All the links in the following post got to videos. I've tried to link to live performances where possible. If you enjoy some of the new bands I encourage you to join Pandora (if you don't live in the US simply enter 90210 as the zip code) and discover even more!
Before I became a massive film fan, my biggest passion was music. At school I was pretty much just into British indie. My school wasn't exactly awash with people going out and discovering unknown bands so we pretty much followed what Jo Whiley and Steve Lamaq offered up for us: so we went through Blur, Oasis, the Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Garbage and the album that everyone born from 1978-1984 seems to have been issued with: Alanis Morisette - Jagged Little Pill. In fact the more adventurous of us were fans of Radiohead and the real music fans were the ones who tracked down all the Oasis B-sides...
The fantastic thing about university was that I was suddenly thrown into the mix with people from all over the country, and indeed, the world. This brought a whole new selection of music that I'd never considered. My next door neighbour for example was also a massive Radiohead fan and gave me a tape with a load of b-sides. He broadened my taste in rock by introducing me to bands such as Faith No More, Limp Bizkit, The Lemonheads and rock outfits like Soulfly and Orgy. Then my friend on the adjacent landing introduced me to Moby. At the time Play had been out for over a year and had done nothing in the charts so when a group of us went to see him live it was before he hit the big time and the gig was in the wonderfully intimate venue of Newcastle student union. Within weeks he was playing Wembley. Also that year I discovered Muse and, with some advice from a friend from home, Coldplay and Doves. In the second year I was finally introduced to Pink Floyd who I'd never have got into otherwise. Honestly, I think most people get into these old bands through their parents but mine don't seem to like modern music so I've had to do all the leg (or ear) work myself. The third year brought about the discovery of Ben Folds Five and Lemonjelly.
Moby with Feeling So Real at Glastonbury 2000
It's along time since these discoveries and so many "next big thing" bands have dropped away. My friend told me to look through an old copy of Select magazine from my first year and see the bands that had vanished. Sure enough whatever happened to: Travis (ok they have a new album due soon), JJ72, Feeder, Gomez, Nine Inch Nails, Embrace and Supergrass?
I've written before about the power of the internet and how it's shrinking the world. With sites like Youtube and Pandora it's very easy to find new music. 2006 for me was the year of the foreign band. Being English it's easy and a bit arrogant to assume that the only music that's worth listening to is in English. However it's pretty liberating to realise the most countries have their own music scene. Right at the start of the year we were exposed to Norweigan music as an acoustic session kicked off at the bar we happened to be in in Oslo one night. I got into "Scando-rock" and now own albums by Poor Rich Ones (Norway), Kent (Sweden) and Sigur Ros (Iceland) - click the links for some videos.
Kent and Den döda vinkeln (the dead angle)
Given I was in Japan for 2 weeks I was a bit disappointed with how little Jpop I actually heard. In fact the only songs I heard were the 2 from the film Nana - and that was on the flight over. All was not lost however as I was bitten by the bug as soon as I imported the DS game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. The whole game is based around 15 Jpop songs from the last 20 years or so; from some I'd heard before (The Blue Hearts and L'arc en Ciel) to the kitsch girl group with a constant revolving door of members: Morning Musume (warning: this link leads to very cheesy Jpop) and reliable indie groups B'z and the Yellow Monkey. A combination of Pandora and Youtube led me to pick up several albums - a couple by L'arc en Ciel and a couple by Yaida Hitomi who really puts me in mind of a cross between Natalie Imbruglia (in that her songs are very catchy and a cut above generic pop and she has a very capable backing band), Alanis Morisette (similar voice) and Garbage (the backing band, Diamond Head, are all studio producers).
Yaiko and the amazing Over the Distance
I'm still trying to track down some B'z and Yellow Monkey albums and I'd love to get hold of some X Japan. X Japan are the band that started the whole visual kei movement in Japan and are sort of a cross between Megadeath, Guns n' Roses and the Scorpions. They vary between speed rock, power ballads and classical-esque songs and were huge influences on a wide range of western artists.
X Japan with the power ballad Endless Rain.
As I've mentioned (again and again) the soundtracks to various Zach Braff productions (Garden State and Scrubs) have been an invaluable source of new music inspiration. So far I've discovered Colin Hay, Imogen Heap and Frou Frou, Josh Radin, The Shins, The Postal Service, Rhett Miller and Cary Brothers. Late 2006 brought another Braff-created OST for the film The Last Kiss. Once again it features a cross of well known bands (Snow Patrol, Coldplay, Turin Breaks and Aimee Mann) and less known artists (Josh Radin, Athlete, Rachel Yamagata and Remy Zero). Its very much a stripped back album and Chocolate by Snow Patrol is about as rocky as it gets. However, there are some amazing songs such as Radin's duet with Schuyler Fisk Paperweight and Ray LaMontagne's Hold You In My Arms.
Josh Radin and Schuyler Fisk duet on Paperweight - the most beautiful song I've heard in ages.
So, since getting into music in the mid 90s, I just needed to get to university to develop an ear for music beyond indie. My 1st year roommate told me "When I met you you were indie-boy." Now my tastes have broadened to nearly all extremes. At the moment I'm very fond of acoustic singer songwriters such as Colin Hay and Josh Radin, but at the same time I love rock bands such as Black Stone Cherry and Muse. From the samples of Lemonjelly and the Go! Team to the urgency of the nu-metal/hip hop Jay-Z/Linkin Park crossover Collision Course. I can even just about take jazz and country music now too.
LemonJelly with The Staunton Lick
Linkin Park vs Jay-Z with Jigga What/Faint
It seems weird, but modern indie seems to have gone too mainstream. Bands like The Kaiserchiefs, Snow Patrol and The Killers are prime Radio 1 fodder. The weird thing is they are very middle of the road. Snow Patrol's last album Final Straw is very good up to about track 8, but it just keeps going and the good momentum it built up is lost and whenever I've seen them playing, the singer always seems heavily out of tune which doesn't help. The Killers too had a great 7 or 8 songs on their first album, but the rest of it along with the few songs I've heard off Sam's Town just don't appeal. Even old favourites such as Weezer are putting out very iffy albums - I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to the 2nd half of Make Believe. It seems like a lot of bands have forgotten how to make an album and instead just bundle a load of songs together on a CD.
The best thing happening in indie at the moment is Bloc Party. I got into them late last year (about 18 months late). When I first heard them I didn't like it but there was something about it that kept me coming back for another listen.
Bloc Party's tv debut with Helicopter
Muse are the other big British band of the moment. I was actually a bit disappointed with Absolution - there were some great songs like Time Is Running Out and Hysteria but there were a lot of forgettable songs. I got my first taste of 2006's Black Holes and Revelations in my ryokan room in Tokyo via the music video for Supermassive Black Hole. The sound was so different to anything they'd done before and was skirting into Prince territory - no bad thing. When the album came out a lot of people were disappointed, myself included. Sure tracks such as Knights of Cydonia were instant classics but Supermassive... was the only song with a new sound, Soldier's Poem completely broke the flow of the album and there weren't any songs that jumped out at you in the way something like Cave or Plug-in Baby did. However, over time the album really grew on me and it's down to the subtleties in the tracks. Take a song like Map Of The Problematique: it's the same 4 chords all the way through but little things like the step-filter on the introduction and the background guitar lines really make the track stand out.
Map of the Problematique by Muse
Perhaps drifting a bit from indie are Doves who are quite happy to ignore genres and just release their songs. Their albums drift between indie and chill-out with ease and I'm always looking forward to what they will produce next.
Doves on Jools Holland with Pounding
I don't know what bands and artists are going to attract my attention next. Thanks to the web the chances are they may not even have been heard of in this country. For example, The Fray are just launching their album over here, but I heard current single How To Save A Life a year ago via a Scrubs episode.
Finally I have to mention a few more albums I'm really eager to pick up. Fred Deakin, half of LemonJelly, has released a 3CD mix album called Triptych which sounds pretty amazing and I still have to pick up the new Shins album, Wincing The Night Away. I've heard very mixed reports about the new Bloc Party album but I'll give it a go.
That's part 1 done. Part 2 will be about why music is so important to me. It'll probably appear here rather than this blog (there you go Lue - something will appear there).
Friday, March 09, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Minimalist lifestyles
Something that's become apparent to me since I got home is the relatively small amount of stuff I regularly use. I mean, most of my friends who were in my year would have got houses in 2002 whilst I've been living out of one room. And anyone who saw my room in House 3 at Trevs will know how small that was. But instead of seeing this as a drag it's really liberating. I've been trying to help my parents clean out our house and the amount of crap they keep for no reason is unbelievable. By living in such a small environment for so many years I've become accustomed to streamlining my stuff. I still find it really hard to throw things away - especially things with nostalgia value but you've got to do it. It's like 5 minutes of anguish after you bin it and that's it - you don't miss it. Matt and I coined the term minimalist lifestyle to reflect the lifestyle we've been living. I really love the idea of having one suitcase of clothes, a backpack of other items, a laptop and one trunk for shipping other things. In fact, when it looked like I might spend 6 months in the US teaching I was really excited to try out my ideas. Buy a laptop, put all my films into a 240-disc wallet, have all my music on my ipod, a suitcase of clothes and perhaps a trunk with slightly bulkier stuff. I used to think about taking a guitar as it's become so important in my life, but after seeing this I probably wouldn't even need one of those.
(watch all the way through cos when I saw it I thought "blah blah, whatever," but the sound is so good that I'm going to have to get this). My parents have filled the house with books but I love the idea of ebooks - Sony have already introduced their e-reader. Instead of shelves and shelves of books, imagine a device about the area of an A4 piece of paper that can hold as many books as you can fit onto a memory card. My friend Spike seems to have taken the opposite view. He moved to Australia for 3 years and decided to take as much of his stuff with him as possible to the point that one of his trunks had problems at customs due to the antique pistols in them...
I know that I'll probably get overrun with important documents and end up with a house full of crap, but it's nice to dream.
(watch all the way through cos when I saw it I thought "blah blah, whatever," but the sound is so good that I'm going to have to get this). My parents have filled the house with books but I love the idea of ebooks - Sony have already introduced their e-reader. Instead of shelves and shelves of books, imagine a device about the area of an A4 piece of paper that can hold as many books as you can fit onto a memory card. My friend Spike seems to have taken the opposite view. He moved to Australia for 3 years and decided to take as much of his stuff with him as possible to the point that one of his trunks had problems at customs due to the antique pistols in them...
I know that I'll probably get overrun with important documents and end up with a house full of crap, but it's nice to dream.
Durham, vivas and camera phones
The thing I remember most about my graduation is what an anticlimax it was. No, let me go further than that - it was a massive let down. The week leading up to it was severely lacking in atmosphere in college - everyone seemed worn down and tired and as soon as people's parents arrived that was it. In addition to having to get up at 6.30am to get to Palace Green in time for the 7am gown fitting (read: no hot water in college) as we came out from the ceremony all my friends scattered and everything got muddled into a big confusing mess - then it was over. When I walked back to my office after my viva a little over ten days ago I was feeling the same thing. I'd been anticipating this moment for nearly 4 years - 3 years of work and half a year of writing had been wrapped up and "OK'd". In my 5th year I remember thinking that this moment would fill me with sheer elation. It didn't.
In the days and hours leading up to the viva I was actually starting to get really worried about how un-worried I was about it all. After all, this was the test to determine whether the last 3 years of work had been up to the right standard. I did a shockingly low amount of revision. I know Matt spent 2 months revising if I'm honest I think I probably did about a weeks worth. In fact, when I read my thesis through the night before it was actually the first time I'd read it since handing it in. The viva itself was incredibly quick only 1hr45 which is shorter than the average. To my surprise my external examiner started off my telling me that they had been really impressed by my thesis and didn't see any problems with it. Straight away this knocked me off balance as it was the last thing I expected. It felt awful as I took a long time to answer some of the questions and there were some (it felt like most of them) where I had to say "I'm not sure". Looking back, all the questions I struggled on were on pretty simple things and all the questions I breezed through involved the complex stuff. Thankfully there were only a few mistakes and I struggled through a couple of mechansims. At 1hr40 my external examiner said he was done. I couldn't believe it was over, but then invited my internal examiner to ask some questions. I settled down and figured I was only half way through, but amazingly there was only one more question. I couldn't believe it when they asked me to step outside. The deliberation took less than a minute and then I was a doctor.
It didn't really feel over. I've come to realise I need to let go of it - in the last 15 months or so I've just about made myself physically sick worrying about my work - why didn't my reaction work? Would it mean I fail or have to do more lab work? It felt like I was running out of time and starting to panic. My PhD has been such a large part of my life for the last 3 and a half years. I brought it home with me, I'd go into the lab in the evenings and weekends if I needed to. In the last year especially I tried to keep my mind on work to see if I could turn my run of luck around. I just assumed that it was like this for everyone - but of course it's not. In the "real world" people really can leave their jobs at work. To me I feel really disappointed with my last year's work, but taking my work as a whole it looks ok. As predicted, all the congratulations I got was of the "we expected you to pass" variety rather than the "wow I'm so happy for you" variety.
So yes, the feeling of elation was missing but at least I got to see my friends again. On my first night back I met up with Brett and Tim and went out for some (ok, quite a few) drinks. The next day I went out for lunch with the girls from my group which is always nice. My biggest regret about my PhD was not being able to get my group out more often. Apart from Christmas meals I think it may have only happened 3 times in 3 years and the shame was we had a good time when we did make it out. Oh well. In addition to the chemistry crowd, Matt had made the journey up from London and Alan was around too. I even managed to get Kate from my lab out for a bit too. The night followed the tried and tested path of the New Inn followed by pizza, Jimmy Allen's, Chase and Klute. It was like I'd never left - how I've missed the dodgy green double vodka-pseudo Red Bulls in Klute. The next day I met up with the chemists again and went for lunch in the new section of the Gala complex and then in the evening had a night in Trevs with Matt and Emma. The nostalgia of Pizza Perfect was in attendance (along with the piss-poor free Lambrini) and the next day I went to dinner at Khairul's house with the chemists after which we sat around and chatted. It was simple moments like this that I miss so much. We had about 10 PhD chemists (and Lou) sat around in their sitting room talking - something that we'd done a load before and not really something that would seem that special - but once you leave it's so rare you actually see 5 of your friends.
I have to mention mobile phones again - my small camera's screen has packed in and I didn't fancy hauling my Canon round so I relied on my friends' camera phones. My phone may be able to tell me about the public transport networks in every city in the world and have sat-nav, but the camera is just rubbish. The photos in this post have come straight from Emma's phone - armed with a Carl Zeiss lens and xenon flash. I'm seriously impressed with the quality - especially the ones from Klute. I may have to invest soon.
Just as when I went up in December it felt like I'd never left and all the things I've loved about my PhD came back whilst talking to people. I've met people from Australia, Germany, France, Thailand, Japan, China, Malaysia, Holland and loads more countries, I've loved every minute of teaching the undergraduates, I've travelled to the USA and Japan to see some of the top people in my area talk, I've learnt to take nothing at face value, I still feel young and even though I was really scared about my work there was never a moment when I didn't love it and that's the most important thing. A lot of people my age already hate their jobs and a lot of others are indifferent to them. Even at my hight of failures I was always excited to go into work to see if my reaction had worked. Now, if only I could feel excited about my result - I've got 4 months until graduation #2.
In the days and hours leading up to the viva I was actually starting to get really worried about how un-worried I was about it all. After all, this was the test to determine whether the last 3 years of work had been up to the right standard. I did a shockingly low amount of revision. I know Matt spent 2 months revising if I'm honest I think I probably did about a weeks worth. In fact, when I read my thesis through the night before it was actually the first time I'd read it since handing it in. The viva itself was incredibly quick only 1hr45 which is shorter than the average. To my surprise my external examiner started off my telling me that they had been really impressed by my thesis and didn't see any problems with it. Straight away this knocked me off balance as it was the last thing I expected. It felt awful as I took a long time to answer some of the questions and there were some (it felt like most of them) where I had to say "I'm not sure". Looking back, all the questions I struggled on were on pretty simple things and all the questions I breezed through involved the complex stuff. Thankfully there were only a few mistakes and I struggled through a couple of mechansims. At 1hr40 my external examiner said he was done. I couldn't believe it was over, but then invited my internal examiner to ask some questions. I settled down and figured I was only half way through, but amazingly there was only one more question. I couldn't believe it when they asked me to step outside. The deliberation took less than a minute and then I was a doctor.
It didn't really feel over. I've come to realise I need to let go of it - in the last 15 months or so I've just about made myself physically sick worrying about my work - why didn't my reaction work? Would it mean I fail or have to do more lab work? It felt like I was running out of time and starting to panic. My PhD has been such a large part of my life for the last 3 and a half years. I brought it home with me, I'd go into the lab in the evenings and weekends if I needed to. In the last year especially I tried to keep my mind on work to see if I could turn my run of luck around. I just assumed that it was like this for everyone - but of course it's not. In the "real world" people really can leave their jobs at work. To me I feel really disappointed with my last year's work, but taking my work as a whole it looks ok. As predicted, all the congratulations I got was of the "we expected you to pass" variety rather than the "wow I'm so happy for you" variety.
So yes, the feeling of elation was missing but at least I got to see my friends again. On my first night back I met up with Brett and Tim and went out for some (ok, quite a few) drinks. The next day I went out for lunch with the girls from my group which is always nice. My biggest regret about my PhD was not being able to get my group out more often. Apart from Christmas meals I think it may have only happened 3 times in 3 years and the shame was we had a good time when we did make it out. Oh well. In addition to the chemistry crowd, Matt had made the journey up from London and Alan was around too. I even managed to get Kate from my lab out for a bit too. The night followed the tried and tested path of the New Inn followed by pizza, Jimmy Allen's, Chase and Klute. It was like I'd never left - how I've missed the dodgy green double vodka-pseudo Red Bulls in Klute. The next day I met up with the chemists again and went for lunch in the new section of the Gala complex and then in the evening had a night in Trevs with Matt and Emma. The nostalgia of Pizza Perfect was in attendance (along with the piss-poor free Lambrini) and the next day I went to dinner at Khairul's house with the chemists after which we sat around and chatted. It was simple moments like this that I miss so much. We had about 10 PhD chemists (and Lou) sat around in their sitting room talking - something that we'd done a load before and not really something that would seem that special - but once you leave it's so rare you actually see 5 of your friends. 
I have to mention mobile phones again - my small camera's screen has packed in and I didn't fancy hauling my Canon round so I relied on my friends' camera phones. My phone may be able to tell me about the public transport networks in every city in the world and have sat-nav, but the camera is just rubbish. The photos in this post have come straight from Emma's phone - armed with a Carl Zeiss lens and xenon flash. I'm seriously impressed with the quality - especially the ones from Klute. I may have to invest soon.Just as when I went up in December it felt like I'd never left and all the things I've loved about my PhD came back whilst talking to people. I've met people from Australia, Germany, France, Thailand, Japan, China, Malaysia, Holland and loads more countries, I've loved every minute of teaching the undergraduates, I've travelled to the USA and Japan to see some of the top people in my area talk, I've learnt to take nothing at face value, I still feel young and even though I was really scared about my work there was never a moment when I didn't love it and that's the most important thing. A lot of people my age already hate their jobs and a lot of others are indifferent to them. Even at my hight of failures I was always excited to go into work to see if my reaction had worked. Now, if only I could feel excited about my result - I've got 4 months until graduation #2.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Belief
So it's come down to this. I'm sat in the university library. In just under 18 hours I'll be going into my PhD viva. It's essentially the last hurdle to the completion of the work that began all those years ago in 2003. Essentially an examiner from another university (Strathclyde) and an examiner from Durham will spend around 3 hours discussing my thesis and work with me. This boils down to them asking lots of questions to test my knowledge of the subject and related areas.
I'm not overly nervous, but I'm getting the feeling I used to get before exam results - I'm pretty sure it's going to be OK, but what if it's not?. Everyone I've seen has offered up a "Good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine." but I just feel like I need someone to go further than that and tell me that they believe in me and that I will get through this and perhaps even more important be proud of me when/if I do well. Otherwise what is it? - just another piece of paper to stick on the wall and a couple more letters after my name. Being a doctor seemed a really cool thing to be three years ago, but now I can't quite remember why...
So - come on me!
I'm not overly nervous, but I'm getting the feeling I used to get before exam results - I'm pretty sure it's going to be OK, but what if it's not?. Everyone I've seen has offered up a "Good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine." but I just feel like I need someone to go further than that and tell me that they believe in me and that I will get through this and perhaps even more important be proud of me when/if I do well. Otherwise what is it? - just another piece of paper to stick on the wall and a couple more letters after my name. Being a doctor seemed a really cool thing to be three years ago, but now I can't quite remember why...
So - come on me!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
My problem with...education
So, by this time next week I will hopefully have passed the final hurdle to become a doctor. This is just about the end of the education chain in the this country and I've been thinking about all the problems it has. This is mostly coming from a science point of view, but it's probably very similar for other subjects. I was always told that staying in education would boost your options and get you onto the employment ladder at a higher level.
So anyway, I arrived at uni with a high A grade in chemistry. I was weary but at the same time confident that I'd be ok. At A-level it seemed like a single straight path towards the goal and as such progress was steady. A degree on the other hand is more akin to trying to get to the centre of a circle taking many different paths at once. Many different courses ran at the same time apparently bearing no relationship to each other in the least. Where as A-levels are designed to a national curriculum, degrees are made up of what each university decides is relevant and taught be people whose job isn't to teach. Lectures are just that: lectures. There is no effort to make sure the audience understood the content. It becomes so easy to get fixated on individual courses and forget what it all means. For example, most people will recognise the chemical structure of benzene - a hexagon whose vertices represent a carbon atom and the edges of which represent bonds. It's all too easy to forget that in reality these lines aren't really there - they are just a cloud of electrons that's holding the atoms together. In one course we learn how molecules in a fluid stretch, twist and concertina. Other course make no mention of this at all, but it still happens. All the courses are linked, but no one tells you that.
The biggest problem though is that, unlike subjects like maths and physics where it's entirely possible to get near-perfect marks, chemistry's questions can have very vague answers. It becomes a common struggle to keep getting decent grade. In other subjects you can cover up on or two bad modules and still get a high degree, but in chemistry it always felt like one mess up would drag you down. Nowhere was this felt more than in the practical classes. Arguably this is what chemistry is all about. All the courses simply showed reactions as being A + B goes to C with some explanation of how. What they didn't tell you was how to get A and B into the right states to interact and how to separate C from the mixture of A, B and other assorted crap. The reaction is the easy part - it's the separation and purification that causes all the headaches. I can still remember the fear that ran through lab sessions. People would go to demonstrators if their reaction was a slightly different colour from their friends', people would worry about which layer was the organic layer in extractions and absolutely no one knew how to work the vacuum pump trolleys. As the second year came it got worse - 2-day experiments brought the prospect of getting to the end of nearly 12 hours of lab work and then loosing your product at the end. There were good demonstrators and bad demonstrators. I remember one who told me that if we didn't operate the vacuum pumps correctly they would "blow up and take your legs off". Not really what you want to hear. Another demonstrator would quite happily wreck your experiment and then cheerfully proclaim "oh well, there's still time to start again." The grading system didn't exactly work wonders either. We got a memo from a lecturer saying it was actually against university policy to give grades as opposed to marks but they were going to do it anyway. Getting back a lab report with A+ initially seemed pretty good, but then you realised that was only 15/20 with absolutely no indication of where the last 25% had been dropped. In a subject like chemistry, every mark counts. Worse still, it now transpires that natural scientists can actually finish their degree (incorporating chemistry) without setting foot in a chemistry lab. How has that happened? When I started my PhD and went back into labs as a demonstrator I saw the fear again. I also tried to be helpful. I tried to explain to people why they were adding what they were adding. Once you know it makes sense and will help you with every other reaction, but there were still a lot of demonstrators who would simply fob the students off with non-committal answers.
My main beef though is with opportunities after university. Far too many people are lured into accountancy and other such mass graduate-employers. There always seems to be worries that not enough people are taking sciences, but I'm finding it pretty hard to get a decent job. The area I'm into is growing rapidly and there is a lot of money in it. Just apparently not in the UK though. One of my friends from my group recently left chemistry after a 3 year post-doc stint to take up teaching. I've got nothing against people teaching if they want to do it, but I get the feeling people are being driven to it by a lack of opportunities. My friend had basically reached the end of apparent career path in the UK and made the switch. The teaching adverts all about helping to develop the next generation of world-class students. But what happens when these world-class students reach the end of their education? What if they are forced back to teaching? How does that benefit anyone? It brings up a thought that sometimes keeps me awake. How many Einsteins and Schrodingers have not lived up to their potential cos they chose a different path from the one where their talents lay. Imagine if you yourself had done a different degree or taken a different job. Would you have changed the world? It's that kind of thinking that does your head in.
So anyway, I arrived at uni with a high A grade in chemistry. I was weary but at the same time confident that I'd be ok. At A-level it seemed like a single straight path towards the goal and as such progress was steady. A degree on the other hand is more akin to trying to get to the centre of a circle taking many different paths at once. Many different courses ran at the same time apparently bearing no relationship to each other in the least. Where as A-levels are designed to a national curriculum, degrees are made up of what each university decides is relevant and taught be people whose job isn't to teach. Lectures are just that: lectures. There is no effort to make sure the audience understood the content. It becomes so easy to get fixated on individual courses and forget what it all means. For example, most people will recognise the chemical structure of benzene - a hexagon whose vertices represent a carbon atom and the edges of which represent bonds. It's all too easy to forget that in reality these lines aren't really there - they are just a cloud of electrons that's holding the atoms together. In one course we learn how molecules in a fluid stretch, twist and concertina. Other course make no mention of this at all, but it still happens. All the courses are linked, but no one tells you that.
The biggest problem though is that, unlike subjects like maths and physics where it's entirely possible to get near-perfect marks, chemistry's questions can have very vague answers. It becomes a common struggle to keep getting decent grade. In other subjects you can cover up on or two bad modules and still get a high degree, but in chemistry it always felt like one mess up would drag you down. Nowhere was this felt more than in the practical classes. Arguably this is what chemistry is all about. All the courses simply showed reactions as being A + B goes to C with some explanation of how. What they didn't tell you was how to get A and B into the right states to interact and how to separate C from the mixture of A, B and other assorted crap. The reaction is the easy part - it's the separation and purification that causes all the headaches. I can still remember the fear that ran through lab sessions. People would go to demonstrators if their reaction was a slightly different colour from their friends', people would worry about which layer was the organic layer in extractions and absolutely no one knew how to work the vacuum pump trolleys. As the second year came it got worse - 2-day experiments brought the prospect of getting to the end of nearly 12 hours of lab work and then loosing your product at the end. There were good demonstrators and bad demonstrators. I remember one who told me that if we didn't operate the vacuum pumps correctly they would "blow up and take your legs off". Not really what you want to hear. Another demonstrator would quite happily wreck your experiment and then cheerfully proclaim "oh well, there's still time to start again." The grading system didn't exactly work wonders either. We got a memo from a lecturer saying it was actually against university policy to give grades as opposed to marks but they were going to do it anyway. Getting back a lab report with A+ initially seemed pretty good, but then you realised that was only 15/20 with absolutely no indication of where the last 25% had been dropped. In a subject like chemistry, every mark counts. Worse still, it now transpires that natural scientists can actually finish their degree (incorporating chemistry) without setting foot in a chemistry lab. How has that happened? When I started my PhD and went back into labs as a demonstrator I saw the fear again. I also tried to be helpful. I tried to explain to people why they were adding what they were adding. Once you know it makes sense and will help you with every other reaction, but there were still a lot of demonstrators who would simply fob the students off with non-committal answers.
My main beef though is with opportunities after university. Far too many people are lured into accountancy and other such mass graduate-employers. There always seems to be worries that not enough people are taking sciences, but I'm finding it pretty hard to get a decent job. The area I'm into is growing rapidly and there is a lot of money in it. Just apparently not in the UK though. One of my friends from my group recently left chemistry after a 3 year post-doc stint to take up teaching. I've got nothing against people teaching if they want to do it, but I get the feeling people are being driven to it by a lack of opportunities. My friend had basically reached the end of apparent career path in the UK and made the switch. The teaching adverts all about helping to develop the next generation of world-class students. But what happens when these world-class students reach the end of their education? What if they are forced back to teaching? How does that benefit anyone? It brings up a thought that sometimes keeps me awake. How many Einsteins and Schrodingers have not lived up to their potential cos they chose a different path from the one where their talents lay. Imagine if you yourself had done a different degree or taken a different job. Would you have changed the world? It's that kind of thinking that does your head in.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
bits 'n' pieces
So here's what's been happening recently.
I went down to Newbury a few weeks ago to meet up with some school friends. Good times (and the apparently near-mythical "cheese and potato" dish from the local curry house) were had. We finally made it to James' favourite end-of-night venue, Liquid (for the Durham people, think Rixies, but with southern prices). Accenture pays for James to stay in a very nice new flat complete with broadband and Sky.
I finally got a date for my viva which is the 9th February at 2pm. One way or another I'm going to be absolutely hammered by about 9pm that night and with a bit of luck I might actually be a doctor.
I finally got my hands on a Wii today. I'll put up some videos of me flailing around later. Originally the controls were a let down and after all the hype I was almost as disappointed as when I found out that the free bottle of wine from Pizza Perfect was in fact Lambrini (it's not wine!!!!!), but thankfully a few tweaks of the sensitivity setting and I'm getting respectable scores in Wii bowling and Wii golf.
To complete my list of 2006 films I received and watched Little Miss Sunshine over the weekend. It's absolutely fabulous and fully deserves its Oscar nominations that were announced today. See it as soon as you can - it's got the line "Get me some porn; get me something really nasty too; I don't want any of that airbrushed shit." from the families grandfather so how can it be bad?
The UK pound is on a rampage and is so close to reaching the fabled £1=$2 mark. Unfortunately even if it does I'm too poor to go on a spending spree (or any kind of spree for that matter) and it also means that the 30,000-odd yen I've still got (value at time of purchase £150) is now worth considerably less...
My parents have picked up a bit of steam in tidying the house (it still feels very topsy turvy to say that). They seem to think that an hour a week will do it and for most people this might be true. However, if I were to say that whilst cleaning out a kitchen cupboard I found an OPEN packet of naan bread mix with a best before date of 1983 (yes that should read eighty three) you can maybe see the problem.
Finally, I've started listening to the Unknown Quantity "best of" album The Blend again. For those that don't know, Unknown Quantity was the name of the band I was in at school. We played quite a few gigs and recorded 2 CDs - and in 1998 that was pretty good going. It still fills me with wonder that we managed to do and I think those CDs probably still stand s the achievement I'm most proud of - 1st class degree? so what - nobody cared but me, but people actually seemed to like the songs. I'll try and find some hosting to share the songs and dig out the old photos in the next few days. So I'll finish with my one contribution to the lyrics: if life came with a receipt, would you take it back?
I went down to Newbury a few weeks ago to meet up with some school friends. Good times (and the apparently near-mythical "cheese and potato" dish from the local curry house) were had. We finally made it to James' favourite end-of-night venue, Liquid (for the Durham people, think Rixies, but with southern prices). Accenture pays for James to stay in a very nice new flat complete with broadband and Sky.I finally got a date for my viva which is the 9th February at 2pm. One way or another I'm going to be absolutely hammered by about 9pm that night and with a bit of luck I might actually be a doctor.
I finally got my hands on a Wii today. I'll put up some videos of me flailing around later. Originally the controls were a let down and after all the hype I was almost as disappointed as when I found out that the free bottle of wine from Pizza Perfect was in fact Lambrini (it's not wine!!!!!), but thankfully a few tweaks of the sensitivity setting and I'm getting respectable scores in Wii bowling and Wii golf.
To complete my list of 2006 films I received and watched Little Miss Sunshine over the weekend. It's absolutely fabulous and fully deserves its Oscar nominations that were announced today. See it as soon as you can - it's got the line "Get me some porn; get me something really nasty too; I don't want any of that airbrushed shit." from the families grandfather so how can it be bad?
The UK pound is on a rampage and is so close to reaching the fabled £1=$2 mark. Unfortunately even if it does I'm too poor to go on a spending spree (or any kind of spree for that matter) and it also means that the 30,000-odd yen I've still got (value at time of purchase £150) is now worth considerably less...
My parents have picked up a bit of steam in tidying the house (it still feels very topsy turvy to say that). They seem to think that an hour a week will do it and for most people this might be true. However, if I were to say that whilst cleaning out a kitchen cupboard I found an OPEN packet of naan bread mix with a best before date of 1983 (yes that should read eighty three) you can maybe see the problem.
Finally, I've started listening to the Unknown Quantity "best of" album The Blend again. For those that don't know, Unknown Quantity was the name of the band I was in at school. We played quite a few gigs and recorded 2 CDs - and in 1998 that was pretty good going. It still fills me with wonder that we managed to do and I think those CDs probably still stand s the achievement I'm most proud of - 1st class degree? so what - nobody cared but me, but people actually seemed to like the songs. I'll try and find some hosting to share the songs and dig out the old photos in the next few days. So I'll finish with my one contribution to the lyrics: if life came with a receipt, would you take it back?
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Futurology
It's the start of the New Year and the CES has just finished in Las Vegas so I thought I'd give a quick prediction about what new technologies and gadgets we'll start using in our everyday lives this year. Who knows: if these predictions come true and the chemistry/OLED don't take off maybe I'll have found my life's calling.
There are very few new technologies that become standard inside of 10 years. Back in mid 90s the "cutting edge" of technology was a Sony camera with a 640x480 resolution (0.3 megapixels) that was large enough to include a floppy disc drive to store pictures. Today it's hard to even find a film camera. In fact, phones such as the SE K800i and Nokia N73 have Carl Zeiss equipped 3.2 megapixel cameras that produce better pictures than a lot of dedicated cameras. Suddenly you could take as many photos as you wanted (batteries and memory cards permitting) and only print the good ones. But you were still left with physical prints which had to be stored in albums. There's no point in photos if no one can see them, so whilst 2006 saw the rise of sites such as Flickr you still need to be at a computer to see the photos. Digital photo frames are simply LCD screens incorporated into a frame surround that can be set to display digital pictures and film clips. This lets one frame display several pictures for set amounts of time. Most include memory card slots so photos can be taken directly from the camera and some even feature wifi so photos can be downloaded from sites such as Flickr. At the moment the screens have pretty high ppi values but low screen sizes. The most common is 7" which is roughly equivalent to a 6"x4" photo. Not exactly large. Having been spoilt by the cheap, high quality prints Matt and I got last summer I'd hope for 8"x10" (~12") screens at a decent price soon. I've been tracking the prices of digital photo frames for a couple of years now and they are fast approaching the threshold of "impulse buy". They used to be £250, but prices have now fallen below £40. I'm going to predict that - like DAB radios a couple of years ago - these will be a very popular present at Christmas.
First there was cash. Then came cheques - a "convenient" way to avoid carry large amounts of cash. Next came magnetic strip cards and most recently chip and pin. However this year will see the rolling out (in London at least) of the next form of payment - contactless. The technology is based on RFID chips that can be built into just about anything. Although the technology was first trailed in the UK in the mid 90s it broke through with the Octopus card in Hong Kong - the card allowed people to pay for transport and at some shops simply by waving a card over a detector. The idea was rolled out as the Suica card in Tokyo and the Oyster card in London and similar schemes in several other countries. Dealing in cash actually costs UK business a lot of money each year, so businesses will encourage the adoption of the system. The system is likely to be implemented as replacement debit card although the chip could be built into anything from ipods to phones. The idea is that if you want to buy things over £10 you need to use chip and pin, but for purchases under £10 simply waving the card near the reader will deduct payment from your account and obliterate queues in shops. For security, every tenth transaction will need a pin number, but any intervening chip and pin purchases will reset the counter. The National roll out will begin in London this summer and spread to the rest of the UK by 2008. The banks have stated that they want the 2012 Olympics to be the first cashless Olympics. Bit of a weird thing to want, but ok. As someone who never has enough cash on them this is a fantastic development. Cash is for poor people.
What does this even mean?!? This is one technology that will become ubiquitous without anyone realising. Put simply this is 3.5G mobile phone technology. 3G sort of died a publicity death - all the networks tried to advertise their collective £22bn investment with look - you can do really jerky video calls! Most of my friends with 3G phones tried it once and then never again. However, the real benefit of 3G (and the thing that allows the video calls to take place) is the increased data rate. Where as the internet access of 2G phones was the equivalent of a dial up modem, 3G phones cruised along at 384kbps - about 2/3 the speed of a residential broadband link in 2004. Still not particularly quick then, but with the introduction of HSDPA much of the country will be covered by a network allowing speeds of 3.6Mbps initially (roughly the same as the speed of today's residential broadband lines - fast enough to download an episode of 24 in ~12 minutes) and companies have promised that this will reach over 20Mbps by 2010 - fast enough to download that 24 episode in less than 5 seconds. It may sound as thrilling as a glass of tap water, but it may be the beginning of the end of the need for a fixed phone line. At present, if you want internet access you need either a BT phone line or cable - both of which have a monthly line rental. On top of this you then need to pay for your broadband. However, with a nationwide HSDPA network you could get rid of your fixed line and instead connect your phone or HSDPA router to your computer and get the same speeds (or even faster) that we get today. Add in an SIP socket on the router to allow free landline calls and free geographical numbers and BT will rue the day they sold O2. After my previous rant about data charges, more operators have started unlimited data plans. The latest is X-series from 3 which charges from £5/month for unlimited access including Skype and orb/sling access. Later in the year we may see the introduction of HSUPA (3.75G) which allows faster uploads.
Sort of linked to the above. A few years ago GPS systems were featured in car adverts as an "optional extra". This extra usually cost nearly the same as the rest of the car. Since then there has been an explosion in stand alone "sat-nav" products. Systems such as TomTom still command a ridiculous price premium, whilst cheaper Garmin systems can readily be had for about £100. The main aim of CSR - one of the biggest wireless chip manufacturers - is to produce a GPS chip that costs $1. The size of the chips has been brought down to a few millimetres square and they are finding there way into many new devices. My GPS unit is about the same width and depth as my phone, but 2/3 the length. The chips are now so small that the forthcoming Nokia N95 "superphone" has a GPS chip built in. In addition there are already other phones with this technology such as the Orange M700 about to be unleashed. By the end of the year it seems likely that all the mid-to-high end phones from HTC, Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson will have HSDPA and GPS. No doubt operators will cut deals with various navigation software developers to let people use their mobiles for navigation, but it goes further than finding out how to drive the 5 miles to the cinema. Imagine you're trying to meet up with someone but don't know where they are. You can simply transmit your GPS location to them so they can find you easily. Need to know where the nearest cashpoint is? Your phone will guide you. Fancy some food? Your phone will let you know what's available in the area and then guide you to your chosen restaurant. No longer will blokes have to fear asking for directions cos soon we won't need to.
Ever since I got my NES back in 1990 I've been a Nintendo fan. At the time you were either a Nintendo fan or a Sega fan or a just rich kid who could afford both. After the SNES I left the console scene behind just as the Playstation was about to take gaming out of the teenagers' rooms and into the lounge of the 20-something. In my 5th year I decided to pick up a Gamecube as they were on the way out so I thought all the good games would get cheap (that and I wanted Mario Kart). Ironically, even though the cube did die out pretty soon afterwards, this just made the games rarer and more expensive whilst PS2 and xBox games are frequently £2. Anyway, games like the 2 Super Monkey Ball games and Pikmin got me back into gaming, so I was interested in the "next generation" consoles. However, whilst Microsoft and Sony raced ahead in their battle to beef up their consoles, Nintendo went another way. The new console, Wii, would be based around a controller originally meant as a cube add-on. Whilst Sony and Microsoft attempted to shove in the fastest cpus and latest gpus into their new behemoths, Nintendo was quite happy to let their console simply amount to a slightly updated Gamecube. However, whilst the other machines are certainly very powerful, most of that power simply goes on the HD graphics. The games themselves are just prettier versions of the same games everyone's seen before. In the meantime, Nintendo's Wii has come up with a brand new way to play games. Targeting the dreaded "over-30s" market as much as the traditional audience Nintendo realised that games should be fun to play. Even I'm a bit confused when handed a gamepad with 3 joysticks and 10 buttons. The Wii controller is simple. You wave it around and the built in motion sensor knows. Want to swing your character's tennis racquet? Just swing the controller - put on spin and control the power of the shot. Likewise for a golf club, baseball bat or even sword. Suddenly everything is a lot simpler. And it seems to be working. Word of mouth is spreading. Forums are crawling with talk of people's parents buying Wiis for themselves and stock is hard to track down - in the UK most online stores sell out within half an hour of stock being advertised. Compare this to the PS3's dodgy Japanese launch and underperforming US sales and Nintendo might just pull something special off.
I've got nothing against the PS3 - I just think gaming should be fun rather than a chore.Provided Nintendo avoids one pitfall, then Wii could end up in a LOT of homes this year. The crucial point is that Nintendo continues to ship good games for the system. It comes with a game called Wii Sports (except in Japan) that offers tennis, golf, baseball, boxing and bowling games. However, these are pretty limited (and baseball is actually just about the world's dullest game) so if Nintendo aren't careful the Wii won't gain the momentum that will make it one of the most talked about gadgets of the year. Now, if only I could get hold of one...I'll leave you with the E3 teaser:
Digital photo frames
There are very few new technologies that become standard inside of 10 years. Back in mid 90s the "cutting edge" of technology was a Sony camera with a 640x480 resolution (0.3 megapixels) that was large enough to include a floppy disc drive to store pictures. Today it's hard to even find a film camera. In fact, phones such as the SE K800i and Nokia N73 have Carl Zeiss equipped 3.2 megapixel cameras that produce better pictures than a lot of dedicated cameras. Suddenly you could take as many photos as you wanted (batteries and memory cards permitting) and only print the good ones. But you were still left with physical prints which had to be stored in albums. There's no point in photos if no one can see them, so whilst 2006 saw the rise of sites such as Flickr you still need to be at a computer to see the photos. Digital photo frames are simply LCD screens incorporated into a frame surround that can be set to display digital pictures and film clips. This lets one frame display several pictures for set amounts of time. Most include memory card slots so photos can be taken directly from the camera and some even feature wifi so photos can be downloaded from sites such as Flickr. At the moment the screens have pretty high ppi values but low screen sizes. The most common is 7" which is roughly equivalent to a 6"x4" photo. Not exactly large. Having been spoilt by the cheap, high quality prints Matt and I got last summer I'd hope for 8"x10" (~12") screens at a decent price soon. I've been tracking the prices of digital photo frames for a couple of years now and they are fast approaching the threshold of "impulse buy". They used to be £250, but prices have now fallen below £40. I'm going to predict that - like DAB radios a couple of years ago - these will be a very popular present at Christmas.
Contactless payments
First there was cash. Then came cheques - a "convenient" way to avoid carry large amounts of cash. Next came magnetic strip cards and most recently chip and pin. However this year will see the rolling out (in London at least) of the next form of payment - contactless. The technology is based on RFID chips that can be built into just about anything. Although the technology was first trailed in the UK in the mid 90s it broke through with the Octopus card in Hong Kong - the card allowed people to pay for transport and at some shops simply by waving a card over a detector. The idea was rolled out as the Suica card in Tokyo and the Oyster card in London and similar schemes in several other countries. Dealing in cash actually costs UK business a lot of money each year, so businesses will encourage the adoption of the system. The system is likely to be implemented as replacement debit card although the chip could be built into anything from ipods to phones. The idea is that if you want to buy things over £10 you need to use chip and pin, but for purchases under £10 simply waving the card near the reader will deduct payment from your account and obliterate queues in shops. For security, every tenth transaction will need a pin number, but any intervening chip and pin purchases will reset the counter. The National roll out will begin in London this summer and spread to the rest of the UK by 2008. The banks have stated that they want the 2012 Olympics to be the first cashless Olympics. Bit of a weird thing to want, but ok. As someone who never has enough cash on them this is a fantastic development. Cash is for poor people.
HSDPA
What does this even mean?!? This is one technology that will become ubiquitous without anyone realising. Put simply this is 3.5G mobile phone technology. 3G sort of died a publicity death - all the networks tried to advertise their collective £22bn investment with look - you can do really jerky video calls! Most of my friends with 3G phones tried it once and then never again. However, the real benefit of 3G (and the thing that allows the video calls to take place) is the increased data rate. Where as the internet access of 2G phones was the equivalent of a dial up modem, 3G phones cruised along at 384kbps - about 2/3 the speed of a residential broadband link in 2004. Still not particularly quick then, but with the introduction of HSDPA much of the country will be covered by a network allowing speeds of 3.6Mbps initially (roughly the same as the speed of today's residential broadband lines - fast enough to download an episode of 24 in ~12 minutes) and companies have promised that this will reach over 20Mbps by 2010 - fast enough to download that 24 episode in less than 5 seconds. It may sound as thrilling as a glass of tap water, but it may be the beginning of the end of the need for a fixed phone line. At present, if you want internet access you need either a BT phone line or cable - both of which have a monthly line rental. On top of this you then need to pay for your broadband. However, with a nationwide HSDPA network you could get rid of your fixed line and instead connect your phone or HSDPA router to your computer and get the same speeds (or even faster) that we get today. Add in an SIP socket on the router to allow free landline calls and free geographical numbers and BT will rue the day they sold O2. After my previous rant about data charges, more operators have started unlimited data plans. The latest is X-series from 3 which charges from £5/month for unlimited access including Skype and orb/sling access. Later in the year we may see the introduction of HSUPA (3.75G) which allows faster uploads.
Personal GPS
Sort of linked to the above. A few years ago GPS systems were featured in car adverts as an "optional extra". This extra usually cost nearly the same as the rest of the car. Since then there has been an explosion in stand alone "sat-nav" products. Systems such as TomTom still command a ridiculous price premium, whilst cheaper Garmin systems can readily be had for about £100. The main aim of CSR - one of the biggest wireless chip manufacturers - is to produce a GPS chip that costs $1. The size of the chips has been brought down to a few millimetres square and they are finding there way into many new devices. My GPS unit is about the same width and depth as my phone, but 2/3 the length. The chips are now so small that the forthcoming Nokia N95 "superphone" has a GPS chip built in. In addition there are already other phones with this technology such as the Orange M700 about to be unleashed. By the end of the year it seems likely that all the mid-to-high end phones from HTC, Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson will have HSDPA and GPS. No doubt operators will cut deals with various navigation software developers to let people use their mobiles for navigation, but it goes further than finding out how to drive the 5 miles to the cinema. Imagine you're trying to meet up with someone but don't know where they are. You can simply transmit your GPS location to them so they can find you easily. Need to know where the nearest cashpoint is? Your phone will guide you. Fancy some food? Your phone will let you know what's available in the area and then guide you to your chosen restaurant. No longer will blokes have to fear asking for directions cos soon we won't need to.
Wii
Ever since I got my NES back in 1990 I've been a Nintendo fan. At the time you were either a Nintendo fan or a Sega fan or a just rich kid who could afford both. After the SNES I left the console scene behind just as the Playstation was about to take gaming out of the teenagers' rooms and into the lounge of the 20-something. In my 5th year I decided to pick up a Gamecube as they were on the way out so I thought all the good games would get cheap (that and I wanted Mario Kart). Ironically, even though the cube did die out pretty soon afterwards, this just made the games rarer and more expensive whilst PS2 and xBox games are frequently £2. Anyway, games like the 2 Super Monkey Ball games and Pikmin got me back into gaming, so I was interested in the "next generation" consoles. However, whilst Microsoft and Sony raced ahead in their battle to beef up their consoles, Nintendo went another way. The new console, Wii, would be based around a controller originally meant as a cube add-on. Whilst Sony and Microsoft attempted to shove in the fastest cpus and latest gpus into their new behemoths, Nintendo was quite happy to let their console simply amount to a slightly updated Gamecube. However, whilst the other machines are certainly very powerful, most of that power simply goes on the HD graphics. The games themselves are just prettier versions of the same games everyone's seen before. In the meantime, Nintendo's Wii has come up with a brand new way to play games. Targeting the dreaded "over-30s" market as much as the traditional audience Nintendo realised that games should be fun to play. Even I'm a bit confused when handed a gamepad with 3 joysticks and 10 buttons. The Wii controller is simple. You wave it around and the built in motion sensor knows. Want to swing your character's tennis racquet? Just swing the controller - put on spin and control the power of the shot. Likewise for a golf club, baseball bat or even sword. Suddenly everything is a lot simpler. And it seems to be working. Word of mouth is spreading. Forums are crawling with talk of people's parents buying Wiis for themselves and stock is hard to track down - in the UK most online stores sell out within half an hour of stock being advertised. Compare this to the PS3's dodgy Japanese launch and underperforming US sales and Nintendo might just pull something special off.
I've got nothing against the PS3 - I just think gaming should be fun rather than a chore.Provided Nintendo avoids one pitfall, then Wii could end up in a LOT of homes this year. The crucial point is that Nintendo continues to ship good games for the system. It comes with a game called Wii Sports (except in Japan) that offers tennis, golf, baseball, boxing and bowling games. However, these are pretty limited (and baseball is actually just about the world's dullest game) so if Nintendo aren't careful the Wii won't gain the momentum that will make it one of the most talked about gadgets of the year. Now, if only I could get hold of one...I'll leave you with the E3 teaser:
Monday, January 15, 2007
Top films of 2006
So - films that were actually released in 2006. I have to admit that I haven't seen that many. I've been alone most of the year and even though you don't talk and concentrate on the film, going to the cinema alone just feels wrong. As such there are several big films from this year that probably should be on this list. These include Cars, Little Miss Sunshine, Casino Royale, The Last Kiss and Munich. So without further sob stories onto the list of films I did see.
Syriana
Penned by Stephen Gaghan, writer of Traffic, comes the film that Got George Clooney his Oscar. Like his previous film based around the world of drugs, Syriana investigates the world around the black gold: oil. In 4 connected, interdependent stories we see the consequences of international demand for oil. The film begins with US oil firm Connex loosing a large contract in the Middle East after the country's Prince Nasir grants natural gas rights to a Chinese firm. As a result Connex lays off it's large immigrant workforce leaving them jobless and penniless in a foreign country. They attend an Islamic school in order to learn Arabic to improve their prospects where they are approached by a friendly cleric. Back in the US Connex merges with small oil firm Killen who have acquired rights to a Kazakh oilfield. The Dept of Justice suspects all is not as it seems. Jeffrey Wright's lawyer character is sent to investigate the deal and make sure the DoJ find no issues. In Europe, energy analyst Matt Damon is appointed as Prince Nasir's economic advisor to assist with Nasir's plan to reform his country and break free from dependence on the US. Concerned at the prospect of loosing their hold over the oil in the Middle East, the CIA appoint Georgy Clooney's character to assassinate Nasir, but when the mission fails they scapegoat him and start planning to rectify their mistake. Lots of people criticised the film as they found it hard to concentrate on the intertwining stories. It's a film that shows you the ugly reality of the west's dependence on oil and the strangle-hold they've got over the Middle East. Matt Damon tells Nasir: "You know what the business community thinks of you? They think that a hundred years ago you were living in tents out here in the desert chopping each other's heads off and that's where you'll be in another hundred years, so on behalf of my firm I accept your offer." Syriana shows that although terrorism is ideologically fuelled by hatred of the west's Middle East policies that suck the area's resources away, it finds its foot soldiers amongst poverty and desperation. The lack of a central character frustrated some, but it is the essence of the issue - there isn't really anyone "in charge" of the oil. The US government is interested in protecting its oil companies rather than the interests of the Middle East, allegiances are forged and betrayed. Up at the sharp end of the large corporations corruption is rife, but who watches the watchers? The film has a downbeat ending that, although tie up all the characters in the film, does nothing to change the situation.
Miami Vice
Now here's a film that split people right down the middle. Some loved it, some hated it. A lot of people were expecting Bad Boys 3 which this certainly isn't. I've never seen the original TV series, but I suspect it's nothing like this. Michael Mann has given this film a certain style - visually he sticks with shooting on digital video giving the film a distinct look - a non-film look and night scenes covered with grain. Story wise we drop in on the lives of a group of vice police headed by Rico and Tubbs. The film begins in the middle of a sting operation and we have no idea what's going on. Indeed, as the film goes on there is absolutely no character progression which have lead some to label this film as being "the death of cinematic narrative". But so what? This film simply covers one of the squads investigations - they are already bonded. Rico and Tubbs already know how each other will react so there's no Lethal Weapon-style unexpected behaviour. The plot involves the pair going undercover to flush out a mole who caused the death of two undercover FBI agents. To accomplish this they set themselves up as drug traffickers and begin to work their way up the drugs food chain. The action is sporadic, but retains the infamous Mann characteristics of realistic sound effects and shootouts. The violence isn't glamorised - there are no slow motion bodies flying through the air - just the realtime results of being shot. The film slowly builds up to the two big action set pieces at the end of the film. The middle of the film is perhaps a bit slow, but it's so beautifully shot and scored that it kept my attention easily. Perhaps one for the thriller market rather than the action market.
The Prestige
Plot twists. Some people spend their entire time whilst watching films trying to work out the plot twist. Personally, unless it's an obvious one I don't bother and just enjoy the film. If it's a good twist that fits the story then I'm impressed, but if it's merely a twist added for the sake of adding a twist then I'm glad I haven't bothered trying to work it out. Whilst watching the Prestige, it seems like the twist is revealed at about the halfway point but - as with the film's content - all is not what it seems. In Victorian London, two magicians perform a good magic act. Performer Angier (Hugh Jackman), his wife and assistant, audience plant Borden (Christian Bale) and the man who makes the tricks a reality - Cutter (Michael Caine). After the on-stage death of Angier's wife in a water-torture trick Angier blames Borden for tying a different knot. The magicians go their separate ways but harbour a rivalry that leads to them sabotaging each others acts leading to Borden loosing half a finger. Borden meets Sarah and they get married. After a while Borden opens a new show with a trick in which he appears to teleport across the stage. Angier and Cutter attempt to copy his act, but can't work out how he does it - it can't simply be a double as both the man going into the "send" box and the man who leaves the "receive" box are missing the same half-finger. Eventually Angier and Cutter hire Olivia (Scarlett Johansson) and copy the trick using a double. As Angier walks through the on stage door, a trap door opens and a lift propels his double behind the other door. As time goes on Angier grows angry that it's his double who takes "the prestige" (the audiences applause) every night whilst he himself is hidden below the stage. After more sabotaging from Borden incapacitates Angier he sends Olivia to spy on Borden and she successfully manages to obtain Borden's diary - which contains the details of his tricks. and states that a machine obtained from Nikola Tesla (David Bowie) makes the teleportation possible. In response, Angier sets out for America to seek out Tesla and aquire a machine of his own. Most of the story is told in flashback - the film opens with Borden sneaking behind the stage to see how Angier's new improved teleporting man trick works. Instead he sees Angier fall through the stage trapdoor into a waterbath and drown. Convicted of murder, Borden is sent to prison to await hanging, but once again - is everything what it seems? As I mentioned earlier, the twist about how the machine works is fairly obvious, but the other twists aren't so clear cut. After they are revealed you immediately see how they were set up. As Cutter comments "Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it because you're not really looking. You don't really want to know the secret... You want to be fooled." and so it is with the film. You want the twist to surprise you. The film takes great delight in showing how tricks were carried out. For example if you want to teleport a bird out of a cage, it's easier to kill the caged bird with a spring-loaded roof and use another one for the prestige. Chis Nolan is quickly becoming a director that can be relied upon to deliver. Whilst other newcomers such as Daron Aranofsky, Zach Braff and Jarod Hess are herelded as the next big thing, Nolan has already directed 4 amazing films - Memento, Insomnia and Batman Begins. Again, there are some spoilers so if you haven't seen the film, please don't read the following!
The presence of Borden's brother is hinted at many times throughtout the film. Does Borden not remember what knot he tied on Angier's wife because it was his brother doing it? We see Borden comment on how magic must be your life to be a good magician after they see the Chinese magician who pretends to be crippled. The repeated question "Do you love me?" from Borden's wife that is met with different answers depending on which brother is "playing" Borden that day is a playful way of suggesting the truth. The nature of Angier's final teleporting man trick makes you think about the nature of conciousness. Every night Angier effectively drowns himself and trusts that the clone that is created will be him. Not someone who has his appearance and memories, but actually him. I used to think about jumping into someone's mind and knowing everything they knew but forgetting everything you new. Would you still be you or would you be them? Would you even know anything had happened? I try not to think about it for too long as it makes my head hurt.
The Departed
I've already mentioned Infernal Affairs as one of the best non-2006 films I've seen this year and here is the US remake. Directed by Martin Scorsese and moved from Hong Kong to Boston, the story retells the tale of the race by moles on opposite sides of the law to uncover each other whilst adding some elements from the HK prequel IA2. Essentially the same story, with mob-man Sullivan (Matt Damon) infiltrating the police force, whilst the son of a crime associate, Costigan (Leo DiCaprio) joins the police force and is assigned to the undercover department run by Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Dignam (Mark Wahlburg) and sent undercover into the gang of Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). The story plays out with scenes from IA ported over to the a US setting. Extra characters are introduced and a lot more of the backstory of the two moles is explored resulting in an extra hour of run time. It's a fine retelling with some twists not in the original film. Scorsese doesn't mess around with the violence which is a lot more brutal than the original. Perhaps it was needed to keep the western audiences interested. The violence is knocked up a notch compared to the original. Where as in IA we hear a shot and then see a slow-motion replay of the shooting, here we get, with no warning a shot that immediately blows the character's brains onto the wall behind him. At the same time though another character's death is shocking and almost un-expected in IA (the body lands on a car roof with no warning) - here we see the character being thrown off the roof and falling. Nicholson brings a more obvious mean, crazy streak to mob-boss Costello where as the original's Sam is much more calm - a businessman rather than a thug. There is one strange difference between the two versions. More spoilers I'm afraid.
In the original, The mob-mole in the police force decides to go straight and sees killing Sam as a way of accomplishing this - he chooses to be "good". In a way he is "rewarded" by getting away with it (until part 3). In The Departed the reason Sullivan kills Costello is because he finds out that Costello was an FBI informant. His character had no redemption - no decision to be good. However, he doesn't get away with it. The character of Dignam seems to have been created purely to swear a lot and then turn up at the end to kill Sullivan.
Children of men
One thing I love are films that don't pander to the lowest common denominator. Films that don't stop every few minutes to recap the plot for the audience. With Children of men we are thrown into Britain in the near future. Society has crumbled, the government has declared all immigrants illegal and they are being rounded up by the army and police. Society has largely broken down into lawlessness. The film opens with a BBC news report of the death of the world's youngest person - a South American 18 year old. We start to pick up that at some point humans suddenly became infertile. Why, what happened in the immediate aftermath and how society and other countries crumbled isn't explained - we are left to gather what clues we can from the scattered newspapers, government propaganda bulletins and news reports. If anyone has played Half Life 2, then the feeling is very similar to the opening third of that game where you arrive in City 17 not really knowing what is going on wit the population under the control of "civil protection". The plot centres around Theo Farren, a man who, like most people has a nothing life. He's on the verge of alcoholism and like most of the population he has lost hope. One day he is contacted by his ex wife, Julian who is the leader of the Fishes - a pseudo-terrorist group fighting for the rights of immigrants or "fujis". She asks him to use his family contacts to acquire transport papers to allow the young immigrant Kee to reach the Brighton coast. All Theo can acquire are papers allowing Kee to travel along with himself. So Theo, Kee, Julian and fishes Luke and Miriam set out from London. After the group are ambushed, they seek shelter at a fish safe house where Theo discovers Kee's secret: she's pregnant. As the fishes argue over how to use Kee's situation to their advantage Theo, Kee and Miriam escape and try to get Kee to Brighton where, supposedly, a boat from the Human Project - a collection of scientists trying to unravel the mystery of humans' infertility - awaits. Clive Owen is not noted for his his charisma. This worked to his advantage in things like the pulp fiction Sin City and the BMW shorts and so it does again here. Theo isn't a hero - he's just a guy who has lost just about everything in a world where the government distribute anti-depressants and suicide kits. He doesn't have to be the larger than life front man. The supporting actors are used sparingly and as a result shine in their time on screen. Director Alfonso Cuaron is on fine form and his style screams through. The colour palette is muted and the frequent violence is dealt with, like Miami vice in a very realistic matter-of-fact way. Early on we see a terrorist bomb explode in a cafe. As the dust clears we see the survivors staggering around missing limbs, we hear the falling of glass and car alarms blaring and we hear a high pitched ringing. The ringing continues through the title screen and follows us as Theo arrives at work, mimicking the real world effect of being close to a loud noise. The effect is repeated throughout the film. Characters who are fairly major die at the back or far sides of the screen with no almost no attention pad to them. The first scene also sets up the most impressive (and probably most overlooked) aspect of the camera direction: the long takes. Throughout the film there are 3 or 4 long scenes where the camera doesn't cut. We see the characters in the car talking, with the camera panning between all 5 occupants thanks to a specially designed camera rig, before - in the same shot - the car is attacked by a gang and the ensuing panic, escape and encounter with the police are shown without moving to a different camera. In the eightieth minute a group of characters exit from an archway and explore their surroundings before being ambushed and threatened with execution. A firefight erupts between the the ambushers and the army as Theo dives for cover where ever he can find it and chases after Kee. He runs down the street, through a bus after he is attacked from where he witnesses the army lay siege to a building with tanks before running into the building past the plethora of rpgs launched from inside, through the building searching for Kee. When he finally finds her on the 2nd floor, eight intense minutes have passed and the camera has not cut since they emerged from the archway. It's almost unbelievable - not only did they have to get the lines and acting performances right for 8 minutes, but a lot of stunts, pyrotechnics and movement had to happen. In addition, several characters from the start of the scene had to get to their positions for the end of the scene and be in the right place at the right time. Unbelievable stuff. The film had almost no hype because we got in the UK 4 months before the US, so the Hollywood hype machine hadn't started rolling. To back this up, the UK DVD is completely barebones. Boo.
We can guess Theo's fate as it adhears to the "if the hero's love interest dies, they will die after reaching their goal" that was defined in Gladiator. It would have been nice to show Theo finally finding some hope at the end of the film, but nevermind
Monday, January 01, 2007
Top non-2006 films of 2006
As last year, I've prepared a list of my pick of the films from 2005 and before that I saw for the first time in 2006.
Whisper of the heart and The cat returns
You may think I'm cheating by bundling these two films together but they are truly companion pieces. Taking Mimi wo Sumaseba (Whisper of the heart) first, this film was a first for Ghibli in several ways. It was Ghibli's idea to bring to the fore a new young director who would one day take over from Miyazaki-san and Takahata-san who weren't getting any younger. It was decided that Yoshifumi Kondō - an animation director from earlier Ghibli films - would be the man to bring Aoi Hiiragi's manga to the big screen. As a new director, he brought with him a different feel to the film more akin to the films of Takahata than Miyazaki. From the opening rendition of Take me home, country roads there is a very different score than we have previously heard. The film is based around 14 year old schoolgirl Shizuku Tsukishima who is approaching her high school entrance exams. This probably means nothing to most British people, but it's the next step on the Japanese education conveyor of pressure. Good results lead to a good high school which in turn nearly guarantees a place at one of the prestigious universities which leads to many pointless jobs as サラリーマン (Salarymen). It reminds me of my school entrance exams - which would lead (in theory) to a place at Oxbridge and end with the most gifted, intelligent people in the land taking up the very un-useful positions of lawyers, bankers and accountants. However, Shizuku's mind isn't on her exams. A keen reader, Shizuku has started noticing that all the books she checks out of the library have been read by a Seiji Amasawa. She wonders who it is, but goes about her hobby of translating Western song lyrics into Japanese for her friends. One day on her way across Tokyo to deliver lunch to her father at the library, Shizuku notices a large cat riding the train with her. Excited that the cat gets off at her stop, she follows it into a small shop on a quiet back street. Here she meets the kind owner, Nishi-san, who shows her the treasures within. Of these, she is drawn to a small figurine of a cat called The Baron who's eyes appear to instil life into it. She eventually meets Seiji and after some brief, uncomfortable encounters they begin to get closer. Seiji's dream is to become a violin maker. Shizuku is amazed at his talent, but Seiji plays down his ability. He longs to travel to Italy where he can pursue his dream. He is accepted onto a two-month apprenticeship in Italy that will asses whether he has the skills to succeed in the long course. When he leaves, Shizuku is ashamed that she doesn't have any dreams and, inspired by Seiji, decides to write a book about The Baron. She starts to let her studies slide as she struggles to get the story written before Seiji returns so she can prove herself not only to him, but to herself too.
On paper it sounds simple - a teenage love story. The kind that were Disney to make it would be filled with comedy sidekicks and the like and actually put off everyone except teenage girls. Where this films succeeds is the idea of looking at this period of life from an adult's perspective. Miyazaki's screenplay allows director Kondō to impart onto screen the kind of subtle moments Ghibli are famous for. For example, the moment that Shizuku realises her love for Seiji - a point that would be hammered home in a Disney film, quite possibly with the aid of a song sung by talking animals - it is shown simply as Shizuku nestling her head against Seiji's back as he peddles her on his bike to watch the sunrise. Characters such as Nishi-san are fleshed out and even The Baron has a back story. Some have dismissed Whisper as a mere remake of Kiki's delivery service, but it's much more than that. It's about questioning whether what society dictates is the right path is right for you. It's about wanting to prove yourself, not just to you, but to someone else who has inspired you. Even if they are on the other side of the world. Whilst Miyazaki's films are frequently set in fantasy locations, Kondō sets Whisper firmly in the reality of mid-90s Tokyo. In fact, Shizuku lives in Tama Hills - the area being developed in Takahata's tanuki film, Pom poko. For the first time we experience a lively suburb in a Ghibli film. The animation pushes towards realism with the fantastic exception of sequences from Shizuku's story which were inspired and animated by Naohisa Inoue based on his fantasy land of Iblard. This style was revisited in the 2006 Ghibli museum short Hoshi o Katta Hi (The day I harvested a star). I strongly urge everyone to watch this film - it's beautiful and real: something that most people wouldn't believe an animated film could be. Sadly, the director Kondō passed away from a brain aneurysm three years after the film's release.
In 2005 I had the chance to go and see Neko no ongaeshi (The cat returns) at the cinema. I'm actually really glad I didn't cos I think I would have been very disappointed. Running at a mere 75 minutes, the story is a simple fantasy adventure - not the kind of thing you would expect from Studio Ghibli. However, once you have been primed by Whisper of the heart the film takes on much more significance. The story stars none other than The Baron from Nishi-san's shop so it is assumed that the story is one of Shizuku's. Thus it makes sense that it is short and simple as Shizuku is still starting out. No mention of any of the characters from Whisper beyond the cats is made to ensure that this film works as a stand alone entity for those who haven't seen the previous film. The story follows the adventures of Haru, a school girl who one day saves a cat from being run over. To her amazement, the cat rises to its hind legs and thanks her before running off. That night she is visited by a procession headed by the king of the cat kingdom. He tells her that the cat she saved was his son and the cats will thank her over the following days. As Haru is bombarded with boxes of mice and other gifts she is met by an envoy to the cat king. She is told that the cats will take her to their kingdom where she will marry the prince. Naturally Haru is a bit freaked out, but a strange soothing voice tells her to seek out the cat business centre. She is guided to a meeting with the large cat Muta (who made an appearance in Whisper) who leads her to the Baron in a hidden realm. Whilst they plan their strategy, the cats arrive and take Haru and Muta to the cat kingdom. As Haru spends more time in the kingdom she begins to resemble a cat more and more. The Baron eventually finds the cat kingdom and must plan an escape for not only Haru, but himself and Muta as well. The film was originally meant to be a 45-minute short, but ended up as a film as Miyazaki and producer Suzuki were impressed with director Hiroyuki Morita's dedication in storyboarding his ideas. As a standalone film, it's nowhere near the usual Ghibli standards - the animation isn't as smooth, the characters not as detailed and once Haru reaches the cat kingdom, the slow building pace accelerates to the film's climax. Knowing that that this is supposed to represent Shizuku's work is an extra excitement. We see how the Baron has been made into the hero and the large train-riding cat Moon has his character from Whisper transcribed here as Shizuku imagined him - a cat with more than one identity who is primarily concerned with himself. If I had one wish, it would have been that the story featured was based on the one we see Shizuku working on in Whisper that featured the land of Iblard.
Infernal affairs
I'd heard many good things about the Infernal Affairs trilogy. In fact, when I saw a trailer for US film The departed I immediately thought of the Hong Kong film. Eventually I decided to buy it and see what all the fuss was about before the Western remake hit the screens. Set in Hong Kong in first years of the 21st century Infernal affairs tells the story of the police force's struggle against the criminal gang headed up by big boss Sam. Both sides think they have the perfect weapon - a man on the inside. Sam sent several of his men to sign up to the police force and one of them, Ming, has rapidly risen through the ranks. In the meantime, undercover officer Yan has infiltrated several criminal gangs. Now he is a trusted lieutenant in Sam's. The only man who knows his true identity is Inspector Wong to help maintain his cover. Both men feed information back to their superiors keeping the situation at an uneasy stalemate. Things come to a head when the police attempt to swoop on a drug deal between Sam and some Thais. Yan conveys the progress of the deal to the waiting police force, whilst Ming is able to warn Sam that a raid is about to happen. The result is that both Wong and Sam realise they have a traitor in their midst. Sam turns to Yan and The police to Ming to try and uncover the moles. Both realise that the only way they can succeed is to unmask each other to their real bosses. The only problem is, after so long undercover do they still feel they want to keep up their double lives? This is a film that really reinforces the idea of the thriller. It's not full of violence like the HK-films of John Woo, it's all about ratcheting up the suspense until something has to give. (Spoilers follow - to read highlight the box)
Sam's idea to flush out the mole in his ranks leads to the death of Inspector Wong. The moment of his death is a complete shock and as Yan turns around to see the body, we can see him suddenly realise that he is now completely alone - noone else knows he is really a police officer and Wong's computer files are encrypted, much to Ming's annoyance.
At the same time, Ming is settling down with his girlfriend and begins to question his loyalty to Sam. The film is a brisk 101 minutes and is paced perfectly. By the end of the film both characters have decided on their futures, but they are dependent on each other - Yan needs his identity back and Ming needs to know that his status remains hidden. It comes to a head with a tense meeting on top of a building which leads to the film's big ending. The ending is a complete surprise and in fact the film required an alternative ending to be filmed to allow it to be shown in mainline China as the authorities were uncomfortable with the implications.Oldboy
Moving east to one of the first K-films I've seen. I remember several of my friends getting excited by this film's DVD release back in 2005, but it wasn't until Film4 showed it that I got to see it. It forms the second part of Chan-wook Park's revenge trilogy. The film starts with Dae-su Oh drunk in a police station. His friend arrives to bail him out and take him home to his wife and young daughter. As he calls them to let them know Dae-su is coming home, he leaves the phone box to discover that Dae-su has simply vanished. Dae-su comes around in a small locked hotel room. He is imprisoned in this room for 15 years without seeing another human except on the TV in the room, whenever he becomes violent or suicidal he is gassed. Whilst he is imprisoned he learns that his wife has been murdered and his daughter sent to live with foster parents. Dae-su trains himself by shadow boxing and punching his prison's walls. One day, he is suddenly released with no explanation. Clothed, given a mobile phone and money he stumbles into a sushi bar and passes out in front of the young chef Mido who takes him in. He soon discovers that his kidnapper still has plans for him and he is told that by a man called Woo-jin that unless he can find the reason for his imprisonment in 5 days Mido will be killed. Despite their large age-difference they feel an attraction and Mido agrees to help Dae-su in gaining his revenge. Dae-su eventually tracks down the prison where he was being held and "extracts" information about his captor. His escape from the prison involves the infamous "corridor fight scene" - a long unbroken one-take fight scene in the prison's hallway as Dae-su is attacked by the prison guards. He and Mido follow more clues, becoming even closer and eventually sleeping together. Finally Dae-su discovers the truth behind why Woo-jin imprisoned him. He confronts Woo-jin but Woo-jin is prepared and turns the tables not only on Dae-su, but turns around the whole plot of the film. I won't spoil the ending, but I do encourage you to watch this film as an excellent example of how to script, plan and shoot a film.
Nana
Moving even further east we reach Japan and the phenomenon that has swept the country in the last few years - Nana. It's the story of two girls called Nana who meet on a train as they move to Tokyo. Nana Osaki is moving to try and make it with her band, The Black Stones and Nana Komatsu is moving to be with her boyfriend who is at college in Tokyo. They are completely opposite in character; Osaki is strong willed and determined to prove herself whilst Komatsu is heavily dependent on others. Eventually they decide to live together. The film is split into two parts - Komatsu learning to be more assertive and take control of her life after she discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her. The second half focuses on Osaki's journey to face her past and her ex-boyfriend Ren who left their old band to join popular group Trapnest. The film is based on the original manga and as with many films based on long-running series, the film doesn't have a definite ending, which will lead on to plenty of sequels. Whilst the Nana phenomenon is fairly unknown outside of the East, it is constantly being touted as the next big thing that will hit the West. The two Nana's are played by Mika Nakashima - a popular Jpop artist - and Aoi Miyazaki - popular Japanese actress. There are certain films that stick with you for some reason. It's clear they're not the best film in the world, but it stays in your head. This is one of those films. I saw it about a KLM flight to Osaka on a 5" LCD panel with crap headphones. I didn't think much of it at the time, but by the time I made my return flight a few weeks later I felt the urge to watch it again. It's sort of like having the last song you heard in the morning stick in your head. The pacing of the film is pretty slow and the split between the two stories is extremely jarring, but the main song from the film (here) is extremely catchy and the OST has a pleasing mournful tone that completely fits with the film. Mika Nakashima is well known as a Jpop singer, but Nana's band is a Jrock band. Their main song is penned by L'arc en Ciel frontman Hyde and has both an edge and some nice guitar work. Strangely, the main song by the Jrock band Trapnest (here) is unbelievably pop-based. I know that for a lot of Jrock banks their bark is worse than their bite (it's all about visuals), but would even a visual-kei band play something like this?
The sequel to the film was widely anticipated, but much of the original cast (including Aoi Miyazaki) haven't returned. The theme song this time sounds a lot more pop rather than rock (judge for yourself here). Sadly, I smell a straight-to-DVD release.
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