Friday, December 30, 2005

King Kong go rooaar!!!

You'd have thought that most of the UK population have already gone to see Peter Jackson's King Kong by now, what with it having been out a week or two before Christmas.  But obviously not, as myself and the family trundled up to the local VUE cinema to watch the 3-hour remake of the black and white original, only to find the screen room chock-a-block with people already settled in the best seats.

We found some seats pretty close to the screen, the best of a bad bunch I suppose, and made ourselves comfortable.  I won't bore you with the details of the film as there's just too much to cover properly (at least, to do it justice), but whilst watching it I couldn't help thinking back to the 'Making of King Kong' et cetera TV programmes and realising that the backdrops weren't really there, post-production effects added, and other such things.  It's the first time that such a thing has really happened to me, and it was quite distracting and annoying, pulling me out of the world that Jackson strove hard to embrace us in.

Other than that, it was a pleasant story of deceit, love and understanding (and other things that I'd missed), how a big ape has feelings too, and learning that most of the audience were squeamish when large bugs came out of the tree trunk's cracks that the actress was hiding in (when being attacked by dinosaurs).

All's well that ends well, when the big lovable furry thing falls off the Empire State building and manages to keep all his innards inside of him. The End.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  Hope you all have lots of fun and enjoy the break from work/dole collection/other (delete as applicable), and to quote a friend of mine, I hope that Santa has been good.

Yay!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Knife City - making video games look bad

I saw this on the lunchtime news and, honestly, was shocked and disappointed by it. It's an advert by the Met Police about the dangers and consequences of carrying a knife around, aimed at those hoody-youths of today, entitled Knife City.

When I first heard that the ad was combination of video-game graphics and real-life footage regarding knives, I instantly had a hate reaction to it. Not because they are trying to get youths to realise what happens when you carry a knife around - I'm all for it, definately, any way to get guns and knives off of the streets is a way forward - but my hate is because they used (albeit succussfully, I admit) video-gaming as a reference to it.

The games industry has a hard enough time as it is with uneducated-band-wagon-jumping-Daily-Mail-readers and all those that think the Playstation, GTA, Manhunter, et al. 'killed my son/daughter/dog/fish' - and now the Met Police come up with an advert that is more or less saying that video-games borne the knife/gun culture on the streets today! Honestly, I couldn't believe it. Those tabloid readers are going to have a field day with this one and shout the likes of "See, we were right! Even the police think videogames are evil!". Stupidly, as usual (or as expected), those readers will be missing the point of the advert - there are consequences of carrying a knife, life's not a game. It's not 'videogames make violence happen', nothing like it at all.

Don't get me wrong, the advert is effective (the shock tactic usually works for me, except in this case as I knew what was going to happen, but it would have worked), but why use (or should that be target) the video-game industry on such a matter? I do hope that it's not because the Police are a bunch of Daily Mail reading idiots, but in fact are reaching to the youths in a way that they understand.

Mind, I'd imagine that a lot more under-18s than over-18s that are carrying around knives, and yet games that closely depict real-life violence get 18-rated anyway. So those hooded-youths mixing up gameworlds and real-life worlds shouldn't be playing these sorts of games anyway and therefore shouldn't be getting mixed up with the 'different worlds'. If that makes sense - basically, parents should be made more aware of what their children play on their consoles, and that they shouldn't have them in their rooms but some place where there's adequate supervision. And then the children need to be educated in the fact that when someone dies there's no coming back, and the same with them.

If everyone would stop being stupid and realised that games are just like any other form of entertainment, then there would be less Daily Mail readers (or knife crimes, whichever is worse).

Apologies to those Daily Mail readers that don't fit in with the tabloid's stereotype. Mind, you should think about reading a newspaper instead of that magazine.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Shoot the crow to Ben Folds

Saturday just gone saw myself and a load of Irish friends-of-a-friend venture into the Trafalgar Studios, London, to watch James Nesbitt and Co. perform Shoot the Crow - a story about four Irish working-class men (constructing and tiling toilets and showers) planning a heist on an unallocated palette of wall tiles.  The two pairs have exactly the same plan; it's coming up to lunch and they need to create a situation to get the other pair somewhere else away from the tiles - so it'll be to the local to celebrate the final day of one worker.  One in each of the pair have concerns about the heist whilst the other has a reason, but the former are soon won over when they realise that they too have future plans that could be helped with a few more 'readies'.  What follows are comedic to-and-fros, life situations and the reality of working in a dead-end job, a poke at the 'what is art' question, and the obligatory double-cross-back-stabbing when one worker talks to one of the other pair.

This play is said to portray some aspect of the working-class life in Ireland many years ago, and as the characters reveal themselves you do feel for them and their situations.  Problems can be solved with money but that's not everything as Nesbitt explains when he relates himself to his father for not being there and spending enough family-time - the actor even sobs on-stage although it was quite a chringing moment.  The acting was superb and the script kept the comedy flowing nicely, but the only thing that got me was the incredibly thick Irish accent making the local phrases all the more difficult to decipher.  Admittedly, some of it went over my head but I got most of it, and I liked the fact that the dialogue wasn't 'dumbed down' and kept with its Irish roots, so to speak, otherwise the magic would have been lost.  The play completely engrossed me with everything going so smoothly, which you would expect from professionals, but it was good to see that the actors hadn't lost interest as the Saturday's evening showing was the final of three continuous weeks, twice daily.

Towards the end of the play, the two pairs confide - well, Nesbitt opens up to the other pair, much to the annoyance of his original partner-in-crime - and all four are in it together, ready to steal the tiles.  Lunchtime arrives and the coast is clear - except it's not, when one worker gets a call with unwanted news.  Not only do they have further work but the tiles are for another room that they missed.  You can see the huge blow on their faces after having been jumping around and joking about their future plans, but Nesbitt doesn't have any of it as he's determined to carry out his promise of spending time with his son and taking him to the cinema - he doesn't care about getting sacked and his closest workmate says he's not covering for him.  When the youngest worker comes in he concludes that the overtime goes three ways but it's not to be - for all that the worker shouted at Nesbitt, he'll make up a lie and cover Nesbitt's back.  You can't go stealing and nothing comes easy in life, and for all that's said and done it comes down to helping one another to make things that little bit more bearable.


Fast forward past the post-show drinking and for some reason not actually having a hangover on Sunday morning, all the way to Tuesday and it's Ben Folds night.  After a day trotting through some streets of London during the morning and afternoon with Nav (Tottenham Court Road, Portobello Road, an Anime exhibition in County Hall near Westminster, and a glance at some of the new exhibits at the Tate Modern), we headed to the Carling Academy, Brixton, for the support band The Maccabees and the headline act of Ben Folds.

The Maccabees sounded good and because they were relatively young they were quite fresh and keen to perform well.  The only comment against them, and it's pretty major, is that each of their songs sounded similar to each other - each song had the lead guitarists jamming fast, blasting out chords and not much else - they were overbearing and the vocalist didn't stand out enough (except for his epileptic dancing that made me laugh - I've seen it somewhere else before done by some famous rock singer).  Personally, I don't see them getting too far unless they start doing something about those guitarists and getting some melody out, because I only started to enjoy each of their tunes when they stopped hammering and starting doing some riffing, even if it was only four different notes over and over.

Now Ben Folds, well, what can I say but yet another excellent, excellent gig.  There wasn't going to be any new material, that I knew, and even though I had heard some of his new music in June at Southampton it was a great surprise and pleasure to hear some of his older material from the Ben Folds Five days.  This time I had bought standing tickets (Southampton only had seating) so it was a case of getting to the Academy in good time and finding a good place to stand.  Luckily there was a support band so most of the crowd were in the bars and that let Nav and I get a good view of the stage - when it was Folds time, the standing area was pretty much filled up but not stupidly tight and jostling.  And I'll say that standing is so much better than seating, because even though you have to bear the 2-3 hours you are able to get into the music mood more easily and jig around (yes, that's what I was doing but so was everyone else).

The crowd were singing along, which I thought was great (although I don't know if artists like that sort of thing, but Ben Folds makes us sing harmonies so I suppose he can't complain).  I nearly sang out my tonsils and most probably annoyed the two people in front of me who didn't seem to be singing (or jigging) along with the rest of us.  The gig was absolutely fantastic, the majority of the crowd were with Folds, but more importantly everyone was cheering.  Those of you who know me know I love playing the piano, and honestly it was Ben Folds that brought me back to the keys and chords and showed me how much fun it can be.  I'll stop now otherwise I'll be here forever.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Boom and Doom (crap title because it's late in the evening)

As you're all well aware, there have been explosions in Hemel Hempstead, about 10-miles NW from me.  Now apparently, people 100-miles away heard the explosion and some were woken up by it.  But me? I didn't hear a thing - and why? - probably because I was in a state of heavy-sleep due to having been out the night before.  Anyway, by 5pm there was a nice big black cloud floating over us, as you can see here:




And finally, Nav has come round for the Ben Folds show and showed me his iPOD Nano.  I'm not one for Apple stuff but this was more interesting than most.  For those of you who know Doom (the video game), this might be fun otherwise, well... have a look anyway and see the power of the Nano!  Woo, as good as those old PC running DOS.
Doom on iPOD Nano

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Things to do, so much time to do them in

I'm not exactly a Christmas Srooge or Bah-Humbug or whatever it is, but I really don't fancy Christmas shopping all that much.  It feels like a normal shopping session and as per usual I normally don't buy anything present-like.  Maybe because I usually go on my own, but this time I'm off with Joanne so things might be a little more interesting.  Mind, I've kind of told myself that it would just be a window shopping session, unless there really is something that tickles my fancy there-and-then.

Saturday sees me off into London Town to watch 'Shoot the Crow', an Irish-comedy theatre play starring James Nesbitt, Conleth Hill, Jim Norton and Packy Lee.  I'll be heading with our own little Miss Irish, Caroline (no, not as in Miss Ireland, although she is, well, you get the idea...) and a whole load of her friends, one or two I may know.  Can't wait actually - I've not been to a big-production theatre play in about 8-years (I went to University drama production a couple of years back which was good fun).

Monday sees me off to have a chat with an employee of a recruitment agency so that they can get a better picture of what jobs I'm looking for - apparently it's what they have to do as companies ask if they have seen us potential employees (probably soome sort of personality check thing to make sure us unemployed are a complete bunch of morons).

Tuesday sees me off to London Town again to watch the fabulous Mr Ben Folds, bashing it out on the piano once more in the UK.  For all I care, Folds could just sit there talking and play little side pieces and I'd still be thrilled to bits, because I've got so much admiration for his mad skills on the piano - he may be bettered by many others, but there's just something about his fun-loving playing that wins over (... erm... something).

And why am I telling you my plans for the up-coming week?  Because I've a memory like a sieve and won't remember, and this blog makes a god diary.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

This week I have...

...mostly been ill.  Well, actually, most of last week but since the weekend I've been getting much better, thanks for asking.  Getting ill is no fun so don't do it, kids.

I suppose it was kind of good timing as most of that week was horrible anyway, with no prospect of doing anything exciting outside as it was windy and rainy and generally not very nice.  Mind, there's not much prospect of me doing anything exciting anyway, because that's just me.  However, there are plans for the week ahead, oh yes there are!  Except, I won't spoil them for you now, but will tell you later on next week - nothing exciting for you, only for me (and those others that will be there).

I've started writing my book but haven't got far as I've told myself that I should finish off my research journal first (yes, it's still going on).  I've managed to form some sort of plot that seems vaguely like a decent story, I've got protagonists, and I've got ideas for panning it out in the future.

And just because it's been a completely boring post for you guys, I thought this might be relevant and not at all useful:

A bogey is a piece of dried nasal mucus, and your nose makes nearly a cupful of snot every day.  Snot is produced by the mucous membranes in the nose, which it moistens and protects.  Snot works by trapping the dirt particles and keeping them in the nose.  After these particles get stuck inside the nose, the mucus surrounds them along with some of the tiny hairs inside the nose called cilia. The mucus dries around the particles. When the particles and dried-out mucus clump together, you're left with a bogey.  Therefore, your nose is working if you are able to pick bogies out your nose.

So snot is not made of liquified brain, which is what I thought before.