My dear friend Caroline is going to let us know what's on her mind in the shape of a blog, and I'm sure it's going to be an interesting trip to follow.

She started with a comment on the Kaiser Chiefs concert in Brixton. We went together, but as expected, she's got quite a different point of view from mine. We happen to disagree about almost everything musical, which is very funny.

Can't wait for more posts!

It was, just as I expected it, a great concert. Both Maximo Park and the Kaiser Chiefs are great live bands, and as a proper teenager, I jumped and clapped and sung and enjoyed every minute of it. And took some photos, which you can check out here.

Kaiser Chiefs (and now Maximo Park) are a constant on our house playlist, mainly because we are three persons with very different musical tastes and when we find something we all like, we play it over and over again. What I like about them is that, in contrast with lots of bands nowadays which are reaching into the eighties for sounds and influences, KC have more of a sixties vibe. And I was always a great sixties fan.

It's online!(sorry, portuguese only)

Radiouniversoinfinito.com is the companion website to a brand new radio-sitcom by portuguese comic genius Nuno Markl. "Perdidos no Éter" starts tomorrow at 9.25 on Antena3 and tells the story of a city guy who starts working on a local radio station in the small portuguese village of "Tremoçal de Abrunhos".

Because of the lost-in-time characteristics of the local radio, the website was given an old-magazine retro look to promote the program and archive all the episodes. It will be updated every week.

How cool is that? The uber-funny author of the Dilbert comic stip has a blog, and I happend to catch it right at the begining. By the first post I can tell this is going to be one of my favourite reads. Hey Xico, thanks for the tip!

Although the weather was rather greyscale when i visited Amsterdam two years ago, it wasn't enough to hide the fact that it is a very colourful place. My best colour snaps from that trip are now up on PIC. Enjoy.

As expected, Aardman did it again!
I don't have much to say. The film is beautifully done and very funny, with lots of interesting characters, cinematic references (like King Kong or the Red Baron), and lots and lots of... cute bunnies!
Most of all, it's all very very English! Somehow, the Vicar of Dibley springs to mind, as it seems to have the same small village feeling, with all the expected locals, including members of the church and the aristocracy. All in perfectly detailed and expressive clay. Oh dear!

Those nice people of New Zealand can now post a letter with a Jack Black stamp on it!! Oh how I envy them!

Meanwhile, a fantastic double DVD documenting the making of Peter Jackson's King Kong is coming out soon, accompanied by a book filled with conceptual art, set design and other images. The funny bit is that it's actually being released one day before the actual film! I wonder if anyone is silly enough to watch it before, as it will surely be full of spoilers, but what this actually means is that you can go to the movies, and then come home and watch the extras straight away!

I just posted a new album on PIC (Patricia's Image Collection), with black and white photos of our small trip to Amsterdam in the summer of 2003. From houses and windows to bicycles, Amsterdam is all about rythm and repetition, and the few black and white photos I took happen to enhance that.

More photos of Amsterdam can be expected soon, as a colour album is on it's way.

So I had the best iPod ever... the 60gb iPod photo. All the new iPods didn't appeal to me, as I was never that fusssed about the size. All I cared about was a lot of space for all my music, being able to download photos from my camera, and still having space for backing up my files.

Well now they have a new one... and this time, it is better than mine. The same 60gb, but a bit smaller and lighter (which as I said isn't that important to me), with a bigger screen, longer autonomy and what impressed me the most, the ability to play videos.

I refuse to be greedy, though. I still love my ageing iPod.

According to the news at MTV, Franz Ferdinand are the next band to follow this year's retro black and white music video trend.

Kaiser Chiefs had a perfectly nice video for "I predict a Riot", that envolved a massive pillow fight, and decided to replace it with a new black and white tribute to early mute cinema that finishes with a performance in what appears to be Shakespeare's Globe. Nice, but I actually liked the original full colour, low budget one better.

The Killers also pulled their rather dull colour video for "All these things that I've done" and replaced it with a black and white wild west mini film. It wouldn't be so annoying if it didn't have Brandon Flowers' very serious "i've got soul, but i'm not a soldier" voiceover. Another band who's all for the b&w look is The Bravery with the videos for "Fearless", and "An honest mistake", although they didn't fall for the retro thing. The White Stripes did, though, with the fantastic "My Doorbell". (brilliant website, by the way).

For me White Stripes are the band with the best music videos ever, but Franz Ferdinand have an impressive collection as well, so I can't wait to see what they come up with this time.

Kevin and Chelsea are two burmese cats from Cape Town. They are so beautiful, I really had to post this link to their photo album at flickr!

So I spent the best part of Sunday trying to list the 50 states of America. A bit sad I admit, specially because I ended up giving up when I was still two short. And I'm glad I did, or I would have gone mad trying to remember Rhode Island and Conneticut all night long.

After that, I went looking for an old lost link, a small flash game for kids where you had to locate the american states, or countries within the continents. I found it, it's by national geographic and it's called Geospy. I keep playing it untill I've got everything right. And it better be soon, if I want to get some work done!

... Danny Wallace is the King!

A few months ago, comedian Danny Wallace, (also known as Dave Gorman's sidekick in his "Are you Dave Gorman?" adventures) decided to start his very own country - in his East London flat. And so he did, and documented it all in the BBC series "How to start your own country", halfway between a comedy and a documentary.

If you missed it, here's your second chance... the DVD is about to pop out. You'll be able to follow King Danny's massive task of creating a country from scratch, with it's own flag, national anthem, constitution, government, Eurovision Song Contest entry and what's more important, citizens. We're now over 50,000 and counting in the wonderful Kingdom of Lovely, and you're very welcome to join us!

My brother sent me this link to a very cool drawing animation.

Yes there is such a thing. This wonderful specimen is the Partial Beard Freestyle World Champion. Just gorgeous!

So, it appears Peter Jackson is envolved in yet another special effects bonanza. It's good to know, as he is one of the few directors who doesn't let bad CGI take over while totally neglecting the story. He's not directing this time, but I'm pretty sure he'll be keeping an eye on things.

After the likes of Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy and Resident Evil, are we finally going to have a good computer game based film?

So I was prejudiced. I went to the cinema completely convinced this new adaptation of my favourite book was going to be horrible and I have to admit... it's not. But it isn't any good either.

I can't help it if I'm comparing it directly to the 1995 BBC series, specially since I've seen it a million times and know it almost by heart. And there is too much for the film to live up to. Everyone in the supporting cast, which includes names such as Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn and Judy Dench, comes up with the goods. Even if they are not better than the original cast, they're certainly not worse.

The same thing can't be said of the lead roles. Keira Nightley managed to make her character look and sound as silly as the younger sisters, and in direct opposition to Jennifer Ehle's excellent portrayal of the sensible and intelligent Lizzy Bennet, she doesn't know the meaning of the word subtle. Matthew Macfadyen, on the other end of the scale, also confuses subtlety with using the same stony-faced-intense-looking expression thoughout the whole film, with no variation whatsoever. Instead of Colin Firth's ambiguity of being either shy or rude, Macfadyen's Darcy is both very rude and retardedly shy. Duh!

But for me, the biggest failing of this film is the script. Jane Austen's text was dumbed down and managed to lose most of it's punch. And in order to fit it all in two hours, the delivery was extremely rushed. The so important proposal scene , for example, is totally ruined by the main characters speaking so fast you barely manage to understand, let alone make sense of what's being said.

Sure, I'm biased, and maybe I'm being too harsh. But even if I look at it as just another enjoyable romantic comedy, I have to ask: Where is the snog at the end? I want my popcorn money back!