Hip Cat

R and Miss Kitty decided to attend the Honor Oak's first evening of live jazz where they watched Ballantine Shaw Band, a fusion of guitar and vibes sounds with rhythms from rock to Latin.

The band consists of a slightly, self-conceited but nevertheless swinging jazz vibraphone player, a modest Terry Gilliam look-a-like guitarist, a snoozy double bass-player and a cool cat drummer with aptly limp wrists.

After a few Bombadiers and Cherry Krieks, R & MK were tapping their knees and shaking their heads in time with the band for the 2 hour set and then staggered home whilst arguing whether the double-bass player was good or not.

Eye of the Kraken

Now this game Miss Kitty likey (and not just because it was free)!

This simple point and click created by Absurdus, the small development team from Montreal (and also created Carte Blanche), is short and set to a catchy, scratchy soundtrack.

The story starts in the dead of night, a thief steals the mysterious object known as the 'Eye of the Kraken' and hops on board the sailing ship, Glutomax, headed for Hyade Island.

This is serious business because it's suspected that the object may be used in some obscure ritual to awaken the mystical giant Kraken and thus take over the world. Luckily, Miss Kitty was playing as Abdullah, a minor official representing the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who is also on board the Glutomax.

The game then follows in trying to work out the thief is. Could it be Ophelia, the Danish orphan from a Shakespearian tragedy; Ingrid, the plump opera singer; Fitzcarroldo, the Irish inventor; Rasputin, the mad, drunk monk; Villon, the psychotic French poet or Olaf, the Viking who never stands up? Or perhaps it is one of the crew, or maybe even your African friend, Aboubakar (who repeatedly gets his head kicked in vy Villon during the game). And who is the mysterious passenger in cabin 10? And who the hell are those guys through the periscope?

Miss Kitty felt at home straight away with this game's surreal plot and humour and loved playing as Abdullah, the game's hero who will not drink wine but smokes just about anything you stick in his hookah.

Bring on EOTK2!

Carte Blanche

After queueing for 20 minutes, forking out £20 and then tweaking like hell, Miss Kitty finally got to play Carte Blanche…and after all that she expected very good things.

Fortunately, this point and click adventure did not disappoint. MK found the mixture of Edgar Delacroix's soothing voice and naivety quite a treat, as well as the attempt at film noir storyline and deliberate black-and-white animations.

True there were a few annoyances (the secretary's unnecesarily rasping voice and the stuttering soundtrack) but these could be overriden by the game's lulling atmosphere and touches of surrealism.

A modest masterpiece and Miss Kitty looks forward to the sequel!

Christmas Revisited

Holidays are excellent opportunities for Miss Kitty and her siblings to regroup, stay up late watching films and trash R's house while his parents are away.

And the Easter break was no exception, in fact this time we got by with a little help from our pets, Kia and Tori. Tori especially enjoyed backflipping a stuffed toy dog which is about 5 times her size, very cute!

R and MK also enjoyed a Bank Holiday alfresco dinner courtesy of Co-op's disposable barbecues!

The highlight of the break…finding retro PS classics Incredible Crisis, Parappa the Rappa and Bishi Bashi!

Good Thursday

Miss Kitty has always adored 93 Feet East, it possibly has something to do with the large chunky chandeliers, tasty outdoor barbecues in summer and the girls' toilets reminiscent of her school days.

So when R suggested that they meet there for a few drinks she did not hesistate in saying yay. It was the last working day before the Easter break and the sun was out, and MK was sure that life could not get any better…but it did…

Before hitting the two bottles of red, MK & R had a quick pre-soak curry on Brick Lane. MK voted for going into the cosy, dark restaurant which allowed you to bring your own alchohol, but R insisted that they go in the more expensive restaurant with the baroque paintings of nude women bathing in pearls in a giant oyster shell. The front of the restaurant had been opened up to let in the spring sunshine, but more importantly lure in more comtemplative eaters.

Well, the food was ok, but more interesting were the pretty girls who kept walking straight to the back of the restaurant and then out again, of them even returning a second time with a different wardrobe.

Hmmmm…MK started to thinks something seedy was going on until asking the waiter who informed her that there was a fashion shoot occurring. Miss Kitty sniffed, that could have been her ten years ago.

R showed MK where he worked which, although was a grotty little grubhole, was just a few paces from the cultural hustle and bustle of Brick Lane, lucky sot!


And while they made their way home buzzing and chatting, they decided to continue that theme early into the next day but not before admiring the Discworld Noir, Martin Mystere and Solaris soundtracks, having philosophical conversations in the toilet, touching bubbles on the wall and watching pink flowers blossom into green…and vice versa.

Bubblegum

Just as Miss Kitty was feeling like a withered, old prune staring resentfully at the pretty young things with their neon leggings and Debbie Harry pouts, she spied the walls and ceilings which were pasted with pictures of the Ramones, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Prince and many more timeless beauties.

And R performed flawlessly, as usual.

"Who are you?"

When it comes to films, Miss Kitty is a little wary of that breed with the 'you'll-never-see-it-coming-but-when-you-watch-it-it'll-blow-your-mind' endings.

Whilst many of these films are ultimate cinematic classics (Memento, Fight Club, Seven etc) others tend to wear a thin on content saving it all for those final 5-10 minutes.

Despite all this, MK was very much looking forward to watching The Machinist (which she had purchased for £4 from Woollies) and it did not disappoint at all.

She found this largely due to the non-American feel of the film (it was shot in Spain), the bleak lighting, spooky soundtrack and, of course, the excellent Mr. Bale (still sexy although painfully emaciated).

And Miss Kitty found the twist very interesting…not only did she not see it coming but when it did come, it did indeed blow her mind.

What's the CRAIC?

For those from the Emerald Isle it commemorated the 1546th year of Saint Patrick's death…for the rest of us it was an excellent excuse to get blitzed.

Before meeting the gang in the MK and R decided to pre-soak the copious amounts of alcohol in the Tai Won Mein near the Cutty Sark.

After consuming large platefuls of salt and pepper deep-fried squid, beef curry and seafood noodles in soup (washed down with a couple of Saparros of course), we headed towards the Hardy where we enjoyed a variety of beverages with fellow Guinness hatted chums.