Porcupine Tree in Cambridge

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

They are a British rock band who just got an album in the chart. A friend of a friend got me a ticket.

Review on my blog

Team America: World Police

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Comedy

As you would expect from the makers of South Park, this is not a subtle film. It's a Thunderbirds spoof with their usual excessive swearing and violence. Lots of digs at certain 'caring' actors. It made me laugh a few times, but generally not really my thing, whatever that is. Not suitable for young kids, but I expect 14 year old boys will love it.

Thanks to Dave for the loan.

IMDB

Buy the DVD

Another tragedy at the Blue Lagoon

Yesterday afternoon I saw several emergency vehicles speeding south through Arlesey. When I saw the rescue boat I could be pretty sure that it was something at the Blue Lagoon. There was a helicopter hovering there for some time.

Today I see this story on the BBC. It seems a man was reported as being in difficulties and a search is still on. It's a shame some scumbags had to steal some equipment from an ambulance.

Update: They pulled out the body of a young man last night. Someone told me he was 16. Probably from out of town as the locals know it's dangerous.

Just had my dad ringing from Portugal after he saw this in his email and thought we had a problem. That's why I've changed the title

Big house, slow progress

At the first planning meeting I went to when trying to get permission for our house there was also an application for an amazing looking house to be built just north of Arlesey. They even had a model of it showing how it would overhang a small lake. They needed special permission as it was outside the standard building zone. They got permission and started building around the same time as we did, i.e. about 5 years ago.

Last weekend we took a walk that passed fairly close to that house and saw that they are still building. They still have a couple of diggers there and some scaffolding. I'm sure it will be a wonderful house, but that's a long time to spend building and it must have cost a lot. Our build 'only' took about 18 months, but would have been quicker without some issues with the builder.

The picture was taken from a public footpath, but we noticed that there has been some hedge planting along the edge of the field. Perhaps this is to eventually give that house a little more privacy, but it will take a few more years to do that.

A Year with Swollen Appendices

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Biographies & Memoirs
Author:	Brian Eno

In 1995 Eno kept a diary of his work and family life. It's a fascinating insight into the life of an artist. During that year he worked on albums for U2 and Bowie as well as assorted art installations. Getting the inside view on those is pretty good, but he also shares his life with his wife and kids, which shows that he is a normal human being too. There are all sorts of throwaway lines on things that pop into his head each day.

The swollen appendices contain articles, interviews and stories that he refers to in the diary.

I really enjoyed it.

You can buy it at Amazon

Casino Royale

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

A new Bond takes on the role and has a different style to before. This Bond is tougher and more serious, as befits a man who kills for a living. In this adventure his main task is actually to play cards in a high stakes game against the baddie. There's still lots of running, jumping, shooting and fast cars, plus a nasty torture scene.

I found the multiple double-crosses a little confusing and I don't get that excited watching people play cards, but the action scenes were pretty good, especially the early chase which showed Bond struggling to keep up with his more agile quarry.

There's a lot less gadgetry, apart from the Aston Martin's full medical kit and no sign of Q or Moneypenny.

I might let the kids watch some of the old Bonds, but they will not be seeing this one for a while.

The product placement was a bit obtrusive. Some scenes almost looked like straight adverts. Nice to see that MI6 use Google for their research though.

DVP-NS76H DVD Player

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Computers & Electronics
Product Type:	DVD Players
Manufacturer:	Sony

I bought our original DVD player about 5 years ago. Back then the main brands were very expensive and not very multi-region friendly so I bought an Acoustic Solutions player from Richer Sounds. It has performed well and has been retired to the bedroom since the purchase of our new Sony.

I went for this player on the strength of a good review in Which and general good comments around the web. It's a very slimline unit, but well appointed with connections. I'm using component video, which looks good on our old Toshiba, but it also does HDMI for whenever we go for an HD-capable flat screen.

Making it multi-region was slightly tricky as you cannot do it with the supplied remote. I used the demo version of a program on my Palm, with a data file that someone had put together specifically for this purpose, so now I can play any of my DVDs.

It can also play Divx films from CD. I've tested it with some old ones I had and have also managed to make my own on the PC from programmes I've recorded from Freeview.

It also handles MP3 and photos, but I've still to test those functions.

Overall I'm very happy with it. I know you can get some very cheap players with most of these features, but I decided to go for a better quality product in the hope of getting many years of service from it.

You can buy it from the PFGM Amazon shop to have part of the price go to the school.

I've bought a couple of other gadgets lately (camcorder, cordless phones). I can post reviews of those if anyone is interested.