Tuesday 19 October 2010

Fixated?

So, since I last wrote anything here I seem to have started an empire. In addition to recording the podcast with Howard, I seem to be doing another. So I'm now the brainchild behind 'Culturally Fixated'. This is a podcast about TV, movies, comics, music, pretty much anything pop culture based. I'm joined by a new host, DrNeevil who wishes to be known as DrNeevil (not her real name.) We have recorded 6 shows so far, picked up a decent, if small and loyal listenership and the show is a work in progress.
DrNeevil and I didn't know each other before the show, although we do have a mutual aquaintance, or good friend in DrNeevil's case. We were put in touch with each other by the wonderful world that is Twitter. We realised we had a lot of TV shows in common. The rest is pretty much history...

So far we have talked about our favourite American shows, the new season pilots, lots of Psych and whatever else crossed our minds. After a couple of shows we decided to focus the show slightly, in order to make it more accessible to those who don't download US TV. So far we have done two episodes based on children's TV shows from our youth, and one based on UK television shows. There seems to be an awful lot more mileage to be had in both of these subjects, but we will adapt along with what our audience wants to hear.

The Fixated empire has also taken a new twist, given that Howard is being a new dad, I have recorded with two new co-hosts on Aurally Fixated. First up was a listener, which I appreciate was a little odd, but Marc Foster (@dudefozz) came in at the last minute to stand in for Howard, for which we are incredibly grateful. I actually had a really good time recording with him, which could have gone badly wrong. We seemed to click pretty well, and the show was fun. Then I needed a stand in again, so this time DrNeevil stepped up. It was odd recording Aurally Fixated with her, given that the show is usually pretty blokey, and we talk about boobs and such like. I enjoyed that as well, different vibe to it, and I was really conscious that we didn't go off and talk about TV shows, much the same as I was careful not to stray too far into movies with Marc.

It seems we have chemistry all over the Fixated universe.
So, if you don't mind too much, why don't you go listen to our shows? You can get Aurally Fixated from itunes or aurallyfixated.podbean.com and Culturally Fixated from itunes or culturallyfixated.podbean.com.
In the meantime, why not follow any of us on twitter? @stevecult, @aurallyfixated, @CultNeeve, @dudefozz (www.towatchpile.co.uk)

Tuesday 10 August 2010

HardCORE?

Been a while since I blogged on wrestling, but I feel like I have to. Having endured through 6 months of shambolic plotting livened up by the emergence of Jay Lethal, entertaining face work by Anderson, and the recent Best of 5 series featuring The Motor-City Machine Guns and Beer Money. But this ECW, no, sorry, EV 2.0 reunion is plumbing the depths. I have a lot of respect for some of what the original ECW achieved. They did indeed revolutionise the wrestling industry, but that was over 10 years ago. Times have changed. There is a minority niche for 'Hardcore' wrestling, I just don't see how it benefits TNA to drag all this back up again. Especially when they legally can't use the name ECW, have Joey Styles commentate it or even use the real names of lots of wrestlers. Oh, and Paul Heyman had nothing to do with it.
Surely, WWE's ECW:One Night Stand while being organised by Vince McMahon had more in common with the original ECW? They went to the Hammerstein Ballroom, actually got Paul Heyman involved, and most of the wrestlers were at least still close to being in shape.
It was nice to see Al Snow & Head, Sabu & RVD & Stevie Richards have still got it, but really, the rest of HardCore Justice was lame! What point is there to an ECW reunion when everyone is 10 years past their best, the Dudleys can't be called the Dudleys, Justin Credible goes by his real name, Balls Mahoney is called Kahoneys and they can't even say ECW on the air? Saying Hardcore a lot doesn't take away from this being a dull show. Seeing Tracy Smothers (tits hanging out) dancing is not something anyone needs to see at this stage of his life. One Night Stand may have featured JBL beating on the Meanie but at least all the people involved got to say goodbye in front of their own fans, instead of the rednecks who inhabit the Impact Zone. It also featured some of the names who made their careers in ECW, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, Lance Storm, Tajiri, Super Crazy, I could go on. I appreciate that a lot of these guys are contracted to WWE but I just would not have bothered with this reunion without most of them.
If you were, AJ Styles, Jay Lethal or any of the other main event level guys in TNA, how pissed off would you be, at firstly losing a paycheck, but also not being big enough stars to sell PPV's, relying on a fat Raven, wasted Sandman and toothless 'Kahoneys' to make the company some money?
Okay TNA, you had your 'HardCore' reunion, now let your actual talent do what it does best, wrestle!

Friday 2 July 2010

Aurally FIxated till the cows come home...

So I guess it has been a while since I wrote anything here. Firstly, podcast news! Had a busy few weeks with the show (Aurally Fixated), what with having guests and holidays and stuff to do. So we got back from NY and straight into a networking event in Leeds with CultureVultures website. Normally I would have sent Howard or at least made him come with me, he is the one comfortable with public speaking after all. I am distinctly ill at ease in social situations, I just don't like people enough to be nice to them. Especially pretend nice! I met some nice people there though, so that was nice. Almost forgot, we got some business cards made up, which you can see below...


It was, shall we say, a bit wanky! Lots of people full of their own self importance because they write a little blog or write some poems. But then there were some really nice people who we will probably do something with in the future. Picked up a few extra followers which was the whole point of going. Also going to perform/present at an event organised by one of the people I met there, Richard from @bettakultcha. He does this thing where people get 5 minutes to talk about anything they are passionate about, accompanied by 12 slides which change every 15 seconds. We are meeting on Monday to write it, but I think we will be performing our origin story.
We have had 3 sets of guests recently, all of which went really well. Episode 17 featured Peter Marshall and The Lomos, or Spencer and Pete. They do comedy-pop songs and we got on really well with the show coming out very funny. We even sang along, badly I might add.
Last week we were joined by 'friend of the show' Richard Massara, a friend of Howard's from university days. He is a comedian/actor who played a storming set at AF-Live a couple months back. He and Howard get a bit carried away when they get together so while it was a very funny show, it got a bit much for me and there was a good 5 minutes where I didn't speak. Although they were talking about milking my testicles at the time!
This week we had another guest, or rather 3 guests. We were joined by 3/4 of local metal band Drowned In Flames. Both Howard and I know the bass player Arran pretty well from working together and I know the singer Craig a little. We thought it would be a nice change of pace for the show and went really well, we had a really good laugh and all 3 of the guys were chatty and funny. We will probably have them back for part 2 at some point.
Next week will be just Howard and I, we decided the sound quality is better when it is just the 2 of us, and we haven't done one just the two of us for over a month now!
I, personally have a long couple of weeks coming up, starting with going to see Ash on Sunday, very excited!! Then we have The Lomos gig at The Basement, City Screen on Friday, before we trek through to Leeds for BettaKultcha 3.

So, before I go, go buy tickets for The Lomos gig here: www.picturehouses.co.uk/cityscreenyork
And go check out Drowned in Flames here: www.myspace.com/drownedinflamesrock
Oh, and of course not forgetting to visit Rich Massara for details of his Edinburgh show here: www.facebook.com/RjrMassara

Friday 18 June 2010

When a plan...

So, on a recent trip to New York, I very excitedly plunked my money down for a ticket to see the remake of The A-Team. Now I'm a child of the 80's, (well technically the 70's but only by 6 months)and therefore The A-Team is my childhood encapsulated on screen. I did grow up being 'Face' in the playground, and I think I still have my Mr. T doll with his missing leg kicking around somewhere. None of this is relevant to an impartial review of the film, but it does show my level of anticipation for an 'A-Team' movie. When John Singleton was attached to direct the film I had high hopes, he made a couple of films I really liked, Boyz n the Hood, Higher Learning and Four Brothers. Four Brothers was the one which gave me the highest hopes for the 'A-Team', being as it was a tale of dysfunctional family, which is how I always saw the A-Team. When he dropped out and Carnahan took over I was cautious. I had enjoyed both Narc and Smokin' Aces with both being almost entirely fun but forgettable.
Having said all that, the casting gave me a little cause for concern. I had always had a perfect cast in my head. This cast varied slightly over time but generally always featured Ving Rhames to take the B.A Baracus role. Looking at Rampage Jackson, physically he was perfect but having never acted before it made me wonder, will he fill Mr. T's boots? The answer to that later...
Onto the film. I settled down, Coke and Sour Patch Kids in hand, for what I was hoping would be fun! Well, fun is the one word which it most certainly was.
It started with a lengthy pre-credit sequence showing how the team got together. Big explosions, tongue in cheek humour and a nice introduction to each character, Hannibal has a plan, B.A has a van and a bad atitude, Murdoch is crazy and Face is pretty and charming. It then jumps ahead a few years (which confused me slightly)to a point where they have been together for a few years and to quote Jessica Biel's Cpt Sosa:
"They are the best, and they specialize in the ridiculous."
Well if that's not a recommendation then I don't know what is? The plot is fairly irrelevant, the whole point of the A-Team was always just go along for the ride and enjoy it. The point of this update is 'ACTION'. The plot is always secondary to the action. What happened then? Doesn't matter, something exploded! Why did that character do that? Doesn't matter, Bradley Cooper took his shirt off and then something exploded. This basically is the template for the movie. It kind of follows the old TV show thread, they get set up, go on the run, save the day. The only thing missing was a lonely widow living on a farm in the sticks somewhere, but if it makes enough money that is the template for the sequel sorted.
Bradley Cooper as 'Face' comes out of the film well, building on his leading man status from The Hangover. He is all charm and rippling abs, perfectly filling the shoes of Dirk Benedict, while Sharlto Copley plays the Murdoch role capably, accent wandering at times but otherwise the right level of manic for the role. Liam Neeson basically played Liam Neeson, with the expected amount of cigar chomping and constant repetition of "I love it when a plan comes together." I'd have preferred to see someone like Clooney have a go at it, but he was likeable enough. The big surprise was Rampage Jackson, for a non-actor he nailed the glowering menace of B.A along with just enough to charisma to keep him likeable. He has the physical presence to make him intimidating and the moment *SPOILER* where he realises that violence is the answer is as good a moment as any you will see this summer.
In short, the film was a blast. We saw it with a typical American crowd, whooping and cheering at every big explosion or silly joke. I had a great time, and even the plot holes were excused based on some amazing set pieces. Who parachutes a tank out of a plane? The A-Team. Who tries to fly that tank? The A-Team.
Switch off your brain and enjoy the ride...

Monday 14 June 2010

Promises Promises

It has become a ritual between my girlfriend Caroline and I that when we come to New York, or even London for that matter, we go see a show on Broadway (or West End). My reluctance is firmly on record and so we tend to go see something that I can cope with. Everytime we go with a list of things I actually want to see, which is usually short, very short. We also then have a list of things I don't mind, usually classics like Grease or Mary Poppins. Then there is the 3rd list, which is the definite no list. This features things like Hairspray. This years yes list was topped by Promises Promises. It was a yes primarily because of Kristin Chenowith. She first came to my attention as Olive Snook in Pushing Daisies where she was so cute and adorable! When I realised that the play was based on Billy Wilder's 'The Apartment' I was delighted. A classic comedy, performed by one of the most respected musical theatre performers around? Even I could cope with that. Sean Hayes (Jack from Will & Grace) was actually playing the lead role, Chuck Baxter. Hayes is a performer who I have seen very little of outside of W&G and a one episode appearance in Scrubs. He was excellent as the put upon Baxter, giving up his apartment in hopes of a promotion. Chenowith didn't have too much acting to do in the role, but she had a couple of big song and dance numbers, which she pulled off with some aplomb. Best of all though was Katie Finnernan, bursting through into the 2nd half like a whirlwind of scene stealing mayhem. The show was fun and diverting but for me the only thing to come out of it would be that Sean Hayes is actually a very talented actor with great physical timing, that Katie Finnernan should be a massive star, and that Kristin Chenowith is still adorable. Also, the seats in the theatre were tiny and I spent most of the evening with my legs all pretzel like.
In short, the show was very enjoyable but felt very dated, even though clearly still set in the 60's. Definitaly worth a watch but I certainly wouldn't pay the full $240 they were charging for seats. I give it a solid B.

Tuesday 27 April 2010

The Aftermath...

So yet again it has been ages since I wrote anything here. Sorry, should any of you care...
So, the show was last night, and it went really well! Got a decent crowd, and they laughed at everything, so that is always good! Some last minute additions to the sketches (me and Caroline) didn't slow it down, people laughed, everyone's stand up seemed to go down well. Thinking we can maybe make this a regular thing. Howard wants to make it a showcase for new comedy, headlined by our brand. I'm okay with that...world domination here we come. I realise none of the relevant people are going to read this but I'd like to express my thanks to everyone involved, as well as everyone who came down.
In other news...well, I'm getting itchy feet. Thinking I need me an investor for my T-shirt business. If anyone has £10k lying around and wants to invest it in a solid business then let me know!

Friday 2 April 2010

A few random thoughts...

Seems like ages since I last wrote anything on this blog.  Sorry!

It’s been an interesting week, for me at least.  Had a strange odd day off situation but I’m over it, although I was gutted on Monday when I came home to find Wrestlemania had not finished downloading, and after I bought supplies and everything.  I don’t want this to be another wrestling filled blog but I can’t let it go by without comment.  I won’t go match by match but there some odd decisions made, Swagger is a very odd choice for me.  He is nowhere near ready to be main event but 95% of the time Vince calls it right, so we will see.  I thought the Bret-Vince match was dull beyond belief, and you don’t know how much it hurts to say that.  The only plus point was seeing the Hart Dynasty get involved for the first time.

Jericho-Edge was always going to be the best match on the show for me, and it was.  I have to reserve a special mention for the ‘Taker-Michaels match.  I’m not particularly a fan of either man but I thought it was a very well told story, with a genuinely emotional ending.

In all it was a very average show enlightened by odd moments of greatness.

In other news, we are closing in on a sponsor for the podcast, hopefully I won’t have to shell out on a Mac of my own.  We recorded our longest show ever this week, 1 hour and 4 seconds.  I also think it is our best show yet, felt really natural and had a lot of energy.  We seem to be finding our groove, I know I feel more comfortable recording.  We confirmed a friend of Howards to play the live show, Rich Massara.  Seems we have a line up! Sold a few tickets this week so that is always nice, looking like we might have a nice crowd.

I’m rapidly losing TV shows too.  Many of the American shows I watch have finished their seasons and some of the others are taking extended Easter breaks, sucks for me.  I do have a new favourite though, Justified, which is based on an Elmore Leonard short story (always a good start!).  Timothy Olyphant plays a Deputy Marshall sent back to his backwater home in small town Kentucky after shooting 1 too many people.  I really dig the slow paced, deep storytelling, I only hope America agrees.  It did stellar ratings for its first 2 episodes so it looks good so far, highly recommended!

A few things I like this week...

 

CM Punk

Justified

Kick Ass soundtrack

Episode 7 of our show!

Planning our New York trip in June

Saturday 20 March 2010

Aurally Fixated- Live

After my mass rant about wrestling earlier, I thought I would say something a little more positive.  It’s official, we are taking this shit live! Although not literally because I’m not sure 100 normal people would pay to watch me and Howard poo.  Anyway, we have booked the Basement Bar at the City Screen Cinema in York, a venue both Howard and I used to work in, it’s where we met fact fans.  We have had meetings about the show, have settled on a rough line up, although changes will always happen, and made posters.  The current plan is for the podcast recording to be the headline act and that Howard and I will go for about an hour in front of a crowd for the first time.  Howard will also dust off some of his stand up, and Helen and possibly me will do a couple of sketches we have started writing.  There will be another couple of things to be added to the line up as we go along but thats sort of it, the shape of things to come!

The show will be at 7.30pm on Monday 26th April, at the aforementioned City Screen Basement Bar.  Tell your friends, buy tickets, buy them tickets!

In other news, I am planning world domination,  the podcast is just the start.  Decided I’m going to be the Jerry Bruckheimer of the UK, producing here, managing there.  Watch out...

Monday Night Wars...

Okay, so, having had time to reflect on the first 2 weeks of TNA Impact going head to head with WWE Raw, I believe the ‘New Monday Night Wars’ are over already.  TNA went live with an average show, starting with the ‘return’ to the ring of Hogan and Flair.  Neither of these people are men I want to see wrestle, at least in his heyday Hogan had charisma.  Flair has been an old man for at least 15 years now and should have retired when WCW went out of business.  If the TNA main event had been AJ vs Abyss I would have watched that, AJ is awesome and Abyss has had a reinvigoration by his alliance with Hogan.  But Hogan and Flair never needed to physically be involved.  Hogan can barely walk after having hip replacement and seeing him stumble around the ring was just embarrassing.  This, don’t forget, is the man TNA is putting it’s faith in to grow a new, hip audience to compete with Vince’s PG friendly product.  That we had to see that match twice was just plain bad.  Even worse, they had debuts scheduled for Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy and Shannon Moore, and screwed all of them up.  Granted, very few people care about Shannon Moore, although I always enjoyed his work, but RVD and Hardy are the 2 top free agents in the business.  Hogan, Bischoff and Russo have killed that dead. Dixie what have you done?  RVD scored a fluke win over Sting, fair enough, both are former World Champions, Sting in the twilight of a great career and RVD hovering around his prime.  But to me, if you are having that match, you tell people about it.  You have a dream never been seen match and it takes 20 seconds with no build up.  TNA thought the best move for RVD was not telling anyone he was on the show.  That’s retarded.  The man has a big fan base, do you not want him to bring that with him?  Then having him fluke the win and spend an eternity being beaten down by Sting with a bat, yes again, well that really built him as a man who can help the company grow.

Jeff Hardy, made a last second run in to help Hogan and Abyss.  That’s it.  That’s the big return for the man who was WWE champion little over 6 months ago.  Good lord.

All this is before I even make it to Raw...which was okay.  Nothing special, couple of good solid matches, a so-so guest host, and a slow solid build to Mania.  Raw scored average ratings while TNA on their ‘Live Debut’ featuring the returns of all those things scored a 1.2.  Wow, that’s the same rating ECW was getting on minority channel SyFy.  Way to go boys.  Dixie claims to be delighted with the show they put on, well Dixie, you are not nearly as smart as I thought you were.

The 2nd week of head to heads was even more embarrassing.  The first hour of TNA was awful, truly awful.  It only picked up with an excellent X-Division triple threat.  This is the last show before Destination X, the big pre Wrestlemania PPV.  Nothing on the show built towards the PPV except a terrible promo by Flair and some excellent X Division stuff.  TNA put on a taped show, up against Stone Cold Steve Austin’s return as Guest Host, 3 Wrestlemania rematches (including Triple H v Orton and Michaels v Jericho).  Fair enough, the taped show is a fixture and probably will always be a fixture, but to go up against that line up with The Nasty Boys & Jimmy Hart (!) vs The Dudleys & Jesse Neal.  Did Vince pay you to come in and destroy TNA?  Granted, it featured the return of Spike Dudley (Brother Runt) which is always nice, but it’s hardly The Outsiders sitting ringside on Nitro or DX taking a tank to WCW.  Sheer embarrassment for me as a viewer, and this week the ratings were even lower.  I know where I would start, and it wouldn’t be having Samoa Joe kidnapped by ninja’s a month ago and then never mentioned again, seriously!

And all this is without Austin taking charge of a contract signing between VKM and Bret Hart, how do you compete with that?

For me, until TNA thinks outside the 1996 WCW box it seems to be living in then there is no competition.  The WWE is not even in a classic hot period like the Attitude Era or the Hogan years.  They have some good talent but they are mostly not being utilised while TNA is pushing Orlando Jordan (really?) and Hall/Waltman, oh, and of course Hogan and Flair.

The only plus sides that TNA have at the moment is the X Division, Angle, Beer Money, Morgan/Hernandez, Samoa Joe, AJ and a few other talented stars, who could be big stars, if TNA knew how to make stars.  Hell Jeff Hardy is the biggest fuck up in wrestling and VKM made him world champion, and a legitimate world champion at that.

Anyway, enough ranting.  Until Hall/Waltman become permanent fixtures...

Saturday 13 March 2010

Busy busy...

Well, it’s been quite a week for me.  Things have taken a big leap forward and are actually exciting! The week started with a photoshoot, which was cool, but I don’t photograph well, and I certainly don’t pose.  I look like Chandler Bing!  We got some nice pictures, and some really awful ones.  One or two homo-erotic poses, but then this is me and Howard we are talking about.  We have been known to have a ‘gay vibe’.  But Howard’s news this week will have gone some way to dispel that, maybe.  Howard and Kendal are officially pregnant.  Congratulations to them, delighted for you!

Been a strange week at work, not one that I’ll go into here, this is not the arena.

Went to see Defending The Caveman on Monday night, greatly enjoyed myself.  It did veer close to the ‘generic differences between men and women’ line but there were some very clever points in there.  I consistently smiled all the way through and had some proper belly laughs as well, and Mark Little is very likeable. A good night out!

Then Wednesday I bowled, badly.  Had a good night though so it’s all good.  Soo tired this week, not nearly enough mooching time. 

During the week Helen and I decided on the name for our theatre company, we will be known as Chameleon Theatre.  Our first production will hopefully be an adaptation of Kevin Smith’s Clerks.  We have decided to delay it until the end of the summer now, in favour of doing some fundraising in the meantime.  A former colleague from the Screen is a very talented artist and is going to design a logo for us for the theatre company.  All good!  Also, we got our first merchandise...the badges arrived.  2 designs and they look really good.  Hitting the promo trail hard.

So, now it’s announcement time...

Monday April 26th, City Screen Basement, Howard and I will be performing our podcast ‘Aurally Fixated’ live in front of an audience, well hopefully.  Helen and I came up with the idea of doing a night of comedy, sketches and stuff.  The current plan is to perform some sketches, Howard will do some standup, then the main event will be the podcast recording.  Booked the venue, sorted the sound man to record it for us, Jonny is going to film it, so we can even release a video version!  Good times.

Now we just need to write some material...

Sunday 7 March 2010

Long time...

It’s been a long time since I have been genuinely moved by a piece of entertainment.  I think the last time might have been an episode of Chuck last year, maybe Away We Go.  Last night I saw the one man show ‘Morecambe’.  I had heard really good reviews of it from various comics, and knew that it had sold it’s entire run at Edinburgh last summer.  I also knew that it bore the seal of approval from Eric Morecambe’s sons, and I may have made this up, but I think even his widow.  I heard Bob Golding, the star, on the radio a few times and he seemed to be genuinely interested in sharing the comedy genius of Morecambe.  So I had high hopes.

The show started with an obituary, and then Golding appeared, looking remarkably like Eric.  The show itself plays like a flashback over the life of a man who entertained millions of people over 40 years of a career.  There is always the risk of it becoming a greatest hits package, an impression of someone doing all their best bits.  This show steers away from that by not being an impersonation of EM, but a representation of him.  Bob Golding is an actor and not an impressionist.  And a marvellous one at that.  During the course of the show he plays Morecambe, but also within the same performance does about 15 different characters who pass through the life of Morecambe & Wise.  Speaking of Wise, little Ernie is represented by a ventriloquists dummy.  Very skilfully done.

It was quite possibly the best thing I have ever seen on a stage.  I gave a standing ovation, which I very rarely do, this was the first time I genuinely believed it was deserved.  I was in turns, amused, entertained, moved, brought to tears, amused some more and then at the close I was almost distraught.  Golding for his part looked visibly moved by the ovation he got, which was mostly standing.

Walking home afterwards I still had a lump in my throat.  Bravo, sir.

Friday 5 March 2010

Promised Land...?

Been a long week...
First I was ill, then we got a new area manager, then he got ill, then he came and spent an entire morning kicking me in the balls. I've had better weeks.
On the plus side, we recorded Episode 3 of the podcast! If you haven't yet listened to it, please do go to itunes and download it, Aurally Fixated. Really enjoyed the reording this week, we increased the length of it substantially this week. Up to nearly 45 minutes. Hopefully people will enjoy it again, been getting positive feedback from people so that is good. Howard wanted to record one of his sketches to give away as a little bonus to our dear listeners, and also to have for his online comedy/acting CV. I quite enjoyed recording it, but then the character was not a million miles away from me.
We are planning world domination with the podcast, maybe pitching to a radio station or two. Howard came up with the idea of maybe doing the recording live, with an audience of paying guests, which I like, although I'd like to build up a little more following first. I think a video version of the show would be good, then the listeners could see my ridiculous hand gestures!
I have hit the promo trail hard again, we now have a facebook group, profile, twitter, website, email address. All go for us! Oh, and I have ordered us our first piece of merchandise...some badges.

Monday 22 February 2010

The Importance Of Being Idle...

Been a manic few days for us. Firstly we had half term, which automatically means I'm tired. Dealing with lots of little bastard kids all day is hard work!
Then I had to give up my day off because we got word through that one of the directors of the company was coming up to see us, see how the shop runs. Their words not mine!

Howard and I finally recorded the podcast. It was relatively painless for me, mostly because Howard is a clever, clever man and knows how garageband works. At least I think that is what it is called? I went with a compilation story about telling stories, which you may have read a version of further down this page, and a couple of stories featuring one of my favourite people in the world, Kerry. I rambled a bit, but hopefully people will find it charming rather than annoying. Howard is much better at this stuff than me, all those years of stand up and performing have given him a perfect radio voice! His recording went really well too, enjoyed his story of dying on his arse at a stand up gig.
So then it was technical stuff time, we found some free music online, edited it into a funky theme tune and voila. Howard submitted it to itunes and 2 hours later we were approved. We finally went live on itunes on Sunday evening, so far the feedback has been mostly positive, but it has also so far been family and friends. So we will see!
Howard again surprised me by setting us up a website, designing some logo's and getting us an email address for the show. Feeling like something of a slacker...luckily I came up with the name. 'Aurally Fixated' it became, and to make up for not knowing how to do any of those other complicated Mac based things, I hit Facebook hard, plugging the show left, right and centre, creating us a group/fanpage type thing and inviting what seems like the entire population of York to join us. Going well so far.

What else? Well, think I'm in the process of setting up a Theatre Company with Helen, my assistant manager at work. We want to make contemporary adaptations of interesting things into plays for grown ups. All the theatre in York seems to be youth groups or shakespeare based. We want to make a stage version of Chasing Amy, although having rewatched most of it, it might be a touch too rude for the good people of York. Clerks it is! I tweeted (yes I know that makes me a twat) Richard Kelly, writer/director of Donnie Darko to ask his opinion on a stage version of Donnie Darko, only to be told it had been done already. Denied! But that does save us a job, means there is a script already out there...
Turns out I might have to play Silent Bob, well I'm fat but not too fat to fly! Just for Kevin Smith fans that one. No, in all seriousness, I think my role will be non stage based, I'm no theatre director, and I'm certainly not an actor. I think I will be the ideas man, and in charge of finding the funding and support for the group. Oh, and I think I will have some wanky title like Ideas Consultant!
If you made it this far, why not go to itunes and download our podcast, Aurally Fixated? Or you can go to our website aurallyfixated.podbean.com and email us on aurallyfixated@live.co.uk.

Saturday 20 February 2010

Podcast a-go-go!

It seems, to quote Miss Penny Lane, that ‘it’s all happening’. Howard, being the technical marvel that he is, has created us a website, got us cleared through Itunes and even got us an email address. It would appear as though ‘Aurally Fixated’ is a go. By the time you read this we should be hitting the itunes store. I really enjoyed recording the first one, Howard is a radio natural, and I think people will like our little show.
We had some issues coming up with a name for it. Originally it was going to be ‘Telling Stories’, which I like, but there were way too many things with the same name, so back to the drawing board we went. Inspiration hit me at work of all places, ‘Aural Fixation’, but then Howard checked it out and there were loads of them too, so he tweaked it a little and voila! We have a name. I have even come up with a new story for the next episode, you will of course have to go download it and listen.
The broadcast is also available at our website aurallyfixated.podbean.com, but the website is very basic and Itunes is probably easier. Anyway, enjoy!

Sunday 14 February 2010

The Day I Died....

The title doesn't mean anything, just had that Just Jack song in my head all week. So it has been a ridiculously busy weekend at work, as expected. Very tired, but came home to find Caroline cleaning the house, having baked a cake and being about to prepare dinner. I knew there was a reason I keep her around! That was a joke by the way.
So we have set a date, calm down mum, it's a date for the first podcast recording. I'm just sifting through all my favourite stories, trying to find the right one for our first show. I think I have what I want to say more or less sorted, just hope people like it. If nothing else, it will be a nice chance to hang out with Howard, which I always enjoy.
Too tired to write coherently tonight so here are some things I like at the moment:
Chris Jericho
CM Punk
Just Jack
Castle
Fox's Crunch Extremely Chocolatey Cookies
Having cake made for me!

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Defying Gravity...

So, two blogs in one day, I'm on fire! This one will be my review of world renowned and fawned over musical Wicked. I'll be honest, I have read Gregory Maguire's novel and quite enjoyed it, but I don't think I would read it again. It added little to one of the great stories of our times. So when Caroline wanted to see it, I said okay, the stage show has won awards and praise left, right and centre.
We arrived to find that the lead would be played by the understudy, I'm okay with that, and then that the Wizard would also be played by the understudy, okay. Then I realised I recognised the guy who should have been playing the Wizard. Ah well, with a show like this you come for the show not the cast.
Settling into our seats the set design is fantastic, there is a 30 or 40 foot dragon thing suspended from the ceiling and a massive map of Oz hanging on the stage. Looks pretty good.
The woman playing Glinda does a good impression of the woman playing Glinda in the original film, but she missed a couple of notes early doors and I did not have high hopes! She recovered well though.
I really hope the understudy gets a leading role somewhere soon, she was fantastic, helluva voice and I believed her acting! Her name is Ashleigh Gray, big future.
My main problem with Wicked is that for a musical it only has one catchy song, and I only know that from Glee. I'll give credit, that is a catchy song, but still, every other musical I ever saw had more than one memorable song. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the show, but I feel like that was due more to the comic timing of Diane Pilkington playing Glinda and the fine work of Ashleigh Gray as Elphaba than any particular quality in the writing.
I just think it would have worked so much better as a straight play. It felt an awful lot like the characters were singing as an excuse for something to do. It was exposition, but it wasn't well done exposition. Now as I stated, I read the book, enjoyed it but am no purist but a lot of the detail missing from the show was what made the book interesting.
In short, I found Wicked to be not nearly as good as I was hoping, and about as overrated as I expected. I expect to get abuse for this review from lots of people who love it, and that's fine, I'm neither a homosexual male nor a woman and therefore the appeal of people singing exposition is lost on me a little. So there you have it, Wicked, is okay.

London Calling...

Well, spent the last few days in London. I have a strange relationship with London, I'd call it a love/hate relationship, but I can't. I don't like it. The people are rude, soo rude! Take today for example, popped into a shop, which shall remain nameless but is a pretty big tourist destination shop just off Leicester Square, to get a couple of very cool T-shirts. Walked in, directly to the part of the shop we needed to be in, said hello to the guy working there and proceeded to decide on the shirts. The guy followed us around, and I don't mean he kept a discrete eye on us, he was a foot away from me. Everytime I turned he was there, almost breathing down my neck. I picked up a shirt, and he reached past me to tidy the space I had left, within 2 seconds of me picking up the shirt. He was about 30 seconds from me telling him to piss off when I realised Caroline (my girlfriend) was complaining to the staff. Just so rude!
There are little moments I do like, but they are merely small moments in a sea of vile! I like the tube, but I don't like the stupid people who travel on it. They run like their life depended on it, when another train will be along in 2 minutes.
As the cliche goes, I'm English by birth, but Northern by the grace of whatever deity you pray to!

Saturday 6 February 2010

New York, I Love You...

So, we booked our trip to New York last night. Looking forward to going back, seeing a few different things. It will be nice to go back and not have to do the basics again, Caroline has now been before. Means we can explore a litle more.
On the agenda for this time will be: Chelsea and the Village, NYU campus and surrounding area, Tribeca, AMC in Times Square (The A-Team movie comes out while we are there!), Radio City and this time we will actually do the NBC tour. This might be the bit I'm most excited about. Visiting the SNL set, which I have become a massive fan of over the last year or so, will be amazing. NBC is much maligned, having just gone through the Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien shambles, however, they also make the aforementioned SNL, 30 Rock, Community, Chuck and Heroes. They also made Scrubs and Lost! So I cut them some slack, plus they do really good T-Shirts. I fully intend to visit the NBC shop, stock up, then the HBO shop, stock up!
Hopefully we will find time to explore the boroughs a little, there is an amazing wrestling shop in Flushing I would love to hit up.
Not sure what kind of show we will go see this year, I'm sure we will see one, just got to narow the list down. Avenue Q last year was great, not sure there is much else around that I fancy. Either way, I'm very excited to be going, would love there to be a wrestling show somewhere nearby we can go to, not been to a live one in ages.
Well, off I go to organise myself for our London trip...

Thursday 4 February 2010

Bazinga!

Okay, so Christmas is over. Thank Christ. And now it is time to get back to the real world. Well, my version of it anyway.
Have been inspired by Howard! Talking to him about his non job leaving him lots of time to write. I should be organised. We talked briefly about maybe doing a podcast, think I would enjoy that, and it would be good! He is funny, I have my moments, could be amazing, could be shit! I'd lean more towards amazing.
Thinking I should apply for that TNA Internship. How cool would that be? Being there for Hogan and Bischoff taking it down from the inside? Be a shame, but a great experience.
Here are some things I like at the moment:
Chuck
Motor City Machine Guns
John Casey
Community
smodcast.com
Glee
Booking holidays
Eve Torres
Abed and Troy

Heading to London this weekend, not somewhere I generally like being, but it will be nice to get away for a few days, maybe do a little shopping, see a show. I may blog again before then, hopefully I will have something to say next time.