Back soon

We've signed up with a new ISP so all being well should be back online
within a week. I'll see you all then! Toodles!

update

Bad news folks, I'm not going to be able to get back online until I
change ISP. So I won't even hazard a guess how long it will take,
hopefully no longer than a week or two (Ok so I suppose I /will /hazard
a guess after all!). I will be back as soon as I can (I have new stuff
for you) but in the meantime just hang in there. If you need to you can
still contact me via email as usual.

Service Interruprus.

I don't know if this'll get through, but I am currently unable to get
online properly because my ISP decided to *cease to be*, and it appears
the grace period with the guys who took over has finished. I'm not
going to be able to get back online for a few days (oddly my email is
working fine though), so no updates until then I'm afraid. Good thing
I've updated a lot this month. Looks like I'm going to miss the site's
birthday (the 28th). Sorry, normal service will resume shortly!

Fans of the main site which this blog spun off from (and if you only read this bit, why not check out the rest?) may be pleased to know that as well as other things I've been working on the latest episode of what must be Mopizo's most loved (or liked at least) series*. It's going to be monumental. Well maybe not. But it hopefully is payback for fans of previous episodes (and one in particular, you know who you are ;-)) and it might make you chuckle. Results soonish hopefully!

(*and no, I'm not telling you what series if you haven't guessed)

Tomorrow is the last ever episode of the BBC's ace Life On Mars. It's always a shame when a favourite programme finishes, but it's good when writers know when to call it a day. They decided the plot had come to a natural end and decided to bow out before the novelty had worn off. This has got me thinking about how hard it must be to gauge how long to keep something going. If it's popular the fans and money-men want more, but how long before the quality dips?. In the same vein Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have also decided to finish Extras with a one-off special to avoid outstaying their welcome (or in their case, possibly due to laziness). Hopefully then the producers of Lost will be allowed to finish after another series or two (as they want to, but the network's less keen) and finish it satisfactorily, and avoid becoming another X-files.

Still, boy will I miss LOM. The last two episodes are still sitting unwatched on my HDD/DVD recorder as I can't bring myself to watch them and bring the end closer. One day I will be brave though, one day soon...

Following the end of the deal with Dreamworks, Aardman animation have signed a 3 year deal with Sony to distribute their films. For fans it doesn't matter who is distributing the flicks, as long as A) they give them a decent release and (more importantly) B) they don't interfere with the way they do things. Seeing as Aardman a savvy bunch and could probably pick and choose who they did business with, I'm confident they would have gone for the best option.

Speaking of Aardman, the studio's first forray into CGI animation hit DVD in the UK this week. Having feared the worse I finally saw Aardman's Flushed Away. Despite being made on computer rather than by claymation, it holds on to the studio's trademark charm and wit. Some people weren't exactly bowled over by it, but it's my pick of 2006's bumper crop of animated movies. Aardman on an off day is still better than anything else out there. Besides, any movie with Jean Reno playing a frog (called Le Frog) can't be bad right? Sir Ian Mackellen puts in a stonking performance as the bad guy (bad toad?) too. Can't wait to see what Aardman does next.

Over the past few days a certain situation keeps arising. I find myself surrounded by people discussing the movie 300 in somewhat reverential tones. When I mention that I have not seen it and have no intention to do so I am met with stares and cries like I've just admitted than on occasion I rather like eating babies. Am I the only male in the land who doesn't want to see it? The trailer left me completely cold and there's nothing about it that appeals to me. So there. And while we're at it I didn't like Sin City either (although that did have have an awesome trailer), another admittance that makes me a Pariah in some circles.