“Then she’ll carelessly cut you and laugh while you’re bleedin’â€?

January 21st, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Doin' the iPod Shuffle | no comments

So here we are at the start of my third week walking to work (although last week I only walked twice) and the Shuffle seems to be getting attuned to my brain patterns (an unadvertised bonus feature). Picking up on the fact that I was late for work this morning it gave me a more up-tempo trip than usual and eased me in gently for the return trip this evening.

There:

• “Bad to the Bone” - George Thorogood
• “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” - The Firm (Not the guys who did Star Trekkin’ but the ‘80s supergroup featuring Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers)
• “Silver and Gold” (Live) - U2
• “Tangram (Future Part)” - Tangerine Dream (This makes surprisingly good walking music)
• “See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time) - The Verve
• “Mexican Cantina” - Fabio Frizzi, Franco Bixio & Vince Tempera (From Carambola a 1974 spaghetti western)
• “I Still Miss Someone” - Johnny Cash
• “Siamese Twins” - The Rainmakers (It’s a shame Bob Walkenhorst hasn’t released any new material since his 2003 solo album The Beginner but at least many of Bob’s live shows, plus several vintage Rainamkers gigs, are available for download at Internet Archive)

And back again:

“Ooh baby, wanna put my log in your fireplace�

January 16th, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Doin' the iPod Shuffle | no comments

The second week of walking to work didn’t get started until today (yesterday the weather was crap and Monday was my birthday so I caught the bus both days). So here’s today’s list -

There:

• “Fisherman’s Daughter” - Daniel Lanois
• “Superstition” (Live) - Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble (A performance that really shows what a great band Double Trouble were)
• “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You)” - Johnny Cash
• “The Middle of the Road” - Alabama 3 (A surprisingly restrained song from their latest album)
• “96 Tears” - The Stranglers
• “If a Tree Falls” - Bruce Cockburn (Bruce the musical eco-warrior)
• “Is That Love” - Squeeze
• “The Longest Time” - Billy Joel

And back again:

• “Morning Glory Wine” - Mark Lanegan (This would have fit in better on the way to work but it’s such a good song it’s always welcome)
• “Burn Bitch Burn” - Kiss
• “Rollercoaster” (Demo Version) - Robert Plant (I got a ticket to see Plant and Alison Krauss live for my birthday! Roll on May 5th)
• “Green Ballet II” - Adrian Legg (Legg’s a great guitarist but this hasn’t really got a beat you can walk to)
• “Tremor Christ” - Pearl Jam
• “Lady Luck” - J.J. Cale (Now here’s a guitarist who writes songs that get you moving!)
• “Tangled Up in Blue” - Bob Dylan (I love a good story song and this is a classic)

“Did you know the president has super super super sex?�

January 7th, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Doin' the iPod Shuffle | no comments

Day two Shufflin’ to work and here’s a pop quiz for you - what song is the title of this post from? While you think on that here’s today’s list -

There:

• “Wildflower” (Acoustic version) - Sheryl Crow
• “Since I’ve Been Loving You” - Page & Plant
• “You Know What I Mean” - Phil Collins
• “If I Should Fall Behind” (Live) - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (Steve, Patti, Nils and Clarence get to give their tonsils a workout alongside Bruce)
• “Super Sex” - Morphine (Who needs guitars?)

And back again:

• “Don’t Get Me Wrong” - The Pretenders
• “Find You At Last” - John Hiatt
• “Thundercrack” - Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
• “Rock ‘N’ Roll Mercenaries” - Meatloaf (You can’t beat a bit of Meat)
• “Glass Jar” - Lloyd Cole (Just over a minutes worth of electronic tinkling from Lloyd’s self indulgent Plastic Wood album)
• “Babe, I Got You Bad” - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (No one writes a love song quite like Nick Cave)
• “Shriner’s Park” - Melissa Etheridge

Less songs today, am I walking faster of are they just longer tracks? You should by now have got the answer to that question I posed at the start; it is of course “Super Sex” by the unique and sadly missed Morphine. Somehow I don’t think they were singing about George W.

Slippers for Christmas

January 6th, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | no comments

I got a lot of cool Christmas presents and I’d be hard pushed to pick a favourite but there’s one that gets used more than any other and that’s my funky new slippers -

Now I know what you’re thinking “Surely nothing so cool and fashionable can be comfortable too” (what do you mean that’s not what you were thinking?) well anyway they are. They’re wonderfully snug and keep my feet nice and toasty (I’ve always suffered with cold feet in the winter). And once you get used to your feet being twice their normal size they’re really easy to walk in…

Doin’ the iPod Shuffle

January 4th, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Doin' the iPod Shuffle, Rants & Raves | no comments

I recently got hold of an iPod Shuffle for free (no it wasn’t a Christmas present, it was a Tesco DVD Rental promotion, 3 months and you get a free 1Gb Shuffle, so technically not really free) with the idea of using it for my walk to work in place of my aging and rather bulky (by today’s standards) iRiver 40Gb player.

Getting the thing working with Vista wasn’t my idea of fun, plug-and-play it ain’t. I was torn between putting it on eBay or getting a hammer and smashing the little bastard to pieces. Instead I persevered, and after, much googleing and several false hopes, managed to get it working. I’m glad I did as it’s a pretty cool little gadget.

Now for a little background info. Prior to Christmas, in fact for the past couple of months, I’ve had a problem with my feet (the left one in particular). Having seen the doctor I was told there were four possible courses of action - a) avoid whatever aggravates it (working in retail and being on my feet all day this was a no go) b) take anti-inflammatory tablets (this seemed to do the trick) c) steroid injections (this didn’t sound like fun) d) an operation (this sounded even less like fun). While the tablets worked the thought of taking them for the rest of my life was less than appealing but this was the impression I was given by the doctor who told me I didn’t need to make another appointment when they ran out, just phone and ask for a repeat prescription.

Blog Related New Year’s Resolutions and Future Plans For Mine Was Taller

January 1st, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves, Site News | no comments

It’s New Year, the perfect time for starting some new regular features on Mine Was Taller, and for making a few resolutions.

First up the resolutions:

1) Watch more DVDs than I buy. I seem to have become unable to pass up a bargain, and with the Bargain Forum so helpful in pointing them out it’s resulted in a large “To Watch” pile (actually pile is the wrong word, I wouldn’t want to think how high they’d go if stacked on top of each other but doing so is certainly unfeasible). I’m going to start passing up on some of those previously irresistible offers and also up the number of DVDs watched each week; time will tell how successful I’ll be.

2) Read more some books. Since moving up to the midlands several years ago I seem to have lost the ability to read books. I’ve never been what you’d call a speed reader but I’ve always had a book on the go, yet in the last few years I’ve only completed one book (Don Siegel’s very enjoyable autobiography). It’s not like I’ve completely ignored the written word, I’ve read magazines and continued to feed my childhood comic addiction but books have fallen by the wayside. Hopefully that will change and you’ll see some of the fruits of that change here, including a review of Anthony Holden’s biography of Laurence Olivier (thanks for the Christmas present Kevin!).

The FrightFest All-nighter

November 8th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | 2 comments

Back in August I attended FrightFest at London’s Odeon West End and had a great time. However there were some upcoming horror flicks that I dearly wanted to see but the festival organisers were unable to acquire, one such film being George Romero’s Diary of the Dead. So when the line-up for the FrightFest all-nighter at the ICA was announced and not only was Diary kicking off the event but the great man himself was going to be there, attending was something of a no-brainer.

So on Friday Dan (of Is There Food) and I took the train to London, wondering if we’d survive until morning. With five films spread across ten hours (starting at 9pm) this was going to be even more of an endurance test than the full festival. Still the films promised to be worthy of the effort, alongside Romero’s latest was Robert Rodriguez’s half of the Grindhouse project, Planet Terror, Savage Streets starring Linda Blair and a couple of French goesfests - Frontiere(s) and Inside.

We arrived a little after 9pm (sadly missing out on Mr Romero’s signing session) to find the place full. We quickly made our way to two of the few remaining seats and almost as soon as we sat down things got underway.

George Romero is the godfather of the modern zombie movie. How many people can lay claim to have reinvented a classic monster so successfully that it’s overshadowed what came before? When I think zombie, it’s George’s flesh eating walking dead that come to mind first, not some dusty old voodoo zombie, and I’m sure I’m not alone.

How a Zombie Killed Michael Myers

September 4th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | 2 comments

This isn’t a review, for that check out The Devil’s Manor, I doubt you’ll find a better review anywhere on the web. This is just me having a little rant about what went wrong in the hopes of getting it out of my system, after all Halloween is one of my favourite horror films and I can’t let someone fuck it up this badly without some comment. You should be aware before you read on that there are a couple of spoilers, so don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Rob Zombie is obviously a fan of the original (there are numerous references to it) and yet he seems to have no understanding of what made Michael Myers work as an iconic horror character. When the original Halloween came out the idea of a suburban kid killing his sister was shocking and, while it wouldn’t seem as horrific today, it would still have more power than a stereotypical trailer trash kid doing the same. Even upping the body count doesn’t change that. By developing the Michael character (at the expense of Laurie and friends) he de-mythologizes him. Loomis may deliver virtually the same line at the end of the film but this isn’t the bogeyman, he’s just a man, albeit a big, nasty, brutal one.

FrightFest Day 4

August 27th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | 4 comments

The day got of to a bad start as I missed the first film, Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door, due to unforeseen technical difficulties getting to London (the details would make it sound like the plot from a horror film but it was no where near that exciting). So my planned three films for the day were cut down to just two - Botched and WAZ.

Botched was a British comedy horror (with a touch of heist movie thrown in) from first time director Kit Ryan. It delivered the requisite amount of gore and a few laughs as well. Some wavering Russian accents (Sean Pertwee as a Russian mob boss) didn’t detract too much from the fun and this was a pleasant enough timewaster, if nothing really special. Special would come later in the day.

Planning to skip the Uwe Boll double-bill if favour of seeking out a zombie mask for tomorrow’s zombie walk I headed off for Forbidden Planet. At 6pm I returned to Leicester Square, my search unsuccessful, and decided I might as well go and see Seed.

FrightFest Day 3

August 26th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | no comments

Nothing exceptional today but no duds either. First up Cold Prey showed that a change of locale and some genuinely likable characters could breathe new life into the slasher film even if the end result felt a bit like Jason takes a holiday in Norway. Director Roar Uthang did a pretty good job although keeping the identity of the killer a secret was pretty pointless as anyone into this kind of film will know who it is by the end of the credits. He did a short Q&A after the film and told us the film had been a big hit in Norway and another horror film (not directed by him) was in production there.

Next came a new entry in the creepy kid sub-genre. Joshua brought back memories of Rosemary’s Baby and other films of that era, its slow burning atmosphere a nice change of pace from the usual fare. Vera Farmiga impressed as Joshua’s mum, who after giving birth to a second child, a little girl, goes a little nuts (with more than a little help from young Josh). Sam Rockwell as the father gets better as the film goes on, but the real star of the film is Jacob Kogan as the titular character. Playing the part with so little emotion can’t have been easy, particularly with the histrionics of the other actors but he never falters throughout. This wasn’t a film I was really looking forward to but I was pleasantly surprised.