Veggie heaven, Sara & Christian visit and new hair

It was a good day today. Toni and I started thing off preparing lots and lots of vegetables for dinner.

Two different colours beetroots

Many different colour carrots:

Being slowly assembled into a lovely dish that will be roasted:

The base for cauliflower/broccoli cheese (white sauce based):

Variation on a theme that will just have cheese rather than the white sauce:

Carrots prepped to be stir fried:

Sara and Christian arrived and engaged in catch ups and Zoe, Toni and I had hair cuts.

After the hair cuts came our delicious roast dinner which we all shared. There was roast beef for those that wanted it too but Toni and I stuck with just the vegetable dishes.

Skipping the beef was a real challenge for me but I am so glad that I did. Having a massive plate of the vegetables just left me content and full. Meat had been making me feel a little clogged up so it was nice to have a roast dinner and not feel that way. 

It was lovely having Sara and Christian over as we always have such a laugh with them but sadly they had to depart.

Our evening finished off with Toni and I watching the New York Rangers bear Pittsburgh Penguins 4 - 2 to tie their first round Play Off series 1 - 1. 

Movie day

Today ended up being a bit of a movie day. Things started off with The Atticus Institute.

It followed a simple premise: In the early 1970s, Dr. Henry West creates an institute to find people with supernatural abilities. When Judith Winstead comes to the facility, she exhibits amazing abilities that the military wants to turn into a weapon.

Whilst very slow to start it was actually a pretty good horror film. I like the mix of "old" footage versus the modern day style. It's one of those more jumpy suspense type horrors that works its way up more and more as the end nears. A good pizza movie and well worth a watch.


Next up was gangster movie Gomorrah.

In the slums of Campania, the Camorra crime syndicate has created a fortune out of cocaine, corruption and chemical waste. Some try to fight back, like teens Ciro (Ciro Petrone) and Marco (Marco Macor), who decide to steal a Camorra weapons cache in a bid to take control themselves. Others try to hide, like Pasquale (Salvatore Cantalupo), a tailor trying to get around paying protection fees. But the realization sets in: The Camorra is too large, too deeply embedded in Italy to be fought.

I didn't get on with this film at all. Nothing seemed to click for me and I ended up cashing out after about fifteen minutes. Apparently it's a bit of a cult film and is one of the best gangster films out there, just not for me.


I ended the day with 47 Ronin.

In feudal Japan, Lord Asano rules his province with fairness. However, jealous Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano) fears that the shogun favors Asano over him and hatches a plot that ends with Asano's ritual suicide. After Asano's death, his samurai, led by Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), are forced to live as outcasts. Oishi wanders for several years but realizes that he must turn to Kai (Keanu Reeves), a mixed-blood warrior he once rejected, to help him and his ronin comrades take revenge on Lord Kira.

47 Ronin was mildly entertaining. Keanu Reaves isn't really a stellar actor and this was certainly no The Last Samurai. It's a fun yarn and another watchable pizza movie.

Caffeine day

It was a struggle to get up this morning. My brain was like fog. It was definitely going to be a caffeine day! I received this lovely picture from Sophie today of Scarlett and Kenzie with a Dalek.

Work day was good enough, things progressed well, people seemed to be collaborating well and the atmosphere was good. How odd LOL. Another interview today which seemed to go well. The candidate had spent 8 years working in Japan which gave me some interesting things to talk about outside of the usual list of interview questions.

My evening was spent trying (and failing miserably) to stay awake during various things we were watching!

Looong day and bento time

It was a long old day today. Stupidly I went in at my normal time having forgotten that we had a town hall meeting across the whole of our organisation that was scheduled to run at least an hour past my usual leaving time. Saying that, it was a productive day and the meeting was actually quite interesting (which surprised me LOL).

The plan had been to go and see Batman v Superman tonight but that has been put off until tomorrow. In other news we have managed to sell the Chrysler Grand Voyager so now we are back to being a VW club again with just the Polo and the Campervan on our drive.

It's been a while since we did it but Zoe and I went into bento mode tonight preparing our lunches for tomorrow. Some new tools made it great fun!

My elongated penguin

A proper penguin

Zoe's panda

Some extra bits and a sleeping penguin

Zoe's bento zoo

Trailer time

Yes folks it's trailer time again. These should have been blogged earlier in the week but there were other things going on so it's a bumper double issue today!

First up is the latest Suicide Squad trailer:

Suicide Squad looks like it's going to be a FUN superhero movie like Deadpool rather that some of the more 'serious' ones.

Now comes the dark horse when it comes to not knowing what to expect. I was all a but meh about Doctor Strange, even with Benedict Cumberbatch in the starring role. The first trailer has now been released and I'm suddenly really excited to see this film!

A cosy night in with the Demolition Squad DVD

Tonight I watched a documentary about how punk was invented in a shed in St. Austell. True story, apparently! This little gem was made by my friend Buttz. It had a turbulent release with the whole thing being pulled and pre-orders cancelled due to someone being a dick. Thankfully due to a lot of beer and a change of heart it was game on again and new orders were placed and DVDs were dispatched.

Over two hours of pure joy is what was on offer here. Wonderful memories retold by members of the The System, some actually really very good tunes and an education as to the true origins of punk rock, well sort of anyway! There is much fun to be had and many laughs along the way

Here's the trailer!

If you want to pick up a copy of this wonderful piece of art then pop on over to the shop at www.buttztv.com

9/11 Trilogy part 2: The Oath

Today we watched The Oath which is the second film of Laura Poitras' documentaries in her 9/11 Trilogy.

The film revolves around Abu Jandal, a taxi driver in San'a, Yemen who had worked as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden for four years, and Salim Ahmed Hamdan. The latter worked for bin Laden as his driver in Afghanistan, and was captured in 2001 during the US invasion. He was detained as an enemy combatant and transported in 2002 to Guantanamo Bay. Hamdan was the first defendant to be tried in the U.S. military tribunals established by the United States Department of Defense.

This was another fascinating insight into events following on from 9/11 and exposes things are have been veiled by the media.  Salim Hamdan was found to have been held in a way that was unconstitutional. The US then passed a law immediately which allowed them to then charge him and convict him. It's quite a sad film that tugs on the heart strings in ways you wouldn't expect.


If you watch the film it is certainly worth doing some research on what happened with both Abu Jandal and Salim Ahmed Hamdan afterwards.......

Happy Birthday Sophie

Happy Birthday Sophie!
Hope you have a great day!

9/11 Trilogy part 1: My Country, My Country

Today we watched My Country, My Country which the first film of Laura Poitras' documentaries in her 9/11 Trilogy.

Laura Poitras spent over eight months working on her own and for some time following a US Army Civil Affairs team during the elections in Iraq filming the documentary. The film shows life in Iraq for average Iraqis under U.S. occupation. Poitras focuses primarily on Dr. Riyadh al-Adhadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni political candidate.

It's a really good documentary and certainly shows a very interesting side of things in Iraq that is not often broadcast in the media in that it shows how badly the US made a mess if things in Iraq. This isn't conspiracy theory stuff, it's all presented factually with no interpretation on things.

Mulling over politics

Today was spent immersing myself in a lot of political material. I'd suddenly felt the urge to get back into looking at ideals from my youth when I first started thinking outside the system when I got into punk and other alternative and subversive music.

It saddens me that political apathy has set in big style to this country. Between 1945 and 1997 the turnout to vote for UK general elections was a minimum of 71.4%. In 2001 it dropped to 59.4% and since then it has risen slightly but not by much: 2005 (61.4%), 2010 (65.1%) and 2015 (66.1%). This means that 1 in 3 people don't/won't vote. Not good!

It is clear that our current system doesn't really work all that well and certainly doesn't represent the people it claims to support. From my perspective there are two things that we could/should look at:

1. bring in true Proportional Representation. This is but a pipe dream as there are far too many people with vested interests in the current system to want to relinquish their chance for power. I have no issue with minority parties getting seats as it would be the true will of the people
2. Make voting compulsory. Controversial perhaps but given the poor turn out that we have these days it would at least get people having to think about politics. There should be a "None Of The Above" option available if this was brought in to at least allow people to show their disapproval.

Ideally of course people would actually want to be involved and make the effort voluntarily but clearly this is not happening. A combination of 1 and 2 would certainly shake things up although I'd obviously like to see to see 1 happen with everyone actually caring enough to make 2 unnecessary.  

Morning sky, DIY salad, catch up with dad and The Box Sketch

There was an impressive morning sky as I waited for the bus en route to work. Sadly this photo doesn't really do justice to the glory of the sun peering through the clouds:

Work was work and nothing really to talk about although I did have a lovely pick and mix DIY salad for my lunch. Delicious!

Dad came to stay for a couple of days and it was great to have a catch up. We ended up discussing old performances and reminisced about an old Royal Variety Show performance of The Box Sketch. After a bit of searching on Youtube I found this. Not the same performance but the same sketch and just as funny! Dad and I were both in stitches. Hopefully you will all appreciate just how good this is!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story TRAILER!!!

...and so it begins as the teaser trailers start. It might be the first trailer but it's certainly got my interest. Nice various on well known Star Wars music, some great costumes and this promises to have lots of action too!

This just looks great with at least one familiar character appearing among a sea of new ones.

Star Wars: Rogue One first trailer teaser

Tomorrow we get the first trailer for Star Wars: Rogue One, or Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Here's the quick preview teaser:

Roll on tomorrow!!!!

Interview, ramen and Kyary

Part  two of an interview from last week was today with one potential candidate returning for a further grilling. All went pretty well from my perspective. Time will tell.

In the evening Toni was out doing yoga with Giselle. Sam sorted himself out some dinner and then went off to game. Zoe cooked a stir fry which I then turned into a miso ramen which we both thoroughly enjoyed while watch a Blu-ray of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's 2013 world tour. We are off to see her again in July.

Crow Dance talk @ Dolmen Grove Essex Moot

For the first time in months I managed to tag along with Toni to attend the Dolmen Grove Essex Moot. Today we had Taloch and Kayleigh (from The Dolmen and Crow Dancers) in attendance with Taloch doing an excellent talk on the Crow Dance and the Crow Dancers band.

It was a wonderful talk. To Dance Is To Live! We covered magick, philosophy and going back to the old ways. We finished off with drumming and chanting Crow Dancers style which raised some fantastic energy!

BABYMETAL @ Wembley Arena

Tonight Zoe and I headed out to Wembley Arena to go and see BABYMETAL do their thing as they kicked off their 2016 world tour in support of their new album Metal Resistance.

We had a pretty good view from our seats:

We enjoyed the crowd bouncing a kangaroo during the warm up DJ set:

..and then it all started...........


I had high hopes for this gig but BABYMETAL smashed it and exceeded my expectations.

The set list was:
Babymetal Death

Awadama Fever

Iine!

YAVA!

Akatsuki

GJ!

Catch Me If You Can (With Kami Band Instrumental)

Doki Doki☆Morning

Meta Taro

4 no Uta

Amore

Megitsune

KARATE

Ijime, Dame, Zettai

Gimme Chocolate!!

THE ONE (English Version)


Encore:
Road of Resistance


 

See all the BABYMETAL pictures here:

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNanG7j21ClC7H_wRwjubXpfdit39tuAfk_cAjB

Star Wars stuff

Today we watched the final two episodes of Star Wars Rebels. I'm not going to give any spoilers but WOW! The best episodes they've done by far.

As part of the April Fool's Day events someone created this wonderfully scary poster for Star Wars: Rogue One:

Here is Mark Hamill holding a Star Wars Episode VIII script :)

In other Episode VIII news here are some on set pictures from filming in Dubrovnik, Croatia.


A couple of Star Wars fan films have just crossed my path. The first is Exile:

The second is Path Of A Lightsaber. It's very well put together and is quite emotional if you breathe Star Wars :)


I'll sign off with this marvellous interview with Carrie Fisher on Jonathan Ross with a cameo from Russell Howard: