20 June 2008

Rubbish Design

The online product reviewing web sire Reevoo has published the results of a poll to show the most useless British products, and quite frankly, it makes you wonder if these companies have a quality control department or do any product testing. They be producing chocolate teapots and rubber ladders next. It proves it's always worth reading the reviews before any purchases too.

Possibly the worst piece of design Ive ever had was a bicycle with a type of welding on the front pillar that meant it kept shearing away, leaving a inicycle and a pair of handlebars in my hands (and usually a scab on my chin).

What's the worst designed thing you have ever owned? Let's name and shame them!





                  1. The Bosch KGU30605 fridge (above), which had an egg tray that could only hold five eggs, despite the fact that most eggs are sold in boxes of six. Despite this, the fridge was highly popular when it went on sale.

                  2. The Zanussi ZWF14581 washing machine - Which only had one temperature setting: 60 degrees Celsius, resulting in it washing synthetics 20 degrees above the correct temperature.

                  3. LG 37LF66 television - A television set which had no on/off button, meaning that you had to pull out the plug in order to turn the set off.

                  4. Easy Store large slide - A toy slide which was coloured a bright yellow colour, which attracted lots of insects towards it.

                  5. Kenwood DW12CFE dishwasher - A dishwasher which if used to wash full sized dinner plates meant the top rack couldn't be used becuase the spinner won't spin.

                  6. LM Tech battery powered heated gloves - These gloves did not get hot enough to warm your fingers.

                  7. Carlton CTD1W table top dishwasher - A type of dishwasher which could not wash standard mugs because they would not fit into it.

                  8. Elba C96DF 90 gas oven - An oven where the knobs also heated up when the grill was on.

                  9. Hotpoint RLA21 4.6 Cu.ft. larder fridge - A fridge that did not have a light in it which meant you needed a torch so you could what was in the back.

                  10. Uni Media 22/1 IDTVDVD 22" HD ready digital television - This TV had a picture adjustment box which appears in the middle of the screen. It was so big, you could not see the screen, therefore making it impossible to adjust the picture.

                  17 June 2008

                  The MOJO Honours List 2008

                  Now, MOJO is a music magazinr I don't think I've ever bought. It tends to celebrate the old classic rock music of times gone by and more "AOR" of today. They held their annual awards ceremony last night and the magazine's music policy is reflected in it's winners.

                  Five of the MOJO Honours List categories are contemporary, best-of-the-year type awards, voted for online by the readers. Even these acts (rather than all the inspiration type awards) are retro sounding; Duffy (sounds like Dusty Springfield), The Last Shadow Puppets (Scott Walker) and the rest of the awards went to acts that have been around for decades (and many are playing Glastonbury Festival next week)..



                  The MOJO Breakthrough Act -
                  The Last Shadow Puppets

                  The MOJO Song Of The Year -
                  Duffy (Mercy)

                  The MOJO Roots Award -
                  Toots Hibbert

                  The MOJO Les Paul Award -
                  John Martyn

                  The MOJO Vision Award -
                  Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (Julien Temple)

                  The MOJO Catalogue Release Of The Year -
                  Pillows And Prayers: Cherry Red Records 1981-1984

                  The MOJO Medal -
                  Dave Robinson

                  The MOJO Compilation Of The Year -
                  Juno OST

                  The MOJO Legend Award -
                  Irma Thomas

                  The MOJO Classic Album Award -
                  My Bloody Valentine (Loveless)

                  The MOJO Maverick -
                  The Fall

                  The MOJO Hall Of Fame -
                  The Specials

                  The MOJO Hero Award -
                  Motörhead

                  The MOJO Inspiration Award -
                  John Fogerty

                  The MOJO Best Live Act -
                  Led Zeppelin

                  The MOJO Outstanding Contribution To Music -
                  Paul Weller

                  The MOJO Lifetime Achievement Award -
                  Genesis

                  The MOJO Classic Songwriter -
                  Neil Diamond

                  The MOJO Icon Award -
                  Sex Pistols

                  11 June 2008

                  Best beards

                  After the exitement of Bearded Theory festival (when I managed to grow a "brazilain", as someone described it) and the cricket season well under way with England winning the third test and series against New Zealand (I know very little about the game, I'm certainly not a fan!) I have noticed that AOL's front page is running a list of the top 20 greatest cricket beards, so I had to pinch it:


                  WG Grace (England

                  Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka)



                  Hashim Amla (South Africa)


                  Mike Brearley (England)
                  Ian Botham (England)


                  Inzamam ul Haq (Pakistan)

                  Wasim Raja (Pakistan)

                  Saeed Anwar (Pakistan)

                  Merv Hughes (Australia)

                  Andy Roberts (West Indies)

                  Bishen Bedi (India)

                  Monty Panesar (England)

                  Bill Frindall (BBC Test Match Special)

                  Viv Richards (West Indies)

                  Dennis Lillee


                  Daniel Vettori (New Zealand)

                  Malcolm Marshall (West Indies)

                  Mike Gatting (England)

                  Mohammad Yousef (Pakistan)

                  Sandip Patil (India)

                  09 June 2008

                  Keep music live!

                  It's been a great year of live music for me, including the biggest gig I've ever been to, the Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium on Saturday (with encore support by Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones of Ledd Zepplin!). It was immense and they raaawked, man! Truely (as Dave Grohl would say) fuckin awesome. Thought I'd better mark the occasion with a list:


                  Great bands I've seen live this year (in no particular order):

                  Foo Fighters
                  The Police
                  The Who
                  Kaiser Cheifs
                  Ezio
                  The Levellers
                  The Killers
                  Bjork
                  Supergrass
                  The Futureheads
                  The Kooks
                  Manic Street Preachers
                  Arcade Fire
                  Babyshambles
                  Klaxons
                  The Enemy
                  Beetroot Kings
                  The Runners

                  ...and with Glastonbury Festival just weeks away, Beetroot Kings single release gig next weekend, REM (supported by Editors and Guillemots) in August, Bearded Theory part II in October, Beautiful Days festival and even Boy George to come, it's not all over! Long live live music!

                  If you don't know some of the above bands then I recommend you check them out, cos these are the cream of the crop of bands I've seen in the past 12 months.

                  08 June 2008

                  50 and counting

                  This weekend was a good friend of mine's 50th birthday. So: to celebrate I've made a list: Now, a number of prominent people where born in 1958 and here is a list of 50 of them. See if you can work out who my mate is...

                  Grandmaster Flash - rapping pioneer
                  Matt Frewer - actor, Max Headroom
                  Vicki Peterson - Guitarist for The Bangles
                  Jools Holland - musician and broadcaster, Squeeze and Later With...
                  Ellen DeGeneres - Actress and famous lesbian
                  Michael Jackson - television executive
                  Tip Tipping - actor and stuntman (Aliens)
                  Nik Kershaw - pop star and music writer
                  Andy Gibb - pop star (the Bee Gees)
                  Gary Numan - pop star
                  Sharon Stone - actress (Basic Instinct) and China agitator
                  Albert II, Prince of Monaco
                  Holly Hunter - actress (Broadcast News)
                  Gary Oldman - actor (Batman Begins)
                  Alec Baldwin - actor (The Hunt for Red October)
                  Will Sergeant - guitarist, Echo and the Bunnymen
                  Fish - singer (Marillion)
                  Eric Singer - drummer (Kiss)
                  Neil Finn - musician/song writer (Crowded House)
                  Annette Bening actress (American Beauty)-
                  Prince - pop star
                  Zane Llewelyn - racing driver
                  Keenen Ivory Wayans - actor/director
                  Meredith Brooks - singer
                  Bill Watterson - cartoonist (Calvin and Hobbes)
                  Jennifer Saunders - comedian
                  Kevin Bacon - actor (Footloose)
                  Michael Flatley - dancer
                  Kate Bush - singer/songwriter
                  Bill Berry - former drummer of REM
                  Bruce Dickinson - rock star (Iron Maiden)
                  Madonna - pop star
                  Angela Bassett - actress (What's Love Got to Do With It?)
                  Belinda Carlisle - pop star (The GoGos)
                  Steve Guttenberg - actor (Police Academy)
                  Tim Burton - director (Edward Scissorhands)
                  Michael Jackson - pop star
                  Chris Columbus - director (Harry Potter)
                  Andrea Bocelli - opera singer
                  Thomas Dolby - pop star (Hyperactive)
                  Tim Robbins - actor (The Shawshank Redemption)
                  Viggo Mortensen - actor (Lord of the Rings)
                  Mark King - singer/bass guitarist (Level 42)
                  Simon Le Bon - singer (Duran Duran)
                  Mark Austin - newsreader
                  Jamie Lee Curtis - actress (Trading Places)
                  George Saunders - author
                  Nick Park -animator (Wallace and Grommit)
                  Niki Sixx - rock star (Motley Crue)
                  Alannah Myles - singer (Black Velvet)

                  Also celebrating her birthday this week (though not 50th) is my great friend, Dory. I couldn't let it go by without a mention cos she's took lovely and one of the kindest, friendliest people I have the pleasure know. So have a great birthday this week honey.

                  02 June 2008

                  MTV Movie Awards 2008

                  An awards list now that is just a little more what the kids think! The MTV Movie Awards don't tend to contain the Academy Awards-worrying films (but then the Oscars don't have a Best Kiss Oscar), these are more populist fare, keeping in with the audience that votes, the MTV generation. Amongst some intereting categories the best is the Best Summer Movie So Far. I wonder how Indy 4 and The Dark Knight would have done had they been released before voting ended. Terribly, I've only seen one of the winning films, the excellent Juno.




                  Best Summer Movie So Far
                  Ironman

                  Best Fight
                  Sean Faris vs. Cam Gigandet Never Back Down

                  Best Kiss
                  Briana Evigan and Robert Hoffman Step Up 2 the Streets

                  Best Spoof
                  Juno: Teen Pregnancy Redux

                  Best Male Performance
                  Will Smith in I Am Legand

                  Best Female Performance
                  Ellen Page in Juno

                  Best Comedic Performance
                  Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

                  Best Villian
                  Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd

                  Best Movie
                  Transformers

                  MTV Generation Award
                  Adam Sandler

                  01 June 2008

                  Race For Life


                  Sally did the Cancer Research flagship fundraiser yesterday, the Race for Life. A 5km sponsored run. She did brilliantly, running in 35 minutes. The cause is a great one, funding the UK's biggest charity raising money for the research into the cure for all forms of cancer. Please visit their web site here and maybe donate a little (or a lot). Well done to all the women who ran the Race for Life, you're all winners.
                  :: In 2007 665,000 women to walked, jogged or ran the 5k.
                  :: Last year £40 million pounds was for Cancer Research UK
                  :: The men's version of the event, Run for Moore, is raises money for research into bowel cancer, which England football captain Bobby Moore died from. Click the link to find out details where you can do the run.
                  :: Bowel cancer affects over 35,000 people in the UK every year.
                  :: The four most common cancers – breast, lung, colorectal and prostate – accounted for half of the 239,000 new cases of malignant cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) registered in England in 2005.
                  :: 119,600 of the total were in males and 119,400 in females. Breast cancer accounted for 32 per cent of cases among women and prostate cancer for 24 per cent among men.
                  :: Cancer is predominantly a disease of the elderly – only 0.5 per cent of cases registered in 2005 were in children (aged under 15) and 26 per cent were in people aged under 60.
                  :: Cancer Research has a team of over 4,250 scientists, doctors and nurses
                  :: They are also are the major supporter of breast cancer research in the UK. Cancer Research spends over £22 million a year on research into the disease that affects over 40,000 women in the UK each year.
                  :: They also fund research aimed at improving the quality of life for cancer patients and provide support for them and their families.