Stunning

i went a bit mad on the old itunes yesterday, getting siobhan donaghy, ryan adams and editors, but also getting catherine feeny and rachael yamagata (one of her songs was on brothers and sisters).
i have to say - wow, siobhan donaghy's album is amazing - unbelievable. I can't recommend it highly enough.
This is the girl who left the Sugababes a few years back and produced a stunning solo album which got ignored because the record company decided to invest in Rachel Stevens instead - d'oh. The new album's had kind of lukewarm reviews but all mostly good - and it's really fresh and original (well, apart from where she rips off Cocteau Twins on one song).
So guys, check it out - it's called 'Ghosts'.

Doctor Who

my friends were all shocked this week that I actually enjoyed a Doctor Who episode. In fact, I went out halfway thru but i taped it - which is unheard of. I'm not sure why i liked it so much - maybe it's cos a lot was going on or maybe it's that John Simm was superb as the Master (I think the hardcore fans are resenting his take on the character). Martha's great, Cap'n Jack was a bit of a waste of space. But it was cool - if a bit pantomimey in places.

Brothers and Sisters

Channel 4 just started showing Brothers and Sisters last week. I quite like the look of it, but i did find the opening 2 eps a bit lacklustre. Rachel Griffiths not playing a crazy bitch? No fun. And Sally Field is too much of a drama queen for my tastes. And the concept just seems a little dull. Can't quite see the potential yet. And I so would have had Ally McBeal going out with the younger brother instead - no, not incest, just going out - good chemistry.

Perverse!

And once again, dear readers, let us look and laugh at the latest JLA cover.
i had a flick thru the issue, #10 out today, and ...is it me, or is it absolutely chock full of sexual imagery and phallic symbols????
Maybe it's just hot in the office...

Bye Bye Isaiah

sooo glad that Isaiah Washington has been SACKED from Grey's Anatomy for calling his colleague the F-word. ha ha haaaaaaaa
Bye bye loser!
ha

Good music

Loving the new Smashing Pumpkins song - Doomsday Clock - which is doing the rounds online. Also loving the new Editors single, and looking forward to buying the new Editors, Ryan ADams and Siobhan Donaghy albums on Monday. Was also thinking of getting CSS but I think they might be a bit too irritating...

O Men 2.4

So finally, it's DONE!!! All thanks to my workmate and part-time music legend Bob Kelly (http://www.kellysheels.co.uk/index.cfm - turn the sound down, it's loud) who put the PDF together for me. Soooo many headaches with this one but it's done now, so I'm moving on with my life lol.
Copies going out today...when I've stapled them...

A new project

I'm working on a new comics project - well, at least I think I am. The guys who created it seem quite happy with what they've seen so far. i am entirely unsure if this is a good idea or not, what with my O Men and especially the amount of O Men work I've still got to do in the coming months, but I read the script yesterday and fell in love with it and just had to give it a go. prob best not to mention what it is just yet, but i'll just say it's Birmingham-related!
So who knows if it'll work out - i hope it does, and I've really enjoyed it all so far!

If I wrote for Marvel...

- I would recommend a comic series focusing on SHIELD! not just nick fury. why don't they do this? look at how well shows like West Wing work - it's a great set-up. they'd need some new characters though.
- After reading Ms Marvel last night - as much as i love her, the new series just ain't working for me. They should introduce a new character with her old name of Warbird. it's a name that never worked for Carol, but if they built a character up around the name, it'd be tres cool.
- I'm not a huge fan of the Sentry. Good mini-series, but beyond that, he's pretty bland. But I was reading the latest Illuminati comic - featuring the Beyonder - and I was thinking, how cool would it have been if they'd have used the Beyonder rather than the SEntry. You know, have the Beyonder in the Avengers etc.
(Incidentally, there was a mistake in that Illuminati issue - it was referencing the Secret Wars and showed Prof X saying there he could hear the thoughts of 20 or 30 people on the Secret wars planet - hello, what about that chunk of Denver that was on the planet too? silly Bendis!!!)

Fantastic Four 2

i saw this last night, and i wasn't expecting miracles - and i didn't get them.
as with the first movie, the chemistry just wasn't there. it just wasn't right. Chris Evans was just too cocky and annoying. The Thing was just too stupid (and that loud voice burp thing was so good - not! - they repeated it twice). There was more chemistry between johnny and sue than reed and sue (altho having said that, the reed/sue chemistry is a problem in the comics these days anyway).
and there were some supremely stupid moments. what happened to Galactus? didn't they think we'd be a bit disappointed by that? why did no one tell Alicia she was standing the wrong way in the church? and Doctor Doom on the surfboard. you know, guys, if he never did that kind of thing in the comics, there's probably a very good reason. And why isn't Doctor Doom Latverian? And why did he become reduced to saying awful villain cliches in the fight at the end? And if someone told me their name was Norrin RAd, i probably wouldn't say 'Well Norrin blah blah', i'd go 'what? Norman?'
but part of me did enjoy it just a little bit - i'm not as close to the FF as i am to the Xmen, so i certainly didn't feel as homicidal as when i saw X3. and i have to say, i was in hysterics at some bits, like when sue got the flame powers and when stan lee couldn't get into the wedding. Yeah I think i was hysterical.

C*R*A*Z*Y

saw the most amazing film recently, which completely reduced me to tears. CRAZY, a french movie about a very disfunctional family - was so sweet and sad and funny, with a lovely little 'twist' kind of thing at the end (like something you should have realised about the movie, but i didn't at all). so cool.

Evil Virgin Media

Remember my struggles to get Sky/BT/Broadband etc - which i've been trying to sort out since Feb? WEll it's not over yet. I got a bill for 50 quid thru from Virgin Media, my old provider, and they are saying that I didn't give them proper notice and so i am still their customer - even though they took their Virgin box away from me 2 months ago, and I've also had a BT phone line in since that time. Silly, silly people. And isn't my phone call back in Feb saying 'I want to leave you guys' enough notice?
so unfortunately i had a huge argument with a patronising and rude VM guy on Wednesday (the conversation ended with me saying 'oh fuck off' oops) so i've now resorted to writing a very stern letter...

I'm baaaaaaaack

hey guys
oooops, no posts for a week!!! been a busy one, i guess!
just a few quickies for ya:
- almost there with issue 2.4 - yay! i just have one panel to do - but it's a doozy of a panel involving a fire engine, a police car, an ambulance and a library - and i can't draw any of them lol. and then i need to put the pages together for the printer
- apprentice - wow talk about a wrong decision. simon is an IDIOT!!!
- I keep missing Big Brother - very unlike me!
- i just got my hands on the new Stephen King book (Richard Bachman) book, Blaze, to review for an online thingibob! Soooo excited!
- new Comics International came out this week - the second monthly issue all year. Some terrrrible typos on the cover and a lot of dated news and adverts - but it's got a couple of O Men things, so that's all that matters really lol
That's it for now...!

28 weeks later

Saw this last night (finally!).
Was good, but preferred the original. Using the music from the first movie was a nice touch, i guess, but it did also date the film.
Made me jump out of my seat in places.
And the little lad looked like the singer from Keane - i expected him to burst into song at any moment. I wish he had done - instead of doing really STUPID stuff that helped wipe out the population of the world.
And that poor wife! Ouch. Left to die, bitten, eyes gouged out, set on fire... Ouch again.
So an entertaining movie, but not one of my faves.

2.4

Right, this weekend I'm locking myself in so i can finish O Men 2.4. Hopefully. Unless my laptop dies... Or if i go online from 7pm Friday until Sunday 11pm, which i did last weekend (must...not...go...online....)
Just also working out with the printer the best way to do it all - it's an unusual issue, very experimental ;-)
(not like the final issue of Promethea tho - that was rubbish)

Apologies

Apologies for my bad mood of late - something triggered it a bit. If you read between the lines of a recent post you might be able to work out what it was lol ;-)
I am appalled by Emily's treatment on Big Brother. Yeah, she was stupid, but she didn't mean to be offensive. And watching Big Brother's Big Mouth afterwards sickened me a bit - everyone getting on their high horse. It's not as if she threw Charley to the ground, beat her up and said 'i hate you you f***** n******'. Emily's extraction from the house at 3am was like some kind of Nazi move. The nation needs to get a grip and come to terms with certain realities. And you know, if the word is so bad, and yes it is, then the rapper guys need to stop putting it in their songs etc. Just ban it. None of this 'we can say it, but you can't' shit.
And where do you draw the line? Using the word 'gay' to describe something as rubbish seems to be acceptable these days, but it shouldn't be.
(Martin makes a feeble attempt to address global issues, can't think of any more words, and gives up)

Facebook Shacebook

I wrote a little piece about Myspace a while ago, and now it is the turn of Facebook. What is the point of this site apart from letting people pose and be self-obsessed? I don't understand. I don't have time to sit around taking photos of myself all the time. I don't care who has just 'made friends' with who. I do think these new things are the domain of 20-somethings, not a miserable 33 year old though, lol. Everyone at work seems to be on it all day!
Sorry, I am miserable today, aren't I. Maybe the internet has frazzled my brain. It's like 'Pulse'.
(And yes, I know having a Blog is a bit self-obsessed.)

What is Happening to me?

Oh dear, it's all going horribly wrong. I mean, don't worry, everything is cool, but now that i have broadband at home (for the first time ever!) it's not really all going to plan. For instance, Friday night, instead of catching up with O Men 2.4, i found myself online on chatsites and surfing and IM-ing for 6 hours. Same on Saturday. Sunday, sat down at 4, started off quiet, then I"m on there until 11, chatting to friends (old and new lol).
But the upside is that O Men is actually doing okay, I'm almost there, and I am hoping that an internet-free weekend will get 2.4 done and dusted...
Hoping...

Big Brother

Oops, news just in, my favourite contestant, Emily, has been booted out of the house for using a racist word. That’s a shame, she was my favourite. I loved her devious ways!
And bollocks was it racist. It’s not as if she said “I hate you, you ******”, she was just being silly. Sigh. They should have kept her in, warned her, and let her show that she’s not a racist and that people can learn from mistakes.
I haven’t commented much on Big Brother this year, I just don’t feel into it at the mo – maybe it’s cos they’ve messed with the format a lot. I guess it has been good though, with plenty of rows!
Here are my thoughts on the contestants:
Lesley – Excellent, love her, hope she stays
Carole – fat, boring
Laura – lovely, she should win!
Charley – ugh, horrible – but great value
Sam and Amanda – calmed down now, so less irritating. Quite sweet.
Nicky – ugh, horrible, nasty, moany. Great value!
Shabnam – irritates me. Weird face. Like an alien.
Tracey – funny. Keep arguing, luv.
Chanelle – cool, but would have been better if Emily had stayed in so they could have a nice rivalry.
Ziggy – is he attractive in any way? Yuck.

‘Reality’ TV

So Kristina and Simon are in the Apprentice final. What a swizz. You see, apparently, it was all staged. We didn’t see this, but the story is that Simon was fired, Katie was hired and then she decided she didn’t want the job, so they brought Simon back in and re-filmed it all. So now it’s no competition – Kristina will win, not that dozy, finger puppet-like dimwit Simon.
All this fuss recently over phone-in rip-offs and racist Big Brothers – and I actually find this worse, because they’re deceiving the viewers, deliberately. This could really blow up in their faces (although it probably won’t).
And these elimination shows – they’ve got to stop deliberately getting rid of the strong contestants at the start. Apprentice was left with a bunch of idiots and demons who would never get the job. Bring back the guy from the first week, I say.
And finally, just a quick mention of Alan Sugar on the Jonathan Ross show a while ago. On the Apprentice he is this astute, impressive personality – on the Jonathan Ross show he was a bumbling, pathetic old fool. What happened? Maybe he was determined not to reveal anything about the show, and it all got too much.

Corrors

Comedy moment on last night's Corrors. Prostitute Leanne had been kidnapped by crazed Paul and thrown in the boot, and their car was involved in a big accident. Mom Janice found out what was going on and ran to the car, concerned that Leanne had "stopped banging". Well, she couldn't really do much with a punter in the boot, could she... hehe

It worked!

It worked! and i set my laptop up! yippeeee! i've never had broadband at home! it's amazing! i love it!!
i can do o men now! (or spend the rest of the weekend on the internet...)

Mission Laptop III

Day 13:
This could be the day. They sent me my third laptop charger. Obviously, again, I wasn't at home to pick it up, so I had to fetch it today. As an extra challenge, it wasn't collectable from my local post office, it was at the DHL HQ in Vauxhall, an area I'm not really familiar with. So it involved getting up at 6.30am, getting the 7.30am train, and wandering around Vauxhall for half an hour. I actually spotted the place from on the train, but getting into it was another matter. It was like trying to break into a prison and of course I went completely the wrong way.
So I now have the charger. It didn't come with a plug lead, which is helpful, so I just spent my lunch hour going to a computer shop and got one - hoorah!
So could this be it? Will it work? Can I start working on O Men again after two weeks? Will I be able to hook myself up to broadband, finally after 5 months?
You just know it's all going to go horribly, horribly wrong, don't you...