Friday 27 February 2015

Focus David

Really tired today. My one year old son Irving, who still sleeps in the bed with us, was up all night. This coupled with working late on Laura's vlog meant that I didn't get much sleep last night. Now the coffee needed to stay awake is setting off my restless leg syndrome something rotten. Oh woe is me.

Still, it's Friday and I'm looking forward to buying some stuff off of Xur on Destiny tonight. My hunter is definitely getting that cool looking helmet and my warlock hopefully has enough strange coins to get that chest piece. Still waiting for my older brother to join PlayStation Plus so I can help him out on story mode.

Laura's pretty busy all weekend, so I'm going to have my hands full with the kids, but I hope to be able to do a YouTube post on some retro games that my younger brother managed to get working on my PC the other day so look out for that.

Starting to think about all the things I need to do next week and it's stressing me out. Focus David. It's Friday. Watch Angel with the kids, drink wine, eat nice food, play Destiny. That's all I've got to worry about for now...

What are your plans for the weekend?

Take care x

Thursday 26 February 2015

Nom Noms: Trofie With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce


Check out my first foody video on YouTube and please comment and subscribe! Take care x



Bosch


We finished watching Bosch last night. I really enjoyed it. I've read reviews that say "it's not great television but it's very watchable". I disagree. I think it is great because it's not television. Amazon, Netflix and even PlayStation exclusive shows have a unique position, in that they are not yet bogged down in a mire of executive producers, brand protectors, accountants, accountants and accountants. This allows the very creative show producers an enormous amount of creative freedom and boy does it show in Bosch. 

If executive producers and commissioning editors editors are to believe, you the stupid audience might not get many elements of Bosch. There are very few establishing shots to let you know where you are. The show could cut from detective Bosch having a conversation with his lieutenant and walking out of the room, to a close up of a record player, playing some jazz. Then it would cut to an interior of Bosch in his apartment reading through the case files. Was I confused? No. Did I care? No.

The other amazing thing they did was not giving you any idea of passage of time. It could cut from Bosch waking up in the morning, drinking some coffee, noticing something in the case file, to later on that night and he's having a meeting with someone at a bar, then the next day and it's lunch time... It would skit all over the place like that with no indication of the passage of time. Was I confused? No. Did I care? Actually yes, I thought it was brave and brilliant.

There was very little non diagetic music in the show, very few surprises or twists, no shock deaths of main characters. There were a few clunky lines of dialogue, but it didn't bother me too much. In all it was a very rounded show. Ten episodes, perfect length. No massive cliff hangar. Left me feeling very complete. During the show however, and despite the lack of music, it had me feeling for every person. Real emotional attachments to very well written characters. There were some real tense moments without using any of the normal cinematic techniques.

Inevitably this microcosm of the industry will succumb to the pit falls of regular television, I have no doubt. Money always wins in the end. But whilst we have these truly independent productions, we should relish them and enjoy them for their differences to "normal" television. I'm looking forward to finishing watching Constantine on Amazon next and I'm very much looking forward to an adaptation of one of my favourite comics Powers, coming to PlayStation Network soon.


Take care x


Wednesday 25 February 2015

I'm back!

That straight off the bike look.

Hi there. I'm back. It's been almost two years since I last used this blog. I've been feeling the itch for a while now. It's funny, I absolutely hated writing in school and college. I'd always leave essays until the last minute and rush through without a care. Now I really enjoy writing and wish I could go back and do it all again. Education in wasted on the young... So true.

I'm not going to regale you with tales of the past two years. You can figure it all out yourselves through reading my blog, following me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. If you are going to look me up on Facebook, don't try and add me as a friend unless you actually know me as I only add real life friends and acquaintances. But I have now placed a "follow" button on my page for everyone else, so please "follow" me :/

So let me get stuck in. I've recently discovered YouTube. Yeah, I knew all about it for years and have been posting videos of my kids for the family and what not. But I've now started following a load of vloggers and content creators such as Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, Jenna Marbles, Julian Solomita and Epic Meal Time to name but a few. And it's made me think... I could do that. I don't know... I'm not going to pretend I'm gonna be as funny as them or as well thought out and well made as Epic Meal Time, but I thought I'd give it a go. I was gonna dive right in with a brand and some themes, but then I thought it might be best to start more organically. Laura is well up for it too and is already thinking of starting her own channel. So I've started videoing random things to see what happens. The first one that I think will be going up on my channel will be food related. I love cooking and do it a lot. I'm no Michelin star chef, just good old home cooked food. Sometimes I'm an out of the packet kind of guy and sometimes I'm a lot more adventurous. Last night I cooked trofie pasta with a roasted red pepper and tomato sauce with fresh basil and mozzarella. I filmed it. I'm gonna edit it together and post it and see what happens. Other ideas include weekly update vlogs, chats about video games, board games, film and tv, with and without Laura. So... keep an eye out and please tell me what you think. 

Take care x