A Horse(man) With No Name

"I've been through the desert on a horse with no name

It felt good to be out of the rain

In the desert you can remember your name

'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain"

'A Horse With No Name' - America

This show is definitely not for children, viewer discretion is completely advised.

Bojack Horseman is possibly the best thing which is on Netflix right now, my first impressions of this show from it's first season were dreadful, it's first few episodes you're really unsure where the whole thing is going, it revolves around Bojack Horseman, a washed up former 90's sitcom star, having done nothing for 18 years wanting to publish his memoirs in a attempt to 'make people love him again'.

The first handful of episodes give you the impression that it's just going to be a series of 'wacky misadventure' in a mostly 'real' world, with anthropomorphic animals with humans mixed together.

But if you sit through the weak starting few episodes, Bojack starts becoming something else, something much more deep and profound, it's horrifically dark but it can pierce a stark reality into you.

Putting aside that there's a whole episode in that Bojack steals the 'D' from the Hollywood sign in a jealous drunken fit (which is never replaced so people call the place Hollywoo from there on), and the fact there is always a B or C plot with a silly premise.

Bojack puts a harsh spotlight onto depression, the pursuit for fame, someone on a harsh self destructive cycle who always seems to sabotage himself through his own actions, as well as hard hitting satire as a reflection on the real world of celebrity, how our parents upbringing reflects on our own upbringing, the fragile yet profound nature of ourselves.

In a cartoon featuring a 'funny horse'

This cartoon with a 'funny horse' made me cry.

Season 4 launched just last week and I watched it entirely in a day, Bojack benefits from a constant watch from the first to the last, some things are setup very early on and paid off much much later.

S4 EP2 opens with Bojack, wanting to exile himself, driving in no direction, 'A Horse With No Name' starts playing, a beautiful cover of the America song, before he ends up at his parents summerhouse, we see flashbacks to much earlier in his parents life and just how screwed up it was.

S4 EP6 is titled 'Stupid Piece Of Sh*t', it features Bojacks internal monologue, his thoughts and his reflections on himself, this seriously resounded with me, because it sounded like -me-, my own voice in my own head, telling me I'm a worthless piece of garbage, it felt so goddamn real.

S4 EP11 is possibly the most tense and heartbreaking episode of anything I've watched, I don't want to go into details but 'One day this will all be a pleasant memory' 

I don't want to explain much out of everything of this series, it's multilayered, for every silly stupid thing it shows, it has such a deeper and serious insight and it makes this a show worth watching.

Adult oriented cartoons tend just to be crass and deplorable, bad people doing bad things for no reason, Rick And Morty is a example of this, but Bojack Horseman has bad people doing bad things but they sure as hell make sure you feel it, there's always a consequence, there is always a reaction.

Bojack doesn't get away without pain, he's the hero, you want him to win, but he causes his own pain and we learn from that, Mr Horseman is possibly the most human of us all.

I did a thing!

Very happy with how these two videos came out, all researched, written and produced by me, with some Finnish language help from my boyfriend. Enjoy!

Passing 31 and The year so far

So it's been a little while since I wrote anything here, so I thought it was best time to do a rough catchup on things so far.

Well I'm now another year older, it was a quiet birthday as is the usual standard, I spent most of the afternoon in a meeting then ordered chinese, wow I should really slow down!

Back in February I had holiday from my new job which needed to be taken and so I did, I had planned two weeks or so of fun and interesting things to do, there was three main things

A Hevisaurus concert, more on that in a moment.

Visiting my partner in Finland, I never get tired of being with my partner and I still adore Finland as much as when I first visited, it was a wonderful and calm visit.

The last thing was going up to Doncaster to a convention to meet some people most notably 'Eric Stuart' a fine musician whom I've been a fan of for a while and talked about before here in this blog, I had thought I had everything sorted, I was wrong.

Usually when I'm planning a trip I've got everything worked out to the letter, everything, I check this through and through, again and again, this time I forgot one major thing, the train tickets, I had stupidly thought I'd got them in advance, I had not and buying them on the day was far far too expensive versus the time it'll take, so I didn't go, which sucks but there will be other chances, I'm sure of it.

Perhaps the most interesting venture of my two weeks was actually seeing one of my fave bands Hevisaurus, live and in the UK for the first time at the Southbank Centre in London, I went with a couple friends and it was a absolute blast, it was everything I had hoped from a concert by them, it all kinda zips by in my memory now but I was a bit sneaky and got some video recorded.

We had got told before that we were not allowed, but I decided just to take some short videos during the concert and I'm glad I did because they came out great and captured some really unique moments which I won't forget, how close I was to the band, being singled out by the main singer, yes really, and the guitarist giving me the metal horns as he passed by, it was wonderful.

Oh and the Southbank Centre later shared my video on Facebook!

Seriously, if he was pointing at the audience, it would be above my viewpoint, he is pointing directly at me.

Again, he's looking down from the stage, he must have seen me holding my phone or the fact I'm wearing a bright green shirt with Hevisaurus on it!

(Source: Twitter)

So in short I was a lot of fun and I really hope it's not the only time I see them live!

A couple a months in and this year is already fairly interesting, got a few more interesting months planned again, looking forward to it!

So to close, here is a song from another band I like called Blind Guardian, 'Otherland', which has been stuck in my head for over a week now!

A Series Of A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Dear Reader

It is with great sadness that I must implore you to watch this tale of the Baudelaire orphans, for it is filled with tragedy most foul and... unfortunate.

This is not a happy tale, for those are found elsewhere, for when there is happy moments they are few and far for the Baudelaire orphans.

Mr Lemony Snicket's recital of the unhappy happenings has been told before in a movie most unfortunate, for those that saw it, for it took three depressing tales and made it a movie most saddening, cutting those tales into something most unlike Mr Snicket's written accounts.

A guardian, one of many, by the name of Netflix stepped in to recount Mr Snicket's account of the Baudelaire orphans and perhaps most fittingly it has done its deed with nay worry.

The tales told so far look over four tragic accounts of the orphans, warning us as I warn you dear reader, to look away, but if you must, you will find yourself enamored to these tales of despair, tales of adults who just won't listen, tales of the orphans who only want to find happiness, but they do not find it, that's not how the story goes.

Dear Reader, if you must, despite the warning, go watch 'A Series Of Unfortunate Events', for it is a tale most surprising and gripping.

Virtual Insanity

I've always been a fan of technology and perhaps some of the most interesting and new technology is Virtual Reality.

Having spent months for my previous employer being a representative of the Oculus Rift headset, I got lots of time to use the technology and try it out for myself, I really enjoyed the experiences provided and wondered about where the technology could go and what it could bring to entertainment.

My partner got himself a HTC Vive which is in it's own right a superb piece of kit, the sense of immersion is great and it's sense of 'room scale' is also impressive.
A friend also got the Playstation VR headset which is quite good though not to the level of what you can do with PC technology but it does win out by being the cheapest out of the three commercially available headsets on the market today.

After lots of thinking I decided to buy myself a Oculus Rift as then myself and my partner have both headsets and there's plenty of titles which I really wanted to try which are only available on the Oculus Rift.

I've been using the headset now for just over a week and I decided to write down some thoughts here.

Firstly setup was really easy, as long as you have some room and the sensors can face it, you're good to go, the process was quite easy and straightforward, I also picked up the 'Touch' controllers with my headset and they were really easy to sort out.

Having a couple titles provided for free just by setting it up, it was really easy just to jump in and try a few games and such, I had some mild problems with the controllers losing their tracking but this was solved by me not being a idiot and plugging the sensors directly to my motherboard.

I also purchased some games which I had really wanted to try.

I bought a bundle of games since they were on offer, first one was 'The Climb', A game which I was demonstrating as part of being a Oculus Rep, this is one of the most visually stunning games and with the touch controllers acting as your hands it's really easy to get a sense of immersion and it is also really physically exhausting to play, yes you can play it with a gamepad but that's boring, moving your hands around makes this far far more entertaining and there's plenty to see and explore within the game, well worth the purchase alone.

Next up in the bundle is 'Superhot VR', time moves when you move and you have to dispatch enemies by any means that you can, this as a experience is absolutely amazing, having to dodge bullets, snatching guns out of the air, it's hard to describe how this makes you feel, it is incredibly fun to play, if i have any complaints, it's also quite hard and theres seemingly no way to go back to earlier levels but there is plenty of content to go through and also well worth a purchase.

Next is 'I Expect You To Die', a puzzle 'escape the room' style game heavily referencing spy movies and every trope and cliche imaginable, it's a really fun puzzler with a great sense of humor and style, yet another one which really works with the touch controllers, it says 'a sitting down experience' but honestly I had more fun with it whilst standing up, plus the game has a really awesome intro song.

So far my experience with VR has been extremely positive, I do wish there were more full fledged experiences as the vast majority are just short 'tech demos', but when you do get a proper fully developed experience, it's amazing and a whole lot of fun, VR isn't going to totally revolutionize gaming or replace consoles or whatever, but it's definitely going to be something else to enjoy and experience in the future.

If you're not sure on VR I'd really recommend finding a friend who has access or going to a place which demonstrates VR, there's plenty going on right now, try it for yourself and see what you think!

And no, despite the title, the closing music for todays blog isn't going to be Jamiroquai, it's going to be 'Epoch - The Living Tombstone Remix' by Savlonic.

Hevisaurus Elokuva - Review

So during a recent visit to Finland I made it a mission to pick up every single Hevisaurus album I could, I've grown to like the band so much I decided I really should buy the albums.

7CD's, 2 DVD's and a Blu-ray

I now have every album apart from a Christmas album that's out of print and a Blu-Ray of the movie which released just before I visited Finland.

Hevisaurus Elokuva (The Movie), it's a entirely Finnish produced and made film, not the biggest of budgets but what they did with what they had by far exceeds most low-budget 'kids' films I've seen in my lifetime.

Who'd thought Herra Hevisarus could play accordion?

So in short the Hevisaurus have to find a new home and end up in various escapades, including a business man whom wants to make money from them being part of his new theme park so it's up to two kids Toni and Suvi whom make friends with the band and together help the band find a new home.

It's very standard kids-film plot wise but it's the chemistry of the band themselves which really helps the film work, there are some genuinely funny moments throughout the film and the soundtrack, provided by the band, quite rightly rocks.

Herra Hevisaurus now with karate chop action!

Hevisaurus, they're naive, silly and always hungry and I cannot picture them any other way, they honestly steal every scene they're in, the other actors all do a fine job, even the child actors are pretty good and don't grate too much unlike other films.

The film is shot quite well with decent scene composition and some beautiful shots of the woodlands the film is set in, editing wise it could've done with some more polish, there are a handful of cuts which feel awkward and some which feel like cuts for ad breaks for television.

After snacking on sausages and most of a cooler.

As for the CGI work, used for the band's faces, for the most part is really well done and brings alot of character through, however in some scenes some of the bands faces are not 'painted' on, though only usually in distant shots, and occasionally you can see the joins of the 'seams' of the faces where the digital and physical head join, someone whom is more picky would say you can see this all the time but I only notice it when it's really apparent.

I admire the way they shot it using the band members in full costume and digitally inserting faces later on the top of the costume, there is footage where they experimented with digitally altering the costume faces and lets just say this didn't work very well.

Well, they do eat alot...

In a wonderful touch the blu-ray has English subtitles so I was able to watch it like I would watch a subbed anime title, I've been told some of the subtitles aren't quite right (my partner is Finnish) but for the most part are 'close enough', I did note that in one part the witch was muttering magic words and the subtitle was 'izzy wizzy lets get busy', unless she was channeling Sooty I'm pretty sure that wasn't what was said!

Overall I really enjoyed the film, it was exactly what I expected, a fun silly romp with a Finnish heavy metal band of dinosaurs.... and a dragon.

Riffi Raffi once again stating he's a dragon.

We're all animals here.

So finally after such a long wait, the UK finally has 'Zootropolis' (AKA Zootopia) in the cinemas, firstly I think Disney's decision to release it on the same day as Batman V Superman is a massively flawed one, I know they wanted to cash in on the easter school holidays and such but people are going to watch Batman other than go see Zootropolis, which is a damn shame.

Because Zootropolis is a absolute blinder of a animated film.

Having been a 'Furry' member for just about 17 years now when this film was announced I was instantly looking forward to it, for a start the teaser trailer used the word 'Anthropomorphic', which is basically a description of the Furry fandom, 'Anthropomorphic fans'.

So instantly appealing to the interests of the fandom, plus with it being a Disney production, we all knew this would be a treat to watch.

In short the film revolves around Judy Hopps, Zootopia's first rabbit police officer, in wanting to make the world a better place and following her dreams, she finds herself struggling to fit in, all because she is a rabbit, then there is the not so small matter of mammals going missing all over Zootopia, Judy soon finds herself working with the crafty and sly fox Nick Wilde and together they unravel a mystery which could tear apart everything that Zootopia stands for.

Despite some inital reservations due to the sheer amount of promo clips Disney released for this film, were they going to show -everything-?, Zootropolis made me smile and even shed a tear or two.

The animation quality is breathtakingly beautiful, the amount of effort of detail and effort which the production team have put in shows, there is clearly a lot of love in the production and it shines through, I saw it in 2D and I think it'd work wonderfully in 3D there is some wonderful shots which would pop out beautifully.

The USA had a IMAX 3D release for the film, unfortunately it's not available in that format over here which I think is a absolute shame.

The cast all do a fantastic job and fit the characters well, they place a lot of heart into the characters and makes you actually care for them, there are some really touching scenes within this film.

The film has a very quick pace, the title card flicks by in a instant and we're off on this ride, there is a number of action scenes within the film all well paced and shot with a thrilling train chase which I would've loved to see in 3D.

I think I was pretty much sold on this film when Judy gets on the train to Zootopia, Shakira's 'Try Everything' song starts playing, with more than a few sly jokes appearing on Judy's music player, Fleetwood Yak anyone?, racing through the various regions of Zootopia, I might be a jaded 30 sommat but my heart soared through this sequence, eyes wide open, made me actually want to live there, no film has made me feel like this in a very long time.

The film rockets by with ne'er stop for breath, there's one or two scenes which begin to outstay their welcome a little when the joke is worn thin but it doesn't detract from the overall film, it's fun, witty, funny and in other places emotional and thoughtful, it plays its ques very well and makes the film one great big adventure.

The cinema I went to with a friend, who purchased the tickets for my birthday, was decent, the screen we got into was small so we sat right at the front, if I have but one issue, we seriously don't need 30minutes of adverts (more like 24minutes of ads and 6minutes of trailers), I would go again to the cinema but perhaps on a bigger screen.

Overall Zootropolis is a outstanding Disney film with a really thoughtful message which speaks volumes in the real world, I recommend it to anyone who wants to be taken away and come back with a smile on their face.