Friday, January 18. 2013
Movie Review: 'Zero Dark Thirty' By James Inman
I downloaded Zero Dark Thirty off BitTorrent because I thought I’d review the film exclusively for Media Underground. I’m not going to pay one dime for a Lockheed Martin commercial and I knew how it ends so here’s my take. The film should be called Zero Fuck Movie. It begins with a retarded looking ginger anorexic pale Carrot Juice Maya bitch standing in the background during a torture scene, but you’re supposed to feel sorry for her because she can’t stand to watch torture. First thoughts: any CIA agent in that room is going to be a West Point graduate and a professional sadist and is not going to give a fuck about torture. When they keep cutting back to her with that Florence Nightingale compassion cunt-face, it’s utterly laughable.
Carrot Juice has a good guy sidekick. He’s the bearded creepy CIA Torture Bro who looks like a Christian Singles extra from the Left Behind series, or if Wolf Blitzer’s pothead stepson had an anal baby. He’s also a grown up version of the kid in Mask or Cher after her facial surgery. I guess they wanted the film to have that artsy, glassy-eyed, North Korean indoctrination feel to it. Or maybe the Pentagon’s casting director spotted him at an industrial Screen Actors Guild party for the Kansas National Guard. I’m not sure which but he has to be the most annoying actor I’ve seen on film ever. And that means worse than Jar Jar Binks and Steven Segal in Above the Law combined.
Continue reading "Movie Review: 'Zero Dark Thirty' By James Inman"
Sunday, October 14. 2012
Air Force Manual 64-5
I'm currently reading Carrying The Fire by Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot (CMP) Michael Collins.
Carrying The Fire is probably one of the most fascinating and entertaining books I've ever read. Collins writes exceptionally well - his acid wit and dry sense of humour is an absolute joy - and he is by far my favourite astronaut of all time.
Being CMP on an Apollo mission seems like the perfect job to me, more so than taking a powered descent to the lunar surface, for one gets to spend plenty of time alone orbiting the moon - swinging round its far side and enjoying the tranquility of being out of communication with one's colleagues on the surface, as well as those back home at mission control on earth.
I love solitude.
In his book Collins talks about the survival training he underwent in the deserts of Reno and jungle of Panama. His bible on such trips was Air Force Manual 64-5 and he has many humorous anecdotes about its contents.
Curious about this manual I decided to seek it out online and it sure is an amusing and educational read. Armed with this, one could pretty much be thrown off a helicopter naked, anywhere on the planet, and still eventually come back home in one piece.
Air Force Manual 64-5, I think, will be my next online purchase, just so that I can bung it in my backback when I go on one of my extended trips off grid, just in case trouble brews.
Thank you, Lucky Mike, for the heads up. (DTIC pdf download).
Saturday, July 30. 2011
John's Phone: Subversive Mobile Technology
Saturday afternoon and I’d been sitting in my local pub for at least an hour drinking the remains of my second pint of beer. The local clientele were doing their usual: scrutinising their hand-held devices as though they were personal life-support machines requiring constant tweaking and attention.
Meanwhile, on the pub TV, the sordid details of News International’s phone hacking scandal were unfolding live before my very eyes.
“Jesus H. Christ!” I exclaimed out loud. “This isn’t just affecting a small cross-section of the population, this is a goddamned epidemic of massive proportions!”
The fat lawyer sitting in the corner briefly glanced up at me from his iPhone with an expression that suggested a mixture of contempt and confusion, before taking another quick swig of his drink and refocusing his attention on his brightly lit touch screen.
“Whatever happened to coming to the pub to engage in social interaction!?” I exclaimed.
There was no response.
I looked out of the window at the multitude of passers-by, all of whom seemed to be preoccupied with whatever was on their cell phones.
“Another beer?” asked the barmaid as she punched in a few characters on her smartphone.
“What exactly are you all fucking doing?” I asked somewhat irritably.
“I’m on Twitter,” she said without even looking up.
“And I’m on Facebook,” remarked the fat lawyer – his beady little jaundiced eyes looked up again briefly, as if attempting to burn holes in the back of my inner skull.
“Yeah,” I remarked sarcastically, “cos, so much interesting shit is going down in here right now that all your friends need an update.”
“Do you want a beer or not?” asked the barmaid impatiently – her podgy little pink thumbs sliding over the touch sensitive device.
“No thanks,” I said getting to my feet, “I’ve got walls at home I can stare blankly at.”
Suddenly I felt a vibration in my pocket as I vacated the pub.
Christ, I thought whilst taking my phone out of my pocket to check it, this state of constant connectedness is even starting to affect me now.
I glanced at the screen.
Nothing.
A phantom phone vibration I realised. A condition brought on by modern living. A syndrome I had heard media theorist Douglas Rushkoff talk about, where our nervous systems have maladapted to expect real-time communication at any given moment. An electronically induced nervous tick, if you like, that doesn’t even require the device to do anything electronically other than just sit in one’s pocket awaiting an incoming announcement of no or little value.
It was the final straw for me and a much needed match tossed into the proverbial gunpowder barrel. Whatever happened to using a phone as just a phone?
Continue reading "John's Phone: Subversive Mobile Technology"
Wednesday, December 15. 2010
American: The Bill Hicks Story
'Bill Hicks was the rock star of American comedy in every way, right down to the pancreatic cancer that claimed him young in 1994. He died, as he lived, before his time.
'The documentary American reaches some way into the irony of his career: Hicks joked and raged about America, but got his most receptive audience right here. America didn’t want to know.
'A Southern Baptist childhood gave him the rebel itch: he would sneak out of his bedroom window as a teenager, honing his craft and caricaturing his parents at open-mike nights.
'Footage of his gigs is jumbled up with cut-and-paste photo montage, not always that skilfully, and it’s doubtful that the film achieves enough insight for pre-ordained Hicks-heads - it’s better as an introduction.
'Still, it nails his furious and vital point that what the American flag should represent is the freedom to burn it.' (Telegraph movie review & Isohunt torrent download).
Sunday, July 4. 2010
Gig Review: Shooglenifty - Gigha Island Music Festival (June 26th 2010)
"All the levers forward, all the time," was one of the text messages I received from the Sergeant Matron prior to the gig, however, on this occasion I think that one of the levers broke off from the control panel and his comment of being "45 going on 15" seems more appropriate as an epitaph to mark the memory of this occasion.
It had started in the usual kind of way, the mad dash to get everything together the night previous, followed by an annoying shift at work that had to be completed in the morning. This could've made things tight for getting to the island on time had it not been for my good friend and work colleague Dasbo The Asbo - who forfeited his Saturday off to help me complete my duty and get us on the road earlier.
You see, the Isle of Gigha is some 160 miles away and with Bingo at the controls there was every possibility of us getting lost or going in the wrong direction entirely. Fortunately, this time, he came prepared with "the analogue SatNav" as he referred to it: a small yellow post-it note stuck to the air-vent of his car's dashboard listing all the roads between Fife (aka Hazzard County) and Tayinloan ferry port.
You see, we had decided to go in heavy this time, taking the tepee, gazebo, tents, fold down chairs, table, and Aladdin Blue Flame paraffin droid for extra heat in the evening if required - and, of course, for cooking homemade bothy-style pizza on.
I had prepared around 8 pizza bases in the bread machine the night previous and - utilising the remains of a disposable barbeque - rigged up a grill-mod to the top of S3E3 (my Aladdin Blue Flame Paradroid) to make a tasty pre-gig munch. Who said camping out had to be without its luxuries? Provided we caught the 4 pm ferry across to Fantasy Island, we'd get there in plenty time to set up basecamp and stuff ourselves full of carbohydrates to help soak up the inevitable colossal consumption of liquid adult refreshments.
Continue reading "Gig Review: Shooglenifty - Gigha Island Music Festival (June 26th 2010)"
Sunday, June 20. 2010
Humorous Reviews Of The World's Most Popular Pen
Sunday, March 28. 2010
Gig Review: Shooglenifty - Tolbooth (March 27th 2010)
For a band that I only discovered last year, I've now seen Shooglenifty play live more times than any other band I like. Why? Well, to put it simply, this band are completely mindblowing and it seems that whenever they play it is utterly impossible to avoid becoming possessed by one's inner hobo. In other words, jigging about all over the joint like that crazy old dude in the movie Deliverance (during the 'dueling banjos' scene) becomes mandatory. The exception to this rule, however, was the recent Portobello gig that I went to with my uptight Edinburgh friends. Having decided beforehand that they weren't going to enjoy it, it was no surprise that they couldn't get into the Shoogles. But then they think Kunt And The Gang are actually talented and - worse still - funny, when Kunt is clearly just an annoying, talentless little shit from Essex and a Roy 'Chubby' Brown of the music world.
Fortunately this time, however, I was joined by a couple of Bothy Councillors, and major Bothy points go to Stevie 'Seargent Matron' Lewis who, in the event of discovering that his van was on the blink, promptly wandered out of his remote Highland home at Loch Eilt, stuck his thumb up on the A830, hitched a ride into Fort William, then jumped on a bus to Glasgow before grabbing a train into Stirling - all in time to get himself a few beers and a bar meal before the gig. Good effort, sir. If Nick Bostrom and Jim Elvidge are right and we're all living in a simulated reality, then The Matron's "can-do" attitude has just won him a lifetime's supply of bacon rolls in the grand old game of Bothying.
Continue reading "Gig Review: Shooglenifty - Tolbooth (March 27th 2010)"
Sunday, November 22. 2009
Gig Review: Shooglenifty - Glenuig Hall (Nov 14th 2009)
So there we were. The Bothy Council: Dasbo The Asbo, Bingo McNeely, The Bailiff, Sergeant Matron and myself, Darth Paraffin, flaffing around with tents outside Glenuig Village Hall on a wet Saturday afternoon in November, simply because we knew we’d be too drunk to make it back to The Matron’s gaff later that evening.
Technically there was every danger of us dying from hypothermia had it not been for a couple of Tilley Lamps heating up the inside of a tepee and the underside of a haphazardly erected gazebo.
The event? Shooglenifty at Glenuig Village Hall.
Continue reading "Gig Review: Shooglenifty - Glenuig Hall (Nov 14th 2009)"
Sunday, October 11. 2009
Gig Review: The Cult - Love Live (Oct 7th 2009)
It’s not often that I have any desire to head to the big smoke these days. Not only have I grown weary of densely populated areas, but the current chaos caused by the never-ending tram works to the city centre fill me with such dread that I have generally opted to give Edinburgh as wide a berth as possible.
That was until I heard The Cult were coming to town.
Utilising the city’s Park & Ride facility, we avoided having to drive around in endless circles by dropping the car off at Ingliston and busing it straight to Lothian Road. After a few swift pints at The Shakespeare we headed to the Old Picture House to see The Cult perform their 1985 Love album in its entirety as well as an encore of some of their greatest hits.
I hate the way venues try and drain more beer money out of you by having you wait for hours for the band to come on. If they say the gig starts at 7 pm, then why the fuck do I have to wait until almost 8:15 pm just to see the goddamned support band? Fortunately we anticipated that this might be the case and arrived just before eight, but after enduring almost an hour of the droning dirge that was pretentiously called Aqua Nebula Oscillator, an over-priced plastic pint of Edinburgh piss-water was required to take the edge off.
Continue reading "Gig Review: The Cult - Love Live (Oct 7th 2009)"
Sunday, July 26. 2009
Turkish Star Wars
'The Turkish film industry has a curious tradition of appropriating Hollywood classics and remaking them on a budget roughly equivalent to the price of lunch at a neighborhood kebab shop. Devoted readers of Film Threat will recall The Turkish Wizard of Oz, which tossed the MGM classic over an Istanbul rainbow and into a realm of utter surrealism, and there are also Turkish-based versions of Star Trek, Tarzan, Superman and even E.T. lurking about.
'However, none of this knowledge could possibly prepare you for the jaw-dropping insanity of The Turkish Star Wars. This film is not actually a scene-for-scene remake of the George Lucas landmark, although it shamelessly pirated the special effects footage from the 1977 original and tacked it into a feverish nightmare of celluloid dementia which needs to be seen if only to prove how far the minds of lunatic filmmakers can run. Prepare yourself, because the only way to appreciate The Turkish Star Wars is to follow the storyline through its labyrinthine lunacy.' (Google video stream & Film Threat review).
Monday, June 29. 2009
Watchmen Review & Download
'Finally, after 23 years of tortured development, pinging from studio to studio, star to star, and even courtroom to courtroom, the Watchmen adaptation has arrived on screen. It’s not for the faint-hearted - and, despite the preponderance of Spandex outfits, capes and costumes, not for the kids either.
'The movie, a 2¾ hour epic that had its world premiere in Leicester Square, is based on Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons's seminal graphic novel about a group of ex-superheroes coming to terms with themselves and an impending nuclear doomsday. For more than two decades a big screen adaptation has been the maddeningly elusive goal of directors such as Terry Gilliam and Darren Aronofsky, and actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Joaquin Phoenix.
'Even when this $100 million version, directed by Zack Snyder, became the centre of a court battle between Hollywood studios (one accused the other of copyright violation, and blocked the movie’s release) it only added to the sense that Watchmen would never see the inside of a cinema.
'The film that has emerged, however, is a mesmerising and brutalising experience, and will be, for some at least, more than worth the wait. Set in a mid-Eighties Manhattan of the comic book imagination, where “costumed vigilantes” have changed the course of US history (Nixon is saved, the Vietcong defeated, etc), the dense narrative unfolds as a whodunnit in the head of a psychopathic do-gooder called Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). In Stygian nightscapes reminiscent of Taxi Driver and Seven, Rorschach visits his four former crime-fighting buddies, including Matthew Goode’s brainiac businessman Ozymandias and Malin Akerman’s killer femme Silk Spectre, in an attempt to expose a secret assassin who’s nurturing apocalyptic plans for the entire Eastern seaboard.' (Times review & Isohunt torrent download).
Wednesday, May 20. 2009
Marilyn Manson: The High End Of Low
'Following 2007's lacklustre Eat Me, Drink Me, the uncommon introspection of which was prompted by his failed marriage to burlesque performer Dita Von Teese, Marilyn Manson seemed a spent force. While High End Of Low isn't nearly the equal of career highlights Mechanical Animals and Holy Wood, it nevertheless proves there's still a fair dose of blood and bile to pour from his carcass yet. More impressively, at its best it provides a pointed satirical commentary on noughties America.
'This return to form of sorts is partly down to the return of bassist and co-songwriter Twiggy Ramirez, who parted company with Manson in 2002. It's his lolloping bassline that powers what would be High End Of Low's most clear-cut hit (if it wasn’t more full of swears than Gordon Ramsay's kitchen on a bad day). Even its title - "Arma-Goddamn-F***ng-Geddon" - doesn't escape. Redolent of "Beautiful People"; while this isn't going to win Manson new admirers, existing fans will be relieved to hear he can still kick out the jams.' (BBC Music review and Full Album Delux Edition torrent download).
Friday, June 20. 2008
Chemical Wedding: An Unholy Mess
'This sci-fi thriller - co-written by Bruce Dickinson, frontman of the heavy-metal band Iron Maiden - attempts to capture the spirit of occultist Aleister Crowley. Crowley was mad and bad. What a coincidence: so is the film.
'Dickinson’s big idea is that Crowley (who died in 1947) would fit perfectly into the modern world. It’s the year 2000 and a physicist from California, Dr Joshua Mathers (Kal Weber), wants to link his virtual reality suit to the world’s biggest computer, the Cambridge-based Z93.
'But wait - everything else about the film is pants, so don’t refile Dickinson as a genius just yet. His collaborator, Julian Doyle, is a diabolical director. The film - crammed with Vaseline-shiny female breasts - looks like a soft-porn version of Dr Who, with a couple of tired pop promo tricks thrown in. A host of unknown actors are as earnest as they are dreadful. As for Callow, he should know better.' (This Is London article).
Thursday, May 1. 2008
Book Review: The Universe - Solved!
I was first introduced to the ideas and theories of Jim Elvidge in an interview he did with Red Ice Creations Radio. His clarity, intelligence and wit impressed me so much that it prompted me to write to the author to see if I could acquire a review copy of his new book The Universe – Solved! - a work that proported to be a "provocative view of the nature of reality”. I was not disappointed.
Elvidge’s background is rooted in engineering. Having gained a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, Elvidge has kept pace with the latest research, theories and discoveries in the varied fields of subatomic physics, cosmology, articifical intelligence, nanotechnology and the paranormal. Coming from an Electrical and Electronic background myself, what astonished me most about his book was the clarity and lucidity of his writing. Most of the engineers I came across during my time working for Raytheon were completely incapable of communicating in a language that the layperson could appreciate or understand; over-engineering things to the point of insanity, and getting patted on the back by their caravaning contemporaries for doing what should have resulted in a disciplinary hearing. Then again, most of the engineers I’ve met were on ridiculously high salaries for what appeared to be little more than pursuing a career that involved staring at a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for 9 hours a day. Also, most of them were so rooted in their academic education that anything that deviated into the areas of fringe science would be categorised as utter nonsense.
Not so with Jim Elvidge. To put it simply, The Universe – Solved! is a treatise on a concept that has become quite commonplace in today’s mainstream culture: the idea that reality might not be exactly what we think it is, and that perhaps we are actually living in a simulation. Popularised largely by the half-rate movie The Matrix and its dismally dull sequels, this is not a new idea, and authors like Philip K. Dick have been exploring these concepts in their fictional writings for many years.
Continue reading "Book Review: The Universe - Solved!"
Tuesday, December 11. 2007
Led Zeppelin: The Full Report
'For the second encore of their first, full concert in twenty-seven years, at London's 02 arena last night, Led Zeppelin tore into "Rock and Roll," from their untitled fourth album, with a joyful vengeance. As drummer Jason Bonham hammered with the ghostly precision and ferocity of his late father, guitarist Jimmy Page fired dirty chunks of Chuck Berry and bassist John Paul Jones kept iron time with familiar reserve, singer Robert Plant sang the most obvious words of the night: "Been a long time since I rock and rolled." Overhead, images of a much younger Zeppelin, in concert during the early and mid-Seventies, flashed on a huge digital-video screen. In those films, Led Zeppelin were the biggest, loudest and most cocksure band in rock. Jimmy Page's now snow-white hair was still jet black; Robert Plant was a golden god, not yet a Viking elder, and the late John Bonham - whose death in 1980 abruptly ended Zeppelin's reign - still ruled the engine room.' (Rolling Stone article).
Thursday, August 2. 2007
Suster's Review: The Probationer's Handbook
Back in 1997, I sent a draft copy of The Probationer's Handbook to the late provocative occult writer Gerald Suster (author of The Legacy of the Beast, Hitler: Black Magician and Crowley's Apprentice: The Life & Ideas of Israel Regardie). To my surprise he wrote a review of my book which got published in the winter 97/98 edition of the London-based esoteric journal Talking Stick.
One decade later I have scanned the review in and reproduced it here for those interested in acquiring a copy of the book.
I'll be sending out review copies to various people soon, so hopefully there will be more up-to-date reviews available shortly.
In the meantime, if you're interested in purchasing a copy of the work, it can be ordered here priced at a mere £7.77 (that's $14.10 in imperial money).
Sunday, July 15. 2007
The Probationer's Handbook - A Manual Of Instruction For The Student Of The A.'.A.'.
Written ten years ago and filed away on a shelf to gather dust, The Probationer's Handbook was a project I had all intentions of getting published at the time, but never quite got around to.
Now with the arrival of innovative book publishing websites like lulu.com, The Probationer's Handbook is finally available to purchase in paperback.
Subtitled A Manual Of Instruction For The Student Of The A.'.A.'., the work is primarily a handbook for those wishing to commence solitary work on Aleister's Crowley's A.'.A.'. system of magical and spiritual attainment.
Receiving an outstanding review from the late occult writer Gerald Suster in the winter 1997/98 edition of London based esoteric journal Talking Stick, the book - whilst no longer reflecting my prefered approach to modern day occult practice - is still considered by myself to be an invaluable handbook for those interested in commencing the probationary tasks of the A.'.A.'. syllabus.
As Gerald Suster wrote: "Mortimer's book is grounded in that of Crowley yet he goes beyond it and I think the Master Therion would applaud. He tackles issues obviously based on experience, which have never been satisfactorily tackled before. If you have the slightest sincere interest in Magick and human evolution, you really must get hold of this book. The author's acid wit regarding New Age garbage adds spice to this excellent work. Do you really want to make Magick? If so, you must beg, borrow or steal a copy of this wonderful book."
Available for a mere £7.77 ($14.10) at lulu.com one hopes that individuals drawn towards Crowleyan occultism will find this 100-page manuscript helpful and informative despite being written a decade ago.
Personally, I'm just glad the damned thing is out so that I can finally move on to other projects without having the niggling knowledge that I spent so much time writing it to see my only copy wither away on a dusty bookshelf.
Order your copy today and feel free to write a review, post feedback or contact me with questions.
Sunday, July 1. 2007
Book Review: Celestial Secrets
Originally written in Portuguese by historians Joaquim Fernandes & Fina D’ Armada, and translated into English by cognitive gymnast Alexandra ‘Chica’ Bruce, Celestial Secrets: The Hidden History Of The Fátima Incident is the second book in Fernandes & Armada’s planned Fátima Trilogy, which explores the famed Fátima incident of 1917 in a way that’ll have orthodox Roman Catholics screaming out for a return to inquisition-style tribunals and the burning of witches at the stake.
The trilogy argues, quite convincingly, that the famous Fátima incident of 1917 - which all devout Catholics have come to know, love and feel safe with - did not actually involve a series of Marian apparitions (as is commonly accepted) but may in fact have been a sequence of extra-terrestrial encounters of a most unusual nature.
Continue reading "Book Review: Celestial Secrets"
Sunday, October 22. 2006
The Future Is Certain Death
As a fervent critic of today's youth not having any form of culture that isn't borrowed from somewhere else (or from a previous generation), it was a sublime pleasure to have my opinions blown away at the weekend when I turned up to Monty's Bar in Dunfermline to check out metal band Certain Death. With twin vocals allied to a uniquely heavy, rhythmic, and aggressive sound, Certain Death blew me away sufficiently enough to realise that all hope is not lost in today's youth and that anger is still alive and well and capable of being driven in a positive and creative direction. Hailing from my original hometown Kirkcaldy (who the hell would've thought anything good could come from that town?) the band's ability and stage presence is nicely mixed with enough tongue-in-cheek humour to realise that they don't take themselves too seriously to be pretentious. After having been shortlisted for T In The Park (the biggest festival in the UK) Certain Death blasted their way through 700 competitors to end up in the final 12. They didn't win the event, but that was probably only because ear drums were bleeding and medical attention was considered temporarily more important. Be sure to check out their website, page on MySpace and videos on YouTube.
Wednesday, June 28. 2006
CD Review: Andy Andrist - 'Dumb It Down For The Masses'
Yesterday afternoon I received an email from Andrist asking if I'd been abducted. "If you need words that rhyme with suck for a review let me know," he remarked.
I felt bad. I'd been sitting on his CD for months and had been promising to review it ever since it was sent out around March this year. In my defence I'd been going through some weird shit which culminated in me being fired from my day job.
So I promised to review it the following day and sat down that night to watch What's Eating Gilbert Grape - a movie that I hadn't seen in quite some time. And that's when it hit me. Holy Jumping Jesus! Andy Andrist reminds me of Arnie Grape (the retard played by Leonardo Di Cappuccino in the movie).
Continue reading "CD Review: Andy Andrist - 'Dumb It Down For The Masses'"
Monday, May 22. 2006
How To Polish A Turd (The Chris Wilkie Way)
Here’s a little advice to anyone thinking of signing up to a new broadband service provider...
Avoid Evolution DSL at all costs.
It’s been over ten days now since I stupidly signed up to them, and without a word of a lie I’ve had better speeds on dial-up.
It was greed, initially, I guess. The promise of having an unlimited monthly download allowance on a “blistering 8Mbit” line for only twenty-five quid a month seemed too good to resist. It was also too good to be true and I think Chris Wilkie (the company’s director) really meant to say “blundering 8Kbyte”.
Wilkie has already admitted to bandwidth shaping on an unofficial support forum, despite the company’s promise of unlimited internet with “no P2P throttling, hidden caches or bandwidth limits”. The reason this is on an unofficial support forum is because, well, Evolution DSL don’t provide any support. There’s no telephone number to call, no support team that will respond to your emails, and no way of getting your hands around the criminal Wilkie’s neck to strangle the bastard to death.
Try as you might to acquire your migration code, your emails will be flatly ignored, which is why I figured it would be much better to use what little bandwidth I have left and expose this cowboy through the only medium that might make any difference.
Having contacted Watchdog, Ofcom and Trading Standards, I have to say I prefer this approach. 8K might not be a lot, Mr. Wilkie, but it sure is enough to hang you up by the balls with.
Revolution DSL!
Saturday, May 6. 2006
Tool: '10,000 Days'
'It has been five years since the notoriously media shy and overly mysterious band have pierced our airwaves with new material. After cries that ‘Lateralus’ was to be their last release for many years and possible in-band-tension rumours as many of the members have broke away temporarily to pursue side projects, it was a relief to hear that Tool would reform and push the envelope farther yet again.
'Overall ‘10,000 Days’ is almost a direct continuation of ‘Lateralus’, yet an abyss compared to the deepness that was attached to the direction and emotion of the latter. Where the immediacy of the 2001 release’s songs gained new fans and sometimes disappointed ones of old, ’10,000 Days’ will subdue followers as it is plain to see that Tool have something to be angry over again. Their angst riddled approach is fuelled due to their well documented distaste for the American president, but luckily at first glance they have not gone fashionably political. Tool have drawn upon the direction of ‘Aenima’ and sometimes even ‘Undertow’ at times, but still, as previously stated, it does sound like a direct continuation of ‘Lateralus’ but with all the good bits and riffs reminiscent of their far earlier stuff.' (Entertainmentwise review & BitTorrent download).
Sunday, April 9. 2006
Book Review: James Inman - 'Greyhound Diary'
There are many words one can use to describe the anomaly known as James Inman. ‘Stand-up Comic’ is one such phrase, ‘Rural Punk Gen-X Anti-Hero’ is another. One might also refer to him as a ‘Recurring Alcoholic’ or ‘Angry Middle-Aged Man’ - yet whatever James is he certainly loves to torture himself, and in so doing can occasionally manifest “Genius”.
I first met James at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004. After his show we went for drinks where he proceeded to knock back a number of large shots in what seemed like some peculiar mission to rid himself of the evils of abstinence.
“Don’t tell Father Luke,” he whispers to me through the haze of some alcohol induced exorcism, “I just fell off the wagon last week in Amsterdam.”
I nod in agreement, not quite sure how else to react.
“Mortimer, you’re an alien...” he remarks at the end of the evening, “and I’m watching you very closely.” His eyes narrow into paranoid slits before he staggers off into the night.
Continue reading "Book Review: James Inman - 'Greyhound Diary'"
Friday, April 7. 2006
V For Vendetta: Culture & Resistance To Imperialism
'You know something is up when a film like V For Vendetta is a box office hit. Adapted from a series of graphic novelettes (i.e., comic books) written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd, the plot is set in a dystopian future Britain where "the Party" rules, dissidents are rounded up, the Koran is banned, and the threat of terrorism keeps the ruling elite firmly entrenched in power. From his underground lair, "V" is a kind of futuristic Scarlet Pimpernel, who strikes out at the regime – destroying the Old Bailey in a spectacular pyrotechnic display – while reciting sonnets from Shakespeare and wooing a beautiful girl whose fate has been delivered into his gloved hands. He wears a mask – a sardonic visage reminiscent, at least in my mind, of Cyrano de Bergerac – and as the plot unfolds so does the origin of his vendetta against the Powers That Be: he was tortured and disfigured by the regime's renditioners. As he kills those responsible for his agony, one by one, the viewer is led toward the denouement: a reenactment of the Guy Fawkes legend, in which the modern-day incarnation of that early-17th-century English subversive succeeds in blowing up Parliament and sparking a revolution.
'The right wing hates this movie, and it isn't hard to see why: it explodes all their pretensions about being the party of "freedom," and it pretty clearly parallels the hypocritical cant of the War Party as it pretends to battle "terrorism" while engaging in a campaign of state terrorism that far surpasses anything a small band of amateurs could possibly hope to dish out. They must find particularly galling a subplot in which evidence emerges that a deadly series of biowarfare attacks attributed to "religious fanatics" (and we don't mean George W. Bush and Jerry Falwell) turn out to be the work of a sinister cabal inside the government – the perfect excuse for a crackdown. All of this – economic collapse, political turmoil, the dictatorship of "the Party" – is clearly identified in the film as the product of a series of wars, stretching from Iraq to Syria to Iran and beyond. I was particularly intrigued by references to "the former United States of America," and hints of a future history in which imperialism has drained the once mighty U.S. until it is a pitiful husk of its former self, crippled by economic dislocation and embroiled in civil war.' (Antiwar article).
Wednesday, February 15. 2006
New Internet Explorer Far Exceeds Firefox
Whilst I've never been a great enthusiast for Microsoft products, I've equally never been a huge supporter of the current Mozilla Firefox fad that seems to be taking the internet community by storm. Sure, the tabbed browsing is sweet, but other than that the browser seems a little ropey to me, having a tendency to mess with the overall design of certain websites whilst eliminating a number of aesthetic features such as customised scrollbars and the like.
Fortunately, last week, Microsoft released their first public beta of Internet Explorer 7, and I have to say it makes Firefox look like an incomplete college project. Tabbed browsing is included in the new IE7 along with a wonderful new security feature to eliminate phishing.
Whilst it is clear that Microsoft have once again pilfered all the good ideas from their rivals, they have equally, at least, finished the job off properly with the most streamlined version of Internet Explorer yet.
You can check out the new beta version of IE7 here, however, you might want to hack round the Security Certificate if you're running a ripped copy of Windows XP. Microsoft, like a company desperate to send itself to the grave, have prevented the browser from being installed without first passing an online certification check.
My advice is to download an already hacked copy of IE7 from a reputable BitTorrent site if you happen to be one of the many millions who opted not to pay through the nose for your operating system.