So you go to a cinema website and book a ticket. To do this, you hand over your email address and contact telephone number as well as your credit card details. I guess they have to email your confirmation and need your number in case they need to get a hold of you, right?

Not so it seems…

Both my girlfriend and I were really looking forward to seeing Kickass. We said we’d go last night (Tuesday 30th) so I’d booked on the Monday (29th).  She wanted to go to the Savoy which would never have been my first choice as I don’t think too much of the place, but I was happy enough to go with the flow.

So we go in and I have to swipe my card at the only working credit card collection machine (which said welcome to Omniplex Newry on it). We wander over to the stairs and the guy looks at our tickets and tears them and says “enjoy the film” as one would expect. We get to the screen number 6 and see it says “Green Zone” over the door. Figuring they must’ve forgotten to change it or something like that and having quickly checked the other screens to see if it’d been moved or something, we sat down as the trailers were running. I decided that it was time to get some popcorn so headed back downstairs to the concession stand. There were 5 staff members behind the counter there (as well as a security guy telling tales of his past experiences on the job it seemed)   and no one upstairs (it seemed) working as an usher. That’s the sort of thing that rings alarm bells with me – poor distribution of staff means there’s a manager somewhere not doing their job properly.

Anyway, I get back up, the trailers end and we spend a few minutes with nothing doing whilst waiting for the projectionist to line up the film. That’s no problem. Then the film starts and it shows the IFCO rating stating we’re about to see Green Zone. After an exchange of puzzled looks, my girlfriend and I grabbed all our stuff and made our way back downstairs. She asked the same gent who’d checked and torn our tickets what the story was and he said “oh yes, there was a problem with that. If you’d like to follow me around to the ticket desk we can sort this out.”

So I get over there and the gentleman behind the counter informs me that there was a “monumental meltdown” with their system and that 4 people had booked tickets for Kickass before they realised it.

So, they knew there had been incorrect bookings.

• Given that there was only one working credit card ticket machine in the lobby, why didn’t they have a sign up for the 4 people who’d made bookings for Kickass?
• Given that a member of staff checked out tickets before letting us upstairs, why wasn’t he paying attention to see that the tickets very clearly said “Kickass” on them?
• Given that they had my contact details, why was no attempt made to get in touch to tell me that the film wasn’t showing before we ventured out on what was a miserable evening?

The gent behind the counter at the ticket desk was, I think, doing his best.  He offered me a refund straight away and told me we could see any film of our choice that was currently on with their compliments.  We didn’t really want to see anything else and decided to chance getting over to Cineworld to see if we could get to see what we wanted there (we got soaked on the way over and were too late to see it).

So I am left wondering why this has happened and why no one could address the issue before it became a problem.  I got the feeling that they were simply hoping that the 4 people who’d booked simply wouldn’t turn up and there’d be no problem.

As it stands, I can’t ever see myself going back to the Savoy or any Omniplex Group cinema again.  It’s shabbiness of the highest order that something like this could happen and there really isn’t any excuse when there’s a reasonable choice of cinemas in Dublin.

So, dear readers, I would ask that if you have had any poor experiences with this cinema or this group, please leave a comment, I would like to bring it to their attention.

Fellow Boards Members,

Today, Thursday 21 Jan 2009 at 11:20 GMT the Boards.ie database was attacked by a source external to Ireland. This triggered our security response policy and as a result we are sending you this warning email.

In this attack, part of the database which includes our members usernames, email addresses and obfuscated passwords was accessed. While our investigations indicate that individual user accounts are not in danger we have taken the step of changing all user passwords.

We also recommend that if you used the same username/email and password on other sites that you change your password there too as a precaution.

What happened:

• This morning our database server was accessed by an unauthorised source.
• We discovered this intrusion and took the site offline.
• As a precaution We contacted the Gardaí, the Data Protection Commissioner and an independent security consultancy.
• We have followed the advice we have received on how to proceed.
• Like all large sites we are regularly the target for disruption and take continual actions to proactively protect your data.  This particular attack was completely unprecedented despite our rigorous security measures and while we have no idea if this data will be used for any malicious reasons, we felt it vital to tell you this immediately.

What you need to know and do:

• If you use the same password on Boards as you do on other services, you should change it on those other services to be safe. Boards passwords are NOT stored in plain text, they are obscured with the standard vBulletin “Hash”. While this provides strong protection, we have altered all passwords on Boards as a precaution and suggest you take this time to allter other similar passwords.
• If you are a subscriber, please be assured, we do NOT store credit card details or any payment details on our servers. Nothing of that nature is held on our site and as a result such data was not compromised.
• We apologise for this inconvenience. We do not want to over stress the problem, however we felt the situation requires full disclosure.

Tom Murphy.

Things to check out:

Boards.ie on Twitter

So there you have it.  It’s been a rather frantic day of writing emails, ringing security people, talking with press people, figuring out the best way to email nearly 300k members, etc, etc.  I can’t even imagine what a day Conor and Ross on our tech team have had, and whilst my own technical knowledge is limited, the scope of this is huge – we have to change everyone’s password and at the same time, perform a forensic analysis on what’s happened.  It’ll be a long night ahead for the guys.

I just want to say a thank you to everyone for their good wishes and support and to those who’ve helped us out over the last few hours of stress.  There’s a long night ahead yet…

Dav

That’s all for now…

Tosh and Pod - a double act to be frightened of...

So what is it?

Well it’s a Toshiba Satellite LD350 – 214 which boasts an Athlon Dual Core CPU, 2 GB of RAM (soon to be upgraded to 4GB when I have some spare cash), 250GB hard drive and a 17″ screen! So it’s “portable desktop” rather than “laptop” territory which is great as I need to be able to take it to and from practice etc.

On top of that we have the Line 6 Pod X3. This is a guitar (and vocal!) multi-effects processing unit that can replicate the sound of many different amps, cabs, microphones and of course, effects units. It also acts as a MIDI device when connected via USB into a computer and after some fiddling around with stuff this afternoon, I managed to get it correctly installed on the Tosh.

Next remaining step is to install some manner of recording software and learning how the frak the Pod works I also need to get some manner of backpack or bag to carry both devices, their power supplies, cables, etc. Have had a few recommendations already in that regard, so no worries.

My current problems are two-fold:
1) my flat is WAY too small to set this stuff up in it.
2) my decent guitars are all out in storage since the closure of the BatCave.

So I’d already planned on moving house anyway, so that’s grand, all that remains is getting to the storage place and grabbing my axes.

Fun times ahead

The lads who own the place are closing the doors.   They’ve apparently been hit with a big rates bill that they just can’t afford and so have decided to wind the company down.  We’re all completely gutted.  The BatCave was a second home to most of us.  The studio bit we spent a long weekend (not to mention a fair whack of money) soundproofing and you could hear nothing outside the building because of that.  We often worked out there will 3 or 4 am and it bothered nobody.

Just last week we had got all our recording setup figured out after several long weeks of tweaking this and that and re-wiring both the sound desk and the ProTools PC attached to the DigiDesign desk.   I will now have to spend Wednesday (when I get back from the States) clearing my gear out of the Cave and trying to squeeze as much as possible into my tiny flat. I have my big amp, my effects board + pedals, 3 guitars, a computer, various books and DVDs (we have an extensive library built up over the last year).   We also have to find place for our PA, 2 bass-bins, 2 speakers, all the cabling that goes with that, 4 MASSIVE stage curtains that are used for sound proofing on the walls, various bits of furniture (tables, desks, couches), a TV, some computer monitors, another 2 PCs, all sorts of stage equipment odds and ends, etc, etc – the list goes on and on…

Miserable doesn’t even begin to come close to describing how I feel about this whole thing, but I’m trying not to let it ruin my holiday.

So if anyone knows of a warehouse/big room somewhere in the Dublin area that we could rent, please let me know.  As it stands, we have 24/7 access to this place which suits us well, so that’d be ideal, but not completely essential.  It has to be somewhere that’ll just be us though.  A shared studio is too expensive and restrictive.

I hate when shit like this happens

The long and the short of it is, I recommend an upgrade to Windows 7 to anyone who’s a Windows user.

More importantly though, after the presentations, @thaedydal, @cloudsteph, @darraghdoyle and @doneganland were in the reception area of Edleman’s office where they have photos on the wall of some of their various campaigns.  They included this one:

Promo shot in Edleman PR of Twink

As we were looking at it, I commented that My mother is quite friendly with Maxi and knows her from her Maxi, Dick and Twink days, so she’d know the other two members of the group too.  Someone (I honestly can’t remember who) made some comment which sparked a conversation about whether or not my mother would take any shite from Twink – I know for a fact that she wouldn’t as she wouldn’t take any shite from anyone!

So I ask you dear readers to please answer my first ever poll which is appearing in the side bar there on the right and ask yourself – “Would my ma take shite from Twink?”

Dublin Doom Day (Chapter One) had been on a slightly bumpy journey as the original venue of “The Scene” has now closed down. Eventually Fibber Magees was the new venue – I wasn’t awfully impressed at that news as it’s not the most amazing place in the world, but do you know what? It was perfect for the day that was in it!

So the running order was as follows:

• DWELL IN SUN
• ON PAIN OF DEATH
• COUNCIL OF TANITH
• WRECK OF THE HESPERUS
• GRAVEYARD DIRT
• ESOTERIC
• SATURNUS
• THE LAMP OF THOTH

Esoteric were the headlining act of the day, but I believe that scheduling meant they were to finish by 11.

As I’ve mentioned in other blog posts, On Pain Of Death and Wreck of the Hesperus are friends of mine, and I really love the stuff they produce.  More on that later…

I was delayed in arriving and missed out on Dwell In Sun.  I caught them before in the Lower Deck before and I’m sorry I missed them.  One of the OPoD lads said they were excellent and reviews I’ve seen from some of the folk on Metal Ireland seem to suggest the same.  This of course just means that I’ll have to seek out their next performance

My arrival perfectly coincided with On Pain Of Death’s start and whilst it was a hot and sunny day outside, the atmosphere in Fibbers soon turned dark, bleak and heavy as their set progressed.  A sense of dread took hold and the audience stood still fearing that movement might single them out for an extra helping of punishment.  An excellent set over all and everyone who stood up to watch it took something from it I’d say – even if that was just the impending sense of a week of nightmares…

Council of Tanith followed – they’re simply not my cuppa tea, so I went outside with the lads to watch the soccer.  They seemed very well received though as they tend to be.  I heard some fairly big blunders from the guitars and a solo that seemed to be completely out of tune which was, to be honest, dreadful.

On then to Wreck of the Hesperus.  I am very much a WOTH fanboy, and make no apologies for it!  Once again they delivered a filth spawned tide of sewer-rot.  They started with a really long sample and I remember turning around to Hick (OPoD) saying “it’d be fucking hilarious if the whole set was just this sample and they didn’t play a note!”  Didn’t take long for things to kick off though and the assault began.  Andy’s screaching lyrics and howling feedback makes for an uncomfortable experience.  Rodge’s Bass thumps along and keeps you standing – just.  Ray’s drums beat the very essence of humanity out of you though and turn you into little more than a shell waiting to be filled up with the afore mentioned screaming and heavy dread-riffs.  We were all left shadows of our former selves by the time the last note rang out.   Once again WOTH had abused us and we thanked them for it.

This was to be the end of this half of the day’s activities…

I wandered back outside in tatters to try and get back to normality.  There  was soccer on which certainly helped.  The outdoors part of Fibbers is rather good – it seems to me that this is a venue who had the ability to do well out of the smoking ban – it was jammed with us and with people from the hotel.  After some sport, I decided I was in need of something’s flesh.  Long story short, I went to Burger King and arrived back in to hear Graveyard Dirt.

Traditional Doom is very hit and miss for me.  It lacks the misery and weight that I find so appealing on the more extreme end of the Doom scale.  Graveyard Dirt made a bit of a dent on my psyche though and I liked some of what they had to offer.  I shall have to seek out some of their music I think to forumlate a better opinion.  They had good stage presence and the crowd seemed to be liking it, so fair play to them.

It was at this stage that I figured I might just indulge in something I hadn’t done in quite some time – I got a bottle of Buckfast  Esoteric were coming and it seemed criminal to tackle a performance of theirs with a completely clear head.  It turned out to be the right decision…

It began…

…it carried on…

…it ended.

I simply cannot put into words how amazing this set was.  It was one of the best live music experiences of my life.  Found myself in front of the stage for the majority of it and totally lost in the thick fog of noise that rolled off the stage.  When it all ended, I found myself talking to the front man, Mr Greg Chandler, about all the multi-effects he has for both his guitar and vocals – fair play to the man, he’d just finished a set and was trying to pack it all up, but was good enough to give me a basic idea of how his set-up worked.

And so it was, at 23:15, I figured nothing that remained on the line-up could have topped the experience I’d just had with Esoteric so I headed off  By all accounts Saturnus and Lamp of Toth were very good, but I got what I’d come for.  It was a day that showcased the power of music as a medium to deliver horror and misery straight into the brain.

I wanna say a big thank you to all the bands and the organisers, not to mention the staff at Fibbers (who for some reason had only one man on by himself during the day and he worked fierce hard to keep us all thirst free).

So got to the venue, met the rest of the gang, handed out tickets and got money and all was well. I was expecting a big crowd in the venue, so I said to everyone that we may as well chill in the main bar and catch up with one another as there’d been some time from when some of us had last seen one another. It was particularly great to see Ty cause he lives in Bettystown and doesn’t get into civilisation as often as we or he’d like. I had also heard that the support band, Blood Ceremony weren’t great. This turns out to be not true – we caught the tail end of their set when we wandered in and it was pretty good. Unusual in that the singer was also a flautist and it worked rather well over the very 70′s style heavy rock (Sabbath / Jethro Tull inspired). I’ve been listening to some of their stuff on their MySpace and it’s still decent, but lacks the punch that a live performance delivers.

Blood Ceremony

So after some chat and wandering around (and happily bumping into my mate Alan who’s now playing bass with Natty Wailer he tells me) and asking the J-Cloths what they’d thought of the opening act, Wizard took to the stage. It was a familiar set for anyone who’s seen them recently – they’re a bit lazy in that regards in that they’ve never really changed the set list since they started touring the Witchcult Today album:

• Witchcult Today (Witchcult Today)
• Dunwich (Witchcult Today)
• We Hate You (Dopethrone)
• Satanic Rites of Drugula (Witchcult Today)
• Return Trip (Come My Fanatics)
• The Chosen Few (Witchcult Today)
• Funeralopolis (Dopethrone)

(Album name in brackets)

Electric Wizard begin...

A couple of points about the surroundings and venue: its not very big and it wasn’t as loud as one might have expected from the Wizard. It wasn’t detrimental to the evening as a whole, but I really missed the feeling of the music pulsing through me that I’ve experienced at previous Wizard gigs. The crowd were well up for it and there was just about enough space for everyone (where as Gojira who I saw there earlier this year had about 30 or 40 people too many). Now that the negatives are out of the way, onto the band!

They played very well, tighter I thought than the last time I saw them (at Hellfest in France earlier this year). Jus rarely opened his eyes only to turn around and take a swig from his can of Bavaria. Liz looked like she always does – astonishingly beautiful and happy on a stage playing her SG. Tas who’s a more recent addition on Bass (replacing Rob Al-Issa) was well into his bit and played well and Shaun on drums beat out a beat to keep the head rolling. I occasionally looked around to check on my friends – it was their first time seeing (and hearing in some cases) Wizard and everyone seemed to be getting into it. Johnny po0k in particular really got into the vibe of it all.

Electric Wizard at the end of their set

And so as good thing things must end, as the last wails of feedback made sure we’d have less hearing than we had at the start of the gig upon the band’s completion of Funeralopolis I turned and saw a very happy gang of campers in the form of J-Cloth and friends. Mission accomplished But that wasn’t to be the end of the evening…

A trip was made to the BatCave and an after party was had Turns out the BatCave’s an awesome party venue too, but we suspected that was the case all along. Was nice to have guests out (some of my friends from Mayo who were up for the gig and the afore mentioned po0k) and I even got to horrify some of them with the vocal stylings of the Doom tune that Neal, The Dragon and I wrote!

You may never have heard of him, but you’ve quite likely heard some of the stuff he’s worked on.  Steve Albini has produced albums for The Pixies, PJ Harvey, The Breeders and Nirvana amongst others and if you know what you’re listening for, you’ll easily pick out his distinctive style in a lot of these bands and artist’s work. Unfortunately, the business people he’s told you to beware in the video above got a hold of In Utero after saying his production wasn’t radio friendly enough and it was re-mixed.  To it’s detriment I feel.  You can scour the tubes for his mixes of some of the In Utero tracks – for me they were more raw and rough around the edges which is precisely what they should have been cause we’re talking about Grunge here, not some generic radio guitar rock.

Not content with that, he’s also been in several bands himself including Big Black, Rapeman and currently Shellac (who’re fast becomming a favourite of mine).

So I’ll leave you with this ten minute long video all about the man himself and a recommendation to check out Shellac and Big Black.  I hope you enjoy and in the man’s own words: Be Prepared!

So headed along there today, waited for a bit (thank you Streets of Rage on my new netbook for keeping me sane) and went in to see the Dermatologist.

My GP warned me about Dr Dupont saying he’s kinda gruff, but very good at what he does.  He struck me as being a no-nonsense sort of man who, like me, will throw in technical (well, medical in his case) terms into his conversation and figures you either know what it means or will ask (but I got the impression he would make a point of making a big sigh if he had to explain).  Some people would think of this as rude, I don’t.  Here’s an expert in his field trying to get through the day the same as the rest of us and who’s probably seeing similar things day after day that might well be avoided by a little bit of education.  After a brief exam of the mole itself and some history I was asked to strip and an all over search was carried out.  It’s weird having an old man with a magnifying lens looking over all your bumps and spots  But he declared everything ok and that the mole on my arm shouldn’t be a concern and that he didn’t see the need to remove it.  There’s almost no sun exposure on it anyway and any time I’m in sun-light, I have factor 50 on so he said to carry on like that and all would be well.

So off I went and bumped into a college friend in Burger King and had a chat before he headed back to work.  I finished my own burger and made the trek back to Golden Lane and into Boards HQ.