You, yes you, could be the proud owner of the original Jaws novel by Peter Benchley. And we’re also throwing in the novelisation of Jaws 2 to sweeten the deal even further. It doesn’t get much better than that people.

You can enter up to three times via three different methods:

Twitter
Click on this Twitter button: Tweet

Facebook
Like us and leave a comment on our Facebook wall:

iTunes
Leave a review on iTunes (and let us know in the comments).

Entries are open to the entire world and close on the 10/9/2010 and we’ll announce the winner shortly afterwards.

Even if you don’t want the prize (but why wouldn’t you, you idiot?) you should enter anyway just to give our podcast a little promo love. I’m especially keen on people writing , as that’s the way we’re going to find new listeners.

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I’m cuter though.

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Over at the Coalition of Awesomeness you’ll find me giving a highly intelligent and well reasoned argument about how the fate of the world should be placed in the hands of Kevin Arnold from the Wonder Years.

And of course we’re still going strong with our weekly podcast for the Midnight Movie Club. This week Lee and I couldn’t be arsed doing our homework and so didn’t watch the film we were supposed to. Therefore we just ramble incoherently about our favorite buddy movies, scary films, and of course our customary 20 minute discussion about hovercraft.

You can subscribe to the podcast here on iTunes if you wish (go on, you know you want to), or just take a listen below:

The other thing that’s captured my attention at the moment is a social networking site called Miso.

Basically it’s a bit like foursquare, except instead of checking into places you check into the TV shows and Movies you are currently watching. It sounds a little strange, but it’s actually a lot of fun seeing what your friends are watching and a damn good way of picking up shows that you might want to take a look at. My profile is here. Take a look and sign up and friend me if you fancy it. As I say, it’s a surprising amount of fun (plus you get badges!)

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Always take your glasses off before you go out to do some work in the garden.

This year alone I have lost two pairs of glasses in our back garden. These joined the pair I lost last year and also possibly my iPod touch (the loss of which still brings a tear to my eye in my more unguarded moments).

It happens the same way each time. I go out there vowing not to take them off my head. Then I start to dig a hole or something and begin to sweat. And as we’ve established already (on BBC Radio no less), I’m a very sweaty man.

Soon the glasses start to start to slip off my head when I’m bent over. And so, subconsciously, I take them off my head and put them down somewhere safe.

And they are never seen again.

Of course it’s obviously not me who’s to blame. No, that would be ridiculous. it’s those bloody megalomaniac chickens, that’s who. I’m not entirely sure why they keep stealing my glasses, but I’m pretty sure it’s something to do with incorporating the lenses in some sort of death ray device.

Anyhow, I’m three pairs of glasses down but I’ve finally learnt my lesson. Today I’ve spent about seven hours in the garden and my specs have remained firmly on the lounge mantelpiece, well out of the reach of kleptomaniac hens. I WIN!

Plus, I got a hell of a lot done up there today. There is nothing more satisfying than a bit of physical graft.

The main thing I did was a complete clean and disinfect of the chicken coop. I’ve been having awful problems with Red Mite recently. In fact I suspect they may have even had something to do with Evel Knievel’s death last month. She was broody and refused to get out of the coop and I think the little bastards may have caused her to become anemic.

I spent about £20 on various sprays and powders, which appeared to work for a little bit but within a week or two they were swarming as bad as before.

So now I’ve bought an industrial sized container of “Poultry Shield” and have thoroughly washed and scrubbed the coop again. I intend on doing it all again next weekend too. I hope it works as I’m not sure what I’ll do if it doesn’t. Apparently painting the inside of the coop with Creosote works wonders, but you aren’t actually allowed to buy the real stuff anymore.

While I had everything out I also gave the coop a rather spiffing coat of paint. I must admit I’m rather pleased with the outcome.

I also painted the kid’s wendy house as well (you can see it in the background of the photo). I have vague ideas of turning it into the Duckhouse for my imminent Indian Runners. However it’s current function as the place where I store all the crap is pretty useful too.

I’m half wondering if I should make a run for the ducks too. The chickens have one, although I nearly always leave it open so they can free range in the entire garden. However it can be quite useful when we go away so the neighbors don’t need to worry about letting them in and out. Any advice from people in the know would be gratefully received.

However, that’s something to mull over. Tomorrow, providing the weather is ok, I have a list of other jobs to tackle. I’m going to extend the guinea pig run, convert the sandpit to a rhubarb bed, and extending my tyre strawberry patch.

Things are pretty fun on Old McHughes farm at the moment.

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So I just fed and watered the chickens, collected the eggs, and pretty much ignored the jungle rapidly springing up around me. This is the tidiest section of it. Forgive the quality of the photo but it was taken in low light on my crappy phone camera:

Of course the fact my petrol strimmer gave up the ghost didn’t really help. There are large sections of my garden which are too undulating and wild to be tackled with a mere lawnmower. And once the nettles and the brambles realised I was not going to be hacking at them every couple of weeks they lost no time in reclaiming vast swathes in the name of mother nature.

I did plant some veg though, namely a couple of pumpkin plants which I knew would be both vigorous and prickly enough to dissuade the weeds and the eager beaks of the chickens. I also planted a load of strawberries in tyres in the front yard. This has worked really well and I intend extending my collection next year with all the triffid like runners that are sprouting the moment.

Also unbenown to me I had unwittingly planted some potatoes. Or rather the potatoes I had missed when i harvested them last year had planted themselves. Considering they were an unplanned crop and you aren’t actually supposed to plant spuds in the same place two years running I didn’t get too bad a haul.

So now that the walk is over and done with I can get back on with tending old McHughes farm. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon over the weekend hacking away at the undergrowth with my brand new petrol strimmer (ooo shiny!). And then I spent a slightly less enjoyable couple of hours wrestling with bindweed and nettles in my shrubberies. Things now look a fair bit better than they did.

Not that they will ever look actually good I hasten to add. We have a large garden, but it’s an awkward one. I carved it out over the space of four or five years from a bramble clogged hillside using only a petrol strimmer, a spade, a ton of cheap agricultural grade wood, and a complete lack of planning or forethought. It will never look anything other than “rustic”. And that’s on a good day.

Still, I’m rather proud of it. I can look at it and hand on heart say “I built that”.

But the most exciting thing going on in the garden is that I’m currently bidding for this on ebay:

To the ill informed this may look like a old bath, but you and I know better. It is a duckpond!

Yes, I’m getting Ducks! And it’s all thanks to the wonderful John Grey who is exceptionally generously incubating me some of his Indian runner duck eggs. Soon I will have three of these little beauties joining the chickens in destroying the garden

I am exceptionally excited.

Quack quack.

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But I don’t think films are more important than children.

My friend Kevin, from the blog Always Home and Uncool, has a daughter who has juvenile dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune disease that can have debilitating or even fatal consequences. In his words:

Our 2 year old daughter’s first year with the disease consisted of surgical procedures, intravenous infusions, staph infections, pulmonary treatments and worry. Her muscles were too weak for her to walk or swallow solid food for several months. When not in the hospital, she sat on our living room couch, propped up by pillows so she wouldn’t tip over, as medicine or nourishment dripped from a bag into her body.

The disease is rare, and as such research on it’s treatment and cure is often overlooked in favour of the big boys like cancer. But there are charities out there dedicated to it’s eradication. And you could help one of them without spending a single penny.

The charity CureJM is currently trying to get a grant from Pepsi in order to fund their research. Unfortunately CureJM have to go through a American Idol style popularity contest where people vote for their favorite causes. Yeah, I know.

Currently CureJM is ranking at third in the rankings, which is very exciting as the grant will be given to the top two causes. They are nearly there.

Now ordinarily I would be very reluctant to encourage people to support one good cause over another. However the cause currently standing at number 2 in the chart is a bunch of people who want to put on a horror movie festival in LA. Which, while no doubt important to the organizers, isn’t the most worthy of causes when compared to contributing to saving the lives of dozens of children.

So what can you do? Well, go over to CureJM’s page over at Pepsi, register (which takes very little time and effort) and then vote for them to receive the grant. And then tomorrow go back and vote again (you can do it daily).

And if you are feeling extra altruistic you could write a similar blog post to this over on your blog. Hell, you can just steal this one if you like.

We all know how powerful bloggers can be when they all move together, and the CureJM’s chances of getting this grant are very good indeed if everyone gets behind them. So please, lets all get together and help out Kevin, and help out all the families that have or will have children suffering from this horrible condition.

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In itself I don’t object to CGI animation. In fact some of the finest films of all time were computer generated – specifically every single film produced by Pixar: Up, Wall-E, Incredibles, Monster’s Inc, Finding Nemo, the Toy Story franchise, etc etc.

But there is an art and beauty to other forms of animation that is at risk of being neglected. Would Wallace and Grommet be as charming if they were made of pixels rather than plasticine? No, they wouldn’t.

Similarly cell animation has gradually been lost from our cinema screens, which is a crying shame. And what’s worse is that it’s becoming increasingly rare on our TV screens too. It’s not on the endangered list quite yet (Look at the magnificent Phineas and Ferb for an example of exceptionally high quality cell animated contemporary kids cartoons).

In 2009 Disney released The Princess and the Frog, their first cell animated movie since 2004′s Home on the Range (a film I still haven’t seen). I imagine that Disney intended it to be a sort of experiment to see if audiences still had a taste for traditional looking animation.

It wasn’t an overwhelming success, but did make a profit once worldwide revenues were taken into account and lead to reports of Disney deciding on a policy of releasing one hand drawn movie every two years. However I’ve seen no talk of any upcoming traditionally animated releases, so we should perhaps take those reports with a pinch of salt.

So is The Princess and the Frog any good? Well yes it is.

Here’s a plot synopsis shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia:

The film’s plot concerns a prince named Naveen from the land of Maldonia, who is transformed into a frog by the evil scheming voodoo magician Dr. Facilier . The frog prince mistakes a girl named Tiana for a princess and has her kiss him to break the spell. The kiss does not break the spell, but instead turns Tiana into a frog as well. Together, the two of them must reach the good voodoo queen of the deepest, darkest part of the Bayou, Mama Odie, while befriending a trumpet-playing alligator Louis and a hopelessly romantic Cajun firefly named Ray along the way.

The Princess and the Frog is set in New Orleans, and sports a suitably jazzy soundtrack by Randy Newman. I’m a big fan of Newman and have a real fondness for both Cajun music and New Orleans style jazz and so, despite my usual distaste for musicals, it managed to get my toe tapping and head nodding throughout many of the numbers. Additionally Prince Naveen played a pretty mean ukulele throughout the film, and as we all know there is nothing that can’t be improved with a good bit of uke.

The characters are strong and humorous. Of particular note is Tiana who, as well as being Disney’s first black lead heroine, was an incredibly positive female role model. I also was a big fan of Ray the firefly, played by Jim Cummings. I can’t remember where it was, but I recently heard someone talking about how animation studios should rely more on specialized voice actors rather than celebrities to provide voices for their movies, and this movie certainly bears this theory out. Aside from John Goodman and Anika Noni Rose there were no well know names in the cast (oh and a Oprah Winfrey cameo too).

The animation is stunning, and there are a number of scenes that are almost breathtaking. And they are all the more enjoyable for the nostalgia that the animation provokes. It all looks pretty damn special on Blu-Ray too, as crisp and vibrant as I’ve come to expect from the format. In fact I’d argue that animation is just about the perfect genre for blu-ray as get the picture quality without having to stare at the actors pores and pimples.

So any bad bits? Well, not specifically, but The Princess and the Frog doesn’t feel like it has as much, I dunno, heart as some of the older traditionally animated movies from Disney. Nor does it have that multi age range appeal that the Pixar films do. I’d think nothing of sticking Toy Story or Wall-E on the blu-ray player when the kids weren’t home, but I’d feel a bit wet doing that with The Princess and the Frog. That’s hardly a fair criticism though, as it’s not many films on this earth that can compare to a Pixar one anyhow.

So in summery, The Princess and the Frog is a welcome return to traditional animation by Disney, and one that is very worthy of joining their very impressive stable. The music is great, the animation wonderful, and the characters and plot engaging and humorous. Plus it has ukuleles in it, you don’t get much better than that.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

If you would like to buy The Princess and the Frog then you can do so on blu-ray here
and on DVD here.

Disclaimer
I received a copy of The Princess and the Frog on blu-ray to review. I also got given a blu-ray player by Disney around a year ago in order to review their releases. However the opinions expressed in this review are honest and I have felt no pressure from Disney to provide a positive review.

Also if you buy it from one of the links I’ve given I get an extremely small kickback from Amazon

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Shamelessly stolen from Online Schools via Popped Culture

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