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President-to-be Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Makes you wonder how George Bush ends up as President of the US of A when you have people who are genuinely this smart in the world of politics. What an incredible speaker.
Elect him, please.
A while back I wrote about this year’s Rock the Bells tour, which for the first time was supposed to be heading outside of North America to international venues in London, Tokyo, Paris, Amsterdam and somewhere in Germany.
It was widely reported that RTB would land in the UK on September 20th at the O2 Arena in London, where Brits would be treated to the best hip hop lineup here since the 80s Def Jam tours - A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Meth & Red, Ghost & Raekwon, Mos Def, De La Soul, Rakim and new artists such as The Cool Kids, Santogold and one of my personal favourites, Wale.
Way back in April of this year Billboard confirmed RTB UK for September 20th, as have a few other websites, but with less than a month to go you still can’t get your hands on tickets anywhere. None have become available, which is leading me to become deeply pessimistic about our chances of seeing ATCQ, Nas and co late next month.
No concerts or acts have been booked in the main hall of the O2 arena on the 20th, which suggests that this could still be on the cards… but with less than a month to get hold of the tickets, sort out accomodation and, on a more personal note, sort myself out with time off work… I’m starting to come to terms with the reality that I might not be able to go 
which is pretty gash because I’ve had this on my calendar for like half a year now.
Seriously considering saving up for the New York show for RTB 2009. This year’s RTB at NYC seemed like an absolute dream come true - ATCQ, Nas & Jay-Z, Meth & Red, Ghost & Raekwon, Mos Def, De La Soul, Rakim, M.O.P. and DJ Premier to name but a few. If RTB 2009 is even remotely close to that it would be worth dropping that kind of coin to cross the Atlantic.
Bert & Ernie cover M.O.P.’s classic rap track “Ante Up”.
I don’t know who put this together, but it’s just so so good. Credit to ‘The Mark Out’ for making me aware of it.
Some photos from my week in the Costa Blanca, with my dad, his family and my girlfriend.
Including a messy night out in Benidorm; a lovely day with castle and all sorts in Valencia; zoos, theme parks and a dirty beach in Benidorm; a much nicer and picturesque beach in Calpe; getting lost in the mountains; a car crash on le motorway which put our flight in jeopardy and some other random shizzle too.
OK, so I’m back from Spain. The Alicante area of Spain to be precise. My dad, his family, Amy and myself stayed in a tiny village called Polop, situated in the mountains of the Costa Blanca a short drive from Valencia, Benidorm, Alicante itself and a whole host of really nice sea-side towns.
No lengthy write ups this time. To sum the week up, I…
* Spent a lovely day in Valencia, seeing castles, churches, all the really nice shops/boutiques, plenty of fountains, some Formula 1 prep for that weekend, passed the highly recommended port, and breezed through a 6-lane roundabout (made all the more confusing for being the continental side of the road)
* Got lost in the Spanish mountains, and spent over an hour driving in 2nd gear winding around some of the narrowest roads ever — very top gear, but plays on the stomach a fair bit!
* Saw some really quiet, tourist-free beaches and towns on the coast like Altea and Calpe which had much more character to them than Benidorm!
* Listened to the Wombats album about 200,000 times because it was the only CD we had in the car and mine/Amy’s ipods were dead — I never want to hear the Wombats again!
* Spent £200 with very little to show for it — the only thing I brought back was a tub of peanut butter, which I forgot to eat
* Experienced ‘Sticky Vicky’… a 40+ year old woman who appeared in some night club and pulled atleast 50 various items out of her ‘magic box’. Pool cues, flags, sausages, a bottle, a dove, an egg… you name it… she found it. Very disturbing. The smile on her face made it even worse, to be honest.
* Saw push chairs in a Benidorm night club… yes the parents really are that scummy
* Saw a grandma in the same club as her grandchild… yep, you guessed it, in Benidorm too!
* Rode the world’s largest wooden roller coaster and the world’s worst theme park, Terra Mitica
* Harassed a load of animals at a zoo-type-place
* Drove around accident-free for the whole week, and probably had the only non-dented car in Spain
* Got stuck behind a car crash on a Spanish motorway only a few hours before we were supposed to fly home
* After conquering the motorway delay, had to sit through a further 3 hour delay at the airport
* But best of all, got to spend more time with my dad and his family than I’ve been able to since I was about 16
Not a lot else to say really. Benidorm is perhaps the scummiest place I’ve ever visited abroad. It is, effectively, Blackpool abroad. The whole place is geared towards low-brow, low income, lager louts and families who want to do nothing but swear/drink/tan. I knew I was in trouble when the flight out to Alicante was full of loud-mouthed families, kids swearing and people with no manners/consideration whatsoever… my dad put it quite aptly that Benidorm is effectively a haven for the council estate, benefit-grabbing families of Britain. I haven’t seen the TV series ‘Benidorm’ but from what people say yes, it really is that bad.
The small towns only 5-10 miles away from Benidorm were much nicer (Calpe, Altea, Polop, La Nucia, Guadalest etc.) with more character, less tourists and were, well, less British!
Valencia was a gorgeous city too, reminiscent of Barcelona, a very cultural and picturesque city centre that you will be happy to get lost in. Hoping to go back there some time soon.
Pictures to follow.
Word.
Exactly a year ago today I posted a big list of football games that you could watch for the opening weekend of the football season. You know, because I’m nice.
Well this year the season doesn’t start until next weekend… but seeing as there’s football leagues starting in the next few days (Charity Shield, Scottish League, French League, etc.) I thought I’d give you the tools to start a week early.
I wrote a guide here as to how you can watch matches live on the internet for FREE. No sky, no digital, no fees - no nothing. Just free football streamed across the internet.
So this weekend here are just a few choices for games (all times are GMT).
Saturday
12.30 - Falkirk v Rangers
12.45 - Birmingham City v Sheffield United
16.00 - AC Horsens v Brondby
17.15 - Everton v PSV (Friendly)
17.15 - Man City v AC Milan (Friendly)
18.00 - Arsenal v Sevilla (Friendly)
19.30 - Shamrock Rovers v Sunderland (Friendly)
20.15 - Ajax v Inter Milan (Friendly)
21.00 - Colorado Rapids v Toronto FC
21.30 - Sporting Lisbon v Sampdoria
Sunday
12.30 - Celtic v St Mirren
13.15 - Nottingham Forest v Reading
15.00 - Man Utd v Portsmouth
15.00 - Tottenham v Roma (Friendly)
16.30 - FC Kobenhavn v Aarhus
17.00 - AIK v Elfsborg
19.10 - NK Zagreb v Hdjuk Split
19.15 - Brno v Slovan Liberec
19.30 - FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt v Bayern Munich
20.00 - Lyon v Toulouse
20.00 - Boca Juniors v Gimnasia de Jujuy
Much better than Sky. Infact, most weekends there’ll be around 6 or 7 Premiership games on live (not to mention other leagues - Spain, Italy, France, all of South America, MLS, Germany, Holland, Australia, etc.)
If you want to watch any of the above games read my guide here and use www.myp2p.eu as your TV guide (so you know what channel to look for).
It’s good to have the football season back 
p.s. I think this will also work for Olympic games too if anybody wants to watch that.
Ladbrokes doesn’t seem to be letting me on today, which means I have very little to do with my Friday afternoon. This is one of the major problems with working night times - most of your friends work during the day time so your time off is a very solitary experience. And I’m a bit sick of the gym at the moment, so it’s a lot of time spent at the laptop!
I’ve spent most of the time on my comp this summer reading up on the football, as I often do.
The season is almost here. The opening games are next weekend, which means that this weekend is the charity shield where my (and about 70 million others’) team Man Utd take on Portsmouth (who my dad supports). I’ve never been a big believer in the charity shield because it is ultimately a friendly, usually played between the two of the top four teams (United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea) but I will quietly enjoy this one as Portsmouth should be a refreshing change.
Looking towards the Premiership itself - not much has changed amongst the top four (unlike last pre-season). Manchester United haven’t brought anyone in. There is a clear gap in the strike force, which will horribly exposed with one or two injuries (Rooney/Ronaldo currently out in the short term) which means Frazier Campbell will probably see a lot of first team football this season, and so might players like Manucho and Daniel Welbeck if enforcements don’t come around soon. Berbatov seems like the one Fergie is chasing, but there is a clear problem with Tottenham’s valuation of the Bulgarian.
Liverpool seem to have done the most tinkering. Benitez has again looked to collect a few more wing backs, safe in the knowledge that he has yet to buy a single Premiership quality left/right back. The acquisition of Robbie Keane, whilst a costly one, could prove to make a massive difference in Liverpool’s quest to break the Man Utd/Chelsea title race. Personally, I think a lot of Keane’s quality stemmed from his striking relationship with Berbatov who tends to share and look for his strike partner a lot more than I expect Fernando Torres to. Regardless, Keane is a quality signing and will surely form a much better relationship than whatever Dirk Kuyt and Voronin could offer. Why they are still chasing Gareth Barry is beyond me (because Mascherano and Alonso are going nowhere)… it should be painstakingly obvious that a right, and possibly left, winger are needed to make this a world class team. And wingers like Quaresma and Mancini (who has now gone to Inter Milan) were readily available. But can you tell Benitez anything??
Chelsea haven’t done too much either. Bosingwa looks a good player, who will surely be better at right back than an out-of-position Essien or an inept Paulo Ferreira. Not sure why Scolari has signed Deco when they already have Lampard, Ballack, Essien, Mikel and others vying for the centre midfield spots… while there’s no considerable change in personnel, the change will surely be in Scolari’s style of football. I think Chelsea will go on to win games in an attractive manner, but likewise they could stumble in attempts to play Scolari’s ‘beautiful’ football. From what I saw of Scolari’s Portugal and Brazil sides - they weren’t always able to grind out results when they weren’t playing well, so it will be interesting to see how they tackle that at Chelsea.
Whilst many criticise Arsenal’s selling tactics, I think that the acquisition of Samir Nasri is an excellent one, and Wenger will be proved right yet again as one of Europe’s most promising young players replaces Alexander Hleb who I was never really a big fan of. Arsenal will have to play out of their skin though to keep themselves in the top four. I can’t see Emmanuel Adebayor having another goal-scoring spree like last season, nor do I see the new boys Nasri/Ramsey settling in straight away. Of the so called ‘top four’ I think Arsenal are the ones most in danger of slipping out… or atleast I hope so.
And right behind them will be Tottenham. Excellent acquisitions all over the place. Not sure about their strike force, which boasts only Berbs & Bent (with Berbatov possibly departing soon). Word on the street (yeah, word on the street) is that Villa could join soon, Arshavin too and Vedran Corluka. Hard to see where Arshavin fits into this picture after the acquisition of Luka Modric, but many feel it indicates a forthcoming 4-5-1 system which will rely heavily on Arshavin’s success. Personally, I think that the Russian is vastly overpriced and will come unstuck in a division that is much faster than he’s used to and against world class defences/holding midfielders (look how easily Marcos Senna and Xavi dealt with him in the Euro’s). However, it will surely be an improved side on last term and I think they’ve a real chance of breaking into the top four!
Elsewhere, Sunderland look really good and have absolutely transformed their midfield into top 10 standard. A couple more defenders and possibly a striker and they will be top 10 for sure, maybe even pushing for a late UEFA cup place.
Man City, Middlesborough, Newcastle and loads of others have looked to buy players with no real discernable experience or outstanding quality. If I were fans of those teams I’d be quite worried. While the teams around them strive to improve (Villa, Tottenham, etc.) these teams haven’t really ‘bolstered’, but rather chopped ‘n’ changed.
At the bottom, I honestly think that the ’sign-everyone-you-can!’ policy of Hull City might make them a safe bet to stay up. While teams like Derby County or West Brom of a few years ago believe that their Championship squads can cut the mustard and grind out results with ugly football, Hull have looked to improve in every single position (or atleast have as many options in every position as possible). Anthony Gardner is an excellent acquisition, and I’m sure the likes of Bernard Mendy and George Boateng will prove invaluable too. Stoke and West Brom both seem far too laid back in their transfer activities, which I’m sure will see them struggle from the off. Even if Hull do struggle straight away, I think they’ve got such a big squad now that eventually they will find an XI that will get them results. It certainly will be an interesting season for their fans, and I think of the three sides ‘destined’ for relegation the Humberside team are probably the best equipped to face the task ahead!
Not many massive changes on the European front. Barcelona have made a good move signing Daniel Alves… Ronaldinho is not a bad addition to any side, so AC Milan have done well there… Van der Vaart is just so good it hurts, and will fit in a treat at Real Madrid… lastly Inter Milan have finally realised they need wingers and the addition of Mancini (and possibly Quaresma too) will completely transform that side. Those are the teams (aside from AC who are in the UEFA cup) that I expect to challenge for the Champions League, but then again those are the teams that are always there anyway!
Not sure if there’s anything else that needs to be said.
I can see it being another Man Utd/Chelsea race, with Liverpool providing either an early or a late charge (as Arsenal did the year before). I say it every year, but I think Tottenham could well pip Arsenal to 4th place, and then after that you’re looking at the usual candidates of Everton and Aston Villa. West Ham, Newcastle, Man City and Blackburn will all float around mid table doing very little all season… and at the bottom I can’t look past Stoke and West Brom to go down. Hull might, but I think their squad looks capable of staying up, and thus I think Fulham or Middlesborough could be the other team unsuccessfully fighting to stay in the league.
And I can’t wait to watch it all unfold \o/
Sup.
I got a tonne of shit in my bookmarks that I want to share. So here goes.
The Journal of Cartoon Over-analyzations - a website dedicating to taking cartoons such as the smurfs WAY too seriously. You know when people tell you such a minute detail in a film is a comment on the war, or society, or 9/11, or whatever… well imagine that in cartoons. It’s funny to see the smurfs labelled communists, mind.
‘Don’t Stay a Virgin’ - some girl has decided she will sleep with virgins if they help her save the internet. Yep. Watching nerds desperately apply is rather entertaining.
25 Strange Collections on the Web - including things like belly button fluff and some guy who has over 700 posters of fish.
The Twenty Most Awesome Mothers on the Web
Bad Spock Drawings - errrr… this is one of the weirder ones… a website dedicated to drawings of spock from star wars. Yeah, that’s it.
200 Comics in Under 12 Hours. On the subject of comics - I don’t frequently fuck with online comics but some really good ones are ‘Overcompensating’, White Ninja Comics and my personal favourite The Adventures of Dr McNinja.
That’ll do for now. Back to boredom.
Enthralling…An ambitious, full-bodied crime epic of gratifying scope and moral complexity, this is seriously brainy pop entertainment that satisfies every expectation raised by its hit predecessor and then some.
Justin Chang, VarietyBale again brilliantly personifies all the deep traumas and misgivings of Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne. A bit of Hamlet is in this Batman.
Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood ReporterMay be the most hopeless, despairing comic-book movie in memory. It creates a world where being a superhero is at best a double-edged sword and no triumph is likely to be anything but short-lived.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles TimesPitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, it goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind.
Manohla Dargis, New York TimesBeyond dark. It’s as black — and teeming and toxic — as the mind of the Joker. “Batman Begins,” the 2005 film that launched Nolan’s series, was a mere five-finger exercise. This is the full symphony.
Richard Corliss, Time MagazineLedger’s performance is monumental, but The Dark Knight lives up to it. Nolan cements his position as Hollywood’s premier purveyor of blockbuster smarts – and the Batbike is kinda cool, too.
Mark Dinning, Empire MagazineNolan turns the Manichean morality of comic books–pure good vs. pure evil–into a bleak post-9/11 allegory about how terror (and, make no mistake, Heath Ledger’s Joker is a terrorist) breaks down those reassuring moral categories.
Dana Stevens, Slate
It has become almost impossible to find a bad review of the new Batman movie.
All I heard last weekend from friends was that this film would ‘blow my mind’ and rank comfortably alongside all-time favourites of mine such as The Godfather and Casino.
Excuse me for being a little disappointed after every single person ratified that statement above.
I’m not saying it’s a bad film, but descriptions of this film as a ‘cinematic masterpiece’ or ’shakespearean’ are a bit much. Christopher Nolan has clearly created an accomplished piece of work here, but it is Heath Ledger’s performance that is the real reason to watch this film.
At nearly three hours long this film seems to go on forever and then some. In those three hours the only thing in that film that was truly alive was Ledger’s performance as The Joker, and I still think there wasn’t enough Joker in it.
This film will be sure to sweep the academy awards when they roll around next, and I’m almost positive Ledger will get himself one for his performance (although good, I’m not sure its THAT good). I thought the action scenes were ok but nothing special, the storyline has been reviewed as ‘deep’ and ‘well crafted’ (it fucking should be at nearly 3 hours) and for all the talk of this film as ‘dark’, it could have been darker (Two Face should have shot that kid in the neck).
Call me cynical but there’s no glaring reason to watch this film again (maybe if it were a reel of clips of the Joker)…
