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am i still ill?
Archive for Entertainment
October 17, 2007 at 13:03 · Filed under Entertainment
Is there anything that hasn’t been said about the decision made by Radiohead to release their latest album download only, and to apply a psuedo-honesty box programme to the payment system?
I will say, however, that I don’t believe that it is an honesty box in it’s true form, as many pundits have been declaring. As in essence there is no set price, it isn’t relied upon that people use their concience to decide whether or not to short change the box, which is the true concept behind the technique.
How the band have benefited from this idea so far is still to be released, but it is the talk of the blogosphere, and beyond, so I cannot believe that they have done too badly.
I have spoken to a few friends who have partaken in this experiment and the amounts given have varied wildy, from £15 right down to the obligatory £0.00. From my findings I have deduced that the amount given will increase with the age of the person and will also fit in with their current downloading habits.
Ie. If they normally download illegally, being allowed to pay what they think the music is worth will not necessarily coax them into actually handing over their card details, but if they are regular downloaders from legal sources, they will dip into their pockets.
To say that this is typical of all who have downloaded In Rainbows would be a gross estimation, but I can imagine not to be far wide of the mark. We’ll have to wait and see if any statistics or trends are published any time soon.
July 4, 2007 at 10:11 · Filed under Movies
Best movie ever!
OK, maybe not ever.
Maybe the best movie this year … apart from The Last King of Scotland. (Was that this year?)
I was lucky enough to get to go to the ‘Welsh Premiere’ of the film, held at the Odeon Cinema in Cardiff Bay, in aid of Help a South Wales Child, Red Dragon FM’s own charity.
The place wasn’t quite awash with celebrity as was promised, but, it was still able to mingle with the likes of Welsh International (and all round bloody good rugby player) Colin Charvis and the one and only Goldie Lookin’ Chain.
Onto the picture itself, I’m a big fan of the Die Hard franchise, having watched each movie around about 15 times each, perhaps more (I kid you not). I just can’t get enough of them, and I don’t know why. I’m not a particularly macho kind of guy, and I wouldn’t class the action genre as my favourite, but something about Bruce Willis and the frantic heroics he finds himself performing hits a spot for me, and as I’m led to believe, quite a lot of other people.
Perhaps it’s the ‘everyman’ character that he plays? He isn’t ‘the last action hero’ by far.
By the third instalment he is a divorced, borderline alcoholic with a major attidude problem. But despite this, With a Vengeance is my favourite of the first three.
Die Hard 4 starts tamely enough, setting the story up to follow through later in the movie, by introducing John McClane’s daughter, Lucy, who we had already met once, albeit briefly, back in 1988 in Die Hard as a 4 year old.
Then John gets the call, the one he will obviously regret for a long, long time. Of course, he is sent by his commanding officer to the wrong place at the wrong time and gets caught up in a fire fight of epic proportions. The rest, you can kind of figure out yourselves, but it is pretty spectacular.
At no point does this movie drag on, it’s punchy but at times over the top, but what do you expect? If it wasn’t a little OTT, fans would complain about that instead. I firmly believe that Die Hard 4.0 was made as an end to the series. Bruce Willis has said that this is it, that he wants to finish off his run as Detective McClane, and who can blame him?
Since the first Die Hard movie thrust Willis into the big time as a star, he has gone on to act in films of a far higher calibre and show his skills as a truly great actor who is able to adapt to the character in many different scripts.
But as with anything, the initial success will undoubtedly be in the forefront of many peoples minds, especially if sequels are produced and received to acclaim. It becomes almost like the actor is obliged to do another. Willis has said previously that he had been hounded by press and fans, with their first questions to him being about Die Hard and if or when there will be another one.
The plot is enthralling, but also, quite scarily, plausible.
A group of hackers gets into the infrastructure of the American goverment and from there, work their way outwards, wreaking complete havoc and causing chaos.
With complete control over gas, electricity, phones, satellites, traffic lights, television and much more, they have the entire United States in their hands, not knowing which way to turn or what is going to happen next.
How can McClane fight these cyber-terrorists, when we learned a long time ago that he used to not even understand fax machines, I hear you ask? With the help of a sidekick of course. He picks up Matt at the beginning of the movie, during the first shoot-out, of course, Matt is a convicted hacker, with knowledge of pretty much everything. A good guy to have around, considering who McClane is up against.
How has this movie affected the order in which I rank each instalment of the Die Hard series?
Quite significantly, I must say, and I can only imagine becoming fonder of it as time goes by.
My table will now stand as shown below;
1. Die Hard: With a Vengeance
2. Die Hard 4.0 (Live Free or Die Hard)
3. Die Hard
4. Die Hard 2: Die Harder
I would recommend this feature to anybody who even remotely enjoyed any of the other Die Hard movies and fans of Bruce Willis himself, if you want to see him jumping out of moving cars, even at the ripe age of 52. Though it would seem that hasn’t affected his ability to stay sharp and handle a weapon with the greatest of accuracy. 7/10.
May 28, 2007 at 23:10 · Filed under Entertainment
It’s a resided fact in the music business that a band or artist will become most well known for one single, especially if they are not a pop band.
We’ll play some band association, shall we?
I give the name of a band, you name the first song that comes to mind…
(use your cursor to select the hilighted line to see answer)
Joy Division
Love will tear us apart
Nirvana
Smells like teen spirit
Franz Ferdinand
Take me out
Spandau Ballet
Gold
ABC
The look of love
That exercise should have gone some way to proving my point. I’m sure we got at least some of the same answers.
Note; the above doesn’t apply if you are a big fan of the band. I’ll come to this later.
My cinicism was roused when compiling a CD this morning from tracks by The Smiths, I wanted to make a disc that contained songs that weren’t already on the ‘Best of…’ albums, of which there are a 4 that were compiled post-split, totalling 69 tracks in all.
Best…I
Best…II
Singles
The very best of The Smiths
What struck me when trying to pick tracks was how many songs kept cropping up, time and time again, songs which I don’t necessarily class as their best and how many great pieces were omitted from every one of the compliations.
For a song that isn’t actually representative of the style of The Smiths, How Soon is Now manages to end up on 3 of the 4 discs, as does This Charming Man, the latter for more obvious reasons, being their first big single.
The gloomy Heaven knows I’m miserable now and There is a light that never goes out are also on all of them, again, tracks that most people will be able to name if you ask them to give you a the name of a Smiths song.
Why oh why are we not seeing songs that made the original albums as great as they were on these releases which are supposed to be pushing the band and representing their ‘best‘ songs? I refer to gems like A Rush and a Push and The Land is Ours, You’ve got Everything Now, Cemetry Gates and I Want the One I Can’t Have.
In 1987 Morrissey pleaded with his fanbase not to grow out of his whimsical lyrics through the song Rubber Ring, but, through no fault of his own, new fans are being force-fed the same old (veggie) tripe with every compilation release. We get it, How Soon is Now was huge, now, leave it.
My fantasy Smiths compilation album;
A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours
Barbarism Begins At Home
Handsome Devil
I Won’t Share You
Is It Really So Strange
I Want The One I Can’t Have
Nowhere Fast
Rusholme Ruffians
Vicar In A Tutu
What She Said
You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby
You’ve Got Everything Now
Accept Yourself
Cemetry Gates
Frankly, Mr. Shankly
London
Paint A Vulgar Picture
December 11, 2006 at 16:01 · Filed under Morrissey
Set list
- Panic
- First Of The Gang To Die
- The Youngest Was The Most Loved
- You Have Killed Me
- Disappointed
- Ganglord
- I’ll Never Be Anybody’s Hero Now
- William, It Was Really Nothing
- Irish Blood, English Heart
- I Will See You In Far-off Places
- Girlfriend In A Coma
- Everyday Is Like Sunday
- In The Future When All’s Well
- I’ve Changed My Plea To Guilty
- Let Me Kiss You
- The National Front Disco
- Dear God, Please Help Me
- How Soon Is Now?
- I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
- Life Is A Pigsty
Encore:
- Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
- Don’t Make Fun Of Daddy’s Voice
All photos above were taken by me from the front row at Wembley Arena on 08/12/2006.
Dan and I queued from 2pm (doors opened at 6:30) to get our places on the barrier. Bearing the cold was most definitely worth it however.
Other highlights of the day; leaving my place in the queue to get some snacks from the local shop and walking past Gary Day (Bassist with Morrissey), but, not knowing what to say and me being me, I decided to just gawp, smile and walk past him. Definitely a big regret, but, I was on my own and he’s intimidatingly tall.
See Mozblog.com, my dedicated Morrissey blog, for more pictures and videos.
December 10, 2006 at 23:08 · Filed under Entertainment
Yes, the episode of Torchwood that has scenes filmed in the building where I work was shown this evening and after closely analysing the frames, I concur that you can see the outline of my head in the background of one of the shots. Albeit for 1/25 of a second.
OK, so people have had bigger parts, but for me…is this the beginning of my career in showbiz?
Perhaps…not.
What does astound me however is how long it took them to film such a short scene.
They were setting up before I arrived at 10am and were filming from at least 11am and until after I left at 6pm but from beginning to end the scene in ‘Passmore Telesales’ only lasted 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
It makes me wonder how much time must have been put in to complete a whole series of 13 episodes?
Some more screencaps from the scene:
October 8, 2006 at 13:04 · Filed under Entertainment
Filming for the BBC’s new Doctor Who spinoff, Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who) came to my office today whilst I was peacefully trying to get on with some work.
I had been made aware of the intended disturbance well in advance, so I came prepared with my digital camera and DV camera.
Stars of the show John Barrowman and Eve Myles were on set, but as yet I haven’t managed to catch a shot of either of them (most of the set is blocked from my view by cabinets).
The scene that they are shooting takes place in the call centre for fictional company ‘Passmore Telesales’.
The show is due to air on BBC Three from October 2006.
Update:
Nothing much actually went on all day, nothing Who’esque anyway. No explosions, screams, smoke..
T’was all a bit timid.
I’ve setup a flickr set for all the photos I get during the shoot.
Torchwood filming, my flickr set
May 16, 2006 at 11:21 · Filed under Morrissey
Well, 15-05-06 is now in the past, but it certainly will not be forgotten.
Arrived at St Davids Hall in Cardiff at 2pm, I thought there would be a large crowd already, but, it was not to be. Only three people had gotten there before me.
Chris, Rachel and..her friend who I didn’t catch the name of.
Chris has been following the tour since Killarney in Ireland, April 13th. Very dedicated man.
Very nice people, great to chat to and pass the time with.
Decided to take the queue to the escalators at about 6:45.
Went up them..fourth person up.
Got to the doors of the auditorium..waited there for 10 minutes.
Got in..got my place at the barrier..stage centre. Could not have got a better position at all.
‘Twas very quiet, I was expecting it to fill up quickly. It didn’t.
After the support act, the crowd left the bar (which is outside the auditorium) and joined us.
The place was clearly a sell-out.
Very good crowd.
Had butterflys in my stomach before he came out.
“Hey hey, it’s Tiger Bay” was his opening comment..then went straight into First of the gang.
Very good to get the crowd going.
I held Morrissey’s hand. Twice. During Still Ill and The youngest was the most loved.
I held his hand twice.
He has very soft hands.
Here’s the setlist..
1. First of the gang to die
2. Still ill
3. The youngest was the most loved
4. In the future when all’s well
5. To me you are a work of art
6. Girlfriend in a coma
7. You have killed me
8. I will see you in far off places
9. At last I am born
10. The father who must be killed
11. Ganglords
12. Let me kiss you
13. Life is a pigsty
14. Trouble loves me
15. I just want to see the boy happy
16. How soon is now?
Encore:
Irish blood, english heart
Best song hands down was Life is a pigsty.
Rain effects, Boz playing the water glasses..
During, I think it was Let me Kiss You is where he got rid of his blue shirt and threw it directly at me.
I grabbed it. Had it. But then a gang grabbed at it too from my hands..
I held on to the arm of it for dear life.
Morrissey’s personal security, the big scary guy, cut the arm off for me and I now have it.
Enshrined forever.
Whoever I showed it to after the gig asked if I was going to auction it on eBay.
No chance. It’s worth far more than money.
My plan is to frame it frame it, with my ticket stub.
I took my camera in with me.
Security didn’t say a thing. I had been talking to some of them beforehand, however, and they said they would look the other way as long as I didn’t take the piss.
I took a few photos. Not too many as to be inconsiderate, but just enough to give me fond memories of that night.
From the amazing vantage point I had, I managed to get some really, really good shots.
You can see just how close I was to him.
He looked me in the eye numerous times.
When he and the band came out to do the encore, they all linked arms and walked towards the crowd, into a bow, as he was bowing, his eyes caught mine, for more than a split second.
I was dazed.
Overall, amazing show. Not a bad thing to say at all.
Morrissey was very gratuitous with the crowd, gave quite a few hand touches during the show and seemed to enjoy salsa dancing in his cuban heels which, I must say, were very striking.
The rest of the photos are here.
A short video is here on Youtube.
I’ve had this camera for a year now, and I did not know how good the video function on it actually was. What a dumbass. Else I would have made more/longer videos.
Nevermind.
May 14, 2006 at 19:38 · Filed under Morrissey
In the future when all’s well
Tomorrow is the day. THE day.
We’ve been waiting since January, at least, if not, for years, for him to come back to our fair city.
It seems like a decade since I was online at 8:30am frantically clicking at Ticketmaster to get the tickets.
Friday night’s setlist at Liverpool went as follows…
You Have Killed Me / How Soon Is Now? / First Of The Gang To Die / I Will See You In Far-off Places / On The Streets I Ran / To Me You Are A Work Of Art / Girlfriend In A Coma / The Youngest Was The Most Loved / The Father Who Must Be Killed / Let Me Kiss You / Life Is A Pigsty / At Last I Am Born / In The Future When All’s Well / Still Ill / Ganglord / I Just Want To See The Boy Happy // Irish Blood, English Heart
So, expect more of the same, apparently.
I’ve been ill all weekend, so a lot of the pent-up excitment has dissapeared with that, but, I have the whole day off work tomorrow to build it all back up. Wish me luck..
April 21, 2006 at 07:51 · Filed under Entertainment
Seriously though, Madonna.
If you pay £80-160 or more (ie. from a tout) to see Madonna, then you are a total fruit loop.
You do realise this woman is a fake?
A product of the media?
She doesn’t even like you. You’re scum to her.
If you walk up to her the street you’re likely to be batted away like a fly by her hired goons.
Why on earth would you want to pay that much to see someone in concert who doesn’t even write her own songs, and will probably mime the ones she did have a small hand in writing?
Can someone explain to me, please, why ‘Pop’ music is so….popular?
It makes no sense to me. Honestly.
Or did I miss a meeting?
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