Mr. Strange is played by that guy from Coupling with the mad hair. He's such a cutie and nice to see him doing something similar but different. Silly at times, interesting and gruesome at others - like a gothic version of the X-Files.
I do so love a nice sitar and a cup of tea.
"Giraffes On The Move: Joanna Lumley joins the Kenya Wildlife Service as they attempt to capture and relocate a herd of endangered giraffes in Africa's Great Rift Valley."
I want to be Joanna Lumley when I grow up.
FightBox is the radical entertainment experience where gaming meets TV to create a unique new sport for the 21st Century.
More homeboy music with Wonders of the World. Totally Long Beach and a worthy successor to the sublime Sublime.
Now, where's the sun?
Groove Armada's latest is pretty eclectic, from the Hendriks-inspired "Purple Haze" to the hiphoppy, Neenha Cherry vocalled "Groove is On", to the grrriindin' "Final Shakedown" and the soulful, chilled out "Hands of Time". "Remember" is classic down-beat, though a bit derivitive for my taste.
A good mix, though - very enjoyable...
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
by Steven Johnson (Author)
A collection of great soul and motown hits in their short radio versions.
Very cool persistent world. Make just about anything and completely customise your avatar in 3D. Like my new house? It's rather empty - guess I'd better make some furniture!
Aqua Bassino - a mixed bag of allsorts from jass fusion to African dub to electronica. Nice.
Creative Symbols of Tantric Buddhism was written by the founder of the Western Buddhist Order, Sangharakshita, who explains that many of the concepts associated with Tantra are too esoteric to be described in anything other than a purely symbolic manner.
His book examines the many symbols of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and gives a clear overview of the Wheel of Life, the mandala of the Five Buddha Families, the symbolism of colour, mantras, dakinis, and many other aspects of Tantric practise.
Wednesday 23 April; 18.30
The Princess Anne Theatre
BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London
In Playing Away, the first event in the new Creative Alchemy season at BAFTA, developers from leading UK wireless games companies alongside speakers from Vodaphone and Digital Bridges will consider the range of current mobile games which try to predict the impact of 3G and java-enabled handsets on the next generation of offerings.
All industry forecasts indicate that the mobile gaming market is about to go wild - inspired by GPRS enabled phones, the looming potential of 3G and armies of enthusiastic, tech-hungry consumers. As the gaming industry braces itself for massive expansion some analysts are predicting that the global market for wireless entertainment could reach $17.5bn by 2006, while another research report calculates that there were already 43m regular users of such services worldwide in 2001 and expects this figure will increase to 850m in 2003.
John Abbott, MD of Hailstorm will present a case study on the evolution of their very successful game Trapped! which started of as a wap product and evolved into a full on colour arcade game on TTPCom's platform.
Balbir Blugan, Business Development Manager at Kuju Entertainment, will talk about the development of their wireless game of the BBC's Weakest Link series and consider the issues arising when three different industries: games, telecoms and television are required to work collaboratively to create and produce content suitable for the mobile experience from a TV format.
The panel will be chaired by John Chasey, Managing Director of iomo ltd, a founding Director of TIGA (the Independent Game Developers' Association) and representative on its Mobile SIG, "TIGA Mobile".
Panellists include Tim Harrison, Head of Mobile Games at Vodafone Global Content Services and Paul Maglione, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Digital Bridges.
Produced by Stephen Jeffery-Poulter, Convergence Programme Consultant
Supported by Business Link for London (www.bl4london.com)
BAFTA Members Free
Non-members £20
If you would like to book tickets for this event please email events@bafta.org. Tickets can be paid for by cash or cheque on the door
A ten-day celebration featuring talks, workshops and demonstrations hosted by people who study or work with science, engineering and technology.
14-22 March, 2003
I love BBC's Countryfile. They do try to be fair, but it's clear that the producers are sensible people. Today's programme showed how the pheasant shooting industry is becoming greedy and wicked in raising and releasing millions of pheasants simply for sport shooters. While they insist (as these people do) that they are "saving" the countryside, they are in fact fucking it up by releasing too many pheasants and then killing so many that they aren't eaten, but simply buried or burnt.
They also showed how a farmer in Wales is diversifying by learning to butcher his own meat and selling direct to consumers, making a third more profit in the meantime (and providing local produce for local people). Fantastic - I wish we had more livestock farms nearby, but farming here is almost entirely arable.
Interesting, though, in a small country like Britain, we know more about farming and the issues that concern the food we eat. When I lived in the states, I rarely saw farms, never knew and farmers or heard any of the issues they face. Here, I'm related to farmers and see and hear about them all the time...
This Thursday's (30 January) Discovery Talk will be given by Dr Chris Evans
in the Dept of Earth Sciences on Downing Street. As usual the talk will
start at 7.00pm, doors will open at 6.30pm. Please assemble as usual in the
Sedgwick Museum.
Digging the Town: Recent excavations in Cambridge and its hinterland
The talk will outline recent fieldwork by the University's Archaeological
Unit. Particularly focusing upon Iron and Roman sites, recent excavations
at West Cambridge, Addenbrooke¹s and Jesus Lane will feature together
these are re-writing the early history of the area.
I love David Attenborough. He's got meerkats standing on his shoulder.
I hate David Attenborough. He's got meerkats standing on his shoulder and I want one.
David Attenborough's Life of Mammals is so very wonderful.
Umberto Eco's The Sublime Archive is an mp3 collection chock full of Sublime's live and bootleg recordings. What's more it all seems completely legit.
Total politically-incorrect yummy goodness. oh yes.
Elv1s - 30 No.1 Hits
'Kin hard... fun, though.
is great design inspiration with 250 album covers from the jazz age.
Eric Kohler, a graphic designer and album artist himself, has chosen some beautiful examples and wonders why graphic artists aren't more often considered great "artists" in their own right.
Interesting commentary about the artists accompanies the imagery.
Urban Funk Breaks Vol.3 is, hmmm... OK, I guess. Very electronica, ravey sort of stuff. OK to drown out the sound of silence in my office, but not much else.
Trip Do Brasil Vol.1 Compilation.
Pretty cool Latin Electronica. Nothing spectacular, but definitely worth a fiver at Fopp.
26 November, 2002 - BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LN. (Nearest tubes: Piccadilly Circus, Green Park)
MORE...
Sexuality is certainly a part of it as Tantra attempts to provide awareness of all aspects of life and focusses on the interdependence of experience. This means that both the male and female principles, in all their manifestations, are central to our cycle of existence and so both creation and destruction are explored in equal measure.
Says the Dalai Lama:
"Samsara, our conditioned existence in the perpetual cycle of habitual tendencies and nirvana - genuine freedom from such an existence - are nothing but different manifestations of a basic continuum. So this continuity of consciousness is always present. This is the meaning of tantra."
The Tantric Way by Ajit Mookerjee and Madhu Khanna is an academic view of the theory, history, art and ritual of Tantra, primarily the Hindu form.
Recommended.
Santana's follow-up to Supernatural has received rather a lot of criticism and when I first listened to it, I admit to have been somewhat disappointed. But now I find myself playing it over and over.
Santana's distinctive guitar underlays a variety of vocal styles and rather than pointing out the album's inconsistency, seems rather to pull it together. I love it.
"That's rank, dude"
"Gimme a hand here, guys"
"Not gonna happen"
Hilarious and even better in 3D than it was as a side-scroller. The Production values are fantastic, though it's really rather a shame it's an Xbox exclusive as I think it would have done really well on PS2.
Sublime's first album, 40oz to Freedom is such a classic and really shows their Long Beach roots. I figure they hung out in the Seal Beach reggae club (whose name I can't remember) when they weren't playing the barbeque circuit on the peninsula and Belmont Shore in the late 80s.
5446/Ball and Chain is such a great track.
MORE...The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters was highly recommended when I was reading Joseph Cambell's Hero with a Thousand Faces . Using Campbell's Monomyth narrative structure, Christopher Vogler offers concrete advice for writers of stories and screenplays using examples from film blockbusters from American Graffitti to the Wizard of Oz. The second edition has been updated with references to such recent films as Titanic and The Full Monty.
The book offers excellent advice and easy techniques for adding structure and emotional depth to stories. Very highly recommended!
Classic Blow-Up from Blow-Up and Sanctuary Records. This is actually a solo voyage from Nasser Bouzida of Big Boss Man who wrote, performed and recorded all the material himself and very fab it is too. Da Boss Man plays bass guitar, bells, bongos (obviously), clavinet, congas, cowbells (moo), drums, farfisa, flute, guiro (huh?), guitar, organ, piano, synth, tambourine, timbales and vibes. Holy, flippin christ on a bike!
Now here's a guy I want to meet - Big Boss Man at the Metro just got even more appealling...
"Ricky!"
I don't know why, but I am completely obsessed with the goings on of these people. And if you don't want to be counting the fingers you haven't got, I suggest you don't be dissing Eastenders.
Latest episode was very exciting, even though I knew what was going to happen due to the bastard TV Soap Mags spilling the beans on their covers every week.
BBC One 4 days a week.
I actually bought this album for it's cover - don't laugh - this is the second time it's worked for me! Wacky, downbeat yet uplifting, Lemonjelly.ky is great to listen to at work, though sometimes I wonder what kind of subliminal messages I'm recieving. Some people may find some of it a bit too sweet, especially the baby-rap in "Homage to Patagonia".
I can't tell you how much I love this "compendium of retro grooves". A totally spot-on mix of funk and northern soul. Some obscure tunes from well known people like an amazing "B" side from a 1966 Bowie, and the funky title tune from Donovan (yes, really - another "B" side) and some well-known tunes like All Along the Watchtower done by the Brothers and Sisters, a great version of Sunshine of your Love by Long John Baldry or a totally hip take on The Mighty Quinn by Bob Miller and the Millermen. It also features Dancing in the Moonlight and that tune from the Levi's "Twisted" advert.
Very, very funky and loads of Hammond organ. What more could a hippy chick want?
Groovy, man.
Zero 7. Dead sexy and completely gorgeous. What else can I say?
"Bliss, bliss and heaven... it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh...Oh, it was wonder of wonders... And then, a bird of like rarest spun heavenmetal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now... "
A Clockwork Orange homepage and a Nadsat dictionary (the slang used in the film)
We haven't heard from Talvin Singh for a while, which is a shame, because I like this Indian bhangra/drum'n'bass fusion thing he's got going on with Soundz of the Asian Underground.
Tonight's the big night. The six month anniversary of Creature Labs' (plus special guests) Monday Night Poker session celebrated with a £20 buy-in. I don't play every week, so I was lucky to get a place in what looks like a packed house and consequently am also prepared to burn £20. Still, you never know...
Won't hurt to brush up though.
Boozoo Bajou. Total mellow, dubby goodness. Night over Manaus is a great mix of bossa nova and a gorgeous hot and humid jungle vibe. Satta means Relax in Jamaican patois. Love it.
From Redstone Press. Includes classics like The Exquisite Corpse plus a variety of quite interesting parlour word games.
Blur's Damon Albarn's virtual band Gorillaz offers up a mixed bag on G-Sides. I love the familiar tracks "19-2000" and "Clint Eastwood" but I can't say I was all that taken by any of the others.
The CD features videos for Clint Eastwood and Rock the House. It annoys me that they auto-load, though.
A good collection of new Latin mixes, most with a mix of samba, house and traditional Latin. Interesting and upbeat. Play it at your next Carnival party.
"Pressure - not as easy as it looks. "
Another one back for a second series is BBC Two's The Office. Ricky Gervais plays the hilarious pointy-haired boss every Monday night.
It gets better and better. Check out this massively multiplayer online strategy game made by my very good friends at Nicely Crafted Entertainment.
A nice collection of digitally remastered blues guitar pieces, many of which I wasn't previously familiar with. Any blues compilation that includes Jimi Hendrix is pretty alright in my book, though.
A lovely and breathy experience, punctuated by sweet acoustic guitar. India.Arie reminds me of Erica Badau. Very relaxing, very sexy.
" Frank Herbert's Dune is a three-part, four-and-a-half-hour television adaptation of the author's bestselling science fiction novel, telling a more complete version of the Dune saga than David Lynch's 1984 cinema film."
Uh, yeah. 'cause David Lynch's version is incomprehensible. This one is pretty good and fairly recent (2000). Quite exciting and the effects are good, tho' the lighting is a bit over the top sometimes. A bit long to watch in one go (or even two), and as always, it helps if you've read the book.
A couple of older albums for a mellow Sunday afternoon. Fugees' The Score is an old favourite, especially the last, multi-lingual version of Fugee-la.
"I really thought I’d gone to his house, you know, to heal our spiritual divide. But it turns out I was just gagging for a shag. Those two are so similar. "
The hilarious Friends look-alike returns for another season on BBC Two. Alike, but different.
"You are my wife now! Want to buy some pegs, Dave?"
A local show for local people, the wacked out residents of Royston Vasey are back on BBC Two.
"I don't give a fuck, not a single fuck, not a single solitary fuck, 'cause I don't give a fuck, mother-fucker."
Could lyrics be better than that?
Upbeat California thrashy. Heaven is a Halfpipe is the best known track, but Dealerman and Undercover Freak are worthy of being classics, in my opinion. Brighter Side and Better Daze are both pretty and mainstream. Such a great album.
Some forgettable tracks, but some fab ones as well. Think Shaft with sitar music.
Not every track is great, but there're some real gems including Mundian to Bach Ke by Panjabi MC and Agoraki Mou by Angi Samiou. I'm jealous that my friends Napes and Suz went to the Buddha Bar last time they were in Paris...
Curiously addictive, but I can't say I really had all that much fun with it...
