Desperation Takes Hold

3... 2... 1...

2005-04-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

The blog is over. Now I see why so many blogs turn into nothing.

Jump!

2005-04-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

There I was walking past the car park on the way home and there's a girl sitting on the top about to jump. Police were around trying to talk her down.

I didn't stick around to see the outcome... nor did I shout 'Jump!'... but its the first time I've seen a situation like that, so I thought I'd share that with you.

Doughboy

2005-04-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

I popped into town today and while I was there I went into a cookie shop and got myself a fresh, white chocolate cookie. Bloody hell it was good!

This wasn't your standard cookie mind you. It was a soft, cookie-shaped, blob of warm cooked cookie dough with 2 large chunks of melted white chocolate in. The sort of cookie that literally melts in your mouth as it was so soft and warm. Obviously, white chocolate is by far the best flavour for any biscuit e.g. white Maltesers etc.

For the record, here is a list of chocolate in order of overall tastefulness:

1. White
2. Dark/Plain
3. Orange
4. Milk

Summer Movies

2005-04-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

Must see films this spring/summer:

1. Batman Begins
This should hopefully be the definitive Batman film and help erase the memories of the recent 'camp' versions. With an excellent director in Christopher Nolan, backed up by an all-star cast, we should be in for a treat. One worry is the film will sacrifice too much action and replace it with brooding and drawn out emotional scenes. Still, it'll be dark and sophisticated... and the new Batmobile IS cool.

2. War of the Worlds
Cruise and Spielberg pair up again for what is shaping up to be a visual and psychological treat. With an emphasis on Cruise's struggle to protect his family, this should provide both the thrills and storyline to keep everyone satisfied. Though the aliens won't be Martians in this version, which makes sense in this day and age.

3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Johnny Depp playing an unusual character? Who would have thought!?! This film will be quirky, fun and easy-going. One for the whole family and Depp is bound to make the role his own.

4. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Now, I didn't really like the last two prequels, but any Star Wars film remains a 'must-see' movie. Lucas is promising the film will be different, but they said that for 'Attack of the Clones'. I will simply reserve judgment until I see it with my own eyes.

5. The Island
Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson and Djimon Hounsou in a film based around human cloning. Michael Bay directs, so expect bucket loads of explosions and action. But going on previous Bay films, the story may not be as strong as you'd hope for. Fingers crossed, this films goes against the odds and delivers both.

6. Domino
Keira Knightley with guns. Need I say more? Okay, well... the teaser trailer clearly shows Tony Scott furthering the visual style he developed for 'Man on Fire', and thats a good thing. Though, as beautiful as Keira is, I think she may simply be too 'posh' for the role - her voiceover on the trailer isn't exactly what you'd expect from a bounty hunter... but Domino was a model before drastically switching jobs, so perhaps the accent comes from there?

Other potential summer box office winners:

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - looks too silly for my liking.
Fantastic Four - Promises to simply be a good fun movie.
Kingdom of Heaven - Ridley Scott with more epic historical tales and action.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Obviously influenced by True Lies, but should be enjoyable for all.
Sin City - Visually Stylised, comic book action. Very dark and mature. All star cast.

Love Will Tear Us Apart

2005-04-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, this blog has a somewhat unusual title - "Desperation takes hold". Some of you may recognise it as a part of a line from one of the best music tracks of all time. The song in particular is "Love will tear us apart" by Joy Division. This track was written and sung by the late Ian Curtis a few months before his suicide, and the lyrics are therefore noticable dark and tragic. If you listen to the lyrics, you will clearly be able to identify that Curtis had a very distraught state of mind at the time. Whilst "Love will tear us apart" remains one of my favourite tracks of all time, it remains a very sobering song for me personally.

Trivia Note: After Ian Curtis' death, Joy Division became the mighty New Order with Bernard Sumner taking over as lead singer.

Speaking of New Order, the new Moby album (Hotel) has an excellent version of New Order's "Temptation", which is definetely worth checking out.

The Xbox 360 it is...

2005-04-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

So a British source close to the Microsoft marketing machine has revealed that the next Xbox will be called the 'Xbox 360'. Oh dear. It was clear months ago that the name 'Xbox 2' would never be used, with Microsoft believing people would see it as inferior console against Sony's PS3. Simply because 3 is a bigger, and therefore 'more advanced' number than 2. Oh, you have to love marketing for spotting that one.

But 360? Come on, is this new console a skateboarding move or something? "Hey mate, I'm going down to the skate park to perform an Xbox 360 on your ass!" Though I'm sure it will be directly related to the console's design... (which I'll get onto later). 360 degrees? Wow, they sure spent their time coming up with that one didn't they? There's probably some Microsoft marketing guy bouncing off the walls shouting "People will think our console is 120 times better than Sony's PS3!" Shocking name. It doesn't roll off the tongue.

A cooler and better name would have been it's codename - Xenon. It sounds advanced and mysterious and I'm sure a fitting marketing campaign could easily be attached to it. A stunning logo and theme for it, based around the fact that Xenon is a gas. Some green haze over a silver X or something... Surely that would have been better than Xbox 360?

Oh, and the console's design is apparently 'concave' in shape... CON-F***ING-CAVE? What does this mean? It means, you won't be able to stack anything on top of it... but then again, would you want to anyway? And more importantly, the console will no doubt be bigger in volume than it needs to be, as there will be wasted space to make up the higher/extruding areas to help make the inward concave curve. Smaller is better nowadays (well... not for some things!), and this goes against that. Guess it depends on how exaggerated that concave part is? Oh well, can't comment on it properly until we see it.

Saying all that... The Xbox 360 will be one hell of a console no matter what it's called or looks like. Microsoft's console market share WILL rise with the launch of the Xbox 360.

It begins

2005-04-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

Let's see how long this lasts. There are plenty of blogs out there that have simply vanished into the internet graveyard. So the question is will this blog follow the same route?