Thursday, May 26, 2005

Where is the fat lady? Liverpool if nothing else last night proved the maxim "It ain't over 'til it's over". Just when you thought it was a done deal they go and score three goals in six minutes or something. It would have been nice to see them slot a winner past AC before the final whistle but after a comeback like that it became a question of ends rather than means. And what sweet irony that it was the inconsistant and soon to be unemployed Jerzy Dudek who saved the penalty that won the match. I'll find out later but I reckon all my in-laws will still be celebrating.
Dogs eh? Izzy once again puts the two of through the 'ringer' as she was poisoned on Monday. She ate something she picked up by the river that disagreed with her....literally. Subsequently she spend Monday night at the vets on a drip and it was touch and go on a few occasions as her nervous system was overloaded. She seems to have the constitution of an animal one hundred times her size as she is how almost back to normal, a little subdued but we can see she's almost ready to turn it back up to 11. What poisoned her? We're not sure but as two other dogs also went to local vets after being poisoned in the same area of the river. Could be one of a hundred explainations.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Robert Kilroy-Silk wouldn’t like it Hard to believe that Eurovision is in its 50th year and if the truth be told without the ‘stretching’ of entry requirement to countries that have either invaded or been invaded by a European country, I’m sure the contest would have died years ago. The hosts were the usual miss matched horrors who needed more practise. Terry Wogan described them as ‘Ant and Shriek’ and he was right, despite having a state of the art microphone DJ Pasha’s co-host could stop shouting. So here’s the annual Tony C breakdown of the runners a riders of this years musical extravaganza. Oh and I’m not being ironic here…well a little. Hungary Wobbly voiced, one legged trouser wearing, river dance inspired Euro nonsense. She was a bit of babe though. The babe theme continued throughout the whole competition. 12th. United Kingdom Javine had just recovered from a throat infection, apparently, but did her best Ms Spears impression. The song was aimed the Balkan block vote with it’s Eastern twang, but it didn’t work. The dancer on Javine’s right was a babe. 22nd. Malta Bland Celine Dion wannabe number. Both had a connection with Titanic in a way, whilst the French Canadian hit meister sang the theme song for Titanic the Maltese entry was the size of the famous ill fated liner. 2nd. Rumania Looking like a young Ruby Wax on a building site. Yes those were angle grinders on the stage, this one of the many low points song wise. Lots of silicon mind you and did I see the guys at the back wearing dustbin lids on there feet? A travesty of Euro proportions she came 3rd. Norway Glam rockers Wig Wam did their best ‘Europe’ impression, the group not the region, and proved irony is alive and well amongst the fiords. Must be all that whale meat. The singer signed off by shouting “Rock and Roll Revolution”. Amen to that. 9th. Turkey Lots of kettle drums, another feature of this years Eurovision, it was hard to find an act that didn’t use them. It was blessed relief when you did. As Terry Wogan pointed out ‘gymnastics and belly buttons’ about sums this up. Sounded Turkish I guess. 13th. Moldova Grandma beats the Drummer was the title and they follwed through by having a Granny on stage, although she mysteriously wasn’t in the Green Room celebrating. They tried to look like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers but were more Korma than Madras. A very underserved 6th. Cyprus Ricky Martin and Michael Jackson love child horror, with Mel B dancing at the back. Truly utterly awful but the natural home for the Turkish vote. 18th. Spain I suppose it sounded Spanish and silicon was absent. It was at least different from the run of the mill Eurovision twaddle and a brave attempt to give the contest a bit of regional variation. It was bound to fail. 21st. Israel Bottle blonde silicon babe in a lovely dress. Classic ballad approach but I’m not sure what the unamplified acoustic guitarist was for. A sympathetic 4th. Serbia and Montenegro Odd miss matched trouser wearing boy band fodder. More kettle drums, surprise, surprise which were set about for visual rather than audible effect. More drivel at 7th. Denmark A Will Young, Westlife, Rowan Keating genetic mistake. Yuk. Benefited from the Nordic block vote to reach 10th. Sweden More leather, lots of it in fact. A hint of Austin Powers in this Vegas homage. The girls were great in their Pussy Galore suits. Sorry I forgot what it sounded like. They deserved better I’m sure at 19th. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Fooking kettle drums again but the girls dresses were so short you could see the makers name. Alexander the Great would turn in his grave if anyone actually knew were he’s buried to verify. Grim. You have to love the Balkan block vote. 17th. Ukraine A politically significant song due the recent Orange Revolution. More chant than song really as the fused a riff from Nirvana with a Run DMC style rap. But why did they keep mentioning lattes? Not placed well at 20th. Germany They tried the Avril Lavigne/Shinia Twain/Alanis Morrisette rock chick route and failed. Rock attitude but no rock substance. I know Noel Coward said “let’s not be beastly to the Germans” but this was awful. A deserved 24th. Croatia The gypsy look in is this summer so the backing singers were bang up to date fashion wise. I didn’t know Wolverhampton Wanderers were big in Croatia as the song was entitled Wolves die alone; a Wogan joke not mine! More bloody kettle drums and at one point the drummer did handstand in the middle of the stage. 11th. Greece Riverdance meets Zorba. Michael Flattley must have made a mint in royalties at this years contest. Her breasts were all her own for a change and she was the best looking female singer in veritable sea of hunnies. The song was the usual fusion of Euro beat, poor lyrics and forgettable hook. 1st. Russia You could expect the Russians not to welcome in Kiev but they sent a tall leggy babe with fabulous shoes so they’ll probably be forgiven. Catchy musical hook but crappy lyrics. 15th. Bosnia and Herzegovina Bit a con. With a name like Feminnem you could be forgiven for expecting some gritty rap number, but instead we got a boppy Abba tribute. I’m sure the fact that they were three perky blondes in short skirts wasn’t missed by the voters. 14th. Switzerland All girl babe rock band dressed in white leather, with matching white guitars . There was a chap at the back dressed on black so to remain anonymous. Visually captivating, auditably forgettable. 8th. Latvia Cookie cutter pretty boy pop rubbish, bless ‘em. At one point they employed sign language. A mind bending 6th. France More Euro pap and not particular French. Oddly as the French usually go ‘off piste’ at Eurovision. They met their Waterloo at 23rd. Fewer novelty acts than normal and so it was even more difficult to tell one country from another, where for example are the transvestite Air Hostesses from a few years back? The acts that did well put on elaborate stage shows rather than mimic pop videos to create a visual appeal that covered the cracks in the songmanship. I suppose we can be thankful none them sounded like Travis.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

To Sith or not to Sith If you're easily offending by my opinion on the latest Star Wars films click away now..... That means you Daz. I'm between a rock and hard place. Do I go and see Revenge of the Sith knowing what a complete cock-up George made of the other two prequels? I mean here's an example of some dialogue, and I quote. Man: "You're so beautiful." Woman: "It's only because I'm so in love." Man: "No, it's because I'm so in love with you." Oh shit! OK Rotten Toms, usually an accurate tool for judging films, rates Revenge of the Sith pretty highly but if you read many of the reviews the general view is "it's better than the previous two". But surely the benchmark is the original trilogy not the duel farce that was 'Menace' and 'Clones'. As Mrs C is totally uninterested, and she is a Star Wars fan, I'll probably wait and rent it on DVD. Then watch the original trilogy straight after and wonder what might have been.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

That was quick Not sooner do you give 'em away at E3 they end up on eBay. Not much use without an actual Xbox 360 I suppose...

Monday, May 09, 2005

Who won then? You be forgiven for thinking that the Labour Party and Tony Blair didn't win the 2005 Election based on the number of backbenchers calling for his resignation. I can’t help think that they’re being a tad ungrateful seeing as the party was unelectable prior to his leadership however as he seems to have squandered all the good will and massive majority they’d accumulated in ’97 maybe they have a point. The Conservatives failed to increase their proportion of the popular vote but with Michael Howard in charge they always going to come second. The next Tory PM is someone we’ve never heard of. Is it worth mentioning the Liberals? They seem to think we now live in a ‘Three Party Democracy’ and it would be nice to think there was some so called real alternative but the electoral seem to like simple choices and maybe three is too many.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

The preciousssss

As I mentioned a little while ago it seems counter intuitive that the publishers of board games have seen certain market segments grow as video games have established themselves.

One title that caught my eye recently is War of the Ring published by Fantasy Flight Games as it tries, successfully I might add, to recreate the story from LoTR in game form. It's big, epic, plays different every time, looks fantastic and captures the essence of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

If you're a LoTR fan and your thumbs need a rest then this as good a cure as any.

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Oh dear!

The announcement that IBM is to shed about 13,000 jobs should come as no surprise to all but the most naive. The company ballooned in size after the buy out of PWC and with the slow down in the tech market something was going to have to give. I guess the hope was the amputation of the PC business would obfuscate the need to make people redundant in the short term but it seems this wasn’t the case. To be fair to IBM, something I’d never thought I’d ever say, some of the staff lay offs will probably come with natural wastage as like most IT companies staff turnover is high. Coupled with the glacial drift to become consultancy practise that just happens to sell software and tin, the focus will inevitably be on the high margin services. I know how gut wrenching awful be made redundant is and I’ve also had first hand experience of how medievil IBM can be when it comes to matters of people management, my only hope is that IBM takes a more empathetic approach than it did when it absorbed Lotus.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Jono. He's just some guy you know. It was John O'Hara's first day at MS as the Enterprise Product Group Director. It's good to see him.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Zaphod. He's just some guy you know. I love the book, the radio adaptation and the TV series but I'm afraid not the movie version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Like the curate’s egg it's good in parts but with such wonderful source material I'm struggling to see how they could drop the ball. Martin Freeman is great as Arthur and Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin is a hoot, but Sam Rockwell as Zaphod and Mos Def's Ford never really work. It's too rushed in places, too laboured in others and the love interest between Arthur and Trillian just a sop to the studios and US audience testing. Karen's comment summed it up, and she is no mean Hitchhiker fan. "I missed Dr Who for this?"