23.07.04 - That Which Is Not Dead . . .
Added some Lovecraft related pictures to the Art section. Sanity loss guaranteed!

16.06.04 - In a galaxy far, far away
Been a while since I posted an update so I thought I'd rave about my new addiction - Star Wars Galaxies! The game is what's known as massively multi-player which basically means zillions of people all over the world all playing the same game. You can read the full sales pitch over at the official site. They're currently running a 14 days free trial, which I can't recommend enough. The graphics are truly amazing and the chances to visit all familiar locations of the movies (and kill things) will have any true Jedi-wanna be drooling over there keyboard. Anyway so far my character Lowan G'ie has destroyed a nasty nest of diseased insects and spent some time killing womp rats. My skills are slowly growing and I'm currently trying to buy a ticket outta the den of scum and vileny that is Mos Eisley.

Game-wise I haven't played much recently, due to a (now resolved) graphics card problem, but I did have time to complete the excellent first person shooter Far Cry. The graphics of the game are completely jaw drooping, with huge tropical vistas extending for miles. The jungle terrain is dense and detailed and despite the fact the game is actually quite linear, you have a great sense of freedom as you explore the various islands (and kill things). The story has a very Island of Dr. Monrow feeling, which is well complimented by an evocative 80s horror movie style soundtrack. The tropical beaches and clear blue seas contrast perfectly with the ruins of japanese WWII wrecked planes and tanks. The graphics and game world physics are definitely the most advanced currently employed in and game and give some hint as to how the much awaited Half-Life 2 might play.

In other news I'm taking part in an Iaido competition next weekend (team and individual) so check back here to see how I do!

29.04.04 - The Wooden Bell
Click here to see the poster I design for my friend's play "The Wooden Bell". The design has been printed off onto about 10,000 fliers and some nice posters too! Mmmm shiny . . .

22.03.04 - Iaido Ikkyu Grading
The Hamsterizer spent this weekend swinging his sword about in Watchet at the Iaido grading seminar. It was great, though extremely exhausting, fun and the weekend was nicely topped off by success in the Ikkyu grading.

19.02.04 - Lost Loops Download
I've added some tracks for download to the Music section. Hope you enjoy!

13.01.04 - 2Kewl Update
Hope you all had a good holiday! I've added my Star Wars toys collection to the 2Kewl section! Warning - Extreme geekdom!!

15.12.03 - Bi-Polar Online
Bi-Polar is now online and ready to be downloaded! As normal click the film section to check it out in its mini-form.

04.12.03 - Nightwood Screened!
Nightwood was screen last night as part of a night of short films organised by Bingo Recordings at the 291 Gallery to celebrate the completion of their short film Delphie: The Baker's Assistant. It was a great night and totally kewl to see Nightwood on a big screen!


25.11.03 - Nightwood Online
Nightwood is now online and ready to view! Head on over to the film section to check it out. Thanx to Melanikus for his work squishing it down to a streamable size (400mb down to about 3mb!).

21.11.03 - "You're wrong and you're a grotesquely ugly freak."
I first heard Chris Morris back in 1994 when he had a Wednesday night show on Radio 1. He was interviewing the current chart- topping euro-pop duo 2Unlimited whose then hit 'No Limits' had, despite being extremely limited, been hogging the airwaves for weeks. Calling himself 'Wayne Carr' Morris began the interview by asking:

"when a pop star sings twelve "no's" in a row, isn't' that a bit negative?".

After several minutes of increasingly absurd questions the Euro stars finally began to sense a set up -

"Come and see our live show, you can come backstage" they offered.

"Can you fit me in with my wheelchair?" Carr/Morris responded to stunned silence, "What if I wanted to dance, would you hold me up with balloons?"

I continued to follow Morris' show as often as I could (for someone who never really listens to the radio) and the hilarious stunts continued, including such incidents as announcing the death of Tory MP Michael Heseltine ("and if we do have any news of the death of Michael Heseltine, we'll let you know...") on air, resulting in various MP's phoning in with some rather shallow tributes and obituaries (despite the fact that Heseltine was fine).

Morris' next major work was his second venture onto television with Brass Eye. The show was a more sophisticated version of his first T.V. work The Day Today which had taken the format of a mock news show (complete with the first appearence of Steve Cogan's Alan Partridge character on the sport's desk). Brass Eye however looked to achieve a greater level of realism and explore the often ridiculously bombastic style of 'serious' news programs, such as Panorama and Newsnight. Morris fronted the show as an anchorman every bit as overblown and preposterous as Jeremy Paxman. The six episodes of the series covered such topics as 'Drugs', 'Sex' and 'Crime', all of which featured hoax campaigns centering around various rent-a-celeb's ill informed contributions.

"Cake is a made up drug" warned Noel Edmonds, seemingly unaware of the words coming out of his mouth and of the fact that the bright yellow pill was about a foot across. The Drugs episode, which featured the hoax anti-cake campaign caused some consternation and outrage, as one duped MP who had spoken against the evil of the drug, asked questions in parliament and began drafting an anti-cake bill. The DVD version of Brass Eye includes a commentary track on the Drugs episode by some homeless drug users, whose confusion at Morris' realistic presenting style clarifies into outrage as they listen to the nonsense being spouted by the various duped celebs and MP's.

"How can they talk about something they know nothing about?" asks one "the show business men and celebrities and that, who supposedly have no fuckin' problem have turned round and read a script, about a drug that does not exist. And that's supposed to help us. And that tells you how much help we're getting."

In July 2001, Brass Eye returned with a special episode focusing on paedophilia. Around that time, the first strong sense of media hysteria surrounding the issue (which has become a now ever present force in the news) had just neared fever pitch, with several real cases of riots and vigilante groups attacking the homes of several (mistakenly identified) paedophiles. The subject of paedophiles has been portrayed as the world's greatest evil, and the general sentiment is 'they deserve whatever they get', unfortunately this carte blanc attitude seems to allow for outpourings of hatred which make those expressing them seem as monstrous as those they oppose.

"Welcome to Paedogeddon!" announced Morris as he strode through a Crimewatch style 'live' news room, with rows of manned phones and dynamic news making action.

"We're after your help too" Morris continued, "security footage of a paedophile disguised as a school. He's been getting away with it in Sheffield for 12 years. Do you know him? Have you seen him? Please call." "Yes we really do need to catch him" added the co-prosenter, "he really is a shit.".

The public contributed too; "Dear Sir, Please can I have sex with this three year old girl, now that she's twenty one?" posed Morris to one focus group. "No way - he should be in a mental asylum" came the response.

Once again, various celebrities were all to eager to make fools of themselves;

"Remember, I'm talking Nonce Sense" enthused Phil Collins.

"Genetically, paedophiles have more DNA in common with crabs, than they do you and me" added Dj Dr Fox, "there's no real evidence for it, but it is scientific fact".

As if to demonstrate further the confused outpouring of sentiment which the subject produces, the program received numerous complaints saying that it trivialized the issue and when Channel 4 repeated the broadcast, the then culture secretary became embroiled in a public spat with Channel 4, despite that fact that she had, by her own admission, not watched the program.

The 2001 Special seemed to mark the zenith of Brass Eye's development and of Morris' work in de constructing the news style format. In Spring 2000 jam premiered on TV, although it was based on the original radio series Blue Jam which had first appeared back in 1997 and featured three series through to 1999. Despite the slight overlap jam marked a departure, or at least a second streak of Morris work. Whilst boundaries of taste and visual presentation still featured, the emphasis was far more on an abstract and ambient mood and had much darker leanings. A remixed version of jam (jaaaaam) which featured even greater use of visual effects and distortion was also broadcast. Whilst some Morris fans have criticised this different direction as marking a decline in Chris Morris' work, I feel that it is at the very least on a par and in someways surpasses the previous, more satire based programs.

The world painted by jam is mostly a dark and terrible one, full of sexual predators and extreme apathy. Some excellent moments include a doctor running a sex phone chat line ("yes I'm gliding my fist over the bulging purple head. I'm sticking my finger up my arse and my cocks gone off like a spunky firework...") to raise money for a little girl with cancer, whilst continuing to see patients - and the casual parents who don't seem to mind that their son has not returned home from school for two weeks and was last seen being bundled into a car my a strange man ("did the man have a car? Oh good, it was horribly rainy..."). If The Day Today and Brass Eye sought to mock news programs, then jam, with its various 'doctor, doctor' setups most closely emulates a classic sketch show, albeit one warped beyond recognition.

Chris Morris' most recent complete work was the short film My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117 which won a BAFTA for best short film. My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117 is essentially a filmed version of one of Morris' Blue Jam monologues which follows a disturbed man and his talking lawyer dog as they kill a duck and gate crash a wedding. Morris has continued his re-editing of video speeches, the latest of which can be found here. Morris also released a 9/11 special pull out section in the Observer.

To learn more about Chris Morris a good site to start at is here:

11.11.03 - Tenchu, Silent Hill 3 & ZOE
The Hamsterizer wasn't very well last week and spent a lot of time in bed - but an upside of this was some PS2 games got a good whipping. I completed Tenchu:Wrath of Heaven as Rikimaru and I'm currently doing Lord Gohda's will as the twin-bladed Ayame. Wrath of Heaven is a stunning game although my main complaint is that the later levels all pit you against various demons and cultists etc. I'm afraid I just don't find cutting down zonked out cultists and demons as satisfying in the whole cunning stealth area as going up against trained samurai warriors. I do love the whole mystical realm aspect of the Tenchu world, but Wrath of Heaven has level after level of zombie/cultist/demon chopping. To add to the boredom these guys all seem to hang around disused mines or abandoned tunnel systems, which visually are about as exciting as you would expect. Anyway, this gripe aside - when you're crouched behind a rose bush in an ornamental garden, watching the cherry blossom fall as you wait for that samurai to turn his back just one more degree towards you, Wrath of Heaven can't be beat.

Whilst I'm bitchin' about level design I'll mention the also pretty-damn-good Silent Hill 3. As always this title suffers slightly from the same affliction as all the other Silent Hill series - namely the plot ending is balls. Fortunately it also has all the strengths of the previous instalments too - a brilliantly simple opening hook and some truly creepy locations/moments. The games starts in a deserted shopping mall, probably the game's best location, as you get the full Dawn of the Dead having-the-place-to-yourself feel. Annoyingly you quickly get swept off into the bizarro world version of the mall, which has none of the same fun feeling at all, so you don't actually get much of a chance to mess around and eat all the candy in the candy shop. The look of some of the more common monsters is also a bit sub par and many of them look more comical than threatening. Despite these problems (oh and yes there is the obligatory level in the sewers) Silent Hill 3 provides more survival horror fun and maintains the high standard of the series.

Finally I have relieved Melanikus of his copy of Zone of the Enders which, whilst having a silly title, is proving to be a feckin' amazing game. The design of the 'Jehunty' mecha you pilot, as well those you fight against is stunning and the whole mood, music and look of the game is simply amazing. I have a feeling that the game play may get a little repetitive, but the plot has quickly become involving enough to more than compensate for this fact. I know that this isn't the most recent instalment of this series, so I'm itching to check out the sequel, but I think I should complete this one first. Apparently Zone of the Enders is also a manga or anime, so I'll have to track me down some o' that!

11.11.03 - Nightwood Completed
I've finished work on the previously titled 'Wicca' short film - which is now titled Nightwood. Check the film section for more info. Hopefully some sort of download/stream of the film will be available soon.



10.11.03 - Site Goes Live!
Yay! Cocytus is now up and ready to be surfed!!

30.09.03 - Kudos Melanikus 2!
Thanx once again to Melanikus for his help with the coding and getting the site hosted!

30.09.03 - First Post
Welcome to my new homepage. I hope you like the new look! Here you can see some of the short films I've made and keep up to date on projects I'm working on. The pictures section is going to show some paintings I do every now and then (er, like every three years!) as well as my tentative attempts to get some skillz drawing manga stylee.

Eventually there should also be some subsections on artists I like, such as Francis Bacon and Carravaggio. I've also got into Jake and Dinos - The Chapman brothers, so there may be some stuff on them. The music section has material about the past band I've been in, MiSHiMa and the current stuff I'm working on.

Finally the 2Kewl section will have exciting updates on any kewl stuff (or at least what I consider to be...) I find/buy/covert - but be warned, it may get a little geeky. Well I'm gonna go put some content up now - more soon!