Hot Podcastular Action Vol 1

There are Refresh FM podcasts available for download. If you would like to hear myself and Eyan larking about on t'radio, do pop feel free to pop across and check out our podcasts some of which are laid out for you in a vague fashion below. Obviously, for copyright reasons, the music has been removed, but the silliness and games remain. This post contains details for our first 4 shows on Refresh FM. Click on the underlined titles to to be whisked to the download site...

The Quite Early Show - 2nd April

In which we talked about how to make Tiffin cake, Call My Bluff, Neighbours, Lee's beard, growing things, Dan going to Scotland, Eyan singing and choirs.

Games: Diagnosticate My Braggadocio & Sin, Lose or Draw (see below)

The Quite Early Show - 3rd April

In which we talked about Dylan from Magic Roundabout and his music, our American friend & Atlanta in Georgia, Lee's sideline in mundane helicopter rides, Eyan's love for Terry Wogan and his podcast, newsforidiots.com, Random Scandinavian facts, a Sonicflood anecdote and biscuits.

Games: Extreme Egg Curling

The Theatre of Noise - 4th April

In which we talked about physically rolling hills and mini mountains, the TON posse, jellybeans, Carruthers from the Beeb and his 'timbre', goodbye to Wax Lyrical, Eyan is mean to Lee throughout, Refresh FM's first ever phone in, Dan & Stef & Carruthers & Fil the Destroyer feel my sack, Eyan sharing a birthday with Rod Hull and getting in touch with our feminine swimming side.

Games: Can You Please Name That Tool Please, Sackcloth & Bashes, the Chainsaw Challenge

wherein we choose between different bad Christian music and destroy the worst one with a power tool....

The Quite Early Show - 5th April

In which we talked about doing badly in the bandwithnoname's humming contest, the Queen in Manchester, Prince Charles' ears, royalism vs republicanism, unmerited privilege, swallowing bees, our feud with Abi on drivetime, flies kicking over jam, old He-Man cartoons and theme tunes, making our own children's programme, Eyan causing Lee pain.

Games: ADVENTURE - a dangerously violent Easter memory game,

Movies

The Big Lebowski *****

Clear & Present Danger ***

Old Friends Vol. 1

I've been revisiting some old friends recently. This is nothing to do with me joining Facebook, although I will say it is exceedingly addictive. No, I have been revisiting old musical friends.

Now that I have a mp3 player of exceeding capaciousness, I have been copying much of my CD collection so if I suddenly have a desire to listen to a Phil & John album while out and about, I can. This has meant that I have reacquainted myself with some albums that I used to love, but have callously neglected in recent years. So over the next few weeks I will be posting about some of the albums I have rediscovered.

Delirious - Mezzamorphis

This album was released in 1999 and is an absolute gem. The undisputed creative highpoint of Delirious' output, there are elements of U2, Manic St Preachers and, in places, the mighty Radiohead to enjoy. I hadn't listened to it at all until fairly recently and I was surprised all over again at just how good it is. One of the band's trump cards is guitarist Stu Garrard, who has one of the most recognisable sounds around, possibly rivalling Starflyer 59's Jason Martin for distinctiveness.

The album was unusually well received critically for a band who were and continue to be overtly religious. See this slightly grudging 4 star review from Q magazine, who also included the standout track Metamorphis on their CD of some of the best music of 1999. Previously, due to their roots in creating (admittedly excellent) worship music, Delirious had often been overlooked in the music press and shunned by radio. With this album gaining them critical acclaim, the time was right for a sustained attempt on the charts and mainstream recognition.

However, despite two of the singles charting in the top 20 (a feat considerably harder than it is today), backing from clearly non-religious celebs (Neil Morrissey, who introduced them when they played Glastonbury that year) and appearances on the Big Breakfast and Jonathon Ross' Radio 2 show; Radio 1 still refused to playlist their songs or indeed, play them at all, apart from in the weekly Top 40 so the limited chart success was mainly down to a dedicated fan base. (A later album 'Audio Lessonover' was so called because it is an anagram of 'Radio One Loves Us' in reference to their refusal to play any of their songs)

Live @ the Royal Albert Hall

Yet within that fan base, discontent was growing in places. Many fans disliked the 'new' Delirious, feeling that they had gone too 'secular' and had sold out to the mainstream. I interviewed Delirious in the summer of 1999, and they expressed their frustration at the criticism they received from some Christians because the album didn't contain the word 'Jesus'. Despite the critcism of Mezzamorphis, it is still an album that reflects the faith of the band clearly (in fact, 'Kiss Your Feet' has since been recognised as one their most potent 'worship' songs). Controversy also followed in America with many Christian retailers withdrawing the album due to the lyric 'She's as pretty as hell' in the song 'It's OK'. Lead singer, Martin Smith responded with this press release.

It is a shame that Delirious fell in between two stools, with one side thinking they were too religious and the other often considering them insufficiently religious. This completely overshadowed what was an excellent album, regardless of the 'Christian Rock' label. If Q Magazine could overcome the religious element to see the quality, its a great pity others couldn't. This dispiriting experience no doubt contributed to Delirious' decision to return exclusively to the Christian sub-culture they started in. While still an excellent band, they have never yet scaled the heights of Mezzamorphis (although the next album 'glo' came close). Don't be put off by the 'religious' label, Mezzamorphis has more in common with U2/Radiohead than it does Cliff Richard.

Movies
Severence ****
Star Trek: Nemesis ***
Taxi Driver *****
The Station Agent *****
Downfall *****

Quiz, Quiz, Quiz - Answers, Answers, Answers

Here are the answers to the questions from myself and Eyan's monthly pub quiz. Find the questions 3 posts ago or click here.

If, by the way, you are in the vicinity of South Manchester and would like to join us for our shiny pub quiz (there's real beer and everything), come to the upstairs of the Didsbury Village Restaurant at 8pm on the first wednesday of every single shiny month.

Anyhoo, here are the answers:
Picture Round - click here to see the beautiful piccies.
These were all Oscar losers - i.e people who had been nominated but had lost at least once at the Oscars over the past 5 years.

1) Leonardo Di Caprio
2) Eddie Murphy
3) Heath Ledger
4) Holly Hunter
5) Johnny Depp
6) Keira Knightley
7) Ken Watanabe
8) Kate Winslet
9) Natalie Portman
10) Judi Dench
11) Will Smith
12) Steven Spielberg
13) Peter O'Toole
14) Clint Eastwood
15) Meryl Streep

And the Sports Round

1) Name at least two penalty scorers from the Liverpool Chelsea Champions League Semi.
Bolo Zenden, Frank Lampard, Xavi Alonso, Steven Gerrard or Dirk Kuyt
2) Two snooker legends played each other in the first round of this years Snooker World Championship. Who won – John Parrott or Steve Davis?
John Parrott
3) Which golfer is currently top of the world rankings?
Tiger Woods
4) The next F1 race is to be held in Spain on the 13th May. In which city is the Grand Prix to be run?
Barcelona
5) On Saturday 5th May Sale Sharks were hammered 49-0 by which London side?
Harlequins
6) Which were the two teams to contest the 2007 Cricket World Cup final?
Australia & Sri Lanka
7) Canada beat Germany 8-3 in an international final on April the 8th. But in which winter sport did this hard fought victory come?
Curling
8) In which sport would you find the terms rinks, jacks, ends and sets?
Crown green bowls
9) Last week, China's Qiu Hongmei set a new clean and jerk world record. In what sport was he involved at the time?
Weightlifting
10) Which football club’s stadium is closest to the River Mersey?
Stockport County

Random Movie related meme thingy

Now I may have given the impression that I like movies from time to time.

However, I did a movie related meme thingy where you say which movies you've seen on a list and only came out with 82 out of 239!

A measley 82 out of 239! Mind you, if you click on the picture you will see a readable list of my results, and you will also see that most of them are s***e. So actually, I feel quite good that I haven't seen White Chicks, Scary Movie and other films of similarly pitiful calibre

Hat tip to Naomi

Movies
Serenity ****
Serenity is rapidly becoming one of my favourite movies
Sleepy Hollow ***
The Sin Eater *

This is a mind friendly post....

I finished and handed in the last of my PGCE course essays yesterday*. This made me very happy. To celebrate, myself and some fellow course members went for a drink, something to eat and of course, a zombie movie. As you do....

I am a great fan of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later so I approached the sequel 28 Weeks Later with a certain amount of trepidation (particularly considering the last film I saw at the cinema was the abysmal Spiderman 3). When I heard that Boyle was not directing, my heart sank until I discovered that the director was the man behind wonderful Spanish oddity Intacto, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. 28 Weeks Later is a very good film; tight, controlled and action packed. It has one of the best opening 10 minutes of any film I've seen for ages. It doesn't pull its punches and has some very unpleasant surprises. The frantic, kinetic camerawork takes some getting used to, but communicates very well the confusion and panic that occurs when the Infected attack.

I heartily recommend 28 Weeks Later, providing you have quite a strong stomach as Fresnadillo has lots of excellent fake blood at his disposal and is more than happy to use it every chance he gets. Especially in one sequence involving a field full of Infected and a helicopter. I was queasily impressed...

Something else that made me happy is this wonderful flash game. Click here.
Created by the people behind the odd wonderful-ness that is Samorost, it is a lovely little Flash puzzle game made to promote a Polyphonic Spree album and as you help the 3 lost members of the Spree, some of their curiously beautiful music is playing. Do mosey on over and have a look.

*My essay was on something called Mind Friendly Learning. I can assure you, the most interesting thing about it is it's name...

Movies
Spiderman 3 *
Kill Bill Vol 1 **
28 Weeks Later ****

This is very important

Now, I rarely ask anything of you dear reader.

However, I have a request which is also a piece of advice. If you follow it, it could prove very beneficial to your life and possibly the lives of many other people. If you choose to ignore it, the consequences could be dire....

The request is this...

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GO AND SEE SPIDERMAN 3 AT THE CINEMA!!!!!!

Do not waste any of your hard earned wealth on seeing this dreadful piece of hollywood excrescence.

I was a definite fan of the first two Spiderman movies but the 3rd one is quite possibly one of the most appallingly bad films I have ever seen. It is a bloated, overlong monstrosity that is at least an hour too long (although for me, it was 2 1/2 hours too long). It has too many bad guys and Kirsten Dunst looking as if she picked up her acting ability at Primark. On the plus side there are some excellent, but sadly too few, action sequences; a criminally wasted Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman, James Franco's intriguing turn as Harry Osborn and a magnificently funny cameo for Bruce Campbell.

Yet the middle section of the film is what really lets the whole thing down. Now, for reasons far too dull to enter into, Peter Parker/Spiderman comes under an evil influence. This would have been an excellent opportunity for director Sam Raimi to explore the dark side of Parker's personality and inject some much needed weight into the middle of the film. Yet I think what actually happens is one of the worst cinematic own goals I've ever seen.

What Raimi does is turn Peter Parker into an exceedingly camp emo kid, complete with floppy hair and black eyeliner. He looks like a bad My Chemical Romance impersonator.

What happens next is totally laughable as Tobey Maguire prances around camply, does dance moves, is mean to Kirsten Dunst and generally attempts to be 'evil'. He doesn't manage it....

Unfortunately, this piece of unmitigated tripe will no doubt take millions around the world and spawn a 4th Spiderman movie. So this is my reasoning for this request to avoid this movie. If it flops, they may not bother plumbing further depths which will benefit all moviegoers.

I won't hold my breath....

Quiz Quiz Quiz

After a break forced upon us by our radio adventures, Eyan and I returned to our quizmasterly roles this month. See previous quiz related shenanigans here, here, here, here and here. Check out one of Eyan's rounds from this month's quiz on his blog of ultimate silliness here.

It was my turn to do the picture round and the sport round and they are presented for your delectation below.
All these actors/actresses/directors have been nominated for Oscars in the last 5 years but lost out. Number 1 is top left and works across to bottom right being number 15. Click on the picture for a larger view.

1) Name at least two penalty scorers from last nights Champions League Semi between Liverpool & Chelsea.
2) Two snooker legends played each other in the first round of this years Snooker World Championship. Who won – John Parrott or Steve Davis?
3) Which golfer is currently top of the world rankings?
4) The next F1 race is to be held in Spain on the 13th May. In which city is the Grand Prix to be run?
5) On Saturday Sale Sharks were hammered 49-0 by which London side?
6) Which were the two teams to contest the 2007 Cricket World Cup final?
7) Canada beat Germany 8-3 in an international final on April the 8th. But in which winter sport did this hard fought victory come?
8) In which sport would you find the terms rinks, jacks, ends and sets?
9) Last week, China's Qiu Hongmei set a new clean and jerk world record. In what sport was he involved at the time?
10) Which football club’s stadium is closest to the River Mersey?

Answers sometime later in the week.

I had the misfortune to be talking with what I can only describe as a 'fashionista' the other day. They made me very very very angry. I was going to write a furious post condemning these fashion nazis. Then I read this magnificently angry article by Charlie Brooker on the same topic and thought I would give you a link to that instead. Read it here.