Every once in a while the major technology firms decide to release something cool to the world. For some reason its always a Tuesday, and well today Google, Flickr and Apple released some funky shit to the public. Flickr is now even better with a massively improved photo sharing site, google released notepad, a notepad type thingy and Apple released the Macbook. Its just odd how they always pick the same day.
Edit: and Yahoo! have gone all new too.
I truly admire Kevin Smith. His films have made me smile so much over my formative years. Of note are Clerks and Mallrats which never fail to make me smile. He truly is an amazing writer and one director I can forgive for writing a dodgy movie.
Over the last few weeks he has done something we rarely see on the interweb or anywhere to be honest. He has opened up his heart and through his blog has told the story of his close friend and on screen partner Jason Mewes and his battle with drug addiction. Although long, its an amazing read which for the first time on the Internet has made me cry and laugh at the same time, showing the skill of his writing style.
Although I doubt his next film, Clerks 2, will create the same emotions in me, I cannot help feel that knowing what Jason, Kevin and all the people involved in this tale have gone through and to have come out OK will make the experience of seeing the film a even more fantastic experience.
I would encourage everybody who truly loves film to first watch the Smith back catalog, then to go on and read the following in order.
Me and My Shadow, Pt. 1
Me and My Shadow, Pt. 2
Me and My Shadow, Pt. 3
Me and My Shadow, Pt. 4
Me and My Shadow, Pt. 5
Me and My Shadow, Pt. 6
Me and My Shadow, Pt. 7
Me and My Shadow, Pt. 8
Me and My Shadow, Pt. 9
“Control Alt Chicken� is a new, download only, geek cookery show. The first episode is up for download over at revision3. Its rather scary how bad they are at cooking, but for a first episode which is free and pushing the boundaries of Internet tv its well worth a peek.
Bless the yeah yeah yeahs. The new album, “Show Your Bones” sounds ace, which you can check out on myspace. I still don’t ‘get’ myspace, its madly popular but to me it just looks like geocities in a time when websites can look so much nicer. Surly now that its owned by news corp they could make some nicer icons and change that ugly flash music player into something a little slicker.
Ultra Right wing tosspots, the BNP, seem to be producing “The Real News�. Strangely it has ended up on google video for the masses to digest. I suppose its inevitable that a service which was made purely for sharing videos of ones cat has been turned into a tool for spreading the drivel of the far right.
The Russian music site known for selling many popular artists albums for next to nothing have released a new piece of software to help its patrons download music from their store. The people over at iTunes must be pissed off at the existence of this store which utilises a crazy Russian legal loophole meaning that it doesn’t have to pay pays a fraction of the amount to the artists for the downloads as say a full CD sale would. Now, however, Allofmp3 have named their new software “allTunesâ€?, a blatant rip on the iTunes name. Either AllofMp3 have legal balls of steel or they just know that within Russia they are virtually untouchable by any western idea of copyright and trademark law.
Last night I went to the pub for a few jars of orange squash and to witness some music entertainment. Fun was had by all, but whilst sporting a “Night of the Living Dead� (IMDB) T-shirt I was spotted by a fellow zombie flick lover. She not only loves Zombie flicks but has also produced a wonderfully funny short film about the living dead and killer nuns. For a student film I was actually amazed by how much I laughed at this.
If the idea of a student film about zombies puts you off, trust me its worth it just for the line “God damn pathetic catholic issue guns�. You can watch “Killer Nuns And The Zombies From Channel 6� at Studentfilms.com.
Yesterday I went and got Akira (IMDB) on DVD for the bargain price of £6.97. The Japanese Manga film always seems to be praised by critics and animation gurus alike so I thought I should see what the fuss was about.
This really is an amazing film although as a side effect has given me nightmares about nuclear warfare. The night time scenes where futuristic bikes with the 1980s fashion clad riders rampage through the streets of Neo-Tokyo really were captivating. Although I am still not a anime nut.. I can see why films such as this can get somebody hooked.
Here is the trailer which you will need RealPlayer to play.