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| Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 |
angusabranson
|
4:26p |
A Look Back on The War on Terror (From the year 2031) I think Sasha posted this clip up earlier on his blog but i thought I'd repost it here as I thought it was fairly amusing... Time Trumpet - War on Terror
Favourite quote "No one was killed, but a lot of people were surprised." :p |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
New Colors  Long dominated by two chains that merged into one, downtown Toronto now has a new movie chain in town — the American AMC chain. Its new Yonge and Dundas 24 has been open for several months now but I only this weekend got my first peek at it.
Pros and cons, in relation to its chief downtown rival, the Scotiabank (f.b.a.* Paramount):
Cons: smaller screens, distracting aisle-lighting, costs more if you don’t have their affinity card
Pros: separated seat backs mean less reverberation from seat-kickers, arm rests fold up, costs less if you do have their affinity card
I was mostly interested in whether their big point of difference with the Scotiabank (man, I hate typing that) was a pro or a con. The YD24 is the first house to employ digital projection for all screens. Is it up to snuff?
I’m used to seeing unfortunate digital projection at the film festival. The early generation projectors were clearly inferior to analog projection. Even now that the projection tech has improved, the sources shown at the festival are often raw digital masters: a video look, an over-bright palette, bleeding edges. Often low budget productions seeking distribution, they have yet to go through the color grading and film transfer process that will give them their finished looks.
This experience was, as it would have to be, much better. Its sharper lines and computer-vivid colors marked it as digital, but it was good digital. I suspect that audiences will come to prefer its more saturated palette, having grown used to it on their home theater screens. The sharpness works for heavily animated popcorn movies; digital is basically their native environment. (We were seeing Iron Man.) I’m left wondering what the projection does to a more diffuse look, as seen in something like Michael Clayton.
It will take at minimum five years for the whole industry to adopt digital. In the meantime, filmmakers will be forced with a weird choice when color timing their films — do they correct for the softer, natural colors of analog projection, or the harder, brighter hues of digital?
On another note, it’s long been rumored that the debut of the AMC will allow the film festival to finally abandon its Bloor-Yorkville roots and move its axis entirely south, adding enough screens at the YD24 to replace the Varsity and the hanging-on-by-its fingernails Cumberland. If so, I’ll miss the aging charms of the Cumberland, but not the constant subway travel between the north and south blocks of theaters.
* Formerly branded as. |
angusabranson
|
10:37a |
Indiana Jones Film Trip - Monday 26th May Hi folks, A group of us are heading to see the new Indiana Jones film this coming Monday (yay for bank holidays!!!). We'll be hitting the VUE in North Finchley for the 11am screening - so we're aiming to gather about 10.50ish (despite going out clubbing the night before at Club Noir - good ideas? Phat - who cares :p). After the film we may carry on the tradition (started last bank holiday - so it's an old and honorable one) of going to Nando's for lunch. So that's: INDIANA JONES & THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULLVUE North FinchleyMonday 26th May 11AM (Gather: 10.50am) Hope to see some of you there! |
| Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 |
mearls
|
11:03p |
I Got Drunk There Before It Was Cool Apparently, I have good taste in bars. My favorite bar in the world, the Grassroots Tavern in NYC, made Esquire magazine's list of the 100 best bars in the USA. Man, now I'm all nostalgic for its weird, stainless steel bathroom, ratty dartboards in the back, cheap pitchers, and the Buzzcocks on the jukebox. |
lemuriapress
|
5:37p |
Current Musical Obsession: Lupe Fiasco's "Daydreamin" (featuring Jill Scott)
Stick with me all the way here. It's worth it.
So I first heard this song on a cellphone commercial, and had to check it out:
Lupe Fiasco's version was produced by iMonster, who also released a sweet cover a few years back. What a haunting video!
And here's the original version, by a hippie outfit called the Wallace Collection. Dig the heavy smoke and groovy dancing, man.
And, finally, here's Lupe and Jill Scott again, this time performing the song live on Letterman. I think this may be my favorite version, mostly because Jill Scott cuts LOOSE at the end. Dave seemed to be impressed, and I am too.
Current Music: Lupe Fiasco: Daydreamin' |
iuztheevil
|
12:48p |
Release 3 is here! This is the final Alpha release of the Pathfinder RPG. It includes all of the classes, a bunch of rules for NPCs and Monsters, Ability Score generation methods, and a host of other goodies (re: A Character Sheet). Go grab it... This I command! Now I need a 5 minute power nap before returning to my work on the Beta. Current Mood:  excited |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
The Birds
View series to date here.
|
|
jameswallis
|
9:22a |
Current fun http://www.spaaace.com/cope/?p=106 In certain circles there’s been a lot of excitement about the Current Cost, a meter that clamps to your mains electricity cable and measures how much power your household is using, comparing usage over time with numbers and little graphs. Evidence shows that having a device like this can save you 15% on your electricity bills. Plus it’s, you know, data.
What sets the Current Cost apart from its competition is the fact that on its underside is what looks like an RJ-45 port. This is entirely undocumented—neither the manual nor the website acknowledge that it exists—but geeks being geeks, there has been a flurry of enthusiasm and people bodging together cables to get the data off the machine and onto PCs and the web.
There’s no official software for this. We know the device spits out an XML packet every six seconds, and people have been grabbing that and feeding it into Google Charts or homebrew solutions. The Current Cost website gives a demo of an interesting-looking app which is apparently under development but not released yet. And it’s only a matter of time before people start aggregating their data using a service like AMEE, and then things get interesting.
The chief stumbling block till now has been the lack of a cable to physically get data from CC to PC. People have created their own—apparently it’s TTL to RS232,3.3V, running at 2400 baud—but I bring the glad tidings that you can put down your crimpers and Maplin catalogue because Current Cost sell data-cables to those in the know. Send a cheque or purchase order for £11.12 per cable (£7.95 + VAT and shipping) to:
Current Cost Ltd (attn: Steve Allen)
1 The Mews
Wharf Street
Godalming
Surrey GU7 1NN
And in the UK you can buy Current Cost from here, £28 plus shipping.
Not strictly games-related business, I know, but if we can turn data-gathering of this kind into a game-like behaviour, with status rewards for greatest improvement and so on, then energy-conscious behaviour ceases being a worthy chore and becomes something that you want to do. People used to game Last FM in the early days when it was still Audioscrobbler, running multiple simultaneous iterations of Winamp and iTunes to push their ‘tracks played’ total higher than anyone else’s, just to have the biggest number on the site. Pointless but fun.
If you engineer the same behaviour but use it to gather data that has a purpose, does it make it any less fun? |
| Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 |
iuztheevil
|
12:10p |
Once More Unto the Brink The clock is ticking loudly once again. It is only a matter of hours before the alarm sounds. So close now. More to come later. Until then, enjoy a few fun flash games. Such as The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I think I played this one when I was a kid. This one has even better graphics (edit: how about some graphics, the original was text based iirc). Peril View Glasses not included (but I wish I had some construction paper for those of you in the know). Or how bout something a little more modern, like this Katamari flash game. Its not quite the real thing, but it is good for wasting time while you are waiting for downloads to appear. Edit 4:44pm: Damn you accursed process, delaying things until the 'morrow... must find my calm, I know its around here somewhere. Current Mood: excitedCurrent Music: NIN: The Slip |
angusabranson
|
5:29p |
Russell Davies Steps Down From Doctor Who... ...but is replaced by Stephen Moffat so good times are ahead. Brilliant, brilliant choice :) I also love the quote the BBC are using for Stephen " I applied before but I got knocked back 'cos the BBC wanted someone else. Also I was seven " |
robin_d_laws
|
10:55a |
Stunning Eldritch Tales The first supplement for Trail Of Cthulhu, my four-adventure anthology Stunning Eldritch Tales, hit the stands while I was away in Germany. It's available in book form now; PDF release pending. It's a tribute to the other pulp genres Weird Tales shared newsstand space with, including homages to rugged adventure, hero pulps, international intrigue, and science fiction. Check it out at its IPR page, a hip retail outlet near you, or your favorite on-line games purveyor.
 |
angusabranson
|
3:32p |
One for the Gamers Out There: Licenses and Reprints
Following on from various conversations recently - both online in forums and mailing lists and offline in general conversations - what licenses would you most like to see turned into RPGs?
The top 5 you'd like to see from Books, Films, TV shows, computer games or other medium (such as comics - although with comics it's largely the 'universe setting' such as Marvel as opposed to individual comic lines like the X-Men or Spiderman). Top 5 ultimate or top 5 in each category. The more discussion and ideas the merrier :)
Also, what old games (RPG, Board or Card) would you love to see back on the market again...? |
london_gamers
[ w00hoo ]
|
10:41a |
Plea for Players in Tonbridge
Hi all, nice to see some 'faces' I know :-)
Sorry to start with a begging post, but I'm part of a small (3 people), mature (all in our late 30's) group that meets every other Sunday in Tonbridge to game. We're currently doing a Buffy the Vampire Slayer game and while it's going OK could really do with a couple more people at the table.
As Kent (this part anyway) seems completely devoid of Gaming shops finding more Players is a total nightmare so I'm hoping being only 30 odd miles outside of London this might work...
I'll try and make my next post more useful :-)
Ta.
Mik.
Current Music: Devildriver - Not All Who Wander Are Lost |
| Monday, May 19th, 2008 |
angusabranson
|
10:30p |
Plans and plans and plans...
Tons of ideas and so little time to do the majority of them at the moment.
I really need to sort out more time in my life. |
angusabranson
|
9:41p |
Hybrid Embyro Research - Approved Thank God for common sense and forward looking vision. This could really help a lot of lives in the future and I'm so glad that the fundies failed to influence the result. Now let's hope the next one goes through (Saviour Siblings), don't know enough about the following one (Role of fathers in fertility treatment) and certainly don't want the last ammendment to pass (a reduction in the abortion limit). MPs Back Hybrid Embyro Research (BBC News; Monday 19th May 2008) Religion should be kept out of politics at all levels in my opinion. Plus people with religious views shouldn't preach them to others. I really don't mind religion - any religion - as long as the practioners don't try and ram their beliefs down your throat and as long as their practices don't harm anyone. I have friends from a whole variety of religions and friends with no beliefs at all. That's great and they're all great. I have my own beliefs and don't go out converting and shouting at people to change their ways and campaigning to get things changed just because it's my personal belief. I live my life to my belief. Quietly and let others live their lives to their beliefs. I don't feel so insecure that I have to trample any other idea down and force my personal beliefs on everyone else. Anyway, ranting now. Will stop. Did anyone else see the documentary on Channel 4 (I think) this evening about the fuindamental Christians? That was scarey. Current Music: SITD |
montecook
|
1:39p |
Eddie's Back
On Saturday, Sue and I drove down to Chicago to see Eddie Izzard. We had a dinner at a nice little place on the edge of the theater district called the South Water Kitchen and then walked over to the truly beautiful Chicago Theater.
Now, if you've been a longtime reader of my website and journal, you know that I'm a huge Eddie Izzard fan, and have been for almost 10 years now. I've successfully made converts of loads of my friends, making everyone I knew sit down and watch at least a little of his Dress to Kill show that had been on HBO. We have all of his DVDs, we've seen his varied attempts at movie acting, seen him live many times (sometimes seeing the same touring show multiple times) etc., etc. Big, big fan. Only now am I going to admit something.
His last couple of shows weren't all that great. I mean they were funny, and have some really great moments. I can pull out lots of hilarious bits from both (with Circle being better than Sexie). But neither lived up to either Dress to Kill, Glorious, or Definite Article. But then, those are literally hard acts to follow, so even though it had seemed that he had peaked around 1999, I continued to be a fan. Even less-than-optimal Eddie Izzard is still funnier than almost anything out there (although I also really like Demetri Martin, but that's a topic for another time).
So I went to the new show, Stripped, not with low, but with lowered expectations. I knew it would be funny, and certainly worth going to, but I wasn't as excited as I had been to see past shows. Perhaps my better-managed expectations helped, but I don't believe that to be the full explanation for what we saw. The real explanation is that the show was amazingly good. I think Sue hit the nail on the head when she said that Eddie had returned to the kind of stuff that really made him successful--talking about history, religion, and all the sort of really intelligent topics that most comedians just don't get into. He even referred to it himself in the show. He doesn't dumb things down, he dumbs things up.
By the end of the show, my jaw ached from continuous laughter. All the things I really loved about his slightly older stuff--the crazy mimes, the constant references back to earlier bits (creating wonderfully complicated, circular stories), and his hilarious anachronistic analysis of past events (or non-events, depending on your perspective)--were all there in full force. Oh, to be fair, Circle and Sexie had a little of all that, but Stripped is like unto Dress to Kill in every good way.* We loved it.
* To be even more fair, this was his third night in the row at the Chicago theater and well into the tour. He was clearly very comfortable with the material, with the location, and with the audience. He was dressed with crazy flair (a tuxedo jacket with tails and bluejeans) but not outlandishly. When we saw Sexie he was at the beginning of his tour and was so focused on his clothing that he clearly wasn't really at 100%.
Current Music: Miles Davis: Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud |
iuztheevil
|
10:36a |
Ninja Warrior So... I tried to take it a bit easy this weekend. The calm before the storm I guess. This gave me the excellent opportunity to catch up on some of the things I love. I got to go drinking on Saturday at a viking pub (full of Art... umm.. yeah.. art). I finished reading a couple of books. I watched a couple Indiana Jones movies, in preparation of this weeks release. Finally, I got a chance to watch the new season of Ninja Warrior.... what's that you say. You do not watch Ninja Warrior (or Sasuke if you prefer). Foolish of you... It is kind of a guilty pleasure for me. I enjoy Japanese game shows. Ninja Warrior has to rank toward the top. They have done 20 seasons of the show, each ranging in about 3 to 5 episodes each. In each, 100 crazy competitors and seasoned pros vie to complete an insane 4-stage obstacle course. Throughout its entire history, only a couple of folks have been able to succeed.. with all the remaining seasons ending in failure for the entire crop. Good times. The entire show is carried on G4 and well worth a viewing. The last two seasons, they have sent a few americans over to compete. This last season (#20) was quite entertaining, with one of the american contestants making it quite far. Need a sample.. check it out. Current Mood: chipper |
mearls
|
10:28a |
Indiana Jones and the Awesome Movie
We got an advanced screening of the new Indiana Jones movie through work this morning and, to fulfill my part as "guy who gets to see a movie and should contribute to the word of mouth advertising," this is my obligatory "That was an awesome movie and you should go see it" post.
So, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a fantastic movie. In some ways, it felt like watching the movie of a game session with a good group of players and a GM who is always one step ahead of the action. Two thumbs up! |
dreamingspires
[ leopanthera ]
|
3:20p |
TVs
Where in Oxford, Abingdon, or nearby sells big LCD TVs - not including the obvious Comet/Curries etc?
Bonus points if they stay open late. |
|
leisuregames
|
12:38p |
New Releases - 19th May 2008 |
| Sunday, May 18th, 2008 |
sheffield_uk
[ smigs ]
|
9:52p |
places to stay (for cheap!) I’m making the trek to Sheffield on Wednesday to see Broken Social Scene at the Leadmill; however, the last train back home (to Hull) is before the gig finishes; does anyone know of any hostels or cheap b&bs in or nearish the city centre that me & my friend could crash in? The best I’ve come up with is a Travelodge, or sleeping in the train station.. Current Mood:  curious |
montecook
|
3:30p |
Concerts Great and GoodIn the last week and a half or so, I've been to two concerts. One was good, the other great. The good one was Flight of the Conchords. They were hilarious and wonderful. What kept it from being great was the crowd. For whatever reason, the (large, sold out) crowd was loud. Various (likely drunk) people would continually shout out stupid things. You could tell it put Bret and Jemaine on edge. Their style, when not singing, is very quiet and full of awkward pauses. This gave the crowd too many opportunities to make asses of themselves. Way too many. Which was a shame, because it's the funny bits in between the songs that I really went for (the songs are great, don't get me wrong). But in the end, the performers handled it, and still put on a really good show. I highly recommend going to see them. Maybe just not here. The great one was the Swell Season. Although they have a full band now, basically the Swell Season is Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who also starred in and did all the music for the wonderful movie Once. (I'll offer a very high recommendation for Once as well). When you see performers live for the first time, it's always a bit of a crapshoot. Some are just not as good as their recorded work. Some are as good, and a few are better. But the Swell Season is much better, and that's saying a lot. Glen Hansard may be one of the most passionate, emotional singers... well, ever. But what really put the concert way over the top was just how charming and likable they all were--again, particularly Glen. He offered up long, interesting stories and ideas regarding what was behind each song. They played new songs and they made mistakes--which made the audience feel all the more a part of something. It was just all so sincere. Perhaps the highlight of the night came when Glen told the audience that a local musical group emailed him to tell him that they would be performing "Falling Slowly" (the Oscar-winning song from Once) and if he and Marketa had the time, would they like to come and see. Glen had emailed back that they didn't have the time, but why didn't this local group perform the song with them, in concert. And so then he brought out the Whitefish Bay 8th grade choir to sing with them. Their biggest song. And then he asked them what other songs they knew and they ended up performing the Pixies' "Gigantic" together. It was all pretty cool (and how amazing for those kids). I ended up buying the solo album of band's violinist, Colm Mac Con Iomaire. Sue got a t-shirt. We were raving about the show for days afterward. Current Music: Jeff Hamilton: From Studio 4 |
bigfootcountry
|
2:09a |
Bigger project than expected Whew... Just went through EVERY POST IN BIGFOOT COUNTRY and added tags to almost every one. There were a lot of them. It comes as no surprise to me that most of my posts are about movies. But what DOES surprsie me is just how few of them are about Bigfoot. Since he's the inspiration for this blog's title, after all. SO: This post is about Bigfoot. He's tall, hairy, smells bad, and even though most of the stories about him are pretty mellow and the bigfoot fans out there will be quick to say he's peaceful... I don't buy it. If I ever ran into Bigfoot in the wild, I'd run like hell. Just to be safe. Current Mood:  accomplished |
angusabranson
|
9:52a |
Weekend Updates with added Farts and Slugs
Weekend's been fairly good so far. Friday night at the pub was very good fun - even if conversations did get a bit railroaded by going OTT on our silly song naming quest (repacling 'Love' with 'Slug' and 'Heart' with 'Fart').
Yeah, we had plenty of new and amusing song titles for a group oif slightly tipsy people in a pub...for example...
Listen to Your Fart by Roxette
The Fart's Filthy Lesson by david Bowie
The Last Beat of my Fart by Souxsie & The Banshees
Achy Breaky Fart by Billy Ray Cyrus
Fart Shaped Box by Nirvana
Two Farts by Phil Collins
Fartbreak Hotel by Elvis
Somethings Gotten Hold of my Fart by Gene Pitney
Sergent Pepper's Lonely Farts Club Band by The Beatles
Slug Bites by Def Leppard
Slug Shack by The B52's
When You Slug Someone by Bryan Adams
Whole Lotta Slug by Led Zeppelin
Hounds of Slug by Kate Bush
Modern Slug by David Bowie
Where is the Slug by Black Eyes Peas
Slug Me Tender by Elvis
...you get the drift I'm sure...
After which we returned home and watched Ichi The Killer before I crashed out for a very restless night sleep of not feeling all that great. Luckily I was sans headache on saturday morning and after dropping off three large boxloads of videos to some local charity stores Jasmina and I headed into town on a fruitless birthday shopping trip (fruitless because there wasn't anything I really wanted so we settled on her treating me to a meal and aiming to get me to decide by next weekend and try then instead). Last night was spent doing a bit of C7 work and watching Hellboy with Natasha as she'd watched the Hellboy 2 Trailer I had up here the other day and thought it looked good but had never seen the first one. Still very enjoyable even on the 6th or 7th viewing for me :)
Becky then joined us and watched Natasha's 15-20 minute slot on Film24 the other week where she interviewed Stephen Morris (Joy Division Drummer) and the main man behind the films creation (who's name I can't remember :/) on the enw Joy Division documentary which I really want to see (being a big Joy Division fan).
Today is Gameforce day at The Black Horse in London Town for an afternoon of game playing before heading off for a bite to eat at Oriental City. Then the weekend is somehow over once again and it's back to work tomorrow... these things always seem to disappear so quickly! |
| Saturday, May 17th, 2008 |
sheffield_uk
[ piizzazz ]
|
7:51p |
Could anyone find me Van Chaik's (Schaik's?) tattoo place on google map?
Is it the purple place with the tigers painted around the side? Someone mentioned the name and I can't quite picture where it is.
Cheers!
Current Music: Alphabeat: 10000 NIghts Of Thunder |
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