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Hello. If you answer no to any of the following questions, then this page is not for you. Did you come here following the link in my Xbox Live profile? Did you just play me at Street Fighter IV? Did you lose? Was I Dan? OH DEAR!You clearly need practise, and lots of it.  OMG, did I hit you with my Ultra? If you answered yes to any of those questions or if I was playing as Cammy, or if you soundly beat me then thank you for visiting, but this page is really for rubbing the losers nose in it. I mean, they lost to Dan! Surely they deserve a place on the internet showcasing that fact. LOL!I have read three of his books: A Dirty Job, You Suck! and Practical Demonkeeping.
A Dirty JobThis was the first of the three I read, it is a charming tale about how a man deals with the death of his wife just after she gave birth to their daughter and then has to deal with possibly being the next incarnation of Death. The characters were nicely fleshed out, “Minty Fresh” was an absolute delight, but a couple of Hellhounds-cum-pets were the real stars for me. I thought it had a bit of an abrupt ending, the last few chapters felt very weak and compared to the rest of the book.
You Suck!At first I thought it would be a typical vampire tale, but I was delighted when the main character, who had been “turned” just before the book started spent the first few chapters getting to grips with his new-found supernatural status. Far too much of this book were diary entries written in the tongue of a young, hip, Goth vampire wannabe: “and I was all like, totally, like, what the fuck”. Another weak ending marred what was (another) solid read for the first 80% of the book, with random people turning up to save the day and the aforementioned diary sections providing far too much of the climactic narrative, but this is a must-read if you ever wanted to know what kind of sex vampires have.
Practical DemonkeepingAlthough this was an earlier publication, I read this after the other two. I was assured that all his books were stand-alone by a very helpful Waterstones chap, so I wasn’t worried about reading stuff out of order, or having too much prior knowledge about critical plot-points. I enjoyed this book a bit more than the other two, although it took longer to get going and felt very disjointed with far too many characters in the early stages. You cannot fault the author on his ancient history/myths and legends research though, it really shone in this tale. Catch, the devious demon referred to in the book’s title, was the star of the show. Overall I thought they were quite entertaining (if a little too American), but I think Jane rates the guy higher than I do. He has a website, here. Some sausage rolls went walkabout last night – bit of a strange walkabout though. There were four in the bag the night before, but in the morning the pastry had been stripped from the rolls and was sitting in a nice pile on the side, but the sausage itself was missing. Jane thinks the culprit has four legs and a tail; I think the culprit has opposable thumbs, is rotund and lives in the box room. This crime was far too neat for a feline.
Still, it was a damn fine game for the first 40-odd hours. I’m ashamed to say it was my first experience of the Katamari universe, having missed out on the PS2 games for whatever reason. I did more recently pick up Me & My Katamari for the PSP, but I didn’t enjoy it that much as I really missed having two analogue sticks. *The only Achievements I’ve yet to unlock on the damned game is play online 50 times and obtain 1,000 cookies (another online related Achievement)… And they are a pain to unlock because, well, no-one plays Beautiful Katamari online anymore!
Hey, did anyone see X-Factor earlier? More specifically, did anyone see Cheryl Cole’s outfit? She looked like everybody’s favourite psychotic dictator, M.Bison.
What next? Louie Walsh wearing a pink gi and giving a thumbs up to everyone in the crowd?
While I’m not a massive fan of Dido, I do think her vocals suit the stuff she’s done with Faithless better than her usual delicate (but admittedly catchy) love songs. She haunts Hem Of His Garment like a musical ghoul, matching the ethereal quality of the tune. The Boy George version of Why Go? is infinitely more emotional and thus far superior to Estelle’s more recent Faithless collaberation. Then Killer’s Lullaby finishes things off with a heavy heart. Who says you have to put on an American accent to rap? Maxi Jazz must have missed that memo – Or I’m more inclined to believe he read it, screwed it up and threw it in a bin. I love his voice, his rhymes, the off-beat rhythm he keeps, the accent, everything. This album came out in 1998 by the way, long before Dizzee Rascal’s distinctive non-American raps. Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss, Rolo, I salute you. One hell of a fine album you put together there. Hey, I bet you thought my favourite album of all time would’ve been something by The Prodigy, didn’t you? Jane and I went to see Ricky Gervais last night, his Science mini-tour. Had about as much to do with Science as his Fame and Animals tours had to do with Fame and Animals respectively, but he was altogether very funny. A great night out. Stewart Francis was the warm-up, he was also quite funny. Recycled a fair bit of material from his various Mock the Week appearances, but seeing it live somehow makes it a bit fresher. |
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Copyright © 2012 Waves - All Rights Reserved |
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There’s loads that come close (I shall refrain from listing them all), but the one that I always come back to has to be Sunday 8pm by Faithless. I never tire of listening to it, there’s such a mix of styles, and not something you’d expect if all you’ve ever heard of Faithless is their chart stuff (God is a DJ, Insomnia, We Come 1). God is a DJ is the only “charty” Faithless track on the album. Huge beats, a real anthem. Then in contrast to these massive beats Sunday 8pm, the title track, is a mellow trance affair.
