LIVE from New York - 5th Avenue

I've come home. Well, my spiritual home at any rate.

I'm writing this live from the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York. I can't believe I just typed that line. New York is amazing and everything I hoped it would be - only bigger. The flight over here was great - no turbulence and time... flew. Our hotel (Chelsea Pines Inn) is great. It's a gay hotel and every room is themed around a film star. We are staying in the Mitzi Gaynor room. Obviously.

Last night we took a trip to Christopher Street - the NY equivalent of Canal Street I guess. I said 'i guess' - see I'm speaking the lingo already. Took in a couple of nice bear bars, one of which was showing the Christmas special of Doctor Who. That was odd.

Today is our first proper day and we've spent it sightseeing on Broadway. Lots of pictures already taken so I'll put together an online photo album when I get home.

I can't really get across here just how exciting all of this is. I can't wait to see this area at night - it surely will look like it does in the movies. With any luck we'll be taking in a Broadway show while we're here. I fancy seeing Wicked. Even if we don't manage that, there's just so much to take in just walking around.

I'll try and update with another report live from New York in a few days. I'm sure I'll have even more to report then.

Wow. I mean, like totally... wow.

Where Seventh Avenue Meets Broadway

I'm about to put a tick beside one of my life-long ambitions. In 48 hours I'll be in New York City.

As long as I can remember I've wanted to go, and this week, thanks to lastminute.com and a Google search on cheap New York Hotels, it's happening. I'm unbelievably excited. Of course, at the moment I can't see beyond the 8 hour flight - I hate flying - but the reward will be 10 days in the best city in the world.

We're staying in Chelsea, in a gay hotel in the middle of the gay district. The first thing I want to do is have breakfast in a small coffee shop in the Village. Then of course it's the Apple Store (priorities!), Macys, Central Park, the Staten Island Ferry, Rockerfeller Center and Grand Central Station. I'm going to be an unashamed tourist - I want to see it all.

I'm hoping to make at least two or three blog entries from New York, so come back soon and check out what I've been up to.

In the meantime, I have a suitcase to pack...

JUNK CULTURE

Music: And what have you done with my body, God? - ART OF NOISE
Podcast: Slice of Sci-Fi
TV: E! News - E!
Game: Saints Row - XBOX360
Magazine: SFX

For the gays

If you live in the north west of England, or indeed if you live in the world, you can see the new issue of outnorthwest now.

outnorthwest, for those who (quite rightly) haven't read every post I've ever... posted... is the magazine that I edit and design in Manchester. It's for the gays - of which I'm one - and it's now 62 issues old. Which is great for a free magazine, really.

This one I am particularly proud of. It marks Black History Month, amongst many other things, and it has the most amount of interviews we've every printed in a single issue. Five. That's 5.

I'm dead proud of outnorthwest, and every month I get more and more proud.

If you'd like to read the culmination of 62 issues of 'proud', then why not download a copy? You can do it by clicking on the link of the right hand column there, or by clicking here instead - HERE!

If you live in the north west of England and like to go to gay pubs, you can pick up a proper physical copy from tomorrow.

JUNK CULTURE

Music: Kiss You Off - SCISSOR SISTERS
Podcast: New York Minute
TV: Spooks - BBC One
Game: Animal Crossing - DS
Magazine: Time Out New York

They were dancing in the fountains.

It's not often you witness a huge, gleaming milestone on the candy-striped road they call 'pop'. I mean, like, first hand.

Scissor Sisters live in Trafalgar Square was the defining (pop) moment of the year. It started as it meant to go on with our saviour Kylie Minogue tottering on to the stage and looking ravishing. From then on, as she introduced the Scissors, you just knew that you were about to witness something very special indeed.

And it was.

They came on and started with a song most bands would kill to have as their final encore. Take Your Mama has always been a favourite of mine, and it served to whip the red-festooned crowd into a frenzy that would last the better part of two hours. It went straight into I Can't Decide - one of the highlights of the new album, and a crowd pleaser of the highest order. Which is some feat considering this is a tune that most people hadn't even heard yet.

Part of the magic of a Scissor Sisters gig is the feeling of connecting with the band. Jake, and particularly Ana, can hold any crowd in the palm of their hands and there was some real comedy gold on offer. On hearing that Prince William had recently attended a fancy dress party as Britney Spears (correct me if I'm wrong), Ana delighted in the fact that "the future King of the country has a little bit of queen in him".

Jake admitted that he was extremely nervous about the gig, as they were playing brand new songs and didn't know how they would be received. He needn't have worried, the new songs are immediate, crowd-friendly and pure pop. Everyone around me was singing along by the second chorus of most of the new songs.

The highlight for me (there were many), was Ana's tour-de-force Kiss You Off - the ultimate 'up yours' song, this translated live into a HUGE, bombastic bastard of a song and really needs to be a future single.

it wasn't all glitter and spectacle though. The gig was staged to help promote RED, a charity aiming to help eradicate AIDS in Africa. The ticket asked the crowd to wear red, which a good 70% of the audience gladly did. The message of the night was not overly pushed and it never became mawkish, but the sentiment was true and as Ana stated, almost everyone within the confines of Trafalgar Square is, has been, or will be affected.

The 'goosebump' moments of the night go to - in no particular order - Land Of A Thousand Words, the rumoured second single from the album and a beautiful ballad. Jake sang the song note-perfect and there was nothing but pure love from the crowd for him as he delivered one of the best performance I've seen him give.

Second - Comfortably Numb. It's always going to be their signature track, and the crowd exploded during the opening "Hello.. is there anybody in there...". By this point they were dancing in the fountains and every single one of us was intoxicated by the atmosphere of the night.

Finally, the encore. The current single I Don't Feel Like Dancin' was followed by a massive version of Filthy Gorgeous as the stage was invaded with huge costumes, dancing Nelson's Column's and Jake topped it all off by stripping down to his pants. Stunning.

It was all over far too quickly, but it only whetted my appetite to see them again in Manchester this November.

JUNK CULTURE

Music: Kiss You Off - SCISSOR SISTERS
Podcast: Vegetable Soup
TV: Afterlife - ITV1
Game: Zoo Keeper - DS
Magazine: Doctor Who Season 2 Companion

A cut above

This CD has been a long time coming and the knives have been sharpened and ready to carve up this second album as proof that Scissor Sisters were a one trick pony.

Wrong!

Ta Dah, in many ways, is a stronger, more coherent album than the first one. And the last one was a masterpiece. This is a band just hitting their stride and it’s fantastic to have them back and firing on all cylinders.

So, here’s my track-by-track, one line review of all of the treats on this superb album.

I Don’t Feel Like Dancin is the best song about staying in ever. It’s number one in the singles chart right now because it’s supposed to be.

She’s My Man keeps the pace upbeat and dancey. Great lyrics.

I Can’t Decide Love it. This will raise a smile as Jake decides whether he should kill his lover or not. “Oh I could bury you alive, but you might crawl out with a knife to kill me.” Banjo’s, accordians and the old Joanna mix to create a killer Scissor’s track.

Light It starts out like the cheesiest porn movie music you’ve ever heard and then turns into a disco stomper with brass and trip-out chorus.

Land of a Thousand Words Beautiful, just beautiful. Could be the next single. Think Mary mixed with Return to Oz.

Intermission A bit odd this one. Sounds like something from the 1930’s. Great melody though.

Kiss You Off The highlight of the CD for me. This is a high energy disco rock-out of a track sung by Ana (who is curiously absent from the rest of the album). HAS to be a single. A real poppers track.

Ooh The demo of this track has been floating around the web for over a year. This is very similar to the demo, but with a bit more production. Obviously. A highlight, but incoherent lyrics.

Paul McCartney He’s not mentioned anywhere in this track. Another disco stomper with a fantastic bridge and a real party atmosphere.

The Other Side This wouldn't have been out of place on the last album. As typical as a Scissors track can be.

Might Tell You Tonight The album's other ballad. Gorgeous again, a story of unrequited love with a heart-breaking melody.

Everybody Wants The Same Thing They did this at Live 8 - a crowd pleaser of a track, this is going to go down a treat at their new shows.

I'm a fan, so I was always going to love this album. But even I could only have dreamt that they'd deliver something as polished as this. It'll keep them on the map for at least another year and will reap the awards come next year's Brits. If you get a chance to see them live this year - do it. You won't see a finer live band,

Talking of which, I'm off to London tomorrow to see them perform live at Trafalgar Square. Expect a report on Monday!

Where do I plug it in?

Never let it be said that I'm too engrossed in XBox360 and iPod to indulge in a bit of classic literature.

Thanks to a fabulous website called The Daily Lit, I'm currently enjoying Grimms Fairy Tales. Every day, at a time you specify, this site will send you a chunk of your chosen classic book that can be read in less than 5 minutes. What better way to get yourself educated and generally feel a bit smug?

OK, so Grimm's Fairy Tales is hardly War and Peace, but it's a start. I think I'll go for Dracula next...

To get started, visit the site by clicking here - The Daily Lit - and choose your first read!

Amazing.

This...

... is the best album. Ever.

Full review later.

Far-out son of a lung

My first download from the new iTunes 7 Music Store has been Teachings from the Electronic Brain by Future Sound of London (FSOL).

iTunes is carrying the Bonus Edition with extra tracks and remixes - 20 full tracks for under a tenner. Bargain.

FSOL are one of those bands that you don't know that you know. Chances are you'll be familiar with at least two or three of these tracks.

There are many highlights on the set, Papua New Guinea still sounds amazing, and Lifeforms is still gloopy and lovely. However, it's best enjoyed from beginning to end with no interruptions, or on your iPod on the walk into work, or the walk home.

I love music that creates an atmosphere. The spookier the better, and this album does it in spades. The older tracks haven't dated at all, and have lost none of their dreamy ambience. Ironically, it's the later tracks like Semtex and We Have Explosive that grate. Too screechy. Although, they do remind me of playing WipeOut on the PS1 all those years ago...

In my head, when I listen to this album, I am wandering around the ruins of a post-apocalyptic city underneath deep red and purple skies; piloting a starship skimming over mountainess planets; or having really good sex with a futuristic, buzz-cut, space-marine.

But then, that's just me.

JUNK CULTURE

Music: Lifeforms - FSOL
Podcast: Hot Fuzz - VIDEO PODCASTS
TV: Battlestar Galactica 1978 - DVD
Game: Lego Star Wars 2 - XBOX360
Magazine: Mac Format

Let's blow this thing and go home

I've rediscovered my love for two childhood obsessions this week. Star Wars. And Lego.

Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy on the XBox360 is lodged firmly inside my console, with no signs of it coming back out again for a while. I've not had as much pure, unadulterated fun playing a video game since I first sat in the Space Harrier hyrdaulic chair in an arcade in Cornwall back in 1987. Seriously.

I bought this game on the same day I bought the critically acclaimed Dead Rising. I've yet to even break the seal on that game.

Maybe it's the original music. Maybe it's the tongue-in-cheek humour. Maybe it's the complete faithfulness to the source material. Maybe it's the gorgeous graphics. Maybe it's the pick-up-and-playability.

It's all of those things. This game is just so bloody shiny. It's proper Lego, and it's proper Star Wars. From the minute you start playing until the second you put down the controller, you'll have a smile on your face.

It's also the first game in ages that's had any significant impact on my Gamerscore, so for that reason alone I love it.

JUNK CULTURE

Music: Passacaglia - BEAR McCREARY
Podcast: 1UP Yours
TV: Medium - DVD BOXSET
Game: Lego Star Wars 2 - XBOX360
Magazine: X360

So say we all

Battlestar Galactica is the best programme on television at the moment. No arguments. If it wasn't science-fiction, it would be winning awards left, right and centre.

The second season was amazing (buy the DVD set now!), and the third season is about to start both here on Sky One, and in the States.

In the run up to the new season, the SciFi channel are producing regular mini 'webisodes' that you can watch on their website. Or You Tube. Unlike previous attempts at this kind of thing, these mini-episodes actually have a bit of thought behind them, are well produced, and really do add to the storyline.

The above video is the first webisode, and you can watch the rest on You Tube. Do it now. Roll on Season 3...

JUNK CULTURE

Music: See You - DEPECHE MODE
Podcast: Mark Kermode - BBC PODCAST
TV: Medium - DVD BOXSET
Game: Animal Crossing Wild Word - DS
Magazine: Butt

Apple let me down...

Last night, in California, Apple made some big announcements. They do this from time to time.

I love Apple. I really do. I get a stiffy everytime I'm near an Apple Shop. But - and god is this difficult for me to type - I'm a bit disappointed with what they announced last night.

The event was tagged 'It's Showtime.', so there were rumours and reports flying around the internet of a brand new, wide-screen, proper video iPod. As the announcement rumbled closer, it almost seemed inevitable they'd confirm it.

They didn't.

Instead, we've got some cosmetic upgrades to the Nano which makes it look just like the old iPod Mini; a miniscule iPod Shuffle which looks frankly ridiculous; and some cursory upgrades to the existing 5th generation video iPod. My constant hovering over the Apple online Store last night waiting to order my wide screen 6th generation was completely in vain. I felt so let-down.

Apple also announced a movie download service, which as usual is not available in the UK. It's been a year now since the launch of the video iPod, so when are we going to get a TV and movie download service over here? The BBC archive is bursting at the seams with old (and new) TV shows I'd download in a heartbeat. Yet, still we're waiting...

It wasn't all bad though. We've now got iTunes 7, which incorporates Cover Flow, a fantastic animated archive of all your music. It's bloody gorgeous. Not only that, iTunes will now add cover art to all your tunes at the click of a button. The cosmetic changes to iTunes are welcome too, and from just a couple of hours playing with it last night, it's much MUCH easier to navigate and control. Nice.

Oh, and being able to play pretty decent versions of Bejeweled and Tetris (amongst others) on my iPod is a sweet little bonus. I played for the best part of an hour at Bejeweled last night, and it had very little effect on the battery, so that's encouraging.

Every Apple event always ends with "One other thing...". This time it was iTV. They'll have to change the name in the UK though, surely? This Apple 'set top box' will make it possible to stream all the media content on your Apple through the telly, with the customary gorgeous front-end and menues. It looks like they're going to be keeping the cost of this gadget pretty low as well, so that'll be on top of the shopping list in the New Year.

All in all, not the huge announcements I was hoping for, but some nice little bonuses for the Apple faithful. Hopefully we'll get word of the 6th generation iPod in the New Year.

JUNK CULTURE

Music: Pictures - SIA
Podcast: GG's Podcast 21 - VIDEO PODCAST
TV: Medium - DVD BOXSET
Game: Bejeweled - iPOD
Magazine: Doctor Who Adventures (free pencils!)

Back. Back! BACK!

There's a very simple reason I haven't been doing much with this Blog. It doesn't really have a theme.

Initially I thought it should just be random thoughts and various reports on interesting things I've done. But then there's the fear that you would - quite rightly - not be very interested in what I'd had for dinner or how many lengths I'd swum (is that even a word?) at the pool that night.

So, I've been thinking long and hard about it, and I've decided to make this blog a celebration of my geekiness. How original, you're probably thinking. But hang on a minute. This is a celebration of GAY geekiness. So that give it a bit of an edge. Right?

Whatever. The fact is, I spend a great deal of my time gaming, downloading and worshipping at the alter of Apple, so you'll find a great deal of this blog will now be dealing with those kinds of things. Even better, there will still be the occasional random thoughts, which means I can still call this blog Vegetable Soup (the thought behind the name was that there would be a bit of everything, a bit like vegetab... you get the picture.)

I'll also be ending every entry with Junk Culture - the stuff I'm currently playing, listening to, reading and watching. Which you've seen done on every other Blog you've ever read, I'm sure, but I think can give more of an insight into someone than five paragraphs of rambling text can.

Paragraph Six. So that's it really. I've got a renewed enthusiasm for this now that I have a 'theme', so look out for an overload of blog entries over the coming days.

Oh, and leave some feedback. It would be nice to know at least one other person is reading this.

JUNK CULTURE

Music: Teachings from the Electronic Brain - FSOL
Podcast: On The Spot - GAMESPOT VIDEO PODCAST
TV: Battlestar Galactica Season 2 - DVD
Game: Lego Star Wars 2 - XBOX360
Magazine: SFX Star Trek Special