Back from a week's training in Bournemouth, which was fantastic aside from the training itself. But I passed the course so what more can I ask for.
Had a cracking week on the Fantasy Football, finally moving up to third spot in my local league and breaking the top 3 monopoly that has existed all season thus far.
Maybe I should go away and therefore not think about tinkering with my team more often.
This guy is great BTW
http://www.yahoofantasyfootballuk.blogspot.com/
and has helped me immensley.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Random Rant: Lacuna Coil
My first proper rant and it is something that has bugged me for a while, the way bands can often be accused of changing their style to a more commercial one to gain chart success. They lose the old fans but gain a set of new ones. Sometimes they are heavily criticised for doing so, at other times it seems encouraged.
I bought a few albums recently, all of which were initially a disappointment to me given the band's previous work. Some then grew on me more than others, some remained disappointing.
I'll probably come back to this topic in future psots but for today I want to talk about the latest Lacuna Coil album, Shallow Life.
Back in the day Lacuna Coil were critically praised and had a small fanbase. The release of their third album, Comalies, saw their fanbase expand a lot and their next album, Karmacode, appeared to be a massive change in style to try and capitalise on this. It was criticised by many of the fans of their classic style.
But I think the progression was actually a natural one.
Their early albums contained long songs with lots of guitar solos, slow paced and with vocals mainly from their supremely talented frontwoman, Christina.
Comalies, which remains their best album in my opinion, had enough of these traits but you can also see the shortening of the songs, the reduction of solos and the emergence of the male co-vocalist. I think these developments were ignored because the album was great and the blanace was right. If LC has stopped at this point in terms of direction it would have been perfect.
But Karmacode showed the furthering of this trend, with the songs becoming all 'comercial' 3 minutes in length, Christina being often reduced to a backing singer and the lack of practically any guitar solos. Crucially perhaps they also experimented with a few different styles, possibly to attract new fans.
The album was crucified critically and many fans hated it, although the album itself was not that bad. The thing that got to me was that fans siad they were selling out, a term which I hate, and that they had changed their style for commercial success. I disagree and point to the trend that had long since been developing in their music.
The latest album, Shallow Life, does bring back some of the old style but the balance they had on Comalies is no longer apparent and actually it strikes me as ther worst album yet. But not because they were attempting to sell out!!
Any new fans would be advised to buy Comalies and see the live where they remian excellent.
I bought a few albums recently, all of which were initially a disappointment to me given the band's previous work. Some then grew on me more than others, some remained disappointing.
I'll probably come back to this topic in future psots but for today I want to talk about the latest Lacuna Coil album, Shallow Life.
Back in the day Lacuna Coil were critically praised and had a small fanbase. The release of their third album, Comalies, saw their fanbase expand a lot and their next album, Karmacode, appeared to be a massive change in style to try and capitalise on this. It was criticised by many of the fans of their classic style.
But I think the progression was actually a natural one.
Their early albums contained long songs with lots of guitar solos, slow paced and with vocals mainly from their supremely talented frontwoman, Christina.
Comalies, which remains their best album in my opinion, had enough of these traits but you can also see the shortening of the songs, the reduction of solos and the emergence of the male co-vocalist. I think these developments were ignored because the album was great and the blanace was right. If LC has stopped at this point in terms of direction it would have been perfect.
But Karmacode showed the furthering of this trend, with the songs becoming all 'comercial' 3 minutes in length, Christina being often reduced to a backing singer and the lack of practically any guitar solos. Crucially perhaps they also experimented with a few different styles, possibly to attract new fans.
The album was crucified critically and many fans hated it, although the album itself was not that bad. The thing that got to me was that fans siad they were selling out, a term which I hate, and that they had changed their style for commercial success. I disagree and point to the trend that had long since been developing in their music.
The latest album, Shallow Life, does bring back some of the old style but the balance they had on Comalies is no longer apparent and actually it strikes me as ther worst album yet. But not because they were attempting to sell out!!
Any new fans would be advised to buy Comalies and see the live where they remian excellent.
Monday, 8 February 2010
Hitmen
Just watched In Bruges for the 2nd time. Great film.
Top 5 hitmen films (no order)
1. Grosse Point Blank
2. Leon
3. In Bruges
4. You Kill Me
5. Lucky Number Slevin
Love it.
Top 5 hitmen films (no order)
1. Grosse Point Blank
2. Leon
3. In Bruges
4. You Kill Me
5. Lucky Number Slevin
Love it.
Cracking Weekend
Afternoon all,
Am feeling completely shattered today after staying up late last night and watching the Superbowl. Just glad I had today off work unlike some of my mates. Great win for the Saints in an entertaining match. I didn't end up drinking any alcohol because I was still hungover from Saturday night. A very good friend of mine turned 40 and we had a cracking celebration at the Fusion Inn in Lymington, where I had far too much to drink but didn't regret it at all.
The only downside was having the Mrs and my parents (who were here to help her with the kids while I was out partying) getting at me all day on Sunday for being a useless git.
Which to be fair I was!
Itchy
Am feeling completely shattered today after staying up late last night and watching the Superbowl. Just glad I had today off work unlike some of my mates. Great win for the Saints in an entertaining match. I didn't end up drinking any alcohol because I was still hungover from Saturday night. A very good friend of mine turned 40 and we had a cracking celebration at the Fusion Inn in Lymington, where I had far too much to drink but didn't regret it at all.
The only downside was having the Mrs and my parents (who were here to help her with the kids while I was out partying) getting at me all day on Sunday for being a useless git.
Which to be fair I was!
Itchy
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Welcome
Hello readers!
Though I doubt there is anyone there yet, being that this is my first post and the blog has only existed for a few hours.
Thought I would break the duck and it seemed only right to write a genric 'welcome' post as the first one.
So Welcome to all those out there in the blogsphere.
Happy reading!
Though I doubt there is anyone there yet, being that this is my first post and the blog has only existed for a few hours.
Thought I would break the duck and it seemed only right to write a genric 'welcome' post as the first one.
So Welcome to all those out there in the blogsphere.
Happy reading!
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