Pablo Cheesecake – A Year in Review – Part 3

Finally I have some time to sit down and finish my review of the stuff I’ve enjoyed this year.

TV

What’s caught my eye on the goggle box in the last twelve months. Well Being Human was fantastic. I loved to see new genre TV being successful. Set in Bristol as well, who’d of thunk it? New series in the new year!

Torchwood : Children of Earth was pretty good as well. Changing the format from weekly to over just one week was an interesting move.

Stargate Universe is still a bit of an unknown quantity. Much like the other Stargate spinoff Atlantis I think this needs a bit of time to get into it’s groove. Atlantis got there and I am sure Universe will too.

Sanctuary continues to provide fun stories. I think this show has unlimited potential. It’s a  damn shame it is relegated to ITV4 in the UK though. TV execs can be fucking dumb sometimes.

Smallville continues to be the sci-fi equivalent of a cockroach. Personally I think I would like to see a big finish and then we can all move on.

Lost slowly but surely drags itself toward some sort of conclusion. I’ll be buggered if I know what it is though. Yet still I watch...

So there you have it. My mini review of the year. I think I will soon write up my thoughts about what’s due in 2010.

Until that time have a good Xmas and a happy New Year. I’ll be back soon for more online nonsense.
Later

Pablo Cheesecake – A Year in Review – Part 2

I decided to review the highlights of my year recently. The first part of which can be found here. Without to much in the way of preamble here is part two.

Books

I’ve said before I read a lot. Last Xmas I got a Sony eReader and that has only increased the amount of books I get through. One thing I did notice however was that I thought I would never buy another paperback again. I was wrong. Though electronic books are cool there is a certain something about a proper paper book. The tactile sense of the pages?  Who knows.

I have read some fucking corkers this year. Mark Chadbourn completed the Kingdom of the Serpent series with Destroyer of Worlds. This brings to a close a cycle of novels started 10 years ago with World’s End.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again Mr Chadbourn is an excellent author. Turns out also a top bloke and he thinks I’m an uber-geek which, to my mind, is the ultimate compliment.

The publisher Abaddon Books is publishing some great stuff as well. Their Pax Britannia and Afterblight Chronicles are worthy of your attention and your pennies. If you would like to know more check out here and here.

Andy Remic has moved away from sci-fi and has tried his hand at fantasy. Kell’s Legend is a real page turner and left me hungry for more. I should point out his sci-fi is fuckin cracking as well. The Combat K novels rock as do those that came before. I’ve been reading Remic’s work since Spiral and will continue to devour it whenever possible.

Final entry into this year’s good reads. The Descent and Deeper, both by Jeff Long. These books have been around for a couple of years now but I only just discovered them. One word…..brilliant. I read The Descent and almost immediately re-read it. Deeper, the sequel,  continues in the same vein.  If you’ve read the books that last sentence maybe a shitty pun for which I apologise profusely.
 

Again I fear time has managed to get the better of me and I’m still not done yet. I promise I will be back to complete my review of 2009 soon…promise.

Until then please remember to tip your waiters and waitresses. You’ve been a wonderful crowd. I’m here all week.

Mr Cheese

 

Pablo Cheesecake – 2009 - A Year in Review – Part 1

So 2009 is very nearly over. With that in mind I thought I would write a little (turns out its gonna large) blog detailing as many of my favourite things from this year. As usual, whenever I put together a list, they are in no discernable order. These are just a few things that found there way into my life in the last 12 months and how I feel about them.

Music

I make no secret about the fact  that my musical tastes are what some would call odd, I collect movie and TV soundtrack tunes for fuck sake. That aside I think this year I have found myself slightly more mainstream than normal. Lovely new web apps like Spotify and Blip FM have opened my ears to new music more than ever before. The two biggest discoveries for me this year have been Them Crooked Vultures and Alestorm.

Them Crooked Vultures self titled debut album is fan-fuckin-tastic. Take a little Foo Fighters, season liberally with some Queens of the Stone Age and add just a pinch of Led Zepplin and behold a super group is born. Every single track is a winner. There are a couple of truly exceptional tracks though. Caligulove, Gunman and Dead End Friends are all epic. This is a perfect example of musicians making music just for the hell of it. It is all fuckin great.
 
Alestorm are the kings of Scottish Pirate Metal. Now I know what your gonna say. “But Pablo that seems to be a rather niche genre isn’t it?”. Your not wrong but damn if they don’t totally own it. I should say at this point there is a good chance that I am a frustrated pirate at heart so I may be slightly biased…..Yar!!

Film

I’ve said before that I am a genre junkie and 2009 sure was a good year for genre films.  Watchmen was a garish big clusterfuck of a movie, personally I adored it. Pandorum was an unexpected gem. Star Trek was a fantastic update. District 9 was insightful, clever and thought provoking sci-fi. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans was fun and looks pretty great on blu-ray.  In fact its worth mentioning that all the blu-rays I have watched so far look brilliant. Another highlight of 2009 I guess was my first exposure to blu-ray.

Thank fuck for that. I got through my movie section roundup without mentioning Avatar…aww bugger it.
Calm down Cameron you’ll get your review when I’ve seen the film. I’ve heard good things so hopefully Avatar will deliver.

My this blog is nowhere near finished but I have lost the will to type. I still haven’t mentioned books and TV.  I think I may have to split this into two and come back to the second part later. 

Till I can be arsed to write the next part.

Laters

Cheesecake Out

Season’s Gruntings & Xmas Shopping

Yesterday Mrs Cheesecake and I were up at the crack of dawn. Like crazed shopping ninjas we found ourselves in town by 9:05am. The good news is that we are pretty organised and by 11am we were all but done. We managed to pick up almost everything we were looking for and I didn’t blow a gasket and go on a rampage.

Don’t get me wrong I like this time of year. Good will to all peoples and all that but I hate Xmas shopping. The collective unwashed manage to get in my way and underfoot at every turn. I just can’t stand people that would about aimlessly and then get upset when I come along and know exactly what I’m looking for.

Sorry rant over. I just need to get that off my chest.

As you were
Mr C

The Eloquent Page returns…

I recently wrote a blog about how good the Pax Britannia novels produced by Abaddon Books are. The post can be found here. I mentioned at the time I had also picked up another couple of novels by the same publishers but from a different series called The Afterblight Chronicles.

By way of an explanation I relish the opportunity to read post apocalyptic fiction. I can’t really explain why these stories are my favourite form of genre fiction but I read as many as I can get my hands on. From Stephen King’s The Stand to Robert McCammon’s Swan Song. Add a dash of Simon Clark’s King Blood and Blood Crazy and you’ll get the idea.

Anyway I’ve finished both now and I thought I would take a minute or two and pass on my thoughts.

The books are called Arrowhead and Broken Arrow. Both are written by Paul Kane. Set in the aftermath of an apocalypse that has decimated the world’s population these books take elements from Robin Hood mythology and interweave this with the tale of the survivors.



Excellent stuff going on here. I live in Nottingham and I found myself enjoying every minute. The author is great a describing surroundings and as I knew exactly where he was talking about for some of the key scenes it made the experience of reading the books all the better.

A shout out the the artist that illustrates the covers. The first book has a splendid picture of Nottingham’s Market Square. The trashed tram is a bonus!

I look forward to more and urge people to seek these novels out.

Till next time
Mr Cheesecake

Technology is passing me by….damn it!

I was taking a look at Wordpress this morning. Considering a change to where I blog. Curious more than anything else, I was trying to figure out if Wordpress would suit my blogging requirements better than Blogger.

Cut to a couple hours later and I am none the wiser. Don’t get me wrong WP looked ok but I then complicated matters by deciding to see if it would be possible to tweet my latest blog to Twitter and then onward to Facebook automatically.

(I figure if your going to write your thoughts down on a regular basis and send them out into the ether it makes sense to get as large and audience as possible.) 

The problem I have is that there are so many different bloody methods and tutorials and how to do this my head may fucking explode.  I was just looking for one easy simple method to bring together all this social networking malarkey together. Under one roof so to speak.  AARRGGHH

It’s driving me nuts.

Rant over

UPDATE: Typical, five minutes after I posted this I figured it all out. I'm going to go have a lie down now. As you were.

Films I can’t live without

This afternoon I was busy working and listening to my iPod. As is often the case a random thought just popped into my noggin. I often blog about films I’ve seen recently but don’t often revisit my favourites. I thought I would try to establish a list of 10 films that make my life better and also try to explain why. I should add a note at this point that the list is in no particular order.

1. Krull – The theme to this film always cheers me up. I can’t explain why it just makes me smile. Regular readers will know that I am a sucker for good music. That and part of me really would like a flying horse, fuck who wouldn’t.
2. Who Dares Wins – If testosterone was collected from every action star to grace the silver screen, distilled, dried and reconstituted as celluloid the resultant film would not be as action pack as this eighties gem.
3. Brazil – I work in an office, I will always work in an office. I have made my peace with the universe regarding this. Mr Gilliam helped.
4. The Dark Knight – I read comics. This is the best comic book based film I have ever seen.
5. Saturday Night Fever – Sometimes when I walk down the street in my head I’m Tony Monero. I don’t care who knows it!
6. Aliens – I like Alien but I love Aliens. Game over man
7. The Long Good Friday – Best Gangster film ever. Gritty as fuck and all the better for it.
8. The Italian Job – I cannot convey in words what this film means to me. It warms my heart every time. 1969 brought the world this film and my soulmate.  Best year ever.
9. Flash Gordon – If this film was a dairy product it would be cheese.  It is a beautiful explosion of sight and sound….oh and Brian Blessed is in it.
10. It’s a Wonderful Life – you know…it is.

Quick to the living room and lets slip one of these beauties on!
Mr C

The Eloquent Page (an infrequent book related blog)

For a bit of a change of pace I thought I would write a blog about books rather than film.

I’m a genre addict. I love sci-fi, fantasy, horror and the occasional thriller thrown in for good measure. There are so many excellent authors out there that deserve more recognition than I think they get.

In September I had to opportunity to go to FantasyCon 2009. It’s right on my doorstep (so to speak) and I have to admit I quickly found myself in the dealer hall wandering from table to table trying to decide what to spend my hard earned cash on.

In the end I went for some novels from Abaddon Books. This publisher has a number of series that caught my eye. Specifically I was interested in Pax Britannia and The Afterblight Chronicles.


Pax Britannia is just great. Set in an alternate timeline where the Victorian era never ended. I believe the phrase du jour is ‘steampunk’ ? There are characters with splendidly evocative names like Uriah Wormwood and Devlin Valentine. The main character is dandy adventurer, Ulysses Quicksilver. Forever accompanied by his faithful man servant, Nimrod, Mr Quicksilver is thrown from adventure to adventure as the series unfolds.

The most recent book is Evolution Expects. Like the majority of the series it’s written by Jonathan Green. Top stuff all round. Nods to The Fly, green issues and even a certain ‘caped crusader’.
I strongly recommend picking these book up. There is a new one on the horizon in December and I’ll be added it to my Xmas list. I do hope Mrs Cheesecake takes note.

Till next time
Toddle pip

PS - I should stress just because I didn’t mention anything else about The Afterblight Chronicles doesn’t mean I didn’t like. I did it’s just I’ve still got one to read so will reserve my comments to some later blog.

Cirque Du Cheesecake: The Vampire’s Assistant

The second film this week was Cirque Du Freak. Now before I get started on the film I should be honest and admit I have read The Saga of Darren Shan. I liked it and read it all the way to the end. No small accomplishment when your talking 12 books.

I went into the film realising that there had to be changes made for a movie version to work. Some other reviews I have read have been very dismissive of the film due to these differences. What do I think? You know what fuck em. Books make for great source material for a movie but people have to expect changes. Reading is such a internal process. People envisage the story they read and everyone can have a different take. A film is always going to be another person’s vision of the material and I would guess likely to be different from your own.

I’m also not that bothered that the film is set in America. I thought I would be but I seem to recall the books were always pretty geographically indistinct anyway so no real issues there.

One thing I really enjoyed about the film was John C Reilly. He was great. I’ve seen him in other films but this is the first time I think I have seen him in anything as the main lead and I thought he was brilliant. Some of the other character seemed a bit two dimensional but Mr Reilly seemed to flesh out Larten Crepsley.

Also incredibly weird to see Salma Hayek with a beard (Talk about conflicting emotions!)

Will there be more Cirque? Probably. If it makes enough money. I would love to see to war between the Vampire and Vampaneze. Maybe one day?

Enough of this disjointed muttering.

I’m off

9

This week I was fortunate enough to get to see a double feature with Mrs Cheesecake. First off, based on the 2005 short film of the same name, 9 is a dark fantasy telling the story of life after humans.

The visual elements of this film are a real treat. Personally I feel sometimes that computer animation can be a bit to crisp but in this case there was a nice grungy quality will still being picture perfect.

Shane Acker directs and the voice cast includes Elijah Wood, John C Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover and Christopher Plummer.

The film nips along at quite a pace and the seventy nine minutes are done before you know it. I, for one, would have liked to have see more.

Perhaps a bit scary for younger children but I think the rating of 12A was a bit extreme.

Till next time

toddle pip

Mr P Cheesecake Esq

Desktop Tinkering Win 7 Style

This afternoon I have been messing about with the desktop functions in Windows 7. I have been tinkering away using Rainmeter, ObjectDock and the Win 7 options themselves. Now I don’t claim to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I think it has turned out quite well.

I was particularly pleased you can hide the clock on the taskbar. You can probably spot I use quite a large desktop gadget for this so find it unnecessary in the bottom right of the screen as well.

Techno Odds and Sods

I've been using Windows 7 for a couple of days now and it seems pretty good. The gripes I had regarding windows explorer in Vista are gone. Banished like a bad memory.

Been using Sony PS3 as my new DVD/Blu-ray player. Works quite well. Haven't had the chance to use a blu- ray on it yet but hopefully soon.

I have finally managed to locate a mobile Twitter client that seems to tick all the boxes. And the winner is Twittelator.



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The Imaginarium of Doctor Cheesecake

Terry Gilliam is Marmite. You know what I mean. You either love his work or hate it. I fall squarely into the first camp. I have been a fan since at the tender age of eleven years years old I first saw Brazil. It blew my mind (still does to this day). I spend hours wishing to be Harry Tuttle but end up always being Sam Lowry. The less said about that the better.

Yesterday Mrs Cheesecake and I saw Mr Gilliam’s latest film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. I try, whenever possible, to avoid reviews in advance of going to see a film. Especially when it is a film by a director like Gilliam. Like I said earlier…Marmite. Unfortunately being as exposed to the interwebs as I am some word had managed to sneak through. I had heard words like disjointed and messy.

I’m glad to say that I firmly disagree. Mrs Cheesecake and I enjoyed the film and found it both coherent and thought provoking. Obviously there were changes made due to Heath Ledger’s untimely death but I think they worked. Johnny Deep, Jude Law and Colin Farrell all do good work. The changes to the character’s appearance made sense and I don’t think detracted from the film’s narrative in any way.

I also really enjoyed the performances by Lily Cole and Andrew Garfield. Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits and Verne Troyer were all excellent too. I guess I’m saying that this was really an ensemble piece and everyone brought something to the show.

As expected the film was visually stunning. Gilliam seems to love switching between huge sweeping vistas and small enclosed claustrophobic sets. I guess scope is important when comparing the real world against your own imagination.

I really hope that Mr Gilliam gets the opportunity to make his Don Quixote film. His work deserves a lot more recognition. If you haven’t already seek out Brazil, Time Bandits, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys. These films might just blow your mind. They did mine.

TTFN

Mr Cheese

Robin Hood: And you're a robber too. How long have you been a robber?
Strutter: Four foot one.
Robin Hood: Good lord! Jolly good. Four foot one? Well that-that-that is-is- a long time, isn't it?

Pablo Cheesecake vs The Undead

Dead is the new black. Over the last couple of years everyone’s favourite undead shufflers have gone very mainstream. From Shaun of the Dead to Pride, Prejudice and Zombies by way of World War Z and Dead Set. It seems that we all enjoy a bit of zombie chic.

Latest entry to the fold is Zombieland. Mrs Cheesecake and I got the chance to see Zombieland recently and I’m pleased to report it is a worthy addition to the deceased cannon. Much like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland is playing for laughs. Where SOTD has a very British sensibility, Zombieland is all about the US of States. Where we have cricket bats and pool cues our American cousins are all about baseball bats and shotguns.

The cast are all good. Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin are convincing as survivors of the end of the world. Each of them willing to do whatever it takes in order to ensure that they survive. Jesse’s character Columbus has a series of rules which he follows to the letter. While Emma and Abigail play sisters who above pulling a con to get what they want.

The real star of the show though is Woody Harrelson. Here he plays Tallahassee; a redneck cowboy who has discovered his place in the universe thanks to the end of the world. He plays the character just right. The sort of don’t give a shit attitude Tallahassee exudes adds to his air of cocky bravado.

I read somewhere that Zombieland was originally conceived as a TV show and that the team responsible have got loads of material that could be used in a sequel. I for one will be there.

Till next time remember rule number #1 – Cardio

Cheesecake away.

Pablo Cheesecake vs Pandorum

This morning I had the opportunity to see a most impressive sci-fi flick. Up till this experience District 9 was dead cert to be crowned 2009 Sci-Fi film of the Year (in my head that is) but Pandorum has snuck in as a late contender.

Pandorum by Christian Alvart is in turns tense, sinister, claustrophobic and action packed. The story unfolds at a perfect pace and the viewer only learns what is going on as the characters discover this for themselves.

Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster make for compelling leads. The atmosphere, set design and effects are grungy as fuck. I thought it was all great.

Without giving too much away I felt there were nods to The Descent, Alien and The Thing. Pandorum is right up there in the nail biting stakes.

I had a look on IMDB turns out the director is the same age as me. Damn him *jealous shake of fist* Seriously though I enjoyed the film immensely and look forward to seeing more of his work.

See you on Tanis

Mr Cheesecake - Flight Crew 5

A Virtual Life (update)

Mrs Cheesecake still on Sims 3. She has not heard my earlier dire warning.

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Pablo Cheesecake – A Virtual Life ?

I spend all day in front of a computer. I’m a Sys Admin and help people with PC/software problems all the time. When I get home of an evening I trudge upstairs into the spare room and immediately boot up my laptop and start my personal virtual life. I shop online, play online, talk to my friends online and occasionally manage the odd blog or two. The good news is that this doesn’t effect my offline relationships too badly. Mrs Cheesecake has her own PC right next to mine so we do actually spend quite a lot of time in the same room as one another. From time to time we even speak :)

I have experienced an virtual incident today that is odd to say the least. Yesterday I bought Mrs Cheesecake Sims 3 (purchased online obviously) and decided to have a go myself. I thought it would be fun. I ended up being freaked out by the whole thing.

After the initial set up and completing the basic tutorial I found myself watching a digital facsimile (of myself) sitting playing computer games. This is just downright odd I thought. I have paid money to watch a computer version of me doing what I am already doing.

Is the universe trying to give me a none to subtle hint that I spend way to much time in front of a computer? Maybe I have become just a bit to dependent on technology? Or could it be that I need to not play the Sims?

Odd indeed. Anyway the latest patch for World of Warcraft has finished downloading now so I’m off. What do you mean “You’ve missed the point of your own blog!”

Cheerio

Mr P

Pablo Cheesecake – Movie Music Maestro

For a while I have been collecting assorted musical flotsam and jetsam. I have managed to cobble together around 75 of my favourite movie tracks. iTunes loves me! There is absolutely no criteria to be part of this list. The tracks can be main themes or incidental music. Every single one is a winner in my opinion. You think this list is bad you should see the TV themes track listing it’s about four times as big.

Movie/Track Name	Artist
Austin Powers - Soul Bossa Nova	Quincy Jones
Austin Powers - What the World Needs Now	Burt Bacharach
Beverly Hills Cop - Axel F	Harold Faltermeyer
The Big Lebowski - Hotel California	Gypsy Kings
The Big Lebowski - What Condition My Condition Was In	Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
Big Trouble in Little China	John Carpenter
Blade Runner	Vangelis
Born Free	Matt Monroe
Brazil	Geoff Muldaur
The Breakfast Club	Simple Minds
Buckaroo Banzai	Michael Boddicker
Carlito's Way - Oye Como Va	Various
Casino Royale (1967)	Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Casino Royale (2007)	Chris Cornell
Daredevil - Lapdance	N*E*R*D
The Deer Hunter	Various
Deliverance - Duelling Banjos	Various
Diamonds Are Forever	Shirely Bassey
Enter the Dragon	Lalo Schifrin
Enter the Dragon (Ska Cover)	Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
Escape From New York	John Carpenter
ET the Extra-Terrestrial	John Williams
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Mr Blue Sky	ELO
Ferris Bueller - Museum	Various
Ferris Bueller - Oh Yeah	Yello
Flash Gordon	Queen
Fletch	Harold Faltermeyer
Get Carter	Roy Budd
Get Carter (Remix)	Various
Ghostbusters	Ray Parker Jnr
The Golden Child	Various
The Goonies	John Williams
Grease	Frankie Valli
The Great Escape	Various
Halloween	John Carpenter
Harry Potter	John Williams
Highlander	Queen
Indiana Jones	John Williams
The Italian Job - Self Preservation Society	Various
Jaws	John Williams
Jurassic Park	John Williams
Kill Bill - Battle Without Honour Or Humanity	Tomoyasu Hotei
Kill Bill - The Lonely Shepherd	Zamfir
Kill Bill - Woo Hoo	The 5,6,7,8s
Krull	London Symphony Orchestra
Lifeforce	Prague Philharmonic
Live And Let Die	Wings
The Long Good Friday	Various
The Man With The Golden Gun	Lulu
Mannequin	Starship
Monsters Inc	Randy Newman
Odeon - I Like It Like That	Pete El Conde' Rodriguez
OHMSS - We Have All the Time in the World	Louis Amstrong
Pearl and Dean (1st Version)	Various
Pearl and Dean (2nd Version)	Various
Police Academy	Various
Pulp Fiction - Misrolou	Dick Dale
Rambo (First Blood)	Various
Rocky	Various
The Saint	Orbital
Saturday Night Fever	Bee Gees
Saturday Night Fever - A Fifth of Beethoven	Bee Gees
Shaft	Issac Hayes
Spiderman	Danny Elfman
Star Wars	John Williams
Star Wars -The Imperial March	John Williams
Superman	John Williams
Together in Electric Dreams	Phil Oakey
Tristar Pictures 1980's Ident	Various
A View to a Kill	Duran Duran
Who Dares Wins	Roy Budd
XXX - Feuer Frei	Rammstein
2001 - A Space Odyssey	Various

Wonders of modern technology

It turns out there is an app that let's me blog in a mobile style. How sweet is that


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FantasyCon 2009: The silent geek perspective

I haven’t blogged in a while. What can I say…real life has gotten in the way. I had a deadline for a project (which I managed to complete in time). I also seem to have been quite sociable of late. Flitting from engagement to engagement.

Last Saturday was no exception. I went to Fantasycon 2009 in Nottingham. Great that it is just along the road from where I live. I love going to these things. Don’t get to do it very often but always a blast when I get to go. There are crowds of geeks from every conceivable genre. Not a criticism I hasten to add. Proud to be a geek and all that.

I got to hear some interesting people speak about some cool topics relating to the state of British Fantasy today. Vampires, The Green Man, Highlander 2: The Quickening. All brilliant to behold. Nothing better than thinking you’ve heard it all and then someone just casually says something new and it blows you away. So many new authors whose work I am now keen to try.

The best part was I got to people watch. I love watching social interaction. I think I am just inherently a nosey sod. I am just so feckin curious about everything. Ironically as much as I love to watch these little tableaus unfold I am also pretty shy so never involve myself in them. I’m the one attempting to be unobtrusive in the corner. Not easy when your 6ft 2 and have bright red hair but I manage it quite well. Now calm down no need to feel sorry for me. Mrs Cheesecake was right there with me and I’ll take her company over anyone else any day of the week.

I guess I am slightly in awe of authors. I’m not really a very creative person. I have attempted and failed to write/draw/create (take your pick) something original on a number of occasions. Now that’s ok. I’ve made my peace with that particular failing. Every time I meet an author though I am just a little bit dumbstruck. Ironic really…in a past life a used too talk for a living. It don’t matter though because I still get to watch/read/enjoy all of this work.

Gosh I think I’ve come over a bit philosophical this afternoon. They really shouldn’t let me have days off if this is what is going to happen.

In other unrelated news my drunken blogging exploits my return soon. I was talking about it in the pub at the weekend and came up with an interesting concept that I think can only fully be explored while inebriated. Which this space.

Till next our paths cross

Cheesecake away

Pablo Cheesecake : Competition winner

I won a competition. Little old me. I’ve never won anything in my life ever. I have to admit to being a little taken aback by the while thing. Now at the end of the day it was only a t-shirt but I still won it.

The good people at Last Exit to Nowhere produce the best film related merchandise on the planet. All of their designs are inspired by all the fictional companies and businesses from the movies. I won a quiz they ran on Twitter (@lastexitshirts) and they have let me choose a free t-shirt of my choice. I went for Central Services (the faceless bureaucracy from Terry Gilliam’s epic Brazil). Anyone that knows me will no I am slightly obsessed by this film. I have the theme as the ringtone on my mobile phone.

This is just a little bloggerette as I have three reviews to write for my latest cinema visits. I just want to share my good fortune.

Till later

Smugger than normal

Mr C

Pablo Cheesecake and the iPod Conundrum

Image by Nelson Wu via Flickr

A number of years ago I bought the first generation iPod. I was excited by the hype and looked forward to having a decent MP3 player. For me, unfortunately, it just didn’t deliver. The control wheel was fiddly and if, like me, you have fingers like sausages it was near impossible to control. The whole experience left me apathetic toward Apple and their products.

I spent a number of years in the musical wilderness using a Sony MP3 player. It wasn’t bad but then again it wasn’t great either. Sony had their own proprietary file format at the time so it made maintaining my music collection a bit of a pain in the arse. I am essentially lazy and one thing I cannot abide is things being a faff.

About six months ago I decided to give iTunes another go. Things had moved on a lot in my absence and the software impressed me with it’s ease of use. Quickly it became a favourite and my catalogue of MP3s eventually found themselves a new home.

After much umming and ahhing about it I decided I would risk a new MP3 player. I was using iTunes so an iPod seemed the logical choice. this is were I hit my first snag. So many fuckin flavours. Classic, Touch, Nano, Shuffle. So many colours. Sizes a plenty. What is a boy to do?

I went back to the drawing board and tried to put together a list of criteria. What did I actually need my MP3 player for.

• Music – Well Duh! no brainer there. Thinking about it however I did realise that my collection actually wasn’t that big. To be honest I haven’t but any new music for a long time as my musically tastes are firmly rooted in the past.
• Additional Tech – Did I need to be able to watch video? Maybe. Did I need access to the web? There was a good chance!

It quickly became evident that a second gen 8GB iPod Touch would do the business.

I’ve had it for just over a week and I have to say I am impressed. The MP3 functions work seamlessly with iTunes. The web browser and apps available from the app store are all good.

Now I’m not gonna get evangelical about Apple. Like I said I was burnt in the past but so far so good. I like the Touch because it just works. I delivers and does exactly what it says on the tin.

Knowing me in six months there will be something else that seems more appealing but for the moment I’ll enjoy my new toy. I will have to try and stop playing with it every five minutes cause there is a good chance I could end up going blind.

Cheerio from deep within gadget nirvana

Cheesecake Away!

Inglorious Cheesecake

Image via Wikipedia

I do like Quentin Tarantino's films. He has an uncanny knack for producing dialogue that is quoteable, stories that watchable and picking just the right music for his soundtracks.

Pulp Fiction, Resevoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill they are all examples of what happens when you let a movie geek make films for other movie geeks to enjoy.


Inglorious Basterds is no different. Set during World War II Mr Tarantino uses uses the same techniques we've seen in his other films to blend together two separate narrative strands. The story of the Basterds, out to give every Nazi in occupied France a really hard time. As well as the story of Shoshanna Dreyfus a young Jewish woman hell bent on revenge.

Performances were all good. I particularly enjoyed Christoph Waltz as Col Hans Landa. He brought a nice kind of cheery menace to the role. Eli Roth was also worthy of note. I reckon QT just pointed the camera at him and said "Right Eli in this scene I want to you to go bug nuts insane". It seems to have worked.

It strikes me that though this a war film Tarantino really does love his Westerns. For example there was a cracking Mexican standoff in a cellar that builds nice and slow but ends in a bloody mess.

Some nice cameos as well. Mike Myers as a British General . Samuel L Jackson and Harvey Kietel though not seen can be heard at a couple of points.

The music, as with all prior films, is as eclectic as ever. Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schfrin and David Bowie to name but a few.

All in all a great film.

Fuck two movie reviews in one day. I need a drink.

Ciao for now

The Time Traveler's Cheesecake

No movies this weekend. It's a bank holiday so other arrangements are a foot. Last week, however, we managed to pull off a double header. I know as usual I have been a trifle remiss in making any sort of post but we've been busy in the House of Cheesecake.

We saw The Time Travelers Wife and Inglorious Basterds. I'll do a separate blog post for Mr Tarantino's latest mangnum opus. Look out for that soon.

In the meantime lets talk a little bit about The Time Travelers Wife. Based on the book by Audrey Niffenegger this is the story of a man who travels unpredictably in time and the woman who is left behind waiting for him.

Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams do sterling work as the main characters. The story has a nice intimate feeling. As there are so few characters the viewer gets a lot of insight into how the couples life works or, at times, doesn't.

The only problem I had is I'm a sucker for a happy ending and a think at best the ending of this film can be described as bittersweet. As frequent readers know I ain't gonna spoil the thing by revealing too much but at the end of the day I felt that all of the characters were a bit hard done by.

On an almost totally unrelated point I was incredibly jealous of the house they ended up living in.

Oh I've come over all emotional now. I'm going to go a do something manly. Perhaps my thoughts about Inglorious.

Till some point later in time.

Viva La Cheesecake

GI Joe: Rise of the Cheesecake

Today Mrs Cheesecake and I went to the cinema as usual. It’s been a while and after a cheeky little breakfast courtesy of Starbucks we decided some big budget nonsense was called for.

Directed by Stephen Sommers, GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra delivered exactly what I expected. I do so enjoy mindless brain candy of the highest order. Lots of explosions and pretty colours. The story was unquestionably stupid but who cares.

Sommers always gives us spectacle and I for one am glad he does. Van Helsing had it’s detractors but damn it’s fun. Have you seen Deep Rising? go on now be honest. Quite possibly the silliest film ever but I think it’s fucking great. The Mummy is all good too.

According to IMDB Mr Sommers is involved in a version of Magic Kingdom for Sale which could be interesting. Big fan of Terry Brooks and as I said earlier Sommers can do epic scale. Not sure about remaking When Worlds Collide though.

In other news Mrs Cheesecake and I are currently debating purchasing IPods. She is keen on a Classic with all of it’s storage capacity while I am more inclined toward the Touch cause I is all about the widgets and fanciness. I think in this instance we will have to agree to disagree. Come back soon and I’m sure you will discover we have probably got one of each.

Software wise I have switched from Digsby to Trillian Alpha. I find it useful to manage all of my IM/Social Networking accounts in one place. I was disturbed to learn that Digsby ad some rather nasty crapware in the new install package and that they have some sneaky things going on in the their licence agreement so it had to go. Trillian seems to be all good so far but I will continue to be vigilant.

Pablo Cheesecake – Installing pointless software so you don’t have to!

Later Peoples

All Quiet on the Pablo Cheesecake Front

Haven’t blogged recently. Not sure why. I guess I just haven’t felt the urge. Everything has been pretty quiet of late. Not seen any new movies since Harry Potter (Which incidentally I can’t even be bothered to review).

Mrs Cheesecake and I did see Bill Bailey last week which was a good night out. I have to admit to being very jealous of his musical prowess and he is also very amusing. Turns out on the horizon we now have a large number of comedy gigs.

• Rob Brydon
• Tim Minchin
• Dave Gorman
• Frankie Boyle

I would say that is a pretty eclectic bunch. Look forward to seeing them all over the coming months.

In gadge related news I caved a purchased a copy of Windows 7. I have been testing the pre-release for a while and found it vastly superior to Vista so will be happy to make the change. I also purchased a Samsung Jet S8000. I have to say I’m pretty pleased with it. It is better than my previous phone and has some nice little widgets and function that allow for social networking to continue easily when I am out and about.

I know what your thinking look at the picture. “Pablo that ain’t no iPhone!” You know what your right but after weighing up the pros and cons and suffering many a long dark night of the soul I had to be honest with myself and go for the phone the best fit my requirements. So there *blows raspberry at reader*

Mrs Cheesecake’s birthday approaches but I cannot and will not divulge anything via this blog. She will have to wait and see. For once I have been proactive and hopefully will not disappoint!

The great British summer time continues to be miserably shitty. One week of blistering hot weather and then crap ever since. It has been so wet I have not been able to cut the grass and now I’m sure it will take chuffing ages to do when the weather does finally improve.

On a more positive note there is Carbonara for dinner this evening so I really shouldn’t grumble should I?

Till next we meet

Ciao from the Cheesecake

Scotland – Get it up ye! – A Love Letter

I was sitting drinking a can of Irn Bru and it struck me that Scotland is a truly bizarre place. Don’t get me wrong I love it dearly and wouldn’t change a thing but there are some fantastically odd things that seem to just happen there and nowhere else. So for your delectation and delight a run down on what is great about the world’s most eccentric country.

• Deep fried food – It’s true your average Scottish punter will deep fry anything. If it’s not nailed down it’s fair game. Traditionally fish, sausage, haggis or more obscurely pizza, Mars bars, ice cream. I have even seen Cadbury’s Cream Eggs deep fried at Easter. I can feel my arteries hardening from here. Arrgh I hear you cry that sounds terrible. Wrong…this is proof positive of some higher power in the universe. These tasty deep fried treats exist to soak up alcohol like it is going out of fashion. They can extend a drinking session by hours, in some cases days.

• Men in skirts – The Scotsman has always been stereotypically portrayed as a hard man. Is this something to do with a national costume that is guaranteed to illicit sniggers? Honestly though as it goes wearing a kilt is a pretty cool experience ( I mean that literally and metaphorically). I wore a kilt when I got married and wouldn’t have done it any other way.

• Haggis – Made from God knows what (adhering to a strict don’t ask, don’t tell policy) the mighty Haggis is Scotland’s national dish. The great thing about it is that you can try it all over the country and you will get slight variations every single time. When a Haggis is served it does like like the culinary equivalent of a dare but I advise you to give it a go. You will be pleasantly surprised and remember some poor bastard was up at the crack of dawn catching it for you!

I could wax lyrical about so much more that is Scotland. The historic landmarks, the stunning natural beauty, the culture and history but when it all comes down to its all about my list above. Foods based on a dare and men in skirts! I demand you all go there now and check it out.

Later people of the world

Cheesecake out.