Ok where to start.

I had last week off from work as I could have just done with some time away, noting sinister just thought it would be nice. Somehow I didn’t manage to get up to much, my micro light thing I didn’t get round to but with the rain the way it is who would blame me? I did fix my lamp! You may think small task but it was not, it nearly a new lamp after all the bits I replaced.

I decided to get a new phone, Vodafone were not good and didn’t seem to be getting better so I decided to go with orange, they had some good packages with a few extras to seal the deal. After they came up with their best deal I told them that there was nothing there to clench the deal and what else could they offer? Digital photo frame for free! Well that was it for me and I got it and it’s nice, very nice. The other thing which is nice is orange Wednesday, my work will no longer let me take my girl friend to and staff shows of the latest films (I think the next step it to take away my free films and even now I have to wait 2 weeks before I can go and see them anyway) so now I would mind paying for one ticket for the both of us, I know this may come across as cheap but when you have spent the last 10 years not paying for cinema tickets it’s hard to change. So anyway I went with the Sony Ericcson K810i and its nice so expect to see some more (better quality photos from me)

The other thing I did do last week was to book my flights and tickets for lowlands just outside of Amsterdam which I'm really really looking forward to, I think it will be a fantastic weekend, so now its all booked and I now have my passport (last trip to Amsterdam didn’t go to well, well it didn’t go!) it came time to but a tent and did a get a tent. One thing at a festival is 99% of all the tents are green so when staggering back from a day of music you spend hours looking for your tent so I got one with a little colour in it. I would love to show you a photo of it but I can’t find any and I didn’t take any when we put it up drunk in the living room when we got it which sound like a good idea at the time and went well, got to learn how to put up a tent drunk.

Big Boss Week

Its been an interesting week so far, my boss is off so I get to take over for 7 days or so and make sure everything runs well, better that well even. It’s been hard work but in a nice way, I like the challenge and I have had a few to keep my happy but I think over all things have gone really well.

But after working the last 7 days and the last 2 of those days were 13hours I'm knackered, you know when you have to walk up some stairs and you mind says yes but your legs say no? Well that’s where I am but on the up side I have only got 2 more days to work this week before I get a week off! And what do I have planned for this week off? Have not got a clue but I can tell you I hope to be doing my micro light thing. Scary but think it will be fun.

So this is where this installment comes to an end as I can hardly see the screen through my sleepy eyes, only got 3 hours to go and I get to go home (even though I should be at a house warming to night)

S-Tones

The S-tones are playing down at Academy 3 on the 9^th of July, I had chance to see this band play an acoustic set a few weeks ago at the Troff and they were fantastic and now there are playing something bigger.

Tickets are only £5 which is a barging in anyone book, get you ticket from their web site (paypal) You can also check out there myspace from the site.

Hope to see you there

Knowsley Featival

So this weekend I managed to get hold of a few tickets for the Knowsley festival through work for free, I got to pick Sat or Sun but seeing as The Who were head lining on the Sat night there was no other day I could have wanted to go to. So the plan was to get the train to Liverpool and then the buss to the festival have a few drinks, enjoy the music, get the buss back to Liverpool and then back on the train (sound so simple in my head)

Myself, my girl friend and my roommate and his girl friend all set off and getting there was fine and was a nice trip over, thinking the event had only been on that day we hoped the fields would resemble as such with grass and everything and for the most part it was, we found a nice spot just down from the main stage and set up camp. Now trying to get a drink was just impossible, the web site said ‘ample bars’ but this was just not the case, people were waiting for a beer for what must have been 40mins so I opted for the next best thing Coffee! The weather was on and off, there was a good 10mins where I managed to get full use of my sun glasses but I hate to say I'm not one of these people who would keep them on once the sun has gone in.

We got there as The Thrills were playing and it sounded good, I’ll be honest I'm not up to date with their song but there were a few I sang along to, then we had The View and after that The Coral who were both fantastic. At this point it was starting to get cold so we had a walk and got ready for the final act. And at about 8:30 The Who came on and what a show, it was fantastic even though at this point the havens opened and our hops of a mud free exit disappeared (at this point I realized a piggy back was going to be in order and my girl friend was wearing jellies) but even with the rain it was awesome. Getting back to the bus stops was interesting as it must have been 6 inch deep mud and that’s where the piggy back came in as jellies don’t keep the mud out, so girl friend on my back, she had the brolly to keep us dry as I wade through the mud to the exit!

So the trip back we had 3 option.

Option 1 was to go back to Liverpool and get back the way we had come, but there was a replacement bus service which would have taken us 1:45 back from Liverpool.

Option 2 pay and get the buss back to Manchester but there were only 3 and we may not have got on seeing as we didn’t have tickets for that trip.

Option 3 get the bus to Warrington and get the train back to Manchester.

We left at 10:30 ish and got in line for Warrington just to stand there for ages as there was only a small road for all the busses to come down and most of the Warrington busses were at the back, while waiting one of the busses managed to get stuck on the side of the road in the mud which kept us entertained as it tried to get out which made it lean more and more to one side. At one point the easiest option to get it out of the way would have been to push it over in to the field. So finally our bus get to us and on we get after a speech from the driver on how its his bus and he want it clean just for him to try and get round the stuck bus, take the corner to wide and get stuck on the opposite side of the road next to the stuck buss. So now you have 2 busses both stuck next to each other blocking the only road for all the busses to get out. Now we have to get off and wait for someone to get both busses out of the mud. After 30 mins and most people thinking they could push a bus out of the mud a tractor came to our rescue and after 20 mins we were on our way with no chance of getting the last train. Bus stops, hand in air ‘TAXI!’, £40, back home! What a great time! Really! Fantastic day and would do it again

Bob Marley in Manchester

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Bob Marley’s Exodus album Manchester Odeon is showing Bob Marley live at the rainbow on Tuesday 26^th at 8pm. Exodus was originally released on Friday 3rd June 1977. He recorded the 'Exodus' album in exile in the UK, having escaped an assassination attempt in Jamaica.

In the UK alone it stayed on the chart for 56 consecutive weeks and included 3 massive hit singles. Bob Marley was established as the Third World's first superstar, a legacy that survives thirty years after the album's release.

I want i want i want

To go here, Lowlands

A year this summer

I have an anniversary coming up in the next few days and it made me think back to about a year ago around this time, from what i can remember i was still tiring to sell my house and spending most days working, painting or drinking. It was a very difficult time in my life and i had to go through some things which i never thought possible. One thing which I did learn is how many people cared about me and what was happening, I like the saying ‘friends are like stars, you may not always see them but there always there’.

One thing which I do truly regret is my cats, I had 2 cats. I had a boy called Indi and a girl called Toffee and to this day I miss them. I do often think of what I gave up to have the Manchester life style but I tried to find somewhere where I could have cats but I don’t think it would be fare for them to be stuck inside or in a big city.

Around a year ago after spending all day painting I was relaxing in my garden (before I started work on that) when Indi came out of the house in a very playful mood. At the time I had made a few videos and it was something I was interested in getting it to as I enjoyed it so I took some footage on my phone to see what I could do with it. I did end up with something and I liked it, the quality is not up to much and it is something you have to stick with when you watch it but none the less I think it captured the type of cat Indi is.

The cats are the only thing I do miss and I am truly happy with me, my life and who surrounds me. I would like to thank all the people who helped me to this happy place. Thank you

Two days off

Had a day off yesterday and at the last minute we decided instead of sitting in a dark screen for 3 hours watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3 we would go for a drive, where did we end up? Well in a place called Mostyn in Wales, to be honest it wasn’t a well thought out plan it was a just find the sea plan and we did, had a walk along the beach, had a brew, it was a very nice day and well worth the drive. Not quite sure why we just got in the car and went, maybe it down to my flat mate trying to get a car, seeing as I have one it would be a shame not to use it every now and then

On Thursday I went over to see my little sister who had just turned 16 that day! Wow 16! I know she is the one who is getting older that day but it sure does make me feel older. She had some of her school friends up who were a nice crowd but I did find myself trying not to embarrass her as I don’t think she would have lived it down. Due to her birthday most of my family came together, my sister came over from Spain, my brother from Manchester (Yes we do live next door to each other but you would be surprised to how little we do see of each other) and my gran. My sisters friends are all music loving and playing group, from rock to blues and they are very in to it much to my grans amusement, she could not stop laughing which made me very happy, seeing as she is 85 and there was a room of teenagers she did just potter in, sit down and start firing questions at them left right and center, normally you would expect the Old lady to feel intimidated but not this time! Go Gran! But I was the designated driver that night so drinking was off the books from me, now I didn’t mind until all the nice rum came out and everyone was having a merry time at which point I wish I had got the train, I would have helped if the weather coming over snake pass was better as well but it was not to be so a more than interesting drive home. But saying that it was still a very good night.

Movie Watch

Fantastic 4 : Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Ok, this was the mind set I had before going in to watch this film. The first one had a lot to get in, build the characters, some sort of upset with their change to supper hero’s, trying to get the powers nailed down. And then all coming together to stop the evil person and it did have that in but just not in a good way.

So now I found myself forgetting how bad the 1^st one was and hoping they had seen what mistakes they had made and how they could make it up to us. Watching the trailers this film looked awesome, the silver surfer especially. But no matter how many people told me it was going to be a bad film I still stood strong and held out hope. How wrong was I!

It was like the same idea, each character had his or her own little problem which we got to see last time, there was allot his talk of them saving this and that but it never showed any of it. I didn’t think the acting was very good but I don’t think they had a lot to work with to make it good. My only good thing to say about the whole 1:45 was The Silver Surfer! He’s fantastic and probably the only reason I didn’t just go home half way through, his affects was flawless and I would have believed he was reel (if I was 8 years old). So all in all it was a bit of a let down, it could have been something much more and I don’t believe there is an argument for ‘they were trying to cover all ages’ as many films have don’t this in the past.

Action

Wednesday I worked on a conference for D & DA, we did an event a few months ago for the same people and they had Dick Powell doing a talk on design, it was very good as they always are but this one had a talk from Hillman Curtis who has built web site for Yahoo and Adobe, he has started to move in to video now. He is good friends with Mark Romanek who has many titles to his name like One Hour Photo and a long list of music videos, he interviewed Mark and made a small video about it, Mark goes on about how he makes his videos and what he does to get the final version, he also goes on to say how there are many time when shot a and shot b go together very well without any planning. Hillman also talked about his video work and how he like to only have 60 mins of tape to use so he makes an effort to get the footage he needs.
After this event it did inspire me to make more of a concuss effort to get the footage I need instead of working around what I have, now I have done any major projects where I have had to plan all the shots out and come up with a good idea of what I wanted but after Wednesday I have had some ideas and I intend to get them in motion. I have a friend in a band called Islands lost at sea who would let me shot one of their videos which is a starting block but I may start a little smaller first and then work from there.

London Olympic logo

This come's a little late after the event but i would like to bring your attention to the new London Olympics logo.

This cost £400,000. That is not a type O, i find it a little hard to believe that £400,000 gets you something that does not look very good, check out the alternate logos here (I like #6)

Manchester on fire, Hell fire!

As promised here is a small video of the even on Sunday just gone down at Stevenson Square, hope you like it or just getting to the end would be nice.

As you will see i got some general footage of the day for all to see, there were some interesting people out there but the bloke at the end had to be my favourite.

Movie Watch

Are we done yet

Ok lest start off at the bad end of the spectrum. Working in projection you have to watch films, good or bad and i can say quite happly this is shit, do not watch it, if you like to laught once in 2 hours go see it but if you have to watch paint dry, wash your hair, scrub floors or stand in a dark room with nothing to do this would be a more fun way to spent 2 hours than watching this film.

Imdb this film

A Room for romeo brass

This is another film from writer and director Shane Medows (This is England) and it one of the 2 film i watched back to back (2^nd to follow). Again this film is set in the late 80’s early 90’s around a very working class environment, it follows the friendship of 2 best friends and the introduction of a simple bloke who seems to be kind at hart. This is a good film, the leading cast is very good and has Andrew Shim how seams to follow Shane Medows in his films along with many more of the cast, Paddy Considne plays a awesome role as well. The supporting cast are floorless as well, they do make the film much more solid and help in the story. This is one of the best films i have seen this year and well well worth a watch

Imdb this film

Dead man’s shoes

Is again a Shane Medows film and follow Paddy Considne on a revengeful campaign to inflict the justice he believes is right, i don’t want to go to much in to the story of this film and i would even ask you don’t go digging round for info as i feel the story and twist of it were fantastic, this is one of my top 10 films, is gritty, funny, well written and just flows so well. I could not take my eyes of the tv. As for Paddy Considne he a very good actor from ‘A room for romeo brass’ and then this which shows what a change can do. I would ask you to go buy this film, now, stop reading grab some cash and just go get it, you will not regret it.

Imdb this film