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This is just a quick test of YouTube workflow in prep for MIX08 in Las Vegas. Please ignore! High definition 1920x1080p recording converted in less than 20 seconds to YouTube format by FXHome VideoWrap!

Life Update and lots of Shiny Disc mentions

Things have been so hectic, there's been no time to update my blog. Currently work-related stuff seems to be eating up every available minute. It's just two weeks until I head off to Las Vegas for a week, primarily for the MIX08 conference, but also for a few days break - with my friends Susan and John Brock joining me for a few days before the conference kicks off, and I have no idea how I'll be sorted out in time. Even "simple" stuff like getting the laptop into a fit state ready for the conference are taking forever. I knew Windows Vista was bad, but man one year on and it's still a mess. I haven't had a 'blue screen of death' (BSOD) on Windows XP for years, but with Vista I get one every few weeks. Alas, the most recent BSOD occurred during a major software install, and means that the key software (Visual Studio 2008) that I need available to me during MIX08 is now in a "can't be installed, can't be uninstalled" status which is just what I didn't need.

I'm also trying to push on with "The Daily Dot Net Show" project, but time is not on my side. I had hoped to get a pilot ready before MIX08, with what remains of the weekend being used to shoot an initial episode based on this weekend's new releases etc, but this is looking increasingly unlikely as I fight the clock on the wall and my lack of knowledge on editing software and FX. The biggest unforeseen problem is the sheer volume of "daily" updates Microsoft and bloggers are putting out, making it hard to research things properly and keep everything tight in a planned 5-10 minute daily show. Just compiling the information from Friday and Saturday morning has taken several hours, let alone filming the video, editing the graphics and putting the whole thing together in a professional looking format.

Socially I've met up with a couple of friends that I met a few years ago on my different Lord of the Rings trips to the States. Two weeks ago the wonderful "Mooch" (Susan Brock) was in town for a week of culture in the museums and I managed to hook up with her for an evening and a Sunday, taking great advantage of free access to the Park Lane Hilton Executive Lounge. Would have liked to have spent more time with her, and thankfully I'll be hooking up with her and her husband John in Las Vegas in a fortnight's time. Last Sunday I met "Lulybunny" who was in the UK as part of her job, appraising hotels in the area to see if they were up to standard. She was worn out and tired, but I had a fun meal with her and a colleague. Like me she'd just quit her job so we were able to sympathise with each other's war stories.

Quit my job? Yes, the new contract has turned out to be a big disappointment. My colleagues, all on 3 month contracts which run out in a few weeks time, have all declined to renew although my boss is wavering and may renew at the last minute.

I'd decided my second day in I was in one of those horrific "everyone's got their heads buried in the sand" situations where even if the technology issues and continual 'customer fire fighting' issues could be resolved (far too many obscure, little known technologies when more mainstream, more productive ones are available), the company culture couldn't. I've been in a "hang in there because things might change" situation for a few weeks now but having been in similar situations before where I've felt obliged to hang on to the death so that I've typically been the last contractor out the door - at a personal cost of being permanently stressed, frustrated, and generally miserable - I've decided to move a little quicker this time around and gave my 4 weeks notice on Wednesday.

This is not the best timing given the current state of the market and my financial situation, especially after taking 3 months out to learn new stuff after my last contract in Ireland, but really there are times when you just have to recognise that health and overall happiness have to come first.

Nobody's been surprised at my decision, in fact they've been totally sympathetic, but somehow it still feels like I'm letting people down. I'm going to have to be a lot stronger in future interview situations - all the signs of the problems I was going to encounter were there when I attended my interview, but I skillfully ignored them telling myself I was being overly pessimistic or too picky. Alas, not!

On the movie front I've seen a bunch of great films...

There Will Be Blood at the cinema was almost as good as people are saying it is, with Daniel Day Lewis certainly deserving his 'Best Actor' oscar for his performance, even if I thought the film was a bit too long, slow-moving and downright pretentious in places (a criticsm I'd also make of the director's earlier 'Boogie Nights' film).

On DVD I really enjoyed Control (the Joy Division/Ian Curtis bio-pic) even if it was in black and white. Think 'coffee table book of great black and white photographs bought to life' and you've pretty much got the feel of it.

The Street Season 2 was an outstanding BBC drama series of six one hour (being British that really is one hour not the '40 minute' hours that the Americans have) drama's. I missed this when broadcast on TV at the start of the year but am glad I caught up with it on shiny disc. Brilliant writing from Jimmy McGovern and brilliant acting from a universally excellent cast. It proves we Brits CAN produce great drama (and not endless 'Torchwood' tosh) when we want to. Admittedly this is not the sort of stuff to watch if you're prone to depression or like your drama to be endlessly upbeat and 'feel good', although there are comedic moments. The premise for each episode of the series is someone making a key decision that dramatically alters the course of the life they're living, often for the worse, but occasionally for the better. A very thought-provoking and powerful series that was as strong as the first season of six episodes broadcast last year had been.

HD-DVD is officially dead, with Toshiba apparently about to formally announce they're abandoning the format. Warners Judas-like last-minute betrayal at CES has had faster ramifications than anyone expected. I find it too depressing for words given how many HD-DVD discs I own, and how much more solid it is than the 'still under development beta' Blu-Ray format is. But even when Blu-Ray finally gets out of 'beta' status with its hardware the main disadvantage to the format is that HD-DVD is region free so that we can buy much better discs in a much more timely fashion at a cheaper price from the states, while most Blu-Ray discs are region-locked meaning we have to wait months to pay an overly-inflated price for titles that the Americans got with many more extra's for a much lower price, months earlier - if we get them at all!

But new HD-DVD titles will dry up very soon so buying more titles is throwing good money after bad. However, pre-ordering titles months in advance mean I've seen The Heartbreak Kid which was better than I expected. It stars Ben Stiller which is usually a good indication of a terrible American brat 'comedy' movie that has zero laughs in it unless you come from the 'Wasn't Norman Wisdom endlessly gurning utterly brilliant' school of thinking. To my surprise this one had me guffawing out loud more than a couple of times, although it's not exactly a 'must see' or 'must rewatch' film by any means.

White Noise 2 featuring "that bloke off 'Serenity'" was slightly disappointing, but probably better than the first film in the franchise, which actually has nothing in common with this one other than the title. The film was let down by a silly ending, but worth seeing if you're a fan of the actress who plays 'Starbuck' in the new 'Battlestar Galactaca' series. She is always fun to watch and gets to play 'sweet girl' instead of 'aggressive tom boy' this time around.

The Invasion, a planned 'intelligent' character-driven remake of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers', starring Nicole Kidman and Craig Daniels, is a movie that is totally ruined by last-minute 'action' reshoot insertions that send the whole thing off the rails. It's not hard to see why this has been held up for a couple of years and the end result is a real hatchet job of a film with obvious signs of too many different directors being called in to stitch the mess together. The film studio should have left the film with the original director and hoped it found its audience instead of trying to turn it into a film with endless 'Matrix'- like stunts and car chases between all the talky bits!

The region-locked, over-priced Blu-Ray format has won the high definition shiny disc wars so I've switched to buying that format given that it's the one likely to stick around before the dreaded 'pay for downloads' exclusivity kicks in. I enjoyed Ratatouille much more than 'Cars' but not as much as 'Toy Story' or 'Finding Nemo'. I certainly wouldn't class it as 'the film of the year', as some are claiming, because it's too slow and half an hour longer than it needs to be. It has its moments but lacks the charm of earlier Pixar efforts. That being said, it's definitely worth seeing, and Peter O' Toole is brilliant as the voice of a pompous food critic. On Blu-Ray disc it's as beautifully presented and a great advert for the high definition format.

I thought Rent was a mess of a film musical (but then I think it's outrageous that 'Chicaco' won the 'Film of the year' oscar, when the vastly superior 'Moulin Rouge' got nothing), but the accompanying documentary (which runs longer than the main film) was gripping and tells a much more emotional 'true life' story about the musical's creator (who struggled for four years writing the thing, dying very young and suddenly from a genetic heart condition the night before the show was due to open).

Across The Universe is another musical - this time artificially constructed around overly-familiar Beatles songs - that just didn't work for me. There are some wonderful directorial showcase scenes here, with great iconic imagery that reminded me of Ken Russel's "Tommy" in places, but like "Tommy" the whole thing comes across as a series of unrelated pop videos and 'moments' that just don't work as a filmic whole. "Tommy" had a much better basic through-line and unfortunately "Across the Universe" comes seriously unstuck about half way in. Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais are very experienced writers but what they've done here is a complete mess. After the disappointing "Goal" movie I can't help wondering if the pair are well past their 'Sell by' date as writers.

The Brave One (on Blu-Ray) received luke warm reviews as a 'Death Wish' remake, albeit this time with a female protagonist in the form of Jodie Foster. I actually disagree with the critics who dismissed this film on theatrical release as just another 'Death Wish' rip-off. I think that Neil Jordan's film has a much more moral centre at its core, and while they never believed the 'transition' Foster's character goes through, I found it totally compelling. Foster is always worth watching, and does a good job here, although I'd agree that the moral ambiguities, especially in the ending, fail to really convince. And the annoying 'green desaturated' look is starting to get REALLY annoying now.

Run Fat Boy Run on Blu-Ray was much better than I was expecting, given how totally self-indulgent and unfunny I found "Hot Fuzz". David Schwimmer of 'Friends' fame did a good directorial job I thought and Simon Pegg more than delivered on the rather silly premise of a boy who leaves his pregnant girlfriend at the altar only to try and win her back five years later by running a marathon. The trailer had looked very weak and the title is completely ridicilous (Pegg is very thin and yet we're being asked to pretend he's fat?!!), but once you get past that this is a fun hour and 40 minutes of 'safe' British rom-com comedy with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. It's not hard to see why, despite the critical mauling it received, it over-performed at the box office. Well worth a rental in my view.

Right, that's the catch up out the way. Back to work....

Router Problems

It's been a fraught weekend. I always leave my accounts to the last minute and Saturday was spent mostly catching up on the last 3 months so I could file and pay my latest VAT return. For me this is a big improvement - I normally procrastinate and leave it to the last possible moment on the Sunday, which means it hangs over me all weekend. Not this time and I was feeling quite virtuous when the whole lot was done by 8pm last night.

By way of reward I watched the new HD-DVD release of David Finch's Zodiac which, in the director's cut presented here, clocks in at a mammoth 2 hours 40 minutes - but a thoroughly gripping and engrossing 2 hours 40 minutes it turned out to be. The film had more of a final resolution than I'd expected fromt the reviews that appeared around the time of the theatrical release, and a truly 'reference quality' picture (as one would expect given that the film was made using mostly high definition cameras). HD-DVD may be officially dead, but until Blu-Ray has the rights to films like this from Paramount and Universal the battle can't be considered entirely over.

Alas, plans to do some work/catch up on studying fell apart on Sunday when intermittent problems with my network router locking up every half hour, and then needing a 15 minute cool-off period each time, got to the point where I couldn't put off installing a new one any longer. What a nightmare! What with wired connections, wireless security, and far too many devices to be connected (laptops, MediaServer, XBox, Blu-Ray player, HD-DVD player) and the way British Telecom insists on configurations that are not "standard out the box" it's taken most of today, and a long phone call to BT, just to get the internet connectivity I've had in the past.

However, everything's up and running now, and the MediaServer automated backups that have been failing overnight on every single PC because of the router lockups are now zipping through like greased lightening.

Even better, Reiner the Nabaztag is now up and running. On the old router he just wouldn't play, but now I guess you could say he's a 'happy bunny', and sits twirling his ears, flashing his lights, and reading me the latest weather, newsflashes and text messages in very silly voices with even sillier music every 20 minutes. Cute for now, but I suspect by the end of the week I'll be sick of some of the more gimmicky alerts and turning them off!

It's not hard to see why Nabaztag has turned into a popular toy amongst the geeks, and at work they're seriously talking about using one to monitor the status of our builds - apparently there's a "Cruise Control" application that lights the rabbit's front up with green, yellow or red depending on the latest status of the build. Must have a look at the API some time to see what else he can be programmed to do.

R.I.P. Heath Ledger

Some actors achieve notoriety and great fortune through endlessly repeating the same part (usually themselves) in every film they're given.

Then there are those who are different in every film they appear in. Even the turkeys ("Brothers Grimm" anyone?!) gain something by their participation.

Heath Ledger was one such actor - an actor whose name usually guaranteed a film's place on my 'must buy on DVD' list.

The oscar-nominated "Brokeback Mountain" may be the film which most of the newspaper obituaries are talking about, and it is a personal favourite to the extent that I have a framed poster from the film with Ledger's autograph, along with that of the other main cast members, on my living room wall. But Ledger gave memorable performances in a whole host of other films too. "A Knight's Tale", "The Patriot", "Casanova", and "Ned Kelly" to name just a few. I was looking forward to his performance in the Bob Dylan flick "I'm Not There", and even more so to his performance as The Joker in the forthcoming Batman film "The Dark Knight" which was already being promoted as the film that would lift his career into the stratosphere.

At the time of writing there are reports all over the web of 'a drugs overdose', although it's too early to say yet what the real story is. An interview with The New York Times, back in November, holds some depressing clues as to the possible reason for his death. He told the paper that the Dylan film stressed him out a little too much and he had trouble sleeping while portraying The Joker, whom he called 'a psycopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy'. Talking about his sleep problems the actor went on to say 'Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted and my mind was still going' before going on to say he took Ambien pills, which only worked for an hour.

Whatever the cause of death, today's news is not just sad, but depressing. We've lost an eminently watchable actor who never appeared to 'sell out' and appeared to inflict a punishing work schedule on himself, whether working on a big Hollywood production or a small indy film. It's sad that the cost of his performances, which always seemed to be of 'The Method' variety, appear to have exacted such a price on this genuinely talented actor.

Rest in Peace, Mr Ledger, and thanks for the wonderful movie memories!

Some Shiny Disc Mini-Reviews

It's been a bad start to the new job, with the dreaded stomach flu laying waste to most of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and meaning next week is going to be 'catch up on work' week instead of 'sort out dentist and blood pressure issues' week instead. In the meantime, here's some thoughts on a whole bunch of new shiny discs, which I've been watching over the last few days. Some of these viewings were interrupted by projectile vomiting or attacks of 'the squirts' (I know - too much information!) so that should probably be taken into account. And if you're wondering why so much coverage of releases on the reviled region-locked Blu-Ray format - HD-DVD is now officially all-but-dead, following Warner Brothers' Judas-like betrayal at CES in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

I hadn't realised how much I miss The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin's political masterwerk set in The White House, until this weekend. Officially released in a DVD boxed set tomorrow, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was writer Sorkin's first new TV series to hit the airwaves when The West Wing was axed, and itself got the chop at the end of its first season a few months ago, presumably because the average American viewer just isn't interested in intelligent, beautifully written drama. Not that we Brits are any better - at least if the endless fan 'blog post' ravings, license fee payer -funded ads and repeat commissions for infantile rubbish like Torchwood or Robin Hood are any indication!

There are several familiar faces from The West Wing appearing in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, but it's the writing rather than the acting that stands out and makes one feel one is watching a favourite old series again. In the UK we're very lucky to have Jimmy McGovern, whose excellent first season series of The Street is available on DVD at ridiculously low 'sale' prices of not much more than a fiver, with the second season due out in a few weeks. In some ways I guess you could regard Sorkin as the closest thing the Americans have got to their version of McGovern.

This time round Sorkin uses the ins and outs of a popular, weekly, Friday night comedy TV programme at one of the big broadcast corporations as the premise for his witty, politicial, humorous and amusing look at big business politics. I'm only four episodes in, but already totally hooked by strong characers, challenging storylines that intelligently debate the role of religion, sex and politics in broadcasting, and a cast able to deliver on the strengths of the premise. The only cloud on the horizon is that with four episodes down I have only eighteen more to go before it'll all be over.

Shoot 'Em Up

At the other end of the extreme I watched Shoot 'Em Up, which received a bit of a panning from British critics, despite it having a not-too-shameful score on imdb of 7.2 at the time of writing. On Blu-Ray disc, the release features some fairly generous extra's, including the picture-in-picture documentary feature that has been the exclusive domain of HD-DVD until Sony got their act together and released 'Profile 1.1' hardware (making all existing players, other than the PS/3 which updated itself via an Internet firmware upgrade, obsolete) earlier this month. On those extra's the writer/director of the film is at pains to point out that he was determined not to make a cartoon - which seems somewhat ridiculous since that's EXACTLY what he's produced, albeit one with real-life actors, notably Clive Owen, appearing in real-life sets. Having the central character continually chomping on a carrot makes things pretty clear from the get-go, as if the cartoon violence that explodes every few seconds on screen wasn't a subtle enough clue in the first place.

Shoote 'Em Up's script is laughably bad. The premise is that an angry hot shot 'shootist' witnesses some thugs attacking a young woman with a baby and gets stuck with the baby while the thugs chase him, determined to kill it. It's endless cartoon violence of the Wile E. Coyote variety with what little plot there is being completely ludicrous and as unbelievable as the 'oh! he's survived and got up again!' violence. At one point we are expected to believe that despite our following him from his first accidental encounter the 'hero' has somehow managed to manufacture off-screen an expensive animatronic version of the baby complete with tape recorder that's fooled us and the bad guys! Yup, you need to deposit your brain at the door before starting on this one. All that being said, it's a real romp of an action/cartoon-in-real-life movie and, thanks to its non-stop action and gimmicky cinematography, I enjoyed it a lot - not as much as Crank, which covered pretty much the same territory, but with more panache and wit - but a lot more than British critics had lead me to expect. Over on rotten tomatoes the US critics have given it a 66% 'fresh' rating, which seems about right to me. Definitely worth a rental if you like your films full of action and excitement, and possibly a purchase if you like lots of impressive, slo-mo explosions and flying stunts.

Kenny

I was much less impressed with Kenny, which received rave reviews when commercially released a few months back. A spoof-documentary about an Australian 'toilet plumber' this has the usual quips about 'shit' that one might expect from someone dealing with effluent, but little to differentiate it from a real documentary that one can see any night of the week on TV. 'The best comedy of 2007' the cover proudly proclaims - I'd like some of whatever 'thelondonpaper' were on when they made that comment, please!

Admittedly the film is quite sweet-natured, following a 'salt of the earth' good-natured plumber guide around as he performs his job and shares his philosophy on life. But I just don't get the point of it all! I smiled a few times, as one does at 'real life' incidents, but if I want real life I can go out and experience it or watch a real documentary, not a 'spoof' one. Truth is I'd expected some jokes, and even the back-stories they try and work in (the central character has a son from a previous marriage, and is totally oblivious to the way an air stewardess keeps trying to throw herself at him) but there are no belly laughs here. One is left feeling one has just watched a 'written' reality show like 200 other reality shows one's already seen. Why would you want to pay £13 to see that when it's on TV every night?

Superbad

I've mentioned Judd Apatow before - he seems to be 'flavour of the month', following the release of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, seemingly because journalism is so bad these days that journalists are happy to peddle Hollywood marketing hype as if it were fact. Both those films were good, if nowhere near as 'intelligent' or fantastic as most critics made them out to be. This week the latest in the formulaic line, Superbad, is released on both Blu-Ray and standard DVD. Apatow's shctick is 'in your face' gross-out vulgarity of the kind pioneered by American Pie, albeit with underlying truths about the human condition which apparently makes it alright to laugh at racist, misogynistic and homophobic dick, fanny and arse jokes. This time round Apatow is only executive producer, with the script written this time round by Seth Rogan, who has starred in Apatow's previous work. There's a lot that's familiar here, and I have to admit I laughed a lot more at this than I did at what 'thelondonpaper' called 'The best comedy of 2007', but still think the hype over the movie is over-rated. In many ways it's like a comedy version of Shoot 'Em Up - cartoon-like stupidity that's a bit like fast food: enjoyable at the time, but one can't help wondering afterwards what the long term effects of mass consumption of this sort of fare will be.

Flyboys

And finally, a plug for Flyboys out on Blu-Ray disc this month. Mercilessly slated by the critics, this tale of World War I pilots can be accused of plagiarism and playing it far too safe - indeed it's a film we've seen several times before - but it's beautifully made, and the aeriel sequences are stunning. I found it infinitely preferable to the execrable Memphis Belle, which it riffs heavily on. The cast, especially James Franco, best known as 'Harry Osborne' from the Spider-Man movies, give good performances from an average script, and the cinematography is stunning. If you want an old-fashioned 'epic' it's hard to think of anything that's been released recently that fits the bill as well as this. I enjoyed it far more than the reviews had indicated I would.