"Nothing but the rain"
I actually bought this on CD. I remember liking the song being played on TV and the radio and thought I’d get the whole album. I did like the characters in the videos and how they looked quite anime.
I think if I played this album I would recognise a couple of songs but I’m pretty sure I’ve only ever used it as background music, it’s not something I’ve listened to actively.
Isn’t some Blur member in the band?
Well, this is definitely a first for me. Re-reviewing a film. I wrote about this film in this communication. I stand by everything I wrote in that. However, I enjoyed the film much more the second time around. Perhaps I had already accepted all of the annoying things and just wanted to enjoy the film. I still think it’s worth a 6 on the IRPFS.
I rated Rogue One (2016) 6/10 #IMDb https://t.co/kZhNMLvUin
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 19, 2016
I watched the film this time at the Odeon in Guildford with two old friends. One of them reads this shoddy site, the other doesn’t. It was very nice to see them both. We went to a ten o’clock showing of this film, which was very similar to seeing it the first time. I wonder what it is with middle-aged men that we go to see films early in the day? I think it’s because we have other responsibilities and aren’t allowed out in the evenings because then bad things can happen!
What do you do after a film when you still have spare time? Go to a military museum, obviously.
I’m a sucker for a space film. I love the possibilities, the stars, the tech. It just can look sooooo cool. Quite often these films leave something lacking and aren’t that good. I saw Rogue One and yesterday I watched Earthrise from Amazon Prime.
Earthrise Amazon Video ~ Casey Dillard https://t.co/pg833zrxiS via @AmazonUK
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 24, 2016
Because I watched this at home it doesn’t get an Official Parish Rating. So it was with a nerdy interest in tech and space that I went to see Passengers, I wanted to see stunning vistas and how the film-makers had dealt with the ravages of space travel. As is custom I rated this film on IMDB and you should read my guide to the rating system.
I rated Passengers (2016) 6/10 #IMDb https://t.co/FyWAWAiUZq
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 24, 2016
It was a perfectly enjoyable film and worth seeing, it had just the right amount of humour but I do feel that the moral issues could be covered more comprehensively in a separate film. This wasn’t a film about morals though. It was a space action thriller and as such it functioned perfectly well. Now, after here, there be dragons.
I had some minor issues with it, but not as many as with this film. So, if we allow hibernation, then we just need to look at the rest of the film to see what liberties they have taken. Mind you, coming out of hibernation looks a lot like CPR, so the travellers were more dead than deep sleeping.
The artificial gravity system seemed to be based mostly on centrifugal force [YES, I KNOW – this is why I don’t allow comments on this site]. The idea that a spinning thing in space would stop spinning when the power is switched off doesn’t quite ring true, momentum and inertia etc. But, then this does allow some pretty good visuals.
Why would little things go wrong if the spaceship was dealing with a big problem in the reactor core? I’m not sure this part of the film rings true. It bothered me a little. But, I was willing to let this go.
The swimming pool. I’m pretty sure that if the gravity was provided by the rotation of the ship then the stars outside the window were rotating the wrong way. I’ll probably have to take a few more looks at this scene but it upset something in my head and I spent a while moving my hands around in the air trying to get rotations correct. The hemispherical window was an awesome idea though.
Only one medi-pod for a ship that size? Bullshit.
When gravity suddenly turns off (?) most things will just stay where they are unless there is an impulse to them. The water in the swimming pool would have rode up the sides of the room when the spinning stopped. The sleeping characters would have moved very slowly if at all as they don’t have any forces acting on them. I refer you to Newton’s First Law Of Motion.
There are other bits and pieces but they are largely inconsequential and do not show off my understanding of sciencey shit. I do think that a film covering the morals of “living murder” would be very interesting if written by someone talented.
Oh, Arcturus. The space ship sling-shots around Arcturus. I don’t have a problem with that per se, but the ship did seem pretty close to the star. It would have fried to a crisp and everyone would have been killed by the intense radiation. While this allowed for pretty visuals [based on the SOHO observations of our own sun] the radiation shielding would need to be metres thick. Arcturus is a pretty darn big star coming in at 25.7 times the diameter of our piddly little star The Sun. It’s also 36.7 ly away and the spaceship in the film had been travelling for 30 years and had just reached 0.5c so the film makers could have done some better sums here I feel although we don’t know if the time measurement is absolute [physicists would laugh at that concept] or relative.
Last thing: The company that owns the starship made x quadrillion profit we are told. I am pretty sure that Aurora [!] then explains that a quadrillion is “a thousand billion”. I may have misheard this but a quadrillion is a million million using the US naming system. Aurora was talking about a trillion which is a LOT less money.
Quadrillion [US] – 10^12
Quadrillion [UK, but not common] – 10^24
I sauntered out to the old haunt of the Cineworld at Rochester. I watched Arrival and, of course, I rated it on IMDB after watching it. You can see my scoring system explained in this communication.
I rated Arrival (2016) 8/10 #IMDb https://t.co/lflJvp1IzP
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 2, 2016
This film was very good. I think the trailer somewhat over played the thriller aspect, but then that’s largely what sells I think. It’s nice to see an intelligent science fiction film. Something that makes you think and wonder. There’s too much dross and simple stuff out there at the moment. I’m not entirely sure I like the premise of this movie but it was a good watch anyway. It was the second film I had seen with a child’s death in it and I don’t like that kind of stuff, I’d rather not have those possibilities exposed.
The main thing we know about contact is how to communicate. What form or style of language will we use. This is important. For the best treatment of this read Contact.
Overall, this film is worth watching.
Last night I went to Canterbury to the Curzon independent cinema there. I find Canterbury an odd place. The centre, where the shops are, is cut off by a Roman wall and a ring road from the reality of the rest of the town.
I’d not been to the Curzon cinema there before although I probably have been to those cinemas but too long ago to remember or be specific. The cinema was off a back street near the Marlowe Theatre. Inside it was quirky with an old fashioned book shop feel to it. People were drinking coffee and playing scrabble in the foyer area. The screen room itself was wide but not deep and the seats were quite comfortable with some being sofa style!
I went to see One More Time With Feeling. A documentary film about Nick Cave creating and recording music since the death of his son.
I rated One More Time with Feeling (2016) 8/10 #IMDb https://t.co/n2UEWoEL3U
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 1, 2016
It was mostly shot in black and white and it was a very touching movie. I know nothing about Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and I’m not sure I know much now. The interviews were interesting and partly an insight into the music making process but on reflection I’m not convinced they were very revealing. The film seemed to contain about 6 or 7 music videos. I’m not sure if the band were actually recording while they played in these scenes, I would like to think so but it looked a little too staged. The scenes and interviews in between the set-piece song videos were dark, amusing and pretty much what you would expect.
I was utterly compelled for most of the film. As a terrible song writer and someone who probably should spend more time using his creative side it was interesting to hear a musician talk about the process, but I’m not at all sure it was a major revelation.
To hear someone talk about the death of a child is horrible.
Anyway, this is worth a watch. It’s musically interesting and lyrically haunting. It’s a good film.
Judge for yourself:
These two albums are instrumental calming albums from the beast that is Nine Inch Nails. I listen to these when I’m writing reports at work or marking stuff. It makes a very good background noise to block out other distractions. I would recommend these albums to anyone. It’s just good stuff.
I grew up in the 80s. I remember the 70s but from the age of 8 to 18 the primary decade was the 1980s. Those formative years when music tastes settle in and I was living through the 80s! You know when you get a “Greatest Hits Of The 80s” album or CD or stream that stuff now and you think, “Wow, what a decade to live through music”. Well, I’d like to remind you that you have 30 of the very best songs and maybe a couple that are a bit shit. If that’s the best a compilation compiler can come up with then it really is evidence that the rest of it was shit. As an example, Vienna by Ultravox didn’t make number one in the once relevant charts. It was held off by John Lennon (which I guess is fair enough) and then Joe Dolce’s song “Shaddup You Face”. You see, it was shit.
Music tastes change bit by bit but the stuff that still affects us is the stuff we obsessed over as teenagers. People ten years older than me at work love Pink Floyd and easy 70s rock. People ten years younger than me look back in fondness at the utter shit that was Oasis. And so it’s clear I can’t help liking 80s rock. I’ve written about my descent into metal. It started with Bon Jovi, headed through Mötley Crüe into Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer.
I have change recently and it’s weird. I’ve headed to industrial. Electronic stuff with a nasty edge. I wouldn’t be too fussed about attending a metal festival although I’d go if the right bands were playing.
Looking back at the 80s rock scene now and thinking about what they were actually saying about women and I am horrified. You could argue that it was just the scene and in reality they were nice people but the misogyny was rife and that enters culture and then behaviour. Perhaps the world was more misogynistic then anyway, I don’t know, whatever it was it shouldn’t have been. I don’t think I ever really thought I was sexist, or that I could be like that but I endorsed a culture of that behaviour by buying the music and playing the songs and liking the music.
I really like this album. I can’t help it. I’m programmed to like it. It’s such a part of my youth. I saw the Crüe once at Wembley Arena and it was a great concert. See this page for the concert list. I love the sound of the guitar, I love the galloping bass, the drums and even Vince Neil’s voice. It’s just a fucking shame it’s all sexist. I still like it. Damn [exasperation].
Wild Side – fantastic, upbeat, riff-tastic.
Girls, girls, girls – so good and so bad. In the video they had a hot tub in the back of a limousine.
Dancing on glass – good.
Bad Boy Boogie – good “rocky” song, but AC/DC already have a song called this and it’s better.
Nona – There is ALWAYS an incredibly shit song on every Crüe album. This is the one here. Perhaps they let the butler write a song?
The rest are all pretty good songs although the ballad they wrote for the charts is pretty poor “You’re All I Need”, bleaugh.
So, when I saw them at Wembley Billy Idol came on at the end, clearly off his face, and they sang Jailhouse Rock. There’s a live version of it on this album and it seriously starts with Vince saying:
We’re recording live right here tonight. And I think you’ve got to fucking jive. ‘Cos we’ve got some bad beat boogie woogie for you boys”
They actually kept that on the album! Metal it isn’t. 80s rock it is. I wish forgiveness for the decade in which I matured and the shit I like listening to now.
Drove the short distance to the Cineworld cinema at Rochester. As it’s half term it was time to see Storks. Below is my rating on IMDB, but it is traditional that you first read the scoring system placed in a communication here.
I rated Storks (2016) 4/10 #IMDb https://t.co/MKQiaHp3Xl
— Ian Parish (@iparish) October 26, 2016
So, it was a kids film. Not a great one at that. A touch annoying in places. The wolves were the coolest part of the film.
So, the main bird touches the girl [I don’t do character names] and sees her future. We see her at school, learning, getting a degree and it bloody well ends with her getting MARRIED. The film seemed to imply that the ultimate goal for a girl was to be MARRIED. Since when do women have to be married to be valid members of society? Perhaps she could have been president? Perhaps she could have been winning a Fields Medal? This little section of the film irritated me. It stereotyped women. I was possibly wound up by the trailers for Disney films which reinforce the feudal ideal where you have to be *born* to the right family to have worth. Fuck them all.
I recently completed watching the entire run of Psych. That might make it sound like I did a complete binge-watch of eight seasons but I have completed the show over seven years. I watched some on terrestrial TV, I recorded some from ITV4 and I also bought the DVDs when I got to the last four series.
After nearly seven years I have finished Psych. It’s helped me through kids, divorce and down times. Thanks guys. @DuleHill
— Ian Parish (@iparish) October 6, 2016
I have enjoyed the show thoroughly. It is well acted, written and photographed. I consider it a good use of my time. Like many of the TV shows I have loved it mixed developed characters with fun, jokes and seriousness. I even sat on my sofa and laughed out loud on occasions. Dulé Hill and James Roday were perfect in the lead roles and this is the second series I have watched with Dulé Hill, the previous being The West Wing, a show that left me with similar feelings to this one. Anyway, Mr Hill responded to my message:
@iparish 👊🏾 Boom
— Dulé Hill (@DuleHill) October 6, 2016
So this was a nice touch from someone who I assume is a nice person. However, I would also add that I have no wish to meet my heroes as they would all too easily disappoint.
In other news, but not new news, as this happened ages ago I got followed on Twitter by John Forbes Nash. Yes, that John Forbes Nash. I have no idea why he followed me or how he found me on Twitter. I was quite excited by this. I was also very saddened when he died in May 2015.
Last night I took a little journey to The Garage in Islington to watch Aesthetic Perfection. Now, Mesh were the headline band and I had listened to them in advance and I didn’t like it or find it particularly interesting. I was primarily there to see Aesthetic Perfection and to take my niece out for her birthday. It is a good thing that AP tend to tour once a year because that makes her presents easy to organise. This is the second time she has seen AP and my fourth.
The first band on were called Empathy Test, which I have a suspicion is a reference to Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? However, they weren’t much to my liking. There was a singer, two keyboard – programmer types and a drummer. All their songs were well constructed and perfectly fine but not enough to get me going.
Next up were Aesthetic Perfection. I like the Garage as a venue, the roof is nicely curved and I remember seeing Front Line Assembly here a few years ago. The sound was impressive and clear with a stage and rig more suited to music production than Electrowerkz, although Electrowerkz wins in coolness of a venue.
Because this was an acoustic set there wasn’t a drummer and I missed that a bit. I do think that a live drummer adds quite a bit of organic sound to a set. Now, I know they started with Antibody and played more songs but I can’t remember what all the songs were. I should have written them down as they played. The set was good, but missed Spit It Out and Motherfucker, which are songs I do enjoy.
Final band on last night were Mesh. Obviously many of the crowd had come to see this band, there were lots of Mesh t-shirts being worn. I decided to listen to a couple of songs. The first was OK and the second was just OK. I didn’t think it was anything special but I did like the stage set up. They had four 1m square LED screens made to look like a mesh of wires which was quite clever. It wasn’t enough to keep me there. We left.
In the picture you can see two of the large LED mesh based displays.
It was a very nice evening. We will hopefully see Aesthetic Perfection again next year.