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Recently, I went to check out the happenings of the Comica Festival in London, courtesy of Ctrl.Alt.Shift. If you don’t know anything about this festival, then here’s a good place to start. It combines the yearlong comic/anime/manga collective where artists (famous or not) get to show off their new work for the world to see. The festival runs from the 5th of November until the 26th, so make sure you can get down to the select locations in London to check it out.

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A few months back, Zath brought you news of Google’s new communication toy, Google Wave. I was lucky enough to be sent an invite to get a chance to play with it and it definitely is a fun toy to play with. It sure does invite a brand new way of communicating with the masses and looks like it should do well when released and all your friends have it too. But, how useful is it really?

Well, let’s take a look.

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The more this LDNnudetech calendar debate goes on, the more I’m just laughing inside. Laughing because people can get really uptight about the silliest of things and generally laughing because people assume they know more than others and feel the need to pontificate and/or judge because of it. The Evening Standard is behind it and so is the Telegraph. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s simple; 24 successful, hardworking men and women in the London tech scene have posed nude (naughty bits covered) for a calendar, of which there will only be 5000 copies made. All of the proceeds will then be going towards Take Heart India; a youth-run charity that has IT-based projects in India for blind and disabled students.

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Pixar are notorious for creating magnificent pieces of visual work with suitably moving storylines to accompany the animation and soundtrack, thereby undoubtedly producing spellbinding works of art. I am hoping that my previous needlessly complex sentence construction will go somewhat towards explaining how the facets of this film mean to do well when put together, but ultimately don’t manage to cut the mustard. Don’t get me wrong, it feels like it should do well. But, for some reason, I just can’t get the Pixar magic out of this production.

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Last week I was invited to attend the 17th annual Raindance Film Festival by a pretty special company called Ctrl+Alt+Shift. I say special and mean it in the most unique fashion. The collection of short films they had on show for people to watch was mesmerising.

As part of a competition in 2008, Ctrl+Alt+Shift had five places up for grabs whereby upcoming filmmakers had the opportunity to learn from some very talented stars and create their own pieces of work alongside them. The aspiring filmmakers were to write a treatment based around one of three global issues – war & peace, gender & power and HIV & stigma.

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I’ve got a problem. Well, it’s more of an obsession. Any time anyone mentions the words Toy Story, all the little Serenas inside me jump around in glee. They go mental, actually. After watching the first one at the tender age of 12 (in the tender year of 1995), I fell in love with it immediately. It resonated so much with my own experiences of growing up and how important your true friends are that when the sequel was announced four years later, all the little Serenas threw a party in celebration. News of the third to complete the trilogy definitely made all the little mes go bonkers and head to Vegas.

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In recent years, there has been a wave of indie teen films seeping out of Hollywood like pus from an eye with a sty. So, with that, we have yet another one up for release and my first impressions were to simply ignore it given how appalling Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist was. Alas, the invite dropped in my inbox and I couldn’t refuse. I figured I had to go in with an open mind else I wouldn’t enjoy it – and you know what? I was pleasantly surprised by how this film subtly grabs your attention and manages to keep it throughout.

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If this was a clear-cut ‘aliens invade the earth’ film, I would have screamed so loud you’d have heard it over there as you sipped on your lemongrass tea, tapping away on Facebook thinking no-one was watching you. But, thankfully, it wasn’t. I really don’t have time for films that try to tell you what will happen if aliens were to invade the earth – or if the world was going to end in some other fashion. Post-apocalyptic films are really quite boring now, so I am glad to say that this film was different. Very cleverly so.

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Last week, I was invited to the launch of the new LG Chocolate BL40 mobile phone at the Design Museum. The phrase “receiving champagne on entry” used in this context does not refer to some sexual act, but does show you their gracious hospitality. The event was snazzed up with the use of partially dressed models holding different handsets (including the recently launched LG Crystal) and posing for you in a variety of fashions. All excellent eye-candy as far as I’m concerned.

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Being a big Monopoly fan (read: ‘dork’) I was quick to get this application downloaded. Even the Make Your Own Monopoly couldn’t satiate me. As a Monopoly collector (try not to snort whilst laughing please, it’s rather undignified), you’re always after the next best thing in the property world. Having not been too excited about the games that have been released for the PC, I was a little reluctant to get too excited about the Monopoly iPhone app.

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