Used to be weekly-ish but now likely to be occasional musings
1st August 2008
We've been having a lot of sun recently which is great and means I've been able to regularly wear shorts into work. The downside is that my bedroom cooks during the day and only seems to have cooled, despite windows open and fans on full blast, when the sun rises the next morning on the opposite side of the flat. Basically it seems to take the time it takes for the sun to go round the other side of the world before my bedroom is cool enough to sleep in.
I'm not someone who can go to bed early at the best of times so certainly for this last week I haven't been getting off to sleep until about 4.00ish. Then my alarms start going off at around 6.30. I can carry on for some time without much sleep but even my body begins to protest after a couple of consecutive nights of about 3 hours kip! In the heat the bed seems to get smaller, the bed linen turns into like the thickest wool ever and my mind races over a million things, which normally take me down dark and depressing roads.
Still there has been plenty of highlights. On Thursday afternoon I got a call from a client about some free tickets he had for the Comedy Store. I hadn't shaved and was wearing shorts but along with my brother we said what the hell. Stopped in at Asda's to pick up a new t-shirt as mine was a little dirty from where I'd cuddled Biscuit and drove into town. Managed by pure chance to get a space in my favourite parking place right next to Charing Cross, though I did have to phone Westminster City Council just to be doubley sure what time you could park on single yellows from. There were no signs up and I wasn't going to take any chances.
Waited outside for the client and watched London go by which is just as fascinating. So many people, such a buzz and it really does shame you into thinking that you should visit it more. They turned up and we headed downstairs. There wasn't any seat allocation and we found ourselves three rows from the front which was fine. The acts were all very funny and provided much laughter and merriment. There didn't seem to be any air con on in there meaning it was very muggy and I was glad to be wearing the shorts. The place offers excellent value in my opinion. The drinks at the bar seemed reasonable and at £16 a ticket you get 2 hours of solid entertainment within the heart of central London. Perfect date territory in my book.
Made a quick pit stop into the golden arches on the way back to the car and gorged ourselves on the double quarter pounder cheese, which I'm delighted to say seems to have made a re-appearance. I'm a firm believer in exquisite dining as you know so clearly there is no finer way to dine in London than in a car with a double quarter box on your lap, a strawberry shake in the cup holder, a box of 9 chicken mcnuggets balancing on the dash and a spare cheeseburger in a bag by your feet. Oh and of course a view out the windscreen of the Hungerford bridge and the Millennium wheel in all their night time glory!
Friday was another hot day and a trip over to Bluewater to catch The Dark Knight. Grabbed a bit of pasta from TGI's beforehand (I've taken a shine to one of their chicken, pepper and penne pastas) before taking our seats. Needless to say they were perfectly placed and the auditorium was full for the first night.
There had been a lot of hype for The Dark Knight, certainly with Heath Ledger's death and I really hoped it would deliver. I thought the previous Batman Begins was ok but it hadn't blown me away.
This film though was awesome and I loved it. One thing I think really helped was that the city didn't look like
I know the story is fiction but you need a little reality to ground it in and I think making
It was like the city itself was wrestling for screen time that kept pulling you out of the story. Granted I'm sure
There was so much content in it. Halfway through and you would have expected a studio exec to say 'that's enough, we've already got the punters money'. But no they just carried on as if the film was made by genuine fans and believers who wanted to deliver the ultimate batman film as opposed to just making enough to secure the audience to come back for the third film.
This point was clearly shown in two face. You would have expected the makers to drag it out to bring him back for the third but it was great that they just carried on with his story and let it run. You didn't leave the cinema feeling cheated or wanting more.
All the characters had weight and where as in the first you felt that Caine and Freeman were in there to needlessly add gravitas in this one they were necessary.
As for the Joker I always felt Jack's version had too much showmanship, flamboyance and not enough menace. It was always Jack Nicholson playing the Joker as opposed to the Joker played by Jack Nicholson, if that makes any sense! I always thought that the only decent version of the joker would be Mark Hamill's from the animated series but Ledger certainly stepped up to the plate.
His villian was probably one of the first that could trade equal fear/respect with Batman. Normally Batmans opposite numbers are so outlandish that they are silly or certainly don't represent a credible threat. This one was certainly different and was the perfect nemesis for the Bat.
Refreshingly dark, high in both short and long term entertainment value, great acting and writing and the best live action version of Batman I've ever seen.
Saturday was back to the gym and another good session. I'd got an email during the week from the DJ of the local bar/club that we go to about how it was having a fancy dress party. I had said to the owner at the beginning of the year that he should have a fancy dress party because I wanted to wear my orange NASA spacesuit so I couldn't not go could I? There hadn't been any posters in the window so I fully expected there to be very few people dolled up. I still had my moment of indecision, as did my brother after having worked a long day, but sometimes you've got to do a Joel Goodson and say "What the fuck!"
We ordered a cab and sunk a few reefs as we got ready. Brother was going for the officers outfit we'd worn at Christmas and I added to my suit with a crisp new white t-shirt, our Florida dog tags with the orange silencers on them and some truly awesome mirrored aviators that we'd got from Bluey. Man these things felt big and I could felt the bottoms of them on my cheeks. I did consider the NASA baseball cap which looked cool but as my brother said did I want to look like a pucker astronaut with the cap or an astronaut with a hint of 'maverick'. I left the cap at home.
We got to the bar and unsurprisingly couldn't see any other punters in fancy dress. The staff were though and they were very kind. The owner came over for a chat and bought us a shot for our efforts before we headed downstairs. The bar staff were even friendlier and were really made up that we had made the effort. We even got two more free drinks. I'm a tart so I loved the attention, which was all good spirited, and the hope was that every womans eyes would be drawn to the orange of the suit and then see my dashing brother. It seemed to work and he was certainly the alpha male in there. I did have one girl come up to me and ask me what I was. I said an astronaut and she looked at me blankly. I then pointed at the big NASA badge and said "Nasa". She responded "Who are they?"
It was good fun and I thin we both had a good time. The place was open until 2.00pm and although it did begin to thin out we still continued dancing and doing our bit to keep the party going. The outfits went down well and we are both keen to see how well they do in the Strawberry Moons of Maidstone and Ashford.
We walked home which is always good for the fitness levels and had some milk and toast which is always good for the hangover. Brother had to go to work the next day, which must have been tough, but I managed to put some zzz's in the bank. That evening we headed over to the Odeon at Greenwhich Penisula to meet with P and see Wall-E.
I'd already had one great film but here came another. Completely different from the Dark Knight but no less entertaining or clever. It was a truly lovely, sweet film. Almost with a Forrest Gump quality about it. Forrest always treats people in the same innocent, friendly manner and Wall-E is the same. Granted people aren't trying to always fuck him over as they are in Forrest but there is a similar level of personality. The animation, story and characters are all top notch and I can't deny that I had a tear in my eye on at least one occasion.
There are so many wonderful scenes, so many heart soaring one minute, lump in the throat the next minute moments. For Disney it does have quite a strong message that although seems bleak is ultimately optimistic. A wonderfully warm and beautiful film and one that like The Dark Knight I am looking forward very much to owning on DVD.
Odeon however did their best to ruin my enjoyment of the film by having one of the worst film prints I have ever seen. Being an animated film you are inclined even more to study the screen so when they are so many lines and scratches across the screen you could be looking at a barcode, it does affect the viewing pleasure. I was a little pissed off so when I left the auditoria I collared an employee to let him know how shocking it was. Apparently they were aware of it and had put a sign on the door but of course the door is open when people are enterting so no one would have seen it.
I really must write a letter to them about their strapline 'Fanatical about Film'. Fanatical's quite a strong word. People commit suicide in fiery explosions for fanaticism. I'd say I bordered on an obsession of film but fanatical is a powerful statement. So how are they Fanatical?
A print of Wall-E that is so scratched the projectionist could be running it through his hair.
A screening of The Hulk where a baby was allowed in.
The screening of an entire film in standard format on a widescreen screen. When I asked an employee to look into this he attempted to fob me off with the line that some films were now made in 4:3 as opposed to the standard of 16:9
A sit wherever you want seating policy ensuring the least amount of effort or staffing is needed to look after your patrons.
A decision to show Mamma Mia in one of the few digital screens that you have in the country as opposed to say the biggest release of the year in The Dark Knight or better still the computer animated Wall-E that would obviously look best in digital screen
And finally in a time of competition against DVD's and people's hi-def home entertainment systems still being stuck in the past with the woeful projection based system and it's questionable picture quality.
Not really Fanatical is it?
On Monday after work I spent about four hours taking the hem up on the hooded cape of my fingerers outfit, which was a bit of a job. After successfully sewing a space shuttle badge onto my suit on Saturday, I had felt a little empowered and it was good to have it done. I then ordered the badges as another supplier let me down and need to do a simple drawstring bag for them so that I could maybe throw a few into the crowd!
And that is primarily it. Hardly any sleep during the evenings and a little doziness during the day. A building up to the Air Guitar and a welcome increase in the number of hits to the site. Hi to everyone that might be new and is checking in. I've even had some nice emails and favourable comments on the site which I can't deny brings a smile to my face.
Thanks for stopping by.
21st July 2008
So a couple of weeks down and not a great deal to report really. I've still managed to have an increased hit count to the site, which is always encouraging, though as I said last time this ccould well be made up of those wanting to flame me for my clearly controversial views on IMDB. Few, if any, have the courage to drop me a line but I guess that is understandable.
Things have been a little quiet at work and it's given us the chance to work a little more on the act for the forthcoming UK Air Guitar Championships. The 'hooded' element of the act has been upgraded and the 1 minute track 'cut' to CD for me to start getting down the moves. With three weeks to go it does give me more time to practice but almost adds more pressure. I thought I might get some small badges done as well. They are only £30 for a 100 so it's only to add to the show a little bit. Go the Islington Academy website if you want further info and to see my alter-ego in person.
I caught over the weekend an episode of that
Man, this programme destroyed me. By the end there were hot tears on my face. Almost as if I’d used up the ‘chilled’ ones in my tear ducts and had to pull some up from my arse or somewhere! It's strange how at the moment I seem to be on one hand colder, more cynical and dismissive yet on the other hand a lot more emotional when it comes to stuff like this. Like I'm harder and softer at the same time.
Experienced the dreaded 'Red lights of death' on the 360 a few weekends back. I popped in Call Of Duty 4 into the slot, hit play and it froze up and started giving me the three red lights. I let it cool down and then tried it again with something else. It got a little further but then 'lunched' itself again. I'd gotten some good wear out of it and plenty hours of entertainment so I wasn't as frustrated as a I would normally be. Thankfully the hard drive pops right off rather than being integral to the machine and so I only needed to buy the very basic model.
To further remind me of the use that I get out of the 360, last week was the Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 as its better known. This is where all the game developers reveal details, trailers, demo's etc of all their forthcoming new games. Some monsters were revealed or showcased such as Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Fable 2, Resident Evil 5 and Halo Wars to name a few.
I know you are all desperately into games so here is the trailer for Gears of War 2
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36219.html
And here is an FMV trailer (so no gameplay) of Halo Wars
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36235.html
Managed to get two more Saturday gym sessions in which although good for the tummy (not that I do it regularly enough to make an impact) does not work out good for the wallet on the money involved. The last Saturdays one was hard as I took a bag and everything else and then forget my iPod. It was tough. I could have driven back home but I knew if I did that I wouldn't return and hence I went out and did just over half of my normal routine. It was all I could manage without the input of some banging trance.
Went out that Saturday night with my brother and got a little wrecked but our normal haunt seemed to have a larger than average proportion of blokes so we made a judgement call at 11.00 and blew it out. It was good to have a few beers though and chat with my brother about his previous night out. Poor sod had gone out in Maidstone wearing a black Sean John t-shirt and got shat on by a pigeon!
Lewis Hamilton is continuing to do well in the F1 but his dominance is becoming boring. I'm not warming to him anymore. I'm sure many will say this is down to the English way of not wanting our heroes to succeed but he pissed me off with the handling of his announcement to move to Switzerland to escape from the press coverage, but just happened to coincide with the release of his autobiography.
Anyway only a short-ish entry this time but as a parting gift here's a link to a trailer for the fourth Terminator film called Terminator Salvation. I don't think it looks bad myself.
http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/07/16/must-watch-first-terminator-salvation-teaser-trailer/
Take care.
9th July 2008
Well I've certainly been a little remiss in my updating haven't I? But I am still here and I am still alive, much to the disappointment of those coming over to check out my site after my comments on the film, Waitress.
It's been a busy few weeks (well six or seven I guess) what with the weather when it lasted and the Euro 2008 football but I'll try to summarise most of it and cut out the needless waffle.
The weekend following the last entry, we went to pick up my brothers new car. The used car salesman lived up to their reputation by being a complete prick and I was tempted to walk away but my brother has a cooler head than me so we went ahead. I drove him to work in his car and then raced over to Halfords to get him a new car stereo as the promised CD changer in the back of the car that the salesman mentioned wasn't there.
I'm not that technically gifted but still I wanted the first evening with his new car to be a special one so I attempted and succeeded in removing the existing stereo and fitting the new one. I also got him some floor mats and other bits and then picked him up after work. He drove around for a good couple of hours and we grabbed some scram in Blackheath. He did well and despite the niggling problems it's a good car.
After seeing a programme during the week which had a Christopher Walken impersonator on it I just had to fine a really good one. He's such a unique actor that a good impression of him is great fun. Here's Kevin Pollack doing an awesome one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcKQGiih8_A
Went to check out this Body Pump class at the gym on the Saturday but it was the same old waffle. People who've been doing it for sometime being contemptuous of the newbies yet nobody seemed to be working up a real sweat. If I go to the gym I need to feel I'm knackering myself and with this I didn't. To give you an example of how 'intense' it was, the instructor said that they use a step for you to do the ground work on in case you hurt yourself getting up directly off the floor! I walked out of the class the moment it finished to go and burn some major calories in the gym.
Watched Charlie Wilson’s War on the Sunday which was entertaining. A fine performance from Tom Hanks as usual but Philip Seymour Hoffman was out of this world. The same could not be said for
The Canadian grand prix was similarly boring until
Watched another dreadful western on the following Wednesday called The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford. Self indulgent nonsense. More narration than a wildlife documentary, tedious repetitive music to mask the 'oh so serious' and long, long, long lingering looks and wistful stares of each main character. It's like when they looked at the script they realised they had an hours worth of material but thought if we just shoot everything at half speed no one will notice.
Besides which all those that consider themselves serious about film will pretentiously rub their chin and say 'yes, it displayed the inner torment of each character and you needed that extra time to really understand it'. Dare to criticise it as being long, slow and boring and you'll be easily dismissed as a shallow blockbuster junkie that just isn't clever enough to read all the subtlety and hidden depth.
Modern westerns like this film, The three deaths of Mesquile Estrada (ridiculous) and
Went to see The Incredible Hulk at the pictures on the Thursday and I thought it was great, better than Iron Man in my opinion. I thought the way he controlled his anger was good, I liked the relationship with Betty, Blomsky was given credibility for wanting to become more powerful and ultimately the abomination, the musical score was considerably better, the action scenes had a satisfying crunch to them and I thought Norton's performance was top notch. Bravo to all involved I say.
During the performance I experienced the very worst example of inconsiderate bastards in the audience. Somebody had bought a baby/small child into the screening. It was down near the front but you could occasionally hear it cry out. As if it's not bad enough to be selfishly disturbing everyone else it can't have been good for the child being in a darkened room with flashing lights and sudden 'spikes' in volume.
We saw The Happening the following evening and I've gotta say that it was poor. It was maybe an interesting premise but poorly executed with very weak acting from Mark Wahlberg (though this could have been at the directors request).
I'd ordered the Rambo box set which came through during the week. I couldn't be arsed to go to the gym on Saturday and felt particularly unsociable. Hence I put on the First Blood commentary as did some housework. It's a great listen with some fascinating anecdotes and as ever Sly continues to disprove the ridiculous notion that he's some kind of lug nut. Watched Rambo on the Sunday which was great to see again. What a jolt of adrenaline it is and the special features were fantastic.
Got my car serviced the following week which due to delays etc had to be in for two days. I had it done a little early but the thinking was that if anything major was discovered it would still be under the warranty. It still cost me over £400 mind you. I had meant to come into the office on the Friday morning after picking it back up but there was another delay and I was told to take the day off. I got back in around 1-ish and should have done something constructive with my day but ended up crashing and sleeping through the afternoon.
We managed to catch all of the Euro 2008 quarter finals which were excellent, particularly the sensational Turkish game where they equalised in the last minute of stoppage time of extra time. It was literally the last kick of the game, bar the penalties which
Watched the film Into the Wild which caught me in the right frame of mind. I imagine that on certain occasions I would find it had little or no merit but on this day I found it quite inspirational. Two quotes from it lingered with me.
"It's more important to feel strong than be strong" and "The only real happiness is shared happiness".
And that's about it really. I've been playing a little more GTA IV which continues to get better and deeper every time I play it. In the latest developments, I got a lovely new apartment with a car showroom just round the corner for me to steal from, I've done some night helicoptering over the city and I discovered that you can get three lap dances in a row. Quality!
I heard from an old work colleague through Facebook which was a nice surprise. I've really enjoyed going through the old times with her and finding out how she's been getting on. What was nice is that sometimes it's easy to dismiss yourself in previous years as being a bit of a fool. You didn't then know what you do now and for me it's natural to think I was an arse then. To hear of someone who knew you in that timeframe and their fond memories, does give a nice feeling of "well maybe I wasn't an arsehole then".
I went and saw The Mist on the Sunday just gone. I thought it was a great film. It was originally a novella by Stephen King that I remember reading and loving when younger. Frank Darabont has done a great treatment of it and I felt it was one of the freshest horror films that I've seen in a long time.
I've also been appearing in the odd E4.com TV advert for an Air Guitar competition that they are running prior to the next Air Guitar Championships. There's been some head scratching on my part as to whether I should enter. Last year was pretty special and done quickly on the fly. There wasn't any pressure and was entered in a fun spirit. If I enter again, am I trying too hard? Alternatively I had fun last year, lots of people enjoyed it and would I be passing up the chance of people remembering me this year as I did of the Hoxton Creeper and Count Rockula last year?
It takes place on the 8th August and I've decided I'm going to go for it. I've decided what I'm going to 'play' and the rough basis of the act so I just need to practise to sharpen up my tight strums.
Finally this week has been a Journey week. Probably the best way to example what I'm talking about is to show you the posting I made on the newly joined Journey forum
A new fan’s heartfelt thanks and appreciation for 'After all these years'.
Hi guys
Just wanted to say how blown away I am by the song, After all these years. I have been aware of Journey for some time yet it always kind of existed on the periphery of my rock appreciation. It had a very distinctive American feel and when my brother and I were over in
As an Englishman there is something about the Journey sound that conjures images of college proms, cheerleaders, drive-ins and other heart-warming iconic parts of American culture.
I first heard After all these years played on the internet radio (thanks Eye 97) in the office and it was hard not to be hooked on that distinctive opening. It sounded very familiar, as if I’d always known about it but never really took the time to listen. Even one of my work colleagues who is a far bigger rock fan of that 80’s era loved it and simply thought it came from that time. This confusion was further compounded when I couldn’t find it listed on any of the greatest hits collections. I couldn’t understand why such an obvious early classic wasn’t listed.
What I’m trying to say (rather badly I think) is how amazing it is that you’ve managed to write a song in 2007/08 that sounds like it has been transported from the 80’s. Not only write it but also have it sung and performed by your awesome new singer so that is sounds just like it stepped out of that successful early 80’s period and could ‘fool’ (in the nicest way) a genuine rock fan of that era.
I was almost disappointed when I heard it for the first few times. Here was a belter of a song that had been undiscovered to me for so many years and I couldn’t be there to help promote and sing it’s praises without everyone else going ‘yeah we know about it, it’s been around for years’. How wrong could I be and how incredible that it could be so new? I didn’t think songs like this got made anymore. I downloaded the track off iTunes, where it has been enjoyed in the office by everyone, and a day later bought the Revelation album.
As for the actual song, as opposed to the story of me discovering it, it really is rather special. I’m a pretty cynical guy due to some life disappointments but the lyrics of the song spoke to me about the kind of loving relationship I’ve always wanted and had thought one day I would be able to have. In that initial ‘honeymoon’ phase of repeatedly listening to a new song, I can’t deny that it’s power genuinely moved me to tears. Whether this is down to the lyrics or it’s ability to connect with something deep inside me I don’t know, but it brought some warmth to me and gave me a glimpse, or at least a reminder, of the wonder that genuine love and companionship can bring.
Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough. Suffice to say that I love the song and am delighted that I’ve been given the chance to hear more from the band. Thanks once again and I wish you all continued success.
Man, they have really blown me away this week and I can't stop listening to the track. It won't be to everyone’s tastes (Kim!) but as a parting gift until the next time, here it is. Excuse the lame video but they haven't released an official one so I think a fan must have knocked this up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SswnbpA2qZ0
Until we talk again.
27th May 2008
Well the weeks are blurring into one aren’t they, especially when I don’t keep this up to date every week. Started the Bank Holiday weekend with the usual Friday night fish’n’chips. Starship Troopers was on TV again and it’s still a great film. It’s easy to slate it but there are so many good things about it. It gets dismissed as Beverly Hills 90210 in space but although they are all young and good looking, a lot of them get slaughtered, there aren’t the clichéd unlikeable hate character (bar the bugs), there is plenty of wicked gunfire and special effects, there is even a deeper message about the future of society etc. I like the characters and I like the action. Some may say it’s derivative of Aliens and Halo but hell they borrowed from Starship Troopers (the book) in the first place.
We were up early on Saturday to go and check out a car in Bexley for my brother. He’s been looking for a few months now and we’ve not been getting anywhere really. We’re untrusting of private sales and most used car salesmen are arseholes. Found one on autotrader, that although was a dealer looked ok. We got into Bexley a little early and decided to hit the café that I’d seen a few months back for a fantastic cooked breakfast. The food was inexpensive, served quickly, was piping hot and tasted great. The surroundings were clean and tidy and it was a real find.
Walked round the corner to check out the car and it looked great. We couldn’t test drive it but the whole car looked in great condition, inside and out. The dealer also offered a six month warranty on all his cars for extra piece of mind. The advert had said it had a service history but unfortunately it didn’t, which was a shame. Still, my brother liked it and decided to put down a deposit. The guy had to do some bits to it and we could pick it up next weekend.
I wanted to go to this Body Combat induction thing at my gym which started at 1.15 pm. I also needed my haircut and as I hadn’t booked in advance because of the possibility of looking at cars had to take the only available slot at 1.10pm. Another week goes by without doing it! Had an hour of American Football in the park before the hair cut which was good. After this we were at a bit of loss and thus decided on the fly to play a little badminton. I was amazed that we managed to book a court so easily but after grabbing an old racquet and some shuttlecocks, we headed back there.
It was good fun. I used to play about once a week when younger and really enjoyed it then. Amazingly I didn’t seem to have lost my touch and was fine with backhands and smashes etc. My brother had only played once at school yet still gave a good account of himself and if we play some more will only get better. It was great to be doing something a little different and capitalising on this attitude we decided to head down to
The roads were surprisingly empty on the way down and I had a bad feeling about the night. It was pay day weekend so people should have been out. We parked up and the place felt like a ghost town. Found the Wetherspoons which had some good life in it and had a few drinks. From here we moved onto Moons.
We hooked up with a few of my brothers mates and moved round the club. There was a good proportion of males to females and a lot of pretty girls. Brother was wearing his hat (see the gallery) and it was receiving a fair chunk of attention. Some was from drunken slags desperate to grab it and move off with it but a lot was in the form of flattering attention for him and offers of being photographed with it. It is amazing the amount of girls who take photos of their nights out. There must be so much uploading of images taking place on Sunday mornings. There were pics of bro on his own, with the said girls, girls wearing his hat, his wearing an item of their clothing etc.
We headed back downstairs and following one of my brothers mates pushed onto the dance floor. He chose well by placing us right in between two groups of girls who immediately noticed us. My brother because of his hat and me because of my bright yellow ‘Obsessed by movies, breasts and spag bol’ t-shirt. Unfortunately we were also next to the tallest guy in the club who was pissed out of his nut. He tried to grab the hat whereby I grabbed it off him and told him to leave it alone. He then continued to hang around in that drunken, apologetic manner whilst asking my brother what was my problem. The music was great, we had a few groups of girls around us yet this cock would not go away. In the end I was so cheesed off with them I was just ordering him to BACK. THE. FUCK. OFF. MATE.
I think a feeling of protection and annoyance was just winding me up to the max. Eventually he got the message after we had to tell him that everything was cool and he was fine. Really, please, just piss off and leave me to dance and have fun. Some lovely tanned little cutie in an off the shoulder top read the t-shirt which made her laugh and we chatted a little. One guy seemed to be hitting on her, which always makes for great entertainment and she brushed him off. It’s difficult to talk in the middle of a club yet I managed to get the odd funny line in. She admitted that she didn’t like Spag bol (what!) but did like movies. I’m always wary of pushing this as I doubt compared to my levels, someone would surprise me with their level of movie fandom. Maybe I should have asked her if she wanted a drink but she was with her mates and taking it to the next level is never my forte. Besides which, when she checked her mobile phone, as every woman in a club seems to do every 15 mins, there was a guy on her screensaver who was in all likelihood her boyfriend. Her mates moved off and she turned to me to say that they were going upstairs, waved and blew me a kiss.
Ok, that was probably a big sign. She was telling me where she was going etc but you never want to go and chase them down do you. About 10 minutes later I went upstairs for the toilet and did start to look round the upper bar but I felt like I was almost stalking her. If I went over on my own, in front of her friends, it would be clear that I wanted to chat and that would have given me that ‘please let the ground open up’ moment. I know I should have sought her out but still it was nice that an old, slightly soft bastard like me got a little attention. My brother was still getting plenty of attention, which was great to see. He certainly knows the moves on the dance floor but unlike me does not suddenly develop two left feet when a girl starts dancing with him. I’m fine carrying a tune but if a woman attempts to carry it with me I seem to lose co-ordination as I attempt to second guess what she is doing. The only time I can pull off a semblance of ‘grindin’ rhythm is if I’m under the influence.
As the night was coming to an end we decided to head. Got absolutely drenched heading back to the car due to a welcome downpour and naturally had to swing by a 24hr McDonalds for the obligatory late night snack.
The
Anyway the race wasn’t bad for a change. Plenty of incident, rain, a couple of safety cars and Lewis Hamilton winning. I should have been pleased about it but there’s some kind of underlying cynicism I feel now. Whether it’s because he’s been so over-exposed or just because he’s not an underdog but I don’t find myself routing for him anymore.
This was followed by SeaBiscuit on the BBC1 which is still a lovely film. Now that’s a Sunday afternoon film if ever I saw one. Great, plucky characters with no annoying, weasel bad guy. Just underdogs, up against it. Wonderful uplifting film.
We were left with the whole ‘what shall we do on the Sunday night of a bank holiday weekend’ dilemma. Stay in and have a pizza, go out and live a little or go and see Indy 4. We decided to hit a local bar that is used to be the home of chav’s but has since had a makeover. It looked ok inside and the place looked promising but they bought on a live act prior to bringing on Right Said Fred who was just awful. Coupled with this was the feeling that all the people were still chavs with group of girls in ‘rings of steel’ either taking endless photos or aimlessly texting someone and pockets of guys that were either way too slick or spoiling for a fight.
Decided to cut our losses and check out Indy 4 at the cinema. Christ it was poor, I mean really poor and just showed how out of touch Lucas has become with cinema audiences. I think the films major problems seem to stem from Lucas not realising that audiences have developed a little and are a little more savvy nowadays. If you genuinely want to impress an audience then you need a little more than badly perceived ‘that’s so cool’ moments.
An element of realism - Having a good opening sequence is important but if you don’t ground it in some semblance of reality people immediately lose connection with characters. If there is no real sense of danger or peril for a character like if he survives an atomic blast and being thrown for miles in a fridge the audience cannot engage with a character. Hence later on in the film there is little excitement because the character is never really deemed at risk.
Out of place ‘Harold Lloyd-esqe’ physical comedy - Staging a sword fight between two moving objects and then having a character with a foot on each object as they move apart is no longer funny or entertaining. The excitement is not heightened by said characters being smacked in the nether regions with an assortment of vegetation.
Believing that more is always better - Having scenes that are purely steered in a direction to fulfil some action scene wet dream look equally forced. Not enough to have a car chase through the forest, no it’s got to be on the edge of a precipice to add further tension. It’s like the T-rex’s that Kong wrestles in King Kong. It didn’t need three but some bright spark wrongly assumed that three would deliver three times as much excitement.
Inconsistency when establishing a scene - Audiences are used to weighing up a scene, seeing where individuals and elements are and scoping the physical geography of a scene. Making new enemies suddenly appear simply because you need some cannon fodder for your next ‘whacky’ scene just distances your audience by making them think ‘where did they come from’.
Or how about showing that you need a tractorised tree cutter to get through the jungle but once it’s been destroyed still managing to drive through the jungle with no problems. Just another pointless prop, apart from the purpose of being blown up and providing the ‘cool’ whizzing wheel.
Assuming your audience have low intelligence and a short attention span - Lucas feels the need to ‘telegraph’ plot points like showing the shadow of the skulls fitting neatly in the wall painting skull for the dumb audience to ‘get it’. Another example of this is the telegraphing of the ‘three falls’ sequence. Appealing to the lowest common denominator retard in the audience with a “what do you mean three falls?” when they’ve already gone over a waterfall really is belittling. Opposite to this the inference that because it isn’t telegraphed the audience won’t be able to pick up on Mutts (a dogs name anyone) relation to Indy is ridiculous.
Clichéd characters - Every audience member knows that the gold robbing thief never prospers so why pull that card with Mac at the end. Does Lucas think that no one has seen the Mummy or a hundred other treasure films?
Ray Winstone - And finally, to add insult to injury, the notion that Ray Winstone somehow sums up being a ‘cool’ brit. Why is it that we get lumped into these labels of this, Vinnie Jones or Clive Owen? Winstone is an over-rated hack and if his woeful ‘I will kill your monster’ from Beowulf in his
When you consider the supposed talent making the film you have to say that it was just awful. Predictable, tedious, un funny, excitement free trash.
We came home wishing we’d had a pizza instead. Made up for it on the Bank Holiday Monday by doing just that and watching the brilliant Wall Street on TV, which my brother had never seen before.
“Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel.”
19th May 2008
Hey everyone, thanks for checking in! (it sounds so much more fun to pretend to play to a large audience). More late nights during this time though I did manage a Monday night swim on one of the nights. I find it hard to drag myself away from the office of an evening because I can’t abide sitting in traffic. Doing it in the morning is one thing but the disadvantage of working, and driving, into central
Talking of blogs I had discovered another blog which I had been enjoying http://catherinette.wordpress.com/. She writes well and looking through some of her archives there was some honesty, humour and moments of fragility. After my last attempts at emailing people I would have kept it just at making comments but one of her entries were password protected so I dropped her line. To her credit she responded and we had a little contact but it did seem to be myself driving the conversation and it was pretty one sided. You know what I mean? Your email has some enquiring questions and you get back answers but nothing else. Like the blog of GB a few weeks back, her blog is gaining in hits and popularity and thus all she can really manage are the token responses.
I made the effort to try to engage her by reading up on some of her archives but it’s only worth making that kind of effort in the first couple of months of a new blog. After that they become so immersed in firing back quick comments, that they can’t commit the time to get to know someone new and consider you nothing more than another number. You try to drive them to your site but you know they can’t be bothered to find out about you, so what’s the point in one sided interest?
Couple this with the fact that she seems to have a great body, is intelligent and funny and has regular interaction with males and it’s hard to feel any sympathy with her supposed lonely single plight, which is meant to be the fundamental of her site. It’s just another blog to scratch off as not worth reading because it’s just too popular. When you’re scrabbling for their attention, there’s just no point. Kentucky Girl seems to be the only one capable of maintaining the balance; ie running a popular blog but still able to invest a little time in correspondence.
Brother went to the Venue on one of the Friday nights. We both had doubts about how busy it would be on a Friday and I couldn’t help but chuckle when he told me who the tribute band was that night. Sometime they have Queen, Abba or The Beatles. Groups and songs that you can really get down with and have a fun time. On this night though he had to contend with a tribute band of The Smiths. Poor bastard. Unsurprisingly when I picked him outside he confessed it was a poor night.
I hit the gym on the Saturday being in a particularly foul mood with the world which really seems to help. About 20 minutes into my run on the treadmill and the fire alarm went off and we all had to evacuate. Heading out into the sunshine and watching all the tattooed chumps pulling off their vests to get a little sun only added to the contempt I seemed to hold the world in. This was added to when the Fire Brigade turned up and swaggered in like they were heroes. Seriously guys it’s just a routine drill because let’s face it, if there was the merest hint of danger there would be 20 units there, with the houses ‘tied off’ whilst you bravely shepherded away the young ladies. Wankers.
I couldn’t be arsed to wait for them to do what they had to do so headed up into the town to get some passport photos done. Incredibly they were some of the most bearable I’ve ever had taken and it would seem that al least when you are being photographed there is something to be said for looking like you’d like to annihilate the entire world. With nothing else to do I headed back to the gym and finished the remainder of my routine. I know. I amazed myself by doing it and during the 210 calorie burn goal that I set myself on the bike managed to shave nearly 4 minutes off my personal best.
Decided to head out that night with my brother locally and sink a few jars. It should have been an okay night. It was pleasantly warm and it was still early in the month yet there seemed to be no one out. So typical. You put on your best ‘talk to me’ t-shirt, you get a little tipsy and there is no one to look at. Our usual haunt seemed to be rapidly filling up with blokes and after taking a seat on one of the upstairs sofas, that we’ve never done before, we decided to go one step further with trying new things. We left there about 10.40ish as the night was clearly going nowhere and we would have been chucking good money after bad and headed over the road for a late night curry.
It made a pleasant change though the curry was nowhere near as good as the one opposite where we work. Likewise the staff, who I’m sure are used to all many of drunken dregs at that time of night, couldn’t have been colder and less friendly if they tried. We went home very dissatisfied.
Sunday was a lot better though. We both went round to P’s for a day of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as opposed the seeing Lost which she had been recording for us all to watch. To be honest we’ve grown pretty tired of Lost. The first six episodes of this new series just seemed to meander on with flashbacks and flash-forward’s. It was very unsatisfactory with no resolutions to anything or genuine intrigue being generated. None of us could really be bothered with maintaining this for another possible three series and so that ship has left the dock. In it’s place though was the nine episodes of the first series of Terminator. Awesome, fantastic TV that was much enjoyed. I’m sure you can’t be arsed but I’ve elaborated on my enjoyment of the show under the Television section.
The following week was busy again and getting to sleep at night was proving incredibly frustrating. I’d have the fan on and the window open but my bedding seemed to turn into a woollen scarf and my small bed seemed to get even smaller. I’d only manage to get off at about 2 – 3am most nights. At one point I became so annoyed with the fan rustling a plastic bag that had some rubbish in it that I ended up throwing it against the wall, naturally causing the contents to fly everywhere. Amazingly it would seem (and I only discovered this in the morning) that an empty deodorant can must have travelled along the wall, passing behind my TV and hit one of my stereo speakers hard enough to make the front cover come off!
I found some decent images of my all time dream car, the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder (see motoring) so I tried to drift off dreaming of winning the lottery, getting an orange one and having Diora Baird in the passenger seat. Even that wasn’t working.
During the week I found an awesome site. http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ that had me laughing and avidly reading for a good few hours into the evening. Just when I was thinking the world of blogs and websites was predictable and tedious this was a refreshing ray of sunshine. I love the notion of these notes and what people will write to others. I’ve never really lived communally with anyone but I have once left a message on a car that was arrogantly parked across two parking bays. Some of the other sites in the blogroll are also amusing, particularly That’s Punny even though it does play like the humourous section of That’s Life.
Had to shoot to the doctors on Wednesday and thus had the day off. Decided to do the decent thing and take the car in for someone to look at that rattling seat belt. It’s been like it since I bought it. I did take it to one garage a few years back who told me they’d replaced it but the lying shits clearly hadn’t. I have the music pretty loud in the car so I normally drown but I’m coming to the end of the warranty and I wouldn’t want it bugging someone else when I sell it. So I went to the garage and one of the guys offered to come out for a quick drive to listen to it rattle. He was a nice guy but needless to say the damn didn’t rattle. Not a goddam peep out of it! Can you just believe it?
Hit my local town afterwards to get some bits and as ever continued to be amazed by the amount of people milling around up there. Who are these people, why aren’t they at work and why am I such a grumpy bastard?
I had intended to go to the gym on Saturday to take the induction for the body combat induction class. I thought that maybe doing some group exercise, which normally I’d shy away from, might provide some motivation. After another poor nights sleep I managed to completely over sleep the session until gone 1.30 pm and decided instead to play a little more GTA IV. It’s size is still daunting but I can deny how impressive it is. I’m beginning to find my feet a little bit more and cruising around late at night (in the game that is) with some of the electro sounds from the in game radio stations Electro-choc and The Journey is a great experience. I even managed to find the powerboat and there is something incredible about being able to blast right round the islands. At one point I stopped in the evening with The Statue of Liberty on my right and the
Hired a couple of DVD’s on the Saturday night. Assembly which is a Chinese war film and Aliens vs. Predator Requiem. Assembly was ok but nowhere near as good as the excellent Korean War film Brotherhood. We knew AvP:R would be poor but hadn’t expected it to be that bad. It was shot so dark that we had to up the contrast and brightness to silly levels and it’s ‘homage’s’ to the previous films just came across as cheap and lazy. It also decided to take complete liberties with the whole ‘franchise’ so that an Alien could now deliver eggs through it’s mouth into a human and that they could then gestate, explode out and develop into full size Aliens in just a few hours. Complete trash.
I also saw Beowulf which wasn’t as bad as I expected and had a couple of good action scenes. I still however can’t abide Ray Winstone’s voice of the main character. He’s not a great actor in my book and his ‘I’m here to kill your monster’ in his south
And that’s about it. Not much really eh? Still you could always head over to the rants section and listen to me moan about some more pointless shit.
8th May 08
Another couple of busy weeks in the office and hence no real chance to hit the gym unfortunately. My woeful attempts at cutting back on the food intake during the week came falling apart on the Friday with a KFC for lunch and then fish’n’chips that evening. Watched Malice on the TV which is a great film. Brother had never seen it and thus enjoyed the twists and turns. All the main characters put in good performances but Alec Baldwin as the arrogant doctor is awesome and never more so than when delivering his ‘I am god’ tirade at the hearing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g2dkDh4ov4
It’s almost as impressive, but not quite, as his speech in Glengarry Glen Ross.
Decided on the Saturday night that we would check out the famous School Disco. I’ve known about it for many a year now but never seemed to get round to going. One always got the impression that it is full of tight white shirt, black bra wearing babes. The three of us decided to make an effort and I pulled out my shorts and blazer. Got a short sleeved white shirt from Asda for £3, yes £3 (how can they make any money on it what with all the packaging and stuff?) and a school looking tie.
As the sun was out I decided to forgo the gym and hit the park with my brother to throw the American Football around. It was nice to be out in the fresh air and feel the warmth of the sun on my back. Even better was how after a few throws I managed to ‘get my arm in’ and was pulling out some impressive throws. Little did I realise that for the next couple of days my arm and legs would ache in a way that they don’t normally do.
Got ready for the night out by donning said outfit, slapping some brylcream in my hair to plaster it to my head and popping a couple of packets of love hearts into the fluffy pencil case. We decided that I would drink as well and kip round at my mates, further adding to the hoped for good night.
It was shit.
The event had recently changed venue and we realised this was because attendance numbers were clearly falling. The place could only have been a third full and was utterly devoid of any kind of atmosphere. Sometimes you can still salvage something for dancing and drinking but the bar was a rip off with virtually no drinks (they didn’t know what Archers was) and the DJ was a fucking joke. I’m sorry to swear but really he was. He had not concept of continuity, generating a buzz or keeping people on the dance floor. In one of the most shocking DJ decisions that I’ve ever witnessed he dropped Billie Jean which is always guaranteed to get people up and moving to then follow it with……..Hotel California!!! Need I say anymore to articulate what kind of stalling effect that would have on a dance floor.
I couldn’t wait to leave when the pre-booked cab arrived. What a shit night. All that effort for nothing and I don’t just mean from a girlie point of view. A late night KFC quelled a little of the rage and disappointment but not by much.
I’ve been catching up on some more Shark and after a mid season dip where the makers got a little carried away with themselves and killed a character off that I really liked the show has continued to impress me. One episode even contained the woman who has been my dream girl for the last couple of years Diora Baird. Christ, what a babe. We finished the series a few nights ago and it ended on a real high. Shark seemed to have been getting softer and developing a conscious but for the final he flat out broke the rules to put someone away and it was damn impressive.
The hype machine for the new Grand Theft Auto game had been building for the previous few weeks and my brother and I have been looking forward to it’s arrival. My brother is slightly more into the GTA series whereas I am more into Halo but its nice sometimes to feel the excitement of something new. I’ve not had a chance to get really stuck into it but you can’t help but be impressed by the game’s scale and size. The design of the booklet and map are excellent as well. It’s almost like the game is so immersive that I feel that I really need to be able to devote some major hours to it to really get sucked in.
My brother also recently went Xbox live and got broadband. It still never ceases to amaze me that you can be playing against someone halfway round the world in real time. All those people either in their bedrooms or in the living room. It boggles the mind.
We did the voting count again this year and it was fun as always. Ok it was hardly a laugh riot but it’s something different to do. No delectable voters to ogle but the predictable selection of amusements. The polls opened at 7.00am and by the very third voter we had our first ‘you might need to fold the voting slip to slide it through the slot in the ballot box’. It seems a fairly obvious thing doesn’t it? As you approach the box you’d think ‘oh that isn’t going to go in, maybe I should fold it’.
The amount of people that even when you suggest folding it desperately try to force it in is even more amazing. Add to this almost every fourth person had to say when they entered the church hall. “wow, have to fight my way through the crowds” I realise they were just trying to be funny and friendly but the polite laughter can get a little forced by 10.00pm that same evening! We did the counting after this meaning it was quite a late night.
Saw Iron Man over the weekend and I’ve got to say that I was a little disappointed. The actual suit is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time but it just felt so predictable and formulaic. His background story was good and trying to improve and create better versions of the suit was interesting but you just knew where it was going. Robert Downey Jnr did a commendable job but it just had that superhero big fight at the end inevitability about it. I know they always say that they develop the hero character in the first film and that after that you can get straight into the action with the sequels but that never happens. Come the sequels, they forget the main character and spend all the time setting up the new bad guy to then kill off or not depending on how well he is received!
On the Sunday me, my brother and step dad drove down to
You always worry with these things that it’s so dependant on the mood of the main man so seeing them get on made me hope that maybe he’d give them a little bit longer or go a little bit faster. Over an hour and half later and the boat returned with them both beaming smiles. My fears that it would not be fast enough were immediately disproved by their hairstyles which had been styled by the force of the wind straight up. I enjoyed listening to their excited tales of ‘maxing it’ down the
On a final note I did receive an interesting email recently from a woman who had taken a look at my site and felt compelled to write to me about a t-shirt I was wearing in one of the galleries. She said
“I'd be disgusted and wouldn't even THINK of speaking with you. Don't you realize that is an insult? Do you really expect girls to approach you when you're wearing that?”
Now first off I have to commend her for taking the time to write and also being bold enough to leave an email address so I could respond. Many don’t, so bravo to her. We had an interesting little chat though I don’t think she picked up on:
a. The fact that the t-shirt had in fact worked by making her speak to me
b. That if she was offended by the t-shirt she would probably have been mortified by some of the content on my site had she bothered to read it.
Still it was nice of her to drop me a line and let me know that some people still read the site.
Finally to finish up, I know how much you loved my Klaus Wunderlich recommendation. Well just so you don’t think I have completely descended into cheese hell take the time to download the mix ‘Manuel Le Saux - Top Twenty Tunes 213 [07-Apr-08]’ that you can find here
http://www.crystalclouds.com/forum/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=50#cat
if you scroll down the page. It’s a two hour mix of some of the best trance I’ve heard in a long time.
Hope you enjoy and hi to MG if you ever read this.
23rd April 08
It was a long week. A few clients at work have got some big jobs going through, or fast approaching ones, and it’s been pretty manic. I had some stuff blow up in my private life which I won’t discuss here but once again my brother and two closest friends helped me through it with a combination of advice, support and listening. By the very end of the week things felt a little better than they had at the beginning.
In the blog world, after my petulant grumble in the last entry, one of the women actually responded to my email. Despite her blog name being Ginormous Boobs and her lead image, an impressive cleavage shot, she seems at least from two emails to be an actual person, with feelings and shit. Her blog has only been going since the beginning of the year but the number of comments per entry has been increasing exponentially and with the aforementioned ‘highly searchable’ blog title and image, I think it won’t be long before she’s totally swamped with commenter’s, emailers and suitors.
Like a stunner at a party, you might be able to catch her eye or even mumble a few words in the first hour but after that you are going to be at the back of a long queue. Fair play to her. There’s no point in having a blog if no one is going to read it (I might as well shut mine down then!)
Some of the blogs in her blog circle have proved very entertaining. When I comment on two of them I do feel that they actually read it and that I am making some form of connection with a real person. Granted I have this with Kentucky Girl and Kim in
In other news I’ve been trying to haul my arse back to the gym and swimming pool. It was fun to be back to the permanently ‘fogged up’ goggles situation. I tried everything. Not doing anything, rinsing them in the pool, spitting in them but it made no difference. Three strokes in and I could just about make out the colourful lane dividers. Still at least it made me concentrate on the swimming rather than attempting to look around.
I’ve also decided that when I go to the gym, as I did on the Saturday, that I’m just going to wear my big ear covering headphones and to hell with it. They produce far better sound and bass than my considerably ‘cooler’ Senheiser in-ear headphones. Maybe I look a chump, ok I look a chump, but in my few years of going to the gym nobody has ever taken a blind bit of notice of me, so why not?
People don’t chat other people up in the gym, unless they are complete arseholes, so I might as well have the better sound to lose myself in when I’m trying to allay the boredom of the cycle, treadmill or cross trainer. Hell, I can’t look any worse than I did when I first started going to the gym and had to run holding a Sony Discman level because I hadn’t bought an iPod.
I also tried, at the beginning of the week that is, to cut down a little on the food intake. This meant that for a few nights I had boiled egg and soldiers. Man, sometimes you need to revisit the simple basics (beans on toast, scrambled eggs on toast etc) to remind you that you don’t always need the fancy stuff. Ok you’ve got to get the timing just right, and an old mobile phone ended up having the screen caved in with a wooden spoon in a moment of panic rage when I realised it didn’t have a stopwatch, but when you do everything in the garden is wonderful.
It’s got it all. You’ve got the ‘puncture’ moment when you first bash the head. The nervous anticipation of whether it’s properly cooked or you are just going to get a pool of clear liquid at the top. Another moment of puncture when your first soldier is plunged into the yolk. The scouting round at the bottom of the egg to spoon the more solid yolk onto a soldier as if it’s caviar or expensive pate and then the final proud moment when you’ve completely emptied the shell. You almost feel like a native US Indian that’s used every piece of a recently killed Bison.
I re-discovered during the week, Klaus Wunderlich, the German king of electric organ covers. The guy is brilliant. So cheesy and yet so brilliant. He spits in the face of all those chin rubbing, music snobs and I love him for it.
My mum had one of his albums (Wunderlich Pop 7) when I was younger and I always used to listen to it. I think the horrendously tacky album cover pulled me in (Blonde wearing a gold foil jump suit unzipped to the navel) and I loved it. Just as Hooked on Classics literally got me hooked into classics, this album certainly helped me discover electronica. Indeed I think it was his cover of Jean Michel Jarres’ Oxygene 4 that brought the French genius to my attention. If for nothing else, I owe Klaus for getting me into Jarre for my formative years.
If you give him a go I’m sure you will think it dreadfully bad but you know what? In the sphere of good/bad his current form of really bad isn't actually that far from tipping over the edge into super cool or uber chic. He’s not like pan pipes, it’s something more and I think you either get it or you don’t.
I’d love to win the lottery and drive around in a Lambo Gallardo, which for me is the height of cool, and have some Klaus playing. I’m sure I’d be ridiculed by many but the odd one or two might get the irony and for them, it would be worth it.
I’m confident that few will agree with me but hey you heard it from me first and in a few years when someone pulls up at the lights in a swanky car and his cover of The girl from Ipanema (available on iTunes) is playing, you'll know where it started.
Listen to Tico Tico on his myspace tribute page and you’ll either see the light or you won’t.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=205227320
Just my little gift to you, don't mention it.
15th April 08
I did a lot of eating last week, even for me. We'd been challenged by one of our clients to an eating fest after some Christmas entertaining that we had done with them. Taking inspiration from the Edwardian Supersize me programme that had been on the BBC a few months ago we had decided to meet at the Simpson’s Tavern. http://www.simpsonstavern.co.uk/
It's the embodiment of old school eating having been serving food for over 250 years! Our client was running a little late and we managed to get in there with about 20 minutes until it officially closes. It was all bench seats, bottle served condiments, pin striped suits and lots of loud talking because everyone there is so important. To fulfil the promise of big eating we ordered two main courses each along with a starter and then a desert. I went for leek & potato soup followed by roast beef and Yorkshire pudding plus a steak and kidney pie. Sides were roast potatoes, chips, cauliflower cheese and mushrooms. Desert was jam roly poly and custard.
It was funny when the waiter brought the order to the table. He momentarily hesitated and said
"Oh, we've made a mistake"
"No mistake buddy, just set them down here"
It was a lot of food and I did hit the wall as I neared the end of the steak & kidney pie. Thankfully the jam roly poly was a completely different taste and I polished that off pronto. We all gave a good account of ourselves and bar a few bits of the sides and some kidney and pastry on my plate, we finished everything. When we stood up, we all felt it. For me it was pressure, high up in the chest which thankfully and eventually passed.
Our client had to get some salopettes for a skiing holiday and then he headed off. We stayed up town for a few drinks but even though it was a Friday night and we were in one of the capital cities of the world it was amazingly quiet. Granted I wasn't feeling good enough to pull any crazy moves on any dance floors but I thought I could at least sit down and people watch, ok, honey watch.
On Saturday after looking for cars for my brother, we had possibly the best pizza we've ever eaten. Usually we go for a Pizza Hut, large deep pan meatfeast with extra pepperoni and mushroom. Thing is we seem to get screwed and never get that extra serving of pepperoni. Earth shatteringly tragic I think you'll agree. This time we tried a different tactic and went for a deep pan pepperoni feast with mushroom and beef. I explained this to the telephone girl who said 'why not order a margarita and then add the toppings'. Through chatting with her she constructed the order and it seemed added some extras. Hence once we'd got it home after collecting it, I could review the receipt and see that she had added 2 double pepperoni's, 2 double mushrooms, ham, cheese and beef. Man it was just fantastic. So meaty, so juicy. After we'd finished I had to call her back up and thank her for providing us with one of the best pizzas we'd ever tasted. With the amount of complaining calls they probaly get I think it was a nice change for her to receive a call from a satisfied customer. Credit where credit due in my book.
I was emailing a friend recently and talking about how sometimes the internet can make you feel pretty lonely and these last few days have proved a great example of this. I do this site to have a presence on the web and to connect with people but sometimes you feel like a TV playing to an empty room.
I found a blog of someone with my exact name a fortnight ago. I read his blog, found it amusing and dropped him a line. It wasn't written in crayon or proclaimed 'will you be my friend' but was jokey and tried to make reference to some of the topics he'd raised.
During the middle of the week we were quite quiet in the office and I discovered a couple of new blogs. The two female authors had humourous blogs and seemed to respond to their comments, which was encouraging. I did the same as my namesake and sent them a nice email. Again I tried to keep it light-hearted but alluded to details in the blog to show that I had actually read it.
Did I hear anything back? Of course not.
You'd think when writing a blog that you'd want people to make contact and let you know that you'd discovered their rambles. Apparently not. I think maybe my contact is considered weak, stalky or treated with derision. Almost like the contact massages their ego and that's all they want, for anything else is considered creepy or over-friendly. I appreciate I'm probably being over sensitive and will laugh at myself in a few days but when your sending out some genuine emails and getting nothing, it kinda knocks you back.
To end on a happier note Condemned 2 has been at least keeping the rage in check. You might get a pang of loneliness but introducing a graphic characters face to your left fist, then a baseball bat and finally a TV screen for the coup de grace certainly helps.
Oh and one more thing. I’ve managed to catch the TV show The Big Bang Theory which is excellent fun. I love the geeky characters and relate so much with the things they do and say. I love Sheldon and his talk in one episode about how Penny couldn’t play Halo because it was a tactical battlefield simulation was brilliant. Check it out if you get a chance.
Thanks for stopping by.
7th April 08
So what's new? I've been tinkering with the site a little, combining a few of the sections, losing one of the galleries and even adding a few pics to the very front page. Hardly cutting edge in the world of blog design but hey, every little helps!
A few weekends back I was glued to the TV to watch the British Cycling team competing at the World Championships. We done incredibly at the previous Worlds getting 7 Gold medals and I hoped for a similar level of world performance. We were truly amazing and ended up getting 9 Golds and 2 Silvers. The team was incredible with a depth of talent, support and organisation that surpassed anything I've ever seen before. It was very heart-warming to see us actually excelling at something and to see other nations looking at us, Great Britain, as the country to beat. There were 18 golds up for grabs in total so getting 9 is quite incredible.
Bradley Wiggins got 3 golds, Chris Roy and Victoria Pendleton got 2 golds and 1 silver each and Rebecca Romero got 2 golds. Her story (Rebecca's) has to be the most amazing as she was a former rower who won a silver at the Sydney Olympics and a gold at the following world championships before sustaining an injury that made her look for another discipline. She decided on cycling and two years later she was hammering, and I mean hammering, the current two time world champion in the pursuit event. It was great entertainment and made all the moreso by how refreshingly ordinary and non polished our team was in the interviews. I don't say that in derision but more how it made them look normal and almost attainable.
I imagine that for someone wanting to make it into the team you could look at it and think I don't have to be the perfect PR ready machine to get in the team but rather just be exeptional at what I do. I think the most exciting race of the championship was the madison. This is a 200 lap, 50km race involving two riders in each team who take it in turns to compete. Sounds a little complex so you might want to check Wikipedia if remotely interested (unlikely I know!). Anyway it was exhilerating stuff. To cut a long story short we were basically behind and every time we tried to make a break were followed by the pack. With only 30 laps or so to go our two boys, Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, made a final huge push to break free of the pack. The local Manchester crowd roared on their efforts as I did from the comfort of my sofa and we managed to do it. It was so cool to see some British athletes kicking arse and taking names and I'll be certain to monitor our teams progress in Beijing.
Went out on the last Saturday of March and our normal haunt was the busiest I have ever seen it. There were people everywhere. From constantly wondering when everyone is and isn't out, how holidays or pay days affect people going out, it seems the March pay day is the one when the shackles are cast off and people head out. Things were so busy that we didn't even bother going downstairs to dance. Driving home though and we decided to really push the boat out at the drive thru McDonalds close to where my mate lives. In an order that would have had Mr Spurlock worrying we went for three double quarter pounder with cheese meals, three single quarter pounders with cheese and 40, yes 40, chicken mcnuggets. And this was between the three of us. It was an awe inspiring display of eating and I guess if we can't end the evening in the company of girls then how better than a face buried in a McDonalds bag!
Saw Mr Brooks recently with Kevin Costner which was surprisingly good. I'd kinda discounted it as I find serial killer films all very similar. I especially don't like films when they show a visible character to represent someones split persona or alter ego. This though was surprisingly well handled and you came to like Mr Brooks for his coolness and methodical planning, despite him being a monster.
I decided one night when I couldn't be arsed to head home to look for some stand up comedy on Youtube. I saw quite a bit of stuff including some frankly dire Jamie Foxx, some disappointing Chris Rock who seems to make a good point and then spend the next 10 minutes hammering said point to death and some entertaining Lee Evans. Best of the bunch though was an American comedian called Richard Jeni. I'd seen him before one late night on TV and really identify with his brand of observational humour. Unfortunately it seems depression caused him to take his own life which is a real shame but he's one of his killer routines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-O4mJKEEqQ
The end of April approaches and with it the release of GTA IV which I think will easily surpass the hoopla that Halo 3 generated. Being cross platform means it will have an even bigger release and I think i'm going to get it. I got GTA III on the PS2 and thought it a great game but it was my brother who seemed more into it than myself. Although we both like each respective game it always seems that I'm more the Halo one and he is the GTA one. Anyways I think I'll succumb to the hype (though I believe it will deliver on said hype) and pick it up at the end of the month. In the meantime I've been enjoying Condemned 2 which certainly has it's moments of barbaric violence and is good fun.
I also recently watched a film called In the Shadow of the Moon, which is all about the Apollo missions to land on the moon. It features interviews with all of the astronauts, bar Neil Armstrong who is a bit of recluse and said he didn't want the film being about him, which I think is an honourable response. It's a great film with some wonderful imagery and a lovely accompanying score by Philip Shepherd. You really get a sense of the enormity of what NASA achieved and what the actual men who went are like. I pretty much watched the film with a smile on my face all the way. Very uplifting and inspirational. I'm proud to have such a good record of that event in Mankinds history in my collection. That sounded a bit grandiose but I think you understand my sentiment.
Thanks for stopping by. Talk soon.
26th March 08
Yes I'm still alive dear reader. Still plodding along through March.
So what have I been up to? I tried to have a busy weekend a few weeks back. On the Friday night my brother and I headed up to Heaven, the nightclub underneath Charing Cross station for a night of trance. The night was called Supernature and featured some big name trance DJ's that I really liked. Guiseppe Ottoviani and Aly & Fila. I decided that I would wear my orange NASA flightsuit as this was probably one of the few places that I could wear it and people might not freak out.
We got to the place a little early and as we waited my brother reminded me that we were going to enter a legendary gay nightclub (Friday wasn't gay night) and I was dressed like one of the missing Village People. It was a good point that made me laugh but what the hell. It all depended on what the first few reactions were. If they were good then my confidence would be buoyed and I'd feel great. Even walking to the place I got a double take from some girls in a bar and the female ticket attendant commented on how cool I looked. I must admit I did. It's tailored in at the waist so makes me look a little slimmer and with the orange silenced dog tags and shades it look all right.
Some other people commented on how it looked and one girl described me as having "cool threads". I did have a gay and his fag hag tell me how cool I looked and asked whether they could dance with me. Being trance and assuming that the female was 'with' the guy (she wasn't shaved headed or wearing a bomber jacket) I thought we'd just dance normally or at least as normally as trance dancing is. Oh no they started to step in to me and I had to push them back and say 'er no, not that kind of dancing'. He then asked about my friend who I said was my brother and my bro responded with the blokest, most manly 'alright mate'. He skulked off throwing his hand in the air with a whatever gesture and I had to laugh.
The music was ok but not really condusive to dancing. It's great to listen to when driving or surfing the web but every tune has a melodic break down that puts a real damper on your energetic dancing. Having a breakdown every 3rd or 4th song is one thing but on every track means you just can't find your rhythmn. Frustratingly the place was only like a quarter full. I don't know what it is with me and clubbing. Even when I just reserve it to the big name DJ's I still manage to score the poorly attended events. Aly & Fila were meant to come on at 3.00 but the place seemed to be getting even emptier and so we left so we didn't feel their embarassment. Had a double quarterpounder from our favourite McDonalds near Canary Wharf which tried to go some way to alleviate the evening. Still I did look damn good and maybe I'll get to wear it again soon.
One of the reasons for leaving early-ish was due to having a reasonably early start the next day to go and see a car for my brother. It was in North London and the guy had said on Friday when my brother booked the appointment that he'd had no interest yet. We were due to see it at 12.00 and at 11.51 he called my brother on the mobile to tell him that the car had been sold and gone. He then hung up. We were already so close and I was so furious that we continued to drive to the address and managed to see the new owners getting into the car and driving. Unfortunately we must have just missed the seller, Tony, which was a shame as I'd least wanted to call him a c**t and thank him for his last minute call. I know it's tricky when trying to sell something but a little consideration wouldn't have hurt.
Stopped in at P's as she was on the route home. Sometimes it helps to discuss it when someone has wronged you. The tea turned into a chance to eat some lunch and then watch a film on Sky movies. We saw 1408 which I thought was good. It had some good twists and turn and I though Cusack was very good. I think the stand out image was when he is holding his daughter who then crumbled into ash in his hands.
Bro and I went out that night locally as our mate was away on hols. Got a cab up there, hit a couple of pubs to binge drink before hitting our fave bar. It was an ok night and it was good to be out drinking but we could have done with a little female interaction.