The Centenary Cup is an audio visual competition at Walthamstow & District Photo Society where the members are encouraged to create slideshows accompanied by music or spoken word or present their photos of photographic slides or in print. They should choose a series of photos connected by a theme.
I chose to show some of my Hipstamatic photos and photos I had edited using apps on my iPhone. I accompanied the slideshow with music by Sebastian and some spoken word. The sound isn't great, it sounded OK on my laptop but terrible on the clubs speakers, but it was never supposed to be easy to follow there was some purposeful obfuscation.
I have long been interested in your games but have never had opportunity to play them until recently. I have played Ragdoll Kung Fu briefly and I am now playing through Heavenly Sword.
My interest in your games and your company came from reading about your development of Heavenly Sword in Edge magazine, I found the column very interesting and the coverage Edge gave Heavenly Sword and the PS3 really exciting. Due to the fact that I went travelling for a few years I didn't get around to buying a PS3 until last year and I've only just got my hands on Heavenly Sword.
I'm really impressed, the game looks lovely and Nariko is a powerful and well realised protagonist. Fighting with her is an absolute joy and watching her leap and bound down rope or up walls is a thrill.
Andy Serkis as the bad guy is fantastic, also I like two out of three of his henchmen too, you did a great job capturing the performances and it makes a difference (and allows me to forgive the fact that some cutscenes can't be skipped, even on replay).
All that said though, I don't think I'm going to complete this game. You see, it turns out that I'm not very good with a bow and arrow. And master Shen, well not only can he not walk very fast with arrows sticking out of him (something his enemies seem to have no problem with) but he refuses to pick up any of the swords which fall from the hands of the dead around him, no matter how much I scream at him.
It wouldn't be ideal, but I could accept his death as a plot point, sometimes heroes fall and our saviours fail us, right? I would accept his death and it would steel me to fight the evil forces even harder, to not let his death be in vain... but I don't have the choice. The choices presented to me are "try again" or "give up", and I don't want to do either. What would you suggest?
I'm gutted, because there are performances, combos, vistas and bosses that I just won't see and I've waited so long.
Here's my first of a new series of blogs ("oooh exciting, he takes this so seriously") called, "Are You Missing Japan...". Why? Because people keep asking me, and the answers 'no'.
No, because I've been busy. No, because it's been like what? A fucking week! No, because I'm still alive, I have my life ahead of me and no one died, Japan is still there, in my heart of hearts, in my memories, in the smile of every young child... just fucking no! I have time for self indulgence (obviously, I'm blogging to an audience of one), but I have no time for self-pity.
Anyway... this one's called "Are You Missing Japan? No... I'm Watching Comedy." Because, I went to see some comedy tonight! In Holland Park! The poshes place I've ever been to! The houses along the road before we arrived at the theater were huge, pristine white and fricking huge! The event was sponsored by Pimms and called SummerFest and was great. But instead of wittering on about it, I've gone to Youtube and found videos of the comics we saw.
Russel Kane, our compere. There are better clips on youtube, which weren't filmed on camer-phones, but this one is short and has a few of the jokes he told tonight.
Jason Bryne, talked about the strange things that turns his wife on, masturbation, hotel pornography, alcohol fueled debauchery with the misses and other such things. In this clip, he does some magic with a kid... he has range.
Andrew Lawrence, my favourite by a mile. No decent clips on Youtube I'm afraid, but there is this montage from his website, folow this link.
Richard Herring, for me the over enthusiasm of the compere killed this guys act. The compere needed, in my amateurish opinion, to tone it down before this guys acts and not go in full throttle. Still, I did laugh... but I laughed more at this clip of Richard being irritated by a heckler.
Doug Stanhope, made the posh upper middle class audience really very uncomfortable. Many of them left, others just watched in shocked disbelief... I fucking wet myself. This guy's act was soooooooooo offensive, but really funny. I recommend seeing this guy, but don't take your grandmother. Here's a clip.
Despite all the Duh-rama and negativity on the kenlist in the lead up to the leaving parties, the actual event was great fun. So much food! It was awesome, and even though I couldn't drink (on medication) I had a great time talking with people and saying my goodbyes.
The party atmosphere started in the Kencho of all places, The ChiChi (Governor) was on top form and made everyone laugh and put us all at ease, it's nerve racking having to go and shake a minor celebrities hand.
After my visit to the kencho I hung out with Seth and Vicky, two other JETs who are leaving Japan this year, we got some yoghurt and some macha mocha's, had a good chat about JETs and JET.
Then after some food (a lot of food) it was time for some hijinks, dancing and silliness at The Bar. Said hijinks and silliness was all the more silly from when seen from sober eyes. Chris, Patrick G, Patrick M and Christian freestyled. Patrick C nearly broke his neck doing a handstand and Ted showed his patriotism:
I think that Ted has been working out.
So, I made video for the screen at The Bar, it was for all the leavers, unfortunately it was 3.7gb in size and was impossible to upload.
Good luck to each and every one of you... and to quote Ted (quoting someone else)
"May all your dreams come true, except for one of them, so that you always have something to look forward to"
And lastly, a huge thank you to Kelly, Lauren and Kara who have taken over MAJET from Marion, Patrick and I and who did a great job organising two awesome parties. Thank you.
So, tonight... for me anyway, will be the last episode of Doctor until 2010, and I have to say that I'm rather excited. I've watched each episode religiously for the past few months, even watching some of them twice.
I've really got into the mythology of the series, and I've loved the arc of the characters this time around. The Doctor has become stronger, and more sure of himself, sometimes this self-assured-ness seems a bit like arrogance and that arrogance isn't always endearing, as we witnessed in the episode Midnight. Donna Noble started the series as a strong and independent woman and is now more thoughtful, kinder and considerate to boot.
Of all the three new companions Rose, Martha and Donna, Donna's story has been the saddest. She's the Temp, we know that her run can't last and the writers have played a clever game in giving making us want her run to last longer than it possibly could. I'm guessing that Donna is meeting her Journeys end tonight, but also proving that she's worth more than she or any of the viewers have suspected.
I may write more on Doctor Who after the series finishes, but for now, let's just enjoy this trailer.
"There's no way you can get two of everything on a boat!"
My favourite song in primary school had the chorus 'Noah built the Arc, Noah! Noah!', I loved that song. My second favourite song had the chorus 'Rudolf the red nose reindeer'... I loved that song.
Number 9: Milla Jovovich- There Ain't no God for Dogs
This video made some Dog-theists very angry, and I think that Pope Bruno the Obedient has excomunicated Milla's dog, Zom-Zom.
Milla, you're odd, but I loves ya!
Number 8: Catherine Tate "They don't let lesbians become priests!"
Number 7: Ricky Gervais, Animals "And then I found out the other name for the bible is The Gospel, so it's true"
Number 6: The Professor Brothers: Bible Story
Number 5: Alan Moore, "This could negate science, it could drag us back into the dark ages"
Number 4: Miki, "My name is Miki, and I'm an Atheist"
OK, this girl often sounds like she's reading from a script by Dawkins, but she's hot!
Number 3: Marcus Brigstocke, "Can we have our world back?"
Number 2: Monty Python, Life of Brian, "You're all individuals!"
Life of Brian is so good it gets double space, please enjoy these clips.
Number 1: John Lennon, Imagine
"Imagine all the people living for today", this is such a beautiful song and such a powerful message, and you thought that I was going to choose Dawkins as my top choice.
"First off, you look great in that bathing suit, well done.
But...
Harangued much!
Wow, who's the audience for this video?
Being ignorant about vaginoplasty doesn't make someone dumb, it just means that they're not as well read as you on a subject that isn't common knowledge.
Also; "construction worker types", wow! How about being a bit more class prejudice... "Who ever you can dredge up to bump uglies with after 17 beers", could you seem anymore judgmental?"
Calpernia [at time of writing] is online responding to all her critics, and I'm hoping that she will reply to mine.
I'm sorry that this video is 14 minutes long, it could have been 3 minutes long and it would have still said the same thing: "When talking to anyone, be considerate, and don't say anything that may upset them."
Which I agree with wholeheartedly... and Calpernia, it's a two way street.
Oh, and beginning the vlog by pretending that you've just been interrupted whilst reading a book, kind of reminds me of this.
