Week 7 TVP107

This week in the studio my roles were Talent and Camera operator. Acting as the host for the news item was fun and think I'm getting more comfortable in front of the camera each time I'm in front of it but I am still most comfortable behind the camera as i was this week. I thought I performed reasonably well as Camera Operator as I have not done that role in months. Even though I wasn't required to perform anything too difficult I got all the shots the Director was asking for and other then maybe getting a bit too close to what I was filming had no problems at all with camera operating. I think once again the group as a whole performed well especially my other two camera operators and everyone is showing confidence at their respective roles.
Since my last blog post allot has been happening on the road to W!cked. My Christmas show had a production meeting at Gelatisimo's on Monday and nearly the whole crew turned up which was really pleasing and everyone got to meet each other and the actors and designers and people got a chance to read my script. A variety of topics from costumes to set design to lighting ideas was discussed and everyone seemed keen to be and get involved with the show.
The following night we had our first run through and now even though the set has been changed so allot of what we did is now obsolete we had nearly everyone turn up and at least had a rough run threw of how the show was going to be and the actors got to practice their lines which is very good also. Pete the Director of my show met up with the designers a few days after to sort out the set designs so next time we practice we can do it properly.
Kate as my Production Manager has been fabulous and has booked the studio for every Tuesday night leading up to the live performance and as we have had one run threw already I have spoken to her about giving our next Tuesday rehearsal to another show and let therm practice while giving ourselves the night to film the dream sequences with the actors instead. This still means we are being productive while also giving others a chance to practice so i think it works out well for everyone.
I plan on ringing Marta Dai Primary again in the next couple of days to sought out issues such as time and if the kids can come for a practice run. other bits of organising that I've had to do in the last few days is organising with the Pre-school here at the University to use their dole house for the dreams sequences and they were very helpful and willing which was really nice of them.
Other things on the road to W!cked that I have been keeping busy with is the practice run in the studio with the BBQ show which was really successful and have to give mention to Mark as Director. My role for that show is Stagehand and my fellow Stagehand and I kept on top of everything and have our roles under control.
I was also Camera Operator for an insert which we filmed today and that was a very organised very shoot. Arriving at the "Handstand Factory" my Director and Sound Technician were there along with the talent and the handstand man we were going to be filming. After making sure my camera was on right settings and talking about what shots we were going to do and what was going to be performed we started shooting and everything went according to plan with some really good shots being taken and everyone working well together we finished without any problems.
So far everything is going very well with all my roles for W!cked and am looking forward to the live show experience and to witness all the hardwork that has gone in from everyone to see the end product.

Week 6 TVP107

The first week back from the break in the studio and my roles were stagehand and talent. We were doing short news pieces with a cooking segment. As I have been stagehand many times before performing this role has become second nature and everything went well as did the whole group today with everybody performing their roles very comfortably and there was a confident relaxed atmosphere as everyone returned to the studio. Cleaning and packing up after we finish shooting is even becoming quicker and more organised and everyone as a whole looks to be quite comfortable in the studio roles presented to them.
On the road to W!cked this week i wrote up a rough script and I think it turned out really well even though I will have to wait to the practice rehersal's to see if it works. I have also been to a producers meeting with Camilla and the other producers about scripts and how they are to be set out so I will have to organise my script again into the proper format but that shouldn't be a problem.
I have come up with an idea that im really excited about for the show and that is short dream sequences for the hosts in which they will dream of their faveorite Christmas present which should add a different and hopefully funny elemant to the show. I got the idea while watching the TV show "Scrubs" and think that if we do it properly will be really funny. I am waiting to speak to Marta Dai again just to go over a few details like buses and the children's arrival and departure times but as the kids are on school holidays I will have to wait til school is back before I can contact them again. I have met and spoke to Pete about organising a team production meeting for my whole crew for gelatisimo on Monday so everyone can meet each other and know who is doing what role and what is expected from each crew member as well as a chance for everyone to meet the actors and designers. Pete and I also spoke at length about the dream sequences and he was really for the idea so I was also happy with that and have nothing but praise for Pete as my Director.
For my other role as Lighting Supervisor I have done my scissor lift licence which will be a major help as well as been looking at different sites on the Internet such as http://www.andrew-whitehurst.net/3point.html,http://www.videomaker.com/article/9736/ for different ideas and helpful hints.

Week 5 TVP107

This first week of holidays I have been into the studio twice with Marcus and once with Jason and they have both been really big learning curves. The first time Marcus and I did allot of work with the lighting with him showing me how to direct the lights and which way they are facing as well as how to turn them on using the pole thingy. Marcus also showed me how to plug them in to the different sockets with the connections and size sockets.
We also had a go in the control room using the special effects where I learnt a few new things and became more familiar overall with the control desk.
Alot of time was spent in the sound room as well just finding out different sounds that are on there. When Pat took Jason, Marcus and I in there a few days later it was even a better learning experience with Pat showing us how to route better and explained allot things so I understood how things worked better. Pat also explained how to set up for different things like bands which I would not have had any idea how to do before but would now at least know what needs to be done and how to do it.
Pat also explained how to incorporate special effects from the computer onto the TV screen or things such as inserts and how to move them around the screen and such forth which i had no idea how to do before where as now I have some idea and with a little more practice should have a full understanding and how to do it properly.
I have also contac ted the cook from Delicious cafe restraunt and he has agreed to be the cook for the cooking segtment for the show which is really good news.

Week 4 TVP107

This week the class split up into two separate groups and were taught more about lighting by Bruce and sound by Pat. I found these classes to be invaluable as I learnt much more about lighting and most notably the lighting up on the grid in the studio which is really good as I am lighting supervisor one of the weeks for "w!cked". I learnt lots of handy little things like chucking in as many colour lights is never a problem and good for filling in space and also having colour lighting as back lights is another handy hint I learnt from the class. Also other little things like girls needing softer lighting and actually being shown this was good and handy to know for "w!cked" and for the future.
The sound "lecture" was also very helpful in explaining different things about patching, and also the control desk which I am still not that familiar with but after that lesson I at least knew routing a little clearer and how to put sound out to the floor as well as how to use the computer instead of the control desk which seems allot simpler.
On the road to "w!cked" I have been in contact with the Marter Dei primary school to sing a Christmas song to finish my Christmas show and although they haven't confirmed anything they did seem to be very interested which is very good after the Universities choir fell through. I still have not contacted the Chef's I'm after but have the phone number of one of them which is at least a start. I have also been to meetings at Camillas discussing ideas for w!cked and script ideas.
I am planning on booking the studio out during the holidays to get myself more accustomed to the studio and better at everything really. In particular I am going to try and work with the lighting to help with my role as lighting supervisor in "w!cked".

Week 3 TVP107

My roles for the new drill segments were boom operator and stage hand. This was my first time operating the boom and found it to be enjoyable and I think I got the hang of it rather quickly. I found standing instead of sitting on the ergonomic chair far more comfortable for I felt allot safer and also felt I had more control. I think I performed the task well by being able to keep the mic out of shot and out of the way as well as pointing it in the right direction and and keeping it at a good distance from the talent. The booms shadow never got into shot either which was handled by keeping the extension arm at the right angles and elevating the boom to the highest point. The whole group seemed to work really well together during the run through when I was Boom Operator with the camera operators and stage hands maneuvering round the floor from the different shots with no hassles whilst getting the required shots. the talent was also very good with Marcus and Lauren putting on quite a cooking show.
I have been Stagehand many times before and even by myself so am fully aware of what is required even though there was allot more quick maneuvering during these drills. My fellow Stagehand Rod and myself due to the way the cameras were positioned were given a difficult task with the different maneuvers of the cameras and due to quick hands and feet and even crawling on the ground I think we did quite well. There was one point where we had to stop because cameras couldn't get around each other due to them being blocked in but there was nothing that either of us could do as it was the positioning of the cameras and the tasks they were designated. After this was sorted out by the Director and camera operators everything went according to plan even though I think some shots the Director was calling were not getting done by the camera operators. Overall a much much better and focused group performance to the last one.
On the road to "w!cked" I have been running around trying to find a guest chef for my midnight snack segment which will be a healthy snack for kids to leave out for Santa. I have 3 possibles that I know of that would be good for the show and they are Mic an English Chef who works at the Cafe Delish and I know him from the pub and he is very charismatic which would be good for the show, my 2nd choice is a girl named Bianca who has won apprentice chef of the year 2 years in a row and another really good chef who I have in mind is Bec who works at the Astor and also would be fantastic to get on the show. I'm yet to get in contact with them but shouldn't be long and they all would be valuable assets to my show.
Pete my director and I have also been having various meetings about different ideas for the show and what we can do to make it special. Pete has also been discussing with me about how to set up sound for the choir and even though we have different ideas about how to do it I appreciate his advice and knowledge but have decided that in the end I'm going to let Jake who is the sound supervisor for my show to have the final say on how he wants the choir sound to be done.

Week 2 TVP107

For the last time we did "Hello Riverina" and all I can say it was one of our forgettable performances. Nothing seemed to go smoothly from the floor to the control room and ecspecially myself in tapes. I had done tapes before and had no problems at all. To start with the settings on the VTR's were on the wrong setting and I didnt pick it up even though I knew something was wrong because the times on the tapes kept changing and going out of time. other things such as mishearing calls from Director and fast forwarding to the wrong insert and then makeing the rest of the crew wait while I had to rewind back to the correct Insert. Even though i know how to do tapes properly and comfertably next time to ensure that these problems dont occur again is get into studio earlier as i arrived only bout 10 minutes before allocated time when maybe 15 minutes would have gave me more time to prepare. Other ways to improve my performance would have been to speak up when I think something is wrong and relax a bit more.
It seemed my flatness wasnt alone as our group as a whole just didnt seem to spark as the floor didnt seem to be quite on the Directors mark when it came to them getting the shots he wanted. Even with our taped segment the vision mixing sent black to screen instead of intro which didnt seem to far out with the rest of what was happening. In the end I can honestly say as a group i think we were all rightfully dissapointed with our performance, myself ecspecially.
On the road to "Wicked" my Christmas show is coming along nicely. Pete (who is my Director and Producer for the 1st insert on my show) and I went driveing for 4 hours the other day to try and locate this reindeer farm and after much knocking on doors and driveing down dirt roads we finally found the farm and spoke to the man running it and got everything organised. The next thing on my to-do list is to get in contact with this choir for my show. I have organised the actor for Petes insert but would like to and need to find out the other actors for my show to be able to organise things a bit more specifically.

Week 1 TVP107

This week during our revisit to "Hello Riverina" my allocated job was Stage Hand. Myself and the rest of my group seemed more comfertable and confident then I can ever remember us being even though it was our first time back in the studio in over qa few weeks. I was the lone Stage Hand today and had a enjoyable time doing it and thought I performed good in the situation of being the only stage hand. I was ontop of the situation throughout the rehersals and the taped show flipping over both sets of cards when they had to be and keeping the cables out of the camera operaters way other then the mix up on the first run through when camera one's cable went under itself while I was over with the cards but with help from the Floor Manager that never happened again and was the only blur of an overly good and comfertable performance. The Floor Manager was good in offering to help hold cables if I was busy somewhere else which really helped with the situation. The whole floor seemed relaxed and worked well together with the cameras adding more creative shots each time we practiced and the talent becoming more enthusiastic with a very good performance by Jackson as News Reader. As i was given head phones I could here what was going on everywhere and Mark as Director done an extremely good job and was in control the whole team getting the shots and performances and respect of all those working for him showing that you can be respectful and plesant to your crew and recieve good energised performances. The Tapes and Sound guys seemed to be ontop of their jobs from what I could gather from my view even and I think it was the best most confident "Hello Riverina" I have been apart of.
In the build up to "Wicked" I have been to a couple of Producer meetings which I found to be helpful as Camilla explained about what we were required to do as producers and also listened and helped with our ideas. My show has been Christmas themed which I asked Camilla about the day I found out I was Producer which has been good as it opens it up creatively about what I can do which is why I asked that I could do a Christmas show in the first place. From these meetings there has been some good and bad points with my idea about having one of my inserts being classic christmas cartoons such as bugs bunny not being allowed due to copyright reasons being dissapointing but understandable. The good points from these meetings is that Camilla is confident with my ideas that I present such as a reindeer insert and possibly a christmas carol or song to finish my show.
Another one of my jobs during the "wicked" shows is Lighting supervisor and I am excited about it as I have never had much experience with lighting but am keen to learne about it and have booked out the studio and watched Marcus and Mike set up and demonstrate different lighting effects which was helpful.
Overall im very enthused about whats happenign with "Wicked" and looking forward to working on it more.

Web Log week 3

This week is "Hello Riverina" I was Vision Mixer. The tasks I were required to do were to listen to the Directors instructions about which cameras feed was going to be put live to air. This means listening to the Director as the Director can change the shot that is written down in the script or change how the next shot will be aired. This happened a number of times throughout the morning with the Director asking me to "fade" into the next shot instead of cutting to the next shot. Each time he done this I was able to follow his instructions properly as I was listening to him more so then just following the script.
To actually make the shots appear on the screen I was using the bottom row of buttons on the controller desk to program in the next shot that was to happen then with my other hand press the "cut" button when the Director told me to take the shot. During the interview when there were no set shots I switched to the method of pressing the second bottom row of buttons on the control panel which screens the shot you select without having to press the "cut" button with your other hand, this was very helpful during the interview segment as it allowed me to follow the Directors random quick cutting.
Overall I think we performed really well as a group as we finished in our quickest time yet and everyone in the studio seemed more comfortable and relaxed. I think everyone from the acting talent to the tapes operator did there jobs well. I think I was good in my job as Vision Mixer as I was always ready for what the Director wanted and I always had the next shot on the screen for the Director to preview it to see if he wanted it. I did make one mistake during the taped run as I didn't get the commercial break picture to air exactly as the same time as the audio but the picture stayed on the news reader so it was minimal and only a slip up of my finger and not my ability for the job.
Some things that I would suggest to be a successful Vision Mixer are:
# Listen to Director carefully
# Make sure you are familiar with the script
# Concentrate on script, Director and whats happening
# Make sure you are following whats going on in case Director gets distracted
# Familiarise yourself with the control desk
# Be alert

Assesment 2 Post

This will be my 32nd post since I started my blog at the start of the year. Over time I have changed my template, gone back to my first one again but with slight variations in fonts and colours. I have made posts on a range of different topics from reviewing movies and music, talking bout mimes and Chuck Norris, discussing favorite tv shows and wines and even who is the best James Bond-which everyone knows is the latest guy, Daniel Craig.
I have completed all the tasks we have been given and have been using my Flickr and my Del.icio.us accounts as part of my regular internet activites.
Over the time I have developed a better understanding of blogger and how to be more effective at it. This has to do with aesthetics. My page has become more aestheticaly pleasing as I have made my posts easier to understand by:
# Using point form and lists in my posts rather then long paragraphs
# Making the links clearer and having more relevant ones throughout my posts
# Having clear texts and colours that make my page easy to read and understand. this is with the dark blue colour background and the light greens, purples and whites as my font colours
# Having clear and relevant link headings in my side column bar making them easier to understand and having my important links up the top of my blog making them easier to find and more accessible.
Some of my favorite blog posts that I think are interesting and aestheticly pleasing are my Scrubs, Beer & Wine, Mimes and my Chuck Norris blog.
My flcikr account is bundled into 3 easy defined groups so it is easy to navigate and find the pictures you want and my pictures are also very good as most of them capture the moment of when the photo is taken as seen in this photo taken live of my mates "hardcore music" band. I have also labelled and tagged my pictures properly making it easier to find.
In Del.icio.us- – I am satisfied with my content as it covers many different topics that I find interesting and are relevant to the purpose of my blog. I am also pleased with the functionality of my delicious account, as it is easy to navigate and find particular links using the different bundles and tags.

Visitors to my website

since iver started my blog i have had one comment to 1 of the 30 of my posts. this is not a high rate of comments to blogs but that doesnt matter as pretty much all my pictures have been viewed in Flickr and thats good to see as I do believe some of the band photos to be quite good. My Delicious account has also been viewed my many people and my blog even being saved by other people from delicious. The photo above is one from my Flickr account and the link below is a link to the only person who has commented on my site.
LINK

Good and Bad Aesthetics

Aesthetics is important for a website or webpage as it can generate interst or turn people away. It is important in aesthetics for web pages to be user friendly, quick loading time, have the right colours and generally have everything displayed so the user can navigate around the page easily.
Common mistakes are:
# Pages that are too large and take too long to download.
# Menus that are confusing
# Absent or hidden contact details
# Flash animation for the sake of it
# Web pages deigned for one screen resolution or browser
# Complicated backgrounds that make it difficult to read the text
# Misspellings or poor grammar
# Centering everything on the page or typing everything in CAPS.
Here are tips on good aesthetics for websites and webpages:
# Keeping pages short and only including relevant content
# Use lists instead of paragraphs
# Write short sentences
# Check spelling
# Keep links current
# Put contact information on your pages
These websites TNA Wrestling and , Mugglenet that I found aethetically pleasing due to :
# They were easy to understand as the menus were simple and understanable
# The pictures were interesting and related to the website
# The colours on the pages worked well together and was easy to read
# They were quick to load and took me no time to find the information I wanted

Mimes??????????

I dont like mimes because:
# They want to stay in the box
# There hands make no sense?
# They cant breathe fire
# They hate everybody
# They started in France
# They wear to much make up
# Because

If anyone understands the point of mimes please let me know, otherwise a really good mime hateing site is the I Hate Mimes Club

Scrubs

By far my favorite dvds to watch are the Scrubs ones I own. I have all the seasons that are available from 1-5. My favorite character on the show is Janitor, closely follow by Dr Cox. I personally think he should have won a Emmy for his portrayel of the angry, talented, self obsessed Doctor for the past 5 years. The directing, acting and story lines are always top of the line with a heavy music theme always incorporated into the show which is clever and unique.
My favorite episodes are:
# My Brother, My Keeper - Season 2 guest starring Dick Van Dyke. Everyones favorite doctor Dr Townsend is in town and is working with J.D but when J.D finds out that Dr Townsend isnt up to scratch on current medical knowledge he doesnt know what to do.
# My Catalyst - Season 3 guest starring Michael J Fox. Michael J Fox guest stars as the Doctor who seems to be the best at everything which makes all the residents jealous until they realise that he has his own problems

Web Log week 2

This week I was Assistant Floor Manager for "Hello Riverina". As a group I think we performed well during our entire session, even with a Director who's style we were not paticulary used to. I think the taped production was good with improvemants maybe to the sound quality the only noticeable thing. As i was out on the floor and working with the Floor manager in paticular i think the floor did a good job over all as a team with maybe a bit more respect to the Floor Manager the only critical comment i could make. From the cable bashers who did good jobs of moving cables out of way -which me and a stage hand had to do in the last run when camera 2 moved to back of studio, we had little time to move alot of cables and we did it successfully and safely. The acting talent did a good job of presenting the show and by the final run all the camera operaters had there parts down. The Floor Manager and I worked effeciently together. I think with us sharing the duties of "cueing" in the talent it shared the workload and gave me experience at "cueing" and also relieved a bit of the workload for the Floor Manager which would of been helpful for them. This is where I learnt that there is silence after 3 in countdowns on the floor which was a very handful piece of information to learn.
To do the position of Assistant Floor Manager well, I think the main points are:
# Listen to your Floor Manager and follow their instructions and try to work with them
# Help out the stage hands with the cables if you are in position to help.
# Just be aware of all your surroundings out on the floor, paying attention and keeping focused.

Assignment 3-Weblog

On Friday 25th of May my production crew I was involved in completed our first "Hello Riverina" Assessment. I thought we performed particularly well, especially the control room and Marcus as DA. I was in charge of tapes and I think I performed reasonably well, having my tapes ready on cue for all the practices and in particular the recorded run-through. The floor was good from the acting talent to the cable bashers with perhaps a slightly more energised room could be one of the few comments I could make.
On my overall performance, a few things i could have done is get to the studio a bit earlier- i got there 9 minutes early but the rest of the crew were already there and had started setting up. I could have gotten there a bit earlier and helped out on the floor once I had my tapes in and had found all the times to mark out on the tapes. Another thing I could have done is make sure that I had stopped the tapes once I no longer needed them as I apparently left one running at the end of the session.
My comment on working as the tapes operator is that it is a reasonable job as long as you stay focused, pay attention and keep calm. I found the tasks such as finding the right places on the tapes and playing certain tapes at the right time pretty comfortable. I think if you listen to the DA and stay focused tapes operator can be done pretty successfully as long as you don't mind the slightly cold temperature and the isolation.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Even though i liked the 3rd pirates movie and Johnny Depp was as funny as ever there was something about it that seemed to be lacking. even though the characters in it were already developed from the last 2 movies it just seemed that there was not much to each of them other then lies and betrayel. It seemed they were there to fill in the big sequences or something.As mentioned before johnny Depp was flawless but others were merely background such as Orlando Bloom and Captain Norington. kiera Knightlys Miss Elizabeth was in it more then i liked and her charcter fighting off monsters and pirates with ease made the baddies less scary. The 2 pirates from the last 2( the one with wooden eye and short fat 1) were not in this nearly enough as with the bad guys in Davey Jones and the Captain from the East India tradeing company. The movie did have good special effects but so much was happening all the time it was hard to follow in some places. There were 2 many characters, 2 much going on at 1 time, 2 many double crosses but due to Captain jack Sparrow and the comedy throughout the film was still entertaining but would of been better to cut out some of the characters and special effects and concentrate more on story and characters. Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End is satisfying but a bit shallow.

Sick Of it All at the manning bar

On the weekend i was in Sydney and saw one of the greatest hardcore punk bands of all time- SICK OF IT ALL.
They played at the manning bar at Sydney University with comeback kid and junglefever. I missed the supports and got snuck in the side entrance about 5 minutes b4 sick of it all started. Tbey played a tight aggresive set which mixed all there songs from past 20 years. A paticular highlight was DEATH TO TYRANTS from there last album of the same name. They came back out and played 3 encore songs which was great and everybody left sore but smileing. to check out sick of it all click here

Technorati

I started using technorati today and it looks to be pretty useful and it also has some rankings system so may make it fun and competitive. Here is a Technorati Profile link

New Harry Potter news

Today i found some kool new information on the 5th Harry Potter movie.
# That it will include thew character Tonks in it
# Kreacher the house elf will also make an appearence
# That it will show young versions of Harry's Dad, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Snape
# That Dumbledoors brother is in it
# you see Harry and Cho Chan kiss
Personly cant wait for movie to come out and above is a still from Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix.

Aesthetics

Aethetics may be narowly defined as the theory of beauty, or more broadly as that together with the philosophy of art.
A website that i found aestheticly pleasing due to the bright colour layout with Light blues, yellows and pinks and the easy to understand Headings and links aswell as the many assorted pictures over the page was plus fortyfour and a page that i found aestheticly unpleasing is this awful page DOKIMOS due to its awful flashing background, its boring text, the links that are clustered and hard to read as they are the same colour as parts of the background and with no interesting pictures or anything on there. Above is a one of the many pictures from the plus fortyfour website that is atleast 1000000000 better then the disturbing dokimos webpage

RSS

RRS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.
Users of RSS content use software programs called "feed readers" or "feed aggregators". The user subscribes to a feed by entering a link of the feed into the reader program. The reader can then check the user's subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it was checked, and, if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.
If you would like to find out more about RSS click here

Harry Pottter

The new Harry Potter movie which is coming to cinemas soon i think will be the best and darkest movie so far. It will contain the fight between Dumbledoor and Voldemort which has the potential to be some of the best 5 minutes of cinema ever. It will also have the potential to bring back awesome characters such as madeye Moody and Lupin and my favorite Sirius Black, while also introducing new characters like Tonks and professer Umbridge. It could have centaurs and giants along with a massive fight between the deatheaters and the order of phoenix. to find out more about the new movie or the new book coming out this mugglenet site is possibly the best Harry Potter site around

Assesment 1 Post

Over the past few months i have created 3 accounts, a blog, a delicious and flickr account. In my blog I added several things such as a news reel, updated my profile, created a list, created a favorite links bar, created links in my blogs, added pictures and also added a lot of useful and useless information to share with people on the Internet. After experimenting with different templates and colours I found the one I'm with now the best suited for my personal blog. My 17 blogs range from movie reviews to music bands, to debates on alcohol and the Simpsons and even Chuck Norris with appropriate links throughout. I have also commented on other peoples blogs.
On del.icio.us i have made bookmarks to sites that interest me, and have bundled each of my bookmarks are labelled and have the MPI104-2007 tag. I have also recommended sites to other people.
On Flickr i have added my favourite photos and joined groups of my interest.
I think my blog has interestingness as it covers a wide range of topics whilst mainly being entertainment ones such as music and movies. I assumed the people reading my blog would have found it by the topics i covered such as entertainment and tried to provide informative, witty assessments on the topics i blogged about. To add range i added links wherever possible that would be useful or of interest to other people and also added pictures of topic i was talking about. I also talked about other things such as favourite wines and also Chuck Norris so that anyone of any interest could take something away from my blog.
On Deli.ic.ioucs i added bookmarks that i thought other people would find interesting and also myself whether it be the Rollingstone or the WWE wrestling website i tried to cater for a wide scope of peoples interests.
On Flickr i tried putting photos of what i thought were really good pictures and ones people would like to look at. I put up a lot of music band ones as they have a certain energy that i think comes through really well in photos.

BodyArt-Tattoo's

I myself and me have always been into Tattooing ever since i started to get into music as a young kid and notice all these pictures on all these musicians arms and even before that i was always drawing on myself so if anyone knows of any kool sites for tattoos please let us know, if on the other hand people cant find any themselves this is a really kool one tattoo and another good one is tattoofinder

Slayer

The metal band Slayer recently toured the country and all my friends went and saw them and said they were really good and as they are one of my faveorite bands i thought i may aswell let people in this blogging world know a bit about them. They have been around for more then 20 years and have been the leaders in the metal scene and the front runners in heavy thrash metal. The new album "Christ Illusion" has not seen the boys slow down and Dave Lombarro is ecspecially good on the drums along with Kerry King on guitars. They have perhaps the best criticly acclaimed thrash metal album of all time with "Reign in Blood" and all members of the musical community will not and should not forget the name Slayer

007

Bond, James Bond is perhaps one of the most famous lines to come out of cinema. After watching the newest Bond movie again Casino Royale even i can say as a long time Bond fan that Daniel Craig is the best Bond bar none. Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan were both great but Craig against all odds and predictions has brought Bond to a whole new generation with actual good reviews for a Bond movie for the first time since i dont know when. Not only was it one of the best reviewed movies of 2006 it was also the highest grossing Bond movie ever. Craig made bond more appealing to me in the way that he portrayed him as human rather then super human which made him more believable and accessible to watch in my opinion.

Children of Men review

Hired another good movie out the other day. It was Children of Men and was a really good movie that is set in future with mankind no longer able to reproduce for an unknown reason and because of this mankind is falling apart. The film stars Clive Owen who is excellen and it also stars Julianne Moore and Michael caine. This movie delivers good action and a scary insight of what the future could be. I have nothing bad to say about this film as it shows a gritty reality through fine acting and a good script. I give the movie 8/10

The one, the only, Chuck Norris

# Some kids can piss their name into snow. Chuck Norris can do it into concrete.
# Superman owns a apir of Chuck Norris pyjamis
# Chuck Norris counted to infinity twice.
# Chuck Norris dies 10 years ago but the grim reaper cant get the courage to tell him
These are just some of the classic one liners i found at this Chuck Norris website.Click on the link to find one of the funniest websites on the web Chuck Norris

Raised Fist

One of the best bands in the world that hail from Sweden and I saw play at the end of last year is called RaisedFist. Anyone who lkikes there music hard and fast should click on the RAISEDFIST link to find out the best band in the world.

Simpsons, Futurama or Family Guy????

With the Simpsons movie only a few months away i thought animation would be a good topic to bolg about. Now in my humble opinion my fave of the 3 is The Simpsons! I just think that after something like 400 episodes its still the funniest smartest tv show ever made. Dont get me wrong I believe futurama to be rad and Family Guy to be even a bit better i still dont think they can compete to The Simpsons. Family Guy for instance has only been around 5 years and even though I rate it highly, it relies alot on shock value to get most of its laughs. I think Homer is the funniest character of all 3 shows with Peter from family guy coming in a second rate clone but Stewie and Brian from Family Guy being close equal runner ups with Dr Zoidberg from Futurama a equally close 3rd. Anyway anyone who watches these shows and has opinion feel welcome to comment on which you think is best or worst. If you would like to find more out bout the movie coming out just click the Simpsons Link

The Devil Wears Prada

I hired this movie out as i had heard good things about it and knew that Meryll Streep was fantastic as the boss from hell. Well the latter is true in that meryll Streep deserved her oscar as the bitchy boss but i found the rest of the movie short on laughs and defenitely short of a story. The supporting players Stanley Tucci, Australias Simon Baker and Adrian Grenier who arent not given enough screen time do as much as possible in what little parts they are given. The movie was occasionaly witty and had Streep at her near best but not enough to carry a movie that is nothing more then a girl taking the wrong job, which to me was myself borrowing the wrong movie.

300 Movie Review

It seems that lately the movies I've seen have been nothing other then brilliant. It may seem that I rate every movie I see as awesome but that's not the case it just so happens that the few movies ive seen lately are in a class of there own. Now I know I said Pans labyrinth was visually inspiring well 300 takes the cake. It uses computer generated backgrounds for all its scenes as in the Frank Miller movie Sin City, but 300 does it better in a way that it captures the setting of ancient Greece perfectly which could not have worked using real outside sets. The action in this movie is hard, brutal and continues coming at you unrelentlessly much like what happens to the characters in this movie so it suits it well.
The story of 300 is based on a true event when a spartan army of 300 men fought against an invading Persuin empire of 250 thousand! This may seem unbelievable but it is spectacularly true. This movie conveys perfectly how the Spartans fought against the invading armies with such heroics that it united all of Greece together to fight the invading Persians. the actors in this fit their roles perfectly with a beefed up Australian David Wehnem playing a major role in the film. The men in this movie are all muscle with 6 packs being in shot 90 percent of the movie and the women sexy in a dangerous way. I would recommend this movie to anyone over the age of 15 and give it 9/10. To go to the movies official site click here

Grinspoon

After putting up my post yesterday about Intrepid the greatest metal band in Aus i thought it is only fair to mention the greatest rock and roll band in Australia at the moment and thats GRINSPOON. Now im not talking about punk, country and western or metal bands for all those (well 1 or 2 poeple that actually read this)people about to cry foul im talking about good old rock and roll bands and im saying that the Grinners are the best oz has got. i have seen them more times then i can count and would argue with anybody that they have the best allround live show ive ever seen and their first 2 albums "guide to a better living" and "easy" are two of the best rock alums of the last decade. Grinspoon have played at every big festival in Australia and if there not head lineing then they are always one of the most talked about bands of the day. if anybody agrees or thinks i have no taste in music and that another band should have the mantle of the best rock band in the country let me know or if you wan to check out more grinspoon just click on the link

Intrepid

Intrepid is a metal band fom Sydney who defintly deserve a mention in my blog as they are the greateast metal band around in Aus at the moment and that is no bias on my behalf. These boys put on a live show that will rock yoour pants off so anyone who loves metal or appreciates music in general should go to their myspace site where there is a link in my favorite links or click on link here Intrepid myspace

LINKING

This is to help me and anyone else who can not remember off the top of their head how to do links. To add a link all you do is

Make sure that you change the "http://ba-ma.blogspot.com" to the website that you actually want to link to.
Here is a example of a working link (It is to the yahoo site) which will happen if you have follwed the above instructions LINK

Flickr

Another web based thing I have only just found out about but seems to be of usefullness ecspecially for photos. Any comments on how to take full advantage of this would be helpful. On my account I have photos of myself, friends and other things and will be updating these. Above is a fave photo of mine taken at my going away party in Campbelltown of my mates band INTREPID rocking out on stage

Delicious

Well i can honestly say i dont know much about delicious as i only started using it today and it seems to be a very handy tool. Any opinions on the positives and negatives of it to help me get a better understanding would be appreciated. Here it is

Beer, Wine or Spirits???

After studying this topic of drinking quite in detail i have come to the conclusion that there is nothing better then a cold schooner of Vb on a hot summers day.
Other drinks that i like to indulge in are:
# A red wine with pasta, pizza or most hot meals. Paticulary Merlot
# Other beers then VB that I like are CarltonDraught and TooheysNew
# For lots of good information about wine click here
But my opnion will vary of that of other peoples so if the 1 or 2 people that read this blog that arent either my grandma or the team of scientific monkeys studying this please feel fee to leave your opinion...

Pans Labyrinth

I recently saw the movie Pans Labyrinth and it gave me an idea for my blogs- movie reviews. So here is my first attempt and as always this is only my opinion.
Pans Labyrinth
This has to be one of the most refreshing and original movies both visually and storywise of the naughties. Guillerm del Toro has created a fantasy world both breathtaking and scary, whilest showing the real world as a harsh reality and not quite as scary as any of the mosters we come across in the fantasy world. the story is set in the Spanish cicil war in the 1940's and about a girl Ofelia and her Mother going to live with her cruel new Father "The Captain" who is one of the more evil characters i have ever come across. Ofelia visits her own fantasy world guided by a 7 foot faun to escape the cruelty of her own world.
The movie is subtitled as it is in Spanish but this is not a deterant at all but only helps further distance it away from the usual predictable Hollywood story. It is simply a visually stunning movie that takes viewers on a dark ride through horror and fantasy that sets a benchmark for which all movies that fall into these categories will be compared to.
9/10

Welcome all Howleychoholics

Welcome to the Howleycho blog , here you will find useful and useless information that occupies the world of Howleycho. So sit back, relax grab some popcon and a pepsi and enjoy your visit.

here is a link to Joe's metablog .