4 May 2011
I'm fresh from watching Catfish on More4 this evening, a 2010 American Documentary film that follows the relationship between a 24-year old New York photographer and a 19 year old Michigan woman and her family over Facebook. I was intrigued by the trailer for this and knew it'd be the sort of film I would enjoy. There's something about Facebook and the way it's changed the way we live our lives that I find fascinating.
10 Apr 2011
It was weekend of achievement in the world of sport, on rather opposite ends of the spectrum, with the coveted Grand National on the Saturday and the Brighton Marathon following the day after. It was a weekend of firsts for me too, having made my first bet on a horse and spectating my first marathon. One of the events, however, left a rather bitter taste in my mouth.
4 Apr 2011
After a rather long time, I've finally finished a stable version of the CMS I've been building for the past 6 months or so. As it turned out, the first website to be built using it was a rather tiny portolio website for my good friend and upcoming artist extraordinaire Thomas Fox, which, whilst clearly and concisely displays Tom's artwork, doesn't show off the strengths and flexibility of the CMS framework.
14 Mar 2011
I was fortunate enough to be given an iPad recently. It's an intriguing device, but one that I wasn't particularly keen about getting my hands on. I've been perfectly happy with my iPhone 4, and saw the iPad as not much more than a bigger iPhone. Despite this, I was certainly not going to turn down the opportunity of owning what has been dubbed a revolutionary device.
6 Mar 2011
The Strokes are back on the scene, five years after releasing their third album First Impressions of Earth. Their new record Angles is out on the 21st of this month. Bizarrely, it will be out a day after in the US. I'm personally quite apprehensive about it - given the two singles I've heard off it. But, as with First Impressions, The Strokes are likely going to mix it up a bit from their previous record. It's definitely going to be one to look out for though.
15 Feb 2011
I've always loved Little Britain for its daring and unique comedy. I think Matt Lucas and David Walliams are a comedy duo for the 21st century. Off the back of another hit series of Little Britain, Matt and David have brought out Come Fly With Me, a 'Mockumentary' comedy from the BBC, using the same award-winning sketch-driven format of Little Britain.
22 Jan 2011
After almost 18 months, I've finally bitten the bullet and invested in some paid hosting for my domain SamuelDking.co.uk. Simply enough, I'm tired of constantly seeing 'Cannot connect to database' messages when trying to view the site. The free hosting wasn't bad and did its job, but my new server should be a lot more reliable.
4 Jan 2011
I've been rather busy the last couple of months having a go at building my own PHP CMS, modelled on the MVC design pattern. At work, I'm currently using a rather large, feature-stuffed home-baked CMS, brewed in-house by our PHP freelancer. Learning the ins and outs of this system over the past 6 months has inspired me to have a go at building my own. Two months later and, well, I'm still working on it. But I like to think it's certainly getting there.
22 Dec 2010
On Saturday 11th December at Brixton Academy, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club performed their 1000th show since forming in 2001. And they were flawless.
8 Dec 2010
I saw Ratatat at the weekend, and, like a lot of artists in my music collection, they are a band I know due to a couple of songs I discovered by them years back. Ratatat were supporting Vampire Weekend at the Brighton Centre last week (who I'll get onto shortly), and as much as I enjoyed Vampire Weekend, it was Ratatat who left me yearning for me. Luckily, I managed to get hold of last minute tickets to see the twosome performing again a few days later at a much more intimate venue. I was not disappointed.