QI - Vatican City Has the Lowest Age of Consent and the Highest Crime Rate in Europe

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Captain Beefheart. Another Great Passes Away.

Don Van Vliet, dies aged 69

American musician and painter Don Van Vliet, best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart, has died aged 69.

Van Vliet's death in California, from complications from multiple sclerosis, was announced by the Michael Werner Gallery in New York.

Van Vliet was "one of the most original recording artists of his time", the gallery said in a statement.

He rose to fame in the 1960s with a unique style of blues-inspired rock & roll, later devoting himself to art.

Artists including Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Franz Ferdinand, Oasis, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The White Stripes are among those who have cited him as an influence.

'Experimental rock & roll'

"Don Van Vliet was a complex and influential figure in the visual and performing arts," the gallery said in a statement.

"He is perhaps best known as the incomparable Captain Beefheart who, together with his Magic Band, rose to prominence in the 1960s with a totally unique style of blues-inspired, experimental rock & roll."

"This would ultimately secure Van Vliet's place in music history as one of the most original recording artists of his time. After two decades in the spotlight as an avant-garde composer and performer, Van Vliet retired from performing to devote himself wholeheartedly to painting and drawing."

"Like his music, Van Vliet's lush paintings are the product of a truly rare and unique vision."

Van Vliet combined peculiar tones with music that drew on blues, jazz, psychedelia and a barrage of other genres.

The musician recorded under the name of Captain Beefheart with members of the Magic Band through 1982.

Captain Beefheart's first two releases with the Magic Band received positive reviews from music connoisseurs but did not connect with the wider public.

But he soon began a close creative relationship with Frank Zappa, a former high school classmate, who helped him forge his way toward redefining popular music.

In recent years, Van Vliet devoted himself to painting and drawing.

A painting by the musician was on sale at the Michael Werner Gallery earlier this month at a price of $40,000 (£26,000).

Van Vliet is survived by his wife of more than 40 years, Jan Van Vliet.

December 2nd 2010 - Trying to get to work (and failing)

Paxman Meets Hitchens: A Newsnight Special (2/2)

Paxman Meets Hitchens: A Newsnight Special (1/2)

R.I.P Leslie Nielsen.

Godalming Christmas Lights 2010

The Hole 3D

This is the "Den Of Geek" review of "The Hole." I'm presenting it here because having just seen it, I pretty much agree with the reviewer.

Joe Dante

The Hole review

Luke Savage

Director Joe Dante returns with a new feature, The Hole, which returns to the family horror themes of his 80s classic, Gremlins. But does it have that film’s bite? Luke finds out...

Published on Sep 20, 2010

For anyone who a) grew up in the 80s, b) watched movies, and c) liked watching great movies, The Hole in 3D is more than just a film. Seven years after his last cinematic outing, 2003's Looney Tunes: Back In Action, Joe Dante is back. To some, that may not mean much. In the last two decades, only three other films, Small Soldiers (1998), Matinee(1993) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), can lay claim to bearing Dante's cinematic fingerprints. Hardly a prolific output.

But in the 80s, Dante was king. He made Gremlins (I could end it there, really, but I won't), sent River Phoenix into space (Explorers), put a miniature Dennis Quaid inside Martin Short (Innerspace), and had Tom Hanks, before he went all serious, star in what may be the most hard-to-categorise film of his career (The 'burbs). That's not even mentioning The Howling, which seems to have lost a bit of its shine with the near endless stream of inferior sequels it's since spawned.

All of which might be lost on the target audience of The Hole, which flicks between feeling like a stretched out episode of Eerie Indiana (no bad thing) and Flatliners for kids (ditto). Although Disturbia may be a closer match in terms of plot.

Screenwriter Mark L. Smith takes that film's structure of three kids bored in the suburbs and simply replaces the serial killer living opposite with a really big hole. So, instead of asking themselves if David Morse really is a bad guy, The Hole's young trio must investigate what lies beneath their garage.

It's familiar territory for Dante, who's always enjoyed exploring the darkness and quirkiness that lies beneath the facade of banal suburbia. Here, it's simply writ large and a little less subversive. Instead of suspected cannibalism or rampaging homeowners, we get killer clowns and hobbling ghosts wreaking havoc amidst the picket fences.

But this being, you know, for kids, it's never that scary. Save for a terrifically creepy bathroom scene, it's horror wrapped in cotton wool. Even the kids don't feel that worried by their plight. "You've got a gateway to Hell under your house," one says, "and that is really cool". Gone are the terrified inhabitants of Gremlins' snow-lined streets. In their place we have blasé, precocious teens who oscillate between curious and nonchalant.

In that sense, it lacks the Dante bite of old. Where Small Soldiers was a kids movie for adults, The Hole is just a kids movie. But it's a pretty good one, at that. If it misses the madcap energy of Gremlins, it makes up for that with enough reminders of Dante's eye for a great set piece. A hermit's den of hanging lights dazzles, literally, a swimming pool scene feels like a childhood nightmare come to life, and the climax recalls the off-kilter excess of his segment in The Twilight Zone: The Movie.

They're made even better by 3D too. The Hole was shot in 3D, making it a cut above the glut of recent pretenders who've tried to cash in on the craze after the fact. As with most films, it takes a few minutes for the eyes to adjust (a pizza eating scene in the opening few minutes was so vivid I thought I'd walked into an advert for a well known pizza establishment by mistake), but when they do the film's low key charms shine a little brighter.

And, of course, it's always good to see Dick Miller, even if he does now look like Eli Wallach in The Holiday. He doesn't get a line, but he still nabs the film's biggest laugh, narrowly beating an Eric Cartman talking doll.

That's the biggest appeal of The Hole. It may be Dante-lite, but it's still Dante. And it's great to have him back.

I liked it. An entertaining, if flawed, throwback to the family "horror" films of the 80's. It's also just good to see Joe Dante's name on the screen again. Let's hope we don't have to wait an age for his next film.

Tunes I Like Right Now....Update

Updated the "Tunes I Like Right Now" section.

Peter Gabriel - "Après Moi" from the album "Scratch My Back"

Porcupine Tree - "Blackest Eyes" from the album "In Absentia." They're one of the greatest bands that nobodies ever heard of.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela - "Orion" from the album "Rodrigo Y Gabriela"

Yello - "Tiger Dust" from the album "The Eye". You either love Yello or hate 'em.

Intruder

A little taste of Intruder. The New Blood Orchestra recorded versions of Peter's songs for a forthcoming album at Air Studios in June.



I'm really looking forward to this release. I loved the "Scratch My Back" album, but a whole record of Peter's songs re-recorded with an orchestra has me salivating.

White Wine in the Sun - Kate Miller-Heidke (by Tim Minchin)

Bill Bailey 'Part Troll' Live - Love Song

(2/2) Part Two. Christopher Hitchens on ABC1 Lateline

(1/2) Part Two. Christopher Hitchens on ABC1 Lateline

Christopher Hitchens on ABC Lateline Part 2

Christopher Hitchens on ABC Lateline Part 1

Mr. Deity and the Science Advisor

Mr. Deity and the Promised Land

Michio Kaku on Life After Death, Creationism and Scientific Evidence of Geological Time

Steve Martin - Atheist Song - First hymnal for Atheists

New Age Con.

How Can Theists Claim To Know? - Christopher Hitchens

Stephen Fry on God & Gods.

Christopher Hitchens on The Ten Commandments

Peter Gabriel Covers “In the Neighborhood” by Tom Waits

Peter Gabriel » Tom Waits from The Voice Project on Vimeo.

Tron Legacy.

The young Jeff Bridges looks naff, hopefully they're going to be working on it right up to the release date so it doesn't look so....... funky.

Still, I can't help but feel excited by this!

The First Men In The Moon

Watched this the night it was broadcast. Mark Gatiss is always worth the price of admission, even more so when he's written the screenplay. This wonderful take on the novel by H.G Wells is slightly hampered by a tiny BBC4 budget, but it more than makes up for it in pure tongue in cheek entertainment.

Gatiss is wonderful as Dr Cavor, giving us a glimpse of what he may have done if he'd ever had the chance to play that other Doctor so loved of Sci-Fi fans. 

The DVD is out now, but no Blu-ray!! What's that about? It was broadcast on BBC HD as well as BBC4. Come on chaps, sort it out!

Jon Stewart's Speech from Rally to Restore Sanity

The Social Network

Finally saw this last night. It took a bit of persuading to get my wife to come as the subject matter held no interest for her. However, the twin pull of David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, Panic Room ect) and Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Studio 60, Charlie Wilson's War) was enough to get her into the cinema.

It was a blissful mix of Fincher's energetic visual flare and ability to extract amazing performances from his actors and Sorkin's witty, snappy dialogue.

As for the truth of the story, I assume like most films of this nature that the broad strokes are probably as near to the mark as they can get, but the smaller details are poetic licence. The soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is also excellent and will be finding it's way into my ever expanding collection.

Well worth a look.

And I still think that Fincher's Alien 3 is a lost masterpiece.

Metallic Spheres

Listening to this right now......

Ohhhh this is bliss!

Currys & PC World Megastores TV Ad Director's Cut

Squeeee!!!

Peter Gabriel "Here Comes the Flood" on Guitar Center Sessions

Links..

All the diveshare links are back.

Lets see how long it lasts.

Peter Gabriel - New Blood: Rhythm Of The Heat

Peter Gabriel Album Art.

divshare....AAAAAAAHHH!!

Have removed all the divshare links until I can sort all this out or find a replacement.

The Divshare Saga Continues....... Oh, and some photos.

Ok,

Deep breath.

I was looking around my divshare account trying to figure out why some files worked and others didn't when I came across the "privacy" setting.

This was new to me, it wasn't there when I joined. Now that I've set all the relevant files to "public" they should all work.

(pinch of salt)

It's worth pointing out that I'm a free member of the site so I have a monthly download limit. If you try to download something and it says that the account has reached it's limit wait until around the end of the month and try again. The National Theatre Of Brent stuff is the main culprit, it seems to be the most popular.

Now a few pics from our recent family trip to Mortehoe in Devon.

Divshare Doldrums Part 2.

Seems that diveshare is still causing problems. It used to be reliable but seems to be quite flakey these days.

I think it's gonna be so long diveshare!

I'll have a hunt around for an alternative.

Cashback

Cashback
Uploaded by momog. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

Solved.

All the diveshare links now work. I've also updated the "Tunes I Like Right Now" section. The new tracks are....

1 - Theme from Mousehunt - Alan Silvestri - I'm a huge soundtracks collector and this album is a new addition.

2 - Windolicker - Aphex Twin - The more I listen to it the more amazing it gets.

3 - Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie - It's Bowie! What else is there to say?

4 - Sugalumps - Flight Of The Concords - Brilliant pastiche of the Black Eyed Peas track "My Humps".

Diveshare doldrums..

Seems that quite a few of the files that I posted on diveshare are corrupted. I'll spend some time tonight uploading new copies to replace them.

Life The Universe & Everything

It's been an age since I posted anything about myself, life has managed to consistently get in the way.

New job, (now OLD job as I've moved on) baby, (now screaming toddler) outside projects, (not enough of them) have all meant that time is at a premium.

I'm in the process of doing what all men of a certain age do, taking stock. It's NOT a mid life crisis (yet) but it IS a concerted effort to look at things in my life and decide whether I should..

a) Hunker down, settle on a career while letting some ideas and dreams go in an attempt to be the responsible earner.

or

b) Keep trying to move towards what I always wanted to do, stop worrying about being "grown up" and enjoy life more.

On the surface it seems like an easy decision, but it ain't. My brain is all about a, but my heart is all about b.

Anyway, in an effort to focus me a little and not waste so much time on BLOODY FACEBOOK, I've decided to pay more attention to my blog. To use it as a portal for jotting down little doodles from my life, from my favourite music, films and books, to stuff I've been up to. You know, the usual stuff.

Here we go.

The Book Of Love and Washing Of The Water

Mr G is still easily my favourite male recording artist. Long may he continue.

Dead again?

I have, of late, been very tardy in keeping this blog up to date. I am resolved to alter this unsatisfactory situation.

Blame work, child, facebook ect. They all take up way to much time.

I'll get my act together and start posting again soon!