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I watched 'Brick' this evening on DVD. It's a darker, moodier, bloodier and more violent Breakfast Club for the 21st century. It is a high school teen flick but is miles away from most of the usual 'high school teen flicks'. Brick is a thriller that twists, has great lines and has a great young cast whom I can imagine will make more than the occasional 'big' splash over the next decade or two.

For a quick plot summary - Brendan is contacted by his ex-girlfriend who's in trouble. She meets up with him and tells him not to worry, to forget about it and then promptly vanishes. He begins to search for her whereabouts with assistance of The Brain - his only real friend at school - and ends up infiltrating the more socialite highschool circles as well as getting involved with the criminal underworld in his search.

The film has been described as a modern noir school detective story but that doesn't do the film justice. It's a fantastic film, has some great moments and lines and was really enjoyable to watch and see things pieced together. Certainly one to catch on dvd if you like films with a plot and intelligence.

School Report: B+

Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way

I first heard a few tracks from this album a few weeks ago on the BBC2 Country show (Thursdays at 7) and boy have they grown up.

I used to be a big Country fan but a lot of it has been leaving me rather cold, there has been little new blood, most of what you got to hear was one Brooks&Dunn clone after another, people like Garth Brooks getting more and more commercial and samey and the old league disappearing into oblivion, two notable exceptions being Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson but their music really isn't Country anymore.
The Dixie Chicks were cool, modern, irreverent, had guts and spoke their mind (they got into big trouble with the rather conservative Country establishment when they publically told everyone what they thought of the Bush administration) but their music was still not quite there, it was all a bit too happy and pandering to the masses for my taste.

Enter Rick Rubin, producer extraordinaire of all kinds of music across all genres from Rap to Speed Metal, including the superb American series of Johnny Cash's late work, who again proves his knack for bringing out the best in the artist.

This album really shows their talent, both as artists and songwriters.
The music is varied from standard modern Country instrumentation (Lubbock or Leave it) via more traditional Bluegrass inspired tracks (Silent House), pure acoustic tracks and finising off with a fantastic Soul number (I Hope).
It's good value for money, too. 14 tracks, only two are (just) under four minutes.
Some of them are beautiful, some of them are engaging, others are just plain fun but all of them have extremely high production values.

One point of criticism would be that the lead vocals get a bit boring after a while, they could be a bit stronger/more emotional. The harmonies are really good, though.

So, in closing, a well thought out, well produced, high quality Country/Americana album.

8/10 on the Ozzometer (new scale)


Ali Farka Touré - Savane

I picked this up on a whim after reading a really good review of it in Mojo. I've known of him for a while but hadn't gotten round to actually buying something of his stuff.
This is his latest album and really good.

For those who don't know Touré's World Music, he combines traditional Blues elements (guitar and harp) with equally Northern and West African melodies and instrumentation, singing in French and various African dialects. There's quite a bit of Zydeco influence, too.
This combination might sound odd at first but it really works, which actually isn't surprising as the Blues was developed by the descendants of West African slaves in North America so the music has common roots.
The title track, Savane, is definitely my favourite, it has the best groove but all the songs have their qualities.
The booklet is also worth reading as contains notes and interesting bits about each songs (in French and English), rather than just the lyrics.

Bored of conventional music and looking for something new? You can't go wrong with this.

8/10 on the Ozzometer

I know that there's a lot of newer SLR cameras on the market now (like the Canon EOS 30D) but seeing that the 350D is still going strong, I'm reviewing it anyway.

Whether the 350D really is a professional camera or simply a semi-professional one I'm going to leave besides the point (I'm sure all pro photographers have the 30D, 20D, 5D or heavier anyway).
The fact is, this camera gives some absolutely fantastic results, especially when it comes to colour.
I use mine for fashion photography and I really can't complain, it makes sure that you can get the colour that the clothes actually are and it gives for sharp images of high resolution and high quality that can be printed easily on up to A2 format.
Lighting, timer and distance options are easy to use (once you find out where they all are) and it's compatible with all the Canon SLR lenses, which is fab :).
And loads of stores are doing deals on them right now, thanks to the release of the 30D.

The upsides:
- Lighting is _fabulous_. I've taken pictures with it in all lighting circumstances and bar flat burning sunlight, you get fantastic results.
- The lenses are very high quality, I've got the basic 18 - 55 lense that came with my camera (it also came with the 300D) and I really can't complain. It allows for good close-ups (it doesn't quite do macro of course, but it's still good) as well as for really nice portrait and landscape photography. And they're quite easy to clean, click on and remove, which is an extra bonus.
- Battery life is quite long. I took it to Disneyland Paris with me for 2 days in which is was used pretty much non stop, and I didn't have to charge the battery till the week after the trip.
- Picture viewing and deleting on the small screen at the back is also easy to use.
- It has a good solid magnesium casing, which doesn't scratch easily and is easy to clean (you'll need special wipes for that tho).
- The neck strap that comes with it is quite handy, and really not as uncomfortable as it seems.
- Great colour, I really can't say that enough.

Now some of the downsides:
- You need some time to figure out how this camera works. Especially when you're not used to SLR, you'll really have to sit down and read the manual with the camera next to you. Also framing is can be a bit tricky when you wear glasses. They put on that function that allows you to take pics like you aren't wearing glasses, but trust me, it's not all that fab.
But once you've gotten the hang of it, it's great! :)
- It's not all that light to carry around, so after a day, you'll be glad to be able to put it down.
- Once the lens has gotten smudged, it's rather stubborn in getting clean again (even when it's just an accidental fingerprint) so you'll need to carry special wipes at all times. Be sure to get them at a photography shop because loads of bigger chains sell rubbish (I spend the 45 minute waiting line for Phantom Manor attempting to remove _one_ fingerprint with rubbish camara wipes and ended up removing it with the cloth for my glasses within the minute X_x).
- You'll need a good bag for it. And good camera bags are rather expensive. Whatever you do, don't get the semi-hard casing Canon has released for them, it's a hassle to put them in and an even bigger hassle to get them back out (and it's not cheap, I paid €45 on mine). If you don't want to get a big bag, get a holster for it (which is cheaper than a bigger bag anyway, and handier if you're not going to get more lenses).

Other specifics:
- Compact Flash memory card
- Charger, lens cap, strap, battery etc is included, and with many promotional deals you often get a free camera bag and memory card along as well.
- Their repair service is supposedly really efficient, and it takes 10 working days tops to get your camera back and fixed over here in Belgium (doubt it'll be much longer in the UK) at least, that's what I was told when I bought mine.
- There's only one lenscap in the box, so getting an extra one won't hurt. But I've heard they're not that cheap (I've yet to get a spare one myself).
And these I've nicked off the site ;)
- 8.0 MP
- 3 fps with up to 14 image burst
- E-TTL II flash system
- DIGIC II
- 7-point AF
- DPP RAW image processing software
- Separate RAW/JPEG image recording
- USB 2.0 Hi-speed/Video Out
- Compatible with EF/EF-S lenses/EX Speedlite flashes
- PictBridge compatible


The negative points put aside, I really do not regret having bought this camera. I'm really happy with its performances, and I'd definitely consider getting a more professional Canon if this one breaks down (which hopefully won't be before 2010).
I will say this however: if you don't need to get professional quality pictures: then don't buy it and get a nice semi-professional or home use digital camera which is more compact and a lot cheaper. Results from those are often just as good when you only print your pictures on small and medium formats.

If I were to grade it, I'd give it a 9 out of 10.

Mine was bought at Fnac Antwerp a few months ago, and I cashed in a serious discount as it was one of their special membersday. So big in fact that I got my memory card on top for free, which would normally have cost me 82 euros. In total I paid about 950 euros for the camera + lens, memory card, semi-hard case and a Löwepro camera holster, and that's with discounts taken into account. I'm just putting the price here as a reference so people have an idea of how much the stuff is. I really wish cameras weren't this expensive!

Today Matthew, I shall be reviewing the video game remix tune 'Anthem of a Metroid Hunter'.

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01…

Based on Samus' ending theme from the game Metroid 2 on the original Gameboy, this is a remix done by Big Giant Circles. With a name like that, you know the track is going to be memorable. Considering this is a remix on the Overclocked Remix site, you also know that it's been vetted by judges and if it was dire it wouldn't have been put up for download in the first place.

So what's it like?

First off, the whole thing is remarkably upbeat. After all, at the point in the game when you'd be hearing the original Samus has just finished kicking all sorts of Metroid arse and saved the universe in time for tea and medals. It's the kind of track which ends up making you smile and think of cool things, hanging just on the right side of twee (by my reasonably strict twee standards).

The track begins with an intriguing intro that is remeniscient of general Metroid game themes, then the backing baseline pops it shortly followed by a repeating ditty that marks the background to the theme. Then you can hear Samus' making her 'I'm great, me' entrance in the way the music flows and bounces along. Some fun and games with knob-twiddling effects clearly going on if you pay close attention to the technical side of the sound. Various bits of themes slice by, building up the main part of the track that kicks in almost two minutes after the beginning.

A simple mock-guitar riff marks out the mainstay of the remix with assorted backing themes and tunes moving in and out of earshot, all the while maintaining an anthemic (perhaps almost epic if it were richer sounding) theme. It evokes a pastiche of Samus' greatest triumphs in the game (as you could imagine them to be if you've not played it but are familiar in pasisng at least with the whole Metroid thing) and never gets repetative overall, despite it's simple construction of repeating themes.

The whole thing is nicely polished and tight with good sound editing and balance. Definitely deserving of a good sound-playing contraption and good speakers or headphones.

My only niggle is the very end of the track. The final part where the music cuts out for some random machine noise and then ends in an overly cheesy sparkly riff that spoils it. I tend to skip to the next track when the cut-out happens.

So there you have it.

Just finished watching the first season of the new Battlestar Galactica series (Yes I know I am behind the times!).

Now I'm not a big fan of TV sci-fi and had it not been the brilliance of Firefly/Serenity I might have given Battlestar Galactica a miss . I do, kinda, have fond memories of the original 70's series though so maybe that helped prompt me (along with a number of friends reccommending it) to actually pick it up and watch it.

I've recently bought myself a PSP (which is ace, only complaint I have is that they should've stuck with movement by the usual keys instead of installing that ruddy tiny joystick. (I would like to point out that this complaint entirely stems forth from my utter inability to use said joystick properly ;). )

Of course, sad pirate fangirl as I am, I just had to get Dead Man's Chest with it. (I did look at the site first, because for a moment I pondered getting it for GBA, but the graphics put me off entirely).

First of all, I've not gotten far into the game yet, as I'm utterly rubbish at gaming and using abovementioned joystick. I do however _love_ playing this game.
It's easy to figure out, you get loads of tips and the options (dirty pirate tricks, nifty sword moves, clobbering people with bottles) are just plain good old fun. And you get to blow things up, which is also good fun.

The graphics are simply fantastic, even tho it's a tiny screen (compared to the usual tv sizes) it really gives you the same quality as if you were using a PS2 on big screen.
The only complaint I have is that you can get stuck in a corner while bashing an enemy quite easily and you end up not seeing what you're doing. Which can end up rather badly for your character.
I would have liked to be able to save the game before finishing an entire chapter of it, but I've been told that you can't do that with most PS games.

All in all, it's a great game, but I'm not entirely sure it's so much different from the standard adventure game, and I think you'd have to be a real fan of either pirates, adventure games or disney (or all 3) to want to buy it at this price.
I got it at 15% discount (because Fnac is having a membership discount in Belgium which gives 15% on all games this summer) but normally it goes at about 50 euros here in Belgium, which is a tad pricey in my opinion.
If you like a good adventure game, I'd get this one when it hits the bargain bins.

Dr Kawashima's Brain Training is a new wave of innovative game on the Nintendo DS hand held console.
Very simply put it is a collection of programs designed to help give your brain a "daily work out" to help keep it healthy and in optimal condition.

Each day you can do a number of training activities, varying from seeing a written word for a colour and having to call out to the microphone what colour the text is, to reading out loud passages from novels and doing quick fire arithmetic.
As you perform these training tasks, the disembodied floating head of the Dr who designed the game explains exactly HOW they are benefiting your brain and which parts of the brain they stimulate. This added knowledge is nice, as it gives you an insight and understanding as to what good you are doing yourself.
Once you have trained all you want, you can then do a "Brain Age Test".
This test is devised to judge comparably what "age" your brain is currently, with 20 being the brains optimum age and the age increasing as you get slower and less accurate.

Also included in this game are over 100 Sudoku puzzles and the ability for multi-player calculation battles! So you have something to do during your morning commute or if you and other DS owners get together, which will still help you keep your brain in good condition.

With all these training exercises and mini games, it is certainly a pleasant way to spend half an hour of your day, and it really makes me feel good that I am actually exercising and doing something with my brain.
Another nice feature is that as you play it the Dr. gives you clues on how to unlock extra features and as you get more daily training stamps it unlocks more activities and training exercises.

The only really negative points I have with this game is that the character recognition can be a little off, so you have to think about how you write letters and numbers, as sometimes it can think they are something else and give you an incorrect answer, negatively affecting your results.
In the same respects, the speech recognition is very sensitive and noises in the background can confuse it and make it think you are giving incorrect answers.

This aside, it is certainly a fun little game that is ideal for people who want to exercise their brains in a fun fashion. And as it stores all your daily results, you can compete with yourself and try to outdo yourself every day.

Well worth the £20 retail price in my opinion!

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