Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Drunk Uni Pals


Here is a video(The Aran Price Experience Feat. Kieran Phyo) shot, edited and produced by yours truly. Windows Movie Maker is really a good piece of software. I expect it will be improved upon in Vista with video being used more thanks to the likes of you tube.

The real reason I posted this is so that the video is indexed on google so it is easier to find.

Quick Post

I've been really quite busy in the last few days and I haven't had a lot of time to post. Lecture's have begun and I am working hard...at least for now anyway. I am also holding down two jobs and as usual at uni I have a pretty active social life so I am just trying to figure out how best to fit in sleep.

Google has bough you tube and I really don't understand why on earth they would waste $1.86bn on a brand name. I doubt even Nike is really worth that much. At the end of the day the tech is nothing new and there are plenty of alternatives that the fickle users may suddenly like better. Google really need to stay ahead of the game and prey they can make some good deals with record and film companies to make a profit out of what I expect to be a real loser of a deal.

They really should have just agreed to advertise like they did on MySpace, it would have cost less, carried less risk and been immediatly profitable.

Anyway I plan to post again tonight if I get time.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Lost

Just finished the new episode of Lost. Stunning visuals in the opening scene but yet again we have more questions than answers. Hopefully this will change as things continue. Still good compulsive viewing though.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Fountains of Wayne

Fountains of Wayne - Band Review

I first discovered Fountains of Wayne somtime in 2004 when they brilliant video for Stacy's Mom was doing the rounds. My initial reaction to the song was similar to the reaction I had to Bowling For Soup's "1985". I thought the song was good but nothing outstanding and left things at that. To be honest the name put me off a little, it just sounded a little too experimental.

In the summer holidays of that year I started listening to Radio 2 on a morning because I quite liked Ken Bruce's banter and a good selection of music. During the holiday months the record of the week was "Hey Julie" by FoW. That song really appealed to me. It is catchy, musically impressive and containts a good selection of funny lyrics. So on my next trip to Newcastle I bought their then current album "Welcome Interstate Managers" (for the steep sum of £12 - I never normally buy full price CD's; only those on offer but I really wanted this one). To date it is the most played CD I've ever owned, even beating Oasis's "Whats the Story...".

"Welcome Interstate Managers" really has everything. Some of the songs are slow and acoustic(Hey Julie), others have a pop-punk feel(Stacy's Mom), others have a more oasis style rock sound(Little Red Light), Zeppelin-esque riffs (Bright Future In Sales) and one track is country(Hung Up On You).

I personally played the album millions of times and since then my brother, father and girlfriend have done the same. These three people have very broad tastes in music (all rock/pop based but they are as different as Westlife and Floyd) and something in the album appeals to each of them. To me that is a marker of a great album.

During my several trips to America in the last 1.5years I have bought all of their CD's and with the help of the internet I have lots of their video's and bootlegs. Overall I would say that the order of the albums goes like this (1 being best):
  1. Welcome Interstate Managers
  2. Utopia Parkway
  3. Fountains Of Wanyne
  4. Out Of State Plates
All of the albums have great pop songs on them and are worth more than just about any of the albums you can buy from Razorlight, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand etc. (N.B. I paid for albums from all of the last 3 artists so I'm not just blindly insulting them).

I look forward to the next release and hopefully a UK tour in the near future!

I will leave you with the video for the brilliant Mexican Wine:

Violence In Society

Fresher's week here in Stockton took a very unpleasent turn on Monday Night. At a newly opened club called che bar everything was going really well, everyone was having a good time. I was not drinking as I was recovering from the flu but the songs were good and I was having a good time. Like most clubs it was very hot inside so I stepped outside for some air.

I was stood outside for about a minute when one of the freshers reps seems to have a scuffle and runs very fast towards the club. The bouncers stopped him quickly and before I saw anything else the guy behind him had two bouncers on him. What had happened was the freshers rep had been stabbed in the chest. From that point on I was in a state of disbelief while trying to help out keep people in the club until the police and ambulence had gone.

It seems that the knife missed all internal organs and the freshers rep is going to be ok though he is still very ill.

I, like everyone who reads a newspaper, knew about the increasing number of incidents of knife crime in the UK but I've never been personally involved. The effect it has on people is quite dramatic. The next day I still felt like I was in a daze as I spoke to the other members of the JCR who also know the freshers rep hurt. Everyone is shocked and hoping and praying for his recovery.

I really feel sorry for him and his family who must be going through such an ordeal at the moment. I also feel for the bar owner. The night was great and through no fault of their own their reputation has been tarnished.

On a side note, when I gave my statement to the police the next day I was told the attacker was a fail asylum seeker. That really annoyed me but I'm not going to discuss that messy issue in this post.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Netvibes

Netvibes, a great website that acts as my gateway to the internet has made some useful improvements. The main difference to me is made by the box.net incorporation and the myspace tool. While I use neither site very often I think due to the easy of accessibility provided by netvibes I may start doing so. If you click on the screenshot you can see a good view of what it looks like at the moment.

Studio 60 On Sunset



I just finished watching the first two episodes of Studio 60... and it's brilliant. It really picks up where the West Wing left off. The stories are superb but as with the early parts of the West Wing, its the dialogue and acting that really make the show watchable.

I find it funny that a show who's main theme is improving the standard of television is in itself trying to do that. It seems much of the basis of the plot is real life. The creator Aaron Sorkin had some drugs problems during the production of the West Wing leading him to leave the show.

Clearly the actors know Sorkin is something special given so many who starred in the West Wing are parts of this series (Brady Whitford, Timothy Busfield and Matthew Perry).

I want to see the show grow from strength to strength and I hope that it takes of in the UK in a way the West Wing never did.

My New House

Here is a video of my new house: