Things I am loving right now…
Just before I get started, I just want to make it clear that I did love The Dark Knight, and highly recommend it as the best blockbuster of the summer 2008 so far (followed by Iron Man, in case you’re wondering!). It’s just I read it back once I’d posted it, and thought I may have been a bit too negative. It is an awesome action movie, just not the slice of perfection I’d got my hopes up for. See it for the Joker fo sho.
So following the last blogs negativity, I was hoping to write this time about something positive, and because Sian (my lovely girlfriend) she won’t read the blog because “it’ll just be about movies”, I’m gonna write about some other stuff that I’m currently digging outside of movies.
The Science Museum
I’ve been to the Natural History Museum many a time, both as a child on school trips, and as an adult whilst living here in London. I love the natural history museum, mainly for the dinosaurs, but also for all the other stuff in there. The section on earthquakes is great, and all the stuff about evolution and ecosystems is fascinating, and the building that houses it is truly incredible too. It’s well laid out with loads of great displays, and interactive stuff to see and do. But go in the winter… on a week day, when it’s not heaving with tourists, and screaming kids. It’s just better that way, trust me! But the Science Museum? If I’ve ever been before, then I don’t remember. It didn’t have dinosaurs in, so as a child it probably didn’t interest me much if I did. So whilst in South Kensington with some time to spare, I just popped in. That’s the beauty of London, most of the big museums are free, it’s not like this in other European capitals, so make use of it people. So what is in the science museum? Well, loads of stuff really. I didn’t do a full exploration, only the ground floor, and some of the upper floors. but what I saw was enough to get me excited about it. There is a space exploration section, which as I’ve written about before, is something I’m absolutely fascinated by, and they have parts of rockets and instruments and all sorts. They have a lifesize reproduction of the Apollo 11 moon landing module which is just immense. The best thing though is found in the “Making the Modern World” section, where they have original machines that have been built throughout the ages. They have Stephensons Rocket, the steam train, they have all these old supercomputers and so on, but the thing that really blew my mind was the original Apollo 10 Command Module. I mean, this thing flew into space, around the moon, with men in it, and then came back, it went through re-entry carrying astronauts, and now it’s in the science museum where you can look at it for NOTHING!! This thing cost millions to build, it did incredible tasks, and there it is, in all its hard worn tiny glory. This thing looks cramped for three people I tell you. So I stood gawping for ages, I’ll probably be in about 50 tourists photos when they get home, stood there mouth agape while they pose in front of this magnificent flying machine.
There’s also an original Formula One racing car in there, think it’s a Mclaren, driven and crashed, by Kimi Raikonnen. That’s pretty awesome, nowhere near as big as I expected. You’re not allowed to take photos of it though, so that’s a shame. The third and final cool thing I saw was an installation called the Listening Post. Its basically a curved wall of small LED displays, but its wired to the internet, and so it displays snippets of conversations from chat rooms all over the world, and the thing reads them out to you. That sounds a bit rubbish but trust me, it’s hypnotic, I could have stood there for another half an hour. Go check it out, along with the rest of the Science Museum, it’s actually quite cool. And more importantly it’s free.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/listening_post.aspx
Summer Heights High
This has just been shown on BBC3 and my girlfriend introduced me to it. It’s an Australian comedy show, done in a mockumentary style a la The Office, and it’s based in an aussie school following the lives of three people in the school. Chris Lilley, the writer, also stars as each character. Firstly there is Mr G, the camp as hell drama teacher who loves being the centre of attention. Then there is Ja’mie, the stuck up 11th year girl, who is on an exchange programme from her private school. Then there is Jonah, who is a troubled and havoc causing Polynesian 8th year. He’s the best, you just got to see the programme to understand. Hopefully the BBC will repeat either on BBC3 or even 2 in the near future. It’s about the best new comedy show I’ve seen for a long time. It’s even better than Extras in my opinion. Mr G is genius, Ja’mie is excruciating to watch, and Jonah is just downright, laugh out loud, hilarious. Check it out.
White Denim – Workout Holiday
Is it just me, or are all the best bands from the states at the moment? Other than the Arctic Monkeys, all the best stuff coming out at the moment is American. We’re producing bland bands like The Wombats, Scouting For Girls and The Pigeon Detectives (notice how the Brits can’t do good band names either), whereas this last year or so has seen blinding debut albums from New Yorks Vampire Weekend and MGMT, and now the yanks bring us White Denim. Hailing from Austin, Texas, this bluesy garage rock band are the dogs danglys. I have no knowledge of writing about music, but just trust me when I say you need to hear their debut album Workout Holiday. It rocks.
Other stuff that is cool…
My Drive Thru – Pharrell, Santo Gold and Julian Casablancas.
This collaboration was done for Converse trainers funnily enough. A return to form for Pharrell, who’s recent productions have been a bit bland for my likings. I suppose working with two of the coolest acts in music can’t hurt either.
The Repetition Kills You – The Black Ghosts
What is it with music acts nowadays? Their names either have to have black or kids in the title. The Black Kids, The Black Keys, The Black Ghosts, The Dead Kids etc etc. Anyways, this tune is cool, but it’s the video that does it for me. So simple, and yet so well done. Bravo.
Crawl – Kings Of Leon
Kings Of Leon are pretty much my favourite current band out there bar none. Every new album raises the bar, and their sound is maturing with every new song. They totally rocked at Glastonbury, and were a major highlight for me. Roll on their new album out end of September. Anyway you can download this free track from the new album here…
So there you go… some cool stuff for you to enjoy. Email me anytime if you want to add anything, or if you disagree!
tomb@falconseven.com
Til next time folks.
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