Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Not So Pink Trek

I have found a couple of interesting websites about the lack of gay characters in the Star Trek shows. I always thought the show was much more progressive than this. Here's a couple of links:

Link 1

Link 2

Thursday, September 23, 2004

The World of Ramification - Welcome

I am trying to enter my blog onto a new site as I am not really happy with the way my blog on livejournal looks at the minute. I think its gonna take a couple of weeks for me to move my old posts onto here. Welcome to the world accoring to Ramification !

Friday, September 17, 2004

Sweet

Went and saw a play called Sweet at the Tristan Bates Theatre last night which was really interesting. The play was written and directed by Rikki Beadle Blair who wrote the tv series Metrosexuality. This is my second visit to the Tristan Bates Theatre and I have to say its a great venue that puts on good theatre for really cheap. The play in itself was well written, and well acted for the most part. The first act is the strongest, we meet three south london gay friends, Mickey P, Justin and Felix, they are young and gay and are already jaded by all the drugs and posing on the scene. They run into their old high school bully Fitzroy in a gay club and wonder what he's doing there. Through a series of events, Fitzroy is passed out and tied up as all three boys want to exact their revenge in their own way. We find out that Fitzroy and Felix had sex in high school and that he still has feelings for him, Justin plays hard to get with his boyfriend, and Mickey P meets an older policeman who is willing to wait for him to fall in love with him. This is where the play takes an unexpected turn. All three characters are aimless and are trying to find their place in life, and we see them transform over a period of ten years. We check in on them each year over year to see their progress. I have to say I felt the second act was a bit rushed and unfocused in what it wanted to say. We just check in on the characters transitions and they all seem very rushed. We are just supposed to accept Fitzroy's transformation from thug to gay councillor wihtout a blink of an eye. Still, overall the dialogue is very funny, and the actors pull it off their characters quiet well. So a good night out and on the cheap. MY friend and I paid £15 for our tickets (he had student concessions) which is quiet amazing for London.

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Mercury Prize Follow-Up

Oh, a followup on this Mercury Music Prize ( see my posting HERE) ... Franz Ferdinand have won the thing, which I was surprised about. I thought The Streets had the momentum there. Still, am I the only one who is sick of Amy Winehouse's (pardon the pun's) Whining! Although I liked her album, she is starting to look just as manufactured as those other artists she keeps putting down. Maybe she should sell a few more albums before acting like a diva. On the other hand, there's Joss Stone, or as I like to call her, PURE CLASS!

The Russians Are Coming, The Russians are HERE!!!!

With Svetlana Kuznetsova (yet another 'ova') winning the US Open this year I found this great saying on one of the sports sites
'Its no longer a Russian Revolution, its a Russian Occupation.' Indeed, Myskina (who I am fearing maybe losing her edge) won the French, Sharapova won Wimbledon. Making it 3 out of 4 Grand Slams (Henin won the Australian) won by Russians this year, compared to 0 out of 4 in all other years. This makes the womens game very exciting at the minute. The number one player (Maurismo) hasn't even won a grand slam tournament and it seems that the Williams Sisters are not getting back their form quickly enough. I also doubt that when they do that they will dominate in the same manner. (Ok, so Serena was a bit robbed with those line calls this year, but had this been 2002 she still would have won that match against Capriati, and there lies the difference).

On the other hand, the men's game is getting less exciting. Thats because there's Federer (effectively he is as invincible as Serena Williams was 2 years ago) and then there's everyone else. I think Federer is great, and he may well turn out to be the next Sampras. I would really like Roddick and Hewitt to give him a challenge, and I'm afraid that Henman will never win a Grand Slam if Federer is the person on the other side of the net at some point in the tournament.
And speaking of tennis, am I the only who thinks the trailer for Wimbledon makes it look like the worst film about sports to come out in recent times. I mean, c'mon, its all just an excuse to get Kirsten Dunst in a little white skirt. You can see the trailer yourself at this link : http://www.cinema.com/trailers/item.phtml?ID=8564

Monday, September 13, 2004

A glitch in the matrix

I don't really feel like blogging lately, I am suffering from bloggers block. I wrote this whole thing last week about my life and then I deleted it, thinking it was too personal. Which is fair enough. I guess I can write about my week, but I don't really feel like it at the minute. A few things I want to write about but I can't be arsed.... Stay tuned for the following blogs hopefully:

- Part 2 of my RVT experience, which I still haven't touched.

- The Power of Woosh (its fantastic)

- Turning 29 on the 29th ... what does it ALL mean, this life.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

NY-LON *A review*

I just caught the second episode of this excellent show being screened on Channel 4 here in the UK (Tuesday nights at 10) ... I think its worth a look. I missed the first episode, but I think NY-LON is one of those good shows where the narrative is so well constructed that you will still be able to follow the story. The story is simple enough, Edie (Rashida Jones) works in a record store in New York City who meets Michael (Stephen Moyer)a stock-broker who lives in London. They fall in love (I assume they do on the night they meet as I did not see the first episode), but they are seperated by the Atlantic ocean. They also have very complicated and different lives.

Edie's friend (who happens to be her fragile ex-boyfriends brother) has just died, and her ex-boyfriend wants her back. She lives a fairly bohemian / rock and roll type of life, her best friend is the bartender at the local bar, and her friends are all seemingly arty types. Michael lives the fast life, his best friend is his very wise flatmate. He has just found out that his sex buddy (not really his girlfriend) is pregnant, and we learn that his father was never around, and he comes from a strict Catholic upbringing. So far, so good.

Both Edie and Michael seem to have found each other, but they are too afraid of being hurt and their lives seem to get in the way. The story runs at a good pace, and was not very predictable. The situations and dialogue are utterly believable. One scene where Michael's friends tells him 'I tried the NY-LON thing, but I dumped him once he moved to the same city' winks at the idea that the romance may be doomed should one of them move as they would lose that sense of excitmenet and longing.

The show also seems to burrow elements from 24 as split-screen and a clock at the bottom is utilized to very good effect with some very clever editing. The cast is note-perfect, with the exception of perhaps David Rogers who plays Luke, Edie's stoned out ex-boyfriend. His over-the-top performance gets a tad grating at times. But that;s just a minor quibble. If you are a sappy romantic who likes a good story, catch NY-LON if you can.

Here's the link to the show's official site :

http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/N/nylon/