My Favourite Things: June

It's the end of the month! And to celebrate getting past the half way point of the year, why not check out my wrap up of fun things online this past month over at ASiteCalledFred.com

It has good stuff with zombies, nerds and John Barrowman. Don't believe me? Click his chiseled features and find out!

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As The Sun Sets

I've been visiting my parents for the last few days. I don't get to do it often, they live in the country now and it's a 2 hour trip from Dublin. However, getting home does reap some benefits.

Apart from the obvious home cooking and such, I've been meaning to take some pictures of the view from their back garden. It overlooks some farmland that's being left fallow and when the sun goes down it can be quite beautiful.

I waited an hour or two to try and get these shots right. They didn't turn out exactly as I was hoping but very little ever does and maybe that's not a bad thing. It's nice to be surprised every now and then.

Anyway, here's the result of hanging out in my parent's back yard for an evening.

As always click away to see the larger versions.

Cleaning House: The Geek Shelf

I recently moved apartment. I went from a nice spacious apartment to a shoe box. As a result I've struggled to fit all the geeky crap I've picked up over the years into my new abode. It happens.

I'm 27 years of age now and my interests haven't changed too much since I was a teenager. So thats about 10 years worth of silly things. Today, I finally organized one of my shelves and thought I would share with you some of the geekiness.

I've donated a lot of things to charity shops this week so this is the paraphernalia I couldn't part with. To view them in MEGA-SIZE just give the pictures a click.

I'm going to go through these shelves with you from the bottom up so here is a closer look into my SOUL!

From left to right: Harmonica, Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, Adult Swim/Sipes' Stories book marks Lord Of The Rings extended DVDs, Venture Brothers season 1 and 2 on DVD, the works of Michel Gondry's and Spike Jonze's music videos on DVD, Scott Pilgrim collection, a bag full of Take-Away restaurant leaflets in the area.

Marvel lead statues. Johnny Storm R.I.P.

More statues. This is my mutant shelf. Jean Grey R.I.P. x5

Avengers this time. Also a magic 8-ball, mini clapper board and Clerk's in-action figures.

Fraggle Rock plush toys (yes, I'm still short that last one) and snow globes from around the world (Atlanta, Brussels, London and Paris) I had one from Scotland but it broke. My only regret is that I didn't film it in slow motion and whisper "rosebud".


I would show you the comic books but I don't think it would be possible to do so without a wider lens...

Tease Me, Baby! – Captain America (2nd Trailer)

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YES!

YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!

OOOOOOOOOOH YES!

To find out what the hell I'm so excited about, click the man JUMPING THROUGH A MOUNTAIN OF FIRE!

Weekend Justice #119: Love and Pineapple Juice

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It has been a long time since I was able to appear on the maddest podcast on the internet, Weekend Justice. The reasons for such are boring but I'm happy to announce I'll be able to attend a lot more as we roll up to Dragon*Con 2011.

This week was a lot of fun to record and featured not only myself but Widge, Rox, Jon, Leigh and a brief cameo from Rob.

Here is NeedCoffee's description:



It's Weekend Justice: the Internet's #1 audio trainwreck. It's the podcast that obscures your sky. So you can stay home. Yeah, you're welcome. Anyway, this podcast was engineered--some might say over-engineered--by experts to escort you from the work week in the most chaotic manner possible. Please note: this podcast is profane, definitely oversexed and definitely overwrought. It is wrong and unsafe. You have been warned.

So to listen, click THIS HERE LINK THING RIGHT HERE... HERE or click the logo if you want to be a dick about it.

100 Bullets: A Casting Wish

Please note: This article was originally written for TheWebsiteOfDoom.com and reprinted here in full.

After rumours for at least 3 years, it has been announced that the unmistakeably brilliant Vertigo comic book series 100 Bullets is coming to TV. David S Goyer, a man of a hit-and-miss professional past, will write and executive produce the show which is being made for the Showtime.

After uncontrollably weeping for hours at this joyous moment, I started to think about the implications of this news.

Firstly, I'm pleased they chose to do a TV series rather than a movie franchise. The plot of 100 Bullets while having a simple enough premise, a mysterious man with a briefcase gives you irrefutable evidence and the whereabouts of the person who has ruined your life then gives you a gun with 100 untraceable bullets and the option to do what you want with it, would make a good movie on it's own but the real plot, the long story, is so intricate and layered that they could never do it justice on the big screen nor would they even try.

Secondly, I'm glad more comic book projects are being brought to TV in general. As a rule, I think the small screen works much more fittingly to the serialised nature of comic books. With The Walking Dead and now this, two of my favourite comic books series ever will be getting a weekly screening on my telly box and that makes me way happier than having one 90 minute butchered version I have to pay a lot of money to sit through.

Tease Me, Baby! - The Muppets (Full Length Trailer)

When the teaser trailers for the new Muppet movie started rolling out I gave a less than glowing review of them. While I consider myself a bit of a Muppet afficianado and somewhat of a credible blogger (a possible contradiction in terms) I am not the only Muppet know-it-all on this site. JJ Hawkins of Mars Needs fame would be the Statler to my Waldorf.

He voiced his concern that I was wrong about the quality of what we would get once the movie opens. In fact, he pretty much calls me out on one of his podcasts. Never one to shy away from a good argument, I thought I could have a little chat with him now that the new full length trailer for The Muppets has been released.

Check out the trailer and then our thoughts/rantings on the matter by clicking the grinning face Jason Segel.

CLICK ME IN THE FACE... WITH YOUR FIST!

The Easiest "Where's Wally?" Ever

This article was originally posted on TheWebsiteofDoom.com and reprinted in it's entirety here.

Everyone knows who Wally is, but you may know him by a different name. In America he was renamed Waldo. In France he was Charlie and Germany he was Walter (because nicknames are not efficient enough for the Germans). In Sweden he was Valle but originally in his native Britain he was just Wally.

As kids, we got to read the "Where's Wally?" books and try to find the bugger in a large crowd. Then he even got his own TV show where we could follow his adventures and run-ins against his evil arch nemesis Odlaw. See what they did there? Odlaw!

Well, in Dublin this past weekend there was an attempt to break the world record for the most amount of Wallies (is that the plural? Or is it Walli?) in one place at a time. Despite the wet weather, it's Ireland after all, the Dubliners turned out in force and over 2500 people made it. Kids and grown-ups all seemed to have fun as the Street Performers Championship, who organized the attempt, entertained the crowd.

The previous record was 1,052 held by Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. Dublin managed to smash it on Saturday and now hold the record of 2,563* Wallies... including me! Of course I had to take part and get some pictures so that you lovely DOOM folk didn't miss out on the striped madness.

*According to Wikipedia. I've also seen figures like 3,500 being quoted so I guess the official numbers are hard to pin down.

Dragon*Con 2010: Make The Bad Men Stop, Part 2

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It's been a while since Part 1 was posted but at Dragon*Con last year there were two panels hosted by NeedCoffee.com that were called Make The Bad Men Stop. They're about movie adaptations of your favourite things but also about anything else that comes up during the conversation too.

I was lucky enough to take part and now the second panel has been posted for your aural pleasure.

There are lots of us involved but you should be able to spot me as the only Irish accent.

To listen click the Dragon... or to download this madness directly, DragonCon 2010: Make the Bad Men Stop, Part 2

My Favourite Superhero Songs

This is a summer of big super hero movies. Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America and more are coming to save the day. It had me thinking. Super heroes are well represented in the media now, but are they being left out of the music industry? Is this the last form of entertainment that we can't get a cape on?

Of course there are the TV show themes like Spider-man's which have been covered by musicians as diverse as The Ramones and Michael Bublé but I'm thinking outside of that box. Well, as soon as I pondered this, I started to remember lots of songs that are inspired by our tights wearing friends.

As a result, I now present to you my list of 5 great super hero related songs.

1) R.E.M. - "Superman"

Despite it's tendency to sound a bit like a psycho stalker's anthem, this is a great song about being a jealous mess. It's not really about Superman but more about a guy claiming that he can be like Superman. But with less saving-the-day and more using super vision to spy on you.

As I've stated before, I'm a massive R.E.M. fan and I get a huge kick out of the rare songs sung by Mike Mills, the bassist. Unfortunately, rumour has it the band secretly hate this song now and refuse to play it live. This rumour is backed up by the fact that I haven't heard them play it at any gigs I've been to. But at some point it was in their set list, proven by the live recording of the song in the video below.



2) Prince - "Partyman"

I understand that Partyman isn't a super hero in any comic. His powers may be limited to "rocking the party" so he is probably terrible at fighting crime (unless the crime is a bad time) but his song is from one of the few good scenes in Tim Burton's Batman film. When Jack Nicholson's Joker breaks into an art gallery and starts trashing the place, he does so to this Prince funkalicious song.

Most people would quote "Batdance" as the big song from that movie but "Batdance" is an absolute mess of a tune. It's 6 minutes of odd samples, noises and one golden moment of Prince shouting "get the funk up" but that's about it. I think "Partyman" is much better in comparison although it doesn't have the sweet half-Batman/half-Joker costume in the video.



3) OK Go - "Invincible"

No, it's not about Robert Kirkman's super hero of the same name but you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a good fit. This rocking tune is the biggest flat-out ode to a super hero I can think of. The lyrics are delicious and have lots of fun comic cliches, "so please use your powers for good" being my favourite.

Taken from the album Oh No, "Invincible" is the opening track to one of my favourite LPs. The video is a bit of a bruiser too as the band take the opportunity to blow up a bunch of household items all for the sake of rock and roll. I can't argue with the logic.



4) Spin Doctor's - "Jimmy Olsen's Blues"

There is a 90s part of my soul that will never go away. And the Spin Doctor's are a quintessential 90s band. They wrote this little number back in 1993 and it tells the tale of a Jimmy Olsen/Clark Kent/Lois Lane love triangle. I'm not sure if one ever existed in the comics but it's a fun idea nonetheless.

The cool thing is, not only is there a song written from Jimmy Olsen's point of view but the album was named after one of the lines from the song which is "I've got a pocket full of Kryptonite". Geeks were representing even back in the 90s, folks.



5) Tenacious D - "Wonderboy"

Tenacious D were a rare commodity of a comedy band that truly rocked your socks off. "Wonderboy" is a tale of dragons and mind bullets (that's telekinesis, reader). It's a fantastic song and it makes me want to follow more adventures of Wonderboy and young Nastyman.

This video however has double the awesome because in this live recording the D mixes "Wonderboy" with "Flash", the Queen theme tune for the Flash Gordon film. Twice the heroics, twice the amazingness (real word). Beware of the dragon.

Blur-O-Vision Pictures

As stated before on this blog, I host a party every year to celebrate the ridulous event that is the Eurovision Song Contest. I like to have my friends over and play what is now a finely honed drinking game... of death!*

This was a month ago now, but I have finally gotten the Instax pictures from that night scanned in to share. And what are blogs if you can't share?

Orla, Brian and Bruce. This was at the start of the night and I love how Bruce always looks like he's drinking 100 year old whiskey even though it was cheap rum.

Caoifhlionn. It appears something interesting is happening to her left.

Caoifhlionn, Brian, Ian, Orla, Caoimhe, Vanessa and Andy. Despite the suggestion of Andy's face we're all still sober at this point as the show has only just begun.

Vanessa. I don't know what is happening to the left but it seems to be fascinating for everyone.

I think the booze is starting to kick in at this point.

It had definitely kicked in by this point

The wee hours of the morning when talk had gotten slurred and phylisophical

A big, BIG thank you to Amanda who helped me pick out the Fuji Instax camera with some great advice and for just being a damn good photographer in general. A shot (alcoholic) was taken in your honor that night.

*no death actually occurs, although the participants will feel like death the next morning.

An Experiment

I often talk to myself on my way home from work. Not out loud (I'm not a complete crazy) but in my head. I have little monologues about stupid things that cross my mind. I don't know why I do it. Boredom is surely a big part of it. I'm often reminded of this habit when reading comic books. Super heroes seem to have long conversations with themselves concerning a myriad of things both vital and tedious.

In an attempt at trying something out, I thought I'd put some words into the mind of Spider-man, Marvel's resident pop culture spouter, and see if they'd stick like he does to a wall.

This may be my only ever attempt at doing a comic with a superhero but if I get a good response... who knows! I'm a sucker for attention.

First Impressions: Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See

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 Arctic Monkeys are one of those bands that made me sit up and pay attention at a time when I was getting really cynical and apathetic about music. The first time I was introduced to them was the video for “I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor”. It excited my like I was a teenager again listening to rock records. The energy and wit were a breath of fresh air.

It’s only been 5 years since that debut album, Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not, was released. Amazingly, this is their 4th album with a 5 track EP and live album also under their belts in that time. It seems the band gets bored easily.

I had been disappointed with their last album Humbug. It felt like the band were trying to be someone else. There was a departure from their sound and it struck me of pretention rather than a natural progression. But I was so attached to their first album it could have just been me doing the cardinal sin of a music fan; wanting a band to release the same album over and over again because you love it so much.

To read my review of the new album, done in live time, click the monkey playing a guitar to the left (yes, I'm classy as always).

Poole's Polls - June 2011

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 I'm asking questions. Real questions. Questions as old as time. Questions that cut to the very soul of the human condition. Big questions. Huge questions!

For example; this month I'm asking who is your favourite Doctor Who?

I told you, the important stuff. Click the TARDIS to the left to see what I'm talking about and also find out who was the winner of last month's Avenger question.

My Favourite Things - May

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 I hadn't written anything for asitecalledFRED.com for a while and wanted to fix that error. So I decided to take the 5 things I enjoyed most about the month of May, now that it was done and dusted, and share with the world.

You can read that article by clicking Obama's face on the left. It includes him, Paul F. Tompkins and Jim Henson among others. Enjoy!

DOOM hits 10,000

Last week www.thewebsiteofdoom.com nudged over the 10,000 hits mark which was pretty cool. Myself and some of the other DOOMers decided to say thank you and post a picture doing so. You can see mine in it's large, weird glory below and you can see the article itself by clicking this here now link.

And thanks to anyone who has read any of the stuff over there. We greatly appreciate it from the bottom of our empty, evil hearts.