about 21:30, and he finally left the stage at 23:30. Pretty good going.
Also, it’s worth noting that this is the third tour of tales about his life, and by the end of it we were only just getting to where he started in radio at the age of 30. (He’s now 61) So I’m pretty sure there’s material for a few more tours in him as well.
As it was, a good portion of the first half was concerned with filling out the information from previous tours, so people knew what and who he was talking about during the second half. The entire thing was accompanied with photos to illustrate the events and places – all with bits being pointed out by the snooker cue he was using as a pointer throughout. He’s also incredibly energetic, constantly walking across the stage. God only knows how many miles he’s covering every night – but it’s certainly not an insignificant number!
The stories he told were pretty epic, with a fair amount of name-dropping and so on – but they weren’t all about being the Big I Am. Obviously there’s a degree of this, as it’s Danny Baker telling The Tale Of Danny Baker, but it’s not excessive, this is the stuff that has happened, and he’s the first to admit he’s been incredibly lucky along the way, along with not always being the hero of his own tales.
Not always funny (although more often than not) the entire show came together really well, and the only thing that actually made it feel as long as it was (Steady on, Matron) was that the seats at Derngate get bloody uncomfortable after a while.
I can’t deny, I really enjoyed the entire thing (poxy seating notwithstanding) and came out with a better impression of Danny Baker than I’d had on the way in.
If the tour is playing anywhere near you, it’s worth seeing. And if he does another one, the odds are that I’ll go along again. It might even make it onto the to-do list!
The The, Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
Posted: Sat 26 May, 2018 Filed under: Domestic, Gigs, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »A while back I wrote about seeing The The back on tour, and last night was their first warm-up concert in at least sixteen years. As well as having a ticket for the first ‘official’ concert in a couple of weeks time, I managed to get a ticket for the Nottingham one as well. Because, well, why not?
Of course, what I hadn’t really thought about was that it was a Friday evening – and even worse, the Friday before a Bank Holiday weekend. Nottingham is generally a pretty easy drive for me – satnav says two hours, but on quietish roads I know I can do it in 90 minutes. Friday afternoon, to get there in time? Four hours. Yep, four. Fuck sake. Usually I can get to Newcastle in that time, let alone bloody Nottingham.
Anyway, fortunately I had the time and had planned it out a bit, but still, it made for a longer drive than expected.
The venue was fine for this sort of thing. Rescue Rooms is a small venue – about 450 people – but I actually really liked it. More importantly, it meant that the majority of the audience were there because they were fans of the band (something that seems to be less and less the case with a lot of gigs) so there was a lot less of the usual stuff, people chatting away in spite of the band, or just keeping on journeying to and from the bar.
And the gig itself? It was great. Because it was a ‘getting ready to tour’ gig, there were no warm-up acts, so it was just the band doing their thing. The band were also experimenting with in-ear monitors rather than the older wedge-speaker set-up (in-ears are a new development since last time they toured) although tonight’s second one will use the wedges, so they can compare results. All told, it made for an earlier finish, with a curfew of 10pm. But they came on at 7:45, so it’s not like anyone was short-changed.
The The played a whole range of things from their albums, some less-known than others, but pretty much all the favourites and crowd-pleasers. To me there’s still nothing like a whole audience singing along to a well-known track – and that must be hugely multiplied when on stage.
The entire thing was great, and I’m looking forward even more to the big concert in a couple of weeks.
Oh, and the drive home? 90 minutes, door-to-door.
Toronto
Posted: Mon 14 May, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, Getting Out More, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »So, where was I last week? To cut a long story short, Toronto.
Basically, last year I got really lucky. CocaCola had a summer holiday promotion where the label of each Coke product was printed with a design and a code. And as I drink a lot of it, I thought “What the hell”, and kept entering codes from them.
And I won.
At the time, they were saying that you could claim the holiday at the destination on the winning label – and in my case the winning label was for Dublin. I really wasn’t overly bothered – I’ve been to Dublin, after all. But I got to the point of thinking “Sod it, might as well claim, at least it’s a break”, and then when I spoke to them they said “Which destination on the list did you want?”. So I went back to the list, and saw that Toronto was on there, which has always been on my list. And that’s what I did.
The prize was actually for up to four people, and included flights, half-board hotel, and transfers between the two. All told, quite a significant contribution. I only went with one friend in the end, with a room each, so it was all good.
The run-up to the break had been fraught – it’s where a lot of the “You had one job” post came from – but the break itself went well. (It turned out that the agency in question had made fuck-ups in every single aspect of the booking, although I’d caught all but one in the run-up to the holiday, and the last one finally bit us in Toronto, where the agency had booked the transfer to the wrong hotel – same brand, different location, a $100 taxi ride apart)
All of those fuck-ups are being dealt with, and have been referred back to both the agency and to CocaCola as well, so it should be entertaining to see what crap hits the fan from that.
Anyway, the week itself was great. We had a hotel right in downtown Toronto, which meant that everything was easily available, and during the week, we covered pretty much everything we wanted to in the city. It’s a very walkable city, and we covered about 70 miles all told during the week. As well as the classic touristy stuff (CN Tower, driving to Niagara Falls etc.) we got to do culturey stuff including the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario, and also visiting most of the local districts and regions within the city. It’s been busy, but not hyper-busy.
We got back yesterday, having been awake from 6am Toronto time, flying back at 18:30 Toronto time, arriving at Heathrow at 06:30 BST, and I then beasted my way through ’til gone 10pm on Sunday before admitting defeat. Hopefully that should enable me to reset my body-clock somewhat.
It’s been well worth it though, and all told I reckon it’s pretty much balanced out a bundle of the money I’ve given to CocaCola over the years…
A Tale of Two Macbeths
Posted: Fri 30 March, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), London, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Theatre, Thoughts Leave a comment »As I said earlier in the week, over the last two weekends I’ve ended up seeing two versions of Macbeth, one at the RSC in Stratford-on-Avon starring Christopher Eccleston, and one at the National Theatre in London, with Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff .
It’s a weird piece of scheduling – for whatever reason, I’d have expected the two main theatre companies to at least communicate a bit, in order for this kind of clash to not happen. However, everyone else I’ve said that to has said “No, they don’t talk”, but all the same it seems pretty odd to me – not least because as well as those two, there’s also the Verdi operatic version also being performed at the same time at the Royal Opera House !
Anyway, for my purposes, it made it interesting to be able to compare the two performances in such proximity.
For me, the RSC version was the one I preferred, although both had flaws. In the RSCs version, parts of the stage set weren’t visible from our seats – seats that hadn’t been marked as ‘restricted view’ – which was annoying. It’s a modern-dress setup, which is fine with me, but sticks with a more traditional timescale all the same. The witches were played by a trio of young (9-10 years old) who all spoke in sync, and were extremely good at being creepy. The porter in this one was very good, quite creepy, always on stage, and marking off all the deaths in chalk on the wall. I hadn’t noticed that initially, but it was very effectively done in later scenes where news of Macbeth’s rule, and the deaths involved – seeing them all getting marked on the walls was a very effective way of putting the point across. We weren’t just seeing the on-stage deaths, this despot was killing all and sundry, feeling invincible while doing it.
We were very early in the run, so there were some hitches with lines not being perfect – but I am seeing it again with different friends later in the run, so it’ll be interesting to see what’s changed – but all told I thought it was a pretty good performance, and really good to see Christopher Ecclestone doing his thing.
The NT version was much more modern, supposedly staged ‘after a revolution’, on a blackened stage. It is very dark in general, but also emphatically trying too hard (in my opinion, of course!) and in particular I felt the witches were less effective as a result. Rory Kinnear was good as Macbeth, as was Anne-Marie Duff as Lady Macbeth, but most of the rest of the cast faded in the memory very quickly. There’s one particular scene with the witches that is very effectively creepy, but the rest is just… meh. I wasn’t overly taken with the production – and it manages to miss the ‘double double toil and trouble’ speech completely – but I’m still glad I went to see it, and to compare two quite different interpretations of the same play.
Burns’ Night
Posted: Fri 26 January, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, London, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Last night, as you may or may not know (or care) was Burns’ Night in the UK. For the first time, I went out for it, going to one of my favourite Scottish places in London, Mac and Wild, who had a special Burns’ Night menu for a fairly respectable price.
Being Scots themselves, the owners had made sure the entire thing was really good – the food was (as usual) great, and so was the atmosphere, with a live piper playing at the entrance (and for the toasting of the Haggis) as well as pipe-based music in the restaurant. In short, it couldn’t have been much more Scottish if they’d tried.
I’d never done a Burns’ Night properly before, and thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing. I’ve even got a copy of the whole “toasting of the Haggis” process and poem now, which makes for interesting reading…
Overall, I can see me booking myself in for another one next year – although it’s still undecided whether I’ll try somewhere else, or stick with the Mac and Wild I already know…
Fish, Cambridge Corn Exchange
Posted: Wed 20 December, 2017 Filed under: Cambridge, Domestic, Gigs, I Don't Understand, People, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »About 18 months ago, I went to see Fish (the ex-lead-singer of Marillion) at a gig in Aylesbury, including performing the whole of Marillion‘s “Misplaced Childhood” album for its 30th anniversary.
This year, it was announced he’d be touring again, and this time performing both stuff from the new album, and the whole of the “Clutching At Straws” album – again, for its 30th anniversary.
As with “Childhood”, “Straws” isn’t among my all-time favourite albums, but they both got played a lot as I grew up, so it was still of interest to go and see it performed live. And I’m glad I did.
The gig started with some old favourites, but nothing new. And there was a reason for that – he hasn’t actually written the new album yet, let alone released it. When they advertised the gigs and organised the tour, they expected it to be done, but life got in the way. So… some classics instead of new stuff. Fine with me, and apparently fine with most of the audience too.
As for the performance of “Straws” itself, that was excellent, and brought back a bundle of memories of listening to the album, as well as re-realising just how bleak it is in places. There were also parts of it that they’d never performed live before this tour, including one track that was ad-libbed at the time, so Fish had to listen to the album in order to write down the lyrics to learn them for performance. Which is, when you think about it, pretty messed up.
Anyway, the gig was one I really enjoyed – in spite of the audience. As always, I really don’t understand the mindset of people who go to a concert, and then spend the entire gig going to and from the bar, and the toilet. The three people in front of me (it was a seated gig) were barely ever in their seats, and kept walking off. That’s not just a waste of their time and money, it’s also insanely annoying for the people around them, getting constantly disturbed and having to move.
But, audience aside, it was a good gig. It might be the last time he tours, it might not. It’s likely the last chance to see “Straws” performed like that, so it was definitely worth going.
Operatic
Posted: Mon 4 December, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Theatre, Theatre, Thoughts Leave a comment »On Saturday, I went to my first opera – a production of Aida at the London Coliseum by English National Opera. As with going to plays and so on, I went in with very little knowledge of Aida or what to expect.
I did enjoy it – although it’s not necessarily something I’d plan to go to on a regular basis, or to see this particular opera again. I don’t yet know – but as with other things, I’m not going to base any judgements or expectations on a sample of one, so I’ll definitely be going to at least one more production.
*Personally*, I found that the first half dragged, but the second half was better. The staging throughout was really interesting though, which did help things.
The plot/story is hideously melodramatic (in my opinion) and would’ve been rejected from most soap operas as being too ridiculous. So yeah, the odds are I won’t bother with Aida again, but there’s plenty of others I can try instead.
All good fun, though…
The Man Behind The Curtain
Posted: Wed 11 October, 2017 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Food, M1, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »I mentioned in the last post that I’d done a day-trip to Leeds, and that I would write more about it. So, here we are.
One of the Michelin-starred restaurants I’ve been wanting to try for a while is Michael O’Hare‘s “The Man Behind The Curtain” in Leeds. It’s always been booked solid, but when I looked on a whim a couple of months ago, I discovered that there was a table for four free for a late lunch on Saturday. I called the other friend who was interested in the same place , and I booked it.
That’s where the first shock came in. The entire price of the meal was paid at the time of booking, including the wine – and the service charge! Now to me, that’s taking the piss. The only other Michelin-starred place I’ve seen with that attitude is The Fat Duck, and even there it’s “only” the food that is paid for ahead of time, not the wine and tip. Every other place I’ve been has taken a credit card number, and said “if you don’t show up, you’ll pay the full price”, which is fine with me. Paying up front for it all seems very dodgy.
Anyway, I did that, and last Saturday was the day.
I’d hired a car for doing it as a day-trip, as I was also driving the others there and back, and it makes life fun.
“The Man Behind The Curtain” is… highly individual. First things first, it’s on the top floor of a department store – definitely not somewhere you’d just wander into! As it turns out, it now *was* on the top floor – our meal was the last lunch served in the top floor, and they were moving to the basement after the dinner service.
It’s a strange space, seemingly more of a gallery than a restaurant. The walls were graffitied and arty, with chicken-wire clouds above some tables. I’ve never been anywhere else like it – but that also shows in the food. Again it’s very arty – some of the food is quite spectacular, as is the crockery it arrives in. In particular, “Emancipation”, which is cod in squid-ink, basically black food on a black “droplet” plate…
That was just one of the ten ‘courses’. And they were all brilliant.
Honestly, I kind of wanted to not like it, to be unimpressed by the entire place. I feel really strongly about the whole ‘pay upfront’ thing, and think it gives a really bad impression of the restaurant. But the food, the atmosphere, and the service of the place all combined to leave me still impressed.
It was a really good day, and decent drives there and back (two hours door-to-door each way) helped as well.
Saturday – Chris Ofili, Weaving Magic
Posted: Fri 11 August, 2017 Filed under: Art, Day Trips, Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Following on from seeing the Giacometti and Soul of A Nation exhibitions, my final visit was to the National Gallery, to see “Weaving Magic” by Chris Ofili.
A friend of mine had seen this and really liked it, hence why I wanted to see it.
It’s a fantastic tapestry – designed by Ofili, and then handwoven by Dovecot Tapestry Studio, and based on “I know why the caged bird sings“, by Maya Angelou. It’s also been staged and displayed really well, in a room of its own, which has also been decorated by Ofili.
So you end up with a room covered in murals like this
And then the tapestry itself, the only thing of colour in the room
It’s well worth seeing – if you get the chance to go before the end of August, I’d recommend it. Even better, it’s free to go in and see it, which is… noteworthy, in the current climate.
Detroit
Posted: Wed 9 August, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, Films, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »In a weirdly – and unintentionally – connected thing to seeing the Soul Of A Nation exhibition over the weekend, I also ended up seeing “Detroit” last night.
“Detroit” is a new film from Katheryn Bigelow (the director of the original Point Break, Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and many others) about the Detroit (unsurprisingly) 12th Street race riot, and in particular the Algiers Motel incident.
That incident is (yet another) one I didn’t really know anything about until seeing the film. I don’t believe it’s one that has gone into ‘common knowledge’ – while I’m no expert on these things, it’s not one I’ve ever heard even mentioned, and I don’t honestly think it’s even left a large imprint on American history.
Anyway, the film is an interesting one – but (in my opinion) tries too hard, telling too many stories in one film. There could have been a film about the riots themselves, the causes, the people, the effects. There could have been a film about just the Algiers incident – although I suspect that the conclusion of that would’ve been deeply unsatisfactory. And there could’ve been one about the aftermath, the court case(s), the people, and what happened to them afterwards.
But trying to do all of those within the scope of one film – admittedly, a bloody long film at 14o-odd minutes – is difficult, at best. It starts with the riots, and we don’t even really meet any of the “main” characters for a good half an hour. Then we go to the Algiers, which is as bad as it could be – and probably pretty truthful, as one of the people involved was on set every day, advising and providing input. And then for the final half hour or so, we’re in the court case, the details, the results, and the aftermath.
If the film had been longer, it might’ve gelled better, become a whole story. As it is, it feels overly-edited, almost like a ‘greatest hits’ rather than a full story. It’s still a good film, and a story that should be told. It’s just that the story deserves to be properly told, not in a hodge-podge of setpieces.
Saturday – Giacometti
Posted: Mon 7 August, 2017 Filed under: Art, Creativity, Day Trips, Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »On Saturday, I went into London for a walk, and to visit a couple of exhibitions – which turned out to be three – as well as food and the like. As there’s other stuff going on this week that I can’t be naffed to go into right now, I thought I’d write a bit about some thoughts related to the exhibitions. So that’s the plan.
The first one on the list was Tate Modern’s exhibition of works by Giacometti. Up ’til now, I’ve seen a few of his works, but not loads – and I’ve honestly never seen the appeal of them. They’re certainly distinctive, strange, and of note – but I certainly didn’t love them, and didn’t really get why he’s so well regarded.
Having seen the full exhibition, I still don’t love them, but I understand more of why he’s regarded. Oddly, his statues still do very little for me – I find them kind of odd, and kind of unsettling, but nothing more than that – and I certainly couldn’t sit and just look at one block of statues, as one person was doing. (He’d even brought along his own camping stool in order to do so, God love him) However, I really liked some of the sketches, and some of his oil work that looked like it had been done in charcoal.
I think that in some ways I wasn’t convinced of Giacometti as being an actual artist – OK, he could do the sculptures, but that could’ve been just the one thing. Having seen the sketches, drawings, and paintings, I do realise that he’s a lot more of an artist than I’d thought, and a lot more talented.
That doesn’t make me like the sculptures and so on, and I still wouldn’t go from here to the bog to see another exhibition of his work, but all the same, I’m glad I did go.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
Posted: Fri 16 June, 2017 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Following on from a friend of mine seeing it, I decided to have a look and see if there were any tickets still available for “The Resistible Rise of Arturo UI” at the Donmar Warehouse on the date I was available in London with no solid plans. (Last Saturday) As it turned out, there was – just one ticket apparently “near the back”. That’s OK, I’m tall, so yep, ticket successfully obtained.
As usual with my theatre trips, I knew absolutely sod-all about the play. Indeed, I’d never even heard of it before the previous weekend. That doesn’t bother me anyway, and armed with a decent review from someone whose opinion I tend to trust, I was willing to go for it. All I knew was the name, and that it was by Bertolt Brecht.
And I’m really glad I did. The original play is an allegory based around the rise of Hitler in Germany, but using the gangsters of 1920s/1930s America to tell the story. It’s been updated a bit – there were lots of references to Trump and his collaborators, along with an (odd but effective) sung intro to each major scene, using modern(ish) songs.
It’s very hard to not see the parallels between Nazi Germany and Trump’s rise, so it all felt very relevant. But still interesting in a lot of ways.
The entire of the Donmar Warehouse has been changed for this production, and it’s been made into a 20s/30s speakeasy. As you walk in, the actors are already on ‘stage’ talking, dancing and the like. It certainly made things more interesting, having Lenny Henry come round in character as the club owner, talking to – and shaking the hands of – all the guests, as well as other cast members doing the rounds.
As an aside, one thing that was great was that a lot of the audience around me were a group of visually-impaired people, coming to the theatre for a play that would also be audio-described for them by a company called TalkingSense – and as it turned out, I got talking to one of the narrators, who was sat next to me for the first half, before going to narrate the second half. I thought it was brilliant to open up theatre in this way (and I also liked that Arturo Ui managed to use one of the visually-impaired people as his ‘witness’ for one section)
Ah yes, the audience participation. This was something really interesting, and not something I’d expected at all – this version of the play makes great use of the audience. In the photo above you can see a gallery with people on it – in the second half, these become the jury for a court case, with the judge sat in the middle. Another audience member became the railroaded ‘accused’, and by the end of the play everyone is involved, either standing in support of Ui’s bid to be the main gangster (sorry, “protector”) or sitting – in which case their votes don’t count.
Note – I’m not giving away anything major here – and the production ends tomorrow!
Lenny Henry is particularly impressive as the titular gangster, developing through the production. But he’s also well supported by a generally excellent cast – all of whom also seem to be enjoying taking part in the play. (Which isn’t always the case)
All told, it’s a very dark vision of life – yet also extremely funny. I laughed a lot more than I would have ever expected to, in a play based on the rise of Nazi-ism. If the run were longer, I’d probably enjoy going to see it again. It’s quite a thing.
King Arthur, Legend of the Sword
Posted: Fri 19 May, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, Films, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Single Life Leave a comment »Last night, I went to see the new Guy Ritchie film, “King Arthur – Legend of the Sword“. It is, to be charitable, a bit of a mess.
I wasn’t expecting high-art, or a high-brow version of the Arthurian Legends – it’s a Guy Ritchie film, so anyone expecting that would be sorely disappointed anyway. But I was expecting a Guy Ritchie film – a significant portion of silliness, snappy and smart dialogue, and some impressive visuals/shots. This is the man who brought us “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”, “Snatch”, “Sherlock Holmes” (and its sequel) and “The Man From Uncle” – all of which qualify on all those things, and all of which I like.
But this one… well.
It’s got silliness – but in this case it veers more towards the ridiculous. Yes, ridiculous even within the pantheon of Arthurian stuff. The mage-driven war-elephants larger than mountains were a particular “high” point in this. But at least they were visually impressive. Which leads me to…
Visuals – it’s got some gloriously shot scenes and set-pieces. But the rest is a mess. Even some of those setpieces, there’s just too much going on for it to make sense. It needs to convey the speed and fury and chaos of battle – and in some ways I guess it does that, as no-one has any fucking clue what’s going on. But it’s also a film, and you should be able to at least see what’s happening. There are bits that are visually brilliant, but then the rest just detracts from those pieces.
Dialogue – it’s got it. But again, like the silliness, it feels forced, and it doesn’t fit with the characters, or the time. There are a couple of larger pieces that are definitely meant to be “Lock, Stock and Broadsword”, but they simply don’t work, even with snappy camerawork to accompany them.
Some of it may also be down to the cast – I like Charlie Hunnam in most things, but he does come across as being more of a supporter than a star. So having him as the main character doesn’t necessarily help things – but it does seem far more like the script is a complete dog-egg, and they’ve all just done what they can with it. And if that’s the case, then it’s really Guy Ritchie who’s primarily responsible, as he’s the writer of the original screenplay too.
All told, the nicest I can say is that it’s a mess. Not one I’d go and see again, it’s fair to say.
Drinking and Don Juan
Posted: Wed 17 May, 2017 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Food, London, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Theatre, Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »On Saturday, I went into London for the day. The primary objective was seeing David Tennant in Patrick Marber’s “Don Juan in Soho” at Wyndham’s Theatre. However, that wasn’t til the evening, so I had time to walk and be bad in the meantime…
So, having driven down to North London, I took the tube down to Old Street (which is the laziest I’ve been in a long time, as I usually only get to Euston then walk) and visited Blues Kitchen to try their new special.
Then a walk back towards Soho, and the newly-discovered joys of Chick’n’Sours, where I had their special of Bang-Bang Chicken strips, which is all kinds of awesome. And alongside that, a couple of cocktails – with hindsight, a bit of a bad move, but well, it was par for the course.
After that, it was time to meet the people I was going to the play with – first of all, M, and then (later) two of her friends. In between, we had another drink, and then when the other friends arrived, they decided they wanted cocktails. I know just the place, said I, and lo, back to Chick’n’Sours, where a significant number of cocktails were consumed…
Before the play, we’d got reservations at Marcus Wareing’s new place, Tredwell’s, and so that was where we ended up next, and more drinks were had as well as decent food. The final bill was higher than I’d expected, but I’m assuming that’s down to a) drinks, and b) possibly not taking advantage of the Prix Fixe menu. (I’d need to go back in order to figure things out – I failed to keep the receipt, so can’t check , and honestly don’t really care all that much) It was good though, and all four of us enjoyed it.
By the end, I was… somewhat the worse for wear, although not ridiculously or dangerously so. Besides, by the time we got to the theatre I was already sobering up.
The play itself was thoroughly enjoyable – as always, I didn’t really know what to expect, and some of it was a bit odd (small dance scenes and the like) but all told, I really liked it. Tennant himself is obviously having a great time playing the vile and reprehensible Don Juan, and the supporting cast were all pretty damn good as well. It’s on ’til June 10th, and I’d recommend it if possible.
However, the seats at Wyndham’s are some of the most uncomfortable known to man. A two-and-a-bit-hour performance was more than enough time to spend with my knees wedged into the back of the seat in front of me.
And then, once everyone else was on trains back to respective stations and homes, I took some time to return to the station where I’d parked the car. I was completely sober by the time we’d got out of the play, and the extra time/walking boosted that even further. If I’d been in any doubt, I’d have waited at the car, or found somewhere to get some food.
Then a quick drive home, and all good. All told, a decent way to spend a Saturday…
Less Massive
Posted: Sun 9 April, 2017 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Gigs, London, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Well, that concert. It was good – it just wasn’t what was advertised.
As I said on Friday, it had been promoted as playing the whole of “No Protection”, with live dubbing. Which would’ve been fine, and was entirely what was expected.
Instead, while a fair amount of the album was played, there was also a lot of other new stuff, and really it was more of a normal/standard gig, rather than the presentation of a particular piece of work.
In fairness, if it had been promoted as “just” a Mad Professor gig, I’d have still got the ticket, and still gone to the gig. It’s just that it was promoted as one thing, and turned out to be something else.
I’ve got in touch with Archspace about it, and it’ll be interesting to see what their response is to the entire thing.
All told, I’m still glad I went. I just wish it had been what they’d said it would be.
Hamlet, Almeida Theatre, London
Posted: Tue 21 March, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Theatre, Thoughts Leave a comment »As I said before, on Friday I went to see Hamlet at the Almeida Theatre in London, starring Andrew Scott. (Moriarty from the BBC’s Sherlock – which also means that I’ve now seen Hamlet performed by Sherlock, and Moriarty)
Honestly, I’m still not sure what to make of it. I’m not even 100% sure of whether I liked it or not. I wouldn’t want to go and see it again – which is the usual final verdict one way or t’other – but I’m still glad I did see it.
In some ways, it’s very clever. It’s obviously been updated (or at least the staging has) with events being announced via a large screen, showing the coverage in a BBC News style. Additionally, rather than being guards on the battlements etc., the the ghost of Hamlet’s father initially appears on CCTV screens in the security office of the castle.
In other ways, it’s rather less clever – or perhaps I’m less clever, and just didn’t get the relevance of things. Ophelia’s madness and grief are just thrown in, with no real explanation or build-up. It’s handled almost an incidental, which seems odd when one considers how integral and essential it is to the final act.
Indeed, in a lot of ways there seemed to be the assumption that the audience were well versed in the ways of Hamlet – something I’ve found a couple of times over the last year or so, particularly with Shakespearean stuff.
I’m reliably informed that it stuck a lot closer to the original subject matter – I hadn’t appreciated how different some of it was in the Hamlet I saw with Benedict Cumberbatch last year – but that’s fine. I do feel that I really should probably actually read the bloody play as well, and get it fixed better in my brain.
For me, the final act is a stretch – I’m never overly comfortable with the hysteria and overwrought reactions of grief and betrayal, and find myself left cold by it as a result. That’s no criticism of the play, or of the actors therein, it’s just it doesn’t sit well with me.
So all told, it was a decent play and well done. I just still can’t quite put my finger on why I’m as ambivalent about it as a whole, though.
Mere, London
Posted: Wed 8 March, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, Food, London, Reviews(ish) 2 Comments »Last night, I was lucky enough to get to go to Mere Restaurant, the new restaurant venture from Monica Galetti, with friends. They opened on Monday, and I’d managed to snag a booking for Tuesday – in honesty, when they’d announced bookings were opening, I’d set an alarm for that time, and got in as quickly as possible for a booking. So – lucky, but also organised.
As I understand it, Monday’s launch was a “friends and family” thing – unless they sold out in seconds on the day bookings opened. So Tuesday was effectively the first ‘open to the public’ day.
We had the six-course tasting menu (and two of the friends had the accompanying wine flight) and it was all decently priced. Obviously it hasn’t got Michelin stars (yet) but I’m willing to bet that it will have at least one in the next guide.
It’s hard to describe the exact cuisine type – Mere themselves describe it as “blending classical French with South Pacific influences”, I’d just say “Brilliant”. It’s a great restaurant space, quite designery, but it’s all been done to a theme, and it really works.
It was ace, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. I’m already looking forward to going back!
Logan
Posted: Mon 6 March, 2017 Filed under: Cinema, Domestic, Films, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »As expected (and hoped-for), Logan turned out to be bloody good – and succeeded in all the aims that the writers and director had gone for.
It’s a superhero/comic-book film that doesn’t work to the normal stereotypes. Most importantly, it’s one where you don’t need to have seen any of the other X-Men or Wolverine films before seeing Logan. It’s more a stand-alone film that just happens to occupy the same space as some of those movies.
In many ways it’s actually more of a Western than a superhero film, and that’s no bad thing in my book. They make a lot of connections with Shane, but it could just as easily have been Unforgiven. There’s a kind of bitterness to the whole film, both an anger at getting old, and an acknowledgement that it’s happened – and also a huge sadness about it.
In the case of both of the major characters, age is hitting the things they’re most valued by – Charles Xavier, always valued for his intelligence/genius, is suffering from dementia (among other things), and Logan’s regenerative ability is fading, leaving him sore, scarred, and hurting in ways he’s never had to get used to.
The next generation is ably served by Laura (AKA X-23), played by Dafne Keen, who is frankly awesome. She doesn’t speak for the greater part of the film, but the emotion and feeling she conveys in a glare and an eyebrow is nothing short of stunning.
Obviously, if you hate superhero and comic-book films, Logan won’t change your opinion. If you’re open to them, it’s one that is well worth seeing.
Wicking Away
Posted: Wed 15 February, 2017 Filed under: Cinema, Domestic, Films, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »So yes, last night I went to see John Wick Chapter 2 at the cinema. If nothing else, it amused me that they were putting on the preview release of this on Valentine’s Day, as it’s just about the absolute antithesis of a romantic film.
I really liked the first John Wick film, which was a bit of a sneak hit that people hadn’t really been expecting. It’s exceptionally violent – as you’d kind of expect from the basic premise of “a retired killer comes back to avenge the death of those important to him” – but also highly stylised and stylish, with stuff shown in ways that hadn’t really been done before. It was also helped by the fact that the directors ( Chad Stahelski and David Leitch ) are both ex-stuntmen, who know what works and what looks good. They brought that experience and energy to the original, and continue to do so for the second chapter. It also made a decent amount of money ($86m from a $20m budget) so a sequel was always likely to happen.
Wick 2 is written and directed by the same primary people (although no David Leitch this time) and managed to keep all the same primary cast, while also adding in some pretty high-powered names along the way.
Happily, it is just as insane and violent as its predecessor – if you’re not into that type of film, just don’t even contemplate going. I have no idea how it got away with being a 15 certificate, but it did, so there we go.
Again, it’s also hyper-stylised, with an individual style and look, as well as building up an ample mythology that will (I suspect) take it into a third (and probably fourth) film with ease. It also looks like it’ll do better than the original – at the time of writing it’s already made $44m on a $40m budget, and that’s before the UK release. Indeed, it only came out in the US on 30th January, so it’s had two weeks there, and made its money back already. Not bad going.
So yeah, worth seeing, assuming you like the same sort of ridiculous rubbish as I appear to…
Surf vs Turf, Blues Kitchen
Posted: Wed 1 February, 2017 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Food, London, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel 2 Comments »Last night, I went with a friend to one of my favourite places, Blues Kitchen in Shoreditch. I’ve been going there fairly regularly over the last eighteen months or so, but usually on a weekend. This time was different though – they had organised a three day “Surf vs Turf” event, bringing in the chef team from Extra Fancy in the US to ‘do battle’ with the team from Blues Kitchen, with a special menu (including cocktails) to play with.
And it was epic.
Once it had been announced on Twitter, I had booked in straight away. For me, it was a no-brainer, I wanted to try it. And I am so glad I did.
As well as the food and drinks, it meant we got to spend time with some of the people we’ve been talking to on most of the visits, talked about what was good on the menu, what they should be keeping, and even got introduced to one of the owners of the group that owns Blues Kitchen. For me, that’s what makes Blues Kitchen stand out from every other place in a similar vein – the people make it, even more than the food.
Between the two of us, we had everything on the menu – including the cocktails. Plus a couple of things that were so good we had two…
I’m hard-pressed to even decide what the best things were – it was all good, and most of it was great. Hell, even the cocktails were awesome.
All told, a great night, and a type of event I hope Blues Kitchen repeat – there’s plenty of opportunity, with lots of different kitchens and teams that would be up for it, I’m sure.
Theatrical – Amadeus, National Theatre, London
Posted: Sat 21 January, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Theatre 3 Comments »As I mentioned yesterday, I went to see Amadeus at the National Theatre in London this week. I didn’t know much about the play beforehand, or what to expect – I’ve still not even seen the film – but I really enjoyed the play.
What’s really interesting in this production is the way that the musicians from Southbank Sinfonia appear on stage alongside the cast, becoming key parts of the entire thing.
It didn’t (in my opinion) start well, with the first scene being quite confusing, and – as it turned out – pretty irrelevant to the rest of the play. But once we’d got past that small hurdle, the rest of it was excellent. A fascinating story of a man (Salieri) who believes he’s done a deal with God to become a musical genius, then is faced with a true child prodigy (Mozart) with a foul mouth and worse attitude, whose works are infinitely better than Salieri’s pedestrian efforts. Exacerbated by Mozart’s middle name being Amadeus (‘loved by God’) and seeing how Mozart’s ‘first draft’ writing of scores is immediately perfect (because he’s composed it all in his head and knows how it’ll look) he decides to resign his deal, and instead to wreck God’s plans by becoming Mozart’s enemy, knocking him down at every turn.
In many ways, it’s a very dark play, focusing on obsessions, revenge, jealousy and the like. It’s also very powerful, and covers a huge scope on the stage – sometimes it’s hard to watch both Salieri talking at the front of the stage, and see what’s happening at the back with the musicians and other cast members. While your attention’s on Salieri, you suddenly realise that all the musicians have moved – and sometimes appeared – without you really noticing, and for the sheer number of people that involves, it’s pretty note-worthy. (In that way it reminded me very strongly of Ariel in the RSC production of the Tempest that I saw before Christmas)
All told, I was really impressed with the entire production (excepting that first scene) and found it a fascinating experience. Definitely one I’d go and see again, if the opportunity arose.
Birthday Weekend – Aliens
Posted: Fri 11 November, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, Cinema, Do More, Domestic, Films, Five Year Plan (now Ten), London, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »For the birthday weekend, once I’d done Le Manoir on Saturday, and Dinner for lunch on Sunday, it was time to make my way down to the Royal Albert Hall, which was showing Aliens on a big screen, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performing the soundtrack.
Aliens is one of my favourite films, and one I’ve seen far more times than I’d care to admit – both the original release and the Director’s Cut / Special Edition. But I hadn’t seen it on a big screen for a proper cinema-style presentation, and definitely never with a live soundtrack!
And it was great. I’d wondered how they’d do soundtrack/music from the orchestra while keeping the dialogue and other sound-effects, and there’s obviously been a fair amount of work involved in doing this. I assume that the music soundtrack is on a different channel (or whatever) from the other bits of audio, so it’s more a case of ‘not playing’ one track, but I don’t know.
Regardless, hearing the music live enabled me to notice bits I hadn’t appreciated before – subtle in the recorded version, obvious live – such as the drum roll that’s used for all the more militaristic scenes, and other small thematic pieces along the way.
I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing – well, except for the seats, which were some of the most uncomfortable in Christendom – and now really want to see other films show in the same way. It’s bloody brilliant.
Birthday Weekend – Dinner
Posted: Thu 10 November, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, London, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »For the birthday weekend, once I’d done Le Manoir on Saturday, I was in London on Sunday for two things – the first of which was lunch at Heston Blumenthal’s “Dinner” restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.
I can’t claim to be a huge fan of Blumenthal, but Dinner is an interesting concept, resurrecting and reinventing meals from previous times/eras, ranging from the 1300s through to early 1940s.
It’s also one of the few places I’ve been to this year that doesn’t do a tasting menu, opting instead for three larger courses.
I had a great meal consisting of
- Roast Scallops (c. 1830) – with cucumber ketchup, roasted cucumber, bergamot and borage
- Chicken cooked with Lettuces (c. 1670) – Grilled onion emulsion, spiced celeriac sauce and oyster leaf, with a side of some of the best mashed potato ever (as recommended by the waiter)
- Tipsy Cake (c. 1810) – fresh-made brioche on a beautiful sauce, with spit-roasted pineapple.
- And finished off with Liquid-Nitrogen ice cream, made at the table, which was a great finale.
There’s also a lot more stuff on the menu that I now really want to try, so I’ll be aiming to return in 2017.
Birthday Weekend – Le Manoir
Posted: Wed 9 November, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Solo Dining, Thoughts 4 Comments »As I said earlier this week, for my actual birthday I took myself to Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons for lunch, partly for birthday purposes, partly for the whole solo-dining project.
I grew up close to Le Manoir, and my parents are still close by, so I’ve never been able to justify going there (and particularly staying, which is the best way to book a table well ahead of time) but I did get lucky when it came to booking myself for lunch. They open the bookings for non-residents three months in advance, and I’d called them before lunchtime on August 5th. (That was more about lucky ‘why the hell not’ thoughts and decisions on that day, rather than anything I can claim to be planned)
So it’s fair to say I was looking forward to this one quite a bit. Happily, it lived up to the expectations.
Le Manoir is well known for its garden, where they grow a lot of their own vegetables, fruit and herbs. It’s an impressive setting, and guests are free to have a wander round the garden, either before or after their meal.
I had the November tasting menu, and it was bloody good. It included…
- Roasted Pumpkin and Butternut Squash soup, with a biscotti loaded with pumpkin puree, cashew nuts and Cashel Blue cheese
- Beetroot Terrine (which I’d been recommended to ask for, and managed to get as a complimentary extra course, because Birthday)
- Confit Salmon with Lemon Verbena, Apple Pieces and Apple Puree
- Free-range Hen’s Egg, watercress, ham and toasted hazelnuts
- Quail, beetroot gratin, bulgur wheat and “leaves”
- Comté Cheese, aged 12, 24 and 36 months
- Ravioli of exotic fruits (a mix of exotic fruits under a shell of apricot) with a coconut foam/jus
- Millionaire Shortbread to finish, a soft toffee with bitter chocolate on shortbread, and salted butter ice-cream
It was a fantastic meal, and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Admittedly, it wasn’t in the top three meals I’ve had this year – but some of that is because I’ve massively spoiled myself this year with other places. In any normal year, it would definitely have been one of the best.
Swiss Army Man
Posted: Thu 6 October, 2016 Filed under: Cinema, Domestic, Films, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »Last night, I went to see Swiss Army Man – and it’s definitely the strangest film I’ve seen in a long time. I’m glad I got to see it, though.
The first five minutes tells you pretty much everything you need to know – Hank (Paul Dano) is a man alone on a deserted island, trying to commit suicide, and a corpse (Manny, played by Daniel Radcliffe) washes up on the beach. The corpse is loudly deflating, which disturbs his final moments, until he realises that he can use this farting corpse as an escape from the island, and rides him like a jet-ski out to sea.
And that’s just the start.
It’s worth pointing out that if you’re easily offended, just don’t even contemplate seeing this film.
But it’s not just gross-out fart jokes and weird stuff with a corpse. That would be too simple. There’s a *lot* more to this film. It’s strangely emotional, and says quite a bit about modern manners and squeamishness as well as about solitude, loneliness, and how people are.
In truth, I came out wondering what the hell I’d just seen – but also glad I’d seen it. Even having seen as many films as I have, I really have no valid reference points for describing what it’s like. And that’s an even harder task when also not giving anything away about the film.
I liked it, but I didn’t. I could see it again, and I’d come out just as confused as I currently am about it. There’s a lot of good stuff, and certain images will definitely last longer than they perhaps should.
I think it’s too much to call it ‘thought-provoking’, but it’s also not dumb, and there is stuff that keeps echoing back afterwards.
In short, I just don’t know about this film. I’m hard-pressed to recommend it, because it’s just *so* odd. But it’s also not bad, and if it weren’t so odd I’d say yes, go and see it.
A very Marmite “love it or hate it” film, I think.
Faustus
Posted: Tue 20 September, 2016 Filed under: 2015/16, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), London, Reviews(ish), Theatre, Thoughts Leave a comment »Earlier this year, I saw Faustus at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London, with Kit Harington playing the lead. (My thoughts on it are here, for reference)
The weekend just gone, I saw another version of Faustus, this time the RSC’s version at the Barbican Theatre. It was a more traditional version of the play (for the most part) and really interesting to compare the two.
What I hadn’t realised (due to being pig-thick) is that it shares a lot of the cast with the RSC’s version of the Alchemist, which is showing at the same time – well, on the same days – and which I saw the previous weekend.
It starts with an interesting premise – the actors light a match each, and whoever’s match burns out first plays Faustus.
The rest of the play sticks closer to the original – or at least as I understand it, not having read it yet – than the Harington version, although it did also still have some very odd moments of dance, which I can’t quite explain. Still good, but slightly barmy.
The staging is quite minimalist (or at least appears that way) but is also quite complex in how things are done. I guess some of that is because of the requirements of running two plays with very little time between performances, so there can’t be anything too complex – but they’ve made the best of it, and it’s pretty inventive all round.
All told, I enjoyed it a lot – more than the Harington version, even with the barmy bits – and it’s certainly left more of an impression with/on me than that one did.
Filmage
Posted: Tue 13 September, 2016 Filed under: Domestic, Films, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Write More 2 Comments »I don’t normally bother writing about films – although maybe I should, it’d certainly provide a significant increase in posts here – but last week I saw two that I rated really highly, so there we go, some thoughts.
Hell or High Water
First of them was (as you may’ve guessed already) Hell or High Water, starring Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges. Honestly, I think it’s about the best film I’ve seen this year.
The story is basically two brothers who are robbing banks to raise money, and the old retiring Texas Ranger who’s trying to catch them. So far, so cliched. But it’s well written, the dialogue is excellent, there’s a dry humour through it, and there’s also larger motivations.
The film focuses a lot on debt, low income, Evil Banks and the like. Many of the shots show roadside ads and hoardings for loans, debt relief and so on. The pair are robbing the banks – all of which are branches of Evil Bank – for a reason, and in many ways it’s hard to see them as being “bad”.
Jeff Bridges as the soon-to-retire Texas Ranger is a crusty, grumpy joy, an old fat man who’s done his time, and sort of wants to leave, but worries about what he’ll become without his job. The way he talks to his Ranger partner has to be heard/seen to be believed – but it is believable.
All told, I loved it – I’d happily see it many more times. There’s way more layers than you expect from the basic summary, and a moral ambiguity to it that I enjoyed – the “bad” people aren’t really bad (kind of doing bad things for good reasons) and the “good” people aren’t above playing with the lines and limits either. Totally recommended.
Morgan
Morgan, on the other hand, is a very different film – except, in some ways, it’s not. Where Hell or High Water is massively masculine, all the major characters in Morgan are women (which I think is nothing but a good thing) At least two of those characters are pretty bloody terrifying in their single-mindedness.
Basically, Morgan is a genetically-engineered being, with the appearance of a late-teen/early-twenties woman. You’re never actually told what she’s been engineered for, but it becomes pretty clear. But it also raises questions – if you’re going to create something with human-level intelligence, what happens when you keep that thing locked up? Answer – the development isn’t the same as a human. (File under “Sherlock, Shit, No”)
The other primary character is Lee, sent in by “The Company” to assess the risks around Morgan after a particular incident.
Needless to say, things don’t work out well.
It is, in parts, very violent , with a couple of scenes that are gory, but in context with what’s happened. At least one is surprising and shocking. But again, it makes sense in the context of the film. It’s action, but with some thought and some big ideas hiding inside it.
Again, I loved it – although from seeing the reviews etc. afterwards, I appear to be in a minority. It hasn’t done well at cinemas, and only lasted the one week at my one. Some of that is because it just hasn’t been promoted by the cinemas and studios, some of it is that a lot of people and reviewers didn’t like it. I hope it sees a bigger audience on TV, Netflix, download, disc, whatever – because I think it should have done far, far better than the current figures are showing.
I love that it’s so women-led as a film, and I want to see more like that. It has its flaws, don’t get me wrong – I’d figured the final ‘twist’ by about the third scene, and there are holes and questions throughout. But those can be set aside (or could by me, anyway) until afterwards. I thought it was dark, different, and brilliant.
Automagic – Thoughts
Posted: Tue 7 June, 2016 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, M1, Reviews(ish), SatNav, Sweary, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I hired a car – I was doing a drive to Middlesbrough, Newcastle, and back – and chose to have an automatic (as written about here) The main reason was just to see how I got on with it, as autos aren’t something I usually drive.
It was actually pretty interesting. Enterprise gave me a Ford C-Max, which is a proper boat of a thing – but all went really well. It drives a whole lot better than it looks, and it’s the most spookily quiet thing I’ve driven. There’s dark magic at work, when you’re travelling at *cough* 75 in a diesel-engined car, and can’t hear a jot of engine noise. Well, it’s either that or I’m going completely deaf. (Hint : It’s not the latter) Interestingly, that makes it quite hard (for me) to hold to a speed – it turns out that I drive far more by the noise of the engine than looking at the speedo/revs (which also explains why I speed up when I turn the radio volume up) Thankfully, it also comes with cruise control, and a speed limiter.
The journey up was pretty easy – and very lazy, with not having to change gear at all – but didn’t give me a great ability to test my preferences between auto and manual.
However, the journey back really showed the benefits. There’d been an accident on the M1 up in Leicestershire (nothing major, a two-vehicle thing that spread across the two outside lanes) and the queues were insane – mainly because there were so many fuckknuckle cunts who belt along, ignoring the ‘lanes closed’ signs, and wait ’til the last possible minute before pulling in to the only open lane, thus jamming things up for everyone else.
As an aside, I strongly believe that the speed cameras should be activated on every gantry where the “lane closed” signs are operative, and should catch every single driver who ignores the warnings and stays in those lanes. Simple driving without due care and attention, £60 fine in the post. Not (necessarily) even points on the licence – the cunts would soon learn when it started being expensive.
Anyway, those tailbacks were, if not a joy, at least a lot easier. No need for endless gearchanges, clutch etc., just plod and stop, plod and stop. I’m still not a fan of the auto-stop/start technology on modern cars, but even that worked fine all the way through, so I confess that I’m less unconvinced than I was. (And yes, I know, double negative etc. etc.)
Once past that, it was an easy ride again. I was impressed by the satnav in the car, picking up a further closure on the M1 and automatically rerouting. I know it’s pretty standard (or should be) but it hasn’t happened in any of the other hire cars I’ve played in this year, so it was a nice touch.
I think if I were to end up doing a lot of city/motorway driving again for commuting etc., I’d seriously consider getting a car with an automatic gearbox now. It doesn’t completely match my driving style at present – I still had a couple of moments of acceleration (particularly when pulling away from a junction, and when coming out into traffic) where I wasn’t happy with how the auto ‘box handled things, as it either over-revved and/or bogged down, until I let up the accelerator and re-pressed it. But I acknowledge that’s my driving style, rather than the ‘box itself. I’m pretty sure that I’d quickly change my style to be a more gradual acceleration if I were to have an auto vehicle as my everyday drive.
Will I consider hiring an auto again when the travel dictates it? Yes.
So all told, pretty successful all round.
London Weekend – Faustus and stuff
Posted: Sun 17 April, 2016 Filed under: 2015/16, Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »This weekend was another London trip, although spread over two days rather than one, which made life a bit less chaotic than usual.
The primary reason was to see Faustus at the Duke of York’s Theatre. A friend of mine had got tickets, and as part of my 2016 mission to see more stuff and so on, I went too. I know the basic idea of the story of Faust, although I’ve never read it, so had that as a basic idea of the play, but no idea of what else to expect.
As it turned out, it’s a very good production – if also very strange. I liked a lot of it – but admittedly started off thinking “This is garbage”, although I did reassess that quite rapidly. It’s got a whole lot of interesting ideas and propositions within it, so it’s an interesting production.
Other than that, the usual large-scale wandering around London, reconnecting bits of geography I hadn’t seen in a while, and generally doing a fair bit of walking, as well as everything else. As it was a weekend away, I decided to stay in a (far more expensive than usual) hotel in the area, which I’d eaten in before, but not stayed in.
All told, a thoroughly decent weekend, and much enjoyed. I should try this culture thing more often…
Fish, Aylesbury Waterside
Posted: Tue 12 April, 2016 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Gigs, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »Last night, once I’d finished work I drove over to Aylesbury for a gig. Fish, the ex-lead-singer from Marillion was back in their home-town, and performing one of their classic albums, Misplaced Childhood, in its entirety for the last time, on a tour called “Farewell to Childhood”, because it’s the 30th anniversary of it being released.
I’ve liked Marillion – well, I liked the Fish-era Marillion – since their start, so seeing this gig was always going to be a good one. It’s just a pity it had to be in Aylesbury. Understandable, but a pity all the same.
First of all, I’d forgotten just what a benightedly scabrous shithole Aylesbury is. By the time I got there (just before 6pm) it was pretty much all closed. It’s always been a boil on the arse of Civilisation, and never seems to improve, no matter what the planners, developers and town-centre managers do to it. It’s an unremitting dollop of shite.
I truly don’t know what kind of sins you’d have to have committed in previous lives in order to deserve living in Aylesbury, but they must be truly epic ones.
Anyway, the Waterside Theatre itself is really nice. I’d not been before, but it really impressed me, and is back on the list of places to see stuff. Again, it would be even better if it weren’t in Aylesbury, but there we go.
The gig was thoroughly enjoyable – my brain refused to store who the support act were, which is a disappointment, as I’d like to make sure I don’t see them again by accident. But once Fish and his band came to the stage, it was all good. They started with playing a number of tracks from Fish’s solo career (which, admittedly, I’m less familiar with – but I’ll be rectifying that) before playing the whole Misplaced Childhood album, and finally closing with a couple of other crowd favourites.
I really enjoyed it – Misplaced Childhood isn’t my favourite Marillion album by a long chalk, but it was still a good gig.
All told, a good evening – despite the location…
Another London Run
Posted: Mon 19 October, 2015 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, London, M1, M25, Parking, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »Yesterday was yet another day spent in London. Thankfully, it was also a different area (again) which helps to keep things fresh.
This time, it was Hammersmith, primarily to see an American comedian called Gabriel Iglesias at the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo with a friend (who was the one who knew of Iglesias first) who was doing a one-off, rare (and sold out) London gig
It’s a long time since I’ve been to the Apollo – December 2008, from the look of it – and Hammersmith has changed a bit since last time. The places I’d used to use for parking had – unsurprisingly – changed, and disappeared, so it was time for a bit of a new explore.
Because it was an evening thing, we aimed to have food before. So mid-afternoon we went into London via a circuitous-ish route that allowed us to avoid the vagaries of the peak-time weekend M25, and simply blat straight into Hammersmith. Into the parking area I’d chosen, and job-done.
Had a decent meal, a couple of drinks, and then to the Apollo for what turned out to be a brilliant show – thoroughly enjoyed. (Although lots of people doing American-ised whoops at lots of things, which isn’t really my thing at all) Paid a small fortune for parking – which is taking the piss, as that parking wasn’t being used for anything else – and a pretty simple escape. Certainly nothing like as bad as getting out of Wembley…
And then a straight motorway blat home, dropping off friends at houses along the way (we’d met another couple of people at the gig) so I got home at about 1am, and didn’t get to sleep ’til gone 2.
It’s fair to say I am not fully awake today…
Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy
Posted: Thu 15 October, 2015 Filed under: Art, Creativity, Day Trips, Domestic, London, Media, People, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »Following on from yesterday’s post about my most recent day trip to London, this one focuses on the Ai Weiwei exhibition at the RA.
It’s a great exhibition, and shows a wide range of Weiwei’s works, including his massive (and understandable) loathing of China.
The first thing you see, as you enter the RA’s courtyard, are the trees, made of assorted pieces of wood
Hidden in there as well is what looks like a knackered leather armchair. Only it turns out to be made from black marble…
In the exhibition itself, there are just so many different things. Tables that have been melded with timbers from 14th century temples, and/or bent to rest with legs against walls, epic cubes (including one that is a ton of compressed tea leaves), video installations, 3000 porcelain crabs, and many others.
The cubes are fantastic, and a particular favourite of mine was the wooden epic-scale puzzle box (that needs two people to get it to work) which was just beautiful, and so tactile…
There’s also a work called ‘Straight’, which is entirely constructed from steel reinforcing rods, and is a thing of beauty. (Although you do wonder just how long it took to get it all to work!)
On the walls in that room there are also two panels, listing every single identified body from the 2008 earthquake. Just the scale, the number of names, is gob-smacking, and upsetting in a strange way.
There’s also a lot of humour in the exhibition – surprisingly so, and in contradiction to what I’d imagined and understood of Weiwei’s work. My personal favourites of the entire exhibition are the two wallpaper designs. (Yes, wallpaper) The first is this, whole patterns created from a stencil of a man’s torso and arm, ending in a fist with a raised middle finger.
I think it’s the first ever wallpaper I’ve seen and gone “Yeah, I could live with that”. Although at nearly £500 per roll, I won’t be able to do so…
The second wallpaper, “Golden Age” is even more clever. Surveillance cameras and Twitter birds predominate
And then you look closer, and realise that in every Twitter bird, there’s Ai Weiwei’s face. And that’s really clever.
There are many, many other pieces – in a variety of sizes, materials, and styles. (I also loved the chandelier built from bicycle wheels) It’s an impressive body of work, and I suspect a number of pieces will stick with me for quite a while.
All told, I loved the exhibition. It’s so much better than I’d expected/assumed, and is so worth going to see.
Even better, the RA are actively encouraging people to take photos of the exhibits, to promote it themselves, and to touch most of the items. It’s very tactile, very open – and so nice to see that kind of understanding. (Although they did still tell off the German who slammed his camera and bag onto one of the bent tables, impervious to the fact it was an exhibit – but you can’t do much about idiots, in fairness)
The only (small) downside is that for the price you’re paying to see the exhibit, and the fact it’s only ticketed admission, it was still crowded. I would rather that there were fewer people allowed in at once, and thus those people can see the exhibits better, without being being constantly blocked, wandered into, and having others drifting into one’s eyeline. But then, I’m an antisocial git.
All told though, it’s great. I’m actually considering going again before it finishes…
Burger Crawl
Posted: Mon 27 April, 2015 Filed under: BurgerCrawl, Day Trips, Domestic, Food, Getting Organised, London, Reviews(ish), Sociable, Travel Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I took part in a very silly event that I’d discussed and come up with – a Burger Crawl in London.
It started off with a conversation about alternatives to pub crawls – I can’t even remember why it came up – but it seemed like a fun idea.
Originally it was going to be four of us as a trial run, but two dropped out, so it ended up just being one friend and me doing it, but that was fine.
Because it was the first one, and my idea, it ended up being my plan for where to go. So I made the choice that it was going to be all new places, nowhere we’d been before, and all in a similar area of London, rather than roaming all over the place.
As it turned out, it almost started badly. The place I’d picked for the first one – breakfast at Honest Burger‘s place near Liverpool Street – wasn’t open, they only do breakfasts Monday to Friday. So, a bit of a trip on the first hurdle, but we had other places on the list of possibles, and went for one of those instead.
So the final list was
- walking up to Dirty Burger in Shoreditch (with a donut from DumDums to start, as Dirty Burger wasn’t quite open when we got there)
- a coffee at Fix 126 on the way to the next place
- another burger at Blues Kitchen in Shoreditch
- walking down to Brick Lane (ish) for an NYC Torta (a sloppy messy burger-type affair which was ace) at DF/Mexico
- a much bigger walk down to Whitechapel, then a tube to Embankment
- Drinks and a break at Scoff and Banter in Leicester Square
- The final meal bit was the “Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea” at Sanctum Hotel in Soho
- And then walked back up to Euston Station in order to go home.
We did well – much more food and it would’ve involved exploding stomachs – and was a brilliant day with all the new venues being excellent. I plan to return to all of them – just maybe not all in one day again.
Oh – and we covered a fair amount of distance as well, which probably helped in dealing with the amount of food…
There will be more BurgerCrawls in the future – and we’ve had a couple of other related ideas too – but for a first go, it all went really well, and definitely a success.
Peter Gabriel – Wembley SSE Arena – The Downside
Posted: Fri 5 December, 2014 Filed under: Cynicism, Gigs, London, People, Reviews(ish), Sweary Leave a comment »While I loved the Peter Gabriel gig on Wednesday, it has to be said that the audience consisted of some of the biggest vagtrumpets known to Man.
I really don’t understand people – as has been said many times before – but I truly don’t get why on earth you would pay £50 or more per ticket and then spend the entire concert walking to and from the bar, or chatting to your friends instead of, you know, listening to the music and enjoying the concert.
It’s even worse when – as with the concert last night – it’s an all-seated gig, so these jizzmopping fuckflannels keep on disturbing the entire row in order to go and get drinks, come back with drinks, go to the bog, and whatever else they’re doing. It makes me want to punch them in the kidneys as they go past, just so they’ll stay in one place for a while.
Maybe I’m getting old, but I just can’t see the enjoyment in going to a gig and not really listening to the music at all.
(The one that really pissed me off though was the so-called fan, when they played one of the key tracks from that ‘So’ album said that he ‘had never heard that one before’, for fuck’s sake)
Peter Gabriel – Wembley SSE Arena
Posted: Thu 4 December, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Gigs, London, Reviews(ish), Wembley Stadium Parking Leave a comment »Last night, I went to see Peter Gabriel at the SSE Arena in Wembley – not a venue I’d been to before.
In fact, having seen the changes around Wembley, I realised that it must be a good four years (and yes, it turns out it was September 2010 to see Muse) and there’s a lot of new stuff gone up in that time. Not least a whole set of shops – sorry, a ‘retail village’ – and eating places etc., which is pretty welcome when you consider how poor the facilities of the area were for that kind of thing when I was there last.
Anyway, rather than use the godawful parking this time, I opted for parking further out (Watford, to be precise) and taking the tube in to Wembley. It actually worked out really well, despite me ending up using Watford station itself, rather than the intended Watford Junction. I blame a) stupidity and b) having one of those wavering decision processes of mine, of not being sure which station I’d use. So I ended up going to a station I hadn’t intended to use, but it working out as being for the best. Such is life sometimes.
I didn’t write beforehand about seeing this gig, because well, my attendance record with Peter Gabriel gigs isn’t really that good. I was determined to go to this one, but that doesn’t always equate with it actually happening, sad to say.
Anyway, for this one I did get there- and in tons of time, too. Watford’s a shithole for getting round (although some of that’s due to my own stupidity and crap timing, getting there just as most people were leaving) but once I got there all was easy.
And the gig itself was brilliant – thoroughly enjoyed all of it. It was billed as a gig in three sections – starting with an acoustic, going on to the electric (and super-loud) section, finished up by a complete play-through of the “So” album in it’s entirety, and in the order it was originally supposed to be. And it did all it was billed to, and more besides.
As always, the lighting and staging was innovative, in the same way that Nine Inch Nails gigs tend to be – in this case, making a lot of use of small video cameras on all the players, and five lighting rigs on counterbalanced dollies that could move around the stage, controlled by stagehands. Very very impressive – and reminiscent of the Martians in War of the Worlds (which I’m seeing at the O2 in ten days time) in how they loomed over the stage and seemed almost animated.
Getting home afterwards was pretty much a doddle too – out of the Arena, up to the nearest tube station, wait for the correct train back to Watford, and then drive home, straight up the M1. Ninety minutes door-to-door. On evidence of the last time I went to Wembley, in that time I wouldn’t have even got out of the car-park in that time, so all good.
Chef
Posted: Fri 4 July, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Films, Food, Media, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Writing Leave a comment »Last night, I went to see Chef at the cinema. It’s brilliant – if you get the chance, go and see it.
Lots of films (or their reviews/pimps) bang on about being “the feel-good movie of the season/year/decade” – Chef doesn’t, but bloody well should. It’s ace.
The basic premise is simple – talented chef gets bored by humdrum menu/restaurant, has a meltdown at a restaurant reviewer, loses his job, goes off and launches a food van doing what he loves. But the acting, the script – and the food – all raise it up a level. I’ve never been in a film where you hear the audience groan with lust/envy at the presentation of food in the film. They did in Chef. Sure, it’s – kind of – a film for foodies, but it’s not just that. It’s one of those films where you can see that they had fun doing it, that it was an enjoyable thing to work on.
It’s funny, it’s sweet (without being mawkish, cloying, or any of the normal American emotional guff) and it’s just good.
Go and see it. It’s worth it.
Notebooks
Posted: Tue 8 April, 2014 Filed under: Customer Services, Design, Domestic, Geeky, Reviews(ish), Stationery, Thoughts, Work-related 2 Comments »
One of my loves is – as sad as it sounds – stationery. Pens, Inks, and particularly note-pads of various types. I use them a lot in my work, taking notes, keeping track of ideas and projects. Well, that’s how I justify things, anyway.
Recently I’ve been getting savage temptations from a company called Bureau Direct, who have a huge range of everything I love using. I’ve been impressed by their service, their range, and the speed and efficiency of their service. Sadly, their weekly promotional email is like temptation itself.
The most recent addition to my collection arrived over the weekend – a pack of three limited-edition “Field Notes” notebooks called “Shelterwood“.
They’ve managed to get a fine layer of American Cherry wood as the cover – I have *no* idea how they’ve managed it, but they have. The covers are still flexible, but they’re a razor-thin laminate of ‘proper wood’. Naturally, all the covers are different (as you’d expect from wood) and they’re ace. The books aren’t as big as I’d thought they might be – about A6, I’d guess – but that’s fine, and makes them different from my normal notepad-size too.
It turns out that Field Notes do these limited editions on a regular basis – I suspect I may end up with more…
The Imposter
Posted: Mon 7 April, 2014 Filed under: Films, People, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Weirdness Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I finally watched The Imposter, a documentary about a man who impersonated Nicholas Barclay, an American teen who had disappeared four years previously.
It’s a fascinating – and very creepy – film, which would be dismissed as unrealistic and impossible if it were a fiction story/film.
The Imposter himself, Frédéric Bourdin is a very strange character, and (in my unprofessional opinion) probably about as much of a pure-bred psychopath as it’s possible to be. The family of Nicholas Barclay are also extremely strange – and yes, I know, editing etc. – and make you wonder just why a family would accept in a stranger that could not possibly be their child/relative.
I don’t know the full story – I doubt anyone ever will – but the documentary makes you think of alternatives, of options, and of coincidence. Maybe it was Bordin’s bad luck to pick Barclay as a person to impersonate – it certainly leads to a much bigger story, and a whole different set of possibilities.
Totally recommended, even if documentaries ‘aren’t normally your thing’
Londinium
Posted: Mon 24 March, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Food, Gigs, London, M1, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »Friday turned out to be a really good evening – despite the trials and tribulations of driving in London.
I knew the drive was going to be a pig – after all, 6.30-7.30pm on a Friday night is always going to be a pig. I’m not the greatest fan of London driving at the best of times, but this one certainly wasn’t the best of times.
Still, I got the job done, and only wished death and fiery rain on about fifty drivers – mainly those ‘in control’ of buses and taxis. The parking I’d found turned out to be perfectly located (in Chinatown) for where I wanted to be (Leicester Square), despite the number of suicidal orientals assuming that they had priority over big lumps of steel indicating that they were turning into the same street.
I’d picked a place called QPark – not the cheapest (although there’s no such thing as cheap parking in London, it appears) but cheaper than most of the other ones in the area that looked far dodgier. I do have to say thought that bloody hell, the parking spaces are tight – particularly when driving a sodding great boat like my Saab. Not too much of a problem going in, but reliant on others not parking like cunts when it comes to making one’s escape.
After that, meeting up with friends at Scoff and Banter in Leicester Square was easy – and that Apple Martini was a worthy reward. (I’d got four hours minimum before driving, so a drink wasn’t going to cause any issues)
Having put the world to alcoholic rights, and grabbed some food as well – which was also excellent – it was on to the Leicester Square Theatre to see Mr Bill Bailey.
I’ve seen Bill Bailey before – as it turns out, ten years ago – although this show was much smaller. I believe this one was a testing run for his new ‘Qualm Peddler’ tour – and if that’s the case, go and see it if you get a chance. Some of the stuff was just surreal (and usually caused by some very strange members of the audience) and he seemed close to corpsing with laughter himself at some points. It was that sort of gig, really.
Highlights included the reggae version of Downton Abbey, and Zombie Country and Western, but the entire 90 minutes was excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed it all, and would love to have seen more.
After that, it was just the drive home – with London still solid traffic, even at 11pm – and then a clean run up the M1.
Oh yeah – and with those timescales, why did I drive? Mainly because a) I don’t mind driving, and it’s always good to be able to say “Yep, done that, it holds no real fears” and b) because I’d thought it was going to start far later, and end after trains had finished. Not that I mind at all – it was a good evening, and the driving was just one part of it.
But I couldn’t drive in London on a daily basis – there’d be far too much temptation to kill people…
Fitbit Flex – Sleepy Time
Posted: Thu 20 February, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Insomnia, Project 42, Reviews(ish), Sleep - or lack thereof, Technology Leave a comment »Carrying on from yesterday’s post, I’m writing a bit about how I’m doing with the Fitbit Flex, a wristband pedometer and sleep monitor. Today it’s more about the sleep monitoring that the Flex does.
As with the pedometer side, the sleep monitoring can be a useful tool, but it’s not something to rely on absolutely.
The sleep monitoring is activated manually (which is usually OK, but could be a pain in the ass on occasion) and also needs to be manually deactivated – which is more of a pig, because if you forget, it screws the figures. It would be nice to have some automatic deactivation in there, although I suspect that the variables for it are pretty wobbly.
Based – I assume – on movement during the night, the Flex can report on “Sleep”, “Disturbed Sleep” and “Awake”. “Sleep” is – again, I assume – when the sleeper is motionless, as REM sleep paralyses the body. (which is why most people don’t sleepwalk, or do anything else physical that they’re dreaming about) “Disturbed Sleep” is when the sleeper is moving about. I’ve no idea how it discerns “Awake” though – it pegs my awake-in-bed time as ‘disturbed sleep’- so I assume that “Awake” means “Registered as sleeping, but actually walking around”. As such, the categories are a bit rough, but at least provide an illustration of sleep quality – or lack thereof.
One thing I do find affects me though is actually looking at the results. (Which is a bit meta and ‘chaos theory’, but bear with me) It’s one thing to feel like you’ve had a bad night, but it’s another one entirely to know it with the readings from the Flex. And yes, I could ‘leave it’ til later, but damn it, I’m interested. However, it does make me feel more tired, more justified in being tired, with that knowledge of “Oh yeah, but I had a crap night”. Seeing the information makes me aware of that crap night, and does affect how I feel during the day. (Similar to how reading a horoscope first thing can sometimes subconsciously direct you towards doing the things ‘predicted’)
It is interesting though. It’s proven that I usually actually get by on 3.5-4 hours sleep per night most of the time, and that it’s really only when I’m on sub-three-hours that I feel shockingly bad. I have good nights (rare), bad nights (common) and very bad nights (thankfully not quite as common as I’d thought)
I’ll keep on using the Flex for this – as I’ve said, it’s a useful indicator, if nothing else. Whether I continue to be aware of the timings or not, bearing in mind how much that knowledge affects me, remains to be seen.
Fitbit Flex – Taking Steps
Posted: Wed 19 February, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Project 42, Reviews(ish), Technology, Weigh Less, Weight Loss Leave a comment »It’s now been a couple of months since I got the Fitbit Flex, and it’s been pretty interesting. I didn’t buy it to boost my fitness, or any of that other rot – I just wanted to see how much I do walk on any given day, keep track of it, and also to look at how I sleep. (which I’ve written about before)
The sleep monitoring is quite useful – although I do wonder about how it affects me subliminally. (of which more later in the week)
For the walking / pedometer, it shows I’m currently walking about 3 miles a day. Not brilliant – but equally, not at all bad. I started this year with the intention of getting out and walking more, and getting into a routine of doing so. (This actually started back in November-ish, but has been more fixed since January) I try to make sure I walk around the village (a decent mile loop) most days – although I still sometimes fail to do so when the weather is truly vile – as well as walking more when I go to the local cinema etc.
The Flex helps me keep track of that, and it’s been useful. There is a certain satisfaction when it buzzes away on my wrist, letting me know that the daily target (currently set at 5,000 steps a day, approx 2.5 miles) has been achieved. And weirdly it does get into your head – I find myself thinking “Oh, well if I park there, it’s a longer distance to get to the shop/cinema/whatever, I’ll be closer to that target” and similar.
If nothing else, it’s a useful tool for just keeping track of exercise through the days and weeks – but also as a minor kick-up-the-arse for actually getting out and walking more.
Whipsnade
Posted: Thu 23 January, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »Yesterday I went off to Whipsnade Zoo – somewhere I haven’t visited in decades. I remember doing it as a school trip, and also with family, but that’s a long time ago, so I thought while I’ve got some time, I’d see what it’s like these days.
I’m not a massive fan of zoos in general. I think the work they do for conservation, and allowing people to see these glorious animals, is amazing. The breeding programmes and so on are remarkable, and there’s a lot of value to them. But – ah, there’s always a but – I really don’t like seeing them in cages, and particularly when they exhibit ‘trapped’ behaviours. I went to London Zoo about 30 years ago, and never went back – seeing (particularly) the polar bears just trapped on their plastic rocks with a tiny pool was a truly hateful experience.
It was a fairly crappy day when I arrived- grey, cloudy and with dollops of rain – but that was fine with me. I was hoping for less people anyway, just wanted to walk round the place and see what it was like. It’s bloody expensive – even in winter, it’s £18.50, and that’s with half the place closed up. That, in my humble opinion, is taking the piss.
Anyway.
The actual place is OK – although that doesn’t mean I actually want to re-visit it any time soon. A number of the animal environs are still too small, in my opinion – they’ve improved, certainly, but still several of them seem to be small, even for the number of animals within them.
The one that got to me the most was the tigers, where one of the two was just padding along the edge of the pen, back and forth. Maybe I caught it on an off day, but it brought back all the memories of that polar bear in London Zoo.
All told it was a good day, including walking somewhere around five miles. But I can think of other places I can do that without paying nearly £20 for the privilege, and where I don’t finish up slightly wishing I hadn’t gone in the first place…
12 Years A Slave
Posted: Fri 10 January, 2014 Filed under: Films, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films Leave a comment »On Tuesday, I went to see the new film “12 Years A Slave” at the cinema. It’s been reviewed as being harsh and unforgiving in its view of American Slavery, but also reported that some members of the audience have walked out, shocked and horrified, and even felt ill and faint.
The film is the story of – well, more accurately it’s based on the story of – Solomon Northup, a free-born ‘African American’ from New York, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. In many ways it’s a remarkable story, and a remarkable film.
No-one walked out of the showing I was in – well, none in shock/horror, more just bloody-awful bladder control – but it’s an uncompromising view of slavery and the attitudes towards slaves. It’s another of those films that’s worth seeing, but it’s not one you’ll enjoy, if that makes any sense at all? A couple of the scenes in it are very unpleasant, leading you to wonder how it got away with a 15 certificate – but for me the real horror is in the perception and treatment of slaves.
I know I’m not the most charitable soul – file under “Sherlock, Shit, No” – but I find it truly horrific to see that belief that a slave isn’t human, is just a possession that the owner can do with as they will. All they’re ‘worth’ is the price paid. Nothing more, nothing less – and even seeing them exchanged as commodities, a way of passing on that debt. I know it happened (and probably still does in places) but it’s a vile attitude to have about anyone, regardless of skin colour, ethnic origin, gender, belief, or anything else.
It’s a grim film, and hard to watch in places, but it should be seen – and seen by lots of people – almost as an essay in how people shouldn’t be treated.
My Films of 2013
Posted: Wed 1 January, 2014 Filed under: Cinema, Films, Geeky, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Thoughts, Words, Writing Leave a comment »Yesterday, Karen made a comment on a previous post, and asked for my top five films from 2013. And I thought “Well, why not?”. Although be warned, my taste in films is rotten.
5. Gravity – Probably the smartest sci-fi film (albeit with some bugs still, mainly around orbital mechanics – and the fact Sandra Bullock doesn’t bloody die) of the year, Gravity is short and powerful. Worth seeing in 3D (which is saying something – I’m no 3D fan at all) although I can well imagine it could kick off a dollop of illness in those prone to motion sickness. But that disorientation is almost key to the film, it manages to convey some of how it must feel to be weightless and with no idea what your orientation is.
It also gets a lot of the tech stuff right (although a fair amount wrong, as well) as well as keeping the story tight. I was in two minds about seeing it, if I’m honest (not being a massive fan of Sandra Bullock at the best of times) but I’d say it’s probably the best thing she’s done – in my opinion, anyway.
4. Elysium – Another smart sci-fi, with a dark ‘them and us’ premise that seems to be becoming all the more feasible. Hell, even Jodie Foster was good in it – which is a real revelation, as usual I can’t abide her in films.
The basic premise – that as the majority of the world’s population get poorer, the rich opt to take off to a space environment/station, where they carry on their lives, with the best of technology, medical care etc., effectively leaving the poor to their own devices – is pretty dark, but also (I found) very believable, even though you know the required leaps in technology would be huge. I’m a fan of the director’s previous stuff (particularly District 9, another near-ish-future scifi) and also looking forward to his next film.
3. Iron Man 3 – Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, written and directed by Shane Black? I’m *so* there. IM3 lived up to its premise, far more than 2 did. Indeed it pretty much ignores 2 for the heap of crap it was. Smart snappy dialogue, some great action scenes, a glorious twist (that again seems ever more feasible in reality) and Robert Downey Jr just being himself. You can usually tell when people had fun making the film, and that comes across in this one.
And yes, I’ve even ended up watching it again on TV over the Festering Season. And it’s still fun, even when you know all of how it works out. Besides, just how damn good an actor is Guy Pearce?
2. Pacific Rim – I never expected anything more from Pacific Rim than what was in the trailers – big robots fight big monsters. If you expected more than that, you were – at best – frighteningly optimistic. But going in with no expectations more than that, I loved this film. Yes, it has some epic bugs and plot holes – the biggest being “if they’re clones, how can one be pregnant, FFS” – which rankle more on repeated viewing. (And yes, I’ve seen it rather more than once!) But still, epic effects, an absolutely cracking soundtrack – which I also bought – and it’s just ridiculous, fun, and probably the most entertaining film (for me) of the year. So why isn’t it at number one?
1. Mud – And the answer to that is ‘because Mud is’. I don’t know why this appealed to me as much as it did, but it’s probably the film that stuck with me the most through 2013. Matthew McConaughey has really grown on me as an actor since he’s stopped doing all the rom-com shit, and he’s really pretty versatile. This one’s more ‘American Mythology’ than anything else, I suppose – matched up with a doomed love story, coming-of-age stuff, and a whole lot more. For whatever reason, I just really liked this one.
And just for fun (and I won’t even credit them with links!), my five worst films have been…
5. White House Down – I was aiming for brainless entertainment. I got brainless.
4. I Give It A Year – I have no idea why I even went to see this. Romcom tat that was about as funny as infected piles.
3. The Counselor – Great expectations from a great trailer, but the film just wasn’t what had been expected. Beautifully shot, and some great set-pieces, but all told a real disappointment of a film.
2. Ender’s Game – One of the few this year that left a really bad taste in the mouth – the whole child-soldier thing, with some very dark morality (and no, I hadn’t read the book, so didn’t know what to expect) and again that feeling that somehow it’s not a concept that America would have any great issues with in the future. All-told, really quite unpleasant.
1. Only God Forgives – In a similar vein to Counselor, a film that didn’t live up to it’s trailer, and turned out in truth to be a very different film from that portrayed. Very arty, beautiful, but utterly up itself. Probably a good film when you’re in the mood for an art-house essay about violence, vengeance and [whatever else] but I wasn’t, so I really didn’t like it.
But bear in mind, there’s a lot of others just outside that list – including Last Stand, Man of Steel, Pain and Gain, and The Paperboy…
Durham Lumiere
Posted: Tue 19 November, 2013 Filed under: Art, Domestic, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »
As per a previous post, over the weekend I went with some friends to the Lumiere Festival in Durham. It wasn’t one I’d heard about before, but was well worth the visit. Even in its third incaranation at Durham, there were a fair number of organisational bits that really could’ve been done better, but overall the entire thing was bloody good.
As it turned out, the grim weather preceding the weekend had meant that some things couldn’t be done/erected/finalised – including one I’d wanted to see, but didn’t get to for other reasons. I’d have been mightily pissed off if I’d slogged the extra mile-ish out of town to see it, only to find out it wasn’t working!
Anyway, organisational issues (and they were legion) aside, the actual festival itself was great, and I absolutely loved some of the exhibits. (Less so with others, but such is life and personal perception) All were based around light and projection in various guises, and some with additional sound and spectacle.
In no particular order, my own favourites were…
Elephantastic – a projection of a full-size elephant (with synchronised soundtrack of footsteps) on the archway over one of the bridges in Durham. From the city side, you got the see the elephant’s arse, and coming into the city, the face-on view. Because of the height, you actually walked under the elephant to get onto the bridge. It was a very simple idea/projection, but really effective – and lots of people appear to want to make it a permanent fixture (which would be weird, but excellent)
Consumerist Christmas Tree – a conical christmas tree made of illuminations within discarded carrier bags. As it turned out, it wasn’t just the tree, but the entire street had ‘chinese lanterns’ strung above it with the same illuminated bags. It somehow made a very effective comment about the disposability of christmas tat, as well as the consumerism etc., while also managing to be really pretty, making people look up and think.
Crown of Light – projected onto the outside of Durham Cathedral, the story of the cathedral and the Lindisfarne gospels. We ended up seeing this four times – from different ranges and viewpoints – and each time there was something different that we noticed, even though it was the same thing on repeat. I think that seeing it that many times without getting bored – indeed, still actually watching it – says a lot about how interesting the entire thing was. All told, probably my second favourite piece of the many we saw.
Dresses – set within the cloisters of Durham Cathedral, three mesh-work dresses made of (or lit by, I’m not sure) fibreoptics that changed colour through the process. They were really ghostly, quite magical, and you almost expected to see them moving across the lawns. The effect was only ruined by pissknuckle cretins trying to take photos of them with the flash still on (or not being able to turn the bloody thing off), not realising that the flash would just render the scene as a meshwork dress, and you wouldn’t see the colours, the setting etc. (Dickweed morons with phones, cameras and flashes were another annoyance throughout the evening)
Volume Unit – although we couldn’t hear the music being played in sync, we walked past this and it was really impressive, projected against (apparently) one of Durham’s least-loved buildings (very sixties/seventies concrete brutalist block).
Overall though, my absolute favourite – that I could’ve sat and watched for hours – was [M]ondes, which was truly magical. There’s no way of adding an image for Mondes, it was so ephemeral (and again, with flash photography the secret was revealed, with none of the magic), with fleeting bits of illumination in any one shot. Earthshatteringly simple, and the mark of a warped genius – clouds of wire were suspended in the ceiling of the cathedral, with rays and circles of white light reflecting off the wire. But because the light-beam was so tight, and moving all the time (with different shapes and colours on the overall projection) the entire effect was the same as a crowd of fireflies, or dust motes flickering through a torch beam. It was absolutely enchanting, and so, so clever (yet simple). I’d love to see that type of effect done in other similar venues, it really is something special.
We did see others that I personally wasn’t as keen on, but the entire thing made for a really interesting use of Durham’s streets, buildings, spaces and architecture. I’m hoping there’ll be at least one more to go to!
Neil Gaiman, “Fortunately, The Milk”
Posted: Wed 16 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Gigs, Literacy, London, Reviews(ish), Sociable, Words, Writing Leave a comment »
Last night I was in London to see Neil Gaiman‘s one-off reading of his new children’s book, “Fortunately, The Milk” at the Methodist Central Hall in London, (also known as Central Hall Westminster) which was also fortuitously a friend‘s birthday (I won’t say which one) As it turned out, we also bumped into Clair
It was excellent. I’d been lucky enough to get tickets when they went on sale, but I know it sold out pretty quickly. The tickets also included a special signed copy of the book as well, so definitely value for money.
It’d been billed as “with special guests”, but with no real clues as to who might turn up – and it turned out that (among others) Neil’s wife, Amanda Palmer came along as a surprise – even to Neil – and Lenny Henry was also there, along with Mitch Benn, and live drawings from the book by Chris Riddell. (who is just ridiculously talented) There were several others who I didn’t immediately recognise, although some research has helped on that score.
The book itself is brilliant – if you’ve got spawn, add it to the Christmas list – and the performance of it was great, with lots of humour, and a brilliant atmosphere all the way through.
As for the venue, well, I want to visit that again and look at it properly – it’s quite amazing in and of itself, and even more so when you look at the history of the place. It’s spectacular inside, and totally not what I’d have expected from the name. It’s about as restrained and subtle as Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
A brilliant evening, even with a jam-packed train ride home. (Apparently there was some sporting event on at Wembley as well, which meant lots of happy football fans)
Roy Lichtenstein, Tate Modern
Posted: Mon 27 May, 2013 Filed under: Creativity, Domestic, Getting Organised, London, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I took a trip down to That There London, primarily to see the Roy Lichtenstein retrospective at the Tate Modern. It’s been on for a while, and I’d meant to see it earlier, but then checked last week to realise yesterday was the final day. And so, the plan was born to get down and see it.
I’ve loved a lot of Lichtenstein’s work for many years now, and the exhibition had the originals of a couple of my all time favourites (Particularly “Whaaam!”) so it was definitely a good reason to go and see it.
But what I hadn’t realised was that this sort of stuff was only a small part of his work – although the style remains the same, there’s a lot more that I’d never known about.
My own particular favourites (in no particular order) were the Lichtenstein versions of other classic artists (including Mondrian and Picasso) and also his versions of classical Chinese landscape portraiture, which are just excellent.
I was really pleased that I’d got down to see the exhibition – although I do find that most of the stuff in Tate Modern is unconscionable piss, every so often they throw out a gem.
Sweary Hypocrisy
Posted: Sun 14 April, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Cinema, Cynicism, Hypocrisy, Offensive Repetition, People, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Sweary, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »I’ve found a new source of amusement – the “Parental Guides” for films on IMDB.
A perfect example is here, for the new Tom Cruise film “Oblivion”
Why is it so amusing? For wondrous things like this…
bitch used 2 times bastard 1 time ass 4 times shit 6 times 1 use of fuck. Son-of-a-b***h is used once.
It’s the hypocrisy of it all – coupled with the tweeness. In the example above, it’s OK to write bitch, bastard and fuck, but son-of-a-bitch gets asterisked out? Fuck me.
Hobbit
Posted: Fri 21 December, 2012 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Today I took my dad to see The Hobbit at their local cinema.
Regular readers will know we did similar with all three of the Lord of the Rings films, so it’s becoming a kind of tradition (and will do for the next couple of years, too)
I had my reservations before the film, knowing that they’ve taken the 400-page book and made it into three three-hour films. That’s quite some padding – although I know they’ve also taken in parts of “Silmarillion” and “Unfinished Tales” to make it into a much larger production.
Having now seen it though, I found those reservations to be well put to bed, it all gels well, and I really enjoyed it.
There’s a couple of bits I don’t like, or that jarred a bit, but all told I’d say 98% of it is pretty damn good.
Hell, it’s almost worth looking forward to Christmas 2013 and 2014 to see the rest of the films.
Life of Pi
Posted: Tue 11 December, 2012 Filed under: Cinema, Domestic, Reviews(ish) | Tags: #lifeofpi 2 Comments »Last night, I went to see the new film of Life of Pi. I’ve not read the book – when it comes to films, sometimes I find it’s better to not be locked on ‘it’s not the same as the book’ – so I went with an open mind to see what it was like.
All told, it’s an impressive film – and for the first time, one where I would actually suggest seeing the 3D version, as that added a visual layer which I imagine the 2D version lacks. Certain shots – of Pi watching the ship sink, for example – had an real ‘depth’ to them.
Visually it’s beautiful. There are some stunning scenes, and the vision of the film is exceptional.
Technically, it’s stunning – the CGI for the animals is some of the best I’ve seen, and you do believe that the tiger is there in the boat.
But – ah, there’s always a but. For a film so much about belief, miracle, and wonder, it feels (or felt, to me) soul-less. I’ve had this issue with Ang Lee‘s films before – they’re beautiful, excellent films. It’s just that they have no heart, no passion. Other people’s perspectives vary, obviously, but for me, I just come out feeling somewhat dissatisfied.
All told, it’s worth seeing, and it’s a good film. It’s just not a great film. (Again, in my view)
But I will have to go and read the book now, and see if that adds more to the film…
Inside Claridges
Posted: Fri 7 December, 2012 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, London, People, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »On BBC currently there’s a wonderful documentary series called “Inside Claridges”. Obviously it’s a ‘behind the scenes’ look at how Claridge’s Hotel runs – and it’s absolutely fascinating, a true “How the other half live”
The entire thing is quite, quite mad – I understand why and how they do what they do, but it really is potty. For example, taking photos of how a suite is laid out when a guest leaves, so that it can be laid out the same way if/when they return to the hotel in the future. I suppose if you’re paying £5,500 per night it’s the kind of invisible thing you expect – and yes, I think paying £5,500 per night is utterly obscene – but to me, it’s also potty.
All told, it’s a really sweet little series, well worth catching on repeats, iPlayer or whatever. It’s what BBC documentaries should be (in my opinion) about – things that the general viewer will never see, the way other people live, even if those lives are completely antithetical to our own.
Sightseers
Posted: Sun 2 December, 2012 Filed under: Cinema, Domestic, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Over this weekend, I went to see Sightseers, a new British film. It is very dark, basically about two dysfunctional people who form a relationship, and go away on a week’s caravan trip. Strange – and very British – tourist places merge with a tale of murder, serial killing, and general black humour.
An example line “He wasn’t human, he was a Daily Mail reader”.
I really enjoyed it – it’s not your run of the mill Hollywood offering, which is always a good thing – but I suspect it’s probably an acquired taste. If you like oddball British films, it’ll be right up your street.
Muse, Wembley, 11/9/10
Posted: Sun 12 September, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Music, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »Last night, we saw Muse at Wembley Stadium.
I’ve got to be honest, I’m not a fan of Wembley Stadium – for me it’s just too big for gigs, and you end up watching the band on big video screens rather than seeing them in action. Sure, if you can get standing tickets you might have a better chance – but I haven’t managed that with Wembley yet.
The shows are huge – they have to be – but (in my opinion) I find them quite soulless, that they really are a big marketing exercise.
In the case of Muse, this was the third time I’ve seen them – the last time was back in December 2003 and the shows have grown immensely since then. The set itself last night was stunning – and even more so when it came to life for the gig itself – with huge forced perspective buildings that turned out to be enormouse videoscreens, along with weird balloons around the back of the stage, and a lightshow that probably could’ve powered a small to mid-sized town. Oh, and the now-essential moving sections of stage. Of course.
On that technical / effects side, the entire gig was stunning – well, except for the smaller videoscreens having a lag of about two seconds, so that the sound was coming through before the video – decidedly weird, and not what you expect at a gig that size. But the lighting rig was awesome, the sound set up was spot-on, and technically it was great.
Muse were good too – but in my opinion they’re too small for Wembley. Yes, they music fills the place and is stunning, but performance wise, you just can’t see three people on a stage that size. Any theatrics that were done (including Matt Bellamy’s Glowing LED suit) were just too damn small. Even the moving sector of stage, moving, lifting and rotating was well, just too small. In the O2 it would’ve been excellent. In Wembley it was all just dwarved by the size of the Stadium.
So all told, a tad underwhelmed. Muse blasted the stage and sound system, but I just came out feeling that Wembley was too big – they could’ve done the same gig at the O2 and it would’ve been stunning, but with less people and a smaller scale to fill.
Yello – Touch
Posted: Thu 9 September, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Music, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »I’ve been a fan of Yello since the mid eighties, when someone introduced me to the Stella album. From there I got the previous albums, and I’ve bought every one since. There’s a couple missing now (The Race, and Essential), but all the same, they’re a collection of CDs that I love.
The last Yello album I bought was The Eye, back in 2003, and I hadn’t heard anything more from them since then.
For whatever reason, I’ve been listening to the Pocket Universe album in the car over the last couple of weeks, and (as always) really enjoyed listening to it – and it occurred to me that I hadn’t checked in a while to see whether there was anything new.
And lo, it turned out that there was – Touch, released in October last year. Happy, happy day.
I received it yesterday, and it’s been on in the car today.
And it’s really good – as usual. Much more accessible than most of their stuff, and much less mad – rather than heavy electronica it’s got a really bluesy feel to a lot of it, which I really like.
I hope it’ll be a lot less than seven years before the next album comes out.
Inception
Posted: Sun 25 July, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Tonight we went off to see the new Chris Nolan film, Inception. It’s had good reviews, and I’m generally a fan of Nolan’s stuff anyway, although some reviews had said it was really complex and hard to follow. Mind you, that’s not normally something I worry about. (it’s generally A Good Thing)
As it was, I really enjoyed the film. Personally I didn’t find it hard to follow at all – although there were a couple of irritating plot holes/errors that nagged – and it didn’t feel like 2½ hours of film at all. Again, that’s definitely A Good Thing – I could name a few that felt like every damn second of their runtime, and were the worse for it. (Lord of the Rings 2/3, Matrix 2/3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, I’m looking at you – and a fair few others- here)
One of the things I liked about Inception was the insistence that you just go with the concept of being able to share dreams, and how the entire thing worked. I get irritated by films/books that explain everything and how it works – these things are about suspension of disbelief, of (in my opinion) just going with the story. Getting into the ins and outs of technology just makes you go “That’s not right”, and jars the experience more than it builds it.
All told, I thought Inception was pretty damn good. Maybe not “Best film of the year”, and probably not one I’d want/need to see again, but still good.
Pink, Portman Road, Ipswich
Posted: Wed 30 June, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Domestic, Driving, Reviews(ish), Stupidity, Travel 13 Comments »Last night I was supposed to be seeing Pink at the Portman Road stadium in Ipswich. I didn’t see it.
Why? Because I couldn’t find the fucking stadium.
I’m normally pretty good on finding places, but must admit that in this case I’d figured there would be some signs to follow. After all, it’s a football stadium for fuck’s sake. Surely they need some signs for away fans to get there etc.?
Apparently not. I have to assume that Ipswich is truly embarassed about the stadium – they sure as shit don’t like to admit that they’ve got one.
Driving along the A14, I got to the first turn-off for Ipswich. There’s a sign there that says “Football Stadium” with an arrow pointing straight on (i.e. don’t take the turn-off). Fine. Second junction’s the same – “Straight on for Football Stadium“. After that, nothing. I got to the far side of Ipswich, no more signs. I turned round, coming back from Felixstowe direction to Ipswich, and there’s not one fucking sign. Not one.
All told I did that stretch three times, checking the exit roads, trying to see any damn signage whatsoever that pointed me in the direction of the stadium. Nothing except those two signs saying “straight on” from one direction.
So in the end I said fuck it, and drove home.
I assume Portman Stadium etc. won’t give a shit, as they’ve got their money for the gig already. But you can be damn fucking sure I won’t be going back there again.
I do feel like a right bell-end for not being able to find a sodding football stadium. But at the same time it’s not just me, others have said it’s a shit to find unless you actually know where it is. Personally, I’m not going to make the effort to try and find it again.
eTyres
Posted: Tue 20 April, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Business, Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »So following on from yesterday’s discovery of a flat tyre, I booked in (and paid in advance) through eTyres.co.uk to get it fixed at home. eTyres offer their service at home, which is ideal when you’ve got a flat.
However, the motto of this entire story is that if you’re going to have a puncture and use eTyres, don’t do it on a weekend. Despite being able to book and order online, for some fuckforsaken reason they can’t organise things ’til the Monday morning. And at that point they’ve also got to deal with all the people who’ve booked on the Saturday.
I did try to change the tyre myself so I could get down to the local tyre place, but the wheelnuts were on so tight I couldn’t even move the sodding things. Insurance-wise I was going to be lowest of the low priority calls, and they couldn’t even give me a time expectation. So all told that left me pretty much at the mercy of eTyres.
Having made the booking online yesterday evening, they finally arrived at 5.30. Yep, a whole day. So much for the speed of booking via the internet etc. etc.
In the end they’ve done a decent job, and for a fairly decent price. Not as great as they make out in their marketing, but not bad.
But if you need a swift service that’ll actually get the job done, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend eTyres to anyone.
Peter Gabriel at the O2
Posted: Sun 28 March, 2010 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »As has been mentioned before on here, I’m a bit of a fan of Peter Gabriel – not hardcore “all the way back to the 70s”, but I like far more of his stuff than I dislike, and I’ll usually go and see him live. Mind you, I’m gobsmacked that it’s now six years since I’d seen him live – although I did end up missing (OK, not going to) the concert a couple of years back at Blickling Hall in Norfolk.
Anyway, when I saw about tickets coming available for a concert at the O2, I was there. It was in promotion of the “Scratch My Back” album which hadn’t even been released at the time, but *shrug* I don’t worry about things like that.
The gig itself was always going to be slightly strange. Gabriel’s done away with the general band stuff, and instead gone with a total orchestra, stripping down the songs and then orchestrating them. It had been billed as being no support, an hour of the new album, an interval, then another session with older stuff. It didn’t work out quite like that – everything started late, there was then a short (three song) intro by Anna Lünd – who’s also doing a lot of the backing vocals in the rest of the show. At that point the lights went back up, an interval of about ten-fifteen minutes, and then into the Scratch My Back section of the show. A fifteen minute interval that stretched to nearly thirty, then back to the final “older stuff” section.
All that aside though, it was a really good gig. The visuals were really impressive, doing stuff I hadn’t seen before with multi-layered screens, and almost holographic at some points. The sound was fantastic, and the orchestra were stunning. Some of the songs were just fantastic – particularly his versions of Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is A Cage” and Magnetic Fields “Book of Love”. The entire album was done live, which is quite an achievement in itself.
The second section was more of the same, but orchestrated versions of older tracks, including the crowd favourites. There were a couple I wish he’d done as well, but I think that’s always the way when it’s a gig covering nearly forty years of music. But he played (among others) “Digging in the Dirt”, “Signal to Noise”, “Mercy Street”, “Darkness”. “In Your Eyes” and (of course) “Solsbury Hill”, which still managed to be as whimsical as ever.
I’d have loved to see Sledgehammer done in this gig, or Growing Up, but I guess they’d be hard to do in an orchestrated version.
All told, it was a pretty great gig – allbeit a very different one to most of the ones I see, and very different to the previous Peter Gabriel concerts. But still, fantastic to see.
Avatar
Posted: Wed 27 January, 2010 Filed under: Media, Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »After wanting to see it for a while, I finally went to see “Avatar” last night. I even managed to get to see the 3D version, which made it the first “Real3D” film I’ve seen.
In all honesty, I wasn’t expecting much from the film – most of the reviews I’d seen made far more of the technology and so on in the film than of the film itself – but I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, it’s a bit too long, could do with losing about 20 minutes of trite shite, and has some deeply vile sickly-sweet bits for American audiences, but overall it’s pretty damn good.
In fact probably my biggest bugbear with it was the name of the wondrous material that was being mined on Pandora – “Unobtainium”. I mean, please. It’s not unobtainable – it’s fucking difficult to get, fine. Call it “fuckingdifficultium” or something. But “Unobtanium”? Sheesh – just make up something new, don’t try for sounding cool – and miss it by a mile. I do realise there’s a cultural history for calling things Unobtainium – but for a film that’s trying to be fresh and new, it just seems to be something that harks back to the 50s/60s, an in-joke that’s just not very funny.
So yes, there’s little bits that irritate – and the occasional bit of “Look! It’s 3D!” that grates – but in general it’s actually a pretty good film.
The director, James Cameron, has brought in a number of his standard themes – particularly Evil Big Company going ahead with plans at the expense of other less capitalistic influences (survival, global dynamics etc. etc.) – which makes it quite interesting in the current situation with global warming etc., and the awareness of “Going Green”, which is itself quite a major theme of the film.
As for the effects, and the way it’s filmed, I think it probably is one of the more radical developments in film/cinema history – I found myself thinking back to it, wondering how some of the stuff was done at all. In that context, it’s remarkable – in a similar way to when “The Matrix” came out, with effects no-one had really seen before. Avatar’s the same – it’s not quite “the next thing from colour”, but it’s pretty remarkable all the same.
All told, it’s a good film. Not a great one- although that’s really what it aspires to be – but pretty good all the same.
Hunger Games
Posted: Sun 24 January, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Over the Festering Season, I read a book called “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. It’s written for young adults, but has a lot of levels to the story. For me it’s a better book than Twilight (and much better than the sequels) and with a lot more ideas.
The basic premise is based in an America that’s had some un-named armageddon, and is left with twelve “Districts” ruled over by “The Capitol”, which is portrayed as a decadent seat of government while the Districts are much poorer, but all their produce goes to support the Capitol. The Hunger Games themselves are an annual televised event where a boy and girl from each of the Districts is selected by Lottery to be the Champions for the District, and are then put against each other in an arena, forced to survive and kill the others until only one winner remains.
It’s got a lot of very subversive ideas within the book, and I was really impressed by it, so I’ve also bought the second part of the trilogy, called “Catching Fire“, which I’ve just finished. Again, very subversive, continuing the themes of the evil Government that cares nothing for the people involved, just for keeping the status quo, and keeping the security of their own privileged positions.
What’s annoyed me more though is that the final part of the trilogy won’t be published ’til at least August this year. And I really don’t want to have to wait that long to find out how it all works out in the end.
Henry Rollins, Norwich UEA
Posted: Wed 20 January, 2010 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »I’ve been a fan of Henry Rollins for a very long time now, so seeing him doing a spoken-word gig at Norwich UEA was always something I’d be at.
Rollins is one of the hardest working people on the gig circuit – you only have to look at the schedule for this tour to realise that – which always makes it an interesting gig when he talks about his insane travelling plans, along with his life, ideas and experiences. In this gig, he talked about the fact he’s going to be playing a significant role in Season Two of Sons of Anarchy (fantastic news, in my opinion) as well as Thanksgiving, America, elections, being friends with William Shatner, giving speeches at Sonoma University in California, and travels to Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Iran, China, India and many others.
I like the Rollins attitude, which was basically described as “Someone tells me a place is dangerous, I want to go there and find out for myself“. In other words, do things for yourself, don’t just believe what the media/politicians/other people tell you.
In fact that was pretty much the theme for the entire gig – some two and a half hours of it, too – to do your own thing, don’t just sit back and let other people do the talking/doing.
I’m already looking forward to the next Rollins tour.
Sherlock Holmes
Posted: Tue 5 January, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »On Saturday we went off to see Sherlock Holmes, the new film by Guy Ritchie. In fairness, I wasn’t expecting much from it – so we were really pleasantly surprised.
Robert Downey Jr is the star, and makes a fantastic version of Holmes. A much more physical version than the classic Jeremy Brett one, but a believable one all the same – and I have to say, a version that I really liked. Jude Law as Watson is also fantastic, and the pairing of the two is fantastic, with a fairly believable interaction and relationship.
It’s quite obvious that they expect to make at least one more Sherlock Holmes film – the storyline in this one is pretty good, but does a lot of character-building and so on, ready for a larger sequel.
All told though, good fun.
Marcus Brigstocke, Norwich Playhouse
Posted: Sat 26 September, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish) 2 Comments »On Thursday, we went to see Marcus Brigstocke‘s “GodCollar” tour in Norwich.
We’ve seen Brigstocke on TV a few times, but really had no idea what to expect from him live – and I’d made a positive effort to not read any reviews of the show at all. We’ve been disappointed by other shows where we’ve seen most of the material before (Frankie Boyle in particular) so we didn’t want that to happen again.
We needn’t have worried. The show was fantastic – although definitely not for those with a lack of humour about religion. It’s not offensive per se, although I can imagine some people might find it so, but more about Brigstocke’s thoughts around organised religion, and trying to find his own beliefs and thoughts about God.
He’s scathingly rude about most aspects – which in my opinion is always a good thing – and particularly about Richard Dawkins, iPhones (and users of iPhones) and plenty of other things besides.
It made for a fantastic two hours – both very funny and thought-provoking.
I’d happily go and see Brigstocke again – well worth it. But definitely not a show for the faint-hearted or easily offended.
iPhone Hassles
Posted: Sat 1 August, 2009 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, iPhone, Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Yesterday, Herself went out and got an Apple iPhone from Carphone Warehouse.
Initially I was fairly impressed with it, there’s some nice interactions and stuff going on.
However, today we (OK, I) updated it to the latest version of the operating system, version 3.0.1. And since then the new iPhone has been a nightmare.
Firstly, Herself always has a lockcode set on the phone, so when you turn it on, you enter a four-digit PIN. Normally, no problem. However, as part of the upgrade to 3.0.1, the iPhone needs to connect back to iTunes, and iTunes can’t do that with a lock code set. Oh, and the iPhone wouldn’t do anything except say “connect me to iTunes”. Nothing else, no way to enter the lock code.
Cue a call to O2 to find out what needs doing, and then one to Apple. Which resulted in…
Factory Reset Number One. Yep, roll it all the way back to how we got it, loss of any settings we’d sorted. Square One. And an OS upgraded to 3.0.1.
And all was well. Um, except for not having any access to wi-fi settings (as in “Not installed” rather than “Not available”) or Bluetooth®. Totally greyed out, nothing there at all.
So a few resets, and another call to Apple.
Half an hour later, Factory Reset Number Two – and still no improvement.
So tomorrow we’re off to Carphone Warehouse, armed with an Issue Number from Apple, to get a replacement iPhone.
Let’s hope that one works better.
I’m not slagging off the iPhone per se – however, my experience with it so far has emphatically not been the most positive one. We’ll see how things go with the second one before I write up a valid review of it…
NIN/JA Tour, O2 Arena
Posted: Thu 16 July, 2009 Filed under: Customer Services, Music, Reviews(ish), Wembley Stadium Parking 1 Comment »Way back in the day, I was a big fan of Janes Addiction, but never got to see them live. Then they reformed and created a new album (Strays), and I still didn’t get to see them live.
And I’ve been a fan of Nine Inch Nails all the way back to the first album, some twenty years ago now.
So it was a complete no-brainer that when the NIN/JA (Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction) tour was announced with UK dates, I was going to be going.
And lo, last night was the night – and amazingly, I got there in plenty of time. (Considering that last time I was going to see them, Ticketmaster never sent the tickets) Hell, I even got to see the support act – a band called Mew, who I wasn’t overly impressed with. Sorry, Lori, they just didn’t do it for me – but bear in mind I said the same thing way back when Muse supported Skunk Anansie, so don’t count on my opinions for much…
Jane’s Addiction, on the other hand, absolutely rocked the place. It was very much a case of “playing the known stuff” – although that’s not a massive challenge when you’ve only released three albums anyway. My only disappointment was that they didn’t play “Hypersonic” from the “Strays” album – but them’s the breaks. They played pretty much everything else they’ve done that was popular and/or well known.
As for NIN themselves, they did even more. Even though Jane’s had been fantastic (and loud!), with a storming lighting set-up, NIN just did the same only more so. Brighter, louder, harder. It was awe-inspiring. Even better, it seemed like almost a retrospective – again, lots of stuff from the first couple of albums, the real crowd-pleasers, with not much from the latest album at all.
Of course, we knew it was going to be something special for the NIN section when they started bringing out extra lights and speaker stacks as well as what had already been on the stage. What we didn’t expect, though, was a guest appearance by Gary Numan for two tracks – he’s been an inspiration to Trent Reznor (the lead of NIN) for years, but it was still pretty stunning to see him live as well.
All told, my enjoyment of the gig was only slightly damaged at the end, when some fuckwit girl called Lisa decided to keel over next to me – she’d been leaning on me for the previous track, and when it came to an end she just fell forwards, not even an attempt to stop herself. Luckily, I was standing right next to the sound-desk enclosure, so was able to yell and get a security guy’s attention, and while he sorted out getting her medical help (and, as it turned out, a wheelchair) I ended up being the main prop for her, with her holding on to the railings of the enclosure. I’ve no idea what she’d taken (it certainly wasn’t a fit, she wasn’t pissed, but her eyeballs were floating off in different directions) but she was like a sack of shit – and roughly as good as one at standing up. All due respect to the O2’s medical and security crews though, they were absolutely fantastic.
It meant I didn’t get to pay the full attention to the final track (an awesome version of “Hurt”) but well, priorities and all that.
Still, it was an absolutely stunning gig – as well as eye-fuckingly bright and brain-throbbingly loud too- and if it is to be (as rumoured) their last tour for a significant time, well it was certainly one hell of a way to go out on a high note…
(Oh, and just to rub it in, it took me less than two hours from leaving the O2 to get back home – I got in at 1am. So suck that Wembley, and your bullshit carparking farce)
Wembley Stadium Parking Revisited
Posted: Thu 9 July, 2009 Filed under: Charm School, Customer Services, Cynicism, D4D™, Music, Reviews(ish), Wembley Stadium Parking 1 Comment »Ten days ago (roughly) I was at Wembley Stadium, and at the end of the evening had a total farce of a time getting out of the car parks. The following morning, I sent off a complaint email to both CS Parking and Wembley Stadium’s “customer services” people.
In fairness to CS Parking, I got a response back pretty quickly from the MD of the company – impressive in itself – after which there was a fairly long email ‘conversation’ about what had happened. That all got closed off by last Friday (i.e. a week after the even) and was all fine. I still think the parking situation is
- Shit
- Unmanaged for people leaving Wembley Stadium
- Farcical
but I can at least now understand why it’s shit, unmanaged, and a total Grade One ClusterFuck.
Wembley Stadium’s customer services, on the other hand, have only just come back to me today, and their email is rather more of a “Not our problem, mate. Go complain to someone else” effort…
All event day parking is managed by a contracted 3rd party; City & Suburban Parking in partnership with the local authority Brent Council and the Metropolitan Police.
The official car parks were full, accommodating in excess of 3,000 cars and in addition there were approx 3,000 cars parked in unauthorised car parks and a further 1,000 vehicles collecting from the area after the concert. As a result of the high volume of traffic, there were delays clearing the car parks the main car parks were not clear until 1½ hours after the end of the concert. We do not believe that these delays are acceptable however the local roads are under the control of Brent Council, not Wembley Stadium. We will be reviewing the exit plans with Brent Council and the Metropolitan Police for future concert events.
Thank you once again for contacting us. We hope you will be able to visit Wembley Stadium again in the future.
Considering that I’ve since had comments here on D4D from people who had the same problem with Wembley Stadium’s Parking after the Take That concerts, I think it’s fair to say that you’re actually far better off if you can avoid using the car parking at Wembley Stadium. Well, either that or make use of the “pirate” car parks around the stadium, rather than the Stadium’s piece-of-shit “official” car parking.
Transformers 2
Posted: Thu 2 July, 2009 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »Last night we finally got round to going to see Transformers 2 (sorry, “Revenge of the Fallen”)
We weren’t expecting much from it, having heard lots of negative – or at best ambivalent – reviews of it being too long, too complex, too this, too that. But all fours of us came out deciding that we’d actually enjoyed it far more than we’d expected to.
Yes, it’s utterly ridiculous – just read the questions and answers here to get some idea of the awesome plot holes and stupidity of the film – but so long as you don’t go in expecting anything other than a hyper-fast stupid film with lots of transforming robots, you’ll do OK.
I do wonder if I’m getting old, though – about two thirds of the way through the film, my poor brain was just wanting the director to slow down a bit, just to let the braincells regroup a bit. Sure, you’re just along for the ride really, (and wow, is it a ridiculous ride in *so* many places) and I guess it does need to be that fast just so you don’t sit back and ask just some of the questions in that Q and A post linked to above, but it would still be good to slow things down a tad on occasion.
As expected, the final half-hour or so is just ridiculously bad, with a bundle of tacked-on sentimentality in case you felt you’d missed it.
So it’s fun – but really, please don’t take your brain into the cinema. If you do, you’ll be badly disappointed – and distracted by those epic plot holes.
AC/DC, Wembley Stadium
Posted: Sun 28 June, 2009 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish), Wembley Stadium Parking Leave a comment »Other than the aforementioned parking nightmare at Wembley Stadium, the rest of the AC/DC gig on Friday was utterly fantastic. Bearing in mind we were about as far as it’s possible to get from the stage…
The view from our seats
So AC/DC themselves were about 1cm high. There were videoscreens either side, which made the viewing experience something akin to watching on a small TV from across the room, but that’s still OK. After all, it’s the sound you’re going for, not the vision – and the sound was storming. Mind you, some people were obviously expected to be just there for the beer…
Carlsberg trailer behind beer tent at floor level
The two-and-a-quarter hours of AC/DC just rocked the place. Interestingly, they only played about five tracks from the latest album, Black Ice, and the rest came from all over the last thirty-odd years. And all of it was ace. Several firm favourites got played, including Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Back in Black, Hells Bells and (of course) For Those About To Rock as a finale, along with cannon blasts.
It wasn’t a show in the same way as the one Pink did recently, but it was still a show – the lighting was spectacular (and improved through the night, as the sun went down) and everyone seemed to have a fantastic time. Personally I felt the ten-plus minutes of Angus’ guitar soloing was a move too far, and could’ve had a couple more tracks instead. But that’s just me.
The AC/DC lightshow
All told, a seriously good gig – I’d go and see them again no worries.
Knackered
Posted: Sat 27 June, 2009 Filed under: Driving, Reviews(ish), Travel, Wembley Stadium Parking Leave a comment »So, yesterday was the AC/DC “Black Ice Tour” concert at Wembley Stadium – and right now I’m utterly knackered.
I left the house at 2.15 to go and collect the other person (the almost-brother-in-law) I was going with from Dereham before starting off for London at about 3.30 to go thrashing down to Wembley. We got there about 6pm – not too bad, although we could’ve done better if the satnav hadn’t decided to mis-direct us on the North Circular. Still, got there in plenty of time.
Wembley is bloody impressive – and effing huge. We were right up at the top, which meant that the band were about a centimetre high – although the big video screens either side of the stage meant they were much bigger – ooh, almost like watching a video of them live.
Anyway, two hours of standing, watching the gig – which was ace, and for which another post is due to be written (along with manky cameraphone pictures) – before heading home.
And that was where it all went a bit tits-up. You see, Wembley Stadium may be dead easy to get out of, but the car-parks really aren’t. Considering you’ve paid £25 – yes, twenty-fucking-five quid – to CS Parking (also known as City and Suburban parking) in order to park, I’d expect at least a couple of people out there guiding drivers and managing the traffic flow. But no. The parking situation when you’re coming out of Wembley Stadium is a total, complete and utter fuck-up. So we waited for half an hour, then decided to move, and all told it took an hour and a quarter to get out of Wembley Stadium’s car parking.
Once we’d done that, it was plain sailing – straight round the M40, M25, M11 and A11. Easy. I was back in Dereham at 2:45 and home at about 3:15.
But dear God I’m tired today – and my feet fucking hurt, too. There’s a learning experience in that – possibly “lose some weight you fat bastard”. We’ll see.
Terminator Salvation
Posted: Thu 4 June, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »Last night we went to see the new Terminator film, Salvation. And bloody good it is, too. Well, assuming you’ve liked the other Terminator films – and we’ll eliminate T3 from the equation, because that was unutterable shit.
It’s not a continuation from the other films – it’s being called a “reboot”, which I would also say isn’t strictly true. It’s different, in the same kind of way that “Aliens” is completely different to “Alien” – the basics are the same, but also things have changed – as they say in the film, “This isn’t the future I was told about”. Which of course is at least half the fun with films involving time travel in the way the Terminator ones do. (And can you believe it’s 25 years since the original Terminator film?)
The main change in this though is that it doesn’t involve any time travel. Instead, it’s all taking place in the future, with an adult John Connor. They’ve taken the time to look at how the machines would work/evolve, including bringing in a couple of new types of machine which make sense, and look fantastic.
The film’s slightly let down by the last ten minutes or so, which descend into American morality and predictability – but other than that, it’s a pretty stunning ride. Even better, it actually makes sense for the most part – there are fairly large holes in a couple of the concepts, but you’re willing to suspend that for a while, at least.
All told, it’s well worth seeing (again, based on the assumption that Terminator movies are your thing) and makes for an entertaining- and intense – couple of hours. Far better than Wolverine, that’s for sure…
The Shield – Finale
Posted: Tue 19 May, 2009 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »I’ve been watching the TV series The Shield since the first episode, and it’s always been stunning. It’s a lot darker than most TV series, and a lot more morally grey, based around the life of a corrupt police squad in a district of LA. The prime character, Vic Mackey, has throughout been juggling gangs and drug dealers with the needs of the police – including robbing the Albanian Mafia of $2m for the needs of his team and their families. You can begin to see what I mean about morally grey…
Anyway, this week was the final episode – it’s been going for seven seasons, and the writers decided to bring it to a proper close, rather than leaving things open to fate and falling viewing statistics.
And it was the right thing to do – the finale was just as stunning as the first episode, with everything being brought to a close. Mackey continued to be a scheming swine, and all the other stories came to a pretty satisfactory close too.
All told, yeah, I’m dead impressed. Might even consider getting the full seven-series box-set (once it’s come down in price a bit, anyway)
X-Men Origins : Wolverine
Posted: Mon 11 May, 2009 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 2 Comments »On Friday, we finally got round to seeing X-Men Origins : Wolverine. I’ve liked the previous three X-Men films (Yes, even the third, although it was nowhere near as good as the first two) and the trailers looked stunning.
The entire film can be pretty much summed up in the following :
OK, so there’s this guy who’s pretty much indestructible. Let’s complement that with an impregnable metal skeleton.
Oh fuck, he’s gone rogue. Kill him.
Um. How?
All told, it’s an OK film – but not a great one. Gordon commented about some of the ropy CGI effects but I’ve got to say, I thought there were a number of other times where the CGI looked seriously ropy, and in ways that detracted from the film.
As mindless entertainment, it’s OK – nothing earth-shattering, but not abysmal either – just don’t go thinking into it too much.
Was it worth seeing? Yes.
Would I bother seeing X-Men Origins : Magneto, or even Wolverine 2 ? No, not ’til it comes out on DVD, I expect.
Pink at the O2 – 1st May
Posted: Tue 5 May, 2009 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »I’ve seen Pink in concert before – but it was many moons ago, back at the Manchester Apollo. In fact, having checked back, it was pre-D4D that I went, which gives a fine range on how long ago it was.
Anyway, at that point it was small venue and her first tour in the UK. She was fantastic then, but the stage was pretty minimal.
What a contrast to this tour. The Funhouse tour is – to say the least – spectacular, and a world away from that first tour. Right from the start, as Pink comes out of a magic box, you know it’s going to be something special.
I won’t give away the surprises in the show – suffice it say there’s a couple of superb covers of tracks I honestly never thought I’d say that about – but it’s a spectacular in every sense of the word. The really impressive part is where Pink also goes up on a trapeze – while singing “Sober” – and does so perfectly, even while doing the drops etc. It’s a truly impressive sight.
In fact, the entire show is stunning, from the lights to the multi-video-screen backdrop, the runway out into the audience, the trapeze and ropework, the entire stage set – it’s just stunning.
Well worth going to see if you get the chance.
Mileage (Part Two)
Posted: Sat 2 May, 2009 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Reviews(ish), Sweary, Travel Leave a comment »So, yesterday – all told it involved 310 miles, 8 hours of driving, and one exceptionally knackered Lyle.
The drive down to Wokingham from home was OK, not too painful (even on the M25, which was slow but not abysmal) and I did it in 2.5 hours all told. Drop off Hound at her place of residence for the next week, have some lunch, and it’s half three. So I decide I’ll head over to Greenwich and the O2.
It’s at that point that I realise I haven’t got the normal sat-nav in the car. I had it the day before for the drive to Welwyn Garden City, then Herself used it in the evening, and I’d forgotten to make sure I got it back. Oh bollocks.
So instead I had to trust the POS sat-nav thing on my phone – a heap of crap called Wayfinder. And Jesus H Christ on a warped pine crutch, it really is a piece of shit. First of all it took no less than fifteen minutes to find where the fuck it was – although that may be a fault of the phone’s GPS rather than Wayfinder. However, the fact that it was consistently 400 ft out was entirely the fault of Wayfinder, and meant that it had a nasty habit of saying “Oh, you wanted to turn left back there“. Now I’m sure that’s fine out in the arse of beyond where 400 ft doesn’t mean a thing – but in central London, 400 ft is the equivalent of about six roads.
Wayfinder also wanted me to go some deeply surreal routes. My original idea had been to go southbound (anticlockwise) round the M25 from the M4, get to the junction for (probably) the A2, and belt straight up to Greenwich – probably the longer and (in theory) quicker route. Only (as usual for the M25 on a Friday) it was jammed solid for about six junctions. Fuck that, thinketh I. (And bear in mind here, Wayfinder was trying to tell me to go northbound on the M25 instead)
So – straight along the M4, into the city, through. Only that was buggered too. (And Wayfinder kept planning on taking me back north of the river for some fuckforsaken reason)
So – round the infamous South Circular Road. I know a bit of it, but not all of it, so I might have to rely on satnav a bit. And there laid my biggest mistake of all. Because Wayfinder didn’t want me to take the simple South Circular (A205) route round to the A2. It wanted to take me the tourist way (and also possibly to get up to the M40 and go through from there). Every fucking time. And be 400 ft out in its estimations. All the fucking way round.
Eventually I gave up on it, once it tried taking me through Elephant and Castle.
From there, and pretty epically lost – I knew very roughly where I was, where I needed to be, and roughly the roads I needed to take – I finally found myself, got back on the road I wanted, and once I’d done that it was a 30 minute run through to the O2 itself. I should have been able to do the route in 90 minutes, give or take – maybe 2 hours in shitty rush-hour traffic.
Instead, because of the cuntbrick piece of shit satnav software, it took me three and a half bollocking hours to do fifty miles. Yeah, go on and laugh, fuckers.
By contrast, the drive home was two hours door-to-door, and belted past. We got home at 1:15.
I’ll write more about the Pink concert itself later or tomorrow – but for now let’s just say it was fan-bloody-tastic. Well impressed all round.
New MP3 Player
Posted: Sat 10 January, 2009 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish), Thoughts 1 Comment »Over the Festering Season break, and as part of an impetus to get me back to the gym, I invested in a new MP3 player – the Sony Walkman S638F, with 16Gb of storage. Equally, my last MP3 player (purchased before I even started D4D™!) has now disappeared – although I’m sure we’ll now find it this weekend – so there was another valid reason to buy a new one.
Yes, sure, I could’ve bought an iPod instead, but considering I only paid £85 for it, I couldn’t have got a similar spec (or even a better spec) one for the same price. Plus well, I’m not a massive fan of Apple’s stuff anyway, and I’d rather have something different. The Walkman had a damn good review in the Register, and fitted in with other requirements as well, so it was pretty much the obvious choice.
And I have to say, I’m really pleased with it. The sound quality is spectacular – having been tested on some of my favourite tunes, I’m tempted to say it’s actually the best music player I’ve had since the old Panasonic ‘cobra top’ ghetto-blaster (which still lives on nearly fifteen years after purchase, and is an evil beast of a thing that used to be able to drown out the next-door pub’s disco-night)
As per my last post on MP3 players and storage (back in 2005) I really don’t see myself filling up that 16Gb unless I also download some videos from the BBC iPlayer site to watch on it while at the gym. I might fill it- you never know- but at the moment I’m using 7.5Gb of the available space, and that’s got enough variety to keep me going all week.
We’ll see.
But in the meantime, if someone’s looking for a new MP3 player, the Walkman ‘S’ range comes heavily recommended.
Tracy Chapman – Hammersmith Apollo
Posted: Tue 16 December, 2008 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Two years on from the last time we saw her, Tracy Chapman returned to the Hammersmith Apollo, this time doing a solo tour. (i.e. with no band)
Thankfully, this time the crowd were much better behaved (well at least while Chapman herself was on stage) which meant we could enjoy the gig without wanting to strangle anyone. There’s still a couple of rants to be written, but that’s something else entirely. Anyway, it turns out that in this concert (and, I assume, others on the same tour) she’s also taking requests from people – there were cards in the entrance hall, and people could fill them in and request favourite songs. As she said, this meant that the show was a lot more random than could be done with a band.
All told, pretty much all the favourites were played, along with tracks from the new album. She didn’t perform a couple of my personal favourites (In particular “Change”, “You’re the one” and “Another Sun”) but that’s fine – the tracklist was still excellent, with Fast Car, Across the Lines, SubCity, Talkin’ about a Revolution, and many others. In short, almost a “Greatest Hits” performance, with just Chapman and a guitar.
The stage set also deserves a mention – while it was minimal, the backdrop of a sky with projected sun going through from dawn to dusk was fantastically done, and the very simple setting of a few lightbulbs hanging above the singer somehow made the entire thing quite magical. It sounds really simple – and it was – but it worked, and that’s always the important thing.
In all, Tracy Chapman played for two solid hours, despite having a cold/cough (she said that at the previous day’s concert, she’d induldged in some cough-syrup, which apparently led to some interesting spoken parts) and really was just a fantastic performer. The interludes where she talked were great, showing her intelligence and humour (at one point saying that if she went off for a costume change, she’d only come back wearing a different pair of jeans) and a building a real rapport with the audience.
If I’d been smarter, we’d have got tickets for both shows (last night and tonight) and just stayed in London overnight. But we didn’t, so we’ll just have to live with only seeing her once this tour. It would’ve been worth doing.
Sony C905 Mobile
Posted: Fri 28 November, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Photography, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Ten days ago, I got the new mobile phone that I’d been whittling on about – the Sony-Ericsson (SE) C905. It was an upgrade from my old SE K800i, and so far I’m impressed with it.
While I don’t use it that often, the 8Mp camera on the phone is impressive when it comes to everyday photos. I haven’t played with night or low-light shots etc. yet, but I’m sure I will at some point. But (as last weekend’s photos of the snow show) it certainly brings out some good results in general use.
There are annoyances, but they’re more down to decisions by the maker than the phone itself – for example, the simple changes of function buttons, so where one used to use the right-hand control button to get to an option, it’s now on the left. (which the “Back” or “Cancel” button now being the right-hand one) I know I’ll re-learn the muscle-memory to take me to the correct button before long, but while getting used to it, it’s an annoyance.
And the thing is, there’s a lot that hasn’t changed. The menu system is much the same as it was on the K800i, so you kind of expect the option buttons to remain the same too.
The a-GPS is still incredibly slow when it comes to finding itself, and the navigation software isn’t all that great (although that may change over time) but it’s better than nothing, and will probably get tested over time. We’ll see.
The keypad takes some getting used to – there’s no real definition between the keys on each row, so it’s (currently) very easy to hit the wrong key while touch-typing a text message (Yeah, I can do that. I know, I’m sad.) or whatever, so you do need to check the screen before sending. But it’s a good responsive keyboard, which helps.
Call quality is the same as I had on the K800i – no problems, no issues, and all calls come through nice and clear. Because we’re out in the sticks, we don’t have full 3G coverage, so I can’t comment at all about video call quality – but then, I’ve never used them anyway, so *shrug*.
Internet and GPRS access are decent – even better, the phone also has Wi-Fi, so it can connect over a wireless network if one’s available – and generally pretty usable. Email send/receive over the mobile network is slow, but acceptable if I need to use it instead of the laptop for some reason…
Overall though, it’s a really nice bit of kit – of course, I’m sure it’ll be completed outmoded within 18 months, but that’s the way of things at the moment. As it is, it’s a good phone, and I’m pleased with it.
Frankie Boyle, Cambridge Corn Exchange
Posted: Tue 25 November, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Reviews(ish) 6 Comments »Over the weekend, we went to see Frankie Boyle’s live show at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. Never heard of him? He’s one of the primary panellists (and probably the most consistently rude/offensive/’edgy’/dark one) on BBC’s “Mock The Week”, which we’ve always enjoyed, so we figured it was worth giving a go to the live show.
All in all, it was OK. There was a significant amount (I’d say probably 40-50%) that we’d already heard on Mock The Week, or other appearances he’s made, which I have to say I find pretty disappointing. Comparing his show to that of Dara O’Briain (who we’ve now seen twice) it was obvious that Frankie Boyle’s show was a lot more scripted, without the audience involvement that O’Briain brings to his show. Boyle’s conversations with the audience felt like they were pretty much a template, there wasn’t anything that flowed from those conversations, and so it all felt quite stilted in some ways.
Also, he was only on stage for seventy minutes. No encore at all – just a “Thanks, you’ve been great, bye.” at 10pm. Fortunately there’d also been a warm-up act, so it wasn’t a rip-off of Sarah Silverman levels – but I suspect we’d have felt a lot more annoyed if we hadn’t only paid £10 each for the tickets. (thanks to a ‘restricted view’ that really wasn’t)
So yeah, it was OK. I don’t think we’d bother going to see him again – in direct contrast to having seen Dara O’Briain twice in three years, as well as having the DVD of his live show – but it was OK entertainment for a Saturday night.
The Dark Knight
Posted: Sat 2 August, 2008 Filed under: Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »The other evening, we finally got round to seeing The Dark Knight. And damn, it’s good.
Personally, I far preferred it to Batman Begins. Maybe it was just me, but I found a lot of BB didn’t really gel together, and felt more like a sequence of setpieces than a complete film. (And yes, I know that hasn’t stopped one hell of a lot of directors. But there we go, it was how I felt about it) Whatever, my opinion was that Dark Knight was far better written, and it did hold together as a full film.
There are still some weak bits – some of the effects for Two-Face were (in my opinion) decidedly ropy and detracted from the film. Whereas you could believe in Heath Ledger’s Joker, Two-Face was more of a slap in the face of disbelief suspension every time you saw it, and that just never works satisfactorily. And I find the bass-amplified/rasped voice of Batman to be really really annoying after a while. Sure, I know, it’s supposedly ‘disguised’ so people don’t identify the man beneath the mask, but really, it’s just annoying.
And of course then there’s Heath Ledger’s role as the Joker. A lot of the hype is that he’ll get a posthumous Oscar for this film, and I have to say that I’m not convinced on that score. I do think he’s stunning, and I also think that you don’t see him as the Joker and think “Oh yeah, that’s the guy who was in Knight’s Tale” or whatever other film – which for me is the sign of a good actor. He’d also certainly put in enough creepy extra mannerisms, and had made a full-fledged character out of the Joker. But Oscar-worthy? I’m not convinced.
The actor I do think is stunning though, is Gary Oldman. Now there is someone who really doesn’t connect one role with others. In this, you don’t even think of Inspector Gordon as being Gary Oldman. On the other end of the scale there’s Michael Caine, who really can’t be anything else except Michael Caine in another outfit.
All told, I really enjoyed The Dark Knight. I’m also with Dragon on wondering who the bad guys will be in the next one. With the developments in The Dark Knight, the next film will certainly be an interesting ride…
Wanted
Posted: Thu 26 June, 2008 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Last night, I went off to see “Wanted“, the new film with James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie. I wasn’t expecting loads from it, but the trailers have all looked stunning, so it was definitely on the “want to see” list, if only for the effects, and the fact that I love the other stuff that director Timur Bekmambetov has done. (Night Watch, Day Watch)
And wow, is it worth seeing. Of course, it’s absolute rubbish – but it’s incredibly watchable and visually astounding rubbish. I can think of at least three parts where you do just sit there with your mouth open, wondering how the hell they did [x], or got the idea for it in the first place. It’s that stunning. It’s also surprisingly violent in places – something that seems to be happening less and less, unless you’re into Hostel, Saw and the like. (and I’m not – horror/blood porn does nothing for me at all) It makes sense for the most part, but you certain raise your eyebrows a bit because of some of the scenes.
Even the final scenes carry a surprise – and that’s all I’m going to say about it. It works really well, but there’s at least one serious surprise in there.
More surprisingly, Angelina Jolie is OK as well. She’s someone I’ve never really been a fan of, but in Wanted she carries off the role pretty well.
All told, just go and see it. Don’t expect high art, but do expect to suspend disbelief for two hours, sit down, and enjoy the ride.
“Scarecrow” by Matthew Reilly
Posted: Tue 10 June, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Writing 3 Comments »While we were on holiday, I ran out of things to read – quite a shock to the system, it has to be said. Fortunately (and I use the term in its loosest possible sense) the place we were staying had some books as well. Unfortunately, the one I chose to read (as per the title of the post) was Matthew Reilly’s “Scarecrow“.
Oh. My. God.
If I’m being polite, I’d say that it managed to redefine my limits of “Worst book I’ve ever read”. I could even say that it managed the previously unheard-of achievement of making “The Da Vinci Code” look well-written and intelligent.
If I’m going back to being Lyle, I’d just say that it’s easily the biggest piece of shit it’s ever been my misfortune to set eyes on. It’s fucking awful. (And yes, I did finish the bloody thing. I’m really bad at admitting defeat with a book, even if it does suck the balls of dead donkeys)
You can see that Reilly really wants this book to be a film – it’s written in that style, and even adds emphasis and italics (and exclamation marks) to the bits you can tell he thinks would make good action scenes. However, even Michael Bay would decide that it’s fucking awful, and would make a rubbish film – and he’s the one who gave us “The Rock” and “Bad Boys, for fuck’s sake. Scarecrow really is that bad.
I don’t mind the odd thriller cliché – the last minute escape, for example. But Scarecrow managed to have about eight or nine of these last-minute “He just managed to jump out of the speeding truck in time” things – one is OK, two stretches credibility, but eight just makes you think “Oh for christ’s sake, get another idea. PLEASE.”. Or words to that effect.
All told, it was an execrable pile of festering donkey-shit. I hope to never read another book by the same author, even in times of desperation. If I wanted donkey-shit masquerading as fiction, I’d rather read the Daily Mail next time.
Iron Man
Posted: Mon 12 May, 2008 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 3 Comments »So another film adaptation of a comic book. Ho hum. However, this one’s got Robert Downey Junior in the starring role – which should at least guarantee it’s watchable.
In fairness, Iron Man was actually OK. I’ve seen far worse comic-book adaptations (I’m looking at you, Hulk) but nor is it one of the best – not by a long chalk.
The storyline has a lot of bits that feel like afterthoughts, or “Oh yeah, we could do that” moments. Effects-wise it’s fantastic, and Jeff Bridges makes for a pretty good baddie – but all the same it’s let down (in my opinion) by a pretty ropy and by-the-numbers storyline that leaves too much stuff either a) up in the air or b) forgotten about.
Compared to the (currently re-showing on BBC) Indiana Jones trilogy, it really shows its weakness – Iron Man’s OK to watch once, but would I think “Oooh, good” if I saw it on TV in even ten years time? Absolutely not.
Derren Brown – The Show
Posted: Thu 6 March, 2008 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 9 Comments »So a couple of people have asked how the Derren Brown show was, and I have to say, it was bloody good. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first one I saw, but it was still excellent.
He’s very good on stage, mixing up a whole heap of things including sarcasm, charm, showmanship, illusion, misdirection, and a bundle of others. And while some of the tricks are vaguely obvious and understandable, there are others that just leave me (and many others) still firmly convinced that there are stooges and colleagues in the audience. Logically, there’s no other explanation – but you never know.
All told, the show is well worth seeing – it’s a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours.
Highly recommended. Just expect a headache by the end of it as you try to work out what the hell’s going on, how tricks are done, and just which gestures are actually forces, and which are misdirectiion.
Cowboy Junkies – Royal Albert Hall, London
Posted: Thu 11 October, 2007 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 2 Comments »As regular readers know, I’ve been a fan of the Cowboy Junkies for a long, long time now – well, the best part of twenty years. The first thing I heard of theirs was the Trinity Sessions album (as it turned out, their second album, but the one that started spreading the word about just how good they were) and it’s still, twenty years on, always in my Top Three favourite albums. So when we saw that they were redoing the entire album live at the Royal Albert Hall, well, it was a no-brainer really.
The entire show – well, show’s not the right word, “performance” might be better – was awesome. Not just a copy of the album (although, well, I’d have been just as happy with that, to be honest) but instead it was the same songs, same order, but slightly different versions – helped along the way by the addition of Ryan Adams on guitar (and singing) and Thea Gilmore as a backing vocalist. They’re also releasing a “Trinity Sessions Revisited” album + DVD to mark the occasion/gigs/idea.
To me, seeing the performance of the full album – and to my mind, it’s still also their best album, as well as being on of my all-time favourites – was just fantastic. I’ve seen them do a fair number of the songs before, but to see the entire album was just something else.
Because the entire album only runs at about the hour, there was plenty of time for encores, and again they played a couple of old favourites as well as a couple of tracks from their latest album.
All told, it was just fantastic. I haven’t been all that great this year with gigs, but there was no way we were going to miss this one, and it was well worth it – worth paying for the tickets, the London Congestion charge, the parking, the 2.5 hour drive each way, worth all of it. Absolutely brilliant.
Long may the Cowboy Junkies continue to record, and long may they keep on coming back to the UK to play. I’ll be there.
Lazy Scripting
Posted: Thu 4 October, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Writing 3 Comments »One of my favourite programmes at the moment is “Not Going Out”, on BBC1. It’s a very silly sitcom, but well-written, and with a far higher selection of jokes than most of the other comedies on TV. Mainly because at least half the script seems to consist of one-liners, but what the hell, it makes me laugh more than just about anything else on TV.
It’s in its second series now, which is just as good as the first all ways but one, and it’s that one piece that annoys me.
In the first season, a woman appeared as a masseur in one episode. That’s fine. But now, in the second season, the same actress is now playing a cleaner. Same character, different job. And what annoys me is that this change of job has never been mentioned, much less explained. It wouldn’t take much, just a simple nod to having been a masseur, but wanting to do a cleaner job, or somesuch. That’s all it would have taken, but its not been done.
In short, it’s just lazy script-writing. It wouldn’t have taken any real effort to either write a bit more script, or even just to cast a different actress, but no they couldn’t be bothered. And that annoys me. It won’t stop me from liking the programme, but it does annoy me when I watch it.
Transformers
Posted: Mon 30 July, 2007 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 2 Comments »What can you say about the Transformers film? It’s loud, hyperfast, utterly ridiculous, with dollops of American sentimentality that leave you choking, they’re so bad. The speed of the action makes you come out feeling like you’ve spent 90 minutes on the world’s fastest rollercoaster. Insanely fast, in fact.
But then again, what else did you expect from a film directed by Michael Bay, and based on a cartoon in the first place?
However, it’s also two and a half hours of pretty much non-stop action alongside some of the best special effects I’ve seen in ages. The robots don’t look like they’re computer generated – and it’s all done so well that you actually do suspend disbelief (well, until you’re given the chance to think about it, anyway) – it feels like the robots were just filmed as part of the action. And that’s impressive, however you look at it, and however you feel about American action films.
Mind you, it’s also interesting, seeing the way that some films now seem to be showing the law-enforcement agencies as being not always the good guys. Mind you, the person playing the part of the lead FBI-faction agency should’ve been shot at birth. He is awful, and the ‘performance’ (if you can call it that) jars with pretty much the rest of the film.
All told though, it’s a fantastic film, far more fun than either Spiderman 3 or Pirates 3 – both of which should have been fun, but weren’t. Both of those films felt far longer than their actual running time, whereas Transformers managed to feel like 90 minutes while actually being an hour longer than that.
iPlayer
Posted: Sun 29 July, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised, Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »So yes, I’m signed up with the BBC’s iPlayer TV on demand. I’ve tried the Channel 4 version, 4oD, which is OK, so I thought I’d give the BBC one a go too.
And so far it seems to be OK. The “zoom” doesn’t work on my machine, leaving you with just ‘diddy’ screen or full screen, but one assumes that’s a bug fix that’ll come along soon. The actual playback quality is pretty impressive, and while the library of available programmes isn’t currently all that great, it’s not bad either. And of course there’ll be more stuff as time goes on.
All told, an interesting idea. Now it just remains to be seen whether I’ll actually use it…
Die Hard 4.0
Posted: Thu 5 July, 2007 Filed under: Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Die Hard 4 is a very silly film. It’s also highly entertaining, and well worth the money to go see it.
Well, so long as you enjoyed any of the other Die Hard films, of course. If you didn’t, don’t bother – it’s more of the same.
We both thoroughly enjoyed it though.
Changing Phones
Posted: Tue 19 June, 2007 Filed under: Geeky, Getting Organised, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »I’ve finally given up on the mini-XDA (a rebranded iMate K-JAM) PDA/Phone I got last year, and organised an ‘upgrade’ phone. (OK, technically it’s a ‘downgrade’, from PDA to normal phone-type phone, but there we go)
I got the XDA back in February last year, so I’ve had it nigh-on eighteen months, which counts (to me) as a fair crack of the whip. And as a PDA-type device, it’s great. In fact, in general it’s a pretty good device. The keyboard is great, and has managed to handle my heavy-thumbed style for a year and a half without showing any excessive wear, or any problems with the keys themselves. I can still type text messages and emails with no problem at all, the hinge/slide mechanism is still solid (despite feeling really plastic and fragile) and all told it’s a fantastic bit of kit.
So why am I changing it? Simply, it comes down to one thing. Windows Mobile 5®™. Which is an utter piece of shit, and should be dragged out back, beaten soundly, then shot. Repeatedly. And then (if there’s a voodoo priest around) it should be reanimated, beaten again, and shot again. Just to make sure.
Now in fairness, some of the problem is also down to the (slow) processor and memory on the XDA. But that’s only maybe 10% of the problem. The rest is Windows Mobile. The biggest issue is that it crashes. Regularly. Like once every couple of days. And when it crashes, it does so silently and invisibly. You don’t get a warning, or a Blue Screen of Death, it just completely locks up. This also means that I get to miss calls, text messages and the like. The only way you know it’s crashed is when you try and do something, only to see that it’s locked up, and is in need of a restart.
And that’s the thing I hate the most about the XDA – it needs to have that restart every couple of days at most. One of the things that kills it the most is – are you ready for this – recharging the battery. It’s not the only thing that kills it, but it’s certainly the most regular one. Connect the charger, leave it to charge up, and there we go, crashed. Other things kill it too, but they’re more random. Hell, it’s been known that just swapping the screen from vertical to horizontal format has crashed it.
In short, Windows Mobile 5 is (in the context of the XDA) about as stable as a tower-block made of jelly.
And that is why I’m taking a step back, and getting a Sony Ericsson K800i instead.
@Media Day One – thoughts
Posted: Mon 11 June, 2007 Filed under: @Media2007, Reviews(ish), Thoughts 2 Comments »For the Thursday, these are the presentations I saw…
- Jesse James Garrett : Beyond Ajax
- Molly E. Holzschlag : Broken World: Solving the Browser Problem
- Nate Koechly : High Performance Web Pages
- Dan Cederholm : Interface Design Juggling
- Mark Boulton : Five Simple Steps to Better Typography
- Joe Clark : When Accessibility Is Not Your Problem
*Clicky* on the ‘more’ link to see what I thought…
Read the rest of this entry »
@Media – First thoughts
Posted: Sun 10 June, 2007 Filed under: @Media2007, Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »So, @Media 2007. Was it any good?
The short answer? Yes, absolutely. Was it worth the (roughly) £700 for it ?(including the price of the conference, hotel for two nights, and train ticket etc.) Again, to me, a resounding yes. Mind you, I just wish that- when you consider the amount of money spent per person– for the conference, the food wasn’t such generic slop, despite being a different supplier to last year. Then again, I said that last year too…
That’s the basic summary – I’ll be writing more over the next couple of days about the presentations I saw, and some thoughts about them. Call me Mr Comprehensive…
Pirates of the Caribbean 3
Posted: Sat 2 June, 2007 Filed under: Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Hmm, it seems like this is the year of the trilogy. (Well, the year for ‘part 3’s , anyway)
Spiderman 3 is, as I’ve already said, utter abysmal crap. I had higher hopes for Pirates 3 – no idea why, really, but well, I did.
And in that context, I can’t deny, I was disappointed. Whereas the first one (and, to some degree, the second) were fun movies, where you could see that the actors involved had a good time, and where the sheer silliness took over, they still had a decent (if ridiculous) storyline. The third one had the storyline, but it didn’t have the feeling of fun and silliness. More speeches, more drama, more ‘serious’ acting and actors (pronounced actors) – but missing those vital elements of silliness and fun.
In its own right, as a pirate film, it’s still fine, and could probably stand on its own quite happily. (Better than Cutthroat Island ever did, anyway) But in comparison with the first two, it’s just nowhere near as good.
The effects are still stunning, as are a lot of the designs (I still love the design and the intricacy of the Flying Dutchman and crew) – but then, I’m an effects geek at the best of times. But it still doesn’t matter how much money and ingenuity you throw into effects if the film is still basically weak.
Although, as I’ve said, it’s not weak as a stand-alone movie, it is in comparison with 1 and 2. I can watch Pirates 1 repeatedly, purely because of it’s silliness – and the effects add an extra dimension to that as well – but this one I’d happily never see again.
So all in all, yeah, just a bit of a disappointment. And seriously bloody long. Three hours really is pushing it – and even more when the cinema does an intermission as well.
Spiderman 3
Posted: Tue 8 May, 2007 Filed under: Charm School, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »Well, I’m no Barry Norman or Jonathon Ross, but I can still sum up Spiderman 3 pretty well.
It’s shit.
Shockingly, depressingly bad; overlong, and well, just shit. I guess it was expected. What I didn’t expect was to come out thinking “You know, in the terms of trilogies, and final parts thereof, maybe Blade Trinity wasn’t so bad after all”. And Blade Trinity sucked the balls of dead gorillas.
Spiderman 3 could’ve – hell, should’ve- been done in 90 minutes, just a slam through where you didn’t have to think about it too much, just a powered blitz through the storyline. But no, it’s all got to be so emotional, and there’s got to be a story curve where most of the bits from the previous two get cleaned up and closed off. But we don’t need any of the Sandman (No, not Gaiman’s Sandman Morpheus) sections, although from an effects point of view they’re cool. We don’t need half the shit about splitting up with MJ – and we particularly don’t need that bloody awful jazz-club scene.
The problem with “Peter Parker goes bad” is that he can’t go truly bad, because he’s the ‘hero’, so all he can do is go out and look like Jarvis Cocker without the specs. A little bit emo, nothing special. And utterly, utterly unbelievable. (I know, I know, we’re talking about a comic-book movie. But still.)
In short, if it’d been done in 90 minutes, it’d (probably) be OK. As it is, it’s shit. Don’t even bother.
And Sony? That’s another 2.5 hours of my life I want back, you bastards.
Upgrade
Posted: Sat 21 April, 2007 Filed under: Geeky, Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »On the laptop, I don’t have MS Office – instead, I use OpenOffice, and for my email Mozilla Thunderbird, which is a stonking bit of kit, and satisfactorily replaces Microsoft Outlook for everything I do. I keep on considering installing a calendar plugin like Lightning or Sunbird, as it’s now the only thing missing from Thunderbird’s functionality that I find occasionally useful – although obviously not occasionally enough to actually do anything about it.
Anyway, now Thunderbird 2.0 has been released, and I’ve installed it this evening. So far, it’s looking good. A much nicer front-end (which isn’t essential, but does help) with the ability to add tags to emails for easier searching/archiving, updated junk mail stuff, and – most interestingly to me – being able to use browser-style ‘back’ and ‘forward’ buttons to navigate to replies etc. in any specific email. To me, that’s brilliant.
I’ll write more about it as I go on further with Thunderbird. But initially, yeah, it’s definitely a great upgrade.
SatNav – Initial Thoughts
Posted: Sat 6 January, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish), Travel 2 Comments »Well, in general I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with the TomTom. It’s got some idiosyncracies -including, at one point, directing me through a couple of very dodgy little side-roads in order to go round a church one way when there’s a perfectly good A-road going round it the other way – but it’s successfully navigated us to the three houses we were looking at today.
The set-up of the entire thing was dead easy too, and so far I’ve been impressed with the entire thing. Well, except for those little routing idiosyncracies, of course.
Anyway, that’s the first day of proper use for it, so I’ll write more about it once we’ve got used to it (and used it) a fair bit more.
Londinium
Posted: Sun 24 December, 2006 Filed under: Own Business, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Well, we’re back home. Knackered, but it was worth it.
I’ll write more about the St Martins Lane Hotel on Where’s Good (and add a link here when I’ve got round to it – ooh look, there it is) but well, while it was OK, I can honestly say I wasn’t overly impressed. It’s OK – I’ve certainly stayed in far worse – but the overall impression is one that can be summarised as “Trying way too hard”.
Sound of Music, on the other hand, was bloody marvellous. I must be one of the very few people in the world who has never seen the film, so I didn’t really know what to expect – yes, I’ve seen clips, and know most of the songs, but I’d not seen the show in its entirety.
Anyway, it was absolutely great. On a techie front, the set is stunning – the way scenery changes and moves is brilliant. The rest of it, cast etc. is great too – well worth the price of the tickets, and definitely something worth seeing.
Secret Millionaire
Posted: Thu 30 November, 2006 Filed under: Getting Organised, Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »Last night, on Channel 4, I watched one of the best (in my opinion) bits of TV this year. Made by the same people as “Faking It” (which was another of my long-term favourite series), “Secret Millionaire” each week takes one multi-millionaire and puts them in a scenario way outside their normal environment.
In last night’s programme (the first of the series) Ben Way was in one of the most deprived parts of London, the “Murder Mile” of Hackney, volunteering to work in the local youth centre, the Pedro Club. In an area with one of the highest percentages of under-16s in the country, this is the only youth centre, and it was really awesome to see how much they did with so little.
The kicker for the programme, though, is that these (in general) self-made multimillionaires are also looking at where their donations could have the greatest effect, the most benefits, and be appreciated the most. And it makes for great TV, when Way came back at the end of the ‘volunteering’, fully suited and booted, to give cheques to the people he’d decided needed it the most, or would benefit the most.
OK, he “only” gave away £40,000 – but to the people involved, those amounts could’ve had an extra zero on them, for the impact they made.
For me, though, it was also seeing that at the end, Way is still going back to the Pedro Centre, and is still heavily involved. To him, it wasn’t ‘just’ a TV programme – this was something where he learned about other people, got involved, and stayed involved.
Maybe I do live in an altruistic bubble, where I believe that people should work better with each other, and yes, maybe I am a bit of a hippie about some of these things. But this was a programme that kind of reaffirmed those ideas in me, and it was great to see something on TV that was about something rather more altruistic, touchy-feely, and generous than the great majority of current mainstream programmes.
Well worth the effort of finding it, if it’s repeated – alternatively, the next episode will be next Wednesday, on Channel 4, 9pm.
The Travelodge Rant or Mistakes I have made (Part One)
Posted: Tue 3 October, 2006 Filed under: Customer Services, Reviews(ish), Travel 1 Comment »Well, I can honestly say that booking myself into the Travelodge this week was a mistake. An epic mistake, in fact. OK, I can write a lot of it off as “a learning experience”, which roughly translates to “Things I intend to only ever do once in my life”.
Put it this way – I now understand why they charge you upfront for the rooms. If they left it ’til the end of the stay, they’d be losing money.
Obviously, I understand that the entire thing is a business, and thus is there to make a profit. I’ve been in the hospitality business, and have been strongly considering going back into it in the long run. But that’s a post for another time. However, running a profitable business doesn’t – well, doesn’t to me, anyway – mean gouging every available penny from one’s customers. It also doesn’t mean “annoy the shit out of them with stupid unnecessary stuff”. Oh, and it does mean “get into at least the 20th century”.
Bear in mind, this Travelodge that I’m using is brand new. It’s been built less than four years – and I think, only in the last couple of years. But because of the “gouge as much as possible from customers” ethos, they still try to charge a minimum of 50p per minute for phone calls. And more if they can get away with it. Calling a local-rate 0845 number that should be dead cheap? 50p a minute please. Calling an 0800 (or whatever the bloody code is now) freephone number? 50p per minute, please. Yes, even freephone calls are charged. So internet access is chargeable, and at rates that would’ve been extortionate five years ago, let alone now.
I just don’t understand the ethos. If you let that kind of stuff go through, it’s not costing you anything as a business – and in fact it’s going to increase your business, as people will stay there because it’s allowing through the internet access without gouging you for it. But oh no, instead they’ll charge through the nose for things that people usually now take for granted.
In the same context, I don’t really get the “charge extra for breakfast” ethos either. The place I stayed last week was a flat rate, including breakfast (although still no internet access – can’t have everything) and still cost less than the Travelodge’s room-only rate.
Oh, and when you get to the room, you have to use your key-card to turn on the power, lights etc. And it turns on the bloody air-conditioning too. Not that I normally object to air-con. But in October? Is it really necessary? It’s incredibly loud too – and you can’t turn the fucking thing off. I spoke to reception about it, and got told “No, it’s not something you can turn off. It’s automatic”. (It turns out that there is a way to do it – if you have a spare card, or piece of plastic, or use the cardboard wallet the keycard comes in, fold it in half, and slot that down the left-hand side of the slot. Apparently, this turns on power etc. without activating the air-con. I’ll be trying it tonight, you can be sure) The only other way to turn it off is to pull out the keycard from the power box. Which, of course, means you don’t have any power or light. That’s OK when you want to sleep, but not during the evening!
Ah yes, power. For a hotel only built in the last five years (at most) you’d think they’d take things like power-points into consideration, wouldn’t you? But oh no, Travelodge don’t want to waste power costs on nasty things like customers. So there’s precisely one available power socket in the room. Nothing near the beds, it’s over on the desk. How tight-fisted can you get? Of course, you’re not going to want to , I don’t know, charge up a mobile phone overnight. Or use a laptop. Well, you might – but you can only do one at a time. And you won’t be able to charge anything overnight because – yes! – you’ve pulled the power card, so that the fucking air-conditioning doesn’t keep you awake!
In short, Travelodges are probably fine for a one-night stay, as just somewhere to crash and burn. For a prolonged stay, they’re just fucking horrible – and will try to charge for absolutely everything. Needless to say, I won’t be staying at Travelodge next week…
Liquor
Posted: Sun 17 September, 2006 Filed under: General, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Over the last few days, I’ve been re-reading a trilogy by Poppy Z Brite, based around two chefs and their restaurant, “Liquor”.
Starting off with the eponymous “Liquor“, followed on by “Prime“, and most recently “Soul Kitchen“, the series so far has turned into one of my favourite reads.
They’re emphatically not high-art, and not overly intellectually stimulating, but they make for a good read. Wholeheartedly recommended.
Build the Hype
Posted: Tue 5 September, 2006 Filed under: General, Music, Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Have you heard the single by Lazyboy called “Underwear Goes Inside The Pants”?
It’s been released, and is currently sat at the low end of the 30s on the Top 40. We heard it in the car last night, and laughed ourselves silly.
In short, it’s brilliant. The lyrics go some way to explaining the appeal, but there’s more to it than that. It’s something different, it has a point, and says it well.
Ah, hell, just go to Itunes and look for “Lazyboy” or “Underwear” – it’ll come up in the list. It might be a novelty, but it’s well worth the 79p for the download.
Enjoy.
V – Part Three
Posted: Tue 22 August, 2006 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish), Thoughts 1 Comment »OK, so perhaps I should write a little bit more about V than I did yesterday. Maybe.
First of all, we didn’t do the camping thing. Definitely a sign of getting old, or something, but I just can’t be arsed to spend money/time sleeping in a tent. I did it when I was a kid, and fucking hated it then. I also did it for a couple of weeks back in ’97 until the place I was going to be renting became available. I fucking hated it then, too. OK, so it was Dorset, in March, but being constantly chilly and damp was no fun. I can’t see my attitude having become more charitable in the last nine years.
So we stayed in a local(ish) hotel, in sunny Telford. Again, somewhere I hadn’t visited in a good ten years – and even then only once – and was pleased to be leaving. In fairness to the town, though, it wasn’t horrific. It just also wasn’t somewhere I’d choose to go again. The hotel itself was OK, but I’ve written about that over at Wheres-Good.com rather than duplicating effort.
Oh, one other thing – when you’re going to an outdoor festival, in August – particularly when it’s supposed to be “the hottest August on record” – pack some waterproof clothing. Needless to say, I didn’t, and thus had to buy some having driven up through some seriously torrential rain.
As for the rest, I feel it’s best to remain tactful, and say nothing more about V itself than “Nope, never again.”
I’m just not a festival person any more.
Would I go for just a day? I don’t know. Even then I think the line-up would have to be pretty damn good, to be honest, and also it’d have to be of people who were doing one-off appearances, or where I couldn’t get to see them any other way. I just prefer gigs to events.
Superman Ain’t Returning
Posted: Tue 1 August, 2006 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Sweary Leave a comment »So I suppose it’s only fair to give a slightly more balanced review than I did yesterday of Superman Returns.
First of all, it’s awesomely, glacially, earth-shatteringly slow. Which is never a good thing in a comic-book adaptation. We’re talking 145 minutes – two and a half hours – and my god, does it feel every minute of that. We weren’t the only ones to be saying “Thank christ that’s over” when we eventually stumbled to the end.
Some spoilers and/or discussion follow, so if you don’t want to know, don’t click for more… Read the rest of this entry »
Super / Massive
Posted: Mon 31 July, 2006 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish) 4 Comments »So no, despite good advice to go and still see Massive Attack, we didn’t in the end.
Instead, we went to see Superman Returns.
Man, what an utter bag of shit. Singer, that’s 145 minutes of my life I want back.
Pirates 2 – seen it
Posted: Thu 6 July, 2006 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Well, it’s abso-flummin’-lutely brilliant.
All things considered, it’s not quite as perfect as the first one- but then, Disney knew what to expect, and that they’d be getting a huge dollop of money from it. Therefore it’s more scripted, more mechanical- but don’t let that stop you. It’s fantastic- Johnny Depp’s totally on form, Keira Knightley is still utterly wooden, but that’s nothing unexpected. The effects are awesomely well done, and well, the entire thing’s just great.
Oh, and swearword of the season? “Bugger“
@Media – thoughts
Posted: Sun 18 June, 2006 Filed under: @Media 06, Geeky, Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »So yes, as I said earlier this week, I spent Thursday and Friday at the @Media conference in London. And yes, I did enjoy most of it – and some of it has proved to be useful, or given me ideas, so in that context it was pretty successful, I’d say.
On the first day, the initial signs weren’t that great, in honesty. The registration took forever – apparently most techies names start with A-D. Who knew? So while all the people whose initials started J-Z were constantly getting called out of the queue, because those “registration stations” were empty, all the people from A-I were stuck in one big queue, and then the A-Ds were still stuck in a queue once they’d got past the first one. In all it took nearly 45 minutes to get registered – quite impressive, considering they’d initially only allocated from 8-8:45 to register everyone. Still, all part of the learning curve, I suppose. After all, it’s only the second @Media conference at all.
The only other real complaint would be about the provisions. Yeah, they were great if you drank tea or coffee, but there didn’t seem to be anything for people who wanted water, or any other soft drinks at all. Even tea was a bit of a struggle – but water was a nightmare. And the food provided at lunchtimes, while of a pretty good quality (and having been sourced to Leiths) was – to be blunt – small. A selection of sandwiches, and a tiny bowl of Thai Curry or Singapore noodles? Not really a lot, considering each person there had paid at least £400 for the privilege.
However, when the complaints are done with, the rest of the conference went really smoothly, was well organised, and had plenty of interesting stuff.
For me, the highlights are probably Jeff Veen‘s section on Thursday, which was absolutely fantastic, and gave me a lot of food for thought, and Friday’s one would most probably be Dan Cederholm‘s presentation on “Bulletproof Web Design”, which made for some interesting points – some of which were about stating the obvious, but it was still a good presentation.
There was a lot of other stuff that was good, and some that kind of didn’t hit the mark – for example, the presentation about designing websites and content for mobile use didn’t hit the mark (for me, anyway), and nor did the one about WCAG2.0 (Web Accessibility Guidelines) which was interesting enough, but to me could’ve gone so much further.
All told though, I’d say it was well worth the money, and the getting up at 5.45 in order to be on the train for 7am.
Now, when’s the booking start for the 2007 one?
X-Men 3 – The Last Stand
Posted: Mon 29 May, 2006 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Finally went to see it last night. Hmm, now, was it worth it?
X3 (Sorry, can’t be arsed with the long title any more) is OK. It’s better than a lot of ropy stuff out there, but equally it’s not a patch on X-Men 1 or 2. Directed by Brett Ratner, instead of the first two’s Bryan Singer, you can see the difference in style, and Ratner’s “Action” preference. The back story just isn’t there, and there’re some bits that just seem to hang there with no relevance to anything else.
Overall, it’s OK – it’s just not as good as 1 and 2. Which is a pity – I suspect that if Singer had stayed at the helm, and not chosen to rehash direct Superman Returns, X-3 would’ve been a far better film.
It’s still worth seeing (if you liked the first two, anyway) but a steady suspension of disbelief/logic is most definitely retired. Otherwise you’ll find yourself asking things like “So what was the point of the guy with wings?” and “Only six? Out of the entire school? Pfft” (which manage to ask the questions without chuffing the plot – helpful, aren’t I?)
Good Food
Posted: Sat 20 May, 2006 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish), Travel 2 Comments »So yes, the Summer Good Food Festival at the Birmingham NEC. (the normal one is on in November, fact fans)
All told, it was OK. We’d paid for the “Platinum ticket” which supposedly got us priority entry to the cooking demonstration and wine-tasting sessions we’d booked, as well as a show guide, a bag, and a tasting glass. Which, frankly, would’ve been more use if there’d been many people actually giving away decent tasters of anything they provided. (Not that I’d have had any, as I ended up driving both legs of the journey) All told? Not worth the effort. The shows we could’ve seen anyway, and as for “priority seating”, don’t make me fucking laugh.
I’ve seen piss-ups that were better organised.
Other than that – and paying £7 for bloody parking, as well as the £30ish for the “platinum” ticket – it was a pretty good day. A fair amount to see (although not as much as the Christmas one we went to in London last year) and so on, and some decent offers – and marvellous cheeses.
I’d go again, but just get the normal tickets, and watch the shows etc. from behind the crappy little wooden barrier that they’d put in.
The Alarm – Islington Academy
Posted: Mon 1 May, 2006 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Many years ago, Herself and I were fans of the Alarm, but they faded out for a while, disbanded, reformed with different members, all sorts of gubbins. In fact, the only member of the Alarm who’s still there is the lead singer, Mike Peters.
Anyway, they released a new album earlier this year (which, frankly, we weren’t overly impressed with) but we still go tickets to go see them live. Well, less than £20 each, what the hell, we could always leave.
Finding the Islington Academy is an interesting experience – OK, once you’ve located the N1 centre and the main carpark, you actually see the entrance for the venue, but it’s tiny, and not the easiest one to find at all – there’s no signage that we could see from the street. Thank the lord for A-Zs.
Inside, the venue actually looks like a revamped Student Union. In fact, I suspect that’s exactly what it is. But it’s OK – small, max of about 500 people, I’d guess – but two bars, and generally OK. The support act, Sweet City Fire come on pretty quickly (not surprising, considering that for some bizarre reason there’s a 10pm fixed finish on the gig) and are surprisingly good. Not perfect, but not far off it either. They played for about half an hour, and were far better than most support acts I’ve seen. Definitely one to watch out for.
And then the Alarm. Considering that Mike Peters is also undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia, and can’t be anything less than 45, he looks bloody good. Throughout the set, he was energetic, and commanded the stage totally. The people behind him are also bloody good, and you can see there’s a great dynamic in the band, that they’re there and enjoying themselves. And man, do they rock.
Thankfully the setlist was a real hotchpotch of new and old stuff, and coupled with an audience who obviously knew every single track inside out, it was a fantastic gig. The new album certainly sounds better when performed live, but I think we’ll have to reasses it at home too.
All in all, an utterly brilliant gig. Well worth the money…
Point Pleasant
Posted: Wed 19 April, 2006 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish), Thoughts 1 Comment »Over Easter, we watched the DVD set of Point Pleasant. The story behind this was kind of interesting, in that it started showing on UK TV fairly soon after the US screenings, and then because the US viewing figures for it were abysmal, they pulled the series. Which meant that the last five episodes or so never made it onto UK TV either.
However, the DVD set included those unscreened episodes, and we wanted to know how it all ended, so we got the set through ScreenSelect before Easter.
Overall, it was a pretty good series – although quite why the makers ever thought it would be popular in the US is quite beyond me. “Beautiful” (in the American sense) girl who turns out to be the AntiChrist. Smalltown America. Teenagers having problems. And sex. To top it off, there was a healthy dose of sarcastic humour, plenty of religion – both “good” and “bad”, along with the interesting turn that the Catholic priests had blown things out of all proportion, and were actually encouraging sins in the guise of “saving the world”, and a whole load of other stuff that most of Middle America would deem “unwholesome”, it’s no shock at all that they hated it.
However, the last half of the last episode was nothing but unutterable shite – no closure, and obviously leaving things open for a second series. To me that’s disappointing – why can’t we get a series that is written with the sole goal of being a one-off? Now that’d be more fun – a story curve based over, say, 10 or 12 episodes, but that closes itself off properly. Yeah, you could still perhaps make another series, but for God’s sake, just make one that’s self-contained instead of leaving everything up in the air in case the viewers like it and the opportunity to make a second series comes up. (Take note, J.J.Abrams, you weasel)
Another Bullshit Night In Suck City
Posted: Sat 1 April, 2006 Filed under: Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »It’s not often I’m impressed enough by a book to write stuff about it, but somehow “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City” by Nick Flynn managed it.
Obviously, of course, it was the title that first dragged my eye towards it in the library. I got it really on the basis of that, not knowing what to expect, knowing only that the title was a phrase used by the author’s father, describing another night of being homeless in Boston. It’s not the kind of book I normally read, but once I got started on it, I couldn’t stop.
It’s the story of Nick Flynn’s father, who disappeared when the author was very young. They didn’t meet again ’til Nick was in his mid-20s, and his father ended up staying at the homeless hostel where Nick worked. The book is about both men, and the story of Johnathon, and what had happened to him over the years. It’s incredibly sad in some places, detailing the breakdown and alcoholism of Flynn senior, while also being a pretty honest portrayal of Flynn junior’s life, and the similarities and differences between them.
It’s a fantastic book, and well worth the effort. Hell, it’s only £4 on Amazon at the moment – give it a go.
Dara O’Briain, Concert Hall, Reading
Posted: Sun 19 March, 2006 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »I’ve been a fairly long-term fan of Dara O’Briain since seeing him host Have I Got News For You, being on QI, and also the set he did on Jack Dee at the Apollo. So when I saw he was doing a UK tour, and playing at Reading’s Concert Hall, I got the tickets pretty quickly.
So quickly, in fact, that we were on the second row of the audience. Which would’ve been great, except that we arrived ten minutes after he’d started. Oh bugger. So yes, the next ten minutes or so involved Yours Truly being quizzed by Yer Man. Thankfully I’m not the kind of person who curls up and dies under interrogation, so I was OK – but all the same, it’s kind of weird, being pointed out and having a conversation with the star of the evening. Bloody funny, though.
And yes, he really was the star of the evening. It’s nice to see a comedian interacting with the audience, finding out stuff about people there, and then using that in the show, rather than just going through a scripted exercise which, while still funny, still loses something in comparison to the way this one was done.
So, so many subjects were covered, including (in no particular order) Air Traffic Control, the champion cow-milker, Wensleydale cows, Bracknell car-thieves (admittedly one of my own contributions), religion, marriage, Fosters, rugby, and many many others.
If you get a chance, go and see the tour. Yer man’s feckin’ awesome.
XDA – downsides
Posted: Mon 27 February, 2006 Filed under: Geeky, Reviews(ish) 4 Comments »Having been using it for a whole week now, I’ve found a couple of small problems with the XDA. Nothing that’s going to stop me using it, just things that you notice as time goes on.
First of all, it’s not been designed with enough memory. It works fine, but because the programs you use don’t shut down properly, you end up running short of memory. If memory serves, you start out with 64Mb of RAM, which should be more than enough, but Windows Mobile eats up roughly half of that on its own, so really it could’ve done with 128Mb of RAM instead. Ah well.
Second, and I know this should’ve occurred to me – but it didn’t, OK? – it’s actually harder to send a simple quick message. On most phones I can “touchtype” a text message without even paying attention. Yeah, you have to check the spelling afterwards and so on, but in general it’s dead easy to send a quick message without even looking. On the XDA, though, you have to either slot out the keyboard, or use the stylus to tap away on the screen’s “keyboard”. It’s just not quite as quick.
I still like the system, and I’m really pleased with the phone – it’s just that they’re the slightly negative points I’ve noticed so far…
Oh, and one very cool thing you can do with the XDA is charge it through the USB port of any computer – just connect it up, and it starts charging. Now that is useful…
Reading List
Posted: Tue 3 January, 2006 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »This time last year, I decided to list what books I’d read this year, and what I thought of them. Also, as a side point, I was kind of interested in just how many books I would read in a year.
As it turns out, it was 88 books. That’s kind of scary – particularly as I’ve also been pretty busy with lots of other stuff this year. It actually works out as something like 1.7 books read per week.
Of course, I do read a lot when I go to bed, and also when I have a lunch break, which is where a lot of the reading gets done during the week. But all the same, eighty-eight books in a year is pretty heavy going.
The reviews were crap though – I think I’m going to give up on that bit…
Secret Smile
Posted: Thu 22 December, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 2 Comments »So, we finally caught up on ITV’s drama “Secret Smile” last night. It was on about a week ago, but we’d recorded it – blah blah.
Anyway, my point is this.
If you were being stalked by a decidedly odd man, prone to major head-fuck tricks, occasionally violent, and frankly deeply scary, you’d be a bit worried, wouldn’t you? And if he also had a set of your house keys, what’s the absolute first thing you’d do?
It wouldn’t be to sod about with work stuff, or lie around looking wet’n’wanky, or think about a court case or an injunction, would it? The absolute first thing you’d do would be to change the fucking locks. All of ’em. And make sure that the room that he’d already caught you in because it didn’t have a lock then had a bloody lock. Or at least a bolt. (Me, I’d make sure there was something heavy and convenient in each room. Doesn’t have to be a weapon per se – a nice chunky book in the living room, a rolling pin in the kitchen, a hefty bleach aerosol in the bathroom, that kind of thing.)
The woman in Secret Smile didn’t. Of course, the entire final thirty minutes was based around this premise, so the writer might’ve had to make some extra effort to come to a conclusion. But all the same, it took nine months, and the divvy bint never changed the locks, despite knowing he’d got keys.
I quite like a lot of TV dramas, and find them interesting. I just hate it when they’re so blankly stupid. And yes, I’m aware that it’s all fiction, and been done like that to make it dramatic, but Jesus Wept, let’s at least have something where the people involved have just a smidgen of common bloody sense.
Sin City
Posted: Thu 15 December, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »I got Sin City on DVD recently from ScreenSelect, and watched it last night. I don’t know quite what I’d expected, but for once I just couldn’t be bothered.
In fact, I only watched half of it.
Visually it’s a stunning film – one of the slickest I’ve seen, and that emulates the comic-book feel perfectly. However, just being visually stunning isn’t enough : it still needs acting ability, decent dialogue, and lots of other stuff. And to me that’s where Sin City falls down.
Overall, not impressed.
Festive Good Food Show, Earl’s Court, London
Posted: Mon 5 December, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »I have to say, the show itself was pretty good. I don’t mind Earl’s Court as a venue either, although they do seem to have a certain lack of insight about human psychology and behaviour, and thus put all the stands doing demos/tastings as close together as possible. People then congregate around them, and block the walkways for anyone else.
If I were an exhibitor at the show, this would piss me off quite considerably – I suspect I’m not the only one who simply didn’t bother trying some of the stuff on the stands because they were so crowded it just wasn’t worth the hassle. If you’re exhibiting/demonstrating your products, you want as many people as possible to see/try them, not to have them give up because they can’t get in.
Other than that, though, it was good. I think we probably OD’d on cheese – there was some truly fantastic stuff there – as well as bought enough to keep us going through the Festering Season.
One other thing that I found surprising is that there was hardly any mention at all of vegetarian stuff. Yeah, sure, there were a couple of places selling seeds etc. (Munchy Seeds etc.) but no specialist stands for veggie food at all. Maybe there’s a gap in the market after all…
Wall and Piece – revisited
Posted: Wed 30 November, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »Interesting to see that the book I got a couple of weeks ago, “Wall and Piece” by Banksy has now had a review in the Guardian.
I’ve been a fan of a lot of Banksy’s stuff for a long time now, and it’s good to see it getting a wider audience – even when it seems to polarise those people into “love it” and “hate it”.
Faithless, Brixton Academy, London.
Posted: Wed 30 November, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 1 Comment »One of the many things that can be said about Faithless is that they do keep themselves busy. We missed the gig last December, then saw them in May at Alexandra Palaca, and then again last night at Brixton Academy. Three tours in a year – that’s good going by anyone’s standards.
Of course, doing that much touring, you could understand it if the basics were the same each time, or it all got a bit familiar. But with Faithless it doesn’t. Yes, the set-list was similar to the one at Ally Pally, but it wasn’t a match by any stretch. They started off with “Insomnia”, carried on through favourites such as “God is a DJ”, “Mohammed Ali” (never could spell that right), “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, “Bring My Family Back”, and finishing off with a stupendous “We Come One”. Of course there was a lot of other stuff too, but they’re the tracks that stand out in memory.
It’s a pity that Carling seem to have opted for becoming utter cunts when it comes to photography though. Where we were, I could’ve come up with some fantastic shots – the view was excellent, as was the clarity and distance. But after the last time, I wasn’t going to risk it again. I might make some enquiries about getting a press accreditation of some sort from them though – hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Overall, the show was something spectacular. No, the sound mix wasn’t perfect – some of the vocals were drowned out by the bass-heavy nature of the speaker stack – but pretty much all the people there knew all the words anyway. The lighting rig was awesome – I haven’t seen that many strobes and lights in such a small space in a very long time, the bass sound was the kind you can feel in your fillings, and all told the entire thing was superb.
In my opinon, Faithless are one of the very few bands you absolutely should see live, even if it’s not your “normal” type of music. They simply blow pretty much everyone else off the stage. Long may they continue to do so.
PSP
Posted: Mon 28 November, 2005 Filed under: Domestic, Festering Season, Reviews(ish), Thoughts 3 Comments »A while back, Herself promised to get me a Sony PSP for my birthday. It was one of those things I didn’t really need but one of the guys at work had got one on the day of release, and I was pretty impressed with the entire thing. So yeah, it was on my “oooh, oooh” list.
Come the birthday, and it didn’t materialise for reasons like everywhere being out of stock. Fairly good reasons, to be fair. So Herself said she’d get it for me for Christmas instead – and I placed an order for one with Amazon, which she could pay for. Easy. Only, of course, Amazon are – on occasions such as this – tossers, and were out of stock, and couldn’t guarantee delivery even in time for Christmas. Bearing in mind it was ordered on about Nov 10th, I figure that’s a bit of a piss-take.
Anyway, last week I got an email from Dabs.com saying they’d got PSP “Giga Packs” in stock now, so I ordered it. And lo, it arrived the next day. Unfortunately, this was a whole month before Christmas, and I’m crap at the entire willpower thing. So Herself tried to motivate me…
“If you can not open it, and leave it ’til Christmas, I’ll buy it. However, you can open it now, but you’ll have to pay for it, and I’ll get you something else for Christmas”.
Of course, it didn’t work. I managed to wait a whole three days before cracking, but crack I did.
And it’s great – I’m still impressed with the entire thing. I’ve been playing Wipeout Pure and Colin McRae rally (you get the idea of the kind of games I like) since then, and it’s still cool. Once I’ve sorted out PC stuff, I’ll also be ripping DVDs or Tivo’d programmes onto the 1Gb memory stick that came with it, and that’ll be cool too.
I know, I’m sad – but hey, what the hell, it’s a gadget. And it was never going to survive untouched for a month. Like the man said, “I can resist everything but temptation”.
The Woman In White – Palace Theatre, London
Posted: Sun 27 November, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »So yes, “The Woman In White”. It’s off to a bad start in my book by being by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, but we’ll gloss over that for the moment.
All told, it was an enjoyable performance. Certainly over-done and over-acted in some scenes, but in a way that kind of fits with the entire “Victoriana” theme of the production. The set itself is technically fantastic, with sections moving around, revolving, and also having projections put on them to set the scene – very technical, but excellently done. On a couple of occasions the changes and perspective alterations became quite dizzying and disorientating, but overall it was an interesting way of providing the scenes etc.
Lloyd-Webber himself is still a plagiarising twat though. I keep finding myself identifying bits of rhythms within the songs, and sometimes that can be quite jarring. I swear that one of the main themes throughout the production actually uses the chorus chords from “Hey, Macarena!”. So you can imagine how annoying that is.
Overall though, it was an enjoyable way to spend a manky cold November afternoon. I wouldn’t want to see it again, but I’m glad that I did see it. If that makes any sense at all…
Harry Potter IV – Goblet of Fire
Posted: Sat 19 November, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Hmmm – so, what to say? Well – have you ever watched a TV programme with the Ceefax subtitling on, even though you could hear what they were saying? The new Harry Potter film’s kind of like that.
If you’ve read the book (and obviously most of the people who’ve been dying to see it have read the book multiple times) then the film is like watching the subtitles. You get the main ideas, but there’s a whole shedload of detail missed out.
It’s a perfectly serviceable film – played a lot more for laughs than the other three have been, although with hindsight there could be an air of “the light before the storm” about that. But all told it’s a good film – and at 2½ hours, it certainly goes on for long enough. If your regular cinema’s uncomfortable, pack a cushion.
All told? About 4/5 I’d say – it’s fine, just there’s a lot missing.
HP IV
Posted: Fri 18 November, 2005 Filed under: General, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Off to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight. Review and Thoughts will follow either tonight or tomorrow. Most likely tomorrow.
Or Sunday. We’re at a quiz night that we’ve helped organise tomorrow night, so that may account for a fair amount of time tomorrow too.
Infamy, Infamy
Posted: Tue 15 November, 2005 Filed under: Music, Photography, Reviews(ish), Thoughts 3 Comments »Well, now there’s a turn-up for the books.
The semi-review mainly-rant I wrote last week following the Tracy Chapman concerts has been put up on the Tracy Chapman site, for the day we went. Now that’s kind of scary – a whole new bundle of people who might just link here having read the review/thoughts. Well, unless they were some of the lower primates solipsistically convinced of their own importance above all others. In which case they may be just a tad offended (assuming any form of self-awareness or introspection at all) and leave nasty rude comments here.
Who knows?
And frankly, who cares? *grin*
Now, maybe I can start angling for press credentials, which’ll let me get my Canon past the door-gorillas.
Wall and Piece
Posted: Tue 15 November, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »One thing I got for my birthday (well, through the joys of gift vouchers) was a copy of “Wall and Piece, by Banksy. I’ve been a fan of Banksy’s work for a long time, and this book is a fantastic collection of the work to date.
There’s a lot of good bits within the book, but my favourite is probably on the outside of the back cover.
“There’s no way we’ll give you a quote to go on that book”Metropolitan Police 2005
Tracy Chapman – London. The Concert
Posted: Thu 10 November, 2005 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »So yes, as Gordon pointed out, a bit more about the gig itself.
First of all, the Hammersmith Apollo is a sod to get to. OK, the parking in the area isn’t too bad, and it’s dead opposite Hammersmith Tube station, but it’s still something that, at street level, is a sod to get to. And we’ll gloss over £7.50 for parking.
Inside, the venue’s pretty stunning. However, as with a lot of the Apollos, and older venues in general where they seem to have been converted from theatres, the seating is a) tight and cramped, and b) uncomfortable.
Despite all that, the concert itself was stonking. She doesn’t do much on stage, yet there’s a certain amount of presence, for want of a better word. Not showy, just three people (and a bit of unidentified (pre-recorded?) percussion) doing what they do – and doing it bloody well. The standard well-known tracks (“Fast Car”, “Talkin’ about a Revolution” etc.) were all done, as were various items from all the earlier albums as well as the new one.
In addition, a couple of covers, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” added some variety, and a very much more rock-driven “Another Sun” which kicked things up a gear.
All told, an absolute stunner of a gig. Not much talking to the audience – although some members still insisted on yelling for tracks, or talking to her – just a pure-breed performance. Well worth the money, and the effort, and even of having to tolerate the fuckwits. Although it would’ve been better if I’d had a stungun…
Tracy Chapman – London. The People
Posted: Thu 10 November, 2005 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish) 2 Comments »It’s been a long time coming, but last night we went to see Tracy Chapman in concert.
And bloody hell, she was good – but the audience were a nightmare. In fact, a very similar crowd to that experienced by Skytower.
I don’t understand why people pay £35 per ticket to go and see a sensational concert, only to talk to their mates all the way through it. Or to text people all the way through – and believe me, in the dark, the screen illumination can be sodding bright, and fucking distracting. I also don’t understand the point of keeping on going out to get more drinks etc. You’ve paid thirty-fucking-five pounds to see this gig, yet you spend half of it walking to and from the bar, and/or fucking off the people around you by constantly moving. You stupid self-obsessed bastard.
As for people with cameras, I don’t quite understand why they’re incapable of turning the flash off. Quite honestly, the flash at that range isn’t going to do anything, although it’s quite likely to screw up your photos. The camera thinks it’ll be getting a lot more light (due to the flash), then doesn’t – because the flash is swallowed up by the distance – so you just get screwed up and dull shots. And then try, and try again – but always with the flash on. Twat.
Oh, and why is it that people insist on singing along with all the songs? You’ve paid to see the original artist sing them, not attempt to drown them out with your own toneless/tuneless attempts that – more than occasionally – also have the wrong words too.
Still, despite all of these tossers, the gig itself was stonking.
Wallace and Gromit – Again
Posted: Mon 31 October, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »Yesterday I drove over to the Parent’s place, and took them to see Wallace & Gromit – Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I’d already seen it once, and loved it, so had no problem seeing it again.
As it is, I’d sent them a message when we’d seen it, telling them that they really should go. However, I know my parents, and while they’re normally horrifically busy, it’s still somehow a struggle to get them to go and see stuff at the cinema or whatever. Strange, but true. So I gave them a couple of week’s grace, then ended up just getting it organised for a free afternoon, driving over to their place, and dragging them to the cinema.
Ye Gods, Aylesbury is still an ungodly cackhole. It’s never been on my list of favourite places – although it’s frequently been seen on the list of “places to avoid at all costs, and reject any jobs that happen to be in the vicinity”. Yeah, sure, it’s been redeveloped over the last few years, but that just moves it from “irredeemable shithole” to “redeveloped, but still a shithole”.
Actually, though, the time around Halloween is probably the best time to visit the place. This way the vacant stares, shambling walk, and slight drool from the mouths of the inhabitants just seems topical, and you can (almost) write it off as bad make-up. If George A Romero ever wanted to remake “Town of the Dead”, Aylesbury would be the venue of choice.
As for the film, it’s just as good on a second viewing, and the parents loved it.
Then we made our escape.
However, on the way out it did strike me that it was somewhat ironic. Most adults there were taking their children to see the film. However, I was the child taking my parents to see it. And thus goes the process of *ahem* “growing up”.
Chocolate
Posted: Sat 29 October, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Well, having tried out the chocolates I got from Puccini Bomboni in Amsterdam, I have to say that despite the recommendations, I (and Herself) still think that the chocolate from Hotel Chocolat is far superior.
So there.
Wallace and Gromit – Were-Rabbit
Posted: Sat 15 October, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 2 Comments »All I can say about this film is : Go and see it. It’s absolutely brilliant.
I haven’t laughed so much at a film in far too long. The entire thing is fantastic – and so utterly, utterly British. I was thinking about it afterwards, and I just can’t see Hollywood ever doing a film so blatantly quirky and – frankly – insane. And that, believe me, is a good thing.
It’s also interesting to compare it to the animated short before it, “The Madagascar Penguins in A Christmas Caper”. Equally brilliant, but also utterly different – and quintessentially American in a lot of ways.
The two together make for a lot of interesting comparisons and display their differences superbly. And both are well worth the money.
Simply put, just get your arse in gear and go see the film. It’s worth it.
Wolves! Where! Werewolves?
Posted: Fri 14 October, 2005 Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Tonight we’re off to see Wallce And Grommit : Curse of the Were-Rabbit. More thoughts afterwards, I’m sure – but it’s one we’ve been looking forward to for a while now.
God, that’s really sad, isn’t it?
La Brand – redux
Posted: Mon 10 October, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 4 Comments »So yes, Jo Brand. Fortunately (due to Herself having a brain error, and forgetting to turn off the oven) there was a support comedian on as well, which meant we still got to see all of Jo Brand’s performance despite eventually turning up half an hour late, just before the interval.
And while she was quite funny, and I enjoyed the night, I still found myself a bit dissatisfied, to be honest. She was only on for an hour, and out of that hour I reckon I’d heard probably half of it before. Not just over the last couple of months, either, but some was quite a lot older. Now, I don’t think a comedian should do a completely new show every night, or whatever, that’s fine – but when they’re on for an hour, and supposedly it’s a “new” tour, I do feel it’s a bit of a let-down to hear a load of stuff that’s been around for a while.
Was it good to see her ? Yes. Was it worth £15 each for the tickets? Um, no, probably not, to be honest.
Murderous
Posted: Mon 26 September, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 1 Comment »
Over the weekend, as I commented earlier, Herself & I organised and went to a Murder Mystery Party, held in honour of Herself’s mum’s birthday. (Knowing she reads this on occasion, I won’t mention the age…) As part of this, we’d ordered (and received) the Murder in the Wild West pack, which made a lot of the organisation one hell of a lot easier.
There are some very important things to know about these Murder Mystery parties-
- It really does help if everyone gets properly involved, and dresses up “in theme” for them- in this case, everyone did, and it added a whole dimension to the evening
- I don’t know about the others, but “Wild West” is definitely not for the prudish and polite. Some of the humour in it is decidedly adult, and close to the knuckle in places
- It’s best to have one person “extra” to act as host, and organise the other stuff, otherwise it has the potential to be bloody chaotic
- Finally, it’s recommended that there should be large amounts of alcohol on hand
It also helps to have at least one person (and ideally a couple of people) incapable of taking the entire thing seriously, and – in this case at least – adding a bundle of humour as the World’s Campest Indian.(and yes, he’s going to kill me for putting up the photo) The character started off as “lowerwatha”, which was OK – but then a certain person who shall remain nameless (OK, OK, it was me) used the name “‘iyawatha”, with the ‘iya! done very high-pitched and camp. Despite repeated threats of violence against my person (and tackle) Mr. Watha ended up taking this and turning into a high-pitched Camp Indian. Politically correct? Hell, no. Funny as chuff? Oh, most definitely yes.
All in all, the entire evening was highly successful. I haven’t laughed so much in ages – not just at Mr Watha, but also at General Custard’s wig, which was straight off the Monkees, and many other things beside. My ribs hurt in the morning. Of course, the alcohol helped too.
Based on a sample of one, the Murder Mystery sets are bloody good, and we’ll definitely be making use of at least one more, I think.
Grauniad
Posted: Thu 22 September, 2005 Filed under: News, Reviews(ish), Thoughts 4 Comments »On Monday 12th September, the Guardian newspaper changed it’s paper size, reducing from the old broadsheet (AKA the “impossible to read without folding, or laying it on the floor”) to the new “Berliner” size. Still a bit bigger than normal tabloids, I find that the entire thing is a great improvement on the broadsheet, and that feeling was an immediate response, rather than the “oh, it’s new, I don’t like it” response that seemed to come from a lot of people at the time..
A lot of people weren’t impressed with the change – Mike TD wrote a fair and balanced view on the plus and minus points – although the main protests seemed to be the loss of the daily cartoon thing, “Doonesbury”. Frankly, I would have to work really hard in order to care less about things like Doonesbury. Then again, maybe I just don’t “get it” – something I’ve been accused of many times in the past.
Anyway, personally I like the new format. I always found the broadsheet Guardian to be more effort than it was necessarily worth, so I ended up not reading all of it. This was particularly true of the Saturday edition – too much guff, too much hassle. Since the re-size though, I’ve found that I read far more of the paper. It’s easier to handle without needing to have degree-level skills in Origami, and that makes the entire thing a lot more accessible. In short, I like the new size a lot more.
My only question, though, is why resize the Guardian, yet leave the Observer at the full-whack broadsheet size?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Posted: Mon 8 August, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 1 Comment »Well, last night we finally got round to seeing “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory“. And loved it.
It sticks pretty closely to the book, the only real addition being that Willy Wonka now has a bit of a backstory showing why/how he became so interested in chocolate, and some of the motivations for it all. Which actually worked pretty well, it has to be said.
There are so many bits that stick in the mind, the squirrels are fantastic, the Oompa Loompa songs had me howling with the way they’re done (and how impressive is it that there’s only one guy playing all the Oompa Loompas?), the TV room referring to 2001:A space odyssey, the sheer beauty and accuracy of the portrayal of the Bucket household, and many others.
A couple of small points jarred, such as constantly referring to chocolate as candy, (the film seems to be set in the UK, but one assumes it needed a couple of points for american audiences to refer to) and the use of a ten-dollar bill for Charlie to buy the chocolate bar, which seemed like an odd piece of continuity error, but these are minor jars, nothing major.
Johnny Depp is fantastic as Wonka, with a role that must have been at least semi-influenced by Michael Jackson. I think that really Tim Burton was the only current director capable of making the entire thing seem as weird, dark and magical as it appeared – he has a vision that seems so in tune with Dahl’s original, always enjoying the multi-layered stories with a slight “adult” tinge while maintaining the child-friendly appeal of the main story.
But all the same, I do think the show-stealers were the squirrels and the Oompa-Loompas…
HP VI
Posted: Thu 21 July, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 1 Comment »Well, I’ve finished Harry Potter and the Penultimate Cash-In. In fairness, it’s not too bad at all – and far better than the awful sack of shite known as Order of the Phoenix.
There’s a fair amount going on throughout the book, and while it’s not rocket-science, I’ll admit there were a couple of bits where I thought “Hmmm, I wonder if what’s happening is…?”. Of course, I was wrong – but at least it made me wonder. More than can be said for …Phoenix.
A couple of twists at the end – and a semi-unexpected development or two – and yes, overall not bad at all.
DVD Memetic thingy
Posted: Sat 11 June, 2005 Filed under: Geeky, Reviews(ish), Thoughts 1 Comment »Oh fark, as soon as I get back, Lori has given me a challenge…
- The total number of DVDs, videos, and films I own.
Oooh, that’s not good. First of all – do I include box-sets as one or as the number of discs? I mean, there’s things like Alien Quadrilogy, which is 9 discs on its own. But (I’m upstairs, and can’t be arsed to count ’em precisely) I’ve probably got about 150 DVDs at the moment, although if you count all the discs, it’s probably double that, what with West Wing box sets and the like… - The last film I bought.
Does it have to be a film? Last DVD I bought was West Wing S5 Box Set, which I’ve been amazingly good and not watched yet, due to waiting for S4 to make a re-appearance and get viewed before I break into S5 properly. Which is frustrating.I may even end up just getting a new copy. And then charging the person who’s still got the box set.– UPDATED : Apparently it’s been posted, and is on its way back. - The last film I watched.
Ah, well, on DVD that’d be Chronicles of Riddick. Well, some of it – I hated it, so I didn’t get to the end. On TV? Last Kiss Goodnight. - My favourite five films of all time, ever.
Oooh, tough one. Let’s think… In no particular order…- Aliens
- Ghost Dog:Way of the Samurai
- Blue Juice
- Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
- Tootsie
and finally *hangs head in shame*
- Tag three people and have them blog this.
Chelsea roundup
Posted: Mon 30 May, 2005 Filed under: Photography, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Well, some of the photos are now available, along with some more thoughts, on this photo page.
I’m also going to upload more photos to my Flickr stream, but that’s not likely to happen ’til Tuesday. So there.
Chelsea – thoughts
Posted: Sat 28 May, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 3 Comments »Well, we’re back. Knackered, but enjoyed most of the time at Chelsea. In fact – and most people won’t be surprised by this at all – the thing that detracted from the entire thing the most for me can be simply phrased in two words. “Other people”.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had to deal with that many rude and ignorant/obnoxious people all in one space. I’ve been barged, rammed, trodden on, knocked, walked into, and basically just ended up truly fucked off with ignorant arsewipe motherfuckers who’ve decided that they want to see/do something, so that’s what they’ll do, and bollocks to anyone who might get in the way of that. And the number who just stomp across the viewline of someone with a camera at their eye, then sigh and tut when someone else does it to them – well, words fail me. Actually, no they don’t. But people really don’t like to hear the expression “hypocritical fat-arsed tosswagon cunt” in a genteel atmosphere like Chelsea is supposed to have.
Other than that though, I did enjoy the huge majority of the show. The “Best in Show” is over-rated in my opinion, and the Conran-designed “Peace garden” for the Imperial War Museum should’ve been far higher rated than it was. Given the choice, I’d have swapped the two medals. But there we go, that’s a personal perspective.
Over 120 photos were taken, so I’m going to go through them tomorrow before putting together a nice new page with photos and some more thoughts.
Derren Brown – Reading Hexagon
Posted: Sat 7 May, 2005 Filed under: General, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »While I still haven’t seen the show that Gordon’s referring to, we did see Derren Brown live last night. And it was bloody good.
Rather than “just” being a string of stunts, Derren turned out to be excellent on stage – funny, relaxed, interesting, clever – and more than a little creepy in places. The section where he walks on broken glass was – for me – the weakest part of the show, but it was still interesting to see. It was also fun to see Pix called on stage from the audience – yes, Pix, your “Oh fuck” was easily lip-read off the camera that was on you at the time! Just one of those random occurrences, but still good to see.
The final set piece was excellent too, although I won’t describe it as perhaps it would ruin it for people who have yet to see the show. (There’s still a lot of it to go, including some seventeen days in London’s Cambridge Theatre) The explanation at the end was enough to appease the mind, but still leaves plenty of room for “Yeah, but how did he do that bit”.
And really that’s what a stage “magic” act is all about.
Aliens vs. Predator
Posted: Tue 3 May, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 2 Comments »Well, I finally got round to watching AVP last night. I know a lot of people have panned it as being shite, but I thought I’d give it a go anyway. Praise the Lord for LoveFilm, which meant I really didn’t even have to pay for it.
And yes, it’s utter shite. Watchable shite – even quite amusing shite – but still shite.
Faithless @ Alexandra Palace, London
Posted: Sun 1 May, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts Leave a comment »As some people will know, I missed the last Faithless gig due to a slight problem of it being in Manchester, while I had interviews in Bracknell either side of the day of the gig. Fuck it. So, as soon as we saw the tickets on sale for the gig at Ally Pally. It was only later that we found out it was going to be an 8pm to 2am gig, rather than a more “normal” time – but hey ho, not a problem.
Anyway, last night was the night of the gig, and bloody good it was too. The support was – well, iffy, I suppose would be a tactful way of phrasing it. The first band were (if memory serves) called Overhead, and were abysmal. The sound mix was totally out, and they just weren’t good at all. The second band, Infadels were much better – although in fairness they didn’t really have to work for that praise – and did a good job of warming up the crowd.
It has to be said, Alexandra Palace is bloody huge. I’d never been there before, but want to go again – hopefully this time when cameras are allowed inside the fucking venue. It’s a great place, from all appearances – with a couple of exceptions. But more about that later.
Faithless themselves were – as always – bloody great. This tour was in support of their new greatest hits album Forever Faithless, so the gig involved the best bits from all four albums. Starting off with “Reverence”, and covering all the high points – Insomnia, God is a DJ, We Come One and a bundle of others – they really just showed the support acts (and everyone else) exactly how a big gig at this level should be done. The lighting rig was exceptional, the sound quality spot-on, and the entire thing just rocked.
In fact, the only low points were some of the crowd, who could’ve been under the dictionary definition of “fuckwit cunt”, and the farce at the end. For some reason Ally Pally has never seen fit to sort out the access roads, so when we eventually got a cab back to the hotel (a farce that deserves it’s own post – suffice it to say for now that I’ve never been so glad to get out of a cab intact, and without the (expected) aid of fire-crews and a 999 call) it was stuck on the access road for a good twenty minutes.
It doesn’t take a great deal to organise things like traffic flow, car-parking and the like, but it was the side that Alexandra Palace failed in. And, as a final memory of a superb gig, it does make me think that I wouldn’t go there for another one, despite how good everything else was. Which is a pity.
Kilroy and the Gypsies
Posted: Thu 14 April, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 1 Comment »I didn’t get to see Channel 4’s Kilroy and the Gypsies when it was transmitted, but caught up with it thanks to TiVo knowing my viewing tendencies, and recording it without being prompted.
Much to my surprise, Kilroy – despite starting off as an utter tosser, which was no real shock – actually started to see the point of view of some of the people he was living with. By the end of the programme, when he saw the “gypsies” being evicted from land that they actually owned, he seemed to be almost human, and quite upset by what he saw.
The cynic in me says that he reacted this way because it was on TV – but there’s that nagging optimism that maybe he did see things from their side as well.
I still think Kilroy’s a tosspot, and I don’t know that anything will change that opinion. But as TV goes, the programme actually managed to be quite thought-provoking, and not too “ooh, look at the funny people” in tone.
The Levellers – Oxford Brookes’ SU.
Posted: Wed 13 April, 2005 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »Well, we did make it in the end – and as normal photos will be posted later today, or tomorrow morning. I just haven’t sorted them off the camera yet.
Brookes Uni SU bar isn’t much of a venue, it has to be said. The people behind the bar had obviously suffered some kind of genetic cross-patch with snails, as was made evident by both their speed and their lack of anything resembling a personality. Quarter of an hour to get served, which takes the piss rather than serving it. (Yeah, they had Budweiser on tap, so serving piss is meant literaly)
On the other hand, the gig itself was pretty damn good. The support act, McDermott’s Two Hours were OK – perfect for the “crusty” image of the Levellers and so on. Irish, political, slightly odd, and with a fiddle player to die for. Supposedly they’re one of the main influences on the Levellers, so fair play.
The Levellers themselves were – to me, anyway – a bit of a surprise. In appearance they were far more “pub rock” than “crusty” – well, the bass-player fitted the bill, but the rest were strangely ‘normal’. I found the same with Offspring, among others – and the lead singer does remind me of Offspring quite a lot. Punk and rebellion-type music doesn’t really seem to have stayed with students and teenagers, but instead has grown-up and aged with its original audience.
Anyway, they were bloody good. Right from the start, they were stunning – loud, fast, and just how they should be. All the old favourites were played, along with stuff from the new album.
Thoroughly enjoyed it, even with the bunch of arseholes stood next to us. Oh, and the woman one of them was groping, who could only be described as “rougher than a badger’s arse in Autumn”. But they just provided amusement/bemusement. The gig itself was great.
Dead Can Dance – The Gig
Posted: Fri 8 April, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 7 Comments »(NOTE : Photos will follow, probably tonight or tomorrow – they’re at home and I didn’t get a chance to crop them etc. yet)
It’s been a fair while since I’ve seen Dead Can Dance – the last time I saw Lisa Gerrard was about seven years ago (in fact, having looked at the album‘s release date, it was probably nine years ago) and it must be back in the early ’90s when I saw DCD. Ye Gods that makes me feel old.
So last night was always going to be a bit special – and it was the last night of the european section of their tour. The Forum has always been a bit of a sweatbox, and last night hasn’t changed my opinion of it – the place was heaving. And sweating. For some reason a huge percentage of the audience was apparently from Scandinavia – no idea why, but there we go. Movement was difficult, it was so busy – for the most part I just stayed in one place, against the wall of the sound-desk and got battered by people shoving past. I wish I knew what it is about people that makes them keep going for drinks, bogs, whatever while the act they’ve paid at least (in this case) £20 per ticket to see is on stage. Or, even more annoying, keep talking to their mates while the main act’s on. It’s fucking annoying – if you want to talk, fuck off. If you want to see the gig, stay. Just don’t do both – because your “talking” is at such a volume that the people all around can hear you too, you self-obsessed spaff-wit tossburger.
This trait is particularly noticeable during a gig like tonights, where the main act isn’t a wall-of-noise type band, and in fact a lot of their stuff is surprisingly delicate. Bass-heavy as chuff in a lot of cases, but not all. In fact, Lisa Gerrard did perform some of her solo-voice almost madrigally operatic stuff, which is truly impressive. By my reckoning her voice covers about five or six octaves – sometimes in one lyric. The only person I’ve seen with a greater range is Diamanda Galas, and she’s just scary. But that’s something for another day.
The gig was excellent – as expected, they performed a lot of their more well-known stuff, with “The Ubiquitous Mr LoveGrove” getting an ovation from the first beat, along with several others. They commanded the Forum amazingly well, especially considering that they hardly said twenty words to the audience all night. A definite presence, but not a personality, if that makes any sense at all.
Unfortunately my MP3 recorder failed utterly to capture the gig decently – if I’m going to attempt that again, I think I’ll need to sort out a proper microphone, or start getting to know people on the sound-desks. The photos came out pretty well – it was a very dimly-lit stage, yet I seem to have finally sussed out the right shutter speed (about 1/25th of a second, if you’re interested) that stops the people being too blurred, but also stops the shots from being too dark. Hell, it’s only taken me a year to sort out.
All things considered, it was a brilliant concert – but I can’t deny, I was glad to get out of the Forum and into the cool night to go home too. Fresh air – even London Fresh – was a joy after that crowd.
Hostage
Posted: Wed 6 April, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 4 Comments »Last night we went to see “Hostage” – well, the other choice had been “Miss Congeniality 2“, with the dreaded Bullock, so Hostage it was.
The main thing I found myself thinking throughout the film was “How the hell did this manage to end up with only a 15 certificate?”. I’ve seen 18 cert films that were less graphic in their violence, let alone the depiction of dead or dying people. Yet there’s been no comments from certain aspect of the media that I’ve noticed at all.
Anyway – the film itself is pretty stunning. The ending slightly lets it down, there’s a couple of clichés that rankle slightly, but in general it’s bloody good. Not pleasant, not “entertainment” in the strictest sense, but it’s good. Dark as chuff, but it holds itself well in that context.
Bruce Willis’s character is interesting – even with the view of the now-standard White Vest. You keep expecting him to make a comment about having a really bad day a la Die Hard, or say “yippe-kie-aye motherfucker”. But he doesn’t. And that’s no bad thing, just a sign of stereotyping.
It’s also interesting that the girl who plays his daughter in the film actually is his daughter, Rumer. (Stupid name, but hey, that’s life in ‘ollywood)
Overall, Hostage doesn’t make for comfortable viewing, but the atmosphere and darkness of the entire film’s attitude makes it into a superb piece. Just don’t watch it while eating, particularly anything red…
Sony Ericsson
Posted: Wed 30 March, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 1 Comment »Well, that title should be good for a few Google hits in a couple of days. Thankfully, at least on this occasion it’s relevant.
So, some thoughts on SE phones. I’ve just upgraded to a K700i, and I have to say that on 24 hours use I’m well pleased with it, although (ah, come on, you wouldn’t expect anything else from me) there’s a couple of little niggles with it. Given a week I probably won’t notice or care about them, but moving from Nokia to SE they’re something I’m aware right now.
First of all – and this is such a minor one, it’s almost odd to write it down – the SE doesn’t show when it’s got a GPRS connection. The Nokia did. It was only a little G on the display, not intrusive at all, but when it came to knowing I could get a data connection, it was useful. The K700 doesn’t seem to have that – I’ve got the GPRS set up, no worries (One very nice function is that you can link to the Sony Ericsson site and get the settings sent directly to your phone for whichever call provider you’re using – a lot of time saved for very little effort indeed) but there’s no display to say so. Irritating.
The other one – and I suspect it’s a standard niggle – is that the predictive text key layout is different. Now, I know this is more about useability and so on, but T9 is a standard for the predictive text, and that’s fine – but if it’s a standard then the key layouts should match too. It’s a pain in the arse remembering that what was the space key is now just a zero, and what was the “Shift” to get a capital letter is now the space key. I’ll get used to it – I semi-regularly swap phone makers, rather than just models, and in a week’s time I’ll be back to texting without looking at the keys, but for now it’s a niggle.
One of my colleagues in the office (yes, the twunty manager, before anyone asks) also has an SE phone, but in his case it’s the P910i. And he can’t/won’t change the fucking ringtones, nor take it with him when he leaves the office. The call ringtone is one of the most annoying on the planet – yes, even worse than The Nokia Tone *spit*. SE in their wisdom have come up with what they call a “corporate” ringtone known imaginatively as “Ring, Ring, Ring”. I won’t be cruel and include a soundfile of it, because it’d drive you crackers – but it’s a woman’s voice ‘singing’ “Ring, Ring, Ring, wooo-hooo-oooooo, Ring Ring Ring”. Loudly, warbly, and just slightly out of tune. It’s incredibly annoying, and the twat won’t change it.
I’ve threatened to change it for him (although this may involve dropping it from a very great height) and this didn’t go down well. The twunt says he likes it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were true, but equally I wouldn’t be surprised if the full sentence were “I like it because I can’t change it, and thus have to tolerate it”.
So – decent phone, but with some fuck-awful ringtones. Luckily mine’s already been changed. I did that first of all. Hmmm, I wonder if The Twunt understands Polish, if I change languages on his phone?
Easter Chocolate
Posted: Wed 30 March, 2005 Filed under: Customer Services, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »I’m not greatly into chocolate at the best of times, it has to be said. However, if you’re after something spectacularly good and chocolatey, you can’t do much better than Hotel Chocolat.
We both had one egg from them this year, and they’re utterly fantastic. Seriously thick chocolate for the egg itself, and filled with chocolates inside. Not just one or two in a bag, but both halves filled properly. Yes, they’re more expensive than the standard Smarties egg or whatever, but damn, they’re worth it.
Having made several orders now with Hotel Chocolat, I’d wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone who’s into chocolate.
Doctor Who
Posted: Tue 29 March, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 4 Comments »It’s taken me a bit of time to write about the new series of Doctor Who, mainly because I’ve kept thinking “There’s something I was going to write, but what was it?”. Ah, if only we had time-travel…
But anyway, yes, in general I thought it was great to have it back. Christopher Ecclestone is grand as the new Doctor – someone who appears to be completely hyper about the end of the world, but with really bad social skills and (in a good sense) some very inappropriate responses. Billie Piper was a revelation – as she was in BBC’s Canterbury Tales last year – in that she’s actually a pretty capable actress.
What was, for me, more impressive was that for all the gloss and hype, it still maintained that “shaky sets” feel of the previous series. Yes, things have changed – but they haven’t changed all that much. The plots still have a major dose of silliness in them, the acting can be (to be charitable) a bit dodgy, but you can see that they’re actually having a laugh while doing the episodes. And it really does help to have a writer who is so obviously a fan of the earlier series – the initial episode seemed to have various threads that could develop over the run of the series, which is always a good thing.
Oh, and thank god that the awful boyfriend should now disappear. I’ve seen park benches that were less wooden.
But yeah, in general it was bloody great to have it back on the screens. Consider it Season Passed.
Ideal Home – again
Posted: Sun 20 March, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Thoughts 2 Comments »Well, the Ideal Home Show was interesting, to say the least. Lots of ideas have been forthcoming, and it looks like a bit of website business may be on the way too. Some surprise was expressed that I was prepared to find some business while out on a fun day “off”, but well, what the hell, spot an opportunity and exploit it – that’s my theory, and I’m sticking with it.
I didn’t get any photos, unfortunately, but the place was so frigging busy I wasn’t going to be able to get much that didn’t involve having people scattered all over, which really wasn’t the mood I was going for. So yeah, no photos.
But we did have a good time – the logic of the layout is completely beyond me, sticking all the fancy guff on the ground floor, then having all the demonstrations upstairs in the narrower parts where people, by nature, stop and watch, thus blocking the entire fucking walkway. Genius. I’d like to find the person who came up with that concept and give them a bloody good kicking – and I can’t be the only one. I figure it must affect the sales and demonstrations too, because unless you can get people passing through fairly quickly you’re only going to see a percentage of any day’s custom, rather than all of it. Maybe I’m wrong, but if I were exhibiting there, it would be an issue that would piss me off. Paying God only knows how much to exhibit there (and let’s not forget it’s near as dammit a month of being there!) and yet probably missing a fair percentage of potential sales would certainly be a cause for being pissed off.
Anyway, that aside, it was actually a really good day. I wouldn’t say that anyone should go every year, or anything like that, but it’s definitely worth going. Hell, even just with balancing the cost of food (definitely take your own lunch, it’ll save you a shedload!) and drinks against the freebies we got, I’d say we probably broke even. And with the potential for some work, I probably came out well ahead of the game! Always a good thing…
Shameless
Posted: Wed 16 March, 2005 Filed under: News, Reviews(ish) 2 Comments »It’s good to see that Shameless has won a hat-trick of awards yesterday at the Royal Television Society Awards. It’s creator, Paul Abbott, has been a major contributor to TV drama over the last few years, and deserves the recognition he’s finally getting.
A month ago, The Guardian had an interview with Abbott, which made for fascinating reading.
As for Shameless itself? Well, I’m looking forward to Series 3, having seen the finale of S2 a couple of weeks back. From the awards, it looks like it’ll be a certainty.
Da Vinci Bollocks
Posted: Tue 15 March, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish), Sweary, Thoughts, Weirdness 6 Comments »No, not a new recently-discovered masterpiece. Instead, the Vatican has come out with a lecture about why the Da Vinci Code is bollocks. (OK, they didn’t phrase it quite like that, but hey, artistic licence and all that)
Frankly, who cares? Anyone who’s brain-dead enough to think that The Da Vinci Code is anything other than utter shite – admittedly, page-turning shite, but utter shite all the same – doesn’t deserve to have it explained to them, they deserve to receive a tattoo on their forehead saying “Gullible Fuckwit”. Ideally written in reverse, so that it makes sense every time they look in the mirror.
The Da Vinci Code is toss. Badly-written pulp novel toss, albeit with sales figures that feature in Tom Clancy’s wet dreams. I’ve read it. It’s toss. That’s my critical opinion of it. And of Dan Brown‘s other books too. Toss. All of ’em. I’m not jealous – fair play, he’s written a pile of shit, and made millions from it. Good for him. But to start linking it with reality is the sign of nothing more than epic levels of brain injury in lots of people.
As for debunking the theories in it, or explaining where they’re wrong, well all I can say is that the Vatican really hasn’t got its collective brain round the conspiracy theory idea yet, has it? “A denial is as good as an ovation to a rumour”, and all those other bon mots. But quite honestly the more people who stand up and say “the Da Vinci Code is bollocks, and knows it”, the better. But denying it is just going to make the tinfoil-hat brigade believe all the more. I bet the bloody thing sells in its hundreds around Area 51, and at the “Kennedy didn’t really die, it was all a plot, like when they faked the moon-landings” school of bullshit, Texas.
A Valid Point
Posted: Fri 11 March, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »In today’s Guardian, Rupert Smith reviews a programme from BBC2 last night called “Blame the Parents”, and along the way sums up a lot of my feelings about ‘reality TV’.
Something turned them from innocent babes into teenage gremlins, and it was obvious that the parenting skills on show were somewhat lacking. But here lies the problem with Blame the Parents. This was not just about the fine-tuning of family dynamics. These weren’t naughty, unruly kids. These were people who appeared to have serious emotional, mental and behavioural problems, and to parade them on telly as if we can learn something from them while enjoying a good wallow in other people’s misery seems questionable at best. You can’t hold up an extreme as if it’s a commonplace. It’s like showing black people as muggers and crackheads, or gay men alternately shopping, shagging and taking crystal meth. If TV has gone so far into the realms of stereotyping that it’s even trashing white heterosexuals, then we’ve officially lost the plot.
© Guardian Newspapers 2005
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
TV stuff
Posted: Thu 3 March, 2005 Filed under: General, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »No, TV as in Television, not as in Transvestism. Honest.
I’ve found Jamie’s School Dinners on Channel 4 really quite interesting so far. I like seeing someone with a passion for what they believe in trying to pass on that passion to others, and much as I loathe the lithping mockney twat, it’s obvious that he’s been shocked by what schoolchildren are being fed. It’s hard to imagine feeding kids on a budget of 37p per head for their entire lunch, and you can see why the lowest common denominator is what’s preferred. But Oliver’s attempts to improve the school diet make for interesting viewing, and it’s certainly thought-provoking. Particularly when you start thinking “Is that what I want to happen to my kids?”.
As for “Desperate Housewives, what can I say, I love it. OK, it’s not perfect, but there’s a decent slice of very black humour going through it – something that American dramas suddenly seem to be understanding far better. Six Feet Under, Sopranos, and several others have certainly raised the bar on this, and they’re getting better at it all the time. Housewives manages to combine funny bits with the dark side, and is acutely observed. I just find myself wondering whether they’ll sort it all out over the next six weeks, or whether everything will bleed over into Season 2. I suspect it will…
CatWoman
Posted: Mon 28 February, 2005 Filed under: News, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »I see in today’s news that Halle Berry turned up in person to accept her award for “Worst Actress” for her role in “CatWoman. All I can say is she deserves it. Oh, and to be buried in pigshit for a year, just to enforce in her head what happens when you immerse yourself in crap.
By a ‘lucky’ chance, Herself had listed Twatwoman from Lovefilm, and we got it this week. God knows why it’d been requested, but it had. And oh my dear sweet Lord, what a pile of inordinate shite it is. If I were the inventor of celluloid, I’d be spinning in my grave right now, knowing that my product had led to this.
The director, Pitof, has a pretty good track-record – he’s a disciple of one of my favourite directors, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. But God he can churn out the shite when he needs to. Visually, Twatwoman is kind of impressive – it’s got a nice feel to it in places, and some very stylistic shots. But I’ve seen MFI products less shaky than the story line, and the acting was so wooden it would’ve fitted in nicely on Eldorado.
Truly, truly awful – don’t let it anywhere near your TV.
Flavourings – Coke and Lime
Posted: Fri 25 February, 2005 Filed under: General, Reviews(ish) 3 Comments »As most people are already aware, Coke have been messing about with “Coke + flavouring” over the last couple of years. First came Vanilla, which is putrid (except with Vodka in it, but that’s perhaps missing the point slightly), then came Lemon, which most people associated with drinking Windolene.
With a lot less fanfare though comes Diet Coke with Lime. Sounds vile? (And yes, I know Pepsi are doing a Twisted Pepsi Max with Lemon and Lime.) Well, I wanted to try it, because on occasion I used to be known to put a dollop of lime cordial into normal coke, and it tasted pretty good. I’ve no idea where I got the idea from, but well, it tasted OK.
So, Diet Coke with Lime. Could be interesting. And I have to say, it’s really not bad. It might be on a limited-area trial at the moment, as the Coca-cola UK site doesn’t even mention it yet, but I’d say it’s definitely worth looking out for.
Meet The Fockers
Posted: Mon 14 February, 2005 Filed under: Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Hmmm, what is there to say about this? The sequel to 2000’s Meet the Parents, and as with many sequels it’s not really as good as the first one.
Still funny in places, but really more of a one-trick pony, with various sidelines really quite sadly underused, or just completely undeveloped. Dustin Hoffmann and Barbara Streisand were on top form as the Fockers, but still very underused.
Overall, while it’s an OK way to spend a couple of hours, I’d probably advise waiting for the DVD release. It’s probably got a load of extras on it, too.
Blade:Trinity
Posted: Fri 17 December, 2004 Filed under: Reviews(ish) 2 Comments »OK, first things first, it’s confession time. I like Blade. Sad, but true. I even think Blade 2 was OK(ish). So seeing Blade:Trinity was a bit of a foregone conclusion despite some less-than-positive reviews.
But what is it with Hollywood and trilogies? Matrix was superb, Matrix:Revolutions was *cough* less so and Matrix:Reloaded was fucking horrendous. It’s much the same with Blade. Dear Christ I hope they’re not planning on making a fourth one.
It’s hard to define where it all goes wrong. I suppose “the start” would be a good definition. And it doesn’t get any better. There’s just too much that’s wrong – and even worse, it all feels horrendously disjointed. It’s a revenant, a zombie lurching from place to place with no real connection to any of it.
Avoid, avoid at all costs. It pains me to say this, but Blade:Trinity is nothing but undiluted shit.
The Incredibles
Posted: Mon 13 December, 2004 Filed under: Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »I confess, I’ve always been a fan of Pixar‘s films (although I draw the line at “Finding Nemo”, which I still think is a hunk of crap, but that’s my perspective on it, rather down to the film itself) so going to see the Incredibles was always a case of “when” rather than “if”. And last night turned out to be the “when”.
I lost count of how many “superhero” movies the Incredibles features. The speeding bus from “Speed”, the slow character build-up of “Spiderman” and “Hulk”, The ‘group of heroes’ thing from X-Men etc., and many other far subtler ones. Interestingly, the film has a much maturer aspect than their other works, this one really isn’t that much of a kids film, in the way the Nemo and Monsters Inc. were. It’s not “adult” humour, but it demands a more adult outlook- understanding the frustrations of Mr and Mrs Incredible, forced into being “everyday” people, using their secret identities as their only identities, and put in everyday jobs.
The entire film is beautifully done – as with Monsters Inc, it will stand up to repeated viewings – even in scenes you get familiar with, it’s all too easy to simply look at the detail the animators put into everything. For example, the water in Incredibles is simply stunning, as are the fabrics, and the way they move and flow just like the real thing.
Technically superb, Pixar’s films always seem to be firmly based in the storyline – these films aren’t a series of setpieces about “look how great we are at animating”, instead they follow the full story curve, and their work has always been more of a film than a cartoon.
Incredibles is a step up for Pixar, and well worth seeing (
and probably buying the DVD) several times. Now, when’s their next one “Cars” due out – that looks fantastic too!
Retrospective
Posted: Thu 9 December, 2004 Filed under: Festering Season, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Pixeldiva wrote about the way her life has changed this year. I’m really pleased that things are working out for her, and congratulations again on the new job!
In many ways, my year has been very similar. Ups, downs, highs, lows, and a curve that looks like a moonshot.
Looking back in the archives to the start of this year, I was at a low ebb then. The previous year had worn me down, and I was hoping that 2004 would be a lot calmer. Come to that, I was also planning on spending the next Festering Season™ somewhere other than the UK. So, got both of those wrong then!
In the last year there’s been whole worlds of change. In February I was surprised by one person (who I never really wrote about, except in some very roundabout ways) and let down by another. (another thing I never really wrote all that much about) Over the summer I ended up being even more surprised by another person, and things changed immensely.
The person who let me down had continued to do so, and it ended up with us going seperate ways. It’s not easy walking away from a decade-long friendship, but on this occasion it had to be done – and I still don’t regret it. Sometimes it’s odd, thinking “Oh, I must tell them that”, but no, there’s no regret and no doubt. Everything took time, because I didn’t want to end with a “what if?” moment – and that’s worked, there’s not been a “what if?” thought at all. Does he read d4d™? I have no idea. I don’t honestly care that much – but I suspect he doesn’t, it’d be far too much like showing interest.
And now we’re at the end of the year. I’m moving back down to the South, and new job, new house, new(ish) relationship, and spending Christmas in Norfolk. In all honesty it couldn’t be much further away from any situation I’d envisioned for where I’d be at the end of the year. Huge leaps (one might even say quantum leaps) have been made, and I’ve changed immeasurably over the last twelve months. 2005 is going to involve more of the same, but a lot of it will be developing things that’ve started up this year.
This time last year I hadn’t even printed a photo – now my stuff is on walls in a few houses. I’ve done photo work I’ve been paid for, and also submitted (and been rejected) stuff for an exhibition. I’m going to keep on with it, and see how I do once I’ve moved, though.
Tomorrow I interview for new jobs, and all I can do at the moment on that score is “wait and see”. I’m trying to find a balance between optimism and pessimism. And failing.
I’ve no idea what 2005 will bring – if this year has taught me one thing, it’s that sometimes everything is out of our hands, and we just have to ride the waves it throws our way.
Band Aid 20
Posted: Tue 30 November, 2004 Filed under: Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »I’ve already voiced my feelings on the piece of shit masquerading as Band Aid 20 – although I still think it’s more Elastoplast than Band-Aid. But hey, what would I know?
Anyway – obviously lots of people will be wanting to buy the single and “help the hungry” or whatever the buzzphrase is at the moment. But of course you don’t want to end up with loads of copies of the same thing, dunging up your CD collection. What’s the answer?
Step forward Band Aid Dilemma.
You want this record to succeed, because you feel for the plight of the refugees in the Dharfur region of Sudan and this project is funding aid projects on their behalf. However, you hate this recording and feel your musical ego looming and refusing to be bruised.
The answer?
- Buy as many copies of Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid 20 as you can afford.
- Destroy them in amusing ways, on camera.
- Send us the pictures.
Charity. Violence. You know it makes sense.
Bill Bailey – Part Troll
Lowry Lyric Theatre, Salford
Posted: Mon 3 May, 2004 Filed under: General, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »
I got lucky with this gig – The Lowry had already sold out two shows for Bill Bailey, and I thought I’d missed out. However, he ended up doing an extra gig, tonight, a new “first night”. Impressively, this one was sold out too, but the difference was that this time, I’d got a ticket.
The Lyric is a lovely little theatre – I’m not sure how many people it holds, but it’s probably around the 750-1,000 mark. But at least it’s comfortable, and affords some legroom for lanky sods like me. So that’s a plus point already.
The concert itself was superb. I’d not seen Bill Bailey before, other than on his TV appearances, but he’s absolutely worth every penny. It was absolutely brilliant – and also left me wondering how much of it was pure ad-libbing, working on reactions from the audience. But also anyone who manages to get away with lines like “contains more evil than an Al-Qaeda suggestion box”, waffles on about a combination of Hitler and the hokey-cokey, does the Portishead version of “Zippety Doo Dah”, and then can also tell a joke based around a bar, which has a theme of “Uncertainty”. Yes, Werner Heisenberg is the bar-tender. A very odd combination of surreal humour and deeply intelligent esoteric knowledge. And absolutely hilarious. I needed a gig like this, and it came through in spades.
The Part Troll tour is on between now and the middle of July. If it comes anywhere near you, and it’s not already sold out, go. It’ll be well-worth your time.
Muse – MEN Arena
Posted: Tue 2 December, 2003 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »I last saw Muse about four years ago, when they supported Skunk Anansie. At that time they were just starting out, and frankly, they were shit. It put me off them for a long time, but then I got persuaded by friends that they had improved a thousand-fold since then, so I should give them another go. And in a rare fit of tolerance, I did.
What a surprise – they’ve changed themselves utterly from the dweeby little bunch of goits I’d seen before. The music is similar, and Matt Bellamy’s voice is still the same, but the attitude of the band has changed utterly. They’re far more confident now, and the stage show is light-years ahead of just about anything else in the genre. In fact the only person I can think of this year with a better stage set was (of course) Peter Gabriel.
Bearing in mind that I’d managed to avoice purchasing anything by Muse before, I’m now beginning to think I should get at least one of their albums, and give it a try. Yes, I’ve changed my mind that much about them. Really, the only thing that could have improved the gig for me was to know the songs better – and even without that, it was still a stunning concert, culminating with a storm of ticker-tape being blasted over the audience. I’ll let the pictures say the rest…
Massive Attack, Queens Square, Bristol
Posted: Tue 26 August, 2003 Filed under: Music, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Back in April, I saw Massive Attack live in Manchester as part of the tour for the 100th Window album. As concerts go, it was an absolutely stunning one, particularly having waited for rumty-tumty years to see them live. Soon after that, they released information that they would be doing an open-air concert in Bristol (their hometown) on August Bank Holiday Monday. Suffice it to say, yours truly got tickets for it, and has been looking forward to it ever since.
As more information became available, it turned out it wasn’t just going to be Massive Attack, but was instead going to be an all-dayer (well, about 10 hours all told) with a variety of bands. The final line up was : Lupine Howl, Martina Topley-Bird, The Bees, Goldfrapp, The Streets, and (of course) Massive Attack. Definitely worth the £22.50 per ticket.
First things first, the organisation in Queens Square was – in general – superb. Really the only minor detraction was the bizarre insistence at the gates that any bottled drinks had to have the caps taken off, and thrown away. I have NO idea why this was relevant (some people were saying it was so they couldn’t be used as missiles, but if that’s the case then why provide bottles and cans inside the venue?) but it was insisted upon, and was a complete pain in the arse. Once that minor hurdle had been covered and entrance had been managed, it just got better and better. The entire area had been covered in a kind of plastic tile, (I assume) to protect the surface underneath. While not perfect (I think my arse is still embossed with the manufacturer’s name) it was probably a smart move on the part of the organisers – and I’d imagine will make it very easy to clear up afterwards too. The entire site was well organised, more than enough facilities etc. – the only complaint I heard was that the bars were rigidly busy, but with 20-odd thousand people who weren’t allowed to bring alcohol into the area, I suppose that’s hardly a surprise either.
- There’s a lack of photos purely because the new digi-cam’s zoom really wasn’t up to it.
- Lupine Howl
I’d never heard of Lupine Howl before today, and on the face of things I doubt I’ll hear much of them again. I’ve been wrong before, but if I am, it’ll take a while to happen.They came on and performed a couple of reasonable covers, then made the mistake of performing some of their own stuff. Bad move. Very derivative, and with very little to allow them to stand out from the crowd. Yeah they were completely competent, and being sixth on the line-up sucks, but no, not at all impressed. And the cover of Led Zep’s “Misty Mountain Hop” towards the end of the gig was deepy ill-advised, as well as utterly shonky - Martina Topley-Bird
Martina used to provide the counterpoint vocals for Tricky, particularly on the Maxinquaye album, before he disappeared up his own arse at a rate of knots. She’s just released her first solo album, Quixotic, so (I assume) most of the material was from that. And on the face of the thirty-odd minutes she performed, I’m getting the album. Lupine Howl should have watched and learned – the sheer range of musical types was impressive, going from an Alabama-3-esque intro into swamp rock, blues, pop, and a couple of others. Impossible to pigeonhole, except perhaps as “Bristol trippy” – on the strength of the performance and music, she’ll continue upwards at a rapid pace. - The Bees
Again, Bristol-based, the Bees were – well, better than Lupine Howl. That’s about as fair as I can be. - Goldfrapp
I’d seen Goldfrapp on Jools Holland before, but really didn’t know any of their stuff all that well. In that context, they were bloody good. There were a couple of ear-drum shattering high-notes and distortion-bound pieces, but on the face of the sound-system’s performance for the rest of the event, I can only assume that the distortion was intentional. About 80% of the set was exceptional, but the other 20% was enough to make me slightly less sure about getting more stuff by Goldfrapp. All things considered though, it was a bloody good set (even with Ms Goldfrapp doing some very rude (simulated) things with the Theremin (apparently “every girl should have one” *grin*) and really started getting the crowd going. - The Streets
As with Goldfrapp, I’d heard a lot about The Streets, but to my knowledge I hadn’t heard any of their stuff. (Turns out I had, but only one track) Their reputation preceded them, so it was definitely a matter of interest to see them – and I have to say they were good. Not my favourite kind of thing, as I never did get into the rap style of music all that much – but I can see the strength they have, and why people like them they’re different to a lot of thestuff that’s out at the moment, which is always a good thing in my book. Very impressive. - Massive Attack
The main act – and right from the start, we’re in a totally different sphere. These people know how to do a show. I’d wondered how they’d improve on the Manchester gig, and even whether they could improve – but believe me, they could. This was a home-town audience, and they pulled out all the stops. It was a stunning concert even if you’d seen others in the tour – there were enough differences to keep it interesting. One of the best new parts was the wall-screen displaying a globe, tracing their route through the tour, totting up the mileage (kilometerage, to be accurate) and displaying how they’ve travelled, right up to the gig in Bristol. The mileage this year is a stunning 35,000Km – makes my weekend look positively sane. The entire 90 minutes they were on stage were fantastic – truly atmospheric, storming sound system, excellent lighting, the entire gig was fantastic.
All in all, an absolutely stunning day, and well worth the money.
Sisters of Mercy – Manchester Academy
Posted: Wed 23 April, 2003 Filed under: Gigs, Reviews(ish) Leave a comment »Or HOW much dry ice have I just breathed?
(No pics, I’m afraid – they’d have all come out as clouds of smoke anyway)
It must be at least ten years since I’ve seen Sisters of Mercy in concert – I know I missed the ’97 tour, so when the “Smoke and Mirrors” tour was announced, I got a ticket pretty damn quickly.
Tonight was quite fascinating – almost a timewarp in many ways. Looking around the audience, it was obvious that the great majority had been listening to the albums when they were first released, and they were here for much the same reasons as myself. One amusing side-point I noticed was that while the women all seem to be in much the same Gothy outfits they were in ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, the men have changed styles to accomodate nasty things like hair-loss and so on. Where they would have been in the full quiffs and “outrageous” hairstyles, now there’s more of a tendency towards Matrix-style clothing, long leather coats and (of course) shaved heads. Age marches on.
The support act were one I’d never heard of before, OceanSize – not bad at all. It took the audience a while to get into their stuff, but by the end I think it was generally acknowledged that they were pretty good, and will probably be headlining their own gigs before long. They’re very like a slightly heavier, bassier version of Muse.
Then we get to the main attraction. The venue fills up with dry ice (and I do mean fills – you could hardly see the bar at the side), the lights go on, and the drum machine kicks in. I don’t think the singer was actually completely visible at any time in the concert – any time visibility looked like becoming an issue, zap, out blew more dry ice.
They didn’t play anything new, it was all the old stuff that everyone knew already – but that was what they were there for. No-one was complaining at all – we were there to see the Sisters play, and that’s what they did. Very few favourites were left unplayed, and it was a stunning concert. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Now – how long ’til my hearing comes back?