Disney's Zootropolis has melted my mind.

A couple of Wednesday evening's ago I went to the cinema.

'Wow, so what' I hear you say (in my head). But this was no ordinary cinema trip though... it was an experience.

I've seen a fair few films at the cinema that have blown me away over the years, but nothing quite as amazing as the film I saw on that Wednesday.

I went to see Disney's Zootropolis.

Also known as Zootopia in some other countries... I don't know why, although I'm sure there's probably some ridiculous reason.

Anyway, this weekend I went to see it for a second time - it's a rarety for me to want to pay to see a film twice, but I would honestly pay to see it a few more times, because it's amazing.

Both times I saw Zootropolis I lost count of the times the animation, and the absolutely stunning rendered landscapes made my eyes well up out of sheer astonishment. My poor little mind just couldn't quite compute how something so incredible was able to be created.

Animation has come a long long way since I was a kid.

Is it even possible to get any better?!

I'm an illustrator, and have occasionally dabbled with 2D animation, and I can honestly say, I don't think I have the patience to get in to animation properly... the amount of time and effort that goes in to each second is numbing on so many levels, and I can't even begin to think how many hours must have been spent on the animation in Disney's 55th animated feature film, even WITH all the help of modern technology. Then you've got scenery and background characters. My goodness, there's a tonne of them in this film, and when I buy it (it will be my first Blu-Ray purchase ever, yeah I know, that's old-hat now!) I plan to sit and go through it frame by frame.

Buuuuh.

You know what? I wanted to write a really in depth blog about this film and animation in general, but I'm still so blown away by this film I really can't find words to express how amazing it is in so many ways.

So let's just say, you must go and see it. You'll love it for any of a billion reasons, whether it's the animation itself, the great story line, or the contemporary universal message.

I'm so busy at the moment I've barely got time to breathe, let alone write a blog (that nobody will read anyway) but hopefully one day I'll be able to come back to this.

Zootropolis, for me, was an experience - and much like one of the messages in the film; that you can do anything, or be anything you want to be, it makes me so happy to see that the dream I once had as a kid (to be a cartoonist) now offers so many more possibilities in terms of what can be achieved in animation.

Does that even make sense?! No idea. I know what I'm trying to say.

Rating this film a 7 out of 7 wouldn't do it justice.

I'll be long dead before I achieve anything on the scale of awesomeness of this film.

Weezer - the White Album (review)

I love Weezer.

They have to be one of the bands I've had on constant rotation over the last 18 years or so, and I rarely get tired of hearing anything by them.

Apart from 'Death To False Metal' (whatever that album was meant to be I have no idea).

A few weeks ago my friend and fellow Mashed Potato Hed Mat (also a big Weezer fan) brought two new singles to my attention, 'King of the World' and 'California Kids' - and this was great news to me as it was beginning to feel like it had been a while since there was any new Weezer in my life...

I listened to the songs, and... well, in all honesty, I wasn't very impressed by what I was hearing and having not known a new album was on it's way so imminently, started to dread what it might be like.

Then last week it appeared on Spotify - the White Album.

I was worried and happy all at once and as soon as I spotted it (I can't think of a decent Spotify pun right now, sorry!) I gave it a listen through. I wasn't impressed. In fact, my exact words to Mat were; "Flicked through, it's boring as fuck."

I was sad.

But me being me, the eternal hoper, gave it another listen... this time with louder volume whilst I was working on some of my monster illustrations. The album finished (it is a super short album, with most tracks barely hitting or overhanging the 3 minute mark) and even though it hadn't had my full attention I felt like I'd just listened to a really nice album.

Every single Weezer album has it's own "thing" that I can't quite put my finger on, but I guess I'll just call it "Weezerness". In fact, Weezer could quite easily be a singles band, but there's something about listening to an entire album of theirs that leaves me satisfied, despite the occassional 'WTF is this?!' moment that has happened on probably most of their albums over the last few years, at least the albums since the Green Album. I listened again, and louder.

It's a grower. I'm not sure what the band were aiming to do calling it the White Album, because by the Beatles standards, it's definitely not their best album, and won't be their most memorable, BUT it is actually a fine piece of work that is really consistent in Weezerness. But old skool Weezerness, which has been lacking for a while. It has it's Pinkerton moments - albeit a bit subdued, with tracks like the King of the World single and Wind in our Sails - and it also has some Blue/Green/Make Believe moments. In fact, the thing the White Album is missing is the cheesey moments we've become used to over the last decade, there's no 'Pork And Beans', there's no '(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To', and there's definitely no 'Buddy Holly'. But that's actually a nice breather for a change, and it actually lends to show just how great a song writer lead singer Rivers Cuomo is - as if I needed to even say that.

The White Album is solid, and takes us back (in a weird way) to a more mature sounding Weezer. That's why I feel that it's got some Pinkerton about it.

Each track has the typical Rivers Cuomo trademark sound, which to me is the minor chord twists he puts in to every happy sounding song which to me is exactly how this band have manged to stay unique and memorable without becoming an embarrasing old man boy band. The nerdcore element is still in there, you just have to listen for it, perhaps with a bit more effort nowadays, but as I said, Weezer might just have grown up now. Which isn't a bad thing at all, as I'd love to be able to still be listening to this band when I'm 60 (if my ears still work!) without thinking they got too poppy or ran out of good songs.

This album is still growing on me, and it's so short I have to keep playing it, but that doesn't stop the chorus lines getting stuck in my humming glands, and although initially I'd have given it a terrible 3 out of 7, at least 5 plays later I'm giving it a 5.5 and I expect it to hit a 6 within the next few days... it won't hit a 7, but hopefully that means Weezer will keep trying for many years to come.

Summary:

Stinks of Pinkerton, feels a bit like Blue Album with sprinklings of the others, but most importantly, it still sounds like Weezer, and IS Weezer.

Happy pranking - don't worry Google, I'm on your side!

Just wanted to say that I think poor ol' Google has been pranked by the people claiming to have gotten in to trouble or fired over "accidentally" using the April fools 'Mic Drop' send button...

Google April Fool Gmail button sparks backlash

And if they really did (which they didn't - I stake my best hat on it) (I only own one hat) then basically:

A) they deserved to be told off or fired for being so absolutely dumb

B) who cares? Who really wants to work for a company that can't see that it was either an honest mistake, and not their fault

C) Who would want to work for a company that didn't see the funny side of it? I mean, it's not like they didn't receive the sent email is it?!

Lighten up world. Stuff like this winds me up.

Happy pranking :)

The claws of 2016 continue to steal: RIP Phife Dawg

Today I returned to the internet after a day away, only to find more sad news.

First of all, in light of the Brussells attacks, I must say that I am (as always in these cases) deeply saddened by this tragedy, and my thoughts and prayers go out to each and every one of the victims and their families, friends and colleagues.

I feel the need to say this because otherwise you are always going to feel like you're trivialising such events when it appears that you're not being vocal about them and talking about other things. But in reality, it goes without saying, and nobody should make you feel bad about whether you put up a flag on social media or not.

Plus Daesh don't deserve to see our pain, only our solidarity when they attempt such moronic ill-thought out ways of trying to get the West to listen.

Anyway, that's a whole other blog entry I may or may not decide to write at some point and not what I want to get in to right now.

Alas, in amongst the sadness of current event my sadness today was further deepened by the news that a member of one of my all-time favourite hip-hop groups, A Tribe Called Quest, has passed away.

This group have been a big part of my musical life, one of the first I ever heard and one that shaped the music (and particularly the hip-hop) I listened to as I have travelled through life.

So that means that Phife Dawg was part of my life. A big part of it that I never really acknowledged with quite so much certainty until today.

I could write an entire post about what ATCQ have done as hip-hop pioneers, and indeed, Phife's role within that, but all I feel I need to do today is say firstly that 2016 is racking up some major talent up there in the big blue yonder, and secondly, listen to A Tribe Called Quest.

Thanks Phife, thanks for the music, thanks for being influential. May you rest in peace.

World Poetry Day - A Poem about The Moon

It's #WorldPoetryDay, here's one I wrote and illustrated a while ago, but I still like it!

Sussex 26th Annual Beer Festival

Well... this is how it ended up looking. It got a bit messy.

But what is a beer festival without shenanigans?

So yesterday was the 26th Sussex Annual Beer and Cider festival in Brighton, and I've been going to this event with my friends for about five or six years now. It's always a fun day, and there's always some good beer discoveries, and despite always going on the the final day, and a lot of good beers being sold out, there were still some winners on the racks.

I vaguely recall posting most of the ones I liked on my Untapped profile, but the one beer that stood out for me this year was Treasure IPA by Great Heck Brewery, from Yorkshire.

I'd love to go in to more detail about how the beers tasted, but right now I'm still a bit hungover, and in all honesty, I can't remember - as you can see from the photo, it all got a bit messy and from about 7pm onwards I really can't remember a thing!

Unfortunately this year we were four people down from our usual crew, and they were missed, but I think the troopers that were in attendance did them proud!

All in all, the day was fun, great beers, great friends, and all just a stones throw away from my flat.

I'm restricting myself to attending three beer festivals only this year (last year it seemed as if there was a beer festival nearly every week!) and this one is always the one to kick off the year - next will be the Great British Beer Festival in London in August, followed by the Eastbourne Beer Festival to bring the year to a close.

Today I don't think I could possibly face a pint of beer, but right now I'm feeling like I want to brew another batch with my friend Scuff.

It's the first day of Spring today and so I raise an invisible toast to friends, and more good times this year!

Rockingham revisited...

About a week ago I wrote a review about the new Nerf Herder album 'Rockingham'.

Although I gave it a respectable 5 out of 7, I am ashamed and deserve a slap for doing so.

Having not been able to remove ANY of the songs from my head this week, and playing the album about three times through each day, I can now honestly say that it deserves a full 7 out of 7.

I originally said something that I need to clarify... I said in my original review:

"It's not their best album" which sounds a bit negative, and suggests it's not brilliant, but what I meant by this is that it's not my favourite Nerf Herder album, which is still true. However... I think I now love it just as much as my favourite Nerf Herder album 'Nerf Herder IV'.

In fact, having listened to Rockingham so much now, there's actually a lot of similarity between the two albums and if you squidged both together to make a mega album, it would indeed be MEGA!

That being said, Rockingham as a standalone album is now officially a classic Nerf album in my eyes (ears!).

There's only one song I'm not keen on on Rockingham and that's the track 'Jackie Got Married', but I only don't like it because I don't get it, and have no idea who Jackie is or what the song is about - I'm sure it's funny to Americans though (?!).

The opening track 'Portland' (about Portland, Oregon, funnily enough) is one of my favourites because I've been there and it seems accurate!

Each time I listen to the album, I end up with a new favourite song from it.

The thing I love about Nerf Herder is their signature sound, which although is pop-punk in it's essence, is laced with so many other styles or what I call Nerf-isms, such as the rock and sci-fi elements that are also thrown into a big blender with a generous helping of nerdy geeky fun. There's really no other band on the planet that can do what Nerf Herder does or sound how they sound, not without falling flat on their ass.

Lead singer and songwriter Parry Gripp is actually a living genius, and if you've never heard any Nerf Herder, I guarantee you've heard something he's written, like this for example (which I dare not press play on because it's an ear worm that will literally eat your brain for the rest of your life once you've heard it...)

By the way, if you dared to press play and listen... I'm sorry. But only a little bit.

Anyway, yeah, Rockingham = amazing, Nerf Herder = amazing.

That's about all I have to say.

That, and HURRY UP AND DO ANOTHER ALBUM! Oh, and come and play in the UK again before I die please.