Various Titbits #5

Been a busy week for for me, culminating in my last shift of the week in a couple of hours now. I'm officially nocturnal now, before I dabbled in insomnia. Occasionally not reaching slumber until the harsh rays of light and audible stumble of approaching school children (I live near a school, not by choice of course. Coincidence I assure you.). Anywho this leaves me with very little time for my usual habits of films and the like, but as ever I made time.

So cinematically speaking very little has happened. I did however get to re-watch Batman Begins last Sunday for the first time since I saw it at the multiplex. It seems strange that a film released about 5 years ago is only just having it's network premiere. I remember as a kid that network premieres were the most exciting thing about television. Another reason why Christmas was a magical time of year, Mum and Dad hadn't taken you to the cinema to see the film when it came out and now its on at 2pm on Boxing Day. Hurrah! But anyway, the film is better than I remember it being. Although there is no Ledger show-stopping performances there is just one long blockbuster that entertains from start to finish. Also making The Scarecrow scary is an achievement in itself. I always remember him being a bit lame in the cartoon but in the film he's realised as an element of true psychological horror. Something they also took to Arkham Asylum. Seemingly Batman can do no wrong these days. Here's hoping they do get round to making a third, even if The Dark Knight is going to be almost impossible to top I'm sure the Nolan brothers will conjure up a story which clamber near those dizzy heights.

I've also been watching a fair bit of TV but nothing out of the ordinary. All I will say is I'm very thankful for the BBC's comedic output. Something good to watch almost every night before work on the iPlayer. Still, saving True Blood and Misfits for the weekend. Going to get home at 12 today after my shift, whack on Score and have a few beers. Then start the catch up. Good times. I have also progressed quite far in Borderlands. I do find myself getting a little bored with the quests, lots of fetching and shooting and the like. Unfortunately no-one on my friends list is playing it or even owns it by the look of it and I don't really fancy diving in to the pre-pubescent, expletive ridden land of Xbox Live alone. Oh well, sparing plays for short periods have made this less of a worry but I can't help but feel I'm missing out on the majority of the fun of the game. If it's anything like that seen in Left 4 Dead its probably going to be a fair whack of it. Right best be off, got to make a sandwich for work. Now that I live in GMT+13. So I imagine this is what its like to be Russian, starting your day when everyone else has finished theirs. How very depressing.

Tubelord, Editors, FlashForward, True Blood & World Of Goo

Not long after I posted about not having received the Tubelord album yesterday the link turned up in my inbox. For those who are uninitiated in the wonder of the Kingston scamps they peddle a kind of jittery ADD enriched punk-pop. They buy their clothes at the same shop as Danananana(ananana)akroyd to put a metaphorical spin on it. I'm quite enjoying this new breed, they're from my generation after all. The ones who were listening to Blink 182 and Green Day when they were at school. When those bands used to be good as well, not when the colours dulled and the ballads were spun. As a thank you for pre-ordering (read paying for) the album I received an acoustic album. But the main album is pretty good to start with. "Night Of The Pencils" is exactly what punk-pop should be sounding like these days; the unpredictability of Infinity Land era Biffy and all the gang vocals and sing alongs of any of your more recent chart-botherers. The only detractor I can think of is the quality of the audio is a bit shit for me, but that may well be just my brand of headphones and speaker. I'm no expert. Anyway, listen to them, love them. Oh yeah, the acoustic album's good too. They can sing and all.

Editors seem to have been around for a while now. Although they're only now releasing their third album. Their contemporaries Bloc Party, Maximo Park and even Arctic Monkeys beat them to it. They've gone for a change of direction this time, out with Interpol in with Depeche Mode. First single "Papillion" made it seem like an inspired choice, sounding surprisingly addictive for a song so devoid of Editors' signature guitar. Although after listening to the rest of the album I'd say the result was not so inspired. In fact its a little boring. Which is the risk you take when its all monochrome clothing and rambles gloom. But all I've heard this year is records which inspire sadness and depression. There's only so much I can enjoy before it becomes an endurance. Maybe when I'm more in the mood I'll give it a proper listen but for now I'll remember the epic refrain of "Bullets". At least that sounded a little upbeat in its depressing musings.

So Flashforward has been rumbling on for a few weeks now. Rumbling is an appropriate term for it because I'm not really sure where its heading. Which I guess is part of the attraction. Its still walking the tightrope between sci-fi hokum and modern thriller. I'm not fussed either way really but I just know that I'm not going to find out for a while. Its appealing though, I'm being drawn in. The odd departure to Germany aside the drama is bubbling quite nicely. I just pray we get some kind of answer at the end of the season. I've heard ABC likes cutting good dramas short early, if they decide to end this after one season it might even be better for it. Which brings me on to True Blood, no new paragraph. This only going to be brief. Second episode was enjoyable, this is very much about the characters though as opposed to the previous. The central romance featured is starting to get a little Twilightesque (or what I think that would be like) but hopefully it will continue down a few more alleyways. Also the cliff hangers are surprisingly lame. I'll wait till next weeks to see if this one is as poor as I expect it to be.

Finally I come to World Of Goo which is celebrating its first birthday by doing a Radiohead. I paid a measly $2. I'm sorry. I'm poor. That's more than I paid for the Radiohead album mind. Anyway, its basically a little physics puzzle based around gooey blobs of smiles. The graphics are lovely, the sound endearing and the puzzles taxing. But I'm shit at puzzles. I get confused about using my keys sometimes. I've got stuck on many of the Lego games. I have no idea how to use the blind in my room, I've been here for 8 months. I digress, my point is you should buy it. Fund an indie developer a little and enjoy a great slice of left field gaming. Its more fun than Guitar Hero 2. That's for sure.

Various Titbits #2

There's been a lot of those hyped American shows lately. Like a constant stream of them. Do we blame Lost? Yeah probably. Haven't been with it for a while now though, I'm going to try and slip back into it. Anyway, True Blood is the latest in this line. Its about vampires, which makes me shiver usually in thought of the gothic HSM shit casket that is Twilight. Werewolves are now cooler than vampires because of that crap pile. Tru(e) Blood though puts a different spin on it though, with vampires coming out of the coffin because a synthesised blood equivalent has been discovered. Which puts an surprisingly sane view upon preceedings. Undoubtedly it being a product of HBO helps this and I'm thankful for it. Its refreshing to see some sci-fi kind of television that isn't completely shit (Charmed, Buffy, Angel, Supernatural - there's a great many more than those too). I'm excited about episode two, Channel 4's fantastic catch up service is also a great blessing.

I really thought that I'd enjoy Generation Kill more than True Blood being the rabid Wire fanboy that I am. But the late time-slot, the crappy stream and the same unforgiving atmosphere as The Wire made this a difficult one for me to slide into. I'll give it another go over the next few days, as its going to be worth watching for just the 8 or so episodes that it is. I guess you forget what it was like watching those first few episodes of The Wire where not much was happening and you're debating why you're there. Looking back, it seems silly that you could have ever comprehended such nonsense.

Its been a really long summer this year for me. My relative inaction was a main contributer to this I guess but television did not help my stupour. But thankfully now its Autumn and animations favoured child has returned. I refer of course not to the horrificly misjudged shit fest that is "The Cleveland Show" but of course to South Park. Starting exactly where you'd expect, they're ripping into Micheal Jackson. Only through the medium of The Sixth Sense. Now I'm guessing that this one may have been in planning for a while, MJ's fate is not fresh by South Park standards. But still, to make shows so consistently funny in such a short amount of time should be applauded. God I've missed you South Park.

Squeezed a viewing of Dead Man's Shoes. A wonderful little film, disturbing all the way through thanks to an amazing performance from Paddy Considine. Its my favourite Shane Meadows film mainly thanks to its simplicity. It gives no other impression than being a story of revenge, a simple tale just well told. I highly reccomend it, its probably one of the better films set in the north of England.

I finish of with my induction tonight into the syrup filled delight that is The Evil Dead. Inspired by the gross-out brilliance of Drag Me To Hell I thought I'd pick up this trilogy and give it a whirl. Its pretty much what I expected, disgusting, hillarious and cheap as hell. Great fun though, you can see why its garnered cult status. I'll see how quickly boredom gets induced in me these next few days to find out about the rest of the trilogy. Considering Swapgame have sent me Guitar Hero 2 instead of any of the 5 games above it on my playlist this seems likely.