Just watched the movie here at home. Fricking brilliant is my two word review of it…
Slightly longer version as follows…
For anyone who has not come across Simon Pegg before, he came to national attention after starring in Spaced, a series that captured the ‘scene’ in Britain pretty well. My favourite moment was a bloke who had partied a little too hard for too long. Whilst waiting to cross a road, the bleep-bleep-bleep alarm for pedestrians becomes a dance track in his head, and he starts dancing to it.
Not too difficult to reach that state if you have not slept for a couple of days, and you can’t remember where you were an hour ago, other than a good party 😉
Anyway, Sean of the Dead was the last film I saw that featured Simon Pegg, which was a sort of spoof of the many zombie films in existence, whilst not being too farcical. Hot Fuzz followed the same formula, and had many quality English actors in it. The idea is that a hot shot ace London copper is sent to a South Gloucestershire village, as his stats are making all his colleagues look very bad. Not too surprisingly, all is not as it seems, and Nick Angel (Pegg’s character) starts to join the pieces of the puzzle together.
Ira seemed to like the film as well, and we don’t always enjoy the same sort of film to the same degree, so I think Hot Fuzz has a wide appeal…
Jun 19 2007
Hot Fuzz
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Jun 16 2007
Cornwall Nationalists
Militants in Cornwall (where my brother attends university) have issued a statement warning two celebrity chefs that their businesses are at risk.
There is history of rebellion in Cornwall, reaching back centuries. In some areas, there also strong ties to the Brittany area of France. Around 1500, a protest march was taken to London by Cornishmen unhappy at the extra taxes King Henry VII was imposing, in an attempt to finance the struggle in Scotland. (Any fans of the movie Braveheart might want to actually check what really happened sometime.) Anyway, needless to say Henry was having none of it, and sent his troops out to defeat the Cornish.
The rebellion was put down, and all the leaders executed. Why all this explanation? Because one of the executed was Michael An Gof, and the An Gof group are believed to have combined with the Cornish Liberation Army to form the Cornish National Liberation Army. This group has threatened both Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver’s businesses, complaining that the ‘newcomers’ are responsible for a surge in house prices in the locality, causing true locals to not be able to afford houses in areas that they have lived in for generations.
A couple of apparent flaws in their logic though – 1) Stein has lived in the area, on and off, for a long time, and both he and Jamie Oliver bring a lot of business to agricultural and dairy farmers in the area, not to mention fishermen. Both chefs are proud of the produce they use being locally reared/harvested/caught 2) Jamie Oliver’s business was setup to help dis advantaged youths in the area, with the idea of training them up to be professional chefs themselves.
Neither people really seem to be fairly targeted, perhaps it is simply because they are high profile, and so will bring publicity to the Cornish Independence cause? Either way, I’m hoping the restaurant Nick is currently working in is safe from such threats…
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May 27 2007
Recoil
Recoil – Andy McNab
The 9th in the Nick Stone series, Recoil does feel quite similar to other books in the series, but then again I read these sorts of books because I enjoy them, not to actually challenge myself intellectually or anything.
The main character is in Switzerland, recovering from his last book/job, and is coming to terms with losing one of his best friends. His rich girlfriend tries to help him re-acclimatise, but her father doesn’t help much.
The girlfriend works for a charity, and disappears off to the Congo, which concerns Nick. Cue lots of fighting and details on using weapons. Nick had been to central Africa some two decades past, and has some unpleasant flashbacks.
We have the normal army chatter, obvious bad guys, crooked Ruperts (commissioned officers), helpless innocents and large explosions. If you’ve read all his books, you will end up buying this, even if it is just more of the same; if this book doesn’t interest you, you’re not going to care about the plot repetition with only minor tweaks…
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May 26 2007
Life Continuing Probability Rises!
Long term readers of this blog will remember from previous posts on driving in Kazakhstan that crossing the road, especially in front of our flat is a scary experience.
Well today I noticed that cars were seemingly randomly slowing down and even stopping on the road, with people crossing. As I couldn’t see a policeman anywhere, I couldn’t figure out what was going on till the daylight disappeared – it looks like they have installed a proper pedestrian crossing 🙂 🙂 🙂
This may not seem like much to any American or British readers, but trust me, go ask Mum, John, Nick, Dad or ChrisD if you need to hear just how much things differ over here… I’ve said it before, imagine a UK motorway with no central barrier, and even the zebra crossing at the other end of the road doesn’t cause drivers to stop – if you are lucky, they will slow down enough for you to wonder about the driver in the next lane across. No more 🙂
Please excuse the low quality piccie, it is night time without a flash, and zoomed in – I’ll try and get a better quality picture tomorrow daytime. Slightly better quality picture now 🙂
May 12 2007
My Brother Hits The Front Page…
and not even for a student prank back firing or anything!
I should probably explain he is on a Journalism course down in Cornwall, but has spent a week working at the Western Mail in Cardiff for work experience. Last week they had elections in Wales, and Nick wrote an article for the paper, that made it to the main page. (The front page itself was just the results in large print, no actual articles).
He is now in Bristol for work experience at the GWR radio station, so good luck to him there.
This is a recent photo of him and Roz, his girlfriend.
May 07 2007
Windows XP On A PDA!!!
When I first read the description accompanying a link to the Register’s story, I though it was just another case of a lazy journalist (unlike my highly efficient journalist brother, Nick; more on that to come later…) not bothering to do any research before posting.
It initially sounded as though there was another remote connection application being launched, with some vague claims for industry firsts.
However, if you check the article in question, you’ll discover that this is quite different. Apparently, there will be real remote desktops available (for a fee of course), accessible through either a Java applet or ActiveX control, on a web page. This means that ANY technology capable of interacting with a web site, through the aforementioned methods, should be able to ‘use’ a Windows XP machine. The ramifications of this are quite wide spread, for example people can work on their documents where ever they happen to be at the time, if they can get an internet connection there.
Although I still regularly use various VNC clients, I can see this sort of technology becoming more popular in the future, as the uses of it are realised by people in different sectors.
This post is NOT sponsored, once more I found the information interesting, and hope some of you may do so also…
Apr 26 2007
Brothers in Arms
Brothers in Arms – Lois McMaster Bujold
This book follows closely on from Labyrinth, and also introduces a key character for later books. After his ‘rescue work’ in Labyrinth, Miles and his fleet are chased by the Cetagandans. Shards of Honor saw an explanation for Miles’ Dad’s nickname – The Butcher of Komarr. In this book, we meet one of the relatives of someone who suffered at the battle. Unfortunately, this person is Miles’ & Ivan’s new boss.
As I mentioned, an important character is introduced in this book – Miles’ clone! Interesting facts are revealed, and if you want to know more, again, ask me or buy the book :>
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Apr 20 2007
www.ChrisMerriman.com Got Lucky
In the last month, this blog has been at the #1 position in Google.com or Google.co.uk for the following phrases…
acid ran pictures
borat which parts where scripted
Chris Merriman
presents for nick
The government in Astana has secured a multi-million dollar loan from the World Bank to help save the Aral Sea – who searches with a phrase that long?
west wing china clip
www.westwingguide.com – their site is just adverts now anyway
domain names used for ebuyer.com
Astana Market Analysis
Quick update, I’ll be using this thread to keep an eye on which phrases I’m getting #1 on, so ignore the ‘last month’ reference at the top.
Apr 18 2007
Shards Of Honor
Shards Of Honor – Lois McMaster Bujold
This is one of the Miles Vorkosigan series, though it is set about a year before his birth.
There are two main characters in this novel, who start off with completing opposing idealogies, or at least it would seem.
The female character is Capt. Naismith, who is on a planet for a survey for her homeworld – The Beta Colony. She meets the other main character Capt Vorkosigan, who has already (mostly unfairly) earned the nickname the Butcher of Komarr. They come from different planets, and find themselves on this planet for very different reasons.
The story follows the two characters fight for survival on this planet, and without wanting to give the game away too much, the future Miles Vorkosigan must have a mother!
I liked this book enough to read all the others in the series.
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