The greatest action movie ever made - The Expendables

Remember when you first watched Commndo? Enter The Dragon? First Blood? or if you're new skool: The Matrix, Ong Bak or even Gladiator. After watching those films you felt empowered, tougher and ready to taken on the world right?

Well last night I saw what can only be described as the best action movie made in over two decades. In a hark back to the good ol' days of old, Sly Stallone has managed to pull together some of the biggest names in Hollywood action history. What happens over the next 103 minutes is total awesomeness.

Muscles:

Firepower:

Fighting skills:

Big mean baddies:

Car chases:

Explosions:

Hotness:

I left the cinema with a new walk, feeling untouchable, singing Michael Jackson's "Wanna be starting something'" in my head and thinking: "Why don't people ever pick fights with me when I'm in this mood!?"

Sylvester Stallone delivers, giving you everything you'd want from a classic action movie - well everything except a cheesy Jean Claude Van Damme sex scene. The cinema audience clapped, cheered and whooped throughout the film and I would recommend it to any action movie fan as a "must see".

- Mr Devo

Instrumental for growth

(ADVISORY – Press “play” on the link before you start reading this)

Shoulder Kiss by canonjon

Increasingly, as I get older I’m finding myself listening to instrumental music over anything else, or if I do listening to music with words it tends to be very minimal or in a foreign language.

I’ve always been a huge fan of supreme producers and composers whose music simply stood alone, with out any lyrical accompaniment – producers/Musicians like Flying Lotus, MF Doom, RJD2, the late great J.Dilla and epic composers like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Hans Zimmer. These craftsmen create a world for their listeners to dive into and immerse themselves in. They’re music gives you a platform to explore and experience your own stories as you journey through with their sound as your backdrop.

Although until recently it hadn’t been a conscious decision for instrumental music to dominate my listening tastes, when I was thinking about it last week I stumbled across a possible reason for my shift from songs with words to songs without.

As I’m beginning to experience the world, comfortable in my own skin as an adult, I’m less concerned with the “same old” stories and agendas of others. You know how it goes when you listen to an album; you have the “I’m back, bigger and better” song, the “Can we hook up/get down/or whatever” song, the “Better off without you/thanks to the haters” song, and the infamous “Party track” or “Club” song.

Well no longer do I want to be told how to feel when I’m listening to music, I want to find something in each piece for myself. Very few song writers can put words to music that allow for that kind of space and freedom, hence my leaning towards instrumentals.

After complaining for much of the past decade that “music isn’t what it used to be” my faith in music was once again restored when I discovered Question & Freddie Joachim’s “Study Guide”, which was actually released last year. If you haven’t heard it, I highly recommend you get on freddiejoachim.com/store/ or head down to your nearest good record store and make a purchase. The album is a smooth and soulful blend of Hip-Hop and Jazz, minus the predictable “conscious” Hip-Hop verses pasted over the top.

Each time I listen to an instrumental I get something new out of it, a new mood, a new instrument/melody/sound will pop out and catch my ear. In the same way that a single image can say a thousand and four things without the need for a caption, I’m attracted to music that possesses that same magic.

Here’s an image I captured last week that for me, has that impact:

- Mr Devo

RIM fights back with a new Blackberry!

Following the release of the iPhone 4, as their market share continues to rocket, who can hold a torch to Apple right now? HTC? Samsung? Well, enter RIM's latest offering - the Torch 9800.

Research in Motion (RIM) is set to recover lost ground in the battle of the ultimate mobile phone handset with its newest family member.

The Blackberry Torch 9800 looks like a Blackberry, but with a slight difference. Not only does it have a touch screen (vogue for smartphones these days) it also has the familiar QWERTY keypad, which should please traditional Blackberry fans whilst satisfying the gadget goons obsessed with everything they can touch, flick, pinch and double tap. Think of it like this: If the Blackberry Storm and the Bold 9700 had a child, the Torch 9800 would be it.

The screen is a humble but respectable 3.2 inches with a native resolution of 480x360. The Torch boasts a 5MP camera, complete with flash. Unfortunately, the video recorder on the phone only records in VGA, so it won't be able rival the HD video recording quality of the iPhone4.

But if you're like me and won't require the bells and whistles of HD video recording, perhaps the speedy 624MHz processor of the Torch (faster than the iPhone 3GS), improved web browsing and new Blackberry OS 6 - which includes device leading features such as "Universal search" - will be enough to entice you towards the Blackberry Torch 9800.

The Torch was released in the US today and will hopefully be coming to the UK in the next few weeks with Vodaphone looking like the first carrier to offer it. US release price of the Torch 9800 is $199.99 on a $15 a month basic contract, no word on UK prices though.

I've had my upgrade since last month and I waited for the iPhone4 before considering jumping ship. But with RIM's timely release, perhaps I will remain a Blackberry customer after all...

Watch this space!

- Mr Devo

South Africa and the World Cup through my eyes - Link finally up!

Hello again,

As promised here is a link to my photos taken during my journey in South Africa, I hope - accompanied by the pieces I've written previously on the experience - that these images will give you a glimpse into the wonderful, inspiring and moving place that is South Africa.

Click here to see the images.

Please enjoy. If you wish to use/share any of the images please contact me via email at:
canonjon@blacktechnicolor. com

Using images without permission will leave you open to prosecution.


- Mr Devo

Still with the rainbows, but this time...

Apologies for not posting for a little while (feels like I'm talking to myself again) but I've been trying to clear my mind after an intense six weeks.

I have a few things I'd like to share, thought-wise, and I promise I will once they're a little more fluid. I also have a ton of images from South Africa about to go up on Flickr which I will share the link to shortly. Any ways, here is what I'd like to share for now, this brought tears to my eyes and made me smile so I hope, if you haven't seen it before, that it does the same for you:

"What does this mean!?!" - Yosemitebear

- Mr Devo

My farewell to the rainbow nation

It was often said before the World Cup that South Africa is the world's best kept secret. Well now, after successfully hosting one of the most exciting and memorable World Cup tournaments in history, its safe to say - the secret is well and truly out.

I've tried to regularly share my experiences and observations whilst being here and I hope - if you're not familiar with South Africa - that my ramblings have given you some valuable insight and sparked a little intrigue.

To come to a place like South Africa and allow what you've heard to control your actions and poison your perception is a crime, it defeats the purpose of your journey (unless you're here purely on business). In reality, very few things in life meet your expectations, whatever they are - for better or for worse. In South Africa's case, in my experience, this place has been positively so much more than I could have wished for.

If I was expecting to have a torturous time, dodging bullets, running from machete gangs and ballsing my valuables - I can near enough guarantee that at least one of those delightful experiences would have been granted to me.

Instead, I came here with my arms wide open and surprise surprise, the majority of people I met here greeted me in kind. Granted - I wasn't dripping with diamonds and holding an iPad in one hand and a Blackberry in the other - but do that in London's Liverpool street or New York's 5th street and you're simply courting trouble.

There are areas of South Africa where people are desperately poor, living in Townships and squats where their comforts are tin roofs and roadside fires. Many people know about these things (from a far) but you've got to see it with you're own eyes and breathe in the smoke.

Damning and avoiding a whole country (in many cases - the whole continent) in ignorant fear of the millions of people who are living in dire conditions is not going to help anybody. I sincerely encourage you to travel to places all over the world that you may have unjustly formed a negative opinion of, challenge your perceptions, get your hands dirty and open a dialogue with the people who actually live there. If you have no opinion there's less excuses and even more reason to get involved and form one.

I've always been curious about South Africa and I'm exceedingly thankful for the opportunity I was given to be here. My only regret is that I waited for an opportunity and didn't make it my business to be here sooner.

Alas, this brings my South African journey to a close, next stop?

I hear there's a well known football tournament happening somewhere in South America in a couple of years...

- Mr Devo

Social media comes into its own for the World Cup

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are flooded with World Cup related content, with key tournament moments sparking global debates, viral jokes and displays of national team support.

Sports fans love talking about sport, as much as they love watching it and the internet is providing the ultimate platform.

From posting pictures of themselves at fanparks and stadiums to giving running match commentary via status updates, never before have so many people engaged with the World Cup through social media.

It seems that companies have capitalised on the World Cup’s online boom with global brands like EA Sports, Coco-Cola and Nike getting in on the action.

EA in partnership with games developer Playfish launched the first Facebook sports game, Facebook Superstars before the World Cup and in the past two weeks, 5.2 million Facebook users have used the application to make game predictions.

Due to the success of Football Superstars EA are planning to launch a Facebook version of NFL game Madden hoping to replicate the World Cup’s online boost during the NFL season and the Super Bowl.

In FIFA’s official World Cup football title, also made by EA, a new online feature allows game players to relive some of this World Cup’s greatest moments.

Executive Producer of the game, Kaz Makita, said: “This is an ambitious and completely unique feature that has never before been attempted for football video games.

“The hopes and dreams of nations will rise and fall throughout the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final and within hours after the real matches have occurred our development team will re-create the storylines in our game and provide fans the opportunity to replay and, perhaps, change the outcome – virtually.”

A Facebook-based fantasy football league game was also launched for the World Cup, including all 736 players from the 32 teams participating in the 2010 World Cup.

The game created by Middle Eastern games company Quirkat allows users to carry out micro-transactions and play against friends.

Soft drink giant Coco-Cola, who astonishingly has almost seven million Facebook “fans”, released a social media-only exclusive viral ad campaign, featuring Cameroon’s Roger Miller and his infamous goal celebration in 1990, which he just happened to do in front of a Coca-Cola billboard.

The ad campaign, called “The History of Celebration”, encourages people to upload their own goal celebrations to YouTube.

Director of worldwide sports and entertainment marketing at Coca-Cola, Emmanuel Seuge says that the digital strategy is all part of the aim to target younger viewers.

Twitter created a special World Cup website “twitter.com/worldcup/worldcup” which gathers “Top Tweets” and gives football fans a unique platform to follow their team’s progress and connect with other fans and follow football stars and coaches via a “suggested accounts” list.

Although, fans of the finalists Holland and Spain are missing out, as the players from those national teams have been banned from Tweeting during the World Cup.

On the opening day of the tournament, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, said: "We've put together a special site to capture the spirit of the World Cup and it's already pulsing with activity."

As well as the special site, Twitter also provided users with World Cup themed profile pages and country flag “hashtags”.

Twitter, which crashed when Brazil were dumped out of the competition by Holland, seems to be the number one place for online football fans to talk about the tournament.

Classic 2010 World Cup moments, such as England midfielder Frank Lampard’s ghost goal, Fabiano’s double handball and Portugal’s drubbing of North Korea all became big trending topics on the site.

However, none of those have been more popular online than the controversial Vuvuzela which became the first ever World Cup trending topic on Twitter.

The vuvuzela is also proving to be a huge hit on YouTube, with hundreds of “How to blow a vuvuzela” videos flooding the site. Applications and games featuring the vuvuzela have also been widely popular. A YouTube video featuring the vuvuzela in arcade game classic, DOOM, managed to get one million hits in only a week.

This World Cup has inspired online users in their millions and with internet access on the increase and the digital legacy of South Africa 2010, who knows what Brazil 2014 will have in store for the social media community?


- Mr Devo