Tag: tv/film/book rev

Update

28th August 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

Just found out, that the next Big Brother will be the last. I don’t know when it ends, but Ill be holding a party.

Okay, first the good news. Its the last Monday bank holiday of the year, and Ive managed to get Friday off.

Unfortunately, I was feeling a bit unwell yesterday. So ill in fact, that I had to miss my friend Sarah’s wedding. I had been looking forward to it for some time, as it was, I spent the evening in bed, and I was too ill, to even watch Special Victims Unit (Ive been going back over them, I only have 6 more episodes to watch, then I will have seen every one).

Well, what else has been happening lately ?.

Well, work continues to be fun, but one thing that occurred to me the other day, is how different it is, not working in the IT department (the IT guys at my company, really are a credit to our profession). The weird thing working in Internal IT, is that having worked there a month, I would normally have personally met and talked to every person in the company, as I was fixing their computer.

It had never occurred to me before, but I have done the same type of work for nearly 20 years, and now I’m doing something different. In the end, its the technology that has always driven me, and the stuff were doing is at the cutting edge of virtualization.

Talking of meeting people, I remember the 4 difficult months being unemployed. Signing on can be difficult, for one thing, they aren’t particularly partial to giving you any money, and the other thing is that you will sit there, listening to people demanding to know when their washing machine is going to arrive.

Let me make this clear from the start. I completely agree with the British system of the welfare state and the NHS. Although it seems unfair at times, I have traveled around the world (with insurance) and seen the alternatives.

That said, there are around 60 million people in the UK. At full employment, there are 20 million working people. That would mean that on average wage, each working person pays for them-self, and at least 2 other people.

I don’t mind any of that, I am happy to put money into the communal bucket. If I didn’t, then I wouldn’t be allowed to be surprised when there are roving gangs of child criminals, who I didn’t pay towards educating, and now don’t know any better.

Still, when times are hard, I would like to be able to put my own hand in that bucket, and this didn’t happen. Galling, was the fact that I had to spend ages answering questions and filling in forms before they told me they wouldn’t give me any money. Ive just been paid, and the state has taken hundreds of pounds of my money, and they didn’t have to call or fill in any of my forms !.

On a positive note, one group of people who did help and show me kindness, were the Citizens Advise Bureao. I had to speak to someone, some of the banks call center staff chased me for late payments (I had lost my job) and talked to me, as though I had broken into their house in the night and kidnapped their children !.

As I was leaving the CAB, the receptionist asked me for the pen they had provided. He commented that a lot of people forget, and they frequently run out of pens. First thing this morning, I went over there and gave them 4 boxes of pens (200) and thanked them for their help.

A new Shere Khan restaurant opened in Chester about 8 months ago. I went over there the other evening to try it out (I had been saving it for a special occasion, and payday, seemed to be that). I was shocked to find, that it changed its name. As a Manc who frequently visited Rusholme, I was a bit shocked, as that brand is known all over the world.

Had a discussion with Darius at work. I mentioned that Id like to get back into learning German (one of my colleagues on the desk can speak it very well, and it got me thinking). I was debating the best way to learn conversational German quickly (if you have any suggestions, give me a shout).

Darius (not his real name, a Wirral republican) suggested that I watch Das Boot. I queried how saying “Dive, Dive” in German would help anyone !.

Ive always worked in technology, but someone asked me the other evening (okay, so we were in the pub) if I didn’t have to work, would I work in adventure travel or bushcraft. Ive often thought about this, and the answer: Well, for a job, I would love to work in a bookshop and give the money to charity. I love books, and being around them for 2 days a week, in between travelling, and having sex with Princess Beatrice, would be my idea of heaven.

About 10 days ago, I was wandering around Chester and ran into Phil and Lorraine. They previously ran the Firkin, in its hay-day (only Dan, Amelia and I remain of the “regular 20” that drank in there then. It was pretty smart, meeting up with them again.

I recently attended the Chester food and drink tour. Loads of cool things on there (ill be writing up the tour this weekend) but a butchers shop we visited was really good (they showed us how to make Sausages). I bought a Steak pie while I was there.

Only a couple of pence more than they cost in Tesco, but much nicer, and contributes towards local business. If you normally shop at Tesco as I do, why not pop into a butchers or grocers shop and see what they’ve got. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Well, between my Unlimited Cinema card, Love film membership and 3G Internet dongle, life gets back to normal (and since the Frog are now doing 2 Steaks for a tenner on Tuesday, I can eat it even more often than before).

If you enjoyed Battlestar Galactica (and I certainly did) you might find these articles interesting (here and here).

Finaly, I know Ive been a bit of a rubbish blogger lately. I promise to update this website at least every week, from now on (and daily tweets from my twitter account, are featured at the top of this page).

Also, with everything thats going on, Ive not been in constant touch with some of you, as I normally am. I commit to getting on the phone/email this weekend and putting that right.

Near and far, have a great weekend.

John

Media

12th July 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

Well, money has been tight, so I haven’t been to the Cinema, and I have had to cancel my subscription to love film. Never mind, there have been loads of cool things on the TV lately.

Along with Fringe, Dollhouse is one of the two best new TV series, that I have seen this year. They both have a science fiction theme, but Dollhouse (made by the same guy who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has a less science orientated theme and has a bit more “glam”.

Each of the characters are human, and in their own way flawed. It makes for great TV interaction. Also, for people like me who enjoy action, the fight scenes are superbly choreographed.

The first couple of episodes are a bit tame, but don’t be put off, they are there to set the scene. The last 5 episodes, have plot twists flying at you left right and centre.

Ive also been catching up on some comedy series.

Family Guy, recommended by my old friend Amanda, and more recently by Jude, is hilarious adult entertainment. I would say that its near the bone, but its not that subtle. I’m amazed they get away with putting half of the stuff into every episode, as its so controversial.

But lets be honest, in private, chatting with friends, aren’t some of our funniest conversations very controversial, things we wouldn’t want the rest of the world to know, but secretly we find hilarious.

One scene the other evening featured God (and I mean literally a cartoon character of the Christian God) dressed in robes drinking in a bar, and chatting up girls by lighting their cigarettes at will. In the next scene he accidentally sets fire to one of the girls and shouts “Jesus Christ” in alarm.

At that moment, a cartoon character of Jesus Christ (with thorns and everything) steps into view to help. I don’t know how they get away with putting that on the TV, they must get death threats every week !.

I’ve also been watching both series of Flight of the Concords, as recommended by Matt Bridges, and his lovely daughter Eve. There are no glossy sets, flash props, or anything like that, its just pure inventive situation humour.

A show I’ve never really followed (as it pokes fun at IT) is the IT Crowd. The scene in the 2nd series where faced by a visit from the serious fraud office, over pension discrepancies, the boss calmly walks to the window, opens it, and steps out into oblivion, moments after congratulating himself on his business prowess is a landmark in TV comedy.

On a far more serious note, I was watching Leaving Las Vegas. This isn’t a film to watch if you want cheering up, but its gritty and real. I think school children should perhaps be encouraged to watch this film, for some of the scenes that show the harsh reality of alcoholism.

Otherwise, they will probably just see Fosters adverts, with witty guys, attractive women and sunny days, that gives a one sided view of drinking. It also shows (what I believe to be) the reality of prostitution. I think rubbish TV programs like The Secret diary of a call girl (based on a blog, which I honestly think was written by a man) are dangerous.

I’ve waited 9 years to watch that film, and it was just as good as Id been told.

I’ve been recording all 5 episodes of the new Torchwood series. I wanted to watch them all together. The previous series have been pretty good, so ill have to see what happens.

I found out a really interesting fact the other day. Mariska Hargitay who plays Olivia Benson, in the superb Law & Order – Special Victims Unit (and interestingly has a small part in Leaving Las Vegas) is the daughter of Jayne Mansfield.

She was actually in the car on the night of the accident, which decapitated her mother.

Two IPhone Apps, influenced by books.

10th July 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

This week, I thought I would mention 2 apps, which I use every day.

The link, is that they are both inspired/influenced in some way by books.

In the case of Appigo Todo, it was actually designed around the principles from David Allens book Get Things done.

With Ixpenseit (featured in the apple advertisements) the link is more tenuous. I have long been a fan of Alvin Halls books. In various ways, they talk about recording expenditure. To my knowledge, Alvin had no part in the design of this program, but if you’ve ever used it, it feels like he did !.

Appigo – Todo.

Todo, was specifically designed around the principles of GTD. If you really want to know how it works, you should go out and buy the book, but a rough idea is that you capture things in a dependable place, and then organise them in a way so that they can be applied and carried out appropriately.

For example, if your in your house and realise the battery’s in a torch have run down, life has the weird irony, that results in:

A, the torch battery’s will be on your mind on the way to work, while your eating your dinner, while your talking on the phone, therefor partially distracting you, and adding in its own small way to your stress factor.

B, when you are in the supermarket, passing the battery’s, it will never occur to you to purchase replacements, and the cycle will continue.

Personally, Ive always subscribed to the big list/small list idea. I have a mind map for the year, with major concepts and projects on it, and I have a small to do list, with next actions for each of this. If you don’t do it that way, you end up with a massive to do list, which has visit and Cayman Islands, next to buy some milk !.

Whatever system you choose (and you should give significant thought to which one) its still brilliant to be able to jot down an idea, just as it occurs to you. At the very least, it relieves stress, and it always amazes me, after a night out, or a long train/plane journey, just how many good ideas I’ve had.

It also synchs with a website called Toodlodo , so not only is it backed up in realtime, but you can work on your list/lists in full screen, when your at home.

How can you put a price on a good Idea.

FYI Mobileware – IXpensit.

In his books, Alvin talks at length about high level financial strategy, but also practical points about day to day expenditure. One example, is cashpoints and magazines.

Imagine you see a magazine you like. You don’t have any cash, so you nip to the cashpoint, withdraw a tenner and buy the magazine. The 2 key points here are A, you just paid the maximum possible amount for that magazine and B, the change from the transaction is unlikely to go back into the bank, and will probably be fettered away on something.

A better strategy would be too get a subscription for the magazine, knocking at least 40% off its cost, and “saving” the £6.50 that would have bought cream cakes etc.

The best way to do this off course, is to record all of your petty cash transactions (this isn’t half as tedious as it sounds) and then look for patterns and places where money can be saved with minimal “damage” to your personal life.

This program is brilliant, as it allows you to do that, but can also plot graphs of where your money is going, what you spent the money on (its only when you evaluate it, you find out just how much you spend on say bottled water). The daily budget feature is especially useful.

It is also able to email a spreadsheet, of all the transactions which makes detailed analysis really easy.

If you’ve got an IPhone, get the apps, and record all your petty cash transactions for 3 weeks. I promise, the results will be startling (and even if they aren’t, you will know who owes you money 🙂

Media Review

4th June 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

Just came back from watching Terminator – Salvation. It has been absolutely slated by critics, but I really enjoyed it.

Its got loads of action, explosions and big machines and stuff like that (if you normally read Bridget Jones, this is perhaps, not the film for you). Go out and see it, it really is smart.

A cameo of a CGI Arnie, made to look as he did 25 years ago, was rather smart.

I found out that the series, the 4400 has been cancelled. I was disappointed about that, as I really enjoyed it. I’ve also been watching Ashes to Ashes on BBC. Okay, its not as good as Life on Mars, and its never going to be, but to its credit, its prety inventive with the storyline, and Im quite looking forward to the final instalment next Tuesday evening.

Endgame – Kasparov and the machine. A ludicrously 1 sided documentary about Gary Kasaparovs famous Chess match agains the IBM Deep Blue computer (before you ask, yes I have worked previously for IBM, and ill always be proud of that).

Kasparov comes over as an arrogant pushy man, who is used to getting his own way, and didn’t like it, when he didn’t. There is constant reference to a “machine” called the Turk, which could play Chess, and actually beat Napolian. It turned out, it had a person inside, and is used frequently in the film, as a metaphor to imply that IBM cheated.

We actualy get to see the Deep blue featured in the film (1 of 2, I hope to see the other one, when I visit the Smithsonian museum in Washington).

Do I believe that Kasparov was beaten squarely. Yes I do, I think that the IBM’rs knew the kinds of play he would make, and built subroutines into it, to fox him out. I don’t believe they intervened to direct the play of the DB, as I don’t believe they would have had to.

The implication, that they were upto no good, as they kept the DB in a locked room with guards seemed perfectly obvious to me. It was one of the most advanced pieces of technology ever created, and worth a fortune.

A shame really, as I had been waiting for some years to watch it (got it on love film it wasn’t on any of the cinemas here in Chester at the time).

The ridiculous scenes at the end, where they imply a good and descent man was destroyed and morally bankrupted by simply losing the match were just too much for me. I don’t play badminton. I used to get frustrated when I lost and it put me in a bad mood. If you cant stand to lose, you shouldn’t play.

Bob Pearsons (the founder of the web hosting company Godaddy) does a really good video blog, which is worth a look. Its a bit of an exercise in sexism. More interesting I find, are his 16 rules of life, he has “acquired” on his life’s journey.

I also saw this hilarious post in another blog. I do enjoy reading the Daily Mail, as I like the writing style, but they have become a bit of a parody of themselves – daily mail dating article.

A new game, based around the Halo universe, has just launched. Wont be buying it im afraid, as I don’t have an Xbox 360.

Media

19th May 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

Not much happening this week on the media front. The next film I want to watch on the cinema, is Terminator 4 (whatever the hell its called). I don’t expect a great deal, but I’ve seen the other 3, might as well see the 4th.

The only thing I am worried about, is seeing Christian Bale in the film, and keeping a straight face. Its hard to forget, that he was caught on video lambasting and f’ing and blinding at the Director of photography (he later threatened to walk out of the film, unless the man was fired).

Footage of this spread virally across the Internet. His response to this: It wasn’t actually him doing the shouting. He was in character, and it was actually John Connor who was screaming. I wonder if the real Christian Bale was able to get the man his job back, once he had taken control of his own persona.

He’s been in some great films, but I struggle to take him seriously after this.

Far better, are 2 brilliant releases on DVD. Taken, with Liam Neeson (and it has nothing to do with Aliens, or anything like that) and Defiance (a story I originaly heard about on a Ray Mears documentary some years ago). A pizza, a bottle of wine and one of these films, is a brilliant Friday evening antidote to the credit crunch !.

I also saw the final part of 24. Its the first one that Ive actually watched to the end, and I really enjoyed it. There wasn’t as much action in the finale as I had expected, but it was very thought provoking.

Whats hot, week begining 4th of May (revised)

8th May 2009 admin Uncategorised 1 Comment

Saw the new Star Trek film yesterday. It really was superb. I don’t just mean that from a Star Trek fan perspective, I mean it was 2 hours of action, entertaining plot, and enough science fiction, without going over the top.

The bench mark for me, is similar to the James Bond film Casino Royale. I have always loved Bond films, but I have never seen one that, if it didn’t have someone in it called James Bond and all the usual trappings, would work as a good action thriller in its own right. Casino Royale was the first one to do that.

The new Star Trek, does, I believe achieve the same thing for the Star Trek franchise. JJ Abrahams work in Lost (and before that Alias) along with Mission Impossible III displays his credentials for making exciting action films.

The story shows the original characters growing up and how they develop. There are some cool moments, for example we find that Sulu is an expert with some kind of Samurai sword. The stuff about Spock being a man constantly in conflict with himself (eluded to in the series and films, but never really gone into in any detail) is finally explained.

A drunken Kirk fighting in bar and saying “you can whistle really loud” to Captain Pike, is one of the many genuinely hilarious moments.

If your reading this now, make some time this evening or over the weekend to go and see this film and watch it as it was meant to be viewed. Don’t wait for Sky, wait for the DVD or download it, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this properly.

Main things happening on the media front:

Wolverine, to be honest was disappointing. I remember several years ago, watching film 93. I remember that whoever was hosting it at the time, mentioned 3 things, which were critical to a good film. In the years since, I’ve forgotten 2 of them, but have always remembered the 3rd.

A film must create characters that are believable. If this isn’t possible, then the audience must at least be able to identify with the characters they are watching. The reason this is important, stated the host, was that otherwise, when you put those characters in danger in the film, nobody actually cares.

That’s a lot like Wolverine. There are some great action sequences (I find it funny, that the film makers were complaining about the film being distributed unfinished on the Internet. In reality, every action sequence is featured on the TV advert anyway) but the story never seems to gel, is overly long, and there are some strange moments with his father, brother and Stryker.

Having read up on the film, on the Internet, it seems like the original story, contains loads of other stuff, that would have made it a lot more interesting (you see Colonel Stryker looking at a young male mutant, who has been frozen , no point is made, that the boy is actually his son).

On the other hand, there is some pretty cool dialogue, which I am sure is unintended. When told in that thoroughly military voice “your country needs you”, he replies “I’m Canadian !”.

On TV front, Special Victims Unit, gets better and better. I have also taken to watching every episode of Red Dwarf since hearing about the remake on the Sky channel Dave. Red Dwarf, really is one of the most imaginative TV programs I think I’ve ever seen and I thought the last seen of the last episode of season 8 with the Grim Reaper, was fantastic.

A film I saw last week, 17 again, was far better than I expected. It wasn’t the teenage girl film I had expected, it had much bigger things to say about life. I really enjoyed it, and I would recommend watching it.

Just finished reading Wilbur Smiths new book, Assaigi. It really is terrible. The first half is okay (and considering he only brings out a book every 2 years, that’s far from acceptable) and the second half turns into some kind of Mills & Boon nonsense. Finally, the ending is a complete anti-climax.

If his next book is as bad as this, I’ll stop buying them, and get it from the Library.

What’s hot, wk/beg 13 Apr 09

10th April 2009 admin Uncategorised Leave a comment

boatthatrocked

Although its been hyped to high heaven (which always makes me suspicious, for a kick off) the Boat that Rocked, most definitely does not “Rock”. All the elements are there, they just never seem to come together and at two and a half hours, it drags on and on. Peter Bradshaw seems to think the same.

Far better, is a film I watched recently called Revolutionary Road. Much better use of two hours, if you get a chance watch it.

A series with similarities to the X-Files, Fringe is something I’ve been watching recently and I’m really getting into it (the void left by the final endings of the L Word and Battlestar Galactica has been a significant chasm to fill).

UK only TV viewers are in for a real treat with an up coming episode of House. In it, a cat can seemingly predict who is going to die. Obviously house solves it in the end, but its a very creative episode (I am getting a bit sick of house playing mind games and all that rubbish, I’m more interested in a proper story).

On the book front, Wilbur Smith’s new book Assegai has just arrived (it was half price from Amazon, I just had to wait 3 weeks, which seemed worth it. Only 20 pages into it, but its as good as the 30 odd others of his, that I’ve read.

On the web front, I’ve gotten on board with Twitter. You may have heard about it, its been in the press a lot recently. Basic idea, is that I can update, what I’m doing, what I’m thinking or anything really, wherever I am and it will appear at the top of this website in Yellow.

It shows the last 2 tweets, and can even have links to pictures I’ve taken on the Iphone, or links to maps, where I have “tracked” my location to GPS.