#258; It’s a Kindle Magic

  By Lukeh | May 18, 2012 - 6:30 pm | 2012, want
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Amazingly, I have never used a Kindle. After all this time it’s something I’ve never actually got a chance to play with and see what it’s like. I’ve seen them of course – it would be impossible to have ignored my friend Amy’s Kindle as it held her hand in hand together in the forests of the Belgium in 2010 – but actually getting a chance to play with one has not been a privilege I’ve had yet.

That is, until today. Today I finally got round to actually using a Kindle for a while. And it was bloody brilliant.

I don't think this person knows how to use the Kindle

As someone who absolutely adores the world of gadgets and always likes playing about with new things, it’s a bit shameful to have not had a go with it yet. The Kindle in question was the keypad-y one you see to the left, with just Wifi. Not that it matters really, I’ve just always wanted to see what it would be like to actually use one and see how books actually work on there. I’ve gone into detail about my worries about this before on here, and it’s still something I ponder when it comes to your own digital library against the sensation of page turning. The little bit of hesitation has always been there. I think after actually giving a Kindle a go though, I may be a little bit in love with it.

First of all, the screen kind of blows my mind in a whole manner of ways. Even when I saw Amy’s a few years back as I mentioned above, the screen confused and amazed me then. In a world where everything is shiny and graphic-y and just a pristine presentation, it was kind of nice using something that was basic and simple but had an incredible effect. Turning from page to page initially freaked me out as the screen flashes with a sea of black pixels, but after overcoming my naivety towards this effect I really fell for how nice it was to read a chapter of a book on there. I say only a chapter as I had this chance during work today where I noticed a colleague’s Kindle and stole it misplaced it into my hands. I did give it back, I promise.

This leads me into my next point too – the whole deal of page turning and that sensation. You’ve got to love that feeling of turning a page, licking the finger and even the sound too where the page turns. It’s just the little things that make it a bit strange when you’re reading a book digitally. Admittedly, it didn’t seem to make a difference to how much I enjoyed using this Kindle for a brief amount of time today as the buttons did the job perfectly, and with the screen looking sexy as it does, it made for an impression combination. Colour me impressed, then. Despite the irony of it having no colour on the screen.

Basically, it was all really lovely and much better than I was expecting. Now I understand why people are so impressed by them. Plus it let me use a really terrible Queen pun for the  blog title too.

For a first time use though, I fell for it quite quickly. Kindle’s do seem really quite lovely and the thought of having hundreds of books in my bag just appeals to me so much. Over the past year I’ve been going through the Harry Potter books and as you get further in they do tend to turn into paper bricks. The idea of just always having them there to access is incredibly appealing, and the hardware itself just made me love the Kindle already after one go. Books are still books though, and I’m not sure I’m still ready to make the jump. I do love reading a book in my hand and just delving into that visual world you create in your head.

Plus I still need to buy a car. They’re a bit more expensive than the Kindle it turns out.

One day…

Spanish Grand Prix 2012 – Race Review

  By Lukeh | May 15, 2012 - 9:38 pm | 2012, formula 1, GRIDWALK TALK
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Pastor Maldonado is a F1 race winner.

I never thought I would start a race review with that sentence, but here we are. The amazing thing is, he’s a race winner from a race that he absolutely deserved to win, and you’re talking to a blogger who has never been a big fan of the Maldonado money train. Alas, I’ll throw out the negatives as quite frankly there’s nothing to be negative about for this sublime drive from the Venezuelan. Hell, I never even expected to use the graphic I made for him above this season but what a performance, and what a weekend for Williams! It does fill be with great pride to see them back on top and on such a deserved drive as well. Who knows where the British outfit can go from here with such a turn around of fortune so far in 2012?

Of course, Maldonado’s first victory in the sport is the big talking point about the race but Catalunya was kind enough to provide us with an unusually eventful and entertaining race for the Spanish capital, which often decides to proclaim itself as procession central alongside it’s Valencian counterpart. No, yesterday’s Grand Prix was exciting, eventful, fun to watch and full of drama as battles took place throughout the grid. At the front, Fernando Alonso’s storming start got him into the lead early on but it wasn’t simply a run away victory as he may have hoped. Williams’ managed to get their strategy spot on to undercut Alonso and comfortably have his lead towards the end of the race. The fact Alonso is still getting that level of performance out of a car so easily written off, especially when you look at the anonymous and under-performing Massa in the same car, is a formidable feat right now.

Whilst on the topic of impressive drives, Kimi Raikonnen once again proved why he hasn’t lost any of his speed during his time away in rallying. I’ve said a few times this season how I’ve never been much of a Kimi fan but another podium in Spain this weekend further cements how good of a season he’s having. With 5 different winners in 5 different races, I wouldn’t put it against the flying Finn to come out and win in the streets of Monte Carlo. Furthermore, Grosjean’s second chance in the sport is proving fruitful too as another strong performance for the Frenchman justifies his replacement of Petrov in Lotus’ second seat. Exciting times for the team based in Enstone as they look towards grabbing a race win this season.

I think what I enjoyed most about the race was the fact that it didn’t really feel that forced or ‘fake’ as some people like to put it when it comes to DRS and KERS. This season so far has been ridiculous and phenomenal – it’s been pheniculous. Every race has thrown up surprises and, in a race where many predicted we would truly see the pace of the teams, we were led to even more confusion as to who is the stand out team in 2012. There truly is no one head and shoulders above the rest in the same way Red Bull have been previous and that just makes it oh so much more entertaining to watch personally. This weekend, the likes of Williams and Sauber seemed to have bags of pace and as I’ve already mentioned, ruling out Lotus would be a stupid move with the consistency in that car. Whereas Red Bull still don’t seem to have that level of comfort they crave and McLaren just seem to be on a rollercoaster of performance at the moment. Button’s weekend was really quite disappointing and Hamilton did his best to get a result from last position which he ultimately did in all fairness to him, but that McLaren isn’t the formidable McLaren we’re all so used to over the years.

There’s been a lot of talk about the tyres recently too, especially after Schumacher’s dismissal of Pirelli’s standard following Bahrain and I see no reason to complain. Schumacher’s frustration ultimately boils down to a lack of results coming out of a car that’s won a race and has potential, whereas he is too busy losing his front wing and blaming others for his incompetence. His crash with Senna this weekend was lazy and incredibly poor for a driver of his standard, even more so when he was so happy to throw out the blame game. If you’re going to make a move Michael, make your mind up before the braking zone.

It’s a real shame this excellent weekend of Formula 1 had to end on such a sad note with the fire in the Williams garage following their first win in 8 years. Watching it live on TV was quite scary so I really do feel for anyone caught up in the chaos in the garage. Injuries sadly did come of this fire but luckily no one was seriously hurt, and the remarkable assistance from all the teams immediately rushing in with extinguishers was brave and honourable. Formula 1 may be an ultra competitive sport but at it’s heart it’s still a giant family of mechanics, engineers, drivers, team personnel and much much more travelling around the world together. At times like that you count on unity to be the forefront of making sure everyone is OK. It gutted the garage based on the reports and photos but it certainly won’t have gut any of the sensation the Williams team will have felt for this wonderful victory in Catalunya. I’d be truly surprised if there is an F1 fan out there that didn’t feel at least a tinge of emotion and delight to have Williams back at the top of the podium. Welcome back, Williams.

And we end with this final thought – is Pastor Maldonado just a pay driver anymore? Has he finally displayed his true colours that led to his GP2 championship victory? I’ll be first in the queue to admitting how little faith I have had in his time in F1 but this weekend he was mature, he was calm, and he was complete spot on in what he needed to do to get that illusive win. Another race and another victor in this year’s championship – how brilliant is this to watch? We head to the brilliance that is Monaco, a place that often doesn’t blow people away with it’s race quality but it’s Monaco, baby! Yeah! It’s allowed to be boring when it holds such high prestige in F1. Let’s hope we make it 6 winners out of 6 races and we once again get treated to a remarkably fun race to watch.

#257; Something Old, Something New

  By Lukeh | May 7, 2012 - 12:14 pm | 2012, general, memories
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Memories are everything. I’m an incredibly sentimental person and the stuff I remember often means a lot to me. Sometimes it can be quite random and uneventful but I’m sure there’s a reason for remembering stuff if it’s still in my head. More than often though as with 99% of people on this planet, it’s the power of old photographs that allow for these memories to come rushing back in a flood of emotion. Sometimes these memories can be a good thing, a wonderful thing, something that really stands out in your life – but this equally works on the level of being a memory that caused devastation or upset. That’s the double-edged nature of memories.

Last night I spent a few hours looking through a big box of photographs and memories that were hidden away. Within moments I found myself looking through them with all kinds of reactions – amazement, disbelief, heartwarming smiles, and sadness for people like my nan who have sadly passed on. But I go back to my sentiment that it’s these memories that make these photographs so very special. Even in times where I wasn’t alive, it’s these photographs that allow a glimpse into a world I never existed in. The main example I have for you is the amount of photos I found about my grandad and my nan from way before I was born. Now I’ve never met my grandad; before my nan’s death several years ago I had only heard brief stories but by the time I was old enough and mature enough to actually take these stories in my nan was too frail to tell me those stories any more. Before her death she suffered from mild dementia and it was hard enough getting her to recognise who I was, so to try to challenge her to tell me everything about my Grandad would’ve only cause great confusion. So these photos I’d never seen before were mindblowing. My own nan, young, happy, free and rejoiceful in the splendor of 1940′s Britain, with her soldier husband. It was a lot to take in, but it made me so proud to see her happy. She went on to live to a wonderful 86 years old and this small collection of memories only gave a taste of everything she would’ve gone through in life. Seeing her smile again was also quite emotional too.

Something old...

...something new

As I’m home alone this weekend I have no way of pursuing questions about my nan and my grandad until my parents get back but I’d love to know more about their, and in particular his, lives. These memories didn’t only just give a glimpse into their world but also my own growing up. As I hinted towards back at the start of this post, photographs from life give a great indication into the times you’ve had. I believe this to be a luxury that’s been saturated and lost the point of with the likes of social networking – some may thing it’s a great advantage to have such networks to highlight changes in life, but there’s something truly remarkable about looking at a photo, 20 years old, and to sit there in utter fascination at it. These days it’s easy to rock out a mobile phone, take photos, and for it to be shared with the world within a minute on Facebook and it makes me a little sad that when I’m an old man it’s unlikely I’ll have the same fashion of memory sharing with the kids and grandkids I may have one day. It’s a sign of the times I suppose.

It was a fun, if not slightly emotionally strange, evening and me being the nosey thing that I can be found it fascinating. It got my mind off my cold which doesn’t seem to be shifting quickly at least. But my point about the ease of sharing photos and not having that repository of old school polaroids does make me wonder what life will be like in the future with such memories. I’m not someone who puts myself into many photographs – if looking at these photos are anything, I got a lot more shy at being in a photograph as I got older! I hope cameras don’t go out of fashion and we go entirely digital. I’m certainly not the person to answer this as I know nothing but it would just be a shame in 50 years time if everything we have to show for is on a computer or a device.

It’s also provided a huge amount of perspective for me. I see photos of my mum and dad, smiling and happy in different times, different countries, different looks. Photos of my brothers and I on Christmas mornings, of my nephews looking stupidly young, of my family and friends in a whole range of varieties and it makes me think of all these different lives conversing and crossing in so many different ways over years and years and these brief snapshots showing this. Forever that one single moment in time, whatever it may be, can be highlighted and shown to generations of people. It’s a mind-blowing thought and yet it’s most certainly the case when I look at these photos of my nan 70 years after their inception. It’s a worthwhile trip into memory lane.

#256; 5 Albums to Look Forward to in 2012

  By Lukeh | May 4, 2012 - 9:23 pm | 2012, muse, music
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We may now be 5 months into 2012 (how did that happen?) but for me there’s still plenty of good music to come before the end of the year is out. There’s been a few little treats here and there this year so far but the one album that still absolutely stands out in my collection for 2012 has to be Given to the Wild by the Maccabees to which I’m still completely obsessed with. It brought a more confident and polished sound to the young indie band but absolutely blew my pre-conceptions away of an album I was already quite interested in upon hearing opening single Pelican. It may actually take quite the effort to upstage it for me! Nevertheless, here are five other albums I’m very much looking forward to this year:

Valtari by Sigur Ros

It would take a disaster of epic proportions for Sigur Ros to do something wrong and I can’t see that happening with Valtari. It’s the band’s sixth studio album and even better, it’s out at the end of this month which means the wait isn’t much longer! Hurrah!!! There’s been talk about the album having a bit more of an electronic background to it than previous Sigur Ros albums which wouldn’t be a problem at all. I’ve only heard Ekki Mukk and it sounded absolutely beautiful, everything you would ever expect from the band and just adding to the excitement even further. If it’s anything like ( ) or Takk, it’ll be sensational listening and I really can’t wait for the end of May! It would also be rude not to mention Jonsi’s solo album thrusted its way into my favourite albums of all time alongside a few of the afore-mentioned Sigur Ros contenders. I must admit I’m a bit gutted I won’t get to see them live this year as I hoped but there’s always hope for 2013. It#s just a few weeks now until Valtari gets unleashed over here in the UK and as I say, if Ekki Mukk is anything to go by, it should be worth the wait.

UK Release Date: 28th May

Mumford & Sons’ 2nd album

Following the release of their first album I was quite late to the party in discovering Mumford & Sons but Sigh No More was one of them albums that sounded ever so fresh and yet at the same time oddly familiar too. It was unique, charming and wonderful stuff, and Mumford & Sons know how appealing their sound was in revealing the second album will be following a similar sound. I suppose you could argue they should be braver in trying something new but it’s only their second album, let’s see how they develop what they’ve begun. I have every bit of faith it’ll be a fantastic listen and the band will have that every bit of confidence in their music just like they had in Sigh No More. Now I just need to see them live at some point.

Expected Release Date: 2nd half of 2012

Franz Ferdinand’s 4th Album

Last year I rediscovered just how much I love Franz Ferdinand’s stuff. A lot of people enjoyed their first two albums, the original I felt really encouraged the modern indie scene to become so popular again, and whilst they are good albums it was their third album Tonight that I particularly enjoyed. It took their typical sound and pushed it into a whole new world of electronic sampling and  whole new dimensions of music for the short, snappy guitar moments they developed so well. I’m not sure if Tonight was quite as popular as the first two albums but it included so much that meant it deserved more – I mean, Lucid Dreams still sends shivers up the back of my spine. I’ve really missed seeing them about too and it’ll be nice to have the guys back on shows and performing too. They’ve been working on album 4 for a while now I believe and it’s been widely talked about that it’ll be out this year. The band have plenty of festival performances over the summer so let’s hope we see it sometime in the Autumn.

Expected release date: Autumn 2012

The Killers’ 4th Album

After their brief hiatus, The Killers are back in the studio. It’d be fair to say that, even though they’re one of my favourite bands, their last outing Day & Age wasn’t exactly an album I would describe as… memorable. I found the album to be a bit of a mess, a band straying away from what they do so well without any real direction and trying new things without any real conviction in the music they produced. The album just didn’t flow for me at all and after the  previously brilliant albums they had released it was a real disappointment. Alas, this is their chance to make up for it! Brandon Flowers has described it as a collection of stories told through real rock music and described it as a mix of everything they’ve ever done – seeing as the majority of what they have ever done has been fantastic, it gives me much confidence that it’ll be a cracking album.

Muse’s 6th Album

And then there was that band called Muse. Blimey, their 6th album already. As I’m sure you can imagine, this is the album of 2012 for me and the one I’m most excited for. I’ve no idea what to expect in all honesty – recent twitpic have suggested an orchestral touch with strings, trumpets and horns – and the band themselves have been hinting at times over the past year at a more electronic sound. The thing is with Muse is there never really seems to be much official hype, just rumours from fans who say they have spoken to Matt or Dom at a studio and said this and that, then suddenly it all goes crazy with hype right before the first single. It happened when Supermassive Black Hole got leaked before BH&R, and then the same after the band did a world treasure hunt for unlocking pieces of United States of Eurasia around the world before The Resistance so I don’t think we’ll hear much about what to expect just yet. I’m hoping it’ll be brilliant, even if I do fear for the reaction from the ever cynical fan-base. The Resistance always got an unecessarily harsh reaction from the ‘hardcore’ fans I felt but nevertheless, this is one album I certainly won’t be missing out on and I really hope you too check it out in the Autumn.

Expected release date: September/October 2012

So, those are my top five for the rest of the year. There are plenty more to look forward too of course – I’m still hoping Arcade Fire finish recording in the studio before the year is out, I’m expecting White Lies to have something new soon too, I’m tempted to give the new Metric album a go in the summer – but these are just a few brief mentions of many more. For now though, I’ll let the musicians do all the hard work and I’ll sit back until they produce something amazing for me, and you, to enjoy. Roll on the next few months of awesome music!

#255; Doodlers Anonymous

  By Lukeh | April 25, 2012 - 8:50 pm | 2012, doodling
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It’s dawned on me over the last two weeks or so just how much I doodle in work. I mean, for the most part working on an IT helpdesk contact centre, I spend a lot of time talking to random civil servant strangers helping them with IT issues off the top of my head, and it’s this time that occupies my doodle fantasies. It goes without saying how much I love drawing – being in that little world of simply focusing upon a pad, a pen or pencil and a visualisation puts me in a little bubble of happiness. I think it’s partially why I enjoy my job so much.

Good news, everyone! You're reading this in my voice!

So today I was sitting there, as you do, thinking to myself why there’s not a blog where people post their random work doodles. We all do it, don’t we? Even outside of work, we’re a society that doodles alongside an activity. The vast majority of my studies at university in lectures very much involved partial focus on a dull Powerpoint presentation mixed up with total concentration on drawing a Formula 1 car or drawing something random.

I’m pretty sure that’s what lectures are supposed to be like anyways.

Nevertheless, I ask you readers of the internet – when you find yourself doodling away unknowingly, what do you tend to plot out? As you can probably see above, last week I had a bit of a Futurama day during a quiet day at work. Productive day I’d say. Even today sitting at my desk I looked back down at my pad and realised Scott Pilgrim was looking up at me. Whenever Formula 1 is on there seems to be plenty of F1 cars populating my notepad, or for some reason random squiggles that end up becoming F1 tracks. No idea why, they just do. I’m not obsessed at all, I promise.

Everyone should let out their inner doodle. Whether you’re on a phone, sitting in a lecture, waiting for a train, or just bored at home, why not pick up a pen, paper and see where you go from there? For me, I find it incredibly therapeutic and peaceful just kind of gently scribbling away on a pad of paper but then again I do so anyways with the art that I do from time to time. It’s like an equivalent of a stress ball really and it kind of focuses you away from frustration and puts your mind at ease whilst you just gently doodle away. I could be talking total nonsense.

I just love to doodle, really.

#254; The Day Theme Hospital Entered the 21st Century

  By Lukeh | April 14, 2012 - 7:54 pm | 2012, theme hospital
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Something massive happened this week. Something life changing, something so gargantuan even the good Doctor himself couldn’t prevent it happening, in an ironic twist considering the context. Something so huge that it changed the face of playing one of the best games ever in new and exciting ways. Something awesome.

Theme Hospital finally became available to download for $5.99 on Gog.com.

Who needs graphics when you have this?

Let me explain why this is so massive. Over the years this game has been an absolute piece of ball breaking torture to get working. Even when attempting it through DOSBox on Vista or Windows 7, it just flashes scary colours, it crashes, it doesn’t load, it just generally wants to remain in the 90′s and on Windows 95. Basically, it’s always been an unmitigated disaster to get it working correctly. I think I just gave up in the end and accepted it’s all in the past. That is, until GOG (good old games) did this. The site has been around for plenty of time now and I’ve sung their praises many a time too. They are wonderful at bringing games not only into the ‘digital’ era and, obviously once purchased, allowing you to always have a copy of a game so easily accessible but also getting these old games that may have looked to DOS or whatever to work working on a modern OS with no issues. I’ve bought a few classics there and never had a problem once whereas, when attempting myself through various programs, no luck. Once again they’ve done the good deed with Theme Hospital and, after a few days playing it on my Windows 7 laptop, they’ve got it working wonderfully through DOSbox. Hurrah! It plays very well, just how you remember it, if my only complaint being that it doesn’t seem to have the MP3 songs that I believe the retail version had on the disk. They sound like MIDI files to me but they’re still the classic, annoyingly catchy tunes you remember.

If you’ve never played Theme Hospital you’ll never have a better chance with it being so easily available digitally. Classic memories of the receptionist informing the doctor to attend in psychiatry please, asking patients kindly not to die in the corridors, of the Bloaty Head syndrome patients running through General Diagnoses and you knowing exactly what the problem is, of childishly laughing at building the dressing screens in a position so they’re not actually hiding themselves away from the Doctor, of having a sea of benches and Kit Kat machines so no one goes mad over seating, of the earthquakes and emergencies causing absolute havoc, of shooting the rats that infest your hospital… the list could go on and on and on. You’ll never play anything quite like it and, alongside Rollercoaster Tycoon, it’s still easily my favourite PC game of all time. It’s an absolute testament to how good and playable Theme Hospital is in the fact that after 15 years it’s still brilliantly addictive and runs like an absolute gem through GOG.com’s installation and DOSbox emulation. If they start doing more Bullfrog games (I’m looking at you Theme Park and Populous: The Beginning) I may just fall over.

Now go and get running your hospital before illnesses start spreading and your doctors and nurses start threatening you with the sack!

#253; 5 things that need to be in the Olympics Opening Ceremony

  By Lukeh | April 11, 2012 - 7:47 pm | 2012, Olympics
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Who can forgot BoJo's great flag antics at Beijing?!

It’s just over 100 days now until the Olympics begins here in the UK, or in London depending on your stance, and I’m quite excited for it. I know a lot of people are a bit doom and gloom about it but we’re British, we do love a good moan after all. Nevertheless tonight I’ve been wondering to myself how much of a disaster sight the opening ceremony will be and what I would love to see in it. To me, it should be all about Britishness and everything that makes this country great, so here are my top 5 ideas for what I’d love to see in the Olympic opening ceremony:

  1. Giant Scalextric racing – Think about it; when growing up what family fun time seems to pop up at some point in all childhoods? It is of course Scalextric and it would be awesome to just have a giant representation of that at the Olympics! I suppose if you can’t have an F1 event it’s the next best thing, plus they can do it with the mini’s at Goodwood so why not the Olympics? Just get a few drivers in there as well, and it could be awesome. I could see it becoming the British GP in the long term, just don’t tell Bernie.
  2. A choir of people drinking tea, talking about the weather – This is all about what gives us our identity, and what country talks about the weather more than us? The first question you ask when someone goes on holiday is ‘what’s the weather like there?’ and even when I’m at work, when our computers are being a bit slow and there’s an awkward pause, the other side of the line 99% of the time asks ‘So how’s the weather your end?’. We’re all completely obsessed with the weather, and tea is marvellously British, and this would make for an awesome combination.
  3. Have some kind of queue-related dance incorporated around a petrol station – There is a flaw with this idea, I know. If there is a choreographed dance around a petrol saying with giant signs saying ‘Panic, panic, panic’ it could cause for the Olympic audience to get in their cars and panic buy petrol. Yes, it’s a risk I know but what this actually represents is the deep philosophical connection between the human spirit and that never ending desire to stand tall in a world of poverty, anguish, tragedy, and shout out our prid… oh who am I kidding, it’s just us showing how completely mental us Brits are when someone panics. And how good we are at queuing.
  4. Mr Bean doing every single event in one night – Do I really need to explain this one? It’s be better than the last few Olympic games combined. In one night. And it has Mr Bean for god sake.
  5. Re-enactment of the film Sunshine  - Now, if you’ve ever seen Sunshine I know what you’re thinking, what on earth does this have to do with the Olympics? Nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nadda. However! The opening ceremony is being directed by Danny Boyle, who directed this film and also one or two other fabulous films but we all know Sunshine is his best. So why not just re-enact that fabulous film in the middle of a big stadium? Getting the sun might be tough. And I’d rather that be re-enacted than a man sawing his arm off in all honesty you know.

So, those are my five ideas for what should be incorporated into the opening ceremony this summer. I’m a little bit offended that the LOCOG haven’t got in touch to help get these into shape but I suppose there’s always Brazil 2016, where I’m already planning the entire ceremony to be a Rubens parade. Might have to bring that 4 years forward…

That leaves me with one final question – what would you like to see in the opening ceremony?!

#252; Movie Reviews XI

  By Lukeh | April 10, 2012 - 7:13 pm | films, General, motorsport, reviews
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It’s been a long old time since I threw out a few reviews of movies I’ve recently given a viewing so better now than never to bring three more to you! This time out I’ve gone for the classic Carrey film that is The Truman Show, Isle of Man TT documentary TT3D: Closer to the Edge and last but not least silly British comedy Johnny English: Reborn. Three films that come from three quite different areas so as always I encourage you to comment below on if you agree, disagree or think I’m talking total silliness. Which I probably am, but that’s what makes the comments so great! To the reviews!

There’s not much I can really add about this classic film that hasn’t been said but I gave it watch earlier again in the week and after all these years it still continues to be a wonderful two hours of film to watch. Who knew Jim Carrey, who at the time was more relevant for stuff like Dumb and Dumber, could star in such a film like he does in the Truman Show? Of course he would eventually go onto star in the equally wonderful Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but there’s so many reasons why this film stands up after two decades or so. It doesn’t seem like it’s aged at all; it still feels completely modern and if anything feels more relevant into today’s Big Brother-influenced society. As a film though it’s just an absolute joy to watch and I can’t count on both hands how many times I’ve watched it. The main focus is of course Carrey’s character of Truman Burbank as he discovers his life is just a giant reality TV show that millions around the world are watching. His story of discover just totally drags you in and it’s a sign of how well produced and written the story is in how you genuinely feel for Truman’s world being torn apart.

I’ve already spoken about Carrey’s starring role in the film but it can’t be underestimated how good he is in the Truman Show. He is the man for being silly and goofy and funny but he absolutely blows these stereotypes of his usual role as Truman. The film also feels like the first time you play The Sims – it’s an ordinary life, an ordinary world, an ordinary set of circumstances and yet you cannot take your eyes away from it as the ordinary life unravels. The story of an over-watching power watching down, controlling your every move as a TV producer, with millions watching on wanting to see what you may do next, only needed waiting a few years for the Big Brother phenomenon to give an odd sense of reality to the film. Ideological comparisons aside, it’s the film as a whole that makes it so wonderful to watch and it’s one of those rare examples where everything seems to fit in the world of the Truman Show. The casting, the direction, the writing, the acting, it all comes together to make an essential watch that’s absolutely criminal if you’ve not watched it by now.

Summary: Whether it be Jim Carrey shining out amongst a goldmine of greatness or a film that seems to tick all the boxes where it should, the Truman Show needs to be one of them films on your must watch list. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s endearingly sweet and strangely relevant, and it’ll still amaze after many watches too.

Despite my love for motorsport and how much I adore my racing, motorbikes have never been something I’ve had a huge interest in. Don’t get me wrong, they tend to sound and look beautiful but as a motorsport it’s something I’ve never felt that attached to. This attachment to motorbike racing isn’t necessary to know about the historic Isle of Man TT, and it’s this that TT3D studies, celebrates and informs in many ways within this fascinating documentary. When TT3D was released it was somewhat overshadowed by the beautiful Senna but no matter how good of a film that may be motorsport fans would be insane to simply stay on the side of Senna and not dip their toes into TT3D too. The documentary follows TT rider Guy Martin in his preparations for the event and everything that envelops his world of bikes. Outspoken and determined, it’s easy to see the passion in Martin for what he does but despite his almost selfish behaviour at times he’s a strangely lovable character to follow. I think it’s his Northern-ness as he may just be the most Northern person I’ve ever watched. There’s some brilliant bits where he’s just muttering away and you just can’t hear a thing yet weirdly enough just from his body language and attitude you can completely understand what he’s pointing out. Little things like that make him a great watch and a perfect star for the film in terms of highlighting someone who wants to win their first TT victory.

If we were comparing it to fellow documentary Senna I don’t think it does its job as effectively as a documentary but as a stand out film on its own plinth it’s certain effective story telling. For me what really makes TT3D worth watching is some of the beautifully shot scenes of the bikes roaring around the Isle of Man’s thin, claustrophobic streets and the hillsides that surround the towns. There are several times where I’ve sat back watching the film in total awe at the cinematography in these shots and almost lost myself in what was actually happening with the voiceover or that part of the film because of how lovely it looks. It certainly doesn’t hold back with what it shows too. Expect to see devastating crashes that had hurt TT riders in many ways over the years, both from archive footage and from current footage in the TT event being studied for the film. Ultimately it’s the story of Guy Martin that takes the film by the saddle and drives it along but there’s plenty of asides to keep entertained and inform the more casual viewer to a bit of history, depth and insight into who makes up the grid for the Isle of Man TT and what it means to them too. For me it was learning about such an event that has that legacy and history to it and discovering just what makes the Isle of Man TT so special from both a spectator’s view and from the view of Guy Martin.

Summary – It may not have had the universal exposure of Senna but don’t let that put you off giving TT3D a watch if you love your motorsport. Thrilling, exciting and often fascinating, it doesn’t hold back from showing you the dangers of the event. Plus Guy Martin is brilliant fun to watch.

I’ll be honest – Johnny English: Reborn is a film I’ve held off from watching for a long, long time. Not because I don’t want to watch it, but because I enjoyed the original so much I feared it was one of them things that really didn’t need a sequel. It’s kind of like Portal – the original was so sweetly done, that Portal 2 brought a slight apprehensive attitude to it. Luckily, Portal 2 turned out to be almost perfect and even though JE: Reborn doesn’t hit the same highs, it’s still a cracking sequel and just one of them films you can sit back and relax to. It’s still silly and it’s still such a Rowan Atkinson romp but it’s also surprisingly deeper in the characters it offers and the humour it presents too. It’s more of a ‘film’ than the original ever felt – Johnny English was wonderfully silly but almost Carry On-esque in its nature where-as this sequel doesn’t feel anywhere near as cheap and I promise I mean that in a good way! Johnny has been brought back into action from the wilderness by MI-7 and it’s his job, and his only of course, to help avert the death of a Chinese premier up in the Swiss mountains. Where else, of course? It’s your normal spy action story with the obvious clichés but it doesn’t detract from the film and of course brings in its own special Johnny English touches.

As I mentioned what’s strikingly obvious by the film is how much more of a ‘film’ it feels. It#s strange to explain, but whilst it doesn’t delve into the realms of serious action flick, there’s some bits where quite frankly Johnny is a total badass even if he doesn’t realise it. The one that stands out is the rooftop chase in Hong Kong and Johnny just casually walks through the battle from set piece to set piece. It’s kind of ridiculous and at the same time charmingly good fun to watch. Rowan Atkinson doesn’t disappoint as always too which is always a good sign, but when does he? His often complete lack of self awareness just makes Johnny’s character a huge amount of fun to watch as he affects the world around him without even realising and it’s a huge credit to Atkinson that he manages to do so many scenes with a straight, mute face that I’m not sure many comic actors could achieve in the way that he does.

The only real massive disappointment about Johnny English: Reborn was the lack of Bough from the original film but I suppose he’s gone off to make dodgy sketch shows with that chap from Pointless. Nevertheless, it was a shame not to see him pop up at any point because Bough and English had such chemistry in the original, you don’t quite get the same feel from the young apprentice that joins Johnny in his travels. He’s not bad, it’s just he’s not Bough. And I can’t even remember his name. Ultimately though, if you’re expecting Johnny English: Reborn to be a cheap cash in of a hugely popular original film then prepare to be surprised as it’s definitely worth a watch. It develops on what made the original work and pushes it further whilst holding the humour, silliness and unique British-ness of the original that made it ever so charming. And no, no bad French accents from John Malkovich this time. That’s definitely a good thing.

Summary – Where I was expecting a reasonable but disappointing sequel, instead I got a wonderfully funny, charming and very well done film. It could’ve been a bit of a disaster but never rule out Rowan Atkinson’s greatness. Better production values, a deeper story, and characters with plenty of character and cliché’s galore. I do love a good surprise!

#251; Saturday Nights, We Hardly Knew Thee

  By Lukeh | April 7, 2012 - 8:38 pm | 2012, television
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It’s kind of frustrating how much Saturday night TV has fallen. I’m sure plenty of people will think ‘Well, just go out!’ but I’m not really a going-out-y kind of person as I’m sure is quite obvious. Tonight I turned on the TV to see a program called the Voice. It involved several ‘judges’ who decide whether a person can sing or not depending on their voice only. The problem is, pretty much every person who was on it had the same warbling noise and the same singing style, and all the judges looked completely to just be sitting there doing nothing except nodding their head. Over and over. And over again. Every. Single. Audition. The same.

Is this really entertaining television? Do people genuinely really get their thrills over stuff like this?

It’s presumptuous and stuck up I know but it really blows me back a bit as to how popular these things are. Maybe it’s because I’m in a little bit of a ranty mood but I don’t understand the appeal of shows like this at all, the dreaded surge of reality shows that infest television now. It just makes me a little sad that growing up on a Saturday night you would have variety shows, game shows, Noel’s House Party, and so on. I used to love the Brian Conley show in the early 90′s – it’s a puppet! And The Generation Game was one of my favourite things to watch because it offered variety as it’s purpose; then there’s stuff like Big Break and Krypton Factor too. Of course, Noel’s House Party was silly and fun and fresh! And it had Mr Blobby! The only Mr Blobby you get now is Simon Cowell’s cash infected facelifts staring angrily at a poor northern teenager about to be humiliated. But hey, that’s entertainment these days. I got shown a clip last week of a guy on Britain’s Got Talent from Germany who, when he said he was from our European neighbours, caused the entire audience to boo him for being German. I just found that kind of staggering and I know it’s not necessarily related to my rant here but it’s good to see Britain’s Got Talent is happy to show that off.

There’s not much I can think of that really stands out as to anything that remotes to watch-able on Saturday evenings within recent times. Doctor Who blows every other thing out of the water with Merlin also getting a shout even if it’s not my thing, but that goes as far as I can think. It’s a bit worrying when the next thing that comes to mind is the Eurovision but at least that’s once a year and not washed through reality in various Factors or Talents or Idols on Ice Dancing or whatever. Even Blind Date would be more interesting! On another note, do people actually watch Take Me Out? Upon watching 5 minutes of it a few weeks back I actually felt a little bit stupider. I’ll never get those few precious minutes complaining about the state of Saturday night TV again and that is a shame!

Maybe it’s the nostalgia, maybe it’s the rose tinted glasses but goodness me, I’ll take nostalgia and good times over the never ending cycle of reality TV shows infesting my evening. Thank god for Doctor Who and the 12 weeks of the year it sticks around but for now, to the DVD collection!

#250; When Fast Wasn’t Fast Enough in Rallying

  By Lukeh | April 4, 2012 - 8:40 pm | 2012, motorsport, rallying
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Earlier this week I got round to watching a new BBC documentary entitled Madness on Wheels: Rallying’s Craziest Years, a look at the heydays of the Group B category of the World Rally Championship during the 80′s. I’m an absolute sucker for Motorsport documentaries; anything historical in general presented through a documentary or in a museum I’ll pretty much happily watch so when I noticed this was on the iPlayer I knew it would be a better of time before I gave it a watch. Growing up I watched a lot of rallying on Eurosport – we’re talking Tommi Makkinen in that wonderful Lancer, Richard Burns, Colin McRae and his Subara-then-Ford days, Carlos Sainz and Didier Auriol and so on – much like the BTCC in the 90′s it was something I watched quite a bit before I got bitten by the F1 bug. So having a chance to learn about an era before I was born sounded like an excellent opportunity to learn a bit of history about the WRC and the infamous Group B era.

The programme itself is an hour long look at what brought this change of ultra-powerful rally cars into the sport and what pushed it into huge levels of popularity at the time. It also doesn’t hide from the fact that these changes, of bringing the fastest rally cars ever seen into the sport, brought much catastrophe from spectator injuries to much, much worse. It goes without saying that rally drivers need balls of steel to do what they do – even though modern rallying is a lot more controlled, it still blows my mind to see what can be doing in a rally drifting along a snowy hairpin or chasing a Monte Carlo mountainside at 150mph. However, I was totally unequiped for the shock that seeing what WRC was like in the 80′s.

It's my old friend Ari!

It’d be fair to say there’s not much I knew about this era before watching the program – going as far as knowing about Ari Vatanen and seeing some of his videos from over the years (the on board Pikes Peaks drive never gets old), Stig Blomqvist and Henri Toivonen and some of the classic Quattros and Lancia Deltas too – but that’s quite about it really, so the documentary provided a real level of insight and depth to someone who loves learning everything about motorsport. There’s plenty of footage from the time included and what really gob-smacked me throughout was some of the rallies having spectators not even lined up along the track but in the track itself, and huge crowds to say the least as well. Can you imagine having rallies these days with a huge crowd of people millimetres away from the side skirting of a car? Crazy, crazy sights to see. The crowds at the time really take the sport to the edge and I really feel for the drivers having that extra element to take into consideration into a sport that is already crazy enough.

What I also found interesting was how car manufacturers seemed to jump on the sport and take the advantage of it’s exposure for their own interests rather than the interests of safety. The programme talked about how Peugeot seemed down and out as a company before they brought in a little French designed known as Jean Todt (recognise him?) and with the new Group B rules de-regulating the power of the cars, you had these big names creating cars that were bound to cause tragedy before too long. Throughout I was pondering to myself ‘Surely the designers knew that these cars would just be simply too much?’ and it was only a matter of time before the banana skin started to unwrap from the sport sadly. Henri Toivonen’s tale is especially sad to see especially when it was clear he was one for the future of WRC. But with the sport being so popular and the rules being de-regulated, it was their chance to create cars they could dream of and show them off to a huge audience.

There’s some incredible footage included too, some astounding for the bravery of the drivers, some shocking for what you see. One scene in particular shows an amateur Portuguese driver losing control and barrelling into a crowd of spectators who, again, pretty much have the tips of their toes on the road. For someone who’s been brought up in a motorsport world so focused on safety it’s really shocking stuff. What didn’t surprise me however was the mentions of the ever-controversial Jean Marie Balestre – it seems it’s not only F1 that he was a total dick in, pardon my French, as his stubbornness and lack of knowledge as a leader shows evident as ever throughout. There was also a great degree of irony seeing Ari Vatanen and Jean Todt standing side by side during their Peugeot times. Although I knew they were both at Peugeot in their own roles, the future-based irony of seeing them work together still doesn’t wear thin on me it seems!

It’s a really good watch and I very much do recommend giving it a go. Plenty of drivers, designers and team owners from the time explain their actions, talk about the era and show great remorse in how certain things turned out during that time in the various interviews within. It does feel like it skips over details at times and provides huge detail in certain things but then simply glances over another but it’s just minor flaws against an overwhelming interesting hour of television. It’ll make you thankful for the advances in safety we have these days and that. As exciting as it looks, as crazy as it sounds, as ridiculous as the fans make it, the inevitable outcome of events showed just how much safety seemed to be paramount at that time.