Falco

Earthquake!!!!

2010-01-19T18:33:00.002Z

I just heard there was another earthquake in the Caribbean - 5.8 in the Cayman Islands. I am quicker than BBC news... and probably Twitter.

2009 - the year when I started to write stuff down

2010-01-16T16:10:00.008Z

Last year in January I was having a discussion with someone about movies (they were talking, I was sort of day dreaming). This devolved into one of my "normal conversations" about movies when I can't remember for shit what I've seen, what it was called, or (most of the time) what happened! I like movies and TBH I watch shit loads but I've never been one to drop a directors name into conversation or say, "I prefer his earlier work". So I had an idea - why not keep track of what I've seen. Nothing complicated like a review, just the name and a score out of 10. I kept my scores in a notepad and have only just thought about putting it on this blog... so 'in ranking order' - thanks to my new found skills in Excel ;) ..... ALL the movies I saw last summer [year]

Broken Embraces 9
Blade Runner: Final Cut 9
The Wrestler 8
Rashomon 8
Volver 8
Star Trek 8
Rec 8
American Splendour 8
Moon 8
Avatar 3D 8
Hangover 7.5
Vicky Cristina Barcelona 7.5
Slumdog Millionaire 7
Frost Nixon 7
Capote 7
Requiem for a dream 7
Man on wire 7
Terminator 4 7
Paris 7
1984 7
Persepolis 7
Role Models 7
Away we go 7
Appalooso 7
Wolverine 7
Eagle Eye 6.5
In Bruge 6.5
Women without Piano 6.5
28 Weeks Later 6
Atonement 6
Hellboy 6
Hellboy II 6
Flags of our fathers 6
The unbearable lightness of being 6
Waltz with Bashir 6
Public Enemies 6
Bruno 6
Letters from Iwo Jima 6
In the loop 6
An Education 6
Pearl Harbour 6
Rudo Y Cursi 6
Quiet Chaos 6
27 Dresses 5
The Spirit 5
5x2 5
Sacred Heart 5
Tony Takitani 5
Gran Torino 5
Up 3D 5
My son's room 5
The Happening 4
Devil Wears Prada 4
Seraphim Falls 4
Made of Honour 4
The Missing 3
Under the Tuscan Sun 3
My big fat greek wedding 3
Blackout 3
Girl in the Park 3
The Women 2

So in summary I watched 61 movies last year ... Fuck! That's loads
That works out, assuming 100 minutes a movie [no way Avatar], as 6 years .... wait that can't be right ... ermmm... just over 100 hours.... That doesn't seem like as long anymore ... /fail

To apply my limited knowledge of statistics (basically mean and sum) my average score was 6.073 which, in my book, makes me easily pleased or stupid?? My median score is 6 which means i'm generous [applause]. My lowest score is 2 and my highest 9 which is a range of 7 (a bit shit on a 10 point scale of my own making). I can't even blame this distribution on personal preference, since I did not choose to watch all these films but did rate all of them... /gf

I didn't give out a 0,1 or 10 mark which I think is fair, maybe I didn't want the directors/actors hunting me down in my nightmares/wet dreams... since I don't count myself a fanboy [Talladega Nights aside] or a hater.

The geometric mean is 5.8 but since I don't have a clue WTF this means I'll leave it at that ... [anyone]

Having learnt to go into a little bit more detail [thanks to the book Freakonomics] I have also learnt some stuff about myself throughout my year long odyssey:

For instance :

I like the first half of the alphabet more than the second (A-M average; 6.11, N-Z average; 6.03)

Let me know which of my scores are lamentable ... :P

For Gaela

2009-08-27T14:54:00.001+01:00

My 'beach'

Hi Sushi

2009-07-09T11:14:00.001+01:00

Are you listening oki rival? London does all you can eat sushi.

One inch man does one inch punch

2009-06-29T17:37:00.001+01:00

Proof

2009-06-29T17:35:00.001+01:00

I didn't think it plausible but i found a pub bar fusion here in the uk. Turns out it was a cafe though :(

Potentially my new facebook pic....

2009-06-29T17:33:00.001+01:00

Carl 2 - judgement day

2009-05-16T15:03:00.001+01:00

Six Nations Week 2

2009-02-17T17:22:00.002Z

France 22 v Scotland 13

Pretty good game for the French although they still struggle to put teams to the sword. Their back-row looks like a real-threat to England and Wales - scary bastards. Scotland really disappointing. The TV pundit hit the nail right on the head when he said they don't know what to do when they break the line. They looked clueless. Defensively ok but they don't have anyone truly special.

Wales 23 v England 15

Jesus Mary Mother of the Orphans! I must have lost 3 stone in weight watching this one. At half time I was convinced England would come on and win. The whole squad didn't seem to know how to deal with the in-game re-surgence of England. We marshalled ourselves well when ahead in the 2nd half. Although it was uncomfortable to watch, we pegged them back quite well with an altered kicking game in the last 15. England were much better - don't know why they took Sackey and Goode off- best two players (apart from Worsely). Jamie Roberts was marked out the game for Wales. BTW Powell is a nutcase - just steams right into the English at every opportunity....

Italy 9 v Ireland 38

Ahhh god what a game. Boring in parts and gruesome in others. Irelands's tries were nice and it'll defnitely give them a boost to be top on PD, scoring tries. Italy were dreadful. Defensively they were caught napping too many times. In attack they are worse then Scotland. They don't run any lines, or dummy runnners. Just wide wide wide - then back the other way. They are not playing very technical rugby and it seems they are easy to defend against.

Six Nations Review

2009-02-13T14:45:00.003Z

England v Italy (link for BBC video highlights)

Six nations opener and perhaps, on paper, the least exciting fixture of the competition with England being firm favourites, but not playing too well and Italy being anything but exciting away from home. I went to this game (see below) thanks to some last minute tickets that were made available. Difficult to summarise fairly given Bergamasco-gate in the 1st half. I'm preaching to the converted here but he was terrible terrible terrible. England were disappointing in terms of creating chances but I suppose in the end, they didn't have to. Italy had thrown away the game within the first 5 minutes. Ellis looked good but apart from that most players were anonymous. Italy had a chance to close the gap at the end of the first half with a penalty. They missed that and it turned out to be the final nail in the coffin.

Scotland v Wales (link for BBC video highlights)

Good start for the Welsh. Reminiscent of the 2005 game where Wales humped them for 40 minutes, then Scotland came back at them with some great rugby. This time however I think it was more Wales dropping their tempo, rather than Scotland pushing them back. Shanklin filled in well in the centre, as did Powell who had a great game. Stephen Jones had a bit of a 'mare - missed 3 kicks I think, maybe 4 before being hauled off for Hook again - I suspect he may start on the bench against England... Scotland lacked invention and were unusually lacklustre in front of the Murrayfield crowd. The winger that came on looked great and skinned Williams for Scotlands try. They need to pick up their game or they could be in for the w.spoon.

Ireland v France (link for BBC video highlights)

Only watched the last 40 minutes of this one (since I was queuing for a bus at Twickers). Ireland looked great; pacey, strong and committed across the park. Haskill try was immense and O'Driscoll's age-old (he must be worrying about his Lions place). France were poor; lacking invention at fly-half and centre. Did I miss the fullback with he monster kick or was he not playing (I forget his name Clerc or something)?? As always Ireland's championship will be judged by their away performaces and if they can get on a run. I think we could be in for a grand-slam decider against Wales on the matchday 5. As long as Wales pip the English this weekend

For everything else there's mastercard?

2009-02-13T14:31:00.000Z

Brand new advertising strategy for the banks! Cashing in on the credit crunch.

Chinese new year

2009-02-09T09:06:00.001Z

I think queensway is stuck in chinese groundhog day. They were still celebrating yesterday. No sign of bill murray though. Unless those are his feet ;)?

Zzz-twickenham-zz

2009-02-09T09:01:00.001Z

So i got last minute tickets to the england italy game on saturday. Terrible atmosphere! I think there was more noise at the stoop next door when i saw the quins play! Review of game coming soon.

Friendly society?

2009-02-05T12:32:00.001Z

I was expecting to see dwarfs, treemen and wizards. In reality i've never even seen this place open. I might start the modern order of foresters!

Xmas Two!

2009-02-02T08:09:00.001Z

Global warning!

Definition of the day: Best xmas gift ever.

2009-01-28T13:41:00.001Z

Used it every day since.

The Wrestler - Rourke's comeback...!

2009-01-22T22:15:00.003Z

Great great movie - In addition if you actually like wrestling (which I do and most people 'i think' don't) you will appreciate it's not a stitch up or sycophantic trash. I'll admit I was happy to hear the fans roaring ECW...ECW...ECW...ECW during one of the matches. I was hoping The Sandman was going to come out the crowd (holy shit...holy shit...holy shit). Finisher (The Ram Jam) was a nice homage to the late great Benoit as well. Also at one point he wears a sweet fur waistcoat which reminded me of either Warrior or Bezerker - I forget which.

Two things I just found out about the film - originally Nic Cage was cast for the role - OMFG that would have been WickerMan II - jesus mary. And also Aronofsky went to school with Tomei (the stripper love interest).

Bowling masterclass

2009-01-22T21:51:00.001Z

Photographic proof that skill is temporal, having scored seventy in the first game!

Meeting a childhood hero (No.1 KASPAROV)

2008-12-06T12:23:00.006Z

So this week following a strange coincidence I had the opportunity to meet one of my childhood heros - the Russian grandmaster Gary Kasparov. I wanted to get him to sign a chess-board but turns out he was only signing his books. No problem. I chatted to him about dealing with fame (see x-pong MTV video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MGJlAG8q8CA). Turns out his whole family are massive X-pong fans. Anyway I then posed for a photgraph with him (I think he said he was going to keep it in his wallet)...

PS -I hope my dad doesn't read this [unlikely] because that red book is his christmas present.....

Drinking on long journeys....?

2008-12-01T21:07:00.001Z

A blogger friend once told me the best way to cope with a long journey is alcohol. Since great western don't have stewardesses i stopped off at somerfield. Three for a fiver! Didn't even get me to reading! Bring back the buffet cart!!

Are you a loser?

2008-12-01T18:44:00.001Z

Two for one cocktails

2008-11-29T22:36:00.001Z

Why only sunday to wednesday? Why? Why!!

Holidays

2008-11-29T18:08:00.001Z

I'm not 100% sure if this place was even a hotel. Maybe they were trying to scare away voodoo spirits? It kind of looks like a cross between sherlock holmes and baron samedi!

Christmas beer

2008-11-28T17:33:00.001Z

Novelty beer - all the rage

Food food more food

2008-11-20T15:30:00.002Z

What Bodean's tries to do:
texas' traditional snack is the following
green beans with bacon
coleslaw
texan toast [toast]
pickles
chips
ribs
dr. pepper

Falco guest stars on www.djod.co.uk

2008-11-19T17:02:00.002Z

i'm guest-starring on ... www.djod.co.uk

Kilburn Shopping Revolution

2008-11-14T21:32:00.002Z

In case you don't already know this Kilburn is the best place to shop in the whole world. I've lived nearby for the last few years and have seen the area transform into a shopping mecca. There are three £1 shops, a 98p shop and a 97p shop. THAT'S 5 places to get everything you could ever want. I have bought pump action bebe guns, 1000 toothpicks, everything for my kitchen, and even jewellery (from the £1 jewellery shop where else). Combine this with the fact that there are loads of shops with "quality" merchandise that don't have their prices fixed and it makes Kilburn High St simply unbeatable. I can't wait for them to shut all the crap shops (saino's, woolworths, whsmiths) and open up more of these bargain basements. Personally i'm praying a 96p shop opens....

Raphael

2008-11-10T18:59:00.001Z

Raphael (TMNT) goes hunting

2008-10-27T17:28:00.000Z

Dislocating my ankle is the worst pain I think I have ever felt - especially stretched out over 3 hours waiting for x-rays ... watching the whole of Soprano's S6 in 1.5 days is the best tonic/medicine I could have hoped for.

2008-10-20T03:09:00.000+01:00

SEBASTIAN!!! SEBASTIAN!!! Through the Fire Review (IMDB 7.2): A 'Nice' slice of NBA pre-history. I kind of half-ruined this film for myself watching it 3 years after release - i.e. I know Telfair is not the trick daddy of the NBA. This film is both good and bad.

The good things - it's cool, about basketball and is well-made.

What's bad about it is clear - i'm very sceptical about 'in situ' biopics where someone follows someone else around for a long time filming 1000000000000 hours of footage. The problem is inherent - any director could take all that footage and make two diametrically opposite films. I'm sure that this film could have been made to make Telfair look like a tool or a don. Don't get me wrong - sometimes "how a film" is edited together is effectively irrelevant (i.e. the movie Video Junkie is a CRACK diary - it'a linear over a long period of time - the juiciest bits are obviously included but the message is clear nonetheless - crack will fuck you up).

boring crap over - i'll summarise what this movie made me think of Telfair - First of all I thought he was a really cool guy, good at basketball and most importantly "a mature professional". Then I thought he was a little bit crazy, then lazy, then in it for the money. Finally, I was left thinking he was lucky. Is this how he changed during the year (did he succumb to the trappings of power and fame) or have I just been DIRECTED. I think, as is said in the movie, that Sebastian has been coached from a young age to be the Tiger Woods of Coney Island. I don't think he changes at all during the period of the biopic. It's just made to look like he's innocent and then slowly corrupted into being lazy and insolent.

He's just a kid, playing hoops who wants to get those benji's rollin ASAP because the only way to go up is to get out...

2008-10-18T14:27:00.000+01:00

Movie review - RENDITION (IMDB 6.9). I've had this one in the "to watch" list for a fair while now - frankly i'd never heard of it - don't even remember ever seeing a poster on the underground!! And they always advertise every movie - well WarnerBros anyway ;). I was surprised to see such a "good cast" for a film i'd never heard of - i mean Gyllenhaal is like thoroughbred actor/racehorse at the moment, the streepster makes an extended cameo too.... although dressing her up in a suit is a bit "Death becomes her". Wither[ed]spoon is A/B list and lives up to her mis-casting excellently (just dumbed down histrionics). Plots ok with a good ending that is unpredictable (at least in my eyes). Jake doesn't saY MUCH!!!. Much of the action is split between Middle East (somewhere arabic - I [or they] didn't quite establish) (the better half of the film) and good ol' WASHINGTON DC (the stupid half with streep, witherspoon etc. - imagine lots of panning shots of capitol hill, dinner parties and nice big state offices - without tension/ or good script. All in all this film is good (maybe 6.5 in my book). Would have been braver to cast the whole thing in the middle east (the whole mistaken identity/ US green card holder rendtioned overseas is a little bit "based on a true story" for me). Obviously wouldn't have been to many peoples taste - the whole political sub-plot back in DC is a bit cheap really. I'm sure it would have been possible to make a more powerful 'hitter' about rendition, this sort of falls short - flipping between a good ep of 'prison break' and a bad re-hash of 'JFK'.

oh yeah sorry forgot to say "RENDITION IS AWFUL".

Shield Season 7 Ep 6

2008-10-17T16:52:00.000+01:00

Seems fairly reasonable that I should start my reviews with an American TV show, since I'm in America and most TV shows are American - the good ones with big budgets and good writers anyway....

Shield S07E06 - Vic's sentimental revolution: Don't get me wrong - i'm a Shield lover (up there with the Wire as one of the greatest shows every made - how unconventional of me ehh?). I might even say the Shield is better - much to the annoyance of most people I know who have seen both. I prefer the tempo of the Shield and honestly I prefer the storylines. So it is to my consternation that the Shield is doing a S5 Wire and beginning to wrap things up. S7 shield has been good so far ... much of the same shit, spun differently. Problem is when you KNOW its gonna be the last series the storylines become a little predictable. If I'd have been told the season with Whittaker was the last I would not have appreciated it as much. I gotta say HOLD THE FUCK UP here to Hollywoof; stop telling me its the last series before I've seen the last episode.........ULTIMATE SPOILER ALERT. Vic going soft and helping people out, in what I know to be the last series, smacks of him developing a conscience/lameness. Vic and Ronnie are being sold down the river. I do not want to see the Shield end like the Wire S5E10 with everything being tied up neatly in a little bow. I'm not seven years old, although I do admit I do write like I am.

bLoG DAy 1

2008-10-17T15:37:00.000+01:00

first post from the lone star state ...

lone star .... ? looks like a little piece of the american flag to me....