Jumblerant: October 2013

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Star Wars Blooper Reel

As a youth growing up in suburban London in the '80s I adored Luke Skywalker and his merry gang of inter-galactic cowboys. It was only later in life that I found out just how great an actor Sir Alec Guinness was, and have watched all of his movies and TV shows.

English: Sir Alec Guiness taken at photographe...

Sir Alec Guiness
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In fact, when I read Sir Alec's autobiography I was surprised to hear him talk about Star Wars as just another role, in fact he was doing it more as a favour or for pocket money, more than as another step on the ladder to success. According to WikiPedia

"In letters to his friends, Guinness described the film as "fairy tale rubbish," but the film's sense of moral good – and the studio's doubling of his initial salary offer – appealed to him, and he signed on".

I'm not so sure of the validity of that quote, but I might also have rose-tinted glasses to Sir Alec.

He had already made such amazing and varied career, which began before the Second World War, playing opposite such greats as Peggy Ashcroft, Anthony Quayle and of course, the King of Theatre - John Gielgud.

Some of Sir Alec's films include The Lavender Hill Mob, The Lady Killers, The Man in the White Suit, Our Man in Havana, The Bridge on the River Kwai (for which eh won an Academy Award), Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and of course, in 1977, Star Wars.

There is a new blooper reel floating around now. I'm not sure how 'new' it is, but it is fun to watch even Sir Alec get a smile from such an intricate and complicated project.

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Monday, October 28, 2013

YouTube Music Awards - A Surprising Winner

I love all things Google, thats why this blog is written on Blogger and in Chrome. I won't say that everything they do is amazing, like any multinational organisation they have their good points, and their not so good points.

The latest thing to come out of YouTube is their Music Awards. Instead of pressing a button to vote, or submitting your email address, they have chosen a much better way. Tweets, likes and G+s.

Very simple. You like an artist? Tweet, FaceBook 'like' or Google+ the YouTube Music Video of them.

Nice.

I voted for her majesty the Katy of Perry for she is funny, gorgeous, voluptuous and a real person.

So I was happy to see that a hospital had done a cover of her latest single 'Roar'. And it rocked:

See if you can keep your eyes dry through that!

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Blacklist - So Good And Yet, So Bad

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity" - thus begins Charles Dickens' historical novel A Tale of Two Cities.

I enjoy a good criminal drama as much as the next guy.

The Blacklist - Panel (Photo credit: titi-)

I enjoy all the "Initial" TV shows such as NYPD Blue, CSI, NCIS and so on and so I was happy to see that the marvelous actor James Spader was playing the lead role in a new show "The Blacklist".

I watched the season premiere with Her Indoors and we were thrilled to see some fun action, plot twists and even some funny one liners. Sadly, as we watched episodes 2 and 3 we realsied that in fact it was, as I quote above, the best of time and the worst of times.

James Spader is simply amazing at this role. He effuses 'criminal mastermind' who is not thinking a mere two steps ahead, but more likely, 4 steps ahead - and around the corner. It is a shame to see that the actors around him are somewhat wooden. It wouldn't surprise me if the main FBI character played by Diego Klattenhoff was in fact made of oak.

The Blacklist - Panel (Photo credit: titi-)

The leading lady of the show is one Megan Boone who has the delivery of a clown tripping over a banana skin whilst carrying a cream pie. It gets there, eventually, but what an adventure whilst its happening!

Admittedly neither Mr Klattenhoff or Ms Boone are well known faces on our screens and I am sure that things will sort them selves out over time but really, this is an embarrassment to everyone involved.

Watch the show and tell me what you think in the comments. Comem on, make me change my mind.

But before you comment, please let me know, what the hickory is oging on with Ms. Boone's hair / wig in the show? It is appalling!

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Ocean is Broken

I learnt about acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer in school back in London in the 1990's. Since then we have had genetically modified grain, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), Avian Flu and of course, Justin Bieber.

Now we have something even more serious that we just don't know about.

As a yachtsman explained after crossing yet another ocean:

Exactly 10 years before, when Newcastle yachtsman Ivan Macfadyen had sailed exactly the same course from Melbourne to Osaka, all he'd had to do to catch a fish from the ocean between Brisbane and Japan was throw out a baited line.

"There was not one of the 28 days on that portion of the trip when we didn't catch a good-sized fish to cook up and eat with some rice," Macfadyen recalled.

But this time, on that whole long leg of sea journey, the total catch was two.No fish. No birds. Hardly a sign of life at all.

So where did the fish go? As the article goes on to say, a mixture of pollution, over-fishing and even more pollution. We're not talking about beer can plastic getting stuck around the necks of penguins or big fish getting caught in illegal nets, this is much worse, this appears to be the systematic rape of the oceans. And no-one seems to be doing anything about it.

Read more about it at the article The Ocean is Broken.

How the hell are we going to fix this one?

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Friday, October 18, 2013

Shatter Proof iPhone - Is It Waterproof Too?

I'm an Apple fan. Admittedly I do not have a Mac computer but we do have an iPad 2, Mini-iPad and 2 iPhone 4's in the house - between the 4 of us. 1 of whom is 2 years old.

We also have all the cables and wires and chargers that we can possibly have, both upstairs and downstairs.

And in the car.

Many times our kitchen table looks like this

As of yet, we have not broken any Apple device to the point of needing to replace it completely. That is mainly due top the fact that we make sure to not hit it with hammers, electric drills or anything similar.

If we were to do that, then we would buy this product, as tested by the good folks over at Business Insider:

And no guys, the upgrade to iOS 7 did not make your phone waterproof. A ziploc bag can do the job quite nicely though...

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Female Rising

I am in a weird kind of awe of the gall, cheek and really exceptionally bad manners of this woman:

And a different kind of awe for this lady: (watch this one until the end)

And a whole bucket load of respect for these girls:

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant