Cyberclogs

Welly welly well, I finally got around to watching the show everyone seems to be fussing about, namely the sci-fi thriller tv series Heroes, which is basically just X-Men on TV, with a bit more gore thrown in.

The first two episodes on BBC2 showed quite a bit of promise for what will be coming up so I think I will continue to watch it and see how it unfolds. So far the characters seem fairly ok, although I'll need to wait and see who I'll like whom I find annoying (to be honest that wee Japanese teleporter dude is a bit annoying).

On a separate note, I'm going through to the Edinburgh festival this weekend with some people from my acting class, so it will be nice to meet up with them again and check out some shows that are on too. The show I know I will be seeing is a musical stage version of Debbie Does Dallas (minus the graphic onstage shagging, or any nudity apparently) and also some stand-up comedian I believe, although can't remember who they are, oh and some other play thing I can't the remember the name of for the life of me, since my memory is pretty bad these days.

I shall of course write up more about the day when I've got back from it and as long as my short term memory hasn't been erased. I'm sorry it's gone... what's gone?

Ah well. Who am I? (OK enough of the memory jokes).

Went and saw Die Hard 4.0 last night at my local cinema paradiso (if you can call it that) and I guess it was what was to be expected from the Die Hard franchise, lots of mean terrorists causing widespread havoc and blowing things up (not to mention John MacLean).

Speaking of which the plot roughly is that John MacLean is now divorced from his wife and he's trying to look out for his enstranged daughter Lucy (who appeared as little girl in the first film), then he receives a call from his HQ that he's to take a computer hacker Matt Farrell to the justice department. But of course things go very pear shaped as a team of terrorists make an attempt on Matt's life as MacLean intercedes and saves the young guy's life, and the terrorists get a little miffed and want them both dead, and well... you get the gist.

The only problem I have with these sort of action movies is that as usual its all about the biggest spectacles, the biggest stunts you have ever scene, and whatever credibility there was left over from the original Die Hard, by now its all completely went out the window. To say that Die Hard 4.0 is far fetched is putting it somewhat midly, but what the hell, don't get me wrong, its still good fun. Bruce is as ever really entertaining to watch in the role as the down to earth, not to mention impossible to kill John MacLean, Justin Long as Matt Farrell was ok, although I found him a bit annoying at times (no wonder MacLean keeps telling him to shut up). One scene I found a bit stupid was when MacLean and Farrell break into a car and MacLean is about to hotwire and Farrell says don't do that and instead wastes about 2 minutes speaking to the car's voice recognition in order to get it started, they could have been away in less than half that time! I was also rather surprised by the inclusion of MacLean's ability to fly a chopper, but they do rather neatly mention he took some lessons to get over his fear of flying (which didn't help him much).

The film despite its silly moments also some of its little pleasures, Kevin Smith as the hacker, Warlock, was great, he just seemed to appear at the right moment in the movie and I even had forgot he was to suppose to be in it. Maggie Q looks rather good in this film as well as getting to kick Bruce's ass (in fact this whole film seemed to be about kicking Bruce's ass to make him even bloodier than the last time!), which prompts one of Bruce's best lines "That ninja chick you sent, was smokin' hot!".

So if you want to watch the usual mindless action and explosions, then Die Hard 4.0 just might be the one to watch this summer.

Well I had my karaoke night with some of my fellow acting class thesps last night and it was pretty good up in Capitol on Suchiehall Street. Everyone got up (or sat down really) and did a turn on the microphone and yeah it was a good laugh to see just how good everyone else was and how bad I was at most of the songs, except The Smith's "This Charming Man" which i think I acquited myself pretty well on (being modest!). In our group, Paul, turned out a few really good versions of Elton John's Rocket Man and Tom Jones's It's Not Unusual, and Scott (yes Scott you are getting a mention!) did great at the Unchained Melody. Miriam also belted out a great version of Aretha's RESPECT too. Teresa also had a brave attempt at one of Keane's numbers, while one of our group Alan, chose to do the odd female number and also a decent version of Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence, while Lynn did an "interesting" version of Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All.

The only bad thing I'd say about Capitol though was the rooms were stifling and very hot, I don't know if that's intentional so that you drink more or not, but they could have turned on the air conditioning. But other than that I'd recommend karaoke for a fun night, especially at Capitol as you get the privacy to make an ass of yourself and not worry about it. Just ask them to turn the heat down a bit that's all.


P.S. Don't beat me up Lynn. lol.

Well I don't blog much about what music I listen to so thought I'd write up a quick something on some of the latest musi(c)ings I've perused. In fact I haven't really properly bought much music for a wee while until this week when I bought a couple of albums.

Firstly I got The Smashing Pumpkins eagerly awaited Zeitigeist album, which features only two of the original pumpkins that are left, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain (Jimmy on drums, Billy naturally on everything else). And I was quite impressed with the results, its their best album in years in my humble opinion, far heavier and hard rocking than the previous mixed effort that was Machina. A few standout tracks for me were the opener "Doomsday Clock", "Shades of Black" and the epic (or otherwords "long") "United States", which is probably heaviest track on the record. There will always be a few naysayers about the Pumpkins and some of the critics reviews I've read say its not that great, but personally I think its a return to form.

Also this week I got UNKLE's latest effort, War Stories, which is also very impressive, in fact I'd probably say its their most consistent album to date, alot of the tracks have an indie rock feel to them, and it hangs together more like a song driven album than their previous cut up mix tracks. I've always liked UNKLE's dark, heavy toned, intense instrumental pieces, and they usually get some good recording artists to play with them, Josh Homme, Ian Astbury, Thom Yorke, Badly Drawn Boy, Ian Brown (!), and others to sing on certain tracks.

Also also of late I recently have been hearing some tracks from the electronic duo Hextstaic, which I quite like, so would like to get my mittens on some more of their stuff.

So that's about it fer now.

Now I'm quite a big devotee of the metal/hardcore band, Helmet, personally I think their music is far more intense and creative than most of the pish that is out there certainly just now in the mainstream. Page Hamilton, the leader guitarist, singer and founder of the band, for me is one of my favourite guitarists (and yes I often practice Helmet riffs in my room, chortle chortle!).

So I was somewhat amused and bemused to read his bio page on Wikipedia and saw that a Wiki user had clearly gone into the page and hacked it by rewording it and saying things like "Page is a crumby guitar player, bad singer, and producer of awful music and founder of the ever downhill metal band, Helmet". I did like the comment though about how his wife Betty (3rd album title) was the main influence for their album titles "who used to strap on (1st album) a dildo and after some meantime (2nd album) let Hamilton have some of her dildo's aftertaste (4th album)". OK not the most subtle of jokes but pretty amusing all the same.

I also noticed this sort of hackery on other pages in Wikipedia, its kind of juvenile and annoying but I guess it can be fun too, but ultimately someone will go back and return the document to its previous state. Although it could be a concern too if some of these pages are being used to introduce spyware or malware of some kind onto peoples computers. You never who the hackers are, or if its just someone having a laugh.

Well the season 3 finale for Doctor Who was an all round entertaining finish to somehwhat uneven but nonetheless very enjoyable season (certainly stronger than season 2 at any rate). The Last of the Time Lords started off with the Doctor having sent Martha on a quest to go round the Earth to seemingly collect parts to form a weapon to destroy the Master, but can she do it in time and can she save the world and the Doctor from his current withered aged form?

The Last of the Time Lords as a season finale ran a bit longer than the rest of the episodes (about 8 minutes more apparently) as it leaves some loose ends to tie up yet again. On the whole as a final episode it was missing some moments of vital spark to make it really exciting to watch but it really does has some great moments. And on a slight note of criticism further to this and last week's episode, why does Russell T Davies always insist on putting cheesey pop songs into the show?!

David Tennant again provides some wonderful moments of vulnerability as the Doctor especially towards the end of the episode. Russell T Davies has a real talent for taking even enemies like the Master and make them seem sympathetic, probably also because he has such a respect for the show and knows its history so well, he can write in plots regarding the Master, as being the Doctor's sworn enemy, but he doesn't let us forget they were also once allies and even friends. This was echoed wonderfully in the final scene with the Doctor and the Master, it was one of the season's highlights.

On a further plot spoiler moment (don't worry my hugely limited reading audience won't read it anyway!) Martha at the end of the episode chooses to stay behind on Earth, although she leaves things open ended with her and the Doctor, by giving him her mobile phone (which he tampered with so she can call home from distant worlds and times). This kind of fuels the rumours of whether Freema Agyeman will be back for another series or not, as it was suggested in the papers she had quit, but she has apparently denied this ever since.

So that's the end of Season 3 of the new series of Doctor Who and as I said it was on the whole very entertaining, it cut down on the campness and silliness of Season 2, and brought back a much needed vulnerability in the Doctor. Admittedly some episodes were better than others but this is often the case with most TV shows most of the time. But as far as family Sci-Fi TV dramas go its still one of the best around and I'll gladly look forward to the Christmas Special, The Voyage of the Damned, funnily enough which shows the Doctor at the end of the episode there, repeating the same line he did at the end of Season 2: What??!!!