Severe Jam Damage

In 3-D!
Next year!

This is the youtube video, but if you’ve got divx, Neil has a high-res version on his site.

So I’ve uh, been watching some of the new season stuff - don’t ask, don’t tell right?
anyway here’s a brief run-through:

Flight of the Conchords
Stars: No one you’ll know - ok its Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie… See? You still don’t know them.
Plot: New Zealand band move to New York and try to break into the music scene.
Thoughts: I’ve watched the first three episodes. The re-curring joke ‘Are you English?’ ‘No we’re from New Zealand’ grows tired very quickly. The songs (yes, that’s right, I said songs) are like something French and Saunders would write on a bad day. The Monkees this ain’t.
Final Comment:: Put it this way, I’ve got 5 episodes and have only been able to watch three.

Bionic Woman
Stars: Michelle Ryan (ex-eastender) some other people, and Katee Sackhoff (BSG) wearing make-up.
Plot: Same as the original, Jamie Sommers is in a horrific crash gets bionic ear, eye, arm and legs.
Thoughts: Actually its not quite the same, there is a much darker reason for Jamies’ accident which - call me twisted - I kinda liked. Michelle Ryan has taken to the American accent quite well, there’s no trace of her eastender roots, and she’s also cleaned up pretty good as well. I’ve only seen the first episode and there were small touches of ‘Alias’ and ‘Dark Angel’ which I hope they don’t continue to pursue as I wasn’t really a fan of either of those shows. The CGI looks pretty good (although I kinda miss the original ‘cha-cha-cha-cha-cha’ when she jumps), fight scenes weren’t bad either.
Final Comment: Could be a slow burner, this was picked up by NBC so there’ll be money behind it. I guess they are hoping to continue the success they’ve had with Heroes.

Sarah Connor Chronicles - Pilot
Stars: Summer Glau (’Firefly’ and ‘The 4400′), Lena Headey (’300′ and some other stuff) and Thomas Dekker (Heroes - he was Clares ‘friend’.)
Plot: Begins after T-2 and messes with the storyline so that 3 never happened.
Thoughts: Ok, so I’ve only seen the pilot, but the first 10 minutes were excrutiating. I don’t know if Lena Headey was still struggling with her American accent or what, but it was stilted and awful. Then it settled down and became a pretty good action show, good pacing and the characters seemed to settle in a bit. They seem to have a great set-up for when the actual show premieres (I think its March in the states.) Sarah Connor is younger (in the pilot they mention she was 19 when Kyle knocked her up with John) and the timeline is arseways, but considering I’m not sure what the original timeline was anyway, that might not be such a bad thing.
Final Comment: Another one that could be quite entertaining if they don’t mess it up.

Reaper
Stars: Well it’s directed by Kevin Smith, but the actors are pretty much unknowns - at least to me. Bret Harrison (reminds me a bit of Jake Ghyllenhaal) plays the lead role of ‘Sam’.
Plot: Sams parents sell his soul to the devil, so in return he becomes a bounty hunter for escaped souls.
Thoughts: Given that this is a Kevin Smith thing there is plenty of twisted humour in the show. Sam is cute and likeable even if he is a slacker, his mates are quirky enough to not be phased (too much) when he tells them the truth and there’s a wee hottie for love interest.
Final Thoughts: Could be ok, if Smith keeps the adolescent humour to a minimum. Trouble is it’s on CW and they don’t have a great track record with some of their shows. Chances of us getting it over here? Pretty low, unless Channel 6 scoops in. Then again RTE might just surprise us, but I don’t think so. We’ll probably have to wait a couple of years before Sky catches on, or Channel 4 and by that time it will probably be cancelled in the States.
Edit: Thanks for the update Priscilla, I got it wrong. Only the first episode was directed by Kevin Smith.

Heroes, Season 2
Okay so this isn’t strictly a new show cos I’ve already devoured series 1 and I’m hooked. But I just wanted to stick it in here. Have watched episode 1 of season 2. Despite my reservations about the Irish accents, it’ll probably be another good season. Some good setups in the first ep, if they can keep up what they did for season 1 they’ll have another winner on their hands. Good, entertaining fun.

WORST IRISH ACCENTS EVER.

That is all.

So yes, a few things to clear up. I’m still here, just not here if ya get me.

Besides the normal things like breathing, sleeping, eating and working I’ve been busy with other stuff, some of it net-based, some of it not.

In the ‘real-world’ category I went to London about a month ago for a few days, where I met up with Mr. Birdbath and Miss Rabbit. I’ve also been getting to grips with my new camera (a Nikon D80) and I’ve just bought myself a gorillapod. The weather here has been shite so there have only been a few evenings in beer gardens, but they’ve been bad enough to knock me out for a couple of days afterward.

Online stuff…
I’m still doing the 365 thing on flickr although I’m missing out days here and there more and more often. The Friday flickr fiction which some of you may remember ignoring here on SJD, has now been moved to a dedicated site on ning.com - We are now all over here if you want to continue to read my attempts at flash fiction. I’ve also gotten myself an account at Warren Ellis’ Club of Mars, but I really really don’t know what to put there, so its a bit dead at the moment.

I’m going to post here when I can and when I actually have something to say. Right now I’m up to my uxters completing this project and can’t wait to see the back of it. Only a couple more weeks… hopefully.

I meant to blog about this on Wednesday but as with every other thing I meant to blog about lately I haven’t had the time or patience to string more than two words together at any one time.
Anyway, what was my point?

oh yeah, Heroes.

The first season is finished and I watched the last episode there on Tuesday night thanks to er, modern technological advances and eh, stuff. Channel 6 is showing the first season here, but they are only at episode 14. Now that its finished I’m wondering what to do, pretty much all the shows have ended this week - Desperate Housewives, Heroes, Lost ends on Monday and Ugly Betty is finished next Thursday - which makes me sound like an awful couch potato, but really I’m not. I only watch a few shows (Grey’s season 3 has just started back on Living) so I don’t really watch THAT much telly.

Which reminds me, feckin’ BIG BROTHER is starting next week, so I really WILL be avoiding the television for the summer - or at least trying to.

Hmm, this was going to be a post about ‘Heroes’ and how much I loved it, and what wonderful eye-candy (episode 20 especially!) was on show and etc, etc. It was the small touches that I liked to pick out. Not the Stan Lee cameo, or the number of times the ‘Godsend’ symbol showed up, or George Takei’s licence plate (NCC-1701). Unlike Lost (season 1) I wasn’t so caught up in the mystery of it all. I just enjoyed it for the characters and plot in which the writers actually rewarded us viewers with ANSWERS.

The bits I loved were more subtle. The camera work is amazing, tilted shots, perspective, focus. Those shots you’d expect to see in a comic book panel, but without being a hokey Batman homage. Episode 17 ‘Company Man’ is an example of those little touches. (and the later episodes as well, which I WON’T spoil for those who haven’t yet seen them.) The zooms across the front lawn, tilted perspectives in the hallway, its all good.

Can’t wait for Volume 2!

Photo courtesy of HeroSite.net

Or the exact opposite of ‘Free Dublin.’ Yes, as I mentioned in the previous post it is very easy when you are not working to find ways to spend money. Buying a new laptop for instance, like the very one I am currently tapping away on. I picked it up on Friday and have been messing about on it for the weekend. Now all I need to do is get broadband in and I’ll be laughing (more money.)
Other ways to spend money are to go to the cinema, and at a tenner a pop (plus ‘corn) the coinage in your wallet soon disappears. I went to the cinema a couple of times this week, catching matinees of ‘You, Me and Dupree’ and ‘A Scanner Darkly.’ I wasn’t asked for a student card so obviously my wrinkles are getting worse.
Food is also a way to spend more money than you may have wanted. On Wednesday night I met Priscilla for a bit of food and ended up in La Taverna di Bacco in the new ‘Italian Quarter’ on the north side of the Millennium bridge. I would have been happy with a platter of meat, bread and cheese but somehow we found ourselves ushered upstairs to the proper ‘restaurant’. The menu was one page, containing 4 or 5 starters, 4 or 5 pastas and 4 or 5 meat courses. I ordered a soft cheese strudel with onion marmalade and Priscilla ordered the Smoked Goose to start. The strudel was nice although it was a good 50 minutes before our orders came through. We were drinking a bottle of wine and had been chatting away so it was only when the table beside us received a basket of bread that I realized we’d been sitting with no food for so long. Eventually the waitress returned with a basket of bread for us, but it was another 20 minutes or so before our starters came out. The strudel was quite nice, and I tried some of the smoked goose, which came thinly sliced and to my palate tasted fairly bland. There was another interminable wait for our main courses and the waitress apologized that there was a problem in the kitchen. At this stage there were only 4 tables of people, so a ‘problem in the kitchen’ meant it didn’t look good for anyone coming in for food for the rest of the evening. Anyway eventually our mains came, I had ordered sea bass which was served topped with some rather watery ‘sauteed’ potatoes, what appeared to be half a bushel of dill and a handful of pine nuts. I scraped the toppings off to find the fish was only half cooked. One side was done perfectly, it flaked away from the skin. The other side was translucent and slimy.
‘If I’d wanted sushi I’d have gone to Aya’ I muttered. By comparison Priscilla’s beef was cooked to perfection. Overall the meal, with the delays and the half cooked fish was not worth the money we paid. I’ve been to a few of the other places down in that area and they are much better both service and foodwise. Overpriced… definitely. If you are in the area I suggest you try one of the other places.

Oh Lord, I’m due to come into a bit of money next week. Not a lot, but my pay cheque is going to be a bit bigger than normal. Given the fact that access in work is so badly restricted and monitored and I can’t work on any of my own projects I’ve decided to spend this (small) windfall on a new laptop. I’ve spent the last three weeks looking at specs for various machines and at this stage my head is completely cabbaged. All I want is something that I can get online with, has a decent size hard drive, decent speed and won’t be obsolete within the next 2 months.

Who’da thunk it would be so hard to spend money?

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