October 2008 Archives

Here in America, we’re gearing up for this little election we’re having (you may have read about it?), and the anticipation is starting to mount. Is it possible that we will be free of Republican rule for a couple of years? I can only hope. 

As much as I want Bush and his clones gone, that didn’t stop me from going to see W. (that’s dub-ya for all you Brits) the other night. Laughter, drama, snickering and horror ensued.

It's Halloween tomorrow so here's a quick top 10 round up of my fave gadgets for All Hallows Eve.

In no particular order (but oddly with numbers)

Well, my weekly column covering U.S. movie releases has hardly been weekly. I’ll blame it on a vacation to Cancun and a subsequent virus I picked up in that hellhole, but excuses aside, a ton of movies have come to theaters recently, with only more on the way. 

This week, we see several big releases hit the stage, including High School Musical 3 and Saw V.

For all you retro-futurists or people that live in warehouse appartments – or perhaps you just like well designed, quirky hi-fi's; Brionvega has brought back the 60’s with the very far out groovy RR226 man.

The RR126, also known as the 'Musical Pet' first took the stage in 1965 and was the work of Italian designers Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni.  These machines generally go for between £2,000-£5,000 at auction!

HARRY HILL'S TV BURP (ITV1, SAT 6.45PM) Despite being tucked away in the schedules when it first started, audiences embraced TV Burp and have made it a rare BAFTA-winning comedy hit for ITV. Now in its eighth series, comedian Harry Hill returns to poke fun at the best and worst British TV has to offer. Typically highlighting goofs (often from soaps with fast production turnarounds), this is a brisk 30-minutes that provides plenty of footage for Harry to weave imaginative, funny narratives around. With plenty of light-hearted spoofs, ironic guests, catchphrases, silly humour and sketches -- this is one belch it's not bad manners to enjoy. And one that will last a mammoth 25 weeks!

FRINGE (SKY1, SUN 9PM) J.J Abrams (Alias/Lost) is one of the brains behind this sci-fi drama; an X-Files-like thriller about Olivia Dunholme (Anna Torv), an FBI Agent recruited by Homeland Security's Philip Broyles (Lance Reddick) to investigate various science-related phenomena known as "The Pattern". Her first case involves a virus released aboard a passenger jet, where every passenger was dissolved into sticky skeletons…

Firsts are good ... when it is linked to mobile gaming it's even betterer!

Asus have created the G71 which they are happily claiming to be the world’s first Intel Quad Core gaming notebook - armed as it is with the new Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX9300.

As well as the processor, this machine has an added boost thanks to the removal of the overspeed protection so gets more processing power and better abilities to multitask.

Go figure. After a month of crap, garbage and that lint that forms between your toes, a slew of potentially good movies make their way to U.S.  theaters this weekend…  just as I head off to Cancun for a lovely vacation of heat, humidity and… rain.

We’ll just skip right past An American Carol, the latest spoof film featuring Leslie Nielsen, and Beverly Hills Chuahua, where the title says more than enough, and get on to the good stuff:

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is receiving strong early reviews, as it starts that funny/awkward kid from Juno and the oddly hot girl from Charlie Bartlett, which no one saw, by the way. The movie, about two teenagers who meet one night and go from there, looks like it has some of the cuteness of Juno, with not-quite-as-clever dialogue.

Let’s face it, those little wheels, even the ones on my Dakine convertible, can only cope with so much - try most wheelies on gravel, sand or travelling across a muddy festival field and watch their limits be quickly reached.

I suppose it is only logical to create rolling luggage that can handle all terrains, and designer Roozbeh Mousavi of the Art Center College of Design has solved that problem by creating a rolling bag that is more wheel than case.