December 2006

It's a Wonderful Life is a great film that contributed more than a little to the "tradition" of holiday films to follow. Odd, then, the extremely bizarre (and never duplicated, I hope) decision made with my copy of the DVD.

Do read on.

I did a good job this year of not buying for myself while doing my xmas shopping, but at my local record store they happened to have a special: It's a Wonderful Life on DVD for $5 with any purchase. And I was purchasing something anyway, so I thought, what the hell.

And I Mean that Chatagorically / 24.12.06

Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe is fucking brilliant. And the Xmas special was fantastic - from lovely old Christmas BBC idents, to his steadfast refusal to admit Victor Lewis-Smith exists (a clever way of admitting his influence), the only bad thing was the constant cropping of 4:3 material to widescreen. You'd expect it from some shows; but it seems an anomaly for someone who loves old telly as much as Brooker clearly does.

Why I love Infax Part #27464 / 23.12.06

The Fast Show.

Series 1 and 2.

Notes: DO NOT WIPE WITHOUT PERMISSION OF CHARLIE HIGSON X57363

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My favourite joke ever... / 22.12.06

...is at the end of this MP3.

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Michael Bay's Tranformers / 21.12.06

The new teaser trailer for Michael Bay's next film, the long anticipated "Transformers" adaptation, has been put up on their site. Check it out over at http://www.transformersmovie.com/

Alternate Cover - A Public Service Announcement / 21.12.06

Just in case anyone's actually wondering where it's gone, it seems fair to inform my loyal public that due to the busy nature of this entirely secular holiday season there will be no Alternate Cover reviews this week. However, there will be a special Christmas edition going up on Monday! When no-one will be on the Internet to read it! How's that for planning? Normal weekly service should be resumed towards the end of the month.

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Mission In Snowdriftland / 20.12.06

Bored at work in the last few days up to Christmas? If so, I recommend trying out Mission In Snowdriftland, a thorougly charming and polished platform game made by Nintendo. The music in particular is amazingly good, and I hope that Nintendo create more web-based games of this quality, especially if they're playable on the Wii's Opera Browser which, incidentally, is being released in demo form this Friday.

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Infax is back up! / 19.12.06

Hooray!

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Eddie Murphy Regains Dignity, Others Follow / 19.12.06

In complete contrast to the Grammy Awards, I believe the Golden Globes still (mostly) honor those that truly deserve to be honored. Take a look at some selected nominees that were announced a few days ago and see what I think about them.

Best Motion Picture - Drama

Wii Oh My / 18.12.06

My Wii review on The Iconbar, the former RISC OS community website which has widened its remit to computing in general. I cover the console and Wii Sports in detail, but I don't have much to say about Wii Play, because I'm crap at it.

Enjoy!

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Underdeveloped Fetus James Blunt Gets Nominated for Five Grammys / 18.12.06

I've lost all faith in the Grammy's judgement in talent. A Grammy award is nothing but a publicity stunt. There is no actual merit in a Grammy award anymore, because hacks like James Blunt and Ludacris get nominated (and most likely win) them.

What a joke! Follow the link to the article at the Grammy site below.

Embarrassing.

I mean, just look at Blunt. How is he even popular? He honestly sounds like a castrated sheep.

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The UnSuggester / 17.12.06

LibraryThing has a new (well, I've never seen it before) utility called The UnSuggester. The concept is excellent: you type in a book that you own/have read/love, and it examines the amount of people who own copies of both books and then gives you a list of the books that you would likely not enjoy, based on the few number of people who own copies of both.

Let's try a few novels, just to give you an idea. Let's take Vinelandby Thomas Pynchon:

Did somebody say Gunstar Heroes? / 15.12.06

I also don't usually post things without at least a little commentary, but again, this is a special occasion:

Gunstar Heroes has been added to Nintendo's Virtual Console for the Wii. JUMP IN THE AIR AND LET OUT A GUTTURAL BATTLE CRY.

If you don't plan on owning any other Virtual Console game, get this one.You won't be disappointed.

I've said everything that needs to be said.

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Did somebody say The Arcade Fire? / 15.12.06

I don't usually post links without at least a little commentary, but this is a special occasion:

The Arcade Fire are back. FALL TO YOUR KNEES AND WEEP TEARS OF SILENT JOY.

Find an dodgy quality MP3 with Zane Lowe talking over it at the end, here while it lasts.

I'm too overwhelmed to say any more.

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Standard Nerds / 14.12.06

Wondered why I've not been around much lately? No? Well, fuck you, then.

But just in case you have, it's for two reasons. Firstly, my web design company is to launch IMMINENTLY. And secondly, I've been working on this:

www.standardnerds.info

It's a Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews fansite! Written by me! With bugger all on it! Apart from some interesting IT Crowd news, that might not actually be news at all! But there's loads of stuff to come! So hooray!

That is all.

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The British Comedy Awards 2006 / 13.12.06

Welcome to Noise To Signal's live commentary on the British Comedy Awards 2006, featuring Seb Patrick and Jonathan Capps. And yes, we know that the Comedy Awards are completely rubbish and pretty much lost all meaning as soon as they started, but it's Wednesday night, it's 9pm, we've got a few beers in, and to be perfectly frank - what else are we going to do?

Excellent Futurama news... / 13.12.06

How much of the original cast and crew were you able to put together?
DAVID X. COHEN: We have the entire cast back, as well as a good chunk of the writing staff. We also have Rough Draft Studios animating once again, and they seem determined to top even their own amazing work from the first time around. To complete the reunion of our original crack team, it looks like we will also have Chris Tyng back to work his magic on the musical score.

Runaway Bride - The First Teaser / 12.12.06

Only in crappy Windows Media and even crappier RealMedia for the moment - but still, of course, worth a look. How gorgeous is that blue-lit shot of the TARDIS (shame about C'ne F'ng T'te in the foreground, like)?

Commence Pants Wetting... / 08.12.06

...I know I had to change my pair.

Check out the latest and final trailer for Zack Snyder and Frank Miller's outing with the graphic novel "300." The film, with the same title, will be adapting the novel almost frame by frame, somewhat similar to the way Sin City was produced. But I must say, "300" makes Sin City look like A Merry Muppet Christmas.

Just watch this trailer to see the awesomeness that is "300."

Pop music can Fuck Off / 07.12.06

Did that get your attention? No? Well, you can fuck off too.

This isn't going to be a story about the music you like, this is going to be a story about the music I like. And judging by most of the article archives here, it's completely different to any of the music you like. Which is going to be a right bugger for writing this article, because it's going to decrease my chances of convincing you to listen to any of it, and make my job of explaining it all the more difficult.

Harry Potter Overload / 03.12.06

Well, if you're at all excited for the latest installment in the Harry Potter film franchise, then I have an early Christmas present for you. Listed below are thirteen short behind-the-scene clips encompassing almost every aspect of the new film. They're all a tad short, but they offer a lot of insight on almost every main character.

These are well worth watching.