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