OK, it has been way too long since I last posted. So much has happened, professionally and personally since then it will take a long time to collate all the information. So unfortunately you will have to wait a while longer, but I will be back, "better, stronger, faster than before".

OK, your quiz for today, where does that quote come from? An easy one for you telly buffs out there.

Answers on a postcard to...

Be back soon.

Tony

My DVR is taking a beating

September, just when my DVR has been emptied from the hours and hours of TV it has recorded in the past few months, just when I thought I had finally caught up with everything, the new fall TV season starts. New shows, returning shows, and shows that really shouldn't be returning and should have been put out to grass a long time ago.

So now the highlights of the schedule for the DVR looks like this:

Monday: A light night now that Life On Mars has finished on BBC America.

Vanished, the fox show about a kidnapped senators wife which seems to be leading to an ancient Masonic order. Lots of intrigue, puzzles and 'what the F***' moments. Not a bad show, a definite 8 out of 10.

CSI Miami: There is only one thing to say about this show. Why? Why did it come back? Why is David Caruso starring in it? Why does David Caruso only have 1 expression? And ultimately why don't the sunglasses get an acting credit? They are on the screen as much as anyone else and even had their own shot last season. I have been pondering why I actually keep recording and watching this show. Is it the vain hope that it might get better or is it just for the pure mindless stupidity of the show. Not worked it out yet but if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Tuesday:A busy night 4 shows, well 3 and the wife's Law and Order SVU recording.

Eureka: The show that started on SciFi in July and is still going. A great show, funny, intelligent and very enjoyable. Fluffy story lines, but everyone need a bit of fluffy in their life sometimes.

House: The Fox show about a pain killer addicted cripple doctor who is a likeable as a wart on the end of your nose. A good show, well written, excellent characters with hidden depths. Well worth the watch, it has now reached it's 3rd season and well worth a few more. Hugh Laurie, who a lot of people don't realize is English, does a great job as Dr Gregory House, but it is the overall cast ensemble that makes it really good, the interaction between the characters makes the show move with a lightning pace. The show was in jeopardy when Bryan Singer moved from Fox, luckily they came to their senses and kept the show running. A good decision. 10 out of 10 for this one.

The Unit: season 2 started last Tuesday night. Not a bad show, action packed about a US special covert forces unit. The show goes into the family life as well as the UNIT life and operations. Well acted for a gung-ho military show. Well worth checking out. 7 out of 10 for this one.

Wednesday Another busy day when everything starts up again.

Jericho: A new show about a post apocalyptic world and the lives of the people in a place called Jericho. Not watched it yet as it only started last night but it looks good from the trailers.

Lost: What can be said about this show other than 'WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO TELL US ANYTHING'. Lost is a good show, but one of the most frustrating shows on TV. Just when you think you have an answer to something, wallop, they throw another mystery into the equation. Lost is one of those shows that it is actually worth recording a few episodes and watch them all in one go, thereby avoiding the throwing of the shoes at the TV screen when the credits roll and you have no idea what is going on. 9 out of 10 for the frustrating factor alone.

CSI NY: The third CSI show and one that is definitely better than its older cousin CSI MIAMI. Gary Sinise is a good actor and does a great job in this show holding it all together, and he doesn't wear sun glasses all the time. Then again I suppose this is NY so no call for Sunglasses all of the time. Mind you when the CSI NY, CSI Miami crossover was shown, David Caruso did come equipped with his co-star who even got a shot on their own to the side of seated Gary Sinise. 9 out of 10 for this one.

Thursday

CSI. The original, and still the best. Definitely worth seeing and with Grisham's hotel room scene at the end of last season, a must see tomorrow night. 10 out of 10.

Smallville. Starts next week. I was surprised to see this continue as they always said they had a 5 year story arc and would not continue once a new Superman movie was released. Well they are now on Season 6 and a Superman movie has been released and the show is back. Not such a bad thing as the show was really good last season after a disappointing season 4. 8 out of 10 for this show.

Supernatural: Season 2 starts next week. This is a good show. Took a few episodes to really get going and a few suspect story lines to start with, but once it found it's feet and really discovered what it was, a TV horror show and not a Gilmore Girls meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer,it really got going. Real cliffhanger ending with the two brothers and the missing, but found again, father in a car crash. Interesting to see where this one goes especially as it is one of the shows on the new CW (WB and UPN merge) channel. 10 out of 10 for this one.

Friday

Fridays is SciFi night. A mixture of Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who depending on when one show starts and the others finish. All shows definitely worth watching, Doctor Who especially (not that I am a huge Doctor Who fan, definitely not been watching the show since I was a child). Battlestar Galactica will be interesting this season with the dramatic turn in the shows situation that was revealed in the last 5 minutes of last seasons finale. BSG starts up again in October, while Doctor Who season 2, with the newly regenerated Doctor (in the guise of David Tennant) takes on a whole new, and some old, foes, starts up on September 29. SG1 and SG Atlantis take a break after this friday. All these shows get a 10 out of 10, with a 15 out of 10 for Doctor Who.

Saturday

This is the catch-up night. Nothing new to record and time to try and catch up on the weeks recordings. Not an easy task with on average about 3 hours a night being recorded.

Sunday

Cold Case: Another Jerry Bruckheimer show. A good show this one. Stand alone stories where old cases are reopened when new evidence comes to light. A simple premise, well executed with good characterization. 10 out of 10.

Without a Trace: Another Jerry Bruckheimer show which moves to a new night. Another FBI show but this time the missing person division. Well worth watching. 8 out of 10 for this one.

Well that's the week. There are some other shows that I record and some more starting up soon which might be worth a look. Heroes looks interesting as well as Smith. It looks like the DVR will be running hot for a while.

Ok, back to the TV, where did I put that remote?

It's that time of year again

OK, it's here. The time of year when San Diego Downtown and Convention Center get inundated with cars, buses and 100,00 people all on a pilgrimage to Comic-Con. Residents of San Diego do not even blink when you see 12 Stormtroopers, 3 Darth Vaders, 2 Superman, 1 Batman, an Ugly Doll or a scantily clad Japanese anime schoolgirl waiting for the trolley at Old Town.

Comic-Con has become the biggest Popular Culture convention in the world. Covering the whole floor space of the convention center(both floors and meeting rooms), 100,000+ people will file past the doors over the four days.

The big movie and TV companies have realized that it is the perfect opportunity to promote the latest blockbuster movie or TV show and they arrive complete with display cases, costumes, live size models and boxes of free giveaways, all in the name of marketing. The attendees lap it up, filling bags full of stuff that, if received through the mail, would be thrown away as junk. I must admit, I'm as guilty as the next man. Accepting anything handed to me, throw it in the bag to sit at home surrounded by piles of freebies, sorting through the stuff to keep that I will never look at again as opposed to the stuff that I can throw away that I will never look at again.

There was a time, when the exhibitor hall could be walked round in a day and you would see everything. Now you would be lucky to walk round everything in a day if you didn't stop to look at things. This thing is big, and I mean big. At the last count there were 362 booths on the exhibition floor ( and no I didn't walk round and count them), and that does not include the tables in the corridors upstairs or in the sails pavilion where a lot of organizations and TV/Movie stars set-up tables to promote their latest book or project.

This year I must say I am very impressed with the organization. 2 years ago when I went to the preview night (last year I was on the Rezolution booth) collecting 4-day passes was absolute chaos. A very slow moving queue, a check-in process that consisted of proving who you were and then having to mill around with the crowds while the badges were printed of at another location and your name called out when it was printed. Total chaos ensued. I had my id checked more times a that years registration than I have when traveling through the airport. This year, we turned up at just before 5, book in hand expecting to be in a queue for an hour, and we walked straight in, directed to a check-in point where they checked ID and printed out my pass on the spot. Within 10 minutes of stepping through the door, going upstairs and going back downstairs to queue at Starbucks, was 10 minutes. Ironically we spent more time in the queue at Starbucks trying to get a coffee than it did to get our badges. So, hats off to the Comic-Con organizers.

So come 10:00 am tomorrow morning I will be outside the convention center, eagerly awaiting the opening of the doors, so I can add to my pile of stuff that is now scattered all over my office floor.

OK, so I need to stand up:

My name is Tony Kenealy, and I am a geek.

Where does the time go?

OK, so where does time go? One minute it's the beginning of April, then suddenly we are near the end of June. I want my time back!!! There must be a big black hole somewhere that waits until you are not paying attention and then it strikes, grabbing blocks of time from you and shuffling it away where you can't find it.

The previous 2 months have flown by. I have been so busy that I hadn't really noticed much going on. A trip to England in April to see family and freinds, rushed by in a haze of tea, biscuits and conversation( and the odd beer and curry). The new series of Doctor Who started in the UK, continuing on the tradition of great episodes from last year. I actually managed to see Episode 1, sitting on my parents sofa, I was taken back to when I was a child in the 70's, waiting to see how scary the monster was before I got really comfortable.

May, well May was just May. Nothing much happened, work was crazy. Started work on the next book for Rezolution, as well as the two player start set Shadowwar, which took up a lot of time. Work continued on a story for Elder Signs Press, which is now completed and ready to be edited.

Now there is the FIFA World Cup. 64 matches to watch as England... OK I'm not going to say anything about that. When you grow up with football, we can be a superstitious lot. Not going to jinx England by saying anything. Needless to say I will be watching the game on Sunday.

Thats about it for now.

Cheers

PS COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!!

The Beat Goes On

The Time: 8:00pm Saturday 1st April
The Place: Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach

A few miles up the coast from San Diego, just off the Pacific Coast Highway 101, lies a strange place called Solana Beach. A typical southern Californian coastal town, with beach front residential properties and state parks. In the heart of the town rests the Cedros Design District, an area full of a variety of shops and galleries catering for art lovers, designer shoppers and antique lovers. A strange place, by day the haunt of tourists and collectors, by night the Belly Up Tavern takes over.

In the centre of the design district, located in what looks like a wooden warehouse with just a ticket window and a small door on the front, is the Belly Up Tavern, a music venue since 1974. Seemed a strange location to me, but the art galleries and the music venue seem to co-exist well. I suppose the fact that the tavern is open in the evenings for live music and the galleries during the day, they can kind of ignore each other. The car parks that are full of antique collectors and tourists during the day are full concert goers in the of burgers and seafood. The central area is taking up with the dance floor and around the sides there are stepped platforms with barstool type seating. There is even a 2nd floor balcony area overlooking the stage.

We were there to see The Beat, or in America, The English Beat as they are known. Just can't bring myself to call them the English Beat, then again I suppose we do the same thing in the UK by calling their football, American Football. Maybe it's just the USA's way of getting back at us for that.

Before The Beat took the stage, another band called Naked Eyes were playing. Another UK Band that were formed in 1981. They were supposedly, according to a internet 80's music website, a 'key presence in the synth pop music of the early 80's'. That may be true, but having lived through that era of music in the UK, I didn't recognize anything. Then again, the quality of the sound wasn't brilliant, but neither was the music I'm sorry to say. Didn't do much for me or the people we were with. Sorry guys, not much there I'm afraid.

Finally, after three hours of waiting, Dave Wakeling and The Beat took the stage, without fanfare or introduction, they just walked on. I was apprehensive giving the sound quality of the support band, but I needn't have been. The sound and music was excellent. All the old favorites were there, 'Mirror In The Bathroom', 'I Confess', 'Save It For Later', 'Ranking Full Stop' ,'Can't Get Used To Losing You',Hands Off She's Mine' ,'Twist and Crawl','Doors Of Your Heart','Click Click' and even 'Stand Down Margaret' which was a surprise, not heard them do that live before. In the words of Dave Wakeling, the party wasn't complete until the band has ruined a Smokey Robinson song and then proceeded to play 'Tears Of A Clown'.

Dave was definitely on form, joking with the crowd and keeping a straight face when the stage got invaded by lots of girls, attempting to dance with the band and failing very spectacularly. All in all, the crowd really enjoyed the concert, I for one have always been a fan and they definitely didn't disappoint. Then again, Dave Wakeling never does.

The real kicker was leaving the concert at past 1:00am and realising that the clocks go forward and we lose another hour. That really sucked on Sunday morning.

What's all this about then?

These days everyone seems to be blogging, so I thought I would delve into this mysterious world. So here they are, my first tentative steps...

Welcome to my blog. If you came here by mistake I feel sorry for you. If you came here on purpose, I really feel sorry for you and I hope you are not too disappointed.

A bit about myself. I am English, although I now live in San Diego, California, which is located, for those who are not so hot on Geography, south a Los Angeles, it's the city with lots of palm trees. For those who do not know where Los Angeles is, you need to go out an buy an atlas and look at the page that shows North America. I've lived here for nearly 9 years now and apart from the occasional earthquake and 2 black cats that like to sit on computer keyboards when I'm trying to type, life is good.

As far as my writing goes I have been writing articles in various magazines and have been involved in the gaming industry for a number of years. This is the board/tabletop game industry rather than the computer or the 'I bet 20 dollars and only won 3' type of gaming industry. I was involved in developing background fiction for 'No Quarter', a fantasy tabletop miniatures game published over the web. Recently I have been working with Aberrant Games, heavily involved in developing the background and contributing fiction for 'Rezolution: A Dark Tomorrow', a science fiction tabletop miniatures game. I have also been working in other areas , with a number of projects on the go at the moment. More on those at a later date.

So that's about it really. I will be posting here as often as any random thoughts or events escape.

So no more rambling today, that's all folks, nothing more to see, move along.

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