Stuff, Wotsits and Thingies

Spun out

// June 24th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I entered a competition for an ipad today on spunout.ie thinking it’d be a quick questionaire that I could bluff my way through – but I stopped making an effort towards the end. Don’t think I’ll win somehow.

More books

// May 25th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // books

Yes I’m still hooked on audiobooks. Some more reviews:

Bill Bryson – Notes from a small Island

I’m not particularly interested in travel books but some folk are such entertaining writers that the content isn’t all that important. I’m sure I could read Charlie Brooker writing about the telephone book. Actually that’s a complete lie, I’ve skipped all the political stuff on his blog recently. But Bill Bryson waffling about his UK trips? I can sure enjoy that.

There’s a great balance in the book. Lot’s of ranting and raving about all the things that are shit about the UK, a lot of which are common to living in Ireland. Like the architectural rape of our cities in previous decades where monstrosities of buildings (Phibsborough shopping center?) were hideously erected, often in place of beautiful old buildings. But it’s also balanced with a great love for all the things that make the country great, peppered with the turn of phrase that makes Bill Bryson so laugh out loud funny.

The narrator’s posh English accent didn’t really work for me. Words like ‘Fuck’ just sounded wrong coming out of his mouth. Like he was spitting out something dirty. And some really ranty bits that were meant to be funny, just didn’t have the right kick, and made him sound like an asshole. Which he’s not, I imagined him cringing at some bits. But I got used to it after a chapter or two and most of it sounded fine. I’ve since noticed that Bryson narratesNeither here nor there himself, but I had a quick listen and the confidence in his writing doesn’t seem to carry in his voice. And nor should every writer need to sound like a professional narrator, obviously. So I guess it’s hard work trying to get the right narrator for any autobiographical work, unless read by the author.

Transition by Iain Banks. Narrated by Peter Kenny

I can’t easily pick favourites but I can easily say The Wasp Factory is my favourite book ever, and just as it was with Wasp Factory it was a bad review that drew me to Transition. Something about a sick joke. I like a bit of sick lit! But it turns out, you can indeed read too much of the one author. I think I’m done with Banksie now. As I’ve said before I was a total Banksie fanboy. I’ve read everything he’s written, and with that in mind, I found Transition quite repetitive and lazy. All the same themes I’ve read before too many times. He seems obsessed with big operations running the world, or the universe. Either rich families or secret organisations. There’s nothing new in Transition, it’s Quantum Leap with a thinly veiled Contact pulling the strings, as in Contact from all his Culture novels but in this book they’re called Concern. Contact/Concern, thin veil alright. And I feel like I’ve grown out of this type of science fiction for sure. I’d love to see Banksie getting back to the small personal books like Wasp Factory. No complaints on the audio end of things, all quite good readers.

Nick Hornby – Juliet Naked

Something Nick Hornby is really good at is writing good books that are very easy to read. No mean feat. And he’s great at nailing relationships, I found a lot of the relationship stuff close to the bone, and quite funny. And I can remember really enjoying it at the start but thought it lacked something overall. Couldn’t help thinking I was reading a screenplay rather than a book. I did like Considering the main plot device resolves around people writing reviews on the Internet, the irony of this review was almost lost on me but I did enjoy the musings about art, and who has the right to say what does and doesn’t make good art the author? the fan? or the regular Joe?

The three narrators were good at playing themselves, but it fell apart when they had to quote each other, which is common in every book but sometimes problematic in audiobooks; the american actor putting on a British female voice and vice versa did not sound good. Or even (English) Annie quoting her husband Duncan, that sounded quite off; she gave him a personality transplant with a really silly voice. You could argue that’s how they perceived each other but it just sounded off to me. Though that’s a small point as it didn’t happen so often.

Audrey Niffenegger – The Time Travellers Wife

I loved this book. I found myself enjoying it from the start, but then halfway through, at a particular chapter I just thought “Wow – this is fantastic”. Niffenegger is a great writer, I kept noticing how she conveys so much with such short phrases; with just a few words you would know the exact look on a character’s face for example. And I really warmed to the characters, in a way which I don’t easily do.

I enjoyed the fact that you’d think it’d be a sci-fi novel but it’s really about a couple’s struggle to come to terms with a problem. Sure everyone has their problems, in their case it just so happens that Henry can’t stop travelling through time. And yes every sci-fi novel has a back story, but as someone who’s just grown sick of space operas this was a refreshing antithesis. The idea reminded me of one of my favourite novels, Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginedes, the fact that the main character is an hemaphrodite is irrelevant; it’s the coming of age story anyone could relate to that normalizes a freak affliction, just like the husband of the Time Traveller’s Wife. I miss reading it.

Mark Kermode – It’s Only a Movie

I’d actually intended to buy the paper version of this until I noticed it was narrated by Kermode himself. I just know that wouldn’t have worked with anyone else reading. Specially as I’m so used to hearing his voice on the Podcast. Unless it had been read by Jason Issacs, as that’s who Kermode casts as himself, in this story of his life through the eye of a movie. I loved this book too. I love Kermode’s passion for movies and he’s captured it perfectly. The excitement he describes seeing his favourite movies for the first time is contagious.

I thought one chapter, in Russia, dragged on a little, and was eagerly awaiting some more good stuff when it ended! So it is with an audiobook – if you’re not keeping an eye on the timer. A dissapointing ending *only* because I was enjoying it so much and it ended too soon. Highly recommended if you’re a Kermode fan or a movie nut.

Stieg Larsson – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

It’s a jolly good romp for sure. A classic modern daywhodunnit that I mostly enjoyed… but I dunno… I found the characters a bit unconvincing, the heroine is interesting yes, but just not quite authentic enough. Too many conflicting traits. And the plot just started to feel a bit contrived by the end. I enjoyed the fact that it was a classic locked room type mystery at the start, but I’m not sure I’m much of a whodunnit fan. The plot devices are just all too similar. Maybe a low jab, but I couldn’t help thinking it was similar to the DaVinci code, page turners yes I suppose, but lacking in character depth.

On the audio end of things, not for the first time did it take me some time to get used to an overly posh stage voice. I don’t mind posh voices. Quite like them but when you have to listen to a single voice for 16 hours, any strong accent, one way or the other, can be grating.

David Sedaris – Me talk pretty some day

I don’t think I’ve read a book of essays before. But I really liked it. I couldn’t help thinking each essay was similar to a blog post. But written by a high calibre blogger who knows his craft. Amusing stories from the life of Sedaris, told with flair and wit, both touching and funny. It inspired my Mi Padres esta Muerto post and similarly a lot of the tales in this book involved struggles with a foreign language, though much funnier in the hands of Sedaris. Amusing take to hear some of the chapters being read in front of an audience. A nice mash up of stand-up comedy and audiobook. It was a slightly different experience to hear every sentence punctuated with laughter, which made me laugh rather than smile at the funny bits. I discovered this book via the Books for ears site, which is the best audio book review site I’ve come across so far.

Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse 5

Ethan Hawke! Wake the fuck up. That’s what I wanted to scream. He narrated like an old granny reading a fairy tale. Oddly it sounded great at the start, and I like Nathan Hawke but it became unbearable very quickly. I almost didn’t persevere, and it put me off the actual book. Or maybe I just didn’t like the book all that much. I couldn’t decide. Apparently a very important book, but like a lot of important books it was probably important of the time, but didn’t strike me as such an important read in the context of now. Such is the peril reading from “books you must read before you die” type lists. I’m sure they were all brilliant at the time – but sometimes the time, place and political impact is what makes them so great, and don’t always work outside of that context.

Colum McCann – Let the Great World Spin

Everyone seemed to be talking about this all of a sudden. Not sure where I heard of it at first but soon after McCann was on Arts Lives, and he came across as a likeable fellow. Next day Radge was talking about him, and then I stumbled across the Irish Times Book Club doing let the Great World Spin. So that was the next read decided.

I often have a problem of not being able to decide if I like a book until I get to the end but I enjoyed this book as I read it, enjoying each moment for what it was rather than waiting to see how it all fit into the bigger story. I think the Irish slant makes it a bit more likeable too. It’s one of those novels that weaves together many different lives, and does so without being forced (like that terribly contrived movie Crash). I can remember thinking that it was quite rich, possibly in contrast to The Girl With The Dragon.

I got to ask Column a question via the IT Book Club.

I’m curious about the Philippe Petit character in the book. Apart from the actual Twin Towers walk, is his story somewhat fictionalized or strictly based on real stories from other books about Petit? Did you feel more pressure to get the character exactly right? More so than the fictional characters in the book? Did his appraisal invade your thoughts as you wrote?

—

John – it’s a great question and one fraught with all sorts of implications for what is true, what is real, what is imagined. Clifford Getz says that the real is as imagined as the imaginary. I like this notion, and I the corollary is true also … that the imagined is real. Sometimes this reality outraces the truth.

As for Petit the story is largely true, but it’s there to serve the purposes of fiction. As you you can tell, I’m not writing a book about Petit. I’m using the walk as a metaphor, a pull-through. In fact I didn’t really care all that much about Petit – and I don’t mean this as callously as it sounds. I certainly cared about the walk, the act of beauty, the act of creation, the art of it. But Petit as a character didn’t come into it all that much for me … the tightrope walker is the only one who remains nameless in the book. So a lot of it is based on truth – the date, the time, the details of the walk itself. Certainly it has a textural truth. But a lot of it is made up also and serves the purpose of the narrative. For example, Philippe Petit never fell in the snow as far as I know, he never thought of himself as “having sex with the wind.”

I did worry about his appraisal, yes. I talked with Petit on the phone and he gave me his blessing. I sent him the book in several different versions, but I never heard back from him except for an answering machine message. I salute his beauty, though. I salute the act that remains, even though the towers are gone.

The Dimiyagi code

// May 20th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // waffle

Degas trotted off to the ballet school once more. He’d sketched the dancers hundreds of times now. And crafted many paintings. But to say he was infatuated with the dancers was a façade of sorts. It was the dance teacher who intrigued him most. He didn’t know anyone quite like him. He was not from Paris that was clear, but he didn’t even seem from this time. Though that thought might have been suggested by the tall tales that he would tease Degas with. That he was a man who traveled through time and place to teach his ways. That he was a man who traveled from country to country and from one century to another. He traveled from when and where so he could treat lucky individuals to his unique teaching style.

And his teaching style was unique. He often took the dancers on strange trips to perform bizarre chores for days on end. They would never question his methods and would spend days carrying out these strange tasks before returning to the dance class. Degas would humour the teacher always asking for more stories of his past, and he almost believed him, the detail of the stories wove a convincing tale.

Most intriguing of all was that the teacher said he never taught the same subject twice. And never lived in the same country twice. And never lived in the same time period twice. In 1924, he taught bullfighters in Spain. From 2040 to 2042, in Peru, he taught robots to play football better than humans. Of these tall tales Degas had a favourite; of the America boy the teacher thought to fight. Degas asked the teacher to tell that story again. And smiled as he heard it once more.

It was later that day that Degas painted one of his masterpieces, La classe de danse. The dancing class. This time he made sure to include their very special time travelling teacher. Mr Miyagi. Wax on, Wax off Daniel San.

e-flow reminder

// May 17th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized

I’ve made an e-flow reminder to avoid paying those extortionate fees when you forget to pay the toll. When you pass a toll, take it out of your glove box and stick it on your dashboard. Prints onto a 4×6″ photo size. Big version here.

Mi padre está muerto

// May 8th, 2010 // 7 Comments » // waffle

If the sun on my face wasn’t good enough reason to be sprightly, having an appointment, some business to attend to, while hurriedly strolling down a dusty backstreet in Spain, felt quite good. You could almost imagine I lived there in Sitges, hastily checking my watch as 9am approached. That is, if it weren’t for my pasty skin buttered in factor fifty, and the plasters on my ankles where my new sandals chaffed.

We’d decided it’d be a good idea to take Spanish lessons for one week at the start of the holiday. A week in Sitges then up the coast to Barcelona by train for the weekend of Sonar. I’d never learned a language. Unless you count nine school years of Irish and three years of French. But that didn’t count. Then I didn’t want to learn, and now I found I couldn’t learn.

Two idioms merged to become truisms. One involves old dogs and new tricks. And the other, a slightly lesser known fact; it’s much harder to learn a new language if you haven’t already learned a language in your younger years. So trying to teach an old dog a new language is quite the battle.

The first thing I learned in Spanish class was that I was the only person in the dunces’ class, the absolute beginner’s class (the missus just needed some brushing up, and took the expert’s class). The next lesson I learned quite quickly too; they don’t speak English in Spanish school. I couldn’t speak a word of Spanish. And my teacher wouldn’t speak a word of English. Well, I had the holster of usual phrases but that was it, so this impasse was a major inconvenience. It was though they never actually expected an absolute beginners in the absolute beginner’s class. Not really. Surely everyone would have some basic Spanish at least? It was a very slow start. I stared at her blankly as she made funny sounds and gesticulated. It was like a game of charades but even if I’d know what she was mimicking, the answer in my head would merely be in English.

A phrase I learned quite early, and one that has stuck with me since is “no entiendo” (don’t understand!). I used this phrase many many times that week. It was my deflated sigh of defeat. Uttered with the familiarity of an aging Señor with long white whiskers. But despite being on holiday I worked hard, and did my homework, and made some progress. On the last day we were ending on an exercise that was going quite well, though still quite basic in form. I had to describe my father in short phrases.

While elsewhere in the same building, the missus discussed Spanish politics and perfected her imperfect tenses, I sat there like the village idiot and pronounced : Mi padre es feliz (My father is happy). Then scraped the barrel of my soggy memory for some more words I could use, true or not.

“Mi padre es gordo”
“Mi padre es inteligente”
“Mi padre es pequeño”

Just as I was beginning to run out of adjectives my mobile rang. It was my mum. “Madre” I said apologetically, eyes going up to heaven, then gesturing more seriously to indicate I should probably take the call. I found my next adjective in the call, but hadn’t yet learned its Spanish equivelant. I ended the call and finished the exercise in English.

“My father is dead.”

Nightwatching

// May 2nd, 2010 // 1 Comment » // art, movies

With some rare free time to kill, I went to see this on a whim. Really wish I’d hung around the IFI another twenty minutes to see Dogtooth. But I’d already been hanging around a bit and I like anything to do with painting so I went to see Nightwatching, based around Rembrandt’s masterpiece.

I sure knew the name Peter Greenaway but couldn’t exactly place it. Then from the very first scene I realised it had to be the same guy who made The Cook, The Thief, The Wife and His lover (which I loved). Both are very theatrical, very well staged, broad panoramas, and slightly otherwordly.

Similar to the only other movie I’ve seen based around a painting, The Girl with a Pearl Earring, many of the scenes are like moving paintings. Tables adorned with fruit and shimmering crystal, and poised gentle folk laden in shadowed velvet. Very effective cinema in itself and it could have been great. But I can’t remember the last time I was so bored in a cinema. I couldn’t wait for it to end. After a lifetime, though it may have been an hour, a story began to appear and I realised why I was so bored, before the story it seemed like one random scene after another. But it didn’t get much better. I couldn’t care less when someone died, even though the music told me I really should care.

Riddle me this. If most of the cast, who are based on people from Amsterdam, speak with strong English accents, then why did one of the women have a very strong Dutch accent? What the hell does that mean? Is she über dutch? Confusingly inconsistent. And Martin Freeman was as good as could be. But his accent was so regional he might as well have been back in Slough wearing his office suit. It made some scenes appear like comedy sketches, albeit very well lit ones with great set design. Odd casting, or directing, or something.

I’d usually mull over the credits respectfully, but the second THE END appeared I was outta there, trying to get past people who were mulling over the credits respectfully and annoyed at my interference. Was very surprised I was the only one in such a rush to get away from it all. Lazy cliches to follow but I really found it to be terribly boring self-indulgence; a pale imitation of Greenway’s better work.

Expand truncated feeds

// April 29th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // blogging

I hate truncated feeds in my reader. After subscribing to a feed that turns out to be truncated I usually end up skipping every single post for a few days and then unsubscribe.

Admittedly I’m oversubscribed (a few hundred items a day) and don’t have time to read everything, and those truncated bastards are first up against the wall. Unless they’re from blogs I really like, hi Red!

I subscribed to a few new blogs recently, and alas they were mickey teasing little truncated fuckers. So I cracked open Google to look for a hack or a plugin, but found nothing. Then I thought “Help me Lifehacker, you are my only hope.” Fired off a quick mail and to my surpsise and delight they had a post the next day. http://lifehacker.com/5523024/google-reader-full-feed-expands-truncated-feeds-with-a-keystroke.

I’m using the Chrome plugin. Didn’t seem to work for me at first, but had to do a computer restart last night and today it was working just fine. I just have to press Z and the truncated posts expand.

That’s that problem solved. Next, world hunger…

Ninja Paxman

// April 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

The video below is doing the rounds at moment, just because Paxman gets lashed out of it for a change. Call me childish but I find it much more amusing that he’s a ninja for the first 3 seconds.

Free download: My soul

// April 21st, 2010 // 2 Comments » // art, atheism, design

Free download: My soul, originally uploaded by jbraine.

Creepy discarded dolls

// April 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // photos

I only just discovered that you can view a Flickr search result as a slideshow.

See bigger: http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=creepy+discarded+doll

Joke

// April 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // random

Frank and Nuala hobbled out to the front of the nursing home for a smoke. And just then it started to rain.

Frank pulls a condom out of his pocket that has the end cut off.

“What the hell is that for?” cries Nuala.

Frank winks “It’s a little rain mac for my Benson & Hedges” and slides it onto the cigarette while Nuala’s fag gets soaked.

So Nuala waits for the rain to clear and guides her walking frame to the chemist down the road.

“Hi Sonny, box of condoms please” says Nuala to a young guy at the counter.

“Sure, what size?”

“Oh I don’t know….” say’s Nuala confused… “As long as it fits on camel, I’ll be happy”

A legend dies

// April 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized, brain training, news, waffle

Derek “Crosaire” Crozier died over the weekend. I made sure to get a paper yesterday and was determined to finish it but alas I didn’t quite make it.

No other crossword comes close to the elegance of the Crosaire. But I stopped doing it a couple of years ago. I couldn’t justify paying 1.80 every day when I just went straight to the Crosaire, and often didn’t look at the rest of the paper. Except for some interest in the art page, the rest of that paper just puts me asleep.

It was such a ritual part of my morning, an OCD ritual; I had that fold down to a tee, black bic at hand (had to be black), all answers in upper case, and a diagonal tick over the number of every solved clue. Doing the online version just didn’t do it for me somehow.

Elsewhere:

• Tributes flow as ‘genius’ crossword-setter dies
• O’brien press have a Crosaire book.
• Derek Crozier bio on a Crosaire blog

My attempt from yesterday

Upsy Downy Spinny Roundy

// March 31st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized, flash, photoshop, web, web design

Ever wondered what it would be like to turn part of someone’s face upside down and then spin it round and round? I can’t think why, but you’ve come to the right place. See Upsy Downy Spinny Roundy.

Jack was queuing for so long that…

// March 23rd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized

Dublin Passport Queue, originally uploaded by jbraine.

A Prophet

// March 12th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // films, movies

Dear movie fans, I have a confession. I don’t like the The Godfather movies. Testosterone filled bollocks. We’re tough guys. We stand tall and talk funny, we hard men, we cave men, we cartoon characters. The way they kill people while making wiseguy wisecracks. Just a step away from James Bond, “Shocking.  Positively shocking.” Though that’s not quite it. I do enjoy a bit of wanton movie violence. But it just doesn’t work for me in The Godfather. I find all the hardman stuff a bit boring, and while we’re at it same goes for Al Pacino. Same boring character in every single movie. I don’t even like the sound of his voice.

And so, to the point! I saw The Prophet this week. Now that’s a gangster movie! Authentic. That’s  a word I find on the tip of my tongue a lot lately. Imagine what it would  be like to kill someone  for the first time. No, really. You’d be a total wreck, before and after. It’s  so refreshing to see that terror executed in a movie so well. And that’s just the start of it. Brilliantly authentic performance / script / direction  from start to finish.

It kind of reminded me of experiencing City of God for the first time. Both gangster movies, but they’re nothing alike aprt from leaving  you thinking, now that’s a fucking movie!

Maybe I just find all the american/italian gangster movies a bit cliché. I like Casino and Goodellas a bit better than The Godfather, and I love that Joe Pesci scene, but none of these movies would ever make any of my top lists they way they seem to on all the big movie fan lists.

That’s my kinda review! Have a rant about lots of other stuff and give the movie a wee mention along the way.

One more thing Columbo. This movie was all but ruined by some dickhead behind me. I don’t know if it was his knees or he had his feet against my seat or what but he kept rocking my seat. I thought of saying something but then I’d be the dickhead spoiling the movie. Instead I waited until it was over, shot him in both knees, then poked his eyes out with my thumbs, chortling as I left the cinema,  while his girlfriend screamed and tried to push his eyes back in.

Hooked on audiobooks

// March 5th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // books, waffle

I’ve been meaning to check out audiobooks for years and now I’m hooked, obsessed even. I got a nice birthday present of an ipod nano and some itunes vouchers on a recent birthday, so I bought an audiobook instead of music. The convenience of it is fantastic, I’m flying through books much faster than I would have been able to with paper just because it’s hard to get the time (and the silence) to sit down with a book. But with a little ipod I can appreciate a good book cleaning the kitchen, out for a walk, or pottering around the house doing bits and pieces, or even minding the rugrats.

My attention wavers very easily though. Even with a regular book I could quite easily read two pages before realising I wasn’t even listening to myself. Always reminds me of that Laurel and Hardy scene:

Laurel and Hardy “Beau Hunks”

Stan: reads a long letter to Ollie;
Ollie: sighs and looks sad
Stan: What’s the matter Ollie?
Ollie: Didn’t you read it to me!?
Stan: Yeah but I wasn’t listening.

I’ve had much more of a tendency to drift off while listening to a book and doing chores, or out and about, so there was lots of rewinding.

And I fell asleep listening to it every night too. I’ve read myself to sleep for as long as I can remember so an audiobook on a nano is great. No longer do I have to get up and turn the light off when the book hits the ground. And if I’m not falling asleep listening to a book, I’m listening to a podcast. Yes I’m very late to the world of Pod and I’m a total convert!

Sometimes lately I feel like my life is just fleeting away before my eyes. Not getting much done, or at least not much that’s fulfilling,  plonking myself in front of the tv more often than I’d like. Never dreamed I’d be an Apple fanboy but it’s given me a new  lease of life.

So, onto the books. For my first audiobook I asked for recommendations on Facebook and bought the one that was mentioned twice. But then I got the next few straight away and ploughed through them too.

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño

Didn’t really enjoy this first one unfortunately. I just couldn’t relate to it and didn’t care about any of the characters. I didn’t find much of it entertaining. I really should have gone with my gut because I saw Bolaño compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Garcia’s 100 0f years of solitude is the only novel I decided not to finish. Both of them are Spanish-to-English translations featuring more characters than my brain can process. I had to keep referring to Wikipedia’s list of characters. I get the feeling I just didn’t get it (Savage Detectives), maybe the joke of treating a bunch of poets as if they were the Mexican Mafiosa was supposed to be more entertaining than I found it.

Most of the reviews on Amazon are 5 stars but this one struck a chord with me:

The Savage Detectives, I agree with several recent reviewers, lapses into spectacular and permanent tedium less than half-way through. Bolano has never lost me, until this book. When I reached page 400, knowing there were still a couple hundred pages left, I experienced something akin, I think, to torture.

Life’s too short for just ploughing on with it but I was curious if it would all come together at the end, and it cost 26 fucking euros. So I stuck with it.

The book was narrated by different male actors, who put on appropriate accents and personalities for each of the characters. One outcome of this, with so many characters, is that it can be hard to tell what sex the character is suppsoed to be.  At one point I read of a long love affair between two guys. Then, only towards the end, one of them pronounced to have her period. Doh!

I didn’t really expect the acting you hear in an audiobook. It’s a restrained form of acting. Somewhere between straight narration and a radio play but it does enhance the experience when done well.

The Road

Next on the list was The Road.  I deliberately wanted something a bit more mainstream and  Iliked the sound of The Road. Sounded nice and dark. And it’s impossible to avoid hearing little pieces about it, and a lot of little pieces add up to a big spoiler. Tom Dunne and his guest’s are the biggest offenders. And you don’t need to hear any more about it from me, but  I really enjoyed it. Was 1/4 the length of the previous book too yet was 4 tiems more entertaining.

Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard book

This was apparently awarded audiobook of the year at some ceremony. All the reviews I read were glowing. But not one of them mentioned that it’s a children’s book! With some things I’m still a big kid but not really books. I need something a bit more. It was entertaining, amusing and very well read by Gaiman himself. So, entertaining enough  but still a children’s book and not really in a  way, I thought, that was universal to all ages, like The Curious Incident. So, back to the big boy’s stuff.

George Pelenecanos – The Way Home

Chris Flynn, a runaway Wigga on the right side of the tracks battles against the sobering onset of maturity.  Written by one of  The Wire writers, and narrated by one of The Wire actors (who plays a minor role thiugh). It’s similar in content; really good characters and a good story wrapped around social commentary. In fact I found some of the social commentary, mostly with regards to the treatment of young offenders, a bit forced onto the characters. Similar to how you might contradict dialogue in a movie for explaining a plot. But only a little bit. I mostly really enjoyed The Way Home;  and will buy Pelecanos again.

Next

I’ve wanted to try some nonfiction audio but some reviews I read, of Steve Pinker for example, is that it’s not really suitable as an audiobook. But I got something lighthearted. Notes from a small Island by Bill Bryson, who I love.  I’ve justbought that, and that’s my itunes voucher gone now with the help of Gorillaz latest album. So I’ve  joined Audible. Have these in my listening list:

Hold your Horses!

// March 1st, 2010 // 2 Comments » // art, music, painters, painting

Nice video by Hold your Horses! recreating some classic paintings. Can you spot them all? The two paintings I don’t recognize are in the screengrabs below the video. Any takers?

Mapped building projections

// February 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // art

Lot’s of very cool videos of projections mapped onto buildings doing the rounds in the last few months. If you’ve not seen any yet, here are some of my favourites.

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

Projection on Buildings from NuFormer Projection on Vimeo.

Battle of Branchage from seeper on Vimeo.

One hundred mornings, just a good film

// February 22nd, 2010 // 6 Comments » // movies

Really enjoyed One Hundred Mornings at the weekend. What I liked about it more than anything was that it was a really good Irish made movie set in Ireland with Irish Elements (such as An Gardai) but it wasn’t an Irish film, it was just a really good film. A good proper serious film. I’m sick of Irish films that rely on people saying feck a lot. Yes we’re Irish, get over it.

The question actually came up in a Q&A at the end. Some bore who was more interested in his own question than any answer asked “Given that the movie was thematically Joycean, what do you feel made it Irish, considering how vidsually Nordic it is?“. Well, it was a more pompous, and much longer question than that. But the answer from director Conor Horgan was what I was already thinking. He didn’t make an Irish film, he just made a film.

Coincidental timing with many other films out at the moment, the basic premise of One Hundred mornings is survival in a post-apocalyptic civilization. Though the struggle is less about the practicalities of surviving, and more about the relationship between four of the survivors. Beautifully shot in Wicklow, with authentic performances from the whole cast, the overall effect was one of subded and moody suspense. And a film that’s brave enough to get you thinking rather than do all the thinking for you.

Unfortunately, while Donald Clarke cries for an end to Begorah movies, One Hundred Mornings doesn’t even have a general release yet. It’s on again today but not sure when you can see it after that.I’m sure it’ll have a proper release very soon though.

Goo goo

// February 16th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // music

Have to hand it to Lady Gaga, she’s pulled the biggest trick in musical history and it doesn’t seem like the world has noticed. Maybe Sheena Easton would have noticed, she who sang “You got the look”, for that is the ruse; Gaga looks like a supercool New York hipster dripping with post-modern artyness, but she sounds like something you’d hear the kids on Lazytown singing, or any other kids tv, cheap, catchy, painful low com denom. The kind of sound you couldn’t fault a seven year old for loving; you smile at the little nippers as they sing along and dance, trying not to let the smile slip as slip behind the sofa and start hacking your ears off with a rusty saw that’s been under the hedge for eight years.

She’s that much of an earache. She’s on a musical par with Barbie Girl, The Rednex (cotton-eyed Joe) and Scooter.

Betty Boo and 2unlimited actually sound sophisticated next to Gaga.

But she looks like Queen Shiva of the Avante Guard elite, and seems to have fooled a million ears.  I don’t think we ever saw Barbie Girl on a Glastonbury stage. She’s probably even fooled her self. Good trick!

Not worth the paper it’s printed on

// January 26th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized

halifax, originally uploaded by jbraine.

See full size.

Life password overhaul

// January 22nd, 2010 // 10 Comments » // web

So you’ve been building up a long list of login/passwords for years now and most likely use a life password for a lot of sites, like most people who don’t want to be driven crazy trying to remember a 100 different passwords. Most sensible people will have a unique secure password for their email, ebay and Paypal.  But then one day, you hear a site you use has had their database hacked, like boards.ie yesterday.

In my case, it was computerbits that was hacked last year, which resulted in someone hijacking my Facebook account and begging my friends for money.

So don’t take it too lightly, even silly sites like Facebook can be dangerous. My Facebook password was the same as the computerbits password. Then I changed every password I could think of, and every now and then I’d think of another site that may have used the same login & password that I was very glad the hackers hadn’t tried yet. Like a lot of ecommerce sites.

It’s a major pain in the cojones, but I’d recommend setting aside a couple of hours and changing all your passwords in one go, rather than changing them one by one as you remember, possibly months later for some forgotten sites. Here’s a list to jog your memory, starting with the obvious.

• Gmail / workmail
• Paypal
• Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Skype, LinkedIn, youtube, (social networking list)
• Wordpress, Blogger, Blacknight
• Amazon, Play, Pixmania, Dell (Top 50 uk etailers)
• Ticketbastard
• ebay
• 02 / Vodafone
• Your ISP / broadband supplier
• Screenclick / Moviestar
• itunes
• Windows logon / network passwords
• Remote backup
• boards.ie, yahoo groups, creative ireland, askaboutmoney, imdb etc

Then search your email account for ‘password’ and see if you find some more. And also try an email search for your actual life password(s).

Something else you can try is: Open your browser and type the letter ‘a’, and your most used sites for ‘a’ will drop down; scan the list and see if any of the sites need your attention.  Then continue through the alphabet.

But before you start the overhaul, have a look at some options for securely storing a variety of passwords, rather than using a new life password. I’d highly recommend the Firefox plugin sxxipper for remembering your passwords and it also makes it very easy to login to sites with one click. You can also use it to generate random secure passwords. Or start using a Password manager like keepass (or 1pass for mac users) which will keep all your passwords secure in one place and you only have to remember one master password.

Live@talkGOD.com pranks

// January 21st, 2010 // 3 Comments » // funny, video

I just might take this up as a hobby. First, here’s the Fresh Prince prank:

Here’s the full letter that was sent in:

I was born in West Philadelphia and also raised there. I spent most of my days playing basketball on a playground – but also chilling out and relaxing. But then one day a couple of guys who were up to no good starting making trouble in my living area. I ended up getting into a fight, which terrified my mother. As a result she sent me away from West Philadelphia to the most peaceful area of Bel Air to live with my Auntie. On my journey to Bel Air, I whistled for a cab but it was noticable that the cab driver was not licensed. I ignored my concerns and told him to make haste to Bel Air. We arrived at the house some time between seven and eight pm and I was glad to see the back of the cab driver. I looked at the house and I was very impressed with the quality of living that my auntie possessed. I realised that I could get used to this lifestyle.

However, whatever was missing in my life when I lived in West Philadelphia was still there. I felt no happier, although everything was indicating that I should. My auntie took me to church that sunday. I hadn’t been for several years. And I had a wonderful chat with so many beautfiul people. For the first time in my life I felt complete. I was finally there. To sit next to Jesus on his throne as the prince of heaven.

God Bless,
Keira

And then a Rick Roll.

Robot

// January 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized, blogging, photos

Robot, originally uploaded by jbraine.

Test post for posting to Wordpress directly from Flickr. Was driving me crazy getting this set up. If you have trouble getting this working this might be the problem:

Go to wordpress Settings page > Writing, then select the checkbox beside “enable XML-RPC”.

Cooking some fish

// January 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I’m in love with The XX

// January 16th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // music

I really can’t remember the last time I was so obsessed with an album, but I absolutely adore XX. I even thought I had come of an age where music couldn’t touch me in the way that it used to but I’m glad that’s not true. In fact I think that may just be part of the attraction. People have commented on how young The XX are, but I think that maybe exactly what draws me to it. Any time I’m listening to it it somehow reminds me of being twenty years old, and all the nostalgic melancholy and excitement attached to that era. I’ve a major teenage crush on XX.

I’ve never heard such a grower either. I had the album in the weeks coming up to Electric Picnic and saw them live that weekend – but it hadn’t at all got under my skin in the way it has now. In fact hearing all the fuss about them back then, I expected something really exciting but on first listen it actually sounds a little dull. But don’t let that fool you. Give it half a chance and it really sneaks up on you.

http://thexx.info/

Hallelujah!

// January 14th, 2010 // 9 Comments » // atheism

Hallelujah! It’s official. The final piece of documentation has arrived. “Dear Mr. Braine, I wish to inform you that your request to cease from membership of the Catholic Church by a formal act of defection has been recognised”.

I feel I should mark the occasion. Bookend the event with a special ceremony. An unwrite of passage. I know, I’ll buy an uncommunion suit and call around to my friends and neighbours, giving them cards with money inside so they can feel part of the celebration.

Or maybe just hold on to the money and drop into Cumiskey’s for a pint.

Watching Nemo

// December 15th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // photos

Sitecaddy

// December 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // design, web design

I recently re-designed the company website: www.sitecaddy.com, which has gone live along with a special offer; free hosting, content management and marketing tools for a year. The free offer is worth about €1500. The consultation and design isn’t free; the signing up to the special offer requires a depost of 1k, so if you know anyone looking for a website, here’s a good chance.

More details of the special offer here: http://info.sitecaddy.com/mysitecaddy/site3/offerirla.htm

The Juicy Fruit kid

// December 7th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // music

I’ve had this terrible habit for years. I’ll just come right out with it:

Hi my name’s John and I like to chew on a Juicy Fruit while drinking beer.

Scandalous, I know. My dentist would have palptations at the thought of it. The habit started off like many a teenager, not yet acquired to the taste of alchohol. I love a pint now but when I’m in the pub, I always have a packet of Juicy’s in my pocket.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juicy_Fruit:

The average age of the typical Juicy Fruit consumer is under 20, with 3- to 11-year-olds making up the heart of the business; those 20 years old and over account for 40 percent of the purchases. John Braine, aka The Juicy Fruit Kid makes up about 10 percent.

Great to discover today that they’ve written such a sexy song about me:

Via http://haroldsatticradio.com/?p=195