The song in question is called “No Way Out” and it’s completely new. I wrote and recorded it early last year, around the time I discussed my musical plans here. I played all the instruments and mixed it myself.

You can press the play button above to hear this new song. The part I’m not 100 percent happy with is the vocals. They are a bit dry and may need some effects, I also think I could do a better performance so might re-record them. For those interested in the technical side of things, this was all recorded and produced in Reaper, with some VST plugins and other tools. The drums are from Groove Agent. They sound pretty natural and I’m happy with that, but recording drums is still a challenge for me with my current set up.

Feel free to download the track (press the button above) and share it, listen to it or even remix in some way if you’re so inclined. All I ask is that you release it back to me under the same terms. I am releasing this song under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Non Commercial 4.0 International license. Why Non Commercial I hear you cry, it’s not a free culture license! Well I accept that but for now I would like to restrict anyone using this for say a TV advert, unlikely I know but still a valid concern.

No Way Out by Dan Lynch is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

I have another 9 tracks in various states of completion and my rough plan is to keep working on them and hopefully (that’s the key word here) releasing a new album on Bandcamp later in the year.

Thoughts and feedback are welcome, you can comment on this post and I’ll see it.

Catch up with you all again soon I hope, see ya,

Dan

Regardless of your political persuasions, you can’t ignore that this was a man who physically built homes for homeless people with his own hands, helped many people worldwide through the Carter Center and won a Nobel Peace Prize for the good work he undertook after leaving political office.

Back in 2009/10 I wrote a song with my band 20lb Sounds and the lyrics are actually all true facts about Jimmy’s life. We wrote it together and I must give Ross (our drummer) full credit for the second verse lyrics. Including the nugget about Jimmy being given the freedom of the City of Newcastle in the UK. This resulted in the immortal line “The proudest day for old Mrs Gordy …was when her son was crowned a Geordie”.

I am conscious that this post could seen as an attempt to cash in on his death but I wanted to share my own heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. Regardless of your political leanings, you cannot deny that we lost a good guy and positive influence on the world. At the beginning of 2025 I feel like we could do with a lot more kindness and understanding in the world today. If Jimmy stood for one thing it was certainly that.

So rest in peace Jimmy Carter, we will miss you man.

Thanks for reading this, if you made it this far. The song is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. So take it, share it, remix it and do as you like with it. Have fun!

On a side note. I wrote last year about recording a new album and I actually got 90% of the way through it. So I’ll be back with new music soon I hope, I’m not putting a time frame on that. Past performance indicates it could take a while hehe 😉

Take care out there,

Dan

Firstly, l’d better fess up here. I am very late in posting this. It’s less than a month away as we speak. There have been many previous announcements and I’m not breaking any news here. I just thought I’d better share the details again.

OggCamp 24 – October 12th to 13th 2024 at the Pendulum Hotel and Conference Centre, Manchester

It’s a great venue right in the heart of Manchester City Centre, surrounded by amenities and good travel links. Tickets are available now, there’s a suggested price and also a “pay what you can” option available to keep it accessible to everyone. There’s still time to book and plan your trip but you’d better make it fast. I only booked my hotel room at the venue today in fact and there are loads of alternative places to stay nearby if you need them.

I’m NOT one of the organisers this time, I handed over my badge and gun (metaphorically speaking) in 2019 but there is a brilliant team behind the event. I will be there as an attendee and I’m excited to experience things in this way for the first time.

If you’ve never been to an OggCamp and you’re wondering what the hell it’s all about, I can tell you it’s a lot of fun and you won’t regret it. The crowd is friendly, plus there’s loads to see and do with a scheduled speaker track and all the Barcamp talks too. Anyone can pitch a talk, so you can even get in on the action yourself if you fancy it. There’s an exhibition room, break out areas, games to play and last but not least there’s all the great social events too. There’s usually drinks and pre-event socialising in the hotel bar on Friday night, plus a party on the Saturday evening for everyone to enjoy. If you’re undecided whether to come then I encourage you to give it a go.

See the OggCamp website for all the important information and links. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a chance to see you there and catch up in person. Hope so!

Bye for now,

Dan

You can find the new show on their website and there should be new episodes every 2 weeks. I edit the audio, produce the mp3 and ogg files, and generally advise on microphones and other such equipment. It’s a role I’ve always enjoyed and I have to confess being in an audio editor is my happy place. I use only Free and Open Source Software to produce the show in keeping with their ethos. Audacity is my tool of choice and while it has it’s quirks, I really find it invaluable for my workflow.

Each show Karen and Bradley will be discussing the latest developments in the Free Software world and where it intersects with law and licensing. They do a great job of explaining complex legal ideas and I learn a lot from each episode. Conservancy is a great organisation as a whole and if you want to read about what they do you can do so here. The first episode introduces co-host Karen Sandler, for any new listeners. Give it a listen and see what you think.

The first episode can be found here.

On a sidenote, I enjoy producing and editing podcasts as I have said, so should you find yourself in need of help with anything like that please drop me a line. I need to update the production page on this site but I’ll get onto that ASAP.

I hope you enjoy the show and I’ll be back soon with more updates. Until then, take care out there and I hope things go well for you all 🙂

Dan

I’ll use Bandcamp to release the stuff as I have in the past for solo stuff and also my old band 20lb Sounds. You can find those things via those links if you haven’t heard them.

It may not sound like much of an undertaking but it does involve rebuilding my studio and writing a lot of new material if possible. I currently have 5 or 6 songs ready to go but I’d like to get to 10 ideally. I was discussing it with a friend and she said not to worry about the number of songs but instead focus on the quality. I wouldn’t put stuff on an album just to fill space or hit an arbitrary amount of tracks, but 10 feels a good number. Can I still write after all this time? Do I have anything to write about? Honestly I don’t know, but it’s going to be interesting to find out. I am pretty pleased with a couple of the songs, I’ll share some soon.

The first challenge in this process was sorting out my studio and moving things around (see above). I haven’t had my keyboard set up in over a year, much less played it. I also needed to rebuild the studio PC (hardware and software) and get a load of things sorted. For those interested in music tech I recently bought a 3rd gen Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB audio interface, and so for I’m pretty pleased with it. It has really good Linux support which is important to me but I have a confession to make… I’m using Reaper on Windows at the moment for music production. I know I know, I hang my head in shame. As a Linux advocate I know some people will be disappointed but I will also be trying to get into using Ardour and other things on Linux. Reaper also works on Linux I know, so perhaps I will investigate that. If anyone reading has suggestions or advice for this please let me know in the comments. I’m happy to hear about it. Also thoughts or experiences with the Focusrite are welcome.

I have a large collection of VST plugins I’ve built up over the years and while I’ve heard you can use them on Linux with WINE (or VSThost), I’ve never found the time to really try it. I do all my podcast production on Linux and always have, so no fears there.

Back to the album project, I am wondering how best to promote and document it as I go. Perhaps YouTube videos with short live performances, blogs updates, live gigs, even a podcast, who knows. Again I’m open to ideas. Would you be interested in any of that?

I don’t have a title in mind for the album yet, there’s lots to work on. One thing I did notice listening back to some of my older songs is the lyrics can sound a little depressed or angry. I’ll try to make this one a bit more upbeat but no promises. I have already been working on a blues song. I’ve always loved the blues though hehe.

So you can see from the studio picture that things are taking shape. I have rough versions of a couple of songs recorded already but they need work. I noticed that lack of singing in recent years has affected my voice quite badly, it sounds weak. So I’m a little sensitive about that. I’m considering some vocal lessons to work on breathing, warming up techniques and so on. It’s something I’ve never done before. I used to just open my mouth and hitting notes wasn’t a problem. We’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, that’s enough rambling for now,but hopefully some of you find it interesting, and I’ll be back to share a song or two soon.

Take care 🙂

Dan

Now I should say up front that I really can’t take any credit for this. All the work is done via a great plugin I found called Include Mastodon Feed by Wolfgang.lol, it’s in the plugin store and it’s free. Just search for it. What this plugin does is allow you to use a shortcode to embed your feed but that does take a little setting up. So let’s talk about the process.

You need your Mastodon account ID number which you can get via the API. Log in to your Mastodon instance and then use the following URL structure to get the data in JSON.

https://mastodon.social/api/v2/search?q=methoddan@mastodon.social&resolve=true&limit=5

Obviously that’s my account so change the bit after the q= to your username and instance. As you can see I’m on Mastodon.social so I have no idea how easily this works for other self hosted instances. I made sure I was logged in on Mastodon.social and just entered that URL. Here is what it returns…

As you can see from the image above the account ID number is listed at the top of your results. Make a note of this, it’s very important. Next we will use it to build the shortcode embed.

Go to wherever you want the Mastodon feed to appear, be it a new page, post, or in my case the sidebar and add a shortcode block or widget by selecting it as below.

All we need to do now is build our shortcode and test it. The format should be thus:

[include-mastodon-feed instance="YOUR-INSTANCE" account="YOUR-ACCOUNT-ID"]

In my case here’s what I used…

[include-mastodon-feed instance="mastodon.social" account="553058" limit="5"]

I made a few mistakes and it took some tweaking to get it to work. For the Instance variable don’t add “https://” or anything like that at the start. I did at first and it just didn’t work. Again because I am on the main Mastodon.social instance I have no idea how easily this will work with others, such as self-hosted instances.

The only other problem I had once this code was working was the massive amount of posts it pulled by default. A list of 20 posts shot off the bottom of my page, so a quick bit of research on the great FAQ and documentation for the plugin showed I could add limit=”5″ to keep it down to 5 posts. Obviously you can set this to whatever suits you best and also check out the many other options for tailoring the output. A quick recap of the steps involved:

1. Install the Include Mastodon Feed plugin
2. Get your ID number with the JSON query URL
3. Add a shortcode block
4. Write your shortcode using the ID number and whatever options you prefer

Hey presto, there we go, my activity feed was embedded all thanks to the great work of the plugin author Wolfgang.lol. I hope this helps some of you set it up as well. If you do use the plugin consider donating something to the author to show your support, as I intend to do.

That’s it for this requested post. I’ll be back again in future with other stuff I’m sure. If you do use this plugin and find the guide useful, or perhaps find something I’ve missed, let me know in the comments.

See ya,

Dan

I discovered from talking to friends in other countries that hospital radio is pretty much a British institution. If I am wrong and you also have it in your country please do let me know. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Radio programming designed for hospital patients and staff to keep them informed and entertained throughout the day. In the UK many well known broadcasters have started out in hospital radio and it’s a great proving ground, a place to learn the fundamentals of radio presenting and gain experience.

ArroweSound is the station for Arrowe Park hospital on the Wirral in Merseyside. The most famous part of Merseyside is obviously Liverpool but the county actually covers both sides of the Mersey estuary. Arrowe Park is a pretty big hospital and it was opened in 1982. I had many trips to the accident and emergency department as a kid. I was always falling out of trees or having various misadventures, breaking bones, and even once cutting my own finger off (no kidding). The staff kindly sewed it back on. I’m pleased to report the finger works as normal and I’m glad it does, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to play the guitar very well today.

ArroweSound had it’s 50th birthday last year because it actually started life as Radio Catherine in 1973 at St Catherine’s Hospital in Birkenhead.

I joined the station in 2022 and I do a weekly show on Thursday nights 7pm to 9pm (UK time) but it’s broadcast via the internet, so anyone can listen around the world. I’ve had feedback from people in Australia, Scandinavia and other places which is really lovely. The show is called The Mid-Week Pick N Mix and it reflects my eclectic taste in music. Each week I pick an artist to feature and talk about in detail. I tell their life story as best i can and relate anecdotes, as well as playing a few tracks by them throughout the show. It could be a famous artist like Paul Simon, Tina Turner, or perhaps someone lesser known like Nick Drake. I enjoy doing the research for these and I adore music history so it’s a labour of love really.

Many people have asked me if they can get the show as a podcast and sadly the answer right now is no, due to music licensing. We play commercial music and we don’t have a license to use it for podcasts. The copyright laws still haven’t quite caught up with the podcasting phenomena, even in 2024.

So I’ve decided that in future I will write up a little article about my Artist In The Spotlight here on the blog and include a playlist of music from them to accompany it. Hopefully it’s something you’ll enjoy.

Have a listen to the radio show if you’re interested and able. You can listen via the website, on the TuneIn app or via a smart speaker like Alexa or Google Home. You can just ask them to “play Arrowesound Hospital radio”.

It might be something for those who used to enjoy my music show Rathole Radio and I’m happy to take requests and read out messages. We have various ways of getting in touch via the website.

Take care out there and I’ll speak to you again soon.

Dan

FLOSS Weekly (as the name suggests) is a weekly show about Free Libre Open Source Software. It was hosted on the TWIT Network for 17 years and I was privileged to be a member of the team for 14 of those years. I joined when the show was hosted by the one and only Randal Schwartz. I got to speak to some amazing people over the years, including Randal of course. In 2020 the show changed a little as Randal left and the new full time host Doc Searls (of Linux Journal fame) joined. Doc was also a great host but has a different hosting style to Randal and without meaning to cast any aspersions I think some people found that change a bit jarring. Now let me clarify, Doc is a great host and I loved doing the show with him too. It was just a different kind of style to some degree. My Dad always talks about “traditional resistance to change”, he was a work study engineer (in a past life) and likes to use this phrase a lot. I know what he means. Sometimes people just don’t like change for better or worse, change itself is the problem and they won’t accept it. Perhaps that’s what happened a little but the show was still very healthy as far as listener/viewer figures went to my knowledge. So I don’t want to create the impression that we had audience problems, we didn’t. While we’re on the subject of change I’d also like to share a little nugget of wisdom I picked up from Randal. He told me he once went to a coffee shop where there was a sign on the tip jar which read “if you are scared of change, please leave it here” hehehe. I still quote that to people a lot and they usually laugh. One of the many things I picked up from Randal over the years.

In December of last year I received an email from Leo Laporte. The Chief TWIT himself. It was titled “The Last FLOSS Weekly” and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t come as something of a shock. I think to the whole team, not just me. Basically Leo said that TWIT was streamlining and changing their roster of shows. To paraphrase his own words, he built TWIT like a traditional radio station with expensive studios and a large set of staff, advertising income couldn’t sustain it in it’s current form. He said FLOSS was done and the next show (due in a few days at the time) would be the last. We recorded and broadcast that show before Christmas and it was a bittersweet affair. Leo joined us towards the end of the show to discuss why things were ending and he did a good job I thought. I know it wasn’t an easy decision for him and understandably some of the audience were not pleased. I have no hard data or real inside knowledge on this but I do know that podcast advertising revenues have dropped significantly recently and this probably necessitated change for him. You can listen to the final FLOSS Weekly on the TWIT network here.

You can also dig back into 17 years of shows at the TWIT archives. They aren’t going anywhere.

A quick side note while we’re on the subject of changes at TWIT and staff changes particularly. I met and worked with many amazing people at TWIT over the years and there’s too many to mention individually, but one who I would like to highlight is Ant Pruitt. Ant helped to produce the show for a long time and is a great guy all round. He was one of the TWIT employees who sadly they let go. So I just wanted to say, if you need a great technical producer/engineer, host, photographer, or just all round great guy, definitely give Ant a shout.

Ok back to our story. I thought that was the end of FLOSS Weekly and I came to terms with that. It had been a good run and I suppose I saw it as a chance for a change. Maybe do something else and start some new shows in 2024, who knows. Fate had other things in store though. In this case fate came in the form of Jonathan Bennett, my erstwhile FLOSS co-host. Jonathan works for Hackaday and he approached them about picking up FLOSS Weekly and continuing it, with the blessing of Leo and Lisa from TWIT I should add. Leo said we could keep the name if we found a new home. I’m pleased to say that has happened. Thanks to Jonathan’s hard work he has saved FLOSS Weekly from the brink of extinction and brought it back. It’s now available weekly again on Hackaday. He called it the 4th season of FLOSS Weekly, which I like. The first season being Leo and co-hosts, second season Randal’s long illustrious tenure, third season Doc’s time at the helm, and now Jonathan is the main host. Doc and others (including myself) are still on board as co-hosts. So all of this is a long way of saying FLOSS Weekly is dead… long live FLOSS Weekly!!!

You can find the show over at Hackaday and subscribe now to the new feed. It’s mostly an audio show again which if I’m honest I prefer, but there is live video of the recording you can interact with via the Hackaday Discord should you wish to. The live chat and listener interaction has always been important. I was on a show recently with Neil Gompa as our guest and it was great fun. Hopefully it’s good fun to listen to as well. Jonathan has really revitalised the show and he’s in the process of building up the listener base again. That’s partly why I wanted to write this post. To explain what happened and also highlight what is happening going forward. I will update the RSS feed which imports here on my site to the new Hackaday one. The many co-hosts you’re familiar with from FLOSS Weekly will still be on board and if you haven’t listened in a while I encourage you to give it a go. I’m really enjoying it as a listener, not just a co-host. It’s become a regular part of my weekly listening.

In fact, Randal Schwartz (remember that guy) was on this very week. So you can listen to him and Aaron Newcomb (also remember that guy) chatting with Jonathan. I think you’ll enjoy it, and tell your friends if you do. We’d appreciate it.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back with more news of new stuff I’m up to very soon. Take care out there and oh, by the way, I know it’s a little late but Happy New Year! Here’s to a great 2024 for us all.

See ya,

Dan

I remember first hearing the name Top Gun as a kid, around the time the first movie was released in 1986. My Dad took my two older brothers to the cinema but I wasn’t allowed to go because I was too young for the film. It’s fair to say at the time that it was a massive blockbuster hit and a cultural phenomena. I had the soundtrack on cassette, now that makes me feel old. I played Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins on my Walkman quite often. When I first heard there was a plan to make a sequel 36 years later, I wasn’t optimistic to say the least. I expected it to be a disaster. By all accounts so did Tom Cruise. He apparently refused to sign on for the film a couple of times. Until he was sure the script was actually good and it could be a decent film in it’s own right. There are also all the stories of him making the other actors go up in jets and attend basic flight training to make it more realistic. I don’t know how much of that is true but he does have a reputation for insisting on doing his own stunts.

The film begins with our protagonist Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise), 30 years on from the original film, still flying jets for the US Navy as a test pilot. He has consistently dodged promotions that would prevent him from active flying duty. As Ed Harris character Chester Cain explains in the opening act. “You should be at least an Admiral by now, maybe even a senator!”. There’s a lot of that kind of talk in this early exchange. You’re a fossil, you’re the past, the future is unmanned flights etc etc. He tells Maverick that he’s been called back to the Navy’s flight combat school TOPGUN much to Cain’s distaste. As we quickly learn though it isn’t to fly in an active mission. Instead Maverick is told he will be training some of the best young graduates from the programme to carry out a highly difficult and dangerous mission. Jon Hamm is very good as the cantankerous Beau “Cyclone” Simpson, commander of Naval Air Services and Maverick’s new boss. He plays an important role throughout the movie and really provides the authority figure for Maverick to kick against.

Complicating the situation for Maverick is the fact that one of the graduates in his class is Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of his former flight partner Goose. Whose death is a major plot point of the first film. We also learn that Maverick prevented Rooster from joining Naval Air Services when he was younger and set his career back 4 years. Rooster resents Maverick for this and their relationship becomes a key part of the story. Can Maverick get his young charges ready for this mission in just 3 weeks? Is it even possible? Well to find out you’ll have to watch for yourself because I’m not giving any spoilers. Sorry.

As I mentioned earlier I didn’t have very high hopes for this film given the 36 year gap and the fact the original really hasn’t dated that well. I saw it a while ago and it wasn’t nearly as good as I remember. Perhaps that’s because I was a kid the first time who knows, but it’s fair to say I wasn’t looking forward to this. I’m very happy to say I was completely wrong and Top Gun: Maverick captivated me with it’s impressive visuals, great acting, soundtrack and little nuggets of nostalgia, which deliver nicely but stop short of the heavy handed touch I feared. There is enough in there for fans of the original to recognise, even some footage from the original film used to add emotion at moments. But it doesn’t lean on the original and I would say you don’t even had to have seen Top Gun to enjoy Maverick. Obviously camera technology has changed a lot in 36 years and the flight sequences are exciting and visceral. The choice to use as little CGI as possible is a good one. You can almost feel the speed as the planes take off. It’s definitely something to behold on the big screen. Whether that translates to home viewings I guess we’ll find out in time.

The cast is well chosen. Jennifer Connolly is excellent and exudes attitude in her role opposite Tom Cruise. It would have been very easy to include a one dimensional love interest here but she shows she is every bit his equal. The inclusion of Val Kilmer as Iceman and the way they pull this off is touching. Kilmer has been very ill in real life and can’t really talk any more because of his treatments for throat cancer. The way this is addressed is clever. It was nice to see him on screen again. I’ve always liked Miles Teller since his breakthrough in Whiplash, and his performance as Rooster adds emotional depth to the film beautifully. The supporting cast are all excellent but I have to concede here Tom Cruise demonstrates he is still a bone fide film star. I have my issues with him in real life, and some of his Scientology backed statements on subjects like mental health have been particularly idiotic. Still, I was able to separate the artist from the art and he deserves every credit for his performance as Maverick. I can see the film being nominated for a few prizes when awards season comes round again. It could very well win some of them as well.

Overall Rating: 5/5

Overall I can’t think of any negative things to say about this film really. Nobody is more surprised about that than me. Despite it’s run time of over 2 hours I never felt bored or restless once. I would even go so far as to say it’s the best film I’ve seen this year so far. I probably enjoyed it more the second time, which really says something. It’s well worth getting along to see it on the big screen before it’s extended run finally finishes. Allow yourself to swept up by this dramatic story and you’ll have a great time. Whether you’ve seen the original or not.

Have you seen Maverick? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below, also via email or Twitter if you like. I’m not sure what I’ll review next week but I’m open to suggestions and requests. Thanks very much for reading this, if you made it this far, I really appreciate it.

Until next time take care of yourselves. I’m off to go find my aviator shades and buzz the tower while digging out my old Walkman hehe 🙂

Dan

The film begins with our titular hero having hung up (or more accurately buried) his axe Stormbreaker. Weary of the constant battles against evil, he is now travelling with the Guardians Of The Galaxy. Now I have to admit a bias here as I love the Guardians characters. The first film from 2014 is, in my opinion, the best movie in the whole MCU canon to date. This is only a short lived appearance but it’s still fun. Star-Lord giving Thor life advice and generally sounding like a Hallmark greetings card is a bit strange, but I was willing to forgive it. The general theme seems to be that Thor is searching for his identity and trying to figure out who he really is.

Meanwhile Gorr The God Butcher (played brilliantly by Christian Bale) is our big bad. He’s on a mission to rid the universe of gods. His motivation isn’t exactly clear but it seems to be because his daughter died and the gods did nothing. Worse he discovers there is no afterlife for his fallen family. Armed with the powerful Necrosword he travels the universe wiping out many deities as he goes. Asgard (Thor’s home) is next on his TODO list.

Alongside all this we see the story of Dr Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman). Thor’s former girlfriend and renowned astrophysicist. Without much warning or explanation we are told that she has stage 4 cancer and is dying. She searches for a cure or an answer, settling upon the idea that she can be healed by Mjolnir, Thor’s legendary hammer, which currently resides in New Asgard, broken into pieces in the last Thor movie. She goes to New Asgard and can apparently just make the hammer come back together and obey her commands by willing it. She becomes The Mighty Thor, a female version of the thunder god. This is true to the comics where Jane also becomes The Mighty Thor, all be it in a slightly different way.

When Gorr comes to New Asgard and kidnaps all the children Thor, Jane, King Valkyrie (played by Tessa Thompson) and Korg (voiced by Waititi himself) band together to try and get them back. To do this they decide they need help from other gods including Russell Crowe’s Zeus, king of the Greek gods. To avoid spoilers I’ll leave you to discover the rest of the plot for yourselves, but this is only the first 20-30mins of the film.

This film is nothing if not chaotic. There are a lot of different narratives going on from the start, and it feels like they just threw everything at the wall hoping something would stick. The film jumps around not only between locations and time periods but also in tone between serious emotional stuff and just outright stupidity and silliness. I generally like Taika Waititi and have found most of his films very funny, but I’m not sure I even laughed once properly throughout this whole film. I’m sad to say that but it’s true. The use of screaming goats feels like an outdated meme. A lot of the jokes just don’t land for me. Everything is turned up to 11. The colours, the CGI, the soundtrack and more. I’m sorry to say a lot of it doesn’t benefit from that. I did enjoy parts of the film and it’s not a turkey by any means. It’s just not as good as Ragnarok and is probably the weakest of the four Thor films to date. I say “to date” because the end credit scene tells us “Thor will return”. I can’t say I’m waiting with baited breath for that. It feels more like they’re flogging a dead horse by now.

Good points I would say are the performance by Christian Bale, who is genuinely scary at points as Gorr. He might be the most menacing MCU villain we’ve seen. Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson are also very good. Getting to see Jane as The Mighty Thor was a treat I’d been waiting for. There are some good fight scenes and visuals but it’s not consistent enough throughout.

One of the poorest parts of the film is the city of the gods where our heroes meet Zeus. Russell Crowe is a good actor but he hams it up here and his choice of accent is shocking. I suppose he’s chosen this because Zeus is a Greek god but he sounds like a very poor impression of Harry Enfield’s classic character Stavros from the 80s. At times I was waiting for him to say “hello matey peeps!”. It isn’t good.

Overall Rating: 3/5

Overall I would say this film has it’s moments but sadly the good moments are largely outweighed by the poor ones. If you’re a Marvel fan then you should definitely see it. There isn’t a lot linking it to the larger MCU but there is a journey for most of the characters that may come into play in other MCU films. Other than that I can’t see how this is going to find a wider audience. It’s not as good as Ragnarok and I think perhaps they’re returned to well one too many times.

Have you seen Thor: Love And Thunder, what did you think? Feel free to let me know in the comments, via email or Twitter. It’s all good. I’m not sure what I’ll see next but probably the latest Minions movie. If you have suggestions or requests feel free to let me know.

Until next time, take care of yourselves 🙂

Dan

Luhrmann has a distinctive style for which he’s known. Fast cuts, vivid colours, constant movement and a certain dream-like quality. I had expected some of that but found the opening portion of the film hard to get into if I’m honest. It felt a little disorientating and relentless. Like being repeatedly hit over the head with a wet fish. Thankfully that did settle down, or perhaps I became used to it. Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’ famous manager, and he narrates the story as it jumps around between different time periods. I’m no expert but I already knew quite a bit about Elvis’ life going into this film, and I also knew a fair bit about the shady back story of his manager. I wondered how closely they would stick to the truth.

We begin with the first time the Colonel sees Elvis perform at the Louisiana Hayride. Previously a carnival huckster with a dark past, using dancing chickens to relieve people of their money. The colonel is instantly convinced this kid is the dancing chicken he’s been looking for all his life. He sets about gaining control of Elvis’ career, signing him up to a contract which gives the manager 50% of all the star’s future earnings. The Colonel has become something of a cautionary tale to young artists over the years and is widely considered to have exploited Elvis badly, something the film leans into pretty hard. He also wasn’t really called Colonel Tom Parker, this was a completely made up identity. He illegally immigrated to the US from Holland, where there is even suspicion he had been involved in a murder.

It’s an interesting role for Hanks to take up because we rarely see him play a villain, or anything other than a clean cut nice guy. As his voice over tells us “I didn’t kill Elvis Presley”, you get the sense that this statement is going to be tested though. As the tale continues we see how the Colonel sent Presley into the army for national service to rehabilitate his image. Elvis’ gyrating hips and dance moves were widely condemned. Many establishment figures even claimed it was leading to the downfall of society and corruption of the youth in the late 1950s.

On his return from Europe the Colonel puts Elvis into a series or formulaic musical Hollywood movies which continued to be pumped out until the late 1960s. A large part of the film centres on the 1968 TV special which came to be known as the comeback special. With the Colonel expecting a Christmas themed show and a leather clad Elvis very much doing his own thing. Signing a protest song as the closing number instead.

The story continues with the Colonel basically tricking Elvis into a long term residency at The International in Las Vagas. The film asserts that this is to clear his own gambling debts and also maintain his vice-like grip over the star. A fact few would dispute. The Colonel certainly thwarted Elvis’ attempts to travel abroad and tour outside the US. Probably because he had no passport and didn’t want his illegal immigration status unearthed. While it plays fast and loose with the facts at times, I have to admit that overall the film does stick close to the accepted tale of Elvis’ life and ultimate premature death aged 42. So did the Colonel kill Elvis? The film doesn’t really come to a conclusion on that but you can be sure his constant pushing for more live shows, punishing schedule, control of Elvis every move, and use of “Dr Nick” to keep his star drugged up, all contributed to his death.

The film has that dreamy quality you would expect from Luhrmann but it goes too far with this for my taste. It feels a bit like a 3 hour music video at times with all the cutting, split screen and disorientating visuals. The first act feels like a fever dream. The acting is strong throughout and I have no doubt Austin Butler is a star of the future. His performance is electric and will probably earn him an Oscar nomination at the least. Tom Hanks is always pretty good but I was slightly disappointed the female characters in the story had very little to do. Priscilla (played by Olivia DeJonge) has very few lines and the only other female character of note is Elvis’ mother Gladys, who dies pretty early on. The music is good but the choice of hip-hop tunes as background in parts is strange for a period piece. It’s not your typical biopic but then perhaps this is fitting. Elvis wasn’t your typical singer and his life story is a big tale to tell.

Overall verdict: 4/5

Overall this film is very enjoyable despite it’s flaws. If you’re an Elvis aficionado you may need to leave some of that knowledge at the door and be prepared to accept some liberties taken with the narrative. Elvis’ life is a massive story and despite the long runtime this feels like it only scratches the surface in some areas. For me it got better the longer it went on and didn’t feel boring or slow at any point. So I have to give credit for that.

The stand out thing here is the incredible performance of Austin Butler in the lead role. His movement on stage and embodiment of Elvis is really something to see. I didn’t know anything about him beforehand but I will certainly be looking out for what he does next. The supporting cast are also good and if you like Baz Luhrmann’s style you will be in heaven. It was not only directed but also written and produced by Luhrmann. So this is clearly all his perspective on the Elvis story. I should also mention the prosthetic make up used on Hanks and Butler to make them look older which is brilliant. It’s not the instant classic some have claimed in my opinion, it is however a very good film and well worth seeing whether you are an Elvis fan or not.

Up next I will probably watch Thor: Love & Thunder, the new offering from Marvel which hits UK cinemas this week. I’d also like to see the new Minions movie. They are always fun. Do you have suggestions or requests for things you’d like me to review? Feel free to leave a comment, drop me an email or Tweet.

Have you seen Elvis? What’s your verdict on it? I’m always keen to hear your feedback.

Until next time, take care of yourselves. Elvis has left the building…

Dan

The original Toy Story was released in 1995, 27 years ago at the time of writing. It has spawned 3 sequel films over 24 years and birthed an entire franchise. The first 3 films are all classics and highly recommended if you haven’t seen them. The 4th was not quite as strong but is still a pretty decent film in it’s own right. With Lightyear the studio is attempting to spread the magic sauce from the first 3 films a little further, but will it be too thin? It’s a risky business. In fact there has already been a Buzz Lightyear film, it was back in 2000. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. I have to admit I haven’t seen it, so I can’t compare it to this latest offering. There are some significant changes I do know about though. Most notably in the voice cast. Tim Allen voiced Buzz in all the previous incarnations and was roundly applauded for his performances. Fans were not impressed when they learned he isn’t involved in this new film. Instead Buzz is voiced by Chris Evans. The Captain America actor, not the ginger guy who used to be on the telly a lot in the UK. There is a reasoning behind this which I’ll try to explain.

In Toy Story lore Andy gets the Buzz Lightyear figure after seeing a film which he loves back in 1995. As the opening titles for Lightyear explain “this is THAT film”. So Lightyear is supposed to be the film which inspired the creation of the toy and that’s the loose explanation for the change in voice actors. It’s a bit of a stretch possibly but it didn’t really bother me, and Chris Evans has the chops to pull it off. He’s probably a lot more of a box office star that Tim Allen this days too.

It also means that this film exists outside of the main Toy Story universe in a way, because it predates it. So it could explain the absence of all the other toy characters. Woody and the gang. Getting Tom Hanks and all the other voice stars on board would have bumped up the budget quite a bit I imagine, so the accountants will be pleased with the premise.

Our story begins as Buzz is awoken from cryo sleep on a large space ship heading for an unknown destination. He’s woken up by the computer because they are passing a possibly hospitable plant and he decides to check it out. Waking up his fellow space ranger and commanding officer Alisha (voiced by the excellent Uzo Aduba from Orange Is The New Black, amongst other things). She in turn wakes and brings along a rookie for the exploration, much to Buzz’s chagrin.

They quickly discover the planet is very hostile, with a whole host of dangerous plant vines and large insects. Their ship is damaged and the entire crew is now stranded on this rock. The fuel crystal needed to power the ship is irrevocably damaged and Buzz feels responsible. From there he must help the scientists test their attempts to synthesise a new crystal and enable their escape. Aided by a gang of rookie space rangers and a robotic companion cat called Sox who is very cute.

This is only the set up for the main story and if you want to know what happens next you’ll have to watch it. I try to avoid major spoilers.

The fuel crystals detail made me wonder if this was a nod to Star Trek, where Scotty would always be complaining about the Dilithium crystals that powered the Enterprise, or the lack of them. It’s possible the writers intended this reference but who knows.

Overall I enjoyed this film a hell of a lot more than I expected to. It’s not a classic and it’s not as strong as those first 3 films in the franchise but let’s be honest, what is? Most animated films these days don’t quite live up to the trailblazing brilliance of Toy Story. So Lightyear is not alone in that. Despite reports I heard that there was no heart in this film and that it lacked humour, I would have to disagree. The characters are likeable and Chris Evans does well in portraying Buzz. The story isn’t groundbreaking but it does have a couple of nice twists and propels the film along more than adequately. It’s true that there isn’t the amount of jokes you’d perhaps expect but there were some genuine moments of real drama. I realised by the end I was far more invested in the story and characters than I’d expected. The supporting voice cast, which includes Taika Waititi, is very strong. They all perform well and while it might not change your life, it’s an enjoyable little ride. Coming 27 years after fans were first introduced to Buzz Lightyear this film had real potential to be a total mess. I am happy to report it’s not. I spent a pretty enjoyable couple of hours watching it and if you have kids I suspect they might enjoy it even more.

Overall score: 3/5

In summary, Lightyear is definitely worth a watch but it probably won’t stay with you in the way those other Toy Story films did. It has good performances and a solid. Having said that I hope we don’t see a slew of these spin-offs now. Pixar has managed to create a decent enough film with this one, but returning to that well again probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

Have you seen Lightyear? What did you think of it? Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments, via Twitter or even email if you like. My next review is probably going to be the new Elvis film by Baz Luhrmann but I’m open to suggestions or requests.

Until then, take care of yourselves out there. To infinity and beyond!!

The story picks up 4 years after the events of the previous film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which I have seen but was struggling to remember the plot of if I’m honest. As with most of the films in this franchise, the plots aren’t that complicated, so don’t worry if you can’t remember either. You’ll pick up the idea pretty quickly. Guess what? Dinosaurs are roaming around the earth causing trouble, that’s basically it. However, they are freely living amongst humans at this point.

Main characters from the last film Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) live in seclusion and are raising teenage Maisie Lockwood, the cloned version of Benjamin Lockwood’s granddaughter. No I don’t remember her either but this seems pretty key to the whole story. Locked in Maisie’s DNA is the secret to curing all kinds of genetic diseases which means there’s no shortage of people who would love to take her away to a lab for experiments. Not least the shadowy corporation Biosyn Genetics, who work on dinosaur gene research and even have a large collection of specimens roaming free in their Italian dinosaur reserve in the mountains. I hesitate to call it a dinosaur park but I think you can see where this is going.

Maisie is kidnapped by Biosyn and taken away to Italy. Prompting Claire and Owen to chase after her which is the main driving point of the story.

Running alongside this main plot is a kind of B story involving much loved characters from the original Jurassic Park. Doctors: Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) who are also interested in the nefarious work of Biosyn. This time in creating genetically modified locusts which are wiping out large fields of crops and threaten the world’s food supplies. They are also seeking proof that Biosyn made the beasts. As you may predict this takes them to Italy and Biosyn’s dinosaur reserve as well.

I think that’s enough of a plot explanation as you may wish to watch the film yourself and I don’t want to spoil it in that case.

Overall I found the plot thin and not very well thought out. It only seems to exist to drive the characters from one big action sequence to the next. There are lots of films like this and it’s certainly not alone. It could be argued you don’t go to see a film like this for the story, just the effects and action. Sadly though I found some of the CGI work unconvincing and the effects overall just not up to par. One scene in particular where a character is ejected from a plane and the green screen background looks ridiculous as she descends through the air. In a world where every film has jaw dropping effects these days perhaps we’ve become spoiled or desensitised but I felt the effects could have been a lot better.

It seems in this world that anyone can stop a dinosaur by just putting their hand up, be it a tiny baby raptor or a giant T-Rex. Pratt’s character does this a lot as we’ve seen in previous films but here everyone is at it. Chris Pratt has shown in films like Guardians Of The Galaxy that he can really exude charm and humour. Here though he is reduced to simply posing and looking concerned most of the time. That’s a shame.

The concept of an evil corporation messing with DNA splicing and exploiting dinosaurs feels like it’s been done to death. In almost every one of these films we see it. The arch villain Lewis Dodgson (played by Campbell Scott) is really disappointing. The film could have benefited from better casting or writing, or perhaps both, in this area.

Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum do a decent enough job and all look amazing for their age, but it didn’t spark any nostalgia in me as I think perhaps the filmmakers hoped. At times it was hard to see the characters motivations and it felt like a series of set piece action sequences poorly strung together. Having so many main characters and jumping around between them made it hard to build empathy for anyone. Plus there was no real sense of peril in any of the action pieces. They didn’t draw me in.

It felt as though the director was so keen to get a little bit of everything in, playing the hits from previous films, that it was hard to really develop any of the characters or story.

Overall Verdict: 2/5

Far from going out with a bang this feels like the weakest of the Jurassic World trilogy to me. It’s not without it’s merits but I can’t honestly recommend it in good conscience. Perhaps kids would enjoy it more but the predictable plot, at times shonky special effects and mediocre acting didn’t add up to a great experience for me. I would rate this as average at best.

Have you seen Jurassic World: Dominion? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments.

I’m not sure which film I will be reviewing next week but I’m open to suggestions. You can Tweet, email or leave a comment to let me know.

Thanks for reading.

One of the first things that strikes you about this film is the impressive cinematography and visual aspect. It looks beautiful. Large imposing landscapes with stark looking mountains and plains. The story is set in 1925, on a cattle ranch in the mid-West. It centres around two quite different brothers. Benedict Cumberbatch‘s rough, uncompromising and sometimes cruel Phil. Contrasted by Jesse Plemons‘ quiet, considered and caring George. The two brothers run the ranch and even share a bedroom as we see early on. Their relationship is obviously close but not untroubled. Phil often calling his brother “fatso” and other derogatory names. There is a tension right from the start.

This tension is accelerated when George meets Kirtsen Dunst‘s Rose and goes on to marry her quite early into the film. Much to Phil’s disdain, he moves her onto the ranch and things begin to change. The film boasts an ensemble cast with the likes of Thomasin McKenzie in a small supporting roll. She really impressed me in JoJo Rabbit and more recently Last Night In Soho, so I hoped she’d have a little more to do here but it’s really a limited role. Phil believes Rose to be a gold digger only interested in George’s money and estate. A point he makes clear to his brother and in his every interaction with Rose. The foreboding tone increases as Rose brings her son Peter (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) to live on the ranch as well. A sensitive boy who makes paper flowers who is labelled “pansy” and other slurs by Phil and the other ranchers. After a more than rocky start Phil begins to warm to Peter and the story develops. We realise there may be more to Phil than his brash outer manner indicates. He is making a rope for Peter and tries to teach him to ride a horse. The rope felt like it had some symbolism because we learn that Peter’s father, Rose’s ex-husband, hung himself and left her widowed.

I will leave the exploration of the plot there because there’s plenty more to see and I don’t want to spoil the experience if you intend to watch this film. I will however say that I found the ending a little sudden and unsatisfying. It doesn’t go where you think it will. This may be due to the slow moving pace of the story and overall feel.

The film’s ponderous pace will not appeal to some viewers and despite the positive critical reception, I have seen some very poor reviews on various websites. There is not much action to get your teeth into that’s fair to say. The film is split into chapters and this may be an homage to the book which may in itself have a slow pace the director is trying to stay true to.

One aspect of the production that works really well is Jonny Greenwood‘s score. At times the discordant tones and subtle guitar picking adds to the tension beautifully. Whoever did the banjo playing for Benedict Cumberbatch’s character certainly deserves a lot of credit.

While I can see the technical excellence of this film, the panning shots, the imposing scenery and music. I am afraid to say it didn’t really grab me. Over a couple of hours I found it dragged a lot and failed to engage me at points. The performances are strong and the cast well chosen. I thought Cumberbatch’s ability to show toughness and extreme vulnerability at the same time was particularly good. All the pieces are in place but somehow this just didn’t feel like it added up to what I expected. It’s fair to say I hoped for a little more.

Overall Rating: 3/5

It’s certainly not 2 hours wasted, as some of the reviews claim, but I think this film will appeal best to cinephiles and possibly fans of the book. If you want something light and pacy this is certainly not for you. You’ve been warned. It’s currently available to watch through Netflix in the UK. Other countries may vary.

Thank you for reading this review, I hope you enjoyed it. I’m not certain what film I’ll review next but probably a newer release from the cinema. If you have requests or suggestions please feel free to leave a comment, or contact me via Twitter, whichever is easiest.

Have you seen The Power Of The Dog? What are your thoughts on it? Comments welcome.

Until next time, take care of yourselves,

Dan

I’m writing today because I’ve decided to start blogging again on a weekly basis. That’s the hope anyway. I used to write a lot of reviews of Linux distributions and other techy things back when this blog was in it’s heyday, but these days I don’t really test things as I did. I guess as you get older the energy and willingness to completely reinstall your main computer every week wanes. I’m over 40 now actually. That happened during lockdown. I’m not completely over the hill yet I don’t think. Maybe one foot on each side who knows.

So what can I write about regularly going forward I thought, and the answer came to me. I watch a lot of films. I have one of those cinema membership cards and go quite often. So I have decided to start writing film reviews. Letting you know my opinions on the things I’ve seen. I don’t know how interesting or exciting they will be but let’s find out. Maybe I can bring my perspective and experience. I’m no Mark Kermode (pictured right) but I do have a decent film knowledge.

So that’s my news. Going forward you can expect a new film review each week and I’m determined to keep it up this time. This is my public commitment. I hope you’ll enjoy it. Bets on how long it will last? Open the sweepstake now. Despite mentioning my cinema membership I’ve decided to start easy with something off Netflix. My opening choice is The Power Of The Dog, Jane Campion’s moody Western. I haven’t watched it yet despite the fact it came out last November, but it was nominated for Oscars and everyone says it’s good. We will find out together.

That’s it for now. Until the review, take care of yourselves out there and if you have suggestions or requests for films you’d like me to review please leave a comment, drop me an email or tweet. What have you been up to in the last couple of years?

Goodbye for now, speak soon,

Dan

I am still really proud of the name because I came up with it, Caz created the idea of the format though, so it’s very much a team effort. We get anonymous messages and submissions from listeners (the “unattested” if you will) and talk about their stories, confessions or whatever else they send. So the name is pretty obvious but I do love the pun on Tales Of The Unexpected a classic British sci-fi series, created by non other than Roald Dahl.

In practice we spend as much (if not more time) talking on the show about our shared love of TV, film, music, comics, books and all things pop culture. Along with life experiences like dating, illness, sex, funerals and nothing is off bounds. The show is most definitely not safe for work, we swear. It’s about an hour each time and we have a really good laugh. Give it a listen if you have some time to fill at the moment and could use some entertainment.

Podcasting is something I’ve done since 2007 and I suppose that makes me an old veteran at this point. I do love to chat and combined with my audio engineer/geek background it was probably inevitable that I would fall into podcasting. Check out the podcast page for more info on that.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think of the pod and also any recommendations of other pods to listen to. Send us a message through our website or direct email, even Twitter @UnattestedPod. We look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time, take care out there everyone 🙂

Dan

I have some good ideas for longer articles, many of which have been on the slate for years. I am also in the process of updating and redeveloping this whole site. Do you like the new orange theme? It’s simple but warm and welcoming I hope. One thing I have just noticed is the CSS is wrong for displaying text blocks. There’s no white space between paragraphs (facepalm). I am doing my best to love the new WordPress block editor but it’s not always a 2 way street. I will have to dig into the CSS (sigh). Any WP experts out there have feelings on the new block system? Feel free to share in the comments. I think overall it will be a positive thing once we all adjust to it.

I’m pleased to say my health is good right now. If you’ve seen my posts over the last few years you’ll know it’s been quite a ride. I am staying with family as we all do that self isolation thing that’s being enforced by the UK government. It feels a bit odd to call it “self-isolating with others” but you know what I mean. Family sticking together, helping some neighbours and so on.

How are you all dealing with the current situation? Anyone getting bored and stir crazy yet? It’s a big adjustment for us all.

Take care of yourselves, hopefully speak soon when I have written something new 🙂

Dan

For the uninitiated OggCamp is the largest community organised FOSS and Free Culture event in the UK. It includes not just techy stuff but art, music and more. I’m proud to have been one of the main organisers since the beginning. In past years we’ve had many hundreds of people come and join in. In 2012 I even managed to get the one and only Stephen Fry to do a talk for us via video, remember that? Still not sure how I managed that but maybe I’m more persuasive than I thought.

OggCamp is free to attend, it always has been and in my opinion it always should be. Many people give donations in return for their tickets but it’s not a requirement. Anyone can come along and we pride ourselves on that. Regardless of financial means, age, religion, race, disability, sexuality or any other distinction. We’re a broad church and all are welcome. The event does cost money to run though, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about today.

I’m currently on the hunt for sponsors to support OggCamp19 and while we don’t need a fortune we’re still 3000-4000 pounds short of where we need to be. That’s just being transparent and frank with you as I always am. We’re still 6 months away from the big day so there’s no panic yet, this is not an emergency post by any means. I just want to raise awareness.

So if you know of a company or organisation who may be interested in supporting this unique event and gaining great promotion in return, not to mention our eternal gratitude, please download the sponsor pack PDF and send it to them. It might be where you work or it might be somewhere else entirely, it’s up to you. Please help us spread the word!

DOWNLOAD OGGCAMP19 SPONSOR PACK HERE

It may also be worth pointing out that sponsorships are tax deductible and we’re VAT registered through Public Software CIC. So for companies and organisations it may not even cost anything in real terms.

A massive thank you for taking the time to read this and help out. I’ll back back soon with more details about OggCamp. The ticket launch, accommodation info and more. We hope to see many of you there in October 🙂

Until then, take care of yourselves,

Dan

Hello everyone, it’s been a while since my last post but not the traditional 12 month gap at least. There’s so much to update you on but this is where I normally apologise for how long it’s taken me to write something. Well guess what? I’m not going to apologise for that any more, not because I am uncaring or aloof. Just because I have been ill and often I don’t have the time or energy to post. It’s just a fact of life and I don’t know why I felt the need to say sorry all the time. I think part of the problem for me is that a serious blog post normally means 2000+ words and that’s a big undertaking, or at least it seems it. So perhaps I will try some shorter posts as time goes on. You will have noticed my Twitter output has gone into overdrive in recent weeks possibly, this is because I feel a bit more energetic and treatment has been going well. There’s lots of life stuff to relate and I might not even get through it all in one go, let’s see. (Note to self: Good business strategy this Dan, keep them coming back for more muwahahaha)…

When last we spoke I was getting ready to help with Liverpool MakeFest at the end of June with a big team of awesome people. We did that and the event was brilliant, as it always is. It was a lot of work and I was dog tired by the end but it’s so worth it. I feel so happy every time I see a kid discover that they can make things themselves and it isn’t some exclusive club, or perhaps just that they aren’t as weird or different as they thought they were. Besides, what’s wrong with weird anyway?! It’s a lot better than being boring I can tell you that. Everything went off well and I should really write a long overdue “wrap up/thank you” post on the official MakeFest blog to thank everyone who contributed properly. I may get to that after this but we’ll see. So since MakeFest life has been pretty damn busy I gotta say. Where to begin? Probably at the beginning, seems as good a place as any.

Although MakeFest took a lot out of me mentally and physically I was able to recover pretty well within a couple of weeks and this is a major upturn for me. Up until the end of May I was often unable to get out of the house at all. Just walking down the road I would have to lean on things to make it. Although I’ve been very honest about my health here on the blog, I haven’t always been so honest with people in person. It’s a tough one. You meet someone and you’re chatting away. Then there’s that hideous moment when they ask “so what do you do?”. My stock reply is to feign stupidity and say “how do you mean?” but actually I know what they mean. “What’s your job?”, “what’s your career?” they usually ask, as if that defines us but anyway. I suppose they’re just making conversation. I normally say I am a freelancer/web developer, podcaster or musician, or some selection of those. I do like to try my hand at plenty of things. The honest answer is “I don’t have a job and often I’m far too ill to do anything but I’m getting better and working on it”. If you say that to someone on first meeting them it can be seen as rude or totally mad. Perhaps abrupt. So I got used to hiding it. Likewise when people I already knew would ask “how are you?” I’d just say fine, even if I felt like death warmed up. My thinking used to be that it wasn’t fair to burden others, or perhaps they didn’t need to know all the details. Nobody likes a whinge. It’s a common greeting isn’t it “how are you?”, the accepted answer is “yeah alright, how are you?”. Not “well I feel like death warmed up, I have an incredibly rare form of cancer, amongst a long catalogue of other health problems and my life expectancy isn’t very high…” that’s a conversation killer. If they’re still there and haven’t jumped out the window by after that it’s fair to assume they are a pretty nice person. I’ve also realised that keeping things to myself and not talking problems actually worries people more though. I’m not protecting them, I’m probably scaring them more. So from now on honestly is the best policy and although I’ve always been pretty honest here I’m trying to make sure I am in all areas.

I went to OggCamp in Sheffield on Saturday and it was so nice to see so many old friends. The overwhelming sentiment was “we’ve missed you Dan, what’s happening with your health?” which is a lovely and touching thing to hear. Many people said it to me directly and I just hugged them. Some people also said they had been following this blog waiting for health updates and I ended up relating the same long story to different people over and over. So I figured I should try to explain a little and then I can just point them here when they ask. Like a real pretentious git “have you read my latest book?” hehehe.

So here’s where we stand right now. In the last 2-3 months I’ve started regular antibiotic treatment again and it’s made a massive difference to my health. It took 2 or 3 weeks to start working but I am getting some benefit from sleep again. Without getting into all the details I will just say it’s helping me with a serious auto-immune condition it seems. I have been ill for almost 15 years at this point. All through the OggCamp and Linux Outlaws days I managed it with medication and just never talked about my problems in public. Most people never knew. I guess I didn’t want people to see me as just “the ill guy” and I don’t mean that in the cool Beastie Boys sense. I also probably worried that it might be seen as a defining thing about me, though looking back that was probably my own issue I had to sort out. I have had experimental surgery for cancer and so far I am all clear on that. I have to have regular CT scans and blood tests at The Christie. It could well come back at some stage but who the hell knows and besides, any one of us could get hit by a bus tomorrow. I don’t say that in a morbid way but you get what I mean. I have realised recently that you have to live the hell out of every day because you don’t know how many you will get. Nobody does. The reason for the title of this post is I’ve been suffering very real physical limitations until recently and some days that continues, but I am not dead. I came close to it a few times but you know what? I’m still here and I’m not going away any time soon. I wonder how many of those limitations I have put on myself mentally over the years. I seem to have spent much or my life trying to reason out the answers to hypothetical questions people have asked me. Well I’m not doing that any more. Don’t get me wrong I still fancy myself a bit of a Sherlock Holmes at times and I will can deduce with the best of them, but sometimes you have to go with your gut. So even if the doctors told me I had months to live (which they haven’t at all), my immediate response would be “oh yeah?! We’ll see about that!”. I am a stubborn git to the end. Not always a good trait but in this case useful. Some days I can’t move very much and others I can walk around the block and feel good about it, but there’s no discernable pattern to it. Managing the condition is tricky and you can’t plan around it. But I shall make hay while the sun shines and enjoy myself. I always have to some degree. Even on days when I feel totally exhausted I can usually enjoy music or podcasts, sometimes flashing screens or bright lights are too much but audio never lets me down. Besides, other people have worse problems. I live in a beautiful place and I only really need a small amount of money to life on, I have amazing friends and family and I’m blessed. So all in all I can’t complain.

Another big life change at the moment is some serious building work on my house. Only a one room extension but it’ll allow me to have a new kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Practical and fun. I need a downstairs bathroom for days when the stairs feel particularly, or if I have to have more surgery it could be useful. Beyond that though, I just love getting a bath, I did that in my flat all the time. Listening to radio or podcasts in the bath. The hot water helps with joint and muscle pains and who doesn’t enjoy a soak? Don’t get me wrong a shower can be refreshing but there’s nothing like a bath. So how lucky am I? I have a house, I am adapting it to suit me perfectly and I have an amazing family full of builders who are helping me do it. I have to say I don’t enjoy the 8am starts so much and it’s been more disturbance than I expected, but my Dad has worked really hard and is a brilliant craftsman. He can do anything. I’m so lucky to have people like that around me. Most people with a normal job are probably thinking that 8am isn’t early anyway and I can appreciate that. I have always been a night owl for some reason. My Mum says I was born at night and perhaps there’s some connection. Who knows.

My new attitude was really crystallised when I re-watched The Shawshank Redemption on Netflix in recent months. A fantastic film by anyone’s measure but there is that one perfect part where Red says “Get busy living, or get busy dying”. So from now on I’m gonna get busy living, I’ve tried the other option and to be honest I wouldn’t recommend it.

On that note you should check out the new podcast I started with my excellent co-host Caroline Keep of MakeFest fame, and so many other projects I won’t try to list them all now. She’s far more knowledgeable about comics (and many other things) than I, we have really great funny conversations. The first episode only just came out this week and the show is called Tales Of The Unattested, a confidential confession show where people can tell us anything they want and we discuss it honestly while maintaining their anonymity. We also talk a lot about pop culture, comic books and anything else we fancy. I am known to love a good tangent but luckily Caz brings us back to topic when needed. You don’t have to send just confessions, it could just be an interesting story or something else. Anything you want to tell people about but don’t because you worry how it will reflect on you. I came up with the tag line “the truth comes out where anonymity abounds” and I was ludicrously proud of myself for but I can take no credit for the concept of the show. I just thought “yes, that sounds like a great idea”. You will see on our website there’s a form on the page for you to send us your messages. There is no “from” field on there and we don’t track IPs or anything else. So you can be as honest as you like. We are certainly very honest ourselves and god we have a good laugh. Find the show at http://unattested.podfactory.org and please subscribe if you like it. You can also tell friends, enemies, or anyone else you like. We need your contributions!

Right, this is almost 2000 words so far, there’s loads to talk about from OggCamp to about the podcast, even music stuff to mention, but being that I said I would start rationing things out more I think I’ll stop there for now. Phew!

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and feedback is always welcome, anonymous or otherwise.

Take care of yourselves and we’ll speak soon, remember people… get busy living!

Dan

A big thanks to everyone who continues to ask about my health. There isn’t a lot to report but I am doing OK. Illness is still limiting what I can do a lot on a daily basis but I always keep a positive attitude. I’m also trying to explore some new avenues with a private doctor. I recently started taking antibiotics again and there are some other potential treatments to come but I think that’s enough on that for now. If there’s anything significant to report I will let you know I promise 🙂

So, onto the real business of today’s post. Some of you may have noticed that I’ve done the odd podcast here or there in recent months. I wanted to explain what’s going on. If you follow me on Twitter you will probably already be aware but I’m involved with an event called Liverpool MakeFest. It’s coming up in 2 short weeks now and I’ve been doing social media, producing some podcasts and generally trying to help out with online stuff for them. It’s a way I thought I could contribute when health permits and hopefully do something positive.

In case you don’t know, Liverpool MakeFest is a free day-long celebration of Maker culture and all things creative. That means techy stuff like robots, rockets and circuit boards of course, but it also means much more in the way of art, craft, textiles and other things too. There’s something for everyone.

Liverpool MakeFest 2018 will take place on Saturday June 30th from 9am to 5pm at Liverpool Central Library. It’s massive, 1000s of people come to enjoy the workshops, demos, exhibition and other activities. I was more heavily involved at the inaugural event back in 2015 and it’s good to be back on board. I love the idea of spreading knowledge and getting people (particularly kids) excited to use their imaginations and create.

I’ve been writing some pretty hefty posts on the MakeFest blog in the last few months and doing regular interviews with Makers in the build up to the event. If you want to read some of those you can find them under the Meet The Makers tag. I’ve also been recording audio of the interviews and producing podcasts. The first podcasts I’ve produced in almost 3 years now! That’s very exciting and rewarding to do. I have been on some episodes of FLOSS Weekly which I really enjoy doing but I don’t produce it. They have the TWiT engineers and crew doing the media production. It’s been good to record some location interviews on the H4 and then work on the audio in Audacity again. It’s like riding a bike, you never forget how and I love making things sound as good as possible. That old sound engineer inside me is still very much alive.

The podcast is called Radio MakeFest. Please have a listen, subscribe if you like and pass it on to friends. It will be a limited series but there’s 7 new half hour episodes to enjoy so far. I have 2 more recorded interviews to release and I hope there’ll be a couple more episodes after the event but we’ll see. Should be at least 10 episodes in all. That’s about 5 hours of highly produced audio, not bad going.

I know this will excite some of you who often ask me when Rathole Radio will return, when I’ll do more podcasts with Fab or other ventures. I don’t see that happening any time soon if I’m honest. I love people’s enthusiasm and it’s so good to hear when they enjoy listening, but doing this MakeFest stuff is taking all my energy and I’ll need to rest for a while once it’s done in 2 weeks. There are still no plans to bring back Rathole Radio or do any other podcasts yet, sorry.

The title of this post says it all really, don’t call it a comeback, because it’s not. Not yet at least. If treatments go well and I have more energy I would love to do all those things again. Podcasting is great fun and I’ve realised through this recent work what I really love is interviewing people. Hearing their stories and getting a sense of who they are. Maybe I can pursue that more after a rest.

In the meantime come along to Liverpool MakeFest if you’re in traveling range and say hello. You won’t regret it. Listen to Radio MakeFest, leave comments, send emails, messages in bottles, courier pigeons, whatever you like.

I hope to be back with more updates very soon but as I said, no promises. I will try to make sure it’s a lot less than 6 months though that’s for sure!

Take care one and all and remember, be excellent to each other,

Dan