Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Certification Of Insanity

Pete very kindly presented me with a Certification Of Insanity today, so I guess it's official! Incurable and harmful to self and others with cases of delusions, paranoia, abject denial, intermittent explosive disorder and a healthy dose of megalomania!

Steampunk goodness and The Heat

We've been catching up with quite a few movies that are classed as steampunk of late. Some of them are kind of borderline and some fit very well.

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello is a short animated adventure that is all cogs and steam and beautifully imagined. Set in a world of iron dirigibles and steam powered computers, this gothic horror mystery tells the story of Jasper Morello, a disgraced aerial navigator who flees his plague-ridden home on a desperate voyage to redeem himself.



Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was less of a "true" steampunk film but is a good old yarn with some wonderful gadgets and devices. One of the few Jim Carrey films where he isn't a carbon copy of The Mask. When a massive fire kills their parents, three children are delivered to the custody of cousin and stage actor Count Olaf, who is secretly plotting to steal their parents' vast fortune.



The Secret Adventures Of Jules Vernes is an old TV series that is well immersed in all things steampunk and Victoriana. We watched the first couple of episodes and it is very good. In this series, we see the adventures of the young Father of Science Fiction and his friends, Phileas and Rebecca Fogg and their servant, Passepartout. In an alternative Victorian era, which has taken that era's technology to fantastic levels, this intrepid quartet battles villians wherever they find them.



We took a break from the steam and cogs to go to Cineworld in Bexleyheath to see The Heat. We saw the trailer for this a while back and it looked very silly. It is but it is also well written and full of laughs, action and a little emotion at the end. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy were brilliantly cast and complement each other very well. The plot is simple: An uptight FBI Special Agent is paired with a foul-mouthed Boston cop to take down a ruthless drug lord. This film is definitely worth a watch!

Petts Woodstock

After a bit of breakfast at Coffee Town and the start of a major change around in the dining room Toni and I headed out to Petts Wood to attend a charity gig that our friends Chrissy and Dave were playing at (as We Crave Sushi). It was lovingly titled Petts Woodstock! This was an all day event with lots of bands on but we didn't do the whole thing.

THE CHAIN
We arrived as THE CHAIN were starting their set. They were doing classic rock covers today although they normally frequent the stage as a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. It was the usual set of crowd pleasers including Black Velvet, River Deep Mountain High, Sweet Child O'Mine, Whole Lotta Love, Paranoid, Take Your Mama and the Fleetwood Mac classic Don't Stop. They were a pretty good band and were well received by the crowd.

See all THE CHAIN pics here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/104946465990175774467/albums/5907996504194835761


WE CRAVE SUSHI
It's always a tough job playing a festival like this that has lots of bands playing covers and coming out and playing original material. The Chain were a touch act to follow but We Crave Sushi did us proud. They had a great set of slow bluesy rock. The songs were great (even though the sound wasn't) and they managed to win the crowd over.

There were a few technical difficulties with the microphones which I managed to edit out as the band tried to start this song. Full credit to them for carrying on regardless!


The final song went off without a hitch though:


See all the WE CRAVE SUSHI pics here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/104946465990175774467/albums/5908000276875822689

It seemed to be a great little event that has been running for years. It was a gorgeous day and the place was mobbed so hopefully lots of money was raised.for the local charities.

Cartoon, curry, Wild Wild West & Riese: Kingdom Falling

Today was inundated with silly meetings. One of the good things to come out of one of these was a new cartoon strip: Scrum Master & The CF Sprints Of Doom. Oh how we laughed!

A quick and painless journey home was reward with a trip to Rishta for a curry with Toni and I taking advantage of the fact that Sam and Aaron had gone to stay at Jamie's for the weekend and Gemima was with her dad.  We treated ourselves to a bottle of wine as Toni didn't have to drive and it was a most welcome way to start winding down for the weekend.

We got home and went into a bit of steampunk mode for some visuals.

Wild Wild West start us off. Jim West is a guns-a-blazing former Civil War hero. Artemus Gordon is an inventive U.S. Marshal who excels in disguise. When the United States is threatened by psychotic Confederate Arliss Loveless, President Ulysses Grant teams the duo up to bring him to justice. On a hazard-packed train journey from Washington D.C. to Utah, West and Gordon must combine their skills to best Loveless and his diabolical machines.

This steampunk western starring Will Smith got panned when it came out. It kind of does what it says on the tin, is a wonderfully silly far fetched yarn with some great effects and inventions and was actually fun to watch. We both really enjoyed it.

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Riese: Kingdom Falling finished things off. The series is about a traveller named Riese, who flees across the wartorn lands of Eleysia with her wolf, Fenrir. Hunted by a terrifying religious group, The Sect, Riese must evade the assassins that have been sent to kill her and discover their true objective.

This is a great little series that began life online and was then picked up by Syfy. It's made up of short episodes but works quite well for a low budget series.

Shite day and great steak at Cafe Rouge!

Things are slow at work, REAL slow. Agile was supposed to improve things and allow us to try and deliver things in a shorter time. The reverse seems to be true and we appear to be going backwards now with less and less getting done! *BIG SIGH* Really hoping we can turn things around before everyone gets too down about the whole thing.

I left work feeling very meh only to get to London Bridge and find that all the trains were up the creek due to somebody being hit by a train. Just what I needed! An initial period of nobody having a clue what was going on was then followed by having to join a massive queue of people all trying to fight their way onto platforms 4 to 6 as 1 to 3 were closed. The timetable was in tatters but I was very lucky as I managed to get a very later train to New Eltham.

All of this faded away very quickly though once I got home. One change of clothes later and we were headed out to Blackheath for a reservation at Cafe Rouge. It's amazing how good food can make all the bad things drift away. My starter was camembert in breadcrumbs with green salad and cranberry and redcurrant jelly, oh my! It was delicious. The best was yet to come though. A rare 10oz rib-eye steak with peppercorn sauce and frites followed on in most triumphant fashion. Proceedings were rounded off with a crepe, banana and toffee ice cream.  It was a fantastic meal, a great way to make me feel better and also a lovely last evening with mum.

Lost Cherrees @ New Cross Inn

Toni and I headed off to the New Cross Inn to take in some punk rawk!. We were attending as one of the bands contains Hollywood Doll singer Marie Repulsive and we thought it would be great to check out what she is doing now. We were amazed to walking into the venue to find Steve Doll (Hollywood Doll drummer) propping up the bar. Who'd have thought it, three fifths of Hollywood Doll hanging out and catch up in the same venue without even planning it LOL. It was great to see them both though and of course it led to a photo opportunity (even though it is a terrible picture of me!):

There was a good selection of bands on tonight

BROCKER
70s/80s pop punk with a little hardcore and ska thrown in. Catchy hooks and shout outs, songs that were short and sweet. A great warm up band.

See all the BROCKER pics here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/104946465990175774467/albums/5906914814218429009


DEMON SMILES
More aggressive than Brocker. Shades of Conflict with the bass lines. Bass player should probably look at investing a little more passion into the performance as she didn't seem very interested especially as the guitarist and drummer seemed like they were having a good time. Really good songs and she had a good voice. Overall they weren't bad and fitted in well with the bill

See all the DEMON SMILES pics here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/104946465990175774467/albums/5906915830011662385



LOST CHERREES
Punk rock at its finest. So glad that this band are still going. Marie Repulsive really fits in well. They have that distinctive anarcho punk sound akin to bands like Conflict while still retaining their own distinctive sound and a good set of catchy bouncy songs.

Here's a quick song:


See all the LOST CHERREES pics here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/104946465990175774467/albums/5906920277978492913

We were hot and tired and so didn't stay to see CHOKING SUSAN. It was a fantastic night though. Three great bands and it was wonderful to catch up with Steve and Marie.

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

BBQ at Daraline Towers

Today we hit Deptford Market to pick up meat, lots of meat! The purpose of this was to provide stocks for our visit to Daraline Towers and the summer BBQ.

Traffic wasn't our friend but we got there in the end. We ate meat, we drank alcohol, we listened to music.

It was great to hang out with Caz Mumin, Darren Tite, Sara Petrie, Christian Hall and Darren Law. Such great friends and so much fun to be around. There were loads of other people there too so it was a busy time.

The weather was beautiful to start with but we did end up sitting under the gazebo in torrential rain and storms as the night wore on.

I had planned on taking a load of photos but having a good time took precedence!

I did get a couple though!

We stayed over at Sara and Christian's (arranged on the fly so that Toni could have a drink) which was much appreciated. We the spent a load more time jut chilling and chatting and watching Scuzz TV.

Amazing day with amazing friends!!!!!!



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Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Dinner at Karen's and four Cornettos!

After work today Toni, Gemima and I popped over to see Karen for dinner. We went via Tesco to get some dessert and drinks. I polished off four Cornettos between leaving Tesco and arriving at Karen's. Yes I was a pig but they were SO good!
As the weather was so nice we had dinner in the garden. Karen had made a lovely fish pie which hit the spot nicely. Copious amounts of tea was drunk and a few too many Oreos. It was great to have a catch up and lovely to see Anna too (who had popped over for a couple of hours).

It was nice to get out for the night and spend some time with friends. It was just a shame that it was a school night and we had to cut it short (even though it was late when we left).



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Rip off VW garage exposed, Falling Skies & True Blood

Our rip off VW garage was exposed quite nicely today. Over the weekend I had looked for some local mechanics and found a guy round the corner who specialised in VW servicing and repairs. Instead of £320 for the suspension and £397 for the wing mirror we were quoted £250 and £150 respectively. £400 is SO much better than £717! So glad we didn't fall for the official VW scam! Bastards!

Double episode catch up of Falling Skies tonight as we'd not managed to watch it last week. The series is going from strength to strength and is all building up very nicely.

True Blood finished the night enough in a bit of a wacky episode. Much as I am enjoying this series I really do have to question what some of the writers have been taking as some episodes are getting pretty bonkers! It's all good though as the vampy goodness continues.



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Wrath Of The Titans, The Craft, The Corpse Bride & I'm Not Fat...I'm Fluffy

We had another film watching day today. Things started of with the sequel to the Clash Of The Titans reboot.... the aptly name Wrath Of The Titans LOL Wrath Of The Titans was a bit of an action film although paid less attention to mythology than its precursor! It was a reasonable film with some good effects although certainly doesn't make essential viewing *hehe*


The Craft was next. Now this film IS a CLASSIC. It's one of the best teen movies out there. Granted some of the magick stuff is a little far fetched and inaccurate but it's a good tale that accurately reflects the dangers of messing with things that you don't understand!


Next we went musical with another classic, Tim Burton's excellent The Corpse Bride.


We finished the night of with some more funnies with Gabriel Iglesias, this time in the form of I'm Not Fat...I'm Fluffy!

Breakfast of queens, Alien v Predator & Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias

Taking it easy is always a good thing to do on a Saturday. Everything went according to plan! Breakfast was gluten free chicken nuggets, gluten free fish fingers and chips! A breakfast fit for a queen! A couple of rounds of laundry and reorganising the utility room later and that was all the work done.

Alien v Predator was some viewing for today. If you can try and block out the Alien Quadrilogy then this isn't too bad a film.


Aliens v Predator: Requiem was the action follow up. It's not as a good as the first film that's for sure!


We finished off the evening watch a Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias stand up show Hot & Fluffy. This guy is hilarious. Sam discovered Fluffy through the power of he Internet and I'm so glad he did.


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