Music Is My Radar

Song: Fall Out Boy - I Don't Care

Game: Call Of Duty 4
DVD: American Dad

Not much to write today, but feel I should write something. I had a look at my most played songs on iTunes. The top 40 most played I have on is quite random, but I like a good variation of things. So, here's my 5 most played songs since 2006.

1.Exitlude - The Killers 84 plays
Probably because its quite a short song, but it is a lovely song to reminisce to. Each time this is played, a montage of the good times of Uni goes through my head.

2.Acceptable in The 80s (Radio Edit) - Calvin Harris 82 plays
Always a good song to play to get the night started. Get you into the mood, ready for some dancing. Cant beat a bit of 80's inspired electro pop. 

3.Smile - Lily Allen 73 plays
This song cheers me up, a nice happy song. Played this quite a bit when Lily first appeared on the music scene.

4.When Your Heart Stops Beating - +44 73 plays
Surprise this is so high up, but guess I did play it loads during Uni, nice fast paced song with plenty of emotion in the lyrics.

5.Whoo! Alright-Yeah... Uh Huh - The Rapture 67 plays
A good summery song that I played loads...(in the summer I guess). It's just an upbeat tune that helps motivate me for the day.

My iTunes top 50 most played, its random and some songs are bad, I know

For Reasons Unknown

Song: Kasabian - Vlad The Impaler

Game: The Sims 3
DVD: The Simpsons

Well, its been one of those weeks (Yes, I know its only Wednesday) Don't worry, I'm not going to have a long moan about things, but I'm really struggling to find any energy to care about anything anymore. Today, it was just easier for me to stay quiet and keep my head down. Don't really know why I was feeling like this to be honest, think its just loads of little things building up thats getting to me. Think the lack of sleep probably contributed to me being how I was today as well, (stupid fire alarm at 2 in the morning). Well, I understand that we can't always get our own way, but like I use to say 'Life may not be what we had hoped for, but whilst we are here, lets Dance!' (I do miss a good Dance) But hey, what can we do about it, in the end, it was nice just getting a hug at the end of the day, it doesn't make everything right, but it does make you feel a bit better.

Tomorrow is another day though, hopefully I will have a better sleep and go into work refreshed and ready to go!

Happy up Here

Song: Royksopp - Happy Up here

Game: Resident Evil 5 - Mercenaries
DVD: Wanted

Yesterday was a rather strange day, one that just confused me even more than I already was. Due to my no cakes month, I needed something else to cheer me up, and then I heard Royksopps new song, Happy up Here, taken from their new album, Junior. the song put a smile on my face straight away, just a happy fun song with a fun video. The video is directed by Reuben Sutherland, whos portfolio includes work for Ikea, T-Mobile and Orange. Hes done some pretty nice work in the past.

Airside by Airside

Song: Lemon Jelly - Elements

Game: Resident Evil 5
DVD: Family Guy

Its been well over a year now since I last invested in a graphic design book. There are plenty out there that I want, but none that I really want. Until today, my friend over at Twelveten, James Mason, spotted on the Airside website, the new book coming out soon, simply named Airside by Airside: The Book. The book tells the story of Airside, from the beginning to present. It showcases most of their work they have done (Lemon Jelly, Coca-Cola, MTV), from initial ideas to story boards to final outcome. It will also include many double page spreads of their award winning designs.

I have always loved their style of work, Airside is a company I would love to work for one day. But until that day, I will just have look at this lovely book.

We are Cheesecake

Song: +44 - No, It isn't

Game: Left 4 Dead
DVD: Entourage

I decided to do my yearly spring clean of my Mac today, getting rid of all the things I don't need. I came across all my university work but more specifically, my final major project. This was my Cheesecake t-shirt ideal I invested heavily on. I put my heart and soul into this project and did everything I could to make it happen. I designed and printed the shirts, created all the promotional material as well. After Uni had ended, I just didn't have the finance or the equipment to continue with it further, which was quite sad. I still one day hope to resurrect Cheesecake and unleash it upon the nation.

Top 5 tunes ever!

Song: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Honeybear

Game: Resident Evil 5
DVD: High Fidelity

It's 4am in the morning and I cant get to sleep. So after watching High Fidelity for the 74th time, I decided to list my own top 5 songs of all time. It was actually harder than I thought, but finally did it at 5:45.

1. For Tomorrow - Blur
The first time I heard this song was in 1993, and from that moment, I knew it was something special. Its the song that got me into Blur, and I believe it to be one of the most influential indie tracks of all time. It will always remind me of my childhood, and 90's England. From the opening riff, its catchy chorus (The La La La...bit) to the Saxophone fade out at the end, Damon Albarn and Co have written the perfect song to represent the best of British Indie in the 90's. I will never get bored of this song and even shelled out £20 for the original vinyl release of this song, which was pretty hard to find.

2. Exitlude - The Killers
Even though this is probably just a sign off for the end of the Killers 2nd album, Sams Town, Its one of my favorites. It works really well as the last song on the album, a good end to something beautiful. Its one of the songs that represented the end of University for me, 'we hope, you enjoyed your stay, it's good to have you with us, even if its just for the day' When ever something is coming to an end, this song makes me look back at the good times I've had, it always brings a smile to my face.

3. Take The Long Road And Walk It - The Music
One of the most energetic songs I have ever danced to. Starts off with a space like fade in, before you hear the guitar riff slowly build up to what seems like preparation for an epic battle. Before you know it, the song kicks in, and the battle has begun, You try to contain yourself but inevitably you lose all self control and head to the mosh pit and throw yourself around like its the end of the world. This is a song that really does help give me energy to kick start the day or just get me motivated. Even after hours dancing around, when this songs comes on, I will find the energy from somewhere to keep dancing.

4. Moving - Supergrass
Another indie classic from the 90's. The reason I love this song is how at first listen, it feels like its going to be a slow ballad, but the ghostly voice of Gaz Coombs slowly lures you into something unknown, you feel something may happen, but not entirely sure. But once we're in that comfort zone where we're not really expecting anything much, The song jumps right out at you with a big surprise. The chorus is very powerful, with its aggressive piano, the dirty bass line and the anguish in Gaz's voice, there is a lot of passion in this song, whilst also keeping a funky beat to keep you 'moving'.

5. Get Ready - The Proclaimers
You may wonder why this is in my top 5, Well its because its an awesome song. The Proclaimers take on the classic Temptations hit, Get Ready. I first heard this in my favorite movie of all time, Dumb and Dumber, during the scene where Harry and Lloyd are travelling to Aspen in the dog van. Everytime I hear hear this song, it just makes me happy. Really catchy tune, with its 90's American rock influenced guitar riff. Its definitely a good road trip song, and has been played many times before during my random road trips I've taken.

There we go, now I should go to bed as the sky is now light...

The Residents aren't happy!

Song: LCD Soundsystem - Someone great

Game: Resident Evil 5
DVD: 24 Redemption

4 years since the last true Resident Evil game came out, but its finally here. The Resident Evil series has always been one of my favorites, I always managed to complete these games, and follow the stories to the end. The character development is done (I think) really well, from the various games, films (Not live action) and comics. Like when Steve Burnside dies in Code: Veronica, you really feel for Claire, or when Luis Sera gets impaled by Saddler in Resident Evil 4, you feel a little bit sad, almost brought a tear to my eye.

Well, number 5, what do I think about this. Its very similar in gameplay to the 4th installment (which isn't a bad thing, despite what everyone else says) It does seem a bit dated now, and we have seen some decent games come out with better shooting mechanics. But Resident Evil 4 was awesome. Most games out these days play virtually the same as their predecessors, and no one seems to complain about them (COD: WaW, GTAIV, even Street Fighter IV) Anyways, I wont rant too much about other games. Yeah, So Resi 5 has you team up with Sheva Alomar, another member of the BSAA, and shes quite annoying, well, shes a nice enough girl, but she always seem to want to stand right in front of you when your trying to shoot people. Also, in the final boss fight, you need to use bullets wisely, but she really doesn't know how to ration her bullets, she just blasts away like shes auditioning for the next Steven Segal movie, before coming back over to Chris asking for more ammo. Shes not all bad though, as its good to give her the health packs, so when your sort of busy fighting the Majini's, she will heal the both of you if your health is down. She also has a good shot on her, so for those long ranges, or enemies with weak points, she'll happily put a bullet through their heads for you.

Speaking of boss fights, some of the bosses in this game are quite good, a wide range of different monsters to tackle, all having different ways to kill them. I would say they are all quite fun to play. Well, apart from the final boss battle, where your likely to get fed up and very angry. As you shoot your last round and find out theres no extra bullets for you to collect (due to Sheva being too trigger happy) you end up trying to defeat him with your machete, but ultimately, you will get killed. I've still not completed the game yet, stupid final boss and all that, but overall, I think its an ok game, I really wanted to love this game, but in the end, I was a little disappointed. The story is alright until a certain point, then it just gets a bit insane for my liking, and thats the main thing that ruined it for me, but the visuals look amazing, a decent soundtrack and the little extras will keep you coming back for more. There will also be a versus mode coming soon on DLC, so that's something else to look forward to, its probably going to be more fun than the actual game to be honest.

You Wear The Sun

Song: The Delays - Lillian

Game: Resident Evil 5
DVD: Entourage

'In my dreams I fail to see why you cannot come home with me,

We lay, scheme and play,

Oh, I could touch you, but you'd shimmy away' Delays

Another day gone, another day of hard work, another day of day dreaming, another day closer to the weekend. Spent the majority of the morning listening to The Delays albums, the lyrics always reaches out to me, they have a lot of feeling to them. If we lived in a movie world, and had songs that played during moments of your life, then a lot of Delays would appear in mine. Well, its been a nice day again today, so went to the park during lunch and chilled out for a bit, was nice just sat there. To be honest, I could of so easily just laid their all day, without a worry in the world. But guess that wouldn't of gone down too well with the boss. Think I just needed some time away from the office and the deadline we had. It's not even been a bad deadline week, kind of flowed smoothly, which is always good. So not really that sure what was going through my head.

The good weather carried on into the night. Was walking through town today after football and saw the Cathedral, thought it looked really nice. Then had another scrubs day dream moment... until the bus came.

Lost in a Melody

Song: Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds

Game: Resident Evil 5
DVD: Entourage

I keep on having one of those Scrubs moments lately, you know the ones, where JD day dreams randomly. I was sat at my desk staring at the computer, listening to some Felix Da Housecat, praying for no more character cutouts, when I would just drift off in my own little world. Not entirely sure what I was thinking about, well, maybe I do. Anyhow, its probably more thinking than I should do to be honest. I just end up winding myself up about certain things, which I promised myself not to when I left Uni and stepped into the real world, but hey, what can you do, Can't really help how you feel.

It was such a beautiful day today as well, the sun was out in the sky shining his fiery face down on us. The office was getting well stuffy, think Future are being a bit tight on the air-con. Was rather depressing sitting in the at my desk during lunch whilst the sun was outside, so went for a nice walk around town. Bought my first ice cream of the year, from the Real Italian Ice Cream Company, Was a tough decision which flavour to go for, but settled on biscotti flavour, it had a whole doughnut shape biscotti on the top on this one, that sold it to me, was awesome. All good things come to an end though, was 1:59, so had to head back to the office for 3 more hours of day dreaming...

Winter's Memory Of Summer

Song: The Killers - Losing Touch
Game: Street Fighter IV
DVD: Resident Evil Degeneration

Monday already, where do these weekends go. I Spent the weekend in Swansea this week with the Claremont gang. Had a brilliant time over there, getting into the usual mischief, like old times. Sophie lived right next to a beach, she said she hardly goes there, but if I lived next to a beach, I would be down there everyday with a a bottle of whiskey, writing songs (well, not whiskey, as I can't drink it anymore, and also not writing songs, as I'm not very good at that) but you get the jist of it. I mean, it wasn't exactly hot in Swansea, nor was the whether that great, but the feeling I had stood on that freezing beach was how it would of felt like if I was stood there on a hot summers evening. For a moment, my mind was free from everything, all the responsibilities, all the troubles, all the hassle. It was a really nice weekend I had with my old crew, made me realise how much I really do miss them, with us all living so far from each other now, we made the most of it. Now I'm back in Bath, its back to reality, all responsibilities, all the troubles, all the hassle, but I guess thats life...

It's a Mobile Disco

Song: Simian Mobile Disco - Synthesise
Game: Minsweeper on the Vectrex
DVD: Futurama

This is the new music video from Simian Mobile Disco. Directed by Kate Moross, its a very simple but effective visual performance of the song, Synthesise. I think its pretty funky and gives that feel of a proper rave in a warehouse!

Blast from the Past

Song: Starsailor feat Brandon Flowers - Tell Me It's Not Over
Game: Loads of games on the Vectrex
DVD: Family Guy

We had a retro morning today, the Vectrex console arrived at GM offices. I never remembered this, probably due to the fact it was released before I was born. So this little machine is actually older than I am...hmmm. Out of the package was this TV like box, covered in dust. It was like discovering some hidden treasure in a tomb somewhere in Egypt. The box was full of games, mini cartridges that came with a plastic acetate sheet that goes in front of the screen, this was the way colour was added to the otherwise black and white screen. Sounds crazy doesn't it, but this was probably amazing at the time.

We all had a quick go on each of the games, some were dreadful, some were ok, but some were actually quite good for what was essentially dot to dot graphics. It's obviously not the most amazing machine ever, but its quite cool and a pretty nice retro toy to own. Over 25 years old and still going, no red rings here. 

Hadouken!!!

Song: The Killers - A Crippling Blow (Still)

Game: Street Fighter IV

DVD: Justice - A Cross the Universe

Street Fighter IV Inspired artwork made from dots. I was bored!

Day & Age

Song: The Killers - A Crippling Blow

Game: Sega Rally 

DVD: High Fidelity 

'I dont need time, I dont need time, No I can get by myself...' 

The Killers - A Crippling Blow

In a very lathargic mood today, not done too much but seem to of lost a lot of motivation. I got the new new Killers album the other day though and been listening to it none stop, I have to say that its better than I thought it would be, Brandon and the gang have come up with the goods yet again, the album artwork is pretty cool as well (designed by Paul Normansell) 

It's one of those albums with some pretty nice songs on there that makes you think about certain things. Makes me think about the future, and how things will turn out (or not)

The Simpsons

Song: The Killers - Joy Ride 

Game: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand 

DVD: Deja Vu 

Here is the new Simpsons title sequence to celebrate their move to HD. Im not that fussed about HD, and to be honest, I'm not sure what difference it would make for a cartoon, but this does look quite cool. Nice to have a change to the usual sequence though.

Left 4 Dead

Song: Franz Ferdinand - Lucid Dreams 

Game: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand 

DVD: Southland Tales 

Best multi player game I've played since Timesplitters. Been switching between this game and 50 Cent's new game the last few days. Left 4 Dead is a pretty awesome game, good fun when playing with some friends. The game has inspired me to do some Academy illustrations based on it, heres my first one, of Louis. 

GamesMaster goes Mad(World)

Song: Noisettes - Don't Upset the Rhythm 

Game: Left 4 Dead 

DVD: Mock the week: Too hot for TV 

Here is a rare chance I got to experiment with the layout of GamesMaster. We normally stick to strict styles throughout the magazine each month, but here I have used the style from the new Sega game, Madworld, as inspiration for the layout of this preview. As the game only uses red, black and white (and yellow for some of the text, but rare) colours through the game, I decided to apply this effect to this spread, even the writers picture is black and white.

Im pretty happy about this, probably one of my favourite pages I've done. Even the people at Sega said the page was really cool, and they were happy with it.

Let it snow

Song: Lily Allen - The Fear 

Game: Sega Rally 

DVD: Futurama Season 4

Not seen any proper snow for years now, its normally the crappy snow that melts as soon as it hits the ground, but some proper hard snow came today. Looks pretty cool, though its not going to be fun trying to get up north today due to the crap British transport system, buses and trains were cancelled in many places.

Toy Story

Song: Justice - Stress 

Game: Fallout 3 (Still) 

DVD: Rush Hour 3 

Found these the other day, Special edition versions of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. As they are 2 of my favorite films, I just had to buy them. The thing that sold it to me was the special pop-up packaging the DVDs came in.

Tony Hart R.I.P

As many of you may already know, Artist and former television presenter Tony Hart, died on 18th January 2009. He was a legend and an inspiration to millions across the country, bringing his creativity to shows such as Hartbeat and Take Hart. His programs also introduced us to the orange plastacine fella, Morph, who itself is now an iconic character. I believe that if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be a artist/designer today, I can remember watching his programs when I was younger and how inspired I was from what he did. You just dont get presenters like him today, he will be missed. R.I.P Tony.