Star Wars - A Musical Journey

Friday 10th April saw the start of Star Wars - A Musical Journey's premiere at the O2 Arena in London. After the enjoyment Paul and I had attending a similar concert featuring music from a number of Gerry Anderson's works, I happily booked tickets and made the necessary arrangements for a trip to London. The basic premise of the concert was the music composed by John Williams for all six Star Wars films was grouped into themes. Performed live by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a giant video screen played key scenes to match the score behind them.
 
Experience has taught us that if we want to go to the O2 Arena for a relaxing evening, including time for something to eat, we have to get there very early. So we turned up 4 hours early and went to Goucho's for a good old fashioned meat-fest and cocktails. With food in our bellies and armed with the customary programme, we set off to have a gander at the Star Wars exhibition that accompanied the concert. I have to say I was a little disappointed. To put things in perspective, we had already seen the larger Star Wars exhibition when it was on at County Hall in 2007. The O2 Arena's exhibition paled by comparison, but at least they had the favourites, Darth Vader, C-3PO and Bobba Fett. Also in attendance were a number of Jedi Knight, Storm Troopers (one, a little too short to be a Storm Trooper), some Crimson Guards and a certain Dark Lord of the Sith.
 
After having a wander around the O2 Arena I took advantage of being an O2 customer and got us it into the O2 Lounge. After a couple of more cocktails and also bumping into a couple of Twitter acquaintances we made our way to our seats for the concert (thank you O2 priority check in).
 
The venue wasn't nearly as full as I expected it to be and I wonder if this was because of the Easter weekend or due to the current worldwide economic crisis - it also annoyingly explained why they resorted to a 2 for 1 offer on the tickets a few days before the first night.
 
Unfortunately, as beautiful as the programme is, it neglects to breakdown the running order of the themes in the concert. I'm having to resort checking the the running order of the bonus DVD that was included with the musical score of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. While there are some differences here are for me, the most memorable.
 
  20th Century Fox Fanfare / Star Wars Main Title (from all six films)
  Duel of the Fates (The Phantom Menace)
  The Imperial March (The Empire Strikes Back)
  The Asteroid Field (The Empire Strikes Back)
  Luke and Leia (Return of the Jedi)
  Throne Room / Finale (A New Hope)
 
The themes themselves were titled as "A Long Time Ago", "Droids", "Dark Forces Conspire", "An Empire is Forged", "A Narrow Escape" etc. Each section was narrated by the man in that golden suit, Anthony Daniels who did an excellent job and kept us, the audience, entertained. I have to admit that as soon as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra started playing, I sat there with a stupid grin on my face, which grew when the large choir launched into the Duel of the Fates. Once the Imperial March was performed, I wondered how the first half could be topped after the intermission. Well once the orchestra started to perform "The Asteroid Field", I knew they had. With scenes of the Millennium Falcon negotiating the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back, my evening was complete.
 
As I found with the Barry Gray/Gerry Anderson concert, there is something very accessible about going to see live orchestral music being played, especially when based on a movie's musical score. For those not interested in classical music, unwittingly, this will be the closest experience they will come. While this is a great experience I wonder if I miss out because of this preconception that classical music is boring or sombre. Perhaps the visuals taken from all six Star Wars films helped keep an interest in the music? Without a shadow of a doubt, the evening was a success and perhaps classical music concerts could learn a thing or two from Star Wars - A Musical Journey.

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Google's the daddy

Seems like a lot of people have objected to Google's Street View in the UK. Personally I don't have a problem but then again I haven't been snapped rolling a cigarette outside the house like my old man.
 
It's a good job mum is out of the country.

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Big Chef Little Chef

Having watched Heston Blumenthal try to turn around the fortunes of roadside eatery Little Chef, Paul and I decided that we'd pop into the Popham restaurant on our way home from London on the first day of February. Some may know that I have a fondness for the more unhealthier types of food but even so, places like Burger King and MacDonald's tend to fill a basic need and are not something I tend to go out of my way for. Give be a grease spoon cafe or Wimpy's and even a Little Chef any day.

There aren't too many of these on the motorway from London to Torbay and we generally stay off the A303. This time however we thought we'd try out the new and improved Little Chef at Popham just to see if Heston Blumenthal was successful in his endeavour to save the restaurant chain. Well apart from the packed car park, the interior of the restaurant was smart and clean and even the ceiling tiles with the "Blue Sky" looked good (The MD kept on going on about Blue Sky thinking). However due to the programme Big Chef Little Chef, the restaurant was extremely busy and we were told that it would probably take an hour for the food to arrive. Well we were there, so in for a penny and all that. The service was slow to be honest and even when eventually seated it took a good 15 minutes such to give our food order. It wasn't the fault of the staff at the Little Chef, they were and probably still are, overwhelmed by its celebrity status.

The food was okay, though after having discussed it with a few other diners, it was felt that Ian Peddler (Little Chef MD) probably did think about profit margin over quality. The sausages looking anaemic, the beans not being Heinz Beanz (though stated on the menu as so). Unfortunately the celebrity status of this one Little Chef has made it an impossible task to live up too. While the food was okay (much better than our previous visits to a Little Chef) and the diner was clean and inviting there were simply too many people wanting to try Heston's menu. The staff just couldn't cope with the volume and from start to finish, we were there for an hour and 30 minutes. Heston was right to push for a number of Little Chef's to be converted into this new menu, new look restaurant. It would have taken the pressure off the Popham restaurant and given customers more time to enjoy the experience for what it is, a good roadside diner.

On a slight side note, we had to make a pit stop at another Little Chef and the difference was huge. The second restaurant looked tired, dull and dilapidated and don't I won't mention the state of the "facilities".

Ian Peddler, Little Chef MD, sort it out before another well loved British brand is lost to the credit crunch.

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A frosted car

I took these photos a couple of mornings ago with my iPhone. It gets very cold up on the hill I live on and as a result when it's a chilly morning, my car is usually covered in ice. I don't think the camera can do justice to the ice patterns, but it does give me the opportunity to try out the Multi-Photo Email app for the iPhone, available in the App Store (http://tinyurl.com/multi-photo).>

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An eventful day

Yesterday was an eventful day for me and you'll see in this post that that doesn't mean much for a city lad living out in the countryside.

First of all, I found out that Google are planning to stop developments or support on a number of its online services. The one that affects me is Google Notebook, which I use daily to keep a record of stories that I find interesting and for use on other websites.

Starting next week, we plan to stop active development on Google Notebook. This means we'll no longer be adding features or offer Notebook for new users. But don't fret, we'll continue to maintain service for those of you who've already signed up. As part of this plan, however, we will no longer support the Notebook Extension, but as always users who have already signed up will continue to have access to their data via the web interface at http://www.google.com/notebook. [Google Notebook Blog]

Doesn't sound too bad, I will still be able to keep and use MY notebook but the real problem is that it appears that I will no longer be able to use the Notebook Extension. This browser extension essentially allows right mouse button clicks to quickly add web pages and selected text straight into my notebook. Now it seems I'll have to manually copy and paste anything I want to make a note of. Not very good for productivity.

My next big event was jailbreaking my iPhone something that I had considered for sometime. I finally took the plunge after fellow Twitter pal ShapeThrower jailbroke his iPhone. The two main reasons why I wanted to try out the jailbreak, video and tethering. So with trepidation I followed the instructions on iPhone Hacks and within ten minutes I had myself a jailbroken iPhone with Qik and Cycorder installed. Next plan is to look up how to tether my phone to my MacBook Pro and use it as a modem - for free - using SSH.

Finally, Paul and I went to see The Spirit at the Apollo Cinema in Torquay. Regardless of the mixed to very poor reviews, I knew that if I didn't see The Spirit on the big screen with all of it's Sin City visual FX, I would end up kicking myself. I won't go on for too long about the film, suffice it to say that without reference to the original source material I was at a loss. Was it supposed to be a comedy or a dark brooding superhero story? It wasn't until I saw Samuel L Jackson's character The Octopus dressed in Nazi regalia with a very large poster of Hitler in the background, that I began to see it for what it was, kitsch. Paul said it reminded him of the Batman TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward and I agree. It's just why did it take so long to get there?

Well I guess my "eventful" day paled in comparison when I woke up this morning and heard about Flight 1549 which crashed into the river Husdon in New York city yesterday.

According to an air controllers union spokesman, a US Airways pilot reported a "double bird strike" less than a minute after take-off and asked to return to the ground, before ditching in the Hudson.

The spokesman, Doug Church, said the pilot apparently meant that birds had hit both of the plane's jet engines. It appears the birds involved were a flock of geese. [BBC News]

All I can say is "thank God" no one died, and that the pilot, Captain Chesley Sullenberger, is a true hero for getting the plane down safely, for his passengers and the surrounding population. Wishing all of those injured a speedy recovery.

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The EXAMUG raffle

What is an EXAMUG? EXAMUG stands for Exeter Area Mac User Group. I was fortunate enough to be given a MacBook Pro as a "get well/birthday/Christmas present" last year and although I'm quite comfortable with tech, I decided to join the Exeter Area Mac User Group soon after to see what insights I could gain. I did actually go once before a couple of years ago when Paul and I were trying to find out how we could upgrade his iBook G3 Graphite. At that time we didn't feel the need to go back. First attendance is free to potential members so we had no obligation.

That changed when I got my early 2008 MacBook Pro. My thinking was if I could take one peice of information or advice each meeting away with me, it would be worth the yearly membership fee (£20, £30 for household or £4 each meeting). So on our first meeting as a fully paid up members (Paul and I signed up), we entered the raffle to win a copy of Parallels, which was also that evening's demonstration.

Now one of the reasons I wanted a Mac was to get away from Windows, specifically Vista. I had, and still do not have, any interest in getting a PC with Vista installed. Too much bad press associated with it, regardless of how it now runs. However I have Windows software I need to be able to run and Parallels allows me to do this on a Mac.

I bought two tickets and Paul bought three for the raffle, although he was buying to give me a better chance to win and had no interest in the prize. I made it very evident during the demo that I was very keen on Parallels and the chap who runs EXAMUG said not to worry as they may be more opportunites to win a copy in future meetings. Heck, members can buy a copy on discount! Well I was completely bowled over when Paul's ticket was drawn and we'd won it.

So why am I blogging about an event that happened 10 months ago? Well last night was the first meeting for 2009 and the prizes up for grabs were 2 x one-to-one training memberships at an Apple Store and 2 iTunes gift (one £25 the other £15) cards to go with each membership. So again, Paul (who doesn't always come) and I bought tickets for the raffle and Paul's number came up for the second prize, the one-to-one membership and the £15 iTunes card. Paul is kindly letting me have the in-store training and he's looking forward to finding some music to download. Even better, the evening was topped off with a bucket of KFC!

So far I seem to have done really well out of my lucky charm, I just hope Paul realises he'll have to attend every EXAMUG meeting now...

If you're local to Exeter and enjoy using Apple products why not join the Exeter Area Mac User Group?

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Indy V

My little lad Indiana is 5 years old today. Here are a few photos I recently took of him cuddling up next to me, when we were alone in the house with no heating.

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