I've had the domains jamesdavidjackson.com and jamesdavidjackson.co.uk for awhile now but I've not really put them to any use other than redirecting here. Yesterday I decided to finally get it up and running. My idea was to have a business card feel to the site. I'm pretty pleased with the site now. I love the background. It was generated by wordle.net using the text from my CV and I think it works really well. Please take a look.

With only a few days till I head down to Knebworth with Matt, Neil and Ian I'm get very excited! My tickets and new BBQ (folded and open) arrived while I was at Silverstone Classic. I'm going VIP thanks to my uncle who has very kindly treated the 4 of us and who has said he'll see what he can do about meeting Linkin Park (that would make my year... No! My DECADE!).  As a thank you we've had a whip round and got him a nice gift I'm sure he'll live (I'll update with a picture after we've given it him). I'm so looking for to it now. In order, these are the bands I'm most looking forward to with the number of times I've already seen them in brackets: 

1. Linkin Park (2)
2. Metallica (3)
3. Limp Bizkit (1)
4. Feeder (0)
5. Alien Ant Farm (0)
6. Soil (0)

There are plenty of other bands I'm looking forward to seeing but don't haven't really heard much of them (like Corey Taylor, Dead by April, Masterdon, Nine Inch Nails, ...) so I can really judge them. As for the bands I've not mentioned, well I've got an open mind to them all... even Avenged Sevenfold who have never really done anything for me when I've heard them.

Not long now! 2 days, 14 hours and 45 mins at the time I post this! Tick tock, tick tock...

Well this weekend has been a good one. I went down to Silverstone with my Dad and 7 of his mates to watch some racing and have some beers and that's what we did . We headed down on Thursday and pitched our tents on a really nice campsite that had a lovely down to a lake. Within an hour of putting it up we lost the big gazebo to the wind. It was pretty funny really. It folded over itself and went over the neighbours car and caravan. He then packed up and moved away. After that we drank some beers, BBQed some food and chilled.

Friday was all about qualifying. We sat on the corner of Woodcote (video). And headed into the paddock for a nose around the cars. At night Top Loader, Blue and the Pussycat Dolls were on the stage. We all headed down to watch PCD. They weren't the best  but they look good (Ashley is my favourite). I got three videos: Jai Ho, Hush Hush and Don't Cha.

On the Saturday we watched a few races, the F1 qualifying and then took a walk around the track. Massa's accident (video is UK but I'm sure you can find it elsewhere) was a unfortunate moment. Hopefully he'll be fine. By the time we made it round to Stowe it was some old Le Mans cars racing (video). I also took a few images that I stook together using Windows Live Photo Gallery to create a nice panoramic shot of Stowe (thumbnail on the right). After that and BBQ we headed in to watch Carlos Santana. He was great. The vocals weren't as strong as I'd like but very enjoy able. I got a couple move videos of Santana: Maria Maria and Smooth.

The Sunday was all about the F1. We headed down to the golf club and watched it in the bar. They had some rediculously soft leather sofas. It was nice to see Hamilton back on top. In the evening it was quite cold and raining so we headed to the hotel by the golf club and had a few drinks in the warmth of the bar surrounded by photos of F1 drivers.

All in all, apart from being sick out of car window on the way back, it was a great weekend. Here's a video from the weekend and as the weekend was about racing it's a racing video. All my others can be found on my YouTube channel.

Next weekend it's Sonisphere!

So today I went to the Vic Bikers Pub in Coalville today to see my mates' band play. Armed with my new camera and recorded some of their set. I'm not a huge fan of their style music but they are all good at what they do.  The band is minus James Miller today but Rob Greaves moved from bass to guitar and, Phil Seaman's brother, Nate Seaman took the roll of bassist. So here it is Evangelion Live at Hard Drive Festival.

Band Members (from left to right): Nate Seaman (bass), Phil Seaman (guitar), Neil Vernon (vocals), Kane Dalton (drums) & Rob Greaves (guitar).

Last night I finished the watching Band of Brothers for what must be the 15th time, but the first time on Blu-Ray. Band of Brothers is by far my favourite thing that has ever been on TV. What it is is a TV miniseries made by the BBC and HBO, executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, based on the book (of the same name) written by Stephen Ambrose. It tells the story of the E (Easy) Company of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. The story follows Easy Company from the basic training right the way through to the end of World War II. Easy Company parachuted in to France on D-Day, parachuted into Netherlands with Operation Market Garden, fought in the Battle of Bastogne and ended the war capturing Hitler's Eagle's Nest.

What makes Band of Brothers is so good is many things. Firstly the characters and cast. Each character in Band of Brother was based on a real person and you get to know them and love them. The cast was perfectly picked and what I've found is that seeing when I see any of the actors again in other films and TV shows I cannot help but remember them as their character from Band of Brothers. Before each episode and and the end of some clips are shown from interviews with the verterans of Easy Company talking about the events that happened. It's another thing that Band of Brothers does to really get you connected with the characters.

Another thing that makes it great is the quality of the effects, visual and special. Now, some of the computer graphics do look a little old but it's always the case and really not that noticeable because it doesn't rely too much on these effects. The visual effects, namely the explosions just look so real... never over the top... and only ever used when needed and in the quantity that is believable. Probably the best visual effects where used during the time Easy spend in  the forrest on the outskirts of Bastogne. The Germans where bombarding the American in the artillery and on the ground the explosions where kickup up the ground and causing the tree around to explode. It's fantastic but at the time same time you realised this is actually what the men had to endure and what a terrifying experience it must have been.

That brings me to my next point. Because of the cast and the realism of the effects Band of Brothers really captures you and you get so emotionally attached to the charcters. This is what seperates Band of Brothers from everything else. At the end of each episode I can't help but think about the real members of Easy, and everyone else who has fought in wars but inparticularly Easy Company and what they had to go through. Such horrible moments that for the most of us is something we will never have to experience. Seeing your friends gettings injured or killed infront of your eyes must be one of the most terrible things I could ever imagine happening. The events of Bastogne also really stands out as another one of the periods of time that I couldn't imagine myself being. The freezing weather, lack of food, ammo and supplies, and the consistant shelling must have been so hard to cope with.

The last point I'd like to mention is the last episode. Every time I see it it brings a tear to my eye and I wouldn't have it any other way. Right at the end Easy Company are shown playing baseball and Major Winters (played by Damian Lewis) commentates on each member, describing what they went on to do after the war was open including what he ended up doing. During the game of baseball everyone is called over where the news of the Japanese surrender was annouced to such relief as the men who hadn't earned enough points to go home would actually be going home.

I cannot recommend enough Band of Brothers and really feel what I've said above doesn't do it the justice it really deserves but hopefully after reading this someone will go out and enjoy it in the way that I have.