There are moves afoot to go and see the new film Drive:
Back in the 70's there was a very similar movie called The Driver, with Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern and Isabelle Adjani. This is when movies were good (The French Connection, All The President's Men, Three Days of the Condor):
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Danny Trejo is Machete!
Now expoltation films aren't really my cup of tea, but I thought I'd give this one a try:
It looks like it was a lot of fun to make and Trejo looks right for the role (I liked him as one of the assasins in Desperado). There also seems to be an attempt to make social statement by playing up certain stereotypes but I'm not so sure it works as a movie. B movies are B movies for a reason and very few stand the test of time. This may be the flaw: they're trying to make a trash movie deliberately using A movie methods, actors and budget. It does compare favourably with Drive Angry, however, which might be classed as an accidental B movie.
It looks like it was a lot of fun to make and Trejo looks right for the role (I liked him as one of the assasins in Desperado). There also seems to be an attempt to make social statement by playing up certain stereotypes but I'm not so sure it works as a movie. B movies are B movies for a reason and very few stand the test of time. This may be the flaw: they're trying to make a trash movie deliberately using A movie methods, actors and budget. It does compare favourably with Drive Angry, however, which might be classed as an accidental B movie.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Drive Angry and Winter's Bone
With having a subscription to LoveFilm, I get to watch the occasional movie on DVD. Upon Mr. Glitz's recommendation I got Drive Angry.
Although not quite as enthusiastic, I too thought it wasn't bad for something to watch over pizza on a Saturday evening. Notable was William Fichtner as the Accountant from Hell (literally) sent to bring back Nicolas Cage's character to the Underworld and also, typically understated, was David Morse as Cage's old friend. Either of these could act Cage off the screen without too much effort, and proceeded to do so, Fichtner especially. Maybe the Devil doesn't have all the best tunes, but his accountant certainly had all the best lines.
Contrasting with this is Winter's Bone.
This is a modern crime drama centered around a young woman in the Ozark's struggling to keep the house she lives in from being repossessed. There's not much to the film, a bit slight, but it has one of the scariest anti-hero's I've seen in a while in the form of Teardrop, the protagonist's uncle and self-appointed guardian angel. Played by John Hawkes, this is a performance that makes Nick Cage look like Doris Day. If there was an Academy Award for Supporting Actor in a Scary Meth-head Role, I know who my money would be on.
Although not quite as enthusiastic, I too thought it wasn't bad for something to watch over pizza on a Saturday evening. Notable was William Fichtner as the Accountant from Hell (literally) sent to bring back Nicolas Cage's character to the Underworld and also, typically understated, was David Morse as Cage's old friend. Either of these could act Cage off the screen without too much effort, and proceeded to do so, Fichtner especially. Maybe the Devil doesn't have all the best tunes, but his accountant certainly had all the best lines.
Contrasting with this is Winter's Bone.
This is a modern crime drama centered around a young woman in the Ozark's struggling to keep the house she lives in from being repossessed. There's not much to the film, a bit slight, but it has one of the scariest anti-hero's I've seen in a while in the form of Teardrop, the protagonist's uncle and self-appointed guardian angel. Played by John Hawkes, this is a performance that makes Nick Cage look like Doris Day. If there was an Academy Award for Supporting Actor in a Scary Meth-head Role, I know who my money would be on.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Monday, 1 August 2011
Tron
I was shopping in Bluewater today and I noticed that in the HMV they had this on sale:
I know it didn't do well, and the original wasn't that fantastic, but I bought the double pack anyway.
I know it didn't do well, and the original wasn't that fantastic, but I bought the double pack anyway.
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Discovering New Worlds
Today I went for a trip to London. ("Hang on a second, doesn't he work in London") Yes, I do but I decided that I wanted to see one or two exhibitions as well as do something I've been meaning to do for a while.
Starting in Camden
I've wanted to visit a Morrocan Tea shop which is situated in the Stables, a sort of shopping area just to the north of the Lock. I had mint tea and sat and read something appropriate:
The tea was really nice, a bit like spearmint chewing gum, although it becomes an aquired taste if it's allowed to stew. I then walked along Regents Canal and through the park:
As you can see, there are some rather nice houses down by the canal.
I had some more tea at the Royal Institute of British Architects in Portland Place. It has a rather nice cafe and an exceptional bookshop. Even the tea pots look art deco:
I also managed to take a picture of that icon the Post Office Tower, which I remember visiting as a boy when you could go inside:
Out of this World
On the advise of Matt, I went to the Out of this World exhibition at the British Library, and what a fantastic exhibit it is:
I saw a lot of rare and first editions, as you would expect, talked to an AI who explained to me how it worked and listened to both H.G. Wells and J.G. Ballard being interviewed. It's really good and I highly recommend it. Not only that, but the book that accompanies it is fantastic as well.
The Vorticists
Tate Britain currently has an exhibition about the Vorticists movement of early 20th century (doesn't it still feel weird saying that). They were a British modern art movement, roughly analogous to the Futurists in Italy at about the same time, but without the Facist leanings. They also didn't last long and fragmented pretty quickly. The artwork was very abstract, but it did produce artists that went on to do great things, such as Jacob Epstein and T.S. Eliot. The exhibition even commisioned a repoduction of Epstein's famous Rock Drill sculpture.
Starting in Camden
I've wanted to visit a Morrocan Tea shop which is situated in the Stables, a sort of shopping area just to the north of the Lock. I had mint tea and sat and read something appropriate:
The tea was really nice, a bit like spearmint chewing gum, although it becomes an aquired taste if it's allowed to stew. I then walked along Regents Canal and through the park:
As you can see, there are some rather nice houses down by the canal.
I had some more tea at the Royal Institute of British Architects in Portland Place. It has a rather nice cafe and an exceptional bookshop. Even the tea pots look art deco:
I also managed to take a picture of that icon the Post Office Tower, which I remember visiting as a boy when you could go inside:
Out of this World
On the advise of Matt, I went to the Out of this World exhibition at the British Library, and what a fantastic exhibit it is:
I saw a lot of rare and first editions, as you would expect, talked to an AI who explained to me how it worked and listened to both H.G. Wells and J.G. Ballard being interviewed. It's really good and I highly recommend it. Not only that, but the book that accompanies it is fantastic as well.
The Vorticists
Tate Britain currently has an exhibition about the Vorticists movement of early 20th century (doesn't it still feel weird saying that). They were a British modern art movement, roughly analogous to the Futurists in Italy at about the same time, but without the Facist leanings. They also didn't last long and fragmented pretty quickly. The artwork was very abstract, but it did produce artists that went on to do great things, such as Jacob Epstein and T.S. Eliot. The exhibition even commisioned a repoduction of Epstein's famous Rock Drill sculpture.
Sunday, 24 July 2011
I hit 47, and 47 hits back
It's my birthday again, same time every year. This time it's 47. Wouldn't it be nice if it's random every year. 65 and I could retire, 16 and I could go and watch Apocolypse Now! at the cinema. There's something similar in Philip Dick's novel "Counter-clock World".
Also Happy Birthday to Barry Bonds, same age as me, but with a better career.
Also Happy Birthday to Barry Bonds, same age as me, but with a better career.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
25st Century Foss
Growing up back in the 1970's, you got an occasional glimpse of the future thanks to Chris Foss, whose illustrations of disintegrating starships and alien landscapes coloured our imaginations. Now there's a new book published by Titan:
G'wan. You know you want to. My treat.
G'wan. You know you want to. My treat.
Saturday, 16 July 2011
News International and the Cult of Celebrity
It's not often I take an interest in the news as it's a distraction from what's really going on but, for once, the media itself is under the spotlight and that might be no bad thing.
I don't want to comment on the actual story coming out as many people will no doubt be doing that, but there has been a trend over the past twenty years or so within politics and the media. This is that celebrity gossip columns have come to dominate newspapers and the other media over news journalism. A few months ago, I watched a documentary called "Starsuckers" which demonstrated that the people who had started out running the gossip columns of newspapers and other media had gradually replaced news journalists as editors and executives. Some have, like Andy Coulson, become advisers to politicians, knowing next to nothing about politics, but a lot about celebrity. Remember, this is the person who has the ear of the Prime Minister.
That this phone hacking scandal has come about is no real surprise. What has been a surprise is the extent of it and that it was covered up for more than five years by the politicians, specifically Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, and the police. Also worth thinking about is if this is what News International have been up to, what else have they been doing and what have the other media organisations been doing?
I don't want to comment on the actual story coming out as many people will no doubt be doing that, but there has been a trend over the past twenty years or so within politics and the media. This is that celebrity gossip columns have come to dominate newspapers and the other media over news journalism. A few months ago, I watched a documentary called "Starsuckers" which demonstrated that the people who had started out running the gossip columns of newspapers and other media had gradually replaced news journalists as editors and executives. Some have, like Andy Coulson, become advisers to politicians, knowing next to nothing about politics, but a lot about celebrity. Remember, this is the person who has the ear of the Prime Minister.
That this phone hacking scandal has come about is no real surprise. What has been a surprise is the extent of it and that it was covered up for more than five years by the politicians, specifically Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, and the police. Also worth thinking about is if this is what News International have been up to, what else have they been doing and what have the other media organisations been doing?
Monday, 11 July 2011
Another Budgie
Being the summer time, my sister has left her budgie with me while she and the brother-in-law are off on holiday. She calls him Faure, but what he calls himself who knows. My budgies treat him as they would any other and ignore him, beat him up and generally accept him as one of their own. A sort of idiot cousin from Benfleet.
He's a pleasant little fellow, though, and warbles a lot.
He's a pleasant little fellow, though, and warbles a lot.
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Rhythms of the World 2011
Another summer and another RotW. As a change from previous years, John and I were asked by Gill to go and work on the gate, taking tickets and attaching wristbands. The pace was different, more frantic and static at the same time, sort of mechanical. At six o'clock, the heavens opened and it lashed it down for half an hour, clearing away the crowds, so much so that I decided to go back to litter picking for about an hour. After our shift ended, we went for a walk to get our free meal and saw the Selector, for the first time in I don't know when.
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Doctor Who
I've recently been watching a lot of old Doctor Who DVD's, in particular The Talons of Weng-Chiang and Planet of Evil.
In the former, there's an old documentary from the 1970's called Who's Doctor Who, all about the series, which had been going for about twelve years at that point. Talk about a step back in time!
In the former, there's an old documentary from the 1970's called Who's Doctor Who, all about the series, which had been going for about twelve years at that point. Talk about a step back in time!
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
HTML5 Features in Google Web Toolkit
I went to my usual weekly meeting at Skills Matter, this time about HTML5 and the Google Web Toolkit.
Before the meeting started, I got talking to one or two people, unusual as I'm usually too tired to be a good conversationalist in the evening. At one point, someone asked what we all did and here we had four completely different approaches to the idea of work. There was the two salaried, one of which was a telecommuter. Another was a small-businessman and the fourth was what you might call a flexi-worker. He worked three twelve hour shifts in a bar (thirty-six hours) and then had four days off to work on whatever he wanted. The start-up guy was trying to promote a planning and organisation utility called Plancake. Ironically, throughout our conversation he was continuously writing things down on paper and post-it notes with a pen.
Tonight was a talk by Dmitry Buzdin, a Latvian, and was about how the GWT copes with the changes in HTML5 (A friend of mine pointed me in the way of this useful web page on the subject). GWT is a compiler that takes Java code (or Java-like) and converts it into JavaScript enabling it to be run client-side in a web browser.
Before the meeting started, I got talking to one or two people, unusual as I'm usually too tired to be a good conversationalist in the evening. At one point, someone asked what we all did and here we had four completely different approaches to the idea of work. There was the two salaried, one of which was a telecommuter. Another was a small-businessman and the fourth was what you might call a flexi-worker. He worked three twelve hour shifts in a bar (thirty-six hours) and then had four days off to work on whatever he wanted. The start-up guy was trying to promote a planning and organisation utility called Plancake. Ironically, throughout our conversation he was continuously writing things down on paper and post-it notes with a pen.
Tonight was a talk by Dmitry Buzdin, a Latvian, and was about how the GWT copes with the changes in HTML5 (A friend of mine pointed me in the way of this useful web page on the subject). GWT is a compiler that takes Java code (or Java-like) and converts it into JavaScript enabling it to be run client-side in a web browser.
Sunday, 26 June 2011
The Cloud
A recent conversation reminded me about my recent exposure to the Cloud, a word which has been banded around a good deal recently. It's been used regarding new technologies and is the latest bandwagon to jump on, but try to determine what the cloud is and the focus is on the technology, partly because anyone with any interest in the subject is a technologist of some kind. This is missing the point.
The Cloud does have a technological angle but the main aspect is a commercial one. It allows companies to scale their web applications easier and more economically than in the past, allowing small companies to compete with much larger companies with greater resources.
For example, a three-man company, consisting of a business analyst, web developer and a QA specialist, develop a treasury web application. To deploy the application such that one customer can use it requires that either the customer hosts the application, the company does, or an ISP or other third party does. The first requires that the customer buys the relevant hardware/software and is responsible for maintaining it. The second requires that the development company do the same. The problem with the third option is that, previously, the inflexability and cost is was prohibative, especially if the application is complex and as the number of customers increases. It's this third aspect that the Cloud, and it's technologies, have changed. By making available complex and powerful resourses, and making them scalable at an incremental cost, the small company can provide the services that the large company, with it's own dedicated servers, can. Added to this is the fact that smaller companies have much better operating costs than large ones.
The Cloud does have a technological angle but the main aspect is a commercial one. It allows companies to scale their web applications easier and more economically than in the past, allowing small companies to compete with much larger companies with greater resources.
For example, a three-man company, consisting of a business analyst, web developer and a QA specialist, develop a treasury web application. To deploy the application such that one customer can use it requires that either the customer hosts the application, the company does, or an ISP or other third party does. The first requires that the customer buys the relevant hardware/software and is responsible for maintaining it. The second requires that the development company do the same. The problem with the third option is that, previously, the inflexability and cost is was prohibative, especially if the application is complex and as the number of customers increases. It's this third aspect that the Cloud, and it's technologies, have changed. By making available complex and powerful resourses, and making them scalable at an incremental cost, the small company can provide the services that the large company, with it's own dedicated servers, can. Added to this is the fact that smaller companies have much better operating costs than large ones.
Spring Roo
The London Java Community (LJC) meeting this month was regarding Spring Roo. This seems to be a CASE tool for depoying Java objects to the web, giving similar functionality to Ruby-on-Rails and saving programming time doing so.
The event was well attended, with nearly a hundred people, and introduced by what were termed "lightning" talks, lasting about ten minutes. One of these described the LJC's involvement in the Java Community Process, which determines what the specifications are for the Java language and, more importantly these days, what happens with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which powers not just Java but a host of other languages.
The event was well attended, with nearly a hundred people, and introduced by what were termed "lightning" talks, lasting about ten minutes. One of these described the LJC's involvement in the Java Community Process, which determines what the specifications are for the Java language and, more importantly these days, what happens with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which powers not just Java but a host of other languages.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Black Crusade
Fantasy Flight Games, as has become a tradition, have created a free introductory adventure for their new W40K RPG, Black Crusade. Called Broken chains, it's available here.
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Cloud Foundry
I attended the London Spring User Group seminar on the Cloud Foundry. This is styled as "Platform as a Service (PaaS)", which extends services such as Azure and AWS to allow deployment of web services (in the larger sense) involving multiple technologies. The talk was given by Russ Miles, who had the habit of walking up and down, causing the video podcast to have to re-focus every so often. Russ demonstrated the public service by deploying Java, JavaScript and Ruby code and then did the same with a private Cloud Foundry he's set up on his own server.
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Information is Beautiful
I was watching a program on statistics the other day and they referenced this (clicking in the image will take you to the full diagram):
Sunday, 5 June 2011
UK Games Expo 2011
I was in two minds about whether to go to this as it was in Birmingham, a good three hours drive, but in the end I relented. And it did take me three hours as I got lost in the city suburbs trying to find it.
It was different from Salute, in that instead of being in just one giant room, it occupied lots of differnt rooms in what is Birmingham's Masonic Lodge. Unfortunately, the Talisman sessions were the day before, which would have been very enjoyable, but there was plenty to look at and quite a few games being played. There was a model of the Battle of Towton (War of the Roses):
and someone has thought up a game of Catch the Pidgeon:
And I bought some stuff.
The first is a collection of game poems, which is an on-going project. It's a party game (or several, really) but unusual, and I was intrigued.
Next is an RPG called Polaris. It's as much a work of fiction as an RPG, and has me somewhat baffled.
The third is a hard science-fiction RPG called Shock.
As I was leaving, I was stopped and asked for my identification:
It was different from Salute, in that instead of being in just one giant room, it occupied lots of differnt rooms in what is Birmingham's Masonic Lodge. Unfortunately, the Talisman sessions were the day before, which would have been very enjoyable, but there was plenty to look at and quite a few games being played. There was a model of the Battle of Towton (War of the Roses):
and someone has thought up a game of Catch the Pidgeon:
And I bought some stuff.
The first is a collection of game poems, which is an on-going project. It's a party game (or several, really) but unusual, and I was intrigued.
Next is an RPG called Polaris. It's as much a work of fiction as an RPG, and has me somewhat baffled.
The third is a hard science-fiction RPG called Shock.
As I was leaving, I was stopped and asked for my identification:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)