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magictreehouseThis weekend's seemed quite busy really. On Saturday we went to Skipton as James' Grandma was visiting. We probably went a little early really as we were a bit bored and the house was so warm that we were half asleep! James' Mum made us a nice tea though so it was worth it for that. We were back for about nine which wasn't too bad. Yesterday we went shopping around town. I hate it usually but I was clothes shopping so it wasn't as bad. I did pretty well overall. I bought a coat which I consider quite a success considering that the only new coat I've ever bought was from Primark two years ago. This is more like a 'posh' duffel coat though. I feel quite grown-up in it. A worry. Managed to do very well in H+M all told. It's finally good again. There was a time when my entire wardrobe was from there but I haven't bought anything from there for years. I struck gold with the long sleeve T-shirts though, such is my style nowadays. james is quite grumpy to go clothes shopping with which is quite amusing. Especially when we go in places like Topman, it makes him quite potty-mouthed despite him having quite a bit of success in there. Still, I couldn't persuade him to buy a stupid hat.
We watched Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe the other day. I think it's a one off as it was basically a short history of gaming and then a run down of all types of genre. it was really interesting as he seemed to be coming from the same I do when I talk about games. I thought what he was saying about creativty and story-telling was bang on the money. A lot of the current stories in games come from people who have just watched a load of films and replicated them in games, like Grand Theft Auto. That's not to say that those types of games aren't well done. GTA is very intricate and well made game, but you end up with an immense game which is propping up a weak-as-dishwater story. The only place that that doesn't seem to happen is with RPGS which often have a brilliant story with a well-crafted gane. This is possibly down to RPGs often being made by Japanese developers. It's not all bad though. It's just frustrating sometimes playing games from an 'educated' view. I don't want to just shoot things and kill things in the most gory way possible, I demand creativity, something fun and involving, ingenuity. It exists but you have to fish through an awful lot of crap shoot-em-ups to get there. But then, the clip at the end which was from about 20 years ago said exactly that, so it's hardly a new problem.
Last Wednesday we went to see 'Up' in 3D. And God it was good. Wall:E and Ratatouille have been my favourite Pixar films so I was ready to let this one lull a little I guess but days later I'm still thinking about it. It really affected me quite a lot. I could tell from the beginning that it was going to be an emotional roller coaster. And that picture montage nearer the end made me cry (no mean feat I can tell you). I was glad that Pixar had gone back to doing comedy/dramas as opposed to drama/comedy's, it made a nice change. It was beautiful too and the 3D really added to it, which I didn't expect. A woman outside the cinema afterwards was taking comments from people who had just seen it and excitingly our comments are up on the website: http://web.orange.co.uk/p/film/details/up?lat=null&lng=null Unfortunately I sound like a simpleton. I was much more eloquant and my comment of it being 'joyous' is missing. Boo to that. It was very strange how the cinema was full of 20-somethings. No kids at all. But as James rightly said, people our age have grown up with Pixar and it's a nice thing to have. And it's interesting seeing how the films have grown with us and how they will continue to develop. So yeah, I loved it.
I think the only other main thing worhty of note is that I've been listening to lots of music. Stupidly I'm buying old 80s stuff while still buying lots of new a stuff. I must curb the spending for a bit. But y'know, the Strawberry Switchblade Best Of was a fiver. What are you going to do? Other albums I've been listening to include the new Natalie Imbruglia (excellent but really needs more than 10 tracks in order for the album to breathe more), Dragonette (bloody good!), Venus Hum (not what I expected, less intense than their other stuff, still great though) and Saint Etienne's 'Foxbase Beta'. Richard X's done a great job of updating the album's sound while not wrecking it totally. Oh, and I'm still listening to Dannii's 'Neon Nights'. Where has that album been all my life? Oh, and of course today is Annie day! If her new album isn't in my post box when I get home in ten minutes I will kill someone. Mind you, it's not like I've been waiting 18 months for it already is it?...
Talking of music, I'm thinking of starting a blog (on Blogger which I think is much nicer and better than LJ funnily enough) dedicated to music lists. It'll be for me more than anyone else but I want to do some kind of countdown of the 00s best singles. I've got a spreadsheet going and I just add songs to it when I think of them. I'm on about 350 so far but I want to cut it down really. Dunno how long to make it though. Bah.
We watched Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe the other day. I think it's a one off as it was basically a short history of gaming and then a run down of all types of genre. it was really interesting as he seemed to be coming from the same I do when I talk about games. I thought what he was saying about creativty and story-telling was bang on the money. A lot of the current stories in games come from people who have just watched a load of films and replicated them in games, like Grand Theft Auto. That's not to say that those types of games aren't well done. GTA is very intricate and well made game, but you end up with an immense game which is propping up a weak-as-dishwater story. The only place that that doesn't seem to happen is with RPGS which often have a brilliant story with a well-crafted gane. This is possibly down to RPGs often being made by Japanese developers. It's not all bad though. It's just frustrating sometimes playing games from an 'educated' view. I don't want to just shoot things and kill things in the most gory way possible, I demand creativity, something fun and involving, ingenuity. It exists but you have to fish through an awful lot of crap shoot-em-ups to get there. But then, the clip at the end which was from about 20 years ago said exactly that, so it's hardly a new problem.
Last Wednesday we went to see 'Up' in 3D. And God it was good. Wall:E and Ratatouille have been my favourite Pixar films so I was ready to let this one lull a little I guess but days later I'm still thinking about it. It really affected me quite a lot. I could tell from the beginning that it was going to be an emotional roller coaster. And that picture montage nearer the end made me cry (no mean feat I can tell you). I was glad that Pixar had gone back to doing comedy/dramas as opposed to drama/comedy's, it made a nice change. It was beautiful too and the 3D really added to it, which I didn't expect. A woman outside the cinema afterwards was taking comments from people who had just seen it and excitingly our comments are up on the website: http://web.orange.co.uk/p/film/details/up?lat=null&lng=null Unfortunately I sound like a simpleton. I was much more eloquant and my comment of it being 'joyous' is missing. Boo to that. It was very strange how the cinema was full of 20-somethings. No kids at all. But as James rightly said, people our age have grown up with Pixar and it's a nice thing to have. And it's interesting seeing how the films have grown with us and how they will continue to develop. So yeah, I loved it.
I think the only other main thing worhty of note is that I've been listening to lots of music. Stupidly I'm buying old 80s stuff while still buying lots of new a stuff. I must curb the spending for a bit. But y'know, the Strawberry Switchblade Best Of was a fiver. What are you going to do? Other albums I've been listening to include the new Natalie Imbruglia (excellent but really needs more than 10 tracks in order for the album to breathe more), Dragonette (bloody good!), Venus Hum (not what I expected, less intense than their other stuff, still great though) and Saint Etienne's 'Foxbase Beta'. Richard X's done a great job of updating the album's sound while not wrecking it totally. Oh, and I'm still listening to Dannii's 'Neon Nights'. Where has that album been all my life? Oh, and of course today is Annie day! If her new album isn't in my post box when I get home in ten minutes I will kill someone. Mind you, it's not like I've been waiting 18 months for it already is it?...
Talking of music, I'm thinking of starting a blog (on Blogger which I think is much nicer and better than LJ funnily enough) dedicated to music lists. It'll be for me more than anyone else but I want to do some kind of countdown of the 00s best singles. I've got a spreadsheet going and I just add songs to it when I think of them. I'm on about 350 so far but I want to cut it down really. Dunno how long to make it though. Bah.
