quickie … where the wild things are : brill, loved it … avatar : seemed aimed pretty squarely at the 15 year old sci fi geek, but having said that it was ok, 3D effects toned down after the ads – didn’t really notice them that much in the film, just substitute a large boat for the alien worlds and explosions for explosions, all hinged around a love story really … joanna quinn : got to see the animations at the back of the show – excellent, could have watched much longer … new stuff at impressions to see still …

yeah yeah yeahs leeds only one week after motorhead … life is good!

Runaway, Phenomena, Heads Will Roll, Pin, Dull Life, Gold Lion, Cheated Hearts, Skeletons, Hysteric, Soft Shock, Honeybear, Zero, Turn Into
Encore Maps,Y Control, Date With The Night

Pic: Tamara Dulva (creative commons)

Harry Brown – best Michael Caine film I’ve seen for a very long time. Set in a British housing estate, Harry’s mate is being harassed by the hooligans who run the estate. When they try to set his flat on fire thats the last straw, he goes down to the subway they hang around in and confronts them with a very large knife. They murder him, filming the event on mobile phones. Harry, an ex-marine, realises the police are ineffective and are not going to solve the murder, decides to take matters into his own hands. This film not only gives a realistic taste of the fear of living in a British urban environment but also shows the weakness of an elderly man who once was so strong attempting to deal with the threat of younger men – having killed some of his targets Harry tries to chase one that is getting away … but collapses after running a short distance. Harry Brown is not an invincible hero – he is very accessible. This was a gripping film, filmed with ‘British realism’ – I loved it!

Social networking buttons thanks to these men: komodomedia.com.

Been looking forward to this one … Motorhead, Damned and Girlschool. Missed Girlschool due to work, but caught half the Damned’s set. I only had the one Damned album – their first – a cracker – I was hoping to hear some of it, but the set was focussed on later material – in Ru’s words ‘the poncy stuff’. Best songs had to be Love song and Smash it Up. Eloise was played pretty heavy and wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been. Captain Sensible made a comment that tonight was about Rock and Roll and two fingers up to Simon Cowell. Another quip ‘better than the Sex Pistols eh?’. He was carried off still playing at the end wearing his trademark berry and weird glasses.

Surrounded by nodding meatheads for Motorhead, possibly long haired rockers in a previous life, Motorhead’s set was not hit friendly – they were playing what they wanted to play and this was no greatest hits tour. For the first part of the set I was stood next to the only man in a white shirt in the gig, who was trying to dance in a very packed space (Academy fuller than I’ve ever seen it). His buttocks were rubbing up and down on my pint holding arm, and it was generally a little disconcerting. After a while he decided he needed to be more part of it, and headed off into the mosh pit. Playing with Mikkey Dee (drums) and Phil Campbell (lead), Lemmy didn’t appear to have aged since the last time I saw them maybe 15 years ago. Saw the following set list on the web for them for this tour :

1. Iron Fist, 2. Stay Clean, 3. Be My Baby, 4. Rock Out, 5. Metropolis, 6. Over The Top, 7. One Night Stand, 8. I Got Mine, 9. Guitar Solo, 10. The Thousand Names Of God, 11. Another Perfect Day, 12. In The Name Of Tragedy, 13. Just ‘Cos You Got The Power, 14. Going To Brazil, 15. Killed By Death, 16. Bomber. Encore: 17. Whorehouse Blues, 18. Ace Of Spades, 19. Overkill

Not 100% sure they stuck to this though as didn’t know all these songs. Highlights for me were: I got mine, Killed by Death, Bomber, Stay Clean, Overkill. We got the guitar solo and also an astoundingly loud drum solo by the ‘greatest drummer in the world’ (Lemmy’s words). My ears are still popping. It was long and insane – and while my initial reaction was ‘oh no’ – the solos brought the other two members of the band forward and you could see how they fitted into the band … you didn’t feel like you were going to see just Lemmy.

There was the odd track that was a bit of a plodder and I started thinking of dodging off to get another pint, but you couldn’t because you didn’t know what the next track was gonna be – it could have been a track you had been wanting to hear for the last 10 years.

I guess for me it was the speed freak numbers that made my day – for these Motorhead hadn’t slowed down at all, the screaming guitars were as fantastic as ever. They played a couple of covers – which I didn’t know – I guess they would have been a bit different for the fans who had been to all their tours over the years.

The encore started off with Mikkey and Phil coming out with acoustic guitars sitting on stools, and with a bit of played up embarrassment Lemmy sang a bluesy number – they were all smirking along doing this – not the greatest track but it gave the gig another dimension – then back to the thunderous rock and roll. Ace of Spades – was well Ace of Spades but Overkill was phenomenal – Lemmy kept holding his finger up ‘one more time’ and they would play the loop at the end of the track again one more blinding time. Amazing.

I’d wanted to see Motorhead again ‘before Lemmy croaked’ – but I think he’s probably gonna outlast us all … and in case I didn’t say it – it was a bloody brilliant gig, Lemmy did the shooting us with the guitar thing at the end

Another review here

For Fish, Corn and Mixed Pepper Curry …

Fry 2 small onions till browned in frying pan.
Add tin of tuna fish and tin of tomatoes
Add curry powder, herbs and any other seasoning as required
Cook on low to medium heat for 15 mins

Boil pan of water and when boiling add corn and mixed peppers
Cook corn and peppers till taste good

Mix corn & peppers with contents of frying pan
Cook for 5 mins longer to let tastes mix
Ready!!!

Serves two with rice or one hungry one as meal without rice

Had another go with jquery. Last time I had tried to use the xml functions for ajax. It worked, kind of, but kept clearing my cookies resulting in needing a nasty workaround to restore them.

This time I was going for something less ambitious – my homepage has a text area that changes depending on which of four graphics your cursor is over. I wanted the text area to slide up, down, in or out or some similar ‘cool’ effect, instead of just switching over.

Got the jquery installed and figured out the jquery code to do this … nice and straightforward – 20 mins. But then trying to get it to work smoothly and in a neat manner … no! The text would slide in and out, but it just wouldn’t work cleanly. After 1 1/2 hours faffing I’d had enough. Looked through the demoes for doing this kind of thing – they were all a bit jerky and just not good enough.

So once again – I like the idea of jquery – but it doesn’t quite work … then there’s the problem if there’s anything wrong with the jquery code – you need to be a javascript master to touch it …

Through the mist and rain the peak was nowhere to be seen …

… but coming down …