BJK&E

Yep, frighteningly enough it’s that time of year again. The Oxford/Regent Street lights have been switched on, Take That are in M&S ads, and everyone’s gearing up for a month of solid alcohol and food consumption. Christmas is a-coming! [hohoho!]

This year I’m determined to try and get a bit more organised with my present buying. However, the thought of braving the busy high streets is making me shudder. So, I was intrigued when our one and only Emily Rich told me she has already completed her entire Christmas shopping in one fell swoop… entirely on the internet! Good work - an inspiration!

Right, so let’s get started! DVDs and CDs are always nice and easy. I’ve also done some ebaying… although I have to admit, despite feeling self-satisfied by my thriftiness, I do wonder if it takes away a bit of the sparkle. (Don’t worry, it’s not second hand - I’m not THAT stingy!)

Anyway, it just got me thinking…. in this day and age, how many of us are comfortable with buying the majority of our presents online? (Oh… and what are your favourite online shops - I need some ideas!)

Right, the rules are as follows:

1) You can only choose 5 drinks for the remainder of your life

2) A mixed drink, for example gin and tonic, counts as one drink - but the ingredients cannot be separated.

3) Tap water is free

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) Patrick, Matthew, Andy and I have been growing MOs (moustaches). That’s right, we’re bringing the MO back because we’re passionate about tackling men’s health issues and being pro-active in the fight against prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. 35,000 men are diagnosed every year and one man dies from prostate cancer every hour. One in eleven UK men will be diagnosed in their lifetime.

The history of Movember has it’s origins in Australia; Movember (a portmanteau of the words ‘Moustache’ and ‘November’) is an annual month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November. The event has been claimed to have been invented in 1999 by group of Australian men from Adelaide.*

On Monday the 1st December the four participants will take to the office circuit and offer fellow employees the chance to stroke our MOs, donate to charity and possibly win a bottle of bubbly. The MOers will then (finally) be allowed to shave their top lip.

Please take the time to look at the pictures below, they were taken on Monday 10th and Monday 17th of Movember. We will be updating the blog with pictures on Monday 24th and December 1st - come back then for more Movembering fun.

Feel free to send photos of Movember efforts by yourselves or fellow employees** and leave a comment on who’s MO looks best…

MONDAY 10th Movember

MONDAY 17th Movember

* Wikipedia: Movember

** send to dan.parkinson@bjke.co.uk

PICTURES SENT IN

Two of our Ubisoft clients!

Most of you should be fully aware of the BJK&E charity book club venture - old books for sale available for the bargain price of 50p to Marie Curie in Katy’s Office. And we’re not talking car boot sale style ancient yellow paged books that nobody actually wants to read, these are actually decent acclaimed novels like as We Need to Talk About Kevin.

So in the spirit of book club sharing, I thought I’d blog about the book I’m reading now…. except … I’ve been reading the same book for the last 6 months and I dont think I can bring myself to read anymore. Its called Overtaken by Alexei Sayle. Reasonably witty, reasonably engaging, intelligent enough but nothing in it has gripped me - I would honestly rather be enjoying some trashy chick-lit. I feel wierdly committed to slog through the rest of the book and force myself to find out what happens even though I’ve forgotten all of the characters names already. Why is that? Although, lets face it, nothing’s ever going to be as good as Harry Potter.

What are you reading? What would you secretly rather be reading? Or what book has left a big impact on you?

Last weekend saw another Bond film and another cinema box office record smashed!  The previous record, held by Mr. Potter, sat at a considerable £14,933,901; showing how powerful a family movie can be in today’s society.  Marc Forster’s latest spy instalment again reinforces where the money is - proving cinema, and film more generally, is still a force to be reckoned with, with opening weekend box office of £15,384,217.

So, with cinema proving its worth, its no surprise we see so many “top-film” lists.  Most notable of which was Empire magazine’s recently conducted survey, which featured the top 500 films of all time.  With this in mind, I think its important we have our say on which films should make a top-10 list.  So, over the next few weeks I’ll be asking for your opinions on films over the past 30 years - starting with this week’s “the top films of the 1990s”.

Please send your top 10 (in order, 1 = best) to Matthew.waghorn@bjke.co.uk by Friday 7th lunchtime!

So, the results are in.  485* votes checked and verified (*Some films were excluded as they were not released 1990-1999).  The great debate may never be settled but at least we now have the collective view of BJK&E, together with some invited guests from such fine film authorities as Empire magazine, Carlton Screen advertising, and Lovefilm to name a few.

So without further ado, here’s are the top 10 films of the 1990s as voted by you:

1) Pulp Fiction (1994)
2) Goodfellas (1990)
3) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
 -) Fight Club (1999)
4) Trainspotting (1996)
5) The Usual Suspects (1995)
 -) The Matrix (1995)
6) Leon (1994)
7) Forrest Gump (1994)
8.) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
9) Schindler’s List (1993)
 -) American History X (1998)
10) Toy Story (1995)
 -) The Silence of The Lambs (1991)
 -) Se7en (1995)
 -) Saving Private Ryan (1998)
 -) American Beauty (1999)

Other nominations included:

7 Votes: True Romance, The Big Lebowski, Pretty Woman, L.A. Confidential, Fargo, Clueless

6 Votes: The Green Mile, Braveheart

5 Votes: The Sixth Sense, The Lion King, Reservoir Dogs, Heat

4 Votes: The Truman Show, The Full Monty, Jurassic Park, Home Alone, Groundhog day, Grosse Pointe Blank, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, Edward Scissorhands, Dumb & Dumber, Boogie Nights

3 Votes: Unforgiven, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Life is Beautiful (La Vita e Bella), Kids, Happy Gilmore, Face/Off, Donnie Brasco, Casino, Aladdin

2 Votes: Wayne’s World, There’s Something About Mary, The Last of the Mohicans, Ten Things I Hate About You, Sliding Doors, Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt), Romeo + Juliet, Office Space, My Girl, Mallrats, Jackie Brown , Good Will Hunting, Ghost, Empire Records, Dazed and Confused, Clerks, Boyz n the Hood, Beauty and the Beast

1 Vote: Wild at Heart, When we were kings, True Lies, Titanic, Thelma & Louise, The Witches, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Thin Red Line, The Rugrats Movie, The Piano, The Ice Storm, The Hurricane, The Game, The Fugitive, The Devil’s Advocate, The Craft, The Bodyguard, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Spice World, Sleepers, Shallow Grave, Point Break, Philadelphia, Once Upon a time in China (Wong Fei Hung), Natural Born Killers, Men in Black, Mars Attacks!, Lost in Space, Life is Sweet, Legends of the Fall, leaving las Vegas, la Haine (The Hate), Jerry Maguire, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Independence Day, In the Name of The Father, Human Traffic, Hot Shots!, Highlander II: The Quickening, Hard-Boiled (Lat Sau San Taam), Happiness, Hackers, Glengarry Glen Ross, Gattaca, Friday, Father of the Bride, Enemy of The State, Dark City, Dances with Wolves, Cruel Intentions, Cool Runnings, Con Air, Chasing Amy, Chaplin, Carlito’s Way, Buffalo ‘66, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Being John Malkovich, Before Sunrise, Batman and Robin, American Pie, Alien: Resurrection, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes/Permanent Midnight)
A Few Good Men

Someone at the bbc has finally seen the light and brought Danny Baker back to where he belongs to host one evening of the football phone in on Five Live.

Nothing too out of the ordinary there you may think, but Danny is probably the best phone in host in the uk with his irreverant manner and a huge love for the game.

But this is not just your normal footy phone in with spurs fans moaning, mackems dribbling and some loon making a case for Fowler to be brought back to the national side. Nope, this phone in on tuesday evenings at 10pm does away with all of that and focusses on the joy of football and what makes it great, the fans. This is the pirate of football phone ins!

Take a listen and be amused by tales of the smallest places people have played football (a lift is so far the winner I think), the strangest places, the shortest time anyone has ever spent at a football game, the longest run people have gone without seeing there team win (these are now clocking up to several years) and possibly the greatest rendition of Bohemian Rhapsodey with all the words replaced by those of the names of footballers!

If 10pm tuesdays don’t work for you they always make an amusing listen via podcast going in and out of work, so Mr Baker welcome back.