All posts by Armand

Travel

Lovely holiday

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I had a fantastic, restful time in Austria. Was with a fairly wonderful bunch of people, so much relaxation, silliness and general fun ensued. The song of the moment was ‘Ruby’, by the Kaiser Chiefs, often with other words substituted for Ruby. Thanks to Chris and James for their help in sustaining the blog, I appreciate it and hope you’ve enjoyed the break from my usual brand of inanity.

So you know, I did not ski (owing to some carpel-tunnel badness), but the sun did shine, I did walk 15 miles in one day, consume Gluewein and be throwing of the snowballs. Much funness, schnitzel, dancing, and sawing of logs.

Millions of photos are over on Flickr, and have even set up a group so that everyone with digital cameras can pool their resources. That’s here.

Oh, and do you like the new skin? I might work up a new masthead once I decide on the necessary proportions.

Personal

Armand doesn’t live here…

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…for a week. I’m leaving my blog in the hands of Chris and James, two very good friends of mine, whilst I’m on vacation.

Chris is friend from University who worked on the student paper with us. He’s the man who got me into blogging – he blogs more seriously and more thoroughly than I do over on his own site, and talks about lots of issues I steer well clear of. That said, he has told me that he looks forward to blogging “Armand style” for a bit, so I’m vaguely worried about what that means. Chris is an Arsenal fan.

James was at college with me and has, over the years, introduced me to a disturbing number of genres of bizarre Japanese film. He’s a deeply funny man, but hasn’t blogged before so be especially nice. He’s a fellow Spurs fan, so I expect him to stand up to Chris if necessary.

All I’ve asked them to be wary of is language and NSFW content, as, amongst others, my parents occasionally visit here… so I think you’ll be in for an interesting week, and I look forward to catching up on my return.

Off to pack now… catch y’all soon!

Film

Sugarhouse rules

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Arvind invited me to a preview screening of Sugarhouse tonight, the first movie from his film company, Slingshot Studios.

Here’s a teaser:

Now, I know he’s my brother and I’d be heartless if I didn’t say nice things about the film, but: it is wonderful. That’s the right word. It’s a really compelling piece of film-making with some remarkable performances and great staging. I’m sure I get a little extra from having seen the set and getting my name in the credits, but… It is unambiguously cool. I had one issue with it (only one), which I won’t share as I can’t without spoiling it. But its really irrelevant to the overall sense of “whoa” this film evokes.

For the uninitiated: it’s a relatively low budget urban thriller made possible due to an innovative revenue sharing model developed by my brother and his team, and totally digital production. According to Arvind, it looks like a film that costs between 6-10 times as much.

It’s filmed in HD (I’ve only seen it in SD at the moment and do want to see it in HD if possible…). If you want to know more about it, read up on the Slingshot blog and drop my brother a line.

It’ll be on limited theatrical release in the next month or so before it goes on the festival tour, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this became a cult runaway hit. Ashley Waters, Andy Serkis and Stephen Mackintosh deliver fantastic performances. Go see it, blog about it, tell your friends about it.

Personal

Blogsitting

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Has anyone tried Blogsitter? I’m away next week and wondering if I can get someone to write interesting things here for a week… Sheila has done it in the past but doesn’t have time at the moment.

If you’d be interested in the job, leave me a comment telling me why, or email me via the usual means (deets in the sidebar). I’d appreciate it and pay you in Mars bars!

Internet, Personal, Software

Web 2.0 software wishlist – party and holiday planning

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Ok, Lifehacker. I throw down a challenge.

I would like a web tool that helps me organise a night out where I need to check everyone’s availability, take suggestions for what to do and (democratically) or otherwise choose the best course of action for a group. I know about evite and mypunchbowl, but when you don’t know what the date is going to be, how do you avoid those reply-to-all-fests?

I would also like a piece of software to help me organise holidays. Gauge requirements, collect details where required, check dates, budget, etc.

If these don’t exist, would someone start something that does them quick and let me know? Rather than trying for another social networking site or social bookmarking site… etc? I’ll probably even pay to use one if there’s a decent, not-too-expensive one out there.