WALL:E - best film I've seen in a good while...

Ah Pixar. When they make a film for adults, they can't be beat. I loved the Incredibles - it just had so much going on, on many a level, with great acting and some top superhero jokes appealing to my beloved geekery. Unfortunately they also make films for kids, and sometimes forget about me and my needs, so I've never really got on board with films like Cars.

WALL:E - as you can imagine, made me hopeful. It's a film about a robot, which puts it in line with some others of my all time favourites, Silent Runnning*, Short Circuit, Iron Giant, and the rest, with the human cast reduced (literally) to bags of mostly water.

It's also, sort of, post-apocalyptic, hitting my second geekery button full-on, delivering a stunning vision of earth; rusted and overrun with discarded technology. There's a scene focusing on the rotting hulls of several huge ships - which can't help but bring to mind ship breaking in the developing world.

And, in the ultimate test - I now want my own WALL:E. Where did I leave my Gamecube...

* No it is not about Bruce Dern. Or trees. It's all about the drones.

Carpet Smell

We've just had new carpet put down on the stairs in our house. Random thing to write about you might think, but for me, it's a bit Proustian.

Ahhh, 'Carpet Smell'. A bit like the fact that new cars and books have their own special smell, so does carpet. And it triggers happy memories of childhood trips to B&Q, and rolling through the giant carpet pyramid things.

Especially the ones really close together that squeezed you a bit like a mangle.

CC Image from Marc E Marc.

Creedence Clearwater Revival Revival

Rocking a bit of Creedence on the way to work today, inspired by Die Hard 4.0* of all things. Fortunate Son has got to be one of the greatest songs ever? No?

I think Barack Obama could do worse for a campaign theme song:

Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war,
And when you ask them, how much should we give?
Ooh, they only answer more! more! more!

It aint me, it aint me, I aint no military son,
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one.

And many more like that!

Top tune for a summer day...

* Actually quite enjoyed Die Hard 4.0, until the bit with the plane. Even the cod internet science, which seemed to owe quite a lot to the LOLCats, with lots of government 'cyber' officials running around shouting 'Oh Noes - they in ur internets, hacking ur freedoms/cheezburgers'.

Borrowed the image from - www.creedence-online.net

George W Bush

I saw GW yesterday morning. Apparently he's in town to 'hold talks' or something, but really I think he's here for a jolly, making the most of his last few months on the presidential expense account. I mean, how else can you account for his proximity to top tourist destination Madame Tussauds?


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Anyway - having peacefully cycled most of the way to work, traffic was quite rudely interrupted by a Policeman on a motorbike, with a whistle. Very hi-tech, yes. Anyway, having transformed the junction of Marylebone Road and Gloucester Place into a one man techno party of flashing lights, luminous vests and loud whistling, he settled us in to wait as GW rolled past in a limo. Follwed by another limo with some other people in. Then an armoured Land Rover with a tooled up SWAT team in. Then some soldiers in a truck, another limo, a minibus (WTF?), two police vans full of Met officers, about six more motorbikes (with whistles), more four-by-fours with secret service suits in and a couple more limos for good measure.

This took all of about ten minutes to unfold during which time I was frantically racking my limited brains for something hilarious to do to protest about war, or oil, or buying elections, or playing golf while the world burns, but unfortunately, without anything much to hand - a bike, a bike helmet, a packed lunch? I had to sit quietly at the lights while whistly police man glared at me, whistling occasionally to stop people from going about their normal business.

Missed opportunity - if only I had a banner, or even an FCUK BSUH* T-shirt to wear...

Ah well. A friend tells me that the insane entourage is not unusual and when Bill CLinton visited his (entourage) was just as big, and we all liked him, apparently.

* That's a Mark Thomas joke by the way - I'm not claiming credit for it!

France and French Things

I should get round to writing more about all of these (and there will be many pictures to illustrate soon) but for now - here are some 'observations'.

1. Wine that costs 1 euro a litre and comes in a plastic barrel is really really nice.
2. Cassoulet is the best food in the world, and is even better with confit of duck on top.
3. Stansted is the arse-end of all airports.
4. Villages in gorges are cool.
5. Naming new species of insects must be really difficult.
6. Cheese for breakfast is brilliant.
7. The desire to drive old wooden boats down canals increases the longer you spend in the vicinity of the Canal du Midi.

Did I mention wine in a plastic barrel?

Lego Indy

Is out this weekend, but I managed to get a sneaky go last night up in Nottingham.

As definitely expected it looks like it's going to be bags (definitely satchel man bags a la Indy) of fun.

First impressions were good I played through most of the Well of Souls level and there is definitely more emphasis on team play than in the Lego Star Wars titles.

For example Indy has a whip to swing across gaps, but can't jump half as high as Marion can (but then as I've explained before - Indy was never the most athletic of action heroes...)

As ever the humour is pretty irreverrent, as you might expect Indy is pretty terrified of snakes, and in the section I played - naturally titled 'Why does it always have to be snakes?' the game gets a lot of mileage out of it, and not just in the cut scenes, Indy's fear of snakes gets into the gameplay as well, needing more of that co-operation stuff to get by the scary things.

Will have to wait though - off to France tomorrow, so any more Indy gaming is postponed till next week.

Image: Lego Indiana Jones from Flickr User Dunechaser

New Bag...

I'm rocking a new bag today - freshly picked up from the bike shop. Alright - I got it at cycle surgery in Selfridges so the missus has a big old yellow bag to show off with now...

It's great and satisfies my geekish need for things that are gadgetified. So no ordinary rucksack then?

Hyper Air 14 + 3
weight: Air: 870 g / Vent: 960 g
metrics: 43 x 25 x 13 cm

equipment:

• comes with the Vent-tex or the Aeroflex suspension system
• anatomical shoulder straps made from breathable 3D mesh
• shoulder straps with the innovative F.L.A.S.H. adjustment system
• front outer pocket with mesh organiser
• hydration system compatible
• expandable volume
• strobe light holder
• individually adjustable chest harness and hip belt
• removable zip coin compartment
• reflective elements
• Raincover included

It's got fancy mesh suspension bit to stop my back from getting sweaty (worked really well this morning), a whole bunch of pockets and clips and things, and a raincover hidden away in a secret pocket.

In all - geeky bag heaven.

I can haz cheez?

I can haz cheez?
Originally uploaded by Spacmonster

Aah - Fondue. A right old cheese feast. Have felt slightly sick ever since but - I do love cheese.

We got the fondue set (in very fetching orange) as a wedding gift, but, for some reason we haven't used it very often. Probably because eating that much cheese makes you feel a bit sick...

Anyway, fondue set was out, fridge was full of cheese so there was only one logical conclusion.

The recipe then - in case you want to emulate our cheesiness:

1. A whole bunch of cheese - we used Leerdammer and Cheddar, you're supposed to use gruyere, but we didn't have any. We stopped short of using the really stinky Camembert that is currently honking in the fridge.
2. Some garlic. A teaspoon of 'very lazy' garlic in this case, but otherwise probably a small clove or so.
3. A splash of wine.
4. Teaspoon of cornflour mixed with a tiny bit of water.

Bung it all in a saucepan until its melted and thick and gloopy. (Too thick? Add a bit more wine. Too thin? Add some more cornflour.)

Salt and Pepper.

Then into the magic fondue badger. Ours burns meths, which reminds me of DofE. Serve with - bread, olive fougasse, boiled potatoes and broccoli.


Yummy.

Nintendo DS

Some things, are just great. I've recently come into possession of a Nintendo DS and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I'm a huuuuuge Zelda fan having lost many a long hour to the series.

However, as I didn't really get into it until it turned 3D (having done most of my gaming on the Amiga rather than a NES/SNES) I've, wait for the shock, never actually played a 2D Zelda before.

Phantom Hourglass, is, admittedly, more of a top down isometric style view, but the game play has more in common with the old style 2D stuff than with the others I've played.

This is reassuring to me on many levels - firstly, I've already happily whiled away a lengthy train journey exploring dungeons etc, only mildly embarassed by blowing at the DS and talking to it when the game requires.

Secondly, it reconfirms my belief that I like innovative interesting puzzle games the most (after having gotten into Call of Duty and its ilk on my Xbox) and am therefore an interesting and suitably geeky gamer that doesn't value HD gun fests above interesting puzzles.

Thirdly - It's gotten the missus interested. She's probably spent as much time on it as I have (but hasn't got as far - ha!).

So all that's needed now is to find her a nice blonde friend and a couple of green outfits and I'm away.

Mario Kart next.

Indiana Jones and the Killer Ants...

Would have been a better title I think. Course - Indy IV has opened up a whole can of worms. I know people that liked it. People that loved it, and people that have started compiling lists of all the things they hated about it...

Personally, I thought it was great. Not without its flaws, which I won't go into in any great detail, in case there is anyone left who hasn't seen it, but the fridge, the monkeys and the tenuous justification for swordfighting were three.

I loved other bits though - including the ants - did I mention the ants. Killer ants are always great, one of my favourite episodes of MacGuyver ever is based on killer ants, and is totally awesome...



MacGuyver rocks.

So anyway, back to Indy IV, all in all, pretty pleasing, very silly and very cleverly adapts to a 65 year old action hero without any Roger Moore style stunts. Harrison Ford was never all that co-ordinated or athletic a runner to begin with so there's no loss of continuity when he tries to run - interestingly, in one of many nods to the previous films - Indy isn't so good at outrunning Indians anymore...

Anyway - I've started giving away plot details now so I'd better stop - my advice? Go see it and decide for yourself, it's definitely one of those films.