School Without Children - Bliss (and Twitter)

Today the UK economy was bowled a strike by most of the public sector furious about pension plans etc. This resulted in 70% of state-funded schools closing for the days. For those of us that did go back to work in a ghost town school it was a nice productive and relaxing day. We could all just get on with a backlog of work, in my case asset checking, and not having to be quiet or feel we need to be avoiding eggshells so much.

In fact we got so much done and it was such a nice day I implore people to stand up for their rights more and withdraw labor in this increasingly difficult financial world. Deals are done, the system can sometimes be beaten, but more importantly those of us left behind can actually get on and do stuff without interruptions. Put it this way, a normal working day for me has an XFM soundtrack but today could have quite easily ticked along to the magicians of prog-rock; Pink Floyd.

The other real twist of the week was that finally I've given in and set myself up a Twitter account. Why on Earth I did that I don't know but now I have all my various accounts linked up so I don't have to double up statuses or links is good. It means when I post something on Youtube it goes both to my Twitter and Facebook account or when I go live on BlogTV. As a result, I've had to add a follow me button as apparently that's the law. I did state at the beginning that if it didn't suck me in by the end of the week I would drop it but I'm not so sure that's going to happen.

The only thing I'm concerned with is keeping everything up to date. It's difficult enough summoning up the material to do one of these amazing blog posts every week let alone doing little 140 character updates. But I think that's the catch of Twitter, because it's so short you don't have to think about it. It's quick, simple and easy. Having said that there is nothing more irritating that writing something and finding you can't post because it's more than 140 characters. For those definitive up and coming rants, I'll be sticking to my Wednesday Blogspot.

After all, these are all thought's that have happened to cross my mind. That's the thing, this blog is exactly what it says on the tin and so is Twitter. So naturally I signed up to that service to get to know some new birds.

Delving into the Depths of the Third Dimension

3D has been a bit of a buzz word in the technology world the past few years and usually it's a whole lot of fuss with a fairly good result but with an even better result of emptying your bank account. But at least you could watch the films you already had in 3D and get new special content while the bailiffs wheel out the everything including the kitchen sink. The two main reasons why I haven't subscribed to the 3D dynamite boom is because of the price but also once you've bought the monitor or TV you need to fork out a fair bit more for a set of glasses.

My first experience of this round's 3D was when I went to see the final installment of Harry Potter earlier this year. You got it, I was one of the 200 people in the cinema for two and half hours with the special geek potter glasses on, looking cool as every. I was pretty impressed by the added dimension in that film, it was worth the extra fiver but not good enough to take home with me. Anyway, whilst looking through Amazon last week I stumbled across a 23inch LED 1080p passive 3D monitor with glasses for only £180. Couldn't quite believe that and I thought it would be crap-D but the reviews were turning out pretty good. As I needed a 1080p monitor anyway I decided to go ahead and buy it and I'm so glad I did.

Those of you who have read my previous posts (yh, both of you) will know that I'm a massive fan of The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 and I decided to give it a go in 3D and my god it's amazing! If you get a set of dwraven mines where you have a load of Axe Throwers waiting just inside ready to ambush the 3D really adds the depth perfect allowing you to immerse even more in the game. I've also dug out my old copy of GTA SA and even that in 3D really gives the game a new lease of life...although machine gunning down police helicopters has always been a past time of mine. Another thing is that I experienced GT5 in 3D and when combined with a good steering wheel with force feedback turns into a completely game. What I'm really looking forward to is playing Skyrim on PC in 3D, I'm so exited about that.

If you bought active shutter glasses with the nVidia 3D kit or spent thousands of your hard earned cash on a 3D TV then sorry to have to break this to you but; you are an idiot. You should have waited for the price to come down and even I admit I've done the wrong thing by buying this when affordable 3D display that require no glasses are only a few years away. Then you won't have to look like a geeky idiot whilst embracing the depth of an erotic sensation in a Youtube-like format.

Alice Cooper - A man to make Halloween Special

Why hello again! Long time no see! That's to a cock up at Virgin I have been without internet for a considerable time so those of you who actually read this, congratulations, you got a break. Now however, I have returned and with a bit of back log of blogs so I won't be short of material in the coming weeks.

This Halloween I wanted to do something special, really make it an occasion to remember. My family being like they are we usually just ignore the seasonal event all together but not this year. Because this year I was going to see Alice Cooper's Halloween Night of Fear 2011 at Alexandra Palace, London, UK. Unfortunately the person who I intended to go with dropped out so after ringing round a few friends I found someone who wanted to come with, despite it being their first gig and not knowing what to expect. As it turns out I got slightly more than I bargained for...

After a train journey across London at dusk and climbing up the hill to Alexandra  Palace and wondering around trying to find the entrance which turned out to be on the other side of the venue we got stamped and entered. Immediately I could tell it was going to be a good night because we were greeting in the first hall by a hired group of assorted zombies, spiders and others. Complete with 50 foot high cobwebs to boot. Then once we fought our way through the crowd of bars we entered the main hall and was instantly greeted with the warm up to the warm up act; female choreographed flame eaters.....with fiery whips....and leather.  Need I say anymore?

Then the warm up act, in this case, The New York Dolls entered center stage and proceeded to play an awesome set list which means they have at least one new fan now. I didn't know the words but it was still really good music and beat so got us going well. On a side note; it was at this point I found myself a group of girls who I made an initial bit of contact with and naturally my thoughts moved to them but, as is always the way in gig situations, we somehow moved without moving which was annoying.

Once warm up left there was an agonizing 45 minute wait until the main show started. Although after 3 songs my annoyance had been completely obliterated because of the spectral I was part of. It was just hit after after hit, in fact the only one that I wish he'd included was Welcome to my Nightmare but instead I got Feed my Frankenstein. Not what I'd call a bad trade off. Cooper's use of props is always exceptional and as well as being decapitated, producing a 15 foot high Frankenstein monster of himself fully mobile, the return of the famous snake which I've not seen in recent years, they was a new lead guitarist; Orianthi. Just Google her or Youtube Orianthi Solo and you'll see what I mean. Just jaw dropping and amazing in every way. If anyone can find me a decent poster could you please let me know!

Finally, as a special Halloween present Cooper co-supported an old face from the 60's; Arthur Brown. If that doesn't ring a bell then maybe if I shout the words "I am the god of hellfire" you will have the general idea. It was a perfect finale to an amazing evening. It just so happened to be the show that was filmed for the DVD and Blu-ray as well of which I have a copy of and you can see me in there. Lastly, on the way back across London at midnight I saw a zombie walk into a lamp post.