Music

A run down of my music scenario. I feel I should (by blog logic at least) my iPod issue. I held off getting an iPod or any music player really for a long time because I did not think I would use it. iPod Video was released, and being a movie buff I figured that this was the time. I got it. Of course it was very nice (it's an Apple product after all). Black, 30GB, classic design with the iconic click wheel. The iPhone and iPod Touch came out, and I had a decision to make. The iPhone was a lot more expensive (what contract!) and apparently didn't serve well as a phone, additionally I'm a clumsy forgetful oaf who is notorious for losing or breaking things (particularly phones, watch straps, laptop power cables and headphones), so I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket, so I got the iTouch 16GB. By this point, it had been established that I did in fact use my iPod for music, a lot, much more than anything else, it was barely out of my ear (this continues to this day). iTouch it was. I purchased, nearly a year later, it went missing (hey, it lasted a year!), xmas came along and the shiny new iTouch was out (2nd Generation). I asked, I received. Now this is also 16GB and has lasted me till now, but a few weeks ago I reached maximum capacity with a lot to be desired, add to that the headphone jack was damaged (somehow) shortly after so now only the right headphone works. I look at upgrades. 3rd Gen. iTouch has been out a little whole now, £206 32GB, or iPhone just came out 32GB, their prices are now more reasonable (not that much more than £206 and continue paying £30 per month like I am now, with my phone contract)....sadly not only is the iPhone 4 of course out of stock for a few weeks (and I need this sorted for when I go away for 2 weeks on the 19th of July), but contract restrictions designed to confuse me say no. So I'm buying the latest iTouch by the looks of it. My brother has a 1st Gen. one, my Dad just bought the 3rd Gen and my Mum wants the 2nd Gen after I fix it, so we will all have one in the family, weird.

Anyway: I have an eclectic range of music on my iPod, but primarily I listen to soundtracks mainly because I find they evoke the most raw feeling, and often simply remind me of the TV of film they were used in, so it can be a cheap and easy way to relive great TV/movie/game moments. My favourite show is probably 'Dexter' (although having said that I watch so much good stuff, and it seems like every time I see a great episode of something, I'm pressured to re-evaluate, this is pretty much weekly), and most of 'most played' songs are from the fantastic 'Dexter' Season 1 soundtrack. The show is going into it's 5th season this September and I was wondering where are the other soundtracks. Much to my gleeful surprise I found last night (after unexplained delay) that seasons 2 and 3 combined soundtrack was released just Monday of this week (July 3rd, 2010...I think that was Monday, no I tell a lie, it was Saturday) and I instantly downloaded it straight to my iPod from iTunes application. Damn good. Not as good. But good.

That post wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. Well I was excited for it anyway. I don't really get excited for music. It's just sort of there isn't. You don't get like trailers, like you do for films, you wouldn't get like a few seconds of the track taken from here and there played out in the wrong order and then told if you want to listen to it properly you have to wait a few months, it just wouldn't work.

Anyway yeah, this isn't as amusing as I thought, but I'll post it anyway as it's better than no more posting for a year. I'm in the mood for it now, but who knows when a blogging urge might come along again, next blue moon?

I suppose I could talk about how I go through phases with songs like anything. Food, drink, games, films, TV shows and music. All I will find something I like then repeat it over and over for ages, so for example I'm currently drinking Robinson's diluted orange juice, and I tend to listen to one track of music on repeat until I get bored of it, then leave it for a while. I always need something next coming down the line for when I get bored. I've got a back log of TV and Movies to watch, but it's whatever I feel like watching at the time, I haven't been in a movie mood for ages (a little while ago, I was on a steady 1 new film a day diet, but I've lost the discipline... committing to a 2 hour film seems too much), I'm sort of in-between obsessions you could say. TV wise I'm still on a high from this years Dr Who (probably do a separate blog post on that) so I've been re-watching this season and watching classic episodes online.

Lastly and hopefully the most entertaining sub topic to discuss can be what music I don't like. Well I'm pretty open minded really. But most modern music is bollocks let's be honest. Most modern "music" consists of dance, rave stuff. It's not music. It lacks any sort of real tune, melody or meaningful lyrics, there's certainly no talent to it. Nothing that makes up a song. It's simply a synthesised noise repeated and overlapping itself at various intervals to an excessive amount of base and the occasional cuss word. It's really dire. It's probably some bloody maternal thing. Something about that monotonous base reminding them (on a subconscious level) of mummy's heartbeat when they kicking it back, back in the womb.

Anyway, I think I've bored you all enough now, I know I'm bored just looking at it, so much so, I can't be bothered to proof read it...so if there're any spelling or grammar mistakes...that's why.

Commitment

Wow, haven't posted since I started this thing March last year. That's a real testament to my commitment.

Yes as usual I have trouble sticking to anything longer than a biscuit...and even then my short term memory loss might kick in after one bite and I forget where I left the other half; I only know I haven't eaten a whole one because I don't feel like I've eaten that much.

It's a wonder I watch so many TV shows, when it means I have to come back to it and give up an hour of my time each week. Actually I know how, boxsets. I watch most stuff back-to-back rather than weekly. For example: I watched season 1 of 'True Blood' when it first aired in the UK on FX. I enjoyed it, but thought it still had untapped potential. I gave Alan Ball my trust (he's already created the award winning 'Six Feet Under' - A show I'm still getting into, nearly finished season 1 - and writer of 'American Beauty' - one of my favourite films, that I could watch all day on repeat - among other things) that he would improve and develop it. It is. I watched Season 2 back-to-back, in time for Season 3 to start in US (hello online viewing that I often partake in). I watched the first episode. Great, the next week comes around, I never got round to it (there was slight crossover this year, as 'Breaking Bad' S3 finished as 'True Blood' S3 started, same day you see, Mondays, anyway the excellent 'Breaking Bad' has finished now after castrating me with my own jaw as it dropped during all the artistic genius and soul destroying suspense. Now my only excuse for not watching on Monday, is watching other stuff; whatever I'm into at the time, which is supposed to be 'Firefly' at the moment, come back to that, before we have the world's longest digression, get used to this if you're going to actually read these mad scrawlings and if I can even be bothered to exercise my freedom of speech on a regular basis), so yeah, I didn't watch it, I kept telling myself I'll do it tomorrow (of course I have a huge procrastination problem which I'll go into later...see, I just did it again), but never did, next Monday came, and I told myself I would have a double bill, my old friend procrastination dropped by and I got chatting to him again...anyway the long and short of it is, that a couple of days ago was episode 4 and I've only seen 1...triple bill? It's ridiculous, almost as ridiculous as offering a little example and then taking up most of the blog entry with it.

Anyway, I might do some more "proper stuff" soon, if you're lucky (or unlucky depending on how you feel about my style, hello Mr examiner marker, here's a lookin' at chu). God I'm terrible. Anyway the blog's more for me than you anyway, isn't it?! So...sod you all.

Watchmen Review

Hi, this is my first true post (no 'about me introduction crap'). Here I am reviewing the much anticipated Watchmen movie.

Ever since his first film, I've kept my eye on Zach Snyder, mainly because he directed a horror remake that didn't suck. Yes his directorial debut was the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead (The original is a favourite film of mine). Amazingly this was a modern horror film, typically unoriginal studio-forced remake/prequel/sequel that DIDN'T eat total balls and was enjoyable for multiple sittings; not butchering a classic.

Anyway Zach Snyder isn't a studio-puppet and works when he wants to, only doing a few films ('Dawn', '300', now 'Watchmen') and with his own style, he's a lot like Quentin Taratino. I respect that, a lot. See 'Saw' was original, inspiring and generally fantastic, crushing the un-original modern horror competition, but then the studio got their grubby paws on that too, and the series has grown more and more wizened since.

Anyway, the subject at hand. I am a huge fan of the graphic novel as a lot of viewers will be. So far the reviews I've seen have been from source-fans as well, and while most have said it was a triumph there were a few that took the other end of the 'Marmite-spectrum' wide as it is. The only 'sitting-on-the-fence' i've seen was the 'Metro' paper and I got the impression they hadn't a clue what they were talking about and hadn't even read the source text. Having said that, I don't think you need to have read it to love this. Whether you look at this as a new experience, or an adaptation of a classic it, is, great. I saw this movie with some friends who hadn't read the book and they loved it just as much as I did if not more (one of them said it was his favourite film of all time).

One negative review I read complained that this movie did not modernise the tale and therefore the movie feels lost, out-of-date. BOLLOCKS! That's called being faithful. It's a film by fans, for fans. Primarily. Sure a few of the costumes of been changed but that's not a disaster. The scenes they've missed add nothing to the shallow surface of the plot but in the book emphasise the themes of the text, so in the film you'll get heavy profound speeches that seem to come out of the screen and rape you. Yes thematically this movie is rough around the edges, but it hasn't lost its depth. Going back to being raped, this movie is unlike anything else, it shoves the super-hero movie formula up its arse, and mentally violates you, in a good way. That's not to say those who want a shallow murder-mystery/fanatsy/super-hero/action movie will be dissapointed, they won't be. This movie wraps all of those things together in a neat bundle. The action sequences are genuinely jaw-dropping. Who knew that Nat King Cole's 'Unforgettable' would be an awesome song to engage in fisty-cuffs to? It is! The first scene brought tears to my eyes. It's, that, good.

The performances are great despite not being an all-star cast (I liked that fact). Rorschach's Jackie Earl Haley stands out, you can pin-point a single second in the film, where you can tell how good he is (I won't spoil it, but you'll know when you see it). He speaks with a bat-growl that everybody assumes but it's his face that does it for me; I doubted him before hand (looking at the actor and the comic drawing of unmasked Rorschach) but, I was really impressed. There is no bad performance here. I also really enjoyed Jeffrey Dean Morgan (loved him in the shamefully underrated 'Supernatural' before this) as The Comedian, especially seeing as the character can be seen degrading throughout.

Zach Snyder lends his use of colour, blood and slow-motion (but not too much) to really make this film reflect the poetic fantasy feel, it looks like a comic. Speaking of how it looks, this is the most beautiful film i've ever seen. The sound is equally good with a period soundtrack. The action sequences (unlike most these days) are well edited and are realistically choreographed. Yes the film combines surreal style with dark tone and deep ideas at its core. Darker, deeper than the Dark Knight, and dare I say, better. Sure it doesn't have Heath Ledger's Oscar winning performance as (one of my favourite fictional characters ever) the joker, but the performances and characters here are still great. As a film or as an adaptation there's little I can complain about if anything.

The bits that have been cut, had to be cut, and it makes sense. The violence toned down had to be toned down (or in some cases made extra bloody so it seems more comic to get away with it).

All in all I love this movie, and will no doubt get the uncut Blu-Ray on release. Zach Snyder...you did it!

Hello!

These days you can't look anywhere on the internet without finding someone spouting their mouth of about everything 'including' their kitchen sink in the name of their 60 seconds in the spotlight. So hypocrite that I am I thought I'd give it a go. I've no idea who if anybody reads this stuff or why, but it feels good to get things off your chest.

First off, I am a GEEK. That's right the kind of guy that knows scary amounts about things you do alone in the dark like: playing epileptic-fit inducing video games, watching back-to-back seasons of old television, watching iconic movies that people will say have past the 'sell-by date' and reading comic books about people in spandex.

Next thing: I can and will talk about random spectacles that I observe with my eccentric eye on a day-to-day basis, go off on tangents in the style of comic Ross Noble and review geek related goodness.

If I sound like Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw it's not because I am, but because I am British, enjoy a good rant, and at times can be down right pessimistic. I have been told I sound like him, but I'm not trying to emulate his style, that's just the way it is, so there we go.

Don't expect much from the presentation of this blog, just know that I've gone and spilled my thoughts out conveniently on the corresponding letters of the keyboard and - oh bollocks! - I've gone and published it; thus spreading my mentally ill thought pattern onto the world. Enjoy!