pap

RHLSTP is very good, apart from the one with Peter Serafinowicz.

The TNG S3 BluRay rewatch is over. Blimey, what a series. I'm not going to pretend that every episode is brilliant, but so many of them are. This series is pretty much the thing that got me into Trek back in the day. I spent the next two years in and out of Videoteque on Bedford Place, catching up with the rest. If I had to go for a specific point where Trek finally punched through my bonce, it has to be Season 3's season finale, Best of Both Worlds. Clerks fans may be disappointed to learn that this is not a chicks with dicks episode, but in Friends style, The One Where Picard Gets Turned Into a Borg. Trek episodes are always best when they can clearly be defined with Friends-style episode titles. This series has tons of them. Sins of the Father / The one where Worf goes back to Klingon to defend his family honour. Yesterday's Enterprise / The one where Tasha Yar comes back. The Offspring / The One Where Data builds a child. The BluRay treatment is just right. They haven't tried to widescreen it, which wrecked bits of the Babylon 5 DVD. The exterior shots are all re-done. One episode, The Defector, has a pair of Romulan warbirds kiss noses with the Enterprise. Beautiful detail, down to individual windows, lit with such menace. It's awesome. In fact, if you're the sort of nerd who gets off on seeing large starships hove into view, this is virtual ship-porn. The Enterprise has been given a very respectful treatment; as have all the visual effects. Polar opposite of how Lucas approached it in Star Wars, really. He just put more crap on the screen. The Star Trek BluRay treatment is all about recreating the original effects, but making them better, staying ever respectful to the original image. It doesn't feel like anyone is trying to one-up what went before - this is the stuff of curators, not revolutionaries. Full credit to them for that, as the series still stands out as exemplary, exploring themes that a lot of modern TV has left behind and underpinned by some outstanding individual performances. It's widely acknowledged that Patrick Stewart was the best actor on the show, but with the way TNG has entered the world of cultural reference and internet memes, it's easy to forget just how good Stewart was. A fantastic actor, and with all the intergalactic shenanigans that go down on the Enterprise, so much material to challenge him. I'm now at the point I was 21 years ago. I watched the finale last night, and am going to have to wait to see the next one (in full BluRay glory, anyway). Season 4 isn't out until July. Yeah, yeah - I know what happens ("Data. Sleep."), but then I also know that from the beginning of S3 onward, TNG is a pretty superb show. Hopefully DS9 will follow.

Matey needs a few weeks on the Flower Road estate, mush. We'll have him talking proper. So many Spanish speakers do the "in this moment" lark to start with. Important is also an easy word to remember

Some see it as evidence that finances aren't being managed. http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/questions/askjames246.html

I think that any notion of us being football's biggest laughing stock during the NA sacking was premature The Guardian referred to his interview as shambolic, pointing out the inconsistencies. I call him a liar.

There are advantages to living on a rain-swept, overpriced Western European country. Not many, but some. Genuinely gutted for you SiP. As you say, the other options are not superb, but I reckon streaming is in its infancy.

That is a very good vid and demo of why he could be a very good fit for Saints. We've lacked a bit of bite in the final third, and that's often because defences have far too much time to organise themselves, often because our boys are kicking it back and forth to each other just outside the area. The man can deliver a ball well, doesn't seem afraid to shoot and seems very comfortable on the ball and winning it. Would fit with MPs pressing game nicely too.

http://hobnob.royals.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=119313

The buctootim posting unit does so with anonymity. It's a sore point in some circles

It's going to take me a few views before I really appreciate the soundtrack. The old theme tune is so iconic that it won't easily be displaced, but I also understand why it had to go. Put it this way; as giddy as I was hearing John Williams score during the opening credits to Superman Returns, I was less happy with getting a 1980s style Superman film afterward. One of the briefer comments on aintitcool is beautifully succinct - what the f**k was Singer (director of Returns) doing? Clean break, innit?

Was done loads better than any other movie.

Just back from watching this myself. I really enjoyed it. It's the first Superman film that actually makes sense. The first Richard Donner film is very good, but lets itself down massively in the final act due to the way Supes saves the world ( spinning it backwards by flying really fast to reverse time ). I thought the second film was amazing when I was a nipper; as I've grown older I can see its flaws, and even as a kid, I hated the magic "snog" power Supes has at the end, causing Lois to forget everything. Superman III is enjoyable, but isn't very serious and is largely Richard Pryor's movie. ms pap says we are not to talk about Superman IV. I'm inclined to agree. Superman Returns was so in love with the Donner films it offered nowt new except the unfulfilled promise of doing something with Superman's nipper. So, Man of Steel. I'm not going to spoil too much, but let me say that immediately, it addresses one of the biggest problems with the Superman universe, the fact that no-one seems to know that Clark Kent is the man in the cape, something that seems particularly ridiculous with some of his closer colleagues. The comics were always a lot more savvy about this; Superman was made out to be a bit of a genius, so was able to make decoy robots to fool his colleagues. None of the other films really did too much to address this big problem. In Man of Steel, some people know and won't tell. He does a reasonable job of out-foxing the authorities, but even if they did find out, what are they going to do? The film is largely about Krypton and its legacy. As many will have seen from the trailers, General Zod is the antagonist. I really enjoyed the Kryptonian opening; the lore they establish makes a lot of internal sense, especially with regard to Zod's motivations on Earth. Anyone expecting a retread of Superman II is going to be pleasantly surprised. Despite sharing many similarities, Michael Shannon's Zod is a different animal to the character that Terence Stamp made famous. The whole thing makes a hell of a lot more sense than most other blockbusters I've seen recently. At no point did I feel that something was happening just to facilitate the next cool thing happening, although at times, the fight scenes get dangerously close to overlong, but then something very inventive happens and all is forgiven. As much as I loved the comedic punch of Ned Kelly's "Otisberg" in the first movie, I'm a lot happier with what has been achieved here. This is the first Superman film that does the scope of the character and his world justice. His is a broad, big budget universe. Snyder did a mostly top job of depicting that, better than anyone else who has approached it (especially Singer's effort). Difficult not to give this both thumbs up.

Another couple of points on transfers here. First, I think there is a snowball effect to be had from punching above our weight in the transfer market. I posted in the Ramirez thread last year about this, and have been slightly vindicated by the signing of Lovren. Whatever the disappointed Lyon fans might have to say about him, reading between the lines, it seems that he's a good player with some disciplinary problems to iron out. He might have an easier time of it in the EPL, as some French wags commented. Still, most of the reaction from fans of other clubs indicate that this is something of a coup, the Bleacher report on him was written on the assumption that he might be a Chelsea player and most newspaper articles feature the word "promising". These players are obviously being sold on the clubs vision (and lets not kid ourselves, the renumeration). A few more transfers like this, and these coups will no longer be that unusual. Don't get me wrong; I'm not suggesting that our transfer record has been an unqualified success, but we can pull off these unexpected transfers. The other factor is the EPL. I know that many English fans pining for the days of the terraces and football being a working men's game are looking at the atmosphere generated by the Bundesliga with envious eyes, but as a marketable product, I think it's tough to beat the EPL on television. World class talent, several teams capable of chasing for honours (well, more than two, anyway) and massively supported across the world. The only true rivals are La Liga, which the money is disappearing from and has turned into a two horse race. The Bundesliga, the biggest challenger, but perhaps lacking the proliferation of world class talent (some notable exceptions aside) and some of the world-renowned derby encounters ( the Berlin derby is supposed to be vicious ). The Italian league is strong, and has some great talents, but it's not as exciting. This is a huge shop window for players. That, combined with our documented ability to get players that are better than we are supposed to have, suggests to me we'll see a few more "surprises" this close season, although some of us are getting less surprised

I know I rather cheekily posted that to prime the thread for his eventual signing! What?! I am a part of the happy clapper crowd, after all. Besides, NC is a persuasive bugger.

...thing we've done alright at. Not a done deal, by all means, but Cortese and co have form for convincing players to come to our relatively humble and insignificant outfit

This Spanish source seems to thing that the chance of Banega ever playing for us is virtually nil. http://www.superdeporte.es/valencia/2013/06/14/southampton-interesado-fichar-banega/199128.html

I also forgot to mention localisation.

There may be some method to the madness. On a trip to the corporate mothership, I sat with one of our security boys. He showed me the security software, which showed real-time monitoring of threats. Most of them were coming from grey countries. Both XBOXes were commercial failures in Japan, China has a massive counterfeiting culture and the infamous Great Firewall of China. I suspect that for most other countries, it's a case of bang for the buck. Cost of distribution vs whether local markets will bear cost of hardware. This isn't necessarily that mental, but most of the other stuff has been.

Actually quite weird how honours can change your perspective. My landlady over in NI has an OBE. She was also an SDLP councillor.

There's a big difference between targeted hacking and what is going on here, which in many cases, is tantamount to trawling. I'm fully aware that when I post on Twitter, Facebook or here - I'm putting stuff into the public domain. It's a choice I've made up front - and I'm aware of the public nature of the audience. The NSA, cheeky buggers that they are, are trying to claim that text messages are "metadata", which is a complete lie. For the uninitiated, metadata is something that describes content, such as keywords on web pages, or the size of a file you've downloaded. It is not the content itself. Text messages can be deeply personal, very private and can be used to blackmail people. Really not on, imo.

Blimey. If Kev's a believer, that's saying something! Remember Rochdale, kidda?

Thanks for reminding me of this cheery and cheesy song

Worth it just for the mousetrap gag in Blackadder II alone. If we weighed other stuff into consideration, such as his culinary skills in Blackadder Goes Forth, he'd probably be king or something.

I'm disappointed that I'm unlikely to be disappointed What are the club playing at? Signing internationals well before the season starts. I like my CBs parachuted in at the last possible minute, ta

Kanye is not a gay fish. He is a bit of a d!ck, but undeniably makes great tunes, even if he's not a superb vocalist himself. Got me back into the world of hip hop with Late Registration. Really like My Beautiful Dark Fantasy too (couple of epic numbers on there).