So I was lucky enough to get hold of tickets legitimately, avoiding ebay and the ridiculous prices of £400+ per ticket, an issue I’ll avoid for the time being as I don’t want to make yet another irate blog about evil ticket touts. What I will say though is that of all the gigs I have been to, the various Muse gigs, Less Than Jake, Radiohead, etc. Justice blew me away. So much so that I would say it was the best gig of my life.

Just half hour is all we go from the French duo, unfortunately they didn’t play their second set on the outdoor stage due to some controversy in France regarding their new video for Stress (again something which I’ll avoid for now) which was hugely disappointing, but I’ve still come away more in love with the band than ever before and raring to go and see them again at the nearest opportunity. I mean it was sheer genius on stage switching between a live and DJ set and yet appearing so at ease with the concept. I’m still on a high from the experience and it will take a pretty epic gig to eclipse this one. Perhaps a full set next time?

It brings a tear to my eye. But what makes this product listing stand out are the awesome reviews that come with it!

“Its great because you can fire water balloons 300 meters we hit a house window and the window almost broke. but beware because my friend had one, it snapped and broke his finger and gave me whip lash. overall 10 out of 10 SUPERB for £10.”
Gabes12345

“LMAO it is the coolest thing ever we was shootin some fat kid from 1 meter he got ownd it fired down a complete rugby field with a orange it hit a 4 year old in the leg so we stopped lol”
MartinRichardsxD

Man I freaking love the Internet!

I love it when something spreads across the internet like wildfire. Just reaffirms the theory that a good idea is universal. Twistori is ridiculously simple yet brilliant. It uses summarize.com and some nifty Javascript to display people’s Twitter messages that contain particular phrases.

Seriously, if you want to be uplifted the “I believe” and “I love” messages can throw up some funny but happy results.

Does help if I include who it is. It’s MGMT - Time to Pretend

Now some of you who may not know what I’m talking about and I don’t blame you as few hear about it aside from plugs affiliate’s websites and the like. Put simply Revision3 is Internet TV, providing some of the most original shows, all free of charge and in high quality. It’s utterly fantastic.

Unfortunately the range of shows are quite limited, rarely branching out from its geek sheik foundations with shows such as Tekzilla and PixelPerfect, but that’s one of the company’s biggest charms. They set out to make television they felt they could watch and I have to hand it to them, they know what works. I adore this company purely because it has its finger on the pulse. Like they say on their website “Revision3 is the first media company that gets it”.

If you’re ever stuck with nothing on TV check it out, there’s always a recent show that you wouldn’t have seen and if that’s not enough you can go through the archives. Shows I would recommend are Diggnation, Totally Rad Show, Systm and the Gazette for that behind the scenes stuff that really makes you realise how serious this new form of media is.

Just rereading this entry, boy does it sound like an advert. Ah well…if anyone from Revision3 is reading this, hire me! Heh!

In other, more upsetting news, I want to say my final goodbyes to Trevor our faithful BBQ. Some of you may know Trevor from last year’s seasons of BBQs where he served up an absolute storm. Unfortunately he’s now rusty and someone took off with the grill. Yes, they stole our BBQ’s essence. *Salutes* you’ll be sorely missed Trevor.

Most people slate The Simple Life because Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie are, “nothing more than spoilt brats!” but that’s all part of it. They know they have this image, and they know that because of their priviledged upbringing that they can’t fend for themselves in the real world, that’s part of the comedy. It really grinds my gears (thank you Peter Griffin) when people say that they hate the show or that it’s not funny because of how stupid or thick they supposedly are, yet they’ll gladly laugh at Mr. Bean. It’s the exact same comedy.

But aside from the odd bit of facetious criticism I love this show, purely for how silly and childish it is. I remember over the summer with Christy joking about it and repeating the catchphrases. We know we looked and sounded like asses but we had a laugh. As much as I can act like others and give off a disgusting intellectual superiority complex towards it I choose not to because the humour may be simple and it may be scripted but it’s only a TV show, a mere half hour’s worth of entertainment that if taken at face value is a great watch and isn’t deservant of half the rude comments that are made towards it.

What epic franchise could I be talking about? Surely not Peter Jackson’s overly budgeted and disappointing Lord of the Rings, no this is a film that defined my childhood. Yes  you guessed it, (probably from the picture to the right) I’m talking about John G. Avildsen’s 1984 classic, The Karate Kid. Now you may scoff at my exclaimation of brilliance regarding this rather dated, poorly executed film…but I don’t care. I adored The Karate Kid and still do to this day. Why? Because like I said before, it defined my childhood.

If it wasn’t for The Karate Kid there would have been no Power Rangers, no family comedies like Little Ninja’s or the abysmal 3 Ninjas. The then modern superhero who combined snazzy american catchphrases coupled with the loosley defined “martial arts” would have never been born. I’d have never spent my Saturday mornings at the local Dojo learning the basics till I gained my purple white belt, nor would I have spent the following Sunday kicking and punching whatever sofa cushions I could lay my hands on.

The astounding thing is that such a small film has really permiated into society with catchphrases like “Wax on, wax off” and “Daniel-san” needing no explanations. Every reference I notice takes me straight back to those Sunday mornings as a kid. It seemed at the time though that I was on my own. Most kids appeared to grow up with the Back to the Future series, knowing what a flux capacitor was and getting the “great Scott!” jokes made. But still, as much as I missed out on variety as a child I never would want to change what I watched as a kid as I absolutely love The Karate Kid. Nostalgia totally rocks!

Oh and for shits and giggles, here’s a cat doing the crane technique. BAM!

After seeing Muse play at the Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust last week I was excited to come back and blog about how it was one of their best gigs and how I was beyond lucky for being able to go. But one thing above all stood out for me, and that was the ticketing problems. Before the show I went to the box office to see what options there were for upgrading my tickets, but while I was there I saw many people being turned away because they had purchased fake tickets from ticket touts.

Yes, money people thought they were spending towards a charity went into the pockets of a ticket tout!

Not only do we have an increasing problem with touts selling tickets for unreasonable prices but we’re still facing the issue of fake tickets being on the market. With sites such as Gumtree doing little to support those who have been ripped off by sellers of these fake tickets, fans are left wondering who to turn to? The police try but given the unfamiliarity between the touts and buyers little can be done to prosecute and bring about a difference.

As someone who loves live music I see all the time how ticket touts are scouting online for any way to capitalize on gigs. Whether it be obtaining presale passwords, ticket images or even face value gig tickets to sell on for more. They’re adapting to the way in which tickets are being sold, no longer relying on fans turning up with an extra ticket to hand, but actually taking tickets that would have been purchased by a legitimate customer.

“Professional” Ticket Touts who actually make a living off of selling tickets for above face value are nothing more than leeches on society. They’re people who feel that it’s acceptable to rip off whoever possible in order to make a quick buck. It’s utterly disgusting. In the past there was slight justification in touts as they amounted for a mere 3% of ticket sales. But now that they have adapted and are beginning to steal tickets that fans want to purchase for face value, that number has risen to 60%.

What annoys me even more is that they have the audacity to see themselves as legitimate business, forming ASTA (the Association Of Secondary Ticket Agents) a self regulating organisation formed of 40+ members which was set up to combat legal issues surrounding the “Secondary Ticketing” market with fans being ripped off. By implementing such organisations like ASTA touts are placing themselves in a firm position within the live events market, making any attempts to ban touting even harder as they’re currently being recognised by the government as an official body. As if this approval wasn’t enough major artists such as Beyonce and Justin Timberlake have been auctioning their tickets. Granted only a select few tickets were auctioned but to have two of the biggest pop artists seemingly endorse such high prices just goes to show what little respect they have for their fans.

However there is hope from this awful situation. Various websites such as Scarlet Mist list tickets for sale at face value. Meaning fans who are unable to attend an event can sell on their tickets in an ethical way. Even music fansites are offering similar services, most notably being the Muse-bay service provided by the moderators on Muse’s official messageboard.

So what is it, as fans, that we want? What can the government do to stop this from happening? Well the CPA (Concert Promoters’ Association) have lobbied against touts, calling for an outright ban. Understandably this was thrown out and deemed “…neither practical nor in the interests of consumers to ban ticket sales through a secondary market,” by MP John Whittingdale. In a way he’s correct, the secondary market is useful in terms of allowing people to pass on their unwanted tickets, however to say that it’s not in the interests of consumers is wrong. Change to the current legislation is in order.

However I don’t think a ban is needed, infact what is needed more than anything else is simple regulation. Not by a self regulatory body such as ASTA, but by the government. Regulations that ensure that fans are not cheated out of tickets by touts buying them out before they get a chance and doubling the price. How can this be achieved though? We can’t stop touts from buying tickets, true. But what we can do is set the price in which they sell them for. There are laws against monopolisation and tickets should be included within the commodities. By setting it so that people can only sell tickets for a certain percentage over the face value not only keeps the secondary ticketing market alive enough to survive but also ensures that customers aren’t overtly ripped off by greed.

This will be the view I’ll hopefully be getting tomorrow. Yup, I got my hands on some of the tickets for Muse at Royal Albert Hall after a couple of months of absolute banking hell. This will be the 9th time I’ve been able to see them and I’m just as excited as the first time which was almost 4 years ago.

In other, more blog related, news I’m now enraging the spam bots. Daily I have to reject multiple comments which offer me both a large penis and firm pair of breasts, just one of the many daily tasks that comes with the internet. However spam bots now are not only getting smarter but also more critical! I found this in my comments folder today “Well this is depressing. Stop writing like that, your posts are spoiling your reader’s mood. Boring”. Awesome heh!

Earlier this week we were greeted with the news that The Simpsons was to be removed from Venezuelan television after the media regulators felt that it was “inappropriate” and went against their regulations of promoting “messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents”.

That’s perfectly understandable you may argue and I’m inclined to agree to a certain extent. The Simpsons no longer hold the true family values that it once did. However to deem a cartoon, aimed at children and young adults “innapropriate” and then replace it with Baywatch (yes…Baywatch) is without a doubt the most pathetic move I think I’ve seen from media censorship.

My issue is not with the removal of The Simpsons, with the ever increasing popularity of Family Guy and South Park the show’s viewership has been in decline and they’ve quite literally dumbed down the series. There was the golden age of The Simpsons which I was say came before season 9 where Homer’s pratfalls were accompanied by an extremely witty retort. It’s why I fell in the love with the show as a kid and it’s the reason why I have a real appreciation for comedy.

But to replace a groundbreaking show like The Simpsons, based on those reasons, with Baywatch is not only an insult but the one grandest cases of hypocrisy seen regarding censorship. Granted The Simpsons has lost it’s course, but it’s basic ideals are still there. Yet Baywatch, a show with questionable morals, world reknowned for it’s skimpy outfits and slow motion shots of the cast running is hardly an appropriate replacement. It’s times like this I’m thankful I live in a country who’s obsession with censorship comes with a certain amount of reason.