The Intrepid Grewitch

I'm currently concentrating on the social networking site I created over at Ning, so I might fracture what goes where.

Check it out: http://qasbah.ning.com

Until next time,

Later.

By Scribeoflight.

From Quennessa again.

From Quennessa's Flickr page.

AICN are hyping this up: a cool indie indie Nazi Robots CG short by some guy called Marco Spitoni. Watch it at GameTrailers.com.

I like the colour combination in this still, Can't wait for this to come out.

Tonight, me and Ramsey went to see CSS at the Astoria, my second gig (the first was The Knife, last year) ever. It was fantastic and totally wicked. Hadn't realized it could get so rough with all the pushing and such. They wouldn't allow me to take my SLR or I could have taken some hardcore shots, luckily Ramsey had his small digital along. There was great support from Tilly and the Wall, who really nailed it with their performance.

I'll post some pics Once Ramsey sends them through.

A belgium all girl choir group organized by the Kolacny Brothers. Their version of U2's With Or Without You is sublime, as you can see below. I bought the CD from Ebay last year.

And I've just realized that I haven't read a book in...a year, six months? Too much time on the net and working and playing Playstation.
It's not like I don't have anything to read, in fact I've got a whole selection waiting for me:

I've got three books by Boris Akunin, The last released Wheel of Time book, and um...a whole lot more which I forget now. This is bad, this is awful. Time was I would finish at least six books a month. What's happening to me?

Something needs to be done.

Did I mention I bought the massive Bone soft cover by Jeff Smith? Can't wait to get into that.

Note to self: hunt down the Sandman Mystery Theater graphic novels. I never picked them up when they were coming out on issues but now there's no excuse.

There's a script writing program called Final Draft. Must look into that.

I am officially declaring my own personal War On Chocolate. Need to lose weight, must give up chocolates. I chose to fight a secret war but that failed. Everywhere I turned, there was a chocolate. A dealer would approach and offer me a bite, being raised to be polite, I would naturally accept. Walk into a shop, and they would be there, displayed prominently, blatantly offering themselves. One, I could resist but when they ambushed me in the hundreds? Dear reader, I stood no chance.
Therefore I declare the war publicly, if I am going to win this war, I will need public support. Each day I will report on the outcome. I do this not for personal gain but for duty to you: nobody needs to see me get any fatter.

It is now thirty minutes past midnight, good night.

This is just sad news, Kurt Vonnegut has passed away.

I remember reading Cat's Cradle a few years ago and, you know that feeling? When you're reading something and it totally offers you a new perspective, that feeling, like you're mind's just expanded, like you've just grown or evolved a little bit? That's what I had when reading Cat's Cradle, his first book I ever read.
I'd always planned to read his other books at some time, at the right point, and I am just sad that there will be no more new books to be read, once I start.
He was a special man because reading his book I found it to be so honest, so painfully, brilliantly, joyfully honest, that it was refreshing. There was truth there in his book and I know that when I read a Kurt Vonnegut book, that will always be true.

So Kurt Vonnegut is dead. That's life.

Youtube comes in handy a lot, doesn't it? Here's a trailer for my absolute favourite film of all time: Sonatine. I remember being blown away when I first saw the film on BBC 2 all that time ago. Takeshi Kitano has made some brilliant films after this, no doubt, but this was raw and sublime, when you could see the pieces coming together.

Youtube also have some Towa Tei goodness up. He was the Japanese dood in Deee-Lite (remember them? Groove is in the Heart? Oh yeah) who brought the funk. He went solo long ago and released, I think, three albums, fusions of jazz, bossa nova and electronica. He's collaborated with Kyle Minogue and Bebel Gilberto, to name a few.
Anyways, here one of my favourite songs from him, really mellow and chilled out, featuring Chara, entitled 'Let Me Know'.

I thought it was about time to catch up with Mika Bomb. I picked up their brilliant single, Heart Attack (which you can listen to on their Myspace page), a few years back and then lost touch with them. Good to see them still around, and of course I'll be buying their album now too. Hope they tour around London again. Finding their promo video for their song, Osaka, is just wizard.

My friend Ramsey doesn't believe that there was a show called Automan about an AI program that could manifest it self as a man in the real world and he had a companion which was like a little star called 'Cursor'. But there really was such a show. Looking back on it now, it's Tron origins are apparent.

Forgot to mention that the final trailer for Spider-Man trailer got released: download here. Looks like Venom plays a bigger role than I originally presumed: My view was that his reveal would be a cliffhanger to the movie. Looks like it'll be fun.

Managed to get through quite a backlog of box sets this month, so lets hit it:

• Boston Legal series 1

I mainly got this for two reasons: William Shatner and word that he was funny in it. What can I say, I'm a fan of The Shatner. The show, however is much much more. First thing first, The Shatner is very very funny in this. Really, pure comedy gold. Playing a once great lawyer that the world had ever seen who is not what he once was, his comedic and eccentric performance is a joy to watch. However, what really makes the show great rather than one that just features a great performance, is James Spader as a fellow lawyer and close friend of The Shatner. His performance is equal to that of The Shatner, and their close friendship on the show is what makes the show a pleasure to watch. With a sharp script and some solid secondary performances, I was really surprised by it and will be getting season two.

• The Wire series 1 and 2

Ummm...could this be the best crime drama ever made? If you google it, you'll be able to read praises by people more eloquent than I. This isn't an episodic crime drama where everything is wrapped neatly at the end. There are no good guys and bad guys, just shades of grey. The story is sprawling, has great depth and, more, it sounds and feels real rather than staged. Just amazing.

• Deadwood series 1 and 2

Hardcore. A filthy mouthed score of characters lorded over Ian McShane's filthy mouthed deadly, charming monster. The greatest western show of our times, as far as I am concerned. I can't believe they went and cancelled it. Can't wait for series 3 to come out.

That's the DVD Boxsets all done.

Me and Purpletribble went to see Ghost Rider and...wow. Just wow. Great performances from Peter Fonda, Sam Elliott and Nicholas Cage's wig. I can't believe they threw big money at this junk. It had it's entertaining moments and it wasn't as bad as Fantastic Four, but it was pretty junk.
It's pretty easy to diss a bad movie, so I really shouldn't  say anything further about this crap but...

• Cage and Mendes are supposed to be high school sweethearts so how come he's twenty years older than her?
• The Cowboy Ghost Rider can only change once, so how come he does nothing, absolutely nothing when he does?
• Why would the villain, who is invulnerable to Ghost Rider, want something that does make him vulnerable?

I don't mind mindless entertainment but there has to be at least some intelligence behind it. Have they forgotten how to have fun and invite everyone along to the party?

Caught this from AICN's Anime column: A new anime, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Basic summary: A girl, Makoto, learns of her ability to leap to specific time in her past, and decides to have some fun before coming to realize that there are consequences to her actions. Yeah, sounds generic, right? That's what I thought but after sifting the net for more information, it looks like it's how the story is told, how it is invoked, that separates it from others of it's ilk.

After watching the trailer, it definitely looks worth checking out.

...I'm thinking about the Samsung F700.

From KFC Cinema: a link to Christopher Doyle's segment of Paris, Je t'aime featuring Faye Wong, on Youtube:

From AICN again: they're turning Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence into a movie. I'm kinda looking forward to it as the books are excellent and I have a deep fondness for them.

Now that just leaves Katherine Kurtz's Deryni books to be adapted.