Stay out of the black...

Bullseye. I think it's actually the greatest 30 minutes ever seen on the small screen on every single day.

T and I have been watching inordinate amounts of the late night repeats on Challenge TV. Based in the Midlands, Bullseye is everyTV, not just a cheap, single, hollow televisual experience - oh no, it has...

general knowledge quiz,
sporting skills test,
darting celebrities,
cash prizes and star prizes
human stories,
an amazing score and theme tune,
working man's club presenter's/heroes with Jim and Tony.

...and it's the warmth, good humour, and gentle bit of competition which makes it the ultimate in TV viewing.

Can you imagine an animated bull crossing your TV helping you learn how to spell as a young boy? Bullseye did it.
Can you imagine the mathematical workouts that playing darts does to a young grey matter? Bullseye did it.

It even had alternate closing themes depending if the darting pair were victorious in winning the star prize (speedboat anyone?) or Jim rubbing it in their face and saying "let's have a look at what you could have won" and it being a fortnight for four in Malta!

So with all this Bullseye love flowing around, I am absolutely cock-a-hoop that a Bullseye live theatre tour is launching this Autumn and we're going to be there. Featuring Eric "the crafty cockney" Bristow, Bob Anderson and John Lowe (the holy darting trinity) and the chance for the audience to win prizes as well, it's going to be a sensational night in Reading in November. What more could you want? Well if you want to go to the tour, and there's no reason why you wouldn't, click here for the official Bullseye website for as much Bully as you could ever hope for.

Altogether now....Iiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnn One

Big Car Boot Bargains

Ah, Sundays. We absolutely heart Sundays here at Orange and Cyan HQ. Every morning is a musical celebration as we loudly sing our heads off to Abbo's show "SoundsTracks" on Forest FM, then after gulping down some milk and checking if the sun is shining, we head off to the car boot.

This week there were dozens of old Xbox's on sale and the first thing Tam picked up was the original C.S.I game as she likes to pretend she knows complicated and impressive things about solving murders. Moving swiftly on, we then bagged a retro delicious 10p Tron Video, a yellow glass fish dish, a beautiful mustard yellow cowboy tobacco tin (perfect size for kirby grips) and a blue sewing needles pouch in need of some Tam T.L.C.

There are actually 2 car boots in the area - you can see the other over the road from whichever one you're in so swinging our carrier bag of bargains, we hit car boot number 2, stuffed ourselves with broccoli and mushroom quiche (from the tasty polish run cake stall - massive slices for £1 - we love it) followed by Strawberry and Lemon cakes. Charged with sugar we hit the stalls, haggling over a lovely little invaluable and instructive 'Love, Courtship and Marriage' guide for the romantically inclined from the Hugh Evelyn Victorian Library. We rather like the morbid advice under the section of 'Etiquette for Husbands and Wives' that states you should always leave home with a tender good-bye and loving words as they may be the last...

Next Abbo snapped up 3 gorgeous Bus Driver ties for 75p each that we can't wait to show our friend Nursey Bang Bang as she is currently working on a Gentleman's range of tailored ties (we got a sneak preview this week and love the new range). Some Citadel Combat card games, cheap greetings cards and cheaper postcards later, we finally grabbed 3 loose tea spoons for 10p each that with a bit of spit, polish and elbow grease, will make excellent gifts.

Sunday afternoons are spent remembering what we've bought and playing pooter games. We're currently reviewing LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, Gatling Gears, Section 8: Prejudice and trying to finish Portal 2 - that's if you can tear Tracey away from Dragon Age Legends on Facebook!

Bliss :D

If I was a film...I'd be REDLINE.

A neo kinetic frenzy of a film with slaughtering pace, gorgeous visual chaos and 10 pints of exhilaration for every viewer. Sometimes hard to follow but the energy and excitement it created merely served to stoke my fervour and make me want to watch it again and again and again.

I saw it at 5.30am during the super smashing Sci-Fi-London Film Festival Anime All Nighter and there was no better time to be ripped from tiredness into an optical onslaught with the greatest colour palette I've ever seen in a movie or anywhere. A breath of fresh air, a whirlwind to cleanse your mind more like.

In development for over half a decade, it's the directorial debut feature of Takeshi Koike (key animator on The Animatrix, Dead Leaves and Samurai Champloo). Somehow, without the audience realising it, Koike manages to make all this chaos believable. Perhaps through the pure density of detail or just knowing when to pull in the reigns slightly, he makes everything from the busy alien crowd scenes to the explosive race sequences seem like events in a real, tangible world.

Everyone will not love this film – from the high-octane, scratch-mixed techno Soundtrack by James Shimoji or the haters who'll spit their narrative dummy at the film's minimal plot. Redline is experimental, challenging and most importantly exhilarating in its artistic style in ways that most works could not even dream of reaching through script writing or thematic devices.

The beast is released on 12th September 2011 on blu-ray and DVD (Mr Cyan cannot wait), but in the meantime, have a Pat Butcher's at the trailer.

Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat 2011 vs 1992

2011
Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition (3DS) vs Mortal Kombat (Xbox 360)

Imagine a world where you’ve got a miniature animated army, some who’ve been around for nearly 25 years, in the palm of your hand. You choose your finest fighter to take on 8 consecutive fighters to be crowned the baddest, maddest fighter on the street, airfield or jungle in glorious 3 dimensions. Welcome to SSIV – 3D.


Imagine a world, on an original 2D fighting plane, ram packed with glorious gore, brand new x-ray super moves and the old favourite - fatality moves. Combining mortals and gods – a fight to save earthrealm at any cost. On the big screen, 27 playable characters, new lands and the almighty pit. It can only be Mortal Kombat.

Both operate on the classic arcade style 2D fighting plane (this was the second most fan requested feature for the developers of MK9), they both have new playing modes and features (SF – collecting figurines, utilising the innovative street pass to fight battles when you’re not looking and MK has Tag Team mode and Krypt collections) and they both offer online playing possibilities. MK has the big screen possibilities to see all that lush and detailed background and beautifully rendered character artwork vs the small screen, tightly packed, diamond like quality of SF. They’re both brilliant and it’s the first time a fighting game has felt good enough being portable to compete with the big screen big boys - though some of the intricate moves are a trifle difficult to execute on the d-pad. In comparison the 360 controller reacts to every feather light touch in your finest fatal hour, if you can’t pull it off – tools workman bad blames his a always.

What makes both such strong games is the speed of play, the combo’s and there’s a familiarity, like they’re both old friends but have been re-energised, pimped, stripped down and re-invented for the modern fighter. MK runs at an impressive 60 fps and the fighting system is as impressively deep as the 3DS tasty little screen. Both games are dip inable, but MK satisfies that thirst for a heavy session, romping through the story mode, playing through each of the characters and slowly unlocking your XP. The more you play Mortal Kombat, the better it gets.

1992
Street Fighter II (SNES) vs Mortal Kombat (Megadrive)

Twas just shy of 20 years when these first fighting beasts made the leap from arcade goodness to home console happiness, but now, many iterations later, we’re on MK9 and SF43 (ok a slight exaggeration). Who wins? 1990s vs 2010s, SF vs Mk. You decide. Or rather, I will.

I, Mr Cyan, can safely say that the class of 2011 lay to bed any of the nasty, complicated and unnecessarily embellished versions of the 2 games in the last 20 years.

As the great Chairman Mao once said: Civilize the mind but make savage the body.

One Man's Trash....

Yesterday we saw a dazzling array of skimpy tops, over sized sunglasses, skinny white legs and sandals, neon shorts and burnt necks/beer bellies/noses as we trooped around our favourite Car Boot in search of yet more treasure! In fact the weather was so hot, the boot wasn't very busy this week as people must have been staying shady cool indoors or had gone to the beach - which meant we could shimmy out way to the front of each stall with ease and as always, our rummaging paid off.

The first bargain of the day was a very pretty maroon handbag for 30p with the money going towards the Bournemouth Youth Marching Bands - music to Tracey's ears. In the same row of stalls, we also picked out some fabulous ThunderCats badges (25p) and two more cowboy books to add to our collection. Written by Edna Walker Chandler, illustrated by Jack Merryweather and first published in England in 1966 but originally written in the early 1950's, The Cowboy Sam series is a US equivalent of our Peter and Jane Ladybird books here in the UK. Featuring Sam and his friends from around the ranch, they have a vocabulary list at the back of each book whilst the red, yellow and black pictures are beautiful - best find of the day.

We also picked up some plastic gadgets that turn cans into bottles and keeps your pop fresh, handy for the beach, some garish coasters with Spanish dancers on and we spied a game for our niece - Matching Pairs. Tracey and her sister used to play this when they were little. It's a great memory game with fabulous pictures. This weekend, we've also been playing with our new Nintendo 3DS! Though we didn't pick up any StreetPasses at the boot we did use it to take a photo of our bargains when we got home!

Finally, we got a huge bag of baked goodies for £3 - flapjack, Eccles cakes, pasties, a honey seeded loaf, a stilton and red onion loaf and a fruit loaf. Tasty happy sunny days.

#tamzombie - the results

Earlier this month, I got a tad excited as @tamcgarrigan hit the magical 100 followers on Twitter! To celebrate this small but satisfying achievement, I invited people to send me titles of their favourite zombie games which would form the inspiration for some free Mother's Day cards. Some of the suggestions included the Nazi zombies from Call of Duty: Black Ops, the cowboy zombies from Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare and our green friends from Plants Vs Zombies. However, after much deliberation and playing of zombie games late at night, the final designs are ready and feature two iconic zombies on their best behaviour - one of the Bella Sisters from Resident Evil 4 and the big bag of gas that is Boomer from Left 4 Dead.

All you have to do now is select your favourite card, print it off, write a lovely comment for your mum along the lines of "I will try not to eat your brains this Mother's Day, love from your walking dead son/daughter"

Huge thanks to everyone on Twitter for their suggestions and comments.

tambo

Sound Tracks - Triple Special

This is an official audio announcement...

This is an official audio announcement...

This is an official audio announcement...

This is an official audio announcement concerning the weekly broadcasting output by Mr Ian Abbott.

The next 3 radio shows will be deviating from the normal, bypassing the sensational and travelling to the outer realms of aural heaven.

We would recommend, locking your dial to Forest FM for Sunday 27th March, 3rd and 10th April at 9am to take part in a soundtrack experience to get your feet tapping and mouth smiling. 

We shall be highlighting some of the finest slices of cowboy inspired scores, celebrating the 5 time Oscar winner John Barry and having a delightful time picking through the rich ears of Mr QT.

We thank you for your patience and if you would like to imbibe further information concerning these future sonic events, please head directly to the Sound Tracks blog.

End of transmission...

End of transmission...

End of transmission...

#tamzombie

For reasons unknown but not to be scoffed at, I've reached the grand total of 100 followers on Twitter! Whoop Whoop!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I've decided to do something special! As it's Mother's Day coming up at the end of the month, I'm asking all followers to tweet me their favourite video game that features Zombies. The best 3 suggestions will be made into cards that you can give your mum this coming Mother's Day! Why give your mum a cheap pink rabbity card when you can celebrate all her undeadness with an Orange and Cyan greeting card?

Suggestions already put forward include the Nazi Zombies from Call of Duty: Black Ops and my personal favourite, the Los Ganados from Resident Evil 4 (yup, a blatant excuse to put a picture of Leon on the blog)!

To have your say on the final selection, tweet your fave game to @tamcgarrigan by 4pm on Friday 18th March!

Read It Swap It

We've just found a great new website which fits in with our ethos of sharing knowledge with others and involves our favourite past time of exchanging post.

It's a website called Read It Swap It.

Rather than see unwanted books go to the pulp factory, this site breathes life into old favourites which may be taking up a bit too much room on your shelf. It's very simple, you list books which you no longer want (just type in the ISBN) and add a few helpful notes about the condition of them.

You can then hunt out unwanted books from other users (there are over 350,000 books on the site) or create a wishlist (on my list so far is a series of obscure titles ranging from origami, to canaries, to lawns to stamp collecting) and hope you have something that another user wants to swap. At any time, someone might contact you wanting one of your unloved books and chances are they might be getting rid of something which you didn't know you wanted. I've already got this book about pilot poetry coming my way.

Once you've both agreed to swap, addresses are exchanged, you post the book to its new owner and you wait for Mr. Postman to deliver your new book.

I've been a registered member for a little under 24 hours and have had about 10 swap requests (I've accepted 5 and turned 5 people down because they didn't have any book I wanted), put 5 of my own requests in (1 accepted, 2 declined and 2 not responded yet) and will be going to the post office tomorrow with a fistful of books that will be winding their way all over the UK. I'm getting rid of this book about Derrida.

I'd heartily encourage other members with piles of books gathering dust at home to join in the giant swap and find some new books which you didn't know you wanted.

Book Binding Workshop

Today I have been sharing a little bit of knowledge about book binding to a number of willing and inquisitive students in a full days workshop.

It started with a little bit of book deconstruction, removing the covers of a tidy little Penguin paperback, The Quest for Corvo, from the 1940s and showing the innards of the spine and how mass market books are put together with the sections, sewings and glue.

For me, book binding is all about precision! Precision measuring, precision marking, precision stabbing and precision sewing! This will leave you with a good looking book which will stand up to a bit of wear and tear and because you are in control of the amount of leaves you put in, what goes on the cover, how big the pages are - it can also be personalised to your own whim and fancy.

I trained as an apprentice with the great Mary Bartlett down at the Dartington Craft Education Centre who instilled a great sense of technical detail and discipline as well as allowing me and my ideas to breathe into whatever bookish form they took on. One of my favourite books on this subject is by the wonderful Kojiro Ikegami and if you fancy a bit more detail, head to Amazon for a copy, you will not be disappointed.

The ladies (Jill, Tracey, Ruby) learnt 3 styles of basic construction. We started with a square 5 hole Japanese stab binding, followed by a small 12 page concertina with personalised covers and then (Lily and Violet) arrived and by the end they all had a great little 5 hole pamphlet stitch with covers taken from an old book of stories for children. They looked super as a collection of 5 little mini notebooks.


I predict there will be several friends/relatives who may be receiving hand made books as gifts for the foreseeable future and I think that's no bad thing.

If anyone else wants some help or a workshop in book binding, just contact us at O&C HQ.

Car Boot Keepsakes

Sundays mean only one thing in our orange and cyan world 

CAR BOOTS!!!

We love trawling through other people's unwanted treasures in search of some bargains. Ian is particularly good at haggling and this week at our favoutire spot - the giant Magna Road site, we got some beauties!


The morning started with this pretty little tin for 20p. It's full of wonderful buttons that are carefully guarded by a yapping dog on the front. We went on to buy a pair of hand-knitted mittens in glorious black, mint green and pale pink from the dear old ladies that run the Julia Hospice stall - our £2 goes towards the hospice and Tracey gets to keep her fingers warm so everyone's happy! Two Coca-Cola trucks, some double decker red nail polish and a Home on the Range  - best of the western's music CD later, we spotted this amazing book all about space with some great technical drawings!

As it was packing up time, Tracey was looking at this picture of horses and deciding if there was room back at O&C HQ when the lady gave it to her for free as she didn't want to cart it back home again. Now if there's one thing we love most, it's the word FREE and the horses are now up in the studio.


Biggest purchase of the day was 80 postcards for £5 - all amazing pictures of cactuses and deserts in America. Some lucky Postcrossers are going to be getting very happy mail soon.

Our final find of the day was a pair of deck chairs, haggled down to £1.50 for the two and we can't wait to test them out on the beach this summer.

We were sad we didn't see the cake lady today as she does a very nice cherry slice for 50p but all in all, was a great morning! We're so glad the weather is getting good again as this means more carbooting for us! Might see you there next Sunday!

Sound Tracks New Blog

I've created a brand new blog that is just for my radio show Sound Tracks on Forest FM, where you can find all the brand new track listings, more gorgeous retro film posters, the track of the week as well as all my other filmic thoughts and musings.

See you there and make sure you're listening tomorrow, because there are some amazing tracks for your listening pleasure. 9am at Forest FM

Retro Review

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia
Nintendo Entertainment System
1989

If I let my imagination run wild through the caves of videogameville I could not come up with anything as crazy as this crazy beast of a game.

You (a boy) and a sidekick (a shape shifting blob – which resembles a snowman) must fight an evil candy craving emperor and his army to retain your planet Blobolonia with the help of jellybeans and vitamins.

A truly unique puzzle platformer created by legendary game designer David Crane (Pitfall on the Atari 2600 – oh yes) that has an open world feel about it where boy and blob explore subways and a subterranean world full of rock rain showers and bouncing caterpillars.

In order to explore the world you must feed your blob (full name Blobert) jellybeans which will transform it into numerous shapes and objects to enable you to progress through the worlds.

There’s also a black market for vitamins where warped health food owners will only exchange their vits for pirate treasures and vast quantities of diamonds. You will encounter jelly bean conservation issues if you do not remember what each bean can do to Blobert (good memory or paper and pen anyone?), as you curse under your breath whilst feeding him a liquorice bean which makes him into a ladder when really you needed tangerine bean to turn him into a trampoline.

The audio and visual is a little repetitive as you cross back and forth through the same locations and can a trifle wearing on the eye and ear, but it’s a light hearted game with a very interesting concept with open world possibilities which makes it very addictive to play, one session I was in for 4 hours and I loved every minute. The controllers are always great to go back to after handling the mega beasts of the X360 and PS3 pads, the 2 buttons and a d pad are so simple and yet all you really need.

Mr Blobert and Master Boy is also an award winning game, a year after its release it won a Parent’s Choice Award for portraying “positive human values”. So dust off your NES, get yourself some jelly beans and go and save the world with this charming and original videogame.

Ian the Cyan

Sound Tracks 13/2/11

Today the track of the week has to go to Sinead and Elliot for their haunting rendition of the Irish folk song She Moved Through The Fair in Michael Collins.

One Night Only, Dreamgirls
Spooky, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
The Loving Mandolin, A King in New York
Bumpy and the Queen, Hoodlum
The Trap, The Trap
Sock Puppet/Flyover, Mirrormask
Sixty Seconds to What, For a Few Dollars More
The Green Leaves of Summer, Inglourious Basterds
She Moved Through the Fair, Michael Collins
Talijanska, Time of the Gypsies
You Know My Name, Casino Royale
The .44 Magnum is a Monster, Taxi Driver
Dracula, Bram Stokers Dracula

Idle Hands and Happy Ears

I woke up early... for me and got to my normal shuffling around in my Nursey Bang Bang emergency slippers and sipping my mega mug of tea. I was preparing for a meeting today with the talented screenwriter and lunch buddy John Foster and knew if I put some music on, I'd never get there on time. Why is it that on the busiest days, I'm so much more susceptible to distraction, slowness and the dreaded temptation that is iToons?

It's hard when Abbo is editing his radio shows to not steal the mouse away and listen to every song in its entirety - and then turn up and repeat my favourite songs! Right now, I've got lots of lovely work that I enjoy to do that I really need to finish but too late! Whitey Shafer's "All My Ex's Live In Texas" pops up and everything stops for a loud sing a long.

It got me thinking about the power of music. There are certain songs that make you drop your pen, ignore your phone/postman/crying baby and have to be played all the way through. The anguish of hearing your favourite song on the radio, only for the DJ to talk over the last bit, right before the final guitar solo/organ cadenza/belting chorus kicks in is almost rage inducing! Not something practised by Mr A.

Music lifts us up or takes us on magical trips, makes our hearts race, makes us weep quietly to ourselves or sing out in unrivalled joy!

With this in mind, I thought I'd share with you Tam's Top Ten - stop everything you are doing and belt it out lass - songs. Please bear in mind, this has been no easy task and will of course change again tomorrow!

*insert Top of the Pop or similar chart countdown music here*

10) Wired for Sound - Cliff Richard (guilty pleasure)
9) Go Speed Racer - Ali Dee and the DeeKompressors
8) Holding Out For A Hero - Bonnie Tyler
7) Thunder In My Heart - Leo Sayer
6) Smooth Criminal - Micky J
5) Bat Out Of Hell - Meatloaf
4) Young Turks - Rod Stewart
3) Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas
2) Knights of Cydonia - Muse
1) Runaway - Del Shannon

Pure indulgence! I think I need locking up for a week with just an orange crayon and a ream of paper - maybe then I'll get some work done!

Sound Tracks with Ian Abbott - every Sunday at 9am on Forest FM

Sound Tracks - Future Shows

I am about to burst with anticipation as I've just been curating the new few episodes of Sound Tracks.

I just had to give a little clue or two to which films some of the music will be coming from.

So which piece of music/song will it be?

Tune in every Sunday 9am to Forest FM to hear the finest musical output on the radio.

Sound Tracks 6/2/11

In honour of the late and super great John Barry who left us this week, my track of the week is the theme to Midnight Cowboy, but by golly Johnny Cash ran him close.

The Farmer and the Cowman, Oklahoma
Colonel Bogey March, Bridge Over The Kwai
Sugar Baby Love, Muriels Wedding
1492 Conquest of Paradise, 1492 Conquest of Paradise
Death Cab for Cutie, Magical Mystery Tour
Quo Vadis (Ave Caesar), Quo Vadis
Gabriels Oboe, The Mission
Everything I Do, I Do It For You, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
Don't Bring Me Down, Factory Girl
Dum Maro Dum, Hare Rama Hare Krishna
Midnight Cowboy, Midnight Cowboy
Hurt, Inside I'm Dancing

PlayStation 3

Who wants to hear a story about a little computer that began its life in Wigan? A modern console fairytale which goes by the name of PS3.

It's no.3 in the series from Sony after the incredible PS2 which shifted gazillions of units and had iconic titles like: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, SingStar and Guitar Hero. I still drop a mean Wolf Mother on our plastic guitar or a tasty Franz Ferdinand from the red mic!

Well Madame PS3, tell me what can you offer.

Can I play a tasty Blu-Ray movie? Oh yes!
Well, do you have innovative and exclusive titles? Oh yes, we've got Little Big Planet, Heavy Rain and Metal Gear Solid 4
Well can I edit movies? yes. Get on t'net? yes. Photo/Music see/play? yes, yes, yes.
Are you very noisy when it's switched on? Oh no, I purr in the corner like a miniature cat


Would you like to come home with me then? Oui monsieur, I would like that very much.

The Console Collection now has its big sister to sit next to little master wii and the scampstrel that is xbox360 and I think they will all live happily ever after in the fantastical computer game happiness world of O&C.

P.S. But Dead Space 2 makes me scream a bit too much!

Sound Tracks 30/1/11

Today was a really strong show and felt great to present. For that reason I'm going to have two tracks of the week because I cannot put a hair betwixt them.

Also Sprach Zarathustra - 2001: A Space Odyssey
Somewhere That's Green - Little Shop of Horrors
Woo Hoo - Kill Bil1 Volume 1
Tu Mira - Kill Bill Volume 2
The Alamo - The Alamo
Blaze of Glory - Young Guns II
A Silhouette of Doom - Navajo Joe
Paper Planes - Slumdog Millionaire
I Wanna Be Like You - The Jungle Book
Chup Chup Khade Ho - Badi Behen
Run On - He Died With A Falafel in his Hand
Windmills of Your Mind - The Thomas Crown Affair
The Shoot Out - The Claim
Prelude - Psycho

Mr India

Who doesn't love a 1980s Hindi Sci-Fi Superhero film?

With the holy trinity of Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Amrish Puri creating marvellous characters whilst delivering incredible dance routines to the most memorable music and lyrics, it was always going to be a super 3 hour smash hit.

It also has one of the most the most famous quotes within the history of Bollywood:
"Mogambo khush hua" (Mogambo is pleased)

Puri as Mogambo is better than the world's best Bond baddie with his underground lair full of redundant flashing lights, a red lava pit full with skin stripping properties and some wild finger adornments complete with 2 hand painted globes to drum them on.

Mr India in a nutshell:
Anil's character takes in a dozen orphans, falls behind on his rent and lets a room to a beautiful journalist. However, the evil Mogambo wants his land, a fight ensues, an old professor tells Anil of a mystical contraption invented by his father (a watch that makes you invisible), Mogambo threatens to blow up India with missiles, Anil turns invisible, saves the day, Mogambo dies and Mr India and his identity remains hidden forever.

The song Hawa Hawaii (sung by Kavita Krishnamurthy) performed by Sridevi is the absolute highlight of the film and at nearly ten minutes long with 4 costume changes - it has to be seen and heard to be believed.

A true Bollywood masterpiece and should be seen by everyone.