RIP Firefly

Posted on August 9, 2010 by Dan

Meanwhile over at the Coalition of Awesomeness the current theme is Cancellations and I’m talking about the greatest travesty ever committed by television executives – the cancellation of Firefly.

Here’s a quick extract:

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So why was Firefly so good? Well if you allow me to engage in a little needless controversy I’ll tell you.

Mal out-Han-Solo’s Han Solo

The character of Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds resembles Han so closely that it surely can’t be a coincidence. Captain of a spaceship, smuggler, non conformist, reluctant hero, wry wit, propensity to wear waistcoats, and a gratifying inclination to shoot first.

Yet, as wonderful a character as Han is, Mal seems to do it all better. Perhaps it’s because over fourteen episodes we had more time to get to know him. Or maybe it’s because Mal didn’t have a whiny farmboy dogging his footsteps and bringing everything down. But whatever the reason, Mal is a better Han than Han is, and that’s all there is to it.

Kaylee out-Scotty’s Scotty

Yes yes, Scotty is a great character. But for quirky charming engineers you’ll be hard pressed to beat Kaylee Frye. Sweet, sparky, and jam packed with character. And she knows her onions too – there isn’t a mechanical problem she can’t handle with an elastic band and two lengths of drainpipe. None of this “dilithium crystal” rubbish.

Plus, would Scotty ever bemoan his lack of a love life by complaining “Goin’ on a year now I ain’t had nothin’ twixt my nethers weren’t run on batteries”. No. No he would not (at least I really hope he wouldn’t).

Wash out-Chandler’s Chandler

Want a loveable, wise cracking, slightly geeky, male hero who isn’t swimming in unnecessary testosterone? Then Hoban “Wash” Washburn is your man. I can’t actually recall if he wore Hawaiian shirts in the show, but if he didn’t then he should have. I love Wash. I want to be Wash.

Well, up to a point. I’m not all that keen on being Wash at the end of the movie Serenity, but other than that he’s pretty much one of my role models. Him and Brody from Mallrats. Oh, and Ferb from Phineas and Ferb.

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Want to read more? Then go over to the Coalitions blog to see the rest of the claptrap I’m spouting. And while you’re there why not add us to your google reader too. You know it makes sense.

Posted in Coalition of Awesomeness, Science Fiction, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Neverending Story

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Dan

Not much time for blogging this week as I’ve been a bit busy planning barbecues and duck houses. However we’re still plugging away over at the Midnight Movie Club.

This week we’ve been talking about The Never Ending Story. And for the second week in a row we actually manage to keep on topic. We don’t even mention Frankenhooker once!!

Have a listen below, or even better subscribe to us on iTunes. And while you are there leave us a rating and a review (go on, you know you want to)

 
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Oh, and I apologize if I’ve now got that bloody song stuck in your head.

Posted in Fantasy, Midnight Movie Club, Movies | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Movie Review: The Tooth Fairy

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Dan

Yesterday on Facebook I was harangued by a couple of so called “friends” for expressing the surprised opinion that despite my expectations going into the cinema, the movie “The Tooth Fairy” wasn’t half bad.

Theoretically these two people have a far more developed critical eye than I do. One, Neil, spent two years as director of photography on a long running UK TV drama (ok, ok, it was Emmerdale – but it still counts). The other, Chris, hosts my second favorite movie podcasts, Casta La Vista, and regularly reviews films with humour, intelligence, and an abundance of delightfully foul language.

Yet despite their apparent qualifications I still maintain that they are wrong. The Tooth Fairy fairly watchable, and even strays into “quite charming” territory at times.

I realise I’m swimming against the tide here. Neil and Chris aren’t alone in their dislike of the movie. The movies Rotten Tomatoes’ page say it has an overall approval rating of 17% amongst professional critics, and an average score of 4 out of 10. But I think that’s all rather harsh.

In case you’ve not come across the movie yet, the plot surrounds a minor league hockey player (The Rock) who ends up having to serve a week as a real life tooth fairy in punishment for telling his girlfriend’s daughter that the tooth fairy doesn’t exist. The overall theme of the film centers around the importance to hold onto your dreams and all that sort of thing.

The Rock (yeah, yeah, he calls himself Dwayne Johnson these days, but we all know he’s really called the Rock) is a very under rated actor in my opinion. He’s got a very healthy dollop of charisma and always manages to come across as more than just a musclebound lunkhead. And if you compare him to other wrestlers that tried their hand at acting then he suddenly starts looking like Oscar winning material. I mean I like The Princess Bride as much as the next man, but no one could describe Andre the Giant as anything other than wooden.

So the Rock accounts for himself pretty well in the movie. He plays the whole “Big tough guy in feminised role” shtick very well and with very little obvious discomfort (unlike Arnie who always sucked at it). As I say, I find the guy quite charming and a generally believable actor.

But the real highpoint for me in this film was Stephen Merchant. He’s a comedian that I really like, but unfortunately often find his partner Ricky Gervais a little grating. I very much liked his portrayal of the geeky and awkward tooth fairy probation worker, and found the scene where he squares up to him particularly amusing.

Other actors of note were Julie Andrews and Billy Crystal as tooth fairy equivalents to Bond’s M and Q respectively. I’ve seen a fair bit of criticism of these two veteran actors for doing this film, much of which coming from the guys over at Casta la Vista if I remember correctly, however as I say I feel it’s a bit unfair really. Crystal had a good part with some funny gags which I felt was more or less worthy of him. And Andrews is blandness personified in every film since The Sound of Music anyway, although my Midnight Movie Club co-host Lee may argue that 2001′s The Princess Diaries was actually her finest hour (the girly freak).

So in short I had no problem at all with the casting and performances in this film.

The plot? Meh, the plot was pretty by the numbers. A standard tale of initial cynicism turning to redemptive belief, a device more commonly found on your box standard Christmas movie. But I don’t think this is particularly a bad thing. This is a kids film and children thrive on the familiarity and security that well worn tropes provide.

So all in all The Tooth Fairy is a pretty enjoyable children’s film that I feel has been unfairly maligned by the critics. Sure it’s no Pixar movie, but then very few films are. I’d heard some very negative opinions of the film before walking into the cinema, and so my enjoyment of the movie may have been boosted by my initial low expectations. But it’s a film I’d happily add to my kid’s DVD library.

Rating: ★★★★★★½☆☆☆

The Tooth Fairy has been out for quite a while now. We saw it at a cut price kids club showing at the local cinema. It’s released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on the 20th of September, but is already available on DVD and Blu-ray in the US.

Disclosure
We paid for our own entry (and horrifically overpriced popcorn) to watch this at the cinema. However if you buy a DVD or Blu-ray through one of the links on this post then I get a very small kickback from Amazon.

Posted in Childrens, Fantasy, Movies, Review | Tagged , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Rockin’ and a’ Rollin’

Posted on July 31, 2010 by Dan

As many of you know, and a few may even have the misfortune to witness, myself and my mighty ukulele made our world debut last a couple of weeks ago at the Hadrian’s Walk wrap up party.

Here’s a photo of me looking dynamic and rock star like:

I’m incredibly grateful to Rich, Rich, Paul and Roger for letting me play alongside them. And Rich Bassinder in particular for badgering me to go through with it when I tried to make feeble nervous excuses as to why I shouldn’t. For the record I joined in on “Girls in their Summer Clothes”, “With a Little Help From My Friends”, and a fair old chunk of “500 Miles” until I stopped because I was paranoid I was playing out of tune (I wasn’t apparently, although I’m yet to be convinced).

I must point out that by no means was I any good. In fact I was rather bad. But the room was full of friends with forgiving natures and so it didn’t really matter.

That’s not to say that there wasn’t some pretty impressive talent on display. Not only are the guys themselves pretty damn skilled, but there was a very cool star turn from Craig on the harmonica for a couple of numbers. It’s true what they say you know, we bald men really can play the blues.

And you know what? I really enjoyed myself. Not particularly the playing in front of an audience bit (although that was fun), but the being part of a band.

As anyone who’s known me for more than a couple of years will tell you, I am a man of fleeting passions. I pick up hobbies like a veritable Mr Toad. Flitting from one to another like a butterfly with ADHD. And amongst my various interests over the years I’ve toyed with playing a number of instruments: guitar, piano, accordion, and now of course the ukulele.

But I’ve never actually played alongside anyone else. Which is a real shame because it’s fantastic. The feeling of being a cog in a machine that’s pumping out music that actually worth listening to is amazing. And I really got into it. Kerry said she even noticed me jigging about a little bit on a couple of the numbers. Not much mind, I am severely tethered by my self consciousness when doing anything even approaching the suburbs of dancing. But from me a slight shift of weight from one leg to another is equivalent to a full on break dance routine from someone else, so relatively speaking I was basically stage diving.

So I had a great time. Although judging by the photos that I’ve seen of the evening it didn’t actually look like it. Oli even caught my eye at one point and told me to smile so as not to wreck a photo he was trying to take. But what can I say, I’m the Morrissey of the uke world, it’s just the way I roll.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever play with the band again. They perform extremely infrequently, and anyway I think muscling in on a paying gig would be stretching the boundaries of friendship a little too far. But it was a hell of a lot of fun and has certainly inspired me to practice a lot more recently. I’ve even managed to master the previously elusive “E” chord now so the world is my oyster.

Amy and I are even developing a mighty fine version of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” which, providing you close your eyes, block your ears, and go and stand three villages away almost sounds like the Glee version. Almost.

Posted in Hadrian's Walk, Ukulele | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

A post of Awesomeness

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Dan

One of the reasons I came out of my blog sabbatical before it’d even really begun is because I wanted to announce my participation in a rather exciting blogging project:

The Coalition of Awesomeness!

To quote the tagline: The Coalition of Awesomeness is a place where bloggers of awesomeness blog about things that are awesome.

There’s a lot of awesomeness in their I’m sure you’ll agree.

To be slightly more specific it’s a group of faintly geeky guys from all over the world coming together to muck around and write about stuff we probably should have grown out of a long time ago. If you’ve ever hung around the comments section of Lee’s blog then you probably know most of us already. And all the Hadrian’s walkers will know the delightfully profane Arjan (that Holland world cup match will stick in my mind for a long time)

I kicked the whole shebang off at the beginning of the week with a post about my greatest ever video game achievement. I’m quite pleased with it too, so go check it out.

And while I’m plugging stuff, don’t forget to check out our Midnight Movie Club Podcast every Wednesday. This week we’re talking about the 1993 film Demolition Man. Whats more we actually stay generally on topic this week, which is a first for us. You can even listen to it below should you be too lazy to click on over to our main site

 
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Posted in General | 14 Comments

For a guy who’s taking a break I sure am posting a lot

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Dan

I think it was Confucius who first said:

Wise man does not start tinkering with blog theme at midnight on a school night

Ah, and how right he was. But I received my brand spanking new header image from Lee in my email box this evening and I’ve never been one to delay my gratification.

If you’re reading this in google reader why not wander over and gasp in awe and amazement at my new look.

When I first started planning Hadrian’s Walk over a year ago I was pretty convinced it would spell the end of my blog.

I knew that one of the major hooks to get press coverage would be the fact that there were so many bloggers coming along on it. But in order to exploit that hook I’d need to mention my own blog in all my press releases.

I’ve never attempted to be anonymous on this blog, I’ve never really seen the point. I’ve never been convinced that publishing my full name, shoe size, or pictures of my kids faces is going to expose my family to gangs of rampaging murdering pedophiles. In fact I’m quite proud of the fact that I’m willing to stand up and take ownership of everything I write here, even if 98% of it happens to be drivel.

However, by having my name, photo, and blog address printed in the local paper I took the risk that one of my patients would see it and start coming here. Maybe even start commenting.

I have lines between my personal life and my professional life. These aren’t flimsy lines drawn in the sand, they are hard, solid lines chisled into granite. I need to be able to keep everything separate and boxed up or run a serious risk of burnout. I made the decision when planning the walk that if my professional life began bleeding into my blog then I’d unfortunately have to let it go. It’d be a shame of course, but a sacrifice worth making.

But as it stands I think I got away with it. And so the blog goes on.

However not without changes. There’s been a crescendo building up around the walk for the past few months, both here and in my everyday life too. And now as the resonance of the final chords are fading away perhaps it’s time to switch metaphors and start a new chapter of the book.

I think I’m going to move away from “Daddyblogging”. It’s a label that, although always proud to wear, never really fitted me. In addition parent blogging, at least in the UK, has become far too entangled with commercialism, competitiveness, and exploitation. I’ve had enough of it to be honest, and it’s time for me to move on.

Of course in real terms this makes absolutely bugger all difference to anything. I’ll still be pumping out the same old crap that I did before. But I’m going to make a conscious effort not to care what lists I’m on, what rank I’ve been assigned, and which “target group” a bunch of PRs are trying to cram me into. In fact I’ve gone further than that and requested to be removed from every directory, table, and index that previously made me feel uncomfortable. I have gone from having a fairly high profile in my little corner of the internet, to having all but vanished into the ether .

Yes I’ll get fewer readers, but you know what? Fuck it, I don’t really care. It’s never been about the numbers on my statcounter anyway – it’s about the friends I’ve made. I’d rather get three comments from people I know and like than 100 from a sea of interchangeable faces. I’ve made some great friends through blogging, many of who I’ve now had the privilege of meeting in person. And withdrawing from a few stupid lists and shedding off the shackles of genre blogging isn’t going to change that.

So this is it. The start of a new phase for All That Comes With It. The blog is dead. Long live the blog!

Tagged , , , , | 59 Comments

Hadrian’s Walk final total

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Dan

Drum roll please:

£26,000

Bloody amazing. Well done all the walkers, and a huge thank you to everyone who sponsored us. You are all fantastic.

£26,000. That’s $40,134 US dollars. Or €31,083 Euro.

As I say, bloody amazing.

The huge list of people I need to thank for making such a incredible sum possible is almost beyond comprehension. But most of all I need to thank every single person who did that 84 miles across the country, be they going east to west, west to east, or peddling furiously on the back of a bicycle. I am honored by your comradeship, good humor, and dogged determination to get the job done. Every penny you raised contributed to that sum, and for that you’ll have my eternal gratitude.

Thank you.

Posted in General | 27 Comments

Fancy a party?

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Dan

invite2f

Yes, I know I said I was taking a hiatus, but I just thought I’d resurface briefly in order to invite you all to a special “Welcome Home” party for Hadrian’s Walk.

This isn’t another attempt at wringing cash out of people. In fact it’s just the opposite. We’re throwing it as a thank you for everyone who went on the walk, and everyone who supported us.

All are welcome, the more the merrier. Bring your friends and your family. The only thing we ask is that you let Neil know if you’re coming so he knows how much food to put on (did I mention the free food? Yes, there’ll be free food!). Email him at: info@thejosephsalmontrust.org.uk

There will be a live band too: Hadrian and the Walkers featuring our very own Rich Brook, Craig Kelly, and Rich Bassinder. And in keeping with the theme of charity, the band are allowing me to plink and plonk on my ukulele for a couple of songs in a Linda McCartney esque way. There are even plans afoot for me to play the cowbell.

There will also be a written quiz, photos of the walk on display, the drawing of the raffle, and the unveiling of the grand total. And cheap beer too, lots and lots of cheap beer.

So if you are in driving distance of Huddersfield why not pop by for a bit. It’d be great to see you.

This Saturday 24th of July, 7:30pm until 11ish, Marsh Liberal Club (31 New Hay Road, Huddersfield, HD3 4AL). Be there or be square.

Posted in General | 22 Comments

Goodbye. Or at least see you later.

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Dan

The eminently quotable Gary once told me that whenever he finishes one of his epic multi day long distance cycle rides he tends to hurl his bike into the corner of the garage and can’t bring himself to touch it again for several months.

Hadrian’s walk was great. In fact it was bloody awesome. But it was also an incredible strain. Not only the event itself, but the run up. I’m not naturally the most organised of people. In fact I’m the very antithesis of organised. And so planning and implementing such a big event was like trying to squeeze a gorilla into a size 14 dress. It’s possible, but there was a lot of creaking at the seams.

This blog is my bicycle. It’s the vehicle I used to convert all that effort into actual results. And pretty amazing results they were too. Not only have we raised over £20,000 for an exceptionally good cause, but we had a fantastic time doing it too.

On the walk I made new friends, and cemented old ones. I walked 84 miles across the entire width of the country without any significant injury or negative after effects. And nothing went wrong, which is the real amazing bit. No one died, every hostel we booked was expecting us, and the walkers were able to have three square meals a day.

That’ll do pig, that’ll do.

But now it’s over, and all of a sudden my life is my own again.

I think it’s highly likely that I’m going to let All That Comes With It go to fallow for a little while. My enthusiasm for it has taken a real dip recently. I’m not good at being creative when I feel obliged to be so – that’s one of the reasons I’ll never be a writer. And with the need to plug the walk constantly over the last few months I’ve increasingly felt that the blog was a chore rather than a pleasure.

The urge to blog will return I’m sure, but for now I need a rest.

Which isn’t to say I’m going to be completely absent from the internet. I’ll still be doing the weekly podcast with Lee (I have far too much fun doing that to let it slide) and there is also a rather awesome collaborative project that I may be getting involved in soon.

I’ll still be hanging around twitter too, although maybe not as much as previously.

I hope no one feels like this is me kicking them in the teeth. I really appreciate all the support that the walk has got from the blogosphere and we wouldn’t have been able to raise half as much for the Trust without it. But I’m tired and need a break lest I slide into resentment and disgruntlement and end up impulsively deleting everything in a fit of pique.

Of course, now I’ve written this I’ll probably have an irresistible urge to post tomorrow and end up eating my words. But as it stands, it’s goodbye. At least for now.

Posted in General | 27 Comments

We’re back!

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Dan

lineup

The mighty Hadrian’s Walkers are victorious.

You know what? It turns out that 84 miles is quite a long way. Who’d have thunk it.

More later. For now, bath, bed, and ibuprofen.

Posted in General | 17 Comments