Model Citizen

Last 3 films.

I've not seen any movies for ages. I've been watching American TV series for months and months. Veronica Mars 1 & 2, 24 series 6, all excellent and highly recommended.
So, before I make a start on Life on Mars 1 & 2 I thought I'd try and get through some of my movies that have been piling up.

The Science Of Sleep

????One of those films that I felt a little bit bad about not loving. I think it's supposed to be brilliant, but I was struggling to keep up with the "is he awake or is this a dream". The story is very basic about 2 neighbours Stephan and Stephanie who don't sort of fall in love. It all gets a bit weird. There are some funny moments but I had one of those apocryphal moments 10 seconds before it finished when i said, "oh no, they're not going to leave it there are they!?"

I'm afraid out of 5 I'd only give this 2 at most.

Die Hard 4

Superb. A really good action flick. It's based on computer hacking, which is'nt the most exciting cinema experience, but it's very, very good. Bruce still has it, even at 60+ or however old he is. The only bits that don't quite sit right are when he reverts to the original character, talking to himself or making that laugh. When he's in Sin City mode he's perfect.
4 out of 5

Miami Vice

NO NO NO! How can you make a movie of this series with absolutely no nod to the original. Not even the music. Come on, you've got to have the music! The only similarity I came up with was the quiet voices that leave you wondering "what did he say?". A real mish-mash of a movie, even without the Miami Vice name tag.
I'd give it a 1.

Just bought mu first iPod. The girls in the house all have the new style shuffle, but I have'nt had one :(

Even Nathan my boy has my wife's old stick type shuffle. He's mad keen on Primeval, so he has it as an Anomaly detector!

Anyway, it arrived yesterday. It's a beautiful piece of kit. Even the packaging is a work of art. So well thought out. I plugged it into my PC and had an issue straight away, I'm running XP 64 pro and iTunes has an issue with that OS, so I was'nt too surprised when the connection kept dropping. I did a search on  GOOGLE and found that when I did a quick rebuild all the problems went away.

So it sinced up very quickly, I downloaded some YouTube videos (with the help of an FLV converter) and added my iTunes library, of about 6000 songs and it's not even scratched the 80GB!

The sound is phenomenal, the videos look stunning, the whole interface is more like a mini PC than an MP3.

The plan now is to hook it up to a Marantz IS201 docking station. This can take the audio and video signal to your amp for navigation on your screen via remote. i've got it on order, so just waiting.

I've been pulling so much overtime at work, and still am, that I thought I'd splash out and take the plunge and buy a Blu Ray player.

Everyone who's been looking at the HD war will know by now that HD-DVD has lost it's battle against Blu-Ray, which is why you can pick the players and discs up so cheaply now.

Blu Ray on the other hand remains a tad expensive.

The player I bought, due to overwhelming feedback and advice was the Sony Playstation 3:

By farawaypictures at 2008-04-09

 Because I'd bought my Marantz amp last month I was able to have this and my DVD connected via HDMI to my screen, because of course you can't watch an HD signal without an HD lead.

The PS3 is a superb piece of kit. It's reasurringly heavy. I added some higher rubber feet on mine to give better airflow, as it does warm up pretty quickly. I bought it with the Turismo prologue game. It's a stunning game, really showing off HD gaming. The controller connects via USB, that is until the pad has been charged, then you can put the lead away and play wirelessley. Talking of wireless, it also connects to your broadband to update it's firmware, log onto the net or go shopping at the PS3 store where you can download demo's etc.

Because I bought this primarily as a Blu Ray player I had to buy the seperate remote too:

By farawaypictures, shot with H 25 at 2008-04-09

It's a bluetooth device, so no IR and thus my Phillips Pronto can't learn the codes, so i'm stuck with an extra remote. Not a particularly big deal for such great HD entertainment.

As mentioned the discs are a bit pricey, for now, but allready some places are doing 3 for 2 deals. So I bought a few, amongst those Ratatouille and Surfs Up. Watched these and was thrilled at the detail of the image. I believe the Marantz has a lot to say in this quality, as it's really improved the image of my Denon DVD player too.

What I would say though is that you have to pick your discs for this player. Unless it's a new film with big effects and CGI I expect my DVD will give just as good an image, but for digital animation like those mentioned it's unbeatable on Blu Ray.

Next stop, a new iPod I think. 

I bought this recently after seeing the amazing line up of talent Vince was dueting with. It's a 4 disc album and features the likes of: Rodney Crowell, Diana Krall, Guy Clark, Gretchen Wilson, LeAnn Rimes, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Trisha Yearwood, Alison Krauss, Phil Everly, Lee Ann Womack, and Emmylou Harris.

An incredible line up singing alongside the man known as the `Ambassador Of Country'.

I've listened to it once, and gone back to a few songs to check I had'nt missed something.

Some of the guest artists are amongst my favourites, so why does Vince relegate them to the role of backing singers?
Unless it had actually stated who he was 'dueting' with I would'nt have even realised it was a duet.
You want to know how to have a duet with Alison krauss? listen to Brad Paisley: Whiskey Luulaby. You want to know how to duet with Leann Rimes,listen to Brian McFadden & Rimes's Everybody's Someone. etc etc.
Such a shame. Even though Vince has a great voice it does feel as though he's not willing to share the lead with anyone else.

Rated 3 out of 5

I worked so much overtime last month I thought I'd treat myself to a new Amp.

Richer Sounds had a superb THX rated Receiver on sale, was £900, now only £600. When i rang the only silver one left was down to £550, so I bought it.

Marantz SR7001 

  It's a beast of a machine! Here's the full spec:

I set it up on Saturday night, and was pulling my hair out. I got the sound down first time. It actually comes with a microphone that will set it all up for you, just put the mic where you like to listen and click Auto. I went for the manual set-up though, which i'm more familiar with. Just tell it the size of the speaker, how far away from you it is and then adjust the test tone.

It was the picture that through me. I had connected it up with some Scorpion HDMI cables, a superb power buy from AV Talk, and was getting sound but no picture. After countless attempts at trying different things i gave up and went to bed. i tried again in the morning and finally got it. The DVD had to be set up for HDMI component.

Anyway, watched Stardust last night with the THX setting on and it's fantastic. I've never owned a bit of THX kit before, but it really does make a difference.

Next stop now is Blu-Ray, and despite the cheapish stand alone players now the only way to go it seems is with the Playstation 3. So, roll on next month.