Free Thom Yorke remixes online...

Yep. If you're into Radiohead and/or Thome Yorke you might like to know that there are, in fact, two free remixes of tracks from Thome Yorke's solo album The Eraser. First reported in a blog post from Thom Yorke on Radiohead's official band blog, Dead Air Space the tracks are available on theeraser.net.

They're pretty interesting (and very fucked up!), and have been remixed by fans. They're not mindblowing (well, not in my opinion!) but I think they're worth a listen, especially if you're familiar with the album. Although I do have to say that I prefer the originals. Anyway, if there is a remix worth mentioning it's this one... The Clock performed acoustically by Thom Yorke on Later with Jools Holland. Enjoy.

How not to care...

This is the way to live! To not give a damn about what other people think and just have fun. This bloke has given me hope in the human race...

Oliver Stone joke bombs!

I was watching the 2006 British Comedy Awards on ITV with Lisa last night. After it finished on ITV it continued with more awards and backstage stuff on ITV2. It was on this part of the show that Oliver Stone came on to present an award. He told a really bad-taste joke about the Suffolk serial killer. He said "It's great to be back in England. I feel like the Jack The Ripper days are back. Nothing ever changes here." Realising that his joke fell flat on it's face he tried to dig himself out of the hole by saying "You're a wonderful audience"

For the full story of events that night check HERE

X Factor Rants

How the HELL can Ray still be in X-Factor?!? He's a creepy little one-trick pony that looks like he's bee raised by wolves!!! And even if he loses he's still booked for a 19 date tour in massive venues through til March next year!! LOOK!!!!

Blind Voyeurs have a LOUD practice

So, this weekend my band (Blind Voyeurs) had an 'emergency' practice in a practice room out in Sopley. This our first 'LOUD' practice with full drum kit and proper bass amp in a room in the middle of nowhere where we can play as loud as we like and no fucker will complain! WOO!

Oh my god, everything fell right into place and we are sounding amazing if I may say so myself. We've dropped a song called Ukul and replace it with The Mockery - a song that only me, Scott and Matt played once in a jam and that only us three knew how to play. We had a couple of jams on it with Lee, James and Martin and it ended up sound so ballsy that it's gonna be a face-melter! We're gonna use it as the last track to finish our set with.

Other songs that we were worried about sounding lame are now starting to sound like they have testes the likes of which will make King Kong bow down in shame, such as Ghost Written and Pale Blue Dot. All of this probably won't make much sence to most of you yet as you wouldn't hvae heard of some of the tracks. But you'll be hearing them when we have our first public gig on Friday 5th January 2007 at Centre Stage, next to Pig & Whistle, Westbourne. Be there folks!

Indians have small cocks - it's official!

A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men. According to this news article!

No don't laugh! It's a harrowing story!!

Say Hello to the Goodbye Weapon...

I read a sickening story today on Wired.com about a new weapon that the American Military have been developing in secret over the last 10 years. It's called the Active Denial System or ADS. It is a non-lethal weapon that fires beams of millimeters waves, which are longer in wavelength than x-rays but shorter than microwaves -- 94 GHz (= 3 mm wavelength) compared to 2.45 GHz (= 12 cm wavelength) in a standard microwave oven.

The fact that it uses a longer wavelength means that it limits the effects of radiation. Most of the radiation is instantly absorbed by the top layer of skin, heating it rapidly. The beam produces what experimenters call the "Goodbye effect," or "prompt and highly motivated escape behavior." In human tests, most subjects reached their pain threshold within 3 seconds, and none of the subjects could endure more than 5 seconds.

It acts on you natural human repelling reflex - as soon as you feel it you instantly want to move out of it, like you would if you touched a flame.

The weapon will be used for crowd control. It has the ability to clear a street in seconds. The USAAF have made a large number of elaborate tests on human subjects. The volunteers were military personnel: active, reserve or retired. They were unpaid, but the subjects would "benefit from direct knowledge that an effective nonlethal weapon system could soon be in the inventory," said one report. The tests ranged from simple exposure in the laboratory to elaborate war games involving hundreds of participants.

In more than 10,000 exposures, there were six cases of blistering and one instance of second-degree burns in a laboratory accident, the documents claim.

The ADS was developed in complete secrecy for 10 years at a cost of $40 million. The ADS technology is ready to deploy, and the Army requested ADS-armed Strykers for Iraq last year. But the military is well aware that any adverse publicity could finish the program. New bombs can be rushed into service in a matter of weeks, but the process is more complex for nonlethal weapons.

Hate Sprouts?

As you know, it's December. Therefore it's nearly Christmas. THEREFORE it's nearly that time of the year when we eat sprouts! Now, I love sprouts... didn't used to, mind. I used to hate them. I thought they tasted of sick! But now, I don't know why but I actually find them quite tasty. Maybe it's cos I've grown up a bit - I dunno. Anyway, today I was emailed this game where you squash sprouts and try to avoid them getting to your plate! Those sprout haters out there among you will love it. Enjoy!...

New look

Blogger, the site that manages this blog, have updated the way blog writers, such as myself, can control and maintain their blog. You may have noticed a small change in the navigation over there on the right. Now the old and archived posts are listed in a heirarchical format instead of the old flat format. This should make navigating to older posts a lot easier.

Also I can associate each post with Labels (or Tabs as some sites like to call them). This should help you find posts with similar topics. Kinda like film categories (Comedy, Horror, Drama etc)

Local Short Films...

Me and Scott were surfing a lot on Google Video's last night and we searched for Pokesdown (cos that's were we live!) to see if anything has been posted. This is what we found....


That was episode 3. You can see the rest HERE. It was a bit weird to watch at first but we found that it actually made us laugh quite a bit. NSFW (cos of swearing)

...in other news...

Lisa's had a hair cut, yes it's a Pob!...




There was a fire behind the house at the end of the car-park at work. Somebody called the fire brigade but neglected to tell them that the fire wasn't actually here at work but in the road behind. 2 fire engines turned up!...





Lisa, Scott and myself went Christmas shopping in Southampton. They had one of those German markets like they have in Bournmouth. We stopped at the German bar to have a nice hot drink (I forget what it's called - sounds like blue-vine I think!) It was nice...




Me and Scott got talking about Tracy Emin and about how stupid some of her art was. Ooooh wow - a messy bed! Yawn! We decided to throw together some random articles onto a frame and call it art. It's called Headphonenumberpill...




On the Tuesday 28th November it was Lisa's Dad's birthday. Happy 61th Charlie!! We went to Ask for a meal. Me and Scott were saying how if you were really dumb you could have the following conversation for eternity...

Man 1: "So where did you go for your meal?"
Man 2: "Ask!"
Man 1: "Ok, I will. Where did you go for your meal?"
Man 2: "Ask!"
Man 1: "Huh? I just did! Where did you go for your meal?"
Man 2: "Ask!"

....... you get the picture! Speaking of pictures...

And now, headlines without pictures.
Lisa get's vertigo again! Is off work for a while to recover. Is seeing a specialist soon.

Kim invited us up to stay for the first weekend in December, but only if Lisa's feeling better. Lisa looked like she was getting better and then it's got worse again!

Our band is having some very constructive practices. It's finally looking like our work is starting to take shape. We have new tunes to fill gaps and old ones that looked like they'd be impossible to play live are starting to work!

Torchwood is getting better, gorier and scarier.

I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is boring/annoying this year.

X-Factor is addictive just because the public are messing with the voting system! I mean are people seriously voting for Ray and The MacDonald Brothers because they are good? I think not! People are just voting for them to mess with the judges heads and money. The winners have to have a record contract. I mean, Ray is an annoying little shit that looks like he's been raised by wolves! And the MacDonald Brothers look like those creepy porcelain dolls that have come to life in some sort of horror movie! MAKE IT STOP!!




Oh and Me and Scott have rediscovered our worms!

Only 3 posts this months?!?

Yeah, I know. It has been a bit of a slow month really. Just trying to save money.
...although I did get a nice sum of money added to my wage this month cos of my shares in EMAP. So I've decided to allocate some money to myself for a lovely new Bass Guitar. The one I'm using at the moment is actually Glen's. He lent it to me about a year and a half ago and now he's itching to get it back. Fair enough. I should've bought one by now anyway.

Right, so I did a search on the old inter-web and found me a lovely Fender Squire black Jazz Bass that was just perfect for my price range (the only other option was Stagg - now they ARE cheapo!). The shop that was selling it was Sounds Live and I was actually really impressed with the very secure ordering process and rapid delivery. I ordered it on Tuesday afternoon and it arrived on Wednesday morning. Wow! When the delivery guy arrived in the van and handed the bass over to me he said "Ohh it looks like the box opened here" pointing to one end of the box.
I said "Ah don't worry about that it'll be fine." Signed on the dotted line and hurridly rushed upstairs to get me mitts on my lovely new instrument (ooer missus!). Everything looked in place. I tuned it up and started playing, then noticed in the corner of my eye a bloody great crater on the bottom. See pic (will be uploaded tonight). My heart sank! I've never felt excited and deflated at the same time before - it's horrible.

So after a bit of dicussion with Scott and Lisa and some of the guys at work I decided "I'm not having that!" so I rang up their customer support and they wewre really helpful. The problem was obviously when it was in transit. The glue on one end of the box had gone brittle and no longer stuck the cardboard box together. The bas must've slid out of the box when somone picked it up and it hit the concrete. Anyway, the customer service lady told me not to panic and just fill in the details on the website and within a couple of days they'll arrange for it to be picked up. I'm keeping an eye on my inbox and an ear on my phone!

Nintendo Wii

Lisa has put the deposit down for my Christmas present!! It's a Nintendo Wii. I honest can't wait and am so excited. At the moment I'm not interested in the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 because they're both extremely expensive and being corporate bullys. Both of them are employing a non standard technology to store the games on (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD) - it reminds me of the old VHS vs BETA days when video's first came out.

Let's look at the pricings for both using play.com: Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

As you can see, the 360 is retailing here at £279.99 with game and 20Gb hard-drive. The PS3 comes in at £549 with a 60Gb hard-drive, NO GAME. Now, the 360 has been out for over a year now so the price has come right down to a reasonable price for a new-ish console but in order to appreciate the games fully you need a HDTV... so that's gonna be another £400+ on top of that!! Same with the PS3. Also, I've seen comparison screenshots for the same game on both consoles and the PS3 looks so much better ... but it's much more expensive.

But that said, the original Playstation was £499 when that first came out and that too was a huge leap in console technology. I didn't get my first Playstation until about 2 years after it came out. I'll probably do the same here. In the meantime, though, the Nintendo Wii is a great console that doesn't demand you have the latest TV to play it. It's not a 'next generation' console like the other behemoths, it's more of an 'in-between generation' console. Besides, it's gonna have Mario and Zelda on it! Check the vid...

Now, in case you were wondering why the people in the video were flailing their arms around like novice gamers the Wii has a very unique control system with it. It can detect motion! So, if you're playing a game where you have a sword you can swing your arms around to swing the sword. This is a huge innovation with gaming technology, much more than just higher resolution graphics and the ability to throw billions of polygons around the screen in a fraction of a second.

Nah, I'm really happy with my present. I haven't had a Nintendo since the day's of the Super Nintendo. I missed out on owning an N64 and the GameCube - played them both and loved them but never actually owned one myself. I can't wait for Xmas.

Quiet times

I know I've not posted anything sinse November 1st, but to be brutally honest, Not a lot has happened. I've just been trying to save money these last couple of weeks - y'know tryin to get the ol' bank balance back in the black. Which ultimately means not going out and not buying DVD's, Games, Music, Magazines.... basically ANY type of media. I've been trying to keep food shopping and clothes shopping down. By that I mean not buying sandwiches during lunch everyday and make my own food where-ever possible. And why do I always think it neccesary to buy new clothes every month?.... saying that I have bought some new clothes but only a scarf and a beanie - last year's scarf shrank in the wash.

Since the last entry we've had fireworks/bonfire night. Me and Lisa went to Poole Quay to see some. It was pretty good fun, lots of festivities such as kiddies rides, bands and DJ's, jugglers, stilt walkers and lots of food and booze. Not much to say about this except the fireworks were pretty and there were massive queues at the bar. You woulda thought the pubs woulda put more staff on seeing as it's November 5th. Bad pub management all round! (also, the firworks didn't look as impressive as they do on the official link above. In fact they've super-imposed those fireworks in - they're not even in the right place!)

Also, we went to see The Prestige at the ABC Cinema last week using some free cinema tickets that my mum gave me a couple of months ago. The film was absolutely amazing and I thoroughly recommend you go see it. It's got lots of drama and intrigue and keeps you guessing right up to the end... although, being the clever soul that I am I worked it out about 30 mins before the end but hey, there were still some surprise bits at the end. I've got a feeling that it will be a love-it-or-hate-it type film. I'm in the love-it camp! I good movie for smart people - a confusing one for the dumber half of the population. Extra information for the fact finders: the film was directed by the same director as Momento and Batman Returns. Below is the trailer...

Halloween

So last night was Halloween. Or, to use a more traditional term, All Hallows Eve. Lisa, Scott and I weren't up for any parties this year (we're all trying to save cash) so we cooked up a crackin' curry and watched these two films...

Texas Chainsaw Massacre


Slither

They were ok. I mean, Texas Chainsaw Massacre was kinda unintentionally funny. It was just silly. We were ticking off the horror movie cliches as we went along. College students (check), pick up a hitcher (check), someone does some drugs (check), killer has some sort of disfigurement or limp (check), thunder (check), they think it's the killer but it's just an animal in the cupboard (check), a shadow flicks across the screen in the foreground (check), everyone dies except the bimbo (check), the car won't start (check), freaky kid (check), running in the woods away from the killer then fall over (check).... I could go on but I won't. In fact the only thing that made the film interesting was Jessica Biel's tits!...

After that we watched Slither. Now I though this film was great. It had that same sort of B-Movie feel to it that Tremors had. The film doesn't take itself seriously, it's has one liners and lots of outrageous gore. The special effects were amazing. The little alien slug things are really creepy and were really well done. And, yeah, of course there were some horror cliches in it too but, although this is supposed to be a micky-take of the horror genre, didn't have as many cliches in it as Texas Chainsaw Massacre - a film that's supposed to be a proper serious horror movie.

Maybe I'm just getting older and just don't find scary films scary anymore. I remember watching classics like Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween and absolutely shitting myself. But then when I watched these I was still at school and was about 14 or 15. We used to all talk about them in the playground as if we'd all seen something we're not supposed to see.

But then saying that I still haven't seen The Ring. I can't bring myself to watch it cos it freaks me out. I own The Grudge on DVD and that's a wicked film - totally freaked me out when I first saw it. And I s'pose The Exorcist still creeps me out a bit. The Shining is s'posed to be one of THE scariest films of all time but it never scared me - I just though it was a good little film with great ideas and great camera work.

Oh well, next year when it comes to choosing a scary film I'll have to do a little bit of research!

Strange Statues Around the world

Saw this article on Digg.com today and had to share it with everyone! It's a collection of photos of strange statues around the world. Some of them are a bit racy and made me think "how the hell did they get away with putting this on public display?" Click the link below to see the article. Enjoy

read more | digg story

Torchwood

I watched Torchwood on Sunday! It was great!!

For those of you that don't know, it's a Dr Who spin-off series. It's a lot more adult that the usual Dr Who series so don't let your kids watch it. Within the first 15 mins I counted 2 fucks, one bugger, 3 bloodys and a shit! It's also pretty darn gorey, has nudity, scenes of masterbation and sex with aliens. Defo not for the kids. But these aren't reasons alone why you should watch it. You should watch it because it so bloomin' good. I will be watching it every Sunday, 10pm, BBC3... repeated Wednesdays on BBC2.

Anniversary

Last Wednesday was mine and my girlfriend's 1 year anniversary! I can't belive that one year has gone by already! It's amazing how time flies when you're in love and more so everyday (I know, I know... a bit sickly sweet for some of you to read.... if anyone ever does!!)

Anyway, we went for a lovely Italian meal at Ask in Lansdowne. We both had some Salmony pasta thing with a side order that I can't spell and scrummy afters (which I also can't spell) washed up with some Pinot Grigio (I've got no problems spelling that - it's booze!) Then for a couple of pints Caffery's in O'Neills just across the road. O'Neills was the place we had our first date.... sorry, I'm getting all lovey-dovey again! ... It was weird in there though cos they'd moved everything around and it was pretty empty. We only stayed for one beer cos we were so stuffed after our meal and was starting to feel sleepy.

Here's to another wicked year with my soul one.

Dad's Birthday

Happy 60th to my dad! His birthday was on the 19th October. I know it's a bit late to post this but I've been extremely busy with the Blind Voyeurs filming and editing. Me and Lisa went up to Wimborne to see him over the weekend to wish him a happy birthday and to give him some presents. We got him a DVD about some classic cricket match with Ian Botham (I'm not to hot on my cricket - I think it was a 1981 match! Not sure) and a CD of The Best Of Bread. My dad is an all out Shadows fan. He owns everything they have on vinyl, cassette, CD AND DVD! Even some CDs of Shadows tribute acts! That's pretty much all he listens to. But I do remember when I was very young he used to have some Bread records so instead of looking for some Shads artifact that he wouldn't already own I got him this Bread CD. Thanksfully he was really chuffed with it. Phew!

Gig Preparations Underway...

After finalising a slot for Blind Voyeurs' first gig with Conrad of Solid Air preparations began straight away and now things are really starting to take shape. Up until now we were just jamming and writing new tunes constantly and now have, like, a million tunes and ideas just floating around in the ether. Now that we've actually got a date to work towards we're all a lot more focused of making a set number of tunes gig-able.

Word on the street is that Conrad is planning a new regular event for 2007 and beyond. The event will be more arty than the previous Solid Air with local talent showcasing not only music but other forms of art, such as films, photography, poetry, maybe performance art too. We've been booked for the first night and other acts are yet to confirm (wishlist: Sancho, Brenda, A&E Line) Scott and James from Blind Voyeurs are also going to be DJ'ing before and between acts.

On Friday 13th October, 2006 Blind Voyeurs got together to have a thorough think through (how many words beginning with 'th'??) about what we're gonna play. Although it wasn't intended we jammed a new tune for the intro to our set and then decided on what songs we should string together. We're gonna steer away from the 'play a tune then audience claps then play a tune then audience claps' approach. We're going to tie all tunes together in, what classical composers call, movements.

On Sunday Scott, Lisa and myself have started shooting for a short film which we're going to project behind the band. Ideas have been coming thick and fast since then and, after a couple of late nights, already have a good 5 minutes of film editted together nicely. We're going to edit the film to roughly fit the mood of the songs of our set. More news of this when it arrives.. in the meantime here are a few stills from the shoot...