A year of two halves, bring on the triple threat of awesomeness of July to December

Hello all

Those of you who are regular readers of my blog, or who know me outside of the internet environment, know that I've had a difficult year so far. All the trouble with Jodi, the fact some of my closest friends have effectively done disappearing acts, my doubts over my own sanity and various other issues have made the first half of 2012 generally sucky, but hopefully that's all soon to change, so I wanted to share with you all why I'm hoping that the second half will be a lot better.

Canterbury's new album, "Heavy in the Day"

Canterbury are probably one of my favourite bands and at the time of writing, they are the ONLY band I have seen more than once live (although they're soon to be joined in that category by All American Rejects) and I am a huge advocate of their music.



Canterbury, strangely named after a place that they're not from

I first heard Canterbury in February/March 2010 on Lava TV (when it was a rock based channel) with their song "Gloria"....a song that I had listened to more than 100 times within the first 24 hours after hearing it. I immediately downloaded their free album from their website and I just fell in love with the band. Two years, two live concerts and having met the band on a few occasions, they are finally releasing their second album, "Heavy in the Day".

It's very rare I look forward to a new album, especially as I'm not that heavily into music anyway. I got slightly excited by Blink 182's new "Neighbourhood" album when that came out last year, but I was largely disappointed with that, hopefully "Heavy in the Day" won't be the same.

I've already heard a few of the songs off of this album, including "Gloria", "Ready Yet" and "Heavy in the Day" and loved them all, so hopefully the rest of the album will be worth the wait.

"Ted"

Ted is the first feature film of Seth McFarlane, the guy who created Family Guy. Family Guy is one of my favourite shows on TV and along with Big Bang Theory, is the only show that makes me laugh. I can't quite put into words why I like it so much, maybe it's because it's what The Simpsons wishes it was.....funny and groundbreaking, something the Simpsons never has been.

Anyway, when I first saw a trailer for Ted (not the one below but another one) and it focused on a child with his bear, I sort of switched off but then it did just start looking like a live-action version of Family Guy and I was bursting out laughing in the screen during the trailers. I loved it. I am normally quite reserved and it takes a lot to make me laugh, but this certainly achieved it, that's for sure. The concept of a toy coming to life certainly isn't new, but I've never seen it told like this before

I personally think that Mark Wahlberg is a terrible actor, but he looks funny as hell in this film and giving that "Ted" is obviously animated, to do what he is doing with nothing there is quite remarkable. It's also got the beautiful Mila Kunis in it, although the association she has with Family Guy makes me constantly think of Meg Griffin when she's speaking in the trailer.

To Be Confirmed - Watch This Space

I've been hinting at something big happening for a while, and I'm hoping to finally announce what it is on July 20th.