P-2006 | Fragments

Floating Away

2010-07-20T16:14:00Z

The salty water gently lapped around him as he floated on the surface, gazing up into the inky blackness while the soft music gave way to perfect silence. It might well be a night time scene in the Mediterranean Sea but for the fact this was the heart of London. Floatworks near London Bridge, to be precise. I first came across their floatation isolation pods a few years ago but finally got round to trying them out myself. You have an entire room to yourself with an isolation tank taking up the bulk of the space. The water is saturated with Epsom salt so that, Dead Sea style, one floats with no effort whatsoever. The water and air are heated to a similar temperature so that, once settled, it becomes difficult to tell which parts of your body are submerged, lending the sensation that you are floating in air.

I won't discuss floating in terms of potential health benefits, though some are claimed. I am no model for healthy living, but I realised a few years ago that my body largely takes care of itself and it is my mind that I have been neglecting. Routinely I use music to control my head but silence, particularly scarce in London, is a tool I rarely consider. Earplugs in, lid closed and lights out — the result is reminiscent of the sensory deprivation tank in which Daredevil sleeps in the film. The internal chatter rose at first, but gradually dropped to the point where I "lost" a period of around 15-20 minutes in the middle of my one-hour session in the tank without actually falling asleep. I left with an imperturbable calm, and travelling home on public transport I was uncharacteristically disinclined to pop in earphones as would be the norm.

I absolutely recommend it and will certainly return, though it doesn't come cheap at £80 for three one-hour sessions (or £40 for one). But in a city where isolating oneself is virtually impossible, perhaps that's not so great a price to pay.

Unregulated Paint

2010-07-05T14:08:18Z

Last weekend was Andy's stag do in Budapest, ably organised by his brother and best man, Tristan. Naturally tour rules prevent me from divulging too much, but it's worth mentioning one of the non-obvious highlights: paintball. Now I'll be honest, up front I felt that flying out to Eastern Europe was a little excessive for a couple of days of male bonding, heavy drinking and light debauchery. The truth is that it made a huge difference, largely through lax regulation. So paintballing, hardly an exotic experience, proved an entirely different beast to its UK counterpart.

We arrived, hungover, at an old barn in what appeared to be a disused farm in the middle of nowhere. As we poured out of the minibus on which we had spent an hour attempting to sleep through headaches of varying degrees, we were greeted by a sizeable dog who eyed us with the disdain of a creature who had seen it all before. He padded quietly around us as we entered through the barn's looming doors, as if lazily rounding up sheep. In short, this was exactly the sort of place you'd pick if you planned to dismember unsuspecting tourists. Inside the Hungarians who were to be running the games were surrounded by paintballing equipment and camouflage, yet appeared to be watching sing-along Thomas the Tank Engine on an old television. The disconnect was the most disconcerting thing of all.

The difference was evident the moment we pulled the trigger on the guns which, like all the equipment, appeared identical to anything one would use at a local venue. Less stringent health and safety regulations, however, meant high pressure gas canisters. The result was twofold: yes, it was more painful (and highly effective at sobering our group) but it also allowed one to aim properly, rather than having paintballs drift half-heartedly in the slightest breeze. It instantly tightened up everyone's game. The resulting bruises and injuries (which admittedly I tend not to suffer) were more than worthwhile. The second difference was clear once in the fields. Like a scene straight out of Half-Life 2's City 17 outskirts (which was itself designed as a nameless Eastern European city) we were fighting through abandoned buildings with crumbling walls and rotting wood, hiding inside burned-out vehicles and trampling through broken tiles and glass as we hunted down our enemy. Exactly the sort of the thing you'd never get away with over here. If you get a chance to experience it, do.

I suspect the only UK experience that will now compare is WarFighters. Who's in?

Gaga, Cartman

2010-07-04T18:27:51Z

Despite a few long posts about Android and the Desire, I feel like I've been neglecting the site a little of late. So while I have a bunch of tardy links to share, today I just want to mention a recent Times article on Lady Gaga. It is written by an unabashed fan which does not always lend itself to the best journalism, but perhaps in this case it was entirely appropriate. Because, despite its length, I felt compelled to read the entire piece on an icon about whom I know little and have limited interest.

Like anyone in a western country paying the remotest attention to modern music, I am very aware of her. However I read almost nothing about because I tend not to follow celebrities unless I also have a genuine interest in their art. I do understand the important musical contribution that Gaga has made — almost single-handedly she has reinvigorated a creatively dead pop industry. So her relevance is in a genre that, generally, holds little attraction for me. Eric Cartman's cover of Poker Face excites me more than the original (I even have it on Rock Band), but the very fact such a thing exists is a testament to her influence. I fully accept that the notion of Cartman "bluffin' with his muffin" is horrific. Probably.

Seeing her rise as a counter-culture feminist icon has been equally startling, not because I am in any way opposed to it, but because of the ill-conceived attacks against such an idea that it has sparked (a brief glance at the comments reveals how wrong the writer is). I am, as you are probably aware, so in favour of equality that it tends to infuriate many feminists (who find it difficult to argue with me) and girls who think they want equality until they realise it necessarily requires relinquishing certain social advantages they have long held in order to gain economic (and other) ones. I think the subversive fashion in which Gaga treats the media fascination with sexualising absolutely everything is a fantastic approach, rather than merely railing against it. As she mentions in the interview, while she may strut around scantily clad in her music videos, it is rarely in a way that is designed to be attractive to the typical man, though arguably it is sometimes calculated solely to be provocative. I am a strong believer that the best way to undermine anything is to take it to its logical extremes rather than to suppress it. And suddenly Eric Cartman and Lady Gaga make perfect sense as contemporaries and collaborators.

I'll leave you with a song that you almost certainly won't have heard before, a lesser known YouTube-posted Amanda Palmer song that she recently performed live at a ninja gig (last-minute, but not exactly secret when you mention it to your 400,000 Twitter followers) at the Underworld: Gaga, Palmer, Madonna. While technical complexity is impressive, honesty is a trait I've begun to find increasingly endearing in music. Perhaps because so little popular music is.

Appsolutely

2010-05-21T13:22:41Z

A long post today that just covers the Android apps I currently use and recommend. If that doesn't interest you, here's my review of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans instead.

To keep an eye on the latest app releases check out Android Tapp and Revision3's daily App Judgment show, which covers both Android and iPhone. You'll notice there aren't direct links to the app marketplace below. That's because unfortunately the Android marketplace doesn't quite work like that at present although its redesign is soon to launch with Google's I/O conference in progress right now.

So here's what I use in approximate order of regularity/usefulness:

Dolphin Browser HD is currently the best Android web browser for high-end phones. A slick interface, tabbed browsing and very smooth pinch-to-zoom.

Astro File Manager is self-explanatory: the easiest way to browse files on your phone, especially if you download and install apps outside the Android marketplace.

Lookout is an all-in-one security package with cloud backup, anti-virus scanning (primarily to protect you PC when you attach your phone) and the ability remotely to locate (and, if stolen, wipe) your phone from any browser. Paid alternative WaveSecure is also very well reviewed.

Last.fm and Spotify are both great streaming music services. The former is free, while the latter requires that you are a premium subscriber to use the mobile app. Still, that entire library available anywhere isn't bad for £10 a month.

Catch That Bus is the first and only app I've purchased to date and is a bargain at £1.79. It uses Google Maps and overlays UK bus stops. Select one and you'll see a live board with expected arrival times. No more wondering whether it's worth waiting at a bus stop.

JuiceDefender saves battery life by regulating your data connection and wifi, but it can interfere with streaming media services like Spotify.

Evernote brands itself as a "digital brain" for storing and searching notes, pictures and clips from websites. Not only can you now access it anywhere, but you can use your phone's camera to snap photos, which Evernote will scan with OCR to make any text searchable.

ShopSavvy lets you scan product barcodes while shopping and will provide details and price comparison with both retail and online stores.

Dropbox is an service I already recommend for cloud-syncing files on desktops, and now you can access all of those files remotely from your phone too.

Photoshop.com Mobile is obviously nothing like the desktop version but offers a handful of really useful tools to improve images taken with a phone camera.

TaskPanel lets you kill off apps individually or en masse. Android's multitasking implementation means that the OS will automatically prioritise and close unused apps when it runs out of memory, so this should be unnecessary. But in some cases you may prefer to keep things tidy yourself and it can improve battery life.

Twitter and Engadget both have official apps that, while not particularly special, do stand out for their slick interfaces.

Quickpedia let you browse wikipedia and is noteable mainly in that it includes suggestions for search. This on a pocketable phone is probably the next best thing to owning The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Shazam is a neat little app that will listen to a snippet of music and identify it, all for no charge.

Barcode Scanner may sound odd for a phone but the Android community often shares apps and links using QR codes (2D barcodes). Simply snap one, even directly off another screen, with your phone camera rather than fiddling around with the keyboard.

Yelp and Aloqa are both goods ways to find local restaurants and entertainment.

Layar is an augmented reality app which means it uses the phone's camera to display the world around you with overlayed information. They're a great glimpse into the future but I feel aren't quite smooth enough for general use yet.

Flixster Movies brings current film info, showtimes and trailers to your phone.

c:geo is great for entering the world of geocaching.

Compass lets you – wait, do I really have to explain this one?

Whew, any I missed that you think should have been on here? As always, let me know.

HTC Desire is the 'droid you've been looking for

2010-05-18T17:48:22Z

Having finally caught up with the modern mobile world on buying the HTC Desire, I have been reluctant to discuss it. The main reason is that nothing but gushing praise would seem rather biased so I wanted to find some faults too. That took time.

As you probably guessed it's a phenomenal device. I'm not going to repeat others' "iPhone killer" rhetoric here because it's irrelevant – with or without Apple's product, this is a powerhouse of a smartphone and, for me, the best on the market to date. A large capacitive touchscreen with a high-res 800×480 AMOLED display, it looks stunningly crisp with vibrant colours and smooth transitions. Its 1GHz Snapdragon processor makes it fly, coupled with the Android operating system.

Android is a slightly geekier OS than the iPhone's, but HTC's Sense user interface sits on top, with attractive widgets that allow for easy customisation and show a lot of info at a glance (e.g. FriendStream which combines friends' Facebook and Twitter updates). For me it fixes the Nexus One control flaws by inverting them: the touch-sensitive buttons are now physical, while the trackball is replaced with an optical trackpad that is great for fine cursor movement. It's not secret that I like the tactile feedback of buttons and would still prefer a slide-out physical keyboard, but as soft keyboards go the Desire's is one of the best I've tried.

Now a mature platform, the Android Marketplace has a wealth of apps. Numerically it is still far behind the Apple's App Store (and isn't as easy to browse), but most high-quality apps (other than games) are now cross-platform or have equivalents. Android's open system makes it attractive and easier to develop for, without the need for official approval, so it certainly has the potential to grow rapidly.

The contacts list seamlessly merges my GMail address book with Facebook contacts, including importing profile pics to identify people. Multitasking is a breeze on the Desire, allowing you to stream music with the Spotify app while browsing the web, pausing and resuming everything automatically to receive a call. Other neat tricks include Google's turn-by-turn SatNav, recently rolled out in the UK, and Flash support, which is welcome but certainly leaves room for improvement.

Video looks gorgeous on the vibrant screen although AMOLED does wash out dramatically in direct sunlight. Codec support is rather limited at present, meaning you'll need to convert most video files. Previously a nightmare, these days this it is simplified drastically by doubleTwist. Sound quality for voice calls is fine, but I found music playback is rather average: excellent clarity but a lack of depth with virtually non-existent bass. Of a course a phone will never compete with a dedicated PMP and I readily admit I've spoiled my ears with Cowon players, but this confirms I will still require a second device.

I'll discuss specific apps I'm using in a future post.

Just One Evelyn

2010-04-25T22:19:00Z

A volcano and Twitter brought me to you. Do you realise how beautiful that is?

-Melissa Auf der Maur

Evelyn Evelyn on Thursday night at KOKO may be have been the best ever gig that wasn't. The quirky music of Evelyn Evelyn is performed by the fictional titular conjoined twins (or a musical and artistic collaboration between Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley, depending on your level of suspension of disbelief). Unfortunately one of the Evelyns (Jason Webley) couldn't make it because she (he) was stuck in the US due to the volcanic ash cloud disruption. The result was a mess. And excellent.

I have previously described Amanda Palmer gigs as being "Amanda and friends" or, in this case, Amanda and whoever she dragged through the ash cloud. Luckily for us this included the sublime Bitter Ruin. A small band from Brighton, this twosome features the incredible voice of Georgia Train, by turns equally powerful and delicate, coupled with the Spanish twang of Ben Richards' guitar. Be sure to listen to Trust and Soldier (and if you only click one link, make it that one). I find myself already eagerly anticipating the May release of their full album. Also supporting were the disarmingly enthusiastic Robots in Disguise (who may actually be robots in disguise) and the assured Melissa Auf der Maur (who may grow on me).

In a creative solution to the missing Evelyn, the gig was punctuated by a scripted fake webcast with Jason on plane to the UK, projected on a giant screen at the back of the stage, through which he could chat to Amanda and play a couple of songs with her. To explain the extent of the range of music experience that evening I could mention the country song about Icelandic volcanic ash clouds, but it really requires just three words: ukulele Radiohead cover.

Amanda seemed to flag a little (likely through exhaustion) by the end, but returned for a superb second encore with an energetic Girl Anachronism followed by a sort of Sex Pistols karaoke, with the lyrics to Anarchy in the UK projected as the crowd sang along, the front row (and Neil Gaiman) danced up on stage and Amanda Palmer crowd surfed. A fantastic closing given that it was conceived that very day when Amanda and Neil sat in a café as Malcolm McLaren's funeral procession passed. Touring issues be damned, (record label) freedom clearly suits her well.

Keggfest 2010

2010-04-23T13:04:06Z

Kegg: (n) Easter egg (or other related chocolate product) purchased cheaply in the clearance sales after Easter.

Keggfest: (n) Traditional celebration of chocolate occurring shortly after Easter. Centres around the consuming (and sometimes stacking) of Keggs. Considered to oppose the commercialisation of Easter.

Last week marked the return of Keggfest to the Eastertide calendar. A tradition I started back at uni, it faltered someone once we left Cambridge. A successful, small-scale return hopefully means it will once more become an annual event. Tom G was the first "outsider" to partake (providing not just chocolate but also home brew with a hint of chili). Sadly Icelandic volcanoes conspired to keep Anna away, so the indoctrination of someone from the Other Place still awaits.

There is little else to say so, instead, here is a mini-gallery with 6000 words worth of pictures:

64oz Later

2010-04-14T13:51:53Z

Phil decided that the best way to celebrate his birthday last weekend was attempting to consume 64oz of steak in under an hour. Naturally I couldn't turn down entertainment like that, so headed over to Spur Steak & Grill at The O2. The photos tell the story (apparently they don't have a problem with dSLRs in the restaurants) better than I can, but suffice to say it was a valiant attempt. Despite a strong opening 20 minutes, the pace gradually slowed and by the final third it was a real uphill struggle. Although dejected, it was nothing ice cream couldn't cheer. And while he suggests his mass eating form may be on the decline, Phil still seems keen to have another go. His girlfriend Helena is not. To be honest I can't really recommend Spur (I assume it's short for spurious quality steak), but it was a fun night.

Nuit Blanche is a classy little black & white short flick with heavily layered digital effects. It earned Arev Manoukian Hollywood attention, and he recently discussed its creation (including a video showcasing the digital effects) with Wired. While it may be the slow motion shattering glass that draws the eye, Nuit Blanche perfectly captures the power of a fleeting connection with a stranger, when in that single gaze the rest of the world becomes momentarily irrelevant.

Digital Wash Up

2010-04-13T23:33:15Z

Will the Secretary of State look back in history and see what happens to legislation that gets pushed through the House quickly, without consultation? It looks as though we could push some measure through – perhaps there will be a little stitch-up between the three Front-Bench teams – but out there, ordinary people, many of whom have only begun to realise the repercussions of the Bill, will feel totally let down by Parliament, just before a general election.

-Kate Hoey MP, House of Commons debate on the Digital Economy Bill

She is, of course, absolutely right. But she also puts me in a difficult position in that I have no desire to see the current Labour Government re-elected but, locally, she is exactly the sort of rebel MP — willing routinely to vote against her party when appropriate — that I wholeheartedly support. The party political system irritates me more each year.

You already know I support good 3D cinema and deplore poor, "cash in" 3D. The latest culprit is Clash of the Titans in which the post-production 3D was shoehorned in even less time than Alice in Wonderland. Critics have universally slated the 3D elements as greatly detracting from an otherwise — well — average film. What effect this will have on consumer tastes is uncertain since Titans certainly made a lot of money.

This all made me rather curious about the discovery that the fourth Resident Evil film (it's become quite the franchise), Afterlife, is in 3D. Which sounds awful. Except that it's been done properly from scratch, utilising the Fusion camera system pioneered by James Cameron. The quality of the film itself is still up in the air: I consider the first one fun videogame fluff, the second awful, and the third a surprisingly impressive atmospheric post-apocalyptic ride. I'm happy to let curiosity get the better of me when this one breaks out.

I don't often embed videos here, but this is a rather pretty "trailer" for the forthcoming Charles Vess illustrated book of Neil Gaiman's poem Instructions from his Fragile Things collection. It's actually Neil reading the entire poem with an animated version of Vess' artwork.

Kicking Ass and Calling Names

2010-03-31T02:53:32Z

Although this is only his third film, it still surprises me that Matthew Vaughn's name is not better known, given that his previous two offerings were the superb Layer Cake and Stardust. Each revitalised a genre, but his intent to throw his hat into the comicbook superhero ring with a largely unknown title still made me slightly apprehensive.

The real problem will be how to promote Kick-Ass, which straddles the line between parody and homage, in equal parts hilarious and violent. The initial trailers were interesting but hardly gripping, nor did they seem to match the incredible hype from last year's ComicCon. You must ensure you see the restricted red band Hit-Girl trailer to fully appreciate the craziness that awaits. And then you must see the film.

My full Kick-Ass review is up, following a review screening I attended on Monday. The short description is that it's quite simply the most fun I've had a cinema since Inglourious Basterds last year. Faaez accompanied me and, aided by a raging post-stag hangover, appeared to have any remaining synapses blown away by the end, confirming it definitely wasn't what he expected from the advertising he had seen. I was asked to give a two-word review afterwards and whatever I said was almost certainly wrong. The correct answer is demented brilliance.

Fans may also wish to know that Forbidden Planet on Shaftsbury Avenue has a stack of the graphic novel, signed by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. Through a strange misunderstanding of retail theory, they are "cashing in" by reducing the price by a couple of pounds. Such inexplicable practices deserve to be rewarded.

Last week I also got round to seeing Crazy Heart, and have a review up for that too. Suffice to say Jeff Bridge's Oscar win was more than deserved. You'll notice some minor format changes in these two reviews and I'm hoping this will be the start of a steady stream for this year. I'd really like to get back into writing full reviews as well as the general film discussion in posts here, though obviously they take a significantly longer time investment.