Oasis – Heaton Park – 4th June 2009

I am a big fan of Oasis, and on Thursday 4th June I went to see them at Heaton Park in Manchester.

The Beatles are in my opinion the best band I have ever listened to, and that is not just because of the Liverpool bias due to the scouse blood running through my veins. Just listen to them, everything is perfect; every note, every lyric, everything. I can listen to The Beatles all day long, and for me the only band that can even come close to them are Oasis. The Clash, The Happy Mondays, The La’s, Joy Division etc are all amazing bands, but for me it is all about The Beatles and Oasis.

Of course, the 4th June concert was the one date of the planned three concerts at Heaton Park to suffer technical problems, and it was all over the news. There were two power cuts whilst Rock ‘N’ Roll Star and Lyla were being played, with the second resulting in a 40 minute delay whilst the generator was ‘properly’ fixed. To be honest, the delay didn’t spoil the concert at all for me, I was pretty damn pissed by this point and enjoyed jumping up and down for a length of time whilst wondering what the hell was going on.

It was a brilliant gesture from Oasis to offer a refund to those at Heaton Park due to the delays. When Oasis returned to the stage after the power outage, Liam told the crowd: “Really sorry about that. This is a free gig now. Everyone will get a refund.” Noel then added that: “The curfew’s 11, but we’ll play ’til they kick us off. Keep your ticket and you’ll get your money back”. Further on through the concert Noel then seemed to regret some of his earlier words, and said: “We’re not sure how its gonna work with getting the money back, be on a website or summat. We’re not getting paid for this so buy a t-shirt on the way out. Credit crunch and that, keep my kids in sweets.”

I applied for a refund, as did all my other friends who went on the 4th June. Don’t get me wrong, the concert was amazing and it was a top night all round, but I’m a poor student who is saving for his first car, whilst Noel is probably saving for his first helicopter. I did buy a t-shirt, and I hope that keeps Noel’s ‘kids in sweets’.

The concert itself was fantastic. Liam was in brilliant form on the night; I’m Outta Time, Cigarettes And Alcohol, Live Forever, Supersonic and Slide Away were all fantastic. It was also great to see My Big Mouth get an airing, which Liam dedicated to himself. Funny man.

Spirit of Shankly – Liverpool Supporters Union

Liverpool fans, join.

Possibilities

Rafael Benitez is a fan of possibilities, and so am I. Life is much more open and unique when you can choose between multiple possibilities. What Adidas trainers should I wear today? What clothes? Should I play Tsigalko or Torres up front in Championship Manager 2001/02? How should I arrange my taskbar in Windows 7?

At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2009) yesterday in San Francisco, Apple created some more possibilities for the technology lovers of the world. What iPhone? What iPod touch? What MacBook? Leopard or Snow Leopard?

I purchased an iPod touch, my second ever iPod (following a 2nd-generation black 8GB nano), from the almost magical Apple Store in Liverpool during September 2008. I was planning on writing a little review of the device on this blog, but then I decided it would be a much better idea to go out to the pub. The iPod touch I purchased all those months ago was a stunningly thin 2nd-generation 32GB model, setting me back a staggering £289 of my student alcohol money. The large  amount of storage is something I make use of, with only a few hundred megabytes remaining after I have rammed it full of music and movies and applications.

The iPhone a wonderful device. It is a stylish looking piece of technology, which can be manipulated to perform almost any functionality. You want to watch a movie? Fine. You want to take a picture? Fine. You want to listen to music? Fine. You want to check your email? Fine. You want to make a phone call or send an SMS? Fine. You want to play The Sims 3? Fine. You want to update your Twitter status? Fine. You want to use your iPhone as a TomTom? Fine. All in your pocket.

The iPod touch can perform the majority of the aforementioned ‘features’, although obviously it cannot make phone calls. Still, with Apple announcing some rather tasty price cuts yesterday, maybe purchasing an iPhone could be a possibility for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPod touch dearly, but the only thing that has stopped me buying an iPhone has been the price. Now, buying an iPhone and then unlocking it so that I could use my existing Orange contract would be an option. Furthermore, I could sell my current (lovely) iPod touch and mobile phone, meaning financially I would be what is technically known as ’sound’.

Apple released their SDK (Software Development Kit) for the iPhone in March 2008. Mind boggling applications have since been created by third party developers, and the app scene for the iPhone and iPod touch is certainly a buzzing place to be at the moment with over 1 billion applications having been downloaded from their App Store for the 40 million iPhone and iPod touch devices that exist in the world today. Yours truly will soon be a third party developer for the iPhone and iPod touch, with my dissertation providing me with the vaguely interesting (at least by my degrees laborious standards) challenge of developing a project management application for the iPhone. iPhone SDK 3.0, here I come!

As an end note, sorry for the abundant amount of question marks in this blog post. Possibilities, no?

June 9, 2009 • Posted in: Life, Random, Technology • No Comments

Finales

As is always unpleasantly true in the month of May, a lot of television series come to an end. Whilst we are often treated to some spectacular finales, the thought lingers in the mind that we are going to have to wait a long time to quench the thirst our favourite shows provide us with.

In the last week Lost, Prison Break and 24 have all aired their double episode finales. Season 5 of Lost has certainly seen it fly back up onto its perch as one of the best television programmes around. Whilst many people, including me, thought Season 3 and 4 of Lost went severely downhill in terms of quality when compared to the dizzy heights of the first two seasons, Season 5 has been a breath of fresh air.

This season, in the finale, we also finally got to meet the one person a lot of fans have been most curious about. Jacob has been portrayed as person whom answers to no one, he is where the book stops, so it was great to finally meet the fella. He is a curious and mysterious character, and has a presence about him much like Ben and Locke do. Lets hope we see more of him as although we now know the face, we don’t yet know the man.

The whole focus of the first part of Season 5 is seeing the Oceanic Six coming back to the island, as well as the after affects of Ben moving the island in Season 4. During the three years which have passed since Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sun and Sayid left the island, each person has undergone a change in character, which in the end leads them to the conclusion that their destiny lies back on the island.

With the help of Ben, Locke and Eloise Hawking the circumstances in which they first crashed on the island in 2004 are recreated, and they return to the island in 1977, three years after 1974 where Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles are trapped following their own journey through time.

During the time when our Losties and the island were flitting between different time periods, we got to see some interesting stuff. We saw what was originally the beginning of the others in the 1950’s, and we got to meet a youthful Charles Widmore, as well as Daniel Fardaday’s Mum, Eloise. Not forgetting, of course, Richard Alpert who was still looking the same as ever in the 1950’s.

Time travel has been a big feature of Season 5. It is not something I particularly like, but when the rules are set and obeyed it can be quite interesting. One of the things I hate most about Heroes for example, is that we get to see flash forwards of what the future will be like, but then in the next episode something will happen which will change that future. I find that type of thing all rather pointless.

However, in Lost we are introduced to a set of rules, and what we think at the time are unbreakable rules. Sayid for example thinks that killing a 12 year old Ben Linus in 1977 will stop all the pain and suffering which Ben will cause in the future. Ben is shot by Sayid and survives, and ironically Sayid shooting Ben turns him into the bitter and twisted individual that we see when our Losties crash on the island in 2004.

Jack is a someone who has undergone a huge change in character during Season 5. Locke was always a man of faith, and Jack was a man of science, which was the reason Jack and Locke shared various quarrels. It is rather amusing how Locke’s death and their subsequent return to the island has turned Jack into the man of faith, someone who believes that blowing up The Swan and hence changing time so that Flight 815 does not crash on the island will eradicate all the pain he is feeling.

We will find out next season whether Jack has succeeded. I am hoping that Daniel Farraday’s plan fails, but if he isn’t then Jack, Sawyer and Kate will have had their time lines re-adjusted so that they have never crash landed on the island and a lot of people will be unhappy!

Sawyer’s relationship with Juliet is something I rather like. Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Juliet, is one of the most naturally beautiful women I have ever seen and for this reason she is one of my favourite characters in the show.

Although Juliet and Sawyer blatantly love each other, there is none of that electricity that exists between Kate and Sawyer. It will certainly be interesting to see who ends up with who in the final season, I think it will probably end up being Jack and Juliet, and then Sawyer and Kate. The fight between Sayer and Jack in the finale was such a powerful scene, and definitely one of my favourite from Lost. Maybe Lost will turn everything on its head and go for lesbian relationship between Kate and Juliet? Heaven.

We are given the revelation during the finale that the Locke who has risen from the dead may not actually be Locke. He may be a ‘Dark Locke’, with ‘Esau’ (an as yet nameless character we saw at the start of the finale talking to Jacob) possessing him and using him as a means to manipulate Ben into killing Jacob. Jacob himself dies very easily, so easily that I don’t think it is the last we have seen of him.

All in all, I thought the finale of Season 5 was great. I have only really talked about a few points that have sprung to the forefront of my mind, otherwise I would be here forever, as Lost is certainly a cleverly written show and the attention to detail is second to none. I tell you what though, I don’t half have the urge to go back and watch all five seasons of Lost in succession before January 2010, the month that Season 6 will be coming to our telly. What fun.

Season 1 of Prison Break is some of the best television I have seen, and it is fair to say I was sucked in from almost the first episode that I watched. Seasons 2 and 3 were fairly decent as well, but the show has seemingly lost the plot during Season 4, they have delved too far away from the original concept of Prison Break, a concept which made it so unique and enjoyable.

The finale of Season 4 had the simple task of wrapping up the series rather nicely. With the limited storyline coming to a conclusion, I was not really expecting a shockingly brilliant finale. What we did get though was a rather neatly, although hurried, end to the plot and what was even more pleasing was that we got to see some old faces back in the mix. Sucre, C-Note and Kellerman all come back for the finale of the show, reminding us of the good old days.

With regards to the plot of Season 4, I honestly still cannot see the point of the whole ‘Sylla’ thing which is basically what the whole of the season is about. The first three seasons of Prison Break at least seemed to have a vague relevancy to the whole prison thing, whereas Season 4 was simply about repeatedly stealing some made up magic device which has the ability to save the world.

The end of Season 4 saw the death of Michael Scofield, and whilst it was a really sad ending I liked it as I thought it brought closure to the series. I found it ironic that the man who could solve almost any problem thrown at him, was helpless to save himself with regards to his hereditary condition.

However, this is not the end of Prison Break as we know it. In just a few days, ‘Prison Break: The Final Break’ will be airing, which will probably throw everything on its head again. It will be a prequel to the end scenes of Michael’s death in the finale, and I am hoping ‘The Final Break’ will turn out to be a masterpiece serving as a fitting tribute to Prison Break.

Season 7 of 24 has been a long time coming. The WGA strike held up its airing by a whole year, and whilst we were treated to a nice little taster of 24 during ‘Redemption’, it was great to have a whole new season finally airing.

Overall, Season 7 of 24 was pretty damn good. In effect, it was a reboot of the show, and with CTU disbanded the show integrated itself into the FBI. To be honest, I missed the good old days of CTU and Chloe raping everything technology wise. The FBI proved to be more annoying than anything else this season, Janis and Larry in particularly had me wanting to commit murder, and at the very least give them a good hard kick in the cunt. 24 is such a great show, it is relatively simple to follow and the constant owning by Jack Bauer is what every fan lives for. There were some great episodes this season for sure, the White House shoot out stands out in particular for me, and it was great that the writers and producers decided to air a double episode special in that particular instance.

The President is an important part of 24, and the 7th season saw President Susan Taylor become the first female President of 24. I thought she was pretty good for a non-corrupt President, she is certainly no Charles Logan in that respect, and truly sticks by her morals. As was proved in the finale, she will not be corrupted by any means and even puts the Presidency before her own family. Of course, she is not a patch on David Palmer, but then David Palmer is probably the best President the United States has ever had, including in the real life!

The latest season of 24 has also seen the introduction of Renee. Ahhh…Renee, she has already made her way into many of our hearts. She has been like a break of fresh air, and I hope she remains in 24 for years to come. Her whole character has changed throughout the whole of Season 7, and the end of the season saw her complete her transformation into the female version of Jack Bauer when she went into the room to torture the big baddy.

This season, we didn’t really know whether Tony was coming or going, at first he was naughty, then nice, then naughty and then finally nice. I always had the sneaky feeling that Tony would turn bad towards the end of the season, it was predicable and it would not make sense in terms of excitement for him not to. I did find it rather shocking that Michelle was pregnant at the time she was killed, and it was such a powerful scene in the finale when Tony was screaming ‘YOU KILLED MY SON!!’ to the ultimate baddy, it was even more emotional when Tony was crawling towards the gun after Jack had shot him so that he could avenge the death of his family.

This season has not been without loss, Bill Buchanan became the latest person to be added to the 24 character death list when he bit the dust during The White House shootout, it was a death that earnt him the infamous 24 silent clock. Bill and his newly found whisper white hair will be missed, he was a good character who acted as an authoritative figurehead and fought for what was right. It was also nice to see the return of a certain lovely Elisha Cuthbert, reprising her past role of Kim Bauer.

The ending of Season 7 has left a lot of avenues open for exploration during the 8th season. Jack is on his death bed, but we all know that Kim will save him with this magical stem cell surgery…simply because 24 could not exist without Jack Bauer. Bring on Season 8 baby!

May 25, 2009 • Posted in: 24, Lost, Prison Break, TV • No Comments

Star Trek

Need I say more?

May 22, 2009 • Posted in: Films • No Comments

Heroes – Volume Four: Fugitives

The latest volume of Heroes finished almost two weeks ago, and to be honest I am delighted that it will be off screen for a few months.

The quality of Heroes as whole has took a huge downwards spiral over the last few ‘volumes’. Whilst the start of Volume Four I personally enjoyed, the rest of the volume was well…shite, and for this reason I am not particularly motivated to write as much about it as I normally would do.

Heroes is now a shadow of its former self. The first series was really, really good and captured a lot of viewers around the world, since then though it has just not reached its former level, and there is just no consistency at all in the plot.

The only two characters I could watch in Volume Four without cringing were Sylar and Daphene. Sylar is now magically Nathan, and Daphene is now dead. Great. The likes of Claire, Peter, Noah, Mohinder and Hiro just annoy me these days, and I honestly think it might be worthwhile to ditch the whole cast and start afresh a la Skins.

Volume Five of Heroes, identified by the name ‘Redemption’, is scheduled to start in September. Will I bother to watch it?  No idea.

May 10, 2009 • Posted in: Heroes, TV • No Comments

Over the Exams

The Wednesday gone I had my last second year University exam.

Finishing my exams has been something I have been looking forward to, surprisingly I much prefer sitting on my arse to revising. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have seen the back of those horrid exams just yet, and although I won’t be receiving my results until sometime in July I have already more or less accepted that I will be doing some resists.

Coming back to Lancaster for a few days in August to resit exams is not something that really appeals to me, not least because logistically it will be a bit of a nightmare. Finding accommodation, traveling up here and getting time off work (hopefully I will have a job – I need the money) is not something I can be arsed with, not to mention having to revise again during the summer would be a bit of a bummer.

I know I haven’t received my results yet, and I don’t mean to be a pessimistic sod, I just don’t think I did myself justice in my exams. I had a matter of weeks to prepare for them, as for some reason the computing department up here thought it would be fun to set us exams a few days into the new term. In contrast, a lot of other people I know don’t start there exams for a good few weeks yet, I could have done with that time.

Two of my module exams, ‘Software Engineering’ and ‘Databases’, went fairly well and hopefully I will receive a fairly decent mark in them. However, the module exams on ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Concurrent Programming and Operating Systems’ were an absolute fucking disaster, I simply just did not have the time I would have liked to prepare extensively.

Although I have now finished my exams, and will hopefully have a lot more free time to go out and get pissed, there is still work to be done. I will have to research and write a 3,000 word essay on ‘The Internet’ during the next week, and considering I have no essay writing experience at degree level and that it is worth 50% of an entire module, it is not something I will be looking forward to.

Likewise, there are still a few tasks to complete for an almost year long group project, and I also have to sort out what I will be doing for my dissertation over the next few weeks which should be interesting.

Maybe falling asleep in my lectures would have been a better option than not going to them at all, maybe I should try that next year.

May 8, 2009 • Posted in: Life, University • No Comments