Anthony McG

Apparently this was a sketch show on BBC3 a couple of years ago. Unsuprisingly I missed it (along with Gavin & Stacey until it got moved) but have discovered it via YouTube (and Unarocks). These are two of my favourite clips so far:

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Had the pleasure of reading this book over the past couple of weeks. A film version is due out at some stage this month starring Jim Carrey so I wanted to read the original before I’d see that. Danny Wallace is a bloke from England who, after meeting a stranger on the bus, takes his advice and says ‘Yes’ more. Where that takes him and what he does makes for a fascinating read and a truly funny one at that. He’s a mate of Dave Gorman and has a similar style of comedy (mainly the ridiculous). I’m looking forward to how the film fares up against the book but will seek out more of Wallace’s books in the meantime.

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Finished up reading Watchmen, the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, late last week. For anyone who hasn’t read it, I’d highly recommend it. I hadn’t read any comic style books before but I’m going to seek out a few more after reading this. The quality of the narrative and illustration throughout is brilliant. The movie is out next March and the second trailer for it is embedded below:

Watchmen Theatrical Trailer from John Staton on Vimeo.

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Last night, courtesy of the good people at Movies.ie (sign up now, there’s free stuff and they’re sound), I saw Wall-E. Anybody who’s a regular reader here (all two of you) know that I was really keen to see this. I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve loved every movie that Pixar have produced and have them all on DVD. You may think that that has coloured my review of Wall-E but, as excited as I was to get tickets, I tried to be as objective as possible.

The film opens on an earth strewn with rubbish. Wall-E has been tasked with cleaning it up (along with hundreds of other such models) but alas he is the only one left of his kind. There is precious little “dialogue” in the first twenty minutes as Wall-E explores the rubbish piles and picks out souvenirs which he collects for his home. Shortly afterwards EVE arrives on Earth and Wall-E falls head over heels in love. I’m astounded by how Pixar can infuse their characters with such identifiable traits. The guys there really understand their craft and it’s a joy to see animated characters convey emotion as convincingly as this. As the plot thickens during the film, the pace rarely lets up as you’re introduced to human characters aboard the space ship Axiom. The human characters don’t have the same depth as the robots but I think that’s deliberate considering where the focus needs to be. What we do see of them though is highly entertaining, especially the scene involving them being knocked out of their hover chairs en masse.

I’m at pains not to reveal too much of the plot but I guarantee that you will be laughing and smiling throughout the duration. This is a modern animation classic and I will be seeing it more than once over the course of its cinematic run.

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Damien asked us what we were ambassadors for. I’ve done some thinking and have come up with the following:

• Blacknight Solutions: My site used to be hosted in the US with Lunarpages cos it was cheaper. Unfortunately they messed me about and the server wasn’t reliable so I decided to move back. Blacknight were very affordable, reliable and I haven’t had one problem with their service. In fact, they go out of their way to help you if they can. I recommend them to anyone for hosting.
• Camera phones: This may seem ridiculous but I’ve honestly taken some cherished photos on my camera phone. It’s the nights you don’t plan that are often the best so having a way to capture it is great. This was one of the things that put me off the iPhone.
• Non-geeky terms: So much of technology is hidden behind acronyms and overly complicated language. It’s like a walled garden and, in most cases, it’s unnecessary. A point made by Sabrina Dent at CreativeCamp highlighted the barrier that a signup Wiki created at previous bar camps.
• WordPress: I’ve been a user since it forked off from b2 and, even though it has its faults, WordPress is still the best blogging platform in my opinion. Now, I’m not blind to the failings or ignorning the fact that some people have had problems getting listened to by the core developers. The fact remains that WordPress is easy for blogging newbies to pick up. I’ve seen it with some of my own mates.
• The movie Swingers: It’s funny, well written, has great performances and is the film which really introduced Vince Vaughan.

Read the rest of this entry »

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