An Englishman in Canada

Golden Globes PSA withrawal... and a mini-review!

2012-01-16T08:04:00.000-08:00

This is an official withdrawal of yesterday's public service announcement with regard to Ricky Gervais and his potential to upset, offend or otherwise provoke reactions of shock and horror at his cutting and risque remarks and jokes at the expense of the Hollywood crowd.

No PSA was needed.

At best he was mildly funny on a couple of occasions. Was it "take the money and run"? I felt that after his monologue that he sort of just gave up any original material. Maybe he WAS gagged but they didn't admit it? The conspiracy theories will, no doubt, abound.

The Angelina 'haters' seem to be out in full force - they all seem to know her intimately and are able to 'accurately' translate her facial expressions as ones of contempt for the whole process and everyone around her. Come on - I don't know if that's true or not but I think the criticism is a bit mean. I liked her dress even if the red lippy was a bit harsh looking for my old eyes!

Dress round-up (I'm no fashionista) - Sarah Michelle Gellar was in a tie-dye gown that looked like it had been made from the same material as one of my Rolling Stones T-shirts - just didn't look good. Michelle Williams' dress was nice but my favourite of the night was the simple black dress worn by Rooney Mara and Madonna just needed to get one a size bigger - her breasts looked just uncomfortable. As for the guys - who cares!? I'm hoping one year Ryan Seacrest will ask a guy what he's wearing and they'll say "Thrift Store" or "It's mine - had it since I was 20" or "It's hired".....

Everyone seems to be cooing at Seth Rogan and his penis/erection joke - REALLY???? it was worthy of a 12 yr old at best - is America just starting to accept the cock-gag (gag means joke btw - no pun intended). This wasn't even a joke - it was a one line shock soundbite. Really disappointed - I thought Seth was better than a cock joke.

Some of the talent tried to have a 'go' at Gervaisesque humour often trying to get back at him. Why try? Really? Madonna made a complete arse of herself relating to kissing a girl and suggesting Ricky might be that girl..... and that fake accent! I know she lives in the UK but really there are many Americans who live in the UK and don't get an accent like that.

Johnny Depp, again, had the right idea - laugh about it! BTW - I thought Johnny was on a 5 beer buzz or something else - he seemed 'on something' to me - but he managed his 'best film' introduction ok.

I had no really bad reactions to any of the awards presented, no surprises - nice to see whacky Meryl get a gong for the Iron Lady - must see that film!

Homeland was a big winner but as it's not been shown in Canada I can't say whether it's award is warranted.

I am a bit puzzled as to why The Big Bang Theory wasn't nominated in more categories - also a bit puzzled as why Boardwalk Empire didn't win more and, frankly, most of my favourite shows were not even nominated as Sci-Fi and anything remotely 'fantasy' based never seems to get much in the way of nominations or awards. I have to say it was nice to see 'Person of Interest' get a People's Choice Award last week as 'Best New Show'.

Other than that, the 3 hours went without a hitch - but it was all the more boring for it - I was glad when it ended.

Until the Oscars.......or the SAG awards....

PS - can a Canadian channel please pick up Homeland now it's won an award so we can see what the award was based upon? Thanks.

Golden Globes PSA.......

2012-01-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

People of Canada and the USA please note that tonight's Golden Globes will be, for the 3rd year running, hosted by Englishman Ricky Gervais.

Whilst I know he isn't the most popular choice of host for this prestigious award show I will be watching for this reason and this reason alone.

When he rips the 'piss' out of you and makes observations that are based on things you (the star/actor) have probably done or films/TV you've made that are bad etc. please don't get upset. It's really one of the worst qualities and it's not very admirable or conducive to people continuing to like you.

Take a page from Johnny Depp's 'book' - laugh about it and even engage in some post award 'sketch' in which you match the humour with humour of your own.

Tonight's humour will, in all likely-hood be 'close to the bone' - risque and 'base' in it's flavour of 'funny'. Just the kind of humour I find funny. A lot of other people also find it funny - probably the majority.

To the minority that find this type of humour offensive I say this to you:

This is the 3rd year RG has hosted. you know what he does. You know he's going to do it again (especially as he's probably going to push it as far as possible in his 3rd and probably last year). So, in that vein, I will draw your attention to the button on your remote control for your cable that is labelled 'channel-up' - use it. If you didn't like him last year or the year before - you have the option and the prior warning to be able to make the choice to NOT WATCH him.

If you don't like RG and you opt to watch tonight's show anyway - please do me a favour and keep your negative opinions to yourselves. No excuses, you've been warned.

My message to RG is this - please make me laugh - please rip the piss where it's warranted - please be clever in your attempts at making me laugh - please do not let me down, please be unexpected.

Thank you.

PSA ends.

Facebook haters: please read and digest!

2011-12-30T17:27:00.000-08:00

This has been on my mind for sometime and on a quiet Friday evening before NYE 2011 I've decided it's time to say it how it is with regard to everyone's favourite (well almost) social media platform, Facebook.

The main reason I'm writing this post is that I'm seeing more comments about FB related features, upgrades and 'improvements' being posted on FB and I seldom agree with either the sentiment or the accuracy.

Some are just copy/pasting what someone else has posted, so a comment/hate goes viral - often inaccurate or unfounded. If you don't like Timeline after you have seen the 'sample profile in Timeline mode' THEN DON'T OPT TO GET TIMELINE.

Some are just one liners with no explanation, "I hate timeline" or, "I hate the sidebar". Then there are those strange requests people copy and post that request you, as their friend, to do something so that you can't see what your friend is doing on FB.

If you don't like Timeline after you have seen the 'sample profile in Timeline mode' THEN DON'T OPT TO GET TIMELINE.

Let's just start with the premise of the 'deal' with the FB user and FB itself. Firstly, Facebook is NOT a committee or community based forum for you to meet your friends or make new ones. It's run by a company. They have the right and I would argue, obligation to improve the site and make changes as THEY see fit, NOT you.

If you feel so strongly about the change or the 'improvement' you don't like you can leave FB, no one is making you stay.

FB should be applauded for making improvements and developing the site - if there were no improvements in the tech/online world we would all be still using WordStar for our word processing and battling with the F keys or still battling with DOS or the first Windows.

Now, not everybody will like improvements that FB do to their service and no one ever expects that - again, if you don't like it enough then you can leave and not use this free service.

The contract you have with FB is that you can use the service for free and in return you will see advertising and sometimes FB will sell your information enmass and you will see advertising that may be more appealing to you - not that bad a deal I think.

IF you don't like your information being used in this way then either don't use the service or don't put information up on FB that you don't want them to use this way - simple stuff isn't it?

Over the past couple of days I've seen this:

"With the new 'FB timeline' on it's way this week for everyone please do us all a favour and hover over my name above In a few seconds you'll see a box that says 'Subscribed'. Hover over it, then go to 'Comments and likes' and unclick it. That will stop my posts and yours to me from showing up on the side bar for everyone else to see, but most importantly it limits hackers from Invading our profiles. If you re-post this I will do the same for you. You'll know I've acknowledged you because if you tell me that you've done it I'll like it. Thanks."

1) Timeline has nothing to do with the sidebar. Timeline is the 'opt-in' new version of your profile - it is going to be available for everyone but at the moment it's 'opt-in' which means you have to WANT it. If you don't then keep your profile as is.

2) You can un-check 'Comments and likes' for your friends if you want and then they will not show up in YOUR sidebar but unless you are friends with someone the activity there would NEVER show up "for everyone else to see".

3) Hackers don't gain access to your account from the sidebar! They don't even see your likes and comments in the sidebar unless you have hackers for friends. Hackers get to your account (and only if it's worth hacking and most are NOT) by two main methods - sloppy or easy passwords. 123456 or PASSWORD is NOT a password. The other way is by you leaving your FB logged in and your computer in an area where someone can open it up and change your password - I see FB accounts 'high-jacked' daily by family and friends who post joke status updates - the next step up from this is someone you DON"T know gaining access. The sidebar is NOT a way in to your account!

So, dear FB user who hates this or hates that about FB, please don't post hate comments - I think you should leave the service if you are so pissed off. Also, before you go making changes to your settings - make sure that the instructions are based from FACT not fiction.

Also, take time to look at your settings on Facebook. These settings are your control. Adjust your settings to control the access people have to the information you upload rather than just unchecking individual friends in a non-effective and ad-hoc way that does little to control access to anyone, whether friend or hacker!

Happy New Year!

When a life is lost...........

2011-12-06T11:01:00.001-08:00

Is there anything more tragic and heartbreaking than when someone you know, or a family member, passes away? It becomes worse if they go 'before their time'.

With pets it can hit just as hard - even though we all know that, generally speaking, we will outlive our cats and dogs, it's still a wrench when they pass on - especially when often you have to 'put them to sleep'

I just got back from the vet after realising that our little Lulu (6 month old orange female cat) was not right at all. She started presenting with all the symptoms of a virus called FIP which is the mutated form of FACV.

Her little foibles that were initially put down to 'quirkiness' started to make sense over the past couple of days in a symptomatic sort of way.

Then yesterday she lost use of her back legs.

Web research was done and a fairly sure diagnosis was made - confirmed by the vet and we then agreed that we had to put her to sleep.

I've had a few cats in my life but all have been given away at some stage, ran off or killed in some variation of motor vehicle incident. I've never had to put a pet to sleep - it's not an easy thing to do especially when the little mite is only 7 months old.

I thought I would be ok in dealing with this, it was and still is the right thing to do - but it has hit me a lot harder than I ever thought possible. Maybe it's because Lulu was such a lovely little kitten or maybe it was the fact that I was there holding her while she passed - I don't know. I do know that what happened today, although not cruel, was very very sad to the point of heartbreaking.

What am I going to be like when Meg (our dog of 7 years) dies or needs the same decision making? A good friend died a couple of years ago of a heart attack the night before his wedding - he was in his early 30's - tragic and sad and I was very sad - but it hit me in a different way. My Grandad died when I was 20 and I was ad but he was old and it wasn't such a shock.

Is sadness or reaction to death maybe not only linked to the strength of the connection you had but also to the shock factor.

Lulu was not the healthiest of cats but before the weekend I had no idea I would be taking her to the vet to end her life today. Maybe that is the reason I'm a mess right now? Unforeseen decision of life or death.

Poor little thing - she deserved more than 7 months of life and most of that she was cranking out symptoms of the virus' - she liked her green blanket and her cat tree house and she loved her bed by the heating vent that used to be Meg's bed.

Meg will miss eating her poo! I'll just miss hearing her little bell on her collar as she slips around the wooden floors...... rest in peace little Lulu - you were only here for a short time but you affected me and Mar and the people who met her more than those few months really should have. Hope you are in a better place and able to jump and run and bounce around like you were meant to in this life.

I'm NOT a racist, but come on guys.......(positive discrimination)

2011-07-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day! Well, happy Canada Day for last Friday anyhow.

We went to a swanky 'do' at the Westin but that's for another time.

During the day I watched 2 hours of TV broadcasting the celebrations on Parliament Hill. I'm not a big fan of the Royals but I kinda like to see them treated with respect and such and that was the case in Ottawa.

After the Gov General inspected the troops/RCMP?? (the guys in the bearskins) and a couple of badly timed flyovers......and while I think of that - I know it's protocol for the GD to inspect but wouldn't you have thought they would have had William do it as he was in the neighbourhood?

Anyway they did all the pomp then sat down to about 90 minutes of a show.

I think this most years but stay quiet about it then I heard the guy on the radio this morning who I rarely listen to (Loll Green?) talk about how unrepresentative and skewed the performances were; too much folk, too much frankly poor performances and too much from Quebec (ironic that it was mostly French and the Quebec side all but ignored the Royals the past couple of days).

I really have to agree with him too! I'm all for proportional representation but it seemed very French and most of the acts were just terrible, sorry guys - I know they must rehearse their butts off but it just wasn't a show fit for a world stage - and we were on the world's stage with Will and Kate in attendance.

The NCC replied to these critics by saying a lot of the BIG Canadian acts were busy and unavailable. I do NOT buy that - and I yearn for the day when a Canada Day show can really represent what Canada has to offer in the way of entertainment in 2011.

I would like to have had that show last Friday when the Royals brought the world's press with them to witness that shambles of a show - which was also more or less repeated at 9pm before the 20 minutes of fireworks that were humdrum fireworks too - nothing that special for a special day.

KD Lang was in town, The Hip are around as they play Bluesfest in a few days, where was Celine (don't like her but you have to admit she is a good ambassador for Canada), BEIBER for god sake! RUSH, Neil Young - it should have been a barnstormer of a concert!

Next year keep the concert more balanced and properly representitive, get some bigger acts, let the headliner play more than just ONE song!

File this under #grindsmygears

DRUDE

Birthday retrospective....... "my favourite band is....."

2011-03-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

I frequently get asked, "who do you like, who's your favourite band/artist/singer etc." (not that people really 'speak' a 'forward slash' but you get the picture!). The answer to this question always gets to me because the answer is always in flux depending on my age, outlook, mood and influences - and of course whether I've been in the right place to actually hear any of the music in the first place. There could very well be a band in Chile that would blow me away but I'm probably never going to hear them play.

When I first started to listen to music rather than just as something that was played on the radio (my very first memory was getting a tiny tranny with a tiny ear plug and listening to Tony Blackburn [UK DJ] spinning 'Nelly the Elephant') I guess it would be when i got my first cassette recorder. Remember those cassette recorders that came with the microphone? I got one for Christmas in about 1974, I was 11 and I got a cassette of a TV music show called 'Supersonic'. It was ITV's answer to Top of the Pops that was still a BBC institution on a Thursday night.

This cassette included tracks by artists 'of the day' and I guess this was my first 'Album' that I listened to that formed the basis of my musical 'taste'. This was the track listing:

Side 1

1: ANDY BOWN Supersonic

2: PILOT Magic

3: DRIFTERS Save The Last Dance For Me

4: DEAN FORD Hey My Love

5: GARY GLITTER Oh Yes You're Beautiful

6: SHADOWS Let Me Be The One

7: HOLLIES He Ain't Heavy

8: SHOWADDYWADDY Chain Gang

9: GLITTER BAND Love In The Sun

10: OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN Take Me Home Country Road

Side 2
1: BAY CITY ROLLERS Keep On Dancing
2: HOLLIES The Air That I Breathe
3: CLIFF RICHARD Take Me High
4: BARRY BLUE Hot Shot
5: MATAYO Brother
6: SWEET Action
7: SON OF A GUN Maison De L'Amour
8: HELLO Games Up
9: LINDA LEWIS Remember The Days (Of The Old School Yard)
10: SHOWADDYWADDY Hey Mister Christmas

I know! A blast from the past, right?

It was a great sampler for me to be able to say to myself, "well I don't like BCR (sorry Roller fans) or The Drifters or Showaddywaddy BUT I kinda like The Hollies, Shadows and Pilot!

Anyway my next 'watershed' was an influence from my Dad of all people! (He was into Demis Rousoss about this time so a bit of a strange one looking back at it}. He bought me a cassette called "24 carat Purple" a greatest hits of Deep Purple that he said a bloke at work liked and thought I would too! It was probably 'Yapper', eh Dad?

Anyway, this cassette was just an 'eyeopener' for me, I played it almost until the tape stretched. Within a week I new all the words, all the riffs (to air guitar to) all the drum beats (to air drum to) and I was hooked on Deep Purple - they were my first favourite band!

High School in the UK is 11 - 16 yrs old unless you stay on in sixth form until you are 18 and soon after the Deep Purple experience I went to high school and then of course got influenced by what all my friends were listening to. I had a paper round and therefore I could buy a cassette or LP about once a month and of course I got them for Christmas and birthdays, or 'record vouchers' as my parents knew they would get the selection wrong!

I made a fortunate mistake one Christmas. I was given money to get a couple of albums (read LP's) for my Christmas pressie from my Mum and walked into town and met my friend, Steve. Now, as i flipped through the albums I really knew that I wanted to get the soundtrack to 'Tommy' by The Who but as I was with Steve the album I chose sort of said something about me and I fancied myself as a bit of an 'at the edge' type of musical aficionado! So half with this in mind and half thinking well I'll get 'Tommy' with the vouchers I get after Christmas I bought an Album by a band I'd never heard much of, and it was the best 'mistake' I had ever made at that time, musically.

I brought the double album home and put the first side on my record player, plugged in my hifi headphones and lay back to have my first listen to 'The Song Remains the Same' by Led Zeppelin! WOW!

I flipped those records for the next 3 or 4 hours, missed tea, and remember just loving the way in which music that is new can transform from something that you listen to and like to something that you actually know and get inside of to the point that you tell yourself that if you could play those instruments you could probably recreate every note!

I still bought 'Tommy' after Christmas but it taught me that I really needed to widen my musical 'funnel'. I started listening to AC/DC (Dirty Deeds era), KISS (Alive 1 and 2 era), Black Sabbath (Never Say Die era) and of course my fixation of my teen years, Staus Quo!

Quo were a big thing for me when I was 14/15/16 yrs old. I appreciated and loved all the other music I was listening to but this all fell into perspective after I went to my first 'gig' at Birmingham Odeon to see Quo play live on the 'Rocking All Over the World tour' in 1977, I was 14.

I wan't now just listening to music, I was experiencing it like never before; I just had no idea that music could affect me the way that first gig did. The loudness, the showmanship, the fact that I recognised all the tracks; I felt I was a part of the experience rather than just watching and listening; it blew me away.

I was hooked on music and it's been that way ever since. I have always tried to see as many of the artists I like play live.

Quo were always big in the playlist of my musical history but as I experienced new bands and artists and genres they took a back seat a bit as new music evolved through punk and then 'New Wave' and on through the New Romantic era and out through the other side I started to realise that I liked a whole load of completely different sounding music and that started to include classical as well as even a bit of opera!

I liked, and started to use, the word 'eclectic' when people asked what I liked. I was listening to the Four Seasons (not classically challenging now, but then......), The Clash, The Smiths, Rush, Teardrop Explodes, Echo and the Bunnymen as well as The Cure and a whole slew of heavy metal and rock bands.

Every now and again I obsess a bit over one band or artist depending on my mood and based on whether I am about to see them in concert or have seen them etc. and also if they have anything new 'out'.

My first obsession was probably Bruce Springsteen. Simon Morgan (who is the drummer in Suede) used to take the piss out of me religiously for this obsession but it never matters when you get these bouts, they are unstoppable and inexplicably rational to the subject of them. *I have never name dropped Simon before, strange that he crops up......anyway.....

I was about to see Bruce at a gig in Leeds, Roundhay Park I think and I really only knew Born in the USA so I decided I needed to hear more than just the 'Borns' ( ....To Run and in the USA)....Off I went to the record store and got every album he made.....

Greetings from Asbury Park, Born to Run, Darkness on the edge of town, The River and Nebraska...played them non-stop. My favourite? Oh, yes I loved The River and Candy's Room and Cadillac Ranch and so on but the album that I really LOVED was the one most people dismiss as not that great: Nebraska.

I'm not the only one who likes this album but I'm in the minority and I soon realised that my favourite music is always the music liked by the minority. I think it's the feeling that maybe I 'get' it and I like to think that most others don't.... so it's almost like a more personal experience for me when I like an artist or an album that isn't mainstream or loved by the masses.

Don't get me wrong I still love the Rolling Stones....seen them many times but they are not a personal music experience for me like, say, Julian Cope is.

Ah, Julian, one of my more aggressive obsessions! I've never stalked someone before but in 1995 Mar and I took a visiting friend to Avebury on the premise of seeing the stone circle and maybe checking out an old pub and surrounding buildings etc. Really, in my mind, it was an excuse to possibly, remotely possibly, in a pigs might fly way, 'bump' into Julian - as he lived locally and frequented Avebury a lot.

Mar and our visitor were interested in the gift shop way past my limited attention span so I stepped outside and as I walked around the next corner who did I see sat outside the 'Stones' veggie restaurant but Julian and Dorian!

It was was of those sharp intake of breath moments and my instincts just kicked in and marched straight up to them and introduced myself, went and fetched Mar and had a nice chat for half an hour or so. I remember asking dorky questions intended to demonstrate to him that I 'knew' his music and I still cringe a bit to this day. We got guest passes to a gig in Cambridge (we'd already seen him twice on the 20 Mothers tour but another time wasn't going to be sniffed at) and our friend went too!

Now Julian can get a bit 'out there' even for my taste in music and I have to say I have NOT listened to his 30 minute Odin chants! Recently I have not been such an avid listener and some of the recent Blood Donor stuff isn't for me.

In the realm of Jehovakill and Peggy Suicide and 20 Mothers, Julian was my favourite artist for a good 15 years and is still a top 5 favourite to this day.

I've had less aggressive strains of obsessions over the years; John Mellencamp, Rush, Thin Lizzy, Massive Attack, Portishead, The Smiths, The Human League (!!), The Jam but I feel a new aggressive obsession coming on and have done for a few years now......

I started noticing this artist later in her career than I should of but I think it was more down to the way in which she was marketed and promoted than me hearing and dismissing her.

It wasn't until I got back from Canada in 1995 that I started to catch her on shows and on the radio, she started while I was away from the UK so I didn't witness her debut or anything.

When I first heard "Down by the Water" it was like, uh, oh, yes, I like this sound, I'm liking it a lot and so it went with some of the more accessible tracks she wrote and recorded; Rid of Me, C'Mon Billy, You said something, This is Love, This wicked tongue...... I sort of liked some of her stuff and there was some quirkier stuff that was a bit beyond me but I was happy with my level of knowing and listening to PJ Harvey and then I thought it all went a bit 'south' with White Chalk in 2007, I just didn't 'get' the album at all and thought that my collection of 20 or so songs that exist on my playlist would be it. How wrong was I?

This past few weeks saw the release of "Let England Shake" - it's an album with a 'crust'; first listen and it's 'ok', maybe even 'not really my thing ok' but after the second third and fourth playing it becomes obvious, after you break though the cust, that this album is a classic, genius, out there and even a bit 'what the fuck is that'......but ultimately it's brilliant.

If you don't know the music of PJ Harvey it's not the album to introduce yourself to her with but if, like me, you've been on the fence but falling slowly to her side of it and like most of what you hear then this album seems to pull ALL of her work together to such an extent that I went back and started listening to the tracks I wasn't so keen on the first time around and ...... WOW! This is the start of a new obsession for sure.

Let England Shake is by far the best album she has written and recorded and I just can't listen to anything else but PJ at the moment, I'm sure it'll pass in a year or so but the best birthday present I could get today would be to learn that she is touring North America in the next year or so and I can hear, experience and be apart of an event where this amazing artist plays her songs, just for me and the minority!

My name is Chris, I'm 48 and my favourite artist is PJ Harvey!

Have a great day.

Fontenelle Restaurant

2010-06-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

We've been at the Font for the last few weeks so nothing new to report.... maybe soon......there is a new restaurant in town that we plan to visit for brunch very soon; Town here we come!

England vs Germany

2010-06-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

I had to express my thoughts regarding today's match.......

Whilst I yearn for an England win, I yearn more so for England to thrash them by a bunch of goals so that we may get some confidence to play football like I know we are capable of.

Stop the dithering, stop the sloppy passing, keep possession, create space, run like the wind, commit, don't lose hope and win!

I'm offto the Font at half time; don't let me down!

Why I hate new year celebrations and other grumpiness.

2010-01-05T12:13:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Do I mean it? Well, I certainly don't wish you any malice or harm, dear reader but do I mean every "happy new year" wish I have uttered thus far? Not really. I am guilty. Guilty of simply repeating the wish in such a pavlovic way that it is meaningless. I buy groceries from an adolescent at the supermarket who has been ordered to wish every customer a HNY, and I fucking well respond to this "do you want fries with that?" type of nonsense.

I hate the new year season more than Christmas, which is tedious and expensive and wholly anti-climactic as well as far too commercial; but you've heard these ramblings from many I would assume. New Year is worse though, forced to party by the masses, forced to kiss strangers and if not already drunk, make it appear so. If not forced to party then forced to watch some Times Square extravaganza on TV. Of course I don't mean forced in the strongest sense, more obligated by the rest of society. Any excuse for a good party eh?

I know it's an ancient ritual but I am just as happy asleep by midnight on the 31st than linking arms and forgetting about the hangover I'm about to get in the morning. This year I was indeed in bed and asleep by the time Dick Clark was wheeled out, I didn't miss anything.

My other 'grinds my gears' things about new year and certainly new decades is this journalistic tendency to 'top 10' everything under the sun. I'm as guilty as the next for this as a year or so ago I did a top 10 movies, but it's subjective and I know that. My top ten will not be your top ten and it'd be a boring old world if it were. The top ten of anything from the last decade is also so stupid; everything changes and in ten years it changes completely. No comparison can or should be made.

I liked Bono's idea of top ten things he would like to see in '10 although I didn't agree with it all, at least it wasn't negatively retrospective.

Which brings me to the subject of new year's resolutions which is a bit of a contradiction as in 95% of the time they are not resolute and often get broken after the first few weeks if that.

Gym's make their money by selling memberships in January a fraction of who will certainly no where to be seen by the following December. Gym's make money off attrition; if every member were to suddenly reignite their fitness regime the lineup for the steppers and bikes would be all the way out the door. It's a bit like AirMiles or any other loyalty scheme; the billions of points that lie never to be claimed is where the 'jam' is. I digress though.

I seldom make a new years resolution as I think it almost jinxes any longevity of commitment but I can't help thinking about things I've always wanted to do. Saw "One Week" a couple nights ago with Joshua Jackson playing a guy who found out he had terminal cancer and then decided to ride a motorcycle west through Canada. Great film and great message. How simple would it be to do all the things you would want to do before you die if you knew you were going to die soon. Don't answer that it's rhetorical!

No planning for the future, no worrying about finances, just do it. When you aren't on deaths door it becomes a little more complex though and people generally tend to 'spread' things they want to do through their life until something happens to put a halt to all that. Health, no money, responsibilities or even death!

The trick, therefore is to 'hedge' a little. Try to do as much as possible as soon as possible. Rather than a new years resolution to do something or stop doing something why not think bigger and create your own 'bucket list' before it's too late and act on it as best you can?

So that is my new years resolution. To put together my bucket list and start ticking them off. I also need to get over my love hate relationship with procrastination, but that's for another day, maybe next month even.

HNY
Drude

Chris's Five Star Meatloaf recipe.

2009-02-18T10:01:00.000-08:00

I used to hate meatloaf until i decided to try a recipe I found in the recipe booklet that came with a juicer. I tinkered with it a bit and made a great meatloaf that even meatloaf haters (apart from veggies) will love. Serve with mash and a veg and Robert is your brothers brother.

This recipe fits a metal meatloaf tin approx 10" long so adjust the ingredients accordingly to fit your tin - you want to leave 1 cm gap between the meatloaf and the top of the tin for bubbling and glaze.

For the meatloaf:
half kilo of beef mince
half kilo pork mince (very important to have at least 2 meats)
2 large onions, chopped and pulsed a couple times in the food processor
pulse with a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley
carrot pulp from juicing a few carrots OR a couple carrots chopped and pulsed to a pulp in the FP.
A cup or so of frozen or tinned sweetcorn
A cup or so of beef stock, I add a swig or to of Lea and Perrins too (be careful not to add too much liquid if you've reduced the meat to fit a smaller pan)
1 egg
about a cup of some thick cream, sour cream or condensed milk (I use sour cream)
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
salt to taste
ground pepper to taste

Add all these ingredients to a big metal bowl and mix thoroughly.

Pack into the buttered meatloaf tin.

The Glaze/Sauce

1 cup of ketchup
1 cup of bbq sauce
2 tblsp red wine vinegar
couple swigs of Lea and Perrins
half a cup of brown sugar

Add to a saucepan and bring to boil, immediately turn down the heat and simmer for a minute or so. Pour enough of the glaze over the meatloaf saving some (maybe a third or half) and shove the meatloaf in an oven at about 425f for an hour.

I put mine on a baking tray as you get some bubbling and spitting.

When it's ready lift out the meatloaf onto a serving plate. You should have a greasy gravy left in the pan - this is optional but I add this to the remaining glaze and reduce it down to make a sauce/gravy that I pour over the plated meatloaf and mash.

Meatloaf will often fall apart - to get a good slicing loaf you need to ensure you pack it in well when filling the pan. If you are worried about this too much - add another egg and some bread crumbs to the mix.

A film review of: Eagle Eye.......

2008-10-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

I wasn't really in the mood for a film yesterday but I changed my mind at the very last minute, took the 1.15pm showing of Eagle Eye and was glad I did. Last week I saw Righteous Kill, a movie that would have been OK with any other two leading men but when you have Pacino and De Niro together (in the same scenes and shots for a change) you expect something more, and RK didn't deliver that; twists have to be cleverer than that! The reason I sidetrack to RK was that it was then I saw the list of films available and other than the Cohen movie which I have slated for next week when audiences have dwindled a bit (I hate packed movie theaters, I prefer them all to myself) there was little to tickle my fancy. Then I remembered that EE was out so I swung by and invested 2 hours. This Shia LaBeouf dude is, in my opinion, 'the' up coming lead actor in action/adventure movies. I didn't see him in Indiana Jones, I missed it. I saw him in Transformers and he was good; in this film he is very good.

He has this ability to be unwitting, vulnerable, slackerish, scruffy, smouldering, heroic, scared, determined and aggressive whenever needed; but he doesn't come across as superhuman which, maybe is the appeal and why so many movie goers are paying to see him.

Eagle Eye is a more a commentary on the 'big brother' State, that being Government and/or military, having the control over satelites that can delivery high def sound and vision from your cell phone and the CCTV camera that is following you down the street and at the subway station to track you. In this plot, track you and make you do stuff you don't want to do whilst taking control of automated stuff to stop others from catching you do the stuff you don't want to do......phew! Got that?

Throw in a 'super computer' hidden under the Pentagon, a 'we couldn't get Liv Tyler' actress as the female lead and a bit of badass anti-terrorist agent in the form of Billy Bob Thornton and you have yourselves an action 'romp' that makes 2 hours whizz by easily.

It's not the best plot to a film I've ever seen but it was pretty good.

6/10

It certainly beats watching the hours and hours of CNN talking about the vote that failed.......how long can people talk about one subject for?

....and I'm not belittling the subject matter, just the reporting thereof!! :-)

Until next time.

Drude

Enough is enough.....!

2008-09-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

OK, I know that I've been a lazy bastard on this so called blog of mine, that I thought I'd use to review movies I've seen. Frankly it got a bit boring for me as the films up for viewing were getting worse, then Batman came out and it was like, "why would i blog about this along with the other billion people?", so I didn't!

Films have had a tough job living up to that film since I saw him (of course I mean the Ledger Dude); the rest of the film sort of tried to catch up to him and just about hung on even if it was 30 mins too long. Anyway, nothing since has really made me want to review or write here so It's been rather barren, dear reader. Sorry.

So what made me want to write today?

I think I'm turning into a 'grumpy old man' but at only 45 - how can that be?

Now I'm not sure whether it's the culture here in Canada or I'm becoming less and less tolerant of things when they are not as they should be.

Here's the story:

I have a great 'spousal' medical coverage through my wife's job and so I get to get new glasses with a free eye test for pretty much nada from my piggy bank.

So i trundle off to a local 'glasses shop' (name withheld) and get my eyes tested - they are actually about the same and all is well.

I pick out a new pair of clear and a second pair of sunglasses. "Clear ones in a couple days and the sunglasses in a week", she says. Great, see you in a week I think.

A week goes by and I pop in to pick up my glasses - clear ones are 'in' but no sunglasses. "probably in tomorrow", she says.

I leave it 2 days and go in (you are probably wondering why I didn't call ahead, but my wife wanted to glasses shop too so I was already there.

The sunglasses are still not in. "Monday or Tuesday", she says.

Canadian summer has and is no way to be compared with anything summery this year so I say, "OK".

It's now Wednesday so I call ahead to see if they are in, the conversation with the very nice, but inept, man went like this:

Man: hello
Me: My name is XXXXXXX I am enquiring as to my sunglasses. Are they ready to be picked up?
Man: (after checking) We have the lens' in, we just have to fit them, probably tomorrow or Friday.
Me: Why the huge delay - I was told a week it's now 2 weeks?
Man: We just got them in today.
Me: I realise that but i was told a week, then another 2 days then another 2 days - it's now 2 weeks. A week later than i was expecting, so I'd just like to understand why?
Man: well they are big lens'.
Me: I know, i picked them. What does that have to do with how long it takes?
Man: well I had to send them to a special lab to get them made.
Me: I see. Could you not have told me that at any stage of these 2 weeks?
Man: Eh?
Me: Well my expectation was to wait for these glasses a week. I'm getting slightly frustrated that it's now 2 weeks. BUT, if i'd been told that these glasses were special/large etc and had to be sent somewhere special and it might take longer - maybe 2 weeks, I would be happy to wait and let you call me when they were in.
Man: You see they are special lens'.
Me: Yes i understand that now. My point is that my expectations were different to what was going to happen - do you see that my frustration at waiting a week longer for these glasses would be non-existent if I'd been told about how very special my glasses were/are?
Man: We'll try to get your glasses ready today.

At this point I gave up. My ',managing expectations' sermon was landing on stoney ground here.

I come across this almost everyday, people generally saying what or when they will do something with data that makes me happy at the time but is in no way aligned with what they will 'actually' do or when they will do it - or complete it.

Has no one here ever been trained about 'managing expectations'?? It really does solve almost every complaint before the complaint is ever made.....and it can go further by turning a potential complaint into a happy customer who might even (gasp!) recomend said service/shop/garage/glasses shop to their friends.

The rule is simple = "be Scotty". Remember the original Star Trek?

Kirk: I need those engines Scotty!
Scotty: They're going to take at least 10 hours Cap't, the dilythiam crystals need realigning.
Kirk: You have 8 hours Scotty.
Scotty: I'll do my best Cap't. but I canna work miracles here.

Scotty fixes the crystals in 6 hours and is commended time and time again.

Lesson learned - this was the 60's - we are now in the 21st fucking century and people still want to please people at the point of purchase by setting expectations that do not live up to reality, in the wrong direction.

Another quick story - my A/C went on the 'blink' last week - I called my garage who had only just finished work on the A/C - they said bring it in at 2pm. I took it in at 2pm for them to check and they said come back in 30 mins - I said I would grab a burger around the corner and be back at 2.30.

At 2.30 i returned to find no one had looked at it. They know my numbers - could they not have called and said, "take your time over your burger, we haven't got to your car yet." OR just told me 60 mins in the first place! As it was I wolfed down a burger, fries and a shake and then spent 30 mins sitting in their sterile waiting area.

Should I just accept this or should I try to point out this whenever it happens - if I do the latter I am told that I'm being grumpy. Is this being grumpy, dear reader?

Maybe I should just accept this as 'the way'.

Maybe others should just expect more 'grumpiness'.

grumpily yours,
drude

Another movie review.....better late than never!

2008-04-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, so these movie reviews are not exactly weekly as I had planned but living in Ottawa one has to deal with a few natural circumstances; mainly weather; mainly snow!

Some Tuesday's I don't feel like battling through the slush, snow and ice or the ploughs, salt and bad drivers. I also have that bad knee that is still causing some 'limpage'.

Anyway - it's Spring, right? Right! So I decided today was a good day to see a film and write about it.

I had a load to pick from as the last movie I saw was way back in February and was Jumper. (see last post). The films on offer were all new(ish) but I was in the mood for some cards, Vegas and a sprinkling of Spacey and Fishburne so '21' it was.

Now I'm aware of gambling films and the plots surrounding 'counting cards' and frankly this film offered nothing new really; it was the way in which the story was told that made this film a nice story with a happy ending.

So in a nutshell; Spacey brilliant MIT professor has a gang of genii students who, as a team, take Vegas for a few grand each weekend by counting cards. Now, any system needs to have rules and as we all know - when you start to win big you start to get emotional rather than follow the rules - this happens and the team breaks up and then a few losses and betrayals occur. I'll not go into too much detail as it would spoil the film for you.

Suffice to say that it was a good film that was 123 minutes of 'cruise control' for Spacey; one of my favorite actors, this was no stretch for his talent. It was nice to see Laurence Fishburne (larger than life!!) who had a decent role but I still always see him as Morpheus - not my fault.

The rest of the cast was ok - I fail to see the continuing attraction casting directors have with Jim Sturgess but as he is a Brit I'll not dwell too much. Kate Bosworth does a good job as the love interest but again - no stretch there. Still, we'll be seeing much more of her in movies to come, I'm sure.

I was going to see another movie and it probably would have been The Bank Job
but the seats at the cinema were so hard and uncomfortable I decided I couldn't do a 'TMT' (two movie tuesday). Why are cinema seats so uncomfortable? Beats me - one would have thought that they would want you to enjoy a movie instead of shifting around trying to beat the 'numb bum' or general 'arse ache'.

Until next week dear reader.........

Drude.

Jumper is actually rather good!

2008-02-19T06:03:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's not the most original of plots but anyone english who is about my age remembers the 'Tomorrow People' - and always wished they could 'jaunt' - well this is the updated version of that with some exceptional FX and Samuel Jackson thrown in for good measure.

I saw this on opening day as my kids were still here and wanted to see it so it wasn't a $4 movie this time but it was actually worth it. The plot was, as is always the case nowadays, predictable but it was the overall movie that brought it together. SLJ actually didn't really add anything for me - the stars are def Hayden and Jamie Bell; who I haven't seen in anything since he did that ballet film which everyone loved and I hated, and he was great in this movie - he def has a new slew of doors opening after this movie.

The special FX were top class and the speed of the movie was just right for a 90 minute film.

It was left way open for a sequel or 3 and Diane Lane as the Mum/Jumper hunter is an obvious way forward. A bit de-ja-vu withe the 'Luke, I am your Father' story line from Star Wars but hey....... only so many plots to go round.

Anyway - see the trailer here.

Drude.

At last; a movie review!

2008-02-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

So I still have a 'gammy' knee - but I'm off the crutches and stick unless I venture on to uneven ground or have to scramble over snow etc. but I can shovel the drive and suffer just from stiffness and diminished knee strength. The movie theatre I frequent has a nice curved auditorium so if I sit on the left most seat of a row I can have the leg stretched out a bit - that works!

Anyway, my kids are over from the UK and we went to see a movie on Tuesday (half price!) but we also plan to see Jumper on Thursday - (full price!!!).

Anyway we saw Rambo; the final installment in the Rambo story that started in 1982 with 'First Blood'. I've seen all these films as I actually prefer the Rambo character to the Rocky character Stallone portrays. Brooding, angry, never smiling, can create warfare from a few twigs and leaves; perfect hero for me!

I wasn't, to be honest, expecting much in the way of plot: Rambo saught out to go on some dangerous mission, he refuses, he is convinced, he goes along and is forced to either demonstrate why the others with him should not go or are unprepared to face the danger etc. then a lot of killing and the final killing of the bad guy.

That is pretty much what we got, although this Rambo was a tad different in a few ways. There was a love interest (Dexter's girlfriend - actress Julie Benz); there was far more graphic maiming and killing, far more severing of bodies (heads, legs, arms, cutting in half etc.) and a happy ending!

Actually, I thought this was the best Rambo so far - just pipping the second one (rescue of Vietnam vets left behind........). It was well made, well directed and best of all - not too long - I'm getting a bit sick of rambling films that go over the 2 hour mark - this was about an hour and a half - perfect!

I actually winced a few times at the maiming and killing - so a warning - if you are squeamish this is not the film for you.

It gets 3 out of 5 stars from me.

Drude.

No new reviews.....due to knee injury.

2008-01-28T07:16:00.000-08:00

Well, it was all going so well was 2008; no back pain after my back went out in November, got the car back after 5 weeks in the body shop after the local garbage truck decided to take the whole side of our car and rub bumpers!

2 weekends ago I was off to the car to take a few things prior to a trip to the pet store among other things and clear ice on the steps from the deck to the garden foiled everything.

A slip on this ice would have been painful on flat ground and my arse may have been a bit bruised but with the first step of 4 down to a snowy and icy path in front of me; down I went, landing first with my left leg which jarred on the icy snow and made my leg pitch forward over my knee and lower leg, spraining ligaments.

The pain was intense to begin with but after i reached the couch and got ice on it (bag of sweet corn) it started to feel better. Cue crutches, bandages, gel braces and finally a walking stick.

Two weeks later and I'm still in recovery but it's getting better; gone are the crutches and I only need the walking stick to go outside. Limping around the house isn't too much trouble and I even went shopping yesterday (a 5 hour trip to Wal-Mart.... God help me!).

It'll be a while until I'm running the 3 minute mile again or skating on the canal but at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

So, the main 'take-away' from this less than interesting installment is: I haven't been to see a movie for almost 3 weeks, therefore no reviews, just in case the one or two people who ever read these ramblings were wondering...... :-)

I'm pleased that 'No Country for Old Men' is getting awards it made my top 10 of 2007 (number 5 I think) and it was a good film - just, for me, an untidy ending.

I may be off to the movies tomorrow, we'll see how the leg is feeling.

Thanks. Friendo!

Drude

Tuesday, again - which means movie review time!!

2008-01-08T19:14:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to you dear reader.

It was meant to be a good day, starting with getting our car back from the body repair shop but that didn't happen and therefore I consoled myself with, not one TuesdayMovie, but two!

The movies I wanted to see were all playing and I could, maybe, even squeeze in three. The order I saw these in don't, then, reflect my level of desire to see them, moreover the schedule they are shown tends to work out better.

With a couple of sausage McMuffins inside me I venture off, first 'up' being National Treasure: Book of Secrets with Nicolas Cage and a girl and Jon Voight and the lovely Helen Mirren.

These treasure hunt type movies often have some basic parts to them so lets just quickly check them off.......

Dashing and intelligent action hero/archaeologist - CHECK
Aging father or mother in tow - CHECK AND CHECK
Attractive colleague/ex-wife/potential love interest - CHECK
Bumbling assistant who sometimes gets it right - CHECK
Evil faction guy who is always one step ahead through evil and unfair methods - CHECK
Car chase - Check
Ends justify the means type of law breaking - CHECK
Final discovery - CHECK
Final disaster incorporating final discovery - CHECK

So on the face of it this film checks all the boxes - and that is true - but that's it - very little more than the above really - the car chase was in London and included a Fullers Ale delivery truck which was cool.

I'm really struggling to see why it was at the top spot for 2 or 3 weeks that it was - I guess the cast is a good draw and it's a sequel so that helps - but frankly it's just a run 'o' the mill treasure hunt film and nothing more - preferred the Mummy trilogy, and that's a brave statement to make.

So the next film is really going to be the next one 'on' and it turns out to be AVPR.

I would guess that if you don't know what that means then you should stay away from this movie all together!

When Alien first hit the silver screens in 1979 with a stomach bursting, T shirt busting, blood-spurting Hurt scream it was the scariest thing around and remained so for years.........until they made the second one (which actually was ok) and then Aliens turned into Alien 3 and it wasn't so scary anymore.

Likewise, the first Predator movie was just brilliant in every way - a classic (in my book) but the appalling sequel was just pitiful in a bad Steven Seagal movie kinda way - they just totally lost the plot!

I mean bad movie too as he has made some stinkers - he has also made some classics of their time too - 'Hard to Kill' is still a classic (again, in my book).

Anyway, back to the film at hand AVPR or in it's longer title of A liens vs Predator: Requiem is the sequel to the first AVP which brought the Alien and Predator together under the plot line that the predator creatures used the Aliens as sport to hunt and hone their skills - and used humans to incubate them.

I have to say that the idea didn't really appeal to me but the first AVP was such a joy to watch that I still watch it again and again - for a 'no big movie star' cast it was a huge success (hence the sequel).

The sequel fails to bring that same magic - this time the plot starts where is left the last one with the Predator ship on it's journey home with a predator incubating an Alien, the first cross-breed.

This Alien bursts out and created havoc on the ship and it inevitably crashes back to Earth somewhere in Colorado where the usual killings, skinnings and acid dripping teeth shots begin.

The films only recognisable cast member for me was 'Michelle' off 24; actress, Reiko Aylesworth who put in a reasonable performance.

Of course the actors in these movies, unless you are Arnie, are not the stars - that is the role of the Aliens and the Predators - and they don't dissapoint - in their gory killing of the human population as well as each other.

My main problem was that I think they got away with some mediocre CGI by having the majority of the film at night in the rain. I think it was a restricted budget sequel that was ok but I won't be watching it again and again.

Next week it's the turn of Sweeney Todd and I am Legend.

Until next week......

Drude

Charlie Wilson's War squeezes in at number 2....

2008-01-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to my reader.....whoever you are.

We went to see Charlie Wilson's War on Sunday afternoon. I went with a little trepidation as I'd just read the Book by George Crile which was very well written or should I say documented. Films oft have a problem living up to their literary basis - but the screenplay for CWW was excellent, making the story digestable for the non-readers of the book but sewing together the main parts of it.

Some license was taken with who got introduced when but other than that it was a great story. It also makes a great point regarding the US fighting wars through guerrilla factions, funding them, arming them, training them all covertly - then as these people don't know where the 'aid' is coming from turn on their beneficiaries.

It also shows that the 'get in, win and get out' strategy might sometimes work in the 'moment' as a victory but if you get out too fast without rebuilding what you've helped destroy the situation can come back and bite you on the ass!

As Charlie Wilson actually said about the whole thing - "....then we fucked up the end game", in that the USA was happy to fund guns and ammunition and train the Muj to make IED's (yes, bicycle bombs and the like were all part of the training the CIA doled out) but when it came to a few million to rebuild schools and infrastructure the USA lost interest and moved on to the Balkans.

I wholeheartedly recommend Charlie Wilson's War and it squeezes in at number 2 for my films of 2007 - just pipped by the excellent Cronenberg film, Eastern Promises.

I also just saw on DVD Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End....... too long, too much, too many sub plots - great trilogy that I hope will not be added to.

Next week I plan to see both I Am Legend and Sweeney Todd and maybe National Treasure and that will it for my 2007 films.

My pre-Charlie Wilson's war Top 10 of 2007

2007-12-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

Having the slew of Top Ten films of 2007, as well as the top ten 'flops' of 2007, come out on the blogs and entertainment sites, written by the so called critics, is making me wonder why the film critics are writing in the first place. Films, or movies, don't succeed at the box office on the basis of a critical 'pat on the back' yet films seem to 'bomb' more easily based on a critical bruising.

So the critics must love giving a film a pasting and then happily reporting that they were right all along when the movie only recoups or not as is sometimes the case; or do they?

All I know is that Top Ten box office hits seldom compare to the critical top ten in the same time frame - yet the films that struggle seem to be the ones that the critics decide are not for you or I to see.

I went to see The Brave One back in the summer and thought the film was well directed and well acted by Jodie Foster yet a day or so later i read a local film critics destruction of the film which was, frankly, unfair and far too up it's own arse for it's own good.

I wrote to the local paper that ran the critique and tried to point out that a critic's job is not to laud or destroy a film via their writing but to guide people in their choice of 'see or not see'. Where they seem to have lost the plot is in their forgetfulness of the place they should hold in the public services and the place that they want to have in the 'failed journalist/failed director/failed producer' post career.

What I want to know is what kind of film it is, who is in it and whether it's well made, covering the basics of plot, direction, casting and actor performance. That's it.

I don't want to get into the personal opinion of this critic or that - it's totally irrelevant - after all, if I want to see my Tuesday Movie and it happens to be a choice between a couple of Sci-Fi films why would I seek counsel from someone who hates sci-fi.

My point here, that I'm realising that I'm getting to in a very long-winded way, is that films, much like music, are very subjective forms of art. No critic should be so arrogant as to use their 'column' or 'site' or 'blog' to toss the movie into the cinematic toilet bowl.

With that in mind here is my Top Ten of films I've seen in 2007. There are two points to make here; 1) I have not yet seen Charlie Wilson's War and I expect that film (having just finished the book) to enter at number one 2) I obviously have not seen every film on offer over the year - this is in no way a top ten of all films - just the ones I've seen either on DVD (could be prior to 2007) or in the Cinema.

1: Eastern Promises - under-rated film of 2007 in my book - brilliant! *****
2: The Bourne Ultimatum - I'm a Bourne fan and this wasn't Supremacy ****
3: Elizabeth, The Golden Age - gripping stuff,superb acting and direction. ****
4: Shoot 'em Up - Clive Owen again? Paul Giamatti is brilliant! ****
5: A History of Violence - (DVD) 2005 but a classic Cronenburg ****
6: No Country for Old Men - Crap ending but best man hunt film ever ***
7: Transformers - Starts great, middle is crap - end fight is amazing! ***
8: American Gangster - Denzel in best form since man On Fire. ***
9: War - Good vehicle for Li and Statham. Fight romptastic! ***
10: Live Free or Die Hard - best Die Hard yet - Willis still has it. ***

Honorable mention to The Brave One.

I toyed with a top 5 worst films but after my initial bit of the post.....

However, films that I saw that did NOT live up to my expectations from watching the trailer - I like to call it 'Trailer was the best thing about the film' are:
Superbad, Balls Of Fury, Lions for Lambs and Dan in Real Life.

I still have to see Charlie Wilson, Sweeney Todd and I am Legend this year and all three would probably edge in to my Top ten at various points.

....anyway - whoever you are - enjoy checking out my best films of 2007.

...and now......introducing my Bread Sauce recipe!

2007-12-20T09:52:00.000-08:00

OK, so I forgot about this blog for far too long and it's just inexcusable, but as I probably have 2 readers out there it's no big loss to my circulation if i lose them! :-) The reason for this rare post is that I needed a place to distrubute my recipe for the best sauce you can ever have with Christmas turkey and strange as it may seem - the North Americans don't seem to know about it - well that just has to change as this sauce, called Bread Sauce, (I know! not a great title and probably puts people off right away!) is not only the best thing about a Turkey dinner but it's also the best thing to smother on turkey sandwiches the next day - as it gets thicker and tastier left in the fridge.

Ok - first that name - would it be more appetising if we (I) called it Sauce A'la Pan? Here is MY recipe - you can forgoe the pre-prep stage if you want and play around with the onion/clove algorithm but I have made this many times and this really is the best way to get the fullest flavour.

The Pre-prep stage (can be done on the day but best done a few days in advance and lets face it - advance stuff for Christmas dinner or lunch is best, eh?) Get a large jar - maybe a large pickle jar or a large mason jar - it needs to have a wide opening as you need to get the onion in there.

Chop up some onion - 2 -3 medium - or a large one - up to you doesn't matter too much but the onion needs to be small enough to fit in the jar. Take about 6 or 8 cloves and add to the onion in a pan - pour over a litre or so of milk (your choice on the milk and just make sure you don't use too much that the milk and onion and clove don't fit in your large jar. Don't add any salt but I add a grind or two of black pepper.

The 'on the day' method for this often state that you stick the cloves in a whole onion and add to the milk - this is fine and aids the separation of the onion and clove from the milk but I feel this doesn't get the full flavour from the onion.

Bring to a light boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Cover and let it cool a bit. Pour it all into the jar. Cool with the lid just on - then when cold pop the lid on and stick it in the fridge to be forgotten about a few days.

On the day...... Get the liquor (the milk/onion/clove milk) out of the fridge about an hour before you plan to make the sauce. I would make the sauce about the same time I make the gravy.

Now - you need to prepare some breadcrumbs - white, no crusts and I tend to have a loaf that I've had in a brown bag for a couple days and let it go a bit stale (not mouldy). A whole loaf is usually enough. Cut off the crusts and whizz in a food processor - just make sure you don't have any big bits but conformity isn't that important. Sieve (pass) the liquor from the jar into a pan and bring to a simmer - add half the bread crumbs and mix. Now it's up to you how thick you have it - I tend to like it so I can spoon it from a sauce bowl rather than pour it.

Add the rest of the bread and decide your thickness as you do it - keep it warm, don't burn the bottom of the pan and transfer to a sauce bowl as you pour the gravy into your boat. people will probably balk at it if you call it bread sauce - so make something up - it's better than the cranberry sauce and almost as good as my gravy which I have just made the stock for - make as much as you can as the real delight is spreading it on a turkey sandwich the next day.

Here is your shopping list: Onion - white not red - 3 medium or one large one. Some cloves - at least 4 up to 8 Milk - 2% is best about a litre or so.
Bread - white and let go stale and made into breadcrumbs sans the crust. Some fresh black pepper.

There you have it!

I've been soooooo lazy, sorry to my very occasional reader!

2007-04-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a while and I know it's very bad blogging etiquette to not 'do one' for so very long but I have a load of very lame excuses that, when all added together, make for a half decent one.

I've had stuff to do, I've been answering questions on LinkedIN (in the answers forum there) and that takes up some time, I've read several Stephen King books - I had only previous read 'The Stand' which was a great book and a decent TV adaptation too, so I've read about 5 of his back catalogue which I'm enjoying - currently a 1/4 of the way through 'Needful Things'. What else? Well I am the 2007 Snowspiel champion - along with my very able team members, who, if I'm honest carried me all the way!

But these are all secondary to the main reason..... I have been catching up with THE best TV show on TV by borrowing DVD's from a friend's daughter. I first saw '24' about a year ago when I fell ill over a long weekend in January 2006 and decided to watch the first series of '24' after owning it for over 2 years; waiting for 'that' opportunity to watch 18 hours of solid TV (remember that there may be 24 episodes but they are only 45 minutes long when your have the non-ad injected DVD). Since then I've not had any time to either acquire the seasons that have passed nor watch them.....until now.

I recently (last week) finished series 5 and since then I've been catching up with the current series (6) by watching on the internet - (all of tv) was my main 'friend' although some 'uploads were pretty poor quality and often I had to abort watching due to the appalling download.

Today - I saw my first 24 on real TV today after PVRing the 17th episode from the current series last night. I'm officially caught up!

LOST is great, DEXTER was good too and HOUSE is clever and pretty good too but 24 beats them all hands down - kudos to the makers, writers and all the cast! I'm a total 24 addict and I don't mind admitting it.

But, dear reader, maybe I'll have more time for YOU now!

[socket from division closed]

;-)
DRUDE

At last.......I'm going to see VNV Nation!

2007-02-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

I just posted to my MOG...so I thought I'd be consistent!

Just found out I'm off to see one of my favourite bands that I've never seen in concert; VNV Nation are coming to Montreal (3 hours away).....after all the aborted attempts to see this 2 man power-force in action it's finally going to happen and I'm very happy!

I was going to embed the YouTube video of my favourite track of theirs but I decided that if you wanted to you should discover VNV on your own.... but for the record my fave track is Epicentre and it's from their Futureperfect CD.... check YouTube for some videos of the boys in action.

....yeah, been busy, but I'm pissed about this!

2007-02-03T11:20:00.000-08:00

I generally hate most forms of sport so this weekend held very little for me out in the NFL crazed continent of North America! I don't watch any forms of American sports, no Canadian ice hockey nor will I be watching any baseball when it starts - it's just me right? well maybe others out there - somewhere.

I occasionally catch the odd game of international football (soccer to my NA readership... !!!!!) and I watched some world cup games up until England got booted out.... and if there is some curling on I find that quite therapeutic!

Th ONLY thing I try to watch RELIGIOUSLY is international rugby union and today saw the first games of this years Six Nations championship kick off with France v Italy and England v Scotland.

Now, I can forgive Canadian TV moguls for not including these matches in their line up - I really didn't expect it......

BUT.....why can't I get a live stream of these games on the BBC site? The dumb wits (restricting my language there) - the live stream was only available for UK IP addresses - so when I try to get the stream it wasn't available to me in Canada! I paid for my BBC TV license all those years and frankly always thought I was being ripped off for what I got (puffed up overstaffed corporate TV company that very occasionally made some interesting programmes - but 95% was crap).

I can watch the highlights after the game, I can listen to Radio 5 Live commentary of the game and get a text update which has 3 minutes lag time. Absolute crap!

Even the highlights are the poorest excuse of quality I've ever seen in my recent streaming life - the Real Audio window popped up and I could make out a field of green and that's about it.

WHY?

BBC - get your collective world wide asses together and have a real WORLD SERVICE instead of this half assed fucked up attempt as breakthrough technology!

You have people wanting to watch this stuff - if you are IN THE UK - guess what? You can watch it on TV - it's the Brits OUTSIDE the country who want it streamed!

A snowy morning....in Canada.

2007-01-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

Took this shot this mornning (16th). I use a simple Olympus SP-310.

...that time of year, again!

2007-01-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

Dear reader,

(I say reader as, apart from a few views from a comment I left on http://www.strumpette.com I don't really have an audience yet, but I'm not too bovvered; 'face; bovvered?' - a Catherine tate jokette there)

Anyway, it's snowed now two days 'on the trot' and although it looks nice and winterwonderlandy. It also means snow shoveling for moi! We have a guy who snowblows - see the pic - and Mel does a great job but I am the one who has to tidy up and brush up after he's been - and it's bloody cold out there.

It gives me time to think about stuff though - somehow the cold air makes ones's thought a lot clearer. It's when I usually start to invent some contraption a'la 'Wallace and Grommit' or think up the way to make money from blogging! (Joke)

Today, though...... nothing, nada, not one intellectual thought or idea or invention - am I losing it? Maybe, or maybe it was too cold (-25c) and my invention brain waves only operate down to -10 or something like it.

(see I told you in the header I would ramble!)

The only thing today was good for: I got out the camera again and realised I'd not taken any photographs recently - so I'm going to use the snow/sun combo to take some pics and maybe share them here with my readership of three (and that includes my wife - who are you strange third reader???).

If anyone has been following the Strumpette Vs Thornley Fallis debacle; I thought I'd leave them to it bar ring this one comment....

Amanda Chapel posts a critisism she has of TF and their blogging policy (which I agreed with as you'd see if you read the post) of allowing anyone in the company to be the spokesperson (basically a junior guy called Chris Clarke then wrote a post that suggested that everyone at the company was meant to know what social media was and that he didn't and..... well you get the picture).

OK - so far it's one post on a PR insiders blog and a bit of fun/criticism etc. is had by all/a few; but no real harm done.... BUT... then Joe Thornley AND Chris Clarke decide that the 'strumpette' can not go unanswered and rather than going into 'damage control' mode - they both blog themselves into an ever deepening hole!

Now their clients, previously blissfully unaware of the fact that this has occurred, read this on the TF site and know all there is to know!! Frankly, if I were a client of TF I'd be asking if I really wanted all and sundry at the company blogging about the fact that no one knows what they are really doing; the point here is that if the PR company allows that sort of thing to occur why would I trust them with my communications strategy least of all my social media strategy!

Anyway - I'm sure Amanda and Joe will end up this weeks mini Trump/Rosie in the PR world....me? I'm off to shovel more white stuff.... I mean snow....just stop that line of thought now!

PiC

Beckham wrangle......

2007-01-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

I am not the biggest football (read soccer for non-euro readers).... and so I don't really care too much for watching or talking about it, I care even less, really, about Beckham and what he does with his obvious talent on the pitch as I think that it's obvious to most that the off-pitch issues must have some effect on his ability, otherwise he's have shone in Germany.

However, this Real Madrid manager is just a total arse for saying that he will not play DB again - if he has actually said that - not only is that a stupid thing to say it is also childish - people are obviously going to come and go at RM and what message does that say about what calibre of manager he is to the prospective players?

If this guy was in the business world he wouldn't last 5 minutes (for all I know he is probably a top Director or C-level at some company! ;-).....) - seriously how mind blowingly stupid?

I actually, even though the guy has never ingratiated himself to me, feel a tad sorry for DB.

My non-liking footy two pennyworth..... because I can.

Why it's so tantalising to try to monetise social media....

2007-01-13T11:05:00.000-08:00

How do you make money from social media? How do you monetize blogging? (notice I'm accepting the 'z' rather than the UK 's'.... good eh?) Everyone seems to be obsessed, and with some good reasons other than just plain greed, in the how's and whens of turning social media traffic into hard cash.

The very 'grail' in coming up with a way to do this is in fact a way to make money so everyone (who's involved, not my parents!) is going to sleep at night trying to figure out this enigma for the year 2007.... and the strange thing is that it's really, in my opinion, sifting those who understand what SM is all about from those who don't.... and just because these people who don't understand have a blog and maybe a podcast does not a SM expert make!

Just go and look at some of the PR firm's web sites to grab a slice of 'feel' as to what they are saying, writing and proposing on the subject - it's akin to either nothing or just random incoherent babble and waffle.... funny but scary at the same time. Why? ....because these are the people and companies that corps are going to be soon turning to and asking the question: what do we do about our corporate blog?

Oh, and btw I obviously discount in this brief post the idea that the way to monetise is to simply have advertising on the site you post your blog; this works to an extent and the early personal bloggers continue to do well at a tidy income on their Google AdSense revenue. It's a relevant income for some but not for all, for all sorts of reasons (which is a whole new post full of opinions and POV's). (see I reverted to the 's' there?)

Where was I? Oh, right, making money from SM.

Yep, I just see it now - the PR firm meets with the CIO of some corporation.... and the question is asked...... and how do we increase income by doing this?

The PR crumbles under the omnipresent $$$ question and comes up with some intellectual pitch on the style of the writing (voice they call it) allowing the corporation to drop in product placement 'copy' talking about how great their latest gidget or mop or service is and why the reader should be using it......zzzzzzzz BOLLOCKS!

There is no omni answer here! The real answer is - look we don't really know how your particular corp is going to use this but whatever you do don't try to use SM and the corporate voice to sell the product - no one will care, no one will come back and no one will share the blog link or subscribe....... just won't happen. Let's work together and we'll help you not make mistakes that will lead to loss of reputation - we'll be your guide in the darkness; but we only have a 'lantern' ourselves - you see honesty sounds so weak sometimes and no one is going to say that in a 'tooth and nail' pitch; but they probably should and if I were a CIO and a PR guy or gal said that to me - they would have my full support and account.

However, corps do need to be involved in SM at a corporate level and they should engage... but I fear they'll totally fuck it up, especially if they listen to some of these 'experts' in the PR field and the associated marketing consultancies out there banging on about the same old bollocks and just trying to force the same business objectives into a new 'channel'.

My opinion is that they need to change the title and duties of the CIO to CRO - Chief Reputation Officer..... you heard it here first (probably!) These people need to have enough 'clout' within a company to be able to say to a CEO/COO/CFO... STOP! You can't do that!

The one thing that SM will probably end up bringing to corporations? Honesty.

This in part comes back to my '34th miracle syndrome' (see archive) but it's real and easy and should be the way forward for all corporations from this day on (sounded a bit preachy but what the hell - it's Saturday).

The 'almighty dollar' is alive and well but just don't look for the quick buck in SM Mr. Corporation - it just isn't there! ....and that goes for you PR's out there, too!

Oh and does anyone have a good link they could comment on regarding to what has happened so far in Heroes? Off topic I know but I saw the episode the other night and although I liked the show I had no idea who was doing what, who was the baddy or goody... you get the idea - anyway I'd like to catch up and be ready for the new episodes.... please?

Although I haven't put this blog 'out there' yet, well not much; I don't expect a flood... ;-)

PS - Isn't 'Dexter' a cool show? Lovin that!!

iPhone fever!

2007-01-10T09:41:00.000-08:00

I didn't blog yesterday as I wasn't going to add to the already massive coverage of the iPhone from Apple..... but I can't not!

This piece of kit looks great and you can tell that the engineers and designers have gone that extra mile to come up with a sector slam dunk that will undoubtedly be 'the thing' to get in 2007 - I'm in Canada so I expect it to be on the Rogers network by June too - better start saving up my pennies. Hope it's available to upgrade to too.....

My only comment would be that I've tried to use similiar (I don't mean same - I mean along the same lines) devices before and I just didn't get on with them - the closest I got was the XDA that was quite popular in the UK around 5 years ago - they have since had various new models XDAII etc - Up left is what the second generation looked like...

Now I'm not saying this was the iPhone and that Apple are just copying - my point here is that on paper I should have loved this bit of kit - it had email, camera, phone, text, video, touch screen, internet - the usual stuff in a quite well designed case - basically all that the iPhone has but the iPhone prob has more and better interface etc. - but I had threee of them and although I tried I could never 'get on' with any of them and always sold them.

One of the main things was that I was still in 'putting the phone to my ear' mode and it just looked silly. I just wonder if the iPhone will make people use the BlueTooth ear pieces more than they used to....??

I'll probably get an iPhone just because it looks so damned cool and shiny, but I'm wondering if there is something else in this mix over and abopve my past experiences that will make me keep this rather than sell it when i can't get on with it.

My current set up is nice - I use a Nokia 8800 as my phone - small, neat, good weight, nice slide - it has a crap camera but i hardly use my phone as a vid or cam. My mp3 is a Chinese Netac - which is ok - but not probably the best in the world and I use an Olympus 7mp camera.

I don't have problems taking these with me anywhere so maybe i'm not the best person to be targetted for the convergence phone...

One thing I missed on the iPhone specs was the MegaPixel rate of the camera.... better go check that out.

All my feeds are going iPhone crazy I must have seen a thousand pics of it already.

:-)

It's time we got a little crazy again............

2007-01-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

....and no I don't mean go nuts or mentally unstable (well not completely anyway).

I was reading, today, about corporate transparency and corporate reputations in the aftermath of the Home Depot CEO being fired (www.reputationxchange.blogspot.com/) and it occurred to me that in 2007 companies are going to have to come clean or go out of business. I'm not sure a lot of the big companies actually 'get this' but boy they better hurry up or the guys with the customer relationship that is built on honesty and good reputation will be biting their ankles and knees and pretty soon their torso's.

Corporate strategy needs to be revamped for 2007 and the blogging revolution era and I now see this as clearly a call for companies to clean up their acts and start thinking seriously about their reputations.

Lets call it the '34th Miracle Syndrome' - you've probably seen 'Miracle on 34th Street' this Christmas where a nice old chap believes he is Santa and gets his day in court to prove it. The big corporate message here, though, is at the beginning of the film as the character takes over at Macey's as the store santa and goes against the company ethos of promoting the high profit items or the overstocked toys and starts to honestly direct customers to other stores where the toy is cheaper or in-stock, that the child actually wants.

The screenplay writers probably never thought that decades later companies could be so bogged down in scandal, deceit and cover up and that their idea that this plot line of honesty in sending customers away to competitors would be, in turn, a most successful 'campaign' in and of itself.

The line from the mother is one to remember for the fortune 500 and big corporations everywhere it goes like this (from memory so don't flame me), '....I've always thought of your store as expensive and i don't often shop here, but after today Macey's will have my custom...' - (after being told that the other shop has what her son wants at a better price) she goes on but that, in essence, is what this is about - honesty and reputation not only in making and bringing a good product to your customers, but in the ethos and transparent nature of the corporation's business methods will be one of the most important over the coming years. Get it right and the customers will reward you with their loyalty. Customer loyalty to a brand is in one of the most important of intangible assets a customer has and as some have found out to their cost - you mess with your reputation you could easily lose that loyalty.

The film 'Crazy People' comes to mind too - that is also a good film for CEO's to watch - I'll not spoil it if you haven't seen it.....just to say this:

Volvo's - boxy, but good!

Happy Sunday.

Nice people, manners and flames.....

2007-01-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

I've been working in the internet (if you can call early non-web CompuServe web in 1995) industry for over 12 years and although I, only now have time to really get into my own personal blogging, I've been a casual user of social media (although it wasn't called that back in 'the olden days') like early IRC, news feeds/readers, Forums etc and even had my own Worlds Away avatar (I think that is now used for that online Hotel - a sort of 2nd rate Second Life type. My point here is that I've been around I'm no newbie here and I need to make a bit of a point here about postings:

Why are people generally so intolerant of peoples views? I can understand debate. I can even see argument and correction as valid. Why am I so often put off community based sites and forum based media by the total lack of flexibility and allowance of others' opinions and statements?

I know that people generally can be like the posts flaming people I see daily - but one has to wonder if these people are like this in their off line lives? Really!

I think online forums and new social media sites that allow free comment are great - don't get me wrong, but - I think that people 'change' when they get on their keyboard in the same way people sometimes change when they get behind the wheel of a car.

The sweetest mild mannered person can change into an aggressive driver the moment they sit in the seat of a car. Maybe the posts that i find inflexible and frankly unnecessary are made by people that use the keyboard and monitor as a shield - but why can't we debate topics and offer our own opinion and even correct people whilst still remaining civil?

Maybe, maybe not - who knows?

I was looking at some YouTube videos of Neal Peart a day or so ago and the comments were the usual, 'Peart is the best drummer in the world' and others like it - but there were others that disagreed - but didn't just disagree - they flamed these poor people just for having an opinion.

I just wanna say one thing - 'CHILL'

:-)

2006-12-29T13:32:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd share: just finished reading a very cool book (in 2 days which is fast for me). Bone in the throat by Anthony Bourdain the guy who is a chef and wrote Kitchen Confidential and is on TV in A Cooks Tour and others.

He also writes fiction based on his NYC and cooking experiences and this is the last one I have read and the first one he wrote: they are all good. I like his writing a lot he has a easy readability to his fiction and I would recommend him to tohers - if anyone reads this or course - which is unlikely.

2006-12-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

Been thinking about this a while now.....

I think I'll just have a nice level reflection on what life is like here (in the country) and start this blogging 'lark' that way - hopefully soon i'll be doing a daily version and can reflect on things in a more serious and timely manner that way.

In the beginning......

2006-12-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

So this is blogging, eh? (lame pun on current local.... gettit?)

I'm not working at the moment so I thought I should have a daily 'thing to do', so this blog ain't necessarily for anyone out there to read (although it'll be written that way); it's more therapy for me and to keep me occupied in my current circumstance.

I may be tedious and boring it could be interesting and vibrant - I'm just not sure of the tone as of yet........if you read this on a regular basis I guess you'll find out if you can stand the wait.

I'll expalin my situation in my next blog......... comeing up in a short hour or so.