Miscellany

Flying V: Reprise

flying v I figured out where the mental image of the flying v came from. This ad, on the london underground, badly photographed on the way back from the pub last night (but which you’ll recognise if you’ve seen it).

Along with the recent news that Eric Clapton is selling his guitars made me think of his black and white classic beauty – so I merged the two in my head and had a b&w flying V in my dreams. It’s a relief to have worked it out. I thought, briefly, that my subconscious was rebelling against everything good and true.

Miscellany

Flying V

Last night I dreamt I was leading a jam session at my primary school in Malaysia, except I was my current age, and playing a flying V.

I’ve never even wanted a flying V. Give me a Les Paul or an SG any day. Weird.

Books, Film, Media & Marketing

Hi Fidelity

Man, as if this isn’t one of the best movies ever. Almost good enough to make me want to read the corresponding book.

I don’t know what made me slap on the DVD of Hi-Fi today. I’ve been going through a bit of a John Cusack revival, having recently seen the middling Identity, re-watched the brilliant Grosse Pointe Blank (which has an AWESOME soundtrack) and now this – again.

Something about Rob’s neurotic internal struggle, the brilliant soliloquizing, and cynicism about relationships strikes a chord. Jack Black’s brilliant comic-foil potential shining through was also entertaining.

I wish I could do all that ‘to camera’ stuff.

Books, Media & Marketing

Eragon

I’ve just finished reading the first volume in a fantasy epic trilogy written by a 15-year-old. Goddamnit.

Not that I’m entirely envious; much as there’s a part of me that wants to be a world-class writer, there’s a lot to be said for living a bit more than Mr Paolini (for such is the young prodigy’s name) before I start transforming my experiences, friends, families and relationships into fictional alternates. Or even making new ones up for myself.

Eragon (pronounced, oddly enough, exactly as you’d pronounce ‘Aragorn’, and even less surprisingly, is ‘Dragon’ spelt with an ‘E’) is a deeply conventional book. There’s everything impressive about the fact that its been written by a kid, but there’s a reason that most decent fantasy writers have accrued a few more years; it gives them time to acquire original ideas. Chris Paolini’s book is an entirely unsurprising, frequently too ‘on the nose’, adventure of a young boy who realises he has powers beyond his wildest dreams, and a young dragon to care for, as he strives to revive the legacy of the ‘Dragon Riders’ and rid the kingdom of its oppressive and cruel ruler.

That said, I enjoyed it: Paolini writes well and has a good turn of phrase, for the most part. He’s got some problems with -logue – dialogue and internal monologues – which run improbable courses – but the book’s good light entertainment, and the story, hackneyed in places though it may be, is compelling enough. Anyone who’s interested should click here and buy it.

Media & Marketing, Music

My exploits with Launch.com and the demise of punk

From the department of self-flagellating, whinging, neurotic singers, division6.

I like rock music. People don’t usually expect it of me; depending on how quickly new people judge me, they either expect me to boogie down to Beethoven, Shah Rukh Khan or Britney Spears. Truth be told, I was one of those kids who turned up at school with no idea what kind of music he liked and was led down the moderately hard rockin’ crowd. Ah, the days of sitting in the common room in our smoking jackets, warming ourselves by a hot fire, with a large mug of tea, a pipe whilst singing “Welcome to the Jungle”… Hang on, that’s not quite what happened…

But never mind. The point is that my rockin’ has always been rather sedate; nothing like that of Jack Black’s, Marilyn Manson, or Axl Rose’s school. Punk skipped me entirely. In 1994, however, I got introduced to the Offspring, and their brand of tepid anti-establishment sentiment really got me going. And needless to say, the Offspring and Green Day were just a tip of a ‘Neopunk’ revolution that today has led to such things as ‘Skater Punk’ which today sometimes includes bands like Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup, Blink 182, Avril Lavigne (yes, yes, I know) and even my old favourites, the Offspring.

It seems that the establishment has stopped bothering these guys. Now that they’re all loaded, and the Republican government is giving all the Americans a big tax cut (surely the Canadians should still be p*ssed off), the only institution they seem to have left to fight against is… wait for it… women!

Bladihell. It’s ridiculous. I was checking out Launch.com in a fairly regular attempt to find myself some new music, and I watched a video of Blink 182 waxing nostalgic after some ex-girlfriend, followed rapidly by Simple Plan doing the same thing. Not that this should have been unexpected, but it just struck me as tedious and whiney; these guys don’t strike the same emotional chord as Cat Stevens with ‘The First Cut is the Deepest’, or really hit on any real sentiment other than luke-warm never-ending self-pitying loathing. Say what you want about Mr Manson (Marilyn, not Charles), he’s not a whinger.

It’s almost enough to drive a man to… Light Rock. Thank goodness for my old AC/DC albums, and for the presence of the Darkness, providing some comedy and a really good sponsorship opportunity for moisturiser filled soap (credit for that pun to Mr Tom).

Media & Marketing, Television

Save Angel!

A few days ago, I watched the finale of the current season of Stargate SG-1 (don’t laugh, it is good – Macgyver, anyone?), with fleeting sadness. At least, with SG-1, I have the next season to look forward to, and one final run with Jack O’Neill and his crazy exploits.

But Buffy finished last season, and now Angel’s up for cancellation. Goddamnit. I don’t want new television. I want me old faves to stay on the air! Futurama, Family Guy, Buffy, Angel, Friends, SG-1 – all are ending or ended, or got canned! Am I going to have to start watching 24 and Nip/Tuck? Not that that would be a bad thing. At least the Simpsons will never die.

Truth is, being honest with myself, it is probably time for them to be put out of their misery. Friends writing is so poor this season you’d almost think they would be better off with a team of monkeys playing around with typewriters writing their scripts. Or Shakespeare; either, really. Still, I can’t help but feel the sadness as an era of television draws to a close. So I’ll say: don’t. Save Angel. Before he turns into a muppet.

Technology

Crikey

I’m not quite sure what the devil’s going on, but since this website became “division6” I’ve been getting 50+ hits a day. It’s almost enough to make a guy feel he’s wanted. <Sniff>. It could just be my clicking through the site 50 times a day to see if someone’s been interested enough in something I’ve said to post a comment, or hack the entire site and replace it with pornography, but my sense of perspective is such that I know that neither of those eventualities are likely to occur, and so click through my site a mere 10 times a day…

And now to something purposeful. In the spirit of celebrating all things Australian, I’ve just watched ‘Infernal Affairs’ – a Hong-Kong-made cop movie set in Hong Kong, appropriately enough. It’s based on the premise that the Triads and the police are so determined to infiltrate each other that they send kids into deep cover in each other’s ranks for a decade, and then use them to either execute or stop drug deals, depending on which side you’re empathising with. It’s quality: starring Andy Lau, who stars, exec produces, and probably sings on the soundtrack too, it’s a great Far-East cop flick that, in addition to lacking all (well, many) of the Western stereotypes cop films are known for, genuinely has an interesting, suspenseful and well set-up plot.

Good work those men. If I were Siskel or Ebert, I’d raise some thumbs. As I’m not, I’ll throw a couple of shrimps on the barbie and call it a day.

Technology

armand.co.uk lives!

My old domain is working again. Both now work. Whether this website will be ‘rebranded’ in line with the new all-singing, all dancing, entirely ambiguous ‘Division 6’ is yet to be seen.

That is all.

Technology

Welcome to division6

Um, you may have noticed that armand.co.uk no longer works. It should start working again soon, but the fact that you’ve managed to find this site means I probably emailed you to let you know that division6.co.uk is the new URL for this site. It’s a long, tedious, technical story that largely has things to do with tinned pork. Spam, for those of you who either eat halal or kosher, or never realised that that’s what spam was named for.

Anyway; division6 is my new domain: guesses on which pop culture reference I’ve chosen for this potentially generic naming on a postcard, or click ‘comments’ after this post and guess. Best idea gets a prize, even if its not the idea I had in mind.

Incidentally, my one-post-a-month average can’t make for interesting reading and almost certainly isn’t driving my hit count up as fast as Qwghlm’s Daily Mail Headline Generator, so look out for improved blogging: you already have two posts for March! Is the Webbiverse lucky?

Armand David's personal weblog: dadhood, technology, running, media, food, stuff and nonsense.