Ginger DJ Rob

Halloween in Brighton now more like Hell-oween

2009-11-01T12:13:00.020Z

After last year's full-on party (back-breaking preparation and flu chaos) and the previous week's White Night partying, Halloween took a back-seat like an evil midget hitcher with a blunt pen knife. Brighton was full of part-time zombies (turning up with a bit of blood and ripped clothes isn't really a costume mate) and wannabe Timewarpers for the world record attempt. I still had a bit more mileage to use from last year's costume so the Crazy 88 look (not the Green Lantern) got a public appearance. Kerry wore some impressive make-up to go with her new red hair dye but the rest of us didn't bother.

It was chaos in town with zombies and Frank N Furters and if you weren't dressed up then you looked a little out of place. Audio was our only appearance out but after 2 minutes a psychic decision was made not to stay even after escaping the main room for the DJ back-room which wasn't as glamourous as you'd think. A smoke and a drink upstairs just confirmed everyone's need to get away from the tourist/student rabble.

Back at Paul's and a few more friends had turned up and a few too many DJs meaning sets were reduced to 30 minutes each. I think my tough set of Vitalic, Etienne de Crecy, MSTRKFT's Vuuvuu etc. went down quite well with the Disco Dungeon old regime, clearing the recent disco cobwebs but was followed too closely (for some people) with Motown soul disco. Kerry's cocktail idea of Liquid Bubblegum shooters (blue curasco, creme de banana and Baileys) helped break the ice between the old school ravers and disco-loving locals as well as the other party prescriptions.

Sunday was another write-off watching the very impressive Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (though quite a dull race), eating a banana then having a white-out having to go to bed at about 6:30pm.

Daft Punk 2010 Tour Dates?

2009-10-30T10:43:00.002Z

According to Data Transmission and Last.fm, Daft Punk will be touring Europe next year (2010). This hasn't been confirmed properly but worth looking out for ticket news. Instead of cramming everyone in a tent or small field they're playing in stadiums including Wembley Arena, London. There's nothing on the Arena or Le Zénith website yet but the search continues.

Jul 30 Le Zénith, Paris, France
Aug 1 Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Aug 3 Allianz-Arena, Munich, Germany
Aug 5 The O2, Dublin, Ireland
Aug 7 Parc des sports, Nice, France
Aug 15 Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York NY, United States
Aug 22 Sydney Football, Sydney, Australia
Aug 28 Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne, Australia
Sep 3 Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom
Sep 6 City Of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Gaming from the Atic (sic)

2009-10-29T14:07:00.001Z

Image via Wikipedia

Influenced by our friend, Julian's impressive (and slightly worrying) collection of retro games consoles plus the recent BBC4 Electric Dreams programming, I raided the attic to find Kerry's ZX Spectrum for some classic gaming. I'd bought this for her birthday or Christmas present some years ago, not the rubber keyboard version but the newer 128k '+2' with proper keyboard and integrated tape deck (according to Wikipedia it cost £149 at launch) plus a heap of games. We were amazed it still worked and the legendary loading sound brought back memories of worry and paranoia whether the tape would load (until we got bored of listening to it).

Over the past few evenings we've tried a Dizzy game (you played an egg character), Manic Miner, Hyper Sports and Atic Atac. Manic Miner is still hard-as-nails to play, Hyper Sports surprisingly addictive and Atic Atac a recurring nightmare with a finger twister to play on the keyboard with all keys on one row. You can even see my YouTube videos of us playing them! We're now trawling through ebay to find other classics such as any Ultimate Play the Game titles like Sabre Wulf, Tranz Am and Jetman, The Hobbit, Daley Thompson's Decathelon and Trashman.

There's some good resources out there including the World of Spectrum if you want to know literally anything about the Spectrum. Alternatively, if you want to remind yourselves instantly of some classic gaming try the Classic Online Games website and their Spectrum section. There's 20 games including Chuckie Egg, Jetset Willy and Jet Pac. You might need to update your browser's Java. Also just found Road Rash for the old Sega!

Can anyone tell me what the game was where you travelled around a forest shooting at other motorbikes?

All White on a Saturday night ending with a Go Bang

2009-10-26T21:49:00.000Z

After a few weeks break, our super-team of quizzers won the 1st year anniversary of Horace McSquirter's Quiz me Hardy at the Pond pub. It was very exciting with the place decorated with knob shaped balloons though I'd say we were robbed of the best team name prize (c'mon Horace, keep up with the news) with a nod to Amy Winehouse's year free cold-turkey "They tried to make me go to quiz night but Horace said no, no, no". The music round was a tie-breaker between us and another team but we lost that too. The last laugh was with us as we scraped through to win the grand prize with a cheeky half point.

Fredag (Friday in Swedish)
We celebrated Sukey's first day at work, which started for her on a Friday. Our chosen meet up point was the Northern Lights, the Scandinavian bar on Little East Street. It was a gloomy, wet evening but the atmosphere inside was cosy and cool. Shame their gin and grapefruit speciality was sold out but I did get a chance to sample their long list of flavoured vodkas. Vanilla vodka and coke was delicious whilst observing the half-hat barman and an advert for the world record attempt to do the Timewarp dance on the beach next week. A noisy Globe pub and an after-hours drink at Paul/Sarah's house to round off the night.

Japanese Beer Festival
Thanks to Kerry picking up the flyer the previous week, we dropped into the Moshi Moshi organised 'festival' after our Saturday shopping. I say 'festival' but I would say a couple of small marquees and 3 different beers doesn't qualify for this grand status. For a start where the Kirin! Their special Autumn brew was sampled but was a mistake and wished I'd just bought an Asahi. To make up for the experience, their yakitori chicken was really good and Kerry commended the Shochu cocktail even though the barmen had no idea what they were serving. The karoke didn't really sell the nearby Lucky Voice bar.

White Night
Ahh, bless you Brighton for combining art and a good night out. Greedy for night time attention and not content with Halloween just around the corner, this city-wide celebration has been going on for awhile but we'd somehow missed it last year. We stuck around after the beer festival waiting for the Penny Arcade which consisted of three creepy, interactive, fortune-telling machines and some sound effects from a stripped out piano hooked up to a sound machine. I managed to get first in queue and had my fortune sung to me by a pair of clowns receiving a pencil drawing and the advice to eat mnore ruffage. Kerry's choice was a marionette corpse flying out of a toy coffin delivering a rolled-up scroll of prediction. Just outside the marquee venue was one of the five locations for the Mobile Movie Treasure Trail, a mobilephone bluetooth access point to get short films. Disappointingly, this didn't work and the later ones we tried had no success either.

After some grub at home we returned to the crowded streets heading for the Pavillion walking through the Northern Gate of the gardens to see The Penny Drops light installation. The queue for the Fortune and Destiny event was just too long so walked round to the Old Music Library for Prescription Art's exhibition. We didn't hang around for the music or bands but loved the Insa grafitti art and the downstairs lighting of the band area (See my Flickr photos).

We crossed the road to see the Bang Future Machine projection at the Unitarian church but the visuals at the time we a little boring and the rowdy crowds put us off from staying. Onto Jubilee Square and the Sam Hewitt and Shardcore art experience which consisted of two golden lucky cats which would answer any question you had. Can't be arsed to explain further so just see my Flickr photos to work it out.

Final art visit was at Fabrica for the Chameleon exhibition. The room was full of flat creens showing various faces in still motion then would spark to life with some sort of facial expression of emotion. Below the screens were materials to draw them which Kerry took advantage of (see her results on Flickr).

All my White Night Festival photos on Flickr

Go-Bang at the Globe
Disco DJs Affy and Ali were providing some soulful tunage downstairs in the Globe as their Go-Bang Brighton guise. Paul and Sarah were already dancing within the crowd. Later, the 'council' (James, Julian, ex-member Sukey and others) turned up in their wedding outfits. Nice to trade some old house music stories with Sean though sadly he didn't mention how his ferret mansion dream was progressing. More random conversations at Paul/Sarah's to end the 60 minute-saving night. I've uploaded the best snaps of Go-Bang on Flickr.

Spymonkey's Moby Dick

2009-10-18T13:30:00.000+01:00

Our Friday night cocktail evening based on Spaced went well, I think. Thanks to Kerry, we had a late inspiration to base it on Simon Pegg and co. and designed the cocktail menu accordingly with every character receiving their own drink. Thankfully the ice-crusher bought on ebay arrived just in time though typically only got used twice. There was a frantic 3 hours of shaking, mixing and washing then it seemed everyone realised how drunk they were and calmed down taking it easier preferring to extend their stay. Personal favourites were the Bubblegum shooter made of Creme de Banana, Blue Curacao and Baileys Irish Cream which actually tasted like Hubba Bubba.

Saturday teatime/evening was another comedy festival event. I'd never heard of the theatre group Spymonkey but they were presenting their version of Moby Dick at the Brighton Corn Exchange. With our front row tickets we got slightly more than we expected from the performance. The stage props and scenery looked quite basic covered in a large tarpalin giving little away. The four actors (3 male and one female who I had a sneaking suspicion I'd seen somewhere before) came out and introduced the play, a little nervously and perhaps a little straighter than I expected but with the male centric story this created a comedic tension which featured later.

The Ishmael character/narrator introduced himself with what sounded like a mock-Mediterranean accent and set up the first scene of the New Bedford bar. Superb slapstick, some clever prop work and some hilarious 'sexual tension' instantly won us over. From there the gags, comedy, songs and dancing go funnier, saucier and sometimes daring in taste but every scene and gag was like a masterclass in funniness.

The only female character had a number of costume changes including her mad woman with fake arm, a mermaid and a red-haired inflatable warning beacon (at a guess) but ran off stage hugging random people including myself. Her other character was a butch bloke who kept eyeing up Kerry whilst gesturing for a 'shag'. I've since found out with some web research that the female actor, Petra Massey had been seen before. She's the ship's humanoid computer on the BBC space comedy, Hyperdrive.

Other highlights were the extendable arms of the reverend in his prayer before sailing, Queequeg trying to deal with the stairs nearly brought me to tears, his magic tricks of levitating, the cast's sailor dance and the lift and hammer gag. The whale scenes were cleverly done using video projection and the final fight using a Lucha Libre or mexican wrestler scene. A little audience participation with sound effects brought the story to its natural end. Then a familiar song, Bright Eyes was sung by the cast shortly followed by a full male choir dressed as sailor extras. A heart-warming end to the best comedy theatre I've seen for years. More please!

Simon Amstell stand-up

2009-10-12T12:51:00.005+01:00

After our complete bender of a 1920's night out, dragging ourselves out again was a huge challenge (I really wish my mind could switch off and let me rest). We'd promised ourselves a Wagamamas for an evening treat and invited Paul and Sarah along for the nosh. The spicy katsu chicken went down just but its destination didn't quite appreciate or expect it.

With our stomachs full we headed over to the Brighton Dome for the Simon Amstell show without any expectations. The settling-in music was like a repeat of the night before with 1920's swing music pumping from the speakers literally next to our seats so no snoozing for us. The warm-up act was slightly forgettable but didn't draw away from the main show, titled 'Do Nothing'. Instead of the fast paced, witiness of Never Mind the Buzzcocks (of which I can say he's sorely missed from the current series), it was a slow-burn of a performance like the feeling of our day. He dealt with an over-friendly heckler very well and brought in a reference to them later. Otherwise it was a long but very insightful and interesting dialogue into his outlook in life as in seizing opportunities in love (we learn that he fancies thin, even ill looking men). There's also some Jewish humour and reference to his family which received some mixed responses but he acknowledged it and changed tact to recover the audience attention. A few amusing diversions away from the main story with some very funny personal situations, a few honest words with the spotlight operator and a suitable introspective finish to close the performance. His story-telling was excellent overall and matched the energies of a Sunday night well.

The Blind Tiger Club at the Old Music Library, Brighton

2009-10-11T18:46:00.000+01:00

Wow! What a night! With some costume headaches and worries throughout the week everyone turned up at Riki Tiks looking the part. Kerry's side-parting, facial twirl and Louise Brooks look won me over (and a few others). Julian and Sukey were a pair of dapper gangster bosses, Clare transformed herself into a living Bonnie Parker, Charlotte looked amazing in her Flapper outfit whilst I went for a more blue collar look, a black-shirted fascist Andy Capp. Go-Bang DJs were playing the house sounds in the bar and sat just behind the decks was my boss which was interesting...

A couple of drinks later and we went down to the venue, the Old Music Library opposite the Brighton Dome, which from the front window looked like an old funeral parlour complete with coffin and flowers. We were a little bit miffed at having to queue even though we had tickets but once in we were impressed by building's atmosphere and décor. The ground floor had a few clothes rails for the cloakroom (which later fell over from the massive weight), a bar at the back, some remains of the art installation (see Robots are coming blog entry), a few chairs and access to the basement, outside court and upstairs. Drinks were limited to a number of premium brands including one of my favourite vodkas, Bison Grass.

Downstairs was a sweaty experience of an underground club feel with the band and DJs behind a pavilion styled area. Behind the dance floor was a shots bar, again with some remains of the graffiti art illuminated. The top level was another bar with a giant rat and face graffiti above it, a recessed area for the band, a dozen or so tables with chairs and a large screen looping what looked like an early erotic film about some ladies rowing on a lake with crotch shots. The event had promised blackjack tables, magicians and hostess waitresses but we only saw one gambling area. The outside area was principally for smoking and access to the toilets. Just four portaloos for a 400 capacity which didn't go down too well. Luckily we were a short walk away from Riki Tiks and Paul and Sarah's house.

Musical highlight for us was The Correspondents down in the basement. It felt like discovering a new music scene with the MC bebopping and rapping over swing and jazz like tunes such as the Jungle Book's King of the Swingers. With the whole crowd dressed to impress and pulling shapes, you just couldn't tear yourself away from it even though we were dripping in sweat. Dancing to the music was a mixture of two-step drum'n'bass, Chalrleston and anything you could remember from old films. Although as soon as tried to match the fast pace you had to switch back, sometimes ungracefully into a more relaxed, every other beat step. By the end of the night the whole experience was one of the best nights in years I'd say.

I've uploaded all the decent photos of the night onto Flickr and have some video footage on YouTube in case you're interested.

DJ Hero tracklist and Tron 2 star guests

2009-10-09T16:59:00.001+01:00

Game & Movie news

Couple of pieces of news to make the future seem that more brighter in a week of rainy gloom. The soon-to-released mixing game, DJ Hero from Activision has released its full listing of song mash-ups. Data Transmission has the full details but highlights are DJ Shadow, Beastie Boys, David Bowie (Let's Dance), Justice (Genesis), Gorrilaz, Killers and Tears for Fears plus, of course, Daft Punk as mentioned in a previous blog entry.

Speaking of the Paris Punk Princes (c), as well as scoring the new Tron Legacy film, they'll also be appearing in it - hopefully as their full robot selves. Worst Previews website has the details.

TV Prisoner

2009-10-08T13:37:00.000+01:00

After an enjoyable weekend away in Janner land ("Green Army") to see Donna and favourite niece Morgan, our telly addiction continued thanks to a new series of House. No sooner had the last series finished the other week, all of a sudden Sky pulled out another series which starts with the grumpy medic doing mental time.

Another drama-drug we're doing is Flash-Forward on Channel 5. I had tried to avoid it but thanks to other users/abusers recommendations we're already hooked. The characters are a little one-dimensional at the moment which I'm hoping its down to the early episodes and the mood music just dumbs down the atmosphere for the audio warning signs e.g. tinkly piano moment for emotional pull, dramatic orchestra bit for tense action, sinister sounds for the baddies - are we keeping up American viewers (or do US TV execs think they need it)? Still, the concept is really clever but simple, the writers have an easy job of taking the story forward in any angle, get away with it and keep the viewers wanting more, more, more.

I'd heard they were remaking this but had the romantic and naive idea that it would turn out as charming and British as the original. Perhaps it was ITV being partly behind but no, it looks like the US influence will make the forthcoming The Prisoner remake a pile of yank. At least Ian McKellen is in it but judging from the very long trailer, they've brought in the concept that the village inhabitants know nothing of the outside world. Its been broadcatsed in the US in November but ITV hasn't promoted their schedule yet but with competing with the likes of Sky, I would say it will be around the same time. Feel free to comment.

Guitar Zero

2009-10-07T13:21:00.000+01:00

Game for anything old and new

2009-10-02T13:31:00.001+01:00

Must be time for a break from the pub quiz as we came second last Thursday. Luckily we had an opportunity to earn some money instead of trying to win it but more on that later.

The weekend was a new cosy one with Kerry for a change. Our Saturday night was an unplanned meal out but quickly learnt that not booking ahead meant many restaurants were fully booked at 8pm. After the third place we tried we headed into Seven Dials (Brighton) with the intention of visiting The Tin Drum. We checked the other restaurants within the area but settled for our original choice. Although the décor was a little scruffy with a relaxed cafe/pub style, the food was really tasty. The organic, locally sourced range of food was delicious. We had some small problems with the service but after some polite nagging we were given the desserts for free as well as a round of drinks. The bill was well under what we expected so won't have any problem going back or recommending it.

Retro tech TV
I'm liking BBC4's technology themed season. Electric Dreams is a 3 part documentary about a family transforming their house back to the 1970's with each day a different year and an advance in technology with a new gadget. Their central heating was switched off until 1976 I think, in February as that's when the majority of households had it! It also brought back memories of power cuts, my first gaming experience of the Binatone, weekly shopping for frozen food and how useful it was that my dad could fix TVs as they were so unreliable back then. Next week will be the 80's as well as Micro Men, a drama based on Sir Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry who created the ZX Spectrum and Acorn computers. There'll be some great ginger beard action thanks to Alexander Armstrong, a future me perhaps?

Retro gaming
Julian invited us round to his house for some more retro action. As an avid collector of past consoles, he set up his basement with four TVs and plugged in a range of old games machines. First up was a the Nintendo 64 and its Mario Kart version, one I'd never played but quickly got to grips with. Fast forward to the X-box for Halo which I'd never played. Some Playstation 1 gaming with Viewtiful Joe, back again to the N64 for the legendary Goldeneye. A look at Assassin's Creed on the X-Box 360. Julian's teenage kids showed us how to play Guitar Hero III but we really didn't get one with it making us doubt whether DJ Hero will be chucked at the wall with frustration. Finally, an old beat'em up starring Marvel characters.

Games testing
Last night, Kerry and I took part in some games testing. Through an e-mailing list, a local research company on the University of Sussex campus was testing a puzzle game for a local publisher. We're not allowed to say who or what game was but there's clues out there. I'd only just made the target audience to qualify as Vertical Slice wanted couples between 20-40 and would pay £20 per person. After some form filling, we were sat in a mock living room and hooked up to microphones with a couple of cameras pointed at us. It was a PS3 game being tested and the graphics initially looked really good and the theme was quite intriguing but after awhile the novelty wore off. There were a few game parts that didn't work at all but the main problem was it that the game was aimed at kids and their parents. I don't think our feedback will drastically change any of the format but maybe some of our ideas might get heard for future releases. Watch this space to find out more.

One Man Lord of the Rings on YouTube

2009-09-26T11:48:00.000+01:00

According to Charlie Ross' Twitter he's added a YouTube video with some footage of his show. Its slightly strange without any audience reaction but good nonetheless.

One Man Lord of the Rings at Theatre Royal Brighton

2009-09-25T14:21:00.001+01:00

I've been searching and waiting for this news and just by luck I found it today! Charles Ross did his One Man Star Wars show last year (see my previous blog entry) and now he's back for his One Man Lord of the Rings show.

The Hawth in Crawley seem to be first in the queue for his local appearance in February 2010 but I've just bought 4 front row tickets for the Brighton venue, Theatre Royal on 24th March 2010.

One Man Lord of the Rings Tickets - tickets for One Man Lord of the Rings at Theatre Royal Brighton, Brighton

Shared via AddThis

Cadbury's new advert

2009-09-24T16:01:00.000+01:00

I always like being the first to share new things but never chocolate - its all mine, mine, mine! Mixing two passions of mine, chocolate and marketing, this is going to be everywhere very soon. The tune sounds quite good and the video entertaining all for a semi-shameless plug at Cadbury's Fairtrade chocolate. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Elite

2009-09-24T13:54:00.001+01:00

This is going to be a schizophrenic blog entry as there hasn't been any major events going on at the moment. Last week started with another win of the Pond pub quiz but a shallow victory with only three teams entering then one too drunk to care. Friday's TV experiment by Derren Brown was a mixed result though I don't think I was really concentrating. I was more insterested in the Twitterfall of people talking about him. I nearly got caught with a nasty PC virus thanks to some evil Tweet and short URL. Lesson learnt: never click on a short URL unless you know its reliable.

Saturday night was at a very local pub on Lewes Road, Brighton called the Gladstone. Go-Bang and a few other local DJs put on an all-dayer. It was a refreshing change not to need a taxi but the drink prices were still steep. Good to meet a few new people and the neo-disco sounds were quite cool. Alot of remixed old classics catching my attention. We stayed until the end dodging the Gladstone regulars. There were alot of warning signs to keep dogs attached to their lead (or string looking at the normal clientele). Back to ours (for a change) for more cocktails and chat.

Sunday was a day of TV managing to lower our standards by watching the whole of Cannonball Run 2 film which despite the million famous people starring in it, its still corny sh*te. This was followed by watching Back to the Future which a little better but perhaps we could have done something else. With Sukey's restaurant recommendation, our laziness continued by trying Pompoko, the Japanese restaurant in town. The food was very tasty and quite cheap in comparsion with service quick and efficient. We forgot they didn't serve alcohol so went on to the Life bar where Maxxi Soundsystem (Go-Bang) were playing. Lucky we did turn up as it looked like we were the only ones.

Monday's news is featured in the headline. Elite was 25 years old this day which was launched on the old BBC Microcomputer. I never had a BBC but they released it on the ZX Spectrum 48k about a year later which I was hooked on. Another (sad?) memory was doing an English Literature project comparing the short story book of Elite to Blade Runner and Empire Stikes Back. Geek naming starts here.

Last night we looked at some local cat rescue websites as we're starting to miss a furry friend being around. Brighton's City Cat Shelter and RSPCA websites were a sorry state to read. As well as the stories behind the abandoned kitties, it was their web design that brought a lump to my throat. Quite whether I can bring myself to visit these places without wanting to adopt them all is one thing but I may look into creating a better website for them using WordPress (for free) just for the experience.

Daft Punk in DJ Hero

2009-09-15T14:30:00.003+01:00

Forthcoming music game shows Daft Punk characters mashing up Robot Rock, Da Funk, Around the World, Short Circuit, Technologic and Television rules the nation.

DJ Hero - Daft Punk Trailer
by Activision

Marriage at Moyvalley

2009-09-13T21:08:00.000+01:00

Started the day in a very, very tired state. It was a late one singing and our room flooded with dawn sunshine only hours after we got to bed so our breakfast appearance was slightly subdued. Apart from the previous night's happenings conversation was about how we were getting to the church. George, who turned up looking ten times worse than all of us, forgot to mention the mini-bus organised for us. At least we could recover our energies for a few hours with a 3pm ceremony. We went back to the room for a mid-morning nap.

Yesterday's fine weather had extended for a perfect day for the wedding. We all met a 2:30pm with some of us driving to the church a few miles away. We took our places and waited for the bride and a traditional Roman Catholic ceremony. Another surprise from George was discovered as I forgot where I was with the instant reaction of shouting out 'bloody hell'. After browsing through the service pamphlet I saw my name printed to read out a section of the service. A quick chat with George and I was indeed supposed to come speak to the congregation for part of the holy vow. Trying not to think about the TV series, Father Ted, the minister endearingly forgot his point halfway through his speech but mentioned his relationship being uncle to Dee having christened her all those years ago. A lot of hymn singing and some prayers later, they tied the knot.

Back at the hotel, the meal and champagne went down well as well as the company of relatives and new friends. All the speeches went without a hitch and instead of a traditional cheesy disco we were entertained by a live jazz band. By midnight, the remaining party-goers were on the SingStar in the basement bar including Dee's older family members who hadn't been around for the previous evening. We left it to them with Patsy Cline 'Crazy' being belted out.

Sunday was just about the travel. Dublin airport left a bad taste in my mouth and an ache in my stomach. Ryan Air mucked us about changing the queue three times, their staff lost it a few times with complaining customers and our baggage had gained a kilo even after packing it lighter at Gatwick! Luckily a bloke behind us suggested we take on an extra hand-luggage bag as they wouldn't notice. The other cause for sickness was my first Burger King for years - never again!

Murder at Moyvalley

2009-09-12T12:55:00.002+01:00

Whether it was the excitement of winning the pub quiz the night before or the alcohol, it was a bleary eye start for our trip to Ireland for my cousin's wedding. Getting to Gatwick was no problem by train though our first experience of cheap-skates, Ryan Air raised our eyebrows at the baggage over-weight cost. We shifted some stuff into our hand luggage to get it under 15kg.

Touchdown in Dublin and we quickly realised that time had not allowed any potential sight-seeing with the logistics of the car hire. The airport is expanding with a new terminal so its roadworks everywhere. Still it was nice to hear everyone talking like Boyzone. We got slightly lost driving our under-powered Pug 308 trying to find the M50, twinned with the M25 as everyone in the local area decided to leave work early and enjoy the roasting sunshine.

We avoided the toll roads for Moyvalley admiring the grass which is proven greener than the UK and arrived at the hotel's enormous grounds and golf resort. After fighting the rushhour traffic. a mile's worth of driveway and the scheduled start of 6:30pm we were keen to have some sort of rest and get ready. So being told at check in that our room key had already been taken and no way to contact whoever took it gave the start of the eveving a bit of stressful start. Eventually we found Dee, George's soon to be wife who found us the proper room plus news of the delayed start of the evening.

Everyone had made the effort with perhaps a little more enthusiasm from our side of the family. George introduced me to his mate who was playing the inspector who would lead the murder mystery. George's character was due to be arrested by myself, PC Coppit but escapes us. We play act trying to find him then he 'dies' in front of everyone. We all pretend that we can't lift his 'corpse' then crack up in the other room before returning to finding out who murdered/poisoned him.

Here, the real challenge of The Last Gasp starts for a perfect ice-breaker between the two families and set of friends. My character seems to be hassled by everyone and their dog being the policeman and people try to either bribe me with clues or information as a second level of game to earn money as well as the whodunit aspect. My two aunts throw themselves into their role, there's Dr. Hammer who seems to be the main suspect due to the drug element, whilst Kerry finds out she was the deceased's ex-wife and having an affair with the soon-to-be father-in-law.

After a couple of announced clues to help us along and an excellent 3 course meal, everyone is starting to flag from the complicated rules. My partner in detection compares it to the Dusty Bin's 3-2-1 TV show which rings true when the solution's read out with only Ted Rogers himself would understand. Still, everyone had mingled sucessfully and had got themselves tanked up for the singalong in the downstairs bar.

George had brought along his brand new Slim PS3 and plugged in SingStar for some duet fun. The teenage twins Alex and Chloe were first on whereas only Moloko's 'Sing it back' and Pretenders 'Brass in pocket' could get Kerry and me sing at out top of our voices (as well as the dozen so vodkas inside us).

Assassin's Creed 2

2009-09-04T16:08:00.004+01:00

Loving this trailer for the forthcoming Assassin's Creed 2 from Ubisoft. They've used a Justice track, Genesis I think. The graphics looks amazing, as you'd expect with Renaissance Italy as the backdrop. Enjoy!

Venture Brothers 4th season preview

2009-09-02T12:50:00.004+01:00

I don't often check Jackson Publick's blog (creator of the Venture Brothers) that often as he doesn't write that regularly but today I noticed an exciting entry of Season 4 preview. There's a great quote of "I love Hitler and Hitler loves me!" with some Nazis featured in an episode. With a key character leaving in the last episode of Season 3 (won't ruin it for those haven't seen it) there are some clues as to who will replace that person.

Long weekend

2009-09-02T10:44:00.001+01:00

Thursday night was another quiz and unfortunately, another failure to win. With Donna joining our over-subscribed team we were split into two but both of us came in last place. Friday was a family day with 7 year old niece Morgan being the centre of attention. Shame the weather couldn't repeat last weekend's roasting. Instead we introduced Morgan to some quality anime, Spirited Away - hopefully she'll go off that Hannah Montana and turn to some quality merchandise!

Saturday, we turned our attention to getting some costumes for my cousin's wedding in two weeks. He's arranged a murder mystery with an 1899 theme. Kerry didn't have much luck but has arranged a visit to a costume hire place next week whereas I've got a 'steam punk' look using existing wardrobe items, a bowtie and Sherlock style pipe. Just need the bushy ginger moustache to complete the look.

The evening was a night out at Audio where the Schtumm! DJs were joined by Jon Kahuna. There was also a surprise guest DJ from the Beachdown Festival aftermath. Wild speculation ranged from Laurent Garnier to Midfield General. In the end it was Caged Baby. The club was free to get in and certainly filled up better than the paid-for Crazy P night. More randoms met in the bar including a lad who'd just been fined £80 for urinating in the Laines. By 3am we were heading back to Paul's Disco Dungeon for some afterparty action.

Sunday was a write-off with sleep non-existant but felt bad we didn't attend the Maxxi Soundsystem night at Life bar. Instead we saved our energies for Monday for a long bike ride across the South Downs. The weather was stunning for our 20 mile round trip stopping off at Juggs in Kingston near Lewes.

We ended our extended weekend on Tuesday with a shopping mission in London. Covent Garden is still our favourite with a good Urban Outfitters store and Full Circle around the back in Floral Street has some good value designs worth looking. Selfridges is still worth visiting for the main brands but you get the feeling they've gone either too safe or just slightly tacky in places, even Littlewoods catelogue in places. Finally, we headed over to Carnaby Street ending up in Beyond the Valley.

Mighty Boosh in movie and more

2009-08-27T13:18:00.004+01:00

Flicking through our local Picture House cinema magazine and there's the odd film or two to get excited about. First of all, its not Mighty Boosh the movie but most of the cast and production team have created Bunny and the Bull which is out on 27th November. It looks like the same spanglely, dream-like, colourful look of the Boosh plus the characters look like Noel Fielding had too much cheese the night before and spawned from his dreams. The plot looks a little thin as a sort of road movie described as Sideways meets Withnail and I. Its already been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival but at the time of writing the web page wouldn't load properly as there seems to be a video file embedded. If you have Facebook or Twitter, why not follow them.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was Heath Ledger's last film and his role has been partially filled by Jonny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. Expect weirdness and a grand style from Terry Gilliam.

A Serious Man is the latest Coen Brothers which promises some dark humour.

The Informant! shows Matt Damon move away from his Bourne Identity into a corporate exec position having to work undercover within his company and whistle-blow their crop price fixing. Sounds dull as dishwater but worth a look.

One film I'm a little bit worried about is The Fantastic Mr Fox. I like the UK based animation and its a Roald Dahl story but US voice-actors and humour just don't mix for me. Join the hate-club with me after watching this trailer.

Birdman of Worthing

2009-08-23T18:56:00.001+01:00

With Josh and Christie leaving so early in Sunday we took advantage of our lie-in privileges and went over to Worthing to see the International Worthing Birdman. If you're not familiar with this eccentric tradition, its basically a load of sponsored nutters who either build their own glider to get the most distance or dress up to hurl themselves off the pier.

It was a good turn out thanks to the glorious weather though there was room for more. Saturday had the more serious competitors so we settled in for some leaping lemmings. All the contestants had their own backstory, charity and small comedy routine played to their own music. Highlights for us were:

Bilbo/Frodo Baggins who'd gone all the way with wig and fake feet (Flickr photo)
Inspector Gadget who had been set up by his mates as a stag do - poor guy (Flickr photo)
The Aussie crocodile man who's head fell off (Flickr photo)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang cast including Childcatcher and eccentric Grandpa (Flickr photo)

After the funny business was a surprise entry from the Channel Five TV show, The Gadget Show. It was a massive glider designed by the University of Southampton and was piloted by Jason Bradbury with the other male presenter, Ortis Deley giving hime moral support. The Worthing Herald shows the flight in video which was a little disappointing with the build up of how much effort had gone in to it. From where we were standing the glider looked too wide plus there was no running jump. Whether that's the rule for the competition but he did manage 3rd place overall. A great day out!

Norfolk tourists

2009-08-23T10:28:00.000+01:00

The weekend welcomed our Norfolk friends Josh, Christie and their two blond-bombshell daughters, Lily and Rachel. We had a boozy catch-up on Friday night taking advantage of our over-stocked cocktail supply then Saturday we had a family day out on Brighton Pier and the beach. For £20 you can get 30 tokens to pay for rides which doesn't stretch that far with two kids and four adults. The log flume was a greedy 4 tokens each which had just two splashes but broke down just before we tried going on. Finally got to play the legendary Dolphin Derby with Lily winning the prize. Otherwise it was watching the kids on slides and the carousel. We finished the day relaxing on the beach watching Josh swim out and some airplanes flying in for the Shoreham Air Show.

Crazy P meets Pirate P's Disco Dungeon

2009-08-16T10:53:00.001+01:00

Another win under our belts for the Pond Pub Quiz on Thursday. Kinky Kev's Kitsch Kittens won us the runners up prize for team name - a bag of crisps. We won the music round as well trading in the dodgy bottle of wine for a round of shots if memory serves me well. Well done to Sukey and Julian, our new quiz-questadors for providing their own expertise. Don't think we can get away with 7 people next time though.

Feeling like a Friday night in would suit us better we dragged ourselves out for a night at Audio, Brighton for Maxxi Broadcast's Crazy P live PA. Crazy P have been around for years and changed their name from Crazy Penis. We got into the club quite early with the other friends of DJs but it didn't fill up as much as it deserved. I was impressed by some of the mash-up/remixes I heard even though I prefer my house tougher. Crazy P's singer had a great voice reminding me of Roisin Murphy though like a lot of MCs she kept reminding us it was 'Friday night', 'we're at the seaside' and 'here to have a good time'. Yeah, I know love!

After a few random conversations with strangers (I remember one guy going on about Japanese knotweed then he thought it was the Effiel Tower in the Planet of the Apes), the club main lights switched on with 20 minutes to go, very off-putting when dancing. When it did close we somehow managed to invite Crazy P back to Paul's Disco Dungeon. The only thing was that about another 30 odd hangers on decided to follow us as well.

Paul didn't seem too bothered, only the lack of booze was a worry whereas my main concern was getting some chips as I was starving. The majority of the hangers-on were interesting people even though a couple of them had no connection to anyone. Nice to meet Gus as well who I discovered had a Norfolk upbringing.

The draw of the music downstairs managed to pull the party punters and about 5 DJs including Crazy P took turns to play a handful at a time. Crazy P left a little later, only to kip at the My Hotel over the road. As he left I asked why he dropped the 'enis' from Crazy P. He said 'back then they were two guys with a bag of weed. Now the name's not important and there's 5 of us'. By about 5:30am, bed was calling so left the majority to it.