Films and More

Hurrah!

Finally there is a film out that’s worth paying good money to see.

‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army.’

Worth it alone for the very funny Barry Manilow scene (rated by MTV as the best moment of the summer) and definitely for Luke Goss’ portrayal of the elf prince (yep you KNOW I’m in love!), this film is superb. Far better than the original ‘Hellboy’ in my opinion, due I think to the ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ type creatures that positively infest the movie, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the film in a way that I haven’t done for ages.

I would agree with Mrs H3’s assessment that the film bears little resemblance to the trailer though. I think the trailer misses out on the fact that this is basically a romance movie, albeit with monsters instead of humans (hence the Barry Manilow section).

However, don’t let that put you off. Guillermo del Toro has done another fine job with this film and has managed to pull off a mixture of arthouse and mainstream Hollywood in one wonderful film. If you love ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ I’d think you’d like this film. If you haven’t seen ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ see it immediately!

So the next film we’re likely to see is ‘Tropic Thunder’. Mrs H3 says it makes her laugh just thinking about it. Now I’m not sure whether this is because the film is genuinely funny or whether it’s because she’s thinking of me squirming over seeing it. Sure it has Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr, but it also has Ben Stiller and Steve Coogan and that can’t be good. However, I’m game for a laugh (which is why I refused to go and see ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’) so we’ll go and see if it matches up to the trailer, which does actually have a funny scene in it (the bit with the kid for anyone who’s seen it).

Whilst at the cinema we saw a display for the new Kiefer flick ‘Mirrors’, which I tried to steal as it had an almost lifesize picture of Kiefer on it. The film’s not out till 3rd October, but is at least something to look forward to as it looks like ‘Twilight’ isn’t being released in the UK in November, instead appearing on the original release date of 9th January 2009.

Oh and note the countdown ticker – only 323 days till Harry Potter is out (see 10 days have gone already) … almost no time at all *LOL*

Finally, and for those that like to know these things (mum and dad mainly) I think I’ve broken my toe. Running late as ever, I caught my foot and bent my middle toe right back causing all sorts of pain. By this morning it was swollen and purpley black from the bruising and still painful. Of course there’s nothing I can do about it but wait for it to mend. It’s amazing how easy it is to hit your foot when you don’t want to!

Bleurgh!

I hate it when a plan doesn’t come together.

There I was on Friday expecting to spend a happy night curled up on the sofa with my book and a couple of glasses of wine. Unfortunately, I spent the evening with my head over a bucket being sick as a very sick dog and trying not to pass out from dizziness instead. No idea why. I thought maybe food poisoning at the time, but after excessive sleep and a feeling of nausea all day on Saturday and continuing into today along with a headache which is only just beginning to fade it makes it more likely that I had a bug. Still fragile today, I have the dubious pleasure of feeling like I spent all day yesterday doing abdominal crunches where my muscles have seized up after all that retching.

Still on the bright side I’ve finished the book and finally know what all the fuss was about (yes of course I checked out the furore as soon as I was done with it, although I’m saving the podcasts for when I go back to work). Not being religious or extremist and being perfectly well aware that vampires don’t really exist, at least not in the way the Cullen’s are portrayed, I actually had little problem with the book.

For me it was every bit as enjoyable as the previous three and the story was just as unlikely as any of the prequels. I can’t really say much without giving away spoilers, unfair for anyone who is yet likely to read it, but I’d have said the story was pretty much predictable for anyone who has a basic grasp of the characters and their motivations. This sounds like a criticism, but it really isn’t. For me the series read exactly like what it was, a teenage romance that just happened to involve supernatural characters.

As I said before I’m a sucker for vampire stories and also for romances, so it fit perfectly into my reading schedule. It reminded me in some ways of the fantastic Freda Warrington vampire series – ‘Taste of Blood Wine’; ‘A Dance in Blood Velvet’ and ‘The Dark Blood of Poppies’, although Freda’s books are far better written and much more adult in tone. I know these books seem to be rare as hen’s teeth to get hold of but if you prefer less teen romance, more classic vampire seduction then definitely check out these books. They are firmly in my top three favourite vampire series of all time, along with Brian Lumley’s ‘Necroscope’ series and of course the quintessential vampire stories by Anne Rice.

In retrospect I don’t regret buying ‘Breaking Dawn’ at all. Yes I was weak-willed as Mrs H3 so kindly pointed out, but I needed to know what happened and now I do and am very happy because of that. And now I look forward to ‘Midnight Sun’, the retelling of ‘Twilight’ from Edward Cullen’s perspective; mainly because I feel it will be interesting to see how the author deals with the vampire side of things properly and I won’t be able to resist reading romance from Edward's viewpoint.

But what to read next? Well I’m currently reading the new Jeffrey Deaver ‘The Sleeping Doll’, that I started last week before I bought ‘Breaking Dawn’ and I’m rereading all the Harry Potters (currently close to finishing ‘Goblet of Fire’). I really want to read Matthew Reilly’s ‘Six Sacred Stones’, the follow-on to ‘Seven Ancient Wonders’ that I thoroughly enjoyed, as soon as I go shopping in Asda to buy a copy. But I’m now wondering whether it might be time to re-read the classic vampire stories I love, after all it’s been a few years since I read the Freda Warrington, the Anne Rice and the Brian Lumley. Oh and while I think of it, maybe its time to dig out George R R Martin’s wonderful ‘Fevre Dream’ too.

A Little Light Weekend Reading

Okay so I caved in and bought ‘Breaking Dawn’ the final book in the ‘Twilight’ series by Stephenie Meyer. I wasn’t going to, in fact I was determined to wait until the paperback came out; knowing that although I’d enjoyed the first three I could (just about) bear to wait for the paperback to find out what happened.

Except of course I couldn’t.

Now I think I did pretty well considering. I mean the book’s been out for over a fortnight now, so I didn’t crumble at the first hurdle and pre-order from Amazon, nor did I go to the midnight launch party (been there and done that with HP). Even after a couple of days I was standing firm. I didn’t even crumble when the internet was filled with stories about fan backlash with the ending – I just ignored the stories (with some difficulty) even though I was of course dying to know what happened and just why everyone was so upset. But then spoilers started appearing everywhere. On You Tube video comments; on the ‘Twilight’ sites (of course) and more annoyingly, on the Harry Potter sites, as there is a huge crossover of fans between the two series. Still I managed to stay rigid. But then came the onslaught of the podcasts.

Now I listen to a lot of podcasts, and especially to Harry Potter ones like Snapecast, Pottercast and Mugglecast (to name just three of the many). Of course ‘Twilight’ is big news everywhere right now and has been discussed briefly on previous podcasts, but now ‘everyone’ has read the final book the spoilers and more in depth discussion on the books themes are starting on there too. Mugglecast even did an interview with Stephenie. To have to turn off a perfectly interesting podcast halfway through because I’m one of the few people who hasn’t yet read the conclusion to the Cullen saga is frankly annoying.

Unable to go without my podcast fixes and unwilling to ruin the ending of what seems so far like a perfectly good book with heavy duty spoilers I finally gave in this lunchtime and bought a copy. As at this moment I am 204 pages into it (yes, like the others it is pretty easy reading) with another 550 to go. With no plans for this weekend I guess I know now what I’ll be doing; although if it’s anything like reading the HP books I won’t be able to put it down till it’s over.

Expect a late night and a few glasses of wine as I join Bella, Edward and Jacob for one last story (until ‘Midnight Sun’ comes out of course). I can always sleep tomorrow night!

The Sunday Morning Ramble

I’m writing a little uncomfortably today. My trusty computer chair which my parents bought me as a Christmas present some eight or nine years ago has finally given up the ghost and died. It has survived many years of sitting, wriggling and using as a step ladder. The material was frayed and the padding coming out, but still I sat on that rather than my sofa. It had lost an arm somewhere along the way and the height mechanism no longer worked, but it was a good chair nonetheless. Until Friday night when the metal frame, after years of wear and tear finally sheared dumping me unceremoniously on the floor. RIP to my fabulous chair. I just hope I can find one as good to replace it. If anyone has any recommendations please let me know.

******

Although I’m still upset about the Harry Potter film reschedule (did I mention that at all?), some good news may be just around the corner. Summit have announced that they are moving ‘Twighlight’ into the empty spot left by Harry Potter in the US at any rate. Disappointingly, they were originally intending to release the film in the UK a month after the US release (I really hate when they do that … remember “Sweeney Todd”?), but I’m hoping that they’ll realise with the big furore over the Potter film, and the huge launch of ‘Breaking Dawn’ they have the perfect launch date and they’ll make it a worldwide thing. (Excuse the gratuitous poster below. Any excuse to gaze at the gorgeous Robert Pattinson - loving the golden eyes!)

So here’s to hoping that Twilight hits the UK cinemas on 21st November!

And to help with my wait for ‘Half Blood Prince’ I’ve added a ticker to my blog – Only another 333 days to go!

The Angry Ranting Bit

Yep I’m pissed off … extremely pissed off. With Warner Brothers. I’m sure by now that everyone knows that the release of ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ has been put back by eight, count ‘em, EIGHT months due to Warner Brothers money grabbing attitude.

Now I know I’m not alone in being upset. The Leaky Cauldron crashed from the number of people trying to access the site and comment on their disgust of the situation – over 600 comments in 2 hours, and reports in various world newspapers about petitions and boycotts from what are described by the LA Times as "amongst the most intense devotees in contemporary pop culture" show that the fans are very angry indeed.

This isn’t helped when WB executives release statements which give away their true intentions. Blaming the recent writers strike is useful but doesn’t cover up the fact they’re hoping to make more money by waiting till next July, especially when IMAX produce a press release saying exactly that. After the understandable outrage from the HP fandom at the date change WB’s President Alan Horn was quoted as saying that he acknowledged that the studio would have to pacify fans in the months to come: “We would never do anything to hurt one of the movies or the series. We love our fans.” Mr Horn certainly doesn’t use my definition of the word love!

The first pacifiers came quickly. After months of nothing much in the way of promotional material suddenly there were new pictures: including Snape, Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange performing the unbreakable vow; Snape and McGonagall with the golden trio examining the charmed necklace and the Slug Club meeting and Christmas party.

Nice to see especially for a Snape fangirl like me (maybe Snape will get more than ten minutes of playing time in this movie after all – a must surely considering the book (and film) is really called Harry Potter and Severus Snape), but annoying too. Forget the pictures and just give us the film!

I guess that explains why the official trailer wasn’t released with ‘The Mummy’ as had been touted by WB at the end of last month, however the publicity machine has already been gearing up for the November release so it will be interesting to see what happens when they have to promote next July. Entertainment Weekly (a huge magazine in the States) is running their 7 page feature on the film this month (it hits the newsstands today) and I am sure there will be others. Hard to see how this missed publicity will be recaptured when the film finally comes out.

So now I have to wait until 17th July 2009 to see the film. WB have helpfully pointed out that this means less of a wait for film 7 – ‘The Deathly Hallows Part 1’ which is due out on 19 November 2010 (assuming of course they don’t shift that date to a more profitable one too), but that doesn’t help. I expected the wait for the next film. I didn’t expect to have to wait another eight months for this one.

Interestingly, as part of the EW article, Steve Kloves (writer of 5 of the 6 HP scripts so far) says that he has just finished the first draft of HP7 Pt1. He is quoted as saying that they (I assume he means WB) are worried that with the end of the book series that the popularity of the franchise will drop and they won’t have an audience for the last films. Perhaps he and the executives at WB ought to take a look at the HP fandom before making stupid statements like that. Not only does it show no signs of diminishing, the number of people enjoying the books and films increases every year as more young readers (and adults willing to take a chance) pick up the stories. The main reason WB are likely to lose an audience is through stupid moves like the one they pulled yesterday!

The Music Bit

So as well as lounging around eating ice cream and watching the latest blockbusters Mrs H3 and I have also been enjoying the music.

On Thursday 3rd July we were back at the O2, this time seeing Duran Duran. This was a weird experience for me. It was promoting their last album ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ which I have to admit I’d not listened to after the first couple of days of owning it as I wasn’t overly keen on it and so I don't know the words to any of the songs. It was odd to be at a concert and not singing along except to ‘Falling Down’, especially as Mrs H3 and everyone around me was. Of course they also didn't play any of the songs I really liked from the album so I actually, and I really hate to admit this, found myself a bit bored at various points throughout the night. Of course things livened up when they played the old tracks and overall I will admit that the evening was excellent and I did thoroughly enjoy it.

I was unlucky enough to be stuck behind a fat bird with fat hair to match (yes I am aware that I’m not Twiggy) who was dancing like she was having an epileptic fit for the whole concert. Every time I tried to get a picture or video the stage, in fact even just look at it she was in front of me waving her big hair around all over the place. Although we were pretty near the front of the venue I spent most of the evening watching the band on the big screen as it gave me an unobstructed view of Simon.

Mrs H3 says that I’ve been different about Duran Duran since their treatment of me in New Orleans. And I think she’s right. Whilst I didn't expect them to stop and talk to me I didn’t think it was too much to expect a smile or a wave, having travelled so far to see them, especially considering there were so few people there. On their fan club website and when they are on stage they are always going on about caring about their fans, but I saw no sign of that at Voodoofest and being cynical it is easy to think they are just about making money.

That cynicism is even easier to have when you discover that the VIP packages that they sell for an extortionate amount of money (I believe the O2 ones were about £400) aren't so VIP after all. My idea of VIP is for a select group of people to be given the chance to have the top seats and the experience of meeting the band etc. At O2 there were 150 VIP packages sold – certainly not my idea of select, and they were sitting only a few rows in front of us. Did they get to meet the band beforehand? I don’t know but according to the information on the website it’s not always guaranteed. This year I also decided not to buy a programme (and actually stuck to that) and the t-shirt stand was left well alone as they didn't seem to have anything under £20 (the blingy t shirt I liked was £35!). Of course as much as I moan I will still renew my fan club membership and be nervously waiting for tickets the next time they tour, so I guess I’m not too cynical just yet.

In the end we decided against going to the Mighty Boosh festival, mainly due to a severe lack of money and so our next musical outing was to see the rescheduled Pete Doherty show at the Royal Albert Hall. Now obviously we had been eagerly awaiting this since Pete had got himself put in prison back in April and I’m sure Mrs H3 was the same as me in hoping that he didn't do anything stupid before Saturday 12th July came. Fortunately he didn't and the show went ahead as planned.

And it was brilliant. I know a lot of people knock Pete for his drug habit but they are being unfair. If you didn’t listen to a band/singer because of drug taking there would be very few bands left in the world, and the ones left would generally be pretty boring. Pete really does have a wonderful voice; he’s a brilliant songwriter and a consummate performer. When he appeared on stage he was well dressed in a suit, completely clean and sober and drinking tea. Oh and he wasn’t wearing his trademark hat either.

The audience dynamic was interesting to say the least. A mix of hard core fans who are more used to him playing venues like the Tap ‘n’ Tin, seat owners who had come along purely to see what all the fuss was about and others like Mrs H3 and I who just enjoy good music and a good evening out. We were lucky enough to have front row seats in one of the boxes and so had an excellent view of the proceedings.

As the evening went on it was clear that some of the die hards were having trouble with the RAH concept of sitting still and watching the performance. Occasionally they tried to get up and dance but were asked to sit down, this wasn’t what they wanted or were used to. Pete did make a couple of mentions to it, at the beginning asking if everyone was sitting comfortably, and later saying he’d been told by another artist that the best bit about being at the Royal Albert Hall was the respectful silences between songs – his die hard fans didn’t shut up for a moment.

What amazed and impressed us most was his ability to keep going under difficult circumstances. At one point in the evening a guy in the front row was trying to get him to talk to his girlfriend on the phone in the middle of ‘East of Eden’. Pete stopped singing, asked the guy to turn his phone off and then carried on pitch perfect from where he’d left off as if he’d never stopped singing. Shortly after the same man was evicted from the hall after he threw a bottle of water at Pete.

Unfortunately the Royal Albert Hall chose to only have two of their bars open during the short interval and so we missed the first few songs of the second half (including ‘For Lovers’ which I’d been hoping he’d play) as we and a million other people were still queuing for water and the evening was cut short by a stage invasion at the beginning of his encore, which effectively ended the show. However, yet again, even with the stage filling around him he only actually stopped singing when the crowd dragged him too far away from the microphone to be heard. I just hope he had as good an evening as he appeared to be having. I know Mrs H3 and I did, although more than a little disappointed at losing the final fifteen minutes of what could have been an amazing encore.

I was worried that as usual the reviews would show the old drugged up pictures of Pete that they always seem to reel out for stories about him and that the stage invasion would be used against him. Fortunately there were only a few that used this tactic, the rest being fair and respectful and even using pictures of him from the evening which showed how good he was looking. The event was filmed and so hopefully at some point in the near future everyone will be able to see just what a good evening those of us at the RAH had that night.

Since then it’s been all quiet on the music front, although we do have plans to see Gary Numan at O2 Indigo on 7th September and hopefully, when I can afford the tickets, Elbow at the Roundhouse in October. By then I’m hoping the I Am Kloot guys will be back from their festivals and touring again as it’s now been 105 days since I last saw them and I’m having serious withdrawal symptoms. Having caught part of their performance at Latitude on the TV I see that Johnny has had his hair cut and I approve. I think he looks better without the long curls.

A New Game

I think I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m not as happy with my new phone as I could be. Although it’s lovely and pink it takes really crap photos and even worse video. It is so bad that I’ve decided to create a new game for Mrs H3. It’s similar in style to the old ‘Shooting Stars’ game where Vic would sing a song in a club style and the guests had to guess the song. I’m going to do the same with my concert footage. By the time the sound goes through my phone it comes out just as thumping bass. So the game is guess the song, the singer and the concert. With clips to choose from My Chemical Romance, IAK, Gary Numan, Duran Duran and Pete Doherty it should be interesting – especially as they all sound pretty much the same!

The Film Bit

Mrs H3 and I have been to the cinema a bit and seen most of the major the new films (except for the Dark Knight which I’ve gone off more and more as I hear more about it. It’s long (as soon as Mark Kermode said its 2 ½ hours and feels like it I knew I wouldn't be watching it unless I really had to), it’s boring (apart from when Heath Ledger is on screen so I’ve been told by just about everyone who’s seen it) and it’s got Christian Bale who personally I can't stand). So here’s a quick rundown on my thoughts on the films we’ve seen.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
So we went to the premiere and it wasn’t exactly the exciting evening we were hoping for. For starters the red (or rather green) carpet seemed to be a bit thin on the ground with stars. Apparently there were ‘celebrities’ but of course as I steadfastly refuse to watch any reality TV or read any of those crappy ‘real-life’ magazines I didn't recognise any of them. This is the reason I look so bemused in the photos. Being serious the only people I actually recognised were Liam Neeson (who was looking divine, as was his wife Natasha Richardson who wore a lovely blue dress) and the four kids (and that was probably only because I’d seen the video of the four of them getting off the boat while we were waiting).

Unfortunately the place we stood wasn’t the best for meeting celebrities either. What seemed like a good position opposite the podium where the TV woman was interviewing the stars as they came through meant they were whisked across to the podium just before they reached us and then continued signing autographs etc. with the crowd just after us. There were a few exceptions. The guy who played Prince Caspian – Ben Barnes (who is to play Dorian Gray in a new version of the film – one definitely on my list to see), made the effort to come back to see our section and a large screaming group of young girls next to my left ear attracted several children’s TV presenters and reality TV boys. Liam Neeson never came near although we waited for over an hour for him to reach us, although to be fair the four or five of us who wanted to meet him (strangely we were all older women) weren’t able to shout loud enough over the little girls crying for the latest reality TV star.



By the time the ‘stars’ had gone in it was well past time that the film should have started which wasn’t really fair considering it was a school night and there were lots of children there. We had to get to our seats and didn’t even have time to get a drink, let alone anything to eat. So we found our seats. The showing was at the O2 and seated 10,000 people. Imagine a cinema screen in a space that huge. We had and expecting problems seeing from further back had got seats about 3 rows from the front. However, the screen was huge, far bigger than expected and we could have easily seen it from everywhere. So we were further forward than I’d have liked, although it was good for seeing the film’s stars when they appeared on stage just before the showing. It was also a bit freaky when you turned round to realise there were almost 10,000 people behind you and very strange when sections of the audience suddenly burst out in sporadic applause and the like.

The film itself was good enough: certainly on a par with the previous title in the series with excellent cinematography and CGI. However, it was shot in New Zealand and there were several scenes where it was too similar to the Lord of the Rings, both in content and the use of the same spot for filming (an example of this is when the Telmarine’s chase Caspian from the castle they are washed away while trying to cross the river, the same stretch of water that washed away the Nazgul in Fellowship of the Ring when they were chasing Arwen and Frodo). Similarly when the Narnian’s attacked the Telmarine castle there was a definite feel of Harry Potter to it, from the aerial views of the castle to the flying griffin.

One major redeeming feature for me was the brilliant casting of King Miraz by Sergio Castellitto who I had never heard of before. He was very much the perfect baddie and I spent the whole film alternately thinking that I was in love and thinking how perfect he would be as Severus Snape. Not replacing my beloved Alan obviously, but for his vital younger years scenes in the Deathly Hallows (surely they must do the Prince’s Tale justice if they’re splitting the film into two parts mustn't they? By rights it should be a huge part of the films and I live in hope that eventually they’ll give him the prominence that he deserves). Sergio has the dark glittering eyes, the sallow skin and the prominent nose and just the right amount of snark to carry it off successfully.

So here’s a picture of him … tell me he isn’t perfect as a younger Severus.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Well you know I was looking forward to seeing this, after all I LOVE the first three films (yep even the dodgy second one) and although the reviews were dire I was still expecting great things. WRONG! The film was every bit as bad as the reviews said, in fact, if anything I’d have said it was worse. Overlong, boring and completely out to lunch (there was NO need for aliens in this film – Indy is a treasure hunter and we want to see that). It didn't help that Harrison’s performance reminded me heavily of the ‘Headcases’ TV show’s version of Indiana Jones. So much so that it really put me off. I came out of the film convinced that I would never watch it again, not even when it’s on the telly and I think Mrs H3 was pretty much in agreement with me on this. Certainly we were both hugely disappointed and felt that the series had been badly let down by this pile of crap.

Mamma Mia
I saw the stage show of this last year with the girls and absolutely loved it and when I saw the first teaser trailer towards the end of last year I was excited about the film version. An interesting choice of cast and the chance for an expansion on the magical stage show made this a must-see film for me.

Unfortunately I would have to confess to being a little disappointed. Although Meryl Streep and Julie Walters put in excellent performances and Colin Firth was lovely enough to look at as always, it seemed to me that putting the real scenery behind the set pieces somehow dampened the effect. The minimal staging in the show is just that for a reason. Imagining the scenery allows the performance to shine through, with all the scenery around to take your mind off the performance it comes across as lacklustre. It did have me pining for my Crete holiday but apart from that I wasn’t impressed although Pierce Brosnan’s singing performance was terrible enough to almost make it compulsive viewing.

I know that most of the people I went with enjoyed it thoroughly, although Mrs H3 did tell me just as the film was starting that she wasn’t an Abba fan, something that I think you really need to be. I couldn't imagine even seeing the film if I didn't like the music. Steve and the barmaids went to see it the following week and they loved it, even getting up and singing and dancing (we were far more restrained and stayed seated through the whole thing which might have been where we went wrong), except for Tammie – she fell asleep, citing the film as boring when asked. Personally I’d agree with Tammie.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Now I was looking forward to this almost as much as Indiana Jones. Yet again I have a deep love of the first two Mummy films (although my sister hates them and can't understand my interest at all) and was looking forward to the latest in the series even if it was no longer set in Egypt.

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Disappointment doesn’t cover how grieviously this franchise has been damaged by this terrible film. For me the first major and completely unforgivable problem was the casting of someone else as Evie and someone who was nowhere near up to the role. Okay so Rachel Weisz didn’t want to be in it (and I’m not surprised considering how crap it was) but instead of getting someone completely different with a totally different acting style and personality to play the character they should have killed her off. Brendan Fraser is of course always pretty wooden but you expect that and so he doesn't disappoint, but the actor who played the son seemed too old to be such; he was more like a younger brother. Even John Hannah’s performance (always usually a highlight in these films) was marred by rubbish jokes and the dialogue all the way through completely stank.

There were some good set pieces, clever special effects and of course martial arts, after all Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh were in there too, but it wasn’t enough to redeem what was an absolute stinker of a film. When the thing you worry about most is whether the yak was okay it tells you something is seriously wrong. As it finished Mrs H3 and I agreed that we would never go to see another Mummy film again and also decided that ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ was actually a better film! I think that says it all really.

The X Files – I Want to Believe
Well I didn't have the highest hopes for this as I’d heard reviews saying it was basically an extra long episode of the TV series. This was absolutely correct it really was, and not one of their more interesting episodes either. Having said that it meant I got to spend the best part of 2 hours in the company of David Duchovny so it wasn’t all bad (although I was pleased when he shaved off his beard). And I do have to give 10 out of 10 to Mrs H3 for coming up with a much better plot ending for the film than was actually the case! This is definitely the best of the films we’ve seen recently. although I’m hoping Hellboy 2 is going to be a step up, so far all the films I’ve been looking forward to for the Summer season have been disappointing (to say the least).

Of course there are films I am looking forward to, although not a huge amount it has to be said. Having said that the end part of the year has the films I’m REALLY excited about. Coming next is ‘Hellboy 2: The Golden Army’ as I mentioned above. I will admit that I wasn’t that keen on the original Hellboy film for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. For me it just wasn’t quite enough. However, it looks like Guillermo del Toro has gone to town with the monsters in this one, very much more ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ (which I absolutely adored) so I’m looking forward to it. The trailer looks awesome and of course it’s got Luke Goss in it, looking like an ill Lucius Malfoy so it’s almost worth watching for that alone.

I’m also now champing at the bit about ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ since Warner Brothers have FINALLY released the teaser trailer for it (all 1 minute and 31 seconds of it – see below). Of course the theatrical trailer would be better and is desperately awaited (and not just by me either – I think the whole HP fandom is going mad with the lack of promotion), but it hasn't been released with The Mummy as was reported all over the internet (shame because it would have almost made The Mummy worth going to see). Other rumours suggest it will be shown with the new Star Wars film, but I have no intention of seeing that even for the HP trailer.



The HBP premiere has been chosen as this years Royal Film Performance. Amazingly the tickets are on sale to the public, although at £4,800 for 2 tickets (only a mere £7,000 for 4) for entrance to the main film theatre with the chosen royals plus other assorted famous people (Alan Rickman and Jason Isaacs? *sigh*) I don't think we’ll be attending unless Mrs H3 or I win the lottery in the near future. There are other tickets on sale at varying prices, a red carpet event with screening at an ‘adjoining cinema’ for £200 per person, or a smaller screen ‘adjoining cinema’ for £175. There is also a ‘Near Simultaneous Screening’ which takes place an hour later for £60 and a ‘Late Night Screening’ at £25.

Now I’m seriously considering the last option as it’s 1) the cheapest and 2) directly after the Royal premiere. I REALLY (and I do mean really) want to be among the thousands watching the stars of the film turn up on the red carpet just so I can be in close proximity to the lovely Mr Rickman. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from the Prince Caspian premiere, there is nothing worse than watching the red carpet and then not having time to eat or even get a drink. So the late night showing makes a great deal of sense. I get to squee in a fangirly way at Alan (and Jason if he’s there) and then get to chow down before heading off to see the film. Worth £25 of anyone’s money to do that I’m thinking.

Finally the last film I am waiting for, almost as much as HBP is the teen vampire romance flick ‘Twilight’. I am avidly watching the two teaser trailers that have been released, plus any extra scenes that come along and can’t wait for more footage. It stars the gorgeous looking Robert Pattinson (who played Cedric Diggory in ‘Goblet of Fire’ and ‘Order of the Phoenix’) as Edward Cullen and there has been considerable discussion in the Twilight fandom about his suitability for the role. Well he looks pretty damn good to me (and no Mrs H3 I don't care at all that he’s too young for me I still think he’s completely gorgeous).



I have to admit to only having found the books since hearing about the film, but I love a good vampire story (oh okay I just love any vampire stories; good, bad and indifferent) and the ‘Twilight’ series are very good vampire stories and I would definitely recommend reading them. Surely it is impossible not to fall in love with Edward Cullen in the way that it was impossible not to fall in love with Louis in the Anne Rice books (or maybe I am just a shameless romantic), although it is even easier as he is every teenage girl’s dream man even if he is undead. And then there’s Jacob!



Once I’d got the books I’d read the first three, ‘Twilight’, ‘New Moon’ and ‘Eclipse’ within two weeks (and these are big 600 page books). ‘Breaking Dawn’ the last book in the series was released last week, apparently causing a huge backlash from the fandom because … well I didn't buy the book because I wanted to wait for the paperback, but I’m not sure I can wait that long – avoiding ‘Breaking Dawn’ spoilers is becoming more and more difficult and I really want to read the story before I hear about the ending and of course to find out what’s got everyone so upset.

Hello Everyone ... Long Time No Speak!

Okay so I’m back. Yep I know I’ve been gone for months and I don't really have any excuse as I’ve had loads to blog about, but I just wasn’t feeling in the mood to write and so I didn’t. But I’m back (finally) and feeling somewhat revitalized and so maybe I’ll be blogging regularly again, although I’m just about to hit a quiet period with not much in the way of entertainment going on so maybe not. Who knows – perhaps I’ll finally finish my New Orleans holiday blog (oops I’d forgotten I hadn't finished it – I could have sworn that I had the last time I had a burst of activity on it) and get round to doing the Crete Odyssey blog now that I’ve got Mrs H3’s photos.

So time for a HUGE catch up and be prepared it’s going to be a long and bumpy ride, so long in fact that I’ve had to split it into several posts – the general, the film and the music.

First a few photos that I’ve been promising to post, but never got round to:

The secret paper scrapbooking project (post below). As some of you may have guessed the project was something for Dr Jen and Michael’s wedding. It was my contribution to a scrapbook of the wedding which was organised by Shazzer. As you can see it was rather basic. Yep I know. How did it take 5 hours to complete this? Well the tale of woe is below, but hopefully it was worth it to give the Doc and hubby some happy memories of their special day.

And while we’re talking about the wedding here’s a few photos of it.

Doctor Jen, Michael and their families

Sinners together again (LtoR): Jen, KW, Doc, Shazzer, Me, TJ

Me and Mrs H3

And here's the pictures from Warwick Castle from April. Assorted pictures of hats, castles, waxworks and birds of prey and of course the largest trebuchet in the world. Once again I’d recommend this as a fabulous day out to anyone in the area. I couldn't decide which ones to post so I've put them all as a slideshow.

Finally a late congratulations to Jo and Paul who celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary last week. Hard to believe it's been a year since I was in Italy, how fast is time going?

The Joy of Scrapbooking!

On Sunday I remembered why I’m a digiscrapper.

It was a simple premise – I need to decorate 2 8x8 pages for a little project I’m working on. Now with real difficulty it would have taken about twenty minutes on my computer – in real life? About 5 hours!

But it’s simple I hear you say. Yep it is – if you’re one of those organised scrappers who knows where everything’s kept, not when you’re me with your stash buried down the back of the sofa (amongst many other places).

Step 1 – choose your papers. I needed 4 different papers – easy enough you would think except that it meant moving EVERYTHING from behind the sofa to find it. Even Arnie would have had trouble lifting some of my boxes of papers – God knows how I got them down there but they’re not coming back up again without me doing some serious injury to my back!

Step 2 – cut to size. Okay – so I’ve lost my paper cutter. Nope I found it but the blade needs replacing. So I find the scalpel. Unfortunately the blade needs replacing in that too. And I can’t find a cutting mat or my steel edged ruler for love nor money. So finally I dig out the scissors and cut by hand – it’s a bit wonky but it’ll do. It’s made with love after all!

Step 3 – rounding the pages. Yep you guessed it can’t find my CM corner rounder anywhere, although I know I saw it somewhere earlier but I do have 2 Dovecraft ones (no longer - they are now in the bin where I should have thrown them the last time I realised they were completely crap). So I’ve ruined a perfectly cut page with a crappy corner rounder and realise I have no choice I have to find the CM one or not bother with rounded corners.

Step 4 – cut the embellishments. These are simple and fairly plain pages so I only have a few hole punched embellishments in different papers. I wanted to do circles but find I don’t have a circle hole punch bigger than a pinhead, so okay I’ll change everything and go for hearts (the only thing of the size I need).

Step 5 – stick it all together. Well I’ve lost my herma. I can find various refills but not the actual unit. I don’t want to use double sided tape in case I need to move anything around later. Hurrah my first piece of good luck my Xyron X sticker thing is somewhere where I can see it straight away AND joy of joys it has repositionable glue. Brilliant! I can stick my embellishments on my page.

But now it’s looking a little bare – I don’t have any suitable titles etc. and not quite sure what it should say anyway at the moment so instead I decide to add a couple of extremely heavy plaques (those metal ones by Making Memories)

Step 6 – add the metal. They have eyelets on the back so need to be set. Of course I do still have my Provocraft Silent Setter but to my mind it’s even more useless than the Dovecraft corner rounders so don’t even bother trying to find it. What I need is my trusty setting kit and a big hammer. Of course I can’t find my MM toolkit which has all those wonderful things but I do have a setter hanging around and strangely there’s a little pick hammer down the side of my freezer (don’t ask why). No mat though and so I have to bang it into the table (fortunately about a million years old) leaving a couple of nice holes in it.

So my pages are finally done. And I can’t yet show them, but as soon as I can I’ll post them so you can see how much trouble went into such little outcome.

I’m seriously considering selling all my stash and going purely digital – it’s much easier and quicker to do and all the kits can be stored on my external HDD taking up no space whatsoever!

Hello It's me!

Blimey I know you all thought I’d died!

I’ve had a complaint (okay more than one actually) that my blog hasn’t been kept up-to-date recently. I’d like to point out that whilst I’m out doing all the exciting things I write about in my blog I don’t actually have time to write it and since the Chelsea Flower Show I seem to have been constantly busy.

So first was the Chelsea Flower Show. Always a good day out and this year was no exception and we were lucky enough to have the best weather of the week. Personally I wasn’t all that impressed with some of the show gardens – all that green and white that was so fashionable this year was rather boring. As usual I didn’t like the garden that won Best in Show (the Laurent Perrier garden) but I also missed all the television coverage so have no idea which garden won the People’s Choice award. I did notice that the gardens in the final were generally the ones with colour rather than the boring green/white combos, which says something about the taste of gardeners as opposed to garden designers. We did attend two interesting talks, the first given by Julian Dowle, the designer of my favourite ever Chelsea garden ‘From Darkness to Light’ for the Salvation Army, who discussed the differences between modern and old fashioned gardens and the second by Andy Sturgeon who gave a slideshow of the building of his fabulous show garden for Cancer Research. It was fascinating to see exactly what goes into building those amazing gardens. How they manage it in three weeks I’ve no idea.

Hopefully if this works there should be slideshow of my Chelsea photos below. If not they can be found at Chelsea Flower Show 2008, but be warned there are over 300 pictures.



The day after Chelsea Mrs H3 and I went to see ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’. I have to say I thought it was dreadful. As a devotee of the first three films I was very disappointed with the effort. There were many special effects, but a lot of them seemed to be done just because they could rather than because they were needed. The story was ridiculous and pretty boring in parts and the ending was poor too. Cate Blanchett was underused as the baddie and the worst thing for me was that Harrison Ford’s Indy reminded me very much of the ‘Headcases’ version and it really put me off. Whilst I would always watch any of the first three films I can’t imagine even bothering to turn on the television for the latest one. Will it be a classic in 20 years time? I can’t see it, but then I know a few people who aren’t quite such fans of the original three who thought the film was good so maybe the passage of time will improve it.

So onto ‘Potted Potter’ the play about the Harry Potter books. I’m not sure what Mrs H3 thought about it but I loved every minute. Incredibly funny and irreverent, the thing had me in stitches from the moment it started (watch out for the terrifying dragon!), through the Quidditch match, right till the end of the last book and poor Severus Snape’s upset at his fate. For the first time ever I ended up in Slytherin (hurrah!) but we lost the Quidditch match to some precocious child who added a great deal more laughter to the proceedings. I haven’t laughed so much in ages.

Then it was time for the Eurovision Song Contest. I love this trashy pop fest and try to watch it every year. This year was just as good as usual, although the proliferation of Eastern European countries in the final mean that the Western Europeans are likely never to win again. The voting has always been dodgy, but this year was extreme and our (poor but better than in several previous years) entry was given hardly any points again (not even Malta voted for us this year). Anyway unsurprisingly Russia won (although my personal favourite was Azerbijan with their wonderful angels). It will be interesting to see if the BBC and other Western European countries continue to fund the competition when they have no chance of even getting in the top ten any more let alone winning. I hope so because for camp entertainment value if nothing else it’s worth the licence fee – but only as long as Terry Wogan continues the voiceovers of course.

So we’re still considering the Mighty Boosh Festival, but are now booked to see Gary Numan in September at the O2 Indigo.

With summer coming it’s wedding time and my friend Kelly married Mark a couple of weeks ago (31st May). Next Saturday (21st June) my Sinner friend the Doc (Jen2) and her other half Michael are tying the knot in Essex and I look forward to catching up with friends old and new there.

Finally the biggest news (and the reason that I haven't updated the blog as quickly as I should have done) is that Mrs H3 and I went off on holiday. Yep after spending months (and I mean months) thinking about it we finally headed to First Choice at Bluewater on the Friday before our holiday started to see what last minute deals they had. After two hours we emerged with our holiday choice – 7 nights in Crete at the Golden Bay Apartments. We flew out on Tuesday morning (3rd June) returning the following week.

The weather was hot, the hotel basic and quiet and Crete was a wonderful place (although Greece seem to be rather taken with the Spanish Eurovision entry ‘Baila el Chiki Chiki’ – they played it a lot). I am intending to do the Crete Odyssey holiday blog once I get Mrs H3’’s photos (she took lots more than me), hopefully with input from her. The hot weather wasn’t too good for Mrs H3 though and she got bad heat rash which turned nasty when we got home culminating in her ending up with steroid cream and the possibility of cortisone injections, poor thing.

Unfortunately the holiday worked out quite expensive and it meant that we had no money left for the Elbow & IAK concert at Delamare Forest (and believe me I am bitterly disappointed as I haven’t seen IAK for almost two months now although Guy Garvey is playing them on his show tonight on Radio 6 so I'm listening in specially) however it did give me a nice relaxing weekend at home before having to go back to work.

So next Thursday is the premiere of Prince Caspian at O2. Look out for Mrs H3 and I on the red carpet with all those celebrities.

It's My Blog's Birthday!

I’ve just realised that I’ve been doing this blog for two years now so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my blog which I started on the 15th May 2006! Wow two whole years of aimless rambling – doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!

Disappointingly I’ve just lived through a whole week without any live music; I’ve not seen a show, been to the cinema or done anything even vaguely of interest. Of course there are things on the horizon – in fact the future looks pretty good, but my present is most definitely boring.

The one bright spark has been the acquisition of the new(ish) Elbow album ‘Seldom Seen Kid’. I already had and enjoyed an earlier album ‘Cast of Thousands’ but hadn’t really taken much notice of them for a few years. With the possibility of seeing them with I Am Kloot in Cheshire next month I thought it was high time to catch up with their newer work. I had heard (and loved) the single ‘Grounds for Divorce’ but hadn’t expected to enjoy the album quite as much as I did. I think it is probably a completely ‘me’ album. With fantastic lyrics, lush storytelling over divine music, upbeat yet careworn, dreamy and enchanting, the album is a joy to listen to and gets better with repeated listenings and I can safely say is one of the best albums (if not the best) that I’ve heard this year.

Not such a surprise I guess when Elbow are so closely linked to Kloot and have Richard Hawley doing guest vocals on a track. Perhaps it was obvious that I was going to love it.

Music will be playing a big part in my future as we’re still going to see Duran Duran on 3rd July at the O2 arena and now that Pete’s been released from jail it looks like his concert at the Royal Albert Hall has been rescheduled for the 12th (according to the NME anyway). I’m really interested in the Mighty Boosh Festival on the 5th at the Hop Farm as Gary Numan has announced he’ll be playing there and I love the Mighty Boosh; whilst Mrs H3 has shown interest in the Zoo8 festival at Port Lymphe mainly due to Chas & Dave’s appearance I think, who are unfortunately on the same date. I'm also extremely tempted by Jools Holland's upcoming concert at Rochester Castle on the 17th as Marc Almond is playing with him. All I need now is to win the lottery and I can go to all of them and the Latitude Festival that same weekend which IAK have just confirmed that they are playing (with Elbow).

But it doesn’t stop there. Next week sees the opening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Although the critics haven’t been very kind to the film I’m sure it’ll be just as entertaining as the other three so I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’m not sure when though, next Friday Mrs H3 and I are off to see ‘Potted Potter’ a 70 minute take on the Harry Potter series. Believe me when I say we’ll go and see just about anything if it looks interesting enough!

In my last post I mentioned Diesel Park West playing at Chatham Central Hall. Fortunately I didn’t get tickets for this as the following day Mrs H3 got us tickets for the premiere of ‘Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ at the O2 arena. Not only did she get us tickets but she got us amazing tickets at the front, dead centre. Obviously this is going to be a fantastically star-studded event (after all it is the UK’s biggest film premiere and for charity – Great Ormond Street Hospital) and I understand that there is a dress code involved so look out for the two of us gracing the red carpet, no doubt trying to upstage any minor celebrities that may be there.

But before all this comes Chelsea Flower Show on Wednesday – the horticultural highlight of my and Lynne’s year and so far the weather forecast is looking good. The gardens … the flowers … the Pimms … ahhh the pleasure of a nice day and relaxing with the sounds of the brass band and an ice cream. Of course there will be the usual hundreds of photos uploaded somewhere on line after the event – my fabby purple new camera very kindly donated by Mrs H3 has a card big enough to hold almost 3,500 pictures – more than even I’ll need for the day!

Loving the sound of Motown

Well keeping up with the growing tradition of live music every week, last night I went for a slightly different type and went to the theatre to see the Motown musical, “Dancing in the Streets”. Lynne had a spare ticket as someone who was supposed to be going was ill and I stepped into the breach. I rarely take much notice of what’s playing at Chatham Central Hall, but obviously a lot of people do as it was pleasingly well filled.

The premise is as simple as the set – a recording studio in downtown Detroit filled with the house band and a run through of the greatest hits and hitmakers of the Motown catalogue - the Marvelettes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, The Supremes and Diana Ross, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Glady’s Knight and the Pips and more.

I love Motown and for me the chance to see the sort of dance routines that groups like the Temptations would have used was the real pleasure, as was hearing all those fantastic songs again. All the cast were thoroughly excellent, although I personally wasn’t keen on the girl who played Diana Ross (although to be fair to her she did come into her own on ‘Love Child’, one of my favourite Supremes songs) and actually cringed during the singing of ‘Endless Love’ which I think the show could have done without (actually the whole Lionel Ritchie thing seemed a bit out of kilter with all those other fantastic songs).

As with all the best musicals there was loads of scope for the audience to sing and dance and Lynne and I took full advantage of the opportunity. It really was a very good musical and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes that type of music.

As I was there I thought I’d pick up the leaflets for upcoming productions having spotted the wonderful Dara O’Briain on the cover (unfortunately he’s on the same day that we go to Chelsea Flower Show), however something that did catch my attention was Diesel Park West’s Marrakesh Express Tour which is hitting Chatham Central Hall on 19th June.

Now Diesel Park West are one of those resurgent psychedelic bands that I loved in the early ‘90s but, as I’m sure you’ll be astounded to hear, didn’t do as well as they should have done. After early promise (EMI actually bought the record label (Food) they were on as they wanted them so badly) with their first album ‘Shakespeare Alabama’ they disappeared, never to be heard of again (except by die hard fans I expect). Now, suddenly here they are doing a tour covering the songs of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Freakily, I had a conversation about Diesel Park West only last week at the I Am Kloot gig as it turned out that one of the two women I chatted to after the show’s sister lives with the lead singer John Butler. She was amazed that someone had actually heard of DPW, let alone actually knew any of their work and we had quite an interesting discussion about what they’d been up to over the years.

Anyway this seems like an interesting evening so I may have to go for it, however plenty of time between now and then to decide as I can’t see it being sold out.

Oh and IAK have announced that they’re supporting Elbow at Delamere Forest in Cheshire while Mrs H3 and I are on holiday. I’m thinking a trip up that way could be in order …

The Perfect Evening ... Almost!

So the concert last night was fantastic (bet you guessed I was going to say that *LOL*) but it really was. Unfortunately things didn’t quite go to plan. I found my hotel but couldn’t find any sign of the car park. As Nottingham is a one way town it meant driving right round again for the second attempt. At this point my petrol light has come on and I’ve found that the garage marked on my sat nav has been knocked down, with no sign of any other garages in the area. Unable to keep driving aimlessly I park in the hugely expensive NCP car park and make my way on foot to the hotel, which is one of those ramshackle bad end of town jobs. Having established how to get to their car park I go back to release my car from the NCP at the extortionate price of £2.80 for 13 minutes parking. Soon I’m back in the hotel with its musty smell, peeling wallpaper and slightly too spongy carpets. I’m allocated the room the furthest away from the entrance – on the third floor (with no lifts) and a real hike once at the top of the stairs. The only bonus is that it’s right next door to the fire escape so I’m okay if there’s a fire. Although the hotel was a bit grim the room itself was clean and tidy with fresh bed linen and a rock hard bed, but then the downside to my cheap room – no ensuite. The toilet is right down the end of a very long corridor and the bathroom is next to it. Thank god I’m only here for one night.

Then I find that the new memory card that I bought for my camera on the way up is the wrong one, even though I showed the salesman my camera. I am not happy as I’d wanted to record ‘Fingerprints’ and the card I currently have is nowhere near big enough. I have to admit now that I deleted all the pictures I’d taken on 25th April for Shimelle’s course to free up some space, but alas it wasn’t anywhere near enough – I managed to get only the first verse (*sigh* am I ever going to get a decent copy of this song? Why on earth don’t they release it?)

By now it’s gone 7.30pm and I still need to get some food before I go to the concert but there’s plenty of time multimap has said it’s a 15 minute walk to the Rescue Rooms from my hotel and I’ve got the map and the directions. The problem is that Nottingham isn’t very well signed and so I have trouble working out which way I should be going. I ask the receptionist who’s clearly never been to Nottingham before as she doesn’t recognise any of the roads around the hotel at all and can’t tell me whether to go left or right out of the door. Eventually she tells me to go left (she’s wrong). So finally I head off in the right direction only to discover that they’re not keen on street signs. By some fluke I manage to find Maid Marion Way after about fifteen minutes of walking and set off up the huge hill to find the roundabout. I find that too, after another twenty odd minutes and then try to find the next road (according to the map I’m almost there). It’s not there and no-one I ask has ever heard of it (or the Rescue Rooms … I find out later that it used to be called something else and everyone knows it by its old name). Eventually a nice doorman at one of the Casino’s takes pity on me and tries, without much success, to decipher the map and instructions I’ve got, but he too is stumped. Eventually after more aimless wandering I finally manage to find a cash point and someone who can point me in the right direction. I’ve still not had any food but there’s no time as it’s now almost 9pm and I’m still not there yet.

By fluke I spot Rock City, the bigger sister of the Rescue Rooms so I know I must be in the right area. I am, sort of. I’ve found the back where the tour coach is. Luckily I find someone to ask and they direct me back round the corner where I finally reach my destination just in time to hear Ferraby Lionheart’s last song. From the applause he’s receiving they obviously really liked him. I get a drink and head over to the desk to (finally) buy his CD and have a chat with him about the concert and the tour in general. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and tells me that he’s really enjoyed touring with IAK and has loved the UK.

The venue is a small one, not much larger than the Half Moon and I head (of course) for the front. The stage looks rather crowded with all their equipment and when they come onstage almost 15 minutes early Johnny comments on the way that his guitar cables are completely messed up. Everything goes pretty smoothly, with the usual jokes and heckles until ‘Life in a Day’ when Johnny’s guitar stops working. He disappears off to the side of the stage to try and sort it, but it doesn’t work. When a second guitar doesn’t work either he proceeds to strut the stage like some old time rock god, highly appreciated by the crowd.

When the rest of the band disappear for their cigarette break (poor Pete used to smoke 20 cigarettes during a concert so the smoking ban has hit him badly) John creates mayhem trying to get his guitars to work. He decides to plug them directly into the amp and there’s a cheer as the guitar works once more, but the wires are still tangled and as he heads back towards the mike he ends up pulling over the amp, almost wrecking his other guitars in the process. Norman nips back onstage to help him get the amp back up and eventually Johnny gives up and moves the mike nearer to the amp. The last few songs go without a hitch and suddenly it’s all over again.

After saying I wasn’t going to do it, I did buy the official release of ‘Moolah Rouge’ with the DVD as it gave me the chance to get it signed by Johnny. We had a brief chat during which I was surprised and pleased to find that he recognised me – probably from Half Moon, and discussed the concert at Koko, with the conclusion that while it was a fantastic concert he’d enjoyed this one more.

As luck would have it I’d got chatting to a couple of women who were standing next to me during the concert (alas my memory for names is rubbish) but it turned out that they were good friends with Colin and Norman McLeod, the brothers helping IAK on their tour and owners of the Moolah Rouge Studio. Soon I had been introduced to them too and had quite an interesting discussion on the tour, the amazingly huge glitter ball at Koko, Colin’s Theramin that Norman had played during the concert and other such fascinating topics. They asked me if I was going to the final gig at the Manchester Academy on Saturday night but I told them I had to work and it was too far to go (aren’t I a good girl). They did try to convince me and even suggested that the band wouldn’t be going onstage till 10pm, but I wasn’t swayed (yay me for being so strong!)

As much as I was having fun chatting to them and Ferraby who’d made a reappearance I knew I had to go as I still had to find my way back to the hotel and I wasn’t sure what walking back would be like at that time of night. Amazingly I managed to find the hotel pretty quickly as I now had some idea of the route and it actually did only take about 20 minutes. Of course by the time I’d got back to the hotel my mind was turning over the idea of going to Manchester, working out that I could just about make it, especially if I manage to get them to let me finish work at the pub at 3pm.

Of course I won’t really go – 1 long trip in a week is more than enough, especially as a bad cold that I had earlier in the week has now increased to leave me with a sore throat, hardly any voice, blocked sinuses and a strange noise in my right ear. No I won’t go … although I really, really want to!

IAK at the Rescue Rooms ... Here I Come!

Okay yes I admit it I’m mad!

I’m just about to head off to Nottingham for the I Am Kloot concert at the Rescue Rooms. Sorry but withdrawal symptoms coupled with rumours that apart from an appearance at a festival in Holland at the end of August along with Babyshambles (which interestingly clashes with a festival that Gary Numan is headlining that same day) they aren’t likely to be touring until October meant that I just had to make the effort to go. I’ve managed to find the cheapest and probably dodgiest hotel room in the world so I don’t have to make the journey straight back after the show.

Am I obsessed with the band? Maybe, but at least it’s getting me out and I get to hear great live music. Oh and it’s going to be my final attempt to acquire the Ferraby Lionheart CD too!

And I'd Like To Thank ...

As if there was ever any doubt (did I mention I was competitive) the Drama Queens headed by my dear mate Amanda were crowned the champions of the UKS cybercrop last night.

It was close, but not that close - yep we thrashed those other teams, Musical Melodies, Comedy Kings and the Lovey Doves.

Final scores:
Drama Queens = 30560
Musical Melodie = 29690
Comedy Kings = 27970
Lovey Doves = 27190

Well done to all my fellow Drama Queens without whom ...

UKS Cybercrop Final Day

So here I am posting my final layouts of the cybercrop. Unfortunately work once again intrudes in the creative process and I have finish early.

At the final tally I managed 8 layouts – 5 challenges and 3 classes.

Challenge 1 – Blank Cheque – to use only plain papers:

Challenge 5 – All Inspired – A layout based on one of a choice of film titles – of course I chose the obvious ‘All I Desire’ and I think it’s fairly obvious who I chose as my subject for that particular layout!

Challenge 7 – Oscarlicious – A layout in the classic black and gold of Oscar. Another Kiefer layout as the colour scheme didn’t fit with Jo’s wedding pics. Still who’s complaining?

Challenge 9 – Ladies Night – A layout showing something glamorous. And what could be more glamorous than my sister in her wedding dress?

Class 5 – Up Close and Personal by Claire – The original was done in black and white, but I love this pic of Jo and so it was the perfect substitute.

So in the final tally I managed 290 points and some great layouts! Now I just need to wait and find out if the Drama Queens won the crop.

Day 3 Cybercrop Points = 290

UKS Oscars Cybercrop Day 2

Okay so it’s the end of day 2 of the UKS Oscars cybercrop.

Have to admit to having not been very productive yesterday evening mainly due to having to install Office 2007 and then get to know how to use it before I could do anything – it’s weird compared to all previous versions of the programme, but I’m loving it so far. Also the first few classes weren’t really my sort of thing as a digiscrapper – the first was to decorate a manikin and then do a mini book for it to hold, then there was a challenge to make embellishments etc. However, this evening I’ve got into my stride and managed to accumulate 130 points for the Drama Queens.

Now I know they say the point of the cybercrop isn’t to get points it’s to have fun and do decent layout’s (and to that end they’ve hidden the score and they won’t be announced until the crop is finished – please let us see the running total Scrappybunny *beg beg*), but as we all know - for me points are the thing. They are the thing that actually get me scrapping. Let’s face it I didn’t even get round to looking at the classes for the last one which had no points attached to it and neither did several of my sinner mates.

Of course I’ve made it difficult for myself (why not eh?) because with the exception of one layout I am expecting the rest will be of Jo and Paul’s wedding and so I’m having to adapt the classes to fit the colour scheme that I’ve been using for them.

So far I have managed 2 classes and 1 challenge, although I’m anticipating completing a few more before I go to bed (after all I haven’t done my traditional cybercrop Kiefer layout yet).

So here’s what I’ve done as of 11pm tonight:

Class: The Colour Purple by Beckie – this class used lush velvet papers etc.

Class: The Stuntman by Sarah – how not to be afraid of white space it said on the blurb!

Challenge: Media Mogul – a layout based on a movie poster. I used the one for Pride & Prejudice (shown below)

So I’m off to read back through the challenges and see what else I can do easily otherwise I might be making a start on my Kiefer layout.

Day Two: Cybercrop Points = 130

Scrapbooking, Photography and More

So tomorrow is the start of the Oscars cybercrop on UKS. Although I meant to get more involved in the run up this time I haven't had a chance but I am certainly hoping to get something done over the weekend - hopefully a few more layouts of Jo's wedding.

Tomorrow is also the start of Shimelle's new photography course 'All Systems Go'. The idea is that every 25th of the month for the next year you spend all day taking photos wherever and whatever you're doing. Jo told me about the course as she'd heard about it on a photography course that she's doing called 'Painting with Light'. I've decided that I shall give it a go - after all it's only the commitment of 12 days out of my next year. You never know it might even improve my photography

Anyway here's a reminder that Shimelle's given us

If anyone else wants to join in then check it out here. Oh and it's free to join in so no reason not to give it a go!

Guilt is a Terrible Thing

I am so not a criminal. Or at least I should say I don’t have the mentality of a criminal. As you know Mrs H3 and I were on the guest list for Tuesday’s I Am Kloot gig at Koko as we’d agreed to collect e-mail addresses for the band’s newsletter. The premise was simple, turn up before the bands come on, collect a clipboard, paper and pen from the merchandise desk, harass a few unsuspecting lurking students and then settle back to enjoy Ferraby (not Mrs H3 obviously) and the awesome I Am Kloot. Great in theory, in practice not quite so simple.

For starters when we arrived at about 7.45pm (bear in mind Ferraby wasn’t going on stage till 8.30pm so this is how serious I was about doing the job properly) the merchandise desk was closed so we didn’t even spot where it was. After searching the whole of Koko for something that looked like the merchandise desk or anything to do with IAK we finally asked a security guard. He directed us back out to the entrance where we found the desk – still closed.

So back into the theatre where we found a fabulous spot, for once not right down the front by the stage but up in the balcony next to the sound desk. Unfortunately, I start to feel guilty about not having collected e-mail names and eventually get so fretful that we have to go back to the merchandising desk. It’s still closed and still no sign of anyone. We are lucky that we manage to get our space back. Now of course anyone else would give up at this point and just enjoy the evening, but not me. Another two times we visit the merchandising desk only to find that it’s still closed and still no one around. Of course by this time Ferraby has come on and we’ve lost our space. Mrs H3 is taller than me so she can still see the stage and spots Pete to whom she gives a huge wolf whistle before he runs off again. I tell her she’s scared the poor man away. *LOL*

Finally I Am Kloot come on and our good spot on the balcony is no longer so because loads have people are now in front of us (yep my fault totally for getting wiggy about this collecting lark again) but we can’t go downstairs because it’s absolutely packed (hurrah finally a mega crowd for Kloot – and better still most of them obviously appreciated the music big time) as Mrs H3 gets a bit freaked in close spaces.

Then to really cheer me up I’ve got three dickheads next to me who don’t stop chatting all the way through the set about … well just about anything but the music. Eventually I realise that I either have to move or I’m going to end up being thrown out when I thump them. As I can’t see the band from where I am anyway I move back to leaning against the wall seat and listen to the concert in peace without the added inane chatter. Every so often someone moves slightly and I catch a glimpse of Johnny through the bars of the balcony but it’s not much compensation.

Kloot (who for the first time ever have gone on stage dead on time at 9.30pm) are every bit as good as at Brighton, although the sound is different because of the different type of venue – not so rocky but with the fantastic acoustics in the place they sound great. But Johnny’s voice is on its way out again. It has grown considerably croakier since last week however he still manages to sing ‘Fingerprints’ (which is my current favourite, having overtaken ‘Dark Star’ with this performance) beautifully – and yes he does just about manage the high notes in ‘To You’ too although it’s clear that it’s a bit of a struggle.

As much as I hate to say it I hope that once the tour finishes he has a good long rest to recover his vocal chords (although obviously I’ll be pining at not seeing him – after all I’m already getting withdrawal symptoms and it’s only been 2 days!)

By the end of the concert I’ve finally managed to find a spot to see the band clearly and manage a full 30 seconds of the last song before they go offstage.

So time to leave and yep, I’m still feeling guilty about not having done my job but guess what – the merchandise desk is still closed on the way out, a shame as I wanted to buy the Ferraby Lionheart CD. Mrs H3 thinks it’s really funny that I feel so guilty about such a little thing. But I can’t help it.

As you can tell I’m still feeling a bit guilty about it hence the confession on here, but really we did try our hardest to do the job – it’s not our fault the merchandise desk was closed or that there was no sign of anyone vaguely IAK related around!

So for us the IAK tour is finished, although I would have to admit to having seriously considered going to Nottingham next Wednesday (unfortunately my Sat Nav tells me it’s a 3 hour drive which would make it a bit tight for seeing the band assuming they go on stage on time). Of course I’m sure I’ll do the sensible thing and not go, but it could be months before I get to see them again …

These are my friends, see how they glisten

“There was a barber and his wife …”

Wooohooooo!!!!!

It’s arrived! Yep Sweeney Todd is in my DVD player even as I write. I am sure you can imagine the excitement I’m feeling at seeing it again. After all it’s been just over two months since I last saw it (blimey doesn’t time fly!) although of course I have listened to the soundtrack rather a lot since then. All together now “It’s priest. Have a little priest …”

I have to mention the I Am Kloot concert on Tuesday, which was completely fantastic. Now I know I always say that but they really were on excellent form. Heavier than usual too which made a nice change. I noticed that Johnny changed the words to every one of the old songs in some way and several of them were played differently which was nice, but he’s keeping the ones from Moolah Rouge the same at the moment – probably a good move when they’re touring to promote the album. I was a bit disappointed that some of my favourite tracks from the new album weren’t played but as any Kloot track is a great track it was all good. Roll on next Tuesday when we get to do it all again!

IAK had a support act this time, the fabulously named Ferraby Lionheart (yep you heard it right) and I rather liked him. Mrs H3 very definitely didn’t. A solo singer-songwriter in the vein of David Mead he was right up my street although I was finding the chatting of the crowd through his set very off-putting, so I don’t know how he must have felt, poor man. I can see his album “Catch the Brass Ring” heading my way very shortly (probably next Tuesday to be precise), although I’m guessing Mrs H3 won’t want a copy.