I considered writing a short piece looking back at 2009, but eventually decided against it as it was a pretty lousy year for me all in all.  On the work front, a major crisis in February didn't help, I lost some long-term friends through that, but did make some new ones so I guess that balances out.  It was an odd year that I'd rather put behind me.

There were some great movies last year though - most notably "Zombieland", "Let the right one in" (definitely my film of the year), "The Hurt Locker", "Watchmen" (the 4-hour full version anyway), "Benjamin Button", "Up", "Star Trek", "District 9", "Terminator Salvation" (not a good Terminator film, but a good generic action movie), "Moon", "Sherlock Holmes", and of course "Twilight" (heh, just kidding folks!!!).  There were some others I saw which I thought were ok, a couple of outright disappointments, and some which I missed which I will definitely be getting on disc (Coen Bros "A Serious Man" being top of that list).

All in all a pretty good year for movies, even most of the big "blockbusters" were actually worth the time and money of going to the cinema.  3D is seemingly back in a big way, only time will tell if it's going to stay a gimmick used to cover up lazy plotting and lack of characterisation, or if it will actually be used inventively to enhance a great film instead of just shoving things in your face because it can.

So, 2010.  "Dark Horizons" movie site has been running a multi-part guide to the upcoming movie goodness for the next year, so I thought I'd post a few things that have caught my eye:

Number one on my can't-wait-for list is "Kick Ass" - just wait until the Daily Mail get a load of Hit Girl, a foul-mouthed 12 year old chopping bad-guys legs off.  Here's the second trailer, but I seriously recommend checking out the Red Band trailer:

"Kick Ass" - UK April 2010(?)


The re-imagining of the A-Team just looks like fun...
"The A-Team" - UK July 2010


One of my earliest cinema memories is Clash of the Titans, and I'm a bit protective of it.  However, the director Louis Leterrier didn't make a bad job of "The Incredible Hulk" (which I liked very much until the two very badly done CGI monsters started smashing the city up at the end) so here's hoping.
Clash of the Titans - UK March 2010


"The Eagle of the Ninth" - in 140AD an entire Roman legion disappeared in the highlands of Scotland.  I remember reading about this when I was at school so it has my attention - plus it has Kevin MacDonald directing, who made the excellent "Last King of Scotland" and "State of Play".  No trailer or UK date yet.

The Expendables - as Dark Horizons says "Stallone's $80 million tribute to 80's action cinema is a much-anticipated love letter to a time when men were men, computer effects were non-existent, and hard R-rated violence and politically incorrect humour was the norm.".  Might just have to switch my brain off for this one:


Inception is Chris Nolan's follow-up to "The Dark Knight".  He seems to be keeping his cards close to his chest with the odd but striking imagery in the trailers.  Definitely one to see on as big a screen as possible:
"Inception" - UK July 2010


The first Iron Man movie was a hoot-and-a-half, this looks to follow on nicely.  Anything with RDJ in it is high on my list anyway:


Dark Horizons sums up "The Killer Inside Me" nicely - "Everyone figures Lou Ford, a West Texas sheriff, to be a normal kind of guy. They don't see the ruthless, sociopathic murderer underneath and as victims pile up, suspicions begin to emerge.".  Extended trailer below really piques my interest.


That's enough for now - part two to follow.

Tags: awesome, coen bros, geek, movies, opinion, reviews, sci-fi, space, trailer, watchmen, youtube, zombies
Categories: Geek | General | Movies | Opinion | Sci-Fi | trailers | Watchmen

Like an idiot (a particularly *bored* idiot) I decided to venture out this morning.  TV and radio had told me that people weren't attending the sales - or at least hadn't been thus far.  So, as I said, being bored and an idiot out I go.

It's hell out there, people.  I was lulled into a false sense of security by the roads leading to the massive out-of-town retail park being reasonably quiet, and by the way I got a parking space quite close to the door at Ikea.  Then I actually got inside...

Nothing is actually on sale.  Nothing you'd want anyway, sure you can get a pack of 8000 tealights for £3 now instead of £4, but not really what I was looking for.  Was the coffee-table I was after reduced at all? No.  How about the small 2-seat sofa?  No.  And being Ikea I wasn't about to head off with the mooing herd to the underground cavern of wonders that lay between me and the exit, oh no, I've fallen for that before!

So I went back.  Now, if you've ever tried to follow anything but the proscribed path in Ikea you'll know what I was up against - it's like batting a raging river of people.  You're dancing around tables and between beds and chairs trying to stay off the main path - I was tempted to roll a 12-sided dice to see if I could use a +50 shelving unit to clear the way...  Finally you get to the main stairs and have to go down while everyone coming up is wondering what the hell you're doing.

Anyway, I finally escaped.  In retrospect it was quite lucky that I didn't buy anything as I found the boot of my car was frozen shut, so I'd never have gotten anything in anyway - you can see how well planned this excursion was. 

Negotiating the roads *away* from the shopping centre is like escaping the seventh level of hell.  To quote Dante:
"The violent, the assasins, the tyrants, and the war-mongers lament their pitiless mischiefs in the river, while centaurs armed with bows and arrows shoot those who try to escape their punishment. The stench here is overpowering."
I can only assume that people either lose the ability to drive, or the people who normally drive every day to work decide they can't be bothered and leave the driving to the elderly, infirm, blind, or just plain mental cases.  How there aren't more accidents I will never know.

So I finally escaped, and having learned my lesson I went home to read a good book... HA, just kidding, that would be no way to end this would it, lord no, I WENT TO BIRMINGHAM!!!

Why? Why did any part of my brain think it would be a good idea to do that?  It's probably a good thing that I didn't actually find a parking space, but just did a lap of the city centre like a depressing Monaco Grand Prix, and then went home.  On the bright side all the roads out were clear, as everyone else was no doubt trapped in the One Way system passing the same half-dozen multi-storey carparks again and again and again.  I'm sure they're still there now, or maybe they have actully made it inside the great hallowed halls of the Bull Ring only to find that the sales are a lie, but to justify their time and effort they have to buy *something*, even at the same price it will still be next week.

I should have known.  I used to work in retail.  The days after Christmas we knew full well that people only came to the stores to get away from their families who they had been cooped up with for more than a few hours.  It doesn't matter if you have anything good on sale, they will come anyway.  I don't know what I was thinking, but this is what boredom does to me I guess.

Tags: rant, opinion, zombies
Categories: General | Opinion | rant

As mentioned in an earlier post of mine, I've become quite a fan of US TV drama & comedy series.  Thankfully, after everything I said in my last post about these things not being quickly available in the UK things are changing, and more quality shows seem to be finding their way here much sooner than they have previously.  This is a Good Thing.  Anyway, here's my thoughts on some of the things I've been watching lately

Heroes
So we're into series 4, but does anyone really care anymore?  This is apparently the most downloaded show, but I'm kind of at a loss to see why.  The writers don't seem to have a coherent plan, everything is fragmented and the whole Carnival thing (which started off quite promising and creepy) just isn't being explained enough... maybe the next ep with the return of Mohinder will sort things out?  Doubt it, but still...

Dexter
Again season 4, and still as good as ever, but I really think he has to be found out by his sister soon, and this series would be a good time to do it I think.  Best thing this year is the incomparable John Lithgow as Trinity... a revelation if you've only known him from comedy, he goes from civil to psychopath in the blink of an eye, and manages to be terrifying even when acting normally - he is this show's Hannibal Lecter.  Wonderful.

House
Most watched TV show in the world for one reason - Hugh Laurie.  Man is awesome, and deserves every plaudit.  What can I say, if you don't watch House, you really should.  Do your self a favour and get the boxsets and have a marathon.  Yeah, ok it has a formula, but it's the performances that make it compelling.

Castle
Only introduced to this a few weeks ago - it's Nathan Fillion's (of Firefly / Serenity) current project.  How can I describe it?  It is on the surface your typical ABC afternoon drama show, but after the first short season it has finally found it's stride and is a pleasure to watch.  Basic synopsis - famous author follows police detective around to do research for new book, helps to solve cases, bit of romantic tension thrown in for good measure.  That may well put you off but the show is carried ably by the two leads - Fillion with his wit and charm, and Stana Katic by being hot and funny.  This actress is one to watch, like a younger Courteney Cox meets Penelope Cruz (hang on, let me just visualise that...), with good comic timing.  It's entertaining in kind of a Moonlighting way, but without being as self-aware as that show.  Check it out anyway.

Flash Forward
The new "Lost"...? I never got into Lost but I'm trying hard with this one.  They seem to be throwing a lot more information around, which may or may not be a good thing.  I'll stick with it though, if only to see how they deal with the episode set on the day of the FlashForward next April.  That will be the decider I think...  I still reckon iit will turn out to be one of Derren Brown's "Events".

Stargate Universe
Robert Carlyle is the main reason I'm still watching this.  At the outset they said "people will die on this show", and I'm still waiting for them to jetison more of the annyoing cast - I think they lost one character and have stranded 2 on a planet (possibly, they sent them through a gate but they may have gotten back off-screen as it's not been mentioned since).  I'm still worried it's going to turn into "this week's dilemma / race-against-time", but it seems to still be teetering on the edge of being a great show.

Big Bang Theory
Hilarious, no other way to describe it.  The "Rocky" montage and the Wil Wheton ep were laugh-out-loud funny for me, which is rare.

V
Is this a right-wing dig at Obama?  The aliens are all good looking, have a united society (clearly Communism, right?) "come in peace" and literally promise "universal healthcare".  I think this maybe a parallel to BSG which was a response to 9/11 and Iraq.  Will be interesting to see how it develops - only 4 episodes coming before it disappears until March, so they have to come up with a massive cliffhanger to get people to tune back in.  

Breaking Bad
Only just started watching this, and good to see Channel 5 have picked it up in the UK.  Bryan Cranston (dad from "Malcolm in the Middle") plays a fifty-year-old chemistry professor who finds out he has lung cancer and only months to live.  Wanting to provide for his family he makes an ill-judged choice to use his chemistry knowledge to get into the drugs trade by cooking Crystal Meth... Best way I can describe the first couple of episodes is like a Coen Brothers movie - very funny but with a dark streak a mile wide.  This is definitely one to check out.  There are 2 seasons so far, the first only has 7 episodes so I hope C5 shows both back-to-back.

That's pretty much it - just these few shows go to demonstrate the massive gulf in quality between the UK and US.  Thank the lord for the internet.

Tags: geek, opinion, sci-fi, tv
Categories: Geek | General | Opinion | Reviews | TV

As part of my birthday celebrations this past weekend I was treated by some friends to a trip to Bletchley Park.  For anyone in the computer industry or World War 2 afficianados the name should immediately be familiar, it is the place where the German Enigma codes were broken.  This is widely agreed to have shortened the war by at least 18 months, and save countless lives.

It is also the birthplace of the modern programmable computer.  Say hello to Collossus 2:

For me as a geek it was a humbling experience.  We took the guided tour and for nearly 2 hours we saw how everything you take for granted in terms of electronics and computers can be traced back to some of the astonishing work that was done at Bletchley over 60 years ago.  Standing in front of the re-created Collossus 2, you realise exactly how much work must have gone into figuring out what was required to crack the codes being picked up by radio, then having to actually build it from scratch.  It's one thing to do this in a programming language as we do today, it's completely another to have to design and build the hardware from nothing.  For the record, Colossus 1 was running in 1943, so predates ENIAC by a couple of years.  Virtually everything about the project was destroyed, and indeed kept Top Secret until the 1970's, so the fact that a fully working reconstructed version is available at Bletchley is even more amazing.

Moving into the National Computing Museum, it was a trip down memory lane for me.  It was like being in a branch of WHSmith circa 1983.  So many memories.  I came face to face with a Commodore Vic-20, which had started me down the path to my current profession almost 30 years ago.  If it hadn't been for my Dad buying me that machine, and later a ZX Spectrum I can only wonder what I'd be doing today.  It is also weird to think that I am part of the last generation who remembers such a massive upheaval in technology - the days when you could actually fix things instead of just replacing a circuit board.  I wonder how children visiting the museum would see things - so much can be taken for granted now.  Wow, I sound old...

It is made even more poignant by the campaign to give a formal apology to Alan Turing earlier this year.  Thousands signed an online petition which encouraged Downing Street to recognise the work Turing did at Bletchley, the part he played in breaking the codes and ending the war, and to apologise for how he was treated when it was discovered he was homosexual.  Turing killed himself, and the world lost a genius.  It was a shallow gesture by the Government - Turing has no surviving relatives to receive the apology on his behalf so it was just empty words  A better tribute would be for everyone who signed the petition or supported the campaign to go to Bletchley over the next year and see what was really accomplished and how astonishing this man was.  That is the difference between true support and bandwagon-jumping.

Bletchley is in need of your support.  they have only just secured Lottery funding but many parts of the museum do not have any funding at all and rely on donations and visitors and their on-site shop to keep things running.  Its all done from the love of volunteers at the moment, but that only goes so far.  I'd urge everyone with even a passing interest in computers, or history, to take a day out and go visit.  An adult ticket is £10, and it gives you unlimited access for A WHOLE YEAR!!  For a tenner!!!  You will not be disappointed.

http://www.bletchleypark.co.uk

Tags: awesome, gadgets, geek, opinion, reviews, tech
Categories: gadgets | Geek | General | Opinion | tech

This is a pretty amazing piece of work, it's a video mural created by Marco Brambilla for the new Standard hotel in NYC.

It contains hundreds of film clips and "found footage" - I bet the fullsize version is quite something to see.

Check out this site for more details and a higher-res version

 

Tags: movies, art, awesome, video
Categories: General | Movies

Well, I finally got round to setting things up - I said it would be a major change and I wasn't joking.

Hello to anyone who hasn't been to my site before in its various incarnations - I think this is the third or maybe fourth version of the site, in all the excitement I seem to have lost count myself...  Welcome back to my small band of forum posters too, presuming they will bother to sign up again (please, PLEASE sign up!)  

Its a bit of a change in that its the first time I've not built everything myself from scratch - I'm using a bit of software called BlogEngine.Net, which is free and also a set of forums from JitBit Software.  I just got fed up of trying to do the whole design bit, I'm most certainly not a UI designer, and that is what has always caused problems for my own site in the past.  I've worked with some superb designers over the past 15 years and I just can't cut it when I try to do anything remotely stylish.  So, I gave in and went with a blogging engine... but I have gone with a fully .Net solution so I can keep my hand in a write some extensions for it.

So anyway, it will give me the chance to add a lot more content to the site than there has been before.  The Galleries will return hopefully this weekend, just have to put something appropriate together.

Any questions either leave a comment or (preferably) post in the forums...

Thanks and see you soon

Dave

 

 

Tags: blog, welcome, toosurreal, galleries, forums
Categories: General