My Dad reached 70 years old today. I decided to make him a card to celebrate that fact. I used a torch and drew numbers in the air. My camera captured the light trails using a slow shutter. He likes the card a lot. I also bought him some good whiskey since that’s his favourite drink. I wonder if I’ll make it to 70 in as good health as he is.

Throughout growing up in Newport, I have spent many hours in my local park. We call it “The Wreck” because it was always in a mess from the kids playing there. However now it really is a wreck. Look at the picture and you’ll notice it is a grey mass of tarmac. Where have the swings gone? Where is the slide? Where is the seesaw? Let me tell you. “Compensation Culture” has sweeped the UK. People are sueing the local councils everytime their kids get hurt using a park, everytime they trip over a paving stone… basically anything they can claim compensation on. What doesn’t help is the amount of companies setting up just to handle these cases and they heavily advertise on digital TV channels. A stroll through town and you have to avoid them giving out their business cards and asking you about your accidents. It’s intrusive and annoying. They have sucked so much of the councils money that we can no longer have a local park and are stuck with a grey mess. Kids have no where to go and end up causing trouble instead. How can the UK let this happen? I mean if you fall over and hurt yourself, it’s usually your fault. Especially if you are playing in a park. I have many scars from my days of playing. Did I complain? No. I just got on with it. Why can’t that happen now?

I watched a foreign film today without knowing anything about it. My friend said to watch it but nothing more than “it’s good”. Well, let’s just say it isn’t what I expected! Color Blossoms is a film about love being revived. It suggests love never dies (and goes beyond death) when love is true. An attractive lady called Mei Li (which means beautiful I think) is selling a property to a mysterious character called Madam Umeki. She decides to buy the place but then asks Mei Li to sell her old apartment to a suitable tenant. Mei Li eventually finds someone and tests him out for a while in the place. She seems to fall for him. She is also lusting after a policeman she sees around the neighbourhood. Then there is intimate scene after intimate scene of the characters touching each other, SM, sex etc. It was at times feeling like a art-porn film or something. However, the films confusing story continues and you don’t know if certain characters are real or not. I can’t reveal anymore details without spoiling the plot but I think the film makes it’s point well. It’s shot very well and the characters are enjoyable if a little over the top in places. The film mixed Cantonese, Japanese and English dialoges together. So most people will need the subtitles. Although I was surprised how much Japanese I understood. I found the pace of the film to be sometimes slow but overall I enjoyed it.

I headed to local venue Le Pub last night. Some Welsh bands were playing and it promised to be a pretty good show. First on stage was Indifference. They have been around for a while and I haven’t been that fussed on them. Last night they played well and put in a great energetic performance but they still didn’t do it for me.

The Death of Her Money were next up on stage. I’d forgotten I’d watched them before so it was to my joy when I realised and recalled how good they were last time. They didn’t disappoint. They delivered post-rock sounds injected with hardcore. Epic instrumental moments with the odd screamed verse. The frontman broke his strings but borrowed another bands guitar and they finished the show with another epic instrumental. Great stuff.

Finally, the band we all went to see; Taint. They are a noisy hardcore three piece with long instrumental moments. They delivered a storming set. They played through with incredible confidence. I was lost inside every song. Very enjoyable.

I picked up three +/ - { Plus / Minus } CDs recently. They are pretty much an indie-rock band. I enjoy the vocal quality and the quiet-loud composition. They also add in some beats sometimes which adds a nice twist to the sound. They have 5+ MP3s on their site to download, if you’d like to check them out. Recommended.

I also picked up The Kite-Eating Tree’s album. I guess you could call it post-punk but it’s almost garage rock in places and has a nice energy bursting through. They remind me of some forgotten/disbanded bands off the UK indie music scene. The album is kind of forgettable at first but repeated listens help it’s charm shine through. It was cheaper for me to import this from the USA direct from the bands website than to buy it in a UK music shop. I payed £6.85, postage included. The shops here were selling it for £13. Seems a bit wrong to me. They also gave me some badges and stickers. Great stuff.

I return! I had to recode some of the site to work with Wordpress 1.5 but it’s all okay now. I lost my archives but I wanted a fresh start anyway. I’ll probably celebrate that fact with a new layout after I finish my portfolio.

Wordpress 1.5 has some nice new features and really is a complete blogging package. The themes idea is especially nice. You just upload your template to a themes directory and I can select which theme I want people to see.