December 2011
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2011 in Review: Books
This year I read 70 books (complete list here). I know that compared to some of you that is not much, but I am very pleased, because it is more than I’ve read in the past two or three years, and I’ve read some great books this year. (The links take you to my reviews.)
Sixteen of the books that I read this year were new ones, published in 2011. Most of the books I read (new and old) were fiction,...
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2011 in Review: Film
This year I’ve been to the cinema 23 times, which is not bad. It only pales in comparison to a couple of years ago when I saw almost 60 films at the cinema. Another big difference is that this year I only saw a handful of films on DVD (and didn’t really bother to review many of them) whereas a couple of years ago I rented tons of movies and saw three or four a week. I’m not sure exactly why I’ve...
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2011 in Review: Television
I watched quite a lot of television this year, both shows that were new (including continuing shows that were airing new episodes) and also older shows that I watched on DVD. I’m won’t go into too much detail here, just some brief observations. (The links take you to my reviews.)
Of the new/current shows that I watched, I particularly loved Doctor Who, the second series of Rev., the new show...
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2011 in Review: Music
Compared with previous years, I haven’t actually listened to much new music in 2011. Of the relatively small number of albums I did buy this year, only a few were newly released in 2011, the rest were older releases but new to me. Instead I spent a lot of time listening to old favourites, things I’ve been listening to for awhile now: Wolf Parade, Placebo,the Smiths, Queen, Bloc Party, Stars,...
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2011 in Review
It’s that time of year again! Snobs complain about all the tedious end-of-year lists that crop up, while nerds like me rejoice in the opportunity to reflect on the past year in an orderly manner. Yup, I love my lists! That being said, I’ve actually haven’t compiled lists, but rather written rambling summations of what I’ve listened to, watched and read this year. This is...
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Sherlock Dubbed →
This is a clip from Sherlock, dubbed into various foreign languages. I found it disproportionately hilarious!
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Happy Xmas, Xmas People!
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Movie Trailers
I’ve been quite pleased about the release of two movie trailers over the past few days:
The Dark Knight Rises - the long-awaited trailer for the final instalment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Many nerds of my acquaintance have been going crazy over this. I’m not as hugely excited as that, and I think my enthusiasm for superhero-type movies in general has waned since...
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Christmas Telly
‘Tis the season of Christmas television. Here is what I am looking forward to over the next week in chronological order (and mostly for my own reference!):
The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff (19/12, BBC2, 8.30pm)
Dickensian parody, set in the same universe as the wonderful radio comedy Bleak Expectations, and starring Robert Webb and lots of other funny people.
Rev. (20/12, BBC2, 9.30pm)
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USS Enterprise Ambient Noise →
One of my favorite things about the Star Trek franchise are all the great ambient sounds that represent the engine noise on the various ships. My favorite ambient noise from the whole series is the engine idling noise in TNG. I have cleaned up a sample from the show and then looped it for 24 hours. Great for ambiance and imagining that you’re in deep space.
24 hours of the USS...
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The Symbolism Survey →
This is rather cool… In the 60s a high school student wrote to over a hundred different authors with a survey about symbolism in writing. About 75 of them responded to his questions. This blog has scanned several of the responses from authors such as Ray Bradbury, Ayn Rand, Jack Kerouac, John Updike and many others. Some of the responses are really quite interesting.
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The New YA →
This is an interesting piece about YA and idea that it constitutes a whole genre rather than just being fiction aimed at younger readers. It makes some interesting points about various aspects of YA fiction. But for me, the best bit comes right at the end, where the author is discussing the idea of the age-appropriateness of books:
One final thought: Shakespeare is taught in, I’d venture...
Updates (or a lack thereof)
Once again I am posting to explain why I have not been posting… The answer is of course that real life has got in the way. Or maybe that should be that university has got in the way of real life.
I’ve been miserably, frantically trying to finish up a few assignments to hand in on Monday. They’re not due for another week but I want to get them in early so I can head home for the...