4th Annual Last.Fm Summary

My favourite time of the year is here again. The day I make my annual flashback of my music listening habits. I'd like to remark that last year I was listening to much more music on the radio or on my hi-fi, so this chart - just like in the last 4 years - gives only a hint of what I was listening to last year. Well, anyway, here it is! :)

I think I can say wholeheartedly that my favourite album of 2012 is The 2nd Law by Muse which only came out in the second half of the year and took over my charts. And although there's no trace of the third season of Sherlock yet, my adoration for the show continued putting Nina Simone's Sinnerman on top of my Top 10 most played tracks. Although Oh Death came only third I think that's the best Sherlock inspired fan vid's tune. And here it is for your entertainment!

Happy New Year!

Top 20 Artists

1. Muse 273 plays
2. The Beatles 268 plays
3. Paul McCartney 155 plays
4. David Arnold & Michael Price 151 plays
5. Pulp 130 plays
6. Parov Stelar 122 plays
7. Ákos 119 plays
8. Arctic Monkeys 106 plays
9. Tenacious D 100 plays
10. Hans Zimmer 93 plays
11. Red Hot Chili Peppers 82 plays
12. Pogo 78 plays
13. Robbie Williams 76 plays
13. Howard Shore 76 plays
15. Coldplay 73 plays
16. Jack White 72 plays
17. AWOLNATION 63 plays
18. Kasabian 61 plays
19. Noah and the Whale 57 plays
20. Franz Ferdinand 50 plays

Top 10 Tracks


1. Nina Simone – Sinnerman 24 plays
2. Muse – Animals 22 plays
3. Jen Titus – Oh Death 19 plays
3. Pogo – Alohomora (Harry Potter Remix) 19 plays
3. Pogo – Murmurs Of Middle-Earth (LOTR Remix) 19 plays
3. Muse – The 2nd Law: Isolated System 19 plays
7. AWOLNATION – Sail 18 plays
7. Jack White – Love Interruption 18 plays
7. Muse – Explorers 18 plays
10. Snow Patrol – Called Out in the Dark 17 plays

Az okos az új szexi

Sherlock a 21. században is nyomoz

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle kultikus figurája 1887-ben látott napvilágot, az elmúlt évszázad során pedig több mint 200 korhű film és tévésorozat készült Holmesról és Watsonról. De eddig senkinek nem jutott eszébe átültetni a történetet napjainkba. Steven Moffat és Mark Gatiss két éve pótolta a hiányosságot, év elején pedig új részekkel tért vissza a BBC Sherlock című sorozata.

A Holmes sztori napjainkban virágkorát éli. Guy Ritchie hollywoodi cukormázba mártotta, a magyarok ifjúsági filmet alapoztak rá, a britek pedig frissítettek rajta egyet. A történet valóban megérett a modernizálásra, hiszen, aki csak egy kicsit is ismeri a Conan Doyle életművet, annak egyértelmű, hogy Sherlock Holmes mindig is modern ember volt, nyitott a technikai újításokra és a változó világra.

Steven Moffat, a műsor írója és producere, akinek a nevéhez fűződik a híres brit sci-fi sorozat, a nálunk borzalmas, Ki vagy, Doki? névre keresztelt Doctor Who is, Mark Gatiss-szel karöltve zseniális párhuzamokkal és újításokkal hozta közelebb a klasszikust a modern nézőhöz. John Watson az afgán háborúból hazatért katonaorvos memoárok helyett blogot kezd írni poszttraumatikus stressz zavarának leküzdésére, Sherlockkal a keresztnevükön szólítják egymást, és a mai technológiát használják kommunikációra. Nemcsak Johnt, hanem a nézőt is teljesen lenyűgözi Sherlock hihetetlen, csupán megfigyelésen alapuló következtetési technikája.

A készítők kitaláltak egy remek módszert, hogy mi is képben legyünk főszereplőnk agymenései alatt: segítségként feliratok jelennek meg a képen, hogy éppen hol jár Sherlock a következtetésben. A sorozat, melynek minden része egy-egy 90 perces tévéfilm, úgymond fetisizálni próbálja az intelligenciát, egy meglehetősen vonzó főszereplővel, amire valljuk be manapság elég nagy szükség is van.

Mondják, hogy a színész csak annyira jó, mint a szerep, amit írtak neki. Géppuska nyelvű tanácsadó detektívünket Benedict Cumberbatch (Vágy és vezeklés) alakítja, aki született Sherlock. Valószínűleg ezzel a forgatókönyvvel nehéz lett volna mellényúlni, de azt a szellemes iróniát és intelligens humort, ami a sorozatból árad, Cumberbatch hibátlanul kivitelezi Sherlockként. Kezdetektől hű társa, Martin Freeman (Galaxis útikalauz stopposoknak) tökéletes kiegészítése figurájának. A két színész remekül működik együtt, Sherlock az abszolút érzelemmentesség, John a moralitás megtestesítője, aki mindig próbál egy kis humánumot nevelni barátjába.

A mellékszereplők közt is találunk bőven fantasztikus alakításokat. Sherlock kissé sznob, de annál szerethetőbb bátyja, a kormánynak dolgozó Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) kimért és illedelmes stílusa, valamint az örökös marakodása testvérével mindig okot ad a nevetésre. De természetesen Sherlock főellensége a sorozat tetőpontja. Andrew Scott Jim Moriarty-ja, az őrült tanácsadó bűnöző, ijesztően mesteri fokra emeli a pszichopata meghatározását. Szívből utáljuk, mégis tátott szájjal nézzük, annyira jó.

Az első évad hatalmas sikere után a másodiknál sokkal nagyobbak voltak az elvárások, de nem csalódhatott senki. A három új rész három kultikus történetet dolgoz fel: Irene Adlerét, a nőét, aki legyőzte Sherlock Holmest, a legismertebb Conan Doyle regényt, A sátán kutyáját, illetve Az utolsó esetet, a végső küzdelmet Moriarty-val. Az évadban Sherlock arroganciája semmit sem változik, de talán nagyobb hangsúlyt kap, így akarva-akaratlanul is Doktor House-ra emlékeztet minket, de szerencsére nem estek át a ló túlsó oldalára. Irene Adlerből polgárpukkasztó dominát csináltak, aki a királyi család egyik fiatal női tagjának is szolgáltatást nyújt, a két főhős barátságának szépsége pedig a drámai, utolsó, cliffhangerrel befejezett epizódban bontakozik ki.

A harmadik évadot már megrendelte a BBC, és ha hihetünk a pletykáknak, a készítők szeretnék még az idén folytatni. Az első évad itthon tavaly az AXN-en startolt, kis szerencsével talán még év vége előtt eljut a magyarokhoz a második széria is.

Am I nothing?

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy review

I'm a huge Mighty Boosh fan, so I was looking forward to see Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy at last. I watched the second episode, and I noticed after 15 minutes: I haven't even smiled at a thing they've said.

After seeing all of the Mighty Boosh series at least five times, I have realised that Noel Fielding's fancy pants and amazing hair are not enough on their own. The Boosh was successful because two absolutely different characters were brilliantly supplementing each other. Julian Barratt was the biggest counterpoint of Fielding's (sometimes) absolutely pointless psychedelic nonsense. The role of the adorable naive moron and the style freak, slightly feminine (and also crazy) mod were the best ones you could pair. No wonder it was a hit, they had been on about it for years before it went to telly, so they had enough time to find out what works and what doesn't.

Although the new Fielding show was slightly delayed, I can't say it's perfectly rehearsed or had any concept whatsoever other than Noel's scribblings and the old Boosh team - without Barratt apparently.

My initial joy of seeing something hilarious was quickly ruined after I saw the intro. In that very moment when I saw Fielding's face in glittery paint and his "creeping around" moves I realised that Noel can't get out of the image he generated for himself - playing the front man in high-heel boots.

I felt that Noel was trying to carry on with the psychedelic part of the Boosh with reinterpreting some characters such as The Moon and turning it to a manta, but sadly the wit and sparkle was left out together with Julian Barratt.

Making videos of a dozen different characters and putting them after the other without jokes won't be funny - not even in a million years. Watching Noel painting maybe melt the hearts of the under aged fan girls - and I have to admit that he is talented and the whole production is full of amazing paintings and animations - but that's not enough for me. Poor Dave Brown made an effort to give a bit more to the scene with dancing with a big red hairy chest but it was just simply stupid and dull.

Then I was shocked when I saw Fielding dressed up as a muscular reptile sort of creature in pink pants and green snake-like face, because after another 3 or 4 minutes there was still no joke, apart from Rich Fulcher's "hilarious" quirk: "I've got a tongue just like you" then blowing a party whistle...

Then came the road to the Jelly Fox sequence, where you can see close ups of Noel's face even in four different colours and his mesmerising huge blue eyes. The red one's mumbling something about Apocalypto, while the green Spoon Snake is keep asking "Am I nothing?" which seemed to me as time fillers rather than witty monologues.

All along you feel like you're left on the deserted island of Noel's mind on LSD with these strange vivid and colourful images which don't seem to connect to one another and that's frustrating.

Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy but maybe it is a piece of dull crap overrated by critics who know Fielding by reputation, but only seen the teaser clips on YouTube. The show is definitely more than nothing but they should make quite an effort to turn it into something.

Inside 221B Baker Street

Back in 2009 in London, inside 221B Baker Street.

I AM SHERLOCKED

Please leave a comment once you've saved the picture ;) Ta!

Having seen the new episode of Sherlock, I can hardly wait the next one! I had to make myself a background for my camera phone.

Happy New Year in association with Last.Fm

Welcome 2012! Olympics, Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, 200th birthday of Charles Dickens. It will be an eventful year for sure!
The main event on my blog here is the annual Last.Fm summary which is I think a funny and interesting way of following one's improvement of musical taste. So, here are my Top 20 artists and Top 10 songs from 2011. No huge changes in the top 3 but Kasabian is a new incomer in the top 5 and Kaiser Chiefs has got on my list, too! We're not a long way from celebrating now ;)

Top 20 artists

1 Pulp 465 plays
2 The Beatles 272 plays
3 Muse 159 plays
4 The xx 148 plays
5 Kasabian 132 plays - Velociraptor! is my favourite album of 2011
6 Red Hot Chili Peppers 123 plays
7 Coldplay 118 plays
8 Florence + the Machine 108 plays
9 Quimby 101 plays
10 Parov Stelar 90 plays
11 Kaiser Chiefs 86 plays
12 Tenacious D 83 plays
13 30 Seconds To Mars 82 plays
14 Jarvis Cocker 77 plays
15 Ákos 72 plays
16 Esben And The Witch 65 plays
17 Supernem 64 plays
18 Foo Fighters 63 plays
19 Arcade Fire 63 plays
20 Elbow 62 plays

Top 10 songs

1 Pulp – Bar Italia 24 plays
2 The xx – Islands 22 plays
3 The xx – VCR 21 plays
4 Pulp – Mile End 20 plays
5 Mint Royale – Blue Song 20 plays - (quite an oldie but just discovered it) favourite of 2011
6 Esben And The Witch – Marching Song 20 plays
7 The xx – Crystalised 20 plays
8 Pulp – I Love Life 19 plays
9 The Heavy – How You Like Me Now 18 plays
10 The xx – Heart Skipped a Beat 18 plays

Gift ideas in the Xmas frenzy

As Christmas is literally just around the corner, I've decided to give you a really cool last minute gift idea. If you'd like to give a homemade pressie but you lack the time to come up with something personal, funny and even handy, try Facebook and Photoshop fridge magnets! I made both as brithday presents but I think they will just as do for Christmas.

Facebook (or fridgebook) magnets are nice because you can edit them however you like and with editing it takes abount an hour and a half to make them.
First of all, you're going to need a magnetic sticker sheet or band. This is the cheapest solution of magnet making, you can usually come by these sheets in any creative hobby shop. (You can also buy printable magnetic sheets but they cost more and harder to come at). The next step is to choose the pictures. I saved my friend's profile picture and edited the "fridgebook" logo on top of it in photoshop, so it'd look just as his actual FB profile. I downloaded the FB font which you can also do for free if you click on this link. Unzip the file and save it to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts (if you're using photoshop for editing).

Make a snapshot of your FB page then use the colorpicker tool to to get the exact FB colour for your magnets' headers. After this it's all up to you what kind of buttons you'd like to create. I made a Like, Dislike, Photos, and Wall Post button and a status update and a comment bar. You can either type a message to the bars or after you've printed them (I used glossy photo paper) you can just easily write something on them. Finally, you just remove the paper from the sticky end of the magnet, and stick the carefully cut buttons and bars onto them and you're ready!

Here's the final look:

If you have photographer friends you can suprise them with the Photoshop magnets as well! The principle is the same, however, I used magnetic bands this time - you can save time if you edit the toolbars as wide as the magnetic bands, so you don't even have to trouble yourself with cuttings. If you have photohsop, just run it and hit print screen button on your keyboard to have the high-res pictures of the toolbars and windows. (I chose the Swatches, Adjustments and Layers windows and 2 other toolbars.)

Note: Make sure to edit the pictures in high-res, you can resize before printing.

A few more ideas: if you got the fridge magnet bug then you can easily make iPhone app, twitter, YouTube or even Windows magnets! It's only a matter of imagination what you come up with!
Good luck and Merry Christmas!