Hard-Fi

Hard-Fi
Originally uploaded by Ian Wilson.

Was upgrading Winamp today and spotted Hard-Fi getting some exposure on the site. Hard-Fi are a massive band in the UK and are currently trying to crack the US market, which they admit is like starting all over again from the beginning.

Nat and I watched them play the NME Awards tour at the Hammersmith Palais on Monday and they were awesome live - literally one of the best gigs I've ever been to! They put a huge amount of effort into the performance and you really felt that they were delivering something special. Too many times I've watched bands run through their standard set list without offering anything extra to a crowd who have paid to see them in person. Greenday and REM are two bands that have impressed me in this respect. Both have back catalogues they've run through thousands of times before and yet both played gigs that felt fresh and unique and worth paying money to see (Greenday at Leeds Festival 2004 and REM in Hyde Park 2005).

A couple of days ago someone asked me what I was listening to at the moment. So in no particluar order, these are the albums currently monopolising my CD player:

The Kooks - Inside In, Inside Out
The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not
Fisherspooner - Odyssey
Editors - The Back Room
The Ordinary Boys - Brassbound
The Ordinary Boys - Over the Counter Culture
The Rakes - Capture/Release

Also loving the single 'Sugar, We're Going Down Swinging' by Fallout Boy but not yet that keen on the rest of the album. Maybe after a few more listens.

Motaball

Team building
Originally uploaded by Ian Wilson.

Ipswitch. The chav capital of England.

I spent Thurday and Friday in Ipswitch on what would normally have a been a business unit meeting/team building excersize. However my business unit at work is being restructured, which means some of us are moving laterally within the company. As such myself and a colleague are leaving our current team to join the London unit. But I digress... who cares about work... WE PLAYED MOTABALL!

Motaball, for anyone not familiar with the concept (I wasn't 3 days ago) is a mix of football and bumper cars. Two teams of 2 or 3 battle it out inside an inflatable arena, attempting to score by nudging either of two inflatable balls into the goal areas. The carts are driven like tanks with a lever on each side controlling the drive going to the wheels - so they're super agile.

It's the most fun you can have in a petrol driven three wheeled bumper car inside an inflatable arena with an oversized football.

Happy hangover

Birthday greetings going out to Adrian for the 14th...



... while I mope around the house today recovering from his party last night.

See some photo's here.

Randomness

This post is going to be so jumbled up!

First up. My new BMW has arrived at the dealership! Fantastic. All I need is the paperwork to come through to me and I'll be able to go pick it up - which should be sometime next week. I am uber stoked. This isn't my first 'new' car, but it is the first new car that I've been able to pick and customise to my specification. Unfortunately my specification appears to come with some extra costs... which will no doubt haunt me in the months to come.

Secondly, for those of you like me who played Elite as kids I recommend you check Starport out. It's pretty much Elite set in a MMORG universe. I haven't spent too much time on it yet, being largely devoted to keeping my YOU ESS OF AYE! red-neck army recruit alive an' busting zombie skullz in Urban Dead. If anyone else is playing Urban Dead and you run into Bobby Rae... say "Hi," he's currently looting the Stickling Mall in Shearbank. I would kill for this right now, and fully intend to buy it when I get back from Cape Town.

Mrh?

Thirdly... OMG it's Valentines day on Tuesday. What the hell am I going to do?!

Celebrity Death Match

I'm currently loving Austin Stevens on TV here in the UK. He's got to be South Africa's answer to the 'that' Aussie crocodile hunter - although I've still to work out if having an aswer to Steve Irwin is actually a good thing. Watching him plunge headfirst into a crevice to emerge a couple of seconds later with a 5 foot python in tow is fantastic. Not to mention those stalwart Saffer phrases he comes up with... "Jislaaik, check how he just parks in the shade over there!"

Sometimes I just need to immerse myself in anything South African I can find.

God knows how we got onto the topic, but Nat and I ended up debating the merits of Austin Vs. Steve in a battle to the death. Actually she sparked the idea off, which led to the rather hastily created Mortal Kombat mock-up. So blame her.

I reckon Austin could take Steve. No problem.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Ringing in the changes

In an attempt to regain some kind of motivation for keeping this blog up and running I'm considering looking at a redesign coupled with some adding some extra media features to the site. The last couple of months have really reinforced the fact that this site is stagnating something bad. I've lost most of my interest in updating it with personal details, and that's showing in the lack of decent content.

So my idea is to tear down pretty much every line of code behind the site and begin to rebuild it from the ground up again. No mean feat for someone who has no real experience in writing code. The last time I did this was about 3 years ago and I've forgotten pretty much everything I learned then, which isn't going to make it any easier.

The new site when/if it ever sees the light of day will include a more focussed approach, very possibly around music. This was an idea initially spung on me by Dan, who suggested that I do a podcast (listen to the Destruct hour here). It's an idea that definitely appeals, and there is currently an idea forming in my head.

So if the site starts looking a liitle bit loopy over the next few weeks, I apologise. That'll be me trying to implement the ideas in my head through online trial and error.