Make Fairytale of New York Number 1 for Christmas

I bought my first song from iTunes today, Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and KirstyMacColl. I already had it on CD but I thought I'd do my bit to make it Number 1 for Christmas 2007.

The once great Christmas Number 1 title has meant nothing since XFactor made a mockery of the process. Now there is a campaign to get Fairytale of New York to the number 1 spot instead of the latest 1 month wonder from Simon Cowell. Who won Xfactor this year? I've already forgotten.

Merry CO2

Christmas lights at christmas increases the usage of electricity by 2% in Ireland. 2%???? Come on lads, you can do better than that, break out the extra 200M of exterior lights. It is Christmas after all. :-)



Ah, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, my favourite Christmas movie ever :-)

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett has announced that he is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. I tried to read one of his books once and didn't get into it but several of my friends love his Discworld books. For a man with such an imagination Alzheimer's seems like a truly cruel and harsh disease.

Beg Baby Beg

Why in the Ireland of 2007 are we allowing women to beg on the streets of our capital city with babies in a buggy or in their arms? At lunch time each day I pass a woman who I guess is in her early twenties sitting in exactly the same spot with a baby in a buggy. The last few days have been freezing cold so no responsible mother would have her young baby sitting on the side of the street for hours at end.

Why do we allow this to happen? Why in Celtic tiger Ireland do we not provide enough child welfare that children do not have to be used as begging props? Why do we do we not provide enough places in refuges to, at the very least, shelter every homeless woman with a baby? It's Christmas time and 2000 years ago a mother could find a stable to shelter in instead of sitting under a builders hoardings like today.

Finally if those services are provided and a mother still insists on placing her baby on the side of a busy street in freezing weather simply to guilt passers by into giving more money, why do the Gardai simply not take the baby into care and hand it to social services who can perhaps make sure it survives to see next summer?

Fake your own death for £25,000?

John Darwin, dubbed "the missing canoeist" has been charged by police with fraudulently obtained £25,000 from his life insurance when he faked his death 5 years ago. Apparently he lived secretly in his family home for 3 years then moved to Panama on a fake passport. You know, if he'd gone on the dole in the UK he'd probably have made more over the 5 years and at the very least have been able to wander down to the shops or the pub if he was bored. If it's true he's some muppet.

Truffle

What does a truffle taste like? I mean the proper ones that people spend $330,000 for. Must be something special, no sarcasm intended, I'm genuinely curious.

[via Boing Boing]

Turner Prize Bear

A 154-minute video of a man dressed as a bear has won the Turner Prize for Mark Wallinger. They claim he really won it for another work called State Britain, which he probably did, but to most of us in the general public a man dressed as a bear just won one of the biggest prize in art.

Beowulf

I've seen the future of animation and the future is 3D motion capture. Beowulf is a movie you simply have to see in a cinema screen showing it in 3D. Even as a live action or a simple animation this would have been an entertaining night out. I like the way they expand on the Beowulf legend. The idea that the story passed down through history is the public version of the truth and the people involved try to maintain the image is a nice way of taking a well known story and adding to it without destroying the core of the original.

But throw in the 3D animation and it becomes a dead cert for the animated Oscar. I'd even hope they give a nomination to Brendan Gleeson for best supporting actor. That would be a first, an animated character getting an Oscar but the motion capture on his character is nearly perfect especially his last scene which shows just how powerful the technology can be. In a few years they will be able to create animated characters that look more lifelike than some of the current set of A list actors.

Strangely it is the animation of Beowulf and the Queen, two of the main characters, that is lacking sometimes. Their faces tend to be a bit plastic and lifeless, especially the Queens. Also the crowd scenes are a little Shrekish at times, who would have thought Shrek could be used as an example of poor animation. Still this was one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in ages and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do next with this technology. I'm only sorry the DVD version probably wont be 3D.

Toy Show

The Late Late Toy Show is on this Friday :-)

It's the only Late Late I ever watch and have done since I was a kid. Pat Kenny is not a patch on Gay Byrne and spends most of the show looking scared/confused by the children invading his studio so it's always good for a laugh.

Road to Nowhere

Is anyone in a position of authority or power in this country competent? Carlow County Council almost managed to build a 1.5 kilometer road ahead of schedule and on a budget of 5.5 million. However when the builders got to the last 35 meters they discovered that the council did not own the land and the construction had to stop. Now the builders are suing the council, damages could run to 12 million and the new road goes nowhere unless you are walking in which case you should be able to cover the disputed plot of land in about 34 seconds.