Last.fm [Takes a moment to populate]
Donate! If you enjoy the site or find any of the information useful, a small donation would be hugely appreciated.
£12.50 or US$30 upwards will get you a postcard from wherever I am as a thank you!
Wishlists Feeling generous and don't want to give me cash? Then buy me some shit!
- T-shirt Hell - NOTE Please check current import duty restrictions for sending stuff to the UK. Order too many and the bastards will charge me!
- Amazon UK - mainly books, but some other stuff, too.
- ThinkGeek - got to love weird geeky stuff. Again, please note import restrictions - and the postage from here is ridiculous.
|
May 15, 2012, 10:46 pm  Avenue Q program- Front (Photo credit: yumiang) Just for something a little different, we decided on a trip to see the highly-recommended Avenue Q show at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow. I’d originally seen posters up for it in London some years ago and happened to catch an advert recently detailing the performances up here.
For those who’s not heard of it, Avenue Q is an adult version of Sesame Street. It comes complete with fuzzy characters, monsters and songs. Thing is, Sesame Street didn’t have songs about homosexuality, porn and one night stands. Or if it did, I missed them.
Subject matter aside, this is a great production. The cast are, simply, fantastic. Not a missed line of dialogue or bum note the entire performance, and all this while operating the puppets.
It is an unusual sight to see the puppeteers on-stage alongside their furry acting pals. Rather than hiding behind walls, the cast run around in dark grey jeans and shirts moving and voicing the puppets. Clever positioning often allows one cast member to play two on-stage characters at once – one they’re controlling and one that another cast member is manipulating.
I did notice that the puppeteers also acted out their puppets’ parts – that is, as well as the voices they made facial expressions and so forth that matched the character’s mood. I don’t know if this is something they’re “supposed” to do, or if it just makes it easier to control the puppet realistically but it’s something to watch!
There are some very humorous moments, and the sound in the King’s was spot on. Often at theatres the sound just doesn’t work for less traditional musicals and the words in songs can be lost. Not so here, which is ideal as I’d say 75%+ of the story and jokes are in the songs.
I’ll be honest – I didn’t think it was as good as I’d been led to believe. The humour certainly kept me amused for the 2 1/4-ish hours running time, but I’d not say my ribs were aching by the time I left. Maybe on another night. On the other hand, I certainly wasn’t disappointed and time didn’t drag.
I reckon there will still be a few tickets left for this week’s performances in Glasgow and if you have the time and cash (and a gutter-level sense of humour) then there are worse ways to spend an evening!
- Welcome to Avenue Q (onwardmanchester.com)
May 9, 2012, 12:14 am ![By إبن البيطار (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://www.moshblog.me.uk/wordpress/uploaded_images/2012/05/120px-Film-strip.png "Movie Review") After a day recovering from the Ben Nevis hike and ripping the spare bathroom apart, we decided to head to the cinema for a bit of mental relaxation. Cue some silly fighty action:
Safe
“What did you do, kid?”
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Seen Mercury Rising? It’s that with more violence
See it if you like: Statham fodder
The trailers for this looked OK, although it was immediately apparent it wasn’t an original plot. Mei (Catherine Chan) is a gifted child growing up in China. Her ability to memorise numbers is discovered by the Triad (I’m guessing – they’re never named as such) who decide that she’d be better suited in their working environment. So they kidnap her.
Jump to the US and we are introduced to the Russian Mafia, a host of corrupt cops, more nasty Chinese and our hero Luke Wright (Jason Statham). Statham pisses off the Russians so they make his life rather difficult, he’s been ostracised by the cops and he’s living on the streets. As luck would have it, though, he lands in a plum position at just the right time to get them both back. And the Chinese while he’s at it.
Acting as guardian to a runaway Mei, he kicks ass, shoots people, knifes a few, breaks some arms, jumps out of windows, drives insanely… hell, you know how action films go.
The thing is, this one has a plot. OK, it may be one stolen from an old Bruce Willis film but they’ve dusted it off well. After a brief flash of violence at the start, the film actually takes a while to get going as it works on the story. Once it kicks in, though, it kicks in hard.
The fight scenes are typically brutal, and Statham seems to be working more and more random objects into these sequences. It’s hard not to get the feeling that he’s trying to be a be-stubbled Jackie Chan at times.
Despite the short breaks for breath-catching, it flies along though never reaching the breakneck pace of the utterly mental Shoot ‘Em Up. It’s not a short movie, but it never seems to drag.
If you don’t mind your action films failing to keep count of the number bullets in the clip, this is one to catch.
May 6, 2012, 10:19 pm [Full set of images available on Flickr]
Well, that’s another one of those nice things ticked off a list. I’ve been to the northernmost point of mainland Britain, the eastern-most & southernmost parts of Australia, the southernmost part of continental Asia, the highest point in IndoChina (although I believe that claim’s disputed)… and now I’ve been to the highest point in Britain as well.
Thank you to all those who sponsored me and helped raise money for the St Andrew’s Hospice – a genuinely good cause, with lovely staff who did a great job in organising today’s fundraiser. With 200+ schoolchildren and staff scrambling up the mountain they made sure everyone was accounted for, shepherded and got home safe. Obviously, the Ben Nevis mountain staff also deserve thanks, as do the St John’s Ambulance staff and everyone at the Ben Nevis Hotel
 Top of Ben nevis who fed and accommodated us at the end of it all. And even let the staff have a free shower!
To paraphrase the great Douglas Adams – the first 1000 feet were the worst. And the second 1000 feet. They were the worst too. The next 1000 were no fun at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.
Then it started to snow.
Only a slight dusting, but enough to make the stuff which had already been lying somewhat more slippery and the last couple of hundred feet more of a challenge. Up until then, I’d be taking a layer of clothing off every half hour. The sun was out, my balding pate was getting redder and sweat was running down my face.
That last little hike was probably the hardest purely as I had to spend as much time looking for footprints to stand in as I did making sure I didn’t slip backwards more than I walked forwards.
There isn’t a whole lot at the top other than a pair of stone… somethings and a tiny shack. And a great sense of achievement. Oh, and a corking view.
I made it up early enough that the clouds were only just coming in, so managed to see in all directions. The snaps (link at the top) should give you an idea of the incredible scenery on the way up and from the peak.
The journey down was no cakewalk either. As well as the skiddy snow, my legs were somewhat achey. The muscles I used on the way up were very different from the ones I needed on the way down! This was partly a good thing as I had developed a hell of a pain at the top of my left leg – something I’d not had for many years, but that’s because I don’t exercise enough. Going downhill stopped this particular pain, but allowed many others the chance to surface. Joy.
Still, I made it up and back again in a little under 5 1/2 hours, which I’m quite pleased with. The nice staff at the bottom gave me a little medal and – more importantly at that point in time – juice, energy bars and a banana.
A shuttle was taking people back to the hotel where we got to freshen up and fill up on “proper” food before the journey home.
A very hard slog, but all the best things are worth the effort.
If you feel the need to donate to the charity, by all means drop me a quick email or contact them directly via the web link above. I’m sure they’ll be happy to take your money!
May 4, 2012, 7:51 pm  ACTION - Pulse Pounding Tales Volume 1 Published today is Action: Pulse Pounding Tales Volume 1. Why do I mention this? Because I have a story in it!
It’s an anthology of stories based on action heroes. Harking back to the characters and tales of the 1970′s when political correctness was second in line to plot, explosions were bigger, bullets only caused flesh wounds in the good guys and everything screamed along like the finalé to a Hollywood summer blockbuster.
Authors include Matt Hilton and Stephen Leather, plus a smorgasbord of other established talent and a bunch of newbies like me.
It’s a bargain at £2.56 (Kindle only, I’m afraid), and for the first month of release Matt is donating 50p per copy sold to the rather worthwhile Help For Heroes charity.
Clicky links for purchase are as follows:
Amazon UK and Amazon US
Spread the word!
May 3, 2012, 10:54 pm  All good things must come to an end, and the American Pie series has been good. OK, except for maybe The Naked Mile. And Book of Love. And Beta House. Hmm.
American Reunion
“The name’s Noah, motherfucker!”
Plot-in-a-nutshell: The class of ’99 have a 13 year reunion, featuring a return to the days of debauchery
See it if you like: the original films… but you’ve grown up a bit
I’d heard very positive things about this film from the handful of people I know who caught it on the opening night (or even earlier, at the world premier in Australia). As mentioned above, the three theatrical films in the series to date have been pretty good managing to maintain a good level of humour without digging the same hole over and over.
I’m glad to say that American Reunion manages to maintain this drive, and doesn’t fall into the trap of rehashing old joked the way the straight-to-DVD episodes did. What makes the difference above all else? The cast and original characters.
Our story begins 13 years after the original, which did indeed come out in 1999. There are plenty of references back to it, but our characters have moved on a lot. Some are married, some are successful, Jim and Michelle have a baby boy, Jim’s dad is a widower… quite a few changes.
Oh, except Stifler. He’s still acting like he’s 14.
As the film goes on, more and more of the original cast make appearances. It really is like being reintroduced to old friends yourself as the characters meet up and exchange memories.
The plot is superb. There’s no shortage of gross-out humour and the opening 2-3 minutes is as full of giggles as the original. Somehow writer Jon Hurwitz has managed to find a thread of originality and uses it to string a handful of shit-smeared, boobs-out, bondage-gear-wearing sequences into a story that ultimately has a real feelgood ending.
It’s always tempting to say that Eugene Levy is the star of the moment – his character is wonderful and the show of weakness that comes in as we discover he’s lost his wife really adds a new dimension. However, though he’s not upstaged by anyone else, the improvement in storyline and depth added to the other characters stops the film being just about him. He does, however, get the best line in the film – hence why I’ve used it above!
I don’t think fans of the originals will be disappointed. People’s senses of humour change as they age, and this fourth (and final?) film has taken this into account. All for the better.
While not being as rib-achingly hilarious as the first film was, it’s probably actually a better film overall as a result. Definitely worth seeing.
|
Where Am I? If I'm in the UK, then this will be updated very regularly.
If I'm elsewhere in the world, this is more likely to be correct.
|
RSS Feed
Feedback Form
My MSN ID is my email address, so 
Recent Comments