Diamond bloke

I rate Dominik Diamond, I like his fresh, witty and forthright column in the Daily Star plus the stuff he does for computer magazines etc. I’ve always thought he was cool since his Gamesmaster days on Channel 4 when he was almost always sublimely sardonic with the guests and contestants. In his recent Wednesday column in the Daily Star he mentioned how British family seaside resorts are dying a slow deaths due to yobs on stag weekends and tacky boozers. I grinned when he mentioned the Australian theme bars known as ‘Walkabout Inn’s’ because I work for them in an indirect capacity and I personally think they suck. I remember on the first date with my ex, we were in Nottingham and before she caught the train home we decided to have a drink down by the river Trent. We stumbled upon a Jongleurs comedy bar which are actually owned by Regent Inn’s who also run the Walkabout pubs. On entering we were greeted by a throng of vociferous rugby player types all competing in some pant dropping game, not my idea of a first date location but how was I to know! The drinks prices were hideous and the toilets were verging on medieval. Dominik was right in his column, Walkabout bars are naff, totally and utterly naff, I’m sure they reflect nothing of what a real Australian pub is like. That’s the thing with these big pub chains these days, they are killing the individuality of pubs by making them generic homes for beer quaffing yobs who think they are somewhere stylish.

Record breaker

Official figures now show the Sony PSP to be the most successful console launch ever in the UK, a whopping 185,000 were sold in the first weekend of its release. At first people were sceptical of Sony’s own figures but these have now been clarified by Chart-Track among other independent sources. Adding to that success 9 of the 10 slots in the games charts were filled by PSP titles. The games press are heralding Sony’s Marketing strategy and savvy with the timing of the launch, the anticipation of the British public for the machine coupled with this countries current obsession with gadgets being another major factor of the launch success. Sony’s new slick hand held revelation sold twice the amount of the gimmicky Nintendo Ds which sold 87,000 units in its first weekend. Personally I see it as Sony giving the gaming public more of what they want and demand these days, top games on the move with the ability to watch movies and play music, something the quirky Nintendo Ds cannot do.

Jade

It makes you giggle sometimes how the press sensationalise things at times. I refer to ex big brother star Jade Goody who headlined the tabloids this week with an alleged shoplifting incident. After the hullabaloo has died down it seems the millionairess was just involved in a misunderstanding with shop staff and no charges are being made. A lot of people sneer and mock Jade but you can’t fault her for her fame, all she did was volunteer for a reality tv show and happen to do well out of it. I’ll admit a lot of the people that go on big brother have no talent at all, they are wannabe’s (alot of us are) but Jade has that common touch people relate too, she’s not a smart arse, she’s just working class girl that’s done good and enjoying life, which is something most of us crave.

Kiss News

China has just announced they have their very own 'Kiss' tribute band, the photo taken below being the most recent the band have released. (made me giggle anyway!)

Also worth a mention to fellow Kiss fans is the Kiss Expo is coming to Nottingham Rock City on Saturday November 19th. Kiss drummer Eric Singer will be making an appearence as well as Kiss tribute band 'Dressed to Kill'. There's also a Kiss podcast site I've found though sadly it's subcriber service though very good still for Kiss news.

Kiss Expo link: http://kissexpo.co.uk/

Kiss Podcast link: http://www.kisspodcast.com/

Dressed to Kill link : http://www.dressed-to-kill.co.uk/page-welcome/page-welcome.htm

Marv-ellous

Last Monday the kindly postman delivered the amazing Sin City on dvd, before it had hit the floor it was playing! Since then I’ve watched it probably around 8 times including taking it around to friends and forcing them to watch it. This film has really blown me away, especially the story within the film based on Frank Millers book called ‘The hard goodbye’. This short story features Mickey Rourke playing Marv, a rough-and-tumble loser come bruiser. Marv gets lucky one night and ends up bedding a female goddess called Goldie played by the lovely Jaime King. Not being blessed with a comely appearance Marv thinks his luck has finally changed when Goldie falls into his arms, unfortunately things go wrong from that point onwards. I won’t detail anymore of what happens to Marv so as not to spoil it but the story is nice and simple and perhaps a little sad. Mickey Rourke acts out of his skin, I’ve read the comic book story and Rourke is so like Marv it’s uncanny. There’s a lot in Marv’s segment of the film I identify with, both from my own personal perspective and the male ego one.

Marv’s story aside, Sin City is a brooding noir ballet of bullets and scantily clad broads, in short, Sin City is my top film of the moment, I could even be bold and make a sweeping statement and say of all time. Sin city is a comic book pumped with steroids and unleashed onto the big screen with a cast of film gods and angels. It’s lurid, its sublime, its sardonic and perverse – a collection of class vignette’s where the rain always falls and the sun never rises. Sin City is a place where the characters are more crooked than the alleyways and the dame’s are dangerous, it’s a city of escapism, it’s a movie triumph. Mr Rodriguez I salute you. Did I gush enough?

Anyway I’m going shopping to Asda after work so I gotta back to reality and do my grocery list.

Censored

The company I work for has decided in their infinite wisdom to get the Matrix style Agent Smith boys in the I.T dept to crack down and censor what websites workers can access. Whilst I understand what they are trying to do I also things it’s damn petty too. Working shifts like I do the internet has been a saviour, it’s kept me ticking over and entertained in those dull moments when I can relax, surf, pay bills, read other blogs and look at pvc lingerie. Luckily I can still access my blog because the men in black suits (not pvc) in I.T don’t realise I know Neo and can still access the matrix! Makes you wonder though how much the corporate big brother is actually watching you. The next job I want is an ice cream man, because even if the van breaks down people will walk to it to buy ice creams – well that’s my theory anyway. So the picture above is dedicated to the guys in I.T !

Playstation

The Sony Playstation was 10 years old yesterday, I remember the excitement as it hit the shops all those years ago and the cramps in my stomach when I thought I may not get one. Since then the Playstation has sold into the millions, game titles number in the thousands and its become a household institution. Next year the must anticipated Playstation 3 hits the shelves and this month the sleek and very versatile Playstation portable arrived. Anyway here’s what some of the industry insiders had to say in a recent Guardian article:

Michael Hayes, chief executive, Sega Europe

Sony simply got the balance right between image, marketing and publishing. Nintendo and, to a lesser extent, Sega had built their empires on first-party profits. What Sony realised was that to support a large, mainstream base it needed to encourage third-party publishers, and it did so extremely well with access-all- areas support, marketing and good royalties.
They created a cachet for the brand without going over the top ... and remember, Sony was a broad consumer electronics badge: there was nothing of the geek about it.
Of course, since then others have learned the same tricks, and next time round Microsoft will give it a serious run for its money. But all things considered it has been a great decade to be a games publisher.

Rik Skews, production manager, Namco Europe

I was a freelance writer when someone came in with a Japanese PlayStation and a copy of Ridge Racer, and I remember being cynical that anyone could produce a great games machine from scratch. Don't forget, at the time, Macs and PCs were still streaming graphics off the CD - but with Ridge Racer you could take the CD out and still play it in real time. My jaw literally hit the desk.
The Sega Saturn was a great machine, but the PlayStation simply eclipsed it and the leap from 2D to 3D was exactly what consumers had been waiting for.

Roger Bennett, director general, Elspa

Before Playstation there was a lot of insecurity, in fact I remember Chris Deering [the soon-to-retire boss of Sony Europe] telling me he wasn't sure they'd be around in 18 months ... it's a different ballgame now. More than anything, Sony had fantastic brand awareness, they managed to make it both mainstream and niche - and it changed the market more than any of us expected.
Yes, there have been downsides; for independent developers, it's a lot more expensive to produce content - but those that succeed are growing faster, and without the PlayStation it's probably true to say we'd all be struggling now.

Kiss in London

Found this really cool Kiss photo on the net, must have been taken in the 70's in Westminster. Thought I'd share it with you, I'm sure Pat will like it.

Radical

I’d like to recommend a blog created by my esteemed work colleague created on the msn feature called ‘Spaces’. Although some of his views on reality tv are polar to my own it’s a very well set out blog and a worthy read. Though I find some of the content a tad radical concerning my beloved reality tv there’s some interesting ideas and comments on there that reinforce the fact blogs are fantastic forums. The subjects of my work colleague’s blog have certainly made for interesting conversation at work! Click the link below to take a look.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/thulsa/

Pinstriped and white

There’s something about women in pinstriped trousers suits that does it for me. I can’t explain why but a woman adorned in a pinstriped outfit turns me to jelly, maybe it’s the power thing or just something that strikes a chord with me. It the same with women with pure white hair that are in their late 30’s / early 40’s. The other day I saw a woman in I assume was her late 30’s with a lovely mane of flowing white semi curly hair, it almost stopped me in my tracks it looked that awesome.

Anyway I’d best get to work…

Rock School

Channel 4 will show the premiere episode of Rock School next Friday, Sept 30 at 9:00 pm. I’m told it’s similar to the film ‘School of Rock’ (I’ve not seen it) but with a reality tv twist. The most important thing about the show is that its fronted by one of my all time hero’s and gods of rock Gene Simmons of Kiss (pic above). Apparently this show has been aired in the States and VH1 and is now going to be shown on terrestrial telly – can’t wait.

The Raveonettes

I recently stumbled upon a fab cd in selectadisc in Nottingham, never heard anything by the The Raveonettes before but liked the cd cover so bought it – I’m fickle like that! Anyway, it turned out to be a real gem and I can’t stop playing it, the paragraph below is from their official website but explains their style better than I could. On listening to the first couple of tracks I was unsure then suddenly I was hooked when I heard the tracks ‘love in a trashcan’, ‘Sleepwalking’ and ‘Twilight’.

'Stylish, confident, and, frankly, slightly menacing, the Raveonettes--Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo--made their mark on the emerging new garage-rock scene in 2002 with a flair for the dramatic. Their image was pure '50s retro-cool: lanky, dark-haired Sune and six-foot blonde glamazon Sharin wore black leather and sat astride motorbikes. The Danish duo doused their stripped-down songs about sex, suicide, and prostitution with noisy, fuzzed-out guitar, sweet boy-girl harmonies, and sleazy surf-punk twang. It sounded like a clash between Mods and Rockers if the brawl had taken place on the set of California beach movie.'

http://www.theraveonettes.com/