CAUTION: Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
Yeah, them Yanks are schooling us in how to engage our children in celebrating a festival of darkness, but who's to say we can't give it a bit of bulldog spirit, eh?
^^ Click for bigger (1000x1414px, 298kb)
Happy Hallowe'en, y'all!
DISCLAIMERS: • ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
CAUTION: Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
28th October 2011. HMV Forum, Kentish Town (The Town & Country, call it by its name)
What do I write about Bowling For Soup? Two awesome shows in a week. Saw them in Oxford on the 22nd, but didn't take any photographs. I also started writing an actual gig-report, then realised it was sort of redundant. Here's the short version:
Orange: Not for me, but the kids seemed to be enjoying them. Suburban Legends: Loads of fun, I was very impressed. Bowling For Soup: Excellent (as usual), even though the entire band and crew are (/have been) ill with this cold-thing thats been doing the rounds.
Anyway, I figured I'd post the photos I took at the London show. The principle's simple enough: Bad photographs look slightly less bad when they've been filtered through PolaDroid. Click on any of these to see the bigger version over at FacePage.
And big hugs to the awesome folks from the BFS Army who made it all even better:
I'm not saying that BFS have 'the best fans', but they're definitely the best people.
DISCLAIMERS: • ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Premise: A nosey teenager, worryingly adept with firearms, finds himself in the company of an alcoholic sailor, stranded in Morocco with no passport...
Wow. No, really. Wow.
Given that I was never really a fan of Tintin, finding it a little too old fashioned for my tastes, I wasn't expecting this to really connect with me. I was prepared to be visually impressed, for sure, but the cast and crew have reached deep into the bag and pulled out a first-class action adventure movie, here.
Now if you're a fan of Tintin already, you'll be rolling your eyes and mouthing told you so. But this movie brings something new to the franchise for me; a sense of movement which the comics never really captured (again, for me). It's very easy to forget that the highly stylised characters you're watching are CGI, even though they could only be exactly that. The camerawork, script and pacing all suggest a live-action film, and the excellent voice-work backs this up. There are one or two moments where the animation becomes a little jerky and lifeless, but even then it's only reduced to the level of very, very good CGI.
With Spielberg directing and John Williams scoring, Tintin reminded me of the Indiana Jones series regularly, particularly in the Moroccan locations, and it's a credit to Moffat, Wright and Cornish that their writing is on par with those films.
After seeing one of the Thompson Twins fall down the stairs in the trailer, I was worried about the level of slapstick we'd be getting. Luckily, this is kept to a minimum (read: largely the scenes with the Thompson Twins in), as the rest of the spills are action-based. There is a lot of humour in the film, courtesy of Andy Serkis' Captain Haddock and Snowy the dog, but it's never overbearing and never overdone.
We saw this is 2D, but I'll be watching it again in 3D. The medium works best in animation anyway, and if the rest of the visuals are anything to go by, it should be stunning.
Whether you're a fan of the books or not, I can't recommend this film highly enough. A classic adventure, and a thing of great beauty.
...still got no real desire to return to the books, mind.
DISCLAIMERS: • ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
CAUTION: Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
Hello. Chances are you're reading this because you've been directed here by me on Twitter.
Last night (Fri 21 Oct), I tweeted that my nephew's guitar had been stolen in Oxford. He's 17, just started music college, and like I did at that age, adores his guitar. He was feeling like absolute shit about the whole thing, so I figured the least I could do was put the word out that a black SG Prophecy was 'in the wild', so that at least if it was offered for sale in a pub, second-hand-shop etc, there'd be some awareness that it was probably stolen. I don't normally ask for a re-tweet, but it seemed sensible under the circumstances.
Then Twitter (you) showed me why Twitter (you) is/are brilliant. I had what can only be described as a humbling number of RTs and enquiries/help.
As of mid-day on Saturday 22nd October, the guitar has been recovered. I don't know many more details, as my nephew's dad has gone to pick it up as I type this. I'll update this post if/as I learn any more. What I also don't know is whether Twitter (you) was/were instrumental in its recovery. I think you were, anyway.
I want to say a massive THANK YOU to the following tweeters who very kindly re-tweeted my message, so that more people had an eye out for the guitar:
And a lot of those people were made aware of the situation thanks to the RT by Mr Jaret Reddick of @bfsrocks. Without Jaret's tweet, the thank-you list would be a lot shorter.
You have my sincere and heartfelt thanks for your small, yet hugely important, actions. I suspect there are more users, whose names Twitter isn't showing me, who I also have to thank. If your name isn't on the list, but you did RT my message, you also have my utmost thanks.
I'm going to delete my original tweets to stop it being RT'd any further by people who aren't aware of the updated situation.
I may have to re-think my whole "the world is full of arseholes" philosophy. The number is reduced by at least 94 people today.
You fucking humble me, Twitter, and I'm pretty sure a certain 17yr old appreciates you, too.
DISCLAIMERS: • ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
