Life Without Toast - Sibling Rivalry

I went to see QOTSA last night in Dublin's teeny tiny Ambassador Theatre. I love that place purely because even if you are dead late (which we were) and you are far back, you are still not really all that far back. We moved to the front fairly quickly but bot before purchasing a lovely t-shirt which was only €8!!! I am assuming it was an end of line one as they only had size small ones left which suited me grand and the rest of the tee's were about €25, but I had gotten in for free so it was like a free t-shirt too in a way.

I went with my friend Rob and about 10 of his friends, I was being well minded as they were all about a foot taller than me, it did make actually seeing the gig a different story though until one of them very kindly hooshed me up onto his shoulders which promptly resulted in a bouncer dude shining his giant maglite in my face, "I just want to take a picture" I said, he was having none of it until (this is my favourite bit)...Josh Homme tapped the bouncer on the back with his foot (while still playing the song) and said "take that torch out of her face, she just wants to take a picture, you're working for me tonight motherfucker", I loved it, the bouncer retreated back into his shell and then LOADS of people got up on shoulders. The band were posing for pics, woohooo!!!

The gig was great, dancing and singing and having a mess, then we went to the Parnell Mooney, bad move, if anyone is ever going in there I would strongly advise that you DON'T use the toilets, even if you are male, they are vomit-making!

We then went to Forte's chipper on Dorset Street and got a bag of delights including the strangest chip butty I have ever encountered, All I wanted was two slices of bread, butter and chips, but what I got was a pitta bread (???) chips, cheese (ew) and garlic mayo...very strange, it was like they were trying to be fancy. Nice chips though - yum yum!!

Posted by Babs at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night I was invited by my good friend Kirsty to go and see Andy Votel & Dom Thomas in Ri Ra in Dublin 2. I am not normally into that sort of thang but seeing as I was staying in the big smoke this weekend and had no other major plans I said what the feck and went along. We got mildly well oiled in the hotel bar next door, that sounds sort of glam, but it was the Central Hotel Bar and it was SO quiet, which was good, beause afterwards my ears were so full of music and laughter that it was a very good thing that beforehand it was relatively silent, plus they did table service so no need to actually get up and over exert oneself by going to the bar.

We went to Ri Ra at about 12.15 which was silly because before 12 it's only 5 dolla, and after it's 10, feckers. They do good pints in there and it was nice to see the bar keeps smiling instead of the normal haggard and pissed off look of most of them around that time on a Saturday night!

It was a great night, one of my best this year and that is saying a lot. I was wearing my usual 1950's chic with a small twist, ribbon in hair, black and white gingham halter top ($8 in H & M NYC and it's silk, bargain of the century) black circle cut skirt no tights because it was super warm last night and the twist was my DC's, I thought it looked a bit odd but then I was going to be dancing so I said whatever and ran out the door.

The funniest thing ever happened halfway through the night, they were playing a few tracks that were mixed with super cool 50's jiveish sounds so I was doing my crazy jive dancing with Kirstys friend who was over from London for the weekend when this dude who was locked walked up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and said "Are you a Billie Barrie Kid or wha'?" and then walked away, he kept pointing at me to his friends, it was hilarious but I danced it off swinging around the palce like a mad thing.

I got the Nitelink home, got talking to these two girls with no shoes on, they were hilarious, got home, had the obligatory Marmite (YUM) and toast and fell into bed with ringing in my ears. I woke up this morning with sore legs and dead arse muscles, which to me means a good night was had. I danced non stop for 2 hours, perhaps I am actually fitter than I had originally imagined.

I officially LOVE Andy Votel and Dom Thomas, and dancing like no one is watching. Kirsty commented that I danced with my eyes closed, I do that so that I can imagine that no one else is in the room, and it worked, maybe I could have been a Billie Barrie kid......

(*Note: Billie Barrie is a performing arts school where horrible parents send their children so they can learn how to dance annoyingly and always smile, they scare me, but I am well impressed that I looked as coordinated as one of them considering I had drank 5 pints!! There is no website for Billie Barrie that I can find.)

Posted by Babs at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

It's Star Wars, right, with the characters replaced by the cast of Family Guy. Sounds alright (or: a bit rubbish), yeah?

Let me first say this: If you're not either 1) a HUGE Star Wars fan, or 2) a HUGE Family Guy fan, or preferably both, you won't like this at all. Please leave now.

Still here? Okay. This episode of Family Guy... really is... Star Wars.

No, really.

It really, really is. A lot of the lines are exactly as they were in Star Wars. The music is the music from Star Wars, and I don't mean it's the same basic music played by different people, it's the actual music. It's spot-on, John Williams, London Symphony Orchestra-tastic. If you're #1 above, you'll be saying the lines as Peter/Stewie/Chris/Lois say them, whilst humming along with the music that's playing in your head, and coming from your TV, the same way as you be would if you had Empire in your video player on a Sunday afternoon when you were 12. It even has the actual special effects plates for some of the scenes (and all of the effects it has are from the ORIGINAL version of Episode IV, hooray!) that were in the movie. The real ones, not an imitation.

So it's Star Wars. Pretty much completely, and perfectly.

But it's also Family Guy, which means it goes off on insane tangents that you didn't see coming (because it's written by manatees, of course), but this time, they're Star Wars tangents. If I haven't stressed it enough, you must know Episode IV inside out, back to front and upside down to appreciate most of the gags for what they are: Perfect, perfect pastiches or something you know intimately (fnaar), and love dearly.

I found myself actually Laughing Out Loud at the majority of the gags, which is something normally reserved for some of the grosser, more hardcore episodes of South Park, or for when I see someone's pants split open when they bend over or something. It really is properly, hilariously funny.

So, if you like Family Guy (a LOT) and you've watched Star Wars (Episode IV, "A New Hope") as many times as I have (a LOT) and know it every which way you can, this episode will be your new Best Thing Ever™. Seriously, it's that good.

10 pieces of toast out of 10 (if you fall into both categories described in paragraph 2, above. If you don't, probably 1 or 2 out of 10, you ignorant nerf-herder).

Wikipedia/IMDB

Posted by Matt at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been listening to every bit of Radiohead I have on constant rotation for the past 4 days. This is how In Rainbows fits into their album discography, in my opinion, in order of awesomeness.

1. OK Computer
2. The Bends
3. In Rainbows
4. Pablo Honey
5. Hail To The Thief
6. Kid A
7. Amnesiac

Anyone who disagrees with me can do so in the comments, even though you're quite plainly mistaken.

Posted by Matt at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

"Warning: This game contains strong language and scenes of extreme violence and gore"

And that ain't even the half of it. I played the original Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube, and it was very, very good, but this new, Wii-centric version surpasses it in almost every way there is.

Having played most of the way through the GC version, the majority of the shocks and scares were no longer shocking or scary, but as the entire game has been rebuilt from the ground up, in 480p 16:9 widescreen and with a generous amount of Wiimote waggling for good measure, pretty much everything in the game feels "new".

From the opening scenes in the village, through the rescue of the Presidents' daughter (kidnapped by a Spanish cult called the Los Illuminados), through all the various puzzles, the Wii-Remote controls are really without fault. Indeed, if I had not played the game on a system that requires you to use buttons and joysticks (how old-school!), I would have sworn that the game had been designed for the Wii from the beginning. The point-to-aim system is pretty much flawless, enabling a raft of head-shots to be accomplished with ease, with crazy villagers heads exploding everywhere as a result.

If you're coming to this as a fan of the older Resident Evil Games, you're in for a shock. In the older games, the pacing was slow, the camera fixed, and the tension unbearable. The tension is still present, but the pacing is generally set at a rapid-fire full sprint, machine gun in hand, and the camera is an over-the-shoulder affair that brings you right into the action, almost like a first-person shooter, only not.

The story, is of course, being a videogame story, completely bunk, but it's definitely better than either of the Resi movies that have been released. The scope of the locations is vast, from the sprawling village at the beginning to the labyrinthine castle in the middle, to the sci-fi-like confines of the island laboratories towards the end, and this helps the story a lot. I won't spoil it for you any more than that, as there's quite a few surprises to be had.

The graphics, while excellent, are definitely "last-gen", albeit the very best of last-gen. The enhanced definition and widescreen aspect definitely help. The sound is awesome. The music is perfectly weighted and matched to the mood of every scene and level in the game, and the incidental sound effects are totally spot-on, be they a candle blowing in the wind or a grotesgue monster being frozen by liquid nitrogen and exploding in a shower of fragments. Brilliant.

Speaking of monsters... Oh. My. God. Whoever designed the beasties clearly needs professional help. They are FUCKED UP. Again, I'm not going to go into too much detail, but lets just say the main character, Leon Kennedy, had his head ripped from his neck on more than one occasion by a nefarious hench-thing covered in spikes, claws and drool. If you don't jump from your seat and/or grimace in disgust at least once, then you are clearly already dead. Brilliant stuff. And the 18+ rating of the game is definitely deserved, and should definitely be adhered to.

All in all, totally brilliant. I'll give it 9.5 slices of toast out of 10.

Official website / Wikipedia page

Posted by Matt at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

So after MONTHS of not reading a proper book, by proper I mean a book that is not some easily read chick lit heap of shite that I have borrowed from one of my female roomies, I have finally dug myself out of the trap of trashy magazine (ie: Now, New, Heat, Grazia etc) and shitty crappy crap books and started to read a failly intelligent book, Fermat's Last Theorem, I stole it off the top of the microwave in my house, it is my Statistics Studying roomie Liam's book, and I cannot believe that I can a) read it as maths actually scares me (not adding like, but you know theorems and the like) and b) that I am actually understanding it, "woohoo" I say.

So being in this frame of mind I have gone insane on Amazon and in Hughes and Hughes in Dunlaoghaire, and have bought a total of 11 books, I hope to do some reviewing of sorts, but I am not promising anything.....and I am also posed with the problem...which one do I start with, I have whittled it down to three favourites: John Peel 'Margrave Of The Marshes", Margaret Atwood 'The Tent' or Ernest Hemingway 'A Movable Feast' hmm, its ok, I won't be finished this theorem thingy for at least another week.

(On another note...I ate far too much dinner and have now got what I can only describe as a food baby, in that my normally flat tum is now rounded and full of food and a muffin, I am considering vomitting, whoops!)

Posted by Babs at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

"Set in a separate storyline not related to the "Trailer Park Boys" Television show, but with the same lovable characters. The boys get arrested for robbing an ATM machine and spend 18 months in jail. When the get out, they decide to pull off "The Big Dirty" which is to steal a large amount of coins because they are untraceable and quit their life of crime forever."

(From IMDB Page)

Just finished watching this on err... streaming video on some highly disreputable video site (ahem... delicious link in the sidebar... ahem...) and it's brilliant.

Well, if you're a fan of the (hilarious) adventures of the rum-and-coke drinkin', dope-smokin', smalltime crime-dealin', pot-growin', shopping cart fixin', rhyme bustin' boys from the Sunnyvale Trailer Park it's brilliant. If you've never seen the TV show, well, it doesn't really matter. You may find all the lines and smartass remarks that bit funnier if you've watched every episode of the series, and enjoyed them, several times over (like me) of course, but as the quote above says, this is a completely separate adventure from the goings on in the series (so, newbs are more than welcome to enjoy the goings-on, but you better fasten your bicycle clips, because this shit is fucked).

This necessitates some re-capping of what exactly these boys do in their free time (which is basically all the time). This is ok though, as anything that's gone over is done so briefly and concisely, leaving more room for improved, movie-quality hi-jinks from our intrepid group of misfits. This is good. We like hi-jinks.

I won't go into any of the story here, as that would absolutely ruin it. Yes, I respect the subject matter that much. I think Trailer Park Boys is one of the best things on TV, and I would place it above Shameless in the overall scumbag comedy genre, in my very humble opinion (I welcome debate on that matter too!). Suffice it to say that the boys get up to their usual brand of nonsense and hoojah-ery, they go to jail, do some crimes, eat hotdogs, Randy eats cheeseburgers, Julian always has a rum n' coke (with ice, in a glass) in his hand, you know, it's Trailer Park Boys.

And it's an hour and a half long.

And there's a couple of fairly big set-ups, and a couple of big-ish stunts.

But it's still Trailer Park Boys. And it's an hour and a half long. And that's why it's brilliant. Really, seriously, totally brilliant stuff, from start to finish. But it's not for everyone. If any of this review has put you off in any way, if words like "dope-smoking" and "pot-growing" and "crime" put you off in any way, then don't watch it. It's definitely an acquired taste, that's for sure.

(Oh, and Mr. Lahey is constantly shitface drunk as usual, and the shit-talk is totally off the richter. Here's a gem of Mr. Lahey "shit talk" for you to saviour, TPB fans)

Posted by Matt at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

It's hard to describe to someone who's never played a Zelda game just what it is that makes them the Best Games In The World™. It could be the rich stories, with tales of goddesses and darkness, heroes of legend rising through the ages, ancient prophesies and mysteries, and some dude in a green elf suit kicking ass and taking names. It could be the incredible puzzles, requiring lateral thinking and real attention to be paid at all stages of progress, lest you miss some vital clue. It might also be the epic scale of your quest, with it's vast world laid out before you, or that "what weapon or gizmo am I going to get next that will let me get to that place way over there" feeling, which makes opening every door and treasure chest an edge-of-your-seat experience.

But mostly, it's all of these things, and a whole lot more.

Posted by Matt at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

I haven't been at a proper "rock" gig in absolutely years, and I was hugely looking forward to seeing the Legendary D live in concert at last, in person, and not on a TV screen.

The dudes started out as I've seen them before, on the aforementioned TV, by themselves, with their acoustic guitars, playing their "old" stuff off the first album, like FHG, Karate and the like. So far, so familiar, so expected. Then, after an unfortunate electrocution by their good "friend" Lee, a projection screen appeared and we saw the dudes descending into hell, and meeting the Anti-Christ Jnr, Charlie Chaplin and Colonel Sanders, and forming the Greatest Band On Earth™.

Then came the big surprise. The lights come up on an incredible stage, with scenery depicting the fires of hell, with huge smoking volcanoes, mountains, and a dark orange sky, and the band launch into a full, electric version of the amazing Explosive, and the entire audience went completely insane. I was genuinely blown away at the brilliance of what followed, really awesomely good live rock, the rhythm section of Chaplin and Sanders (in reality Brooks Wackerman from Suicidal Tendencies and John Spiker, who has played bass with Beck, amongst others) were just awesomely tight, and the Anti-Christ Jnr (John Konesky, who plays guitar on all the tracks on the "Pick Of Destiny" album and movie) was amazing, proper dirty gritty lead guitar, the kind I last heard at a Gunz N' Roses gig about fifteen years ago.

They played almost every track from both albums, which was pretty amazing seeing as there were so many comedy interludes between songs. Standout numbers were Master Exploder, The Metal, Beelzeboss (the Final Showdown), Double Team and Tribute, but there were many more that were great too. They also played their version of Queen's "Flash!" (from the Flash Gordon soundtrack, obviously), which segued into Wonderboy and finished the night with The Who's medley from the movie "Tommy" ("that deaf dumb and blind kid, sure plays mean-muthe'fuckin' pinbaaaall", brilliant).

All in all, totally mutherfuckin' awesome. 9.9/10 (1/10 of a point deducted as we were down the back and missed some of the good bits as a result!)

Posted by Matt at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Myself, Nikki, my cousin Juno and her fella Eoghan all went to see Druid Theatre Company's production of John B Keane's "The Year Of The Hiker" last night. Despite working in a theatre every day (and sometimes every day), I hardly ever really properly "go" to the theatre, except when I feel I really shouldn't miss a particulat show. I sit in some nights on the show that's on where I work, but that's not really the same as really properly going to see a show. The last time I went to a show was "Stones In His Pockets" by Marie Jones over a year ago, and the time before that was "The Lieutenant Of Inishmore" by Martin McDonagh, nearly three years ago!

Anyway. Druid's production of "Hiker" was absolutely immaculate. Having worked on getting the show in I may have garnered more of an appreciation for what went into the production, from the enormous set to the multi-projector set-up for the backgrounds, to the lighting, sound, wardrobe and scene-changes, but nothing prepared me for the acting. Mick Lally, Nick Lee, Garrett Lombard, Eleanor Methven, Aaron Monaghan, Sarah Greene and Catherine Walsh are all incredibly good actors in their own right, but under the direction of the legendary Garry Hynes their performances meld with a richness that draws you in and allows the story to wash over you in a way that is quite breathtaking. Several times during the show I myself found myself holding my breath in anticipation of what might come next, and could sense tremendous trepidation from other punters around me. It is rare that a piece of theatre can draw such a reaction from such a mixed audience of everyone from teenage girls to octogenarians.

The production is nearing the end of it's tour of Ireland, and if you can, go and see it, you will not be disappointed.

Posted by Matt at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"The greatest motion picture of all time"

Following on from my review of the soundtrack comes the (some might say inevitable) review of the actual movie itself.

Cast:

• Jack Black


• Kyle Gass


• Ronnie James Dio


• Meat Loaf


• Tim Robbins


• Ben Stiller

...And a few others. Pretty much everyone in the film who isn't Jables or Kage is a cameo. There are a LOT of cameos. They are all pretty much hilarious.

Posted by Matt at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Long Live The D?

I've been an enormous fan of The D For a number of years now, and have probably seen the entirety of their "Complete Masterworks" at least thirty or forty times, and I have no idea how many times I have listened to their first album, the eponymous "Tenacious D", but suffice it to say I know pretty much every lyric to every song on it, as evidenced by these two videos. You may think I'm sad, or a nerd, but I'm just a disciple to the Way Of The D.

Posted by Matt at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

On Monday evening I was on my way into college after work and I thought, ?hmm, I need coffee? so I was walking up Nassau street and I went to the Coffee and Food Company where I had never been before to get one, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, there was a middle aged man working there and I would say he possibly owned the place, he was just clearing up after a busy day and looked fairly stressed to the max, I was wrecked and not in the humour for anything never mind 3 hours of college, but this man totally made my evening, he was SO nice, all chats and watching him make the coffee put a smile on my face. I used to work in a coffee shop years ago when I was still in school, and I really put the effort in to make everyone nice coffee and its not often that you will get a good one to take away nowadays, he just looked like he loved doing it, he took his time and was obviously a total perfectionist, even though I was in a hurry I didn?t mind waiting the 5 minutes it took for my coffee, he had a special brush to make sure that there was no grains clogging up the machine, he wiped the steam pipe until it gleamed after he heated the milk (a thing I rarely see done regularly in coffee emporiums) the coffee looked delish and he was just SO nice he even put my one sugar in for me as I was laden down with bags and folders), so now I beg the question, why aren?t there more people like this in the city, why do people work with the public when they so obviously HATE people? It baffles me, it really does, no manners, no smile, no thank you, and I don?t mean in the false ?American ? Have a nice day? way I mean just genuine nice, I always had a smile for my customers, the ones that came in everyday for their coffee before work at 7am, the builders who came in for their full Irish at 9am, the office workers who came in at lunch, and even the people who would come in and annoy me for food or drinks just before closing, maybe I am just picky, but being nice doesn?t cost anything! Anyway, my coffee was lovely and lasted me a good hour before going too cold to drink it was massive and cost ?2 (I think) and I will be going there again this evening for the same thing for defo and so should everyone if they are in the vicinity!!

Posted by Babs at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Ok so I go to this site all the time and all the time I buy t-shirts, I have loads, like at least 20, I even bought one yesterday for my roomdawg's birthday, and then....I saw it, this disgrace of a t-shirt, now I am all for the old un P.C jokes and the taking the piss, but I actually was disgusted, and so were all of my team in work when I showed them, apart from one stupid person who didn't get it, and was like "what's the story with that?"
Anyway, I emailed threadless yesterday to give out shite basically, they still haven't gotten back to me, hmmmm!!

Posted by Babs at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (33) | TrackBacks (0)

Ah, Tad Williams, how I love thee (in a platonic way, of course). I was introduced to the works of Mr. Williams by a crazy sci-fi lovin' pathologist girl I used to knew (haven't seen or heard from her in about ten years, wonder what happened to her...), through his 'Otherland' saga, which I thought to be stupendously brilliant, and hold on an equal level to Lord Of The Rings in the 'books I love' list, in my brain. This is a slightly less weighty tome, but I thought it was an enjoyable romp, and a real page-turner (I finished it in 3 days, while on holiday, and it's over 700 pages. I'm a slow reader, Dan). Anyhoo...

Theo, yeah? Main character. Bit of a 'dude'. Smokes weed, plays guitar in a band, does a bit of songwriting. Doesn't give a crap about anything except his poor sick Ma. Finds (in a convoluted way) this old journal belonging to an uncle of his, which talks about another place, another world, the land of 'Faerie'. Thinks it's all a load of bollocks, but it like, sounds so real, n' shit. Then a big slimy monstry thing made out of bits of old winos and dead cats comes after him while he's chilling out in a cabin in the woods, and a little fairy called Applecore appears and opens a gateway and the two of them bugger of outta dodge and away from the monstery pile of wino-cat. Good start, eh? But it IS only the start.

Posted by Matt at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Words cannot express the level of admiration I have for the guys (and girls) working at Pixar, they've only gone and done it again. All the other studios must shit themselves every time a new Pixar movie comes out.

Anyhoo. It's brilliant. The animation is ASTOUNDING. I never thought I'd see automobiles brought to life on screen in such an expressive way. I mean, cars aren't meant to show emotion (or provoke emotion from you either, at least not that way), but these do, in a way I would not have thought possible. Every little detail is perfect, for the tires on Lightning McQueen (the 'star' voiced by Owen Wilson, in great form) that have 'Lightyear' on them, rather than 'Goodyear' (an Pixar in-joke that I missed until about halfway through the film), to the leaves on the trees, the chips in the tarmac, the rust on the older cars, it's so, like, unbelieveable, that it's almost real. The cast, from Wilson to Paul Newman as the Mayor of Radiator Springs, to the ubiquitous (in Pixar flicks) John Ratzenberger, Cheech Marin (yay!) and even Michael Keaton as one of Lightning McQueen's rivals, all excel and revel in their roles.

The story, well, have you seen 'Doc Hollywood'? It's the same, pretty much. Big city slicker has an accident on his way to his next big break, winds up in backwater nowhere town, can't leave, hates the place and everything and everyone in it, has to do work to make up for making a mess of things, 'finds himself', finds love, makes lots of friends, and decides to stay.

That's it in a nutshell, but there's so much more, I don't really want to give too much away, because you should really, really, REALLY go an see this film. Go now! Leave work, and go. Or if you can't do that, go tonight. Seriously. You'll have the best time you've ever had (since The Incredibles / Finding Nemo / Monsters Inc / Toy Story 2, need I go on?).

(oh, and the short film at the start, 'One Man Band', isn't very funny. It does make you laugh though. And although it's not very funny, it's brilliant.)

Posted by Matt at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

While reading Lifehacker yesterday, there was an announcement of the release of version 9 of the Opera browser. Whilst reading the comments on the post, some dude commented that Opera Mini for mobile was awesome, so I decided I'd give it a try and downloaded it. As it turns out, it's completely brilliant.

For a start, it's only a 96kb download, so that bit only took about five seconds. It's incredibly easy to set up, requiring you basically just to start the application and it takes care of the rest. It's Java-based, so it should work on any mobile device you can think of. The interface is very intuitive, looking for all intents and purposes like every web browser you've used on your PC, with an address bar at the top, a Google search bar below that, and it also has another search bar under that which can be used to search sites like Wikipedia (handy for those pub quiz nights!), Dictionary.com, Technorati and a few more.

What really impressed me was it's speed. Whatever the browser that was in my phone when I bought it (either a Sony or a Vodaphone one, either way it crap), it is slooooow. Opera is FAST. Seriously, it's like having broadband in your pocket. No, really! It can download this here blog in about 4 or 5 seconds. It also does really cool things like re-sizing all images on a page so they fit in your phone, and re-aligning text so it's readable within the constraints of your phone's screen. It's got a bookmarks folder too, and you can set it up so that individual bookmarks of your choosing are displayed on the 'homepage' (as in the screenshot on the right). It also stores your full history, a feature that is (shamefully) missing from most default mobile browsers.

So all in all, as a browser designed specfically for a mobile phone, I'd have to give Opera Mini a resounding 10 out of 10. It's lightweight, fast, and has no bad points at all that I've discovered. If you want to browse any website when you can't really whip out a laptop, or where there's no wireless internet, accept no substitutes.

_{incidentally, the Flickr mobile site is brilliant too!}

Posted by Matt at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, We're back (and browner than before).

• Hotel: Good. Really nice pools (2), spacious room with enormous bed, private access to beach, discount at nearby massage/'Thalassotherapy' emporium, and they had Erdinger in the bars. The only complaints (and they're two big ones) is that the food was really, really shit, and most of the staff had some sort of 'holier-than-thou' attitute where they wouldn't give you the time of day, let alone come over to take your order at the bar when you'd been frantically waving at them for about five minutes.
• Weather: Fab. Cloudy most mornings but that burned off by about 10 or 11am each day. 30 degrees or so every day, with a nice breeze preventing you from sweating like a knacker (actually, on one day it was less breezy and more windy, which started a bit of a twister going in the desert just outside Puerto de Rosario, which prompted Nikki to plead with me to go faster while we drove past it. It wasn't exactly big enough to do any damage, and I wanted to stop and take a photo or two, but she was having none of it.
• Food: Ok. Not brilliant, but ok. Being a vegetarian (but eating fish), and being on an island which is part of Spain, a country full of rampant carnivores, there wasn't a huge choice (ie fish, or 'vegetables'). We had a good indian on one day though. And there was an Italian gelateria across the road from the hotel that did some ridiculously tasty desserts.
• The Island: Great. The scenery (volcanic in nature) was spectacular, deserty in parts, craggy and black in others, and so like the surface of Mars in places I'm surprised they haven't filmed some kind of Martian Exploration docu-drama there yet. The Northern port town of Corralejo was a bit tacky and divey, the southernmost town of Jandia was lovely and had an amazing beach. The villages in the middle of the montains were sleepy, and when we drove around in the afternoon during Siesta-time, it was like driving through ghost towns, and kinda eerie and weird as a result.
• Car Hire (and driving on the right/wrong side of the road): Cool. We got a brand new Seat Cordoba for two days for ?75, which was pretty good I think. Drivig on that 'other side' was really easy, to my surprise, but that may have had a lot to do with the profound lack of cars, traffic and people on the island. Seriously, in parts we drove for miles without meeting another car at all, which was a blessing when you're driving on a mountain road with a cliff on one side and not exactly enough room for two cars to pass each other.

A great little break in the sun all in all, I would recommend Fuerteventura to anyone looking for a quiet sun holiday, but there really isn't enough on the island to keep you occupied for more than a week or so, unless you're a devoted sun-worshipper who doesn't care about anything but the amount of hours of sunshine per day. Didn't take a lot of pics, a few panoramas that will appear on Flickr as soon as I get round to it, but not much else, as I'm not reallt into the whole "and here's another pic of me beside the pool, sunbathing"-thing. Or pics of women with fake boobs, sunbathing topless.

Posted by Matt at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

Ages ago, while watching something on Rocketboom or reading something on BoingBoing (or somewhere else, I can't remember), I ended up on the Boxxet (box-set) site, and signed up for an invitation. Then the other day, I got a mail from You Mon Tsang (founder of Boxxet) saying my account had been activated, etc, so I went along and had a wee look.

Boxxet appears to be a fancy-schmancy aggeregator of sorts, but then there's a little bit more. As it's in beta, there isn't a lot of content, but it seems you can create a boxxet with just about any content you desire, and the aggregator will fill it up with news stories, blog posts, pictures and other related content. The aggregator seems to be kind-of 'clever' and in my first boxxet there was a link to Google's very first search page, which I had never seen before, and some other stuff including a 'Chuck Norris Facts'-style blog post, but about Jack Bauer, which I found hilarious ("When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer fucking hates lemonade"), if slightly derivative.

Posted by Matt at 8:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

As you can guess from the title, I've decided to keep with this thing I've been doing with the opening spam mails and all that. I use Gmail as my primary (non-work) mail address, so any mails that make it even so far as my spam box have been thoroughly sniffed at by Google's rabid spam-hounds, so I think I'm pretty safe in opening them, much as Seamus might fear the consequences.

This week's award goes to "Demetrius Burgess" who tried to sell me a fake Rolex but left this beautiful passage (almost invisible, in white text) at the bottom of the mail:

"The eyes were wide-awake, everywhere at once. byzantium successor terrier bullet nose collegial roundhead constellate cornelia hickman bury marina mercilessly excavate radar hack virulent berth kudo ravenous aptitude varitype olga dionysus luge webster aid clothe imposture bivariate tutorial doleful slew boat wigging arroyo avarice cease dialysis courteous interruptible bed gallop sled redshank expend il student knurl carcinogenic cloddish befogging forsook operant abel d's piddle pub prurient gland alumna bergman capacity credo typhus norton connecticut The pain!

I held it all the time you were gone, Annie, but I can't hold it much longer, and I don't want to wet myself again. Annie's boot-heels rattled staccato down the hallwav. Only a little. At the same time another voice was screaming: I'll be good, Annie! And the only emotion this thought engendered was tired relief. Half the story existed, full-blown, in his mind, and the rest was rapidly falling into place. "Now Paul went on: "I guess he told me to keep my eye on my wallet so many times that it's stuck inside for good. flight pseudo lorelei teeth howe coarsen scandal wormy herbert nascent triable egocentric belvedere buck spoonful commendatory ding quadrant electroencephalography victual evil opus..."

Ok, so it doesn't make any sense, but it's still pretty poetic, in a not-quite-poetry kinda way.

The pain!

Posted by Matt at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I borrowed this book from Andy one night when I couldn't find anything to read I hadn't already read. I didn't have high expectations, having not heard of the author or the book itself before. I was pleasantly surprised. Anthony Bourdain, as an 11-year old child on holiday in France, discovered that food could 'be important. It could be an event. It had secrets'. He and his older brother were left in the car one day while his parents went to dinner, and this sparked a desire to eat food meant 'only for grown-ups'. He started eating brains, cheeses that smell like old boots, and towards the end of that summer, tried his first raw oyster, and experience he remembers better than 'losing my virginity or smoking my first joint', it was his defining moment, when he stopped being a boy.

Following his schooldays, and a period living in New England where he cut his teeth as a dishwasher in a seafood restaurant in Provincetown, Cape Cod, he commenced his education with the CIA (The Culinary Institute of America, the other CIA), where he learned what it really meant to be a chef.

The author has an almost dangerous passion for food. He is known for eating anything which is edible, from lambs testicles to whole snakes, bile, guts and all. But it's the way he describes the food he eats and prepares that makes this book special. The smells, tastes and sensations encountered when consuming food of the highest order are almost like a drug, something truly mind-altering. I am a vegetarian, but when he describes rare steaks, lambs liver, sweet breads and other 'pieces of dead animal' in such a romantic, seductive way, my mouth starts watering for bloody, stinking food that can blow my head off with a single bite. Basically, you should really have a good meal before you read the book, otherwise your mouth will be watering most of the way through it.

Posted by Matt at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

So once again we're starting another loooong day in the life of Jack and the gang. I'm not going to review much of what happened in the first couple of hours, except to say that yes, it was good (two major recurring characters killed in first ten minutes?!). Can't wait to see what happens next.

Did anyone else watch it? HELLO? I think they must've been paying attention to the comments on Dan's post about how unrealistic the computer systems in 24 are. In day 5 episode 2, Jack actually tells Chloe the IP address of the computer he's at (and it's an actual proper IP address) so she can sent a decription program to it. Which is slightly more realistic than the much-criticised 'send that to my screen' malarkey (although I did hear the 'send it to my screen' line at least twice in the episode).

Anyway, I'll definitely be incommunicado from 9pm-11pm next Sunday, coz it'll be 9am in 24 land, and Jack's in trouble... :-)

Posted by Matt at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I'll start by confessing I haven't actually read this book so much as placed it on my coffee table and leafed through it as much as I could. It's a weighty tome to say the very least, but saying I haven't read it doesn't mean I haven't experienced it, as that is as much as you can do with a book of it's type. It's a 'coffee table book' in the very best meaning of that cliché. Weighing in at about 350 pages and absolutely crammed full of anecdotes, photos, posters, hundreds of Terry Gilliams fantastic surreal illustrations and also cramming in a pretty much full autobiography of every single Python, it really something to be browsed through occasionally, something that washes over you as you read it, beginning with a short 'how I met him' from each Python, about each Python.

Moving on from there, the book brings you through the early careers of the writers, from their early days working the cabarét circuit, through their early collabarations, and on to them banding together as comedic talents with a similar love of the absurd, finally forming the preeminent 'Flying Circus' with which each of them would become synonymous. The origins and absurd reasoning behind a huge pile of the Python sketches, from the Parrot sketch to the Lumberjack song and on through the Ministry of Funny Walks (not to mention the Spanish Inquisition) are all fleshed out and explained in fond rememberance and backed up with a wealth of photos and reproductions of notes.

"And then Eric came up with 'Always Look on the Bright Side' and we cracked the end of the film"

Moving on to the films, from 'The Holy Grail' through 'Life of Brian and finally 'The Meaning of Life, all are given the full treatment, with production notes, reports and facts, to anecdotes such as the one above, and many in-jokes you may or may not have been unaware of, as well as scenes that didn't make it to the films.

The book is rounded out the spectre of Death, and particularily that of Graham Chapman, who is fondly and not-so-fondly remembered by all.

All in all, an unbelievably superb and valuable source for anyone who finds Monthy Python funny, and a fantastic addition to anyones coffee-table book collection, more of a conversation piece and something to get lost in than just 'something to read'. And I got it for nine euros in the Easons sale (rrp about ?60)!

Posted by Matt at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)