Jason White

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Review | Star Wars in Concert

Published on March 25, 2010 in Yadda. Closed

The “Star Wars” series has been catching the imagination of at least three generations since it began, and it is one of those that will probably captivate many more to come. The six episodes that comprise the whole story of love, treason and war in a “galaxy far, far away” is something that we can all relate to. We all have a favorite scene and character. But “Star Wars”, like everything that becomes a cult, is more than just six movies: it has given ground to a whole universe of spin-offs created by the fans, like Wookiepedia or the Jedi Church.

“Star Wars in Concert” is the latest, George Lucas branded, “Star Wars” spin-off and is nothing short of spectacular. The concept behind it? Take John Williams’s score for the six episodes and make it the center piece of a show by putting the Royal Philarmonica Concert Orchestra (RPCO) to play it, directed by Dirk Brossé. If you don’t know what the RPCO is I’m sure that names like Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti or Dionne Warwick are familiar: The RPCO has played with all of them and is currently preparing a show with Julie Andrews, yes, the lady from “The Sound of Music”.

To go with the “Star Wars” score, George Lucas has personally edited scenes from all the six episodes, divided by themes, in what could be described as the best way to understand Star Wars. The editing is absolutely perfect and it mixes scenes from the older episodes with the new ones making it all blend and make sense.

Narrated by Anthony Daniels, the only actor that participated, in the role of C-3pO, in all the movies, the show is fast paced, touching, funny and intense, just like “Star Wars” is, and the one hour and a half that the show takes, with a 20 minutes intermission, goes by in a breeze.

Technically and logistically the show is nothing but amazing: One of the biggest video screens ever built is surrounded by four LED screens that are used to show moving images relating to what is showing on the screen as well as live images from the orchestra. Lasers and intelligent light design setup the the tone during the whole show and everything seems to fit without being too much. Fifteen trucks are taking the tour, at the moment, throughout Europe and, I was told, it takes (only) 12h to setup the whole thing on any given venue.

Is this a must see? It is! Whether you are a Star Wars fan or just curious, you should go and see it if you can. Also, if you are someone that appreciates listening to a philharmonic orchestra interpreting some of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed for a soundtrack by an irrepressible orchestra, this is a show for you.

My personal highlights are, without a doubt, the amazing sound design produced by Frederick Vogler for the show and the part of the show when the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra plays the “Mad About Me” a.k.a. “The Cantina Band” song. On the down side of the whole show the supporting exhibition of “Star Wars” memorabilia: It features the whole, never seen, George Lucas’s private collection but, compared to the official “Star Wars” exhibition it just fails short even if you can take a picture with Imperial soldiers and Darth Vader (but kids will love it).

Pictures from the show

“Star Wars in Concert” is currently touring in Europe and will then head to the United States. Make sure you don’t miss it.Check out the tour dates here.

Thanks to João Brilhante from Mandrake for giving me a Media Pass so I could take pictures of the show.

Vintage Gas Stations | Inspiration

Published on March 24, 2010 in Yadda. Closed

Spring is one of my favorite times of year, and when trout season opens next month, my son and I will be spending a lot of time on the weekends fishing in the little creeks in the North Georgia Mountains.

I know a lot of women get squeamish about putting a live cricket on a hook, but I’ve done it so many times I can do it with my eyes closed. I get a lot of writing inspiration from spending time in the mountains, but one of my favorite places to visit are all the old fashioned gas stations.

Many times they sell local fruits and vegetables and they have those retro gas pumps, the kind where you have to walk inside to pay. Those old timey gas stations have so much character and personality.

I found a website that features these vintage gas stations. This is a site that collected photos of old and interesting gas stations that were taken and submitted by amateur photographers when they were on vacation. For your own inspiration, I’ve included some of my favorite photos from that site below. You can check out the full collection at http://www.ohiobarns.com.

“Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?” ~ Author Unknown

This is my son Henry and his friend at one of those old gas stations on a fishing trip last season. Good times!

my share dealing account

Published on December 24, 2008 in Yadda. 0 Comments

I have just registered for and now have a share dealing account, It’s with Lloyds TSB.

http://www.lloydstsbsharedealing.com/en/ourservices/ouraccounts/dealing/index.html

share & share alike

Published on December 24, 2008 in Yadda. 1 Comment

Ok today I decided I’m going to look at the stock market and see if can spin the “economic crisis” in my favour; it occurs to me that the rich stay rich even when the rest of us get poor due to forces beyond our control. They are in the know for sure? they have their fingers in many pies, right? they “buy low” and “sell high”, that’s the phrase! so let’s experiment, I intend to look at “the market” and pick an investment. I have never done this before, so if you have any advice, recommendations shout them out

It happens to the best of us!!!

Published on May 8, 2008 in Yadda. 1 Comment

Today i decided my laptop needed two new drives, Since i recently upgraded to 4Gb Ram and Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit just dropped through the door i was thinking 2 x 500gb would be nice too.

Arghhh dabs.com is down !!!

Guess it happens to us all sometimes

Create a date and time stamped folder from dos cmd prompt

Published on May 6, 2008 in Yadda. 2 Comments

ok so you need to create a directory based on the current time and date, a timestamp if you will.

its easy, type this into your cmd window …

mkdir %date:~-4,4%%date:~-7,2%%date:~0,2%-%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%%time:~6,2%

this will give you a directory named like YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS

Enjoy.

Why re-invent the wheel?

Published on February 17, 2008 in Yadda. 2 Comments

I keep hearing folk talking about not re-inventing the wheel. It got me wondering what would happen if we didnt, the image below i put together in 5 minutes to see what if…

It kinda looks better than i expected it to, im guessing the traction would be shocking. Cornering would be a nightmare i imagine. How long do you think those wheels would last?

Dell Datasafe Bug

Published on February 16, 2008 in Yadda. 3 Comments

I recently had the pleasure of testing the new Dell DataSafe service specifically the client application, it has a very simple and usable interface. The only issue i could find is that the client assumes all machines are in the good old US of A, after a chat with the development team I was assured an update will be released soon, awesome.I look forward to testing the update and taking advantage of the full service.

Am I going “Screen Blind”?

Published on February 12, 2008 in Yadda. 1 Comment

I have been working on the same section of a site now for around a week including some long days of around 12-13 hours, i’m sure im not alone here but i swear the problems are getting harder and more confusing. Even more frustrating is the in point of fact they would be simple on their own at any given time, there must be a scientific way to measure this “fatigue” at how it rleates to project/ time/ complexity there must be a driect relationship to the amount of time your working on a specific project to the percieved diffculty and the increased possibility of error. I DUNNO, of course im speculating. right now im not sure this makes any sense. Cya

We done good…

Published on January 31, 2008 in Yadda. 0 Comments

Some of you may be aware that I have been working on the mydish.co.uk website for quite some time now. In a nutshell I took the vision/concept of the Managing Director and ran with it, a “shoestring budget”, some serious and sometimes seemingly impossible deadlines were all that stood in our way. I know the Managing Director has been working some magic for a while now, I had been getting hints that good things were a foot. This week she announced we secured Significant Investment and are now ready to take this project to the next level, I’m very excited about the future of this site and look forward to playing a role in it’s future development. I’m in and out of meetings in London at the moment “discussing”.

Yes, we did good. The team has worked very hard to get here. Well Done..