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Music mania
[Posted 11:16 AM GMT by Whiggles]
I've been on quite the music-purchasing spree recently. This morning, Music for TV Dinners arrived - a compilation of catchy little jingles that have shown up in many cartoons, including, most famously, Ren & Stimpy.
Over the weekend, I went out shopping and picked up I'm With Stupid, which completes my Aimee Mann collection... until her latest album, The Forgotten Arm, is released on May 2nd.
   
I've also been going through a bit of a Heather Nova craze recently, so I picked up four of her CDs for bargain-basement prices: Siren, South, Storm, and the live album Wonderlust.
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The Simpsons at "halfway point"
[Posted 02:24 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Speaking of animated sitcoms, it appears that Matt Groening has said that The Simpsons has reached its "halfway point", suggesting that it could go on for another 17 years. Dear god, just shoot this horse already. The Simpsons has sucked the big one for getting on for a decade now.
Source: The DVD Forums
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Peter's so stupid...
[Posted 12:16 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Family Guy, that incredibly ugly animated sitcom that feels just a little too much like The Simpsons, is back after having been cancelled for a few years. You think those petitions don't work? Seems they do. That and exponential DVD sales.
A while back I wrote about the awfulness of the pilot episode of American Dad, a new show created by Family Guy main man Seth McFarlane, which managed to be even uglier than its predecessor and about as funny as AIDS. The good news is that the first episode of this new run of Family Guy is a million miles away from American Dad's hideous crappiness, and possibly the funniest thing I've seen in ages to boot. (No, scratch that, Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon is funnier.) The show still looks more like excrement than animation, but it seems to represent a step up in terms of production values given that the characters actually seem to move somewhat now, but seriously, with this sort of show, you're watching it for the gags, not the art. And like the previous season of Family Guy, it's just that: a gag show. A hilariously funny gag show, but one that you'll put away and not give a second thought to once it's finished. Still, it gave me a half-hour of giggles, and it must be pretty cheap to produce, so hey, it's good that it got renewed.
Now if only they'd renew all the other decent Fox shows that got cancelled before their time was up.
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Cosmetic Surgery Live: interesting in the same manner as a car crash
[Posted 03:33 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Mary Whitehouse was right. Television corrupts, and I have proof.
Last night, Channel 5 screened their final instalment of the current season of a little show called Cosmetic Surgery Live. If anyone's trying to figure out some sort of clever double entendre in that title, don't bother - it literally is what it sounds like: people go under the knife live and have their operations commented on by a pair of presenters grinning like cheshire cats and cracking bad puns in the same manner as those "America's Wackiest Garden Gnomes" type shows. One is Vanessa Feltz, a British chat show presenter who used to be a fatty before she discovered the addictive joys of liposuction. The other is Dr. Jan Adams, a jovial American man and a practicing surgeon who, let me tell you, I would not want within a mile away if I ever had to go under the knife. Also in on the act are Danniella Westbrook, who is more silicone than human and someone whose face I'm sure I'm supposed to recognize but don't, and her Los Angeles counterpart Rhonda Shear (who I don't recognize either). The pair of them gleefully sit in on the various operations, grinning to the camera and asking stupid questions as the unfortunate patient gets his ballsack cut open or has a gallon of fat pumped out of his left toe.
As I previously mentioned, last night was the season finale, and what a cracker of a show it was! We got to see a man with man-boobs undergo a breast reduction, we shuddered as we heard the tragic tale of the poor man whose penis was left in a state of disrepair as a result of circumcission (proof, in my mind, that Rabbis shouldn't play with scissors), and we saw a phenomenally stupid woman with more money than sense trade her saggy boobs and fatty thighs for a body like Frankenstein's monster. I seriously hope these people got some serious discounts, given the blatant lack of regard demonstrated both by the surgeons and the presenters.
Cosmetic Surgery Live is like seeing the results of a particularly gruesome motorway pile-up: it's incredibly unpleasant to look at, and yet something compels you to watch. Who knows what the next season will have in store for us? Old women having testicles grafted on to their foreheads? Children getting breast augmentation? Who knows! But I can hardly wait. Can you?
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Five down, two to go
[Posted 08:21 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Well, that's that. I've shot this shit. This block of exams is now over, and although today's exam didn't go as well as I could have hoped (not surprising, given how little time I had to prepare for it), all things considered it could have been a lot worse. As is so often the case, I got two reasonably good questions and one duffer. I actually managed to write a lot less for my prepared question than I would have liked - I just didn't have enough time to memorize it all. Furthermore, looking back at my notes now (before they go in the trash compactor, heh), I realize that I got most of my references totally wrong. Can't be helped now, though. What's done is done. Now I have 12 days until my next exam, so I'm going to take the opportunity to relaaaaax this weekend. Who knows, I might even re-activate my World of Warcraft account.
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Genius at work
[Posted 08:02 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Witness my intricate filing system in action. By this time tomorrow, I'll be able to clear all this crap away into the bin... or my cupboard, if the mood takes me.
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DVD debacle
[Posted 05:24 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Today's delivery:
  
Sarah McLachlan: Mirrorball (R1 USA), The Last of the Mohicans (R1 USA extended edition), Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos, R1 USA).
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The end is in sight
[Posted 04:15 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Four down, three to go. Tomorrow afternoon I have Pragmatics, the last of this block of exam nastiness. This morning I had Semantics, easily my worst paper after Grammar, and to my surprise it didn't go too badly at all, except for the first question, on phonesthesia, which I'm pretty sure I've fucked up something rotten (my mind went blank, and I couldn't remember if phonesthesia was the same thing as sound symbolism or an aspect of sound symbolism). Anyway, I'm currently working in overdrive to learn a prepared answer plus three other topics for tomorrow's exam at 14:30. After that I can relax, watch a movie or two, and maybe write that review of Hannibal I've been promising to coincide with the release of Ridley Scott's new film, Kingdom of Heaven, on May 6th (the same day I have my final exam). Oh yeah, and there's such a thing as a general election on May 5th. Come on, make your Uncle Whiggles proud: vote Liberal Democrats and let's sort this whole sorry mess out.
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Pope-vision Redux
[Posted 07:23 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Well, who'd have thunk it? One incontinent, bigoted old man with Nazi ties dies and what do they do?
You guessed it. Replace him with another incontinent, bigoted old man with Nazi ties. You have to admire their reliability.
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Movie madness
[Posted 06:44 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Man, I haven't watched any films in ages. Once this block of exams is over on Thursday, I'll get back into the swing of things. I've got Saw, The Others and The Wax Mask from Blockbuster lined up for a viewing, and I still need to watch Zatoichi and Trial & Retribution Vols. 5-8.
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Yesterday: Written Text funnies
[Posted 06:38 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Three down, four to go. Written Text went okay, but I don't think I remembered nearly as much as I was hoping to. Anyone who says memorizing three essays is the easy way out has obviously never tried it. I essentially spent the entire weekend rewriting and rewriting them in an attempt to learn them, and I also taped them on to a dictaphone, so all in all I think I must have listened to and written them a combined 15-20 times. Oddly enough, any problems I had this morning tended to stem from knowing what conclusions I wanted to reach but not being able to remember how to get there.
Anyway, tomorrow is the dreaded Semantics exam, which I'm feeling slightly more optimistic now that I've been through my sources and written up some notes, but I still think this could easily be my worst exam. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day: I'm going to need to start working for my Pragmatics exam as soon as I get home at lunch time.
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Here we go again...
[Posted 09:16 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Written Text exam tomorrow morning. By the way, anyone who ever tells you that learning your answers by heart before the exam is the easy option is just plain wrong. I've done more work for this exam than any other so far, and I'm dead beat. I just hope I can remember enough tomorrow to actually get a half-decent grade in it, but I'm at the stage right now where I just want these bloody exams to be over so I can relax.
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DVD debacle
[Posted 04:57 PM GMT by Whiggles]
  
I got a couple of DVDs in the mail yesterday: Vanilla Sky (R2 UK) and Trial & Retribution: Volumes 5-8 (R2 UK). Despite my reservations about Cameron Crowe's blatant plagiarism of Abre Les Ojos (and no, getting Alejandro Amenábar's permission and admitting your source doesn't make you any less of a lazy filmmaker, Cammy), I have to say I find this film fascinating, if only as a means of studying the differing ways in which a Spanish independent filmmaker and a Hollywood saucy-boy approach what is essentially the exact same script. I've also ordered the R1 of Abre Les Ojos, and I feel a comparison article brewing in my intestines.
Today, while I was out sweating words from my pen, Wallace & Gromit: 3 Cracking Adventures! (R2 UK) showed up. Big disappointment, by the way. I sold off my R1 because it had a standards-converted transfer and some of the music in The Wrong Trousers had been altered. Well, buying the R2 means that I no longer have a standards-converted copy, but to my horror the music has been modified for this release too. Beat that! The original TV broadcast and VHS copies had the proper music, but the DVDs don't. I spy a mending job in the pipeline! Long live the joys of Adobe Premiere.
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Aloha!
[Posted 04:45 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Two down, five to go. I had my Sociolinguistics exam this morning, and I actually think it went surprisingly well. A lot of people have been dreading this exam, but for me it went much easier than Grammar, in that questions I could write a sufficient amount of material for came up and I didn't have any trouble remembering what I wanted to say. If all my exams could be this easy, I'll be laughing. Sadly, this weekend, I will have to memorize three 1000-word essays for Monday's Written Text exam, after which I have Semantics (dreading) on Wednesday and Pragmatics (not so bad, but I don't have nearly enough time to revise it thoroughly) on Thursday. Then I'm free as a daisy for 12 days until Tuesday May 3rd, when I have Phonetics II. Then, my final exam, Literary & Linguistic Computing, is on Friday May 6th. I'll have plenty of time to work them up (and Computing should be a piece of cake anyway) - I just wish I had more time for Semantics and Pragmatics.
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One down, six to go
[Posted 06:20 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Well, I had my first exam this morning, and it didn't go nearly as badly as I thought it would... at least to a certain extent. While I got at least one and a half of the questions I was hoping for, the writers of the exam paper decided to be complete bastards and combine the final topic I had revised with one I hadn't even looked at (and, in fact, I don't believe we even got a lecture on it). Basically, I have no idea how I've done, although I would hope at least to have done well in one question and reasonably in another. Oh well, next up: Sociolinguistics on Friday.
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DVD debacle
[Posted 02:35 PM GMT by Whiggles]
 
King Arthur (Director's Cut, R1 Canada) and Bambi (Platinum Edition, R1 Canada) both arrived this morning. Two more Disney DVDs, two more sub-par transfers. King Arthur is the worst of the two, with very little detail and big, thick haloes: on par with The Fellowship of the Ring in terms of crappiness. Bambi isn't much better, and the horrible digital "restoration" they've done on it doesn't help matters, but at least the relative flatness of the animation means that the non-existent detail isn't as big a deal. Oh, and the trailers for the Bambi and Lilo & Stitch cheapquels that run at the start are a sheer embarrassment.
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Here we go, here we go, here we go...
[Posted 12:49 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Well, the dreaded hour looms. My first exam is tomorrow. I am nowhere near as prepared as I would like to be, but it has got to a stage where I don't feel as if I can actually learn anything more. I've compressed my knowledge of Grammar on to three sides of A4, which probably does not bode well. Then again, I've no idea what they're really expecting of us, given that every time I open a book on the subject I see exactly the same information staring at me. I guess it's hard to be theoretical about a subject like Grammar, even if its deeper intricacies continue to evade me. Oh well. This was originally the exam I was least looking forward to, but that has since been replaced by Semantics, a subject that is infinitely more theoretical and complex, and yet one that fails to interest me in the slightest. I guess it's much easier to engage with a subject and consider different theories and hypotheses if the material actual ignites your flame, but for me Semantics is just the unholy love-child of linguistics and pseudo-psychological faux intellectualism. (Sorry, all you buddy Semantics aficionados out there!)
I finished writing my prepared answers for Written Text yesterday. Can you believe that we can actually prepare that entire exam in advance if we want? I'm still shaking my head about it, but I've had official confirmation from the jolly Dr. Tom Cobalt (not real name), so this is either going to be the easiest exam of the century or else I'm completely deluding myself about my ability to analyse George W. Bush's inauguration speech. Then again, it's fairly easy to pick apart B-man's clumsy attempts to disguise his fascist, warmongering swill (no, unfortunately, I haven't phrased it that way in my answer).
That said, I still have pretty much zero confidence, which is a first for me going into an exam. As I've no doubt said before, I need a B1 to get into my Film Studies course, but I am not at all confident that I will get that grade. My essay marks so far have bounced all over the place from A2 to B3, I got an A3 in my dissertation (which is worth criminally little), and an A1 in my Phonetics oral (which is worth even less), and I really can't be bothered doing the maths to work out what sort of average I actually need to get in these exams to get my B1. I fully expect to crash and burn in Semantics, and possibly Grammar as well if it turns out that my parroting of Dr. Cobalt's A Workbook of Grammatical Theory along with bits and pieces of Chomsky and de Saussure turn out to be insufficient. If I were superstitious, I would cross my fingers or pray to my imaginary friend that I would do well enough in Written Text, Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics, Phonetics II and the criminally easy Literary & Linguistic Computing to make up for it, but I don't go in for that sort of nonsense, so I'm just going to shrug my shoulders, turn up, fill up my answer book and then bury my head in the sand until June 9th, when the results will be posted.
Oh yeah, and after that we have the ridiculous debacle known as graduation, which, if possible, I am looking forward to even less than the exams themselves.
Sayonara, folks!
By the way, I am accutely aware of the fact that this 574-word post took me less than 10 minutes to write. In comparison, I spent most of yesterday afternoon writing a 950-word essay. The world is not fair.
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The big upgrade looms
[Posted 02:25 PM GMT by Whiggles]
In between boring myself stupid reading about nouns, pronouns and Universal Grammar this morning (don't ask), I've been cruising the information superhighway known as the Internet, looking for potential hardware for the Big Upgrade™ scheduled to take place this Summer. For those who don't know already, the aim of this crazy plan is to bring my computer up to top-range spec and shift the obsolete components out into a Lean Mean Typing Machine for my bedroom. My original plan was simply to upgrade my case, motherboard, CPU and RAM, but I've come to the conclusion that the overhaul is going to be a little more drastic than this.
The word of the day is PCI Express, a new technology intended to replace the existing PCI and AGP formats. Like it or not, PCI-E is going to wipe out its predecessors fairly soon, and unless I want my upgrade to be a pretty short-term endeavour (a bad move considering that it will set my bank balance back quite heavily), it makes sense to go for the new technology rather than trying to patch up the old. As a result, this means that I will also need to buy a new video card and power supply, and I've more or less come to a decision about the goods on which I wish to spend my hard-earned (or hard-inherited, given that I'm soon due another cheque from my grandmother, who resides in the local loony-bin) cash:
Motherboard/CPU/RAM bundle: Intel Pentium Overclocking Bundle; contains:
- Asus P5AD2 Premium Motherboard
- Intel 550 3.4GHz Retail boxed CPU with cooler
- OCZ PC-4200 EL DDR Platinum Edition EB Dual Channel 1024MB Revision 2
Video card: Sapphire Radeon X850XT PCI Express
Case: Lian Li PC-6070B Silent Black Aluminium Case
Power Supply: Antec NeoPower 480W PSU
All this, unfortunately, is going to set me back something in the region of £1,200. I guess if you want quality you have to be prepared to fork over the goods. I'm also going to have to pick up a mouse, keyboard and DVD-ROM drive for my upstairs box (I think I have a 40 GB hard drive lying around somewhere, so that should suffice for its storage capacity).
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The ghettoization of the horror genre
[Posted 11:19 AM GMT by Whiggles]
[Also posted at DVD Times]
Rumours that Criterion, pioneers of bonus features and original aspect ratios back in the LaserDisc era and a company that has perhaps undeservedly managed to hang on to its reputation as the premiere home entertainment distributor, are considering creating a "cult movie" spin-off label have sparked fierce debate as to what this says about what Criterion thinks of such films. At its heart it brings to light an issue as old as the hills: the so-called ghettoization of the horror genre. Horror has, for as long as anyone can remember, been regarded by many as the film industry's equivalent of the black sheep of the family, the badly-behaved child that has to be hidden away whenever guests are expected. Much in the same way that animation is commonly regarded by the uninformed as a children's medium, there is something about horror and the way in which it is characterized that leads to many viewing it as somehow unworthy of the same kind of critical attention that is lavished upon more "respectable" genres.
Fundamentally, phrases like "cult", "exploitation" and "genre movies" are essentially derogatory terms used to marginalize a certain type of film that many high-brow critics would rather did not exist. Although these terms have entered into common lexicon and are frequently used in an endearing way, there is still a stigma attached to them and many of the people who enjoy such material only seem to be able to admit to this by referring to it as a "guilty pleasure". So as not to single Criterion out for this criticism, it should be pointed out that many of the so-called "cult labels" do the same thing. Blue Underground, for instance, refer to themselves as the company "dedicated to guilty pleasures for adventurous movie lovers", and the recently-established NoShame Films, whose entire proposed catalogue seems to be comprised of movies that could be described as "cult", even seem to be making an apology of sorts by virtue of their name.
When attempting to elevate horror movies to a level where it is considered acceptable to discuss them critically, bizarre new terms are created such as "psychological thriller" and "supernatural thriller". The whole "thriller" category, seemingly, has been created as a more superficially acceptable offshoot of horror that allows high-brow critics and filmgoers to admit to enjoying such films without the embarrassment of being associated with the likes of Hammer Horror and slashers. (Actually, I believe I once heard a fairly esteemed critic refer to Halloween as a "horror thriller", grudingly admitting its true origins but softening the blow somewhat by creating a meaningless double noun. Another favourite of mine is the review that claims that "film X is a great horror movie, but it is also a great motion picture" - y'know, I kind of thought that the former made the latter fairly self-evident.) Films like The Silence of the Lambs, Se7en and The Sixth Sense would, in my opinion, fall under this label. At their heart they are all horror films, but they didn't get the acclaim they receive today by admitting to this.
Ultimately, I am glad that companies like Blue Underground exist, releasing titles that few other distributors would touch, and if Criterion launching a dedicated "cult" wing means that more obscure titles will see the light of day, then I definitely welcome the move. It does nothing to help these films' acceptance among the masses, however, and essentially means that they are forever going to be known as the movies that one does not confess to liking when in polite company.
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Latest review round-up
[Posted 01:55 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Pocahontas
USA: Mike Gabriel/Eric Goldberg, 1995
**/*****
Bland and badly executed, this "gimmee an Oscar" effort from Disney has the stains of Jeffrey Katzenberg's handprints all over it. An uncomfortable mixture of aping live action and attempting to provide enough cutesy animals to entertain the kiddies, the only truly inspired moment in this clumsy and forgettable affair is the "Colours of the Wind" sequence. By far Disney's worst film, at least of the ones I've seen. Yes, even The Black Cauldron was better than this.
King Arthur (director's cut)
USA/UK/Ireland: Antoine Fuqua, 2004
***/*****
Jerry Bruckheimer tries to cash in on the success of Gladiator with an interesting but inconsistently executed idea: to create a semi-realistic portrayal of the legend of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table. Realistic in a manner of speaking, of course, for a number of decidedly anachronistic elements conspire to make it no more believable than the traditional airy-fairy spellcasting versions. Keira Knightley is miscast as Guinivere (although she does her best with the material), and it doesn't help that the character is written as a pouting action woman who embodies decidedly 20th century notions of feminism. Elsewhere Clive Owen is as wooden as a plank in the role of Arthur and the script, while well-intentioned, can't stop itself from providing the characters with some of the most spurious dialogue this site of Sunset Beach, as well as one of the silliest codas in movie history. Still, Slawomir Izdiak (of Three Colours: Blue and Black Hawk Down fame) provides exquisite photography, Stellan Skarsgård turns in a layered performance as the villanous but principled Saxon leader, and Hans Zimmer contributes one of his best action movie scores in years. King Arthur is an enjoyable distraction, and like virtually every Bruckheimer production you should simply switch off your mind and enjoy both the good and the bad.
Saved!
USA: Brian Dannelly, 2004
**½/*****
For the first two acts of Saved!, I found myself laughing uproariously at this fairly obvious but extremely amusing satire of Christian fundamentalism. The film lays into its target with a surprising amount of force for a Hollywood product, so it was perhaps to be expected that they would chicken out at the end. The film ends on a decidedly sappy tone, taking a decidedly pro-Christian standpoint except preaching a rather more marketable "let's wear crosses round our necks and say we believe in God even though we don't actually do anything The Bible tell us to do" message. To be perfectly honest, I sometimes think that the Christians who push for a feel-good "everyone's special, let's interpret God's teachings as we see fit" Christians are actually crazier than the ones who take The Bible as literal word-for-word truth. Still, the first 65 minutes are on the whole outrageously funny, and feel almost as if they were written by different people. Do I smell the meddling of Hollywood?
The Rock
USA: Michael Bay, 1996
****/*****
Despite being directed by the man who inflicted upon us Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, The Rock is a good solid action movie and one that benefits from excellent central performances by Sean Connery (having fun as a geriatric Bond of sorts) and Ed Harris as the antagonist. It helps that Harris' character is a multi-dimensional individual, and (a rarity in this sort of movie) one whose motives actually make sense. It's so unusual to see a villain that you can actually sympathize with in a Hollywood blockbuster that I actually found myself almost wanting the guy to win. Direction-wise, many of the characteristics that would later come to make Bay's films so detestable (shaky-vision, quick cutting, constantly moving camera, etc.) are present here, albeit in a more restrained form. For once, he actually slows things down for the character-driven moments, and as a result the fast-paced action scenes actually come as a treat rather than a constant pain in the neck. Okay, so the Ferrari chase through San Francisco is stupid, but it's brilliantly executed and very funny in places ("Hey, man, you just fucked up your Ferrari" - "It's not mine"). Highly entertaining fun, a good example of what a Hollywood popcorn blockbuster done right can be capable of.
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DVD debacle
[Posted 10:52 AM GMT by Whiggles]
I've got slightly behind in my DVD Debacle updates. Over the last few days, I've received two DVDs:  
Kagemusha is my first introduction to the films of Akira Kurosawa, and with a running time of three hours I haven't had a chance to watch much of it yet. From what I've seen, though, I must say that Criterion are seriously letting the side down with another New Line-quality transfer: soft, not much fine detail, and thick, blurry edge enhancement halos. They're capable of better than this, so we really should expect better. I'd give Kagemusha an 8 out of 10 for image quality - very good compared with the likes of Paramount and Disney, and I know we're not going to get a Naked Lunch-quality transfer every time, but I would expect them at least to be better than the mainstream studios. Their encoding and contrast levels are still unsurpassed, but in terms of detail they seem to be dreadfull inconsistent. Still, at least it's nothing like as bad as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Sheesh! Who stepped in that one? I also bought Peter Pan on eBay, after renting the R2 from Blockbuster and discovering that it was in fact one of Walt Disney's best efforts. I bought the R4 because it was the cheapest, all releases being out of print at this point in time (though I can't remember whether or not there's a Platinum Edition on the way). Update, 2:19 pm: Transfer-wise, by the way, I realize I've slammed Criterion for Kagemusha and said absolutely nothing about Peter Pan. The difference is, I expect sub-par transfers from Disney (The Incredibles and a few others excepted), so I didn't think it was worth mentioning the fact that Peter Pan is a soft, edge-enhanced, over-filtered nightmare.
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Fun with Todd S. Gallows and chums
[Posted 10:09 AM GMT by Whiggles]
If you haven't already done so, please check out Gallowmere, the new official web site of Todd S. Gallows, a.k.a. Corebrainz. Mr. Gallows has provided us all with plenty of laughs with his blog, and now he continues that tradition at Gallowmere, a swish new site focusing on his upcoming book, Shtick Warriors for $6.66. Also check out Lyris' site - he's redesigned it again, the attention-span-deprived blaggard.
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Welcome to Whiggles.tk version 7
[Posted 12:01 AM GMT by Whiggles]
Well howdy fuckin' doody, buckaroos! On this most joyous of nights, during which Pope John Paul II finally popped his clogs (not to speak ill of the dead, but any good deeds he did were more than countered by his unfaltering homophobia, collaboration with the Nazis and the mischief he caused in Africa by telling villagers not to use condoms because they spread AIDS), I am proud to unveil Whiggles.tk version 7! This new layout has been something of a learning experience for me, since it's the first time I've wrangled with CSS in any significant way. Actually learning the sodding language and setting up my style sheets has been an absolute bitch, although hopefully it will lead to improvements all round in the long run, in terms of loading times and for my ease of use -- both now and for future redesigns. Let me tell you, entering more than 350 DVDs into the DVD Collection was not the most pleasant ways of spending the time in between revision for my exams, but all being well this will be the last time I ever have to do it. Apart from the swish new look, you may notice some changes to the content. Over the last couple of years, the site has become bigger and bigger, and at this point in time I've taken the decision to reduce the size a bit. As such, I've removed the following pages: LaserDisc collection, Cinema (which to some extent has become redundant now that I have the Movie Checklist), Games, the Essentials, DVD Region Information, Age Ratings. I've also collapsed the Cartoons page into the Miscellaneous section. Furthermore, I've decided that, at least for the time being, my Portfolio will not be included. This version of the site was created primarily in Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, with additional coding (CSS and HTML) carried out using a neat little app called TextPad. The graphics were created in Adobe Photoshop CS, and I used FileZilla for uploading. The news system is still Movable Type, which is a fairly well-known platform and one that, despite being a pain in the neck to set up, I've come to appreciate. Of course, this new design has meant that the news posts will have to be reformatted to fit the new CSS code, and let me tell you that's one hell of a task, given how many posts I've made. I've reformatted the last couple of weeks' worth of posts and will do some more whenever I get the chance, but right now I'm beat so I'm off to bed. As Nathan Barley would say, peace an' fucking...
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