glastonbury 2009 round up

the first and arguably the biggest music festival of the year just ended this weekend and it looked pretty awesome as always. i didn't actually go this year (two main reasons: the lineup for the most part didn't appeal much to me and i had no way of getting there or back) but i did go last year and had a really great time. glastonbury seems to be famous for it's weather issues (i don't understand why they don't move the festival to july/august time) but it seems both this year and last year seem to have been pretty varied but mostly dry, from what i saw anyway and i saw alot.

i spent most of the weekend watching the bbc coverage which i really can't fault. 6music had full coverage all weekend just playing live music from the festival with an extra weekend dose of adam and joe - 6music ftw! they also showed a wide selection of all the good bands and the stuff i wasn't really interested in on bbc 2 and 3, but with the red button stuff too at least i could pick and choose who i wanted to see and when. the only way the bbc could have done a better job would be to replace the retarded hosts (bring back adam and joe!) or do away with the hosts altogether and just play some bands. nobody gives a fuck edith! nobody is watching this for your awkward "banter" with reggie dickhead yates! get back to the music already!

one of the particular highlights for me would have to be pendulum. i saw them live last year at the reading festival and that was a pretty incredible experience. i wouldn't even say i'm that big of a pendulum fan but live they are immense! really get the crowd going, check them out:

quick list of other bands there that i thought looked really good live: bloc party, yeah yeah yeahs, kasabian, prodigy, fleet foxes, the ting tings, maximo park, franz ferdinand, doves and friendly fires. that said some of these i'll be seeing at reading festival this year :)

one of the things that put me off going this year most was the headliners. don't get me wrong a diverse lineup is probably one of glastonbury's biggest strengths but this year's just didn't appeal much for me. except one.

blur was probably the first band i actually liked when i was young so i was looking forward to seeing what they'd do. i know alot of their songs but there's so many you forget and seeing them performed live it just looked awesome. they played 24 songs in total and ended on the universal.

probably not my favorite blur song but that's the only clip i could find :)

to see more of glastonbury be sure to check out more on the iplayer while it's online or i think it'll be on bbc 3 during the week too.

after seeing the highlights i'd say i'm pretty set on going next year regardless of the lineup (which normally isn't announced till the tickets sellout anyway). plus i think next year is the 40th glastonbury festival so they should have something special planned.

see ya there! :D

transformers poo review

where do i begin... well the bad springs to mind, so let's start with that.
it's kind of depressing that in this day and age (i'm not trying to sound old) something like this can reach the masses. when i think about the whole process that movies have to go through to actually reach cinemas worldwide - all the script writers, editors, the director, the cast, the effects guys, test audiences, everyone listed in the credits - at no point did anyone put their hand up and say 'heeeeeeeeey, wait a minute! this part sucks!'. there's so much here that i would hope anyone would have picked up on any of the crap that went into this movie. don't get me wrong i probably couldn't do better (...actually maybe i could, but another time) but c'mon studios! sort your god damn filtering process out and save yourself alot of money!

i admit i've never been a fan of transformers (bit before my time grandad) but at least the first movie managed to keep my attention. and at least in michael bays other work i remotely gave a shit about the characters (i still love con air and the rock dispite nic's acting talents). throughout this movie i couldn't care less if any or all of them got killed off - in fact through the second half i was kinda preying for some sort of t.w.m.d (yes that's transformers weapon of mass distruction aka 'the matrix key' or whatever it was called in this movie) would just go off and kill them all so i could go walk off my numb ass and forget this movie sooner.


it was also quite funny how sexist the movie seemed. there's pretty much one girl in the whole movie.

a woman? yeah a woman. and yeah megan fox is pretty hot if your into that fake looking slutty type whose hobbies include bending over bikes and jiggling away from explosions in slow motion. oh and just for something to keep the female viewers interested we'll add some lovey dovey, badly written scenes with the exact same greenday song playing and slot them randomly into the film.

the jar jar binks fans out there will enjoy the two useless autobot twins 'cause i bet no one else watching this movie found them annoying right?

"hmm i'll tell you what this script needs... dog fucking!" ... yeah whose weirdo idea was that? and more importantly how was this not vetted out (haha vetted, you see! cos they are dogs! i dun a funny! maybe neutered out would have been better, nevermind whatever).



questions that spring to my mind during the movie:
why leave these t.w.m.d's in existence, let alone on earth?
why would these advanced aliens even stay on earth just to blow our shit up?
how useless and futile anything the humans do is. why even get involed? it's not like you can stop them.
how shia's prision break style disguise (a baseball cap) is gunna fool anyone?
why not roll the credits hours ago and save the world some time?
why am i still sat here watching this?
who would win in a fight: a monkey with a stapler or an invisible pelican?

well that's the bad, now the good...
urrrmm the special effects... umm yep that's it, and i can't fault it there but there's only so much cg your eyes can take until your desensitized to it. it's kinda like when toy story first came out - really impressive at first but about 30mins in the cg is just a given and the script needs to take over (toy story: win, transformers 2 ... epic fail).

oh and doctor claw from inspector gadget doing the voice for the satellite decepticon, that was quite funny.

anyway if your gunna watch something at the cinema this week i'd recommend you invest your stock in drag me to hell, the hangover or star trek (if you still haven't seen it) and save terminator salvation and transformers 2 for a dvd, i'm sure they'd make good coasters.

it's also worth checking out this review. it's probably the best review i've seen for it online :)

curing boredom, one game at a time

well i'm back at work, bored. but i thought i'd pass on a couple of games i'm currently addicted to between my times of of back breaking labour. popcap have been making addictive casual mini games for a long time now - most popular probably being bejeweled (and everyone's played that in one form or another by now right?). i even actually bought feeding frenzy on the xbox live arcade when it came out (that reminds me, i probably should play some more of that and get my monies worth).

anyway here's the big two i'm hooked on at the mo...

first up is plants vs zombies.

this is another one of those tower defence games. when a horde of zombies comes a-knocking you do the only logical thing you can ... plant seeds in your garden that shoot them ... yeah, i dunno what the makers of this game were thinking but don't be fooled! this game is very addictive. different plants attack in different ways (as all zombie hating gardeners know). there are many different types of zombies with different strengths and weaknesses so choose your seeds carefully (the michael jackson zombie can be a bitch - if you don't put him down quick enough his dancing will bring even more zombies to your door).

you can download the trial or full game on their official site (or elsewhere if you look hard enough).

the second game is peggle.

this is another popcap game and it's freaking addictive! the concept is fairly simple. it's a peg and ball game. you got 10 balls you have to use to get rid of orange pegs by hitting them. there's also a ball catcher at the bottom of the screen that constantly moves from left to right - if it catches your ball you get to use it again. there's also loads of different power ups you can get by hitting the green pegs and bonus points are given for hitting purple ones. if it sounds boring you need to give it a try or see it in action to comprehend the addiction.

this game is currently on pc, xbox, nintendo ds, iphone and on some ipods.

again you can find it on their official site (or from other interwebs).

and just as a bonus i'll recommend one more. this one's probably a bit older so you may have already tried it. if not, try this on for size.

world of goo

this is a physics based game where the idea is to build structures from goo balls to reach a goal. sort of lemmings style but with more creativity by making your own ways out. alot of it is trial and error until you figure out what you should be doing (or just search youtube for a solution to the game your stuck on).

you can get this on pc or download it on your wii.

as before you can locate it on their official site (alternatively via other means).

and just one more to finish on 'cause i've just thought of it (after all the structure building talk)...

everyone should check out http://fantasticcontraption.com 'cause this one is just web based (so not downloading/installing) plus it's free!

the object is to build something to carry the pink ball into the goal area. again this one has alot of trial and error gameplay but every level has loads of different ways to complete so give it a try.

it's also worth checking out some of the ones the pro's have made on youtube - they are pretty crazy.

anyway check them out and lemme know what you think.

eastbound and down

i love this show and can't seem to find many people who have seen it. eastbound and down is a comedy that aired earlier this year on u.s tv. it stars danny mcbride as kenny powers a has been professional baseball pitcher trying to make a comeback. will ferrell and craig robinson also make a few guest appearances through the short first season (but a second season has been ordered).

if you like your comedies give this a go. there's only six episodes in the first season and each episode is only about half an hour long but they are very funny.

i've even found some download links so you have no excuse.

aren't you lucky!

episode 1 | episode 2 | episode 3episode 4 | episode 5 | episode 6

the hangover review

i'll try and keep this pretty short and avoid any spoilers. this is the third film i've seen from my new movies post - and it was very good! i'm a pretty big fan of todd phillips' movies anyway (old school, starsky & hutch, road trip, school for scoundrels ... umm not so much) but this didn't disappoint.

alot of these kinds of movies can have a tendency to use up all the funny parts in the trailer but the movie felt pretty funny all the way through. i wouldn't go as far as to say "funniest movie of 2009" (i'm hoping bruno with come through for that) but it's a good film. probably could wait for the dvd but if you need something to see at the cinema this week this and drag me to hell (if they're still showing it) won't disappoint - yes i'm looking at you terminator salvation...

looking on imdb it seems the studios have deemed this sequel worthy already along with old school dos which is cool.

cake fails

who doesn't like cake? what's the only thing better than a cake? a cake fail! cake wrecks is a blog dedicated to shared the failed cake love.

when someone misspells, mishears or just generally fucks up it's funny, but to take that mistake and blindly run with it straight to the bakers it escalates to a whole new level of comedy.

you can imagine the phone conversation:

"yeah we want it to say 'best wishes suyanne' and underneath that 'we will miss you', got that?".

oh yeah, bonus fail points for also misspelling underneath ... unless the baker was irish.

or "yeah it's really simple. we just want it to say 'welcome baby' ... in pink".

but some of them are just plain funny.

i mean who wouldn't want a chewbacca cake right?

hmm i need a unique mothers day cake, ooh how about this...

happy mothers day!

and just to finish, how about this guy...

i quite like him. can you image if tom hanks in castaway found this washed up instead of the football.

anyway more cake fails to be found at http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com

new kasabian album

kasabian - the west ryder pauper lunatic asylum

quick music recomendation. got this album the other week and it's pretty good (stupid album title aside). i wouldn't say i'm a hardcore kasabian fan but i do like their other two albums and they've got alota good singles in their back catalogue.

fave tracks off the album are probably underdog, where did all the love go, fast fuse, take aim, vlad the impaler and fire. that's quite a few favorites, so i guess it's a pretty good album and probably worthy of a quick blog post.

plus they've done two cool videos, check them out!