The George Lite Zone

Back in 79 Hawkwind were touring with Ginger Baker on drums and Tim Blake weaving his magic on the keyboards. Meanwhile someone had a cracking idea; collar a load of music writers and ask them to select the album they'd take with them if stranded on a desert island. The result was the aptly named Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island . 28 years later another group of music buffs scratched their heads and came up with Marooned: The Next Generation of Desert Island Discs . 20 albums chosen to be played as you build your raft and play your choice to a native for your very own 'Friday' Night Rockshow. Each album forms a chapter in the book, with the would-be castaways extolling their merits and the reasons for their choice. I thought I'd take the disks for a spin and assess their sea faring suitability. As Marooned opens with a bone fide classic, I thought that'd be a good place to start. Motörhead - No Remorse Skunk Anansie - Stoosh My Bloody Valentine - Loveles...

Every once in a while a movie comes along that makes you laugh like a drain from start to finish. Old School was the last film to hit all the relevant funny bones, so it's apt that the latest injection of mirth should come from the same stable. The Hangover is the story of the stag party to end all stag parties, a lost groom, a tiger a chicken and iron Mike Tyson. Throw in roller girl herself Heather Graham, some excellent totally un-PC gags and a funny as feck script and you're on a winner. Warning, don't drink while watching this or your beverage will shoot out your nostrils as you roll around the floor laughing your socks off. Highly recommended.

Warning Spoilers Ahead Don't read if your unfortunate enough to be planning to see this movie. The Plot - Kid gets a bunch of numbers in a time capsule written by another kid 50 years in the past that predicts disasters. Nicholas Cage reads the list, runs around and gets hot and bothered. Kid gets rescued with the grand daughter of the 50's kid by a bunch of aliens. Everyone gets hot and bothered, the world ends and the kids run off to do a spot of tree hugging on an alien world. Verdict - Total tosh but mildly entertaining. Knowing could have been a good movie, but the addition of a bunch of sci-fi hocum at the end with a scene ripped of from Close Encounters didn't do it any favors. Cage's acting was pretty wooden throughout, with the film giving him numerous opportunities to deliver his very best angst expression. Recommendation - Knowing is a film in part about a message from the past giving someone the knowledge of future disasters and the ability to save people...

Every once in a while a novel comes along that perfectly captures the spirit of the age. It's a time when violent crime is on the rise with murder the new currency on the streets and hate and intolerance the new religion. Inner city dwellers hide in their homes in a state of paranoia not knowing if the next rap listening hoodie they see will be the one to stick a knife in their gut. Welcome to Britain in the 21st century. And so on to the book in question, Hater by David Moody . Imagine a world where this state of random violence is taken to the next level, a world where ordinary people transform into psychopathic killing machines for no apparent reason. Given the nickname of Haters by the media they could be anyone, your friend your wife, even your children. One minute your nearest and dearest, the next your impromptu executioner, or you theirs. Society falls apart and paranoia rules the streets of fear. What do the government know?, what's going on? and who's going to tu...

Having still got 3 films left on my UGC pass and only a week left before it expired, I decided to head for the cinema this weekend. Push Saturday night at the movies and first out the blocks was Push. Take a bunch of people with various Psi powers, a shadowy organisation tracking them down with their own Psi Warriors, and what have you got, Heroes season one or a martial arts packed Heroes wannabe set in Hong Kong that's about as unoriginal as they come. Boasting a plot with more holes than a tetley teabag, Push is a brain dead piece of crap where the only thing of note is that they put Dakota Fanning in a whore length skirt for most of the film. This has led to much discussion in the forums of IMDB about using a child in this manner. Then again Jodie Foster was only 13 when she made Taxi Driver and was portrayed in a similar style. Then again, Taxi Driver was a classic film and not a chop shlocky action fest. On the plus side, Fanning's performance was pretty good and the acti...

So here I am, Friday night in Brussels, just having drunk a bottle of the greatest beer in the world, listening to U2s latest album "No Line On The Horizon". I purchased the aforementioned shiny disk of joy on the back of a 5 star review in Q Magazine. I used to have a policy of buying 5 star titles from this estimable tome as a matter of policy. Over the years this has led to some great purchases of releases from the likes of David Byrne, Razorlight, Jet, The Killers and Muse. In this case the 5 stars were augmented by a claim from the magazine that their latest release is their best album to date. Given this claim, and a liking for previous stuff from Dublin's finest this latest purchase was a gimme. And so on to Brussels a glass of Westvleiteren and Bono the Edge (on the edge of time) and co. giving it some via my MacBook Pro and a set of Logitech speakers. The verdict... fecking excellent. Unlike previous U2 albums, this one is a slow burn, taking time to wiggle it...

As the snow tumbled out of a Sunday afternoon Brussels sky, I thought I'd take advantage of the unclement weather and see a movie. A short trudge from my breakfast pit stop at O'Reilly's to de Brouckere later and I sat myself down to watch Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie. I've always been a great admirer of Clint, both as an actor, in films like the Good the Bad and the Ugly as a purveyor of fine foods, the Dirty Harry burger I ate in his Hogsbreath restaurant in Carmel was awesome. Changeling shows, yet again, that he's also one of the finest directors in the world. Like Billion Dollar Baby before it it's a bittersweet roller coaster of the emotions, but I think overall is uplifting. Jolie plays a mother, Christine Collins, who's son go's missing and is found by the police. The only problem is that the returnee foisted on her by the police is not her boy. What follows is a nightmare journey to the heart of 1920...

Inspired by seeing Wolverhampton's finest play with his Quintet at AB the other week, I purchased myself a copy of their double live album Live at Birdland. Giving it a spin, I've got to conclude that this has got to be one of the finest live Jazz albums of all time and would be a worthy addition to the top live album list I posted earlier. Live at Birdland runs the whole gamut of modern jazz, taking you on a roller coaster of cool, with each track hitting the mark with greater regularity than Steve Bull. As with the live gig I attended the sound stage of this album is breathtakingly wide and deserves a listen at the end of the day, with a single malt in your hand and your brain set to deep chill. In one word, bostin !!!

Perched on Old Compton Street like a bird on a wire, Café Espana is consistently excellent. Excellent food, excellent atmosphere, excellent wine at a most excellent price. On this occasion a selection of Tapas including prawns in a garlic sauce, potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce and chorizio were followed by a wonderful liver and crispy bacon dish and a lamb dish. Of the two the majestic liver won the day, melting in the mouth and delivering instant foody nirvana. The wine drunk was the second most expensive Rioja on the menu and is wonderful. Just look at the delirious expression on my good friend Simon's face as he holds it aloft. The damage for this feast fit for kings, £19 a head. Fandabadozy! If you're ever in London and looking for a good budget munch, check it out. Café Espana 63 Old Compton Street London W1D 6HT Tel: 0871 3328043

Every once in a while an author comes along who's the literary equivalent of heroin, you read them, get hooked, read everything they've ever written, then get cold turkey waiting for them to write your next fix. Lee Child fell into that category on a friends recommendation I read the Jack Reacher book "One Shot" and within a week I'd bought and got signed copies of every Reacher book out there. A Jack Reacher novel reads like Dirty Harry on steroids, which is all right by me. In a bought of Reacher turkey I hit my local pushers, Waterstones, looking for some more of the good stuff. That's when I stumbled on Barry Eisler courtesy of Lee Child . It was Lee's comment on acopy of Eisler's "The Last Assassin" that did it. " Eisler is exactly my kind of writer and his deadly main character John Rain is exactly my kind of guy - highly recommended ". Good enough for Lee, good enough for me. After reading "The Last Assassin", bri...

F. Paul Wilson 's The Tomb introduces the character Repairman Jack and is an absolute cracker of a novel. Jack repairs things, not your toaster or your car, but any injustice that is beyond the reach of the law. Featuring a lost amulet, an ancient curse and a horde of Bengali demons, in The Tomb Jack must put more than his life on the line to save the ones he loves. If you like Steven King, you'll love this (Steven King is president of the Repairman Jack fan club). Soon to be a major film The Tomb is a roller coaster of entertainment. Hop on board, I guarantee you'll enjoy the ride.

In the film "The Big Nothing", nothing is as it seems. Scenes that look like they were shot in the States where actually filmed on the Isle of Man and in Canada. Bizarre. As to the movie itself, this is a top draw black comedy. David Schwimmer plays an unemployed teacher who joins forces with a scammer (played by Simon Pegg) and his girlfriend (Alice Eve) in a blackmailing scheme. Excellent performances by David Schwimmer and über geek Simon Pegg are surpassed by John Polito's inspired Columboesque detective role. I won't mention any more of the plot, not wanting to give anything away, but it's worth watching to hear the Rammstein track used on the soundtrack alone. The pick of the extras is Simon Pegg's "Pegcam" featurette. Shame it didn't go on longer though. 8/10

Another night's filmic entertainment, Lethal Weapon on Blue Ray, another bottle of wine down the old hatch. The nectar of the Gods to grace our palettes on this occasion, was the pewter label Tempus Two Merlot. A real corker !!!

I expected it to be good, it was beta than I expected. Brilliant !!!

We watched the first 2 episodes of Heroes tonight. Excellent stuff, looks like it's going to be up there with Battlestar Galictica as another must see show. Good characterisation, storyline and the future arrival of George Takei and Christopher Eccleston to look forwards to make it an SF fans wet dream. Bring it on.

Taking advantage of Calvin's newly acquired status as a 15 year old, I took him to see Hot Fuzz. A most excellent film, it had the feel of an extended episode of Spaced on steroids. Reading some of the forums around this movie, I see its UK release date, Valentines day, just happens to be Simon Pegg's birthday. This is also Calvin's birthday, so it was a fitting film to watch to celebrate the occaision.