I've been listening to the Deftones -a lot- recently, in particular their newie, Saturday Night Wrist.

I love the Deftones, but in the past i've always been partially underwhelmed by their albums, with previous effort the self titled album being a good example. Unfortunately, I kind of feel the same here, because despite the fantastic tracks, there are one or two few "bad ones". If you listen to the album straight through from start to finish it's less noticable because they kind of blend into the whole audio experience, but individually they don't succeed as well.

Like it's predecessors, Saturday Night Wrist is a heavy monster of an album, but also as expected, there's the mellow-poetic sounds that've come to be equally recognised as part of the band's sound. Similarly, there are underlying themes and ideas of hip hop, most noticably with Chino Moreno's vocal style, but aside from "Pink Cellphone" featuring Annie Hardy, it's a style that's been neglected completely with this album, for better or worse. But all the same her appearance as well as Serj Tankian (of SOAD fame) leaves a huge impact on the whole progression and story of this album. Ironically, it's these two songs with the guest vocals that are two of the highlights from this album, but there's plenty of stellar tracks from Deftones themselves such as "Beware" and "Xerces".

Unfortunately there's a distinct lack of influence from Chino's side-project last year, Team Sleep. There's suggestions that it's had no effect on his song-writing at all, with only, again, "Pink Cellphone" as reference, but this isn't something that should be faulted, and rather, it's admirable that both band and side-project haven't been combined, as is inevitable with many other acts. It's reassuring more than anything that a lot of the band's signature sounds are in place for this album and increased in their output- if it aint broke, why fix it? Heavy pounding guitars mixed with Chino's poetic-angst is as reassuring a sound as any, and while "Saturday Night Wrist" probably won't appeal to any non-believers of the band, if you're a fan then this the album you've been waiting for, and no matter what your preference of the band's sound, frankly, you're in for a treat.

Nip/Tuck went all futuristic this past Tuesday, giving the fans an insight into who and what the doctors would be doing in twenty years time. The formula of a "future-episode" is far from original, and it's something that's been attempted many times with other TV shows, but regardless, it was interesting and fun to watch Nip/Tuck do something along those lines.

For me, the dream sequences and hallucinations that accompany Nip/Tuck are one of the best things about the show, so on paper this episode was a dream come true, much like "Julia McNamara" was in Season Two. What was most interesting about the episode (although dissapointingly dull) was the growth of Conor McNamara. In present show time he's only a baby, so seeing him twenty years old was something, but out of all of the evolutions the charac ters went through in the episode, his was probably the least satisfying. Matt was now working with Médecins Sans Frontières, Julia was, umm, well, it wasn't explained what she did, and Sean and Christian now had a franchise of McNamara/Troy surgeries across the world. Annie understandably with her traumatic and problematic upbringing was a complete wreck, moaning, whining, anorexic, agoraphobic- basically your thrity-year-old child from hell.

The events may take place twenty years later, but for the three core-characters of the show -Julia, Sean and Christian- a lot of their personalies and quirks had just been exaggerated or built upon. The best example of this was Chrisitan with his twin brides conveniently unable to speak English. Full of charm, still a nymphomaniac, and retaining his quick one-liners. The fact he was very Jack Nicholson-esque in his appearance was just the icing on th e cake. The complete transformation of Matt now as a doctor was a complete surprise, and very assuring for people like me, who just wish the writers would give him some happiness for once. The scenes with Annie were a little overdone though, but presumably it's an evolution we'll see over the coming episodes seasons, which should make for some fantastic viewing.

With the action frequently switching between present time and future time, there was little room for further explanation and story telling as far as the character's evolution was concerned, and that was probably the downfall of the episode. Compared to past episodes this season it's understandably far from achieving the title of "episode of the year", but Conor McNamara 2026 is fun, well-written, and an absolute joy to watch if you're as serious about these characters as I am.

What does the next twenty years hold for these characters? Well, you'll just have to stay-tuned to watch that development and evolution take place for yourself...

I love comic-duo Mitchell & Webb, I really do. I think realistically they're still best known for their starring in C4 hit comedy Peep Show, and with Series 3 released this time last week on DVD, I went out and bought it this past weekend.

On the storytelling front, Series 3 seems a lot more loose than the previous editions, with best mates Mark and Jeremy ending up in sticky situations almost on a regular basis. Granted this has been the formula for the whole of the show's history, but something about a second half of an episode where the two get lost in the countryside, well, that just seems a little too silly. The notion of Jeremy and SuperHans owning and running their own pub is similarly baffling, and a little too absurd, but putting small doubts like this aside, this series is just as funny as the previous two.

As expected, the show is still incredibly uncomfortable at times, more so than ever as a result of the two's inner thoughts being heard. Dirty, wrong, and just plain cringeworthy are words that could be applied to describing this part of the show, but as always, to accompany this, there's also the disgusting graphic scenes. Mark getting drugged by Jeremy and needing the toilet for a whole night before rushing to the pan just as his boss comes through the door is one such moment, and if the expressions on David Mitchell's face doesn't get you laughing, the sound effects certainly will.

But the combination of silly and disgusting is perhaps what makes Peep Show as satisfying as it is. It's quirky and off-the-wall, while also containing slight dark undertones of what real people sometimes think about, and that's maybe the scariest and funiest thing of all. There's no Toni, less Geoff, and even Olivia Colman/Sophie is reduced to a recurring role, but it's still a show with loads of future promise, and a series that's full of laughs upon each viewing.

Underrated by the general population and viewing neglected for rubbish like The Office and Extras, this is real UK Comedy, and it's a shame it hasn't got more fans...

The word celebrity is often misused and uttered a little too frequently nowadays, and that's something that's being proven this year again with the announcement of who's entering the jungle for "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!", ITV's constantly recurring fest of awful.

I'll be watching of course. The thought of Myleene Klass wearing a bikini in the jungle for two weeks is just irresistible.

The next part of my degree with the Open University began this past weekend, and for the next twelve weeks i'll be studying Leonardo da Vinci.

Next year i'm branching back out to Humanities in general instead of focussing entirely on Art History, so this course is acting as a kind of bridge between my long-term courses. I think also as an individual, Leonardo da Vinci is the best possible physical example of what kind of subjects are associated and linked with Humaninities, and that's something that's being proven already in this introductory week. Understandably, there's a couple of different things about this twelve week course, compared to my usual eight month adventures in education though.

Firstly, this is a course that takes place largely online. Conferencing and email is a lot more focussed with this course than the ones i've done in the past, and as a true sign of technology shaping our culture, assesments and tests are now sent electronically instead of physically. There's also no "conventional" tutorials, and because of the short-time available, everything is a lot more condensed. What i'm not looking forward to is the deadlines and expectations circa Christmas and just after New Year, but I suppose i'll tackle those as they happen.

What is interesting though, is the mere fact i'm only studying one person, instead of a multitude of pieces and people. Granted Leonardo da Vinci was multi-talented and covered many subjects in life, but it's reassuring all the same, that for the next twelve weeks, i've only got to worry about one other person that myself.

Taken from BBC News-
Music fans the world over will probably be annoyed at the majority of the winners this last week at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and I know i'm one. Muse deservedly won Best Alternative Act, and The Kooks the Best UK & Ireland Act, but in my opinion Kanye was lucky he won one at all.

What an arrogant **** of a man, at least he was nominated while far superior acts once again go unnoticed. It's MTV, and and as usual it's terrible programming, but at least they could make an effort to improve themselves, not least on their "Awards". And this is all without throwing the wall-to-wall-dating-shows into my argument against them -something you definitely don't want me to get started on.