Ben Barren - Confessions of a Mad Man

Tag Archives: vampires

Dead Set (British) + (Canadian) Being Erica.

Posted by Ben Barren on January 14, 2009 – 10:05 am

Filed under TV

Hot Night in Melbourne Last Night. Checked out Dan Owen's Top 30 TV Shows of 08, UK Skewed. Click Image to Read 2 Part List.

So one of my faux year evolutions was to watch more foreign, less US programming on a relative basis; Korean, Japanese, French… not sure if British or Canadian counts, but highly enjoyed a show from each of those regions (Being Erica - Canadian + Dead Set - British) last night in Melbourne’s 28c degree minimum 3rd hottest on record. To enable globality I’ve been adding overseas film/tv blogs, check out Dan Owens - his Top 30 TV shows of 08 got me a gr8 night of VLC playin.

BEING ERICA

Being Erica - Ep 1 ere - Recommended; 30something smart person's Canadian sitcom.

The first popcorn programming last night, and I was in a mood for something light, that had life empathy after a crappy day, was Being Erica (8.8/20 on TV.com plus torrents Ep1 + Ep2 ere) It hit the spot, no laugh track or pretension, a Canadian show (without any accent) - which is textbook my early 30something generation - Lead character : 32 years old, Masters Educated, Facebook using, friends in good jobs, married etc.

Each Ep of Being Erica Takes her back in time to a Key Decision She Made Wrong, Ep 2 ere.

To cut a long story short - she is able to go back in time to key decisions she made, possibly wrongly and right them. It’s a good excuse for time travel and 80’s costumes. A Commodore 64 with a tape recorder plugin heeh even makes an appearance in the first ep, aagh the 64 memories!

They Even Have Commodore 64 References in Being Erica, Click for IMDB Links on Being Erica.

Overall : 7/10 - Some of my fave shows of last 12 months are setin different period (or character time travels there ala Life on Mars) : Every1 knows Mad Men, but if u have watched the 2 seasons a couple times u should check out Swingtown (a gr8 little show if u can get a copy, i have season1-it rox), Life on Mars/Ashes_to_Ashes, heck even Revolutionary Road legitimised - the whole dressup thing - whether it be late 50’s (Revolutionary Road), early 60’s (Mad Men), early 70’s (Life on Mars) later 70’s (Swingtown) and now Being Erica (80’s) It’s a Canadian based shows so it’s nowhere near as cheesy sitcom as if it was American made. Will be watching more of this.

Erica Realises that while they had Commodore 64s in the 80's there might not have been as much trimming. Link to Official Being Erica Canuck Site.

DEAD SET

Second show - an English 5 episode mini-series : with accents - from last night was Dead Set, which isn’t new and gets a 8.5/10 on IMDB. (You can get all 5 eps in a 715meg file altho not sure of image quality or individually’ere : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 at around 1.05 gig in total + good viewing quality

Watch the First Ep of Dead Set and Decide from there, I watched it straight through.

It’s a brilliant (well rehashed a few times) zombie breakout concept centred on a big brother television compound and its Lord of the Flies characters; Suitable mixture of onscreen talent, EP and gofer/production assistant (the last of which naturally becomes the leader/goto person) Quite gory too, not for the faint at zombie heart; A natural extension of reality TV moving into scripted, hehe.

Lead of Dead Set pictured or try Shaun of the Dead, the brilliant remake.

Overall : 7/10 - I’m a harsh marker so 7 in my books is really a 9 in most. 6 to me is very watchable. So 7 is very good, highly recommended for people into reality TV, blood and who with a quick 700 meg or 1gig download get 5 eps and a good few hours of great television. The only weak part is you feel like u have seen it if u have seen Shaun of /Dawn of the Dead (maybe I’ll grab teh original Romero to watch circa 1978)- But it is fun watching it collide with Reality Television, and I would have gone for even more of that. Enjoyed it, for True Blood fans recommended, altho it’s more zombie + graphic, ok nuff said.

Dawn of the Dead, George Romero 1978, click for 1.3Gig torrent.

THE REAL WORLD

Today I’m back to non zombie American East Coast vs West Coast World, otherwise known as being in the middle of Business and Technical; Client + Service Deliverere. I wish I could code the projects I delivered… anyway - I cant..… wait till this change comes, given its first hot 36 hours we’ve had im pretty damn weak.. I must work on current situations… I promise while writing this post I did not have The City S01_E04 on (only out on trackers at moment, should show up soon), and nor did I think The City is so much better than The Hills, as the Hills characters had become so annoying/vain/dumb. OK im off to balnarring with moleskine, and blackberry - i need to learn RSS code / get some RSS programmin help….

The City S01E04 is out on trackers click on Whitney for link but u need Torrentvault membership if u ask really nice - i only have one, barely : Ideally we could swap an invite - i need one of those torrent film indie tracker invites :)

I Don’t Like Monday’s Demons but S01_E01-2 r GR8

Posted by Ben Barren on January 12, 2009 – 11:56 am

Filed under TV

Demons Premiere S01E01 Click.

It’s a I Don’t Like Mondays just like in the Geldof song (the Amos interpretation), each week of January more people return every Monday : “Tell me why. I don’t like Mondays. I want to shoot : The whole day down”, as I’m really lacking the duality of geek power + money peeps; Otherwise known as resources. Fk. Trying to turn a dime into a dollar as Hustle + Flow ripped from somewhere originally ? Ok now I’m clicking around YouTube… from the Amos cover to the one by Patti Smith.. I’m totally buying Patti Smith’s take on Smells like Teen Spirit, which was amazing live - thku:P - ‘hullo, hullo, hullo, with the lights out, it’s less dangerous…. i feel stupid + contagious….” Sometimes not being a computer programmer makes u absolutely fn powerless. (Segueway) Kinda like trying to catch supernatural evil beings which I watched last night, which after a too long family outing to Botanical Gardens I watched Demons : Skins Meets True Blood - Grab the torrents ere S01:E01+E02, which has the Life on Mars UK lead in it. Via Wikipedia :

Demons S01E02 Ep Well Worth a Download

“The plot follows the adventures of a London teenager Luke Rutherford, who learns that he is the last descendant of the Van Helsing line by the sudden arrival of his American godfather Rupert Galvin. Luke is charged with the role of smiting the gathering dark forces of the world whilst trying to live an ordinary life of exams and parties.^[4] Rupert Galvin helps train Luke with the assistance of Mina Harker, a blind concert pianist and authority on half-lives (i.e., vampires, demons, zombies, and werewolves). Luke’s best friend Ruby also joins in on the action.^[5]Luke’s first adversary is a dangerous vampire bounty hunter called Gladiolus Thrip. Thrip hates the Van Helsings and is determined to end the family line.^[5]”

Shooting angels. Wikipedia link for Demons

There’s a good summary of the Demons backstory over at Times Online : “In Demons, he sports a nattier wardrobe and a slightly creepy American accent, but is still hefting a big gun and tossing insults at villains. Today, this feels like the coldest place on earth, and cast and crew are visibly envious of the warm suits of the actors playing the monsters.Fast-forward nine months, and the first episode is finished. Entitled They Bite, it is written by Peter Tabern, the series creator, who takes no risks by mashing up the pilot of Buffy with the not dissimilar introductory show of the revived Doctor Who. A teenager, Luke Rutherford (Christian Cooke), is studying for exams and going to parties, when his life is invaded by supernatural troublemakers - a CGI rat-human, hoodie werewolves and Mackenzie Crook as a vampire with a silly name (Gladiolus Thrip).”

Demons S01_E01 Monkey Thang.

Some Additional Links while I try and get my Technology in Order.

Some good teaser clips from Flight of the Conchords new season via The Watcher, Chicago Tribune which is a good feed to subscribe to that has nothing to do with Chicago + everything to do with good new TV

The Betaworks model is my favourite of the incubator/seed funders and what a track record they have. Would love to apply this model to the Australian market - $100K investments plus alot of brainstrust, roll sleeves up mentoring, sometimes office space, and working along side other smart people in keiretsu 2.0. If only some of the 8 and 9 figure internet success stories in Australia would reinvest in this type of way - which is structured but fluid enough to create the X_Factor.

In Treatment (interview), with the awesome Gabriel Byrne as a psychologist/psychotherapist shows supposedly 530pm weeknights on HBO in US for those with the dough. So u can grab ep by ep as I have, or do what Im in slow process of, which is grab Season 1 all 43 episodes all rar’ed up hehe. Over 9 gig with Melissa George, our Angel from Home Away making a threaded appearance (it follows multiple patients with multiple visits over time, with each ep being shot soley on the therapists couch in one room.) Supposedly it will only take another 13 days to download at current speed Im getting Also add Sepinwall blog as it’s a leading TV show “analyst” coz i dont like word critic. His reviews are the go to source for blogerati to discuss whether Dexter’s (um wife) sister is a weak actress and deconstructing sources mentioned in Mad Men like Atlas Shrugged.

Nice Monte Silo House pad via the worth a feed add; Contemporist.

Atlas Shrugged, WSJ Piece : well while we’re on that, which I have to read.. Wall Street Journal did a good overview piece on it.

Linds isn’t with Sam anymore, which has made her Sister happy as she’s getting more Pap time to her + Lindz. It’s all boots and skinnies. If however u prefer Revision 3’s vidlongish Silicon Valley over Hollywoods Supermarket Magazine on-off/rehab/weightgainloss girlgoss then check the Veronica Belmont photoshoot by the ubiquitous Buis Bros who keep a good blog of their latest, which hasnt hurt their aspirations 2b the goto photogs for Geek Belles needing some eportfolio high res .pngs. OK back to work for me. I need to create me some of that RSS stuff…

No More Linds + Sam, Mo Pap’ time 4 Ali’Lo. Source X17 Online. As Linds says on MySpace : “head games- that’s what the tabloids and pap’s play with everyone …. don’t they? everyone plays games, but it gets to the point sometimes when you just want to know why.. ”

LINDSAY VERSUS VERONICA

Maybe u Prefer Veronica Belmont shot by the Buis Brothers - Click to see photoshoot : Over the newly single Lindsay.

Let the Right Social Network Vamp In.

Posted by Ben Barren on January 3, 2009 – 7:48 am

Filed under Enterprise_Internet, Film, Social_Networking

Not sure why I didnt sleep in today - rising at 715am (only 4 1/2 hours after i went to sleep doh), nervous poverty energy maybe, which is something Ning.com, having a raised a zillion dollar$ from private equity for the now’ere nuclear winter internet age, are nicely weathered from - but the good thing is ning is growing;

Grab the #2 True Blood Book which I'm Guessing Series 2 of True Blood will be Based Upon.

“There is no question that 2008 has been good to us here at Ning. We ended the year with exactly 700,000 social networks used by millions of people in their daily lives. That’s a 5x increase in social networks on the Ning Platform in a single year. More interestingly, 50% of these social networks are active, as defined as active usage by members in the past 30 days. In 2008, we also grew total registered users by 12x, daily page views by 5x and raised enough money to ensure we successfully make it out the other side of a challenging economic environment.”

Last Night : Let the Right one in / Låt den rätte komma in

As Vampires are the new Black, and for those that enjoy Twilight and True Blood (see my related delicious tags ere and a good Phoenix piece about the whole genre), here’s the torrent for highly regarded:

- Let the Right One in (foreign subtitles, dvd_screener quality ere, 8.2/10 IMDB Top 250 is pretty hard to achieve)

- Living Dead in Dallas (#2 audiobook for True Blood Sookie Stackhouse series of books. Woth joining ere to get all the books and others such as Elmore Leonard + James Frey Million Little Pieces which i grabbed last night - well worth joining makegreatmusic.net btw - audiobooks rock on the ipod)