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Red Dwarf – series 10

After many rumors and speculation, it looks like a new full series of Red Dwarf, the cult comedy, has not only been confirmed and commissioned, but according to Danny John-Jules the first episode has been completed!

Apparently, Robert Llewellyn is trying to boycott the Range Rover’s that the producers have elected to use and is campaigning for an electric jeep, but luckily this hasn’t prevented him from showing up to shoot the program!

Let’s hope this series is as funny and quirky as we all remember and want them to be, or it will leave them all feeling like a bunch of smegheads!

101 Best Board Games

If you think board games started with Monopoly and ended with Cluedo you’d be very wrong! Over the last 20 years there has been an enormous resurgence in board games, with the new games being highly developed, intelligent fun to play and often more strategic and less chance than those older games.

Because of this we’ve recently launched our latest “101 Best” site: 101 Best Board Games. It’s still being populated with games and information but we’ve made a few updates to the layout and blog so there’s more news and information on the site. We’ll be moving these new updates across the rest of the “101 Best” sites over the next few weeks.

Why not take a look at one of my favourite new board games: Stone Age.

The best three years for movies

After spotting a few 25 year anniversay DVDs for great films I suddenly realised that not only am I getting old but also the greatest three years for movies ever was 1984, 1985 and 1986. I don’t think it’s just a case of misty eyed, childhood memories either. There’s a few films from that time that I didn’t get to see until much later.

I suppose a list of films to prove my point is needed:

1984

  • Ghostbusters
  • The Terminator
  • This Is Spinal Tap

1985

  • Back To The Future
  • The Goonies
  • Brazil

1986

  • Aliens
  • Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
  • Crocodile Dundee

These are just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t think there’s been a greater contribution to modern movie pop culture that the films released in those three years. 25 years later we’re still seeing adverts based on the Ghostbusters theme, t-shirts with Save Ferris on and everyone still wants a DeLorean.

So, what else made those years so great? It was the high point for the ex-Saturday Night Live team of Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase. Arguably the greatest films starring these comedians were released in those three years:

  • Ghostbusters
  • Spies Like Us
  • ¡Three Amigos!
  • Fletch
  • National Lampoon’s European Vacation

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHVpJGXZ21o[/youtube]

These three years brought the world the Police Academy movies, which is a good thing! And also the first installment of the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy – without which Eddie Murphy might only be remembered for The Golden Child (also released in 1986).

In 1984 the world got the first big glimpse of Tom Hanks in Splash, if only Big had been made two years earlier it would have been added to this list as the best Hanks movie to date. The Karate Kid was released in 1984 – can the new version compete? Also in this year we got to see Romancing The Stone, Gremlins and The Killing Fields.

1985 is the big year for epic movies: The Color Purple and Out Of Africa were both released this year. But what strikes me most is all the films that people still love today:

  • The Breakfast Club
  • The Sure Thing
  • Teen Wolf
  • Weird Science

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkX8J-FKndE[/youtube]

To be honest, things drop off a bit by 1986 but there are still some unexpected classics popping up: The Fly, The Name Of The Rose, Platoon, Top Gun. Not forgetting possibly the most important film release of the year (to my 10 yr old self) Tranformers: The Movie, starring Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, and Orson Welles!

So, I might have missed out a few of the more “important” movies of the time: The Muppets Take Manhattan, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Flight of the Navigator, Short Circuit etc. But I think I’ve proved that there’s never been a better three years of movies.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO68zwTXFWk[/youtube]

Dear blank, please blank

I love finding these odd little sites, it makes me remember that the internet is all about creativity and freedom of expression – not just business and shopping…

Dear blank, please blank

Two of my favourites:

Dear Twilight Fans,
Thank you for making us look sane and well-adjusted.
Sincerely, Trekkies

Dear Great Tasting Foods,
Please stop being so fattening!
Sincerely, Everyone

Tnetennba

On tonight’s IT Crowd, Moss uses a word in countdown:

Tnetennba

Used in context:

“Good morning, that’s a nice Tnetennba”

After some research, it appears that it’s not actually a word at all!  Been looking all week and can’t find a real reference to it other than what people have made up.

According to one source, it could mean:

Tnetennba – [tuh.net.un.bar]
– noun

A word whose function is purely to attract traffic to a website; a gratuitously used keyword whose presence is aimed at attracting the search engines attention and improving the website’s placement in search results.

But we’re not convinced…

It’s certainly nowhere to be found in the dictionary, but there is a facebook page already in place to try to get it there!  I think if it’s officially printed a whole bunch of times then it can officially become a word so there’s hope yet!

If anyone has any more info, post some comments and we can find the true meaning of Tnetennba!

Click here to view the clip on Channel 4

Culture Jamming

This is a lovely bit of sticker graffiti on the London Underground, I hope it made a few people smile when they saw it – although it’s so well hidden I wonder if very many people even spotted it!

Culture jamming on the London Underground

More pictures at Wooster Collective

CSS Naked Day

It’s that time of the year again – when sites go naked to promote web standards. This year we’re taking part and Best Served Cold will be naked on the 9th April to show the world what we’re made of!

You can find out more about CSS Naked Day at the official website: http://naked.dustindiaz.com/.

Om Nom Nom Nom

Just a bit of fun, remember to say “Om Nom Nom Nom” out loud at every refresh!

Om Nom Nom Nom

Fully Flared

I think I might have missed this somewhere over the last year but I love the intro to this skateboarding video. Directed by Spike Jonze with music from M83, it looks incredible and the music fits perfectly.

That final explosion was the most dangerous, apparently using napalm to create the effect.

More about Lakai (the company responsible) and the movie at the Lakai movie pages.

If you can get the DVD in the UK I’d like to see it – otherwise in the US You can see view it here.

Slusho!

You can’t drink just six apparently. So, this was thought to be a marketing plot for Cloverfield (see our 11808 update but now it’s appeared in Heroes and there are rumours of a Lost appearance this season.

This all looks like a bit of an in-joke to me but it’s all good fun. I haven’t been able to find those pictures of the Lost cast with Slusho’s and t-shirts yet, maybe it’s all building up to a massive Lost/Cloverfield/Heroes mashup?

Here are some of the Heroes cast with Slusho’s:

Slusho on Heroes

Slusho on Heroes

Slusho on Heroes

Pictures from Greg Beeman’s Heroes blog

Wikipedia has a bit more on Slusho and here’s the site that started it all Slusho!