It's been a couple of weeks since my last post so I guess it's about time to write something again.
Even though I've finished school and most of my private students are off on holidays these past couple of weeks have been manic what with windband gigs, writing last minute parts for music and updating my professional website. The latter has consumed a vast amount of my time this past fortnight and I'm very glad to have finished the redesign as I don't think I could have coped with anymore html. If you know who I am then you can Google me to see all of my hard work. If you don't know me then...Think of a name, then Google that and pretend it's me. I'm very happy to take all of the credit for their life work and resulting website.
Surprisingly I've even had real life social events to attend, too! How cool is that?! I almost feel like a real boy.
My movie watching has remained at a reduced rate due to all of the important worky bits going on but I'm pleased or possibly slightly ashamed to say I hit the 200 movies milestone by attending a midnight screening of Harry Potter. I now have under 50 new movies left to watch to complete my challenge! Any suggestions for anything special for my 250th?
In other good news I've managed to eat healthily. Following the excellent Slimming World diet plan, I've lost half a stone already and become much more active too. I've taken up squash again and I'm going swimming lots. My next task for the summer is to fit in more practice while things are quiet on the gig front and then make a proactive effort to get some decent gigs again (Looks like there could be more orchestral work on the horizon and a fair bit more conducting too)
That's it really. Nothing's really happened. I'll try harder to do exciting things so I can delight you all with tales of a fun and exciting nature but feel free to make up your own story about the last couple of weeks of my life. Possibly one where I ride a horse/have super powers/hang out with Robert Downey Jr.
Saturday 30 July 2011
Thursday 14 July 2011
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Reviewed Lost Penguin style
This week I got a boys' afternoon out with my brother, and what better way to spend a boys' afternoon out than watching a mindless action movie in 3D.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a huge improvement on Revenge of the Fallen, but let's face it that's hardly difficult considering Fallen was possibly one of the most half-arsed attempts at film making to ever call itself a blockbuster.
You have to know what to expect when you go and see a CG driven action film, especially from a director like Michael Bay. It's never going to deliver anything profound or win Best Screenplay Oscars, but it is going to be visually impressive if nothing else.
The plot is, of course, ridiculous. This isn't a bad point though. I mean, the film's about giant robots that turn into cars! An Autobot spaceship containing a technology that could have changed the outcome of the civil war with the Decepticons escapes from the Transformers home planet of Cybertron and crash lands on Earths moon. This turns out to be the reason behind the space race and a secret part of Apollo 11's mission. (I must say, this was the best bit of the movie for me as I love all the space race stuff and they did it pretty well. The real Buzz Aldrin was in the movie!)
The rest of the plot is pretty much a massive battle, with added padding because the actors need to flap their mouths occasionally.
We're introduced to the Autobots old leader Sentinel Prime (Leonard 'Spock' Nimoy) who we think is good but turns out is working with the Decepticons. We're also introduced to Sam Witwicky's (Shia LaBeouf) new girlfriend,thingy, whatsername, Miss Perkytits, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whitley — more on her later)
Megatron rocks up too and there's lots of shooty, shouty big badabooms.
Unlike Fallen, Dark of the Moon seems to just about manages balance explosions with humour, and there were several occasions where the whole cinema audience was laughing away. This was mainly due to the amazing Alan Tudyk, who for some reason is one of the most likable actors of all time. Honestly, this guy could kick down my front door, punch me in the face and set fire to my cat but I'd still offer him a coffee and a chat. John Malkovich is in it too, playing LaBeoufs weirdo boss — the only problem is there's not enough Malkovich screen time.
The last thing to do is point out this films main weakness...It does action well, it does humour well, but it does love terribly and part of the reason for this is the frankly terrible acting from newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whitley. A woman clearly hired for her body and nothing else, not even her weird model face. I wouldn't normally be this scathing about someone but she really has to be seen to be believed, and even LaBeoufs natural talent/cockiness struggles whenever it shares screen time with her. My scrotum has more chance of winning a best actress Oscar than this woman does. If she somehow gets another job in a film that requires some real acting skill and you end up thinking about watching it, I'd advise you to stay home and stare at a door.
I realise that I haven't exactly painted a positive picture, but it's pretty much what I both wanted and expected from this movie. I do wish they'd continued as well as they'd started with all the Apollo 11 stuff, but to be honest even I suffer from writing a tiny amount of okay content followed by absolute bollocks.
In summary Transformers: Dark of the Moon is pretty much what seeing film in 3D on a big screen is all about. Don't go expecting the King's Speech with giant killer alien robots. Allow your brain to power down and you'll be fine. It earns an action movie 6/10.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a huge improvement on Revenge of the Fallen, but let's face it that's hardly difficult considering Fallen was possibly one of the most half-arsed attempts at film making to ever call itself a blockbuster.
You have to know what to expect when you go and see a CG driven action film, especially from a director like Michael Bay. It's never going to deliver anything profound or win Best Screenplay Oscars, but it is going to be visually impressive if nothing else.
The plot is, of course, ridiculous. This isn't a bad point though. I mean, the film's about giant robots that turn into cars! An Autobot spaceship containing a technology that could have changed the outcome of the civil war with the Decepticons escapes from the Transformers home planet of Cybertron and crash lands on Earths moon. This turns out to be the reason behind the space race and a secret part of Apollo 11's mission. (I must say, this was the best bit of the movie for me as I love all the space race stuff and they did it pretty well. The real Buzz Aldrin was in the movie!)
The rest of the plot is pretty much a massive battle, with added padding because the actors need to flap their mouths occasionally.
We're introduced to the Autobots old leader Sentinel Prime (Leonard 'Spock' Nimoy) who we think is good but turns out is working with the Decepticons. We're also introduced to Sam Witwicky's (Shia LaBeouf) new girlfriend,
Megatron rocks up too and there's lots of shooty, shouty big badabooms.
Unlike Fallen, Dark of the Moon seems to just about manages balance explosions with humour, and there were several occasions where the whole cinema audience was laughing away. This was mainly due to the amazing Alan Tudyk, who for some reason is one of the most likable actors of all time. Honestly, this guy could kick down my front door, punch me in the face and set fire to my cat but I'd still offer him a coffee and a chat. John Malkovich is in it too, playing LaBeoufs weirdo boss — the only problem is there's not enough Malkovich screen time.
The last thing to do is point out this films main weakness...It does action well, it does humour well, but it does love terribly and part of the reason for this is the frankly terrible acting from newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whitley. A woman clearly hired for her body and nothing else, not even her weird model face. I wouldn't normally be this scathing about someone but she really has to be seen to be believed, and even LaBeoufs natural talent/cockiness struggles whenever it shares screen time with her. My scrotum has more chance of winning a best actress Oscar than this woman does. If she somehow gets another job in a film that requires some real acting skill and you end up thinking about watching it, I'd advise you to stay home and stare at a door.
I realise that I haven't exactly painted a positive picture, but it's pretty much what I both wanted and expected from this movie. I do wish they'd continued as well as they'd started with all the Apollo 11 stuff, but to be honest even I suffer from writing a tiny amount of okay content followed by absolute bollocks.
In summary Transformers: Dark of the Moon is pretty much what seeing film in 3D on a big screen is all about. Don't go expecting the King's Speech with giant killer alien robots. Allow your brain to power down and you'll be fine. It earns an action movie 6/10.
Friday 8 July 2011
Countdown to Christmas
It's been a really busy week this week with gigs, rehearsals, and teaching. Then, last night was my first open evening at school. I still find it strange to have kids calling me Sir and Mr Penguin, it's even stranger when parents do it!
It was quite a good night overall and hopefully all the preparation the night before, reading a BTEC syllabus cover to cover and coming up with various enrichment classes that could count towards the BTEC modules, paid off. It would have been nice to be given more than 24 hours notice to do all that, but that never seems to be the way it works.
It's the end of term for me now which means no more school until September. Yay? No. It means I take a pay cut over the summer and have to rely on private teaching and any gigs that come along. At least you'll have plenty of free time? Again, no! I have to prepare for September. Lesson plans for groups that may or may not happen and lots of writing music.
A big proportion of this summer is going to be spent arranging Christmas music for Steel Pan groups and the junior wind band. If I'm lucky I'll get a break from Christmas music in September, but by October nearly all of my music groups will be starting to rehearse for Christmas concerts. And I'll have all my own gigs to rehearse for by November.
This is it then, by next week it's my very own countdown to Christmas. If you see a curly haired musician beating the living shit out of a department store Santa for whistling Jingle Bells, come say hi.
It was quite a good night overall and hopefully all the preparation the night before, reading a BTEC syllabus cover to cover and coming up with various enrichment classes that could count towards the BTEC modules, paid off. It would have been nice to be given more than 24 hours notice to do all that, but that never seems to be the way it works.
It's the end of term for me now which means no more school until September. Yay? No. It means I take a pay cut over the summer and have to rely on private teaching and any gigs that come along. At least you'll have plenty of free time? Again, no! I have to prepare for September. Lesson plans for groups that may or may not happen and lots of writing music.
A big proportion of this summer is going to be spent arranging Christmas music for Steel Pan groups and the junior wind band. If I'm lucky I'll get a break from Christmas music in September, but by October nearly all of my music groups will be starting to rehearse for Christmas concerts. And I'll have all my own gigs to rehearse for by November.
This is it then, by next week it's my very own countdown to Christmas. If you see a curly haired musician beating the living shit out of a department store Santa for whistling Jingle Bells, come say hi.
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