Nervecentre

Art Force One

Art Force One are a French company who customize items in uber-hip designs for their customers.
Their web site features examples of some of the work they have done. And its not just trainers or sneakers they customize either. They also do games consoles too.

Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is a cult manga Japanese anime film of a TV series, (or something). I first heard of Cowboy Bebop a couple of years ago and mentally pencilled it down as one of those films I should make a point of seeing. And the praise from the reviewers over at Amazon make it sound like a must-see.

The Cowboy Bebop universe revolves around the bounty hunter crew of the spaceship Cowboy Bebop in the 2070's. It has been described as being like a cyberpunk noir Western in space. The film deals with the crew being sent to track down and apprehend a maniacal terrorist hell bent on killing the human population on the planet Mars with a mystery virus. Total Recall this isn't.

And guess what? I still haven't seen it!

Still, the Cowboy Bebop franchise is getting a whole new lease of life in the form of a computer game. Cowboy Bebop: The Game will probably be out soon and it adds to my increasing curiosity about the Cowboy Bebop phenomenon.

And those lucky Japanese fans get the choice of no less than three differently packaged versions of the game release, as these pictures show;

What next I wonder? A live action version must surely be under consideration.

Is She Faking It? Or Can't She Help Herself?

The female orgasm.

What an interesting subject. If you're a bloke, you'll never know what a female orgasm feels like as a physical experience. Et vice versa.

But don't be too despondent. The wonderful world of science is shedding more light on these matters and revealing stuff that we didn't know.

Scientists have noticed the female brain switches off the centre of emotion when the female climaxes. Interesting results, but the test was not conclusive and further tests are needed before the case is proven.(Or are the pervy scientists just looking for an excuse?)

Source: New Scientist

The Politically Correct Target the Term 'Couch Potato'

In this crazy, mixed-up, dangerous and downright screwed up world of ours, there are a million and one things to get angry, annoyed or just plain disenchanted about. And things of much more importance (Rwanda a decade ago for example), than this;

'Farmers stew over couch potato' (or the arrival of the silly season)

I am totally flummoxed.

PC - Political Correctness, (and its facist followers), has been gradually whittling away at the knobbly bits of our society for a while now. The original 'do-gooder' proponents of PC probably only meant well. Their aim was to fight back against those things most moral human beings are also against - prejudice and bigotry, for example.

But this is just too much...

Have these people nothing better to do? I mean, most people understand the health benefits of eating potatoes and vegetables without words or phrases having to be removed from dictionaries.

Even top celebrity chef Anthony Worrall-Thompson has been sucked into this vortex of lunacy. Is the summer heat addling their minds? Or have they cooked their chips in too much hydrogenated fat???

This got me thinking about political correctness, (don't be fooled, for that IS what this is!). Lets take as an example the removal of what some might consider to be offensive racial stereotypes from our cultural heritage.

Now, when I was growing up, I can remember going to my Granny's on a Sunday for tea. She would always make jam sandwiches and her preferred brand of choice was Robertsons. I always remembered the jam label had the Golly printed on it and I always associated that label with tea time on a Sunday at Granny's.

Then the PC brigade stole away the Golly from Robertson's jam. They stole a piece of my youth when they did that.

I grew up in Bristol where they also have an annual International Balloon Fiesta. One of the regular sights of the Fiesta would be the Robertsons Golly balloon.

Not any more!

I also remember reading the following book when very young. I recall this having also been singled out by the PC brigade and banned. 

Now, despite the valid arguments that might exist regarding racial stereotyping and all that, lets get down to the nuts and bolts of the issue.

There were black kids in my class at nursery school, and throughout all my years of schooling. When I read Little Black Sambo all I can remember now is being fascinated about the life and adventures of a boy in such a faraway place who had conversations with tigers and watched a dead tiger turn into butter (or something).

When I read Strewwelpeter, for example, I didn't grow up thinking all children in Germany had blonde afros and six inch long finger nails. And Struwwelpter was an altogether darker and quite sinister book compared to the innocent and sweet-natured Little Black Sambo.

I didn't turn into a racist or bigot. (Please note: Struwwelpeter has not been banned...yet!! Although it did spawn a rather marvellous musical interpretation that I greatly enjoyed 3 decades after reading the book.)

So, why have we allowed PC to run away with itself?

PC was meant to be about rights, freedom and fairness. Instead, it has been hijacked by the cynically-minded pernicious and perverted into an attack on diversity of expression.

PC has poisoned our minds to such an extent, even food promotion groups run their ad campaigns like a 'How To Guide for PC'. And it has also eroded some of the cultural markers that we grew up with, and that some of us hold dear.

Let's hope someone doesn't try and bring this back, shall we. Again, another memory from my youth airbrushed from existence.

I am currently watching...

I am currently reading...

And will soon be reading;

I am currently listening to...

Carnet De Voyage

I managed to find a little time to read this wonderful graphic novel whilst on holiday. It's called Carnet De Voyage and is by the writer/illustrator Craig Thompson.

Craig Thompson is the successful author of the graphic novels Goodbye, Chunky Rice and Blankets, both of which have received critical plaudits and which I've not read. So, because I have to approach new things from a different slant, I read Craig's holiday journal first. And it was one of several hoilday books I took away with me but the only one I read.

OK, so here's the review. Be grateful my insomnia returned as this would have arrived later than this.

Carnet De Voyage is basically a three month travelogue written and drawn by Craig Thompson as a depiction of his travels around Barcelona, the Alps, France and Morocco.

What's great about Thompson's work in this novel is his ability to convey some very human traits. For example, he doesn't just cover the good times, we also get to hear about the downside such as an injured foot and the feelings of heartache about a sick ex-girlfriend back home and the longing of meeting a new love somewhere else.

If you have the travel bug I'd recommend you read this book. If you don't have the travel bug, read it anyway as it is a fascinating insight into one man's journey. I've visited the Alps so could identify with much that was written. My interest in Barcelona was there before I read Craig's description, but I'm sure had I been ignorant of the place Craig would have whetted my appetite. Because of the terrorist situation in many Middle East holiday destinations, I would not countenance Morocco, and even with Thompson's vivid account, I am still not entirely convinced I would like it there. France on the other hand is a place I am very familiar with and Craig Thompson paints an evocative picture of the place.

This is a great piece of light reading and if you've never tried a graphic novel before then Carnet De Voyage might be a great place to start.

I give it a rating of

9/10.

Most Haunted Live

I watched the Most Haunted Live 3 hour special that was broadcast on the summer solstice on Tuesday night. I have to say that I don't think I've ever seen anything quite so entertaining in a live show for donkeys years. I'm sure a lot of the fans and casual viewers watched it with a mixture of being petrified and terrified.

I just laughed. I don't think I've seen anything so funny in all my life.

Fore those that don't know about Most Haunted, they take a film crew and a team of ghost hunters to well-known spots where ghostly presences are known to exist, or have been reported/sighted. Now, I'm a sceptic as much as the next person although I've experienced at least two apparitions in my life that I can't account for or explain. So, I have a very open mind on the subject.

Now, Most Haunted Live took the crew down a mine shaft and it was quite obvious that they were all terrified. One can never really know how much of what happens is genuinely real or just played up for the cameras. I wonder whether they craftily plan what will happen before the show in order to ratchet up the tension of the viewers.

The highlights of the show were when Derek's arm was grabbed by an invisible entity and he was yanked into the depths of the mine and Yvette and Cath were scared ****less by a horrible belching noise that many of the fans attribute to Cath. Of course, ex-Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding is the star of the show. She actually co-produces Most Haunted and can do no wrong in my book. The look on her face half the time is a picture and she looks so terrified and nervous. It's better than any horror film!

Apparently, people on the internet were watching four separate web cams in the mine and were seeing all sorts of strange things ranging from orbs to shadows and everything else in between!

Maybe one day the crew of Most Haunted will come clean about whether some of the stuff they have captured over the years was real or just faked, but for now, Most Haunted is cult viewing of the highest order and I would recommend it for anyone to watch. Even if you are very sceptical about psychic stuff, it's still hilarious to watch.

Back from my holiday

OK, so I got back from my holiday and I've had such an amazing few weeks its difficult to know where to begin.

Suffice to say I'm not the same person I was three or so weeks ago.

A lot has changed and my whole direction in life is about to turn around and hopefully change for the better. I guess having proved to myself I can do the things I've just done has given me the impetus to strive to achieve more. And I am also happy knowing that it's never too late to start all over again. I'm reaching and aiming high, and am not scared about falling short.

As for this blog, well, it's quite tempting to just put it to one side and forget about it, or not bother wasting my time updating, but that would be too much of a cop out for me.

Therefore, I am going to continue, it just might not be as detailed as in the past. As for changes, well, there might be more stuff about my life than there was before. The reason being that my life was boring before. Now though, it might be about to become a whole lot more interesting.

Either way, there'll still be the same mix of book and film reviews, weird stories and news and comments and stuff, just like before.

If anyone still reads this then thanks for sticking around.